The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1899-02-08
BERGEN BROS.
MUST BE INSPIRED.
The Need of the Supernatural In
Religion.


Religion.
To THE EDITOR: The human mind
is SO constructed that man can have
no sufficient reason for belief in the
divine origin of any religion unless
it be accompanied with miracles.
For the mind infers that all effects
will be characterized by the nature
of the cause. Where the lower ami
mails act we expect effects inferior
to those of man, and where a being
higher than man acts we expect
acts of a superhuman character.
Man cannot, without violation
of his own reason, consider acts
to be of God which are plainly with
in the range of human ability. The
proof of the presence of Divine
actor is seen only in acts worthy OF
Divine being, worthy in their
purpose and having the manifesto
tions of Divine being in their pow
er. A Divine revelation must re-
veal the Divine being, and so must
bear the works of the Divine char
actor, vie, superhuman power and
goodness. It is impossible to con-
vince men that religion comes from
a being infinite in power and good
ness, unless it is accompanied in it's
introduction with marks of Divine
power and goodness.
Thus every person who has as
sumed to be teacher sent from God
to bring new revelation, whether
he be sent of God or not, pretends
to carry with him these credentials
from the court of heaven. The
cases of Swedenborg and Joseph
Smith, the Mormon, are too well
known to need more than mention.
The Shakers, or sect of communists
with about fifteen settlements in the
United States, are less known than
these We therefore quote directly
from their works. From the be-
ginning of the work in America
there was little to be seen or heard
but the cutlery of convicted souls,
laboring under the power OF God,
and roaring like the sound OF many
waters and mighty thunderings
against the man of sins, and all that
is of the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes and the pride OF
life; shaking and trembling; proph-
esying or speaking with new
tongues; singing and dancing, leap
ing and shouting, day and night;
with various supernatural effects OF
the power of God. y Considerable
other testimony could be quoted in
which they claim to have all those
various gifts of the Holy Spirit known
in the primitive church. ;" So, too,
of the whole multitude of false re.
ligions that have sprung up in this
and other lands and have as their
base the belief of men in the supernat
ural. Such is the reconstruction of the
human mind that it can receive NJ
religion as of Divine origin unless
it pretends, truly or falsely, to bt
accompanied in its introduction
with Divine power.
How shall we decide as to. wheth
er the pretended display of super
natural power is true or false?
/. Whatever can be accounted fol
on natural grounds cannot certainly
be provento be supernatural, and i!
therefore no evidence of the specia
Divine presence.
2. No class of wonders claimed t,
have been wrought by opposing re
ligious systems, each presenting
equally good evidence of the deed.
having been done, can be claimed
as proof of the special Divine pres
ence. For certainly not more thar
one of the opposing systems can b.
true, while all may be false. AND
the Divine presence may not b
given in endorsement of the false
3. No class Of wonders, wrough
by those who claim special Divin.
assistance, and which are alst