The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1902-08-08
THE MORAL LAW.

On the above subject Chief Judge Me
Sherry of our Court of Appeals contrib
utcs the following article for the Balti-
more Sun:
MANS relation to the State and to
his ie!low-man is regulated by the moral,
the natural and the municipal law. Apart
from the obligations imposed by the first
his observance of the last has no founda-
ton to rest on other than the fear OF
punishment, and that is an ignoble one.
In the precise ratio that men wander
away from the teachings or disregard
the precepts of the moral or revealed law
they become either indifferent citizens or
enroll themselves among the criminal
class. Hence the ncce> sity as respects the
welfare of society. for distinct recogni-
ton OF those teachings and a rigid ad
herencc to those prccepts.
I'm this age-and it has been so i'll
other ages that have gone betorc-pride
of intellect and a spirit of criticism which
does not scruple to question and assail,
though impotent to overthrow, the
authority of revelation, are lahoriouSlv
contriving to weaken confidence i'll re-
vealed truth without offering 4 single,
much less a satisfactory, substitute there
for.
The wandering wayfarer who pliers
to satisfy the cravings of hunger is in
comparably less dangerous to society
than is the cultivated and educated in
dividual who, while denouncing larceny,
rcmorseiessly robs his tellow-man ofcvery
motive for reliance on the law of God;
and thus robs him. by instilling into the
mind pernicious doubts, which ultimately
lead to total unbclief. Atrocious crimes
shock the community and evoke afeeling
of resentment against the perpetrators,
but it is exceedingly doubtful whether
the injury done to public morality by
such Otfcnses is anything like So grave or
so widespread as that which results from
the incubation of doctrines and the utt ter
ance of criticisms that undermine filth
and finally lead to an utter extinction of
all belief in revelation. 1t makes no prac-
teal difference, SO far as concerns the final
result, whether this be done under the
disguise of a miscallcd higher criticism,
or by the aid OF an equally prctcntiouS
agnosticism; but it is obvious that the
danger is greater under that form which
processes not to be engaged i'll doing the
very thing il is most industriously bent
on accomplishing.
"Attcmpts to explain away, or, still
worse to talsify. the truths of revelation
by the finite and limited reason of man
are not ncw-the same thing has been
going on for centuries, under one form or
another and will probably continue as
long as human perversity endurcs. Cali
leo was condemned by the InquiSition
not for teaching an Astronomical theory
for the same theory had been taught near
" hundred years before by Copernicus-
but for insisting that the theory demon
strated the inaccuracy of the Scriptures;
in a word. for maintaining that there
was vital conflict between science and
revelation. Precisely akin to that con-
tention is the attitude of those who to-
day deny the miracle of Pentecost, be-
cause according to their conception the
phenomenon was philologically impossi-
BILE Thus the feeble intellect of man
foolishly attempts to measure Gods
power to act by its incapacity to under
stand. Man forgetting that he is simply
a created being, arToEantly questions
and disputes the power and authority of
the Creator, and when the mysteries of
the Creators handiwork are beyond
mans ken, he denies that they are reali-
ties because his limited reason cannot
fathom them.