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AuthorTopic: THE BIBLE OF 27 BIBLES (1 christian with 2000 errors) 1879 -KERSEY GRAVES  (Read 20275 times)

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Offline PrometheusTopic starter

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The Quaker’s Answer.

Brother Quaker, as you profess to get light from above, per-
haps you can throw some light on this dark question. We have
not yet heard your answer to this puzzling question. Can you
tell us “ what to do and believe in order to be saved” ? “Most
certainly I can,” replies the inspired disciple of Fox and Penn.
“ There can be no mistake about what the Bible teaches on the
subject. It is perfectly plain, and easily understood. You are
to retire into the quiet, and turn your minds inward with a
praj^erful desire to know the will of God. In this state of mind,
open 3’our Bible, and you will learn that you are to do justly,
love mercy, and walk humbly with God, and become estab-
lished in the true faith: for the Bible declares that, 4 without
faith, it is impossible to please God ; ’ that is, faith in his be-
 318

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

loved Son, whom he sent into the world to die a propitiatory
offering for the sins of man.”—“ What! ” exclaims the Ilicks-
ite Quaker, “ do j"ou mean to teach the dark and bloody doc-
trine of the atonement ? Do you mean to say that we have to
swim through blood to get to 6 the house of man}" mansions ’ ?
If you do, you are egregiously mistaken. You are teaching and
preaching an old, worn-out, bloody, heathen doctrine that never
did and never can save a single soul.”—“Now, look here,”
cries the orthodox Quaker, “ the Bible declares, ‘There is no
other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved than
that of Jesus Christ;9 and }"OU are blaspheming his name by
denying the efficacy of his death and sufferings. Therefore
your chance for salvation is a hopeless one. You will be lost,
and consigned to the pit where there is eternal weeping and
wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” So away go both the Quaker
orders, each booked by the other for eternal perdition. But we
must stop, or we will swell this chapter on the war of conflicting
creeds to a volume. We have now interrogated all the leading
churches relative to what it is necessar}r to do and believe in
order to make a sure thing of salvation, and escape the awful
and dreadful fate of endless damnation. And what is the
result? No two churches — and it could easily be shown that
scarcely any two Christians — agree upon this all-important
question, upon which they tell us is hung the salvation of the
world. As we have shown, the churches all virtually shut the
door of heaven against each other. They are all off the track,
all on the road to eternal damnation, according to the testimony
of their oxen witnesses. In the name of God, what is the use or
sense, then, of professing to believe in the Bible, or claiming to
be Christians, when it is thus demonstrably proved that nobody
knows any thing about what the Bible teaches, or what it takes
to make a Christian? The picture we have presented is no
more fancy sketch. It is not the work of mere imagination.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of quotations could be furnished
from the writings of eminent Christian writers of the different
churches to show that it is a solemn realitj", and that they differ
in the way, and as widely, as wc have represented. And what
is the solemn lesson taught by it? Why, the absolute imppssi-
 WHAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND DO TO BE SAVED f 319

bility of our finding the road to heaven through the churches ;
and it is an entire waste of time, besides being demoralizing to
the mind, to attempt it. We are often told by the orthodox
Christians, by way of defending their creeds, that the churches
are agreed upon all the leading doctrines of the Christian faith.

Well, let us see how this is, and whether they in reality agree
upon any thing. We will institute another court of inquiry,
and briefly examine and compare the views of the various
churches relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian
religion.

1.   Moral Depravity. —The first in order will be the fall and
depravity of man.

Well, brother Calvinist, as you hail from the oldest Protes-
tant Church, we will first solicit your views upon this all-impor-
tant question. We wish to know whether you believe that man
fell from a state of purity, and became morally depraved by the
fall. “ Oh, yes ! we believe he fell so low that he became
totally depraved by the fall; so that all men are now the children
of wrath, born in sin, and conceived in iniquity, and covered
with corruption from the crown of the head to the sole of the
foot.”

Brother Arminian, what do you think of this view of the
matter ? Is it Bible doctrine, or not ? “ No : it is neither accord-
ing to the Bible, nor according to common sense, but a damna-
ble doctrine, that will send any man’s soul to hell who believes
in such outrageous doctrine. It is not only untrue, but it is
demoralizing to rob man so completely of his moral attributes
as to make him feel like a brute, and, consequently, act like
one.”

2.   Man's Restoration. — How is this to be effected, brother
Calvinist? “Why, by the outpoiiring of the blood of Christ,
the propitiator}" offering.” Brother Arminian, is this true
Christian doctrine? “No, it is not. Man’s salvation is ef-
fected in no such a way. Every man is to work out his own
salvation. I can prove it by the Bible.”

3.   Endless Punishment.—Most Protestant sects hold and
preach that the wicked, when they die, are consigned to a place
or state called “ the bottomless pit.” (How they are kept in
 320

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

it with the bottom out, the Lord only knows, or perhaps we
should say the Devil). But the Universalists affirm that the
Bible teaches no such doctrine, but tells us that, “as in Adam
all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive ; ” which proves, as
the}’ affirm, the ultimate salvation of all the human race. But
the Restorationists prove that there is u a mediate place for
souls, which is neither heaven nor hell, but a preliminary and a
temporary abode for all souls, good and bad.”

And there is another class of Christians who find in the same
book a still different doctrine, that of the absolute and total de-
struction of the wicked. They quote Phil. 3-19. Which of these
four Christian sects teach the true Bible doctrine ? Who can
tell?

4.   Divinity of Christ.—Most of the Protestant sects tell us
that the Bible makes a belief in the supreme divinity of Jesus
Christ essential to salvation; but the Parkerite Christian, the
Hicksite Christian, and the Unitarian Christian affirm that it
does not, that it only makes him a perfect or superior specimen
of manhood. Which is right? Who can tell?

5.   Polygamy. — Most of the churches once believed that
polygamy is a Bible doctrine, and practiced it for eight, hundred
years. But now they tell us it is not. The Mormons, how-
ever, declare that it is sanctioned in the Old Testament, and
not condemned in the New, and hence is a Bible doctrine.
Which is right? How can wc tell?

G. Marriage. —Nearly all the sects hold that marriage is a Bi-
ble institution. But the Shakers declare that it is not, and quote
Christ’s own words to prove it as found in Luke 20-35.   “ The

children of this world marry and arc given in marriage; but
they who shall be counted worthy of that world, and the resur-
rection, neither marry nor arc given in marriage.” They rea-
sonably conclude that those who shall not be considered worthy
of being saved (which includes all married people) will not be
saved, being cut off by Christ’s positive prohibition of mar-
riage. Which is right? Who can tell? The text, however,
furnishes a consoling hope for old bachelors and old maids,
to say the least.

7.   The Sabbath. —Most of the churches keep the first day
 WHAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND BO TO BE SAVED f 321

of the week as the Bible sabbath. But the Seventh-day Bap-
tists affirm that it is not, that the seventh day of the week is
the true sabbath of the Lord; while other sects tell us that
Christ, both by precept and example, labored to do away with
all sabbath observances and all holy days. Which is right?
Who can tell ?

8.   The Godhead. — All Trinitarians teach that there are
three persons in the Godhead. The Paulite Christians say there
are but two, while the Unitarians affirm there is but one. Which
is right ? Who can tell ?

9.   Baptism. — The churches are not agreed with regard to
baptism as to what it is, how, and when it should be applied,
and on whom it should be administered. Some hold to dip-
ping, some to douching, and some to sprinkling, as the scripture
mode of administering it. Which is right? Who can tell?

I should prefer the dipping process. It would do something
toward saving the body of the sinner from disease, if not the
soul from hell, if frequently applied. He should be baptized
once a week, if not once a day, with water and soap. We have
now enumerated nearly all the leading doctrines of the Christian
faith, and shown that the views of the churches, with respect to
them, are about as different as day from night. The impor-
tant query then arises, What progress have we made'towards
determining, by the Bible or by the churches, what we must do
and believe in order to be saved? Why, about the same prog-
ress the boy had made toward reaching the schoolhouse, who,
on being interrogated by the teacher as to the cause of his late
appearance, replied, 44 Why, master, you see the road was so
slipper}7, that, when I attempted to take one step forward, I
slipped two steps backward.” —44 How did you manage to get
here, then?” asked the teacher. 44 Why,” replied Tom, 441
turned round and went the other way.” I would suggest that
the churches try this policy.of turning round, and going the
other way. My conviction is they would find the true road to
salvation much sooner, and be better prepared to settle the ques-
tion as to what they should do and believe in order to be saved.
It is a question, however, they never can settle. The Bible is
a very old book ; and, the farther we get away from the age in
 322

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

which it was written, the more difficult it will become to under-
stand it: for human language, and even human thought and
the meaning of words, are constantly changing. These circum-
stances will constantly augment the difficulty of ever under-
standing any old Bible, or of determining what it teaches or
designed to teach with respect to an important doctrine.

10.   The Number of Hells.—When the disciple of the
Christian faith talks of a hell in the presence of a Hindoo, he
tells him he don’t know any thing about the matter : that there
are no less than three institutions of this kind. But here the
Mahomedan rises up, and sa}’s, “ You, too, are totally igno-
rant on the subject; for there are no less than seven institutions
of this character. One of them is set apart for Christians
who believe in the divinity and atonement of Christ.” Lieut.
Lynch, of the United-States navy, says that a Mahomedan
told him, u No man or woman can be saved who believes that
God was born of a woman, and then became a malefactor to a
human tribunal; for the doctrine is blasphemous.” Which of
all these opinions is right? Who can tell?

11.   Bible Doctrines constantly changing.—The increase of
intelligence, and the growth and expansion of the human mind,
have the effect to change the views of the people general^ and
constant^ upon almost every subject that occupies the mind;
so that the creeds of the churches are constantly changing.
Hence the Bible is made to teach widelj’ different doctrines in
different ages ; and what is Christianity to-day is infidelity to-
morrow, and vice versa. (See Chapter lviii.) And so thor-
ough is the change wrought upon the meaning or interpretation
of nearly all the important texts in “ God’s perfect revelation,”
that it virtually makes a new Bible for each generation. I will
present some proofs and illustrations of this statement by com-
paring the doctrine of the churches of the last century with
those .of the present. In the days of Jonathan Edwards, a
hell, constituted of a lake of fire and brimstone, was preached
in nearly all the Christian churches ; also the doctrine of infant
damnation, when the Methodists sang that beautiful and charm-
ing hymn, —
 WHAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND DO TO BE SAVED? 323

“ For hell is crammed
With infants damned,

Without a day of grace; ”

also the doctrine of predestination, the doctrine of election
and reprobation, the doctrine of purgatory, the doctrine of
Christ’s descent into hell, &c. All these and other similar
doctrines were preached in nearly every pulpit nearly every
sabbath ; and the preacher who would have neglected to preach
these doctrines would have been denounced as on the road to
hell. But now the clergyman who should attempt to preach
these old Calvinistic tenets would be denounced as “an old
fog}'.” Hence the important query arises, When were the
churches preaching Bible doctrine, then or now? Who can tell?
Such changes are unceasingly going on. Important changes
are sometimes made in the popular creed in a few years’ time,
as we will cite a case to prove. Just before the last war the
peace doctrine was becoming quite popular in nearly all the
churches, and sermons were often preached from such texts as
the following : “ Nation shall not lift up sword against nation ;
neither shall they learn war anj^ more.” But, when the war
broke out, new texts were hunted up, and the preaching all ran
in the opposite direction. “ Cursed be he who holdeth back his
sword from blood” (Jer. xlviii. 10) ; “He who hath not a
sword, let him sell his coat, and buy one,” —then constituted the
texts for a sound sermon. Now it is evident that a book which
thus teaches opposite doctrines virtually teaches nothing. Its
moral force is destroyed. If a man wants to perform a certain
act to-day, and an act of an opposite character to-morrow, and
can find a warrant for both in the Bible, then it is evident the
Bible can have no effect whatever towards changing his course
of life. When every moral duty is both commanded and
countermanded, and every crime both sanctioned and con-
demned, as appears to be the case with the Christian Bible,
then it is evident that a man with the Bible would act exactly as
the man without the Bible ; for whatever he may naturally feel
inclined to do, or whatever he wants to do, he finds Bible
authority for. Hence it is evident the Bible can’t change his
conduct in the least 5 for it merety tells him to do what he wishes
 324

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TIIE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

to do, and had made up his mind to do. I will prove this posi-
tion by citing several cases for illustration. We will suppose a
man has become convinced by observation, or his own expe-
rience, that it is wrong to drink intoxicating liquors, and wants
Bible authority for preaching temperance. He can find it by
turning to Isa. v. 22: “Woe unto them that are mighty
to drink wine.”   But a friend of his, a member of the

same church, living in the city, where there is great demand
for intoxicating beverages, wants to make some money by
selling it. He finds the authority for that act also in Deut.
xiv. 26 : “ Thou shalt spend thy money for oxen, or for sheep,
or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever th}^ soul lusteth
after.” Another Christian becomes very angry, and filled with
the spirit of a murderer towards a neighbor, and concludes to
kill him. He finds Bible authority for it in the text, “ Go ye
out and slay eveiy man his companion, every man his brother,
and eveiy man his neighbor ” (Exod. xxxii. 27). Another pious
Christian has become convinced, by “ the logic of history,” that
all war and fighting is wrong, and hence concludes to preach
the doctrine of peace. He finds Bible authority for that in the
Decalogue: “Thou shalt not kill.” Another devout Chris-
tian, whose common sense has taught him that it is wrong for
one human being to enslave another, wants Bible authority
against the practice. He finds it in the text, “ Thou shalt pro-
claim liberty through all the land,” &c. Another godty saint,
living in a slave-holding country, and being both a t}Tant and a
mammon worshiper, wants Bible authority for trafficking in the
blood and bones of his fellow-beings. lie finds it in Lev. xxv.
4i): “ Of the heathen round about you shall }’e buy bondmen
and bondmaids, and they shall be your possession for ever; ” so
he knows it is all right. And thus this exposition might be
continued so as to show that there is no crime, no sin, no vice,
and no wicked deed but that is both sanctioned and condemned
by u God’s Iloty Word,” and no moral duty that is not both
commanded and countermanded ; thus proving it to be abso-
lutely impossible to follow it as a guide without being led into
the commission of every species of sin, crime, and abomination,
as well as prompted to the practice of virtue. Eveiy person
 T THAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND DO TO BE SAVED? 325

who has not made shipwreck of common sense must see at
once that it is utterly impossible to learn any thing about what
is right and what is wrong, what is sin and wickedness, and
what is virtue, what is morality and what is immorality, or
what he should approve, and what condemn, what he should do
and what leave undone, or, finally, any thing about the duties
of life or the rules and principles of morality, by such a book.
What can such a book, then, be worth, either in the cause of
religion or morality ? Where, oh! where is the common sense
of Christendom ? It is wonderful to what extent rationality and
good sense have been banished from the human mind in all Bible
countries by a false and perverted education. It can not be
wondered at that we have so many antagonistic churches with
innumerable conflicting creeds, when we examine and learn
something about the endless contradictions and confusion of
the teachings of the book on which they are founded.

Six Hundred Roads to Heaven.

We are swamped with endless difficulties in determining what
to do and believe in order- to be saved either by the Bible or
the churches, when we look at the fact that there are, as
some writers have computed, more than six hundred conflicting
churches, each one claiming to preach and to teach the only
true and saving faith of the gospel, and yet differing heaven-
wide with respect to what constitutes that true and saving faith.
They point out six hundred roads to heaven, when Christ says
there is but one,—u One Lord, one faith, and one baptism.”
The churches are simply guessing institutions, and their creeds
so many stereotyped s}Tstems of guess-work. How much has
been learned, or what important questions have been settled,
either in religion or morals, by the nearly two thousand years’
reading and study of the Christian Bible ? The six hundred
jarring churches, and their constantly increasing number, fur-
nish a sufficient apswer to this question. What a ludicrous
aspect would the cause of science now be in, and what torrents
of ridicule and contempt would be poured upon our institutions
of learning, if they differed in their principles, or with respect
to the principles of any branch of science, as the churches differ
 326

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

with respect to the doctrine of the Bible ! We will illustrate by
an imaginary examination of the students of one of our insti-
tutions of learning with respect to their attainments in mathe-
matics. A class having recited, we will interrogate each one
separately. “Well, John, as you have been studying figures
several years, can you now tell us how many are twice two? ”—
“ Yes, sir : twice two are six.” — “Very well: take your seat.
The next student will rise. James, can you tell us how many
•are twice two?” —6 6 Yes, I can: twice two are eleven.” —
“ Very well: be seated, and let Tommy rise. Tommy, as you
are a diligent student, and have been through the arithmetic and
the principal text-books, please tell us how man}’ are twice
two.”—“ I will. It is a plain case : twice two are fourteen.”—
“ Very well: stand aside. That intelligent-looking boy yonder
we will hear from now. Well, Moses, can you tell us, as the
result of your five years’ close study of mathematics, how man}’
are twice two?” — “ Certainly I can. To be nice and exact
about the matter, twice two are nine and a half.” — “Very
well: I am done with you. There is one more student to be
interrogated. Well, Solomon, can you do any thing towards
settling the disputed question, how many are twice two?” —
“ Yes : I am astonished there should be any difference of opin-
ion about the matter, when it is plain that no person who is
really in earnest to understand it can fail to see that twice two
are seventeen.” Such an institution of learning as this would
be broken up as a nuisance in less than two hours after it was
known to exist; and yet it furnishes a striking illustration of the
character and condition of our theological institutions in which
are professedly taught the science of Christianity and the Bible.
The difference among flic professors and students of theology
is as great and important as in the former supposed case ; and
were not the eyes of the soul put out, and the Christian secta-
rians rendered blind by their false or mistaken teachers, they
would see that this is a true picture of their condition. We will
institute another illustration. The Christian churches are virtu-
ally six hundred guide-boards professedly pointing the way to
heaven. Let us suppose a traveler, hunting his way to “the
Queen City of the West,” finds on a hill a tree or post, to which
 WHAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND DO TO BE SAN ED f 327

are nailed six hundred guide-boards pointing in six hundred dif-
ferent directions, and all labeled “ To Cincinnati.” How much
would he learn from them about the proper road to travel to reach
the city ? The chance of striking the right course would lay
within six hundred guesses ; and those guesses could be made as
well without the guide-boards as with them. And it is equally
certain, and most self-evidently certain, that the road to heaven
could be found as well if there were no churches and no Bibles
pointing six hundred different directions. Indeed, the chances
of finding it would be much better without them, because the
minds of the people are confused and confounded, and their
time wasted, their mental and spiritual vision darkened, and
their judgments weakened, b}^ attempting to grope their way
through such a labyrinth of chaos, confusion, and uncertainty,
which really incapacitates them for searching and finding the
right way and the sure road “ to the kingdom.”

One Hundred and Fifty Bible Translations and Commen-
taries.

When we learn that there have been no less than one hundred
and fifty different translations and commentaries upon the Bible
put in circulation, we can see at once that this is calculated
to greatly augment the difficulty of ever arriving at any thing
like a unity of belief among the churches, or of settling the
question as to what it is necessary to do and believe in order
to be saved, or of finding the road to heaven through the
churches. Translation after translation of the Bible has been
made b}7 different churches, each one alleging that all preceding
translations were full of errors. The learned Dr. Robinson of
England has estimated that some of the modern translations
of the Bible, made for the special purpose of getting the errors
out of “the Hoty Book,” contain the frightful number of one
hundred and fifty thousand errors ; and the American Christian
Union, now engaged in translating the Bible, declare that our
present popular version, translated by fifty-four of the most
learned Christian scholars, and which has long been an estab-
lished standard authority in a large portion of Christendom,
and regarded as nearly perfect, yet contains twenty-four thou-
 328

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

sand errors. How many more translations we are to have, God
only knows. The thought occurs here, that, by the time all the
errors are gotten out of the Bible in this way, there will not be
much of it left,—that it will not be much larger than “Poor
Richard’s Maxims,” or a common-sized almanac. Now, to show
the utter impossibility of establishing any doctrine or settling
an}' question in theology by the Bible, or of learning any thing
about what constitutes Christianity, or what we are to do and
believe in order to be saved, we have only to compare some
of these translations together, and* observe the wide difference
in their teachings, and the fatal contradictions in their doctrines
and precepts. We will cite a few examples by way of proof
and illustration. In our translation, known as “ King James’s
Bible,” a text makes Christ say, “ A spirit hath not flesh and
bones, as you see I have ” (Luke xxiv. 39) ; but, in the most
popular translation in Europe (the Douay), this text is made
to read, “ A spirit hath not flesh and blood, as you see I have
not.” Here is a direct contradiction. One of these Bibles
makes Christ say he is a spirit, and the other that he is not,
which is a flat, and almost a fatal, contradiction. Now, where
on earth is the tribunal to which we can appeal to find out
which of these translations is right? or how can the matter be
settled ? Again : the text which in our own version is made to
read, “ There are three that bare record in heaven,—the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost,” reads in another translation, “There
are three witnesses, — the water, the blood, and the spirit,”
which knocks the trinity and divinity of Jesus Christ both out
of the Bible, so far as they are founded upon this text. We
will cite one more example : “ The wonderful Messianic proph-
ecy ” as it is called (found in Isa. ix. G.), —which reads in our
translation, u Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father,” &c.,—is made in another translation to
say, instead of “the Mighty God,” “the Mighty Ilero,” and,
instead of “ the Everlasting Father,” “ the Father of the ever-
lasting age,” &c., which shows that the text is not a prophecy at
all, and has no more reference to Jesus Christ’than to Mahomet.
“ The Mighty Ilero ” is not a term that is ever applied to God,
 WIIAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND DO TO BE SAVED? 329

but to bloody warriors. Now, who is to settle the question as
to which of these translations is the right one ? It will be ob-
served, then, that Tve have, in the fifty contradictory translations
of the Bible, no less than fifty contradictory moral codes and
fifty contradictory systems of doctrines, which are virtually fifty
assumed-to-be-perfect revelations from God (of course, all m-
fallible). Now, let us multiply the number of Christian sects
(six hundred) by the number of Bible translations and commen-
taries (one hundred and fifty), and we will have indicated the
number of roads marked out to heaven by the churches. The
result is ninety thousand (600 X 150 =90,000). Here, then,
we have ninety thousand roads leading to u the house of many
mansions/’ which suggests the conclusion that nobody can pos-
sibly miss getting there ; for we must presume that it would be
impossible to travel in any direction without striking one of
these numerous roads: so that the world of sinners may be
comforted with the assurance they will all be saved. ck The
broad road ’ ’ they are traveling must be intersected at many
points by some of these many pathways to paradise ; and they
have only to turn off at the last crossing to be landed safe
in “kingdom come.” They have therefore ninety thousand
chances of being saved by traveling “the broad road,” if they
prefer that to one of “ the straight and narrow roads.” This
soul-saving system may be regarded as a lottery scheme in
which there are eighty-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-
nine blanks, and but one prize. Who would risk a farthing in
such an investment, with eighty-nine thousand nine hundred
and ninety-nine chances against drawing any thing? Certainty
no person with common sense or any intelligence. We will
use an illustration. We will suppose the proprietor of a brick
building comprising ninety thousand bricks, one of which con-
tains a gold medal worth one thousand dollars, says to one of
his neighbors, “Sir, the walls of this building comprise ninety
thousand bricks, and one of them contains a gold medal worth
one thousand dollars. If you will step to it, and put your finger
on it, you can have it.” Can we suppose he w^ould be very
sanguine about winning the gold medal? Certainty not. We
will make another illustration. We will suppose the Queen of
 330

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

England sends a compan}” of a thousand men to Australia to
dig for a treasure known to have been buried there during a
war, the locality of which she describes in writing so accurately
that she presumes there can be no difficulty in finding it. In a
few weeks she dispatches a messenger to the island to ascertain
what progress the miners are making. But imagine his sur-
prise, on reaching the place, to learn that the laborers are
divided up into six hundred companies, and each company
stoutly insisting that the spot where they are digging answers
exactly to the locality described b}^ the written instrument.
Now, on the messenger reporting the case to the queen, what
would she conclude — ay, what could she conclude—but that she
had made some serious blunder or omission in her attempted
description of the place? It is not possible that an explicit
revelation of the matter could have led to such endless confu-
sion and disputes. In like manner we are morally compelled
to conclude — yes, every principle of reasoning and common
sense impels us to the conclusion—that God has made a serious
blunder in attempting to give forth a perfect revelation to the
world, if (as it seems) he has left it so ambiguous, so unintelli-
gible, and so contradictory in its doctrines and teachings, that
six hundred churches have risen up, and are now disputing
about what its doctrines and teachings are. These six hundred
churches comprise a hundred and fifty millions of guessing
Christians, all guessing their wa}T to heaven, with ninety thou-
sand chances against their ever reaching the hcaventy kingdom.
To u the angel host” looking down, observing this infinite di-
versity, demoralization, and conflict among the disciples of the
Christian faith, it must be regarded as a species of religious
monomania ; for we may assume that no intelligent mind, which
is not blinded by religious superstition, could be drawn into such
a delusion as to conclude that such a book or such a religion or
revelation is from an all-wise and all-powerful God, or that it is
necessary to believe it, or that it is possible to believe it in any
rational sense, or that it can have the remotest connection with
our salvation. It makes God a fool, man a lunatic, religion a
farce, and the Bible superlative nonsense. Revelation is defined
to be the act of making known.” But what is made known by
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a book whose language is so contradictory and so ambiguous that
no two persons in a million agree with respect to all it teaches ?
Every preacher and teacher simpty makes known his ignorance
whenever he assumes to know what the Bible teaches ; and }^et it
is called “ a perfect revelation of God’s will.” It is an assump-
tion that makes God an ignoramus and a tyrant to suppose he
would give forth a perfect revelation to the world, and require us
to accept it as such on pain of endless damnation, and yet leave
it in such a jumbled, bungling, and unintelligent condition that
it is impossible to understand it. Such an assumption certainly
borders on blasphemy. We would charge him with no such
driveling nonsense. It is the legitimate prerogative of reason
to assume that a perfect being could make a perfect revelation
or Bible, the language of which should be so absolutely perfect
and plain that no person of ordinary understanding could possi-
bly fail to understand every text, every word, and every sylla-
ble of it, and no two persons cquld possibly differ about the
meaning of one text in the whole book. Such a revelation or
Bible, and only such, could be ascribed to an all-wise God.
Even men and women can now be found who are so far master
of human language that they can write books so plainly that
there can be no dispute about the meaning of one sentence in
them. To assume, then, that an infinitely wise God could not
produce such a book is to place him lower in the scale of intel-
ligence than a common schoolboy. When, therefore, I find
the Christian Bible so far from possessing such characteristics,
I set it down as prima-facie evidence that an intelligent and
all-wise God had nothing to do in originating it. And if he
were not superior to, or incapable of, such human weakness, he
would reject with contempt and disdain the honor, or rather dis-
honor, ascribed to him in the authorship of such a book, — such
a medley of contradiction, ignorance, superstition, and barbar-
ism as is ascribed to him.

It is sometimes alleged (as we have alread}7 observed) in de-
fence or mitigation of the endless disputes among Christian
professors about the teachings of the Bible, that this disagree-
ment does not appertain to an}7 of the essential doctrines of
Christianity, but only to minor points, or doctrines of minor irn-
 332

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

portance. But such an admission is fatal either to their hon-
esty or to their good sense. It concedes that the quarrels
among the churches for ages has been about mere trifles, not
worth spending breath about. It concedes that it is “ non-
essentials, ” or mere trifles, that keep them apart, and that have
led them to build five or six churches, and hire five or six
priests, in every little village throughout the country, at an ex-
pense of many thousand dollars. It is certainly a criminal
waste of time and money to spend it by the million for churches
and priests to propagate doctrines which thej" themselves admit
possess no real intrinsic importance. It shows they have been
actuated by selfish, dishonorable, and ignoble motives in fighting
each other for a thousand years, and in some cases murdering
each other by the thousand, for a difference of opinion they
admit to be of no importance. Those murdered Christians and
devout Bible-believers were charged with preaching damnable
doctrines and devilish heresies; but now we are told it was
minor and unimportant doctrines that they were quarreling
about, and for which they were tortured and killed for preach-
ing. Yes, non-essential doctrine ! 0 temporal 0 mores! But
they make a serious blunder when they talk about non-essential
doctrine; for their Bible teaches that all doctrines are essen-
tial,— that there is no such thing as a non-essential doctrine;
for it first proclaims “one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.”
and then declares that “ he who offends in the least, offends in
the whole.”

These two declarations taken together prove (if they prove
any thing) that there is no “non-essential doctrine,” and
that the slightest departure from the right faith, or the least
disregard of the most trivial doctrine of the Christian creed,
will land the soul of the man or woman in endless perdition
who is guilty of it. The solemn question arises here, then,
Who can escape eternal damnation? For, if there is only one
true faith, then the hundred and forty thousand different and
conflicting faiths cherished and propagated among Christians
must all be wrong but one, — a fact which impels us to the
awful and inevitable conclusion that not one Christian in a thou-
sand— no, not in ten thousand — can be saved by these terms
 WHAT SHALL WE BELIEVE AND DO TO BE SAVED? 333

of the gospel. The thought sometimes occurs to the writer,
that no truty enlightened person, possessing a true moral dig-
nity of character, could consent to hang his salvation upon
a book which, after eighteen hundred }Tears of the most criti-
cal investigation and explanation by the most learned minds
in Christendom, still remains a mystery with regard to all
its most important doctrines, so that more than six hundred
churches are now disputing about what it teaches; and the
difficulty is still increasing by the uprising of new churches
with new creeds and new interpretations of the Bible. Let
the reader observe the striking difference in the harmony of
views which prevail in the various scientific societies throughout
the country and those of the churches, and he will discover at
once that there is no science in our religion. Take for example
the astronomical societies. They are all perfectly agreed with
respect to what the great Bible of nature teaches concerning
that science. There is no contention and no dispute with re-
spect to the doctrines and principles of that grand revelation of
nature, because they are all susceptible of proof and demonstra-
tion. Were it otherwise, —were the amateurs and students of
that science divided into six hundred conflicting factions, like
the churches, each with a different theory with respect to what
it teaches,—one contending that the sun rises in the east,
another that it rises in the west; one arguing that the sun is the
revolving center of our solar system, another contending that
the earth is ; one teaching that the starry orbs which roll their
massive forms through infinite space are mere wax tapers stuck
in the azure vault to light this pigmy planet, or mere peep-holes
for Gods to look out upon our world ; and one arguing that they
were all knocked up in a single day out of that singular sub-
stance called nothing, and another that they are the outgrowth
of other worlds, or have existed from all eternity. Had the
author, who was once a member of one of those societies, ob-
served such a chaos of confusion and conflict of opinion, he
would have discovered at once that nothing is really known
about the science of astronomy,—that what is called such is
nothing but a jargon of conflicting dogmas and wild specula-
tions. Hence he would not have remained with them a single
 334

TIIE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

da}’ after making suck a discovery. Having learned that the
churches are in such a condition, he withdrew, and has not been
a member of one of those discordant institutions for many
years. He considers it a waste of time to be a member of a
religious body which only increases this difficulty and confusion,
lie has but one life to live, and does not wish to waste that in
a mere wild-goose chase after religious speculations that can
never be settled. Why fool away our lives in chasing theologi-
cal butterflies that can never be caught, when there is a hun-
dred times as much to be learned within the domain of positive
science as can be acquired in a lifetime, that is practically use-
ful and calculated to enlarge the boundaries of our knowledge
and elevate us to a higher plane of happiness, while the occu-
pancy of the mind with theological dogmas is only calculated to
“ lead to bewilder, and dazzle to blind ” ?

Yes, we shall make more progress in learning our duties, in
learning “ what we must do in order to be saved,” if we would
look about us and forward, and endeavor to read the great Bible
or book of nature illuminated by the rays of science, in which
there are no contradictions, no confusion, and where we may
learn of, and, in our finite measure, grow into and partake
of the attributes of the Infinite Father, instead of looking
backward and searching amongst the jarring contradictions,
the creeds, dogmas, myths, and traditions of the past, covered
as they are with the mold and dust of ages.

CHAPTER LIII.

TIIE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION.

“Without the shedding of blood there can be no remission for
sin.” The doctrine of this text constitutes the basis of all the
plans of salvation which various ages and nations have founded
on dead Cods and living devils. Nearly every religious nation
known to history cherished the belief that God is an irritable,
irascible, and vindictive being, subject to fils or paroxysms of
anger; and, when in this furious and unbalanced and ungov-
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION.

335

ernable state of mind, he frequently poured out his vengeance
upon his disobedient children, often subjecting them to the most
terrible penalties in this life, and then threatened them with a
still worse doom in the next. To avert this direful calamity, —
at least so far as it appertained to the life beyond the grave, —
most religious nations invented schemes which came to be
known as s}rstems or plans of salvation. The original model
seems to have been furnished by the Hindoos, and borrowed
from them b}T the Egyptians, and thence transmitted to the Per-
sians and Grecians, and was finally incorporated into the
Christian system, and now constitutes what is known as u the
Christian plan of salvation.’5 Each system was composed of
three cardinal principles:   1. The primeval innocency and

moral perfection of man. 2, His temptation and downfall into
a state of moral depravity. 3. His restoration to the divine
favor by the voluntary sacrifice and atoning offering of a God
(one of the three members of the trinity). These three car-
dinal doctrines constitute what Christians denominate ‘4 the
great and glorious plan of salvation,” and on which a thousand
volumes have been written, and ten thousand sermons are
preached even7 year. As it professes to point out the road,
and the onty road, to heaven, it merits a somewhat critical ex-
amination. We will therefore analyze and examine its several
principles, to see whether it has a true moral basis, or is in strict
accordance with the principles of natural justice. The first
proposition assumes that man primordially occupied the highest
plane of moral perfection, and that all his animal propensities
were held in strict abejmnce to his moral convictions, and that
he consequently led a morally pure, perfect, and holy life.
The first and most important query to which this proposition
or assumption gives rise is, Can it be shown to be true? Can it
be sustained by either the principles of natural or moral science,
or by the facts of history comprised in man’s practical life?
Now, it so happens that facts have been accumulating for thou-
sands of }^ears, gathered from almost every department of
science and history, to prove and demonstrate that the proposi-
tion is entirety untenable, —that it is not true. Geology alone
demonstrates its falsity. It has written its negative verdict
upon a thousand rocks beneath our feet.
 336

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

These rocks contain the fossiliferous and organic remains of
the earl}" and primitive inhabitants of the earth, and indicate
the order of man’s moral and intellectual development; for as
each successive layer or stratum of fossiliferous rocks, in which
the organic remains of man are found, marks a distinct period
in his history, and the growth of his moral and intellectual
brain is found in all cases to correspond to the age and growth
of these strata, the question is thus settled and demonstrated
by the facts of geological science. As, the older the rocks, the
more remote period they mark in man’s history ; and, the more
remote the period to which it is thus traced, the lower the posi-
tion in the scale of moral and intellectual development his
organic remains prove him to have occupied. The question is
thus reduced to a scientific problem, which admits of no dis-
proof or refutation. It is, then, a settled scientific truth, that,
the further we trace the past history of man by the footprints of
geological science, the nearer he approaches to the condition
of an animal, — when he was almost totally devoid of intellec-
tual perceptions and moral feelings, and was consequently a
victim to his lusts and animal propensities. Where, then, w-as
his moral purity and perfection, or his angelic holiness? The
doctrine is thus shown to be false and fabulous. All the skulls
of the primitive races that have been found by geological re-
search show that man, in his first rude type, had scarcely any
moral brain; and the history of the race at that period shows
that lie possessed a correspondingly low, weak, defective moral
character, so much so that he could scarcely be considered a
moral, accountable being. To talk, then, of his occupying a
high moral plane at that early period, is to contradict every prin-
ciple of science and every page of history. His animal propen-
sities and selfish feelings must have held complete sway over the
whole empire of mind for thousands, if not for millions, of years ;
so that his moral status was but little above that of the brute.
The facts of science and history to prove this proposition are
abundant; but, as we are compelled to constantly observe the
most rigid rules of brevity, we can only find space for one or
two proof-illustrations. Human skulls have been found em-
bedded in the rocks of Gibraltar with retreating foreheads,
 THE TEHEE PLANS OF SALVATION

337

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prognathous jaws, and frontal bones an inch thick, and the re-
ceptacles for both the moral and intellectual brain very small,—
all of which denote very weak moral and intellectual minds, and
a preponderance of the animal feelings ; and geologists have de-
cided that sixty-five thousand years must have elapsed since
those bones and skulls were deposited in those rocks. Hun-
dreds of similar facts have been gathered b}r geologists, and
might be cited: but this one case is amply sufficient, and fur-
nishes as conclusive proof as a thousand could do that the prim-
itive inhabitants of the earth were on a low mental status, and
that they were greatly inferior in morals and intellect to the
least-developed minds of the present age; and consequently
man’s course has been upward, and not downward. There has
been no falling, but a gradual rising, in both the moral and in-
tellectual scale. It shows that man was at the very foot of the
ladder at the commencement of his moral and intellectual
career. —that he was flat on his back in the ditch ; and, conse-
quently, there was no lower place to fall to. The first proposi-
tion, then, is shown to be false, — that man originally occupied a
high moral position, and that he was in a state of moral purity
and perfection.

The second proposition—that of man’s fall and moral degen-
eracy — is likewise shown to be false by the same facts ; for, if
he was never in a state of moral purit}’ and perfection, then it is
evident he never could have fallen from such a state. It would
be superfluous, then, to attempt to show that man never fell,
after having shown that he never occupied a high moral position
to fall from. He could only fall in the sense the Scotchman did,
who stated he fell up a well sixty feet in a bucket. It is settled,
then, geologically, scientific all}’, and demonstrably, that man
never fell in a moral sense.

We will now proceed to present what is presumed and assumed
to be the scriptural exposition of man’s original condition and
faU.

We are told in the first chapter of Genesis, that, when God
had completed the work of creation, he pronounced it aH, not
only good, but “ very good,” which indicates a state of perfec-
tion ; but it appears the words were hardly out of his mouth

i
 338

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

till a very bad being, called a serpent, came crawling into the
garden on his back, to furnish practical evidence that Moses’
God was mistaken in having pronounced every thing so 4 4 very
good.” We have to assume that he came into the garden of
paradise on his back, because the reverse mode. of traveling
was not adopted until after the fall; that is, till after he was
doomed to that mode of travel as a punishment for having
tempted and beguiled Mother Eve to try her new molars and
incisors on some fruit (supposed to be pippins) hanging on a
tree, which, it appears, underwent the rapid process of blossom-
ing, and bearing fruit that ripened in a few hours after it was
planted. And thus the serpent, although a senseless reptile,
committed the first sin, — the first violation of moral law. The
first question that naturally arises here is, Why was not the
fence around the garden of paradise made snake-proof, so as to
keep his snakeship out? Or shall we presume the gate was
left open, and that he entered in that way? This, however,
would indicate a blundering carelessness on the part of Jehovah,
which we dare not assume. Another question arising here is,
Why was not the angel with the flaming sword, which, we are
told, was placed over the door or gateway to guard it from
intruders, —wh}r was he not placed there sooner? Why was he
not placed there before the fall, instead of after, so as to bruise
the serpent’s head, or behead him, on his attempting to enter?
To place a guard over the gate after the Devil had entered, and
caused the effectual downfall and ruin of the human race, and
thus perpetrated all the mischief he could, looks very much like
locking the stable-door after the horse is stolen.” And the
quay also arises here, Are we not compelled to conclude that
Moses’ God was a little short-sighted, and rather hast}’ in his
conclusion that every thing was so “ very good,” when the ser-
pent proved to be so very bad ? The only way to escape this
dilemma is to assume that God did not make him, and that con-
sequently lie was not included in the original invoice of goods and
chattels which were pronounced “ very good ; ” but, in adopting
this expedient, we only leap “ from the frying-pan into the fire : ”
for the assumption does not do away with the difficulty, be-
cause it is declared that God made cveiy thing that was made.
 THE THBEE PLANS OF SALVATION.

339

Hence it is evident that, if he were made at all, the God of
Moses made him; and, if he were not made, then it follows
that he is a self-created or self-existent being, and invested with
all the attributes, powers, and prerogatives of God Almighty
himself. And thus we would place two omniscient, omnipotent,
and omnipresent beings on the throne of the universe ; which is
not onty a moral contradiction, but a moral impossibility. We
will assume, then, for the sake of the argument, that God did
create the Devil, — an assumption, however, which brings us into
still greater difficulty. Christ sa3~s, by way of illustrating
human character, that “ a tree is known by its fruit. A good
tree can not bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree
bring forth good fruit.” In this case God the Creator is the
tree, and the Devil the fruit; and one is good, and the other
evil. Here, then, is a good tree bearing evil fruit, which seems •
to furnish the most positive proof that Christ’s moral axiom,
u A good tree can not bear evil fruit,” is false. There is evi-
dently something wrong somewhere in this moral picture. Either
Christ was mistaken, or the Christian world is wrong in assum-
ing the existence of this omnipotent and independent being of
an opposite character. It presents us with a moral paradox
which no theologian in Christendom has yet been able to solve.
We are compelled to assume that both beings are good, or both
evil, and that they co-operate and act in harmon}^; or that a
good God made a wicked Devil,—i.e., “a good tree brought
forth evil fruit; ” or else we must reject the Christian system of
salvation, and assume the existence of but one invisible and Al-
mighty Being, who orders every thing for the best. The absurd-
ity we have just noticed is but one of man}", both of a moral and
of a scientific nature, equally senseless and foolish, which we find
involved in the Christian plan of salvation. We will notice a few
others. According to Christian theolog}T and Christian logic,
all evil or sin that is committed is prompted by an evil tempter.
Scientists and Harmonialists account for such actions by tracing
them to the abnormal or perverted action of natural faculties,
powers, and propensities, which, in their healthy state, are produc-
tive of good alone, and not evil; and thus making them the product
of the mind itself in its unhealthy condition. But Christian
 340

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

theologians tell us it is a separate, evil genius operating in the
“inner man” which does all the mischief, and prompts the
possessor to the commission of sin. But this assumption gives
rise to endless difficulties, some of which we will state in the
form of questions. We would ask, then, in the first place, if
all sin or evil is prompted by an evil tempter, how came the
original tempter himself to fall victim to sin? Who put him up
to it, seeing there was no tempter in existence but himself ? In
such a dilemma, we must either assume that Divine Good-
ness was his tempter, or that he tempted himself. To make
him his own tempter would involve us in an egregious absurdity,
equal to that of Guy Faux lifting himself by the straps of his
boots ; and to make God the tempter would relieve his Satanic
Majesty of all responsibility in the case, and make God alone
accountable for the sin, and also the author of sin. This, how-
ever, they do by other assumptions. Books enough have been
written to form a library by orthodox writers in the attempt to
rescue their God from the odium and responsibility of being the
author of sin ; but, under their system of theology, he can not
escape the stigma. No sensible construction of an}" orthodox
system can save God from the authorship and responsibility of
sin. They all teach that God created man, and man committed
sin. This makes God the author of sin, either directly or indi-
rectly, in spite of all the logic and lore that ever has been, or
ever can be, made use of to escape the conclusion; for even
if it could be successfully shown that God did not implant in
man the desire or inclination to commit sin, and he derived this
inclination from the Devil, it can not be denied that God is
responsible for allowing the Devil to exist, or, if this could be
denied, would still be responsible for leaving man so morally
weak as to be overcome by the Devil. If he is infinite in good-
ness and infinite in power, as they teach, then, if lie did not
fortify man with sufficient moral strength to resist all tempta-
tion to sin, the act of sinning becomes his own. No logic and
no sophistry can resist this conclusion. It is now a settled
principle in moral ethics, that what any being does through an
agent he does himself, and is as responsible for it as if he per-
formed the act with his own hands de facto. If, then, God
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION

341

created the Devil, and he turned out to be the agent of evil or
sin, it was only a roundabout and indirect mode of performing the
act himself. This is a logical syllogism which defies the ingenu-
ity of the orthodox world to overturn. The most plausible plea
in the case is, that the Devil was originally a good being, but
fell from grace. According to several Bibles, he is a fallen
angel; but it is evident that he could not fall unless he pos-
sessed some inherent moral weakness that caused him to fall.
A perfect being could not fall. It is, then, self-evident that
inherent moral weakness was implanted in him by his Creator.
This would make his Creator responsible for his moral weakness,
which caused him to fall. And thus the question is settled
logically, philosophically, and morally.

We will now proceed to examine the nature of the diabolical
act which caused the downfall of the human race, — 44 the original
sin,” as it is called. We are told it consisted in eating some
fruit which grew on a tree God himself had planted in the Gar-
den of Eden, and forbidden to be used. Why it was inter-
dicted from use is not explained in the Christian Bible ; but it is
rendered plain by the relation of the same story in other Bibles.

In the Persian version it is stated that the tree bore the
twelve apples of immortality, and that the Devil, in the shape
of a monkey, guarded the tree, to prevent the genus homo
from partaking of the fruit; as tradition had taught them,
that, by so doing, man would become immortal like the Gods,
and live for ever. This the Gods deprecated, as they allowed
no other beings to become equal to them, and hence had the tree
guarded to save the immortal fruit. But the Christian Bible is
entirely silent as to the purpose of planting the tree, or forbid-
ding its fruit to be eaten. It cuts short man}7 stories which we
find more amplified and in fuller detail in older Bibles. No
reflecting or unbiased mind can see any wisdom or any sense
in permitting or causing a tree to bear fruit, and then decreeing
that it shall all go to waste by interdicting it from being used,
as Jehovah is represented as having done. Certainly no sensi-
ble God would act thus. And if Adam and Eve were 44 very
good,” as he himself declared them to be, must we not consider
it an ungodly and a tantalizing act to place fruit within their
 342

TEE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

reach, and then forbid them to touch or taste it? It looks more
like the act of a fiend than that of a kind and loving father, who,
we would naturally suppose, would be so pleased with his newly
made children that he would do every thing possible to please
them and make them happy. If the fruit was an improper
article of diet, it should have been placed out of sight, or ren-
dered unpalatable, so that they should not desire to eat it. If
Adam and Eve were very good beings, and God both infinitely
good and infinitely wise, he could and should have placed them
in a condition from which they could not fall, and in which they
would have possessed no inclination to do any thing wrong. I
can see no possible benefit to arise from surrounding them with
temptations to commit an act that would ruin them eternally,
and their posteritjr after them. The plea is sometimes urged
that it was moralty necessaiy for the original progenitors of the
race to possess the power and liability to sin, in order to make
them free agents. Free agents, indeed! That is certainly a
novel kind of free agency, which not only makes a man free
to commit an act which it is known will lead to his own destruc-
tion and the ruin of the entire human race, but implants in him
the inclination to do it. This is free agenc}r run mad.

We will illustrate the principle. A mother sees her little child
approaching an open well, and turns heedlessly away, and lets
the child rush into the jaws of death; and, when reproved for
the act, she raises the plea, u Oh, I did not want to interfere
with its free agenc3r!,, Here is the Christian logic of free
agenc}7 put in practice. God is represented as setting traps
around the human family, knowing the}' will be caught; and
this is called moral freedom or free agency. The rat enjoys the
same kind of moral freedom when he creeps beneath the dead-
fall in quest of food, and takes the chance of misplacing the
triggers. There is no free agency in any rational sense in fur-
nishing a man with a rope to hang himself, knowing that it
would Ik* used for that purpose; and this the orthodox God
has done for the whole human family, so that wc are all now
suspended on the gallows of total depravity and moral death.
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION.

343

The Fall and Curse.

We will now notice some of the u awful consequences 99 said
to have resulted from eating the forbidden fruit, — u the world-
wide curse 19 pronounced upon the human race as the penalty for
that act. Several distinct effects are enumerated as conse-
quences of the deed. But a critical investigation of the matter
in the light of the present age will show, that, instead of being
curses, they are blessings, and have added greatly to the enjoy-
ment and happiness of the human famity; and, consequently,
we should now be in a more deplorable condition than we are
if “ our primitive parents 99 had heeded the divine interdiction,
and let the fruit alone. We will look briefly at some of the
consequences, and observe whether the}^ have really turned out
to be curses, or not. The first effect produced by the act of
Father Adam and Mother Eve eating the forbidden fruit appears
to have been that of opening their eyes so that the}r could see
and distinguish objects around them. It certainly was a very
singular way of cursing human beings to grant them the glorious
boon of vision, and thus relieve them from the necessity of
groping their way through life. As to the gift of sight being
a curse, there are thousands of human beings now in the world
who would like to be cursed in that way, — those who were born
blind, or have lost their sight. u The rest of mankind ” would
consider it to be a great misfortune or curse to be placed in the
original condition of Adam and Eve in this respect. We must
admit, then, that this curse turned out to be a blessing, and that
we are indebted to the serpent-devil for it; and, consequently,
he should not have been doomed to dine on dust as a penalty for
conferring this blessing upon the human race.

The second consequence growing out of the act of eating
the interdicted fruit appears to have been the acquisition of a
knowledge of good and evil; that is, the power of distinguish-
ing between good and evil. But this, so far from being a curse,
was Jan inestimable and indispensable blessing; for, without
the attainment of this knowledge, they could not have known
that any act was evil, and hence would have been liable to
plunge into all manner of crime, pillage, debauchery, murder,
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

&c., until they effected the entire extinction of the human race.
The acquisition, then, of the knowledge of the moral difference
between good and evil was an invaluable blessing, and no curse
at all; and, having been brought about through the agency of
the serpent-devil, he should have the credit of it.

The third effect produced by plucking and eating the pre-
scribed fruit was the discovery that they were naked. Why
they had not made the discovery before is a mystery of godli-
ness. The people of the present age, although presumed to be
in a state of degeneracy, if not total depravity, do not require
the use of their eyes to know when they are naked; but it
seems, that, before the fall in a state of moral perfection, such
knowledge could only be acquired through the optic nerves.
Hence 44 the perfection of our first parents,” so often spoken of
and lauded by the orthodox world, must simply have been the per-
fection of ignorance ; and it is true, if their history is true, that
they were most consummately ignorant until the}' were enlightened
by the serpent. They were too ignorant to clothe themselves.
God Almighty had to forsake the throne of heaven, and come
down to earth, to make garments of goatskins for them, before
they could be sufficiently habilitated to go abroad, or admit
company. Their two sons, however, were the only company
the}' were permitted to enjoy at that time. And one of these
turned out to be a murderer ; and, having killed his only brother,
he fled to the land of Nod, and married a wife, although, ac-
cording to the *4 inspired account,” his mother was the only
woman then living. It seems strange, under such circumstances,
that lie should marry a wife when there were no women to make
wives of. After he had killed his brother, and repented of it,
a mark was set upon him, that 44 whosoever found him should
not slay him. ’’ But how could this 44 whosoever99 know what the
mark meant? And who was this 44 whosoever,” when lie himself
had killed off the whole human race, excepting his father and
mother? And we presume they would not be likely to slay their
own and only son if there were no mark set upon him to prevent
it. Hp to this period the conduct of the serpent-devil had been
very respectful, and every act performed had resulted in a direct
benefit to the human family. Even his conduct towards Mother
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION

345

Eye seems to have been marked by politeness ; for he served her
with fruit before partaking of it himself. For these good acts
he deserved the use of his legs, which, we must presume, he lost
by the fall, when he transgressed, fell, and was cursed ; and
a part of this curse consisted in taking his legs from him, and
compelling him to crawl. But it appears his legs were after-
wards restored to him; for, when he came with the sons of
God to attend a picnic at the house of Job, and was asked
where he came from, replied, u From walking to and fro in the
. earth.” This feat of walking he could not very well have per-
formed without legs. Hence we naturally conclude they had
grown out again, or had been restored to him in some way, not-
withstanding it had been decreed he should ‘ ‘ crawl on his belly
all the days of his life.” The. whole story of the serpent, as pre-
sented in Genesis, is a borrowed and laughable fiction ; and the
reader will excuse us for presenting it in that light.

We have shown that the violation of the command of Jehovah
to Adam and Eve not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowl-
edge, so far from being attended with any evil result, gave rise
to several important benefits, and was therefore a praiseworthy
act. And if they had carried the act of disobedience a little
further, and plucked and eaten of the fruit from the “ tree of
life” also, it would, according to the context, have produced
results still more important, as it would have immortalized their
physical bodies, and prevented the ingress of death into the
world ; and we should have been spared that dreadful calamity.
But a worse calamity would have overtaken us ; for it is easily
seen, that, in the course of a few centuries, our planet would be
overstocked with inhabitants. And, as a part of Adam’s curse
consisted in being doomed to eat the ground (see Gen. iii. 17),
it follows, that, if none of his posterity had died, the}' would have
become so numerous in the course of time as to have eaten up
all the ground (there being nothing else for them to eat), and
leave not a mole-hill of terra firma for a living being to stand
upon. The conception is really ludicrous, and yet a legitimate
inference from the stor}T which presents us with a series of laugh-
able ideas from beginning to end.

We will now notice the sentence pronounced upon the several
 346

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

participants in this fabled rebellion against the divine govern-
ment, and observe how, or to what extent, they were realized.
Adam, Eve, and the snake were the culprits arraigned at the
bar under charge of being rebels ; and, all being found guilty, a
sentence was pronounced upon each separately. We will exam-
ine them in their order. The first part of Adam’s curse con-
sisted in being doomed to die, — 44 The day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die” (Gen. ii. 17). The serpent, however,
took the liberty to contradict and counteract the sentence, and
told him he should not die, but that partaking of the fruit would
make him 44 wise as the Gods, knowing good and evil.” Now,
the first question which arises here is, Who told the truth in the
case, —Jehovah, or 44 the father of lies ” ? In the eighth chapter
of Genesis wTe read, 44 All the days of Adam were nine hundred
and thirt}^ years, and he begat sons and daughters.” It will be
seen, then, that he did not die in 44 the day thereof,” nor the
year thereof, nor the century thereof; so it appears the serpent
told the truth, and Moses’ God told the falsehood, or was mis-
taken. Hundreds of Christian writers and commentators have
racked their brains to find some plausible mode of disposing of
these difficulties. The most specious one they have resorted
to is that of assigning the text a spiritual signification, and
alleging that it was a spiritual death that was intended in this
case. But the text does not say so ; and the context shows it
was not so: for it is declared, 44 Dust thou art, and unto dust
shalt thou return” (Gen. iii. 19), which shows it was not
spiritual but physical death that was meant; and this did not
take place for more than nine hundred years after the sentence
was pronounced.

The second part of Adam’s curse consisted in being driven
out of the garden, and compelled to engage in agricultural pur-
suits ; that is, lie was sentenced to earn his bread by the sweat
of his face. (Sec Gen. iii. 23). But the experience of nearly
the whole human race, from that period to the present time,
proves that the sweating part of the operation is no curse at all,
but a real blessing; for no person in warm climates can enjoy
good health without perspiring occasional^; and as for labor
being a curse, because said to have been pronounced upon
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION.

347

Adam as a penalty for transgression, the experience of all who
have tried it, and the present condition of the civilized world,
proclaim it to be untrue. Indeed, we must consider it a very
fortunate circumstance that he was driven out of the garden,
and compelled to embark in agricultural pursuits, not only on
account of such employments being conducive to health, but
because the very existence of human life depends upon it in all
civilized countries. It is the source whence we derive all our
food, all our clothing, and nearly all the comforts of life. No :
it is laziness, aot labor, that curses the race ; and the most ac-
cursed set of beings are the drones, the soft-handed gentry,
who are almost as afraid of a hoe, axe, or spade, as they are of
the measles or small-pox, having been erroneously taught that
labor is a curse.

The third item in Adam’s curse consisted in being doomed
to eat the ground, — u Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life 99 (Gen. iii.
17) ; but we have never seen any report of either Adam or any
of his posterity eating the ground, or making it an article of
diet. It will be observed, then, that no part of the sentence
pronounced upon Adam turned out to be a curse, but, when
realized at all, was realized as a blessing.

The sentence pronounced upon the woman was also of a
threefold character. In the first place, she was doomed to
“ bring forth children in sorrow 99 (Gen. iii. 16). And her pos-
terity, we are told, inherited the curse, and must suffer in the
same way; but the history of the human family shows that
many individuals, and whole nations in some cases, have never
suffered this affliction. It is well known that the mothers of
some of the African tribes, also some of the tribes of Ameri-
cans, never suffer in childbirth. Hence it will be seen that the
curse in the general sense implied by the text is a failure in this
case also.

The second punishment to which woman was to be sub-
jected was that of being ruled over by her husband. This
portion of her curse, we must confess, has not been an entire
failure. Many women, even in civilized countries, are not only
ruled over, but tyrannized over, by their husbands. Yet this
 348

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

state of things has by no means been universal. On the con-
trary, in many cases, woman has been the ruling party ; and, in
some instances, they have not merely ruled their own husbands,
but all the husbands in the nation. Queen Mary, Queen Anne,
and Queen Victoria, and many others, are examples of this kind ;
and then there have been thousands of women in all ages and
countries who never had any husbands. Consequently the curse
is a failure in their cases. The curse of husband-dominion, then,
has not fallen upon woman as a sex.

There was to be enmity between the seed of the woman
and the seed of the serpent (i.e., their offspring) as the third
part of woman’s curse ; but we find no evidence that this part
of the curse has ever been fulfilled. We observe no more en-
mity between men and serpents than between men and other
noxious reptiles and ravenous beasts. How much enmity exists
between the Hindoo juggler and the serpent that twines around
his arm and neck, and crawls through his bosom? We may be
told in reply that it is not the common serpent that is referred
to here, but the serpent-devil that beguiled Eve ; but we do not
learn that his Devilish Majesty ever had any offspring. So this
part of the curse, in a general sense, is a failure also.

Tiie Curse of the Serpent.

The curse pronounced upon the serpent was of a twofold
character.

He was doomed to crawl upon his belly. How 'he traveled
previous to that period we have no means of knowing, as reve-
lation is silent on this momentous subject. lie must have
crawled on his back, or hopped on his head or tail, — either of
which we should consider a much more difficult mode of travel-
ing than that inflicted on him by the curse. I can see no curse
or punishment in an animal or reptile traveling in its natural
wa}r, and by the easiest mode known in the whole animal king-
dom. To make a curse of his mode of travel, he should have
been turned the other side up, so that, while wiggling or wrig-
gling along on his back, his eyes and mouth would get full of
dust and mud. This would have been much more like a pun-
ishment,— a more real and sensible curse than his present mode
of traveling.
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION.

349

The second mode of punishing the serpent was to compel
him to eat dust as an article of diet; but some difficulty must
have arisen in attempting to comply with the injunction. When
the ground is saturated with water, he would have to take a
meal occasionally of mud, which would not be more nutritious
than dust, and would not be fulfilling the law. But it is need-
less to speculate. It is evident he does not subsist in that wa}",
but, like the other culprits, escaped the penalties or punishments
due to his crime.

I have now examined all the items of the curse — eight in
number — said to have been visited upon Adam, Eve, and the
serpent; and what do they all amount to ? Not one of them has
been realized as such ; but most of those which were practically
realized turned out to be real blessings. And yet they have
been proclaimed to the world by the clergy as the missiles of
wrath hurled upon a guilty world for the sin of rebellion against
the divine government; and, whether any of these so-called
u visitations of divine displeasure’ 9 were designed as penalties
for disobedience or not, it is evident they have not in a moral
sense been realized, or had any beneficial effect whatever. And
we must conclude that it was rather short-sighted in •Moses’
God to attempt to bring his children into obedience by pro-
nouncing curses upon them. He himself virtually acknowledges
it; for, after having tried these expedients and found they availed
nothing, he became so discouraged, that he said, “It grieved
him to the heart” (see Gen. vi. 6) that he had made so rebel-
lious a creature as man.

The Second Scheme op Redemption.

The God of Moses, after having tried the expedient of curs-
ing his children, —the cunning workmanship of his hands, — and
grieved over the failure for more than a thousand years,—he
(the God of Moses) came to the conclusion to try another ex-
pedient. He concluded to select a few of the choicest speci-
mens of the genus homo, in order to preserve the race, and start
anew with some of the best stock or material that could be
found. Accordingly, old drunken Noah — the most righteous
man that could be found amongst the millions of the inhabit-
 350

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

ants of the globe — was chosen to build a schooner, yacht,
canoe, or some kind of a vessel, called an ark, into which he
stowed millions of birds, bipeds, and insects of all species
and all sizes, from the ostrich and condor down to fleas, flies,
mosquitoes, spiders, and bed-bugs; and millions of animals
and reptiles of all kinds and all sizes, from the mammoth and
the mastodon down to skunks, lizards, snakes, gophers, and
grasshoppers; together with himself and family of eight persons,
and food sufficient to last them ten months while in the ark,
and several years afterwards, as we must presume was done
from the fact that it is declared that the waters destroyed every
living thing upon the face of the earth. And it must have re-
quired several years to restock it with grass and animals to
serve as food for the granivorous, herbivorous, and carnivo-
rous species ; and this would make a bulk sufficient to fill forty
such vessels, and a weight Sufficient to sink the whole British
navy. And all this living mass of respiring and perspiring
animals were dependent upon one little window twelve inches
by fifteen for light and air, and which had to be kept shut most
of the time to keep out the rain. If some giraffe or cameleo-
pard had been disposed to monopolize the window by thrusting
his head out, we can easily imagine what would have been the
fatal consequence to this living, breathing cargo. And then
we have to entertain the thought that lions and lambs, wolves
and sheep, dogs and skunks, hawks and chickens, owls and
doves, cats and mice, men and monkej’s, all ate and slept to-
gether inimmediate juxtaposition like a band of brothers. Per-
haps more glorious times never were realized since 4ttlie sons
of God shouted for jo}’.” But it appears the whole thing
turned out to be a failure. The drowning process was no more
effectual in producing the desired reformation than the first
scheme that had been tried ; for, only a few hundred years after
the culmination of this world-drowning experiment, Moses’ God
is represented as crying out in despair, “ The imagination of
man’s heart is evil, and onl}r evil continually.” This was cer-
tainly a deplorable and disheartening state of things witnessed
so soon after it had been presumed that all the bad folks had
been drowned; but it appears, that, if all that class had been
 THE THREE PLANS OF SALVATION.

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drowned, there would have been no human beings left. David,
therefore, was probably right when he exclaims, 44 There is none
that doeth good, no not one ” (Ps. xiv. 3).

The Third and Last Plan of Salvation.

The atonement was the third and last resort. The third
experiment in any case generally ends the siege whether suc-
cessful or unsuccessful. After a few thousand years more had
elapsed of grief, anger, and disappointment in the practical
history of Moses’ God, he ventured to try one more experiment
in the effort to get his people in the right track, — not so much,
however, to get them in the right way, as to have his own
wrath appeased. In this way he sanctions the greatest crime
ever perpetrated by the hand of man, — that of murder. God
the 44 Father,’ in order to cancel the sins of his disobedient
and rebellious children, and mitigate his own wrath, is repre-
sented as proposing to have his 44 only-begotten son ” killed, —
at least, as consenting to the act. This looks like 4 4 doing evil
that good may come of it; ” which is a very objectionable prin-
ciple of moral ethics, according to Paul. How the commission
of the greatest of all sins can do any thing towards reforming
other sins, or how the punishment of an innocent being can do
any thing towards atoning for the sins of the guilty, presents
us with a moral problem, shocking both to our common sense
and common reason. If the Father’s anger could not be ap-
peased or his vengeance satisfied without the perpetration of a
horrible murder, and the knowledge that some victim had died
a slow and agonizing death, we are forced to the conclusion
that he is a cruel and revengeful God, and that his passions
overrule his love of justice and his paternal regard for his son.
But it appears that this last experiment, whether right or wrong,
was attended with as complete a failure as the two preceding
ones ; and yet it assumes to be* the best that44 Infinite Wisdom ”
could devise. And the resources of divine knowledge and skill
were apparently exhausted when this scheme culminated. And
yet it also failed, according to the admission of its own friends
and ardent supporters (the clergy) ; for they tell us, that, not-
withstanding all the schemes and systems that Omniscience and
 352

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

Infinite Prescience could devise to save man, he does not get
saved : at least but few are saved, and they have to 44 work out
their own salvation with fear and trembling.’’ Nineteen-twen-
tieths of the human family, the clergy tell us, are still traveling
44 the broad road,” and are finally lost, notwithstanding all the
labored experiments and expedients of omniscient or Jehovah-
istic wisdom to save them. With this view of the case, the
thought is suggested that it was hardly worth while to have
gone to the trouble and expense of fitting up a heaven for the
few that are saved. It certainly 44 doesn’t pay.” And this con-
clusion is the more forcible in view of the fact that it must be
rather a lonesome place, and consequently not a very desirable
home or situation to live in ; for we are told it is 4 4 a house of
many mansions,” 44 and yet few there be that find the strait
and narrow road ” leading to it. Hence we may conclude that
man}r of the rooms or mansions are empty. Such a lonesome
heaven could not be congenial or adapted to any class of saints
but monks and hermits.

We have now briefly examined the three plans of salvation
which lie at the foundation of the Christian religion, and
shown that they are all failures according to their own wit-
nesses. In view of this fact, we can not wonder that Moses’
God is represented as saying that he repented for having made
man, and that it grieved him to the heart (Gen. vi. G). Such
a series of signal failures is enough to discourage even a saint
or a God.

CHAPTER LIV.

THE TRUE RELIGION.

True religion sees God in every thing, reads his scriptures
on every page of Nature’s open Bible, and feels him in the in-
spiration of the soul. It calls God father, not king; Christ a
brother, not a redeemer. It loves all men, but fears no God.
Its God is not a tyrant, but a loving father. It looks upon
 THE TRUE RELIGION.

353

Jesus Christ as a truly good man, but not a God ; as a noble,
loving, benevolent being, but endowed with human frailties. It
considers him a martyr to truth and right, but not a just victim
to his father’s wrath, or the just object of a blood}r sacrifice.
It regards the laws of nature as sufficient, if diligently studied
and-strictly observed, to serve as a guide for man’s earthly life
without any special revelation. It holds that man’s natural
love of goodness, justice, mercy, and honesty is capable of
endless expansion and augmentation. (Tt walks by the light of
science"^ The many grand truths of the age, developed by the
onward march of mind, form its infallible laws, and constitute
its living virtues. Vjt uses reason for a lamp, and an enlightened
intellect for a guide^ It ties no martyr to the stake, piles the
faggots around no heretics. It issues no dogmas, no bulls, no
canons, and^hangs man’s salvation upon no infallible revelation^
Christians say, Give us a better revelation ; Christ said, “ Cease
to do evil, and [then] learn to do well.” All wrong and hurtful
institutions should be pulled down or abandoned., and trust to
finding better ones. ^Remove the weeds from the soil, and a
healthy and useful vegetation will spring up in their place^ The
true religion grants perfect freedom to all human beings ; leaves
human thought as free and unfettered as the wind, as free as
the rays of sunlight which fall upon every hill and every valley,
and rest upon the bosom of the deep.

True religion does not regard God as a personal monarch,
governing the universe by the caprices of an angry and fickle
mind, but as the living, moving, all-pervading, self-sustaining,
energizing, vivifying power which moves and sustains the ma-
chinery of the whole universe, and controls, by a concatenation
of laws, the myriads of worlds which move in majestic grandeur
through infinite space, and causes them to act in concert and
harmony without a discordant jar. It does not write its in-
spiration and revelation in a dead language or unintelligible
Hebrew, but in living characters, which all can read and un-
derstand. It indulges in no spirit of bigotry, consigns no man
or woman to endless torment, never talks of total depravity or
original sin. It is a natural and godlike religion, calculated to
satisfy the deep, unutterable longings of the soul, and bring
 354

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

blessings and happiness to all who live up to its requirements.
It is a tree bearing the fruit of practical righteousness. It does
not teach that all of God’s truth is shut up in a printed book.
It knows no sects, no creeds, and no thirty-nine articles. It
does not pilot the pilgrim through life with a dark lantern, nor
search for living truths among the religious mummies of the
dark ages, but regales itself upon the living truths of the age.
Its devotees do not require temples made with hands in which
to worship the Father. It does not require holy houses, holy
days, or holy sacraments. It recommends all to search for
truth as a pearl of great price. It teaches all to worship God
by a life of practical goodness, and by cherishing kindly feel-
ings toward every human being. This is a religion that will
impart true pleasure in life, and afford sure comfort in a dying
hour.

Tiie Religion for this Age

Is a religion founded upon truth and goodness, — a religion
freed from the old, worn-out, superstitious, Oriental myths.
The people are becoming too enlightenedjto tolerate them much
longer; they are becoming tired of being fed on the stale food
of past ages ; they have been kept in a state of spiritual stagna-
tion long enough. They are becoming too intelligent to wish
to listen to old m3Tthologial doctrines which have been preached
by Christians for centuries. We want a religion better adapted
to the wants of the age. We want a religion that will furnish
better nourishment for man’s moral and spiritual nature,—a
religion calculated to develop true manhood, instead of repress-
ing it; a religion whose doctrines do not conflict with estab-
lished principles of science; a religion which our moral sense
does not condemn, and against which our reason will not
rebel. We want a religion that builds no walls between reason
and revelation, and forms no creeds and no barriers to the
spontaneous outgrowth of every faculty of the soul. We want
a religion that does not require men and women to be born
several times before they can be honest, truthful, and reliable,
or “ good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven.” We want
a religion which acknowledges no law but truth and justice, —
 THE TRUE RELIGION.

355

a religion that will tolerate no wrong, and forgive no sin. We
want a religion whose bond is love, whose temple is truth, and
whose altar is a guiltless conscience, and whose creed is a
life of practical righteousness. We want a religion which will
teach us to cherish kindly feelings toward all mankind, and
which will prompt us to labor to spread flowers instead of
thorns in the pathway of every one with whom we come in con-
tact, and thus make them better and happier beings; for this
is the true end of all true religion and all true preaching.

“For modes of faith let zealous bigots fight:

He can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.”

We want a religion which will estimate men and women for
what they are, and not for what they believe, — a religion that
does not measure their moral worth by their creeds, but by their
practical lives. We want a religion that will banish all creeds
and mind-enslaving dogmas from the earth, and substitute in
their place brotherly love and goodness. We want a religion
that will do away with ignorance and poverty, that will labor to
prevent any one from suffering for the needful things of life, and
that will bind all together in the ties of universal brotherhood.
In fine, we want a religion which will make truth and love and
true practical righteousness the pole-star of every man and
woman who embrace it. This is the religion we need ; this is
the religion for the age; this is the religion that would and
will banish all unrighteousness from the earth, and elevate the
race to a higher plane than they ever have or ever can attain
under their soul-cramping, creed-bound religions; this is the
religion the author is laboring for, and has earnestly desired
for twenty-three years to see established among “ all nations,
tongues, kindred, and people.” This religion is not derived
from any Bible, but is an outgrowth of man’s moral and reli-
gious nature, as all true religions in all countries have been.
A religion derived from this source would prompt us to labor
daily to promote the happiness of our neighbors and fellow-
beings generally, ^instead of studying every hour of our lives
to practically rob them, as do most men in civilized countries,
including nearly all Christian professors A who are positively for-
 356

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

bidden by their Bible and lawgiver (Christ) to lay up any treas-
ure on earth; yet it is their constant study how to draw all the
mone}7 possible out of the pockets of their neighbors, with but
little regard to their wants, necessities, or even sufferings, that
they may die in the midst of wealtlj^ It is a strange, yet
ahnost universal, infatuation, that the inauguration of the true
religion will banish from the earth.

CHAPTER LV.

“ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OE GOD.”

If this statement be true, then God must have “led a very
busy lifefor the world is literally loaded down with scrip-
tures. There are not less than eleven hundred and fifty pious
effusions that may come under this head, and at least that num-
ber claiming to have originated from the fountain of divine in-
spiration ; but the religious sects and religious orders will tell
us that but one of those eleven hundred and fifty scriptures
is the product of the Divine Mind, and but one of them has
received the seal and sanction of Almighty God. Then our sal-
vation hangs by a very slender thread ; for no rule has been fur-
nished us by Infinite Wisdom by which we can distinguish which
is the spurious and which the genuine, or which is the scripture
given by inspiration of God. All pious nations have had their
scriptures in profusion. Let us hold a court, and hear the testi-
mony of some of the witnesses with respect to the validity of
their respective claims. Here is a Hindoo, a pious soul of the
Brahmin order. Well, brother, we wish you to tell us whether
you know any thing about “ the scriptures given by inspiration
of God.” — “Most certainly I do.” Well, where and what
are they? “ Why, after existing in the mind of the great God
Bralnna from all eternity, they were revealed by him, about
nine thousand years ago, to the holy ricliis (prophets), who
penned them into a Iloly Book for the instruction and salvation
of the world, now known as the Vedas. They are pure, holy,
 ALL SCBIPTUBE GIVEN BY INSPIBATION OF GOD. 357

and divine, and point out the only sure road to salvation.”
Here comes a Chinese mandarin. Well, brother, what light
can you throw upon this subject? Have you ever seen 44 the
scriptures given by inspiration of God 9 ’ ?   44 That is a question

easily answered. The Five Volumes are the purest, the holiest,
and the most sublime production ever given to the world.
There is nothing immoral, no obscene language, to be found in
this 4 Holy Book.’ Its precepts are matchless; and it is the
only book whose teachings are calculated to 4 make wise unto
salvation.’ It will save all men who receive it, and obey it.”
Take a seat: we want now to hear from a disciple representing
the land of Iran. Brother Persian, the question is, Where is
u the scripture given by inspiration of God”? 4 4 Your ques-
tion surprises me. The Holy Zenda Avesta has been circu-
lating for thousands of years; and have you not seen it ?
It points out the only sure road to the kingdom of eternal bliss,
and contains the only true religion for the human race.” Very
well: be seated. There is yet another class of devout wor-
shipers we wish to interrogate on this all-important subject.
Brother Mahomedan, will you please to step forward, and help
us solve this difficult problem ? Where are 4 4 the scriptures
given by inspiration of God”? 44 Have you never read that
holy and inspired book, the Koran? If so, you. ought to be
able to answer the question; and, if not, you are risking your
eternal salvation by remaining ignorant of its beautiful truths :
for it consigns to an endless fiery hell all who disbelieve and
reject its sublime teachings, and refuse to travel the road it has
marked out to paradise and eternal bliss.” Thus we are mak-
ing but little progress toward settling the question, Where is
44 the scripture given by inspiration of God”? We will now
question the Christian Church. Here we are met at the very
threshold with two hundred answers. 44 Join our church, and
beware of counterfeits,” meets us at every church-door. We do
not mean to say that every church has a separate Bible, though
virtual^ it almost amounts to this, as each denies to ail others
that use of the Bible and construction of its doctrine and teach-
ings which alone can insure salvation. But, in a broader sense,
there are two hundred answers to the question, Where are we
 358

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

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to find “ the only scriptures given by inspiration of God”?
The two hundred translators and four hundred commentators
make out more than two hundred distinct systems of faith, and
virtually more than two hundred Bibles. When we look at the
numerous and widely different translations of the Bible, and the
numerous collection of books by different churches which have
been made to constitute the Bible at different periods, and the
numerous alterations which Christian writers tell us have been
made in all of the books of the Bible, and the great number of
gospels and epistles floating over the world at one period and
afterwards denounced as spurious, and the constant alteration
of the Bible by adding some books and rejecting others, we
can see at once that it is impossible ever to find any way of
determining which are 4 4 the scriptures given by inspiration of
God.” Here let it be noted, that, for nearly three hundred
years, the Christian world had no Bible but the Old Testament,
and that, during that period, hundreds of gospels and epistles
were written, and thirty-six Acts of the Apostles, by all kinds
of scribblers, or, as one Christian writer calls them, 44 ignorant
asses.” These were put in circulation as constituting 44 the
only scriptures given by inspiration of God.” Most of them
were afterwards condemned by the Church fathers as being the
product of the Devil, and as being calculated to lead eveiy soul
down to hell who should read and believe them. But there
never was any agreement among church-leaders as to which of
the three hundred gospels and epistles in circulation were spu-
rious, and which were genuine ; nor has there ever been any
rule for distinguishing them, or determining which was which.
How, then, was it possible to know which were 44 the scriptures
given by inspiration of God”? Here arises a query of most
striking import, which should sink deep into the mind of every
honest investigator of this subject. Should it not be set down
as a moral impossibility that an all-wise God would inspire men
to write gospels and epistles for the instruction of mankind and
the salvation of the world, and then let them get mixed up with
hundreds of others 44 inspired by the Devil,” and calculated to
44 lead to perdition ” ? It must have been the means of effecting
the eternal ruin of thousands, if not millions, of immortal souls.
 ALL SCBIPTUBE GIVEN BY INSPIBATION OF GOD. 359

And nearly" all Christian writers admit there was no way of dis-
tinguishing the poisonous and pernicious productions from the
“inspired.” It is also admitted that the former were more read
than the latter. Now, we must assume that a God would be
essentially lacking in the ingredients of good sense (or rather
would be a mere imaginary being) who would do business in
such a bungling and reckless manner as to furnish man with a
revelation of his will, hang his salvation upon it, and then aban-
don the field for three hundred years, and let every thing run to
ruin. Such a God ought to “ repent, and he grieved to the heart."
Look what kind of stuff the people swallowed for gospel during
that period ! The Gospel of the Infamy, which was afterwards
condemned as the work of devils and impostors, was, during this
period, accepted as inspired by nearly the whole Christian world ;
and see what it contains. In the first chapter it is related that
a woman had a son who was, by the intervention of some witches,
turned into an ass, when she hastened off to the mother of the
young Messiah (Jesus), and related her grievance to that ami-
able personage, which so excited her compassion that she forth-
with seized the young child Jesus, and set him astride the ass’s
neck, when, “ lo and behold! ” it took all the ass properties out
of the animal, and restored him back to manhood, or rather boy-
hood. And all the biped asses then in Christendom swallowed
this assinine storjT as “ scripture given by inspiration of God.”
The same book relates that various sick and impotent persons
visited the child Jesus, and were cured of their diseases by hav-
ing his swaddling-clothes wrapped about their heads, necks, or
other portions of the body, and forthwith thie devils departed
(on one occasion in the shape of a dog). If there is a lower
plane of senseless superstition than this, I pray God I may
never know it. And all this was gospel and “inspired scrip-
ture,” for whole centuries, with the majority of Christendom.
Both preachers and laymen read and believed those “ Holy
Scriptures.” This is about as senseless as the story of some
devils coming out of a woman, and taking up their abode in
a herd of swine. These stories are all “chips of the same
block,” and all equally incredible.
 SCO

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

Character op the Voters who decided what Scriptures

SHOULD BE CONSIDERED INSPIRED.

It is now well known that the first authentic collection of Gos-
pels and Epistles, called “ the Bible,” was made by the Council
of Nice 325 A.D.,— a body of drunken bishops and lawless
bacchanalians. The Christian writer, Mr. Tyndal, says they
got drunk, came to blows, and lacked and cuffed each other;
and that “ the love of contention and ambition overcame their
reason.” They claimed to be under the influence of “ the
spirit.” Undoubtedly they were; but it was a kind of spirit
that men hold intercourse with by uncorking the bottle, and not
the spirit of gentleness and peace. He says, u They fell afoul
of each other; ” and such was the severity of their blows, that
one member was mortally wounded, and died a short time after.
It was simply a disgusting and disgraceful row, — a scene of
rowdyism of at first seventeen hundred, and finally about three
hundred, Christian bishops, without a character for either virtue,
sobriety, or honesty. One writer says, u They were abandoned
to every species of immorality, and addicted to the most abom-
inable crimes;” and such was their extreme ignorance, that
but few of them could write their names. Their method of de-
ciding which Gospels and Epistles were divinely inspired was
quite unique. It is stated the}" were all placed under the com-
munion-table ; and, when the proper signal was given (so says
Irenseus), the inspired Gospels “hopped on to the table,” which
separated them from the spurious. Why the spurious Gospels
did not possess the hopping power and propensity is not stated.
Two of the bishops, Chrysante and Musanius, died during the
council, before the vote wa3 taken; but such was the impor-
tance of the occasion, that they did not withhold their votes on
that account. The proper documents being prepared and car-
ried and placed near their defunct bodies, the}’ mustered all the
force their dead bodies could command, and signed them; and
thus, between the living and the dead, we have got a Bible
which, it is presumed, contains all “the scripture given by in-
spiration of God ” under the new dispensation. The Gospels
and Epistles thus voted into favor were not arranged together
 ALL SCRIPTURE GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD. 361

in the form of an authentic Bible until nearty sixt}r years after.
This was clone Iry' the Council of Laodicea in the year 363.
After this, council after council was called to vote in or vote
out some of the books adopted by previous councils, and to
settle some important church dogmas. The first council voted
the Acts of the Apostles and Revelation out of the Bible (i.e.,
voted them down) ; but the second council, which met in 363,
voted them in again. Another council, which met in 406, voted
them, with several other books, out of the Bible again. And
thus were books and dogmas voted in and voted out of ‘c the
infallible and inspired word of God,” and altered and corrected,
time after time and century after centuiy, by twent}^-four differ-
ent councils, composed of bigoted bishops and clergymen, so
quarrelsome and belligerent that they resorted to fisticuff fight-
ing in several of the councils; and thus was “God’s Holy
Word ” and “ perfect revelation ” tossed to and fro like a bat-
tledore,— this book voted in, and that one voted out, and
sometimes half a dozen at a time. And where was the “all
scripture given by inspiration of God ” at the end of this revo-
lution a it and demolishing clerical crusade? And where was
its author, that he would suffer the whole thing to be taken out
of his hands, altered and corrupted till he could not know his
own book, and would not have been willing to father it if he
had been able to recognize it? William Penn says, that “ some
of the scriptures which were taken in by one council as inspired
were rejected by another council as uninspired ; and that which
was left out by the former council as apocryphal was taken in
by the latter as canonical. And certain it is that they contra-
dict each other. And how do we know that the council which
first collected and voted on the scriptures — voting some up,
and some down—were able to discern the true from the false? ”
Here the whole thing is set in its proper light by a devout
Quaker preacher. The extract contains a volume of instruc-
tion, and shows the impossibility of our determining the “all
scripture given by inspiration of God.”

Additions, Alterations, and Interpolations.

We have a vast amount of testimony to prove that councils,
 362

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

churches, and clerg3unen arrogated to themselves a lawless
license to change, insert, and leave out various texts, chapters,
and even whole books, from “ God’s unchangeable word,” till
it may now be assumed to be thoroughly changed. From a
large volume of testimonies we will cite a few: The version of
the Old Testament made under Ptolemy Philadelphus, 287
B.C., — the most reliable version extant,—Bishop Usher pro-
nounces a spurious cop3T, full of interpolations, additions, and
alterations. He says, u The translators of the Septuagint
added to, and took from, and changed at pleasure;” and St.
Jerome says that Origen did the same thing with the New
Testament. Bishop Marsh testifies, in like manner, that Ori-
gen, who first collected the Bible books together, confessed that
he made many alterations in them before they fell into the
hands of the Council of Nice. Dr. Bentle}7 admits that the
best copy of the New Testament contains hundreds of irrepar-
able omissions, errors, and mistakes. The Bev. Dr. Whitby
saj^s, “ Many corruptions and interpolations were made almost
in the apostolic age.” Dupin says, “ Several authors took the
libert}' to add, retrench, correct divers things.” Some of the
clergy and churches rejected books which did not suit them,
while others altered them to suit their fancy. We are told that
Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, made countless numbers
of alterations in the Bible in the sixth century for the purpose
of making them suit his Church. Eusebius says he found so
much proof that the Gospel of Matthew had been altered and
corrupted, that he rejected it as being unworthy of confidence.
Victor Wilson informs us that a general alteration of the Gos-
pels took place at Constantinople in the 3’ear 50G by order of
the Emperor Anastasias. St. Jerome complains that in his
time many alterations had been made in the Bible, and that its
different translations were so essential^ changed that 44 no one
copy or translation resembled another.” Scaliger testifies that
the clergy and the churches put into their scriptures what-
ever they thought would serve their purpose. Michaclis says,
“ Tiny thrust in and thrust out as best suits fancy.” In the
name of God, we would ask how any person in his sober reason
can think of finding “all scripture given by inspiration of
 ALL SCRIPTURE GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD. 363

God ” in the midst of such a general wreck, ruin, and demoli-
tion of the original scriptures. It is as impossible as to raise
the dead or to find Charlie Ross. The Rev. Dr. Gregory says
that no profane author has suffered like the Bible by profane
hands. Where, then, can we find “ all scripture given by inspi-
ration of God ” ?

Forged Gospels and Epistles.

The Unitarian Bible says, in its preface, u It is notorious that
forged writings, under the name of the apostles, were in circula-
tion almost from the apostolic age.” Mosheim testifies that
“ several histories of Christ’s life and doctrines, full of pious
frauds and fabulous wonders, were put in circulation before the
meeting of the Council of Nice ; ” and he states, like William
Penn, that he had no confidence in their ability to distinguish
the truer from the false. We will here quote another statement
of William Penn : “ There are many errors in the Bible. The
learned know it: the unlearned had better not know it.” Here
is another sad proof of the blinding effect of reading and believ-
ing a book which abounds in errors. He would have the un-
learned and honest reader swallow all the errors of the Bible,
and be thereby morally poisoned by them, rather than have the
book brought into discredit by having its errors exposed. This
circumstance of itself is sufficient to seal its condemnation.
Belsham says, “ The genuine books of the Bible were but few
compared with the spurious ones.” This would be inferred
from the circumstance of only four Gospels being adopted out
of fifty, and only seventeen Epistles out of more than one
hundred. Daille says, “The Christian fathers forged whole
books ;9 9 but neither he nor anybody else can furnish any rule
for determining which they are.

Lost Books Found or Re-written.

Dupin says a portion of the books of the Old Testament
were burned in wars, and others lost by the Jews themselves;
and in the Second Book of Chronicles (xxxiv. 14) we are told
that Hilkiah found the Book of the Law after it had been lost
eight hundred years. This law appears to have constituted the
 364

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

most important portion of the Jewish sacred writings. The
circumstance gives rise to some very strange reflections and
conclusions. It appears from this circumstance that the Lord’s
holy people had been without any law to guide or govern them
for eight long centuries. Now, can we suppose for a moment
that their God, Jehovah, was a being of infinite wisdom to
write or dictate a law, and base the happiness and welfare of his
people if not the world on that law, and then, through care-
lessness or otherwise, suffer it to get lost, and remain unfound
for eight hundred years, so that nobody could have the benefit
of it during that long period ? The very thought is a trespass
upon our good sense, and does violence to our reason. And
where was the law during all that time ? and how wras it pre-
served for so long a period of time ? If written on papyrus or
parchment, it would have perished in less than a century from
being exposed to the weather : for we can’t assume it was pre-
served in a drawer or box, as, in that case, it would not have
been lost; and, if engraven on stone, the weight would have been
fifty times as much as Hilkiah could carry. We are told that
when Josiah the king heard the law read, he rent his clothes
(2 Chron; xxxiv. 19).

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Well, that is strange indeed. It must have been a very
curious law, or he must have been a very curious man. Why
the reading of a few plain moral precepts should drive a man
to insanity, and cause him to tear his clothes, is something hard
to understand. And it is evidence that the whole Jewish tribe
had never known or read much about the law: otherwise a
knowledge of it would have been preserved by tradition, and
the king would not have been so profoundly ignorant of it. If
the law was the Pentateuch, as some writers assume, the king
would have had to stand a week to hear it all read; and it
seems strange that “ Shaphan the scribe ” could pick up a doc-
ument covered with the mold, rust, and dust of eight centuries,
and read it off with sufficient expertness for the king to listen
to with patience. Put the wonder and difficulty don’t stop
here. It was only about a quarter of a century until this great
‘•holy and divine law ” was lost again ; which left “ the Lord’s
holy people ” again without any moral code to guide them, or
 ALL SCBIPTURE GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD. 365

a governing law, for six centuries longer. No wonder they
preferred worshiping a calf (see Exod. xxxii.) to paying hom-
age to a God so reckless of their welfare and happiness. On
this occasion it became so thoroughly lost, that it never “ turned
up ” again ; and there seemed to be no way to remedy the de-
plorable loss but to have it written over again. At least that
appears to have been the impression of Ezra the priest, who
set himself to the onerous task of reproducing the long-lost
document from memory or from a second installment of divine
inspiration. (See Esdras.) Such a meinor}’ does not often fall ^
to the lot of mortals to possess, — a memory that could enable
a man to reproduce a document which neither he nor any other
person had read for six hundred years. If the world could be
furnished with such a mental prodigy at the present day, we
might again have the benefit of the numerous books and libra-
ries which have been destroyed by fire in modern times. It
would require no previous knowledge of any of those works to
achieve the task of reproducing them. Perhaps we may be told
that we are becoming “wise above what is written.” It would
require no mental effort to attain to this eminence, and become
obnoxious to such a charge. In this case, a few brief sen-
tences, and the whole thing is dismissed: no details are given.
The story of Hilkiah finding the Book of the Law sounds very
much like Joe Smith finding the Mormon Bible ; and the case
of Ezra’s re-writing it is matched by the story of “ Vyass the
Holy ’ ’ finding the divine law of the Brahmins some three thou-
sand years before Hilkiah was born. Mr. Higgins says that
nearfy all ancient religious nations had the tradition of losing
and finding their holy books, holy laws, and holy languages.
The quer}" is here suggested, that if such an important docu-
ment could be restored to the people in the manner adopted by
Ezra, why was not this expedient resorted to a thousand years
sooner, and thus save the demoralization of the Jews? The
policy adopted is too much like “locking the stall after the
horse is stolen.”

Impossibility of possessing a Reliable Translation.

It is quite evident, from the facts presented and from others
 366

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

which will hereafter be presented, that, if God ever gave forth
a revelation of his will to the founders of the Jewish and Chris-
tian religions, the world is not in possession of it now, and
can not find it in a book as old as the Christian Bible, and
written by simply stringing consonants together in a line without
any vowels, and without any distinction of words, and which
must necessarily be an enigma that would puzzle any scholar
to decipher. Hence the learned Le Clere says, “Even the
learned guess at the sense in an infinity of places, which has
• produced a prodigious number of discordant interpretations.”
And Simonton, in his “ Critical History,” says, “ It is unques-
tionable that the greater part of the Hebrew words of the Old
Testament are equivocal in their signification, and utterly uncer-
tain ; and that even the most learned Jews doubt almost every
thing in regard to their proper meaning.” To talk of finding
“ all scripture given by inspiration of God ” environed with such
difficulties, is to talk nonsense. We will illustrate the nature of
these difficulties by citing a case. We will look at the random
guessing at the meaning of a single word of a single text by the
most learned students and scholars in biblical literature. The
word indicating the material of which Noah’s ark was com-
posed, our translation says, was gophir-wood: but the Arabic
translation says it was box-wood; the Persian translation says
it was pine-wood ; another translation makes it red ebony ; and
still another declares it was wicker-work; Davidson, assuming
to be “ wise above what is written” in the case, says it was
bulrushes cemented with pitch; another writer translates it
cedar-wood, &c. And thus God’s Iloly Book, designed for the
guidance of man, has been the sport and the bauble of learned
guessers in all ages of Christendom, who evidently know as
much about it, in many cases, as a goose does about Greek.

Many Different Christian Bibles.

Owing to the multiplied}’ of Bible translations, which differ
widely in their doctrines, precepts, and the relation of general
events, making a different collection of books to constitute
“the word of God,” various churches, and even individual
professors, have assumed the liberty to compile and make a
 ALL SCBIPTUBE GIVEN BY INSPIBATION OF GOB, 367

Bible for themselves. The Roman-Catholic Bible differs essen-
tially from that of the Protestants’, having fourteen more books.
The Bible of the Greek Church differs from both. The Camp-
bellites have a translation of their own. The Samaritan Bible
contains only the Five Books of Moses. The Unitarians, having
found twenty-four thousand errors in the popular translation,
made another translation containing still many thousand errors.
The American Christian Union, having found many thousand
errors in King James’s translation, are now engaged in a new
translation. How many more we are to have, God only knows.
Martin Luther condemned eleven books of the Bible, as we
have already stated, and thus made a Bible for himself. Paul’s
Epistle to the Hebrews he denounced in strong terms. Eu-
sebius, the learned ecclesiastical writer, throws eight Bible-
books overboard, and had a Bible to his own fancy. Dr. Lard-
ner and John Calvin each condemned five or six books, and had
a Bible peculiar to themselves. Grotius places the heel of con-
demnation on several books of the Bible. Bishop Baxter voted
down eight books as uninspired, and unworthy of confidence.
Swedenborg accepted only the Four Gospels and Revelation as
inspired. The German fathers rejected the Gospel of St. Mat-
thew, and I know not how many other books. The Bible of the
learned Christian writer Evanson did not contain either Mat-
thew, Mark, or John. The Unitarian Bible does not contain
Hebrews, James, Jude, or Revelation. The Catholics de-
nounce the Protestant Bible, and the Protestants condemn the
Catholic Bible, as being full of errors. A number of other
churches and learned Christians might be named who had Bibles
of their own selection and construction. And thus every book
in the Bible has passed under the flaming sword of condemna-
tion, and has been voted down by some ecclesiastical body or
learned and devout Christian. Each church has either made
out a Bible for itself, or accepted that which came the nearest
teaching the doctrine of their own peculiar creed. In the
midst of this rejection, expulsion, and expurgation of Bibles
and Bible-books, where can we find “the scripture given by
inspiration of God”? We have it upon the authority of Dr.
Adam Clark, Eusebius, Bishop Marsh, and other writers, that
 368

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

many texts and passages contained in our Bible can not be found
in the earlier editions ; thus showing that many gross interpola-
tions and forgeries have been practiced by the Christian fathers.
Christ’s prayer on the cross, u Father, forgive them,” &c., the
story of the woman taken in adultery, the passage relative to
the three that bare record in heaven, &c., the}^ assure us, can.
not be found in any early translation of the Bible. Where,
then, are “ the scriptures given by inspiration of God ” ? Who
can tell ?

CHAPTER LVI.

INFIDELS UNDER THE ORIENTAL SYSTEMS.

It is an interesting and instructive historical fact, that in all
religious countries, — Christian, heathen, and Mahomedan, — as
the people become educated and enlightened, a portion of them
improve the teachings of their Bible by new interpretations;
while another portion, possessed of still more intelligence,
abandon the book altogether, and become infidels to the pre-
vailing religion of the country. I have spoken of the former
class in another chapter. In this chapter I shall present a
brief history of the latter class, who are known as infidels
under different s}Tstems of religion. We find, by our historical
researches, that in India, Eg}~pt, Persia, Chaldea, China, Mex-
ico, Arabia, &c., a portion of the people outgrow the religion
of the country in which they have been educated. And it is an
important fact, observable in all religious countries, that that
portion of the population who become dissatisfied with the
established religion of the country arc the most intellectual,
the most intelligent, and very generally the most moral also.
We desire the reader to notice this, as it tends to prove that
the cause of infidelity in all countries is intelligence and intel-
lect, and to establish the converse proposition that the mass
of people who adhere so rigidl}' to the religion in which they
were educated are people of limited intellect, large veneration,
and not very progressive by nature, and very generally have
 INFIDELS UNDER THE ORIENTAL SYSTEMS.   369

but little historical or scientific knowledge. They consequently
have not observed the errors and defects of their religion, or its
cramping and stultifying effect upon the mind, or its effect upon
the morals of the country. They prefer having somebody else
to do their thinking for them. This will be fully illustrated by
the brief historical sketch we will now present of the practical
operation of infidelity under several forms of religion.

I. The Religious Skeptics of India.

It is generally assumed by the disciples of the Christian faith
that the people of India are on a low scale of mind and intelli-
gence, and that this accounts for the tardy success of the mis-
sionaries in the work of converting them to the Christian faith,
and the obstacles which lie in their pathway, which makes the
cost of conversion bear an enormous proportion to the few
proselytes won over to the religion of Jesus. This matter is in-
terestingly controverted by the Rev. David O. Allen, who spent
twenty-five years in that country as a missionary. We will
make an extract from his work, u India, Ancient and Modern.’9
Speaking of the obstacles the two hundred missionaries have to
encounter in the work of conversion, he says, “ It is now some
years since a spirit of infidelity and skepticism began to take
strong hold of the educated native minds of India. This spirit
was first manifested in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay; and it
is making rapid progress in all the large cities ” (p. 584). Let
the reader mark the word 44 educated 99 in this extract. Most
cogently does it sustain the assumption we have several times
made in this work, that it is intellect and intelligence that
cause infidelity under every form and system of religion. It
denotes an upward tendency from the brute creation, which is
devoid of intellectual brain. Mr. Allen says, “ This class of
persons [the infidels] have associations and societies for de-
bates, discussions, and lectures ; and, among the subjects which
engage their attention at such times, religion, in some of its
forms and claims, has a prominent place. Their libraries are
well furnished with infidel and deistical works, which have been
provided from Europe and America. The historical facts and
doctrines of the Bible, the ordinances of the gospel, and certain
 370

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

facts and periods of the history of Christianity are made the
subjects of inquiry, discussion, and lectures. At such times
Christianity and all connected with it — the scriptures, doc-
trines, and characters, as well as parts of its history — are
often treated with levity, scurrility, and blasphemy.” Let the
reader bear in mind that it is a Christian missionary that is
speaking, who is in the habit of styling every thing “ blas-
phemy” in the shape of argument against his idolized and
superstitious religion. We are assured from other sources that
their language, although freighted with argument and wit, is
always respectable. u On such occasions,” continues Mr.
Allen, u they make a free use of the works of infidel writings,
and the sneers and cavils and arguments of deists in Europe
and America. . . . This same class has also, to a great extent,
the management and control of the national press of India.
[This statement suggests that infidelity in India is becoming
deep, wide-spread, and popular.] In their journals much ap-
pears of an infidel anc] scurrilous nature against Christianity in
perverted and distorted statements of its doctrines and duties,
of its principles and its precepts, of the conduct and char-
acter of its professors, and of the ways and means used for
propagating it. . . . The following facts show the state of the
native mind in India: The proprietor and editor of one of the
oldest and best-supported newspapers in Bombay some time ago
expressed his views of the state of religion among all classes,
and suggested what course should be pursued. After inserting
two or three articles in his paper, to prepare the minds of his
readers, he said it was obvious to all that the state of religion
was very sad, and becoming more so, and that all classes of
people appeared to have lost all confidence in their sacred
books; that Christians do not believe in their Bible, or they
would practice its precepts; that the Jews, Mahomedans,
Hindoos, and the Zoroastrians do not believe in their sacred
books, because, if they did, they would not do so many things
which their Bibles forbid, and neglect so man}* things which
they command, lie then proceeds to say that the sacred books
of all these different classes may have been of divine origin,
and when first given they may have been adapted to the then
 INFIDELS UNDER THE ORIENTAL SYSTEMS.   371

state and circumstances of the people, and may have been very
useful, but that they had become unsuitable to the present ad-
vanced state of knowledge and improved state of society; and
that none of these sacred books could ever again have the confi-
dence of the people, and become the rule of their faith and prac-
tice. ... He then suggested that a religious convention be
called in Bomba}", and that each class of people send a delega-
tion of their learned and devout men wdth copies of their sacred
books, and that the men of this convention should prepare from
all these sacred books a Shastra suited to the present state of
the world, and adapted to all classes of people. And he ex-
pressed his belief that a Shastra thus prepared and recom-
mended would soon be generally adopted. In his next paper
he proceeded to mention some of the doctrines which such a
Shastra should contain; and among them he said it should
inculcate the existence of only one God, and the worship of him
without any kind of idol or material symbol. And then he
would have no distinction of caste, which he thought was one
of the greatest evils and absurd things in the Hindoo religion.
Now, these opinions and suggestions are chiefly remarkable as
exhibiting the state of the native mind. [Do you mean to say,
Mr. Allen, that the hundred and fifty millions of the native
minds in India are all tinctured with these doctrines ? If so, it
is glorious news indeed.] It is unnecessary to say that these
views are entirely subversive of Hindooism, involving the rejec-
tion of its sacred books as well as its preceptive rites and most
cherished practices. The writer of these articles for the public
was a respectable and well-educated Hindoo. . . . He was pro-
prietor as well as editor of his paper; so he had much interest
in sustaining its popularity and increasing its circulation. In-
deed, I was told he had but little property besides his paper,
and that he relied chiefly upon it for his support. He knew the
state of religious opinions among the Hindoos ; and he was w-ell
assured that such opinions and suggestions would not be to the
prejudice of his character, nor to the injury of his paper. [Glad
to hear this, Mr. Alien, on his aecount, and as showing that a
remarkable amount of good sense, intelligence, and infidelity
predominate over the Christian religion in India.] Now, this
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

man, the readers of his paper, and the circle of his acquaintance,
shoiv the state of hundreds of thousands in India, who are dis-
satisfied with the Hindoo religion, and, having no confidence in
it, would gladly embrace something better, more reasonable,
and calculated to exert a better influence upon society and the
character of their nation.” All hail to such intelligence as
this! It shows that the heathen of India have more reason,
sense, and intelligence than many professors of Christianity.

Now, mark the cause which Mr. Allen assigns for this intel-
lectual skepticism of India. He says, “It is in part the effect
of the knowledge they acquire which removes their stupidity
and ignorance, and imparts power to think, compare, reason, and
judge on religious subjects; and in part from the principles
and facts of modern astronomy, history, geography, &c., being
utterly" at variance with the declarations and doctrines of the
Hindoo Shastras : so that no person who believes in the former
can retain any confidence in the latter. [And, if he had in-
cluded the Christian Bible with the Shastras, the statement would
have been almost equally true.] The natural consequence
of this course of education is to produce a spirit of skepticism
in respect to cdl religions. [Another wonderful admission, and
more proof that infidelity', brains, and intelligence are correlative
terms.] The effect is now seen in the religious, or rather the irre-
ligious, views of a proportion of the young men who have been
educated in European science and literature in the institutions
established by the government of India. The}' are strongly op-
posed to Christianity", and often ridicule its most sacred and
solemn truths [errors more probably]. The}' openly avow their
skepticism and deistical sentiments ; but they have hitherto gen-
erally conformed to the popular superstitions so far as to avoid
persecution, and retain their sacred positions, and to secure and
enjoy their property rights. . . . Motives of worldly policy may
lead most of the present generation of educated young men
through life to show some respect to notions, rites, and ceremonies
which they regard as false, unmeaning, and superstitious; but,
should these views pervade the masses of the native population
(which they are now doing rapidly), they may be expected to
develop their genuine spirit in very painful consequence, . . .
 INFIDELS UNDER THE ORIENTAL SYSTEMS.   373

unless Christianity acquires sufficient power to restrain them ”
(pp. 574 and 321). The painful consequence here appre-
hended is simply the triumph of religious skepticism based on,
and growing out of, a broad and thorough literary and scientific
education oyer the senseless dogmas and superstitions of Chris-
tianity. Such “painful consequences ” will alwa}^s follow in
any country the enlightenment and expansion of the minds
of the people by a thorough acquaintance with the principles
of science and literature. It is just as natural as that light
should dispel darkness ; and that is exactly what is realized in
such cases. Mr. Allen’s statement that motives of worldly
policy* restrains many of the educated y*oung men of India from
avowing their real convictions on the subject of religion shows
that the same spirit of mental surveillance and priestly despotism
prevails in India that prevails in all Christian countries, and pre-
vents thousands from letting their real sentiments be known.
And this mental slavery has filled the world with hypocrites;
but it will soon burst its bonds in India, or would, if the two
hundred Christian missionaries could be called home. And then
I would suggest that the tide of missionary emigration be re-
versed, and that some of those highty enlightened, educated men
of India be sent to throw some light upon this country. Mr.
Allen, in the continuation of his subject, states that th.3
government councils of education in India are publishing vari-
ous works on science and literature, — the production of the
minds of its own citizens, — and that they* have published a large
number of works of this character within a few years past. And
he states that, “ if this course is continued, India will soon have
a valuable indigenous literature” (p. 321). This statement
tends to enlighten us still further as to the cause of the recent
rapid spread of infidelity in that country ; for science and litera-
ture are certain to precede infidelity. But he complains that the
government system of education, which simply teaches science
without superstition, while “it is destroying the confidence of
the people in their own system of religion, is also introducing
speculation, skepticism, and deism” (p. 321). If he were an
enlightened philosopher, he would understand that this is the
legitimate operation of cause and effect. Mr. Allen, in con-
 374

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

eluding this sketch of the rapid progress of skepticism in India,
says there are man}' thousands in India who have passed from
conviction of the falsehood of the Hindoo religion into a state
of skepticism and indifference to all religion, unless when the
progress of Christianity now and then rouses them to oppose it.
This must be cheering news to every enlightened philanthropist.
This whole sketch of Mr. Allen’s is very interesting, as it dis-
closes the real causes of infidelity or skepticism in all religious
countries, and shows that every form of superstition is giving
way and sinking before the march of science, literature, and
education in the most populous nation on the globe. It is
indeed a soul-cheering thought. And where is there a Chris-
tian professor who is so bigoted as not to derive the hint from
these historical facts that he can find the cause of his rigid ad-
herence to his own religion, with all its errors, by simpl}' placing
his hands on his head? It is true. There are, however, many
persons who still believe in an erroneous system of religion,
simply because they have had no opportunity of obtaining light
on the subject.

II. Sects and Infidels in Greece and Home.

When we arrive at Greece we find a nation possessing a men-
tal caliber seldom equaled, and furnishing many philosophers
with brains sufficient to enable them to see through the errors
and the absurdities of any system of religion. Hence infidels
were more numerous than sectarians ; and those infidels (better
known as philosophers) nearly succeeded, by the force of supe-
rior logic and wisdom, in banishing all s}'stems of religious
superstition from the nation. But questions of controversy
were more on philosophical subjects than on religious themes;
because the dogmas of the popular religion of Greece, like that
of all other countries, were so absurd that the Grecian philoso-
phers could dispose of them without much mental effort. As a
proof and illustration of this statement, we will cite the case
of Stilpo, who, on being asked by Crates (B.C. 331) whether
he believed that God took any pleasure in being worshiped
by mortals, replied, “Thou fool, don’t question me upon such
absurdities in the public streets, but wait till we arc alone.”
 INFIDELS UNDER THE ORIENTAL SYSTEMS.   375

Greece, and also Rome, furnished intellectual minds of a high
order; and all their numerous philosophers were skeptical on
the prevailing forms of religion in those and other nations. It
will be observed, then, that nearly all the religious orders of
antiquit}’ gave rise to numerous sects, and also numerous infidels
and skeptics, alias philosophers.

III. Sects and Skeptics in Egypt.

Ancient Egypt was characterized by a considerable amount
of intellectual mind, and no inconsiderable proficiency in the
arts and sciences. And hence, as would naturally be expected,
a considerable portion of her people, in the course of time, broke
from the trammels of the popular religious faith, and became
infidel to all the systems and sects in the nation; while those
of a secondary order of intellect abandoned some dogmas, modi-
fied others, and started new sects. This gave offense to the
parental religious order, which resulted in one or two cases
in a serious quarrel, though not with the bloody and deadly
results which have marked the religious quarrels among the sects
and followers of “ the Prince of peace,” which have been so
sanguine, cruel, and bloody, as to leave eighteen million human
beings on the battle-field, or consumed by fire, or consigned
to a watery grave. Religious wars among the heathen have
not been half so fiendish or fatal as those waged by the disci-
ples of the cross. The number of sects in Egypt is not known,
but they were numerous.

IY. Sects and Skeptics in China.

China, though characterized by less mental activity than most
other religious nations, has had her sects and her skeptics, and
not a very small number of the former, though less in propor-
tion to her religious population than either Egypt, India, Persia,
Chaldea, or Arabia. Some of her sects manifested a disposition
to borrow dogmas from other religions ; while others attempted
an improvement on the ancient faith established by Confucius,
although in its moral aspects it was the best system of religion
extant. The oldest sect known was founded by Laotse, and
was known as Taotse. His religion differed more from that of
 376

TEE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

Confucius with respect to its ceremonies than its doctrines.
On the whole, there has not been sufficient intellectual growth
in China to produce any very marked changes in the long-estab-
lished religion of the country. Innovation and religious im-
provement in China are checked and almost prevented by a sort
of ecclesiastical tribunal, which has existed from time imme-
morial, known as “ the Court of Rites,” which is invested
with authority to suppress religious innovation, and thus put
an extinguisher on infidelity.

V. Persian Sects and Skeptics.

Persia has possessed sufficient intellectual mind to make very
considerable changes in her religion. According to tradition, she
was once overrun with idolatry. But now, and for at least three
or four thousand years (and before the time of Moses), that
nation has manifested the greatest abhorrence to images, excel-
ling in this respect even Moses, who probably borrowed his
antipathy to idolatry from that country. Sects have arisen
which have condemned not only the doctrines of the primary
system, but its mode of worship. There has been considerable
controversy among the sects in Persia upon the question whether
God should be worshiped in temples made with hands, or in the
open air; also with respect to the origin of evil, and whether
the Devil (Ahrimanes) was eternal, or co-eternal with God
(Ormuzd). These questions of dispute, and various others,
have given rise to more than seventy different sects ; while the
most intellectual and best improved minds have outgrown and
renounced them all, and assumed the character of infidels.

VI. Maiiomedan Skeptics and Sects.

Mahomedans have paid very particular attention to educa-
tion, and the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and have pro-
duced and published a number of literary works. A num-
ber of scientific men have arisen among them from time to
time ; and schools and colleges have been established, in which
many have obtained a literary and scientific education. Hence
there will be no difficulty in understanding why thousands
of infidels or skeptics have arisen amongst them, and avowed
 INFIDELS UNDER THE ORIENTAL SYSTEMS.   377

their disbelief in the religion of the Koran. Some of them
have spent much time in writing and speaking in their attempts
to expose its errors and absurdities ; and a large number of
sects have sprung up amongst them from time to time, number-
ing, on the whole, not less than fifty. All these sects mark the
progress of religious thought; and each sect made some im-
provement in the prevailing creeds and dogmas, or some of the
religious customs and ceremonials. One of the oldest and
principal sects was the Sabeans, who claim to be the original
founders of the Mahomedan religion. They are very devout,
pray three times a da}", — morning, noon, and evening. They
also observe three annual fasts, offer animal sacrifices, and
practice circumcision, and cherish other foolish customs, and
preach other superstitious doctrines, which the cultivation of
the sciences has had the effect to open the eyes of some of its
devotees to see the absurdity of. Hence they have left, and
founded new sects with new and improved creeds. In this
way a great many new sects have sprung up from time to time,
as in Christian countries, which marks the progress of religious
improvement. A great amount of religious controversy has
been carried on between these belligerent sects, which has had
the effect, to some extent, to liberalize all. One of the largest
and most important of these sects has arisen in modern times, —
46 the anti-Ramazan ” sect, —which now numbers not less than
forty thousand adherents. They discard the feast of Ramazan,
condemn polygam}", and contend that no man ought to be
persecuted for his religious opinions or his infidelity. It will
be perceived they are somewhat radical; and this is easily ac-
counted for. Their origin dates since the dawn of literature in
that country; and they number in their ranks the best educated,
most enlightened and intelligent professors of the Mahomedan
faith. Here is suggested again the cause of infidelity, or the
act of outgrowing the popular faith, which has characterized a
portion of the disciples of nearly every form of religion known
to history. Some of the Mahomedan sects rose up against one
form of popular superstition, and some another. One sect
opposed the prevailing belief in a physical resurrection, and
argued that the soul rises only as a spiritual entity. Another
 378

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

sect opposed and exposed the absurdity and obscenity of the
rite of circumcision. Another argued that punishment after
death would be blit for a limited period. Another sect opposed
the savage superstition of animal sacrifice, &c. While the
mother institution, which worshiped in the ancient, moss-covered
mosque, condemned them all as infidels ; but none of them seem
to have possessed the amount of intellectual acumen or scien-
tific intelligence to enable them to perceive that the whole sys-
tem was defective. Hence they labored to improve it, instead
of laboring to destroy it, and supply the place with something
better ; though hundreds and thousands of the educated classes
had their mental vision sufficiently enlightened and expanded
to enable them to see truth beyond the narrow confines of
creeds and dogmas. Hence they abandoned their long-cher-
ished religious errors, and have since lent their influence to
expose them, and put them down.

“ Thus round and round we run;

And ever the truth comes uppermost,

And ever is justice done.”

CHAPTER LYII.

SECTS, SCHISMS, AND SKEPTICS IN CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES.

The practical history of Christianity, ever since the dawn
of civilization, has been that of schisms, sects, and divisions, all
indicating the natural growth of the human mind, and its thirst
for knowledge, its struggles for freedom, and its unalterable
determination to be as free as the eagle that soars above the
clouds. The number of church sects is estimated to be more
than five hundred, and the number is still increasing. And the
multiplication of infidels lias kept pace with the increase of the
churches ; and skeptics are now increasing much more rapidly
than converts to the elm relies. This fact accounts for the lam-
entations with which church organs and religious magazines are
now filled with respect to the rapid falling off of church mem-
 SECTS, SCHISMS, AND SKEPTICS.

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bership, and the decline of church attendance. The people are
rapidty outgrowing their creeds and dogmas. This causes the
decline of the churches. We will cite a few facts by way of
illustration: A recent number of “ The Christian Era” states
that there has been twenty-two thousand more deserters from
the Baptist Church than conversions to it within the brief period
of five 3’ears. This does not look like converting the world, as
they have avowed their determination to do. And the Meth-
odist Church, according to “The Watchman and Reflector,”
is losing its members still faster: several thousand have left
within the past year. “ Zion’s Watchman ” presents us with a
still sadder picture of the evangelical churches in general. It
states that religion is on the decline in all those churches, and
that in some of them it is rapidly dying out. It states, that,
where one new church is erected, two are shut up; and con-
cludes b}T saying, “ Zion indeed languisheth, and religion is at
a low ebb.” It means churchianity religion ; u for pure religion
and undefiled,” the outgrowth of modern intelligence, is on
the increase, and increases in the ratio of the decline of the
churches. The cause of Zion in old England appears to be in
as lamentable a condition as in this country. A recent number
of “ The English Recorder ” makes the solemn declaration that
there are five millions of people living without the means of
grace in that one province, and that, if arranged in a continuous
line in single file, they would reach the distance of fourteen
miles. This is rather a large number of immortal souls to be
traveling the broad road in one nation. And we are informed
that in Canada a large number of the people have no religion,
and are on the road to infidelity. To return to this country:
A colporteur of the American Bible Society informs us that
three-fourths of the citizens of Philadelphia, and four-fifths
of those of New York and vieinity, have no religion, and no
faith in the religion of the Bible. They must therefore be set
down as infidels. And the American Christian Commission,
which assembled not long since in New York, has made some
startling developments with respect to the decline of church
attendance throughout the country. This body, I believe,
represents nearly all the evangelical churches, and is com-
 380

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

posed principally of clergymen. They have had census com-
mittees traveling the whole country over to ascertain the pro-
portionate number of church-members and church-goers in ever}"
city", town, and village in the countiy. Their report is'really
astonishing; and, as figures will not lie, these reports prove
that the orthodox churches are rapidly declining. As indicative
of the state of the whole countiy, look at the condition of some
of our large cities. This vigilance committee tells us that
three-fourths of the citizens of St. Louis never attend church,
making about two hundred thousand out of the whole popula-
tion. And in Boston, according to their figures, the proportion
of church-members and church-goers is still smaller, being only
about one-fifth, which leaves two hundred thousand persons
u out in the cold ; ” but it is a kind of cold that is very com-
fortable compared with the cold, chilling dogmas of orthodoxy.
Statistics similar to the above are furnished for many of the
cities, towns, and villages throughout the country, by which it
appears that many people are forsaking these old, obsolete insti-
tutions, and that the credal churches are really in a dying con-
dition. The State of Vermont, taking it at large, furnishes a
moral lesson worthy of imitation. It is one of the best edu-
cated, moral, enlightened, and intelligent States in the Union.
Crime is but little known compared with the world at large;
and yet only about one in twenty of her citizens is a sound
church-member. Thus we see that Vermont is about the best
educated and most moral State in the Union, and, at the same
time, the most infidel State. Put this and that together. It
will be seen at once that education, intelligence, morality, and
infidelity go hand in hand; and that morality grows out of
infidelity, instead of Christianity; and that science and infi-
clelity, and not the Bible or Christianity, are to be the great
levers and instrumentalities for reforming the world. Where,
then, is the moral force of Christianity, so much talked of by
the clergy? And wc have it, upon the authority of this national
body of clergymen, that there are not a sufficient number
of church edifices in the country to hold one-half of the people
if the}’ wished to attend “ divine service;” and that, on an
an average, the churches are not half filled on the sabbath.
 SECTS, SCHISMS, AND SKEPTICS.

381

From this statement it is evident that only about one-fifth are
church-goers ; and a large number of these are not church-mem-
bers, but attend, as the committees state, for mere pastime.
This state of things forms a striking contrast with the con-
dition of things only eighty or a hundred years ago, when
nearly everybody attended church. To sum up the thing in
a few words, the case stands about thus: A hundred years
ago from three-fourths to nine-tenths of the people were church-
attendants, and the most of them church-members; but now
not more than one in eight or ten is a church-adherent, and
not the half of these are sound or full believers. A gentleman,
who has recently traveled in every State in the Union for the
purpose of critically investigating the matter, concludes, as
the result of his inquiries, that not one in fifteen of the entire
population of the United States is a sound orthodox believer.
This, contrasted with the state of the country and churches a
hundred years ago, shows the difference is great, and that the
decline of the orthodox faith is rapid, and their approach to
their final destiny swift and sure. Calculating from the present
rates of decrease in church interest and belief in church
creeds, there will not be an orthodox church in existence sixty
years from this time. Truly does the committee making this
report say, u The state of the churches is alarmingbut it
is only alarming to the unprogressive adherents to old, must}7,
mind-crushing creeds and dogmas. To us it is not alarming,
but cause of rejoicing, in view of the fact that the disappear-
ance of these old soul-crushing institutions will give place to
the glorious and grand truths of the Harmonial philosophy, —
a religion adapted to the true wants of the soul, and calculated
to save both soul and body from every thing which now mars
their health, beauty, and happiness. Then every one can u sit
under his own vine and fig-tree, where none can make him
afraid” of orthodox devils or an angry God. We bring these
things to notice for the purpose of showing that a religious body
which persists in preaching, from year to year and from age to
age, the same creed, dogmas, and catechisms, without any
improvement, or even conceding the possibility that they can be
improved, will fall behind the times, and finally be abandoned
 382

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

by all growing and intelligent minds. They cease to answer
the moral and spiritual wants of the people, and become as
cramping to their souls as the Chinese wooden shoes would be
to their feet. “ Excelsior, onward and upward,” is the motto
for this age. And that institution, whether moral, religious, or
political, which obstinately refuses to live out this motto, will
die as certainty as that the stopping the circulation of the blood
will produce death.

Having spoken of the decadence of the churches, we will now
look at the counter-picture, — the progress of infidelity. And
here we observe that leading church-members not only confess
to the decline of the churches, but concede, on the other hand,
that what they are pleased to stigmatize as infidelity is rapidly
increasing. We will refer to some of their alarming reports.
A recent number of u Scribner’s Monthly ” says, that at this
veiy moment a black cloud of skepticism covers the whole
moral horizon ; ” and the Eight Reverend Bishop of Winches-
ter corroborates the statement by exclaiming, “ Infidelity is
everj'where : it colors all our philosophy and our commonplace
religion.” Professor Fisher, in a warning note to Christian pro-
fessors, says but few religious teachers are aware of the strength
of the infidel party, and the alarming prevalence of infidelity
throughout the country, —that “ it pervades all classes of soci-
ety, and is in the very atmosphere we breathe.” If this be true,
that infidelity pervades the atmosphere, then all must inhale it,
and become contaminated by it, and thus become infidels natu-
rally, and in spite of an}r godly resistance. Hence they should
not be blamed for what the}' can not help. The Rev. David
K. Nelson, author of “ The Cause and Cure of Infidelity,” makes
some wonderful concessions in regard to the alarming preva-
lence of infidelity among the higher classes. He tells us that
three-fourths of the editors of our popular newspapers are infi-
dels, that nearly all our law-makers are infidels, and that even
the Church itself is full of infidels.” If these statements
are to be credited, the reverend gentleman ma}r as well aban-
don all efiorts to arrest it; for it evidentty has the reins of
government, and can’t be stopped, and will ultimately rule
the nation, and finally the world. Then will we have a ra-
 SECTS, SCniSMS, AND SKEPTICS.

383

tional religion; then will the millennium, so long predicted
by seers and sung of by poets, be ushered in as an earthly par-
adise. This statement of Mr. Nelson’s is corroborated by the
religious magazines of the da}".   4 4 The American Quarterly

Review” asserts that seventeen-twentieths of the people are
tinctured with infidelity. This leaves but a small handful of
the faithful and zealous defenders of the 44 faith once deliv-
ered to the saints.” The editor of 44 The Baptist Examiner ”
says that a member of the United-States Senate remarked to
him, 44 There are, I assure you, but very few members of this
bod}" who believe in your evangelical religion.” This is con-
firmatory of the statement frequently made in this work, that
our current religion is not adapted to the times ; that it is prac-
tically outgrown by the better informed classes of society.
Mr. Beecher says, 44 Four-fifths of the educated young men
of the age are infidels.” Take notice, 44 the educated.” Here
is further evidence that infidelity and intelligence are almost
synonymous terms, — further proof that education and intelli-
gence alone are needed to banish Christian superstition from
the world.

Let it be borne in mind that infidelity, in its true sense,
simply means want of faith in the worn-out creeds and dogmas
of past ages, but no lack of faith in any thing good and true.
If we were to accept the orthodox definition of infidelity,—
44 Want of faith in the precepts and practice of Christ,” —then
it would apply to every Christian professor on earth. There is
not one of them that is not tinctured more or less with this kind
of infidelity. There is not a Christian professor who believes
as Jesus Christ did, or who practices the life he did. For
example : no civilized Christian in this enlightened age believes
with Christ that disease is produced by devils, and that, to
cure the 44 obsessed,” the diabolical intruder must be* cast out
44 of the inner man.” In this and other respects all enlight-
ened Christian professors of the present day differ from the
precepts and examples of Christ; hence, strictly speaking, are not
Christians, but infidels. And we are warranted in saying that
Christ himself, if living in this more enlightened and scientific
age, would reject some of the superstitious notions which he cher-
 384

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES,

ishecl in common with the religious professors of that dark and
illiterate era. He was most devoutly honest, but veiy ignorant
on scientific subjects. Here permit us to note the fact that
a very great change has taken place within half a century in the
practical lives, as well as the religious views, of those wrho still
profess to believe in the Christian faith. The time has been
when nearly all religious professors, including even officers under
the government, kept a diary of their religious experience, about
which they talked whenever they met together; daily engaged in
vocal prayer, and daily read their Bibles and catechisms ; and
the latter many of them committed to memory. But now it is
doubtful whether one-half of even the clergy themselves ever
read it. And as for the Bible, which used to be read every
day by Christian professors, probably not one-half of them ever
see inside of it once in six months, unless it is when they wish
to settle some controverted question in theology. Some modern
works of fiction or of travel have taken the place of u the Holy
Book” on the centre-table, while the newspaper has supplanted
the catechism. These are some of the extraordinary changes
which have recently taken place, and are still rapidly going on,
in the practical lives of Christian professors, which tend to show
that their faith is dail}r growing weaker in the soul-saving effi-
cacy of their religion, or in the belief that it possesses any
intrinsic importance. This rapid decline in practical Chris-
tianit}’ will land nearly all its professors on the shores of infi-
delity in less than half a century.

CHAPTER LVIII.

MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY.

Wiiex Martin Luther left the Roman-Catholic Church, and
adopted the motto, “Liberty to investigate,” he sounded the
death-knell of every orthodox church that should afterwards
spring up outside the jurisdiction of the Pope. Luther was
bigotcdly orthodox, and something of a tyrant: but he had more
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 385

intellectual brain and mind than most men of his time; and
that intellectual ability, though warped by education and en-
chained by bigotry and superstition, struggled for freedom as
minds of that character always do. Luther commenced reason-
ing (most unfortunate for his orthodoxy) ; but he had been
living in the murky atmosphere of superstition all his life, and
preaching a creed that had been stereotyped for a thousand
years : so that his reasoning powers had been much’weakened,
and he had not sufficient intellectual light to see his way out of
the dark prison-house of superstition in which the whole Chris-
tian Church was then enslaved. But he had intellect enough,
when exercised, to convince him there was something wrong
in the popular religion of the times ; and he commenced reason-
ing, though in a very narrow circle. He did not attack ortho-
doxy, but only the tyranny of its misrule and the audacity of
the Pope. It was only a reasoning mind beginning to feel the
impulse of intellectual growth. The method which he adopted
— u liberty to investigate ”—was a dangerous experiment for
orthodox}7, and will yet prove the death-warrant of all Protes-
tant churches. The Pope has adopted the only true policy
for keeping the light of the grand truths of science and infidel-
ity from entering the darkened doors and windows of the
Church, and producing schisms and disputes,—that of binding
the intellect in chains, and laying it at the feet of the Pope.
But Luther, by adopting the motto, “ Liberty to investigate,”
set some orthodox minds to thinking and reasoning ; and a reli-
gious mind that is allowed to think for itself will eventually
think and reason its way out of its soul-enslaving creed, or at
least make some progress in that direction. Hence, ever since
Luther adopted this grand motto, the Christian Church (except
that part kept in fetters by the Pope) has been gradually mov-
ing every hour since Luther entered upon this hazardous experi-
ment of allowing religionists to reason and think for themselves.
Orthodox}’ has been growing weaker. It is becoming gradually
diluted with the grand truths of science, and now entertains
broader and more enlightened views. Thus this bigoted spirit of
orthodoxy is dying by inches. Its days are numbered ; and the
last orthodox Protestant church will die in less than a century.
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

This is no mere visionary dream or random guess-work : it is a
scientific problem, which can be proved and demonstrated by
figures. The progress of the churches in the past, in permitting
the truths of science and the infidelity of the age to displace
its mind-crushing dogmas,'and modify its creeds, furnishes a
certain criterion for calculating their final destiny; and, by
this rule, we are assured its }’ears will be few. Let us look and
see what progress the Protestant churches have already made
towards 41 abandoning the faith once delivered to the saints.”
Some of them are much farther advanced in the line of progress
than others ; and each new church that has sprung up since the
days of Luther dates a new era in the religious progress and
onward march of infidelity; and yet each one professed to be
sound in the faith, and forbid any one to advance beyond its
landmarks. Every one proclaimed, Thus far shalt thou go, and
no farther, in the line of religious progress. We will notice
them in their order. The old Romish Church held all Chris-
tians in its iron grasp for eleven hundred years, and hung its
dark curtains in the moral heavens to exclude the light of
science. Reason was held in chains, and the intellect crushed
beneath the foot of popish infallibility. But, after this night of
intellectual darkness, Luther rebelled, and broke the spell, and
set what little intellect there was left in the Church to thinking.
Its doctrines were heathenish. It taught the infallibility of the
Pope, and the divinity of the Virgin Mary. In this respect they
were more consistent than the Protestant churches; for the
divinity of Christ presupposes the divinity of both his parents,
otherwise he would be half human and half divine. It also
teaches the doctrine of election and reprobation, endless pun-
ishment, and other sil^ superstitions. In this state of mental
darkness Greek literature made an attempt to invade its ranks
and dispel its ignorance with the light of science, but failed,
— not, however, until it had let a few gleams of light into the
intellectual brain of some of the best minds, and set them to
thinking. This caused a few members to reject the infallibility
of the Pope, and a division in the Church was the consequence.
A new Church was instituted, which received the name of “ the
Greek Church. * * Here we find a slight improvement in the
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 387

Christian creed. The Greek Christians rejected the doctrine of
the infallibility of the Pope, but still held to the divinity of the
Virgin Mary, and all the other senseless dogmas of the Church.
But, as it abandoned one of the most popular but unreasonable
doctrines of the Church, it was an important step toward ad-
vancement. They did not, however, look upon it in that light,
but declared it was the true doctrine of the Bible, and here
planted then* stakes, and forbade any further improvement.
After gathering a Church of seventy million souls, another
night of intellectual darkness set in, and continued for four
hundred years ; which brings us down to the fifteenth century,
when Luther rebelled against the Pope, and again broke the
spell of mental lethargy and intellectual darkness, and set what
little intellectual mind there was left in the Church to thinking.
Another slight improvement was made in the Christian creed.
The Lutherans not only rejected the doctrine of the infallibility
of the Pope, but also the divinity of the Virgin Mary, but here
stopped, and planted their stakes, and issued a bull to interdict
further progress; but the ball, once set in motion, can not be
stopped. As well attempt to bind the ocean with a rope of
sand as to attempt to stop the march of thought when one link
is broken which binds it to the Juggernaut of superstition.
This is true, however, of but few minds. But few church-
members possess thought and independence enough to advance
faster than their leaders. Luther did not live long enough to
outgrow all the superstitious dogmas in which he had been edu-
cated ; but he made such rapid progress in infidelity that he
condemned the doctrines of eleven books of the Bible, and
consequently rejected them ; viz., Chronicles, Job, Ecclesiastes,
Proverbs, Esther, Joshua, Jonah, Hebrews, James, Jude, and
Revelation. He was then an infidel with respect to eleven
books of the Bible ; and, had he lived in an age of progress like
the present, he would have become an out-and-out infidel. But
the mass of his followers did not possess minds so susceptible
of intellectual growth: hence they lived and died in faith with
the creeds he made for them. There were, however, a few ex-
ceptions to this rule. In all ages and all religious countries,
and under every form of religion, there have been a few minds
 388

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

gifted with thought and reason beyond that of the multitude.
A few of this class figured under Lutherism, who eventually,
by virtue of their tendency to mental growth, discovered some
defects in his creed and system of faith. Among this number
was Arminius', who rejected the doctrine of total depravity,
original sin, the eucharist, purgatory, &c., and, with this change
of Lutherism, founded what became known as the Arminian
Church: but as no mind and no set of minds in any age have
possessed the mental capacity to discover all error, or to grasp
all truth, so Arminius only outgrew a few of the erroneous
dogmas of the Christian faith, and then stopped, and planted
his stakes, and stereotyped his creed ; and any opinion or doc-
trine that advanced beyond that was infidelity. He did not
live quite long enough to discover the absurdity of the atone-
ment and an endless hell, and hence those doctrines are
found in his creed; but the change he made in the popular
religion furnishes another indubitable proof of the progress of
mind, and the progressive improvement of the religion of Chris-
tianity, and another proof of the steady progress Christianity
has made towards infidelity. So distinct and marked have been
these changes, that the}7 furnish data for calculating proximately
the period when the last dogma shall drop out of the creeds of
the churches, and bring them into conformity to the teachings
of reason and science,—in other words, when Christianity shall
merge into infidelity. And what is meant by infidelity is the
want of faith in the false and morally injurious dogmas of the
superstitious ages.

Another step in the road of religious progress brings us to
the Unitarian Church. Here we find still longer strides in the
direction of the Christian faith towards infidelity. The Uni-
tarians rejected the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ.
And why? Simply because the founders of that church had
expansive intellectual minds that enabled them to perceive the
absurdity and logical impossibility of the truth of the doctrine.
Their enlightened reasoning powers enabled them to discover
these objections to the doctrine: viz. (1) The impossibility of
incorporating an infinite being into a finite body or into the
human body; (2) the absurdity of considering any being on
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 389

earth a God while there was acknowledged to be one in heaven,
making at least two Gods; (3) the difficulty of accepting the
Bible history of Christ as furnishing proof of his divinity, while
it invests him with all the qualities of a human being. These
and numerous other absurdities, which are treated of in “ The
World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” lead them to reject the
doctrine of the divinity of Christ, while most other Protestant
churches consider a belief in the doctrine essential to salvation.
Thus they make a long leap towards infidelity. Having intel-
lectually outgrown the doctrine, they set themselves to work to
get it out of the Bible. This was no difficult task: for as many
texts as may be found in the New Testament in favor of the
doctrine, a much larger number may be cited in opposition to it.

And a similar history may be given of the Universalist
Church. It, too, has run into infidelity. The doctrine of Uni-
versal salvation is a beautiful doctrine : it had its origin in the
noblest and kindest feelings of the human mind. Messrs. Mur-
ra}T and Ballou, founders of the church, were men of broad
philanthropy and human sympathy, and possessed the kindest
feelings. Such men could not brook the idea of endless misery
for a single soul in God’s universe. They were also men of a
liberal endowment of reason and logical perception, and hence
rejected the doctrine from logical considerations also. Being
intellectual and intelligent men, they became cominced that the
doctrine was wrong. They set themselves to work to get it out
of the Bible. Their object in doing this was more to save the
credit of the Bible than to make it an authority to sustain their
own position. The Bible being a many-stringed instrument, on
which you can play any tune, they found about as little diffi-
culty in disproving the doctrine by the Bible as others do in
establishing the doctrine by that authority. It is wonderful
with what ease and facility a dozen conflicting doctrines may
be drawn from the same text. • This is because all human lan-
guage is ambiguous, and that of the Bible pre-eminently so;
and this fact demonstrates the absolute impossibility of settling
any controverted theological question b}" the Bible. Controver-
sialists who should argue a question before a jury on Bible
ground, for a week or a month, should, in most cases, have
 390

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

a verdict given in favor of both parties; for, usually, both
“ beat,” and also get beaten. Universalists, taking advantage
of this ambiguity and uncertainty of Bible language, are now
able to show that the doctrine of endless punishment is not
taught in the Book. The}" succeeded in ruling the doctrine out
of all the punitive terms to be found in “ Hoi}" Writ.” The
word “ devil,” on being traced to its origin, was found to be a
contraction of “do evil.” With this discovery they cast the
“devil” out of their Bible. The word “hell” was found to
be derived from the Saxon word “ hole ; ” and hence, if it can
have any application in the case, must mean “ Symm’s Hole.”
“I-Iell-fire” originally meant a fire kindled in the vicinity of
Jerusalem to consume the offal of the city. And thus, accord-
ing to Universalism, the doctrine of future endless torment is
no longer a Christian doctrine; and, whether their position is
correct or not, it is rather comforting to believe that none of us
are to be eternally roasted in the future life, and that even
Satan himself has been released from the “painful duty” of
ruling that kingdom. The history of both the Unitarian and
Universalist Churches furnishes evidence of the rapid advance-
ment of Christianity toward infidelity ; and also the conclusion
that the natural desires and moral feelings, and also the rea-
soning faculties, have much to do in forming the opinions of
Christian professors as to whether certain doctrines are taught
in the Bible,—whether they are scriptural or antiscriptural.
The wish is often father to the belief. Just let a certain Bible
doctrine become repugnant to the natural feelings of some
pious professor, or at war with his enlightened reason, or in-
stinctively repulsive to his moral sense, and he will find some
way to convince himself that it is not a Bible doctrine. A new
light springing up in the mind has, in many cases, led to new
and improved interpretations of the Bible. It seems strange,
indeed, (hat none of the two hundred millions of Christian pro-
fessors have been able to discover that it is the improvement of
the moral and intellectual faculties that has done so much to
improve the doctrines and general teachings of the Bible in
modern times. The old absurdities and heathenish ideas of
the Bible arc pumped out by the clerical force-pump, and a new
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 391

set of ideas substituted in their place. This keeps it from fall-
ing immeasurably behind the times. It is a work of moral
necessity to keep it from being condemned and set aside, or
trampled under foot. Christian professors can all find abun-
dant scripture to prove any thing they desire to prove ; but let
them change their belief, and adopt the opposite doctrine, and
they can find as much scripture to prove that also. There is
no difficult}" in making out any kind of a creed or code of faith
that may be desired. Hence a man may change his creed or
his conduct as often as he pleases, and still be a Christian, or
at least pass for one.

Who that is not blinded by priestcraft, or a false religious
education, can not see that it was the natural growth of the
moral and intellectual faculties which gave rise to those new
churches to which I have referred, with their new and improved
interpretation of the Bible ? Step by step along the pathway
of human progress, the churches are forced against all resist-
ance to make occasional improvements in their creeds; but so
strong is their resistance to any change, and so determined to
keep their creeds and dogmas unalterably stereotyped, that
their improvements are too slow to suit the most progressive
minds amongst them. Hence they leave the churches to which
they have been tied, and in some cases form new ones, with
new creeds, better adapted to the improved taste and improved
moral code of the times. There is not a Protestant church in
existence that does not furnish incontestable proof that Chris-
tian doctrines are perpetually changing. There is not a Protes-
tant church that is not on the high road to infidelity. They
have all unconsciously broken loose from the old landmarks.
There is not One of them that is not now preaching doctrines
which they would fifty or sixty years ago have denounced as
infidelity. This may be to some a startling statement, but I
will prove it.

I have pointed out numerous changes in doctrines made by
all the modern churches, and their rapid tendency to infidelity.
I will now show that the churches from which they emanated,
on account of their immobility and conservativeness, have also
made radical changes in their creeds, and are moving on in the
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

same direction, being pushed forward by the irresistible tide of
modern innovation and improvement. They have made more or
less change in nearly all the doctrines of their creeds. Then
look at the numerous doctrines once regarded as the very
essence of Christianity, which they have entirety abandoned.
We will enumerate some of them: The doctrine of casting out
devils ; the doctrine of a lake of fire and brimstone ; the doc-
trine of Christ’s descent into hell; the doctrine of purgatory
(these two last-named doctrines, Mr. Sears says, “ were once
the doctrines of the Church universal, which nobody called in
dispute”); the doctrine of election and reprobation, fore-
ordination ; the doctrine of infant damnation; the doctrine of
polygamy, &c. These were all once regarded as prime articles
of the Christian faith ; and most of them were preached b}’ all
the churches: and now they are all abandoned by most of the
churches ; thus showing that they improve their creeds as the}T
advance in light and knowledge. Thus the enlightenment of
their own minds leads them to preach more enlightened doc-
trines, which the}^ erroneously suppose are the teachings of the
Book, when they are realty the product of their own minds.
The Indian, when he halloos to the distant hills and receives
back the echo of his own voice, erroneousty supposes some one
is responding to him. In like manner, Christians, when read-
ing and interpreting their Bible, receive the echo of their own
minds, which they mistake for the response of the Bible writers,
and the true meaning of the text. Each new church, springing
up from time to time, is founded on some new interpretation of
the Bible, and flatters itself, that, for the first time since the
establishment of Christianity, it has found the true key for un-
locking all the mysteries and explaining all the doctrines of the
Bible ; and that all the churches which preceded it were in
the dark, each of which interpreted the same texts differently,
with the same conviction that they had found the true key for
laying open the hidden mysteries of the “ word of God.”
But the probability is, that if the Bible writers could be called
up from their graves, and interrogated about the matter, they
would declare that not one of the churches had guessed at the
real meaning of those texts which they are quarreling about the
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 393

meaning of; that they are all far from the mark ; and that they
have all saddled a meaning on the texts which the writers never
intended, and never thought of, and would make them smile to
hear of,—though, in many eases, they have made decided im-
provements on the original meaning, so as to make them more
acceptable to the enlightened and thinking and intelligent
minds of the age. This saves the Book from being rejected.
Did the clergy preach the same doctrine they did fifty or a hun-
dred years ago, they would find themselves minus a congrega-
tion. It is the improvement they are constantly making in the
Bible that keeps up its reputation, and saves it from the ruinous
criticisms and condemnations of the scientific men of the age.
And yet these changes are wrought unconsciously to the great
mass of Christian professors; and many of them would have
been startled had they been told in early life that the time
would come when they would believe as they do now,—per-
haps horrified at the thought, — and would have denounced it
as the rankest infidelity. The question, then, naturally arises
here, Where is the usoof erecting standards of faith, when you
believe one thing to-day and another to-morrow? You admit
you were mistaken in the belief you entertained a few years
ago ; and in a few years more, if you have a progressive mind,
you will admit that your present position is wrong, and suscep-
tible of improvement. Every Christian professor of much in-
telligence makes some improvement in his creed in the course
of his life. Hence it is impossible for him to know what he
will believe to-morrow, or how much more of an infidel he will
be than he is to-day. One change makes way for another. The
wheels of progress move steadily onward: they never stop, and
never run backward. It is impossible, after you have made
the slightest change and improvement in your religious belief,
which is a step in the direction of infidelity, to know how many
steps you will take in the future. You may resolve and re-
resolve, as most religious professors do, that there shall be no
change fin your present views ; but that will not prevent it. One
change proves not only the possibilhy, but the probability, of
another change. Martin Luther once believed, like Rev. Dr.
Cheever of New York that, u There is not the shadow of a
 394

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

shade of error in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation ;9 9 and
yet he afterwards found eleven books of the Bible so full of
errors, that he decided they were not divinely inspired, and re-
jected them from his creed: and, had he lived fifty years later,
he might have rejected all the other books of the Bible, and be-
come as rank an infidel as Paine and Voltaire. They became
infidel to the whole Bible in the same way he became infidel to
nearly a fourth of it. The mind which loosens itself from the
trammels of its early education, and begins to think for itself,
has launched its bark on the sea of infidelity. One free thought
is one step toward infidelity; that is, a disbelief in the dogmas,
superstitions, and traditions of the dark ages. It is just as
useless and just as foolish for a man to resolve he will never be
an infidel, as to resolve it shall never rain, or that the hair on
his head shall never turn gray; for he has just as much control
over one as the other.

We have shown that the Protestant churches arc sailing out
on the ocean of infidelity, and are making steady progress in
that direction ; and it is only a question of time when they will
be entirety infidel. It is true, that, owing to the conservative
character of the church creeds, and the inveterate hostility the
priests have ever manifested to changing them, upon the as-
sumption that they are too holy and too sacred to be criticised
and too perfect to be improved, the churches have made slow
progress in the way of improving their creeds compared with
what would have been witnessed in this respect under a more
liberal and tolerant spirit. Owing to this impediment the
improvement in Christian doctrine has not kept pace with im-
provements in other things. The progress in the arts, science,
agriculture, political econom}', the mechanic arts, the fine arts,
&c., has far outstripped the improvement of our religious
institutions, and their relinquishment of the errors and super-
stitions of the past, and nothing but the most absolute com-
pulsion by the moral force of the progressive spirit of the ago
has induced the churches to make any improvement -in their
creeds and doctrines. The spirit of improvement is manifested
in eveiy department of business, and in all our numerous institu-
tions but that of our religion* Vixen it comes to that, it is,
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 395

“Hands off! there shall be no changes here.” It must still
continue to wear the same old garments it has worn for nearly
two thousand years, though they have become must}", soiled,
and worn, and directly opposed to the spirit of the age. In
view of this strongly opposing conservative spirit, it is remark-
able that so much improvement has been realized in our na-
tional religion as we now witness. This improvement has been
effected more by the process of changing the meaning of words
and language than that of changing the text by a new trans-
lation, as I have already shown. This surgical operation
has been inflicted upon thousands of texts; and so fre-
quently and so generally has this expedient been adopted by
churches to get rid of the errors of the “Holy Book,” that the
meaning of some texts has been changed hundreds of times.
There is one text in Galatians (iii. 20), which, Christian writers
inform us, has received no less than two hundred and forty
interpretations at different times by different writers; that is,
two hundred and forty guesses have been made at the mean-
ing of this one text. “Revelation” is defined as “the act of
making known.” But what is made known by a book, one text
of which you have to guess two hundred and forty times at the
meaning of, and then don’t know whether it is right or not ?
And this is but a sample of many texts scattered through the
Book, which have been overburdened with meanings in a similar
manner in order to get a sufficient amount of science and sense
into them to make them acceptable to the enlightened minds of
the age. This renovating and revolutionizing process makes
Christianity a mere system of guess-work, and salvation a mere
lottery-scheme; and thousands, in view of this ambiguity and
precariousness, have come to the conclusion that it is easier to
find what is right in any question of morals, without recourse to
the Bible, than it is to find out what the Bible writers desired
to teach in the case. Why, then, waste such a vast amount of
time in attempting to find out the meaning of thousands of texts,
as many Christian writers have done in all ages of the Church,
when, if the meaning could be determined with certainty, there
would be but little accomplished by it ? For, after all, we have to
test the truth of the doctrine or precept by our own experience,
 306

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

in the same manner the}" proved it,—if they proved it at all.
There has been time enough wasted in this kind of speculation
to build the Pyramids ; and the world is no wiser or better for
it. As there is no certain rule for interpreting one text in the
Bible (and every word originally written in Hebrew had from
four to forty meanings), we may guess at the meanings till our
heads are gray, and then die in doubt. To show how the mean-
ing of Bible texts has been improved by successive construc-
tions, I will cite one case. For more than a thousand years
the various texts which refer to casting out devils were ac-
cepted as literally true. It was supposed they mean just what
they say, and that “the old fellow’’ (King Beelzebub) is to
be cast out of the inner man,—body, head, horns, and hoofs.
But, when the age of reason dawned upon the world, it began to
be discovered that the notion of casting out devils was an old
heathen tradition, and too senseless for sensible people to be-
lieve in. Hence, to save the credit of the Book and the credit
of the Church, casting out devils was interpreted to mean cast-
ing out our evil propensities, which, although a perversion of
the meaning of the writer, was an improvement on the original.
The further acquisition of scientific knowledge, accelerated by
the invention of the printing-press, revealed the fact that man
never parts with his evil propensities, or any other propensities,
however much the}" may be subdued. Hence Bible-mongers set
themselves to work to ferret out another meaning for the text.
They finally decided that casting out devils means restraining
our evil propensities. This, although far from the meaning of
the writer, is another improvement on “God’s perfect revela-
tion.” In this way, step by step, this and thousands of other
texts have been improved from time to time by successive
translations and interpretations, until u God’s Book v has be-
come partially purged of the errors it would seem he put into
it; and it may yet, in this way, become a sensible book.

The interpretation of the Bible has been (as already stated)
an art in all Christian countries for ages. The original object
was to obtain the meaning of the Bible writers ; but, in modern
times, the object seems to be to obtain a meaning to suit the
reader, without much regard to the meaning of the writer.
 MODERN CHRISTIANITY ONE-HALF INFIDELITY. 397

This statement may be,*to some readers, rather startling; but
there can be no question of its truth. Some of our most popular
Christian writers have avowed it, though in rather an indirect way.
Hear what the Rev. John Pye Smith, the leading Christian clergyT-
man of England, and one. of the ablest and most popular in all
Christendom, says with respect to Bible interpretations: 441
would advise the clergy everywhere to interpret the Bible ac-
cording to the spirit of the age.” Most wonderful advice
truly, and a, dead shot at.the Bible. Let it be understood, then,
that, according to this Christian divine, Bible readers hereafter
are to pay no attention to the plain and obvious meaning of the.
Bible language, or to the writer’s intended meaning (which is
the only true meaning), but force a meaning into the text which
you know will be. acceptable 4 4 to the spirit of the age ; ’ ’ that
is, to men of reason and of scientific attainments. The Bible,
then, is to.be venerated henceforth, not for what it teaches, but
for what it ought to teach, or what the fanciful reader would
have it teach. Verily, verily, we have fallen upon strange
times when 44 God’s word,” like a nose of wax, is to be
molded into any shape to suit 4 4 the spirit of the times;”
but don’t let it be supposed that the Rev. John Pye Smith is
the only,Christian professor who makes God’s infallible revela-
tion succumb to the good sense and intelligence of the age, —
44 the spirit of the times.” There is not an orthodox clergy-
man,*' not a Christian church, and scarcely a Christian pro-
fessor, who does not make the Bible a mere tool in that way,
None of them, in all cases, accept the literal meaning of the
Bible. None of them take the dictionary for a guide in all
cases to determine the meaning of the words of the text. As
we have said, there is not an orthodox church or clergyman
who does not frequently abandon the dictionary, and travel out-
side of it, and coin a new meaning of his own for many of
the words of the Bible, and ingraft into those words a meaning
they never possessed before. They thus assume a license that
would not be tolerated with respect to any other book; and
yet, notwithstanding these countless alterations and changes
in 44 God’s unchangeable word,”—changes in the language,
changes in the meaning of its words, changes by translation,
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

changes in the import of its doctrine, and changes in the teach-
ing of its precepts ; yet millions cling to it as u God’s perfect,
unalterable revelation,” his “ pure and unadulterated word.”
They seem to take the same view of it the old lady did of
the carving-knife, which, although it had been mended sixteen
times, had had seven new blades and nine new handles, yet it
was the same old keepsake which her father had given her forty
years before. The Bible, in like manner, has been altered
and amended by fifty translations and a hundred and fifty thou-
sand alterations, according to the learned Dr. Robinson of Eng-
land, and is still believed by millions to be the same old book,
—just as God gave it to man. What superstitious infatuation !
It is an instructive fact, which we will note here, that all this
labor of amending and enlightening the Bible is the work of
the very best minds in the churches,—the growing, thinking,
intellectual minds in those institutions; minds that are in a
state of unrest, that are hungering and thirsting for something
better; minds which are unconsciously struggling to get free
from the trammels of priestcraft and superstition, and the reli-
gious creeds in which they were educated, and are uncon-
sciously aspiring for something better, something higher, holier,
and purer, but can not give up the idolized Book which has
been so long enwrapped among their heart-strings that it has
seemingly become a part and parcel of their souls. Hence,
rather than abandon it and leave it behind them, they prefer to
remodel and reconstruct it, and bring it up to their own moral
standard, and thus make a better and more sensible thing of
it than God himself did in the first place; that is, assuming
that lie had any thing to do with it. And they generally put
newer and better ideas into the Book, and better morals, than
the}" ever got out of it; and finally, in many cases, outgrow
the current theology, and become more enlightened, more intel-
ligent, and more useful members of society, than they were in
any period of tlioir lives.
 CHARACTER, OF THE CHRISTIAN’S GOD.

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CHAPTER LIX.

CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN’S GOD.

The object in selecting and presenting the list of texts quoted
in this chapter is to show that Bible writers entertained a very
low and dishonorable conception of the “ all-loving Father,” and
that, on this account, the reading of these caricatures of Infinite
Wisdom must have a demoralizing effect upon those who habit-
ually read them, and accept them as truth. Even if they were
all accepted as metaphors, or mere figures of speech, that would
not prevent or destroy their injurious effect upon the mind ; for
descriptions by metaphor or pictures have the same effect upon
the mind as literal descriptions or representations. And what
must be the effect upon the mind of the ignorant heathen who
read the Book with no suspicion of its being aught but reality,
as much of it was unquestionably designed to be ?

1.   “ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, fire out of his mouth devoured: coals
were kindled by it ” (2 Sam. xxii. 9). Suggestion of a volcano.

2.   “ He had horns coming out of his hand” (Hah. iii. 4).

3.   “ Out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword” (Rev. i. 16). Rather a fright-
ful monster to look at.

4.   “ fie shall mightily roar from his habitation” (Jer. xxv. 30). Wonder if it fright-
ened the saints in glory.

5.   “ He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes ” (Jer. xxv. 30).

6.   “ He awaked as one out of sleep ” (Ps. lxxviii. 65). The presumption would he he
had been asleep.

7.   ‘ ‘ And like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine ” (Ps. lxxviii. 65). Would
not this lead to the conclusion he was drunk?

8.   In his anger he persecuted and slew without pity (Lam. iii. 43). Good authority
for persecuting and killing enemies. No wonder all Christendom is noted for persecu-
tion and bloodshed.

9.   “ His fury is poured out like fire ” (Nah. i. 6). Rather a frightful God.

10.   “ The rocks are thrown down by him” (Nah. i. 6). Throwing stones is rather a
ludicrous business for a God to engage in.

11.   He became angry, and sware (Ps. xcv. 11). It is easy to see why swearing is
so common in Christian countries.

12.   He burns with anger (Isa. xxx. 27). Who would wish to live in heaven with
such a being?

13.   “His lips are full of indignation” (Isa. xxx. 27). Who saw his lips? and what
peculiar aspect did they present to lead to this conclusion ?

14.   “ And his tongue as a devouring fire ” (Isa. xxx. 27). How came the writer to see
his tongue ?

15.   He “is a jealous God” (Exod. xxxiv. 14). Jealous of what? “Jealousy is a
hateful fiend ” (Cato).
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

? _V\v.

16.   “He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war ” (Isa. xlii. 13). Of course, if he in-
dulged in jealousy himself, his example would stir up this vile passion in others.

17.   He rides upon horses (Hab. iii. 8). In what part of the universe are those horses
kept? and how many does he ride at a time?

18.   “ He shall cry, yea, roar” (Isa. xlii. 13). Rather a frightful object.

19.   “ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision”
(Ps. ii. 4). “ But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in
derision ” (Ps. lix. 8). Who ever heard him laugh?

20.   “ The Lord is a man of war ” (Exod. xv. 3). What kind of arms does he use?

21.   “I will make mine arrows drunk With blood ,?:(Deut. xxxii. 42). A good archer.

22. “ They have provoked me to anger.”—“Anger shows great weakness of mind”
(William Penn).   .   .

23.   “I will heap mischief upon them.” — “Mischief-makers are enemies to society”
(Socrates).

24.   “I will spend my arrows upon them” (Deut. xxxii. 23). “Arrows are the
weapons of savages ” (Goodrich).

* 2-3. “A fire is kindled in mine anger” (Deut. xxxii. 22). “Angei' resteth In'the
bosom of tools” (Solomon).

26.   “I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents”
(Deut. xxxii. 24). This exhibits a more fiendish spirit than that of Nero.

27.   “ I myself will fight against you in anger and fury and great wrath ” (Jer. xxi. 5).

Anger and fury disclose a weak and unbalanced mind ” (Publius Syrus).

28.   “I will laugh at your calamity” (hov. i. 26). f* Only brutal savages can be
happy while others are miserable” (Publius Syrus).

29.   “ I frame evil against you” (Jer. xviii. 11). Who, then, can deny that God is the
author of evil ?

30.   The spirit said, “ I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets ” (1 Kiiigs
xxii. 22). Of course, then, all the lies they told would be his, andnot theirs.

31.   “ If I whet my glittering sword” (Deut. xxxii. 41). What a frightful picture for
the all-loving Father!

32.   “ Spare them not, but destroy both men and beasts, infant and suckling” (1 Sam. xv.
3). We would neither worship such a God on earth, or dwell with him in heaven.

33.   “He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places” (Lam.
iii. 10). Think of the God of the universe descending from heaven, and crouching in
ambush, like bears and lions, to spring upon the unsuspecting traveler! The tendency
of such a thought is to weaken both moral and intellectual growth.

34.   He will “ cry like a travailing woman ” (Isa. xlii. 14).   •

35.   He is full of vengeance and wrath, and is furious (Nah. i. 2). A savage monster.
Who would worship such a God ?

36.   “ The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and
the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs (Deut. xxxii. 25).

37.   “ The sword shall devour, and make drunk with their blood” (Jer. xlvi. 10).

The language of the above is blasphemous and shocking to
refined feelings, whether accepted as literal or figurative.

Though but just begun, we will pursue this sickening theme
no further at present. It is an unpleasant task to pen these
shocking pictures of u Divine Goodness ;” but the time has ar-
rived when these evils should be fully exposed, that Christian
professors ina}r see the error of preaching the doctrines of the
semi-barbarous ages, which have the effect to dwarf the intel-
lect and repress the growth of every healthy moral emotion of
the mind, and thus retard the moral and intellectual progress
of society. Such considerations loudly call for a full exposition
of the errors and evils of biblical theolog}T, feo long concealed
under the sacred garb of u inspiration.”

Note.—This chapter might easily be extended to a hundred pages of similar ex-
amples.
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS.

401

CHAPTER LX.

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS OF JESUS CHRIST.

In 44 The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors,” under the
head of 44 The Two Hundred Errors of Christ,” the author has
pointed out sixty errors in his teachings and practical life. It
was the intention of the author to have completed the expo-
sition in this chapter; but he has discovered that a full and
thorough elucidation of all the errors would swell this volume
beyond its proper size. He has therefore concluded to present
a mere abstract of one hundred and fifty of those errors in this
work, and reserve a fuller exposition to be comprised in a
pamphlet to be published soon, and to contain also thirteen
powerful and unanswerable arguments exposing the numerous
absurdities and impossibilities of the orthodox theory that
Christ possessed two natures, human and divine,—that he
was both God and man. This assumption is known as 44 the
hypostatic union,” or dual nature of Christ. The pamphlet,
comprising these two subjects, can be had when published, of the
usual booksellers or the author, for twenty-five cents.

The admirers and worshipers of Jesus Christ adore him as a
being of absolute perfection,—perfect in intelligence, perfect
in wisdom, perfect in power, perfect in judgment, perfect in his
practical life, and perfect in his moral inculcations. We are
told, 44 He spake as never man spake;” and, finally, that he
taught a system of religion and morals so absolutely faultless
as to challenge the criticism of the world, and so perfect as to
defy improvement: and to doubt or disbelieve this dogmatic
assumption is to peril our eternal salvation. With this kind
of teaching and preaching in the Christian pulpit for nearly two
thousand 3~ears, it is not strange that the great mass of Chris-
tian professors have been blinded and kept in ignorance with
 402

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

respect to his numerous errors, which modern science has brought
to light both in his teachings and his practical life, a portion
of which will be found briefly noticed in this chapter under
three heads: viz., (1) “ Christ’s Moral and Religious Errors,”
(2) “Christ’s Scientific Errors,” (3) “Christ’s Errors of
Omission.”   ;j»   >

I.   The Moral and Religious Errors of Christ..

In “The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors” we have,
under the above heading, shown (1) that' Christ possessed a
very ardent religious nature ; (2) that he was unenlightened by
scientific culture, (3) and that consequently he often indulged
in the most extravagant views of the duties of life; (4) that he
inculcated a moral and religious s}"stem carried to such extremes
as to render its obligations utterly impossible to be reduced to
practice ; (5) that his injunction, “ Take no thought for to-mor-
r6w,” is of impracticable application, and never has b&en lived
up to by any of his disciples in that age or since; (6) that, if
reduced to practice, it would starve the world to death in less
than twelve months ; (7) that his injunction, “ La}" not up treas-
ures on earth” (Matt. vi. 19), has been ignored and trampled
under foot by the whole Christian world ; (8) that his injunction
to his disciples to part with all their property (Matt. xix. 21)
would soon fill the world with paupers ; (9) that his promise to
supply all the necessaries of life to those who shall “ seek 'first
the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. vi. 33) has never been ful-
filled; (10) that his injunctions, “Resist not evil,” (11) when
smitten on one cheek, turn the other also, are virtual invita-
tions to personal abuse ; (12) that his mandate, “ Love not tho
world;” (13) also, “to hate father and mother, brother and
sister,” &c. (Luke xiv. 26) ; (14) also, to give up voluntarily
our garments when attacked by a robber (Matt. v. 40) ; (15)
also, to make no defense of our lives when they arc sought by
murderers (Luke xvii. 33), are all extravagant, unnatural, and
unreasonable moral obligations ; (1G) that his declaration to his
disciples, that they would be “hated by all men ” (Matt. x. 22),
(17) and his injunction to shake off the dust of their feet
against their skeptical hearers, (18) and “go and.teach all na-
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS.

403

tions,” (19) and “ take nothing for your journey ” (Mark. vi. 8),
are all indications of a mind run wild with religious fanaticism ;
(20) as is also the declaration, “ He that believeSth not shall be
damned ;” (21) and “ He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved ” is equally unreasonable ; (22) that?’all things asked
for in prayer believing has never been realized by any person ;
(23) that it sets aside all natural laws. (24) It is calculated
to encourage idleness and sloth, (25) and thus bring on misery
and starvation. (26) The commands to “call no man ‘ father ;9 v
(27) also, “ Call no man c a fool; ’ ” (28) also, to “ pray without
ceasing; ” (29) also, to forgive our enemies four hundred and
ninety times (“ seventy times seven”); (30) also, to “ love
your enemies ” (Matt. v. 46) ; (31) also, to pluck out our eyes
and cut off our hands if they offend us ; (32) and, also, to be-
come eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s Sake, are utterances
which bespeak a mind devoid of a knowledge of either natural
or moral philosophy; (33) as does also the injunction to be-
come perfect as (God) our Father in heaven (Matt. v. 48).
(34) His belief in an angry God; (35) his injunction to fear
God (Matt. x. 28) ; (36) his advice to his followers to live
like the lilies of the field (Matt. vi. 26) ; (37) his statement
that “the meek should inherit the earth,” (38) that his disci-'
pies would be hated hy all men ; (39) his reasons for forbidding
them to swear ; (40) his blessing on the poor ; (41) his denun-
ciation of the rich; (42) his parable of Dives ; (43) his en-
couragement to mourn ; (44) his blessing on the pure in heart,
(45) and on the hungry and thirst}"; "(46) his choosing the
ignorant for companions; (47) his setting the mother against
the daughter (Matt. x. 36) ; (48) his getting angry - (Matt,
xxi. 12) ; (49) his treatment of his mother, (50) also of the
money-changers, (51) and of the Pharisees ; (52) his usurpation
of property (Matt. xxi. 2) ; (53) his calling men “ fools and
hypocrites,” (54) also “vipers,” (55) and* “ children of the
Devil” (John viii. 44) ; (56) his enjoining his disciples to
shake off the dust of their feet against them, (57) and to call
no man “rabbi,” (58) and no man “master;” (59) his
falsehood about going to Jerusalem (Johnvii.* 8); (60) his
substituting water for wine;   (61) his * strong sectarianism
 404

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

(John x. 1) ; (G2) his treatment of the Gentiles (Matt. x.
5) ; (G3) his threat toward Jerusalem ; (G4) his calling honest
men u robbers ” (John x. 8) ; (Go) his denunciation of Sodom
and Gomorrah, (GG) and Chorazin and Bethsaida (Matt,
xi. 21), (G7) and Capernaum; (G8) his answer to the woman
of Samaria, (69) and his calling Peter u Satan;” (70) his
hatred of the world, (71) and contempt of life, —all these pre-
cepts and practices, when critical^ examined, are found to be
at variance with the laws of moral science as taught in this
enlightened age, which establishes the fact that Christ was no
moral philosopher.

II.   Scientific Errors of Christ.

The following scientific errors of Christ, a portion of which
are exposed in u The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors,”
show that he was neither a natural nor a moral philosopher:

(I)   He assumed that disease is produced by demons, or evil

spirits. (2) He generally treated disease, not as the result of
natural causes, but as produced by evil beings. (3) His rebuk-
ing a fever (Luke iv. 39) discloses an ignorance of the science
of pliysiolog}". (4) His declaration about the stars falling
(Matt. xxiv. 29) evinces his ignorance of astronomy ; (5) as does
also his belief in the conflagration of the world (Matt. xxiv.
34).   (G) His belief in a personal devil (Matt. xvii. 18), (7)

also his belief in a literal hell (Matt, xviii. 8), (8) also a
belief in tho unphilosophical doctrine of repentance (Mark ii.
17), (9) and also that of divine forgiveness (Matt. vi. 12) ;
(10) his repeated assumption that belief is a voluntary act of the
mind ; (11) his frequent reference to the heart as being the scat
of consciousness; (12) the great importance he attaches to a
right faitli; (13) his unpardonable sin against the Iloly^ Ghost;

(II)   his superstitious idea of casting out devils ; (15) his com-
paring faith to a grain of mustard-seed (Matt. xi. 23) ; (1G)
the promise of u well done” (Matt. xxv. 21) as a reward for
well-doing; (17) his statement about man increasing his stat-
ure, (18) and about two men joining in pra3’cr (Matt, xviii.
19) ; (19) his promise to come in the clouds of heaven (Matt,
xxiv. 30) ; (20) the time that event was to take place (Matt.
 ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ERRORS.

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x. 23) ; (21) his penalty for wrong-doing, or sin; (22) his pen-
alty for falsehood (John viii. 44) ; (23) his superstitious belief
in an undying worm; (24) his penalty for idle words; (25)
his statement about speaking in new tongues (Mark xvi. 17),
(26) about handling poisonous serpents, (27) also swallowing
deadly poisons, (28) and that these acts should furnish a proof
of divine power; (29) his frequent confabs with imaginary
devils ; (30) his views of the marriage relation (Luke xx. 34) ;
(31) why a certain man was born blind (Matt. vii. 22) ; (32)
his ignorance of the natural causes of physical defects; (33)
his conduct toward the fig-tree (Matt. xxi. 20) ; (34) his
statement relative to the Queen' of Sheba, (35) and relative to
Noah’s flood (Luke xvii. 27) ; (36) hrisr frequent denunciation
of unbelievers; (37) his injunction to become perfect as God;
(38) his erroneous views of love, (39) and of the peacemakers,
(40) and of the tax-gatherers, (41) and of divorce; (42) his
views of alms; (43) his statement about Moses (John v. 46),
(44) about Nicodemus, (45) about- bearing witness, (46)
about letting our light shine, (47) about his disciples praying,
(48) about praying for the kingdom of heaven, (49) about the
law (Matt. v. 17), (50) about his being the Christ (Matt,
x. 23), (51) about performing miracles, (52)'about* bringing a
sword, (53) about his disciples sitting on the twelve thrones,
(54) about judges in heaven, (55) about the fate of Judas;
(56) his deception by Judas ; (57) his mistake about Peter ; (58)
his promise to the sons of Zebedee (Matt. xx. 23)r; (59) his
parable of the unjust judge ; (60) his new commandment; (61)
his promise of a hundred-fold reward; (62) his’ ideas about
paying tribute, (63) also about marrying a divorced woman;

(64)   his promising Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven;

(65)   his declaration relative to binding things in heaven ; (66)
his notion of merit in religious belief, (67) and that faith is the
gift of God; (68) his ideas of lust, (69) and about earthty
treasures, (70) also treasure in heaven, (71) about tomb-
stones, (72) and about an arbitrary personal God ; (73) his
ignorance of science and natural law. (74) He never spoke of a
natural law, (75) nor used the word “science,” (76) nor
“ natural philosophy.” (77) And, finallyyhis spending nine-
 406

THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

tenths of his time in idleness or obscurity is historic, scientific,
and practical proof against his divinity. From all the facts
and precepts enumerated above, we are compelled to conclude
he was no philosopher, and was ignorant of the principles of
natural science. And this accounts for the numerous scientific
errors which abound in all his teachings and preachings and
his whole practical life, as set forth in the work of which this
is a synopsis.

III.   Christ’s Errors of Omissiox.

Had Christ been an all-wise and omniscient God,—the char-
acter his orthodox disciples claim for him,—he would have
noticed and understood, and consequently have condemned,
various demoralizing practices, customs, and institutions then
existing in society. He would also have discovered and taught
the grand moral and scientific truths and principles which have
since been brought to light, and have proved such signal bless-
ings to society, so that the world could have enjoyed them two
thousand years ago.

(1) He would, in the first place, have discovered and exposed
the evils of the despotic form of government under which he
lived, (2) and have suggested a better system. (3) He would
have taught the people the beauties and benefits of a true democ-
racy, (4) and would have exposed the evils of physical as well
as mental slave ly; (5) also the deleterious and demoralizing
effects of intoxicating drink, instead of manufacturing it. (See
John ii. 7-9.)   (G) He would also have exposed the errors and

evils of the many' popular religious superstitions then and there
prevalent, instead of indorsing them. (7) lie would have
taught the science of anthropologj” as essential to human hap-
piness, (8) including the principles of mental science; (9) and
likewise the true principles of moral science, (10) and the
necessity of mental culture, (11) and the most important lesson
of all,—that of self-development. (12) lie would have taught
the people that every thing is controlled by natural law, (13) in-
stead of b}’ the caprices of an angiy God. (14) lie would have
taught the people that right and wrong are natural principles;
(15) that virtue contains its own reward, (16) and sin or crime
 DOCTRINES OF THE APOSTLES.

407

its own punishment. (17) He would have taught the science of
life and the laws of health as essential to human happiness;
(18) and that the violation of natural law must be attended
with suffering; (19) and that every immoral act a man com-
mits against another must injure himself, (20) and destroy his
true happiness, (21) and tend to make him a victim to his own
passions. (22) He would have taught the true principles of
mental freedom, (28) and the rights of conscience in matters of
belief; (24) and that man is responsible to himself alone for his
belief. (25) And, finally, he would have taught the'modern doc-
trine of evolution as furnishing the true and philosophical solu-
tion of all human actions, both good and bad. Certainly a being
possessing infinite wisdom could have discovered and brought
to light these grand practical truths, and thus greatly aug-
mented the sum of human happiness, instead of leaving the
world to drag on in suffering ignorance. And his omitting to
do it must be characterized as an error of omission. For a fuller
exposition, see the pamphlet.

CHAPTER LXI.

CHARACTER AND ERRONEOUS DOCTRINES OF THE
APOSTLES.

Christ’s apostles, although reputedly inspired, were very far
from being exemplary characters. Quarrels, -jealousies, and
emulations are frequently disclosed in their practical lives. We
are told there were “ envyings and jealousies and divisions”
among them (1 Cor. iii. 3), and that “ they disputed among
themselves who should be the greatest” (Mark ix. 34). This
implies that there was selfishness and worldly ambition at the
bottom of their movements. Paul also represents them as
u defrauding” and la wing each other (1 Cor. vi. 7, 8) ; and Paul
himself had a serious quarrel with Barnabas, as we are told:
“ The contention was so sharp that they departed asunder one
from the other ” (Acts xv. 36). These incidents in the prac-

l
 THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

403

tical lives of the apostles show that they were frail and fallible
mortals, and under the control of selfish feelings like the rest
of us, and that their “ inspiration/’ if they possessed any, was
not of a very high order. Such men are very unsuitable exam-
ples for the heathen to imitate, as they are impliedly recom-
mended to do when the Bible is placed in their hands.

With respect to the. doctrines taught by the apostles or New-
Testament writers, we will here assume the liberty to say they
contain more errors than we can allow space to enumerate.
For those of Paul and Peter we shall appropriate a separate
chapter, but will only cite a few of the errors of the other
New-Testament writers as mere samples of others. James’s
superstitious idea of curing the sick by prayer and oil we have
already noticed (chapter xli,). He also indorses the foolish
and incredible story of Elijah controlling the elements so as
to cause a three-years’ drought (chap. v. 17). He tells us we
qan get, wisdom by simply, ashing it of God (chap. i. 5). Then-
why do millions of people devote years to hard mental labor
to acquire it ? He speaks approvingly of the practical life of
Abraham, also of • the- miserable harlot Rahab (chap. ii. 23,
25), and avows his belief in a devil, &c. John also avows
his belief in this superstition (1 John ii. 13), and likewise in
the bloody atonement (1 John i. 7) and the doctrine of pre-
destination (1 John v. 18),; and, worse than all, he issues the
bigoted mandate, “Receive;np man into your house” who does
not preach the doctrine I do (2 John i. 10). Jude indorses
the foolish story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the contest between
Michael and the Devil, the second advent, a day of general
judgment, &c. These will do for specimens of apostolic errors.

CHAPTER LXII.

CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES.

Paul, standing at the head of the Church in the apostolic
age, and being the principal New-Testament writer and the
 CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND niS DOCTRINES. 409

principal teacher and doctrinal expounder of the New Covenant,
or gospel dispensation, his practical life and his doctrines must
therefore be regarded as constituting a part, if not the princi-
pal part, of the basis of the Christian religion. We shall there-
fore make no apology for presenting here a brief exposition of
his character and his doctrines; and we shall show that both
present numerous defects and inconsistent and contradictory
features.

1.   In his First Epistle to Timothy (i. 13) he states that he
had been 44 a blasphemer and persecutor, and injurious,’’ and
confesses that he was particeps criminis in the martyrdom of
Stephen; yet, in the Acts of the Apostles, he declares, 441
have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day”
(Acts xxiii. 1). Here is one specimen of his many incongru-
ous statements.

2.   He relates the account of his miraculous conversion three
times, and in three different ways. In the first statement he
says, 44 The men stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing
no man ” (Acts ix. 7). In the second account he says, 44 They
heard not the voice that spake to me” (Acts xxii. 9). In the
third statement, when relating the case to King Agrippa, he
says, u They were all fallen to the earth” (Acts xxvi. 14) ;
while, in the first account, he had stated, 44 The men stood
speechless.” It is evident they could not stand speechless
while they were all fallen to the earth.

3.   In one account he states that Jesus told him to stand up,
and receive his mission; but in another place he says he was
ordered to go to Damascus to receive the message.

4.   He told the king that he showed himself first at Damas-
cus, and then at Jerusalem (Acts xxvi. 20) ; but in his Epistle
to the Galatians he declares that he did not go to Jerusalem.

5.   Again he says he went to Jerusalem, and Barnabas took
him by the hand, and brought him to the apostles (Acts ix.
27).

6.   And then, again, to the Galatians he declares he saw none
of the apostles, 44 save James, the Lord’s brother ” (Gal. i. 18).

7.   In 1 Cor. x. 35 he says, 441 please all men in all things ; ”
but in Gal. i. 10 he says, 44If I yet pleased men, I should not
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

be the servant of God.” Here, then, is another palpable con-
tradiction.

8.   In Rom. xi. 5 he speaks of the “ election of grace ; ” but
in Tit. xi. 9 he says the grace of God has appeared to all.

9.   In his letter to Timothy he says, “ God will have all men
to be saved (1 Tim. ii. 4) : but in Rom. ix. 22 he speaks of
“ the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; ” and in Rom. ix.
27 he says, “A remnant shall be saved.” All will not be
saved if only a remnant are saved.

10.   When about embarking for Rome he stated, “ I perceive
the voyage will be of much hurt and damage to life” (Acts
xxvii. 10) ; yet on the voyage he declared, “There shall be
no loss of any man’s life among you” (Acts xxvii. 22). An
“ inspired apostle” and oracle of God should be punctiliously
accurate in all cases, or all his statements will be brought under
distrust, and it will be impossible to arrive at the truth in the
case ; or, in any case, all will be involved in doubt and conjec-
ture.

11.   Paul’s errors in doctrinal inculcations are numerous.
His confession to the Corinthians, that, “ being craft}r, I caught
you with guile ” (2 Cor. xii. 16), sets forth a bad example, and
indicates a bad s3Tstem of morals, which is calculated to have a
demoralizing effect upon Bible readers and believers, especially
the heathen and the }^outh of Christian countries.

12.   And his statement.that the truth of God “hath more
abounded through my lie unto his glory” (Rom. iii. 7), is still
more demoralizing in its tendencies. Many have looked upon
it as a justification for lying. It seems to imply that tying is
all right if done for the glory of God; and as he states in
1 Cor. x. 31, that whatsoever wre do should be done to the glory
of God, it logically follows that tying is justifiable in all cases.
And Mr. Higgins states that such doctrine had the effect to re-
duce lying to a S3’stem among the earty Christians, and that
the3T considered it a duty to lie when the interest of the Church
could be promoted b3r it. A book inculcating such bad morali-
t3’ should not be circulated amongst the heathen.

13.   Paul’s reason for recommending a life of single blessed-
ness is deserving of notice. lie sa3’s the unmarried man careth
 CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. 411

for the things of the Lord ; but the married man careth for the
things of the world, — u how he may please his wife ” (1 Cor.
vii. 33). The last act he named here does not trouble men much
nowadays, at least after the honeymoon is passed ; and a man
who considers God worthy of more attention than wives, as
Paul did, would not be likely to bestow a very high apprecia-
tion on the latter. But the greatest objection to the doctrine
is, that, if practically carried out in accordance with his recom-
mendation, there would soon be no wives to please.

14.   We must notice another objectionable doctrine of Paul with
respect to marriage. Instead of acknowledging an honorable
and virtuous motive for marriage, he would tolerate it as the
least of two evils ; that is, as a means of mitigating a burning
lust (1 Cor. vii. 9). This makes marriage a mere animal attrac-
tion, — the union of a man and woman drawn together from lustful
motives. Paul advises bachelors not to marry or touch a woman,
but remain single like himself (1 Cor. vii. 1). But such advice,
if practically complied with, would soon depopulate the globe.
If not so strongly adverse to human nature, it would doubtless
ere this have filled the world, first with Shakers, and then with
the graves of an extinct race.

15.   Paul says to the Romans (Rom. vii. 17), u It is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I prove . . .
that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.” Here are taught two
erroneous doctrines: (1) The essentially corrupt and sinful
nature of the human body, taught anciently by the Hindoo as-
cetics ; (2) that sin or the Devil operates on the mind independ-
ent of the human will or volition, which savors of fatalism. And
his statement that some vessels are made to honor, and some to
dishonor (Rom. ix. 21), seems unequivocally to set forth the
same doctrine. Many commentators have puzzled their brains
over it to make it mean something else, but with ill success:
the declaration is not, that men become vessels of honor and dis-
honor, but that they are made so.

16.   Paul’s exhortation to servants to be obedient to their
masters has furnished pious Christian slaveholders a good text
to preach from throughout slaveholding Christendom, and has
done much to rivet the chains tighter upon the limbs of the
slave.
 412

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17.   When Paul calls the Cretans “liars, evil beasts,’’ &c.,
he descends to a low position, both in the scale of manners and
morals : he is not only uncivil, but exhibits bad passions. They
did not merit such personal abuse, as they had never done him
an injury, at least we have no proof of it.

18.   Paul tells us that God sends people a strong delusion,
that they may believe a lie and be damned (2 Thess. ii. 12).
More fatalism. To delude people with lies in order to damn
them is worse than hardening Pharaoh’s heart in order to find
a pretext for drowning him. Let it be borne in mind,
that, if there is any spiritual signification justly assignable to
this text, it can only benefit the few, as the common people
always accept language with its common signification. But
can we assume that Paul was such a blunderer that he frequently
used language conveying exactly the opposite meaning from
that intended, and that in this way he taught fatalism and
immoral doctrines when he did not intend to do so? And then,,
as it is claimed he was inspired, is it not a slander upon
Infinite Wisdom to assume that God was so ignorant of human
language that he put these pernicious doctrines in Paul’s mouth
by mistake? One or the other of these conclusions we are
driven to accept, in order to save Paul from condemnation;
but this only saves his moral character at the expense of his
good sense. The most rational assumption appears to be,
that Paul lived in an age and country which knew nothing of
mental or moral science, and honestly believed and taught these
pernicious doctrines. We will now learn something about the
moral code of bachelors.

10. “I suffer not a woman to speak in the church.” “It is
a shame for a woman to speak in the church ” (1 Cor. xiv. 35).
lie says, if they want to know any thing, let them ask their
husbands at home. But this, in some cases, would be the blind
leading the blind ; and, in other cases, only the leaders would
be blind. Paul should have learned the lesson of O’Connell,
the Irish agitator, who said, “Since I have learned that my
mother was a woman, I have great respect for women, and
advocate their rights.”

20.   We will now notice the reason Paul assigns for having
 CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES. 413

wives subject to their husbands : it is simply because man was
created before woman (1 Tim. ii. 13). What profound logic!
Tvorth}^ a Locke or a Newton! But, if there is any logical force
in the argument, then monkeys should have the preference of
men in the churches, as they came still earlier in the order of
creation.

21.   Paul’s doctrine that all governments are ordained of
God, and that those who resist them shall receive to themselves
damnation (Pom. xiii. 1), is a virtual condemnation of those
noble philanthropists who in various ages and countries resisted
the authority of tyrants. It makes Washington, Jefferson,
Franklin, and others sinners and criminals for opposing the
tyrann}’ of King George.

22.   Paul evinced a very intolerant spirit when he said, u If
any man preach any other doctrine than that which I declare
unto you, let him be accursed” (1 Gal. i. 9). This is the spirit
of intolerance, persecution, and bigotr}^,—the spirit which
has erected the scaffold, piled the fiery fagots around the stake,
wielded the guillotine, adjusted the halter around the neck
of the martyr, and crimsoned the earth with the blood of the
righteous. This very text has had the effect to fire up such a
spirit; and it has frequently been quoted as authority for such
cruel deeds as those just cited.

23.   Paul gives utterance to a very singular doctrine when he
says that even nature teaches that it is a shame for a man to
wear long hair, but the glor}^ for a woman, because nature gave
it to her for a covering. (See 1 Cor. xi. 14.) He was certainty
not much of a philosopher, or he would have made the dis-
covery that nature promotes the growth of the hair upon the
heads of men and women exactly alike. If nature did not
permit any hair to grow upon the head of man, or did not
allow it to grow more than an inch in length, there might be
some plausibility in the assertion. But, as the case stands, it
is the shears, and not nature, which teaches that it is a shame
for a man to w^ear long hair; or rather, if there is any shame in
the case, it consists in man cutting off his hair after nature
has been so kind as to supply him vTith such a useful covering.

24.   Paul’s indorsement of the doctrine of the atonement, and
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

his declaration that ‘ c without the shedding of blood there can
be no remission for sin” (Heb. ix. 22), show that he had not
advanced beyond the old Jewish and pagan superstition of
u blood for blood.” The doctrine is a relic of heathen bar-
barism, and is shocking to persons of fine moral sensibilities;
but this subject is treated in another chapter.

25.   Paul also indorses the old heathen tradition that God is
an angr}^, revengeful being. (See Eph. ii. 3.) He lent the
influence of his powerful mind and- pen to perpetuate this
demoralizing and blasphemous doctrine, which has had an
injurious effect upon the minds and morals of the people in all
past ages.

26.   We again call attention to Paul’s declaration that God
sent the people a strong delusion that they might believe a lie
and be damned. Think of a just and righteous God deluding
people in order to damn them! The doctrine is certainty blas-
phemous. It is enough to charge a demon with such acts as
this. Some writers suppose that Paul did not mean what is
here literalty expressed ; but it is probable he did, for it is the
old Jewish idea that every thing that takes place is the achieve-
ment of a God. We must assume that the Devil, who now
attends to such business, had not been sworn into office at
that time. lienee he supposed that Jehovah still attended to
such business.

27.   One indelible stigma on Paul’s character is found in his
indorsement of the pagan and Jewish rite of circumcision, — a
cruel and blood}" custom,—which no truly enlightened and sen-
sible man would lend his sanction to perpetuate, much less per-
form with his own hands, as Paul did on Timothcus (Acts xvi.
3). Paul also contradicts himself with respect to the matter,
lie says, uIf }^e be circumcised, Christ shall profit 3^011 nothing ”
(Gal. v. 2). Yet he afterward performed the act on Timothcus,
as stated above. This is preaching one doctrine and practicing
another.

28.   Paul said that he was a Roman citizen ; but no Jew could
be a full Roman citizen till the reign of Philip or Dccius, long
after, lie also passed for Paul of Tarsus ; but Tarsus was not a
Roman cit}' at that time, nor until about a hundred 3’cars after-
 CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES.   415

ward. This was being all things to all men in order to gain a few
prose^fles ; and truly he carries out the doctrine quite well. At
one time he professes to be a Roman (Acts xxii. 2G) ; at another
time he professes to be a Pharisee, and says that his parents
were Pharisees (see Acts xxiii. 6) ; and then, again, he was an
apostle of Jesus Christ (Acts xv. 10).

29.   Paul uses some rather doughy arguments on the subject
of the resurrection. He says that on the last da}r, at the sound
of the trumpet, we shall all be raised, the dead in Christ first
(1 Cor. xv. 52). We are also told that 44 this mortal shall put
on immortally.” We are compelled to believe, from the lan-
guage here used, that Paul believed in the sleep of the soul in the
grave ; and the resurrection of the natural body is a ridiculous
absurdhy and a physical impossibility. The sleep of the soul is
a still worse assumption. Why should the soul lay in the ground
covered with filth and worms? What possible benefit could
it derive from la3fing in a state of insensibilit3r for centuries?
And what would become of it if some one should remove the
decomposed remains of the body, and all the earth contiguous,
to some other localhy, or toss it into a running stream ? And
this has been done. What becomes of the soul in such a case?
Does it float down the stream with the plysical debris? If so,
where will it stop ? and how will it be found in the day of resur-
rection ?

30.   And his doctrine of his resurrection is attended with still
greater difficulties and logical obstructions. The ply si cal body,
according to Paul, is to become a spiritual bod3^. But a portion
of the bod3T is consumed b3" worms during the process of decom-
position in the grave; and those worms, when they die, are
consumed b3r other worms. Will it not, then, require a search-
warrant in the da3T of resurrection to find all those worms, and
to gather eveiy minute particle of the old body together to form
the spiritual bod3’ ? Wly not make the new bod3r of a stone or a
stump, or some other material, instead of the old, decayed, de-
composed bod3T ? It would require a miracle in either case. Cases
have been reported of Christian missionaries being eaten up by
cannibals. The flesh of the Christian in such cases becomes a
part of the plysical body of the cannibal; and the cannibal
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.

will, according to Christian theology, come forth unto u the
resurrection of damnation,” and will take a portion of the
bod}" of the missionary with him to the bottomless pit.
How will it be obtained? A serious difficult}", certainly!
How is it to be met and surmounted? Many other logical
difficulties lie in the way of making a practical application of
the doctrine.

31.   When Paul calls our physical tenements “vile bodies”
(see Phil. iii. 21), he reveals the old pagan idea of the body
being sinful. They looked upon it as a kind of prison for the
soul, and a thing to be hated and contemned as you would a
tyrant with a rope around your neck. This error discloses
great ignorance of the functions of the human body, and its
relation to the soul or mind. It would be impossible to have a
pure soul in a vile body. Here Paul discloses still further igno-
rance of science.

There are other acts and other erroneous doctrines, which mark
the practical life of Paul, that are quite obnoxious to criticism;
as, for example, the curse he pronounced upon Elymas, whom
he stigmatized as a sorcerer, though he does not prove he was
one, but says that was his name by interpretation (Acts xiii.
8). This act, which it is stated produced total blindness,
must be regarded as an act of bigotry and intolerance. Elymas
is not charged with any crime or immoral conduct; and, so far
as we can learn his history, he was an honest, upright man:
but he sought “ to turn away the deputy from the faith ” (Acts
xiii. 8) ; that is, like the Greek philosophers, he attempted to
point out the absurdity of some of Paul’s doctrines. There is
something very significant in the statement of Paul, that some
of his doctrines were “to the Greeks foolishness” (1 Cor.

i.   23) ; for they were a learned, intelligent, and sensible nation
of people. And no such nation ever has, or ever will, accept
as true and sound doctrine some of the theological nonsense
and absurd doctrines which Paul preached. Future generations
will wonder that such doctrines were ever taught by people
claiming to be sensible and intelligent.

The circumstance which Paul relates of a viper coming out
of a bundle of sticks, and fastening on liis hand without inflict-
 CHARACTER OF PAUL, AND HIS DOCTRINES.   417

ing a deadly wound, evinces a degree of superstition which no
philosopher could entertain. The assumption is, that God, after
bestowing upon the reptile the disposition and means of defend-
ing itself, interposed by a divine act to prevent their action.

Christ and his apostles (including Paul), instead of studying
and understanding the laws of nature, were constantly looking
for something to contravene them, and set them* aside. Of
course the}1* were honest in this ; but it shows their want of sci-
entific knowledge, which was characteristic of the age.

The circumstance of Paul’s handkerchief and apron heal-
ing the sick, as related in Acts xix. 12, is evidently regarded as
another interposition of divine power. But cases are frequently
performed in this manner in various parts of this country by
Dr. Newton and other healers, who impart their magnetic aura
to a handkerchief, or some article of clothing, or a piece of paper,
and send it to the sick, who are cured as effectually as those
were by Paul’s magnetized handkerchief; for it was undoubt-
edly his magnetism imparted to the handkerchief that effected
the cures. Modern science is solving the mysteries and mira-
cles of the past.

We will only observe further, that Paul la}rs down three
systems of salvation, which, when arranged side b}r side, cer-
tainty make the road broad enough to enable nearly every son
and daughter of Adam to reach the heavenly kingdom: —

Salvation by Faith. —66 By faith ye are saved, and not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. ii. 8). It being
the gift of God, we, of course, can have no agency in the matter.
u A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”
(Rom. iii. 28). This is a direct contradiction of James, who
declares, “ Faith, if it hath not works, is dead ” (Jas. ii. 17).

Salvation by Works. —“ God will render to every man
according to his deeds ” (Rom. ii. 6).   “ The doers of the law

shall be justified” (Rom. ii. 13). Thus, it will be observed,
Paul, in the above-cited texts, not only contradicts James, but
contradicts himself.

Salvation by Divine Predestination. —“As many as were
ordained to eternal life believed” (Acts xiii. 48). This is not
given as Paul’s language; but it is spoken with respect to his
 418