The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-01-17

| Is the deep conviction that we do not know
! anything about the form or nature OF God.
But we should not have waited for such a
teacher to come from the outside Of our
temples. We should not have fingered 50
long amid the puerillties OF faith, and have
committed to writing so much about the
Almighty. II has permitted the mind to
ponder over many things within Its own
depths, but that same mind should be
slow about printing all Its thoughts as be.
ing so much final truth from heaven. We
ought not to have rushed into print so
hastily with our platform about the ways
OF God aud men. Our fathers, Roman and
Protestant, presumed upon too intimate
an acquaintance with the Maker Of the
universe, and in their intercourse with US
common people they said more than their
relations and information warranted. The
bad effects OF that old familiarity are o
seen. They had not been near the Throne.
They had met with a shadow and had
thought It a substance. All the old thee.
logical leaders were like the Cardinal de
Rohan, who was under the long
and sweet impression that he was
being bowed TO and in all
romantic ways saluted Ia the parks Of Yer
s%ailles by the beautiful Marie Antoinette.
What a diamond necklace he at last
bought for the royal friendl In the mean.
time the illustrious and spotless woman
was in her palace, and had no part in the
drama Of love and necklaces OF poor
Rohan. Our theological drama has met
with much such a denouement. The car
dinals had met the king of kings at Trent
and bort, and Geneva and Westminster,
and had received messages aud COM
mands, and 10! the being with whom they
held such communion was not at all the
Almighty nor the Saviour. A false figure
had come and played a dreadful part in
the robes OF the true deity.
| ain unable to perceive that the pre-
vailing forms Of research should do more
than deeply impress upon US the truth
that we arc wholly unable to define the
Heavenly Father; and that we should
seek repose OF mind and heart inthe words
Infinite, ''incomprehensible," and their
lofty parallels. But, instead OF leading to
atheism, this severity and ignorance which
mark the positive method should only
bring US up to the language OF our own
Book.-"Who by searching can find out
God?" and 10 Paul's words, "The king
ttC Lltif wv W duu luNlblUlts
And for my own part l come willingly. 1t
is far better TO realize that we cannot
measure the Creator than to be making
ourselves unhappy by vain debates and
wonderings. When we once felt that we
knew all about u Heavenly Father, did
we not find continued pain and defeat in
our efforts to harmonic all things and this
religious conception? Not a child could
suffer or die, not aperplexisgevent come,
not a cloud could arise without our ar
raiguing the great God to learn what was
his intention or wherein lay his love. We
all ventared a little too near the Throne.
1t seemst to IN we should all be glad that
a more severe form Of thought has come
MOTTO make US atheists, but to enable usto
bow in wonder and submission. Our God,
instead of disappearing, only redoubles
his greatness. In such a presence we
seem lifted above the atoms OF thought
and inquiry and feel deeply that in the
empire OF such a king all will be well.
We fling away the information we once
thought VT possessed and say with the
religious Dryden:
"wher.'er We arc lie Is; the eternal mind
Acts through all places, II to none confined;
Fills ocean, Garth, and air, and all above,
And through tho universal mass doth move"
And again
"Thy throne Is Iarkn's1 In the abyss Of light,
blaze Of glory that defeats tbs sight;
On, teach me u believe Thee thus corcclled,
Aud search no farther thu ThyEe'f revealed"
In such sublime statements alone can the
modern heart find peace; and as we stand
by tho grave and know not with what
body the dead shall rise, so that We stand
in this border of the universe, and know
not in what form or quality the being OF
God comes and goes around our homes
and in IL hearts. A less rash philosophy
has come, and il 1t has destroyed some
images OF ideas it has TO the religion made
more touching and eloquent the bymn:-I
'Thy way, not mine, o God,
However dark II be;
Lead me by Thine own hand,
Choose out tho pIth for Inc"
II former times knew the mind OF Cod
to any great degree, II they felt that they
knew the destiny of each man aud each
child and the measurement oil the Joy or
agony OF that lot, that feeling has persisted
with those who knew 1t. Our bosoms are
all strangers to II. We give the earth back
to God to be governed and, Mt last, pun
ished and rewarded. We bow in more
ignorance, but also in more alteration.
In the circumstances as they are seen
by my eyes, | would not dare to be such q
p%essinist as to hope 40 good from to-day
or tomorrow, and to say, with some. re.
ligious faith is all going or gone. Nor, on
the other hand, dare we be so buoyant
and hopeful as to act as though no great
crisis had come in the affairs Of Christi
anity. it is most probable that times OF
peril are here. The good OF earth is al.
ways in jeopardy and, perhaps, is in peril
moral vicissitude. Be this as it may, we
are bound to act as though a great crisis
were approaching our affairs. lit betrue
that the positivists are leading hu:
manity toward atheism, the actually OF
such a leading will not be manifest in our
passing day. A Christian civilization can.
not become goddess so suddenly. The bad
seeds sown now will not blossom in our
sight. Whatthe science o fto-day is doing
will be een only In the next generation.
The persons upon whom its Ill will begin TO
fall are now In the cradle or arc Just lisp.
ing their first words. The full result Of
evolution and materialism will come after
the moralists now living shall have been
called from this world The case Is
peculiar. When the evidence OF the evil
shall have come, 1t will be too late to pre-.
vent It or make an abatement. As the
sailor dares not wait until the storm bursts
In It's fury, but must listen for signing
winds and must mark the long lance.like
clouds shooting up from the north or west
and must begin to reduce his canvas
while, as yet, the sea is laughing in the
sunshine, so must tho Christian and the
friends Of Christianity and OF all religion
decline 10 wait for a storm to burst, but
they must mark the htlul gusts OF
wind that come up from compass.points
accustomed TO blow i'll to the precious
ships upon the sea. Or rs the cottage
mother In the hills OF Scotland often In
winter grows uneasy because her precious
ones are across the moor and night is fall:
ing around the hearth and the air Is full
Of Rndden wind and snow, 1t NAV be