The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1881-06-23
MODERN NKEPTICIXM

We believe that great change Is pre-
pairing in religious opinion, Of which
many of our best men know nothing
10 those who are thrown into the cur
rents of life, it is evident that mems
minds are in unusual working, and that
the very foundations of religious belief
are rotten and shaking. Among all
the earnest-minded young men who are
1T this moment leading in thought and
action in America, we venture to Say
that four-ffths are skeptical even of
the great historical facts of ChriStiaui-
ty.
What is told as Christian doctrine by
the churches, is not even considered by
them. And furthermore, there is a.
mong them a general ill.concealed dis
trust of the clerical body as a class and
an utter disgust with the very aspect
of modern Christianity and of church
pant; fittle Is Said aUout It, H. 1c' IS n3ist
regularity alone of the radicals and ia
natics; many of them are men of calm
and even balance of mind, and belong
to no class Of ultraists. It is not world
" and selfish. The doubters lead in the
bravest and most self-denylng enter
prises of the day. 1t is not an unbelief
to be laughed at, or hunted down. 1t
is calm, abiding, earnest, sorrowful.
Not much is known of it above; but
it underlies now all the strongest ex-
ternal movements. There are, howev-
er, Slimpses of it. You see it in the
daily diminishing influence of the pull
pit, and the increasing influence of the
press; in the lessening number of strong
and original minds who take hold of
theology, and the tone of the men who
are leading American thought. It
speaks in those strange longings for new
revelations, and in the occasional de-
nunciation of the old.-New York In
dependent.
For saying these same things oyer
and over III the ADVANCE during the
past four or FIVE years, we have been de-
nounced as an ''infdel' and number
of Pharisees have refused to patronize
us while they have borrowed our paper
regularly from some subscriber and read
it on the Free Lunch" plan. But
now that an evangelical paper of the
large circulation and influence of the
n. Y. Independent says the same
things, they may listen to it and open
their eyes to the facts. When we have
spoken of the wide ''distrust of the cler-
ical body as a class" and Of IAN utter
disgust with the very aspect of modern
Christianity and Of church worship"
and done SO in almost the exact words
which the independent now uses, these
benighted people could only cry ''inf-
del' and warn their equally benighted
friends against us.
But we have been content to ''shine
in our little corner" as Beecher says,
and to speak the truth at whatever
cost. And it has cost us something in
the way of pecuniary loss; it has cost us
something i'll the way Of insult and
coarse abuse from ignorant church peo-
pie; it has cost US something in the way
or social ostracism by Indifferent bigots
and people who are afraid Of Mrs. Grun-
dy; but in other ways we have gained a
thousand fold. We have gained in SELF
respect, in the respect of the liberal and
noble minded, in the sober certainty of
greater manhood, and in the ever pres.
ent conviction that we are in the right
and doing our duty in an unpopular
cause.
We are content to wait for our re-
ward. knowing that III due time we
shall secure a small corner on the plat.
form with that class of souls whom Ju-
liza Ward Howe thus speaks of in a re-
cent number Of Modern Society,"
10 those courageous souls, who, alone
and unaided, have been able to face the
worlds passion and inertia; to those
leaders of forlorn hopes who have seen
glory in the depths of death and have
sought it there; to those voices pro-
claiming in the wilderness the triumph
amt progress of truth; to those brave
spirits whose strength the fires of hell
have annealed, not consumed, my soul
shall ever render its glad and duteous
homage. And if in my later age l
might seek the browning honor of my
life. should seek it with that SMALL
faithful band who have no choice but
to utter their deepest convictions and
abide the issues. Fruitful shall be
their pain and privations. They who
have snwn in tears the seeds of unpop-
ul;,r virtue. shall reap happy harvest
in tho gond and gratitude Of man.
kind.