260 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



An evolution of intellect brings with it an evolution 

 of religion. The subjects and methods of ministers 

 of the Gospel, as a rule, are quite different now from 

 what they were even fifty or more years ago. There 

 has been a constant tendency toward tolerance, in 

 differences of creeds ; less and less emphasis upon a 

 literal heaven and a local hell. Correct living, per- 

 sonal morals, kindness, charity, mercy, are more dwelt 

 upon in latter day sermons. There has been less en- 

 couragement given to emotional forms of religious ex- 

 pression, and more to the attitude that man should 

 cultivate toward his fellow man. The reformation 

 of Luther meant that an evolution from authority, from 

 ceremony, and ritualism was taking place. Protestant- 

 ism means that religion is a personal matter, that its 

 institutional features should come nearer to the 

 individual, that the clergy should conduct the teach- 

 ings in a language understood by the people, and that 

 the laity should determine for themselves who their 

 teachers shall be. There has . been a very great 

 evolution in the intelligence and spirit of the pulpit. 

 Fifty or sixty years ago, untrained and uneducated 

 preachers and exhorters droned to the people the 

 physical attraction of a local heaven, and especially 

 the eternal torments of a literal lake of fire, awaiting 

 the death of unbelievers, in which to plunge their 

 immortal souls. This specialized kind of cruelty has 

 largely passed away. Students are now educated to 

 the .ministry. They preach less cruelty and demon 

 worship and fear. Love, the beatitudes, peace, happi- 

 ness, the Golden Rule, the sermon on the mount, form 

 the themes of an educated clergy. A personal devil 

 and his imps, and all agents of torture are neglected. 

 They have passed away as did witchcraft, slavery, the 



