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Show IN WHAT MID OF IASD0II LIVE? Theological Air Castles Discussed Dis-cussed bj Rev. Frank Fay Eddy. ANCESTRAL CUSTOMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN CITED hat Ho Termed Theological Air Castles of Orthodox Christianity. At Unitarian hall yesterday Rev. Frank Pay Eild,- preached on 'Theological Alr-Cs Alr-Cs ties." In the musical programme was an anthem by Unity quartette and a tenor solo by Joseph E. Poll. The Introductory Intro-ductory portion of Mr Eddy's sermon was as follows: Last Sunday I preached frr.m Shnkenporean tetu. today I use t ,t from ncrlpture. Hut It choncen that thest texts bl attic the uplrlt of a confirmed afrnrtticlm The author of Roclesiastea Is forever uxklng one question, vh. h he puts In ninny forini. and thnl Is. What Is tho uko?" So he el8 u. "Metier Ih iho sight of the eyes than the wandering of d In " or. an the more literal translation of the picturesque Hebrew phru.se runx, "than the walking of the soul " A few ysi'SSS further fur-ther on he queries, "Seeing there he- many things that Inoresse vanity, what Is man tho better?' The olnt Of view of our text-rnuker text-rnuker may net be Inspiring, hut he at least Introduces im to tho true philosophic attitude which realizes thul WS have our stutlon and huMtatlnn In a world of unrealities, that we do not know things as they are, but only as they seem; that more Important than the. sensible unlverso Is the real of Ideas or "hat men think ubout the universe If WS follow our guldu Into tho region of calm philosophy, we need not therfore repudiate ull WO And there an ho does when he sas, "Better Is the sight of tho eyes than the walking of the soul." Whnt Ideas Are Ideas are the results reflected upon our mentality men-tality of what tlm senses respond to, or havo lenponded to In ourselves or In our ancestors. They are themselves Intangible nnd Invisible yet more, than anything else In humanity have s c:.ntlni:lng life. What havo wo of ancient fJreeca or Porno but a legacy of Ideas? On what was the throne of the Russian Czar founded hut on certain ideaa and when thoo Ideas were shaken how Impotent did orrnl.-s and wraith arid tradition become? Like a Spirit Dance. Ixv.ked at In this light, history becomes like a fantastic Kplrlt dunce like that n.njure.1 up by Ptospero, upon which ho comments thus!) "These our actors, As I for -told you. were all spirits, and Are melt .1 Into air. Into thin air-And air-And like the baseless fabric of this vision The elOUd-Capp d lowers, the gorge,, us palace The "olemn lompies the great globe Itself, Yea, nil Which It Inherit, shall dissolve Anl Uko this liiHiil.-tuntUI pageant faded. Ieave nol u. wrack behind ' it is easier to thus conceive r,f the past than to say of ourselves In the living present: "We ore Mich stuff As dreams are made ,,f and our llttlo life Is rounded with a sleep." Makes Present Seem Realistic. Coir senses make tho present scorn so renl-latic renl-latic li st we do rot stop lo think how changed everything would ho If these xamv sensoj wero modified ever so slightly. With what dl(1lcult do we make the child born deaf or blind understand un-derstand the world, as wo interpret It through our more active senses. The only continuing things are Ideas and the eternal primal forces thar are Nature and i.Jod. So '.ho gTcat question Is- In what world .if I. lens do YOU llVfl and have your being' We cannot today tak up this wide question In all Its aspects Let us limit curselvos to tho rtald Of rellg'..n and Consider BOmS of tho past and present religious Ideas that havo swayed and do sway tho minds of men In a rcdlglous w oy More Visionary Than They Seem. Hawthorne, somewhere In "Tho Mosses Krom an Old Manse.' telU of a dream of receiving re-ceiving a motley and fantastic crowd of visiters visit-ers In a castle In tho air. Men arc more visionary vis-ionary than thoy seem, and mako for themselves them-selves contlnuallv alr-castles. I might talk about many kinds of alr-castles, but I hao chosen t'i talk aliout theological alr-costle II..UP.S In the air. ns with h.us s .n the solid earth, aro conveniently classllled as un-Inbablted un-Inbablted nnd Inhabited Mary a theological airrastla has been left lo solitude, to the tats nnd owls perchance to Itu ghosts Gone are tho religious systems of Xlneeh ond Habylon . t ..no. t. f.r.. the shrines of go. is. 110 w without a name among men. great kings sacrificed and worshiped. Here Is a thelogl-. thelogl-. .ii sir-castle that ino vanished like n dream from history, although sonn of Its l'gen.Js nnd some of Its Ideus have flowed Into Judaism and other religions The Aztecs, before tho coming of the SpanlnrdN hod a complete! developed religion r:ut the Christians name with a sword In their hand and seven devils In their hearts and Imposed with th. Ir religious re-ligious authority their religion, nnd the theological theo-logical alr-casllo of the Aztec Is long sine illsmantl-d and emptv I Ikewlso Olympus has these many centuries been bereft of gods, and no man can becomo a genulno jmgnn again so rr.:.r is tho tyranny of accepted ideas These nr. . samples of theological alr-custles now un-lnhat.lt un-lnhat.lt .1 Theological Air Castles. Then Mr. Eddy went on to discuss theological theologi-cal alr-castles In which men still dwell Th-ancient Th-ancient ancestral anl ritualistic customs of t'hlrin nnd Japan were cited as a theological air-castle still Inhabited by tin- afongollan musses Judaism In Us orthodox form was not,-.! as an Interesting example or thiologhal pro-existence Then whut nns termed tho theological sir-csstle of orthodox Chrlstisnlty whs discussed more In particular. This was still Inhahlti'd by R great host, although not a fev had deserted It In the next division of tho sermon the possibility pos-sibility of having religion without Inhabiting an air-castle wai considered This Mr. Eddy raid, was what Unitarians and ..tier religious liberals wore trying to do Th.ro was n die-position die-position t" cu-. to dreiim .beams and to i-d..i)H hut the desire Was tO estimate them at their true value and not t. mlatake tho dr.am for tho actuality. There are great spiritual spir-itual forces In modern life, creating a broucl-er broucl-er and more universal phase of religious faith than has ever bci n realized n tho past Tho old type Of church limply cannot contain It i tthollclsm, with it. stately ritual; Calvlnlara with Its narrow logic; deyanlsm. with Its crudltiee and Intempei iti teal lose their jxw-er jxw-er of appeal, slowly but sunl They aro theological Sir-CSStles In which men still .lw.ll but which, Ilk., the host gono beforo arn destined to vanish Wonderful Mind of Man. In conclusion. Mr K.ld said . i ), w onderful onder-ful mind of man I To Itself an enigma, and ever fashioning for Itself n.w worlds ond twisting old imzzl. s Int.. n w form". N m re in religion than anywhere ire u its deettnj to remain satisfied and queatlonleas Why should wo content ourselvea in tho old nir- castles? Whv trj lO perpetuate ihe Jewish STahweh? Why trj to nagregate the little fmg- mnl of literature contained In th. Blbla Slid labol it sacred? Whs accept that curious combination of the log,,., ,.i,.A ,,f ,h Alexandrians Alexan-drians ond the Jewish bb-a of sacrifice that is the doctrin" of vicarious atonement In Christianity ' What tu-.- th. - but ihadoa forin- Impermam-nt Ideas? Havo no fear because be-cause the minds of men aro leaving this theological theo-logical Sir-castle We aro outgrowing this photo of faith; wo must have new concepts It has taken us S long while to get away from the (eoomtrlc conception of things and the little Ides of Qod that went with it. at last wc arc beginning to rc-ullzo what It means to live In a universe, and our feM must grow t . sntt.fv ..in ndriMs and all expressions of oin-rellglotm oin-rellglotm Impulse, must sound a more unlver-sa! unlver-sa! note. Therefore we are deserting the old s sterns of religious thought that I have called theological uir-castles. They had a nature! place In the pust, they still have Inhabitants In the present but to the future I doubt If they win be more than tho deserted air-co.tie of rcllgluu thought " |