Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-02-28
The Gordon Type Of Religion.

lne heroic cildTdCtST. DilllEint dcllleNe-
ments, and romantic career of the late
General Gordon made him the popular idol
of England. His chivalric mission to
Khartoum, the perils of the journey there,
its successful accomplishment, the months
of uncertainty, anxiety and suspense that
were endured after his arrival there, and
now, the sad and tragic elimination of the
whole affair in his death-all these have
wrought up the public mind in England TO
a high pitch of excitement He, who
was idolized while yet alive, is being can
onized now that he is dead.
All this is perfectly natural to contem-
plate and admire the heroic, sternly up
right, and thoroughly pure-minded man is
good and proper. In honoring him the
world honors and benefits itself.
But it does neither in letting its admira-
ton so far overleap itself as to transfer it to
the type of religion which he represented,
and to hold this up as the highest, best,
and truest of all types, as has been done in
the last few weeks by scores of newspapers
and in hundreds of pulpits. This crude
and harsh Puritanism, and materialistic
Calvinism, have been held up as superior
to the more scriptural and spiritual faith of
to-day. Even religious paper like The
Independent has deprecatingly declared I;
"We cannot endure hard doctrine; he did
not quail before the dogmas of stern
faith" s'He was not fashioned as other
men are, but on the grand models of an
age that could face with serene heart tne
hard realities of truth and life In
vidious scomparison has eyenbeen made with
''the sympathetic sentimentalism' of Glad
stone, and the whole temper of our age,
with which Gordon was strangely and
yet gloriously in contrast.
Much of this reads like nonsense. 1t is
matter for rejoicing that the Christian
consciousness of our age "cannot endure
hard doctrine such as that of Gordon; that
the grand models of our age are not Gro m
wells and Mathers, but rather sympathetic
sentimentalists' like Washington and
Gladstone. The type of religion of our
times is higher and more truly Christian
type than that which ''with serene heart'
imputed its own whims and wishes 10 God s
wisdom, and its own injustice and harsh
ness to his Righteousness and tender love,
representing him as Fate
"To whom TO impute
The ills we ought 10 bear;
With God and Fate to rail at, suffering easily. ."
Does anyone really wish to return TO the
type of religion, for instance, that, careless
of Gods will and laws as revealed in his
tory and manifested in the course of
events, presumptuously demands that they
be made known for the careless individual s
benefit by the toss of a six pence 7 We
think not. 1t is type too full of super
stition, materialistic conceptions of
spiritual things and all manner of cru
dities of belief.
We know that the g hard doctrines "he
held have in the past produced far more
hard hearts, arrogant, self-righteous,
tyrranical men, than gentle, forgiving,
helpful, and loving Christians. They do
belong to type Of religion that frequently
professed to speak with the tongues of
angels, and TO have the gift of prophecy.
and TO understand all mysteries and all
knowledge I; that demanded faith that
could remove mountains and that freely
gave its body to be burned, as well
as insisted on burning the bodies
OF Others; but seldom did it possess
that divine charity that suffereth long and
Is kind, that enyieth not, vaunteth not
itself, is not puffed up that charity that
doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh
mol haf own, IS not easily provoked, and