New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-01-09
FREE RELIGION.

BOSTON, Jan. Gu VIII Dt NVhoiNNiNN hh'Ni
for congratuaon for dsmay according to the creed
OF the reader that the third of Horticultural Hall
Sunday afternoon dscourses opens under yet more bril-
liant auspices than either OF the preceding ones. The
list OF speakers notceaby strong and the tickets have
sold with unusual rapidy. 1t has become very
ally understood that this represents the most adj
vanced thought OF the time from radical
standpoint. Eager audiences go not in vain into
the waste and bowling wilderness outside the peaceful
Canaan OF 0rthodoXy-they hear voice uttcTing
strange things, and what they reed shaken by
the wind We shall not be likely, this Winter to com
plain OF monotOny with Mr. rockingham to speak for
the unbeevers TO whom creed of small moment, and
whose faith is swallowed up in works; with Mary Crew.
the only woman the list OF speakers, 10 follow with
plea for Christianity pure and simple; with Francis Alb
bott born combatant, the historian OF the Civil War
in Free Religion; and with Professor Fkc Of Harvard
20 expound the nOreligon of AuguSte Comtc Beside
these extremes, various different shades OF belief or unbe
lief will be represented and the worst enemies of this
movement will give those who engaged in it credit
for honest and fearless uterance OF their convictions
The opening lecture, delivered this afternoon was by
the Rev o. Il. rockingham. loaned to us from New
York for the occasion. His large audience drawn
from the thinking and cultured men and women OF BoS
ton Many came to criticisc. not a few to condemn,
yet to investigate, but all 20 ltcn aud indeed
Mr.. FrOthnghams audiences always sure to do
the latter He exotic in NcwIOrk, among you but
not Of YOU for not alone ne Boston bred but he
true BOstOnan In MS mental ana moral cohStllutloh
Mr.. rockingham is a to whom only the favored few
draw very near. He sways his audiences indeed. at his
will holds them spellbound by his sltcr1ng eloquence
hut he speaks from his intellect to theirs aud dom
their rather than melts their hearts His
lance is keen but polished kecn-hs dictonis Is fault
less as his manners-and, take him all in all, he is u
champion in whom any cause might glory.
subject tins afternoon was" The Beliefs ofthe Tn
believers: The Faiths OF the Infle~" In book writ
years ago finds description of horrid desert
occupying hundreds Of square miles OF the territory
between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. The
picture this desolate waste. with its unsghtly and
repusve vegetable growths. its sWarming lOcusts ION
which the Mississippi hawk swOopcd and fed, its venom
Gus and enormous snakes, is thing 10 haunt tho
readers dreams But now through this region the Pae
nc railroad runs and seams away through the golden
farof West looking vanly from rear platforms of cars
for this land of darkness and the shadow Of death and
finding instead n region capable OF supporting an i'm
agricultural population, the future site OF pleas
ant homes. Similar accounts have been handed
down 10 Of intellectual and moral deserts in
Europe and elsewhere-deserts covered with the
prickly tlOrns of disbelief, infested with deadly ser
penis awful with the dark Tapping Of demoniac wings
Such district the Roman Empire before the coming Of
Christ was long supposed TO have been; and 1t Is the
more liberal scholarship Of our generation which
has shown it 10 in fairer ooOrs-taught that then
and there even men hoped and trusted, and prayed.
and believed, and endeavOred and atained-that the
Empire had something TO bestow Christianity, as
we'll as Christianity the Empre-that the time and
state were neither better than they should
been, lay directly in the track Of historic
gress. In like manner a beam or two of illumination
may well he thrown into the dreaded shadowand Of so
called IndIelity, by bringing 10 the light of day the
Beliefs of the Unbeevers. With the worst aide OF in
fidelity the churchgong world Is familiar enough IL VIII
be allowable to-day present the best side of IT. But
nothing shall be unfairly extonuated or exaggerated,
suce the only thing worth our having is the truth.
In every ace of ClristeudOm there have been
whom the Church named nGdcls, and thrust down into
the lowest abyss OF moral reprobation. The Oldest OF
these almost forgotten by this time, and the only
ones now actively mathematical have lived within the
last 100 years. and the backness of their reputation
10 their assaults superstitions sin powerful The
names Chubb SALISBURY BoingbrOke. and others Of
their day. If seldom mentioned uttered when spoken
at all with and horror The names OF NOtare and
Rousseau recall venemOus verdicts which our own
ears have heard The memory of Thomas Paine is stn
stencil in righteous nostrils. Disbelevers these men
wereit is their title TO Immortality They made short
OF creed and catechism Of sacrament and priest,
Of miracle and revelation, of authoritative dOgmas and
dying Gods But after their fashion, they great
believers In the interest of Faith they doubted,
in the interest Of Faith they denied. They
in search of the Truth. and supposed them
selves to be removing a rubbish.pe TO reach it.
Toland, whose Christianity not Mysterious"
condemned 10 the flames by the Irish Parliament while
tie author fed for protection to England protested him
anxious to exhibit it free from the corrupons Of after
times. so Thomas Paine wrote his cage OF Reason
check to the professors of French Atheism. One author
IN G46 euumerates $50 fragrant hereses" of which
was THAT Ve may walk with God az well as the pari-
archs These unbeef born Of the spirit of the age
II was time OF terrible shalungs. The had fallen on
the neck Of king, and the halberd had smitten the
images Of the saints Scarcely authority stood fast
and one unchalenged. The IHadels felt this
spirit first Fidelity to its call their faith. They be-
Heyed ia the sovereignty Of reason. the rights of the n
dydual conscience. They had that faith In human ma
which is the faith of faiths. 1t is faith hard
to hold and these ndels found it in their time II
one thing it is that faith large proportion as
II put things to the proof Fear and aziness
can accept beliefs Only trust and courage will question
them TO reject cOnsecrated opinions demands
Grated mind. The moving impulse TO such rejection is
faith faith in reason faith in the minds ability to at
tain truth. The great skepc must be great believer.
None have so magnhcently affirmed those who have
audacOusly denied.
The beliefs OF the Unbelevers, being fundamental
few The creed Of the Indel is short but few nobler
words have written than OF the utterances Of
Salisbury, BOlingbrOke and other English Inhdes.
French Infdelity Of different pattern, for It
born of different experiences Besides the worship Of
reason the search for truth, ii fiery and pas
sOnate protest against injustice. There freedom
IN the France OF VOltares time. Almost every French
writer OF that epoch. whose writings have sur
yIyed the age in which they pro-
duced suffered fine or imprisonment, or the
suppression Of his works NOltaire was again
and again imprisoned. Rousseau was exied, and his
works publicly burned. The whole intellect OF France
thus thwarted, insued, gOaded TO madness in In
surrection against the Government But the only hope
ful way Of assailing Government to assail the
Church. Religion was weak In comparison with royalty
Divinity hedged the king but not the priest The clergy
had greatly degenerated character and had forfeited