We have now an immense swarm of these idle dreamers; some of these have already reasoned themselves into the hallucination that they are in the New Jerusalem state, and that the christian dispensation, or the mediatorial reign of our Lord Jesus Christ has passed away! These idle away their time in discussing the ascension, through the different grades of spheres, which they imagine they shall eternally be attaining and passing through, with other kindred topics. Another class reason themselves into absolute fatalism. With them, all the actions of men, and the very thoughts that lead to them, are of necessity, and cannot be anything else! There is no praise of one class, or condemnation of another, for all do just what they do from an eternal necessity! Off, at another angle, another party is found, theorizing upon the whimsical notion of human pre-existence, in which state, they think a consistent origin for sin may be found! Yet another class perceive, that deep down in the Bible, where, till recently, none had ever penetrated, the doctrine is found, that, at judgment, the wicked will be stricken out of existence, thus ridding them of the idea of endless punishment, which had previously given them much distress! Still another class of these, have rid themselves of the same distressing and annoying doctrine, by making the astonishing discovery, that there is no devil, no hell, nor punishment of any kind, beyond the present state, and, therefore, no danger of any endless punishment! Still another class became perplexed with these metaphysical reasonings, subtleties and theorizings, in things that they cannot help feeling conscious can have no possible beneficial effects upon mankind, and rid themselves of the entire concern, by making the discovery that all things come by chance, that there is no God, Savior, angel or spirit, and death is an eternal sleep! But we sicken at the effort of trying to describe the vain and idle speculations of all these “wandering stars,” and shall proceed to something more tangible.
Scepticism has no foundation, no basis, no reality upon which to rest. It has nothing to build upon; no rock; no pillars of any kind. Nor has it any materials or builders. Nothing can be built without a foundation, materials and builders. Sceptics are not builders. Their work is merely pulling down old buildings. This is the reason they make so much show; their work is easy, requires but little skill and no goodness. Anybody can tear down, but it takes a workman to build. Scepticism is a mere negative, consisting wholly of denials. It affirms nothing, establishes nothing, and builds up nothing. It is a natural impossibility to build upon a mere negative. A system cannot, in the very nature of things, be built upon a mere denial—a mere negative. If a man would deny, repudiate, and condemn all the foundations of all the houses in his city, or if he would go and tear his neighbor’s foundations all down, it would give him no foundation for a house, but would simply put them in the same condition with himself—that is, without any foundation. In the same way, if infidels could successfully deny, disprove and overthrow the foundation of every system of religion in the world, it would lay no foundation for them, but would simply put the rest of us upon a level with them—that is, without any foundation. The work of all sceptics has been, simply to tear up the foundation of Christians, and not to lay any foundation for themselves. Not a man in all the ranks of unbelief has ever presented any foundation, or has any. Their entire clamor is against the Bible, but if they could expunge the Bible from the universe, they are no better off—they have nothing to stand upon.
Scepticism has no center of attraction, no gravitation, no great central pervading idea, drawing everything to one common center. A system must have a common center of attraction, holding it, in its revolutions, from flying into atoms. But, scepticism has no pervading idea, doctrine or constitution, in which everything centers, around which everything revolves, with power to attract and bind. It consists, simply in denials of what others believe. If the things which they deny were untrue, and should be denied, the denial of them is no foundation or center of attraction. Their denial amounts to nothing in their favor, but is simply unfavorable to others—destructive of the attraction binding others together. A million of the most unequivocal denials of the most absurd and preposterous doctrines the world ever contained, forms no center of attraction, doctrine or constitution, in which is embodied and concentrated any principal of attraction that can bind in a system. Denying simply frees men and cuts them loose, in their own estimation, from that which they deny, or what others believe, but binds them to nothing.
Scepticism has no law, gives no advice, and has nothing in it about the characters of men. It does not say that a man shall, or shall not, have a good character; that he shall or shall not have a bad character. It contains no such words and has no such idea, or keeps up no such distinctions as good and bad. It says nothing about love and hatred, revenge and pity, covetousness and benevolence, vice and virtue, happiness and misery. It contains not one sentence touching all the relations in life, providing nothing for individuals, families or nations. It consists of one negative principle, viz: The denial of the truth of the Christian religion. Any man can see that there is no law in this. If they could succeed in this denial, and show beyond all contradiction that christianity is not true, it amounts to nothing. It is no law, and accomplishes nothing in any way, only to bring christians upon a level with them—with precisely nothing.
Scepticism has no rewards for the good. It promises nothing in this world nor that which is to come. It holds out no rewards, no inducements of any kind for the good, in time or eternity!
Scepticism has no punishments for the bad, here nor hereafter. It contains no punishments for evil doers—the profligate, dissipated, and corrupt; thieves, robbers and murderers. It knows nothing of crimes or punishments for crimes, of any grade or atrocity.
Scepticism has no reformatory power. A denial, or a train of denials, even denials of error, can never restrain sinners nor reform men. The influence is simply negative. In the very nature of things, it cannot act positively. Denials or negatives require nothing, give nothing, and, as a matter of course, can produce no reformation. It is a negative system, if we may be allowed to call it a system at all, and in the very nature of things, its influence must be negative. It is like cold, which is simply the absence of heat; for the suffering, in the absence of heat, is from want of heat. Scepticism is simply the absence of the heat of christianity. Darkness is merely the absence of light, or it is the negative of light, else it and light could exist at the same time, in the same place. In precisely the same way, scepticism is the absence of gospel light, or faith. The soul without faith is empty, cold, dark, and hungry, suffering and perishing, for light, heat and food. Scepticism is no system, not a reality, substance or entity of any kind, but the absence of all these. To speak in general terms of faith, both christian faith and all other faith, the absence of it, would be the absence by far of the greater part of all we know, or that may be known by man. There is nothing more certain than that a man who knows much, must believe much. Scepticism is not the possession of reformatory principles, but simply the absence of them. There is nothing that a man can be more conscious of, than that scepticism never did, and never can, make a man better. Inherently, there is nothing in it. It is the absence of something. The mere absence of faith, of religion, doctrine and principles, most indisputably can do a man no good, and can have no power to save him in any sense. To speak of saving a man from starving by the absence of food, saving him from thirst by the absence of water, or from darkness by the absence of light, or from sickness by the absence of the only medicine that could save him, is not more absurd, than to speak of unbelief reforming man. Scepticism is not heat, but the absence of it; not light, but the absence of it; not faith, but the absence of it; not knowledge, but the absence of it; not medicine, but the absence of it; not nourishment, but the absence of it. The sceptic is a man perishing with cold, while he is graciously offered the warmth of christianity; groping in darkness while the light of heaven is as free for him as the rays of the sun; starving, with an invitation to eat of the bread that comes down from heaven; dying with thirst, while God is holding out to him the water of life; a sick man refusing to take an infallible remedy from the physician, simply exercising the power to reject all that could do him any good, resting, refusing, denying and dying.
[CHRIST THE CENTER.]
