Show if A I 7 LETTER FROM JUNTOS JUNIUS JU V f F Ff f i In a former communication II I I Alluded led to the question of religious agitation tion in this city At present it ity y 3 JIB ip difficult to define precisely what t bI Ads agitation means w l r observer er might be inclined to call it ill F fide old question of t Protestant and lt but when one investigates what hat ought to be Protestantism he that there exists u a series of k within Protestantism s as it exists outside of Romanism Until some kind of understanding is arrived at among Protestant PIOte Protestant tant sects and a unity of i 0 ke e character is established Pro- Pro Prote J te m must remain I ineffective ve 18 t to its assaults against again t Rom Rome It is i that quite a following could be bein bein in the sects to endorse endorser y 7 movement against Rome Fen en if this movement com- com political I disfranchise disfranchise- AI nt of Roman Catholics lS But Ea- Ea question arises is the y stay ripe for an issue of this na- na nae ian na-ian e t Would Mr Blaine accept a arID arm rID rm which would disfranchise I his Would Gen Sher- Sher Sherman Sherman son law man Sher-man man take up the sword in a warfare which would decapitate his son who is 18 a Jesuit Father It must be ad- ad admitted ad admitted that the statute books of the United States are already polluted with laws providing for disfranchisement disfranchisement on religious grounds The precedent is established and th the man who today is disfranchised for polygamy may tomorrow be expatriated for celibacy When the State attempts to define what is religion it at attempts a momentous task To show the attitude of the Roman church on this question an editorial from the Home is here io- io inserted in inserted The Home is the official organ of the church in its utterances can be accepted as ex cathedra Here is the article article i RELIGIOUS CHAOS I Whoever reads read the title of the sermons lectures and addresses delivered from the pUlpIts pulpit of thIs city on any Sun Sun- Sunday Sunday Sun Sunday day in the year will learn what Protestant Protestant- ProtestantIsm Prote tant-rm tant Ism has hai done to contuse confute mens men's men minds mind and obscure the truths troth of Gods God's revelation Pro Pro- Protestantism Protestantism Pro is i simply limply religious r chaos The subjects of last Sundays Sunday's sermons as a given in Mondays Monday's papers paper will serve erve as aa an illus Illus- Illustration illustration illustration One Reverend B vcr nd Doctor preaches evolutIOn denies denie Creation and of course explains away Sin and Redemption An Another An- An Another Another other rejects reject all of the Bible that does doe not fit in with his hi theories A third declares that you must mut believe the whole Bible or nothing It must mut all stand or fall together er A fourth after atler thi ty tv years of ortho ortho- orthodox orthodox orthodox dox belief in a personal devil gives give up tia- tia Satan tan aa-tan tan and with Satan gIves give up also the Bible For we must admit lill as a he ingeniously con COB confesses con fere that if the Bible is ii true There is r a devil going about the world like a roaring whom he devour brother brother lion seeking may A bro- bro brother ther preacher inure assures him that the belief in 10 a personal devil is one of the foundations foundations of the Christian structure j take It away and the whole structure falls faUs To which this thia recent convert re- re replies re replies plies Let Let it fall faU then j and the audience applauds applaud That he be continued IS one of the dogmas piled upon the beau beautiful Christianity preached by bV J Jesus t I To tats his brother preacher i ewers I be- be believe lieve in JD a personal devil precisely because Jesu Christ so o plainly and explicitly taught hi his existence warning Hi HIS disciples against the SIn in of pride as a the cause of Lu- Lu Lucifer's lu cifers cifer's fall fal and saying aying I saw aw atan like lightning fall from heaven In the BIble there is- is is ia just ju t as a po i iv Ive and convincing proof of Satan Iatan and hIs br angels angel as a there is i of God hod and His klis angels angel That is i the reason rea es the other why why I must doubt the of thi Bible Your perversion and andlor loss of faith resumes his hi brother minister is to me another proof of the existence of a personal devil j for lor when you yon see ee a aChurch Church member throwing browing allay aay an ay his hiu Bible when you see ee a Church growing fash- fash fashionable fashionable dont don't say sav ay they have outgrown their religion They are fast fa t coming under the power of the god of this world who is i a personal being the devil devilA A sIXth discourses on the perfectibility of man and sees ee in the social ocial and moral con con- conditions condition of this thia century eVidences evidence that man manis manis is himself divine and aud th that thai the human humlin race and the whole world are one with God This gentleman in a word preaches pan pan pan- pantheism theism Number seven even on the contrary sees ee in the vices vice and crimes Crimea of ot our modern cities evidences evidence of ot a return to the condition of savage avage heathendom These are specimens of the he opinions preached from Protestant pulpits to au- au audiences au audience bewildered by the of theIr religious leaders leaden If the blind thus bind lead the bUnd blind is i it any wonder that they are arc all falling into the ditch of unbelief And the pity of it is i that those who are deepest in the pit of religious skepticism ism glory in their loss lo oss of sight eight calling themselves themselves them- them selves elvel liberal because they have cast ca t off the restraints of definite religious religion doctrine and authority mistaking darkness for tor light and preferring unbridled license of of opinion to the divine truth which alone can make men free tree This Thi jargon of opposing and contradictory opinion palmed oft off on the non Catholic public as a the teaching of Christs Christ's Gospel has baa destroyed or is la fast destroying among amog the sects ecta all faith in the divine origin and character of christianity The sectarian pulpit today IS the most moat efficient instrument t for the gation of unbelief When will our dissent dissent- ng frIends friend see ee that this thia chaos in the religious religions religion ous ons on world cannot have God for Its it author The enemies of ot Christianity see ee it and find in 10 it t a powerful weapon of attack on the 10 in- in inconsistencies consistencies of the Protestant system which they mIstake for the religion of Jesus Christ What else elie ese but contusIOn confusion can cau be the logical result of the absurd principle of private judgment applied to the Revel Revel- Revelation Revelation Kevel of God What would be its ita it result applIed in the sphere phere of civil government It if every individual claimed the right to inter inter- interpret interpret interpret pret the law aw to suit uit his own fancy If It men meu persist in rejecting a teaching Church the divinely appointed guardian of revelation and the infallible interpreter of Gods God's world they are abandoned to the whims j and errors error of individual judgment which must t inevitably end as a we see ee it every every- everywhere everywhere everywhere where ending in religious religion anarchy From a doctrinal view there eer certainly is no Protestant system of Christianity in the historic sense There is what the Jew calls Christology Christ Christ- brist- brist a system of clubs or social J coteries euphemistically termed churches and congregations These Theseas Theseas as a religious factor in a nation com com- composed posed of such heterogeneous race elements as ours is would be totally ineffective They can do nothing F to to mould a national conscience nor nory y can they produce ethnological homo homo- homo The aspect of affairs aff irs at present is peculiarly interesting to the student of Mormonism and it ought to be a forcible object lesson to the children of that church Now is the time to ask Iii IH Mormonism an accident or oris oris oris is it the nere mere hocus-pocus hocus of some Iome disordered mind or is it by br spiritual evolution or di divine vine appointment the Protestantism of the future Lat Lat- ter-day ter Saints conversant with the traditions and sacred literature of their religion will find no difficulty in answering these questions And that Mormonism must become the Protestantism of the future is isas isas isas as plain as day not alone to its own disciples but to the impartial student of history and doctrine To 10 accomplish the great work destined for it it must be understood by its communicants that unity energy ac- ac activity activity ac activity and vigilance are the factors which make a nation a are are- reN arek a re- re re religion N k ligion successful and triumphant In n addition to this there must be an expansion a development of the better self of the Individual with a corr corresponding suppression of the petty grasping equivocating carp carp- ing carping criticising selfish self More causes have been lost and more races degraded and enslaved by trivial petty paltry weakness than by great calamities and disasters Very often a good man allows him him- himself himself self to be swayed by a miser miserable ser ser- able jealousy of a nei neighbor or a brother which one moments moment's con con- conj consultation consultation con consultation j with his better self would have told him hirn was wrong that he hei i iwas was clouding his hi moral religious and social horizon by his ow own n wil wil- wilful wilful ful ul stubborn blindfold pertina- pertina pertina and in the case of the day Latter day Saint of today that he was forging a chain to bind his own ankles JUNIUS CHICAGO Oct 7 1889 r |