The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-03-02
o1SUNDAY TH0UGHTSbo
#ON%
MORALS& MANNERS
By A CLERGYMAN.


ances is this verse by Dryden, in which
he accounts for religion by tradition:
BE- education must have been misled.
So we believe because bred;
The priest continues what the nurse began.
And thus the boy imposes on the man.
Independently of education man is in
stinctively religious. Kill the instinct in
the parents and it is sure to reappear in
the children. as the soil denuded of the
primeval forests, out of elements within
itself, reproduces them in new and kindred
growths.
Out OF this innate religious nature OF
man have come the innumerable religious
systems OF the world. The systems have
not made the nature. but the nature has
made the system. The ocean is the
same" remarks a protested writer.
Whatever craft sail up and down upon
il, whether they be pleasure boats, mer-
chant ships. pirates, or men-of-war; so
whatever religious navigatOrs may be 60
ing up and down the sea of life, its shores
and depths and distant haven remain the
same. The stars never change for astrOlO-
gers and astronomers. They roll calmly
above storms and above opinions. 50
mans religious nature, despite conflicting
views. always and everywhere wants God
above and tellow-men below"
But though all men are alike in having
some conception OF deity. they are sur
prisingly unlike the kind of deity con-
ceived Of; human reason or unreason, cul-
ture or ignorance, spirituality or animal
ism, surely conditioning the concept.
Whether God be one or many; whether
person or a force-these points have been
long and holly debated. There is an I'M
measurable distance between the savage
of the Congo. fOndling his fetch, and Sir
Isaac Newton bowed in prayer. Neverthe-
less, the encouraging fact Is that man Is
religious by instinct. This instinct, ike
any other, NAV be developed until it shall
assme the grace and glory of Christian
thought and life, and burst forth, in Mil
tons phrase. into a seven-fold chorus of
halielujahs and harping symphonies"
The acute editor Of Secular Thought, an
organ of the free-thinkers. insists that the
world owes much toits skeptics andspeak-
ers OF "the glory Of unbeiei" But then
among the skeptics he includes that emil
nent Christian philosopher, Lord Bacon,
and among the glories of unbeliei reckOns
the discoveries OF Copernicus and Calico,
who were also theolOgically orthodox.
Skepticism is all right when IL is directed,
as 1t was by Bacon, against scientific error.
Unbelief Is glorious when 1t addresses it
self 10 the denial of an absurd cOSmogony.
But skepticism is folly when it questions
the transcendent verities OF the soul and
Immortality and deity-innate and uni
versal concepts. And unbeief is wicked
vhaD II 6aD1az sin and Fhaa neal of Al
ton from IT, That Is to say, skepticism
and unbelief are right or wrong, glorious
or infamous, not IN themselves, but &C
cOrding 30 the circumstances OF the case.
Belief against reason and evidence is SUI
perstition. Unbelief in the face of reason
and evidence is the love of darkness
rather than highland that, too, as q rule.
for the reason given IN the scripture, viz
because the deeds are evil"
This plain distinction our friends the
skeptics and unbeliever5 seem somehow
10 be unable to grasp; and this inability.
common TO the whole group, specially
atfiicts the acute editor of Secular Thought
Sir Edwin Arnold avows himself an
sgnostic. IT'S laughabe, the idea of such
a one writing of "The Light of the
World" One recalls the words of Jesus:
darkness. how great is the darkness"
Some people sheer at religion as "senti-
ment-mere sentiment" True; but let it
never be forgotten that the strongest ele-
ment in the strongest character Is senti-
ment ''The word sentiment" writes the
philosophical Stewart, "agreeably to the
use made of it by our best English writers.
expresses very happily those complex de-
Examinations OF the mind which result
from the cooperation of our rational
powers and OF our moral feelings" In
harmony with this definition. love is a
sentiment, patriotism is a sentiment. phil
anthropy Is a sentiment. One of our
greatest orators says package was found
among the papsrs OF Dean Swift-that
fierce hater, his soul full of gall. who faced
England in her maddesthOur and defeated
her with his pen, charged with
lightning hotter than Junius'. Wrapped
up among his choicest treasures was found
a lock OF hair "Only a Woman's Hair"
was the motto. Deep down in that heart
full OF strength and fury there lay the
fountain OF sentiment. Nelson, on the
broad sea, thousand miles off, signaled:
England expects every man to do his
duty" What was that? Sentiment Ii
made nero OF every sailor. Cesar cross
ing the Alps, drew his whole army aside
to spare tree. Sentiment again.
Those who sneer at sentiment satirize
the noblest and most puissant element
in human nature. Religion can well az
ford to listen to the sheer and smile supe-
riOr.
An old English writer sets hope at the
head of all the virtues, and saws that de-
Epair is the objectionable sin. He defines
hope as "that vigorous principle who sets
the head and heart at work, animates the
man TO do mis- utmost. puts difficulty out
of countenance, and makes every impossi-
bility give way"
In recent discussions OF Christianity in
contrast with pagan beliefs, remarks an
eminent preacher, the chief superiority
Of Christianity has been overlooked-iti is
its far-reaching and glorious hope. Hop
ing fOr nothing, paralyzed by fatalism
the Chinese, the Buddhist. the Brahman.
the Moslem change nothing. Hence
heathendom is stagnation Hoping every
thing for the world and for man, Christi
Rnity supports the basis and motive OF
modern thought and life.
When hope IS lost all is lost. While
hope survives he'll itself may be converted
into heaven.
The recent tragedy at Cannes en-