To this we agree; but which one will be the sufferer, our objector and ourself might think differently.
We think our objector must have been driven for argument, and somewhat demented, when he sought the Crusades for witnesses against the authority and conceded rights of the Roman pontiff.
But is the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son true or false, according to authorities which even our objector considers adequate?
It seems, then, that the pope did not allow the thing of which our objector complains, and so charge the first falls to the ground.
We presume the argument in this case will have little weight with our objectoror his friends; but we trust no one will say again that Rome has never pronounced a judgment on the question of Anglican orders.
In the first place, we find that our objector has put a singular and most impossible construction upon the seventh canon of the Council of Ephesus, which forms the one string upon which he harps with such a dissonant monotony.
To say that the civil power was the tribunal which settled this doctrine, is to say something supremely ridiculous, when the very words of the objector show that the whole movement came from the ecclesiastical body.
This is admirable, to which the objector can only give some helpless repetitions.
During this colloquy their voices had grown so loud that the maid, entering in dismay, had gone into the bar and informed the company that a Conscientious Objector had eaten all the food and was "carrying on outrageous" in the coffee-room.
The Conscientious Objector will none the less maintain that truth and beauty have never been recognised as identical, and that, in practice, to employ their names as convertible terms would lead to no end of confusion.
Yet he immediately goes on to say: "If the objector were to suppose that plants were originally fitted to years of various lengths, and that such only have survived to the present time .
The answer, then, to our objector is not far to seek.
It is announced that a wealthy American lady with Socialistic leanings will, at the end of the War, marry a well-known conscientious objector at present undergoing a term of imprisonment.
But, the objector resumes, this very statement of a specification may be explained as referring to the vital air.
But in reality the argumentation of the objector does not even remove the first-named difference; as is declared in the latter part of the Sûtra, 'And its being such we learn from Scripture.
But let the objector ask somebody with no knowledge to subvert, how he supposes 'Circe' is spelt in Greek, and the answer will be 'with a soft c.
The intellectual objector has much to say about the unreasonableness of faith; and the Christian doctor vindicates scientific theology, whilst he shows how the crowd of men must simply believe or be without any teaching whatever.
But the intellectual objectorhas something positive to say, as well as something negative.
But some objector may say, after all, "There is one point in which your analogy is deficient.
But to such an objector I should reply, that he knows nothing of the history of St. Domingo.
Footnote 1: Perhaps the reader may be a little astonished here, that the objector should ever have consented to publish arguments which makes him appear so much to a disadvantage.
Under the first article, the objector appealed to the known superstitions of the world: not only of the Pagan; but of the Jewish, Mahometan, and Christian world.
As the objectorhere begins to give up his ground, his letters from this place will be given nearly entire.
In this number the objector gives the whole ground of his objections, and the reasons for his doubts: which he states as follows, viz.
Having adverted to the previous studies in the dead languages, which are required before an admittance can be obtained in our common colleges, the objector proceeds.
I know the objector may say, the Jews expected a Messiah; but then they did not expect such a character as was Jesus.
To the extracts above, the objector replied as follows.
I've been interested in seeing what the head of a real conscientious objector looked like," Dick remarked slowly.
In that case, are you a moral objector to killing, or are you merely a coward who relies on another to do the killing for you?
The Yielding Pacifist who will accept any sort of peace, and the Conscientious Objector who will not fight at all, are not of that opinion.
The Yielding Pacifist and the Conscientious Objector III.
But why do people support the sham conscientious objector and issue leaflets to help him--when there is so much big work clamouring to be done?
My French and Italian are only for very rough common jobs; when it came to explaining the Conscientious Objector sympathetically they broke down badly.
But does not the objector see that he has stated no fact for them to believe in order to make Christ their Saviour?
But says the objector this is not proof that eternal life is promised to an unbeliever.
The objector may as well deny our victory over death at the resurrection, as to deny our victory over sin at that period.
Grant says the objector that he is the Saviour of the world, still as many as do not believe in him shall never be saved.
But says the objector it ought to be stated conditionally as follows-- God first calls upon men to believe, and if they will believe, then Christ will become their Saviour, and then they will receive eternal life in him and not before.
If the objector can see a shadow of evidence in this passage to support such a sentiment, yet I must frankly acknowledge that, for myself, I cannot.
If the objector will not allow these facts unalterably to exist previous to believing, what then will he call upon us to believe?
The objector says, our sins are taken away in this life by the baptism of the "Holy Spirit and with fire.
I challenge the objector to show me between the lids of the new Testament, any regeneration, new birth, justification, or sanctification, that has already taken place in any other sense than through faith.
We will now meet the objector on the doctrine of election and reprobation, the substance of which is as follows--After man fell, God was pleased to provide a Saviour for a part of the human family.
Now, putting aside for the moment all other considerations, and accepting the illustration, surely the example demonstrates rather the unreasonableness of the objector himself!
He proceeds to show that such an empty faith as his objector has is mere intellectual assent to propositions and is not saving trust that bears fruit in the life.
James rests his case on his works and in turn challenges the objector to prove his faith apart from works.
One may compare Paul's habit of answering an imaginary objector in the development of his argument.
The objector thus claims to have both faith and works but implies that James has only works and no faith.
As the objector can and does believe all the preceeding facts, if he still 'can't believe' as to the cruelties of slaveholders, it would be barbarous to tantalize his incapacity either with evidence or argument.
If theobjector still reiterates it, he shall have the last word without farther molestation.
The objector has forgotten his first lessons; they taught him that it is human nature to gratify the uppermost passion: and is prudence the uppermost passion with slaveholders, and self-restraint their great characteristic?
Having shown that the incredulity of the objector respecting the cruelty inflicted upon the slaves, is discreditable to his consistency, we now proceed to show that it is equally so to his intelligence.
Everybody felt it too absurd that Merman should undertake to correct Grampus in matters of erudition, and an eminent man has something else to do than to refute a petty objector twice over.
How long before, the Bible does not say, nor does the objectorpretend to know.
But if our objector had read the Bible attentively, he would have seen that it does not say that God created the heavens and the earth in six days.
But the objector falls back on the morals of Christendom, the civilization of the nineteenth century, and judges the laws of Moses by that standard.
The objector perhaps will allege in extenuation the modern improvements now in progress, the Suez Canal, the railroads, the steamboats on the Nile, the bridge across the Nile at Cairo, and the sugar and cotton plantations.
If an objector has not this spirit, is not inspired with the truth, he knows nothing of the words that are spirit and life; and his objection is less worth heeding than that of a savage to the assertion of a chemist.
There the objector is always apt to take it for granted that the discrepancy is real; though it may be easy to suppose a case (a possible case is quite sufficient for the purpose) which would neutralise the objection.
An objector has only to urge that the manifold might be such that it could not be combined into a systematic whole, in order to secure the admission that in that case self-consciousness would not be possible.
As the objector is made to say, 'the reality of the object of our internal senses (of myself and my state) is immediately clear through consciousness.
The uninformedobjector often assumes to speak with the voice of authority, asserting that there are no thoroughly dependable contraceptives that are not injurious to the user.
Why is the question of morality always raised by the objectorto birth control?
Is it not the very place where the objector would find arguments to prove the malevolence, certainly the vindictive justice, of the Deity?
I am not aware that any successful reply has ever been given to this objection, until chemistry and natural history taught us the true nature of bodily identity; and until recently the objector has felt sure that he had triumphed.
