The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-20

MODERN INFIDELITY.
EIonuent Lecture bY Rov. Dr. nnrl


greatly since that in matters of doctrinal theories
One tampered with the truth. II one stone is
removed from the spiritual tabernacle. you en-
danger the structure. Francis Newman began
by doubling the reality of Chrsts human ma
ture; then the doctrine of infant baptism; then
the doctrine of eternal punisnment and so on
step by step to the utter disregard of all spiritual
doctrines. Christ and the devil had at last
entirely faded from the vision. as he testified
himself. Some are capable of being supersti-
tious and some are skeptics. They are diametri-
cally distinct and conflicting. One believes
everythng one will believe nothing. Some
leap over, the way from superstition to
infdelity, and in doing so pass over the golden
mean of genuine Christianity. During the
French revolution the robbers of public opinion
were at work, and reason, under the guise of
miserable character, rose to assert her SUI
premacy In oil countries of Continental Europe
it is true that public opinion oscillates between
the two extremes Of superstition and skepticsm.
Those who leave superstition 90 over to the other
extreme. Deism and Pantheism are offshoots
from the true position. Deism halls Christ as
great reformer, raised up at good time to
dispel the gloom of the age. The morality of
the Bible is admitted but the doctrines are con-
sidered too much of superstition. 1t admires
the beauty of virtue and the characteristics of
genius.
Pantheism advocates the theory of the uni
versatility of the presence of God. 1t finds God
nowhere, when it assumes that He is every
where 1t assumes spiritual and material
form. Man is God intoxicated: he is impreg-
mated with the Spirit of God. The Pantheist
marks not the hand that guides the universe,
and rules the laws of the nations of the spheres.
Atheism is bold and unblushing, but mild in
N thot ic nd lie tha
part of fool, and not the result of true philoso
ply. If we know all the agents in the universe
except one. that may be God If man does not
know that al things have been done by some
known power, some one act may have been done
by God.
1t is not positively asserted that God does not
exist, but they say they are not satisfied with
the evidences in existence. The species of Deism
we most dread is that which wears the mask of
Christianity. Sometimes Christ is held up as a
model of perfection.
1 Francis Newman accuses Him of being an i'm
postor. His book has already gone through
several editions, and has many attractions for
young men of the present day. He says Christ
rushed on death to save living to be proven an
| impostor He accuses Him of being improperly
! prepared to act the part he attempted.
The fence reared by the Divine hand around
the real truth is rudely torn down, and the ad-
venturers wickedly trample down the truth.
| They boast of Paine one of the great leaders
who, they say, walked up and down the gar
den, and laid waste the trees planted by Divine
hands. They hope to gain the same notoriety
as he did. They are failures, for all the blows
they strike to lop off branch recoils and
strikes them with redoubled force. 1t is strange
that he should have declared the tree of the
Lords planting not less strong because it had
being, and rules the universe. For God to
countenance the destruction of the Canaanites
makes him to look in their eyes the most
hideous of beings, and they profess not to
believe. They believe he dotes Unfortunately
on all human beings.
When a child begins to talk we think it can
talk; we do not attempt to disprove the fact.
Faxton is another of the same school which
saws there is no allusion to the doctrine of the
Atonement in the Bible. Miracles are laid hold
of and violently assailed. They say that mira
ces are impossible; they are opposed TO expert
ence and therefore cannot be. If they were
known to experience they would cease to be
miracles. They are the stopping of the laws OF
nature, for season, in respect to some act OF
thought.
Because they have not walked on water
and have seen no one walk on water, they
testimony, they say, cannot be put forth
against the law of nature, because some arc
false, and such testimony is fallible. If we ad
NIT the principle, how much of our knowledge
I'VE should be obliged to yield as untruthful L
God could reveal Himself in his works, Ger
tainly He could reveal Himself in his Grea
Word, which is the greatest of all. Newman
and some of his co-workers believe that ther
could not be possibly a revelation. They sa.
revelation is from within, and therefore ther
is no need of revelation from without ant
1t does not exist, because not needed. TIL
works of Newman and Parker are performing
most lamentable impression on the miads of til
young men of this age and generation.
The marked deviation of Emerson and Carlyl
TO Pantheism are not less to be denied. Chris
becomes the personifcation of the Old Testo
ment in ideas, which are dug up from the sloug
Of their maginations. Pantheism in its Englis
dress is not particularly different from that i
France and other countries, though it does nc
think it right to be just the same. Thomas Can
lyle is a master spirit in English Pantheisn
Ralph Waldo Emerson occupies a correspondent
position in this country The latter has not tn
solid basis Of his English master, but he has
more brilliant fancy.
The poet dreamed, according to Emerson
when he said
'Life is rea life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal"
The Pantheist joins in with the Spiritualist
and they scorn prayer Another theory ad
vanced by these men is that there can be n
lso4s..