The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-18

and on the other hand, it is trying to
resist the attacks of the skepticism and
the infidelity that it has not only made
possible, but actually called forth, and
even made necessary in the interests
of truth. The latest and the most
noted phase Of this is the controversy
between the Rev. DR.. Field and Col.
Ingersol, in the North american Reuie,o.
The battle-ground is, naturally enough,
that of modern doubt and religious
dogmatism. On this disputed field,
the clergyman challenged the lawyer;
and here these champions met and
fought, not over such little and indffer-
ent questions as the mode Of baptism,
or apostolic SUGGESTIONS; not these, but
upon the great questions of theism and
eschatology; of God, and the life or
death to come. The Presbyterian
Church could hardly have found a
stronger man than Dr. Field; and he
chose his own positions and method of
attack, and doubtless supposed he
would win an easy victory.
In such debate our sympathies are
naturally more on the side of the man
of faith, and would be wholly so, if we
could feel that he was really on the
side Of truth; of the truth as it is; and
not what he had been Taught to believe
was true. And the one thing that i'm
presses us in reading the debate is, the
disadvantage at which he was placed
by reason of the system Of theology to
which he was committed. Clad in the
armor of the old theology, and as the
champion of the Christian religion, DR..
Field went forth to fight the greatest
skeptic of our country. He reasoned
as well as one could from his stand
point; but his positions being weak
and faulty, were open to doubt, and
denial; and against some of them Col.
Ingersol could and does oppose the
reason and the conscience of mankind.
Not against what DR.. Field said, for
he was careful not to bring out these
dark doctrines; but Col. Ingersol knew
they were there-were part of the
system for which this champion stood;
and hence he drove him back upon his
own defences; and with terrible effect,
turned upon him his own guns.
You and 1 are sorry that Col. Inger-
sol has ever felt called upon to attack
the Christian religion; and yet it is not,
except in negative way, Christianity
as such, that he attacks; but Latin
lied conception of Christianity. And
our regrets can hardly be less, to see
an able and good man driven into
corner and beaten down before the
world, in trying to defend with weap-
ons cast 400 years ago, doctrines that
never should have had place in the
faith Of mankind. And even in those
great questions that are not special,
but belong to the universal in religion,
DR.. Field was at a disadvantage by
reason of his standpoint.
A belief in God is fundamental to all
religion-to religion, as such; but even
here, the conception one forms of God,
has much to do with the strength or
or weakness of his position. When it
was thought this little earth was the
center of the universe, and that the
sun was little ball Of light passing
around it, it was not great effort for
the mind to conceive of God who had
made it, and who dwelt above the sky;
and that every thing was made and ar
ranged in "a mechanical way by this
larger and more powerful being. But
all that is gone now; the solid sky has
dissolved into infinite space, the sun
has become more than million times
larger than the earth, and the stars
have reeeded into the awful and meas.
ureless depths, and have become CEN
tiers of vast systems. so that instead of
one sun, we have millions Of suns, and
many of them of incalculable size.
Astronomers tell us that Sirius, or the
dog star, is two hundred times larger
than our sun; the nearest fixed star is
twenty million million miles distant;
and the next but one, is forty million
million miles away. The little nebu
lous spot in the constellation Hercules,
is found under the most powerful glass
to be a vast stellar system of some
fourteen thousand suns.
Such amazing facts as these make it
very difficult, if not impossible, to con-
ceive of God outside of nature, max
ing and ruling all these countless suns
and systems. But that is the difficulty
of the Latin theology; and it is this
conception that is staggering the belief
of our age in the existence of God.
But it is not difficult to believe in the
order Of the universe, and in the exist
ence and continuity of law, for these
facts are forever present. Nor is it
difficult to believe in life, and reason,
and justice, and love; for these are
known to, and in ourselves. Reason
knows reason, right knows right, and
love knows love. And in knowing
these laws, and powers, and principles,
and qualities, one begins to know God;
not a distant, outside God, but God in