St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-11-19

take care Of itself if the company is
high-minded, pure and good. Another
development of this great movement is
embodied in the squire. Squire Wend-
over was literary man, who was all
head and no heart-a man who. lived
with his books. In his great library,
with its Oaken walls and bookcases, he
was brought up and lived with the
mighty minds of the past. He disbe-
Geyed in man, God, churches-disbe-
lieved in everything. He believed that
the woro was made up of set of fools,
and that 1t was his business to knock
| the nonsense out of their heads. But
| you must be lenient with the squire; he
| is not responsible for himself. His po-
! siti0n is thoroughly explained when he
| said: II was with Newman in 49,"
! He was q man of strong intellect, and
| lie undertook to kill his human in
| Stincts. The consequence WAS that his
| intellect was strained little too much,
! and he felt there was no Inconsistency
| there. and the mind came down with a
rebound and he threw overheard the
whole thing. Churches are complaining
about Robert Ingersoll. about the harm
he is doing. would like to know if a
! particular church did not produce Rob-
ert IngersOll? Certainly he was brought
up in Christian household, and so
straighted up when young man that it
caused the mind to rebound, and then
the whole thing went overheard. The
conservative churches are to-day doing
that"
After pointing out that they should
be less rigid in their creeds and doe
trines, Mr.. Vail continued: '.Thc last
embodiment is Robert Elsmefe. He
is one Of the thousands of thousands of
men who, i'll this age OF advancement
and these times when science has been
fiOo1ing the world with new light. when
literature has been carried everywhere
by cheap books and papers, when re-
views have opened their pages to the
discussion of this great question. and
hundreds of men who are not attend
ants at churches are reading the works
OF t!eir opponents, who are trying to
solve the questions which beset them.
The first one is the question Of mira
Giles. 1t is fair to ask the mali who
stands in the pulpit if there is such a
thing as the
POSSIBILITY OF A MIRACLE -
If modern science and intelligence
has not overthrown that theory. If a
with the laws of nature, that God
does not rule the world by
law. but III certain sense
capriciously, then ! say miracle is inn
possible. The idea of constant and
continued interference has been done
away with by our present knowledge.
| think that idea is growing with every
body-that reading men have con-
Guided that we have a Father who
sendeth His rain upon the just and the
unjust and lets His sun shine upon
the evil and the good think this age
has Taught that God is impartial"
MI. Vail introduced illustrations of
the marvellous inventions of this age,
such as the telephone, which hundreds
OF years ago would have been regarded
asa miracle. And so in that sense
look at this great question of miracles.
Why may not Christ have done things
by law out of my knowledge, and yet
just as simple when [ come TO under
stand it as the talking of two men by
telephone? When we lift men into the
higher realms where miracles are being
performed around US, we are not to
break ourselves away upon this question
OF miracles. The squire was right in
saying that certain things furnished a
key to an age, and by this key we could
unlock the meaning of whatever pro-
auctions came to us from them: But
no man can take away from the tradi-
tons that may have crept in concerning
the Bible anything more than the eX-
creScenceS. There may be things in the
Second EpiStle of Peter that were tradi-
tional and were put in by the scribeS
WHO made the copy. / think there are.
The book of Revelation is an interpola-
ton and has no right in the New Tesla
ment. 1t has already been found that
S0lomon'S Song has no more right.in the
Bible than the books of the Apocrypha.
1t has also been decided by scholars
that the book of Jonah is parable, and
that the book of job is apocryphal; but
the book of job stands to-day q greater
book than 1t ever stood before. There
may he a barnacle on the ship, but its
timber is as sound as ever. The princi-
pies of Christ-love and human kindness
that element of hope in future life,
belief in the divine presence of God and
the human heart. will ever remain with
men as they ever have"