St. Landry democrat., 1879-02-01

|
| But can trust.
[ cannot know why suddenly the storm
Should rage so fercely round me in its wrath
But this l know, God watches all my path;
And l can trus..
| I NAV not draw aside the mystic veil
That hides the unknown future from my sight;
Nor know if for me waits the dark or light;
! But can trust.
| T have no power to look across the tide,
| To know, while here. the lana beyond the river
But this know, shall be Gods forever;
so l can trust.
| canada Presbyterian.
| The Truthful being true that the
human soul ascends according to the
quantity and quality of its truth, and
sinks according to the quality and guam
tity of it's falsehoods, it must also be true
| that man, when unable to find the abso-
lutte truth, must attach himself to the
nearest possible approach to verify. If
to know the whole truth were a perfect
bliss, then to know in part and see in
part were a second condition of happi.
ness. And this is the best rational de.
tense of him who espouses the tenets OF
| religion. Unable to learn the absolute
facts from either the priest at the altar
or from the atheist with his denial, man
is justified, indeed made rational and
happy, by asking the generations to tell
him how near they came to finding the
presence of God and the confines of a
life. In this comparison of ideas atheism
falls below its counter.thought and COM
petitive companion, for if Nature, not to
say God, loves and blesses a truth, and
opposes falsehood, then it would seem
that religion, as held by man, must come
very near being verify, for Nature has
blessed it in all the long history of man.
it is not alleged that the highest doctrines
of natural religion took any part in the
overthrow of Babylon, or Athens, or
Palmyra; it is not avowed by any that
Cesar and Pompey were ruined by their
faith in God and by their conformity o
life to such an ideal; it will not be
affirmed that a studious following of
Christ has ever brought sorrow to Ma
ton or to an age; and hence we feel
juNtifed in affirming that, if error be
destructive, then religion has not, in the
long experience of man, brought sorrow
enough to secure for it a place among
falsehoods, but on the opposite it has 50
blessed man that it well merits the dia-
dem of a truth. When Nations have
expressed false principle in politics the
error has fastened to reveal itself, In
one or two generations the false idea has
been found by the havoc it has wrought.
The leaf has turned yellow to disclose
the worm at its root but over religion,
over Christianity, century after century
has passed, and all Nations will declare
that the more they held of its principles
the happier they were, and that upon its
branches no yellow leaf has appeared. If
false ideas bring injury, it would seem
that Christianity must be true
There are some words whose sweetness
or bitterness we can learn only in the
experience of mankind. IF you ask me
whether twice two make four, l shall
answer you without consulting the hu-
man race, but if you ask me the worth
of ''libeSty," Or "education," or omusic,"
or ''home," then you must permit me to
80 outside of intuition and Summon wit
nesses. 1t will be necessary for ME to
wander about for a few thousands of
years, and in many lands. I must call
upon Kings and patriots, and peasants,
and slaves. [ must sit down amid the
thinkers and hear them the home-circle
and see their life; and at last I shall re-
turn to you and declare liberty. and edu.
cation, and art, and home to be sublime
suns in the outspread Heaven of man.
Having seen these ideas, I declare them
10 have none Of the qualities of false.
hood. So with the word Christianity.
It Ecannot be weighed in the positive
scales. One cannot say over it twice two
are four, and apply that demonstrative
or intuitive method, but we can 60 out
in the wide world and examine it in &C.
ton, and so doing we can return confess
sing that religion acts very much as
though it were one OF the holy principles
of Nature-a law of man and God. 1t
contains the features of that kind of
truth which sets men free and makes
them free, indeed. The deeds of lie
are utterly absent from its history.
You who are cropping along in this
world in great religious perplexity, won
dering what is true and what is false,
ranoano har fhiS thot oil moral iSaaa ora