SIX HUNDRED ROADS TO HEAVEN.
We are swamped with endless difficulties in determining what to do and believe in order to be saved either by the Bible or the churches, when we look at the fact that there are, as some writers have computed, more than six hundred conflicting churches, each one claiming to preach and to teach the only true and saving faith of the gospel and yet differing heaven-wide with respect to what constitutes that true and saving faith. They point out six hundred roads to heaven, when Christ says there is but one,—"One Lord, one faith, and one baptism." The churches are simply guessing institutions, and their creeds so many stereotyped systems of guess-work. How much has been learned, or what important questions have been settled, either in religion or morals, by the nearly two thousand years' reading and study of the Christian Bible? The six hundred jarring churches, and their constantly increasing number, furnish a sufficient answer to this question. What a ludicrous aspect would the cause of science now be in, and what torrents of ridicule and contempt would be poured upon our institutions of learning, if they differed in their principles, or with respect to the principles of any branch of science, as the churches differ with respect to the doctrine of the Bible! We will illustrate by an imaginary examination of the students of one of our institutions of learning with respect to their attainments in mathematics. A class having recited, we will interrogate each one separately. "Well, John, as you have been studying figures several years, can you now tell us how many are twice two?"—"Yes, sir: twice two are six."—"Very well: take your seat. The next student will rise. James, can you tell us how many are twice two?"—"Yes, I can: twice two are eleven."—"Very well: be seated, and let Tommy rise. Tommy, as you are a diligent student, and have been through the arithmetic and the principal text-books, please tell us how many are twice two."—"I will. It is a plain case: twice two are fourteen."—"Very well: stand aside. That intelligent-looking boy yonder we will hear from now. Well, Moses, can you tell us, as the result of your five years' close study of mathematics, how many are twice two?"—"Certainly I can. To be nice and exact about the matter, twice two are nine and a half."—"Very well: I am done with you. There is one more student to be interrogated. Well, Solomon, can you do any thing towards settling the disputed question, how many are twice two?"—"Yes: I am astonished there should be any difference of opinion about the matter, when it is plain that no person who is really in earnest to understand it can fail to see that twice two are seventeen." Such an institution of learning as this would be broken up as a nuisance in less than two hours after it was known to exist; and yet it furnishes a striking illustration of the character and condition of our theological institutions in which are professedly taught the science of Christianity and the Bible. The difference among the professors and students of theology is as great and important as in the former supposed case; and were not the eyes of the soul put out, and the Christian sectarians rendered blind by their false or mistaken teachers, they would see that this is a true picture of their condition. We will institute another illustration. The Christian churches are virtually six hundred guide-boards professedly pointing the way to heaven. Let us suppose a traveler, hunting his way to "the Queen City of the West," finds on a hill a tree or post, to which are nailed six hundred guide-boards pointing in six hundred different directions, and all labeled "To Cincinnati." How much would he learn from them about the proper road to travel to reach the city? The chance of striking the right course would lay within six hundred guesses; and those guesses could be made as well without the guide-boards as with them. And it is equally certain, and most self-evidently certain, that the road to heaven could be found as well if there were no churches and no Bibles pointing six hundred different directions. Indeed, the chances of finding it would be much better without them, because the minds of the people are confused and confounded, and their time wasted, their mental and spiritual vision darkened, and their judgments weakened, by attempting to grope their way through such a labyrinth of chaos, confusion, and uncertainty, which really incapacitates them for searching and finding the right way and the sure road "to the kingdom."