Year: 1876

class of practical men in the world. II
the Church could he maintained more Sc.
cnrclv, if the general morals of society
were better sustained in consequence of
this prescription, the sin might find
some cxtcnuation. But the spirit OF the
aye is such that prescription is proscEib.
ed and intolerance not tolerated.


1t cannot he denied that positivism is
the leaning Of the age. Men are begin
ming to believe only that which they
know. and to receive no mere assertions
of Others Thi5 is the influence of the
rrcat Baconinn theory Of induction. A
large number of similar phenomena are
clusscd together, and any relation com
mon to them all is gcnernli2cd as n new
law. This is the principle in the discov-
cries of science, in mechanics, in all the
operations Of trade and commerce. 1t is
the basis of all advancement in human
experience, and every new accession ot
human knowledge is gained by the same
process. This principle enters into the
politics of the State, and the statesman
feels his way along into the darkness
ahead with the same caution that the
scientific man and the philosopher use.


1t is natural that this universal and
positive habit of mind should extend it.
self into the spiritual knowledge OF the
world. The horizon of the material
world is bounded by the spiritual. We
can know the physical world of the
spiritual we know nothing save by in
ference We do not know OF its exist.
ence save by inference, We have had
no message from it, save that which
comes from the desires and hopes of the
human breast. Angels are only imagin-
ary creations. Their celestial habiiments
float only in the human fancy their per.
sOnalities are always represented in like
ness Of man as painted upon the canvas
of the artist or chisclled on the cold
marble, The spirit world is but the nat
ural world in which we live, reproduced
in some superior locality with all the sin
and sorrow left out.


The history of religious advancement
is only the history of the moral develop
ment of the human race. What Athana.
sius or Chysostom or Calvin taught is
of no binding force upon me. have no
interest in it except as I have an int rest
in all facts Of history. Of what binding
force can be the annunciations of Aristo-
tie in politics, any farther than he an
nounced absolute truths which have
been sustained by the experience of man
kind? OF no more binding force on me
are the annunciations of Luther, of Cal
win, or Of any modern dogmatist in the
olcgy. The authority of antiquity has
no more binding effect upon the human
mind in theology than in politics. That
theology and that politics are the best
for the moral welfare of the people
which hest suit their character and needs
Catholicism, it must he conceded, has
been blessing to millions, because it
held them 10 some moral law and relig-
ious observance. As last as their social
needs pass beyond the ability of that
Church to supply them, Catholicism,
must give way to semc other religion.
1t is so with Professionalism it is so with
limited monarchies. absolutisms, or de.
mocracles.


1t is as certain to men now as it ever
can be, that no dogmatic laws can be
laid down in theology any more than in
the State. The Church and its teuet,
are but the constitution of the mora
State. That constitution, and the laws
arising ont of it, must change with the
changing character of the people. The
different churches are only minor States
within the States; they minister to the
moral, as the State ministers to the po
litical, wants. They appeal to rever
ence, and the State to intellect. Both
l L. g.. 4


able to meet the progressive develop
ment of the human character, and tn,
varying circumstances Of nations his
tory. Neither can claim absolute au
thority in this age any farther than til,
laws and principles and formularies tha
they have evolved have met the sanction
Of the universal sense of mankind. Six
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