Omaha daily bee., 1898-10-19

pate In the great peace Jubilee and greet our /,
noble president. everyone seemed a better I
patriot. a better citizen than ever before |
And now In this citv. itself one of the !
marvels Of western enterprise energy and !
prosperity. has been erected and for some
months maintained. an exposition which In !
Its magnitude is second only to one, and in |
its consummate grace and the beauty OF It's
architecture and general excellence of ar
ransement and exhibits second to none ever
held on this continent And yet, less than
fifty years ago. this region was the camping
ground Of the Indians.
The speaker recalled the greeting at the
exposition of General Miles by the Apache
chief, Geronimo, whom Miles had trailed
and captured years ago in the mountain
Businesses OF Arizona. With more good
words for Nebraska and the exposition and
assuring the congress that here would be
met representatives Of learning and preach
ers who dare utter their last, best
| conviction OF truth he concluded with an
! apt quotation from Whittiers Centennial
| Hymn.
DR.. II. w Thomas of Chicago, the presi-
dent OF the congress, responded. Said he
There is something in the climate soil,
| scenery and natural surroundings of a peo-
| pie which influences not only their indus
| tries but their habits of thought and their
| emotional and inspirational nature. The
western types are like their long rivers,
broad prairies and deep skies. They at
tempt to do everything in large way. This
has been your spirit from the time the
! invitation from your committee reached us
down in Nashville. We felt that we were not
welcome there. for the orthodox clergy were
afraid of us at Nashville, but just then
came your invitation, signed by both or
thodox and liberal preachers, and | couldn't
help saying, This thing of religious opin-
ion is quite matter of geography" We
rejoice with you in this large religious and
mental hospitality The Liberal congress in
terferes with no denomination. We seek not
to tear down but to build up and to estab-
lish a common fellowship in the common
purpose of good life. We would, II We
could, break down these walls which sep
arate us.
| DIR. Hirsch's Address.
After recital of the Lords prayer and a
solo by Mrs. Martin Calm, DR.. Hirsch de-
iivered his sermon. 1t was resume of the
growth of liberal sentiment from mere toll
Grafton in the Eighteenth century to the
present practical humanitarianism. He de-
fined what modern liberalism consists in
and contrasted it with various phases Of
liberalism In substance he said:
The liberal in religion is not, as he is
generally represented, a child of our decade,
but Is about as old as religion itself. The
liberal Is he who has heard the divine COM
mand which came to Abraham to leave the
land of his father and of his birth and
go forth to land unknown. II this be
the character of a liberal, then Moses was
a liberal, Jesus liberal. Huss and
Luther and Savanarola. Giordano, Bruno
Buddha and Zoroaster. But the liberalism
of this century Is spun of fiber altogether
| frnn hat nf 10 ~ H.
tury. That of the Eighteenth century was
the liberalism of tolerance, so highly priced
by Lessng. Its keynote was a concession
that there must be differences among men
and that each man must have a right to
decide for himself in what words he would
clOthe the fundamental and serious thoughts
of his heart. The height of liberalism in
those days was to allow the Christian to be
} a Christian and the Jew to be Jew. But
in this day no word is more offensive than
tolerance, federation" To allow Jew
to be Jew in a spirit of liberation is an
insult to the Jew and a slap at the spirit
of the age. The Jew is not inferior, not
such a nuisance. that he needs to be toler-
ated. We have left behind the Eighteenth
century and its philosophy. We do not
merely let Christian be Christian and n
Jew be Jew: we demand that the Jew
shall be Jew and the Christian be Chris
tian.
The second step was the liberalism of in
difference This followed Immediately upon
the period of Lessing and Mendelssohn-
: known in Germany as 'the period OF il
, Elimination" Those who professed indifrer-
| ence misunderstood the purpose kof religion
! in the economy of mankind and the govern
ment of affairs. For these illuminated men
religion was but Il sort of modified police
| baton more merciful substitute for the
bayonet, or a toy of the nursery, for weak
women and children. Learned men could
walk; what need had they of crutches? So
out of their natural goodness they would
let such as needed it have the toy or daily
with the crutches. They would not tear
down the churches nor tear UP the Bible
| it was not worth while to do this. They
were so Indifferent that they would not
waste effort in the destruction of religion.
Another phaze manifested itself in the
thought that all religions are of equal value.
because all We're. fundamentally, frauds.
1t is not an encouraging sign of liberal
progress that Robert G. Ingersoll still finds
| full houses and a remunerative occupation
in rehearsing merely the threadbare liberal
ism of Indifference. No religion is counter
felt; none is spurious. Religions are not
| all equal, but every religion is an echo of q
deeply seated human need, an outgrowth
of historical factors and forces.
LibernIism of Criticism.
Then we have the liberalism of critics
The critic is pioneer and pioneer is one
who goes ahead of the farmer ahead of the
sitions He wields axe and cuts away
: the jungle and clears away the forest. But
criticism is never constructive To properly
criticise. one must know the language OF the
, Bible. 1t Is the height of folly for church
councils and representative bodies whose
members know much of the Hebrew al
; phabet as l do of Chinese to sit in judg-
ment over a professor of Hebrew and tc
say to him that his grammar must con-
form TO the ignorance of his judges Re-
J, ligion is not question OF grammar. He
S who is no more than a Bible critic is still
stranger in the ante chamber of religious
: | truth.
Again, that critical liberalism which con
e Germs itself with merely denying dogmas i:
n not consecrated to the spirit of the newer
liberalism. 1t is easy to deny God and in.
9 spiration. There is much cry for 'freC
Il thought little understanding that it mus
, be clear thought"
He considered bond of fellowship baseC
- upon mere denial of the doctrine of atone
ment and rejection of that of total de
pravity "ro9e of sand" The moderI
}. liberal had more important work in hand
n He wanted absolute freedom OF inquiry an,