The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-06-17

which marvellous eontauity and uni.
versatility cotAd raise It. was not in-
peached by the questioning mind of the
thirteenth century. The scientific rev.
olution, which opened to us the anti
podes and the solar Bystern, did not
shake it. The more subtle danger Of
the Renaissance were dangers for
Christianity as whsle. but not to this
great element Of Christianity as
|a part. And when the terrible
struggle of the Reformation stirred
every coarse huMan passion as veil
as every fond religious interest inte
fury, even then the Nioehe belief, as
Mohler, in his Symbolic" has SO well
observed, sat unGistuYbed in region
elevated above the controversies OF the
times; whiNh only teschsd it at points
so exceptional, and comparatively SO
obscure, as not appTeciably 10 qualify
its majestic authority. A Christianity
without Christ Is no Christianity; azd
a Christ not divlae is eae other
than the Christ on when the
souls OF Christians have habisaally fed
The Christian type J. tia
product and the property OF the
Christian scheme. No, says TIE OBJ
jecsor, the improvements whish we Wiz
ness are the offspring Of civilization. Is
might be a sufficient answer 30 PeiRt
out thai the civilatioE before a:'s
AROUND us is @ Christina Civilizations.
What civilization csEld q vi hsEt
Christianity fer tie greatest races 81
mankind, we know already. PkiISso-
PHI and art, creative geEius and Rras-
tical energy. had their taFn bsie.e sae
Il Nd or ar
1 do not say that the gges! Greek and
Roman ages lost - perhaps, evea
they improved - the ethics OF
seunS and tauns, in the interests OF the
leisured and favored classes OF society,
as compared with what those ethics
had benin archaic times, But they
lost the hold which some earlier races
within their sphere had had OF the
future life. They degraded, and THAT
immeasuIabiy, the position of woman.
They effaced from the world the
law of purity. They even carried
indulgence to q worse thaa
bsstial typs; and they gIoried in
the achievement. Duty and religion. in
| the governing classes and the governiRs
places, were absolutely torn asuuder
and self will and self-wcrship we're es-
| tablished as the unQuestionea rule CT
life. 1t is yet mere important to observe
that the very qualities which are eoEA-
mended in the Beaiitudes, and else
| where in the Sermon On the Mount
and which from the base of the Gharac-
ter specifically Christian, were for the
| Geek and Roman mind the object Of
contempt. While the older re-
| hgions made free use of prodigy and
portent, they employed these lustra-
ments for political rather than moral
purposes; and it May be doubted
whether the sum total of such acsiGn
| tended to raise the standard of life and
thought. The genera upshot was that the
individual soul felt itself very far from
God. Our bedimmed eye could act per-
ceiVe HIS parity; and oar puny reach
could not fine touch OF his vaS.asss. BY
the scheme of redemption this sense OF
distance was removed. The divine per
fechons were reflected through tie
medium of a perfect humanity; and
were thus made near, familiar and liable
10 love. The great, all pervading Law
Of human sympathy became directly
available for religion, and IN linking as
, to the diYiAe humanity, linked as by
! the same act TO God. And this les for
-rars and exceptional souls alone. bat
| for the Common order of mankind
| The direcs csntact, the interior personal
communion of the individual with God
| was re-established; for human facial
ties, in their normal action, could now
appreciate and approach to what had
| pl evioNsly been inappreciable and TN
approachable. Who is this ia t
cometh from Edonp with dyed garments
| from Bo5rah? Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, and thv gar
ments like him thss treade b In the
wlne-fat7" There has come upon the
scene the figure Of a Redeemer, human
and divine. Let it be granted that
the Incarnation is a marvel wholly
beyond our reach, and that the miracle
of the resurrection to-day gives
serious trouble to fsstidIons intelleets.
But The difficulties Of baffled under
standing, living everywhere around Us
in daily experience, are TO be expected
from its limitations; not so the shocks
encountered by "a the moral sense.
Even If the Christian scheme
slightly heightened the immeasura bic
catalogue Of the first, this is duss In the
balance compared with the relief, it
furnishes to the secord. in sHpplyirg
the most powerful and remedial agency
ever known. in teaching how pain may
be made a helper, and evil trans
muted into good; and in opening
clearly the vision of another world
In which we are taught to LOOK
for yet larger ceunsels Of the Al
mighty wisdom. To lake away, then,
the agency so benifcent, which has so
softened and reduced the moral prob
lens that lie thickly spread sreund us,
and to leave US face to face with them
in ali their original rigop, is to enhance
and not to mitigate the difficulties OF
belIef.-Rigbt Hon. Wpe. Is. Gladstone,
in the Nineteenth Century for Asr.
THE MATTER WITH 1NGERsoL1.
When this distinguished anti-divina
lately saw fit to enter the lists against
few we'll known representatives OF
Christianity, it is likely he foTesaw
that the applause which free lancss
every where receive was in store tor
| him. Ingersoll loves the gaud and
glitter of rhetoric; the Vaccinations of q
well.rounded period in which an spi-
gram turks are quite Irresistible, and
when he has drawn from his well-cev-
cred culver a neatly -feathersd arrow
with diamond tip; aud launches ii
against an enemy, he loves to listen to
| tho ,upD0 Of tho silver how thar falln1ys