New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-04-29

beasts OF the forest are mne; and so arc the cattle
upon a Thousand hills . III be hungry
win not tell thee for tbs whole world IS NINE and
all that is therein ofer unto
God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows
unto the Most Highest, and cali upon Me I'm the time
Of trouble; will hear thee and thou shalt praise
| Me- Let me try my hand at countcrIllustration-
II tho Infinite IS to make demand upon the finite,
by parity of reasoning the great and strong should
scarcely mako them on the weak and small Why
then should the father mako demands Of love,
obedience and sacrifice from his young childi Is
there not flavor Of the sun and gow-worm here
But every man does so mako them, II he Is man OF
sense and feeling; and he makes them for the sake
and in the interest Of the himself, whose nature
expanding IN the warmth Of affection and pious care,
requires, by inward law to return as well as to
receive And so God asks Of US, in order that what
we give to Bin may be far more our own than It ever
unless first rendered up Him, TO become part Of
what the gospel calls our treasure in heaven
why's, it does not hesitate to ask for them.
should could an and Ts' vs wT shoa Gs
He all alike here, and in another world make an
rem why should o. y0Sr Goa v a ss his
mics Why should lie allow the honest, the loving,
| the noble TO perish at the stahef'
| The upholders Of belief or OF revelation from
| Claudian down to Cardinal Newman (see the very
remarkable passage Of the Apologize pro vita sua'
PIP. 376-76), cannot and do not seek to deny that
methods OF divine government as they are exhibited
by experience, present TO many ard varied moral
problems insouble by our understanding. Thoir cx-
istence may not and should not be dissembled. But
neither should they be exaggerated. Now exaggera-
ton BY mere suggestion is the fault the glarng fault,
Of these queries One who had knowledge OF
mundane affairs beyond the conception they insinuato
would assume that rule, evil has the upper hand
In the management of the world Is this the grave
philosophical conclusion Of careful observer, or is 1t
crude, hasty and careless overstatementl
It's not difficult to conceive how, In times Of sad
ness and Of storm, when the suffering soul dis
Germ no light at any point Of the horizon, place is
found for such idea Of life 1t is Of course, OPP
posed the Apostolic declaration that goodness hath
the promise of the Life that now is, but AM not to
expect such declaration to be accepted as current
coin, even Of the meanest value, by the author Of
the Reply Yet will offer two observations founded
on experience in support of it, ono taken from a
limited another from larger and more open sphere.
John Wesley, in the full prime Of his mission, warned
the converts whom he was making among English
laborers Of spiritual danger that lay far ahead 1t
that becoming cody, they would become CAREFUL
and, becoming careful, they would become wealthy.
1t was Just and sober forecast and II represented
with truth the general rule OF life, although It be q
rule perpexed with exceptions But, II this be too
narrow a sphere Of observation, let us take wider
one, the widest Of all 1t is comprised IN the brisf
statement that Chrstendom rules the world and rules
1t, perhaps 1t should be added, by the possession Of
vast surplus of material we'll moral force There
fore tho assertions carried by implication in the
queries OF the Reply which general are because
general untrue, although they might have been true
within those prudent limitations which the method
Of this Reply appears especially to eschew
Taking then, these challenges they ought to have
been given, admit that great believers, who have
been also great masters Of wisdom and knowledge arc
Tot able 10 explain the inequalities Of adjustment
between human beings and the conditions in which
they have been set down 10 work out their destiny
The climax of these inequalities is perhaps to be
found IN the fact that whereas rational belief viewed
at large POUNDS the Providental government OF the
world upon the hypothesis Of free agency, there are
so many cases in which the overbeaIfng mastery OF
circumstance appears TO reduce It TO extinction or
paralysis Now, in one sense, without doubt, these
difficulties are matter for legitimate and necessary
cognzance. 1t is duty incumbent upon us respect
iveIy according TO our means and opportunities, to
decide for ourselves, by the use Of the faculty OF
given US, the great questions OF natural and
revealed religion They are to be decided according
TO the evidence; and II cannot trim the evidence
into a consistent whole, then according to the
balance Of the evidence. We not en-
titled, either for or against belief, to set up
in this province any rule Of investfga-
ton except such as common sense teaches us TO use
so in considering the basis Of belief we are bound to
look at the evidence as whole We have no right 10
conflicting elements, either in the sphere in the
other What guides us sufficiently in matters OF COM
mon practice has the very same authority to guide
in matters Of speculation properly, perhaps, 10
DO called the practice of the soul If the evidence In
tic aggregate shows the being Of moral Governor Oh
the world with the force would suffice TO es
tabsh an obligation TO act in matter OF common
no right to demand as condition previous that ali oc-
way. Our demands for evidence must be limited by
fta nf he
Of the make IL probable that finite being,
with a finite place in comprehensive scheme devised
able either 10 embrace within HIS view, or rightly TO
al the Ioty ,s and the aims tsa On may nay
contrary, demand so unreasonable deserves TO be
net with the scornful challenge Of Dante:
Or tn chi sci, che vuo sedere scrsnns
esn s ysdSs ca co1 gns u %s :p %Sl'
Undoubtedly a great deal here depends upon the
question whether, and In what degree, knowledge
4 limited And here the Reply seems ems to be by no
IT'S contempt for authority the Reply seems TO cut on
from us all knowledge that Is not at first hand but
inowiedgo Of ali possible KINDS Of things will taEs
an instance all the easier to deal with because It Is out
side the Immediate sphere of controversy In one OF
those pieces of fine writing with which the. Reply
abounds, It is determined obiter by backhanded
stroke that Shakespeare is "by far the greatest Of the
human race do not feel entitled assert that no
IS not but how vast and complex question Is here
writer Of the Reply really weighed the force, and
measured the sweep of his own word.i Whether
very few other names which might be placed in
competition with bis, is question which has not yet
determined by the general deliberate judgment
of ettered mankind But behind II lies another Ques
tion, inexpresslby difficult except for the Reply, to
solve That question s what Is the relation Of human
genius to human greatness9 Is genius the sole con-
sttutive clement Of greatness, or with what other
clements, and in what relations to them IS It
bned Is every great in proportion to his genius
Was Goldsmith Sheridan, or was Burns, or was
Byron, or was Goethe, was Napoleon, was Alci-
blades. smaller and was Johnson. or was Howard,
or Washington. was Phocton or LcOnidas no
greater than in proportion TO his genius properly so
called? How are we 10 find a common measure again,
for different kinds of greatness how weigh, for
ample. Dante against Julius Caesar1 And am
speaking OF greatness properly called. not OF good
ness properly so called We might seem 10 be dealing
with a writer whose contempt for authority in general
Is fully balanced perhaps outweghed, by his respect
for authority In particular.