Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-03


He who beholds the changes which
have been going on in all departments
of human thought and action for the
past few decades, sees but one little
segment Of Gods eternal program,
which is the program Of all life. The
old is ever giving way, ever being
transformed into the new. To stand
still, to repeat the same old things
which have been repeated for genera
tons, to think the same old thoughts,
and walk in the same old ways, is not
only foolish but fatal.
The great source of all life and all
being whom we call God is forever
discarding the old, or rather, throwing
it upon the pile of refuse, to use it
sooner or later as the material from
which to fashion something better.
Man must follow in the pathway
marked out by God in this direction
as in all others, or die. The flowers
fade and return % dust, only to be
seized upon by the life forces of the
following season, to be fashioned into
flowers still more fragrant and beauti-
full. The physical universe will grow
cold and die and disintegrate, only to
be In future cons refashioned into new
worlds and new systems. And the
thoughts and hopes and aspirations
and dreams of the human world as we
know it today will, like those of other
ages, and other days, lose their life
and their power, only to furnish, in a
sense, the material by which better
things will come into being.
In the practical affairs of life man
has ever been an apt pupil to learn
this lesson. Every step in his progress
has been an appropriation of the old,
and recreation Of the old. Emanci-
pating himself from the thralldom Of
| the days that are gone, he has found
better way, and has risen to some
thing higher The old stage coach is
transformed into the steam locomotive.
! the electric car and the automobile;
the voice Of man is silent before the
messenger electricity, and the wireless
biography; the birch bark canoe of
| the savage has evolved, by perfectly
| natural stages, the mighty ocean liner,
| and, sad to relate, the club and stone
| of the early belligerent has become the
| belching cannon and the deadly Mauser
| rife Of today. The man who opens his
| eyes on the present world beholds
FORCES and conditions which have so
outgrown those Of the past that he
may well wonder if it is indeed the
same world as that inhabited bv his
| grandfather.
These material changes have come
| into being because Of the progress and
| change in the world of thought. We
nave new conception Of the universe.
| a new view of the forces of nature a
| new comprehension Of the meaning and
nature of governments, and a new APP
probation of the place of the indi-
vidual in the social structure. What
the great rank and file of those of a
| few generations ago held to and de-
| tended, has been found to be made
quate to longer satisfy the heart and
brain Of humanity
| The greatest mistake which the hu-
man race has ever made is to suppose
| that in the supreme and serious con-
| siderations, beliefs and conceptions of
the religious life we have ali exception
TO the universal program Of human
| life and progress.
| Nowhere has there been more
| progress, and in no realm of his &C
tivities have more marvellous transit
lions been brought about than in those
| things which have been supposed to
make up the religious life Of human
fly.
From the crude and less than child
| ish conceptions of our distant ances-
tors their blind superstition, their
| namelesS dread of the unseen forces
| "AAOAA NCAC ctOOuI Ill6IIp IIlGlT S6IlS6 III
terror at the evils that walked in
darkness, their belief that the great
| est Deity and his associates were
| beings who needed to be coddIed and
placated and feared, all this has passed
| away, or is surely passing away, for
| something better, saner, more COM
| forting and satisfying, as man begins
to understand the universe of which he
| is part. No longer do we think Of
] God q h6tnor far q
| seated on the distant throne Of some
heaven made resplendent by earthly
| jewels and receiving the adulations Of
multitudes in terms which might
| please some eastern potentate, but as
the great Spirit Of Love and Truth
which permeates and vibrates in every
atom Of his creation. No longer do
we think of religion as consisting in
holding certain oft-repeated and long
revered forms of expression, but as
that conception and conduct of life
which will enable every human being
and all human beings to best realize
their highest end for themselves and
to bring forth the best end for the race
as a whole.
No longer do sensible people sup
| pose that the great God Of the uni
verse who created man spoke his mes
| sage long ago never to speak to man
| again, but that in every age and in
| all races he has continued to speak,
and will continue to speak, not to one
or two or a few, but to all men who
! will listen to him. No longer do We
suppose that the conceptions of our
ancestors of the first century, the
fourth the tenth or the fourteenth, or
| any other, were the ones who were
| particularly and specially commits
| stoned by heaven to tell US what we
| should and should not believe. All
men who think, all men who open their
! eyes to see what is in this world about
| US, and to discern what is going on
| all the time, recognize the vast
progress which is taking place in the
religious life and conceptions of man,
as in other things. In no place is there
seen such rapid transition as in the
church life Of today. While we may
! well wonder what will be the favorite
| mode of communication and travel at
| the middle of the present century, we
may wonder still more what will be
| the essential elements in the religious
| life of the same period and of the
periods beyond.
And yet in the face Of all this there
are thousands of so-called religious
! teachers who refuse to see and acknowl-
edge these things. Having eyes they
see not and having ears they hear not.
Forever barking back to the days which
are gone, they claim to believe that all
| truth and all revelation came to those
of other days. The thing which is old
which has for a long time been held
and observed, and believed and taught.
this is the right and the only right
And this spirit which has so predom-
! inently prevailed has had a mighty eff
feet in holding back from real progress
the most real and vital part of man.
But God lives and his truth is
triumphant, and living and vital. His
race is falling into line with his pro-
gram The dark shadows OF the past