Current Literature [pp. 387-392]

CURRENT LITERA4TURE.
hence must be subverted, sooner or later, under the increasing light of philosophical and
scientific research; and that they only lead
the world's advance who act upon this truth.
The contest between the defenders and the
impugners of an orthodox Christianity is becoming more and more brisk and sharp.
Controversy is the basis of the campaign.
On the one side, religion is subjected to the
test of reason; on the other, reason is forbidden to dogmatize within the domain of faith.
To follow either process, to the exclusion of
the other, is both unwise and perilous. Religion has been aptly defined as reality realized. Genuine Religion and pure Science
were wedded at the creation, and no subsequent papers of divorce have severed the tie:
",What God hath joined together, let no man
put asunder." Science has had no quarrel
with religion, howbeit the world is full of
self-elected mediators, intent on reconciliation. The revealed word is the text of our
being and surroundings, while science is the
patient illustrator and expounder; and " the
more light is shed by accurate scholarship
upon Holy Writ, and the more science is
studied and developed, the mqre both will
be found to be in harmony." It would be
well to remember that our interpretation of
all points of revelation is not necessarily identical with the revelation itself. Some eager
enthusiast starts out with a pet theory; by and
by it is confronted with an ugly, antagonistic,
stubborn fact, that will not budge an inch.
Instead of yielding obedience, and acting as
the servant of fact, he insists upon being dictator, silencing all adverse testimony, and
resting upon expcarte evidence alone. With
many ardent defenders of religious doctrine,
if scientific facts seem to disagree with their
preconceived ideas, so much the worse for
the facts. This is a wrong position to accept.
The champions of Christianity need entertain
no anxiety concerning any new light in the
scientific firmament. Milton, with rare good
sense and wisdom, expresses, with all the energy of conviction, a truth which should be
the sheet - anchor of every honest Christian
heart: "Though all the winds of doctrine be
let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be
in the field, we do injuriously to doubt her
strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple!
Who ever knew Truth put to the worse by a
free and open encounter?" It savors of conscious weakness to be perpetually perturbed
concerning new schemes of speculative philosophy. It will not do to cry down human
reason -as if the mind were not as much a
gift of God as revelation itself. The better
judgment would say: Let reason, as well as
faith, be sanctified; as it is only through the
beneficent behests of reason that the truths
upon which faith has its foundation could
ever be apprehended. Religious enthusiasts
are too apt to raise the cry of infidelity
against scientific works, written in an earnest,
philosophic spirit, upon subjects of legitimate
inquiry. Christianity is not insulted by such
researches. To deny in rotao what we have
neither seen nor investigated, is ungenerous:
denial is the refuge of the weak. Dugald
Stewart puts it better, when he asserts that
"unlimited skepticism is equally the child of
imbecility and of implicit credulity."
We believe the time is now come when
this doctrine of spiritual phenomena is a legitimate subject for critical scientific research.
We would add, most emphatically, that we
should deem it wisdom to restrict this research to the coolest, keenest, wisest, shrewdest, most philosophical minds. It is an unfortunate subject to intrust to the unenlightened, narrow- minded, credulous, crotchety,
or muddy-headed. Instead of emancipating
them from the thralldom of this "muddy
vesture of decay," and carrying them quite
beyond the cabin of the visible, it too often
ends by incarcerating the poor souls within
the walls of some humane institution, devoted to those "of reason's skill bereft."
The historical argument which Mr. Owen
presents, to prove that Protestantism is a failure, we leave to the consideration of the more
strictly religious press of the country, simply
premising that the position which he takes,
in placing Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in direct antagonism, is a very questionable one; and, inasmuch as Protestantism
concedes the infallibility of no mortal manDavid not excepted -it need not distress itself seriously concerning the short-comings of
that pre - eminently human embodimentMartin Luther. Mr. Owen labors heroically
to prove the fact of the martyrdom of Servetus at the hand of Calvin, and that such an
act betrayed more blood on the hands than
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