Voltaire Chretien; preuves tirees de ses ouvrages. Paris, 1820, 12mo.
If Voltaire have not succeeded in proving himself a strong theist and a
strong anti-revelationist, who is to succeed in proving himself one thing
or the other in any matter whatsoever? By occasional confusion between
theism and Christianity; by taking advantage of the formal phrases of
adhesion to the Roman Church, which very often occur, and are often the
happiest bits of irony in an ironical production; by citations of his
morality, which is decidedly Christian, though often attributed to
Brahmins; and so on--the author makes a fair case for his paradox, in the
eyes of those who know no more than he tells them. If he had said that
Voltaire was a better Christian than himself knew of, towards all mankind
except men of letters, I for one should have agreed with him.
_Christian!_ the word has degenerated into a synonym of _man_, in what are
called Christian countries. So we have the parrot who "swore for all the
world like a Christian," and the two dogs who "hated each other just like
Christians." When the Irish duellist of the last century, whose name may be
spared in consideration of its historic fame {249} and the worthy people
who bear it, was (June 12, 1786) about to take the consequence of his last
brutal murder, the rope broke, and the criminal got up, and exclaimed, "By
---- Mr. Sheriff, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! this rope is not
strong enough to hang a dog, far less a Christian!" But such things as this
are far from the worst depravations. As to a word so defiled by usage, it
is well to know that there is a way of escape from it, without renouncing
the New Testament. I suppose any one may assume for himself what I have
sometimes heard contended for, that no New Testament word is to be used in
religion in any sense except that of the New Testament. This granted, the
question is settled. The word _Christian_, which occurs three times, is
never recognized as anything but a term of contempt from those without the
pale to those within. Thus, Herod Agrippa, who was deep in Jewish
literature, and a correspondent of Josephus, says to Paul (Acts xxvi. 28),
"Almost thou persuadest me to be (what I and other followers of the state
religion despise under the name) a Christian." Again (Acts xi. 26), "The
disciples (as they called _themselves_) were called (by the surrounding
heathens) Christians first in Antioch." Thirdly (1 Peter iv. 16), "Let none
of you suffer as a _murderer_.... But if as a _Christian_ (as the heathen
call it by whom the suffering comes), let him not be ashamed." That is to
say, no _disciple_ ever called _himself_ a Christian, or applied the name,
as from himself, to another disciple, from one end of the New Testament to
the other; and no disciple need apply that name to himself in our day, if
he dislike the associations with which the conduct of Christians has
clothed it.