Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-03-03
EFor Sunday Reading. ]
All Sorts Of Opinions. i
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Goodwin Smiths Last Word"


an enemy to religion, though they may
have frankly admitted the difficulties
of belief Their writer was moved by
the gravity of the crisis, social as well
as political, so great part having
been socially played by religion. He
has been attempting to define the po-
sition, drawing the line between that
which must be abandoned and that
which is left, trying to guard against
the proclivities of the hour and plead
ing for perfect freedom OF inquiry, es-
pecially on behalf of the clergy, an or
der set apart and specially qualified
for spiritual work.
There has been no more attack in
these letters upon any particular re-
ligion than upon religion in general.
Nothing of that kind could have been
offered to The Sun.
Thus we stand. From highly edu-
Gated and perfectly open minds the be-
lief in the Bible as an inspired vol
ume on which the Christian world had
been resting seems to have departed.
We are left with the collected body
OF Hebrew literature. profoundly In
teresting, profoundly important form
ing on the whole an upward step in the
movement of humanity, but varying
with the different authorships in ele-
walton as well as in literary character,
and marred in parts by tribalism and
by the primitive morality of early
times which. being taken for the divine
morality, has wrought much evil.
Few now deny that Genesis is
mythical. The dogmatic part OF Chris
tianity must apparently share its fate.
II there was no Fall of Man, there
could be no occasion for an atonement,
no room for an incarnation. The
sophistication of the myth in Genesis
hopeless. The evidence Of the gospel
miracles. and notably of the resurrec-
ton, has given way under critical ex-
animation. But there still remain to
us the character of Jesus and His
teachings, with the record of the effect
of those teachings on human character
and progress, so far as they have been
allowed fair play. The barrier between
Christendom and heathendom is fall
ing. The liberal theism of the Chris
tian begins to join hands with the lib
eral theism Of the Hindoo
On the optimist theism of Leibntz
and the Bridgewater Treatises we can
rest no more. Science has revealed
much in the heavens as we'll as on
earth, and forced us to see on earth
many things, such as the ruthless
waste Of animal life, to which we had
before shut cur eyes. Evidently, if In
the government Of the universe per-
fo j,,S
bined with omnipotence, the benevo-
lence must be in the ultimate design.
A hint of that kind our own conscious
ness may supply in our feeling that eff
fort is essential to moral perfection
The movement. in the case of hui
manity at least. is on the whole up
ward and onward; while through the
nobler part of our nature. with its pure
affections, it's poetry and tenderness,
and even through the beauty of the
earth and the glory of the starry skies
spirit seems to commune and sym
pathize with ours. Metaphysical argu-
ments will not hold. That a thing cam
not be conceived by us may be a proof
only of our mental limitations But
certainly nothing can to us be more in
COHCcINaDlC lildil lllC 6CiiCi dtiOii VI
mind and spirit from matter. mo man
hath seen God at any time seems to
be the sum of our present knowledge.
From the uniformity of natural law
we infer the unity of its author. Hy-
potheses non lingo was the motto of
Newton. which in this matter it will
be specially well for us to observe.
The belief seems to be gaining
ground that life beyond the grave is a
fond illusion, at best platonic spec
ulation; that man at the last lies down
and dies like the dog; that death con-
sequently cancels all moral distinc-
tons and levels the greatest benefactor
with the worst enemy of his kind. The
old arguments in favor of the doctrine
of Immortality. derived from the sep
arate existence and indiscerptibility of
the soul such as were used by Bis
hop Butler, physiology, it must b."
owned, has swept away. There re-
mains to us the testimony of con-
science, telling US that as we do well
or i'll in this life it will be we'll or III
for us in the end. No more, in fact,
was told us by the founder of Chris
tendon, whose words concerning a flu
ture state notably the story of Dives
and Lazarus, are apologize and mag
cry, not revelation. But the voice of
conscience has not yet been explained
away. From the fear of the Dantean
hell and the hideous idea of God as an
eternal torturer, which it involves, the
world has been set free.
We live amid a rush of physiolog-
zeal discovery, against the effect Of
which we have to be on our guard
1t seems premature to assume that the
sensible beginning is the origin of life:
or that the material character of the
germ necessary limits the development
and bars spiritual outcome as the
end. Always we have to remember
that our knowledge is bounded by our
senses. and that we may be in world
quite other than that which sense re-
veals.
In the ministries of the different
churches are number of men, dedl-
Gated to a spiritual calling, whose
character and learning, if they We're
free, might be very helpful. But they
are in bondage to tests under which
many of them writhe, resorting to
shifts of Interpretation whereby they
do more harm than good. 1t is surely
in the interest of all who desire the
truth that clerical thought and speech
should be set free.
Such appears to be in general outline
our present position. There is no use