Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-05-28

| cOiniltuueu III bHe unCltnb ChiluOb Dt COn-
demned in the modern. It is obvious that
before such claim deserves any considera-
ton, one who quotes Abrahams obedience
as a precedent must be able to show that he
has received an indication of Gods will as
explicit as was given to Abraham.
What are the facts in the two cases
Abraham was called at seventy-five years of
age to 60 out from his kindred into a new
land TO establish nation which should
worship the God who had revealed himself
to him, and through which nation all the
families of the earth should be blessed. lie
went and on the borders of the promised
land God appeared to him, and told him
that this was the land which God would
give to his seed For period of twenty
five years God protected him, caused him to
prosper, secured for him the blessing of
Melchisadec, apparently the sole remaining
inheritor of the primitive pure faith, and
finally, in making covenant with him that
his seed should possess the land, had passed
before him, after the manner Of smoking
furnace and lamp of fire. During these
years Abraham had remained childless.
Finally, in his one hundredth year, when
his wife was also stricken with age, God APP
peared to him and promised that son
should be born to him in whom the promise
should be fulfilled. 1t came about even so.
Finally, after other special manifestations of
Gods favor TO this his chosen servant, trial
of his faith--of his faith, mark, and not of
his blind obedience-was made in the order
to sacrifice the child in whom God had as
sured him the promise was to be fulfilled.
How is it with this modern Abraham ?
An obscure mail carrier in Massachusetts,
village within year or two becomes con-
verted to the extravagant notions of a crude
and ignorant sect, and designing to preach
his new faith, he conceives the idea that he
must murder his daughter in order that God
may make her speedy resurrection a sign
that he is chosen messenger of heaven.
He sees flash of lightning at midnight
and takes it for special mark of Gods
will. He cannot wait till morning, much
icoo ioi oWehoy-hNo years Vi Pio'iuehoia
leading and miraculous manifestation, but
he must Guido the ancient Abraham by at
once plunging knife into his sleeping child.
1t would seem, then, there is some difference
between the cases of Abraham and Freeman
in the point at which comparison of the
two cases is invited. When this difference
is well digested, any one who thinks that the
character of Abraham or the Christian doc
trine of faith is discredited by the atrocious
crime of Freeman will find that there are
some other points of difference between the
two cases which deserve some consideration
before the teaching of revelation is flippantly
overthrown.
As to Freeman himself, the inspiration OF
his crime seems to have been spiritual pride
acting upon an ignorant mind. In this view
of it his shocking deed is not without sug-
gestion to men of more attainment who
have an unteachable confidence that they
know more about divine things than the
general company of able and pious men
who have preceded them and their like
minded contemporaries. Julius Miller speci-
fies as an indication of spiritual pride which
he regards as the basest manifestation of
sin, its "prediliction for something new and
strange in the sphere of religion whereby to
feed the notion of its exclusive superiority"
In our judgment good deal of recent teach
ing about the future state no less than about
Second Adventism, shows traces of this
origin.
Nor is this case without suggestion to the
churches. There is good deal of confident
exposition of Scripture among strolling
evangelists which is as absurd, though not as
dangerous, as that which Freeman and his
school exemplify. When men and women
of limited training run around the country
preaching crude notions of scriptural teach
ings on points which better instructed teach
ers let alone, instead of enforcing the plain
truths of practical righteousness, it is pretty
safe to suspect that there is some degree of
spiritual pride mingled with their zeal, and
that whatever their immediate success in
exciting interest, the result of their efforts
III Juc lung run Will De Ddueluls WHdt is
wanted in religious teachers, after moral
qualities is not so much fluent tongue as
trained sobriety of judgment and such
knowledge of revealed and natural truth as
will enable the preacher to interpret the
word of God in consistency with the whole
scheme of revelation and in right applica-
ton to the affairs of everyday life. Spe-
cial training will not insure the requisite
moral qualifications any more than its alb
sence is guarantee of them. But at any
rate it is an almost indispensable addi-
tion to moral qualifications, and it would
seem to have its influence in fostering them.
The apostle warned against putting novices
over the church, lest, being lifted up with
pride, they should fall into the condemna-
ton of the devil. Some sad experiences in
the religious world would have been spared
if this caution had received the attention
il deserves