New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-11-29
THE GOOD TIME COMING.

OF course we believe that the world is grow
ing better Much better morally, much more
comfortable physically. There is more happiness
for greater number of people in it to-day than
there ever was before. A few poets still sing
in more or less limpid verse about the Golden
Age in the dim past when Right clasped Duty
by the hand, and Happiness lowered like
benediction over every humblest home. And
the Old Guard of conservative croakers may
still be heard declaring in detected prose how
much the better everything was Sin the good
old DAYS" of the fathers. But the quatrain OF the
noet and the jeremiad Of the croaler engage
not our attention, even if we hear them. The
clangor of the industrial conflict, the mighty roar
of the great democratic movement of the age as
il sweeps on in resistless majesty, and the loud
paean of those who are building the universal
republic of man, claim all our attention and
hold all our sympathies. The man who glorifies
the past or deprecates the present is not in it,
with us to-day. The music that delights our
ears is not that which celebrates dead past,
but that which exalts living present and a
glorious future palpitating with splendid prom
se. And if any one voice is heard amid the
strenuous and often strident strife of tongues, il
is that of the optimist-dear good fellow that he
is, we cannot help tying to him-who joyonsly
exults over the death of the old wrongs and
tvrannies. and bids us behold the glorious dawn
Of the kingdom of man. These are the things
we like to hear, on which we love to dwell and
out of which we are weaving the complex web
of modern life
And vet, with all our sympathy with the pres
emf and its ideals there are many things that
give us pause. We may believe as indeed we
do. that out of the present clash of opinions and
aims an ultimate happiness and peace will ensue.
But when we are asked to believe that the
millennium is already at our doors, that the
good time coming is even now here, we are re-
luctantly forced to draw back. As honest men,
as disciples of Progress, even when spelled with
a capital p. we cannot subscribe to the doctrine
that whatever is is right, and that the flower of
civilization has already borne its legitimate fruit
As we look around us, what do we see? Chris
tianity is in life and death struggle with its
own children over the wording of its creeds
the meaning of its laws, the authority Of its
credentials, and the Interpretation of its message
to man. Important and far-reaching as is the
work it is doing to-day in the promotion of right
eousness, we cannot blind our eyes to the fact
that much of its strength is spent on this inter-
necine conflict No intelligent man will say that
this conflict ought not to take place. 1t is, in
deed, a necessity, if religion is to live and grow
And looking at the matter in large way. we
can see that it will ultimately make for goodness
and righteousness. But its immediate effect is
TO nut brake on the wheels of progress Re-
Iipion TO-DAY is not marching on with the bappy
enthusiasm of simple faith. Rather it is paus-
ing by the way, to look at itself to dissect it.
self, to reason about its origin nature and char
acter and often to express doubts about some
OF its traditional beliefs. And the good time
coming, in which we all believe, will not be
advanced so far as Christianity is concerned.
until the believers Of Christ have passed ont OF
the cold cloud of criticism and investigation into
the divine sunlight of gertrude. Old contro-
versies will have to be settled, old doubts will
have 10 be dssipated, and old, outworn theories
and traditions will have TO be given up before