The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-04-18
1.-THE NEGATIVE MOVEMENT"
REV. j. b. KOEHNEs LECTURE
LAST NIGHT.
An Interesting Discourse That Held
His Audience in Close
Attention..

n
the Congregational Church last evening
to listen to the second of the series of
lectures by Rev. J. B. Koehne. The
lecturer held his audience until the end,
and his superior knowledge of Oriental
religions and theories, his graphic word
pictures and his forceful deductions
were entertaining as we'll as instructive.
Rev. Koehne took for his subject The
Negative Movement" and traced the
action of the forces brought to bear
to prepare the world for the reception
of the Christian religion. His compari-
sons of the Oriental with the Occi-
dental customs and creeds was lucid.
clear and brief. An analysis of the
African negro was made the basis of IL
Illustrating the fundamental instincts of
human nature, and was intended to
prove that man is naturally religious
creature.
The lecturer briefly analysed the civ
ilization of China, spoke of its lacking
elements, and of its fundamental weak
ness as a theory of the infinite. He
spoke at some length of the teaching
of Confucius, and pointed out it's de-
fects. Under that teaching the Chi
nese, when he desires to revenge him
self upon an enemy, kills himself. He
told how ages ago, the Chinese discov-
cred gunpowder, and called attention to
the fact that they still go to war with
umbrellas and blunderbusses The Chi
nese world was compared to an un
strung harp which, when touched, gave
out only discordant sound. It's history
is like the rocking of a cradle-it has
movement but no progress.
The speaker compared the civilization
and religion of China with that of In
dia, and explained that while the great
Chinese educator held that God was
naught, the Indian philosophers went
to the extreme, and held that God was
all. Much of the thinking in the United
States to-day, he said, is but a ref1ec-
ton of the Buddhist world. He spoke
of the Buddhist theory of the transmit
grafton of souls, a theory which con-
cludes that through successive lives
and deaths the soul of a good man adj
vanced until it finally merges into God,
while the soul of the sinner retrogresses
and enters the body of the brute beast.
He told how the Brown Priests of In
dia make of themselves God, and how
they have so formed caste that there is
no communion with those lower in the
scale. He explained how Buddhism
was the reaction of Brahmanism, and
that its chief characteristics were in
difference, rest and repose
Then came the comparison of the ORR
entail theories and creeds with the
Christian religion, and the narrowness
of the one and the extreme .broadness
of the others were vigorously set forth.
The speaker contrasted the religions
of the Orient and the Occident ami
showed how they supplemented each
other. Socrates, he said, prepared the
way for the Christian religion, even as
John the Baptist had prepared the way
in Galilee. Socrates message to the
Greeks was know Thyself,'' and his
questions concerning the Greek deities
and his laughter at the replies paved
the way for philosophy greater and
broader than that he himself taught.
The Roman Caesars did for Rome what
Socrates did for Greece-brought
unity of thought: brought the world
together in political unity, which lacked
only moral bonds-bonds subsequently
furnished by the Christian religion. The
Greeks put the truths found by them
into cold marble; the Christians put
those found by them into great institu-
tons. whence they We're disseminated
for the benefit of all mankind The
Roman Caesars tried to make a perfect
State; the Christian religion, a perfect
man, grasping the underlying principle
that the man makes the State
The speaker closed with a flight of
oratory seldom excelled. He will con-
tinue the series at ST. PauPs tonight.
ff,-r mi cyl.+ YNl,,
and on Friday night win again be at
the CONGREGATIONAL Church