Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-09-27

The passion for absolute truth and
r1ghtness Is one Of the noblest that can
spring up in any breast; it is a ripe
fruit Of religion. The scientist, by his
devotion to exact facts, to pure truth,
Is the religious man Of our day, and
the schools become religious educators
In their power to instill a primary love
for truth and to lift up ideals Of exact
ness and equity.
When we translate religion into
terms of life, into actuaIity as con-
trasted with imagination, we begin to
discover the necessity for foundations
deeper than legend or romance So long
as mans religion consisted Of imagi-
nation on the canvas of fancy about
his past or future he did not need to
take his designs from facts.
But when religion becomes the sci
ence Of right living the process Of Sc
curing right social relationships and
character as the expression of ideal per-
sonal and individual character, it is
evident that in such a work religion
must proceed on ascertained, indisputa-
Bile verities
We may be satisfied with myths as
to the ordering Of the first family, and
we may leave to the play of fancy the
specifications Of an ideal heaven; but
when we begin to order our own fam
lilies and adjust our social and civic af-
fairs we are compelled to wait for prin-
ciples based on facts, for truth. Re-
ligion thus becomes a science.
Much eloquence was spilled over the
conflict between religion and science.
1t was only a conflict between the old
religion and its new form, between the
gray dawn and the growing day. Our
fathers were not wilfully false, holding
on to darkness when the light came;
but they so long had held sacred the
pictures seen in twilight they were
loath to give them up for those Of the
full days printing.
The most damaging infidelity is the
lack of faith in truth, the fear that it
might not be safe to allow all the facts
to be known. He who in the name Of
religion seeks to prevent our seeing and
accepting the full facts Is religions
greatest foe. Only the full truth can
set us fully free, intellectually, spirit
ually, morally.
Why should we fear the light Of in
vestigatiOn on the things Of religion?
There Is more sacredness in simple
truth than in secrecy. 1t were better
to be lost forever seeking truth than
saved by sophistry. How foolish to at
tempt to adjust our lives by laws built
out Of speculation, to attempt to steer
by a compass when there is no pole Of
truth?
In to-day's changing tides Of thought,
when the old faiths seem slipping away,
when we wonder why we have lost the
simple faith Of our own youth or our
fathers, looking for some firm ground
for our feet, we do well to set them
down on nothing but facts, to discrim-
mate among the sands Of time and the
alluvial deposits Of tradition till we
find the rock Of truth.
But facing the facts we find every
where one writ large, over all one great
principle Of unchanging law, one great
purpose moving through all nature and
all history, and what we once only
dared to hope and dream, that back of
all there throbs infinite love and there
rules infinite wisdom, now is attested
by the impressive array Of the wit
nesses of science.
Truth always is safe. The hottest
error must be born of hell. We can
make no mistake in refusing to go be-
vond truth, and we will find that she
leads to the ordering of life according
to eternal laws, to the doing Of duties
and finding of sweet joys as old as the
hills and as unchanging; she Will lead
in the paths Of rightness.
Some day our race will know all the
alphabet Of nature and be able to read
the story of the unchanging goodness;
some day we shall comprehend the wa
vering handwriting of history; some
dav we shall catch the harmony of
love and law; we shall know the full
+rnth that is religion; shall know
things as they are and be what we
should be.