St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-01-02
SHOULD THEY DISBAND
Rev. DR.. Vail Discourses on
the Claims Of Liberal
Churches,
eE
Inspired by Question as to
the Future Of Lib
eralism.
III
An Ineisive Analysis OF the
Condition Of Religious
Thought.
.Ht
The Changing Motives Of
Active Christianity Con-
sidered.

64AOx OAs
There are many men who think that
the liberal church, as an organized in
stitution, has finished its career, and
that its membership should be absorbed
in other churches. To one it means an
organized protest against the terrible
doctrines Of literal, personal devil
with horns ana hoofS. and hell that
was material lake of fire and brim-
stone; and this man says that while
such opinions existed. and were insist
ed on in the church, such protest was
becoming and right; but, as changes
have been made, no such protest is now
needed. Another says that if there were
anything desirable in it for the people,
they would flock TO its altar as doves to
the rocks, and claims that people would
fall over each other in their eagerness
to get the newest and best in electric
cars, in railroads and in gold mines;
and further declares that if the liberal
church had anything worth offering, the
multitude would gladly seek and find it.
Still another feels that it is diSap
pointment to him. and he cannot under
stand why men should neglect so great
truth; and so he, too, has his griev-
ance with his disappointment.
Therefore it is but natural that we
should ask ourselves, as others are ask
ing, whether organized liberalism has
any future or not. And Ishould say
that its mission to be permanent must
be something more than social club.
The most difficult OF all problems is the
proper adjustment of the relation of the
young to pleasure and enJoyments. The
church, in condemning all amusements
that young blood takes any delight in.
has
Distinctly Made a Mistake.
But are there no dangers Oh the other
side? Does the contant chase Of pleas
ure have any influence on the mind?
A legend says the Greek youth of prom
Use was carried by fairies to the palace
Of enchantment and there was subjected
to the emotions of mind that go with
the higher kind of pleasures; that it
left in his mind nameless longing;
that sounds of weird music filled his
soul; that in his efforts to fix on stern
duty his gifted mind there was ever
seductive call to ease, to selfish pleas
;ure. That legend is the story of our
ltemptaton-not TO vice. not to debauch-
Cery. but to that higher form of ease and
selfishnesS that S9pS thousands of lives.
And the church that exists today for
any practical purpose Will try to give
rational adjustment to this problem,
and will make of itself something more
lthan means for the development and
production of even the higher pleasure.
Then the mission of our church is not
entirely completed when we cry against
Puritan theology and declaim about the
Iove of God. The strongest men in the
|oorthodox churches are doing all they
can, and spending all the strength they
have, to assist them in supporting crum-
bling creedS. The battle has gone be-
You'd our lines. Besides, the very ideas
insisted on with dogmatic intensity-the
ideas of fatherhood and brotherhood
these are now preached by the descend
ents Of the PurltanS with us much ear
nestness as they were ever preached by
us. Moreover, liberal church with any
hope in the future must acknowledge
the conditions that are produced by
modern changes. 1t is distinctly true
that much OF the former glory of the
church seems i'll danger of eclipse by
the eneroachmentofm modern knowledge.
From the past, with glory that be-
longs to former times, comes the picture
OF those men who made sacrifices from
a religious conviction. We see them
Dying by Some Zone River.
black men and women gathered round
them grooming their strange. weird
songs. They fall i'll the heat of the
MONDAY on the deserts. with none to
pity, none to help. They abandoned
pleasant homes; the places that knew
them once know them no more, and will
never know again. for their ship will
never return, and the friends who look
across the blue waters Ill nope of sight
ing it will look i'll vain. They passed
away like the breath of the wind, and
are gone forever. And what was their
motive to sacrifice-what, but desire
to save men from the burning pit of
brimStOue, to snatch them from the
flames of eternal torture?
And that motive is dying away. The
vision of our childhood gave us para
disiacal home for primitive man with
every perfection; and for that we are
substituting q forest, with reptiles IN
every fallen tree and in every crevice Of
rock, with wild animals that disputed
his place and matched their strength
and ferocity against him, while the man
is AFFECT, poorly developed, his face
bearing an expression of mingled animal
cunning and God-lke intelligence, but
the animalisD predOminating.
For the perfect product of a God who
worked as mechanic for six days and
cnuanth I,ts
WORK good, we have substituted the Wis
ion of storms that carried vast bodies of
water and bergS of ice over immense
territories floods that entirely changed
the contour of continents -upheavalS
that made continent physically differ
emf from what it was before: and we say
in this way the world was maize. We,
reckon the probable way it came into
existence, then we go on to reckon the
probable way in which it will die.
This is chilling TO the imagination.
On the first thought we may expect
Just what We have seen, that majority
of men will say in despair when they
accept this belief, Perhaps this will
come out all right, but who can tell? 1t
does not look very promising" But
l. - This fiodern idea
IS pressing on every hand, and while
the sturdy men of Holland were able to
dixie their land and listening to the sui
feil roar of the sea, day and night knock
ing at their gates, were able to say,
s'1hus Tar shalt thou go and no farther"
iwe cannot do this with the pressure of
9modern thought, which is creeping in
through every possible opening that
free printing press has made the chan
Igne1 of new knowledge, and it wilLkeep
right OH coming in and over until all az
cept it. One by one the old ideas will
die out, and as pioneers some are set to
herald the new ideas in their new set
ting. anu prepare the way for the new
poetry and the new heroIsm.
Then if the liberal church Is to have
any success, it is not only to be unmuz-
zled. and to have the feeling that its
unmuzzled condition is with consent of
those who listen, but furthermore the
minister must feel that he has the SYM
patty of his people i'll the work OF his
pulpit preparation.
prOminant litarary man Recently de-