St. Paul daily globe., 1892-11-21

given stage. All men passing through
phase of development believe in an
angry God. and that to appeaSe that
God they must
Offer Sacrifice.
BY the study of this sacrifice, and by
comparison. men found that it was
strangely like other ideas that lad been
familiar to thenl--like the offering of
the first fruits of the field, or the lamb
from the flock. or the Christ who
paid the debt an angry God had set
against us. Indeed this comparative
study of religions shows them to be all
akin. Not only are they akin, but you
will find them proceeding in much the
same way, all based on mans ignorance
of real conditions, all loaded
down with mans imaginings, with
pagan pictures of Tartaros. with
improbable explanations of myster-
les. But if this is the case, and if
modern scholarship is shifting the
wheat from the chatf, and if it is GER
tain that much belonging to the modern
church in the way of opinion must 60
still. and beyond all this, we are i'm
measurably strengthened by the fact
that the living truths of love and sacri-
flee that Christ taught and lived are
w
time that has Teen introduced by
modern scholarship.
A nd this advanc of modern discovery
leaves us two things S-an innate hope
lying below all our diSappointmentS
that at each failure points 10 higher
hope, and belief in the truth of eternal
goodness that is not shaken by condi-
tiOnS-a promise to take the place of
every promise lost. And in our prac-
tical life there is condition that
touches the same idea. 1t comes to US
all that we are promised certain things
by our hopes-things like success, hap
pineSS, true friendships, Immortality.
But i'll life we are constantly led TO
doubt these promises, because i'll so
many cases the currents run counter
to each other. A writer, whose name L
never knew, sent adrift awhile ago a
poem relating the nope of an old man.
That hope with him, in the days OF
youth and greatest strength, promised
that he should
See the Distant City
of CarcaSSonne. He dwelt on the thought
until the city became to him a shrine
he dreamed of it, pictured the walls, the
professions, the glory of the place. 1t
had become kind of fairy land. You
Sonage with hope and wonder. L know
| felt the throbs of hope and wonder
when | touched the mining district OF
California, which from the days of my
childhood had been place OF which
had dreamed, and | felt the same hope
and wonder when we passed the
last range, and came within sight
of the towers and spires Oi
Los Angeles. And this man. with hi:
fairy land in view. trimmed his vines
but the vintage failed. and he had thai
disappointment that we all know When
we set cur hearts on accomplishing some
journey or enjoying some pleasure, or
as the Christmas season approaches
have pictured to ourselves the joy-sOmt
gift intending to bring happiness 10 6
sick friend, but find alas! that the day
and the present are TOO late.
Well, this man went on with his hope
and his disappointment until at last
double bent with age" he started-bu
started to find his strength unequal Il
the task and his one fond hope to end IL
disappointment. And seeing all thu
the theme of the poem teaches that we
are moved on by some impulse we can
not resist. The Caanan of the patriarch
was to be fields and hills dressed i'll liv
ing green. For these green fields h'
lived. but he never received them, fU
an inheritance, although they wer,
promised to him. But just as he wa
about to mourn for the loss of his lowe
inheritance, there dawned Oh him tht
hope of higher Canaan beyond tht
swelling food, and so he yielded The
lower to the discovery of the higher
This, | think, is in some way the story
of the world; for just as we are about t.
mourn for things that are taken away
from us. a higher view is revealed, and
therefore we may always truly say. BE
hold, make all things newW