The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1885-09-23
IRRATIONAL RATIONALISM
An Address Delivered Before Hart
ford College and Business Insti-
tute, Monday Night, Aug.3l,
1855, and Published by
Request.

1855, and Published by
Request.
BY REV. JOHN NJ. CROW, A. NJ, LOUIS.
WILLIE CONFERENCE.
Mr.. President, Fellow Students, Ladies
and Gentlemen:
Ii WAS with ineifable pleasure and a
deep sense of gratitude that accepted
the honor accorded me by your worthy
president two months ago TO address
you on this occasion. Indeed l feel
myself highly congratulated in being
called hither To the place of my boy
hood, to form new friendships. to re-
new old ones, and in the presence of
such an array and assemblage Of
physical, intellectual and moral beauty
champion the cause of christian truth
in its conflict with modern science.
Let us exchange congratulations on
this scholastic occasion. To all the
noble sons and nobler daughters of our
fair Southland we wave hearty greet
ing as they come with elastic step and
vigorous mind, to tread these shining
aisles of reason and bow at these sacred
affairs of virtue. Long may they keep
watch and ward by these fire>crowned
shrines of truth and holiness. Let US
turn our thought upon our theme
Irrational RationaIism This is an age
in which there is nothing too sacred TO
pass unassailei. The Sabbath is desc
Grated, the Sacred Oracles mutiated
and diregarded, manhood degraded,
Godhead disowned, doubted aud denied.
Ii Were well to keep silent at times and
thereby answer the fool according to
his folly. But our silence has been
mistaken for weakness. However
convenient therefore it would be to ig-
more all such arguments, it is not wisest
30 long rs such errors trouble the minds
and imperil the faith of many unthink-
ing, unsuspecting young men. In our
discussion tonight We ask no quarters
and claim none, we think and let think,
adopting the motto of Christendom
In essentials unity, in non essentials
H6erdlity, ia all things charity.
"All matter is Jehovahs tongue.
From its motions his thoughts are suing,
The realms OF space are the octave bars,
And the music notes the sun and stars"
The universe is not governed 6y Tar.
II is governed by intelligent agency
according to law. Law is merely q
mode of action, a rule of conduct.
1t implies Legislator, a government,
and subjects or objects governed. The
failure to recognize this distinction has
been fruitful of much irrational think
ing and verbal mysticism. Let us see
distinctions where there are vast and
vital differences and we are saved from
much that is mere assumption, falsely
called argument. The merest tyro in
dialectics perceives that law is an Ell.
sctment of agency and requires the
continued presence of that agency
which conceived it to execute it. There
is no such thing a. law without law.
giver. Moral law is moral mode of
operation. But, by whom? Material
law is a physical mode of action. But.
what acts? A philosophic law is a
philosophic mode OF mental activity.
But, whose mind thus acts In every
instance the abstract is necessarily and
logically involved in the concrete. All
actions imply an actor, all movements
an originator, an author. 1t is mislead-
ing and unmeaning to speak therefore
Of law Of nature operating per Sc
certain results. In the scientific world
law has three fold significance.
First.-lt denotes uniform order of
facts. All birds are oviparous, is an
instance. Again, the right and left
sides of all vertebrate animals corres>
pond in their organs the offspring is
Of the same species as the parent. This
use Of law does not convey the idea of
causality but merely an established
order of facts. The facts give the law,
not the law the facts.
Second.-It denotes the properties
of matter. In nature there are some
sixty elementary substances. The
property of any substance is its power
to change or of being changed by an
other substance. All matter attracts
all other matter with force that il in
proportion directly as the mass and
inversely rs the square OF the distance.
This is called a Law of Gravity. Law,
In this sense, means statement of the
forces in action and not the forces them>
selves.
Third.-It denotes the action of two
or more substances SD as to produce
effect. Fourteen parts of nitrogen plus
eight parts of oxygen equal to protox:de
of nitrogen. Notice, that the cOmbi~
nations give the law, the law does not
make the combinations. Even the