Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-12-29
ABBOTT DEFENDS HIMSELF.
He Writes a Letter That Goes to the
Worry Heart of Thinus.

Very Heart Of Things.
New York, Dec. 28.--The Rev. DR..
Lyman Abbott has made this written
statement In request to an interview
regarding his utterances on God of
| Science"
your request for information re-
specting the sermon delivered by. me
Sunday evening, Dec. Is, in Appleton,
Chapel, Harvard University, is received.
The sermon was not written; 1t was
delivered as all my addresses are, ex-
| temporaneously. Its theme was THE
Divine Presence" it's object, to avyak-
en- in the consciousness Of the con-
gregation the sense Of that presence OF
God which is the foundation of relig
ion and the inspiration Of life. 1t
contained nothing which I have not
spoken word and printed page, for
years. 1t followed along the lines OF
i an address delivered in Des Moines be-
fore the national Congregational coun-
Gil. Oct. 10. 1904.
1.-THE conception Of God as first
great cause, who. ages ago, set in mo-
ton certain secondary causes, which
control the world, and with which he
interferes from time to time as exig-
ency may require. is giving place to a
conception Of one great eternal, under-
lying cause, as truly operative today
as He was in the days Of old. This
energy is an Intelligent energy. The
relations of the physical world are In
telligent relations. Science does not
create. 1t discovers them. Science
thinks the thoughts of God after him."
while science has thus been Lead
ing US to see God In physical nature.
philosophy has been leading us t., see
God in all the events of history. The
doctorine of evolution, which iAnot the
same as Darwinism, Is the doctrine
that the worlds progress is from a
lower to a higher stage, from SIM
pick to more complex condition. Thus
history is no longer the mere rl,ord
Of great events or the story OF great
lives; 1t is the philosophical unfolding
of great development, the end and
issue Of which is the kingdom Of God
on earth.
But has this God any relation to
the Individual. SO that we can have
some consciousness Of him and some
connection with him? Or is this an
invisible curtain between the soul and
this power In nature-this righteous
director of history? Literature is the
Interpreter of life, and to literature we
turn for an answer to this question.
And this answer Is given to us by the
great poets and by no one more clear
ly and beautifully than by Tennyson:
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and
spirit can meet;
Closer Is He than breathing and near
er than hands or feet"
"The notion of humanized God sit
ting in the center of the universe rul-
ing things is gone and in the place OF
this science has brought us bsck to
this: we are ever in the presence Of
the Infinite; and history has brought
us back to this: There Is power not
ourselves that makes for righteous
ness and literature has brought us
back to this: Spirit with spirit can
meet, closer Is He than breathing.
nearer than hands Of feet Would yon
think the personality was gone because
1t was operative before your eyes?
"What we mean by personality is
this the infinite and eternal energy
from which all things proceed, is an
energy that thinks. that feels, thai
purposes and does, and is thinking and
feeling and purposing and doing as q
conscious life OF which ours Is only
poor and broken reflection. Too long
I think, we have stood at the foot Of
the cross or at the door OF the toni
and not seen the stone rolled away, and
the triumphant Savior emerging. Too
long we have thought OF the life Of