Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-12-03
THE FINAL TEST OF KNowL-
EDGE.

A better life is the most proper, and
he final test of allprofessed advances in
he knowledge of goodness and wis
lom. If a man has obtained u better
Ind q truer faith, it will lead to better
conduct. And until he II show that,
i matters little for him to talk about
mis- new creed. If q truth makes q life
Of goodness moro easy, spiritual and
pure, and carries its possesssor to a uni
of elevated virtue not to be
reached by any other system, then 1t
has claims on the attention OF mankind.
There. are changes of moral thought
taking place in this world,
developments of truths breaking
in on each age, and revived errors
Swinging up like weeds as tho soil OF
becomes richer. New scien-
ti6c truths and developments OF error
are constantly appearing; new meal,
cincs, and new and more complicated
diseases. So are there also new moral
and religious developments OF great
value, and on the other hand, strong de-
lusions and dangerous errors. IL inc
GOOD man wants to know which Is the
poison and which is the antidose-whicn
tho bitter and which the swcet-it is BY
their effects upou the life that no must
tell. A new idea that does not lead to
a better life is not o higher truth to us.
7. takes two to mako truth. The OBJ
iect presented is one factor, the mind to
which it appears is the other. Truths
the right relation between the two. Yet
are continually Boosting that they
have discovered new truths in morals
and religion, when at the utmost, they
have but exploded for tho thousandth
time somo old error. The best test OF a
new truth is the new strength derived
from it in the will to overcome some OLD
error and dangerous weakness. The
strength of the will to do right, to
walk humbly, ~contentedly and in the
path of known duty, is the truest test.
That which p~roduceth this result is a
religious truth to us, and nothing else
is.
But it will be said, can we not see
truth, spcculativcly and clearly, even it
il does not effect our hearts and lives?
Morally, that is no truth to us, but
perhaps a huge falsehood and poison to
the soul that lures us from the safe path
by some momentary glare, and is but an
iignis fatmus, guiding us away from right
and dutiful action. Moral truth is not
a cold abstraction, but that golden
mean which forms the practical con-
junction Of the best forces of each ones
own working power.
There are new medical facts and
opinions daily preached, and there are
many fond of experimenting with them
lust as there are with moral and relig-
ious facts and opinions. But for a
medical theory to become an ascertained
truth, there must be n system in a state
of aptitude to receive benefit from it.
And truth is to the soul US medicine is
to the body, not any substance that is
new and exciting to some effect. Error
will do that. But truth is that which
produces health to his soul who I'M
bibes it.
In common parlance, we say roughly,
that knowledge is food to the soul that
is, it has in it the capacity of becoming
food, when properly digested. But
more strictly, every physician and
nurse know we'll that only becomes food
to mind or body which actually feeds.
Food is that which supplies nourish-
ment. The bread which an army
wastes, or the d~elicacies which the sick
man cannot swallow or digest, do not
become food to him. And SO we often
speak of knowledge rs spiritcal or re-
ligious food for mems souls. But that
which surfeits, or is not spiritually
digested, is not food, but an obstruc-
ton, though it may obtain prizes in q
Sunday-school, if u~uassimilated by a
spiritual vitality within, it does not
nourish strength of heart or righteous
ness of life. Aman might as soon hope
to warm himself by heaping up huge
blocks of unkindled anthracite around
him, out Of doors, on a wintry night,
because it contains carbon, as to fancy
he is feeding his religious life by cram
ing his own or his child's mind with all
the religious facts and theological points
and determinations of the day.
Shall we give up discussion, study,
training or theological disqui'itions2
We might as we'll talk Of giving up the
:ommissariat and yet keeping up an
army. We might as soon talk of warm
.ug a hospital or navigating n steamer
without supplies of fuel. But carbon
,ives forth no heat except as combined
With oxygen. And a theological fact
,ives out no religious truth until vital
zed in the experience of a good heart
md the practice of a good life. The
inal test of what is religious truth is
he results it actually produces on our
characters and lives.