Morning journal and courier., 1892-04-09
AT mARQUAND CHAPEL.

Principal Fairbatrn Delivers His
Last Lecture to the Students of the
Divinity school.
Principal Fairbairn of Oxford, Eng
land, closed his course of lectures on
Modern Theological Tendencies' before
the Yale divinity school yesterday. This
was the fourth week of his lectures and
they have been admirably we'll attended
throughout. In yesterdays lecture he
spoke as follows: God cannot be defined
neither as father nor sovereign, but as a
unity of both, conception of both in the
same deity Given the conception of G cd and the
system as a whole follows. Conception OF deity
being the conception of a living love, the truths
Of theology are those which concern persons on
one hand, God the sovereign, and on the other
man the subject. Thus, then, the principle is
laid down that God is the grand fundamental
conception. His supreme love wills the happi
ness of men. He wills it as becomes God, not as
although he has every mortal quality, is still
God. The relations of God and man Joined and
made manifest in the person of Christ must in
time be construed in the necessities which gov
ern the divine will.
What function Christ may have in the universe
necessary to the world we cannot tell. But it is
hard for us to conceive of God doing anything
inconsistent with his divinity. Man, left face to
nature which surrounds him. 1t is the love and
influence of Christ that makes the universe q
and seen the great affairs decked with flowers
and candles and thought of the professions and
festivals thought how far it all was from any
simplicity of soul which is so infinitely more
sublime than our sensuous worship God can
not ~ to h iba go
from punishment for the deeds done in the body
used which detest, and that is applying it to
the clergy asd dignitaries. Christ's idea of the
church was the Kingdom of God; If we could
build cathedral, and to make man virtuous
forever is beautiful in the eyes of God, while tc
erect an altar is an amusement of an hour, re
ligion would come much nearer accomplishing
the ends for which it was intended.
You will remark how many principles have
concerning the extent to which philosophy has
eKerted modifying influence on theology.
the 81 th the eRd the
not the eternal philosophy of Carlisle that form.
and shapes men. can remember the first volume
of his that took up when first came to the uni
versity Of my choice as raw Scotch youth
We were just at that time losing some of thu
cold, hard and formal in our theology, and no
and formal things they become jealous. Well
we were just at that time in the most jealous pc
riod, and this volume OF Carlisle came to us like
a breath of fresh, spring air. Do you wonder
that we love him?
Dare to be poet, to feel as poets and bring
poems into the lives of men, Dare to be auda
cious if to be audacious is foor the good Of men
We read how Matthew Arnold came to teach Ut
to read the secret OF Christ. And we needed it
1t is good thing sometimes for Christ to raise
up an iconoclast. I love Matthew Arnold for the
sweetness and beauty of his thought, although
there were things in his character that were
neither sweet nor beautiful.
In conclusion would say get near Christ. Dc
not draw far away from God. Do not bind him
by conventionality. Keep God free. This is the
best theology