The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-10-21
COD CROWS JUST: IS &. {.
RELIGION DEVELOPS
Our Creeds Seem TO- Grow
Smaller, Religion Widens
and Developes With
Progress. i.
Our Larger Faith Embraces q
Kinder and Juster God Than
the Theology Of Old.

Cincinnati, Ohio Oct 19.-Rev. Her
bert 9. Bigelow in a sermon last Sun
day at the Vine Street Congregational
church gave the orthodox preachers a
severe jolt when he spoke Of the Crow
ing God. His theme was in part as
follows: ,~.
A Growing God.
The house of faith in which we once
dwelt seems to US as contracted as the
streets of the little town where we were
born.
I remember the road from the farm
to the village; skirting the little lake;
emerging from the lonely woods where
a hay-stack stood, supposed to be the
nest of tramps; past the haunted house,
where the frogs croaked. maliciously on
a summer night, and the flies kept up
kind of witch's dance, while the be-
lated youth. startled by the cracking
twig beneath his feet, hurried on with
bated breath; on. past the hut where
the infidel lived; up the hill, and across
the railroad into the town; the town
with its windmill and watering-trough.
and it's lofty spires and It's wonderful
stores.
Last summer I went that way again.
Alas, the disillusionment! What a.
mean, melancholy, little place! Dis
tances had shrunk to half. The stores
had dwindled away, and the lazy little
town was as stagnant as the scum-cov-
cred pond whose mournful cricket-song
arose in the deserted streets. My child
hood memory was like sensitive plant,
touched by the hand of time, which has
shriveled up and withered away. Yet
it was I who had changed and not the
town.
The Village InfideI.
The steeple of the village church was
not half so high as it used to seem and
the creed had grown smaller than the
steeple. The room with it's rows OF
benches was diminutive and queer
enough, but how much more so the SER
mons Of that old pulpit and the religious
thought of those old days!
If we could go back now and find the
grave of the village infidel and call up
his spirit and learn the views for which
we were taught to shun him. possibly
we should discover that his unbelief
was after all only larger faith, en-
bracing a kinder and juster God than
was dreamed of in the theology Of that
2if we were to 80 back.
perhaps we also, shou1d be. called In
fidels for having over-stepped the
bounds of the village faith.
Eniargiho tho Circle.
For we have enlarged the circle OF
our thought To the Bible of the Heb
rews we have added all other Bibles.
Our God has as many different names
as there are languages among men. We
have bridged the chasm of the creeds
and have found brothers in every
church. Every tear that is shed in pity
for the race seems to US a part OF the
great atonement, and in calvary is the
symbol of that undying love which ev-
cry age has witnessed and Christ Is
one Of many who have proclaimed on
uplifted cross the truth Of heaven.
Losing Fstters, Not Faith.
In losing our fetters we have not lost
our faith We smile now at the child
ish formulas by which we thought to
encompass the Infinite.
All, more than any priest, Oh Soul, we
Too believe in God. =
But with the mystery Of God. we dare
not daily.
Are the miracles related in ancient
manuscripts better proof of God than
the miracle of the morning-glory or the
wonder Of the evening star? The town
of our childhood would be a prison for
us now, So the old creed Is a shell that
we have broken.
We saw the mighty scheme dilate
In star and blossom, sky and cloud,
And az the universe grew great
wo dreamed for it a greater God.