The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-28
DRIFT OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.

SEATTLE. Dec. 26, 1892.
To THE EDITOR: I trust that the sense OF
fairness which prompted you TO publish the
letter of a correspondent In vindication OF DR..
Briggs against the structures contained in one
of your recent leading articles will also permit
you to notice a humble defense of a much
greater parsonage than DR.. Briggs. In your
editorial OF Christmas day you undertake to
point cut the present DRIFT OF Christianity. You
appear to approve what seems to you to be It's
course and 10 reduce the person OF Christ and
the attributes of His divine system of Christian
ity to a rationalistic basis. You desire TO do
away with the supernatural in religion--the
word "orthodox" seems TO have the same effect
upon you a red rag has upon a bull. Now it
does not follow that because a doctrine has
been declared to be orthodox that 1t is ipso facto
all wrong You are solicitous TO show the Protest.
ant conception of our reli gion, and, not content
with that, TO magnify such an extreme fslsifer
OF the faith as Zuingiius. as against the more ap-
proved Luther and Calvin. Buty0u say nothing
OF the Catholic faith or practice. by which mean,
as defined in the canon OF Vincent of Lerins
"that which has always, everywhere and by ali,
in the church, been believed"
In your observations about Dr.. Briggs you
seemed to hold up the Bible as the only intalli-
Bile source you should have said fountain OF re-
ligious faith and practice. Well, then, the BIZ
bic 10 full OF the supernatural about Christ Ii
speaks of His supernatural conception and
birth; His supernatural mission; His supernat-
ural doctrine; His supernatural life and resur-
rection and ascension; the supernatural birth
of Christians: the supernatural mode OF their
feeding on Him. II speaks of Divine mysteries
and OF the stewards thereof, and it intImates
that a man who is not born supernaturally can
not understand these things by his natural fac
mites. The Bible speaks of Christ's followers
as being the salt of the earth, and OF the posi-
bility of their losing their Saw by disassocia.
In far w nf "a NJ A..
trine of salvation rests on our supernatural con-
nection with Christ; on the mysterious benefits
OF the incarnation impaired to us.
To reduce Christianity 10 rationalism is to
blaspheme Christ and Christianity.
Why note quote Terrence, Horace. Socrates or
Marcus A urelius as well as Mill, Huxley Dear.
win or the rest OF them ii you wish TO teach that
the whole OF Christianity is the 'gold of the
doctrine OF the ta,herhood OF God and the
brotherhood Of man" as those terms are under
stood by many today. Those ancient classic
worthless had as high conception OF divinity
aud humanity as the modern skeptics who vul-
garry prate OF such things, and yet they were
not Christians. You Say that 'Christianity for
centuries did not bear any better fruits than pa
sau.sm." Is that 80, indeed? Do you Judge of
fruits as these early Christians were regarded By
the loathsoIne and sensual psgansn which sur
rounded them? IL 10 to be remem bered that
these early Christians were mostly slaves and
women. who had not much material fruits TO
bring forth.
1t was no. for long time. it is true, tina. the
fruits OF Christianity Wee manifest in noble
churches, hospitals or other cos fly institutions
but are we TO doubt that the Unseen Eve did
not perceive the triumph OF tie faith in the
lives OF these lowry aud despised ones, who
were prosecuted and mariypsd and OF whom the
world was not worthy?
Byzantine Christianity was barbarous In prsc
tice, you call 1t. only because il had lost hold
OF the supernatural ana was dominated and
hideboGnd by the power of the Eastern court
And the massacre on the eve OF St Bartholomew
vas n direct opposiIioa 10 TIE teaching Of