The Power of Tradition.
By Wm. Sheldon
TRADITION has a blinding power. What we receive at the hand of our forefathers is deemed almost sacred, and we reluctantly relinquish our grasp upon it, even after it is shown to be erroneous. When we present a truth to the people, no matter how strongly fortified it may be by testimony from the Bible, the first question is, “Why did not our forefathers believe it, if true?” It is our business to believe God when he speaks, whether our forefathers believed him, or not. We are responsible for what we believe or disbelieve, and not for the faith of our forefathers. They may have held error under extenuating circumstances, never having had their minds especially called to consider the counter arguments, and therefore not have incurred condemnation for rejecting the truth that now presents itself for our acceptance. Condemnation falls just where light comes to open eyes, and is deliberately rejected. Many who were once innocently ignorant, died without rejecting the truth, and died uncondemned though they died in possession of error; while many others holding the same errors under other circumstances—under the blaze of gospel light—remain willingly ignorant, still holding to tradition after the light shines, and are condemned. We now have great Bible themes crowded upon our attention, in contrast with prevailing traditions, and therefore are inexcusable if we refuse to investigate. Whether our forefathers accepted these truths, or rejected them, it remains a fact that if they are in the Bible now, they were there long ago, and are not new sentiments, though newly presented to the mind; and if they were true when first put into the Bible, they are still correct, whether our forefathers endorsed them, or had their eyes blinded by tradition.—Wm. Sheldon.