Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-10-28


society in which he lived. This is not
So The three steps, necessary in soc
ial evolution to the three stages in the
development of the prophetic spirit in
the life of Israel were: first. the tribal,
when they passed through the Red sea,
and in the life that lies between the
Jordan and Egypt The second the
agricultural period when they take
possession of the Promised Land and
become an agricultural people. The
third, begins with the eighth century,
what is called the commercial life of
Israel and these are just as distinct,
and for their bearing on the life of Is
rael can be traced and followed in the
| civil and religious life as you can fol-
| low the strata of rock, that is, if you
are willing to pay the price of investi
CATION Through this commercial
period Israel is brought into closer in
| tercourse with this religious systems Of
other nations and it has it's consequent
effect upon her spiritual life and social
| ideals. We today can appreciate this.
With our science of comparative relig-
| ion we are able TO appreciate and un-
derstand the wider claim Of Christian
| ity and are able by it TO give a new
| power and a new motive for its tri-
umph over the lives of men. 1t was
| lust the same with the development of
the religious idea in Israel. The temp
| taton of rapid wealth. the dangers of
| increasing poverty, cruelty and selfish
ness multiplied alongside social re-
| inement This is what makes the pro
| phet of Israel of the eighth century so
modern. A man who is talking SOC
iology to men needs not to go eXclu-
| siVely to a theory of the principles OF
political economy born in the brain OF
a professor in any of our colleges. He
can simply study the prophets OF the
eighth century of Israel and he has
the truth, as real and vital to our life
as it was to them. II would be inter-
esting to follow the history of Assyria
and Babylon through the prophetic
age. 1t would he comparatively easy
10 show you that the religious ideas
advocated by the prophets and priests
of Israel underwent a similar change
| to that our own systems Of theology
have undergone under the inductive
method of study applied in our own
time. 1t would be comparatively easy
To show you that the prophets of the
| New Testament. Paul and John, are
speaking primarily not for all time but
for the people of their own time. and
only in so far as they grasp the truth
in it's fulness is 1t applicable to all
time. We must, first of all, get the
setting. We must Orient ourselves be-
fore we can understand completely, or
rightly apply the truth of these pro-
rhets to our own day. 1t would be in
tn Z hoy eli nd An
sustine. That sounds Calvanistic, but
some of us can hardly appreciate just
what Augustine is to the Christian
church and the Christian theology. 1t
was Augustine, not Neo- Platonism. that
brought in the idea of a living. vital
contact of Almighty God with the
| physical and social life of man, and
Augustine had the same truth to re-
. vive the churches of his period that
| Edwards had of reviving the dead or
thodoxy of his period here in New
! England. 1t would be very instructive
and inspiring to observe how the out
ward life reacted on the inward life
; of these men. the mutual play of the
forces around them and within them
! that enacted the heroic, dauntless,
! God fearing spirit of ancient prophecy.
| Now we come to another prophet,
the modern prophet. Who is he? He
is a man who is in the prophetic success
sion and the prophetic descent. q man
who is on fire with the vastness. the
truth and the benefcence of the life OF
Gesus Christ. He may speak from the
/ Pulpit. like Beecher or Parkhurst. he
may speak from the teachers desk like
the heretics, Drs. Robertson Smith and
! Briggs. He may speak from the edi-
torial rooms like Garrison, who said he
/ would be as unilinching as truth and
as severe as justice, but he would he
heard. He may speak from the coun-
Gil hall, like Gladstone who rises to the
dignity of the perceptions of the moral
principles that rule human society. and
therefore is constituted a statesman
or he may speak through the voice of
fiction. like Uncle Toms Cabin. reveal
ing the degradation and woe of the evil
that is a disgrace to human society
and may he a flaming torch of Gods
redeeming light. but wherever he is, he
believes that the path of Christ is the
only way by which the individual, the
family. the town, the city. the nation
or the race can find health. Spiritual,
Intellectual and physical wellheng
only are found in the path pointed out
by Jesus Christ
| He believes that the race can go for
ward only as it goes forward in the
Christ-spirit. He has no reverence for
institutional mummery that has the
form but has lost the spirit. He rever-
/ ences the past only as it should be
leverenced, as it casts it's light on the
present: for that purpose the
past is valuable. and for that alone
Now for his work he needs the most
| complete preparation. He needs the
most thorough knowledge of history, of
science, of political economy. He needs
! a practical knowledge of men and of
things. He needs that religious nature
that can grasp moral ideals as the
musical genius grasps harmony. He
needs deep personal experience of the
life of God in Christ, and then with
that preparation on his part, he must,
to be successful, have a consequent
preparation on the part of those to
whom he is to speak. Henry Ward
Beecher would have been the --LATEST
failure IS years before he began to
preach from Plymouth pulpit. The