The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-04
DR.. HARRIS SERMON.
A Finished Discourse From the Text,
LET Us Go On Unto Perfection"

A Finished Discourse From the Text,
Let Us Go On Unto Perfection"
Rev. Moses H. Harris, D. d. spoke
yesterday morning at All Souls church
on THE effects of the modern spirit
and method of religious inquiry" TAX
ing his text from Hebrews vii, Let
US go on unto perfection" He said in
substance:
THE supreme purpose of all right
thinking, of all knowledge and truth,
is to perfect the conduct and charac-
ter of men. No thought or knowl-
edge or truth is valuable to men that
does not produce right conduct and no
BILE character. 1t is an untruth and an
absurdity to say that 1t is no matter
what a man believes, if only he lives
right. No man ever did live right, much
less can any man live perfectly as to
conducr and character who is ignorant
of the truth whose thought is false
and wrong and whose real and deepest
belief is something that is false in the
DRY and evil in practice Wherever
you find wrong conduct and bad char
acter you will find wrong thought, ig-
norance and error false opinions and
false doctrines. Wherever you find
right conduct and good character, pure
and just and noble life, you will find
that they are invariably built on right
thinking, right knowing right believing
| built on the truths, laws and princi-
+ pies that are absolutely good and ever
lastingly right.
Perfection as applied to man is a
relative term. Perhaps in the long
sweep of eternity man can never be
absolutely perfect. There is and can
be but one absolutely perfect being, and
that is God. He is perfect because he
is infinite. We shall always be i'm
perfect in the absolute sense because
we shall always be finite. But man
may be relatively perfect. He may be
perfect as man; he may be perfect
in the sense of so using all his powers
| and all his opportunities, and of so
fulfilling all his obligations as to be
the very most and the very best that
is possible for him to be at any given
time, under these conditions. To say
that man can be perfect is to say that
he can rise to where he can never learn
any more, or rise any higher in his
! character and conduct. 1t is to say
that all progress and improvement are
at an end
I'VE are living in great era of in
tellectual activity, Of invention, prog
ress and improvement which has not
| failed to communicate it's spirit and
method to the realm of truth, thought
and life And what is the result? Why,
| it Is a great forward improvement in
everything pertaining to religion and
all along the line. Every dogma of re-
ltgion ana every institution is to be
tested by this new spirit and method,
and whatever cannot endure the test
| must be cast out. The fact is recog-
fe =
| progressive. Religion must be SO. Ey
cry doctrine in religion must be fully
and fearlessly tried and tested by OBJ
servation and experience; by the larger
| knowledge and freer and more active
reason of mankind, and if II prove
false, 1t must be rejected.
What ara apparently some Of the
! results of this freer method? One re-
| suit is the widespread doubt of many
things which We're but a little while
ago firmly and most universally be-
lieved. The result of this method is
not less reverence, but more true rev
erence, and less superstition, and deem
err faith in better established truth
The result is a widening and deenen-
ing religious knowledge. The result
must be an entire reconstruction. NOT
of essential Christianity but of Chris
tianity as conceived and taught by the
churches Men are coming to believe
that Christ did not come to save us
from the wrath and curse and condem-
nation of God, for nothing Of this kind
ever existed.
GOD was never anything else to us
than all infinitely loving father and
friend. Christ did not come to save
us from a fallen or lost condition as
represented in the old theories, for in
that sense we were never fallen or lost.
Christ did not come to save us from
the punishment or penalty of a sin
IN the universe that can save us from
endless punishment or penalty of a sin
actually committed, Christ did NOT
come to endure our penalty In our
stead. That would be the most mon
strous and diabolical perfection Of in
Justice. He does not anywhere give
the faiutest intimation that he came
for any such purpose, or that sucb a
purpose could constitute any mart In
his mission. Christ came to reveal q
higher end most divine order of truth
and life and love.
He came to reveal more perfactl,,
what is and what may be most god.
like. He came with divine revela tio,,
of truth and life, of righteousness and
love, to save the race by educating dis
ciplining, developing them out of TIC
limitations of ignorance and supersti-
tlon, out OF the love and dominion Of
selfshntss. sensuality and sin. into the
love and dominion Of truth ana right
eousness, and so to save them from
all evil consequences. from ali dis
honor, shame and misery that ,vo,,Id
result from a continuance in that lover
order Of life. This new method and
spirit are teaching from the Bible that
God will not relinquish his purpose nor
cease the exercise of his infinite Wis
dom, energy and love in this world
nor in any other until all rational crea
lures are redeemed from sin and ex-
allied into his moral likeness. "