The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-09-04

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nitude and complexity of the subjects
discussed especially when brought
into juxtaposition as they are here.
Religion says: ".Dear child, blow out
your little lamp of reason; it is but a
paltry rush-light, put your hand in
mine and let me lead you." That this
suggestion is pretty generally followed
is made apparent by the millions upon
millions of religious votaries. 1t ,is a
peculiar thing that average humanity
is satisfied with set phrasing. "What
causes stone to fall to earth ?" They
answer: "The attraction of the earth" !"
That satisfies them. The masses seem
to be cursed with an intellectual indo-
lency, that from all time has caused
them to put their consciences into the
keeping of directorship.> a consola-
tion sometimes derived from faith has
taken the place of effort after direct
knowledge. Extant religion is not i'm
mutable-what would have been heresy
fifty years ago is orthodoxy now. The
pulpit reflects the sentiments of the
pew; the pew controls the pulpit, tho
the pew does not know it. Supposing
the clergy do lift whole sermons from
Drummond's "Natural Law in the
ISpirituai World" it is no doubt step
in the right direction. Change, always
change, and venture to say for the
better. The world is beginning to
understand that the word "supernatu-
raj" has no meaning that all is natu-
raj; that the moral restrictions put up
on the investigation of pheuomena for
so long time is false. and is nothing
but moral and intellectual slavery.
Good and evil are relative terms, as
are time and space. The different and
varying phases of religion are but be-
neficent synchronisms after all; and
they may not have come far amiss in
fulfilling their mission, and have well fit
ted the age in which they existed. But
to contend that religions, present, are
absolute, immutable, irrefragable, is to
postulate the Infinite himself as a
personality; to prescribe his limita-
tions; for personality is inseparable
from limitation.
Such a position would impose an ab-
solute fatalism upon the author of the
world would be to convert this sub
lime, ever glorious universe into vast
prison house and to incarcerate Him
therein. It commonly has been claimed
by religion that it is the "basis of soci-
ety"-"Yes," the sceptic replies, sand
look at the state of society,"" this reply
is ungenerous and unjust. Religion is at
least a rallying point for society and the
latter has made use of it as such for
some time. Bethat as it may. it is to the
Insignificant few, the thinking minori-
r ty, to whom we owe-whatever progress
has been made up to the present day
I In other words, science has trans
formed the world, tho we rarely render
her the justice and gratitude that lis
her due. 1t is through her that we live
intellectually, and even materially, at
the present day. Science is not always
linfallible, but she is sincere; and when
in error, and the error discovered, she
invariably offers us something new and
inestimabIy better than what she has
stood for in the past. If she does not
go forward by leaps and bounds, it is
because "human passions and the dom
inant interests of life, which blind men
to great facts, remain the same" The
school of Pythagoras, having discarded
the common ideas of the age concern
| ing nature, rose to belief in the dur
nal movement of our planet, which re-
lieved the bOundless heavens of the
absurd necessity of turning every
twenty-four hours round our earth; a
little insignificant spot in limitless
lspace. What cry went up at this!
"Impossiblep' eve would be standing
on our heads, lit conflicts entirely with
the law as propounded by the learned
Mr.. So and So, will not believe it,
| it's hoaxw We hear the same cries
today. and arising from like causes.
J Because we do not gndertand all now,