The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-06-17

universe, and breathes thitherward the In |
cence Of PRAYER, and draws thence con. |
soing and sustaining inspiration for bis weak |
and wearied spirit. Man alone is conscious
OF the God within, who instructs him in the |
nature of good and evil !: man alone links
this his present life with the hopes of an
unending hereafter. Consider, too. how
psltry and perishipg are all the Qualifications
of sense; how sterile, unsatisfactory, and
insufficient are all the resources of the intel
icct even; and then mark the infallible
guidance Of conscience in steering us away
from evil. ponder the great problems of the
intnite and eternal, Of which faith, and faith
only. youcbsafes us solution; realize the
grandeur and the glory of our conception of
the benignant Deity, who, amid the count
less and incomprehensible providences BY
which he regulates all worlds and all ages,
Is still! attentive to the mnutest wants in this
instant of time Of each unit of creation
think upon those sublime eXpatiations of the
devout spirit by which man, in the attitude
Of homage, holds communion with his
Maker IN realms inaccessible to the ap-
proacheS OF reason: recall the ineffable joy
and strength and solace which the intuition
of the fatherhood of God imparts to human
ity and then say if. indeed the mind be "a
pahle 10 measure or the tongue TO express
the disparity-then say by what an imperial
ascendancy the spiritual faculties of man
predominant over the carnal and the intellec-
tual: and by what urgency of momentous
interest it behooves him not TO leave in abey
ance the culture of his religious nature.
And not only is the religious element the
higher and the better part of man not only
does it constitute his proud distinction from
all other created beings; not only does it
exalt his reason and hallow his affections,
and veil his body of flesh as with the light
OF an ameola; not only is 1t the fountain
OF all the pure, peerless, and perennial joys;
not only does it lift him to an elevation far
above the perceptions of sense and the con-
ceptions Of reason, and the fantasies of ina
gination; not only does it link him in ALI
ance with the Divine nature, and assure him
of life beyond the limits of time and the
confines of earth; but in a simply secular
and unitarian view the solemnities of reli-
gious faith are indispensable to bis civiliza-
ton. In the absence of feeling Of depend
ence upon and responsibility to an over
ruling power, without moral sense to dis
| criminate between right and wrong, and
devoid of a conviction that the injustice
and inequalities of this world will be
redre>sed in another sphere, it is
manifest that man has no equivalent
for the remuneration of self, no iufalible cri-
| telion of duty, no commensurate motive to
good conduct Obedience to God is the
archctype and original of fealty to human
| authority; the still, small voice" Of con-
science is our only oracle of rectitude; and
| the assurance of reward and retribution
hereafter alone subjugateS those passions
which else would abandon themselves to the
riot of lawless qualification. Hence, in every
age, and among all peoples. religion has been
the cornerstone of social order and the
Sudins-star Of human progress. And pre-
cisely as the spiritual faculty has been dis
clplined and developed, in the same ratio
has the upward and onward movement Of
mankind been accelerated; in proportion as
the spiritual faculty has been dwarfed and
impoverished, man has CROPPED in darkness
and grovelled in the mire of cruelty and TN
cleanneSs. If we repudiate the interyen-
ton of Deity, and suppose mans progress
| and development determined by the agency
of natural law, still all experience attests the
| necessity of the religious sanction as a secu-
rity for his material well-being. In the pro-
cess of " evolution" the religious faculty was
| his earliest acquisition, and whenever and
wherever a momentary eclipse of faith has
occurred, then and there have night and
chaos resumed their sway.
| Gentlemen, from the evident status and
! function OF the religious element in the econ
| omy of mans constitution the deduction is
| obvious, that Us the object of education is
the development of bis faculties, any scheme
| of education must be fragmentary and inef-
lectual that ignores the existence of the
most essential and serviceable of all bis fac
ulties that as truth is the aim of education,
that scheme of education must be purblind
which loses sight and quest of the most pre-
cious of all truths; that inaSmuch as educa-
ton pretends to equip man for the high des-
| TIMES that await him, every scheme of edu-
cation is an arraDt imposture in so far as it
| leaves him without guide in this life. or a
| hope in the life hereafter And conversely,
| that system of education alone can be true
and polite which bestows upon man the
| competest culture-which not only realizes
| the mems sana IN sano corpore, but which
above and beyond that poor pagan ideal OF
| a perfect humanity, develops the "briGht
| consummate flower" of spiritual excellence
| the flower whence breathes the fragrance
of good will to man, and the incense of .lo,
| nv TO God. So then, on the q prior, argu
nlent, our Alma Mater is right in cheriShing
| the old tradition, and is safe in walking in
| the ancient ways, and she will scout the
| warning OF antecedent probability if she
hazards the experiment Of the modern phi
| losopby.
But The professors of the modern phloso.
phy do not recognize the validity of the 6
prior, argument; and they admit no other
method of investigation than by the process:
&C induction. Let us, then, subject the
problem to their much Wanted solvent; lei
us try the issue by the test of observation
and experiment. What says experience as
to the comparative efficacy and truition OF
the secular and the religious schemes OF cul.
ture:
Gentlemen, when the curtain rises on the
first scene in The drama Of human history man
is presented to us as in an attitude OF hon.
age. And this is a fact Of immense lmpor-
lance, for it attests that the conception of
Deity is an original principle of our NATURE,
and not an idea developed by the process Of
evolution" and because it thus gives con-
firmation to the fundamental postulate OF the
religious philosophy, that faith or the spirit
al faculty is an essential element Of the hui
man constitution. And we can see clearly
enough how without this sense OF respon-
sibility 10 superior power, and the concep-
ton of duty centering outside Of sell, prl-
meval man, in the struggle for existence,
could never so far have subdued his own
passions, or torborne pursuit OF bis own ln-
mediate interests, aS TO make the sacrifices es-
seniial to tie institution of society, and
so indispensable to the first step toward
progress.