San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-06-13

though the spark may be but dim, the
sacred fire which binds man to his
Creator. Even the wild, untutored
savage recognizes the existence of
Supreme Authority-though it be the
sun, the moon or wooden joss-and
voices his resignation to the will of the
superior power and appeals to 1T
through prayer in the form of wild and
fantastic, barbarous and grotesque
invocations and sacrifices.
DR.. Lincoln asserts that mo one can
demonstrate that God lives" What
proof, what evidence, does DR.. Lincoln
require or demand? No one can dem
onstrate by living evidence, that Julius
Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte or George
Washington ever lived. And yet DR..
Lincoln will hardly assume that they
were mere myths or the idle creations
of some penny-a-liner's overworked
brain. Still, the lives, the individual
ity and the records of the deeds of this
mighty trio rest upon the very same
basis, the identical authority, upon
which rest the Christians defense of
the divinity of Jesus Christ and the
evidence of a living omnipresent God,
viewed from DR.. Lincoln's utilitarian
standpoint of observation-the con-
temporaneous records, which are histo-
ry, of the times. But Gods infinite
! wisdom, love and power, His omnipo-
| tence and omnipresence, are demon
strated and proven by higher authori-
ty than mans feeble evidence. The
whole universe, things animate as we'll
as inanimate, proclaim his greatness,
LII 10. A., Ia
To contend that weak, erring mortals
should not bow down in prayer and
humility of spirit before such Being
would argue that the created is great
er than the Creator, and this appears
to be the gravamen of DR.. Lincoln's
contention. Man was not created to
simply strut his brief hour upon the
| stage of life and then pass away for
| ever We see the flower bloom and
| blossom and die, but we know that it's
! fructifying seed will spring forth again
to blossom and beautify the earth we
see animate and inanimate matter
waste and disappear, but we know that
| it returns to Mother Earth to enrich
| and increase the productiveness of the
! soil; we see grim and stern old winter
| follow the lovely, lotus-eating autumn
nal days, but We calmly and serenely
, await the opening of bounteous spring
and summer-tide, which we know
will assuredly come in their allotted
time. This, all this, we konw. And
shall man, the noblest offspring of
Gods handwork alone perish? Ii
cannot be. The body may perish, but
the immortal soul is imperishable, and
as surely as the seasons follow each
other in their immutable changes, il
will find abode in the promised ely
SUM of Gods celestial home.
The good doctor, in furtherance of
his assertion that it is sinful and silly
to appeal to God in prayer, says: The
child knows that his father will attend
to his wants and he does not pray, "and
then insults common sense with the
subjoined abortive attempt to be fun
ny in illustration:
"A boy wanted a COW. He prayed
for it but God did not answer. Hi.
parson had one just like he wanted anG
he sought him out and asked him Il
he believed that prayer would brins
him q Jersey COW. The answer was
Why, yes, of course. Prayer will re
move mountains He said then
We'll suppose you give me your Gov
and you pray for another?'
And this silly, irreverent attemp
at wit appears to be the most forcefu
argument" the doctor advances
throughout his long, labored and wan,
dering string of unsupported assertion
and query. The trouble with the good
doctor, 1 aprehend, is due more to
perverted conception than to an innat
ignorance or wickedness. He is too
intelligent a man to confoGnd or con-
pare man to Deity, or to presuppos
that belief in God carries with it as
necessary. corollary that man is there
by relieved Of all moral and physica
responsibility Man is created for
purpose. Every human being has
mission to perform, and in the perfor
nance Of that mission, in the dis