The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-01-18

While I cannot accept all that he has
advanced, I can and do sympathize
with yourcorrespondent in the doubts
and difficulties arising from the ''con-
hicting expositions of inherited r<.li'
gion,:'' of which he complains: But
are they not largely self-imposed!
Come they not of self-pleasing reli-
gion; result they not from those
| etching ears" that, *'keering to
themselves Teachers 50 spoken
against in the Bible, as the sign of a
time when ''they will not endure
sound doctrine" have yet to learn
that the way to obtain an answer to
the question, ''What is TRUTH is to
90 the rounds of the sects, and to
wind up with, perhaps, a lecture from
al Ingersoll, i. e., in other words, to
make experiment of every form of
error. The man who proceeds upon
this plan for faith can only expect
as aresult, a ''confusion worse con-
founded III his mind. My friend
never spoke 4 truer word than when
he attributed the decadence of reli-
gion ito the variety of doctrine we
hear preached, and the conflicting in.
depreciation given by different
preachers to the same scriptures -
The curse of America is her scots.
But whence came those sectse Are
they not the legitimate outcome OF
the doctrine attributed to ''Rev. G.?'
which amounts simply to this
"All I have got to say to you is this:
There's the Bible for you; go home
and carve religion for yourself out
of it. i know it contains things
hard to be understood, which the un'
stable and unlearned wrest to their
own destruction'-(2 Pet. iii:l6)--
but that's your lookout. I've done
my whole duty when I've told you
that you must study the scripture
plan of salvations for yourself" Ac-
cording to Which shelving every man.
no matter how untitled in every sense
of the word unfit, is to be both judge
and jury on scriptrral Interpretation,
or, in other words, Iii: own minister,
his own "cilurch," and a new one,
too, if there happens to be no sect
already in existence with which his
self-formed creed can ally itself, and
so we can have as many 'churches'
as there are Individuals Well, /
think Brother ''D.' has in his letter
! admirably shown up the folly of the
Rev. G.'s (alleged) position in this
L; spect, when he has told us that of
two hearers, perhaps, Of Rev. G.'s
sermon, one can so home, and study
ing ':the scriptural plan of salvation
for himself" find that only all elect
ed few can be saved; while the other,
equally following Rev. G.'s advice,
equally sstudying the scripture plan
Of salvation for himself,' can come
to the directly opposite conclusion
that 1.-THE whole human race will be
saved" Now: evidently both cannot
be s:the scriptural plan of salvation,"
and evidently, therefore, one follower
Of Rev. G.'s advice has been, upon
the above supposition, grievously de-
ceiyed. and on a most mOmentOus
subject. But more than even this
(which is bad enough), the church,
which holy scriptures sets forth to
lis as body, as building, as a king
dem-(Rom. kits; Eph. ii:l9-22;; Luke
xx:29, etc., etc. D-ceases to be such,
erumbles away under such teaching,
into the dust Of its component parts.
Arms go one way, legs another, stones
no longer builded together (Eph. ii:
22), place themselves where they like,
and the ''kingdom,'' what between
the Calvinist and the Universalist,
and hosts Of others equally conflict
ing in their opinions, is plainly ''di-
'vided against ITSELF wAile the zone
faith JEph. iv:5), the :tfaith once
for all delivered to the saints dude
81 has been preached off the face OF
the earth to make room for the mul-
titudinous s'faiths,' i. e., opinions, OF
individualism, to end, in their turn
as 3D." most truly says, in in6delity
and heathcnism.
Against all this, what is tire posi-
ton assumed by "Rev. J.!' Does he
tell you that when he hes placed the
Bible il your hands he has ':done his
whole duty?'' True, he bids you
'':search the scriptures, but does he
tell you that God has cast the Bible
into the world and left every man to
take it up for himself and make his
own religion out of it! Does he say
that every man will have power given
HIM by God to understand the Bible
Alright, and that, therefore, there Is
no need of a guide? No; like Philip,
the deacon (of whom we read in Acts
viii:2e, etc: J being first commissioned
by God, he ''jcins hiHnse1f'' to you and
asks, "Understandest thou what thou
realest?'' and then he proceeds to
..preach unto Jesus-Jesus as to the
head of his church. the church as
the body of Jesus (Eph. i:22-23), and
if he goes ON at once to speak of bap.
tism as the one door into the church,
is he not still following the inspired
Philip, who must in that chariot havo
preached baptism to cause the Eth
opian to exclaim directly he saw
water, .see, here is water; what doth