The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-04-20
Dr. Bellows.

The rostrum of the Opera-House is to
be occupied, this evening, on the part of
the Young Mems Mercantile Library As
sociation, by the Rev. H. w. BELLOWS, of
New York DR.. Bellows is widely
known throughout the United States as a
popular pulpit orator, and an elegant and
forcible writer and it is not unreasona-
BILE to expect-especially as the attrac-
tions Of the evening are to be aggravated
by the presence of an orchestra of tai
ented musicians-that the attendance
will be large, select, and fashionable.
The Rev. III. w. BELLOWS is not an
ordinary man. To say that he is cler-
gyman without hypocrisy-the besetting
sin of his order-would, perhaps, be to
say too much; but that he has discarded
the ordinary and vulgar forms of that
vice, is we believe, pretty well estab-
lished, Breadth of phylactery does not
appear to constitute, in his view, neces-
sary part of the religious character, and
he is inclined to recognize the fact that
both business and pleasure are within the
plan Of Providence, and that therefore
neither are necessarily sinful in the sight
of GoD. Whether he is as original in his
reasoning as he is in some of his acts, is
what his hearers this evening will, per-
haps, be able to determine
In his religious creed, Dr. BELLOWS is
not numbered among the rigidly orthodox
He does not believe in the Devil, nor in
the five points of Calvinism, nor in several
other things that it was once deemed
necessary to accept, in order to constitute
pious character Whether he is to
blame for this want of faith, is question
which to discuss would open too wide a
field for present occupation. Those who
desire to examine the point are referred
to ARIsToTLE's Ethics, and all the books
upon religion and morals that have been
written since its appearance-several
millions in number. Judge NAsH-the
last upon the list-thinks that it is obliga-
tory upon mankind to believe some things
that they are not able to verify We
disagree with Judge NASH: it is neither
obligatory nor possible. Belief is the
consciousness of adequate testimony pres
ent to the mind of the believer: without
the testimony there is no consciousness
no cceptance-nothing to accept.
DR.. BELLOWS has obtained some repu-
tation as philosopher-as one whose
mind has become emancipated from an
cient conventionalisms and prejudices,
and, by its own activity and boldness,
earned the right to expatiate unrestrained
in the universe Of thought. Still, as he
came intothe realm Of philosophy through
the portal of theology, it will be found
that his mental diathesis-if we may be
allowed the expression is essentially
clerical. To be otherwise, would be to
run counter to all the precedents from
Elephanta to the Church of the Pilgrims,
in Brooklyn, New York, and from 10
it be otherwise? As long as there is a
clerical Office there will be a clerical
mind, and as long as there is a clerical
mind, there will be a clerical point Of
view; and there will continue to be-as
there always has been-a difference be-
tween the clerical and the non-clerical
philosophy. Perhaps this is right; we
do not affirm that it is not. There are
those who insist that there is no such
thing as positive truth; that all truth is
relltive: that truth is adaptation to times
and circumstances, and conditions. Then
why not religious and q secular, cler-
ical and lay, sacred and profane
truth, synthesis, and system of philoso-
ply? These are difficult questions AS
long as there are admitted to be two diff
ferent standards to which the same act
may be brought to determine its charac-
ter--and this is what has been taught,
from AUGUsTIN to AoUINAs and from
AoUINAs to WHATELY and WAYLAND-
there will be questions in religion and
morals which will resist the efforts at So
luton Of both the jurist and the divine.
True moral courage may be associated
with much or with little learning, and
with just or unjust conceptions of funda-
mental truth. The man of genuine cour-
age, however, is one who will not shrink
from his principles, in any of their appli
cations. That DIR. BELLOWS is gentle
man who is willing to come squarely ur
to his own doctrinal standard in all things
upon which he treats in his lectures and
discourses, we have heard and partly be
lieye: to find one who does this, on al