The Portland daily press., 1874-05-25
PrOff ssOr Swings Defense.

PrOff sSOr Swings Defense.
Professor Swing of Chicago spoke in his
own defense at the trial Friday week. He
explained that he had intended to keep quiet
throughout but his counsel was sick and so
he took part of his work and time, He
opened in facetious vein and elected fire.
quent laughter at first, describing his partici-
patton in the debate as like the conduct of
Clearchus in crisis on the march, "a descent
into the mud" His first allusion was to his
position concerning John Stuart Mill He
said his chief pint in alluding to him had
been:-
That the glory of such mind and of such
philosophy as Mill possessed came to him
through christianity. For said, though Mr..
Mill was not christian. yet christianity had
always been all around him, and had forced
into him every virtue he possessed-had given
him the entire character of the nineteenth
century just as Lady Hester Stanhope, fy-
ing to the south to encape England,
carried with her everywhere the English cns-
toms and English thought, so Stuart Mill,
though an atheist, carried in all his thoughts
and life every germ Of christianity, except his
personal belief. Mills character was all
wrought out in christian atmosphere, al q
though his father vainly tried to shield the
child from the influence of the great religion
Of Jesus Chris; tried in vain! Aud then
said, what liberal world need regard most
was, not that he was not Presbyterian or a
Methodist, but that the poor unfortunate
man had no trace of any kind of religion in
his SOUL We would have been thankful II he
had had any religion in his heart."
He held that Mr.. Patton TO be consistent
ought to have declared that Agasszs soul
too was lost, because he Patton, had laid it
down as law that no man could be saved
who had not "proiessed chr stianity'
He persisted that he himself lid not, and
no one could know God ,or heaven as one
knows matters about him, and he quoted
Isaiah and Paul to show that the things of
heaven are inconceivable to man. He held
too, that adam, however Innocent and how
ever beautiful in his character, as believe he
was both innocent and beautiful, had no cities,
no arts, no eloquence, no poetry, no cross of
Jesus Christ, no olence, no charity for
the multitude. Hence God no more un-
folded His perfections in Adam than Mozart
or Beethoven could make known their vast
realm of music to an infant or
savage" And so he defended his
illusions to Adam as tie inferior
OF what man might be to-day As to the
charges of infidelity he said IT learned
prosecutor, after unfolding to you the evolu-
ton theory OF Spencer and others, says, as
usual, Mr. Swing holds these. And yet l am,
believe, the only Chicago minister who has
| published sermon in part against that theo-
ry! 1t is a pity that l should be the only
| one arraigned for not doing it, While the
prosecutor was proving the divinity or deity
| OF Christ from the date Ammo Domini-clalm-
| ing that no nation would reckon its years
| from anything less than God-while he was
| thus showing the divine origin of Moham-
med, and of the Olympiads of Greece, and OF
| Romulus and Remus, was on the same Sun
| day trying to overthrow the Spencerian evo-
luton. -. The prosecutor says indorse
! Froude. This is simple nonsense. What
plead for is that men of learning like Pro-
lessor Patton, having his high position, shall
| elaborate some theory OF revelation that
| young man can take 10 his heart, [''Good,',
laughter and applausel, and not say, when
fenH a9e ~ ass Yd him 3 haa hat ahant the Tooth
young man; that is inspired" Laughter
| That is what call the theory OF admiration.
| Laughter. A young man comes TO him and
| says What about those bloody wars ? where
| the Israelites went out and destroyed the
Canaanites, men, women aud Children" and
| he replies, "Young man, the Bible is inspir-
| ed; it is the word of God" Now is that not
| horrible? That makes idels,-covers the
world with infidels.- s.-and yet there is an ex-
PLANTATION of all the difficulties of the Old
| Testament, which it the duty of every cIer-
! gyman having the VOWS of Jesus Christ upon
him TO unfold to the young men OF this age,
and crush Froude TO powder beneath his
| logic, not their malice"
| He took up the Patton creed and compar-
| ed it with his own, summarizing the former
with: when, therefore. a young man comes
to this form of theology and humbly asks
about the slaughter of the Canaanites, or the
| Tooth Psalm, and says, How shall answer
Mr.. Froude, and show him, and all the bold
in6dels that my church is sensible, reasona-
BILE churchP the answer is, Go, young man.
| and tell Froude that he was foreordained to
be damned. Go, and if you raise such an in
| quiry again you will soon be in a similar con-
dition." His own he gives as 81 believ.
| theology which not only believes that God is
| a sovereign, but that He is reasonable SOW
ereign, and that beneath all His commands
there will for the most part, be some beauti-
full reason visible, ever unfolding ITSELF Faith,
therefore, is clothed with judicial worth, be-
cause it possesses such an intrinsic worth in
the mind and i'm the heart. Such power IL
has to carry the mind forward, to cheer up
the heart in dark hours, and to transform us
into the likeness OF Jesus Christ, that God,
| looking out and seeing this faith we had, had
| power to take the whole world into His arms
and remodel it; therefore He said, BY faith
ye shall be saved He did not go forth as a
tyrant or as despot, but as a reasonable,
| loving father of us a.''