Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-12-07
THE PERMANENT IN RELIGION.

THE PERMANENT IN RELIGION.
The religious newspapers, and even
the pulpits, are SO full of the discussion
OF debatable points in theology that it
is not strange that common people
sometimes gets the impression that
there is no certainty in religion; that
theology is not truth, but only what
people think about truth; that re-
ligious philosophy is a kaleidoscope in
which the figures change with every
generation, and that all theological diff
%ferences and disputes concern only the
way in which the bits of colored glass
shall be arranged so as to produce the
most pleasing affect. 1t is not strange
that they sometimes conclude that sci.
ence is the known, and theology the
unknown; that there is assurance and
permanence of conviction in the arts
and sciences, but zone in religion. The
disputants have only themselves to
thank for this impression; but it is a
false one. The changes in theological
opinions have been far less than in sci
entifc opinions; and the debatable
points in theology, as compared with
the assured and positive convictions,
are but as the currents in the ocean
compared with it's immovable founda-
ticns and its unchanging shores. The
great essentials of religious belief have
been held with substantial unity of con-
viction from the days of Abraham to the
present day; the variations have been
either in modes of statements, in philo-
sophical explanations of the unques-
toned truths, or in clearer and more
spiritual apprehension of those truths
themselves. They have been the
changes incident to the moral and spirit
ual growth of the race; the change of
the tree from its birth in the bursting
seed to the fragrant glory of the ORCH
ard or the outrageous glory of the
grove; of the river from its cradle
among the hills to it's manhood industry
in the valley below.
That there is one God, not Gods many
and Lords many; that He is q Personal
God, with intelligence and emotion, not
a mere generic and impersonal law;
that He permeates and animates all
nature. yet is more than nature, as the
soul pervades and animates the body,
yet is more than the body; that He is a
Just, true, righteous God, governed
himself by these. great moral laws which
He has written in the hearts and con-
sciences of His children for their
government; that He is the Father of
mankind, has given to them birth,
provides them with food, raiment and
shelter, and embraces them in His in
Unite sympathies, mercy and love;
that He has revealed Himself to man.
KIND in the universal conscience, in
special prophets and apostles, and
chlefest OF all, in Jesus Christ, His
Son; that Tic is revealed as n God who
pardons and cures sin, undoing for us,
it we will let Him, our own undo
ing, and giving us back our squan-
dered inheritance and our wasted life;
that He would have all men to love
Him, and, loving Him, the universal
Father, to love each other in universal
brotherhood; that He would have all
men, by repentance ceasing to do evil,
and by faith learning to do well. come
into a knowledge Of Him, fellowship
with Him, live in Him-this is the
universal and unchanged faith of
the whole people of God; I'M
changed, except in the clear %apprehcn-
sion OF it, from the day when God
first perceived that the Seed of
the Woman should bruise the Serpent's
head, till this hour, when, bruised and
bleeding, that old Serpent lies beating
his lie out upon the ground in the ago
ny OF a useless and hateful wrath. It is
the faith of Jew and Christian: of
Romanist and Protestant; of Old Theol-
oggy and New Theology; of the first cent
ury and of the nineteenth century. The
ages have seen natural science teachino
the earth to be y plane, and the starry
heavens a vault whose movements fore
told the destiny OF man; political econ
omy teaching that Kings ruled by Di-
v,ne right, and the people were their
children, whose only right was the right
to obey Gods vicegerent; successive
ilteratures arise, flourish and die, to be
burled IN successive layers of fossil forms
IN dead languages; philosophy pass
through every form, from the spiritual
ISM OF Plato to the materialism of
Maudsley; but throughout all these
ages, Religion, changing her vestments.
ner manner of speech, her methods of
instruction., has calmly taught the same
great Divine truths-the unity. the per-
sopallty, the righteousness, the forpiv-
ing Kindness, the eternal fatherhood' Of
GOD: If there has been anv virtue in
va theology, it is because it has made
these truths real to the spiritual appre-
hension of men. Ii there is to he anv
virtue in New Theology. it will be be-
cause it will clear away some indrances
70 thelr acceptance, and will make
them clearer, and the faith in them
! more intelligent and ,ror. c,:;...I