The herald., 1898-08-28
DIE HONE MfINUNG
THE THREE ALTERNATIVES OF
SPENCER
MI. Baumgardt's Paper at the Univer-
salist Summey Meeting at Long
Beach-An Erudite Address

LONG BEACH, Aug. 27.-what is known
as 1.-THE Universalist Hour" is a misnomer,
for so interesting has this session become
that the hour 60 now takes up the greater
part of the morning.
Rev. L. NJ. Andrews was the leader this
mroning. his subject being Christ the Sa-
vior of the World" synopsis of which is
here presented: 1.-The Jews thought it in
conceivable that God could design salvation
fora Gentle dogs! Greeks thought that
salvation was not for barbarians. Au-
gustine thought God never decreed saliva
ton for the unbaptized. Calvin would save
only the elect, but broader than all these
was Jesus, who was sent to save the world.
He would draw all men unto him. He came
to save the lost. The apostles followed in
the same line of teaching. 1.-The Father
sent the Son to be the Savior of the world"
1: is still hard for many like Peter to realize
that salvation goes beyond their church or
nation-that all are taught of God-but like
Peter the orthodox world is seeing visions
and hearing voices oft repeated, leading
them to the other house of Cornelius, tell
ing them that what God is cleansing, that
call neither common nor unclean, and all
Christians are panied when awakening peo-
pie cry in distress, like we hear from the
Spanish colonies So heaven would not be
heaven, did he'll continue to be hell. Blu.
what is this salvation? Not merely ''keep-
ing out Of the fire." not lodging justice or
escaping devils We talk of saving crops
by culture, irrigation keeping them grow
ing, healthy and thrifty until ripe, and then
by gathering them without loss. Is not
Christian salvation like that to train and
culture the child-the man-until unfolded
enlightened, perfected? Is Spain saved ?
Is any people. church, family or person
saved that remains below and behind the
age? True fruitage, good frultage is the
test of salvation"
At the conclusion of the discussion Dr.
Conger moved that the thanks Of the Uni
yersalists be extended to the Los Angeles
Herald for its FULL generous and accurate
reports Of the meetings" which passed
unanimously.
Afternoon Session
Like the evening BEFORE another fine aud
ience greeted B. r. Baumgardt, attracted
by his lecture, 1.-THE Limits of Human I'm
Outstanding and Religious Thought"
which, like all the productions Of this gen.
tleman, was complete in every detail The
purpose Of the lecture" he said, was to
show the futility Of all metaphysical specu-
lations."
Mr.. Baumgardt believed that all our know
ledge is obtained by comparison and con-
trast. Anything that cannot be contrasted
or compared lies outside the sphere of pos
sible knowledge and does in fact belong
to the realms of the unknowable. With
this tenet the speaker compared the meta
physical speculatons Of st. Augustine,
Plato. Algazali, Averoes. Spinoza, Locke.
Camp. Richie. Shelley. Hegel. Auguste
Comte and schopennauer. A more or less
popular exposition of their different ex-
pressions CT the same unknown truth
afforded an excellent opportunity for the
presentation Of the evolution of the highest
intellectual powers Of man. The
whole, the lecturer thought. could
be summed up in Herbert spencer's
three alternatives-Deism pantheism and
atheism. The foundations for these three
beliefs were presented in detail but the
outcome of them all, Mr.. Baumgardt
thought, was TO be found in the fact tina It
none o. them were tenable in the abstract
Critically examined, we find that they all
ask US to form a conception of something
tudt ~ HOt unitc III tue case Oh ATHEISM,
self-existence, which implies infinite pas
time must be realized. Pantheism asks us
to believe in potential existence of the uni
verse which precedes the actual, and Deism
thinks to solve the difficulty by transferring
the course of the universe to some I'M
known external cause. Hence, they are
all based upon conceptions which are I'M
condition, unrelated, cannot be contrasted
with anything we know Of, and hence can
not by any mental effort be conceived. They
lie outside of the sphere of legitimate spec
ulation and belong to the category Of unsol- |
vable metaphysics.
To show the futility of all kinds of meta
physical speculation the speaker brought
in a number Of inexplicable phenomena,
such as one implied in the ultimate concep- |
ton of the atomic theory, the abstract con-
ception of motion, the psychological phe-
nomena of consciousness and the mathe-
NAUTICAL paradox involved in the approach |
Of a parabolic curve to Its asymptote or tan |
gent at inf1nity. The outcome Of all meta |
physics, the speaker thought, was to teach |
US that we were surrounded in every dlrec-
ton by a vast synthesis Of matter, force and |
mind, impinging themselves on our con-
seriousness continually from the first mo-
ment of life to the last.
We only recognize this immense synthesis |
by the objective phenomena acting under |
the operation Of law as the here and there |
are able to manifest themselves to us.
What the extent or the meaning Of the |
whole wonderful drama which Is taking |
place before our astonished vision, each in |
itself is hopelessly beyond the grasp Of our
poor finite faculties. We are as Tennyso OH
has somewhere said. like man situated
In the middle of bridge, both ends of which
are lost In fog.
Nor does the speaker believe that the in
tellection will ever advance so far as to en-
able man to grasp the high meaning Idle
hohe menung). 1t Is true that there Is
almost an infinite gulf between the capacity
for thought in the savage who is barely
able to count as far as the fingers on his
right hand and the school boy who can solve
the problem Of the sphere and cylinder, or
to go further, between the genius of New
ton or LAGRANGE And in view of this great