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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:38:55 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:38:55 -0700 |
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diff --git a/28601-tei/28601-tei.tei b/28601-tei/28601-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1781ba8 --- /dev/null +++ b/28601-tei/28601-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,2003 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> + +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd" [ + +<!ENTITY u5 "http://www.tei-c.org/Lite/"> + +]> + +<TEI.2 lang="en"> +<teiHeader> + <fileDesc> + <titleStmt> + <title>The Christian Foundation, June, 1880</title> + </titleStmt> + <editionStmt> + <edition n="1">Edition 1</edition> + </editionStmt> + <publicationStmt> + <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher> + <date>April 25, 2009</date> + <idno type="etext-no">28601</idno> + <availability> + <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and + with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it + away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg + License online at www.gutenberg.org/license</p> + </availability> + </publicationStmt> + <sourceDesc> + <bibl> + Created electronically. + </bibl> + </sourceDesc> + </fileDesc> + <encodingDesc> + </encodingDesc> + <profileDesc> + <langUsage> + <language id="en"></language> + <language id="la"></language> + </langUsage> + </profileDesc> + <revisionDesc> + <change> + <date value="2009-04-25">April 25, 2009</date> + <respStmt> + <name> + Produced by Bryan Ness, David King, and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. + (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain + material from the Google Print project.) + </name> + </respStmt> + <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item> + </change> + </revisionDesc> +</teiHeader> + +<pgExtensions> + <pgStyleSheet> + .boxed { x-class: boxed } + .shaded { x-class: shaded } + .rules { x-class: rules; rules: all } + .indent { margin-left: 2 } + .bold { font-weight: bold } + .italic { font-style: italic } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + </pgStyleSheet> + + <pgCharMap formats="txt.iso-8859-1"> + <char id="U0x2014"> + <charName>mdash</charName> + <desc>EM DASH</desc> + <mapping>--</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2003"> + <charName>emsp</charName> + <desc>EM SPACE</desc> + <mapping> </mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2026"> + <charName>hellip</charName> + <desc>HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS</desc> + <mapping>...</mapping> + </char> + </pgCharMap> +</pgExtensions> + +<text lang="en"> + <front> + <div> + <divGen type="pgheader" /> + </div> + <div> + <divGen type="encodingDesc" /> + </div> + + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">The Christian Foundation,</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Or,</p> + <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">Scientific and Religious Journal</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Vol. 1. No 6.</p> + <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">June, 1880.</p> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: always"> + <head>Contents</head> + <divGen type="toc" /> + </div> + + </front> +<body> + +<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/> + +<div rend='page-break-before: always'> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>The Work of the Holy Spirit. What Is It? What Are Its Relations And Uses?</head> + +<p> +I know of no religious people who intentionally deny his +agency in creation, providence or redemption. But men differ +widely in their opinions concerning it and its relations and +uses. Many honest-hearted persons have been educated in +the theory of an immediate and direct operation of the Spirit +upon the hearts of sinners in order to their conversion, which +they often call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. On this account +thousands of prayers are offered up continually to induce +the Lord to pour the Spirit upon sinners and convert and save +them. And happy meetings are attributed to wonderful outpourings +of the Spirit. What is his work? It is said that +he moved upon the face of the great deep, and that God +said, Let there be light, and there was light. This operation +upon physical nature gave to our planet cosmic light, and the +darkness, which had shut out the light of the heavenly bodies +through the long lapse of time extending back from Moses' +first day to the beginning in which creation took place, was +removed. Activity having begun in matter, periods of light +and darkness alternate until the conditions of our planet are +so changed that the light of the heavenly bodies becomes the +light of this world; and the great work of the Spirit having +accomplished its purposes, is classified with the extraordinary +efforts of God in bringing into existence this beautiful planetary +<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/> +system of ours. It is, consequently, a work of the past. +But the work of the Spirit is not over. +</p> + +<p> +There must be a moral and spiritual system, as well as a +physical. As the material system would be unworthy of its +creator, were it not for the fact that it is governed by law, +which is equivalent to saying, it is a system, so the moral and +spiritual must be under law, in order to the accomplishment +of the ends of its creation, which is equal to saying, it is God's +moral government. But how is this system to be brought into +existence? And how is it to be perpetuated? In answering +these questions let us remember the law of analogy, based +upon the simple axiom that God is a God of order. In the +use of the analogy about to be instituted we simply pass +through the outer court of the temple of God in order to behold +the beauties of the inner. Then, as the world of matter +existed as an inactive, confused mass, surrounded by an envelope +of darkness which shut out the light of the heavens, +so the human family, without the knowledge of God, without +the light of knowledge, left to its own mental and moral wanderings, +without law or system or order, would present all the +horrors of pagan darkness and woe. Then the Spirit of God +must move again in obedience to the mandate of the Most +High. And as the object to be accomplished is now connected +with mind, the Spirit now moves upon the face of the great +deep of the human heart or mind. But shall he move upon +all hearts throughout all time in order to dispel moral darkness, +and so the extraordinary become the ordinary? Or +shall he move in an extraordinary manner and cause the light +of revelation to flash across the world and dispel the darkness +consequent upon the mental and moral condition of the children +of men, and give us a glorious lamp of light, along with +law, order and system? And has the extraordinary given +place to the ordinary? And what is the use of the ordinary if +we have the extraordinary, or the use of the extraordinary if +we have the ordinary? +</p> + +<p> +As the operation of the Spirit upon the face of the great +deep was to dispel the surrounding darkness and reveal the +<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/> +sun in the heavens, with all the lesser light bearers, which are +dependent upon the sun for the light they give to our planet, +so the extraordinary movement of the Spirit upon the world +of mind was to give us light in the place of darkness and reveal +the Son of God, who is the <q>Sun of Righteousness,</q> who +rose <q>with healing in his beams.</q> This work of the Spirit +upon the world of mind is doubted by no Christian, for <q>holy +men of old spake as they were moved upon by the Holy Spirit.</q> +The knowledge thus communicated was given to the prophets +of old, without action upon their part—that is to say, they did +not attain unto it by taking thought what they should speak +or say, for in the proper hour, when it was needful, it was +given to them. This grand procedure was kept up until the +<q>Mystery of Christ</q> was revealed, or until the light of the +knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, +burst upon the vision of the world. Now, he being the +brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his +person, and it having pleased the Father that in him all fullness +should dwell, he is the <q>Light of the World</q>—God's great +light bearer. Along with the revelation of Christ comes a +revelation of all the lesser lights that shine out in the mental +and moral heavens, who have been, and are, dependent upon +him for their knowledge, or light. In order to give the world +this revelation of Christ, Jehovah selected his own men, and +confirmed their mission, and the Spirit moved upon their +hearts to give light until the Christ, himself, with all his satellites, +should shine forth in the light of life. These men +were the ancient prophets of the <q>High and Holy One.</q> +They were teachers sent from God. Their mission was confirmed +by the wondrous works which they were enabled to +perform. Nicodemus understood this matter when he said, +<q>Rabbi, we know thou art a teacher sent from God, for no +man can do these works which thou dost except God be with +him.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The little Jewish maiden who waited on Naaman's wife understood +it, for she said to her, <q>Would to God my Lord were +with the prophet in Samaria! for he would cure him of his +<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/> +leprosy.</q> It is said of the disciples of Christ that they +<q>went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working +with them and confirming the word with signs following.</q> +And also, that the great salvation, <q>which at the first began +to be spoken unto us by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by +those who heard him, God also bearing them witness both with +signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy +Spirit.</q> And that the apostles preached the gospel with the +Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. +</p> + +<p> +It was communicated to the prophets and apostles by the +Savior, and to the world at large through them. As proof of +this proposition Peter says, <q>The prophets searched diligently +with reference to the time which the Spirit of Christ, +that was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand of +the sufferings of Christ and of the glory which should follow.</q> +It was an important work for Christ to teach his +apostles, and when they had heard him through all his toils +they were not suffered to go forth, or shine as stars in the +church's crown, until they were moved upon by the Spirit of +God to bring to their remembrance those things which Jesus +had taught them. But one other course could have been pursued, +and there were insurmountable difficulties in the way of +its adoption, and that was to make the extraordinary ordinary +by causing the Holy Spirit to move upon all hearts +throughout all time, and give to each member of the race, +regardless of his character and the manner in which he might +abuse it, the entire revelation. The first difficulty is in the +fact that wicked men who wilfully deceive would have confronted +the best men upon the earth, and confusion without +remedy would have been the result of leaving our world +without a common and infallible test. +</p> + +<p> +Another difficulty appears, in the fact that it would have +compromised the purity of God through the presence of the +Holy Spirit in the hearts of all the vile and abominable sinners +of earth. There was one way to avoid these results, and +that was to irresistibly destroy all disposition in human hearts +to have their own way, and so remain unworthy of the presence +<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/> +of the Divine Spirit; but this would have been a complete +destruction of moral freedom along with all the principles +of accountability, and consequently a destruction of +God's moral government. Moral freedom was so sacred with +God that <q>the spirit of the prophets was subject to the +prophet.</q> Hence, the importance of the searcher of hearts +choosing his own prophets out from among men. <q>God, +who in ancient times and diverse manners, spake in time past +unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, +spoken unto us by his son.</q> The Lord of Hosts guarded this +great work with reference to the deliverance of man by the +most severe penalty. The law governing the prophets was in +these words: <q>And that prophet which shall speak a word +in my name which I commanded him not, or that shall +speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.</q> +He guarded his own infinite and spotless purity. While +he was <q>in the generation of the righteous, he was far from +the wicked.</q> So there was always, from the time of Adam's +offense till the present such a thing as being <q>without God.</q> +</p> + +<p> +When the Jewish people became apostate in the times of +Malachi, who was the last Old Testament prophet, the Holy +Spirit left the world. The proof is in the Savior's words to +his disciples: <q>If I go not away, the Comforter will not +come unto you.</q> And one of the witnesses said, <q>The Holy +Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.</q> +During the long night of apostacy between Malachi and +Zechariah, there was a time when <q>all were gone out of the +way;</q> <q>when there were none that did good, no, not one;</q> +<q>when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the +people;</q> when they had not so much as <q>the dayspring from +on high, to give knowledge of salvation by the remission of +sins.</q> <q>The temple of God was a den of thieves.</q> The +commandments of God were made void through the traditions +of men, and there was not a people upon the earth prepared +for the Lord, worthy of his introduction among them +<hi rend='smallcaps'>as the Son of God</hi>. The dignity of his person, consequent +upon his being the Son of God, along with his purity, rendered +<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/> +it improper for him to be manifested, in his introduction +as the Son of God, to a den of thieves. So a people +must be prepared for the occasion. Hence John the Baptist +was sent from God to prepare or make ready a people for the +Lord. He was the <q>dayspring from on high,</q> sent to give +knowledge of salvation unto the people by the remission of +their sins, but the ultimate of his work is expressed in these +words: <q>But that he, Christ, might be made manifest unto +Israel, therefore came I baptizing with water.</q> Which was +as much as to say, He will not be made manifest to Israel +unless a people in Israel is made ready for him. Therefore +John was his forerunner, to prepare the way before him. +</p> + +<p> +In doing this work he proclaimed the kingdom of God is at +hand, and <q>preached the baptism of repentance for the remission +of sins.</q> And many people were prepared for the Lord, +and finally he is acknowledged, from the eternal world, as the +Son of God, while he is yet in the presence of all those who +were present at his baptism and heard John say, <q>Behold the +Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.</q> The +Savior now calls about him twelve disciples, and they make +and baptize many more disciples. John the Baptist and Jesus +Christ, as prophets, were under the influence of the Holy +Spirit, and were engaged in the grandest work ever known +among men. But, so far as a wicked world was concerned, it +must be redeemed from moral pollution first, and then await +the day of Pentecost for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus +keeping before our minds his relations to men, we ask what +was his work and relations from Pentecost and onward? On +that day he came upon the disciples, who were already converted +and pardoned; so it was not for <emph>those purposes</emph> that they +were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus had said to them, +long before this, <q>Now ye are clean through the words which +I have spoken unto you.</q> And the wicked Jews had <q>closed +their eyes and stopped their ears, lest they should see with +their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their +hearts and be converted and healed.</q> And Satan himself +<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/> +took the word out of the hearts of some <q>lest they should believe +and be saved.</q> +</p> + +<p> +And all this took place before the Holy Spirit was given to +any, whether good or bad. So we must look outside of sinners +for the presence and wonderful work of the Spirit of God, +and also outside of their conversion for its immediate and +direct agency. Jesus said to his disciples, <q>If I go away I +will send you <hi rend='smallcaps'>another</hi> comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, +<emph>whom the world can not receive</emph>.</q> And again, he said, <q>Howbeit, +when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you +into all truth.</q> <q>He will show you things to come.</q> <q>He +shall take of the things of mine and shall show them unto +you.</q> <q>He shall testify of me.</q> Does this look like extraordinary +work? Was it to be continued? Did it not belong to +a creative period, that was to be followed by the existence of a +system, or government, in which law and order would take +the place of the extraordinary operations of the Spirit of God? +</p> + +<p> +I wish to present the promise of God which relates to the +baptism of the disciples in the Holy Spirit upon Pentecost, +that we may discover, upon an analysis of its terms, its nature +and place in the reign of favor. It is in these words: <q>And +it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will +pour out of my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and +your daughters shall prophecy, and your young men shall +see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; and on +my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in +those days of my spirit; and they shall prophesy.</q> Jesus +gave his disciples the great commission to go into all the +world and preach the Gospel to every creature, but said, +<q>Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from +on high.</q> After the Savior ascended it is said that he received +the promise of the Father and shed forth that which +was seen and heard on the day of Pentecost. What was the +result? They spake with tongues. They prophesied. They +healed the sick. They raised the dead. They bestowed +spiritual gifts. They were guided into all truth. They +<q>preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from +<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/> +heaven;</q> and in this fact we have the beautiful figure of +rivers of living water flowing out of their hearts, for Jesus +said, <q>He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, +out of his belly (From the Heart, inward part) shall flow +rivers of living water.</q> This, the historian says, <q>He spake +of the spirit which they that believed on him were to receive, +because the Holy Spirit was not yet given, for Jesus was not +yet glorified.</q> Hence, we are authorized to look for its fulfillment +at Pentecost, and also in the preaching of the gospel +of Christ. Paul says, <q>My speech and my preaching was not +with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of +the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in +the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.</q> Here is the +basis of our faith. +</p> + +<p> +All those who believe on Christ through the words of the +apostles have a faith that stands in the power of God. The +apostle further adds, <q>Now we have not received the spirit of +the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might +know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which +things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom +teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing +spiritual things with spiritual.</q> Before the Savior left the +world he breathed upon his apostles and said, <q>Receive ye the +Holy Spirit,</q> adding, <q>Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted +unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are +retained.</q> So it pleased the Father to <q>save men through +the foolishness of preaching.</q> And Paul said, <q>We preach +not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your +servants for Jesus's sake. For God, who commanded the +light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to +give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the +face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen +vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and +not of us.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The mystery of Christ was revealed to all nations for the +obedience of faith. Paul says, the mystery of God's will was +made known according to his good pleasure which he purposed +<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/> +in himself, and that he was <q>made a minister +according to the dispensation of God which was given to him +for us, to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which had +been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made +manifest to his saints. To whom God would make known +what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the +Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we +preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, +that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.</q> +<q>Whereunto,</q> he says, <q>I also labor, striving according to +<emph>his working</emph>, which <emph>worketh in me mightily</emph>.</q> From all that +we have before us it appears that all things in the gospel of +Jesus Christ constitute, simply, <q>the ministration of the +Spirit written upon the hearts of New Testament apostles and +prophets, or teachers, by the Spirit of the living God, and that +we have in their preaching and teaching the rivers of living +water, flowing out from the throne of God to slake the thirst +of a famishing world, and that all this is attributable to the +descent of the Holy Spirit upon them.</q> Such being the case, +<q>the gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto every +one that believes.</q> And in it Jesus Christ, the Sun and Lord, +in the moral and spiritual universe, shines forth with all his +satellites as the light of the world. The creative period is +now past. The extraordinary efforts of the divine Spirit are +past. <q>The darkness is past and the true light now shineth.</q> +The ordinary has taken the place of the extraordinary. What +good would it do to have a repetition of the extraordinary? +Would it give us another gospel, and confirm it by signs and +wonders and divers miracles? Would it give us another +Christ? Would it give us other rivers of living water? or +another word of reconciliation? What good would be accomplished +by a repetition of the energies of the Divine Spirit, as +they are known in the history of the new creation? Do we +need these to dispel the darkness? <q>The darkness is past.</q> +Do we need them to give us light? <q>The true light now +shineth.</q> Do we need them to give us more truth? Jesus +said of the Spirit: <q>He shall guide you into all truth.</q> The +<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/> +Roman Catholic priest, in his discussion with Mr. Chillingworth, +planted himself upon this promise, made by the Savior +to his apostles, as the proof of the claim of Romanists to the +attribute of infallibility. Said he: <q>If the attribute of +infallibility is not in the possession of the church, the promise +of the Savior has failed.</q> To this Mr. Chillingworth +replied: <q>It would be well for us to determine who is meant +by the pronoun <q><emph>you</emph>,</q> found in the language, before we put up +the high claim to infallibility.</q> The promise was fulfilled to +a jot, and we have the <q>all truth</q> in the teachings of the +apostles. Let those who extend that promise to themselves +meet the Catholics' argument upon it and save themselves if +they can. We now enjoy the Spirit of God through faith +along with all the beneficial, practical and comforting and +redeeming results of the baptism of the apostles and first +Christians in the Holy Spirit. What more do we need? +Faith lays hold upon Christ; upon the Holy Spirit; and upon +God. The just live by faith, and drink of the rivers that +flow from the great fountain of the Holy Spirit, which was +created in the hearts of the apostles and New Testament +teachers. The effects of their baptism in the Spirit are ours +through faith. And all the world may have them through +faith. They are free to all. The government of God is now +set up. Order and law reigns throughout. Jesus said, <q>So +is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the +ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed +should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how, for the earth +bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, +after that the full corn in the ear.</q> The kingdom of God +now bringeth forth fruit of herself, the good seed, the word of +God, having been cast into it. Its glorious blessings are open +to all men. The prophet says: <q>Ho, every one that thirsteth, +come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come, ye, +buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money +and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that +which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth +not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is +<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/> +good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline +your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live.... +Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous +man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord and he +will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will +abundantly pardon.</q> <q>The Spirit and the bride say come, +and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will let him +take of the waters of life freely.</q> Yes, <emph>freely</emph>. There is no +obstruction. All are without excuse. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Credibility Of The Evidence Of The +Resurrection Of Christ.</head> + +<p> +Our senses are the means by which we were made competent +witnesses. They are the bed-rock of evidence. We know +facts and truths, both comprehensible and incomprehensible, +by the same means. We are as competent to testify of that +which we do not comprehend as we are to testify of the most +ordinary fact. As competent to bear testimony to the fact of +a sweeping tornado as to the fact of a gentle breeze. As competent +to bear testimony to the fact that water freezes and becomes +hard as to testify to the truth of its being a fluid. As +competent to testify to a fact that we never before experienced +as to one that we have. Without this competency no man +could be justly held responsible for slander or perjury. +</p> + +<p> +We gain knowledge by means of our senses, and all +lying and perjury is outside of our senses, having no connection +with them. We can, in truth, testify to that which we +have seen, heard, tasted, smelt or felt, and to such only. +That which somebody else thus witnessed may be testified by +him, but not by me, unless I, too, was connected with it by +means of my senses. Wise men may be deceived in some +things, but fools can not be deceived in others. Things addressing +themselves to our senses are things about which we +can not be so deceived as to truthfully deny that they ever +occurred. I know a live man when I see him by the same +means I know a dead man. +</p> + +<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/> + +<p> +Being competent to bear witness to a new fact, to one heretofore +unexperienced, I would have been competent to bear +witness to the death, burial and resurrection of the Christ, in +case I had lived in his day, and had been as familiar with him +as his witnesses. By which I mean to say, they were competent +witnesses; every way qualified to know assuredly whether +the Savior rose from the dead. <emph>They could not be deceived</emph> +about the matter. They were not. If they were honest men +they told the truth, for they say, We saw, and heard, and our +hands have handled. Then the entire Christian religion, with +its immortal blessings, stands or falls upon the honesty of the +Savior's witnesses. Martyrdom has been universally conceded +to be an evidence of sincerity; there may be a few exceptions +to this general rule, but even they are not parallel +cases. There is a story of a man who endured with great +fortitude all the tortures of the rack, denying the fact with +which he was charged. When he was asked afterwards how +he could hold out against all the tortures, he said: I painted +a gallows on the toe of my shoe, and when the rack stretched +me, I looked on the gallows, and bore the pain to save my +life. This man denied a plain fact under torture, but he did +it to save his life. +</p> + +<p> +When criminals persist in denying their crimes they do it +with the hope of saving their lives. Such cases are not parallel. +Who ever heard of persons dying <emph>willingly</emph> in attestation +of a false fact? Can we be made to believe that any set of +rational men could be found who would <emph>willingly die</emph> in attestation +of the false fact that the President of the United States +is now on the throne of England? The witnesses of Christ +died in attestation of those facts which they say they saw, and +heard, and knew, among which was the great fact of the resurrection +of Christ. It was their privilege to quit their evidence, +at any instant, and save their lives, but they did not do +it. Who can account for this strange course of conduct upon +the ground of dishonesty? +</p> + +<p> +If a man reports an uncommon fact that is a plain object of +sense, and we do not believe him, it is because we suspect his +<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/> +honesty and not his senses. If we are satisfied that the reporter +is sincere, of course we believe. So our case is now in +this shape: First, the great facts of the gospel of Christ addressed +themselves, as simple facts, to the senses of men; second, +no witness could affirm those facts honestly unless they +took place; third, the witnesses to those facts gave all the evidences +of sincerity and honesty that are possible. Reputation +for truthfulness and honesty has never rested upon any evidence +that is not found in great abundance in the lives of the +witnesses of Christ. It is said that men die for false opinions: +very true, but their sufferings and death, nevertheless, prove +that they were sincere. True philosophy does not charge men +who die for their opinions with dishonesty. Men may be mistaken +in some things, but mistaken men are <emph>not cheats</emph>; are +not insincere or dishonest. But the witnesses of Christ could +not, in the nature of the case, belong to this class; they could +not be mistaken about any such facts as those of the gospel. +The only fort to be held in order to hold the gospel of Christ +is the sincerity of his witnesses. When a man gets rid of the +evidence upon which the reputation of those witnesses for +honesty rests, he has removed the only evidence upon which +it is possible for him to build a reputation for truth and honesty. +So, if a man succeeds in sinking the gospel of Christ, +he succeeds, at the same time and by the same means, in sinking +himself. This is the philosophic and logical conclusion, +from which there is no escape. +</p> + +<p> +Let us look around one of the Savior's witnesses and see +what we can discover. First, we find Saul, a bold and fearless +Jew, a Roman citizen by birth, and a pharisee in the Jews +religion; a legalist by profession; laboring under all the prejudices +of the straitest sect of the pharisees; persecuting the +Savior's disciples to the death. He was a man of no mean +attainments. His worldly prospects were greater than those +of any other man known to be converted from among the +Jews. The testimony which he submits for our consideration +is like the evidence of all the others. It consists in simple +facts about which there was no possibility of being mistaken, +<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/> +for the facts were seen and heard. Allowing that Saul did +neither see nor hear the Savior, he was insincere. And if he +was, then we shall always be at a loss to know what constitutes +the basis of an honest reputation. Did he give his evidence, +knowing that it was false, with the intention of deceiving? +If so, what were his motives? He could have had no reasonable +inducements. Christianity could not furnish him with +temporal power, credit, or interest during all his lifetime. So +far as credit was concerned, in the affair of his conversion, he +knew that the world had none to give. He knew that preaching +Christ crucified was <q>to the Jews a stumbling-block, and +to the Greeks foolishness.</q> He knew that the Christ himself +had been crucified. Credit or reputation was lying upon the +anti-christian side of the gospel. He was already in high +esteem among the Jews; a <q><emph>ring-leader</emph>,</q> pursuing the course +of action calculated in the very nature of things to advance +him higher in their estimation. His entire life demonstrated +the fact that he expected nothing of the Jews, for it was spent, +with trifling exceptions, among the Gentiles. His enterprise +was with them, for he was sent to them. +</p> + +<p> +The difficulties lying in the way of any worldly emoluments +were many and great. He had to contend with the +authority and policy of the rulers; with the interest, credit +and clique of the priests; with the prejudices and passions of +the people; with the shrewdness and pride of the philosophers. +Every man acquainted with ancient history knows +that the established religion with which he would necessarily +come in conflict, was interwoven with their civil institution, +and supported by the rulers as <emph>an essential</emph> part of their government. +The Romans allowed a great many religious systems +to exist, but they allowed no such thing as a religion destructive +of the genius of paganism. The existing religions +were many, and embraced the system of many gods ruling +under one <q>Master God,</q> as <q>his members,</q> or representatives. +The antagonism between Paganism and Christianity +may be seen at once, in the fact that the Gospel of Christ was +death to all the lower gods. On this account the first Christians +<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/> +became at once the object of national hatred and scorn. +This accounts for the fact that bloody Rome baptized herself +in Christian blood in spite of all her tolerance of religion. +</p> + +<p> +The apostle met with sufferings on all sides; and having +perfect liberty of recantation at any moment, how did it come +to pass, if he was insincere, that he did not recant? Was he +rational? Let his writing answer! They are admired by the +best minds of earth. If he was irrational, let us have many +more insane writers! Was he honest? If not, who is honest? +Could he be deceived about the facts which he saw and +heard? No! If he was, who can't be? He could not be +mistaken, for he <emph>saw</emph>, and <emph>heard</emph>, +and <emph>felt</emph>—even to <emph>blindness</emph>, +and, also, to the receiving of his sight. He was sincere. He +suffered long as a bold defender of the Christian religion, +and died a martyr's death at last. Let us work on, suffer on, +hope on, <q>hope in death,</q> and live forever! So mote it be. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head><q>Broad-Gauge Religion.</q>—Shall The Conflict Cease?</head> + +<p> +First. <q>A portion of the Church of England, comprising +those who claim to hold a position, in respect to doctrine and +fellowship, intermediate between the old High Church party +and the modern Low Church, or evangelical party, a term of +recent origin,</q> having originated in the last half century, +<q>which has been loosely applied to other bodies of men holding +liberal or comprehensive views of Christian doctrine and +fellowship.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Webster.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +Side by side with these various shades of High and Low +Church, another party of a different character has always existed +in the Church of England. It is called by different +names: Moderate, Catholic, or <hi rend='italic'>Broad Church</hi>, by its friends: +Latitudinarian or Indifferent, by its enemies. Its distinctive +character is the desire of comprehension. Its watchwords +are <hi rend='italic'>charity</hi> and +<hi rend='italic'>toleration</hi>.—<hi rend='italic'>Conybeare.</hi> +</p> + +<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Broadgauge.</hi> This word is connected, in its origin, with +railroads. Its radical idea is that of distance. It is credited +by Webster to Simmonds in these words, <q>A wide distance +(usually six or seven feet) between the rails on a railway, in +contradistinction from the narrow gauge of four feet eight inches +and a half.</q> The watch-word, <q>charity,</q> is a term that has +been much abused. <q>Charity is a grace of heavenly mien.</q> +It is the <q>end of the commandment.</q> <q>The law was not +made for a righteous man, but for the lawless, and the disobedient, +etc.</q> It is love, in the New Testament sense of the term, +as modified by all the essential elements of the Christian religion, +so it is <q>the fulfilling of the law.</q> It is not passion, +<emph>but affection</emph>. To my sensuous life all my passions belong. +The brute has also a sensuous life. But man has, in addition +to this, an intellectual life. Passion always passes away with +its object, but affection remains to soften the heart years after +its object is gone. +</p> + +<p> +My intellectual nature is the field of all legitimate gospel +operations with reference to the production of a Christian life +and character. As a divine affection, charity or love springs +out of union with God, or being made a <q>partaker of the +divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the +world through lusts.</q> Such being the height of its bed-rock, +it is said, <q>Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth +God.</q> And it is also said, <q>He that saith I know him and +keepeth not his commandments is a liar.</q> This +strong language correlates with the fact that charity expresses +the idea of love as an attribute of divine life, known +as the life of God. It is an attribute belonging to those who +have made the high attainment of a spiritual or mental condition +which places them beyond the need of penal laws to restrain +them from crime. Its <emph>measure</emph> is the <emph>love of God</emph>. Its +full import may be expressed in these words, <hi rend='italic'>loving as God +loves</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +After enumerating many of the Christian graces an +apostle said, Above all these things put on charity, which is +the bond of perfectness. So charity, or rather its possessor, is +<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/> +no willful truth <q>butcherer,</q> for charity believeth all things +(<emph>or all truth</emph>); hopeth all things (<emph>promised</emph>); rejoiceth, not in +iniquity, but in the truth. It has no <q>stock</q> in known error, +for it <q>abounds in all knowledge and judgment,</q> and <q>approves +things that are excellent.</q> It is noble and right to +let <q>love,</q> or <q>charity have her perfect work,</q> to be, or +rather try to be, as charitable as God himself; but it is absurd +and preposterous to go beyond or try to be more charitable. +<q>It is enough that the disciple be <emph>as his master</emph>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Men are guilty of this presumption when they, in feigned +charity, go beyond the word of the Lord, or beyond the truth +in their expressions of kindness. +</p> + +<p> +There is a great deal of love in this world that lacks the +elements of <emph>perfectness</emph>. It is not the <q>love of God,</q> or +loving as God loves. It is not the attribute of a divine life. +There is no charity in influencing a person, willfully, to stop +short or go beyond the truth in Christian faith or obedience. +There is no charity in giving a man money knowingly to purchase +whisky to get drunk upon. Charity never conflicts +with truth or right. On the contrary, it endeavors to bring +all men to the standard of truth and rectitude. +</p> + +<p> +The phrase <q>Broad-gauge</q> seems to have been gotten up +to express the idea of an intelligent relaxation from <q>human +creeds</q> as bonds of union and fellowship. In this sense we +all ought to be the advocates of <q>Broad-gauge religion.</q> +We should cultivate the spirit of gospel liberality until we +utterly disregard and put away all human creeds. +</p> + +<p> +It is a trite saying, that one extreme begets another; +against this error we should guard with great caution. To +succeed in religion, we must remember, always, that we have +in the word of God a standard of truth and right that will +always govern us according to heaven's will. Many persons, +forgetting this truth, have been led to conclude that departures +from the word of truth, as a matter of <q>liberality,</q> or <q>broad-gauge +religion,</q> are justifiable. And, as <q>liberalists,</q> or +<q>broad-gauge Christians,</q> they are disposed to recognize all +the existing divisions in faith and practice that are known in +<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/> +Christendom. They even go further and allow that somehow +all are right, and will stand upon an equality in the righteous +judgement of God. This is not perfect love. Charity, over +and above a kindly feeling towards those who are in error, is +unfaithfulness to the truth, to God, and to the very best interests +of our humanity. It is, in all such cases, <emph>love run +mad</emph>! A man should never get so broad in his religion as to +be unfaithful to truth. +</p> + +<p> +The phraseology has also been appropriated by skeptics and +semi-infidels to popularize their own semi-infidel philosophy, +which they love to denominate <q>free thought.</q> Deists, Pantheists +and Atheists have seized upon the phrase and appropriated +it to their ungodly speculations. It is true that others, +in getting away from their old creeds, have run past the standard +of truth and right. All this wildness in the <emph>standardless</emph> +field of thought, where Hobbes and other infidels reveled, +without any guide save the civil law, has been denominated +<q>Broad-gauge religion,</q> and <q>Liberalism.</q> +</p> + +<p> +We should always remember that going beyond the truth +and the eternal laws of right is <emph>libertinism</emph> or <emph>lawlessness</emph>. +</p> + +<p> +<q>Charity,</q> extending, or reaching out thus, is no longer +<q>charity,</q> or <q>perfect love.</q> Such expressions of love are +misdirected, and, if knowingly done, are blameworthy. +Charity is governed by the perfect law of truth; when it is +not destitute of its own divine nature it conducts us in the +<q><emph>straight and narrow way</emph>.</q> +</p> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>Long as of life the joyous hours remain,</q></l> +<l>Let on this head unfading flowers reside,</l> +<l>There bloom the vernal rose's earliest pride;</l> +<l>And when, our flames commissioned to destroy,</l> +<l>Age step 'twixt Love and me, and intercept the joy;</l> +<l>When my changed these locks no more shall know,</l> +<l>And all its petty honors turn to snow;</l> +<l>Then let me rightly spell of Nature's ways;</l> +<l>To Providence, to him my thoughts I'd raise,</l> +<l><q rend='post'>And love as he throughout remaining days.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +—<hi rend='italic'>Gray.</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/> + +<p> +We should cherish a kind feeling for all our fellows, and +in doing this we should not forget our duty to point them to +truth in word and example, to be ever faithful to truth. +</p> + +<p> +There are two great fields of thought for the exercise of the +Christian intellect of the present times. One is the corruptions +of Roman Catholic religion, and the other is the corruptions +of Protestant religions. +</p> + +<p> +That both are great feeder-dams to infidelity and skepticism +is demonstrated by the infidel productions of the day. The +dogma of ecclesiastic authority set up in opposition to reason +and scientific discovery is the <emph>infidel's devil</emph>, and a very poor +devil at that. For, when the Pope has interfered to settle a +question it has often happened that his decisions were wrong. +</p> + +<p> +On March 5, 1616, the congregation of the Index published +a decree condemning as <q>false, unscriptural and destructive +of Catholic truth,</q> the opinion that the earth moves +round the sun. It is denied by Roman theologians that Paul +IV., who set the Index at work and agreed with its decisions, +was responsible for this decree, but the preponderance of evidence +is against them. It is known that this Pope presided in +a congregation of the Inquisition on February 25, 1616, in +which, after this same opinion, that the sun is the center of +our universe, had been described as <q>absurd, philosophically +false and formally heretical, because expressly contrary to +holy scripture;</q> and the opinion that the earth is not the center +of the universe, but moves, and that daily, <q>absurd, philosophically +false, and, theologically considered, at least erroneous +in faith;</q> Cardinal Bellamine was appointed to visit +Galileo, the astronomer, and order him to give up these false +opinions under pain of imprisonment for refusal. It was thus +that the congregation of the Index took action and published +its decree a week later. +</p> + +<p> +In 1633 Galileo, having continued to propagate his views, +was called on by the Inquisition to retract and abjure, and the +formal notice to him to do so states expressly that the declaration +of 1616 was made by the Pope himself, and that resistance +to it was, therefore, heresy, contrary to the doctrine of +<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/> +the Catholic and Apostolic Church. On being brought to +trial, Galileo made a formal abjuration, and on June 30th +Pope Urban VIII. ordered the publication of the sentence, +thereby, according to Roman ecclesiastical law, making +Galileo's compulsory denial of the earth's motion binding on +all Christians as a theological doctrine. Infidels have a vast +deal to say about such an abominable manifestation of ecclesiastic +tyranny and unscientific and unscriptural nonsense. +All intelligent Roman Catholics of to-day reject the judgment +of Popes Paul IV. and Urban VIII. as absurd, and scientifically +and scripturally false. There is not so much as a +hint at papal authority found in the three old creeds known +as the Apostles', the Nicene and the Athanasian, nor in any +ancient gloss upon them. Neither can we find in them any +of the distinguishing special doctrines of the Church of +Rome. +</p> + +<p> +Christianity came from the hands of Christ and his apostles +in all its perfections, and as long as infidels stop short of the +New Testament itself, and short of Christ and his apostles, in +their warfare, we may well believe that all their efforts to +blot out Christianity will be vain. Protestants themselves +have demurred as much as infidels against the errors of the +Roman Catholic Church, and fully as much against the errors +of each other as denominations. <q>Truth stands true to her +God, man alone deviates.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The greatest difficulty that Christianity ever encountered is +the ignorance and imperfections of its own friends. Protestant +errors are many and serious. But why should the genuine +be discarded on account of the existence of the counterfeit? +And why should we shut our eyes to the importance of +the great work of establishing truth, to the destruction of all +Catholic and Protestant errors of faith and practice by becoming +the advocates of false charity through the adoption of +<q>broad-gauge religion,</q> in a <q>broad-gauge church?</q> Infidels +who, like Col. Ingersoll, assert that <q>no man can control his +belief,</q> had better look in a glass and see themselves as others +see them, before they <emph>strive to</emph> conquer a victory for the <emph>black +<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/> +demon</emph> of despair, by fastening the absurd philosophy of <emph>fatalism</emph> +upon all the world. If men can not help their belief, +who is to blame? Surely, neither Roman Catholics, nor +Protestants, nor those who managed <q>thumbscrews</q> and +<q>hot irons,</q> and other condemned instruments of the dark +ages, nor yet those who now live to be the <q>butt</q> of Colonel +Ingersoll's satire and ridicule. A kind feeling for all, and +unfaithfulness to the truth—never! +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Papal Authority In The Bygone.—The Infidel's Amusing Attitude.</head> + +<p> +The doctrine of papal infallibility amounts to this: that the +decisions of the Pope on faith and morals, being divinely inspired +and infallible, are, when placed upon record, so much +more holy Scripture. This infallibility dogma has been a +great source of mischief and of unbelief. It has accomplished +no good, but a great deal of harm. Some Roman theologians +claim that the Popes have <emph>only once</emph>, up to the present time, +spoken with the formalities necessary to make their utterances +<q><hi rend='italic'>ex cathedra</hi></q> and infallibly binding, and that was when Pius +the Ninth, on December 8, 1854, decreed the Immaculate +Conception of the Virgin Mary; which, if true, belongs to +the realm of unpractical speculation. It was denied as heresy +by orthodox Catholics, including <emph>fourteen Popes</emph>, for a thousand +years, and is contrary to the well-nigh <q>unanimous consent +of the fathers.</q> <emph>See Dr. Pusey, Letter 1, to Newman, +pp. 72-286.</emph> To use such an engine but once in all the centuries, +and then to accomplish so little, aside from furnishing +infidels with something to say, is much like constructing a +vessel of twenty thousand tons capacity to carry one man +across the Atlantic. There is such a thing as Parthenogenesis +known in nature. The Vatican decrees declare that the +Christian religion came perfect from God's hands; that it is +not like a human science, such as medicine or mechanics, which +can be improved or altered by the skill of man. In view of +<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/> +this conceded fact we have no kind of use for the decree of +Pius the Ninth upon the <q>miraculous conception</q>—<q>Pope +Pius decreed it.</q> Well, well, if Christianity really stood in +need of such a decree it would not have been left off until +December 8, 1854. It has been a bone for infidels to contend +over from that time to the present. The New Testament is +not responsible for it. +</p> + +<p> +Men of sense, who are not already traditionized nor Christianized, +find facts enough in the line of papal bulls and decrees +to disgust them so thoroughly as to drive them at once to +reject religion entirely. Sixtus the V., in 1590, declared, +by a perpetual decree, an edition of the Vulgate, just then +out, the sole authentic and standard text, to be received as +such under pain of excommunication. He also decreed that +future editions not conformed to it should have no credit nor +authority. But its errors were so numerous that it was immediately +called in, and a new Vulgate was published by Clement +VIII., in 1592, differing, in several thousand places, from +the one of 1590. This last publication was also issued under +penalty of excommunication for any departure from it. So +Roman Catholic faith rests very largely upon the assumed +authority of the Pope, and this authority has often been exercised +in the wrong, they themselves being witnesses. This +authority, opposed to human progress, has been and is one of +the greatest feeders to Atheism and infidelity. Mr. Draper, in +his work entitled <q>Conflict between Religion and Science,</q> +wishes his readers to understand that he uses the term Christianity +in the sense of Roman Catholicism. The entire work +is one grand scientific effort against popecraft and priestcraft. +His work is well worth a reading; but it is to be remembered +by all who would do Mr. Draper justice that his great antagonist +is the Roman Catholic Church. Will she defend herself +against the charge of being in conflict with science? Is she +in the way of human progress? How does she compare with +Protestants in morality and virtue? +</p> + +<p> +Let us give you a few figures, by the way of negative evidence, +upon the question of comparative morality, remembering +<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/> +that it is a sad necessity of our nature to have to determine +which of us has the least of moral miseries in order that we +may know which has the most of virtue. Let this be as it +may, these moral miseries show themselves under two principal +phases, acts of profligacy and acts of violence; corrupt +manners and assassinations. Here is what we read in Jonnes: +</p> + +<p> +Assassinations And Attempts To Assassinate In Europe. +</p> + +<table rend="latexcolumns: 'p{5cm} p{3cm}'; tblcolumns: 'lw(40) lw(20)'"> +<row><cell>Protestant—Scotland, 1835,</cell><cell>1 for 270,000</cell></row> +<row><cell>Protestant—England,</cell><cell>1 for 178,000</cell></row> +<row><cell>Protestant—Low Countries, 1824,</cell><cell>1 for 163,000</cell></row> +<row><cell>Protestant—Prussia, 1824,</cell><cell>1 for 100,000</cell></row> +<row><cell>Catholic States—Austria, 1809,</cell><cell>1 for 57,000</cell></row> +<row><cell>Catholic—Spain, 1826,</cell><cell>1 for 4,113</cell></row> +<row><cell>Catholic—Naples,</cell><cell>1 for 2,750</cell></row> +<row><cell>Catholic—Roman States,</cell><cell>1 for 750</cell></row> +</table> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Jonnes, vol. 2, p. 257.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +Now, if we take the average, we have one assassination, or +one attempt to assassinate, for 180,222 inhabitants in the +aggregate of the four Protestant nations; and one assassination, +or one attempt to assassinate, for 16,153 inhabitants in +the four Catholic nations; in other words, eleven times more +of these crimes among the Roman Catholic nations. The +contrast between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries in +Spain is so very striking, and is painted by a writer in such +lively colors that one is tempted to believe that the picture +was intended to serve as a demonstration. +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>Spain is a dispossessed queen. For two hundred years and +more diamonds have been falling from her glittering crown. +The source of her wealth, well or ill-gotten, is exhausted forever. +Her treasures are lost, her colonies are gone; she is +deprived of the prestige of that external opulence which +veiled, or, at least dissembled her real and utter poverty. +The nation is exhausted to such a degree, and has been so +long unhappy, that each individual feels but his own misery. +His country has ceased to exist for him. Even those time are +gone when the guerillas called the citizens to arms for the sole +and generous purpose of vindicating the national honor. The +<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/> +despondency and apathy of the nation are visible even in the +battles fought by the Spaniards among themselves in their +civil dissensions. They fight from habit, and discharge their +muskets at their countrymen because they can do nothing else, +and because every shot from their guns may bring them a +piece of bread. A nation reduced to such a state is low indeed; +the chilliness of death is very near seizing upon its +extremities. What a length of time it will require to heal +the wounds of these populations, so brave and so devoted! +How much gold, how much blood have been lavished during +the last seven years without an object, without any conceived +plan!</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>What would Charles the Fifth say, if, rising from his +grave he saw his great and glorious Spain struggling thus +miserably in dread uncertainty of her future destinies? +<q>Where are my colonies? Where are my Batavian provinces? +Where is my gigantic power, and the glory of Spain, which +resounded from one hemisphere to the other? What have +you done with my inheritance, ye cowardly and unskillful +men? Where are my treasures; where the victorious fleets +that crossed the ocean to bring back in profusion to my +empire the gold and gems of the New World?</q> The question +naturally arises, what can be the cause of so many evils? of +such utter misery, such extreme ignorance, such disgusting +sloth?</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'><emph>Tyranny</emph>, says the politician.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'><emph>Catholicism</emph>, says the Protestant.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'><emph>The Inquisition</emph>, adds the historian.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>But these three replies form but one; they are the three +sides of a prism, which, united, give the entire ray of truth. +In truth, Catholicism is the father, the Inquisition and tyranny +the daughters. We are not the first to pen these words; we +only repeat what we have read in the lines we are now going +to submit to the perusal of our readers. It is sufficient for us +to have pointed out the connection of the different causes which +will be assigned by our authorities.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/> + +<p> +<q>That Catholicism produced the Inquisition, a tribunal of +priests, judging heretics, it is unnecessary to demonstrate, for +the very nature of the institution renders it evident. The +ruling idea of Catholicism, the principle of authority, was the +germ of the Inquisition. It was impossible that the Romish +Church should not extend its principle to its penal code; it +does not doubt in matters of faith, neither does it doubt in +criminal matters. This is the reason why, in the church, the +accused and the guilty have but one and the same appellation. +Whoever is arraigned at her tribunal has heaven and earth +against him; the interrogatory is already a species of torture. +When the church accuses, she seems already convinced; all +her efforts tend to extort the confession of the crime, which, in +virtue of her infallibility, she discovers in darkness; from +this anticipated conviction of the guilt of the accused are +produced all those ambushes and snares laid for the purpose +of obtaining, by surprise, the confession of the accused. The +names of the witnesses are concealed or falsified. Everywhere, +in the most trifling details, it is strikingly evident that, +truth is on one side, and the demon on the other.</q> [See Tardiff, +pp. 139, 140.] +</p> + +<p> +In the second place, that Catholicism has produced the +Spanish absolutism of the Catholic kings is sufficiently +shown by the very name given to these kings. +</p> + +<p> +<q>Another no less deplorable consequence of the position of +the clergy in Spain and Portugal is, that they have no sooner +confounded the cause of religion with that of despotism, +than this error, producing its consequences, leads to a monstrous +abuse of the word of God. Political fury has invaded +the pulpit and stained it with abject and sacrilegious adulation.... +The lips, whose mission is to speak peace, +charity and mutual love, have spoken the language of hatred +and vengeance; horrible vows, abominable threats in the +presence of the tabernacles in which abides the Son of Man, +who sacrificed his life for the salvation of his brethren.</q> +[Affairs de Rome, pp. 250 to 254.] +</p> + +<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/> + +<p> +<q>Spain, since Phillip II., has remained closed and uninfluenced +by the ordinary progress of the human mind elsewhere. +The monkish and despotic spirit has long preserved +itself in the midst of ignorance, without, indeed, acquiring +strength from abroad, but at the same time without permitting +the intelligence of the nation to borrow foreign arms against +it.</q> [Idem, p. 53.] +</p> + +<p> +We shall now see this Spanish Catholicism at work; for +three centuries, assisted by its worthy offspring, absolutism +and the Inquisition, and at every ruin, at every crime you +meet with, if you ask who has done this, the reply will assuredly +be: the church of the Pope, the tyranny of the Catholic +kings, the Inquisition of the priests. To convince +yourselves of the fact, you need only put your questions and +listen to the records of history, written not by us, but by men +of talent and skill, who have long enjoyed unquestionable +authority. +</p> + +<p> +The expulsion of the Jews and the Moors was the first fruit +of the Catholic Inquisition. <q>Spain,</q> says M. Roseew Saint +Hilaire, <q rend='pre'>exterminated them forever as poisonous plants from +its soil, mortal to heresy. The Jews and the Moors left it in +turn, carrying with them, the former trade, the latter agriculture, +from this disinherited land, to which the New World, to +repair so many losses, vainly bequeathed her sterile treasures. +And let it not be said that Spain, in thus depriving herself of +her most active citizens, was not aware of the extent of her +loss. All her historians concur in the statement that in acting +thus she sacrificed her temporal interests to her religious +convictions, and all are at a loss for words to extol such a glorious +sacrifice.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>In banishing the Jews from her territory, Spain, then +acted consistently; her conduct was logically just, but according +to that pitiless logic which ruins States in order to save a +principle. From that period, therefore, a new era begins for +Castile. Until then she had been divided from the rest of +Europe only by her position; foreign, without being hostile, +to the ideas of the continent, she had not begun to wage war +<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/> +with those ideas; but the establishment of the Inquisition is +the first step in the career in which she can never stop.</q> +[Saint Hilaire, vol. 6, p. 52.] +</p> + +<p> +<q>It required,</q> says M. Sismondi, <q>about one generation +to accustom the Spaniards to the sanguinary proceedings of +the Inquisition, and to fanaticise the people. This work, dictated +by an infernal policy, was scarcely accomplished, when +Charles the Fifth began his reign. It was probably the fatal +spectacle of the auto-dä-fe that imparted to the Spanish soldiers +their ferocity, so remarkable during the whole of that period, +which before that time was so foreign to the national character.</q> +[Sismondi, vol. 3, p. 265.] Who, employing these +instruments, depopulated Spain? <hi rend='smallcaps'>The Inquisition.</hi> <q>To +calculate,</q> says Liorente, secretary to the Holy office, <q>the +number of victims of the Inquisition were to give palpable +proof of the most powerful and active causes of the depopulation +of Spain; for, if to several millions of inhabitants of +which the Inquisitorial system has deprived this kingdom by +the total expulsion of the Jews, the conquered Moors and the +baptized Moorish, we add about 500,000 families entirely destroyed +by the executions of the Holy (?) office, it will be +proved beyond a doubt that had it not been for this tribunal, +and the influence of its maxims, Spain would possess 12,000,000 +souls above her present population, supposed to amount +to 11,000,000.</q> [Liorente, vol. 4, p. 242.] +</p> + +<p> +<q>The Inquisition ruined and branded with infamy more +than 340,000 persons, whose disgrace was reflected on their +families, and who bequeathed only opprobrium and misery to +their children. Add to these more than 100,000 families +who emigrated in order to escape from the blood-thirsty +tribunal, and it will be seen that the Inquisition has been the +most active instrument of the ruin of Spain. But the most +disastrous of all the acts which it occasioned was the expulsion +of the Moors. If we add to those who were banished +from Spain the countless numbers who perished in the insurrection +of the sixteenth century, and the 800,000 Jews who +left the kingdom, it will be seen that the country lost in the +<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/> +course of a hundred and twenty years about three millions of +its most industrious inhabitants.</q> [Weiss, vol. 2, pp. 60, 61.] +</p> + +<p> +<q>The advisors of Phillip III. said to him with affright: +The houses are falling in ruins, and none rebuild them; the +inhabitants flee from the country; villages are abandoned, +fields left uncultivated, and churches deserted. The Cortes +in their turn said to him: if the evil is not remedied, there +will soon be no peasants left to till the ground, no pilots to +steer the ships; none will marry. The kingdom can not subsist +another century if a wholesome remedy be not found.</q> +</p> + +<p> +What was the cause of the ignorance so general and so profound +in Spain? The Catholic Inquisition. <q>The commissaries +of the Holy office received orders to oppose the introduction +of books written by the partisans of modern philosophy, +as reprobated by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and ordered +information to be given against persons known to be attached +to the principles of the insurrection.</q> [Liorente, vol. 4, p. +99.] <q>Theological censures attacked even works on politics, +and on natural, civil and international law. The consequence +is, that those appointed to examine publications condemn and +proscribe all works necessary for the diffusion of knowledge +among the Spaniards. The books that have been published +on mathematics, astronomy, natural philosophy and several +other branches of science connected with those, are not treated +with more favor.</q> [Liorente, vol. 4, p. 420.] <q>The Inquisition +is, perhaps, the most active cause of that intellectual +death that visited Spain at the close of the seventeenth century.... +It encouraged ignorance, and instituted a +censorship even for works on jurisprudence, philosophy, and +politics, and for novels that reflected on the avarice and +rapacity of the priests, their dissolute conduct, and their +hypocricy.</q> [Weiss, vol. 2, pp. 319 to 321.] <q>Lastly, if it be +asked what has corrupted the morals both of the clergy and +the laity of the former times and of the present day, the +answer is still, Catholic superstition!</q> [Napoleon Roussell.] +</p> + +<p> +Infidels, who are noted leaders in <q>Free Thought,</q> as +it is termed, are invariably men whose religious education +<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/> +was in the religious literature of the old creeds +of centuries gone by, or otherwise in the religious literature +of Roman Catholicism. They live in thought upon religious +matters centuries behind the times, but, in scientific +thought, are too well informed to adhere to their religious +training. Such is the philosophy of infidel making. Let a +man be trained in the obsolete religions of an hundred years +or more ago, and otherwise well educated, and he is, at once, +an infidel. No man is to blame for setting his face like a flint +against old-fashioned Roman Catholicism, and high-toned +Calvinism, nor for repudiating Papal and clerical authority +known in the Spanish Inquisition with all its horrible, unscriptural +and ungodly barbarities. But why it is that the infidel's +religious foot should set away back yonder in the smoke +of the dark ages, and his scientific foot away down here with +the railroad and telegraph, is rather difficult of solution. It is +rather amusing, since all well-educated American Catholics +condemn the Inquisition along with all the abominable cruelties +of the dark ages. And, as for Calvinism, there is not +enough left for seed if it was properly distributed—<emph>it is old and +thin.</emph> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head><q>Even Now Are There Many Anti-Christs.</q></head> + +<p> +Col. Ingersoll says: <q>He (Paine) knew that every abuse +had been embalmed in scripture, that every outrage was in +partnership with some holy text.</q> If such was really true +every rascal, scoundrel and villain should carry a copy of the +Bible. Do they? Are they in affinity with the Bible? Are +they even friendly to it? Things that are in affinity with each +other are drawn together. <q>A fellow feeling makes us very +kind.</q> <q>By their fruits ye shall know them.</q> <q>Birds of a +feather flock together.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Before the Bible went to the Sandwich Islands Col. Ingersoll +would have been hailed as a very proper object for a +sumptuous feast. He would have acted wisely in making his +<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/> +last will before starting, but now, since that book has gone +there which embalms every crime (?) he would find an asylum +of safety in which to repose his weary limbs. <emph>How is this?</emph> +Is every outrage in partnership with some holy text? If so, +the Bible would be just one more reason for the continuance +of cannibalism. The secret of Mr. Ingersoll's tirade upon +the Bible may be accounted for when we measure the magnitude +of his infidelity. It is no shallow sort of unbelief, but, +on the contrary, it is deep seated, and one with the infidelity +of his excelling predecessors. Ingersoll intends to have no +superior in unbelief—you know he is ambitious. Let us give +you a little speech that was made, by one of his particular +friends and co-laborers in this unholy crusade, at Geneva, in +1868. Here it is: +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>Brethren, I am come to announce unto you a new gospel, +which must penetrate to the very ends of the world. This +gospel admits of no half measures and hesitations. The old +world must be destroyed and replaced by a new one. The +Lie must be stamped out and give way to truth.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>It is our mission to destroy the <emph>Lie</emph>; and to effect this, we +must begin at the very commencement. Now the beginning +of all those lies which have ground down this poor world in +slavery is God. For many hundred years monarchs and +priests have inoculated the hearts and minds of mankind with +this notion of a God ruling over the world. They have also +invented for the people the notion of another world, in which +their God is to punish with eternal torture (not a Bible term) +those who have refused to obey their degrading laws here on +earth. This God is nothing but the personification of absolute +tyranny, and has been invented with a view of either +frightening or alluring nine-tenths of the human race into +submission to the remaining tenth. If there were really a +God, surely he would use that lightning which he holds in +his hand to destroy those thrones, to the steps of which mankind +is chained. He would assuredly use it to overthrow +those altars where the truth is hidden by clouds of lying +incense. Tear out of your hearts the belief in the existence +<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/> +of God; for as long as an atom of that silly superstition +remains in your minds you will never know what freedom is.</q> +</p> + +<p> +This has the genuine <emph>Ingersoll ring</emph> upon the subject of +<q><emph>Liberty of Man, Woman and Child.</emph></q> <q rend='pre'>When you have +got rid of this belief in this priest-begotten God, and when, +moreover, you are convinced that your existence, and that of +the surrounding world, is due to the <emph>conglomeration of atoms</emph>, +in accordance with the law of gravity and attraction, then, and +then only, you will have accomplished the first steps toward +liberty, and will experience less difficulty in ridding your +minds of that second lie which tyranny has invented.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>The first lie is <emph>God</emph>. The second lie is <emph>Right</emph>. +Might invented the fiction of Right in order to insure and strengthen +her reign; that Right which she herself does not heed, and +which only serves as a barrier against any attacks which may +be made by the trembling and stupid masses of mankind.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'><emph>Might</emph>, my friends, forms the sole ground-work of society. +Might makes and unmakes laws, and that might should be in +the hands of the majority. It should be in the possession of +those nine-tenths of the human race whose immense power has +been rendered subservient to the remaining tenth by means of +that lying fiction of <emph>Right</emph>, before which you are accustomed +to bow your heads and to drop your arms. Once penetrated +with a clear conviction of <emph>your own might</emph>, you will be able to +destroy this <emph>mere notion of right</emph>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>And when you have freed your minds from the fear of a +God, and from that childish respect for <emph>the fiction of Right</emph>, +then all the remaining chains which bind you, and which are +called <emph>science, civilization, property, marriage, morality and +justice, will snap asunder like threads</emph>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>Let your own happiness be your only law. But in order +to get this law recognized, and to bring about the proper relations +which should exist between the majority and minority of +mankind, you must destroy everything which exists in the +shape of state or social organization. So educate yourselves +and your children that, when the great moment for constituting +<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/> +the new world arrives, your eyes may not be blinded and +deceived by the falsehoods of the tyrants of throne and altar.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q rend='pre'>Our first work must be destruction and annihilation of +everything as it now exists. You must accustom yourselves +to destroy everything, the good with the bad; for if but an +atom of this world remains the new will never be created.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>According to the priests' fables, in days of old, a deluge +destroyed all mankind, but their God especially saved Noah +in order that the seeds of tyranny and falsehoods might be +perpetuated in the new world. When you once begin your +work of destruction, and when the floods of enslaved masses +of the people rise and engulph temples and palaces, then take +heed that no ark be allowed to rescue any atom of this old +world which we consecrate to destruction.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>A representative of the kingdom of darkness.</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<q>Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of +peace they know not.</q> +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>What Is To Be The Religion Of The Future.</head> + +<p> +<q>Brahmanism has avoided the fatal mistake of Catholic +and Protestant philosophy by assuming an impersonal deity +in three modes of manifestation, while Christian thinkers +have played around the logical contradiction of one personality +in three equal persons for fifteen hundred years. We +must utterly break with the idea of a personal God, and +accept that of one impersonal essence behind all phenomena.</q> +[Hartmann's future religion.] +</p> + +<p> +Must we do this? Is there any necessity for it? What +have we to do with <q>the fatal mistake of Catholic and Protestant +philosophy?</q> It was a <emph>mistake</emph>, that's all! <q>Christian +thinkers have played around the logical contradiction of one +personality in three equal persons for fifteen hundred years.</q> +<emph>Have they? 'Tis well!</emph> Christianity requires no man to step into +logical contradiction and stand there. They have done this +<q>for fifteen hundred years.</q> Well, it has been about that +<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/> +long since men, in the prelude of the dark ages, began to +speculate foolishly about the subject of the Divine existence. +There was a purer atmosphere in the first centuries of the +Christian era, in which primitive Christians enjoyed better +conceptions of the Divine Being, to which it is the privilege +of Christians to return. Is it the <emph>only alternative</emph> <q>to break +with the idea of a personal God, and accept that of one impersonal +essence behind all phenomena?</q> <emph>No!</emph> We Christians +affirm nothing that can necessarily be construed with the +Catholic and Protestant <q>mistake</q> concerning the <emph>Trinity</emph>, +nor anything that can be construed with ultra Unitarianism, +which treats of our Lord and Savior simply as an extraordinarily +inspired man. Neither are we under any logical necessity +to <q>break with the idea of a personal God,</q> and form an +alliance with Atheistic philosophy through the adoption of +the idea of a Pantheistic <q>essence behind all phenomena.</q> +Such speculative <emph>nonsense</emph> may be the best that a mind can do +while it is in its own ignorance upon the subject of what it +takes to constitute personality, and while it is also surrounded +with nothing but the darkness of the dark ages, which has +been the legitimate accompaniment of <q>the Catholic and +Protestant <emph>fatal mistake</emph>,</q> but it is not the best that an intelligent +mind, clothed with the sunlight of the gospel of Christ, +and intelligently educated upon the subject of <emph>personality</emph> can +do. <emph>No!</emph> The intelligently informed mind can stand upon +the everlasting bed-rock of truth, which has been raised to +the highest mountain top of Christian thought by the pure, +unadulterated teachings of the Savior of men, which lie +behind the fifteen hundred years of jargon upon the questions +of Trinitarian and Unitarian <q><emph>isms</emph>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>God is a spirit.</q> That settles the question of <q>person</q> +with every well instructed Christian mind. <q>What man +knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is +in him; even so the things of God knoweth no man but the +Spirit of God.</q> The Spirit of God is the <emph>Supreme intelligence</emph>. +And, being such, he is the <emph>Supreme person</emph>, for where +there is <emph>intelligence</emph> there is person. The attributes of personality +<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/> +belong to intelligence, and they belong to nothing else. +If you have an <emph>intelligent</emph> essence, it is, of a logical and +scientific necessity, a person. Let some Pantheistic <q>wiseacre</q> +grapple with this thought. +</p> + +<p> +The fatal mistakes are not all confined to Catholics and +Protestants; Pantheists and Scientists have made full as many +mistakes. The great mistake upon the subject of the Divine +existence, which Scientists and Pantheists have made, is the +conclusion that person is simply and necessarily <emph>material</emph>, or +animal existence. So they say, if God is a person he must be +a great big <emph>almighty</emph> man, having great arms and legs, etc. I +have the first Atheist or Pantheist to meet in conversation that +understands the truth of science in reference to this question +of <emph>person</emph>. +</p> + +<p> +It is claimed that a Monotheistic Pantheism, that is, the idea +of <emph>one essence</emph>, not person, but <emph>essence</emph>, is to +<emph>unite</emph>, or make one, +the whole human family upon the scientific (sciolistic) base +that man himself is one grand part of the grand all-pervading, +impersonal essence. +</p> + +<p> +Religions have their practical results, and, consequently, +bearings upon human society. The Monotheistic idea, which, +it is claimed, is to equalize all beings and things throughout +this vast universe, in the conception that all are parts of the +same grand all-pervading essence, can have only the following +results: First, to wipe out all ideas of a future retribution, +for want of judge, for want of governor; second, to destroy +all distinctions consequent upon the ideas of a divine +moral kingdom, or Kingdom of God among men; third, to +loosen up the religious and moral restraints by removing the +religious sanctions, or promises and threats, which relate to the +future retribution. +</p> + +<p> +The advocates of this universal religion of the future, which +is simply universal non-religion, say <q>Protestantism is the +grave digger of Christianity.</q> <q>But Christianity stoutly refuses +to be buried alive,</q> and the multitude of facts that are +continually transpiring demonstrate a living, active existence; +<q>its blood circulates; its pulse is certainly beating;</q> its +<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/> +force is not spent in the least; it is always giving but is never +growing lean; <q>it has a long lease of life.</q> All the trees of +the forest stand together in one grand old struggle for life. It +may be that Christianity will be under the necessity of struggling, +for many years to come, with the Godless forms of <emph>Pantheism</emph> +and <emph>Atheism</emph>, which are simply two different phases of +the same Godless philosophy; but the seeds of the great Christian +tree, in these United States, are being shaken down into +the tender and warm soil of millions of hearts in all our Sunday-schools, +and it will be many a year before Christianity dies. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Bill Of Indictments Against Protestants.</head> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>First.</hi> The idea of total hereditary depravity which never +can be correlated with accountability. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Second.</hi> The idea of those who were never converted +being rewarded according to their own deeds, when they were +never upon trial; for a man must have ability to try before he +can be tried, and that ability must extend to the accomplishment +of that to which the trial relates. Wesley's Discipline +says, The condition of man since the fall of Adam is such +that he can not, by his own natural strength, turn and prepare +himself to faith and calling upon God, without the grace of +God by Christ going before to give him good will, and working +with him when he has that good will. +</p> + +<p> +If it is improper to say that a man can by his own natural +strength turn and prepare himself to faith and calling upon +God, it is, also, improper to say he is naturally accountable, +for where ability ceases, accountability also terminates. But +a prop is found in <q>the grace of God by Christ going before +to give a good will, and to work with that good will.</q> So +the grace of God by Christ must go before to displace a bad +will by giving <q>a good one.</q> But this fails to relieve the +doctrine from embarrassment; for if the sinner is unwilling, +has a bad will, it is claimed that the Spirit goes away and +<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/> +leaves him to die in his helplessness. Does the Omnipotent +Spirit go to a man to give him a good will, and then refuse to +give it because the poor man has it not already? Do you +say he resisted? Well, well; suppose he did? <emph>What</emph>, is +that in the way of an Omnipotent Spirit? Who can explain +such nonsense? +</p> + +<p> +If I had a son laboring under the conviction that the +Bible is the source of such teachings, and he was to become +disgusted and fall out with it on that account, I should be +proud of his common-sense. Is the poor man mocked in +that manner? If he dies in his sins, on account of his not +being in possession of a good will, can his future reward +be according to the deeds done by himself? No! He was +never on trial—he had no ability to try. There is just as +much sense in the idea that an ape is on trial. Adam, the +first, ruined him; and Adam, the second, did not help him. +Can a man be justly condemned because he was not what he +never had the power to be? +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Third.</hi> The idea that the Lord would command men to +<emph>convert themselves</emph>, knowing, at the same time, that they could +not do it. He commands men to convert. He <q>commands all +men everywhere to repent.</q> He knows, also, that they can +do it; so Protestantism, to the contrary, is an everlasting disgrace +to our religion. The original term translated by the +word convert is in the <emph>imperative active</emph> in many places. Our +translators put it in the passive in the third chapter of Acts, +where it is imperative active in the original. Why they did +this no scholar can tell, unless it was to favor their Calvinistic +ideas upon conversion. The term occurs forty-seven times in +the New Testament, and it is translated thirty-eight times by +the words <emph>turn</emph> and <emph>return</emph>. +</p> + +<p> +Paul says he <q>showed to the people that <hi rend='smallcaps'>they should turn +to God</hi>, and do works meet for repentance.</q> +</p> + +<p> +This great thought harmonizes with all that is taught upon +the subject of future rewards. A man <emph>can turn</emph>, and he is +therefore accountable. To make man responsible, it must be +shown that he is capable, or able. This is the one great fact +<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/> +that lies at the foundation of future rewards and punishment. +Take this fact away and the justice of God is imperiled by +the teachings of the Bible upon the subject of the future +retribution. I know that men who are under the influence of +the traditions of their fathers and mothers turn from the truth +upon this question and say hard things against it; but I know, +also, that those same men speak the same sentiment when they +talk about the future judgment. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Fourth.</hi> The idea that the Divine Spirit must convert the +man, and that it passes the unwilling soul without giving him +ability that he may be tried, for a man must be able to attain +the desired object, otherwise trial is mere mockery. So, according +to this kind of teaching, justice is mocked, and the +sinner is sent to perdition without anything more than a mock +trial; <hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi>, without being tried. If this be not true, the theory +of helplessness growing out of Adam's sin is utterly false, +and man's salvation, under all dispensations, is presented to us +as a matter that was, and is, disposed of by himself, he being +able, in his own natural strength, to turn and prepare himself +to faith and calling upon God. Again, all men pray. It is +instinctive to pray. It is an instinct that defies reason and +philosophy. If men have not <q>natural strength to turn and +prepare themselves to faith and calling upon God,</q> then they +are not <emph>naturally</emph> responsible <emph>nor</emph> accountable. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Fifth.</hi> The idea that the Spirit goes to the unwilling sinner +to give him a good will, and then, because the man is not willing +already, departs from him, leaving him in his sins to continue +in his helpless, wicked condition until, having passed a +mock judgment, he is banished to outer darkness, for if the +man was never able to do otherwise on account of his helplessness, +why should he be condemned? Tell him it is for his +own deeds and you mock his good sense. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sixth.</hi> The idea that Christ died for an elect few, and +damns all the balance because they don't believe he died for +them, <emph>when he did not</emph>. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Seventh.</hi> The idea that Christ died for a few, and commissioned +his disciples to preach the fact to all nations—to every +<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/> +creature, as <q>glad tidings of great joy,</q> which was <q>to be +unto all people,</q> when it is, according to the doctrine that he +did not die for all, positively no good news to any soul that +was passed by. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Eighth.</hi> The idea that all who are finally lost, will be in +that sad condition because of unbelief, when, if they had +believed that Christ died for them they would have believed +a falsehood, because Calvinists say no soul for whom +Jesus died will be lost. +</p> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>A Summary Of Truth.</head> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>First.</hi> By the transgression man's eyes were opened, and +he became as God, to know good and evil. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Second.</hi> He has always had intellectual and moral ability +to turn and serve God, and so enjoy his divine favor. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Third.</hi> He has been required in every dispensation to do +this. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Fourth.</hi> Christ died for all men. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Fifth.</hi> All men may turn and be saved. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Sixth.</hi> God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation +he that feareth him and worketh righteousness shall be +accepted with him. +</p> + +<p> +Protestants, do you believe the Bible? Then throw away +your errors. <hi rend='smallcaps'>Let the lower lights be burning!</hi> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>The Unreasonable Conduct of a Pope.</hi>—<q>Pope Sixtus +V. expended in three years (from 1586 to 1589) 5,339 scudi, +(about $83,500) in destroying a portion of the Baths of +Diocletian; and 2,560,000 cubic feet of masonry were broken +up. These facts are recorded in a book of accounts found in +the Vatican library, at Rome.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>The Toujee Tourist, of April, +1880.</hi> +</p> + +</div> + +<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Ethan Allen, The Infidel, And His +Daughter.</head> + +<quote rend='display'> +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>The damps of death are coming fast,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>My father, o'er my brow;</l> +<l>The past, with all its scenes, are fled,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And I must turn me now</l> +<l>To that dim future which, in vain,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>My feeble eyes descry.</l> +<l>Tell me, my father, in this hour,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>In whose stern faith to die.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>In thine? I've watched the scornful smile</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And heard thy withering tone</l> +<l>Whene'er the Christian's humble hope</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Was placed above thine own.</l> +<l>I've heard thee speak of coming death</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Without a shade of gloom,</l> +<l>And laugh at all the childish fears</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>That cluster round the tomb.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>Or, is it my mother's faith?</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>How fondly do I trace,</l> +<l>Through many a weary year long past,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>That calm and saintly face!</l> +<l>How often do I call to mind,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Now she is 'neath the sod,</l> +<l>The place, the hour, in which she drew</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>My early thoughts to God.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>'Twas then she took this sacred book,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And from its burning page</l> +<l>Read how its truths support the soul</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>In youth and failing age;</l> +<l>And bade me in its precepts live,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And by its precepts die,</l> +<l>That I might share a home of love</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>In worlds beyond the sky.</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>My father, shall I look above,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Amid the gathering gloom,</l> +<l>To him whose promises of love</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Extend beyond the tomb</l> +<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/> +<l>Or curse the being who hath blessed</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>This chequered path of mine,</l> +<l>And promises eternal rest,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And die, my sire, in thine?</l> +</lg> + +<lg> +<l><q rend='pre'>The frown upon that warrior brow</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Passed, like a cloud, away,</l> +<l>And tears coursed down the rugged cheek</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>That flowed not till that day.</l> +<l><q><emph>Not—not in mine</emph>,</q> with choking voice,</l> +<l>The skeptic made reply;</l> +<l><q rend='pre'><emph>But in thy mother's holy faith,</emph></q></l> +<l><q rend='post'><emph>My daughter, mayst thou die.</emph></q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +—<hi rend='italic'>Virginia Missionary.</hi> +</p> +</quote> + +</div> + +<div> +<index index='toc'/> +<index index='pdf'/> +<head>Truth Is Immortal.</head> + +<p> +Philosophy has sometimes forgotten God, as great people +never did. The skepticism of the last century could not uproot +Christianity because it lived in the hearts of the millions. +Do you think that infidelity is spreading? Christianity never +lived in the hearts of so many millions as at this moment. +Many forms under which it is professed may decay, for they, +like all that is the work of man's hands, are subject to the +changes and chances of mortal beings, but the spirit of truth +is incorruptible; it may be developed, illustrated and applied; +it can never die; it never can decline. No truth can perish. +No truth can pass away. The flame is undying, though generations +disappear. Wherever immortal truth has started into +being, humanity claims and guards the bequest. Each generation +gathers together the imperishable children of the past +and increases them by the new sons of the light, alike radiant +with immortality.—<hi rend='italic'>Bancroft.</hi> +</p> +</div> +</body> +<back rend="page-break-before: right"> + <div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <divGen type="pgfooter" /> + </div> +</back> +</text> +</TEI.2> |