Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-09-01

10 Sectar1an limits. When he takes
pulpit or platform, he has no right
to bind himself not to out.think the
people who hear him, or to teach
them anything beyond what they
know or believe. His business is to
declare what he knows or believes,
as fast as he finds it out. No man
has right to preach discourse
that is not truthful enough to be
preached in any pulpit in Christen-
dom. lie has no right to refuse to
preach any truth because it happens
to be preached by some other de-
nomlnation-on the contrary, he is
bound to preach all and every truth
within his possession, without re-
gard to position or authority, save
the authority Of conscience. Truth
is the standard and fidelity to- ones
personal convictions, paramount to
all other considerations. This latter
is the essential in all mental and
moral integrity--the test of his
courage, the certificate of his fit
ness to teach and of his trustworthi-
ness to the world.
The New Testament is of course.
good authority to Christians. Its
charge is, eff they will not hear in one
city, flee to another" If pulpit No.
shuts its door, and pulpit No. 2
opens, enter No. 2. IF Catholic
Cathedral rejests truth, and Jew
ish Temple opens to it. Enter the
Jewish Temple, not as a Jew, but as
truths advocate. Become the bond
man Of neither Temple nor Cathe-
dral, but be loyal to the truth any
where.
Men belittle great ideas by teth-
ering to them cant words. No man
has right to be anything but Or
thodox; no man has a right to be
anything but Liberal. And yet
when these words are narrowed to
shiboleths of sects, they become an
offense to wholesome thought.
Truth is always liberal, and what
ever is true, is Orthodox.
Men can do better in these gold
en- days Of the world than to be BAN
dying words and techanicalities and
isms. Genuine thinkers are like
mountains, small at the top, but
broad and majestic at the base.
Different denomination or religions,
are the platform on the peaks, high,
narrow and widely apart. But as
each leaves its little limited foothold.
and works down towards the found
alton, the planes broaden, the plat
forms approximate, till at last they
all come together, and the founda-
ton is one, solid and eternal. What
a pity that time should be wasted in
skipping from peak to peak or from
section to section, as the work goes
on. What a mournful confession OF
ignorance and folly that these var
ious stations of religious work should
be regarded as military encamp-
ments, to blaze and bristle in hostile
array.
The territory of Gods truth is
exceedingly broad. Men may move
their tents thereon without covering
any more acres. Let every occu-
pant 'slengthen his cords and
strengthen his stakes If he has
discovered any truth possessed by his
neigh Dor, let him adopt it and stay
at home and utilize it as true hus
bandman. Thus the acres will
broaden, the raw territory will be
reclaimed and neighborly hands
shall more and more stretch across
the temporal boundaries, and the
city, till the nation shall be one.
'sLet every man abide" where he
is-not only in the truth he pos
sesses, butthat he may have it more
abundantly. If forced from his
own, broader gates wait to swing
open to him. There is always a
broad Gentle world in the presence
OF whose rising sccptre, the rejec-
tors become the rejected. The day