V. Some Effecta of Profesung False Religions
1. In 1682 it happened in England that Dr. Leighton, a venerable man who had written a book against the Anglican episcopate, was tried in court and sentenced to the following punishment: he was cruelly lashed, then one of his ears was cut off, one of his nostrils slit open, and the characters S S were branded on his cheek. Seven days later he was lashed again, although the scars on his back had not yet healed, his other nostril was slit open, his other ear cut off, and his other cheek was branded. Alt this was done in the name of Christianity. Davidson.
2. In 1415, Johannes Huss was adjudged a heretic for attacking the Catholic religicm and the Pope; he was sentenced to death without the shedding of blood, that is to the stake.
He was executed outside the city gates between some gardens. When he was brought to the place of execution he knelt down and commenced to pray. When the executioner commanded him to ascend the stake, Huss arose and loudly said:
"Lord Jesus Christ, I go to my death for the preaching of thy word, I shall suffer obediently."
The executioners divested him of his clothing and bound his hands behind him to a post. The feet of the martyr rested upon a bench. Fagots and straw were piled about him. They reached up to his chin. Then the Emperor's representative approached him and said that if he recanted all that he had taught, he would be pardoned,
"No," replied Huss, "I am blameless."
Then the executioners set fire to the stake. Huss
chanted the prayer: "O Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me."
The fire blazed upwards and soon the voice of Huss was stilled
Thus did men who called themselves Qiristians proclaim their faith.
Is it not clear that this was no true faith, but the crudest of superstitions?
3. Of all the methods of pmpagating false religions the most brutal is the inculcation of false religions in the minds of the children. The child asks his elders, men who have lived before him and had the opportimity of acquiring the wisdom of those who had gone before, to tell him about the world and its life, and the relation between himself and others, and he is told not what his elders really think and believe, but what people thought and believed thousands of years ago, that is things which his elders do not and can not themselves believe. Instead of the spiritual food which the child craves, they tender him poison that ruins his spiritual welfare, poison of which he can rid himself only at the cost of much effort and suffering.
4. Men never commit evil deeds with greater confidence and assurance that they are right than when committing these deeds in the name of false religion.
Pascal.
VI. Wherein Consists the True Religion?
1. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. Matthew ХХ1П, 8-10.
Thus taught Christ. And he taught thus because he knew that just as there were teachers in his day who taught a false doctrine of God so there would be such in times to come. He knew it and taught his followers not to obey men who call themselves.teachers, because their teachings obscure the clear and simple doctrine which is manifest to all men and is implanted in the heart of every man.
This doctrine is to love God as the highest good and truth, and to love your neighbor as yourself and to do unto others as ye would that others do unto you.
2. Faith is not in knowing what has been and what will be, nor even in what is now, but only in knowing what each man ought to do.
3. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; Srst be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer Ay^ Matthew y.23'24.
Herein is true faith, but not in the rite, nor in the sacrifice, but in communion with people.
4. The Christian doctrine is so simple that infants understand it in its true sense. Only those fail to understand it who do not desire to lead a Christian life.
In order to understand true Chrisitianity, it is first of all needful to renounce the false.
5. True worship is free of superstition; when superstition enters it, worship itself is destroyed. Christ showed us wherein is true worship. He taught us that amidst alt the activities of our life only our love one for another is the light and the blessing of man. He taught that we can attain happiness only then when we serve others and not our ovm self.
6. If that which passes for the law of God does not call for love, it is hmnan fabrication and not the law of God. Scavoroda,
7. You will never know God if you believe all that is told you of God.
8. You cannot know God from what is told you about Him. You can know God only by obeying that law which is known to every human heart.
9. The substance of the teaching of Christ is in his manifestation of that divine perfection towards which men must strive throughout their life. But people who do not desire to follow the teaching of Christ, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unwittingly, understand the doctrine of Christ not as He taught it: as a constant striving after perfection, but as though He had demanded divine perfection of men. And taking this corrupt view of Christ's doctrine, men who do not desire to follow Him have two ways open to them: they very correctly claim that perfection is unattainable, and then reject the entire doctrine as an impractical dream (this is done by worldly people), or they adopt another method—^the most popular and the most harmful, the practice of the majority of people who call themselves Christians, namely admitting that perfection is unattainable, they correct, that is they corrupt the teaching, and in place of the true Christian teaching consisting of constant striving towards divine perfection, they observe certain so-called Christian rules, which for the most part are directly contrary to Christianity.
10. The idea of gatherings of Christians being gatherings of the elect, of superior beings, is a non-Christian, a proud and an erroneous idea. Who is better, and who is worse ? Peter was better until the cock crew. The robber
was worse until he reached the cross. Do we not know in our own self an angel and a devil taking part in our life, there being no creature that has banished the angel completely from his heart, nor one without a devil leering at times from behind the angel. How can we, contradictory beings as we are, compose gatherings of elect and of right-1 eous?
There is a light of truth, and there are people striving towards it from all sides, from as many sides as there are radial lines in a circle, that is in an infinite variety of ways. Let us strive with all our might towards the light of truth that unites us all, but how close we may be to it, how far advanced towards a union with it, it is not for us to judge.
VII.
True Religion Unites Men More and More
1. The corruption of Christianity has removed us from the realization of the Kingdom of God, but the truth of Christianity is like the flame of a camp fire; choked for a season by green branches, it gradually dries the damp twigs, sets them on fire and breaks through in a blaze here and there. The true meaning of Christianity is already manifest to all and its influence is stronger than the deceptions that have choked it.
2. Listen to that profound dissatisfaction with the present form of Christianity which has seized our society and is expressed in murmurs of bitter resentment and sorrow. All are thirsting for the coming of the Kingdom of God. And it is drawing nigh.
A purer Christianity slowly but surely replaces that which has been passing under that name. Channing.
3. From the days of Moses until the days of Jesus a
vast mental and religious development took place among individual people and nations. From the days of Jesus until our times this progress in individuals and nations has been still more significant. Old delusions have been cast aside and new truths have penetrated into the consciousness of mankind. One man cannot be as great as humanity. If a man be so far ahead of his fellows that they do not understand him, a time comes when they catch up with him, then overtake him and so far outdistance him as to become incomprehensible to those who remained where the great man had stood. Every religious genius sheds a brighter light upon religious truths and helps to bring men into a closer union. Parker.