The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-03-07
MAJOR J. a. CLARK's DISCOURSE.
The Hcresies of Yesterday the Be-
lies of Today

lies OF Today.
Major Albert Clark, at TheosophicaI
Hall, Metzerott Building, last night. ad-
dressed an intelligent audience. his sub
ject being. THE Heresies of Yesterday
the Beliefs of Today"
Early church history formed part of
the discourse, and historical citations
were given to prove that council had de-
clared against council for heresy. and
pope had communicated pope, until the
fair fame of the earlier Christianity haG,
become besmirched with fanatical bicker-
ings and murders galore, all for Christs
sake. Science, which had been throttled
from the time that temporal power be-
gan to attain political supremacy. has
emerged and it has unconsciously dawn
ed upon the unlearned that the tranquilli-
~ of society depends not so much upon
the stability of its religious convictions as
upon its ethical standards i'm character
building
The warfare of science is not yet end
ed, judging from the criticism of Father
Stafford in his last Sunday sermon, when
he alluded to the teachings of Huxley and
Spencer. This gifted young priest should
remember" the lecturer said, that in
each decade from the first teachings of
these greatest intellectual giants of mod
ern times there have emanated from the
presses of the world more books on scien-
titic thought than We're put out by Latin
Christianity on religious subjects for
period of fifteen hundred years, beginning
from the council at Nice. The result OF
this diffusion of knowledge has been the
merging of past hereses into present be
liefs, and il is no rash prediction that
Huxley and Spencer will be accepted
within a few years as far better authori-
ties philosophicaily, scientifically and in
religious sense, in preference to any
priest or preacher who upholds an an
thromorphic deity capable of changing the
universal order of things at the sugges-
ton of a cloth devoted to the business of
constant appealing.
Mysteries are giving place to facts
which were declared heretical only as re-
cent as the council of Trent and largely
reiterated by a conclaye who finally OBJ
tanned vote on the infallibility of the
pope after centuries of ecclesiastical wire
which modern civilization revolts will en-
dure, and all institutions that organize
impostures and spread decisions must
show what right they have to exist. The
iIliterate and uncriticaI dogmas OF the
earlier ages of the church are fast going
and the heresies which the bigoted de-
tenders of dogma so bitterly denounced
are coming to the front. not for unquali,
fed adoption, but for fair hearing.
Huxley and SD9pcpr have we'll ma we'd
the way, and thereby have opened the
channel. once blocked, and blocked again
for the dissemination OF the teachings Of
the sages of the East which in ali es-
sentials upheld the doctrine of evolution
the greatest generalization of this won
derful age. 1t is about as much of avail
10 inveigh against Huxley and Spencer in
this enlightened age as it was for St
Augustine to argue against the sphericity
Of the earth on the ground that the peo-
pile ON the under side of the world could
not see the Lord descending through the
air. The intellect of this age is asking
How can an imperfect science express a
divine truth? For defective knowledge
of the one necessarily implies a miSunder-
standing of the other. The rational man
Of our day wants no Celigious faith which
he dare not bring to the most searching
inquisition. This is the tendency Of the
day. Churches are changing front; ser
mons now accepted would have been
ranked with heresy a generation ago; en-
tire denominations have gone forward
while others moro retarded by past tradi-
tons have stepped into the places thus
vacant. This change is constantly going
on in such sects as display the greatest
aggregate Of culture. while the more big
oted. changing well. yet unconscious
~ are still shrieking for the old apollo
getics which have been discarded by the
intellect of humanity