The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-04-13

| ing avail nOlnlDG. Ii the TACT tDaJ we are
immortal be not revealed to us, by a Be-
ing who knows, and cannot lie; if the way
to make our Immortality happy one be
not pointed out to us by one who has a
right to direct, then are we in darkness
that may be felt. Then are we ;float up
on wide sea, without rndder or compass.
Now, there can be no faith in any rev.
Citations concerning the future state, and
no faith in things revealed, without q
thorough conviction on the part of the
soul exercising it that the source from
| which these revel atoms come is infallble.
They must also be authoritative, and fully
received as such into the convictions, or
they are nothing. A revelation from any
source, touching whose authority the soul
admits doubt, is absolutely valueless as
an insp:rer of faith. 1t is for this reason
that all the unsettled mind in Christendom
Is drifting either towards an infa!llble 81
be, or an infallible church, or an infalll-
bic atheisln-infallible because denying
shutting God and the future
out ofexistence. With many the drifting
process is done with, and the journey is
completed in restsnd satisfaction Many
can say, with the Bible upon the heart
This is Gods word. 1t is my rule OF life.
| believe in the God and the immortality
which it reveals. l trust in it, and am
happy" Others, educated to believe in
an infallible church, or struggling through
frightful years Of skepticism, have taken
refuge in Rome, and tied up to the ele-
ment of infallibility which they imagine
they find there. Others still, are either
practically or professedly atheists and inf
dels, describing Bible and church, and
resting or trying to rest III the infalliblllty
of broad negati,n.
1t is not for me to prove the infallbili-
ty of the Bible, in part or in whole, |
have not undertaken the task in this arti-
tcle. nor do I propose to undertake if in
any future article. Neither do [ under
take to show that an infalliable church
cannot be made out of fallibe materials.
Still lessdo | undertake to prove the ex-
istence of God and future life. l take
It for granted that the question of flu
ture life is one of great interest to all
minds, and the question of its happiness
or misery, Of the greatest, to most. l
assume that the Bible communicates
correct knowledge of God and human du-
ty and destiny, or that nothing whatever
is known of them. / assert that in the
degree in which this b BILE has been re-
ceived, as whole and in particulars, as
the iuf.ilible rule of faith and duty, h ave
those thus receiving it found rest, peace,
fearlessn Of the future, and hope of
everlasting happiness. l affirm that in
the degree in which men have wandered
away from this Biblo into skepticism, or
taken it into their hands to cheaper the
character of its inspiration-to cut, and
Gull and eriticise-have they made them
selves and others unhappy. All that has
been done to weaken the foundation of an
implicit faith in the Bible, as a whole, has
been at the expense of the sense of religi-
Gus obligation. and at the cost of human
happiness.
The mind in such matter as this seeks
for something reliable, and will have it.
fit cannot find it, it will make it. If it
will not accept the Bible as such, it will
make an infahiable church, or defy the
human reason. One of the most inter-
esting developments of modern spiritual
ism is the illustration which it gives US Of
this fact. Tired of the puerile and con-
Trajectory revelations which it gets, or
supposes it gets, from the spirit world, it
has in mutitudes Of instances, sunk into
a cold ratonalism, or thrown itself, dis
custed and discouraged, upon the bosom
Of the Cath lie Church, by very neces-
sity. Now there is no logical tendency
Of spiritualism into systems SO diverse as
these. 1t is the instructive leap of a soul,
nisled by its intellect yet true to its wants,
out OF iargon Of demoniacal whims in
to something which has, or assumes to
have, infallibility. The rush of infdels
and atheists into spiritualism-atheists
aud lnfdels practical and theoretical-is
the rush of class Of minds that finds it
hard to believe without demonstration,
and seeks among these necrematic mani
festatlons for something better than its
reason, and more readily evident to it
than the revelations of the Bible.
We say that toward an infallible BIZ
ble. or an infalible church, or an atheism
and infdelity growing out of the deitica-
t;on of the human reason, the mind of all
unsettled Chr:stendom is drifting, by .
necessity of its nature 1t will have some
thing on which it can RELY. 1t cannot