The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-10-19

scribsd, they Inuat be entered upon m !
personal discovery aud inwrought by toll
and struggle into life, OuS Nonl Gun help
another by fOcaiixlng tho truth, ne tho
lenae can help tho eye, but there must
be q living optic norve TO have yision:
the truth. Another tells into character. A
doctrine Ia what the H0ul finds and declares
to be tho truth, this aayes, n dogma ~ this
fluent belief formulated and forced upon
another without my exercise OF His power
to verify or asnimiiate. This Ia moral and
intollsetual death. a true conviction Is
periencs, and II passes into conduct; a
creed Is what has come ont Of soms n
olse's expsrioncs, and IL may be worn ~ o
badge but " docs not become q power when
simply taken for granted. We are
following tho traditions Of mon whom
of others without making any personal
effort to discover this truth; when No put
text and dogma above obse rvAtion; or when
we handle facts to, confirm nm Inherited
opinion instead of using them to discover
the law Of God. To find tho command
ments of God we must stand on the van
tage ground Of human experience, and,
looking directly ut the facts. we must de-
termine by reason and by conscience what
are tho divine realities and the supreme
sanetities. For these powers of the soul
are tho witness and oracle OF God within
US, given US to guide ma through life. by
Him who lighteth every man born into tho
world, and we never come more intimately
into contact with the Almighty than when
we freely and re%verently use these faculties
which are the expression in us OF his
Fatherhood.
What are the traditions of man? The
opinions of ancient saints and saRss, which
were native to their time and vital in their
lives, but which, however serviceMble at one
time and true in some respects, have been
rendered useless or noxious by the growth
of humanity into wider, sympathetic and
clearer views, and which If accepted be-
cause venerable, entomb rather than enrich
the soul. What are the commandments of
God2 Ihe burning conviction Of q Garri-
son that slavery is a sim; the discovery
OF q Darwin who sets in order
the forms of life to illustrate
the method of the divine creativeness. and
the pity of a Dorothea Dix in ~titeless labor
to lesson human sorrows. What are the
traditions Of men? The beliefs inherited
az a matter of course and held in a purely
p%erfunctory amer, without being exam
ined by reason or vitalised by experience.
What are the commandments OF God? The
manity and religion, which have been d.
rectly seen and felt, and which have also
been inwrought into that character which
saves here and hereafter and blesses all for
evermore. What are the traditions of men?
The dogmatio interpretations of texts which
once leaped out of hearts on fire with love
of God, but which, when used AZ inks in q
thcologic chain, bind and kill the free spirit
of man. What are the commandments of
God? The discovery of some great natural
truth that revolutionizes the industries n
lightens tho labors of mankind, the trans
porting vision of an infinite good to be re-
allied in a glorified social order by patient
toll and victorious self-sacritice, and above
all, the flame of devotion fed, no by the
"Reminiscences of an absentee God, but by
the passing experience of the imminent n
transcendant God. y. .Mf