News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-06-26

by the horizon of his natural vision doe
not draw into play the higher furnishing
of his soul, and unless he extends tha
vision further, and ransacks the observa
) tory for such optical apparatus as ma.
aid his vision and cause him to lift tn
J curtain, he is guilty of the worst of sins
in being the possessor of eyes that se
not, and the responsibility rests in thu
} fact that all these God ward powers ar
sentenced to a state of utter nothing
ness.
4. Belief is modified by mental dis
SipdtiO7l, and a constant contemplation
of these things with no corresponding
action in the line of revealed duty.
Like the men of Mars hill, this class
of Investigators care for nothing, but
to hear and tell some new thing.
They gorge themselves with every
the ory and every philosophy extant.
They skim over the surface of all cur
rent literature, and fancy that they
sound its depths. Into these most ab-
struse of subjects they plunge without
the least knowledge of first principles
and attempt to unlock the doorways that
lead to the divine mysteries without even
a key. Who can reach the depths of
mathematics, or the heights of astron-
omy without studying first the alpha
bets of these sciences? Who can ex-
pect to know much of these things, ex-
cept through a careful study and testing
of first principles ? No one, but fool
and vet thousands with neither lamp
compassionate or study, plunge into
the profound in theology, grope, rend
and involve the subject until they land
in utter skepticism or come out with an
clectic theology that has just about as
much system and beauty as the crazy
| quilts, that crazy women ard girls SO
delight to patch together from tit bits of
silk. Such a gorging and stuf1ing, is
sure to result in a moral dyspepsia. The
moral pature can no more stand such
| treatment without revolt than the stom-
ach can stand a continued stuffing of
meats and drinks, of good, bad and in
different, of lobster salad and mince pie,
of horse -radish and beefsteak, and of
every other concoction of the modern
cook with dessert of apples, nuts, raislns
and what not. 1t must revolt through
this continual feeding, on every thing
until it loses its power to retain any
thing, even that which is most necessary
to its sustenance and strength.
5. Belief is modified by testing. A
mans conception of the reality of things
must be educated through an honest
| trial so far as he knows. There is no
testimony like the testimony of expert
ence. 1t speaks with an authoritative
voice. Vision alone may fail and the
man become victim of an optical de-
Iusion. Touch may bear a false testi-
| nTO
But marshal them all. Test the eye
by the touch. Call in every faculty
that can witness to the verify of the Wis
ion, and soon you build up confidence
in eyesight. On its own testimony you
then begin TO act. Suppose a savage
to see, for the first time in his life, the
work of some eminent scenic artist.
| There is the copy of nature. He alone
knows nature. The testimony of the
eve is that the fruit he sees, or the water
! he views, is real. How can he educate
his eye? By touch.
Christ has given every man test OF
truth, by which the testimony of his
spiritual vision may be verified. 1t is
trial in experience 1t is the touch of
the hand, which is to verify the testi-
ac,ry of the eve. Gle that doeth Ny
viii shall know of the doctrine" The
fruit can be tested by tasting, and the
quality of the tree on which it grows be
revealed. Every man has some revela-
ton of duty. If further revelation fails
| to come because he fails to act under
| the light he has, he Is responsible for
his error, and will have to give an ac-
count at the great day. A continued
trial of the truth we do know, verifes
to us the conception We have of that
truth which lies beyond oar reach, just
as the touch of my hand to tree with
in my reach is evidence to me that the
similar image printed on the retina of
nv eve of something across the street
and beyond my reach is also tree. A
failure to make this test involves re-
sponsibility.
1t will be observed that in my treat
ment of this question l have made
| responsibility hinge more on the roads
travelled to reach q belief than upon
| the real subject matter of the belief. Ii
may be possible, in my opinion, to hold
an erroneous faith without responsible
ity, and also to believe that which is
true without any rightful claim to cred
it. Milton has gone on record as say
ing: ga man may be a hereto in the
truth and if he believes things only be-
cause his pastor says so, or the assem-
| bly, determines without knowing other
reasons, though his belief be true, yet
the very truth he holds becomes his
heresy."
The simple fact that a man is in error
does not of Itself imply him sinner.
The simple acceptance of truth does not
argue his real orthodoxy. The only
measure of mans responsibility for his
belief is his measure of light and the use
he makes of it. Before Judging of any
man we must know the history of his
mind, his capacity of Judgment, the
early influences and prejudices to which
he was exposed, the forms under which
religious truths and their proofs first
became fixed, his thoughts and the use
he has made of these opportunities.
Whenever the alleged belief explains
itself by an immoral and irreIigious life
we shall be justified in a condemnation
not alone of the life, but of the belief it
self. We shall Judge the tree by it
fruits. To him who subjects himself t.
cross-examinatlon as to whether he has
| honestly examined into the principles
and proofs of the faith he holds prompted
by love of truth; whether he has sur
rendered himself to no passions or pur
suits which an enlightened conscience re
Dukes and which blind the eve to ligh
and truth and whether bis investigation
have been spdrred on by an honest de
sire to fulfill his duties to God, to hi
fellow-men and himself, and then find
his heart condemns him, let him know
God to be greater than his heart an,
knowing all things, but if his heart con
demns him not, then can he have conf
dence toward God. Adverse human
judgment in such a case will weigl
IL