Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-11-27

tendency with all professionals, clergymen gem
orally read only on their own side, or when they
read ON the other side they 90, , so 70 Dc ape
Ispeak OF the tendency OF the class-their tradf-
tons to be the final expressions Of truth and take
doubt to be Indicative Of wrong in themselves IN
stead Of suggestive of the possibility that they
ought to revise their opinions In the light which
added knowledge and higher development OF hu-
fnanity might throw upon the subject. Both the
Anglican and the Evangelical are of necessity
exclusive, intolerant as they are logical. Each
has 1.-THE revealed plan Of salyation' which the
other mutilstes ADDS to while for those who are
herterodox there is no covenant hope, LiDer-
al churchmeD, or rationalists as they are 0Iten
unjusty termed by unfratsrnal brethren, he4aeMe
that the plan OF salvation which Christ Iaeet 90
teach is, to love and labor for goodness OF
are free from evil and filed With goodHgss-they
hold that in every nation and In every creed he
that feareth God and worketh Righteousness IS
to s Comprehend ali who try to lead cody
lives, and with Coleridge would wish no
other assent to dogma than that which Is given
by the common use Of Liturgy. They could well
use as their own the words uttered more than
hundred years ago on this subject. SIT the
members of the Church had more love to the
lord and charity towards their neighbof the Prin-
pal points Of faith doctrinals would then be mere
ly varieties Of opinion concerning the mysteries
OF faith which they who are true Christians
would leave to every one to receive acg@Fding TO
his conscience, while the language Of tAeF hearts
would be, He Is true Christian who Hives like
christian, that Is as the Lord teaches.mis.
In England it is assumed that dis-estsblisment
will DO followed by division and sub.dis isionin
the Church, though think the rapid spread of
liberal principles there is doing much to lessen
the evils which viii result in that event. In this
country where the clerical element dominates
In the church and has exclusive rule Ia the courts
and where the Laity, seeming to think that theo-
logy Is "al q muddle," are leaving everything to
the clergy. the high church element will, II pre-
sent tendencies are not checked, get cid Of that
loxrro 1t olo fvubi oh ar
liberal principles will sbe tolerated only where
they are not svowed. All these difficulties are be-
cause of dogma of a peculiar kind. 81
The notion that theology can be expressed IN q
set of propositions the reception of which by tibet
individual is necessary to salvati Is abhorrens
both to reason and the moral sense. 1t has had ts
loEcal outcome In the infallibility of man Away
at hand to say what is the precise statement
which must be received or the precise meaning
of the statement. If my not holding certain Opin.
Ions IN regard % gnrlst viii pc sure 20 9amn me-
not infalhbly give me the right belief-snd the
mere deyout study Of the Bible will not do
it. for ~ equally sincere mes
SO many conflicting belief, then the mere Hav.
ing OF the Bible is not enough to enabl& any rnaa
to hare right to feel sure that he Is right and
we must have personal source of infallibilityS
reason and the moral sense and the Bible need
some one to Hco-ordnate" them. A pope Ia
every mans bosom will not do-when you ana
lyZe the matter, there are almost as many be"
the different churchese they not only differ In
doctrine, but there are few members Of any II
them who, If subjected to rigid catechisins.
would not by their own standards be found
guilty OF heresy. According 70 the rigid dog
matte system tho only thing which enables us to
indulge hope FOX the most orthodox person IL
implicit faith" and that amounts 70 inst this.
that the man sincerely wants to- believe ths
truth and Is always ready 10 reject error when
shown that it is error. We may h0pcthat many
who most widely differ in beliefs have implicit
Tos@ aud In oil RI haa nm
that at the last And L know no one who does
not practically, deny believing dogma as import
ant as his system affirms that it is. For, those
who believe what they term essential doctrines,
would not, as jurymen, bring in a verdict which
would hang man Orasend him to the peniten-
tiary on such pertial and careless investigation
as they have given TO these doctrines, though
they think they believe that the perditioh Of the
soul would be the result of bad logic. They are
conscious, OF think they are conscious, that they
wish and try to know the truth and do the right
and feel that if they are mistaken in their belief
they can't help 1t, and that God
who knows their hearts will be meF-
ciful to involuntary error and invincibte
ignorance. There are two sources of belief-sB-
thority and reason. If one takes either the Bibie
or the Church for his authority, he does not e&.
plicitly believe everything it teaches; if cSt@s
chised ne would trip very frequently in his tkzsa
ology; but he wishes to be faithful to his autSes
ity, and viii hold on or give up, or take Up aGf
opinion when required by it, though it be ~ -
lieve the world was made IN six days OF - seass
H.
iEidels, some grossly immoral, and sstss Gott-
Trajectory in their teachings-was arsasiS1e
And so those whose authority Is resSeA are viii
ing to hold on, or give up, or take up Nlk hektef,
Just as Asv teachings require. 10 tegardSa aen-
tl condition as affecting the esFOE of &cHf, both
find consolation in iEPlbeit faita. feeling that If
they are honest and earnest, S@sffee and mercy
are the babitation of the M0st Eigh, and all will
be well with them at the end.
do not believe in those dogmatic schemes
which have brought so much woe into the world.
N..A f.rw 10
but sententiOus mode of expressing truth or
belief; and belief is important. The right Guilt
walton of the affections requires right intellee-
tual pres criptions but it does not require those
prescriptions which these dogmatic schemes
often suppose. Pers ms of the highest worth of
character are inside OF any and outside
OF any dogmatic school, and contradictory
dogma and no dogma can hardly yield precisely
the same fruits. The dogma may be very i'm
portant sbstractly, and yet our knowledge of
them or belief about them may not be important.
For from even the time when men began to think
about themselves they have been disputing, as
they are yet, about the genesis and nature of the
moral sense. The questions in issue are very
important, but whatever may be the truth in the
abstract as to them human beings are about
whom we ought TO love, admire, pity or repro
bate, and act toward in various ways. We do not
wait to be thoroughly grounded in the dogmaf
either of the intuitional or utilitariaH school OF
morals, before we enter upon our social duties;
nor do we refuse to cooperate in philsnthropic
labors with those who do not think with us in
regard to these theories, though we might easily
have been educated SO as that we would be apt
instinctively to shrink from associating with a
unitarian or an intuitiOnalist. We can worship
the Father in spirit and in truth, and help each
other in the cultivation of our religious affec-
tions, whatever may be our opinion or no opin-
ion in regard to those mysterious subjects which
much of dogmatlc theology afirms SO positively
about and which christians have olong disputed
about, and which it is certain we never
can agree. in opinion about, and defn-
are not needful for the culture of our religious
affections OF as aids to holiness in living "Chris
tianity has won its triumphs as life and not as
creed. The life has co-existed with thousand
creeds diverse in kind and often antagonistic to
each other" Whewell says that it was a mis-
Interpretation of christianity combined with the
ignorance and seryility of the times which gave
rise to the DOgmatic System, and the love of spe-
culation finding no sure and permitted path on
solid ground, went OFF into the regions of mysti-
cism. Thatwho caused the Dogmatic system did
more TO distort and dim and prevent the true
perception OF the spiritual than it did of the ma
terial world.
1 do not believe in these dogmatic schemes.
believe that to attach any practical 5mpGrtance
to them has always been and must always be an
evil, and that the notion underlying them-that
Gods anger is against the man whose theological
opinions are Invertebrates God inferior to
many human parents, anathemas, now express
only part and a continually growing smaller
part of the conscience of the age; and the same
law of Interpretation which rules in the church
of England-but which do not much expect t e
see clerical courts adopt-requires and gives
home to the larger doctrine that christi anity is
life.
1t is the dnty of ministers Of religion not to op
pose or be opposed to the teachings of science,
to have more faith in God to believe that to
know the facts Of the past and the mysteries of
nature will not ALLEVIATE the soul from faith and
love in God, who ordereth all things both in
heaven and upon earth. ! believe that the earn
est investigation and thinking which are now
being devoted to these concerning subjects will
result in deepening, enlarging and intensyfying
our religious convictions and that the Church of
the Future will be one of more earnest and &C.
tive faith than that of Oxford or Rome, or
Geneva.
As to my use of the Liturgy after having con-
sciously abandoned some or the beliefs which
caused its phraseology beliefs are the
necessary outcome of the exercise of the private
preserving its loyalty to Christ ought to have a
welcome in the church. We should suffer the
phraseology in our services to be saturated with
the beliefs which science proves TO be true as we
learn more OF Gods doings in old time, and
of the wonders of nature, and of his dealings
now with the children OF men-just as we retain
the old phraseology about the light and heat and
the rising and setting of the sun, ETC., though
the notions of the phenomena of nature which
cause these expressions have changed When
we pray that Christian rulers may "maintain
truth" II would be wrong for us to use those
words In the sense meant by the compilers. I
know that TO words in Sense SO different
from their intended meaning may tend to
unreality, but we cannot help doing SO in a com
mon prayer. The words used at the committal
OF the body to the grave were meant to express
the belief, then universal that the material body