How The World Has Moved

1910

Less Than a Century Ago Railroads and the Telegraph Were Deemed Impossibilities

Alexander Wells, an old citizen of Wellsville, Ohio, has a copy of an interesting and novel document issued by the school board of the town of Lancaster, Ohio, in 1828. The question of steam railroads was in its incipient stage and a club of young men had been formed for the purpose of discussing the points at issue. They desired the use of the schoolhouse for purposes of debate. This was looked upon by the members of the board an innovation bordering upon sacrilege as indicated, which is the document in the possession of Mr. Wells. It reads as follows:

"You are welcome to the use of the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such things as railroads and telegraphs are impossibilities and rank infidelity. There is nothing in the Word of God about them. If God had designed that his intelligent creatures should travel at the frightful speed of 15 miles an hour, by steam, he would clearly have foretold it through his holy prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."

Such sentiments possibly reflected the feeling, to some extent, in the days of 65 years ago, but they sound strange at the present time, when the "device of Satan" is daily carrying people over the land at the rate of 60 or 70 miles an hour. The world has progressed somewhat since 1828.

July 4 — Christ Gives the True Liberty of Soul

1886

By Rev. D. J. Baldwin

A Sabbath school lesson for the 4th of July comes before us. Can the teachers and scholars turn aside from the noise and confusion of celebrations and give a quiet hour to Bible study?

We stop right at the beginning of this lesson to consider the source of all our liberty, and why we have such a marked day while other nations do not thus celebrate one. Most certainly special blessings have fallen to us and the gifts of God have been abundant. "Thou last not dealt so with any people." Christ came to give liberty to the captives, and here he has most wonderfully shown the power of his spirit in making men free.

We all like to celebrate the blessings of civil liberties and the glory of our republic; but where would be found the glory of our national life if Christ had not opened blind eyes, and turned into the hearts of men the love of God? No true and lasting liberty ever come to men apart from the teachings of Christ and the power of his truth. Christian nations can alone be free nations; and the glory of the cross can alone give us true civil liberty. It is the power of Christ's spirit that has opened the eyes of the blind, and we owe all of our progress in national glory to him. Let us acknowledge this fact.

There will be an unusual amount of rejoicing and thanksgiving this year. Notwithstanding all that has come up on the nation in the way of trouble or disaster, still there has been wonderful progress seen in all that pertains to true life. We are advancing year by year and no one can fail to see this who reads or notices the changes that are taking place on all sides of us.

We have not yet attained into full liberty, but we have in our churches and Sunday schools laid the foundations of such liberty, and a new generation is coming on to declare the work of God and make strong the defenses of the Christian church.

How many blind eyes has Christ opened the last year? How many souls have been made free from the guilt and power of sin? There are actual results enough of the work of Christ among men to cause every one to praise God for his goodness. We are coming out into the liberty of the sons of God. We are learning to love light and truth and the souls of our fellow men. This is one of the facts that we come forward to celebrate; and one of the causes of rejoicing that touches every loyal heart in this nation to-day.

The shadows of spiritual darkness may be over us but the light is breaking. The morning of a better day has dawned; and let all true patriots praise God for it. There is liberty of soul and peace of conscience for every believer in Christ. We do not deny that much sin and spiritual darkness still reigns among the people. When Christ was on the earth he never opened all of the blind eyes. Thousands went down under his touch who never saw the light of day. He could not change the laws of life and death at once, but he could give his grace and love for all men and this should bring in the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, in God's own time.

Christ is present among men to-day, and every miracle of the past is a sign, and a glorious one, of the power of his Gospel. If Christ was anxious to have a man born blind see the glory of God in the natural world, how much more must he desire that the soul should see the glory of God in the spiritual realm!

Hence he says no one sins because he is born blind, but because he refuses to be made whole. There is too much love in Christ to allow him to leave us in our blindness. He will flash out the rays of light and truth upon our hearts, and every year shall show how much he has done for those who are walking in darkness and the shadows of death.

Even now, as we go over the old songs of a liberty loving people, and hear again the stories of a nation's salvation, we do not forget who opened the eyes of one born blind and laid the true foundation of all our blessings in church and state.

In the midst of our enthusiasm and love of country let us go back and give the Savior of lost men his right and true place in our hearts, and acknowledge him as the only true light that shines into the hearts of men.

—The Kellogg Enterprise, Kellogg, Iowa, July 2, 1886.

Maryland Churches Doing "Great Things for God"

Maryland, 1893

A Minister's Trip in Caroline Co.

Rev. J. W. Fogle writes up his recent trip through Caroline. He says The M. E. Church at Ridgely under the faithful pastoral care of W. W. Sharp, has been visited by a gracious revival and the people are planning to do "great things for God." Subscriptions are being taken to build a much needed church which will cost about $3,000. It has never been the writer's lot to visit a more intelligent and wide awake people than live in this enterprising town.

The people of Hillsborough also share the labors of Rev. W. W. Sharp, and the revival fires have begun to burn. Several have professed having faith in Christ, and the interest generally is increasing. The M. E. Church here has had of late ample opportunity for testing the result of short term pastorates. In less than two years they have had four different pastors. But under the faithful ministry of the present pastor every interest of the church is being served and the church is taking on new life.

The pastor of Burrsville charge is Rev. J. E. Graham. Rev. Graham is an energetic, earnest man, and the interests of the church are being well served on this charge. The charge now consists of four appointments, namely: Wesley, Thawley's, White's and Sheppard's.

Thawley's has had a great revival.

The extra meeting at Wesley was good, and much interest is manifested in the general work of the church. The Epworth League there is working by the motto, "Look up, Lift up."

White's is moving on to victory in Jesus' name.

Sheppard's Church, located at the junction of the roads leading from Burrsville and Denton to Greensborough has known better days than at present. But a revival of religion would cause the church there to "put on her strength."

At Greensborough the veteran soldier in God's army and one who has worn the laurels of victory through years of hard fighting, ministers to the congregation of the M. E. Church in holy things. The revival fires are burning, and this church, conservative in its nature, is inquiring "for the old paths."

It is proposed to render the oratorio, "Esther, the Beautiful Queen," at Masonic Hall, Denton, on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, December 26 and 27. Sixty persons will take part, among them some of the best musicians in the county. Prof. James Swann has been for several weeks training the voices, and this should guarantee the success of the entertainment.

The grand Christmas bazar to be held in Mozart Hall, Greensborough, on December 14, 15 and 16, will be under the auspices of the ladies of Holy Trinity Church, and will be an interesting event. Mozart Hall will be a bower of beauty during the progress of the bazar.

Rev. J. D. C. Hanna, of Asbury M. E. Church, Wilmington, will preach on Burrsville circuit tomorrow as follows: Wesley, 10:00 a. m., Sheppard's, 2:30 p. m., and White's, 7:15 p. m.

—Denton Journal, Denton, Maryland, Dec. 9, 1893, p. 3.

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.

Can Human Nature Be Changed?

1910

Curiously enough, in every generation since Christ was born there have been large numbers of men, often followers of this very Christ, who have held as a sort of fundamental postulate their philosophy that you cannot change human nature. One who reads the literature of the ages carefully will see that often the great stumbling block in the way of human progress and emancipation has been this obsession of good people. So deep-rooted has it been that it has passed into proverbs: "Whatever has been must always be," "Whatever is, is right," "As is a boy so is the man," and, quoting an older cynic, "Can a leopard change his spots," "Temperament is a fixed quantity," "Human nature is the same in every age." These proverbs are generally coined by good people. It has been in the church that this philosophy has been prevalent, as well as among the scoffers.

And yet the fact of transformation of human nature is the very center and core of Christ's Gospel, and how his disciples could ever doubt it, and remain his disciples, is one of the mysteries and paradoxes of history. It is simply another of those strange misunderstandings of the Gospels that one witnessed among those Christians who could not see that slavery and Christianity had no part together. But this is not the strangest thing. Far stranger is the fact that fully half of the Christians of today are still under the spell of this delusion. Not long ago a great writer called the attention of the world to the fact that if reformers would only take human nature as it is, they would stop reforming. To his mind reforms originate in an idealizing of human nature it cannot stand. Many Christians share that view. On our way home from church one Sunday a good Christian mother, worried by some tendencies of her young boy, remarked that she supposed there was no hope of changing him because he was born so. You cannot change human nature, half of our Christians believe.

Now, the Christians of the early ages, and even of the middle ages, had only the promise of the Gospel to convict them of error — and, to be sure, that ought to have been enough — but the Christians of today have that and this fact, too, that history and most literature is nothing but the record of a gradual transformation of human nature. And not only in individuals, but in whole nations and communities. For civilization is nothing but the collective expression of the human nature of the time.

The passing of civilization from barbarism to the semi-Christian civilization of the middle ages is the history of the transformation of human nature. The passage from the cruelty and feudalism and vice of the middle ages to our more Christian civilization of today is further story of the alchemistic change in the human heart by the deeper and larger application and understanding of the Gospel. The promise of Christianity is the transformation of human nature into divine nature, the subduing of the animal in man by the rising, conquering, spiritual. This needs no proof. It is the whole asservation of the Gospel. If it fail, then Christianity is a failure. But perhaps it might be helpful to us, and deepen our faith in the power of Christianity to accomplish what it purposes to do. If we find that history, as we said, is the record of the fulfillment of this promise we think we can show it is by looking at two or three great spheres of human conduct where the change has been manifested.

There is a passage in Sienkiewicz's "Quo Vadis," where a wretch named Chilo, who has been plotting against the Christians — it is the time of the first Christians in Rome — falls into the hands of the Christians, and one of them, the giant slave Ursus, is ready to crush him to death, when the Apostle Peter rises from the table and speaks these words: "The Saviour said this to us: 'If thy brother has sinned against thee, chastise him; but if he is repentant, forgive him.' " Then Glaucus, against whose life Chilo had been especially plotting, turns to Chilo and says: "May God forgive thy offenses, as I forgive them in the name of Christ." The point is that Chilo cannot believe his own ears and eyes. When at last he finds himself free and tells the Romans they will not believe it.

In every century, even within the church, men keep on saying that forgiveness of the enemy is impossible; revenge is the natural law of life, of man as well as of the animal; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, is all humanity is capable of. Even today one meets Christians who cannot believe in this possibility of forgiveness as a law of life. And yet we find that every age in history has been full of exquisite instances of it. We find many a soul, like St. Francis, practicing it. Today there are millions of Christians practicing it, and thousands, from Tolstoy to the humblest apostle, preaching it. The church enjoins it upon every new member. We have seen thousands of unforgiving natures since Christ's day so transformed by the divine alchemy of Christ's Gospel that they have begun to practice it with ease. It has become the universal law of thousands, yet good men have said, and still say, you cannot change human nature.

As you go up and down Europe you find everywhere dungeons where slaves were kept. When Christ was born slavery was as common an institution and as much accepted as in the order of society as marriage. As the divine leaven of Christianity began to beget in men the worth and dignity of the human soul and the doctrine of brotherhood and human rights, the prophets began to see the evil of slavery and its inherent contradiction to the spirit of the new religion. But as they spoke they heard the same old story: Slavery has always been. It seems to have been a sort of divine institution. One cannot make over the human race. We did make over the human race and no one is now left, since 1860, to lift his voice for its existence. The owning of man by man is gone, and soon other indirect forms of industrial slavery will go with it.

Some time ago we were in Nuremberg. We climbed the hill to the old castle, and there we were shown through the great tower where all the torture machines are preserved. We saw the roasting pans, the racks for stretching and crushing bones, the other instruments too horrible to mention, along with the iron virgin, who once embraced hundreds of miserable creatures in her spiked arms. And the awful thing was not that men practiced this torture, but that they enjoyed it and flocked to see it. But one day a prophet arose in Nuremberg and said: "This torture is horrible, utterly inhuman, against all the sweet mercy and pity of Jesus Christ, unworthy of our civilization. It must stop." When he had spoken it was the good people who discouraged him. They said: "Yes, it is inhuman and un-Christian, but you cannot stop it. People have always tortured, therefore they always will. It is part of the order of civilization, because it has always been. You cannot change." Needless to say, it was stopped in all civilized countries in 100 years, and where once the whole city loved it, not one but who would shudder at it now. You can change human nature completely.

One of the last great barbarities, most inhuman of all, a pagan institution to linger on in our Christian civilization, is war. The prophetic souls know that it is doomed and must go, because it is an anachronism in Christianity, and because the forces are now at work before which it needs must fall. But the one thing that prevents its going in a generation is this obsession of good people, that you cannot change human nature. The church alone could stop wars tomorrow did it believe its own Gospel had power to do what it claims to do, and did it dare believe that human nature could be so changed as to see the reasonableness of Christian settlement of national disputes as already it settles individual differences. It has been changed to do that. Once all men settled personal disputes with fists. That passed, and the duel came. That has gone, and we have the courts. More and more private quarrels are now adjudicated before they even reach the courts, by diplomacy. This evolution has gone on side by side with all this absurd talk of not being able to change human nature. And the change from wars as the method of adjudication between groups of people to international courts is in this inevitable evolution; but it limps and halts because good people cling to this outgrown obsession: You cannot change human nature. Wars have always been, therefore they must always be.

We are writing this editorial to call the attention of these good people to the effect that this obsession will prove false here as it has everywhere. You can do away with war soon because you can change human nature. The earth is full of the signs that human nature is changing very fast in this regard. The calendar of 1909 printed in our last two issues is only a slight indication of what is going on in the mind of the world. Read it carefully, and remember that 50 years ago one could not have written one. World unity, international peace, world federation, Hague courts, arbitration treaties, brotherhood of man — these are the growing words everywhere. They betoken a change coming over human nature. Link yourself up to it and hasten the transformation with your Christian faith. The change of human nature is easy to a Christianity really believed. — The Christian Work and Evangelist.

--Reprinted in The Daily Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Feb. 21, 1910, p. 7.

Note: OK, here, this has to be the classic article, if there ever was one, on the progress of humanity, the changing of human nature, because of religion. We've probably all heard it, that there was this sense before World War I, then great disillusionment for such a point of view, made much worse by the next war. And add to that the various things of psychiatry, Freud, Jung, and things were never so optimistic again, although of course their aim was reconciliation and adjustment for at least good coping.

Humanity's Great Helper — The Divine Friend

1910

The long foretold advent of Jesus the Divine Friend has made a tremendous difference for the race. We are not now living in the feted atmosphere of the Roman decadence, nor are our higher interests mocked by the Hellenic frivolity. The whole tone of life is better, and its promise fairer. And the glory of all this mental quickening and moral improvement belongs to Jesus Christ.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea it meant that God had sent to humanity a helper. Humanity of and by itself is poor and weak and wanting; it requires assistance from beyond itself, and the help that it most urgently requires is salvation. The world's greatest need is a Saviour, and Jesus Christ came to be that redeemer. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus," said the angel, "for he shall save his people from their sins."

Comment: It's common to hear that before the World Wars there was a more optimistic outlook on human nature through the spread of religion and at least the conventional acceptance of its tenets. Then after World War I, the depths of sin were seen to be still pretty well ingrained, maybe not the same degree of progress as imagined. This tiny article doesn't get into all that in any explicit way. But you can see a hint of it in the contrast that Christianity brought between now and the long-ago decadence and frivolity. The difference is a "mental quickening and moral improvement," which is the phrase that brings this to mind. Society getting better and better, then the Lord comes!

Little articles like this, unless attribution is given to a publication, are apparently just little orphans of thought. They were obviously distributed far and wide by some syndicating agency for a fee, and used as fillers and content. I imagine someone hacking them out, hack writing, or maybe, like this one in particular, they're snippets from sermons.

Children Seen in New Light with Coming of Christ

1908

Jesus the Light of Childhood. He, the only begotten Son of his Father, who had been in heaven since before the world was made; he who had shared in the making of this world, for we are told that "without him was not anything made," even he left his high estate, and so humbled himself that he came down to earth to live among men, being born of a woman.

Mary was that mother mild
And Jesus Christ that little child.

The Divine became a child, that a child might become almost divine. His birth in Bethlehem wrought a great change in the estimate of the child. Hitherto the elder or the Pharisee had been the ideal, but Jesus set a child in the midst, saying, "Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." And from that hour the whole fabric of childhood was changed.

Roman parents, perhaps the most cultured parents in the world, were guilty of the grossest cruelty to their new-born children, even abandoning them by carrying them to the Velabrum, a district in Rome, near Mount Aventine, where they were left to die or to be gathered up by ill-disposed people, who maimed them by curving their backs or shortening their limbs, in order to use them as beggars. "That workshop of human misfortunes, those shambles of infants," that was what the Velabrum was.

When the influence of Christ was felt, and Christianity began to hold sway, this crime against innocents was abated. Constantine, the first Christian emperor, put forth a proclamation to turn parents from using a murderous hand on their new-born children, and to dispose their hearts to the best sentiments. And the "abandoned" children were gathered from the Velabrum to be brought up honestly; foundling hospitals were established later, houses of mercy for children were founded by Justinian, and gradually all sorts of charities for the welfare of children have been developed, such as aid societies, creches, kindergartens, hospitals for children, schools for defective children, reformatory institutions, etc. It is the far-reaching influence of the fact that Christ was born in Bethlehem. — Christian Herald.

Get Back to Teachings of Christ, Christianity Will Live

1922

World's Need, Says Astor

Teachings of Christ Must Guide Awakening Christianity to Live, Thinks Viscount

By DAVID M. CHURCH
(Staff Correspondent I.N. Service)

LONDON, Nov. — World codes must be revived in conformity with the teachings of Christ, according to Viscount Astor, if Christianity is not to become a failure.

The world is described by new points of view regarding the position of women, class distinction, the movement against alcoholism, the relations of capital and labor, the brotherhood of man. Hosts of citizens are challenging these new advances, the viscount said.

America is now in the midst of a great moral struggle that may influence the trend of Christianity, the viscount said. America gave up intoxicants, but as with many a man who has done likewise, the American people are experiencing a moral struggle as to whether or not they are able to carry out their resolution. The cause of Christianity must be affected one way or another by the result of this struggle.

France is a drawback to the progression of Christianity, the viscount indicated.

"France," he says, seems often very materialistic. Women's outlook, which is usually more moral and spiritual than man's has but little influence on French national policy.

"Parisian life exemplifies too closely the saying: 'Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'

"On the whole French opinion even in the provinces, considers man to be a sensual animal, and expects the government to make unchastity as safe for him as possible."

Through the world, as in France, temperance and chastity are challenges, the viscount said, but Christianity has not failed.

"What the world needs now is fearless leadership and honest thinking. Democracy and Christianity have not failed here and when they have been properly tried, Christianity has not failed. It cannot have failed, because it has not been really tried, fully applied and understood.

"Democracy is not wrong, because we are not yet able t or willing to apply the ideas of the brotherhood of man.

"There are indications of an awakening or resurrection from materialism, selfishness, self-indulgence and thoughtlessness, the awakening of our common conscience on the traffic in women and children, on the deception of alcohol, on slums and war.

"All these are hopeful signs that we are striving to arise out of mental satisfaction and our of more selfish physical enjoyment and are indications of vitality and progress."

Theosophy Satisfies The Religious Instinct

Butte, Montana, 1906

IT WHOLLY SATISFIES THE YEARNING TO KNOW

THEOSOPHY SUPPLIES WHAT OTHER TEACHINGS LACK

THE RELIGIOUS INSTINCT

Longing to know about God and the world and its people an inherent part of human nature — A motive for right living and acting

Henry Hotchner yesterday afternoon gave another public lecture before a very large audience, using for his subject the query, "Does Theosophy Satisfy the Religious Instinct?" Many who heard the lecture pronounced it the most interesting yet delivered by Mr. Hotchner to the public in Butte. Briefly, he said:

"Theosophy certainly does satisfy the religious instinct and satisfy it wholly and rationally. The religious instinct, which is an inherent part of human nature, is the yearning to know about God, about ourselves, about the world in which we live, and about how we must live in order to be happy and useful now and hereafter. Theosophy satisfies this instinct because it provides this information and thus furnishes the motive for right living and acting.

The Great Teachers

"To give such information, to proclaim these facts, is the reason for the coming of the great spiritual teachers, Moses, Christ, Buddha, and others. Each one emphasized such truths as would help certain grades of souls, as would satisfy the religious instinct of the people they wished especially to help. Each one of the 300 or 400 religions in the world is helping certain kinds of people; no one religion could help all.

"The religious instinct based on the needs of the character must necessarily change as the character evolves. The religious instinct of the primitive man is satisfied with far less information than is necessary to satisfy the yearning and demands of the civilized man. The information given to men 2,000 years ago, or 200 years ago, and the manner in which it was given, cannot be completely satisfying now. The grown man cannot be satisfied with the food given to the infant. The religious instinct of the more advanced soul can be satisfied only by more information, greater light, stronger stimulus to right living.

The Modern Thinker

"In order to satisfy the modern thinker, the facts about religion must be presented in exactly the same way as are facts about any other department of knowledge. They must conform to reason, to common sense; they must be harmonious with other laws in nature, and they must explain things and satisfy them. It is because many religions fail to do this, because they insist upon proclaiming statements which are obviously unjust and irrational, that they are not satisfying the religious instinct of many very good people.

"Theosophy is not at all antagonistic to religions. On the contrary, it recognizes that they are helping many people. Theosophy suggests that people search into their own religion for the truths which they seek, even though they might well accept truth from other sources also.

Satisfies Religious Instinct

"Theosophy satisfies the religious instinct wholly because it gives the information which people want. It tells them definitely and accurately why we are here, the nature of the universe, its principal laws, how we should conform to these, what it is necessary to do so as to be happy and useful, what is the future that lies before us, and all other essential truths. It enlarges our previous conceptions of honor, of truth, of duty; it removes our fear of death, it relieves our worries, it lightens our burdens; it stimulates us to greater usefulness and greater happiness."

Tonight Mr. Hotchner will speak at Orton hall on "Death and the Hereafter," the lecture to begin punctually at 8 o'clock. His subject is one that will probably draw even a larger audience than usual, because it is the one subject humanity is mostly interested in and about which it knows least.

—The Anaconda Standard, Anaconda, Montana, January 7, 1906, page 9.

For All Religious Sects: Big Temple to be Built

Chicago, 1920

WORLD MOVES SLOWLY AFTER ALL

The above temple which is to be built in Chicago presents what is declared to be the first original idea in architecture since the 13th century -- rather a surprising fact in view of the speed with which the world has progressed in other lines. It is to be built of terra cotta and will have a wonderfully transparent dome, which, when lighted at night, can be seen for many miles. The edifice when finished will be about 45 feet in diameter and 380 feet high. It is to have nine doors -- always open -- and is intended for all religious sects.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 3.