Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1906-06-01

lection without examination. Neither
should 1t be the habltual dwelling in q
fog of uncertainty. 1t is inquiry and
examination; it is the mental process
through which all things must pass it
is a road that leads to faith. 1t Is
the attitude Of mind that says: 81
have been endowed with reasoning
powers; 1t were an irreliglous act to
refuse to use them on all things"
The man who is too indolent to in
vestigate, too impoverished of intellect
to examine doctrines and PHILOSOPHERS,
to appreciate truth and eradicate error
that man finds 1t easy and convenient
to exercise his credulity and call 1t
faith. To him 1t Is a reprehensible
thing to unsettle established beliefs, for
1t means that they must be carefully re-
constructed and this involves unnec-
essary labor.
If he wants peace man would bet
ter steal a kingdom than breathe one
word against the petrlfed formulas of
the fathers. No offense can be greater
than that of disturbing them and caus-
ing them to do their thinking all over
again. To them their creed Is a key
to unlock the gate of heaven; to change
its shape in the minutest degree would
be to destroy its usefulness, and even
to inquire whether there might not be
another key is 10 manifest the deprav
ity of one who would enter in as
burglar.
All discoverers have been doubters
They have refused to accept the last
word of the stay-at-homes as to what
might be abroad. Their doubt led to
faith, faith so strong and sublime
that 1t compelled them to leave ease
and face hardship, to forsake friends
and face loneliness and hatred. Often
the bravest of all men is he who con-
fronts ancient opinion with the sword
of an interrogation.
The only doubts we need to dread are
those Of the professional doubter, the
man who seeks darkness rather than
light, or the man who delights in erect
ing intellectual stumbling blocks that
he may show how easily he vaults them.
Sometimes it would seem as though the
religious world were divided into two
parties-those who hope for salvation
by blindly believing everything and
those who seek fame by blataritly deny,
ing all things.
But between the two there Is the
course of the sane man who uses the
reasoning powers he has, who doubts
all things only that he may prove them
that good may be thrashed from bad
and worthless. To him doubt Is path
and not terminus, a method and not a
product; he comes at last, through the
testing Of doubt, to certainty, to faith
founded on facts.
The wise man leaves many perplex-
ing problems to themselves. There are
difficulties not worth the solving, mere
matters of idle speculation, becoming
| diminutive beside real duties. There
are difficulties which, when laid away,
like thangled skeln, seem to unravel
themselves Problems Of history and
of speculation come to have little weight
as compared with the proving of the
daily questions of present duty.
The great thing is to find that which
is good, that which Is worth holding
fast and that is found not by specu-
lative inquiry, but by plain doing Of
the best we know. Don't worry over
doctrines. Do the deeds Of the best
life. If there are things you cannot be-
lieve, forget them; go right on with
the business Of building the life on
the things that are good, on the lines
laid down by the life that ever has
been the light of men. The practice of
his precepts leads to the possession of
his principles. With these at base life
comes out of the shifting uncertainty
and takes on form, order, and mean
ing, and finds enduring firmness.