Arizona republican., 1911-03-27
FIONA, MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 27, 1911.

brought about by the teachings of
 modern science and philosophy. | Young men can scarcely realize the | tremendous revolution which has oc- ' cured in the intellectual world in
 the last fifty years. We older men
 may not altogether appreciate it | unless we have given some study and | thought to the subject.
 There has been an overturning
 of beliefs all along the line. Politics, political economy, and sociology have all been effected by the discoveries
 of science and the new philosophy
 which has been built thereon. It is
 not strange, therefore, that religion movement. l. could not very we'll
 he otherwise than confusing and un- settling to the men who have accept
 ed the new teachings and become
 imbued with the spirit of modern thought
 The particular question shall attempt to discuss. briefly. is wheth- CT we, as intelligent, thinking men are right in maintaining an attitude of indifference in this matter of re- lision upon the assumption that the fundamentals of belief have been so destroyed in the course of modern thought as to make it negligible thing good enough for pious old ladies, or effeminate or enaemic men, but presenting no appeal to a man of full blood and normal intellect.
 ''I shall attempt to argue the case fnr iurif In ha notwithstanding the light which modern science and discovery has shed upon the universe of which we are part, the fundamental truths of the Christian religion still re- main to make it a thing which any man may accept without violence to his intellect.
 'I do not. at the outset. lay claim to any great amount of learning. I have, however. read to some extent | the modern philosophers from Spen- ! cer to the late Professor James and | Earnest Haeckel, and have some lit | tie understanding of each. Out of | all this reading and thought has l come a fairly definate and certain | conviction as to the first and es- |
 
 lief: namely. as to the existence of | God. How else can you account for the unity and harmony that reign supreme in the universe of matter. believe that God exists. l believe also that he is a personality in the sense that he possesses consciousness as we do, only in the absolute and not in the relative sense
 This raises the profound and far question, how, and in what way is man related to Deity? Is here any difference in that rela- ion than in the case of other ex- stences. I answer that question n this way.
 The laws of the physical universe ire immutable and unchangeable having their origin in the immutable md unchangeable nature of God The laws of conscious life are also he same. yesterday, today and for ,ver. The laws of right and wrong Ire the same always, and every where, and apply with equal force to III men. But conscious life, as it xists in man has a certain freedom f choice Man may choose the fight and reject the wrong, or he nay reject the right and choose he wrong. In other words. man is more or less free moral agent. To not mean to say that heredity and play no part in deter mining fhe character and even the onduct of men. l only mean that hey are not the sole and only fac ; DTS that enter into the problem of ood and evil; that there is a respon- ibility which is personal and which ach must assume and does assume s a part. parcel and consequence of i his divine gift of consciousness 'hese, therefore, are the first two rticles of my creed A personal { tod having absolute consciousness. nd the source and center of all ( man. endowed with ( leasure of this divine attribute of | and capable of its xercise as free moral agent.
 Now we come to even a more ractical uestion. What about the 'ivine origin of Christianity. and 4 what about Revelation? | Suppose, as a starting point you iscard the theory of inspiration. uppose you accent the destructive riticism of the most advanced higher rites and ascribe to the story of ne creation as given in the book f Genesis, the story of the fall of Ian and the account of the delugel s Chaldean versions of old Babel nian myths and legends. Suppose ou accept the theory that the Pen iteuch, as we now have it. was 'ritten, or at least edited in the time Ezra, six hunrded years before | hrist. Suppose you explain that drama, the book of Job, le wonderful poetry as found in l
 Continued on page eight)