The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-06-12

i tiles is here speaking of the
church of Christ and the freedom
into which its members are called.
The church, as Paul taught, is the re-
pository and conservator of truth,
"the power of God unto salvation"
As an external organization it may
include only such as have attained
to certain plane of thought, or who
accept prescribed method of work
and worship. But the church OF
Christ is more than an organic alton.
As the Mississippi compared with
the Ohio, so is the church compared
with any of it's organized bands of
believers. 1t gladly accepts all the
richness poured into it from these
tributaries, while it flows on beyond
the aim of their grandest reach. Hav-
ing to do with the moral and spirit
ual nature, its boundaries extend to
the utmost needs of that nature; the
object being the triumph of the
spiritual over the material, as the
true purpose of human existence.
Truth, in its ministrations to hu-
man need, employs various forms or
methods of procedure, even as wise
teacher suits his methods of impart-
ing instruction to the capacities of
his pupils. A common error has
been to mistake the form of truth for
truth itself, the means for the end.
This is childish, since, like the child
it can see in the conditions of today
no preparation for what the morrow
may bring.
The Roman Catholic church COM
mitted this mistake in the incipiency
of its organization, and it still ad-
heres-to it. But who will say, when
he considers thesplendid charities of
the mother church, the many whom
it has blessed. the waits it has
snatched from poverty and degrade
ton and helped on to education and
responsibility, that the church of
Rome, through all the years of it's ex-
istence, has been destitute of the
leaven of truth? Its forms were, and
are, helpful as channels through
which truth may reach certain condi-
tions of mind. The mistake, as said 4,
is in accepting the form as an end
instead of as a means, and means
adapted to the needs of men only in
certain conditions of their progress.
This is such a mistake as it would be
to apply the kindergarten methods
to old and young, the developed and
undeveloped alike.
Nearly every church organization
has committed similar error. Its
forms, embodying an essential ele-
ment of truth, have crystallized I'M
til, to reject the form has come to
mean, in the estimation of those who
adhere to the form, rejection of the
truth.
But the world moves; in meas
ure it has passed out of this condi-
tion of intellectual and spiritual
childhood. From the history of this
development, what is the outlook for
the church? Waterman, tell us of
the night"
George Eliot said, Prophecy is
the most gratuitous form of error. F."
We acknowledge that, for the unin-
spired, prophecy is likely to prove a
hazardous business; but in study of
the "signs of the times" as indicating
what the immediate future logically
must be, one is not compelled to turn
prophet. Prof. Foster is sometimes
called a weather prophet; but it is a
mistake. Today he has reports from
all over the country concerning at
mospheric conditions. He knows
where the storm centers are, the di-
rection in which they are moving,
the velocity of the storm current and
all the intervening currents, and,
having made these matter of study
from the data thus gathered, his cal
culations become certainties. He
knows about where the storm,
sweeping up from the gulf or down
from the lakes, will be within the
next twenty-four hours. This in not
prophecy, but prediction from
known and existing data. You con-
suit physician. He tells you what
the trouble is. He sees what is COM
ing. You are in the path of some
dangerous fever. You must get out
of its way or you will soon find your
self at the storm center. There is
a certain element in this which en-
tiers into prophecy, but is not proph-
scy: it is a prediction having for its
basis knowledge of your tempera-
ment, physical condition, aud the
influence which certain surroundings
must exert upon you.
So, from a study of humanity, no.
ting with care the tendency of pres