St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-30


finds its peculiar sphere. and its work
cannot be overestimated. No one must
hoodwink his intellect, play tricks with
his intelligence or fall into that inSin-
cere habit of mind which allows him to
| Juggle with words and use them in one
sense when everybody thinks he is
using them in another Let each one
| keep his intellect honest, clear and
| bright as star. In all questions that
can be solved by Investigation, in all
questions that depend upon evidence.
| he must keep his reason at the very
front. And yet, say. that to examine
witnesses is not to examine Christianity
itself; to test historic statement is not
| appeal to the life. They must be
tested by practice. To live for one
| single day-nay, for an hour-in
the atmosphere of its beauty and ten
derness; to feel the thrill of love for our
brother; to deal justly with our neigh
Dor. even at the cost of personal sac
rifiee; to be patient with the ignorant
and erring; to feel that around our
strange, diseordant, disappointed lives,
there is the encircljng care of power
that is wise and living; that is, bringing
harmony out of our discords and good
out of our evil; this is to have tested
Christianity and found it not wanting!
We should search for truth by obedi-
ence to Gods laws as we find them in
the universe and in ourselves. HE
learned obedience" we are told, shy
the things which he suffered" Every
man must go through the process for
himself. The truth that touches
life can only be learned by
living. Truth is only ours when
we have appropriated it, have
in some measure lived it. The demand
is made, prove US your faith; give us
your arguments" 1t is easier to argue
tn an to build character. Be just, love
mercy, seek righteousness, and you
shall know of the doctrine. To him
who wills to obey the laws will be re-
vealed. The truth that you do know
must be lived before other truth can be
learned. In all this universe there are
DO favOriteS OF heaven who can find the
truth that they need save by obedience
to the laws that they know.
HAS RELIGION DECLINED?
Rev. FL. NJ. Simmons Answers the
Question in the Negative.
Rev. 81. M. Simmons preached at the
First Unitarian church on the question
whether religion has declined as is so
often asserted. He said it seemed so at
first thought. ChristenGom is no longer
under the control of the church. Its
energies and institutions have largely
become SeculariZed. CruSadeS have
given place to commerce. mOnaSteriPS to
manufactures-and the province that
was once rearing cathedral1 is to-day
building a railroad. Schools were long
taught by the clergy alOne-but are how
often accused by them as irreligious.
Literature was long from the pens of
priests alone; but John Burroughs re-
Gently said that probably fOur-fifths of
the leading writers in England, and
still more on the continent, are now
what would be called skeptics. In
CathC lie lands the churches are seldom
crowded as once; and in the capital of
the very land where Professionalism
arose, it is said that on an ordinary Sun
day hardly two per cent of the popula-
ton are at chuIch. And in church the
sacraments have lost much of their Old
Importance, and many of the old doc
trineS are ignored, or even denied. Sa-
tan. eternal punishment, the fall of
man. are seldom preached; and the
doctrines of the atOnement and fOf God
are preached only with great change of
meaning.
But IS this decline of real religion?
Not if religion mean ito do justly and
love mercy and walk humbly with God"
as the prophet said. Whatever has de-
clined, these things have been advanc-
ing. Justice has advanced, and hosts
OF wrongs which were common when
the church was supreme have been
abolished. Mercy has advanced, and
cruelties which were practiced by the
church itself have become almost in
credible. And the abolition of these
evils has not only attended the decline
of the power of the church. but often
been led by the skepticS themselves; and
Lecky SAYS that Voltaire did
more to destroy the spirit of
persecution than any other of
the sons of men. Humility has
advanced, and the agnostics to-day show
far more of it than did the theOlOgians
who claimed to know the divine plans
so intimately. To walk humbly with
God" has hardly been one of the virtues
of theologians. Nor was the belief in
Satan so comforting or so civiliZing that
the doctrines of depravity and eternal
punishment so consOling to man, nor so
honorable to God, that we need mourn
their departure. And the doctrine of
God has changed only for the better,
and religion is rising to the conception
of Deity having his holy land in every
land, His altar in every noble soul, and
His sacraments in every deed of justice
and love.
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