THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1039, 31 January 1911, Page 6

THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY.

4 DEAN ROBINSON ON PROBLEMS OF - TO-DAY. .... Tliero was a crowded congregation at Westminster' Abbey on! Saturday, December 10, when the Dean (Dr. Armitago Kobinson) delivered' his' second lecture on "l'lio Advent Hope in St; Paul's Epistles," Dr. Robinson dwelt upon the apostle's words, "Ye. are- all ono," showing that out of them grew the Christian con-, ception of the ultimate destiny of human■ity. "I believe," ho said, "that St. Paul's conception of humanity—though he never ufees tho term—responds to our deepest instincts, and is in Harmony, with our most recent thoughts." Dr. Robinson proceeded to describe tho notions with which St. Paul was confronted on this subject, nnd spoke of the distracted world on which the apostle looked, with its unbridged crevasses everywhere, social, intellectual, and religious. To this world he brought tho discovery of tho fact of the oneness of all human life; that all-history was 'tho record of. tho education and development of One Man. "Sure)} - ," said tho Deau, "wo need to-day some reconciling .truth in the despair to which our factions and class-quarrels and religious strifes are bringing us. . Yet wo havo.not wider dhasms to bridge, higher barriers to scale, uglier womb to' heal than that great ago of the world's despair to which St. 'Paul addressed his new message of hope. Is it to this same truth that wc must still look for an answer to the crying questions of the day? The failure of Government by party quarrelling, the distress induced and aggravated by selfish competition and mutual distrust between master arid man, ■ the widening gulf between rich and poor—has tho Gospel- of our common humanity, the oneness of all men in Christ, no help for these problems? Must .we .'not hopo .that what it. has done in the past is but an earnest and a pledge of greater works than theso in the future?; The Advent Hope, which St. Paul ultimately offers us, is no merely individual, persjnal hope. In our best moments we yearn for some wider prospect, some hopj for tho great world whose restless soothing tide of misery and shame so often staggers our Christian faith. Such a hope, when we find it, does not exclude tho individual hope; nay, rather it is tho very ground' and basis of it. It is because I know God loves the world," concluded ,the Deau, with impressive emphasis, "that I dare to say that God loves me."