Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-05-06

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CERTAINTIEs IN RELIGION.


By Henry F. Cope.
IF any man will do his will he
shall know the doctrine John vii,
IT,
Are there any certainties in relig-
ion? Is it not all either mere specu-
lation or a matter Of feeling? Is any
thing susceptible of absolute proof?
Some answer that the religious life
does not need to concern itself with
certainties in anything like the scien-
tif1c sense, while others say that any
kind Of certainty is impossible in
that which has to do with things SO
intangible as the life Of faith.
Yet neither scenticism on one side
nor blind Indifference to facts on the
other will keep man from keenly de-
string to be sure of the things which
seem to him to constitute his religious
life. Who can blame the passion found
in all for some glimpse of the facts
of life beyond, and what more natural
than that we should want to know
whether all the time and thought In
on a delusion or not?
Then come the real questions OF
life: What makes right? What de-
termines ultimately the higher values
in existence? What solution is there
to this mystery of existence, to the
problem of pain, to the shadow OF
death? Why does iniquity seem to
prosper? What becomes of eternal
Justice under our modern conditions
of living.
To many it seems as if there is no
longer anything clearly, definitely set
tied. Once we we're quite sure of the
statements of the creeds and the
church spoke with voice of author
ity. Now the plain fact is that for
many the old compulsions and the Old
imperatives have lost their authority.
What is there to take their place?
The fear of hell persuades few, If
any, to-day; the hope of heaven seems
too indefinite, too uncertain to act as
a motive, even if the securing of good
ness by the promise of a reward could
be counted a commendable moral pro-
cess. Now when man, holds IN the
balance questions of conduct, motives
of fear and reward being absent, what
is there to govern his decision?
It is not necessary to deny the va
lidity of old beliefs in order to assert
the imperative of newer conceptions.
Many things we doubt may be just as
true as those Of which we are most
certain. The difficulty is we are not
convinced of them and we dare not
profess to believe where we remain
unconvinced.
Nevertheless certainties are ours;
they have an authority far greater
than those of past days; they speak,
not from without, but from within.
Childhood listens for the word from
the skies or the message craven on
stone, the man hears the voice within
and obeys the inner witness. All the
external phenomena of religion might
be discredited, but the fact of religion
in the heart of man would remain.
We are sure of ourselves as moral
beings, as those who are capable Of
self-examination, Of choice between
acts, Of determination and RESPONSE
bility. More, we know ourselves as
born for higher things. The great
prophets of the race speak first in our
own breasts. Our aspirations are due
not so much to invitations from above
as to propulsions from within. The
evidence for any revelation is that our
hearts answer to it.
Even though all scriptures and rec
ords should be blotted out, all exter-
nal authority vanish, all the history
of religion be lost to US, yet there
would remain the external trend of
our lives, the longing for fuller, bet
ter life, and the passion for perfec-
ton; there would remain the sense of
harmony with good and the doubt as
to evil, while the record of what we
are reveals the power that has brought
us from what we were.
The essential things are written
where they cannot be erased save by
our neglect or denial of them, that 1t
is better being good than bad, that we
know the good from the evil, that life
was made to climb from level to level,
that love is fairer than hate, that self
seeking is the denial of the best we
know.
The uncertainties are in the past,
matters of yesterdays records; the
certainties are for the life of to-day.
Let man answer the best in himself
with affirmative action, let him give
freedom to his own soul and he shall
know of the truth. Do the right and
the right will be increasing clear.
bate not with the voice that bids you