Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-05-29

and sanctioned Dy the lOnRlngs OF tne Soul |
and by the experience Of all generations In
seeking for these doctrines we may permit
Christ, the founder Of Christianity, to super
sede reason and point out path for His fol.
lowers.
But the moment He has uttered our text,
that "Those which men can subject to expe-
rience are the doctrines that be Of God"
reason rises up and unites its voice with that
of simple authority. The doctrines Of
Christianity are those which may be tried
by the human heart. This is declared often
in the divine word From the words Of Sol
ONION, Fear God and keep His command
ments, for this is the whole duty of man." to
the Saviors words Of the text from the
psalm, 10 taste and see that the Lord is
good" to the deeply spiritual passage where
Christ compares himself TO bread TO be eaten
by the soul, there is one prominent idea, that
the doctrines of religion are those which can
be converted into spiritual being, making the
spirit advance from childhood to the stature
of Christ. With such a measuring line in
the hand it would seem easy for any one to
discover which are the great laws Of Chris
tianity, and what are only the facts or al
legged facts of the religion. Tho difference
between a fact aud law is perfectly obvi
Gus, but yet it is often necessary to remind
mankind Of things that are obvious. For
example, singing Of psams aud immersion
may have been actual facts of the Bible
times. 1t is most probable immersion was
the fact of the New Testament, and yet
neither Of these facts can be made Church
law or a Church doctrine, because it is not
possible for human experience to distinguish
here, aud to taste and see that the Lord is
any more truly good through immersion than
through sprinkling, or through a psalm of
David than through the Christian hymns of
Wesley or Watts In the great empire Of
experience it is the spirit il the baptism Or
in the song only which can so much as exist
and hence it is the worshipful spirit alone
which becomes part of religions great
law But when tie Bible says, "He that
believes shall be saved" it untolds doc
trine for, humble experience, taking up
this faith, is wholly transformed thereby, as
desert is transformed 10y rains and sun in
| TO a paradise. Faith is mans relation to
Christ, Just as the students love of knowl-
edge is his relation to all study and wisdom.
Faith is the union between the cluster and
the vine, between the rose and the nourish-
ing EARTH Separate the rose and It withers,
never reaches its bloom. Hence he that be-
lieveth not is damned, because, the chain
that should have bound him to God being
broken his moral world sinks aud goes out
in the darkness. like the virgins oIless lamp
when tho Joy of the marriage feast was near.
If God is the life Of the world then the soul
that separates itself from Him by unbelief
would seem to have broken the chain OF per-
petual being. Hence some infer the annhi-
ation of the wicked, others their loss OF
happiness, rather than Of existence. BE the
details what they may, faith is not doctrine
like that Of Immersion or of DEGREES an
idea beyond appreciation, but is one which,
like the law of food and drink, lies wholly
within the daily life OF the soul Such also
are the ideas Of repenta nee and conversion,
and of mediatorship, and of the divineuess
of Christ. These cannot, except by the
most thoughtless or else the most unjust, be
counted as dogmas iD the contemptuou'
sense, for they are seen at once to be phases
of human experience, forms of its daily life
of its regrets, Of its reforms, OF its conf
dence, of its hopes. A world which de
mauds Of men apology when insult is offered
public reasN which asks that politica
rebel shall become penitent and shall becom'
converted as to the national flag, ought no
to Danish penitence and conversion from thC
empire Of God, that great fatherland of tn,
soul. Appealing, therefore, to the range o
human experience, we must declare faith, re
pentance and conversion to be unavoidabl,
laws of Chrishanity, not having come int
it by any council of Catholics or Protest
ants, but direct from God, who poured int
the human mind its reason, aud into the
heart its love. Not 50 easily can we per
suade reason to admit, as matter Of publ
experience, the idea Of a mediator. w
waive the inquiry as to the reasons voice
because we are seeking not what the publi
confesses but what Christianity itself holds
that may perchance be matter of expert
ence, may be "tasted" aud thus be seen Il
be good. Under this head, of doctrine opel
to experience, we must include the notion o
Il mediator, for We find millions OF heart
glad in the feeling that there is days-ma
between them and God Millions who hav
passed away, have gone after joyful life Il
this mediator, to peaceful death IN Him
The hymns of many ages from the tomb
stones Of tho Christian catacombs, where
few sweet words were written, to the clam
u OF God, | come, | come" Of our century, tn
Il experience OF man as to the idea OF a med
, ator, have rolled along like Dante's vas
brd-song over the forest OF Chlassl Whe
: we sing the hymn, "Jesus, Lover Of NJ
Soul" or "Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, an
u look into the faces of those borne upward b
o this sentiment, we know that this idea OF
J mediator belongs to human experience, an
u hence is to be enrolled among the doctrine
l. OF any true Christianity Let us approac
now a more warmly disputed proposition
= that the divineness of Christ is somethin
! essential in the Christian system. Tn
y Trinity, as formally stated, cannot be expt
~ renced. Man has not the power to tasI
9 the threeuess of ono nor the oneness Of tire
: aud see that it is good" Man cannot sd
l. His will" here and "know of the doctrir
l. whether it he from God" 1t is not COT
j. ceivable that any one will pretend to hay
J. experienced three persons as being one pei
70 son, the same in substance, and at the sam
s. time equal The doctrine, therefore, b.
Is longs to simple region of fact, and not
o. that of experience, and hence the dstan
Is between that idea aud the idea oil faith
5, penitonce is the difference between ia
d aud perpetual law. But while human e
"a perience cannot approach the Trinity
- it can approach the divineness
I'd Christ for if Christ be not divine, ovel
o. impulse OF the Christian world falls to a los
IN er octave, and light and love and hope all
10 decline. There is no doctrine into whoh Il
TO heart may so inweave itself aud find ancho
Id age aud peace as in this divineness Of Il
lp Lord Hence, Christianity bears readily h
u idea of three Offices, and permits the o.
ne nnL 10 AMMAN In Enihnr mr. in Con or