Year: 1876

From recent sermon by Prof. Swing.


II is not only certain that the new
sciences need not harm christian doc
tine, but it is possible they may abso-
lu.ely reform our ideas of God. When
we inherited the notion of the Almighty
being person like human person, we
fell heir to a very inferior conception.
A Deity fashioned like the colossal David
of Angelo, has not been the best form
through which or in which the human
family could behold its maker and judge.
The Deity thus embodied, thus central
lied, was too easily removed from the
homes and paths of men. All human
hearts have always thought of Him rs
being elsewhere, and hence He has been
too far away to alarm the sinful and to
comfort the sorrowing. Wicked men
have felt that they could hide from
Him; that millions and millions of miles
lay between their little actions and the
White Throne. Devout hearts have
looked up with tears, wishing for the
wings CT dove, or the wings of light
and thought, that they might fly away
and find the infinite rest In his error
and weakness, the christian has compared
his prayer to telegraph that ran from
earth to the realms Of the Father. If
any science can come with power 10 over
throw these childish symbols of Deity
aud to give us Father filling all space
with his presence, we shall all hasten
to call that science the noble benefactor
of religion. 1t must he remembered that
"pers6nal God" does not imply To-
Called or humanized God. A personal
God is a power conscious::of self-a mind
"a consciousness. To picture this mind
as a person like a king or a Judge was
the error Of the iniaDt-man. n, by de.
grees, science can remove this idea from
the earth, erase it from the memory of us
who are living and exclude it from the
generation to come, and give to the soul
belief IN a mind which penetrates and
permeates the whole universe, aud which
hence envelopes every heart, it will have
poured into mortals new motive and
into death itself new consolation. And il
does indeed seem that the new science


should it ever he established, will be fol.
lowed, not by atheism, but by new
conception of the omnipotence of God


Instead Of dressing up the Deity in the
form of Moses or David, the universe
will all become the form Of the Al.
mighty every constellation will be in


cluded in His diadem, every fowery
world be interviewer in His wreaths; ali
the floods of light become the fold.
and trains of His garments. In
all times christians have loved
here and there to venture uror
this thought. From st. John, who saw
the creative word coming from all the
universe and encamping in the Christ


to all the mystics Of the seventeenth
century the mind has attempted 20 bring
the Infinite nearer to itself. But the
fear of pantheism on the one hand, and
the feehleness of the intellect on the
other, have always come to lead the
head back 20 great man on a throne az
being the lawful representations Of the
Eternal. Oh, that some science may
come, IL come it has not, that shal


throw down our craven images in oul
temple, and shall cast our hearts into ar
omnipresent soul, as drops Of water ART
cast ints the sea DO yon desire to be


leve that a million years ago Deity
placed in certain seeds the germs Of life