The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1866-03-08
Letters of Wat Pringle to a Friend in
the Vale of Stow
LETTER VII.

DEAR F.-The question propounded
in your last is one which we regard as of
vital Importance. 1t may be thus ex-
pressed Is that system of religion
called Pantheism ever likely to obtain
currency in the Confederate States? To
this question a negative reply will be
given. So far from receiving it as gen
uine coin, the SOuthrOns will Indignantly
brand it as the basest metal, intended to
defraud them of all the consultations of
religion in this life, aud their best hopes
in the life to come. Pantheism is dis
guised Atheism 1t was born not above
the eoncaye armament, but among those
convex clouds and misty vapors which
have oyerhung Germany since the rise of
RationaIsm. Forsaking the Scriptures
as a rule of faith and practice, the Ger
man Philosophers, Literati, and the Di-
vines of Tubingen have embraced every
error, recorded on the long roll of heresy.
This could not have happened in Scot
land, where the Bible is so devoutly and
habitually used; for that book gives en-
ergy to the mind, vigor to the under
standing, propriety to taste, courage to
faith, earnestness to devotion, and inten-
sity to the love of all Spiritual truth
That book has always ranked in our
country as an evergreen, whilst rational
ism, when applied to its Interpretation,
has been scorned as a perdiFoil, the leaves
of which have dropped away in every
conclusion which takes place between
truth and error.
Il is difficult to define Pantheism. We
have asked an advocate of this hideOus
system to make it tangible to a plain
man, by freeing it from all Fiehetean
mysticism. The request placed him in
the same dilemma in which our Ettrick
hepherd found himself when his pub
Usher begged him Just to say what was
in his mind, when writing an episode in
one Of his works. "DOn't know re
piled the Selkirk bard" but one thing
is certain, that many people admire most
what they least understand. - We sup
pose, however, that Pantheism was origi-
mated by Spinosa, Jew of Amsterdam,
who held that God and the universe are
convertible terms. Everything that man
can discern, or an angel can find, is part
of Deity, taking into the account the
man who behOlds, and the angel who
travels. They are not to be excluded
from the mighty Pantheon which Spinosa
reared, not at Rome, but on the marshes
of the Amstel. The foundation was in
congruity to the super-structure. 1t Is
somewhat remarkable that a Jew should
have been the father of this system, for
the whole Hebrew nation have professed
implicit faith in the Divine existence as
taught by their Lawgiver. JOsephus read
the Mosaic record Alright, but Spinosa
seems to have read after this fashion -
4" In the beginning the universe created
the Heavens and the sarth. And the
Universe said, let light be, and there
was light. And all things made the
sun, moon, and stars. What could
Polish, German, and Spanish Rabbis have
thought of such an Interpretation given
to the sublime and authoritative record
of Moses. They would surely have
thrust the Amsterdam TheOlogian out Of
the Synagogue. According to this the
ory, all things must have created them
selves out of O nOnentity, and how could
q blank produce a reality. This is con-
fusion in all our views of cause and eff
feet. There seems to be no novelty in
Pantheism, for it is the old atheism that
nature is God, and God is nature indiyis-
ible and inseparable forever, Nature
then, if it had no creator superior to it
self, must have been eternal. Here IS
quite as fathomleSs a mystery proposed to
our faith as an eternal, intelligent and
personal Divinity, and We sspHSt see hSw