THE COURIER
P
told that tbeir condition was due to the law or to society. 'Work
while ye have light is a divine injunction. The parable of the
talents is a justification of the man who is enterprising, who accum
ulates, who enters into the spirit of the present industrial system.
The golden rule is not a demand upon the strong to cease striving,
nor upon the weak to continue in their weakness. It commands
kindness, thoughtf utaess, gentleness. Christ taught responsibility.
He taught self-reliance. He taught all the doctrines which justify a
man in working out his own salvation industrial, mental, physical
as well as spiritual. The drone, the grumbler, the disorganizer can
find no case against society in the'Bible. Christ was not a revolu
tionist He rendered 'unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.'
He laid no evils to the system of government. He only cried against
wicked or corrupt individuals. The responsibility of the rich in
being rich was not put upon society. It was put upon the rich man's
pride and avarice and thoughtless selfishness. Everywhere indivi
dual responsibility k taught, and everywhere in the Testament the
man who makes excuses, the man who attempts to explain, to put
the blame from his own shoulders, the Socialist who charges crime
to the industrial system everywhere in the Testament where Christ
speaks, the Christian Socialist is rebuked. Individual responsibility
is the key note of society."
ATTITUDE OF
LINCOLN'S
MEN OF WEALTH
Lincoln, as is well known, has been built
up and developed more by enterprise
than by capital. The city has had the
benefit of comparatively little outside
.capital. Millions of dollars of Boston
money have been poured into Sioux City, and the magnificent
structure that has been reared at the western extremity of the state
of Missouri and named Kansas City was established with money
sen in large quantities from New York, Pennsylvania and other
portions of the east But Lincoln has had to struggle along with
very little assistance of this sort. The town has been built up by
the toil and loyal enthusiasm of the citizens; and the efforts that
have been put forth have not been sustained by unlimited stores
of wealth in eastern cities. So when hard times came, destroying
the prices of real estate and decreasing revenues, these men who
built up the town hare been the ones who have suffered most.
Name over the ones who have given their time and money to
enterprises that have made Lincoln what is, and see how many of
them are to-day disabled. The men who were considered
wealthy a few years ago are no longer regarded in that light.
-They are going to get oa top again, but just now they are in the
dry dock. Bat there is another class of men in this city that are as
rich, if not richer, than the were before the commencement of the
hard times. They have profited by others' misfortunes. Other men
have grown poorer been bankrupted; they have grown richer.
And these men by a policy of selfishness and avarice are prolonging
the depression from which Lincoln suffers. They have made their
meney in Lincoln, and yet they are daily giving
the -city a black eye. They have withdrawn their
saoasy rresa business enterprises and disposed of their real
estate; task wealth is hoarded. Occasionally they make a small
loaa oa. gilt edge property at a high rate of interest. But they will
Bet invest a dollar in real estate themselves, and will not lead their
lists nni to My business enterprise. They sit in obscure offices
aad 07 down the tows aad belittle the efforts of those who are
striving to push forward. They laugh at honest effort and sterilize
the activity of those who would be moving. Having done nothing
to vele the city they bow stand as so many barriers in the way
of progress. There are rich men in Lincoln today who are not a
credit to the town. The atee rfho have been public spirited and
who are aew unfortunate aad entitled to sincere respect So much
cannot be said of some of the men who belong to the other class.
ARE CHRISTIANS HYPOCRITES?
To thb Editor of The Coubikr: The article in a recent
issue of The Courier entitled "Are Christians Hypocrites?"'
voices a seatisarnt, widespread, and which is probably dee
tiaed to become ever more prevalent in the not distant future than
it is to day. The title, nevertheless, is somewhat startling inasmuch
as it seems to question the soundness of the whole Christian dogma
ia its relations to modern civilization.
The writer is professedly a Presbyterian, and although caring but
little for the refinements of theological doctrine in its diversified
form, he is disposed to resent even the imputation that genuine
Christians are or can be hypocrites in any sense of the term.
The present difficulty appears, in a measure, to grow out of what
might be termed the inertia of a prior status. It can hardly be
questioned, but that the great structure erected upon the holy
scriptures as a basis through human agency andknown as the Church
has been through its creeds and dogmas the great conservator of
the Christian propaganda through historical times, and that such
artificial interpretations are necessary, do serve a useful purpose in
the proporation that.the masses lack sound intellectual development.
This engine of Christianity will necessarily project itself some
what beyond the object of its creation.
The diversification of human nature is infinite in degree as com
pared with the creeds, philosophies or any other human interest
And it would seem to be the part of wisdom to "look about a little"
before coming to the a-priori conclusion that this or that dogma is
false or without foundation. All human reason is relative, not abso
lute; in other words, we are utterly incapable of reasoning any given
proposition except by analogy or relation to certain known princi
ple or facts of an axiomatic character. No sound scientific hypo
thesis has ever yet preceded or foretold a valuable invention; the in
vention generally comes first, the explanation afteward. The hist
ory of science shows that an elaborate hypothesis constructed upon
a known basis and leading to an ascertainable and unknown end is
almost certain to be fallacious to some degree when all the facts
become known.
Then there are the different interpretations of the same facts or
conditions, to suit the peculiarities of the interpreter. For instance
there are many people, ordinarily accounted to hold sound views,
who believe that real Christianity possesses more vigor to-day than
ever before in the history of the world; the census returns showing
an increasing number of Church attendants, and witness the Christ
ian or religious spirit which seems to have taken hold of American
politics recently in certain quarters. Nothing will raise such gen
uine and durable enthusiasm, as that which is at least not opposed
to proper religious views. On the other hand there are those, who,
viewing the world through colored spectacles, believe there is so
efficacy in prayer. Then we have Dr. Ernst Haeckel, who in an
address at Altenburg in 1892, declared: (1) That the belief ia an
immortal soul inhabiting the body daring life and leaving it at death
is an exploded superstition. (2) That there is no such thi ng as
immortality. He .characterised Christianity as a bundle of irra tional
dogmas based upon an impossible mythology, destined "before the
present century is ended, to drop out of currency througout the
entire domain of truly scientific philisophy," the Godot Christendom
being a "gaseous receptacle." More commonplace illustrations of
personal bias may found in the frequent division in courts of jus
tice upon questions which can have no application to selfish or
political ends, the wonderful division of scientific opinion in explain
ing any given phenomenon, the lowest division .among jurors all of
whom have listened to the same evidence, political differences;
in short differences of opinion permeate the uttermost recesses of
human activity and thought.
Dr. Patton says that doctrinal theology bears the same relation to
Christianity, that the treatises do to astronomy, botany, chemistry
and the like, inasmuch as it collects for the student the results of all
prior investigation and thought in the same field.
Denominational theology is but the outgrowth of personal bias of
the Christians themselves, and it is a recognized truth that the
division of the church in respect to the nan essentials promotes its
development inasmuch as it is the better suited to the ever varying
tastes of the people. Many, losing sight of the essentials, would
doubtless forego their church relations if all denominations were
made to conform in respect to the non-essentials.
In respect to particular dogmas, such as predestination it will be
self evident that the real truth or falsity of the proposition cannot
be affected in the slightest by the fact that many -deny it, while
others believe this is according to the bias of the individual. Some
minds can see nothing but truth and radiance in the theory, ivhile
others look upon it with horror and dire forebodings. Its truth can
' &-.
- - -. -.
J j . J
- .r-.
