R eason .
SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1899.
VOL. 3.
ultimate standard of right and
wrong”; that the Bible is “the
••The agitation of thought is the be-1 only star by which the bark of man
ginning of wisdom.”
j
“In the loginning God created the can navigate the sea of life and
heavens and the earth.”
gain the coast of bliss securely” ;
that this hook contains “ Heaven’s
RIQR to the great beginning,
When there was no heaven or will, Heaven’s code of laws entire
to man”; that this hook “defines
earth,
When there was no starlight, sunlight— the bounds of vice and virtue and
When creation had no birth,
When in black and boundless nothing, of life and death” ; and that, with­
Breathless, lifeless, round him fell,
out this supernatural revelation, we
What occurred to wake his slumbers?
would he compelled to grope our
What was there to break his spell?
way through life without any stand­
Breathless, cheerless, all-pervading,
ard of morality by which to meas­
Starless, worldless, boundless night,
Was the Nothing the beginning
ure and regulate our conduct.
Out of which sprang worlds of light?
But this teaching of the theolo­
(hit of which were made the heavens,
Countless worlds remote and near,
gians and creeds of Christendom is
And all living, moving creatures
contradicted by all human history.
In the depths of sea or air.
The facts of human experience
Yet we know not what aroused Him
show that man does not derive his
To begin the mighty plan
Of creation in its vastness,
ideas of right and wrong—his
forming lastly sinful man.
standard of morality—from any
Whv did He not leave great nothing
In its harmless, silent space,
supernatural revelation. We do
Rather than make man so sinful
not believe that a personal God in­
As to damn the human race?
spired men to write the sacred
But ’tis said that man was sinless
Until tempted, when he fell—
books of those whom we call
Tempted by a subtle serpent,
heathen. On the contrary, all of
Crawling from the depths of hell?
Pure and spotless as the lily,
Jewish or Christian faith declare
In its early opening bloom,
that the heathen world always has
Until tempted by the Devil
To the shades of sin and gloom.
been, and still is, without a super­
When that black and boundless Nothing, natural revelation of the divine
Harmless, lifeless, round Him fell,
will. Yet that heathen world is
Why did God create the Devil?
not without moral law to govern
Or conceive an endless hell?
If creation sent forth evil,
its conduct. The Buddhist, with­
Or an evil comes of good,
out a supernatural revelation, has
Then where is the point dividing
Satan’s works from works of God?
somehow got hold of the idea that
When there was no sunlight, moonlight; man ought to “overcome anger hy
When there was no heaven or hell;
love, evil by good, the greedy by
When there was no place for sinning,
Or for sinful man to dwell,
liberality, the liar by truth” ; and
Whv was silence ever broken?
that it is wrong to kill, to steal, to
Whv was man to weakness born?
Why were devils made to tempt him,
commit adultery, to lie, or to get
And then leave him there to mourn?
drunk. The disciple of Confucius,
Vast and searching are these questions; I with no miraculously given revela­
Piercing, probing to the core,
tion to enlighten him, has some­
Peering back beyond creation
To great Nothing, nothing more.
how learned that a man ought not
Vast, though simple, is the question,
to treat others as he would not be
Piercing, probing to the core—
Is it true there once was nothing,
treated by them, and that the high­
Nothing, nothing, nothing more?
est virtue is love to all men. He
—[J. A. Stewart.
who looks to the Koran for moral
guidance learns therefrom that no
The Standard of Morality.
man can “be a true believer until
he loves for his brother what he
BY R. C. CAVE.
loves for himself.” All these, whom
MID the conflicting doctrines we concede to be without a super­
of the world—amid the natural revelation of the divine
discordant cries of “ Loi will, have their ideas of right and
here’ and “ Loi there,” lies the wrong—their standards of morality
Kingdom of Heaven—thousands —which compares most favorably
of honest-hearted men are asking; | with our own. And if those whom
hat is the truth? Where is the we depreciatingly call heathen
right? To what standard of moral­ have wrought out a code of morals
ity must we conform?” In answer for themselves without the aid of
to this question, Christian theo­ any miraculously given revelation,
logians and creeds teach that God, surdy we have been able to do as
’hrough miraculously inspired men, much.
has given us a divine code of
And the facts show that we have
morals for the regulation of our done as much—that we, like our
conduct at all times, and under all heathen brethren, have wrought
circumstances. It is claimed that out our own standard of morality,
the will of a personal God, as it is Notwithstanding all our talk about
revealed in the Bible, is “the only the Bible as a revelation of the di
On Creation.
P
A
NO. 18.
vine will, graciously and super- trine that it is the wife’s duty to
naturally given to guide us through obey her husband in all things,and
life, we do not practically accept have come to recognize the fact
the moral standard which the Bible that the wife has rights of which
gives. Men search the Bible from even a husband cannot deprive her.
cover to cover to find texts that will We no longer accept the New Tes­
prove their theological dogmas and tament doctrine in regard to slav­
sanction their ceremonial observ­ ery, hut have declared that there is
ances, but they have outgrown the a “higher law’’ which demands
Bible standard of morals. No in­ that ail men shall be free. We
telligent man of our day claims have outgrown many of the com­
that the so-called supernatural rev­ mandments of the New Testament,
elation given to the children of just as the men who wrote the New
Israel, which told them, when they Testament had outgrown many of
were about to leave Egypt, to bor­ the commandments of the Old Tes­
row and carry off the gold and sil­ tament. Whatever may he said to
ver jewels of their Egyptian neigh­ the contrary, the facts show that
bors; which required the husband men have not been permanently
to kill the wife of his bosom if she governed by the ethics of any so-
failed to agree with him in religi­ called supernatural revelation of
ous faith, and should say: “Let us the divine will, hut have wrought
go and serve other gods” ; which, out a standard of morality for
whatever may be said to the con­ themselves.
trary, sanctioned polygamy, con­
And what is that standard? It
cubinage and slavery; which com­ is not an authoritative code of laws
manded the most cruel wars of telling us the precise thing we
conquest and extermination, and ought to do at all times and under
authorized the distribution of cap­ all circumstances. We have, and
tured maidens- among the soldiers can have, no such etandard as that.
as part of the legitimate spoils of In the nature of thingR, such a
war—no intelligent man of today standard is impossible, for the right
claims that this so-called super­ in conduct depends upon ever-
natural revelation of the divine varying conditions, and is, there­
will is to be accepted as a moral fore, variable itself. What is right
guide for us. The most orthodox for me may not be right for you,
theologian of today will tell you and what is right for us both,
that you must not live in harmony under a given set of circumstances,
with God’s will as it is revealed in might be very wrong under an al­
the Old Testament, that you must together different set of circum­
not borrow your neighbor’s jewels stances. No forecast set of rules
with the intention of never return­ can meet all the conditions of
ing them, and kill your wife if she human life. Since man is a pro­
does not agree with you in religious gressive being, the requirements of
faith, and indulge in the luxury of different individuals, races and
as many wives and concubines as ages cannot be the same; and hence
your fancy may suggest and your a law suited to meet the needs of
wealth support. Without fear of one
* man, one people, or one time
contradiction, I may say that the may altogether fail to meet the de­
so-called supernatural revelation of mands of another man, another
right and wrong given in the Old people, or another time. The ever
Testament scriptures is not the unfolding and enlarging moral
standard of morality for us.
consciousness of mankind must in­
And when we come to the New evitably outgrow the law adapted
Testament, written closer to our to any one stage of its develop­
time and from a standpoint nearer ment, just as a child outgrows the
our own, we still find much from garments suited to its infancy; and
which our more fully developed it is, therefore, as reasonable to ex­
moral consciousness compels us to pect the long dresses of the babe to
dissent. For example, we no longer fit the man as it is to expect that
accept the New Testament doctrine any code of laws, human or divine,
that “the powers that be are or­ can be authoritative for all time.
dained of God,” and must be sub­ There is for us no moral finality,
mitted to as ministers of God; hut either in belief or in conduct. As
by rebelling against the tyrannical some one has well said: “A creed
powers that were, we have estab­ that is anything more than a mile­
lished the great American Repub­ stone is a blunder. As we find
lic, founded on the idea that the aniTrials on the road, so is man,
will of the people is the supreme and ever must he. We must get
law before which all power» that be accustomed to the truth, that the
must humbly bow. We uo longer I mind, with ever-widening experi-
hold to the New Testament doc­
Concl tided on oth j.