The times., 1898-01-10
DIR. KENTDEFENDS RELIGION
He Bases His Sermon on Mr..
Taber's Will.
1t Is Science and Is Justified by
Mans Nature and the Uni
verse About Him.

Rev Alexander Kent, pastor of the
Peoples Church, founded his sermon
Yesterday on the will of Henry More
house Taber president and treasurer
of the First Presbyterian Church of
New York city, in which the testator
renounced all religions and alleged that
they were merely superstitions. In dis
cussing the will, DR.. Kent said:
Doubtless more or less of superSti-
ton has always been connected with
every form of religion. and much that
has been viewed as religion in one age
has come to be regarded as supersti
tion in the next. But this is just as
true of other branches of science as it
is of religion. / say other branches of
science, for 1 refuse to concede that
religion is not science, ! hold that the
facts that call for and justify it are as
certainly present in the nature of man,
and in the universe about him as are
the facts that call for and justify as
tronomy, chemistry and psychology.
That these facts are not as yet scien-
tifically verified, co-ordinated and
classified, is doubtless true. That they
are mixed up with a multitude of su-
perstitions and illusions in the minds of
most men is equally true. But it is no
more true of religion today than it has
been of other sciences in days that are
gone. How long is it since the facts
of astronomy received scientific yeri-
fication and We're classified as a sci
ence? Only a few years ago. Yet the
science of astronomy was as much
fact before it was. discovered as it is
today The same is true of chemistry
and alchemy, and why Should 1T not be
true in regard to religion? What is
religion? Is it not inyessence that SEN
timent and feeling awakened in man
by contemplation Of the universe of
which he is part? Does not the form
which religion takes in every age and
among every people depend upon the
which the universe makes
upon them? If this be true, then every
step in the path of real knowledge will
be step toward true religion.
Now the question whether there is
any solid ground for religion is simply
the question whether man can find any
thing in the uniyerseaas it impinges on
him and comes to expression in him,
that is worthy of his trust, his rever-
ence. his love. Can he find that in the
order and harmony of the world with
out which answers to the highest and
best that he finds in the world within?
If he can, then is there ground for rev. |
erence, for trust, for love. If mans re- |
lation to his environment is the rela- |
ton of effect to cause: if at his best, !
man is the normal product of all the |
coSmic forces that have wrought upon |
him and in him, then surely the power
that shapes is as worthy of reverence |
as the character 1t shaped. If it be said |
that the tiger and the hyena are as |
truly an expression of the universal |
life as the nOblest man or woman, l |
reply, yes. The animal expresses more |
than the plant, and the plant more than I
the mineral, but man more than either
and man at his best immeasurably |
more than man at his worst. Besides, !
man reaches his best not through ways I
of his own Invention and devising but
by discovery and obeying the laws of
the universe. Happiness is not to be
found where one please to seek it. 1t
is a matter of righteousness, of inward