The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-15
EDDY TALKS OF
POETIC RELIGION
Symbolic Language of Scrip
ture Should Appeal to High
er Thought in Man.
NEWSPAPER HAS ITS PLACE
LIVING MESSAGES READ BE-
TWEEN THE LINES.

From Common Sense TO Poetry In
Religion" was the topic chosen by Rev.
Frank Fay Eddy for his sermon at the
services of the First Unitarian society
in Unity hall yesterday
The unity quartette rendered the an
them, "Just AS 1 Am"
The text chosen by the speaker was
from Isaiah, 55:12, For We shall go
forth with joy and be led forth with
peace; the mountains and the hills
shall shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands,"
1.-The second Isaiah" said the speak
er, was a great prophet because a
great poet. His Imagination runs riot
and his dreams of Israers future can
only be expressed in figures of speech.
To foretell with literal eXactness
events, discoveries or inventions NAV
be interesting as an exhibition of how
with bold guesses an ingenious infer
ences men may anticipate the facts to
be. But he who plants a dream in hui
man hearts by putting it in the form OF
promise waves creative wand
plants the seed of an ideal in the soil
of life. So this great prophet of the
exile speaks to us as well as to his
own people and time. We may not be
looking for coming of the Lord to a
redeemed and purified earth, but with
our nobler ideal of cleansing and re-
deeming the world to fit our own better
aspirations we, too, anticipate q
time, as William Morris sings
when all shall be better than we'll and
we shall go forth with joy and be lead
forth with peace. In the poetic idea
the prophet strikes a universal note. II
is the business of the church to :alk
the language of the soul. When we face
the universe as living soul we find il
full of symbols and persOnificatiDnS
made by those who have passed along
the road of life before us.
In conclusion Mr.. Eddy said: "a
wonderful thing is the daily paper OF
our modern life. 1t comes to our break
| fast table or our desk vibrant with the
restlessness, and intensity and many
| sidedneSs of our time. 1t is filled with
news from home and abroad; with
news of Cuban intervention, of Chinese
uprisings. of business failures AND
| railroad projects. Yet there is not al
of the news down in black and white
The soul with poetic sympathy anC
| spiritual understanding will read be-
| tween the lines the living messages
expressive of a teeming world Of souls
in the strain and stress of action. Here
we have the history of the day. history
| damp from the press, crude and nee
esSarily inaccurate, but he who reads
it and finds only doubtful facts, bar
gains and market quotations, misread
| it. The newspaper has its place in q
| busy and complex social system. Il
has to deal with the passing facts OF
the day as facts and has little to dc
with their spiritual Interpretation. It's
| guide must necessarily be common
sense. But the pulpit, too, has its place
and its mission even in the most prac-
! teal age. 1t is related to the news.
paper as an Interpreter. but occupie.
a distinctly different field. The news.
paper not even the Sunday newspaper
ought not to be a competitor of pulpit
If there is any relationship between the
| increase of newspaper readers and the
decline of sermon hearers, a mistake
has been made somewhere. 1t is anC
| has been the business of the pulpit t.
speak the language of the soul. Tt
| deal with man as a poet, as well as {
| cultivator of turnips; to symbolic anC
personify; to awake responsiveness tC
sublimity, truth and beauty in nature
and human nature; to arouse aspiration
and spiritual ambition. In fact from
the pulpit may be expected all things
which suggest and arouse communion
with the divine in all it's phases.