The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-07-22

.
appearing. When. on the one hand. ma
tells you that 1t Is o. more Importance to d
Justice, to love mercy, and be humble Il
spirit than to believe In any one particuia
Interpretation Of the Scriptures. he is OBJ
viously attaching Importance to the spiri
rather than the letter of the word. When
at the other end Of the line, the mysti
tells you that 1t is not OF much importance
whether you belong to any or to none o
the recognized religious organizations. q
long as you honestly seek truth and liv
up to your convictions, and strive 70
harmony with the divine spirit OF the uni
verse, he is also subordinating the mer,
statement Of truth to its essence-charac
ter building.
Life exists alike in the Jacqueminot ros,
and the wayside weed In the tiger and tn,
sheep; the manifestation II different. but
the life itself is not. II, In the course Of
evolution, the cne form Of life disappears e
! make way for the other. that does mo-
prove that either, In itself, il bad. only
that the suppianting form 10 better suited
to the new environment. This line Of phi
losophy-based on evolutionary though,
which has filtered through to religious
teachings coming more end more to
| characterize religious writing. When. In
stead Of the church dominating the schools,
the schools came to be the medium through
received his education, a long stride was
made in the direction of free
religious thought The theologian
OF today must. whether he likes
1t or not, acQuaint himself with scientific
ideas, and build his belief upon sub-stra-
tum Of logic. The creedmakers Of the Mid
die Ages recognized no such necessity.
With the disappearance OF dogmatism,
and the recognition of the brotherhood OF
kk4,, rh< 80 ~~,hs - a. n
ligions was one OF the strongest evidences.
We may observe tendency toward the
study of psychology in its connection with
ethics. This is characteristic Of much Of
the religious thought Of the day. and It
will be more and more evident as time
goes on. The investigation OF psychology
cal phenomena is a matter which has not,
up to a comparatively recent time, occu-
pied the attention of Occidental thinkers.
We have been too much absorbed in the
conquest OF the material world to pay
mucn attention to the processes of the in
teliect, and whenever some thinker. more
Independent than others. has essayed to
penetrate this unexpiered Jungle. the
church has generally stood guardian over
his efforts and dragged him pack before he
reached any definite conclusion. What, for
example, would have been the fate OF the
scholar who, three hundred years ago,
real cause of the witchcraft delusions? He
would have been unable to obtain any re-
liable data, In the first place. and in the
second place he would have been anathe-
matized for not believing the Bible, which
stated distinctly that there were no
such things as witches. Even
at the present time cier-
gyman who undertakes to study scientih-
cally the phenomena known as telepathy,
sr,< hx.vH at rto to-
danger of losing caste. The wide reputa
ton and popularity OF Minot Savage, a
clergyman Of the most progressive church
in the United States. have not saved him
from being slightly discredited or this ac-
count. Yet one would suppose that the |
priest, above all men, should study the |
workings OF the human mind In all its my
Rad forms. If he does not know what
causes mental distress, how can he help the |
victims? By being shut off from all psy- |
Geological investigation he is reduced to a |
sort of visiting deacon, commissioned 10 |
distribute charity ard such comfort as an |
unscientiic thinker may give to human |
woes. As sympathy does not depend upox |
intellectual knowledge. he can do much |
good in this way, but his sermons lose |
by being restricted in their |
scope. and prejudiced in their point Of
view.
The lack of intellectual leadership among |
has led many Independent |
thinkers in the present generation to stop |
going to church altogether. They do not |
care to go where they hear nothing new,
and get no new light on the-relations of
humanity to its Creator, where they are
RECALLED with old sentiments presented in
a slightly new form, and seasoned with
quotations. There are ciergymen who,
through some faculty OF poetic insight,
- ok ~fr~sv. 81 ,~xft h<..&
their congregations, but they are
lew and far between. Most sermons are
preached downtto the average mans level.
II little below 1t; and the man who is
ooking for strong. original thought stays
It home and reads his Emerson, Browning.
carlyle. or Plato. where he gets concen-
rated wisdom; or he reads the Bible ard
lraws his own conclusions instead Of 9TH
r peoples. All this is Inevitable. Every
arge church must be compromise between
bsolute truth and the traditional ideas
5 not impossible that, sooner or later, q
ew church will appear, without dogma,
7ithout creed, welcoming all advant ed
bought, and composed Of people who have
utgrown the various isms. What will be ,
he basis on which this church Is founded?
The Theosophical societies have attempted
Of the kind. and have done good
ervice by Introducing to Western minds
he essential doctrines Of Eastern mystics.
The societies for psychical research are
lso doing good work on the merely in
ellectual side of mans development.
Iere and there we have peoples church"
which extends & welcome to anybody who
likes to come. az q hear discourses on ethics. +
he Unitarian Church was originally COM
osed of people who were called by the
portion of the community "the
ome-outers." But it has now settled down
D condition of almost as decided dogma
SIN as that against which it protested.
Queer freaks have resulted from at
,mpts to graft upon Western minds frag-
tents of Oriental mysticism. The mixture
ideas caused by the acceptance Of the
Id Testament as literal truth by a peo-
le totally different from the Semitic
ices in character and habits Of thought.
as been peculiar enough, but It is nothing
that which has been produced by an in I
llectual self-conceit which leads some {
,ople to swallow the Bhagavad-G ita with Z
1t knowing what 1t means. II the future
ligious system Of this country is to owe {
lything to the Orient, the assimilation '
i'll have to come naturally, and that will 4
Ike considerable time. There IL no cues
on that, with the opening up Of the
asst. and the continual Interchange of
ought which results from commerce. ! 8
avel and the general diffusion Of knowl- Q
lge. the American people will come to
low q great deal about Hindu and Japa- E
,se Thought. and to accept some OF the I
nclusions Of the Buddhist and the Brahs q
an as scientifically true. But that does =
IT mean accepting the phraseology in
hich these truths have been expressed by +
esc Asiatic peoples. nor does It Involve :
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