The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-06-06


ness. The superslitions and errors thai
nave fastened themselves to the tru,
Christian faith are being exposed anc
held up to ridicule by The scoffers; re
Igious faith is breaking away from 1t,
old moorings, and drifting into I'M
known seas. and slI is confusion anc
uncertainty in the religious world.
Our young men go east; they com,
in contact with this unbelieying gen
Grafton. and without thoroughly in
vestigating the subject, they pariake Of
that spirit of unbelief with which the
times are so pregnant.
We have attributed the unbelief OF
the age to the food Of knowledge and
power that has burst so suddenly upon
1t, shaking mans belief in the wonder
fuI or supernatural; and what is true OF
the world at large, we shall hold is tru,
OF the individual. That is, we mean
this: 4 young man attends college in
the east. or perhaps goes TO our owl,
University, and the means of acquirins
knowledge are so rapid. and so many
things formerly mysterious TO the
young student become so clear to his
mind, and he acquires a power of anal
ysis by which he can solve problems
that once, to his mind at least, were
within the circle OF the supernatural;
and finding himself in the possession
of his new-found powers, he thinks
that all he requires is a little time ano
BY the same power he will solve
all mysteries of mans existence
of life and death, of this
world and the universe. He may be
compared to a child who has Just
learned that with money he can pur-
chase something; and when he gets his
first bright new nickel, with what an air
he walks the floor aud tells his mamma
what he is going to buy perhaps team
and carriage, and q ball Of popcorn; a
dress for his mamma. a doll for his sister,
a whip and q jack-knife for himself-in
short. there is no end to what he is
going to buy with his nickel. He pu.s
the power of his half-dime to the test
and sees all his bright visions reduced
to ball of popcorn in exchange for his
coin; he finds out there is limit to the
power of his money. Sowith our young
men when they get in possession OF
little knowledge, and find their reason
ing powers improving, until they begin
to think they can solve all mysteries:
Iike the child with his nickel, they don't
know there is limit 20 their powers-a
line beyond which they cannot pass;
but they viii find it out by experience.
We believe thoroughly in Lord Bacon's
up of the quection: "a little
inclineth mems minds to
atheism; but depth in philosophy
bringeth mems minds TO religion"
Or, as it is more pleasingly expressed
BY Pope:
"A little learning Ia a dangerous thing.
Drink deep. os taste nos the pieriAn spring; |
Drinking largely. sooers us again"
Let our young men with their bright
new education try. ss most OF them will
Try, to so.ve the problem OF mans |
s1istence-how-he came, here. and the |
object of his creation. BY human
reason and science. unaided by the |
'svelstious of GodI Let them follow
Darwin and Huxley for season; and |
% give the philosophy of those men an |
opportunity to solve the problem Of |
ife. let rs no. question their hypothesis /
~ the inconsistencies that weigh IL
Town; and suppose that by the
philosophy Of these men they can trace
nan and the whole animal kingdom
rom their present estate back.
Jack, through all the processes
II their evolvement, until they
,ome TO that substance from I
Ehich the evolution began, what then7
The substance stil has locked up within
4 the mystery of its own existence and
he principle of life it contains, and e
uses to yield them up to the scientist
md ceties his skill. So that after their
ong, weary toll. aided with he scalpel
Ind microscope, our young educated
men, with Keeling brain and throbbing
ulse, stand face TO face with a mystery
IS wonderful as that which confronted
hem in the start; they have reached a
boundary which they may not pass
he child finds his nickel will not buy /
he whole world. Confronted then BY |
his great wonder that they cannot
olive, will they not be driven back into
he arms OF faith, and accept Gods rev
lations as solution of the mystery 2 !
Will they not say, like one of old.
Lord, We believe; help thou our unbe-
efi'' -
As skepticism takes hold OF the
ainds OF our young men during the
ormation Of the education. before tn v
ave seriously investigated the CLAIMS
religion. and before they have at