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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28668-8.txt b/28668-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b74470b --- /dev/null +++ b/28668-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1834 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific +and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880, by Various + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Aaron Walker + +Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JULY 1880 *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + +Scientific and Religious Journal. + + VOL. I. JULY, 1880. NO. 7. + + + + +THE FOUNTAIN OF HAPPINESS. + + +The source and fullness of created good is the knowledge and enjoyment +of God. "Give what thou wilt, without thee we are poor; and with thee +rich, take what thou wilt away." The wicked are like a ship's crew at +sea, carried by the winds upon unknown waters, without peace or safety +until they can renew communications with the shore. A man alienated from +his God is without his proper relations, and separated from the fountain +of happiness, is like a child unconscious of his father--an orphan, +forced along, the sport of accident, with no hope for the future, but +darkness that may overshadow his pathway to the tomb. If we were at once +deprived of all knowledge of God where would we find hopes for support +in the gloomy hours of adversity? What sadness would reign over the +world! What black despair! O, what a chasm it would make to strike the +Infinite One out of existence! "The angels might retire in silence and +weep, or fly through infinite space seeking some token of the Father +they had lost. With unbounded grief and despair they might wing their +way farther and farther, with their harps all unstrung, and every song +silent, and the soul-harrowing words, 'We have no Father, no God, a +blind chance rules,' might be all that would break the awful silence of +heaven. Let the glorious words once more be heard, 'God reigns, he +lives, he reigns,' and what joy would fill the heavens and the earth." +The child of sorrow would lift up his head and say, "Our Father who art +in heaven." The heavenly songsters would string anew their harps, and +send the good news far and wide, "He lives, he reigns, God over all, +blessed forever." + +"We are not able to estimate the effect it would produce to blot the +knowledge of God from the universe. We can not appreciate the state of +that mind which labors under the impression that God is retiring. +Perhaps we have one momentary example of the sad gloom that takes +possession of the man under such circumstances. It is seen in the +Savior's dying words, 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?'" + +In our nature and condition there are two sources of misery--the mind, +or conscience, disturbed by sin, and the body affected by disease and +death. Sinful emotions cause disquietude, uneasiness, sorrow and misery, +bitterness, recrimination, reciprocated treachery, infuriated rage, +malignant and stormy passions; envy, jealousy, suspicion and unlawful +desires distract the mind and quench its joys. Who can be happy in such +a condition? Disquieted and corrupted affections cause the greater part +of the unhappiness or misery of the race. The angels of light could not +be happy in such a murky sea. Our great ancestors were doomed to toil in +a world of disappointment and sorrow for yielding to such a guide. Haman +occupied a high position at the court of Persia, yet he made himself +miserable because "Mordecai the Jew sat at the king's gate." And Ahab, +on the throne of Israel, "refused to eat bread" because he could not get +possession of the vineyard of Naboth. Men can not be happy with such +passions reigning in the mind, and yet they are found in almost every +bosom, unless it has been purified by the influence of the gospel of +Jesus the Christ. The great idols of this world are fame, pleasure and +wealth, and the love of these is the strong passion of the heart. But it +is the most prolific source of individual, social and public misfortune, +the most mischievous, contentious and demoralizing passion. The +ambitious, the voluptuous, the rich and the great are not necessarily +happy. Alexander wept upon the throne of the world because there was not +another world for him to conquer. + +In the midst of seminal pleasures and corrupt passions men are always +miserable. The influence of the Gospel of Christ is the only remedy for +such diseases. It saves men from aggravating selfishness and holds in +check their fierce passions until they are extinguished. Virtuous +affections are invariably the great sources of human happiness. They are +fountains of living waters, which purify the mind and make their +possessors happy. They are as rivers of water in a thirsty land. + +In the teachings of Christ we learn all that pertains to true happiness, +in what it consists and how to obtain it. There we are admonished of +mere worldly blessings, because the desire for them is generally so +intense that it becomes a source of corruption, and in our successes we +often forget our highest interests. The Savior left in the background +the commonly received notions of men touching the sources of true +happiness. He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," referring not to +those who are temporally poor. The wicked are poor as well as the +righteous. O, how dreadfully miserable are the wicked poor! a miserable +life here, followed by a miserable hereafter. Many poor persons are +haughty, ungodly, dishonest, profligate and unhappy. Neither does it +mean voluntary poverty, or to turn mendicant monks and friars. It means +the humble, those who are deeply sensible of their spiritual or mental +and moral wants; in other words, those who feel that there is a place in +their spiritual nature for the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. It is +opposed to self-righteousness. The poor in spirit come to God through +Christ, and, putting all their trust in him, submit to the divine will +under all the trying dispensations of his providence. + +The poor in spirit are always sensible of their need of salvation, but +the proud in spirit are "clean in their own eyes." Their goodness is +like the morning cloud and the early dew, yet they say, Stand by +thyself; I am holier than thou. "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed +are the meek. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after +righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." +What a sublime rebuke to the spirit of this world! It is a grand +contrast to the uneasy desires of greedy covetousness; to the +disposition of the gay; to the degradation of the impure; to the +senseless pleasures of the ambitious, when new fires ignite their hopes +only to plunge them into deeper darkness. The Bible's happiest soul is +he who has most of its peculiar mind and character. Not on account of +earthly riches, for he may be one of the Lord's poor, who, like his +blessed Master, has "no place to lay his head." Not because he has +sought and obtained honor from men, but because he sought and "seeks the +honor which cometh from God only." Not because he has much of this +world, but because he is a Christian. He may not have the greatest +capacity, but he has a state of mind that prepares him to rightly +estimate and enjoy all that is worth enjoying. "To the upright there +ariseth light in the darkness." They are wisely guided, comforted and +encouraged in the most gloomy wilderness. They are not oppressed with +doubts; sorrow does not crush them. Darkness gives place to light, and +the seeming evil turns to good. They often sip honey from the most +bitter flowers. They yield not to fear, for they believe in God, and are +assured, by a thousand contrasts, that "all things work together for +good to those who love God." One of the never-failing sources of +happiness for which we are under obligations to Jesus the Christ is the +mind and character which he requires of us. "A good man shall be +satisfied from himself." + +"Man was created for an active life. Effort is the true element of a +well regulated mind. Undisturbed soil becomes hard and unproductive. Its +bosom is shut up against the dews and the rains, and also against the +warm rays of the sun. So it is with the mind when it is closed up and +deprived of healthy action; this man lives for himself alone, and only +the baser passions spring up in his breast. His soul is too narrow for +Christian benevolence; sympathy and emotion are disabled and all his +nobler faculties languish. Action, from intelligent and benevolent +principles, is a great fountain of happiness. Few streams of bliss equal +those which flow from charitable exertions. Benevolence and well-doing +are great inducements to future exertions, because of the fact that they +are their own reward in a thousand different ways. The seed thus sown +brings back an hundred fold, and a rich harvest to others, which adds to +the abundance of our own happiness. But where shall we go for those +principles of action? Shall we search for them in nature? Can reason +alone discover them? Are they found in the teachings of philosophy? Are +they gathered from observation? Does not our world need Revelation to +make known the true aim and end of our being?" Cicero said, "Those who +do not agree in stating what is the chief end, or good, must of course +differ in the whole system of precepts for the conduct of human life." +He also says there was so great a dissention among the philosophers, +upon this subject, that it was almost impossible to enumerate their +different sentiments. So it came to pass that exertions for benevolent +ends were seldom, if ever, put forth by pagans in pagan lands--they knew +nothing of the happiness springing from such a source. + +Great efforts from great motives are the glory and blessedness of our +nature. In the Bible only men have learned what great motives and +efforts are. There we find food to sustain them and wisdom to guide +them. Nowhere in the pages of infidel philosophy can we find such an +injunction as this: "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, do all to the +glory of God." Where else do we find this Christian maxim: "None of us +liveth to himself, and none of us dieth to himself; but whether we live, +we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." He or +she alone is the happy one who is taught to consider the nature and +tendencies of human conduct, and whether it will stand the test before +God, and advance the ends of his truth and love in the world; who makes +the Lord's will the ends of his or her life and lives to please God and +show forth his praise. Such a life is necessarily a happy one, because +it is one _full_ of goodness. There is daily joy in such daily activity. +No man can be wretched while acting from the principle of communicative +goodness. Such are happy whatever their sphere or occupation may be. +Their aims are high. Their objects sustain them and their impulses +encourage or strengthen them. Their anticipations are joyous and their +reflections are tranquil. They look backward with delight and forward +with hope. Their conscience approves them. They have not buried their +talents. They are not encumberers of the ground. + +They live to bless the children of men. When they die they will to them +their counsel, their example and prayers. Benevolent habits are a great +source of happiness, for which we are indebted to the religion of +Christ. + +It is vain to attempt to persuade ourselves that human misery does not +exist. We can not get away from it by arming ourselves with stoical +insensibility. Evils lie all about us; we ourselves are made to feel +them. If we open our eyes upon the pages of time we see a continuous +series of beings who appear for a short time and then pass away. Their +beds are bedewed with tears, and soon the emblems of death are hung +about their doors. O, what wonderful scenes lie between the cradle and +the grave! What hours of sadness and gloom! Here, in the midst of life, +we realize disappointments, losses, painful diseases and heart-rending +discouragements, defeated hopes and withered honors. Here are good +reasons for the interposition of redeeming love. Does the God who loves +us sympathize with us in our woes? We are liable at every step in life +to great individual and domestic calamities. No hour can be free from +the fear that what we value the most on the earth may be snatched away +to-morrow. + +Trees and flowers grow to their full stature, fill up their measure of +time, and pass away. Beasts and birds are more rarely cut off with +disease. Their lives are not embittered with the expectation of death; +the knowledge of the past and the present is all they have; they have no +knowledge of the morrow; they live contented in their ignorance and +indifference, and, at last, sink into the deep, unending night, "being +made to be taken and destroyed." + +But this is not the history of man. He perishes from the cradle to the +tomb--"suffers a hundred deaths in fearing one." He is conscious of the +dangers that beset him. He is hedged in on every side. Death is +constantly destroying his fondest hopes and causing him the sorest +grief. It bursts the ties that bind heart to heart, and the dearest +fellowships are severed, and the joys of a blessed life are wrapped in +the gloom of death. All there was of earthly bliss in the bygone now +makes up his anguish. Is it possible that life and death walk +"arm-in-arm?" Yes; even while we are happy in the enjoyment of one, the +other comes and casts the fearful mantle over all our earthly prospects. +Seal up this blessed volume of life, and I know not from whence the +light is to spring which would cheer this gloomy picture. Without this, +man would be in a grade of blessedness beneath the brutes that perish. +It would be better to be anything than rational without the religion of +Jesus Christ and the intelligence of the Bible. The Scriptures inform us +that these things have a cause, that they come from God's dealings with +his creatures, that the unseen hand which permits these trials is +benevolent and wise. Sorrow has its design, and it is neither unkind nor +malignant. These things have a moral cause; they are the great rebuke of +God for sin. They are also a part of the discipline of a Heavenly +Father, designed to co-operate with the Gospel in bringing back all +those who are intelligently exercised thereby to their forsaken God. + +The antidote for all these ills culminating in death was the tree of +life. When man sinned against his God he was put away from the tree of +life. If he had remained with it he would have been beyond the reach of +the motive of life, and beyond the restraining power of the fear of +death. He would have lived forever, subject, like fallen angels, to +mental suffering during the ages to come. But being placed beyond the +reach of the tree of life he may be redeemed by the love of life to a +higher state. When the rebellious see and realize this great truth, +being exercised by the chastening hand of God, they are often subdued to +submission, to peace, and under the heaviest calamities they often look +upward and say, "It is the Lord, let his will be done." And this, of +itself, is a source of unbounded bliss. + +We often submit to present pain when counseled to do so by those in +whose wisdom and goodness we trust. As Christians we extend this +principle to all the sufferings of this life. Doing so, we have that +feeling of quiet submission growing out of permanent confidence in God +which supports us under all the trials to which we have been subjected +by an all-wise Father. This principle is wonderfully fruitful in +consolations to the bereaved and mourning--it is the joy of all +Christian hearts. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." What shall +we say of the hopes and prospects of bereaved souls? Is it blind +conjecture that there is an existence beyond the shadows? Is there no +life to come? No great resurrection? No comforter to arrest the current +of mourning and lamentation? + +How natural it is, when reminded of our loss, to exclaim, Shall we not +meet them again? Is this parting to last forever? Is there a God? Has he +not answered this agonizing inquiry? When we sit down upon the brink of +those waters which have swallowed up our living treasures and weep and +call upon the waves of eternity to give back our dear ones, when, from +the shores of time, we look and gaze and listen, does no voice reach us? +_Yes!_ To the ear of faith there is a voice. It is the voice of our God. +We listen. The words come ringing in our hearts, "For if we believe that +Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will +God bring with him." _Our grief is allayed._ We believe and are +comforted. We look forward to a happy meeting. A reunion for eternity +hovers before us like a bright star, lights up our pathway, and leads us +forward in a living hope. + +Nowhere in the Bible is human sorrow clothed with cold indifference. The +counsels of that book and its promises are so adapted to the sorrowing +that those who have passed through the furnace of affliction know best +their value. There is no such relief from sorrow found away from the +faith of God and the Bible. + +There is an hour when we _ourselves_ must die? Shall we trifle with the +will of God till then? Can we trifle with death when it comes? "The +sting of death is sin." Death never fails to bring along with it a keen +sense of guilt to the guilty unless they are cut off in a moment, and +then who knows the anguish that may be experienced just beyond? What is +there to soothe the sorrow of the dying sinner?--of that wicked soul who +never obeyed his God nor did anything to make the world better for his +existence? Let none of us live at a distance from our God. Let none of +us approach death without the necessary preparation for mutual +association with him. Let none of us bear the burden of a guilty +conscience in that hour. May none of us be so cruel as to leave the +hearts that love us in doubt respecting our condition in death. May we +never tread its dark waters without the light of the glorious promises +and facts of the religion of Jesus the Christ. Let us keep our souls +pure in obeying the truth through the Spirit. Let us live with and obey +God, do good and be happy. + + + + +INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION--No. II. + +BY P. T. RUSSELL. + + +Thought, Thinkers, Things--realities with their qualities or attributes. +These are all connected. If the first and second are present the others +are not far away. We only think when we perceive, and only perceive +realities. Nonentities are not perceivable, and therefore not thinkable. +Thoughts may be, and are, transferable from one to another by words, or +signs equivalent to words, yet we are only able to impart to another +ideas already in our possession. + +We have no thoughts of our own but those which are the result of our +perceiving. We have no thought of color without the eye, nor of sound +without the ear, etc. Now, if we have in our possession thoughts of +persons or things beyond the reach of our powers of observation, _i.e._, +beyond the reach of the five senses--seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting +and smelling--then those thoughts can not be ours; we could not be the +first to think them; they were too high for us; they were out of our +reach. Who, then, could and did reach them and give them to us? This +ought to be the question of questions with us. Thoughts of foreign +countries have been given to us by the men who have seen those +countries. But they could only give us ideas of what they had seen or +others had told them. A man visiting England only could give us no +thought of Russia, unless instructed by some one who has seen that land; +then, and not till then, could he give us thoughts of Russia. I am now +ready for the statement of this proposition, viz: The following trio of +thoughts are beyond our reach. They are not our thoughts; we did not +think them, but we have them; then, some being who could see higher and +look farther than we must have given them to us. Those thoughts are the +following: First, the existence of God; second, the use of words; third, +the origin of religion. These I will examine in the order given above. + + +THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +Whence came the idea? This is now _the question_. In answering it I +shall assume no ground but that which all parties say is true. The +Christian, the Deist and Atheist will admit that we have learned all we +know, and that we have learned only through the aid of the five senses: +seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling are the porters of the +mind. One or another of these bring to the mind every thought that it +receives. We obtain thoughts of odor _only_ by the sense of smell; of +flavor only by the taste; of color by the eye alone. In these matters we +have no intuition. We brought no ideas into the world with us. In all +these things we are creatures of education. Simple or single ideas, like +simple words, represent simple thoughts or realities, and compound ideas +represent compound thoughts or realities. Therefore it follows that +every thought comes from a corresponding reality. To deny this is equal +to the affirmation that we can clearly see objects in a vacuum, that we +can see something where there is nothing. + +Having stated premises in which all are agreed, I now state my first +proposition: + +THERE IS A TRUE AND LIVING GOD. + +In sustaining this proposition I shall introduce no witnesses but those +whose perfect reliability is vouched for by the Atheist himself; so we +shall have no dispute concerning the credibility and perfect reliability +of witnesses. For the Atheist, claiming to be a votary of reason, as +well as a boasted free and fearless thinker, certainly can not impeach +the testimony of his own mind. And, being a free and fearless thinker, +he will not try to conceal or prevent the witness, when on the stand, +from telling the whole truth. I am now ready for the evidence. + +The scene changes; Christian is alone in his studio, and a rap is heard +at the door. It is opened, and Mr. Atheist is invited to enter, and +being seated, Christian addresses him thus: + +Mr. Atheist, I am glad you have called, and if you have the leisure time +and are perfectly free to do so, I would like to talk with you on the +evidence of the existence of God. + +_Atheist_--I am not only willing, but as anxious as you can be to +examine this question. + +_Christian_--Very well. I suppose you have examined the evidence in the +premises, and from all the testimony, carefully analyzed, made your +decision. + +_Atheist_--You do me justice in thus supposing, for I claim to be a +reasonable being, and to follow fearlessly the lamp of reason; and, +doing this on scientific and philosophic principles, I have become +satisfied that there is no God. + +_Christian_--Will you allow me to state my analysis of the mind and ask +you if it is correct? + +_Atheist_--You, Mr. C., are approaching from a singular yet a pleasing +stand-point; will you please give me your analysis? If it is good, I +will say so; if defective, I will point out its errors. + +_Christian_--It is this: The mind of man may be divided into ten parts +or powers; five external, or the five senses; and five internal. The +external I need not name. The internal may be presented thus: First, +perception; second, reflection; third, memory; fourth, reason; fifth, +judgment, or decision; each of these entirely dependent upon its +immediate predecessor for support and action. We can not judge of that +upon which we have not reasoned, nor reason where we have not +remembered, nor remember that of which we have not first thought; +neither can we think of that which we have not perceived, nor perceive +without the action of some one of the five senses. + +_Atheist_--I admire your analysis--it is scientific; but, Mr. C., I +should not think that you, with your present belief in the existence of +God, would adopt this system of mental philosophy. + +_Christian_--Why? + +_Atheist_--_Did you ever see a God?_ + +_Christian_--If you please, I will test the question with you, and, in +order to do so, I will personify these powers. I will suppose them to +represent ten men, all of whom are Atheists, and we will rely upon their +testimony. + +_Atheist_--That is an honorable offer; I will accept it most cordially. + +_Christian_--Then, we are to consider the powers of the mind as so many +men, and hear their testimony? + +_Atheist_--Yes. + +_Christian_--Will you examine the witnesses? + +_Atheist_--You would more properly do that; I wish to hear you. + +_Christian_--Very well; I will, then, call on Mr. Judgment, and ask, +Have you given a decision on the question of the existence of God, and +if so, what is your decision? + +_Judgment_--There is no such being. + +_Christian_--Tell us whether you created the idea of a God, or brought +it into the world with you, and how you obtained the material from which +you manufactured your verdict? + +_Judgment_--"Did I bring the idea into the world with me, or create it?" +_What a question!_ Had anybody but a Christian asked it I would have +thought it an insult; but, then, Christians are never thinkers. You +ought to have known that the thought could not have been created by me. +To say I created it would be an endorsement of your foolish idea that +_something_ was made of _nothing_. I have no creative power, much less +the power _to make something out of nothing_; neither did I bring it +into the world with me. _We have no innate ideas._ + +_Christian_--Then where did you get the material from which you made +your decision that there is no God? + +_Judgment_--"_Where!_" I have but one porter, Mr. Reason. He gives all +the material upon which I ever act. If you doubt this try and judge of +anything upon which you have never reasoned. If you can not do this you +must agree with me that judgment can only act and decide by the aid of +reason. + +_Christian_--Your argument is conclusive. Now, as you have decided that +there is no God, and also claim that your only aid, Mr. Reason, gave you +the material out of which you made your decision, will you call him and +allow me to ask him a few questions? + +_Judgment_--Most willingly. We all are free thinkers, and delight in +investigation. Brother Reason, please call in; Christian is here and +wishes a little information of you. + +_Reason_--Mr. Christian, Brother Judgment informs me that you wish some +information from me. Please state your question. + +_Christian_--Did you present the idea of the existence of God to your +brother Judgment, and if so, where and how did you come by it? + +_Reason_--I received it from Brother Memory, and opened it out and held +it up so that Brother Judgment could scan it thoroughly, and he decided +there was no such being, and I agree with him. + +_Christian_--Will you call Memory, that I may learn where and how he +obtained the idea? (_Memory enters._) + +_Christian_--Mr. Memory, are you an Atheist, and did you give Reason the +idea of a God? If you did, how did you get it? Did you bring it into the +world with you? + +_Memory_--"Bring it into the world with me." _What an absurd question!_ +I never had an idea only as it was given me by Brother Reflection. If +you doubt this, try and remember something you have never thought of, or +think of something you never perceived. This, then, is the truth: +Reflection received the idea from Perception and gave it to you, and you +gave it to Memory, and he held it up to the eye of Reason, who, with +your aid, spread it out before the mind of your brother Judgment, and he +gave the decision, that there is no God; so we are all Atheists. Have +you any more questions? + +_Christian_--Yes, one more at least; I wish _now_ to know how your +brother Perception obtained the idea of a God--will you tell me, or call +him? + +_Memory_--Oh, I can tell you; he has five porters who bring him all he +ever gets, and they, with us, are all Atheists. But one or another of +these must have brought him the idea. + +_Christian_--Will you ask them which one gave it to your brother +Perception? + +_Memory_--You, for some reason, are very particular. I will, however, to +gratify you, call them, or at least some of them. Brother Eye, Christian +wishes to know if you gave the idea of a God to Mr. Perception? + +_Eye_--_What a foolish question!_ You, an Atheist, ask me, another +Atheist, if I have ever seen a living God where there is none to look +at--you have let Christian lead you out until he has almost drawn from +you the proof that David told the truth about us when he called all +Atheists fools. I have seen all visible things, but _nothing_ is too +small a mark for me to discover! + +_Christian_--Mr. Eye, don't be in a hurry; just let me ask, do Free +Thinkers get scared and refuse to think? + +_Eye_--I will leave you now, and tell the other porters what a fix your +philosophy has led us into. + +_Christian_--Good-bye; I will call one month hence and hear your +conclusion. + + + + +DO WE NEED THE BIBLE? + + +The only creed consistent with the rejection of the Gospel of Christ is +an eternal tomb, with the heart-shivering inscription, "Death is an +eternal sleep." Americans who reject the Scriptures are as uncertain +about the future as the poor heathen of other lands. Some of our +unbelievers have gathered the information from heathen oracles that the +future consists in being a poor, empty, shivering, table-rapping spirit, +flying to and fro over the country in response to the sigh of some silly +waiting-girl, or at the bidding of some brazen-faced, unscrupulous "free +lover." And this, "O, ye gods!" is all that ever shall be of the noblest +spirits that ever left human flesh! Others, to gain rest from this +horrible and unsatisfying fate, fly to the theory of everlasting +silence, as a result of the idea that mind is simply brain action, and +ceases to exist when the brain ceases to act. Their appropriate motto +is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." It has been said that +even this brute philosophy is reasonable compared with the dogma of a +large portion of unbelievers, to wit., that blasphemers, thieves, +profane swearers, murderers and adulterers, will all go straight to +heaven when they die; that men with their hearts steeped in blood will +sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of God. But +Spiritualists, Pantheists, Atheists, and Deists inform us that an +external revelation is useless. Their common exposition of the sentiment +is too well known to need comment. We hear them saying, "You need say +nothing about the Bible to me; I know my duty well enough without it; +and as for miracles, they will never prove anything to me. Can thunder, +repeated daily through centuries, make God's laws and his wisdom and +goodness more God-like? No! I am grown, perchance, to manhood, and do +not need the thunder and terror. I am not to be scared. It is not +_fear_, but _reverence_, that shall lead me! _Revelation!_ Inspiration! +And thy own God-like spirit; is not that a revelation?" See Carlyle's +"Past and Present," page 307. + +Now, if Mr. Carlyle was in no need of the fear of God, somebody else +may be in a different mental and moral condition. There is nothing in +which men differ more. If one man is above the weakness of fearing God +(?) all men are not. Say what we may of fear, it is nevertheless true +that we are greatly influenced by fear. We are greatly indebted to the +fear of sickness for health, to the fear of poverty for wealth, and to +the fear of death for life. Fear is to caution what knowledge is to a +wise choice. Where there is no fear there is no caution. The love of +life and bliss is natural, therefore we fear sickness, poverty and +death. Why say with your lips, "I am above fear," while away down in +your heart you know it to be a lie? + +Love and fear, like the Siamese twins, live and perish together. Do we +not _need_ "revelation?" Where is the shadow, and where is the sunshine? +May we not contrast them? The very wisest of heathen legislators +approved of vice in some of its most heinous forms. The Carthaginian law +required human sacrifices. When Agathoclas besieged Carthage two hundred +children of the most noted families were put to death by command of the +Senate, and three hundred citizens sacrificed themselves to Saturn. See +Diodorus Siculus, b. 20, ch. 14. The laws of Sparta required theft and +the death of unhealthy children. The laws of Rome allowed parents to +kill their child, if they pleased to do it. At the headquarters of +heathen literature it was recommended that maimed infants should be +killed or exposed to death. Aristotle's Political Library, 7, chapter +17. In Plato's Republic we discover an advance of society, but a +community of wives continues, and what was termed woman's rights was +maintained upon the condition that the women were trained to war. In war +times the children were led out to look upon the struggle, and become +accustomed and hardened to blood. The teachings of the best minds were +immoral. "He may lie," says Plato, "who knows how to do it." Profane +swearing was enjoined by the example of their best writers. Oaths are of +common occurrence in the writings of Seneca and Plato. Aristippus +taught that adultery and theft were commendable in a wise man, and +Cicero plead for the last dreadful tragedy--_suicide_. Such immoralities +are eulogised in the writings of Virgil, Horace and Ovid. When Rome was +in her glory and greatness, Trajan had ten thousand men to hew each +other to pieces to amuse the Romans. In the face of all these facts, +modern Spiritualists advance along with Deists, Atheists and Pantheists, +and gravely inform us that we have no need of any external +revelation--that men are wise enough without it. + +They argue, that as we have physical senses to take hold of earth's +material blessings and appropriate them; so we have intellectual +faculties to take hold of all else that is necessary to supply our +mental and moral wants. It is most certainly true that we have physical +senses and intellectual faculties. I can not tell how it is with all the +infidels of our country, but I do know persons having physical senses +who are in great need of some of the substantials of life. I have also +known persons who have destroyed their physical senses to such an extent +as to be miserable objects of pity and compassion, needing some external +help as well an internal. Now, if, in spite of physical senses, men and +women do starve in this world on account of want, it is certainly +allowable that persons may fail of the enjoyment of needed mental and +moral culture in spite of intellectual faculties. And if it is a matter +of charity for men to put forth their hands and assist their fellow men +when they are in want of material blessings, surely it is a matter of +love, the love of God, to present to weary, burthened souls mental and +spiritual blessings which correlate with man's spiritual wants. Do you +deny the existence of such wants? + +Tyndal said there is a place in man's soul-nature for religion. This +fact is acknowledged by all leading writers in unbelief. He who calls it +in question experiences the fact. Why say it is not true against the +testimony of your own conscience? + +"Tell me," said a rich Hindoo who had given all his wealth to the +Brahmans surrounding his dying bed that they might obtain pardon for his +sins, "tell me what will become of my soul when I die?" "Your soul will +go into the body of a holy cow." "And after that?" "It will pass into +the body of a divine peacock." "And after that?" "It will pass into a +flower." "Tell me, oh! tell me," cried the dying man, "where will it go +last of all?" "Where will it go last of all? Aye, that is the question +reason can not answer," said the poor Brahmans. + +Where there is no vision the people perish. "Life and immortality was +brought to light through the Gospel." Without a revelation from God, men +know neither how to live or die. Our ancestors trusted to the powers of +magic, to incantations, for health, for success in tilling the ground, +for finding lost articles, for preventing accidents, etc. They +superstitiously regarded certain days of the week. If an infant was born +upon a certain day it would live; if upon another it would live, but be +sickly. + +Do you unceremoniously reject the Gospel of the Christ? "Yes," you say, +"if it depends on Jesus it is not eternally true, and therefore is not +true at all." But, I ask in all candor, is eternally true and +sufficiently revealed _one_ and the _same_? Are we under no obligations +to the man who first informed us of vaccination as a preventive of +small-pox, simply because it would always have prevented it? Are we +under no obligations to men on account of scientific discoveries, just +because the truths discovered are eternal truths? _Nonsense!_ You know +it is nonsense. Then we may be under lasting obligations to the Christ +for the revelation of the Gospel, with its sublime precepts and +principles, consolations and promises, which fill up the human spirit +with undying love and the hope of eternal glory. + +Let parents look well to this question. Let infidels set themselves to +work and get up some law of man capable of regenerating the hearts of +those men who, at their bidding, renounce the law of God and his +authority, and also with it all human authority. Will they do it? Can +they do it? Oh! There are no means outside of the sanctions of religion +by which the heart may be reached and purified from the love and +practice of sin. + +What right, says the Pantheist, the Atheist, the Deist, and +Spiritualist, have you to command me? + +The rejectors of the Bible made an experiment, an attempt, in trying to +govern France without religion. Shall the scenes of Paris and Lyons be +repeated, re-enacted in our own beloved America? No, we don't want it, +and we do not think we shall experience it, for the framers of our +Declaration of Independence laid the rights of God in the bed-rock of +our republic, believing that the rights of God are the basis of human +rights. "All men are born free and equal, and are endowed by their +CREATOR WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS, AMONG WHICH IS LIFE, LIBERTY +AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, ETC." + +Nations destitute of the Bible ever were, and are, ignorant and wicked. +There are peoples in the world decently clad, well fed, and living in +comfortable mansions, with well tilled lands, who make powerful streams +turn powerful wheels and run great machinery; who yoke the iron horse to +the market train and drive their floating palaces against the floods; +who erect churches in every village, and make their children more +learned than the priests of Egypt, or the philosophers of Greece; even +many of their criminals are more decent and upright than were the sages, +philosophers and heroes of lands destitute of the Bible. These peoples +have that wonderful book; and they claim that it contains a revelation +from God to man; and that it teaches us how to live, and how to die. + +"EVERY TREE IS KNOWN BY ITS OWN FRUITS." + + * * * * * + +"The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." He claims, however, +that something without life or intelligence produced organic nature. +That BLIND, DEAD, SOMETHING IS THE FOOL'S GOD. + + + + +THE WAY INFIDELS TREAT THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE. + + +The unreasonableness and unfairness of infidels, or otherwise their +ignorance, is manifested in their unwillingness to interpret the +literature of religion as they do the language of the sciences. In +scientific literature we speak of the earth as a sphere, and infidels +never think of objecting that it is "pitted with hollows deep as ocean's +bottom," and "crusted with protuberances high as the Himalaya," in every +imaginable form. "There is not an acre of absolutely level ground" known +on the face of the earth, and yet when we speak of land, saying it is +level, no infidel demurs. The waters pile themselves in waves and dash +in breakers, yet we say, "Level as the ocean," and none object. + +The smallest formations present the same regular irregularities of form. +Crystals approach the nearest to mathematical figures, but they break +with compound irregular fractures at their bases of attachment. Nature +gives no perfect mathematical figures; they only approximate +mathematical perfection. Infidels do not trouble themselves with science +on this account. "The utter absence of any regularity or assimilation to +the spheroidal figure, either in meridianal, equatorial or parallel +lines, mountain ranges, sea beaches or courses of rivers, is fatal to +mathematical accuracy in the more extended measurements. It is only by +taking the mean of a great many measurements that an approximate +accuracy can be obtained. Where this is not possible, as in the +measurement of high mountains, the truth remains undetermined by +hundreds of feet; or as in the case of the earth's spheroidal axis, +Bessel's measurement differs from Newton's by fully eleven miles." See +Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. 1, p. 7, 156. "The smaller measures are +proportionally inaccurate." All these irregularities and imperfections +in science are overlooked, considered not in the least objections to the +use of language which would, upon the most rigid application, cut them +out as fables on the one hand or destroy science upon the other; but no +sensible man thinks of either as a matter allowable. + +On the other side, Infidels are "eternally" mouthing about +irregularities in the lives of the ancient men of the Bible, which are +exceptions to the general rule, just as though religious persons could +live lives of absolute perfection. The language, also, of the Bible, +which, like the language of science, takes no notice of irregularities +that must be expected in the lives of the very best men upon the earth, +is by them abused. For instance, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is +perfect," is construed to mean that God is a man God, clothed with human +imperfections, or, otherwise, man is imperatively required to be +absolutely perfect. All such abuse of language is contemptible. Many +other examples might be adduced--such as the irregularities in the words +employed by the witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, which do not +affect the evidence of the fact to be established in the least degree, +and which are just such irregularities as are witnessed in evidence +given in court rooms almost daily, and passed without so much as being +noticed. For example, one witness says Mary Magdalene "came very early +to the sepulchre," and another says she came "about sunrise." If all +Christians were to treat the literature of science, and science itself, +as these would-be wise Infidels treat the literature of religion, and +religion itself, it would be surprising to run over the absurdities as +well as irregularities of scientific history. There are irregularities +in nature, and their name is legion; they all belong to that wonderfully +boasted harmony of nature so much talked of in our day. As for the +mistakes made in religion since the days of the apostles of the Christ, +they are many; but what have they to do with the _genuine_? + +How many mistakes have scientists made in the same period of time? I +shall not try to ape the infidel, but I must be permitted to call +attention to a few of the many scientific blunders. + +Perhaps the greatest blunder of the present day, upon the part of +scientists, is their attempt to bring into disrepute the cosmogony +given in the Bible by a scientific cosmogony, which leaves off as +"unknown" the only active world-forming force. They arrogantly assume to +be acquainted with the entire history of our planet from the atoms to +the globe. Yet they acknowledge that the "force which was and is in +operation was and is unknown; that unknown force had its influence in +framing the world," and its omission is always fatal to the theory which +knows nothing about it or neglects it. There are laws also far-reaching, +whose omission must be equally fatal. + +Infidels, being sensible of this truth, have endeavored to simplify +matters to the level of our ignorance, by reducing all primordial +elements to one, or at most two, simple elements, and all forces to the +form of one universal and irrational law; but the progress of science +utterly blasts the effort. No scientific man now dreams of one +primordial element. Chemistry reveals a great many different elements, +which can not be reduced or changed from their simple forms, much less +identified as one and the self-same "substance." The idea of "one +substance" _only_ is a very great error, which grew out of an abuse of +language in confounding the two words, matter and substance. The latter +word is equally applicable to _matter_, or _spirit_, but the former +always contrasts with spirit; so to confound the two is to ignore a +distinction upon which everything depends in any, except the +materialistic, philosophy. When the term substance is used in the +currency of the term matter it admits of the plural form as well as the +singular. Indeed, all the primordial elements known in chemistry are +known as so many different substances. It is unscientific and absurd to +confound all these elements by claiming the one-substance theory. It has +been called "the hog philosophy," on account of its swallowing down so +many _different_ substances in the single form of the word. + +"Eighty theories, hostile to Christianity, developed in the course of +forty or fifty years, were brought before the Institute of France in +1806, all of which are repudiated"--dead. It is useless to go further +into details. Science has been as much abused as religion. What benefit +would accrue to the human family from an effort upon our part to bring +to the foreground all the blunders made in scientific researches which +are to-day numbered with the old effete errors in religion? And where is +the propriety of infidels making a set of asses of themselves by playing +upon the little irregularities of language and character in religion, as +they _themselves_ allow no man to do in science and morality. + +"EQUAL HANDED JUSTICE" TO ALL, IS OUR MOTTO. + + + + +GEOLOGY IN ITS STRUGGLES AND GROWTH AS A SCIENCE. + + +The science of Geology in its early history is like all other sciences, +an infant. It was not a Hercules at its birth. On the contrary, it was +childlike and rather crooked in many of its ways; but chastisement and +criticism have brought it very far toward real manhood. Its early nurses +were standing continually on the dark line separating the comprehensible +from the incomprehensible, without any guides. They were out upon an +unexplored sea in the mere twilight of the morning. They were opposed at +every step by the combative tendencies of human nature, which are ever +seeking too much for their own gratification to admit any strange, +startling propositions as intruders among old and long cherished ideas. +In its history it appears before us, first as an enemy to religion, and +then as an unobjectionable science, a neutral. But since the publication +of "The Footprints of the Creator," by the lamented Hugh Miller, it +appears in front as a fast friend and abettor. And now, since it has +approached so near to its manhood, we do not see how we did without its +aid so long. Its first grand position touching the immense masses of the +rock formations as results of second causes, in operation away back +yonder before organic life appeared upon our planet, was looked upon by +intelligent Biblical scholars of those times with suspicion, as a +system at variance with the records of the Bible. This, along with +difference of sentiment among its friends, has been the means of a very +rapid growth towards perfection. Curiosity was aroused and observations +multiplied, errors corrected and the untenable removed, until the +science now stands before us with its bases settled in unquestionable +facts. Let us all learn from this circumstance the bearings of the times +in which we live, for a double process of elimination is now going on +under the providence of God, by means of which both Christianity and +science will have more beauty and strength of manhood to command the +respect of our children. + +Geology is exercising a wonderful influence on the side of religion in +the minds of those who are acquainted with its facts. In the hands of +Miller it gives a very decisive answer against the evolution hypothesis, +which is by no means a new speculation. It was, in its general form, a +very prominent doctrine of the Epicurean philosophy. "The author of the +'Vestiges,' with Professor Oken, regarded the experiment of the +formation of cells in albumen by electric currents as the leading fact +of the system." They claimed that currents of electricity in the earth's +surface generated and vitalized the cells, and that all organic life +thus originated. There is nothing to save this speculation, when it is +undressed, from contempt. "The only patronage it ever received grew out +of the fact that there is a species of superstition which causes people +to take upon credit whatever assumes the name of science, and is opposed +to the old superstition of faith in witches and ghosts." With this +speculation before us, seemingly plausible, yet false, being fraught +with error, we are reminded of the fact that it has been eagerly +embraced by many who seem to think that it has a firm foundation in the +science of Geology, which they regard as presenting the order in which +created beings appeared. The author of the "Vestiges" claims that the +first step in the creation of life upon our earth was a +_chemico-electric_ operation, forming simple germinal vesicles. Page +155. + +This is an item wholly unknown in the geological record and lies before +the beginning of any kind of similitude alluded to in this article. "The +idea which I form of the progress of organic life upon our earth," says +the author of the Vestiges, "is that the simplest and most primitive +type gave birth to the type next above it, and this again produced the +next higher, and so on to the very highest." Page 170. + +On account of the mere similitude existing between the doctrine of +progressive creation, as it is set forth in the geological record, and +the idea of progressive evolutions, as claimed by the advocates of the +speculation, we deem it our duty to scrutinize severely the teachings of +geology. But in doing this we do not concede that there is no other +ground upon which such authors may be successfully met. There is no one +point in their system which is not hypothetical. It is a system of +_ifs_. There is no proof, in any single instance, that a higher has been +developed from a lower species; but the question, in proper shape, is +this: Has there been a succession of improvements from one geological +period to another in the several divisions of the animal and vegetable +kingdoms amounting to a change of species? Species are very similar in +structure and capable of some improvement, but this is no evidence of +the higher being developed from the lower. It is well known that the +lowest forms are those found lowest in the geological series. Commencing +at the bottom and running up we find, first, mollusks, then fishes, +reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, monkeys, and at last man. But this does +not, by any means, settle the issue. The question naturally arises +whether one of those divisions, on its first appearance, was of the +lowest organization of its class and reached the highest by a gradual +development through successive geological periods. The geological +testimony is this: First, there were no animals having any structural +resemblance to the fishes prior to their creation, and when they appear +they are already in possession of the highest organization and the +largest cerebral development. + +During the long periods of geological history there has been no advance +in this class of animals. The science testifies to no successive steps +here. "They stood at the head of the icthyic division at the outset; but +there has been, during these periods, a progressive _degeneracy_, so +that though all possessed a high organization at first, there is found +in the after creations a _succession of lapses_ until the division of +fishes now contains species ranking little above the earth-worm." "A +single well defined placoid fossil in the Bala limestone as fully proves +the existence of placoid fishes, during the period of its deposition, as +if the rock were made up of placoid fossils, for it is not a question of +numbers, but of rank." The question, now, comes home to us with all its +force, how did fishes of this high order come to exist before any of the +inferior class? Let some of our evolution savans answer. + +The same thing may be said of other organic divisions. It has gone to +record that the shell-fish of the Silurian system are the lowest +division of the molluscous animals. While the statement is received as +true, it must be remembered that there is some diversity of structure in +this lower division, and that the earliest molluscs are not the lowest, +but the highest in the division. The most important point, however, is, +that while Brachiopoda were most abundant, the highest molluscs existed +also, their remains being found in the Bala limestone, which is the +lowest bed of molluscous fossils. (See Silurian System, p. 308.) The +number of these higher species is not important. They existed, few or +many, as early as any other of the mollusca. If the lower had not an +anterior existence, the higher were not developed from them. It is also +a conclusive argument against the system, that while the intermediate +mollusca are very numerous, the cephalopoda, which were so early +introduced, and are the higher forms that were so numerous at certain +times, are now narrowed down to a few species. + +Lyell was the first to drop a word of caution against "inferring too +hastily from the absence of mammalian fossils in the older rocks that +the higher class of vertebrata did not exist in those remote times." +"The remains of vertebrate animals are already found in the lowest +fossiliferous rocks, and, in addition to that, the highest forms of +each class appear first." + +There is nothing so well evinced in all the realms of scientific +investigation as the utter impossibility of getting, by the light of +nature, away from the idea of the Christian's God. _Everywhere_ we trace +his footsteps. Traveling through the ages to the beginning, in thought, +our first view is that of "an unlimited expanse of unoccupied space," +or, if aught exists, it lies hidden in the invisible state. But all at +once, as if by magic, and in obedience to the will of the Eternal +Intelligence, the invisible becomes visible, worlds exist and become +obedient to law. The divine perfections are to be displayed through +future ages. And now, if we look out upon the surging billows of the +ocean, our mind swells with the thought that God is there in all his +majesty. With our thoughts confined to our earth we pass from age to age +tracing the divine power from the laws of motion to chemical action and +crystallization, until we behold a wonderful change upon the face of +nature. And now, for the first time, a new principle is manifested, a +new order springs into being--it is vegetable life and being in all its +lovely grandeur. It matters not to us whether it came about gradually or +all at once, for wisdom is there. All nature seems to turn to this new +principle. "The elements of the inorganic world are subserving the +purposes of organic life." The Creator has bound them to organic life. +Every plant selects its food from the elements of earth by a chemistry +of its own. The atmosphere around us is no less to the vegetable kingdom +than a great pasture field. Every leaf is feasting, and every fiber is +touched by the light. What wonderful correlations meet us at every turn! +What adaptation of means to ends! Above all the beauty and grandeur of +the vegetable kingdom we find the glorious animal, with man at the head, +as lord over all below him. With man the moral government of God begins; +physical creation is over. The subsequent manifestations of the divine +glory are to be realized in the training and discipline of men and women +as moral beings; and their mutual association with him, in the eternal +world, is the ultimate. + + C. R. + + + + +PANTHEISM IS DECEPTION AND HYPOCRISY. + + +"Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be +wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the +eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall he be not +correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?"--Psalm +xciv, 8, 9. + +Pantheism, personified, is a hypocrite, a deceiver. The name God, as a +proper name in the English language, means the Divine Being, Jehovah, +the Eternal and Infinite Spirit, the Creator and Lord of the universe. +Pantheists say they believe in God, but they tell you, when pressed, +they mean by that name "everything"--_God is everything._ The term +"Pantheist" is from _pan_, all, and _theos_, God. Webster defines the +term thus: "One that believes the universe to be God; a name given to +the followers of Spinoza." + +Has any man the right to pervert language, fixing new meanings to words +in common use which are in direct opposition to established usage? The +man who knows the meaning of a word and uses it in a contrary sense is +guilty of an abuse of language; and if he fails to make known the fact +that he is using the term in a sense differing from established usage, +he is, then, a deceiver. Pantheists are simply Atheists in disguise, the +only difference being in their professions. The Pantheist says, "I +believe in a God;" but this saying is only a distinction without a +difference. The atheist is the frank, outspoken man of the two. + +What must we think of the man who says, "I believe in God," and then +explains himself to mean, by the name God, heat, steam, electricity, +force, animal life, the soul of man, magnetism, mesmeric force, and, in +one word, the sum of all the intelligences and forces in the universe, +at the same time denying the proper currency of the term God by denying +the existence of a personal God. All Christians should demand that +Christian terms be used in their own proper currency. But infidels will +always do as they have hitherto, will often get out of their own "ruts," +by the most perfect abuse of language. They can not, it seems, leave off +the use of language which is only appropriate to the Christian idea. +Their divinity, by their own confession, differs essentially from God, +and let them use a different word to describe it. Let them do like their +heathen brethren in India, call it Brahma, or whatever else they please, +and cease "stealing Heaven's livery to serve the devil." Let them cease +to profane religion and offend common sense by giving the name of the +glorious Father of Spirits to their million-headed nondescript. +Pantheism dethrones Jehovah and places no other intelligence in his +place as Creator and Ruler of the universe; and, being conscious of the +odium that necessarily attaches itself to Atheism, on account of its +everlasting foolishness, they steal the name of God to cloak their +Atheism. + +_Pantheism is demoralizing._ It cuts a man loose from all the sanctions +of moral law, by denying the resurrection, the judgment and the future +retribution. It annihilates from the mind of its votary the idea of +God's moral government. If man, as it avows, be the highest intelligence +in the universe of worlds, to whom will he render an account? Who will +call upon him to answer? If men and women are simply developments of +God, will God be offended with himself? "Evil is good," we are told, "in +another way, we are not skilled in." See the author of "Representative +Men," Festus, page 48. "Evil" was held by some of the old heathen +philosophers to be "good in the making." They argued that it was the +carrion in the sunshine, converting into grass and flower. And then, to +apply their figure, man in the brothel, jail, or on gibbets, is in the +way to all that is lovely and true. Such reminds us of the ravings of +lunatics. It is the climax of profanation of the moral government of +God. Let those who fear no God, but have wives and children and property +to lose, reflect upon the propriety of lending their influence to a +system fraught with such consequences. The system positively denies the +distinction between good and evil. It declares that we can not sin; +that we are God, and God can not offend against himself; that sin is all +simply an old lie; that impiety, immorality and vice of frightful mien +are wedded in eternal decrees, and that man can not sever them. + +_Pantheism is veiled Atheism._ It is not necessary to argue this +proposition at length. Pantheists often speak of the great being, which, +according to Pantheism, is composed of all the intelligences of the +universe. Can any man conceive of such a being? Can intelligences be +piled one upon another, like brick and mortar, and thus be compounded? +And if my spirit be the highest intelligence in the universe, did it +create itself? Does it govern itself? Did it create the universe? Does +it govern it? Some Pantheists have gone to this length! M. Comte says: +"At this present time, for minds properly familiarized with true +astronomical philosophy, the heavens display no other glory than that of +Hipparchus, or Kepler, or Newton, and of all who have helped to +establish these laws." "Establish these laws!" They were laws governing +the planets thousands of years before these astronomers were born. + +Pantheists often express very high respect for the Christian religion. +Some of the more vulgar sort, however, speak of it as a superstition. +But the wiser ones have reached the perfection of Jesuitism, that is to +say, they indulge in hypocrisy and deception to effect a purpose. They +grant that the Christian religion is the highest development of humanity +yet attained by a majority of the race. The heathen of every grade of +character, and the Christian, with all others who may not be classified +by us with either, are all, in their scheme, so many successive +developments of humanity. It is a trick of their trade to clothe their +abominations in Bible language by wresting the Scriptures. They speak of +the "beauty of holiness in the mind, that surmounted every idea of a +personal God;" and of "God dwelling in us, and his love perfected in +us," when they maintain that he dwells in every creature and thing. They +say they can accept the Bible--that is their phrase--notwithstanding it +pronounces death upon the fools who, "professing to be wise, change the +truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than +the Creator," as a mystic revelation of the Pantheism which leaves us to +"erect everything into a God," provided it is none, inasmuch as "every +product of the human mind is a development of Deity." So the Bible, in +the conclusion of their system, is on a level with Thomas Paine's +writings as respects inspiration and origin. The great Pantheistic +divinity is spoken of by Pantheists as the great soul of the universe, +while the more materialistic look upon it as the universe itself, body +and soul. With them the soul is the fountain of all the imponderable +forces, vegetable and animal life, the mesmeric influences, galvanism, +magnetism, electricity, light and heat; and the body the sum of all the +ponderable substances; in one word, "God is everything, and everything +is God." This system is called "Monotheistic Pantheism." It is a vast +generalization of everything into a higher unity, which exalts men and +paving stones, and cats, dogs and reptiles, and monkeys, to the same +level of God-head, or divinity. Man, the soul of men, as the system +would term it, is the greatest manifestation of the divine essence. Yes! +DIVINE ESSENCE! for, with Pantheists, there is no _personal_ hereafter. +This system of Pantheism is an old, worn-out theory; it has putrefied +and rotted with the worshippers of cats, monkeys, and holy cows and +bulls, and pieces of sticks and stones on the Ganges more than two +thousand years ago. It is now dragged up from the dung-hill and +presented as a new discovery of modern philosophy, sufficient to +supplant the Ruler of the universe. How strange it is that men of +ordinary intelligence will embrace the idea, rather than submit to the +dictates of conscience and the Bible! This world of ours is not an +abstraction in philosophy that consists of one simple substance called +matter, nor yet of one substance, for there are many different material +substances, such as oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, aluminum and +iron, and more than fifty others already discovered. + +Now, let us suppose that all these elements or substances existed as a +cloud of atoms millions of ages in the past; are we, then, any nearer +the solution of the great problem of world making than we were before? +The atoms must be material, for a material world is to be made of them; +and they must have extension; each one of them must have length, breadth +and thickness; and, as inertia is a property of each and every atom, the +Pantheist has only multiplied the difficulty by millions, for matter can +not begin, _of itself_, to move. Did the dead atoms dance about and +jumble themselves together as we now find them? Is the one substance +theory correct? Monotheistic Pantheism _is scientifically false in +fact_. Some of these men who tell us of a world without an intelligence +in the past, who have such implicit confidence in the powers of matter, +tell us, that "millions of ages" in the past the world existed as a +great cloud of fire mist, which, after a long time cooled down into +granite; and this, by dint of earthquakes, broke up on the surface, and +washed with rain until, after ages upon ages had passed, clays and soil +were formed, from which plants, of their own accord, sprang up without a +germ; in other words, germs came into being spontaneously and grew up, +as we see them, developed in all their grandeur. This chance life, +somehow, chanced to assume animal form and fashion until, in the +multitude of its changes it reached the fashion of the monkey; and then, +at last, the fashion of man, both male and female. Truly, the Atheists +and Pantheists of our country need not complain of any want of power to +believe while such is their basis of faith upon the subject of world +making. But they, to avoid the difficulty that nothing made something, +tell us "the fire mist was eternal," that it did not make itself. Very +well, let us have it that way; then we must be allowed to ask, how an +eternal red hot mist cooled off? And also what there was to cool it, +when it was all there was, and it was red hot, and always had been? In +other words, how could an eternal red hot cool down without something +else in existence to cool it? Why should it cool at all? And why did it +begin to cool just when it did? The utmost that any scientist can do is +to show that such a change took place, but he can not tell you why it +took place. Change _it did_! But change is an effect, and requires a +cause. And, according to their theory, there could be no cause outside +of the fire mist; for they say there was nothing else in the universe. +Then the cause was inside of the fire mist. But how can red hot cool +when all there is, is red hot? Had this first mist, to say nothing of +organic life, a mind? Did it become sensible and resolve to cool off a +little, and settle itself into orderly worlds? What became of its mind? +Did it divide, and a part go to each planet? Has each planet a great +"soul of the world," as well as our earth? If so, had we not as well +build an altar to each planet and go back to the religion of our +banana-fed ancestors, who burned their children alive in sun worship? + +The Christian religion is so fearfully demoralizing (?) that it is a +great pity that these Godless, Christless souls called Pantheists and +Atheists can't get some solution of the great problem of world-making +that would dispense with the Bible. How well they could get along +if--if--if--they only had this great question settled. + +"IN GOD WE TRUST." + + + + +SUBSTANCE OR SUBSTANCES--WHICH? + +OR, + +THE ORIGIN OF LIFE AND MIND. + + +"_Substance_ is that which is and abides;" "that which subsists of or by +itself; that which lies under qualities; that which truly is--or +_essence_." "It is opposed to _accident_." "In its logical and +metaphysical sense it is that nature of a thing which may be conceived +to remain when every other nature is removed or abstracted from it; the +ultimate point in analyzing the complex idea of any object. _Accident_ +denotes all those ideas which the analysis excludes as not belonging to +the mere being or nature of the object." It is said that our first idea +of _substance_ is, possibly, derived from the consciousness of self, the +conviction that, while our sensations, thought and purposes are +changing, we continue the same. "We see bodies also remaining the same +as to quantity or extension, while their color and figure, their state +of motion or rest may be changed." It has also been said that +_substances_ are either primary, that is singular, individual +_substances_; or secondary, that is genera, and species of _substance_. + +Substances have been divided into complete and incomplete, finite and +infinite. But it is to be remembered that these are merely divisions of +being. Substance is properly divided into matter and spirit, or that +which is extended and that which thinks. + +"The foundation principle of substance is that law of the human mind by +which every quality or mode of being is referred to a substance," or the +consciousness of a cause for every effect. "In everything which we +perceive or can imagine as existing, we distinguish two parts, qualities +variable and multiplied; and a being one and identical; and these two +are so united in thought that we can not separate them in our +intelligence, nor think of qualities without a _substance_." So it is a +self-evident or first truth, that there is a subjective or inner man +which thinks, reflects and reasons, for memory recalls to us the many +modes of our mind; its many qualities and conditions. What variety of +mental conditions have we not experienced? These are all so many +evidences of an internal _substance_ that we call spirit. That spirit is +to be distinguished from thought as cause is from effect is evident; and +also from matter lying in the accident or quality of body, is certain, +from the fact of its being subject to such rapid and instantaneous +changes of condition. Amidst all the different modes, qualities, or +accidents of mind, we believe ourselves to be the same individual being; +and this conviction is the result of that law of thought which always +associates qualities with things. + +In the world around us phenomena, qualities or accidents are continually +changing, but we believe that these, all, are produced by causes which +_remain, as substances, the same_. And as we know ourselves to be the +causes of our own acts, and to be able to change, within a moment, the +modes of our own mind, so we believe the changes of matter, which take +place _more slowly_, to be produced by causes which belong to the +_substances of matter_. And underlying all causes, whether of the +qualities of matter or mind, we conceive of one absolute cause, one +substance, in itself persistent and upholding all things in nature. This +substance we are pleased to call spirit; and this spirit we call God. To +deny this is to strike down a grand law of thought, the foundation +principle of substance, and make the testimony of our own consciousness +A LIE! The inorganic forces, about which "unbelievers" have so much to +say are altogether operative in the realm of _substance_; that is to +say, they belong to the _invisible_. Organic and inorganic are the same +as visible and invisible. We know matter by its qualities, and we know +mind by its qualities. These two, in qualities or attributes, contrast +with each other like life and death. One is extenuated and the other +extended; one is invisible the other is visible. Of the existence of +these substances and their laws we have evidence in conscious knowledge, +in that we know that we have no control over the involuntary or +sympathetic nervous system, and have the most perfect control over the +voluntary nerves. The forces controlling are as different as these +qualities themselves. If man is simply a material organism, why this +contrast? We are told that _life itself_ is a group of co-ordinated +functions. But what correllates that force? + +It is very common for the advocates of the evolution hypothesis to +measure the period between this and the origin of life by the phrase, +"Millions and millions of years." The only object that such writers have +in view in so doing is to bridge the gulf between the _assumed_ origin +of life and mind and the evidence necessary to its establishment as a +fact in science. They tell us that "life is a property which certain +elements of matter exhibit when united in a special form under special +conditions." But when we ask them to give us those certain elements of +matter, they immediately inform us that "matter has about sixty-three +elements; that each element has special properties, and that these +elements admit of an _infinite variety of combinations_, each +combination having peculiar properties." This, as a fort, is a stand +behind the dark, impenetrable curtain of an _infinite variety of +combinations_. It is just as dark and as destitute of proof as any +pope's assumed infallibility. + +Mr. Hæckel says: "As a matter of course, to the _infinite varieties_ +presented by the organic forms and vital phenomena in the vegetable and +animal kingdoms, correspond an equally _infinite variety_ of chemical +composition in the protoplasm. The most minute homogeneous constituents +of this life substance, the protoplasm molecules, must in their chemical +composition present an _infinite number_ of extremely delicate +gradations and variations. According to the plastic theory recently +advanced (?) the great variety of vital phenomena is the consequence of +the _infinitely delicate_ chemical difference in the composition of +protoplasm, the sole active life substance." What a multitude of +infinities. But then, an _infinite number_, and an _infinite variety_ of +_infinitely delicate_ gradations and variations, with millions and +millions of years, do not remove further from sight life in its origin +than does the materialistic philosophy of one substance. They constitute +the _web_ and _filling_ of the _blanket of oblivion_ used by +materialistic doctors to cover up their ignorance of life and its +origin. A half dozen "INFINITIES," and "MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS!" +What! should I care if my ancestors were "tadpoles," when they are HID +AWAY IN THE CENTER OF INFINITIES, and laid _away back yonder_, so far +off as "MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS?" + +When we ask our friends for the proof necessary to establish this +speculation as a fact among facts, they find it very convenient to +betake themselves to _infinities_, and _millions_ and _millions of +years_. + +But we Christians do not ask them to give us an _infinite variety_, +etc., but to give us the "certain elements" of which "life is a +property," and the "special form in which these certain elements were +united," and the "special conditions" that existed when life first made +its appearance by spontaneous generation. When we do this we are +immediately carried away into the _infinities_. The result is that the +solution of the problem of the origin of life by spontaneous generation, +as a property of "certain elements of matter, united in a special form, +under special conditions," is buried forever out of sight. This same +definition of life is found on page 69 of a work entitled, "The System +of Nature," published by D. Holbach, a French Atheist, in 1774, in these +words: "Experience proves to us that the matter which we regard as inert +and dead assumes action, intelligence and life when it is combined in a +certain way." + +Voltaire answered: "This is precisely the difficulty. How does a germ +come to life? Is not this definition very easy--very common? Is not life +organization with feeling? But," says Voltaire, "that you have these two +properties from the motion of matter alone: it is impossible to give any +proof, and if it can not be proved why affirm it? Why say aloud, 'I +know,' while you say to yourself, 'I know not?'" + +Our Atheistic friends say: "The forms of life vary because of the +difference in their molecular construction, resulting from different +physical conditions to which the various forms have been subjected." + +Wonderful discovery! Does it explain the evidence of design which is +presented in pairing off male and female in the same form of life? + +Dr. Parvin is often referred to as "frankly admitting that the doctrine +of the evolution of species is accepted by three-fourths of the +scientific men," and that this doctrine has, in their minds, "rendered +nugatory the hypothesis of a vital immaterial principle as a causal +factor in the phenomena of life and mind." Allowing this statement its +full force, it is still true that none but Atheists can possibly be +included in the "three-fourths." So much the worse for them. But it is +an Atheistic trick to try to succeed by a misrepresentation of facts. +One of their number recently said, "It is now almost universally +believed by those who have investigated the subject that life +originated from natural agencies without the aid of a creative +intelligence. Then those who have investigated the subject are almost +universally _Atheists_?" + +It is said that "vital activity, whether of body or mind, is a mode of +motion, the correllate of antecedent motion." But what correllated the +force? According to this logic life came from the antecedent motion; +that is, from the motion of dead atoms. But motion itself is the +manifestation of energy, and there must of necessity be something behind +it to which it belongs as an attribute. Do you say it was dead atoms, or +matter without life? Then dead atoms set dead atoms into motion and +produced life! Can you believe this? If you can, you need find no +trouble in believing in the most orthodox hell. Can you get more out of +a thing than there is in it? We don't think so. But we do think that +there is credulity enough, even blind credulity, in the advocates of +spontaneous generation to enable them to believe anything they may +happen to wish true. We are told that "life in its higher forms is not +an immaterial entity, _nor the result_ of a special form of _force +termed vital_, but, that it is a group of co-ordinated functions." Then +what correllated the force? If it was not vitality what was it? But this +is just equivalent to saying that life does not proceed from life. So, +in the realm of inertia or death, without a God and without life, some +kind of a mechanical operation among dead atoms took place which +produced "a certain chemico-physical constitution of amorphous +matter--on that albuminous substance called sarcode or protoplasm," +which evolved more than was involved, or brought organic life out of +dead inorganic matter. But life is simply a "mode," or "degree of +motion?" But we are curious to know just here whether the advocates of +this system of things do not believe that there always was a degree of +motion. Perchance they do, but then they certainly can't believe that +this particular degree or mode of motion which they called _life_ was +eternal. So, then, a degree of motion is life, and a degree of motion is +not life. This thing of confounding life with motion I'm thinking leads +to difficulty. I can see how motion may be the result of life, but just +how it is _life itself_ I can't see quite so well. Is cause and effect +the same? + +We have a most remarkable, and yet a natural, concession made in the way +in which men who feel the weakness of their cause generally make +concessions. It is a statement said to be made by Baron Liebig; it is +this: "Geological investigations have established the fact of a +beginning of life (?) upon the earth, which leaves no doubt that it can +only have arisen naturally and from inorganic forces, and _it is +perfectly indifferent whether or not we observe such a process now_." +This statement is untrue as respects geological facts. But the +concession is, that spontaneous generation is not to be an observed +fact. "Perfectly indifferent whether or not we observe such a process +now?" Well, it never was observed. Mr. Liebig's statement doubtless +proceeds from the conviction that the system is never to be established +by observation. It is simple imagination. Virchow says: "We can _only +imagine_ that at certain periods of the development of the earth unusual +conditions existed, under which the elements entering into new +combinations acquired in statu nascente vital motions, so that the usual +mechanical conditions were transformed into vital conditions." In this +statement it is well for us to remember that it is not only simple +imagination, but also that vital motions were the cause, bringing about +vital conditions, that is to say, life, before life was, transformed +mechanical conditions into vital conditions. So, in this very singular +imaginary hypothesis touching the origin of life we have the usual +circle suicide of the system. "Vital motions transform mechanical +conditions into vital conditions," and vital conditions fill the world +with "vital motions," and life itself is only a degree "or mode of +motion." _Such_ is their travel around the circle. + + * * * * * + +Can you believe that _vital motion_ transformed mechanical conditions +into _vital conditions_, without _life_ being the cause of those _vital +motions_? + + + + +DIFFICULTY WITH FIRE. + + +La Place, in his solution of how our planet was made, supposed that the +cooling, and consequently contracting rings of the fire cloud planet, +earth, did not break up into pieces, but retained their continuity; but, +in opposition to all experience and reason, he supposed that the cooling +rings kept contracting and widening out at the same time. According to +the nebular hypothesis--_or guess_--the fire mist was cooling and +shrinking up, while the rings of the same heat and material were cooling +_faster_ and widening out from it: a piece of disorder equal to a +miracle, for it can not be duplicated among solids or fluids in heaven +or earth, or under the earth; for everything narrows down upon +cooling--_contracts_! + + * * * * * + +THE INFIDEL'S OFFSET.--An unbeliever once said to a man who advocated +the doctrine of total depravity: "The ground for my rejection of all +responsibility for belief is the acknowledged necessitated nature of +belief. Show me," said he, "that it is not necessitated, and I am +answered. When you show me that it is controlled by a will, equally +necessitated, I am not answered. If a necessitated faculty or operation +can not be responsible, then neither will nor volition can be +responsible. You," said the infidel, "go through the whole circle of +mental faculties, and find necessity everywhere and responsibility +nowhere." + + * * * * * + +Through the kindness of Brother J. M. Mathes we are in possession of a +copy of the life of Brother Elijah Goodwin. It has the merit of being +mainly Brother Goodwin's own production. His many friends will regard it +as a grand "keepsake." It is neatly bound in cloth, contains 314 pages, +and is in beautiful type. Send $1.50 by postoffice order to Elder J. M. +Mathes, Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana, and receive a copy in return. + + +Transcriber's Note + +The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully +preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Foundation, Or, +Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JULY 1880 *** + +***** This file should be named 28668-8.txt or 28668-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/6/28668/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Aaron Walker + +Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JULY 1880 *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> +<h1>Scientific and Religious Journal.</h1> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Publish Date"> +<tr class='tr1'> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><b>Vol. I.</b></big></span></td> + <td align='center'><big><b>JULY, 1880.</b></big></td> + <td align='right'><span class="smcap"><big><b>No. 7.</b></big></span></td> +</tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class='center'><br /> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_FOUNTAIN_OF_HAPPINESS"><b>THE FOUNTAIN OF HAPPINESS.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INDEBTEDNESS_TO_REVELATION_No_II"><b>INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION—No. II.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DO_WE_NEED_THE_BIBLE"><b>DO WE NEED THE BIBLE?</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_WAY_INFIDELS_TREAT_THE_LANGUAGE_OF_THE_BIBLE"><b>THE WAY INFIDELS TREAT THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#GEOLOGY_IN_ITS_STRUGGLES_AND_GROWTH_AS_A_SCIENCE"><b>GEOLOGY IN ITS STRUGGLES AND GROWTH AS A SCIENCE.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PANTHEISM_IS_DECEPTION_AND_HYPOCRISY"><b>PANTHEISM IS DECEPTION AND HYPOCRISY.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SUBSTANCE_OR_SUBSTANCES_WHICH"><b>SUBSTANCE OR SUBSTANCES—WHICH?</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DIFFICULTY_WITH_FIRE"><b>DIFFICULTY WITH FIRE.</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + + +<h2><a name="THE_FOUNTAIN_OF_HAPPINESS" id="THE_FOUNTAIN_OF_HAPPINESS"></a>THE FOUNTAIN OF HAPPINESS.</h2> + + +<p>The source and fullness of created good is the knowledge and enjoyment +of God. "Give what thou wilt, without thee we are poor; and with thee +rich, take what thou wilt away." The wicked are like a ship's crew at +sea, carried by the winds upon unknown waters, without peace or safety +until they can renew communications with the shore. A man alienated from +his God is without his proper relations, and separated from the fountain +of happiness, is like a child unconscious of his father—an orphan, +forced along, the sport of accident, with no hope for the future, but +darkness that may overshadow his pathway to the tomb. If we were at once +deprived of all knowledge of God where would we find hopes for support +in the gloomy hours of adversity? What sadness would reign over the +world! What black despair! O, what a chasm it would make to strike the +Infinite One out of existence! "The angels might retire in silence and +weep, or fly through infinite space seeking some token of the Father +they had lost. With unbounded grief and despair they might wing their +way farther and farther, with their harps all unstrung, and every song +silent, and the soul-harrowing words, 'We have no Father, no God, a +blind chance rules,' might be all that would break the awful silence of +heaven. Let the glorious words once more be heard, 'God reigns, he +lives, he reigns,' and what joy would fill the heavens and the earth." +The child of sorrow would lift up his head and say, "Our Father who art +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>in heaven." The heavenly songsters would string anew their harps, and +send the good news far and wide, "He lives, he reigns, God over all, +blessed forever."</p> + +<p>"We are not able to estimate the effect it would produce to blot the +knowledge of God from the universe. We can not appreciate the state of +that mind which labors under the impression that God is retiring. +Perhaps we have one momentary example of the sad gloom that takes +possession of the man under such circumstances. It is seen in the +Savior's dying words, 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?'"</p> + +<p>In our nature and condition there are two sources of misery—the mind, +or conscience, disturbed by sin, and the body affected by disease and +death. Sinful emotions cause disquietude, uneasiness, sorrow and misery, +bitterness, recrimination, reciprocated treachery, infuriated rage, +malignant and stormy passions; envy, jealousy, suspicion and unlawful +desires distract the mind and quench its joys. Who can be happy in such +a condition? Disquieted and corrupted affections cause the greater part +of the unhappiness or misery of the race. The angels of light could not +be happy in such a murky sea. Our great ancestors were doomed to toil in +a world of disappointment and sorrow for yielding to such a guide. Haman +occupied a high position at the court of Persia, yet he made himself +miserable because "Mordecai the Jew sat at the king's gate." And Ahab, +on the throne of Israel, "refused to eat bread" because he could not get +possession of the vineyard of Naboth. Men can not be happy with such +passions reigning in the mind, and yet they are found in almost every +bosom, unless it has been purified by the influence of the gospel of +Jesus the Christ. The great idols of this world are fame, pleasure and +wealth, and the love of these is the strong passion of the heart. But it +is the most prolific source of individual, social and public misfortune, +the most mischievous, contentious and demoralizing passion. The +ambitious, the voluptuous, the rich and the great are not necessarily +happy. Alexander wept upon the throne of the world because there was not +another world for him to conquer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p><p>In the midst of seminal pleasures and corrupt passions men are always +miserable. The influence of the Gospel of Christ is the only remedy for +such diseases. It saves men from aggravating selfishness and holds in +check their fierce passions until they are extinguished. Virtuous +affections are invariably the great sources of human happiness. They are +fountains of living waters, which purify the mind and make their +possessors happy. They are as rivers of water in a thirsty land.</p> + +<p>In the teachings of Christ we learn all that pertains to true happiness, +in what it consists and how to obtain it. There we are admonished of +mere worldly blessings, because the desire for them is generally so +intense that it becomes a source of corruption, and in our successes we +often forget our highest interests. The Savior left in the background +the commonly received notions of men touching the sources of true +happiness. He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," referring not to +those who are temporally poor. The wicked are poor as well as the +righteous. O, how dreadfully miserable are the wicked poor! a miserable +life here, followed by a miserable hereafter. Many poor persons are +haughty, ungodly, dishonest, profligate and unhappy. Neither does it +mean voluntary poverty, or to turn mendicant monks and friars. It means +the humble, those who are deeply sensible of their spiritual or mental +and moral wants; in other words, those who feel that there is a place in +their spiritual nature for the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. It is +opposed to self-righteousness. The poor in spirit come to God through +Christ, and, putting all their trust in him, submit to the divine will +under all the trying dispensations of his providence.</p> + +<p>The poor in spirit are always sensible of their need of salvation, but +the proud in spirit are "clean in their own eyes." Their goodness is +like the morning cloud and the early dew, yet they say, Stand by +thyself; I am holier than thou. "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed +are the meek. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after +righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." +What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> a sublime rebuke to the spirit of this world! It is a grand +contrast to the uneasy desires of greedy covetousness; to the +disposition of the gay; to the degradation of the impure; to the +senseless pleasures of the ambitious, when new fires ignite their hopes +only to plunge them into deeper darkness. The Bible's happiest soul is +he who has most of its peculiar mind and character. Not on account of +earthly riches, for he may be one of the Lord's poor, who, like his +blessed Master, has "no place to lay his head." Not because he has +sought and obtained honor from men, but because he sought and "seeks the +honor which cometh from God only." Not because he has much of this +world, but because he is a Christian. He may not have the greatest +capacity, but he has a state of mind that prepares him to rightly +estimate and enjoy all that is worth enjoying. "To the upright there +ariseth light in the darkness." They are wisely guided, comforted and +encouraged in the most gloomy wilderness. They are not oppressed with +doubts; sorrow does not crush them. Darkness gives place to light, and +the seeming evil turns to good. They often sip honey from the most +bitter flowers. They yield not to fear, for they believe in God, and are +assured, by a thousand contrasts, that "all things work together for +good to those who love God." One of the never-failing sources of +happiness for which we are under obligations to Jesus the Christ is the +mind and character which he requires of us. "A good man shall be +satisfied from himself."</p> + +<p>"Man was created for an active life. Effort is the true element of a +well regulated mind. Undisturbed soil becomes hard and unproductive. Its +bosom is shut up against the dews and the rains, and also against the +warm rays of the sun. So it is with the mind when it is closed up and +deprived of healthy action; this man lives for himself alone, and only +the baser passions spring up in his breast. His soul is too narrow for +Christian benevolence; sympathy and emotion are disabled and all his +nobler faculties languish. Action, from intelligent and benevolent +principles, is a great fountain of happiness. Few streams of bliss equal +those which flow from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> charitable exertions. Benevolence and well-doing +are great inducements to future exertions, because of the fact that they +are their own reward in a thousand different ways. The seed thus sown +brings back an hundred fold, and a rich harvest to others, which adds to +the abundance of our own happiness. But where shall we go for those +principles of action? Shall we search for them in nature? Can reason +alone discover them? Are they found in the teachings of philosophy? Are +they gathered from observation? Does not our world need Revelation to +make known the true aim and end of our being?" Cicero said, "Those who +do not agree in stating what is the chief end, or good, must of course +differ in the whole system of precepts for the conduct of human life." +He also says there was so great a dissention among the philosophers, +upon this subject, that it was almost impossible to enumerate their +different sentiments. So it came to pass that exertions for benevolent +ends were seldom, if ever, put forth by pagans in pagan lands—they knew +nothing of the happiness springing from such a source.</p> + +<p>Great efforts from great motives are the glory and blessedness of our +nature. In the Bible only men have learned what great motives and +efforts are. There we find food to sustain them and wisdom to guide +them. Nowhere in the pages of infidel philosophy can we find such an +injunction as this: "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, do all to the +glory of God." Where else do we find this Christian maxim: "None of us +liveth to himself, and none of us dieth to himself; but whether we live, +we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." He or +she alone is the happy one who is taught to consider the nature and +tendencies of human conduct, and whether it will stand the test before +God, and advance the ends of his truth and love in the world; who makes +the Lord's will the ends of his or her life and lives to please God and +show forth his praise. Such a life is necessarily a happy one, because +it is one <i>full</i> of goodness. There is daily joy in such daily activity. +No man can be wretched while acting from the principle of communicative +goodness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> Such are happy whatever their sphere or occupation may be. +Their aims are high. Their objects sustain them and their impulses +encourage or strengthen them. Their anticipations are joyous and their +reflections are tranquil. They look backward with delight and forward +with hope. Their conscience approves them. They have not buried their +talents. They are not encumberers of the ground.</p> + +<p>They live to bless the children of men. When they die they will to them +their counsel, their example and prayers. Benevolent habits are a great +source of happiness, for which we are indebted to the religion of +Christ.</p> + +<p>It is vain to attempt to persuade ourselves that human misery does not +exist. We can not get away from it by arming ourselves with stoical +insensibility. Evils lie all about us; we ourselves are made to feel +them. If we open our eyes upon the pages of time we see a continuous +series of beings who appear for a short time and then pass away. Their +beds are bedewed with tears, and soon the emblems of death are hung +about their doors. O, what wonderful scenes lie between the cradle and +the grave! What hours of sadness and gloom! Here, in the midst of life, +we realize disappointments, losses, painful diseases and heart-rending +discouragements, defeated hopes and withered honors. Here are good +reasons for the interposition of redeeming love. Does the God who loves +us sympathize with us in our woes? We are liable at every step in life +to great individual and domestic calamities. No hour can be free from +the fear that what we value the most on the earth may be snatched away +to-morrow.</p> + +<p>Trees and flowers grow to their full stature, fill up their measure of +time, and pass away. Beasts and birds are more rarely cut off with +disease. Their lives are not embittered with the expectation of death; +the knowledge of the past and the present is all they have; they have no +knowledge of the morrow; they live contented in their ignorance and +indifference, and, at last, sink into the deep, unending night, "being +made to be taken and destroyed."</p> + +<p>But this is not the history of man. He perishes from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> cradle to the +tomb—"suffers a hundred deaths in fearing one." He is conscious of the +dangers that beset him. He is hedged in on every side. Death is +constantly destroying his fondest hopes and causing him the sorest +grief. It bursts the ties that bind heart to heart, and the dearest +fellowships are severed, and the joys of a blessed life are wrapped in +the gloom of death. All there was of earthly bliss in the bygone now +makes up his anguish. Is it possible that life and death walk +"arm-in-arm?" Yes; even while we are happy in the enjoyment of one, the +other comes and casts the fearful mantle over all our earthly prospects. +Seal up this blessed volume of life, and I know not from whence the +light is to spring which would cheer this gloomy picture. Without this, +man would be in a grade of blessedness beneath the brutes that perish. +It would be better to be anything than rational without the religion of +Jesus Christ and the intelligence of the Bible. The Scriptures inform us +that these things have a cause, that they come from God's dealings with +his creatures, that the unseen hand which permits these trials is +benevolent and wise. Sorrow has its design, and it is neither unkind nor +malignant. These things have a moral cause; they are the great rebuke of +God for sin. They are also a part of the discipline of a Heavenly +Father, designed to co-operate with the Gospel in bringing back all +those who are intelligently exercised thereby to their forsaken God.</p> + +<p>The antidote for all these ills culminating in death was the tree of +life. When man sinned against his God he was put away from the tree of +life. If he had remained with it he would have been beyond the reach of +the motive of life, and beyond the restraining power of the fear of +death. He would have lived forever, subject, like fallen angels, to +mental suffering during the ages to come. But being placed beyond the +reach of the tree of life he may be redeemed by the love of life to a +higher state. When the rebellious see and realize this great truth, +being exercised by the chastening hand of God, they are often subdued to +submission, to peace, and under the heaviest calamities they often look +upward and say,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> "It is the Lord, let his will be done." And this, of +itself, is a source of unbounded bliss.</p> + +<p>We often submit to present pain when counseled to do so by those in +whose wisdom and goodness we trust. As Christians we extend this +principle to all the sufferings of this life. Doing so, we have that +feeling of quiet submission growing out of permanent confidence in God +which supports us under all the trials to which we have been subjected +by an all-wise Father. This principle is wonderfully fruitful in +consolations to the bereaved and mourning—it is the joy of all +Christian hearts. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." What shall +we say of the hopes and prospects of bereaved souls? Is it blind +conjecture that there is an existence beyond the shadows? Is there no +life to come? No great resurrection? No comforter to arrest the current +of mourning and lamentation?</p> + +<p>How natural it is, when reminded of our loss, to exclaim, Shall we not +meet them again? Is this parting to last forever? Is there a God? Has he +not answered this agonizing inquiry? When we sit down upon the brink of +those waters which have swallowed up our living treasures and weep and +call upon the waves of eternity to give back our dear ones, when, from +the shores of time, we look and gaze and listen, does no voice reach us? +<i>Yes!</i> To the ear of faith there is a voice. It is the voice of our God. +We listen. The words come ringing in our hearts, "For if we believe that +Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will +God bring with him." <i>Our grief is allayed.</i> We believe and are +comforted. We look forward to a happy meeting. A reunion for eternity +hovers before us like a bright star, lights up our pathway, and leads us +forward in a living hope.</p> + +<p>Nowhere in the Bible is human sorrow clothed with cold indifference. The +counsels of that book and its promises are so adapted to the sorrowing +that those who have passed through the furnace of affliction know best +their value. There is no such relief from sorrow found away from the +faith of God and the Bible.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p><p>There is an hour when we <i>ourselves</i> must die? Shall we trifle with the +will of God till then? Can we trifle with death when it comes? "The +sting of death is sin." Death never fails to bring along with it a keen +sense of guilt to the guilty unless they are cut off in a moment, and +then who knows the anguish that may be experienced just beyond? What is +there to soothe the sorrow of the dying sinner?—of that wicked soul who +never obeyed his God nor did anything to make the world better for his +existence? Let none of us live at a distance from our God. Let none of +us approach death without the necessary preparation for mutual +association with him. Let none of us bear the burden of a guilty +conscience in that hour. May none of us be so cruel as to leave the +hearts that love us in doubt respecting our condition in death. May we +never tread its dark waters without the light of the glorious promises +and facts of the religion of Jesus the Christ. Let us keep our souls +pure in obeying the truth through the Spirit. Let us live with and obey +God, do good and be happy.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="INDEBTEDNESS_TO_REVELATION_No_II" id="INDEBTEDNESS_TO_REVELATION_No_II"></a>INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION—No. II.</h2> + +<h3>BY P. T. RUSSELL.</h3> + + +<p>Thought, Thinkers, Things—realities with their qualities or attributes. +These are all connected. If the first and second are present the others +are not far away. We only think when we perceive, and only perceive +realities. Nonentities are not perceivable, and therefore not thinkable. +Thoughts may be, and are, transferable from one to another by words, or +signs equivalent to words, yet we are only able to impart to another +ideas already in our possession.</p> + +<p>We have no thoughts of our own but those which are the result of our +perceiving. We have no thought of color without the eye, nor of sound +without the ear, etc. Now, if we have in our possession thoughts of +persons or things beyond the reach of our powers of observation, <i>i.e.</i>, +beyond the reach of the five senses—seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>smelling—then those thoughts can not be ours; we could not be the +first to think them; they were too high for us; they were out of our +reach. Who, then, could and did reach them and give them to us? This +ought to be the question of questions with us. Thoughts of foreign +countries have been given to us by the men who have seen those +countries. But they could only give us ideas of what they had seen or +others had told them. A man visiting England only could give us no +thought of Russia, unless instructed by some one who has seen that land; +then, and not till then, could he give us thoughts of Russia. I am now +ready for the statement of this proposition, viz: The following trio of +thoughts are beyond our reach. They are not our thoughts; we did not +think them, but we have them; then, some being who could see higher and +look farther than we must have given them to us. Those thoughts are the +following: First, the existence of God; second, the use of words; third, +the origin of religion. These I will examine in the order given above.</p> + + +<h4>THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.</h4> + +<p>Whence came the idea? This is now <i>the question</i>. In answering it I +shall assume no ground but that which all parties say is true. The +Christian, the Deist and Atheist will admit that we have learned all we +know, and that we have learned only through the aid of the five senses: +seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling are the porters of the +mind. One or another of these bring to the mind every thought that it +receives. We obtain thoughts of odor <i>only</i> by the sense of smell; of +flavor only by the taste; of color by the eye alone. In these matters we +have no intuition. We brought no ideas into the world with us. In all +these things we are creatures of education. Simple or single ideas, like +simple words, represent simple thoughts or realities, and compound ideas +represent compound thoughts or realities. Therefore it follows that +every thought comes from a corresponding reality. To deny this is equal +to the affirmation that we can clearly see objects in a vacuum, that we +can see something where there is nothing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p><p>Having stated premises in which all are agreed, I now state my first +proposition:</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">There is a true and living God</span>.</p> + +<p>In sustaining this proposition I shall introduce no witnesses but those +whose perfect reliability is vouched for by the Atheist himself; so we +shall have no dispute concerning the credibility and perfect reliability +of witnesses. For the Atheist, claiming to be a votary of reason, as +well as a boasted free and fearless thinker, certainly can not impeach +the testimony of his own mind. And, being a free and fearless thinker, +he will not try to conceal or prevent the witness, when on the stand, +from telling the whole truth. I am now ready for the evidence.</p> + +<p>The scene changes; Christian is alone in his studio, and a rap is heard +at the door. It is opened, and Mr. Atheist is invited to enter, and +being seated, Christian addresses him thus:</p> + +<p>Mr. Atheist, I am glad you have called, and if you have the leisure time +and are perfectly free to do so, I would like to talk with you on the +evidence of the existence of God.</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—I am not only willing, but as anxious as you can be to +examine this question.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Very well. I suppose you have examined the evidence in the +premises, and from all the testimony, carefully analyzed, made your +decision.</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—You do me justice in thus supposing, for I claim to be a +reasonable being, and to follow fearlessly the lamp of reason; and, +doing this on scientific and philosophic principles, I have become +satisfied that there is no God.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Will you allow me to state my analysis of the mind and ask +you if it is correct?</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—You, Mr. C., are approaching from a singular yet a pleasing +stand-point; will you please give me your analysis? If it is good, I +will say so; if defective, I will point out its errors.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—It is this: The mind of man may be divided into ten parts +or powers; five external, or the five senses; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> five internal. The +external I need not name. The internal may be presented thus: First, +perception; second, reflection; third, memory; fourth, reason; fifth, +judgment, or decision; each of these entirely dependent upon its +immediate predecessor for support and action. We can not judge of that +upon which we have not reasoned, nor reason where we have not +remembered, nor remember that of which we have not first thought; +neither can we think of that which we have not perceived, nor perceive +without the action of some one of the five senses.</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—I admire your analysis—it is scientific; but, Mr. C., I +should not think that you, with your present belief in the existence of +God, would adopt this system of mental philosophy.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Why?</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—<i>Did you ever see a God?</i></p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—If you please, I will test the question with you, and, in +order to do so, I will personify these powers. I will suppose them to +represent ten men, all of whom are Atheists, and we will rely upon their +testimony.</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—That is an honorable offer; I will accept it most cordially.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Then, we are to consider the powers of the mind as so many +men, and hear their testimony?</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—Yes.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Will you examine the witnesses?</p> + +<p><i>Atheist</i>—You would more properly do that; I wish to hear you.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Very well; I will, then, call on Mr. Judgment, and ask, +Have you given a decision on the question of the existence of God, and +if so, what is your decision?</p> + +<p><i>Judgment</i>—There is no such being.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Tell us whether you created the idea of a God, or brought +it into the world with you, and how you obtained the material from which +you manufactured your verdict?</p> + +<p><i>Judgment</i>—"Did I bring the idea into the world with me, or create it?" +<i>What a question!</i> Had anybody but a Christian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> asked it I would have +thought it an insult; but, then, Christians are never thinkers. You +ought to have known that the thought could not have been created by me. +To say I created it would be an endorsement of your foolish idea that +<i>something</i> was made of <i>nothing</i>. I have no creative power, much less +the power <i>to make something out of nothing</i>; neither did I bring it +into the world with me. <i>We have no innate ideas.</i></p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Then where did you get the material from which you made +your decision that there is no God?</p> + +<p><i>Judgment</i>—"<i>Where!</i>" I have but one porter, Mr. Reason. He gives all +the material upon which I ever act. If you doubt this try and judge of +anything upon which you have never reasoned. If you can not do this you +must agree with me that judgment can only act and decide by the aid of +reason.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Your argument is conclusive. Now, as you have decided that +there is no God, and also claim that your only aid, Mr. Reason, gave you +the material out of which you made your decision, will you call him and +allow me to ask him a few questions?</p> + +<p><i>Judgment</i>—Most willingly. We all are free thinkers, and delight in +investigation. Brother Reason, please call in; Christian is here and +wishes a little information of you.</p> + +<p><i>Reason</i>—Mr. Christian, Brother Judgment informs me that you wish some +information from me. Please state your question.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Did you present the idea of the existence of God to your +brother Judgment, and if so, where and how did you come by it?</p> + +<p><i>Reason</i>—I received it from Brother Memory, and opened it out and held +it up so that Brother Judgment could scan it thoroughly, and he decided +there was no such being, and I agree with him.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Will you call Memory, that I may learn where and how he +obtained the idea? (<i>Memory enters.</i>)</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Mr. Memory, are you an Atheist, and did you give Reason the +idea of a God? If you did, how did you get it? Did you bring it into the +world with you?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span></p><p><i>Memory</i>—"Bring it into the world with me." <i>What an absurd question!</i> +I never had an idea only as it was given me by Brother Reflection. If +you doubt this, try and remember something you have never thought of, or +think of something you never perceived. This, then, is the truth: +Reflection received the idea from Perception and gave it to you, and you +gave it to Memory, and he held it up to the eye of Reason, who, with +your aid, spread it out before the mind of your brother Judgment, and he +gave the decision, that there is no God; so we are all Atheists. Have +you any more questions?</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Yes, one more at least; I wish <i>now</i> to know how your +brother Perception obtained the idea of a God—will you tell me, or call +him?</p> + +<p><i>Memory</i>—Oh, I can tell you; he has five porters who bring him all he +ever gets, and they, with us, are all Atheists. But one or another of +these must have brought him the idea.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Will you ask them which one gave it to your brother +Perception?</p> + +<p><i>Memory</i>—You, for some reason, are very particular. I will, however, to +gratify you, call them, or at least some of them. Brother Eye, Christian +wishes to know if you gave the idea of a God to Mr. Perception?</p> + +<p><i>Eye</i>—<i>What a foolish question!</i> You, an Atheist, ask me, another +Atheist, if I have ever seen a living God where there is none to look +at—you have let Christian lead you out until he has almost drawn from +you the proof that David told the truth about us when he called all +Atheists fools. I have seen all visible things, but <i>nothing</i> is too +small a mark for me to discover!</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Mr. Eye, don't be in a hurry; just let me ask, do Free +Thinkers get scared and refuse to think?</p> + +<p><i>Eye</i>—I will leave you now, and tell the other porters what a fix your +philosophy has led us into.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Good-bye; I will call one month hence and hear your +conclusion.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="DO_WE_NEED_THE_BIBLE" id="DO_WE_NEED_THE_BIBLE"></a>DO WE NEED THE BIBLE?</h2> + + +<p>The only creed consistent with the rejection of the Gospel of Christ is +an eternal tomb, with the heart-shivering inscription, "Death is an +eternal sleep." Americans who reject the Scriptures are as uncertain +about the future as the poor heathen of other lands. Some of our +unbelievers have gathered the information from heathen oracles that the +future consists in being a poor, empty, shivering, table-rapping spirit, +flying to and fro over the country in response to the sigh of some silly +waiting-girl, or at the bidding of some brazen-faced, unscrupulous "free +lover." And this, "O, ye gods!" is all that ever shall be of the noblest +spirits that ever left human flesh! Others, to gain rest from this +horrible and unsatisfying fate, fly to the theory of everlasting +silence, as a result of the idea that mind is simply brain action, and +ceases to exist when the brain ceases to act. Their appropriate motto +is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." It has been said that +even this brute philosophy is reasonable compared with the dogma of a +large portion of unbelievers, to wit., that blasphemers, thieves, +profane swearers, murderers and adulterers, will all go straight to +heaven when they die; that men with their hearts steeped in blood will +sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of God. But +Spiritualists, Pantheists, Atheists, and Deists inform us that an +external revelation is useless. Their common exposition of the sentiment +is too well known to need comment. We hear them saying, "You need say +nothing about the Bible to me; I know my duty well enough without it; +and as for miracles, they will never prove anything to me. Can thunder, +repeated daily through centuries, make God's laws and his wisdom and +goodness more God-like? No! I am grown, perchance, to manhood, and do +not need the thunder and terror. I am not to be scared. It is not +<i>fear</i>, but <i>reverence</i>, that shall lead me! <i>Revelation!</i> Inspiration! +And thy own God-like spirit; is not that a revelation?" See Carlyle's +"Past and Present," page 307.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p><p>Now, if Mr. Carlyle was in no need of the fear of God, somebody else +may be in a different mental and moral condition. There is nothing in +which men differ more. If one man is above the weakness of fearing God +(?) all men are not. Say what we may of fear, it is nevertheless true +that we are greatly influenced by fear. We are greatly indebted to the +fear of sickness for health, to the fear of poverty for wealth, and to +the fear of death for life. Fear is to caution what knowledge is to a +wise choice. Where there is no fear there is no caution. The love of +life and bliss is natural, therefore we fear sickness, poverty and +death. Why say with your lips, "I am above fear," while away down in +your heart you know it to be a lie?</p> + +<p>Love and fear, like the Siamese twins, live and perish together. Do we +not <i>need</i> "revelation?" Where is the shadow, and where is the sunshine? +May we not contrast them? The very wisest of heathen legislators +approved of vice in some of its most heinous forms. The Carthaginian law +required human sacrifices. When Agathoclas besieged Carthage two hundred +children of the most noted families were put to death by command of the +Senate, and three hundred citizens sacrificed themselves to Saturn. See +Diodorus Siculus, b. 20, ch. 14. The laws of Sparta required theft and +the death of unhealthy children. The laws of Rome allowed parents to +kill their child, if they pleased to do it. At the headquarters of +heathen literature it was recommended that maimed infants should be +killed or exposed to death. Aristotle's Political Library, 7, chapter +17. In Plato's Republic we discover an advance of society, but a +community of wives continues, and what was termed woman's rights was +maintained upon the condition that the women were trained to war. In war +times the children were led out to look upon the struggle, and become +accustomed and hardened to blood. The teachings of the best minds were +immoral. "He may lie," says Plato, "who knows how to do it." Profane +swearing was enjoined by the example of their best writers. Oaths are of +common occurrence in the writings of Seneca and Plato. Aristippus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +taught that adultery and theft were commendable in a wise man, and +Cicero plead for the last dreadful tragedy—<i>suicide</i>. Such immoralities +are eulogised in the writings of Virgil, Horace and Ovid. When Rome was +in her glory and greatness, Trajan had ten thousand men to hew each +other to pieces to amuse the Romans. In the face of all these facts, +modern Spiritualists advance along with Deists, Atheists and Pantheists, +and gravely inform us that we have no need of any external +revelation—that men are wise enough without it.</p> + +<p>They argue, that as we have physical senses to take hold of earth's +material blessings and appropriate them; so we have intellectual +faculties to take hold of all else that is necessary to supply our +mental and moral wants. It is most certainly true that we have physical +senses and intellectual faculties. I can not tell how it is with all the +infidels of our country, but I do know persons having physical senses +who are in great need of some of the substantials of life. I have also +known persons who have destroyed their physical senses to such an extent +as to be miserable objects of pity and compassion, needing some external +help as well an internal. Now, if, in spite of physical senses, men and +women do starve in this world on account of want, it is certainly +allowable that persons may fail of the enjoyment of needed mental and +moral culture in spite of intellectual faculties. And if it is a matter +of charity for men to put forth their hands and assist their fellow men +when they are in want of material blessings, surely it is a matter of +love, the love of God, to present to weary, burthened souls mental and +spiritual blessings which correlate with man's spiritual wants. Do you +deny the existence of such wants?</p> + +<p>Tyndal said there is a place in man's soul-nature for religion. This +fact is acknowledged by all leading writers in unbelief. He who calls it +in question experiences the fact. Why say it is not true against the +testimony of your own conscience?</p> + +<p>"Tell me," said a rich Hindoo who had given all his wealth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> to the +Brahmans surrounding his dying bed that they might obtain pardon for his +sins, "tell me what will become of my soul when I die?" "Your soul will +go into the body of a holy cow." "And after that?" "It will pass into +the body of a divine peacock." "And after that?" "It will pass into a +flower." "Tell me, oh! tell me," cried the dying man, "where will it go +last of all?" "Where will it go last of all? Aye, that is the question +reason can not answer," said the poor Brahmans.</p> + +<p>Where there is no vision the people perish. "Life and immortality was +brought to light through the Gospel." Without a revelation from God, men +know neither how to live or die. Our ancestors trusted to the powers of +magic, to incantations, for health, for success in tilling the ground, +for finding lost articles, for preventing accidents, etc. They +superstitiously regarded certain days of the week. If an infant was born +upon a certain day it would live; if upon another it would live, but be +sickly.</p> + +<p>Do you unceremoniously reject the Gospel of the Christ? "Yes," you say, +"if it depends on Jesus it is not eternally true, and therefore is not +true at all." But, I ask in all candor, is eternally true and +sufficiently revealed <i>one</i> and the <i>same</i>? Are we under no obligations +to the man who first informed us of vaccination as a preventive of +small-pox, simply because it would always have prevented it? Are we +under no obligations to men on account of scientific discoveries, just +because the truths discovered are eternal truths? <i>Nonsense!</i> You know +it is nonsense. Then we may be under lasting obligations to the Christ +for the revelation of the Gospel, with its sublime precepts and +principles, consolations and promises, which fill up the human spirit +with undying love and the hope of eternal glory.</p> + +<p>Let parents look well to this question. Let infidels set themselves to +work and get up some law of man capable of regenerating the hearts of +those men who, at their bidding, renounce the law of God and his +authority, and also with it all human authority. Will they do it? Can +they do it? Oh!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> There are no means outside of the sanctions of religion +by which the heart may be reached and purified from the love and +practice of sin.</p> + +<p>What right, says the Pantheist, the Atheist, the Deist, and +Spiritualist, have you to command me?</p> + +<p>The rejectors of the Bible made an experiment, an attempt, in trying to +govern France without religion. Shall the scenes of Paris and Lyons be +repeated, re-enacted in our own beloved America? No, we don't want it, +and we do not think we shall experience it, for the framers of our +Declaration of Independence laid the rights of God in the bed-rock of +our republic, believing that the rights of God are the basis of human +rights. "All men are born free and equal, and are endowed by their +<span class="smcap">Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which is life, liberty +and the pursuit of happiness, etc.</span>"</p> + +<p>Nations destitute of the Bible ever were, and are, ignorant and wicked. +There are peoples in the world decently clad, well fed, and living in +comfortable mansions, with well tilled lands, who make powerful streams +turn powerful wheels and run great machinery; who yoke the iron horse to +the market train and drive their floating palaces against the floods; +who erect churches in every village, and make their children more +learned than the priests of Egypt, or the philosophers of Greece; even +many of their criminals are more decent and upright than were the sages, +philosophers and heroes of lands destitute of the Bible. These peoples +have that wonderful book; and they claim that it contains a revelation +from God to man; and that it teaches us how to live, and how to die.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Every tree is known by its own fruits.</span>"</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">The</span> fool hath said in his heart there is no God." He claims, however, +that something without life or intelligence produced organic nature. +That <span class="smcap">blind, dead, something is the fool's God.</span></p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_WAY_INFIDELS_TREAT_THE_LANGUAGE_OF_THE_BIBLE" id="THE_WAY_INFIDELS_TREAT_THE_LANGUAGE_OF_THE_BIBLE"></a>THE WAY INFIDELS TREAT THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE.</h2> + + +<p>The unreasonableness and unfairness of infidels, or otherwise their +ignorance, is manifested in their unwillingness to interpret the +literature of religion as they do the language of the sciences. In +scientific literature we speak of the earth as a sphere, and infidels +never think of objecting that it is "pitted with hollows deep as ocean's +bottom," and "crusted with protuberances high as the Himalaya," in every +imaginable form. "There is not an acre of absolutely level ground" known +on the face of the earth, and yet when we speak of land, saying it is +level, no infidel demurs. The waters pile themselves in waves and dash +in breakers, yet we say, "Level as the ocean," and none object.</p> + +<p>The smallest formations present the same regular irregularities of form. +Crystals approach the nearest to mathematical figures, but they break +with compound irregular fractures at their bases of attachment. Nature +gives no perfect mathematical figures; they only approximate +mathematical perfection. Infidels do not trouble themselves with science +on this account. "The utter absence of any regularity or assimilation to +the spheroidal figure, either in meridianal, equatorial or parallel +lines, mountain ranges, sea beaches or courses of rivers, is fatal to +mathematical accuracy in the more extended measurements. It is only by +taking the mean of a great many measurements that an approximate +accuracy can be obtained. Where this is not possible, as in the +measurement of high mountains, the truth remains undetermined by +hundreds of feet; or as in the case of the earth's spheroidal axis, +Bessel's measurement differs from Newton's by fully eleven miles." See +Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. 1, p. 7, 156. "The smaller measures are +proportionally inaccurate." All these irregularities and imperfections +in science are overlooked, considered not in the least objections to the +use of language which would, upon the most rigid application, cut them +out as fables on the one hand or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> destroy science upon the other; but no +sensible man thinks of either as a matter allowable.</p> + +<p>On the other side, Infidels are "eternally" mouthing about +irregularities in the lives of the ancient men of the Bible, which are +exceptions to the general rule, just as though religious persons could +live lives of absolute perfection. The language, also, of the Bible, +which, like the language of science, takes no notice of irregularities +that must be expected in the lives of the very best men upon the earth, +is by them abused. For instance, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is +perfect," is construed to mean that God is a man God, clothed with human +imperfections, or, otherwise, man is imperatively required to be +absolutely perfect. All such abuse of language is contemptible. Many +other examples might be adduced—such as the irregularities in the words +employed by the witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, which do not +affect the evidence of the fact to be established in the least degree, +and which are just such irregularities as are witnessed in evidence +given in court rooms almost daily, and passed without so much as being +noticed. For example, one witness says Mary Magdalene "came very early +to the sepulchre," and another says she came "about sunrise." If all +Christians were to treat the literature of science, and science itself, +as these would-be wise Infidels treat the literature of religion, and +religion itself, it would be surprising to run over the absurdities as +well as irregularities of scientific history. There are irregularities +in nature, and their name is legion; they all belong to that wonderfully +boasted harmony of nature so much talked of in our day. As for the +mistakes made in religion since the days of the apostles of the Christ, +they are many; but what have they to do with the <i>genuine</i>?</p> + +<p>How many mistakes have scientists made in the same period of time? I +shall not try to ape the infidel, but I must be permitted to call +attention to a few of the many scientific blunders.</p> + +<p>Perhaps the greatest blunder of the present day, upon the part of +scientists, is their attempt to bring into disrepute the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> cosmogony +given in the Bible by a scientific cosmogony, which leaves off as +"unknown" the only active world-forming force. They arrogantly assume to +be acquainted with the entire history of our planet from the atoms to +the globe. Yet they acknowledge that the "force which was and is in +operation was and is unknown; that unknown force had its influence in +framing the world," and its omission is always fatal to the theory which +knows nothing about it or neglects it. There are laws also far-reaching, +whose omission must be equally fatal.</p> + +<p>Infidels, being sensible of this truth, have endeavored to simplify +matters to the level of our ignorance, by reducing all primordial +elements to one, or at most two, simple elements, and all forces to the +form of one universal and irrational law; but the progress of science +utterly blasts the effort. No scientific man now dreams of one +primordial element. Chemistry reveals a great many different elements, +which can not be reduced or changed from their simple forms, much less +identified as one and the self-same "substance." The idea of "one +substance" <i>only</i> is a very great error, which grew out of an abuse of +language in confounding the two words, matter and substance. The latter +word is equally applicable to <i>matter</i>, or <i>spirit</i>, but the former +always contrasts with spirit; so to confound the two is to ignore a +distinction upon which everything depends in any, except the +materialistic, philosophy. When the term substance is used in the +currency of the term matter it admits of the plural form as well as the +singular. Indeed, all the primordial elements known in chemistry are +known as so many different substances. It is unscientific and absurd to +confound all these elements by claiming the one-substance theory. It has +been called "the hog philosophy," on account of its swallowing down so +many <i>different</i> substances in the single form of the word.</p> + +<p>"Eighty theories, hostile to Christianity, developed in the course of +forty or fifty years, were brought before the Institute of France in +1806, all of which are repudiated"—dead. It is useless to go further +into details. Science has been as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> much abused as religion. What benefit +would accrue to the human family from an effort upon our part to bring +to the foreground all the blunders made in scientific researches which +are to-day numbered with the old effete errors in religion? And where is +the propriety of infidels making a set of asses of themselves by playing +upon the little irregularities of language and character in religion, as +they <i>themselves</i> allow no man to do in science and morality.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Equal handed justice" to all, is our motto.</span></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="GEOLOGY_IN_ITS_STRUGGLES_AND_GROWTH_AS_A_SCIENCE" id="GEOLOGY_IN_ITS_STRUGGLES_AND_GROWTH_AS_A_SCIENCE"></a>GEOLOGY IN ITS STRUGGLES AND GROWTH AS A SCIENCE.</h2> + + +<p>The science of Geology in its early history is like all other sciences, +an infant. It was not a Hercules at its birth. On the contrary, it was +childlike and rather crooked in many of its ways; but chastisement and +criticism have brought it very far toward real manhood. Its early nurses +were standing continually on the dark line separating the comprehensible +from the incomprehensible, without any guides. They were out upon an +unexplored sea in the mere twilight of the morning. They were opposed at +every step by the combative tendencies of human nature, which are ever +seeking too much for their own gratification to admit any strange, +startling propositions as intruders among old and long cherished ideas. +In its history it appears before us, first as an enemy to religion, and +then as an unobjectionable science, a neutral. But since the publication +of "The Footprints of the Creator," by the lamented Hugh Miller, it +appears in front as a fast friend and abettor. And now, since it has +approached so near to its manhood, we do not see how we did without its +aid so long. Its first grand position touching the immense masses of the +rock formations as results of second causes, in operation away back +yonder before organic life appeared upon our planet, was looked upon by +intelligent Biblical scholars of those times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> with suspicion, as a +system at variance with the records of the Bible. This, along with +difference of sentiment among its friends, has been the means of a very +rapid growth towards perfection. Curiosity was aroused and observations +multiplied, errors corrected and the untenable removed, until the +science now stands before us with its bases settled in unquestionable +facts. Let us all learn from this circumstance the bearings of the times +in which we live, for a double process of elimination is now going on +under the providence of God, by means of which both Christianity and +science will have more beauty and strength of manhood to command the +respect of our children.</p> + +<p>Geology is exercising a wonderful influence on the side of religion in +the minds of those who are acquainted with its facts. In the hands of +Miller it gives a very decisive answer against the evolution hypothesis, +which is by no means a new speculation. It was, in its general form, a +very prominent doctrine of the Epicurean philosophy. "The author of the +'Vestiges,' with Professor Oken, regarded the experiment of the +formation of cells in albumen by electric currents as the leading fact +of the system." They claimed that currents of electricity in the earth's +surface generated and vitalized the cells, and that all organic life +thus originated. There is nothing to save this speculation, when it is +undressed, from contempt. "The only patronage it ever received grew out +of the fact that there is a species of superstition which causes people +to take upon credit whatever assumes the name of science, and is opposed +to the old superstition of faith in witches and ghosts." With this +speculation before us, seemingly plausible, yet false, being fraught +with error, we are reminded of the fact that it has been eagerly +embraced by many who seem to think that it has a firm foundation in the +science of Geology, which they regard as presenting the order in which +created beings appeared. The author of the "Vestiges" claims that the +first step in the creation of life upon our earth was a +<i>chemico-electric</i> operation, forming simple germinal vesicles. Page +155.</p> + +<p>This is an item wholly unknown in the geological record<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> and lies before +the beginning of any kind of similitude alluded to in this article. "The +idea which I form of the progress of organic life upon our earth," says +the author of the Vestiges, "is that the simplest and most primitive +type gave birth to the type next above it, and this again produced the +next higher, and so on to the very highest." Page 170.</p> + +<p>On account of the mere similitude existing between the doctrine of +progressive creation, as it is set forth in the geological record, and +the idea of progressive evolutions, as claimed by the advocates of the +speculation, we deem it our duty to scrutinize severely the teachings of +geology. But in doing this we do not concede that there is no other +ground upon which such authors may be successfully met. There is no one +point in their system which is not hypothetical. It is a system of +<i>ifs</i>. There is no proof, in any single instance, that a higher has been +developed from a lower species; but the question, in proper shape, is +this: Has there been a succession of improvements from one geological +period to another in the several divisions of the animal and vegetable +kingdoms amounting to a change of species? Species are very similar in +structure and capable of some improvement, but this is no evidence of +the higher being developed from the lower. It is well known that the +lowest forms are those found lowest in the geological series. Commencing +at the bottom and running up we find, first, mollusks, then fishes, +reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, monkeys, and at last man. But this does +not, by any means, settle the issue. The question naturally arises +whether one of those divisions, on its first appearance, was of the +lowest organization of its class and reached the highest by a gradual +development through successive geological periods. The geological +testimony is this: First, there were no animals having any structural +resemblance to the fishes prior to their creation, and when they appear +they are already in possession of the highest organization and the +largest cerebral development.</p> + +<p>During the long periods of geological history there has been no advance +in this class of animals. The science testifies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> to no successive steps +here. "They stood at the head of the icthyic division at the outset; but +there has been, during these periods, a progressive <i>degeneracy</i>, so +that though all possessed a high organization at first, there is found +in the after creations a <i>succession of lapses</i> until the division of +fishes now contains species ranking little above the earth-worm." "A +single well defined placoid fossil in the Bala limestone as fully proves +the existence of placoid fishes, during the period of its deposition, as +if the rock were made up of placoid fossils, for it is not a question of +numbers, but of rank." The question, now, comes home to us with all its +force, how did fishes of this high order come to exist before any of the +inferior class? Let some of our evolution savans answer.</p> + +<p>The same thing may be said of other organic divisions. It has gone to +record that the shell-fish of the Silurian system are the lowest +division of the molluscous animals. While the statement is received as +true, it must be remembered that there is some diversity of structure in +this lower division, and that the earliest molluscs are not the lowest, +but the highest in the division. The most important point, however, is, +that while Brachiopoda were most abundant, the highest molluscs existed +also, their remains being found in the Bala limestone, which is the +lowest bed of molluscous fossils. (See Silurian System, p. 308.) The +number of these higher species is not important. They existed, few or +many, as early as any other of the mollusca. If the lower had not an +anterior existence, the higher were not developed from them. It is also +a conclusive argument against the system, that while the intermediate +mollusca are very numerous, the cephalopoda, which were so early +introduced, and are the higher forms that were so numerous at certain +times, are now narrowed down to a few species.</p> + +<p>Lyell was the first to drop a word of caution against "inferring too +hastily from the absence of mammalian fossils in the older rocks that +the higher class of vertebrata did not exist in those remote times." +"The remains of vertebrate animals are already found in the lowest +fossiliferous rocks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> and, in addition to that, the highest forms of +each class appear first."</p> + +<p>There is nothing so well evinced in all the realms of scientific +investigation as the utter impossibility of getting, by the light of +nature, away from the idea of the Christian's God. <i>Everywhere</i> we trace +his footsteps. Traveling through the ages to the beginning, in thought, +our first view is that of "an unlimited expanse of unoccupied space," +or, if aught exists, it lies hidden in the invisible state. But all at +once, as if by magic, and in obedience to the will of the Eternal +Intelligence, the invisible becomes visible, worlds exist and become +obedient to law. The divine perfections are to be displayed through +future ages. And now, if we look out upon the surging billows of the +ocean, our mind swells with the thought that God is there in all his +majesty. With our thoughts confined to our earth we pass from age to age +tracing the divine power from the laws of motion to chemical action and +crystallization, until we behold a wonderful change upon the face of +nature. And now, for the first time, a new principle is manifested, a +new order springs into being—it is vegetable life and being in all its +lovely grandeur. It matters not to us whether it came about gradually or +all at once, for wisdom is there. All nature seems to turn to this new +principle. "The elements of the inorganic world are subserving the +purposes of organic life." The Creator has bound them to organic life. +Every plant selects its food from the elements of earth by a chemistry +of its own. The atmosphere around us is no less to the vegetable kingdom +than a great pasture field. Every leaf is feasting, and every fiber is +touched by the light. What wonderful correlations meet us at every turn! +What adaptation of means to ends! Above all the beauty and grandeur of +the vegetable kingdom we find the glorious animal, with man at the head, +as lord over all below him. With man the moral government of God begins; +physical creation is over. The subsequent manifestations of the divine +glory are to be realized in the training and discipline of men and women +as moral beings; and their mutual association with him, in the eternal +world, is the ultimate.</p> + +<p class="right"> +C. R.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PANTHEISM_IS_DECEPTION_AND_HYPOCRISY" id="PANTHEISM_IS_DECEPTION_AND_HYPOCRISY"></a>PANTHEISM IS DECEPTION AND HYPOCRISY.</h2> + + +<p>"Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be +wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the +eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall he be not +correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?"—Psalm +xciv, 8, 9.</p> + +<p>Pantheism, personified, is a hypocrite, a deceiver. The name God, as a +proper name in the English language, means the Divine Being, Jehovah, +the Eternal and Infinite Spirit, the Creator and Lord of the universe. +Pantheists say they believe in God, but they tell you, when pressed, +they mean by that name "everything"—<i>God is everything.</i> The term +"Pantheist" is from <i>pan</i>, all, and <i>theos</i>, God. Webster defines the +term thus: "One that believes the universe to be God; a name given to +the followers of Spinoza."</p> + +<p>Has any man the right to pervert language, fixing new meanings to words +in common use which are in direct opposition to established usage? The +man who knows the meaning of a word and uses it in a contrary sense is +guilty of an abuse of language; and if he fails to make known the fact +that he is using the term in a sense differing from established usage, +he is, then, a deceiver. Pantheists are simply Atheists in disguise, the +only difference being in their professions. The Pantheist says, "I +believe in a God;" but this saying is only a distinction without a +difference. The atheist is the frank, outspoken man of the two.</p> + +<p>What must we think of the man who says, "I believe in God," and then +explains himself to mean, by the name God, heat, steam, electricity, +force, animal life, the soul of man, magnetism, mesmeric force, and, in +one word, the sum of all the intelligences and forces in the universe, +at the same time denying the proper currency of the term God by denying +the existence of a personal God. All Christians should demand that +Christian terms be used in their own proper currency.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> But infidels will +always do as they have hitherto, will often get out of their own "ruts," +by the most perfect abuse of language. They can not, it seems, leave off +the use of language which is only appropriate to the Christian idea. +Their divinity, by their own confession, differs essentially from God, +and let them use a different word to describe it. Let them do like their +heathen brethren in India, call it Brahma, or whatever else they please, +and cease "stealing Heaven's livery to serve the devil." Let them cease +to profane religion and offend common sense by giving the name of the +glorious Father of Spirits to their million-headed nondescript. +Pantheism dethrones Jehovah and places no other intelligence in his +place as Creator and Ruler of the universe; and, being conscious of the +odium that necessarily attaches itself to Atheism, on account of its +everlasting foolishness, they steal the name of God to cloak their +Atheism.</p> + +<p><i>Pantheism is demoralizing.</i> It cuts a man loose from all the sanctions +of moral law, by denying the resurrection, the judgment and the future +retribution. It annihilates from the mind of its votary the idea of +God's moral government. If man, as it avows, be the highest intelligence +in the universe of worlds, to whom will he render an account? Who will +call upon him to answer? If men and women are simply developments of +God, will God be offended with himself? "Evil is good," we are told, "in +another way, we are not skilled in." See the author of "Representative +Men," Festus, page 48. "Evil" was held by some of the old heathen +philosophers to be "good in the making." They argued that it was the +carrion in the sunshine, converting into grass and flower. And then, to +apply their figure, man in the brothel, jail, or on gibbets, is in the +way to all that is lovely and true. Such reminds us of the ravings of +lunatics. It is the climax of profanation of the moral government of +God. Let those who fear no God, but have wives and children and property +to lose, reflect upon the propriety of lending their influence to a +system fraught with such consequences. The system positively denies the +distinction between good and evil. It declares<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> that we can not sin; +that we are God, and God can not offend against himself; that sin is all +simply an old lie; that impiety, immorality and vice of frightful mien +are wedded in eternal decrees, and that man can not sever them.</p> + +<p><i>Pantheism is veiled Atheism.</i> It is not necessary to argue this +proposition at length. Pantheists often speak of the great being, which, +according to Pantheism, is composed of all the intelligences of the +universe. Can any man conceive of such a being? Can intelligences be +piled one upon another, like brick and mortar, and thus be compounded? +And if my spirit be the highest intelligence in the universe, did it +create itself? Does it govern itself? Did it create the universe? Does +it govern it? Some Pantheists have gone to this length! M. Comte says: +"At this present time, for minds properly familiarized with true +astronomical philosophy, the heavens display no other glory than that of +Hipparchus, or Kepler, or Newton, and of all who have helped to +establish these laws." "Establish these laws!" They were laws governing +the planets thousands of years before these astronomers were born.</p> + +<p>Pantheists often express very high respect for the Christian religion. +Some of the more vulgar sort, however, speak of it as a superstition. +But the wiser ones have reached the perfection of Jesuitism, that is to +say, they indulge in hypocrisy and deception to effect a purpose. They +grant that the Christian religion is the highest development of humanity +yet attained by a majority of the race. The heathen of every grade of +character, and the Christian, with all others who may not be classified +by us with either, are all, in their scheme, so many successive +developments of humanity. It is a trick of their trade to clothe their +abominations in Bible language by wresting the Scriptures. They speak of +the "beauty of holiness in the mind, that surmounted every idea of a +personal God;" and of "God dwelling in us, and his love perfected in +us," when they maintain that he dwells in every creature and thing. They +say they can accept the Bible—that is their phrase—notwithstanding it +pronounces death upon the fools who, "professing to be wise, change the +truth of God into a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> lie, and worship and serve the creature more than +the Creator," as a mystic revelation of the Pantheism which leaves us to +"erect everything into a God," provided it is none, inasmuch as "every +product of the human mind is a development of Deity." So the Bible, in +the conclusion of their system, is on a level with Thomas Paine's +writings as respects inspiration and origin. The great Pantheistic +divinity is spoken of by Pantheists as the great soul of the universe, +while the more materialistic look upon it as the universe itself, body +and soul. With them the soul is the fountain of all the imponderable +forces, vegetable and animal life, the mesmeric influences, galvanism, +magnetism, electricity, light and heat; and the body the sum of all the +ponderable substances; in one word, "God is everything, and everything +is God." This system is called "Monotheistic Pantheism." It is a vast +generalization of everything into a higher unity, which exalts men and +paving stones, and cats, dogs and reptiles, and monkeys, to the same +level of God-head, or divinity. Man, the soul of men, as the system +would term it, is the greatest manifestation of the divine essence. Yes! +<span class="caps">DIVINE ESSENCE!</span> for, with Pantheists, there is no <i>personal</i> hereafter. +This system of Pantheism is an old, worn-out theory; it has putrefied +and rotted with the worshippers of cats, monkeys, and holy cows and +bulls, and pieces of sticks and stones on the Ganges more than two +thousand years ago. It is now dragged up from the dung-hill and +presented as a new discovery of modern philosophy, sufficient to +supplant the Ruler of the universe. How strange it is that men of +ordinary intelligence will embrace the idea, rather than submit to the +dictates of conscience and the Bible! This world of ours is not an +abstraction in philosophy that consists of one simple substance called +matter, nor yet of one substance, for there are many different material +substances, such as oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, aluminum and +iron, and more than fifty others already discovered.</p> + +<p>Now, let us suppose that all these elements or substances existed as a +cloud of atoms millions of ages in the past; are we, then, any nearer +the solution of the great problem of world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> making than we were before? +The atoms must be material, for a material world is to be made of them; +and they must have extension; each one of them must have length, breadth +and thickness; and, as inertia is a property of each and every atom, the +Pantheist has only multiplied the difficulty by millions, for matter can +not begin, <i>of itself</i>, to move. Did the dead atoms dance about and +jumble themselves together as we now find them? Is the one substance +theory correct? Monotheistic Pantheism <i>is scientifically false in +fact</i>. Some of these men who tell us of a world without an intelligence +in the past, who have such implicit confidence in the powers of matter, +tell us, that "millions of ages" in the past the world existed as a +great cloud of fire mist, which, after a long time cooled down into +granite; and this, by dint of earthquakes, broke up on the surface, and +washed with rain until, after ages upon ages had passed, clays and soil +were formed, from which plants, of their own accord, sprang up without a +germ; in other words, germs came into being spontaneously and grew up, +as we see them, developed in all their grandeur. This chance life, +somehow, chanced to assume animal form and fashion until, in the +multitude of its changes it reached the fashion of the monkey; and then, +at last, the fashion of man, both male and female. Truly, the Atheists +and Pantheists of our country need not complain of any want of power to +believe while such is their basis of faith upon the subject of world +making. But they, to avoid the difficulty that nothing made something, +tell us "the fire mist was eternal," that it did not make itself. Very +well, let us have it that way; then we must be allowed to ask, how an +eternal red hot mist cooled off? And also what there was to cool it, +when it was all there was, and it was red hot, and always had been? In +other words, how could an eternal red hot cool down without something +else in existence to cool it? Why should it cool at all? And why did it +begin to cool just when it did? The utmost that any scientist can do is +to show that such a change took place, but he can not tell you why it +took place. Change <i>it did</i>! But change is an effect, and requires a +cause. And,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> according to their theory, there could be no cause outside +of the fire mist; for they say there was nothing else in the universe. +Then the cause was inside of the fire mist. But how can red hot cool +when all there is, is red hot? Had this first mist, to say nothing of +organic life, a mind? Did it become sensible and resolve to cool off a +little, and settle itself into orderly worlds? What became of its mind? +Did it divide, and a part go to each planet? Has each planet a great +"soul of the world," as well as our earth? If so, had we not as well +build an altar to each planet and go back to the religion of our +banana-fed ancestors, who burned their children alive in sun worship?</p> + +<p>The Christian religion is so fearfully demoralizing (?) that it is a +great pity that these Godless, Christless souls called Pantheists and +Atheists can't get some solution of the great problem of world-making +that would dispense with the Bible. How well they could get along +if—if—if—they only had this great question settled.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">In God we trust.</span>"</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="SUBSTANCE_OR_SUBSTANCES_WHICH" id="SUBSTANCE_OR_SUBSTANCES_WHICH"></a>SUBSTANCE OR SUBSTANCES—WHICH?</h2> + +<h4>OR,</h4> + +<h3><a name="THE_ORIGIN_OF_LIFE_AND_MIND" id="THE_ORIGIN_OF_LIFE_AND_MIND"></a>THE ORIGIN OF LIFE AND MIND.</h3> + + +<p>"<i>Substance</i> is that which is and abides;" "that which subsists of or by +itself; that which lies under qualities; that which truly is—or +<i>essence</i>." "It is opposed to <i>accident</i>." "In its logical and +metaphysical sense it is that nature of a thing which may be conceived +to remain when every other nature is removed or abstracted from it; the +ultimate point in analyzing the complex idea of any object. <i>Accident</i> +denotes all those ideas which the analysis excludes as not belonging to +the mere being or nature of the object." It is said that our first idea +of <i>substance</i> is, possibly, derived from the consciousness of self, the +conviction that, while our sensations, thought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> and purposes are +changing, we continue the same. "We see bodies also remaining the same +as to quantity or extension, while their color and figure, their state +of motion or rest may be changed." It has also been said that +<i>substances</i> are either primary, that is singular, individual +<i>substances</i>; or secondary, that is genera, and species of <i>substance</i>.</p> + +<p>Substances have been divided into complete and incomplete, finite and +infinite. But it is to be remembered that these are merely divisions of +being. Substance is properly divided into matter and spirit, or that +which is extended and that which thinks.</p> + +<p>"The foundation principle of substance is that law of the human mind by +which every quality or mode of being is referred to a substance," or the +consciousness of a cause for every effect. "In everything which we +perceive or can imagine as existing, we distinguish two parts, qualities +variable and multiplied; and a being one and identical; and these two +are so united in thought that we can not separate them in our +intelligence, nor think of qualities without a <i>substance</i>." So it is a +self-evident or first truth, that there is a subjective or inner man +which thinks, reflects and reasons, for memory recalls to us the many +modes of our mind; its many qualities and conditions. What variety of +mental conditions have we not experienced? These are all so many +evidences of an internal <i>substance</i> that we call spirit. That spirit is +to be distinguished from thought as cause is from effect is evident; and +also from matter lying in the accident or quality of body, is certain, +from the fact of its being subject to such rapid and instantaneous +changes of condition. Amidst all the different modes, qualities, or +accidents of mind, we believe ourselves to be the same individual being; +and this conviction is the result of that law of thought which always +associates qualities with things.</p> + +<p>In the world around us phenomena, qualities or accidents are continually +changing, but we believe that these, all, are produced by causes which +<i>remain, as substances, the same</i>. And as we know ourselves to be the +causes of our own acts,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> and to be able to change, within a moment, the +modes of our own mind, so we believe the changes of matter, which take +place <i>more slowly</i>, to be produced by causes which belong to the +<i>substances of matter</i>. And underlying all causes, whether of the +qualities of matter or mind, we conceive of one absolute cause, one +substance, in itself persistent and upholding all things in nature. This +substance we are pleased to call spirit; and this spirit we call God. To +deny this is to strike down a grand law of thought, the foundation +principle of substance, and make the testimony of our own consciousness +<span class="caps">A LIE</span>! The inorganic forces, about which "unbelievers" have so much to +say are altogether operative in the realm of <i>substance</i>; that is to +say, they belong to the <i>invisible</i>. Organic and inorganic are the same +as visible and invisible. We know matter by its qualities, and we know +mind by its qualities. These two, in qualities or attributes, contrast +with each other like life and death. One is extenuated and the other +extended; one is invisible the other is visible. Of the existence of +these substances and their laws we have evidence in conscious knowledge, +in that we know that we have no control over the involuntary or +sympathetic nervous system, and have the most perfect control over the +voluntary nerves. The forces controlling are as different as these +qualities themselves. If man is simply a material organism, why this +contrast? We are told that <i>life itself</i> is a group of co-ordinated +functions. But what correllates that force?</p> + +<p>It is very common for the advocates of the evolution hypothesis to +measure the period between this and the origin of life by the phrase, +"Millions and millions of years." The only object that such writers have +in view in so doing is to bridge the gulf between the <i>assumed</i> origin +of life and mind and the evidence necessary to its establishment as a +fact in science. They tell us that "life is a property which certain +elements of matter exhibit when united in a special form under special +conditions." But when we ask them to give us those certain elements of +matter, they immediately inform us that "matter has about sixty-three +elements; that each element<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> has special properties, and that these +elements admit of an <i>infinite variety of combinations</i>, each +combination having peculiar properties." This, as a fort, is a stand +behind the dark, impenetrable curtain of an <i>infinite variety of +combinations</i>. It is just as dark and as destitute of proof as any +pope's assumed infallibility.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hæckel says: "As a matter of course, to the <i>infinite varieties</i> +presented by the organic forms and vital phenomena in the vegetable and +animal kingdoms, correspond an equally <i>infinite variety</i> of chemical +composition in the protoplasm. The most minute homogeneous constituents +of this life substance, the protoplasm molecules, must in their chemical +composition present an <i>infinite number</i> of extremely delicate +gradations and variations. According to the plastic theory recently +advanced (?) the great variety of vital phenomena is the consequence of +the <i>infinitely delicate</i> chemical difference in the composition of +protoplasm, the sole active life substance." What a multitude of +infinities. But then, an <i>infinite number</i>, and an <i>infinite variety</i> of +<i>infinitely delicate</i> gradations and variations, with millions and +millions of years, do not remove further from sight life in its origin +than does the materialistic philosophy of one substance. They constitute +the <i>web</i> and <i>filling</i> of the <i>blanket of oblivion</i> used by +materialistic doctors to cover up their ignorance of life and its +origin. A half dozen "<span class="caps">INFINITIES</span>," and "<span class="caps">MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS</span>!" +What! should I care if my ancestors were "tadpoles," when they are <span class="caps">HID +AWAY IN THE CENTER OF INFINITIES</span>, and laid <i>away back yonder</i>, so far +off as "<span class="caps">MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS</span>?"</p> + +<p>When we ask our friends for the proof necessary to establish this +speculation as a fact among facts, they find it very convenient to +betake themselves to <i>infinities</i>, and <i>millions</i> and <i>millions of +years</i>.</p> + +<p>But we Christians do not ask them to give us an <i>infinite variety</i>, +etc., but to give us the "certain elements" of which "life is a +property," and the "special form in which these certain elements were +united," and the "special conditions" that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> existed when life first made +its appearance by spontaneous generation. When we do this we are +immediately carried away into the <i>infinities</i>. The result is that the +solution of the problem of the origin of life by spontaneous generation, +as a property of "certain elements of matter, united in a special form, +under special conditions," is buried forever out of sight. This same +definition of life is found on page 69 of a work entitled, "The System +of Nature," published by D. Holbach, a French Atheist, in 1774, in these +words: "Experience proves to us that the matter which we regard as inert +and dead assumes action, intelligence and life when it is combined in a +certain way."</p> + +<p>Voltaire answered: "This is precisely the difficulty. How does a germ +come to life? Is not this definition very easy—very common? Is not life +organization with feeling? But," says Voltaire, "that you have these two +properties from the motion of matter alone: it is impossible to give any +proof, and if it can not be proved why affirm it? Why say aloud, 'I +know,' while you say to yourself, 'I know not?'"</p> + +<p>Our Atheistic friends say: "The forms of life vary because of the +difference in their molecular construction, resulting from different +physical conditions to which the various forms have been subjected."</p> + +<p>Wonderful discovery! Does it explain the evidence of design which is +presented in pairing off male and female in the same form of life?</p> + +<p>Dr. Parvin is often referred to as "frankly admitting that the doctrine +of the evolution of species is accepted by three-fourths of the +scientific men," and that this doctrine has, in their minds, "rendered +nugatory the hypothesis of a vital immaterial principle as a causal +factor in the phenomena of life and mind." Allowing this statement its +full force, it is still true that none but Atheists can possibly be +included in the "three-fourths." So much the worse for them. But it is +an Atheistic trick to try to succeed by a misrepresentation of facts. +One of their number recently said, "It is now almost universally +believed by those who have investigated the subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> that life +originated from natural agencies without the aid of a creative +intelligence. Then those who have investigated the subject are almost +universally <i>Atheists</i>?"</p> + +<p>It is said that "vital activity, whether of body or mind, is a mode of +motion, the correllate of antecedent motion." But what correllated the +force? According to this logic life came from the antecedent motion; +that is, from the motion of dead atoms. But motion itself is the +manifestation of energy, and there must of necessity be something behind +it to which it belongs as an attribute. Do you say it was dead atoms, or +matter without life? Then dead atoms set dead atoms into motion and +produced life! Can you believe this? If you can, you need find no +trouble in believing in the most orthodox hell. Can you get more out of +a thing than there is in it? We don't think so. But we do think that +there is credulity enough, even blind credulity, in the advocates of +spontaneous generation to enable them to believe anything they may +happen to wish true. We are told that "life in its higher forms is not +an immaterial entity, <i>nor the result</i> of a special form of <i>force +termed vital</i>, but, that it is a group of co-ordinated functions." Then +what correllated the force? If it was not vitality what was it? But this +is just equivalent to saying that life does not proceed from life. So, +in the realm of inertia or death, without a God and without life, some +kind of a mechanical operation among dead atoms took place which +produced "a certain chemico-physical constitution of amorphous +matter—on that albuminous substance called sarcode or protoplasm," +which evolved more than was involved, or brought organic life out of +dead inorganic matter. But life is simply a "mode," or "degree of +motion?" But we are curious to know just here whether the advocates of +this system of things do not believe that there always was a degree of +motion. Perchance they do, but then they certainly can't believe that +this particular degree or mode of motion which they called <i>life</i> was +eternal. So, then, a degree of motion is life, and a degree of motion is +not life. This thing of confounding life with motion I'm thinking leads +to difficulty. I can see how motion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> may be the result of life, but just +how it is <i>life itself</i> I can't see quite so well. Is cause and effect +the same?</p> + +<p>We have a most remarkable, and yet a natural, concession made in the way +in which men who feel the weakness of their cause generally make +concessions. It is a statement said to be made by Baron Liebig; it is +this: "Geological investigations have established the fact of a +beginning of life (?) upon the earth, which leaves no doubt that it can +only have arisen naturally and from inorganic forces, and <i>it is +perfectly indifferent whether or not we observe such a process now</i>." +This statement is untrue as respects geological facts. But the +concession is, that spontaneous generation is not to be an observed +fact. "Perfectly indifferent whether or not we observe such a process +now?" Well, it never was observed. Mr. Liebig's statement doubtless +proceeds from the conviction that the system is never to be established +by observation. It is simple imagination. Virchow says: "We can <i>only +imagine</i> that at certain periods of the development of the earth unusual +conditions existed, under which the elements entering into new +combinations acquired in statu nascente vital motions, so that the usual +mechanical conditions were transformed into vital conditions." In this +statement it is well for us to remember that it is not only simple +imagination, but also that vital motions were the cause, bringing about +vital conditions, that is to say, life, before life was, transformed +mechanical conditions into vital conditions. So, in this very singular +imaginary hypothesis touching the origin of life we have the usual +circle suicide of the system. "Vital motions transform mechanical +conditions into vital conditions," and vital conditions fill the world +with "vital motions," and life itself is only a degree "or mode of +motion." <i>Such</i> is their travel around the circle.</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Can</span> you believe that <i>vital motion</i> transformed mechanical conditions +into <i>vital conditions</i>, without <i>life</i> being the cause of those <i>vital +motions</i>?</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="DIFFICULTY_WITH_FIRE" id="DIFFICULTY_WITH_FIRE"></a>DIFFICULTY WITH FIRE.</h2> + + +<p>La Place, in his solution of how our planet was made, supposed that the +cooling, and consequently contracting rings of the fire cloud planet, +earth, did not break up into pieces, but retained their continuity; but, +in opposition to all experience and reason, he supposed that the cooling +rings kept contracting and widening out at the same time. According to +the nebular hypothesis—<i>or guess</i>—the fire mist was cooling and +shrinking up, while the rings of the same heat and material were cooling +<i>faster</i> and widening out from it: a piece of disorder equal to a +miracle, for it can not be duplicated among solids or fluids in heaven +or earth, or under the earth; for everything narrows down upon +cooling—<i>contracts</i>!</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Infidel's Offset.</span>—An unbeliever once said to a man who advocated +the doctrine of total depravity: "The ground for my rejection of all +responsibility for belief is the acknowledged necessitated nature of +belief. Show me," said he, "that it is not necessitated, and I am +answered. When you show me that it is controlled by a will, equally +necessitated, I am not answered. If a necessitated faculty or operation +can not be responsible, then neither will nor volition can be +responsible. You," said the infidel, "go through the whole circle of +mental faculties, and find necessity everywhere and responsibility +nowhere."</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Through</span> the kindness of Brother J. M. Mathes we are in possession of a +copy of the life of Brother Elijah Goodwin. It has the merit of being +mainly Brother Goodwin's own production. His many friends will regard it +as a grand "keepsake." It is neatly bound in cloth, contains 314 pages, +and is in beautiful type. Send $1.50 by postoffice order to Elder J. M. +Mathes, Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana, and receive a copy in return.</p> + +<hr /> +<div class="tn"><br /><br /> +<p class="center"><big><b>Transcriber’s Note</b></big></p> +<p class="noin">The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious +typographical errors have been corrected.</p> + +<p class="noin">A table of contents has been generated for the HTML edition.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Foundation, Or, +Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JULY 1880 *** + +***** This file should be named 28668-h.htm or 28668-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/6/28668/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Aaron Walker + +Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JULY 1880 *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + +Scientific and Religious Journal. + + VOL. I. JULY, 1880. NO. 7. + + + + +THE FOUNTAIN OF HAPPINESS. + + +The source and fullness of created good is the knowledge and enjoyment +of God. "Give what thou wilt, without thee we are poor; and with thee +rich, take what thou wilt away." The wicked are like a ship's crew at +sea, carried by the winds upon unknown waters, without peace or safety +until they can renew communications with the shore. A man alienated from +his God is without his proper relations, and separated from the fountain +of happiness, is like a child unconscious of his father--an orphan, +forced along, the sport of accident, with no hope for the future, but +darkness that may overshadow his pathway to the tomb. If we were at once +deprived of all knowledge of God where would we find hopes for support +in the gloomy hours of adversity? What sadness would reign over the +world! What black despair! O, what a chasm it would make to strike the +Infinite One out of existence! "The angels might retire in silence and +weep, or fly through infinite space seeking some token of the Father +they had lost. With unbounded grief and despair they might wing their +way farther and farther, with their harps all unstrung, and every song +silent, and the soul-harrowing words, 'We have no Father, no God, a +blind chance rules,' might be all that would break the awful silence of +heaven. Let the glorious words once more be heard, 'God reigns, he +lives, he reigns,' and what joy would fill the heavens and the earth." +The child of sorrow would lift up his head and say, "Our Father who art +in heaven." The heavenly songsters would string anew their harps, and +send the good news far and wide, "He lives, he reigns, God over all, +blessed forever." + +"We are not able to estimate the effect it would produce to blot the +knowledge of God from the universe. We can not appreciate the state of +that mind which labors under the impression that God is retiring. +Perhaps we have one momentary example of the sad gloom that takes +possession of the man under such circumstances. It is seen in the +Savior's dying words, 'My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?'" + +In our nature and condition there are two sources of misery--the mind, +or conscience, disturbed by sin, and the body affected by disease and +death. Sinful emotions cause disquietude, uneasiness, sorrow and misery, +bitterness, recrimination, reciprocated treachery, infuriated rage, +malignant and stormy passions; envy, jealousy, suspicion and unlawful +desires distract the mind and quench its joys. Who can be happy in such +a condition? Disquieted and corrupted affections cause the greater part +of the unhappiness or misery of the race. The angels of light could not +be happy in such a murky sea. Our great ancestors were doomed to toil in +a world of disappointment and sorrow for yielding to such a guide. Haman +occupied a high position at the court of Persia, yet he made himself +miserable because "Mordecai the Jew sat at the king's gate." And Ahab, +on the throne of Israel, "refused to eat bread" because he could not get +possession of the vineyard of Naboth. Men can not be happy with such +passions reigning in the mind, and yet they are found in almost every +bosom, unless it has been purified by the influence of the gospel of +Jesus the Christ. The great idols of this world are fame, pleasure and +wealth, and the love of these is the strong passion of the heart. But it +is the most prolific source of individual, social and public misfortune, +the most mischievous, contentious and demoralizing passion. The +ambitious, the voluptuous, the rich and the great are not necessarily +happy. Alexander wept upon the throne of the world because there was not +another world for him to conquer. + +In the midst of seminal pleasures and corrupt passions men are always +miserable. The influence of the Gospel of Christ is the only remedy for +such diseases. It saves men from aggravating selfishness and holds in +check their fierce passions until they are extinguished. Virtuous +affections are invariably the great sources of human happiness. They are +fountains of living waters, which purify the mind and make their +possessors happy. They are as rivers of water in a thirsty land. + +In the teachings of Christ we learn all that pertains to true happiness, +in what it consists and how to obtain it. There we are admonished of +mere worldly blessings, because the desire for them is generally so +intense that it becomes a source of corruption, and in our successes we +often forget our highest interests. The Savior left in the background +the commonly received notions of men touching the sources of true +happiness. He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," referring not to +those who are temporally poor. The wicked are poor as well as the +righteous. O, how dreadfully miserable are the wicked poor! a miserable +life here, followed by a miserable hereafter. Many poor persons are +haughty, ungodly, dishonest, profligate and unhappy. Neither does it +mean voluntary poverty, or to turn mendicant monks and friars. It means +the humble, those who are deeply sensible of their spiritual or mental +and moral wants; in other words, those who feel that there is a place in +their spiritual nature for the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. It is +opposed to self-righteousness. The poor in spirit come to God through +Christ, and, putting all their trust in him, submit to the divine will +under all the trying dispensations of his providence. + +The poor in spirit are always sensible of their need of salvation, but +the proud in spirit are "clean in their own eyes." Their goodness is +like the morning cloud and the early dew, yet they say, Stand by +thyself; I am holier than thou. "Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed +are the meek. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after +righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." +What a sublime rebuke to the spirit of this world! It is a grand +contrast to the uneasy desires of greedy covetousness; to the +disposition of the gay; to the degradation of the impure; to the +senseless pleasures of the ambitious, when new fires ignite their hopes +only to plunge them into deeper darkness. The Bible's happiest soul is +he who has most of its peculiar mind and character. Not on account of +earthly riches, for he may be one of the Lord's poor, who, like his +blessed Master, has "no place to lay his head." Not because he has +sought and obtained honor from men, but because he sought and "seeks the +honor which cometh from God only." Not because he has much of this +world, but because he is a Christian. He may not have the greatest +capacity, but he has a state of mind that prepares him to rightly +estimate and enjoy all that is worth enjoying. "To the upright there +ariseth light in the darkness." They are wisely guided, comforted and +encouraged in the most gloomy wilderness. They are not oppressed with +doubts; sorrow does not crush them. Darkness gives place to light, and +the seeming evil turns to good. They often sip honey from the most +bitter flowers. They yield not to fear, for they believe in God, and are +assured, by a thousand contrasts, that "all things work together for +good to those who love God." One of the never-failing sources of +happiness for which we are under obligations to Jesus the Christ is the +mind and character which he requires of us. "A good man shall be +satisfied from himself." + +"Man was created for an active life. Effort is the true element of a +well regulated mind. Undisturbed soil becomes hard and unproductive. Its +bosom is shut up against the dews and the rains, and also against the +warm rays of the sun. So it is with the mind when it is closed up and +deprived of healthy action; this man lives for himself alone, and only +the baser passions spring up in his breast. His soul is too narrow for +Christian benevolence; sympathy and emotion are disabled and all his +nobler faculties languish. Action, from intelligent and benevolent +principles, is a great fountain of happiness. Few streams of bliss equal +those which flow from charitable exertions. Benevolence and well-doing +are great inducements to future exertions, because of the fact that they +are their own reward in a thousand different ways. The seed thus sown +brings back an hundred fold, and a rich harvest to others, which adds to +the abundance of our own happiness. But where shall we go for those +principles of action? Shall we search for them in nature? Can reason +alone discover them? Are they found in the teachings of philosophy? Are +they gathered from observation? Does not our world need Revelation to +make known the true aim and end of our being?" Cicero said, "Those who +do not agree in stating what is the chief end, or good, must of course +differ in the whole system of precepts for the conduct of human life." +He also says there was so great a dissention among the philosophers, +upon this subject, that it was almost impossible to enumerate their +different sentiments. So it came to pass that exertions for benevolent +ends were seldom, if ever, put forth by pagans in pagan lands--they knew +nothing of the happiness springing from such a source. + +Great efforts from great motives are the glory and blessedness of our +nature. In the Bible only men have learned what great motives and +efforts are. There we find food to sustain them and wisdom to guide +them. Nowhere in the pages of infidel philosophy can we find such an +injunction as this: "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, do all to the +glory of God." Where else do we find this Christian maxim: "None of us +liveth to himself, and none of us dieth to himself; but whether we live, +we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord." He or +she alone is the happy one who is taught to consider the nature and +tendencies of human conduct, and whether it will stand the test before +God, and advance the ends of his truth and love in the world; who makes +the Lord's will the ends of his or her life and lives to please God and +show forth his praise. Such a life is necessarily a happy one, because +it is one _full_ of goodness. There is daily joy in such daily activity. +No man can be wretched while acting from the principle of communicative +goodness. Such are happy whatever their sphere or occupation may be. +Their aims are high. Their objects sustain them and their impulses +encourage or strengthen them. Their anticipations are joyous and their +reflections are tranquil. They look backward with delight and forward +with hope. Their conscience approves them. They have not buried their +talents. They are not encumberers of the ground. + +They live to bless the children of men. When they die they will to them +their counsel, their example and prayers. Benevolent habits are a great +source of happiness, for which we are indebted to the religion of +Christ. + +It is vain to attempt to persuade ourselves that human misery does not +exist. We can not get away from it by arming ourselves with stoical +insensibility. Evils lie all about us; we ourselves are made to feel +them. If we open our eyes upon the pages of time we see a continuous +series of beings who appear for a short time and then pass away. Their +beds are bedewed with tears, and soon the emblems of death are hung +about their doors. O, what wonderful scenes lie between the cradle and +the grave! What hours of sadness and gloom! Here, in the midst of life, +we realize disappointments, losses, painful diseases and heart-rending +discouragements, defeated hopes and withered honors. Here are good +reasons for the interposition of redeeming love. Does the God who loves +us sympathize with us in our woes? We are liable at every step in life +to great individual and domestic calamities. No hour can be free from +the fear that what we value the most on the earth may be snatched away +to-morrow. + +Trees and flowers grow to their full stature, fill up their measure of +time, and pass away. Beasts and birds are more rarely cut off with +disease. Their lives are not embittered with the expectation of death; +the knowledge of the past and the present is all they have; they have no +knowledge of the morrow; they live contented in their ignorance and +indifference, and, at last, sink into the deep, unending night, "being +made to be taken and destroyed." + +But this is not the history of man. He perishes from the cradle to the +tomb--"suffers a hundred deaths in fearing one." He is conscious of the +dangers that beset him. He is hedged in on every side. Death is +constantly destroying his fondest hopes and causing him the sorest +grief. It bursts the ties that bind heart to heart, and the dearest +fellowships are severed, and the joys of a blessed life are wrapped in +the gloom of death. All there was of earthly bliss in the bygone now +makes up his anguish. Is it possible that life and death walk +"arm-in-arm?" Yes; even while we are happy in the enjoyment of one, the +other comes and casts the fearful mantle over all our earthly prospects. +Seal up this blessed volume of life, and I know not from whence the +light is to spring which would cheer this gloomy picture. Without this, +man would be in a grade of blessedness beneath the brutes that perish. +It would be better to be anything than rational without the religion of +Jesus Christ and the intelligence of the Bible. The Scriptures inform us +that these things have a cause, that they come from God's dealings with +his creatures, that the unseen hand which permits these trials is +benevolent and wise. Sorrow has its design, and it is neither unkind nor +malignant. These things have a moral cause; they are the great rebuke of +God for sin. They are also a part of the discipline of a Heavenly +Father, designed to co-operate with the Gospel in bringing back all +those who are intelligently exercised thereby to their forsaken God. + +The antidote for all these ills culminating in death was the tree of +life. When man sinned against his God he was put away from the tree of +life. If he had remained with it he would have been beyond the reach of +the motive of life, and beyond the restraining power of the fear of +death. He would have lived forever, subject, like fallen angels, to +mental suffering during the ages to come. But being placed beyond the +reach of the tree of life he may be redeemed by the love of life to a +higher state. When the rebellious see and realize this great truth, +being exercised by the chastening hand of God, they are often subdued to +submission, to peace, and under the heaviest calamities they often look +upward and say, "It is the Lord, let his will be done." And this, of +itself, is a source of unbounded bliss. + +We often submit to present pain when counseled to do so by those in +whose wisdom and goodness we trust. As Christians we extend this +principle to all the sufferings of this life. Doing so, we have that +feeling of quiet submission growing out of permanent confidence in God +which supports us under all the trials to which we have been subjected +by an all-wise Father. This principle is wonderfully fruitful in +consolations to the bereaved and mourning--it is the joy of all +Christian hearts. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." What shall +we say of the hopes and prospects of bereaved souls? Is it blind +conjecture that there is an existence beyond the shadows? Is there no +life to come? No great resurrection? No comforter to arrest the current +of mourning and lamentation? + +How natural it is, when reminded of our loss, to exclaim, Shall we not +meet them again? Is this parting to last forever? Is there a God? Has he +not answered this agonizing inquiry? When we sit down upon the brink of +those waters which have swallowed up our living treasures and weep and +call upon the waves of eternity to give back our dear ones, when, from +the shores of time, we look and gaze and listen, does no voice reach us? +_Yes!_ To the ear of faith there is a voice. It is the voice of our God. +We listen. The words come ringing in our hearts, "For if we believe that +Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will +God bring with him." _Our grief is allayed._ We believe and are +comforted. We look forward to a happy meeting. A reunion for eternity +hovers before us like a bright star, lights up our pathway, and leads us +forward in a living hope. + +Nowhere in the Bible is human sorrow clothed with cold indifference. The +counsels of that book and its promises are so adapted to the sorrowing +that those who have passed through the furnace of affliction know best +their value. There is no such relief from sorrow found away from the +faith of God and the Bible. + +There is an hour when we _ourselves_ must die? Shall we trifle with the +will of God till then? Can we trifle with death when it comes? "The +sting of death is sin." Death never fails to bring along with it a keen +sense of guilt to the guilty unless they are cut off in a moment, and +then who knows the anguish that may be experienced just beyond? What is +there to soothe the sorrow of the dying sinner?--of that wicked soul who +never obeyed his God nor did anything to make the world better for his +existence? Let none of us live at a distance from our God. Let none of +us approach death without the necessary preparation for mutual +association with him. Let none of us bear the burden of a guilty +conscience in that hour. May none of us be so cruel as to leave the +hearts that love us in doubt respecting our condition in death. May we +never tread its dark waters without the light of the glorious promises +and facts of the religion of Jesus the Christ. Let us keep our souls +pure in obeying the truth through the Spirit. Let us live with and obey +God, do good and be happy. + + + + +INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION--No. II. + +BY P. T. RUSSELL. + + +Thought, Thinkers, Things--realities with their qualities or attributes. +These are all connected. If the first and second are present the others +are not far away. We only think when we perceive, and only perceive +realities. Nonentities are not perceivable, and therefore not thinkable. +Thoughts may be, and are, transferable from one to another by words, or +signs equivalent to words, yet we are only able to impart to another +ideas already in our possession. + +We have no thoughts of our own but those which are the result of our +perceiving. We have no thought of color without the eye, nor of sound +without the ear, etc. Now, if we have in our possession thoughts of +persons or things beyond the reach of our powers of observation, _i.e._, +beyond the reach of the five senses--seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting +and smelling--then those thoughts can not be ours; we could not be the +first to think them; they were too high for us; they were out of our +reach. Who, then, could and did reach them and give them to us? This +ought to be the question of questions with us. Thoughts of foreign +countries have been given to us by the men who have seen those +countries. But they could only give us ideas of what they had seen or +others had told them. A man visiting England only could give us no +thought of Russia, unless instructed by some one who has seen that land; +then, and not till then, could he give us thoughts of Russia. I am now +ready for the statement of this proposition, viz: The following trio of +thoughts are beyond our reach. They are not our thoughts; we did not +think them, but we have them; then, some being who could see higher and +look farther than we must have given them to us. Those thoughts are the +following: First, the existence of God; second, the use of words; third, +the origin of religion. These I will examine in the order given above. + + +THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. + +Whence came the idea? This is now _the question_. In answering it I +shall assume no ground but that which all parties say is true. The +Christian, the Deist and Atheist will admit that we have learned all we +know, and that we have learned only through the aid of the five senses: +seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling are the porters of the +mind. One or another of these bring to the mind every thought that it +receives. We obtain thoughts of odor _only_ by the sense of smell; of +flavor only by the taste; of color by the eye alone. In these matters we +have no intuition. We brought no ideas into the world with us. In all +these things we are creatures of education. Simple or single ideas, like +simple words, represent simple thoughts or realities, and compound ideas +represent compound thoughts or realities. Therefore it follows that +every thought comes from a corresponding reality. To deny this is equal +to the affirmation that we can clearly see objects in a vacuum, that we +can see something where there is nothing. + +Having stated premises in which all are agreed, I now state my first +proposition: + +THERE IS A TRUE AND LIVING GOD. + +In sustaining this proposition I shall introduce no witnesses but those +whose perfect reliability is vouched for by the Atheist himself; so we +shall have no dispute concerning the credibility and perfect reliability +of witnesses. For the Atheist, claiming to be a votary of reason, as +well as a boasted free and fearless thinker, certainly can not impeach +the testimony of his own mind. And, being a free and fearless thinker, +he will not try to conceal or prevent the witness, when on the stand, +from telling the whole truth. I am now ready for the evidence. + +The scene changes; Christian is alone in his studio, and a rap is heard +at the door. It is opened, and Mr. Atheist is invited to enter, and +being seated, Christian addresses him thus: + +Mr. Atheist, I am glad you have called, and if you have the leisure time +and are perfectly free to do so, I would like to talk with you on the +evidence of the existence of God. + +_Atheist_--I am not only willing, but as anxious as you can be to +examine this question. + +_Christian_--Very well. I suppose you have examined the evidence in the +premises, and from all the testimony, carefully analyzed, made your +decision. + +_Atheist_--You do me justice in thus supposing, for I claim to be a +reasonable being, and to follow fearlessly the lamp of reason; and, +doing this on scientific and philosophic principles, I have become +satisfied that there is no God. + +_Christian_--Will you allow me to state my analysis of the mind and ask +you if it is correct? + +_Atheist_--You, Mr. C., are approaching from a singular yet a pleasing +stand-point; will you please give me your analysis? If it is good, I +will say so; if defective, I will point out its errors. + +_Christian_--It is this: The mind of man may be divided into ten parts +or powers; five external, or the five senses; and five internal. The +external I need not name. The internal may be presented thus: First, +perception; second, reflection; third, memory; fourth, reason; fifth, +judgment, or decision; each of these entirely dependent upon its +immediate predecessor for support and action. We can not judge of that +upon which we have not reasoned, nor reason where we have not +remembered, nor remember that of which we have not first thought; +neither can we think of that which we have not perceived, nor perceive +without the action of some one of the five senses. + +_Atheist_--I admire your analysis--it is scientific; but, Mr. C., I +should not think that you, with your present belief in the existence of +God, would adopt this system of mental philosophy. + +_Christian_--Why? + +_Atheist_--_Did you ever see a God?_ + +_Christian_--If you please, I will test the question with you, and, in +order to do so, I will personify these powers. I will suppose them to +represent ten men, all of whom are Atheists, and we will rely upon their +testimony. + +_Atheist_--That is an honorable offer; I will accept it most cordially. + +_Christian_--Then, we are to consider the powers of the mind as so many +men, and hear their testimony? + +_Atheist_--Yes. + +_Christian_--Will you examine the witnesses? + +_Atheist_--You would more properly do that; I wish to hear you. + +_Christian_--Very well; I will, then, call on Mr. Judgment, and ask, +Have you given a decision on the question of the existence of God, and +if so, what is your decision? + +_Judgment_--There is no such being. + +_Christian_--Tell us whether you created the idea of a God, or brought +it into the world with you, and how you obtained the material from which +you manufactured your verdict? + +_Judgment_--"Did I bring the idea into the world with me, or create it?" +_What a question!_ Had anybody but a Christian asked it I would have +thought it an insult; but, then, Christians are never thinkers. You +ought to have known that the thought could not have been created by me. +To say I created it would be an endorsement of your foolish idea that +_something_ was made of _nothing_. I have no creative power, much less +the power _to make something out of nothing_; neither did I bring it +into the world with me. _We have no innate ideas._ + +_Christian_--Then where did you get the material from which you made +your decision that there is no God? + +_Judgment_--"_Where!_" I have but one porter, Mr. Reason. He gives all +the material upon which I ever act. If you doubt this try and judge of +anything upon which you have never reasoned. If you can not do this you +must agree with me that judgment can only act and decide by the aid of +reason. + +_Christian_--Your argument is conclusive. Now, as you have decided that +there is no God, and also claim that your only aid, Mr. Reason, gave you +the material out of which you made your decision, will you call him and +allow me to ask him a few questions? + +_Judgment_--Most willingly. We all are free thinkers, and delight in +investigation. Brother Reason, please call in; Christian is here and +wishes a little information of you. + +_Reason_--Mr. Christian, Brother Judgment informs me that you wish some +information from me. Please state your question. + +_Christian_--Did you present the idea of the existence of God to your +brother Judgment, and if so, where and how did you come by it? + +_Reason_--I received it from Brother Memory, and opened it out and held +it up so that Brother Judgment could scan it thoroughly, and he decided +there was no such being, and I agree with him. + +_Christian_--Will you call Memory, that I may learn where and how he +obtained the idea? (_Memory enters._) + +_Christian_--Mr. Memory, are you an Atheist, and did you give Reason the +idea of a God? If you did, how did you get it? Did you bring it into the +world with you? + +_Memory_--"Bring it into the world with me." _What an absurd question!_ +I never had an idea only as it was given me by Brother Reflection. If +you doubt this, try and remember something you have never thought of, or +think of something you never perceived. This, then, is the truth: +Reflection received the idea from Perception and gave it to you, and you +gave it to Memory, and he held it up to the eye of Reason, who, with +your aid, spread it out before the mind of your brother Judgment, and he +gave the decision, that there is no God; so we are all Atheists. Have +you any more questions? + +_Christian_--Yes, one more at least; I wish _now_ to know how your +brother Perception obtained the idea of a God--will you tell me, or call +him? + +_Memory_--Oh, I can tell you; he has five porters who bring him all he +ever gets, and they, with us, are all Atheists. But one or another of +these must have brought him the idea. + +_Christian_--Will you ask them which one gave it to your brother +Perception? + +_Memory_--You, for some reason, are very particular. I will, however, to +gratify you, call them, or at least some of them. Brother Eye, Christian +wishes to know if you gave the idea of a God to Mr. Perception? + +_Eye_--_What a foolish question!_ You, an Atheist, ask me, another +Atheist, if I have ever seen a living God where there is none to look +at--you have let Christian lead you out until he has almost drawn from +you the proof that David told the truth about us when he called all +Atheists fools. I have seen all visible things, but _nothing_ is too +small a mark for me to discover! + +_Christian_--Mr. Eye, don't be in a hurry; just let me ask, do Free +Thinkers get scared and refuse to think? + +_Eye_--I will leave you now, and tell the other porters what a fix your +philosophy has led us into. + +_Christian_--Good-bye; I will call one month hence and hear your +conclusion. + + + + +DO WE NEED THE BIBLE? + + +The only creed consistent with the rejection of the Gospel of Christ is +an eternal tomb, with the heart-shivering inscription, "Death is an +eternal sleep." Americans who reject the Scriptures are as uncertain +about the future as the poor heathen of other lands. Some of our +unbelievers have gathered the information from heathen oracles that the +future consists in being a poor, empty, shivering, table-rapping spirit, +flying to and fro over the country in response to the sigh of some silly +waiting-girl, or at the bidding of some brazen-faced, unscrupulous "free +lover." And this, "O, ye gods!" is all that ever shall be of the noblest +spirits that ever left human flesh! Others, to gain rest from this +horrible and unsatisfying fate, fly to the theory of everlasting +silence, as a result of the idea that mind is simply brain action, and +ceases to exist when the brain ceases to act. Their appropriate motto +is, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." It has been said that +even this brute philosophy is reasonable compared with the dogma of a +large portion of unbelievers, to wit., that blasphemers, thieves, +profane swearers, murderers and adulterers, will all go straight to +heaven when they die; that men with their hearts steeped in blood will +sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of God. But +Spiritualists, Pantheists, Atheists, and Deists inform us that an +external revelation is useless. Their common exposition of the sentiment +is too well known to need comment. We hear them saying, "You need say +nothing about the Bible to me; I know my duty well enough without it; +and as for miracles, they will never prove anything to me. Can thunder, +repeated daily through centuries, make God's laws and his wisdom and +goodness more God-like? No! I am grown, perchance, to manhood, and do +not need the thunder and terror. I am not to be scared. It is not +_fear_, but _reverence_, that shall lead me! _Revelation!_ Inspiration! +And thy own God-like spirit; is not that a revelation?" See Carlyle's +"Past and Present," page 307. + +Now, if Mr. Carlyle was in no need of the fear of God, somebody else +may be in a different mental and moral condition. There is nothing in +which men differ more. If one man is above the weakness of fearing God +(?) all men are not. Say what we may of fear, it is nevertheless true +that we are greatly influenced by fear. We are greatly indebted to the +fear of sickness for health, to the fear of poverty for wealth, and to +the fear of death for life. Fear is to caution what knowledge is to a +wise choice. Where there is no fear there is no caution. The love of +life and bliss is natural, therefore we fear sickness, poverty and +death. Why say with your lips, "I am above fear," while away down in +your heart you know it to be a lie? + +Love and fear, like the Siamese twins, live and perish together. Do we +not _need_ "revelation?" Where is the shadow, and where is the sunshine? +May we not contrast them? The very wisest of heathen legislators +approved of vice in some of its most heinous forms. The Carthaginian law +required human sacrifices. When Agathoclas besieged Carthage two hundred +children of the most noted families were put to death by command of the +Senate, and three hundred citizens sacrificed themselves to Saturn. See +Diodorus Siculus, b. 20, ch. 14. The laws of Sparta required theft and +the death of unhealthy children. The laws of Rome allowed parents to +kill their child, if they pleased to do it. At the headquarters of +heathen literature it was recommended that maimed infants should be +killed or exposed to death. Aristotle's Political Library, 7, chapter +17. In Plato's Republic we discover an advance of society, but a +community of wives continues, and what was termed woman's rights was +maintained upon the condition that the women were trained to war. In war +times the children were led out to look upon the struggle, and become +accustomed and hardened to blood. The teachings of the best minds were +immoral. "He may lie," says Plato, "who knows how to do it." Profane +swearing was enjoined by the example of their best writers. Oaths are of +common occurrence in the writings of Seneca and Plato. Aristippus +taught that adultery and theft were commendable in a wise man, and +Cicero plead for the last dreadful tragedy--_suicide_. Such immoralities +are eulogised in the writings of Virgil, Horace and Ovid. When Rome was +in her glory and greatness, Trajan had ten thousand men to hew each +other to pieces to amuse the Romans. In the face of all these facts, +modern Spiritualists advance along with Deists, Atheists and Pantheists, +and gravely inform us that we have no need of any external +revelation--that men are wise enough without it. + +They argue, that as we have physical senses to take hold of earth's +material blessings and appropriate them; so we have intellectual +faculties to take hold of all else that is necessary to supply our +mental and moral wants. It is most certainly true that we have physical +senses and intellectual faculties. I can not tell how it is with all the +infidels of our country, but I do know persons having physical senses +who are in great need of some of the substantials of life. I have also +known persons who have destroyed their physical senses to such an extent +as to be miserable objects of pity and compassion, needing some external +help as well an internal. Now, if, in spite of physical senses, men and +women do starve in this world on account of want, it is certainly +allowable that persons may fail of the enjoyment of needed mental and +moral culture in spite of intellectual faculties. And if it is a matter +of charity for men to put forth their hands and assist their fellow men +when they are in want of material blessings, surely it is a matter of +love, the love of God, to present to weary, burthened souls mental and +spiritual blessings which correlate with man's spiritual wants. Do you +deny the existence of such wants? + +Tyndal said there is a place in man's soul-nature for religion. This +fact is acknowledged by all leading writers in unbelief. He who calls it +in question experiences the fact. Why say it is not true against the +testimony of your own conscience? + +"Tell me," said a rich Hindoo who had given all his wealth to the +Brahmans surrounding his dying bed that they might obtain pardon for his +sins, "tell me what will become of my soul when I die?" "Your soul will +go into the body of a holy cow." "And after that?" "It will pass into +the body of a divine peacock." "And after that?" "It will pass into a +flower." "Tell me, oh! tell me," cried the dying man, "where will it go +last of all?" "Where will it go last of all? Aye, that is the question +reason can not answer," said the poor Brahmans. + +Where there is no vision the people perish. "Life and immortality was +brought to light through the Gospel." Without a revelation from God, men +know neither how to live or die. Our ancestors trusted to the powers of +magic, to incantations, for health, for success in tilling the ground, +for finding lost articles, for preventing accidents, etc. They +superstitiously regarded certain days of the week. If an infant was born +upon a certain day it would live; if upon another it would live, but be +sickly. + +Do you unceremoniously reject the Gospel of the Christ? "Yes," you say, +"if it depends on Jesus it is not eternally true, and therefore is not +true at all." But, I ask in all candor, is eternally true and +sufficiently revealed _one_ and the _same_? Are we under no obligations +to the man who first informed us of vaccination as a preventive of +small-pox, simply because it would always have prevented it? Are we +under no obligations to men on account of scientific discoveries, just +because the truths discovered are eternal truths? _Nonsense!_ You know +it is nonsense. Then we may be under lasting obligations to the Christ +for the revelation of the Gospel, with its sublime precepts and +principles, consolations and promises, which fill up the human spirit +with undying love and the hope of eternal glory. + +Let parents look well to this question. Let infidels set themselves to +work and get up some law of man capable of regenerating the hearts of +those men who, at their bidding, renounce the law of God and his +authority, and also with it all human authority. Will they do it? Can +they do it? Oh! There are no means outside of the sanctions of religion +by which the heart may be reached and purified from the love and +practice of sin. + +What right, says the Pantheist, the Atheist, the Deist, and +Spiritualist, have you to command me? + +The rejectors of the Bible made an experiment, an attempt, in trying to +govern France without religion. Shall the scenes of Paris and Lyons be +repeated, re-enacted in our own beloved America? No, we don't want it, +and we do not think we shall experience it, for the framers of our +Declaration of Independence laid the rights of God in the bed-rock of +our republic, believing that the rights of God are the basis of human +rights. "All men are born free and equal, and are endowed by their +CREATOR WITH CERTAIN INALIENABLE RIGHTS, AMONG WHICH IS LIFE, LIBERTY +AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, ETC." + +Nations destitute of the Bible ever were, and are, ignorant and wicked. +There are peoples in the world decently clad, well fed, and living in +comfortable mansions, with well tilled lands, who make powerful streams +turn powerful wheels and run great machinery; who yoke the iron horse to +the market train and drive their floating palaces against the floods; +who erect churches in every village, and make their children more +learned than the priests of Egypt, or the philosophers of Greece; even +many of their criminals are more decent and upright than were the sages, +philosophers and heroes of lands destitute of the Bible. These peoples +have that wonderful book; and they claim that it contains a revelation +from God to man; and that it teaches us how to live, and how to die. + +"EVERY TREE IS KNOWN BY ITS OWN FRUITS." + + * * * * * + +"The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." He claims, however, +that something without life or intelligence produced organic nature. +That BLIND, DEAD, SOMETHING IS THE FOOL'S GOD. + + + + +THE WAY INFIDELS TREAT THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE. + + +The unreasonableness and unfairness of infidels, or otherwise their +ignorance, is manifested in their unwillingness to interpret the +literature of religion as they do the language of the sciences. In +scientific literature we speak of the earth as a sphere, and infidels +never think of objecting that it is "pitted with hollows deep as ocean's +bottom," and "crusted with protuberances high as the Himalaya," in every +imaginable form. "There is not an acre of absolutely level ground" known +on the face of the earth, and yet when we speak of land, saying it is +level, no infidel demurs. The waters pile themselves in waves and dash +in breakers, yet we say, "Level as the ocean," and none object. + +The smallest formations present the same regular irregularities of form. +Crystals approach the nearest to mathematical figures, but they break +with compound irregular fractures at their bases of attachment. Nature +gives no perfect mathematical figures; they only approximate +mathematical perfection. Infidels do not trouble themselves with science +on this account. "The utter absence of any regularity or assimilation to +the spheroidal figure, either in meridianal, equatorial or parallel +lines, mountain ranges, sea beaches or courses of rivers, is fatal to +mathematical accuracy in the more extended measurements. It is only by +taking the mean of a great many measurements that an approximate +accuracy can be obtained. Where this is not possible, as in the +measurement of high mountains, the truth remains undetermined by +hundreds of feet; or as in the case of the earth's spheroidal axis, +Bessel's measurement differs from Newton's by fully eleven miles." See +Humboldt's Cosmos, vol. 1, p. 7, 156. "The smaller measures are +proportionally inaccurate." All these irregularities and imperfections +in science are overlooked, considered not in the least objections to the +use of language which would, upon the most rigid application, cut them +out as fables on the one hand or destroy science upon the other; but no +sensible man thinks of either as a matter allowable. + +On the other side, Infidels are "eternally" mouthing about +irregularities in the lives of the ancient men of the Bible, which are +exceptions to the general rule, just as though religious persons could +live lives of absolute perfection. The language, also, of the Bible, +which, like the language of science, takes no notice of irregularities +that must be expected in the lives of the very best men upon the earth, +is by them abused. For instance, "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is +perfect," is construed to mean that God is a man God, clothed with human +imperfections, or, otherwise, man is imperatively required to be +absolutely perfect. All such abuse of language is contemptible. Many +other examples might be adduced--such as the irregularities in the words +employed by the witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, which do not +affect the evidence of the fact to be established in the least degree, +and which are just such irregularities as are witnessed in evidence +given in court rooms almost daily, and passed without so much as being +noticed. For example, one witness says Mary Magdalene "came very early +to the sepulchre," and another says she came "about sunrise." If all +Christians were to treat the literature of science, and science itself, +as these would-be wise Infidels treat the literature of religion, and +religion itself, it would be surprising to run over the absurdities as +well as irregularities of scientific history. There are irregularities +in nature, and their name is legion; they all belong to that wonderfully +boasted harmony of nature so much talked of in our day. As for the +mistakes made in religion since the days of the apostles of the Christ, +they are many; but what have they to do with the _genuine_? + +How many mistakes have scientists made in the same period of time? I +shall not try to ape the infidel, but I must be permitted to call +attention to a few of the many scientific blunders. + +Perhaps the greatest blunder of the present day, upon the part of +scientists, is their attempt to bring into disrepute the cosmogony +given in the Bible by a scientific cosmogony, which leaves off as +"unknown" the only active world-forming force. They arrogantly assume to +be acquainted with the entire history of our planet from the atoms to +the globe. Yet they acknowledge that the "force which was and is in +operation was and is unknown; that unknown force had its influence in +framing the world," and its omission is always fatal to the theory which +knows nothing about it or neglects it. There are laws also far-reaching, +whose omission must be equally fatal. + +Infidels, being sensible of this truth, have endeavored to simplify +matters to the level of our ignorance, by reducing all primordial +elements to one, or at most two, simple elements, and all forces to the +form of one universal and irrational law; but the progress of science +utterly blasts the effort. No scientific man now dreams of one +primordial element. Chemistry reveals a great many different elements, +which can not be reduced or changed from their simple forms, much less +identified as one and the self-same "substance." The idea of "one +substance" _only_ is a very great error, which grew out of an abuse of +language in confounding the two words, matter and substance. The latter +word is equally applicable to _matter_, or _spirit_, but the former +always contrasts with spirit; so to confound the two is to ignore a +distinction upon which everything depends in any, except the +materialistic, philosophy. When the term substance is used in the +currency of the term matter it admits of the plural form as well as the +singular. Indeed, all the primordial elements known in chemistry are +known as so many different substances. It is unscientific and absurd to +confound all these elements by claiming the one-substance theory. It has +been called "the hog philosophy," on account of its swallowing down so +many _different_ substances in the single form of the word. + +"Eighty theories, hostile to Christianity, developed in the course of +forty or fifty years, were brought before the Institute of France in +1806, all of which are repudiated"--dead. It is useless to go further +into details. Science has been as much abused as religion. What benefit +would accrue to the human family from an effort upon our part to bring +to the foreground all the blunders made in scientific researches which +are to-day numbered with the old effete errors in religion? And where is +the propriety of infidels making a set of asses of themselves by playing +upon the little irregularities of language and character in religion, as +they _themselves_ allow no man to do in science and morality. + +"EQUAL HANDED JUSTICE" TO ALL, IS OUR MOTTO. + + + + +GEOLOGY IN ITS STRUGGLES AND GROWTH AS A SCIENCE. + + +The science of Geology in its early history is like all other sciences, +an infant. It was not a Hercules at its birth. On the contrary, it was +childlike and rather crooked in many of its ways; but chastisement and +criticism have brought it very far toward real manhood. Its early nurses +were standing continually on the dark line separating the comprehensible +from the incomprehensible, without any guides. They were out upon an +unexplored sea in the mere twilight of the morning. They were opposed at +every step by the combative tendencies of human nature, which are ever +seeking too much for their own gratification to admit any strange, +startling propositions as intruders among old and long cherished ideas. +In its history it appears before us, first as an enemy to religion, and +then as an unobjectionable science, a neutral. But since the publication +of "The Footprints of the Creator," by the lamented Hugh Miller, it +appears in front as a fast friend and abettor. And now, since it has +approached so near to its manhood, we do not see how we did without its +aid so long. Its first grand position touching the immense masses of the +rock formations as results of second causes, in operation away back +yonder before organic life appeared upon our planet, was looked upon by +intelligent Biblical scholars of those times with suspicion, as a +system at variance with the records of the Bible. This, along with +difference of sentiment among its friends, has been the means of a very +rapid growth towards perfection. Curiosity was aroused and observations +multiplied, errors corrected and the untenable removed, until the +science now stands before us with its bases settled in unquestionable +facts. Let us all learn from this circumstance the bearings of the times +in which we live, for a double process of elimination is now going on +under the providence of God, by means of which both Christianity and +science will have more beauty and strength of manhood to command the +respect of our children. + +Geology is exercising a wonderful influence on the side of religion in +the minds of those who are acquainted with its facts. In the hands of +Miller it gives a very decisive answer against the evolution hypothesis, +which is by no means a new speculation. It was, in its general form, a +very prominent doctrine of the Epicurean philosophy. "The author of the +'Vestiges,' with Professor Oken, regarded the experiment of the +formation of cells in albumen by electric currents as the leading fact +of the system." They claimed that currents of electricity in the earth's +surface generated and vitalized the cells, and that all organic life +thus originated. There is nothing to save this speculation, when it is +undressed, from contempt. "The only patronage it ever received grew out +of the fact that there is a species of superstition which causes people +to take upon credit whatever assumes the name of science, and is opposed +to the old superstition of faith in witches and ghosts." With this +speculation before us, seemingly plausible, yet false, being fraught +with error, we are reminded of the fact that it has been eagerly +embraced by many who seem to think that it has a firm foundation in the +science of Geology, which they regard as presenting the order in which +created beings appeared. The author of the "Vestiges" claims that the +first step in the creation of life upon our earth was a +_chemico-electric_ operation, forming simple germinal vesicles. Page +155. + +This is an item wholly unknown in the geological record and lies before +the beginning of any kind of similitude alluded to in this article. "The +idea which I form of the progress of organic life upon our earth," says +the author of the Vestiges, "is that the simplest and most primitive +type gave birth to the type next above it, and this again produced the +next higher, and so on to the very highest." Page 170. + +On account of the mere similitude existing between the doctrine of +progressive creation, as it is set forth in the geological record, and +the idea of progressive evolutions, as claimed by the advocates of the +speculation, we deem it our duty to scrutinize severely the teachings of +geology. But in doing this we do not concede that there is no other +ground upon which such authors may be successfully met. There is no one +point in their system which is not hypothetical. It is a system of +_ifs_. There is no proof, in any single instance, that a higher has been +developed from a lower species; but the question, in proper shape, is +this: Has there been a succession of improvements from one geological +period to another in the several divisions of the animal and vegetable +kingdoms amounting to a change of species? Species are very similar in +structure and capable of some improvement, but this is no evidence of +the higher being developed from the lower. It is well known that the +lowest forms are those found lowest in the geological series. Commencing +at the bottom and running up we find, first, mollusks, then fishes, +reptiles, birds, quadrupeds, monkeys, and at last man. But this does +not, by any means, settle the issue. The question naturally arises +whether one of those divisions, on its first appearance, was of the +lowest organization of its class and reached the highest by a gradual +development through successive geological periods. The geological +testimony is this: First, there were no animals having any structural +resemblance to the fishes prior to their creation, and when they appear +they are already in possession of the highest organization and the +largest cerebral development. + +During the long periods of geological history there has been no advance +in this class of animals. The science testifies to no successive steps +here. "They stood at the head of the icthyic division at the outset; but +there has been, during these periods, a progressive _degeneracy_, so +that though all possessed a high organization at first, there is found +in the after creations a _succession of lapses_ until the division of +fishes now contains species ranking little above the earth-worm." "A +single well defined placoid fossil in the Bala limestone as fully proves +the existence of placoid fishes, during the period of its deposition, as +if the rock were made up of placoid fossils, for it is not a question of +numbers, but of rank." The question, now, comes home to us with all its +force, how did fishes of this high order come to exist before any of the +inferior class? Let some of our evolution savans answer. + +The same thing may be said of other organic divisions. It has gone to +record that the shell-fish of the Silurian system are the lowest +division of the molluscous animals. While the statement is received as +true, it must be remembered that there is some diversity of structure in +this lower division, and that the earliest molluscs are not the lowest, +but the highest in the division. The most important point, however, is, +that while Brachiopoda were most abundant, the highest molluscs existed +also, their remains being found in the Bala limestone, which is the +lowest bed of molluscous fossils. (See Silurian System, p. 308.) The +number of these higher species is not important. They existed, few or +many, as early as any other of the mollusca. If the lower had not an +anterior existence, the higher were not developed from them. It is also +a conclusive argument against the system, that while the intermediate +mollusca are very numerous, the cephalopoda, which were so early +introduced, and are the higher forms that were so numerous at certain +times, are now narrowed down to a few species. + +Lyell was the first to drop a word of caution against "inferring too +hastily from the absence of mammalian fossils in the older rocks that +the higher class of vertebrata did not exist in those remote times." +"The remains of vertebrate animals are already found in the lowest +fossiliferous rocks, and, in addition to that, the highest forms of +each class appear first." + +There is nothing so well evinced in all the realms of scientific +investigation as the utter impossibility of getting, by the light of +nature, away from the idea of the Christian's God. _Everywhere_ we trace +his footsteps. Traveling through the ages to the beginning, in thought, +our first view is that of "an unlimited expanse of unoccupied space," +or, if aught exists, it lies hidden in the invisible state. But all at +once, as if by magic, and in obedience to the will of the Eternal +Intelligence, the invisible becomes visible, worlds exist and become +obedient to law. The divine perfections are to be displayed through +future ages. And now, if we look out upon the surging billows of the +ocean, our mind swells with the thought that God is there in all his +majesty. With our thoughts confined to our earth we pass from age to age +tracing the divine power from the laws of motion to chemical action and +crystallization, until we behold a wonderful change upon the face of +nature. And now, for the first time, a new principle is manifested, a +new order springs into being--it is vegetable life and being in all its +lovely grandeur. It matters not to us whether it came about gradually or +all at once, for wisdom is there. All nature seems to turn to this new +principle. "The elements of the inorganic world are subserving the +purposes of organic life." The Creator has bound them to organic life. +Every plant selects its food from the elements of earth by a chemistry +of its own. The atmosphere around us is no less to the vegetable kingdom +than a great pasture field. Every leaf is feasting, and every fiber is +touched by the light. What wonderful correlations meet us at every turn! +What adaptation of means to ends! Above all the beauty and grandeur of +the vegetable kingdom we find the glorious animal, with man at the head, +as lord over all below him. With man the moral government of God begins; +physical creation is over. The subsequent manifestations of the divine +glory are to be realized in the training and discipline of men and women +as moral beings; and their mutual association with him, in the eternal +world, is the ultimate. + + C. R. + + + + +PANTHEISM IS DECEPTION AND HYPOCRISY. + + +"Understand, ye brutish among the people; and ye fools, when will ye be +wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the +eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall he be not +correct? He that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?"--Psalm +xciv, 8, 9. + +Pantheism, personified, is a hypocrite, a deceiver. The name God, as a +proper name in the English language, means the Divine Being, Jehovah, +the Eternal and Infinite Spirit, the Creator and Lord of the universe. +Pantheists say they believe in God, but they tell you, when pressed, +they mean by that name "everything"--_God is everything._ The term +"Pantheist" is from _pan_, all, and _theos_, God. Webster defines the +term thus: "One that believes the universe to be God; a name given to +the followers of Spinoza." + +Has any man the right to pervert language, fixing new meanings to words +in common use which are in direct opposition to established usage? The +man who knows the meaning of a word and uses it in a contrary sense is +guilty of an abuse of language; and if he fails to make known the fact +that he is using the term in a sense differing from established usage, +he is, then, a deceiver. Pantheists are simply Atheists in disguise, the +only difference being in their professions. The Pantheist says, "I +believe in a God;" but this saying is only a distinction without a +difference. The atheist is the frank, outspoken man of the two. + +What must we think of the man who says, "I believe in God," and then +explains himself to mean, by the name God, heat, steam, electricity, +force, animal life, the soul of man, magnetism, mesmeric force, and, in +one word, the sum of all the intelligences and forces in the universe, +at the same time denying the proper currency of the term God by denying +the existence of a personal God. All Christians should demand that +Christian terms be used in their own proper currency. But infidels will +always do as they have hitherto, will often get out of their own "ruts," +by the most perfect abuse of language. They can not, it seems, leave off +the use of language which is only appropriate to the Christian idea. +Their divinity, by their own confession, differs essentially from God, +and let them use a different word to describe it. Let them do like their +heathen brethren in India, call it Brahma, or whatever else they please, +and cease "stealing Heaven's livery to serve the devil." Let them cease +to profane religion and offend common sense by giving the name of the +glorious Father of Spirits to their million-headed nondescript. +Pantheism dethrones Jehovah and places no other intelligence in his +place as Creator and Ruler of the universe; and, being conscious of the +odium that necessarily attaches itself to Atheism, on account of its +everlasting foolishness, they steal the name of God to cloak their +Atheism. + +_Pantheism is demoralizing._ It cuts a man loose from all the sanctions +of moral law, by denying the resurrection, the judgment and the future +retribution. It annihilates from the mind of its votary the idea of +God's moral government. If man, as it avows, be the highest intelligence +in the universe of worlds, to whom will he render an account? Who will +call upon him to answer? If men and women are simply developments of +God, will God be offended with himself? "Evil is good," we are told, "in +another way, we are not skilled in." See the author of "Representative +Men," Festus, page 48. "Evil" was held by some of the old heathen +philosophers to be "good in the making." They argued that it was the +carrion in the sunshine, converting into grass and flower. And then, to +apply their figure, man in the brothel, jail, or on gibbets, is in the +way to all that is lovely and true. Such reminds us of the ravings of +lunatics. It is the climax of profanation of the moral government of +God. Let those who fear no God, but have wives and children and property +to lose, reflect upon the propriety of lending their influence to a +system fraught with such consequences. The system positively denies the +distinction between good and evil. It declares that we can not sin; +that we are God, and God can not offend against himself; that sin is all +simply an old lie; that impiety, immorality and vice of frightful mien +are wedded in eternal decrees, and that man can not sever them. + +_Pantheism is veiled Atheism._ It is not necessary to argue this +proposition at length. Pantheists often speak of the great being, which, +according to Pantheism, is composed of all the intelligences of the +universe. Can any man conceive of such a being? Can intelligences be +piled one upon another, like brick and mortar, and thus be compounded? +And if my spirit be the highest intelligence in the universe, did it +create itself? Does it govern itself? Did it create the universe? Does +it govern it? Some Pantheists have gone to this length! M. Comte says: +"At this present time, for minds properly familiarized with true +astronomical philosophy, the heavens display no other glory than that of +Hipparchus, or Kepler, or Newton, and of all who have helped to +establish these laws." "Establish these laws!" They were laws governing +the planets thousands of years before these astronomers were born. + +Pantheists often express very high respect for the Christian religion. +Some of the more vulgar sort, however, speak of it as a superstition. +But the wiser ones have reached the perfection of Jesuitism, that is to +say, they indulge in hypocrisy and deception to effect a purpose. They +grant that the Christian religion is the highest development of humanity +yet attained by a majority of the race. The heathen of every grade of +character, and the Christian, with all others who may not be classified +by us with either, are all, in their scheme, so many successive +developments of humanity. It is a trick of their trade to clothe their +abominations in Bible language by wresting the Scriptures. They speak of +the "beauty of holiness in the mind, that surmounted every idea of a +personal God;" and of "God dwelling in us, and his love perfected in +us," when they maintain that he dwells in every creature and thing. They +say they can accept the Bible--that is their phrase--notwithstanding it +pronounces death upon the fools who, "professing to be wise, change the +truth of God into a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than +the Creator," as a mystic revelation of the Pantheism which leaves us to +"erect everything into a God," provided it is none, inasmuch as "every +product of the human mind is a development of Deity." So the Bible, in +the conclusion of their system, is on a level with Thomas Paine's +writings as respects inspiration and origin. The great Pantheistic +divinity is spoken of by Pantheists as the great soul of the universe, +while the more materialistic look upon it as the universe itself, body +and soul. With them the soul is the fountain of all the imponderable +forces, vegetable and animal life, the mesmeric influences, galvanism, +magnetism, electricity, light and heat; and the body the sum of all the +ponderable substances; in one word, "God is everything, and everything +is God." This system is called "Monotheistic Pantheism." It is a vast +generalization of everything into a higher unity, which exalts men and +paving stones, and cats, dogs and reptiles, and monkeys, to the same +level of God-head, or divinity. Man, the soul of men, as the system +would term it, is the greatest manifestation of the divine essence. Yes! +DIVINE ESSENCE! for, with Pantheists, there is no _personal_ hereafter. +This system of Pantheism is an old, worn-out theory; it has putrefied +and rotted with the worshippers of cats, monkeys, and holy cows and +bulls, and pieces of sticks and stones on the Ganges more than two +thousand years ago. It is now dragged up from the dung-hill and +presented as a new discovery of modern philosophy, sufficient to +supplant the Ruler of the universe. How strange it is that men of +ordinary intelligence will embrace the idea, rather than submit to the +dictates of conscience and the Bible! This world of ours is not an +abstraction in philosophy that consists of one simple substance called +matter, nor yet of one substance, for there are many different material +substances, such as oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, aluminum and +iron, and more than fifty others already discovered. + +Now, let us suppose that all these elements or substances existed as a +cloud of atoms millions of ages in the past; are we, then, any nearer +the solution of the great problem of world making than we were before? +The atoms must be material, for a material world is to be made of them; +and they must have extension; each one of them must have length, breadth +and thickness; and, as inertia is a property of each and every atom, the +Pantheist has only multiplied the difficulty by millions, for matter can +not begin, _of itself_, to move. Did the dead atoms dance about and +jumble themselves together as we now find them? Is the one substance +theory correct? Monotheistic Pantheism _is scientifically false in +fact_. Some of these men who tell us of a world without an intelligence +in the past, who have such implicit confidence in the powers of matter, +tell us, that "millions of ages" in the past the world existed as a +great cloud of fire mist, which, after a long time cooled down into +granite; and this, by dint of earthquakes, broke up on the surface, and +washed with rain until, after ages upon ages had passed, clays and soil +were formed, from which plants, of their own accord, sprang up without a +germ; in other words, germs came into being spontaneously and grew up, +as we see them, developed in all their grandeur. This chance life, +somehow, chanced to assume animal form and fashion until, in the +multitude of its changes it reached the fashion of the monkey; and then, +at last, the fashion of man, both male and female. Truly, the Atheists +and Pantheists of our country need not complain of any want of power to +believe while such is their basis of faith upon the subject of world +making. But they, to avoid the difficulty that nothing made something, +tell us "the fire mist was eternal," that it did not make itself. Very +well, let us have it that way; then we must be allowed to ask, how an +eternal red hot mist cooled off? And also what there was to cool it, +when it was all there was, and it was red hot, and always had been? In +other words, how could an eternal red hot cool down without something +else in existence to cool it? Why should it cool at all? And why did it +begin to cool just when it did? The utmost that any scientist can do is +to show that such a change took place, but he can not tell you why it +took place. Change _it did_! But change is an effect, and requires a +cause. And, according to their theory, there could be no cause outside +of the fire mist; for they say there was nothing else in the universe. +Then the cause was inside of the fire mist. But how can red hot cool +when all there is, is red hot? Had this first mist, to say nothing of +organic life, a mind? Did it become sensible and resolve to cool off a +little, and settle itself into orderly worlds? What became of its mind? +Did it divide, and a part go to each planet? Has each planet a great +"soul of the world," as well as our earth? If so, had we not as well +build an altar to each planet and go back to the religion of our +banana-fed ancestors, who burned their children alive in sun worship? + +The Christian religion is so fearfully demoralizing (?) that it is a +great pity that these Godless, Christless souls called Pantheists and +Atheists can't get some solution of the great problem of world-making +that would dispense with the Bible. How well they could get along +if--if--if--they only had this great question settled. + +"IN GOD WE TRUST." + + + + +SUBSTANCE OR SUBSTANCES--WHICH? + +OR, + +THE ORIGIN OF LIFE AND MIND. + + +"_Substance_ is that which is and abides;" "that which subsists of or by +itself; that which lies under qualities; that which truly is--or +_essence_." "It is opposed to _accident_." "In its logical and +metaphysical sense it is that nature of a thing which may be conceived +to remain when every other nature is removed or abstracted from it; the +ultimate point in analyzing the complex idea of any object. _Accident_ +denotes all those ideas which the analysis excludes as not belonging to +the mere being or nature of the object." It is said that our first idea +of _substance_ is, possibly, derived from the consciousness of self, the +conviction that, while our sensations, thought and purposes are +changing, we continue the same. "We see bodies also remaining the same +as to quantity or extension, while their color and figure, their state +of motion or rest may be changed." It has also been said that +_substances_ are either primary, that is singular, individual +_substances_; or secondary, that is genera, and species of _substance_. + +Substances have been divided into complete and incomplete, finite and +infinite. But it is to be remembered that these are merely divisions of +being. Substance is properly divided into matter and spirit, or that +which is extended and that which thinks. + +"The foundation principle of substance is that law of the human mind by +which every quality or mode of being is referred to a substance," or the +consciousness of a cause for every effect. "In everything which we +perceive or can imagine as existing, we distinguish two parts, qualities +variable and multiplied; and a being one and identical; and these two +are so united in thought that we can not separate them in our +intelligence, nor think of qualities without a _substance_." So it is a +self-evident or first truth, that there is a subjective or inner man +which thinks, reflects and reasons, for memory recalls to us the many +modes of our mind; its many qualities and conditions. What variety of +mental conditions have we not experienced? These are all so many +evidences of an internal _substance_ that we call spirit. That spirit is +to be distinguished from thought as cause is from effect is evident; and +also from matter lying in the accident or quality of body, is certain, +from the fact of its being subject to such rapid and instantaneous +changes of condition. Amidst all the different modes, qualities, or +accidents of mind, we believe ourselves to be the same individual being; +and this conviction is the result of that law of thought which always +associates qualities with things. + +In the world around us phenomena, qualities or accidents are continually +changing, but we believe that these, all, are produced by causes which +_remain, as substances, the same_. And as we know ourselves to be the +causes of our own acts, and to be able to change, within a moment, the +modes of our own mind, so we believe the changes of matter, which take +place _more slowly_, to be produced by causes which belong to the +_substances of matter_. And underlying all causes, whether of the +qualities of matter or mind, we conceive of one absolute cause, one +substance, in itself persistent and upholding all things in nature. This +substance we are pleased to call spirit; and this spirit we call God. To +deny this is to strike down a grand law of thought, the foundation +principle of substance, and make the testimony of our own consciousness +A LIE! The inorganic forces, about which "unbelievers" have so much to +say are altogether operative in the realm of _substance_; that is to +say, they belong to the _invisible_. Organic and inorganic are the same +as visible and invisible. We know matter by its qualities, and we know +mind by its qualities. These two, in qualities or attributes, contrast +with each other like life and death. One is extenuated and the other +extended; one is invisible the other is visible. Of the existence of +these substances and their laws we have evidence in conscious knowledge, +in that we know that we have no control over the involuntary or +sympathetic nervous system, and have the most perfect control over the +voluntary nerves. The forces controlling are as different as these +qualities themselves. If man is simply a material organism, why this +contrast? We are told that _life itself_ is a group of co-ordinated +functions. But what correllates that force? + +It is very common for the advocates of the evolution hypothesis to +measure the period between this and the origin of life by the phrase, +"Millions and millions of years." The only object that such writers have +in view in so doing is to bridge the gulf between the _assumed_ origin +of life and mind and the evidence necessary to its establishment as a +fact in science. They tell us that "life is a property which certain +elements of matter exhibit when united in a special form under special +conditions." But when we ask them to give us those certain elements of +matter, they immediately inform us that "matter has about sixty-three +elements; that each element has special properties, and that these +elements admit of an _infinite variety of combinations_, each +combination having peculiar properties." This, as a fort, is a stand +behind the dark, impenetrable curtain of an _infinite variety of +combinations_. It is just as dark and as destitute of proof as any +pope's assumed infallibility. + +Mr. Haeckel says: "As a matter of course, to the _infinite varieties_ +presented by the organic forms and vital phenomena in the vegetable and +animal kingdoms, correspond an equally _infinite variety_ of chemical +composition in the protoplasm. The most minute homogeneous constituents +of this life substance, the protoplasm molecules, must in their chemical +composition present an _infinite number_ of extremely delicate +gradations and variations. According to the plastic theory recently +advanced (?) the great variety of vital phenomena is the consequence of +the _infinitely delicate_ chemical difference in the composition of +protoplasm, the sole active life substance." What a multitude of +infinities. But then, an _infinite number_, and an _infinite variety_ of +_infinitely delicate_ gradations and variations, with millions and +millions of years, do not remove further from sight life in its origin +than does the materialistic philosophy of one substance. They constitute +the _web_ and _filling_ of the _blanket of oblivion_ used by +materialistic doctors to cover up their ignorance of life and its +origin. A half dozen "INFINITIES," and "MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS!" +What! should I care if my ancestors were "tadpoles," when they are HID +AWAY IN THE CENTER OF INFINITIES, and laid _away back yonder_, so far +off as "MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF YEARS?" + +When we ask our friends for the proof necessary to establish this +speculation as a fact among facts, they find it very convenient to +betake themselves to _infinities_, and _millions_ and _millions of +years_. + +But we Christians do not ask them to give us an _infinite variety_, +etc., but to give us the "certain elements" of which "life is a +property," and the "special form in which these certain elements were +united," and the "special conditions" that existed when life first made +its appearance by spontaneous generation. When we do this we are +immediately carried away into the _infinities_. The result is that the +solution of the problem of the origin of life by spontaneous generation, +as a property of "certain elements of matter, united in a special form, +under special conditions," is buried forever out of sight. This same +definition of life is found on page 69 of a work entitled, "The System +of Nature," published by D. Holbach, a French Atheist, in 1774, in these +words: "Experience proves to us that the matter which we regard as inert +and dead assumes action, intelligence and life when it is combined in a +certain way." + +Voltaire answered: "This is precisely the difficulty. How does a germ +come to life? Is not this definition very easy--very common? Is not life +organization with feeling? But," says Voltaire, "that you have these two +properties from the motion of matter alone: it is impossible to give any +proof, and if it can not be proved why affirm it? Why say aloud, 'I +know,' while you say to yourself, 'I know not?'" + +Our Atheistic friends say: "The forms of life vary because of the +difference in their molecular construction, resulting from different +physical conditions to which the various forms have been subjected." + +Wonderful discovery! Does it explain the evidence of design which is +presented in pairing off male and female in the same form of life? + +Dr. Parvin is often referred to as "frankly admitting that the doctrine +of the evolution of species is accepted by three-fourths of the +scientific men," and that this doctrine has, in their minds, "rendered +nugatory the hypothesis of a vital immaterial principle as a causal +factor in the phenomena of life and mind." Allowing this statement its +full force, it is still true that none but Atheists can possibly be +included in the "three-fourths." So much the worse for them. But it is +an Atheistic trick to try to succeed by a misrepresentation of facts. +One of their number recently said, "It is now almost universally +believed by those who have investigated the subject that life +originated from natural agencies without the aid of a creative +intelligence. Then those who have investigated the subject are almost +universally _Atheists_?" + +It is said that "vital activity, whether of body or mind, is a mode of +motion, the correllate of antecedent motion." But what correllated the +force? According to this logic life came from the antecedent motion; +that is, from the motion of dead atoms. But motion itself is the +manifestation of energy, and there must of necessity be something behind +it to which it belongs as an attribute. Do you say it was dead atoms, or +matter without life? Then dead atoms set dead atoms into motion and +produced life! Can you believe this? If you can, you need find no +trouble in believing in the most orthodox hell. Can you get more out of +a thing than there is in it? We don't think so. But we do think that +there is credulity enough, even blind credulity, in the advocates of +spontaneous generation to enable them to believe anything they may +happen to wish true. We are told that "life in its higher forms is not +an immaterial entity, _nor the result_ of a special form of _force +termed vital_, but, that it is a group of co-ordinated functions." Then +what correllated the force? If it was not vitality what was it? But this +is just equivalent to saying that life does not proceed from life. So, +in the realm of inertia or death, without a God and without life, some +kind of a mechanical operation among dead atoms took place which +produced "a certain chemico-physical constitution of amorphous +matter--on that albuminous substance called sarcode or protoplasm," +which evolved more than was involved, or brought organic life out of +dead inorganic matter. But life is simply a "mode," or "degree of +motion?" But we are curious to know just here whether the advocates of +this system of things do not believe that there always was a degree of +motion. Perchance they do, but then they certainly can't believe that +this particular degree or mode of motion which they called _life_ was +eternal. So, then, a degree of motion is life, and a degree of motion is +not life. This thing of confounding life with motion I'm thinking leads +to difficulty. I can see how motion may be the result of life, but just +how it is _life itself_ I can't see quite so well. Is cause and effect +the same? + +We have a most remarkable, and yet a natural, concession made in the way +in which men who feel the weakness of their cause generally make +concessions. It is a statement said to be made by Baron Liebig; it is +this: "Geological investigations have established the fact of a +beginning of life (?) upon the earth, which leaves no doubt that it can +only have arisen naturally and from inorganic forces, and _it is +perfectly indifferent whether or not we observe such a process now_." +This statement is untrue as respects geological facts. But the +concession is, that spontaneous generation is not to be an observed +fact. "Perfectly indifferent whether or not we observe such a process +now?" Well, it never was observed. Mr. Liebig's statement doubtless +proceeds from the conviction that the system is never to be established +by observation. It is simple imagination. Virchow says: "We can _only +imagine_ that at certain periods of the development of the earth unusual +conditions existed, under which the elements entering into new +combinations acquired in statu nascente vital motions, so that the usual +mechanical conditions were transformed into vital conditions." In this +statement it is well for us to remember that it is not only simple +imagination, but also that vital motions were the cause, bringing about +vital conditions, that is to say, life, before life was, transformed +mechanical conditions into vital conditions. So, in this very singular +imaginary hypothesis touching the origin of life we have the usual +circle suicide of the system. "Vital motions transform mechanical +conditions into vital conditions," and vital conditions fill the world +with "vital motions," and life itself is only a degree "or mode of +motion." _Such_ is their travel around the circle. + + * * * * * + +Can you believe that _vital motion_ transformed mechanical conditions +into _vital conditions_, without _life_ being the cause of those _vital +motions_? + + + + +DIFFICULTY WITH FIRE. + + +La Place, in his solution of how our planet was made, supposed that the +cooling, and consequently contracting rings of the fire cloud planet, +earth, did not break up into pieces, but retained their continuity; but, +in opposition to all experience and reason, he supposed that the cooling +rings kept contracting and widening out at the same time. According to +the nebular hypothesis--_or guess_--the fire mist was cooling and +shrinking up, while the rings of the same heat and material were cooling +_faster_ and widening out from it: a piece of disorder equal to a +miracle, for it can not be duplicated among solids or fluids in heaven +or earth, or under the earth; for everything narrows down upon +cooling--_contracts_! + + * * * * * + +THE INFIDEL'S OFFSET.--An unbeliever once said to a man who advocated +the doctrine of total depravity: "The ground for my rejection of all +responsibility for belief is the acknowledged necessitated nature of +belief. Show me," said he, "that it is not necessitated, and I am +answered. When you show me that it is controlled by a will, equally +necessitated, I am not answered. If a necessitated faculty or operation +can not be responsible, then neither will nor volition can be +responsible. You," said the infidel, "go through the whole circle of +mental faculties, and find necessity everywhere and responsibility +nowhere." + + * * * * * + +Through the kindness of Brother J. M. Mathes we are in possession of a +copy of the life of Brother Elijah Goodwin. It has the merit of being +mainly Brother Goodwin's own production. His many friends will regard it +as a grand "keepsake." It is neatly bound in cloth, contains 314 pages, +and is in beautiful type. Send $1.50 by postoffice order to Elder J. M. +Mathes, Bedford, Lawrence county, Indiana, and receive a copy in return. + + +Transcriber's Note + +The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully +preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Foundation, Or, +Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 7, July, 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, JULY 1880 *** + +***** This file should be named 28668.txt or 28668.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/6/28668/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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