Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/392

372 probably the utmost and the best which the wisest and saintliest persons among us would claim is, that they have very slowly been growing to comprehend for themselves what Christianity really is. These radical differences of opinion among Christians themselves as to the substance, the meaning, the work, and the effective fruits and triumphs of their own religion cover the whole field of opinion, means, efforts, agencies, and desired results involved in it. Is the religion a very simple or a very abstruse one in its elements, statements, and principles? Does it appeal to the common understanding and reasoning powers of man, or does it envelop itself in mysteries, in perplexing doctrines which are to be announced on authority and accepted with implicit, unquestioning assent? May it be directly received and appropriated, in its lessons and spirit and full effects, by each individual; or does it require, to make it effective, the instrumentalities of a priesthood, with commission, functions, organization, institutions, and a human mediumship and an ecclesiastical system? And then as to discipleship of this religion, such as entitles one to the name and secures to him the benefits of it, — what are the essential terms and conditions? The alternative answers to this question of course are the holding or assenting to certain tenets for belief and conviction; or the forming of a certain character and the leading a certain course of life. But this answer does not cover the whole question, as it still leaves open the whole scope of the inquiry whether the belief required is simply that which will have a practical effect on character and conduct, or a professed assent to doctrines and dogmas which lie wholly out of the range of our knowledge, and which cannot be put to any test for proving their actual verity, but must be accepted through the assumed authority of the teacher. How earnestly and passionately these vital questions have been discussed by those who have been equals in sincerity, intellectual vigor, and ability to form unbiassed opinions, and into what sharp