St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-26

stand. Nor can we so explain the best
things done by men and women. 1t
does not explain the girl who crept over
the trestle bridge in the binding night
storm to flag an express train hurrylng
on to it's doom. But even if herOiSm
and self sacrifice were accounted for,
there is still an unexplained remainder.
We have not accounted for the TACT that
the world is so made that the moral
is at length the prudent. We do not say
how it is that out of the fierce
RIVALRY OF TOOTH AND CLAW,
the world of life was lifted up to self
control. We have not accounted for the
fact that sainthood, seen here and there
amid the greed of human history. is now
shown to be the goal of power, the as
piration of the ages. Who evolved
mercy out of the tigers tooth? By what
process has brute force been trans
formed to reason and humbled to gen
tleness? 1t is plain at length that the
structure of the world is the true basis
of the doctrine of opinion, law, relation,
ship, advantage. The life OF the world
that life which manifeStS itself as
thought, feeling, action-is essentially
moral. Wickedness is defeat and death,
because the world is made so. Morals
are swallowed up of power, and power
is lost in the being of God. If religion
be the relation of God to man, or even
of man to the idea of God, it can be seen
how true it is that the foundation of
morals is divine
MORALITY Is THE LIKELIHOOD
of the individual and of society. AS the
heart may drive the blood in the body
of a man, he being ignorant or unthInk-
ing, so this divine force may visit those
in ignorance or doubt. All morality
and goodness in the undevout are simply
unconscious religion Christian expert
ence is the science of it and its help.
There are some processes so import
ant to the life of man that they are not
left to the immediate action of his will.
Such are nervous action, digestion, and
the like. Man cannot be trusted with
them. In like manner the moral
life of man is fundamental to his
well-being that its guidance is not left
to human action. The conscience is the
self-acting moral mechanism in man. AS
nature is made for goodness, SO the con-
stitution of man is framed for nature.
Thus the Eternal One has abiding wit
ness in every man. So the chiefest BIZ
BILE is in human hearts. The idea of
right is the perpetual treasure of the
human reason; the impulse of right is
the undercurrent of every soul. Thus
it was in the old Hebrew time, that
without king, every man did that
which was right in his own eyes. Thus
it is that the morality of nature finds
response in the being of man. But
since it is more important that men
should choose the right than that men
should do the right, conscience may
urge, she cannot compel. Since the
Judgment of
MAN IS FALLIBLE,
conscience may work with false ma
teriaI, but she never makes the mis-
take of advising what the soul sees to
be wrong. She is true witness. Con-
science is natures authentic acknowl-
edgement that her end is in God.
The work of religion is to quicken the
will and set man free to follow his
moral instincts. Its Office is to instruct
the Judgment that we may approach
the absolute right. This history Of re-
ligion by precepts and through BIZ
ography furnishes law and precedent.
Natural religion is not theory about
God; it is the recognition of the moral
forces at work in man. Revealed re-
ligion is the self-consciousness of those
forces through the divine voice and
through human recognition.
Some teachings of repentance and
atonement have tended to strange
darkening of the truth that morality is
the offspring of religion. How can men
be made caref..l when they are taught
that the soul may be the band of every
sin upon the street, and at a tear wipe
out the past, and hasten to the white
arms of Christ? Mercy must not
dig away the foundation of con-
duct. Salvation must not poison the
sources of character, No life is too
long, no powers too great, that there
should be surplusage OF strength for
faithfulness to God and loyalty to our
selves. Pardon may bid us begin again,
comfort may be brought to sinful
hearts, and the way of peace be foun.
But neither is the cross of Christ rich
enough, nor the throne of God strong
enough to make up for the eternal
losses which flow from years spent i'll
cir