These charges against the christianity that has sprung up since the days of revelation, are capable of the most undeniable proof. It is no marvel that intelligent and high-minded men in every country have become so sceptical towards the prevailing religions of the day. The scepticism of France was a misnomer; it was not in reality a warfare against the true Bible, but against the horrid impositions supposed to be deducible from the Bible. If the Bible had been fairly represented by the true church, France would never have waged such a bloody war against it as it did in the days of its revolution. The illuminati of France had sense enough to detect the fooleries and impositions of priestcraft, and the nonsensical notion of a God without body or parts, and in their misguided rage they mistook the Bible to be the source of these false religions.
The foregoing is only a cursory hint of the bloody character of modern christianity, from the time when it slew the apostles who held the keys of revelation, and has ever since denied the need of any further revelation; for a hundred volumes of the size of the Bible, would not suffice to detail each instance where men and women have been whipped, hung, ripped open, or gibbeted, or burnt, or their ears bored, and their faces branded with hot irons. The massacres of France, half-murdered Ireland, Germany, and England, if written in detail, would make an imposing library. Fortunate for humanity's sake, that no one religious power has any greater predominance than it has; else the want of religious checks and balances would even now be as fatal to the minority as the exhalations of the Upas. Yet, after all this, christianity claims to be tolerant and catholic; and her bishops, enthroned in a salary of more than £27,000 sterling per annum, claim a regular succession from St. Peter. They might better have said from the murderers of St. Peter. Oh, shame on the cry of apostolic succession! What a transformation Peter must have undergone by this chain of succession! His gifts of discernment and healing gone! The spirit of prophecy and tongues have left him! The power to open prison doors, and of converse with angels, have left him impotent as other men! Marvellous falling off of every thing but salaries and pomp and persecution! Many suppose that Christ's Church must have been perpetuated on the earth, because it is said that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. Strange and fallacious argument for the continuance of the Church! Can it be supposed for a moment, that the Church is prevailed against, because it is removed from the earth? Jesus was removed from this life and gave up the ghost, but was he therefore prevailed against? Did he not triumph over death, and ascend up on high, and lead captivity captive? Did he not thereby acquire the possession of all things in heaven and upon earth?
It should not be supposed, that because all the saints were put to death, or became extinct from the earth, that they have any less dominion over wicked men and fallen angels; on the other hand, by removal they increase in power and glory, and have authority increased upon their heads. The generations of the wicked have been prevailed against, ever since the Church left the earth. The curses that have followed the Jewish and Gentile enemies of the Church, from the days of the primitive Church till now, are perfectly visible to any but such as have eyes and see not, and ears and hear not. The Jews and Gentiles are like two inebriates, each sees clearly how very drunk the other is, but discovers not his own intoxicated and besotted condition. The Gentiles say that the Jews, through transgression, have lost the Urim and Thummin, and Ephod and Teraphim, and been proscribed and banished, and thousands killed and scattered, as a bye word and proverb, among all nations. On the other hand, the Gentiles have lost the gifts and blessings of the Spirit, with all the holy order of apostles and prophets; and wiping the slush from their bloody hands, say they have no need of them.
Alas, sir, when shall the veil that covers all nations (both Jews and Gentiles) be removed, and self-righteous religionists confess that their sins have separated, between them and their God, and hid his face from them? When will the sectarian priesthood that now arrogantly say, we are rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing, have humility enough to confess that they are blind, and naked, and destitute of all things, seeing that they are without the gifts of the Spirit, and the key of knowledge (revelation) and the authority of the priesthood.
I know it is very difficult to convince sectarians that they are not a pious people. Why, say they, do we not manifest much more fervency of spirit, and studied sacredness of deportment, and punctilious exactness, in observing the Sabbath than Latter-day Saints? Do we not show to all men great self-abasement in confessing our sins to be like crimson and scarlet, and our iniquities to be like mountains in magnitude. Are we not scrupulously guarded against all levity and trifling conversation? Are not our preachers very grave, and apparently devoted and holy in their bearing? Do not their frequent sighs and insuppressible groans, as their spirits are weighed down under the conviction of the worth of souls, and the vast responsibility of the Lord's watchmen, indicate profound piety? Do they not fast often and pray much? Are they not orthodox and evangelical, insisting much upon the new birth and a radical change of heart? How can it be that a people of this description are not pious and exceedingly holy? The preachers speak, and even walk in measured carefulness and peculiarity of manner, so that a preacher is generally known by his walk, and dialect, and sober, grave countenance.
Now, sir, when I have conceded most liberally to the above, what does it all prove? Why, sir, one act of obedience to God is better than the most rigid conformity to all the precepts of men. The more devoted and sincere people are in error, so much more agreeable to the prince of darkness. What a meagre atonement does a demure countenance, and sanctimonious sighs and groans, and self-loathings make, for transgressing the law of God, and changing an ordinance. Take, for instance, the ordinance of laying on of hands for healing the sick. Had this ordinance been perpetuated in the Church, millions upon millions of the human family might have been saved from premature death. Through this ordinance, Jesus Christ has said, "they shall recover." Through the sceptical abandonment of this ordinance countless millions have not lived out half of their days. How much compensation does it afford to the countless victims of disobedience, for men to assume a grave long face, and strive to elongate the name of God by gracious sounds, as though the name of God was too short without being stretched for such holy lips.
Take another ordinance, viz., the gift of the Holy Ghost, by laying on hands. What a flimsy and miserable equivalent for the absence of the Comforter, and spirit of prophecy and revelation, are seminaries of learning, and a multitude of oblations, and prayers, and frequent fasting! It is too much, sir, like the drunken boy, who, having broken his master's bottle, boastingly claimed credit for saving the cork!
Neglect of the weighty matters of laws and ordinances are to be atoned for, by pious breathings in private journals for posthumous publication; and by elaborate sermons and comments, they make plain things profoundly obscure; and every year increases the necessity of additional learning, in order to disentangle the profound knottiness of theological disquisitions and exegetical comments. The very religious opposers of Jesus Christ, whose hands were accessory to his death, had a most fervent and devout spirit, and were eminently pious; but the doctrine of new revelations, and the gifts of healing, tongues, and prophecyings, disturbed the equanimity of their devout hearts, and their rage rose to the pitch of desperation and blood-guiltiness.
No matter how much men confess, and pray, and sacrifice,—no matter how sincere and conscientious they are in error, if their religion does not lead them to keep the commands and ordinances of the true and living God, their worship is vain and their faith is vain. Except they hearken to the law of God and the testimony of God, there is no light in them. Sincerity is nothing without obedience; both wicked men and devils are sincere in many things which God abhors. A man coming to the forks of four roads might pray months and years to be guided in choice of the right road, but if he would not believe the testimony of the Lord's servant who should tell him the only true road, he would still remain in doubt and fear.
Well, says a very strenuous objector, now to end all controversy, just show us one real genuine miracle, and I will thereupon believe, and be baptized, and for ever after hold my peace. Aye, indeed! a very common sentiment, but a strange one coming from the lips of a professed believer in the Bible. He that is no hypocrite, but a true believer in the Bible, has the explicit promise of God's own word, that miraculous signs shall follow them that believe. Now, if they do not follow believers, then God is a liar, and no longer worthy of confidence; but if God is true, and the signs do not follow, then your faith is vain, and will not save from damnation. But, says the objector, miracles were anciently wrought to prove the divine mission of the servants of God. Now prove to me that you are a servant of God, by the attestation of an indisputable miracle, for in apostolic days, even wicked men said, a notable miracle hath been done, and we cannot deny it. Yes, very true, and other wicked men have testified to the same in these days, and sometimes they would deny it, and alternately confess it, according to the spirit that was upon them. Saul, the king, could tell the truth about David at one time, and at another deny it—at one time worship the youthful supplanter, and at another thirst for his blood. Miracles may sometimes have been the occasion of leading persons to believe the word of God, but their prominent design was never in any age of the world to introduce new revelation.