Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-07

them as to their belief in the matter, and
you will find four-ffths of them, at least,
will answer in the affirmative. Can we set
up the Judgment of few men who have
allowed their minds to pursue certain
line of thought land as result have come
to conclusion that there is not God)
against the judgment of these men as be-
ing conclusive. I think not. Are they pos
sessed of superior intellect to these men?
Are they able to think in knowledge, or to
reason matters any better than these men !?
think not. And until it has been proven
with them in their views at least.
IA man may pursue a GER
tam line OF Ghought or sEuay, ana though
| things pertaining to it, he will as he ad-
vances and acquires more and more knowl
edge regarding it, be more and more in
clined to be governed by the theories, ideas
or beliefs that surround such calling. So
in this matter of God, man may con
ceive that there is not God, and as re-
suit he meditates and considers and grows
stronger in the conviction that his ideas
are right. and in time becomes thorough
disbeliever. Then thinks that all men are
wrong who do not believe as he does, and
finally becomes a fanatic on the question.
Then he begins to preach and teach it, and
he will condemn the ideal worshiper and
say that men should attend to themselves
and let alone this matter of being higher
than man, that those things which can be
seen, felt or heard are the only
things in which men can believe.
This, in our judgment, is the man who in
the true sense is the ideal worshiper. A
man who worships an idea is more of an
ideal worshiper than man who bows to an
image of brass or stone. The man who
can see all sides of question is the truly
temperate man, while the one that can
see but one side is fanatic. To be truly
rational is to give due allowance for all
things in all matters. We do not question
the soundness of such sentiments as ad
vanced by Ingersoll on the question of liv-
ing in accordance with the laws of justice,
or the golden rule in our dealings with our
fellow men. On the contrary, we heartily
| endorse them as sound, but we dissent
| from him on his views in regard to the
existence of the God whom he worships.
| We repeat, the thing is self-evident. 1t is
entirely unnecessary for man to leave his
own temple as God calls to find sufficient
proof of this fact. The difficulty with these
men is that they are unwilling
to extend their researches
above the realm of materialism,
and any man who reads and carefully
observes their arguments will readily dis
cover that they all lie on the surface. Addi-
son says that "errors like straws upon the
surface flow; he who would search for
pearls must dive below" 1t
is an absurd impossibility for
any man to conceive an idea
of power higher than man so long as he
contents himself with believing in those
things which come within the grasp of the
finite mind. He must reach for those
things which are above the realm of hu-
mainly. In reaching for the unattinable is
where men attain in this life. Columbus
sailed, through faith guided by reaon and
was successful. In order to prove God
and thoroughly realize him we must have
faith. We must be willing to accept of
things beyond our understanding, by
faith. BY this the elders obtained the
good report. By it Abraham went
forth to the promised land not
knowing whittier he went. By
| faith Enoch was transmitted. There
is no end to the proof of grand achieve
ments through faith. But we need not
confne ourselves to biblical proofs for
these things. Take the men of more
modern times and compare those who be-
lieve in a God with those who were more
inclined to depend on their own strength
or knowledge. Napoleon, for instance.
who declared that God was on the side OF
| the most bayonets; man whose military
ability is conceded to surpass that of any
man in modern times, yet died an inmate
of prison on the island of st. Helena.
Alexander the Great, who conquered the
world in his time, and in his ambition to
conquer more sat down and cried because
there was none to conquer; then, at the
end, having spent life of ambitious and
riotous living died in drunken debauch.
Compare the lives of these men with those
who trusted in q God and note the con.
trast. Washington, for instance, who
trusted in his God, and at the
head of handful of men,
as it were, conquered the then great
est nation on the face of the earth and be-
came the father of his country. More
than this, he crossed the Delaware and
| iourneyed through the wilderness 200
miles on foot and triumphed at Valley
Forge. He successfully marshaled his
forces through all the trials and suffer
ings of the revolution, served as presi-
dent of his country with honor to himself
as we'll as his constituents, and to crown
all, went down to a peaceful grave leaving
on record a name unsurpassed by any
man that ever lived in his time, confident
in the faith of meeting the reward of a
just servant. While we hardly endorse the
sentiments of Cromwell 'put your trust in
God but keep your powder dry," yet we
ask all men to have more faith, to con-
slider more fully the relation which they
sustain to an Advise Creator, and not be
content with the idea that man is born
but to die. We begin to learn in these
later days that it is not so much the visi-
BILE as the invisible man that constitutes
the man. Not so much the man of clay
or the physical man as the man of the spirit
or the spiritual man. Not so much those
things which are finite as those things
which are infinite. Man in his very ex-
istence exemplifes the power and the
glory of God. None but God could do
such thing as create human being.
Take the hand of man for instance, exam
inc that and you will find enough upon
which to write volume, and that, as COM
pared with the other parts of a man, is
very little. Consider his intellect, his re- :
L IL