St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-24
kYOUNG MANS IDEAL.
Eloquent Sermon by Rev. w
S. Vail in the Grand OPP
era House.
A Time of Gigantic Combina-
tions and Unrest Among
the Middle Glasses.
The Century, However, Is Not
Destitute Of Heroic and
Sentimental Feeling.
Life an Arena in Which Men
Are Struggling for Place
and Honey.

Rev. W. S. Vail. after his brief mid
summer vacation, inauguratOd his fall
series of Sunday services at the Grand
opera house yesterday morning. Mr..
Vail is the eloquent and popular pastor
of the First Uniyersalist church, and his
opening sermon drew out large con-
gregatiOn.
The text, from Heb. xii, 81. read:
THAT those things which cannot be
shaken may remain" The preacher
began with an imaginary picture of
young man who had just attained his
majority, to whom life was all promise,
sitting alone on the rocks above the
sea, and there shown by magic means
representative men, who were made to
tell to what extent life was a summer
holiday and to what extent it was full
of care, burden and difficulty. And it
is a legitimate conclusion" said the
speaker, ''that to meet the conditions
almost sure to come. we must have the
inspiration of noble thoughts. the en-
iOyment of friendship. the sympathy of
kindness and the influence of hope"
1t has tbeen the mission of this age
to tear down. 1t will be the privilege
of the next century to replace. Our
time has sifted all history, questioned
all science. We have made the archives
of Switzerland sift the story of William
Tell. even though it shattered our idol.
We have shown the enthusiastic
Admirer of Columbus,
have been discovered had it not been
for his enterprise, the strange craft
with a VOLTS head at its prov, seeking
the distant Vinland. We have exam
ined every scrap of the history of
Shakespeare to see what his claim to
the authorship of the best of modern
literature rests upon. We have rewrit-
ten the history Of the physical world.
And we have subjected every IDEA to
the test of fire, that we may prove its
worth. And all this has begotten the
habit of question in the mind Of modern
man. And this question. extending to
the religious world, what does the young
man find who begins with the idea that
he is to seek for ideal sentiments and
hopes that will strengthen him 10 every
good work, that will sustain him in mis-
fortune, that will protect him in times
of temptation?
AIlaround him men are taken up with
secondary causes. They study the laws
of nature and find the variations of pro-
ductiOn, such as the evolution of for
est from
An Original Gem.
They study the old Puritan town.
which they once supposed was the direct
! product of Gods inspiration, and find it
| the growth of roots planted in England
| and in Germany centuries before. They
| watch the laws of Improvement and de-
! generation in the rose and in the apple:
| and by natural logical step they be-
! come interested in all these second
| causes. and to an extent forget the in
| telligence, the wisdom and the power
that is behind all. Nor do we carry out
| even our examination of second causes
| TO its logical sequence, else we would
| learn that here is a field where we
| find the divine life as soon as we rise to
| the strictly moral and spiritual cOndi
| lions. For in every movement of love,
| in every handgraSp Of sympathy, i'll
| every mother kiss, in every reformer'S
| plea, in every true prayer there breathes
| all round us the life of God. Here is
| the place to find Him. The only path
that leads to Him is the pathway of
Humanity and Love.
walks in these will not fail though
| all conditions may be against him. But
| men are slow to reconstruct their ideas
| of Lie and religion, consequently a
cloud of doubt has been gathering over
this age ever since the larger .knOwl-
edge and the spirit of investigation be-
gan to operate. And the young man
looking for help is likely to be met with
the statement, containing much truth L
am sorry to say, This Is time Of lnven-
ton. of organization. of money making
by gigantic combination, of unrest
among the middle classes. There is in
it also certain tendencies that threaten
the order of the world. 1t is a time
| when the preacher of sentiment and
ideals is the last man to be welcomed.
Such | believe to be the silent
| thought that fills the mind of many a
man who saws nothing of it all to those
| he meets. Such is the feeling of the I'M
fortunate, the active worker, the man
of faith and the dOubter. There are
degrees of this feeling, but it exists in
the minds of multitude"
But a glance at the century will
show that we are not really as destitute
of heroic and sentimental feeling as we
might be. 1t has had few wars of con-
Quest. Its achievements for the com
fort of man have been large and varied.
True, its morning saw the smoke OF
battle dying away from the bloody
fields of
The French Revolution.
Its early day saw the rise of that gOr
geous phenomenon. Napoleon Bona
Darte, who swept its heavens like q
brilliant and dazzling meteor. But It's
greatest energies have been spent in
better things. 1t has produced Oar
win, who has rewritten science, and
made the stoTy-bOOk of nature more
| fascinating than the pages of romance
1t has produced 4 Morse. who, in the in
| VentiOn of the mysterious telegraph
| gave momentum TO the movement thai
! is Harvesting unseen forces to the uSe
| OF man. 1t improved on the knowledge
of Watt and Stephenson, and has SEN
! the defiant cry of the locomotive ovel
! the trackless deserts Of Asia and amOnl
the mountains of distant India. where
it startles the elephant III his native
lair: while careeTlng to the southwark
; | its driver halts under the shadow o
halls built by the MonteZumas, or climbs
the Andes in regions once supposed 4
contain the wealth of
FabIed OpIlir.
The entire method of prison discipline
has been changed. Education. eSpe
/ ciaIIv in Europe, from being the posses
sion of the favored few. is making ion!
q steps toward becoming the possession
!, of the million. In producing Dickens
; Thackeray, George Eliot. Tennyson
Whittier and Hawthorne it has at Ieas
; merifed the name of making humanit