The preceding chapters have presented the distinctive features of two
systems which, in their main points, are shown to be contradictory, while
both are exhibited as incorporated into the chief creeds and theological
teachings of the Christian world.
It is the object of this chapter to point out the _tendencies_ of these
antagonistic systems.
It is maintained, that the common‐sense system, resting as it does on
implanted principles common to all minds, is evolved and held very much in
proportion to the development of the reasoning powers and the moral sense.
That part of this system which relates to man’s duties and best interests
_in this life_, without reference to a future state, has been more
harmoniously evolved by the wise and good of all ages and nations than any
other. Thus, in the teachings of Confucius, Zoroaster, Gaudama, Solon,
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, and the Antonines, who are among the
chief heathen sages, we can find nearly all the moral duties of man, to
himself and to his fellow‐man, which are to be found in the Bible. It is
true that there are diversities and deficiencies in all; but a large body
of pure morality could be made up from their united teachings. The account
given of the system of Boodhism in a previous chapter is one illustration
of this fact.
But, while it is comparatively easy for the good and wise heathen to
reason out what is _best_ for man in this life, as taught by experience,
the grand failure is in _motives_ which will secure _obedience_ to the
rules of virtue. “We see the right and yet the wrong pursue,” has been the
universal lament of humanity.
The character of the Creator, as “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and
gracious, slow unto anger, of great kindness;” “who doth not _willingly_
afflict or grieve the children of men;” who “like as a father pitieth his
children;” who is “a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widow;”
“a God without iniquity, just and right;” “a judge of the fatherless and
the poor;” who “shall judge the world with righteousness;” “a righteous
God, who trieth the heart and the reins;” who “will regard the prayer of
the destitute;” who “knoweth the wants of the heart;” “who knoweth our
down‐sitting and up‐rising, and is acquainted with all our ways;” who is
“a righteous Lord who loveth righteousness;” “whose judgments are all
right;” whose “word is right;” whose “word is truth from the beginning;”
who is “plenteous in mercy and truth;” such a character as this, as it is
recorded in the Jewish sacred books, was never evolved or set forth by the
wisest and best sages of all the earth, unaided by these writings.
That such a Being regards our race with long‐suffering compassion, and
came himself to earth, by his teachings, example and _self‐sacrificing_
love, to save us from sin, this was never even _imagined_ by any of the
heathen sages of earth.
The _power of motive_, secured by a belief in the omnipresence, sympathy
and love of such a God, never was attained by the unaided reasoning of any
human being.
The fact that the soul survives the dissolution of the body, and that the
good go where they are happy, and the wicked where they are punished, has
been more or less clearly evolved by the heathen world. In some nations,
as for example the followers of Boodhism, this doctrine is quite definite
and distinct, but with most heathen nations all their notions on this
subject are dim, shadowy and unpractical.
It is those nations alone, who have had access to the Bible, who have ever
attained the _powerful motives_ which are found in the system of common
sense. And yet, as has been shown, these influences have been, to a great
extent, nullified by a contradictory system.
It is claimed, that the system of common sense is the one on which the
revelations of the Creator, contained in the Bible, are founded. This
being so, those who are most developed in their reasoning powers, and who
also yield the most reverence to the Bible, are those who are most
powerfully protected against the pernicious tendencies of the antagonistic
system of Augustine.
Thus, a system which is antagonistic to reason and common sense, has, by
ecclesiastical authority and perversion, been fastened most firmly on that
class of minds who bring all their cultivated powers to its defense, while
at the same time the very cultivation of these powers, and their reverence
for the Bible, tend to the destruction of the same system. We consequently
find the strongest defenders, and the strongest antagonists of the
Augustinian system, in those sects who were educated within its
entrenchments.
If common sense and the Bible are to conquer this false system, it must be
done by those whose common sense and reverence for the Bible are most
effective and most prominent. And yet this class of persons are the ones,
who would the most vigorously apply their energies in the defense of a
system in which they have been trained from infancy, and which is
sustained by all the power of public sentiment, and church organization.
This being premised, the tendencies of the two antagonistic systems will
now be set forth.