“Allow us to put these two texts face to face:
“‘There are eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.’ (Matt. xix., 12, 13).
“‘The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God’s service.’ (John xvi. 1, 2).
“Because our Saviour has said that there would be men who would think that they would please God (and of course gain a place in heaven) by killing His disciples, are we, therefore, allowed to conclude that it would be our duty to kill those who believe and follow Christ? Surely not.
“Well, it seems to us that we are not to believe that the best way to go to heaven is to make ourselves eunuchs, because our Saviour had said that some men had got that criminal and foolish notion into their mind!
“Christian nations have always looked with horror upon those who voluntarily became eunuchs. Common sense, as well as the Word of God, condemns those who thus destroy in their own bodies that which God in his wisdom gave them for the wisest and holiest purposes. Would it not, therefore, be a crime which every civilized and Christian nation would punish, to preach publicly and with success to the people that one of the surest ways for a man to go to heaven would be to make himself an eunuch? How can we believe that our Saviour could ever sanction such a practice?
“Moreover, if being eunuchs would make the way to heaven surer and more easy, would not God be unjust for depriving us of the great privilege of being born eunuchs, and thus being made ripe fruits for heaven?
“It seems to us that that text does not in any way require us to believe that an eunuch is nearer the kingdom of God than he who lives just according to the laws which God gave to man in the earthly paradise. If it was not good for man to be without his wife when he was so holy and strong as he was in the Garden of Eden, how can it be good now that he is so weak and sinful?
“Our Saviour clearly shows that he finds no sanctifying power in the state of an eunuch, in his answer to the young man who asked him, ‘Good master, what must I do that I may have eternal life?’ (Matt. xix., 16.) Did the good Master answer him in the language we heard from you two days ago, namely, that the best way to have eternal life is to make yourself an eunuch—make a solemn vow never to marry? No; but he said, ‘Keep the commandments!’
“Were the blessed Saviour to-day in your place, and I should ask him, ‘What must I do to be saved, and to show the way of God to my brethren?’ would he not say to me, ‘Keep the commandments!’ But where is the commandment of God in the Old or New Testament, to induce us to make such a vow as that of celibacy? The promise of a place in heaven is not attached in any way to the vow of celibacy. Christ has not a word about that doctrine.