The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-10-12

by instinct, detect that crevice, and spread
itself along the ground and grow through
obstacles, in all manner of shapes, up to-
ward the light. IF you look at that vine
from one point of view. it is the result OF
an effort of blind nature to find out how
to grow without some of those elements
which are indispensable to healthy
growth. 1t presents the phenomenon of
a plant trying to grow under unfavorable
| circumstances.
So, if you look at idolatrous systems Of
worship in the light Of better ones, they
seem poor; but if you look at them as
instances Of mans ina gination and rea-
son. unaided, trying to find their way up
to higher state of intelligence, there is
something profoundly affecting and inter
esting in them. They are the attempts
of men to gain conception Of the divine
element Of justice. And their doctrines
have been bloody, vengeful, cruel; but
no more so than many doctrines of theol-
ogy have been that attempted to set
forth the justice Of God. They have
been the attempts of blind and ignorant
men to find some truth. They have been
the outworkings of that nature in man
which evermore feels a hunger for the
| high and the divine, land strives to obtain
release from its pinched and narrowing
circumstances. And so they have been
educatory influences, which tend to- turn
the human soul toward God, as if it felt
the need Of the divine element. The
testimony OF heathenism is most impor-
tant, if you look at the Development
which takes place under imperfect views
OF God, where there is no sufficient rev.
citation or accumulation of knowledge.
For God reveals gradually. [ do not
think that inspiration or revelation ever
takes place In bursts As poets feel
themselves suddenly stirred up, and bring
forth by inspiration glowing pages, so we
are apt to suppose chosen men of old
wrote as moved by the Holy Ghost.
But the Holy Ghost moved them to live
first, and afterward to write what they
had lived. And the revelation of God is
wrought out in the human soul, and in
the history Of one man joined to that of
another man.
There was, in all idolatrous nations,
much that was God fearing, and much of
belief in the truth. Therefore it was
that Peter, under divine instruction, ad-
ded to his articles of faith, the declara-
ton that all men, everywhere, in all lands,
who feared God, and worshiped him,
would be accepted of him. Although
the whole world was given to one or an
other form of idolatry, there was light
enough In any of the systems to
give man some true inspiration. IF
you study the condition of the human
soui under the influence Of a partial or
low development of the law of God, you
will find but partial or low development
of love, fidelity. purity and mercy. Moral
character has been developed, and has
been fertile, only in proportion as the di-
vine idea has been luminous and large.
More than that, it will be found that
the side of the human mind which has
been developed in man, has been that
side which stands over against the CORES
pondlng development of the divine ma
ture. Wherever God has been devel-
oped as great governing Force, there
f6 &c has been the law. Wherever God
has been developed rs sovereign and alb
solute in the Oriental sense-as one con-
sulting only his own will, and caring for
himself more than every one eise-there
you have found a corresponding develop
ment among mankind. And in proper
ton as Gods character has been revealed
&C paternal. in proportion as the idea has
been set forth, In its height and depth
and breadth, that God is One who suffers
willingly rather than create suffering, and
takes upon himself the sins of men, and
bears their stripes, that by his chastise-
ments they may be healed in proper
ton that such disclosure has been made
In that proportion all humanities, all
selt-denlals, all sweetness, all disinteres-
ted affections, have sprung up. The hui
man soul has grown largest on that side
where the character of God has been
most disclosed. And the converse is
true. In proportion as men have grown
sweeter, they have sweetencd their idea
of God. A savage never had a sweet
God. A man that loves blood, has a
God that loves blood and drinks blood.
A man reflects so much of the divine ma
ture as there is in him. And as it is
with the individual, so it is with the race
But the general truth stands, that
where there is low and ignoble concep
ton of God, human character is low and
ignoble and that where there has been
high conception of God, human char
| acter has been raised. The side of hu-
man character which has been developed
has corresponded to the side of the di
vine character which has been developed.
And these facts all point to the great
truth that man gains conception of q cd
only so far as he is able to raise and Join
his mind to the divine mind. That part
OF the mind which receives warmth and
qulckenlng is the part which grows ; and
man full manhood is to be formed on
ly when, all divine institutions being
availed of, aud his soul being emano;na
ted from all degrading influences, he lifts
himself up into commerce with the di-