The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-24

Endeavorng to keep the unity Of the spirit
In the bond Of peace.-Ephesians Nv, 3.
Nature proclaims the law of diversity. It
shows innumerable worlds and on our earth
innumerable forms of matter and Of life.
And the higher the order the greater is the
diversity; the highest forms are the most
complex.
The human race has divided into count
less peoples with varied languages and GUS
toms and ever increasing divisions of Ia
Dor. Unlike the lower animals, it's diversity
extends even to individuals. and while birds
of the same species look nearly alike. two
brothers often differ more than owl and
eagle. In mankind this law of diversity is
proclaimed in the forms, faces and very
voices of endless millions, hardly any two
alike
1t is proclaimed no less in their minds.
Men of very similar forms may be mentally
further apart than bird and fish. The more
advanced they are the more they differ in
thought. The members Of a savage tribe
hold quite similar ideas but civilization
multiplies thoughts and theories, and there
is probably greater diversity of opinion to-
day than ever before. Scholars cannot
agree whether Homer was one man or
twenty, or when Zoroaster lived or whether
he ever lived at all. Political economists
cannot agree; the protectionist and free
trader are apt to think each other fools,
and sometimes hardly hesitate to say so.
In all social reforms each school has some
panacea which the others think pernicious.
Even about physical things the scientists
themselves dispute at every session. Doc
tors cannot agree whether the sick man
has cholera or what to give him if he has
yhof6 70
finitesimal dilutions; and while some people
seem to think disease almost the chief end
Of man, many others to-day are teaching
that there is no such thing as disease.
When men so differ about physical and
visible things, we cannot expect them to
agree about the unseen things of religion.
Here, too, diversity has been the rule. Re-
ligion has ranged from polytheism with it's
myriad gods to monotheism with its one
and with most diverse opinion about Him.
Some have portrayed Him with human pas
sions and weaknesses; others have thought
it profane to portray Him at all or even to
name Him. Those who have accepted His
Hebrew name have still divided into Jews,
Christians and Mohammedans, and each OF
these again into various subdivisions. Pal
grave tells of the Arabian preacher he
heard describing the seventy-two Moham
medan sects, and declaring that seventy-one
of them all but his own, were doomed to
eternal perdtion.
Even the Christians could not escape this
law of diversity, but soon had more sectS
than Christ had disciples. In the second
century, Irenaeus gave long list Of them,
and they soon outgrew his list In the
fifth century Hilary wrote, every month
we make new creeds." and there are as
many doctrines among Christians as there
are individual incinations." In the
called dark ages" this diversity naturally
died out; but with the renaissance Of
thought it revived and soon showed, not
only the Roman and Protestant Church.
but new divisions in each-especially in the
latter, where thought was most active.
Protestants, though held together by their
common belief in the Bible, reached most
diverse doctrines. Some taught one form of
baptism and some another; some the keep
ing of Sunday and some that of Saturday;
some universal salvation and some almost
universal perdition. Not even the great
Church Of England could secure unity there
but has Itself divided into high, low and
broad, and has seen so many dissenting
sects arise that a recent writer enumerated
over 100 and added that this was probably
only about one-third of them.
A similar diversity, is seen in our own
country. Our last census specifies 143 re-
ligious denominations, and shows the Pres
byterians divided into twelve kinds, the
Baptists into thirteen, the Lutherans into
sixteen, the Methodists into seventeen, and
even the little body of Mennonities into
twelve. Nor is this all; the same church
often includes variety of opinions, and the
more intelligent it is the greater the
variety *t
In short, that law of ever increasing di-
versity rules in religion, as in everything
that lives, and doubtless will continue to.
Many think the world will yet unite in a
single religion; but both nature and history
seem to teach otherwise.
But diversity is only a partial truth. Be-
meath it lies a larger one Of unity. First
we notice the unity Of kinship and of
common origin. These scores of sects have
sprung from common Professionalism, and
Protestants and Catholics from common
Christianity. Christianity itself sprang from
the old Hebrew religion broadened by gen
tile thought, and both Hebrew and gentle
thought grew by laws of the same God
and from the same wants of the human
soul. The various forms of religion in his
tory are as branches of one and the same
great tree of life, some higher and some
lower, some fruitful and some barren, some
living and some dead-but all akin. Or even
if they be considered as separate growths-
one a noble tree and the rest but brambles
still science answers that all vegetation
is akin, made of the same elements, grow
ing by the same laws, varying forms of the
same life. In this truth of kinship, re-
hgions will learn to forget their old quar-
rels, as the Greeks ordained that in the
wars of kindred states the trophies must be
made of perishable wood and never re-
newed.
Beyond this unity of kinship is another
and better, that of the common truths held
by all. These various Protestant sects,
though differing in so many beliefs, agree
in more, and all agree with Catholics more
than they differ from them. So all Chris
tians agree with Hebrews and with the
best heather more than they differ from
these. The most important truths of life
are common to all. That precept to do
Justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly
with Cod" which the Bible says is all that
the Lord requires has been taught as an
ideal in nearly every religion, while all have
fallen short of it in practice. Even the gol-