The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-06


his itinerary at Marshalltown, Ia, Jan.
10, where he delivered a mastery SER
mon in the opera house to about fifteen
hundred people. His subject was: "The
New Theology" This review was de-
livered the second Sunday evening fol-
lowing, in the Universalist church of
MarsLalltown by the pastor, Rev. L. E.
Dotter. We print in divisions.-EDIToR.]
''The truth of the Lord endureth for
ever. r-Ps III: 2.
TT is indeed encouraging to have
i the old Psalmist's faith in the
permanency of truth confirmed from
time to time by our own observations.
The tenacity of truth is one of the
phenomena of Gods world-economy.
1t cannot be destroyed any more than
can an atom of carbon or gold be de-
stroyed. We often lose sight of
certain particle of matter for the time
being, but it still exists in some form.
The wood is burned up, we say. It
is "decomposed," the chemist says.
That is, the elements, such as iron,
potassium, carbon, hydrogen, etc,
that entered into combination in the
oak have been separated by heat.
The mineral parts forming the ashes
and the gases ascending into the air.
They all yet exist, and through the
earth and air, by means of the root
and leaf of another plant, they again
enter into combination and form an
other piece of wood identical to the
first.
was reading something short
time ago that illustrates this point
very we'll. An old building was re-
Gently purchased in London that
had for many years been used in the
manufacture of gold watch cases. 1t
occurred TO the shrewd purcha aser
that there had been much loss of gold
in these years by abrasion and other
wise in such fine particles that they
could not possibly be detected, and
that these particles must have found
lodging somewhere. In fact they
had found lodging everywhere about
the premises. They had become alb
sorbed, as it were, in everything.
The purchaser began bit by bit to
take out every inch of the building,
fixtures, furnace, dirt under the floor
everything in sight-burn and dassay
the products. The result up to time
of giving the account was something
over five thousand dollars worth of
pure gold thus extracted. 1t had
long been lost to sight in the mass of
crude material, BIT was never de-
stroyed, and waited only the coming
of wisdom and skill to bring it again
| to view.
Truth is like that. Often lost for
time but never destroyed.
''Truth crushed to earth will rise again,
| The eternal years of God are her's
| But error wounded writhes in pain
| And dies amid her worshipers.,' -
This rising up of crushed and for
gotten truth is we'll illustrated in
these days in the field of theology.
The most notable thing about DIR.
Thomas's ''New Theology" is that it is
so old. He admitted that it was only
the resurrection of the theology of
the early Christian fathers. Of course
it is new to the masses, but in reality
it is the ancient doctrine being
brought to light again.
This should be made so plain and
emphatic that no one could in reason
doubt it. When DR.. Thomas said
that all the early Christians were
Greek by education and temperament
and that all the early Christian liter
ature was written in the Greek lam
guage, he only spoke simple truth,
and to deny it would show as great
| ignorance as if one should say that
our Pilgrim fathers were not English
by education, or that the declaration
of independence and the constitution
of the United States were not written
in English.
This fact of the Greek elements in
early Christianity must constantly be
kept in mind. 1t explains many
things. In the fourth and fifth CEN
turies the western elements of life
and civilization became dominant;
the Latin mind ruled in every thing,
and especially in the church. The
Greek elements of mind and heart
were practically absent from Euro
pean civilization during all the long
period we commonly call the dark
ages. Read the second chapter of
Guizot's "History of European Civil
lization" and you will be amazed
how clearly that great author shows
that it was the Roman ideas of cor
porations and absolute one man
power, as against the Germanic ideas