The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1874-05-16


human and the divine
In the old centuries, when faith was
graphing with the incredible, all
salvation was secured the moment this
belief was reached, and hence salvation
was not go much new holy life as q
new credulitv, an eclipse of reason. In
our age faith is g gigantic force, kind
OF presence of Christ which impels
along the path OF duty aud JOY and
ssnctificatiou. 1t is said by a careful
historian, that the wonderful stories
that grew up in the medieval church
we're invented daily in order to bring
the children and the common people
INTO this form OF belief. The priest re-
lated his visions or his miracles 40 as
to force the multitude TO believe
in the wonderful nearness Of either
God or Satan, and thus suddenly find
salvation by belief into which they
had been entrappet by fine article.
If, for example, your child 10, or
even of l6 years, should fail to seek its
first communion, and fail to confess be-
let in The realty OF your immense re"
ligion, you may invent dream or a
vision in which God came to you and
confided something awful il the child
should remain outside the church, or
above all, should reveal airy inclination
toward some alien sect. Thus to bur-
nv into an intellectual belief was the
fret refuge OF the soul, and all beyond
that was quite insignificant. In the
course OF human inquiry. II was una.
voidable that THE great scaifoldDg and
framework OF creduiity, and OF a dead
belief divorced utterly from a correct
life, should fall and drag down part OF
the unfinished superstructure, and ont
of the collapse OF this FOLLY came lnii-
deity enough to cover a whole cont"
nent. The return OF our times TO true
Christianity must come from the re-
turn TO reasonable service not to a
rationalism that denies all super
natural events, but to a reason that
shall clotLe faith, and pentence, and
virtue, and all OF salvation with the
most raiment possible OF common sense.
Faith is, indeed, appointed by God TO
be legal salvation; but God is the au-
thor OF wisdom, and hence He gave
faith its legal power, because
lii possessed such natural pow
er. God might have ordaln-
cd that all PERSONS who should
crawl upon their knees from
Par.s to Rome, or from the Atlantic to
the Mississippi, should be saved, and
this would have been evermOre O legal
salvation; but what would have been
the casual relation between such pl-
grimages and human energy in all the
personal reform and benevolent works
Of the world? The vilest sinner could
have performed the task, and then have
lived on in sin but when God attaches
salvation 10 faith in Jesus Christ, to
such divine friendship, He has set IN
motion an influence that will help each
soul possessing this ia tn up z to d.
vine lie. God made religion rtaso' a.
bic bv making prominent IN its coz
| Urine q ItahObablS oSC"NJI
tural force called belize. II God de-
sired to overthrow the everlasting hills,
He would not probably ask the gentle
wind to blow upon them, or the BIRDS
TO sing over them, but would ask the
earthquake to open its great bosom and
swallow them as it once Withdrew the
realm OF Atlantis. Thus faith comes
into Christianity, not simply by an ar
bitrary decree, but 10y an order spring.
ing from the reasonabeness of God and
the nature OF man. This faith il a
mart of the reasonable service demand
ed bv the ideal church, escaped from
the wor=hip Of superstition and FOLLY.
1t is incredible that a God OF infinite
wisdom should cucumber the souls
nropress with doctrines arbitrary or alb
snrd. It is not only to he presumed
that God desires that Ills child
rem should reach Heaven, hu, that they
should develop their own intellect and
spirits on the way. Hence, if God has
PROMULGATED @ religion, we may assume,
heyoud question, that It will not be
divorced from culture and bound 10
superstition, but will in every doctrine
be a handmade OF common sense. II
reason is confessedly one of the highest
attributes OF man, it certainly should
not be 2enied the Father in Heaven.
Ia, there fore, the simplest rites of the
church, in the baptism OF an infant OF
the immersion OF an adult, there will
he reasonahleness worthy OF God above
and man beneath. This common sense
csnno, lie in any saving power such a
rite NAV bring, for water cannot form
sny part OF spiritual regeneration.
Water can 10 more stand as the cause
of salvation than 1t could
stand as part OF classic educa-
ton, or as a preparation for the bar Of
the Senate. Spiritual changes DO not
thus come, but il the baptism stands a.
AN emblem OF a new lite, that shall
| otherwise come to the soul, or as mo-
ment when parents make solemn vows
before heaven and earth, then the rite
masses into its reasonableness, and be-
comes a Leaf OF the vast intelligence
above and beneath. When, therefore
mothers have wept in hopeless agony
because q loved child had died unbap
tied. they have disgraced their Make
by their tears; or is God a being who con
dennis 10 death soul because it has ha'
no water sprinkled upon its forehead
Is the eternal misery OF soul OF 80 ut
tie significance 10 God that ne coul'
intlict it for such feeble cause? Oh
moments thought on the sweet rea
condolences OF the Heavenly Fathe
would dry many eyes that have wep
to long and too bitterly. T.,
Passing along over the ChrsIlanlt.
of Yesterday, perceive everywhere tha
it has ascribed everything to God ex
cept the great virtue OF common sense
Permit me to illustrate still turtle