The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-20
NEW HAVEN BAPTIST UNION
SIXTR ANNUAL BANQUET HELL
YESTERDAY.
Supper Served to $50 by Ladies' of First
Baptist Church-After Dinner Speeches
REV. w. C. Bittings on the Trans
ittons of Our Times.

REV. w. C. Fittings on the Trans-
itions of Our Times.
The sixth annual banquet of the New
Haven Baptist union was held last eve
ming in the parlors of the First Baptist
church. Dean Francis Wayland of the
Yale Law school, president of the as
ISOLATION, was POSTMASTER. Rev. Mr..
Moore, Rev. Mr.. Foster and Rev. Mr..
Stoddard were called upon for short
speeches. The principal address was
delivered by the Rev. w. c. Billings
of New York city, pastor of the Mount
Morris Baptist church.
Dinner was served to about $50 per-
sons by the ladies of the church.
The Rev. Mr.. Billings spoke on 'The
Transitions of Our Times-Their Dam
gers and Safeguards" He said, in
part: 1--WE are all familiar with tran
sitions. We usually welcome them
when they increase our comfort or our
material prospects. If they add to our
knowledge or aid us in our conquest of
the troubles of life. But when they
affect the religious world our whole
tone changes This realm is normally
conservative. It is under the spell OF
fina1ity. 1t hastens slowly. This is
well.
"a close student of China said that O
Chinaman advances backward and only
when the rest of the world pushes him.
His face is toward the past. His learn
ing is matter of memory. His wor-
ship. is that of his ancestors. His ideal
is the perpetuation of what has been
and his perfection is changelessness.
Yesterday is his great word. Too often
this is the case with the religious
world. Tomorrow Is the devils word.
Tomorrow is in Gods hands. To-day
is the divine word that rings through
all the world. 1t attaches itself to re-
pentance, faith, action duty ana ser
vice. Jesus rebuked some ultra -conser-
natives who could not read the signs of
the times. They were fine-weather
prophets, but poor chronosophists. He
told His disciples to watch for the put
ting forth of all green leaves. He ex-
pressly said that the sons of each gen.
Grafton were more prudent towards
their own times than the sons of light.
He called for sagacity in the children
Of the kingdom and declared that such
is the sense of times in which we live.
The principle of adaptation which runs
through all sacred history is a witness
Of this same wisdom. The principle of
adaptation accounts for the transit
tons.
The Christian mind is in a state of
transition. This is seen in several di-
rections.
~ In it's theology. Slowly is chang
ing from the forensic to the ethica'
abont an inpregnable logical system,
but about. all that shall show the
Christian glories. Not to build UP a
chain of propositions for the intellect
that no one can break, but to build rp
lives that by their glory shut the
mouths of gainsayers. We believe in
the doctrine of soul liberty. We have
applied it fearlessly as concerns the re-
.ations CT church and state. In eccle-
siastic matters we have seen it grow
into beauty in the doctrine of the indie
pendence of the local church. But
when we supply this soul liberty to the
1HLeI VI ,toCl ipldlc we
Yet it is this which gives us the right
to think for ourselves. 1t is this
which is one of the chief points that
separates us from Romanism. 1t
is this which guarantees to us as Bap-
lists more catholicity than is possible
in any other body of Christians.
(2) In the thought of the Bible. There,
too, there has been a transition. The
time was when the book was used it a
fetish way. All this is now changing.
Such a use is seen to be dishonest. We
have no more right to make a Bible
writer say to an audience what he did
not mean than have TO so twist one of
your letters or books. The sense of
perspective is coming into play. Each
writer is studied in relation to the per-
iod in which he wrote and whose
thought and sin he reflects. The pecu-
liarity of each writer's presentation is
observed and the relation to those who
preceded him and followed him.
The relation to the history of other
peoples, of the history of Israel, is seen.
Tie later history is seen to be a part