THE question is frequently asked by Bible adherents, What would be the
moral condition of society without the Bible? Would it not again relapse
into barbarism? Such questions manifest an ignorance of history and the
moral instincts of the human mind, and are easily met and answered by
other questions indicating broader views. We ask, then, what was the
moral condition of the world, or that portion of it included in the
Jewish nation, during the two thousand years which elapsed before
any part of our Bible was written? Was it any worse than the next two
thousand years after it was written? And what is the moral condition of
five-sixths of the human family now, who never had our Bible? Facts in
history prove that the morals of some of the nations included in this
class are superior to that of any Bible nation, either now existing,
or figuring in past history. Take, for example, the Japanese. We will
present the testimony of an English officer, Col. Hall. Reporting his
own observations and experience, he says, "During more than a year's
residence in Japan, I never saw a quarrel among young or old. I have
never seen an angry blow struck, and have scarcely heard an angry word.
I have seen the children at their sports, flying their kites on the
hill; and no amount of entangled strings, or kites lodged in the trees,
provoked angry words or impatience. In their games of jackstones and
marbles, I have never seen an approach to a quarrel among them. They are
taught implicit obedience to their parents; but I have never seen one
of them chastised. Respect and reverence for the aged is universal. A
crying child is seldom seen. We have nothing to teach them out of the
abundance of our civilization."
And a description of this nation by Dr. Oliphant fully confirms the
above. He says, "Universal testimony assures us, that, in their domestic
relations, the men are gentle and forbearing; the women, obedient
and virtuous. Every department of crime is less in proportion to the
population than in Christian countries. The native tribunals prove their
competency to deal with criminals by giving general satisfaction. Unlike
any Christian country, locks and keys are never used; yet theft
and robbery are almost unknown. Although we had the most tempting
curiosities with us, and left them laying about our lodgings for months,
not one of them was carried off, though our room was sometimes crowded
with people. During the whole of our stay in Yeddo, we never heard a
scolding woman, nor saw a disturbance in the streets, nor a child struck
or otherwise maltreated. In case of disputes between neighbors, their
children are often selected as arbiters, and always give satisfaction.
And parents in their old age often give their properly and the entire
management of their affairs into the hands of their children, who never
betray their trust." Now, it must be evident to every reader, that
no such a moral picture of society can be presented of any Christian
country. And yet the Christian Bible is not only scarcely known
among them, but they have resisted the most determined efforts of the
Christian f missionaries, for more than two hundred years, to introduce
it and circulate it amongst them, and have kept it out by positive
prohibition most of the time. Do such facts tend to confirm the
statement often made by devout Christians, that "the Bible must be
introduced and read by the people before they can have good morals in
any country"? As a still further proof of the erroneousness of this
statement, we will now contrast the state of morals in the most
religious Christian countries with that of the heathen nation just
referred to. And this moral picture of our country is from the pen of
a Christian writer, the celebrated Parson Brownlow. He tells us, "The
gospel is preached to the people regularly all over the country....
And yet, notwithstanding all this, rascality abounds in all classes
of society.... Cheating and misrepresentation are the order of the day.
In politics there is very little patriotism! or love of country. In
religion there is more hypocrisy than grace; and the biggest scoundrels
living, crowd the church with a view to hide their rascally designs, and
more effectually serve the Devil. Pious villains, as sanctified as the
moral law, are keeping false accounts, and resort to them for the sake
of gain.... In a word, rascality abounds among all classes." Now look on
this picture, and then on that. We will now present another contrast.
We will look at another specimen of morality among the heathen. The
portraiture is furnished us by the celebrated Christian missionary, Dr.
Livingstone. Speaking of some of the African tribes he encountered in
his travels, he says,
"The inhabitants have many wise laws and politic institutions, which
would not discredit any nation in Europe. They are not a warlike people,
but appear to hold martial achievements in great contempt or abhorrence.
They have such a nice sense of justice and equity, that they will by no
means make any encroachments on the territory of their neighbors. Their
dealings with each other are characterized by mutual confidence, which
_Chris-tians would do well to imitate_." No man is afraid of being
cheated. No precautions are used to prevent theft and robbery; and yet
no theft and robbery are committed. Their goods to be sold are stored in
an open bazaar, left without any attendants, and the purchaser fixes his
own price, and leaves what he considers a fair equivalent in its stead;
and all parties are satisfied.
It would seem, then, that, while in Christian countries "it requires
two to make a bargain," in heathen countries it requires but one. Here,
then, we have the morals of a heathen nation, who not only knew nothing
of Christianity, but would not condescend to talk with the missionary on
the subject, but put him off with the plea, "It makes no difference
what a man's religion is, if his morals and practical life are right."
_Sensible reasoning_
We will now turn another leaf in Christian history with the inquiry,
Is every country honored with the name of Christian distinguished for
morality, and every nation stigmatized as heathen practically immoral?
We will present another specimen of Christian morality from the pen
of that popular Christian writer, Mr. Goodrich. Speaking of the moral
condition of one of the oldest Christian nations now existing (the
Abyssinians), he says, "They are restless, savage, and brutal, almost
beyond any known tribes of men." The Scotch traveler, Mr. Bruce, was at
Gondar, the capital; and he tells us that he seldom went out without
seeing dead human bodies lying in the streets, left to be devoured by
the dogs and hyenas. Alnary, who lived there some years since, says he
was invited to a feast, where, amongst the dishes he was offered, was
flesh with warm blood. We are told the people eat the flesh from the
cattle while alive; and sometimes, after a large piece has been cut out,
the skin is drawn over it, and the bleeding beast driven on its way.
Sometimes, when a party is assembled for a feast, and are seated, the
oxen are brought to the door, the flesh is cut off the living animal,
and the meat devoured while the agonized brutes are filling the air with
their bellowings....
And the manners of the people in other respects are horrible in the
extreme. Yet, strange to say, _they profess Christianity, and have
numerous churches_. Their saints are almost innumerable, and surpass in
miraculous power those of the Romish Church. The clergy do not attempt
to prevent divorces, nor even polygamy. In confirmation of the above
graphic picture, we will quote also from an English geography by Guthrie
and Ferguson, F.R.S. (p. 923): "The inhabitants of Abyssinia _consist
of Christians_. Some ecclesiastical writers would persuade us that the
conversion of Abyssinia to Christianity happened in the time of the
apostles; but others state that this was after,--: in the year 333.
There is no such thing as marriage in Abyssinia, and no distinction
made between legitimate and illegitimate children, from the king to the
beggar." _Here, then, is "Christian" morality, and here is a specimen of
Christian "free-lovism" too, in a country where the Christian Bible
has been circulated by the thousand, and read and adored for at least
fifteen hundred years_. Such facts furnish a complete refutation of the
popular Christian assumption that "true and pure morality is inseparable
from Christianity and the Bible."
The truth is, the Bible alone has _never done any thing_ to advance the
cause of _either morality or civilization in any country_, because it
is interdicted from improvement. It may be asked here, Why is it, then,
that both religion and morality prosper in most countries where the
Bible has been introduced? The answer to this question is found in the
_important fact, overlooked by the Christian world_, that the _arts and
sciences_ generally accompany, or soon follow, the introduction of the
Bible; but, where this has not been the case, and the Bible has been
circulated alone, as in the case of Abyssinia, no progress whatever
has been made towards the establishment of true morality or a rational
religion, or any of the adjuncts of civilization, thus proving that the
causes for the moral growth and improvement of society are outside of,
and independent of, the Bible, and, we will add (in view of the many
immoral lessons taught in the book), in spite of the Bible. A little
rational reflection must convince any unbiased person that Bibles,
in the very nature of things, must retard the moral and intellectual
advancement and prosperity of society in every respect, notwithstanding
they contain many good and beautiful precepts, for representing, as they
do, the imperfect state of morals in the age and country in which they
were written; while their teachings are assumed to be a finality
in moral and religious progress, and hence are not allowed to be
transcended in precept or practice. The consequence is, society would be
pinned down immovably and perpetually to the same barbarous religion and
morals of that age, if it were not pushed forward by the irresistible
influences of the arts and sciences. Hence we owe our advancement and
prosperity _not to Bibles, but to causes adequate to counteract and
overcome their adverse influences_.
THE MORAL BENEFITS OF INFIDELITY.
An additional argument to prove the Bible is not a moral necessity
to teach the practical duties of life is the fact that that class of
persons known as "infidels," who entirely reject the book as a guide or
as a moral instructor on account of its very defective and contradictory
system of morals, are admitted by leading orthodox journals and
representative men in the nation to possess better moral characters and
habits, and to lead better moral lives, than Bible believers. As a
proof of this statement, we will here present the most wonderful and
humiliating concessions of that leading religious journal of the nation,
"The New-York Evangelist." On this subject it speaks thus: "To the shame
of the Church it must be confessed that the foremost men in all our
philanthropic movements, in the interpretation of the spirit of the age,
in the practical application of genuine Christianity, in the reformation
of abuses in high and in low places, in the vindication of the rights
of man and in practically redressing his wrongs, in the moral and
intellectual regeneration of the race, _are the so-called infidels in
our land_. The Church has pusillanimously left not only the working oar,
but the very reins of salutary reform, in the hands of men she denounces
as inimical to Christianity, and who are doing with all their might,
for _humanity's_ sake, that which the Church ought to be doing
for _Christ's_ sake; and if they succeed, as succeed they will, in
abolishing slavery, banishing rum, restraining licentiousness,
reforming abuses, and elevating the masses, then must the recoil upon
Christianity be disastrous in the extreme. Woe! woe! woe to Christianity
when infidels, by force of nature or the tendencies of the age,
_get ahead of the Church in morals_, and in the practical work of
Christianity. In some instances they are already far in advance. In the
vindication of truth, righteousness, and liberty, they are the pioneers
beckoning to a sluggish Church to follow in the rear." To this we will
add the testimony of another orthodox writer (the eminent Catherine
Beecher) as to the superior practical morality of infidels as compared
with that of Christians. She says, in her "Appeal to the People"
(p. 319), "It has come to pass that the world has been improving in
practical virtue, while the Church has been deteriorating. The writer,
in her very extensive travels and intercourse with the religious world,
has had unusual opportunity to notice how surely and how extensively
this fact has been observed and acknowledged by the best class of
clergymen and laymen." She says one of the most laborious Episcopal
bishops of the Western States declares, that "the world is growing
better, and the Church is growing worse." She next cites the testimony
of an eminent lawyer and church-member who is carrying on an extensive
financial business throughout the country, and who makes the remarkable
statement, that "the better class of _worldly men are more honorable
and reliable in business than the majority of church-members_." (Let the
reader mark this statement.) And this declaration was concurred in by
another eminent lawyer, banker, and church-member, who is doing a more
extensive business in the North-western States than any other man. And
he states that the most extensive business-man in Central New York has
arrived at the same conclusion as the result of his observation. And the
greatest business-man in Boston is also referred to, whose experience
led him to this conclusion. And other business-men in different parts of
the country testify to the same effect. We may, then, set it down as the
universal testimony of business-men that infidels and outsiders are
more honest, more reliable, more truthful, and more honorable than
church-members.
What a fatal argument these facts furnish against the religion and
morality of the Christian Bible! They indicate that the religion and
morality of nature and science are superior.
BURNING THE WORLD'S BENEFACTORS AS INFIDELS.
It will be perceived, from the preceding orthodox testimonies, that the
class of people usually stigmatized as infidels are the true exemplars
in practical morality, and the true benefactors of society. And
Christian countries owe them a debt of gratitude for all the reforms and
improvements which have proved such signal blessings to society within
the last few hundred years, and for their own elevation out of
the groveling ignorance of barbarism into the glorious sunlight of
civilization. What withering self-reproach, what shameful mortification
and self-condemnation, they ought therefore to feel in view of having
committed so many of them to the flames, or otherwise maltreated and
killed them! For, according to the above Christian testimonies, they
were the world's real benefactors; and the following list will show that
those victims _perished at the hands of Christians as infidel martyrs_:
In 1511 Herman of Ryswick was burned for heresy; in 1546 Aonius
Polearius was hung, and then burned for skepticism; in 1574 Geofroi
Vallie was burned for publishing a heretical book; In 1546 Stephen
Dolet, a printer and bookseller, was burned at Paris for atheism; in
1579 Matthew Hamont had his ears cut off, and was then burned alive, in
England, for denying that Christ is God; in 1583 John Lewes was burned
at Norwich, Eng., for "denying the Godhead of Christ;" in 1589 Francis
Kett, a member of a college in Cambridge, Eng., was burned for holding
"divers detestable opinions against Christ, our Savior;" In 1611
Bartholomew Legate was burned to ashes at Smithfield for denying that
Christ was God; in 1644 Edward Wightman was burned at Litchfield for
denying the divinity of Christ; in 1619 Lucilio Yanini, an Italian, was
burned for atheistical opinions; in 1574 John Gonganelle was poisoned
for his infidelity by the Holy Sacrament; in 1629 Alexander Leighton had
his nose slit and his ears cut off, and was imprisoned for eleven
years for publishing a work against miracles. To make the matter short,
without extending the list, it has been estimated that _forty thousand_
perished at the hands of Christians in _forty y ears for infidelity,
heresy,_ or other opinions deemed unsound by orthodox. And thus it
will be perceived that infidelity has had its martyrs as well as
Christianity; and that Christians, in putting these men to death, were
robbing the world (according to "The New-York Evangelist")of its real
benefactors. Oh, shame! Christianity, where is thy blush?