The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-21
HORACE BUSHNELL'S LIFE
INTEB ESTING PAPER READ BY
 REF. DR. MUNGER.

Theology From Its old Bondage to
 Rigorous Definition.
 Rev. pr. Munger read an interesting
 paper on Dr. Horace Bushnell Monday I evening at the Historical society at the regular meeting of the club, The paper
 in part was as follows;
 We cannot stop to remember all the
 great men who have served their gem
 eration, but occasionally there are those
 who escape the usual oblivion, These
 are the men of genius, who possess that heavenly spark so hard to be eXtin- guished and the men upon whom his
 tory has turned, the prophets who have
 lived ahead of their age. It is because
 Dr. Bushnell belongs to both these l classes that l speak of him here to- 1 day. He was q man of genius, a proph- | ct, great civilian. Horace Bushnell
 was born 100 years ago. His father was
 Methodist, his mother an Episco- palian, although both attended regu- | larly the Congregational church. This
 tells nearly the whole story of Bush
 nell's education. He was bred in an
 atmosphere of toleration, which was
 also one of right home influence and one | of toll. At school he studied hard and | during these early days he came to the | conviction which guided his later thought, for as a boy he used when | fishing to dream on nature as the
 analogy of the spirit. He fulfilled his nature by early turning to religion
 At twenty one he was sent to Yale
 Here he grew skeptical and wandered in dim and uncertain light. But the
 heavenly fire could not long be quench- ed. Schleiermac cher's fundamental principle of emphasis on the heart life 1 led him into the clear light. He studied law and also theology and then slipped (for no other word expresses it into the
 pulpit of this church, where he remain
 ed as pastor and pastor emeritus until
 his death.
 To understand Bushnell, we must
 take a look at the theological situation
 of his time. The Congregational
 churches lived under asystem rather
 than under the truth. Their good qual-
 ties came from the truth which was in the system, and their faults came from their dependence on the system as such having in it more of mans guess l work than of divine revelation. It nev- CT satisfied the thinkers and so was con- stantly being improved" The creeds ever grew longer and more specific Bushnell stood aloof for while and 1 then saw clearly certain things that were at fault, such as the f1rm-seated | belief that spiritual things could be ex- pressed in formal and exact definitions. l He saw certain points where the con- fusion centered and boldly attacked | them, not discarding theology because of it's incongruous nature but seek [ ing to build it up. It is impossible for anyone to speak rightly of Bushnell | without dwelling on his work as a theologian, Yet his life was simple in | the extreme. He seldom left Hartford, | he kept no diary, he wrote few letters. He was not a recluse but his life was secluded--he dwelt in the world of { thought. Bushnel's protest against the theology of his day was directed at it's unnaturalness.
 Lest it should be thought that Bush nell was only a man of the church I must refer to the services he did to sO- ciety and to literature. He delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale an address on the "Weal of Ma tions" that can be read as appropriately to-day as when he wrote it, and that will endure as long as our nation does. In 1889 he preached a sermon on slavery that outlined a doctrine vindicated years later in the civil war. In 1S43 he delivered an address that anticipated by twenty years the word erful doc trines of Goldwin Smiths Relation of , the Mosaic Law to Slavery" He an also the doctrine that human society is an evolution, and he was charged with heresy for believing that was a product of social evo- lution. His predictions of fifty years ago as to the typographical develop men of the Russian Empire are being fulfilled to-day His address on the Age of Homespun" will be read in Litchfield county as long as it's hills endure. It has the undying charm of home and youth, of tears and smiles, of a heart sympathetically responsive to every human interest His outline of the theory and progress of history has come to be universally accepted as the true theory.
 All this work was only by-play, the overflow of greater things which were all the time going on. His great work was the greatly needed reformation of theology His first book was Christian Nurture!" The church of his day de- pended on revivals which should reach the adult mind. Bushnell did not op- pose revivals, but he taught that the church should train it's children with the idea that they were to become No book of New England origin with the exception of Edwards m "The Will" ever eXerted such wide md powerful influence. Next came his ook on 'The Trinity" The just criti- 3isms brought by the Unitarian move I nent had failed of their right effect and was taught as Tritheism belief in three Gods. In Bushnells , God in Christ he maintained that the Trinity was three-fold manifestation if God This checked the advance of e and outlined the position ', now generally held by the orthodox [ hurches, Miracles were commonly de- Y. ined in his day as arrests of nature. 4 Bushnell substituted the word, super natural" teaching that nature and the upernatural were parts of one system. ?