Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-26
MAN MADE DEITIES.
The Sermon Of the Rev. Mr.. Carroll,
Delivered at the NJ. e. Church
on Sunday.
He Chooses For His Text: " Canst Thou
by Searching Find Out GOd?'
And "The World by Wisdom Knew
Not God" An Interested
Audience.

= On Sunday last the Rev. Mr.. Carol
! preached to a deeply interested audienc
q on the subject OF "Man-Made Deities,
n choosing for his texts job III, "Cans
). Thou by Searching Find Out God ?" an
: l Cor. 1-21. "The World by Wisdom
! Knew Not God"
e The speaker said that the intellectual
# achievements OF the past decade hav
been so great that intellectual pride haC
q resulted, and many men arrogated to
g themselves powers and capacities above
l the ability of man. He would not vielC
! to any one in admiration of the wonder
full intellectual conquests that man had
l made in the domain OF nature
He had accomplished SO many seem
ingly impossible results that we begin to
admit his ability almost to do impossible
things.
We certainly may find enough to ad-
mlre IN him without attributing to him
power that he does not possess and
never will possess while mortal.
Mans intellectual as well az his
physical capacities are limited There
are splendid fields that he may enter and
WIN profitable success; there are others
where his efforts will meet with inevita-
bic and often, alas, disastrous defeat.
Some will assume to decide, by their
own unalded Judgment, that this or that
portion OF the Bible is to be accepted as
true or rejected as false; thus claiming
superior wisdom to the inspired author,
OF this incompatible book Some con-
TESS that the Bible is superior to anv
other books, but affirm that God did not
inspire its writing; thus deciding what
God would or would not inspire His SER
wants to write, having found out the Al
mighty to perfection. How modest
Others that Christ is not Divine, be-
cause they cannot understand how Deity
and humanity can be united in one
being. OF course they cannot under
stand how out of the black slime of the
pool nature produces the lily; but this is
beneath their high abilities nothing less
than Infinite problems are worthy of
their genius
We do not condemn free, independent
thought; only those who think are men. |
But let the thinkers remember the |
errors OF the ages and be modest; and |
let not men who are not even acquainted |
with the rudiments OF history decide |
what Christ has done for humanity. |
Men have been perpetually engaged in |
formulating conceptions of Deity; when |
a moments consideration should teach
us that if God is Infinite a finite mind
cannot comprehend Him, though he NAV
be made aware of His existence.
tie is so far above us as to be our
Creator. Can anything that man can
create understand or comprehend man?
Some, discovering design in nature,
and the existence of a systematic order.
nave thought to construct therefrom the
idea OF Deity. Thinking, in their foolish
pride of intellect, from Gods half obliter-
ated footprints in the clay of nature to
develop the idea of Deity as easily as
from footprints in the rocks, biologists
reconstruct the monsters of the pre-
Adamic world.
one investigator tells us all things are
fortuitous, they occur by chance.
Another that all things are regulated
by flXed and fated laws that Mature lin
the language OF one) acts with fearful
uniformity. Stern as fate, absolute as I
tyranny, merciless as death. Too vast /
to praise, too inexplicable to worship, l
too memorable to propitiate. 1t has no /
ear for prayer, no heart for sympathy, no {
arm to save"
vi those who seek conception of God I
rom the remains of the lost image of O
Iod In the soul, some conclude there is il
10 God others, in the language of Schel- '
ing, that The souls of men are but the a
individual eyes with which p
he Infinite would spirit behold himself" Il
Inc nature OF the question and the in 81
.6lllty OF man have rendered all such Ii
forts fail ures. G
Inc sadness OF 50 many wrecks and ~,
ulns should warn us to avoid their folly
nd seek knowledge of God through His
ppolnted way. The speaker said, | call -
our attention to the results of inyestipa- &C
on by great minds unaided by the NJ
Tord WV h,
Greece has taught all the rest of the pu
ORD IN some department of tn linking. bl
zen in the 10Th Century. be
Hear the Greeks say what is God in
Inc speaker here showed that men gl
ay create intellectual idols as well "a ell
OILS OF marble and bronze and gold. be
lie described somewhat at length the he
reek conceptions of Deity given here tn
lily in word. co
ihaies SAID that water was the univer- pill
and highest principle Another after Sc:
m denied this conclusion, and affirmed alb
at AR was the supreme principle. the
Pythagoras said that it was number Gin
lmber one was Deity, number three Gel
,hteousness. thf
Heraclitus that fire was the eternal as
u supreme. thr
But the Materialists concluded that fire a b
;, earth and water were together nrin,;' Q a
e and supreme.
Inc Stolcs that God was the soul of the
rid and the world the body of God. Tel
n this the Brahmin and Greek agree e. \
Inn a. 49, "Io, ou' vi anu go pack to ord
The spectators in this domain who 81 "
We had the Bible and discarded if. have
'dly improved upon the conclusions of
old pagans. A
'pinoza said the absolute is all THINGS mel
lduces all things, absorbs all things. an {
lomte said that knowledge of the acce
enomena of nature was mans highest A.
dom, and man himself the highest FIT
ty, and ended his speculations bv
ing upon Frenchmen to worshin a
nan OF questionable reputation. No.
-merlca has had few original specula- mar
In this field, but she has had imita- D. F
OF every school. Dim
arker, rockingham and Potter follow pm
.uermans and Emerson, with some All
lhallty and much poetic genius, does tend
same
mas been left for the people called SIR
; n3n " originate conception of God, lot {
= IN name put pagan in fact; a quail
{, P"sslolaee, brutal polygamist, who the
no mercy Tor women, and counts
dren as the farmer does his cabbapes.
ist;an,S c oIu ISM Is iiar1ly more like the Have
,vab 'U 'i'''" noiocn was Ike brate
no;dad u prom
W. tOooOIl anu pTtl6IlUeU feNela- Vnn ,