The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-05
THE NEW ORTHODOXY.
Rev. DR. Merrill Begins His Series lof Ser
mons to Young Business Men - The
Changing Views of God from Genera
ton to Generation-Scientific Progress
and Its Effect on Faith.

Changing Views of God from Genera
ton to OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Progress
and Its Effect on Faith.
Rev. J. G. Merrill, pastor of the Second
Parish church, began yesterday series
of sermons on 1.-THE New Orthodoxy
The beginning of this series of sermons
for the older people did not prevent the
delivering of the usual ten-minute sermon
to the children, who attend directly after
the close of the Sunday school and are
dismissed during the taking up of the
collection. This brief children's sermon
has become q regular and popular fea-
ture of the exercises of the Second Parish
church.
A very large audience filed the church
when DIR. Merrill began his sermon with
the text from the 18th chapter of LIST Co.
rinthians, 9th verse: 'God who worketh
all things in ALL
The preacher said he had great sympa-
thy with those men who had difficulty in
accepting as truths those things which
were accepted by men of past times. He
believed that the cause of this inability
was due to difficulty in understanding
and translating the terms which were
used to express the faith of a past gener-
alton.
He was here today at the request of
some of our bright young business men
to explain the truths of the church OF to-
day.
The first and most important would
be the unchangeability of God, who nev-
ertheless is revealed more glorious to his
worshippers by the light of scientific
achievement.
The New Orthodoxy brings to you the
| faith of old. in terms acceptable to mod
ern IDEAS 1t takes the reverse of the
position of Kaliph Omar who destroyed
the literary treasures OF the Alexandra
| library on the ground that they were
useless if they agreed with the Koran
and pernicious if they did not. The new
orthodoxy believes that new scientific
truths are sidelights on the old faith,
bringing it out clearer to the comprehen-
| sion.
1t was the preachers pleasure recent
| " to see in an old world church the
! chandelier the swinging of which sug-
gested one of the great scientific dis
| coveries. That truth was condemned as
contrary to orthodoxy, but later obser-
walton had shown it rather to be pillar
| of the faith.
| We are now in the midst ofthe fight over
evolution, and of it we cannot speak as
| of those scientific facts which are settled; ;
but the speaker had no doubt that the
ultimate determinations as to evolution,
would be another bulwark of Christian
faith. The speaker said he believed IN
| the progressive knowledge of God. This
| is one Of the leading features of the New
! Orthodoxy. God remains the same, yet
he is revealed differently to the men OF
| different generations. The God of
| Genesis and Judges is the same as the
| God of Hebrews. But the revolution OF
| Him to M ses and to Paul was very diff
ferent, and to the one, He appeared a
] far different being from what He APP
peared to the other. The New Ortho-
doxy comes to you and says that those
| features of Gods character which are
in harmony with your Nineteenth CEN
fury ideas, are to be found in the New
| Testament, if you will look for them.
The Salvation Army has the same God
| as nave the WOrSnlppefS IN the new Olu
South of, Boston; but the two classes
have very different ideas of that Being.
Another leading doctrine of the New
| Orthodoxy is that of the Imminence of
| God. This is the idea that God is not
only a creator of the universe, which
stepping back, He watches move as
clockmaker might watch time-piece,
but the idea of imminence is that He is
with the universal continually and in
everything in the sun as it runs its daily
course, in the raindrop that glistens in
the sunlight. But this imminence is on
| ly the old doctrine of omnipresence.
! What is the view of God in its entirety
as held today? He is held to be eternal,
immutable, unchanging, as He has al
ways been held to be. In addition it is
held that He is the energy of the natural
world, and the indwelling reason of the
universe, endowed with love for His peo-
| pie, and with care for all His creations
In conclusion, DR.. Merrill spoke of the
needs of the human soul, and the in
completeness of man without the crown
ing complement of his existence, the
| Z L. IL. NJ