The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-03-29
AswKgYe AND OaummoN0.
Long Discussion of Spiritual and TheoIog
icnI IlnltLr..

Long Discussion of spiritual and TheoIog-
zeal Matters.
BRoTHrRs AND SIsTIrs-I feel more in
clined 10 verse than prose. but the idea /
have Of duty. ar given in our rules, impel
me TO write; and to begin with, ask your
forbearance and especially 60 hope u.
Pirates" will judge ne kindly for my
criticism Ct Natural Law in the Spiritual
World"
have harder work TO think Drummond
zane than any one / ever read after in my
life. and less patience with the doctrine
that holds You can ami you can't. you
will and you won't; you will be damned if
do and you'll be damned if you don't"
than anything / ever heard tell of or
thought of Atheism Is a sensible, kind,
reasonable and loving doctrine compared
with the old predestinatiOn that sent in
fants into everlasting fire and birthstone for
the honor and glory of God. And of all the
vagaries and sophistry / ever read that
tries to booster up that old diving doctrine
/ think Drummond takes the lead l
marked the book, wrote on q great part
Of the margin all through it, and would
have sent 1t TO him long ago had l known
his address,
/ value Emerson, Theodore Parker,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Longfellow,
Whittier, and men of their school
Of thought, IS far in advance OF
Drummond as daylight is better to see
n than darkness.
This very title is a contradiction OF his
theory. The lower can not leap into the
higher. cannot ever grow into it. The
natural man cannot grow into the spirit
ual The natural il not divine"
Nature Is so contemplate, so weak. it
certainly Is not necessary IN the spiritual
world, and il could not get there if il
wanted 20. according TO that the
plOgy. Drummond says: mo
ehange OF substance. no modification
Of environment no chemistry, no cleo
Iricity, nor any form of energy. nor any
evolution can endow any single atom Of
lhe mineral world with the attribute of
ife" Again; Where now in the spirit
ual spheres shall We meet a companion
phenomena to this? What in the unseen
)hall be likened TO this deep dividing
5ne; or where in human experience Is
mother barrier which never can be
frossedP
There is such barrier. In the dim.
but not inadequate vision Of the spiritual
world presented in the word of Cod. The
srst thing that strikes the eve il the great
ruff fixed. The passage from the natural
world 10 the spiritual world is hermet-
icallY sealed on the natural side. The
door from the inorganic to the or
ganic world Is shut; no mineral
can open it; so the door from
She natural. TO the spiritual is shut, and
no man can open II.
1--WE find one great law guarding the
thresholds Of both Wor De, securing the
entrance from a lower sphere shall only
take place by a direct regensrating act,
and that eminating from the world next
In order above"
There is Calvinism. "baby roasting"
In q form which neither We. nor our
fathers. were able 10 bear. IL is sugar
coated by the mysticism and sOphis'-y Of
q man who cannot endure the doctrine
without the sugar-coating. but vet aust
have place for the pharises to chuckle
over the poor publican below him.
Love, the Greatest Thing in the
World" q as good book as / ever
read, but IL must have been borrowed.
or was the other side Of the you
can and you can't" of his theology.
But sugar coat II o. You will men are re-
fusing 20 swallow II. The heresy trials,
che patching OF creeds on one side, and
the independent charity and tolerance OF
other mems opinions, feelings and In
sDirstion, show the fact that we are grow