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diff --git a/28601.txt b/28601.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cee9d38 --- /dev/null +++ b/28601.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1933 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Foundation, June, 1880 + + + +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 included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: The Christian Foundation, June, 1880 + + + +Release Date: April 25, 2009 [Ebook #28601] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JUNE, 1880*** + + + + + + The Christian Foundation, + + Or, + + Scientific and Religious Journal + + Vol. 1. No 6. + + June, 1880. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +The Work of the Holy Spirit. What Is It? What Are Its Relations And Uses? +Credibility Of The Evidence Of The Resurrection Of Christ. +"Broad-Gauge Religion."--Shall The Conflict Cease? +Papal Authority In The Bygone.--The Infidel's Amusing Attitude. +"Even Now Are There Many Anti-Christs." +What Is To Be The Religion Of The Future. +Bill Of Indictments Against Protestants. +A Summary Of Truth. +Ethan Allen, The Infidel, And His Daughter. +Truth Is Immortal. + + + + + + +THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. WHAT IS IT? WHAT ARE ITS RELATIONS AND USES? + + +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 system of ours. It is, consequently, a +work of the past. But the work of the Spirit is not over. + +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? + +As the operation of the Spirit upon the face of the great deep was to +dispel the surrounding darkness and reveal the 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 "Sun of Righteousness," who rose "with +healing in his beams." This work of the Spirit upon the world of mind is +doubted by no Christian, for "holy men of old spake as they were moved +upon by the Holy Spirit." 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 "Mystery of Christ" 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 "Light +of the World"--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 "High and Holy One." 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, "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." + +The little Jewish maiden who waited on Naaman's wife understood it, for +she said to her, "Would to God my Lord were with the prophet in Samaria! +for he would cure him of his leprosy." It is said of the disciples of +Christ that they "went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working +with them and confirming the word with signs following." And also, that +the great salvation, "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." And that the apostles preached the gospel with the Holy +Spirit sent down from heaven. + +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, "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." 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. + +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 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 "the spirit of the prophets was subject to the +prophet." Hence, the importance of the searcher of hearts choosing his own +prophets out from among men. "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." 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: "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." He guarded his own infinite and spotless purity. While he was +"in the generation of the righteous, he was far from the wicked." So there +was always, from the time of Adam's offense till the present such a thing +as being "without God." + +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: "If I go not away, the +Comforter will not come unto you." And one of the witnesses said, "The +Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified." During +the long night of apostacy between Malachi and Zechariah, there was a time +when "all were gone out of the way;" "when there were none that did good, +no, not one;" "when darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the +people;" when they had not so much as "the dayspring from on high, to give +knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins." "The temple of God was a +den of thieves." 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 AS THE SON OF GOD. The +dignity of his person, consequent upon his being the Son of God, along +with his purity, rendered 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 "dayspring from on +high," 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: "But that he, Christ, might be made manifest unto Israel, +therefore came I baptizing with water." 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. + +In doing this work he proclaimed the kingdom of God is at hand, and +"preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." 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, "Behold the +Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." 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 _those purposes_ that they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. +Jesus had said to them, long before this, "Now ye are clean through the +words which I have spoken unto you." And the wicked Jews had "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." And Satan himself took the word out of the hearts of some "lest +they should believe and be saved." + +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, "If I go +away I will send you ANOTHER comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, _whom +the world can not receive_." And again, he said, "Howbeit, when he, the +Spirit of Truth, is come, he shall guide you into all truth." "He will +show you things to come." "He shall take of the things of mine and shall +show them unto you." "He shall testify of me." 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? + +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: "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." Jesus +gave his disciples the great commission to go into all the world and +preach the Gospel to every creature, but said, "Tarry ye in Jerusalem +until ye be endued with power from on high." 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 "preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from +heaven;" and in this fact we have the beautiful figure of rivers of living +water flowing out of their hearts, for Jesus said, "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." This, the historian says, "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." Hence, we are authorized to look for its fulfillment at +Pentecost, and also in the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Paul says, +"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." Here is the +basis of our faith. + +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, "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." Before the Savior left the world he breathed upon his apostles +and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit," adding, "Whosesoever sins ye remit +they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are +retained." So it pleased the Father to "save men through the foolishness +of preaching." And Paul said, "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." + +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 in himself, and that he was "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." "Whereunto," he says, "I also +labor, striving according to _his working_, which _worketh in me +mightily_." From all that we have before us it appears that all things in +the gospel of Jesus Christ constitute, simply, "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." Such being +the case, "the gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto every one +that believes." 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. "The darkness is past and the true light now +shineth." 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? +"The darkness is past." Do we need them to give us light? "The true light +now shineth." Do we need them to give us more truth? Jesus said of the +Spirit: "He shall guide you into all truth." The 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: "If the attribute of +infallibility is not in the possession of the church, the promise of the +Savior has failed." To this Mr. Chillingworth replied: "It would be well +for us to determine who is meant by the pronoun '_you_,' found in the +language, before we put up the high claim to infallibility." The promise +was fulfilled to a jot, and we have the "all truth" 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, "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." 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: "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 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." "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." Yes, _freely_. There is no obstruction. All are without excuse. + + + + + +CREDIBILITY OF THE EVIDENCE OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. + + +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. + +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. + +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. _They could not be deceived_ 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. + +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 _willingly_ in attestation of a false fact? Can we be made to +believe that any set of rational men could be found who would _willingly +die_ 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? + +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 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 _not cheats_; 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. + +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, 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 "to the Jews a +stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." 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 "_ring-leader_," 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. + +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 _an +essential_ 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 "Master God," as +"his members," 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 +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. + +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 _saw_, and +_heard_, and _felt_--even to _blindness_, 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, "hope in death," and live forever! So mote it be. + + + + + +"BROAD-GAUGE RELIGION."--SHALL THE CONFLICT CEASE? + + +First. "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," having originated in the last +half century, "which has been loosely applied to other bodies of men +holding liberal or comprehensive views of Christian doctrine and +fellowship."--_Webster._ + +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 _Broad +Church_, by its friends: Latitudinarian or Indifferent, by its enemies. +Its distinctive character is the desire of comprehension. Its watchwords +are _charity_ and _toleration_.--_Conybeare._ + +_Broadgauge._ 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, "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." The watch-word, "charity," is a term that +has been much abused. "Charity is a grace of heavenly mien." It is the +"end of the commandment." "The law was not made for a righteous man, but +for the lawless, and the disobedient, etc." 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 "the fulfilling of the law." It is not +passion, _but affection_. 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. + +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 "partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that +is in the world through lusts." Such being the height of its bed-rock, it +is said, "Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." And it is +also said, "He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a +liar." 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 _measure_ is the _love +of God_. Its full import may be expressed in these words, _loving as God +loves_. + +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 no willful truth "butcherer," for charity +believeth all things (_or all truth_); hopeth all things (_promised_); +rejoiceth, not in iniquity, but in the truth. It has no "stock" in known +error, for it "abounds in all knowledge and judgment," and "approves +things that are excellent." It is noble and right to let "love," or +"charity have her perfect work," 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. "It is enough that the disciple be _as his master_." + +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. + +There is a great deal of love in this world that lacks the elements of +_perfectness_. It is not the "love of God," 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. + +The phrase "Broad-gauge" seems to have been gotten up to express the idea +of an intelligent relaxation from "human creeds" as bonds of union and +fellowship. In this sense we all ought to be the advocates of "Broad-gauge +religion." We should cultivate the spirit of gospel liberality until we +utterly disregard and put away all human creeds. + +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 "liberality," or "broad-gauge religion," are +justifiable. And, as "liberalists," or "broad-gauge Christians," they are +disposed to recognize all the existing divisions in faith and practice +that are known in 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, +_love run mad_! A man should never get so broad in his religion as to be +unfaithful to truth. + +The phraseology has also been appropriated by skeptics and semi-infidels +to popularize their own semi-infidel philosophy, which they love to +denominate "free thought." 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 _standardless_ field +of thought, where Hobbes and other infidels reveled, without any guide +save the civil law, has been denominated "Broad-gauge religion," and +"Liberalism." + +We should always remember that going beyond the truth and the eternal laws +of right is _libertinism_ or _lawlessness_. + +"Charity," extending, or reaching out thus, is no longer "charity," or +"perfect love." 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 "_straight and narrow way_." + + + "Long as of life the joyous hours remain, + Let on this head unfading flowers reside, + There bloom the vernal rose's earliest pride; + And when, our flames commissioned to destroy, + Age step 'twixt Love and me, and intercept the joy; + When my changed these locks no more shall know, + And all its petty honors turn to snow; + Then let me rightly spell of Nature's ways; + To Providence, to him my thoughts I'd raise, + And love as he throughout remaining days." + + --_Gray._ + + +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. + +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. + +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 _infidel's devil_, 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. + +On March 5, 1616, the congregation of the Index published a decree +condemning as "false, unscriptural and destructive of Catholic truth," 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 "absurd, philosophically false and formally heretical, +because expressly contrary to holy scripture;" and the opinion that the +earth is not the center of the universe, but moves, and that daily, +"absurd, philosophically false, and, theologically considered, at least +erroneous in faith;" 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. + +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 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. + +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. "Truth stands true to her God, man alone +deviates." + +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 "broad-gauge religion," +in a "broad-gauge church?" Infidels who, like Col. Ingersoll, assert that +"no man can control his belief," had better look in a glass and see +themselves as others see them, before they _strive to_ conquer a victory +for the _black __ demon_ of despair, by fastening the absurd philosophy of +_fatalism_ 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 "thumbscrews" and "hot irons," and other condemned instruments of +the dark ages, nor yet those who now live to be the "butt" of Colonel +Ingersoll's satire and ridicule. A kind feeling for all, and +unfaithfulness to the truth--never! + + + + + +PAPAL AUTHORITY IN THE BYGONE.--THE INFIDEL'S AMUSING ATTITUDE. + + +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 _only once_, up to the present time, spoken with +the formalities necessary to make their utterances "_ex cathedra_" 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 _fourteen Popes_, for a thousand years, +and is contrary to the well-nigh "unanimous consent of the fathers." _See +Dr. Pusey, Letter 1, to Newman, pp. 72-286._ 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 this conceded fact we have no kind of use for the decree of Pius the +Ninth upon the "miraculous conception"--"Pope Pius decreed it." 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. + +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 "Conflict between Religion and Science," +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? + +Let us give you a few figures, by the way of negative evidence, upon the +question of comparative morality, remembering 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: + +Assassinations And Attempts To Assassinate In Europe. + +Protestant--Scotland, 1835, 1 for 270,000 +Protestant--England, 1 for 178,000 +Protestant--Low Countries, 1824, 1 for 163,000 +Protestant--Prussia, 1824, 1 for 100,000 +Catholic States--Austria, 1809, 1 for 57,000 +Catholic--Spain, 1826, 1 for 4,113 +Catholic--Naples, 1 for 2,750 +Catholic--Roman States, 1 for 750 + +_Jonnes, vol. 2, p. 257._ + +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. + +"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 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! + +"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? '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?' The question naturally +arises, what can be the cause of so many evils? of such utter misery, such +extreme ignorance, such disgusting sloth? + +"_Tyranny_, says the politician. + +"_Catholicism_, says the Protestant. + +"_The Inquisition_, adds the historian. + +"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. + +"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." [See +Tardiff, pp. 139, 140.] + +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. + +"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." [Affairs de Rome, pp. 250 to 254.] + +"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." [Idem, p. 53.] + +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. + +The expulsion of the Jews and the Moors was the first fruit of the +Catholic Inquisition. "Spain," says M. Roseew Saint Hilaire, "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. + +"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 with those ideas; +but the establishment of the Inquisition is the first step in the career +in which she can never stop." [Saint Hilaire, vol. 6, p. 52.] + +"It required," says M. Sismondi, "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-dae-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." +[Sismondi, vol. 3, p. 265.] Who, employing these instruments, depopulated +Spain? THE INQUISITION. "To calculate," says Liorente, secretary to the +Holy office, "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." +[Liorente, vol. 4, p. 242.] + +"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 course of a hundred +and twenty years about three millions of its most industrious +inhabitants." [Weiss, vol. 2, pp. 60, 61.] + +"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." + +What was the cause of the ignorance so general and so profound in Spain? +The Catholic Inquisition. "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." [Liorente, vol. 4, p. 99.] +"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." [Liorente, vol. 4, p. 420.] "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." [Weiss, vol. 2, pp. 319 to +321.] "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!" [Napoleon Roussell.] + +Infidels, who are noted leaders in "Free Thought," as it is termed, are +invariably men whose religious education 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--_it is old and thin._ + + + + + +"EVEN NOW ARE THERE MANY ANTI-CHRISTS." + + +Col. Ingersoll says: "He (Paine) knew that every abuse had been embalmed +in scripture, that every outrage was in partnership with some holy text." +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. "A fellow feeling makes us very kind." "By their fruits ye shall +know them." "Birds of a feather flock together." + +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 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. _How is this?_ 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: + +"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. + +"It is our mission to destroy the _Lie_; 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 of God; for +as long as an atom of that silly superstition remains in your minds you +will never know what freedom is." + +This has the genuine _Ingersoll ring_ upon the subject of "_Liberty of +Man, Woman and Child._" "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 +_conglomeration of atoms_, 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. + +"The first lie is _God_. The second lie is _Right_. 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. + +"_Might_, 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 _Right_, before which you are accustomed +to bow your heads and to drop your arms. Once penetrated with a clear +conviction of _your own might_, you will be able to destroy this _mere +notion of right_. + +"And when you have freed your minds from the fear of a God, and from that +childish respect for _the fiction of Right_, then all the remaining chains +which bind you, and which are called _science, civilization, property, +marriage, morality and justice, will snap asunder like threads_. + +"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 +the new world arrives, your eyes may not be blinded and deceived by the +falsehoods of the tyrants of throne and altar. + +"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. + +"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." + +_A representative of the kingdom of darkness._ + +"Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they know +not." + + + + + +WHAT IS TO BE THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. + + +"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." [Hartmann's +future religion.] + +Must we do this? Is there any necessity for it? What have we to do with +"the fatal mistake of Catholic and Protestant philosophy?" It was a +_mistake_, that's all! "Christian thinkers have played around the logical +contradiction of one personality in three equal persons for fifteen +hundred years." _Have they? 'Tis well!_ Christianity requires no man to +step into logical contradiction and stand there. They have done this "for +fifteen hundred years." Well, it has been about that 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 _only alternative_ "to break with the idea +of a personal God, and accept that of one impersonal essence behind all +phenomena?" _No!_ We Christians affirm nothing that can necessarily be +construed with the Catholic and Protestant "mistake" concerning the +_Trinity_, 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 "break with the idea of +a personal God," and form an alliance with Atheistic philosophy through +the adoption of the idea of a Pantheistic "essence behind all phenomena." +Such speculative _nonsense_ 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 "the +Catholic and Protestant _fatal mistake_," 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 _personality_ can do. _No!_ 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 "_isms_." + +"God is a spirit." That settles the question of "person" with every well +instructed Christian mind. "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." The Spirit of God is the _Supreme intelligence_. +And, being such, he is the _Supreme person_, for where there is +_intelligence_ there is person. The attributes of personality belong to +intelligence, and they belong to nothing else. If you have an +_intelligent_ essence, it is, of a logical and scientific necessity, a +person. Let some Pantheistic "wiseacre" grapple with this thought. + +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 _material_, or animal existence. So they say, if God is a +person he must be a great big _almighty_ 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 +_person_. + +It is claimed that a Monotheistic Pantheism, that is, the idea of _one +essence_, not person, but _essence_, is to _unite_, 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. + +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. + +The advocates of this universal religion of the future, which is simply +universal non-religion, say "Protestantism is the grave digger of +Christianity." "But Christianity stoutly refuses to be buried alive," and +the multitude of facts that are continually transpiring demonstrate a +living, active existence; "its blood circulates; its pulse is certainly +beating;" its force is not spent in the least; it is always giving but is +never growing lean; "it has a long lease of life." 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 _Pantheism_ and _Atheism_, 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. + + + + + +BILL OF INDICTMENTS AGAINST PROTESTANTS. + + +_First._ The idea of total hereditary depravity which never can be +correlated with accountability. + +_Second._ 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. + +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 "the grace of God +by Christ going before to give a good will, and to work with that good +will." So the grace of God by Christ must go before to displace a bad will +by giving "a good one." 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 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? _What_, is that in the +way of an Omnipotent Spirit? Who can explain such nonsense? + +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? + +_Third._ The idea that the Lord would command men to _convert themselves_, +knowing, at the same time, that they could not do it. He commands men to +convert. He "commands all men everywhere to repent." 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 _imperative active_ 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 _turn_ and _return_. + +Paul says he "showed to the people that THEY SHOULD TURN TO GOD, and do +works meet for repentance." + +This great thought harmonizes with all that is taught upon the subject of +future rewards. A man _can turn_, 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 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. + +_Fourth._ 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; _i.e._, 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 "natural strength to turn +and prepare themselves to faith and calling upon God," then they are not +_naturally_ responsible _nor_ accountable. + +_Fifth._ 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. + +_Sixth._ The idea that Christ died for an elect few, and damns all the +balance because they don't believe he died for them, _when he did not_. + +_Seventh._ The idea that Christ died for a few, and commissioned his +disciples to preach the fact to all nations--to every creature, as "glad +tidings of great joy," which was "to be unto all people," 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. + +_Eighth._ 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. + + + + + +A SUMMARY OF TRUTH. + + +_First._ By the transgression man's eyes were opened, and he became as +God, to know good and evil. + +_Second._ He has always had intellectual and moral ability to turn and +serve God, and so enjoy his divine favor. + +_Third._ He has been required in every dispensation to do this. + +_Fourth._ Christ died for all men. + +_Fifth._ All men may turn and be saved. + +_Sixth._ God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that +feareth him and worketh righteousness shall be accepted with him. + +Protestants, do you believe the Bible? Then throw away your errors. LET +THE LOWER LIGHTS BE BURNING! + +THE UNREASONABLE CONDUCT OF A POPE.--"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."--_The Toujee Tourist, of April, 1880._ + + + + + +ETHAN ALLEN, THE INFIDEL, AND HIS DAUGHTER. + + + "The damps of death are coming fast, + My father, o'er my brow; + The past, with all its scenes, are fled, + And I must turn me now + To that dim future which, in vain, + My feeble eyes descry. + Tell me, my father, in this hour, + In whose stern faith to die. + + "In thine? I've watched the scornful smile + And heard thy withering tone + Whene'er the Christian's humble hope + Was placed above thine own. + I've heard thee speak of coming death + Without a shade of gloom, + And laugh at all the childish fears + That cluster round the tomb. + + "Or, is it my mother's faith? + How fondly do I trace, + Through many a weary year long past, + That calm and saintly face! + How often do I call to mind, + Now she is 'neath the sod, + The place, the hour, in which she drew + My early thoughts to God. + + "'Twas then she took this sacred book, + And from its burning page + Read how its truths support the soul + In youth and failing age; + And bade me in its precepts live, + And by its precepts die, + That I might share a home of love + In worlds beyond the sky. + + "My father, shall I look above, + Amid the gathering gloom, + To him whose promises of love + Extend beyond the tomb + Or curse the being who hath blessed + This chequered path of mine, + And promises eternal rest, + And die, my sire, in thine? + + "The frown upon that warrior brow + Passed, like a cloud, away, + And tears coursed down the rugged cheek + That flowed not till that day. + "_Not--not in mine_," with choking voice, + The skeptic made reply; + "_But in thy mother's holy faith,_ + _My daughter, mayst thou die._" + + --_Virginia Missionary._ + + + + + +TRUTH IS IMMORTAL. + + +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.--_Bancroft._ + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JUNE, 1880*** + + + +CREDITS + + +April 25, 2009 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Bryan Ness, David King, and the Online Distributed + Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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