Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-03
BY Rev. DR.. William E. Barton.

world, with its present tides and seasons.
is here. and will be here, thousands or
years after we are gone. The world Is
brand new The fight thus far is mere
skirmish For the first time since the
apostles died, Christianity is ready for the
long look.
And too, the world is ready for the
long look For the first few centuries
after its beginning Christianity was re-
garded by its enemies as transltory
phenomenon. Another persecution. and 1t
would be oblterated And even down TO
a hundred years ago it was not 1nfre-
quent for men counted wise to say that
Christianity would soon be a thing of the
past. 1 do not know of any recent book
worth reading that holds that view The
enemies of Christianity now are ready to
concede to it long future
1t may then be truthfully said that botn
the world and the church are ready, as
they never have been before, to take
long look into the future of Christianity
upon earth. And this requires the real
prophetic spirit Yet this would be pos
sible to him who could rightly interpret
the present; for tomorrow is the child OF
today.
1t is not probable from present indica-
tions, that the world will relapse into
savagery. This is not an absolutely GER
tain prediction. for the savage lies close
under the skin of the thinly veneered
man of civilization. war, conf1agra-
ton, a strike, mob inspired by race
ndCGeu OF mao TeN6HSc, SHO"S Us III"
and again how little we are removed
from primitive savagery. Yet. in spite
of the reactions of history, which have
ingulfed past civilization. and the utter
fallacy of the adage that revolutions
never roll backward" we may believe
that the world is permanently advanced
toward civilization. And II this is true.
it is true for all the world. The world
has no nook or Granny where the savage
can be safe. He is not between the devil
hiif iS between the
devil and the angel of civilization. Civ
ilization has come to stay, and savagery
will be driven westward and then east
ward and crushed between the wheels. or
raised to a place of glory in the trium-
phal car.
Again. it is not probable. from present
indications. that the world will go over
to godlessness. This affirmation also re-
ness is not small. Yet man is almost, not
quite, incurably religious. Nations be-
| come debased. not goddess. Even those
fungi of the soul which belong to some
ligious, testify to the natural religious
nature of man. They give that which
Is holy unto dogs, these childless. faith
less women. but even that gift has it's
evidential value In the prediction OF the
permanence Of faith.
Again. Christianity has nothing to fear
from any other religion. We thought
that before. but in an unreckoning way.
We know it now. For the first time in
the history Of the world we have sci
ence of religion. We study religion COM
paratively, as we study biology AS we
study the hand Of man, comparing 1t
bone by bone. muscle by muscle. artery
by artery, nerve by nerve. with the paw
of lion. the fiipper of whale and the
wing of bird, so now we study religions
by methods that permit not only the con-
trast of dissimilar but the comparison Of
similar features. For the first time we
know the other religions. We can tes-
tify to the light that is in 1.-The light Of
Asia and compare it with 1.-The light that
lighteth every man that cometh into the