St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-10

Christ TO show that the undogmatic
character of the early churches is con-
coded by everybody who has right to
an opinion, 1 quote from John Henry
Newman, the ablest Roman Catholic in
England, and perhaps in the world:
while the line of tradition, drawn out
as it was to the distance of two CEN
turtles from the apostles, had at length
become of too frail a texture to resist
( the touch of subtle and ill~directed rea-
S0n, the church was naturally unwilling
to have recourse to the novel though
necessary measure of imposing an
authoritative creed upon those whom it
invested with the Office of teaching. If
avow my belief that freedom from
symbols and articles is abstract
eddy the highest state of Christian
communion and the peculiar priv
itege of the primitive church,
it, is not from any tenderness
toward that proud impatienee of con-
troll in which many exuit as in a
virtue" Though the early church was
thus apparently incoherent, it was yet
continually aggressive, and it was as
successful as it was forcefuI. 1t was
precisely while this was it's character
that it won its most conspicuous victor
les and gained such numbers and such
force.
The early heretics were the earliest
dogma makers. 1t was because of the
eXaltatiOn of mere speculative doctrines
thrust upon the church by men proud
and vain in their intellectual power that
the church felt itself forced.aS Cardinal
Newman shows US, to build up authori-
tative and uniform dOgmatic State
mentS. The historian of the future will
agree that this was the conspicuous
blunder of the early Christian fathers.
What havoc has been wrought in the
souls and bodies and fortunes of men by
THE CARPENTER cREEDs
constructed as a universal platform by
the force of imperial councils you know
full well, and | need not detain you this
mo rning with any further enlargement.
In spite of all the evil which has been
wrought by the means of what is known
as dogmatic theology, every conserva-
tive man will seek to he instructed and
helped to his conclusions bv all the in
tellectual struggles of the past. The
history of Christian thought is valua-
bic means of mental and spiritual dsci-
pline. In spite of debaie, and blood,
and hate, there has been a steady cur
rent, an abiding faith throughout all
the Christian centuries-a faith not con-
fined to this or to that form of words,
but which has preserved the great fun
damental truths through all genera
tions. The doctrines which have made
intellectual mastery through all ages,
needing no artificial sanctions, are those
of God. Immortality, sin, salvation and
retribution. These thoughts are the
figures in the holy of holes of the uni
versal Christian faith.
How necessary it is that these and all
other truths shall take form and find ey-
preston through the individual, Lowell
has shown in his Legend of Ambrose"
The Roman Catholic has self-con-
sstent system when he asserts a di-
vinely constituted and immortal church
corporation with an inspired and infal-
lible teaching power. | believe that
the Roman Catholic is wholly wrong,
but itseems to me that there is no log
zeal stopping place between his posi-
ton, with all that it involves, and that
absolute freedom Of faith which regards
the churches as voluntary associations,
bound together by desire to be good
and to do good. with SteadfaSt loyalty
to the leadership of Jesus Christ.