Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-06-03
JUNE ;. 1877
SUNDAY READING.

To mans delusion given
He thinks, rather, That " The earth is the
Lords and the fullness thereof, Sir James
Stephen, discussing The Influence upon NOR
ahty of a Decline in Religious Belief, says ::
THE belief that the course OF the world Is
ordered by good God, that right and wrong
are in the nature of a divine law, that this
world is a place of trial, and part only OF a
wider existence-in a word, the belief in God
and future state, may be accounted for i'll
various ways" This seems to state Il sort of
compromise between that which Mr.. Titon IS
ready to accept and that which he combats.
As to the question which Sir James is debat
ing, he seems to illustrate how undecided and
open it still is by dealing with one Of its most
vital phases rs follows
Now let suppose for the
sake of argument that it could be shown that
if all theological considerations were set aside,
it would be desirable that a person dying Of
cancer should be permitted to commit sui
eide, and that a man whose wife was incuru-
bly, mad should be allowed to marry asain ;
and that on the other hand, if theological
considerations were taken into account, the
opposite was desirable Upon these SUPPOSE
tions the question whether the theological
beliefs which make the difference are benef-
cial or not will depend the question
whether they are true or not. Applied gen
orally this shows that the support which an
existing creed gives to an existing system Of
morals is irrelevant to its TRUTH and that the
question whether given system Of morals is
good or bad cannot he fully determined until
after the Diet erminaton of the question
whether the the "l"gy on which it rests is true
or false The morality is good if it is founded
a true estimate of the consequences of hu-
man actions But if it is founded ON false
theology, it is founded on false estimate Of
the consequences of human actions: and, so
far as that is the case, it cannot be good and
the circumstance that it IS supported by the
theology to which it refers is an argument
against, and not in favour Of, that theology.
a question not wholly irrce-
want to this is treated of by the
Rev. Joseph Cook of Boston as follows, He
would seem to find proof of the truth Of the
old Bible in just such natural objects and
phenomena as often act as a disilIusion upon
minds which see in the sunrise and feel in the
air and scent in the odOrs of their every day
life the homely, palpabe objects and impress
slOns which strip poetry and inspiration OF
their adornments and leave them nothing but
bare facts in nowise suggestive of the miracu
lous or the divine. Are the Old Testament
scriptures out of date r asks he. ''Not till
the nature of things is, he replies. And then |
he goes on to tell us g | rode once from Il
noon on the Dead Sea through moonlight on |
the Mar Saba gorges to Bethlehem in the |
morning light. passed through the scenes .
in which many of David's psalms had their .
origin, so far as human causes brought them .
into existence. On horseback climbed slowly |
and painfully out of that scorched, CHASTITY !
hollow in which the Salt Lake lies | found
myself, as | assembled, passing through a
gnarled, smitten, volcanic region, and often
at the edge or in the depths of ravines deeper
than that eloquent shaft yonder ON Bunker
Hill is high. AT a place where, no doubt,
David had often searched for his tocks,
found the famous convent of Mar Saba cling
ing to the side of its stupendous rayne, and |
lay down there and slept until the same sun
rose which David saw. | looked northward
from above Mar Saba and saw Jerusalem
above me yet to the north, for had been as
cendlng from spot greatly below the level Of
the Mediterranean. As drew near Bethle-
hem through brown wheat fields III which
woman called Ruth once cleaned, opened
and read the book which will bear her name ,
yet for thousands of years to come Johnson !
you remember, once read that book in Lon |
lom and moved parlor full of people to I
ears by it, and to curiosity enough to ask &
who was the author of that beautiful pastoral q
IN my saddle there i'll Syria | was moved as v
|ohnson's hearers were in London but when q
opened the Psalms one by one, and looked :
Jack over the ravines toward the Dead Sea, d
md northward toward Jerusalem and upon a
he hill of Bethlehem, to which all nations, Il
fter gaze of nineteen hundred years in du-
alton, were looking yet, and at that season. O
ending pilgrims; when | remembered how G
hat terraced hill of olive gardens had inhuen- u
ed human history as no other spot on the ~
lobe has done, and that i'll Gods government a.
f this D1ana+ tbara ara no acci1an+c ! II