The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-01-16
" II | [ NJ A N
THEME OF
LECTU URE
REV. w. 7. BROWN GIVES INITIAL
NUMBER OF SERIES
Resume Of Whitman, His Life and
Purpose of Writing Entertain
in9ly Set Forth.

cTcu lecture upon WdlI w hi'ihe'h
10 an appreciative audience. Rev.
Brown said In part:
There is, IL You think about 1t, a
wonderfully complete resume OF the
whole history of mans attempt to hnd
an express religion in this statement
which Whitman has given of the pur-
pose of his writing Think for mo-
ment what the history OF mans rehg'
ious quest has been. To begin ~ltn,
primitive man had no religion. he
had only In himself and in surrounding
nature and In the events and eXper-
fences Of his existence the element oil
religion. There is no difference OF
opinion among the best students OF re-
ligion today as to the fact tnat re-
ligion, like everything else that marks
the life of man. had a perfectly natural
origin No scientific student oil re-
ligion-in fact, no man who accepts
the results of science or Its great lun-
damental principles, believes that re-
ligion ever came or ever can come by
what is called revelation" Religion
is rooted in human life, mas arisen nat
urally out OF human experience. as
surely as a tree or n blade OF grass
grows cut of the soil. And II should
be noted. too, that what Whitman Is
seeking is not so much a theology or
an explanation of religion, as he Is
seeking the thing itself.
If You think OF the flrst beginnings
of the Christian religion as appearing
In Jesus, even on the basis OF the rag
mentary record which we have of his
life-so fragmentayy and mixed wltn
legend, as to make 1t an almost I'M
possible task to separate fact from
legend in it-even on that basis, one
cannot escape the feeling that in the
mind Of Jesus religion was supreme
and theology could hardly be said to
exist. OF course, Jesus must have
had some creed OF belief, however
simple. but 1t is certain that this creed
or belief was to his mind subordinate
to life, to his own sense OF duty. his
own consciousness of loving purpose
and heroic aim.
If, now, you compare the simplicity
of the life and purpose of Jesus with
the complex system of doctrine and
dogma. Of church and council, of tenn
poral and spiritual power. which with
in a few centuries after his death
marked the whole great organization
called the Christian church, you must
see between the two the widest con-
trast You can imagine. You must see.
too, that this vast organization inter
penetrating the Roman Empire and
finally taking UP the reinS of power
wfen that empire collapsed, ruling
from the city on the Tiber almost as
Pagan Rome Itself had done,-lndeed,
In some respects eclipsing the older
empire by the assertion and exercise
of a power over kings and Kingdoms
such as the empire OF the Caesars had
never held-you must see tnat this
vast ecclesiasticism which for twelve
centuries or more completely dominat-
ed the minds and bodies of Europe,
burning at the stake or otherwise de-
stroying most of the brightest minds
of those centuries and permitting to
live only such mediocre minds as ac"
cepted its sway creating the one
period of history to which men have
given, whether rightly or wrongly, the
title of Dark Ages"-you must see,
| say, that this vast organization did
not grow out of the simple, gentle, self
sacrificing, sel1-denying spirit of the
Nazarene prophet 1t was In no sense
the propagation of religion that those
centuries aud that vast institution were
devoted tot was the propagation OF
theolgy body of doctrine or dogma.
a world-embraciDg institution. One
may find again and again all down
through those centuries beautiful re
minders, in individuals, Of the spirit
of the Nazarene-though oftener In
individuals who were suspected OF
heresy by the church or even put to
death by IT. than in those who were
in the organization Itself, from the
time Of Constantine down to and in
Guiding this very day. you Will look
utterly in vain for any reproduction OF
the spirit OF Jesus. A religious or
ganization whose motto was, mot to be
minlstered unto, but to minister
motto finding convincing embodiment
in deed and action and program and
purpose-has not thus far existed on
this earth But nothing can better ex-
press the spirit of the life Of Jesus,
even on the basis of our fragmentary
accounts of that life.
The point | wish to bring out. the
point which the history of the Chris
tian CHURCH emphasizes, Is simply this,
that the religion which the Christian
church has considered itself divinely
ordained to establish and teacn Is not
a religion that has its roots in every
human soul and in all the relationship
Of man with man, but religion whose
whole sanction springs out of the al
legged fact of supernatural revelation.
The church has said. as indeed the
whole body of Evangelical Christen-
dom, Protestant and Catholic alike Is
saying today; Here is a revelation
which God has made of his will for
men. We. the church, exist by divine
ordainment TO teacn that Will, to pre-
serve this revelation and to make it
known to all mankind"
The answer IS obvious. This church
saw that those alleged facts, all OF
them, menaced the stability Of the cen
trail scheme upon which the whole
structure of Christianity as n reveal
ed religion rests. The church has seen
could not help seeipg-that the ad'
vance Of natural science means every
where the dissolving of the very dog
mas and doctrines and suppositions
and claims upon which the structure OF
organized religion rests. That is the
explanation of the worldwide con-
flict between what is called religion
on the one side and science on the
other.
We can not any longer accept the
IDEA which many writer's have repeat
ed to us. that, while 1t has been the
function of Greece to give art to the
world. 1t has been the peculiar func-
ton of Israel to give religion to the
world There Is no truth whatever