The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-10-27
The SERMON.
PROVING AND HOLDING FAST.
BY REV. JOHN s. COOK.

LII muSJ nave Ueeu NoIy carly III oAo
history of Christianity that differences
in Interpretation arose concerning the
gospel. The New Testament canon
was not closed before its ministers
were involvedin conflicting teachings,
and that difference of Interpretation
has continued until now, so that the
admonition addressed to the Thes-
salonians by the old writer is applica-
BILE to the circumstances of our own
time. And certainly amid the eager
searchings, the bold questionings,
the multiplied experiments which
mark our day the admonition toprove
all things has not been forgotten. To
day no institution is SO venerable, no
literature so august, no custom so
ancient, no truth so sacred, but that
it must undergo the fierce search-light
of investigation; in the court of rea-
son it must prove its right to be; on
the threshing floor of experience it
must yield its golden grain. From
the fields of the past many golden
harvests have been gathered, in its
store houses are treasured many prec-
ious truths, but tares have grown with
the wheat; there is chaff with the
grain. In our institutions of govern
ment, upon our statute books, in our
social customs, in our systems of edu-
cation, in our religious thought and
practice there is much of good but
there is also evil. Now and always the
proving is going on; we move in the
midst of solemn judgment. Nor
are the results of this proving any less
certain because its court is not set up
in any formal manner with judge and
officer in visible form; its DEGREES are
as surely executed as though carried
out by angel messenger; the purify
ing fire of its judgements are more
terrible than all the imaginings of
physical torment. In the hearts
and consciences of men this judg-
ment goes on; to this bar all ques
tions are brought; slowly it seems
at times but surely, the truth wins
its way; error may prevail for a
night but light cometh with the morn
ing. The proving may be long and
tedious but at last the judgment shall
hold fast to that which is good. Every
where men are searching, experiment
ing, putting to the proof. AS new
data are acquired, and new truths be-
come apparent, we are obliged to re-
cast again and again our theories.
Patiently and laboriously, man has
read the book of nature spread be-
fore him, formulating theory after
theory under the light of new truths,
until his theory seems at least to ex
plain the whole of the known facts
in many branches of scientific re-
search; not that it does SO in re
gard to all the theories accepted quite
generally in scientific circles, but
even where it does not, the weight of
evidence is on the side of the theory
accepted, and the theory itself is held
subject to constant revision. And
what means all this laborious investi-
cation, this patient proving of theory
and investigation of accepted opin-
ions? What means all this bold inves-
tigation of the material universe, ex
cept that the mind of an cannot
rest in a lie? He is seeker after
truth; nothing short of it meets the
needs of his nature.
This spirit of investigation has
made manifest many evils in our
methods of thought, our institutions,
our customs; it has removed much of
evil and error from life Under its in
fiuence the borders of human knowl-
edge have been enlarged to so mar
velous a degree that in very truth
new heaven and new earth have been
revealed by the Investigations of mod
ern science. The Improvements achiev-
ed in mechanical inventions have
multiplied many times the material re
sources at our disposal, and increased
the sum of human leisure. The
measure of human liberty is not yet
filed but it has been greatly extended;
the worship of God has been freed
from many an old superstition, and
as the mists of these old credulities
have vanished before the light of the
larger truths, man has looked up with
clearer vision into the face of God.
This path of upward progress has
not been pursued without fierce con-
flict. The forces of entrenched error
do not readily yield to the influence
of that truth which condemns the
cherished evil. The chains of old
habits are not easily cast off To the
average man, church or party, any
thing is easier than to confess an