The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-01-28
SAM Homes, Theology.

He has one other element of pop
Rlar power, one which adds thought
fitness to his masses Of interested
hearers. This is his rebellion
against all accepted Theological
formulas for the statement of truth.
"Quit your meanness'' is his defiHi-
ton of repentance, and he will be
trammeled by no other. He steers
clear of the Sorbonean bog Of mod
ern theology, viz, technical defini-
tions and uses of the word faith,
and puts instead Of them the prac-
tical result, ''Do what you ought to
do" Everybody understands him,
and nlne-tenths Of his hearers of all
grades of intelligence believe him
right. His rebellion is more than
simply dlscardiRg the thread-bare
FERNS Of theological expression, it
is a rebellion against the transcen-
dentalism of the modern evangeli-
cal pulpit. What Socrates was to
the SopAists of his day, what Bacon
was to the scientists who had gone
before him, what Thomas Carlyle at
tempted to be the religions which
had preceded his time, this sim
pie. unlearned Georgian aspires to
be, the peculiar forms of American
evangelical religion--forms which
have so dominated southern life
that till now the southern ear hes
been deaf to any voice that was
raised to question their infallibility.
The listening masses of to-day de-
Glars that freedom of thought, for
good or evil, is at the door. He
calls the preachers from the mys-
tic and transcendental to a discus
sion of the practical. You may or
may net be right, he intimates, in
your theories of trinities and uni
ties, your declarations of what ex-
listed in the mind of God before the
verdi was, Of the contract between
God and Christ and the effect Of
the Sons death upon the Father
aud the Father and the Holy Spir-
it, in your fine spun theories as to
the methods of the spirit. He is
too much in earnest in bringing
men to the resolve of about face
and the discharge of the daily du-
ties Of life, among which he en-
phasizes prayer, to hinder, bewilder,
and drive from him the hungry
multitude with feeding them upon
the "east wind" In this respect
one wonders how man of provin-
cial life, Of marrow acquaintance
with books, has come to voice SO
marvelously the cry of the age.
Next to his genius for sympathy
with men as men, andshis free
dom from the traumels of an
early technical theological training,
perhaps two men with whom his
lot has been cast have helped to
his aecouchenaent. Both of these are
preachers in his own church. The
one, a man of marked strength of
natural endowment, and IN con-
slant conflict with many of the ster-
eotyped forms Of theological ex-
preston, a man as bold and I'M
sparing in his announcement of sin
as Jones himself, but whose wit is
nearly bounded by sarcasm as to
narrow his influence. He was, for
some years, Jones presiding elder,
and became in much his model.
The other, man as deficient on
the practical side as Jones is pow
erful, but an omniverous reader of
books. Through his conversation,
Jones, with his elect snd electric
powers, seemed to become aware
that the world Of thought was not
necessarily done up In q few iHsti-
tutes of theology, and that there
were mountainous of truth gilded
by sunlight beyond its ordinary do
m lin. The bold, practical original
ity of the one, the indefinite horizon
of the other, came to Jones as an
inspiration, creating his rebellion
in methed and his disenthrallment
from the mystic and barren topics
SO much discussed in the pulpit.