The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1896-05-01
1heosophical Society Column.
ENUMERATION BRANCH.
THEN Is NO RELIGION HIGHER TEAM rHr
RECOGNITION OF TRUTH"
A SIXTH SENSE

Which mankind a. a whole has vet to
develop goes BY the misnomer of "com.
mon ssnce." An annual crop OF non
sense appears in newspapers at the time
OF our general convention. Disco veries
are made oithe utterly disreputable char
acter OF the movement and the family
Affairs OF Adam and Abraham, tho es-
capadss Of David and the patr1archs
and othsr important subjects are
allowed a temporary rest while pharis-
aical ''jacks-in-the-box" anthematize
the society. There il no a%ntagonism
between t%hecsophy and the christianity
OF Christ. There is with so-called or
thodoxv, which is defined by DR.. Hutch
inson: zone fourth Christ, ono fourth
Paul and n half superstition" We
accept the new testament's definition of
religion "pure and undefled before God
and the Father in to visit the orphan
and the fatherless and the widow in her
affection and to keep oneself unspotted
from the world" The society is unique
IN that it is not a creed; the onlv essen
tlal requisite for membership 10 "to be-
lleve IN universal brotherhood as a prin-
cipal and to endeavor to practice it con-
sistantIy." There are at present in the
United States over two hundred creeds
into which Professionalism is divided.
Pay your money and take your choice:
Six kinds OF Adventists, thirteen kinds
OF Baptlsts-seventh Day, Colored and
General. six principal, primative and
professionalism. old-two-seed in the
Spirit, etc. Four kinds OF Plymouth
Rock Methodists. three of Congrega-
tional besides Colored, African, Union,
Zion, Apostolic, Free Missionary, Inde-
pendent, Primativs. Episcopal, Re-
formed and others. Then Of Presbyter-
ians the census gives tho Presbyterian
church in the United States of America,
Presbyterian church in North America,
Reformed Presbyterian church in North
America, Presbyterian church in the
United States, Reformed church in
America. Reformed, Cumberland, Cum
bsrland Colorsd and so on through a
long list. We often wonder If our critics
look at themselves, or do they as st.
James said"look IN a glass and straight
way iorEstteth."
Is it not az stated in the New England
Magazine: when Christ was born he
was stralghtway wrapped in swaddling
clothes and laid in a q When bis
gospel was born it too was s%traightwav
wrapped in swaddllng clothes and the
church and the world have gone on
swaddling it it from generation to gener-
alton, binding 1T hand and foot and that
it has not become entirely inert bv the
process. is an amazing proof OF it's vi
tality. 1t has been bound by deacon,
priest, bishop, cardinal and pope; 1t has
been gowned and mitred and croziered;
bsdizened by alb and chasubls and soap
ular and stole, it has been hemmed IN
by bell and book and candle, by mass
and eucharist and close communion: it
has been buried under Athanasian
creeds and Augsburg Confessions, Tri-
dentlne, DEGREES and t%hlrty-nlne articles,
it has foated the vagarles OF every sect
put down in the almanac; it has beea
turned to account by every tyranny
from Constantine and Clovis to the
Standard OIL Company. Christianity is
not responsible for much under that
name, nor the Theosophical Society for
many vargaries labelled "Theosophy"
by the ignorant or malicious; even the
first object OF tho society-brotherhood
lis often misunderstood. In a branch
meeting the subject OF brotherhood was
being discussed and a Der said: I
came OF . family OF practical abolition
lists and among my earliest recollections
is a picture OF q kneeling slave raising
his manacled hands toward heaven and
pleading. "sm / not q man and a
brother?" I was taught to respond
and feel that he vas and to do what lay
in my power to help him to his birth
right. But if the same claim had been
made on behalf OF the piratlcal looking
overseer-who with a pair OF blood
hounds in leash, a whip in his hand and
a brace of pistols at his belt doomed up
in the background, I would certainly
have repudiated it. He a brother of
mine? No! felt that a line had to be
drawn somewhere and I drew it at him.
Through the whirligig Of time has spun
him and his particular class under the