Smyrna times., 1880-11-03
Modern Atheism.
ITS EFFECT UPON THE YOUNG.


1t is not the only objection to the athe.
iStlc argument Of our day that it questions
closely those who have reached the wears
OF logic strength. That would be a result
bad enough. But it does other injury. II
so chills the heart of the old members If
society that the children and the Young are
reared away from all religious emotion.
and sentiment, and poetry, and inherit no
taste for the literature and study of the
spiritual world. Some boast that they saw
nothing to children or the young, about
religion, because they wish them all ia de.
eide Tor themselves in mature life. This
method would be more pardonable if reli
glon were only conclusion Of logic, but it
is also taste, a color Of the soul, a power
to appreciate, and must have its founda.
ton laid long before the intellect is able to
read and refuts any Goddess philosophy.
| We learn TO love music, and colors, and all
beauty before we are able 10 discuss the
theories of Berkeley, and Burke and Rus
kin. The sentiment grows first, and after
ward the intellectual part comes, if ever
1T does come. Thus religion is partly
sentiment, and as such it should spread
some OF its gorgeous canvass before the
eyes of the young The atheistic studies
OF our time come with two-fold evil, thew
create doubts in the minds of the adult
world and thus close against all the young
souls the gates to that holy land of the
DEITY IN which man ought to be born. If
ever the human heart is to burn within
while 1T talks or hears along its way, this
warmth must begin before the twenty.first
year has been reached. Our orators, and
poets, and musicians, and painters, and
actors, and singers, do not in mature life
drop down into these great callings, but in
their early years they begin to see outlines
OF these continents and islands, and then
1T is they set sail for the enchanting shores.
and their hearts burn within them as they
journey. Some mysterious persons Join
Them as they advance, ard pour into will
ling ears words that seem divine.
1t does not seem that the children and
youth of our generation are holding in their
hands the same books which lay open once
before all us older ones. 1t does not seem
that there is falling upon their souls such
prose and poetry as we all who are now
gray committed to memory when we were
young. The magazine and periodical of all
shapes seem less spiritual, less marked by
the pathos of death and eternity than they
were when we older ones first read around
the Preside. In this | may err, for nc
memory can retain and compare separate
periods of time. But this ! know, that
there must be granted all the young. or be
found by them, enough Of the religious
spirit to enable them to judge intelIigently
the value of the hopes and fears Of hu
manity, as it stands between the cradle and
grave. Modern thought is growing so cold
toward Christianity that our youth will
soon be born, not in the topics of this sen
timent, but in the arctic land of logic
alone. Over the path where the disciple,
passed along hung the olive trees which
bad seen only the professions and pilgrims
of religion; upon it shone the sun which
had for centuries flashed upon the temple
of Jew and Gentle; the travellers spoke ;
language whose literature was all devout
but our age journeys northward away from
all this warmth of soul, and, as Atheism
shall conduct this exodus of race TOWARD
the arctic land. the foliage will diminish it
richness, the quantity vi birdsong will de
cline, the sun will shine with rays more
aslant, and the night grow colder ant
longer, and the perfume of flowers will b.
forgot.-Prof. ,Stoin0.