St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-05-30
Rev. w. S. Vail Discusses the
Unsettled Feeling in Re-
ligiouS Circles.
The Religious and the IRE
ligious Tendency Of
the Day.
This Unrest Declared Not Pc
culiap to One Time and
Place.
Changes in Belief in the
Future as in the
Past.


"The Present Religious Unrest" was
the subject of Rev. w. S. Wallis sermon
yesterday morning before the Uui-
versalist society at the Grand opera
house. He said: The spirit of unrest
is in the air. In the gathering of great
religious bodies in convention we find
the conservative element filled with
apprehension lest some unwise hereto
shall spring some question touching the
lake of birthstone, or the changes that
have silently Influenced the thinking of
the world. The conventions are like
exploration of volcanic ground. Men
enter them with the utmost care, and
carefully pick their way along, lest they
meet danger without warning. The
newspapers keep a picture Of Dir.
Briggs on call. They know it
will be needed before long TO
illustrate some feature of the endless
trial. In the more distinctly liberal as
sOciationS the same feeling exists, only
here the condition is different. For where
the scientific tendeucies-the influence
of tried and untried theories, come i'll TO
disturb; and the conservative is fright
ened by the man who wants to study
apes and the geological history of the
world to throw light on the religious
problem. Other men are like hunters
who have been in the forest, or they are
Ponce de Icons who have wandered far
and wide through strange and attractive
lands, campcd beside rivers where the
shadowy form of malaria came up in
the silent watches of the night to
menace them with the fear of death.
And in the whole world today the men
and omen who are more than careless
watchers OF the game of life are filed
with apprehension to see the changing
currenis of thought. and the instability
of Sc, many ideas and theories that they
thought stable and firm.
Tendency OF the Time.
This unrest is found both in the re-
ligiouS and the irrellgiOuS tendency of
the time 1t is IN the prayer of the man
who has seen the darkness of night
coming down upon him. and no vision
sOf heaven and voice waited over the
|. deep, and no hand stretched out to as
siStl him in the upward march. 1t is i'll
/ the disappointment of those people who
are saying, For us the old has passed
away. we can no longer rely Oh its
lCtt. anu Wv iiNO NOiAO ~ 10 ilO
VISION Yand no revelation to take its
place" 1t is in the sheer of him who
says, Your God has promised to help
you, why does He not write his truth
so plainly on the blue vault OF heaven
that, no, one can mistake the mean
sing 2'TJ4And so the world goes on,
fand-men are at one time believers, at
another time dOubters- their theories
change; but all the while they are
Silently gliding along this river of time,
and every day is making its changes,
and soon the hair will be snowy and the
eye dim, and we shall find. ourselves
within sound OF the sea of eternity,
with the world shifting its thought,
fighting its battles. and the same mys-
tdryt llaagiug over heaven and earth.
-, Unrest Not Peculiar.
But this unrest is not peculiar to our
time and place. II one could go back
to Luther's reformation he would see a
. condition that has parallel in the de-
scription of The Storm OH Last ISL
and' by Mr.. Hearn-a storm that came
up from the south when the dancers were
Whiriing to enchanting music; a storm
that came up from the tropics when
r. The sea came up in the arms of the
wind; a storm that was accompanied as
it came over the wide expanse of waters
with sound as if Nature had commenced
ed cannonading OH the deep; a storm
that seemed to put spirit of de
moIifaS life in the winds and alters, and
carried destruction before it and left
rum behind. And a storm of ITO less
fury passed over the Roman world
when the report came that Constantine
had seen in the monday cross in the
clear heaven, underneath which was
written the words: ''In this sign we
conquer" and that from that moment
he had determined TO become the friend,
ally and support of the Christian church.
And if we could get at the seventeenth
century we should see wider and
more antagOniStic doubt than we see
here Therefore we would he wrong
were we TO conclude that our time was
the only time in which men are filled
with doubt. or the great changing and
shifting we see now was not common
to- the minds of men.
And this unrest is the same in the
scientific, and even in the industrial
world that it is in the church Where
is the realm in which mind has
anything to do that men are satisfied
with the attainment reached? In the
scientific world men are sure the end
has not been reached. The miracles of
the century-the telegraph, telephone.
and the application of electricity to in
dustry-have only whetted the hopes of
men, and they expect greater triumphs.
1t is so in scholarship? 1t is so i'll all de-
partnents of attainment.
Changes in Belief.
There will be changes in belief; there
will be shifting ideas; there will
be hopes and diSappointments in the
future as in the past. Does it follow
that men will seek rest in an unchang-
ing church? Does it follow that there
will be landslide from all anchorage?
Can the human mind rest anywhere?
Is it not driven by an irresistible I'M
pulse to seek for more? Might you not
as we'll say to the ocean. "ThuS far shalt
thou 90 and no farther; and here the
proud waves shall beistayedW Are we
not all willing to believe that If we
could call from the gloomy past the long
line of helpers and seekers of truth
they would all say For motto let me
take the words of the wise man
who considered himself as a boy
upon the beach playing with shells
and pebbles while the whole eXpanse of
the great ocean lay uneXplOred before
him?" Revelation was not geographical,
but an impulse to seek, land a knowl-
edge of character and life. The COIL
eealments are many. Mystery has never
been cleared away, but divine discOn-
tent. nameleSS thirst, anundying hope,
| and a faith that is sustained by some
inner and mysterious source these are
| the heritage of men.
Accepted Theory
Mankind has accepted theory that
| certain things fit certain conditions, and