Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-06-10
Do We Believe?

do we believe, and IL so, WHAT
To this question a partial answer has
been essayed based upon some 5000
letters received by the London Daily
Telegraph, secular paper, which some
months ago opened it's pages to cor
respondence on the subject. A selection
from these letters, with an analyti-
cal introduction by Mr. w. J.. Courtney,
editor of The Fortnightly Review, has
now appeared in book form, and the
old question, thus so prominently
brought forward, is attracting the at
tention Of the press in America as we'll
as in England The leading features
Of the correspondence are set forth in
a recent issue of the London Specta-
tor. The first letter, which stirred up
the whole discussion, was signed OK
oniensis." OF this writer's attitude The
Spectator says:
HE, enters into no niceties Of meta
physical theology. He deals with broad
issues on common ground. All forms
of Christianity postulate future life.
a life infinitely more important, inf
nitely longer, than this, for which the
present life is but a preparation. Do
we act as If we believed that this
world was preparation for the next?
he asks. is the prevalent cast of our
minds one in which the present is ting
ed with the mystery of the future?
The Sermon on the Mount is, l sup
pose hid continues, our ethical text
book. lust as the Divine Founder of our
religion Is the great exemplar of how
we ought to live For the sake OF
lbriefness he tabulates the ideals OF
the Sermon on the Mount as 1t is IL
Illustrated by the life of Christ, and the
ideals Of the world as he sees them.
The first are, he says, the ideals OF
poverty humility absence OF re-
yenge,' 'self-sacrifice, Innocence,
purity of thought as we'll as action
and love toward enemies The ideals
Of the world are wealth. 'ostentation,'
.notoriety,' self-assertion,' selfishness,
compromise (the ideal of the politl-
cian).' and fashionable impurity
Which of these two creeds, he asks do
we believe? They are absolutely an
tithetical and contradictory
This was answered by letter OF
which the Spectator gives us the fol-
lowing digest:
+ "To the question DO we believe? the
writer returns distinct negative NO.
What realistic mind dare speak for
the majority and affirm the contrary
Rut he puts another like question
which he answers in the affirmative:
Are we religious? Yes We are, he
maintains, less dogmatic, but not less
deyout. AS to whether we practice,
that, he says, is not question spec
tally belonging to today DID they
practice Christianity In the ages OF
faith? Nevertheless, the Christian re-
ligion has been, he believes, the great
est ally which morality has ever had.
He gives voice, to that calm and poig-
nant pessimisrn' which he regards as
the prevalent attitude of mind among
the thoughtful of today, to whom he
saws: Mere atheism seems, from the
intellectual and scientific point of view,
less rational than the crudest tenets
Of the straitest sects' Apart from
that conviction of the essential divin-
ity of the unseen, the dogmas rattle
like dry bones in EzekieIs valley,
where no wind blows In the differ
ences between the sects, he writes,
modern men take less and less inter-
est. The churches present different
facades but the variety of architec-
ture is less important than the fact
that the foundations are slowly set
Ting under the lot"