Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-18
THE MODERN SUNDAY.
Rev. C. E. st. John Speaks Out Against
the Laws of the Dark Ages.
MUST NOW BE GUIDED BY TRUTH.
EOv Alexander the Great Paved the Way
for Christianity.
IpAY AMONG THE TWIN CITY CHURCHES

At the First Unitarian Church Yesterday
morning Rev. c. E. St. John preached from
the text, s'Ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free" He said: "We
live in time OF freedom. Nothing to-day
1. more manifest than the impotence of all
the forces that are exerted against man s
rightful liberties. Freedom to earn his
living, freedom to worship God in his own
way, freedom to think by the laws of his
own mind, freedom for a rational and mod
ern use of Sunday, every man will have
In every particular the laws which are to
govern human life are not those established
ages or even years ago, but those which de-
fine the present righteous channels of our
actions. But in the exuberance of his sense
of independence letno man forget that there
are two kinds of freedom, and that one of
them is short-sighted and evil
THAT freedom which consists in casting
off all supposed bonds, in rebelling against
all authority, in scouting every duty
whose claim is at all stern, and in refusing
TO obey any rigid law of thought
or of moral conduct, is free
dom that brings only harm to him
who takes it. just to be free as a bird,
free from all constraint, is useless and
ruinous freedom for a man. Every day we
see men making wrecks of their lives while
pursuing this delusive freedom.
Unbouuded License Is Not Liberty.
''They spend beyond their incomes because
they will endure no severe economy. They
sink into slavery to low and sensual desires
because they fancy 1t well to be free from
all puritanic notions of right conduct. They
drop religion out of their lives in order to
be free from all possibility of holding
erroneous views in theology. And in gen.
ersl they have no beliefs because they will
not submit to the exslting processes of clear
thought, by which alone beliefs can be
reached Such freedom as this is distinctly
evil and demoralizing TO every manly power
in him who follows its easy course. 1t is
the freedom of savagery and Ignorance.
And il is bitter shame to any soul in our
enlightened day to be thus free, because he
knows so little, appreciates so slightly
the opportunities of hfe-when close by
his side are men and women who
are free because they know so
much and see so clearly the glories
that arise from careful living. These last
have the other, the genuine freedom. 1t is
q freedom growing out of noble character
and earnest thought. 1t thrills in the mind
and motives of those whose life is founded
or great realities. 1t is a freedom which in
our day must come to every man who lets
his mind advance and studies to show in
his actions the highest law he hears We
believe that our church is pre-eminentlv,
not exclusively, but pre-emine3tly, gifted
with the high freedom OF knowledge and of
faith. We have set ourselves free from the
bondage OF medieval theology not bv ceas-
ing TO think about religion; that is the mar
row and deceptive freedom Of the un-
churched. They are weaving for themselves
new fetters of ignorance, and their last
stage is worse than their first.
Truth Alone Makes People Free.
I'm the liberal church we gain, our free
dom by hard thinking, which substi-
tutes truth for the errors of olden
times Believing that there is no
real freedom in mere ignorance. we
scorn that so-called freedom, which
merely denies other mems creeds, and set
ourselves to seeking after truth, knowing
that the truth, any truth, viii make us
genuinely free. It is very COMMONLY sup
posed of US that our only aim is to be free,
as if we were so childish or so indoleGt as
not to care to think any more, or 10 strive
for goodness any further, or to stand by our
fellow-men in the stress of a common ad
We do not desire the freedom of the animal
or the careless mind. Our chief aim as
church is not freedom-but truth. And in
the search for truth we are ready to bend
our minds to continuous study and hold our
wills TO lifelong faithfulness to the struggle
for Improvement, and wait, If need be, for
freedom. Only after We know the truth
shall we, or can We be, nobly free.
Let true freedom be your test of every
dogma of the church or of science, and
every custom of the world. Does given
doctrine cheer and lift you, attract your
eager belief and make the whole of life
seem just and hopeful? Does it appear as
an aid to good character and an appeal to
your indenendent reason? If not, that doc
trine is not true, no longer a vital part of
the thinking OF mankind. Take for single
instance the dogma that human nature is
totally depraved. What feeling has that
ever given to a single mind save grief,
horror and sense of bondage. But truth
gives freedom, light, hope, growth. So that
dogma shows its falsity by its influence on
the minds that believe il.