The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-07

ELOQUENT DR. L0RIMER
SPEAKS ON "THE BAPTISTS AND
 MODERN PROGREssU

At Calvary Baptist Church Last Evening A Large Audience Hears Boston's Elo- quent Preacher-Widely Felt Influence of the Baptist Church.
 A large audience was attracted to the | Calvary Baptist church last evening to
 hear the distinguished and eloquent Dr.
 Lorimer of the Fremont Temple, Bos- ton, who spoke on the topic, 'The Bap- | lists and Modern Progress" At the opening of his address he spoke felic- | itously of the work of the Calvary Bap- 1 tist church, saying: You have reach ed the silver era in your history, and | my advice is that you leave it as soon as you can and get into a gold basis. This sentiment was received with laughter and applause, after which Dr. Lorimer launched out into his subject. Christianity" he said, has a right to claim to be closely related to mod ern progress, and the world may fitly ask what the church has done and | what you as Baptists have done in the | work of modern progress. You as Baptists number 4,000000 communi- cants and have nearly 9,700,000 in your | Sunday schools, and there are large | mass of people looking to you. You | have $115, 1000, ,O00 invested in real estate
 and endowments. and the world has a right to know what you have contrib | uted to it's progress.
 ''The Baptists have contributed to ,t,,f af,asf 1a I conditions which are essential for it. | The two most important of these have been enfranehisement and enlighten- Inent
 Our church has always stood for the right of the individual to do his own thinking. The conception of individual | freedom of conscience is the corner stone of Professionalism, and especially of the Baptist church.
 "We are not in the world to build Baptist churches, but to build up indi- viduals in truth and godliness. The church Is not an end, but a, means to an end. There are people who are afraid to have the teachings of their church brought out and put to practi- cal tests, but let us bring them out; if | they crumble to dust let the wind blow | them away; we need living truth. Enlightenment is another important 1 force in modern progress, and the Bap- | lists have given enormous sums for the
 support of institutions of learning, and
 among other objects for the study of | the scriptures. It is this spirit of en- | lightenment which leads us to stand so
 resolutely for the public school system
 in the United States, not because we | oppose any denomination. We mean l that no pope or ecclesiastic shall ever
 shut the public schools of America, but l that they shall be free to all without money and without price,
 we seek to avoid the two great l forms of modern fanaticism, radical l ism and liberalism. Modern progress | is so enamored of itself in radicalsim
 that it sees nothing in the past.
 T believe in having an open mind,
 but there are some things to which one | cannot have an open mind, and these
 are the fundamental beliefs of Christi
 anity. The spirit of liberalism has been 1 rnagnified so much that we imagine it
 contains the sermon on the mount and the commandments We should incul- cate faithfulness rather than these two
 systems of fanaticism. Other ways in
 which the church Is helping modern
 progress are in it's attitude towards the ] great modern tendencies toward coop
 eration and popularization.
 ''These principles the church has ear l ly recognized, adopted and used in its own church work"