Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1871-11-22
RELIGIOUS VENEERING,

The solid and substantial furniture
OF our fathers is supplantcd in the
fashionable parlors of to day with
much more ornate but far less durable
furniture in gilt and veneer So tho
homely but substantial virtues of the
past appear old.fashioned by the side
Of tho cheaper but more pretentious
limitations of the present. Honeyed
phrases and stimulated sentiments
pass current for philanthropy and re.
ligion. Men who hardly concedc that
there is a God talk gIibly about the
True, the Beautiful, the Good Men
that are endeavoring to dissolve the
marriage tic, and remit the family to
the chaos of worse than savage life,
give expression to the most exalted
sentiments of purity, and write poetry
about love exactly as though they re.
ally believed in ii. As the coffin and
the corpse arc often covered with
flowers that hide death but do not
prevent decay, so men whose moral
nature is dead so cover their corrupt
and corrupting sentiments and doc.
trincs with pretty SMILES and high,
flown phraseologies, that one can
hardly tell whether he is looking at
coffin or a cradle. AS some of the
stoutest infdels have read tho Bible
enthusiastically for its poetry and its
cloquence, so n good many to whom
the experiences it portrays are quite
foreign catch its language, and even
como by imagination to comprehend
something Of those experiences, and
to embody them in forms exquisitcly
beautiful, A noble. hearted and gene
rous man may assume for the time the
part of Shylock, and porsonify the
yindictiyc rascal admirably On the
other hand, one utterly devoid of hu
name and generous sentiments may
quite as effectively play the part Of a
hero, so long as there is no real cxi
gency to test the reality of his hero
ism.
Nor are such experiences always
consciously simulated. Such are the
contradictions of human nature, that
one utterly devoid of Cristan or even
truly humane and generous principles
may not only affect but really feel for
the moment u transient sense of their
transccndont glory. Moore, for ex
ample, has embodied some phases of
Christian experience in exquisite vors.
cs, but no one will be bold enough to
attribute to Moore any sembance of
genuine Christian experience. The
Christian church, it is true, lays hold
Of these and similar expressions of
Christian feeling, and employs them
TO utter its own unutterable faith and
love, but without endorsing the Chris.
tian character of those who originated
them. Ono may quote with approval
the apothegm, "All that man hath
will he give for his life," without
being accounted an endorsor OF Satan,
who first uttered it, 1t is neither
necessary to cXpungo from our hymn,
books such hymns as "Come, ye dis
consOlate," because written by man
to whom all experiences of divine
comfort were only a pleasing dream,
nor to believe that he really possessed
religious experience because he gave
it admirable expression
There is good deal of this pseudo.
religion, this sentimentalism of human.
ity, in certain classes of modern re.
forms. The popular lecturer gains
the applause of bali his audience by
the ennuncation in some stirring form
of those preoepts whose origin and
authority is Jesus Christ. He gets
the applause of the other half by u
sharp satire on what ho tcrms"modcrn
Christianity" The "Dalcy Trumpet"
in one column writes so warmly ofthe
precepts and example Of Christ that we
are lain to believe that the Ethiopian
has indeed changed his skin. But we
turn to the advertising columns. Be.
hold thero thc skin is black as ever.
The truth is that the atmosphere of
Christian truth aud feeling is, in GER
tain forms, 50 widely difl'used in the
community that no one can be unaf.
iccted by it. The fact that man
prates prottily about piety or human
ity does not prove that he possesses
either There have been in history
some eloquent preachers whose life
has proved to be devoid of principle
not many, but enough to prove that
there is differences between senti.
ment and principle A man may be a
philanthropic writer and no philan.
thropist; he may at times be a Chris
tian writer and no Christian he may
give expression to experiences that he
knows only by imagination; he may
marry beautiful feeling TO false doc.
trinc, and SO give the one a false light
reflected from the other. And he who
does not recognize the difference be.
tween scntimentalism and religion
will always be label to be deceived by
the thin veneer and cheap gliding
which readily pass among the undis
eliminating for solid wood and pure
gold illustrated Christian