The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-07


which the flock instinct smothers and
displaces individual intelligence and
/ determination? While there may be
not little that is akin to these
things, who that interprets history
in the light of Christian or Jewish
faith in God, can fail to discern in
this vast expansion of life a mighty
influx of the spirit eternal into the
souls of the people of these pregnant
and fruitful centuries2 THUS saith
the Lord God, l will pour my spirit
upon thy seed, and my blessing up
on thy offspring"
1t is only according to the natural
law of the spiritual world that the
striving and sacrifice of the faithful
since the days of Luther and his fore
runners, should, in the modern period
which then began, yield harvest of
life in the whole people, for the mod
ern period is the peoples period.
Nor is it blind cropping on their
part. I believe in social evolution,
but it is evolution in which the sub
jects are conscious and intelligent
forces in it. IT'S the dignity of man
to be. not an instrument of God, but
a fellow worker with him in the full
fillment of divine purposes. And to-
day, throughout the vast extent Of
human society, where men are de-
handing new forms that shall allow
of greater and more varied activity
and more comfort and joy, there is
an apprehension of the nature and
significance of the demand more in
telligent than that which was in
cluded in any great movement of hui
man history. 1t is not like migra-
ton of nations when tides of men
flowed into new and richer lands, but
a rising of the level of requirements
in all lands, and it itself knows and
measures every inch of ascent.
Abraham knew not whittier he went,
but the people of today do know
what they want. While there may
be clearer outlook there is call for
no less faith than the Patriarchs had.
Their movement is not a wandering
but march. The world of human
beings is taking part with the enfold-
ing, indwelling, cooperating, super
intending, inspiring God in its own
evolution.
It is this intelligent, social con-
seriousness which gives meaning to
the word reform. 1t is in the air. 1t
is the crown and completion of the
age of phi 7sical science. At it's heart
is an irresistible earnestness. 1t is
decreed of God. And in the condi
tions which obtain, Christianity, in
| its purity, finds itself singled out as
the fit and potent instrument of the
hour.
Just here it may, perhaps, be well
| to notice that in Gods universe, by
his ordinance, there are two main
methods of reform; first, reform by
modification, and second, reform by
demolition. There is a sense in which
sit is fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God" Does not
the Good Book speak of him as
consuming fret Does not Jesus,
who speaks of pruning and trimming,
speak also of hewing down and cast
ing into the fire? Underneath the
plane of fostering, modifying, re-
shaping forces, lies the vast religion
of elemental forces whose untamed
and pitiless severity it behooves our
wisdom to beware. There are such
elemental forces in nature and in So
ciety, and they constitute the mills of
the gods which have an established
reputation for the thoroughness of
their work. at will be misfortune,
indeed, for us, says Rev. Joseph May,
of Philadelphia, in recent address
on THE Pulpit and Political Affairs"
eff we postpone our reforms until
they come up from below" To fall
into the hands, of the elemental
forces is not to reform, but to be re-
formed, and by the process of demo
lition. 1t is to be crushed and
ground to powder, melted down and
purged of dross, and reshaped from
the raw material. Christianity, | take
it, assumes the existence of this pro-
cess Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish"-but casts its own
lines higher,-on the plane of reform
by modification through the rein
forcement and stimulation of vital in
ner processes.
Before this audience, made up of
men and women who have breathed
deeply the air of liberal spiritual re-
ligion, it is needless to justify in any
extended fashion refusal to identify
Christianity with the church. What