New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-03-07

and echo back ::ss Y ON We got the brass banC
but we've got the votes. . For if til,
church doctrines are true, when it ,oome
to the final settlement only few st.ul
are saved, while almost tine entire human
race is sent down to the slaughter :hous
of eternal destruction.
And now want to Say night here, tina
the devil has been of great service to th
priests. They have used him for TIL
purpose of soaring people into tn,
church, much as dog is used to scar,
sheep into the fold. They use him as "a,
officer to punish all sins committed
il against the creeds of the church and al
sinners are delivered over to him for hi
own special and patented care and treat
, ment. And it is needless perhaps to sag
| that that treatment is never administered
\ by halves. The devils punishments, il
we are to believe what we are told, are
always capital.
! If man doesn't believe in a devil, he
is not Christian; he is an infdel and
subject to all of an infdel's depravity.
In the middle ages, absolute exactness
was required concerning beliefs in his
Satanic Majesty. If one did net believe
in such a character, he would be con-
victad as hereto; if he did believe
that such power existed and made any
attempt to demonstrate his honest be-
lief, he would be burned at the stake for
sorcery. have always looked upon this
feature Of the church doctrine and prac-
tice as one of amazing absurdity.
To show that the devil has been chang
ing from time to time, it is only neces-
sary to say that in the religious shows of
the middle ages. the old fellow did SER
vice as clown, the circus clown of our
own time being but relic of that peculiar
era. In the legends of the people of
North Europe he always appears as q
fool. He can spin ropes out of sand,
tear up forests of trees by the roots when
he is angry, take red-hot horseshoe be-
tween his fingers and strai ghten it out
carr man on his back from Copen-
hagen to spitzbergen in one night, and
when his door in the mountains opens
for him, it is all seething surging sea
of fire: and yet he is always beaten out
of possession Of the soul he is after by
some small tricks that are no more than
human. It now remains to be seen how
our reason and will power became per-
verted. The Bible is not responsible for
this doctrine; it is of later date. At the
memorable concilium of Nicea, A. D.
1926, the trinity doctrine was adopted af-
ter severe contest. Athanas1us togeth-
er with others advocated it's adoption.
Arius opposed the doctrine and was sup
ported by majority of The bishops. But
the Emperor Constantine took hand in
the contest and many of the bishops were
compelled, out of fear of being expelled
from their positioDs,to vote against their
convictions. That is the way the trinity
doctrine got into the church, and that
is the way most creeds have gained a
foot-hold-by majority vote and some
times through force and fraud.
After the adoption of the trinity theory
the churches entered actively into the
manufacturing of creeds and have kept
it up ever since. But occasionally an
obstacle appeared in the shape of human
reason. 1t wasn't an easy matter to
make sane people believe that they could
eat the body of the creator of the uni
verse in piece Of bread, nor was it a
light task to convince these same people
that every human being created by AL
mighty God had to be made over by the
priests or born again, as the creed says,
in order to obtain eternal life. Such
doctrines would be reduced to absurity
before the tribunal of reason, and the
priests therefore, were compelled to re-
sort to other theories. The patent med
icine that would get them out of their
difficulty was not longin coming. 1t was a
new creed condemning human reason as
unsound, perverted, obscured by the in
heritance of sin, and as a rebellion against
the authority of Gods word. 1t never
struck them that a creed which did not
harmonic with reason might be wrong;
oh, no; but if reason did not jibe with
the creed. reason of course was prevent
ed. Accordingly, if you want to be
good Christian, you must not use your
reason; it is unsound. You should in
some manner try to get rid of it. ,.@.<
IT. fo1lows that inasmnch nc raaenn &c