Every thought which has helped the world was once modernism. Every new thought is provocative of opposition. When it comes into the world, the old thought at once sets itself against it; because when a thought, a view, has been in the world for some time, it has some acceptance,

some to defend it, some who think the world is to lose if it be not believed. By and by this new thought which fought its way into the world takes its place among the conservative forces, and looks askance at every newer thought and denounces it as modernism. The adherents of the Church of Rome at its beginning were everywhere called atheists by those who held to the old religion. Christianity was the worst and most dangerous form of modernism to the ancient faiths of Greece and Rome. There is always a conflict between the thought of one age which has become conservative, and the new thought which seems crude or destructive, which is coming in and demands a hearing. It is always the conflict between ancientism and modernism, and the world ought to know by this time that, while nothing of real value to religion is lost, modernism always triumphs, and always will, if God is still in his world.

Look at some instances in proof of this, familiar to you all. The position of the earth among the heavenly bodies had to fight its way and became a serious question of faith. Copernicus, for thinking out, as by a divine guidance, the laws of the planetary system, was imprisoned, and his book was not published until after his death. This was then modernism and denounced by the Vatican. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake in the open streets of Rome for his heretical philosophy, and Galileo was imprisoned by the Inquisition. Kepler, "thinking God's thoughts after him," met with the same fate of obloquy and imprisonment. Even as late as 1859, when Alexander von Humboldt died, when the kings of the nations sent their representatives to his funeral, only the officiating clergyman and two or three unorthodox clergy were present, so great was the fear as to the results of his studies. Now the nebular hypothesis is established, that out of the vast realm of star-dust has come the beautiful order of stellar and planetary systems. All these views were once modernism and bitterly denounced by the Church.

Roger Bacon, one of the really great minds of the thirteenth century, who in his scientific study and vision was even

clearer than his distinguished namesake, had to suffer imprisonment for fourteen years because of his bold investigations and assertions of what might be done for human welfare,- although it may be that the true cause of opposition to him was his open denunciation of the immorality of the clergy; but the open charge was that he was in league with the devil because he asserted that some diseases are preventable by sanitary measures. That was modernism, and denounced as heresy.

Do you recall the awful and yet touching picture of Vesalius? Against the law which forbade the dissection of dead bodies, he haunted graveyards in his effort to procure bodies and wring from them the secret of deliverance from the terrible death by the plague. He had to work in a cell, bolted and barred to protect him from attack. Above him, in the picture, is the crucifix, to which he lifts his pleading eye as devoutly as any priest or maiden who knelt at the cross, and stretched before him is the livid body of one just dead of the plague, into which he is about to sink his knife in the hope of finding, as he did, the secret of this dread disease. Then writing on paper the results of his investigations, and leaving them in vinegar to be disinfected, he went out a despised, hunted, and persecuted man, condemned to death by the Inquisition, but his sentence commuted by the King. This was modernism, and was denounced by the Church.

When Boyer in 1795 discovered the principle of inoculation, it was met by the statement that diseases were sent as a punishment, and whoever interferes with them breaks God's law and is God's enemy.

When Sir James Young Simpson in 1847 first applied anæsthetics in childbirth, the charge was made against him that he was breaking the ancient law of God, "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." The wise and witty physician said, "When God performed the first surgical operation upon Adam, he caused a deep sleep to fall upon him," and he thought a great physician could cause a deep sleep to fall upon a patient without breaking God's law. Then think how for the last seventy-five years all the investigations and conclusions of the naturalists, all the profound and general results of the students of Biblical learning, all the scientific hypotheses of development and evolution, have been met with the sneer of ridicule and the charges of atheism, until at last, when their inevi

table results begin to appear, they are all grouped together and forbidden and denounced as modernism. Andrew D. White says: "In all modern history interference with science in the supposed interests of religion, no matter how conscientious that interference may have been, has resulted in the direst evils, both to science and religion; and invariably, on the other hand, all the untrammeled scientific investigations, no matter how dangerous some of them may have seemed for the time being, have invariably resulted in the highest good to science and religion."

Of course it is always a good thing to have the order of society preserved by those who are not too ready to take every new theory as an established truth; but the advancement of mankind is always in the hands of those whose minds are open to welcome and try the new, and to hold fast to what is permanent and helpful in the old," for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." "Every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven . . . bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."

It is sometimes, too, most astonishing to see how soon that which is modern comes to have in many minds the authority of that which is ancient. I remember, and some of you too, how severe the denunciation was about putting the motto "In God we trust" upon our coins. It was at a time when great wealth was beginning to be gained by many very suddenly during the Civil War, and papers and ministers said, "Why not tell the truth and make the motto In Gold we trust'?"; and religious councils bemoaned the insult to God of making his name appear on gold, the root of all evil; and now some seem to think the foundations of the Church will be shaken if the motto is given up. So in England, because it had been a ruling of the Church for a long time, bishops and archbishops and rectors and curates thought that all morality would be at an end, and the Church lose all its influence, and religion decay, and that the sanctuaries might as well be closed, if the "Deceased Wife's Sister's Bill" became the law of the land. I tell you, persons have mighty little to do or to think about if they waste their words or their energies upon such trivial questions as these, in the midst of the mighty problems which

daily confront us in our busy and perplexed life. They are just like those against whom Jesus uttered his scathing denunciation, "Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith."

The fact is, unless the world should come to an end to-day, there must always be modernism; and as the world goes on, all that is modern soon enough becomes ancient. And it never would be condemned except by persons striving selfishly to keep others in ignorance and bondage; it never would for a moment be denounced except by persons who had no real, deep, living faith in a living God. The whole growth of humanity has come from modernism, from the investigations and revelations of to-day added to the investigations and revelations of yesterday; and taking the ages together, it is to the mind of man, the reason, the logos, seeking for the wisdom of God, to which we owe everything which has added to the growth and development of humanity. "The only thing," says Plato, "which gives value to life is the love of wisdom, the eternal beauty." The progress of religion, from the most vulgar idolatry and fetichism to the faith in one living and eternal Being, we owe entirely to man's use of his mind. In order to lay deep foundations and to build up nobler edifices of conviction, the mind of man digs up the rotten basement and clears away the moldering fabric. We need what is ancient for what man learned and taught in the past; we need what is modern for what man is learning and teaching in the present. Then the true Ark of God, which has taken so many ages of thought to build, is launched on the troubled ocean of progress, hope, and faith. The present is as direct from God as ever the past was. Let us try, accept, sift, and consecrate its revelations, lest haply we be found to fight against God.

GRENVILLE H. NORCROSS communicated the following

letters:

HARRISON GRAY TO HARRISON GRAY OTIS.

LONDON, Sept: 28th, 1787. DEAR GRANDSON,1 I am now to acknowledge your Favor by Capt Folger with a bill lading inclosed for the monies you received 1 Harrison Gray, Treasurer and Receiver General of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, left Boston with the British troops on March 17, 1776, went to Hal

of Mr Winslow on my account. I should have had a better opinion of his honor if he had paid you the Interest, however half a loaf is better than no bread.

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I am obliged to you my child for your unremited attention to my Interest and for your punctuality in remitting me the money, the day after you received it. — I have inclosed in a letter to my Brother John by this opportunity an ample joint power of Attorney. I wrote you by Cap Davis relative to my Lands at Petersboro'; you will be the best Judge, whether it is best to enter into a lawsuit. If you can compound the matter, I shall be satisfied; being fully persuaded your exertions to serve me will not be wanting. In short my child from the good character I have of you from all the Americans, I place such confidence in your Capacity attention to your profession and unimpeached Integrity that to give you any particular Instructions is quite needless. As Mr. Hancock is a Gentleman of honour I hope he will settle the Judgment of Court I recovered against him to your satisfaction. I wrote you so fully upon this Subject by Capt. Davis that there is no occasion to add anything further I shall only say that Sugar catches more flies than Vinegar."

I congratulate you and your Father' on his being appointed a Member of Congress. In a letter to my Brother dated Febry 28, 1785, I enclosed him a deed from William Story for about Eight thousand Acres of Land at Bernardstown, but to my Surprise I have been informed that the pious Mr Story finding the Deed was not upon record, sold the Lands a second Time, to Colo Jonathan Grout of Petersham who recorded the Deed. If the Law is open in your State to punish such Villains, I beg you will take proper Steps to have justice done me. I know nothing of his circumbut altho' he should not be able to pay me the full of my demand, Iwould have such a hypocritical fellow exposed, unless he will compound the matter with you, which I submit to your discretion. The Deed to Col. Grout. I believe is recorded in the State of New Hampshire. Mr. Giles Alexander of your City can give you Information concerning it.

stances,

Story's two Notes of hand I have also sent to my Brother by Capt Davis, when your wicked tender act is repealed, you will meet with no difficulty to compel him to do "Justice" and if he

ifax and later to London, where he died in 1794. His only daughter, Elizabeth, married Samuel Allyne Otis, whose son Harrison Gray Otis (1765-1848) after the Revolution acted in behalf of his grandfather with much success in the recovery of his property here. See J. S. Loring's "The Hundred Boston Orators," 188217. The original letters belonged to the late George A. Dary, Esq., of Boston.

1 Samuel Allyne Otis (1740-1814) was member of Congress from Boston in 1788, and Secretary of the United States Senate from 1789 to his death in Washington, April 22, 1814.