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Show ACNOSTIflSlI I AUMIIUUL. The popular form of infidelity goes by tile name of aguo-ticism. It isnotnthel-m, because it does not deny the existence e-f deity. It is knownothingism. It assumes an attitude at-titude of inuilTeren-u as to eterua rv-,llt(Mt Rut ttsilUcInhst rarplv n-? main on this neutral ground, itiey stepover the line to ridicule the sons and daughters of faith. They are not cnnt-ul, eit'ier, with announcing an-nouncing their own lt:k of knowledge know-ledge of the unseen, but pncetsl to deny its po3ses-ion by otlterj. Th.-y not only speak of de-ity as tin-unknown,' tin-unknown,' but decnls! lilm as tile unktrawaMc." It is difficult to oocujiy an in-sctiv in-sctiv e or merely negative pwition. The human mini is coii'-tttutes! to as to U lieve or repudiate. There I no standing still in the universe. "I dou'tknoi." announce a tem-I tem-I iwrary condition of re-ry brief oon-tiuuince. oon-tiuuince. "I l!iee," or "I disbelieve-," must express the eventual mental statu on evrry Kilject of human contt mpbitio-i. Cardinal Manning, in a pa-total issued on a different matter, makes um! of tho fjltawhig rem irks in reference incidentally to the agnostic ag-nostic position: "The knowledge of God in the old world was not a discovery but an inheritance. in-heritance. It was not a demonstration, demonstra-tion, but a consciousness which, from the revelation of G J himself in criva-uon, criva-uon, pervaded tho human race of man with tha lif whfor, t thn 11-Kt nf men. Is it no, then, a sign of theso lat days tbat in the full revelation of God. in the face of Jesus Christ, In tho light and the glory of God In unity an I trinity, there sbonl be not only fio-e who deny the Lord tba bought thsm, but thov islo who will not trouble themselves them-selves so far as to belsavo or di-belssve his exis'eneo? The passive unoHief of the ignorant or the gross minded is as abnuimalas the privation of sight or speech; but tho supercilious iiKlifler-enos iiKlifler-enos of ih jso who will not mako up their mind whether tbsre Is a God or no, or who affect to doubt the evidence which hasconvirotd tho human race, is not enough for tbeir n-Ieutitic pra-cl-ion. This stato is no, pas-ive and injiffaront; it Is a po-itlvo and mental habit. It is also aluays inloloraut and sarcastic. Xone are -o oxrited against tho- whn believe in God as those who profess to be neither cold not hot believers nor unbelievers. It were better to bs cold or htt. 'He tbat is not with me is agam-l m " |
