The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-10-23
SKEPTiCiSM AND LIFE.

any DiMCuVy OF OnDelleI-A DOctrln0
That Has Nothing to Commend It
That Which Can Alone Satisfy the Crav.
ings OF the Soul. - - A.t
Is there any thing in skepticism to
commend it. to our acceptancep Sure
", no! See how it treats the disease
OF the human soul! 1t seeks to cure
its malady by denying the existence
of any malady within it! 1t regards
the fears of the soul as humanity, and
its convictions as superstitious. But
what satisfaction can that givep Can
you appease the hunger of man by
trying to reason him into the belief
that there is no necessity for his
hunger? Will he not turn angrily
away from you. saying: Necessity
or not, l am hungry. and argument
will not suffice for breadP" Will you
quench the thirst OF the exhausted
traveller by trying to persuade him
that it is the merest superstition. to
suppose that water can remove the crav-
ing which he thinks he feels? Or would
you be surprised it,, as you spoke to
him in that fashion, he were to heap
anathemas upon your head for mock
ing his misery with your sneersp Yet
to attempt to take such a course with
hungry or thirsty man would not be
more unsatisfactory than is the an
swer given by skepticism to the cray
ings Of the human heart. It. seeks to
remove the longings Of the soul by
denying their existence, or by sitting
their expression. Its creed is virtually
denial of every thing; it says 'thatwe
know only what We see, and scarcely
that; and as for what is unseen, there
is no need to disturb ourselves about
that; and so it is like q cruel mother
who tries to make her child forget its
hunger by putting it to sleep. thereby
only postponing and intensifying
the evil. But it does not al
why's ssucceed seven In ,putting the
soul to sleep, and the very
efforts made by those who accept it to
suppress the nature that Is within
them, attest that they are doing vio-
lence to the deepest and truest intui-
tions Of their hearts. Take. for in
stance. the following words of one of
this class: ITO relinquish our per-
sonal hopes, and to take instead of
them an abstract conception thin as
air, Is trial to our constituted in
stincts harder than any which has yet
been undergone, and an anguish from
which it is impossible that the soul
should not shrink" Surely in such a
case the moral instincts of man are
truer than his intellectual creed, and
the existence Of such inward protests
in his own soul ought to keep him
from accepting thin abstraction,
instead of the living God. 1t is not
80 easy to be an unbeliever, after,
all! One must do violence to
his own nature before he can
believe that there is no God and no
hereafter. Perhaps no one ever sue
ceeded so thoroughly in beating down
all inward obstacles to the acceptance
of materialism as did Harriet Mar
tineau; and yet. even as we perused
those last letters of hers, in which she
flaunts her infidelity before the eyes
Of her mental mesmerizer, we felt that
her words are like the whistling of the
schoolboy as he runs through the
graveyard at the dead of night. and
are designed Ito keep the courage up"
At any rate, they are as different in
the matter of restfulness from her
own former meditations in the
sick.rOom as starless midnight
is from peaceful. hopeful
dawn. The soul will always be true
to itself whenever it is allowed to as.
sert its prerogative. 1t will not accept
a scorpion for bread. 1t will not be
Knocked with a serpent when it asks
fish. One must choke back its
strongest longings, and tramplo on its
most tender expostulatlons, before he
can get himself to say there Is no God.
no Heaven. no hereafter, no sin, and
no need Of salvation. And so, as l
have said. it is not so easy to be
skeptic, after all. But how much bet
ter than all this. how much safer. how
much more philosophical it is to meet
the souls hunger with the bread which
God has provided. and its thirst with
the water which God has furnished in
Jesus Christ! No doubt there are
difficulties connected with revelation.
None but fool would deny that; but
even suppose that revelation. with its
Saviour and its gospel. were entirely
swept away. the very same difficulties
would remain. while we should be de-
prived Of the undoubted advantages
which revelation brings The Difficult
ties which arise out of revelation are
precisely those which have already
emerged in philosophy, and you do not
get rid Of them by tossing the Bible
away. No! you only get rid of the
Bible remedy for human sin.-Rev. DR..
w. NJ Taylor.