Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1921-12-15
AVS RELIGION
MUST ADVANCE
SOME FUNDAMENTALS" is
TITLE OF SERMON BY
JUDGE REID


tlrely to the pursuit of a profession
which in the popular notion, of some
classes at least, is not much related
to theology; and which, moreover, is
jealous mistress who demands all
the time of her admirer, and so I
could hardly be expected to advance
any ideas on religion that will not
seem much like threshed chaff to you
who have heard many sermons" SAID
Judge A. H. Reid, in a sermon on
Some Fundamentals delivered last
Sunday morning at the Universalist
Laymen's service
c. A. Balcomb, of the Wausau Bus
mess Institute, presided, and Karl
Mathie gave the prayer and benedic-
ton
My only hope this morning is that
my long sitting in the pews and
looking up to the pulpit may have
given me slightly different point OF
view from that which the minister
gets in looking down from the pull
pit to the pews," continued the judge.
And since the pews are not always
very readily communicative and few
of those who listen regularly ever
really speak out the faith that they
have, it may be useful to have an
occasional one break silence.
Must Keep Pace
Mans religion in order to fill the
place in his life which is should, must
2 keep pace with the advance of human
knowledge. 1t must keep pace, at
least with the progress in education
of the mass of the people. The learn
ed man who lived in different peri
DDS of the Christian era, and whose
names are remembered today as the
discoveries of great truths in respect
to the universe, disclosed knowledge
which is taught as elementary to al
most every school boy of today s.
Correlatively the simple formulas in
respect to God, creation and the rela-
lions of mankind to both, which salts
4 fled the minds of the uneducated and
never-reading men of long ago, must
necessarily now be cast aside as
childish and unavailing to those who
live in the light of today's knowledge
of the universe.
"And if the creed, the teachings and
the program of the church today can
not satisfy the reason and judgment
OF the open minded reading and edu-
Gated person of today and tomorrow
whose days are past and service done
Mans conception of God and Of
heaven must, of course, at all times
comport with mans knowledge of the
universe and of the forces acting with
in it. There can be no concept which
is not based upon knowledge and ex-
perience. Anc so 1t was
inevitable in the time when Genesis
was written, that it should be set
down that God made man in his own
image, and that God was simply an
all-poWerful man, who in the day OF
our first parents, walked in the gar
den in the cool of the evening and
met and talked with Adam race 10
face. 1t would have been mucn more
nearly true to say that man conceived
God in mans own image"
Caused DeSertiOn
Judge Reid drove home the fact that
any revelation of God in ancient times
would have mystified and not enlight-
ened mankind had it been consistent
with what we know today For primi-
tive man. he emphasized, the childlike
story of creation as found in Genesis.
was fully satisfying and sufficient.
Judge Reid reviewed the creed that
and were thereafter born in sin.
When mind moves forward to con
slider the creed, it turns to smile that
such vagary should have been cur
rent so rididuously long, Facing
such creed there have been many
and many have followed i, with eyes
closed, ''but there are many he said.
who have deserted the pews altogeth-
er and found in the church no ap-
peal to their sound judgment, and no
theory or purpose that could grip
and hold their lives.
1T is the first great task of
liberal church to save from utter
ship-wreck those who break from the
ancient moorings that once have held
them to what is now an impossible
creed-to bring them back to faitn
in an infinite and loving father of all
and into full accord with the gentle,
yet wondrous teachings of the Found
er of our Christian faith.
We have reached time when, in