The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1852-06-02
A New Theology.

who appears to be the founder of a new
theology, Judging by the following extract
which we find in the Mirror:
mo, these elaborate confessions are na
lures mild resource against an infantile o.
sensuous theology. Our infantile theology
IN identifying us with the outward or finit,
life, identifies us with all the ignorance, al
the folly, all the vice and uncleanness that
mark the early stages of that life. 1t does
not say to us, Your true life, your real self:
hood is from God, is divine, and can take no
contamination from ;his iowerife, BY which,
1t is merely seeking to manifest ITSELF On
the contrary, it says that this lower life, so
replete with baseness, so simply passive, is
our inseparable life, and that God views us
therefore with abhorreDcc, and rejects us
from all alliance with himself A very prct-
ty temper of mind for men to ascribe TO IN,
fountain of all perfection God angry with
person for being empty f,ll goodness,
of all knowledge, ofall power. Angry with
person for not displaying His own exclu-
sNc attributes, person whom he himself
summons into existence, and who, therefore.
IL completely dependent upon Himself for
all that has been, is, ,or shall be- What incredi.
BILE petulance What incredible inhumanity
to ascribe to God! l would rather be
pagan, sucked in n creed out-worn than such
Christian. ! would renouncc my own
father as cheerfuly as I would eat my daily
bread, did conceive him capable of petty
malignity like this. And yet should be in
hnitely ashamed to assign any original vir-
tue to my father, to assign him any virtue
which was not very purely though f.intly
typical of the divine.
"Ncvcr since the world has stood was a
fair fame more outraged than that of Jesus
has been by ecclesiastical usage Look at
his gospel. Do You find the slightest token
there of his having any quarrel with conceded
sinners! Does not his whole quarrel lie on
the contrary with the conceded saint, with
him who in the eyes ofall mon was righteous!
Do you find him on any occasion promis-
ing TO honor those who made much of his
pcrson-promsing to favor those who should
call themselves by his name? On the con-
trary, does he not, whenever looking for
ward TO his second or spiritual coming, pro-
nouncc that profession or calling the one
thing odious and dangerous! Truly it is so.
His whole controversy is represented rs w.
ing with his protesting followers, those who
profess to be the children of God. He had
no quarrel in his first coming but with those
who prOfcsscd to be Gods people par ercel-
ience, and dcspiscd the claim of Others. So
also he represents himself at his second
n hny hpi
who, under the profession Of honoring him,
have only heaped upon him all manner of
personal adulation, all manner of interested
personal sycOphancy. How should it be
othcrwise1 How should the true Christ or
annointcd of God, the messenger of the uni
vcrsal Father, entertain any quarrel with
mankind at large? Why, you perhaps may
say, mankind ut large is vicious and de-
bauchcd: mankind ut large is overrun with
foul lusts Of murder, avarice, revenge, lying,
and so forth. Granted: but do you conceive
this state of things to constitute jus: casus
beLi, just ground Of anger on the part Of
God! l, for my part, do not"
There Is always something new turning
up in theology, us well as in other matters.
We confess ourselves as wholly unable to
fathom the above, which is about the latest
invention. II is scarcely as honest as old
fashioned infdelity, and it is n hundred times
more incomnr"... "..t.lsiu,e. If it means aEy.
"""g, 1t Is that the Divine Being is mover
angry, and that the Saviour of the world is
only offended with those who obey his own
commandments. The nonsense of the above
extract is about equal to its blasphcmy.
The Revelation of God contained i'm the
Scriptures has an entire and perfect analogy
in the revelation which is furnished by na-
ture. We may cast aside the former, and
easily perceive, as indeed all heathens, as well
as Jews and Christians, have perceived,
abundant tokens that the Supreme Creator
has been offended by his creatures. Not
that We suppose Him to be angry in the or
dinary acceptation of that term, but the affiic-
tons, the crosses, the famine, pcstilence, and
death, in its thousand varied and horrible
shapes, with which mankind are visited,
show that the God of nature has contro-
vcrSy with his creatures quite rs general and
terrible as any which is declared of the God
of Revelation. There Is no satisfactory clue
to the great mystery of human existence
but that which the Sacred Volume affords
In both nature and Revelation We see that
man is sinner and sufferer, but it is in
Revelation alone, that the justice of the Gre
ator is explained. by setting forth the means
"hich ne has PROVIDED ny winch that SIN
and suffering may come to an end and prove
but useful probation and preparation for
higher and eternal state of felicity. The
| chart OF Revelation cast aside, we are voya-
gers on n shoreless sea. Ask Of nature, 'if
a man die, shall he live again p and neither
from the stars, the sea, nor the shore shall
We receive an answer. The souls immor-
tality has no other proof, aside from the
Book of Divine Truth, than its own insatiate
iongings for another existence, and its ca
pacity for a higher and better state of things.
Whether il shall please the great Creator to
satisfy these l6ngings, and to give to the
spirit He has created another theatre for its
action, Is question which we only know
with certainty by the words Of Him who il
the Resurrection and the Life.-Richmoad
Republican.
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