Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-04

Goa.
fJah, Zcus, Deus, God, and Other uo.s.
The like cbsracter are the symbol.
men, in different ages, have chosen u
the sum Of their ignorance.
whatever men think they under.,.,
that Is TO say, all those phenomena oonco-n
ing the proximate cause Of which thai ~
satisfy themselves-ceases TO bear the am
pernatursl character, and is no longer p.s,
Of the Deity.
As men increase In knowledge, ihereso,.
the character Of their God undergoes a cor
responding revolutions and as no two man
can be exactly the same in knowledoe and
enlightenment, 50 the Gods OF no two m.o
can be more nearly alike, than they are
themselves.
We can see this more clearly by taking .
glance at extreme cases. The conceptior
which the child attaches 70 the word God !,
verv different from that which the s,ns
word suggests to the man. The God of n.
SAVAGE is an different as possible from that ~
the civilized human being. Barbarous meu
have barbarous Deities the morals Of the
divinity rising no higher than the morals Of
the nan who is his worhiPper.
Therefore. is il impossible to transfer the
God. or the religion Of one people, to an.
other. All that is transferrabls Is the ter.
miroloor. Missionaries teach tSe sAvaees of
the Polyresia their nomenclature but the
savnees attach to the 7sw symbol the old
meaning, ,ynd the imported word % simply
the representative Of The native idea.
Tit ,ano,euts UNDERSTOOD his matter bet.
ter tba, the Luoderns. They allowed every
people To- erect and personiiy its average
i~pporapoe,into deity of its own, whose ex-
istence was recognized by those of other
countries, without any derogation to their
peculiar Givinitiep.
Thus tbs Jews--erroneously represented
by t~heoloe;sns to be the peculiar divinely-
appointed Repositories Of the fact of the
unity of the god shcad-never ceased 70
recognize tho Gods Of the surrounding na-
lions to be, like their owB, living supernat-
ural entities; and oneof their latest proph-
cts, in one of bis most Inspired ~passeges-in
which he DESCRIBES the happiness Of those
latter days ofths world, in which universal
peace and the perfection Of human content-
meDt shall prevail-fnds one of the most
delightful incidents of the time to consist in
the fact that eacIr human being will be at
liberty to worship his own God without
danger Of b~indrancs-or rebuke from those
who worship others The passage is as
follows;
"For oil people viii walk every one in the
name of his God, and we will walk in the
name Of the Lord our God forever and ever"
Polytheism is simply the result of the at
tempt of the popular mind to divide the sum
of it's ignorance into departments. Different
divinities represent diffsrent powers whose
existence is only known through their phe-
nomena. Once personifed.and named, these
powers become the property of poets and
prophets, who surround them with a fanci-
full garb of figures of speech, which the ig-
poraDce or the devotionrofafter ages accepts
as revelations of sober realities.
The more fanciful a people the more splen-
did and artificial will belts mythology. But
as there is no authoritative check upon
poetic and prophetic inventions, in the course
of time every mythology will become incOn-
sistent. The writers of lituFgies will each
adorn his ~favorite divinity with borrowed
attributes. The original distribution upon
the basis of distinct powersyis lost sight of;
and the Pantheon becomes a jamble ofdei-
ties whose functions cash perpetuslly with
each other.
In proportion. as Q man p~eRsonifes his
God, is he religious An almost orthodox
wsy of expressing this-idea is, ave worship
Al, lsog-sk- - q Va - "a =
not exactly in order sFowedly to do. this, we
have invented a set of terms4o serve as q
cloak to the process.
Our God is infnites In one aspect Of the
case, we dwell strongly upon this attribute
of i~nfinitude, forgetfuls that tina in6nite Ia
one and the SAM thing with the indefinite.
An infinite God is Gn indefinite. God; and of
an indefinite God-arGe wishno attributes
1t is not within the poweraof the human
mind to form a conception. The word inf
mite istherefore butAnOther term to expeesa
the sum of our ignorance.
We turn from blank space, and shadows
without b~oundaIies and come back TO the
divinity within ouIselves. Wetreat the in
finite God to a few soundinE expressions
and cold rhetorical h~ourishss, andtheR en-
ter into communion with different beineS
For this being, Christians have a peculiar
title upon which they insist with much per-
tinseity but thiA does o alter the facts Of
the case. Every mans Jsans,is himself pro-
jectsd. and contemplated obiectively. His
Christ ia of his own meAsure exactly-IittIa.
great, noble, mean, m-agnanimoas, vindictiyeL
hanarnlnnf or -aoyAfnfawo ..A--