The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-09-26

heathenish darkness, and are merely
now escaping from 1t, The heathen
has had his idol Of wood and stone
while we have had more ethereal ones.
The heathen's idols are ugly enough.
yet far less horrible than the creed
idols of civilized lands. No excuse
will longer maintain idol worship of
any kind.
Looking For the Truth
The great difficulty with the masses
is that, repudiating the idols, they are
lapsing into agnosticism-doubt. They
know not what they believe. They
are looking for the Truth. They find
the leaders of the creeds still bowling
formally to the idols. but privately
repudiating them. Such leaders are
unworthy Of confidence and only par
tally honest. Hungry and thirsty for
something to satisfy the craving Of
their hearts, the famishing people are
turning toward pleasure. They are
lovers OF pleasure more than lovers of
Cod"
Comparatively few any longer be-
lieve in purgatory or everlasting tor
ment, but they believe that these doc
trines have Scriptural foundation,
which they proportionately discredit,
and charge with being the source OF
all their ignorance and superstition in
the past. With faith in the Bible gone,
the masses know not where to go nor
whom to trust respecting enlighten-
ment regarding the future. They are
reaching the conclusion that every
thing is a big guess, and that they
may as well do their own guessing as
to pay minister to do 1t for them.
The situation is q deplorable one.
As we have already intimated. human
ity is so constituted that religion holds
the very highest place in his mental
organism-the seat OF power and CON
troll in all the affairs of his life. With
no fixed conviction, men are drifting.
The learned are going into infidelity,
under the more refined name of High
err Criticism. The poor and less learn
ed are going into doubt respecting any
intelligent Creator or Supervisor. AS
matter of fact they are saying not
only there is no God who would tor
ment mankind eternally, but appar-
emily, There Is no God who takes any
interest in humanity.
In this frame OF mind Socialism ap-
peals to them. They propose to bring
about Paradise Restored" by the
power of Socialism They say to them
selves. eve are without God, without
future hope. and without confidence
in our former views, let us eat, drink
ana be merry'--let us enjoy life-let us
get all that we can OF pleasure out OF
present existence, for we are hopeless
respecting a future one" Is 1t any
wonder that the Apostle foretold that,
under these conditions. the masses
would become more and more pleas
ure-mad?
Thus we account for the great la
ment that Is going up from all
churches that the pews are empty and
the collection-boxes empty, and that
the system would go down except fol-
the benevolent wealthy, who really do
not believe in the creed idols, but who
desire that others shall believe In them
and worship them. In a word. the
crowds which once hOcked to the
churches, with their nickels and pen
MES. now make for the theatres and
crowd the hard rough "bleachers" OF
the ball grounds They have become
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers OF
God, because the representations OF
God in the various creeds are too re
pulslve. too irrational, too devilish, to
| be longer believed in or worShipped
| What the people need IL general
smashing of all the creed idols and the
Bible, and to the worship Of the true
God, which the Bible sets forth
Preachers Are In Perplexity
No men In the world are to be more
sympathIzed with than the preachers
| The creed Idols have been richly en-
dowed by well-meaning votaries OF tn,
past The interests of the clergy are
all wrapped up with the interests Of
the creed idols--not only their iinancia
interests, but their honor, dignity
titles. The question with the clergy
today is. How can we smash the creet
idols? How can we destroy then
without ourselves perishing with them
III we tell the common people plainly
whnt we believe, they will all leav'
the creed idols, They will ask us, How
long Is II since you came to this con
clusion? II we tell them thnt we hav,
not believed in our creeds for man,
years, will they not call us hypocrltica
and lose their confidence In usp And
besides, what could we offer them in
stead2
1t Is no secret that the great ma
jority OF the educated clergy are t0ta
unbeievers. not only In the creed'
which they profess, hut also in tn,
Blble-they call themselves Higher
Critics" and "EvoIutionists," They
have nothing that they could teach the
people, except their doubts, their mis-
understandings. Having lost faith II
the creed IDOLS, they are seeking fol
the true God, in whom the masses be
lieve little enough as 1t is They ar,
hniInu IN God md ralipiOua thInus n,