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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/28669-8.txt b/28669-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eae3534 --- /dev/null +++ b/28669-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1856 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific +and Religious Journal, Volume I, No. 8, August, 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. 8, August, 1880 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Aaron Walker + +Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28669] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, AUGUST 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. AUGUST, 1880. NO. 8. + + + + +THE IMPORTANCE AND NATURE OF REFORMATION FROM SIN. + + +This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men +shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, +disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, +truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those +who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than +lovers of God; having a form of godliness but denying the power +thereof.--2 Tim. 3: 1-5. + +The Savior once began his instructions with these words, "This day is +this Scripture fulfilled." They seem to be an appropriate introduction +to our lesson upon this occasion. What is the religion of thousands? +They were made the special objects of God's favor in their infancy (?), +were christened in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the +Holy Spirit (?), were dedicated to God and his service by their parents +(?), who, for them, took a solemn vow to forsake the devil and all his +works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires, +to forsake, also, all the carnal desires of the flesh, and not to follow +or be led by them. It is said that the christened took this vow when +they were children, and understood it not; when they became men they +understood it about as well as when they were children. But in all +candor, I confess that I never could believe they took this vow; their +sponsors took it upon themselves to make it for them, and usually +pledged themselves to see it fulfilled. What fearful responsibilities +are assumed just here. It is too frequently the case that those very +sponsors serve more devoutly, love more affectionately, and confide more +heartily in the profits, honors and pleasures of the world than in the +Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. + +Survey the lives of many of these men, of all conditions, and then deny, +if you can, that the profits, honors and pleasures of the world are the +gods they worship. Their daily and constant employment is either a +violent pursuit of the vain pomp and glory of the world, or of its +power, riches and profits; or it may be that they are led on by pride, +malice or revenge. Such persons live, not knowing or regarding the fact +that the baptism which now saves us is "not the putting away of the +filth of the flesh, _but the answer of a good conscience_ toward God." +There are many such who live but little in advance of pagans in a +commonwealth of Christians, and know but little more of God or of Christ +than if they had been brought up in India. A great many are taught to +act over this play in the name of religion, and learned to say, "Our +Father who art in heaven," and "I believe in God the Father Almighty;" +but do they live as though they did believe in earnest that God is their +Almighty Father? Do they fear him and trust in him? Do they love and +obey him? Mere pretense, or, as Paul termed it, a _guise_ of godliness, +for such is the meaning of the original term, is so common that we meet +with it almost daily. Men have learned to tamper with the word of God +until the world is full of theorists. How many talk about religion who +set aside a great portion of the word of God as worse than useless? And +that which they profess to believe they do not believe with half the +simplicity which they manifest in believing the words of their earthly +parents. It has been said, "He who is not industrious to obtain what he +professes to desire does not desire it, and he who is not industrious to +bring about that for which he prays, prays with his tongue _only_, and +not with his heart." All such have simply a "guise" of godliness, while +they deny its power. + +A great many people profess to believe the Scriptures are true, and that +they present the plain and only way to infinite and eternal blessedness, +and yet they neglect the study of the Scriptures. How is this? If there +was a book revealing a plain and easy way for all men to become rich and +enjoy health and pleasure and this world's happiness, would it not be +studied by all men? And why is it that the Bible is not studied by the +masses and regarded more? Why are so many professors of religion +negligent in this matter? May it not be because they prefer all other +business and pleasures before this? If professors of religion throughout +christendom heartily believed the Scriptures even as they profess, they +would be more diligently studied, and in many instances treated with +greater respect. The faith of many is undoubtedly very weak. If the laws +of our country provided a plain way of escape from temporal death for +the benefit of the condemned criminal, as plain and pointed as the great +commission given to the apostles of Christ, would any condemned criminal +hesitate to obey or treat the stipulations of law as men are constantly +treating the precepts of the gospel of Christ? When a man believes the +Bible contains _the facts and truths_ which concern us infinitely more +than all earthly matters, his care and diligence should be, _to some +extent_, in harmony with his persuasion. At this point men _seem to be_ +most strangely careless and grossly negligent. How few people do, or +will, understand that the terms of salvation are written as with the +beams of the sun? Is the trouble a low degree of faith, approximating +unbelief? The shadows are always the longest when the sun is lowest. Is +the sun of righteousness low in your spiritual heavens? Or have you +given him the uppermost seat in your affections? What think you of +Christ? Whose son is he? + +When I tell you that thousands received the baptism of repentance for +the remission of sins, even before the Holy Spirit was given, and were +clean through the words spoken unto them, many are ready to cry out, +"These are hard and strange sayings--who can hear them?" Yet, strange as +it may seem, these facts have been upon record near _nineteen hundred_ +years. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to +every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he +that believeth not shall be damned." In the record of St. Luke, chapter +24, the condition of the new covenant, to which remission of sins is +promised, is expressed by the term _repentance_: "Thus it behooved +Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that repentance and +remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, +beginning at Jerusalem." The word repentance, when used in the law of +Christ, is always equivalent to the use which the ancient martyrs made +of it, viz: "Amend your lives." We have it beautifully expressed in +these words: "If the wicked turn from all the sins which he hath +committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and +right, he shall surely live, he shall not die." + +Paul summed up the whole matter of his preaching in the sentence, +"Repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." In some of +the best Latin translations this passage in Acts 20th is rendered, +"_Conversion to God_;" also in Hebrews, 6th chapter, we read, "And +_conversion_ from dead works." Such is more clear and natural; but if we +should read, according to modern theology, _sorrow_ towards God, and +_sorrow_ from dead works, it would sound very unnatural, and almost +ridiculous. This is a grand argument in favor of the reading of the +_Geneva text_, which reads, "_Amend your lives_ and _turn_, that your +sins may be blotted out." But if heaven may be gained at an easier and +cheaper rate, how is it that we are so frequently and so plainly assured +that without actual newness of life, holiness and sanctification unto +obedience, there is no hope, no possibility of salvation? John the +Baptist, preaching repentance, said: "Every tree that bringeth not forth +good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." It is not the leaves, +simply, of a profession, nor the blossoms of good purposes and +intentions, but the fruit, _the fruit only_, that will save us from the +fire. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and +cast into the fire." + +Our Savior said, "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall +enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my father +who is in heaven." After he had delivered all the beautiful precepts +found in the lesson given upon the mount he closed up all by saying, "He +that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not I will liken him to +a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand, and when the rain +descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that +house, it fell, and great was the fall of it." They that are Christ's +have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If they have not +done this, and so attained fitness of character to dwell with God, it +matters not what their sorrow has been, nor their intentions, they will +not enter the kingdom of God. + +Paul says, "The works of the flesh are these: adultery, fornication, +uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, +emulations, wrath, strife, seditious, heresies, envyings, murders, +drunkenness, revelings, of which I forewarn you, as I have told you in +time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of +God." He does not say they who have done such things shall not be saved, +but just the contrary, for he adds: "Such were some of you, but ye are +washed, but ye are sanctified;" but he teaches the doctrine that those +who do such things and do not amend their lives shall not be excused by +any pretense of sorrow and good purposes; they "shall not inherit the +kingdom of God." "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth +anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature"--a creature living by +a faith, which worketh by love. It is not simply wishing you were a new +creature; not simply wishing for a working faith; nor sorrowing because +you are not a Christian; but "keeping the commandments of God," that +will permit you to enter heaven. + +In the final closing of the New Testament writings it is said: "Blessed +are they who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree +of life and enter in through the gates into the city." + +Paul says, "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man +shall see the Lord." And Peter says, "Add to your faith virtue, and to +virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance +patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly +kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity"--and finally says, if ye do +these things ye shall never fall, for so an abundant entrance shall be +ministered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior +Jesus Christ. And John says, speaking of the Christian's hope, "Every +man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure;" +then the impure may flatter themselves, and presume upon the favor of +God without "purifying their souls in obeying the truth," but they are +without hope in the world. And again he says, "Little children let no +man deceive you, he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is +righteous." + +So all the writers and teachers of the New Testament, with one consent, +proclaim the necessity of obeying the commandments of the gospel. What a +vain whim it is to think that sorrow and mere intention without +reformation of life will admit you into heaven. This golden dream of +heaven has sent thousands out of this world unpardoned and unsaved. + +A great many persons satisfy themselves with a mere confession and +acknowledgement of their sins. They seem to think they have done enough, +if to confession of sins they add some sorrow for it. They think all is +well if, when their fit of sinning is past and they are returned to +themselves, the sting remains, breeding some remorse of conscience, some +complaints against their wickedness and folly for having done so, and +some intentions to forsake it, though never carried into effect. There +are many persons in the churches of our country who seem to think the +church is a stage, whereon they must play their parts, who make a +profession every day of confessing their sins with humble hearts, and +yet, after having spent twenty, thirty or forty years in this manner, +their hearts are as stubborn as ever, and they as impenitent and +disobedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If giving thanks to God for +the blessing received at his hands is performed with words only, with +simple hosannas, and hallelujahs, and "_gloria patris_," and psalms, and +hymns, then I presume it is done very efficiently, (?) though our lives +are provoking to his majesty. _It is not the office of a friend (?) to +bewail a friend with vain lamentation._ To be thankful to God is not to +say God be praised, or God be thanked, but it is to remember what he +desires and execute what he commands. A dying Roman once said, "It is +not the office of a friend to bewail a dead friend with vain +lamentations, but to remember what he desires and execute his commands. +It is the office of the friends of Christ to remember his desires and +carry out his instructions. If we do so we are thankful, and if we do +not our thankfulness is nothing more than mere talk." + +Jesus said to his disciples: "Ye are my friends if ye do what I command +you." And again: "If a man love me he will keep my words; he that loveth +me not, keepeth not my sayings." Again: "If ye continue in my word, then +are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth +shall make you free." + +Those who love God love his cause. When that cause prospers they +rejoice; when it declines they are hurt. When clouds and darkness are +round about the church it is time to double our diligence and pray to +God for help. Circumstances, over which no human being can have control, +sometimes cause sluggishness in the character of a church. The hearts of +God's people are often deeply affected by witnessing the indifference +and carelessness of the people, and still more affected by a falling off +in their numbers. When the godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail from +among the children of men, it is distressing; but such is the lot of man +that we are often called upon to witness the truthfulness of the +prophet's statement. All true Christians love the godly because they are +faithful. The term _faithful_ implies truth, sincerity and fidelity. +Christ, our great example, is called the faithful and true witness. The +use of the term in our religion indicates believers in Christ--_obedient +believers_--_faithful brethren in Christ_. Col. i: 2. Sometimes it is +equivalent to the word _true_, as in 2d Tim., ii: 2--"Faithful men;" the +fidelity of the persons alluded to had been tried--_proven_. And again, +it means a Christian, in opposition to an infidel, as in 2d Cor. vi: +15--"What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" A good man is +faithful in his business transactions; faithful to his _profession_, +adhering to the principles of the gospel and laboring to be faithful to +death; faithful in the discharge of his duties; faithful in the +employment of his talents; faithful in all things committed to his +trust; faithful to his promises; faithful in his friendship. These men +fail and cease by means of death. The fathers, where are they? And the +teachers, do they live forever? The visitations of death are often +mysterious to us. Sometimes the most brilliant in intellect and the most +useful in talent, also the most pious and useful in the church, are cut +down, while mere cumberers of the ground remain. + +The profession of some is only transient; they soon disappear from the +assembly of the saints. Some improper motive, some peculiar excitement +may have moved them, or their goodness of heart may have left them. They +have possibly been stony ground hearers or thorny ground hearers. The +world allures thousands and kills the vitality of their religion. + +Judas betrayed his master from the love of worldly gain; and Demas, an +acceptable preacher and companion of Paul, abandoned his profession, +"having loved the present world." + +Many fail by endeavoring to unite the world and their religion, +maintaining a good moral character, but are destitute of energy in +Christianity. + +When this spirit gets hold of a man, and he is disposed to secularize +his religion, or subordinate it to his worldly interests, he is sure to +fail sooner or later. Some fail by falling into temptations of various +kinds, and disgrace their profession; and some fail through +intemperance. Many fail through the influence of error and the enemies +of Christianity. These frequently beguile the unwary. + +There never was a time in our history when unbelief and skepticism was +more determined in its opposition to the Christian religion than at the +present. There is an incessant attempt to instill into the minds of the +young principles in opposition to, and destructive of Christianity. Many +have split upon the rocks of infidelity, and stranded upon the +quicksands of doubt and skepticism, in spite of the fact that +Christianity presented them an example, which is the light and life of +men--a character without a blot! And this example is the only foundation +upon which to build a moral and pious temple in which the Lord does, and +the creature may dwell. + + + + +OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION--THE TEN ATHEISTS IN COUNCIL--No. II. + +BY P.T. RUSSEL. + + +A rap is heard at the door. It being opened, Christian enters. "Good +morning, gentlemen. I am very glad to find you all here. Since our +former interview I have been very anxious to continue our investigation +of the evidence of the existence of God. I presume, as you are +'_Free-thinkers_' and lovers of truth, you are by this time ready to +give a scientific reason for the existence of the idea of God, and, as +you agree with me that we only obtain ideas through the aid of the five +senses, our only idea of color by the eye, of sound by the ear, etc., I +wish to ask you to account for the idea of God. Will you oblige me?" + +_Atheists_--Certainly. We have consulted on this theme since our last +interview, and now declare it to be the work or nature of the +imagination. It is a scientific truth, as you will readily admit, that +imagination can and does get up some singular and unreal forms. We now +assume that the idea of a God is but the thought of an imaginary being. + +_Christian_--True, gentlemen. Fancy, or imagination, does, in active +moments, bring for our amusement some fantastic pictures. Her work, +however, is never simple, but always complex. This that we are in search +of is the idea of a simple being--a being that is single, and not +duplex. I will now illustrate the extent of the power of the +imagination. Taking a walk through nature's flower garden, we gather one +of every variety, and examining them closely, one by one, we notice +their difference in form, color and size by the eye. Their fragrance we +note by the smell. Thus, by the aid of the senses, we note all their +sensible properties. Now, allowing that memory is perfect, we have in +store all the peculiarities of each and every individual flower. +Gentlemen atheists, am I correct in this conclusion? + +_Atheists_--Well, yes. + +_Christian_--Very well; then I'll proceed. Having learned, by what we +saw, the art of combining, we can and will imagine all these single +flowers blended in one large conglomerated flower, containing all the +peculiarities of each and every single flower. Now, gentlemen, is not +this all that the imagination can do? + +_Atheists_--It is. + +_Christian_--Very well. Is this a simple or compound idea? + +_Atheists_--It is a compound idea. It is simply the blending of the idea +of each single flower. + +_Christian_--And this is all the imagination can do? Then, gentlemen, do +you not see that as the idea of God is the idea of a single person, it +would be utterly impossible for imagination to be its author? It is not +a conglomerate idea, but a single one. Now, if there is no God, we have +a clear, definite idea of _nothing_. How will you account for this? Are +you not now unable to give a reason for your premises? Is it not the +truth that fools are wiser in their own conceit than men who can give a +reason? + +_Atheists_--Mr. Christian, we did not think that you would thus call us +all fools, and as our investigation has taken such an unlooked for turn, +we must ask time for consultation before we proceed further. + +_Christian_--Very well. When will you be ready to resume? this I am +anxious to know; as you are "liberalists" and "free-thinkers," you will +be equally anxious to reach the truth in the premises? + +_Atheists_--At two P.M. + +It is two o'clock, and all are present. + +Mr. Reason, who was an atheist, opens the discussion as follows: + +"Mr. Christian, we have held a council on the subject under discussion, +and our conclusion is that you are right. There must be, and is, such a +being as God. Were this not so, we never could have had the idea of him. +We are now deists. We deny that he has ever imparted knowledge to man by +revelation." + +_Christian_--Gentlemen, do you think your present position is a +scientific one? + +_Deists_--We think it is both scientific and invulnerable, and we also +think that if you continue this investigation with us you will find it +so. How did you obtain this idea? Have you seen God? No. Have you heard +him speak? No. If we had we could not be honest without being +Christians? + +_Christian_--Gentlemen, have you not contraband goods in your warehouse? +As your eyes have not seen, nor your ears heard, nor your powers of +observation perceived him, and as you acknowledge that every one of your +ideas entered the mind through the aid of one or another of the five +senses, now, I ask, are you logically any better off than before you +found yourselves obliged to relinquish your atheism? Do you not now, as +well as then, occupy unreasonable ground? Having rather conceded that +atheists are fools, and turned _deists_, are you really any better off? +Can you give a reason for your present infidelity? Out of your own +mouths you stand condemned as unreasonable and foolish. You pretend to +venerate reason, while you discard her first principles. You need not +try to evade me at this point by an appeal to nature. Here you can find +no aid, for nature tells us of no first cause. The apple tree, before +this window, now so richly laden with fruit, tells not of its first +cause. If you say it came from an apple-seed, and that from an apple, +and that from another tree, another seed, and another tree, and so on, +in a circle you may always go, for nature does not tell you of a first +tree as a cause uncaused, nor of a Creator, a God. She does not go +behind herself. Gentlemen, have you any reply? If you have, I would like +to hear it. + +Reason timidly says: "Mr. C., in your very severe strictures on the +deists, are you not condemning yourself? You pretend to place full +confidence in the teachings of your Bible, and does it not say: 'The +heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his +handiwork?' Can nature thus declare and not make known?" + +_Christian_--Yes, your quotation tells the truth; yet in this also you +have taken too much for granted. There stands a clock; it keeps correct +time, but does it declare the glory of any one? + +_Deists_--Yes, that of its maker. + +_Christian_--But who was its maker. You say you do not know. That is +true, and, for ought you know, or can learn from its mechanism there +might have been several makers connected with its origin. If you had +stood by and seen it made, then you might have told me all about it. In +that which you call the works of nature, neither you, nor I, nor any of +our fellows, are instructed by actual observation consequent upon being +present when they were made--we were not standing by when the heavens +were made; so that source of information is closed up. There is now but +one resort left to us--but one reasonable means of information. That is, +the maker of all things must, necessarily, have told man that he created +all these things. Then, with David, he could sing, "The heavens declare +the glory of God." Man first learned from God that he was the creator of +all things, for God alone could tell it. Gentlemen, the Christian is +the only reasonable being upon the earth, and the only _fearless +free-thinker_. The atheist, you see, is proved a fool, and the deist is +no better. Think this over, then call again. + +_Deists_--We will. _Good evening._ + + + + +THOMAS PAINE + +WAS NOT AN INFIDEL WHEN HE WROTE HIS WORK CALLED COMMON SENSE. + + +"In the early ages of the world, according to the Scripture chronology, +there were no kings, the consequence of which was there were no wars. It +is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion. Holland, +without a king, hath enjoyed more peace for the last century than any of +the monarchical governments of Europe. Antiquity favors the same remark, +for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs have a happy +something in them which vanishes when we come to the history of Jewish +royalty." (Common Sense, p. 12.) + +Mr. Paine, did the God of the Bible approve of the Jewish royalty? + +_Ans._ "As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest can not be +justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended +on the authority of Scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared +by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by +kings." * * * Near three thousand years passed away, from the Mosaic +account of the creation, until the Jews, under the national delusion, +requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in +extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of +republic, administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. King +they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under the +title but Lord of Hosts. * * * Monarchy is ranked in Scripture as one +of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced +against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to. The +children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched +against them with a small army, and victory, through the divine +interposition, decided in his favor. The Jews, elate with success, and +attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, +saying, "_Rule thou over us, thou and thy son, and thy son's son._" Here +was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an +hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied, "_I will +not rule over you; neither shall my son rule over you._ THE LORD SHALL +RULE OVER YOU." (Common Sense, pp. 13 and 14.) + +How many Gideons are there among leading infidels whose soul-piety would +resist such a temptation as that? Say, was Thomas Paine an infidel when +he wrote that? + +"In short, monarchy and succession have laid, not this or that kingdom +only, but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of government which +the word of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it." +(Common Sense, p. 19.) "'But where,' say some, 'is the king of America?' +I'll tell you, friend; he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of +mankind like the royal brute of Britain. Yet, that we may not appear to +be defective in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for +proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth, placed on the divine +law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world +may know that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America _the law +is king_." (Common Sense, p. 33.) + +After quoting sundry passages of Scripture against a kingly form of +government, Thomas Paine says: + +"These portions of Scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no +equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest +against monarchical government is true, or the Scripture is false. And a +man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as +priestcraft in withholding the Scripture from the public in popish +countries." (Common Sense, p. 15.) + +From the foregoing _verbatim_ quotations it will be seen that Thomas +Paine was no infidel until he PARTED WITH "COMMON SENSE," which bears +date of February 14, 1776. Common Sense is of noble worth. We cheerfully +concede to Thomas Paine all the honor due him for services rendered in +behalf of our country while he was Thomas Paine the Quaker. He did +nothing for our country after he avowed his infidelity that deserves +being mentioned by any intelligent Christian. + + + + +A CLUSTER OF THOUGHTS, + +GATHERED FROM JENYN'S INTERNAL EVIDENCES, WITH ADDITIONS AND +MODIFICATIONS. + + +When the religion of Christ made its appearance it was entirely new, +infinitely above, and altogether different from any other which had at +any time entered into the mind of man. Its object was new. It was to +prepare us with fitness of character, through a state of trial, for +mutual association with the pure and lovely in the kingdom of heaven. +This is presented in all the gospel, as the chief end of the Christian's +life. Until Christ, no such reward was offered to mankind, nor means +provided for its attainment. + +Many of the philosophers in old times had ideas of a future state, but +they were mixed with a great deal of uncertainty and misgivings. + +Ancient legislators endeavored to inculcate the idea of rewards and +punishments after death, to give sanction to their laws. This was the +sole end in view, and when their laws were virtuous, it was a noble, a +praiseworthy end. But the religion of Christ is related to the same +object, brings it about; and, also, has a nobler end in view, and that +is to prepare us here for a more noble society among the citizens of +the kingdom of God in the great hereafter. + +In all the older religions the good of the present was the direct, and +the first object, but in the religion of Christ it is the second. The +first great object of the gospel of Christ is to prepare us for the +realities of eternity. + +There is a great contrast between adhering to morality from the motive +of present profit, in expectation of future reward, and living such a +life as to qualify us for the realization of future happiness. + +The character of those who are governed by these different principles is +not the same. On the first principle, present utility, we may have mere +moralists, men practicing simple justice, temperance and sobriety. On +the second, we must add to those graces of moral nature faith in God, +resignation to his will, and habitual piety. The first will make us very +good citizens in a civil government, but will never be sufficient to +make us Christians. So the religion of Christ insists upon purity of +heart and benevolence, or charity, because these are essential to the +end proposed. + +"That the present existence is one of trial with reference to another +state of being, is confirmed by all that we know in what is termed the +course of nature. Probation is the only key that unfolds to us the +designs of God in the history of human affairs, the only clue that +guides us through the pathless wilderness, and the only plan upon which +this world could possibly have been formed, or upon which its history +can be explained." + +This world was not formed upon a plan of unconditioned happiness, +because it is overspread with miseries. Neither was it formed upon a +plan of unconditioned misery, for there are many joys interspersed +throughout the whole. It was not formed for the unconditional existence +of both vice and virtue, for that is no plan at all, the two elements +being, as we know, destructive of each other. By the way, in this very +fact we find the grand necessity for the remedial scheme. + +The mixture of vice and virtue, of happiness and misery, is a necessary +result of a state of probation, trials and sufferings consequent upon +offending or violating the will of heaven. + +The doctrine of the religion of Christ, with its ultimate object and its +ideas of God and man, of the present and the future life, and of the +relations which these all bear to each other, was and is wholly unheard +of until you come to the teachings of Christ. No other religion ever +drew such pictures of the worthlessness of earthly-mindedness and of +living merely for this present world. And no other ever set out such +beautiful, lively and glorious pictures of heavenly-mindedness, along +with the joys of a future world, nor such pictures of victory over death +and the grave, nor of the last judgment, nor of the triumphs of the +redeemed in that tremendous day. The personal character of the great +author, Christ, is as new and peculiar to this religion as anything else +that we can possibly name--"He spake as never man spake." + +He is the only founder of a religion which is "unconnected with all +human policy and government," and, as such, should not be prostituted to +any mere worldly purposes whatever. Numa, Mohammed, and even Moses, +blended their religious institutions with their civil, and by such means +controlled their adherents. Christ neither exercised nor accepted such +power. He rejected every motive which controlled other leaders, and +chose those which others avoided. Power, honor, riches and pleasure were +alike disregarded. He seemed to court poverty, sufferings and death. + +Many impostors and enthusiasts have tried to impose upon the world with +pretended communications from the world of spirits--some of them have +died rather than recant; but no history is found to show one who made +his own sufferings and death a necessary part of his plan and essential +elements in his mission. This distinguishes the Savior of the world from +all mere enthusiasts and imposters. He declared his death in all its +minutia; with a prophet's vision he saw it, declared it was necessary, +and voluntarily endured it; and he was neither a madman nor idiot. Look +at his lessons, his precepts and his wonderful conduct, and then +imagine him insane if you can. Still, if he was not what he pretended to +be, he can be viewed in no other light; and yet under the character of a +madman he deserves much attention on account of such sublime and +_rational insanity_. There is no other person known in the world's +history so _rationally_ and _sublimely_ mad. + +In what madman's career can you find such a beautiful lesson as his +instructions given upon the mount. What other leader enforced his +precepts and lessons upon men's credulity with such assurances of reward +as, "Come, ye blessed of my father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you +from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me +meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took +me in; I was naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I +was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, +saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee; or thirsty, +and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in; or +naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison, and +came unto thee? Then shall he answer and say unto them, Verily, I say +unto you, inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." + +Before the appearance of Christ there existed nothing like the faith of +Christ and Christianity upon the face of the earth. The Jews alone had a +few of its types and shadows, but the great mystery of Christ had been +kept hid since the world began. All the Gentile nations were wrapped up +in the very worst idolatry, having little or no connection whatever with +morality, except to corrupt it with the infamous examples of their gods. +"They all worshiped a multitude of gods and demons, whose favor they +sought by obscene and ridiculous ceremonies, and whose anger they tried +to appease with the most abominable cruelties." With them, heaven was +open only to legislators and conquerors, the civilizers and destroyers +of mankind. This was the summit of their religion, and even this was +limited to a few prodigies of genius and learning, which was but little +regarded and understood by the great masses. One common cloud of +ignorance and superstition involved them. At this time Christ came as a +teacher; his appearance was like a rising sun, dispelling the darkness +and blessing the earth with light and heat. + +If any man can believe that the son of a carpenter, together with twelve +of the meanest and most illiterate mechanics, unassisted by any +superhuman wisdom and power, should be able to invent and promulgate a +system of theology and ethics the most sublime and perfect, which all +such men as Plato, Aristotle and Cicero had overlooked, and that they, +by their own wisdom, repudiated every false virtue, though universally +admired, and that they admitted every true virtue, though despised and +ridiculed by all the rest of the world--if any man can believe that they +were _impostors_ for no other purpose than the promulgation of truth, +_villains_ for no purpose but to teach honesty, and _martyrs_ with no +prospect of honor or advantage; or that they, as false witnesses, should +have been able, in the course of a few years, to have spread this +religion over the most of the known world, in opposition to the +interests, ambition and prejudices of mankind; that they triumphed over +the power of princes, the intrigues of states, the forces of custom, the +blindness of zeal, the influence of priests, the arguments of orators, +and the philosophy of the world, without any assistance from God, he +must be in possession of more faith than is necessary to make him a +Christian and continues an unbeliever from mere credulity. If the +credulous infidel, whose convictions are without evidence and against +evidence, should, after all, be in the right, and Christianity prove to +be a fable, what harm could ensue from being a Christian? Are Christian +rulers more tyrannical and their Christian subjects more ungovernable? +Are the rich more insolent _when Christianized_? Are poor Christians +most insolent and disorderly? Does Christianity make worse parents and +worse children? Does it make husbands and wives, friends and neighbors +less trustworthy? Does it not make men and women more virtuous and happy +in every situation in life? If Christianity is a fable, it is one the +belief of which retains men and women in a regular and uniform life of +virtue, piety and devotion to truth. It gives support in the hour of +distress, of sickness and death. + +"If there were a few more Christians in the world it would be very +beneficial to themselves and by no means detrimental to the public." + + + + +THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST. + + "He, who gave life to man at first, + Can restore it when it is lost." + + +Our Savior claimed to be the Son of God, and put the validity of his +claim on this, that he should die openly by crucifixion, be buried, and +rise from the dead upon the third day. Among all the impostors known in +earth's history there is not one instance of a _plot_ like this fact. A +mere plot of this nature would be hard to manage. That the first part of +this prophesy was fulfilled even our enemies admit. It has not been +alleged by infidels of any note that the crucifixion was a fraud, and +did not take place, and that Jesus, as a consequence, did not die. + +The chief priests seem to have had considerable concern about the +prediction of the resurrection. Why this? Was it because they had +discovered in the person of Christ an impostor, a mere cheat? No; this +alone would have caused them to utterly disregard the prediction of his +resurrection. Those priests saw something in the character of Christ +which caused them to fear the fulfillment of his prediction. What other +person ever created such a concern about such an event? There is not a +similar case in the world's history. What other dead person was ever +known to create such a feeling as that which moved his enemies to +confront him, if possible, in his rising power. Those priests had, +doubtless, witnessed his miracles again and again. It is beyond all +question true that they feared him in his death. If they had seen no +wonderful power exerted during his life they certainly would have feared +none after he was dead. The fear of the chief priests over the Savior's +dead body is an insurmountable evidence of the mighty works which he +accomplished during his life. Those priests addressed themselves to the +Roman governor, and requested a guard placed around the tomb; three days +and nights would settle the question, for the prediction would terminate +on the third day. Pilate granted the request, and a guard was set to +watch; they sealed the door of the sepulcher, placing the seal of the +state upon the great stone. The object of the seal was, doubtless, for +the satisfaction of all parties concerned in this matter. + +It was a precaution against fraud. If the seal upon a door or box is +broken we know at once that it has been meddled with. When Darius thrust +Daniel among the lions he put his seal upon the door of the den, to +satisfy himself and his court that no human hand had interfered for +Daniel's delivery. When he came to the den and found his seal unbroken, +he was satisfied. A seal thus used is of the nature of a covenant. If +you deliver sealed writings to an individual his acceptance amounts to a +covenant between you that the same shall be delivered just as they were +received. If the seal is broken, it is a manifestation of attempted +fraud. There is no special agreement needed in order to the existence of +covenants by seals; it is an agreement which men are placed under by the +laws of nations. The sealing of the sepulcher where the body of Jesus +lay was to impose, by all the solemnities of the Roman state, +obligations upon all the parties interested in the person of Christ. It +was a grand effort on the part of the authorities to prevent any +interference with the dead body. + +When impostors are known they become odious, and are but little noticed. +How was it with Christ? When the popular sentiment was that he was a +prophet the priests and scribes sought his life, believing that his +death would end his cause? When they and the people learned that he was +an impostor (?) they thought him unsafe after he was dead. + +The prediction of Christ that he would rise the third day was publicly +known throughout Jerusalem; but why the chief priests should concern +themselves so much about it as to take all the steps to prevent its +fulfillment, is a puzzling question with infidels. Was it because they +had detected him as a cheat and an impostor? No, this is an unreasonable +conclusion. It must have been a secret conviction touching his mighty +power. The seal was a proper check upon the guards; the Jews could have +no other object in having it placed there. They were not so foolish as +to think, that by this contrivance they would outstrip Providence. + +Guards were set to watch, and, doubtless, did their whole duty. But what +are sentinels when the power of Omnipotence is put forth? An angel of +the Lord makes his appearance. The keepers saw him, and fell down like +dead men. The angel rolled away the stone, and the conqueror came forth +to live in the hearts of millions, and to live forevermore. + +The disciples, receiving power from on high, soon make their appearance +in Jerusalem, and boldly assert the fact of the resurrection. The +murderers of the Savior were there. What do the priests do next? They +had bribed the soldiers to tell a lie which was so base that it only +needed to be told in order to be known as a lie. Next, they arrest the +apostles; they beat them, they scourge them, and bid them shut their +mouths, and insist that they shall say no more about this matter. They +did not seem to regard them as liars and impostors, else they would +doubtless have charged them with the fraud. They try to assassinate and +murder these witnesses of the resurrection. They prevailed with Herod to +put one of them to death; but they never seemed to think of charging +them with stealing the body away. Their orator, Tertullus, could not +have missed such a topic as imposition and fraud if any had been +practiced. He did not seem to think of anything of the sort, but +contented himself with the charge of sedition, heresy, and the +profanation of the temple. Yet the very question of the resurrection was +under consideration; for Festus tells Agrippa, that the Jews had +"certain questions against Paul of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul +affirmed to be alive." After this Agrippa heard Paul's testimony, and so +far was he from suspecting imposition, that he said, "Almost thou +persuadest me to be a Christian." + +Not long after the resurrection the apostles were taken before the +council and sanhedrim of the Children of Israel. They make their own +defense, a part of which is in these words: "The God of our fathers +raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." The first impulse +of the council was to slay them all; but Gamaliel, one of the council, +stood up and related the history of several impostors who perished in +former days, and said: "If this work be of men it will come to nought, +but if it be of God ye can not overthrow it." He advised them to refrain +from the men and let time tell the story. The tree shall be known by its +fruits. The council acquiesced; they gave the apostles a whipping and +let them go. + +A resurrection is a thing to be ascertained by men's senses. We all know +whether a man is dead by the same means by which we know whether a man +is alive. There are those who claim that "a resurrection could not be +proven by any amount of testimony, because of its being contrary to the +course of nature." But this is mere prejudice and ignorance. First: Who +can measure the extent of natural possibilities? Are they generally +known? Is it a greater thing to give life to a body once dead than to a +body that never was alive? The objection rests upon the thought that +testimony should be respected only in such cases as seem to us possible, +or in the ordinary course of nature. According to this, no amount of +evidence could establish the fact that water freezes and becomes solid +in a country where such is not the ordinary course of nature. Does a +man's ability in discerning and his truthfulness in reporting depend +upon the skill or ignorance of those who hear? We know facts that seem +to be as much contrary to the course of nature as anything could +possibly be. But, in all candor, I must claim that in appealing to the +settled course of nature, in a case like the one under consideration, +the question is referred not to the laws of evidence or maxims of +reason, but to the prejudices of men and to their mistakes, which are +many. Men form a notion of nature from what they see; so, under +different surroundings, their notions about the course of nature will +differ. The objection falls worthless at the feet of the INFINITE ONE. +There is no greater difficulty in accounting for the fact that the dead +live again than there is in accounting for the fact that they did live. + + + + +PUBLIC NOTORIETY OF THE SCRIPTURES. + + +Origen was born in the year one hundred and eighty-five of the Christian +dispensation, and lived sixty-eight years. He gives in his writings five +thousand seven hundred and sixty-five quotations from the New Testament. +Tertullian gives eighteen hundred and two quotations from the New +Testament. Clemens, of Alexandria, labored in the year one hundred and +ninety-four. He gives us three hundred and eighty-four quotations from +the New Testament. Ireneus lived in the year one hundred and +seventy-eight. He gives us seven hundred and sixty-seven quotations from +the New Testament, making a grand total of eight thousand seven hundred +and twenty-three quotations, given by four ancient writers. + +If all the copies of the New Testament in the world were destroyed, the +whole, with the exception of eleven verses, could be reproduced from the +writings of men who lived prior to the Nicene Council. Unbelievers quote +from all ancient heathen authors as though they were books of yesterday, +without manifesting the least doubt in reference to their authenticity +or authorship. The evidences necessary to establish genuineness of +authorship are ten-fold greater in the case of the New Testament +Scriptures than in the case of the histories of Alexander, Julius Cæsar +and Cyrus, as given by ancient writers. + +The notoriety of the New Testament writings during the first centuries +is without a parallel among all ancient writings. Their effect upon +society during those centuries can never be explained in harmony with +unbelief. But this is not all that is to be considered. Their notoriety +extends over the centuries between us and the times of the apostles. +Such notoriety is the grand support upon which the New Testament stands. +All other ancient writings stand upon the same kind of evidence, but +this kind of evidence is more than ten-fold greater in the support of +our religion than it is in the support of any other ancient documents. + +We may obtain some idea of the influence of the New Testament Scriptures +during the first centuries from the statements of Gibbon. He says there +were "six millions of Christians in existence in the year three hundred +and thirteen." It is reasonable to allow that there were three millions +in the year one hundred and seventy-five. Under the best emperors of the +second century books were cheap. Thousands of persons engaged in writing +histories for a livelihood. It is allowed that there were as many as +fifteen thousand copies of the four gospels in circulation among the +people in the last quarter of the second century. This state of things +seems to convey the idea that it would be hard work to introduce +successfully any corruption into the text after this period of time. It +would be too easily detected. + +There is also a grand argument in favor of the genuineness of our +religion, which is in the fact that it was in deathly opposition to both +Judaism and Paganism, its success being the destruction of both. If +Christianity was an imposition, its success during the first three +centuries of our era is utterly inexplicable. + + + + +WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AND DONE WITHOUT THE BIBLE. + + +Our ancestors complained of the reign of wickedness; we complain of it +and our posterity will complain of it. I sometimes think we are all a +set of complainers and grumblers. + +Of ancient pagans it is said: "They worshiped and served the creature +more than the Creator." Of their idols Persius, who was a Roman +satirical poet, born A.D. 34, said: + + "O, cares of men! O, world all fraught + With vanities! O, minds inclined + Towards earth, all void of heavenly thought!" + +Sedulius, an ancient Christian poet, and by nativity a Scotchman, says +of the same: + + "Ah! wretched they that worship vanities, + And consecrate dumb idols in their heart-- + Who their own Maker, God on high, despise, + And fear the works of their own hands and art! + What fury, what great madness doth beguile + Men's minds that man should ugly shapes adore + Of birds, or bulls, or dragons, or the vile + Half-dog, half-man, on knees for aid implore." + +One of their own poets jests them thus: + + "Even now I was the stock of an old fig tree, + The workman doubting what I then should be, + A bench or god, at last a god made me." + +The Romans, for a time, were without images for any religious use, but +afterwards they received into their city the idols of all the nations +they conquered; and as they became the lords of the whole earth, they +became slaves to the idols of all the world. Seneca says: "The images of +the gods they worship, those they pray unto with bended knees, _those_ +they admire and adore, and contemn the artificers who made them." + +The character and condition of their gods was worse than their own. The +common opinion touching their god of gods, _Jupiter_, was that he was +entombed in Crete, and his monument was there to be seen. Lactantius +_wittily_ says: "Tell me, I beseech you, how can the same god be alive +in one place and dead in another; have a temple dedicated to him in one +place and a tomb erected in another?" Callimachus, in his hymn on +_Jupiter_, calls the Cretians liars in this very respect. He says: + + "The Cretians always lyars are, who raised unto thy name + A sepulchre, that never dyest, but ever art the same." + +Lactantius informs us in book 10, chapter 20, that they gave divine +honor to notorious common prostitutes, as unto _goddesses_, to _Venus_, +or _Faula_, to _Lapa_, the nurse of _Romulus_, so called among the +shepherds for her common prostitution, and to Flora, who enriched +herself by her crime, and then, by will, made the people of Rome her +heir, and, also left a sum of money by which her birthday was yearly +celebrated with games, which, in memory of her, they called _Floralia_. +They claimed that their great goddess, _Juno_, was both the wife and +sister of Jupiter; and Jupiter, and the other gods, they held, were no +better that adulterers, sodomites, murderers and thieves. Such was not +held in private but published to the world. They were described by their +painters in their tables, by their poets in their verses, and acted by +their players upon their stages. (Lactantius, b. 5, ch. 21.) + +As respects the manner in which they worshiped their gods, Alexander, in +his Dierum Genialium, b. 6, ch. 26, insists that the most odious thing +in their history was the effusion of human blood in the service of their +gods. This same author says, "This unnatural, barbarous practice spread +itself well nigh over the known world; it was in use among the Trojans, +as it seems from Virgil's lines touching Æneas: + + "Their hands behind their backs he bound whom he had destined + A sacrifice unto the ghosts, and on whose flames to shed + Their blood he purposed."--_Ænead._ + +Some ignorant infidels seem at a great loss to understand why the Lord +should order the groves and altars of the heathen destroyed. (Again and +again their groves were cut down.) The children of Israel were to make +no offerings in the groves. If infidels will only exercise common sense +inside of the history of the worship of Priapus and Berecynthia, they +will cease fretting over the destruction of those beautiful forests. +Those groves were the most corrupt places upon the earth, places of +retirement from the altar into prostitution, carried on as a matter of +worship pleasing to Priapus. Here, on account of becoming modesty, the +half can not be told. The removal of nuisances in our own country is +conducted upon the same principles upon which groves were destroyed by +the Israelites. + +Lycurgus dedicated an image to laughter, to be worshiped as a god, and +this is said to be "the only law he ever made pertaining to religion." +While his great object was to make warriors, he ordained some things +noted for the education of youth. He ordained other laws so much in +favor of lust and all carnality of the worst kind, that it might justly +be said he made his entire commonwealth ludicrous. He instituted +wrestlings, dances and other exercises of boys and girls naked, to be +done in public at divers times of the year, in the presence both of +young and old men. Adultery was also approved and permitted by the laws +of Lycurgus. Plato and Aristotle advocated community of women, of goods +and possessions, to the end that no man should have anything peculiar to +himself, or know his own children. This was ordained by Plato, in order +to establish in the commonwealth such a perfect unity that no man might +be able to say, that is thine, or this is mine. + +Aristotle, in the second book of his "_Politiques_," sets forth many +other detestable things. Lactantius, in the third of his Divine +Institutions, shows that Plato's community of property and women took +away frugality, abstinence, shamefacedness, modesty and justice itself. + +Plato, like Lycurgus, ordained that young men should, for the increase +of their physical strength and agility of body, at certain times +exercise themselves naked; that girls and servant-maids should dance +naked among the young men; that women in the flower of their youth +should dance, run, wrestle and ride with young men naked as well as +they, which, says Plato, "whosoever misliketh understandeth not how +profitable it is for the commonwealth." + +The morality of ancient times may be clearly seen in the fact that all +manner of debasing things were brought to the front. How could men be +persuaded that adultery should be punished when they were taught from +infancy that it was a virtue among the gods? _Lucian_ gives his +experience thus, "When I was yet a boy, and heard out of _Homer_ and +_Hesiod_ of the adulteries, fornications, rapes and seditions of the +gods, truly I thought that those things were very excellent, and began +even then to be greatly affected towards them, for I could not imagine +that the gods themselves would ever have committed adultery if they had +not esteemed the same lawful and good." To all this it may be added that +the opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning virtue, vice, the +final happiness, and the state of the spirit after death, were diverse +and contradictory. The Epicurean doctrine was, that sovereign happiness +consisted in pleasure. They granted a God, but denied his Providence; so +virtue was without a spur, and vice without a bridle. + +The Stoics also granted a Divine Providence, but they maintained such a +fatal necessity that they blunted the edge of all virtuous efforts and +excused themselves in vicious conduct. Both Stoics and Epicureans +doubted the immortality of the human spirit, and thereby opened the way +to all manner of licentiousness. + +I am persuaded that eternity alone will fully reveal the consequences of +a denial of a future life and retribution; it is a physical leprosy +which removes all the most powerful incentives to virtue and loosens up +the soul to all manner of lustful gratifications. + +A man once remarked: "I have lived four years an avowed infidel. I have +boasted that I would live a good man and die an infidel. I have formed +the acquaintance of all the leading infidels of my country, and I am now +prepared to candidly confess that I do not believe any man can keep a +good heart without the fear of God. Such is my observation and +experience." + + + + +THE LATEST EVOLUTIONARY CONFLICT. + +THEY FIRST WISH IT TO BE SO, THEN SOON, WITHOUT PROOF, THEY ASSERT THAT +IT IS SO! + +(_From the Cincinnati Gazette, of June 26, 1880._) + +"Prof. Huxley is assured that the doctrine of evolution, so far as the +animal world is concerned, is no longer a speculation, but a statement +of historical fact, taking its place along side of those accepted truths +which must be taken into account by philosophers of all schools." + +This statement was the summing up of an address delivered at the Royal +Institution on the 19th of March. The address was specifically an +account of "The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species"--it being nearly +twenty-one years since Darwin's work bearing that name was first +published. + +The lecturer glanced at the general replacement of the catastrophic +theory of geology by the uniformitarian hypothesis, claimed that many of +the most important breaks in the line of the descent of plants and +animals had been filled, noticed the great advance made in the science +of embryology, and held that the amount of our knowledge respecting the +mammalia of the Tertiary epoch had increased fifty-fold since Darwin's +work appeared, and in some directions even approaches completeness. The +lecture closed with these words: "Thus when, on the first of October +next, 'The Origin of Species' comes of age, the promise of its youth +will be amply fulfilled and we shall be prepared to congratulate the +venerated author of the book, not only that the greatness of his +achievement and its enduring influence upon the progress of knowledge +have won him a place beside Harvey, but, still more, that, like Harvey, +he has lived long enough to outlast detraction and opposition, and to +see the stone that the builders rejected become the head-stone of the +corner." + +This is plain and emphatic speaking, but it has not been suffered to +pass unchallenged. + +Dr. Charles Elam, a writer who has already more than once measured +swords with the school of naturalists of which Professor Huxley is a +foremost champion, has been moved to respond to this latest utterance. +He has contributed to the _Contemporary Review_ a paper entitled "The +Gospel of Evolution," which, whatever may be its conclusiveness, is one +of the sharpest attacks recently sustained by the opposing party. +Acknowledging at the start Mr. Darwin's pre-eminence as a naturalist, +and Prof. Huxley's equal accomplishments in the department of biology, +he yet ventures to continue his doubt regarding the evidence of their +peculiar doctrines. He first cites Darwin's admissions that it would be +fatal to his theory if any organs existed which could not have been +evolved by minute selective modifications, and his further concession +that "man, as well as every other animal, presents structures which, as +far as we can judge, are not now of any service to him, nor have been so +during any former part of his existence. Such structures can not be +accounted for by any form of selection or by the inherited effects of +the use and disuse of parts." + +Having contrasted Darwinism proper with its exaggerations, in the system +of Haeckel, who regards Darwin's admissions of an original creation as +contemptible, and recognizes only one force in the universe--the +mechanical, Dr. Elam compares Huxley's statement in his American +addresses that belief which is not based upon evidence is not only +illogical but immoral, with his last assertion that evolution is a fact, +doubted only by persons "who have not reached the stage of emergence +from ignorance." In 1862 Huxley also said--republishing the statements +as late as 1874: + +"Obviously, if the earliest fossiliferous rocks now known are coeval +with the commencement of life, and if their contents give us any just +conception of the nature and the extent of the earliest fauna and flora, +the insignificant amount of modification which can be demonstrated to +have taken place in any one group of animals or plants is quite +incompatible with the hypothesis that all living forms are the results +of a necessary process of a progressive development, entirely comprised +within the time represented by the fossiliferous rocks." + +Since this confession was uttered, whatever discoveries may have been +made, there has not been the faintest indication of the development of +any new species by artificial selection, the individuals of which are +fertile among themselves and infertile with the parent stock. It may +properly be alleged that there has not been time enough for such a slow +process, but it yet remains as true as ever that there is no direct +evidence in nature of what the Darwinians call _favorable variation_. It +is the unwritten law of nature that one race must die that another may +live, this other, in its turn, subserving the same end. Without this law +nature would be a chaotic impossibility. If natural selection were a +real agency, we ought to meet with frequent, if not constant, evidences +of transition, and a slow and gradual, but perceptible improvement in +species, especially marked in those whose generations succeed each other +rapidly. But we see nothing of the kind. But did selection really exist, +it would be incompetent to account for a multitude of structures and +functions to which any efficient cause should be applicable, notably to +the earliest rudiments of useful organs. Such organs as the eye and the +internal ear are quite out of reach of any explanation by natural +selection. Since the development of the eyes, due to the simultaneous +growth of parts from within and without, the organ itself would be +absolutely useless until it had attained such a degree of development as +to admit of these separate parts meeting, and so the principle of +preserving any useful variety would be quite inapplicable. The same is +true of the internal ear. + +Dr. Elam next passes in review Haeckel's Geneology of Man from the +Lowest Monera to his Present Station as Lord of Creation. What the +Germans call invention of species to fill troublesome gaps is +illustrated in many ways, but we have room only for a single example: + +"The vertebrata must be developed from something, and as yet there has +been no smallest indication of anything like a spine or a rudiment of +anything that could represent or be converted into one. It costs our +author nothing but a stroke of his pen to invent the 'Chordonia,' and +whence did they come? They were developed from the worms by the +formation of a spinal marrow and a _chorda dorsulis_. Nothing more--the +most trifling modification!--and we are at once provided with the root +and stem of the whole vertebrata divisions. It is scarcely any drawback +to this stroke of genius to say that there is no evidence whatever that +such an order of living beings ever existed; that no one has the least +conception of what they were like, or of any of their attributes. Prof. +Huxley's responsibility for this imaginative science is evidenced by his +declaration that the conception of geological time is the only point +upon which he fundamentally and entirely disagrees with Haeckel." + +It still remains true that all our positive and direct knowledge as to +species contradicts the evolution hypothesis. Its evidence is purely +inferential, and, as Dr. Elam quietly says, "As a psychological study it +is interesting to observe how many things are deemed impossible to the +infinite wisdom and power (which by the terms of the supposition, +presided over the arrangements of our world) which are perfectly clear +and comprehensible when considered as the result of blind chance and the +operation of mechanical causes only." Omitting for lack of space his +keen analysis of Huxley's claim of the evidence of evolution from the +orchippus to the modern horse, we follow our author from his array of +what is not proved to what is actually taught by geology. We quote: + +"THE SUCCESSION OF FORMS OF LIFE ON OUR GLOBE IS DEMONSTRABLY NOT SUCH +AS OUGHT TO BE THE CASE ON THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION." It was not the small +and feeble species or most generalized forms that first appeared, +either among mollusks, fish, reptiles or mammalia. We look in vain now +for the representatives of the gigantic fishes of the Old Red Sandstone. +And where are the mighty reptile tyrants of air, earth and water of the +Oolite? * * * These races appeared in the plenitude of their development +and power; and, as their dynasty grew old, it was not that the race was +improved or preserved in consequence, but they dwindled, and were, so to +speak, degraded, as if to make room in the economy of nature for their +successors. + +Next follows a closely linked argument that will not bear abridgement, +showing the physical improbability that man, a walking animal, was +descended from a climbing one, and the deplorable consequences which +obliterate free will and necessitate the secularization of morals, as +elaborated by Prof. Huxley's friend, Mr. Herbert Spencer. This part of +the subject has a special interest to Americans, since the work in which +Mr. Spencer's views are inculcated has been introduced as a manual in +one of our oldest colleges, but its reproduction would widely lengthen +our article. It is sufficient to say that Dr. Elam concludes that Mr. +Spencer's doctrine, that "actions are completely right only when, +besides being conducive to future happiness, they are immediately +pleasurable," would justify him in concealing any injury done by him to +a friend's scientific apparatus, provided he could attribute it to the +weather, or the intrusion of a dog. + +Such, in brief, are the points of an essay which, as a whole, is one of +the most brilliant responses that the declarations of leading +evolutionists have called forth. Of course, all its points are not new, +but old objections have been skillfully refurbished and new ones brought +into play. + + * * * * * + +To mourn for the dead, is to mourn for the lost casket when you still +retain the jewel it held. The memories of the dead one's virtues are the +jewels, and the cold clay but the casket. + + + + +AUTHORSHIPS OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + +I have a few questions to put to every man who says Christianity is not +true. They are these: If Christianity is not true, where did it come +from? How came it into the world? What is its origin? These questions +are not trifling ones. Infidels have given as many different answers to +them as there are days in the week. There is no agreement among them +that amounts to a settlement of the questions among themselves. The +Scriptures are ancient. Porphyry, born at Tyre in 233, wrote a book +against them, which was burned by order of Theodosius the Great, in the +year 304. (Zell's Encyclopedia.) + +The Emperor Julian, born in the year 331, and Hierocles, who lived in +the fourth century, both wrote against Christianity, against the +Scriptures, but did not call in question the existence of Christ, nor +the fact that he wrought miracles. + +Celsus, an Epicurean philosopher who lived in the second century, was +the author of a work written against Christianity, entitled "Logos +Aleethees," that is, "Word of Truth." To this work Origen replied. +Celsus, in this work, quotes from the gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and +John, and does this over and over, and shows that the Christians valued +the books very highly; they suffered death rather than repudiate them. + +A TABLE OF THE ANCIENT TIMES OF TRIAL AND OF PEACE. + + DATE-- + + A.D. 64 to 68--Persecution under Nero. + 95 to 96--Persecution under Domitian. Banishment of John. + 96 to 104--Time of peace. + 104 to 117--Persecution under Trajan. Martyrdom of Ignatius. + 117 to 161--Time of peace. Apologies of Aristides, + Quadratus and Justin Martyr were written. + 161 to 180--Persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Martyrdom + of Polycarp and the martyrs of + Lyons. + 164--Justin Martyr was put to death. + +Statistics concerning the sufferings of the first Christians show that +they were in great earnest. Eternity alone will reveal the true number +of the martyrs. They all suffered and died just as we would expect, in +case they knew the facts of our religion. Twenty-two books of the New +Testament were written before the martyrdom of the Apostles Paul and +Peter. Infidels often boast, in their ignorance, that the books of the +gospels were not written by those whose names they bear. + +If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write those books which bear +their names, then are they false in fact? and if so, what did the +authors die for? The sufferings of primitive Christians were great; the +persecutions which they endured were outrageous, cruel and inhuman in +their character. Such is the universal verdict of ancient history. Of +the persecution under Nero, Tacitus, a celebrated Roman historian, who +was born in the year 56, just twenty-three years after Pentecost, +writes, that Nero "laid upon the Christians the charge of that terrible +conflagration at Rome of which he himself was the cause." He says, "A +vast multitude were apprehended. And many were disguised in the skins of +wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, some were crucified, and +others were wrapped in pitched shirts and set on fire when the day +closed, that they might serve as lights to illuminate the night. Nero +lent his own garden for these executions, and celebrated at the same +time a public entertainment in the circus, being a spectator of the +whole in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with the crowd on +foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacle from his car." (Annals of +Tacitus, 15: 44.) + +Juvenal, the coarse and bitter satirist of the same time, writes of the +martyred Christians as "those who stand burning in their own flame and +smoke, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till +they make a long stream of blood and sulphur on the ground." (Juv. Sat., +1: 155.) + +Seneca also refers to their fearful sufferings: "Imagine here a prison, +crosses and racks and the hook, and a stake thrust through the body and +coming out at the mouth, and the limbs torn by chariots pulling adverse +ways, and the coat besmeared and interwoven with inflammable materials, +nutriment for fire, and whatever else beside _these_ cruelty has +invented." (Seneca's Epistles, 14.) + +One of Diocletian's coins commemorates the blotting out of the very name +of Christian: "Nomine Christianorum deleto." But the age of martyrdoms +ended with the accession of Constantine to the Roman empire, and to-day +there are more Christians in the world than ever before. Skeptic, take +one long look at the unbelieving, bloody, persecuting hosts, and choose +your future associates. + +Strauss says: "No man knows who wrote the Gospels." Can he mean that +they are anonymous books? Does he mean that they are not +biographies--books containing, in their historic matter, an account of +the authors _themselves_? Who does not know that those books are and +have been called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? And who +has, in all the past centuries, produced evidence showing that those are +the wrong names. No one. Insane men might say such a thing. Infidels +don't like to say that; they just say you can't prove your religion, nor +show that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote those books. Will any +sensible man affirm that they are the wrong names? How do we judge and +believe respecting the authorship of other ancient books? Why do we +believe that Cæsar wrote the Commentaries on the Gallic War? And why do +we believe that Virgil wrote the Æneid? No sane man ever doubted the +authorship of those writings. Preoccupancy during the ages past is +considered by infidels themselves a sufficient ground for belief. The +fact that those books exist has certainly been known from the age of the +apostles to the present time, for men quoted extensively from them in +the second century. The names they bear were in the possessive case +then, and it is but fair to consider them the true owners. + +Why are skeptics and infidels so partial among ancient books? They doubt +the authorship of no ancient books unless they are written in favor of +the religion of Christ. Will some wise one tell us why this strange +inconsistency? O, it is an evidence of a wicked heart--that's all! +all!!--ALL THERE IS OF IT!!! + +Here are the dates of the books of the New Testaments, along with +contemporary landmarks: + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + | | +BOOKS. | AFTER | CONTEMPORARY LANDMARKS. + | PENTECOST. | +-------------+------------+---------------------------------------------- +1 Peter | 16 | Claudius Cæsar ruled from A.D. 41 to 54. +Galatians | 18 | +1 Thess | 19 | Romans settled in England between 41 and 54. +2 Thess | 20 | +1 Cor | 24 | Nero ruled from 54 to 68. +2 Cor | 25 | +1 Timothy | 25 | Paul and Peter were martyred at Rome in or +Romans | 25 | about the year 63; 30 years after Pentecost. +James | 28 | +Matthew | 28 | Persecution continues under Nero until the +Mark | 28 | year 68. The satirist Juvenal, who lived +Philemon | 29 | under Nero, and his brother satirist Martial, +Collosians | 29 | both allude to the burnings of the Christians +Ephesians | 29 | in pitched shirts. +Philippians | 29 | +Luke | 30 | Suetoneus, writing of what took place under +Acts | 30 | Emperor Claudius, in 53, makes mention of +Hebrews | 30 | Christ. +2 Peter | 34 | +2 Timothy | 34 | Galba, Otho and Vitelleus rule from 68 to 69. +Titus, about | 34 | +Jude, about | 34 | Christians have peace from 68 to 95. +Epistles | | + of St. John | | + 1, 2, 3 | 40 | Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70. +Revelations | | + of Jesus | | + Christ | | + to John | 64 | Vespasian rules from 69 to 79. +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +CARLYLE'S ESTIMATE OF THE BOOK OF JOB, IN HIS OWN WORDS. + + +"I call the book of Job, apart from all theories about it, one of the +grandest books ever written with a pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were +not Hebrew--such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism +or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble book! All men's book! It is our +first, oldest statement of the never-ending problem of man's destiny and +God's ways with him here on this earth, and all in such free, flowing +outlines, grand in its simplicity and its epic melody and repose of +reconcilement! There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. +So true every way; true eye-sight and vision for all things--material +things no less than spiritual; the horse--'thou hast clothed his neck +with thunder;' 'he laughs at the shaking of the spear!' Such living +likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow! Sublime +reconciliation! Oldest choral melody, as of the heart of mankind! So +soft and great, as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and +stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of +equal literary merit." (Dr. Cotton's Scrap-Book.) + + + + +WHAT I LIVE FOR. + + "I live to hold communion + With all that is divine, + To feel there is a union + Between God's will and mine; + For the cause that lacks assistance, + For the future, in the distance, + For what'er is good and true, + For all human hearts that bind me, + For the task by God assigned me, + And the good that I can do." + + + + +THE MOLECULE GOD. + +AIR--_The Fine Old English Gentleman._ + +[To be sung at all gatherings of advanced "siolists" and "scientists."] + + + We will sing you a grand new song evolved from a 'cute young pate, + Of a fine old Atom-Molecule of prehistoric date; + In size infinitesimal, in potencies though great, + And self-formed for developing at a prodigious rate-- + Like a fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + In it slept all the forces in our cosmos that run rife, + To stir creation's giants or its microscopic life; + Harmonious in discord and co-operant in strife, + To this small cell committed the world lived with his wife-- + In this fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + In this autoplastic archetype of protean protein clay + All the human's space has room for, for whom time makes a day, + From the sage whose words of wisdom prince or parliament obey, + To the parrots who but prattle, and the asses who but bray-- + So full was this Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + All brute life, from lamb to lion, from the serpent to the dove, + All that pains the sense or pleasure, all the heart can loathe or love; + All instincts that drag downwards, all desires that upwards move + Were caged, a "happy family," cheek-by-jowl, and hand-in-glove, + In this fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + In it order grew from chaos, light out of darkness shined, + Design sprang by accident, law's rule from hazard blind; + The soul-less soul evolving--against, not after kind, + As the life-less life developed, and the mind-less ripened mind, + In this fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + Then bow down mind to matter; from brain fiber, will, withdraw; + Fall man's heart to cell ascidian, sink man's hand to monkey's paw; + And bend the knee to Protoplast in philosophic awe-- + Both Creator and created, at once work and source of law. + And our Lord be the Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + PUNCH. + + +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. 8, August, 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, AUGUST 1880 *** + +***** This file should be named 28669-8.txt or 28669-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/6/28669/ + +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. 8, August, 1880 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Aaron Walker + +Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28669] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, AUGUST 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_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</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>AUGUST, 1880.</b></big></td> + <td align='right'><span class="smcap"><big><b>No. 8.</b></big></span></td> + +</tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_IMPORTANCE_AND_NATURE_OF_REFORMATION_FROM_SIN"><b>THE IMPORTANCE AND NATURE OF REFORMATION FROM SIN.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#OUR_INDEBTEDNESS_TO_REVELATION_THE_TEN_ATHEISTS_IN_COUNCILmdashNo_II"><b>OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION—THE TEN ATHEISTS IN COUNCIL—No. II.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THOMAS_PAINE"><b>THOMAS PAINE</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#A_CLUSTER_OF_THOUGHTS"><b>A CLUSTER OF THOUGHTS,</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_RESURRECTION_OF_THE_CHRIST"><b>THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PUBLIC_NOTORIETY_OF_THE_SCRIPTURES"><b>PUBLIC NOTORIETY OF THE SCRIPTURES.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#WHAT_PEOPLE_HAVE_BEEN_AND_DONE_WITHOUT_THE_BIBLE"><b>WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AND DONE WITHOUT THE BIBLE.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_LATEST_EVOLUTIONARY_CONFLICT"><b>THE LATEST EVOLUTIONARY CONFLICT.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#AUTHORSHIPS_OF_THE_BOOKS_OF_THE_NEW_TESTAMENT"><b>AUTHORSHIPS OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CARLYLES_ESTIMATE_OF_THE_BOOK_OF_JOB_IN_HIS_OWN_WORDS"><b>CARLYLE'S ESTIMATE OF THE BOOK OF JOB, IN HIS OWN WORDS.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#WHAT_I_LIVE_FOR"><b>WHAT I LIVE FOR.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_MOLECULE_GOD"><b>THE MOLECULE GOD.</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<h2><a name="THE_IMPORTANCE_AND_NATURE_OF_REFORMATION_FROM_SIN" id="THE_IMPORTANCE_AND_NATURE_OF_REFORMATION_FROM_SIN"></a>THE IMPORTANCE AND NATURE OF REFORMATION FROM SIN.</h2> + + +<p>This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men +shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, +disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, +truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those +who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than +lovers of God; having a form of godliness but denying the power +thereof.—2 Tim. 3: 1–5.</p> + +<p>The Savior once began his instructions with these words, "This day is +this Scripture fulfilled." They seem to be an appropriate introduction +to our lesson upon this occasion. What is the religion of thousands? +They were made the special objects of God's favor in their infancy (?), +were christened in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the +Holy Spirit (?), were dedicated to God and his service by their parents +(?), who, for them, took a solemn vow to forsake the devil and all his +works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires, +to forsake, also, all the carnal desires of the flesh, and not to follow +or be led by them. It is said that the christened took this vow when +they were children, and understood it not; when they became men they +understood it about as well as when they were children. But in all +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>candor, I confess that I never could believe they took this vow; their +sponsors took it upon themselves to make it for them, and usually +pledged themselves to see it fulfilled. What fearful responsibilities +are assumed just here. It is too frequently the case that those very +sponsors serve more devoutly, love more affectionately, and confide more +heartily in the profits, honors and pleasures of the world than in the +Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.</p> + +<p>Survey the lives of many of these men, of all conditions, and then deny, +if you can, that the profits, honors and pleasures of the world are the +gods they worship. Their daily and constant employment is either a +violent pursuit of the vain pomp and glory of the world, or of its +power, riches and profits; or it may be that they are led on by pride, +malice or revenge. Such persons live, not knowing or regarding the fact +that the baptism which now saves us is "not the putting away of the +filth of the flesh, <i>but the answer of a good conscience</i> toward God." +There are many such who live but little in advance of pagans in a +commonwealth of Christians, and know but little more of God or of Christ +than if they had been brought up in India. A great many are taught to +act over this play in the name of religion, and learned to say, "Our +Father who art in heaven," and "I believe in God the Father Almighty;" +but do they live as though they did believe in earnest that God is their +Almighty Father? Do they fear him and trust in him? Do they love and +obey him? Mere pretense, or, as Paul termed it, a <i>guise</i> of godliness, +for such is the meaning of the original term, is so common that we meet +with it almost daily. Men have learned to tamper with the word of God +until the world is full of theorists. How many talk about religion who +set aside a great portion of the word of God as worse than useless? And +that which they profess to believe they do not believe with half the +simplicity which they manifest in believing the words of their earthly +parents. It has been said, "He who is not industrious to obtain what he +professes to desire does not desire it, and he who is not industrious to +bring about that for which he prays, prays with his tongue <i>only</i>, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>not with his heart." All such have simply a "guise" of godliness, while +they deny its power.</p> + +<p>A great many people profess to believe the Scriptures are true, and that +they present the plain and only way to infinite and eternal blessedness, +and yet they neglect the study of the Scriptures. How is this? If there +was a book revealing a plain and easy way for all men to become rich and +enjoy health and pleasure and this world's happiness, would it not be +studied by all men? And why is it that the Bible is not studied by the +masses and regarded more? Why are so many professors of religion +negligent in this matter? May it not be because they prefer all other +business and pleasures before this? If professors of religion throughout +christendom heartily believed the Scriptures even as they profess, they +would be more diligently studied, and in many instances treated with +greater respect. The faith of many is undoubtedly very weak. If the laws +of our country provided a plain way of escape from temporal death for +the benefit of the condemned criminal, as plain and pointed as the great +commission given to the apostles of Christ, would any condemned criminal +hesitate to obey or treat the stipulations of law as men are constantly +treating the precepts of the gospel of Christ? When a man believes the +Bible contains <i>the facts and truths</i> which concern us infinitely more +than all earthly matters, his care and diligence should be, <i>to some +extent</i>, in harmony with his persuasion. At this point men <i>seem to be</i> +most strangely careless and grossly negligent. How few people do, or +will, understand that the terms of salvation are written as with the +beams of the sun? Is the trouble a low degree of faith, approximating +unbelief? The shadows are always the longest when the sun is lowest. Is +the sun of righteousness low in your spiritual heavens? Or have you +given him the uppermost seat in your affections? What think you of +Christ? Whose son is he?</p> + +<p>When I tell you that thousands received the baptism of repentance for +the remission of sins, even before the Holy Spirit was given, and were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>clean through the words spoken unto them, many are ready to cry out, +"These are hard and strange sayings—who can hear them?" Yet, strange as +it may seem, these facts have been upon record near <i>nineteen hundred</i> +years. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to +every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he +that believeth not shall be damned." In the record of St. Luke, chapter +24, the condition of the new covenant, to which remission of sins is +promised, is expressed by the term <i>repentance</i>: "Thus it behooved +Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that repentance and +remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, +beginning at Jerusalem." The word repentance, when used in the law of +Christ, is always equivalent to the use which the ancient martyrs made +of it, viz: "Amend your lives." We have it beautifully expressed in +these words: "If the wicked turn from all the sins which he hath +committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and +right, he shall surely live, he shall not die."</p> + +<p>Paul summed up the whole matter of his preaching in the sentence, +"Repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." In some of +the best Latin translations this passage in Acts 20th is rendered, +"<i>Conversion to God</i>;" also in Hebrews, 6th chapter, we read, "And +<i>conversion</i> from dead works." Such is more clear and natural; but if we +should read, according to modern theology, <i>sorrow</i> towards God, and +<i>sorrow</i> from dead works, it would sound very unnatural, and almost +ridiculous. This is a grand argument in favor of the reading of the +<i>Geneva text</i>, which reads, "<i>Amend your lives</i> and <i>turn</i>, that your +sins may be blotted out." But if heaven may be gained at an easier and +cheaper rate, how is it that we are so frequently and so plainly assured +that without actual newness of life, holiness and sanctification unto +obedience, there is no hope, no possibility of salvation? John the +Baptist, preaching repentance, said: "Every tree that bringeth not forth +good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." It is not the leaves, +simply, of a profession, nor the blossoms of good purposes and +intentions, but the fruit, <i>the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> fruit only</i>, that will save us from the +fire. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and +cast into the fire."</p> + +<p>Our Savior said, "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall +enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my father +who is in heaven." After he had delivered all the beautiful precepts +found in the lesson given upon the mount he closed up all by saying, "He +that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not I will liken him to +a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand, and when the rain +descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that +house, it fell, and great was the fall of it." They that are Christ's +have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If they have not +done this, and so attained fitness of character to dwell with God, it +matters not what their sorrow has been, nor their intentions, they will +not enter the kingdom of God.</p> + +<p>Paul says, "The works of the flesh are these: adultery, fornication, +uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, +emulations, wrath, strife, seditious, heresies, envyings, murders, +drunkenness, revelings, of which I forewarn you, as I have told you in +time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of +God." He does not say they who have done such things shall not be saved, +but just the contrary, for he adds: "Such were some of you, but ye are +washed, but ye are sanctified;" but he teaches the doctrine that those +who do such things and do not amend their lives shall not be excused by +any pretense of sorrow and good purposes; they "shall not inherit the +kingdom of God." "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth +anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature"—a creature living by +a faith, which worketh by love. It is not simply wishing you were a new +creature; not simply wishing for a working faith; nor sorrowing because +you are not a Christian; but "keeping the commandments of God," that +will permit you to enter heaven.</p> + +<p>In the final closing of the New Testament writings it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> said: "Blessed +are they who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree +of life and enter in through the gates into the city."</p> + +<p>Paul says, "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man +shall see the Lord." And Peter says, "Add to your faith virtue, and to +virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance +patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly +kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity"—and finally says, if ye do +these things ye shall never fall, for so an abundant entrance shall be +ministered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior +Jesus Christ. And John says, speaking of the Christian's hope, "Every +man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure;" +then the impure may flatter themselves, and presume upon the favor of +God without "purifying their souls in obeying the truth," but they are +without hope in the world. And again he says, "Little children let no +man deceive you, he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is +righteous."</p> + +<p>So all the writers and teachers of the New Testament, with one consent, +proclaim the necessity of obeying the commandments of the gospel. What a +vain whim it is to think that sorrow and mere intention without +reformation of life will admit you into heaven. This golden dream of +heaven has sent thousands out of this world unpardoned and unsaved.</p> + +<p>A great many persons satisfy themselves with a mere confession and +acknowledgement of their sins. They seem to think they have done enough, +if to confession of sins they add some sorrow for it. They think all is +well if, when their fit of sinning is past and they are returned to +themselves, the sting remains, breeding some remorse of conscience, some +complaints against their wickedness and folly for having done so, and +some intentions to forsake it, though never carried into effect. There +are many persons in the churches of our country who seem to think the +church is a stage, whereon they must play their parts, who make a +profession every day of confessing their sins with humble hearts, and +yet, after having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> spent twenty, thirty or forty years in this manner, +their hearts are as stubborn as ever, and they as impenitent and +disobedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If giving thanks to God for +the blessing received at his hands is performed with words only, with +simple hosannas, and hallelujahs, and "<i>gloria patris</i>," and psalms, and +hymns, then I presume it is done very efficiently, (?) though our lives +are provoking to his majesty. <i>It is not the office of a friend (?) to +bewail a friend with vain lamentation.</i> To be thankful to God is not to +say God be praised, or God be thanked, but it is to remember what he +desires and execute what he commands. A dying Roman once said, "It is +not the office of a friend to bewail a dead friend with vain +lamentations, but to remember what he desires and execute his commands. +It is the office of the friends of Christ to remember his desires and +carry out his instructions. If we do so we are thankful, and if we do +not our thankfulness is nothing more than mere talk."</p> + +<p>Jesus said to his disciples: "Ye are my friends if ye do what I command +you." And again: "If a man love me he will keep my words; he that loveth +me not, keepeth not my sayings." Again: "If ye continue in my word, then +are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth +shall make you free."</p> + +<p>Those who love God love his cause. When that cause prospers they +rejoice; when it declines they are hurt. When clouds and darkness are +round about the church it is time to double our diligence and pray to +God for help. Circumstances, over which no human being can have control, +sometimes cause sluggishness in the character of a church. The hearts of +God's people are often deeply affected by witnessing the indifference +and carelessness of the people, and still more affected by a falling off +in their numbers. When the godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail from +among the children of men, it is distressing; but such is the lot of man +that we are often called upon to witness the truthfulness of the +prophet's statement. All true Christians love the godly because they are +faithful. The term <i>faithful</i> implies truth, sincerity and fidelity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +Christ, our great example, is called the faithful and true witness. The +use of the term in our religion indicates believers in Christ—<i>obedient +believers</i>—<i>faithful brethren in Christ</i>. Col. i: 2. Sometimes it is +equivalent to the word <i>true</i>, as in 2d Tim., ii: 2—"Faithful men;" the +fidelity of the persons alluded to had been tried—<i>proven</i>. And again, +it means a Christian, in opposition to an infidel, as in 2d Cor. vi: +15—"What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" A good man is +faithful in his business transactions; faithful to his <i>profession</i>, +adhering to the principles of the gospel and laboring to be faithful to +death; faithful in the discharge of his duties; faithful in the +employment of his talents; faithful in all things committed to his +trust; faithful to his promises; faithful in his friendship. These men +fail and cease by means of death. The fathers, where are they? And the +teachers, do they live forever? The visitations of death are often +mysterious to us. Sometimes the most brilliant in intellect and the most +useful in talent, also the most pious and useful in the church, are cut +down, while mere cumberers of the ground remain.</p> + +<p>The profession of some is only transient; they soon disappear from the +assembly of the saints. Some improper motive, some peculiar excitement +may have moved them, or their goodness of heart may have left them. They +have possibly been stony ground hearers or thorny ground hearers. The +world allures thousands and kills the vitality of their religion.</p> + +<p>Judas betrayed his master from the love of worldly gain; and Demas, an +acceptable preacher and companion of Paul, abandoned his profession, +"having loved the present world."</p> + +<p>Many fail by endeavoring to unite the world and their religion, +maintaining a good moral character, but are destitute of energy in +Christianity.</p> + +<p>When this spirit gets hold of a man, and he is disposed to secularize +his religion, or subordinate it to his worldly interests, he is sure to +fail sooner or later. Some fail by falling into temptations of various +kinds, and disgrace their profession; and some fail through +intemperance. Many fail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> through the influence of error and the enemies +of Christianity. These frequently beguile the unwary.</p> + +<p>There never was a time in our history when unbelief and skepticism was +more determined in its opposition to the Christian religion than at the +present. There is an incessant attempt to instill into the minds of the +young principles in opposition to, and destructive of Christianity. Many +have split upon the rocks of infidelity, and stranded upon the +quicksands of doubt and skepticism, in spite of the fact that +Christianity presented them an example, which is the light and life of +men—a character without a blot! And this example is the only foundation +upon which to build a moral and pious temple in which the Lord does, and +the creature may dwell.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="OUR_INDEBTEDNESS_TO_REVELATION_THE_TEN_ATHEISTS_IN_COUNCILmdashNo_II" id="OUR_INDEBTEDNESS_TO_REVELATION_THE_TEN_ATHEISTS_IN_COUNCILmdashNo_II"></a>OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION—THE TEN ATHEISTS IN COUNCIL—No. II.</h2> + +<h3>BY P.T. RUSSEL.</h3> + + +<p>A rap is heard at the door. It being opened, Christian enters. "Good +morning, gentlemen. I am very glad to find you all here. Since our +former interview I have been very anxious to continue our investigation +of the evidence of the existence of God. I presume, as you are +'<i>Free-thinkers</i>' and lovers of truth, you are by this time ready to +give a scientific reason for the existence of the idea of God, and, as +you agree with me that we only obtain ideas through the aid of the five +senses, our only idea of color by the eye, of sound by the ear, etc., I +wish to ask you to account for the idea of God. Will you oblige me?"</p> + +<p><i>Atheists</i>—Certainly. We have consulted on this theme since our last +interview, and now declare it to be the work or nature of the +imagination. It is a scientific truth, as you will readily admit, that +imagination can and does get up some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> singular and unreal forms. We now +assume that the idea of a God is but the thought of an imaginary being.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—True, gentlemen. Fancy, or imagination, does, in active +moments, bring for our amusement some fantastic pictures. Her work, +however, is never simple, but always complex. This that we are in search +of is the idea of a simple being—a being that is single, and not +duplex. I will now illustrate the extent of the power of the +imagination. Taking a walk through nature's flower garden, we gather one +of every variety, and examining them closely, one by one, we notice +their difference in form, color and size by the eye. Their fragrance we +note by the smell. Thus, by the aid of the senses, we note all their +sensible properties. Now, allowing that memory is perfect, we have in +store all the peculiarities of each and every individual flower. +Gentlemen atheists, am I correct in this conclusion?</p> + +<p><i>Atheists</i>—Well, yes.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Very well; then I'll proceed. Having learned, by what we +saw, the art of combining, we can and will imagine all these single +flowers blended in one large conglomerated flower, containing all the +peculiarities of each and every single flower. Now, gentlemen, is not +this all that the imagination can do?</p> + +<p><i>Atheists</i>—It is.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Very well. Is this a simple or compound idea?</p> + +<p><i>Atheists</i>—It is a compound idea. It is simply the blending of the idea +of each single flower.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—And this is all the imagination can do? Then, gentlemen, do +you not see that as the idea of God is the idea of a single person, it +would be utterly impossible for imagination to be its author? It is not +a conglomerate idea, but a single one. Now, if there is no God, we have +a clear, definite idea of <i>nothing</i>. How will you account for this? Are +you not now unable to give a reason for your premises? Is it not the +truth that fools are wiser in their own conceit than men who can give a +reason?</p> + +<p><i>Atheists</i>—Mr. Christian, we did not think that you would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> thus call us +all fools, and as our investigation has taken such an unlooked for turn, +we must ask time for consultation before we proceed further.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Very well. When will you be ready to resume? this I am +anxious to know; as you are "liberalists" and "free-thinkers," you will +be equally anxious to reach the truth in the premises?</p> + +<p><i>Atheists</i>—At two <span class="caps">P.M.</span></p> + +<p>It is two o'clock, and all are present.</p> + +<p>Mr. Reason, who was an atheist, opens the discussion as follows:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Christian, we have held a council on the subject under discussion, +and our conclusion is that you are right. There must be, and is, such a +being as God. Were this not so, we never could have had the idea of him. +We are now deists. We deny that he has ever imparted knowledge to man by +revelation."</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Gentlemen, do you think your present position is a +scientific one?</p> + +<p><i>Deists</i>—We think it is both scientific and invulnerable, and we also +think that if you continue this investigation with us you will find it +so. How did you obtain this idea? Have you seen God? No. Have you heard +him speak? No. If we had we could not be honest without being +Christians?</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Gentlemen, have you not contraband goods in your warehouse? +As your eyes have not seen, nor your ears heard, nor your powers of +observation perceived him, and as you acknowledge that every one of your +ideas entered the mind through the aid of one or another of the five +senses, now, I ask, are you logically any better off than before you +found yourselves obliged to relinquish your atheism? Do you not now, as +well as then, occupy unreasonable ground? Having rather conceded that +atheists are fools, and turned <i>deists</i>, are you really any better off? +Can you give a reason for your present infidelity? Out of your own +mouths you stand condemned as unreasonable and foolish. You pretend to +venerate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> reason, while you discard her first principles. You need not +try to evade me at this point by an appeal to nature. Here you can find +no aid, for nature tells us of no first cause. The apple tree, before +this window, now so richly laden with fruit, tells not of its first +cause. If you say it came from an apple-seed, and that from an apple, +and that from another tree, another seed, and another tree, and so on, +in a circle you may always go, for nature does not tell you of a first +tree as a cause uncaused, nor of a Creator, a God. She does not go +behind herself. Gentlemen, have you any reply? If you have, I would like +to hear it.</p> + +<p>Reason timidly says: "Mr. C., in your very severe strictures on the +deists, are you not condemning yourself? You pretend to place full +confidence in the teachings of your Bible, and does it not say: 'The +heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his +handiwork?' Can nature thus declare and not make known?"</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—Yes, your quotation tells the truth; yet in this also you +have taken too much for granted. There stands a clock; it keeps correct +time, but does it declare the glory of any one?</p> + +<p><i>Deists</i>—Yes, that of its maker.</p> + +<p><i>Christian</i>—But who was its maker. You say you do not know. That is +true, and, for ought you know, or can learn from its mechanism there +might have been several makers connected with its origin. If you had +stood by and seen it made, then you might have told me all about it. In +that which you call the works of nature, neither you, nor I, nor any of +our fellows, are instructed by actual observation consequent upon being +present when they were made—we were not standing by when the heavens +were made; so that source of information is closed up. There is now but +one resort left to us—but one reasonable means of information. That is, +the maker of all things must, necessarily, have told man that he created +all these things. Then, with David, he could sing, "The heavens declare +the glory of God." Man first learned from God that he was the creator of +all things, for God alone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> could tell it. Gentlemen, the Christian is +the only reasonable being upon the earth, and the only <i>fearless +free-thinker</i>. The atheist, you see, is proved a fool, and the deist is +no better. Think this over, then call again.</p> + +<p><i>Deists</i>—We will. <i>Good evening.</i></p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THOMAS_PAINE" id="THOMAS_PAINE"></a>THOMAS PAINE</h2> + +<h4>WAS NOT AN INFIDEL WHEN HE WROTE HIS WORK CALLED COMMON SENSE.</h4> + + +<p>"In the early ages of the world, according to the Scripture chronology, +there were no kings, the consequence of which was there were no wars. It +is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion. Holland, +without a king, hath enjoyed more peace for the last century than any of +the monarchical governments of Europe. Antiquity favors the same remark, +for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs have a happy +something in them which vanishes when we come to the history of Jewish +royalty." (Common Sense, p. 12.)</p> + +<p>Mr. Paine, did the God of the Bible approve of the Jewish royalty?</p> + +<p><i>Ans.</i> "As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest can not be +justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended +on the authority of Scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared +by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by +kings." * * * Near three thousand years passed away, from the Mosaic +account of the creation, until the Jews, under the national delusion, +requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in +extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of +republic, administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. King +they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under the +title but Lord of Hosts. * * * Monarchy is ranked in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> Scripture as one +of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced +against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to. The +children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched +against them with a small army, and victory, through the divine +interposition, decided in his favor. The Jews, elate with success, and +attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, +saying, "<i>Rule thou over us, thou and thy son, and thy son's son.</i>" Here +was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an +hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied, "<i>I will +not rule over you; neither shall my son rule over you.</i> <span class="smcap">The Lord shall +rule over you.</span>" (Common Sense, pp. 13 and 14.)</p> + +<p>How many Gideons are there among leading infidels whose soul-piety would +resist such a temptation as that? Say, was Thomas Paine an infidel when +he wrote that?</p> + +<p>"In short, monarchy and succession have laid, not this or that kingdom +only, but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of government which +the word of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it." +(Common Sense, p. 19.) "'But where,' say some, 'is the king of America?' +I'll tell you, friend; he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of +mankind like the royal brute of Britain. Yet, that we may not appear to +be defective in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for +proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth, placed on the divine +law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world +may know that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America <i>the law +is king</i>." (Common Sense, p. 33.)</p> + +<p>After quoting sundry passages of Scripture against a kingly form of +government, Thomas Paine says:</p> + +<p>"These portions of Scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no +equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest +against monarchical government is true, or the Scripture is false. And a +man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as +priestcraft in withholding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> the Scripture from the public in popish +countries." (Common Sense, p. 15.)</p> + +<p>From the foregoing <i>verbatim</i> quotations it will be seen that Thomas +Paine was no infidel until he <span class="smcap">parted with "Common Sense</span>," which bears +date of February 14, 1776. Common Sense is of noble worth. We cheerfully +concede to Thomas Paine all the honor due him for services rendered in +behalf of our country while he was Thomas Paine the Quaker. He did +nothing for our country after he avowed his infidelity that deserves +being mentioned by any intelligent Christian.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="A_CLUSTER_OF_THOUGHTS" id="A_CLUSTER_OF_THOUGHTS"></a>A CLUSTER OF THOUGHTS,</h2> + +<h4>GATHERED FROM JENYN'S INTERNAL EVIDENCES, WITH ADDITIONS AND +MODIFICATIONS.</h4> + + +<p>When the religion of Christ made its appearance it was entirely new, +infinitely above, and altogether different from any other which had at +any time entered into the mind of man. Its object was new. It was to +prepare us with fitness of character, through a state of trial, for +mutual association with the pure and lovely in the kingdom of heaven. +This is presented in all the gospel, as the chief end of the Christian's +life. Until Christ, no such reward was offered to mankind, nor means +provided for its attainment.</p> + +<p>Many of the philosophers in old times had ideas of a future state, but +they were mixed with a great deal of uncertainty and misgivings.</p> + +<p>Ancient legislators endeavored to inculcate the idea of rewards and +punishments after death, to give sanction to their laws. This was the +sole end in view, and when their laws were virtuous, it was a noble, a +praiseworthy end. But the religion of Christ is related to the same +object, brings it about; and, also, has a nobler end in view, and that +is to prepare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> us here for a more noble society among the citizens of +the kingdom of God in the great hereafter.</p> + +<p>In all the older religions the good of the present was the direct, and +the first object, but in the religion of Christ it is the second. The +first great object of the gospel of Christ is to prepare us for the +realities of eternity.</p> + +<p>There is a great contrast between adhering to morality from the motive +of present profit, in expectation of future reward, and living such a +life as to qualify us for the realization of future happiness.</p> + +<p>The character of those who are governed by these different principles is +not the same. On the first principle, present utility, we may have mere +moralists, men practicing simple justice, temperance and sobriety. On +the second, we must add to those graces of moral nature faith in God, +resignation to his will, and habitual piety. The first will make us very +good citizens in a civil government, but will never be sufficient to +make us Christians. So the religion of Christ insists upon purity of +heart and benevolence, or charity, because these are essential to the +end proposed.</p> + +<p>"That the present existence is one of trial with reference to another +state of being, is confirmed by all that we know in what is termed the +course of nature. Probation is the only key that unfolds to us the +designs of God in the history of human affairs, the only clue that +guides us through the pathless wilderness, and the only plan upon which +this world could possibly have been formed, or upon which its history +can be explained."</p> + +<p>This world was not formed upon a plan of unconditioned happiness, +because it is overspread with miseries. Neither was it formed upon a +plan of unconditioned misery, for there are many joys interspersed +throughout the whole. It was not formed for the unconditional existence +of both vice and virtue, for that is no plan at all, the two elements +being, as we know, destructive of each other. By the way, in this very +fact we find the grand necessity for the remedial scheme.</p> + +<p>The mixture of vice and virtue, of happiness and misery, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> a necessary +result of a state of probation, trials and sufferings consequent upon +offending or violating the will of heaven.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of the religion of Christ, with its ultimate object and its +ideas of God and man, of the present and the future life, and of the +relations which these all bear to each other, was and is wholly unheard +of until you come to the teachings of Christ. No other religion ever +drew such pictures of the worthlessness of earthly-mindedness and of +living merely for this present world. And no other ever set out such +beautiful, lively and glorious pictures of heavenly-mindedness, along +with the joys of a future world, nor such pictures of victory over death +and the grave, nor of the last judgment, nor of the triumphs of the +redeemed in that tremendous day. The personal character of the great +author, Christ, is as new and peculiar to this religion as anything else +that we can possibly name—"He spake as never man spake."</p> + +<p>He is the only founder of a religion which is "unconnected with all +human policy and government," and, as such, should not be prostituted to +any mere worldly purposes whatever. Numa, Mohammed, and even Moses, +blended their religious institutions with their civil, and by such means +controlled their adherents. Christ neither exercised nor accepted such +power. He rejected every motive which controlled other leaders, and +chose those which others avoided. Power, honor, riches and pleasure were +alike disregarded. He seemed to court poverty, sufferings and death.</p> + +<p>Many impostors and enthusiasts have tried to impose upon the world with +pretended communications from the world of spirits—some of them have +died rather than recant; but no history is found to show one who made +his own sufferings and death a necessary part of his plan and essential +elements in his mission. This distinguishes the Savior of the world from +all mere enthusiasts and imposters. He declared his death in all its +minutia; with a prophet's vision he saw it, declared it was necessary, +and voluntarily endured it; and he was neither a madman nor idiot. Look +at his lessons, his precepts and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> his wonderful conduct, and then +imagine him insane if you can. Still, if he was not what he pretended to +be, he can be viewed in no other light; and yet under the character of a +madman he deserves much attention on account of such sublime and +<i>rational insanity</i>. There is no other person known in the world's +history so <i>rationally</i> and <i>sublimely</i> mad.</p> + +<p>In what madman's career can you find such a beautiful lesson as his +instructions given upon the mount. What other leader enforced his +precepts and lessons upon men's credulity with such assurances of reward +as, "Come, ye blessed of my father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you +from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me +meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took +me in; I was naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I +was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, +saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee; or thirsty, +and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in; or +naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison, and +came unto thee? Then shall he answer and say unto them, Verily, I say +unto you, inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, my +brethren, ye have done it unto me."</p> + +<p>Before the appearance of Christ there existed nothing like the faith of +Christ and Christianity upon the face of the earth. The Jews alone had a +few of its types and shadows, but the great mystery of Christ had been +kept hid since the world began. All the Gentile nations were wrapped up +in the very worst idolatry, having little or no connection whatever with +morality, except to corrupt it with the infamous examples of their gods. +"They all worshiped a multitude of gods and demons, whose favor they +sought by obscene and ridiculous ceremonies, and whose anger they tried +to appease with the most abominable cruelties." With them, heaven was +open only to legislators and conquerors, the civilizers and destroyers +of mankind. This was the summit of their religion, and even this was +limited to a few prodigies of genius and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> learning, which was but little +regarded and understood by the great masses. One common cloud of +ignorance and superstition involved them. At this time Christ came as a +teacher; his appearance was like a rising sun, dispelling the darkness +and blessing the earth with light and heat.</p> + +<p>If any man can believe that the son of a carpenter, together with twelve +of the meanest and most illiterate mechanics, unassisted by any +superhuman wisdom and power, should be able to invent and promulgate a +system of theology and ethics the most sublime and perfect, which all +such men as Plato, Aristotle and Cicero had overlooked, and that they, +by their own wisdom, repudiated every false virtue, though universally +admired, and that they admitted every true virtue, though despised and +ridiculed by all the rest of the world—if any man can believe that they +were <i>impostors</i> for no other purpose than the promulgation of truth, +<i>villains</i> for no purpose but to teach honesty, and <i>martyrs</i> with no +prospect of honor or advantage; or that they, as false witnesses, should +have been able, in the course of a few years, to have spread this +religion over the most of the known world, in opposition to the +interests, ambition and prejudices of mankind; that they triumphed over +the power of princes, the intrigues of states, the forces of custom, the +blindness of zeal, the influence of priests, the arguments of orators, +and the philosophy of the world, without any assistance from God, he +must be in possession of more faith than is necessary to make him a +Christian and continues an unbeliever from mere credulity. If the +credulous infidel, whose convictions are without evidence and against +evidence, should, after all, be in the right, and Christianity prove to +be a fable, what harm could ensue from being a Christian? Are Christian +rulers more tyrannical and their Christian subjects more ungovernable? +Are the rich more insolent <i>when Christianized</i>? Are poor Christians +most insolent and disorderly? Does Christianity make worse parents and +worse children? Does it make husbands and wives, friends and neighbors +less trustworthy? Does it not make men and women more virtuous and happy +in every situation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> in life? If Christianity is a fable, it is one the +belief of which retains men and women in a regular and uniform life of +virtue, piety and devotion to truth. It gives support in the hour of +distress, of sickness and death.</p> + +<p>"If there were a few more Christians in the world it would be very +beneficial to themselves and by no means detrimental to the public."</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_RESURRECTION_OF_THE_CHRIST" id="THE_RESURRECTION_OF_THE_CHRIST"></a>THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST.</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +"He, who gave life to man at first,<br /> +Can restore it when it is lost."<br /> +</p> + + +<p>Our Savior claimed to be the Son of God, and put the validity of his +claim on this, that he should die openly by crucifixion, be buried, and +rise from the dead upon the third day. Among all the impostors known in +earth's history there is not one instance of a <i>plot</i> like this fact. A +mere plot of this nature would be hard to manage. That the first part of +this prophesy was fulfilled even our enemies admit. It has not been +alleged by infidels of any note that the crucifixion was a fraud, and +did not take place, and that Jesus, as a consequence, did not die.</p> + +<p>The chief priests seem to have had considerable concern about the +prediction of the resurrection. Why this? Was it because they had +discovered in the person of Christ an impostor, a mere cheat? No; this +alone would have caused them to utterly disregard the prediction of his +resurrection. Those priests saw something in the character of Christ +which caused them to fear the fulfillment of his prediction. What other +person ever created such a concern about such an event? There is not a +similar case in the world's history. What other dead person was ever +known to create such a feeling as that which moved his enemies to +confront him, if possible, in his rising power. Those priests had, +doubtless, witnessed his miracles again and again. It is beyond all +question true that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> they feared him in his death. If they had seen no +wonderful power exerted during his life they certainly would have feared +none after he was dead. The fear of the chief priests over the Savior's +dead body is an insurmountable evidence of the mighty works which he +accomplished during his life. Those priests addressed themselves to the +Roman governor, and requested a guard placed around the tomb; three days +and nights would settle the question, for the prediction would terminate +on the third day. Pilate granted the request, and a guard was set to +watch; they sealed the door of the sepulcher, placing the seal of the +state upon the great stone. The object of the seal was, doubtless, for +the satisfaction of all parties concerned in this matter.</p> + +<p>It was a precaution against fraud. If the seal upon a door or box is +broken we know at once that it has been meddled with. When Darius thrust +Daniel among the lions he put his seal upon the door of the den, to +satisfy himself and his court that no human hand had interfered for +Daniel's delivery. When he came to the den and found his seal unbroken, +he was satisfied. A seal thus used is of the nature of a covenant. If +you deliver sealed writings to an individual his acceptance amounts to a +covenant between you that the same shall be delivered just as they were +received. If the seal is broken, it is a manifestation of attempted +fraud. There is no special agreement needed in order to the existence of +covenants by seals; it is an agreement which men are placed under by the +laws of nations. The sealing of the sepulcher where the body of Jesus +lay was to impose, by all the solemnities of the Roman state, +obligations upon all the parties interested in the person of Christ. It +was a grand effort on the part of the authorities to prevent any +interference with the dead body.</p> + +<p>When impostors are known they become odious, and are but little noticed. +How was it with Christ? When the popular sentiment was that he was a +prophet the priests and scribes sought his life, believing that his +death would end his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> cause? When they and the people learned that he was +an impostor (?) they thought him unsafe after he was dead.</p> + +<p>The prediction of Christ that he would rise the third day was publicly +known throughout Jerusalem; but why the chief priests should concern +themselves so much about it as to take all the steps to prevent its +fulfillment, is a puzzling question with infidels. Was it because they +had detected him as a cheat and an impostor? No, this is an unreasonable +conclusion. It must have been a secret conviction touching his mighty +power. The seal was a proper check upon the guards; the Jews could have +no other object in having it placed there. They were not so foolish as +to think, that by this contrivance they would outstrip Providence.</p> + +<p>Guards were set to watch, and, doubtless, did their whole duty. But what +are sentinels when the power of Omnipotence is put forth? An angel of +the Lord makes his appearance. The keepers saw him, and fell down like +dead men. The angel rolled away the stone, and the conqueror came forth +to live in the hearts of millions, and to live forevermore.</p> + +<p>The disciples, receiving power from on high, soon make their appearance +in Jerusalem, and boldly assert the fact of the resurrection. The +murderers of the Savior were there. What do the priests do next? They +had bribed the soldiers to tell a lie which was so base that it only +needed to be told in order to be known as a lie. Next, they arrest the +apostles; they beat them, they scourge them, and bid them shut their +mouths, and insist that they shall say no more about this matter. They +did not seem to regard them as liars and impostors, else they would +doubtless have charged them with the fraud. They try to assassinate and +murder these witnesses of the resurrection. They prevailed with Herod to +put one of them to death; but they never seemed to think of charging +them with stealing the body away. Their orator, Tertullus, could not +have missed such a topic as imposition and fraud if any had been +practiced. He did not seem to think of anything of the sort, but +contented himself with the charge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> sedition, heresy, and the +profanation of the temple. Yet the very question of the resurrection was +under consideration; for Festus tells Agrippa, that the Jews had +"certain questions against Paul of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul +affirmed to be alive." After this Agrippa heard Paul's testimony, and so +far was he from suspecting imposition, that he said, "Almost thou +persuadest me to be a Christian."</p> + +<p>Not long after the resurrection the apostles were taken before the +council and sanhedrim of the Children of Israel. They make their own +defense, a part of which is in these words: "The God of our fathers +raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." The first impulse +of the council was to slay them all; but Gamaliel, one of the council, +stood up and related the history of several impostors who perished in +former days, and said: "If this work be of men it will come to nought, +but if it be of God ye can not overthrow it." He advised them to refrain +from the men and let time tell the story. The tree shall be known by its +fruits. The council acquiesced; they gave the apostles a whipping and +let them go.</p> + +<p>A resurrection is a thing to be ascertained by men's senses. We all know +whether a man is dead by the same means by which we know whether a man +is alive. There are those who claim that "a resurrection could not be +proven by any amount of testimony, because of its being contrary to the +course of nature." But this is mere prejudice and ignorance. First: Who +can measure the extent of natural possibilities? Are they generally +known? Is it a greater thing to give life to a body once dead than to a +body that never was alive? The objection rests upon the thought that +testimony should be respected only in such cases as seem to us possible, +or in the ordinary course of nature. According to this, no amount of +evidence could establish the fact that water freezes and becomes solid +in a country where such is not the ordinary course of nature. Does a +man's ability in discerning and his truthfulness in reporting depend +upon the skill or ignorance of those who hear? We know facts that seem +to be as much contrary to the course of nature as anything could +possibly be. But, in all candor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> I must claim that in appealing to the +settled course of nature, in a case like the one under consideration, +the question is referred not to the laws of evidence or maxims of +reason, but to the prejudices of men and to their mistakes, which are +many. Men form a notion of nature from what they see; so, under +different surroundings, their notions about the course of nature will +differ. The objection falls worthless at the feet of the <span class="smcap">Infinite One</span>. +There is no greater difficulty in accounting for the fact that the dead +live again than there is in accounting for the fact that they did live.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="PUBLIC_NOTORIETY_OF_THE_SCRIPTURES" id="PUBLIC_NOTORIETY_OF_THE_SCRIPTURES"></a>PUBLIC NOTORIETY OF THE SCRIPTURES.</h2> + + +<p>Origen was born in the year one hundred and eighty-five of the Christian +dispensation, and lived sixty-eight years. He gives in his writings five +thousand seven hundred and sixty-five quotations from the New Testament. +Tertullian gives eighteen hundred and two quotations from the New +Testament. Clemens, of Alexandria, labored in the year one hundred and +ninety-four. He gives us three hundred and eighty-four quotations from +the New Testament. Ireneus lived in the year one hundred and +seventy-eight. He gives us seven hundred and sixty-seven quotations from +the New Testament, making a grand total of eight thousand seven hundred +and twenty-three quotations, given by four ancient writers.</p> + +<p>If all the copies of the New Testament in the world were destroyed, the +whole, with the exception of eleven verses, could be reproduced from the +writings of men who lived prior to the Nicene Council. Unbelievers quote +from all ancient heathen authors as though they were books of yesterday, +without manifesting the least doubt in reference to their authenticity +or authorship. The evidences necessary to establish genuineness of +authorship are ten-fold greater in the case of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> the New Testament +Scriptures than in the case of the histories of Alexander, Julius Cæsar +and Cyrus, as given by ancient writers.</p> + +<p>The notoriety of the New Testament writings during the first centuries +is without a parallel among all ancient writings. Their effect upon +society during those centuries can never be explained in harmony with +unbelief. But this is not all that is to be considered. Their notoriety +extends over the centuries between us and the times of the apostles. +Such notoriety is the grand support upon which the New Testament stands. +All other ancient writings stand upon the same kind of evidence, but +this kind of evidence is more than ten-fold greater in the support of +our religion than it is in the support of any other ancient documents.</p> + +<p>We may obtain some idea of the influence of the New Testament Scriptures +during the first centuries from the statements of Gibbon. He says there +were "six millions of Christians in existence in the year three hundred +and thirteen." It is reasonable to allow that there were three millions +in the year one hundred and seventy-five. Under the best emperors of the +second century books were cheap. Thousands of persons engaged in writing +histories for a livelihood. It is allowed that there were as many as +fifteen thousand copies of the four gospels in circulation among the +people in the last quarter of the second century. This state of things +seems to convey the idea that it would be hard work to introduce +successfully any corruption into the text after this period of time. It +would be too easily detected.</p> + +<p>There is also a grand argument in favor of the genuineness of our +religion, which is in the fact that it was in deathly opposition to both +Judaism and Paganism, its success being the destruction of both. If +Christianity was an imposition, its success during the first three +centuries of our era is utterly inexplicable.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="WHAT_PEOPLE_HAVE_BEEN_AND_DONE_WITHOUT_THE_BIBLE" id="WHAT_PEOPLE_HAVE_BEEN_AND_DONE_WITHOUT_THE_BIBLE"></a>WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AND DONE WITHOUT THE BIBLE.</h2> + + +<p>Our ancestors complained of the reign of wickedness; we complain of it +and our posterity will complain of it. I sometimes think we are all a +set of complainers and grumblers.</p> + +<p>Of ancient pagans it is said: "They worshiped and served the creature +more than the Creator." Of their idols Persius, who was a Roman +satirical poet, born A.D. 34, said:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"O, cares of men! O, world all fraught<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With vanities! O, minds inclined</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Towards earth, all void of heavenly thought!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Sedulius, an ancient Christian poet, and by nativity a Scotchman, says +of the same:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Ah! wretched they that worship vanities,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And consecrate dumb idols in their heart—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Who their own Maker, God on high, despise,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And fear the works of their own hands and art!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">What fury, what great madness doth beguile</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Men's minds that man should ugly shapes adore</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Of birds, or bulls, or dragons, or the vile</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Half-dog, half-man, on knees for aid implore."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>One of their own poets jests them thus:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Even now I was the stock of an old fig tree,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">The workman doubting what I then should be,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A bench or god, at last a god made me."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The Romans, for a time, were without images for any religious use, but +afterwards they received into their city the idols of all the nations +they conquered; and as they became the lords of the whole earth, they +became slaves to the idols of all the world. Seneca says: "The images of +the gods they worship, those they pray unto with bended knees, <i>those</i> +they admire and adore, and contemn the artificers who made them."</p> + +<p>The character and condition of their gods was worse than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> their own. The +common opinion touching their god of gods, <i>Jupiter</i>, was that he was +entombed in Crete, and his monument was there to be seen. Lactantius +<i>wittily</i> says: "Tell me, I beseech you, how can the same god be alive +in one place and dead in another; have a temple dedicated to him in one +place and a tomb erected in another?" Callimachus, in his hymn on +<i>Jupiter</i>, calls the Cretians liars in this very respect. He says:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"The Cretians always lyars are, who raised unto thy name<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A sepulchre, that never dyest, but ever art the same."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Lactantius informs us in book 10, chapter 20, that they gave divine +honor to notorious common prostitutes, as unto <i>goddesses</i>, to <i>Venus</i>, +or <i>Faula</i>, to <i>Lapa</i>, the nurse of <i>Romulus</i>, so called among the +shepherds for her common prostitution, and to Flora, who enriched +herself by her crime, and then, by will, made the people of Rome her +heir, and, also left a sum of money by which her birthday was yearly +celebrated with games, which, in memory of her, they called <i>Floralia</i>. +They claimed that their great goddess, <i>Juno</i>, was both the wife and +sister of Jupiter; and Jupiter, and the other gods, they held, were no +better that adulterers, sodomites, murderers and thieves. Such was not +held in private but published to the world. They were described by their +painters in their tables, by their poets in their verses, and acted by +their players upon their stages. (Lactantius, b. 5, ch. 21.)</p> + +<p>As respects the manner in which they worshiped their gods, Alexander, in +his Dierum Genialium, b. 6, ch. 26, insists that the most odious thing +in their history was the effusion of human blood in the service of their +gods. This same author says, "This unnatural, barbarous practice spread +itself well nigh over the known world; it was in use among the Trojans, +as it seems from Virgil's lines touching Æneas:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Their hands behind their backs he bound whom he had destined<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">A sacrifice unto the ghosts, and on whose flames to shed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Their blood he purposed."—<i>Ænead.</i></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Some ignorant infidels seem at a great loss to understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> why the Lord +should order the groves and altars of the heathen destroyed. (Again and +again their groves were cut down.) The children of Israel were to make +no offerings in the groves. If infidels will only exercise common sense +inside of the history of the worship of Priapus and Berecynthia, they +will cease fretting over the destruction of those beautiful forests. +Those groves were the most corrupt places upon the earth, places of +retirement from the altar into prostitution, carried on as a matter of +worship pleasing to Priapus. Here, on account of becoming modesty, the +half can not be told. The removal of nuisances in our own country is +conducted upon the same principles upon which groves were destroyed by +the Israelites.</p> + +<p>Lycurgus dedicated an image to laughter, to be worshiped as a god, and +this is said to be "the only law he ever made pertaining to religion." +While his great object was to make warriors, he ordained some things +noted for the education of youth. He ordained other laws so much in +favor of lust and all carnality of the worst kind, that it might justly +be said he made his entire commonwealth ludicrous. He instituted +wrestlings, dances and other exercises of boys and girls naked, to be +done in public at divers times of the year, in the presence both of +young and old men. Adultery was also approved and permitted by the laws +of Lycurgus. Plato and Aristotle advocated community of women, of goods +and possessions, to the end that no man should have anything peculiar to +himself, or know his own children. This was ordained by Plato, in order +to establish in the commonwealth such a perfect unity that no man might +be able to say, that is thine, or this is mine.</p> + +<p>Aristotle, in the second book of his "<i>Politiques</i>," sets forth many +other detestable things. Lactantius, in the third of his Divine +Institutions, shows that Plato's community of property and women took +away frugality, abstinence, shamefacedness, modesty and justice itself.</p> + +<p>Plato, like Lycurgus, ordained that young men should, for the increase +of their physical strength and agility of body, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> certain times +exercise themselves naked; that girls and servant-maids should dance +naked among the young men; that women in the flower of their youth +should dance, run, wrestle and ride with young men naked as well as +they, which, says Plato, "whosoever misliketh understandeth not how +profitable it is for the commonwealth."</p> + +<p>The morality of ancient times may be clearly seen in the fact that all +manner of debasing things were brought to the front. How could men be +persuaded that adultery should be punished when they were taught from +infancy that it was a virtue among the gods? <i>Lucian</i> gives his +experience thus, "When I was yet a boy, and heard out of <i>Homer</i> and +<i>Hesiod</i> of the adulteries, fornications, rapes and seditions of the +gods, truly I thought that those things were very excellent, and began +even then to be greatly affected towards them, for I could not imagine +that the gods themselves would ever have committed adultery if they had +not esteemed the same lawful and good." To all this it may be added that +the opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning virtue, vice, the +final happiness, and the state of the spirit after death, were diverse +and contradictory. The Epicurean doctrine was, that sovereign happiness +consisted in pleasure. They granted a God, but denied his Providence; so +virtue was without a spur, and vice without a bridle.</p> + +<p>The Stoics also granted a Divine Providence, but they maintained such a +fatal necessity that they blunted the edge of all virtuous efforts and +excused themselves in vicious conduct. Both Stoics and Epicureans +doubted the immortality of the human spirit, and thereby opened the way +to all manner of licentiousness.</p> + +<p>I am persuaded that eternity alone will fully reveal the consequences of +a denial of a future life and retribution; it is a physical leprosy +which removes all the most powerful incentives to virtue and loosens up +the soul to all manner of lustful gratifications.</p> + +<p>A man once remarked: "I have lived four years an avowed infidel. I have +boasted that I would live a good man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> and die an infidel. I have formed +the acquaintance of all the leading infidels of my country, and I am now +prepared to candidly confess that I do not believe any man can keep a +good heart without the fear of God. Such is my observation and +experience."</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="THE_LATEST_EVOLUTIONARY_CONFLICT" id="THE_LATEST_EVOLUTIONARY_CONFLICT"></a>THE LATEST EVOLUTIONARY CONFLICT.</h2> + +<h4>THEY FIRST WISH IT TO BE SO, THEN SOON, WITHOUT PROOF, THEY ASSERT THAT +IT IS SO!</h4> + +<p class="center">(<small><i>From the Cincinnati Gazette, of June 26, 1880.</i></small>)</p> + +<p>"Prof. Huxley is assured that the doctrine of evolution, so far as the +animal world is concerned, is no longer a speculation, but a statement +of historical fact, taking its place along side of those accepted truths +which must be taken into account by philosophers of all schools."</p> + +<p>This statement was the summing up of an address delivered at the Royal +Institution on the 19th of March. The address was specifically an +account of "The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species"—it being nearly +twenty-one years since Darwin's work bearing that name was first +published.</p> + +<p>The lecturer glanced at the general replacement of the catastrophic +theory of geology by the uniformitarian hypothesis, claimed that many of +the most important breaks in the line of the descent of plants and +animals had been filled, noticed the great advance made in the science +of embryology, and held that the amount of our knowledge respecting the +mammalia of the Tertiary epoch had increased fifty-fold since Darwin's +work appeared, and in some directions even approaches completeness. The +lecture closed with these words: "Thus when, on the first of October +next, 'The Origin of Species' comes of age, the promise of its youth +will be amply fulfilled and we shall be prepared to congratulate the +venerated author of the book, not only that the greatness of his +achievement and its enduring influence upon the progress of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> knowledge +have won him a place beside Harvey, but, still more, that, like Harvey, +he has lived long enough to outlast detraction and opposition, and to +see the stone that the builders rejected become the head-stone of the +corner."</p> + +<p>This is plain and emphatic speaking, but it has not been suffered to +pass unchallenged.</p> + +<p>Dr. Charles Elam, a writer who has already more than once measured +swords with the school of naturalists of which Professor Huxley is a +foremost champion, has been moved to respond to this latest utterance. +He has contributed to the <i>Contemporary Review</i> a paper entitled "The +Gospel of Evolution," which, whatever may be its conclusiveness, is one +of the sharpest attacks recently sustained by the opposing party. +Acknowledging at the start Mr. Darwin's pre-eminence as a naturalist, +and Prof. Huxley's equal accomplishments in the department of biology, +he yet ventures to continue his doubt regarding the evidence of their +peculiar doctrines. He first cites Darwin's admissions that it would be +fatal to his theory if any organs existed which could not have been +evolved by minute selective modifications, and his further concession +that "man, as well as every other animal, presents structures which, as +far as we can judge, are not now of any service to him, nor have been so +during any former part of his existence. Such structures can not be +accounted for by any form of selection or by the inherited effects of +the use and disuse of parts."</p> + +<p>Having contrasted Darwinism proper with its exaggerations, in the system +of Haeckel, who regards Darwin's admissions of an original creation as +contemptible, and recognizes only one force in the universe—the +mechanical, Dr. Elam compares Huxley's statement in his American +addresses that belief which is not based upon evidence is not only +illogical but immoral, with his last assertion that evolution is a fact, +doubted only by persons "who have not reached the stage of emergence +from ignorance." In 1862 Huxley also said—republishing the statements +as late as 1874:</p> + +<p>"Obviously, if the earliest fossiliferous rocks now known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> are coeval +with the commencement of life, and if their contents give us any just +conception of the nature and the extent of the earliest fauna and flora, +the insignificant amount of modification which can be demonstrated to +have taken place in any one group of animals or plants is quite +incompatible with the hypothesis that all living forms are the results +of a necessary process of a progressive development, entirely comprised +within the time represented by the fossiliferous rocks."</p> + +<p>Since this confession was uttered, whatever discoveries may have been +made, there has not been the faintest indication of the development of +any new species by artificial selection, the individuals of which are +fertile among themselves and infertile with the parent stock. It may +properly be alleged that there has not been time enough for such a slow +process, but it yet remains as true as ever that there is no direct +evidence in nature of what the Darwinians call <i>favorable variation</i>. It +is the unwritten law of nature that one race must die that another may +live, this other, in its turn, subserving the same end. Without this law +nature would be a chaotic impossibility. If natural selection were a +real agency, we ought to meet with frequent, if not constant, evidences +of transition, and a slow and gradual, but perceptible improvement in +species, especially marked in those whose generations succeed each other +rapidly. But we see nothing of the kind. But did selection really exist, +it would be incompetent to account for a multitude of structures and +functions to which any efficient cause should be applicable, notably to +the earliest rudiments of useful organs. Such organs as the eye and the +internal ear are quite out of reach of any explanation by natural +selection. Since the development of the eyes, due to the simultaneous +growth of parts from within and without, the organ itself would be +absolutely useless until it had attained such a degree of development as +to admit of these separate parts meeting, and so the principle of +preserving any useful variety would be quite inapplicable. The same is +true of the internal ear.</p> + +<p>Dr. Elam next passes in review Haeckel's Geneology of Man from the +Lowest Monera to his Present Station as Lord<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> of Creation. What the +Germans call invention of species to fill troublesome gaps is +illustrated in many ways, but we have room only for a single example:</p> + +<p>"The vertebrata must be developed from something, and as yet there has +been no smallest indication of anything like a spine or a rudiment of +anything that could represent or be converted into one. It costs our +author nothing but a stroke of his pen to invent the 'Chordonia,' and +whence did they come? They were developed from the worms by the +formation of a spinal marrow and a <i>chorda dorsulis</i>. Nothing more—the +most trifling modification!—and we are at once provided with the root +and stem of the whole vertebrata divisions. It is scarcely any drawback +to this stroke of genius to say that there is no evidence whatever that +such an order of living beings ever existed; that no one has the least +conception of what they were like, or of any of their attributes. Prof. +Huxley's responsibility for this imaginative science is evidenced by his +declaration that the conception of geological time is the only point +upon which he fundamentally and entirely disagrees with Haeckel."</p> + +<p>It still remains true that all our positive and direct knowledge as to +species contradicts the evolution hypothesis. Its evidence is purely +inferential, and, as Dr. Elam quietly says, "As a psychological study it +is interesting to observe how many things are deemed impossible to the +infinite wisdom and power (which by the terms of the supposition, +presided over the arrangements of our world) which are perfectly clear +and comprehensible when considered as the result of blind chance and the +operation of mechanical causes only." Omitting for lack of space his +keen analysis of Huxley's claim of the evidence of evolution from the +orchippus to the modern horse, we follow our author from his array of +what is not proved to what is actually taught by geology. We quote:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">The succession of forms of life on our globe is demonstrably not such +as ought to be the case on the theory of evolution.</span>" It was not the small +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> feeble species or most generalized forms that first appeared, +either among mollusks, fish, reptiles or mammalia. We look in vain now +for the representatives of the gigantic fishes of the Old Red Sandstone. +And where are the mighty reptile tyrants of air, earth and water of the +Oolite? * * * These races appeared in the plenitude of their development +and power; and, as their dynasty grew old, it was not that the race was +improved or preserved in consequence, but they dwindled, and were, so to +speak, degraded, as if to make room in the economy of nature for their +successors.</p> + +<p>Next follows a closely linked argument that will not bear abridgement, +showing the physical improbability that man, a walking animal, was +descended from a climbing one, and the deplorable consequences which +obliterate free will and necessitate the secularization of morals, as +elaborated by Prof. Huxley's friend, Mr. Herbert Spencer. This part of +the subject has a special interest to Americans, since the work in which +Mr. Spencer's views are inculcated has been introduced as a manual in +one of our oldest colleges, but its reproduction would widely lengthen +our article. It is sufficient to say that Dr. Elam concludes that Mr. +Spencer's doctrine, that "actions are completely right only when, +besides being conducive to future happiness, they are immediately +pleasurable," would justify him in concealing any injury done by him to +a friend's scientific apparatus, provided he could attribute it to the +weather, or the intrusion of a dog.</p> + +<p>Such, in brief, are the points of an essay which, as a whole, is one of +the most brilliant responses that the declarations of leading +evolutionists have called forth. Of course, all its points are not new, +but old objections have been skillfully refurbished and new ones brought +into play.</p> + +<hr style='width: 25%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">To mourn</span> for the dead, is to mourn for the lost casket when you still +retain the jewel it held. The memories of the dead one's virtues are the +jewels, and the cold clay but the casket.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="AUTHORSHIPS_OF_THE_BOOKS_OF_THE_NEW_TESTAMENT" id="AUTHORSHIPS_OF_THE_BOOKS_OF_THE_NEW_TESTAMENT"></a>AUTHORSHIPS OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.</h2> + + +<p>I have a few questions to put to every man who says Christianity is not +true. They are these: If Christianity is not true, where did it come +from? How came it into the world? What is its origin? These questions +are not trifling ones. Infidels have given as many different answers to +them as there are days in the week. There is no agreement among them +that amounts to a settlement of the questions among themselves. The +Scriptures are ancient. Porphyry, born at Tyre in 233, wrote a book +against them, which was burned by order of Theodosius the Great, in the +year 304. (Zell's Encyclopedia.)</p> + +<p>The Emperor Julian, born in the year 331, and Hierocles, who lived in +the fourth century, both wrote against Christianity, against the +Scriptures, but did not call in question the existence of Christ, nor +the fact that he wrought miracles.</p> + +<p>Celsus, an Epicurean philosopher who lived in the second century, was +the author of a work written against Christianity, entitled "Logos +Aleethees," that is, "Word of Truth." To this work Origen replied. +Celsus, in this work, quotes from the gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and +John, and does this over and over, and shows that the Christians valued +the books very highly; they suffered death rather than repudiate them.</p> + +<p class="center">A TABLE OF THE ANCIENT TIMES OF TRIAL AND OF PEACE.</p> + +<p class="poem"> +<span class="smcap">Date</span>—<br /> +<br /> +A.D. 64 to 68—Persecution under Nero.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">95 to 96—Persecution under Domitian. Banishment of John.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">96 to 104—Time of peace.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2.0em;">104 to 117—Persecution under Trajan. Martyrdom of Ignatius.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.0em;">117 to 161—Time of peace. Apologies of Aristides,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Quadratus and Justin Martyr were written.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.0em;">161 to 180—Persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Martyrdom</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">of Polycarp and the martyrs of</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Lyons.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5.0em;">164—Justin Martyr was put to death.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Statistics concerning the sufferings of the first Christians show that +they were in great earnest. Eternity alone will reveal the true number +of the martyrs. They all suffered and died just as we would expect, in +case they knew the facts of our religion. Twenty-two books of the New +Testament were written before the martyrdom of the Apostles Paul and +Peter. Infidels often boast, in their ignorance, that the books of the +gospels were not written by those whose names they bear.</p> + +<p>If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write those books which bear +their names, then are they false in fact? and if so, what did the +authors die for? The sufferings of primitive Christians were great; the +persecutions which they endured were outrageous, cruel and inhuman in +their character. Such is the universal verdict of ancient history. Of +the persecution under Nero, Tacitus, a celebrated Roman historian, who +was born in the year 56, just twenty-three years after Pentecost, +writes, that Nero "laid upon the Christians the charge of that terrible +conflagration at Rome of which he himself was the cause." He says, "A +vast multitude were apprehended. And many were disguised in the skins of +wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, some were crucified, and +others were wrapped in pitched shirts and set on fire when the day +closed, that they might serve as lights to illuminate the night. Nero +lent his own garden for these executions, and celebrated at the same +time a public entertainment in the circus, being a spectator of the +whole in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with the crowd on +foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacle from his car." (Annals of +Tacitus, 15: 44.)</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p><p>Juvenal, the coarse and bitter satirist of the same time, writes of the +martyred Christians as "those who stand burning in their own flame and +smoke, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till +they make a long stream of blood and sulphur on the ground." (Juv. Sat., +1: 155.)</p> + +<p>Seneca also refers to their fearful sufferings: "Imagine here a prison, +crosses and racks and the hook, and a stake thrust through the body and +coming out at the mouth, and the limbs torn by chariots pulling adverse +ways, and the coat besmeared and interwoven with inflammable materials, +nutriment for fire, and whatever else beside <i>these</i> cruelty has +invented." (Seneca's Epistles, 14.)</p> + +<p>One of Diocletian's coins commemorates the blotting out of the very name +of Christian: "Nomine Christianorum deleto." But the age of martyrdoms +ended with the accession of Constantine to the Roman empire, and to-day +there are more Christians in the world than ever before. Skeptic, take +one long look at the unbelieving, bloody, persecuting hosts, and choose +your future associates.</p> + +<p>Strauss says: "No man knows who wrote the Gospels." Can he mean that +they are anonymous books? Does he mean that they are not +biographies—books containing, in their historic matter, an account of +the authors <i>themselves</i>? Who does not know that those books are and +have been called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? And who +has, in all the past centuries, produced evidence showing that those are +the wrong names. No one. Insane men might say such a thing. Infidels +don't like to say that; they just say you can't prove your religion, nor +show that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote those books. Will any +sensible man affirm that they are the wrong names? How do we judge and +believe respecting the authorship of other ancient books? Why do we +believe that Cæsar wrote the Commentaries on the Gallic War? And why do +we believe that Virgil wrote the Æneid? No sane man ever doubted the +authorship of those writings. Preoccupancy during the ages past is +considered by infidels themselves a sufficient ground for belief. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> +fact that those books exist has certainly been known from the age of the +apostles to the present time, for men quoted extensively from them in +the second century. The names they bear were in the possessive case +then, and it is but fair to consider them the true owners.</p> + +<p>Why are skeptics and infidels so partial among ancient books? They doubt +the authorship of no ancient books unless they are written in favor of +the religion of Christ. Will some wise one tell us why this strange +inconsistency? O, it is an evidence of a wicked heart—that's all! +all!!—<span class="caps">ALL THERE IS OF IT!!!</span></p> + +<p>Here are the dates of the books of the New Testaments, along with +contemporary landmarks:</p> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="New Testaments and Contemporary Landmarks"> +<tr class='tr2'> + <td class='tdcbr'><span class="smcap">Books.</span></td> + <td class='tdcbr'><span class="smcap">After<br />Pentecost.</span></td> + <td align='center'><span class="smcap">Contemporary Landmarks.</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>1 Peter</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>16</td> + <td align='left'>Claudius Cæsar ruled from A.D. 41 to 54.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Galatians</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>18</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>1 Thess</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>19</td> + <td align='left'>Romans settled in England between 41 and 54.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>2 Thess</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>20</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>1 Cor</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>24</td> + <td align='left'>Nero ruled from 54 to 68.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>2 Cor</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>25</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>1 Timothy</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>25</td> + <td align='left'>Paul and Peter were martyred at Rome in or</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Romans</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>25</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>about the year 63; 30 years after Pentecost.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>James</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>28</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Matthew</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>28</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>Persecution continues under Nero until the</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Mark</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>28</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>year 68. The satirist Juvenal, who lived</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Philemon</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>29</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>under Nero, and his brother satirist Martial,</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Collosians</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>29</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>both allude to the burnings of the Christians</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Ephesians</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>29</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>in pitched shirts.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Philippians</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>29</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Luke</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>30</td> + <td align='left'>Suetoneus, writing of what took place under</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Acts</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>30</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>Emperor Claudius, in 53, makes mention of</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Hebrews</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>30</td> + <td class='tdlpl1'>Christ.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>2 Peter</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>34</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>2 Timothy</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>34</td> + <td align='left'>Galba, Otho and Vitelleus rule from 68 to 69.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Titus, about</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>34</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Jude, about</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>34</td> + <td align='left'>Christians have peace from 68 to 95.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdlbr'>Epistles of St. John 1, 2, 3</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>40</td> + <td align='left'>Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70.</td> +</tr> +<tr class='tr3'> + <td class='tdlbr'>Revelations of Jesus Christ to John</td> + <td class='tdcbr'>64</td> + <td align='left'>Vespasian rules from 69 to 79.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CARLYLES_ESTIMATE_OF_THE_BOOK_OF_JOB_IN_HIS_OWN_WORDS" id="CARLYLES_ESTIMATE_OF_THE_BOOK_OF_JOB_IN_HIS_OWN_WORDS"></a>CARLYLE'S ESTIMATE OF THE BOOK OF JOB, IN HIS OWN WORDS.</h2> + + +<p>"I call the book of Job, apart from all theories about it, one of the +grandest books ever written with a pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were +not Hebrew—such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism +or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble book! All men's book! It is our +first, oldest statement of the never-ending problem of man's destiny and +God's ways with him here on this earth, and all in such free, flowing +outlines, grand in its simplicity and its epic melody and repose of +reconcilement! There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. +So true every way; true eye-sight and vision for all things—material +things no less than spiritual; the horse—'thou hast clothed his neck +with thunder;' 'he laughs at the shaking of the spear!' Such living +likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow! Sublime +reconciliation! Oldest choral melody, as of the heart of mankind! So +soft and great, as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and +stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of +equal literary merit." (Dr. Cotton's Scrap-Book.)</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="WHAT_I_LIVE_FOR" id="WHAT_I_LIVE_FOR"></a>WHAT I LIVE FOR.</h2> + +<p class="poem"> +"I live to hold communion<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With all that is divine,</span><br /> +To feel there is a union<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Between God's will and mine;</span><br /> +For the cause that lacks assistance,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For the future, in the distance,</span><br /> +For what'er is good and true,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For all human hearts that bind me,</span><br /> +For the task by God assigned me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And the good that I can do."</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_MOLECULE_GOD" id="THE_MOLECULE_GOD"></a>THE MOLECULE GOD.</h2> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Air</span>—<i>The Fine Old English Gentleman.</i></p> + +<p class="center">[To be sung at all gatherings of advanced "siolists" and "scientists."]</p> + + +<p class="poem"> +We will sing you a grand new song evolved from a 'cute young pate,<br /> +Of a fine old Atom-Molecule of prehistoric date;<br /> +In size infinitesimal, in potencies though great,<br /> +And self-formed for developing at a prodigious rate—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Like a fine old Atom-Molecule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Of the young world's proto-prime!</span><br /> +<br /> +In it slept all the forces in our cosmos that run rife,<br /> +To stir creation's giants or its microscopic life;<br /> +Harmonious in discord and co-operant in strife,<br /> +To this small cell committed the world lived with his wife—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">In this fine old Atom-Molecule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Of the young world's proto-prime!</span><br /> +<br /> +In this autoplastic archetype of protean protein clay<br /> +All the human's space has room for, for whom time makes a day,<br /> +From the sage whose words of wisdom prince or parliament obey,<br /> +To the parrots who but prattle, and the asses who but bray—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">So full was this Atom-Molecule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Of the young world's proto-prime!</span><br /> +<br /> +All brute life, from lamb to lion, from the serpent to the dove,<br /> +All that pains the sense or pleasure, all the heart can loathe or love;<br /> +All instincts that drag downwards, all desires that upwards move<br /> +Were caged, a "happy family," cheek-by-jowl, and hand-in-glove,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">In this fine old Atom-Molecule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Of the young world's proto-prime!</span><br /> +<br /> +In it order grew from chaos, light out of darkness shined,<br /> +Design sprang by accident, law's rule from hazard blind;<br /> +The soul-less soul evolving—against, not after kind,<br /> +As the life-less life developed, and the mind-less ripened mind,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">In this fine old Atom-Molecule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Of the young world's proto-prime!</span><br /> +<br /> +Then bow down mind to matter; from brain fiber, will, withdraw;<br /> +Fall man's heart to cell ascidian, sink man's hand to monkey's paw;<br /> +And bend the knee to Protoplast in philosophic awe—<br /> +Both Creator and created, at once work and source of law.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">And our Lord be the Atom-Molecule,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Of the young world's proto-prime!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Punch.</span><br /> +</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. 8, August, 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, AUGUST 1880 *** + +***** This file should be named 28669-h.htm or 28669-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/6/28669/ + +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. 8, August, 1880 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Aaron Walker + +Release Date: May 3, 2009 [EBook #28669] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, AUGUST 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. AUGUST, 1880. NO. 8. + + + + +THE IMPORTANCE AND NATURE OF REFORMATION FROM SIN. + + +This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men +shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, +disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, +truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those +who are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than +lovers of God; having a form of godliness but denying the power +thereof.--2 Tim. 3: 1-5. + +The Savior once began his instructions with these words, "This day is +this Scripture fulfilled." They seem to be an appropriate introduction +to our lesson upon this occasion. What is the religion of thousands? +They were made the special objects of God's favor in their infancy (?), +were christened in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the +Holy Spirit (?), were dedicated to God and his service by their parents +(?), who, for them, took a solemn vow to forsake the devil and all his +works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires, +to forsake, also, all the carnal desires of the flesh, and not to follow +or be led by them. It is said that the christened took this vow when +they were children, and understood it not; when they became men they +understood it about as well as when they were children. But in all +candor, I confess that I never could believe they took this vow; their +sponsors took it upon themselves to make it for them, and usually +pledged themselves to see it fulfilled. What fearful responsibilities +are assumed just here. It is too frequently the case that those very +sponsors serve more devoutly, love more affectionately, and confide more +heartily in the profits, honors and pleasures of the world than in the +Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. + +Survey the lives of many of these men, of all conditions, and then deny, +if you can, that the profits, honors and pleasures of the world are the +gods they worship. Their daily and constant employment is either a +violent pursuit of the vain pomp and glory of the world, or of its +power, riches and profits; or it may be that they are led on by pride, +malice or revenge. Such persons live, not knowing or regarding the fact +that the baptism which now saves us is "not the putting away of the +filth of the flesh, _but the answer of a good conscience_ toward God." +There are many such who live but little in advance of pagans in a +commonwealth of Christians, and know but little more of God or of Christ +than if they had been brought up in India. A great many are taught to +act over this play in the name of religion, and learned to say, "Our +Father who art in heaven," and "I believe in God the Father Almighty;" +but do they live as though they did believe in earnest that God is their +Almighty Father? Do they fear him and trust in him? Do they love and +obey him? Mere pretense, or, as Paul termed it, a _guise_ of godliness, +for such is the meaning of the original term, is so common that we meet +with it almost daily. Men have learned to tamper with the word of God +until the world is full of theorists. How many talk about religion who +set aside a great portion of the word of God as worse than useless? And +that which they profess to believe they do not believe with half the +simplicity which they manifest in believing the words of their earthly +parents. It has been said, "He who is not industrious to obtain what he +professes to desire does not desire it, and he who is not industrious to +bring about that for which he prays, prays with his tongue _only_, and +not with his heart." All such have simply a "guise" of godliness, while +they deny its power. + +A great many people profess to believe the Scriptures are true, and that +they present the plain and only way to infinite and eternal blessedness, +and yet they neglect the study of the Scriptures. How is this? If there +was a book revealing a plain and easy way for all men to become rich and +enjoy health and pleasure and this world's happiness, would it not be +studied by all men? And why is it that the Bible is not studied by the +masses and regarded more? Why are so many professors of religion +negligent in this matter? May it not be because they prefer all other +business and pleasures before this? If professors of religion throughout +christendom heartily believed the Scriptures even as they profess, they +would be more diligently studied, and in many instances treated with +greater respect. The faith of many is undoubtedly very weak. If the laws +of our country provided a plain way of escape from temporal death for +the benefit of the condemned criminal, as plain and pointed as the great +commission given to the apostles of Christ, would any condemned criminal +hesitate to obey or treat the stipulations of law as men are constantly +treating the precepts of the gospel of Christ? When a man believes the +Bible contains _the facts and truths_ which concern us infinitely more +than all earthly matters, his care and diligence should be, _to some +extent_, in harmony with his persuasion. At this point men _seem to be_ +most strangely careless and grossly negligent. How few people do, or +will, understand that the terms of salvation are written as with the +beams of the sun? Is the trouble a low degree of faith, approximating +unbelief? The shadows are always the longest when the sun is lowest. Is +the sun of righteousness low in your spiritual heavens? Or have you +given him the uppermost seat in your affections? What think you of +Christ? Whose son is he? + +When I tell you that thousands received the baptism of repentance for +the remission of sins, even before the Holy Spirit was given, and were +clean through the words spoken unto them, many are ready to cry out, +"These are hard and strange sayings--who can hear them?" Yet, strange as +it may seem, these facts have been upon record near _nineteen hundred_ +years. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to +every creature; he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he +that believeth not shall be damned." In the record of St. Luke, chapter +24, the condition of the new covenant, to which remission of sins is +promised, is expressed by the term _repentance_: "Thus it behooved +Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that repentance and +remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, +beginning at Jerusalem." The word repentance, when used in the law of +Christ, is always equivalent to the use which the ancient martyrs made +of it, viz: "Amend your lives." We have it beautifully expressed in +these words: "If the wicked turn from all the sins which he hath +committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and +right, he shall surely live, he shall not die." + +Paul summed up the whole matter of his preaching in the sentence, +"Repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." In some of +the best Latin translations this passage in Acts 20th is rendered, +"_Conversion to God_;" also in Hebrews, 6th chapter, we read, "And +_conversion_ from dead works." Such is more clear and natural; but if we +should read, according to modern theology, _sorrow_ towards God, and +_sorrow_ from dead works, it would sound very unnatural, and almost +ridiculous. This is a grand argument in favor of the reading of the +_Geneva text_, which reads, "_Amend your lives_ and _turn_, that your +sins may be blotted out." But if heaven may be gained at an easier and +cheaper rate, how is it that we are so frequently and so plainly assured +that without actual newness of life, holiness and sanctification unto +obedience, there is no hope, no possibility of salvation? John the +Baptist, preaching repentance, said: "Every tree that bringeth not forth +good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire." It is not the leaves, +simply, of a profession, nor the blossoms of good purposes and +intentions, but the fruit, _the fruit only_, that will save us from the +fire. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and +cast into the fire." + +Our Savior said, "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall +enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my father +who is in heaven." After he had delivered all the beautiful precepts +found in the lesson given upon the mount he closed up all by saying, "He +that heareth these sayings of mine and doth them not I will liken him to +a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand, and when the rain +descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that +house, it fell, and great was the fall of it." They that are Christ's +have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. If they have not +done this, and so attained fitness of character to dwell with God, it +matters not what their sorrow has been, nor their intentions, they will +not enter the kingdom of God. + +Paul says, "The works of the flesh are these: adultery, fornication, +uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, +emulations, wrath, strife, seditious, heresies, envyings, murders, +drunkenness, revelings, of which I forewarn you, as I have told you in +time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of +God." He does not say they who have done such things shall not be saved, +but just the contrary, for he adds: "Such were some of you, but ye are +washed, but ye are sanctified;" but he teaches the doctrine that those +who do such things and do not amend their lives shall not be excused by +any pretense of sorrow and good purposes; they "shall not inherit the +kingdom of God." "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth +anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature"--a creature living by +a faith, which worketh by love. It is not simply wishing you were a new +creature; not simply wishing for a working faith; nor sorrowing because +you are not a Christian; but "keeping the commandments of God," that +will permit you to enter heaven. + +In the final closing of the New Testament writings it is said: "Blessed +are they who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree +of life and enter in through the gates into the city." + +Paul says, "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man +shall see the Lord." And Peter says, "Add to your faith virtue, and to +virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance +patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly +kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity"--and finally says, if ye do +these things ye shall never fall, for so an abundant entrance shall be +ministered unto you into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior +Jesus Christ. And John says, speaking of the Christian's hope, "Every +man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure;" +then the impure may flatter themselves, and presume upon the favor of +God without "purifying their souls in obeying the truth," but they are +without hope in the world. And again he says, "Little children let no +man deceive you, he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is +righteous." + +So all the writers and teachers of the New Testament, with one consent, +proclaim the necessity of obeying the commandments of the gospel. What a +vain whim it is to think that sorrow and mere intention without +reformation of life will admit you into heaven. This golden dream of +heaven has sent thousands out of this world unpardoned and unsaved. + +A great many persons satisfy themselves with a mere confession and +acknowledgement of their sins. They seem to think they have done enough, +if to confession of sins they add some sorrow for it. They think all is +well if, when their fit of sinning is past and they are returned to +themselves, the sting remains, breeding some remorse of conscience, some +complaints against their wickedness and folly for having done so, and +some intentions to forsake it, though never carried into effect. There +are many persons in the churches of our country who seem to think the +church is a stage, whereon they must play their parts, who make a +profession every day of confessing their sins with humble hearts, and +yet, after having spent twenty, thirty or forty years in this manner, +their hearts are as stubborn as ever, and they as impenitent and +disobedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If giving thanks to God for +the blessing received at his hands is performed with words only, with +simple hosannas, and hallelujahs, and "_gloria patris_," and psalms, and +hymns, then I presume it is done very efficiently, (?) though our lives +are provoking to his majesty. _It is not the office of a friend (?) to +bewail a friend with vain lamentation._ To be thankful to God is not to +say God be praised, or God be thanked, but it is to remember what he +desires and execute what he commands. A dying Roman once said, "It is +not the office of a friend to bewail a dead friend with vain +lamentations, but to remember what he desires and execute his commands. +It is the office of the friends of Christ to remember his desires and +carry out his instructions. If we do so we are thankful, and if we do +not our thankfulness is nothing more than mere talk." + +Jesus said to his disciples: "Ye are my friends if ye do what I command +you." And again: "If a man love me he will keep my words; he that loveth +me not, keepeth not my sayings." Again: "If ye continue in my word, then +are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth +shall make you free." + +Those who love God love his cause. When that cause prospers they +rejoice; when it declines they are hurt. When clouds and darkness are +round about the church it is time to double our diligence and pray to +God for help. Circumstances, over which no human being can have control, +sometimes cause sluggishness in the character of a church. The hearts of +God's people are often deeply affected by witnessing the indifference +and carelessness of the people, and still more affected by a falling off +in their numbers. When the godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail from +among the children of men, it is distressing; but such is the lot of man +that we are often called upon to witness the truthfulness of the +prophet's statement. All true Christians love the godly because they are +faithful. The term _faithful_ implies truth, sincerity and fidelity. +Christ, our great example, is called the faithful and true witness. The +use of the term in our religion indicates believers in Christ--_obedient +believers_--_faithful brethren in Christ_. Col. i: 2. Sometimes it is +equivalent to the word _true_, as in 2d Tim., ii: 2--"Faithful men;" the +fidelity of the persons alluded to had been tried--_proven_. And again, +it means a Christian, in opposition to an infidel, as in 2d Cor. vi: +15--"What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?" A good man is +faithful in his business transactions; faithful to his _profession_, +adhering to the principles of the gospel and laboring to be faithful to +death; faithful in the discharge of his duties; faithful in the +employment of his talents; faithful in all things committed to his +trust; faithful to his promises; faithful in his friendship. These men +fail and cease by means of death. The fathers, where are they? And the +teachers, do they live forever? The visitations of death are often +mysterious to us. Sometimes the most brilliant in intellect and the most +useful in talent, also the most pious and useful in the church, are cut +down, while mere cumberers of the ground remain. + +The profession of some is only transient; they soon disappear from the +assembly of the saints. Some improper motive, some peculiar excitement +may have moved them, or their goodness of heart may have left them. They +have possibly been stony ground hearers or thorny ground hearers. The +world allures thousands and kills the vitality of their religion. + +Judas betrayed his master from the love of worldly gain; and Demas, an +acceptable preacher and companion of Paul, abandoned his profession, +"having loved the present world." + +Many fail by endeavoring to unite the world and their religion, +maintaining a good moral character, but are destitute of energy in +Christianity. + +When this spirit gets hold of a man, and he is disposed to secularize +his religion, or subordinate it to his worldly interests, he is sure to +fail sooner or later. Some fail by falling into temptations of various +kinds, and disgrace their profession; and some fail through +intemperance. Many fail through the influence of error and the enemies +of Christianity. These frequently beguile the unwary. + +There never was a time in our history when unbelief and skepticism was +more determined in its opposition to the Christian religion than at the +present. There is an incessant attempt to instill into the minds of the +young principles in opposition to, and destructive of Christianity. Many +have split upon the rocks of infidelity, and stranded upon the +quicksands of doubt and skepticism, in spite of the fact that +Christianity presented them an example, which is the light and life of +men--a character without a blot! And this example is the only foundation +upon which to build a moral and pious temple in which the Lord does, and +the creature may dwell. + + + + +OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO REVELATION--THE TEN ATHEISTS IN COUNCIL--No. II. + +BY P.T. RUSSEL. + + +A rap is heard at the door. It being opened, Christian enters. "Good +morning, gentlemen. I am very glad to find you all here. Since our +former interview I have been very anxious to continue our investigation +of the evidence of the existence of God. I presume, as you are +'_Free-thinkers_' and lovers of truth, you are by this time ready to +give a scientific reason for the existence of the idea of God, and, as +you agree with me that we only obtain ideas through the aid of the five +senses, our only idea of color by the eye, of sound by the ear, etc., I +wish to ask you to account for the idea of God. Will you oblige me?" + +_Atheists_--Certainly. We have consulted on this theme since our last +interview, and now declare it to be the work or nature of the +imagination. It is a scientific truth, as you will readily admit, that +imagination can and does get up some singular and unreal forms. We now +assume that the idea of a God is but the thought of an imaginary being. + +_Christian_--True, gentlemen. Fancy, or imagination, does, in active +moments, bring for our amusement some fantastic pictures. Her work, +however, is never simple, but always complex. This that we are in search +of is the idea of a simple being--a being that is single, and not +duplex. I will now illustrate the extent of the power of the +imagination. Taking a walk through nature's flower garden, we gather one +of every variety, and examining them closely, one by one, we notice +their difference in form, color and size by the eye. Their fragrance we +note by the smell. Thus, by the aid of the senses, we note all their +sensible properties. Now, allowing that memory is perfect, we have in +store all the peculiarities of each and every individual flower. +Gentlemen atheists, am I correct in this conclusion? + +_Atheists_--Well, yes. + +_Christian_--Very well; then I'll proceed. Having learned, by what we +saw, the art of combining, we can and will imagine all these single +flowers blended in one large conglomerated flower, containing all the +peculiarities of each and every single flower. Now, gentlemen, is not +this all that the imagination can do? + +_Atheists_--It is. + +_Christian_--Very well. Is this a simple or compound idea? + +_Atheists_--It is a compound idea. It is simply the blending of the idea +of each single flower. + +_Christian_--And this is all the imagination can do? Then, gentlemen, do +you not see that as the idea of God is the idea of a single person, it +would be utterly impossible for imagination to be its author? It is not +a conglomerate idea, but a single one. Now, if there is no God, we have +a clear, definite idea of _nothing_. How will you account for this? Are +you not now unable to give a reason for your premises? Is it not the +truth that fools are wiser in their own conceit than men who can give a +reason? + +_Atheists_--Mr. Christian, we did not think that you would thus call us +all fools, and as our investigation has taken such an unlooked for turn, +we must ask time for consultation before we proceed further. + +_Christian_--Very well. When will you be ready to resume? this I am +anxious to know; as you are "liberalists" and "free-thinkers," you will +be equally anxious to reach the truth in the premises? + +_Atheists_--At two P.M. + +It is two o'clock, and all are present. + +Mr. Reason, who was an atheist, opens the discussion as follows: + +"Mr. Christian, we have held a council on the subject under discussion, +and our conclusion is that you are right. There must be, and is, such a +being as God. Were this not so, we never could have had the idea of him. +We are now deists. We deny that he has ever imparted knowledge to man by +revelation." + +_Christian_--Gentlemen, do you think your present position is a +scientific one? + +_Deists_--We think it is both scientific and invulnerable, and we also +think that if you continue this investigation with us you will find it +so. How did you obtain this idea? Have you seen God? No. Have you heard +him speak? No. If we had we could not be honest without being +Christians? + +_Christian_--Gentlemen, have you not contraband goods in your warehouse? +As your eyes have not seen, nor your ears heard, nor your powers of +observation perceived him, and as you acknowledge that every one of your +ideas entered the mind through the aid of one or another of the five +senses, now, I ask, are you logically any better off than before you +found yourselves obliged to relinquish your atheism? Do you not now, as +well as then, occupy unreasonable ground? Having rather conceded that +atheists are fools, and turned _deists_, are you really any better off? +Can you give a reason for your present infidelity? Out of your own +mouths you stand condemned as unreasonable and foolish. You pretend to +venerate reason, while you discard her first principles. You need not +try to evade me at this point by an appeal to nature. Here you can find +no aid, for nature tells us of no first cause. The apple tree, before +this window, now so richly laden with fruit, tells not of its first +cause. If you say it came from an apple-seed, and that from an apple, +and that from another tree, another seed, and another tree, and so on, +in a circle you may always go, for nature does not tell you of a first +tree as a cause uncaused, nor of a Creator, a God. She does not go +behind herself. Gentlemen, have you any reply? If you have, I would like +to hear it. + +Reason timidly says: "Mr. C., in your very severe strictures on the +deists, are you not condemning yourself? You pretend to place full +confidence in the teachings of your Bible, and does it not say: 'The +heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his +handiwork?' Can nature thus declare and not make known?" + +_Christian_--Yes, your quotation tells the truth; yet in this also you +have taken too much for granted. There stands a clock; it keeps correct +time, but does it declare the glory of any one? + +_Deists_--Yes, that of its maker. + +_Christian_--But who was its maker. You say you do not know. That is +true, and, for ought you know, or can learn from its mechanism there +might have been several makers connected with its origin. If you had +stood by and seen it made, then you might have told me all about it. In +that which you call the works of nature, neither you, nor I, nor any of +our fellows, are instructed by actual observation consequent upon being +present when they were made--we were not standing by when the heavens +were made; so that source of information is closed up. There is now but +one resort left to us--but one reasonable means of information. That is, +the maker of all things must, necessarily, have told man that he created +all these things. Then, with David, he could sing, "The heavens declare +the glory of God." Man first learned from God that he was the creator of +all things, for God alone could tell it. Gentlemen, the Christian is +the only reasonable being upon the earth, and the only _fearless +free-thinker_. The atheist, you see, is proved a fool, and the deist is +no better. Think this over, then call again. + +_Deists_--We will. _Good evening._ + + + + +THOMAS PAINE + +WAS NOT AN INFIDEL WHEN HE WROTE HIS WORK CALLED COMMON SENSE. + + +"In the early ages of the world, according to the Scripture chronology, +there were no kings, the consequence of which was there were no wars. It +is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion. Holland, +without a king, hath enjoyed more peace for the last century than any of +the monarchical governments of Europe. Antiquity favors the same remark, +for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs have a happy +something in them which vanishes when we come to the history of Jewish +royalty." (Common Sense, p. 12.) + +Mr. Paine, did the God of the Bible approve of the Jewish royalty? + +_Ans._ "As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest can not be +justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended +on the authority of Scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared +by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by +kings." * * * Near three thousand years passed away, from the Mosaic +account of the creation, until the Jews, under the national delusion, +requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in +extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of +republic, administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. King +they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under the +title but Lord of Hosts. * * * Monarchy is ranked in Scripture as one +of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced +against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to. The +children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched +against them with a small army, and victory, through the divine +interposition, decided in his favor. The Jews, elate with success, and +attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, +saying, "_Rule thou over us, thou and thy son, and thy son's son._" Here +was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an +hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied, "_I will +not rule over you; neither shall my son rule over you._ THE LORD SHALL +RULE OVER YOU." (Common Sense, pp. 13 and 14.) + +How many Gideons are there among leading infidels whose soul-piety would +resist such a temptation as that? Say, was Thomas Paine an infidel when +he wrote that? + +"In short, monarchy and succession have laid, not this or that kingdom +only, but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of government which +the word of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it." +(Common Sense, p. 19.) "'But where,' say some, 'is the king of America?' +I'll tell you, friend; he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of +mankind like the royal brute of Britain. Yet, that we may not appear to +be defective in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for +proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth, placed on the divine +law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world +may know that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America _the law +is king_." (Common Sense, p. 33.) + +After quoting sundry passages of Scripture against a kingly form of +government, Thomas Paine says: + +"These portions of Scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no +equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest +against monarchical government is true, or the Scripture is false. And a +man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as +priestcraft in withholding the Scripture from the public in popish +countries." (Common Sense, p. 15.) + +From the foregoing _verbatim_ quotations it will be seen that Thomas +Paine was no infidel until he PARTED WITH "COMMON SENSE," which bears +date of February 14, 1776. Common Sense is of noble worth. We cheerfully +concede to Thomas Paine all the honor due him for services rendered in +behalf of our country while he was Thomas Paine the Quaker. He did +nothing for our country after he avowed his infidelity that deserves +being mentioned by any intelligent Christian. + + + + +A CLUSTER OF THOUGHTS, + +GATHERED FROM JENYN'S INTERNAL EVIDENCES, WITH ADDITIONS AND +MODIFICATIONS. + + +When the religion of Christ made its appearance it was entirely new, +infinitely above, and altogether different from any other which had at +any time entered into the mind of man. Its object was new. It was to +prepare us with fitness of character, through a state of trial, for +mutual association with the pure and lovely in the kingdom of heaven. +This is presented in all the gospel, as the chief end of the Christian's +life. Until Christ, no such reward was offered to mankind, nor means +provided for its attainment. + +Many of the philosophers in old times had ideas of a future state, but +they were mixed with a great deal of uncertainty and misgivings. + +Ancient legislators endeavored to inculcate the idea of rewards and +punishments after death, to give sanction to their laws. This was the +sole end in view, and when their laws were virtuous, it was a noble, a +praiseworthy end. But the religion of Christ is related to the same +object, brings it about; and, also, has a nobler end in view, and that +is to prepare us here for a more noble society among the citizens of +the kingdom of God in the great hereafter. + +In all the older religions the good of the present was the direct, and +the first object, but in the religion of Christ it is the second. The +first great object of the gospel of Christ is to prepare us for the +realities of eternity. + +There is a great contrast between adhering to morality from the motive +of present profit, in expectation of future reward, and living such a +life as to qualify us for the realization of future happiness. + +The character of those who are governed by these different principles is +not the same. On the first principle, present utility, we may have mere +moralists, men practicing simple justice, temperance and sobriety. On +the second, we must add to those graces of moral nature faith in God, +resignation to his will, and habitual piety. The first will make us very +good citizens in a civil government, but will never be sufficient to +make us Christians. So the religion of Christ insists upon purity of +heart and benevolence, or charity, because these are essential to the +end proposed. + +"That the present existence is one of trial with reference to another +state of being, is confirmed by all that we know in what is termed the +course of nature. Probation is the only key that unfolds to us the +designs of God in the history of human affairs, the only clue that +guides us through the pathless wilderness, and the only plan upon which +this world could possibly have been formed, or upon which its history +can be explained." + +This world was not formed upon a plan of unconditioned happiness, +because it is overspread with miseries. Neither was it formed upon a +plan of unconditioned misery, for there are many joys interspersed +throughout the whole. It was not formed for the unconditional existence +of both vice and virtue, for that is no plan at all, the two elements +being, as we know, destructive of each other. By the way, in this very +fact we find the grand necessity for the remedial scheme. + +The mixture of vice and virtue, of happiness and misery, is a necessary +result of a state of probation, trials and sufferings consequent upon +offending or violating the will of heaven. + +The doctrine of the religion of Christ, with its ultimate object and its +ideas of God and man, of the present and the future life, and of the +relations which these all bear to each other, was and is wholly unheard +of until you come to the teachings of Christ. No other religion ever +drew such pictures of the worthlessness of earthly-mindedness and of +living merely for this present world. And no other ever set out such +beautiful, lively and glorious pictures of heavenly-mindedness, along +with the joys of a future world, nor such pictures of victory over death +and the grave, nor of the last judgment, nor of the triumphs of the +redeemed in that tremendous day. The personal character of the great +author, Christ, is as new and peculiar to this religion as anything else +that we can possibly name--"He spake as never man spake." + +He is the only founder of a religion which is "unconnected with all +human policy and government," and, as such, should not be prostituted to +any mere worldly purposes whatever. Numa, Mohammed, and even Moses, +blended their religious institutions with their civil, and by such means +controlled their adherents. Christ neither exercised nor accepted such +power. He rejected every motive which controlled other leaders, and +chose those which others avoided. Power, honor, riches and pleasure were +alike disregarded. He seemed to court poverty, sufferings and death. + +Many impostors and enthusiasts have tried to impose upon the world with +pretended communications from the world of spirits--some of them have +died rather than recant; but no history is found to show one who made +his own sufferings and death a necessary part of his plan and essential +elements in his mission. This distinguishes the Savior of the world from +all mere enthusiasts and imposters. He declared his death in all its +minutia; with a prophet's vision he saw it, declared it was necessary, +and voluntarily endured it; and he was neither a madman nor idiot. Look +at his lessons, his precepts and his wonderful conduct, and then +imagine him insane if you can. Still, if he was not what he pretended to +be, he can be viewed in no other light; and yet under the character of a +madman he deserves much attention on account of such sublime and +_rational insanity_. There is no other person known in the world's +history so _rationally_ and _sublimely_ mad. + +In what madman's career can you find such a beautiful lesson as his +instructions given upon the mount. What other leader enforced his +precepts and lessons upon men's credulity with such assurances of reward +as, "Come, ye blessed of my father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you +from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me +meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took +me in; I was naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I +was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, +saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee; or thirsty, +and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in; or +naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison, and +came unto thee? Then shall he answer and say unto them, Verily, I say +unto you, inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, my +brethren, ye have done it unto me." + +Before the appearance of Christ there existed nothing like the faith of +Christ and Christianity upon the face of the earth. The Jews alone had a +few of its types and shadows, but the great mystery of Christ had been +kept hid since the world began. All the Gentile nations were wrapped up +in the very worst idolatry, having little or no connection whatever with +morality, except to corrupt it with the infamous examples of their gods. +"They all worshiped a multitude of gods and demons, whose favor they +sought by obscene and ridiculous ceremonies, and whose anger they tried +to appease with the most abominable cruelties." With them, heaven was +open only to legislators and conquerors, the civilizers and destroyers +of mankind. This was the summit of their religion, and even this was +limited to a few prodigies of genius and learning, which was but little +regarded and understood by the great masses. One common cloud of +ignorance and superstition involved them. At this time Christ came as a +teacher; his appearance was like a rising sun, dispelling the darkness +and blessing the earth with light and heat. + +If any man can believe that the son of a carpenter, together with twelve +of the meanest and most illiterate mechanics, unassisted by any +superhuman wisdom and power, should be able to invent and promulgate a +system of theology and ethics the most sublime and perfect, which all +such men as Plato, Aristotle and Cicero had overlooked, and that they, +by their own wisdom, repudiated every false virtue, though universally +admired, and that they admitted every true virtue, though despised and +ridiculed by all the rest of the world--if any man can believe that they +were _impostors_ for no other purpose than the promulgation of truth, +_villains_ for no purpose but to teach honesty, and _martyrs_ with no +prospect of honor or advantage; or that they, as false witnesses, should +have been able, in the course of a few years, to have spread this +religion over the most of the known world, in opposition to the +interests, ambition and prejudices of mankind; that they triumphed over +the power of princes, the intrigues of states, the forces of custom, the +blindness of zeal, the influence of priests, the arguments of orators, +and the philosophy of the world, without any assistance from God, he +must be in possession of more faith than is necessary to make him a +Christian and continues an unbeliever from mere credulity. If the +credulous infidel, whose convictions are without evidence and against +evidence, should, after all, be in the right, and Christianity prove to +be a fable, what harm could ensue from being a Christian? Are Christian +rulers more tyrannical and their Christian subjects more ungovernable? +Are the rich more insolent _when Christianized_? Are poor Christians +most insolent and disorderly? Does Christianity make worse parents and +worse children? Does it make husbands and wives, friends and neighbors +less trustworthy? Does it not make men and women more virtuous and happy +in every situation in life? If Christianity is a fable, it is one the +belief of which retains men and women in a regular and uniform life of +virtue, piety and devotion to truth. It gives support in the hour of +distress, of sickness and death. + +"If there were a few more Christians in the world it would be very +beneficial to themselves and by no means detrimental to the public." + + + + +THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST. + + "He, who gave life to man at first, + Can restore it when it is lost." + + +Our Savior claimed to be the Son of God, and put the validity of his +claim on this, that he should die openly by crucifixion, be buried, and +rise from the dead upon the third day. Among all the impostors known in +earth's history there is not one instance of a _plot_ like this fact. A +mere plot of this nature would be hard to manage. That the first part of +this prophesy was fulfilled even our enemies admit. It has not been +alleged by infidels of any note that the crucifixion was a fraud, and +did not take place, and that Jesus, as a consequence, did not die. + +The chief priests seem to have had considerable concern about the +prediction of the resurrection. Why this? Was it because they had +discovered in the person of Christ an impostor, a mere cheat? No; this +alone would have caused them to utterly disregard the prediction of his +resurrection. Those priests saw something in the character of Christ +which caused them to fear the fulfillment of his prediction. What other +person ever created such a concern about such an event? There is not a +similar case in the world's history. What other dead person was ever +known to create such a feeling as that which moved his enemies to +confront him, if possible, in his rising power. Those priests had, +doubtless, witnessed his miracles again and again. It is beyond all +question true that they feared him in his death. If they had seen no +wonderful power exerted during his life they certainly would have feared +none after he was dead. The fear of the chief priests over the Savior's +dead body is an insurmountable evidence of the mighty works which he +accomplished during his life. Those priests addressed themselves to the +Roman governor, and requested a guard placed around the tomb; three days +and nights would settle the question, for the prediction would terminate +on the third day. Pilate granted the request, and a guard was set to +watch; they sealed the door of the sepulcher, placing the seal of the +state upon the great stone. The object of the seal was, doubtless, for +the satisfaction of all parties concerned in this matter. + +It was a precaution against fraud. If the seal upon a door or box is +broken we know at once that it has been meddled with. When Darius thrust +Daniel among the lions he put his seal upon the door of the den, to +satisfy himself and his court that no human hand had interfered for +Daniel's delivery. When he came to the den and found his seal unbroken, +he was satisfied. A seal thus used is of the nature of a covenant. If +you deliver sealed writings to an individual his acceptance amounts to a +covenant between you that the same shall be delivered just as they were +received. If the seal is broken, it is a manifestation of attempted +fraud. There is no special agreement needed in order to the existence of +covenants by seals; it is an agreement which men are placed under by the +laws of nations. The sealing of the sepulcher where the body of Jesus +lay was to impose, by all the solemnities of the Roman state, +obligations upon all the parties interested in the person of Christ. It +was a grand effort on the part of the authorities to prevent any +interference with the dead body. + +When impostors are known they become odious, and are but little noticed. +How was it with Christ? When the popular sentiment was that he was a +prophet the priests and scribes sought his life, believing that his +death would end his cause? When they and the people learned that he was +an impostor (?) they thought him unsafe after he was dead. + +The prediction of Christ that he would rise the third day was publicly +known throughout Jerusalem; but why the chief priests should concern +themselves so much about it as to take all the steps to prevent its +fulfillment, is a puzzling question with infidels. Was it because they +had detected him as a cheat and an impostor? No, this is an unreasonable +conclusion. It must have been a secret conviction touching his mighty +power. The seal was a proper check upon the guards; the Jews could have +no other object in having it placed there. They were not so foolish as +to think, that by this contrivance they would outstrip Providence. + +Guards were set to watch, and, doubtless, did their whole duty. But what +are sentinels when the power of Omnipotence is put forth? An angel of +the Lord makes his appearance. The keepers saw him, and fell down like +dead men. The angel rolled away the stone, and the conqueror came forth +to live in the hearts of millions, and to live forevermore. + +The disciples, receiving power from on high, soon make their appearance +in Jerusalem, and boldly assert the fact of the resurrection. The +murderers of the Savior were there. What do the priests do next? They +had bribed the soldiers to tell a lie which was so base that it only +needed to be told in order to be known as a lie. Next, they arrest the +apostles; they beat them, they scourge them, and bid them shut their +mouths, and insist that they shall say no more about this matter. They +did not seem to regard them as liars and impostors, else they would +doubtless have charged them with the fraud. They try to assassinate and +murder these witnesses of the resurrection. They prevailed with Herod to +put one of them to death; but they never seemed to think of charging +them with stealing the body away. Their orator, Tertullus, could not +have missed such a topic as imposition and fraud if any had been +practiced. He did not seem to think of anything of the sort, but +contented himself with the charge of sedition, heresy, and the +profanation of the temple. Yet the very question of the resurrection was +under consideration; for Festus tells Agrippa, that the Jews had +"certain questions against Paul of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul +affirmed to be alive." After this Agrippa heard Paul's testimony, and so +far was he from suspecting imposition, that he said, "Almost thou +persuadest me to be a Christian." + +Not long after the resurrection the apostles were taken before the +council and sanhedrim of the Children of Israel. They make their own +defense, a part of which is in these words: "The God of our fathers +raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." The first impulse +of the council was to slay them all; but Gamaliel, one of the council, +stood up and related the history of several impostors who perished in +former days, and said: "If this work be of men it will come to nought, +but if it be of God ye can not overthrow it." He advised them to refrain +from the men and let time tell the story. The tree shall be known by its +fruits. The council acquiesced; they gave the apostles a whipping and +let them go. + +A resurrection is a thing to be ascertained by men's senses. We all know +whether a man is dead by the same means by which we know whether a man +is alive. There are those who claim that "a resurrection could not be +proven by any amount of testimony, because of its being contrary to the +course of nature." But this is mere prejudice and ignorance. First: Who +can measure the extent of natural possibilities? Are they generally +known? Is it a greater thing to give life to a body once dead than to a +body that never was alive? The objection rests upon the thought that +testimony should be respected only in such cases as seem to us possible, +or in the ordinary course of nature. According to this, no amount of +evidence could establish the fact that water freezes and becomes solid +in a country where such is not the ordinary course of nature. Does a +man's ability in discerning and his truthfulness in reporting depend +upon the skill or ignorance of those who hear? We know facts that seem +to be as much contrary to the course of nature as anything could +possibly be. But, in all candor, I must claim that in appealing to the +settled course of nature, in a case like the one under consideration, +the question is referred not to the laws of evidence or maxims of +reason, but to the prejudices of men and to their mistakes, which are +many. Men form a notion of nature from what they see; so, under +different surroundings, their notions about the course of nature will +differ. The objection falls worthless at the feet of the INFINITE ONE. +There is no greater difficulty in accounting for the fact that the dead +live again than there is in accounting for the fact that they did live. + + + + +PUBLIC NOTORIETY OF THE SCRIPTURES. + + +Origen was born in the year one hundred and eighty-five of the Christian +dispensation, and lived sixty-eight years. He gives in his writings five +thousand seven hundred and sixty-five quotations from the New Testament. +Tertullian gives eighteen hundred and two quotations from the New +Testament. Clemens, of Alexandria, labored in the year one hundred and +ninety-four. He gives us three hundred and eighty-four quotations from +the New Testament. Ireneus lived in the year one hundred and +seventy-eight. He gives us seven hundred and sixty-seven quotations from +the New Testament, making a grand total of eight thousand seven hundred +and twenty-three quotations, given by four ancient writers. + +If all the copies of the New Testament in the world were destroyed, the +whole, with the exception of eleven verses, could be reproduced from the +writings of men who lived prior to the Nicene Council. Unbelievers quote +from all ancient heathen authors as though they were books of yesterday, +without manifesting the least doubt in reference to their authenticity +or authorship. The evidences necessary to establish genuineness of +authorship are ten-fold greater in the case of the New Testament +Scriptures than in the case of the histories of Alexander, Julius Caesar +and Cyrus, as given by ancient writers. + +The notoriety of the New Testament writings during the first centuries +is without a parallel among all ancient writings. Their effect upon +society during those centuries can never be explained in harmony with +unbelief. But this is not all that is to be considered. Their notoriety +extends over the centuries between us and the times of the apostles. +Such notoriety is the grand support upon which the New Testament stands. +All other ancient writings stand upon the same kind of evidence, but +this kind of evidence is more than ten-fold greater in the support of +our religion than it is in the support of any other ancient documents. + +We may obtain some idea of the influence of the New Testament Scriptures +during the first centuries from the statements of Gibbon. He says there +were "six millions of Christians in existence in the year three hundred +and thirteen." It is reasonable to allow that there were three millions +in the year one hundred and seventy-five. Under the best emperors of the +second century books were cheap. Thousands of persons engaged in writing +histories for a livelihood. It is allowed that there were as many as +fifteen thousand copies of the four gospels in circulation among the +people in the last quarter of the second century. This state of things +seems to convey the idea that it would be hard work to introduce +successfully any corruption into the text after this period of time. It +would be too easily detected. + +There is also a grand argument in favor of the genuineness of our +religion, which is in the fact that it was in deathly opposition to both +Judaism and Paganism, its success being the destruction of both. If +Christianity was an imposition, its success during the first three +centuries of our era is utterly inexplicable. + + + + +WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN AND DONE WITHOUT THE BIBLE. + + +Our ancestors complained of the reign of wickedness; we complain of it +and our posterity will complain of it. I sometimes think we are all a +set of complainers and grumblers. + +Of ancient pagans it is said: "They worshiped and served the creature +more than the Creator." Of their idols Persius, who was a Roman +satirical poet, born A.D. 34, said: + + "O, cares of men! O, world all fraught + With vanities! O, minds inclined + Towards earth, all void of heavenly thought!" + +Sedulius, an ancient Christian poet, and by nativity a Scotchman, says +of the same: + + "Ah! wretched they that worship vanities, + And consecrate dumb idols in their heart-- + Who their own Maker, God on high, despise, + And fear the works of their own hands and art! + What fury, what great madness doth beguile + Men's minds that man should ugly shapes adore + Of birds, or bulls, or dragons, or the vile + Half-dog, half-man, on knees for aid implore." + +One of their own poets jests them thus: + + "Even now I was the stock of an old fig tree, + The workman doubting what I then should be, + A bench or god, at last a god made me." + +The Romans, for a time, were without images for any religious use, but +afterwards they received into their city the idols of all the nations +they conquered; and as they became the lords of the whole earth, they +became slaves to the idols of all the world. Seneca says: "The images of +the gods they worship, those they pray unto with bended knees, _those_ +they admire and adore, and contemn the artificers who made them." + +The character and condition of their gods was worse than their own. The +common opinion touching their god of gods, _Jupiter_, was that he was +entombed in Crete, and his monument was there to be seen. Lactantius +_wittily_ says: "Tell me, I beseech you, how can the same god be alive +in one place and dead in another; have a temple dedicated to him in one +place and a tomb erected in another?" Callimachus, in his hymn on +_Jupiter_, calls the Cretians liars in this very respect. He says: + + "The Cretians always lyars are, who raised unto thy name + A sepulchre, that never dyest, but ever art the same." + +Lactantius informs us in book 10, chapter 20, that they gave divine +honor to notorious common prostitutes, as unto _goddesses_, to _Venus_, +or _Faula_, to _Lapa_, the nurse of _Romulus_, so called among the +shepherds for her common prostitution, and to Flora, who enriched +herself by her crime, and then, by will, made the people of Rome her +heir, and, also left a sum of money by which her birthday was yearly +celebrated with games, which, in memory of her, they called _Floralia_. +They claimed that their great goddess, _Juno_, was both the wife and +sister of Jupiter; and Jupiter, and the other gods, they held, were no +better that adulterers, sodomites, murderers and thieves. Such was not +held in private but published to the world. They were described by their +painters in their tables, by their poets in their verses, and acted by +their players upon their stages. (Lactantius, b. 5, ch. 21.) + +As respects the manner in which they worshiped their gods, Alexander, in +his Dierum Genialium, b. 6, ch. 26, insists that the most odious thing +in their history was the effusion of human blood in the service of their +gods. This same author says, "This unnatural, barbarous practice spread +itself well nigh over the known world; it was in use among the Trojans, +as it seems from Virgil's lines touching AEneas: + + "Their hands behind their backs he bound whom he had destined + A sacrifice unto the ghosts, and on whose flames to shed + Their blood he purposed."--_AEnead._ + +Some ignorant infidels seem at a great loss to understand why the Lord +should order the groves and altars of the heathen destroyed. (Again and +again their groves were cut down.) The children of Israel were to make +no offerings in the groves. If infidels will only exercise common sense +inside of the history of the worship of Priapus and Berecynthia, they +will cease fretting over the destruction of those beautiful forests. +Those groves were the most corrupt places upon the earth, places of +retirement from the altar into prostitution, carried on as a matter of +worship pleasing to Priapus. Here, on account of becoming modesty, the +half can not be told. The removal of nuisances in our own country is +conducted upon the same principles upon which groves were destroyed by +the Israelites. + +Lycurgus dedicated an image to laughter, to be worshiped as a god, and +this is said to be "the only law he ever made pertaining to religion." +While his great object was to make warriors, he ordained some things +noted for the education of youth. He ordained other laws so much in +favor of lust and all carnality of the worst kind, that it might justly +be said he made his entire commonwealth ludicrous. He instituted +wrestlings, dances and other exercises of boys and girls naked, to be +done in public at divers times of the year, in the presence both of +young and old men. Adultery was also approved and permitted by the laws +of Lycurgus. Plato and Aristotle advocated community of women, of goods +and possessions, to the end that no man should have anything peculiar to +himself, or know his own children. This was ordained by Plato, in order +to establish in the commonwealth such a perfect unity that no man might +be able to say, that is thine, or this is mine. + +Aristotle, in the second book of his "_Politiques_," sets forth many +other detestable things. Lactantius, in the third of his Divine +Institutions, shows that Plato's community of property and women took +away frugality, abstinence, shamefacedness, modesty and justice itself. + +Plato, like Lycurgus, ordained that young men should, for the increase +of their physical strength and agility of body, at certain times +exercise themselves naked; that girls and servant-maids should dance +naked among the young men; that women in the flower of their youth +should dance, run, wrestle and ride with young men naked as well as +they, which, says Plato, "whosoever misliketh understandeth not how +profitable it is for the commonwealth." + +The morality of ancient times may be clearly seen in the fact that all +manner of debasing things were brought to the front. How could men be +persuaded that adultery should be punished when they were taught from +infancy that it was a virtue among the gods? _Lucian_ gives his +experience thus, "When I was yet a boy, and heard out of _Homer_ and +_Hesiod_ of the adulteries, fornications, rapes and seditions of the +gods, truly I thought that those things were very excellent, and began +even then to be greatly affected towards them, for I could not imagine +that the gods themselves would ever have committed adultery if they had +not esteemed the same lawful and good." To all this it may be added that +the opinions of the ancient philosophers concerning virtue, vice, the +final happiness, and the state of the spirit after death, were diverse +and contradictory. The Epicurean doctrine was, that sovereign happiness +consisted in pleasure. They granted a God, but denied his Providence; so +virtue was without a spur, and vice without a bridle. + +The Stoics also granted a Divine Providence, but they maintained such a +fatal necessity that they blunted the edge of all virtuous efforts and +excused themselves in vicious conduct. Both Stoics and Epicureans +doubted the immortality of the human spirit, and thereby opened the way +to all manner of licentiousness. + +I am persuaded that eternity alone will fully reveal the consequences of +a denial of a future life and retribution; it is a physical leprosy +which removes all the most powerful incentives to virtue and loosens up +the soul to all manner of lustful gratifications. + +A man once remarked: "I have lived four years an avowed infidel. I have +boasted that I would live a good man and die an infidel. I have formed +the acquaintance of all the leading infidels of my country, and I am now +prepared to candidly confess that I do not believe any man can keep a +good heart without the fear of God. Such is my observation and +experience." + + + + +THE LATEST EVOLUTIONARY CONFLICT. + +THEY FIRST WISH IT TO BE SO, THEN SOON, WITHOUT PROOF, THEY ASSERT THAT +IT IS SO! + +(_From the Cincinnati Gazette, of June 26, 1880._) + +"Prof. Huxley is assured that the doctrine of evolution, so far as the +animal world is concerned, is no longer a speculation, but a statement +of historical fact, taking its place along side of those accepted truths +which must be taken into account by philosophers of all schools." + +This statement was the summing up of an address delivered at the Royal +Institution on the 19th of March. The address was specifically an +account of "The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species"--it being nearly +twenty-one years since Darwin's work bearing that name was first +published. + +The lecturer glanced at the general replacement of the catastrophic +theory of geology by the uniformitarian hypothesis, claimed that many of +the most important breaks in the line of the descent of plants and +animals had been filled, noticed the great advance made in the science +of embryology, and held that the amount of our knowledge respecting the +mammalia of the Tertiary epoch had increased fifty-fold since Darwin's +work appeared, and in some directions even approaches completeness. The +lecture closed with these words: "Thus when, on the first of October +next, 'The Origin of Species' comes of age, the promise of its youth +will be amply fulfilled and we shall be prepared to congratulate the +venerated author of the book, not only that the greatness of his +achievement and its enduring influence upon the progress of knowledge +have won him a place beside Harvey, but, still more, that, like Harvey, +he has lived long enough to outlast detraction and opposition, and to +see the stone that the builders rejected become the head-stone of the +corner." + +This is plain and emphatic speaking, but it has not been suffered to +pass unchallenged. + +Dr. Charles Elam, a writer who has already more than once measured +swords with the school of naturalists of which Professor Huxley is a +foremost champion, has been moved to respond to this latest utterance. +He has contributed to the _Contemporary Review_ a paper entitled "The +Gospel of Evolution," which, whatever may be its conclusiveness, is one +of the sharpest attacks recently sustained by the opposing party. +Acknowledging at the start Mr. Darwin's pre-eminence as a naturalist, +and Prof. Huxley's equal accomplishments in the department of biology, +he yet ventures to continue his doubt regarding the evidence of their +peculiar doctrines. He first cites Darwin's admissions that it would be +fatal to his theory if any organs existed which could not have been +evolved by minute selective modifications, and his further concession +that "man, as well as every other animal, presents structures which, as +far as we can judge, are not now of any service to him, nor have been so +during any former part of his existence. Such structures can not be +accounted for by any form of selection or by the inherited effects of +the use and disuse of parts." + +Having contrasted Darwinism proper with its exaggerations, in the system +of Haeckel, who regards Darwin's admissions of an original creation as +contemptible, and recognizes only one force in the universe--the +mechanical, Dr. Elam compares Huxley's statement in his American +addresses that belief which is not based upon evidence is not only +illogical but immoral, with his last assertion that evolution is a fact, +doubted only by persons "who have not reached the stage of emergence +from ignorance." In 1862 Huxley also said--republishing the statements +as late as 1874: + +"Obviously, if the earliest fossiliferous rocks now known are coeval +with the commencement of life, and if their contents give us any just +conception of the nature and the extent of the earliest fauna and flora, +the insignificant amount of modification which can be demonstrated to +have taken place in any one group of animals or plants is quite +incompatible with the hypothesis that all living forms are the results +of a necessary process of a progressive development, entirely comprised +within the time represented by the fossiliferous rocks." + +Since this confession was uttered, whatever discoveries may have been +made, there has not been the faintest indication of the development of +any new species by artificial selection, the individuals of which are +fertile among themselves and infertile with the parent stock. It may +properly be alleged that there has not been time enough for such a slow +process, but it yet remains as true as ever that there is no direct +evidence in nature of what the Darwinians call _favorable variation_. It +is the unwritten law of nature that one race must die that another may +live, this other, in its turn, subserving the same end. Without this law +nature would be a chaotic impossibility. If natural selection were a +real agency, we ought to meet with frequent, if not constant, evidences +of transition, and a slow and gradual, but perceptible improvement in +species, especially marked in those whose generations succeed each other +rapidly. But we see nothing of the kind. But did selection really exist, +it would be incompetent to account for a multitude of structures and +functions to which any efficient cause should be applicable, notably to +the earliest rudiments of useful organs. Such organs as the eye and the +internal ear are quite out of reach of any explanation by natural +selection. Since the development of the eyes, due to the simultaneous +growth of parts from within and without, the organ itself would be +absolutely useless until it had attained such a degree of development as +to admit of these separate parts meeting, and so the principle of +preserving any useful variety would be quite inapplicable. The same is +true of the internal ear. + +Dr. Elam next passes in review Haeckel's Geneology of Man from the +Lowest Monera to his Present Station as Lord of Creation. What the +Germans call invention of species to fill troublesome gaps is +illustrated in many ways, but we have room only for a single example: + +"The vertebrata must be developed from something, and as yet there has +been no smallest indication of anything like a spine or a rudiment of +anything that could represent or be converted into one. It costs our +author nothing but a stroke of his pen to invent the 'Chordonia,' and +whence did they come? They were developed from the worms by the +formation of a spinal marrow and a _chorda dorsulis_. Nothing more--the +most trifling modification!--and we are at once provided with the root +and stem of the whole vertebrata divisions. It is scarcely any drawback +to this stroke of genius to say that there is no evidence whatever that +such an order of living beings ever existed; that no one has the least +conception of what they were like, or of any of their attributes. Prof. +Huxley's responsibility for this imaginative science is evidenced by his +declaration that the conception of geological time is the only point +upon which he fundamentally and entirely disagrees with Haeckel." + +It still remains true that all our positive and direct knowledge as to +species contradicts the evolution hypothesis. Its evidence is purely +inferential, and, as Dr. Elam quietly says, "As a psychological study it +is interesting to observe how many things are deemed impossible to the +infinite wisdom and power (which by the terms of the supposition, +presided over the arrangements of our world) which are perfectly clear +and comprehensible when considered as the result of blind chance and the +operation of mechanical causes only." Omitting for lack of space his +keen analysis of Huxley's claim of the evidence of evolution from the +orchippus to the modern horse, we follow our author from his array of +what is not proved to what is actually taught by geology. We quote: + +"THE SUCCESSION OF FORMS OF LIFE ON OUR GLOBE IS DEMONSTRABLY NOT SUCH +AS OUGHT TO BE THE CASE ON THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION." It was not the small +and feeble species or most generalized forms that first appeared, +either among mollusks, fish, reptiles or mammalia. We look in vain now +for the representatives of the gigantic fishes of the Old Red Sandstone. +And where are the mighty reptile tyrants of air, earth and water of the +Oolite? * * * These races appeared in the plenitude of their development +and power; and, as their dynasty grew old, it was not that the race was +improved or preserved in consequence, but they dwindled, and were, so to +speak, degraded, as if to make room in the economy of nature for their +successors. + +Next follows a closely linked argument that will not bear abridgement, +showing the physical improbability that man, a walking animal, was +descended from a climbing one, and the deplorable consequences which +obliterate free will and necessitate the secularization of morals, as +elaborated by Prof. Huxley's friend, Mr. Herbert Spencer. This part of +the subject has a special interest to Americans, since the work in which +Mr. Spencer's views are inculcated has been introduced as a manual in +one of our oldest colleges, but its reproduction would widely lengthen +our article. It is sufficient to say that Dr. Elam concludes that Mr. +Spencer's doctrine, that "actions are completely right only when, +besides being conducive to future happiness, they are immediately +pleasurable," would justify him in concealing any injury done by him to +a friend's scientific apparatus, provided he could attribute it to the +weather, or the intrusion of a dog. + +Such, in brief, are the points of an essay which, as a whole, is one of +the most brilliant responses that the declarations of leading +evolutionists have called forth. Of course, all its points are not new, +but old objections have been skillfully refurbished and new ones brought +into play. + + * * * * * + +To mourn for the dead, is to mourn for the lost casket when you still +retain the jewel it held. The memories of the dead one's virtues are the +jewels, and the cold clay but the casket. + + + + +AUTHORSHIPS OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. + + +I have a few questions to put to every man who says Christianity is not +true. They are these: If Christianity is not true, where did it come +from? How came it into the world? What is its origin? These questions +are not trifling ones. Infidels have given as many different answers to +them as there are days in the week. There is no agreement among them +that amounts to a settlement of the questions among themselves. The +Scriptures are ancient. Porphyry, born at Tyre in 233, wrote a book +against them, which was burned by order of Theodosius the Great, in the +year 304. (Zell's Encyclopedia.) + +The Emperor Julian, born in the year 331, and Hierocles, who lived in +the fourth century, both wrote against Christianity, against the +Scriptures, but did not call in question the existence of Christ, nor +the fact that he wrought miracles. + +Celsus, an Epicurean philosopher who lived in the second century, was +the author of a work written against Christianity, entitled "Logos +Aleethees," that is, "Word of Truth." To this work Origen replied. +Celsus, in this work, quotes from the gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and +John, and does this over and over, and shows that the Christians valued +the books very highly; they suffered death rather than repudiate them. + +A TABLE OF THE ANCIENT TIMES OF TRIAL AND OF PEACE. + + DATE-- + + A.D. 64 to 68--Persecution under Nero. + 95 to 96--Persecution under Domitian. Banishment of John. + 96 to 104--Time of peace. + 104 to 117--Persecution under Trajan. Martyrdom of Ignatius. + 117 to 161--Time of peace. Apologies of Aristides, + Quadratus and Justin Martyr were written. + 161 to 180--Persecution under Marcus Aurelius. Martyrdom + of Polycarp and the martyrs of + Lyons. + 164--Justin Martyr was put to death. + +Statistics concerning the sufferings of the first Christians show that +they were in great earnest. Eternity alone will reveal the true number +of the martyrs. They all suffered and died just as we would expect, in +case they knew the facts of our religion. Twenty-two books of the New +Testament were written before the martyrdom of the Apostles Paul and +Peter. Infidels often boast, in their ignorance, that the books of the +gospels were not written by those whose names they bear. + +If Matthew, Mark, Luke and John did not write those books which bear +their names, then are they false in fact? and if so, what did the +authors die for? The sufferings of primitive Christians were great; the +persecutions which they endured were outrageous, cruel and inhuman in +their character. Such is the universal verdict of ancient history. Of +the persecution under Nero, Tacitus, a celebrated Roman historian, who +was born in the year 56, just twenty-three years after Pentecost, +writes, that Nero "laid upon the Christians the charge of that terrible +conflagration at Rome of which he himself was the cause." He says, "A +vast multitude were apprehended. And many were disguised in the skins of +wild beasts and worried to death by dogs, some were crucified, and +others were wrapped in pitched shirts and set on fire when the day +closed, that they might serve as lights to illuminate the night. Nero +lent his own garden for these executions, and celebrated at the same +time a public entertainment in the circus, being a spectator of the +whole in the dress of a charioteer, sometimes mingling with the crowd on +foot, and sometimes viewing the spectacle from his car." (Annals of +Tacitus, 15: 44.) + +Juvenal, the coarse and bitter satirist of the same time, writes of the +martyred Christians as "those who stand burning in their own flame and +smoke, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till +they make a long stream of blood and sulphur on the ground." (Juv. Sat., +1: 155.) + +Seneca also refers to their fearful sufferings: "Imagine here a prison, +crosses and racks and the hook, and a stake thrust through the body and +coming out at the mouth, and the limbs torn by chariots pulling adverse +ways, and the coat besmeared and interwoven with inflammable materials, +nutriment for fire, and whatever else beside _these_ cruelty has +invented." (Seneca's Epistles, 14.) + +One of Diocletian's coins commemorates the blotting out of the very name +of Christian: "Nomine Christianorum deleto." But the age of martyrdoms +ended with the accession of Constantine to the Roman empire, and to-day +there are more Christians in the world than ever before. Skeptic, take +one long look at the unbelieving, bloody, persecuting hosts, and choose +your future associates. + +Strauss says: "No man knows who wrote the Gospels." Can he mean that +they are anonymous books? Does he mean that they are not +biographies--books containing, in their historic matter, an account of +the authors _themselves_? Who does not know that those books are and +have been called the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? And who +has, in all the past centuries, produced evidence showing that those are +the wrong names. No one. Insane men might say such a thing. Infidels +don't like to say that; they just say you can't prove your religion, nor +show that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote those books. Will any +sensible man affirm that they are the wrong names? How do we judge and +believe respecting the authorship of other ancient books? Why do we +believe that Caesar wrote the Commentaries on the Gallic War? And why do +we believe that Virgil wrote the AEneid? No sane man ever doubted the +authorship of those writings. Preoccupancy during the ages past is +considered by infidels themselves a sufficient ground for belief. The +fact that those books exist has certainly been known from the age of the +apostles to the present time, for men quoted extensively from them in +the second century. The names they bear were in the possessive case +then, and it is but fair to consider them the true owners. + +Why are skeptics and infidels so partial among ancient books? They doubt +the authorship of no ancient books unless they are written in favor of +the religion of Christ. Will some wise one tell us why this strange +inconsistency? O, it is an evidence of a wicked heart--that's all! +all!!--ALL THERE IS OF IT!!! + +Here are the dates of the books of the New Testaments, along with +contemporary landmarks: + +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + | | +BOOKS. | AFTER | CONTEMPORARY LANDMARKS. + | PENTECOST. | +-------------+------------+---------------------------------------------- +1 Peter | 16 | Claudius Caesar ruled from A.D. 41 to 54. +Galatians | 18 | +1 Thess | 19 | Romans settled in England between 41 and 54. +2 Thess | 20 | +1 Cor | 24 | Nero ruled from 54 to 68. +2 Cor | 25 | +1 Timothy | 25 | Paul and Peter were martyred at Rome in or +Romans | 25 | about the year 63; 30 years after Pentecost. +James | 28 | +Matthew | 28 | Persecution continues under Nero until the +Mark | 28 | year 68. The satirist Juvenal, who lived +Philemon | 29 | under Nero, and his brother satirist Martial, +Collosians | 29 | both allude to the burnings of the Christians +Ephesians | 29 | in pitched shirts. +Philippians | 29 | +Luke | 30 | Suetoneus, writing of what took place under +Acts | 30 | Emperor Claudius, in 53, makes mention of +Hebrews | 30 | Christ. +2 Peter | 34 | +2 Timothy | 34 | Galba, Otho and Vitelleus rule from 68 to 69. +Titus, about | 34 | +Jude, about | 34 | Christians have peace from 68 to 95. +Epistles | | + of St. John | | + 1, 2, 3 | 40 | Jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70. +Revelations | | + of Jesus | | + Christ | | + to John | 64 | Vespasian rules from 69 to 79. +------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + +CARLYLE'S ESTIMATE OF THE BOOK OF JOB, IN HIS OWN WORDS. + + +"I call the book of Job, apart from all theories about it, one of the +grandest books ever written with a pen. One feels, indeed, as if it were +not Hebrew--such a noble universality, different from noble patriotism +or sectarianism, reigns in it. A noble book! All men's book! It is our +first, oldest statement of the never-ending problem of man's destiny and +God's ways with him here on this earth, and all in such free, flowing +outlines, grand in its simplicity and its epic melody and repose of +reconcilement! There is the seeing eye, the mildly understanding heart. +So true every way; true eye-sight and vision for all things--material +things no less than spiritual; the horse--'thou hast clothed his neck +with thunder;' 'he laughs at the shaking of the spear!' Such living +likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow! Sublime +reconciliation! Oldest choral melody, as of the heart of mankind! So +soft and great, as the summer midnight, as the world with its seas and +stars! There is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of +equal literary merit." (Dr. Cotton's Scrap-Book.) + + + + +WHAT I LIVE FOR. + + "I live to hold communion + With all that is divine, + To feel there is a union + Between God's will and mine; + For the cause that lacks assistance, + For the future, in the distance, + For what'er is good and true, + For all human hearts that bind me, + For the task by God assigned me, + And the good that I can do." + + + + +THE MOLECULE GOD. + +AIR--_The Fine Old English Gentleman._ + +[To be sung at all gatherings of advanced "siolists" and "scientists."] + + + We will sing you a grand new song evolved from a 'cute young pate, + Of a fine old Atom-Molecule of prehistoric date; + In size infinitesimal, in potencies though great, + And self-formed for developing at a prodigious rate-- + Like a fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + In it slept all the forces in our cosmos that run rife, + To stir creation's giants or its microscopic life; + Harmonious in discord and co-operant in strife, + To this small cell committed the world lived with his wife-- + In this fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + In this autoplastic archetype of protean protein clay + All the human's space has room for, for whom time makes a day, + From the sage whose words of wisdom prince or parliament obey, + To the parrots who but prattle, and the asses who but bray-- + So full was this Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + All brute life, from lamb to lion, from the serpent to the dove, + All that pains the sense or pleasure, all the heart can loathe or love; + All instincts that drag downwards, all desires that upwards move + Were caged, a "happy family," cheek-by-jowl, and hand-in-glove, + In this fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + In it order grew from chaos, light out of darkness shined, + Design sprang by accident, law's rule from hazard blind; + The soul-less soul evolving--against, not after kind, + As the life-less life developed, and the mind-less ripened mind, + In this fine old Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + Then bow down mind to matter; from brain fiber, will, withdraw; + Fall man's heart to cell ascidian, sink man's hand to monkey's paw; + And bend the knee to Protoplast in philosophic awe-- + Both Creator and created, at once work and source of law. + And our Lord be the Atom-Molecule, + Of the young world's proto-prime! + + PUNCH. + + +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. 8, August, 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTIAN FOUNDATION, AUGUST 1880 *** + +***** This file should be named 28669.txt or 28669.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/6/6/28669/ + +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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