Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-06-17
REASONIN RELIGION,

Inc NSd pIcNdlAS tilab III ASiiSAON"
matters much must be swallow we'd whole.
You can take it or leave it, the priest
or preacher says, in effect, but you must
not change it. All these things are
just as / say they are, or you know
nothing about them. f-rnn like my
creed you must believe it all and not
break or modify it in any way or you
will surely spoil it. If you like my
church, come in; do not stand in the
door and talk; do not use your reason
but follow your feelings; come in and be
safe first and Wen reason about it az
terward. This attitude of the church
seems, at first, a little peremtory to the
secular understanding, but it is made
to seem more reasonable by the follow
ing considerations:
First-The creeds of the various
churches were made by wise men who
gave their lives to religious studies and
who patiently discussed together for
days, months and even years, the ar
ticles of faith presented for our accept
anee. How unlikely, therefore, that
the man or woman of the present day
who generally has read very little upon
religious subjects and given very little
time or thought to the matter in any
way, would be able to improve upon
this body of collected, clarified and
concentrated wisdom.
SeeonG-the churches all believe that
they have in the Bible an infallible rev.
elation of the mind Of God. By the
enHghtening and helpful influence of
the Holy Spirit they are enabled to
understand this book perfectly and to
proclaim its requirements accurately.
Thrd-The church is old-compared
with the short life of any one man
very old. 1t holds the very same
faith now that was once delivered to
the saints through agencies that were
regarded as supernatural. This faith
it has held and defended through so
many stormy centuries that it would
be dear for its very antiquity; but this
is not all. 1t gives man his one abso-
lutte rule of conduct here-his one clear
hope of Immortality. For these reasons
among Others, say the priests and the
preachers, the church can afford to be
peremptory in her demands positive
in her requirements, both as to creed
and conduct.
This all sounds very we'll and some of
it Is entirely convincing, but the out
slider sometimes wonders how it hap
pens that there are so many churches.
They all have the same infallible Bible
and each claims to give 1t the right in
depreciation. Yet their ereeds differ
and so do their forms Of worship. Even
in what they tell the wording is abso-
lutely necessary for his salvation, there
is not real unsnimity.
If We try to average the various doc
trines We obtain . meager and unsatis-
factory result. 1t works like addition
in algebra. Contradictory doctrines or
statements cancel each other, aud when
we have worked the whole sum through
there seems next to nothing left. Mr..
HERBERT SPENCER, who has worked at
this sum pretty faithfully, presents the
doctrine In which all churches and re-
ligions agree in substance as'follows:
There exists Great you-don't-know-
what in the universe, you don't know
how or where, and you can never find
out. This is the faith which he says Is
all that religious people hold in COM
mon. In an else they centradies each
other.
What then shah the honest inquirer,
seeking for religious certainty, do"
Probable he had better give it up. But
he hates to be an agnostie, and 80 when
the best woman in the world asks him
some fine morning to go to church,
he will go. And he viii go in very