St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-01
THE KING OF COMMON SENSE
Rev. William Wilkinson Talks
Upon That Subject,

makes us proud DOaSG tnaI IL is practl-
cal above all things: that old-time no.
tions, dark-age SuperStitionS and middle
age delusions which our grandfathers
dearly loved are for us advanced think
erS, ''men of progress" children of
the light, things of the past; in fact,
they have been cast into the limbo
of an oblivion out of which they
will not be brought, not even to show
the wonderful descendants of an anti
quated and benighted race exactly
what foolish things their ancestors did
firmly believe. In fine, we have left the
small mental clothes and the religious
creedS OF past times, and of youth, and
having come to mans estate being now
in the full plenitude of our manly pow
erS, we do not need, we will not have
the creedS or follow the deeds which did
satisfy the men of past decades, and
by which they got great renown. We
modeTns lead the world; the old time
rules and teachings are obsolete I'VE will
not follow an infallible book, or an in
fallible church, but we look to and are
guided by an infailible nature and an
infalllble Interpretation of it, called
science! Where they lead we go, where
they stop we tarry. We cast away the
landmarks of the theological past
The harmonious voices of nature are
enough for US. All this. much more than
this is implied in the spirit now
abroad in the land. To hear the speech
of many men, ii would appear as if the
day for the funeral of the religion
which has warmed the hearts and glad
dened the lives of millions of men and
women in the house of their pilgrimage
FROM the city of destruction to the
celestial city, not made with hands, was
fixed. But stop. let us call halt. We
will NOT HnHnrt9EQr
side at and arrange for the funeral just
yet, for this system set forth by prophet
. and seer, clearly made known in the
gospel, and believed in the ''holy church
throughout the world" may have some
word to speak, as important as that of
the man who tries to find out the COM
position of the stars, or who tells Us
the number Of eyes a fly has, or the
kind of milk some ants give, as Sir
John Lubbock, no doubt truly,
tells us they do give milk. Per-
haps even the deSpiSed Nazarene, the
carpenters son, has song to sing 1t will
be we'll and wise for this faStidious and
prosperous age to hear. If we begin at
the beginning we shall not make mis-
take. Herbert Spencer, one of the most
acute observers aud able writers on the
side of scientific thinking, declares We
stand in the presence of an inscrutable
force and denies that all things come by
chance. Matthew Arnold tells us there
is an universal power which makes for
righteousness. That what we see is rot
the whole of what there is in the world
all Investigators agree Very good. Be
it even so. We hail all these statements,
and in the words of this deSpised in
structOr on the shores of Galilee affirm
of our covenant-keepIng God. All
things were made by Him; without Him
was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life; the life was the light of
men, and the light that shineth
in darkness. And we respect
ton of the worlds existence as any
yet propounded. 1t at least does give one
advantage over the blind force theory:
it gives the world designing head to
whom intelligence is responsible, and
before whom wrong shall be rectifed.
We further say this is an advantage
which is in accord with all the dictates
of this cOmmon-Sense age, and that
hence the men are not fools who hold
this faith and fact. In looking at the
claims of Christ. as calling upon our
allegiance, we have happily not to go
back in distance 5000 miles and in time
1000 years; we can here, now, test them:
for the characters He drew. the rene
dies He proposed, and which He said
would in every case be effective, are not
in Palestine. They are in this very
city. Sin, sorrow, pain, death. are not
the creatures Of imagination, the handi-
| craft Of some piouS expert i'll moral
or mental legerdemain; they are
| the terrible facts of all human
experience, sinner. saint, peasant, king,
| ages. And every land knew them. Well,
| but this dire knowledge does not help
an atom in the solution of the question
| how to get rid of their blasting power.
| In their presence all modern investi-
| cation Is as absolutely powerless as was
| Lots wife on the plains of S06cm, or
Elijah when he sat under the juniper
tree and said, Nov let me die" Help
less, dumb. we stand before the real-
ties of lite and Of death. The examples
| of what l mean are to be found in the
woman taken in sin, the prodie al who
| spent his cash and wrecked his charac-
| ter in the far country, the woman III
| SimOn'S house, and Lazarus in the char
| mel house at Bethany. These are sam
pies, but the counterparts, identical
! scenes, circumstances and facts are at
our doors, and we are not to be called
audacious if we say that no plan equal
| to demands has yet been found outside
the gospel. Let US examine how
IL pIOCCouS, "HdG IIS plOpoolIloHo are,
! in order that we may understand how.
on thorough-going analysis, we may
| surely know how they are grounded
upon principles which have their deep
! est roots III common sense, and are not
| merely the abstract statements of an en-
thusiast. Christ began with man as
| sinner; that is what he is; this is all the
trouble; it opens the fioOdgates of every
| evil which now afflictS US, and the re-
| suits of this fact and state are on every
| hand abundantly plain. 1t IS not an out
ward reform which will meet the case.
| No act of the state il its lawmaking
| power will eliminate sin from human life
| It's needs power which is superhuman.
Here the whole philosophy of the gospel
is to be found. 1t proposes to remake
man, to degenerate him, to form him a
| new creature. Not that the effects of this
regeneration will be at once manifest in
an upright and perfect man, who
rises into perfect character at a step,
| but who grows into the life and likeness
| of Christ, who is the copy set before
him. So we see that it is not man en-
masse that's proposed to be dealt with,
but one man at time, each individual;
and as the whole is made up of ones, if
this design be carried out, soon all will
be renewed, all sin forgiven. This will
bring relief from the ills which Cypress
the body polite, social, commercial.
1t will prove more bPneficent and eff
fective than the best regulated police
force ever could be. Having thus set
man free from his sins, it sets him to
work Tor the good ofa others. The rea-
son for regeneration is that man may
be useful. TO save life, not to destroy it,
to help men, not to curse them, is the
meaning Of the life of Christ, and the
intent of that of all His followers. In
every available way this is emphasized
in the four books which stand to
teach men Christ'S will; He sends
out His servants to discipline men for
service. In all this, whether clearly ex-
pressed or not, it is implied that this
life is not the sum total Of existence,
but that it is preparatory to larger ac-
Invites in the state past what we call
death, into which all the good are to be