The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1911-11-25
from the field

By BILL cox.


Every rung of the ladder we gain
toward that eminence of complete
knowledge, a very sparsely settled
space, adds new force to the accen.
tuation of a consciousness of the
fact that prejudice is the eldest
daughter of ignorance and the
mother of intolerance.
| have during my association with
religionists heard them call each
other sectarians and members of a
sect. The accusation invariably
ELECTED a pretty warm denial, 50
without taking the pains to consult
a dictionary | had formed firmly
fixed opinion that raca was a COM
plimentary term compared with sect
have remained in my benighted COLI
dition but for the fact that l butted
into, not a religious but a Biblical
discussion on the street and told Il
gentleman who is inclined to be
rather harsh toward sectarianism
that he was full of 1t himself. AS I
expected he bitterly denied 1t and
told me did not know II, meaning
Of word, calling on me for defin,-
ton to which | replied that Of
course l knew but as he was not
my schoolmaster I was not forced TO
answer. After leaving him
thought that possibly was mistaken
about the real meaning Of the term,
SO / consulted my old friend Noah
Webster. LII. D., and made the dis
covery that I had been cropping IN
darkness all my life. The idea
had gotten from the pulpit and from
street theologians was that a sec
tartan was one who was so deeply
stepped in the doctrine of some par
ticular denomination that he did not
reco gnize any virtue in any other,
rather a sectarian was an uncom-
promising stickler for some particu
lar form of doctrine whose bigotrs
and intolerance would prompt him to
apply the torch to the fagots laid
about those who did not agree with
his doctrine. | thought sect to
be any religious denomination or
political party. Imagine my sur
prise when Webster told me that
sect WAS body or number of per
sons united in tenets, chiefly Ia
philosophy or religion. but consti-
tutirg a distinct party by holding
&{yp,a re "A
other men. He says that a sectarian
is one of a sect: one of party in
religion which has separated itself
from the established church, or
which holds tenets different from
those of the prevailing denomina-
ton In a Kingdom or a state, To
state the case sufficiently a sectariah
is nothing but a dissenter or one
who does not give assent to an es-
tablished system. Applying the
facts of history to this definition We
find that all the progress that ever
has been and most probably ever
will be made toward the establish
nent of comparatively perfect
system of religion has been and VIII
be through the fundamentally OF
dissenters from established usages
or doctrines Man utilitarlan lit
stinct has prompted him by pro-
cess of evolution to advance from
the crude methods of the savage to
the use of numbcrless time and LABOR
saving implements in the industrial
arts. His religion being more OF
Sa0batical institution and In no way
contributing any thing toward the
attainment of creature comforts, not
being a necessary adjunct to MS
struggle for the sustenance or HE,
he is prone to accept 1t a. 1t Is de-
Iivered to him by those inacclesias-
teal authority, and seldom taxes
the pains to consider whether hic
doctrine is logical or probably true.
The consequence Is that improve
ments in religious tenets have been
rather the result Of solution than
of evolution. When we review the
history of the efforts of men TO con-
struct a system of religion logical,
human and al the same time prac-
tically in harmony with what Is
commonly denominated Holy Writ,
we are reminded that every pro-
gressive step that has been the mi
tiative of some bold, thoughtful, Sc
rious minded individual who had
the courage to dissent from or pro-
test against the established church.
The several thousand different chris
tain denominations have mostly
from time to time separated them
selves from some mother church es-
tablished a sect and become secta-
rians. The Catholic church having
at one time been the dominant
church OF Christendom, those VINO
separated themselves therefrom 1e-
came sects The followers of wy
elirfe, Huss, Jerome and Luther were
sectarians in their day. Later John
Wesley's dissent from the tenets ana
praeticer of the church of England
and the consequent origin of Hetho-
dist church made the church sect
and Its members sectarians. Alexan-
der Campbell in the nineteenth cen