The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-19
ADVANCED PULPIT IDEAS,
The Rev. Leslie w. Sprague
Discusses Beauty and
Duty.
He Also Advocates Evolution as the
Basis for the New
Theology.

'Beauty and Duty was the theme of
the discourse at the Second Unitarian
Church, yesterday morning, by the Rev.
Leslie w. Sprague. The sermon was di-
vided into two parts, the second part to be
given next Sunday morning. The burden
of the sermon fitted into the words of
Longfellow, "Hadst thou stayed I must
have fed" which sentiment, together with
the poem from which it is taken, served as
illustration for the theme.
Mr.. Sprague said in part:
I slept and dreamed that life was beauty;
woke and found that life was beauty,
Is the plaintive sigh of many sad heart which
has not yet learned that there is not SO much
difference between beauty and duty after all.
The young look upon their visions of what life
may be. The old look back with mournful
dreams upon the past. And this suggests the
enthusiasms OF youth through the changing
years of life. When a man comes to say that
life is one grinding round Of duty, crushing out
the higher instincts of the heart, that man is
in q bad way mentally and spiritually, and his
lot will be hard one.
For he who sees only LIES trials suffers more
to suffer which accepts whatever comes and
sees the silver lining to the darkest clouds, or
trusts where it cannot see.
All should realize that at last beauty and
duty are only different sides of the same life !;
that one Is necessary to the other, and both
play their part and are gladly witnessed by the
true soul living triumphant life Without
dreams OF the unattainable attainment would
be very low; without attainment dreams of the
unattafnable would not rise very high
Dreams inspire and direct deeds; deeds lay the
foundations of the castles men build in air.
Deeds modify creeds and creeds dictate deeds,
for there is a subtle cord that binds mans
hands to his head and his will to his heart.
Mr.. Sprague then gave an abstract Of
Longfellow's poem. 'The Vision Deatifc, t"
and drew parallel between its scenes and
those of every human life. showing that
whoever proves untrue to his highest
thought or ideal must soon suffer, because
the thought or ideal will vanish.
THE fact that man can keep the beauti-
urged as a strong comfort to those who
call the rounds of duty drudgery and sigh
because this is a humdrum world.
His sermon in the evening on Drum
mond's Ascent'of Man" was listened to by
large number of persons. He urged his
hearers to take the doctrine of evolution,
as demonstrated by the author under re-
view, as the basis Of the new theology.
Advanced thinkers, he said, had long
since discovered that Genesis was incom-
patible with the theory of evolution, and
that, while others would like to maintain
their faith in that portion, as well as
others, OF the Great Book, reason is against
1t: 1t was also urged that by adopting or
admitting the truth OF evolution one
gained a grander conception of God-the
author OF all laws, natural and spiritual
and that it strengthened ones spiritual as
well as mental powers. 1t was an able
sermon intellectually and was not de-
n NIrsf1 ,at s.,1