The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-01-21
RELIGION WHENCE COMES 1T ?
TO be continued.l

remotest history, yet revealed through !
ancient and modern researches, gives |
any account whatever, man has been,
in some sense, a religious being. The
doctrines of Confucius, which antedate |
the Christian Era by forty thousand
years; the sacred writings of the Vedas
and Zend Ayesta; the Scriptures of
Moses and David and Solomon; the
Apocalypse; the Testament of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, Peter, and others,
concerning themselves and Jesus; the
Mohammedan Bible; the Book of Nor
mon; the records of the Fire Worship
ers, whose god was the sun; the tradi-
tions and chronicles of Aryan, Hindoo,
Aztec, Celtic, and other very ancient or
comparatively modern peoples, all re-
veal hidden longing after the Infinite,
in some form; a longing which could
not be universal were it not innate in
man, and which could not be innate
were it not founded upon some natural
law, potent and all-pervading, which is
a part and parcel of mans very con-
sciousness. His religion, too, has al
ways been an outgrowth of his own in
nermost being, and has everywhere de-
veloped itself according to his degrees
of spiritual unfoldment. No nation, or
era, has ever been able to conceive of a
Supreme Being whose attributes have
transcribed it's highest conception of
good, judged according to its own idea,
or standard, as to what may constitute
good.
The earliest form of civil government
was the Patriarchal; and this govern
} ment would not have existed had it not
been founded upon some religious idea,
inculcated by the oldest or craftiest of
its members, through revelations"
having about them the sanctity of Sc
crecy, or the marvellous imagining of
something supernatural. These civil
governments grew strong enough after
while to enable their founders to crys-
!, tallize them into creeds, and these creeds
| have, in every age, been considered per-
feet, conclusive, final.
The Chinese worship god set up for
them at period in their ancestral his
tory when they had been, at a compar-
lively recent period, evolved from the
| brute order of intelligence. Through
/ this god they were enabled, as people,
to sieze hold of something tangible upon
which to build their religion; some
thing seemingly substantial, to which
they might anchor their faith. The
Josh, or God, thus created, and the
| forms of religion which were at that era
crystallized as a creed, remain as an
9 anchor to that people to this day. Their
? religion is an outgrowth of themselves,
+ and as such is the very best religion for
them. That they will sometime out
grow it and plant their standard one de-
5 gree higher is evident to any close ana
8 lytical observer of mans spiritual un-
D foldment. But this growth, to be a
t healthy and natural one, must come
e from within themselves. This rule will
s apply to all nations; for no ingrafted re-
t ligiOn can ever become the parent of
the original root.
e The dead Past, with its effort to ap-
e pease the wrath of it's god, whether that
deity were dignifed.by the title of Josh,
t Vishnu, Jove, or Jehovah; with its man
t ner of referring everything which its
b crude unfoldment prevented it from
o readily comprehending to the direct in
Y reference of the miraculous, or Su-
: preme; its intellectual darkness,
t shrouded in myths, in murders, in wars
and rumors Of wars-Of what value is it
i to as, except as an educator of the liv-
: ing Present? Delving into its long-en-
i crusted pages, we discover unmistaka-
: BILE landmarks of the universal in relig-
s ion. And the more deeply we delve,
!. the more certainly do we understand
: that religion, in some form, being in
n herent in man, is self-evident proof of
: its reality, its vitality, its endurance, its
= inexhaustible source.
= But whence comes it? When man
r shall be able to prove clearly-and he
: can only prove anything by positive
r demonstration-the exact source from
: which he emanated, and the direct Or
ders of evolution through which he at
+ tanned his present status, he shall be
d able to answer.
y The assumption of any people that its
It own idea of the Supreme is the only
n correct one, and one that will apply
If equally to all peoples, is an assumption
n born of arrogance, whose ancestors are
II ignorance and intolerance.
The God of Moses was a revengeful,
b warlike, angry, impetuous God, who
y taught the doctrine of ian eye for an
d eye, and tooth for TOOTH" The God
" of Abraham was patriarchsl God, who
enjoined blind, implicit, ask-no-ques-
y ton obedience upon every individual