The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-09-25


weaker in every point which gives
strength to religion. We do not find
in the program of the American
thinker any insistence on the spirit
ual and mystical type" which was 50
important in the religion of his Eng
lish brother. On the contrary, the
more recent set of views marks a step
further towards the definite abandon
nent of religious beliefs. Men whose
cultivation has consisted largely in tn.
development of the critical faculty ara
prone to mistake that the modicum OF
religion which they Echoose to retain
after critical analysis is going to per-
sist as the religion OF the future. But
they began wrong by excluding from
their investigation the very elements
which constitute the religious nature
in them-awe and reverence, and hui
mility and simplicity, and the sense OF
sin and the instinct for prayer. AS a
, result Of their methods, the residue o.
religion grows less and less, until L
threatens to vanish into thin air. The
gold of revelation, piled in huge in
gots in the Church's treasury. has
been beaten and rebeaten under tho
mallets Of Protestant private jud.-
ment and rationalistic criticism until
nothing is left but the glitter. No
wonder that Newman speaks of "the
all-corroding, all dissolving skepticis:n
OF the intellect in religious inquiries, .
and announces the need of divinsIy
constituted authority to repcl it's raw
ages.
| The fate of religion depends (hunlail-
ly speaking) on religious men. It is
not matter to be settled by the leis-
ure speculations Of a retired professor.
1t depends on men OF religious en-
thusiasm like st. Paul men Of sim
plicity Of heart like ST. Francis. men
of meditative 'piety like Newman. i.
matters not how dark the clouds Of
unbelief may lower, or that there b.
but one prophet left that has not
bowed the knee to- {slal Aeel What pro-
tessor in n. Antioch: Il Athens in ths
first century of our era believed that
an obscure Jewish sect would in thr ;e
centuries dominate the empire? The
incipient rationaistic spirit Of t;,r
twelfth century was met and overcome
by the religious revival of the mendi-
cant friars who finally, in the pc"
sons of Aquinas and Ronaventure, took
possession of the universities. In tho
days of Shaftesbury and Toland il
would have seemed all easy phophe:y
that a form Of Deism not unlike Eliot.
ism was destined to control the stream
of English thought If there were
such seer, he failed to see the depths
Of the human soul. or to foresee John
Wesley
DR.. Eliot predicts new kind OF re.
| ligion-What he should be able 20
| promise first is a new kind of man.
The old genus homo, as we meet I,
in history books or on the street, is not
of sort to worship a multiplication
of inf1nities Or look on surgeons as
sacred ministers performing holy rites
Mankind will have real religion, or
none at all. 1t wants God to love
and fear and pray to. It's religion
must be message from on high
which will give light in dark places
and strength in temptation and con
ISOLATION in the trials and losses of this
life. And it will have it's dogmas. too
A creedless religion Is thoughtless
religion. The only valuable religious
elements in DR.. Eiots plan are dog
mas. His Pantheiatic God il a. dox
ma, his ideal OF plogress is a doRm.
his law of love is a dogma, Ev,
his denials are doEmas; but these arc
not valuable. It is true, as Chester
ton says. that "the modern world 4,
filed with men who hold doRmas ::
strongly that they do not even knox
they are dOgmas ...
| The new religion will neither salts
fy the needs of religious natures n5I
f, hold the allegiance Of those whs
through various causes are forsakinl
the ancient faiths. 1t is a. house butt
| halfway down on steep and slip.
i perry hillside, and below it lie tn
quagmires of agnpsticism and pessi
/, mis,n. Those who would escape til.
solid ground must rise on the wings Of
faith.
Uncle Joe-"Yes, Teddy, it is quite
| possible that there are neonle n RI 4