The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-05

That's our one act, the previous works His
What matter though doubt at every pore.
Head-doubts, heart-doubts, doubts at my
fingers ends.
Doubts in the trivial work of every day,
Doubts at the very basis of my soul
In the grand moments when she probes
herself S. $50
If finally have a.-life to show.
The thing ! did, brought out in evidence
Against the thing done to me underground
BY hell and all its brood, for aught
1 say, whence sprang this? shows it faith
or doubt?
Ais doubt in me; where's break of faith in
If you desire faith-then you've faith
enough.
What else seeks God-nay. what else seek
ourSelves?"
The bishop scouts the idea of a pure
spiritual faith such as evangelical religion
points out, and insists upon:
Pure faith ,indeed-you know not what
Naked belief in God the omnipotent.
Omniscient. Omnipresent, sears too much
Ine sense or conscious creatures to be
It were the seeing him, no flesh shall dare.
Some think Creations meant to show him
I say it is meant to hide him all it can.
And that's what all the blessed evils for
Here are some celebrated words which are
almost universally quoted:
mo. when the fight begins within himself.
A mans worth something. God stoops over
Satan looks up between his feet-both tug
He's left himself, in the middle; the soul
wakes
And grows. Prolong that battle through
his life"
And now comes the distinctiveness of the
bishops argument, 'Facilis Descensus Aver
no. the bishops journey from the faith
that is not unbelief, and which lacks the
enthusiasm of a conviction, to hypocrisy
and credulity, is exceedingly short and
rapid:
Il am at ease, now, friend-worldly in this
I take and like it's way of life
L think my brothers who administer the
means
Live better for my comfort-that's good
And God, if he pronounce upon it at all,
Approves my service, which is better still.
The sum of all is-yes my doubt is great,
My faiths the greater-then my faiths
enough.
Here we've got callous to the Virgins
That used to puzzle people wholesomely-
Men have outgrown the shame of being
What are the laws of nature not to bend
If the church bids them, Brother Newman
asks
Up with the immaculate conception. then
On to the rack with faith is my advice!'
The learned casust no sooner gets out
the words, a
Il would rather die than avow my fear
The Naples lfquefaction may be false,
than he sees that he has overdone the mat
ter and a guilty conscience makes him
imagine Gigadibs to say:
II hear you recommend, might at least
Eliminate decraSsify my faith,
Since / adopt 1T; keeping what must
And leaving what 1 can-such points as
thisr'
To which the bishop replies:
Surprising there's no truth in what said
About the needs of trials to mans faith,
Still, when you bid me purify the same,
To such a process l discern no end
Clearing off one eXcrescence to see two;
There's ever a next in size, now grown as
big,
That meets the knife-I cut and cut again!
First cut the Liqufaction what comes last
But Fichte'S clever cut at God Himself?
Experimentalize on sacred things?
1 trust not hand, Tor eye, nor heart, nor
brain
To stop betimes; they all get drunk alike"
The poem finally ends as might be ex-
pected in an attack of you're another
upon Gigadibs himself The Bishop there
by hopes to vindicate himself in mis- re-
''Put natural religion to the test
You've just demolished the revealed with
quick, =
Down to the root of all that checks your
Then, friend, you seem as much slave as I,
A liar, conscious coward and hypocrite,
Without the good the slave expects to get
live my life here; yours you dare not live"
Luther is represented to have said mo
doubt lie) Let us sin boldly since we
are forgiven without stint" Blougram, on
the other hand, shows himself a coward as
well as a hypocrite, with his unitarian
faith.
1.-The sum of it all is--yes, my doubt is
great,
My faith the greater-then my faiths
1 have read much thought much, expressed
much,
Yet would die rather than avow my fear
L cannot help but look at this obscure
poem as a satire. The thought that the
great nebulist had uppermost in his mind
was to hold up to scorn those worldly, high
paid, unctuous clergy of our various great
churches who with all their sanctity are at
heart as unbelieving the people that rail
at them. Let us remember, however, that
there are no more Blougrams in the Cath
Ollie than in the Protestant churches. A
Methodist is not essentially different from
a Catholic or an Episcopal bishop. This
was one of the church prizes which John
Wesley never would tolerate in England
for his Methodist clergy to scheme for Rev.
T. A. Goodwin, in his last printed pamph-
let, gives a wonderfully graphic picture of
the luxury-loving Methodist bishop OF 1897.
The Presbyterians and the Baptists have
their church prizes substantially the same,
the outcome of which is often a Presbyte-
rian or Baptist Blougram. This system
of church prizes is one of the causes that
so heavily handicap and separates it
widely from the masses. And this will al
ways be so, according to Browning, as long
as religion is made professional industry.
So long as there is money in faith,' good
clothes and good keep. we shall have all
sorts of clergymen.
Victor Hugo. with the brilliant insight of
bishop. The opening chapters of his Les
Miserables, in which we are introduced to
his bishop, Charles Myriai, read like one
of the epistles of st. John. Here is the
way that Hugo's Catholic bishop began his
work. Upon taking possession of his see,
Bishop Myrial found three thousand francs
per year allowed him for carriages and
travelling expenses. Here is list of his
carriages:
To the hospital, with which to, -oo
To the Society for Maternal
Charities ........... .............. 5OO francs
To the Foundlngs Home........ 500 francs