Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-11-17
y. WHITMUHE,
Publisher and Proprietor.
Decline of Faith in DORmAtic
ChrtsttanIly.

4ne NatlOn,l
People do not believe in the fall,
the atonement, the resurrection and
a future state of reward and pun
ishment at all, or do not believe in
them with the certainty and vivid
ness which are needed to make faith
a constant influence on a mans
daily life. They do not believe they
will be damned for sin with the as
surance they once did, and they are
consequently Indifferent to most of
what is said to them of the need of
repentance. They do not believe
the story of Christs life, and the
theory of his character and attri-
butes given in the New Testament,
or they regard them as merely a
picturesque background to his
moral teachings, about which a
Christian may avoid coming to any
positive conclusion. No man who
keeps himself familiar with the in
tellectaal and scientific movements
Of the day, however devout Chris
tian he may be, likes to question
himself as to his beliefs about these
matters, or would like to have to
define accurately where his faith
ended and his doubts began. If he
is assailed in discussion with a skep-
tic and his combativeness reused,
he will probably proclaim himself
an implicit and literal acceptor of
the gospel narratives; but he will
not be able to maintain this mental
attitude alone in his own room.
The effort that has been made by
Unitarians and others to meet this
difficulty by making Ohrist's infu-
ence and authority rest on his moral
teachings and example, without the
support of divine nature or mis-
sion or sacrifice, has failed utterly.
The Christian church cannot be
held together as a great social force
by his teaching or example as a
moral philosopher. A church or
ganized on this theory speedily be-
comes q lecture association or phi
lanthropic club, of about as much
aid to conduct as Free Masonry.
Christ's sermons need the touch of
supernatural authority to make
them impressive enough for the
work of social regeneration; and his
life was too uneyentful, and the So
ciety in which he lived too simple,
to give his example real power over
the imagination of a modern man
who regards him simply as a social
reformer.
This decline Of faith in Christian
dogma and history has not, how
ever, produced by any means de-
cline in religious sentiment, but it
has deprived religion of a good deal
of its power as moral discipline.
Moral discipline is required mainly
by the practice of doing what one
does not like, under the influence
Of mastering fear or hope. The
conquest Of ones self, of which
Christian moralsts speak so much,
is simply the acquisition of the
power of doing easily things to
which ones natural inclinations are
opposed ; and in this work the mass
of mankind are powerfully aided
by the prospect of reward or pun
ishment The wonderful results
which are achieved in the army, by
military authority, in inspiring
coarse and common natures with a
spirit Of the loftiest devotion, are
simply due to the steady applica-
tion by day and by night of a pun
shing and rewarding authority.
The loss Of this, or its great enfee-
Element undoubtedly has deprived
the Church Of q large portion Of its
means of discipline, and reduced it
more nearly to the role of a stimu-
lator and grati6er of certain tender
emotions. 1t contains a large body
of persons whose religious life con-
sists simply of a succession of sem
sations not far removed from ones
enjoyment of music and poetry;
and another large body, to whom it
furnishes refuge and consolation of
vague and ill-defned sort in times
of sorrow and disappointment. To