Religious Transition.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4401, 10 February 1883, Page 4

Religious Transition.

It was but twenty-three years ago that Darwin published his book that revolutionised all our nation of knowledge previously beid. For eighteen hundred years, too, it has been drilled into our minds that religion always meant Christianity; that the reigning system of theology was all that deserved the name of religion, and that all other religions were impositions and deceptions. Mohammed, for instance, in our very schoolbooks, is always called an impostor. There was always one true religion, and all others were false, religions; the changed attitude of the world in this regard is well described by Mr Savage, of the United Pulpit, Boston. Tbe grandest religion that human thought has ever conceived. He calls the revolution under Luther an eddy beside this irresistible torrent. He affirms that there never was such a revolution in the history of the world as that we are passing' through to-day. This change is sweeping,' comprehensive and. thorough, including, the whole world in its movements. It gives us, as Mr Beeeher has stated, a new conception of the Universe of God, of human nature, of^siu, of morals, of salvation, and of human destiny. The. governing religious thought of the past is being changed into the present thought. But this great change could sever have taken place until the discoveries of modern science in,regard to the antiquity of the world, and, of man until the discovery of the other religions of the world, showing their remarkable parallelism with ours and showing a common origin "forthe great majority of religious beliefs and- opinions, and until the discovery of natural selection by Mr Darwin. And now it is impossible for any intelligent and well read man who is competent to comprehend arguments and evidence, to refuse to accept the change, and take the new attitude. The change signifies a change in tbe conception ■of the entire scheme of the universe, from God at its centre 'oat' to its furthest imaginable circumference. In this period, of transition there is a dangerous paltering with the truth as it is seen and known. Mr Beeeher as an illustration declares iß;his North American Eeview article, that evolution upsets all theology and that he

accepts eyolution,yet he declares he has not substantially changed his belief in twenty years. This is paltering with the truth., infidefity, falsehood. It is the penalty which every man who praotises it pays to self-interest—he will and he won't. He conceals shuffles, fences. He does not dare to utter what he knows and believes. Having found out the truth these palterers dare not announce it; they would be in favor. Priest and people each deceives the other, but is chiefly deceived itself. Mr Savage most justly calls these the in fidels of the nineteenth century—" Vn faithful to God, to light, to truth, to the last and highest truth revealed to man." Let us all try to remember in this transition period of religion that we are only finite, while God and the universe are infinite; that nothing is fixed, but there are ever new growths and new adjustments.—American Paper.