8. The Godhead.—All Trinitarians teach that there are three persons in the Godhead. The Paulite Christians say there are but two, while the Unitarians affirm there is but one. Which is right? Who can tell?
9. Baptism.—The churches are not agreed with regard to baptism as to what it is, how, and when it should be applied, and on whom it should be administered. Some hold to dipping, some to douching, and some to sprinkling, as the scripture mode of administering it. Which is right? Who can tell?
I should prefer the dipping process. It would do something toward saving the body of the sinner from disease, if not the soul from hell, if frequently applied. He should be baptized once a week, if not once a day, with water and soap. We have now enumerated nearly all the leading doctrines of the Christian faith, and shown that the views of the churches, with respect to them, are about as different as day from night. The important query then arises, What progress have we made towards determining, by the Bible or by the churches, what we must do and believe in order to be saved? Why, about the same progress the boy had made toward reaching the schoolhouse, who, on being interrogated by the teacher as to the cause of his late appearance, replied, "Why, master, you see the road was so slippery, that, when I attempted to take one step forward, I slipped two steps backward."—"How did you manage to get here, then?" asked the teacher. "Why," replied Tom, "I turned round and went the other way." I would suggest that the churches try this policy of turning round, and going the other way. My conviction is they would find the true road to salvation much sooner, and be better prepared to settle the question as to what they should do and believe in order to be saved. It is a question, however, they never can settle. The Bible is a very old book; and, the farther we get away from the age in which it was written, the more difficult it will become to understand it: for human language, and even human thought and the meaning of words, are constantly changing. These circumstances will constantly augment the difficulty of ever understanding any old Bible, or of determining what it teaches or designed to teach with respect to an important doctrine.
10. The Number of Hells.—When the disciple of the Christian faith talks of a hell in the presence of a Hindoo, he tells him he don't know any thing about the matter: that there are no less than three institutions of this kind. But here the Mahomedan rises up, and says, "You, too, are totally ignorant on the subject; for there are no less than seven institutions of this character. One of them is set apart for Christians who believe in the divinity and atonement of Christ." Lieut. Lynch, of the United-States navy, says that a Mahomedan told him, "No man or woman can be saved who believes that God was born of a woman, and then became a malefactor to a human tribunal; for the doctrine is blasphemous." Which of all these opinions is right? Who can tell?
11. Bible Doctrines constantly changing.—The increase of intelligence, and the growth and expansion of the human mind, have the effect to change the views of the people generally and constantly upon almost every subject that occupies the mind; so that the creeds of the churches are constantly changing. Hence the Bible is made to teach widely different doctrines in different ages; and what is Christianity to-day is infidelity to-morrow, and vice versâ. (See Chapter lviii.) And so thorough is the change wrought upon the meaning or interpretation of nearly all the important texts in "God's perfect revelation," that it virtually makes a new Bible for each generation. I will present some proofs and illustrations of this statement by comparing the doctrine of the churches of the last century with those of the present. In the days of Jonathan Edwards, a hell, constituted of a lake of fire and brimstone, was preached in nearly all the Christian churches; also the doctrine of infant damnation, when the Methodists sang that beautiful and charming hymn,—
"For hell is crammed
With infants damned,
Without a day of grace;"
also the doctrine of predestination, the doctrine of election and reprobation, the doctrine of purgatory, the doctrine of Christ's descent into hell, &c. All these and other similar doctrines were preached in nearly every pulpit nearly every sabbath; and the preacher who would have neglected to preach these doctrines would have been denounced as on the road to hell. But now the clergyman who should attempt to preach these old Calvinistic tenets would be denounced as "an old fogy." Hence the important query arises, When were the churches preaching Bible doctrine, then or now? Who can tell? Such changes are unceasingly going on. Important changes are sometimes made in the popular creed in a few years' time, as we will cite a case to prove. Just before the last war the peace doctrine was becoming quite popular in nearly all the churches, and sermons were often preached from such texts as the following: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more." But, when the war broke out, new texts were hunted up, and the preaching all ran in the opposite direction. "Cursed be he who holseth back his sword from blood" (Jer. xlviii. 10); "He who hath not a sword, let him sell his coat, and buy one,"—then constituted the texts for a sound sermon. Now it is evident that a book which thus teaches opposite doctrines virtually teaches nothing. Its moral force is destroyed. If a man wants to perform a certain act to-day, and an act of an opposite character to-morrow, and can find a warrant for both in the Bible, then it is evident the Bible can have no effect whatever towards changing his course of life. When every moral duty is both commanded and countermanded, and every crime both sanctioned and condemned, as appears to be the case with the Christian Bible, then it is evident that a man with the Bible would act exactly as the man without the Bible; for whatever he may naturally feel inclined to do, or whatever he wants to do, he finds Bible authority for. Hence it is evident the Bible can't change his conduct in the least; for it merely tells him to do what he wishes to do, and had made up his mind to do. I will prove this position by citing several cases for illustration. We will suppose a man has become convinced by observation, or his own experience, that it is wrong to drink intoxicating liquors, and wants Bible authority for preaching temperance. He can find it by turning to Isa. v. 22: "Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine." But a friend of his, a member of the same church, living in the city, where there is great demand for intoxicating beverages, wants to make some money by selling it. He finds the authority for that act also in Deut. xiv. 26: "Thou shalt spend thy money for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatever thy soul lusteth after." Another Christian becomes very angry, and filled with the spirit of a murderer towards a neighbor, and concludes to kill him. He finds Bible authority for it in the text, "Go ye out and slay every man his companion, every man his brother, and every man his neighbor" (Exod. xxxii. 27). Another pious Christian has become convinced, by "the logic of history," that all war and fighting is wrong, and hence concludes to preach the doctrine of peace. He finds Bible authority for that in the Decalogue: "Thou shalt not kill." Another devout Christian, whose common sense has taught him that it is wrong for one human being to enslave another, wants Bible authority against the practice. He finds it in the text, "Thou shalt proclaim liberty through all the land," &c. Another godly saint, living in a slave-holding country, and being both a tyrant and a mammon worshiper, wants Bible authority for trafficking in the blood and bones of his fellow-beings. He finds it in Lev. xxv. 45: "Of the heathen round about you shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids, and they shall be your possession for ever;" so he knows it is all right. And thus this exposition might be continued so as to show that there is no crime, no sin, no vice, and no wicked deed but that is both sanctioned and condemned by "God's Holy Word," and no moral duty that is not both commanded and countermanded; thus proving it to be absolutely impossible to follow it as a guide without being led into the commission of every species of sin, crime, and abomination, as well as prompted to the practice of virtue. Every person who has not made shipwreck of common sense must see at once that it is utterly impossible to learn any thing about what is right and what is wrong, what is sin and wickedness, and what is virtue, what is morality and what is immorality, or what he should approve, and what condemn, what he should do and what leave undone, or, finally, any thing about the duties of life or the rules and principles of morality, by such a book. What can such a book, then, be worth, either in the cause of religion or morality? Where, oh! where is the common sense of Christendom? It is wonderful to what extent rationality and good sense have been banished from the human mind in all Bible countries by a false and perverted education. It can not be wondered at that we have so many antagonistic churches with innumerable conflicting creeds, when we examine and learn something about the endless contradictions and confusion of the teachings of the book on which they are founded.
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."