The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-25

Tor one thing, IL sweeps away at stroke
the entire mass of Oriental and middle-ase
superstitions with which our teachers of re-
ligion still think IL needful to hamper their
doctrines, together with all theories based
thereupon, and gives us a solid foundation
of verihable human experience from which
to reason. For we have seen that the uni
verse is one. II follows that the laws which
govern life and matter here must, with or
without notifications, govern life and mat
ter everywhere. We know that here. In the
long run, the fittest survives. Then must
not that be the case everywhere and for
ever2 We are otherwise no more than an
accident, a wart, an excrescence on the
body of the Is.
Again, from what insensate accusations
Of jugglery, and worse. is God hereby re-
lievedl For instance: He formulated a law,
like unto the laws of the Modes and Per-
slams for immutability. may be patterned
after them. under which. for every sin, full
atonement must be made. But under that
law all men must perish, and therefore God
took upon Him the estate of man, made,
himself, full atonement for all mans sins,
and so saved at once His law from break
ing and man from the just consequences Of
His character of man God suspended and
reversed the operation Of other Of His laws.
notably that of His law of life and death;
and the question will ask itself, why, then,
could He not, in the first instance, have
suspended the operation of His law of
atonement. and so simplifed processes"
The ready reply, 1T was His will to do it
in this way" needs higher authority be-
hind it than has yet advanced it before it
can satisfy the reasonable man.
Nor does this make in the least against
the beauty and sweetness or the authority
and effectiveness of the life and message
and spirit of Jesus. He summed up all the
laws and maxims for us, and lived in them.
and died in them; and since the day OF His
death has been the most talked Of and the
least patterned upon of all the sons of
man. And that is what ails us.
Once more, this line of reasoning makes
man the architect of his own fortunes in
things eternal as we'll as in things tenn
poral. There is no escape from this con-
clusion unless Jesus was the very ultimate
God of the illimitable universe. But it is
impossible that so stupendous a fact as
that should have been left supported by
such slight testimony, and all belief in it
as a verify is destined to become extinct.
This leaves man free to determine what his
destiny shall be; whether he will go on
through eternity a worker. shoulder to
shoulder with God, his field ever widening.
his knowledge ever deepening, his joy for
ever rising higher and higher and higher,
as, with the passing of the numberless
cons, he sees the weak becoming ever
str hn Wi inf no
wise, the vicious becoming more pure, the
truculent more loving, all making ever
towards the better-and he tireless work.
er in such behalf-or just eat, drink and be
merry as the fool is merry in making ready
for the morrow's death.
1t is written that many shall be called,
but few chosen. Our current theologies
then must be held 10 consign by far the
larger number of those who persisted at st.
Pierre but yesterday to Dante's relentless,
unending hell, compared TO which the hor-
rors of that death moment down there.
which they have for days vainly been en-
deavoring to make us realize, is but a
picnic's fireworks. All, the horror of it! And
they tell that the scheme that visits
that fate upon by far the larger number of
human beings born into life was devised in
the councils of the Trinity before the foun-
dations of the world were laid We might
all of us better thousand million times
never have been born at all rather than by
being born to have brought such a doom
upon even one poor dog.
And yet they will not snatch that BIAS
phemous libel upon God out of their creed!
II is better to be guided by reason in
this as in other relations. And reason
based upon analogy, will have it that as
competent a mechanic as God is has made
provision for accident, and will have no
waste There is no loss at st. Pierre then,
but all elements are conserved and are
available to the Masters hand. That is
better than the consigning of the larger
and ADLER part of them to an ineradicable
plague spot on the body Of the universe.
The bitter old creeds with their flaming
finale are impossible of acceptance to any
fearless, impartial examination. They be-
little God, libel Jesus, degrade man. But
the conviction got we'll home that man
must himself determine his own destiny
puts him at once upon his mettle, arouses
him to his best and highest, makes him
incipiently as God; while ar the same time
it exonerates Jesus and justifies God.
o. w. SEARS.
indianapolis, May %.