MILLIONS assert that the philosophy of Christ is perfect--that he was
the wisest that ever littered speech.
Let us see:
_Resist not evil. If smitten on one cheek turn the other_.
Is there any philosophy, any wisdom in this? Christ takes from goodness,
from virtue, from the truth, the right of self-defence. Vice becomes the
master of the world, and the good become the victims of the infamous.
No man has the right to protect himself, his property, his wife and
children. Government becomes impossible, and the world is at the mercy
of criminals. Is there any absurdity beyond this?
_Love your enemies_.
Is this possible? Did any human being ever love his enemies? Did Christ
love his, when he denounced them as whited sepulchers, hypocrites and
vipers?
We cannot love those who hate us. Hatred in the hearts of others does
not breed love in ours. Not to resist evil is absurd; to love your
enemies is impossible.
_Take no thought for the morrow_.
The idea was that God would take care of us as he did of sparrows and
lilies. Is there the least sense in that belief?
Does God take care of anybody?
Can we live without taking thought for the morrow? To plow, to sow, to
cultivate, to harvest, is to take thought for the morrow. We plan and
work for the future, for our children, for the unborn generations
to come. Without this forethought there could be no progress, no
civilization. The world would go back to the caves and dens of savagery.
_If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offend
thee, cut it off._
Why? Because it is better that one of our members should perish than
that the whole body should be cast into hell.
Is there any wisdom in putting out your eyes or cutting off your hands?
Is it possible to extract from these extravagant sayings the smallest
grain of common sense?
_Swear not at all; neither by Heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by
the Earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is his holy
city._
Here we find the astronomy and geology of Christ. Heaven is the throne
of God, the monarch; the earth is his footstool. A footstool that turns
over at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and sweeps through space
at the rate of over a thousand miles a minute!
Where did Christ think heaven was? Why was Jerusalem a holy city? Was it
because the inhabitants were ignorant, cruel and superstitious?
_If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have
thy cloak also_.
Is there any philosophy, any good sense, in that commandment? Would it
not be just as sensible to say: "If a man obtains a judgment against you
for one hundred dollars, give him two hundred."
Only the insane could give or follow this advice.
_Think not I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace,
but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother._
If this is true, how much better it would have been had he remained
away.
Is it possible that he who said, "Resist not evil," came to bring a
sword? That he who said, "Love your enemies," came to destroy the peace
of the world?
To set father against son, and daughter against father--what a glorious
mission!
He did bring a sword, and the sword was wet for a thousand years with
innocent blood. In millions of hearts he sowed the seeds of hatred and
revenge. He divided nations and families, put out the light of reason,
and petrified the hearts of men.
_And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake,
shall receive an hundredfold, shall inherit everlasting life._
According to the writer of Matthew, Christ, the compassionate, the
merciful, uttered these terrible words. Is it possible that Christ
offered the bribe of eternal joy to those who would desert their
fathers, their mothers, their wives and children? Are we to win the
happiness of heaven by deserting the ones we love? Is a home to be
ruined here for the sake of a mansion there?
And yet it is said that Christ is an example for all the world. Did he
desert his father and mother? He said, speaking to his mother: "Woman,
what have I to do with, thee?"