The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-12-08
TIE PACIFIC
SATURDAY. DECEMBER g..
CHRISTIANITY AND FREE THOUGHT

article under the above heading ID the OctoDer
number of Scsi6ner's Monthly, 1 proceed to do it
briefly, to satisfy my correspondent, and for the
sake of others who may be interested in the sub.
ject.
To the writer's glance at the history of the
church l take no exception. He says. "To the
purely moral and spiritual requirements Of Jesus,
there had very early been superadded a set of ex-
ternal conditions. And it is the sorrowful task
of the candid christian historian to show that
overshadowed and dwarfed the moral and spirit
ual elements of christianity
This is very true; and is it not also true that
free thought had much to do in overshadowing
and dwarfng the spiritual and moral elements of
christianity? Free thought rightfully belongs to
man and like everything else, it may be abused.
The French revolutionists exercised free thought
with a vengeance, when they decreed that there
is no God, and that death is an everlasting sleep.
Strauss, and Blauvelt, and Colenso, and many
others have exercised this right in a way to I'M
dermine the very foundations of religious belief,
and thus to encourage men to yield to all their
selfish inclinations and lusts.
The writer seems to think that belief, or faith,
is of little Importance though he does 6 not ig-
more the fact that intellectual beliefs have a di-
rect bearing on character" In fact, belief is
very intimately connected with character, espe-
cially with those who govern their passions and
appetites. Saul of Tarsus believed that he ought
to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, and that belief made him a most
bitter prosecutor. A little later, that same Saul
Io1;oroJ -. To-, H. c. ac "a A. Co-s-- r
the world, and that belief rendered him a most
earnest and successful preacher of the gospel.
Z" Character is central and supreme - but char
acter cannot be separated from belief.
In the life and teaching Of Christ, the writer
finds GO the conception of religion as simply right
doing in the broadcast and Hottest sense, set forth
with a force and fulness, a familiarity and vivid
ness of illustration, and a power of personal ex-
ample, to which it is impossible to do any justice
in a passing allusion. The typical instances of
His doctrine are such passages as the blessings
pronounced on the pure in heart, the peace
makers, them that hunger and thirst after right
eousness; the summing up of moral obligation
in love to God and love to man the promise that
they who forgive shall be ~forgiven the sublime
representation of a great day of award, in which
the sole test and condition of divine favor is to
have fed the hungry, and clothed the naked, and
comforted the sick and sorrowful." Again he
gives us the Masters definitions of religion, hu-
mility, purity, hunger and thirst for righteous
ness love to God and love to man ; absolute
trust in the power that rules the universe their
part Of the definition looks very much like belief,
the spirit of brotherhood toward all mankind,-
these ideas are in perfect consonance with the
spirit of the most fearless truth-seeking they
supply to it the frmest basis and the noblest mo-
tives.''
Now it seems to me that the writer, in these
references to the teachings of the Master, mani
tests a great lack of candor. He would have it
appear that the Lord Jesus made no account of
belief; whereas on the contrary, he made it of
the first Importance. When the Jews asked
him, I" What shall we do, that we may work the
works of God" he answered, "This is the work
of God, that We believe in him whom he hath
He said to Martha, He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. I
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die" Again he said, I" He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved"
To believe is to put confidence in, to trust. |
"AOhN AAmOhhy, huOH WuOm L |
have believed, or trusted, and am persuaded that |
he is able to keep that which I have committed |
lnto him against that day 1t was this trust
in the Lord Jesus that made the great apostle so |
happy.
Belief is an essential element in the Christian
So taught the great Teacher. So
aught the apostles. But there always have been
hose who ''being ignorant of Gods righteousness,
md seeking to establish their own righteousness,
not submitted themselves to the righteous
less of God. For Christ is the end of the law
or Righteousness to every one that believeth."
talk about humility, purity, hunger and
hirst for Righteousness, love to God and love to
etc., without any reference to faith in
is little, if any better than the teachings
f the old heather philosophers, Plutarch, Seneca,
nd others.
The writer speaks of Mr.. Moody not without
raise, but with the censure also, that with the
rear good he is doing there "goes a steady,
ulet repulsion of a large class of minds from the
hristianity which is thus presented" This is
Undoubtedly true for the offence, or scandal of
he cross has not yet ceased. If the Lord Jesus
ere to return to the earth, his preaching would
'pel many, as it did in the days of his flesh
ALIQUIs.