Sceptics float in thin ether, if not some times in pure vacuum,
in vast, unknown and unknowable regions of pure fancy and idle
imagination. They roam in everlasting inquisitiveness in the immense
realms of intangibles and invisibles. They are variously styled in
New Testament terminology, “clouds without water,” “wandering stars,”
“filthy dreamers,” etc., etc. They spend their time, confuse themselves
and shatter their brains, in explaining “degrees in glory,” “degrees
in punishment,” “different spheres,” “the possibility of holding
converse with departed friends,” “the origin of sin,” “how God will
overrule evil for the good of man and his own glory,” “the origin of
the devil, if there be any,” or, “who made the devil,” or, “whether
he is a real being, or only a personification of evil,” “whether God
did not know, when he created man, that he would sin,” “why he created
man, knowing that he would sin,” “whether he did not know, when he made
man, who would be saved and who would be lost,” and, if he did, “why he
created those he knew would be lost,” “whether angels are a distinct
order of beings from men,” “whether we shall know each other in the
eternal state,” “with what body the dead will be raised,” “whether the
righteous and wicked will rise at the same time,” “where the spirit is
between death and the resurrection,” “whether it is conscious, or can
exist separate from the body,” “when the end of the world will be,”
etc., etc.
We have now an immense swarm of these idle dreamers; some of these
have already reasoned themselves into the hallucination that they are
in the New Jerusalem state, and that the christian dispensation, or
the mediatorial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ has passed away! These
idle away their time in discussing the ascension, through the different
grades of spheres, which they imagine they shall eternally be attaining
and passing through, with other kindred topics. Another class reason
themselves into absolute fatalism. With them, all the actions of men,
and the very thoughts that lead to them, are of _necessity_, and cannot
be anything else! There is no praise of one class, or condemnation of
another, for all do just what they do from an eternal necessity! Off,
at another angle, another party is found, theorizing upon the whimsical
notion of human pre-existence, in which state, they think a consistent
origin for sin may be found! Yet another class perceive, that deep
down in the Bible, where, till recently, none had ever penetrated, the
doctrine is found, that, at judgment, the wicked will be stricken out
of existence, thus ridding them of the idea of endless punishment,
which had previously given them much distress! Still another class
of these, have rid themselves of the same distressing and annoying
doctrine, by making the astonishing discovery, that there is no devil,
no hell, nor punishment of any kind, beyond the present state, and,
therefore, no danger of any endless punishment! Still another class
became perplexed with these metaphysical reasonings, subtleties and
theorizings, in things that they cannot help feeling conscious can have
no possible beneficial effects upon mankind, and rid themselves of the
entire concern, by making the discovery that all things come by chance,
that there is no God, Savior, angel or spirit, and death is an eternal
sleep! But we sicken at the effort of trying to describe the vain and
idle speculations of all these “wandering stars,” and shall proceed to
something more tangible.
Scepticism has no foundation, no basis, no reality upon which to
rest. It has nothing to build upon; no rock; no pillars of any kind.
Nor has it any materials or builders. Nothing can be built without a
foundation, materials and builders. Sceptics are not builders. Their
work is merely _pulling down_ old buildings. This is the reason they
make so much show; their work is easy, requires but little skill and
no goodness. Anybody can tear down, but it takes a workman to build.
Scepticism is a mere negative, consisting wholly of denials. It affirms
nothing, establishes nothing, and builds up nothing. It is a natural
impossibility to build upon a mere negative. A system cannot, in the
very nature of things, be built upon a mere denial—a mere negative.
If a man would deny, repudiate, and condemn all the foundations of
all the houses in his city, or if he would go and tear his neighbor’s
foundations all down, it would give him no foundation for a house,
but would simply put them in the same condition with himself—that
is, _without any foundation_. In the same way, if infidels could
successfully deny, disprove and overthrow the foundation of every
system of religion in the world, it would lay no foundation for them,
but would simply put the rest of us upon a level with them—that is,
_without any foundation_. The work of all sceptics has been, simply to
tear up the foundation of Christians, and not to lay any foundation for
themselves. Not a man in all the ranks of unbelief has ever presented
any foundation, or has any. Their entire clamor is against the Bible,
but if they could expunge the Bible from the universe, they are no
better off—they have nothing to stand upon.
Scepticism has no center of attraction, no gravitation, no great
central pervading idea, drawing everything to one common center. A
system must have a common center of attraction, holding it, in its
revolutions, from flying into atoms. But, scepticism has no pervading
idea, doctrine or constitution, in which everything centers, around
which everything revolves, with power to attract and bind. It consists,
simply in denials of what others believe. If the things which they
deny were untrue, and should be denied, the denial of them is no
foundation or center of attraction. Their denial amounts to nothing in
their favor, but is simply unfavorable to others—destructive of the
attraction binding others together. A million of the most unequivocal
denials of the most absurd and preposterous doctrines the world ever
contained, forms no center of attraction, doctrine or constitution, in
which is embodied and concentrated any principal of attraction that
can bind in a system. Denying simply frees men and cuts them loose,
in their own estimation, from that which they deny, or what others
believe, but binds them to nothing.
Scepticism has no law, gives no advice, and has nothing in it about
the characters of men. It does not say that a man shall, or shall
not, have a good character; that he shall or shall not have a bad
character. It contains no such words and has no such idea, or keeps
up no such distinctions as good and bad. It says nothing about love
and hatred, revenge and pity, covetousness and benevolence, vice and
virtue, happiness and misery. It contains not one sentence touching
all the relations in life, providing nothing for individuals, families
or nations. It consists of one negative principle, viz: _The denial of
the truth of the Christian religion_. Any man can see that there is no
law in this. If they could succeed in this denial, and show beyond all
contradiction that christianity is not true, it amounts to nothing.
It is no law, and accomplishes nothing in any way, only to bring
christians upon a level with them—with _precisely nothing_.
Scepticism has no rewards for the good. It promises nothing in
this world nor that which is to come. It holds out no rewards, no
inducements of any kind for the good, in time or eternity!
Scepticism has no punishments for the bad, here nor hereafter. It
contains no punishments for evil doers—the profligate, dissipated, and
corrupt; thieves, robbers and murderers. It knows nothing of crimes or
punishments for crimes, of any grade or atrocity.
Scepticism has no reformatory power. A denial, or a train of denials,
even denials of error, can never restrain sinners nor reform men. The
influence is simply negative. In the very nature of things, it cannot
act positively. Denials or negatives require nothing, give nothing,
and, as a matter of course, can produce no reformation. It is a
negative system, if we may be allowed to call it a _system_ at all,
and in the very nature of things, its influence must be negative. It
is like cold, which is simply the absence of heat; for the suffering,
in the absence of heat, is from want of heat. Scepticism is simply the
absence of the heat of christianity. Darkness is merely the absence of
light, or it is the negative of light, else it and light could exist at
the same time, in the same place. In precisely the same way, scepticism
is the absence of gospel light, or faith. The soul without faith is
empty, cold, dark, and hungry, suffering and perishing, for light,
heat and food. Scepticism is no system, not a reality, substance or
entity of any kind, but the absence of all these. To speak in general
terms of faith, both christian faith and all other faith, the absence
of it, would be the absence by far of the greater part of all we know,
or that may be known by man. There is nothing more certain than that a
man who knows much, must believe much. Scepticism is not the possession
of reformatory principles, but simply the absence of them. There is
nothing that a man can be more conscious of, than that scepticism never
did, and never can, make a man better. Inherently, there is nothing
in it. It is the absence of something. The mere absence of faith, of
religion, doctrine and principles, most indisputably can do a man no
good, and can have no power to save him in any sense. To speak of
saving a man from starving by the absence of food, saving him from
thirst by the absence of water, or from darkness by the absence of
light, or from sickness by the absence of the only medicine that could
save him, is not more absurd, than to speak of unbelief reforming man.
Scepticism is not heat, but the absence of it; not light, but the
absence of it; not faith, but the absence of it; not knowledge, but the
absence of it; not medicine, but the absence of it; not nourishment,
but the absence of it. The sceptic is a man perishing with cold,
while he is graciously offered the warmth of christianity; groping in
darkness while the light of heaven is as free for him as the rays of
the sun; starving, with an invitation to eat of the bread that comes
down from heaven; dying with thirst, while God is holding out to him
the water of life; a sick man refusing to take an infallible remedy
from the physician, simply exercising the power to reject all that
could do him any good, resting, refusing, denying and dying.