Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-09-26
taching no Importance to them. This is
probably as definite information as will ever
be heard of the expedition.
RELIGIOUS INDFPENpENCE.

1t mas o tendency TO dwarf the human In
| tellect, to destroy mans free moral agency,
| TO make all men slaves to an idea or q
dogma, and to destroy that independence
of thought that alone distinguishes men
from The brute creation. A few self-con-
sti tuted teachers undertake to do the think
ing for thousands and tens Of thousands,
and visit dissenters from their dogmas with
anathemas and threats Of eternal damna-
ton.
A large portion of the religious commune
ty, even in this land of boosted freedom,
are the verjest slaves to creeds. Each
church has different doctrines, and a belief
in those doctrines is essential to member
ship, and is declared to be essential to hap
piness in this world and salvation in that
which is to come. A man may read the
scriptures prayerfully and with an earnest
desire to arrive at the truth. He may
be man of great intellect, logical in his
reasoning, correct in all his deductions, yet
if he interprets the words of holy writ in a
manner differing in the slightest degree
from the creeds established centuries ago,
when the world was stepped in the darkness
of ignorance. he is excluded from fellowship
with the So called saints, and informed that
he is On the high road to perdition. He
may live an exemplary life, and labor early
and late for the good of his fellow-men, but
he cannot escape the anathemas of
the pulpit for refusing to accept and
believe the calvinistic doctrines that have
become SO thoroughly engrafted upon near
" every branch of the modern church. A
blind, unreasoning concurrence in dogmas
that are repulsive to every sense of human
ity and every refined conception of godhood
is insisted upon as the first requisite to fell
lowship; their rejection is deemed sufficient
to justify social ostrasism and religious out
lawry. ~ -
The SUNDAY GLOBE does not wish to be
understood as condemniDg Calvinistic doc
trines entire. There are some points Of doc
trine enunciated by that apostle of the
church that all can accept without doing VIC
lenee to their reason Or insulting deity. But
it is about time that the church had emau-
cipated itself from the slavery of the middle
agss and begun to think for itself. There
are theologians to-day who are as strong in
tellectually, and as capable Of interpreting
the word of God as were Calvin, Knox,
Wiekliffe, or other of those who have been
recognized in the psst as the conservators of
true religion. Indeed, these reformers of a
past age we're far more liable TO fall into err
TOR than are the learned theologians of the
present time, who havs far better means of
arriving at the truth, and live in more ad
vanced civilization. Theology should by
this time be out of leading strings indepen-
dent of the dogmas of tue past, based partly
on Ignorance and superstition, and partly on
misconceptions of the divine will. The
church should assert its independence of
these, so far as they conflict With reason and
a fair Interpretation of the scriptures, and
thus conform the church TO the progressive
ideas of the present age.
If the church of to-day would grow in
numbers and influence it must learn to be
more tolerant than it has been in the past.
Perfect unanimity Of opinion cannot be
hoped for IS long as men assume the God
given privilege Of thinking for themselves.
And this is their right and duty. The church
of Christ ought to be large enough and its
mantle broad enough to include within its
borders men who differ from each other as
TO the significance of disputed points of
theology, and man should not be declar-
ed an alien or an outoast who cannot sub
scribe honestly TO some particular point of
| the creed of this OR that denomination. The
| church should be- liberal enough to encour-
age people to think for themselves rather
| than to insist upon their swallowing theo-
logical dose against which their reason and
their religious sentiment Eevolts. The
church that first encourages independence
| in it's membership will first attract to its
fold men of intellectual standing and
moral strength who will raise it above the
level of mere sectaranism to the broad
plane of Christian charity and tolerance, and
make it such power in the world az it has
never yet been. Piety is of far more impor-
lance to the church than dogma; intelligent
and Independent thought than creed.