The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1875-03-04
christianity, the Promoter of
Liberal Culture and Inquiry.
AN ESSAY.

sTRoUpsBURG, PA, FEBR'Y, 19, 1875.
1t has been supposed by some to be JUS
ths opposite Many imagine it narrow ir
RANGE Of thought and theme, repressive il
is spirit Of dealing even with those themes
,logmatic in It's methods and illiberate in its
treatment of broad and deep inquiries and
Of broad and deep minds that seek to pur.
sue them.
IF these views be correct, Christianity is
rot entitled to the hold it has upon many
ofus; it cannot reasonably claim the world.
vide acceptance which it seeks and conf
IDENTITY predicts for itself; and instead Of
charging its domain, must rapidly lose
what i: already has
But they correct? Are they not mis-
.rprshcnsions 1t is no new thing for men,
o;iaous and systems to be misjudged; has
there net been a misjudgment in this case
These conjectures concerning the bond
ars Of christian thought and culture are
net new They are almost as old as chris
caui.y itself; and it is older than the race,
for il was inaugurated in Divine intention
before the foundation of the world Anti
christianity was Fond of styling itself, in the
cigh.eenth century, as free thought, and
such as hold anti-christian views as free
thinkers; as if Christianity was Slaue
thought and the friends of Christianity en-
s'aveI thinkers When one of the most
richly endowed minds the world has ever
known either inside or outside of the chris
tan church was disroursing with classic
elegance logical exactness and impassioned
el51uence on the most sublime topics which
the mind Of man can contemplate Athe-
man wit without its customary refinement
asked. What will this babbler sav?" as
if their teachings, both of the Academy and
the Porch were only worthy Of the name
Of Philosophy and Paurs words were no
better than idiotic or mad house babblinc
And when human thought, In the infancy
Of the race, was first brought into contact
with anti christian influences, arrogant
words were spoken by the tempting ser
pant, as if human liberty had been unrea-
s11ably restricted and as if the only path
70 true progress, by which men were to be-
come as gods, lay outside of religious
obedience.
Truth IS modest and gentle; error, noisy
and boastful. Truth, like Him, who i'm
rersonated It, is misunderstood and in
msekness abidcs its time for better iudg-
nant; error, ike those who crucifed Je-
SIS, deafens earth and rends the heavens
With lis objurgationS and clamor. But truth
10, Is bold and brave, as quiet people usu-
ally are; and error cowardly, rs noisy brag-
CARDS always are. 1t is too late in the dav
tyr the friends Of Christianity to be alarmed
by any clamor, that 1t is out of sympathy
with an age Of progress, that it is behind
the spirit Of the times, that ii moves only
in q museum Of antiquated, fossil thought,
Ia. It Is afraid TO come out into the open
I'D Of the living present, that II puts Swad-
ding bands upon the soul and represses
broad and general inquiry.
More than ten Thousand times have all
these false charges ben met: but as the
san must rise each day to dissipate the
darkness Of night so must truth be con-
ssaut.y y re-asserted in answer to the ever.
r..urring denials which error, in It's Pro
tsrn forms. never wearies In making.
So far from Christianity's being out of
sympathy with the progress Of an age, ii
mikes that progress and its mission is to
put the age in sympathy with it. So far
from its being behind the spirit of the
times. It always leads the van and never
receives but always gives the word
-C9ne.' So far from dealing only in the
antique, It deals as nothing else does or
can with the living present and with the
more important future it abandons not
ias past, as no wise system viii, but it SO
TEldss even II IS to make the Aaron's rods. |
which IN any other hands would be only
-ry and dead sticks, bud and bloom and
bear almonds.
Il-Et: Christianity opens a ltmttlsss field
q iayest'gatica.
imitlees field IS an infinite one. Mr. /
Locke thinks we can have the idea Of the |
.11aite Unquestionably we can have the
LEA Of the existence Of the infinite but
.--- finite beings are now able or ever viii
De- to grasp the idea Of what the infinite
Is more than doubtful it may be set
-2va as impossible. As the eye, wide as
nay be the scope Of vision, must meet
-1a and horizon, 50 must the mind in is
.,'--ast, loftiest and deepest excursions
g-.21ater it, horizon, It's limit Of thought
mat horizon may broaden, as when an OBJ
S-''er climbs an eminence and uses a tele-
ssPe, but let a creature climb as high as
sa will and see as far as he may, there are
1aits TO Lis vision.
But though the Infinite, from the ma
.afa OF the case, is unattainable by all ex-
"2y the infinite, the fact Of its being spread
W, before finite nature tends TO broaden
-, 'D5 develop him. 1t is promoter Of his
.-l.4Te and inquiry. IF an unexplored
-l~nent attracts investigation and puts the
.aole literary and scientific world on the
1 -S'oe Of excited inquiry when DR.. Living
-'as, slr Bartle Frere, Sir Samuel Baker,
/ ~ ~ others plunge into its jungles, how
-''a taore educational should be the ex- {
-oa.ioa Of traekless realms Of space, {
rrtaaon, rt.I destiny and moral perfection,