The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-04
"Disturbing Sermons"

Editor Morning News: Your article on
disturbing sermons" in your Sunday is
sue is suggestive of thought. You say:
1.-The danger in them is that, being appar-
emily contrary to long accepted teaching,
they may make doubters among those who,
if urdisturbed in their beliefs, would re-
main earnest Christians" Thought, in
vestigation, research, and analysis are the
great prerogatives of the mind. 1t was
never intended that thought should stand
still, its very nature is to doubt and inves-
tigate. One might as well attempt to re-
establish the fashions of one hundred or
one thousand years ago, and expect the
people of to-day to so dress because our
ancestors so dressed, as to think that the
old, crude, undigested beliefs, creeds, and
dogmas of years ago are thoroughly or
thodoX; that there could be no change for
the better to elevate and enlighten man
kind.
If there has ever been a marked change
in anything made manifest to the think
ing and reading mind, il is to the advanc-
ed thought in the pulpits of to-day. The
man or the church of any name that does
not grow with the scholarship and inves-
LEGATIONS of to-day is badly afflicted with
the dry rot of the brain. The old faiths of
the past very Wen suited minds which did
not think, and who took in their faith a
they did their fathers name, and their
church creedS as they did their father
pews Such people never think or reason,
for there is no brain growth with them.
Precedent in anything, is but making the
wisdom or folly of the past a standard
for the present. The more a man reads
the less original he becomes, he takes on
the character of an absOrber echo retail
er of the thoughts of others, and all the
good he does is to put them in the cur
rent of thought TO flow down to the people.
The great mass do not think, their knowl-
edge is but second hand at best.
Great thoughts, new ideas, new inven-
tions, etc, originate in original minds, and
work themselves slowly down to the peo-
pie. There is no shaking of ones faith,
but exciting reason to duty The people,
being slow of Thought absorb slowly.
There never was a great truth given to
the world which cOnt1icted with accepted
teachings which was not at first ridicUled,
then fought, then investigated, and then
embraced. A habit of thought so hardens
with The mass that anything new, no mat
ter its merit, is looked upon with suspi-
cion. Our fathers thought and so believed,
is the only argument advanced or pre-
scented. AS thought the Ephesians of their
goddess, so thought the Athenians of Mi
nerVa and Ceres; so thought the Romans
of Juno and Venus. Our fathers so wor-
SHIPPED, and so worship we, was all they
said, and fought judaism and Christian
ity accordingly.
Jesus antagonizAd the accepted
St. Paul; so do all The
great reformers. Where do we find Mar
tin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John
Wesley and other Johns? Where do we
find the founders of the one hundred and
forty-fve different religious beliefs in the
United States? Giving TO the people their
own peculiar ideas, which they have a
right to do, without question from anyone.
It is amid the clashing of thought, the
conflict Of reason, close research, nicely
weighing Of facts, and Analysing mental
DEVELOPMENT that truth ever rises TO the
surface and convinces the reason. The
pulpit now belongs to the fourth estate
it was at one time really the first estate
when kings trembled at the voice from the
vatican. The people were but as children
slaves in soul. body and thought 1t was
a long and hard struggle, running through
centuries, before man in the majesty of his
mind and original thought declared him
self a freeman in the broadcast sense of the
word.
It has only been within the last thirty
or forty years that the pulpit has been
really true t0 itself and, having the cour-I
age of its convictions are now speaking
out and telling the people what religion
is what it means, what Jesus taught and
analysis. Creeds, dogmas, and confess
ions of faith, are no longer hurled with
ministerial thunderbolts from the pulpit.
,TIeresV so-called, is now a synonym for
originality of thought, independence Of
action and individuality of character. DIR.
LYMAN Abbott, like Henry Ward Beecher,
Dr. Briggs, DR.. Heber Newton, and many
others. no longer wear the theological
harness so tight that they dare not to
think outside of a catechism or church
creed.
As the church grows in thought the
pews will be filled on Sunday, but with
the old platitudes worked over every Sun
word now, Mr.. Editor in this connection.
A man is very much of an ass or fool
to vote simply for a party name when de-
cidsd principles or policies are being dis