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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3638, 24 August 1880, Page 2

(To the Editor of. the Evening Btar.) Sib,—Would y<fa allow me to reply to Mr. Simpson's comment upon my letter in_ the Star. I admit that all men bare, a right to hold their own opinions oo religions matters without being perie> cuted for them, if it be s matter of fact that all do not see and know, yet the best way is to treat them with courtesy and kindness. If I understand Mr Simpeou aright, he defends the Materialist side of this question, that they bare m exalted and high aims and* as strong » motive' power to be virtuous, as the tipiritualiit' that knows there is one God, and belie?er; in a future life. If they haw, their God and religion is to them bo use, we might dispense with them both, and it would be uo injury to the eaute of virtue and noblenest or character. It it this that I deny; when one party says there is one God and a future life, and the other lays there is no God, and no future life, both sides cannot be true 1 We say^we have the truth; tot^*m£ it to be-,;.;■, fact. I illustrated bee* tacts and opinions: I meet a nan that appeared to be in telligent. He said it; was his: opinion that the earth did not revolve upon[its}-'jix|i.^irHs>';ii|ijtJlfc>i^ opinion with me when I knew it did* When a thing is known to be a fact, we cannot treat that as an opinion. Tbere it ;tj wide gulf between the theist and the atheist. I ask how is it possible that both those sides can have the same exalted;-: aims P Can they both be equally striving in the strength which God snpplies when one party dees not acknowledge his exit- %***£■■ *Tlw BPin*n«!i«ti have the fact that GOd exists and the soul of man never does. Can those earthy people produce a motive power equal to Jthe spiritualist inspired^bythe above;-fact, whiefc hii produced the purest, the noblest, and the bravest men that ever breathed upon thit earth—that has toiled and suffered and died with the greatest of fortitude P Mr 8. might say we deny all this that you know Chose to! be fiieti; denyinc % them does not alter them. Because he does not know, that does not prove diat we ■do ' not. He must know that-eooM animals Vknoi^w;uthau>-|iegJ^p The bee knows>;byinstinet The a wallow knows where; I»Jg^tift;di«vS; winter without using the compass, but tier? does not know that; and ia it not potaiUe^ that some human beings know through their religious intuition than A I poor blind atheist knows. Beeauie they . do not know all is no proof thAt soateooe < «}*• knows %he^they S^oli^^iilt Those men that do not know tb^t God and immortality are stupendoiisn«taiX^ pity them from my heart—the aane til^ irould ;■*■■■■ blindKmajn;when^X'ieb;i?lttis^ groping: in the dark. 'I?&s'itims&jiF> feeling toward the poor blind atheist; poor fellow/1 think how h« hat to grOMi in the dark. I should like to d«ioiB!»« . thing-. to more the scales from their^yta, then we should not find so muoh fault ; with';themJbjßin^blm^ •hould try and persuade others th*t tb»y ■do not know that the> are blind to^Mft! cannot see. O that they WMld but eosße up from the mud, dust and dirt, and live in a world of light, life, love and happi«! : ness! into a world they hay» never tet one foot in, then they would not have to dispute iirlieth>r^ life^at^^i^^ not, when this life it all. But ihdee^uit^ know that the Inßnite God is their Pather they then know that all the Übomr", trouble and pain is for a wise «d^ end, for a great and grand purpote, and working it pttti^j^'indiyldi^^ai^ eaiily proved ai that he has reason, aflftetion, or a stomach, lungs; eyes and etrt--- , and if this be admitted, then it must follow that God and immortali^r art true; and if man has a religious faculty, it uutt be the all-imporUnt one, not a teeondarr thing,, for thit it the grand conneetbrl link that binds us to God and a future: dettroy this link and you desttoy the connection, for it is the highest faculty he has jot, and his main busineiu in liile it to cultivate ■;■ it;;!:;>he:;;high)^--t^£fl||jjK creation is to cultivate this paii- of «ir nature; all our other powers ot^hfrtb^i subservient,to thit,^ Thti on earth is man, and the greatest faoul^ in,- man is the nUgiout one, aiid tJU creetion:, is at man's Mrviee to ftseist Uai % «gne4utoJead:maat^ religious faculty. -S'lf )sss iwlSittiiblSt accomplished the whole of ereatiou it failure. If the materialisit >ily, om» admitted that it it / just; popsibl* that the apiritualisU might know something they do;' not know, there might' be sosse hope for them, if they wonld only come dowa from their imaginary high emiQenoe; 'but so long^at they are quite^ w|^iß; tlieys know dl about ■pintualitm.tk^^W ; learn no more. TJiere it jKtthing tiir^^ lous or mysterioas abotlt all thit if a siai eultivatel the spiritual part of hit nature. Why should he not know mow abotlt those' things than othen that do not P .Anyone dan learn mor«bjr thit faculty than ho oa^ bf iny;^b^^o^-li biill • whether of • body or *it-il'£;; generally ahopeleM,^ -""^^■^^^ii^^li^it^te^! thit: That th»y would iii the fceiiii»;l they can, approach the living God in a devotional frame of mind for half an hour ;efery:-: dayv;for. -»' that tome glimmering of light would" break in upon them. They might turn up their^noset andi: uy-this ittpirayer!S Yes, I eonfest I am on« tiuipie: people that know that man oan eommone with God, with angels and saints,and that all onr best thoughts and holiest fetlings ;come; from thit Kn^^^^S^^> Mkme to prove it; my simple answer if^ I know it, and tbo«saods siki ttillioai know it as wtll as iaof^Andi :no#^'isti^ Mr S. a question in Tetnrn—" howtan b« disprove ltP" I know thit bringt him np to a deadlock, for I know he cannot do is. When my wife and daughter died tlmr told me before they died we thoild meeLa«*in. I could get no heari's ease, but Mm this: I knew it would be to; and thuvalone^Mpported-jit^^^ materialists anything to offer at a tubsti.: tute in an emergency like this, whet til : endt{at"death.;^jat^^fcc;|^ '■>