The San Francisco call., 1895-11-25
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND PROGRESS
An EpitOme Of Sermons of the Week
Throughout the Land.

FOllOW1nS is mmary OF the principal
sermons delivered in the United States
and Canada by the leading clergymen,
priests, prelates, religious teachers and
professors of the Christian faith. In every
instance the full text has been carefully
read and abbreviated:
PUBLIC VICE.
With all the machinery necessary for its ex
tinction open vice fiaunts itself IN the most
public manner in every city OF America.-Rev.
B. Fay Mills. evangelist, Louisville, Ky.
THE NEW WOMAN.
The world has no place for that creature
called the new woman. am not in love with
her, nor have met man who is. Nor let US
hear any more about the superiority of either
sex. Both are equal in their spheres.-Rev.
James B. Kenyon, Methodist, Syracuse, n. y.
FAITH.
Faith will not clear all our difficulties nor
answer all our questions, but il will clear
pure, our hands clean, our eyes upon our goal
and our ieet in the path leading thither.-
Rabbi Joseph Krans&opf, Israelite, Phila-
delphia, Pa.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
The rich and the poor must learn to recog-
nlze each others rights on the principles of
the gospel. BOycOtts and strikes must be re-
placed by arbitration. With the New Testa-
all differences must be settled.-Rev. DR.. Har-
court, Methodist Baltimore Md.
THE UNITY OF RACES.
One OF the most difficult tasks presented to
America is the adjustment and blending of
different natlonalitieS which are thrown into
the great cauldron OF North America. Herein
lies the difficulties with which the New World
must contend: No one can predict what spirit
will finally triumph.-Rev. Niclaus Bolt, Ger
man Presbyterian, st. Paul. Mimi
CONFLICT.
This world is full of conflict Individual in
terests, government interests, society interests
commercial interests-all serve to perpetuate
the battle which goes ceaselessly on, and doubt
less will do so. Our duty is not to end the
war. but to adapt ourselves to it, and
always fight 10 some good achievement.-Rev.
J. Z. Hull, Independent, Minneapolis, Mimi.
THE STAGE
God bless the play. Somehow play always
comes out right. 1t cannot come out wrong.
No man would dare put play on the stage
that came out wrong. With such men as Booth
and Jefferson and others on the stage we are
able to teach our children to choose good plays
just as we teach them TO select good books.
-Rey. John Rusk, Chicago, Ill.
FALSE DOCTRINE.
'fTaking things as you find them" is the
doctrine OF all the ignorance and ldleness and
filth and degradation in the world; that is the
doctrine of the slums in our cities; of every
foul, disorderly, unloved home; that is the
pet doctrine of tramps and dead-beats and po-
litieal bosses.-Rev. James H. Ecob, Albany,
n. Y.
RELIGION
Religion made the Bible, and not the Bible
religion and religion made the church.
Creeds and confessions are not the foundation
OF faith, but the expressions of faith that
should grow with the life and not become
limiting environment. The foundation OF
faith is not in books, but in the world beyond
the books--in the reason and conscience of
man as he faces the infinite.-Rey. DR.. Thomas,
Independent, Chicago Ill.
WHAT TO READ.
You must read TO purpose. Don't fritter
away your time in reading the literary clap
trap and rubbish written by the hired as
sasslns OF a pure and wholesome literature.
Begin reading your home paper; then such
magazines and periodicals as you are able to
buy or borrow: then the famous works of the
world in science, politics, morals and religion
Read and read to the end.-Rey. W. c. Lind
say, Bluefeld, W. Va.
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.
The advance Of civilization can be measured
by the decay OF orthodoxies and the develop
ment of individualism. 1t is an amazing thing
TO consider the fact that freedom of thought is
a new thing in the world, and that to-day we
though liberation were an ideal and not, as it
is, an insult. The world must be so free that
no one Will dare TO assume the attitude of toll
eration.-Rey. NJ. j. Savage, Unitarian, Boston,
Mass.
CHURCH ADJUSTMENTS.
The church advertisements of to-day, even of
Sunday services, are largely appeals to the
carnal mind. The plain preaching of the Word
seems a small thing beside boy choirs, soloists,
hired singers, etc, while the alphabet is
well nigh exhausted to find names for the
donkey socials, pink teas, apron festivals,
butterfly socials, broom drills, old folks con-
certS, etc. Read the papers, and you can
testify that these are the things the churches
OF to-day set most prominently before the pub
lic.-William A. Burch, Second Adventist, Wor-
cester, Mass.
REALITIES.
What we call ideals are not conceptions we
have created; they are realities we have dis
covered. Newton did not make the law of
he found it. The great scientists
are discoyerers and not inventors. Wagner
and Beethoven did not make music, they found
it. Moses did not originate the ten command
ments and impose them upon society. He dis
covered what were the laws of morals and So
ciety and said them. Our ideals, then, are not
air castles we build. They are the realities of
the universe.-Rev. \. Magee Waters, Evan
ston, Ill.
sPIRITUALIsM.
Men have always desired to penetrate the
OF the unseen world and control the
occult forces. History is full OF illustrations
of the activity of this desire, especa tally in NOR
bid form. The Egyptian mysteries and those
OF other heather religions bear witness to it, as
do also the long records of witchcraft sorcery,
soothsaving, black art, the search for the phi
losopher's stone, the elixir of life and the
OF youth. In our own day this
morbid desire manifests itself in the weird,
fantastic, sometimes grotesquely absurd and
always pernicious freaks of spirtualism.-Rey
DR.. Cherrington, Spokane, Wash.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Beyond all question capital in its vast accu-
mutations, is learning how TO oppress labor in
many ways. Taxation rests more heavily upon
the poor than upon the rich. Much property
is concealed from the Assessor and the poor
mans cottage is taxed two or three times as
much in proportion TO its value as the sky
scraping block of the millionaire. Great cor
porate properties occupying the streets of our
cities are permitted to levy enormous tributes
upon our industries, no small proportion OF
which comes from the earnings OF the work
Ingman.-Rev. Washington GLADDEN., Congre- |
gationalist, Columbus, Ohio.
AToNEMENT
The doctrine of atonement is un alterably and |
forever an irreconcilable contradiction of the |
higher faculties with which God has endowed
man. Both reason and moral sense revolt from |
It's every detail. 1t dooms children unborn. 1t
says the prattling babe and the blacklist Grim |
nal are both equally under the condemnation |
Of the wrath of God. The world is bad enough |
but it is not all hell. This doctrine saws it is |
II makes God responsible for the salvation Of |
an elected few ard the doom of an overwhelm- |
ing majority, anc says the JOY of the saved and |
the despair OF the lost will each and equally re-
bound to the praises of his glory forever.-Rev. |
J. +. Roberts, Unitarian, Kansas City. Mo.
BACKBONE
AS we ascend from the lowest to the highest |
form OF animal life we reach that class COM !
posed OF bony structurc-animals which have |
a backbone. These are called "vertebrates" |
There are many men like the jelly-fsh-with- |
put any definite purpose i'll life. They are |
moved wholly by their surroundings, carried |
on the currents of life without any power of |
W orar ftarc bn hoy