San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-10-17
S0|VlIOl By FelT.
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Salvation by faith has been the
theme of the pulpits of all the church.
es of all ages, ever since churches
were. Salvation by fear is another
theme. not so often preached as the
other, yet for generations in one form
or other it was the dominant theme
of all pulpits of all lands. The gos-
pei of fear is not so popular in the
pulpit as it was, it is dying out of
the discipline of the home and
the school as well. In time
it will die there altogether, and the full
ler and wiser philanthropy of another
age will carry its destruction farther
still. The criminal classes will then
receive the benefit of the more hui
name ideas of that coming time AMI
will be Won to a greater BITTERNESS of
life by the ministry of kindness, than
was ever possible through the gospel
of fear.
The preachers who depended for
their effects as pulpiters, for Access
sions of their churches, for so-called
conversions, upon the terror they could
inspire in their hearers, are not all
dead. They are dying out as class,
but enough survive to prove that the
breed dies hard. There are few Of US
of adult age who do not remember
how we have been held chair hun.
and breeze shaken" over the yawning
pit of hell, by some ranter of the
church militant, till every particular
hair in our young heads stood up like
the quilts upon the fretful porcupine.
Indeed there is in most of the revival
ism of the present day more or less de-
pendence placed upon this old preach
ing of the gospel of fear, as the best
means of winning souls to the love
of Christ"
But 1t is not the object of this dis
course to criticise these old or new
methods of the UNCONVENTIONAL world.
All this lies beyond the legitimate do
main of the Light pulpit, which only
concerns itself with the practical
things of life, the doings of the pres
ent, the formation of character, the
building up of the superstructure Of
the life. Beliefs have nothing to do
with these teachings, only as they help
TO give direction to the effort to con-
struct a life upon the soundest and
most rational foundations. Just as
Carl Schurz's belief had an effect up
on his leaving Germany, for he be-
lieved that he would have been hung
had he remained. The ministry OF
fear has thus been introduced, that
the operation of terror on the human
mind might be considered.
Perhaps it would have been better
to have announced the theme as the
"damnatiOn" of fear instead of the
salvation for it is open to a grave
doubt whether fear as a real motive
ever accomplished much in the saliva
ton of anything or anybody. True,
the burned child breads the fire, but
an absolute trust in mothers word
would have had the same effect and
without the same painful consequence
es. The old days of corporal punish
ment in the home and in the school,
when fear ruled the one and terror
the other, are well night past, but they
are near enough to us for their bale
full influences to be still realized
There was no good result attained
through that training that could not
have been better secured through d
more gentle administration.
The cruelty of this present, and it Is
cruel, going down into the very sub.
stance of life and ramifying itself int
every assure of human action, is K
be traced to that early training, tbs
ministry of force and the gospel o
fear. Its first lesson was disregard
for the natural incIinations of TIL
young subject under training. Al
his instincts We're ruthlessly troddel
on. His incipient creations were de
strOyed, his little machine kicked int
wrecks as not worth spending
thought upon. His terror of the dark
of the hoOting owl, of the great horner
OK. of being alone, all these were sneer
ed out Of a consideration. No boy o
girl who was ever driven shivering {
bed in the darkness, a prey to abjec
terror will forget that awful expert
ence.
1t was nameless, impalpable, IntaH