New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1873-11-09

: AHd hrInly stand as his brave father stood,
True 20 his name, his country and his God;
Faithful at home, and steadfast still abroad /"
Dublin Freeman.
; Gerald Massey's Sermon on the Origin ,
Evil.
The conundrum proposed by Friday
: his master Crusoe. and which has heret,
, | fore remained unanswered, was eonsidere
by Gerald Massey in discourse before III
. Unitarian Society of Harlem last evenin
at the chapel, ON One Hundred aud Twenty
eighth street. The little building was file
completely. The Introductory services wer
unique and simple, consisting simply of tn
reading OF tour of Mr.. Massey's short poem
by the pastor of the church, Mr.. Clarke
and the rendering OF song by the audience
With a few words of welcome Rev. Mr.
Clarke introduced Mr.. Massey, who in
rapid tone spoke from the following text:
But says he, again, ''If God much strong
much mighty as the devil, why God no xii
the devil! So make him no more wicked ?
This is the reply of a supposed untutoret
savage, Man Friday, and Defoe never made
| a stroke nearer to nature. l must go round
TO answer it. The human mind has long
suffered an eclipse and been darkened anG
dwarted in the shadow of ideas the rea
meaning of which has been lost TO the mod
ern mind. Myths and allegories, whose sig
| nlficance was once untOlded to initiates ia
The ancient mysteries, have been adopted in
| ignorance and reissued as real truths divine
~ vouchsa1ed to mankind for the first and
| only time. The earlier religions had the ir
myths interpreted We have ours mislnter-
| preted. and l find that great deal of what
has been imposed on us as Gods direct, true
| and only revelation to man is a mass of in
| verted myths, under the shadow of which
| we have been covering as timorously as
| birds i'll the stubble when a cloud in the
shape OF hawk is held lowering overhead
The parallels of the prlmeval thinkers
have been elevated to the sphere" as we
say, as the hawk" or "serpent," the
bull or the "crab," that give names to
| certain groups of stars, and we are in pre-
clsely the same relationship to those para
nies ana allegOries as We should be TO as
Economical facts if we thought the serpent
and bull, the crab and hawk were real AM
mals instead OF consultations with sym-
boiical names. This comes of taking our
history, geography, and versions of the
myths from the Jews. There never was
anything more stultitying than our accept
Re OF the history of the unknown past,
the origin Of man and the creation of the
world, from people so ignorant, so blindly
bigoted as the Hebrews. 1t was like in.
carnating in the human mind a cramp that
should last for thousands of years. The
Chinese did endeavor to date the deluge.
and the Hindoos reckoned their past ages.
or "Iugs,' by millions Of years
long before. But the Israel;tes alone
succeeded in rendering mythology
chronological, and in revealing to the world
the startling doctrine that symbols were
living historical beings and persons, gener-
ally Jewish. 1t was impossible for the
Jews 20 date the year one OF the world, or !
enlighten us respecting antiquity. They |
Were not its contemporaries and had not !
Il n
which they assert a sOjOurn of hundreds OF |
years, they can tell us nothing that is fully |
orrUborated. The truth is that it needed |
the vast weight of accumulated authority,
supposed 70 be divinelv delegated. backed
by the constant stun of all our natural
faculties on the part of those who con-
tinued 70 enforce that authority, 10 keep
the human mind SO prone Y and pititully
TO the tyranny Of the Jewish
The least freedom Of thought and !
assertion Of common sense would have
risen up and overthrow it if men had but
dared to think. If God had had the small
9st chance within the human syul to speak
or himself. man must have sprung 20 his
eet III response. the blush OF shame on
lis face, stung into erectness at
asst, with the flash of conviction that
le had oeen a most abiect. unwilling
lave 10 the hereditary degradation imposed
he myths. The new life would have |
Laughed Oft the old decay and those hor-
ioie creations Of the night, the parasites of
be theological mind, would have dropped
way from the freed soul like vermin starry
d OF clean. healthy body. The speaker
ere explained the ''legend of the Golden
&c" as the primeval parable oil pre-exist-
nee which eliminated in the philosophy OF
iaUo, asserting that one of the vanishing ;
aces Of the world. the Eastern Australians, :
al a version of the myth that was nearer !
its origin than either Plato or the writer ;
the Pentateuch. 1t is utterly misleading | :
look TO the Hebrews for an interpreta- :
on of the ancient myths. The motive of o
ie Hebrew legend OF the fall is essentially !
uegar. 1t Eliminates their anathema ;
g&inst knowledge by means of the mouth
EJad himself. knowledge is figured and :
#; forth as forbidden fruit held out in the :,
eative hand with deadly curse for those !;
no desired and tried to attain it. Yet it is =
He'd The fruit OF the tree OF knowledge Of =
nod as well as evil. knowledge is made =
bring death into the world. and it fol- .
VS. logically that for the remainder of hui G
an lie the only way of living. the only q
,uan c0nGltion that touches the divine. is {,
r US to remain satisfied with perfect ig- ~
rance. | also believe that there is an | J.
age of the divine nature always striving ~
form itself in humanity, however blurred n,
broken il may be, by the perturned, i'm -
rfect condition of our restless life. But a.
is divine likeness is not a rejection OF ~
manly IN some far off past; it's not hui a
IN original at all. but divine; not an ideal -
at was once possessed and then lost Il -
an image of that which is forever hecolu- n
Z; it is a faint reflection from the living -
d, and not the picture Of some dead past in
Sot in one primal man before the fail or
bid tjO,! SET life breathing once 1oI all. cI
He is the breath of life from first 70 last h.
He liyeth in the present as the past -
But We. Ike yowers, turn your eyes behind; W
fe look without. and vainly feel 10 tipd TO
Raised IN re lief like letters tor the oIlni W
The substance OF that glory in the mind. va
Lints OF the higher life the better day. yO
Visit the human soul. outlining aye vi
The perfect statute now rough. cast in CLAW RI
Aud with mournful sigh We think to say n.
This Is the type that was and passed away az
sod holds flower TO yoa it only yields Iol
! ne fragrance fading from forgotten fields. tel
Ali only Eden could have waited il. of
lninoI tai imagery his hand hath writ -,
Within. les, it's with revelation lit LII
by secret shinings Of tie infinite. an
THESE are but glmpses of a glory gonei IGe
tel, yOu they are prophecies OF dawn Io1
i I'd gimpses OF a lite that still goes on a.
Nan hath not fall u from heaven nor been cast Ia
)ut from some golden age lived IN the past he
His tall is from tue possible light before We: lts
I fall from the crown of life held Ger We; CTR
4 falling short OF al impending glory. -
here has been a sort of fall in the past: Wi
of humanity in its upward progress. ing
4an h. tnn<