New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-05-02


fancy and Imagination since man will
ever speculate about the world beyond
SO long, as he entertains no fixed ideas on
the subject. A denial of the Supernat-
ural must be followed BY fanciful opin-
ions and wild speculations because hum
an nature will never rest satisfied with
the present life; immortal longings like
the Ghost Of Banquo will never down
and II Revelation be rejected we will
have ID its stead fancied heaven where
the h,lnting dog Of barbarism or the harp
Of civilization must finda place. With
the christian there is no such liberty of
viii or imagination; for he firmly be-
.lieves ina Divine Revelation which has
furnished him with fixed rule Of con-
duct .sndf forblds any speculation regard
ing Ne character Or attributes of the
Deity forbids speculation as to the fu-
ture reward and punishment Of right or
wrong, and so with the other definite
ideas which Revelation has ulalterably
fixed in the Christian mind. For the
Christian there is no more liberty of
opinion concerning them than there is
liberty Of opinion for the mathematician
regarding the laws of multiplication.
But the destruction of such liberty i'm
plies no harm to Reason, it impairs not
the faculty itself nor does it remove
any evidence on which Reason acts.
1t is urged by unbelievers that Faith
commands Reason to yield to its teach
ing blind obedience Now 1 reply
that not even God Himself could make
such demand on Reason. Why? Be-
cause it is not in the power of reason to
give assent to proposition without a
reason for doing so. Faith demands a
reasonable assent because she furnishes
proofs Of her authority. God in Reve-
latlon gives us the facts of Faith; and
we reasonably believe they are facts be-
cause God revealed them. That God
so revealed is proved by His Incarnation,
resurrection from the dead and other
miracles. Hence s. y the demands of
Faith are most reasonable. ~.
Again unbelievers urge: The facts of
Faith are incomprehensible and therefore
unreasonable. But how many facts of
the natural order, which see and know
and assume to be true. can fully ex-
plain2 In how many cases do we COM
prehend tie why and wherefore of them?
Nature az well as Religion is full of
mysteries and all rejecting minds admit
the fact. Jules Simon, the eminent
French intdel, has correctly observed: ::
"Only weak minds believe that they can
explain all and understand all, and
Alexander Pope recognizes the same
truth whep he calls us ''beings darkly
wise Butif Faith presented lncompre-
hensible data without sufficient reason
for knowing such data as facts, then
manifestly she would be unreasonable; !;
yet until. tits disproven that God reveal
ed such facts, reasonable people will still
cling to Faith; for reasonable and right
minded people lave perfect moral GER
tainty that God is their informant re-
garding the subject matter of Faith and
therefore such 8. Revelation must be
true. Z
Finally how widely separate, Faith
Is from Reason may be learned from the
fact that $50 millions who for the most
part know little about Reason or its
laws arc to-day enrolled under the ban
ner of Faith; many of them believe their
Reason has fathomed all the arguments
for Faith but the vast majority believe
immediatly on Authority as all must
ultimately do. To my mind therefore it
if strange idea in the unbeliever's mind
that Faith must ever conflict with Rea-
sonan idea which has absolutely no
foundation IN fact. William Sheran.
Mormonism appear to be the flourish
ing IN Iowa. and ismeeting with no great
er opposition than any other religious
sect. The Iowa branch of the church
polygamy, and the moral CON
duct Of the members is as exemplary as
is that Of people belonging to any other
sect. This beng the case. there is no
reason Why it should not be tolerated;
and, indeed, it has a right to demand all
The consideration that is bestowed upon
.s st fE.El