Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-07-31
DEFENDS HIS FAITH !.
Judge Ewing, of Chicago, Delivers
an Address at the Grand.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE THE THEME

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE THE THEME
Traces the Development of Religious
Thought and Advocates Advance
ment.
Last evening Judge Ewing, of Chica-
go, addressed a fair audience at the
Opera House, his subject being Chris
tian Science. To judge from his ad-
dress last evening Judge Ewing has
been one who has been benefited by
this new sect and bis defense of his
faith was eloquent and able. Judge
Ewing is man long past the vigorous
period of life, yet he spoke with all the
enthusiasm and force of youth. The
speaker was introduced by G. B. Bird, a
fellow jnrist We should like to give
the lecture in. full but must content
ourselves with short outline. Judge
Ewing spoke about two hours, yet the
lecture never grew tiresome and he had
left much unsaid when he finally ended
Judge Ewing began his lecture by
saying that he did not wish to speak to
those who were satisfied and contented
in their faith, but his mission was to
those who are not satisfied. To those
who deem it within the range of human
possibility that there is light in re-
serve that may gid more sweetly and
sublimely mans appreciation of the
intimate Fatherland of God and His
ways to man, to those he wished simply
to speak, he said, as man to man, as
brother to brother.
He went on to trace the wonderful
progress of thought since the founda
ton of the christian religion, and espec
tally in the last few centuries. The
customs, dress, habits of our fathers
we discard, but we cling tenaciously to
their dogmas, old and musty though
they be.
If John Calvin had not questioned
the beliefs of his fathers there would
have been no Presbyterian church; if
Martin Luther had not raised his
mighty voice against the beliefs and
practices of his fathers the world would
never have rejoiced in the light and
glory of the reformation; if the Wes-
leys had not forsaken the tenets of
their fathers the sublime devotion and
heroic sacrifice of the Methodist circuit
rider would never have gladdened,
purified and santified tue humble homes
of England and America God be
praised, say |, for the moral courage,
the intellectual integrity, that places
duty before sentiment. The history of
the Christian era is replete with demon
stration that rebellion against the re-
ligious beliefs of the fathers, not less
than the blood of the martyrs is the
seed of the church,
/ do not undervalue the effect of our
ancestors thought upon the civiliza-
ton and Christianization of the world,
but clearly its worth rests in the patent
fact of the indestructibility and resist
less progression of good, aed the furth-
er fact of the good in the experience
and knowledge of each generation fur
nishing vantage ground in its successor
for something better. We are stupid
indeed if we are not wiser than our
fathers; we have the accumulated
knowledge of years that they did not
have. OF all the countless dead at the
beginning of this century, not one, if
he should revisit the scenes of earth,
could even understand the simplest
nomenclature of the great discoveries
in the practically of electricity and
steam that have girdled the earth with
light, brought the distant places near,
and make a conversational convocation
of the nations as speedy and practical
as was the assembiage of a presbytery
or diocese convention in their day.
He then went on to discuss the points
on which the Christian Scientists and
the members of other churches agree
All are In favor of anything that can
make the world better, purer, higher.
All accept the ten commandments as
essentials to proper life. All base
their faith upon the Scriptures and all
believe in Jesus Christ, the son of God,
the divine man. In all these leading
points Christian Science accords with
all other doctrines, but the Scientists
also affirm that the beneficent God of
nineteen hundred years ago is our God
today, with all the power, all the ten
derness, all the love, all the sympathy
that he manifested then, and that it is
the same power and love nov that
makes the lame to walk and blind to see
Judge Ewing then paid high eu-
logy to Rev. Mary Eddy, who in hope
and prayer revealed Christian Science
and applied it 10 the daily needs of
man. AS one of the tens of thousands
of beneticfaries OF metaphysical healing,
with love unalloyed, | say of Mrs. Eddy
that time to its utmost bound will be
too brief for the world to discharge to
her its debt of gratitude"
He said further:
! champion this day as the brightest
and best since the world began. Every
yesterday was but the dawn of grand
er today, and each today will pale in
the sublimer splender of tomorrow.
There is more refinement, learning,
gentleness and genius, more aestheti-
cism and common sense, more con-
tempt for hypocrisy; there is more
truth and courage, homely honesty,
simplicity and virtue, more unfaltering
christian faith, more devoted christian
piety, more affection, love and charity
in the world today than ever blessed
humanity in any yesterday in all the
time of time.
The world has learned that its great
need is not more intimate acquaint-
ance with microbes and germs; not
science that viii more accurately meas
ure the sun and weigh the stars; not a
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