Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-06-26


versal idea which appeals to a latent but
common interest Of them oil, and suppose
that he holds it with energy and asserts it
with force Now all the little groups will
dissolve, the isolated individual will come
together and all will flow into the one group
which represents the common idea. so it
is with this all-embracing, all-absorbing
idea of God with us. 1t is in every man, the
divine potentiality Of every human soul. 1t
draws men irrestiably together; 1t breaks
down barriers OF languages, traditions, in
situations; it overeaps wide chasms of ply
steal, intellectual and even moral disagree
ments, and prompts men in spite Of them
to rush into each others arms. A man may
DO to me physically degraded and repulsivei
no matter. He may be intellectually so far
inferior that he cannot share one Of
my opinions, nor / one of his without an
effort of condensation; no matter. He
may be a bad man, sordid, hateful, cruel,
depravod-still no matter, All these things
are but accidents of the man; they are not
essential parts Of him. He may be brutal,
but he is not brute. He may be ignorant,
but he has the capacities of philosopher;
he may be depraved in character, but his
nature is in the very image of God. The
man, the essential man as God made him,
and as Gods holy spirit is willing to re-
make him, is Of the same infinite worth es
myself; is a sharer with me in the glory
of the nature which Christ has taken on and
ever wears. If / have pain and sorrow in
view Of his sins and the degradation they
have brought on him, / cannot but have the
same feeling in view of my own. IL have
hope for myself, for my future advance in
knowledge and holiness, / have the same
hope for him. In Christ we are one. Our
differences are as nothing to our common
opportunity and possibility.
Now no doubt the first effect of the Chris
tian doctrine OF the infinite worth of each
man has been to promote individualism, be-
cause the first step in human progress was
to break up those institutions which for
long ages had deprived man Of his right to
himself. Caste, civil oppression, and we
must add the church itself in its perversion
and error, slowly gave up to the individual
those rights and dignties which Christian
ity had secured to him, SO that the assertion
and exaggeraton of indiyidualsm was n
natural process in the evolution OF Chris
tian society. But we have now reached q
point at which it is safe to relax the stress
which former ages have laid upon individ-
ual rights. Ii it is not true which has been
said on one side, that the principle of indi-
capable of accomplishing for social man
kind, it certainly is not true on the ether
that the chief duty Of man is now to stand
W for his personal rights. Thinking mon
are not now looking in the direction OF a
further developed individualism for the bet
tering OF mans estate, but in the direction
Of solidarity of Interests, mutually OF ser
vice, union of hearts Leading to corporation
Of hands. Amid all this wild class of social
istic schenllng, perhaps in spite Of it, men s
minds are inclinlng to a more fratcrnal
conception of society, to the belief that men
are not in the divine plan, left to work out
their salvation, temporal or spiritual, siugly
and alone, but that society is diviuely
constructed whole in which each individual
is part and that as he is dependent on tho
integrity of the whole for his personal com
pleteness, so lie is bound to contribute
through the whole to the completeness OF
every other part
But this brings us naturally to the
third principe which Christianity
has contributed to social progress,
which IL the supremacy OF righteousness o:
which the central element Is love- All ma
tural religion is a worship OF power. More
or less of the notion Of right may mingo
with that OF power, but sovereignty and
power are indissolubly united. Some later
as well as earlier theoogies enthrono
power. All corporate priesthoods tend that
way. Authority in the priest claims {,
represent authority in God But power,
authority, sovereignty, are not ethical ideas
The supreme being, the almighty, the law
gver Of the universe, does not in these names
present any attributes for my Worship
only for my submission, my obedience, my
/ ,JulnlSrn 81 al
instruction in the supremacy OF righteous
ness and in the true conception OF righteous.
| ness. But IL was reserved for Christianity
! to make full announcement and exemplit "a
| ton of the truth that God is supreme be
cause he Is supremacy good, and that good
| ness in its last essence is love. This is the
| greatest of all truths that have over been
revealed to man. 1t is indeed the greatest
| of all possible truths. If this is true oil else
is provided for. If this is not true the uni
versal armament is rottenness. 1t is per
hapS not to be wondered at that men com,
so slowly to the apprehension OF this truth
that good men are afraid Of it; that tn,
church too often proclams it with "but, y
or puts it into a foot-note. Men come slow
ly 10 realize that love, divine lovo II
God or man, is not merely emotional, it i
ethical, II is holy, it is all atlame agains
eYll. But not 10 dwell on the personal as
poets of this great truth, the socinl bearing
are Of immeasurable consequence Tn
kingdom of God is the regime of righteous
ness and of Righteousness which is some
thing more than the righteousness of law
of precept, Of techncalities and forms, whcl
| begets Fharisaic Journalists and Sadducai
skeptics, righteousness which abandon
the thou shalt not do this and that for on
which says thou shalt love the Lord tn,
God with all thy heart and thy neighbo
as thy self.
Contrast now, as a basis for establishing
tho true relations of man TO man, the pagan
idea Of justice, which is right in its lega
and statutory bearings, with the Christian
idea Of Righteousness which is love-seekin
the highest and hottest estate OF all being
Justice, law looks down from its highes
upon the donSs Of men, interested solely il
their misdeeds, So long as men do not OF
fend the law, justice may fold its arms an
sleep. 1t does not take the iutitive in mora
progress, ltdoes not of its own motion, de
wise new and better things for men. 1t
active on the side of suppression-debellar
superbos, but rapid where there is n,
resista nce-pnrcere SUBJECTS. But evan
gelc Righteousness is of different temper
II looks tho =,