Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-09-30
SUNDAY READING,

put Oh ours the more we are lncuneu 10 tIlllh
that if we were a regularly employed pulpi-
teer we should give q very liberal construc-
ton to that part of the Decalogue which says
Thou shalt not steal The field wherein are
growing the full blossomed flowers of doc
trinal statement and polemical debate is SO
broad and so little known to the secular
mind, and its fruits seem so surely destined
to waste in utter neglect, that the tempta-
ten is very strong to enter therein and help
oneself to an occasional bud or seed or ma
tured leaf Nobody would miss it, nobody
would discover it, everybody would be the
better for it's being put to use and not suffered
to go to dust and decay. The only detec-
tive is The All Seeing Eye. The temptation
is accompanied or strengthened by much
plausible reasoning. To augment his infu-
ence the Preacher should seek to sustain a
reputation for eloquence and learning: he
should present the doctrines which it is his
business to preach as strongly and acceptably
as possible. Hence it is his duty not only to
appropriate to his own use, but, to use as his
own, that which will the most effectually
strengthen his ministry This is not Mich
iavelism-not precisely. 1t is, however, not
in violent opposition to theorem in human
action that the all important end justifies the
means. Thus, the Vitians of Feejee argue
that the condition after death is identical,
every way with that in which man dies, dur
ing long period, and that death arrests age
and decay for while, but that after period
they reassert their power, and drag the dis
embodied soul into spiritual death On
this theory the Feejee Islanders destroy their
relatives and friends, and even themselves,
long before the natural close of existence, in
the hope of thus escaping the dishonor of en-
tering the world of spirits in a condition of
decrepitude. Here then is an example of the
means or the act, that is to say murder or
suicide, being justified in view of the end to
be attained. We can illustrate the idea by
most instant and nearer example: 1t is not
impossible that this Promoter of Sunday
Readings might, if he would, have this rela-
ton of the Vitian practices pass for a
statement of his own intimate knowledge of
things. This would illustrate a belief in the
admissibility of the sermon stealing idea, adj |
vanced in the outset The honest fact is, he |
finds his Feejee in the possession of Mr.. S.
Barring Gould, and embodied in his learned
and curious work on the Origin aud Develop
ment of Religious Beliefs This shows that
we can contemplate the theory of justifable
plagiarism and not be tempted into its pruc-
tice! The other day a Protestant clergyman
who has visited Salt Lake City several times
said that he had found that the Apostate
Mormons were people rendered impossible
of any further religious belief Their capac-
ity for holding any faith at all had been ex-
hausted when they ceased to believe in Nor
monism. With them, an ardent belief being
abandoned all creeds are mere self-delusions.
Is it not possible that good many of us who
have got weaned from the old influences and
partly or wholly recovered from the effects of
an early "scare" about hell and the devil are
going to be difficult subjects for the mission
aries to deal with? Still, reason as we viii, it
3 difficult to break through the binding force
If early impressions. We may have rebelled
against the preachers but it is possible that
We have not, to our own satisfaction, pre-
7ailed against the shudder which shakes US as
re think of the dangers of life of torment. Z
" Wordsworth has said that the child is father c
If the man. But if an Apostate Mormon is
orevermore to be faithless man-in the
ense of being incapable of any further rehg-
Gus .convictions-why may not New England C
Ne justified of her rationalism? Many of her
hinkers long ago rebelled against the hard '
discipline and strict lines of Calvanism. 1t r
GEMS as if, when they uprooted their only O
riginal faith they destroyed all capacity for II
ny sort of creed. Indeed it has been boldly il
Maintained even in Protestant pulpit, that
ationalism is the legitimate fruit of Protest a
ntism. This means, no doubt, that the adj b
Mission of the first question of the infalilbil- n
" of the church is fatal, as in the tradi- II
onal story of Nimrod and Abraham. Said Il
Iimrod to the Patriarch: "You will not la
lore the idols of your father. Then pray sa
fire. of
Abraham: Why may 1 not address myself II,
water which will quench fre2 81
Nimrod: Be it SO: pray to water. n
Abraham: But why not to the clouds which N
I'D the waterl
Nimrod: Well then, pray to the clouds.