The doctrine of divine forgiveness for sin is another illogical and
immoral doctrine of the orthodox school, as well as that of heathen
nations, which a logical analysis and the practical experience of nearly
all religious countries show has been pernicious in its effects upon the
morals of society. A little reflection must convince any unbiased mind
that, while men and women are taught to believe that the consequences
of sin or crime can be arrested or mitigated by an act of forgiveness
by the divine Law-maker, they will feel the less restrained from the
commission of crime and wickedness. They naturally look upon it as a
sort of license for the indulgence of their passions and propensities.
They are taught that none of the evil consequences of wrong-doing
can follow them to another world if they repent in time, and ask
forgiveness. This they accept as a broad license to take their swing
in vice and villainy. And thus they are partially demoralized by the
doctrine. Much more rational is the doctrine of the Swedenborgians and
Harmonialists, that every sin or wrong act we commit makes its impress
upon the soul, or immortal spirit, which will be carried with it to the
life eternal, and will there long operate to impair the happiness, and
retard the spiritual growth, of every person who in this life indulges
in crime or immoral conduct. They teach us that the character we form
for ourselves on this plane of existence will be carried with us to the
spirit-world; that our character undergoes no radical change by merely
passing through the gates of death. Hence, whatever defective moral
qualities we permit to de incorporated into our characters here will
operate to sink us to a lower plane of happiness in the after-death
world. This is a plausible and rational doctrine, to say the least,
and can have no effect to demoralize the community, as the sentiments
breathed forth by some of the orthodox hymns have evidently done.
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains."
Could any doctrine be more demoralizing than that here set forth,--that
the deep-dyed stains of a life of crime, debauchery, and wickedness can
all be wiped out by the simple act of plunging into a pool of blood, or
rather by believing that the atoning blood of Christ will cleanse from
all sin? The same idea is incorporated into Watts's well-known hymn,--
"While the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return."
The idea here set forth is shocking to the moralist, as well as
demoralizing in its effects on the community. "The vilest sinner" must
feel very little concern about "returning" to the path of virtue, or
abandoning his wicked deeds, while the conviction is established in his
mind that he is losing nothing by leading such a life, and will have
nothing to do at the end of a long life of the most shocking crimes,
villainies, and vices, to escape entirely their legitimate punitive
consequences, but to take a flip in "the blood of Jesus." Every
scientific moralist can see very plainly that the world can never be
reformed while such license for sin and wickedness is issued from the
Christian pulpit. Practically speaking, God could not forgive a sin. An
act of forgiveness implies that the legitimate consequence of the evil
deed or sinful act can be set aside, and escaped. The principles of
moral science teach us that this is impossible. It demonstrates that
the moral law is a part of our being; and, consequently, an act
of forgiveness for the violation or that law could not suspend its
operation, or stop the infliction of its penalty upon the perpetrator.
It could then, of course, effect nothing. Hence it will be seen that
no sin can be forgiven, but must work out its legitimate consequences.
Scientifically speaking, the law is the cause, and the penalty the
effect: when the cause is set in operation, the effect must follow.
It would be as easy to arrest the thunderbolt in its descent from the
clouds as to evade the penalty of this law. God could not if he would,
and would not if he could, forgive the violation of his laws. He could
not, because he has wisely arranged those laws to operate without his
interference. On the other hand, he would not if he could, because it
would encourage their future and further violation. And then a God
who would confer on us an inclination to commit certain acts, and then
require us to ask his forgiveness for committing them, would not be a
very consistent being. Forgiveness is, theologically speaking, "a free
ticket to Heaven." Buy a through ticket of the priest, and you can go on
"the strait-line" road, direct to the orthodox "house of many mansions,"
without having to switch off at any station to unload your burden of
sins. "All is well that ends well" is their motto. The orthodox clergy
tell the most vile and debauched villain and bloody assassin, after he
has inhumanly butchered and murdered his innocent and virtuous wife,
can, by an act of repentance and forgiveness, swing from the end of the
hangman's rope directly into a heaven of pure and unalloyed bliss, and,
with his fingers all dripping with human blood, join the white-robed
saints in shouting, "Glory hallelujah to the Lord God and the Lamb for
ever and ever!" Spare me, oh, spare me, from ever believing in such a
demoralizing religion as this!