ur being." This Reason is the "elder
Scripture of God,--the soul, the inspired child of the heavenly and
eternal Father." The answer is given to the question, Why does orthodoxy
believe in the efficacy of Christ's blood to save the souls of men? "It
is because man distrusts his reason, and invents the infallible church,
and then the infallible Scriptures, to supply his necessity of
anchorage. He cannot think the God of the universe can be willing to
save such a miserable sinner, and he invents a God of the church, who
will. He does not believe anything men can do will entitle them to
heaven, or that human lives can make them acceptable in the sight of
God."[262]

From the preceding statements it will not be surprising to find some of
the speakers apologizing for outright infidelity. "Mr. President," says
one, "you, in the judgment of very many, are an infidel. The members of
this Christian association occupy what is regarded an infidel position.
And that very admirable constitution, which I have read to-day, if
presented at a council of churches, commonly reputed orthodox, would be
considered, doubtless, the platform of an infidel association....
Infidels, in all generations of the church, have been _progressive_ in
every direction; the believers in the present and the future; the people
who had confidence in the improvability of man, and the perennial
inspirations of God; the men and women who were persuaded that all the
spheres of wisdom and excellence were opened to human powers, and that
man was welcomed to all the treasure they contain.... They are a
thoughtful, earnest, hopeful people, bent on finding the truth, and
doing their duty."[263] Such infidels as these are claimed to have
blessed the world. All liberal minds ought to catch their spirit and
administer every possible blessing to struggling humanity. But there is
a species of narrow-minded infidelity which must be shunned; and it is
the only kind of which we need to forebode any evil. "The only
infidelity to be feared," says Mr. Frothingham, "the only real
infidelity which is a sin in the sight of God, is a disbelief in the
primary faculties of the human soul; disbelief in the capability of
man's reason to discriminate between truth and error in all departments
of knowledge, sacred or profane; disbelief in the heart's instinctive
power to distinguish good from evil; disallowance of the claims of
conscience to pass a verdict upon matters of right and wrong,