Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1858-06-23

man Church, and believed its creed
France might give up the ghost touor.
row-it would never be free.
= x
What is the great obstacle to the i'm.
provement of Catholics in America -
ltls the Catholic church; and just in
proportion as an Irishman is welded
to that church, just SO do I despair OF
| him. In a less degree, our Protestant
Theology is working a similar harm
for us. uu.. a.-.aC e-F -r
/ believe in a Revival of Religion
There have been several great move
ments thereof. Not to go out OF
the Hebrew and Christian churches,
there are several we'll known to all OF
you. That of Moses, Jesus, Luther,
the Puritans, the Quakers, the Baptist
the Methodists, Unltarians, UNIVERSAL
lists, and the Spiritualists. How were
they brought about? In each case
there was a new Theologic idea, by a
man of genius, or a new application OF
an old one by a man of talent.
We want a Revival OF Religion in
| the American Church which shall be to
| this age what the Religion of Jesus was
to Heathenism and Judaism, which,
though useful once i'll his day had :erv-
ed out their time, and had no more
that they could do. We do not want
q Religion Internationally organized,
which shall generate nothing but meet
lng-houses made of stone, and end in a
priesthood. We want a Religion dem
ocratically organized, generating great
political, social, domestic institutions,
and ending in world full Of noble
men and women, all their faculties de-
veloped well, they serving God with
that love which casts out fear.
How can we stir that element to emo
tons fit for such a work? Only by a
Theology which shall meet the people s
wants, a natural and just idea of man,
of God, of the relation between them.
of religion, life, destination on earth
and In heaven, theology which has
It's evidences in the world of matter -
all science, Gods testimony thereto
and i'll the world of consciousness
every man bearing within him the s'live-
ly oracles' the present witnesses of his
God, his duty and destination. Nc
sect has. such a theology; no great
sect aims at such, Or the life it leads to.
The Splritualists are the only sect that
looks forward and has new fire on it's
h~'"th thov alonn emancinato thon-
>e.yes from the EIbe and the theology
of the church, while they also seek to
keep the precious truths of the Bible,
and all the good things of the church.
But even they-I say this modestly
they are a new sect, and everybody
wars against them; my criticism [ give
for their good, in the spirit ofhope and
tenderness-even they are rapping on
coffin lids, listening for ghosts seeking
God and Gods truth beyond human
nature, not i'll human nature. Their
religion is Wonder more than Life not
principally addressing itself to the un-
derstandlng, che imagination, the rea-
son, the conscience, the soul, but to
maryellousness more than ought BE-
sides.
| say we want a Revival of Religion.
such as the world has not seen, vet of
ten longed for. 1t was the dream of
the Hebrew prophets, looking for the
time when the nation should learn war
no more, when the sword should be
turned into the ploughshare, the spear
to the pruning hook, when all men
should be taught of God, when '|Ioli-
ness unto the Lord" should be on the
bells even of the horses We want a
Piety so deep that men shall understand
God made man from a perfect motive,
and endowed with faculties which are
perfect means to that end; 50 deep, that
we shall trust the natural law He writes
on the body and in the soul We want
a morality SO wide and firm that man
shall make the Constitution of the Uni
verse, the Common Law Of all mankind, ,
every day Gods day, a life time not to
be let out to us at the seventh or the
SEVENTEEN, the larger fraction for wick
ednes:, the lesser for piety and heaven,
but the whole of it is His, and the
whole Of it ours also, because we use it
all as He meant, for our good. Then
the dwelling house, the market house,
the courthouse, the senate te-house, the
shop, the ship, the field, the forest, the
mine, shall be a temple where the psalm
and prayer of Religion goes up from
the daily, normal blessed work.
< = ;:
This Revival of Religion will not
come by prayers of words, although the
thirty thousand Protestant ministers
and the two thousand Catholic 90 down
on their knees together.
Prayer the deyout help-meet of work,
is the brave mans encouragement,
when struggling after perfection. But
PRAYER as a substitute for work,-not a
wife, to glad the toll and halve the rest,
but a witch, to do by magic miracle
that is blasphemy against the true God
sterile and contemplate.
The Revival will not come all at
once, as the lightning shineth from the
east to the west, but as the morning
comes, little by little, so will it be vel
come too. AS that material day-spring
! from on high comes as grateful to grass