Show CHURCHES YESTERDAY I Rev Adelbert L Hudsons Discourse I Dis-course at Unity Hall WORTH OF THE INDIVIDUAL INDIVIUAL II I RELATION THE CVOLT7TIOX OF UTOLVX PROGRESS Rev I B RidRelys Discourse at St Pauls Chapel on The Spirit and the World The Silver Quarter Collection at the First Methodist ChurchOther Services Rev Adelbert L Hudson preached yesterday morning at Unity hall on 1 The Worth of the Individual The most important problem he said of the presen or of any age is the true adjustment of the individual to the common life Carried out in detail the j problem would lead into all the varied relations of life the relation of the citizen to the state the church member mem-ber to the church the laboring man to the accumulation of labor which we I call capital the business man to the condition of commerce and finance I end so on of all possible relations I was not to this general range that he I wished to invite the attention of his hearers but rather to the main pro i position the inestimable worth of the I individual life in the evolution of human hu-man progress The problem Is not a new one I is I the prsTjlem of history But the conditions I condi-tions under which it mutt be worked out are continually changing like the I fms in a kaleidoscope H nce in order or-der to comprehend the scope and na I turn of the problem today i Is neces sarv to turn to the lesson of history Tnis again followed to its ultimate j conclusion would carry us into remote at1Quty since all history is one unbroken I un-broken story of human development But for the purpose of the lesson of today i is sufficient to follow the I thr aa of human progress backward II onlv so far as the civilization out of civizaton hich our modern life has directly sprung and to which its present tendencies I ten-dencies may be immediately traced Thi carries us into the period known I as the middle ages I is necessary therefore to inquire what was the con I diti n of the individual during that somewhat indeterminate period and I evpn a careless student of history will discover that the one prominent idea 11 which controlled the institutions of this period and directed its policies and methods was the absolute suppression of the individual The Individual in II fact had no existence as such He was swallowed up in the institutions of the time His feudal lord or superior told 2iim what to do his spiritual adviser I told him what to think The ecclesiastical ecclesias-tical despotism of the Roman church and the influence of feudal vassalage absolutely suppessed the development I of individual liberty The power of the Roman church was brken by the Protestant reformation j in the beginning of the sixteenth century i cen-tury Feudalism had already fallen I 4 But the fall of the feudal system did not emancipate the individual from civil tyranny neither did the reformation I reforma-tion set him free from ecclesiastical dictation Feudalism gave place tothe i strong monarchy under which the individual i in-dividual was nore than ever subject I and the reformation ushered in a suc o ssor of dogmatic creeds catechisms and confessions same of which still exist tn dwarf the development of thousands in our own generation But i the new monarchy by its very tyranny I ad oppression led to revolution andre and-re olt out of which has grown the civil I liberty f the individual And the dogmatist i dog-matist of sects has produced dissent I and srm in the midst of which md vidual liberty of thought and con seire has grown and flourished I Th cpreful student will dIscover that I in this development there has been no arnoent In a11 there ha been manifest I mani-fest a divine purpose working out in humin life Institutions have fallen I I governments have been dissolved I thrones have crumbled into dust civ I ilizatiins have fndecl out cv I sight but the liberty of the individual has grown stronger with the forward march of I each oncoming century The great lessen I 4 les-sen of history ir that the most important impor-tant thing In human development is The pwfect evolution of the individual aiumoT soul The selfconscious soul of I man is the highest manifestation of the divine life and to 5 < ts perfect and rjunmeled develcprnent all the forces of nature and of history are ten dln I 1 the course of this development the I discovery settlement and history of our own land have played an impor tnt lIt R was settled by men who wre driven out of the old world hy civil and religious tyranny and sought the new world in order that they might enjoy the blessing of civil and relig ious liberty Their lives have formed I tohc type of our national character Their thought ha shaped the body o I our national institutions Following their guidance we have passed through the ordeal of three expensive wars Each I of these has been a protest against some form of slavery oppression or I dictation of the individual life And each has been 1 ccmplete and glorious triumph for individual liberty In this 1 beginning of a second century of our I national life new and complicated questions face us arising out of the conditions of our growing and complex civilization But in the light of history his-tory we cannot doubt that these questions Lions will be most wisely met if we continue to maintain the worth of the individual as the central principle for which our nation stands But under our form of government each citizen of the nation must make his voice heard and his influence felt I as the citizen of some stats Only by reason of his relation to the state in which he lives does he become a factor In the nation life The great problem then for the citizens of any state is to preserve in the midst of local conditions con-ditions the worth and liberty of the individual Dearer than any immediate immedi-ate policy civil political or financial must be this eternal principle Suffer I to be overridden or Ignored and we should slide backward down five centuries cen-turies of bad fought progress into mediaeval servitude and suppression of the individual life The preacher said he did not wish his words to be taken a glittering generalities ities We are living in the midst of conditions that are peculiar Permeating Permeat-ing the civilization of our new state sthere is f 1 the powerful Influence of a great institution This institution tution has grown up separate and apart from the growth of the national na-tional lfe Ia grown up under conditions which have made the conrltons strength and unity of the institution paramount to every other consideration considera-tion The worth of the individual ba been overshadowed and lost sight of Blind obedience of the many to the few is one of the conditions of building build-ing up strong institutions Hence i follows hat where the strength of an Institution is made the air of first importance im-portance individual life and individual liberty must suffer an eclipse But with the coming in of statehood a new condition bas arisen in the life of Utah I has become an integral Jar of a civilization in which the value of individual life is paramount It has pushed out into the current of a tbroad stream of human progress whloh Is carrying oisaway from Institutional I Tsm and toward the fullestand grandest grand-est development of individual liberty oflife and thought and conscience No one who studies the course of human development can fall to recognize that the force of this current will ultimate ly prevail over all opposing influences No plan to check or subjugate the ris lag power of individual opinion in the new stirie however carefully or sitU fully it may have been designed can command the slightest prospect of success suc-cess against the strong tide of individual indi-vidual liberty whfrch Is sweeping across the new world from ocean pn to nnpan no I is quite natural however that leaders who have grown up under a policy which set aside the rights of individuals for the benefit of an insti tution should fall to recognize the dawning of a new era which makes the abandonment of that policy imperative impera-tive Some one leader i is true with clearer vision and broader cearer viion comprehension comprehen-sion of human need and human des tiny may enter into sympathy with the spirt of the new time Where one such does arise he will be debarred from fellowship and his voice will be silenced in the councils But that voice thus silenced in the narrow counci hal will ring like the summons sum-mons of a clarion note on the larger sounding board of human hearts The light of his individual life may be darkened by private disappointment but it will shine strong clear and starlike a a guide and inspiration to the younger generation who in their independent earnest freedomloving lives will fulfill the prophecy of his clearer visior The clear brain and true heart of one such man as Moses Thatoher will lead thousands lIoses I citizena of our rising state into a clearer comprehension and fuller real ization of the worth of individual liberty of thought and conscience The situation loes not demand at I present the formation of new political affiliations nor the reorganizing of party lines or policies I is not a question of policy but of principle I demands that every true and earnest life in every party sect society and class shall support at all times and in I every way this principle of freedom I is 1 religious duty The first duty j j of every human soul human to God and to itself is to develop its own best and largest capabilities of growth No I human being ha the right to permit hit own development as a child nf God to be dwarfed and belittled I by servile obedience to dicta ton Every member of dict a I civil government must yield obedience to the laws of that government This I is the very essence o f his obligation asa as-a citizen But in the shaping of the laws of such a government it is not only the right but also the duty of every citizen to assert his own individual indi-vidual opinion untrammeled by dfota Lion from any authority ecclesiastical or otherwise I is moreover a relig relg ious duty growing out of the fact of common brotherhood The feudal vassalage I salage and ecclesiastical dominaition of the middle ages made any true real ization of the brotherhood of man impossible im-possible True brotherhood must rest upon a mutual recognition of one an others right to selfdevelopment Any interference with individual rights is a direct blow against that brotherhood of human helpfulness which should be the dearest aim of every religious organization or-ganization The demand of the present time is a summons to the deeps I requires I the influence of earnest manhood and womanhood l demands that men I shall subordinate political ambition and the desire for gain and preferment Ito I-to the assertion of their manhood God give us men A time like this demands de-mands Strong minds brave hearts free thought earnest lives Men whom the lust of office does not kill ofce lien r who possess opinion and a will I itii hiiu jiuve jjuuur Men who will not lie Brave men suncrowned who live above the fog In public duty and in private thinking For while the rabble with their thumb worn creeds Their large professions and their little deeds Ite Mingle in petty strife Lo Freedom weeps wrong rules the land and waiting justice Jus-tice sleeps God give us men |