The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-15
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
THE MODERN SPIRIT; EXPRESSED II
TRUTH. LIBERTY AND LOVE.
By the Rev. John Coleman Adams. ID.
d.. Pastor of the First Unfversalist
Church, Hartford, Conn.

lation, ii. Z.
There are three great words which have
characterized modern life-the life which
begins, say with the renaissance, with the
reformation with the discovery of Amer
lea. They are truth, liberty and love. Most
of the great movements Of our time are
the outcome of the ideas for which these
words stand The minds of men have been
filled with these great principles, and in
every civilized nation society has yielded 10
their power
First think what that word truth means.
It's only another name for reality, and
that, in turn, is only another name for God
and His nature. When men are seeking
the truth they are seeking to think the
thoughts of God after Him, to learn the
majestic path His steps have made through
the universe, and fathom the mystery OF
His life in the soul of man. That is
thought which has been growing mightier
in the minds of men. They have begun to
find signs of God everywhere-God in the
world and the world full of God. They
are talking of this visible form of things
as universal turning or combining of
all things in one whole. They are begin
ming to believe that there hopeless
contradictions in the world, no alien forces,
because il is Gods world. 1.-The sea is His.
and He made IT. THE earth is the Lords
and the fullness thereof" Gods in His
heaven alls right with the world
And thus, as men are growing to see
larger beauty and a -hoier grace in the
world because they see God there, they are
asking to know more Of Him. The more
wondrous. fair and lovely this world and
its life grows to look to us the more they
desire to know of Him who is it's heart
and life The science which has seemed TO
obliterate men from God is really giving
them deeper thirst for Him. AS We get
closer to the facts, We master more Of
the truth, we are more eager to see and
know God.
A SIGNIFICANT THING.
Secondly see how much significance
there is in the new passion for liberty.
We cannot find God except for liberty. We
cannot find God except be free to seek
Him. No monopolies may control the route
to Him. No man may bar his neighbors
road as he goes in search of God and
Truth That is the attitude of the masses
to-day; that is the modern spirit. Men are
tired of living in a world placarded all over
with signs of privilege and favor and pref
long been mental territories on which one
ever reads the warning, Keep off the
grass" mo trespassing here" That is
what has caused these mighty struggles
for freedom of mind and conscience. The
conviction came TO men that since God
made each one of them He had good rea-
son for making them individuals, and 1T
was lack of reverence for Him to try to
prevent a man from being the self which
| God meant him TO be. Neither was there
any propriety in attempting to tie men up
to a secondhand relation with God
Every man for himself is the motto of
the spiritual world. We work out our own
salvation. We are judged each on his own
merits or sins. We suffer in ourselves the
penalties Of evil We reap for ourselves
the rewards of good. But all this means
that no other soul may claim spiritual
authority over us; none may interfere with
the freedom of the intellect as it thinks
it's way TO God; none may challenge the
conscience as it bows to the voice of the
spirit This, also is the modern spirit. 1t
is the resolve to have free way to God
and to the truth.
| For a third characteristic of the period
we look to the growing sense that "love is
| of God" Fifty years ago men were en-
phasizing the fact that law is the method
of God. To-day they have got behind that
| fact to a profounder one-that is that
| love is the fulfilling of the law" We
! count love as the center of Gods life, the
goal of mans That is the new keynote
| of theology 1t is the great word Of prac-
| teal life.
The secular term by which men express
| this great element of the modern spirit is
| the word brotherhood. The great move
ments of the last hundred years are wit
! nesses to this in mems minds. 1t was a
sense of the brotherhood of the whole race
which instituted missions. The same spirit
! has checked the greed OF commerce in the
| labor reforms which have protected the
weak, organized labor and led an agitation
| for the larger share of each in the product
| of ALL And that ideal has been before the
| phianthropists who have done so much to
promote kindness and sympathy in deal
| ing with the werk Truly this il one of
| the great ideas of the age. 1t is wholly of
the modern time. Politics is forcing it;
knowledge is reinforcing it; theology is pro-
nouncing ii lOudest of all.
TASK OF THE CHURCHES.
Now, do not these conditions set the task
| of the churches for the coming years? Do
they not clearly mark the duty and the OPP
portunity of Christiandom? The churches
must become the allies of these great forces
moving in the hearts of he people. They
| may not disappoint the people with pic
| ture of God which disappoints their reason
| and affronts their moral sense There are
some conceptions of God which il is simply
worse than useless-it is harmful-to men
ton to the modern man. But if the churches
can grasp the idea of God as Jesus gave il
TO them. as Father. Friend. lover of all His
creatures. they will find the hearts of those
who crave such a God to worship and tC
serve We must never forget that human
souls need and must have some outlet fol
the emotions which truth raises in theil
hearts That sentiment is worship.
God does not demand that all men shall
serve Him i'm the same way nor praise Him
i'm the same phrases. There is no warrant
in the Gospel for that fiatron piety which
saueezes all the individuality out of meT
and insists on their being good after tn,
same pattern. Let there be large liberty il
the nonessentials, so long as there is unity
in the great essentials. There is no need e
abolish sects so long as they co-operat,
and fraternze. They only afford an Quite
and a means for the diversity of gifts L
exercise itself. Just as no two leaves ar