New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-05-09

are so free to cite, were endowed differ
emily than other human beings and that
they possessed different means of getting
at divine truths than other people, then
all the trouble you have taken-all this
searching up of old authorities might
better have been spared. To-day the
worn-out arguments pertaining to mirac-
les and prophesies are generally rejected
by men of learning and character, divines
as we'll as others, and it will not do for
anyone to uphold them now, if he has
no better authority than the writer's of
the time when they are sail to have oc-
CURED and when everybody believed in
them ont of simple ignorance.
1t seems that my critic has either mis-
apprehended the object of my argument
or that he has chosen to meet them indi-
rectly because he finds that to be the
easiest way. stated at the outset that
my object was to show of what kind of
material some of our church doctrines
were made, off and throughout all that 1
have said have been true to this purpose
with the single exception wherein l un-
dertook to show up the absurdity of the
perversion of human reason. With this
one exception, have steadfastly refrain
ed from discussing the merits or demer-
its of any doctrine. Whether consid-
cred the doctrines right or wrong, only
aimed to point out how the church doc
trines, or at least the main ones, in their
present form, have grown oat of the
neurological traditions, found 10 varied
forms but the essentially the same, among
the different nations of ancient times, ,and
that in this respect, there can be no ma
terial difference between the mythology
of the Hebrews and that of other tribes
am very we'll aware that the accept
ance of this theory would do away the
idea of inspiration and revelation. In
other words it is the assumption which
the creed-makers start from that am,
after; and the purpose of this course
must be obvious, for the reason
than that a discussion of the merits or
substance of doctrine would serve no
other purpose than to bring about an
endless reiteration Of time-worn truisms.
With this same object in view, I shall
now proceed to investigate a little the
manner in which Mr.. Sheran "proves"
the Trinity doctrine. He closes his ar
gument by citing the following words
from the Athanasian Greed or Symbol: ::
"Whoever will say that the Father,
the Son and the Holy Ghost are not the
divine persons and they do not form the
Blessed Trinity, let him be anathema;"
that is let him be damned. Not being
scholar.I will allow one WHO'S scholar
of the first rank to speak for me con-
cernlng this symbol or doctrine. quote
from Prof. Victor Rydberg, and as the
citations are in translation they are nee
essarily in contracted form: He says:
The Athanaslan symbol is perhaps the
most peculiar document ever issued. 1t
commences and closes by consigning to
eternal damnation those who do not be-
lleve in it, and between those anathemas
is found chain of the most direct con-
traditions. When those contradictions
cannot be reasoned away they are recog-
nized as such even by their defenders,
but with the reservation that the fault
is not with the concilium which framed
them. but with the human reason which
is supposed to be unable to comprehend
the higher truth they contain. How
those apologates came to know that such
higher truth, incomp1ehensible to hu-
man reason, really happened to be hid
den in the contradictions in question
that is thing they fail 20 explain. They
simply assume the symbol they have
made to be divine mysterium,a revealed
truth, too high to be contemplated by
those beings for whose benefit it was re-
vealed. The absurdity of calling thing
revealed, because it is construed in an
obscure form and the absence of object
in that kind of revelation don't seem to
cause any hesltatlons." =."
(To be continued.)
II believe that the greatest obstacle in
the. way of real teaching to-day is the