Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1890-02-13
An Effect of Religious oIsputa.ion.

An Effect of Religious Disputation.
The discussions that go on from
time to time in conventions of theolo-
eians called churches are extremely
suggestive. Not long ago the Episcopal
body showed the people that there were
many points upon which the authori-
ties we're not agreed, and it cannot sure
ly be said that the more recent discus
sions in the General Assembly of the
New York Presbytery are any more
calculated to increase public confidence
in the dogmas of those who assume to
direct our souls on the way to eternity.
1t is not the province of The Satur-
day Review, nor is it the duty of pub
lie Journal, to discuss the details that
occupy so much of the attention of
ministers But there are some consid-
erations arising out of these public con-
troversies which should not be avoided.
Every year mems minds. are opening
ont into a broader vista of created
things. The narrow views of people Of
two or three centuries ago are not tolera-
bic. The ecclesiastic no longer holds a
monopoly of education, The popular
preacher is almost always man of IN
ferior mental capacity to that of many
who are addresses, and where he would
formerly have been deemed infalliable
he now has to undergo the acutest
criticism This change in mems feel
ings receives no small measure of justi-
fcation when We are called upon to
listen to such disputations as those to
which We have referred. They natural
ly suggest the thought that if professed
theological advisors are uncertain as to
the rectitudc of their own views, how
can laymen be expected to follow
them? And assuming that these lead
ers of the blind have themselves been
blind, what has become of the myriads
who in past generations followed their
teachings and placed implicit reliance
on their guidance? Or does the means
of salvation change as the world pro-
crosses? And so the road which was
good for our fathers must be closed to
US and new one opened?
These ideas are but natural fruit of
ministerial disputes. But they do not
stop there. 1t Is but short step that
carries the mind from theological con-
vention to a survey of the whole domain
of human belief, and that is not at all
likely to strengthen our faith in any
sectarian doctrine. The multitudinous
teachings that come under the head of
Christianity cannot be sound in all
their integrity, and reason tells us SO.
Neither can the religious sincerity cf
the disciple of ISLAM be regarded with
out sense of respect for the faith that
creates it. Experience forces US to
view with distrust the pharisaical exter-
Tor Of ostensible moralists, and disre-
gard for professions that are contradict.
ed in practice gives nse to expressions
against hypocrisy and cant.
In all this there should be NO cause
for wonder or wailing on the part OF
the clergy. They bring it about by
their own lack of decision and by their
own confessions of uncertainty. They
complain that people do not 60 to
church. But what are the churches Of
New York but centres of social cliques?
How do we know that the doctrine that
we hear from the Protestant pulpit
may not tomorrow be repudiated by
the man who breaches it? To-day lie
points the way to salvation, TO- morrow
he goes into convention and admits
that he may and very likely did, direct
US in the wrong road. Should he oh.
jcct if we say that We no longer
have any confidence in such guidance
and that herceforth we choose our
own? Should he condemn US if We
prefer cur own reason to his uncertain
methods?
But we are not directing attention to
this subject as to an unqualified evil.
Public disputations on questions that
have heretofore been held up to congre-
cations as unquestionable must shake
the confidence of many of those who
have habitually believed, but it does
not follow that they do not DO good in
other directions. If they destroy ones
faith in certain theological dogmas,
they perhaps tend to undermine ones
confidence in theology altogether. Ger
tainly they leave but two resources.
They impel either to fold where doc
trine and teaching have always remain
ed the same, or they compel US to leave
disputation to those who like it and to
fall back upon religion pure and SIM
pie. We are by no means sure that
the tendency Is not already in that d.
rection, and that systems of theology
which man has diligently built up
through the ages may not ere long be
laid aside by many people as cunosities,
and religion as emboe led in the golden