Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-04
SEEING.


And Jesus answered and said unto him, what
wilt thou that l should do unto thee? The blind
man said unto him, Lord, that might receive
my sight.-St. Mark, x; 81.
During the long tedious night while Tro-
jan and Greek fought outside the walls of
Troy, the fight was so close and the dark
ness so great that the combatants hardly
knew who their foemen were, hardly knew
whether they were fighting their own
countrymen or the enemy.
Ajax, one of the Grecian
leaders, constantly petitioned the gods for
light, eight to see his foeman's face" In
the fierce warfare continually being waged
in this world between good and evil, there is
no need so great as light,ight so that each
individual may see his foeman. Many man
has fallen in the fight who, had he but seen
his enemy, had never been overcome.
Most of the mistakes men make are the
result of blindness; most OF the
sorrow and evil in this world is
caused by want of light. Two
things are necessary for proper seeing, one
is unclouded light, the other a true stand
point from which to view. When the light
is obscured by prejudice or ignorance, or
almost eclipsed by vice and pollution, no
man can rightly see or judge of any truth.
Three hundred years ago Calico
was summoned to appear be-
fore the inquisition to answer
to the charge of heresy, for believing that
the sun was the center of the planetary
system, and that the earth moved. In like
manner have great truths been received by
mankind in all ages, from Socrates, who
taught that virtue was the only good, and
who was jetsoned as false teacher, down
the blood and Jenner, the discoverer of vac
cination. Men, seeing nothing through the
mists of superstition and ignorance, have
denounced these discoveries as "diaboli-
CAL" Men of advanced thought and keen
er sight have been called inidels, free
thinkers and heretics and their discoveries
of truth false and pernicious.
A young minister called to
preach to an old established orthodox
church, in one discourse referred to the
deluge as partial deluge covering only
the then known world. One of the dea-
cons arose in his pew and called upon him
to stop, saying he would not listen to such
infdel preaching. 'But" urged the young
man, II can prove by nature that it could
not have been universal" II don't care for
nature or SCIENCE" said the deacon, "my
parents and Sunday school teachers
hot ho al ha
whole earth, and 1 won't hear of anything
else." Most intelligent persons
would call that old deacon a
stupid blockhead, and SO he was &.
But was he an exceptional one? Is not the
church composed largely of just such mar
row-minded blind persons? Many persons
call Darwin an infdel because he believes
that mankind and monkeys sprang from
the same germ, but that God created the
germ, and that it was carried through sue
cessive stages of development to its nerve
perfection, man, and to It's muscular per-
lection, the ape, by the same omnipotent
hand. In what does Darwin's infdelity
consist? In not believing as protesting
Christians do? In thinking for himself,
and seeing things in a clearer light than
others?
The doctrine of humiliation, which has
been accepted as the teaching of the Bible
by men of the purest lives and the clear
est intelligence, has received the almost IN
unanimous condemnation of church mem
bers as a false and perhicious doctrine.
Among the great number who oppose this
faith how many have ever spent one hour
in searching the scriptures to see whether
these things be so or no?" How many
have ever prayed that they might receive
their sight in regard to the truths of the
Bible? "What my father believed is good
enough doctrine for me,' is often said. Of
course to persons of that order of intelli-
gence the presentation of reason and scien-
tific facts might prove, like the full sun
| light to the owl, the cause of total blind
ness, but even they by prayer and study of
Gods word may come to see the truth.
though darkly. Thus the ignorance and
blindness of protesting Christians is the
forcing ground in which infdelity
attains its rankest growth
Why are the scientists of France
almost, as class, infdels? Because while
the sun of knowledge is steadily rising
higher and higher, revealing new truth,
lighting the way to new discoveries, the
church clings to her dogmas and her creeds
formed in the twilight of the world, and
shuts her doors against all new doctrines
If the believers in God would accept
L
the truth that all things are his, and would
come out of the narrow church walls built
by men of limited ideas, into the cathedral
planned by God, and accept the aid of
nature and science as the servants of re.
ligion, then all the stubborn facts which
shake mems faith would appear, in the
clear light OF truth, parts OF Gods great
plan, and like bits of mosaic would fit to.
gether in the wondrous work of his crea-
tion.z AT present science antagonizes relig-