The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-04-01
UhIYERSALITY OF RELIGION,
BY REV. D. j. STAFFORD, D. D.

"For there is one God Of all who
is above all and through all and in US
all. "-Ephes. w., G..
From the pillars of Hercules to the
pagoday Of China, from the temples
of Egypt to the fanes Of India, from
the EXTREMIST north to the EXTREMIST
south, from the EXTREMIST east to the
EXTREMIST west, all we the continents
Of the world and the islands of the
ocean, the earth is everywhere cum.
bered with the works Of religion.
Good or bad, high or low, refined and
elevated or impure and degrading,
man, as a matter Of fact, has every
where had a religion, and everywhere
manifested it outwardly.
A certain school of scientists left no
stone unturned, hunted the universal
globe, looked into every corner, cram
ny and crevice Of the earth to find a
human being-or a thing with that
form and seeming-without reason
and without religion, but no such man
has been found. Darwin confessed it,
! Dawson establishes it, Mivart proves
it, and Tyler, who has discussed tie
question exhaustively in his "Primi-
tive Culture" leaves no doubt upon
the subject.
Man everywhere has a religion. He
has lost the arts he has lost the
sciences; he has gone backward in
stead CT forward in the question Of
civilization. Nay, he has descended
to a depth and degree in the abyss Of
moral degradation fearful to contem-
plate, where the light Of reason be-
comes a itful and uncertain glimmer (;
where every trace and lineament Of
his once perfect nature seem to be
obliterated. But the light burned, it
Illuminated the darkness. And that
God "who is above all and through all
and US ALL" that God who inspired
the prayer, heard The voice of faith
crying in the darkness Of error and
lifted man out Of error and vice to
truth and virtue.
What boots it to argue against re-
ligion because Of the multiplicity, the
contradictions of religion ? The prin-
ciple remained behind all corruptions,
behind all contradictions. The super
fetal out and over growth Of error
could not destroy it. Behind all re-
NAMED deep in man rational nature
those principles upon which religion
depends, guarded ard protected in the
whole human race by that God "who
is above all, through all and in US all"
But man could net and did not stop
with a bare recognition. The idea Of
God is the most fruitful of ideas, the
greatest of ideas. 1t protects the
weak against the strong it consoles
the afflicted, and when everything else
fails man finds in God refuge and
strength. Such an idea should have a
great expression.
The mind of man could not stop
with the bare recognition of God as
existent, and did not 90 stop. But
went on, and would go on by its natu-
raj light, and power, ever independent
ly of the added and additional light Of
revelation to cIothe the idea with at
tributes or, in other words, to form
for and for itself a sufficient and
satisfactory idea Of God thus, if
existent and eternal and creator, then
intelligent, infinite and merciful.
The human race has not stopped
with q hare recopnition Of God, for
the idea Of the infinite is a fruitful
idea, involving Interior principles and
consequences. The intelligent soul Of
man by a natural and spontaneous
impulse sort to give to God an intelli-
gent recognition, aud the lips Of mar
moved in prayer.
For what are men better than sheer. or goats,
That nourish . blind life within the brain,
II, knowing God, they Lift not hands to prayer?
The human race has prayed, and
prayer is the intelligent recognition of
an intelligent God by an intelligent
creature.
Thus mankind has been, not only
theoretically, but practically, religi-
Gus. For while belief has been gen:
eral, unbelief appears only in individual
form. It has never even reached
national Importance. There has never
been, as Plutarch and Cicero testify,
a notion of infdels. And even the
individual who processes unbelief will,
in unguarded moments, give testl.
mony to the innate righteousness of
man. The soul of man, naturally
Christian" left to its untrammeled
and spontaneous action, acknowledges
God, aid cries out to Him. And this
proves that man is naturally religious,
or that he is what the Greek phil
osopher defined him, "a religious ami
NAL"
But not only has the human race
prayed not only has man acknowl-
edge God by speech and given ex-
preston to the sentiments of his
heart in prayer, but he has done more:
For, side by side with this universal
custom and practice Of prayer, ap-
pears another institution or right,
likewise universal-sacrifce. 1t is
the dogma of every religion, it is per-
formed in every temple, it is the &C.
cupation of every priesthood and the
practice Of every people:
The human race, all nations, all
men, have in some way or other &C.
knowledged original sin, for the uni
versatility of sacrifice to placate divine
anger supposes the universal con-
seriousness of guilt. and wherever the
incense of prayer has mounted to
heaven the smoke of sacrifice has as
cended with it.
Now, if the universal consent and
testimony of the human race stand
for religion there must be something
in religion. Nor does the fact of
superstition and error destroy the
value of the argument For the false
supposes the true, spurious the gen.
uine. If men believe in false pro-
phets, it is because they have the
idea Of prophecy. If they offer hui
man sacrifice, as all the pagan nations
of antiquity did, it is because they
have the idea of sacrifice, and the be-
lief in spells and charms ard i%ncanta.
tions is evidence Of a and the belief
in something more than patural.
The fact remains, then, that reli-
gion, theoretically and practically, has