St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-06
Rev. DR.. Vail SspmOniZeS on
Passages Of the Fourth
Gospel.
The Idea There Implanted
Reviewed in Its Peculiar
Significance.
Religion Pictured as Embody-
ing Eternal and Univers-
al Gpaces.
Dissection OF the Unreason-
able Rage OF Man Against
Innocence.

able Rage or Man Against
Innocence.
Rev. w. s. Vail began hislsermon on
Sunday morning by choosing as text
those passages that open the Fourth
Gospel, and refer to Jesus as the Word
made flesh and dwelling with men. In
the presentation of the idea lie spoke of
it as one peculiar to an epoch in the
worlds thought, though found in more
than one place. He said it had q spe-
cial significance. having existed in Alex
andria before the advent of Christ, and
then reappearing as a most important
Christian doctrine in the time of the
asceDdency of the Greek fathers. This
ascendency was destroyed, he said, by
the rise of the Western church, in
which the idea of a sacrificial religion
came to the fore. leaving out the other
idea which was inward and spiritual.
This theory teaches, when reduced to
the plainest terms, that human nature
can embOdy divine life; that love in any
OF its forms, as iilial devotion, as I'M
sullied friendship. as patriotism. as
humane feeling, or as pity, is of the es-
sence of God, yet capable of being made
the life of man. 1t teaches that re-
ligioD is the embodiment in man of
those eternal and universal graces, the
essence of God, the life that was in
Christ, and in Him the light that be-
came the life of men.
1t is the influence of the Eternal steal
ing into the life of manufacturing i'll as
the soft Southern breeze steals over
the spring landscape and warns
to soil and persuades the germs.s so that
In almost an hour they leap with new
beauty and cover the earth with grass
and carpet of flowers. 1t rises in the
life or a man like The silent waters in
some broad, blue river just entering
the ocean: a river that catches the in
coming tide and SwellS urconSciously
to fullnesS and power, so that while the
observer sees hardly ripple its waters
are pressing its banks. L: has received
the coming tide-yes, in like manner do
those aspirations and noble thoughts
and sentiments that come into the life
by this incarnation of divine thought
and sentiment, fill the life and deepen
and strengthen Its waters without
knowing much about how it does come.
The divine thoughts and feelings, like
molten. fluent metal, are poured into
ourselves and there lett to form them
selves into solid sentiments and fair
convictions, enduring as the rock that
deti3S the waves claShing themselves
to foam against it. The speaker dwelt
particularly on the fact that the theory
of
The Divine EndyVellsng-
this Word made flesh-waS a power in
the days of the Greek fathers. This he
thought brought religion to a point of
development where spiritual truths had
a spiritual Interpretation. This was
found in the world of the human mind
and soul. The love and chastisement
of God were both found within. NO
miracle was necessary To teach His wis
dom or presence, for both were found in
the life of the human soul.
But the speaker claimed that there
came one of those reVerSions that are
common i'll the history of thought, and
everywhere fOund-another illustration
of the fact that all progress moves like
the sWaylng pendulum, sometimes back
ward and sometimes fOrward-and this
movement sent the world backw ward to
the acceptance once more in new
form of the doctrine of a sacriiicial
at0nement of Christ. Professionalism
accepted this because it accepted the
Bible as book inspired equally in all
its parts. In our times another swing
of the pendulum is felt. There is call
for a renaScence. Preachers like Brooks,
and Thomas, and Swing, and Stanley.
and Farrer, and Abbott, are presenting
the Christ of the Fourth gospel; and
the theory of religion which has for a
fundamental doctrine the incarnation
of those eternal elements of the life Of
God that shOne in ChriSt-love, honor,
truth, purity, sacrifice to the extent of
self-abnegatlOn - the incarnation of
these in our lives, not merely the adj
miration Of them in sOE;e one else-ths
is the thought that is receiving the larg-
est announcement among progressive
preachers in our time.
The speaker thought that even in this
presentation a word OF caution was nee
essary. 1t occurred to him that pushed
beyond legitimate boundaries this theory
was dangerous, tor it was an appeal to
emotional life, and rendered men liable
to extremity of action. to vagares of
vision and sentiment. Mr.. Bell had
placed OIL his graphOphOne a little steel
fan, carrying a spring, and this gov
ernor received the impact of power from
without. If the power was too strong
and the motion too rapid. it checked the
motion and gave il uniform speed. Rea-
son should be the governor of our lives,
and keep them from falling into the
hands of uncontrolled power. The IN
controlled power of emotion. he said,
had always seemed to him SymUoliZed
by Mr.. Hearn'S story of the wreck of
Lost Island. on the night when the
hurricane came up with the sea in his
arms" and utterly deSOlated the place.
But the preacher claimed that if we
kept our gaze fixed on the other side of
the prOblem-the human side-we
would
Escape All the Dangers
yet gain all the advantages. We pause
a moment to see the problem in this re-
latiOn. for we shall claim that man not
only is endowed originally with this
gift of insight. but that III his very
degradation he is blindly conscious OF
it. Pushed to an extremity men are
wild with rage against innocenceCas
the men were who crucified JeSuS-nOt
because of what he was, but because of
what they were not.
There seems to be many cases in
which there is no real reason tor the
rage of men against innocence and
truth. There seems no real reason
why Shylock should wreak terrible
vengeance on AntOniO; and there does
not SEEN to be sufficient reason why the
rage of lagO should gather and grow as
it does, until lie becomes the very carna-
ton of all that is tiendlsh, as he winds
his web of suspicion until the awful
currents of vengeance are opened, and
men and women ungulted in blood.
Nor do Think there was apparent
sufficient reason for the hoarse
cry OF Cruelty him, cruelty him."
save i'll the fact that men.
when they come to fight
this inner Iight-prove untrue to this
inner life-cOme to 4 point where rage
becomes senseiesS, and tragedy is the
rnsult 81 think the N..rX worst sins