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THEFTS ALL EQUAL
I saw some men playing “banker and broker.” They had some filthy-looking cards, and some paltry pennies. They were a good-natured lot of fellows, and the game looked very simple. But I tell you that the great gamblers against whom the laws are made began their wrong-doing in just that way. And the playing for little stakes is worse. If a man takes from me a large sum of money and gives me nothing in return, I can make some excuse for him, because the temptation was great. But if a man takes from me a paltry dime, that is wanton. And the man who stole a million and the clerk who stole a quarter, and the shoe-shiner who stole a nickel and the man who stole a ride, and the woman who used a postage-stamp the second time are all thieves alike.—A. H. C. Morse.
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Theism—See [Religious Instruction Denied].
THEOLOGY AS A DISCIPLINE
Men that work by doctrines are men that think they have found out the universe; they have not only got it, but they have formulated it; they know all about the Infinite, they have sailed around eternity, they know all about the Eternal and the Everlasting God, and you will hear them discuss questions of theology: “No, God could not, consistent with consistency, do so-and-so.” They know all His difficulties; they know how He got round them. One might easily come to think that God was their next-door neighbor. Well, after all, whether it is true or false—their systematic views, their dogmas—the pedagogic views are very important to teach young and middle-aged and old to attempt, by philosophic reasoning, to reach into these unfathomable depths. They produce a power upon the brain of most transcendent importance; they, in their way, may not increase the sum of human knowledge, but they increase the capacity of the human brain for profound thought and investigation. (Text.)—Henry Ward Beecher.
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THEOLOGY, SCHEMES OF
When Kossuth visited America in 1851, he worked out here, with American statesmen, a constitution for Hungary, and had plates engraved for the printing of treasury notes, and a system of money. When Kossuth went down to the steamer to sail home, he had an ideal and new republic of Hungary, and oh, wonder of wonders! he carried it in a handbag! Just as I have seen theological professors carry what they thought was a whole church, in a book of notes under the arm. Unfortunately, Kossuth never produced the written constitution in the character of twenty millions. And unfortunately, many teachers, wise in their polity, and sound in their theology, think like God and act like the devil.—N. D. Hillis.