Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1895-01-31


Disciple, to The Kingdom OF ueaven or,
i'm modern terms. d. students who are at
tav same tIute tr}lU2 10 I've CHRIST .tH@'
W bat are Ee. tJ uu ..taaGs #,. lt.t.,t',-
uHlIy We must ar-,ui The on" W men h'.~t
cummcuds itself tO our intelligence. t
must reverence both ia ear sNmpat ny,
our fellowship. our practical euGe9Ahi.
OF course there l. sense III WhlEH We
must accent he one aud reject the other.
Belief is the harmony of the given line
of thought with all the other lines OF
thought which early education, training
and environment, reading, rvneettoil'
prejudice and prediction nave esian-
ii-hed in cur minds. Belief, IN TINS IN
telIectual sense. l. not under the lWme-
diste control OF our wills, 1t cannot be
much affected by half-hour arguments
it cannot be accepted or rejected al the
dictation of priest or professor, chureh
or college The thing that harmonlze7
wit all the truths that you have hitherto
accepted i the thing which you believe
The law of intellectual graVitation COM
pels it. ra doubt it is to destroy your
mental integrity. The thing which does
not harmonic with the trut rs already
recognized and present in your MIND,
YOU cannot really believe. Trying to be-
lieve it Viii do no good; saying that You
believe 1t Will do nothing but harm. II
the thing i repugnant To the great mass
OF facts and principles which constitute
the contents of your mind, you simply
cannot believe it, and neither the Wlles
of Satan nor the grace of God can make
it credible.
As matter of mere intellectual
opinion, then, each individual must
adopt Whichever way of thinking seems
to him or her most reasonable, most con-
formable to truths accepted in other
spheres of thought. The great majority
of persons who received their secular and
religious training over twenty years ago.
ana have been engrossed with practical
affairs ever since, this law OF intellectual
gravitat ion draws to the older view with
simply irresistible attraction. To them
religion presents the alternative OF the
old view, or blank chaos and despair
The majority of persons who study his.
tory at its sources in the libraries, ana
science at first hand in the laboratories
to- day, are attracted by this same com
pelling force of intellectual gravltatlon
to The newer views. For such to DOUBT
or DENY the newer point OF view, would
be equivalent to intellectual suicide.
As scribes or students, then, we must
ACCEPT the one view and reject the other;
and which view we shall accept, and
which we shall reject is, If we are honest.
not matter of individual choice. 1t Is
determined for US by our intellectual
aftinities and tastes; and then again are
dependent on the intellectual training
we have received and the intellectual at
mosphere that we have breath he'd, 10
pride ourselves upon our intellectual at
titude toward religious truth, or TO
lament it, is as much waste OF time ana
sentiment as to rejoice or grleVe over the
color of our hair or the dimensions OF our
feet. The one Is as much determined ny
our intellectual environment as Is the
other by our physical heredity. In this
intelleC tual sense. then, rs scrlbes or
students. pure and simple, We must
bring forth out of our treasure things
cit ner new or old, according as the trend
of our established modes of thought
comedies With the one View or the other.
Still We are, or ought to be, more than
mere scribes, mere students. Religion Is
not a science chiefly, but an art. Life Is
our main concern. Noble, unseltish llY-
ing Is he pearl of great price, the salt,
the leaven the grain of mustard seed, the
one thing needful. And in the great
practical relations OF life We must appre-
ciate and cooperate With and utilize
both points of view. The nurseryman,
hose concern is the production OF
choice varieties of fruit, must reject every
slightest variation from the type he Is
seeking to preserve and propagate. But
the quartermaster. who Is charged with
the feeding of furnishing army, is guilty
of crime if he manlfests any such
fast idiOusness with reference to the food
placed at his disposal.
So as students, professors, scholars,
scribes, we must permit to ourselves and
to our pupils no vlew TO pass unchal-
lenged which has not been subjected to
I he seVerest test our minds are capable OF
bringing to bear upon it. But As practl-
cal Christians, placed in world full of
fallible mortai- like ourselves, and sur
tod nv of
not be too fastidious about our in
telectual companionship on religious
doctrines. w hoover does the Will of God
in straight forward, manly and womanly
earnestness, whether their views be new
or old-the same must be to us as to our
Lord, moi her and sister and brother. In
our Christian fellowship, in our practical
co-operation. we must have wealth Of
sympathy and respect for every fellow
man who, in connection with any form
of intellectual belief is animated by the
Christian spirit.
In the presence of this hungry, strug-
Cling, wayward, human life, we must
accept with gladness any and every view
that helps any fellow man to live brave,
generous, helpful, happy life, whether we
hold them ourselves or not. We must
reverence the older views, because fidelity
to them, when they We're the only views
possible, made our ancestors the heroic
men ana noble women lHdt tnty were.
Whether we accept or reject the newer
views for ourselves, we must reverence
them, for ere-long the only alternative
for our sons and daughters will be be-
tween their newer views and utter IN
fidelity. The essential elements of Chris
tian faith are common to both points of
view. And there is no reason why
adherents of both views should not
worship together under the same roof, be
members of the same body, assent to the
same comprehensive formula of essential
faith, receive the sacraments from the
same table, join hands in the same efforts
to make the world happier and better
place.
The demand to-day is not for scribes
and pedants, merely; it is for scribes who
are disciples to the kingdom, scholars
whose learning and insight are not ends
in themselves, barren and forbidding
but scholars whose learning and insight
attest their worth by their efficiency for
service, their inspiration to kindness
their ministry to human needs Here are