(1866.)
When I survey with pious joy the present world of Christendom, finding
everywhere that the true believers love their neighbors as themselves
and are specially enamored of their enemies; that no one of them takes
thought for the morrow, what he shall eat or what he shall drink, or
wherewithal he or she shall be clothed; that all the pastors and flocks
endeavor to outstrip each other in laying not up for themselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves
break through and steal; and all are so intensely eager to quit this
earthly tabernacle and become freeholders of mansions in the skies; when
I find faith as universal as the air, and charity as common as cold
water; I sometimes wonder how it is that any misbelievers and
unbelievers are left, and feel astonished that the New Jerusalem has not
yet descended, and hope that the next morning’s _Times_ (rechristened
_The Eternities_) will announce the inauguration of the Millennium.
What delayeth the end? Can there indeed be any general hindering sin or
imperfection among the pure saints, the holy, unselfish, aspiring,
devout, peaceful, loving men and women who make up the population of
every Christian land? Can any error infect the teachings of the
innumerable divines and theologians, who all agree together in every
particular, drawing all the same doctrines from the same texts of the
one unvaried Word of God? I would fain believe that no such sin or error
exists, not a single inky spot in the universal dazzling whiteness; but
then why have we to deplore the continued existence of heathens and
infidels? why is the New Jerusalem so long a-building? why is the
Millennium so long a-coming? why have we a mere Sardowa instead of
Armageddon?
After long and painful thought, after the most serious and reverent
study, I think I have found the rock on which the ship of the Church has
been wrecked; and I hasten to communicate its extreme latitude and
interminable longitude, that all Christian voyagers may evade and
circumvent it from this time forward.
The error which I point out, and the correction which I propose, have
been to a certain extent, in a vague manner, pointed out and proposed
before. A clergyman named Malthus, not in his clerical capacity, but
condescending to the menial study of mundane science, is usually
considered the first discoverer. But mundane science is conditioned,
limited, vague, its precepts are full of hesitation; while celestial
science is absolute, unlimited, clear as the noonday sun, and its
precepts are imperiously forthright.
It seems to me that the one fatal error which has lurked in our
otherwise consummate Christianity, and which demands immediate
correction is this, that the propagation of children is reconcileable
with the propagation of the faith—an error which while it lasts adjourns
_sine die_ the day of judgment, and begins the Millennium with the Greek
Kalends.
One need not quote the numerous texts throughout the New Testament (let
Matthew xix., 12, suffice) proving that Jesus and the epistolary
apostles accounted celibacy essential to the _highest_ Christian life.
One only of the disciples, so far as we know, was married; and he it was
who denied his master; and most of the more profound divines consider
that Peter was justly punished for marrying, when Christ cured his
mother-in-law of that fever which might else have carried her off.
But many modest people may be content with a respectable Christian life
which is not of the very highest kind. They may think that as husbands
and wives they will make very decent middle-class saints in heaven,
after a comfortable existence on earth, leaving the nobler crowns of
holiness for more daring spirits. Humility is one of the fairest graces,
and we revere it; but there is a consideration, most momentous for the
kind Christian heart, which such good people must have overlooked—very
naturally, since it is very obvious.
Jesus tells us that many are called but few are chosen; that few enter
the strait gate and travel the narrow way, while many take the broad way
that leadeth to destruction. In other words, the large majority of
mankind, the large majority of even those who have the gospel preached
to them must be damned. When a human soul is born into the world, the
odds are at least ten to one that the Devil will get it. Can any pious
member of the Church who has thought of this take the responsibility of
becoming a parent? I thoroughly believe not. I am convinced that we have
so many Christian parents only because this very conspicuous aspect of
the case has not caught their view. If the parents could have any
assurance that the piety of their offspring would be in proportion to
their own, they would be justified in wedding in holiness. But alas! we
all know that some of the most religious parents have had some of the
most wicked children. Dearly beloved brethren and sisters pause and
calculate that for every little saint you give to heaven, you beget and
bear at least nine sinners who will eventually go to hell.
The remedy proposed is plain and simple as a gospel precept: let no
Christian have any child at all—a rule which, in the grandeur of its
absoluteness makes the poor timid and tentative Malthusianism very
ridiculous indeed. For this rule is drawn immediately from the New
Testament and cannot but be perfect as its source.
Let us think of a few of the advantages which would flow from its
practice. The profane have sometimes sneered that Jesus and his
disciples manifestly thought that the world would come to an end, the
millennium be inaugurated, within a very few years from the public
ministry of Jesus. Luckily the profane are always ignorant or shallow,
or both. For, as the New Jerusalem is to come down while Christians are
alive, and as Christians in the highest sense or Christians without
offspring must have come to an end with the first generation, it is
plain that the belief which has been sneered at was thoroughly well
founded; and that it has been disappointed only because the vast
majority of Christians have not been Christians in the highest sense at
all, but in their ignorance have continued to propagate like so many
heathen proletarians.
Now, supposing the very likely case that all Christians now living
reflect upon the truth herein expounded, and see that it is true, and,
therefore, always act upon it, it follows that, with the end of our now
young generation, the whole of Christendom will be translated into the
kingdom of heaven. Either the mere scum of non-Christians left upon the
earth will be wholly or in great part converted by an example so
splendid and attractive, and thus translate all Christendom in the
second edition in a couple of generations more; or else the world, being
without any Christianity, will, as a matter of course, be so utterly
vile and evil that the promised fire must destroy it at once, and so
bring in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Roman Catholic Christians may indeed answer that, although the above
argument is irresistible to the Protestants, who have no mean in the
next life between Heaven and Hell, yet that it is not so formidable to
them, seeing that they believe in the ultimate salvation of nearly every
one born and reared in their communion, and only give a temporary
purgatory to the worst of their own sinners. And I admit that such reply
is very cogent. Yet, strangely enough, the Catholics, even more than the
Protestants, recognise and cultivate the supreme beatitude of celibacy;
their legions of unwedded priests, and monks, and nuns and saints are so
many legions of concessions to the truth of my main (arguement).
I am aware that one of the most illustrious dignitaries of our own
National Church, the very reverend and reverent Dr. Swift, Dean of St.
Patrick’s, has advocated on various grounds, and with impressive force
of reasoning, the general eating of babies: and I anticipate that some
prudent Christians may, therefore, argue that it is better to get babies
and eat them than to have none at all, since the souls of the sweet
innocents would surely go to heaven, while their bodies would be very
nourishing on earth. Unfortunately, however, the doctrine of Original
Sin, as expounded and illustrated by many very thoughtful theologians,
and specially theologians of the most determined Protestant type, makes
it very doubtful whether the souls of infants are not damned. It will
surely be better, then, for good Protestants to have no infants at all:
Q. E. D.