Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-06-28
POPULAR EDUCATION AND FREE
THOUGHT.
REV. Or. RANKINs ADDRESS TO THE COL.
LEGE Y. M. @. A.


Professionalism. which is the sign Of
free thought, is the religion of intelli-
gence; yes, of the intelligent. Accord
ing to it, the Bible Is the effort of the
Infinite Intelligence to communicate
with the finite i'm Ineligible words,
words which awaken thought as we'll as
express thought. Protestants are people
who do their own thinking, and let
their thinking take them where it will.
They are usually among the common
people, as were the twelve apostles {;
though there was an exception, the man
born out of due time, the man so COM
mon as to earn his bread by the sweat of
his brow, and yet so uncommon as to do
high thinking for all the ages-in chains.
The very incarnation was consummated
among the common people, in house
hold glad of quarters in Bethlehem
stable. This is God S way. He wanted
commander for the people, and He
found Him in the form of a servant.
The religion Of the Protestants is not
vested in old cathederals, great organs,
inherited rituals, a stoled priesthood, but
in a book, a book in the hands of the
people. The Protestant is a Bible-in-
hand Christian. Protestant? What does it
mean: 1t the challenge of some depart
ure from doctrine or usage because it is
not in the book "Who goes there:'
"Where is it written:" Professionalism is
a new combination on the earth-an
authoritative book and an authoritative
man interpreting it. 1t takes both to
constitute the combination. Without
the book there is no standard; without
the man, no one to apply 1t.
1t is a wonderful day when the reign
ing pontiff of the Catholic church in his
encvcical letter says: ave have a long
time cherished the desire to give a new
impulse to the noble science of Holy
Scripture" This man by the Tiber has
heard the voice of the Master to St.
Peter: Lowest thou me? Feed my
sheep" Religion in book demands in
teligence. "What think We of Christ?
Whose son is He?" This is before the
advent of the great church councils.
This book came from God. |, too, came
from God. Let us try the book and the
man together. Does it answer my
wants? "Come, now, let us reason to-
gether". God and man; the divine reason
and the human confronting one another.
1t is a book which enters into argument
with every living son of man and asks
him what he thinks.
We talk a great deal about the sacred
ness of man. What do we mean? DO
we mean his anatomy? Well, even this
is sacred. Gods dwelling there makes
it shechnah. DO we mean mans
right to be, eat bread, own property.
first of all himself? Well, this is all
sacred. But the central shechnah in
man is his power of free thought; to
choose between the TWO paths stretch
ing respectively upward and downward.
1t is often said, Free institutions have
very little chance except through the
intelligence of a free people," Any
thing has very little chance except
through intelligence. Unntelligent
freedom is like dynamite in the hands of
mailman. Where will he put it? 1t
was freedom in heaven that made hell.
The devils are intelligent enough now.
They do a vast deal of thinking. And
it is thinking mingled with consterna-
ton. Professionalism is gun that is al
ways loaded and cannot be handled
carelessly. If the people are not educat-
ed, keep the gun out of their hands, for
you do not know at whose head it will
be pointed. There is nothing more dam
gerous than freedom and ignorance.
Professionalism teaches, not for the sake
of informing, but to prepare a man to do
his own thinking, the most dangerous
thing,ever done by man. The intellect
is aristocratic; ignorance is fanatical.
What this generation needs in social
life and civil life, in industrial questions,
in politics, is the authority which comes
from high thinking. \ little knowledge
is dangerous thing; is like a boy with
a colt-first, great speed and then a
smash-up. TO apply the Bible to con-
duct requires as much common-sense as
to learn what it teaches. The Bible is
a common-sense book, and it is addressed
to commOn-sense people. All these
modern problems have to be settled in a
common-sense way. The pope wants
more study of the Billie. 1t shows his
common sense. He is no more troubled
because the world moves. He has dis
covered in his observatory at Rome that
God is carrying forward a movement
which is greater than any church move
ment of Catholicism. In that greater
movement even Professionalism may be
embraced. We bid him GAN hail -
Let him help the world to popular edu-
cation and free thought; we shall some
| fine come TO see eve To eve If is pdu.