In our preceding vol. II., p. 113, we have a note to the effect that there is much doubt upon the subject whether faith ought to be drilled into the minds of our youth prior to an acquisition of, or the power of using, their reasoning faculty, and we remarked that the question is far too extended to be treated in a casual note.
The matter was shortly afterwards discussed in parliament, but not one of the orators ventured to touch upon the point involved. If we ask ourselves "the reason why," it is probable that the answer would run—because all the interlocutors did not venture to be honest; by which I mean, did not wish to utter, in distinct language, the opinions that they held, and the end which they sought. There are some legislators who regard moral cowardice as a virtue, and political dishonesty as a desirable kingcraft.
If an observer of the parliamentary debates, to which we refer, was also a diligent and thoughtful reader of orations made in country towns and metropolitan districts, by preachers and teachers of all our various religious denominations, he would readily come to the conclusion that there was something underlying every speech, which was never allowed to come to the surface—a something which each was perfectly cognizant of, but which it would be unmannerly to name, or even to hint at strongly. It is not, in public meetings, or in parliament, permitted to any speaker to accuse an adversary of falsehood or dishonesty.
Yet, what an orator may not judiciously say of particular individuals, a writer may assert of a class, or of a single person, if he is a representative of a body. I may, for example, accuse the Pope of dishonesty in misrepresenting certain well-known facts. I may equally charge controversial writers with fraud, when they falsify the words or arguments of an opponent. Whoever frames such an indictment is, however, bound to take into consideration the possibility of there being an unintentional error. It may, for example, be true that Popes never see newspapers which tell the truth, and that divines may quote without ever reading the book which they profess to criticise. In both cases the critic acquits them of malice, but only to convict them of culpable ignorance.
When we investigate how this bears upon education, we ask ourselves—"Do we, as historians, or in our capacity of reading men, know that the pretensions of the Church of Rome are founded upon, or are bolstered up by, assertions which every learned man knows, or ought to know, are unworthy of belief?"
To be more particular, let us propound the question—Does any Papal hierarch believe that Francis of Assisi received certain bodily marks on his hands and feet direct from Jesus? or that any portion of the blood of a man has been preserved for ages in the Cathedral of Naples, as having once belonged to a person who is called by the same name as the first month in our year? We might readily increase our queries by remarking about St. Dennis, St. George, St Fou-tin, and a variety of others who appear in the Roman heaven. Our purpose, however, will be answered if we ask, whether the thoughtful amongst us do not object to the Papal faith, because those who proclaim it are not to be trusted?
If we listen to energetic Protestant divines, we hear much of "lying wonders," wrought by Antichrist, which are calculated even to deceive the very elect. These men frequently quote such passages as the following:—"Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these" (Jer. vii. 4); "They have committed villany in Israel, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them" (Jer. xxix. 23); "Have ye not spoken a lying divination," &c. (Ezek. xiii. 7, 8, 9); "Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whose coming is with lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness; and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie," &c. (2 Thess. ii. 8-12). Indeed, the main objection to the Roman Church, amongst all those who are acquainted with its secret history, is that it is founded, and still exists, upon a foundation of fraud.
There are many who consider that the Churches of England and of Scotland have not a better basis; but both have so many friends in Great Britain, that the sins of neither are closely examined, except by their adversaries.
Each sectarian is fully alive to the want of good faith shown by every other division of the Church of Christ; and not only so, but we have seen, in our own times, a ruler in Siam who knows about them too (see Wheel of the Law, by H. Alabaster; Triibner & Co., London, 1871), and is perfectly alive to the fact that we deceive ourselves.
It is a part of human nature that each individual has a propensity to deceive himself or herself. A child, who has been told that Old Bogy lives in a certain cupboard, will not go and look therein; a man who adores a lovely wife will not believe in her frailty; and a fond woman will not credit even her father, when he tells her that her admirer is a worthless scoundrel.