The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-08

and superstition, and the most fruit
full source of human misery and de-
gradationi
Has it not done the utmost that
could be done to rob mankind of in
tellectual and spiritual freedom, to
bind the human soul in letters of
iron, and to make intellectual and
religious progress, moral and social
progress, impossible7
Now how are all these thoughts re-
lated to the Salvation Army and to
the magnificent reception given to
Gen. Booth here in Chicago, and
throughout the countryi They are
related, as we think, very significantly,
very intimately and vitality. The
theology of the Salvation Army is
very crude. The salvation which the
Army believes in and advocates is the
coarsest, most materialistic and ir-
rational form of that which has been
so long and generally believed and
advocated by the churches.
The class of people to whom the
Army mainly appeals, has no diff
Guilty in accepting these ideas. But
the work of the Army among the lower
classes, and in the slums, in redeem
ing men and women from poverty,
dirt. drunkenness, idleness, vice and
crime, and making them clean, tenn
perate, virtuous, industrious, thrifty,
in helping them to start again, start
right, in furnishing these poor crea-
lures with sympathy, bread, clothing,
shelter, fuel-all this is real work
and a great work of practical Chris
tianity, of saving men, of uplifting
and redeeming society.
But this great and noble work of
practical Christianity, of uplifting
and saving these degraded ones, has
no necessary connection whatever
with the crude religious notions of
the Army, or with its irrational and
coarse views about salvation. There
fore all Christians and all good men,
may have the deepest sympathy with
the work of the Army, and the warm
est admiration for it and the strong
est desire to commend and encour-
age it, and yet have no sympathy
whatever with the crude and out
grown religious notions of the Army.
We see how strikingly this fact is
illustrated. DIR. Barrows, that large
hearted, sweet-spirited man, in his
noble words of welcome to Gen.
Booth, had not word to say about
the religious and theological notions
of the Army. These things did not
seem to enter his mind. He was just
thinking of what the Army had done
and was devoted to doing in SO many
places, in lifting up the fallen, saving
them from the manifold evils of this
present life, bringing them back to
comfort, cleanness and virtue, and
putting sunshine, hope and happiness
into their lives again. And Gen.
Booth, in his noble reply to this ad
dress of welcome, had not a word to
say about religion or theology, or
about saving the souls of men for an
other would; but it was all wise
and dispassionate talk of practical
Christianity for this life-of how to
save men here and now from the
evils and miseries of to-day and of
this world.
1t is this real, practical salvation,
this true Christian salvation that calls
out the sympathy, the hearty appDv-
al, the admiration and the gratitude
of all good men.
1t is by this work, and not by theo-
logical and religious crudities, that
they have so largely mastered the
preiudices of men. Had it been mere
ly question of their theology, and
their peculiar method Of advocating
crude religious ideas, no such address
of welcome would have ever come
from DIR. Barrows, or from any other
large-minded and large hearted man.
All this, as it seems to us, clearly
illustrates and confirms what we have
contended for as the true Christian
salvation, as the only salvation that
can any longer command the belief,
interest or approval of free and er-
lightened minds.
1t is true there is intelligence
enorgh, apparently, among vast null
titudes of men and women to aban-
Ion at once and forever that theory
Of salvation which is built upon the
EXPLODED doctrine of the fall of man.
Put a sudden and universal aban-
comment is not the method OF provi-
lence, not of human society. In
other words, it is not the scientific
method.
IA o,.,.oo.e kbat - 20 orI1 H., Az