St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-27

III SllliO pOUCllC1s LII 10 ulUouiy q llluttOl
ofdates. When COLUMBUS was over
this way, 400 years before the Chicago
fair, he saw very few of the ancestors
of the present population. But the old
stock should keep its end well up, if
possible.
ROMANCE OF THE INFINITE.
The romantic element in mans nature
extends to his religious faith. PLATO
reasoned well. yet bis philosophy wasia
dream ofidealism, and the stern tyranny
Of facts was continually knocking the
bottom outof it. 1t has been more or less
so with every form of human creed
that has been invented since the world
began. Men are constantly inyenting
creeds of faith, systems of religion and
schools of morality but they have come
and gone, as shifting and changing as
the sands in the bed of the eyer-foWing
river. The vain Speculations of a
thousand philosophic sects have per-
ished; the founders of as many re-
liglons are forgotten; the learned wran-
glers of the schools pass away, leaving
no useful monument of their existence.
The SOundnesS of their moral pre-
cepts have perpetuated the teachings
of MOSES and of CHRIsTand of BUDDHA,
but all the others have faded from mem
DRY except PLATO. His philosophy
survives. not because of its practical
value, OF even of its tangibility, but
simply because of the beauty of ideas
in which PLATO reveled and which APP
peal SO touehingly to the romantic ele-
ment in human nature. There is no
form of romance so captivating to NOR
tails as the romance OF the infinite.
Hence we are prepared to see nj.
RENAN establish a religious creed
which will possess all element of per-
petuity. In seEse he is the worthy
successor of PLATO, and will probably
share his destiny.
M. REMAIN has had varied religious
experience. Once theological student
and an orthodox believer, afterwards
phllosophic opponent of Christianity,
and now believer in Christ as the true
Messiah, and the expounder of new
doctrine Of Christianity, he revels in
this fairyland of his own creation. His
is an idyilic form of Christianity, with
the guileleSS Galllean the central figure,
and from which every particle of the
marvellous is eliminated. REMAINS faith
took form on his visit to Palestine.
When he went there his religious faith
was dead, his heart was empty, and no
humanitarian creed could fill it. He
went up from Jerusalem to one of the
hills overlooking the sacred city, and as
he sat there in meditation he saw, as it
were, a vision of primitive Christianity,
which has found expression in the Divine
Pastoral that has linked his name
with fame. Behind the actual Galilee
spread before him, desecrated and desc
lated by lslamiSm, he caught vision of
the Bible country of the olden times,
with its fields, its farms, its gardens. its
fruits and flowers, its lakes and rivers
scene as delicious as a terrestrial para
disc. Inspired by the picture brought
to mind, there came an intellectual de-
velopment which looked beyond and
behind the Christianity of dogmas, of
schools. of sects, withered by the cen
turtles of discussion and stained by the
blood of rivalry. He saw in its place,
as he describes it, "a Messiah at the
marriage supper, the ceurtesan and
the good ZACCHEUS pass by like pro-
cession of bridesmaids" absolute faith
is Incompatible with truthful his
tory, but love can exist without
faith7 is the fundamental principle of
the KEENAN, theology. In simpler form
it may be formulated: 1T is possible to
be plous without believing" God is
the idea of perfection which exists in
the worshiper'S mind, and the only
worship which He requires is to seek
truth and do good. His theology diff
fers from the orthodox in that he re-
CARDS divinity as an attribute and not
a substance. 1.-The divine is the product
| of the human conscience" Naturally
"a divinity SO abstract, so ideal, cannot
| tolerate worship less ideal than itself;
consequently NJ. REMAIN refuses to toll
crate prayer except as name for medi
| tatlop.
Another prominent feature in Re-
| MANS romance of the infinite' is the
4 idea of the distinction, which, by the
| way, is deep and real, between our acts
and the motives from which they pro-
coed. He holds that good may be done
| by force of habit, but cannot be con
ceived except by effort; that the effort
alone is important because its moral
effect is eternal; consequently that Our
moral worth is not to be estimated by
our acts. but by cur thoughts.
| EDoUARD ROD objects to REMAINS
theology, as well as to his morality, be-
cause they are neither systematic nor
practical; yet he admits that, despite
its want of system, his morality is lofty,
independent and profound. The esti-
mate which posterity will form of Re-
NAN and his jdyllic theology will rise
and fall with the varying fortunes of
the war which is being waged between
the ideal and the real. AS long as
humanity aspires to conquer the Infinite
| RENAN will have followers.