Show I I L THE QUESTION OF TODAY TapA Y 11 The Question n of ot Today was wast the t h subject of or a sermon by b Rev William Thurston Brown at the Unitarian church yesterday He said in part The Christmas question of the worlds religious childhood has been and is r What bat was the Babe of Bethlehem And because that question was a challenge to the reason of humanity and because in n the interest of irrational superstition and priestly dominion men felt it notes wiry dry ry to demand the suppression of or rea reason reason son Fon that Christmas question has been not flot at all aJl the inspirer of heroic moral endeavor or of high human tasks but of off endless f controversy and the bitterest hatreds and persecutions the world has known beginning at the council avowedly a convention of Christian bish bishops ops PS for religious purposes but marked by acts of ot personal violence and bitter re ra such as suggest a prize ring or r a and ending no one can pre predict predict dict when or ir where whereIn In the place of that old question of and superstition I propose the question of that religion which the worlds maturity is already asserting and must increasingly In the coming years assert What hat are the babes of or the present time timeto timet to t be It make any moral difference differ difference ence to Jesus how we may zany answer the about him who he was or what he lie was But it makes all the difference in Il the world how we answer this other question concerning these children of our own Iwo time and nation What we do or do donot donot donot not think about Jesus is going to make little 1 difference in the lives of these chil children children dren of today No question st n in morals or religion can take fake precedence of this Shall we con eon cont t nue to think the thoughts of our moral mora md and intellectual childhood continue to ramp and crowd our Intellects and rea reason son on into the I narrow spiritual moulds of oft i t he races childhood or shall we assert the f he freedom and rights of or maturity and put away childish things Shall we not that the vision of today toda is larger nobler more adequate more sacred than the vision of yesterday or 2000 OO years ago that the moral need of today has the rIght light of way wa ever vel the superstitions of a primitive time and that wo we will Invest these lhee moral tasks tasla and demands with which modern modem knowledge and modern I challenge us with the name of religion and find in them thOm the shrine of our worship wo and the spring of our faith and enthusiasm We have our jails and almshouses and reformatories our scaffolds and electric chairs I know provided for or the evasion of our real responsibility that upon which the higher powers and possibilities of or our manhood and woman hood wait provided for the disposal of the human wreckage which our social or der creates Do we ever think what a fer fertile tile soil soli for the growth of criminals we weare weare weare are furnishing What sort of or literature Is our present moral order feeding the minds of or boys and girls with What are the ideals and suggestions of that sort of literature which is made cheap enough to meet their conditions And what is the genealogy of the stuff What pro duces it If lC this stuff glorifies the petty thief f or bandit Is it not legitimately matey mirroring the social morality of the day which honors with its greatest gifts and highest esteem the big thieves and successful bandits of ot our imperial industrialism The pustules of measles and smallpox are the least dangerous features of those diseases The poison polson lies deeper Our vile literature is s the product of a social order which knows no higher motive than materialism Our theatres are the natural and Inevitable product of or that fundamental sordidness whose motto is Let us eat and drink and be merry for tomorrow we die Our salacious pictures pic pictures pictures tures are simply one form of our con confession confession of faith These various things are only the signals of ot vice Ice and poison polson I in the vitals of or the social order of the lack of at virtue and truth in the fountain I of our civilization Science tells us that the whole process of evolution has been and is a process of selection the selection of type and en environment thus far an automatic and blind selection But science with an au authority authority authority and beneficence by any alleged revelation declares that upon mankind today toda and In all aU coming days da s rests the sacred function of ot guiding and determining this process of selection se selecting those conditions and that environ environment environment environment ment which alone can ensure the tion of a higher and ever higher type of man Is It not a proof of the most gen genuine genuine genuine faith on our part faith that Is kin kinto kinto kinto to that of Paul and Jesus and every real rea exemplar of religion r If we today show ourselves obedient to this heavenly vision of or duty and destiny disclosed to us by science and reverently accept the moral tasks with which it will enrich and glorify glo go glorify our life I i |