'Not only the Syrian superstition must be attacked, but also the belief in a personal God which engenders a slavish and oriental condition of the mind, and the belief in a posthumous reward which engenders a selfish and solitary condition of the heart. These beliefs are, therefore, injurious to human nature. They lower its dignity, they arrest its development, they isolate its affections. We shall not deny that many beautiful sentiments are often mingled with the faith in a personal Deity, and with the hopes of happiness in a future state; yet we maintain that, however refined they may appear, they are selfish at the core, and that if removed they will be replaced by sentiments of a nobler and purer kind.'—WINWOOD READE,Martyrdom of Man, p. 543.
'There is a servile deference paid, even by Christians, to incompetent judges of Christianity. They abjectly look to men of the world, to scholars, to statesmen, for testimonies to the everlasting and self-evidencing verities of heaven! And if they can gather up, from the writings or speeches of these men, some patronising notices of religion, some incidental compliment to the civilising influence of the Bible, or to the aesthetic proprieties of worship, or to the moral sublimity of the character or gospel of Christ, they forthwith proclaim these tributes as lending some great confirmation to the Truth of GOD! So we persist in asking, not "Is it true? true to our souls?" or, "Has the Lord said it?" but, "What say the learned men, the influential men, the eloquent men?" Shame upon these time-serving concessions, as unmanly as they are fallacious. Go back to the hovels, rather, and take the witnessing of the illiterate souls whose hearts, waiting there in poverty or pain, or under the shadow of some great affliction, the Lord Himself hath opened.'—F. D. HUNTINGDON,Christian Believing and Living.
'It is foreign to our purpose to discuss the various theories which have been advanced to explain the genesis and power of the Christian Religion from the cynical Gibbon to the sentimental Renan and the Rationalist Strauss. One remark may be permitted. It has been our lot to read an immense amount of literature on this subject, and with no bias in the orthodox direction, we are bound to admit that no theory has yet appeared which from purely natural causes explains the remarkable life and marvellous influence of the Founder of Christianity.'—HECTOR MACPHERSON,Books to Read and How to Head Them.
The Song of a Heathen Sojourning in Galilee, A.D. 32.
If Jesus Christ is a man,And only a man, I sayThat of all mankind I cleave to Him,And to Him will I cleave alway.
If Jesus Christ is a God,And the only God, I swearI will follow Him through heaven and hell,The earth, the sea, and the air!
RICHARD WATSON GILDER.
'I distinguish absolutely between the character of Jesus and the character of Christianity—in other words between Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the Christ. Shorn of all supernatural pretensions, Jesus emerges from the great mass of human beings as an almost perfect type of simplicity, veracity, and natural affection. "Love one another" was the Alpha and Omega of His teaching, and He carried out the precept through every hour of His too brief life.... But how blindly, how foolishly my critics have interpreted the inner spirit of my argument, how utterly have they failed to realise that the whole aim of the work is to justify Jesus against the folly, the cruelty, the infamy, the ignorance of the creed upbuilt upon His grave. I show in cipher, as it were, that those who crucified Him once would crucify Him again, were He to return amongst us. I imply that among the first to crucify Him would be the members of His Own Church. But nowhere surely do I imply that His soul, in its purely personal elements, in its tender and sympathising humanity was not the very divinest that ever wore earth about it.'—ROBERT BUCHANAN in Letter of January 1892 toDaily Chronicleregarding his poemThe Wandering Jew.Robert Buchanan: His Life, Life's Work, and Life's Friendships, by Harriett Jay, pp. 274-5.
'I do not believe I have any personal immortality. I am part of an immortality perhaps, but that is different. I am not the continuing thing. I personally am experimental, incidental. I feel I have to do something, a number of things no one else could do, and then I am finished, and finished altogether. Then my substance returns to the common lot. I am a temporary enclosure for a temporary purpose: that served, and my skull and teeth, my idiosyncrasy and desire will disperse, I believe, like the timbers of the booth after a fair.'—H. G. WELLS,First and Last Things, p. 80.
'The estate of man upon this earth of ours may in course of time be vastly improved. So much seems to be promised by the recent achievements of Science, whose advance is in geometrical progression, each discovery giving birth to several more. Increase of health and extension of life by sanitary, dietetic, and gymnastic improvement; increase of wealth by invention and of leisure by the substitution of machinery for labour: more equal distribution of wealth with its comforts and refinements; diffusion of knowledge; political improvement; elevation of the domestic affections and social sentiments; unification of mankind and elimination of war through ascendency of reason over passion—all these things may be carried to an indefinite extent, and may produce what in comparison with the present estate of man would be a terrestrial paradise. Selection and the merciless struggle for existence may be in some measure superseded by selection of a more scientific and merciful kind. Death may be deprived at all events of its pangs. On the other hand, the horizon does not appear to be clear of cloud.... Let our fancy suppose the most chimerical of Utopias realised in a commonwealth of man. Mortal life prolonged to any conceivable extent is but a span. Still over every festal board in the community of terrestrial bliss will be cast the shadow of approaching death; and the sweeter life becomes the more bitter death will be.The more bitter it will be at least to the ordinary man, and the number of philosophers like John Stuart Mill is small.'—GOLDWIN SMITH:Guesses at the Riddle of Existence('Is There Another Life?').
'In return for all of which they have deprived us, some prophets of modern science are disposed to show us in the future a City of GodminusGod, a Paradiseminusthe Tree of Life, a Millennium with education to perfect the intellect, and sanitary improvements to emancipate the body from a long catalogue of evils. Sorrow no doubt will not be abolished; immortality will not be bestowed. But we shall have comfortable and perfectly drained houses to be wretched in. The news of our misfortunes, the tidings that turn the hair white, and break the strong man's heart will be conveyed to us from the ends of the earth by the agency of a telegraphic system without a flaw. The closing eye may cease to look to the land beyond the River; but in our last moments we shall be able to make a choice between patent furnaces for the cremation of our remains, and coffins of the most charming description for their preservation when desiccated.'—Archbishop
Abbott, E. A.,Through Nature to Christ.
Armstrong, E. A.,Back to Jesus; Man's Knowledge of God; Agnosticism and Theism in the Nineteenth Century.
Arthur, W.,God without Religion; Religion without God.
Aveling, F. (edited by),Westminster Lectures.
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Barker, Joseph, Life of.
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Besant, Annie,Esoteric Christianity.
Blatchford, R.,God and My Neighbour.
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Butler, Bishop,The Analogy of Religion.
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Caird, J.,Fundamental Ideas of Christianity.
Cairns, D. S.,Christianity in the Modern World.
Carey, Vivian,Parsons and Pagans.
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Clarke, J. Freeman,Steps to Belief.
Cobbe, Frances Power,A Faithless World; Broken Lights; Autobiography.
Coit, Stanton,National Idealism and a State Church.
Comte, Auguste,Catechism of Positive Religion(translated by Richard Congreve).
Contentio Veritatis.
Conway, Moncure D.,The Earthward Pilgrimage.
Craufurd, A. H.,Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt.
Crooker, J. H.,The Supremacy of Jesus.
D'Alviella, G.,Revolution Religieuse Contemporaine.
Davies, O. Maurice,Heterodox London.
Davies, Llewelyn,Morality according to the Lord's Supper.
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Drummond, J.,Via, Veritas, Vita.
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Eaton, J. R. T.,The Permanence of Christianity.
Faber, Hans,Das Christentum der Zukunft.
Fairbairn, A. M.,Christ in Modern Theology.
Farrar, A. S.,Critical History of Free Thought.
Farrar, F. W.,Seekers after God; Witness of History to Christ.
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Gore, O., Bishop,The Incarnation of the Son of God; The Christian Creed.
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Haeckel, E.,Riddle of the Universe; The Confession of Faith of a Man of Science.
Harnack, Adolf,What is Christianity?; Christianity and History.
Harrison, A. J.,Problems of Christianity and Scepticism.
Harrison, Frederic,Memories and Thoughts; The Creed of a Layman.
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Hoffmann, F. S.,The Sphere of Religion.
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Hunt, John,Christianity and Pantheism.
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Kutter, Herrmann,Sie Müssen.
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Matheson, A. Scott,The Gospel and Modern Substitutes.
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Mories, A. S.,Haeckel's Contribution to Religion.
Morison, J. Cotter,The Service of Man.
Mozoomdar, Protab Chandra,The Oriental Christ.
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Oxford House Tracts.
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Peile, J. H. F.,The Reproach of the Gospel.
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Present Day Tracts(R. T. S.).
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Renesse,Jesus Christ and His Apostles and Disciples in the Twentieth Century.
Robinson, O. H.,Human Nature a Revelation of the Divine; Studies in the Character of Christ.
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Sabatier, A.,The Religions of Authority and the Religion of the Spirit.
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Seaver, R. W.,To Christ through Criticism.
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Seeley, J. R.,Ecce Homo; Natural Religion.
Sen, Keshub Chunder, India asks,Who is Christ?
Sheldon, H. O.,Unbelief in the Nineteenth Century.
Simpson, P. Carnegie,The Fact of Christ.
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Smyth, Newman,Old Faiths in New Light.
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Swift, Dean,The Abolishing of Christianity.
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Tulloch, J.,Modern Theories in Theology and Philosophy; Movements of Religious Thought.
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Vivian, Philip,The Churches and Modern Thought.
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Wace, H.,Christianity and Morality.
Wallace, Alfred Russel,Man's Place in the Universe.
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Watkinson, W. L.,Influence of Scepticism on Character.
Weinel, H.,Jesus im Nevmzehnten Jahrhundert.
Welsh, R. E.,In Relief of Doubt.
Wells, H. G.,First and Last Things, A Confession of Faith and Rule of Life.
Wilson, J. M.,Problems of Religion and Science.
Wimmer, R.,My Struggle for Light.
Wordsworth, John, Bishop,The One Religion.
Young, John,The Christ of History.
Abbott, Edwin A.,117.
Alexander, Archbishop,256.
Amiel, H. F.,55.
Anthropomorphism,65,68,82.
Arnold, Matthew,208.
'Back to Christ,'212.
Balfour, A. J.,244.
Bartlett, R. E.,161.
Besant, Mrs.,197.
Blatchford, Robert,7,20,221.
Browning, Robert,65,200.
Buchanan, Robert,253.
Butler, Bishop,10,139.
Caird, Principal,112.
Calendar, Positivist,108.
Caliban upon Setebos,65.
Carey, Vivian,6,26.
Chesterton, G. K.,113.
Christ the only Way,129,207.
—— the substance of Christianity,173.
Christianity, influence of,24,28.
—— misrepresentation of,18,223.
Christians, inconsistency of,16,19,213,222,253.
Christmas Eve,200.
Church, Dean,9.
Clifford, W. K.,103.
Cobbe, Frances Power,144,149.
Coit, Dr. Stanton,41.
Comte, Auguste,103.
Congreve, Richard,115,242.
Conway, Moncure D.,8.
Cowper, William,78.
Criticism,173.
Deism,139,143,164,236,240.
De Vere, Aubrey,101.
Eliot, George,56,208.
Enemies, witness of,177.
Fénelon,78.
Fiske, John,100.
Gilder, R. W.,252.
Gore, Bishop,136,236.
Great Being of Positivism,106,112,114.
Haeckel,71.
Harrison, Frederic,84,96,102,108,110,237,238.
Hughes, Hugh Price,223.
Humanity, Christ, the Ideal of,118.
—— Religion of,93,103,105,237,238,242.
Huntingdon, Bishop,250.
Immortality, denial of,54,60,254.
Impeachments of Christianity,12,249.
Incarnation,48,96.
Jefferies, Richard,73.
Law, William,78.
Lefèvre, A.,188.
Macpherson, Hector,251.
Man,93.
Martineau, Harriet,220.
—— James,227.
Material Progress,255,256.
Matheson, George,224.
Mediation,157.
Menzies, P. S.,233,234.
Mill, John Stuart,208.
Montaigne,23.
Morality and Religion,33,39,146,229,230.
—— Religion without,34.
Mozoomdar, P. C.,196.
Myers, F. W. H.,56.