The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1872-12-21

HERE are but two religions, Chris
tianity and Paganism, the worship Of
God and idolatry. A third between
these is impossible Where idolatry
ends, there Christianity begins; and
where idolatry begins, there Christianity
ends.-J1coGi.
DoDG is more than going home to
God It is more than going home to
friends and friendship. 1t is also going
home to find out what we ourselves are.
1t is going home to find our soul-self.
it Is going home to our true nats~<..,. 1t
IL acknowledgements Dce III -
Passion is the raw material of which
character Is made The more passion,
the more elemental power the more
crude stuff of being, the more impulse !;
the more action and reaction, the more
movement the more passion, the more
power; the more passion, the more
prayer at last.
THE MISTAKES of men in one genera
ton have constituted the seed-wheat of
truths for the next generation. The
heresies OF one age are the orthodoxies
of the next the infdelities of one
periodare the fdelities.of another period.
So the world has gone on opening and
thinking in chains, and bonds, and in
gyves.-Beecher.
THE REPRoBATEs are useful as guide
boards put upon the broad road which
leads to perdition. Over every unlaw-
full gate, Providence sets the bloody
hand of a transgressor-a sorry, but in
structive spectacle. A pitiful way sure
ly of helping on mankind, to tell them
to become precisely what one was not
himself, butitisan efficient way.-Froth-
ingham.
FAITH VERSUS DoGMA-Is no man to
be admitted to grace who does not know
how the Father differs from the Son,
and both from the Spirit or how the
nativity of the Son differs from the pro-
cession of the Spirit? Unless L forgive
my brother his sins against me, God
viii not forgive me my sins. Unless L
have pure heart, unless 1 put away
envy, hate, pride, avarice and lust,
shall not see God. But O man is not
damned because he cannot tell whether
the Spirit has one principle or two.
Has he the fruits of the Spirit? That is
the question. Is he patient, kind, good,
modest, temperate, chaste? Inquire if
you viii, but do not define. True reli-
giOn is peace, and we cannot have peace
unless we have the conscience unshac-
kled on obscure points on which certain
tx is impossible, We hear now of ques-
tions being referred to the next Ecu
menical council better a great deal re-
fer them to doomsday. Time was when
a mans faith was looked for in his life.
not in articles which he professed. Ne
cessity first brought articles upon us,
and ever since we have refined and re-
fined until Christianity has become
thing of words and creeds. Articles in
crease, sincerity vanishes away /; conten-
ton grows hot, and charity grows cold.
Then comes in the civil power with
stake and gallows, and men are forced |
to profess what they do not believe, to |
pretend to love what in fact they hate,
and to say they understand what has no
for them Erasmus.
SUNDAY.-A well-kept Sunday perfect
y meets the wants of the modern man.
It offers him just the rest which re-
luires. There is no relaxation so COM
olete as that which presents thoughts
md interests utterly different from those
With which man is commonly engaged,
nd the loftier those thoughts and the
higher those interests, the better The
AIDED faculties never enjoy such perfect
est as when another set of faculties are
allied into play and exercise, while the
ired ones sleep in calm. We are not
Ding now on the theological argument
0r Sunday; we leave that entirely I'M
ouched, except in so far as we recog-
ize the truth that good theology is [
God sense, and the requirements of
{ true religion are founded on the
lrest basis of the eternal fitness of I
lings. And we say, then, that never, =,
lore than in this country and at this I
me, was Sunday an essential element
human life for its well-being and {
ot, be it marked, the continental Sum t
~ of military reviews, brass-bands, '
ID beer-gardens, nor the old Jewish b