Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-05-08
SERMON OF
DR.. BRIGGS
On the Growth Of the New
Religion.
OLD IDEAS GIVING AWAY
The Scope Of the Church is Much
Wider Now Than it Was in the
PaSt..HiS Views Stated.

New York. May s.-Preaching to the
congregation of Holy Trinity church.,
Rev. DR.. Charles \. Briggs said: All
truth is not in the sacred deposit of the
church. All truth is not in the drift of
tradition. He who would grow in knowi-
edge must use all the talents God has
given him. He should not be content to
use rusty tools or Anticipated methods.
but use the most improved methods and
all the sharp edged tools of modern cIiti-
cism and science. Truth is Gods
daughter and she must be woCed With all
faith in order to be won. 1t is not suff-
cient to listen to mems talk about her.
to look at her afar. to learn by tradition
about her and 10 accent and retain all
mems stories and opinion concerning her.
The divine wisdom is the fairest OF
women, according to the book of Prov
erbs. Think you that GODS daughter
will manifest herself to the idle. to the
careless. to the indifferent or to those
that think that they know her sufficient
ly well already? Do you think that she
will disclose her beautiful face and
glorious form and speak her all comfort
ing words to a mere traditiorist who is
content to know about her through the
transmitted formulas of a throng of gen.
erations?. No. q thousand times no.
There are those who think that the
whole divine truth is known. In nothing
could they be more mistaken. The church
has been learning in all the Christian
centuries and is learning today. The
church of Christ is avoided because many
great problems Of doctrine and life have
$50 ~ 1,-- -~1.~ n.y. ---- 500 -
truth as taught by the ancient and
medieval church will doubtless prevail
and the acquisition of truth al the refor-
nation will not be set aside But with
the growth in christian knowledge. the
form of the knowledge and the expression
of it necessarily change. We cannot
know the whole truth Of any doctrine IN
til we know the whole truth of all doc
trines. The new methods of study. the
critical and scientific processes of in
v~estigation. which in our times dominate
all the realms Of knowledge, inevitably
require changes in the realm of religion
and theology also.
There are men in every age who OPP
pose the advance Of truth. They depre-
cate any advance in the knowledge Of
the truth, any methods of study. They
desire everything to go just as before
and we should hold and transmit the
truth Of religion exactly as they have re-
ceived it. Such a thing il impossible in
a living, growing. thinking church. Such
a thing is impossible fer any man who
is conscious of the holy spirit dwelling
within him anu leading on to truth. Who
ever heard Of a father or a mother who
would have a child stop growing and re-
main stunted in order 10 save the eN-
'pense and care of providing new gar
ments? Does anyone suppose that the
growing Christian or the growing church
can go Oh wearing the same clothes,
using exactly the same modes of state
ment as We're used in the infancy or early
youth of the organization. The full
grown Christian ard the full grown
church win be the same essentially as the
Christian babe and the infant church.
The identity Of organization and the on
tinuity of the age and character Will re-
main in every stage Of growth, bat the
external dress will change III size and
style and mode with every real growth.
"Our age is an age of the most exact,
painstaking T. thorough critical schol-
arship. Holy scripture has been search
ed by critics as never before and the re-
suit is that it stands forth before the
world in its native historical beauty,
wealth and power, as the holy. divine,
eternal work of God to man. Nothing Of
any historical value has been lost or i'm
paired. The church doctrine of the Bible,
! dS uc1lHeu DS the ciluItU Sl5luS 1Dfl1
more glorious than ever. Nothing has
been injured but human traditional opin-
ions about the Bible which have never
received the sanctions of the holy church.
It is characteristic of the new theology
that it believes in the Holy Ghost. A new
age Of the world is at hand, an age of love
and Christian knowledge, an age in
which the divine spirit will smite all ag-
Mysticism and pierce every doubt with
the inVincible twO-edged sword of truth