Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1895-02-07

would commit the fatal error In max
ing abstract and concrete Christianity
one and the same thing. To his
question, Can a good tree bring forth
corrupt fruit, as applied to Christian
ity, we say, abstractly, no; concretely,
it may, IL wrongly used.
But The Sun editor implies that no
good tree by its fruit-no matter how
wrongly used; no matter how contrary
to laws of nature and Of God, and
under all circumstances-ca produce
harm. And where does this land him.
By making the abstract and concrete
one and the same thing and by his
own process of reasoning, he must i'm
ply, that all these church crimes
about which he has said 80 much--are
the direct result of Christian teaching.
We do not think that Colonel Ingersol
ever went that far.
Now to business: Our brother
editor advances an argument for his
side, ny stating that "Christ had no
possessions" True; so the editor
would have us to imply that the
Christian religion should have none;
and 50, 1t is not, by divine right, en-
titled to these possessions. Therefore,
there is no harm to tax them for the
public good. What kind of reasoning
Is this? This idea of an invisible
church, means, in short time, no
Christian religion. Christ had no
earthly possessions. True; but never
theless he organized visible church
an outward and visible sign of a
spiritual fact. And such organized
effort means in time, churchly posses
sions, and church buildings. 1t goes
almost without saying, there must be
meeting places for Christian worship,
and for sacramento administration.
Secret orders have their lodge rooms,
their place of meeting, and the order
that never came together and had no
ritual or rite, would soon die out.
And so church meetings and posses
sions are a necessary part of Christian
life. This purely spiritual idea of
religion, which the editor has in mind,
is Utopian; it is an iridescent dream,
which has never been realized. Mans
creation implies body and soul.
Christ's institution of sacramental
rites implies the outward and visible
sign Of spiritual fact. st Paul, in
spired by the Holy Ghost, speaks of
the church as the pillar and ground of
the truth. But can this be without the
material part of life being recognized.
Drnuaro unI nlpoo tho I'm FOL
go up as q memorial before God. In
so many words, The Sun exclaims, let
us have a PURE, spiritual religion; and
we say, IL does not know what it is
asking for. This means no religion.
Refine religion too far, and you refine
it away. Reduce it to thought, the
thought of selfish man, and your
thought will perish with you. Strip
off the flesh; come to your then at
tenuated, bloodless, shadowy idea of
religion, and Christs religion is gone;
and by whatever name you may style
it, the residuum will no longer avail
to comfort the world. Where is the
good in the sublimated vapor Of the
Christian faith about which the editor
of The Sun dreams. Such spiritual
vapors have never blessed the world.
Christianity has blessed the world
not in its dreams and theories, but in
It's good works. And these good
works would perish if The Sun could
furnish the only theological light for
the church. There is no argument in
this spiritual idea for church tax.
1t is another form of taxing churches
out of existence. 1t is a very refined
way. 1t has u gentlemanly bearing;
but it can rob you all the same of
your religion. Col. Ingersoll is rough
and outspoken, but his way is not so
eifectual. He lacks tact. BY this we
do not mean to say that the multiple
cation Of churches, and denominations
is desirable for there is such II thing as
overriding this matter of church build
ing to represent self will and individual
ism; and it is this that makes it possible
for anyone who wishes to plant new
church in any town to always buy very
cheaply some building which has
represented some denominational Sc
cession, and like the Southern seces-
sion, is "now lost cause" This
kind Of work is not Christian
missions; and it has not always been
for the best; and this kind Of work,
these splits, where there is no principle
or conscience involved, is that against
which st. Paul warns when he says,
/" let there be no schism."
We never asserted that churches were
free from blame, for reasons already
given. We only objected to the
sweeping language of The Sun in this
regard. We do not believe that two
swallows make spring. One bad
Christian out of six does not prove
that to very large extent churches
exist as temples of fashion and hot
beds of scandal A few Episcopal
preachers, such as Bishop Seymour
describes (as quoted by The SUM does
not prove that the Episcopal church,
as such, Is given to hypocrisy, and that
that church is going to the bad. One
red rose may prove that all roses are
not white; but this does not prove that