The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-26

Man can take care of and save himself.
why, the well known fact is that he can
IloC lSstse care of and save even his Dody.
Mach less his soul. What an alarming per-
centage of the race end their lives directly
by suicide and indirectly but not surely
by allowing themselves to become slaves,
ana Vtaufrs OF their passion and unnatural
excess. And how few there are. if the
truth were known, who do not contribute
directly or indirectly 60 the ruin or I'M
pairment of their health and to their COM
seQuent premature death by their ir-
rational and disorderiy lives? How many
millions of human beings, through tls
moral perverseness and wickedness OF
parents, have been deprived in all ages
OF the simple natural right of birth? If
we could get only q glance at the interior
lie of the purely natural man who re-
Jects the services of a savior and lives
according 10 the bent of his own unaid7d
viii; if we could only see that inner and
real life: that heart, that soul, with all
as God sees it, with all It's disorder and
contending passions, we should, in al
probability, find them ample proof of his
insincerity and dishonesty in crying out
against the necessity of savior.
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
Christ, the savior, born this day. is
necessary not only as the Light OF the
World" and The Salt of the Earth.
as he called himself to dispel mans
moral and intellectual darkness to pre-
serve his soul from the corruption of sin
and his body from its effects, but he IS
also necessary as God-man-that is, as
God appearing in material and sensible
form TO rescue and save man from
idolatry and all its concomitant evils and
examinations. Man, at least in his present
fallen state, is, by his very nature, an
idolator, in the sense that the object
of worship suited to him as a concrete
being, must be material and sensible, that
is, it must in some sense or manner tall
under and affect his bodily senses. O+rer
to man as the object of worship God as
a & N a al iS q
spirit; incapable of affecting his senses
and of being seized by them, and you pre-
sent to him only half, so to speak, of what
can satisfy him, and of what his complete
nature demands. Such an object of Wor-
snip would indeed suit angels, and even
man if he We're only a spirit. But man
is not mere soul or spirit, but mySter-
iOuS combination and union of spirit and
matter constituting one individual and.
indivisable being. All mans thoughts,
words and actions, therefore, are not
those of spirit alone, nor OF matter alone,
but of both combined, constituting one
individual personality. Man, on his spirit
ual side may, by abstraction think on,
contemplate and adore God as the great
invisible being and creator of all, but
this is not alteration by man as a whole,
his organic side has no share in it; his
bodily senses can have no knowledge or
conception of God in himself invisible and
intangible except by hearing, seeing or
touching, and therefore cannot be salts
fed with or take any part in this worship
until they are in some manner apprized
Of and affected by his presence, or at
least by something which they take for
his presence. Now, knowing as we do the
power and influence that the senses have
over the purely natural man and how
weak and imDotent he is TO resist their
united demands, we may very nearly pre-
dict the result and the result announced
by universal history is, that wherever
man has been and is found without some
physical and sensible presence of God he
hoe ie dnIa for h MOI
of idols and of false Gods. And if you
look over the world today you will find
only two classes of persons in religious
senSe-ChriStianS and idolatorS-WOrShip-
pers of the one true God this day born to
the world under the visible form of man,
or worshipers of some other visible thing
mot God "a false god) but which the
aXigencieS of mans organic and sensitive
nature in absense of any visible, tangible
presence OF the true God, gradually leo
man as q whole to accept and worship as
God. Idols, at first, We're simply the re-
suit of the efforts of mans material and
sensitive nature 10 realize to itself some
sensible and tangible presence of God. His
nature, form and attributes, but was
gradually led to give full expression to its
wants by looking upon the idols as gods
and by giving to them divine honor and
worship.
God, of course, was aware of this neces-
Sity on the part of mans physical nature
for his presence under some sensible
form, and accordingly we find him in thu
old dispensauon recognizing and supply
ing it in various wayS-by showing him.
self to man as he did to Adam, Abraham,
Moses and others, by his miracles, his
prophets and heavenly messengers, and
thus kept constant visible sintercourSe
between himself and his people who had
thereby a sensible feeling and assurance
Of his ever abiding presence with them
and of his watchful care and protection
over them. They could hear his voice in
the thunderS of Sinai and in the utter
DTOnnetS. could
in his miracles and his ever protecting
and guiding providence. They could
recognize his writing on the tablets of
stone and read his promises and his
mercies to them in the ark of the cove
nant, rod or Aaron, mama and loaves OF
Precipitation. And they could feel him and
become sensible of his awful presence and
majesty in the holy of holes, when he re-
peatedly aroused them. He dwelt in a
special and almost real manner. And
yet, notWithSt landing all those proofs of
his presence and realnesS amongst them,
in spite of all their efforts to keep them
from idolatry, yet the Bible tells us that
he had the greatest difficulty in keeping
them from embracing it with all its
denominations.
Idolatry is indeed great SIM and the
fruitful parent of innumerable evils to the
/ human race;~ nevertheless, man naturally
| likes it, demands it, and if without the
| embrace it. And nothing can prevent him
but some sensible presence of Coda pres
ence so mysteriously and completely ac-
] cOmDliShed by the incarnation and birth
/ this day OF the eternal son of God under
the visible form of man in the stable OF
] Bethlehem.
! MODERN IDOLATRY.
And just in proportion as this sensible
presence of the God-man-the Emmanuel
! of the JewS-and his continuation in an
/ equally real and sensible presence in the
I blessed eucharist, just, l repeat, in pro-
/ portion as these two great mysteries OF
1 his condensation and charity are respected
| or forgotten, so shall man run, like the
/ dog to his vomit, to all the degrading and
enslaving practices of idolatry. 1t may
not be the gross idolatry of the heathenS,
! it will probably be of a refined and studied
! perhaps of a deeper dye than any the
world has ever witnessed. Man cannot
as whole, worship, at least for any
length OF time, distractions and ideals
! however perfect. His half corporal anc
1 sensitive always the stronger half III
! fallen man, will naturally and gradually
/ lead him to worship, that is to pay the
supreme tribute of his being to something
but that something must be concrete anC
sensible, if nothing else than lust anc
passion.
The son of God had many noble objects
J in view in becoming man, but not the
/ least of them was the overthrow and eX-
tinction of idolatry, Gods greatest enemy
! that had so universally and almost com
| pletely robbed him of that honor and glory
which so justly belonged to him ant
transferred it TO idols, false gods, the
| vilest creatures, and even to very demons
"All the Gods of the Gentiles, says st
Paul, ARE devils" No wonder then thai
| heaven rejoiced at this victory of God
! this recovery of his glory, and that in the
! paroxysms of its delight, dispatched
| special choir to the hills of the Judea or
the night of the sevior's birth to announces