Christians declare the religious sentiment to be universal. Even if it
were so, that would show a universal spiritual hunger; but would not
prove the Christian religion to be its only food.
But the religious sentiment is not universal. I know many young people
who have never been taught religion of any kind, who have never read
Bible nor Gospel, who never attended any place of worship; and they are
virtuous and courteous and compassionate and happy, and feel no more
need of spiritual comfort or religious consolation than I do.
They are as gentle, sweet, and merry, and do their duty as faithfully as
any Christian, yet to them Heaven and Hell are meaningless abstractions;
God and the soul are problems they, with quiet cheerfulness, leave time
to solve.
If the craving for religion were universal these young folk would not
be free from spiritual hunger. As they are free from spiritual hunger,
I conclude that the craving for religion is not born in us, but must be
inculcated.
Many good men and women will look blank at such heresy. "What!" they
will exclaim, "take away the belief in the Bible, and the service of
God? Why, our lives would be empty. What would you give us in exchange?"
To which I answer, "The belief in yourselves, and the belief in your
fellow-creatures, and the service of Man."
Such belief and such service will certainly increase the sum of
happiness on earth. And as for the Hereafter--no man knoweth. _No_ man
knoweth. IS CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY HOPE?
Christians tell us that their religion is our only refuge, that Christ
is our only saviour. From the wild Salvation Army captain, thundering
and beseeching under his banner of blood and fire, to the academic
Bishop reconciling science and transfiguring crude translations in the
dim religious light of a cathedral, all the apostles of the Nazarene
carpenter insist that He is the only way. In this the Christian
resembles the Hindu, the Parsee, the Buddhist, and the Mohammedan. There
is but one true religion, and it is his.
The Rationalist locks on with a rueful smile, and wonders. He
sees nothing in any one of these religions to justify its claim to
infallibility or pre-eminence. It seems to him unreasonable to assert
that any theology or any saviour is indispensable. He realises that
a man may be good and happy in any church, or outside any church. He
cannot admit that only those who follow Jesus, or Buddha, or Mahomet,
or Moses can be "saved," nor that all those who fail to believe in the
divine mission of one, or all of these will be lost.
Let us consider the Christian claim. If the Christian claim be valid,
men cannot be good, nor happy, cannot be saved, except through Christ.
Is this position supported by the facts?
One Christian tells me that "It is in the solemn realities of life that
one gets his final evidence that Christianity is true." Another tells me
that "In Christ alone is peace"; another, that "Without Christ there is
neither health nor holiness."
If these statements mean anything, they mean that none but true
Christians can live well, nor die well, nor bear sorrow and pain with
fortitude, do their whole duty manfully, nor find happiness here and
bliss hereafter.
But I submit that Christianity does not make men lead better lives
than others lead who are not Christians, and there are none so abjectly
afraid of death as Christians are. The Pagan, the Buddhist, the
Mohammedan, and the Agnostic do not fear death nearly so much as do the
Christians.
The words of many of the greatest Christians are gloomy with the fears
of death, of Hell, and of the wrath of God.
The Roman soldier, the Spartan soldier, the Mohammedan soldier did not
fear death. The Greek, the Buddhist, the Moslem, the Viking went to
death as to a reward, or as to the arms of a bride. Compare the writings
of Marcus Aurelius and of Jeremy Taylor, of Epictetus and John Bunyan,
and then ask yourself whether the Christian religion makes it easier for
men to die.
There are millions of Europeans--not to speak of Buddhists and
Jews--there are millions of men and women to-day who are not Christians.
Do they live worse or die worse, or bear trouble worse, than those who
accept the Christian faith?
Some of us have come through "the solemn realities of life," and have
_not_ realised that Christianity is true. We do not believe the Bible;
we do not believe in the divinity of Christ; we do not pray, nor feel
the need of prayer; we do not fear God, nor Hell, nor death. We are as
happy as our even Christian; we are as good as our even Christian; we
are as benevolent as our even Christian: what has Christianity to offer
us?
There are in the world some four hundred and fifty millions of
Buddhists. How do they bear themselves in "the solemn realities of
life"?
I suggest that consolation, and fortitude, and cheerfulness, and
loving-kindness are not in the exclusive gift of the Christian religion,
but may be found by good men in _all_ religions.
As to the effects of Christianity on life. Did Buddha, and King Asoka,
and Socrates, and Aristides lead happy, and pure, and useful lives? Were
there no virtuous, nor happy, nor noble men and women during all the
millions of years before the Crucifixion? Was there neither love, nor
honour, nor wisdom, nor valour, nor peace in the world until Paul turned
Christian? History tells us no such gloomy story.
Are there no good, nor happy, nor worthy men and women to-day outside
the pale of the Christian churches? Amongst the eight hundred millions
of human beings who do not know or do not follow Christ, are there none
as happy and as worthy as any who follow Him?
Are we Rationalists so wicked, so miserable, so useless in the world,
so terrified of the shadow of death? I beg to say we are nothing of
the kind. We are quite easy and contented. There is no despair in our
hearts. We are not afraid of bogeys, nor do we dread the silence and the
dark.
Friend Christian, you are deceived in this matter. When you say that
Christ is the _only_ true teacher, that He is the _only_ hope of
mankind, that He is the _only_ Saviour, I must answer sharply that I do
not believe that, and I do not think you believe it deep down in your
heart. For if Christ is the only Saviour, then thousands of millions of
Buddhists have died unsaved, and you know you do not believe that.
Jeremy Taylor believed that; but you know better.
Do you not _know_, as a matter of fact, that it is as well in this
world, and shall be as well hereafter, with a good Buddhist, or Jew, or
Agnostic, as with a good Christian?
Do you deny that? If you deny it, tell me what punishment you think
will be inflicted, here or hereafter on a good man who does not accept
Christianity.
If you do not deny it, then on what grounds do you claim that Christ
is _the_ Saviour of all mankind, and that "only in Christ we are made
whole"?
You speak of the spiritual value of your religion. What can it give you
more than Socrates or Buddha possessed? These men had wisdom, courage,
morality, fortitude, love, mercy. Can you find in all the world to-day
two men as wise, as good, as gentle, as happy? Yet these men died
centuries before Christ was born.
If you believe that none but Christians can be happy or good; or if you
believe that none but Christians can escape extinction or punishment,
then there is some logic in your belief that Christ is our only Saviour.
But that is to believe that there never was a good man before Christ
died, and that Socrates and Buddha, and many thousands of millions of
men, and women, and children, before Christ and after, have been _lost_.
Such a belief is monstrous and absurd.
But I see no escape from the dilemma it places us in. If only Christ
can save, about twelve hundred millions of our fellow-creatures will be
lost.
If men can be saved without Christ, then Christ is not our only Saviour.
Christianity seems to be a composite religion, made up of fragments of
religions of far greater antiquity. It is alleged to have originated
some two thousand years ago. It has never been the religion of more than
one-third of the human race, and of those professing it only ten per
cent at any time have thoroughly understood, or sincerely followed,
its teachings. It was not indispensable to the human race during the
thousands (I say millions) of years before its advent. It is not now
indispensable to some eight hundred millions of human beings. It had no
place in the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece. It was
unknown to Socrates, to Epicurus, to Aristides, to Marcus Aurelius, to
King Asoka, and to Buddha. It has opposed science and liberty almost
from the first. It has committed the most awful crimes and atrocities.
It has upheld the grossest errors and the most fiendish theories as
the special revelations of God. It has been defeated in argument and
confounded by facts over and over again, and has been steadily driven
back and back, abandoning one essential position after another, until
there is hardly anything left of its original pretensions. It is losing
more and more every day its hold upon the obedience and confidence
of the masses, and has only retained the suffrages of a minority of
educated minds by accepting as truths the very theories which in the
past it punished as deadly sins. Are these the signs of a triumphant
and indispensable religion? One would think, to read the Christian
apologists, that before the advent of Christianity the world had neither
virtue nor wisdom. But the world very old. Civilisation is very old. The
Christian religion is but a new thing, is a mere episode in the history
of human development, and has passed the zenith of its power.