The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-28
w. G. T. u. Sermon.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
AGE.
BY ELIZABETH W. GREENWOOD.

ance Union at ST. Louis. Sunday, Nov.
10, the principal feature of services was
the sermon delivered before the dele
gates in the Union Methodist Episcopal
church by Rev. ELIZABETH W. GREEN
WOOD. Miss Greenwood is a Congrega-
tionalist and was pastor for twenty one
years of a church in Berkshire county,
Mass. She is now. and has been for
eight years, evangelistic superintendent
of both the national and international
Wet. U. Following we give her SER
mon as delivered at st. Louis:]
"'Wise men which knew the time, Es-
ther, i, ID.
"'And the people rested themselves up
on the words of Hezekiah, King of Judah
II Chronicles, xxi. 8.
"These two texts, selected as a
foundation for our thought today,
are chosen that from them l may
bring to you two themes: First, the
characteristics of the age in which
we live; second, the qualifications
needed for leadership in these times,
that the hearts of thepeople may rest
in us, as in Hezekiah, King of Judah.
"Let us look first at the age, wise
men which knew the times The
men here referred to are the coun-
sellers of King Ahasuerus or Xerxes;
men to whom he turned for advice
when Vashti, the Queen, refused to
obey the decree of drunken king.
They were distinguished as wise men
because they understood the times in
which they lived. Each age in his
tory has its special characteristics.
We read of the Prehistoric Age, the
Adamic Age, the Grecian and Roman
Ages, the Augustinian Age, the Feu-
dial Elizabethan Age and the Victor
ian Age. Each had its marked pecu-
liarity. An understanding of one
age does not, in the least, enable us
to discern the times in another.
The Age of the People.
"Our age is pre- eminently the age
of the people, or the Socialistic Age.
To realize this, contrast the Augustin-
ian Age, in which the literary forces
were started, with our own. Gibbon
tells us that the slave population of
the Roman Empire was equal to the
free, or 100000. In Athens were
only $4,000 citizens, and 100000
slaves. Many of these slaves were of
the same blood as their masters; often
famous captives. Plato was sold by
Dyonysius into slavery, and Esop,
Terence and Epictetus were slaves.
The Roman Colosseum was built by
$4,000 captive Jews, taken to Rome.
Their lives hung solely upon the will
of their masters. On one occasion,
Emperor Augustus, dining at the
house of Vedius Polio, slave carry
ing a crystal goblet slipped and
broke it. Vedius, in rage, ordered
him seized at once and cast into
fish-pond as food for fishes.
"Today the people are the rulers,
and kings and emperors are their
servants. The whole trend of our
modern civilization is toward the SUI
premacy of Ages, the Age of Rena-
issance and Reformation, the Age of
the people-government not only for
the people, but by the people. The
House of Lords retreats before the
House of Commons. As Benjamin
Kidd expresses it in his Social Evo-
luton: The two parties in the pro-
cess of social development are the
power holding classes and the people
the HAYES and the Have-Nots.
The power holding classes are in re-
treat before the people, The fact of
our times, which over shadows all
others, is the arrival of democracy,
but it is new democracy, based on
great ethical movement.
The Transition Stage.
1--WE are now in the transition
stage. The fact of popular discon-
tent is too evident to need proof.
The average workingman is unable to
support his family. With increasing
intelligence, his needs increase. We
still read, with horror, of women who
make twelve shirts for seventy five
cents, and furnish their own thread;
of children who work twelve hours
day for a dollar a week. The No
yember number of the Bulletin of
the Department of Labor for 1896
gives startling statistics, approx
mately correct, of the havoc caused
by strikes between 1881 to 1894 in
this country alone. The number of
workmen or employees thrown out of
employment by strikes and lockouts
from 1881 to 1894 we're 4,08l ,096.
The loss on account ofthis occasioned
to the employees was the enormous
ann of Sl63 .807, 1855, while the loss