tempted to believe in the truth of the Christian theory, on two
accounts--it brings us into such close contact with beings of a
superior order, so that in passing into the invisible world, we
shall find that we are known there; and then it gives such security
to the mind against the horrors of death." A sudden storm of heavy
rain prevented any reply to these half-serious, half-ironical
remarks; but on taking leave, as we were getting into our separate
hackney coaches, he added, "I will call to-morrow evening, after
business hours, and chat over those grave questions; and perhaps I
can prevail on Newton to accompany me. Have patience; I may become a
believer in the course of time."
THE SCEPTIC'S VISIT.
Just after Mr. Lewellin had left home, to meet a friend on a matter
of business, Mr. Gordon called, agreeably to his promise on the
previous day, and we spent the evening together.
"I had a lucky escape yesterday," said Mr. Gordon, "but I did not
know of it till I took up the _Times_ this morning."
"From what did you escape, Sir?"
"I had an engagement, for yesterday morning, to go with a pleasure
party on an excursion up the river, but I over-slept myself; and it
was well for me that I did so, for the boat upset, and I regret
to say that a very excellent and accomplished lady, whom I much
admired, was drowned."
"As I was passing Blackfriars' Bridge, in going to Surrey Chapel, I
witnessed an accident such as that to which you refer."
"Indeed! It no doubt was the same, for it was just as they were
setting out from Blackfriars' stairs that the disaster happened; it
must have been an appalling sight!"
"It was, indeed, a harrowing sight; and I trust I shall never
witness the like again. I heard that the lady who was drowned was a
very interesting creature, and the only daughter of a pious father.
The tidings of her loss must have been a sad blow to him."
"Yes, Sir, her father is one of your way of thinking, and I believe
him to be a very worthy man."
"Have you seen him since the fatal accident?"
"No, no! I have no heart to visit such a house of mourning. The
fact is, I shall never be able to see him again, for I planned the
excursion, and induced his son and daughter to join it. This I now
regret; but regrets are useless things."
"Regrets do sometimes produce happy results, and I should think that
yours, just now, must be very keen."
"Indeed, they are intensely keen. It will be a long time before I
get over the impression this fatal accident has made on me."
"You should take it as a warning."
"Well, I don't know how it is, but I never feel quite myself when
taking a Sunday excursion; I feel a little qualm of conscience,
even though I do not hold the Sunday in such reverence as you do. I
thought some time[12] ago that I had got over these qualms, but they
will come back at times in spite of me."
[12] Vol. i. page 17.
"I am glad to hear you say that your conscience does reprove you
when you profane the Sabbath, and I hope its reproofs will be more
severe than they ever have been. They may be your protection against
some fatal danger."
"Then, Sir, if I do not mistake your meaning, you wish me to be
frightened into the adoption of religious habits. Is this a fair
specimen of your Christian charity?"
"The storm sometimes saves the vessel which might become a wreck in
the calm, as we heard in the sermon last evening; and I assure you I
should be highly gratified to see you agitated by a salutary feeling
of dread and perplexity regarding the state of your soul, as I then
should indulge a hope that you would 'flee from the wrath to come,'
and take refuge in the promises of the gospel."
"Well, I must confess that Mr. Guion is one of the most eloquent
preachers I ever heard. The conclusion of his sermon was truly
sublime; the congregation appeared to quail under its terror--a
feeling which by no means surprised me. There is, indeed, a fearful
terror in the words the _wrath to come_; and there was almost an
irresistible impressiveness in the look and tones of the preacher
when urging his audience to flee from it. I felt, just before he
finished, that I must take refuge in the promises of the gospel; but
the internal commotion soon subsided when I found myself beyond the
reach of his voice, though still I cannot forget it."
"Now, Sir, to be candid; is not the terror you felt, when listening
to the sermon we heard, and the abiding recollection of it,
something like an unconscious homage instinctively paid to the
positive reality of the Christian faith? for we can hardly suppose
that you would invest a mere fiction with such power of impression."
"Why, no; I can scarcely admit that. My idea is, that my present
feelings are merely the lingering influences of early religious
training, with its accompanying associations; and we all know that
such influences may subsist long after we have been led to form
different opinions in our maturer years."
"They live to admonish and to warn, as well as to chastise. There
_may_ be a _wrath to come_. This you must admit, simply because you
do not know there is not; nor can you know, unless God is pleased
to tell you so. _Hence your scepticism needs a Divine revelation
to sustain it_--mere disbelief goes for nothing in settling such a
question."
"Well, I know there is great difficulty, and sometimes an
impossibility, in proving a negative; but one thing is absolutely
certain--I cannot compel myself to believe what you believe, any
more than you can compel yourself to disbelieve what I disbelieve."
"My belief has evidence to sustain it; but your disbelief has none.
And while your disbelief is accompanied by a feeling of uneasiness
and perplexity, my faith exerts a soothing influence, which keeps my
mind in perfect peace."
"Well, I admit that your faith does more for you than my disbelief
does for me; but I cannot believe what you do without impeaching
both the wisdom and the beneficence of the Deity. In other words,
the Deity must sink in my admiration before I can admit the Divine
origin of Christianity."
"But how so?"
"The eloquent preacher whom we heard last evening, when discoursing
on the expression in his text, _he was believed on in the world_,
advanced two distinct propositions, which he endeavoured to sustain
by arguments taken from your Scriptures. The first was, that _there
is salvation for the chief of sinners if they believe in Christ and
trust in him_. You believe and are safe, and are happy because you
expect to be saved. Now, I have no objection to advance against
this; because I know that faith, or trust in Him, does produce these
moral effects on true believers. But my nature revolts against his
second proposition, which was, _that none can be saved who do not
believe in Christ, and trust in him for salvation_."
"In sustaining those propositions the preacher said--and there is
great force in the remark--that we can have no assurance that any
will be saved but by a Divine testimony in proof of it; and that
if it please God to limit the exercise of his saving power to one
prescribed method, our objections against it will be altogether
unavailing."
"Yes, Sir, you quote correctly. Now, in my opinion, it would be a
reflection on the wisdom and beneficence of the Deity to suppose
that he has bound himself under such a forced law of restriction
as compels him to exclude all from a state of future happiness but
the few who do believe and do trust in Christ. Why, have we not
amongst us many men of unsullied honour, of princely generosity,
and of the most amiable dispositions--men who take the lead in
benevolent enterprises and social improvements--poets, philosophers,
historians, and statesmen, who are applauded in public, and admired
and esteemed in private life, but who cannot bow down and do homage
to Jesus Christ, by reposing an absolute dependence on him for a
hope of future blessedness, even though they unwillingly pay an
external homage to the regulations and institutions of Christianity?
Are men of such a high order of mind--of such brilliant virtues--men
who are the very life and soul of society--to be cast off and left
to perish along with the dissipated and the worthless? It cannot be."
"Your objection, then, does not lie so much against the salvation
of the great sinners, who repent and believe in Christ, as it does
against the law of restriction, which excludes all who do not repent
and believe from the hope of salvation."
"I can admit your first proposition, without much difficulty,
even though I do not say that I actually believe it; but I cannot
entertain a belief that the Deity has enacted a law which restricts
the exercise of his beneficence to a select few, some of whom, on
your own admission, are more distinguished for their vices than for
their virtues."
"But is not the law of restriction, even now, a fundamental law
of God's administrative government? For example, are superior
intelligence, genius, or wealth, made common property--to be
possessed by men share and share alike? Do we not see that the few
surpass the many--that some are brilliant stars while others are
mere glowworms; and while some occupy stations of affluence and
grandeur, others are left without a settled home, or any of the
comforts of life?"
"Why, if we really do believe that we are living under the
administrative government of the Deity, then there is no denying
the existence of this restrictive law. Facts are stubborn things;
those you mention are strongly corroborative of your views. But it
does not necessarily follow that this law of restriction applies to
our final destiny, even though it may be applicable to our present
condition of existence."
"But this admission deprives you of the basis on which you rest your
argument, that a law of restriction would be a direct impeachment of
the wisdom and the beneficence of the Deity."
"Well, perhaps it does."
"If, then, facts compel us to admit that this law of restriction is
in full operation _now_, while we are on earth, surely we must admit
the possibility of its continuance in a future state of existence,
without impugning the wisdom or justice of the Deity?"
"I never enter on a discussion on the questions at issue between us,
without feeling compelled to do one of two things; and yet I cannot
bring my mind to do either. I must admit the truth of revelation and
its explanations, and this I cannot do; or I must abandon myself
to _universal_ scepticism, and this I feel unwilling to do. But I
do confess that I feel it more easy to disbelieve than to believe.
However, waiving further reference to this difficulty, allow me to
call your attention to another point, which, if not more difficult
than the one we have just been discussing, assumes, at least in my
estimation, an aspect of great perplexity. Assuming then, for the
sake of the argument, that the Deity does restrict the bestowal
of future happiness to those who do believe and trust in Christ,
could he not have devised some other scheme for this purpose, and
one equally perfect and effective--one, in fact, less open to
objections?"
"I will reply to your question by asking another. Could not God
have made a world different to the one in which we live--one more
congenial to our taste, and less exposed to those privations and
hardships to which we are often subjected, and which we sometimes
so much dread?--A world, for example, in which every convenience
and necessary should be placed within reach; the earth producing
spontaneously the supplies of corn and fruits necessary for our
subsistence--a sufficient supply of dew as a substitute for rain
with its discomforts--the purification of the air effected by gentle
breezes instead of by tempests and hurricanes--no diseases to rack
the body nor cares to harass the mind; a world, in fine, in which
universal happiness should prevail, and sorrow and toil be unknown?"
"Yes, there is no denying that the Deity could have done this."
"But God has not done it; and therefore to object to what he has
done, because we can imagine he could have done something better,
is as useless, as it would be childish. Now, suppose for a moment
some other plan of salvation had been devised, it would have been
to accomplish what is effected by the present scheme--namely, the
final happiness of man. The present scheme, then, answers the
beneficent purpose of its Author--another plan could do no more
than this; but it would be romantic to suppose that it could be
so arranged, in its various parts and modes of application, as to
preclude the possibility of any objections to it, when we well
know it is next to impossible to find any twenty men who all think
alike even on the most obvious facts. Christianity places before us
two great practical facts, in which our present safety and final
happiness are involved: first, there is a way to heaven or to a
state of future blessedness--this should excite our gratitude;
there is only one way--this should make us cautious, lest, through
ignorance, prejudice, or carelessness, we come short of so glorious
a consummation."
"Your explanations, Sir, may be satisfactory to yourself, but they
are not so to me. Indeed, the more I think of it, the more I feel
disinclined to bow down and do homage to the Christian faith. Now,
for example, it is an indisputable historic fact that many ages
elapsed before Christianity was promulgated; and, during this long
period, what countless millions of human beings must, on your
hypothesis, have perished, without ever having had a chance of being
saved! Would the Deity have remained silent so long if he had bound
himself to your law of restriction--to save none but the few who
believe and trust in Christ for salvation?"
"If Christianity, which is the completion of the original scheme
of salvation, was not promulgated till a comparatively late period
in the history of our world, yet the essential substance of it was
known from the earliest period of time. The apostle says, that
Abel, the first man who tasted the bitterness of death, offered his
prefigurative sacrifice in faith, which is a proof that he knew
the way of salvation, to be perfected by the death of the promised
Saviour; and we may fairly presume that what he knew, would be
made known to his descendants, from one generation to another. And
the same apostle says, when speaking of his Jewish ancestors--'For
unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them; but the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them
that heard it' (Heb. iv. 2). And Jesus Christ himself says--'Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad'
(John viii. 56). From the time of Abraham to the actual coming of
Christ, the clearest and fullest revelations of this scheme of
salvation were limited to Abraham's descendants; but we can collect
from the records of ancient history, scanty as its materials are,
sufficient evidence to prove, that amongst the people of other
nations it descended by traditional report and testimony, from one
generation to another, so as to leave them without excuse, if they
perished in their disbelief, or from their own neglect of giving it
due attention. At length they became so corrupt and debased that
they were left, as a judicial visitation from God, to suffer the
consequences of their depravity and impenitence (Rom. i. 21-25)."
"But what immense numbers of human beings must, on your hypothesis,
have perished during this long reign of ignorance and moral
corruption; and I do not see that the state of things is much
improved at the present time. Now, let us look at the case just as
it is. Christianity has been in existence and in active operation,
so you say, for nearly two thousand years; and yet how small is the
space on the surface of our globe which is illumined by what you
call her celestial light, in comparison with the vast regions which
are enveloped in moral darkness!"
"I admit it," I replied.
"But how will you reconcile such a tremendous state of things, with
the acknowledged wisdom and beneficence of the Deity?"
"You are aware, Sir, that we are often compelled to admit as
indisputable facts, what we cannot reconcile with the wisdom and
benevolence of God--as the slave-trade, for example, slavery as it
now exists in America, and the perpetration of murders, and other
social crimes."
"Very true, Sir; these are confounding facts. They often stagger me."
"Permit me to say, that the arguments you adduce to disprove, if
possible, the truth of the Christian faith, and its practical
utility, are precisely those I would employ in proof of its Divine
origin and beneficial tendency. Going back to an early period of
time, let us consider some of the indisputable facts of history. The
tribes of Israel, we know, had been held for centuries as slaves
in the land of Egypt; and after their emancipation they went to
reside in Palestine. In most of those qualities which command the
respect and admiration of mankind, the Jewish nation was remarkably
deficient. With the exception of their sacred writings, their
literature appears to have been meagre in the extreme; no eminent
philosophers, historians, or orators adorn their annals, and the
fine arts seem scarcely to have had any existence among them.
Compared with the Greeks and Romans, and other nations of antiquity,
they were barbarians; and were spoken of in the language of scorn
and contempt by their more accomplished and renowned contemporaries.
In ONE department of knowledge, however, the despised Jewish people
far surpassed the haughty statesmen and polished sages of Greece
and Rome. They knew the only true God, and spoke of him in a style
corresponding with his greatness, his condescension, and his
paternal love. While the inhabitants of all other countries were
abandoned to the grossest and most abject superstition and idolatry,
the Hebrews alone adored one God, and alone appear to have possessed
any suitable ideas of the dignity and holiness of the Supreme
Being; and while the worship of the pagan divinities was licentious
and cruel, that of the God of the Jews was distinguished by its
mildness and purity. Here is a contrast which must be traced to some
adequate cause."
"The Jews most certainly, in this department of knowledge, claim a
just superiority over other ancient nations; but this may have been
owing to their isolation and their training."
"That I grant; but their isolation was a Divine arrangement, and
their training a Divine dispensation. They were separated from all
other people by the express command of the Lord their God; and their
teachers who trained them in this department of knowledge--the
knowledge of the only true God, and of the way of salvation,
proclaimed that God had made himself known to them by special
revelation."
"Yes, they said so, and I will admit that they believed it was so;
but as they were not infallible, they may have been mistaken."
"Why, Sir, any person of common sense can easily distinguish
between a discovery, and a communication as to matters of fact.
However, to account for their superior knowledge on these sublime
and recondite subjects, without admitting the correctness of their
own testimony,'that God spake to _their fathers_,' is absolutely
impossible, unless we believe--what would be an outrage on common
sense to imagine--that there is more acuteness in mental dulness
than in superior intelligence; and that an untutored people,
while devoting themselves chiefly to agriculture and the rearing
of cattle, could eclipse, by the grandeur and sublimity of their
discoveries, a people who has long enjoyed the highest degree of
intellectual culture."
"But, Sir, your Scriptures prove that the Jews had amongst them
men of genius and of great mental power. Isaiah, for example, in
sublimity and lofty grandeur of conception and description, has
no superior in any age or country; and the pastoral odes of David
equal, if they do not surpass, anything we meet with in Pope or
Addison. As a legislator, Moses stands at the head of his order,
and, if my memory serves me, the great critic Longinus says he
was no ordinary man; and, therefore, it is not a matter of such
wonderment that they made discoveries of the Deity which no other
philosophers ever made."
"But you forget that what you call their discoveries were
inspirations, which came upon them from the Source of all knowledge;
and to these inspirations they uniformly attribute their knowledge
of the only true God, and that scheme of salvation which he had
devised on behalf of man. And this belief was entertained by all
the tribes of Israel, not simply because their teachers said so,
but because, they confirmed the truthfulness of their testimony by
signs, and wonders, and divers miracles."
"And yet after all their novel and sublime discoveries in regard
to these all-important subjects, and after all the miraculous
attestations which you say were supplied in confirmation of their
truthfulness, we find that they apostatized from the worship of
their Deity, and relapsed again and again into idolatrous worship
and practices, and became corrupt and debased like the people of
other nations."
"That is very true, Sir; and the consequences resulting from their
apostasy supplies a very cogent argument in favour of my hypothesis.
While they adhered to the worship of the true God, and observed the
statutes and ordinances which he gave them, they were a united,
virtuous, and prosperous people; and, though few in number, they
were great in power. No invading force could subdue them, nor
could any adjoining country into which they carried their arms
withstand the shock of their assaults. But when they renounced their
allegiance to Him, and relapsed into idolatry, practising at the
same time the cruel and obscene rites of heathenism, they became
debased and corrupt like other pagan nations; and then, when the
protecting arm of the Lord their God was withdrawn, they fell an
easy prey to their enemies, who reduced them to a state of slavery
more galling to their national pride than that of Egypt. And,
in further confirmation of my argument, just let us look at the
present moral state of those countries which have not yet received
and submitted to the authority of Christianity. There we find
most triumphant evidence in favour of the moral superiority of the
Christian system over every other at present existing in the world,
in regard to promoting the dignity and happiness of mankind. Without
descending to the gross idolatries of Fetichism, and other abject
forms of superstition, what is the social condition of nations where
Mahometanism or Buddhism is professed? and what, on the other hand,
is that of those countries, where Christianity has been established?"
"To you, Sir, who believe that the Deity restricts the bestowal of
a state of future blessedness to that comparatively small number
who believe in Jesus Christ, the condition of those nations where
Christianity is not established must appear truly appalling; but to
myself it presents no such painful aspect, because, as the Deity
has permitted this state of things to descend from one generation
to another, for such a series of ages, I believe he looks with an
_equal eye_ of compassion and beneficence on all his offspring;
and that, _if there be a future state of blessedness in reserve_,
he will discard your law of restriction, and confer everlasting
happiness on all, without respect to their faith, or their religious
rites and customs. Hence I see no absolute necessity why you should
embark in that crusade of missionary enterprise and labour, which we
heard recommended and enforced with so much eloquence last evening;
for we are not sure that if such a transfer of homage, and change
in the mode of worship, could be effected, it would augment the
happiness of the people who are the subjects of it, or improve their
social habits and dispositions."