The record-union., 1892-10-24
COLUMBUS And His TIMES.
A Comparison Of the Past With the
Present Day.
Rev. 7. ]. Horner Discusses the Sub
ject Before the Unitarian So
ciety Yesterday.

A large and attentive congregation, in
Guiding the Knights of Pythias in full
uniform, gathered in Castle Hall yester-
day morning to take part in a service pre-
pared especially for the occasion. Rev.
II. J. Horner took for his text the follow
ing passages:
And L saw a new heaven and new
earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth were passed away.''-Rev. xxi, /.
"And We shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free" = John
viii, 80.
Four hundred years have come and
gone, said the pastor, since Columbus
saw, dimly upon the horizon, the low
lying beach that indicated the near end of
that wondrous voyage over an unknown
sea. Four hundred years is long, long
period, when we think of it as being in
ithe future; but when we look back into
the past it is a very short period, com
pared with the ages that we have histori-
cal knowledge OF. And yet short as the
period seems in comparison with the
known past, 1t is period filled with more
Aof interest to us than the sum of all the
ages gone before. This is why we pause
III our history as a nation and ask the
whole world to take part in a celebration
such as the world never before saw.
The future that faces US is as unknown
rs the trackleSS ocean over which Column
tbus sailed, but as an explorer pauses
cupon each eminence and gaZes back over
shls pathway, so may we pause and view
sthe track of civilization from the days of
nColumbus to our own; and, gathering
courage from knowledge of the past, lift
shlgh the banner OF progress and press on,
though monks in cowls and friends in
fustian warn US of the dangers that beset
sthe way.
l shall leave Columbus to your pri-
Vate reading, as the periodical literature
of the day can tell you more about him
than can, but shall say in passing that
AS man he must be judged by the time
III which he lived, otherwise we might
lind him strangely lacking in some things
we have come to admire in our mod
ern heroes. l wish rather to call your at
tention to his period in comparison with
our own, because we are surrounded on
every hand by those who are continually
idisparaging the days in which we live.
Organized religion has steadily resisted
mans inclination to look forward to an
leXplorationiof all the secrets of time, and
has steadily and with solemn voice
warned the world of the danger of ac-
cepting new thought. A venerable divine
Of high standing in America has lately
characterized our time as these degener-
ate days." and longingly turns back to
the period of Columbus as the only heroic
period in religious history. But no sooner
do such words strike the ear OF the young
american, even in the most conservative
church, than the spirit of hot protest
rises in condemnation of such utterances
Why? Because the young man of to-
day is filled with hope born of faith in
mans rational endowment-the fruitage
OF tree of knowledge of four hundred
years growth. The spirit of our age says
that such a charge is false to the facts; and
surely, if there is any one passion of the
human mind that marks this age as diff
terent from all that have preceded it, it is
nothing less than a passion for truth that
viii not be satisfied with anything short
of what can be established by fact.
Now, truth is the conformity of thought
in the mind to the reality of things as
they exist outside of the mind, and dur
ing the past four hundred years men
have been steadily working themselves
almost into a frenzy over the facts of this
material universe. Hence, in matters re-
ljgious, it is not surprising that we are
'skeptical to-day of signs and wonders"
accepted without question in the days of
Columbus as proofs of divine revelation.
4
The speaker hastily sketched the COM
mon beliefs of the days of Columbus, in
comparison with the beliefs of our own
have been taken in all matters of thought,
life and religion, especially in regard to
the idea of God. Speaking of Calvin's
idea of God, he said: Happy the skeptic
who first trampled it under foot and rose
in the consciousness of his own power to
ihurl down this hell-born caricature of
Diety."
Since the advent of geology the in
habited region beneath the surface of the
earth no longer exists, save in super
stitious minds. Lurey cavern and
mammoth cave are now open pages of
natures genesis. Volcanoes are no longer
chimneys Of the pit. Astrology has been
shattered by astronomy, while psychology
has sent witches and gnomes and the
lmps of disordered brains back to the
primitive fears whence they came. Chem
jstry has dissolved the shining crystals
that sparkle in the pillars which support
the very temple of material being, and as
signing to each its proper name, has
classified the atoms and catalogued the
attributes which in their mutations re-
veal the creative will of the Infinite.
In the days of Columbus, benevolent
and fraternal orders, such as the Knights
of Pythias, were never heard of. Prisons
all over Christendom were then foul dens
of torture. Insanity was the DEVILS
mark, and the poor unfortunates were
Capital punishment was then the uni
versal panacea for all criminality, and no
method was too cruel to be used.
Capital punishment is a thing of the
past in many States to-day; slavery is
restricted to the half-civilized nations of
the earth; prisons in the East are being
turned into reformatories; criminality
is coming to be looked upon as disease
that can be cured; insanity delusion of
the mind that can be offset by a counter
delusion; in government the monarchy
is giving place to the republic; in relig-
ION the spirit is taking the place of the
letter.
Now, why all this, since the days of
Columbus, if not because his age gave an
impetus TO the search for truth that has
not yet passed and will not pass until all
things be accounted for that are within
the reach of human knowledge?
Truth always and everywhere makes
men free-free from the CALLING chains of