Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-02

see if they are sound. We must of necessity
take something for granted.
There is no little disturbance in the minds
of good many people in these days on ac-
count of depreciation in the value of
authority. The unprecedented advance
which this generation has made beyond the
positions, material and mental, of any
generation which has lived before us with
the overturning Of old ideas which has nat
urally accompanied such an advance, has
had its logical and inevitable result. 1t has
made us impatient of authority. It has
given US the idea that our grandfathers
were quite dull and stupid people, and that
we ourselves are very wise indeed. 1t has
led us to cast off the traditions and convlc-
tions which we have inherited and to rely
upon our own wits. So many former
things have passed away, so many old
notions have been diseredited, that there is
q general and suspicious questioning of
all things. We are living in the midst Of
an Intellectual revolution. Everything
seems provisional, temporary. and likely to
be taken down Tor the putting of something
newer and better in its place. We cannot,
OF course, get along in world wherein not
everybody is superlatively wise, without au-
thoritv. But we are changing our authori-
ties. New masters sit in the old chair. The
professors have supplanted the saints.
THE CHRISTIAN TRUTH.
Now a perfectly sincere desire to know
the exact truth is an essential qualification
for an honest study of the Christian faith.
If we take the path of research, truth alone
must be the goal. five take the path of rea-
son, truth alone must be the test of every
argument. Ii we take the path of reliance
upon authority, the path which, ,as I have tried
to SHOW, the majority OF us must of neces-
sity take, it is above all things needful that
we choose master in whom we can relu to
teach us truth. That, for US busy people, is
the cnoice of choices.
Whatever authorities this nineteenth GEN.
tury may have set aside, whatever doctors
and theologians it may have consigned to the
dusty top shelves of unread libraries, what
ever it may say of this Christian teacher or
of that, there is one authority who remains
still undiscredited. With all the mental and
spiritual advance of this generation, we are
not yet in advance of him. Ii we are bewil-
dered among many counselors, and want to
turn somewhere to such master as I spoke
OF, whom we can follow, if we are perplexed
by the cries of many dIsputants, who are
proclaiming, "Lo, here is the truth" and
''Lo, there is the truth" and forever contra
dieting one another till we know not what
the truth is; here is one whom we may
take as
THE SUPREME AUTHORITY.
Here is one to whom we may look as the
Master in all that belongs to the domain of
the spiritual; here is the Independent inves-
tigator whose word we may take and trouble
ourselves no more about it; here is one who
knew thousand times more about religious
truth than we are ever likely to know,
though we should read theology till we were
blind, and who saw thousand times farther
into the unseen world than we can ever zee;
here is one who will ease us of the heavy
burdens Of our doubts, and answer our anx-
ious questions, and give us peace.
The difference between the Christian and
the agnostic or the materialist is not, as DR..
WAGE we'll pointed out, difference in
knowledge of the unseen. We are all
equally remote from scientific or mathe-
matical knowledge of God. The difference
is in the attitude in which we and they
stand toward this spiritual Master. He said
that He knew, and we believe Him and ac-
cept what He told US out of His knowledge.
That is faith. The alternative is to decline
to believe Him. Christian faith is reliance
upon the authority of this supreme religious
teacher.
Who this Spiritual Master is, is of course
evident. It is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.
GEORGE HODGES.