The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-05-27
rHE CHRISTIAN IDEA OF BENEvo1ENcE.

it that is worthy of respect, and can not
long respect itself. Benevolence is
good thing. But benevolence simply
for the sake of being benevolent is not
good thing. To administer aid so as to
impair manhood is to sin against God.
To bestow charity in a way to cripple
energy, and to destroy the desire to
throw off the charity, is crime against
human nature. To dot this land or
any land with mission churches, which
have no prompting and no ambition to
be anything else, and which are con.
tent to have their houses of worship
built for them, their preachers provided
and supported for them, all the ex-
penses of religion paid for them, and
the advantages of education supplied
to their children without charge,
would be to curse the land in the name
of Christian charity and Christian mis-
sions.-E Examiner (BdptisO.
THE MERIDIAN GLORY COMING.
Christianity is rolling on, and it is CO.
ing to warm all nations, and all nations
are gong to bask in its light. Men may
shut the window blinds so they cannot
see it, or they may smoke the pipe of
apcSu'dG1Oh I'LL VA bACy oLO 5uoOOHCd I'LL
der Their own vapOring; but the Lord
God is sun! This white light of the
gospel. made up of all the beautiful
colors of earth and heaven-violet
plucked from amid the spring grass and
the indigo of the southern jungles, and
the blue of the skies, and the green of
the foliage. and the yellow of the
autumnal woods, and the orange of the
southern groves, and the red of the sun
sets. All the bean ties of earth and
heaven brought out by this spiritual
spectrum. Great Britain is going to
take all Europe for God. The United
States are going to take all America for
God. Both of them together will take
ali Asia for God. All three of them will
take Africa for God.-T. De Wit Tai
mage.
WOMEN AND TIE METHODIST CHURCH.
After q week of skirmishing, the
Methodist congress settled down to
business without the women delegates
There was an air of gloom upon many
of the lay and reverend faces, which the
variable weather alone could not eX-
plain. The struggle has evidently left
some heartburnings behind. Among
the lay delegates the division OF senti-
ment on the woman question is almost
equal, and the change of one lay vote
would have left the women in possession
of the seats TO which they had been
elected. The ministers are more con-
sentative, as shown by the majority
against female representation. Under
Methodist law the concurrence of both
To- 10
CURED to carry in the affirmative q
disputed question of church ad
mtnistration, and tie vote on the
defeated the motion to exclude the
hitting the women who have to go
through much the same process es the
adoption of an amendment TO the Con-
stitution of the United States. The
proposition will have to be accepted by
two-thirds of the annual conferences.
snd, if 30 accepted, will then be sub
mittsd to the next general conference
ia 1892. If adopted then by the general
conference of course no representatives
would be elected under the constitution
so amended for an earlier date than the
general conference IN 1896. This is a
decreasing and tedious prospect FOR the
women, who had hoped to rarry their
point by one brilliant coup on the
ground that they were already eligible
ander the constitution of the church.
The woman question, therefore, may
be regarded as disposed of 50 far as this
general conference is commemorative
New York World.
THROUGH DOUBT To FAITH.
Religion involves the deepest interest
of humanity. This explains the tenacity
of religious faith, the zeal with which
it is defended, and the agony of heart
when the present cOnsolation and fu-
ture hopes of religion are lost. The
universally. depth, and earnestness of
spiritual beliefs testify to the religious
character of the soul. In proportion
as the spirit is conscious of itself it
recognizes religion as its rest at home.
y Doubt may be permanent state
or merely method. AS the latter it
is a journey toward faith. Doubt is
agitation, unrest, impulse, agony; it Is
q painful problem demanding solution
1t IS critical. and is apt to forget that
what is;merely critical can not have the
productiveness OF life. Into
doubt and through doubt, for the sake
of attaining faith, is a process through
which many are called 10 pass. Doubt
may thus be the means of purifying
and strengthening faith. 1t is prun-
ing knife, not living germ. Faith
can not spring from it, just as mere
negation never can be the source OF
Doubt is a purifier, but
that which is to be purified by the fire
must continue in the heat, otherwise
there will be consumption, not puri-
6cation. Doubt as method
is thus inquiry, discipline, a process to-
ward faith. Those who make a mere
method the substance treat the journey
as if it were the destination itself.
doubt is mere affectation and
vanity, and should be placed in the
same category with the phylacteries of
the Pharisees. 1t may be born of con
ceit rather than of the requirements of
reason and the need of the spirit.
Earnest, Irresistible doubt has divine
mission in leading to faith OF which
men can give a full account, and which
enables them to help those who are
doomed to pass through struggles to
peace, and through darkness to light.
The prefoundest and strongest souls
NAV have the greatest conflicts. The