Omaha daily bee., 1903-03-09
RADICAL AND CONSERVATIVE
Rev q. G, Herring Says Neither is in the
Correct Position.
TRUTH SEEKER CANNOT Be EXTREMIST
Argues that People should Approach
Every question with the Freedom
of one who Is open to
Conviction.

At the First Congregational church Sun
day morning Rev. II. c. Herring preached.
his theme being 'Radicalism and Conser-
vatism as Forces Of Progress" He said In
part:
when Christ raid that no man having
drunk old wine would turn TO new he
stated a condition which existed In his
time. for the old wine referred not es-
pecially to wine, but to anything old as
compared to the new Palestine, and the en-
tire world of that day was turned toward
the old, because they were old. The ,on-
servative forces dominated, as they now
dominate in China. Jesus did not COM
mend this splrit-neither did he condemn
IL, but the fact that he used the express
sion will cause us to raise the question,
(which is better-the new or the old?"
There are among us people who are
ever striving after the new simply because
It is new, in thought and in material de-
velopment. There are extreme and gro
tesque radicals who declare that every
thing is wrong. They would not only de-
stroy error, but would tear down the in
situations which the best thought Of man.
kind has preserved for ages. The church
should be eliminated from civilization.
GopusuInents should be abolished. Man
should be permitted to follow his personal
impulses in every particular. The mar
riage bond is a fetter which should be cas-
of. These men would make a new earth,
where II righteousness did not prevail
something else would.
ION the other hand there is a form Of
conservatism equally extreme and gro
tesque. One form is the conservatism Of
Ignorance, and we partake Of this when
ever we condemn something which we do
not understand; then there is the con-
servatism of intolerance. This form Is
shown in those people who are willing to
have Investigation only into the history of
the Bible by those who will not publish
their conclusions unless they conform to
the previous ideas Of the intolerant con-
servative.
Form of TImId Conservatism.
Then there is the form Of timid con-
servatism, which, recognizing the evils in
existing things, would rather bear with
them than to adopt some new idea. 1t Is
said that both the extreme radical and
the extreme conservative are necessary to
our development and II a proper advance.
That the former pushes into things I'M
known and would entangle the world in
theories were it not for the latter, who
hold down his exuberance; and that by &C
ton Of both forces only do we move in
orderly procession to higher planes of de-
velopment.
1.-THE correct position to take, however,
seems to be one really involving neither
Idea, but that people should approach every
subject with the spirit of the truth-seeker,
who is willing to change his ideas when
assured OF the truth OF the new theory,
but who honors the old, not because 1t Is
old. but because It has done good. A man
with spirit will be termed a radical by
the extreme conservatives and he VIII be
called reactionary by the extreme radicals,
but he will belong to no school Of thought,
for when he does his investigation, un-
consciously. maybe, he will be drawn to-
ward substantiating some theory or ie-
inforoing some position. The Bible Is the
best exponent of this idea OF truth-seeking
II tells not only of a Christ who lived in
Gaiiliee, but of a Christ who is with Us
today, and will be with us forever; not Of
a holy spirit OF which was manifest on the
day of Pentecost, but of d spirit which is
alive and revealing truth to us today. It
tells OF the truths which we're recognized
when II was written and It stands with
open face to those truths which may be
learned later. Playing this part 1t is
called radical among conservatives and Is
called conservative among radicals. 1t is
neither. It is the exponent of truth and
no truth can be foreign to it,"