Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-14

victions but in those fields of investigation
in which the intellect is competent to weigh
testimony and give Judgment, any pnreI,
emotional proof which should assume L
contradict the evidence of our reason mus
be regarded with uneauivocal distrust
and, quoting the great poet, we can say:
Sure, He that made US with such large dis
course,
Looking before and after, gave US not
That eapability and God-like reason
To fast in us unused
II We were called upon, however. r.
state our intelligent conviction of tn,
motives that underIie all faithful condue
IN all the Christian sects, | should define i
10 be, not belief IN what the schools have
taught mankind as to the person and in,
fuenee OF Christ, but a spontaneous an
preparation of tie essential truths HI
taught, the solidar ~ Of man, which di
visions OF race or language or estate do not
inyalidate; mis- common brotherhood. thf
common fatherhood of God. and mans
spiritual inclusion in higher life through
the practice of obedience and faith.
This is essential Christianity, and all that
IS vital and vigorous IN K rests upon This
foundation of truth. Bur confused with
this, there are intellectual beliefs By which
those moral lntuitions have been supple
4hSALtSNs oiN dlAhOuEA lAdue the SHhiEct Of
confession, and although assent TO them is
made the condition of church fellowship in
the great maj ority of Christian associations.
as an snimating motive they are wlthoul
authority in reference to anything pertain
ing to practical religious life
Now II IS 20 bring our intelligence to
bear upon all the questions which underlie
our religious belief that seems to be our
duty as regards ourselves and all Others
who are III a position to be benefited
by our explanation. And such IN
effort has within it great potencies
for good if legitimately conducted Strong
as the church may be, representative as il
may De of the worth and influence OF the
time, it makes nus languid appeal TO
much else OF active and vigorous intelG-
genee, which, imbued with the spilit of a
newer age, refuses TO have religion medi-
ated to It by methods which are seen to be
different IN philosophical or historical ac-
curacy.
To meet this aggressive thought there are
systems enough out of which the senti-
ments of reverence and devotion have been
almost entirely excluded, and which as
sign the problems they present simply 10
the intellect, as though intellectual iudg-
ments were all upon which man need care
to rely. Such methods are ever likely 10
be iconoclastic, destructive of that which.
with such an accumulation of toll and
thought and prayer. man has established
on au entirely different foundation OF
proof.
Christianity is spiritually intellectual
Interpretation of human life, and not q
merely rationalizing system To compass
with definition what Jesus was. either in
the interest of the orthodox or the liberal
rTv-a 70 L. Il. /. i
the powers of human reason. To attempt
such a limiting definition for ourselves.
while realizing the miraculous influence
his life has exerted, would, think, be the
act OF objectionable effrontery. For has
the world been ever so rich in practical IL
Illustrations OF spiritual truth that il can
reasonably refuse to him the title of
Teacher, or considering the exceptional
and SURPRISING gr, atness of his help 10
mankind, can scrupulonsly decline to en-
throne him as the Savior of the race l.
1t not true that in considering the problem
of religion, and endeavoring to work il out
on It's human side, in Jesus we have
humanity at its highest religious power.
and If we think that problem is to De
worked ont on the divine side. still of all
words and lives in which we find mani
festation of the divine. Christ is the high.
est and the clearest? Is it an error OF
judgment, a purely superstitious concep-
zion OF what Jesus was, that the world 8
best life has kept referring itself back TO
MIN as its originating and sustaining ipflu-
ence?
These various honors can all be attrib-
uted TO him, and titles of reverence and re-
spect and appreciation bestowed upon him
without transcendine the limits of rational
belief. To do all this comes far short of
calling him the Almighty God, of address.
ing our supplication to him, of crediting
him with method of artificial atonement,
and making him not one manifestation of
that divinity which has frequently ap.
peared upon this earth, though doubtless
IN far lesser guise, but the only and all ex-
Guiding expression.
But is there no mystery in the world.
does life present no problems whose solu-
ton is seen to be forever beyond our finite
powers, is there nothing borne into us of
spiritual suggestion through all the loving
relations in which we find ourselves placed.
has moral duty no intimation of a law
glyer, and are we so satisfied with temporal
associations that could they continue for
ever they would be conceived as offering
an opportunity for full exploration in
fields our imagination so confidently pict-
ures, that we can afford to bring the
methods of intellectual accuracy to bear
upon the character of Jesus and be satisfied
that what we have asserted is uuassailably
true2
But tempering our intelligence with our
reverence, let US look at this matter of
Jesus as the proclaimer of spiritual truth
without going the entire length OF ascrib.
ing Deity to him. 1t may be that such a
conception carries with il a small signifj.
canoe to your minds, but il is wonderful
in superlative sense OF the word, and the
wonder is heightened when we consider
what Jesus was, his ancestry his epoch.
and his surroundings. Even in lower
fields of thought there are men who stand
for us in the capacity of revelators. How
many of rs would ever penetrate beyond
the surface of things to abstract first
principles but for gifted minds who,
blending intelligence with intuition, pre-
sent the truth to rs in unassailable form 2
And yet revelators is hardly the " ord
They are primarily discoveries and pbilos-
ophers on lower plane. Thus we have
Adam Smith in political science, Bacon 10
inductiye reasoning, Euclid in mathe.
mates. CopernIcus in astronomy, Newton
in physics, and Darwin in evolution.
But in Jesus we have something
widely different. There was no APP
pearance Oh investigation; the data as
we understand them now from which the
laws OF human conduct can be de6uced
were not attainable at that epoch OF the
world in which Jesus lived. and yet bv
moral intuition exclusively, and an eleva.
ton of thought which was an inspiration
IN the sublimest sense, he penetrated 50
completely to the fundamental law tina;
the sermon on the mount constitutes the
completest system of ethics The world has
ever known. All the truth. however, tina,
Jesus revealed was doubtless always in The
world and TO Paul's high conception oi
his person he thus became the Christ 81
yesterday as he was of Paul's own day and
generation, and as be will be the Christ
forever, unless some new Egangel should
ever come to men to proclaim fuller
thought of God
To thus make Jesus human is to fee
him in nearer relation to ourselves, and il
TO make his perfection possible attain
n emit nv every reveraD& and aSv,sr.r,.. vr,,,i