On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Christianity . This Introduction we must entirely except from our previous strictures . It is Avritten in the author ' s best manner , and is full of fresh vigorous thought . Our readers will probably prefer a few extracts from it to further criticism .
Why Christianity appears Miraculous , " What power there must have been in the ideas and the life of those men , tc effect such . a conquest in such a time ! . It is no wonder that many ordinary men , who know Christianity by rote , and heroism by hearsay , and who think that to join a fashionable church is ' to renounce the world /—it is no wonder that they think Christianity spread miraculously , that God wrote a truth and sowed Christianity broadcast , and if noen would not take it without , He harrowed it into them by miracle . Judging from their consciousness , what is there that they know which could explain the spread of Christianity , and the heroism of a man laying his head , and his wife" a and children's heads , on the block for a conscientious conviction ? Doubtless they are just and true to what is actual in themselves in believing that Christianity spread by miracle ; and if a man has not soul enough to trust that soul , it is easy to see how he may think that every ' great truth came by miracle . An Esquimaux would suppose that a railroad car went miraculously .- "
Characteristics or the Anglo-Saxon Mind . " The Anglo-Saxons are a burly-minded race of men ; more ethical than imaginative , artistic , or philosophical , they arc the most practical people at this day in all Christendom . " With consummate skill to organize things into machines , and men into industrial States , they have now the same controlling force in the practical affairs , of the Teutonic nations , —yes , of Christendom , —which the Germans have in the world of pure thinking . The -Anglo-Saxon loves things ; the German , thoughts . The one symbolizes his individuality by a visible-hedge about his field , distinguishing it from his neighbour ' s property ; the other by some peculiar idea of his own ; one conquers new lands , accumulates material riches , and founds States ; the other conquers ideas , accumulates vast intellectual treasures , and founds systems of philosophy and theology . The Anglo-Saxon is singularly direct , simple , and devoid of subtlety ; his mind , his language , and his government , are distinguished for plainness and simplicity—for absence of complication . He seizes things by their great relations , and
seldom understands the nicer complications which are so attractive to the German . This simplicity appears also in the metaphysical systems of the Anglo-Saxons , and in their Theology . There are numerous sects in their churches ; but they depend on obvious and palpable differences , not on nice and abstruse distinctions . The sects differ in the form of church-government—by Bishops , by Elders , or the People ; in the form of the ritual—baptizing in babyhood or in manhood , from a porringer or a pond ; in the arithmetic of deity—considering the Godhead as one person or as more than one ; in the damnation or ' . salvation of mankind . These and similar differences , easily comprehended by any one who can count his fingers , are the matters on which . the Anglo-Saxons divide into sects . The subtle questions which vexed the Greeks in'the Patristic age , the Italians and Celts in the Scholastic age , or the modern Germans in the Critical age , seldom disturb the sturdy and straightforward intellect of the English and Americans , intent on the ultimatum of practice , not the process of speculation . "
Want of vitalitv ix Jicclesiastical Institutions . " Take the whole Christian world at this day—where is the vigour , the energy , the fivitlv in God , the love for man which marked the lives of those persons who built churches with their lives ? Taken as a whole , the clergy of Christendom oppose the foremost science , justice , philanthropy , and piety of the age . The ecclesiastical institutions seem to bear the same relation to mankind now , as the ecclesiastical institutions of the Hebrews and Heathens two thousand years ago . Every year the Science of the scholar separates him further and further from the Theology of the churches . The once united Church is rent into three . The infallibility of the Itoman Church—who believes it ? tho Pope , the superior Catholic clergy ? The Infallibility of the Bible , —its divine origin , its miraculous inspiration—do the Scholars of Christendom believe that in defiance of Mathematics , Physics , History , and Psychology ? They leave it to the clergy . The Trinity is shaken ; men lose
their faith in the eflicacy of water-baptism , and other artificial . sacraments , to save the souls of men ; miracles disappear from the belief of all but the clergy . Do they believe them ? The Catholic doubts the medieval miracles of his own Church ; it is in vain that , the Virgin Mary reappears in Switzerland and France ; that Saint . lanuarius annually liquifies his blood ; that . statues weep ; the stomachs of realtors refuse such bread . It avails nothing to threaten . scientific doubters with eternal hell . Superior talent forsakes the Church , —even in Catholic countries , there are few clergymen of genius , or even great talent . In Protestant Germany theological genius teaches in the college , not in the pulpit ; : jmd with new science ' destroys the medieval opinions it was once set to defend . Will the spirit of the ; human race come back and reanimate the dry bones of dead Theology p When the mummies of TTCgypt . shall worship again thoir half-forgotten gods—() . sirin , Orus , Apis , lsis ; when mankind goes back to the other . sciences of lmlf-Havago life , the Theology of that period may be welcomed again . oNfot till then .
" What need there is of u now religious life ! The three great public forces of the leading nations of Christendom , — Business , Politics , and flu ; Press , excite a great intellectual activity . Christendom was never so thoughtful jis now . Shall ' thin great movement of mind be unreligious , without consciousness of <» od ? It will not be controlled by the Theology of the Christian Church . But it , is not a wicked ago . What philanthropic '* are there new born in our lime ? Catholic , France , is rich in the literature of charity , shaming the lnuiglitiiie . su of tho Anglo-Saxon Church . Yet within not many years at what , great , cost I ihh Kiighmd set , free almost a million men ' owned' as wlaves ! Nay , . 'Russian Nicholas emancipates hid serfs . Socialists neck to abolish poverty , and all the cur . sn . s it brings on tho body and the spirit of that
man . Wise men begin to see , the majority of criniinulsi are the victims of society moro than its foes , and seek to abolish the causes of crime ; what pahiN are taken with the poor , the crazy , tin ? lame , the blind , the deaf , thci dumb ; nay , with the fool ! Great , mm look at tho condition of woman—and ^ onerous heur tod women rise up to emancipate their sex . TIio churches are busy with their Theology and their ritual , and cannot , attend much to these great ; buniaiio movements ; they must , appease the ' wrath of God , ' or baptize men ' s bodies with water and Uiei ' iminds with wind . Still the work goni op , but , without , a corresponding coiiHciousjiewi of God , and connexion with the religious emotions . No wonder Christendom Hcenis tending to unurcby . Dut it is only the anarch y which comes of the breaking up of darkness . "
Throughout the volume we alight here and there on passages woi-fT , of quotation ; but we must confine ourselves to two . u * my The Theological View of Divine Manifestations . " The authors of the popular theology had no conception of a uniformity of force , no conception of a universal law , whereby the Infinite God works , in the wo Id of matter and of spirit—in short , ho conception of the Infinite God . So theoloeia make two forms of operations in the universe . One is the ' work of Nature' 1 * means of law—a constant mode of the operation of a constant force ; the other istt /" ' work of Grace / by means of miracles—inconstant modes of the operation of an ' constant force . Wheat grows out of the ground by the laws of Nature , and is itl thought , in theology , eminently to show the goodness of God ; but when Jesus is said to have made five loaves feed five thousand men , besides women and child and leave twelve baskets of broken bread , that is thought a miracle , to reveal th '
immense power of God , and to show much more of his goodness than the whe f growing from the bosom of the earth , century out and century in , and furnishine food for the whole human race . Newton writes the Principia of the universe h writes by the 'light of Nature' and describes only the ' work of Nature / and it " considered , theologically , a small thing . St . Jude writes an epiatle of twenty-five verses and it is claimed that he wrote by the ' light of miraculous inspiration ' V book is a ' work of Grace / a miracle ; and the production of Jude is thought to be incomparably greater than the Principia of Newton , with the Mecanique Celeste of La Place thrown in . ' Newton and La Place / says this theology , ' write by tha carnal reason , and their works are fallible ; while Jude wrote by miraculous inspiration , and his writings are infallible / "
The Great Hop * . " God is democratic and loves all , but the odds between the natural gifts of John and James may be greater than the difference betwixt the plains of Lombard y and the Alps which look down thereon . Men may try to forget this fact ; America mayput little , mean men with mediocrity of intellect , into her president ' s , chair ; may put little mean men with ordinary mind and with feeble conscience , with inferior affections and a paltry soul , into their pulpits ; but God still goes on creating his great masterly men , with immense intellect and commensurate moral , affectional and religious powers , who , while they come to bless , perforce must overawe and terrify the littleness which burrows in state and church : men who receive the earliest salutation of new-rising truth , and shed it down , reflecting from far up the Higher Law ' s intolerable day on president and priest . Alas ! great minds have hitherto been commonly the tyrants of the times , oppressors in the state , and worse
oppressors m the church : and humble men believed that God was only Might , not also Right and Love ; so they paid a base and servile homage to the great oppressor , and trod down justice , mercy , love , in their haste to kneel before a Pope or King . Jesus of Nazareth is still exceptional in the ' world ' s long life ; Napoleon Is instantial . But if selfish popes and kings are common his tory , the self-denying Christ is prophecy of what / one day shall be . For as God made the mountains stony , huge and tall , tha , t they , screening the vale below , might wrestle with the storm , and clothe their shoulders with ice and snow , —spoil wrung from the wayfaring cloud , —and therewith robe the plains beneath in green and vari-coloured dress ; so has He made great , mountainous-minded men as forts of defence . for all the rest , and treasuries of help . Great men shall not always misuse their five talents , nor little men hide their one piece of the Lord ' s small money in the ground ; mankind long stumbling will one day learn to walk . "
Notwithstanding the serious defects ^ we have noticed this work , we can conscientiously recommend our readers to make themselves acquainted with it . Compared with what we have learned to expect from Theodore Parker , it is disappointing ; but compared with the sermons which issue from the majority of pulpits , it is a treasure of wisdom and beauty . One merit of Mr . Parker , and in this he is favourably contrasted with some reverend authors in our own country , is his " great plainness of speech . " Jiis writings need no key . He wishes to say precisely what he thinks , and he succeeds . He is a sincere , stetlfast man , who * iay , without any affectation , appropriate the famous words of Luther ; " Let me be refuted .. by the clearest arguments ; otherwise I cannot and will not recant ; for it is neither safe nor expedient to act against conscience . Here I take my stand ; I can do no otherwise , so help me God I Amen . "
Untitled Article
TJFK ; ITS DANG Kits AND DURATION . The Decline of Life in . Health and Disrate ; being an attempt ( o inventigaic the . causes of Jj oiitievitu , and the bent means of attaining Old Aijv . \\ y Barnard Vnn Ovon , M . T ) . Price ]<>* . <> . * ' Churchill . Uufeland ' . t Art of Prolonging Life . Edited by Erasmus Wilson , F . lt . S . Trice 2 s . 01 . Churchill . Healthy Skin : a popular Treatise on the Skin and I / air , their Preservation and Management . By Krasmus Wilson , F . lt . S . Fourth Edition . Prico 2 « . < W . Churchill . Memoirs of a Stomach . Written b y Himself : That all who eat may read . With Notes Critical mid Kxpluuntury by a Miiii . itci- ( if ( h < t Interior . W . V .. Painter-[» Kc « xn AUTir . tjV .. ' ] In treating- of tho mode of attaining old nge , Dr . Van Oven commences by tho judicious remark , that as man attains maturity by the regular exercise of all his powers , physical and mental ; each . stimulating and sustaining tho other , so likewise will he attain old ago by this activity of all tho functions . " The longest , livers— . loldiers , paupers , labourers , ike , have mostly heen those avIio were often exposed to many- and varied changes , and who wore constantly called on to make considerable exertions ; for such exertions rather sustain than exhaust , and invigorate tho general system by culling forth tho variety of its powers and resources ; but , if any attempt bo made to iiiciraso indefinitely the natural powers , whether of body or mind , a g eneral decay or destruction ' of both will be the consequence . When , for example , it boattempted to attain excessive muscular power !» y constant practice and exertion , by the taking undue quantities of solid or nutrient food , or by any of tlio «> means familiar to trainers for the prize-ring , an undiio balance between tho functions of nutrition and absorption results , the quantity of blood is increase " , the circulation utimulated ; and , m a word , a plethoric condition induced , which may tend to the development of any hereditary disease , or the formation of some now evil . If the powers of the mind be overtaxed , if tho brain be Avorked " too long , . similar effects will [ result , —too much blood will fl <> t () that organ , tho duo balance between tho nutritious and regenerative- processor will bo broken , discaso ortho brain and ] of tho whole nervous system aviI royult , " i (
Untitled Article
978 THE LEADEE . - . [ SATtrc DAT
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 8, 1853, page 978, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2007/page/18/
-