The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-03-10

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concessions are most. cordial there Is no
sincere endeavor to bring the pody OF
religious belief into as Close conformity
as possible with the established truth OF
science. Science says for example, that
there are no theological miracles. Inat
does not mean that there are no wonoei-
ful events trsnscending ordinary expetr
ence. Huxley was willing to allow the
possibility of every kind OF wonder men
| toned in the new Testament. only the
| more foreign to our haibtual experience
the more evidence must be demanded ana
the evidence for the new Testament won
ders Is for the most part wholly inade-
quate. But IL 1t was adequste in every
case we should still have no theological
miracles seeing that these are VIOLATIONS
| OF natural law. Now what Is naturai
law? 1t Is merely rhe formula OF our ma
bitual experience and when something Is
a proved fact that is excessive OF our
habitual experiences we must enlarge our
1 formula.
| Have no violations of natural law and
hence no supernatural revelation. What
anxiety have the most scientihc OF the or
thoroox thelogians manifested to con-
form their thinking to these common
places of the scientific mind.
These same theologians are well enough
| aware that where their traditional form
ularies assure them OF the fall OF man,
| science teaches the rise OF man from bru-
tish brute beginning. How often Is the
force of this teaching conceded without
the least endeavor to show that it very
| i'll agrees with the teaching that Plato
was but the ruins of the original Adam.
| The two incontrovertible doctrines are left
standing side by side. So with the sc ien-
| titic doctrine of the suns centrality to
our planetary system and the theological
| doctrine which the Andover theolo-
gians call Christocentric, with
mild, irrational fancy, extending
| the benefits of Christ's sacrificial life and
death to the sidereal universe. Is not
this Christocentric doctrine one that be-
longs root and branch to the old Ptolemic
conception of the earth as central OF that
universe, and is 1t not something mon
strous that on the Threshold OF the 10th
century we should have men calling their
teachings progressive orthodoxy"
who cannot or will not see that this Is SO.
The same progressive theologians in
trine of the Trinity have "put out their
hands to save the sifted sediment OF
residuum," some notion OF diversity in
the Divine Being when there Is no other
word that science thunders 30 from all
the depths and heights and sings and
whispers so through all the mysteries OF
inorganic and organic life, as Unity.
There is no such Unitarian as science,
no such Unitarian literature as that which
tells the lofty tale of astronomy and
geology and biology, and physics and
philosophy and comparative history and
religion.
There is one science in particular on
which 1 need not dwell, because those
who come after me have been preferred
before me in the matter OF its presente-
tion. i mean the science OF Biblical
criticism. The results of this science are
DO longer "garden sealed, F" no longer
the exclusive possession of heterodox the
Ill l. HI ltas.x nt.d
! the radical Unitarian and Univer..
salist are of one opinion here. forced
back on 1t by the overwhelming
| evidence that arrays its bristllng
| front on every page OF the Old Testament
| and New. } am unable, in the time
allotted me, to enumerate these results.
| They have hardly one stone OF the tradi-
| tioBal conception of the Bible standing on
another. And not until all things are
| possible with man as with God will 1t be
| possible to extort from these results
conclusion favoring in any least degree
the Bible as traditionally conceived, a
! supernatural revelation plurally inspired.
II there is but one book in the world
that is entirely natural and human, both
in its glories and defects, ii Is that Bible
/ which contains the ancient Hebrew and
early Christian Scriptures. Are there
things which are widely known in-all the
churches as widely acknowledged end
1
You know that their actual import Is
concealed by every possible evasion and
| equivocatiop. And you know that hum
dreds OF ministers go on from week to
week, from year to year, who know these
things as we'll as they know their multi
| plication tables, expoundiug their dog
matte system as ii it were supernatural
revelation when 1t is a mixture in about
| equal parts of their own ingenious
| lucubrations with ancient writings SO
uncertain in their origin that We have
| not the ghostly shadow of o reason for
assigning to them an authority over and
above their manifest appeal to the intel
ligence and conscience Of mankind.
Surely the religion, the Christianity, the
orthodoxy that is involved through all
the sinuous length i'm these enlangling
| folds of base concession to discredited
and dishonored scheme OF thought, is not
| the religion. the Christianity, the ortho-
doxy for sincere and honest men. Surely
| IL there is religion, Christianity, q
heterodoxy that will have none of all this
bare concession but will conform its ha-
bitual speech as closely py its scientific
knowled ge ss may te, II Is religion by
| a heterodoxy for all brave and hon; st
| men and happy are they who dare believe
| that to their eyes the beauty and the
honor and the glory of 1t have been gra-
| ciousIy revealed. Blessed are the eyes
that see the things that they see and the
| ears that hear the things that they hear.
! For tell you that many prophets and
kings have desired to see the things that
they see and have not seen them and to
hear the things that they hear and have
| rot heard them. "God having provided
some better thing for us, that they with
| out us should not be perfected"
| TOWARD THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT.
The Rev. William +. Furman OF the
| Olney Street Church Was the last speaker
| and spoke on "The Forward Movement
in Religion Must be Toward the Unity
| of the Spirit. This phrase "unity OF the
spirit, !" implies that there is already a
spiritual unity chara cterizing all the
| children of God. We may safely take 1t
for granted that there Is always substra-
tum of unity in thought, conviction and
feeling to which 1t should be our su-
preme ambition to penetrate and which
Is the sure guaranty OF harmonious CO.
operation i'm the grand movements OF the
future for the elevation of the race.
We must remember that by spirit we
mean that which lies back Of the intel
lect, back of the feeling, back of the
| will. IL Is the self the "ego" which
never wholly emerges into view, OF