Voltaire says, "I am ever apprehensive of being mistaken; but all
monuments give me sufficient evidence that the polished nations of
antiquity acknowledged a supreme God. There is not a book, not a medal,
not a bas-relief, not an inscription, in which Juno, Minerva, Neptune,
Mars, or any of the other deities, is spoken of as a creating being, the
sovereign of all nature.
"On the contrary, the most ancient profane books that we have--Hesiod
and Homer--represent their Zeus as the only thunderer, the only master
of gods and men; he even punishes the other gods; he ties Juno with a
chain, and drives Apollo out of heaven.
"The ancient religion of the Brahmins explains itself in a sublime
manner, concerning the unity and power of God, in these words found in
the 2d chapter of the Shastah, 'The Eternal, absorbed in the
contemplation of his own existence, resolved, in the fullness of time,
to communicate his glory and his essence to beings capable of feeling
and partaking his beatitude, as well as of contributing to his glory.
The Eternal willed it, and they were. He formed them partly of his own
essence, capable of perfection or imperfection, _according to their
will_. The Eternal first created Brahma, Vishna and Siva, then Mozazor
and all the multitude of the angels. The Eternal gave the pre-eminence
to Brahma, Vishna and Siva. Brahma was the prince of the angelic army.
Vishna and Siva were his coadjutors. The Eternal divided the angelic
army into several bands, and gave to each a chief. They adored the
Eternal, ranged around his throne, each in the degree assigned him.
There was harmony in heaven.'
"The Chinese, ancient as they are, come after the Indians. They have
acknowledged one only God. They have no subordinate gods. The Magi of
Chaldea, the Sabeans, acknowledge but one supreme God, whom they adored
in the stars, which are his work. The Persians adored him in the sun.
The sphere placed on the frontispiece of the temple of Memphis was the
emblem of one only and perfect God, called _Knef_ by the Egyptians. The
title of Deus Optimum Maximus was never given by the Romans to any but
Jupiter." Voltaire adds, "This great truth, which we have elsewhere
pointed out, can not be too often repeated. Jupiter was the translation
of the Greek word Zeus, and Zeus a translation of the Phenician word
Jehovah."--_Philosophical Dictionary, vol. 1, pp. 374, 375._
Ever remember, that there is, in all the ancient theories of gods, the
grand idea of one supreme God. Unbelievers keep this great truth out of
sight.
R. Dale Owen says of Christ, "His character and his doings, as exhibited
in the gospel biographies--are almost as marvellous as the system he
gave to the world. They accord neither with his country nor with his
time, nor--except as one illustrious example disclosing to us what man
may be--with that human race with which, on a hundred occasions, he
expressly identified himself. It were difficult in this connection, to
improve on the words of an anglican clergyman, whose early death was a
misfortune to the church he adorned. 'Once in the roll of ages, out of
innumerable failures, from the stock of human nature, one bud developed
into a faultless flower. One perfect specimen of humanity has God
exhibited on earth. As if the life blood of every nation were in his
veins, and that which is best and truest in every man, and that which
is tenderest and gentlest and purest in every woman, were in his
character; he is emphatically the Son of Man.' 'Christ is the crowning
exemplar of the Inspired; for he, while abiding among us, lived, more
nearly than any other of God's creatures here, within sight and hearing
of his future home. Therefore it is that his teachings are the noblest
fruits of inspiration.'"
A.J. Davis says: "He (Christ) was A TYPE OF A PERFECT MAN, both in
physical and spiritual qualifications. His general organization was
indeed remarkable, inasmuch as he possessed, combined, the perfection of
physical beauty, mental powers and refined accomplishments. He was
generally beloved during his youth for his great powers of discernment,
his thirst after knowledge, and his disposition to inquire into the
causes of mental phenomena, of the conditions of society, and of the
visible manifestations of nature. He was also much beloved for his PURE
natural sympathy for all who were suffering afflictions either of a
physical or mental character--It is true that at the age of twelve years
he was admitted to the presence of the learned doctors. There he
manifested some of his powers of discernment, interior and natural
philosophy, unsophistocated love, simplicity of expression, kindness of
disposition, and universal sympathy and benovolence. These he displayed
with all the naturalness and spontaneousness resulting from the
promptings of an uncorrupted and purely-organized spiritual principle."
Gregg, a Deist, says: "I value the religion of Jesus, as containing more
truth, purer truth, higher truth, than has ever yet been given to man.
Much of his teaching I unhesitatingly receive as, to the best of my
judgment, unimprovable and unsurpassable--fitted, if obeyed, to make
earth all that a finite and material scene can be, and man only a little
lower than the angels. 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord! Lord; *
* * * * * but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven.' 'By
their fruits ye shall know them;' 'I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice;' 'Be not a slothful hearer only, but a doer of the work;'
'Woe unto ye, Scribes and Pharisees, for ye pay tithes of mint, and
anise and cummin, and neglect the weightier matters of the law, justice,
mercy, and temperance, (faith left out.)'
"'The _enforcement of purity of heart as the security for purity of
life, and of the government of the thoughts, as the originators and
forerunners of action_.' 'He that looketh on a woman, to lust after her,
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart;' 'Out of the
heart proceed murders, adulteries, thefts, false witness, blasphemies;
these are the things which defile a man.'
"_Universal good-will toward men._--'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself;' 'Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, that do ye
also unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.'
"_Forgiveness of injuries._--'Love your enemies; do good to them that
hate you, pray for them which dispitefully use you and persecute you;'
'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against
us;' 'I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times
seven;' 'If ye love them only that love you, what reward have ye? Do not
even publicans the same?'
"_The necessity of self-sacrifice in the cause of duty._--'Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake;' 'If any man will be
my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and
follow me;' 'If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from
thee;' 'No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is
fit for the kingdom of God.'
"_Humility._--'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;'
'He that humbleth himself shall be exalted;' 'He that is greatest among
you, let him be your servant.'
"_Genuine sincerity; being not seeming._--'Take heed that ye do not your
alms before men, to be seen of them;' 'When thou prayest, enter into thy
closet and shut thy door;' 'When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and
wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast.' All these sublime
precepts need no miracle, no voice from the clouds, to recommend them
to our allegiance, or to assure us of their divinity; they command
obedience by virtue of their inherit rectitude and beauty, and vindicate
their author _as himself the one towering perpetual miracle of
history_."--_Creed of Christendom, pp. 318, 319._
"We hold that God has so arranged matters in this beautiful and
well-ordered, but mysteriously-governed universe, that one great mind
after another will arise from time to time, as such are needed, to
discover and flash forth before the eyes of men the truths that are
wanted, and the amount of truth that can be borne. We conceive that this
is effected by endowing them, or by having arranged that nature and the
course of events shall send them into the world endowed with that
superior mental and moral organization in which grand truths, sublime
gleams of spiritual light, will spontaneously and inevitably arise. Such
a one we believe was Jesus of Nazareth, the most exalted religious
genius whom God ever sent upon the earth; in himself an embodied
revelation; humanity in its divinest phase, 'God manifest in the flesh,'
according to eastern hyperbole; an exemplar given in an early age of the
world to show what man may and should become in the course of ages; in
his progress towards the realization of his destiny; an individual
gifted with a grand, clear intellect, a noble soul, a fine organization,
marvelous moral intuitions, and a perfectly balanced moral being; and
who, by virtue of these endowments, saw further than all other men,
'Beyond the verge of that blue sky, where God's sublimest secrets
lie.'"--_Creed of Christendom, pp. 306, 307._
We regard him * * as the perfection of the spiritual character, as
surpassing all men of all times in the closeness and depth of his
communion with the Father. In reading his sayings, we feel that we are
holding converse with the wisest, purest, noblest being that ever
clothed thought in the poor language of humanity. In studying his life
we feel that we are following the footsteps of the highest ideal yet
presented to us upon earth.
By the very next sentence Gregg's eulogy upon Christ becomes an eulogy
upon the Old Testament. He says the Old Testament contained his
teaching; it was reserved for him to elicit, publish and enforce
it.--_Creed of Christendom, pp. 300, 310._
"But it must not be forgotten that though many of the Christian precepts
were extant before the time of Jesus, yet it is to him that we owe them;
to the energy, the beauty, the power of his teaching, and still more to
the sublime life he led, which was a daily and hourly exposition and
enforcement of his teaching."--_Gregg, C.C._
Strauss allows that it was not possible that the early Christians should
have looked upon Christ as their Redeemer and Mediator between God and
men, if the apostles had not proclaimed this very doctrine; and the
apostles could not have preached it if Jesus himself had not designated
himself as the Redeemer from sin, guilt and death, and demanded faith in
himself as a religious act. He asserts that the distinguishing features
of the Christian church must be traced to Christ, his ministry and
teachings about himself; that Christ claimed the power to secure peace
to his followers. He also claims that the moral and religious character
of Christ is above every suspicion, and unequaled in its kind. He says,
"The purely spiritual and ethical conceptions of God as the '_only
one_,' he owed to his Jewish education, and, also the purity of his
being. But the Greecian element in Jesus was his cheerfulness, arising
from his _unsullied mind_." Again he says, Jesus, by cultivating a frame
of mind that was cheerful, in union with God, and embracing all men as
brethren, had realized the prophetic ideal of a New Covenant with the
heart inscribed law; he had to speak with the poet, received God into
his will; so that for him the Godhead had descended from its throne, the
abyss was filled up, all fear was vanished. His beautifully organized
nature had but to develop itself to be more fully and clearly confirmed
in its consciousness of itself, but needed not to return to begin a new
life.
Gregg, the Deist, after presenting Jesus as the "one towering, perpetual
miracle of history," says, "Next in perfection come the views which
Christianity unfolds to us of God in his relation to man, which were
probably as near the truth as the minds of men could in that age
receive. God is represented as our Father in heaven, to be whose
especial children is the best reward of the peace-makers, to see whose
face is the highest hope of the pure in heart, who is ever at hand to
strengthen his true worshipers, to whom is due our heartiest love, our
humblest submission, whose most acceptable worship is righteous conduct
and a holy heart, in whose constant presence our life is passed, to
whose merciful disposal we are resigned by death. His relation to us is
alone insisted on. All that is needed for our consolation, our strength,
our guidance, is assured to us. The purely speculative is passed over
and ignored." It may be that the prospect of an "exceeding, even an
eternal weight of glory" may be needed to support our frail purposes
under the crushing afflictions of our mortal lot. It may be that, by the
perfect arrangements of Omnipotence, the sufferings of all may be made
to work out the ultimate and supreme good of each. He next makes this
grand concession: To the orthodox Christian, who fully believes all he
professes, cheerful resignation to the divine will is comparatively a
_natural_, _an easy_, _a simple thing_. To the religious philosopher
(meaning such as himself) it is the highest exercise of intellect and
virtue. The man who has realized the faith that his own lot is so
regulated by God as unerringly to work for his highest good--with such a
man, resignation, patience, nay cheerful acquiescence in all suffering
and sorrow, appear to be in fact only the simple and practical
expression of his belief. If, believing all this, he still murmers and
rebels at the trials and contrarieties of his lot, he is of the
childishness of the infant which quarrels with the medicine that is to
lead it back to health and ease.
Huxley says: "The belief that the divine commands are identical with the
laws of social morality has left infinite strength to the latter in all
ages. The lover of moral beauty, struggling through a world full of
sorrow and sin, is surely as much the stronger for believing that
sooner or later a vision of perfect peace and goodness will burst upon
him, as the toiler up a mountain for the belief that beyond crag and
snow lie home and rest."--_Modern Symposium, page 250, 1._
Baldwin Brown, of the Liberal School, speaking of a very singular effort
of Mr. Harrison, says: "I rejoice in the passionate earnestness with
which he lifts the hearts of his readers to ideals which it seems to
me--that Christianity which as a living force in the Apostles' days
turned the world upside down, that is right side up, with its face
toward heaven and God--alone can realize for man. I recall a noble
passage written by Mr. Harrison some years ago: 'A religion of action, a
religion of social duty, devotion to an intelligible and sensible head,
a real sense of incorporation with a living and controlling force, the
deliberate effort to serve an immortal humanity--this, and this alone
can absorb the musings and the cravings of the spiritual man.' A.J.
Davis speaking of the first century, says: 'Jesus Christ and his
apostles were at this time establishing the only true religion.'"
Now, I wish to say a few things in view of all that I have given from
the opposite side. And first, as it is the part of science to find a
cause for every effect, we will look after the causes as given by those
men who reject the essential divinity of the religion of Christ, and
also look after the strength or weakness of their cause, as the case may
be:
1. What is the cause of the character they ascribe to the Christ? We
will begin with the Deist Gregg. He claims that God has endowed men
differently--has endowed some with brains so much larger and finer than
those of ordinary men as to enable them to see and originate truths
which are hidden from the mass; and that when it is his will that
mankind should make some great step forward, should achieve some
pregnant discovery, that is, discovery loaded with benefits to our race,
he calls into being some cerebral organization of more than ordinary
magnitude and power, as that of David, Isaiah, Plato, Shakespeare,
Bacon, Newton, Luther, Pascal. _Here we discover the cause of the
superior character of Christ as a teacher_, which is assigned by all
the leading spirits in modern unbelief, viz: a finely endowed cerebral
organization, and a Jewish education; these are constantly presented as
sufficient to meet the scientific demand for the cause of his life and
teachings, _or the cause of Christianity_. But there is a scientific
demand lying behind all this, viz: what is the cause of this fine
cerebral organization, which was so wonderful as to produce the most
wonderful character of all ages? The answer, given in the clear-cut
words of all except Atheists, who say there is no God, _is this_, "The
all-wise disposer of all things sends just such men into our race, when
any great step forward is necessary to be made--that he endows them with
direct reference to the discoveries and achievements to be made." So the
great cause, after all, is, upon their own showing, the will and power
of God; for if he endowed him, as they claim, with direct reference to
his teachings and achievements, it follows of necessity, that he willed
that those very teachings and achievements should not only be made, but
be made just when they were, and just as they were; so Christianity
finds its origin in God, and is a manifestation from God, according to
the showing of _Gregg_ and _Strauss_. For Strauss will have it that the
finite must not be separated from God. But you must remember that
Strauss is a Pantheist, and that he, as such, claims that the infinite,
or God, who with him is not a person, but _all-pervading_ life, receives
the finite into itself, and so it becomes a part of the idea of the
Godhead; in such a manner, however, that it is not peculiar to Jesus
alone, but to humanity as such. So Strauss reaches the same thought that
Gregg expresses--so far as the relation of Christ to Godhead is
concerned. While he and Strauss differ upon the subject of the Godhead,
one being a Deist and the other a Pantheist, they find their agreement
in naturalism, that is to say, they account for the Christ character
upon the score of his being more finely organized and endowed by
relation to the Godhead; Gregg claims that this is attributable to an
all-wise Godhead, and Strauss claims that it is attributable to the
all-pervading life, or Pantheistic Godhead, and both include as a
second cause of his character his education.
We then systematize as follows: first, the Deist who accepts the
character of Christ as exhibiting a superior life. His first cause for
the existence of Christianity is the fine organization of Christ. His
second cause is his education. The pantheist has it as follows: first
cause for the existence of Christianity, the fine organization of
Christ. Second cause, his education; both, however, must find a cause
_behind_ that fine organization, and that cause, they claim, is the
Godhead, however much they may differ about that Godhead.
This relation between Christ and the true Godhead is the fundamental
article in the Christian religion, and becomes at once, by common
agreement, the first great cause of the origin and existence of the
Christian religion. No Pantheist, or Deist, or Naturalist gets away from
this conclusion without avowing Atheism. What does it amount to? Answer:
_Christianity is of God._ The reason is this, the fine cerebral
organization of Christ was of God. Hence we have it, first cause, God;
second cause, Christ; effect, Christianity. Common admission, Christ is
the grandest character, the purest life, the finest teacher, finest
organization ever yet given to the race. The Christian says, _Amen!_ But
science must find a cause for every effect. What was the cause of the
teachings of the apostles, whose sincerity was such that they died for
their religion? Well, Strauss says, It is inconceivable that they should
have done it if Jesus himself had not designated himself as the Redeemer
from sin, guilt and death, and required faith in his person as a
religious duty, claiming the power to secure peace in the Holy Spirit.
According to Strauss, we have this arrangement:
First, the infinite--the Godhead took the finite Jesus into itself.
Second, he was above suspicion--the finest, purest specimen of all ever
known among men. A.G. Davis, R.D. Owen, Renan and Gregg, and Tom Paine,
and a host of others in unbelief say _Amen!_ Gregg says God sent him,
and sent him to do _just that_ which he did do. Strauss says, He taught
his desciples, and they consequently taught the world.