Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/250

230 must have a theology, but it does not follow that every theologian must have a religion. There may be a conflict between theology and some other sciences, and religious men may deplore it," etc. Now, in our opinion, if every religious man must have a theology, and if his theology be in conflict with science, he must either be in conflict in opinion with that science or abandon his theology. But the truth is, that the real, actual conflict arises from the religious element. The conflict of opinion is in the theology of a man; the conflict, as it appears upon the stage of the world's history in acts and deeds, has sprung from the religious nature, even as defined by Dr. Deems. A man may hold what theological views you please and make no disturbance in the world, provided he does not think much about his duty in obeying the commands, word, or will of God, all of which are a part of his theology. For instance, one of the commands of God, as contained in his word, and to which he should render a "loving obedience," is "Suffer not a witch to live." Now, a man may believe in that command simply as a dogma, but, being indifferent in the matter of rendering a loving obedience, he will not let it influence his conduct, and so will make no effort to hunt up and have witches burnt. If, on the contrary, he has a loving obedience to God's word, he will trample upon every kindly feeling and instinct of his nature rather than not have the command carried out.

Accordingly, we find that it has been the pious, the sincere, the believers in duty, those wishing to render a loving obedience to God's word, or what they thought was his word, who have in every age been the persecutors. But you say that they were acting under a delusion. They mistook what was the word of God. But how are they to know what is his word, if direct commands like the foregoing are not his? Besides, if there was a mistake, it was in their theology, and not in their religion; that only impelling them to lovingly obey God's commands as they knew them. Religion is but an impulse, a blind instinct. It knows nothing about weighing and comparing opinions. Theology furnishes it with these. If these are bad, its conduct will be bad; if good, the conduct will be good. All it knows is blind obedience—zeal to do the will of God as it knows it; and the pretended science, which alone can give it guidance, is a science of the Unknowable, the Infinite, the Absolute.

We will close with a quotation from Lecky's "History of Rationalism," in reference to Luther: "He was subject to many strange hallucinations and vibrations of judgment, which he invariably attributed to the direct agency of Satan. Satan became, in consequence, the dominating conception of his life. In every critical event, in every mental perturbation, he recognized satanic power. Fools, deformed persons, the blind and the dumb, were possessed by devils. Physicians, indeed, attempted to explain these infirmities by natural causes; but those physicians were ignorant men—they did not know all the