The news & observer., 1905-11-05

come change too greedily and ex
pect from progress more thar
can ever give, to cherish just re-
verence for the past. If the temple
has fallen to pieces and requires tC
be rebuilt on a larger scale. let, US
remember the pious ambitions and
devout hopes which went to the rails
ing of the former House, as well as
the prophets and the saints who
worshipped within its walls. If wor-
ship has a beauty which it wanted in
the former time, let us recall the high
Solemnity of the Sacrament in the
days of our youth in the Scots Kirk
the tables laid with pure white linen;
the entrance of the elders carrying
the sacred elements in procession;
the singing of the One HunGted and
Third Psalm as the communicates
moved forward to the Holy Table;
the mystical addresses from the Song
of Solomon; the bowed heads of the
communicates; the aWe-struck faces
of the n-communicants who saw
Christ set forth visibly crucifed, and
the concluding song of praise:
Now blessed be the Lord our God.
The God of Israel,
Who only doeth wondrous things,
In glory that excel"
If there be hours when younger
men rejoice over the decay of dog
ma, let them remember that every
doctrine was a visible form of some
living truth, and see that they re-
joice not because everlasting prin-
ciples of the spiritual life be denied,
but only because they are receiving
more fitting expression. And if a
change must come in the State let
no one practise not haste, for our
English nation has grown by reforma-
ton and not by revolution, and ours
is
"a land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where freedom broadens slowly
down
From precedent to precedent"
But one may also fairly appeal to
the generation whose hearts are in
the past, whether without disloyalty
to the way wherein they have walk
ed and the ideas which have been
dear to them, they ought not to well
come the signs of Gods guidance
as He leads His people forward. and
to believe that God has better things
in store for us than any which He has
yet done. 1t is wise to preserve dying
eXcellencies and TO check evil ten
denotes. but it is not piety to deny
the presence of Christ in history and
the progress Of the race. Our day
has it's own faults. and it is we'll
that prophets should lift. up their
voices against the luxury and slack
ness of society. But let us fix in our
minds that upon the whole things
are better than they have ever been
in any period of the past, and that
therefore the Incarnation OF Christ
has had more power and glory. And
the evidence for this hopeful estimate
is not far to seek or difficult to ap-
preciate.
A golden halo, for instance. sur
rounds the first age of Christianity
and We imagine the Apostolic Church
as home of all the virtues. We even
speak as if a religious body of today
would show poorly beside the Chris
tians of st. Paul. No doubt there
are disheartened disputes in the
Church of our tins. and a few Chris
tians may disgrace the name they
bear by dishonorable conduct, yet
there is no branch of Christ's Church
today in our land which is as low
in tone and treats it's ministers as
badly as some of the early Christian
communities. From one end of the
year to the other they were quarrel
ling-the Jews with the Gentiles, ano