The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-20
SERMON.
ON THE THRESHOLD
BY MARION d. SHUTTER, D. d.

because We are sJrong. Il JohN H. H.
T INTEND no invidious classified
i ton when l use the adjective
young. Many for whom the thread
is rapidly disappearing from the dis
taft have yet young hearts and young
minds. Mr.. Beecher, to the very last,
was as open to the reception of new
truth, and as fresh and vigorous in
his expression of it, as he was at the
beginning of his wonderful ministry.
Oliver Wendell Holmes was as inter
esting "over the tea-cups," as he was
t'at the breakfast table," Time never
palsied the hand with which Whittier
struck the harp. James Martineau is
still doing marvelously fresh and
brilliant work in religion and philos-
ophy. Edward Everett Hale finds
the young people in his church no
more willing to have him go than
when, between thirty and forty years
ago, the young people settled it that
he must stay. These are but a few
examples out of many which show
how fruit is brought forth in what we
are accustomed to think of as the
"winter of life"
On the other hand, some people
young in years are essentially old.
They were born old and have remain
ed so. Their minds are wrinkled
and gray; their hearts are dry as sum-
mer's dust. They can learn nothing
more. They have reached the limit
of attainment. As some one has ex-
pressed it, "They are afraid to look
out from behind the times for fear of
being hit by passing event" l know
young men,-young SO far as years
go, who have practically said, "Heav-
en- helping me, will never have
new ideal" They do not seem to be
in danger of breaking their vow. In
the words of the prophet, Gray hairs
are here and there upon them, but
they know it not" Such young peo'
pie do not come within the scope OF
my discourse.
But, suppose, we must character
ize in some way. So long as we lind
ourselves living more in the present
and in the future than in the past, so
long we are not old. We are young.
So long as God is an experience and
not the memory of an experienced
present reality and not a distant
shadow-we are not old. He who
lives in God dwells in immortal
youth. So long as we find ourselves
in active sympathy with the worlds
upward struggles,-taking part in
the work of today, and not excusing
ourselves on the grounds that we
worked yesterday,-so long we are
not old. So long as we find ourselves
in the new truth that from
time to time dawns upon the world;
80 long as we look with expectant
eyes toward the sunrise and not with
regrets at the sunset,-so
ong we are not old. The signs of
are the forward and upward
look, the hopeful heart, the willing
hand. Whoever finds in himself these
marks, is still upon the threshold, in
spite of the almanac.
The young in this sense-what can
they do? What shall we expect from
them? What is their relation to the
Church? What, through the Church,
,an they do for the world9 and How
may that work be done?
I. Hospitality to New Thought.
We must look to the young in the
sense | have described, to give hos
oitable reception to the worlds pro-
yressive thought.
Old age breads innovation. 1t
rests upon the reflection, what was
good enough for our fathers is good
enough for u.s." But such senti
ment is the death-knell of all prog
ress. If we admit its validity in re-
igion, we must admit it everywhere.
If the world had followed this prin-
chile we should still be riding in the
stage coach; we should still be voting
for jackson; we should still think
that Calvin had written the Bible.
But not so. Each advance has its
germs in the past,-is rooted in the
but there are always new
unfoldings. We read the Bible today
in the light of the newer criticism; we
read theology under the recently kim
died rays of science; we interpret our
commandment least those of the
second table-in the sociology OF to-
day. These things are so constantly
presented from this pulpit that l need
not dwell upon them now.
Out at Lake Minnetonka, on the
shores of Shady Isle, lies the crumb-
ling hulk of the first steamer that
sailed those waters. Once it was
5oo,,od q Hth;nO of haauty and a ioy