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


| main popular by virtue of suppression Of i'm
vestization. As TO the Bible, L say in the words
of Mr.. Bayne, @tlfaf there Is divine breathing
in all ALT is pages What soul which has any harmo
divine breathing in Scripture Is alone authorize
tive; that there is no divine breathing In con-
science, In reason, IN, nature In any literature
except tne literature of the Hebrews and the
opposite side and one equally grisvous" And in
regard TO its supposed teachings: We cannot be-
heye the world TO be only 5000 years old, or that
man ss J. not been on this planet vastly longer
spired by the right kind of spirit, as when he
prayed, "let him fall from one wickedness to an
other, CT, alet his children be vagabonds and
beg theh bread;o or that anything like the Mil
tonic theory Of the stoneTaent Is the true one,
that the irst man was the ideally perfect being
whom wA onght to look back 70 with longing adj
miration, and that,
t'In Adams fall
We sinne6 all,D
and 50 an Infinite Being had to suffer and die to
atone for the ''original SINS and the actual sins
Of an infinite number Of temporal beings, and
the divine Justice was satisfied for the sin origi-
nal and actual of man BY the substituted penal
sufferings OF Christ, that God win make writhe
in hell tor ever and ever al who fail 70 receive
as hold on these and like matters are largely
held in England both by the clergy and laity.
Bishops and presbyters hold and teach them,
though even there so great is the clerical oppo-
sition to them that in my last contemporary Re
view an article by clergyman says: "There is
an ever widening breach between the dominant
tone in the church snd the dominant tone In
modern Thought = y One would have thought
that the present condition of Spain, France and
Italy would have been enough to open the eyes
Of Engliskmen to the effects Of this ostrich poi-
icy. The church there has had fun swing, has
controlled the conscience and worked upon the
feelings of men without trying to enter into and
sympathize with their thoughts; it has left men
to believe that faith and reason were antagonis-
hat hQ IN doci
TO know were merely the temptations Of the
devil, and not the movfngs OF that spirit who
first brought order out of chaos; and the result
is that all the stronger 70 ces of the nation have
been ranged, by the action of the church itself,
on the Side Of irreligion, while Christianity is
represented by feminine amisbility, by the igno-
rance Of the peasantry, and the bigotry of the
of things? One will not answer in the negative
who knows the prevailing tone of thought
amongst those who read up, or who associate
with those who read up, on those SUBJ
jects on which is concentrated so much Of
the mental activity of the day. cultivated
Frenchman twenty years ago did not see more doc
uines or suggestions which seemed unreasonable
and opposed to science, in the religious system
before him, than does cultivated American see
in the dogmAtic schemes and historical assump-
tons ofmuch Of the Christianity of the day. any
who do not 90 to any church are kept away, not
by the enmity of the heart against God, but by
intellectual repulson, and many who go tc
church and some who are members of IL, are out
OF SYN pdJDY Win prominent DcCullarItleS IN
the presentments of Christianity which they
support, and so are religious at the expense OF
moral tone and simplicity of character.
1t is perhaps supposable that the science of the
day is science falsely, so-cslled, though Ger
tainly II is as unlike the science st. Paul sudes
to as can be,-and that every one of the churches
is all right in every thing which comes in SEEM
ing conflict with this science But il IA not sum-
possible, tholgh Ii had been and Is often suppos-
ed, that God, the great object of admiration,
veneration and love, can be such being as that
those of his children who cannot help thinking
the claims OF science in the main true, are chill
dren Of wrath-or that the common children of
the Father to render acceptable service 10 Him,
must force their assent to beliefs, or must have
definite beliefs on subjects, the contemplation of
which, would dazzle the eyes of an Archangel.
The spiritual world is as vast as the Universe.
The objects Of thought and belief in it are as
numerous as are the stars of Heaven; the light
from some of them has never yet reached us
vast realms are yet NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. has but
Just let us into some Of them which our fathers
never dreamed Of. The mind has been perpetu-
ally pertecting its means of investigation and
late some Of the results as we attain them, but
not those which are the most important to the
spiritual being The attempt to embody into
scientific statement for the logical faculties, our
spiritual beliefs, our feelings, those longings
which cannot be uttered, TO store them away into
formulsries % use in our religions needs, is as
vain Rs the effort TO put sunshine into bottles
and store it away into cellars for winter use.
Such fOrmularies as the Atnanasian creed serve
admirably for causes and occasions of strife, to
nurse up exclusiyeness and bitterness, TO enable
us TO thank God we are not as other men, and
follower our conceptions of the Divine majesty
the use of them often consists WITH but is not an
aid to, holiness of living. 1t is hard to have q
conception of God more revolving to the moral
sense OF benevolent man than that he who
yearns and labors to know and do the right, and
who in spite of all temptations will continue
thus to yearn and labor is yet looked upon by God
with anger because he does not give in his adj
leSiOn to such fOTmul8Ties.
Whatever is plainly seen to be true ought to
be cheerfully recognised as true and plainly
knowledged to be so. The church of England is
freeing herself from the reproach of opposing in
vestigation and the free handling of traditional
beliefs 1t Is unfortunate for the Prot. Ep.
Church that many insist on committing her to
notions which can only be received by IAN act of
faith, !" and which an act of understanding would
be sure to eject from the chambers of the brain.
hold that the christianity of Christ is everlast-
ingly true, but that those notions which science
confutes belong to the transient in religion and
ought TO pass away. The non-aetion of the last
General Convention on views which SO urgently
required being warned against If they are to be
reprobated, justites, the hope that the church
here may do as the church of England has done,
and as both truth and wisdom require of her.
The Episcopal Church is much more liberal than
any other orthodox charch-troubles her men,
bers less about mere dogma, and allows her min
istsrs much greater freedom of thought and of
utterance and her dOctrinal history logically re-
quires all the liberty one should desire. Many
fear this spirit of inquiry and look TO church
thOrity as help in mysterious power deposited
in supernatural channels of grace and dispensers
of wisdom; they would have men and women find
lullaby to the troubled soul, a short and easy
method Of getting rid of ali mental perplexities,
and an admirable way to magnify the
office at the ministry. This claim for
sn enemy to education to civil and religious lib
erty, to freedom of thought, to largeness of soul
and to social prosperity. 1t is time that those
who would have Christianity identified with the
aSSaUtiQl and mot the ACCIDENTAL with the
anent and not with the Il ansient, all who would
not have it share the fate of religion insueh
countries as Austria, Spain and Italy, to vindi-
cate for Episcepalians the right of private judg-
mcnt and the duty of maintaining openly the
convictions TO which they are led by the Free
earnest and reverent use of their faculties
Mere platitudes, to the effect that religion and
true science are in harmOny-meaning by reli-
giOn certain notions about religion which we
have received additionally from the Church of
ROme-will not do. The refusal to yindioate for
Episcopalans the right claim must end in
sweeping infdelity as TO religion at all amongst
many who are now her members. "Work with
out hope draws nectar in seive," and so while
my religious convictions deepen and
my religious earnestness increases its fervor
/ can but fear that my lsbors will inure TO the
benefit of principles which reject and dislike if
continue to ignore these subjects; and while l
have neither the ability the inclination to ad-
vocate the views which are now current, or those
which are becoming current, with scientific men,
l think il wrong so to keep silence as to seem not
10 D6h6N6 L0OS6 Oh JDSu 90 DeueV6, or
so TO act or keep silent as to favor the notion
that their hearty belief is at all inconsistent with
the true faith of a christian man.
Says a good man and a profound thinker, Mar
zini: "The worla is governed by religions. For
every advance in religious belief we can point to
a corresponding social advance in the history OF
humanity; while the only result you can show as
a consequence of indifference in the matter of re-
ligion Is social anarchy" Never did feel more
deeply the importance of religious belief and
culture, or long more TO labor to make sthers
possessOrs of that peace and joy the soul
feels whcA reposes on the bosom of Infinite Love;
but cannot exercise what little of "the gift of
prophesying" 1 have, if denied the liberty
clam. For me to seem TO hold opinions which
reject, or TO refrain from modes of presenting
truth which deem to be now essential to their
presentment, would be to fail in sincerity and
efficiency. l wish Christians would thoughtful
ly read the sentence L now quote: There is
nothing we can conceive of more calculated to
can conceive of more certain to end in inditfer-
ence and mere negative Journalism, than the
habit which theological strictness and intOler-
ance has superinduced in many persons Of cher
ishing esoteric religious opinions, which are only
feebly and timidy declared, or not presented at
all, in their public instruction" -
The new doctrines l have been speaking of
have given and will again give q rude shock to
many traditional beliefs and, as Lyell says,
ready TO reveal new doctrines, if possible more
than ever out of harmony with cherished associ-
atoms of thought These new doctrines do not
need clerical aid for their propagaton the scien-
tihc men are zealous preachers of them, and that
b aryest does not stand in need of more labOrers
The Church Of Engl 4nd-despite the efforts
of dogma lovers to prevent it-has been contin-
Ill -aNa -