Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-10-20

ance and industry of the men who
have accepted the responsibility Of
guarding and protecting the inter-
est Of the Most High. From the
days of Thomas the Doubter to
Thomas the Reasoner, the question
ers and investigators have had at
least, this use.
After all it would seem that men
should learn wisdom faster than
they do. How often the lips of the
shepherds have cried, Wolf Wolf!
when 10, and behold, the frightful
spectre proved to be nothing but a
harmless kid outside the fold, not
yet taken in. The stability of the
church has been overthrown, the
very foundations of Christianity as
sailed and carried away so many
times, by the assumed enemies Of
truth, that it would seem that either
the Church and Religion are mere
airy fictions that suffer no loss by
destruction, or their appointed
guardians have yet to learn the true
nature of their business. The
chemists once threatened to de-
throne God by prying into the
secret counsels Of his hidden wis
dom, and bringing to light profane-
ly, what belonged only to the vital
mysteries of his sovereignty. Then
the stars conspired, and the whole
heavens which the Psalmist used to
think declared the glory Of God,
fell into revolution and rebellion,
and threatened to reverse the de-
crees Of their Maker, and upset all
the foundation Of things. Later,
Geology appeared, and like mon
ster got its back under the Bible and
Church, and began to lift and up
heave not only Genesis and Moses,
but Christ and the Apostles, and the
foundations of all things seemed
crumbling back to Chaos again.
Now come the Psychologists and
Biologists and Comparative Anato-
mists, with Microscopes and Spec
troscopes, and Telescopes; their
Barometors, Chronometors and Cru
cibles; with their laws of Succession
and Evolution; with their scales of
Progression and Retrogression, the
rhythmic rise and fall in the strug-
gle of life, the great battle march Of
Nature; here they all are to-day,
new corners with old masks some of
them, but a mighty host; and before
their bold and confident advances,
the very pillars of Faith and Relig-
ion tremble again. Theyssummon
Miracles to the tribunal of Law.
They interpret Bibles in the light Of
History; they test philosophy in
the crucible of fact, and they de-
mand Of Faith her credentials of
Reason. These are hosts that are
troubling Isreal to-day.
And now comes Judge Booth,
saying there is no Resurrection; no,
not quite that, but that the accepted
evidence don't make it out-and 10!
the foundations of Christianity are
again imperilled. How preposter-
Gus! The foundations Of pure re-
hgion do not rest on anything Judge
Booth can destroy or cares to des-
troy. It don't hurt evidence to sift
it, and it don't hurt truth if evil
dence proves to be all chaf. Though
Bibles should perish truth would
not; Religion would not. Should
Christianity pass away, Religion
would not. Religion is greater than
Christianity, as Man is greater than
Religion, and God greater than Man.
No manifestation of God gives us
his fnality. All Revelations and
Scriptures and Faiths, are but tenn
porary and imperfect expressions of
the full truth and Divineness. He
who stops in the letter of any Reeve
lation, or testimony touching final;-
ties Of God or Man, or Nature, takes
the first rude strokes of the sculptor
for the finished breathing statue.
It is not time yet to be dogmatic on