"Should reason, science, and philosophic loreAgainst my faith combine,I'd clasp the Bible to my breast,Believing still that it's divine.Here I am told how Christ hath diedTo save my soul from hell:Not all the books on earth besideSuch heavenly wonders tell.This simple book I'd rather ownThan all the gold and gemsThat e'er in monarch's coffers shone,Than all their diadems.Nay, were the seas one chrysolite,The earth a golden ball,And diadems the stars of night,This book were worth them all."
A Christian writer, in attempting to portray the Protestant view of the Bible, says, "It is a miraculous collection of miraculous books. Every word it contains was written by miraculous inspiration from God, which was so full, complete, and infallible, that the authors delivered the truth, and nothing but the truth. The Bible contains no false statements of doctrine or faith, but sets forth all religious and moral truth which man needs to know, or which it is possible for him to receive, and not a particle of error; and therefore the Bible is the only authoritative rule of faith and practice." These two pious effusions—one in prose, the other in poetry—exhibit the views and feelings very prevalent among the disciples of the Christian faith only a few centuries ago; and they are cherished yet, to a considerable extent, by a large portion of Christian professors. This blind, idolatrous veneration is gradually giving way to the light of science and general intelligence; and the thick mental gloom and darkness of superstition out of which they grow is being dispelled. When the intellectual mind becomes fully developed and enlightened, the Bible will find its true level, and will command no more homage than other books. It will be read and estimated, like other human productions, according to its real merits. In this enlightened and scientific age, Bible devotees never go to such extreme lengths in pouring fulsome adulations upon the idolized book. They would be laughed at for their ignorance and superstition if they should attempt it. But the time has been when every religious nation which possessed a "Iloly Book" attached extreme sacredness and exalted holiness to the book and all its contents, and often indulged in the most extravagant language and the wildest rhapsodies in their attempts to eulogize and idolize its virtues. In this respect there was but little difference between Jews, pagans, and Christians: all idolized their Holy Books. A sacred regard was shown not only for the book, but often for every manuscript, scrap of paper, or text which it contained, or which was supposed to contain a message or revelation from God. But few religious nations have existed, even in the remote past, who have not possessed some kind of Bible or sacred record which they treated with an enthusiastic veneration bordering on idolatry. The Hindoos, the Egyptians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Mahomedans, and the early Christians were all Bible idolaters. The Hindoos, like the Christians, were religiously enjoined to read and study "the Holy Scriptures;" and the priests, as those in Christian countries do now, made them a study, and reduced the interpretation of them to an art. And, like Christians in another respect, they were interdicted from transcending in knowledge what was taught in their assumed-to-be divinely illuminated pages. The disciple of the Hindoo faith was not allowed to become "wise above what was written" in the Vedas (see chapter vi.); and the same solemn prohibition, "Add not to, or take not from, the word of God," was reverently obeyed by the devout disciple of the Vedas. The Mahomedans believe the Koran has been received and transmitted from generation to generation by the direct agency of God. They claim that it is not only an infallible rule of faith and practice, but "God's last will and testament to man," and that it is designed by God for the whole human family; and they pray and hope for its universal extension and adoption. One pious Mussulman (Sadak), on being asked why the Koran appeared to be newer every time it was read, replied, "Because God did not reveal it for any particular age or nation, but for all mankind down to the Judgment Day." Mahomedans tell us that, "such is the innate efficacy of the Koran, it removes all pains of body and all sorrows of mind. It annihilates what is wrong in carnal desires, delivers us from the temptations of Satan and from fears. It removes all doubts raised by satanic influences, sanctifies the heart, imparts health to the soul, and produces union with the Lord of holiness." With the ancient Persians the great test and touchstone of all faith and all moral action was their "Holy Word of God." To know whether a thing was right or wrong, they had only to inquire, "Is it taught, or is it forbidden, by the Zenda Avesta?" The Persians, like the Jews, had four days set apart in each month for religious festivals, on which occasions, Mr. Hyde informs os, "they met in their temples, and read portions of their Holy Books, and preached and inculcated morality and virtue" (chap. xxxviii. p. 352). But Bible exaltation and adoration ran much higher than is here indicated in some countries. They were not only believed to be "words" or "the word of God," but to have a portion of the spirit of God impressed into every chapter, every verse, and every word; and hence they received a portion of that veneration and adoration usually ascribed to Deity. And here we find both Jews and Christians have been strict imitators of the heathen in the practical exhibition of this species of book idolatry. We are told that the ancient Budhists ascribed inherent sacredness and supernatural power to the identical Sanscrit word of their scriptures. Hence it was considered sacrilegious to make any alteration in the arrangement of those words; and, for fear some alteration of this kind might be made, they objected to the missionaries translating "the Holy Book" into the English language. Mr. Hyde informs us, they not only read their Bible in their temples, but at their festivals and in their families; and, like the Jews and primitive Christians and the Mahomedans, they carried them in their travels, and slept with the Holy Book under their pillows. Nearly all Bibles in that age were treated with this kind of veneration. Brahmins, Persians, Jews, Mahomedans, and Christians, in their earlier history, were in the habit of attaching texts or detached portions of scripture to their clothes, or inserting them into their hats or shoes,—an act prompted by the belief that they would impart some supernatural charm; and the Persians, Hindoos, and Mahomedans have been seen covered from head to foot with scripture texts. In the days of St. Justin and St. Jerome such scenes were often witnessed among Christians also. Even the handling of the Bible was believed to impart a supernatural or miraculous power, manifested in the cure of diseases, driving away devils, &c. Several Bibles were thus deified. In some nations they were kept under lock and key, or cloistered in a golden box, to prevent unsanctified hands from opening them. The notion was prevalent with the devotees of several Bibles, that they should be read differently, if not held differently, from other books. Kissing the "Holy Book" was also prevalent among the Hindoos, Mahomedans, and early Christians,—indeed, in nearly all religious countries. Bible worship knew no bounds in the days of ignorance and superstition, when people had more piety than philosophy. Believing that the spirit of God permeated their Bibles, nearly all the blessings of life were ascribed to their influence. Such a belief, fostered from age to age, and transmitted from parent to child, could but operate to blind the judgment of all Bible believers so as to disqualify them for detecting defects or perceiving their errors, though they may abound on every page. And these Bibles have been read by millions of their disciples with a kind of solemn awe or holy fervor, which not only wholly incapacitates the mind for perceiving its errors, but shuts out the possibility of a doubt of its truth. Indeed, they glory in assuming it to be "a perfect embodiment of divine truth," "without the shadow of a shade of error from Genesis to Revelation," to use the language of Dr. Cheviot with respect to the Christian Bible. The reasoning faculties are put to sleep, and the intellect bound fast in chains, before "God's Iloly Book" is opened; and if the reasoning faculties should by chance arouse, and rebel against such tyranny, and try to assert their rights by permitting a doubt to spring up in the mind that some statement or text is not true, the Bible devotee becomes alarmed, and exclaims, with trembling fear, "Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief." In this state of fearful and prayerful mental strife against reason, doubt, and disbelief, he again sinks into the "darkness of devotion," determined still longer to hug his canonized and idolized book to his bosom with all its errors and immoralities. This has been virtually the experience of thousands of Bible believers, to a greater or less extent, in all ages and all countries in possession of "Holy Books." In this way Bibles have been an obstacle to the progress of mind and the progress of society. An unchangeable and infallible book must inevitably cramp the mind, and hold it in chains. Hence a Bible-believing community can make no progress in morals, science, or civilization, only so far as they violate their own principles by transcending its teachings. Society would remain for ever in an ignorant, uncultured state, were there not some minds in it possessing a sufficient amount of intellect to outgrow their Bibles; and, but for the publication and perusal of other books, society would make but little progress. A mind which is religiously and conscientiously bound to believe in a Bible is bound to all its errors and all its ignorance, and hence can make no progress while it adheres rigidly to its own principles or its own scruples; but, thanks to the progressive genius of the age, the "Holy Books" which embody the moral and religious errors of the past are nearly outgrown, so that they are seldom read now even by their professed admirers. People are assuming the liberty of becoming "wise above what is written" in "God's Holy Book." Even Christians themselves often assume this liberty: otherwise we should have a community characterized by ignorance and superstition; and our writers would be as liable to stumble into errors and contradictions as the Bible writers when they penned "God's perfect revelation." It requires the acquisition of but little knowledge and intelligence to become "wise above that which was written" in that illiterate and ignorant age.
The practice seems to have been very early conceived and adopted in various countries by the disciples of different Bibles, which have been long extant in the world, of attaching to all the offensive texts of their sacred books (which, when taken literally, convey either a vulgar, immoral, or foolish sense) a new and more acceptable meaning than earlier custom had sanctioned, or more devout minds had ever thought of. As the growing intelligence of the people was constantly disclosing long-unnoticed and important errors in the Holy Book, this expedient was adopted to cover them up, or put them out of sight. As Jesus, if not Paul, by virtue of the growth of the moral and intellectual perceptions, was able to distinguish some errors and moral defects in the first installment of Bible revelation as found in the Jewish Old Testament, so the people in every age since, in those countries where any cultivation has been bestowed upon the mind, have been capable of bringing to light numerous errors incorporated into the sacred books of past ages; and as some of those books called Bibles were claimed by their disciples to be perfect, divinely inspired, and infallible, and consequently free from error, some expedient had to be devised to sustain this claim, and show that the man of science was guilty of falsehood when he charged "God's Holy Book" with containing errors. The expedient finally adopted was to take the long-established signification of the words of the text out, and put in a new meaning, coined by the prolific brain of the devout defender of the Book for the occasion; and this new sense was called "the spiritual sense." It was presumed it would be more acceptable to the intelligent minds of the age. In this way, whenever a new scientific discovery has been announced, demonstrating some of the statements of the venerated volume to be erroneous, the clergy have set themselves to work with their clerical force-pumps to extract the meaning which our standard dictionaries assign to the words of every text that seemed to conflict with the newly discovered scientific truth, and ingraft into it a new meaning of their own invention. This practice finally became, and has long been, an established practice and art in nearly every country where a Bible has been known, whether Jewish, Pagan, or Christian. In fact, no nation having a Bible has omitted to practice it.
No matter how vulgar, how disgusting, or how shocking to the better feelings, or how immoral the literal reading of the text, a hundred ways could be found to get rid of its offensive signification; a hundred spiritual interpretations could be thrust under its verbal coverings. The most senseless, the most indecorous, and the most demoralizing verbiage could thus be made to pass for great "spiritual truths." The pagans and the Jews practiced this art laboriously and extensively; and the disciples of the Christian faith, in all ages of the Church have been their strict imitators. That it is a very ancient heathen custom is evident from the declaration of "The Nineteenth Century," which quotes Plutarch as saying, "The spiritual or allegorical mode of interpreting words and language was applied to the poems of Orpheus, the Egyptian writers, and the Phrygian traditions" (p. 337). Grote tells us that the plain and literal meaning would not have been listened to, as it did not suit the mental demands of the people. (See Grote's "History of Greece.") He assigns this mode of interpreting sacred books to ancient Egypt; and Mr. Wilson says the Christians caught the passion for spiritualizing and allegorizing their Bible at an early date, and of converting them on all occasions into spiritual mysteries, from the later Platonists, the example of Philo, and the Jewish rabbis. "The Mahomedans," Mr. Kant informs us, "gave a spiritual sense to the sensual descriptions of their paradise," and thus the Hindoos also interpreted their Vedas. "The Mahomedans," says another writer, "indulge in glowing allegories concerning love and intoxication, which, like some of the Hindoo devotional writings, seem sensual to those who perceive only the external sense, while the initiated find in them an interior meaning." The Greeks and Romans, according to the testimony of Mr. Kant, explained away some of the silliest legends of their polytheism by spiritualizing them, or giving them a mystical sense. Speaking in general terms, Mr. Taylor says, "An allegorical sense was the apology offered for the manifest absurdities of paganism." The Roman Julian once remarked, that the poetic stories concerning the Gods, though regarded as fables, he supposed contained a spiritual treasury. Kant declares, in like manner, that the ancient pagans "gave a mystical sense to the many vicious actions of their Gods, and to the wildest dreams of their poets, in order to bring the popular faith into agreement with their doctrines of morality;" that is, they resorted to a spiritual interpretation in order to save them from being condemned as popular intelligence advanced. "All the learned ancients," says Mr. Higgins, "gave their sacred writings two meanings,—one literal, and the other spiritual." Philo confessed that the literal sense of the Old Testament is "shocking:" hence "a divine science, believed by intuition, is necessary to penetrate the hidden meaning." The Essenes declared, the literal sense of their scriptures was devoid of all power. Origen, finding Moses' writings replete with error and immorality, got rid of the difficulty by declaring, "It is all allegory." He makes the remarkable confession, that "there were some things inserted in the Bible as history which were never transacted:" hence he concludes they must be interpreted spiritually, or set down as false. And St. Hillary declares, "There are many historical passages in the New Testament, which, if taken literally, are contrary to sense and reason; and therefore there is a necessity for a mystical interpretation." Not that we have any evidence that such an interpretation was ever thought of by the writer; but this new and forced interpretation is the only alternative to save the credit of the Book. Any senseless expedient or subterfuge that could be invented was dragged in, rather than admit the Holy Book contained errors; for this would prove it to be the work of man, and not of God. This has been the policy from time immemorial of the votaries of all sacred books. Origen—after declaring, "There is no literal truth in the story of Christ driving out the money-changers"—asserts that it is an allegory, indicating that we are to cast out our evil propensities. He says the early Christians seldom used the literal sense of the scriptures, because it taught something objectionable; and, ever since the inauguration of this mode for concealing the errors and defective moral teachings of the Bible, all kinds of ridiculous interpretations of scripture have been resorted to by orthodox writers to make it teach what each one desired. Since they arrogated to themselves the liberty to depart from the literal meaning of the text, hundreds of meanings have been ingrafted upon the same text by as many writers and readers; thus launching all scripture import upon the quicksands of uncertainty. The Rev. Mr. McNaught of England points to one text in Galatians—on which, he says, two hundred and forty meanings have been saddled by different Bible interpreters—as a specimen of this kind of license, that is, two hundred and forty guesses at the meaning: thus making Bible interpretation, and the system of salvation founded on it, an entire system ofguess-work; and I would suggest, that, if we have thus to guess our way to heaven, we can do so as well without the Bible as with it. A God who is so ignorant of human language as to give forth a revelation to the world couched in such unintelligible and ambiguous terms that no two people can understand it alike, it seems to us, should not have attempted it. All will be chaos and confusion and wild guess-work with respect to the meaning of a large portion of the Bible, while its readers are allowed to depart from the established meaning of words as defined by our dictionaries, and fabricate new meanings of their own. As for example: St. Andrew tells us, that, when Christ spoke of removing mountains, he meant the Devil; and, when he spoke of selling two sparrows for a farthing, Bishop Hillary says he meant "sinners selling themselves to the Devil." The red heifer offered by Moses on the day of Pentecost was "spiritually Jesus Christ;" thus identifying Gods with beasts. The wool and hyssop used-for sprinkling the people, we are told, means spiritually, "the cross of Christ." Christ's injunction to hate father, mother, brother, and sister, &c., we are told, means that we must love them; and many similar examples of manufacturing new meanings for obnoxious texts might be cited.
Now, we ask, of what practical value can the Bible be, when there is no certain clew to its meaning, or when any of its readers, on finding a word or text whose literal signification does not suit their religious fancy, can assume the liberty to renounce the dictionary, ignore the common and established acceptation of words, and fabricate a new meaning contrary to, and in direct conflict with, the common signification? To get rid of some obvious error in the text, they bestow upon it any kind of fanciful, and sometimes ridiculous, signification their imagination can invent, and then insist with a godly zeal that it is the in-ten led meaning of the writer. If such lawless license in the use of words is to be tolerated, as Bible believers are in the habit of assuming, in order to make it teach something which they devoutly desire it should teach, then all rules with respect to the employment of language and the use of words are at an end: our dictionaries may be banished from the schoolroom. We will no longer have use for them if words are no longer the symbols of ideas, which must be the case if people are allowed to attach any signification to them they please, or assign them a meaning at variance with common custom; and a person can learn as much by casting his eyes over the blank pages of the book as by tracing its printed lines. And the art and labor of printing, so far as he is concerned, is superseded; for, as he fabricates his own meaning, this can be done as well without type as with it. Mr. Ernstein, in his "Principles of Biblical Interpretation" (p. 37), affirms that "a proposition may be strictly true which is not contained in the words of the text;" which is tantamount to saying, "The meaning exists independent of the text, and is to be found outside of it:" so the text is not needed, and is of no practical use; for the sentiment of the text can be traced as well on the blank page. The unwarrantable license which Bible adherents assume of ingrafting new meanings into the words of a text when its literal reading shocks their moral sense by its immodesty, its falsity, or its puerility, would not be tolerated with respect to any other book; and, if it is just and warrantable in this case, why not adopt it for interpreting the pagan Bibles, and thus spiritualize them into truth and harmony? It would take every objectionable statement out of them, and make them pure, un-mixed truth. With this kind of license a book can be made to teach any thing desired. Grant me the liberty that Christians assume in deviating from the established use of language, and coining a new meaning for words, and I will take all the infidelity out of "Tom Paine's writings," and make them chime with the smoothest and soundest orthodoxy.
It should be borne in mind that the custom of spiritualizing the apparently immoral and obscene portions of the Bible is something the common people know nothing about, but suppose that Bible writers, in all cases, mean just what they say. Hence it is evident the practice has been attended with no practical benefit to society; and Infinite Wisdom should have foreseen (and would if it had been his production) that the use of such language would have a demoralizing effect upon the world, and consequently would have made use of better language. Bishop Holbrook says that the notion of an inner sense to the Bible is a mere creation of fancy, and will take the errors out of any book. And, as different writers differ in their mode of spiritualizing the Bible, it proves it is a mere invention and forced expedient to save the credit of the Book. The resort to a spiritual sense for the Bible was simply an attempt to concealits bad sense,—its nonsense, its vulgarity, its immoral teachings, and its numerous contradictions, which scientific and progressive minds are constantly bringing to light. But it is as illusory and ineffectual as the ostrich hiding its head in the sand to evade its pursuers. In both cases the danger is blinked out of sight, but not removed.
Any sense of a text not clearly expressed or unequivocally indicated by the language, we claim, is a slander and a derogation upon Infinite Wisdom, as it assumes he was too ignorant of language to be able to say what he meant, thus placing him lower in the scale of intelligence than a common schoolboy; and assumes his priesthood are infinitely wiser, as they are able to reveal his "Holy Book" all over again, and thus make the numerous blunders of Infinite Wisdom plain and intelligible to common sense and the poorest understanding.
I can not conclude this chapter without bestowing my thanks upon Emanuel Swedenborg for the service he has rendered the cause of truth and theological reform by an improved system of theology he has made out of the Bible, or rather out of his own brain. Being a man of unusual intellect and moral aspirations, and a man of considerable literary attainments, he could not brook the absurd system of theology taught in the pulpits, professedly drawn from the Bible. And whether his system is more conformable to the teachings of "the Holy Book" is a matter of no importance. It is in many respects a rational and beautiful system, and is thus far very acceptable, and must be very beneficial as a substitute for the irrational, and in some respects immoral, system taught by the orthodox churches; and, were it universally adopted by Christian professors, it would be a great improvement on the popular system, and a step toward the attainment of a true and perfect system.
The disbelievers in Christianity in all past time, when objecting to it as being fraught with too many moral defects to constitute a basis or guide for the religious opinions and moral actions of men in an age more free from superstition, and much farther advanced in a knowledge of the true science of morals and the general principles of philosophy, have been met with the reply, "Show us a better system before you pull down Christianity and throw aside the Bible. Let us know what you are going to substitute in their place." Very well, good friend, we will meet your objection, and hope we can remove the difficulty. We think that either of the following answers should prove satisfactory, and, all taken together, more than satisfactory:—
1. We do not propose or desire to destroy or supersede any valuable truth, precept, principle, or doctrine taught in the Bible, or to set aside any thing that can in any way prove to be practically useful. We only propose to sift out the errors from the truth, rejecting the former and retaining the latter, and to employ as many of the old timbers in constructing the new superstructure as are not rotten or otherwise defective.
2. Truth can not be "pulled down" or destroyed, as it possesses an omnipotency of principle that is indestructible. Like gold in the refiner's crucible, it shines the brighter for every effort to destroy it.
3. It must be presumed, therefore, that whatever portion of your religion is susceptible of destruction is false, and should be destroyed.
4. It is the nature of truth to spring up voluntarily the moment error is removed, as naturally as air or water rushes in to fill a vacuum. The instant the clouds are rifted, the sun darts down its vivifying rays. upon the earth. You want no substitute for weeds when exterminated from your garden. When eradicated, those plants which are more useful and beautiful, and which they have been choking and repressing the growth of, will then assume a more healthy appearance. You ask no substitute for sickness or disease, but desire it removed that you may again enjoy the blessings of health. Moral health will likewise ensue by the removal of noxious weeds from the mind.
And, finally, you can find a complete answer to this objection in your own Bible: "Cease to do evil, and (then) learn to do well;" that is, the moment you discover an error in your faith or practice, abandon it, and you will soon "learn" what its proper substitute is. Truth is always at hand as a substitute for error. We may assume, then, that, if any of the erroneous doctrines now propagated were abandoned, they would find their own substitute immediately, as sickness finds its substitute in health. But we will not leave the pious Christian in this negative condition, but will furnish him with a "substitute" which holds out much better hopes and promises than he has anchored in his idolized system, whether those hopes appertain to a virtuous and happy life here, or to an ever-blessed eternity beyond the confines of time. That substitute will be found fully explained in Chapter XIV., under the head of "The Infidel's Bible." Or, if he desires a system in fuller detail, and one possessing great beauty, let him examine the principles of "The Harmonial Philosophy."
A philosophical analysis of the human mind, viewed in connection with the practical history of man from the early morning of his existence, fully demonstrates it as an important truth, that individual happiness and the moral welfare of society depend essentially upon the uniform action and harmonious cooperation of all the mental faculties; and that, on the other hand, their individually excessive and inharmonious action constitutes the primary source of nearly all the crime, misery, and discord of society. And it may be well to note here, as another important preliminary truth, that the progressive development of the science of mental philosophy has settled the division of the mental faculties into the following classification: viz.,
1. The animal, which imparts energy and impulsive strength to the whole character, mental and physical. 2. The social, which is the source of family ties and the social and co-operative institutions of society. 3. The moral, which makes us regardful of the happiness and welfare of other beings than ourselves. 4. The intellectual, which is the great pilot-chamber or lighthouse of the whole mind; though it is but recently that discoveries in mental philosophy have fully disclosed this as being its natural and legitimate office. It has thus demonstrated it to be the most important department of the mind. Its position in the cerebrum—occupying, as it does, the superior frontal lobe of the brain—might, however, have suggested this. Now this is no fanciful delineation, no mere ideal mapping of the mind, but has been demonstrated thousands of times, since the discoveries of Gall, to be the true condition and classified analysis of the mental faculties. The religious faculties constituting that department of the mind which often controls our actions anil conduct toward others, and being situated at the apex of the brain,—the point where the most intensified feelings and impulses are supposed to concentrate their misdirection or abnormal exercise, is consequently attended with more direful consequences to society than that of any other portion of the mind. All history demonstrates this as a tragical fact; for religion, more especially, is always born blind. This being a tenable fact, and the religious faculties being awakened to action at an early period of human society,—before the intellectual chambers of the mind were lighted up by the illuminating rays of science, or supplied by a philosophical education and a thorough and untrammeled study of nature's laws,—their natural intensity of feeling, thus uncurbed and unenlightened, drove their honest but dark-minded possessors into the most senseless and childish superstitions, the most absurd doctrines, the most relentless intolerance of belief, and the most bloody and murderous persecutions; thus proving that conscience unenlightened is a very unsafe and a very dangerous moral and religions guide. The popular Christian proverb, that "man can not be too religious," comprehends a very fatal error in moral ethics: for the man who possesses more religion than intellect, or more devotional piety than intellectual cultivation and philosophical enlightenment, is sometimes a more dangerous man to society than the highway robber or the midnight assassin; because, always finding many accomplices to aid him in his direful deeds of bloody persecutions, and frequently being able, also, to invoke the strong arm of the law, his work of defamation and spoliation, if not of open persecution and bloodshed, is wider spread than that of the burglar or the stealthy assassin.
A review of history shows us: 1. That, up to the installation of the era of science, which dates back less than three centuries ago, the world—that is, the Christian world—was literally a vast prison-house of chains, and a theater of butchery and blood,—the result of a practical effort of men, devoutly pious, to "promote the glory of God," and the establishment of a supposed-to-be-true religion. 2. The perpetrators of those tragical deeds upon men and women were, many of them, as religiously honest and conscientious "as ever breathed the breath of life;" and they verily believed they were doing God service in thus punishing and exterminating dissenters and heretics. The very fact that some of these pious persecutors perished themselves at the fiery stake in the conscientious and unflinching maintenance of their principles, shouting "Hallelujah" while the burning fagots consumed their bodies, leaves no possible ground for doubt that a deep religious conviction had actuated them in the work of persecuting and punishing the enemies of their religion, and in attempting to convert the world to its "saving truth" by the sword. Much is said about "conscience," "the internal monitor," "the still, small voice," &c., as a guide for man's moral actions; but, if experience and history ever proved or can prove any thing, they demonstrate most conclusively that conscience unenlightened by the intellectual department of the mind, or a conscience grown up amid the weeds of scientific ignorance, is as dangerous a pilot upon the moral ocean as the helmsman of a ship, in midnight darkness, surrounded by dangerous shoals and resistless whirlpools. Conscience without science or philosophy is a lamp without oil, which consequently, being without light, is more likely to lead us astray than to guide us to the temple of truth. Science is the pilot-lamp by which we discern our way on the pilgrim-voyage of life; while religion is the feeling, the motive-power, which impels us onward. Hence the latter should at all times be subservient to the former, and should be checked and restrained from spontaneous development and exercise until the former is duly installed upon the mental throne as ruler of the moral empire. It is as dangerous to cultivate and stimulate the religious feelings, until the fires of science or practical philosophy have been kindled up in the intellectual chambers to furnish the light necessary to guide them in their impulsive course, as it would be to steam up the boilers of a boat when approaching a precipice in the night, with the pilot asleep upon his hammock, and all the lights extinguished in his chamber. Neither religion nor conscience possesses primordially any light of its own. Both are born blind; and all the light they ever possess is by reflection from the intellectual light-house. Prolific, indeed, of the proof of this statement, are human nature, human experience, and universal history. Let the policy, then, be, in all cases, to cultivate science before religion. The intellectual mind, we repeat, should be thoroughly cultivated and enlightened before the religious feelings are called into action.
Query. Reader, what do you now think of Dr. Cheviot's statement, "The Bible does not contain theshadow of a shade of error from Genesis to Revelation."
1. As this work was announced several years ago, it seems proper to explain the causes of the long delay in its publication. Want of health for completing it, and want of means for publishing it, furnish the true explanation. But by the practical application of a remedy constituting a new and extraordinary discovery in the healing art, the author's health has so far improved as to enable him to resume the work, and re-write nearly the whole of it in a few weeks time. The work advertised embraced but forty pages. The present volume comprises nearly eleven times that number of pages, and includes only two chapters of the original, except the small portion which has been re-written.
2. While "The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors" was designed principally to trace the doctrines, traditions, and miraculous events of the Christian Bible to their primary pagan or Oriental origin, the main object of "The Bible of Bibles" is to expose their logical absurdity, and the evils resulting from their propagation and practical application.
3. The objection is frequently raised in this work against placing the Bible in the hands of children, and also in possession of the heathen. This would, of course, keep it out of our common schools; and the author rejoices in knowing, that, although the Bible was used as a regular school-book in his youthful days, it has been banished as a text-book from nearly every schoolroom throughout the country. This denotes progress.
4. Christian professors regard it as a sufficient refutation of all the arguments and facts designed to prove and demonstrate the immoral influence of the Bible upon society, to assert that Christian countries are superior in morals to those not in possession of their Bible. But many facts cited in this work tend to prove, that, if the assumption were correct, it could not with any show of reason or sense be attributed to the influence of the Bible. It is clearly, if not self-evidently, impossible that such moral or immoral lessons as are derived from the history of such characters as the father and founder of the Jewish nation (Abraham), who is represented as living up to all the commands, all the statutes, and all the laws of God (see Gen. xxvi. 5), while practicing the abominable crimes of treachery, deceit, falsehood, incest or adultery, and polygamy, &c,—I say it is morally impossible for such examples and such lessons to exert other than a demoralizing influence upon society; or that of David, pronounced "the man after God's own heart," while practicing a long catalogue of the most shocking crimes (see chap. xxx). Such cases blasphemously represent God as sanctioning the most atrocious crimes and the most revolting deeds, which is a virtual licence to the whole human race to practice them. If a book containing such lessons does not exert an immoral influence upon society, then human language, when employed in writing Bibles, fails to make its ordinary impression upon the mind. But we will here cite three cogent and incontrovertible historical facts, which will settle the matter at once and for ever, by proving the truth of our oft-repeated proposition, that the Christian Bible, notwithstanding the apparent improvement in morals of most Christian countries in modern times, has, on the whole, tended to demoralize every nation where it has been generally read, believed, and practiced. First, look at the moral condition of the whole Christian world during the period known as "the Dark Ages," and you will see the proof in overwhelming torrents. During that long night of moral darkness and human depravity, which lasted nearly a thousand years, all Christendom was reeking with moral corruption, and practicing the most abominable crimes. Lying, deceit, hypocrisy, moral treason, licentiousness, adultery, fornication, fighting, and drunkenness were the order of the day among all classes, including the clergy and the deacons, simply because the light of science had not reached them, and the Bible was their sole guide in morals and religion. This state of things continued until the introduction of Greek literature dispelled the thick clouds of mental darkness, and arrested the swift tide of moral corruption. Second, the Greeks without our Bible were both morally and intellectually superior to any Christian nation. Third, "the Dark Ages" were brought to a close by the introduction of Greek learning and Greek morals into Christian nations. This dates their first tendency to rise out of the sloughs of heathen barbarism, and their first appearance of moral improvement. And thus the proposition is proved and demonstrated by the facts of history that the Bible continued to demoralize society till its influence was arrested by the dawn of moral and physical science. In no nation has there been any marked improvement in morals with the use of the Bible alone.
5. It will doubtless be regarded as an extraordinary circumstance that so many thousand biblical errors as are disclosed in this work should have passed from age to age unnoticed by the millions of disciples of the Christian faith, and more especially the startling fact that all the cardinal doctrines of the Christian religion are founded in error. But it should be borne in mind that it was regarded and taught as a religious duty to suppress and conceal all such errors, and absolutely wicked, sinful, and dangerous to admit the possibility that the Holy Book can con-tain errors. And this negative policy alone was sufficient to keep them concealed and out of sight.
6. It is stated in chapter thirty that none of 1st. Old Testament writers teach the doctrine of immortality or the doctrine of future rewards and punishments. The proof and a full elucidation of this subject will be found in "The Biography of Satan."
7. It is stated in chapter fifty-five that all human language is more or less ambiguous and uncertain, and in chapter fifty-two that skillful linguists of this age can construct language whose meaning can not be misunderstood; and hence God should have been able to do so when the Bible was written. The first statement refers to language as ordinarily used when the Bible was written, and especially the imperfect Hebrew of the Bible. The last statement implies that with the modern improvements language can be so employed as to leave no doubt of its meaning in any case. Both statements, then, are correct.
8: The author, in abridging citations from history and the Bible, has in some cases deviated from custom in using quotation-marks. This is especially true of chapter twenty-two (on Bible contradictions).
9. It is believed that no errors of any importance can be found in this work, unless some mistakes have been committed in making scriptural references.
10. Each reader of this work is desired to examine carefully and critically the author's exposition of "The Twelve Cardinal Doctrines of the Christian Faith," and report to him his views of that exposition. Those twelve leading doctrines are embraced in the twelve chapters commencing at chapter 33 (on revelation) and ending at chapter 44 (on a personal God).