The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-22
MODERN RELIGION AND REFORM.

Review, by Rev. William Walsn,
which is remarkable and of charac-
ter seldom found in a literary re-
view. 1t is entitled religion and
Reform" 1t repudiates the idea that
the Lutheran Reformation was a
final settlement of religious questions
and contends that religion must be
again reformed in order to meet the
demands of the age. 1t has too often
been presented in such repulsive
character as to foster atheism which
declares it to be the enemy of all re-
forms. "The task of the modern free
Protestant is first to rescue religion
from its foes; then to save it from
those friends whose zealotry does its
best to merit the reproach, and lastly,
to apply it to the rectifcation of af-
fairs" "Religion must be first re-
formed before it can accomplish the
great object of reforming men,"
1t must be reconciled with science
and then reconciled with life. The
former has mainly been accomplish
ed. The theory that God is outside
of the world, working mechanically
upon it, has given way to the doctrine
of the Divine Immanency. "The
more awful God of the scientist has
been accepted as an Intellectual ne
cessity by the theological, who now
labors-and not in vain-to clothe
him in the tenderer robes of the
Gospel of Jesus"
Religion must be regarded not as
a scheme for saving the individual
soul from some great catastrophe
which threatens it in the future
world, but as a good angel which
descends into the arena of human
life in all it's departments and strives
to remove all the moral and social
evils to be found there. 1t has been
emancipated from the hermit's cave
and the ascetic's secluded home.
"The modern Christian has broad
ened out from monk into citizen
applied Christianity" is the cry of
OF humanity, and is beginning to re-
ceive the attention of American col
leges as we'll as Christian pulpits.
Thedoctrine of the human brother
hood and the Divine Fatherhood is
being recognized and applied. "Be-
fore we can democratize the churches,
we must democratize the Deity. The
God of the historic creeds is aristo-
cratic, "-patterned after an Oriental
Monarch, ga being who picks and
chooses, a god, partial and arbitrary,
whose prophet is John Calvin" The
idea of an impartial God who rules
the world in love for all his children
will have an important practical in
fuence. 1t twill enforce the faith of
a common origin, comm on destiny
and common good, and finally pre-
vail over all distinctions of creed,
character and condition in the earth"
The religion of fifty years ago was
not equal to that task. "The abolition
of future bells is a necessary step to-
ward the abolition of those which ex-
list on earth. The irrational and in
human theories of future punishment
SO long prevalent in Christendom
have reacted upon the humanity of
those who accepted them, and are
largely responsible for the coarse
moral fibre, the brutality and blood
thirstiness of the modern world"
1.-THE idea of an avenging torture
chamber" makes us "ignore the pre-
cepts of Christ and to initiate its
given idol. The belief that the Di
vine Being acquiesces in the endless
existence of sin and suffering, the re-
moval of which is for him, also, an
impossibility, has dried the fountains
not of human pity alone, but of hui
man energy, and made us supine and
helpless in the presence of the prob
lens of poverty and vice and fraud.
From age to age this foul dogma of
despair has paralyzed the heart of
mercy and the arm of hope, and turned
the whole church of Christ into con-
tented or helpless witnesses of the
human bells of slumdom, brotheldom
and drinkdom."
This is scathing arraignment of
"the foul dogma of despair" and an
accurate picture of it's terrible infu-
ence. The reformed religion corrects
all this. 1t eliminates hopelessness
and helplessness and encourages all
to labor on for the redemption from
"earth's bells, and for mans ultimate
salvation from the bells of Hades.
No faith narrower than Universalism
can produce works which make for
the salvation of all"
So the writer proceeds to describe
the process by which the world is