New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-01-29
Rsl,a;an a,d 3 yelnfian.

men on the qneSnOns sinvOlveQ ~ Inc
FINEST leary-6immons controversy, moi
one of them goes back to the question: Of
the origin Of the moral sense the con
science which ls the basis Of the relig.
ious sentiment in man. The Times hai
maintained that the development of the
moral sense and the idea Of God and i'm.
mortality was 8 purely natural process
IAN evolution. Religion, like history
and language like humanity itself
has had its childhood, youth and maturity
"a period of the senses, a period OF
sentiment, and period Of ideas. Each
of these stages has had its own appro-
pirate faith and worship; and so we
distinguish three fundamental forms Of
reigion-the worship of things, the
worship of persons, the worship Of sphit.
Christianity is the solvent of all preced-
ing religions, but it would be sheer as
sumption to assert that it is the ultimate
religion of man, or that it is the highest
and final expression Of the religious SEN
timent of the race. For already historic
Christianity has been superseded by the
new dispensation of science, applying
ascertained laws and scientific demon.
stration to the ethical and social rela-
tions of man.
This is crowding into extremely mar
row space great ideas that deserve the
widest range of discussion. Nevertheless
it indicates the entire cycle of religious
development, the outline and ground
plan of the religious history of mankind,
Religion begins in the worship Of ira
tional objects and, unfolding through
the various stages of naturalism, symbol
ism, personism, ends in the worship of
pure spirit. The transitions from natur-
al to revealed religion are led by extra
ordinary personalities -exceptional in
dividuals-whose names are indelhb bly,
written on their respective faiths. per
sonality," says Bunsen, sis the lever Of
the worlds history" While this is true
of the secular, it is far more true of the
spiritual, history of man. When we say
Moses, For oster, Sakya- Mum, Jesus, we
enunciate systems, civilizations, religious
epochs.
If religion, like language and itera-
ture, is all evolution; if the phenomena
of sleep and trance first suggested to
primitive men the idea of an sinner
man. "a seul; if the analogy of sleep
and death suggested that the soul was
still alive when its "last sleep" had set
tied on the body; if the ancestral ghosts
thus arrived at, from being at first regar-
ded as mere human ghosts to be invoked,
placated and reverented. came at length
to be regarded as gods, the gh"st-food
passing over into sacrifice, the invoca-
ton into prayers; if further on, ston IS
and trees, and then, clouds, and cold and
heat, and wind and sun and moon and
stars all came to be regarded as the
seats of ghostly power-if this is cor
rect Interpretation Of the phenomena of
primitive religion-there must have been
a period in the long process of human
unfolding and grow til, when there was
no conception of God, no theory of a fu
ture life.
How. then. did the God idea come in
to the world? Father Cleary says, and
he is Endorsed by the orthodox Profess
tant clergymen-thati it is an endowment
from outside, a preternatural or superna-
tural revelation and not an evolution
not a product of human experience and
growing intelligence. The church idea
is expressed in the phrase: I'm the be-
ginning God created the heavens and the
earth" This is the picture of an eternal
being, dwelling in loneliness until sud-
denly he awoke few thousand years
ago, and became active, created matter
out of nothing, and the universe, includ-
ing man, out Of matter, and then re-
lapsed again into quiescence. To this
philosophy opposes its jncorriglble ex
nihilo nihil-nothing from nothing-and
science brings thousand arguments to
prove the indestructibility and conse.
quent eternity of matter. 1t totally re.
jects the idea of mechanical Creator
outside of the universe, working upon
it like matchmaker working upon q
watch.
"All are but parts of one stupendous
whole, .....
Whose body Nature is, and God the
SOUL" IT,.
If it is objected that this is Pantheism
it may he replied that in one form o.
I ~