Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1898-09-23
The Reformer-Part 8.
From The Jetersoaidn, by j. l.. LODGE
d. D., Editor.

Sad error this, TO take
The light OF nature, rather than the light
OF Revelation for guide. AS we'll
Prefer the borrowed light OF earth's pale
moon
To the effulgence of the noon day sun.
Bates.
The audacity which attacks any state
ment or doctrine of the revealed Word Is
capable of infinite injury, Not every kind
of religion, but the Christian religion de-
ponds for its support and progress upon the
absolute truth of what is written. 1t Is as
necessary to accept the Old Testament, in
general, as the New the motive and plan for
redemption outlined, partly disclosed in the
first; the complete unfolding and execution
in the last. As before stated, probable evi
dence is the guide of life in all concerns
other than religion We govern ourselves
thereby and are satisfied; the demand OF
some Tor demonstrative evidence is erro-
neous and impossible To profess to be.
lieve in the existence of God, which is not
susceptible OF proof, while denying the
authenticity of his revelation is nugatory as
to the effect upon tue mental and spiritual
nature. II were more logical and less labori.
GUS to take the short cut and proclaim
atheism. For, if God exits, he must be ex
actly what he is described as being by those
who were engaged to portray his nature and
character and to declare his will. Any
question OF doubt as TO the validity OF the
reasoning which credits and reveres that
will as expressed tends to the partial dc.
struction of authority which requires and
brochures fruitful obedience.
Whether from the pride Of learning, which
so often secretes large measure OF concett,
and the culture of self love ON the wrong
side, or from sylogizing with false premises,
through gradual accretons there has come
to exist long catalogueof objections to the
record as delivered to men, which reiormers
in thought, though not distinguished by the
title, have sought to improve or replace en-.
tirey with substitutions of their own. A lew
OF these criticisms follow. That the author
ity of the Book of Genesis, containing the
creation story and the history OF man In
continuation, has been weakened, If not de.
stroYed, by the deductions OF Science result.
ant from examination of objects of nature.
That the Scriptures contain much repug'
nant to enlightened moral taste. That the
imprecatory psalms, especially, are offensive
to nineteenth century refinement and ire
conclable with the spirit OF the New Testa-
ment Scriptures. That the elevation of the
race from condition one remove from the
brute to its present status OF development Is
due TO evolution, pure and simple, without
the intervention or effect Of Influences dis
tinctively religious. That men have been
able Of themselves to devise systems OF re-
ligion, for instance, Buddhism, and Brah-
manism, whose sacred writings are essen
TALLY equal in quality with the divine Word,
and their influence morally US beneficial.
That the Old Testament was not contem-
wit lha trun rennr1a.
its authors lived in entirely different periods
from those indicated, and that the writings
are the compilations of much later and un'
known authors.
Because of the insiduous, destructive error
it contains, more notice will be taken oil the
assertion that mans natural powers are SUI
ticient to elevate and advance the human
race, rendering 1t salvable by its own un.
aided exertions. The dogma of the Infinite
periectiblity of the human species is as old
as European philosophy. Democrltus and
Lucretius, cxponents OF classic evolutionary
materialsm, looked upon human life as the
vanguard of that wOrd-embracing, onward
moving development which found its dyna-
mic in the fortuitous concourse Of atoms.
In goddess creed perfection, II reached at
ALL must 10 attained not by upilt but by
upgrowth. The stoics, also, took nature as
ulbLluRulhucu IIUIn COuNtutlOu lOi tuO phb-
tern OF their lives. Cicero, the great eclectic of
antiquity, voices this view SeqIere adturdm
optinlam duCem. But when the Stole said, fol
low nature, live in harmony with thy rational
self, his counsel was good, as no believed
that we are organically united TO God, and
find In Him our oversOul. Conformity TO the
higher self therefore, is conformity 10 God,
In whom We live as the branches in the vine.
Near kinship 10 Christianity Is here revealed
in the doctrine of the Stole. Modern times
have seen baser naturalism. In the 10th
century, that period of reaction and revolt,
the world, casting off the tyranny OF eccle- |
siasticism, breaking the letters Of the pseudo
Aristotelianism Of the schools, and drunk |
with the new wine OF learning, threw Itself |
into the arms Of antiquity, transported with |
the culture and the freedom which waited
In her train. Humanism thus became Pa
ganism. Follow the ancients was the shib-
boleth Of the schools But the ancients fol-
lowed nature: therefore, we must do the |
same. Unfortunately, the mature" these |
10th century men advised to follow was not
the nature of stoicism, but the perverted, de-
PRAYED nature Of man rs he was found.
Fdts CO que UOltdTds sums up the creed OF
Rabelais in the earlier part Of the century; |
"gratiy your natural desires" Is the Last
word of Montaigne's ethics as the century
draws 10 its close. Hero Is the main
source OF the libertlnism Of the seven
tenth century in France, of the natural.
ism of Moliere, Of the doctrine OF Infinite
progress az held by Descartes, Of the ethics
OF Voltaire, Rousseau, Ddorot, Helvetius,
and HOlback and OF that sensualistic philoso
ply which dyed the streets of Paris with It's
own blood and spattered them with its own
brains amid the orgies OF the French Revo-
luton. Further examples are the debauch-
ed court OF Charles III with all It's lust,
license and nastiness without effort at con-
cealment, dragging the purple through rivers
reign of Louis XIV and that Of Louis XVI,
marking among the most Infamous of his
toric pages.
The same in spirit, without the moral
faint, Is the ethical culture which seeks in
our day 10 realize the dream OF the ancients,
popuariZing itself by taking away the Of
fence Of the cross, leading away from God
and settling It's hope 10 self This genera
ton has had Beecher, whose doctrine was
summed up In ABE a fine fellow" Froth
ingham whose teaching Is described In the
first syllable Of his name and the unspeak-
able Sam Jones, whose anchor Of hope W |
dying mortals is "quit your meanness. -
50, we have Parkhurst, and his little imlta
tors all around us, with their scheme 10 en-
force morality by law, frantically striving |
10 dry up the streams while the source Is 10
full flow; forgetting that the might Of God
Ia needed 10 right the life by purifying the
heart Surely, that dread being who made
man and knows what is in him, and what
II cost 10 save a single soul, must be weary
Of the mock heroics Of his little manklns
down here in the dust who affect 10 know a
better way than his, while wise men sit In
the clouds and mock them |"