National Republican., 1883-02-19

Man. said Comte, is the supreme being, the
only being we can serve, the only being to
whom we can accord rational worship We
have no abstraction here but humanity, past,
present. and TO be.
But in the supreme being of the religion
Of humanity there is room for all the
humblest as well as all the greatest
Of the past who have wrought right
eousness, who have searched out the useful
and the true. That man must be very dull Of
sense and heart who is not put upon his honor
when he thinks Of these and all that they have
done for him, who is not irresistibly impelled
TO higher living if happily he may do some
thing to discharge his great indebtedness Who
can help feeling gratitude by the consciousness
that he is component part of this great
order, which has achieved so much already,
and is destined to achieve so much more in
the futuro2
But it is ono thing to acknowledge the
nobility and grandeur Of this conception,
and IL is quite another thing to say that we
will substitute it for the infinite and eternal
power. All that collective humanity has
done to tend the garden of the world, and TO
make il moro delightful with the various
trees of knowledge and Of life for each sue
oeeding generation, we gladly recognize;
but there are many things which
kindle in our breasts the flame of ado
ration, things infinitely greater than
the greatest done by human hands
and we want TO pay our deepest reverence TO
the power. / care not by what name you call
IL that has done those things that has hung
this planet home of ours in space and kept il
circling there by myriads Of harmonious at
fractions which has made it wonderful with
seas and streams, with hills and valleys?with
grass and flowers and the infinite variety of
animal life, and most of all with this Great
Being this collective humanity, VIII iCh i am
told claims all my service, all my alteration.
What can my bright young friend be think
ing of when he writes to me as he did the
other day, l see no intelligence outside of
man which can be compared to the
intelligence in him. The intelligence
that guides the course of u million
worlds is not to my mind so great not near so
great. as the intelligence that creates q Ham
let or writes Romola" But how about the
intelligence that creates q Shakespeare or
George Eli0tP Is that lesser thing to do
than to create n Hamlet or a Romola2
trow not. But Shakespeare and George Eliot
are but as drop in the bucket to
tho overlooking fullness of humanity. "If
there were not God" said DiderOt or Vol
taire, "wo should have to invent one" Yes,
If for nothing else than to account for the
great being, collective humanity. 1t has
made many great and famous things but il did
not make itself; it did not make the impulse
to progressive betterment which has harried it
from tho beginning and will until the end, if
any, and there be- Besides this planet home
of ours is only one Of many million orbs that
swing with easy motion thro' the infinite
space. l want to bow in awe and alteration
to the power that scattered all the sky so
thick with shining worlds l want to work in
genial fellowship with him.
And we find ourselves obliged to make the
same response to those who for one reason or
another put aside tho claims Of all the substi
tutes for God l have already named, and then
proceed to offer us another of their own. II
is the moral IDEAL" says one who Is enamored
of this new divinity d" hat marvellous faculty
by which the mind builds up ideals within is
the divinest inheritance of man." How is
IL that out of broken pieces of virtue
the mind is able to make up an image
OF beauty and good exceeding anything our
eyes have ever seen. 1t is to me rs wonder
ful as it is u blessed flower 1t is right here
that agnosticism finds the key to the temple
of his religion. "The agnostic's god idea is
nothing more nor less than his idea of the
good-his moral ideal-which is not super
natural revelation from without but natu-
raj evolution from within"
And now we have considered all of the
more important and aggressive forms of
thought and speech which aim at substituting
Tor our worship of the Infinite and Everlast-
ing Life aud Love the worship of some other
fact or policy. Matter, nature, humanity, the
moral ideal, these are the substitutes we have
considered. Each in its turn is high, and
sweet, and fair, worthy of all the praise that
their respective devotees have given them SO
long as they have held to absolute express
sions. We cannot heed too carefully the mes
sage that they have to give, but when we have
listened to the end and pondered every word
our answer is. "We have seen higher, holier
things than these" -..
81 have seen curious child, who dwelt
upon n tract OF island ground, applying TO his |
ear the conyolutions of a smooth Tipped she'll |
to which in silence hushed his very soul lis.
tened intensely and his countenanco soon
frightened with joy, for from within were
heard murmurings whereby the monitor ex-
pressed mysterious union with its native
Sea-"
1t 1t a parable of what we have experienced
in this hour of common thought Each one |
of these conceptions which has been proflered |
us as representative, and the highest and the |
best we have as it were held to our ear, and
listening intensely, soon our countenance has
frightened with joy, for from within we have
heard murmurings of that which shaped all
these, making their inmost chambers beauti-
ful, that without which they never could
have been, soul of their soul, the music of
their voice, the Infinite and Everlasting God. |