Race is Getting Better

Washington, D.C., 1905

Rev. Dr. Van Schaick, Jr., Finds Consolation in Improved Conditions

"In religion there has been too much talk about 'vile worms of the dust.' We are bad enough, but as a race we are getting better," said Rev. John Van Schaick, Jr., in a sermon to his congregation of the Church of Our Father yesterday morning.

The sermon was from the text, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice — holy, acceptable unto God — which is your reasonable service."

"In this sentence Paul gathers up the whole range of Christian duty and puts it in the mighty word sacrifice," the pastor said. "Far back in Hebrew history sacrifice meant the burning of something on an altar for the sake of atoning for sin. Rams, bullocks, goats, and doves were offered up, and it was felt that the smoke ascending to heaven bore away sin and its penalty also. Little by little came a higher conception: 'Sacrifice thou dost not desire, else would I give it,' cried David. 'The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart thou wilt not despise.' 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice,' said Christ.

Thus in our day sacrifice has come to mean a giving up of the lower for the sake of the higher. In this sense it is not a hard and joyless word, it is full of light and peace. The way of sacrifice is the way along which the treasures of life may be found."

—Washington Post, May 1, 1905, p. 12.