The Progress., 1893-10-07
cONING REVOLUTION.
Nsw SERIES OF SERMONS BY REV.
THOMAS DIXON, JR.

and Ecclesiastical Changcs-Restless
Masses
Nrv YORK. oct. Rev. Thomas
ni,on .Jr.. begins new series of morn
-, sermons in Association hall. The
'I;ect of the series he calls The
c,,nipe Revolution In it he will dis
ass The signs of the times that indi-
.,te prcat social, economic, political and
..clesiastical changes. The sermon this
earning was a general introduction to
.he .tudy. which will run through scv.
.,,l weeks. The subject of this intro
Suctory discourse delivered today was
..Tbe Restless Masses" He declares
,h.t democracy in its broadest and truest
.spse is manifestly the destiny of the
.,ce and that there is today developing
world movement of the masses that
,,-es,gcs q new social reformation. The
,a,t chosen was from Mark xii, 81. "And
,be common people heard him gladly"
THE COMMON PEOPLE.
There is no more pregnant sentence
,,ithin the lids of the New Testament
than this text. The common people
,be great multitudes-heard him gladly.
Tben we may rest assured the high. rul-
inc. conservative classes did not hear him
gladly. We are not surprised that they
c,ucifed him between two thieves as a
common felon. This profound sympathy
with the great under masses is in reality
the KEY 10 the mystery of the incarnation.
He was the carpenters son.
Hp lived the life of common work
inrman. He chose his fellows from the
ranks of the lowly masses. The great
and the rich were not his disciples. Els
.postles were from the ranks Of the com
mon people. There could have been no
accident about the birth of the Saviour of
humanity. 1t was not by chance that
ne was born of humble parents in a man
ger Ii was the fulfillment of prophecy.
II was the fulfillment of the divine plan
Of the ages. Only thus could the world
the whole world-the real world
BE- reached and saved. Only thus could
he truly say | am the Son of Nan, Be
ginning thus among the simple and ig-
porant and poor slave masses of sin
cursed and sin burdened earth, he placed
The leaven that should at last leaven the
whole lump of humanity.
And since Christ the trend of the ages
has been slowly but surely toward the
uplifting. ennobling and saving of the
Common life.
Vital Christianity has been the only
power through the centuries of the
Christian era that stood between the
weak and the strong and steadfastly de
clared that might is not right, and that
weakness shall rule strength at last.
THE SOURCE OF ALL POWER.
The source of all power is the very last
analysis; when all fictions have been ex-
poded, is found in the under millions
who bear the worlds burden, intellect
ual, spiritual, moral, physical. In this
mass will be found the true source of
all power, intellectual, spiritual. moral,
physical As men and families scramble
ont from among the masses and array
themselves with clique and class, they de-
generate and their offspring perish
some in the first generation, others in the
second.
The seat of ultimate imperialism has
always heen in the masses. They have
simply never yet become conscious of
The Tact. They are the Samsons, but
hey are asleep As they wake to the
eOnscionsness of the power that inheres
g nature in them. they assume that
power and never relax it,
We behold thus the ever growing,
never halting expansion of world de-
mocracy. 1t is the destiny of the race.
There II no power on the earth, under
heearth or above the earth that can de-
l@i Its final triumph. Each day H.
umes calendar witnesses some victory.
however small, gained in this world
movement. An inch of soil once gained
hnever lost.
NEW CHAPTER IN HISTORY.
There Is presentiment. feeling
"ilii what you may-that pervades the
civilized world, that we are about enter
mas upon a new chapter in the history of
we world. So strong each day becomes
ms feeling that to some it means fear
na trembling, to others hope and in
Trat'on. In every period of the worlds
history immediately preceding great
uanges, this prophetic spirit has filed the
1sr's OF men and found utterance. At
W. %ums has its utterance been so clear
1aso nearly universal among nations
na peoples and classes of divers inter
~ IL Is humanity's hour of exultant
rvPhecy. II is the races hour of spirit
apfting when society is being ush
NJ INTO higher and diviner life.
'o'he mind Of the pessimist the air is
sy with the threat of coming revo-
saon by violence. To the man of hope
-s'e comes the vision Of tears, but the
~ are turned to dew to water the
s-'aens OF new heaven and a new
wa Does this feeling prophetic of
80 chanse mean anything real, or is
"sngment VI the imagination?
mere anything apparent in our life