The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-07-18
its conventional sense. In other cases
it is curse when children inherit the
penalties of sins committed and vic.
ious habits formed.
All Men Gods Children.

penaltles OF sins committed and vic.
ious habits formed.
All Men Gods Children.
Notwithstanding this natural in
heritance of the excellences and i'm
projections of our ancestors, it is still
true, and true universally, that we are
the children of God. The image of
the eternal is stamped upon every
human soul; and not all the depths
of degradation into which mankind
has fallen have been able to efface
this divinely impressed seal. What
Paul says is true of all mankind, elm
(God) we live and move and have our
being" 1t has been, is now and
always will be impossible for man to
ALLEVIATE himself from the home of the
infinite and the eternal He is all
around, above, beneath and within
us, and we are in him. As we'll might
we try to escape from the earth,
from the solar system, from the
glorious galaxy of which our sun is
member, as to escape from our Fa-
theirs home.
And the idea of God leaving any
of his children to go out into outer
darkness and endless suffering is an
impossible conception impossible,
that is, to those who truly realize
Gods universally permeating pres
ence.
Again, science comes to antagonize
the doctrine of the primitive perfec-
ton of man and his subsequent "fall."
Well-established science tells us that
the course of all life, from the simple
original cell to the highest mammal,
has been regularly upward, from
lower to higher, from simple to more
complex.
Professor Drummond, a good Pres
byterian, and, therefore, presumably
Calvinist, has written a book to
demonstrate "The Ascent of Man"
Even in the narrative of Genesis, the
moral experie nee described in beau
tiful parable cannot be truly called
"fall." 1t was necessary step in
the progress of humanity to con
scious virtue. 1t is only by being able
to distinguish good from evil, and by
holding to the one and avoiding the
other that any human being can be
called virtuous. Untried innocence is
not virtue. Man would never have
become a moral being had he not
learned by experience the difference
between good and evil. The So
called "fall' was therefore a STUN
bling upward, most important ele-
ment in the education of the race.
Every child that reaches maturity
must eat of the stree of the knowl-
edge of good and evil" and, In doing
so, leaves the Eden of infantile inno-
cence. The beautiful story of the
primitive temptation expresses, there
fore, method of the moral educa-
tion of the race which is absolutely
universal, and in this sense it is alto
gether true; in the Calvinistic sense
it is altogether false.
Modern Change of View
These changes of view which have
been going on extensively during the
last half century, both within the Cal
whistle churches and without them,
make it difficult to harmonic the
historical Calvinism with the actual
convictions of the present-day
churches. 1t reminds me of teach
er who was once questioning his
class about the color of a particular
horse which he knew to be white.
One boy after another gave incorrect
answers, till at last he reached the
foot of the class, where stood a stupid
but favorite boy. "What was his
color?" asked he. "Black," was the
reply. "Quite right, my boy, black,
that is-dark gray-or rather, light
gray-yes, in fact-white. Go to the
top of the class" The black horse
of Calvinism must be transformed
by the ingenuity of the thermometers
into the white horse of the modern
evangel.
The utter incongruity of the an
cient creed with the living thought
of today is fully acknowledged by
some of the leaders of thought in the
Presbyterian church. DIR. Philip
Schaff, of New York, candidly con-
fesses shat old Calvinism is fast dy-
ing out" and he, with many others.
was anxious to bring about revision
of the confession. He says, "What
cannot be preached in the pulpit
ought not to be taught in the confess
sion of faith either expressly or by
logical inference. On the other hand,
what is taught in the confession
ought to be preached in the pulpit"
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