The sun., 1901-04-14

eternal Nothing excites our reverence
but a person. or at least Moral Being
There fingers In MIR. Spencer's mind tho
belief that the present limit Of our knowl-
edge Ia the veil OF the Deity.
Had the Darwinan discoveries been
known to Schopenhauer they would have
consptred with tho earlier discoveries OF
science and with his pitiless survey OF tho
human lot 10 confirm him In the belief that
this was the worst OF all possible worlds.
Amid the general distraction even pessi-
mism has found adherents. and European
version Of Buddhism promising Anal relief
from the miseries Of conscious existence
has been accepted as an anodyne by
troubled minds.
Positivism, the work of Comte. totally
discards belief In God and treats thelsm
in all its forms IA merely a mode OF con-
templating phenomena and step In the
course OF human progress. Yet the Posi-
twist feels the need OF a religion. and for
the worship OF God he substitutes the wor-
ship Of Humanity Humanity Ia an ab-
straction and an imperfect abstraction. tho
course OF the human race having not yet
been nun. 1t cannot hear prayer or re-
spond In any way TO alteration. The ad-
hercnts OF Comte's religion. therefore. are
few. though those Of his philosophy are
more numerous, and the religious Comtists
appear to be rather enthusiasts OF HUI
manity than worshippers Of the ABB
straction.
A conspicuous though eQuivocal place
among tho defenders Of revealed religion
In England was held by Mansel. professor
Of moral and metaphysical philosophy at
oxford and afterward dean OF st. Paurs.
Attempting In his hampton lectures to
make philosophy fall on Its own sword he
fell on his own sword in the attempt. He
maintained that God, being absolute. could
not be apprehended by the finite intelli-
gence Of man. and that the finite morality
OF man was not the same as the absolute
morality Of God. Hence the passages OF
the Bible which seemed 10 conflict with
human morality really transcribed 1t
and were moral miracles. In this Mansel
was reviving the theory OF Archbishop
King and Bishop Browne. who had main
tained that our knowledge Of God was
not actual but merely analogous The
inference was promptly drawn by Man
sells opponents that what could not be
apprehended could not be matter OF belief,
and that he had therefore cut away the
possibility Of belief In God. They even
contended that no was too anti-theisttc.
since he did away with all possibility Of
reverence for the Unknown. To deny the
Identity OF human with divine morality
and assert that what was immoral with man
was moral with God was 70 sever the moral
relation between God and man. and. In
effect, TO destroy morality altogether
We could conceive OF only one morality.
and acts ascribed 20 God which violated
that morality must be tous immoral. III y
said John stuart Mil in the fervor Of
ethical protest, IAN Almighty Being tells
me that shall call that righteous which
is wicked or 60 to hell. 10 he'll will go"
Tomeet the inroads OF science on Biblical
cosmogony and cosmography recourse was
had 70 allegorcal Interpretation. But
allegorical Interpretation cannot be forced
upon writer when 1t manifesty Is not in
his mind. The writer or writer's Of Genesis
undeniably intended his or their statements
TO be taken literally. They meant that the
earth was really created in six days. as the
Fourth Commandment assumes; that tho
formation Of Eve out OF rib OF Adam. the
temptation Of Eve by the serpent and all
the actions Of the anthropomorphic God,
who walks In the garden at evening and
makes garments for Adam and Eve, were
actual events To foist upon them ale
| gortcal Interpretation Is TO falsify their
testimony Besides. instead Of having the
| facts Of the creation revealed 10 us, we are
left to interpret allegory at a venture.
Recourse has been had 10 the theory of
partial inspiration admitting historical and
even moral errors In Scripture, but setting
them down 70 the human element in the
/ composition. which has 70 be recognized
without prejudice to that element which
remains divine. Such collaboration OF
infallibility with falliblity, both historical
and moral, ia a desperate hypothesis, espe-
| cially when the object was 10 reveal vital
| truths to man Nor could man distinguish
| the human element from the divine without
being himself inspired and thus above the
need Of revelation. condescens!on Of the
| divine 10 the primitive shortcomings and
alterations Of humanity Ia n solution
surely opposed to any conceivable pur-
pose ~ revelation.
Another line Of defence has been the
I hypothesis. which NAV be called quasi
inspiration, reducing the inspiration Of the
Scriptures TO supreme degree of the same
sort OF inspiration which we recognize in a
great poet or a great author Of any kind.
This IA mere playing with the term "inspira-
ton and little better than an equivoque.
II may be. and we hope II Is true. that tho
Author Of our being manifests Himself in
whatever Ia morally grand and elevating
But this belief is very different from a belief
in the special inspiration Of the Bible.
Evolution, again. which at first was re-
PEELED IA atheistic. Ia now adopted by some
as the key 10 revelation and the solution
Of all difficulties connected with IT, THIS
would make God in His revelation Of Him
self 10 man, without apparent motive
subject Himself to physical or quasi
physical law the knowledge Of which has
been withheld from man ill the present