The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-06-02

mems care, would he call It pulpit doctrine?
Is there anything the preacher may legiti-
mately traverse within the circumference of
the Great Book We are aware that these
very questions we PROFOUND may be answered
in the work before US. We fad the third
chapter of an elaborate article entitled The
Bible--what is it2 But we are by no means
moved to an investigation of its thought.
1t has always been with us an abiding con-
viction that society requires something which
the Bible does not supply. 1t requires the
harmony Of fraternity in more solid associa-
ton. Men are not fraternal. When the
wants OF a man shall become everybody's
business in a sense which puts away inquiry
concerning his deservings, and none are per-
mitted to want in the face of plenty, in the
face of so much luxury, in the face of so
much waste, the threshold OF broad social
reform will have been reached. We are de-
cidedly in favor Of suspending inquiries con-
corning God, concerning future life, and of
on a social and political basis, to
the regulation Of this life so as to fit ourselves
for another and to deserve it. All discussion
of FIRST cause is unmeaning talk, men know
nothing, can conceive nothing, can think
nothing, 10 that direction. We know the In
finite Father by his manifestations. We know
him as
"That power, all other powers above,
whose name is Goodness and his nature
Love-
we know him as the auhor Of life, and Of the
Denehcences that fill life to its overflow. of
he faculties by which we enjoy, of the things
We enjoy. And we may as well say here that
We do not believe that 10, 900 years hence any
more will be known of God than can be |
earned through his manifestations. 1t is there
ore idle to talk of God, in the pulpit or out
If the pulpit, and as unnecessary as it is
die.
In the perpetual scramble for something to
hink that can be relied upon as a staff, that
will support the lettering feet Of age, and the
mind against the inhrmites of a disease that |
nay be sapping the life energies, we find
nothing so assuring as that universal gospel |
n Divine Goodness that is manifest in all we !
Zee, and think, and are. We reposs calmly |
m the evidence that the Infinite waits US |
somewhere, that He has here guarded US |
Igainst hurt, that no matter what accident be- |
all, what calamity impend, what fatality over
axes us, He has provided that we shall light |
ipon our feet under skies of brighter promise,
n the light OF a more affluent day, where no
meridian sun shall scorch, nor shades of night !
hall cover us.
Turning over the pages of Brother Shaw's |
is not without profit to the student.
The thought is liberal, there are no partition /
walls to scale, everything is upon the level of
he understanding. Among many brief pas
iages that please US is the following, which is )
, vast improvement on the average pulpit dis
course:
Creeds and dORmas are the humanity devised .
,diuncts to religion. They are not divine. /
They are mere accidents in the evolution and (
development Of religious ideas. Creeds are .
ike clothes, they will wear out or change with /
the fashions, and like clothes, men sometimes |
outgrow them. This has generally been the !
case in every age of mental activity aud pro- |
yress. We have no objection to creeds us long |
as they conserve the truth and interpose no |
barrier to progress; but when they interrupt
human enquiry ana stereotype our under
then we will say destroy them as !
Hczekiah destroyed the brazen serpent
Creeds are not always used as sign boards to .
men in the way of righteousness, but they are
the leather thongs with which men are bound !
10 what they call orthodoxy. They are the
letters men put upon their opinions. They are (
like wax in the ears or sand in the eyes. When
men are creedbound they will not hear though /
they have ears; they will not see, though they
have aypa