The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-03-26
A SCIENTIFIC SERMON
LOGICAL REASONS FOR A EcllEF IN
THE SOULS IMMORTALITY.

Professor John Fiske, LII. d. Of Washing
ton University, at the Church Of the
Messiah, In Sc. Louis--The Eternal RE-
Rlity of Religion.
1.-THE visitor to Geneva whose studies
have made him acquainted with the
most interesting personality Of all those
which are associated with that historic
city will never leave the place without
making o pilgrimage 20 tho chateau of
Bernay. In that refined and rural neigh
borhood things remain much the same
as when Voltaire left IL for his long and
busy life in Paris. One may sit down to
the table where was written some Of the
most perfect prose that ever flowed
from human pen and look about the lit
tie room whose furnishings so clearly
indicate plain living and high think
ing until one seems to recall the mas
ter as he lived there, with his Unsuitable
thirst for knowledge, his hatred of big
otry and oppression, his merciless con-
tempt for shams and his boundless ell
thusiasm for humanity. As we stroll in
the park that presence goes along with
us until in secluded portion of the for
est we come upon the little chapel Of
the manor 'Deo erexit Voltaire' stands
written above the doorway. 'Voltaire
built it for God
voltaire's Views.
"What meant this inscription When
Voltaire became possessor of Bernay,
the church was entirely out OF repair
l,.,y OH V,1 tI,n
from the chateau. Voltaire had it torn
down and built in better place. 1t was
consecrated, and there for many year
the tenants of the manor assembled for
divine service. Nowhere in France had
Volt8ire ever seen church dedicated
simply to God. 1t was always to Our
Lady Of this or that or st. So-and-so
There was always some frail iutermedi-
ary between the devout soul and the
God Of worship. Not so with his church.
1t should he dedicated simply and with
out further qualification to the worship
and service of God Furthermore, it was
built and dedicated not by any ecclesi-
astical or corporal body, but by the lord
Of that manor, the individual layman,
Voltaire.
1t gave terse and pointed expression to
Voltaire's way of looking at things.
Church and theology were ignored. The
individual soul was left alone with its
God The Protestant reformers and 9th
er freethinkers had stopped far short of
this. They had left standing a very ma
teria part Of the supernatural edifice in
which the religion of Europe had long
been stored. But Voltaire regarded that
whole edifce as rubbish. Organized
Christianity, as it then existed in
France, was responsible for much injus-
tioe in that country and in neighboriDg
lands. The inquisition still existed.
Whatever tended to hold people in dark
ness and to deprive them of the natural
use of their faculties Voltaire hated with
all the intensity of which he was capa-
BILE. He used to sum it up in one word,
the infamous, and the watchword of
that untiring soul was crush the in
famous.
Supernatural theology, too often
pressed into the service of the infa-
nous, he lost no chance of assailing
with mockery and sarcasm made terri
BILE by his earnestness of purpose, and
ne came in many places to be regarded
as the most inveterate antagonist the
Christian church had ever known. Yet
among the men of letters contempora-
neous with VOltaire the most of them
went farther than he and in a different
direction. They denied the reality Of re-
ligion. Few indeed believed in the ex-
istence Of God. David Hume, when din
IN, in IN pp 1 at ha pf
baron, said that he doubted whether
any one could be found that would de-
clare himself an atheist. Indeed, said
his host, you are at table with II such. ;
Triumphant Religion.
1.-THE fiippant case with which they
used to dispose Of the grayest questions
Of religion was illustrated in that re-
mark of the astronomer, lie Monnier,
who said that he had searched the en-
tire heavens with his telescope and
found no God there-the silliest remark
that has ever been made on such sub
ject unless perhaps the one made 70 or
so years later by German Psychologist,
who said. NO thought without phos-
phorus. and congratulated himself that
he had forever disposed of the human
soul.
"To these thinkers Voltaire seemed a
conservatist In the facts of nature Vol
taire saw a rational principle at work
which atheism could in no wise account
for. To him the universe seemed full Of
purpose, and more than once he set forth
the famous argument Of design Of Keno
phon's Memorabilia, with which all
are familiar, as expounded by Paley and
others of his school. There is thus an
other significance added TO that little
church at Bernay. 1t was not only the
sole church in France dedicated simply
to God, not only was its builder layman
hostile to ecclesiastical methods, but he
was almost alone among the free think
ers Of his country in believing in God
and the everlasting reality of religion.
1T is for this purpose that l have be-
gun my argument with an allusion to
Voltaire, for it is my purpose to show
that even il the forms Of religion were
entirely and forever destroyed by hos
tile criticism, religion itself would ever
remain unscathed and triumphant.
"In the English speaking world there
existed no such divorce between ration
alism and religion as in France. No
where perhaps have faith and reason
been more harmoniously welded togeth-
or than in the history of English Protes-