The practical history of Christianity, ever since the dawn of civilization, has been that of schisms, sects, and divisions, all indicating the natural growth of the human mind, and its thirst for knowledge, its struggles for freedom, and its unalterable determination to be as free as the eagle that soars above the clouds. The number of church sects is estimated to be more than five hundred, and the number is still increasing. And the multiplication of infidels has kept pace with the increase of the churches; and skeptics are now increasing much more rapidly than converts to the churches. This fact accounts for the lamentations with which church organs and religious magazines an now filled with respect to the rapid falling off of church membership, and the decline of church attendance. The people are rapidly outgrowing their creeds and dogmas. This causes the decline of the churches. We will cite a few facts by way of illustration: A recent number of "The Christian Era" states that there has been twenty-two thousand more deserters from the Baptist Church than conversions to it within the brief period of five years. This does not look like converting the world, as they have avowed their determination to do. And the Methodist Church, according to "The Watchman and Reflector." is losing its members still faster: several thousand have left within the past year. "Zion's Watchman" presents us with a still sadder picture of the evangelical churches in general. It states that religion is on the decline in all those churches, and that in some of them it is rapidly dying out. It states, that, where one new church is erected, two are shut up; and concludes by saying, "Zion indeed languisheth, and religion is at a low ebb." It means churchianity religion; "for pure religion and undefiled," the outgrowth of modern intelligence, is on the increase, and increases in the ratio of the decline of the churches. The cause of Zion in old England appears to be in as lamentable a condition as in this country. A recent number of "The English Recorder" makes the solemn declaration that there are five millions of people living without the means of grace in that one province, and that, if arranged in a continuous line in single file, they would reach the distance of fourteen miles. This is rather a large number of immortal souls to be traveling the broad road in one nation. And we are informed that in Canada a large number of the people have no religion, and are on the road to infidelity. To return to this country: A colporteur of the American Bible Society informs us that three-fourths of the citizens of Philadelphia, and four-fifths of those of New York and vicinity, have no religion, and no faith in the religion of the Bible. They must therefore be set down as infidels. And the American Christian Commission, which assembled not long since in New York, has made some startling developments with respect to the decline of church attendance throughout the country. This body, I believe, represents nearly all the evangelical churches, and is composed principally of clergymen. They have had census committees traveling the whole country over to ascertain the proportionate number of church-members and church-goers in every city, town, and village in the country. Their report is really astonishing; and, as figures will not lie, these reports prove that the orthodox churches are rapidly declining. As indicative of the state of the whole country, look at the condition of some of our large cities. This vigilance committee tells us that three-fourths of the citizens of St. Louis never attend church, making about two hundred thousand out of the whole population. And in Boston, according to their figures, the proportion of church-members and church-goers is still smaller, being only about one-fifth, which leaves two hundred thousand persons "out in the cold;" but it is a kind of cold that is very comfortable compared with the cold, chilling dogmas of orthodoxy. Statistics similar to the above are furnished for many of the cities, towns, and villages throughout the country, by which it appears that many people are forsaking these old, obsolete institutions, and that the credal churches are really in a dying condition. The State of Vermont, taking it at large, furnishes a moral lesson worthy of imitation. It is one of the best educated, moral, enlightened, and intelligent States in the Union. Crime is but little known compared with the world at large; and yet only about one in twenty of her citizens is a sound church-member. Thus we see that Vermont is about the best educated and most moral State in the Union, and, at the same time, the most infidel State. Put this and that together. It will be seen at once that education, intelligence, morality, and infidelity go hand in hand; and that morality grows out of infidelity, instead of Christianity; and that science and infidelity, and not the Bible or Christianity, are to be the great levers and instrumentalities for reforming the world. Where, then, is the moral force of Christianity, so much talked of by the clergy? And we have it, upon the authority of this national body of clergymen, that there are not a sufficient number of church edifices in the country to hold one-half of the people if they wished to attend "divine service;" and that, on an an average, the churches are not half filled on the sabbath.
From this statement it is evident that only about one-fifth are church-goers; and a large number of these are not church-members, but attend, as the committees state, for mere pastime. This state of things forms a striking contrast with the condition of things only eighty or a hundred years ago, when nearly everybody attended church. To sum up the thing in a few words, the case stands about thus: A hundred years ago from three-fourths to nine-tenths of the people were church-attendants, and the most of them church-members; but now not more than one in eight or ten is a church-adherent, and not the half of these are sound or full believers. A gentleman: who has recently traveled in every State in the Union for the purpose of critically investigating the matter, concludes, as the result of his inquiries; that not one in fifteen of the entire population of the United States is a sound orthodox believer. This, contrasted with the state of the country and churches a hundred years ago, shows the difference is great, and that the decline of the orthodox faith is rapid, and their approach to their final destiny swift and sure. Calculating from the present rates of decrease in church interest and belief in church creeds, there will not be an orthodox church in existence sixty years from this time. Truly does the committee making this report say, "The state of the churches is alarming", but it is only alarming to the unprogressive adherents to old, musty, mind-crushing creeds and dogmas. To us it is not alarming, but cause of rejoicing, in view of the fact that the disappearance of these old soul-crushing institutions will give place to the glorious and grand truths of the Harmonial philosophy,—a religion adapted to the true wants of the soul, and calculated to save both soul and body from every thing which now mars their health, beauty, and happiness. Then every one can "sit under his own vine and fig-tree, where none can make him afraid" of orthodox devils or an angry God. We bring these things to notice for the purpose of showing that a religious body which persists in preaching, from year to year and from age to age, the same creed, dogmas, and catechisms, without any improvement, or even conceding the possibility that they can be improved, will fall behind the times, and finally be abandoned by all growing and intelligent minds. They cease to answer the moral and spiritual wants of the people, and become as cramping to their souls as the Chinese wooden shoes would be to their feet. "Excelsior, onward and upward," is the motto for this age. And that institution, whether moral, religious, or political, which obstinately refuses to live out this motto, will die as certainly as that the stopping the circulation of the blood will produce death.
Having spoken of the decadence of the churches, we will now look at the counter-picture,—the progress of infidelity. And here we observe that leading church-members not only confess to the decline of the churches, but concede, on the other hand, that what they are pleased to stigmatize as infidelity is rapidly increasing. We will refer to some of their alarming reports. A recent number of "Scribner's Monthly" says, that "at this very moment a black cloud of skepticism covers the whole moral horizon;" and the Right Reverend Bishop of Winchester corroborates the statement by exclaiming, "Infidelity is everywhere: it colors all our philosophy and our commonplace religion." Professor Fisher, in a warning note to Christian professors, says but few religious teachers are aware of the strength of the infidel party, and the alarming prevalence of infidelity throughout the country,—that "it pervades all classes of society, and is in the very atmosphere we breathe." If this be true, that infidelity pervades the atmosphere, then all must inhale it, and become contaminated by it, and thus become infidels naturally, and in spite of any godly resistance. Hence they should not be blamed for what they can not help. The Rev. David K. Nelson, author of "The Cause and Cure of Infidelity," makes some wonderful concessions in regard to the alarming prevalence of infidelity among the higher classes. He tells us that three-fourths of the editors of our popular newspapers are infidels, that nearly all our law-makers are infidels, and that "even the Church itself is full of infidels." If these statements are to be credited, the reverend gentleman may as well abandon all efforts to arrest it; for it evidently has the reins of government, and can't be stopped, and will ultimately rule the nation, and finally the world. Then will we have a rational religion; then will the millennium, so long predicted by seers and sung of by poets, be ushered in as an earthly paradise. This statement of Mr. Nelson's is corroborated by the religious magazines of the day. "The American Quarterly Review" asserts that seventeen-twentieths or the people are tinctured with infidelity. This leaves but a small handful of the faithful and zealous defenders of the "faith once delivered to the saints." The editor of "The Baptist Examiner" says that a member of the United-States Senate remarked to him, "There are, I assure you, but very few members of this body who believe in your evangelical religion." This is confirmatory of the statement frequently made in this work, that our current religion is not adapted to the times; that it is practically outgrown by the better informed classes of society. Mr. Beecher says, "Four-fifths of the educated young men of the age are infidels." Take notice, "the educated." Here is further evidence that infidelity and intelligence are almost synonymous terms,—further proof that education and intelligence alone are needed to banish Christian superstition from the world.
Let it be borne in mind that infidelity, in its true sense, simply means want of faith in the worn-out creeds and dogmas of past ages, but no lack of faith in any thing good and true. If we were to accept the orthodox definition of infidelity,—"Want of faith in the precepts and practice of Christ,"—then it would apply to every Christian professor on earth. There is not one of them that is not tinctured more or less with this kind of infidelity. There is not a Christian professor who believes as Jesus Christ did, or who practices the life he did. For example: no civilized Christian in this enlightened age believes with Christ that disease is produced by devils, and that, to cure the "obsessed," the diabolical intruder must be cast out "of the inner man." In this and other respects all enlightened Christian professors of the present day differ from the precepts and examples of Christ; hence, strictly speaking, are not Christians, but infidels. And we are warranted in saying that Christ himself, if living in this more enlightened and scientific age, would reject some of the superstitious notions which he cherished in common with the religions professors of that dark and illiterate era. He was most devoutly honest, but very ignorant on scientific subjects. Here permit us to note the fact that a very great change has taken place within half a century in the practical lives, as well as the religious views, of those who still profess to believe in the Christian faith. The time has been when nearly all religious professors, including even officers under the government, kept a diary of their religious experience, about which they talked whenever they met together; daily engaged in vocal prayer, and daily read their Bibles and catechisms; and the latter many of them committed to memory. But now it is doubtful whether one-half of even the clergy themselves ever read it. And as for the Bible, which used to be read every day by Christian professors, probably not one-half of them ever see inside of it once in six months, unless it is when they wish to settle some controverted question in theology. Some modern works of fiction or of travel have taken the place of "the Holy Book" on the centre-table, while the newspaper has supplanted the catechism. These are some of the extraordinary changes which have recently taken place, and are still rapidly going on, in the practical lives of Christian professors, which tend to show that their faith is daily growing weaker in the soul-saving efficacy of their religion, or in the belief that it possesses any intrinsic importance. This rapid decline in practical Christianity will land nearly all its professors on the shores of infidelity in less than half a century.
When Martin Luther left the Roman-Catholic Church, and adopted the motto, "Liberty to investigate," he sounded the death-knell of every orthodox church that should afterwards spring up outside the jurisdiction of the Pope. Luther was bigotedly orthodox, and something of a tyrant: but he had more intellectual brain and mind than most men of his time; and that intellectual ability, though warped by education and enchained by bigotry and superstition, struggled for freedom as minds of that character always do. Luther commenced reasoning (most unfortunate for his orthodoxy); but he had been living in the murky atmosphere of superstition all his life, and preaching a creed that had been stereotyped for a thousand years: so that his reasoning powers had been much weakened, and he had not sufficient intellectual light to see his way out of the dark prison-house of superstition in which the whole Christian Church was then enslaved. But he had intellect enough, when exercised, to convince him there was something wrong in the popular religion of the times; and he commenced reasoning, though in a very narrow circle. He did not attack orthodoxy, but only the tyranny of its misrule and the audacity of the Pope. It was only a reasoning mind beginning to feel the impulse of intellectual growth. The method which he adopted—"liberty to investigate"—was a dangerous experiment for orthodoxy, and will yet prove the death-warrant of all Protestant churches. The Pope has adopted the only true policy for keeping the light of the grand truths of science and infidelity from entering the darkened doors and windows of the Church, and producing schisms and disputes,—that of binding the intellect in chains, and laying it at the feet of the Pope. But Luther, by adopting the motto, "Liberty to investigate," set some orthodox minds to thinking and reasoning; and a religious mind that is allowed to think for itself will eventually think and reason its way out of its soul-enslaving creed, or at least make some progress in that direction. Hence, ever since Luther adopted this grand motto, the Christian Church (except that part kept in fetters by the Pope) has been gradually moving every hour since Luther entered upon this hazardous experiment of allowing religionists to reason and think for themselves. Orthodoxy has been growing weaker. It is becoming gradually diluted with the grand truths of science, and now entertains broader and more enlightened views, Thus this bigoted spirit of orthodoxy is dying by inches. Its days are numbered; and the last orthodox Protestant church will die in less than a century.
This is no mere visionary dream or random guess-work: it is a scientific problem, which can be proved and demonstrated by figures. The progress of the churches in the past, in permitting the truths of science and the infidelity of the age to displace its mind-crushing dogmas, and modify its creeds, furnishes a certain criterion for calculating their final destiny; and, by this rule, we are assured its years will be few. Let us look and see what progress the Protestant churches have already made towards "abandoning the faith once delivered to the saints." Some of them are much farther advanced in the line of progress than others; and each new church that has sprung up since the days of Luther dates a new era in the religious progress and onward march of infidelity; and yet each one professed to be sound in the faith, and forbid any one to advance beyond its landmarks. Every one proclaimed, Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther, in the line of religious progress. We will notice them in their order. The old Romish Church held all Chris-tians in its iron grasp for eleven hundred years, and hung its dark curtains in the moral heavens to exclude the light of science. Reason was held in chains, and the intellect crushed beneath the foot of popish infallibility. But, after this night of intellectual darkness, Luther rebelled, and broke the spell, and set what little intellect there was left in the Church to thinking.
Its doctrines were heathenish. It taught the infallibility of the Pope, and the divinity of the Virgin Mary. In this respect they were more consistent than the Protestant churches; for the divinity of Christ presupposes the divinity of both his parents, otherwise he would be half human and half divine. It also teaches the doctrine of election and reprobation, endless punishment, and other silly superstitions. In this state of mental darkness Greek literature made an attempt to invade its ranks and dispel its ignorance with the light of science, but failed,—not, however, until it had let a few gleams of light into the intellectual brain of some of the best minds, and set them to thinking. This caused a few members to reject the infallibility of the Pope, and a division in the Church was the consequence.
A new Church was instituted, which received the name of "the Greek Church." Here we find a slight improvement in the Christian creed. The Greek Christians rejected the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope, but still held to the divinity of the Virgin Mary, and all the other senseless dogmas of the Church. But, as it abandoned one of the most popular but unreasonable doctrines of the Church, it was an important step toward advancement. They did not, however, look upon it in that light, but declared it was the true doctrine of the Bible, and here planted their stakes, and forbade any further improvement. After gathering a Church of seventy million souls, another night of intellectual darkness set in, and continued for four hundred years; which brings us down to the fifteenth century, when Luther rebelled against the Pope, and again broke the spell of mental lethargy and intellectual darkness, and set what little intellectual mind there was left in the Church to thinking. Another slight improvement was made in the Christian creed. The Lutherans not only rejected the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope but also the divinity of the Virgin Mary, but here stopped, and planted their stakes, and issued a bull to interdict further progress; but the ball, once set in motion, can not be stopped. As well attempt to bind the ocean with a rope of sand as to attempt to stop the march of thought when one link is broken which binds it to the Juggernaut of superstition. This is true, however, of but few minds. But few church-members possess thought and independence enough to advance faster than their leaders. Luther did not live long enough to outgrow all the superstitious dogmas in which he had been educated; but he made such rapid progress in infidelity that he condemned the doctrines of eleven books of, the Bible, and consequently rejected them; viz., Chronicles, Job, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Esther, Joshua, Jonah, Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation. He was then an infidel with respect to eleven books of the Bible; and, had he lived in an age of progress like the present, he would have become an out-and-out infidel. But the mass of his followers did not possess minds so susceptible of intellectual growth: hence they lived and died in faith with the creeds he made for them. There were, however, a few exceptions to this rule. In all ages and all religious countries, and under every form of religion, there have been a few minds gifted with thought and reason beyond that of the multitude.
A few of this class figured under Lutherism, who eventually, by virtue of their tendency to mental growth, discovered some defects in his creed and system of faith. Among this number was Arminius, who rejected the doctrine of total depravity, original sin, the eucharist, purgatory, &c., and, with this change of Lutherism, founded what became known as the Arminian Church: but as no mind and no set of minds in any age have possessed the mental capacity to discover all error, or to grasp all truth, so Arminius only outgrew a few of the erroneous dogmas of the Christian faith, and then stopped, and planted his stakes, and stereotyped his creed; and any opinion or doctrine that advanced beyond that was infidelity. He did not live quite long enough to discover the absurdity of the atonement and an endless hell, and hence those doctrines are found in his creed; but the change he made in the popular religion furnishes another indubitable proof of the progress of mind, and the progressive improvement of the religion of Christianity, and another proof of the steady progress Christianity has made towards infidelity. So distinct and marked have been these changes, that they furnish data for calculating proximately the period when the last dogma shall drop out of the creeds of the churches, and bring them into conformity to the teachings of reason and science,—in other words, when Christianity shall merge into infidelity. And what is meant by infidelity is the want of faith in the false and morally injurious dogmas of the superstitious ages.
Another step in the road of religious progress brings us to the Unitarian Church. Here we find still longer strides in the direction of the Christian faith towards infidelity. The Unitarians rejected the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus Christ.
And why? Simply because the founders of that church had expansive intellectual minds that enabled them to perceive the absurdity and logical impossibility of the truth of the doctrine. Their enlightened reasoning powers enabled them to discover these objections to the doctrine: viz. (1) The impossibility of incorporating an infinite being into a finite body or into the human body; (2) the absurdity of considering any being on earth a God while there was acknowledged to be one in heaven, making at least two Gods; (3) the difficulty of accepting the Bible history of Christ as furnishing proof of his divinity, while it invests him with all the qualities of a human being. These and numerous other absurdities, which are treated of in "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors," lead them to reject the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, while most other Protestant churches consider a belief in the doctrine essential to salvation.
Thus they make a long leap towards infidelity. Having intellectually outgrown the doctrine, they set themselves to work to get it out of the Bible. This was no difficult task: for as many texts as may be found in the New Testament in favor of the doctrine, a much larger number may be cited in opposition to it. And a similar history may be given of the Universalist Church. It, too, has run into infidelity. The doctrine of Universal salvation is a beautiful doctrine: it had its origin in the noblest and kindest feelings of the human mind. Messrs. Murray and Ballou, founders of the church, were men of broad philanthropy and human sympathy, and possessed the kindest feelings. Such men could not brook the idea of endless misery for a single soul in God's universe. They were also men of a liberal endowment of reason and logical perception, and hence rejected the doctrine from logical considerations also. Being intellectual and intelligent men, they became convinced that the doctrine was wrong. They set themselves to work to get it out of the Bible. Their object in doing this was more to save the credit of the Bible than to make it an authority to sustain their own position. The Bible being a many-stringed instrument, on which you can play any tune, they found about as little difficulty in disproving the doctrine by the Bible as others do in establishing the doctrine by that authority. It is wonderful with what ease and facility a dozen conflicting doctrines may be drawn from the same text. This is because all human language is ambiguous, and that of the Bible pre-eminently so; and this fact demonstrates the absolute impossibility of settling any controverted theological question by the Bible. Controversialists who should argue a question before a jury on Bible ground, for a week or a month, should, in most cases, have a verdict given in favor of both parties; for, usually, both "beat," and also get beaten. Universalists, taking advantage of this ambiguity and uncertainty of Bible language, are now able to show that the doctrine of endless punishment is not taught in the Book. They succeeded in ruling the doctrine out of all the punitive terms to be found in "Holy Writ." The word "devil," on being traced to its origin, was found to be a contraction of "do evil." With this discovery they cast the "devil" out of their Bible. The word "hell" was found to be derived from the Saxon word "hole;" and hence, if it have any application in the case, must mean "Symm's Hole." "Hell-fire" originally meant a fire kindled in the vicinity of Jerusalem to consume the offal of the city. And thus, according to Universalism, the doctrine of future endless torment is no longer a Christian doctrine; and, whether their position is correct or not, it is rather comforting to believe that none of us are to be eternally roasted in the future life, and that even Satan himself has been released from the "painful duty" of ruling that kingdom. The history of both the Unitarian and Universalist Churches furnishes evidence of the rapid advancement of Christianity toward infidelity; and also the conclusion that the natural desires and moral feelings, and also the reasoning faculties, have much to do in forming the opinions of Christian professors as to whether certain doctrines are taught in the Bible,—whether they are scriptural or antiscriptural. The wish is often father to the belief. Just let a certain Bible doctrine become repugnant to the natural feelings of some pious professor, or at war with his enlightened reason, or instinctively repulsive to his moral sense, and he will find some way to convince himself that it is not a Bible doctrine. A new light springing up in the mind has, in many cases, led to new and improved interpretations of the Bible. It seems strange, indeed, that none of the two hundred millions of Christian professors have been able to discover that it is the improvement of the moral and intellectual faculties that has done so much to improve the doctrines and general teachings of the Bible in modern times. The old absurdities and heathenish ideas of the Bible are pumped out by the clerical force-pump, and a new set of ideas substituted in their place. This keeps it from falling immeasurably behind the times. It is a work of moral necessity to keep it from being condemned and set aside, or trampled under foot. Christian professors can all find abundant scripture to prove any thing they desire to prove; but let them change their belief, and adopt the opposite doctrine, and they can find as much scripture to prove that also. There is no difficulty in making out any kind of a creed or code of faith that may be desired. Hence a man may change his creed or his conduct as often as he pleases, and still be a Christian, or fit least pass for one.
Who that is not blinded by priestcraft, or a false religious education, can not see that it was the natural growth of the moral and intellectual faculties which gave rise to those new churches to which I have referred, with their new and improved interpretation of the Bible? Step by step along the pathway of human progress, the churches are forced against all resistance to make occasional improvements in their creeds; but so strong is their resistance to any change, and so determined to keep their creeds and dogmas unalterably stereotyped, that their improvements are too slow to suit the most progressive minds amongst them. Hence they leave the churches to which they have been tied, and in some cases form new ones, with new creeds, better adapted to the improved taste and improved moral code of the times. There is not a Protestant church in existence that does not furnish incontestable proof that Christian doctrines are perpetually changing. There is not a Protestant church that is not on the high road to infidelity. They have all unconsciously broken loose from the old landmarks. There is not one of them that is not now preaching doctrines which they would fifty or sixty years ago have denounced as infidelity. This may be to some a startling statement, but I will prove it.
I have pointed out numerous changes in doctrines made by all the modern churches, and their rapid tendency to infidelity. I will now show that the churches from which they emanated, on account of their immobility and conservativeness, have also made radical changes in their creeds, and are moving on in the same direction, being pushed forward by the irresistible tide of modern innovation and improvement. They have made more or less change in nearly all the doctrines of their creeds. Then look at the numerous doctrines once regarded as the very essence of Christianity, which they have entirely abandoned. We will enumerate some of them: The doctrine of casting out devils; the doctrine of a lake of fire and brimstone; the doctrine of Christ's descent into hell; the doctrine of purgatory (these two last-named doctrines, Mr. Sears says, "were once the doctrines of the Church universal, which nobody called in dispute"); the doctrine of election and reprobation, fore-ordination; the doctrine of infant damnation; the doctrine of polygamy, &c. These were all once regarded as prime articles of the Christian faith; and most of them were preached by all the churches: and now they are all abandoned by most of the churches; thus showing that they improve their creeds as they advance in light and knowledge. Thus the enlightenment of their own minds leads them to preach more enlightened doctrines, which they erroneously suppose are the teachings of the Book, when they are really the product of their own minds. The Indian, when he halloos to the distant hills and receives back the echo of his own voice, erroneously supposes some one is responding to him. In like manner, Christians, when reading and interpreting their Bible, receive the echo of their own minds, which they mistake for the response of the Bible writers, and the true meaning of the text. Each new church, springing up from time to time, is founded on some new interpretation of the Bible, and flatters itself, that, for the first time since the establishment of Christianity, it has found the true key for unlocking all the mysteries and explaining all the doctrines of the Bible; and that all the churches which preceded it were in the dark, each of which interpreted the same texts differently, with the same conviction that they had found the true key for laying open the hidden mysteries of the "word of God." But the probability is, that if the Bible writers could be called up from their graves, and interrogated about the matter, they would declare that not one of the churches had guessed at the real meaning of those texts which they are quarreling about the meaning of; that they are all far from the mark; and that they have all saddled a meaning on the texts which the writers never intended, and never thought of, and would make them smile to hear of,—though, in many cases, they have made decided improvements on the original meaning, so as to make them more acceptable to the enlightened and thinking and intelligent minds of the age. This saves the Book from being rejected. Did the clergy preach the same doctrine they did fifty or a hundred years ago, they would find themselves minus a congregation. It is the improvement they are constantly making in the Bible that keeps up its reputation, and saves it from the ruinous criticisms and condemnations of the scientific men of the age. And yet these changes are wrought unconsciously to the great mass of Christian professors; and many of them would have been startled had they been told in early life that the time would come when they would believe as they do now,—perhaps horrified at the thought,—and would have denounced it as the rankest infidelity. The question, then, naturally arises here, Where is the use of erecting standards of faith, when you believe one thing to-day and another to-morrow? You admit you were mistaken in the belief you entertained a few years ago; and in a few years more, if you have a progressive mind, you will admit that your present position is wrong, and susceptible of improvement. Every Christian professor of much intelligence makes some improvement in his creed in the course of his life. Hence it is impossible for him to know what he will believe to-morrow, or how much more of an infidel he will be than he is to-day. One change makes way for another. The wheels of progress move steadily onward: they never stop, and never run backward. It is impossible, after you have made the slightest change and improvement in your religious belief, which is a step in the direction of infidelity, to know how many steps you will take in the future. You may resolve and re-resolve, as most religious professors do, that there shall be no change in your present views; but that will not prevent it. One change proves not only the possibility, but the probability, of another change. Martin Luther once believed, like Rev. Dr. Cheever of New York that, "There is not the shadow of a shade of error in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation;" and yet he afterwards found eleven books of the Bible so full of errors, that he decided they were not divinely inspired, and rejected them from his creed: and, had he lived fifty years later, he might have rejected all the other books of the Bible, and become as rank an infidel as Paine and Voltaire. They became infidel to the whole Bible in the same way he became infidel to nearly a fourth of it. The mind which loosens itself from the trammels of its early education, and begins to think for itself, has launched its bark on the sea of infidelity. One free thought is one step toward infidelity; that is, a disbelief in the dogmas, superstitions, and traditions of the dark ages. It is just as useless and just as foolish for a man to resolve he will never be an infidel, as to resolve it shall never rain, or that the hair on his head shall never turn gray; for he has just as much control over one as the other.
We have shown that the Protestant churches are sailing out on the ocean of infidelity, and are making steady progress in that direction; and it is only a question of time when they will be entirely infidel. It is true, that, owing to the conservative character of the church creeds, and the inveterate hostility the priests have ever manifested to changing them, upon the assumption that they are too holy and too sacred to be criticised and too perfect to be improved, the churches have made slow progress in the way of improving their creeds compared with what would have been witnessed in this respect under a more liberal and tolerant spirit. Owing to this impediment the improvement in Christian doctrine has not kept pace with improvements in other things. The progress in the arts, science, agriculture, political economy, the mechanic arts, the fine arts, &c., has far outstripped the improvement of our religious institutions, and their relinquishment of the errors and superstitions of the past, and nothing but the most absolute compulsion by the moral force of the progressive spirit of the age has induced the churches to make any improvement in their creeds and doctrines. The spirit of improvement is manifested in every department of business, and in all our numerous institutions but that of our religion. When it comes to that, it is.
"Hands off! there shall be no changes here." It must still continue to wear the same old garments it has worn for nearly two thousand years, though they have become musty, soiled, and worn, and directly opposed to the spirit of the age. In view of this strongly opposing conservative spirit, it is remarkable that so much improvement has been realized in our national religion as we now witness. This improvement has been effected more by the process of changing the meaning of words and language than that of changing the text by a new translation, as I have already shown. This surgical operation has been inflicted upon thousands of texts; and so frequently and so generally has this expedient been adopted by churches to get rid of the errors of the "Holy Book," that the meaning of some texts has been changed hundreds of times. There is one text in Galatians (iii. 20), which, Christian writers inform us, has received no less than two hundred and forty interpretations at different times by different writers; that is, two hundred and forty guesses have been made at the meaning of this one text. "Revelation" is defined as "the act of making known." But what is made known by a book, one text of which you have to guess two hundred and forty times at the meaning of, and then don't know whether it is right or not? And this is but a sample of many texts scattered through the Book, which have been overburdened with meanings in a similar manner in order to get a sufficient amount of science and sense into them to make them acceptable to the enlightened minds of the age. This renovating and revolutionizing process makes Christianity a mere system of guess-work, and salvation a mere lottery-scheme; and thousands, in view of this ambiguity and precariousness, have come to the conclusion that it is easier to find what is right in any question of morals, without recourse to the Bible, than it is to find out what the Bible writers desired to teach in the case. Why, then, waste such a vast amount of time in attempting to find out the meaning of thousands of texts, as many Christian writers have done in all ages of the Church, when, if the meaning could be determined with certainty, there would be but little accomplished by it? For, after all, we have to test the truth of the doctrine or precept by our own experience, in the same manner they proved it,—if they proved it at all. There has been time enough wasted in this kind of speculation to build the Pyramids; and the world is no wiser or better for it. As there is no certain rule for interpreting one text in the Bible (and every word originally written in Hebrew had from four to forty meanings), we may guess at the meanings till our heads are gray, and then die in doubt. To show how the meaning of Bible texts has been improved by successive constructions, I will cite one case. For more than a thousand years the various texts which refer to casting out devils were accepted as literally true. It was supposed they mean just what they say, and that "the old fellow" (King Beelzebub) is to be cast out of the inner man,—body, head, horns, and hoofs. But, when the age of reason dawned upon the world, it began to be discovered that the notion of casting out devils was an old heathen tradition, and too senseless for sensible people to believe in. Hence, to save the credit of the Book and the credit of the Church, casting out devils was interpreted to mean cast-ing out our evil propensities, which, although a perversion of the meaning of the writer, was an improvement on the original. The further acquisition of scientific knowledge, accelerated by the invention of the printing-press, revealed the fact that man never parts with his evil propensities, or any other propensities, however much they may be subdued. Hence Bible-mongers set themselves to work to ferret out another meaning for the text. They finally decided that casting out devils means restraining our evil propensities. This, although far from the meaning of the writer, is another improvement on "God's perfect revelation." In this way, step by step, this and thousands of other texts have been improved from time to time by successive translations and interpretations, until "God's Book" has become partially purged of the errors it would seem he put into it; and it may yet, in this way, become a sensible book.
The interpretation of the Bible has been (as already stated) an art in all Christian countries for ages. The original object was to obtain the meaning of the Bible writers; but, in modern times, the object seems to be to obtain a meaning to suit the reader, without much regard to the meaning of the writer.
This statement may be, to some readers, rather startling; but there can be no question of its truth. Some of our most popular Christian writers have avowed it, though in rather an indirect way. Hear what the Rev. John Pye Smith, the leading Christian clergyman of England, and one of the ablest and most popular in all Christendom, says with respect to Bible interpretations: "I would advise the clergy everywhere to interpret the Bible according to the spirit of the age." Most wonderful advice truly, and a dead shot at the Bible. Let it be understood, then, that, according to this Christian divine, Bible readers hereafter are to pay no attention to the plain and obvious meaning of the Bible language, or to the writer's intended meaning (which is the only true meaning), but force a meaning into the text which you know will be acceptable "to the spirit of the age;" that is, to men of reason and of scientific attainments. The Bible, then, is to be venerated henceforth, not for what it teaches, but for what it ought to teach, or what the fanciful reader would have it teach. Verily, verily, we have fallen upon strange times when "God's word," like a nose of wax, is to be molded into any shape to suit "the spirit of the times;" but don't let it be supposed that the Rev. John Pye Smith is the only Christian professor who makes God's infallible revelation succumb to the good sense and intelligence of the age,—"the spirit of the times." There is not an orthodox clergyman, not a Christian church, and scarcely a Christian professor, who does not make the Bible a mere tool in that way. None of them, in all cases, accept the literal meaning of the Bible. None of them take the dictionary for a guide in all cases to determine the meaning of the words of the text. As we have said, there is not an orthodox church or clergyman who does not frequently abandon the dictionary, and travel outside of it, and coin a new meaning of his own for many of the words of the Bible, and ingraft into those words a meaning they never possessed before. They thus assume a license that would not be tolerated with respect to any other book; and yet, notwithstanding these countless alterations and changes in "God's unchangeable word,"—changes in the language, changes in the meaning of its words, changes by translation, changes in the import of its doctrine, and changes in the teaching of its precepts; yet millions cling to it as "God's perfect, unalterable revelation," his "pure and unadulterated word." They seem to take the same view of it the old lady did of the carving-knife, which, although it had been mended sixteen times, had had seven new blades and nine new handles, yet it was the same old keepsake which her father had given her forty years before. The Bible, in like manner, has been altered and amended by fifty translations and a hundred and fifty thousand alterations, according to the learned Dr. Robinson of England, and is still believed by millions to be the same old book,—just as God gave it to man. What superstitious infatuation! It is an instructive fact, which we will note here, that all this labor of amending and enlightening the Bible is the work of the very best minds in the churches,—the growing, thinking, intellectual minds in those institutions; minds that are in a state of unrest, that are hungering and thirsting for something better; minds which are unconsciously struggling to get free from the trammels of priestcraft and superstition, and the religious creeds in which they were educated, and are unconsciously aspiring for something better, something higher, holier, and purer, but can not give up the idolized Book which has been so long enwrapped among their heart-strings that it has seemingly become a part and parcel of their souls. Hence, rather than abandon it and leave it behind them, they prefer to remodel and reconstruct it, and bring it up to their own moral standard, and thus make a better and more sensible thing of it than God himself did in the first place; that is, assuming that he had any thing to do with it. And they generally put newer and better ideas into the Book, and better morals, than they ever got out of it; and finally, in many cases, outgrow the current theology, and become more enlightened, more intelligent, and more useful members of society, than they were in any period of their lives.