The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1865-11-21


upon sense and appetite and
all corporal existence. Even in the
time of the Apostles, it seems to have
been manifest that tendency toiexcess
IN this direction had begun to operate
in the Christian Church. AS time pass
ed on, and us the spirit of the unreneW-
ed world became more rampant within
ths @ sacred precinct, the reaction against
IL llkeW1se. grew more vehement and
eager. The deserts of Egypt were peo-
Piled with thousAndsupon1 thousands OF
Authorities, who foFswore every human
relations extinguished every appetite,
and absorbed every motive, every idea,
every movement of our COMPLEX ma
ture in the great but single function of
the relation to the unseen world. True
and earnest in their Christian warfare,
they not8i ding represent spirit
OF exaggeration, which It was requisite
to check uprooting what they ought
rather. to have iPruned, and destroying
what they ought to have chastised, and
mastered, and converted to purposes of
good. Tint itnternecine war with sin,
which Is of the very essence of Chris
tiar1itY, seems to have been understood
by them as a war against the whole Wis
ible and sensible world ! against the in
telleetual life, against a great portion of
their own normal nature; and though
as regarded themselves, even their ex-
aggeration was pardonabIe, and in
many respects a noble error, yet its un-
restricted sway yIhnd1 extension would
have LETT man MANNED, a stunted, a
distorted creature! And it would have
done more than this, BY seYering the
Gospel from all else that Is beautiful
and, glorious in creation, it would have
exposed the spiritual teacher to resis-
tance not only vehement but, Just, and
would hayei placed the kingdom of
IN
cord with the kingdom of nature, rea-
SON. truth, and beauty, kingdom estab-
lished by the very same Almighty
Hand. ltA-ii.-2.iili q y III IN
r1STS = We live in times when the
whole nature of our relation to the un-
seen world isswidely, eagerly and as
siduously questioned. Sometimes we
are told of general laws, so conceived
as to be practically independent either
of a Lawgiyersor a Judge.ii Sometimes
of a necessity working all things tOuhi-
form results, but seeming to crush and
10 bury under them the ruins Of our
will, our freedom, our personal respoh-
sibiltty.- Sometimes ofa private judg-
ment, which we are 10, hold upon the
hard condition of taking nothing upon
trust, of. passing by, at the outset OF
our mental life; the whole preceding
education of the world, of owning no
debt to those who have gone before
without regular process Of proof, in a
word beginning anew each man for
himself; apriyilege which Ihad thought
was restricted to the lower order of Gre
alton, where the parent infused no pref
udices into its litter or It's fry, Such
are the fancieS which 90 abroad. Such
are the clouds which career in heaven,
and pass between us and the sun. and
make med idly think that what they
see not, is not, and. blot the prospects OF
what is in SO many and such true re-
spects a happy and hopeful age. It is,
/ think, an observation of st. Angus
tine that those periods are critical and
torlnidables when the power of putting
questions runs greatly in advance OF
the power to answer them. Such aI-
pears to be the period in which we live.
One persuasion Mt least let us embrace,
one error let us avoid. Let us be per-
suaded of this, that Christianity will
by her inherent resources find for her
self philosophy equal to all the shift
ing and all the growing wants of the
time. Let us avoid the error of seeking
to cherish a Christianity of isolation.
The Christianity which is now and
hereafter to flourish; and through its
power In the inner circles Of human
thought,y to tnfuenceJ ultimately, In
some manner more adequate than now,
the masses of mankind must be such
as offold the Wisdom of God was de-
sctibed. For in her is an understands
ing spirit; holy, one only, manifold,
SuDue, nVelyi elears undehled, plain,
not SUBJECT 70 hurt, loving the thing
that. is good, quick, which cannot be
te1teaSi lsaSsS Lteaay 70 go good, KIND TO man.
all the power, overseeing NIL things
For she is the brightness of the
everlasting light. the nnspottedi mirror
or the power OF God, and the image OF
HIS goodness" It must be filed full
with human and genial warmth, in
close esympathy with every true Instinct
lI ana need OF man, regardtul OF the just
tltieS OF every laoliLLyt OF ms nature,
apt to assoeiate az !, y witt u and make its own
all under whate YER name, which goes
to enrich and enlarge the patrimony Of
the race. And theretore 1t isiwel that
we snoulu look out, over the held oi
history, ana ana see ~ ~, ,haply It's records
lhe more they are untoldeds do or dc
nDL yieLe "a US US new nAateFlats tor thesnPT
portof taith. Me at least for one; e1e-
fresh wonder and confirmed conyictfon
flow from examining the structure oi
the universe and its countless inhahit-
ants, and their respecti I've adaptations
ts t2 me purposes OF thelri peing and :, e
How @ In in vet % IsT1T rom e tracino %1
the footmdrks of the Most High in tiie
seeminsly bewi1dered paths Of human
haSIGEy hSt1,Sy yeryMnefe, before rs ,ap9
and beneath. we W. shaIi ind I the eS powel ei
whicl-4 I5l algs I0E 'i97'
sLives through all Life, extends through al
esten1; tt1 ca ,,nsnen, ,r
And. together yitb theipower. yyeisbaII
find the goodness and the wisdom, 10
which ,i that sublime, power is but tnniin.
Soedness anYwbe4e @ % shine fortS sn yyitI Nh
purer spIend6r than when the diYint