— 1 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
..._ Cornell University Library 
 arW37475 
 
 The safe side. 
 
 ,. 3 1924 031 784 303 
 olin,anx 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031784303 
 
THE 
 
 SAFE SIDE. 
 
 A Theistic Refutation of the Divinity of 
 Christ. 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD M. MITCHELL. 
 
 it is safe to know the truth. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 R. M. MITCHELL, 6141 Stewart Avenue, Chicago, Ills. 
 1887. 
 
JfH^-fer-g^O' 
 
 /- Q^l 
 
 > q^7 
 
 Copyrighted, i8 
 
 \ Pr9"ic!:nt White 
 . L'jrury 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 I. Guiding Mature of the Mental Faculties. i 
 
 II, Natural Depravity. i6 
 
 III. The Reasoning and Religious Faculties. 38 
 
 IV. The Christian Religion. 48 
 V. The Witnesses and Imagination. 65 
 
 VI. John the Baptist. - 80 
 
 VII. Cause of the Crucifixion. hi 
 
 VIII. The Teachings of Christ. . - 122 
 
 IX. JOSEPHUS. 141 
 
 X. JosEPHUs and Jesus of Tiberias. - 164 
 
 XI. St. Paul. 182 
 
 XII. St. Paul and the Ascension. - 199 
 
 XIII. Faith. 214 
 
 XIV. The Fourth Gospel. 236 
 .\V. The Question as Met by Modern Authors. - 265 
 
 XVI. Inertia of Ideas. 287 
 
 XVII. Conversion. 309 
 
 XVIII. WORLDLINESS. 326 
 
 XIX. The Safe Side. 342 
 
 XX. Immortality. 359 
 
 XXI. Supernatural Supervision. 374 
 
Through my inexperience as a proof reader, a few errors in 
 orthography were overlooked, all but one of which are typo- 
 graphical. In a few instances the printer has also changed 
 singular verbs to plural by affixing an s. The indulgence of 
 the reader is also asked for one or two other unimportant errors- 
 
 R. M. M. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ■OMPLICATED questions in politics or religion are gener- 
 ally such only through the great interests that grow up 
 under long prevalent ideas and become too powerful to be 
 suppressed when time has demonstrated that those ideas were 
 founded in error. The questions themselves are usually simple 
 enough; in fact there is generally no question except as to how 
 to act on new ideas in spite of the opposition of those interested 
 in customs established by old ones. Hence our natural assump- 
 tion that the opposition to religious or political reform is at all 
 times a vicious and ignorant one, is not true. The opponents 
 are often influential, intelligent, and prosperous. Even then, 
 however, it would not be difficult to overcome them if the dvil 
 to be corrected was made conspicuous by isolation; but erron- 
 eous ideas are associated with so much that is true as to mislead 
 the mind and make their separation a difficult task. 
 
 Bad principles are formidable only when they compose but a 
 small part of the good principles of prominent men. Though 
 the truth may predominate, the ultimate result of error is as 
 serious as it would be if unmixed with truth. The slight thread 
 of poison in the food will eventually kill ; the slight deviation of 
 the ship from the true course will guide it to the rocks :«and so 
 in the principles governing our actions, a slight smothering of 
 doubt on the part of some; a slight suppression of small items 
 of facts on the part of others, and a slight fostering of personal 
 interest on the part of still others, will result in the underlying 
 principles being wholly corrupt, even though employed by a 
 body of men whose intelligence and social positions were superior. 
 
 The mind is so constructed that erroneous governing ideas 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 will sooner or later work themselves to the front and become a 
 bar to further progress until they are corrected. 
 
 The Christian religion supplies many illustrations of this. 
 The belief that Christ was the Son of God involved the affirm- 
 ation of certain virtues and sins that are such only within the 
 Christian system. Those false virtues alone are harmless, but 
 they work most serious injury in the loss of that which they in- 
 tercept, and it can be shown that just so far as they control the 
 public mind they are a bar to much needed social and political 
 reform. 
 
 But the source from whence those pretended virtues emanates 
 has been denominated "The Truth," and unquestioning belief 
 is demanded without investigation. This is done by the bitter- 
 ness of censure of those who presume to question those so- 
 called truths, and who demand for the Bible the same responsi- 
 bility that is attached to other books. It is true a few leading 
 churchmen are alive to the confession of weakness this position 
 sifbtends, and pretend to challenge investigation upon both sides 
 of the question. Mr. Beecher said of Christianity that " what 
 can be swept away, ought to be swept away." But the great 
 body of believers have been taught and still believe that works 
 inimical to the divinity of Christ must not be read at all. Though 
 claiming so much for the Bible and Christ, Christians, as a rule, 
 pride themselves in their exclusion of all knowledge of those 
 facts that tend to disprove the inspiration of the one and the 
 divinity of the other. 
 
 If <he Bible is the word of God, it is an insult to Him to 
 demand intellectual concessions in reading it that would not in 
 other works be conceded to a child. That spirit which we are 
 directed to employ when searching the Scriptures should follow, 
 not precede its reading. If that spirit can be possessed before 
 reading the Bible then we are not indebted to the Bible for it, 
 and it becomes our obvious duty to inquire into the circum- 
 stances that caused that book and its inseparable system to be 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 attached to the natural religious feelings. The desired effect is 
 produced only by that spirit, and to discover its source and 
 proper exercise is a true religious study. 
 
 So very much has been claimed for Christianity that many 
 will believe its overthrow would be a misfortune even though its 
 doctrines be not true. But those many wide claims compose an 
 important part of its system, and its support in our day is 
 largely derived through mistaken ideas as to its supposed virtues. 
 As the believer's mind becomes awake to the actual truth he will 
 the more clearly discover the evil effects that have attended that 
 religion. Its name is given a wider meaning than naturally be- 
 longs to it so that large numbers do not realize that God and 
 religion can be and are quite distinct from the question of the 
 divinity of Christ, and of the doctrines appertaining thereto. 
 Christianity has reference only to the latter, though falsely 
 assumed to be the sole representative of the former. Christians 
 are so thoroughly imbued with ideas of this nature that few of 
 them can realize that the entire Christian system can be swept 
 away, and a pure religion and profound veneration for God 
 remain. 
 
 The attention of Christians ought to be arrested by the 
 solemn fact that the first step in worshipping Christ consists in 
 defaming God. It cannot be shown how Christ is a savior with- 
 out representing God to have made a partial failure. The united 
 voice of Christendom throughout the Christian era proclaiming 
 that God was circumvented by an independent and inferior 
 power, constitutes the greatest insult that man has ever offered 
 to his Creator, and that insult has borne its natural fruit and been 
 the greatest misfortune mankind has ever known. 
 
 It is human nature to promptly protect our' interests. We 
 do so involuntarily. This natural disposition has necessarily 
 been an element in defense of Christianity and undesignedly its 
 worldly interests rather than its dogmas have been the base of 
 Christian exertions. The church has been wavering in its rules 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 for salvation, but in its earthly interest it has been constant, con- 
 sistent, and prosperous. Only therein has it been successful. 
 The immensity of that success has filled the eye and obscured 
 any opinion we might otherwise have had as to the usefulness of 
 that religion. Belief in the system is what is wanted rather than 
 especial devotion to Christ and the Bible. The church promptly 
 sets aside the wishes of Christ when they conflict with its interest. 
 His two most distinct commands are utterly ignored, and if his 
 utterances were as the word of God there is probably not a true 
 Christian in the world. 
 
 Among the earliest exhibitions of mechanical ingenuity in 
 the middle ages were certain inventions of Christians used to 
 torture other Christians for not believing that to be true which 
 all now know to be false. A knowledge of the truth would have 
 prevented those cruelties and did at last suppress them. The 
 rule here, as everywhere, has held good — that truth and happi- 
 ness go hand in hand even though the truth demolishes Christian 
 dogmas. The progress of the church since has been marked, 
 not by an augmentation of its creeds, but by a curtailment of 
 them. " Its new truths have been but discoveries of its old 
 falsehoods," and the prominence of its leaders in our day is 
 measured by the extent of their widening disbelief. 
 
 The church has always combated whatever conflicted with 
 the Bible regardless of all other considerations, and in so doing 
 its influence has often been given on the side of ignorance. As 
 yet human progress has been the work of but a few minds as 
 compared to the whole population. In astronomy, for instance, 
 the nnmber of those to whom we are indebted for what is now 
 known in that science is very small as compared to the people 
 living in their' times. (Far less than one per cent.) But the 
 church has done much to hold back that study. It at one time 
 made it dangerous for a man to say that the world was round — 
 a fact we first learned through that science — and though that 
 truth has in time over-ridden the so-called truth it disproved, it 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 does not follow that the church did not retard that science by its 
 opposition. We do not nor cannot know what valuable truths 
 and what progress mankind might have reached but for the power 
 of the church in suppressing investigation in that .which con- 
 flicted with its own support. 
 
 Wonderful discoveries have of late been made in exploring 
 the works of God, many of which directly contradict statements 
 in the so-called word of God, and the conflict seems to be in- 
 creasing yearly and has caused a divergence too wide for recon- 
 ciliation. Both cannot be true. If the Bible is the word of 
 God the developments of time would the more and more have 
 confirmed such to be the fact, nor could its history be traced 
 through the natural working of the minds of those who originated 
 present ideas as to its sacredness. But time is disclosing its 
 errors, and in a knowledge of human nature nearly every step 
 and sentiment that actuated those originators and leaders can be 
 accounted for, even to the causes that led to the prediction of 
 the commg of the Messiah at that particular time, and the cir- 
 cumstances that led to proclaiming Christ to be that Messiah. 
 Nor were the relations between the various characters men- 
 tioned in the New Testament such as has been represented. 
 
 The New Testament discloses why it is that, after the gospels, 
 just two-thirds of that book is taken up with records of the 
 sentiments and movements of a man who, if he ever saw Christ, 
 saw him with the eyes of an enemy; who looked on approvingly 
 when Stephen was stoned to death; and who quarreled with 
 Peter, James and other Apostles, while but one-ninth of that 
 space is devoted to the sayings of Christ's chief Apostle and his 
 successor after the crucifixion, and whose suppressed gospel was 
 virtually the original New Testament and must have been the 
 foundation for church doctrines for more than a hundred years. 
 Also the natural succession of circumstances that lead to the 
 production of the Gospel of John can be clearly traced. Every 
 step in the formation of the Chiistian religion can be accounted 
 for in the natural operation of the human mind. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Christianity surpasses any nation in power and number of 
 officers, and it costs vast sums, which is an idle waste if its 
 doctrines are erroneous, and it continues to cause political 
 trouble wherever it exists. If, therefore, Christ was not the Son 
 of God, and all the doctrines founded on that supposition are 
 false, it is as important to discover that fact as it is to know the 
 contrary if they are true. The exact truth is what is wanted and 
 to obtain it the first step is to refuse to give to the Bible deference 
 that can be felt only by its most confirmed believers. The spirit 
 with which we are required to search the Scriptures is not the 
 spirit we should employ in searching for the truth. We should 
 be as intent upon exposing its errors as its truth, and should de- 
 mand of it greater accuracy instead of less than is demanded of 
 other books. 
 
 It is a theory within the Christian system that their doctrines 
 have grown up under 1800 years of constant contention and that 
 they have demolished a world of opposition by the overpower- 
 ing evidence of their truth. But this is a deception growing out 
 of the vast amount of contention among themselves. They 
 have mistaken much of their own loud noise for that of enemies 
 who did not exist. Their frail defenses have stood — not because 
 they were impregnable — but because comparatively no effort 
 was made to destroy them. But little has been written against 
 the whole system and most of that the church has successfully 
 suppressed. 
 
 Nevertheless, its weakness is being fast exposed, not by the 
 efforts of concerted opponents, but by the widening difference 
 between the ideas of God as drawn out by His works and the 
 ideas of God as set forth by the writers of the Bible. There 
 have been few as yet to tell of the many evils of that system 
 though they are most serious, and it is time they be investigated, 
 not with a spirit of superstitious fear, but with a confidence in 
 our own judgment, and in accepting each little item of fact that 
 may be found there is no danger, for God is on the side of truth. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
 
 John Stuart Mill says: "That a true psychology is the indispensable 
 scientific basis of morals, of politics, of the science and art of education; 
 that the difficulties of metaphysics lie at the root of all science; that those 
 difficulties can only be quieted by being resolved, and that until they are 
 resolved, positively if possible, but at any rate negatively, we are never 
 assured that any human knowledge, even physical, stands on solid foun- 
 dation. " 
 
 Preliminary to the work in contemplation, I desire 
 to call attention to the confining and guiding nature of 
 the various mental faculties. Our thoughts flow seem- 
 ingly at our own will, but those various faculties confine 
 them in certain channels, and the acts they impel us to 
 perform are, therefore, of a nature that our Creator in- 
 tended we should perform. Our free agency, though 
 wide, is nevertheless confined to well-defined limits, 
 within which alone happiness can be secured. We do 
 not notice the loss of liberty caused by some of the 
 mental faculties, simply because our ease of mind is ob- 
 tained only through following their dictation. We act 
 as our hopes and feelings dictate, but why those hopes 
 and feelings were brought into existence, are questions 
 to which special attention is here invited. 
 
 The varying theories of metaphysicians as to the 
 number and functions of those faculties need not be dwelt 
 upon. Sir William Hamilton refers to the different clas- 
 sifications by different philosophers as being numerous 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 and contradictory, and no classification is directly given 
 in his published lectures, though he refers to many, and 
 possibly all the faculties into which he believed the mind 
 to be divided. He was regarded at the time of his death, 
 thirty years ago, as the most learned metaphysician of 
 his time, and hence those lectures, coupled with John 
 Stuart Mill's examination of them, will necessarily give 
 the most advanced, though opposing ideas on this sub- 
 ject. 
 
 The evolution theory is directly, connected with this 
 science, and necessarily all writers upon that subject have 
 much to say of the mind; but while the writing of meta- 
 physicians are more particularly with reference to its phe- 
 nomena, the latter class of writers deal with its develop- 
 ment, and in either case they are outside of and above 
 the scope of this work. So far as I have anything to 
 say of the mind, it will be of its workings; what thoughts 
 certain faculties lead us to; and how in some instances 
 we attribute acts to faculties that took little or no part in 
 them. It is human nature as it now is, and not a ques- 
 tion as to how that nature was developed, nor as to how 
 the mystery of thought can be accounted for. 
 
 Darwin directly, and Hamilton and others indirectly 
 admit that no classification of the mental faculties has 
 been agreed qpon, and writers usually refer to but the 
 few faculties necessary to illustrate their ideas and sustain 
 their theories. I feel Ucensed by this to mention a few 
 not named by those distinguished writers, particularly as 
 the presence of such faculties seem to be quite generally 
 conceded by the public. Even if it shall eventually 
 transpire that the partial division herein given is not 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 3 
 
 wholly correct, it still will not invalidate the ideas offered. 
 It is enough that it is admitted that the mind is divided 
 into numerous faculties, and that there is no question as 
 to the existence of those most referred to. 
 
 The affections are the most conspicuous illustration of 
 the guiding nature of those faculties. A careful analysis 
 of our love for our children, for instance, will show that 
 our feelings have been made especially sensitive to their 
 needs, and the power that holds us to our duties to them 
 is measured by the degree of their helplessness. Even the 
 mother's caresses are necessary, because the infant needs 
 that outward demonstration of affection to realize the 
 existence of that affection, and the child also needs the 
 confidence and mental rest that love secures to it. By 
 just the degree that our children are able to take care of 
 themselves are we released from care and anxiety for 
 them. 
 
 The Creator has made some of the lower order of 
 animals have no other care for their young than to prop- 
 erly deposit their eggs, and the higher order of animals 
 care for their young but a short time; and we also are 
 released from anxiety regarding children not our own, 
 our care for them being required only at rare instances, 
 and then through a different faculty of the mind. We 
 also could have been created without especial love for 
 our own children, and could in such cases abandon them 
 without disturbing our peace of mind. We would have 
 been just as happy and our liberties greater. 
 
 It was not, therefore, for our own good, but for the 
 necessities of the young that we are made to suffer men- 
 tal agony by and in proportion to any neglect of our 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 duties to them. That faculty is often too weak in indi- 
 viduals, and in some instances is almost if not entirely 
 absent. Such persons can abandon their children with- 
 out mental suffering, and in other countries again marry 
 and have children, whom they also abandon. However 
 despicable they may be, the fact remains that their lib- 
 erties are greater and their burdens less. In the absence 
 of those faculties, such people are mental monstrosities, 
 and there are instances when, like physical monstrosities 
 — if the truth could be known — they should be put to 
 death as soon as they were born. 
 
 The mental faculty of honor also restricts our liberties. 
 We do not so regard it because those who, through its 
 deficiency, are enabled to exercise those liberties, are 
 looked upon with contempt by all others. It can be em- 
 ployed only in our dealings with others, and its general 
 cultivation is necessarily of the greatest importance. An 
 interesting feature connected with it consists in this — 
 that the by-laws of any association are made by people 
 who at the time are under no temptation to violate that 
 faculty, and consequently those by-laws exhibit a higher 
 degree of honor than is always manifested in the average 
 dealings of those who made them. It is, therefore, to 
 the public interest that all men belong to some associa- 
 tion and be subject to its discipline, rather than that each 
 individual should be left too much to his own less com- 
 petent and biased interpretations as to his duty. 
 
 The confining and guiding nature of honor will be the 
 more readily realized by observing that whenever that 
 faculty is called up in our intercourse with our fellow- 
 men, it is because that which it demands of us to do is 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 5 
 
 that which our inclinations otherwise would prevent our 
 doing. 
 
 Respect for public opinion also fills a very important 
 duty, and is clearly owing to a faculty given for that pur- 
 pose. The public interest is often protected by it, as 
 against officers and others who otherwise would have 
 violated public rights. Like all the mental faculties, 
 its power is not felt until attempts are made to cross the 
 limits it is intended to prescribe. 
 
 These, and other indispensable duties, could not be 
 left for us to discover and discharge by education. On 
 the contrary, our schooling and discipline is stimulated 
 by those faculties. They are with us from birth, and form 
 as much a part of our creation as our limbs, or eyes, or 
 ears, or other organs. Certain duties must be performed, 
 and certain branches of knowledge promptly obtained; 
 and faculties are given that insure the performance of 
 those duties, and the acquisition of that knowledge, and 
 hence an understanding of the duties they lead to will 
 throw light upon our Creator's designs regarding our 
 daily life. 
 
 Inasmuch as it is admitted that the mind is divided 
 into numerous faculties, the question arises as to what 
 natural feelings are owing to a faculty, and what to other 
 causes. If the functions of each were as well defined as 
 those just mentioned, it would be a simple task to dis- 
 cover the whole, but certain characteristics attend certain 
 apparent faculties that greatly embarrass this question. 
 Memory, for instance, has peculiarities very different from 
 simple mental powers, like honor, or caution, or mathe- 
 matics. If a man is a good mathematician he will be 
 
6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 equally so in all branches of mathematics to which he 
 gives his attention. So with honor, a man will have the 
 same average of that power according to his understand- 
 ing. Such variation as those faculties exhibit is of slow 
 growth, and is owing to their cultivation, or to changes 
 in their relative power caused by the cultivation of others. 
 
 But memory is never equally strong upon all subjects 
 in any individual. There will be varying degrees of 
 power in remembering words, faces, colors, etc. There 
 will also be a difference in recollecting facts, according 
 to the nature of the subject. The service of memory is 
 in constant demand, and its importance and peculiarities 
 are so great as to have drawn the first attention of meta- 
 physicians from Aristotle to the present time. Never- 
 theless, in the sense that we have a faculty of honor, or 
 caution, or love of our children, there is, I contend, no 
 faculty of memory. 
 
 Memory is simply the action of the faculties them- 
 selves, and will be good or bad in an individual according 
 as he may be deficient or superior in any one of them. 
 There is the same difference between other mental facul- 
 ties and memory, that there is between muscle and 
 strength; or between the storage capacity of a room and 
 the articles stored within it. Thus, a man who remembers 
 figures well but does not remember names (or words), is 
 one who is good in mathematics and poor in language. 
 Or memory of faces or localities will be according to the 
 faculties of form, locality, etc. 
 
 Recollection of facts is a branch of memory that may 
 be better or worse than recollection of figures or words. 
 We remember best that which interests us most, and our 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. ^ 
 
 interest is measured by the extent of the faculty called 
 into action by the subject. It is great, and possibly use- 
 less labor to try and perfect ourselves in that for which 
 the required mental power is largely wanting. No interest 
 will be felt in a topic that calls up such absent power, and 
 what is then learned will soon be forgotten. But great 
 interest will be taken in that which calls into action our 
 excelling powers, and the facts then learned will be re- 
 membered. 
 
 The ability to distinguish color supplies a fair illustra- 
 tion of this, for that power is dependent upon a mental 
 faculty, a fact which seems too frequently to be overlook- 
 ed. More than a hundred years ago, Hume wrote: 
 "Were I not afraid of appearing too philosophical, I 
 should remind my readers of the famous doctrines, sup- 
 posed to be fully proven in modern times, 'that taste and 
 colors, and all other sensible qualities, lie not in the bodies, 
 but merely in the senses.' The case is the same with 
 beauty and deformity, virtue and vice." 
 
 The mental faculty of color is so well developed in 
 some that they can match any shade of color from mem- 
 ory, and the extent of that faculty in any individual can 
 be measured by his powers of memory in that respect. 
 With some persons this deficiency is so great that they 
 can remember no colors whatever, and are consequently 
 color blind. Color blindness has no connection with the 
 organs of vision, it being simply a deficiency in the men- 
 tal faculty of color. 
 
 Sudden loss of memory in some directions, while it 
 remains good in others, but indicates a weakening or 
 possible paralysis of a faculty. Very old people remem- 
 ber that which occurred in their vigor, but are less able 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to hold in their weakening minds the events of their old 
 age. Memory, therefore, is only the action of the facul- 
 ties themselves, and will be good or bad according to the 
 degree of their varying powers. Ah individual, conse- 
 quently, can judge as to the extent of any one of his 
 faculties by noting the tendency of his mind to dwell 
 upon the subject appertaining to that faculty, and his 
 memory therein. 
 
 Courage, also, is a mental power having characteris- 
 tics peculiar to it alone. We certainly have the very 
 important faculty of caution, and to neutralize it with 
 one of an opposite tenor would be equivalent to dis- 
 pensing with both. Nevertheless, both are found in 
 high degree in the same person. Headley, in his Life of 
 Napoleon, represents the Emperor, whose courage is un- 
 questioned, to have been one of the most cautious of 
 generals, and records many illustrations in support of his 
 assertion. Courage, like memory, is not a mental fac- 
 ulty in the sense referred to; it is derived through a 
 combination of some of the most desirable mental pow- 
 ers, and as it has caution to contend against, its display 
 has necessarily always been looked upon with admiration. 
 The combination that creates courage varies necessarily 
 in different individuals, some being quite deficient in part 
 of the required powers. Such persons will be irregular 
 in their courage, displaying it under certain conditions, 
 and show a want of it in others. There is a false cour- 
 age, caused by deficiency in caution. Such a person 
 will be fool-hardy , and expose himself to unnecessary 
 dang^. 
 
 Those attributes of the mind derived through the ac- 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 9 
 
 tion of several faculties are usually more conspicuous 
 than any one faculty, and have received correspondingly 
 more attention. The combinations, and single faculties 
 have all been treated alike, to the great confusion of this 
 important science. It is as though we had regarded the 
 muscles of the arm, the arm itself, and its strength, as 
 three separate things all standing upon equal footing, and 
 each capable of exertion without the others. Too much 
 attention cannot be given to those combinations, but they 
 should be recognized as such. They are quite numerous, 
 also, and include memory, courage, imagination, cons- 
 cience, and others. 
 
 The varying degrees of power of the various faculties 
 in different individuals causes combinations peculiar to 
 each, and in those varying powers and combinations lies 
 all the different intellectual abilities exhibited not only in 
 man, but in animals. The range of such intelligence as 
 animals possess is necessarily narrow, because of their 
 faculties being less in number; but they have varying 
 degrees of intelligence, a fact that has come under the 
 observation of most people in their experience with 
 horses, dogs, etc. Darwin refers to the diversity of men- 
 tal faculties in animals, and says that — "All who have 
 had charge of menageries admit this fact, and we see it 
 plainly in our dogs and other domestic animals." 
 
 Men are distinguished, or are especially competent in 
 their occupation, by a. fortunate combination of well-de- 
 veloped mental faculties, or rather by not having one or 
 more deficiencies that destroy such combination. No 
 knowledge an individual can possess is so valuable to 
 himself as a knowledge of his own mental powers and 
 
lO THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 deficiencies — a knowledge of the latter being much the 
 more difficult to obtain. We can go through life lament- 
 ably crippled by the want of a certain mental power, and 
 never have the least suspicion of that fact. We can more 
 readily find out those in which we excel, though there, 
 too, one may be misled. 
 
 It is important when constructing an engine to have 
 every part not unnecessarily strong, and yet strong enough 
 to sustain the work. But the mind by comparison is 
 often out of proportion in this respect, some faculties 
 being too strong in proportion to others. This does not 
 conflict with the fact that all mental faculties are good, 
 the trouble even in such cases is the inability of one fac- 
 ulty to fully meet the undue requirements of another. 
 There is also a broad distinction between such evils as an 
 unsupported excelling quality produces, and those caused 
 by deficiencies. The evils in the first condition fall only 
 upon the possessor and possibly those dependent upon 
 him, but the evils caused by the latter are felt by others. 
 Some of the mental powers cannot be too strong, while 
 others, such as caution, love of property, selfishness, etc., 
 can be so disproportionally large as to be a fault. 
 
 These two last mentioned qualities are very necessary, 
 and their effects, in some respects are the exact opposite 
 from those usually attributed to them. Particularly is 
 this the case with the love of money. It is a faculty more 
 frequently partially wanting than found in excess. It 
 fills quite the same duty as to property that caution does 
 as to life. Thpse deficient in it too easily feel themselves 
 rich, their energies slacken with slight prosperity and 
 they will indulge in expenses they cannot afford, and are 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. II 
 
 often thus kept in poverty. Very ignorant people in some 
 instances carry this so far that they will not work when 
 they have a few dollars. Having little reason they look 
 but little into the future, and only find in9entive to labor 
 by their immediate pressing wants. The love of money 
 fills the same duty that all the other faculties do in their 
 respective fields. It is especial wisdom that cannot be left 
 to discovery alone. It takes the place of forethought in 
 providing for future wants by stimulating to further exer- 
 tion after all immediate wants are supplied. It does not 
 insure wealth to the possessor, nor does its deficiency 
 always beget poverty. Its absence leads to shiftlessness 
 and want of enterprise through lessened incentive to fur- 
 ther efforts. 
 
 On the other hand, men whose other deficiencies were 
 such as to have made them criminals, have been made 
 comparatively respectable citizens by this mental charac- 
 teristic, as fear of losing their property restrains them 
 from many criminal acts. With accumulation of property 
 a feeling of responsibility is awakened, together with 
 an interest in local government. Criminals will be 
 guilty of pecuniary crimes in proportion to the extent of 
 their wants, consequently the sooner they are out of 
 money the sooner will their temptations come. The ab- 
 sence of a natural love of property will bring about this 
 condition frequently, and hence they will be the greater 
 criminals by adding it to their other deficiencies. The 
 absence of the love of money is the root of more evil 
 than the opposite extreme. There are more people who 
 should be taught to have more care and love of property 
 than there are of those who should be warned against 
 avarice. 
 
12 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 But those who have this faculty in excess will find 
 that it over-reaches and deprives them of the very object 
 for which money is desirable. When it pains the mind 
 more to part w^th the money that will supply a certain 
 convenience than will be offset by the pleasures of that 
 convenience, then such a person will deny himself that 
 convenience and retain his money. In this he does not 
 differ from a inan who endures the same deprivation 
 through poverty. In the one instance it is an absence of 
 money, in the other, it is the absence of the power to 
 part with it. The effect is the same as poverty. Through 
 weak digestive organs a man may starve to death 
 though surrounded with food. So with the love of 
 money, when too strong, or unsupported by other facul- 
 ties, it condemns a man to all the effects of a life of pov- 
 erty, regardless of the wealth he may attain. 
 
 The origin of money has long been an unsolved enig- 
 ma. Within itself gold is of but little value, and to have 
 elevated it to its present usages implies a degree of intel- 
 ligence above the capacity of those living in the age in 
 which money originated, for in the most remote histori- 
 cal period it is seen that public ideas regarding gold as a 
 circulating medium were quite the same as they are at 
 the present time. Who could have devised so wise a 
 scheme, and how were the people brought into general 
 acceptance of it ? The latter would be far the most dif- 
 ficult \problem of the two. Even in our time, if money 
 was still unknown,* it would be an advanced idea to orig- 
 inate such a system, and it would be impossible to intro- 
 duce it into general practice. People would not be in- 
 duced to part with their property for a trifling quantity 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 1 3 
 
 of that which they had previously known as of little 
 value, even though they fully appreciated the great ad- 
 vantages of the proposed change. 
 
 Dr. Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, devotes 
 a chapter to the origin of money, but he simply adopts 
 the common supposition that at some time in the past it 
 was conceived in the interest of commerce and brought 
 into practice by common consent. But our ideas of the 
 value of gold are stamped upon the mind with far 
 greater power than could be done through resolution 
 alone. Those ideas have two features that could not 
 possibly be suddenly introduced in this or any other 
 age. One is that we regard gold itself as the choicest of 
 property, and this we could not do of our own volition. 
 The other is that it be so prized universally — even by the 
 most ignorant — throughout the civilized world. 
 
 Inasmuch, therefore, as the wisdom did not exist that 
 could have invented money, and that even if invented it 
 could in no age have been brought into general use, it fol- 
 lows that ideas of the value of gold must be as old as any 
 ideas of private property. The conclusion is unavoidable 
 that gold has been regarded as the most valued of prop- 
 erty as long as there has been any private ownership 
 whatever. This necessarily takes us back, not only to the 
 prehistoric period, but to a time when man was but 
 slightly above the highest order of animals, and hence 
 the question as to the origin of money is narrowed to the 
 simple question as to what turned those savages' atten- 
 tion to gold and gave it value in their eyes. 
 
 Buckle* has shown how invariably all seeming phe- 
 
 * History of Civilization in England. 
 
14 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 nomena has acted upon and cultivated superstition, and 
 he lays down as one of four propositions which he has 
 established, "That the progress of mankind depends upon 
 the success with which the laws of phenomena are inves- 
 tigated, and on the extent to which a knowledge of those 
 laws is diffused." This does not conflict with the fact 
 that in the remote past there was a time when even a low 
 degree of superstition marked the highest degree of human 
 advancement. The conditions through which we have 
 been developed are like varying heights which we first 
 labor to attain and then labor to leave behind. 
 
 Superstition and religion differ only in this, that one 
 is an ignorant, the other a wise use of the same faculty, 
 consequently as long as there has been superstition there 
 has been a religious faculty, and ideas of a supernatural 
 power. There is no evidence that any particular faculty 
 was given us only for use in some far distant age in the 
 future, their guiding nature is important in all ages, and 
 each must necessarily be instrumental in human advance- 
 ment. Originally the religious faculty could produce but 
 a low degree of superstition, and whatever service it then 
 rendered must have been accomplished through such su- 
 perstition. When a vessel goes to sea the pilot is at first 
 governed in his course by objects on land. He does not 
 expect or wish to reach these objects, but simply em- 
 ploys them in defining his proper course. We have 
 been guided by the religious faculty in the same way. 
 Through superstition men's minds have been made to 
 dwell upon that which they otherwise would not have 
 thought of, and this in turn has led to results that would 
 have been reached in no other way. 
 
GUIDING NATURE OF THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 1$ 
 
 In those ancient times gold would necessarily be found 
 upon the surface of the ground in a few places, and in 
 certain rare instances a bowlder of many pounds weight 
 would be found. To those savages the enormous weight 
 of such bowlder as compared to its size would cause it to 
 seem to be pinned to the earth with supernatural power, 
 and this, coupled with its bright color, would promptly 
 attract their attention and excite their astonishment and 
 superstition. The great scarcity of gold would prevent 
 those savages becoming too familiar with its weight, 
 which at all times would seem supernatural, while at the 
 same time it would cause them to preserve and treasure 
 whatever particles of it they might find. This familiar- 
 ized them with gold and led in time to their working it 
 into ornaments and probably constituted quite their first 
 articles of personal property. Thus it was that through 
 superstition gold probably took first rank in the human 
 mind as to value and made it a convenient article of bar- 
 ter, and led in many ages to its being traded in by 
 weight, and finally, with advancing civilization, to be 
 coined into money. Silver at the same time would be 
 undergoing the same changes, its relative value being 
 measured by its greater abundance and less astonishing 
 weight. When America was discovered gold had ad- 
 vanced with the Indians to the second stage. 
 
 A writer, whose name and work I cannot now recall, 
 has lately shown that it was probably through supersti- 
 tion that men were first familiarized with fire and taught 
 its many advantages and uses. In the lightning it would 
 seem at times to have come direct from God, and they 
 would worship and preserve it accordingly — a practice 
 that was only extinguished with Christianity. 
 
CHAPTIiR II. 
 
 NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 
 
 Even though we are guided by our mental faculties, 
 there are, nevertheless, natural liars, thieves, murderers, 
 and criminals of every sort. In rare instances there will 
 be found one capable of committing murder every day of 
 his life. Some who have been reared with tender care 
 will abandon comfortable homes and loving parents, and 
 seek the vilest companions and sink to the lowest depths 
 of degradation. Some can commit these acts without 
 provocation; others with but slight provocation; while 
 still others can be guilty of them only under considerable 
 temptation. They take their downward course, often, 
 under the same circumstances and instructions that ele- 
 vate others. They seem to be led in their evil course 
 by as natural mental tendencies as those whose lives are 
 faultless. 
 
 This depraved tendency of some has, from the earliest 
 ages, been an element of supjsrstition. There seemed no 
 explanation for it except in attributing those characteris- 
 tics to evil spirits. Many have erroneously classified 
 those evil disposed people and those who are deranged 
 under one head, and supposed that the different degrees 
 of evil disposition, from petty offenses to the most vio- 
 lent derangement, simply indicated the different degrees 
 of control thaWhe devil, or devils, had over the individ- 
 ual. It is even probable that the ideas of good and evil 
 spirits was suggested by this wonderful phenomenon. 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 1/ 
 
 But this seeming mystery is clearly accounted for in 
 the simple explanation that men are bad only from the 
 absence of mental faculties they ought to possess. They 
 are not bad because of bad faculties, for there are none 
 such, they are all good and all wanted, and deficiency in 
 any of them is always a misfortune, sometimes most dis- 
 astrously so. The opposite wjieels under a locomotive 
 are dependent upon each other to remain upon the rails; 
 if one should be inefficient, they would be as great a 
 power to run it to destruction as they would be if prop- 
 erly constructed to run it on its true course. So with 
 the mind, the absence or partial absence of certain men- 
 tal faculties, is the sole cause of all evil dispositions and 
 of all crime. 
 
 To realize this, let. the reader in his imagination vio- 
 late some one of those natural human feelings. Let the 
 parent, for instance, consider upon abandoning his young 
 children. He knows they will be a source of expense 
 and trouble to him, and this, too, through many years. 
 Let him, therefore, consider upon turning them into the 
 street and order them to keep away, or let him take them 
 to some distant place and abandon them. The power of 
 a mental faculty is well illustrated when it is realized how 
 utterly impossible it is to commit this act. No laws that 
 man can make, nor walls that he can build, can so surely 
 confine us to certain acts and to certain limits, as the 
 mental faculties do. It is impossible for most people to 
 desert their families, or commit robbery, or murder, or 
 other crimes, and yet many are guilty of those abuses, and 
 the power to do so lays in the partial or total absence of 
 those faculties and consequent feelings, that makes those 
 crimes impossible with others. 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Ignorance so generally accompanies crime that some 
 have attributed all crime to it. But good though igno- 
 rant men have been more numerous than criminals. Ig- 
 norance most certainly is the base of crime. An indi- 
 vidual deficient in any faculty will be dull in all instances 
 where that faculty is required. He cannot be educated 
 upon that branch; he is not only ignorant therein, but is 
 constitutionally so, though in other branches he may ex- 
 cel and be otherwise well informed. A person may also 
 possess in only a moderate degree, faculties that would 
 keep him from crime if educated, but nevertheless his 
 liability to crime lies in this moderate deficiency. Most 
 crimes are committed by people of this class, and would 
 be prevented by education. When the necessary facul- 
 ties are not wanting, the individual will not commit 
 crime, even though densely ignorant. 
 
 Color blindness will illustrate the effect of deficiency 
 in any one faculty. The greater the deficiency the less 
 is the individual capable of making fine distinctions upon 
 any thing calling for that faculty, until in rare instances 
 a total absence leaves him incapable of any sense apper- 
 taining to the absent faculty. 
 
 Conscience, like memory, is an attribute of the mind 
 dependent upon other. faculties for its action. In the rare 
 instances of a total absence of the faculty that should 
 have prevented the crime, there will be no conscience. 
 As a rule the criminal will not be wholly devoid of the 
 faculty violated, and his conscience will trouble him cor- 
 respondingly. This is applicable to the minor, as well as 
 greater offenses, and to any faculty that is known to have 
 not done its work^ The mortification that a man feels 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 1 9 
 
 because of some unintelligent act he may have inadvert- 
 ently committed, is the working of the same law which, 
 in the more serious violation of certain other faculties, 
 we call conscience. 
 
 This leads us to another law of the mind which, com- 
 bined with conscience, effects greater misery to the guilty 
 than they anticipate ; a law that, correctly understood, 
 would do much to prevent crime. Experience shows 
 that no one faculty can be constantly employed. Each 
 must have rest, without which most serious consequences 
 will follow. Ordinarily we can divert our thoughts to 
 other subjects when necessary, but if this is neglected, 
 and our thoughts permitted to dwell too long upon one 
 subject, a condition is produced which is to the mind what 
 inflammation is to the body. In such instances we lose 
 the power to divert our mind either by turning upon 
 other subjects, or by sleep. Such a condition is danger- 
 ous, but it is one that the proper discharge of the affairs 
 of this life need never call for. 
 
 Temptation is a conflict between two mental faculties 
 and is possible only when the weakness of one of them 
 admits of the thought of its violation. For the time 
 being it pains the mind to think of this, but it is then in 
 the individual's power to dismiss those thoughts by resist- 
 ing the temptation. But if the faculty is too weak, and 
 therefore does not occupy his mind as fully as those other 
 faculties, the gratification of which produced the temp- 
 tation, he will yield and thus violate the faculty that 
 should have restrained him from so doing. But that 
 which was but a temporary incitement to mental pain 
 under temptation, becomes a permanent one after yield- 
 
20 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ing to it. The guilty party will then find he has partly, 
 and in some instances wholly lost the power to dismiss 
 those painful thoughts the violation engendered. When 
 the offense is not too serious, this enforced exercise of 
 the weak faculty is beneficial, as it cultivates and in- 
 creases its power of resistance in the future. In this, 
 nature employs the same law for the mind that is used 
 for the body. The evil stimulates action that effeets its 
 cure. In extreme cases the body may be too weak to 
 sustain the effort, and it is equally so with the mind ; in 
 which case death on the one hand, or derangement on 
 the other, ensues. 
 
 It is better, of course, that the man should have the 
 natural power to be above temptation, but when such is 
 not the case the operation of conscience is to cultivate 
 that power. It is true that we see middle-aged and 
 older men guilty of that of which they would not have 
 been guilty when younger. But that is not because they 
 have grown worse. Men seldom feel the full weight of 
 the cares and trials of life until middle-age or later, and 
 then more fully realize the wished-for advantages, and 
 hence expose a weakness that less experience had not 
 drawn out. Criminals are usually young men, and their 
 crimes and excesses makes the average length of their 
 lives short. They are constitutional criminals through 
 mental deficiences from birth, which is soon exposed 
 when they begin to act for themselves. 
 
 The power to divert thoughts from the violated fac- 
 ulty is not necessarily lost after yielding to temptation, 
 and by persistently turning the thoughts to other subjects, 
 the individual will lose the cultivating effect of conscience 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 21 
 
 and weaken his power to resist temptation. John Mason, 
 in his work upon Self Knowledge, gave an excellent rule 
 bearing upon this point. It was to the effect that when 
 a person is disposed to turn his thoughts away from the 
 consequences of some contemplated act, that instead of 
 so doing, he should give that subject full and careful 
 reflection. By this course the act will usually be seen to 
 be worse than supposed, and the temptation will be 
 resisted. 
 
 Conscience, therefore, is the stimulated exercise of a 
 faculty caused by its failure to sustain its natural guiding, 
 limiting power. 
 
 Gold could never have been the circulating medium 
 it is if it was not that it carries with it a simple evidence 
 of its purity, that all the ingenuity of man has never been 
 able to counterfeit. No more plentiful and cheaper metal 
 is so heavy, and hence its weight, as compared to bulk, 
 will always testify to its genuineness. It is the same with 
 truth. It has a characteristic that testifies to its purity 
 as surely as weight does to gold. The truth is ever 
 simple and clear. Just so far as we have the unalloyed 
 truth we have that which is easily understood. A large 
 number of new facts brought to the mind may tempora- 
 rily seem to be complicated, but each little item that 
 makes up the whole will stamp it with its trade-mark of 
 simplicity and clearness. 
 
 The casuistic explanation just given for such deprav- 
 ity as exists', is a simple, self-evident fact which, coupled 
 with what is now known of the various mental faculties, 
 should carry conviction with them. They would but for 
 one great unfortunate circumstance that has long been a 
 
22 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 bar to further advancement in mental science. Christian- 
 ity had long been established, and Christ long known as 
 a Savior, before a higher degree of intelligence, and a 
 slight change in circumstances made it necessary to show 
 how it was that Christ was a Savior. The explanation 
 then adopted cannot necessarily be regarded as simply 
 an explanation. On the contrary, the church was obliged 
 to make it the foundation of some of its most prominent 
 doctrines, and hence that which was only an enforced 
 explanation became the source, in part, of Christian eth- 
 ics. Within that explanation lies the assertion that all 
 men are naturally depraved. Through many long ages the 
 church has pointed to the few whose natural deficiencies 
 seemed to indicate natural depravity, and claimed that all 
 contrary conditions were secured only through faith in 
 Christ. 
 
 When, therefore, a better understanding of the human 
 mind exposed facts in conflict with this explanation, nu- 
 merous Christian writers took it upon themselves to publish 
 works which, while they pretended to teach mental science, 
 were in fact but their own complicated theories, arranged 
 to fit their doctrine of natural depravity. The true intent 
 of those authors was to defend Christian dogmas, rather 
 than increase our knowledge of the mind. Their works 
 were theological rather than metaphysical. They were not 
 like the rails that guide the cars on the way, but like the 
 switches by which those cars are side-tracked and stopped. 
 The same idiosyncracies that prompted those authors to 
 write those books, wholly unfitted them for the task. 
 
 Autology, by Rev. D. H. Hamilton, D. D., is one of 
 the latest and most pretentious of this class of works. 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 23 
 
 The author states in his preface that "All who begin with 
 nature must of necessity end in nature and in atheism. " 
 This quotation is not given for the purpose of stating that 
 the author does not know that entering upon any partic- 
 ular course will end in atheism, but to show that he pre- 
 sumes to dictate to truth what end it shall lead to. That 
 with which we are not to begin is either true or false. 
 If the latter, it can be shown to be so, and the investiga- 
 tion be harmless; but if it is the former, we want to know 
 it. The supposition that studying nature will lead to 
 atheism is offered as a sufficient reason for not doing so, 
 even though that study is upon the works of God. This' 
 quotation exposes the involuntary tendency of the author 
 to fit everything to his religious ideas. It is his admis- 
 sion that facts conflicting with them will not be tolerated. 
 
 But the truth is the only thing we are seeking. All 
 experience shows how we have suffered when falsehood 
 has been mistaken for it, and shows that governing truths 
 are indeed treasures wherever found; and also that the 
 ends they lead to are above and beyond human capacities 
 to discern at the time. Not only is it safe to follow the 
 truth, but there is no safety except in following it. It 
 will require all our skill to be sure we are guided wholly 
 by it, and it will be enough to know that, without 
 attempting the impossible task of knowing the future it 
 leads to. It is the truth that is wanted, and in seeking it 
 we need not trouble ourselves as to whether it leads to 
 atheism, theism, polytheism, pantheism, or Christianity; 
 where it leads, God leads, and we can follow with con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Throughout the 700 pages of the work in question, 
 
24 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 in that which the author calls mental science, he labors 
 to weave a system that admits of natural depravity. It 
 is clear that he was intent upon that idea from the first. 
 It underlies the whole work, and consequently his labors 
 were devoted to that end and not to advancing our 
 knowledge of the mind. He says (page 255) that — 
 
 " There are none in whom cJl the states of the heart 
 are as bad as they can be, none in whom they are all 
 good; yet, since it is a fact that evil and selfish states of 
 the affections do exist in all, it follows that all are de- 
 praved; and while all are not as bad as they can be, yet 
 all are depraved, selfish and fallen, so that there is none 
 good; no, not one. The man is fallen and depraved,'' 
 etc. 
 
 Autology is a type of a large number of works pur- 
 porting to be scientific but which were written exclusively 
 to sustain Christian doctrines, to which all things must 
 bend; and this is the reason why — in metaphysics in 
 particular — so little progress has been made in late years. 
 Kant, who died a century ago, is still referred to more 
 than any other writer, and even Sir William Hamilton 
 was said to have followed his system. Geology, also, 
 has been dwarfed and retarded by Christian writers ; it 
 has demolished the Mosaic account of the creation and 
 they either combat or ignore it in consequence. The vast 
 age of the world, however, can no longer be denied, and 
 hence the Mosaic account has, as is usual in such cases, 
 been reduced to an allegory ; something churchmen 
 were the more ready to do as it was supposed there had 
 been a special creation for each species of animal includ- 
 ing man. They fitted a complicated and inconsistent 
 meaning to the plain words of the Bible and contended 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 25 
 
 that geology and its contributions to natural history quite 
 sustained the story of the creation of man through Adam 
 and Eve. 
 
 But now even that concession is made useless to them 
 for the facts presented by Dr. Darwin in his work, " The 
 Descent of Man,'"' do not admit of a reasonable doubt 
 but that we have been evolved from a very low degree, 
 and it has been so gradual as to make it impossible to 
 know when we ceased to be animals and became human 
 beings. The Darwin theory is more than a mere hypo- 
 thesis, it is stamped with the trade mark of truth. The 
 array of facts he presents carry with them irresistible 
 conviction, and the quite general acceptance of that 
 theory by those most capable of judging, gives it all the 
 weight of an established fact. Chauncy Wright says of 
 Darwin's Theory* that — 
 
 " It seems likely that we shall witness the unparalleled 
 spectacle of an all but universal reception by the scien- 
 tific world of a revolutionary doctrine in the lifetime of 
 its author.'' Prof Huxley, also, credits Darwin with the 
 same success. Hence the reading, thinking public have, 
 within thirty years, become convinced of the truth of 
 that which takes from Christianity the foundation of its 
 doctrine of natural depravity. There were no first 
 parents, and therefore no fall of man. Upon the subject 
 of special creation Herbert Spencert says — 
 
 "The analogy, suggesting as it does how the hypo- 
 thesis of special creation is merely a formula for our 
 ignorance, raises the question — what reason have we to 
 assume special creation of species but not of individuals, _ 
 
 Philosophical Discussions. f Principles of Biology, Vol. 2d. 
 
26 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 unless it be that in the case of individuals- we directly 
 know the process to be otherwise, but in the case of 
 species do we not directly know it to be otherwise? Have 
 we any grounds for concluding that species were espe- 
 cially created, except the ground that we have no imme- 
 diate knowledge of their origin? And does our ignor- 
 ance of the manner in which they arose warrant us in 
 asserting that they were by special creation? Another 
 question is suggested by this analogy. Those who, in 
 the absence of immediate evidence of the way in which 
 species arose, assert that they arose not in any way anal- 
 ogous to that in which individuals arise, but in a totally 
 distinct way, think that by this supposition they honor 
 the Unknown Cause of things; and they oppose any 
 antagonist doctrine as amounting to an exclusion of 
 divine power from the world. But if divine power is 
 demonstrated by the separate creation of each specie, 
 would it not have been still better demonstrated by the 
 separate creation of each individual? Why should there 
 exist this process of natural genesis? Why should not 
 omnipotence have been proven by the supernatural pro- 
 duction of plants and animals everywhere throughout the 
 world from hour to hour? Is it replied that the Creator 
 was able to make individuals arise from one another in a 
 natural succession, but not to make species thus arise? 
 This is to assign a limit to power instead of magnifying 
 it. Is it replied that this occasional miraculous orig- 
 ination of a species was practicable, but that the per- 
 petual miraculous origination of countless individuals 
 was impracticable? This also is a derogation. Either 
 it was possible or it was not possible to create species 
 and individuals after the same general method. To 
 say that it was not possible is suicidal to those who 
 use the argument; and if it is possible, it is required 
 , to say what end is served by the special creation of 
 species that would not have been better served by 
 the special creation of individuals. Again: what is 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 2/ 
 
 to be thought of the fact that the great majority of 
 those supposed special creations took place before man- 
 kind existed ? Those who think that divine power is 
 demonstrated by special creation have to answer the 
 question — to whom demonstrated ? Tacitly or avow- 
 edly, they regard the demonstration as being for the 
 benefit of mankind. But if so, to what purpose were the 
 millions of those demonstrations which took place on 
 earth when there were no intelligent beings to contem- 
 plate them ? Did the Unknowable thus demonstrate his 
 power to himself ? Few will have the hardihood to say 
 that any such demonstration was needful. There is no 
 choice but to regard them either as superfluous exercise 
 of power, which is a derogatory supposition, or as exer- 
 cises of power that were necessary because species could 
 not be otherwise produced, which is also a derogatory 
 supposition." 
 
 The Evolution Theory is particularly embarrassing to 
 the church. The story of Adam and Eve cannot be 
 treated as allegorical, as was done with the Mosaic ac- 
 count of the creation; neither can Bishop Colenso's 
 ideas be adopted, and the Pentateuch discarded from the 
 Bible; for in either case there would be no basis for the 
 natural depravity doctrine, and consequently no explana- 
 tion as to how Christ is a Savior, and no apparent reason 
 for his coming. 
 
 The fact that an Episcopal Bishop can advocate such 
 a step is a phenomenon of the mind growing out of the 
 dual character of Christians. Men are often misled as 
 to the particular faculties that govern certain acts and 
 speech. Sir John Lubbock* says, — 
 
 " In the very same individual two contradictory sys- 
 tems may often be seen side by side in incongruous 
 
 * Origin of Civilization. 
 
28 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 association. Thus the Christian code and the ordinary 
 code of honor seem to be opposed in some respects, yet 
 the great majority of men hold, or suppose they hold, 
 them both." 
 
 Through the intolerance of Christians in the last cen- 
 tury, many were obliged to pretend to believe such doc- 
 trines as were dictated to them, whether they did believe 
 or not. This begat a habit of professing one thing and 
 acting another, to which we have become blinded by 
 familiarity. For instance, men will call themselves 
 "miserable sinners'' in church, or make pretensions of 
 humility, etc., who would not tolerate the least assump- 
 tion from others as to the truth of their affected confes- 
 sion. Within the system all inconsistencies are piously 
 overlooked and its many needed explanations ignored. 
 
 There being some whose deficiencies are such as to 
 make them depraved, the question arises as to what pro- 
 portion they bear to the whole. The further question as 
 to what disposition to make of them is not pertinent to 
 this work, but I shall have some suggestions to offer re- 
 garding public responsibility in evolving them; for while 
 we are not as responsible in some quarters as heretofore 
 supposed, we are more so in others. When we look 
 over the past and see how many discomforts and evils of 
 former ages have been overcome through increased knowl- 
 edge, we can reasonably infer that every trouble of this 
 life is under our control and can be suppressed. Every 
 evil and every wrong is nature's red flag of danger, and 
 if we will but carefully study the cause, or the remedy, 
 or both, we will sooner or later discover an improvement 
 that more than corrects the fault that prompted the effort; 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 29 
 
 Elsewhere it will be shown how it is that some people 
 are driven to low resorts and bad habits whose natural 
 tendencies would not have led them there. Care should 
 be taken, also, not to mistake ill-manners and coarse 
 speech for depravity, for that may be but the misfortune 
 of ignorance, which often accompanies those whose 
 natural abilities are excellent. 
 
 Crime is a disturbing element, hence criminals are 
 always conspicuous in inverse proportion to their num- 
 bers. " Peace has no history," and the law abiding citi- 
 zens, in their steady every day life, are heard of but little 
 as compared to the criminal class whose depredations 
 keep them constantly before the public. They are men- 
 tally deformed, and in number are probably in about the 
 same proportion as those who are physically deformed. 
 If, for instance, a stranger in a village of five hundred 
 inhabitants should meet as many as five persons who had 
 been born with limbs so infirm that they were obliged to 
 use crutches, that number would attract his attention as 
 being unusually large. It is doubtful if physical deform- 
 ities of every nature amounts to one per cent, of the 
 population. It is reasonable to suppose that the percent- 
 age of those who have some serious mental deficiency is 
 no greater. All mental deficiencies are not moral defects. 
 It is the absence or partial absence of only a certain few 
 important faculties that makes crime possible. Fifty 
 burglars are enough to cause a city to seem to be over- 
 run with them.. The number of imprisoned criminals are 
 few as compared to the whole people, and the number of 
 those, therefore, who are seriously mentally deformed 
 bear but a small proportion to the whole population. 
 
30 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 It is not true that we are naturally depraved. We 
 are pure at birth, and one of the most common and most 
 beautiful things in human nature is that we turn natur- 
 ally to that which is good and right. It is our nature to 
 improve without instruction. Loving kindness is the 
 most conspicuous mental characteristic of all living things. 
 The very animals exhibit it in high degree. If mankind 
 were all like the very few whose mental deficiencies were 
 such as to make them depraved, this world would be a 
 pandemonium and would soon become depopulated. 
 
 This fact is as applicable to barbarism as to civilization, 
 otherwise there never could have been the latter condi- 
 tion, for the human race would have been destroyed in 
 the former. An erroneous impression usually prevails 
 regarding the natural disposition of savages. They have 
 not been judged of justly, through not realizing that they 
 continued to be governed by the natural laws governing 
 animals, under the operation of which their numbers were 
 kept down to the limits of their support. Their cruelties 
 were owing to those laws, otherwise they were kind and 
 honest. Of course they have their varying degrees of 
 mental power, but civilization has not developed improve- 
 ment in those qualities. Mr. Tylor* says, — 
 
 "In the West Indian islands where Columbus first 
 landed, lived tribes who have been called the most gentle 
 and benevolent of the human race. Schomburgh, the 
 traveller, who knew the warlike Caribs well in their home 
 life, draws a paradise-like picture of their ways, where 
 they have not been corrupted by the vice's of the white 
 men; he saw among them peace and cheerfulness and 
 simple family affection, unvarnished friendship, and grat- 
 
 * Anthropology, by Edward B. Tylor, D. C. L., F. R. S. 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 3 I 
 
 itude not. less true for not being spoken in sounding 
 words; the civilized world, he says, has not to teach them 
 morality, for though they do not talk about it, they live 
 in it. " At the other side of the world, in New Guinea, 
 Kops, the Dutch explorer, gives much the same account 
 of the Papuans of Dora, who live in houses built on 
 piles in the water like the old lake-men of Switzerland. 
 He speaks of their mild disposition, their inclination to 
 right and justice, their strong moral principles, their re- 
 spect for the aged and love for their children, their living 
 without fastenings to their houses, for theft is considered 
 by them a grave offense, and rarely occurs. Among the 
 rude non-Hindu tribes of India, English officials have 
 often recorded with wonder the kindliness and -cheerful- 
 ness of the rude men of the mountains and the jungle, 
 and their utter honesty in word and deed. Thus Sir Wal- 
 ter Elliot mentions a low, poor tribe of South India, whom 
 the farmers employ to guard their fields, well knowing 
 that they would starve rather than steal the grain in their 
 charge; and they are so truthful that their word is taken 
 at once in disputes even with their richer neighbors, for 
 people say, 'A Kurubar always speaks the truth.' " 
 
 The first sight we obtain of man in history, so to 
 speak, he is seen to have been exceedingly laborious. 
 The grandeur and vast extent of his works were such as 
 to fill the mind with wonder and astonishment. There 
 seemed to be no limits to the magnitude of works under- 
 taken for the most trifling purposes. On the other hand, 
 those who have not seen our western Indians can hardly 
 appreciate their lofty disdain of labor. They look upon 
 work as degrading, and will not do even as much as to 
 carry their heavy game home, provided they have a squaw 
 to send after it. Their women are made to carry their bur- 
 dens and do all their work, while the men regard war and 
 
32 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 hunting as the only occupations worthy of them, which, 
 as shown by Sir J. Lubbock, is common to all savages. 
 
 Necessarily there was once a time when the most ad- 
 vanced of our race were such as these Indians now are, 
 and a knowledge of their habits and customs will answer 
 the same purpose as a knowledge of the races preceding 
 civilization. Tylor says {Anthropology): 
 
 "So far as the evidence goes, it seems that civilization 
 has actually grown up in the world through these three 
 stages [savage, barbaric and civilized], so thkt to look at 
 a savage of the Brazilian forest, a barbarous New Zea- 
 lander or Dohoman, and a civilized European, may be 
 the student's best guide to understanding the progress of 
 civilization, only he must be cautioned that the compari- 
 son is but a guide, not a full explanation. " 
 
 Many of the probable steps by which civilization was 
 slowly developed have been satisfactorily accounted for, 
 but the one explanation for the great transformation in 
 ideas of labor that must have taken place, has continued 
 to be an unsolved enigma. Further progress was impos- 
 sible without labor, and pre-historic man neither had the 
 work to be done in their simple mode of life, nor ideas 
 that admitted of doing it. But they had become too ad- 
 vanced for animals, and to be civilized they must work. 
 It was not possible for any one of them to have seen this 
 and point out the advantages of labor. No human being 
 ever existed whose intellectual capacities were so greatly 
 in advance of his times as such a man's would have been. 
 To have then discerned the advantages of labor would 
 have required power to forsee the improvements of many 
 hundreds of years; and to describe the changed habits, 
 the inventions, and the educated wants that labor would 
 produce. 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 33 
 
 There must, then, have been some powerful cause for 
 this great change from idleness to labor, that took place 
 between barbarism and the most remote historical period. 
 The manner in which that transformation was undoubt- 
 edly brought about, supplies an illustration of how our 
 faults are made instruments for their own punishment and 
 correction; and it also illustrates the fact that in over- 
 coming the difficulties of this life, we reach greater im- 
 provements than the mere surmounting of those diffi- 
 culties. It illustrates how we are guided by our natural 
 mental tendencies, and how civilization was evolved by 
 their exercise. The illustration is none the less appro- 
 priate because it is in part hypothetical. A knowledge 
 of human nature insures its accuracy in part, and the 
 later steps in that transformation are historical. 
 
 One instrument was chiefly employed in driving those 
 men to work; and to abandon their nomadic mode of 
 life; and to reflect upon personal rights; and to love lib- 
 erty. One instrument predominated over all others in 
 accomplishing that all-important result, and bridge the 
 wide gap between barbarism and civilization, and that 
 instrument was slavery. 
 
 But even to devise slavery was also far above the in- 
 tellectual capacity of any man of those times. Slavery 
 itself was of slow growth; and, considering their ideas 
 regarding labor, and the immeasurable value of labor, 
 every step that developed slavery was a step toward civ- 
 ilization. With the lordly notions those savages had of 
 their own sex and their contempt for women, even the 
 idea of making their captives do such little work as they 
 had would not have been thought of if circumstances had 
 
34 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 not repeatedly enforced it. There would be times when 
 there was more than the women could carry, which sug- 
 gested the idea of making the captives do that work. 
 This would not prevent those captives being put to death 
 as soon as the urgency was over. This seems inhuman 
 in the light of the present day, but their doing so was 
 both necessary and natural. In their treatment of cap- 
 tives those men were still governed by their animal in- 
 stincts, and it was necessary it should be so as long as 
 they depended for food upon game only. It was an in- 
 cident in their struggle for existence by which the strong- 
 est and best survived, and the population kept down to 
 the capacity of the country to support. Only under a 
 long experience of the short service of captives would 
 the time of that service be slowly extended, until even- 
 tually the idea of sparing their lives for the purpose of 
 labor, would penetrate the minds of the most advanced 
 men of the times. 
 
 At first the labor of those captives would be for the 
 whole tribe in c(^mmon, but the convenience of this would 
 in time lead the chiefs to appropriate to their own use the 
 service of some of them. This begat the idea of property 
 in the captives, which would soon be participated in by 
 each individual of the tribe, and culminate in their being 
 bartered in as slaves. During the ages that this had been 
 growing to be the custom, the work to be done would 
 have increased. It would have increased because there 
 had been captives to do it. Their greater works would 
 have expanded their minds and given them educated 
 wants. When slavery was finally established they would 
 have greatly advanced from the incipient state from 
 
NATURAL BEPRAVITY. 35 
 
 whence it was evolved. In this way two great improve- 
 ments would be in progress — the people would be becom- 
 ing familiarized with labor, and their educated wants 
 would be increasing with it. Although the labor would 
 be by slaves, the whole people would take part therein, 
 for during the long time those steps were in progress, 
 there would be revolutions of their petty governments, 
 whereby slaves would become masters and masters would 
 become slaves. 
 
 During this time, and probably before captives were 
 universally bought and sold, the establishments of those 
 tribes would have become more troublesome in moving, 
 and the necessity for doing so become less, as the cap- 
 tives or slaves could be made to build huts and accumu- 
 late grass and feed for the animals. In this way their 
 nomadic habits were gradually abandoned and cultivation 
 of the soil gradually introduced. Civilization, like a fall- 
 ing body, increases in an increasing ratio. The higher 
 the intelligence the greater the power for further advance- 
 ment. There would be some country where its local 
 peculiarities would enable or cause these various steps to 
 progress with more rapidity than in other countries, and 
 this would soon give them a superiority over neighboring 
 tribes or nations. This superiority would also be greater 
 because of the larger population cultivation of the soil 
 would give them, for those who live on game require 
 many acres per man for their support (about fifty). The 
 strongest tribes or nations would conquer their weaker 
 neighbor; their disposition to do so would be increased 
 by the fact that the captives of those neighboring nations, 
 being equally inured to labor, would be more valuable 
 
36 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 as slaves than the more distant tribes, where slavery and 
 labor had not progressed so far. Thus a line between 
 barbarism and a more advanced class was established 
 which would rapidly widen under the operations of the 
 causes stated. 
 
 •The greater wants that slavery begat, and the hard- 
 ships of slaves, set both masters and slaves to thinking: 
 the first as to how to get more out of their slaves, the 
 latter as to the rights of man and the love of liberty. 
 Everything desirable in life would seem to those slaves 
 to be embraced in that one word — liberty. Their liberty 
 and human rights would grow to be their governing idea, 
 and when from time to time old governments would be 
 overthrown and new ones established; liberty on the 
 part of slaves, and fear of slavery on the part of masters, 
 would be the incentive to valor, and human rights would 
 begin to have place in the affairs of men. 
 
 This hypothesis in no way conflicts with the progres- 
 sive steps pointed out by ethnologists. Without labor 
 those steps could not have been taken. Tylor states 
 {Anthropology'): 
 
 "We live in days when the last remains of slavery are 
 disappearing from the higher nations; but though the 
 civilized world has outgrown the ancient institution, the 
 benefits which early society gained from it still remain. 
 It was through slave labor that agriculture and industry 
 increased, that wealth accumulated, and leisure was 
 given priests, scribes, poets, philosophers, to rise to the 
 level of men's minds." 
 
 Leisure was the one thing savages were too abundantly 
 suppHed with before. Mr. Tylor underrates the effects 
 produced by slavery. He states {Early History of Man- 
 
NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 37 
 
 kind), " That his essays affords no. sufficient founda- 
 tion for a definite theory for the rise and progress of 
 human civilization in early times. " This admission need 
 not have been made if he had recognized the fact that 
 slavery had taken the place of that mysterious intellectual 
 development which was so necessary for the introduction 
 of labor. It was the only source of energy in early times, 
 and the only means by which educated wants were in- 
 creased. It was equivalent to supernatural wisdom for 
 the time being, and explains the one greatest mystery 
 connected with the development of civilization. 
 
 Thus it was that man's lordly determination to not 
 labor was turned to an enforcement of that labor. Lazi- 
 ness was then, and it is now, an instrument to cultivate 
 energy; slavery, an instrument to cultivate liberty; and 
 abuse of human rights, an instrument to cultivate a 
 knowledge of those rights. However odious slavery may 
 be to us now, it was the whip that drove us to civilization 
 from an idle savage state. Out of the remote past we 
 tan see our approach from a low degree — not of wicked- 
 ness — but of ignorance. Only from that ignorance do 
 we need salvation, and our only savior is the enlightened 
 exercise of our own mental powers. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE REASONING AND RELIGIOUS FACULTIES. 
 
 The nature of reason is such that it cannot be em- 
 ployed without experience. It needs opinions or facts 
 to work upon as fully as a carpenter needs materials with 
 which to build. If we could know all the ends and aims 
 of life — could know our Creator's designs — we possibly 
 would require no other faculty than reason. It is clearly 
 of the highest order intellectually and hence it is most 
 pleasing to us to suppose we are governed by it. But 
 there is . an exaggerated idea as to the part it takes in 
 governing our conduct. We have feelings called up by 
 most of the especial faculties, but no feeling stimulates 
 the action of reason, and hence it has but little power 
 when opposed to one of those faculties. A close analysis 
 of the governing motives of very large numbers of men 
 show that they use but little reason and that it is probably 
 deficient to a greater extent than any other faculty. It 
 is for this reason that " no sense is so uncommon as com- 
 mon sense." 
 
 So well arranged are the various mental tendencies 
 for all the duties of this life that an individual quite defi- 
 cient in reason can still, through other powers of the 
 mind, be an educated, respected, and influential citizen. 
 But he will be dependent upon the ideas of others upon 
 which to expend his natural powers. He may load his 
 mind with more of other people's ideas than any one of 
 
THE REASONING AND RELIGIOUS FACULTIES. 39 
 
 the originators possessed, and he may be able to set them 
 forth in better language. If, on the other hand, such an 
 individual be reared among thieves, he will possess the 
 ideas of thieves, and like them will regard the better class 
 of people as the natural enemies of the narrow world he 
 knows. If such a person should be naturally honorable, 
 the form that quality would take in him would be to 
 make him honorable with his associates and yet be none 
 the less a thief, for the only ideas he would have of the 
 better class would be those of his companions. 
 
 In the absence of experience in our youth we could 
 necessarily make little or no use of reason, and conse- 
 quently we are made to accept unquestioned the reason- 
 ings and conclusions of our elders. Our minds are even 
 more powerfully impressed by them than they can be 
 later in life through our own reasoning. The consequence 
 is that when we begin to act for ourselves we start with 
 such ideas and opinions as have been taught us. The 
 power of parental instruction is very great and holds us 
 to their opinions long after we are able to judge for our- 
 selves. The ideas of one generation are thus inherited 
 by the generation following, and the mind is consequently 
 never open to freely accept ideas in conflict with them. 
 Such facts as would do this must necessarily be very con- 
 vincing, for, before they can make their new impressions 
 upon the mind they have the greater task of effacing the 
 old ones. 
 
 Darwin* says, — 
 
 " The wishes and opinions of the members of the same 
 community, expressed at first orally, but later by writing 
 
 * Descent of Man. 
 
40 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 also, either form the sole guides of our conduct or greatly 
 reinforce the social instinct; such opinions, however, have 
 sometimes a tendency directly opposed to those instincts. 
 This latter fact is well exemplified by the Law of Honor, 
 that is, the law of the opinion of our equals and not of 
 all of our countrymen. The breach of this law, even 
 when the breach is known to be strictly accordant with 
 true morality, has caused many a man more agony than 
 a real crime. We recognize the same influence in the 
 • burning sense of shame which most of us have felt, even 
 after the interval of years, when calling to mind some 
 accidental breach of a trifling, though fixed, rule of eti- 
 quette. The judgment of the community will generally 
 be guided by some rude experience of what is best in 
 the long run for all the members; but this judgment will 
 not rarely err from ignorance and weak powers of reason- 
 ing. Hence the strangest customs and superstitions, in 
 complete opposition to the true welfare and happiness of 
 mankind, have become all-powerful throughout the 
 world. We see this in the horror felt by a Hindoo who 
 breaks his caste, and in many other cases. It would be 
 difficult to distinguish between the remorse felt by a 
 Hindoo who has yielded to the temptation of eating un- 
 clean food, from that felt after committing a theft; but 
 the former would probably be the most severe. 
 
 " How so many absurd rules of conduct, as well as so 
 many absurd religious beliefs, have originated, we do not 
 know; nor how it is that they have become, in all quar- 
 ters of the world, so deeply impressed upon the mind' of 
 men ; but it is worthy of remark that a belief constantly 
 inculcated during the early years of life, whilst the brain 
 is impressible, appears to acquire almost the nature of an 
 instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is 
 followed independently of reason." 
 
 The fact that such eminent naturalists as Darwin and 
 Huxley differ as to whether animals do or do not have 
 
THE REASONING AND RELIGIOUS FACULTIES. 41 
 
 reason, shows that at least the evidence favoring such a 
 supposition is slight. The several illustrations given by 
 Darwin are not convincing. It is probable that with 
 animals as well as men, certain acts have been attributed 
 to reason that were instigated by other faculties. One of 
 those illustrations was of this nature. It must be 
 remembered that where there is no special faculty there 
 is no interest and no memory. Reason might take the 
 place, but reason requires time and experience, conse- 
 quently that knowledge which must be acquired early 
 is insured by a faculty devoted especially to it. Obser- 
 vation is one of these. Without it, man and animals 
 alike would neither note nor remember their surround- 
 ings, and would be unable to return to any given place. 
 Darwin says, — 
 
 " Houzeau relates that, whilst crossing a wide and 
 arid plain in Texas, his two dogs suffered greatly from 
 thirst, and that between thirty and forty times they 
 rushed down the hollows to search' for water. These hot- 
 lows were not valleys, and there were no trees in them 
 or any other difference in vegetation, and as they were 
 absolutely dry there could have been no smell of damp 
 earth. The dogs behaved as if they knew that a dip in 
 the ground offered them the best chance of finding water, 
 and Houzeau has often witnessed the same behavior in 
 other animals." 
 
 Observation would have taught the dogs to look for 
 water where they did. That power of the mind that 
 enables a man to reason out facts wholly new to him is of 
 a different nature from any of those illustrations referred 
 to. Prof. Proctor adds other examples to those of Dar- 
 win's, but in every instance that which was offered as 
 evidence of reason can be accounted for in other faculties. 
 
42 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Instead of especial mental faculties leading the mind 
 in certain channels, why were we not born with the neces- 
 sary knowledge at once? Can it be that this life is but a 
 test for the mind, and that our every day use of it may 
 be of more importance than we have any conception of? 
 In a small way animals have knowledge at birth. They 
 know where and how to obtain their food, and under- 
 stand the meaning of certain signs or sounds made by 
 their progenitors. Darwin says that 'A beaver can make 
 its dam or canal, and a bird its nest, as well, or nearly 
 as well, and a spider its wonderful web quite as well, the 
 first time it tries, as when old and experienced. " He 
 also refers for further "evidence on this head to Mr. 
 J. Traherne Moggridge's most interesting work, Har-vest- 
 ing Ants and Trap-door Spiders. " 
 
 Such knowledge as this is greatly different from that 
 derived through a mental faculty, for it is absolute knowl- 
 edge itself, not dependent upon experience or reason. 
 The animal is born with certain items of knowledge, 
 rather than with a mental tendency to acquire them. 
 
 Undoubtedly, therefore, we could have been born 
 with the knowledge that our labors and discipline will 
 finally give, and our not being so born indicates that it 
 is desirable we should have the trials of this life. Our 
 experience is the object of, and not merely incidental to, 
 this existence. We are turned loose upon this earth with 
 minds so constituted that we will have exactly the varied 
 experience we do have, and in it all no one thing is more 
 conspicuous than the seeming test as to the qualities of 
 rriind of each'individual. 
 
 The evil consequences following an improper use of 
 
THE REASONING AND RELIGIOUS FACULTIES. 43 
 
 any of our faculties shows that we are held responsible 
 for a correct discharge of the duties they lead us to. 
 The religious faculty is no exception ; in fact, its violation 
 has caused more misery than the ignorant use of any 
 other. Of this faculty Max Mliller says:* 
 
 "If we say that it is religion which distinguishes man 
 from animals, we do not mean the Christian or Jewish 
 religion only; we do not mean any special religion; but 
 we mean a mental faculty — that faculty which, indepen- 
 dent of, nay, in spite of, sense and reason, enables man 
 to apprehend the Infinite under varying disguises." 
 
 The natural religious disposition is a mental faculty 
 having peculiarities similar to those of the faculty of 
 honor and caution, in this, that its service is not so well 
 defined as is the case with some of the others, and conse- 
 quently it requy-es the assistance of reason correspond- 
 ingly more. It is a quality distinct from honor, as is 
 evidenced by its frequent presence in individuals who are 
 deficient in the latter. When any faculty is wanting the 
 individual is not only unconscious of that fact, but is also 
 unable to understand the feeling that other people have 
 upon that subject. The presence of honor in one person 
 and its absence in another produces this difference, that 
 certain acts will give mental pain to the first that will not 
 be felt by the other. The latter will be dull or mentally 
 blind or insensible to the feelings his act ought to pro- 
 duce; and if his self-esteem is not small, he will feel as 
 much contempt for what seems to him to be the silly 
 sentiment of the man of honor, as the latter will feel for 
 him. Such a person will be dishonest and unconscious 
 of it. 
 
 * Science of Religion. Max Miiller, M. A. 
 
44 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The religious faculty does not insure a correct knowl- 
 edge of right and wrong, nor does it insure an intelligent 
 religion. It will not make a good man of one who is too 
 deficient otherwise, and is not unfrequently found well 
 developed in the lowest class of criminals. Sir Walter 
 Scott says that "The banditti of the Appennines have 
 among them persons acting as monks and priests, by 
 whom they are confessed, and who perform mass before 
 them. " The following, recently published in the Chicago 
 Tribune, gives an illustration of this mental combination: 
 
 A REMARKABLE FRENCH MURDER. 
 
 Paris, Nov. 25. — A trial has just terminated at Caen which, as a reve- 
 lation of the cold-blooded cruelty and tenacity in criminal purpose which a 
 human being is capable of, is only second in interest to the Fenayron case. 
 In the latter the victim was a lover; in this it is the husband. The circum- 
 stances were as follows: 
 
 The victim and his wife, by name Aveline, were domestics in the ser- 
 vice of an old maiden lady, 82 years of age, in Paris. Aveline, a man verg- 
 ing on 50, had inherited a little money, and bought some land in Normandy; 
 and his pleasure in life was to spend a few days shooting the game that he 
 reared for this purpose on his land. He was only waiting for the death oi 
 the old lady to retire to his little estate and there pass the rest of his days. 
 In the same house in Paris resided a French General, with his orderly, by 
 name of Garnier, a young man of 25. Garnier, in course of time, became 
 the intimate friend of the Avelines, and, about a year ago, the lover of the 
 wife, who, judging by her letters, appears to have been tortured by a thirst 
 for excitement. She contracted a violent affection for Garnier, whose 
 senior she was by twelve years. When Garnier left Paris with his master 
 an effusive correspondence ensued between the lovers, from which it is seen 
 that they had determiued on the "suppression" of Aveline; and that their 
 object was to marry and live on the wife's money, for she, too, appears to 
 have saved no small sum. 
 
 It was arranged between Garnier and the woman that they should pro- 
 ceed to the murder of Aveline in September, and henceforth the letters ex- 
 changed refer to the scheme as if it were one of the most virtuous of human 
 resolves. Thus the 19th of March Garnier writes: "When we are united 
 we shall have but one prayer — namely, that God may preserve us thus for 
 centuries," In a subsequent letter he says: "I shall go to mass to-morrow, 
 and pray Heaven to aid us in the accomplishment of the object we have so 
 long been fighting for." The woman wrote in the same strain the 25th ot 
 May: "I went this weelc to Notre Dame des Victoires, where I had a taper 
 burned for the realization of our project." She wrote on another occasion 
 
THE REASONING AND RELIGIOUS FACULTIES. 45 
 
 of Aveliiie; "He says he is ill (she had already begun operations). Ah! if 
 God would take pity on me ! When he complains I praise God in my heart. " 
 As regards her relations with her husband, she had nothing, as she con- 
 fesses, to complain of. "I would, " she writes, "I could blame Aveline for 
 something, but there is nothing." She made several abortive attempts to 
 poison her husband, and at length it was resolved that the only way to get 
 rid of the poor man was to shoot him during the shooting season, when in 
 Normandy. Gamier came down, and he and the wife concerted the 
 measures to be taken. She placed him herself in ambush. On the first 
 occasion he lacked the courage to fire, but the second time he shot Aveline 
 dead. 
 
 Garnier sought to cast the blame on his mistress, whose behests he 
 blindly carried out. The w»man did not retaliate, and during the trial 
 wrote a consoling letter to her lover, in which she looked forward to their 
 meeting and yet marrying in New Caledonia. She was not aware that 
 women are not sent to New Caledonia, but expiate their crimes in France. 
 The jury found both guilty, but Garnier with extenuating circumstances. 
 The woman was therefore sentenced to death and Garnier to penal servi- 
 tude for life. 
 
 The extraordinary feature in this strange trial is the thorough and yet 
 almost unconscious depravity of both parties, but especially of the woman, 
 the character of whose moral perversity is almost unique in the annals of 
 sane criminals. 
 
 On the other hand, the reHgious faculty may be want- 
 ing and the individual be an excellent and virtuous man. 
 The faculty alone does not perform such necessary service 
 as some others, at least its partial omission under some 
 combinations is not so serious as would be the omission 
 of certain others. The service of this faculty is, as 
 stated, similar to those of honor. We cannot accurately 
 prepare detailed directions for either. It is not possible 
 for man to anticipate every combination of circumstances 
 under which individuals may be placed and arrange a 
 written code of honor for each emergency. Any attempt 
 to do so would retard instead of increase the action of 
 that faculty. People would constantly find themselves 
 in positions not provided for in the code, and would 
 assume they were therein licensed to act without honor. 
 So with the affections, the every day affairs of husband 
 and wife, or parents and children, can only be regulated 
 
46 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 by their natural love, without which there will be trouble 
 against which all the wisdom of man has never been able 
 to guard. 
 
 Religion is of the same nature; it is the disposition 
 that is wanted rather than rules and regulations. As 
 soon as attempts are made to arrange the latter, the 
 various peculiarities of the makers of those regulations — 
 their interests and deficiences, become an element in 
 them which in time supersedes the original intentions. 
 In each instance where honor is required, that quality 
 will assert itself in those who have it; the same with love; 
 the same, too, with religion. The individual is not to be 
 governed by articles, rules or ceremonies, but by the 
 sentiments the disposition prompts, tempered by reason. 
 
 Even though a man is ignorant he is of course a bet- 
 ter man for having this faculty; but with ignorance it has 
 never failed to have a superstitious accompaniment in 
 which fear invariably takes part. Fears are raised by any 
 thing supernatural and that is associated with religion. 
 Those fears have always been measured by ignorance, 
 and to this day a good indication of a man's want of in- 
 telligence will be found in noting the degree of terror he 
 has attached to his religion. 
 
 The ignorance and fears of the religiously disposed 
 have always built up a complicated superstitious system, 
 which in time becomes to new generations inherited doc- 
 trines that have long since seemingly been proven true. 
 Those later generations seldom hear discussions upon the 
 truth of the system itself, but only on certain unimportant 
 points. It is common with lawyers to raise a false issue 
 in cases where they are weak on the true one. Discus- 
 
THE REASONING AND RELIGIOUS FACULTIES. 47 
 
 sion will be raised upon some slight wing of the question, 
 a settlement of which will be mistaken for a settlement 
 of the whole. False issues are so common that in most 
 discussions people will soon run off from the question 
 first raised and argue uyon points often unconnected with 
 it. False issues have been conspicuous in political dis- 
 cussions, and religion has seldom had any other. 
 
 Religion is progressive and should be fully up to the 
 intelligence of the times in its theories, and when such is 
 the case it is sufficiently for the time the true religion. 
 When, for instance, we look back to that far distant time 
 when man first awoke to the mysterv of the great weight 
 of a bowlder of gold, and bowed down to it in fear of its 
 seeming, supernatural power, we see in such acts only 
 degradation, ignorance, and superstition. But that is be- 
 cause of the contrast with men of later development 
 instead of with those who had preceded them. If we 
 should think of what those men had previously been, 
 that devotion, low as it was, would still be interesting as 
 an exhibition of the dawn of intellectual and religious 
 development. It was a step towards civilization, and 
 hence the true religion then, and became superstition 
 only when, through further knowledge, it was beneath 
 the intelligence of the times. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 
 
 In no Other question is such stress set upon that which 
 exists only in the mind as is done in the Christian reU- 
 gion. In other matters the acts of men are accepted as 
 sufficient evidence of the condition of mind that governed 
 them. But Christianity demands that there shall exist 
 in the mind a certain belief, even though the individual's 
 acts shall be unobjectionable. But if this requirement is 
 complied with there must be a cause for so doing, for be- 
 lief is an impression upon the mind which can only be 
 produced through some external cause; no man possesses 
 power to stamp such an impression of his own volition. 
 Such power would be equivalent to obtaining knowledge 
 without either study, observation, or experience. It 
 would be even a greater power, for at times its exercise 
 would involve effacing other impressions from the mind. 
 Belief, and certain knowledge of a fact, are both acquired 
 in the same way and equally control us, the only differ- 
 ence between the two consists in the doubt that may 
 attend the first. 
 
 Christian faith is inherited. It i^ belief that is im- 
 pressed upon the mind in youth, and though the power of 
 such impression may be very great, it constitutes no 
 proof of its truth. We cannot competently judge of that 
 until we understand the evidence that convinced the 
 original believers, and also the circumstances that 
 
THE CHRIS'^IAN RELIGION. 49 
 
 caused that belief to be handed down from generation to 
 generation. 
 
 When circumstances have caused great events to rest, 
 upon the belief of others, it becomes of more importance 
 to know how they came to have that belief, than merely 
 to know the fact of their having it. If the immediate 
 followers of Christ had not believed in him there would 
 never have been any Christian believers. The faith of 
 the Apostles led all subsequent Christendom. It is only 
 through them that we have the Christian religion. If 
 those men had been delegated by the Almighty to pro- 
 claim their belief to the world, the mere announcement 
 of their faith would have been sufficient. But they pub- 
 lished the evidence that convinced them, and in so doing 
 virtually admitted that their belief was obtained only 
 through that evidence, and that it was not obtained in a 
 supernatural manner. If, further, the rise and progress 
 of Christianity can be traced through the natural work- 
 ings of the mind, there would remain nothing super- 
 natural to explain. 
 
 Those Apostles did not agree, which also shows that 
 their belief was purely the result of what they saw. In 
 giving their testimony they would naturally give that 
 which impressed them most, and hence the events re- 
 lated in the New Testament were the most convincing the 
 writers could present, and should be the only evidence 
 upon which to base our opinions. 
 
 In investigating the truth of the Christian religion 
 the first question is as to the divinity of Christ, and if 
 that is settled in the negative there does not remain a 
 question for consideration in the whole system. Believ- 
 
so THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ing there is a God is not dependent upon the Bible, nor 
 upon any part of the Christian system. It does not fol- 
 low that because there is a God, the Bible is true, or that 
 Christ is the Son of God. On the other hand, the truth 
 of the Bible and every doctrine defettdent upon it, are but 
 logical conclusions and necessities following belief in the 
 divinity of Christ. Those doctrines are inseparable from 
 that belief, and it will be shown that some matter in the 
 New Testament was inserted at a late date to support 
 them. 
 
 If Christ was what was claimed for him, then every 
 word of his was sacred, and particularly must his own 
 religion be the law with his followers. He was a Jew, 
 possessing to the fullest extent the rehgious ideas of that 
 people, and therefore the Church was obliged to incor- 
 porate the Jewish books into the Bible, and make certain 
 Jewish ideas a part of the Christian system. The books 
 of the Old Testament were important only because of the 
 references made to them by Christ, and their supposed 
 sacred character and continuance to our time is owing to 
 that fact. 
 
 Attention will be called elsewhere to the circumstances 
 that led Christ to put forth his divine pretensions (or that 
 caused them to be put forth), and his natural desire to 
 be believed therein. The Gospels represent him to have 
 made that belief the one chief virtue in his followers, and 
 therefore Christianity has been obliged to elevate that 
 behef into a virtue of the highest order, and to also find 
 a reason for his appearance upon earth coupled with this 
 demand to be believed. Why was he sent into the 
 world ? Why was he so urgent in his demand to be be- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Si 
 
 lieved? How is he a Savior? How was it that he was 
 a God and yet born of a woman? How can there be 
 but one God and yet three? How can some of his direc- 
 tions — such as eating of his body and drinking of his 
 blood — be compHed with? 
 
 The answers created for these questions begat other 
 questions, and those still others, the answers to all of 
 which the Church from necessity had to unite upon and 
 promulgate as its doctrines. Those doctrines were expla- 
 nations wholly. They did not originate in human wants, 
 nor was the welfare of mankind a, consideration in their 
 promulgation. Time drew out a demand for those ex- 
 planations, and from necessity they could only be met 
 by enlarging the history of Christ, and unavoidably 
 they became an element in Christian ethics. The nat- 
 ural religious feeling has naturally attached itself to 
 Christianity, and throughout the Christian era has borne 
 much good fruit; but that good has been more than 
 offset by the far greater evils superinduced by the ruin- 
 ous theories of those explanatory doctrines. Although 
 the Christian religion is very old, the standard of intel- 
 ligence within it averaged quite the same throughout 
 the largest part of its career, and not until recently 
 has there became an extended knowledge of the unin- 
 telligent character of those doctrines. They now con- 
 stitute the Church's greatest difficulty. It is natural 
 that curiosity should have raised those questions, but 
 even if Christ was equal with God they still have no 
 bearing upon any questions of ethical culture. Never- 
 theless the Church, throughout its i,8oo years of exist- 
 ence, has filled the Christian world with its contentions 
 
52 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 upon those questions, the settlement of which either way 
 would not in the least add to our store of useful knowl- 
 edge, or stimulate our mental power to resist temptation, 
 or throw light upon any question of morality;, nor do 
 they even remotely touch upon the all-important faculty 
 of honor, to the cultivation of whfch religion should be 
 chiefly directed. They are simply enigmas raised by the 
 assertion that Jesus Christ was the son of God. 
 
 Vast numbers of church attendants, however, are still 
 kept in darkness regarding these difficulties. It is com- 
 mon to represent to them that certain objectionable 
 features are no longer sustained, while others have been 
 supposably learnedly explained through theological ratio- 
 cinations too deep for the inquirer. But the truth of the 
 system is simplicity itself. Its complications consists in 
 efforts to fit a code of morals to the enforced explanations 
 attending Christ's appearance, and in fitting the ideas of 
 its originators to the enlightenment of the present day. 
 
 The gospels, and the subsequent fable of the atone- 
 ment, has obliged Christianity to build up an enormous 
 power in Satan at the expense of the Almighty. Rather 
 than not believe that Christ was the son of God, Christians 
 partly disbelieve in God himself, by crediting the Devil 
 with the possession of such a large percentage of His 
 power as to partly intercept and annul His works. Hav- 
 ing made one false statement, all others are but an 
 accumulation of false statements necessary to sustain the 
 first, and they all hang upon that one item of faith — 
 the divinity of Christ. 
 
 The Jews also probably owe to Christ the continuance 
 of their religion to the present time. Christianity brought 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. S3 
 
 them into prominence and sustained them and held them 
 united by the more intense feelings opposition engendered. 
 Persecution is the seed of any church. Though not be- 
 lieving in Christ, they are an accompaniment of the 
 Christian system, and are as much indebted to him for 
 their distinct organization in our day as any denomination 
 within it. 
 
 The question, therefore, is: Was Jesus Christ the Son 
 of God? and the evidence is the accounts in the New 
 Testament. The reverence its believers demand shall 
 accompany its examination, is a bar to a clear under- 
 standing of it. People in a Christian country grow up in 
 the faith. As a, rule they make no special distinction be- 
 tween "God the Father" and "God the Son," and conse- 
 quently Christianity h^s this advantage, that those whose 
 studies and experience have raised doubts as to its truth-, 
 will, through early associations, stand in some degree of 
 awe of those accounts upon which it is founded. 
 
 The testimony as to the divinity of Christ lies wholly 
 within the New Testament. Outside of that book and 
 its accompanying uncanonical gospels he was not men- 
 tioned by any writer until long after his death. The many 
 "Lives of Christ," and of the different apostles, have led 
 many into an erroneous supposition that various items 
 relating to them were to be found in other works of their 
 time. But such is not the case. Outside of the New 
 Testament there is a gap of more than a hundred years 
 in which there is no further account of the rise and pro- 
 gress of Christianity. 
 
 But even the different books of the New Testanjent 
 were written at various dates after the death of Christ, 
 
54 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 and after various interests and difficulties had arisen which 
 would influence the writers if they were but natural men, 
 and become the cause of doctrines not thought of by 
 Christ. Testimony of this nature is even more important 
 than any direct statement in the book. It is more im- 
 portant because from it we learn the causes that led to 
 some of their teachings, and by just the degree that they 
 show themselves governed by the same passions and in- 
 fluences that govern other men, they betray the absence 
 of any sacredness of character. Particularly is this the 
 case when it is apparent that those men both misrepre- 
 sented Christ and ignored some of his sayings. Nothing 
 in the New Testament is worthy of such scrutiny as 
 that testimony which its unknown writers inadvertently 
 furnished. 
 
 Each mental faculty has the power to occupy the mind 
 to the exclusion of all others and for the time become 
 responsible for our acts and speech. Like the annunciator 
 in a hotel, the same bell is rung from many different 
 rooms and for widely different motives. It is important 
 to take this fact into consideration when the acts and 
 thoughts of others are set forth in support of certain 
 ideas. Particularly is this necessary in Christianity, for 
 that religion, from Christ to the present time, is full of 
 acts and speech that have been attributed to religion and 
 to the love of Christ, but wherein religion had not the 
 least part, and where there waS no special love of Christ. 
 
 For a pretense so great, as little is known of Christ 
 as possible and have records at all, and necessarily judg- 
 ment of his character and of the events related of him, 
 must be based upon the few details of those limited 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 55 
 
 accounts. Christians must permit those who differ with 
 them to hold up the disclosures of those records as equally- 
 important even though based upon but little. Those dis- 
 closures are as broad as the isolated events related of Christ, 
 and broader than the basis of some important doctrines. 
 One of the most remarkable events asserted foe Christ is 
 based upon three short sentences in Acts of the Apostles 
 partially supported by two in the four gospels. 
 
 But while the sacredness of the Bible, and every 
 dogma of Christianity is dependent upon the divinity of 
 Jesus Christ, the strength of the Christian position lies 
 in the Deification of Credulity: Faith is a virtue 
 only within the Christian system. Upon all other ques- 
 tions blind unreasoning belief is a fault. That false 
 virtue fills a very important part in that system. This 
 grows out of the fact before mentioned that people in a 
 Christian country grow up in its belief and with it have 
 been taught that the more confiding, unquestioning their 
 belief, the higher is their own purity and piety. This 
 false virtue consequently subserves a double purpose in 
 this, that it prevents investigation, and that doubt con- 
 flicts with the believer's self-esteem. This latter is all 
 the greater because their supposed virtue can be very 
 cheaply retained. It came without effort and only re- 
 quires to be left undisturbed. The consequence is that 
 instead of inyestigating, many believers will take credit 
 to themselves for their pious rejection of anything that 
 might take from them the self-satisfaction they derive in 
 their supposed virtue. Believers often credit religion 
 with feelings that were based only upon their vanity. 
 
 There must be no deviation on the part of the Chris- 
 
56 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 tian from anything where Christianity assumes to have 
 pointed out the way and the remedy. Its wisdom must 
 never be questioned. If history shows through all its 
 career that its remedies never cured, its followers must 
 deny this, and equally through all time must claim the 
 effect that its supposed sacred character should have pro- 
 duced. The faith of the Christian must thus extend to 
 unbelief in anything that conflicts with it. He must re- 
 ject history and the evidence of his own eyes if necessary. 
 The same authority that says Jesus was the Son of God, 
 instructs, also, that a confiding, " lively faith " in the truth 
 of this statement will regenerate and purify the believer 
 so that he will lead a better life; and if experience proves 
 that this is not true, it equally proves the uselessness of 
 that belief, and its improbability. Hence Christianity is 
 obliged to fit everything to that pretense. In sustaining 
 its truth, history and experience are being constantly 
 falsified so as to force an agreement with it. 
 
 It is important also to take into consideration the 
 channel through which the Bible and all documents bear- 
 ing upon it, have reached us. A requirement of the early 
 Christians was that all property should be held in common. 
 This, however, was not a hardship as they were daily 
 looking for the coming of the kingdom of heaven. This re- 
 quirement necessitated officers possessing defined author- 
 ity, and therefore enforced an organization. Converts 
 were at first among the poor, but unitedly there would 
 soon be considerable property, with increasing influence 
 on the part of the officers. In this way the Church very 
 soon supplied to its leaders more agreeable occupations 
 than they had probably ever had before. This at once 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. S7 
 
 gave a personal interest in the movement, outside of their 
 religion, that grew to be enormous in the second century 
 and was then sufficient to cause many to make any state- 
 ment that would help to sustain them in their offices. 
 
 People whose circumstances relieve them from all 
 fears of at least a moderately comfortable support, do not 
 sufficiently realize the hardship of those who can only 
 obtain the coarsest subsistence by the most severe labor. 
 Most such people have no higher ambition than that they 
 may be able to secure a living by some easy occupation, 
 and when they do have experience of such an existence 
 they will naturally resort to great extremes to avoid re- 
 turning to that labor which has become still more object- 
 ionable, and when such efforts are attributed to religion, 
 the interest that actuates them will be very great. Ex- 
 perience of this kind has been re-produced in the Mor- 
 mon church. Its leaders from the first, though unknown 
 and regarded with contempt outside of their church, 
 filled more important and agreeable positions within it 
 than they would have occupied in other fields. 
 
 The great personal interest in sustaining the church 
 grew rapidly, and soon became the most powerful ele- 
 ment in its support. During a large part of the Christian 
 Era it supplied more numerous and more desirable offices 
 than the civil governments. Under such circumstances 
 vast numbers of corrupt men have, in all ages, filled 
 many of its most important offices and influenced its gov- 
 ernment. All documents bearing upon the early history 
 of the church were thus for centuries under the care of 
 those who would not hesitate at any act of interpolation 
 and suppression in perpetuation of that which supported 
 
S8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 and magnified their office. Many, also, would do this 
 through superstitious zeal. 
 
 The church, from the first, claimed that the Apostles 
 and leaders generally possessed some of the divine 
 powers attributed to Christ, holding that they also could 
 speak with heavenly authority. It was long after the 
 death of Christ, and when their personal interest was 
 great, before they awoke to the necessity of collecting 
 such writings as they could bearing upon that subject. 
 It would be perfectly consistent for such men, with such 
 views, to revise and force an agreement, not only on the 
 part of the Apostles upon the issues of their times, but 
 also an agreement with their own peculiar wishes as well. 
 The noted forgery of Jesus Christ, inserted in the 
 works of Josephus, is an illustration of what they could 
 and would do. Among other acts of this kind, it is 
 probable that manuscripts have been made to appear to 
 be older than they were. The Acts of the Apostles and 
 the Epistles were attached to the New Testament at a 
 later date than the four gospels, and though, through 
 incompetency, much is exposed which the church would 
 have concealed, it has undoubtedly successfully concealed 
 much more. 
 
 We would naturally suppose that the Gospel of Peter 
 would be one that, above all others, the church would 
 have preserved with most zealous care. Peter is shown 
 to have been second to Christ before the crucifixion, and 
 first among the Apostles thereafter. His gospel was one 
 of the oldest Christian writings, and was in extensive use 
 in the churches before the four gospels were known. It 
 was virtually the original New Testament. The disap- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 59 
 
 pearance of such a gospel, following such general use, 
 can be explained only through intentional suppression, 
 particularly as the reason for so doing is exposed in the 
 New Testament. But in this important instance we have 
 positive evidence that the church did so destroy it, for 
 there are accounts of at least one bishop being busily 
 engaged in that very work. In his act we see the church 
 laboring to destroy the " inspired " writings of him 
 whom it claims to have been its first bishop. 
 
 " In the year 190 a large number of the Gospels of 
 Peter were found in use by the Church of Rhossus, in 
 Cilicia; and so much were the Christians of that church 
 attached to them that it became necessary for Serapion, 
 one of the bishops, to suppress them." 
 
 " Credner thinks the gospel [of Peter] was one of the 
 oldest writings of the church, and the source from which 
 Justin [Martyr] drew many of his quotations." — History 
 of the Christian Religion, by Charles B. Waite, A. M. 
 
 Next to the Gospel of Peter, we would suppose the 
 Gospel of James would have been preserved, but it is 
 numbered with the lost, together with the Gospel of 
 Paul, Oracles of Christ, and very many other gospels and 
 writings; for an extended account of which the reader is 
 referred to the history just quoted. 
 
 Necessarily we cannot know the extent of the dam- 
 aging evidence the church hid from us in the suppression 
 of those works; but the New Testament does expose why 
 we were not permitted to read the Gospel of Peter, and 
 why it presents us with so much of the writings of Paul. 
 This will be further referred to in its proper place. 
 
 Three hundred years after St. Paul's time, and long 
 
6o THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 after the church contained rich and highly desirable offi- 
 cers, the New Testament still did not contain all the 
 parts it now does. Those full directions to Bishops, for 
 instance, must have been inserted by Bishops, for the 
 church could not have advanced in Paul's time to the 
 variety of offices mentioned in the works attributed to 
 him. Some idea of the power the church had acquired 
 at an early day, and of the kind of men who virtually 
 could make holy manuscripts, is shown in Gibbon's 
 account of another Paul who filled the Metropolitan See 
 of Antioch two hundred years after the time of St. Paul. 
 "The wealth of that prelate was a sufficient evidence 
 of his guilt, since it was neither derived from the inher- 
 itance of his father, nor acquired by the arts of honest 
 industry. But Paul considered the service of the church 
 as a very lucrative profession. His ecclesiastical juris- 
 diction was venal and rapacious; he extorted frequent 
 contribution from the most opulent of the faithful, and 
 converted to his own use a considerable part of the 
 public revenue. By his pride and luxury the Christian 
 religion was rendered odious in the eyes of the Gentiles. 
 His council chamber and his throne, -the splendor with 
 which he appeared in public, the supplicant crowd who 
 solicited his attention, the multitude of letters and peti- 
 tions to which he dictated his answers, and the perpetual 
 hurry of business in which he was involved, were circum- 
 stances much better suited to the state of a civil magis- 
 trate than to the humility of a primitive bishop. When 
 he harangued his people from the pulpit, Paul affected 
 the figurative style and the theatrical gestures of an 
 Asiatic sophist, while the cathedral resounded with the 
 loudest and most extravagant exclamations in the praise 
 of his divine eloquence. Against those who resisted his 
 power, or refused to flatter his vanity, the prelate of 
 Antioch was arrogant, rigid, and inexorable; but he re- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 6l 
 
 laxed the discipline, and lavished the treasures of the 
 church on his dependent clergy, who were permitted to 
 imitate their master in the gratification of their sensual 
 appetite. For Paul indulged himself very freely in the 
 pleasures of the table, and he had received into his epis- 
 copal palace two young and beautiful women as the 
 constant companions of his leisure moments. 
 
 Notwithstanding these scandalous vices, if Paul of 
 Samosata had preserved the purity of the orthodox faith, 
 his reign over the capitol of Syria would have ended 
 only with his life; and had seasonable persecution inter- 
 vened, an effort of courage might perhaps have placed 
 him in the ranks of saints and martyrs." 
 
 This Bishop may or may not have been a fair type of 
 his class, but his holding such an office at all indicates a 
 low standard, which is further evidenced by the difficulty 
 of removing him. Those men lived in the beginning of 
 the compilation of the Bible, and through two or three 
 .hundred years it was such as they who passed upon the 
 admission of some, and the rejection of others of the parts 
 of the Old and New Testament. During many centuries 
 thereafter the officers of the church had the power to reach 
 and contfol all historical records, and could interpolate 
 and suppress as their interest or superstition dictated. 
 All literature was in manuscript and duplicating copies 
 was a great labor. This work soon fell into the hands of 
 monks quite exclusively, particularly as Greek and Latin 
 became dead languages and were confined mostly to 
 church service. Therefore, the lost gospels and other 
 works having a bearing upon this question have undoubt- 
 edly been suppressed by the church itself, and it will be 
 shown that the disposition to do this is not extinct even 
 in our day. 
 
62 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 An erroneous opinion is quite general regarding the 
 number and age of old manuscripts. There are manu- 
 scripts, no doubt, over a thousand years old, though 
 none can be traced back but a few hundred years, and 
 the oldest, if genuine, was written in an age quite as 
 remote from the time of Christ as we are from the time 
 of Columbus. Prof. C. E. Stowe, in his work. The 
 Origin and History of the Books of the Bible, has given 
 an enumeration of old Bible manuscript and their sup- 
 posed age. He says: 
 
 "Of the volume containing the gospels we have at 
 least 426 different manuscripts, of which 27 are uncials, 
 or more than one thousand years old; of the volume 
 containing Paul's epistles, 25S manuscripts, of which 9 
 are uncials; of the volume of Acts and the Catholic 
 Epistles, 200, of which 8 are uncials; and of the Apoca- 
 lypse, or Revelations, 91, of which 3 are uncials." 
 
 Prof. Stowe then gives a history, as far as known, of 
 five manuscripts believed to be the oldest, one of which is 
 supposed to have been written as early as the fourth 
 century. The following is part of his account of the 
 manuscript he seems to prize the highest, before reading 
 which let me remind the reader of the great pecuniary 
 value set upon old Bible manuscripts in these times, and 
 the corresponding temptation to imitate and create an 
 appearance of having unearthed such. 
 
 " In 1844 Dr. Tischendorf, while traveling under the 
 patronage of the king of Saxony, for research in biblical 
 science, was at the convent of St. Catharine, on Mount 
 Sinai, from a basket of rubbish intended to kindle his fire 
 he picked out forty-three beautiful parchment leaves 
 belonging to a manuscript of the Septuagint hitherto 
 unknown. These on his return to Europe, he published. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 63 
 
 On the 4th of Feb'y, 1859, he was at the same convent 
 for the third time, and one of the monks brought to him 
 the other leaves of that same manuscript loosely tied in a 
 napkin. To his inexpressible delight he found here not 
 only, the remaining portions of the Septuagint, but also 
 the entire New Testament with the epistle of Barnabas, 
 and portions of the Shepherd of Hermas; the most com- 
 plete, the most ancient, the best manuscript copy of the 
 entire New Testament that has yet been known." 
 
 Within the Christian era probably no country has 
 been so often fought over and desolated by contending 
 armies as Judea. In the first and last four or five cen- 
 turies of that time it has been visited by thousands who 
 were searching for relics, manuscripts, etc. , etc., and in the 
 crusade wars it was governed for nearly a hundred years 
 by highly devout Christians. During all of this time the 
 Sinai manuscript remained undiscovered, and by a most 
 astonishing cd-incident it now turns up as kindling for a 
 fire at the exact moment an officer arrives whose only 
 business was to find just such manuscript. This account 
 also implies that those monks, though devoting their 
 whole lives to the Christian religion, were ignorant of the 
 interest and value attached to ancient manuscripts of the 
 New Testament. 
 
 One of the five old manuscripts referred to can be 
 traced back only to the year 1450. The next longest 
 known manuscripts is entitled the Beza, and can be traced 
 back to the year 1552; but it contains matter not found 
 in the others, and not strictly in harmony with the truth, 
 as understood by Prof. Stowe, and therefore he promptly 
 repudiates it to that extent. He states that : 
 
 " We must here remark that the Beza is the least reli- 
 able of the five manuscripts." 
 
64 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The child-like credulity with which the author accepts 
 Dr. Tischendorf's transparent fraud, and his skepticism 
 of the certainly-old Beza manuscript, is an illustration of 
 the controlling power of inherited ideas, and the slight 
 effect later evidence usually has upon them. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 
 
 The accounts of Jesus were traditional for a genera- 
 tion or two. The temporary nature of his followers' ex- 
 pectations did not admit of the thought that writing his 
 history would be necessary, as the kingdom of heaven 
 was daily expected. Christianity is consequently depen- 
 dent upon the judgment of those men who verbally 
 during many years repeated accounts of those events 
 that convinced them. It is necessarily important to know 
 the degree of their intelligence and capacity to judge for 
 us, for Christianity knows Christ only through their un- 
 derstanding. The acts and every word of the exceed- 
 ingly limited testimony of those men have been com- 
 mented upon over and over again by Christian writers 
 until there are vast libraries of their works. But they 
 are all the devout speculations of those who believed, and 
 who were blinded by it to the pointlessness of their com- 
 ments from the standpoint of unbelief. 
 
 But little reference can be made to those writers in an 
 examination of the question of the divinity of Christ, be- 
 cause they only wrote upon the assumption that upon that 
 point there was NO question. With this conceded, there 
 was occasion to fill libraries with their books, in efforts 
 to reconcile that concession, and the logical conclusions 
 it engenders, with reason; but as a study of the truth of 
 the assertion that Christ was the Son of God, those work 
 
66 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 are worthless. For proof of the divinity of Christ Christ- 
 ians refer to the Bible. For proof of the divine authority 
 of the Bible, they refer to Christ, But for the truth of 
 both they have nothing to offer. That is simply a ques- 
 tion of credulity. 
 
 But it is consistent that it should be so, for that was 
 the marked characteristic of the only witnesses who saw 
 and directly testified of Jesus. Only the most credulous 
 even then believed in him. Not only the better classes 
 in his own time, but even those who knew him best, re- 
 pudiated his divine pretensions. A being so far above 
 all others would without effort have naturally deeply im- 
 pressed the people of his own home. But Matthew (xiii, 
 57, S8) says that he was without honor there, "and did not 
 many [any] mighty works because of their unbelief." 
 
 Even at as late a date as the appearance of the Gospel 
 of John, credulity was still a leading characteristic in the 
 Church, as is shown by the ideas of its author. The in- 
 cident of the woman at Jacob's well is an illustration of 
 what they then considered impressive evidence. The 
 account is in the fourth chapter. Jesus had been talking 
 with the woman alone at the well, after which she went 
 into the city. 
 
 28. "And saith to the men, 
 
 29. Come, see a man which told me all things that 
 ever I did; is not this the Christ? 
 
 30. Then they went out of the city, and came unto 
 him. ... 
 
 39. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed 
 on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, he 
 told me all that ever I did." 
 
 Reference to the account will show that all Jesus told 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 6j 
 
 the woman of herself was that she had had five husbands. 
 His further statement that he with whom she was then 
 living was not her husband, was but repeating what the 
 woman had in part just told him. 
 
 Nathanael's conversion, as set forth in the first chapter 
 of John, was, if true, but a childish exhibition of credulity 
 on his part. If not true, it is an equal exhibition on the 
 part of those who, at a late date, composed such a story 
 in the interest of the Church. 
 
 45. "Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, 
 We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the 
 prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. 
 
 46. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good 
 thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, 
 Come and see. 
 
 47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming unto him, and saith of 
 him. Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! 
 
 48. Nathanael saith unto him. Whence knowest thou 
 me? Jesus answered and said unto him. Before that 
 Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I 
 saw thee. 
 
 49. Nathanael answered and saith unto him. Rabbi, 
 thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." 
 
 Some of the accounts indicate that the Apostles, part 
 of them at least, were but boys, as illustrated in the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 MATTHEW XX. 
 
 20. "Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's 
 children, with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a 
 certain thing of him. 
 
 21. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She 
 saith unto him. Grant that these my two sons may sit, 
 the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left in 
 thy kingdom. 
 
68 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 24. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with 
 indignation against the two brethren." 
 
 MARK IX. 
 
 33. And he [Jesus] came to Capernaum: and being 
 in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye dis- 
 disputed among yourselves by the way? 
 
 34. But they held their peace: for by the way they 
 had disputed among themselves, who should be the 
 greatest." 
 
 The remarkable credulity and simplicity of Christ's 
 followers is conspicuous throughout the New Testament. 
 If some of the events therein described were possible, 
 their performance would have produced a wide-spread 
 sensation far greater than is represented. (The resur- 
 rection of Lazarus as an instance.) But that book 
 admits the adverse testimony of the class most capable 
 of judging of this question and the evidence, and it shows 
 that only those believed whose opinions were worthy of 
 the least notice. 
 
 In ancient times the universe was supposed to be of 
 but trifling extent as compared to what we now know it 
 to be. In giving his idea of the distance of the stars, 
 Homer said it would take a brazen anvil nine days to fall 
 from them to the earth. Even Milton, who by compari- 
 son was quite within our own time, gave nine days in 
 falling from heaven down to hell, as sufficient to repre- 
 sent immensity of space. But, astronomically speaking, 
 a body would fall but an insignificant distance in nine 
 days, particularly as the increasing ratio of speed of fall- 
 ing bodies was probably not taken into consideration in 
 either instance. The ancient ideas of God were even 
 more limited, for in addition to the supposed narrow ex- 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 69 
 
 tent of creation, they had divided His power among so 
 many as to have reduced, in their imagination, the powers 
 of a God to that but slightly superior to man's. They 
 were familiar with the idea of Gods taking the form of 
 men and mingling with them; and they often attributed 
 divine power to the most distinguished men of their 
 times. With their ideas it was comparatively a simple 
 matter to believe that Christ was the Son of God, in 
 doing which they exhibited far less credulity than those 
 who believe that assertion in the light of the present day. 
 
 The exceedingly short account of Christ is not a 
 source of weakness, but is one of strength. The very 
 little that is known of him has left full play for the imagi- 
 nation of devout followers to color according to their 
 intelligence and the circumstances of the times. Any 
 politician knows how careful prominent statesmen must 
 be in expressing opinions, or in taking sides upon any 
 new political question that may be put forth. Such men 
 often use great ingenuity to avoid committing themselves 
 to measures until necessity compels. Reticence is very 
 necessary in those holding important political positions. 
 The very slight knowledge we have of Christ serves the 
 same purpose, and is the one chief circumstance that has 
 as yet enabled that religion to be "fitted to any people 
 and any age. " 
 
 If the daily habits, manners, and speech of Christ 
 were known, and his sayings during a length of time re- 
 corded, he would have made very many statements, and 
 committed many acts that would have made an extended 
 belief in his pretensions an impossibility. As it now is, 
 a man believing that he was a God will have an unde- 
 
70 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 fined dream of his acts and sayings in which he will be 
 pictured as all that a God should be, untrammelled with 
 a common placed history to the contrary. In the inci- 
 dent of the woman at Jacob's well, for instance, it is the 
 imagination only that impresses the mind with anything 
 therein divine. A believer would say that all that was 
 said there was not reported, and he would credit Christ 
 with language, and picture scenes to the widest extent of 
 his ability, and necessarily far superior to those repre- 
 sented in the account. 
 
 If the various events were not fully reported, why 
 was that service omitted? If "the half was never told," 
 why was it never told? If it was necessary to send 
 Christ here to save the world, it was equally necessary 
 that the acts that were to save it should be accurately 
 recorded for the benefit of all time. Or, if the world 
 could be saved without a record of the acts of the one 
 sent to save it, then why do we have the New Testament 
 at all? Between the imagination and allegory, nothing 
 substantial has been left in the Christian system to com- 
 bat. It has "withstood the test of time," not because it 
 is like a rock, but because it is like a vapor. 
 
 We have occular evidence of a small fraction of what 
 the imagination does for Christianity in the thousands of 
 magnificent paintings and engravings intended to repre- 
 sent Bible scenes. The imagination of the artist in most 
 such pictures is vastly superior to the ideas of the author 
 of that upon which they were founded. 
 
 The writers of the gospels themselves frequently drew 
 upon the imagination of their readers. Matthew says, 
 iv, 24: "And his fame went throughout all Syria." 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 7 1 
 
 But he records nothing to justify such fame; and, if 
 true, we should have heard of it in the histories of those 
 times. 
 
 A similar assertion is made in John vii, 46, where it is 
 said of Jesus that, "Never man spake like this man." 
 The author of that gospel brought to bear all the skill he 
 was capable of in his efforts to exhibit Jesus as the Son 
 of God; but recognizing his own inability to put into the 
 mouth of Christ utterances consistent with the divine 
 character given him, he drew upon the imagination of 
 his readers with this simple unsupported assertion. It is 
 one that detracts as much from the intelligence of the 
 Almighty as it adds to that of Jesus. He sent His Son 
 to accomplish a certain object involving greater wisdom 
 than was possessed by ordinary mortals, and then failed 
 to secure the least record of such superior wisdom. 
 Jesus came to teach that which would naturally involve 
 speaking as never man spake, but left not one recorded 
 sentence or idea that indicated the possession of such 
 power. Any ignorant man could make the simple asser- 
 tion that he had so spoken, but to prove it by illustra- 
 tions requires the power of speaking as never man spake; 
 and as the gospel writer did not possess that power, and 
 there had been no such wise words uttered from whence 
 examples could be drawn, no examples could be given. 
 
 The last verse of the last chapter of that gospel is an 
 immense draft upon the imagination, and is also an exhi- 
 bition of the powers of imagination of its author. He 
 wrote: 
 
 "And there are also many other things which Jesus 
 <did, the which, if they should be written every one, I 
 
72 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 suppose that even the world itself could not contain the 
 books that should be written." 
 
 A peck measure, however, will contain all that was 
 written. 
 
 The part the imagination takes in Christianity is not 
 confined to the supposed sayings of Christ that have 
 never been recorded, but it is also brought into active 
 service in those that have been. As given in the New 
 Testament those sayings are of such an exceedingly low 
 order of superstition that unless believers took great 
 liberties they would overthrow any moderately intelligent 
 system that could be built upon them. The more intelli- 
 gent the Christian is the less does he care for the ideas 
 Christ's words directly convey, and the more does he 
 draw upon his imagination for a deep hidden spiritual 
 meaning, foreign to the words themselves. In doing this 
 each individual of them assumes for himself to fit any 
 theory or any key separately to each incident. They do 
 not, like Swedenborg, honestly fit a key to the whole 
 'Bible, but each for himself gives full play to the imagin- 
 ation separately for every event. They only agree in this, 
 that the simple ideas conveyed by the words alone are 
 to be partly or wholly ignored. 
 
 All the Lives of Christ and of the Apostles furnish 
 ample illustration of this in the Hcense, if not dishonesty, 
 of their authors in the immensity of their drafts upon the 
 imagination. No matter how ignorant, no matter how 
 intelligent, each and all will picture and theorize accord- 
 ing to their capacity, and substitute the same for the 
 records themselves. 
 
 Language bears the same relation to ideas that dress 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 73 
 
 does to the person. Those who have excellent taste and 
 skill, can do much to make an ill-formed person present a 
 moderately graceful appearance. It is the same with 
 ideas. Those possessing good command of language can 
 so dress out ideas of a low order as to give them respec- 
 tability and even a semblance of wisdom. One of Henry 
 Ward Beecher's most distinguishing characteristics con- 
 sisted in his great command of language, and when exer- 
 cising that power, coupled with his imagination, he at 
 times dressed out the low ideas of the New Testament so 
 artistically that the originators themselves would not know 
 them. A man with his ability must necessarily have de- 
 voted all his skill to his imagined meaning of the words 
 rather than the actual. In his Life of Christ he precedes 
 his comments upon this conversation between Christ and 
 the woman at Jacob's well, by, for the second time, assert- 
 ing that there was this double meaning, without which all 
 such men as he, would be unable to comment upon the 
 words of Christ at all. He says: 
 
 "We see in this conversation again the very same 
 subtile play of thought between the material and its 
 spiritual counterpart which was shown in the conversation 
 with Nicodemus, and with the questioners in the Temple. 
 He recognized the qualities and the substance of this 
 world as they appeared to his followers, while their out- 
 come and value and meaning in the spiritual life was his 
 real and inner interpretation of them.'' 
 
 Mr. Beecher then takes it upon himself to give author- 
 itatively and at great length the thoughts of Christ, repre- 
 senting them to be greatly different from what would be 
 inferred by the words themselves; taking care, no doubt, 
 that those thoughts do not conflict with his own doctrines. 
 
74 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 It is interesting, however, to note that the idea in one 
 answer was too low for his elevated standard. It was, too 
 narrow to admit of any "subtile play of thought between 
 the nmaterial and its spiritual counterpart," and he was 
 therefore obliged to bring Christ down to a lower level in 
 order to answer it. Mr. Beecher's position necessarily re- 
 quired that Christ's words should be for all the world, 
 and for all time. But in answering a question of the 
 woman's, Christ denied her religion, which differed from 
 his only in having a different temple, and said to her, 
 "Salvation is of the Jews." 
 
 Even Mr Beecher's imagination fails him here. A 
 few pretty words was the best he could do in admitting 
 that Christ's idea was not above the woman's upon this 
 theological question. He therefore isolates it from the 
 others by stating that Christ "for the moment restrained 
 his imperial views to sustain the truth as taught at Mount 
 Zion, as compared to the truth taught at Gerizim." 
 
 The Jews and- Samaritans had made an important 
 advance in religion by worshipping but one God, and 
 worshipping Him as a spirit. That was the only improve- 
 ment they had made, their religion otherwise being the 
 same as neighboring pagan nations, all of whose ideas 
 and customs they retained. They built altars and temples 
 for the same uses as the pagans, and offered sacrifices of 
 animals under the same superstitious notions, and like 
 the pagans they built their temples on the top of some 
 hill, which was recognized thereafter as a sacred moun- 
 tain. It is evident that rivalry between the Jews and 
 Samaritans caused each to deny the sanctifying effect of 
 the temple of the other. It was upon this narrow local 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 75 
 
 question that Jesus " restrained his imperial views " to 
 certify to the efficacy of the temple of his countrymen as 
 against the temple of a neighboring and rival nation. 
 
 Neander and DePressense have each written a Life of 
 Christ, and they are each equally authoritive readers of 
 his secret thoughts, but they saw no restraining of im- 
 perial views in this answer. The conversation is all 
 treated as equally important by them. The reason given 
 why the woman asked the question was that she had just 
 discovered that Christ was a prophet, and promptly 
 availed herself of the opportunity offered to settle in her 
 mind this question as to the sanctity of the temple at 
 Gerizim. 
 
 Dr. Lange in his Life of Christ states that in his answer 
 Christ "intended to humble the proud Samaritan in her." 
 But pride was what the poor woman most needed. With 
 more self-respect she would have been virtuous. The 
 Doctor finds a deep meaning in the request to '' Go call 
 thy husband." It was not, he writes, wholly "as a pre- 
 text in order to lead her to a confession of her criminal 
 course of life," but it was also because she showed a dis- 
 position to become a disciple of Jesus, and therefore her 
 husband should be present. 
 
 In other words Jesus, who knew she had no husband, 
 told her to call her husband so that she should not believe 
 without his consent. And if, also, a husband should re-, 
 fuse his consent, the inference is that the wife would not 
 be justified in being saved. 
 
 St. Augustine, more than fourteen hundred years ago, 
 in his comments upon this passage saw a connection 
 between the five husbands and the five senses. His 
 
^6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 imagination was equally pious and equally supplied the 
 intellectual requirements of his time. It answered the 
 same purpose then, in fitting Christianity to his age, 
 that the imagination of Mr. Beecher or Dr. Lange does 
 now. 
 
 The first chapter of the New Testament is very incon- 
 sistent with other teachings of Christianity. The super- 
 stition of its author is promptly exposed in showing the 
 unimportant co-incident of the succession of fourteen 
 generations. The believer's faith also is confronted with 
 one of two genealogies that are entirely different, and 
 therefore cannot both be true. Even in our time, with 
 nearly everybody possessing the ability to write, few 
 keep a genealogy of their family, and among those of a 
 corresponding class with Joseph, there are none. 
 
 The second great virtue peculiar only to the Christian 
 system, is humility. Much is made of the humble birth 
 of Jesus; that he was born in a manger; that he was 
 meek and lowly; that his disciples and daily life were 
 among the poor, so much so that by example and precept 
 the rich were quite excluded from his fold. With such 
 sentiments nothing whatever would be allowed for birth. 
 If any distinction was made it should have been against 
 those claiming it rather than the contrary. Genealogies 
 are begot of pride only. 
 
 The genealogy of Christ must have been inserted at a 
 late date, and was probably intended to add importance 
 to him, in part, by representing Joseph to have been a 
 descendant of David, and possibly, also, to account for 
 the followers of Christ having called him King of the 
 Jews. But even if either one of the genealogies were 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. ^^ 
 
 true, he would still have had no right to be called King 
 of the Jews while Joseph was alive. 
 
 Those confiding church attendants who leave all these 
 enigmas to theologians, never doubting but that they 
 long since have been met and explained, will be inter- 
 ested in noting how an ancient pillar of the church settled 
 this difficulty for all time. St. Augustine drew upon that 
 inexhaustible source of Christian mental wealth — the 
 imagination — and said: "Joseph might have had an 
 adopted father, and that the two genealogies were of 
 those two men respectively." Having stated that guch 
 might have been the case, St. Augustine, from that time 
 forth, leaves the reader to infer that his thoughts were a 
 saintly revelation, and treats this supposition as an abso- 
 lute fact. It would be a surprising coincidence, also, 
 that both men should have been direct descendants from 
 David. 
 
 The story of the birth of Jesus, including the three 
 wise men of the East and the star of Bethlehem, is said 
 to be similar to those found in most of the ancient relig- 
 ions. We are possibly expected here to modify this 
 accoimt and understand that the star was but a light 
 looking like a star. But the writers did not so intend; 
 they meant just what they stated. The universe — earth, 
 sun, moon, and stars — in their imagination probably 
 occupied less space than the moon's orbit alone. To 
 those writers the stars were quite as small as they looked, 
 and that one of them could be brought down and put to 
 the service described, was in keeping with their ideas of 
 what ought to be done at the birth of a God. But even 
 a light no higher than a boy's kite would still be too high 
 
78 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to show the house it was over, particularly in ancient 
 times, where buildings were huddled closer together than 
 now. 
 
 We are also expected to take Joseph's interpretations 
 of dreams as the commands of God. But in this the 
 authors were imitating those of the Old Testament. 
 Although Joseph is represented here as having a knowl- 
 edge of the divinity of Jesus, he seems to have forgotten 
 it a few years later, at which time Jesus was found- in the 
 temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing 
 therp and asking them questions. In answer to the ques- 
 tions asked by his parents as to why he left them, he 
 said: "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I 
 must be about my father's business? And they under- 
 stood not the sayings which he spake unto them. " (Luke 
 ii. So.) 
 
 The disciples of Christ were particularly interested 
 by parables, and supposed they, to some extent, proved 
 that which they illustrated, not realizing that any idea 
 can be expressed in that manner. Very ignorant people, 
 in our time, take more interest in that which is repre- 
 sented in riddles than in any other way. The parallel 
 seems to such people to be more ingenious than it really 
 is. They remember better the ideas conveyed because 
 of the wonderful puzzle that illustrated them. 
 
 The disciples seemed displeased with him for having 
 related the parable of the Sower and the Seed to the 
 multitude. The spirit of their comments was jealousy, 
 and Jesus yielded to it by representing, in effect, that in 
 his address just given he had intentionally deceived his 
 hearers, "Lest at any time they shouldbe converted and 
 
THE WITNESSES AND IMAGINATION. 79 
 
 their sins should be forgiven them." (Mark iv, 12.) 
 According to this they were not a part of the world he 
 had come to sav,e, and he therefore put them off with 
 blind remarks which he did not intend they should under- 
 stand. This was immediately after addressing them, and 
 necessarily too soon to have learned anything of them he 
 did not know before. Seemingly he deliberately de- 
 ceived them, but in fact he simply found his disciples 
 jealous of his having given to the multitude what was to 
 them a deep parable, and he appeased them by indirect 
 flattery. This is a favorable explanation of a dark pas- 
 sage. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 Those who can free their minds from the bias of early 
 training and consequently from inherited ideas, and can 
 read the New Testament in the light of their own judg- 
 ment, will find it indeed a revelation, but a revelation of a 
 nature opposite to that which is claimed for it. Even if 
 true, it does not show the motives and relations of its 
 characters to have been as represented. It is not believ- 
 ing the Bible that is so much demanded as believing 
 sacerdotal interpretations of it. 
 
 One very important example is in relation to John the 
 Baptist. That book discloses enough to show that he 
 was the originator and founder of that which became 
 Christianity; that he never took a secondary position to 
 Jesus; that he did not admit Jesus was the one whose 
 coming he proclaimed; that he was indignant at that 
 pretense; that long after the crucifixion there were fol- 
 lowers of John who did not believe in Jesus; and that 
 probably even the word "Christians" was first used to 
 distinguish the followers of Christ from the disciples of 
 John. 
 
 John was acting upon the common Jewish belief in 
 the coming of the Messiah, the'^subseque'nt belief that 
 Jesus was that Messiah being a result of circumstances 
 foreign to his efforts or intentions; but years afterwards 
 the Christian religion having been widely extended and 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 therefore new and important interests enlisted in its sup- 
 port, it became indispensable that the records should 
 represent John as admitting that Jesus was the one com- 
 ing after him, "the latchet of whose shoes he was not 
 worthy to unloose." 
 
 Jesus was baptized by John, and his career began 
 after that date. The Gospels of Mark and Luke contain 
 not one word showing an admission on the part of John 
 himself that Jesus was the one whose coming he pro- 
 claimed, and Matthew mentions but one instance only 
 (iii, 14), and a later event shows that that one could not 
 have been true. In relating the baptism of Jesus by 
 John, Matthew offsets the secondary position of Jesus 
 by stating that John at first protested, saying: 
 
 "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou 
 to me. 
 
 But later, when John was in prison, Matthew tells us 
 he heard of the works of Christ, and sent two of his 
 [John's] disciples, and said unto him: 
 
 "Art thou he that should come, or do we look for 
 another. " (xi, 3.) 
 
 Such a message as this could not have came from 
 John if the events previously related as having taken 
 place at the baptism of Jesus were true. On the con- 
 trary, John's language is of a censuring, protesting nature. 
 It will be seen also that he at the time had disciples dis- 
 tinct from Jesus, as was the case long after. The subse- 
 quent verses show that Jesus was endeavoring to win 
 over and appease John by statements that would have 
 been unnecessary if their relations to one another were 
 as represented. The closing of his answer, "Blessed is 
 
82 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 he whosoever shall not be offended with me," indicates 
 the offense John had take* and the desire of Jesus to 
 placate him. 
 
 This message and its answer clearly discloses that 
 neither John nor Jesus knew of the alleged descending 
 of the spirit like a dove and the voice from heaven ; and 
 most certainly John could not have said " I have need 
 to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me. " Neither 
 Mark nor Luke have this passage, though both assert the 
 descending of the spirit like a dove. 
 
 John the Baptist was widely known and popular. His 
 imprisonment and execution show that he must have been 
 a man of importance, heading a movement that led to 
 extreme measures on the part of the authorities. Herod 
 would certainly have been indifferent to the mere asser- 
 tion of a citizen, "That it was unlawful for him to have 
 his brother's wife." John had evidently become a power 
 in the land, and the true reason for his execution is not 
 given in the gospels. He would hardly have used such 
 an expression of himself as, "One mightier than I," if his 
 position had not been one of distinction. Throughout 
 the New Testament his importance and popularity is 
 manifested. It is given in two instances as complimen- 
 tary to Jesus that he was supposed to be John. Jesus 
 refers to him, and after his death they dated from the 
 time of John. (See Acts i, 22; x, 37; xiii, 24, 25; Luke 
 xiv, 16.) The four gospels begin with accounts of him. 
 In those times it was common to connect some super- 
 natural event with the birth of distinguished men.' Luke 
 has such an account at the birth of John, to which he de- 
 votes his first and greatest attention to the exclusion of 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 83 
 
 the nativity of Jesus, about which he has less to say. 
 They all state that the people went out from Jerusalem, 
 and the country about, and were baptized by him in 
 Jordan. 
 
 Herod did not hear of Jesus until he had caused 
 John to be beheaded, and then he said of him: "This is 
 John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and there- 
 fore mighty works do show forth themselves in him. " 
 Matt, xiv, 2. 
 
 Jesus himself only a short time before his crucifixion 
 while in Jerusalem, again took a secondary position to 
 John by asking a question based upon John's acknow- 
 ledged greater fame. Jesus had been asked: "By what 
 authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee 
 this authority?" He avoided the question by asking 
 in return: " The baptism of John, whence was it, from 
 heaven or of man?" If they answered, "Of man, they 
 feared the people, for all held John as a prophet," Matt, 
 xxi, 23-26). This question indicates a desire on the 
 part of Jesus to couple himself with John and avail him- 
 self of his popularity and prophetic reputation, and pro- 
 bably also to secure the same toleration for himself that 
 they had given to John. 
 
 Luke said of John the Baptist that: "All men mused 
 in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or 
 not." (iii, 15.) 
 
 The Prophet Elias was to appear before the coming 
 of Christ. In Matt. xvii. 10, Jesus is reminded of this 
 and answered that " Elias is come already and they knew 
 him not," and "Then the disciples understood that he 
 spake unto them of John the Baptist." 
 
84 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 This shows that his disciples had not previously so 
 understood it, and Jesus only saying so by impHcation, 
 indicates that their relative positions were such as to 
 make that assertion a bold one. Upon another earlier 
 occasion, however, when John was in prison, he did assert 
 directly that John was Elias. He said: "And if ye will 
 receive it [believe it] this is Elias which was for to come. " 
 (Matt, xi, 14.) 
 
 Josephus records the reason why Herod caused John 
 the Baptist to be beheaded. The gospel writers could 
 not give the true reason for it would make too conspicu- 
 ous his superior position. The assumption that John 
 foretold the coming of Jesus, made it desirable to present 
 him in a favorable light, but not sufficiently so to eclipse 
 Jesus, which would have been the case were the whole 
 truth given. John's popularity was so great that Herod 
 was jealous of it, and put him to death through fear of 
 the power he was acquiring. The greater distinction of 
 John is further exemplified in this, that while Josephus 
 gives this account of John's importance, he shows no 
 knowledge of Christ. Josephus says {Antiquities of the 
 Jews, xviii, 5): 
 
 "Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction 
 of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as 
 a judgment for what he did against John, that was called 
 the Baptist, for Herod slew him, who was a good man, 
 and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to 
 righteousness towards one another and piety towards 
 God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing 
 would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in 
 order to the putting away of some sins, but for the puri- 
 fication of the body, supposing still that the soul was 
 thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. Now 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 8 5 
 
 when others came in crowds about him: for they were 
 greatly moved by hearing his words: Herod also feared 
 lest the great influence John had over the people might 
 put it into his power and inclination to raise a rebellion 
 (for they seemed to do any thing he should advise), 
 thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent any 
 mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into diffi- 
 culties by sparing a man who might make him repent of 
 it when it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent 
 a prisoner, out of Herod's superstitious temper, to 
 Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there 
 put to death. Now the Jews had an opinion that the 
 destruction of this army was as a punishment to Herod, 
 and a mark of God's displeasure to him.'' 
 
 Much excitement evidently attended the execution of 
 John, an account of which is given in the sixth chapter 
 of Mark, that gospel stating that: 
 
 29. "When his [John's] disciples heard of it, they 
 came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. 
 
 30. And the apostles gathered themselves together 
 unto Jesus, and told him all things, both what they had 
 done, and what they had taught. 
 
 31. And he said unto them. Come ye yourselves apart 
 into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many 
 coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as . 
 to eat. 
 
 34. And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, 
 and was moved with compassion toward them, because 
 they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began 
 to teach them many things 
 
 The 30th and 34th verses give an appearance of there 
 having been a consultation as to a successor to the Bap- 
 tist, and that a delegation had tendered that positon to 
 Jesus. "They told him what they had done and what 
 
86 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 they had taught. " This is the reverse of what it should 
 have been had Jesus been the master. It was for him to 
 have instructed as to what to teach, and subsequent 
 obedience would not require such a report, while dis- 
 obedience would not be reported at all. On the other 
 hand, if those men were soliciting Jesus to assume the 
 leadership of John's proselytes, it would be natural to 
 have pointed out what had been done and what had been 
 taught. 
 
 "They were as sheep not having a shepherd. " In 
 that case John had not taught them that Jesus was the 
 Messiah, their shepherd, their Lord and master. Jesus 
 had evidently been no rival to the Baptist, and it is 
 probable that it was by the latter's death that he was 
 brought into prominence with those people, and his 
 ambition may not at first have been above being John's 
 successor. 
 
 John the Baptist practised great self-denial and was 
 temperate. Jesus said of him that: 
 
 "He came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, 
 and ye say he hath a devil, and the son of man is come, 
 .eating and drinking, and ye say. Behold! a gluttonous 
 man and wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." 
 (Luke vii, 33, 34.) 
 
 John's temperance is mentioned in several places, and 
 in this at least shows superiority over the people of his 
 time. But Jesus is represented as turning water into 
 wine at a feast where it was implied that the guest had 
 already drank so much as to be unable to distinguish 
 good wine from poor. The difference between the two 
 in this respect was so marked as to have attracted the 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 87 
 
 attention of the disciples, who asked, seemingly reprov- 
 ingly, why there was such difference. 
 
 "And they said unto him. Why do the disciples of 
 John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the dis- 
 ciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink. " (Luke 
 V, 33) 
 
 Temperance was not a feature of the followers of 
 Jesus. In Acts ii, 15, Peter defends the disciples upon 
 seemingly a natural charge of drunkenness by saying: 
 
 "For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it 
 is but the third hour of the day." 
 
 In this he implies that at a later hour such a condition 
 might be possible. 
 
 According to Luke, the Lord's prayer was taught to 
 the disciples in answer to a request from them to teach 
 them to pray as John also taught his disciples. (Luke 
 xi, I.) Luke also says: 
 
 "The law and the prophets were until John; since 
 that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every 
 man passeth into it. (xvi, 16.) 
 
 There are other allusions to John the Baptist in the 
 synoptic gospels, but nowhere is it shown that he himself 
 ever acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, or take a 
 secondary position to him; the one solitary instance 
 given being plainly untrue. 
 
 But the gospel of John gives repeated instances in 
 which John the Baptist is represented as giving his per- 
 sonal acknowledgment that Jesus was the one whose 
 coming he foretold. That gospel rushes to the opposite 
 extreme, and exposes a desire to cover that point in the 
 haste with which a number of disconnected, improbable, 
 and, under the circumstances, ridiculous admissions by 
 
88 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 John are stated to have been made. But even that 
 gospel exposes the untruthfulness of those statements, 
 which will be further confirmed when we consider that it 
 was written nearly two hundred years after the birth of 
 Christ. (Nearly i6o years after the crucifixion.) 
 
 When reading ancient history we are apt to look too 
 lightly upon a period of fifty or a hundred years. It lies 
 in such remote prospective, and we pass over events so 
 rapidly, that we undervalue the lapse of time and do not 
 make just allowance for the great changes which must 
 have taken place. We associate the people of one 
 generation too closely with those of one or two genera- 
 tions later, not realizing that the names of the former 
 " have been carved for many a year on the tomb," nor 
 that the entire population of the globe has been changed, 
 involving, often, widely different circumstances, and 
 therefore widely different motives attending their actions. 
 We also assume that the men of one generation knew 
 more than they did of the men and of the motives of 
 those who had preceded them a generation or two. The 
 absence of a knowledge of printing, and the slow and 
 comparatively expensive means of transportation for 
 travelers, wares, and letters, confined far more than now 
 the knowledge of everyday events to the section and the 
 generation in which they occurred. 
 
 The impression of far distant time left upon the mind 
 in looking back a number of centuries varies with indi- 
 viduals, but in no instance does such an impression bear 
 just proportion to the actual difference in time between 
 certain events. After the two or three centuries next to 
 our own time, the duration of each century impresses the 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 89 
 
 mind less and less, until a century two thousand years 
 ago seems but a trifling period. Most of the canvas of a 
 painting will be occupied with the foreground, while the 
 many miles of the distant view will occupy but a narrow 
 strips So with the mind, it is doubtful if the impression 
 of long past time differs greatly with the majority in look-' 
 ing back three hundred years from that of looking back 
 two thousand. The time of Columbus seems as distant 
 to many as does the time of Christ. 
 
 The Christian writers of the third or fourth century 
 appear to us to have lived so near to Christ that we natur- 
 ally give greater weight to their testimony and views, 
 for they seem to be almost witnesses; while on their part 
 Christ already seemed to have lived in a time quite as 
 remote as it appears to us. They looked upon Chris- 
 tianity even then as venerable with age and sanctified 
 by time. When the Gospel of John was written, more 
 than a century had passed over the graves of those who 
 had walked with Christ. An investigator then in Judea 
 would have deemed it a curiosity to have found an old 
 man who, in his youth, had heard his great grandfather 
 say that he, in his youth, remembered having seen Christ. 
 One hundred and fifty years then took the followers of 
 Christ nearly as far away from his time as we are to-day, 
 so far as any ability to obtain new evidence was con- 
 cerned. Such as had previously been written was all 
 there could be. It was not in their power to then find 
 personal reminiscences of Jesus previously unknown. 
 Necessarily, there were more sources of information in 
 the way of old manuscripts, but the church, directly or 
 indirectly, suppressed those that were objectionable. It 
 
go THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 is reasonable to suppose, that the lost gospels and other 
 writings furnished evidence in refutation of those doc- 
 trines and assertions which the Fourth Gospel was 
 intended to confirm. The truth need never fear inves- 
 tigation. Suppressed evidence is always in conflict with 
 that which it is desirable to prove. 
 
 The circumstances under which that gospel was writ- 
 ten were such as to call especial attention to everything 
 wherein it differs from the others, for it was written at 
 too late a date to be of any value", as far as additional 
 testimony is concerned. Each difference is like a red 
 signal, that points out a weakness which time had devel- 
 oped and which it attempted to remedy. 
 
 When a person, either by word or act, attempts to 
 make an event seem different from what it really was, he 
 is attempting a work of art, and though he may be skill- 
 ful, he is quite sure to fail in some particular, and thus 
 betray that, for some purpose, he is seeking to make that 
 which is not true seem to be true. This species of art is 
 often resorted to in crime, and it is interesting to observe 
 how difficult it has been to make even a simple, every- 
 day act, which had not been done, appear to have been 
 done. The criminal invariably makes mistakes in which 
 those who afterwards investigate are able to see exactly 
 what he did, including his efforts to deceive. Many 
 little details will be overlooked that become so many 
 witnesses for the truth, as against his carefully-arranged 
 system to establish a falsehood. 
 
 It is the same in the case of any false testimony. The 
 mind is then so much occupied with the interested results 
 it is desired to bring about, that it is incapable of imitat- 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 9 1 
 
 ing the disinterestedness aud simplicity of truth. It is 
 through this that such witnesses most frequently fail. 
 They usually reach that which they wish to prove too 
 soon; their anxiety is at once made manifest, and they 
 will affirm or deny before it is necessary. The most com- 
 mon fault with actors is to over-do their parts, and false 
 witnesses fall into the same error. 
 
 In Acts of the Apostles it is disclosed that, long after 
 the death of Christ, there were followers of John the Bap- 
 tist, and it is evident that when the Gospel of John was 
 written there was still such a body; or, at least, there 
 were those who asserted that John did not acknowledge 
 Jesus. The church was in great need of testimony to 
 counteract this important fact, for it would not do to have 
 it seen that the Baptist was antagonistic to Jesus. It was 
 indispensable to the success of the church that the Baptist 
 and his acts be absorbed into and made a part of its sys- 
 tem. The Gospel of John exhibits a studied effort to 
 cover this point, but over-does the work, and through 
 excess of zeal furnishes evidence of untrustworthiness. 
 In every instance in which its author mentions John, the 
 latter is represented, if it is possible, as giving this very 
 testimony, which was so conspicuously absent from the 
 synotic gospels; while, on the other hand, he omits all 
 the instances mentioned in those gospels in which Jesus 
 is represented in an inferior position to John. He does 
 not even mention the baptism of Jesus by John, and this 
 omission is the more marked because he does mention 
 the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, which was 
 represented to have occurred upon that occasion. 
 
 That gospel begins immediately upon this point. In 
 
92 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the fifteenth verse of the first chapter the Baptist is made 
 to say: " This was he of whom I spake," meaning Jesus, 
 of course, though he was not pointed out or his name 
 mentioned, that first appears in the seventeenth verse. 
 Disciples of the Baptist would naturally assert that, if the 
 Christ had come, it was John rather than Jesus. In refut- 
 ing this, it would be natural that the mythical witnesses 
 should be first made to represent John as denying that 
 he was the Christ. He is made to make such a denial in 
 the following verses: 
 
 19. "And this is the record of John, when the Jews 
 sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who 
 art thou? 
 
 20. And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, 
 I am not the Christ. 
 
 21. And they asked him, What then? Art thou 
 Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? 
 And he answered, No. 
 
 22. Then said they unto him. Who art thou? that we 
 may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest 
 thou of thyself? 
 
 23. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wil- 
 derness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the 
 prophet Esaias. 
 
 23. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. 
 
 2$. And they asked him and said unto him, Why 
 baptizest thou, then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, 
 neither that prophet? 
 
 26. John answered them, saying, I baptize with 
 water; but there standeth one among you whom ye 
 know not., 
 
 27. He it is, who cometh after me, is preferred before 
 me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. " 
 
 The mind of the author of those verses was too much 
 occupied with the opposition he was copibatting to sus- 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 93 
 
 pect how unnatural and inconsistent his account would 
 appear to those who knew nothing of such opposition. 
 What was there to confess? What to not deny? Why 
 so much emphasis on the word confess? and why such a 
 word at all? Why was it necessary to assert that he was 
 not the Christ? 
 
 This language is exactly in keeping with the end the 
 author had in view, but as unlike as it well could be to 
 such as John would have used had he really acknowl- 
 edged Jesus. If Jesus was all that his disciples said he 
 was, and John's relations to him had been as they repre- 
 sented, then it would have been his (John's) glory and 
 pleasure to both acknowledge and point him out with 
 pride. Nor would there have been any act of John's 
 that would have made it even possible for any to mistake 
 him for the Christ. Such a suspicion would not "come 
 so near as to have to be denied." 
 
 There would be no occasion where he would have 
 been more likely to have proclaimed Jesus as the Christ 
 than when those priests and Levites were sent to question 
 him. His previous reference to Jesus Christ shows that, 
 according to that gospel, he then knew Jesus to be the 
 Christ. John was baptizing beyond Jordan at the time, 
 and his large following and the attending excitement 
 would naturally beget just such an examination as this 
 delegation of Pharisees is represented to have made; 
 and it was probably known to those that gospel writer 
 was then addressing, for he puts ambiguous language 
 into the mouth of John, not venturing to assert that 
 he then designated Jesus, for it was probably too well 
 known to the contrary. Their questions were upon 
 
94 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 this very point, and not to have then designated who it 
 was that he asserted to be the Christ, was equivalent to 
 denying that it was Jesus. He then could have made 
 the announcement with some degree of dignity, instead 
 of first making it as set forth in the twenty-ninth and 
 thirtieth verses. 
 
 29. " The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto 
 him, and saith, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
 away the sin of the world!. 
 
 30. This is he of whom I said. After me cometh a 
 man which is preferred before me; for he was before me. " 
 
 This is the first instance in the New Testament in 
 which John the Baptist is represented as directly admit- 
 ting Jesus to be the one whose coming he foretold. 
 According to Luke, John and Jesus were second cousins, 
 and of the same age, and they confined themselves to 
 the same small section of country. Under such circum- 
 stances, this would have been a ridiculous denouement 
 following the excitement John had raised for him, its dis- 
 tinguished and popular leader, to thus point out a member 
 of his own family, and one of his own followers, as the 
 Christ. Nor would it have been true that he had come 
 before, for Jesus must have been about and known to 
 those people all his life as his cousin. The author takes 
 occasion to have this much-desired testimony as full as 
 possible, by extending the announcement through the 
 subsequent four verses, but in which mention of the bap- 
 tism of Jesus by John is carefully avoided. 
 
 35. "Again the next day after, John stood, and two 
 of his disciples; 
 
 36. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, 
 Behold the Lamb of God! " 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 95 
 
 From the time this was written until the present day, 
 it has been read almost exclusively by those who believed 
 that reading the Bible was an act of devotion, and doubt- 
 ing any of it a wickedness that threatened them with hell 
 fire. Under such circumstances, few would stop to pic- 
 ture to themselves the absurdity of these announcements, 
 though it is clear that, had they been made as stated, 
 they would have excited the ridicule of John's disciples, 
 lost him much of his following, and destroyed the effect 
 of his preaching. 
 
 But in one of the incidents related in the fourth gos- 
 pel the writer weakened what he intended to strengthen. 
 He discloses what was plain rivalry between John the 
 Baptist and Jesus. The account is in the third chapter, 
 commencing at the 22nd verse. Jesus and his disciples 
 had came " into the land of Judea, and there he tarried 
 with them and baptized." 
 
 23. "And John also was baptizing in Aenon, near to 
 Salem, because there was much water there: and they 
 came and were baptized. 
 
 25. Then there arose a question between some of 
 John's disciples and the Jews about purifying." 
 
 The gospel writer could not state between some of 
 John's disciples and the disciples of Jesus, for that would 
 have surrendered the very point he was trying to cover. 
 His writing "the Jews" instead shows especial .thought 
 and care on this point, for they were all Jews. Evidently 
 this dispute was an assertion on the part of John's dis- 
 ciples that only his baptism would purify. 
 
 26. "And they came unto John, and said unto him, 
 Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom 
 thou bearest witness, behold the same baptizeth, and all 
 men come to him." 
 
g6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Such a statement as this to John would have been un- 
 called for if he had been setting forth Jesus as the Messiah; 
 nor could there have been questions about purifying; 
 nor would John have answered in the blind way of the 
 subsequent verses. John's answer, even as given by the 
 gospel writer, does not show him as acknowledging 
 Jesus to be the Messiah, though it was so intended to be 
 understood. 
 
 27. "John answered and said, A man can receive 
 nothing, except it be given him from heaven." 
 
 28. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am 
 not the Christ, but that I am sent before him." 
 
 "All believed in John as a prophet," and therefore 
 that his inspiration came from heaven. The spirit of the 
 28th verse is that even he, with his experience and popu- 
 larity, had not presumed to assert such a claim as had 
 been made by this quite generally unknown man. The 
 spirit of the 27th verse is that he knew nothing of Jesus 
 having received any authority to baptize from heaven. 
 At that time the relative positions of John and Jesus 
 were the reverse of the positions given them now. It 
 was John who was widely and favorably known, while 
 Jesus had as yet attracted but few followers. After all 
 the success that had evidently attended the ministration 
 of John, he would not have spoken in riddles of Jesus had 
 he been his Lord and Master, nor would he have had his 
 own separate disciples and been holding separate camps 
 in the same neighborhood. 
 
 This dispute about purification was natural, as well 
 as confirmatory of the theory that the temperance habits 
 and doctrines of John were superior to those of Jesus. 
 The latter asked but one condition of his followers, and 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 97 
 
 that was to believe in him, in consideration of which he 
 relieved them from the rigor of John's religion, and from 
 the Jewish superstition as well. He was censured for 
 eating with publicans and sinners and for violating the 
 Jewish Sabbath and customs; while in this instance his 
 worthiness to baptize is disputed. 
 
 The fourth gospel also conflicts with the one only 
 instance in the synoptic gospels wherein the Baptist is 
 represented as acknowledging Jesus. Matthew represents 
 John as knowing Jesus to be the Christ when he came to 
 be baptized before entering the water, and protested at 
 that time. But in that gospel the Baptist is made to say 
 
 (i. 33): 
 
 "And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize 
 with water, the same said unto me. Upon whom thou 
 shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, the 
 same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. " 
 
 According to this, the Baptist should not have known 
 that Jesus was the Christ until the spirit descended like a 
 dove, which is set forth as occurring after the baptism, 
 when coming out of the water. 
 
 St. Augustine tries to explain this little oversight on 
 the part of the author of the fourth gospel, but in doing 
 so he simply cuts the difficulty into two and divides it 
 between the two gospel writers. He says that John only 
 partly knew Jesus when he came to be baptized, but 
 fully knew him when the dove descended. By this he 
 tries to make the statement in each gospel to be half a 
 falsehood instead of one of them being wholly so. 
 
 The writer of Acts of the Apostles takes occasion to 
 state that " The disciples were called Christians first in 
 Antioch." (xi, 26.) This little item must have been 
 
98 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 written long after the death of Christ, for none then ex- 
 pected that his rehgion would exist any great length of 
 time. The Millerites, of a few years ago, had the same 
 religion, but their fame did not become sufficient to induce 
 any one to trace out their history and show where they 
 were first called Millerites. Not until the Christians had 
 become widely extended and possessed influence and 
 power, would it be an item of interest to state where they 
 were first called Christians. 
 
 The New Testament discloses that near where that 
 name originated there were disciples of John the Baptist, 
 between whom and the disciples of Jesus there was a 
 warm controversy. The account is in Acts of the 
 Apostles as follows: 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 24. "And a certain Jew, named Apollos, born at 
 Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scrip- 
 ture, came to Ephesus. 
 
 25. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; 
 and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught dili- 
 gently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism 
 of John. 
 
 26. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: 
 Whom, when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took 
 unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God 
 more perfectly. 
 
 27. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, 
 the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; 
 who, when he came, helped them much which had be- 
 lieved through grace. 
 
 28. For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that 
 publicly, showing by the scripture, that Jesus was Christ. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 1. And it came to pass, that while Apollos was at 
 Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts, 
 came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, 
 
 2. He said unto them, Have he received the Holy 
 Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We 
 have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 3. And he said unto them. Unto what then were ye 
 baptized? And they said. Unto John's baptism. 
 
 4. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the 
 baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they 
 should believe on him which should come after him, that 
 is, on Christ Jesus. 
 
 5. When they heard this, they were baptized in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 6. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the 
 Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues 
 and prophesied. 
 
 7. And all the men were about twelve. 
 
 8. And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly 
 for the space of three months, disputing and persuading 
 the things concerning the kingdom of God. 
 
 9. But when divers were hardened and believed not, 
 but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he de- 
 parted from them, and separated the disciples, disputing 
 daily in the school of one Tyrannus. 
 
 10. And this continued for the space of two years; 
 so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of 
 the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. 
 
 How much of this account was changed when it was 
 attached to the New Testament more than two hundred 
 years later, we ean never know, but enough is exposed 
 to show that there were then followers of John the Baptist 
 who seemingly had not heard of Jesus. The free allusion 
 
lOO THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to "John's baptism" shows that it was still well known by 
 that name, and it is seen that such baptism was not re- 
 cognized as a Christian ceremony. The fourth verse 
 exhibits Paul asserting the very point at issue — that is, 
 that Christ Jesus was the one whom John referred to. A 
 faint pretense is made that ApoUos was won over to 
 belief in Jesus, but other expressions and attending cir- 
 cumstances show that this was not true; which is more 
 fully confirmed in certain passages in Paul's Epistle to 
 the Corinthians. 
 
 Aquila, who is only known as a tent maker with whom 
 Paul boarded, is represented as taking in Apollos, "An 
 eloquent man and mighty in the scripture — a.nd expound- 
 ing unto him the way of God more perfectly." 
 
 This expounding which the holy writer passes over so 
 slightly, embraced the whole question of the divinity of 
 Christ. It covered nearly all the difference that existed 
 between Jews and Christians. The explanation was 
 nothing less than convincing Apollos that the Messiah 
 had already come and gone in the person of a certain 
 unknown man among John's followers. This little state- 
 ment impHes that Apollos, a learned man, a disciple of 
 John the Baptist, and a Jew, was now, several years after 
 the crucifixion still ignorant of Jesus and of those wonder- 
 ful events related of him, and was being instructed by an 
 inferior, of events and doctrines within the body in which 
 he occupied a leading position, but of which events and 
 doctrines he knew nothing. 
 
 However, the Christian system demands that wide 
 latitude be given the Bible, and we are expected to con- 
 fidingly accept this as a miraculous conversion of Apollos. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. lOI 
 
 But subsequent records are not favorable to such a con- 
 clusion. When he went to Achaia the brethren wrote, 
 "exhorting the disciples to receive him." It would not 
 have been necessary to exhort had he been one of them ; 
 but such a request was natural on the part of one who 
 was not a brother member, but agreeing with them to 
 this extent that like them he was a Jew and a believer in 
 the sentiments taught by John the Baptist. 
 
 In chapter xviii, 19, it is stated that Paul came to 
 Ephesus, where Apollos came also. But Paul left, and 
 ApoUos went to other parts. Paul then returned to Ephe- 
 sus, the writer explaining that Apollos had then gone to 
 Corinth. It was during this second visit of Paul to 
 Ephesus that he labored with those disciples who knew 
 only John's baptism. This has an appearance of Paul 
 having avoided Apollos and taken advantage of his ab- 
 sence to return and, if possible, win over John's disciples 
 to the Christian church. "After disputing three months 
 he separated the disciples. " If this was a separation of 
 the disciples from the Pagans, then why did Paul remain 
 and contend a year and nine months longer? and with 
 whom was he contending? and for what was he contend- 
 ing, if his hearers were only his own party? Paul had 
 been preaching in other places; but here, where there 
 were disciples of John, he finds unusual cause for excite- 
 ment and long continued strife. The separation of the 
 disciples could only have been the separation of the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus from those of John after a failure to unite. 
 
 Long after the word Christians originated, the Pagan 
 world knew that religion only as the Jewish superstition. 
 To have named its adherents Christians involved a more 
 
I02 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 intimate knowledge of their origin and internal affairs 
 than those outside of the church were likely to possess. 
 That superstition would attract attention as a body long 
 before the indifferent Polytheists would trouble themselves 
 to know its origin or the name of its founder. A little 
 passage by Tertullian shows that at the end of the second 
 century the Romans were still unfamiliar with the word 
 Christians. The supremacy of the Church of Rome was 
 established at about that time, and that event would natu- 
 rally attract somewhat more attention to them. But so 
 little had the Romans heard of Christians that they con- 
 founded the name of the man from whom the word was 
 derived with Chrestus, a citizen having an excellent rep- 
 utation, and they called them Chrestians. Tertullian 
 said: 
 
 "If you call us Christians, you bear witness to the 
 name of our master; if you call us Chrestians, you tes- 
 tify to the blamelessness of our lives. '' 
 
 He also, upon another occasion, directly declared that 
 "Not even of the name is there any certain knowledge 
 among you."* 
 
 The Jews also had a name for them. They were 
 called Nazarenes, and are so referred to in the New Tes- 
 tament (Acts xxiv, S,) after the time of its notice of their 
 being called Christians. That name was perfectly natu- 
 ral, and would apply to all in the new movement com- 
 menced by John. Even Christ himself had been, and 
 still is, designated as Jesus of Nazareth. It was an appro- 
 priate name and one that would not be likely to be 
 changed without cause. The name of Christians plainly 
 
 ♦Tertullian, by Rev. C. Dodgson, M. A. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. IO3 
 
 came from within the body referred to and originated as 
 is usual in all such cases. It was a name given to distin- 
 guish the followers of Christ from a similar body that 
 were not his followers. It was not only a natural, but an 
 unavoidable distinction to make between those of John's 
 followers, who believed in Christ, and those who did not. 
 
 Nearly the whole of Paul's two Epistles to the Corin- 
 thians are in an exhorting, complaining, soliciting spirit. 
 The church there was evidently following other leaders, 
 and Paul was trying to reconcile them to himself. He 
 writes much of Apollos, particularly in the first and third 
 chapters of the first Epistle. He indites quite a phillipic 
 against wisdom and learning, as though through them he 
 Had encountered some serious difficulty, which is all the 
 more probable, as Apollos was there from time to time, 
 and he "was an eloquent man and mighty in the Scrip- 
 tures." Learning and science were evidently troubling 
 Paul much in those later times when Christianity was 
 beginning to receive some little attention. In his First 
 Epistle to Timothy (vi: 20, 21) he cautions him to avoid 
 "oppositions of science falsely so-called, which some pro- 
 fessing have erred concerning the faith. " 
 
 Paul feared the efifect upon Timothy of learned men, 
 and was unwilling to trust him with them. In the first 
 chapter Paul says: 
 
 12. " Now this I say, that every one of you saith I 
 am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and 
 I of Christ. 
 
 13. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? 
 or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 
 
 14. I thank God that I baptized none of you, but 
 Crispus and Gains; 
 
I04 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 15. Lest any should say that I baptized in mine own 
 name. 
 
 16. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas; 
 besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. 
 
 17. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach 
 the gospel; not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of 
 Christ should be made of none effect." 
 
 From this it will be seen that there were some at Cor- 
 inth who were under the leadership of Apollos, some 
 under Paul, and all not necessarily disciples of Christ, as 
 his followers are designated as though of a separate class. 
 Notice, too, that Paul seems to be defending himself from 
 a charge of having baptized. 
 
 As long as there were disciples of John the Baptist, 
 baptizing with water would be a ceremony appertaining 
 more particularly to them, and any practice of it on the 
 part of Christians would be claimed by them as equiva- 
 lent to an acknowledgement of John's supremacy. His 
 baptism was emblematic of the washing away of sins, 
 and the ceremony would not necessarily involve the use 
 of any name but the one employed in performing it. On 
 such occasions, they would naturally commence with the 
 words — I John, or- 1 Apollos, or I Paul, etc., etc. The 
 fact that disciples of Christ practiced baptism with water, 
 shows within itself the source of their origin, for John 
 had said, that the one to follow after would baptize with 
 the Holy Ghost and with fire. Their use of John's bap- 
 tism, therefore, was inconsistent with their pretensions, 
 and would naturally call out taunts from those of John's 
 disciples who rejected Christ. This would in turn drive 
 the Christians to change the character somewhat of their 
 baptism, and consecrate it to Christ, by performing the 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 10$ 
 
 ceremony in his name, or, as it is now done, in the name 
 of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It had 
 evidently been too much identified with them, and was 
 too popular to be abandoned. 
 
 This change had evidently not been made, but Paul's 
 words were answers to criticisms that in time led to it. 
 His fear of being supposed to have baptized in his own 
 name was simply his defense against a charge of imi- 
 tating and following John. 
 
 The words of Paul, just quoted, and several other 
 passages in the New Testament, would have been omitted 
 when that book was issued, except that it was unneces- 
 sary, since the existence of the several questions they 
 referred to were then known, and the meaning was clear 
 to its readers. But in the many centuries since, the 
 church has had ample time to suppress all outward evi- 
 dence of the very existence of those questions. Acts of 
 this nature have long been looked upon as pious. Even 
 in our day, if some evidence should be unearthed show- 
 ing that John the Baptist did not acknowledge Jesus, our 
 prominent churchmen would deem it their most Christian 
 duty to conceal and suppress accounts of such newly dis- 
 covered facts. 
 
 But, while suppressing this knowledge, the church 
 turned so many eyes upon the New Testament that it 
 was then impossible to wholly erase the passages refer- 
 ring to those suppressed questions, and, consequently, 
 that book contains all the evidence remaining of their 
 existence. But the orthodox Christian must devoutly 
 look for a pious meaning in those passages, and must 
 equally ignore the facts they expose. To do this, he has 
 
I06 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to erect complicated theories and doctrines to account for 
 the unimportant contention and follies of ignorance and 
 superstition. 
 
 In the whole of the fourth chapter (I Cor.),' Paul is 
 evidently urging his cause as against Apollos, and in the 
 i6th verse he writes: " Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye 
 followers of me." His beseeching is very marked in the 
 eleventh chapter of his Second Epistle. He reminds 
 them that he had been no expense to them, and writes 
 {8th): " I robbed other churches, taking wages of thenri, 
 to do you service." His expression in the 6th verse — 
 ■"But though I be rude of speech," indicates that the 
 eloquence of Apollos -had created an unfavorable contrast 
 against Paul. Command of language, however, was one 
 of Paul's strongest mental powers. The 4th and Sth 
 verses are as follows: 
 
 " For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom 
 we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, 
 which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye 
 have not accepted, ye may well bear with him. 
 
 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chief- 
 est apostles. " 
 
 The Baptist stood to his disciples in quite the same 
 relation that Christ did to his; and if another Christ was 
 preached to the Corinthians, it could only have been 
 John. It has been seen that the author of the Fourth 
 Gospel deemed it necessary to represent John as denying 
 that he was the Christ. In those two verses Paul was 
 asserting that he had preached all that John's disciples 
 did, and more. He preached John the Baptist and Jesus 
 
 also. 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. 10/ 
 
 In I Cor. XV, Paul repeats the story of the resurrec- 
 tion, and was evidently trying to convince them that it 
 was true; which is inconsistent with the supposition that 
 those he was addressing were believers in Christ, for that 
 was a fundamental article of their faith; but it is consist- 
 ent with those people being followers of John, for to them 
 the resurrection would be one of the most important 
 points at issue, and it is perfectly natural that Paul should 
 be asserting it to them and enumerating the witnesses as 
 represented. In the I2th verse he writes, " How say 
 some among you that there is no resurrection of the 
 dead," an expression that could not have been used to 
 Christians. It shows that this was disputed, as would 
 certainly be the case, by John's disciples. 
 
 Other passages in these two epistles show Paul's desire 
 to conciliate the Corinthians, and indicating that though 
 partly with him in sentiment, they nevertheless had not 
 all accepted his doctrines of Christ. 
 
 John the Baptist was, within the system, the most 
 important man among the Christians after Christ, and if 
 he had taken the position they said he had, it would have 
 been natural for Paul to have written much of him, par- 
 ticularly in his Epistles to the Hebrews, among whom 
 John was popular. But Paul makes no allusion to him 
 whatever in that epistle, and seldom does anywhere, 
 which is natural when it is considered that he had so 
 much angry contention about him. 
 
 The New Testament sets forth perfect harmony be- 
 tween Christ's followers and those of John, and therefore 
 between Paul and Apollos; but that the compilers would 
 under any circumstances be very careful to do. Christ 
 
I08 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 had been baptized by John, and had imitated him in 
 preaching that the "kingdom of heaven was at hand," 
 and had made a record so closely identified with him as 
 to make it imperative that harmonious relations be repre- 
 sented as existing between them. The success of 
 Christianity at an early day must have been dependent 
 upon this, and hence they eliminated and interpolated 
 sufficient to force a seeming agreement. Every word 
 relating to John is intended to indicate perfect harmony 
 with Christ, but those words are constantly found in con- 
 nection with circumstances which were inconsistent with 
 such pretended harmony. 
 
 The whole account of both Jesus and John is neces- 
 sarily very meager, but the little we have is, as shown, 
 in favor of John. Sentiments consistent with his habits, 
 and not consistent with those of Jesus, are credited in 
 the gospels to the latter, though it is probable that part 
 of the best sentiments of the New Testament did not 
 originate even with John, but were obtained from the 
 Essenes, to which sect he may have belonged. After 
 John's death it is evident that Jesus secured many of his 
 proselytes, and reaped eventually the fame of his labors. 
 Even the idea of assuming to be the one whose coming 
 John had predicted may have been suggested by that 
 prediction and the opportunity it offered. Like those 
 of most men, the career of Jesus was the result of 
 circumstances. His relationship to the Baptist, or some 
 other cause, gave him sufficient prominence among those 
 people to induce him to make the attempt. It is possible 
 he experienced some rivalry in the man Judas mentioned 
 in Acts V, 37. 'The reasons that suggest this will be 
 
JOHN THE BAPTIST. IO9 
 
 given in another chapter. In this connection it is worthy 
 of note that Jesus had a brother Judas (Matt, xiii, 55), 
 who, therefore, would have had the same claim through 
 his relationship to John that Jesus had. 
 
 On the other hand John undoubtedly found his incen- 
 tive for the movement he originated in the recent form- 
 ation of the vast Roman empire and the absorption of 
 Judea into it. The Jewish religion was founded upon 
 their monstrous conceit that they were God's chosen 
 people, "A royal priesthood, a holy nation," and that He 
 had them under His special care to the exclusion of all 
 others They looked upon any event affecting their 
 country as having been brought about by the Almighty 
 solely with reference to themselves. With such views, 
 the subjugation of Judea and occupation of Jerusalem by 
 a power so great, would be events second only in im- 
 portance to the end of the little world they knew. 
 
 By a little ingenuity, a few other circumstances of 
 slight importance could be coupled with the great event 
 referred to, by which the superstition of that people 
 could be acted upon and they be made to believe, in 
 accordance with their traditions, that the time had come 
 for the appearance of the Messiah, and the coming of the 
 kingdom of heaven. These are plainly the influences 
 that govern the actions of John the Baptist in movements 
 which ultimately culminated in Christianity, and it ac- 
 counts for the so nearly co-incident beginning of that 
 religion and the Roman empire. 
 
 The divine honors that have since been given Jesus 
 were slowly developed during the subsequent two cent- 
 uries, and the enormous interest that became dependent 
 
no THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 upon those honors enforced public acquiescence with a 
 power compared to which his personal efforts would have 
 sank into insignificance. That interest elevated belief in 
 his divinity into a virtue of the highest magnitude and 
 plagiarized from mythology a reason for so doing. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CAUSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 
 
 The New Testament supplies evidence that Christ did 
 not die upon the cross, but was taken down while yet 
 alive. His credulous followers, who had previously- 
 believed any simple assertion, would be wholly carried 
 away by seeing him among them after being crucified, 
 or by even finding his tomb empty. Such an event 
 would have turned their heads completely. Christianity 
 seems to center around the crucifixion and resurrection, 
 and may, in the latter connection be founded upon a 
 semblance of fact. 
 
 The evidence bearing upon this point grows out of 
 the circumstance that the authorities did not wish to put 
 Jesus to death. The Jews had superstitious ideas regard- 
 ing the death penalty, and wanted the Romans to com- 
 mit the act. The charge was evidently for permitting 
 himself to be proclaimed King of the Jews and exciting 
 an uprising in support of that pretense. But his stand- 
 ing and following, was such as to make that pretention 
 merely ridiculous. For this alone he would not have 
 been crucified. Pilate did not consider it worthy of 
 death, and tried to save his life. He said: "I find no 
 fault with this man" (Luke xxiii, 4), and tried to avoid 
 the responsibility by sending him to Herod. But Herod 
 also saw no occasion for putting him to death, and 
 returned him to Pilate. Pilate again said: 
 
112 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 LUKE XXIII. 
 
 14. I, having examined him before you, have found 
 no fault in this man. * * * 
 
 15. No, nor yet Herod; for I sent you to him; and 
 lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him: 
 
 16. I will therefore chastise him, and release him. 
 
 20. Pilate, therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake 
 again to them. 
 
 21. But they cried, saying, Crucify him! crucify him! 
 
 22. And he (Pilate) said unto them the third time. 
 Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of 
 death in him. I will, therefore, chastise him and let 
 him go. 
 
 JOHN XIX. 
 12. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release 
 him; but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man 
 go, thou art not Cesar's friend. Whosoever maketh him- 
 self a king speaketh against Cesar. 
 
 MATTHEW XXVII. 
 
 24. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, 
 but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and 
 washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am 
 innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it. 
 
 It will be seen that the Jews threatened to complain 
 of Pilate to the Roman Emperor for refusing to take 
 cognizance of a man with quite a large following, who 
 permitted himself to be proclaimed King of the Jews in 
 defiance of Roman authority. The possibility of this 
 would be likely to have considerable effect upon Pilate. 
 He consequently reluctantly yielded against his better 
 judgment, and was undoubtedly all the more ready to 
 allow Jesus to be taken down from the cross without cer- 
 tainty of death, if indeed he did not arrange to have it 
 done before death. 
 
CAUSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. I I 3 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea is described by Matthew, Mark, 
 and Luke collectively as an honorable counselor — a just; 
 good, and rich man, "who had not consented to the 
 counsel and deed of them." He was just such a man as 
 would be likely to have Pilate's confidence, and to not be 
 carried away by popular clamor. He occupied a social 
 position superior to that of the followers of Jesus, and 
 though for the part he took in this event he is claimed as 
 a disciple, it is not at all probable that he was such. 
 Had it been true, he would have been heard of later. 
 The mockery and abuse that had just been heaped upon 
 Jesus would naturally awake the sympathies of the better 
 classof citizens, and out of this probably grew all the 
 interest Joseph felt in the matter, unless he had been 
 secretly commissioned by Pilate to do as he did. 
 
 Men upon the cross would live twelve hours, and 
 sometimes longer; but Jesus was taken down in three or 
 (by one account) six hours. When Joseph begged the 
 body of Jesus, "Pilate marvelled if he were already 
 dead." (Mark XV, 44.) The soldiers broke the legs of 
 the two crucified with him, "But when they came to 
 Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they brake not 
 his legs." (John xix, 33.) 
 
 If the two were plainly dead, then why was this 
 omitted with Jesus? If they were not dead, then Jesus 
 was taken down at a time when the malefactors, being 
 still alive, were killed by breaking their legs. In these 
 acts the same authorities who opposed putting Jesus to 
 death, were doing what they could to prevent the con- 
 summation of that deed. They consented to it only to 
 appease the people, and would naturally try to save his 
 
114 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 life without attracting attention. John says one of the 
 soldiers pierced his side, but this is not mentioned in any 
 of the other gospels, and if done at all it could have been 
 done under orders in such a way as to make but a slight 
 wound. Only that gospel has reference to the wound 
 after the resurrection, or has a statement of his being 
 dead already.. The facts, however, go to show that 
 wherever that gospel differs from the others, such differ- 
 ence is adverse rather than favorable to the truth of that 
 which it would prove. 
 
 The authorities plainly hastened to take Jesus from 
 the cross, which was done evidently after dark, and they 
 retained his body in their own keeping, even to the 
 exclusion of his own relatives. It was a simple matter, 
 also, for them to deceive the people as to his being 
 deposited in the sepulcher. But that is immaterial. If 
 he appeared afterwards, it was because he was resuscita- 
 ted; and such an appearance would have produced a 
 more powerful impression upon the minds of his simple 
 followers than could have been effected in any act of his 
 whole life. Even a mysterious disappearance of the 
 body would have seemed to them to have been a super- 
 natural event. 
 
 Judge Waite, in his History of The Christian Religion, 
 states that — 
 
 "Jesus was on the cross from three to six hours. 
 Even the latter period was much less than usual. Per- 
 sons crucified generally linger at least twelve hours, and 
 sometimes two or three days. The remarkable short 
 time that he remained upon the cross, before being taken 
 down by his disciples, has led some writers to adopt the 
 theory of suspended animation, to account for the sup- 
 posed resurrection of his body." 
 
CAUSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. II 5 
 
 (The body of Jesus was not taken down by his dis- 
 ciples, but by Joseph of Arimathea, in whose care it 
 remained.) 
 
 But from whence came this enmity to Christ on the 
 part of the people? If the authorities were indifferent 
 to the claim of his being King of the Jews, then cer- 
 tainly that should not have troubled them. Preaching 
 and baptizing will not account for it, for John the Baptist 
 had been doing the same thing, and both the New Testa- 
 ment and Josephus show that he was popular. And yet 
 the people were extremely bitter against Jesus, so much so 
 that they gave the preference to Barabbas, a murderer, 
 and had him released while insisting upon the death of 
 Christ. 
 
 In those times poverty must have been greater than 
 it is now, and the supply of food always a more uncer- 
 tain question. Poor crops would necessarily reduce 
 thousands to pinching poverty who might be comfortable 
 in other years. A large number of Christ's followers 
 went constantly with him from place to place, and neces- 
 sarily did nothing in their own support. They had been 
 made to believe that the kingdom of heaven was near at 
 hand, and hence would necessarily be indifferent to their 
 future wants. In our own time we have numerous 
 instances of Second Adventists sacrificing property under 
 the same belief as that of the early Christians. If people 
 possessing moderate intelligence can do such things in 
 these enlightened times, how much more probable it is 
 that there would be large numbers of such among a 
 superstitious people whose narrow idea of the universe 
 would make such an expected event seem much less 
 improbable. 
 
Il6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 What the effect must be of quite a large body of idle 
 men with such views traveling about the country with 
 limited or no provision made for their support, must be 
 obvious. The accounts of the miraculous feeding of 
 large numbers, and the frequent forms in which hunger 
 figures in the New Testament, points to what must have 
 been a constant condition with theni. 
 
 That book exposes, what must necessarily have been 
 the case, that there were depredations upon other peoples 
 property. Such a body also would naturally draw in the 
 vicious class, whose greater depredations would contri- 
 bute to Christ's unpopularity. But many, if not all of 
 those followers would look lightly upon the rights of 
 others when its possession at least was to be of short 
 duration. The frequent tirades against the rich in the 
 New Testament indicates the spirit that actuated them. 
 
 Observe the incident mentioned in Matthew xii, i to 
 8, where Jesus and his disciples 
 
 " Went on the Sabbath day through the corn, and his 
 disciples were a hungered, and began to pluck the ears of 
 corn, and to eat." 
 
 This is something no farmer would submit to even 
 in our day, when the supply of food is far more sure. 
 That the incident is mentioned at all shows that there 
 were complaints as is stated, and probably of a serious 
 character. The account has, however, been shaped to 
 convey the idea that the complaint was made because 
 the act was done on the Sabbath day. But if that was 
 all, the incident of plucking the grain need not have 
 been mentioned. It is not likely that their laws or re- 
 ligious ideas were so rigid as to make this act alone one 
 
CAUSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 11/ 
 
 in conflict with them. Josephus says of the Essenes that 
 " They were stricter than any other Jews in resting from 
 their labor on the seventh day," which shows that there 
 were varying degrees of veneration and customs for that 
 day. 
 
 The answer of Jesus was one of justification for the 
 act, and was to the effect that he was Lord and above the 
 law. After citing David and the temple, he said — 
 
 "But I say unto you that in this place is one greater 
 than the temple * # » # por the Son of Man is 
 Lord even of the Sabbath day." 
 
 Such an answer as this could not have been otherwise 
 than exasperating to those who felt only contempt for 
 his divine pretensions. To them he was but an obscure 
 and unknown man; but he announced himself to be 
 superior to what they most cherished, and under self- 
 asserted divine authority excused his followers in violat- 
 ing their rights. This manner, also, of appeasing their 
 appetite indicates a degree of hunger bordering upon 
 starvation. 
 
 The incident of the fig tree is another example of this 
 kind. It is improbable that in that country at that time 
 there were fig trees that were public property. Going to 
 it from afar off implies great hunger, which is all the 
 more marked by the anger and condemnation called forth 
 upon finding the tree barren. The supernatural power, 
 also, that could make it wither, ought to have known 
 before going to it that it bore no fruit. 
 
 According to Matthew (viii, 34) Jesus and his dis- 
 ciples were besought to depart out of their coast, by the 
 people upon the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee. 
 
Il8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 In Johnvi, 26, he is represented to have accused the 
 multitude with having sought him because he fed them. 
 Such an object and such a charge could only have been 
 possible with a vagrant population. 
 
 Notice the following as given in the synoptic gospels: 
 
 MATTHEW XXI. 
 
 1. "And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and 
 were come to Bethplage, unto the mount of Olives, then 
 sent Jesus two disciples. 
 
 2. Saying unto them, Go into the village over against 
 you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt 
 with her: loose them and bring them unto me. 
 
 3. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say. 
 The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will 
 send them. 
 
 MARK XI. 
 
 2. And said unto them. Go your way into the village 
 over against you; and as soon as ye be entered into it, 
 ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose 
 him, and bring him. 
 
 3'. And if any man say unto you. Why do ye this? 
 say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway 
 he will send him hither. 
 
 4. And thej- went their way, and found the colt tied 
 by the door without, in a place where two ways met, and 
 they loose him. 
 
 5. And certain of them that stood there said unto 
 them. What do ye, loosing the colt? 
 
 LUKE XIX. 
 
 30. Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; 
 in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, 
 whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him 
 hither. 
 
 31. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? 
 
CAUSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. II9 
 
 thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need 
 of him. 
 
 32. And they that were sent went their way, and 
 found even as he had said unto them. 
 
 33. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners 
 thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? 
 
 Clearly the owner did not freely surrender the ass. 
 He would naturally be intimidated by the passing "multi- 
 tude," and dared not make an energetic protest. 
 
 Those who have been schooled to look upon Jesus as 
 a God, will see nothing objectionable in this manner of 
 obtaining the ass; but it is not such an act as to favorably 
 impress unbelievers. This does not look like "rendering 
 unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. " Such acts as 
 this always attend the movements of even moderately 
 large bodies of men, and are anything but divine, ft 
 will be noticed that an account of this incident is omitted 
 from the fourth gospel. 
 
 Four thousand men were represented to have been 
 miraculously fed at- one time, and five thousand at 
 another. The question the Roman officer asked Paul, 
 and the allusion to the following of an Egyptian, by 
 Josephus (to which further reference will be made), indi- 
 cates that the multitude which accompanied Jesus when 
 he entered Jerusalem, and probably during a short time 
 before, was from four to five thousand men. To those 
 ignorant people the leader of such a body would seem to 
 occupy a position of grandeur and glory, particularly 
 when we consider how small they supposed the universe 
 to be, and the vast importance their little country bore 
 to it. The citizens near where such a body of men were 
 miraculously fed would have, in their depleted stocks 
 
I20 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 and damaged property, a double reason for disbelieving 
 those miracles. 
 
 "There followed him great multitudes of people from 
 Galilee, and from Decapolis,- and from Jerusalem, and 
 Judea, and from beyond Jordan." Matt, iv, 25. 
 
 This was the multitude that enabled Jesus to take 
 temporary possession of the temple; which, more than 
 any one act of his, was the probable cause of his cruci- 
 fixion. It was the culmination of a series of exasperating 
 acts and pretensions. The temple was very sacred to 
 the Jews and formed an important part of their religion, 
 and to have it thus violated and taken from them was 
 unendurable. When Paul's life, years afterwards, was 
 endangered by the people, the charges then made shows 
 the Jewish sensitiveness upon that point. They said — 
 
 "This is the man that teacheth all men every where 
 against the people, and the law, and this place; and 
 further brought Greeks also into the temple: and hath 
 polluted this holy place." Acts xxi, 28. 
 
 Jesus was questioned by the ch'ief priests and elders 
 as to his authority in thus taking possession of the 
 temple. (Matt, xxi, 23.) 
 
 That Jesus had possession for a time is apparent, be- 
 cause the first day, and by one account the second day 
 also, the chief priests aod scribes did not lay hands upon 
 him because they feared the people (Matt, xxi, 46; 
 Luke xxii, 2.), which people must at that time have been 
 those who came with him.. When authority was restored 
 it was the people (or citizens) who demanded his cruci- 
 fixion. The betrayal by Judas consisted in letting the 
 Jews know when and where Jesus could be found away 
 from the multitude that attended him. 
 
CAUSE OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 121 
 
 "And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray 
 him unto them in the absence of the multitude." Luke 
 xxii, 6. 
 
 In Mark xv, 3, it is stated that the chief priest accused 
 Jesus of many things, which shows that claiming he was 
 King of the Jews was not the only charge; and the popu- 
 larity of John the Baptist shows that there would have 
 been no charges for acts of merely a religious nature. 
 The depredations attending those movements through 
 the country must have been serious, and could not have 
 done otherwise than raised the outcry that existed when 
 they reached Jerusalem. These, with the superadded 
 invasion of the temple, angered the people against Jesus 
 to such a degree that they enforced his crucifixion. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 
 
 Although the explanatory doctrines of the Christian 
 system are inseparable from belief in the divinity of 
 Christ, and a great insult to God is embraced in those 
 explanations, that belief is nevertheless the last article of 
 faith that is abandoned. Liberal Christian writers will 
 show the unreliability of the gospels, and prove that those 
 explanatory doctrines, in the light of the present day, no 
 longer explain, but will still admit that Christ in some 
 undefined manner rendered the world invaluable service. 
 But the simple assertion as to the divinity of Christ can- 
 not stand alone; that assertion calls for explanations, and 
 the system must stand or fall upon those it has so long 
 employed. All its great financial and social success 
 throughout the Christian era has been obtained, not by 
 the simple behef that Christ was the Son of God, but by 
 the terrors of those doctrines consequent upon that behef 
 It is now far too late to substitute new theories; if those 
 old ones are false no reason remains for believing in 
 Christ's divinity, and if there is no known reason why we 
 should believe in Christ, then we should not burden re- 
 ligion with a meaningless behef that stultifies reason and 
 unnecessarily divides the power of God. 
 
 But, however inconsistent this may be, as viewed 
 through the faculty of reason, it is natural, when other 
 mental powers are considered. I will endeavor to show 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 1 23 
 
 elsewhere how it is that the public mind is made to be 
 conservative and reliable in its opinions. Individuals 
 may be flighty, but the mental progress of the public at 
 large is slow and sure, and it is the law that secures this 
 that superinduces the seeming 'inconsistency referred to. 
 It must be remembered that people are not made to be- 
 lieve in Christian doctrines through any convincing state- 
 ments in the Bible; that book is incidental to faith, not 
 the cause of it. On the contrary, its statements are now 
 the Christian's greatest stumbling-block, so serious that 
 liberal thinkers are unable to get over them, and there- 
 fore reject them as false. But, as faith did not come 
 through them, so "with their rejection, faith remains. 
 When faith is once established through the causes else- 
 where stated, the imagination becomes the great factor 
 in sustaining the system, and its free action is secured 
 better without than with the Bible. When, therefore, the 
 liberal Christian cuts off as false the basis of those ex- 
 planatory doctrines, but still clings to faith in Christ, his 
 imagination has a wider instead of a narrower field over 
 which to roam in adulation of him. With such men the 
 teachings of Christ remain the one great favorite theme, 
 not because there are records of those wonderful teach- 
 ings, but because there are no records of them. 
 
 The much-boasted moral sentiments of the New Tes- 
 tament are commonplace, and, if lost, would be again 
 originated in the minds of thousands. Some of the ex- 
 pressions of Christ, also, are vague, and susceptible of 
 various interpretations. He seemed to seldom speak in 
 a direct manner. Even simple questions he would answer 
 by figures that could be adapted to a variety of senti- 
 
124 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ments, according to the bias and intelligence of the 
 believer. Take as an instance the following, given in 
 John xii, 35, 36. He had been asked if he would live 
 forever, as it was expected Christ would. 
 
 'Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the 
 light with you. Walk while ye have light, lest darkness 
 come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth 
 not whither he goes. 
 
 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may 
 be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and 
 departed and did hide himself from them. " 
 
 This can be fitted to almost anything except the 
 question it was supposed to ansvver. Its very want of 
 meaning well adapts it for all classes" and all times, and 
 for that reason it, and other sayings similar to it, have 
 been favorite texts from which broad or narrow ideas 
 could be drawn, according to the capacity of the preacher. 
 Nothing is known of Jesus except what is related in the 
 New Testament. His sayings at most were few, and if 
 his teachings were so wonderful it should be easy to desig- 
 nate the exact lines for which mankind are so much in- 
 debted and would not otherwise have known. 
 
 When believers are pressed to do this they refer to 
 trifling passages that at best are but partly good. The 
 Sermon on the Mount is chiefly pointed out, but it is no 
 exception. If it was ever delivered as given in Matthew, 
 why did not all the other gospels have it, as it was their 
 most important and obvious duty to record his teachings? 
 
 Among the first manifestations of feeling in that ser- 
 mon is a narrow hatred of the Scribes and Pharisees, 
 together with sentiments the opposite of those of sup- 
 posed Christianity. He said in effect that no matter how 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 12$ 
 
 righteous they might be, they should not enter into the 
 kingdom of heaven. (Matt, v, 20.) His exceeding bit- 
 terness against this class was of a low order of human 
 nature, instead of being God-like. It is all the more wt- 
 christian-like when we consider they were the better class 
 of his own countrymen, and professed the same religion 
 he did, except that they rejected his divine pretensions. 
 But in the 44th verse he rushes to the opposite extreme 
 and says, "Love your enemies," an admonition in direct 
 conflict with the above, and one that has never been 
 peculiar to his followers; nor is it one of nature's laws. 
 
 Christianity has expended a vast amount of senti- 
 ment over this saying of Christ, claiming it to be quite 
 the personification of goodness. But this requirement is 
 neither good, desirable, nor possible; and though the 
 Church has boasted so much over it as a sentiment 
 pecipar to Christianity, the law that governed it through 
 many centuries, judging from its practices, was to torture 
 and burn your fellow Christian who slightly differs from 
 you on points of doctrine. There never has existed a 
 body- of men in which there was less of the universal 
 brotherhood of mankind than professed Christians mani- 
 fested for one another during many centuries of the 
 Christian era. 
 
 Our likes and dislikes are not wholly at our command. 
 Our enemies do not expect or desire our love. We cannot 
 love our enemies and our families and country at the 
 same time, for our enemies are often such because they 
 would deprive us of the one or the other. This life is a 
 school in which to test the mind, and some of its grandest 
 efforts have been drawn out in contentions and conflicts 
 
126 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 with enemies. Men often win the great respect of their 
 enemies by the qualities they exhibit in contending with 
 them. If it were universal for the good to love their 
 enemies, the world would be possessed by thieves and 
 robbers, while the good would pass a life of imbecility 
 and poverty. 
 
 This admonition to love your enemies, and the one 
 similar to it, to "Resist not evil: but whosoever shall 
 smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" 
 (Matt, v, 39), are given as original with Christ, and are 
 held up as an embodiment of Christian virtue. Those 
 words, however, give but an exaggerated description of 
 amiability. The spirit is gqod, but the demanded exhi- 
 bition of it is carried to an absurd extreme. The good 
 that is implied in the sentiment is sufficient to command 
 commendation, while the actual requirement has been 
 sufficiently impracticable to prevent any disposition to 
 dispute its originality, and it therefore remains Christ- 
 ianity's own. It is true, the Essenes expressed and 
 practiced the same sentiments in the same exaggerated 
 manner, but they are all dead, and Christianity alone re- 
 mains to teach that if a man strikes us on one cheek we 
 must turn to him the other also. 
 
 Christians will admit their inability to perfectly follow 
 this law; that, indeed, it was because of their inability, 
 in part, that Christ came to save us, and that he alone 
 was perfect. But when we search the Scriptures; when 
 we seek in that source of strange guidance to perfection 
 for illustration and example; when we turn to him whose 
 life was about to be offered a ransom for a sinful world, 
 we find that in that all-important hour the blow came. 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. \2^ 
 
 and Jesus, lo! even Jesus resented it. He did not turn 
 the other cheek, but he indignantly resented it. And 
 his most holy historian; his most treasured friend, upon 
 whose divine utterances the church has built most of its 
 doctrines: that favored apostle, whose life (the church 
 would have us believe) was prolonged that he might write 
 his gospel, hastens to explain, in parenthesis, that Jesus 
 was bound, which explanation can be for no other reason 
 than to show that Jesus could not have resisted the blow 
 physically. (Jno. xviii: 23, 24.) 
 
 This explanation is the more marked, when we take 
 into consideration the fact that the holy writer had already 
 given this information in the 12th verse of the same chap- 
 ter. The idea conveyed by this 24th verse is perfectly 
 clear. The author particularly desired to impress upon 
 the mind of his readers the fact that Jesus was bound, 
 and, consequently, not censurable for simply verbally 
 resenting a blow he could not return. 
 
 I have no means of learning how long it had been 
 customary to print this verse in parenthesis; it is enough 
 that all Bibles were so printed a short time ago, and that 
 the curved lines are always omitted now. I have seen 
 those marks in no edition printed since about 1850, and 
 have found them ommitted from but one edition printed 
 before (1825). This is probably an act of the American 
 Bible Society. With those lines omitted, the mind of a 
 reader- would be less likely to be arrested by the passage 
 and the nature of the gospel writer's explanation, and the 
 change was undoubtedly made for that reason. 
 
 The revisors of the New Testament were also keenly 
 alive to the importance of correcting this great oversight 
 
128 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 of the inspired -writer. They changed the time, but, in 
 so doing, rob the passage of any necessity for its presence 
 in the book at all. Originally the verse was inserted thus: 
 
 "(Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas, the 
 high priest. )" 
 
 In the revised edition it is inserted as follows: 
 
 " Annas therefore sent him bound unto Caiaphas, the 
 high priest.'' 
 
 Reference to the chapter will show that, by this alter- 
 ation, those revisors aim to make it appear that not until 
 after the blow was Jesus bound and sent to Caiaphas; 
 and, consequently, that the events related between the 
 1 2th and 24th verses were in the presence of Annas. In 
 the 1 2th and 13th verses it is stated that Jesus was bound 
 "And led away to Annas, first (for he was father-in-law 
 to Caiaphas, which was high priest that same year.)" 
 
 But it is plain that the writer intended to be under- 
 stood as leaving Jesus in the presence of Caiaphas, from 
 that verse. Immediately after, and throughout the ex- 
 amination, the high priest is constantly referred to; he is 
 represented, in the 19th verse, as asking a question as to 
 his doctrines, and, finally, Jesus was struck for "answer- 
 ing the high priest so." The verse as falsified by the 
 revisors is an unnatural and contradictory repetition, 
 while as originally given its meaning is clear. And, 
 finally, with the 24th verse wholly expunged, as well as 
 the account of Christ's verbal resentment, there still 
 remains a necessity to explain why he did not turn the 
 other cheek. 
 
 Much has been said of the great delicacy those 
 revisors employed in their work. All parts were stu- 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 1 29 
 
 diously gone over by an American and an English board 
 separately, and an agreement reached, before any part 
 of the new version was accepted. But their treatment 
 of this most serious difficulty shows that such delicacy as 
 they had was expended only upon points of doctrine 
 within the system, but upon that which reflected upon the 
 truth of the whole, they were a unit in destroying those 
 records that they claimed were so sacred. 
 
 As we see the tracks of a fox around the food it had 
 tried to steal, so do we see in these eliminations and 
 interpolations where the minds of influential Christians 
 have revolved around and dwelt upon this insurmounta- 
 ble obstacle. Thev have plainly keenly felt this objec- 
 tion, for their belief would not permit them to tamper 
 with the Bible without most serious provocation. The 
 gospel writer's explanation was human, but they had been 
 representing Jesus as more than human — he was divine — 
 and taught the lofty sentiment: to resist not evil, but 
 when smote upon one cheek to turn the other also; and 
 now to have it shown that, in the great crisis of his life, 
 he failed to illustrate his teachings by an example, is a 
 glaring inconsistency, dangerous to the support of mod- 
 ern Christianity. These men do not come forward and 
 honestly set forth this difficulty and try to explain it, but 
 they surreptitiously steal upon the public their alterations. 
 They saw it touched Christianity in its most vital point, 
 and they sought to hide it from view. 
 
 Much of the sermon on the mount is found scattered 
 throughout the Gospel of Luke. Sometimes there are 
 six or eight consecutive verses, and in other instances but 
 one. The longest is represented as having been given in 
 
I30 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the same section of the country (near Capernaum) as 
 stated in Matthew, but seemingly upon a different occa- 
 sion. All the remainder found in Luke gives the parts 
 in different places and at different times. As given in 
 Matthew, it has been much improved, enlarged, and in 
 part Christianized. In doing this, the original revisors 
 of the Gospel of Matthew left out certain parts that are 
 in Luke, and one important verse, often quDted (Matt. 
 V, 17), is made to give the exact opposite meaning from 
 the version in Luke, The Lord's prayer is enlarged and 
 made more complete, and made to appear as though 
 given voluntarily, but, according to Luke, it was given 
 at the solicitation of the disciples to — " Teach us to pray 
 as John also taught his disciples.'' 
 
 In the sixth chapter of Luke, from the 20th to the 
 49th verse inclusive, is both the beginning and ending of 
 the sermon, and it is evidently, according to that gospel, 
 all there was of it. The blessings, with which the sermon 
 begins, are fewer in number, and each is reversed by a 
 curse for the opposite of those who were blessed. The 
 word now is left out of Matthew, and the words after 
 righteousness substituted. This is an important altera- 
 tion, for Jesus taught his followers that the events he 
 predicted would take place within the lifetime of those 
 then living. This part of Luke is as follows: 
 
 20. " And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and 
 said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be 
 filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 
 
 22. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and 
 when they shall separate you from their company, and 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 131 
 
 shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for 
 the son of man's sake. ' 
 
 23. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for be- 
 hold your reward is great in heaven: for in like manner 
 did their fathers unto the prophets. 
 
 24. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have 
 received your consolation. 
 
 25. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. 
 Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and 
 weep. 
 
 26. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of 
 you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." 
 
 The 15th verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew is 
 repeated twice in Luke (Chap, viii, 15, 16, 17, and xi, 
 33). Luke xi, 9 to 13 inclusive, is inserted in the sermon 
 in Matthew. Also, Luke xii, 22 to 35, is mostly in- 
 serted, though the 32d verse is omitted. It is: " Fear 
 not, little flock: for it is your Father's good pleasure to 
 give you the kingdom." 
 
 In the sermon, as given in Matthew, is the following 
 (v: y): 
 
 " Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
 prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." 
 
 In Luke, the opposite of this is given in the twelfth 
 chapter: 
 
 51. " Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on 
 earth? I tell ye, Nay; but rather division." 
 
 The S8th and S9th verses are also inserted in the ser- 
 mon in Matthew. Also the 34th verse of chapter xiv and 
 the 1 8th verse of chapter xvi, but, in Matthew, an impor- 
 tant interpolation was made in the latter. In Luke, it 
 reads that — 
 
 " Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth 
 another, committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth 
 
132 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 her that is put away from her husband, committeth 
 adultery. " 
 
 The words inserted in Matthew (v, 32) indicate the 
 careful revision that gospel received from some source, 
 for human nature demands that adultery be a sufficient 
 cause for divorce. 
 
 In Matthew viii, 4, Jesus is represented to have 
 directed a man he was said to have miraculously cured 
 of leprosy, to practice a deception, if not to state that 
 which was not true. The passage has probably been dis- 
 torted, but such sense as it yet contains shows that Jesus 
 directed the man to misrepresent the manner of his cure. 
 His words as given are: 
 
 " And Jesus saith unto him. See thou tell no man; 
 but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the 
 gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." 
 
 Jesus is represented in John vii, 8th to loth verses, to 
 have deceived his disciples by stating that he would not 
 go up to the feast, for his time had not yet full come. 
 But he did go as soon as his disciples left. 
 
 If the sentiments of Jesus were so superior to any- 
 thing before his age as to be conspicuous even now, then 
 the contrast at that time must have been much more 
 marked. But the early Christians did not know of or 
 seek converts through any such pretense. For proof of 
 the divinity of Christ they relied upon the supernatural. 
 Among the ignorant part of the ancients, and with sav- 
 ages in all times, sickness was coupled with their super- 
 stition. Its coming and going was mysterious to them, 
 and they attributed it to the direct interposition of the 
 Gods. Hence quite all the miracles of Jesus were stated 
 to have been with reference to healing the sick or feeding 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 1 33 
 
 his starving followers. It was those miracles only that 
 they offered as proof of his divinity. 
 
 The miracles said to have been worked by Christ and 
 his Apostles were trifling as compared to those said to 
 have been performed by church dignitaries in the first 
 several centuries of the Christian era, and the evidence 
 that they were ever performed is still more trifling. 
 Gibbon states that intelligent men challenged certain 
 leaders to work, before acceptable witnesses, even one of 
 their boasted miracles, agreeing, if they were successful, to 
 join them. But they could not do so. He further states, 
 that those early fathers who were said to work miracles 
 did not know of or make such pretenses for themselves. 
 
 Christianity is weakened among intelligent men by 
 this pretense of supernatural evidence, and very many 
 Christians now deny that any miracles were ever per- 
 formed. The voluminous work entitled Supernatural 
 Religion gives a comprehensive review of all the evi- 
 dence and probabilities bearing upon this subject. 
 
 The limited account of Jesus is too short to fully con- 
 firm any personal characteristic, though there is some 
 evidence of certain peculiarities, and meekness does not 
 appear to be one of them. He seemed to have a habit 
 of interspersing his remarks with the expression, "He 
 who hath ears to hear, let him hear. " It is found three 
 times in Matthew, twice in one chapter (xi, 15; xiii, 9, 
 43), and the same, slightly altered, in xv, 10. It is three 
 times repeated in Mark — one instance being on a differ- 
 ent occasion from either of those in Matthew. Authors 
 and actors usually exaggerate any known peculiarities of 
 those they are depicting. The author of Revelations 
 
134 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 pretends to have seen Jesus in the spirit, and to have 
 received the instructions set forth in the second and third 
 chapters of that book. In doing this he would endeavor 
 to imitate the style of Jesus so far as known, and would 
 most likely overdo it, as is usual in such cases. In those 
 two chapters this expression is repeated seven times, 
 indicating that the writer understood that form of ex- 
 pression to be characteristic with Jesus. 
 
 He used a meaningless expression twice under similar 
 circumstances when speaking blindly (for his hearers) of 
 his divine pretensions. It is, "If you will learn what 
 that meaneth, I will have mercy and will not sacrifice. " 
 Matt, ix, 13; xii, 7. 
 
 A more full and distinct expression of moral senti- 
 ments was one of the early wants developed by the 
 growing church. With its revision of the gospels it evi- 
 dently inserted enough to help it out in its creeds and 
 to increase the limited reported sayings of Jesus. But 
 they were incapable of making much improvement. His 
 recorded sentiments are as often the exact opposite of 
 what we now call Christianity as the contrary. This is 
 illustrated in the following : 
 
 Matthew x, 34. Think not that I come to send peace 
 on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. 
 
 Luke xvii, i. It is impossible but that offenses will 
 come; but woe unto him through whom they come. 
 
 Luke xi, 37. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee 
 besought him to dine with him; and he went in and sat 
 down to meat. 
 
 38. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that 
 he had not first washed before dinner. 
 
 39. And the Lord said unto him. Now do ye Phari- 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 1 35 
 
 sees make clean the outside of the cup and platter; but 
 your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. 
 
 40. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is 
 without, make that which is within also? # * * * 
 
 45. Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto 
 him, Master, thus saying, thou reproachest us also. 
 
 In Matthew xxvi, 23, Christ says: "He that dippeth 
 his hand with me in the dish." This exposes a habit that 
 would justify the Pharisee in marvelling that he had not 
 washed before dinner. 
 
 Matthew xii, i. At that time Jesus went on the Sab- 
 bath day through the corn, and his disciples were a hun- 
 gered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 
 
 Mark iv, 10. And when he was alone, they that were 
 about him, with the twelve, asked of him the parable. 
 (Asked him to explain the meaning of his parable of the 
 sower and the seed.) 
 
 11. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to 
 know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but ijnto them 
 that are without, all these things are done in parables. 
 
 12. That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and 
 hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any 
 time they should be converted, and their sins should be 
 forgiven them. 
 
 Matthew xv, 22. And behold a woman of Canaan 
 came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying. 
 Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my 
 daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 
 
 23. But he answered her not a word. And his dis- 
 ciples came and besought him, saying. Send her away, 
 for she crieth after us. 
 
 24. But he answered and said, I am not sent but 
 unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
 
 25. Then came she and worshipped him, saying. 
 Lord help me. 
 
136 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 26. But- he answered and said, It is not meet to take 
 children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. 
 
 Luke xiv, 26. If any man come to me, and hate not 
 his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and sis- 
 ters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 
 Jesus is represented as consigning people and cities to 
 woe for very slight reasons. In some places half of a 
 chapter will be of this nature. Those cities that would 
 not accept the doctrines of his disciples were in particular 
 included in his condemnation. He said, "Brothers shall 
 deliver up brothers to death, and the father the child: 
 and the children shall rise up against their parents and 
 cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated 
 of all men for my sake." The xxiii chapter of Matthew 
 is mostly given up to curses of this nature, seven or eight 
 of the verses beginning with the words, "Woe unto you. 
 Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" Two verses in par- 
 ticular ought to be noticed, as the spirit of them is in 
 even more marked contrast to that which is claimed as 
 the Christian spirit. The men alluded to were of the 
 better class and it seems zealous workers in their religion, 
 which was the same as Christ's except that they neither 
 believed in or associated with him. He said (Matt, xxiii, 
 12, 15): 
 
 "Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
 for ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make 
 long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater dam- 
 nation. 
 
 "Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 
 for ye compass sea and land to make a proselyte; and 
 when he is made, ye make him two-fold more the child 
 of hell." 
 
 The words meek and lowly became attached to Jesus 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 1 37 
 
 through his own assertion to that effect (Matt, xi, 29). 
 
 The matter of the New Testament otherwise would not 
 
 suggest them. 
 
 The following I believe to be a complete list of all the 
 
 expressions of Jasus recorded in the gospels in which 
 
 there are either blessings, or expressions of an opposite 
 
 nature. 
 
 BLESSINGS. DENUNCIATIONS. 
 
 MATTHEW. 
 
 V, 3. 4. S, 6. 7. 8. 9. 'o. ". iz. '3. VIII. 12. X, 15, 34, 35, 36. 
 14, 17, 44. XI, 21, 22, 23, 24. 
 
 XI, 28. XIII, 16. XVI, 17. XIII, 50. XVIII, 6, 7. 
 
 XXIII, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 25, 
 
 27, 29, 33- 
 
 XXIV, 7, 19. 
 
 MARK. 
 X 16. III. 29. IX, 42. XII, 40. 
 
 XIII, 8, 12, 17, 19, 20. XIV, 21. 
 
 XVI, 14. After the resurrection. 
 
 LUKE. 
 
 VI, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28. VI, 24, 25, 26. X, 12, 13, 14, 15. 
 
 VII, 23. X, 23. XII, 8, 32, 37. XI, 40, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52. 
 XXIV, 30, 51. XII, 5, 9, 49. 51. 52. 53- 
 
 XIII, 3, 5, 27, 28. 
 
 XVII, 1,2. XX, 47. 
 
 XXI, 10, II, 23. 
 
 XXII, 22. 
 JOHN. 
 
 Ill, 16, 17. XIV, 27. XV, 12. Ill, 18. 
 
 The Gospel of John studiously improves the character 
 of Christ as compared to that exhibited in the synoptic 
 gospels. All but one of his upbraidings and curses were 
 omitted, and that one was inserted for a purpose as will 
 be shown. 
 
 Expressions and sentiments like those just quoted are 
 common enough to indicate a very different spirit in Jesus 
 from that commonly attributed to him, particularly when 
 there is doubt of much of the better sentiments ever hav- 
 
138 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ing been uttered by him. As before stated, John the 
 Baptist is probably entitled to much of the credit that 
 has been given to Christ. However, the best sentiments 
 of the Bible were never for a moment dependent upon 
 prophets and divines, or any favored few. They are self- 
 evident facts so common-place as to suggest themselves 
 to anybody of fair understanding. 
 
 But Jesus did enjoin one requirement that filled a very 
 important part in the perpetuation of Christianity. In 
 fact, but for it, the system would not have existed any 
 length of time after his death, and it is, therefore, the 
 only thing he materially contributed to hand Christianity 
 down to our time. In a stairway the lower step performs 
 a like service with those farther up, and in some respects 
 is even more important than any other, but those as- 
 cending may be said to have no further use for it after 
 once passing it. 
 
 So with the requirement in question, it was obeyed 
 only by his immediate followers. The church has long 
 since ignored it, as it generally does any of his directions 
 with which it is inconvenient to comply. This demand of 
 Christ was important only in what it necessitated and led 
 to. It was like the lower step in a stairway, it filled an 
 indispensable temporary service and made possible the 
 other steps, but once passed was not needed again. 
 
 This all-important service was rendered by the simple 
 requirement of Jesus that those who joined his followers 
 must give their property to the whole body to be used in 
 common. The New Testament represents him as requir- 
 ing that the property be given to the poor. But they 
 ■were the poor, and it is shown that immediately after the 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST. 1 39 
 
 crucifixion that regulation was in full force, which, coup- 
 led with the demand of Jesus to "sell that thou hast, give 
 to the poor and follow me," shows that that regulation 
 was demanded by him. 
 
 When a body of men own property in common, some 
 one or more must be agreed upon to hold, distribute and 
 account for it. This involves an organization and officers, 
 and from that moment those officers have a personal in- 
 terest foreign to the objects of the association. The sever- 
 ity of this requirement made that interest the largest 
 possible in proportion to the numbers involved. The 
 temporary nature of the superstitious expectations of 
 those men did not admit of the thought of an organiza- 
 tion, nor did they possess sufficient intelligence to know 
 the advantage of one An organization was unavoid- 
 able under such a requirement as Jesus made, and it would 
 not have taken place without it. 
 
 The New Testament shows the existence of this en- 
 forced organization, and an account of its enlargement 
 by .the selection of a second and inferior class of officers 
 is given in Acts vi, 2 to 7. This organization, originat- 
 ing in this simple manner, never ceased from that time, 
 and has been its one greatest power in perpetuating 
 Christianity. The Polytheist three or four centuries later 
 recognized this great advantage of the Christian church, 
 and tried to revive the worship of the Gods by a similar 
 organization. But they began too late, their habits and 
 customs had been too long established, and their effort 
 put them in the inferior position of imitators. 
 
 Dr. Doellinger, in his First Ages of Christianity , de- 
 votes a number of pages to the Teachings of Christ, and. 
 
I40 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 in SO doing, he supplies a fair illustration of the usual 
 manner of treating this subject. His comments are of 
 an ambiguous nature. He simply writes a pious homily, 
 to which believers will meekly assent as an act of devo- 
 tion. No writer ever presumes to point out the particu- 
 lar words that convey those wise instructions, for there 
 are no such words. Those teachings, like all that is God- 
 like in Christ, dwell only in the imagination of his wor- 
 shipers. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 JOSEPHUS. 
 
 Christians greatly feel the want of accounts of Jesus 
 by cotemporary writers other than those among his fol- 
 lowers. They recognize the self-evident fact that if some 
 of the events said to have been connected with him had 
 actually taken place, there would have been other ac- 
 counts, and more reliable ones, because they would have 
 been by disinterested parties. The total absence of any 
 records of those events by such writers is a loud assertion 
 that those representations were not true. John the Bap- 
 tist attracted even more attention than is chronicled by 
 the Apostles, they having held back a knowledge of his 
 prominence rather than otherwise. The high position 
 given him by Josephus makes the latter's evident ignor- 
 ance of the existence of Christ all the more significant. 
 
 Churchmen have keenly felt this silence. Of all his- 
 torians, Josephus, in particular, should have heard of 
 Christ. He was a Jew, born probably about seven years 
 before the crucifixion, who spent much of his life in office, 
 not only in Judea, but part of the time holding high 
 authority in Galilee, throughout the very region where 
 Christ had been some twenty to thirty years before. He 
 wrote of a village called Capernaum, and mentions all 
 the Roman and Jewish officers named in the New Testa- 
 ment, and was personally acquainted with some of them. 
 His official career began while Paul was still on the field 
 
142 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 of action, and it is even very probable that they were at 
 one time fellow passengers upon the same ship, and ship- 
 wrecked together. Both were en route to Rome, and 
 the same event started both on their journey. 
 
 Josephus was going to Rome for the purpose of inter- 
 ceding with Nero for the release of some Jews whom 
 Felix had sent there under bonds. He does not state 
 that he went there while Felix was Procurator, but that 
 the acts that eventually led him to make that journey 
 were committed by Felix. The probabilities of obtain- 
 ing the release of those men would be greater when that 
 officer's successor was appointed, while, on the other 
 hand, it might have been dangerous, both to Josephus 
 and to the association of citizens who sent him, to make 
 the effort while Felix was still in office. The appoint- 
 ment of Festus to succeed him was the natural and prob- 
 able cause of the effort being made, and hence Josephus 
 must have undertaken his journey very soon thereafter. 
 None of those Procurators were in office long, as Nero 
 sent at least three (Festus, Albinus and Gessius Florus) 
 to Judea during the fourteen years he was Emperor. 
 Josephus shows that the official term of Festus was short 
 as account of his death is closely coupled with his first 
 appearance as Procurator. When Josephus returned to 
 Judea, Albinus was in office, and apparently soon after- 
 wards succeeded by Florus. This allows abundant time 
 for the journey and a long tarry in Rome, dating from 
 the time of Festus. 
 
 Paul had been held two years under bonds by Felix, 
 who hoped to be paid a sum of money for his release, but 
 Festus, evidently a better man, started Paul on his long- 
 
JOSEPHUS. 143 
 
 delayed journey. The same circumstance, therefore, to 
 wit: the commencement of the administration of the 
 Procurator Festus, was the cause of the journey to Rome 
 of both Paul and Josephus. The accounts of each repre- 
 sent that they were shipwrecked, and evidently in quite 
 the same place, and each show the vessel to have been 
 an unusually large one for those days. This is indicated 
 by the number of people on board, which Paul states to 
 have been 276 (Acts xxvii), while Josephus gives the 
 number as about 600. But Paul's count, no doubt, 
 covered only those who got ashore. In the excitement 
 of the night before, numbers could have left such a 
 crowded ship unknown to Paul, while, on the other 
 hand, the round number stated by Josephus shows that 
 he guessed at the number, and as is usual in such cases, 
 placed the figures too high. He wrote, also, fifty years 
 afterwards. 
 
 Paul gives many details, while Josephus gives but few. 
 According to Paul, the vessel went ashore on an island, 
 but Josephus' account indicates that the vessel foundered, 
 though that is not clear. He wrote: 
 
 "About 600 in number swam for our lives all the 
 night; when upon the first appearance of the day, and 
 upon our sight of a ship of Cyrene, I and some others, 
 eighty in all, by God's providence, prevented the rest, 
 and were taken up into other ships. '' 
 
 Paul states that the shipmen tried to flee out of the 
 ship when they let down the boats the night before the 
 vessel went ashore, and it may be that as many as eighty 
 did so abandon the ship in boats and on floats. This is 
 not improbable as per Paul's account, and satisfactorily 
 meets the account of the wreck as given by Josephus. 
 
144 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 In the excitement that must have prevailed there would 
 naturally be confusion in their statements. Those, also, 
 who abandon a vessel do so under the supposed certainty 
 that it will go down, and would naturally afterwards sup- 
 pose that it had done so. 
 
 If Paul and Josephus were fellow passengers, it would 
 be an interesting coincidence, but one that Christian 
 writers would not endeavor to point out, for the reason 
 that it brings in sharper contrast Josephus' utter ignorance 
 of the Christian movement. Their position on board 
 would have been widely different, Josephus being a pas- 
 senger of some distinction, while Paul was a prisoner, 
 and making professions which, if noticed by Josephus at 
 all, would but have excited his ridicule. 
 
 For such a man, having such experience as Josephus 
 had in the very home of Christ, and so soon after his 
 time, and writing a history of that country, embracing 
 every year of the lifetime of Christ; for such a man to 
 have no word of him is equivalent to proof that the super- 
 natural events related in the New Testament in connec- 
 tion with Jesus Christ did not occur. Josephus wrote 
 his histories about the time or before the earliest un- 
 canonical gospels were written. He was as old as any 
 of the writers of those gospels. He was there upon the 
 ground at the time many of the events they recorded 
 were said to have taken place, and was an important 
 officer the latter part of that time. He was far more in- 
 telligent than they, as is attested by his histories, which 
 extend greatly beyond the capacities of any of the gospel 
 writers, canonical or uncanonical. He was a witness oii 
 precisely the same footing that those gospel writers were 
 
JOSEPHUS. 145 
 
 as to time, place, and experience, and a much superior 
 one because of his superior intellectual and social posi- 
 tion, and because of his disinterestedness. 
 
 But the church makes saints of its own witnesses and 
 sanctifies and magnifies their testimony, and equally de- 
 nounces Josephus, not for anything he wrote of Christ or 
 of the Christians, but because he did not write of them at 
 all. He comments favorably of John the Baptist, and 
 equally well of the Essenes, but as for the wonderful events 
 recorded in the New Testament he had nothing to write, 
 for there had been no such events. 
 
 Another Jewish officer, named Justus, also held office 
 in Galilee during the same time that Josephus did. They 
 were so similar in position and experience as to have had 
 strong feelings of rivalry, and that circumstance may 
 have had something to do with the writing by each of a 
 history of those times. Josephus complains of Justus, 
 in that he had not given just accounts of him. There 
 was the same reason, therefore, that Justus should have 
 given accounts of Christ, as there was that Josephus 
 should; and his silence emphasizes the silence of the lat- 
 ter. The history by Justus must have been even more 
 objectionable in that respect, for the church, which cer- 
 tainly would have preserved it if not detrimental to its 
 interest, has not done so. That history is destroyed. It 
 was in existence as late as the ninth century,* at which 
 time Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, wrote of Justus 
 that — "He makes not the least mention of the appear- 
 ance of Christ, or of what things happened to him." 
 
 Plutarch, also, was, cotemporaneous with Paul and 
 Josephus. He was probably 7 to 15 years younger than 
 the latter, and, as a young man, may have had some per- 
 sonal knowledge of Paul, for he was a Greek of distinc- 
 tion, filling important public duties in different parts of 
 
 * Rev. Robt. Traill's Josephus. 
 
146 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the Empire, having journeyed, it is supposed, as far as 
 Alexandria, and must necessarily have visited many of 
 the places frequented by Paul. At least, it is hardly 
 possible that Plutarch was ignorant of the Christian 
 movement, for he wrote some of his works late in life, 
 when Christianity must have grown to considerable pro- 
 portions. 
 
 Plutarch's Lives numbers 6t , of which only 50 are 
 now extant. Only 8 of those Lives were of men living 
 within the Christian era, they being the first 8 emperors, 
 as follows: Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, 
 Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Christ was born in the 14th 
 year of the reign of Augustus, and all the events related 
 in the New Testament were within his and the four suc- 
 ceeding reigns. Vitellius also, before he was emperor, 
 had been President of Syria, and the several notices Jo- 
 S'ephus makes of him indicate that he was long in office 
 there. His authority was superior to Pilate's, for he de- 
 prived that officer of his office and sent him back to Rome. 
 Josephus writes of Vitellius in the paragraph immediately 
 preceeding his account of John the Baptist, and again in 
 the paragraph next following. In this he seemingly lo- 
 cates the execution of the Baptist within the Presidency 
 of Vitellius, in which case the crucifixion must have taken 
 place while he was in office. He was an officer to whom 
 the Nazarenes could have appealed in case Pilate ex- 
 ceeded his authority in ordering the crucifixion, and the 
 fact that after that event he was in disgrace with 
 Vitellius ought to have turned the eyes of Christians upon 
 the latter officer and secured the preservation of any 
 biography of him that might have been written. So far 
 as Plutarch's Lives are concerned, it was more important 
 in the history of Christianity to preserve his lives of the 
 first five Emperors and the eighth Emperor than to pre- 
 serve all the remainder of the 6j . But those 6 are num- 
 
JOSEPHUS. 147 
 
 bered with the 17 missing — not one has been preserved. 
 The chances that any one would be among the 17 is as one 
 to four, but a chance that a particular 6 should be among 
 them, is as one to 3748. 
 
 Thirteen of those biographies were of the leading 
 men in those events that led to the Imperial form of gov- 
 ernment, commencing with Marius, a century before. 
 They were the great actors in one of the most impor- 
 tant epochs in history, and, hence, their preservation, 
 outside of the church, was more important than the pre- 
 servation of all the remaining 6"] . This seems to have 
 been recognized, for not one of them has been lost The 
 list is as follows: Caius, Marius, Sylla, Tiberias Gracchus, 
 Caius Gracchus, LucuUus, Marcus Crassus, Sertorious, 
 Pompey, Julius Caesar, Cato, Cicero, Brutus, and Mark 
 Antony. 
 
 It was impossible for Plutarch to have mentioned any- 
 thing connected with Christianity, except in his biogra- 
 phies of those 8 emperors, for all the remainder were of 
 men that lived before the time of Christ. But only his 
 unimportant biographies of Galba and Otho have come 
 down to us. The political experience of both those men 
 was very short, and had been in Spain, where Christianity 
 had not penetrated, and, hence, could not in any way 
 have been connected with them. Chance could not 
 have preserved the 13 and lost the 6. Those biogra- 
 phies have been designedly suppressed, and, in their 
 suppression, the church confesses that he gave testimony 
 adverse to the statements made in the New Testament.* 
 
 ' *A French translation of Plutarch's Lives, published early in this 
 century, contains a biography of both Augustus and Titus, written by M. 
 Dacier. This is distinctly stated on the title page, and matter inserted in 
 the narrative shows that no deception was intended, as comparison with 
 modern events are made. Nevertheless, some have been misled by this 
 into a supposition that they were the work of Plutarch. The too conspic- 
 uous announcement on the title page is often overlooked, in accordance 
 with that peculiarity of human nature which Edgar A. Poe has so interest- 
 ingly portrayed in his story entitled The Purloined Letter. 
 
148 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Among the numerous other works of his that have 
 been lost are the following, the titles to which suggest 
 that they, also, may have conflicted with Christianity, or, 
 at least, with its claimed originality: Two books on In- 
 troduction of the Soul; two books of Extracts from the 
 Philosophers; three books on Sense, and two books of 
 Proverbs. 
 
 But there were reasons for the suppression of the 
 works of Josephus also, and they probably would have 
 been but for a forged interpolation of Christ that they 
 contain. Of all historians, Josephus ought to have known 
 Jesus; and if he could be shown to have acknowledged 
 him to be the Christ, it would be most valuable testi- 
 mony. As between forging such an acknowledgment, 
 or suppressing his works, the primitive church chose the 
 former. But for that forgery his writings would have 
 gone with all the numerous lost works that would, 
 unitedly, have made a belief in the divinity of Christ an 
 impossibility. Eusebius, Bishop of Csesarea, is charged 
 with being the author of this fraudulent passage. It is 
 inserted in Anitqutties of tke y^ews, Book xviii. Chap. 3, 
 and is as follows: 
 
 "At this time appeared a certain Jesus, a wise man, 
 if indeed he may be called a man, for he was a worker 
 of miracles, a teacher of such men as received the truth 
 with joy, and he drew to himself many Jews and many 
 also of the Greeks. This was the Christ. And when, at 
 the instigation of our chief men, Pilate condemned him 
 to the cross, those who had first loved him did not fall 
 away. For he appeared to them alive again on the third 
 day, according as the holy prophets had declared this 
 and countless other marvels to him. To this day the 
 sect of Christians, called after him, still exist." 
 
 Judge Waite, in his History of the Christian Religion , 
 says: 
 
JOSEPHUS. 149 
 
 "If the passage in Josephus concerning Christ were 
 genuine, then the failure to connect him with John the 
 Baptist would be utterly incomprehensible. But since 
 it is the general verdict of scholars that the passage in 
 the third chapter of the i8th book of the Antiquities, 
 wherein it is stated that Jesus was the Christ, etc., is an 
 interpolated forgery, the matter appears very differently." 
 
 Rev. Robert Trail, in his preface to his translation of 
 part of the works of Josephus, refers to the large amount 
 of controversy regarding that passage, and admits its 
 unauthenticity — conclusions which seem to have become 
 quite general. 
 
 Under the heati of "Jesus Christ," in the Encyclopse- 
 dia Britannica, the writer says : 
 
 "That Josepeus wrote the whole passage as it now 
 stands no sane critic can believe. Vespasian, not Jesus, 
 was the Messiah of that apostate Jew. There are, how- 
 ever, two_ reasons which are alone sufficient to prove that 
 the whole passage was spurious — one that it was unknown 
 to Origen and the earlier fathers, the other that its place 
 in the text is uncertain. It is now found after the histo- 
 rian's notice of Pilate, but the remarks of Eusebius show 
 that in his time it was found before them. " 
 
 From the same work, under the head of "Josephus," 
 is the following: 
 
 "In a famous passage in his Antiquities of the Jews, 
 first quoted by Eusebius, he speaks of Christ as some- 
 thing more than human, and attests his miracles, death, 
 and resurrection. The authenticity of the passage has 
 been very much disputed. If it be admitted (and the 
 external evidence in its favor is very strong), then Jose- 
 phus must have been a Christian. On the other hand, 
 the common belief that he was not a Christian condemns 
 the passage as spurious. But it happens that Josephus, 
 
I50 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 nowhere else in all his writings, commits himself in favor 
 of Christianity. As an impartial historian he could not 
 but accept it as an historical fact; yet, even though he 
 may have believed in its truth, he was too skeptical and 
 indifferent to make himself a martyr for the sake of any 
 truth or doctrine whatsoever. It is most probable that the 
 passage in question, without being absolutely spurious, 
 has been modified into its present form by Eusebius, who 
 is well known to have often taken such a liberty in his 
 quotations." 
 
 This last quotation supplies an illustration of what 
 Christians look upon as pious treatment of anything un- 
 favorably affecting their religion. This writer evidently 
 believes the reference to Christ to be a forgery, yet he 
 sorrowfuUj' and but partially admits it, and does what he 
 can to encourage his readers to believe it was not a for- 
 gery. It was his true religious duty to be as indignant 
 over this forgery as over any other, but he has.. only ten- 
 der words for Eusebius, who committed the act, and 
 states that he probably modified it into its present form- 
 He piously, as understood within the Christian system, 
 states that the external evidence in its favor is very 
 strong. 
 
 Now it is mostly by external evidence that the account 
 is known to be a forgery. If it was authentic, external 
 evidence would prove it beyond question. If it was 
 fraudulent, there could be no external evidence in its 
 favor; the nature of the question does not admit of it. 
 If the quotation Was written by Josephus, it would have 
 been possible for other writers of those times to comment 
 upon it; but if it was not originally in his works, there 
 could necessarily be no comments of any nature. The 
 
JOSEPHUS. 151 
 
 absence of such comments by early Christian writers,,who 
 would have been glad to notice it if it had been there, is 
 the strong external evidence that Josephus did not 
 write it. 
 
 In Antiquities of the Jews, xx, 9, mention is made of 
 James the brother of Jesus " who was called Christ. " This 
 little item comes in naturally enough, following as it does 
 the famous fraudulent testimony. Having previously sup- 
 posably mentioned Christ in most favorable terms, it 
 would be natural to expect that he would be mentioned 
 again; and having once stated who Christ was, it would 
 be sufficient when mentioning Jesus to state that it was 
 him who was called Christ. It would simply identify a 
 man previously mentioned. 
 
 But with the fraudulent passage expunged, this notice 
 of Christ stands alone the only one in the works of Jose- 
 phus, and as such it detracts from the importance of 
 Christ rather than the contrary. If Josephus really wrote 
 those four words then he knew there was a man Jesus 
 having the especial title of Christ, but occupying a posi- 
 tion so unimportant as to be of no possible interest, and 
 unworthy of an account in his history. It would not be 
 natural, however, under such circumstances, to make even 
 this one notice. If it was worth stopping to write who 
 was called Christ, it was equally worth while to state 
 why he was so called. Other facts, however, connected 
 with this statement, tend to show that Josephus never 
 wrote those words, but in place of them had written these 
 words — the son of Damneiis. 
 
 This account of James sets forth that the office of 
 Procurator was vacant three months between the death 
 
152 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 of 5^estus and the arrival of his successor Albinus; and 
 that Ananias, the high priest, took advantage of this 
 to cause the brother of Jesus, whose name was James, 
 to be stoned to death. The account further shows that 
 James was of importance enough for this to be of great 
 pubHc interest, resulting in the people sending to Albinus 
 before his arrival, and in Albinus writing to Jerusalem 
 about it also before his arrival. Apd further that King 
 Agrippa, finding that Albinus was angry, caused Ananias 
 to be removed, and that he made Jesus, the son of Dam- 
 neus, high priest in his stead. 
 
 All this is suggestive of Ananias having taken advan- 
 tage of the absence of the Procurator to cause the death 
 of a rival; and that indignation, together with sympathy 
 for James's family, caused the removal of Ananias and 
 the substitution of Jesus the brother of James (and son of 
 Damneus) in his place. 
 
 When, ten or twenty years later, Josephus wrote his 
 histories, he knew this man Jesus as one of the high 
 priests, and as such, in Josephus's ideas, he was a distin- 
 guished character supposably known to his readers, and 
 he (Josephus) identified James by him. He gave the 
 name of Jesus first, the passage being constructed thus — 
 The brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name 
 was James. The greater importance of Jesus in the mind 
 of Josephus is the only explanation that can be given for 
 this labored transposition of the two names. But if he 
 was in truth referring to Christ, then the superior posi- 
 tion given him increases the inconsistency of there being 
 no further mention of him. Josephus would then be 
 identifying one unknown man by a second unknown man, 
 
JOSEPHUS. 153 
 
 and identifying the latter by an unknown title. He 
 would have given the least known man the superior posi- 
 tion. The name of Jesus under such circumstances was 
 uncalled for. 
 
 Furthermore, if this was the brother of Christ, the 
 account would have appeared in the New Testament. 
 Such an important event as the martyrdom of the brother 
 of Jesus could not have been overlooked. Some or all 
 of Paul's epistles from Rome must have been written 
 after this occurrence. It must have taken place at about 
 the time of his arrival there, for, as stated, Festus was 
 evidently Procurator but a short time. All the gospels 
 were written long after this time. 
 
 This high priest Jesus the son of Damneus, was suc- 
 ceeded by another Jesus the son of Gamaliel. (See Acts 
 v, 34.) Necessarily whenever either of these two were 
 referred to they were distinguished the one from the 
 other by stating the name of the father. This Josephus 
 never failed to do in his several references to each of those 
 two men. The passage, therefore, as originally given by 
 him was undoubtedly in these words — The brother of 
 Jesus, the son of Damneus, whose tiame was James, but 
 when, from 200 to 250 years later, Eusebius inserted the 
 fraudulent testimony , he would naturally support it by 
 at least one more reference to Christ, and at this point he 
 found his favorable opportunity. He undoubtedly erased 
 the Greek equivalent for the words the son of Damneus, 
 and substituted in Greek the words, who was called Christ. 
 
 When there are none to criticise and object and the 
 great public is all one way on any one subject, it is sur- 
 prising the great length even intelligent men will go in 
 
1 54 THE safe; side. 
 
 their unsupported, unauthorized statements. In the 
 cause of Christianity one writer will endavor to get over 
 a difficulty by some preposterous improbability as vague 
 as a dream, and all other Christians will henceforth 
 accept such explanation as a proven fact. In this way 
 quite a theory has been built up in efforts to explain 
 away Josephus's silence of Christ. His visit to Rome 
 was to ask favors of Nero, in which he was successful. 
 The first mention of Christians by profane writers was 
 an account of a number being cruelly tortured and put 
 to death by Nero. 
 
 And now in explanation of Josephus's silence it is 
 suggested that he himself was possibly a Christian -and 
 withheld accounts of Christ through fear of Nero. Some 
 such a theory as this is advanced in face of the fact that 
 Josephus wrote his histories long after the death of Nero 
 and when that name was odious. He also gave very un- 
 favorable accounts of that Emperor in his history, suffi- 
 ciently so to have incurred the displeasure of many of 
 his influential friends, if any such were then living. On 
 the other hand, there is no evidence that Nero had any 
 feeling about the Christians or any knowledge of them. 
 There was not the least danger in any body being a 
 Christian who wished to. 
 
 Gibbon states that Tacitus, the author of the account 
 of this persecution, wrote it sixty years after, and would 
 necessarily color it in the light and knowledge of Christ- 
 ians of that time rather than of the sixty years before. 
 He writes that there were two sects of Galilaeans, — 
 
 "But the most opposite to each other in their man- 
 ners and principles; the disciples who had embraced the 
 
JOSEPHUS. 155 
 
 faith of Jesus of Nazareth, and the zealots who had fol- 
 lowed the standard of Judas the Gaulonite. The former 
 were the friends, the latter the enemies of human kind; 
 and the only resemblance between them consisted in the 
 inflexible constancy, which, in the defense of their cause, 
 rendered them insensible of death and tortures. The 
 followers of Judas, who impelled their countrymen to 
 rebellion, were soon buried under the ruins of Jerusalem; 
 whilst those of Jesus, known by the more celebrated 
 name of Christians, diffused themselves over the Roman 
 Empire. How natural was it for Tacitus, in the time of 
 Hadrian, to appropriate to the Christians the guilt and 
 the sufferings which he might, with far greater truth and 
 justice, have attributed to a sect whose odious memory 
 was almost extinguished. Whatever opinions may be 
 entertained of this conjecture (for it is no more than a 
 conjecture), it is evident that the effect, as well as the 
 cause, of Nero's persecution, was confined to the walls of 
 Rome, and that the religious tenets of the Galilaeans, or 
 Christians, were never made a subject of punishment or 
 even inquiry." 
 
 Gibbon would not have advanced this conjecture if 
 he had not believed it to be well founded. But he was 
 unnecessarily cautious. The New Testament supplies 
 evidence that this conjecture could have been recorded 
 as an absolute fact. The probabilities are that at the time 
 of that persecution there was not in existence a religious 
 sect known by the appellation of Christians. There 
 were contentions that ultimately led to the production of 
 that word, but it is doubtful if as yet the word itself had 
 ever been uttered. 
 
 Only a short time before in Jerusalem the Jews called 
 Paul a "Ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 
 xxiv, 5)1 and certainly if he and his companions were not 
 
156 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 known at that time as Christians, in the very home of 
 Christianity, it is not reasonable to suppose that at about 
 that time they were known by that name in Rome; par- 
 ticularly when, as shown, the Romans at the end of the 
 second century were still unfamiliar with it. 
 
 Tacitus was born at about the time of the event he 
 records, and therefore could not have based his account 
 upon personal observation, neither could there have been 
 records from which he could have taken the name of 
 Christ, and the manner and time of his death. The 
 account is suspiciously accurate in that respect. Josephus 
 wrote his Antiquities of the Jews in A. D., 93, and 
 though the event had occurred in his life-time, and he 
 had been in Rome near or at the time, he knew nothing 
 of it. This being the oldest mention of Christians outside 
 of the New Testament, by either profane or Christian 
 writers, the account is here given : 
 
 "With this view [that is, to divert suspicion], Nero 
 inflicted the most exquisite tortures on those men who, 
 under the vulgar appellation of Christians, were already 
 branded with deserved infamy. They derived their name 
 and origin from one Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius 
 had suffered death by the sentence of the procurator 
 Pontius Pilate. For a while this dire superstition was 
 checked, but it again burst forth; and not only spread 
 itself over Judea, the first seat of this mischievous sect, 
 but was even introduced into Rome, the common asylum 
 which receives and protects whatever is impure, whatever 
 is atrocious. The confessions of those who were seized 
 discovered a great multitude of their accomplices, and 
 they were all convicted, not so much for the crime of 
 setting fire to the city, as for their hatred of human kind. 
 Some were nailed on crosses, others sown up in the skins 
 
JOSEPHUS. 157 
 
 of wild beasts and exposed to the fury of dogs; others, 
 again, smeared over with combustible materials, were 
 used as torches to illuminate the darkness of the night. 
 The gardens of Nero were destined for the melancholy 
 spectacle, which was accompanied with a horse race, and 
 honored with the presence of the Emperor, who mingled 
 with the populace in the dress and attitude of a charioteer. 
 The guilt of the Christians deserved indeed the most ex- 
 emplary punishment, but the public abhorrance was 
 changed into commiseration, from the opinion that those 
 unhappy wretches were sacrificed, not so much to public 
 welfare, as to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant. " 
 
 But was Josephus so utterly silent of Christ? Is it 
 true that all profane writers of his time omitted any men- 
 tion of him or his proselytes? May it not be that certain 
 accounts did have features suggestive of Christ, but in 
 such an objectionable shape as to make Christians more 
 interested in denying than admitting the connection? 
 Objectionable accounts would be worse to a believer than 
 no account at all; and as nearly all writings on this sub- 
 ject, that have come down to us, were by Christian be- 
 lievers written in the interest of the chnrch; their state- 
 ments that there was no mention of Christ in any 
 particular work, means that there was no satisfactory 
 mention of him. 
 
 Nothing in the New Testament indicates that Judea 
 was otherwise than peaceful at that time, but Josephus 
 shows that the country was in turmoil and confusion. 
 Between Roman officers, Jewish officers, and bands of 
 robbers, there seemed to be rivalry as to which would 
 rob the people most. Any man seemed to be an officer 
 who could secure a following of a band of men, and 
 whether he would be called robber or patriot, turned 
 
158 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 upon but a slight difference of success or political change; 
 and in this boiling mass of humanity we obtain several 
 glimpses of that upon which some of the accounts of 
 Christ were based. Not that they were numerous, for 
 the New Testament account itself is exceedingly limited. 
 
 It is important to take into consideration the fact that 
 there is usually confusion as to dates of events that are 
 known only by tradition. It is the events rather than 
 dates that are repeated. In the time of Josephus this 
 carelessness of dates was greater than it is now, for even 
 in his carefully prepared history he gives no dates, neither 
 does he in his life — not even so much as the year of his 
 own birth. Neither are there any dates given in the New 
 Testament. If the historians of those times made so 
 little effort to give us an idea of the time of the events 
 they recorded, how much more probable it is that rumors 
 of events upon which parts of the New Testament were 
 based should be associated in the mind of Josephus with 
 those of his own lifetime. The several incidents in his 
 works similar to those in the New Testament are nearly 
 all so represented by him, and consequently at a time 
 quite twenty-five years later. 
 
 In the great number of sects existing at that time, 
 with only verbal accounts of them, the acts of others 
 might be attributed to Christ, while his acts might 
 equally erroneously be attributed to others. Errors of 
 this kind would be as natural to writers of the gospels as 
 to Josephus. They would be likely to incorporate ignor- 
 antly the acts of others which were similar, and had 
 occurred at any time before those gospels were written. 
 
 The most striking similarity is in Antiquities of the 
 Jews, Book XX, Chap. 8, and is as follows: 
 
JOSEPHUS. 1 59 
 
 "And now those imposters and deceivers persuaded 
 the multitude to follow them into the wilderness, and 
 pretended that they would exhibit manifest wonders and 
 signs that should be performed by the providence of God. 
 Moreover, there came out of Egypt about this time to 
 Jerusalem, one that said he was a prophet, and advised 
 the multitude of the common people to go along with 
 him to the Mount of Olives, as it was called, which lay 
 over against the city, and at a distance of five furlongs. 
 He said farther that he would show them from hence 
 how, at his command, the walls of Jerusalem would fall 
 down." 
 
 Josephus has the same account more in full in his 
 Jewish Wars, Book ii. Chap. 13: 
 
 "There was also another body of wicked men gotten 
 together, not so impure in their actions, but more wicked 
 in their intentions, which laid waste the happy state of 
 the city no less than did those murderers. These were 
 such men as deceived and deluded the people under pre- 
 tense of divine inspiration, but were for procuring inno- 
 vations and changes of the government; and these pre- 
 vailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went 
 before them into the wilderness as pretending that God 
 would there show them the signal of liberty. But Felix 
 sent horsemen and footmen, both armed, who destroyed 
 a great number of them. But there was an Egyptian 
 false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than the 
 former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a prophet 
 also, and got together 30,000 men that were deluded by 
 him; those he led round about from the wilderness to the 
 mount which was called the Mount of Olives, and was 
 ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place. 
 But Felix prevented his attempts, etc., etc." 
 
 In his autobiography, Josephus writes of one Jesus 
 and his friend John the son of Levi, and Simon, John's 
 brother, who seemed to give him considerable trouble, 
 
l6o THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 and against whom he had very bitter feelings. These 
 men were more or less prominent, and, according to 
 Josephus, lawless. He wrote of Jesus in part and of 
 his own office as follows: 
 
 "Now as soon as I was come to Qalilee, and had 
 learned of this state of things by the information of such 
 as told me of them, I wrote to the Sanhedrim at Jerusa- 
 lem about them, and required their directions what I 
 should do. Their direction was that I should continue 
 there, and that, if my fellow legates were willing, I should 
 join with them in the care of Galilee. . . . So I re- 
 moved together with them from the city of Sepphoris, 
 and came to a certain village called Bethmaus, four fur- 
 longs distant from Tiberias. ... I told them that 
 I was sent to them by the people of Jerusalem as a 
 legate, together with those other priests, in order to per- 
 suade them to demolish that house which Herod the 
 tetrarch had built there, and which had the figures of liv- 
 ing creatures in it, although our laws have forbidden us 
 to make any such figures; and I desired that they would 
 give me leave so to do immediately. But for a good 
 while Capellus and' the principal men belonging to the 
 city would not give us leave, but were at length entirely 
 overcome by us, and were induced to be of our opinion. 
 
 So Jesus the son of Sapphias, one of those whom we 
 ■ have already mentioned as the leader of a seditious tu- 
 mult oi mariners and poor people, prevented us, and took 
 with him certain Galileeans, and set the entire palace on 
 fire, and thought he should get a great deal of money 
 thereby, because he saw some of the roofs gilt with gold. 
 They also plundered a great deal of the furniture, which 
 was done without our approbation; for, after we had 
 discoursed with Capellus and the principal men of the 
 city, we departed from Bethmaus and went into the 
 Upper Galilee. But Jesus and his party slew all the 
 Greeks that were inhabitants of Tiberias; and as many 
 others as were their enemies before the war began." 
 
JOSEPHUS. l6l 
 
 A few days afterwards there was a great clamor 
 against Josephus, when he writes: 
 
 "And it was Jesus the son of Sapphias who princi- 
 pally set them on. He was ruler in Tiberias, a wicked 
 man, and naturally disposed to make disturbance in mat- 
 ters of consequence; a seditious person he was indeed, 
 and an innovator beyond everybody else. He then took 
 the laws of Moses into his own hands, and came into the 
 midst of the people and said: ' O, my fellow-citizens, if 
 you are not disposed to hate Josephus on your own 
 account, have regard, however, to these laws of your 
 country, which your commander-in-chief is going to 
 betray; hate him, therefore, on both these accounts, and 
 bring the man who has acted thus insolently to his de- 
 served punishment ' " 
 
 Some time after this, at a feast, Jesus asked Josephus 
 a question that is inconsistent with the charge that he 
 (Jesus) had burnt Herod's palace. Josephus writes that — 
 
 "Jesus, who was the ruler, asked: 'What became of 
 the vessels that were taken out of the king's palace when 
 it was burnt ?' " 
 
 When Paul was first placed under arrest in Jerusalem, 
 the Roman officer having him in charge — and who was 
 probably a Greek, as he was not a Roman citizen by 
 birth — first asked Paul if he could speak Greek, and then 
 asked him the following question: 
 
 "Art not thou that Egyptian which before these days 
 madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness 
 four thousand men that were murderers?" Acts xxi, 38. 
 
 Nothing in the New Testament justifies such a ques- 
 tion, but it will be seen that, after the accounts just 
 quoted from Josephus, it was a perfectly natural one. 
 The question indicates a knowledge of both the Egyp- 
 
1 62 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 tian leading the men into the wilderness and the murder 
 of the Greeks in Tiberias. Paul had necessarily been 
 exalting Jesus and relating his career; and that name of 
 Jesus and that career suggested the above question. The 
 uproar that Paul had raised was similar to the effect pro- 
 duced by Christ at his crucifixion, and he was proclaim- 
 ing the same sentiments. Their positions were very 
 similar, but this similarity added to Paul's account of 
 Jesus Christ; brought to the mind of that officer no 
 remembrance of him as described in the New Testament, 
 but it did bring to his mind the Egyptian described by 
 Josephus, which he apparently also blends with Jesus of 
 Tiberias. 
 
 The Egyptian resorted to the Mount of Olives and 
 asserted that — 
 
 "At his command the walls of Jerusalem would fall 
 down." 
 
 Christ also frequented the Mount of Olives, and from 
 there said: 
 
 " There shall not be left one stone upon another that 
 shall not be thrown down." Mark xiii, 2,3. 
 
 Each also had a following into the wilderness, the 
 whole being a similarity so great as to make it improb- 
 able that they were two different individuals. Either the 
 gospel writers, in collecting the traditional accounts of 
 Christ, attributed to him some of the acts of this Egyp- 
 tian, or else the Egyptian was Christ, but erroneously 
 located by Josephus in the Procuratorship of Felix, and 
 the number of his followers exaggerated. 
 
 Although Paul was a " Hebrew of Hebrews," the 
 Greek-Roman officer asked him if he was not that Egyp- 
 
JOSEPHUS. 163 
 
 tian? which shows that citizens of other countries could 
 still mistake Jews for Egyptians. The New Testament 
 brings in a very improbable story of Jesus having been 
 taken to Egypt in infancy in order — 
 
 " That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the 
 Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called 
 my son." Matt, ii, 15. 
 
 According to that there was some well known proph- 
 ecy that made it desirable to connect Jesus with Egypt, 
 and this pretense would naturally be pointed out by his 
 followers. In this way he might have become known to 
 Josephus as an Egyptian. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 
 
 Josephus records other adventures of Jesus of Tibe- 
 rias in Jewish Wars, Book iii, Chapter 9. He gives the 
 name of his father somewhat different (Saphat), but the 
 account shows that he was the same man Jesus, before 
 referred to, who was a leader of mariners and poor peo- 
 ple. He was not at the time a ruler in Tiberias, but was 
 a man possessing sufficient popularity to be a trouble to 
 the authorities. He brought misfortune upon the city 
 when it was besieged, by making an unauthorized sally, 
 and capturing the horses of Valerian and four or five 
 others who were with that officer, the city at the time 
 being quite in the power of the Romans. The aulhori- 
 ties were obliged to repudiate this act of Jesus, who then 
 went to Taricheae, the principal city of Gennesareth. 
 
 But his presence there was equally a source of 
 misfortune, for his force was large enough to draw the 
 Romans after him. The city would have been taken 
 under any circumstances, but its capture was hastened 
 by the opposition of the citizens to its evident hopeless 
 defense. Jesus throughout is shown to have been enter- 
 prising and belligerent, and seemingly in command. 
 Josephus states that — 
 
 " As the Romans were building a wall about their 
 camp, Jesus and his party were neither affrighted at their 
 numbers, nor at the good order they were in, but made 
 a sally upon them; and at the very first onset the builders 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 16$ 
 
 of the wall were dispersed, and these pulled what little 
 they had before built to pieces; but as soon as they saw 
 the armed men getting together, and before they had 
 suffered anything themselves, they retired to their own 
 men. But then the Rcmians pursued them, and drove 
 them into their ships, where they launched out as far as 
 might give them the opportunity to reach the Romans 
 with what they threw at them, and then cast anchor, 
 and brought their ships close, as in line of battle, and 
 thence fought the enemy from the sea, who were them- 
 selves on land. " * # # # 
 
 There was a terrible sedition in the city, for " those 
 to whom the city belonged were not disposed to fight. " 
 
 Titus took advantage of this to enter the city. 
 
 " Whereupon, those that were upon the walls were 
 seized with terror at the boldness of the attempt, nor 
 durst any one venture to fight with him; so they left 
 guarding the city; and some of those that were about 
 Jesus fled over the country. " 
 
 These men were making an heroic stand for their 
 country, and fighting des|)erately almost againt hope. 
 Under such circumstances, this man, Jesus, would be 
 almost worshiped in after years by large numbers of 
 Jews, even though he was insubordinate and his ill- 
 advised operation a useless waste of life. It is possible, 
 also, for the Jewish superstition to have become some- 
 what associated with his career. That superstition was 
 composed far more of self-conceit than natural religion, 
 and, hence, all public events were supposed to have been 
 brought around by the Almighty, with special reference 
 to themselves, and, consequently, the leaders in those 
 events were His chosen instruments, and therefore divine. 
 
 This was twenty-five or thirty years after the cruci- 
 
l66 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 fixion, but it was, also, fully as many yea^s before there 
 was any written life of Christ. As before stated, the 
 nature of the disciple's belief did not admit of the thought 
 to write his history. The ev^ts he predicted were to 
 take place while those familiar with that life still lived, 
 and when the growing church and failing predictions drew 
 out a want for written records, it would be his sayings 
 that would be first wanted. Only those terrible predic- 
 tions, that so filled his credulous followers with fear, 
 would be first written. Not until the church had attained 
 considerable power would there be awakened a curiosity 
 to know the life of the man they worshiped. But when 
 that time came, those who were familiar with that life 
 were all dead. His generation had passed away, and the 
 church was obliged to content itself with the meagre tra- 
 ditional rumors of Jesus that then prevailed. 
 
 A young man living in the time of this man, Jesus of 
 Tiberias, would be an old man when the first life of Christ 
 was written, and it is exceedingly probable that the 
 rumored heroism of the one should become blended with 
 the supernatural rumors of the other. The Christian 
 movement would be the gainer by it, as the fame of the 
 two would be attached to Christ. It probably could be 
 said of this second Jesus that " His fame went through- 
 out all Syria." (Matt, iv, 24.) "He was a leader of 
 mariners and poor people," which aptly describes the dis- 
 ciples of Christ, who were fishermen and poor people, 
 about and upon that Sea of Galilee. They had intimate 
 companions of the same name (Simon and John). There 
 was a similar spectacle in Christ on board ship addressing 
 the multitude on the shore (Mark iv, i), and Jesus of 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 1 67 
 
 Tiberias and ,the Jews confronting the Romans on the 
 shore, though the scene otherwise was greatly different. 
 The Romans succeeded in destroying the ships at the 
 close of this battle, whereby several thousand Jews were 
 drowned. Josephus writes: 
 
 " One might then see the lake all bloody and full of 
 dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. And a terri- 
 ble stink and a very sad sight there was, on the following 
 days, over the country; for, as for the shore, they were 
 full of shipwrecks, and of dead bodies all swelled; and 
 as the dead bodies were inflamed by the sun and putri- 
 fied, they corrupted the air, insomuch that the misery 
 was not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, 
 but to those that hated them, and had been the author 
 of their misery." 
 
 In an ignorant population, where knowledge of public 
 affairs is obtained only through oral testimony, all events 
 unfavorable to -their country become distorted and falsified 
 into those of an opposite nature. Such people remain in 
 blissful ignorance of their country's woes. They know 
 of no defeats, for time or distance soon transforms all 
 such into victories. The battle of Tarichese, therefore, 
 no doubt in later years was remembered by the lower 
 classes as a victory for the Jews. Their conceit, as well 
 as ignorance, would insure this transformation. Jesus of 
 Tiberias had been one of their own class, and would 
 naturally be revered and glorified by them as one of the 
 greatest of heroes. He would be represented to have been 
 invincible and perhaps supernatural. This battle would 
 certainly be known as one of his greatest exploits, and it 
 would be the Roman Legions, rather than their country- 
 men, who were drowned in the sea. 
 
1 68 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The non-combatant principles of the Essenestwould 
 not prevent their secret admiration for this man. People 
 cannot suppress their natural feelings through vows and 
 resolutions. It has been seen in our times how the 
 Quakers manage to give voluntary aid to their country 
 in time of war, in spite of their professed opposing senti- 
 ment. The Essenes would glory in this man, Jesus, even 
 though affecting to despise the acts that gave him his 
 renown. These several circumstances suggest the hypoth- 
 esis that the incident related of Christ, in Matt, viii, 28 
 to 34, Mark v, 2 to 17, and Luke viii, 27 to 37, of the 
 legion of devils being sent into 2,000 hogs and drowned 
 in the sea, was an allegoric reference by the Essenes to 
 the disastrous event just quoted. It is in the style such 
 people, with such views, would praise the man while 
 degrading the act. They believed some of their own 
 numbers possessed supernatural powers, and would 
 readily attach such powers to Jesus. 
 
 The statement in the gospels is a preposterous one to 
 make without explanation. Two thousand hogs would 
 be more than could be found together in the open coun- 
 try, even now in our great pork-producing country, and 
 their swollen, decaying bodies would afterwards be a 
 most serious matter. The fact that such a number was 
 represented to be in the possession of a people who did 
 not eat pork, is strong evidence that the account was 
 allegorical. The word Legion is used in an unnatural 
 manner in the the gospels, but with this explanation its 
 meaning is clear: The devils drowned in the sea, whose 
 name is Legion, were the Roman Legions, who were rep- 
 resented to have been sent into animals most abominated 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 169 
 
 by Jews. The two possessed of these Legions who could 
 not be bound were Vespasian and Titus, who could not 
 be defeated. Mark and Luke represent but one man as 
 being so possessed, while Matthew states there were two. 
 This discrepancy is favorable to this hypothesis, for Titus 
 was both second in command and son of the commander, 
 and, when the narrative was written, both father and son 
 had been emperors. Such a close connection would 
 naturally beget an indiscriminate reference to Vespasian, 
 or Vespasian and Titus, as the commanders. All the 
 gospel accounts represent that Jesus was requested to 
 " depart out of their coast," an unnatural request to make 
 under the circumstances, as represented. Josephus states 
 that the same request was made to this man, Jesus, many 
 of the citizens being very angry that those who owned 
 the city should be subjected to such dangers by men who 
 had no interest in the place. The absence of any men- 
 tion of this incident in the Fourth Gospel, indicates some 
 known objection to it when that gospel was written. 
 
 (The City of Tiberias was built by Herod when Tibe- 
 rius was Emperor, and, consequently, in the lifetime of 
 Christ; and, as Joseph was a carpenter, it may account 
 for his presence in that part of the country. Capernaum 
 is located on ancient maps as being some two or three 
 miles from Tiberias. The Sea of Galilee, or Lake Gen- 
 nesareth, or Sea of Tiberias, is only about i^^ miles 
 long by about 61/2 miles wide.) 
 
 These quotations were taken from Rev. Wm. Whis- 
 ton's translations of the works of Josephus, which is an 
 o4d and standard work. But there is a late translation of 
 The Life of Josephus, and of Jewish Wars, by Rev. 
 
I70 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Robt. Traill, in both of which the name of this man Jesus 
 is given as Joshua. Those names are equivalent in Heb- 
 rew and mean Jehovah is salvation, and if both those 
 writers had been translating from that language, there 
 would have been some excuse for this difference, pro- 
 vided each should at all times use their own translation 
 of the word Jesus wherever found. But Hebrew was a 
 dead language in the time of Christ, and the question of 
 the translation of that name had long past. Plainly, this 
 man Jesus of Tiberias had the same name as Jesus of 
 Nazareth, and whatever reason can be given for designat- 
 ing one as Joshua applies equally to the other. 
 
 This change of that name was an extreme measure on 
 the part of Mr. Traill and shows that he recognized at 
 least the possibility of traditions of this man Jesus having 
 been blended with those of Christ, and he sought to hide 
 that fact by a falsification. He translated only those 
 works of Josephus in which that man was mentioned, and 
 it is not improbable if he did not deem that alteration 
 of sufficient importance to justify his labors. It will be 
 noticed that this alteration is in the nature of a suppres- 
 sion — knowledge of an important fact is intentionally, 
 deceptively suppressed in support of that which is so 
 vehemently designated as The Truth. 
 
 For more than seventeen hundred years Christian 
 writers have, from time to time, in this manner cleared 
 away some item of evidence in conflict with their system. 
 Sometimes it has been a slight alteration, sometimes a 
 slight interpolation, and at other times a suppression, but 
 most commonly direct misrepresentations. That any 
 such items have reached us at all was because of former 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. I/I 
 
 ignorance of the exposures that time would develop. 
 Their superstition, too, has for many centuries prevented 
 any material alteration in the very place where they 
 could have done most to sustain their doctrines. In their 
 veneration for the Bible so many eyes were turned upon 
 it that from very necessity it has come down to us, 
 through later centuries, in all the nakedness of truth — not 
 of its statements — but of the superstition, credulity, dis- 
 agreement, and ignorance of its writers. 
 
 Josephus relates an incident of a deception practiced 
 upon a highly respected and virtuous lady by some priests 
 in a temple. The story is so similar to the New Testa- 
 ment account of the immaculate conception that it is 
 commented upon by Christian writers. It seems to be 
 the rule with all those writers to assume that Josephus 
 knew of the Christian movement, they only differ in their 
 theories as to why his works give no evidence of that 
 knowledge. He ought to have known of it if it was true, 
 therefore, they claim he did know of it. One theory 
 given in regard to the event referred to is that Josephus 
 originated the . story himself in order to throw discredit 
 upon the gospel account of the Virgin Mary, by robbing 
 it of its originality and implying that it was made up out 
 of that incident. 
 
 Immediately before mentioning Pilate as Procurator, 
 and consequently in the life time of Christ, Josephus, 
 both in his Jewish Wars and in Antiquities of the Jews, 
 gives an account of Judas a Galilean who led a revolt; 
 and in each of those histories association of ideas leads 
 him to immediately give an account of three religious 
 sects of Jews, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, 
 
172 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 with the latter of which he partially connects Judas. 
 The account is given most in full in Jezvish Wars, ii, 8. 
 He writes,— 
 
 "A certain Galilean, whose name was Judas, prevailed 
 with his countrymen to revolt, and said they were cow- 
 ards if they would endure to pay tax to the Romans, and 
 would, after God, submit to mortal man as their lords. 
 This man was a teacher of a peculiar sect of his own, and 
 was not at all like the rest of those their leaders." 
 
 He then at great length narrates the manners and 
 customs of the Essenes, who had all the tenets of the 
 Christians and some that the latter did not adopt. He 
 represents them in a favorable light and clearly shows 
 that Christian ideas did not originate with Christians. 
 He states that the Essenes taught that the soul was im- 
 mortal, which was not believed by the Sadducees, and 
 not fully so by the Pharisees. (It is asserted by some 
 that the Old Testament does not teach the doctrine of 
 the Immortality of the Soul. This at least shows that 
 there was a difference of opinion about it among the 
 keepers and authors of that work.) 
 
 "The Essenes rejected pleasure as an evil. They 
 despised riches, and held all property in common. They 
 neglected wedlock. Their piety towards God was very 
 extraordinary; they said grace before eating, and after- 
 wards praised God for having bestowed their food upon 
 them. They were eminent for fidelity, and were the 
 ministers of peace, and whatsoever they say is firmer 
 than an oath, but swearing is avoided by them. They 
 had prayers before sunrise, and after the fifth hour they 
 assembled together and after clothing themselves in white 
 vails, bathed in cold water. They kept very quiet and 
 their perpetual sobriety was remarkable. They were 
 stricter than any other Jews in resting from their labors 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 1 73 
 
 on the seventh day. They would assist those who were 
 in want and show mercy and bestow food upon those 
 who were in distress. There were also those among 
 them who undertook to foretell things to come," etc. 
 
 Here we see existed in the little country where 
 Christianity originated, a sect full of natural religious 
 impulses, and having sentiments and practices that 
 Christians claim were first made known to the world 
 through Christ. Where Josephus shows that the seed 
 had been abundant, Christians assert that the crop was 
 supernatural and bore a variety that had never existed 
 before. Even the Essenes did hot originate their reli- 
 gious tenets, for Josephus states that, "These men hved 
 the same kind of lives as do those whom the Greeks call 
 Pythagorians. " The ethics of Christianity was conse- 
 quently venerable with age in the time of Christ, for 
 Pythagoras lived about 560 years before that time, or some 
 350 years before the sect of Essenes was founded. . The 
 only apparent difference between the Christians and 
 Essenes is that the former did not adopt all the tenets of 
 the latter. It is probable, however, that this difference 
 was but the growth of time through the gradual neglect 
 and final abandonment of first one, and then another, of 
 the too rigid practices of the Essenes. We know, for 
 instance, that celibacy and communism were practiced by 
 the early Christians. 
 
 The description of John the Baptist accords well with 
 the Essenes, and he may have belonged to that body of 
 Jews. His proselytes at least were evidently drawn 
 largely from them. Renan in his Life of Jesus states 
 that, "The Essenes or Therapeutes were established near 
 the country of John, upon the eastern borders of the 
 
174 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Dead Sea." John and his disciples were plainly familiar 
 with the sentiments of that order. The New Testament 
 has much in it of the Pharisees and Sadducees, but it 
 contains not one word that indicates a knowledge of the 
 Essenes. This omission or elimination is a virtual 
 acknowledgement that the latter preceded Christ in senti- 
 ments attributed to him. It is the church's proclamation 
 of its jealously of that body. 
 
 Josephus does not state that Judas was an Essene, but 
 association of ideas which he twice exhibits indicates that 
 he was closely allied to. them, though a leader of a sect 
 of his own. He locates his time at about the beginning 
 of the Procuratorship of Pilate, but he closes the account 
 by stating that, "It was in Gessius Florus's time that the 
 nation began to go mad with this distemper" (referring 
 to the sentiments taught by Judas and others). It was 
 the tyranny of Florus, more particularly, that drove the 
 Jews into rebellion against the Romans. 
 
 Judas's opposition to paying taxes seemed to be based 
 upon ignorance of his relations and duties to govern- 
 ment, rather than upon a disposition to rebel against the 
 Romans. An incident recorded in the synoptic gospels 
 indicates that Jesus also opposed paying taxes. He was 
 asked by Pharisees and Herodians, sent to "catch him in 
 his words" (Mark xii, 13), or "spies which should feign" 
 friendship (Luke xx, 20), if it was lawful to give tribute 
 to Cesar? 
 
 This question, under such circumstances, shows that 
 they had reason to expect that he would conyict himself 
 to resistance to the law in that respect. His answer, also, 
 is confirmatory of this, for he gives an ingenious reply 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. IJS 
 
 that seems to be favorable, but which does not meet the 
 question. The authorities could not object to his senti- 
 ments as expressed in his answer, while on the other 
 hand his companions could not charge him with having 
 weakened in the presence of those officers. After being 
 told that the image and superscription on the penny was 
 Cesar's, he gave that oft quoted reply, "Render to Cesar 
 the things that are Cesar's, and to God the things that 
 are God's. " However correct this sentiment may be, 
 the inference has no connection with the question, for 
 coin with Cesar's image and superscription upon it would 
 not necessarily belong to Cesar. Refusal to pay taxes 
 would naturally be made in the belief that the authori- 
 ties had no right to levy it. Hence, while seeming to 
 assent to the officers, Jesus could say to his companions 
 that the money demanded in payment of taxes should 
 not be rendered to Cesar, for it did not belong to him. 
 
 In Matthew xvii, 25, 26, 27, Jesus is represented as 
 hesitating and but tolerating payment of tribute; and 
 though it is stated to have been paid by a miracle, it was 
 made to appear to have been done because it was a trifle 
 unworthy of dispute. 
 
 In one place Josephus writes of Judas as a Gaulonite, 
 a town in Galilee, and he is referred to by that title by 
 Gibbon. (See late quotation.) He is also mentioned in 
 Acts v, 37. Here, again, association of ideas connects 
 him with the Christian movement; otherwise there was 
 no apparent reason why the lawyer Gamaliel should have 
 singled out Judas and Theudas from the many bands of 
 men in Judea in those troublesome times. Life was 
 cheap in those days. There were too many who perished 
 
176 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to make that a reason for naming them. Peter and the 
 Apostles were being tried for persisting to advocate the 
 doctrines of Jesus, and this brought to the mind of Ga- 
 maliel two leaders of similar bands — Judas and Theudas. 
 The latter was a pretended prophet, who said that if the 
 people would follow him to the river Jordan he would 
 divide the water. 
 
 Josephus also writes of Theudas in the same para- 
 graph with Judas, and, as shown, is also reminded by 
 them of a body similar to the Christians. He gives this 
 account in that part of his histories where Christ should 
 have been mentioned if he had known of him. The sen- 
 timents, location, repeated association of ideas, and time 
 of this man Judas, therefore, closely connect him with 
 Christ. The odium the disciples caused to be attached 
 to that name may have had its origin in rivalry and jeal- 
 ousy. The circumstances suggest the possibility of his 
 having led a wing of the followers of John the Baptist. 
 It is worthy of note that among the lost gospels there 
 was one by Judas Iscariot, which is certainly inconsistent 
 with the New Testament account of his treachery. 
 
 But Josephus relates an incident that indicates that he 
 did hear an undefined fragment of the traditional rumors 
 of Christ. It is, for reasons before mentioned, attached 
 to the siege of Jerusalem about 35 years later. It is in 
 Jewish Wars, Book iv. Chap. 5: 
 
 But what was still more terrible, there was one Jesus, 
 the son of Ananus, a plebian and a husbandman, who, 
 four years before the war began, and at a time when the 
 city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that 
 feast whereon it is our custom to make tabernacles to God 
 in the temple, and began on a sudden to cry aloud, ' A 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 1 7/ 
 
 voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from 
 the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and holy houses, 
 a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, a voice 
 against the whole people.' This was his cry as he went 
 about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. 
 However, certain of the most eminent among the popu- 
 lace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took 
 up the man and gave him a great number of severe stripes: 
 yet did not he either say anything for himself or any- 
 thing peculiar to those that chastized him, but still went 
 on with the same words which he cried before. There- 
 upon, our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, 
 that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought 
 him to the Roman Procurator, when he was whipped 
 until his bones were laid bare; yet did not he make any 
 supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning 
 his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every 
 stroke of the whip his answer was ' Woe, woe to Jerusa- 
 lem.' And when Albinus (for he was then our Procura- 
 tor) asked him ' who he was, and whence he came, and 
 why he uttered such words?' he made no manner of reply 
 to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy 
 ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman and dismissed 
 him. Now during all the time that passed before the 
 war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, 
 nor was seen by them while he said so; but he every day 
 uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premedi- 
 tated vow, 'Woe, woe to Jerusalem.' Nor did he give ill 
 words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good 
 words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply 
 to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy pres- 
 age of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest 
 at the festivals: and he continued this ditty for seven 
 years and five months without growing hoarse or being 
 tired therewith, until the very time that he saw his pres- 
 age in earnest fulfillment in our siege, when it ceased: 
 for as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out 
 
178 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 with his utmost force, ' Woe, woe to the city again, and 
 to the people, and to the holy houses.' And just as he 
 added at the last, ' Woe, woe to myself also,' there came 
 a stone out of one of the engines and smote him, and 
 and killed him immediately: and as he was uttering the 
 very same passage he gave up the ghost." 
 
 The siege and capture of Jerusalem would naturally 
 excite the superstition of that superstitious people, and 
 would enable the disciples of Jesus to claim it as a result 
 of his persecution. It evidently gave an impetus to the 
 Christian movement, for it is only after that time that 
 there began to be written accounts of it. Stories of Jesus 
 would be revived, and as he was then generally unknown, 
 they would become distorted, as all rumors do, and natu- 
 rally some of them would become connected with the time 
 of the siege. All the expressions this man is represented 
 as using are about the same as some attributed to Christ, 
 particularly the one he was said to use the most, "Woe, 
 woe to Jerusalem, to the people, and to the holy houses. " 
 A figure of bridegrooms and brides is used a few times 
 in the gospels, and his refusal to answer questions when 
 before the authorities is much like the representations of 
 Christ under the same circumstances. He made his ap- 
 pearance in Jerusalem at the passover, the same as Christ. 
 The gospels also state that Christ was scourged, and 
 finally the same expression is used at his death, "He 
 gave up the ghost." 
 
 There are enough coincidents in this account to make 
 it very probable that it is ^ vague, distorted fragment of 
 a direct superstitious rumor of Jesus that reached the ear 
 of Josephus. Its unimportance is consistent with his 
 omission of any account satisfactory to Christians, and 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. 1/9 
 
 consistent with his absolute ignorance of the existence of 
 Christ. 
 
 The capture of Jerusalem, which event occurred but 
 a short time before Josephus wrote his works, was the 
 last of four simple events to which Christianity owes its 
 origin, The accounts of Jesus having prophesied the 
 destruction of Jerusalem and the temple were written 
 after the city was captured and the temple destroyed. 
 Nevertheless that Jesus made such a prophecy is prob- 
 able, because it was, under the circumstances, natural. 
 Any man claiming supernatural powers would scarcely 
 fail, when so situated, to predict the destruction of homes 
 and all that was cherished by the people who were about 
 to torture him. 
 
 Furthermore, a man of ordinary intelligence could 
 readily foresee that any occupation of Jerusalem by the 
 multitude that accompanied him, or by any body of Jews 
 in the rebellion that was then brewing, would be but tem- 
 porary. It required but slight discernment into the 
 future to see that such an occupation would soon bring 
 the Romans, 
 
 "Who would cast a trench about the city and compass 
 it around, and keep it in on every side, and who would 
 lay it even with the ground. " 
 
 When, therefore, the city was taken some 25 to 35 
 y.ears later, and this possible prediction /«r//j/, but not 
 wholly, fulfilled, it would naturally have great effect upon 
 the intensely superstitious followers of Jesus, and be a 
 great lever in their hands to act upon the superstition of 
 others. Jerusalem was simply being restored to the 
 government that was in authority in the time of Christ. 
 
l8o THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 But they were God's chosen people and as their temple 
 was destroyed something equivalent to the end of the 
 world ought to follow. 
 
 John the Baptist had been actuated in his movement 
 by this same idea, and in doing so he unconsciously 
 made the first step in erecting the Christian superstition, 
 by proclaiming the coming of the Messiah. The second 
 step was in Jesus claiming to be that Messiah, and was a 
 result of the first. The third step was in the powerful 
 effect made upon the minds of his simple disciples by the 
 disappearance of his body, or his possible resucitation. 
 The fourth and last step was this seeming fulfillment of his 
 prophesy by the capture of Jerusalem and destruction of 
 the temple. 
 
 In this simple succession of events lies the origin of 
 Christianity as a distinct body. Their articles of faith, 
 as now understood, were mostly to be developed in the 
 future. Time enforced a renunciation of certain imprac- 
 ticable doctrines, and future difficulties enforced the 
 adoption of others, the whole forming a combination 
 unknown to the primitive Christians. Not that that 
 combination was composed of parts original with the 
 Christians in later times, for it was not. One of their 
 greatest future difficulties they met with their worst doc- 
 trine, which they borrowed from mythology. That com- 
 bination, and their ideas of Christ, is all that is original 
 in the system. The reader is referred to a late work — 
 Evolution and Christianity , by J. F. Yorke — for an 
 account of the many parallels between the Christian 
 religion and others that preceded it. 
 
JOSEPHUS AND JESUS OF TIBERIAS. l8l 
 
 When Josephus wrote, that movement needed to be 
 somewhat sanctified by time; it required a little forgetful- 
 ness to rob it of much that even then was commonplace 
 and coarse. Time had not done this while Josephus yet 
 lived; the structure had not sufficiently progressed, and, 
 hence, he only heard a little of the coarse material upon 
 which Christianity was founded. In his loud silence 
 alone there is sufficient evidence of the untruthfulness of 
 the accounts of Jesus Christ, as given in the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
 More is known of St. Paul than of any character men- 
 tioned in the New Testament. The circumstances that 
 led to his greater renown grew out of the fact that he 
 knew — not more — but less of Christ that did any of the 
 other apostles. He had not, like them, been with Christ 
 and become thoroughly imbued with his sentiments, and 
 therefore freer to act upon ideas of his own when occa- 
 sion required. Except for those more practicable ideas 
 of his we should never have heard either of him or of 
 Christ. Paul's religious nature was powerfully acted upon 
 by what he regarded as his supernatural conversion. He 
 describes what is believed by some to have been a sun- 
 stroke which may have affected his mind. The mind and 
 health are often seriously impaired in such cases, and his 
 absence in Arabia (Gal. i, 17) immediately after, may 
 have been but his slow recovery. That he set much upon 
 that event is manifest from his frequent allusions to it, 
 and by the position he assumed towards the other apos- 
 tles because of it. An account of it is given in full three 
 times in the Acts of the Apostles, and his references to 
 it were usually with a view to asserting the divine author- 
 ity of his doctrines. Evidently he would not admit any 
 authority over him by the other apostles, even when in 
 a united body. He said he was "An Apostle not of men, 
 neither of man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father 
 who raised him from the dead. " 
 
ST. PAUL. 183 
 
 In the first and second chapter of his Epistle to the 
 Galatians he strongly proclaims his independence of the 
 other Apostles and implies superiority over them. He 
 said if any other man, or an angel from heaven, preach 
 any other doctrine to them than that which he had 
 preached "Let him be accursed^" He indirectly states in 
 the lOth verse that God speaks to them through him, and 
 that the gospel which he preached was not taught to him 
 by man. He then goes on to show his authority for this 
 statement by calling attention to his miraculous conver- 
 sion, which he assumes they had heard of; an assumption 
 that shows his own high ideas of its importance. 
 
 He then states that when it pleased God to call him 
 to reveal His Son, he did not confer with any body, and 
 especially that he did not go to Jerusalem nor to the 
 apostles before him. Not until three years after did he 
 visit Jerusalem and then he saw of the apostles only Peter 
 and James. He afterward went into the region of Syria 
 and Cilicia and was unknown by face to his fellow church- 
 men in Judea. He did not go to Jerusalem again until 
 fourteen years after, and asserts that he then went up by 
 revelation not to consult, but to communicate unto them 
 that gospel which he preached among the Gentiles. That 
 is to say, he had been sent by the Almighty to instruct 
 those apostles who had been taught by Christ. 
 
 That visit discloses the existence of jealousy and 
 rivalry between them. He writes of false brethren brought 
 in " To spy out our liberty ivhich we have in Christ yesiis." 
 The apostles were plainly angry with him for his preten- 
 tions, and his independent promulgation of sentiments 
 that were exclusively his own. Questions as to superior 
 
1 84 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 authority must have been raised, for he states that he did 
 not give place by subjection to them, "No, not for an 
 hour." The strength of this expression indicates the 
 acrimony of the contest that drew it out. He states that 
 in conference they added nothing to him. In his opinion 
 he was there to teach rather than to be taught, and he 
 learned nothing from them. He writes that James, 
 Cephas, [Peter] and John ''seemed to be pillars" as 
 though he had never known that, and implies that some 
 concession was made to him when they perceived the 
 grace that was given him, and they gave him and Barna- 
 bas " the right hand of fellowship. " 
 
 But this seeming restoratioA of harmony is not sus- 
 tained in the subsequent verses, for there was continued 
 contention about the great question of preaching to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 According to Acts of the Apostles the authority for 
 preaching to other than Jews was derived through Peter's 
 vision, accompanying Cornelius's miraculous conversion. 
 This goes to show that the one or two sentences in- 
 serted in the gospels were interpolations (Matt, xxviii, 
 19; Mark xiii, 10, and xvi, 15). Peter and the apostles 
 did not so understand it, and as against those slight and 
 timid interpolations, the gospels record repeated instances 
 where Christ exhibited most intolerant aversion to Gen- 
 tiles. He compares them to dogs, and unequivocally 
 asserted that he was sent for the lost sheep of Israel only. 
 (Matt. XV, 24-26.) But even the account of Peter's vis- 
 ion and his reference to it, is inconsistent with later 
 accounts, and must also have been an interpolation, for 
 now, after many years, the question of admitting Gentiles 
 
ST. PAUL. l8S 
 
 causes an angry contention and is plainly opposed by 
 Peter. It was the cause of a delegation from Antioch to 
 Jerusalem, and a second delegation from Jerusalem to 
 Antioch; the two conferences ending in a division into 
 two parties, as they were unable to agree. Paul says: 
 
 "When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him 
 to the face, because he was to be blamed. 
 
 For, before that certain came from James, he did eat 
 with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he with- 
 drew, and separated himself, fearing them -which were of 
 the circumcision. 
 
 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; 
 insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their 
 dissimulation." 
 
 It will be seen by this that Peter was not willing to 
 eat with Christians as now understood in the system, even 
 though those lines have been doctored with intent to hide 
 that fact. Paul and Barnabas had not only failed to in- 
 duce the apostles at Jerusalem to assent to the admission 
 of Gentiles, but on the contrary they had been followed 
 to Antioch by Peter to counteract Paul's efforts; and he 
 (Peter) succeeded in inducing Barnabas to yield to the 
 authority of the Jerusalem council. Paul's assumption 
 that "the gospel of the uncircumcised was committed 
 unto him, as the gospel of the circumcised was to Peter" 
 is a demand that his supernatural pretensions' be admitted 
 the same as Peter's. It is also equivalent to an admission 
 on his part that he knew nothing of the pretended story 
 of Peter's vision. 
 
 His charge that Peter would not eat with Gentiles 
 when Jews were present was evidently put forth to make 
 Peter unpopular with the former, otherwise it was trivial, 
 and its publication injurious to their cause. 
 
1 86 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 This visit of Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, and the 
 evident feeling upon the Gentile and circumcision ques- 
 tion, is also given in Acts xv. The return delegation 
 (which was unnecessary if they were in harmony) is 
 mentioned, but Peter's name is not given as a delegate. 
 Paul's account discloses enough to show that there was a 
 spirited contest and much ill feeling, in which Paul's 
 friend and companion was won over to the other side, 
 and they separated from that time. 
 
 The reason for this separation is given in Acts as 
 being because Barnabas wanted Mark to go with them, 
 which Paul refused because he had left them on a former 
 occasion. This is not the whole truth. Mark's leaving 
 them at the time referred to was a serious offense to Paul, 
 because he did so to side with the Jerusalem party, and 
 immediately went to that city. (Acts xiii, 13.) The 
 offense consisted in the motive for leaving them, and not 
 in the act itself, and without change of views would con- 
 tinue to be as offensive to Barnabas as to Paul. But 
 Barnabas had changed sides upon the Gentile question, 
 and was therefore in harmony with Mark; while Paul, 
 with his views, could preach with neither. 
 
 In Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians (chapter iii) he also 
 asserts his divine ordination and that he was exclusively 
 sent to the Gentiles. He says: 
 
 2 in chapter i. "If ye have heard of the dispensation 
 of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 
 
 3. How that by revelation he made known unto me 
 the mystery, as I wrote afore in a few words; 
 
 4. Whereby when ye read, ye may understand my 
 knowledge in the mystery of Christ, 
 
 5. Which in other ages was not made known unto 
 
ST. PAUL. 187 
 
 the souls of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy 
 apostles and prophets by the spirit; 
 
 6. That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of 
 the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by 
 the gospel. 
 
 7. Whereof I was made a minister, according to the 
 gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual 
 working of his power. 
 
 8. Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, 
 is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gen- 
 tiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
 
 The modesty expressed in this last verse was not 
 characteristic of Paul. It is in sharp contrast with the 
 spirit exhibited in his Epistles to the Gallatians (i, 8), 
 where he hurls curses upon any who preach any other 
 gospel than that which he had preached, even though it 
 were an angel from heaven. 
 
 Paul has much to say in his Epistle to the Romans 
 upon this question of the admission of the Gentiles. He 
 seems to argue upon that point in nearly every chapter. 
 He twice alludes to "my gospel," and also to his having 
 been especially appointed an apostle to the Gentiles 
 (xi, 13; XV, 16, 18). He not only asserted his broad 
 claim to divine inspiration, and to his independence of 
 the other apostles, but he acted it in his intercourse with 
 others. He had a strong will and was combative, and 
 evidently met with much opposition and contention. His 
 Epistles show that he would not tolerate an}- difference 
 with others in his opinions. He seemed to look upon 
 himself as quite the head and chief authority of the church, 
 and, judging from the New Testament, he was. Most of 
 that book, after the gospels, is devoted to his acts. 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Nearly all the Epistles are by him, and two-thirds of the 
 Acts of the Apostles are taken up with accounts of him. 
 
 This, however, does not by any means prove Paul 
 was intellectually superior to any of the others, but it 
 does prove that his doctrines were more acceptable to 
 the church some two hundred years later than were those 
 of the other Apostles. He and his followers were a 
 party by themselves, and when in time the church lead- 
 ers were incorporating those early writings into the New 
 Testament, they would have to wholly reject Paul, or 
 wholly accept him and reject the others. They made the 
 latter choice, being forced to do so by Paul's liberal views 
 upon the admission of Gentiles. 
 
 There is no room to question the fact that, Jesus first, 
 and Peter and all the Apostles except Paul afterwards, 
 never consented to the admission into the church of any 
 but circumcised Jews. The few interpolated passages to the 
 contrary are abundantly contradicted, as shown by other 
 accounts, which undoubtedly were too well known to be 
 eliminated from the gospels. The other Apostles were 
 safe in Jerusalem at a time when the Jews were exceed- 
 ingly incensed against Paul, and would have killed him 
 but for the Roman officers. This shows that it was not 
 belief in Christ that enraged the Jews. It is plain that 
 his adherents were tolerated there as part of themselves. 
 Such preaching as the Apostles had done in other coun- 
 tries had only been to Jews in these countries. This is 
 not only frequently disclosed, but it is asserted in one 
 instance by Peter, in Acts xi, 19. He said: 
 
 " Now they which were scattered abroad upon the 
 persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as 
 
ST. PAUL. 189 
 
 Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word 
 to none but unto the Jews only. " 
 
 But Paul, by preaching to the Gentiles, and, above 
 all, by holding any doctrine that admitted the uncircum- 
 cised to an equality, was touching them (the Jews) in 
 their most cherished article of conceit, and, in so doing, 
 he would be looked upon by them as an apostate and 
 traitor. That the Jews had this feeling is well known to 
 his fellow Christians before he went to Jerusalem, for 
 they warned him not to go, though they knew the other 
 Apostles were there unmolested. The brethren in Jeru- 
 salem also understood the feeling against Paul exclu- 
 sively, and promptly informed him of his danger on his 
 arrival, stating, in substance, what was true, that he 
 subverted the laws of Moses and taught that circumcision 
 was no longer necessary. Acts xxi, 21. 
 
 When Paul first called upon the brethren on this 
 occasion he reported or boasted of what he had accom- 
 plished among the Gentiles, his particular field of opera- 
 tions (xxi, 19). The spirit of the brethren's reply was to 
 the effect that sufficient success had attended preaching 
 to the Jews, who zealously kept the laws of Moses, to 
 deprive Paul of any excuse for preaching to a class whom 
 the Almighty had excluded from Zion. They said: 
 
 "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews 
 there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the 
 law. " 
 
 In his address to the Jews, given in the next chapter, 
 Paul was trying to justify his course, by claiming that he 
 had a divine command to go " far hence unto the Gen- 
 tiles," but his mention of the latter gave immediate 
 
I go THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 offense to them. Whatever doctrines a Jew might other- 
 wise have, he must remain true to the exclusiveness of 
 the Jews. The foundation of their superstition was, that 
 God cared only for them, and any doctrine that admitted 
 Gentiles to an equality amounted to an abnegation of 
 their religion. 
 
 These several circumstances all go to prove that ad- 
 mitting Gentiles, and omitting some of the Jewish cus- 
 toms, were the doctrines and acts of Paul exclusively. 
 When, therefore, in those later times the church was 
 wholly composed of Gentiles, they found that those doc- 
 trines of Peter and the other Apostles excluded them all 
 under any circumstances, and had to be suppressed at 
 all hazards. Those doctrines were too narrow for the 
 wide field the church had then attained. 
 
 But Peter was directly appointed by Christ. He was 
 his chief disciple, and the leader after the crucifixion, at 
 a time when Paul was persecuting them; and hence there 
 were far greater reasons why the church should accept 
 him as authority wherever he differed with Paul. For 
 these reasons it was impossible to wholly ignore him. It 
 was indispensable that some of his writings be incorpo - 
 rated into the New Testament. Such would naturally 
 be the considerations of those compilers, and the condi- 
 tion of that book indicate that such was the case. Two 
 short Epistles of his are inserted, and some of his say- 
 ings and doings are recorded in Acts, but the whole is 
 shamefully small for the man who above all others should 
 have been most favored by the church, provided it was 
 actuated by no other consideration than a wish to know 
 the exact truth as to the sentiment of Jesus Christ. 
 
ST. PAUL. 191 
 
 The limited amount of Peter's works admitted indi- 
 cate how objectionable his sentiments must have been, 
 for his suppressed gospel was the best known of any, and 
 no doubt there were other of his writings. The little that 
 was admitted has not been so much doctored but that his 
 Jewish exclusiveness can be detected. It is addressed to 
 " The strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, 
 Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," but the contents show 
 that he meant the Jews only, who would be strangers in 
 those countries. He writes (I Peter ii, 9): 
 
 "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 
 a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show 
 forth the praises of him who hath called you out of dark- 
 ness into his marvelous light. " 
 
 In the 1 2th verse he writes: "^Having your conversa- 
 tion honest among the Gentiles," showing that it was 
 the Jews who were the royal priesthood, holy nation, 
 etc., etc., in case any could have doubted that he so 
 meant. In chapter iii, 6, he alludes to the women as 
 daughters of Abraham. In chapter iv, 3, 4, he is par- 
 ticularly severe upon the Gentiles. When the Jews had 
 walked in laciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, 
 banquetings, and abominable idolatries, they were but 
 doing as the Gentiles would have them do, an.d they (the 
 Gentiles) would think it strange that they did not con- 
 tinue to run with them to the same excesses. 
 
 The Epistle of James, also, is addressed to the twelve 
 tribes only. Those Apostles could see nothing com- 
 mendable in any body but Jews. They tolerated no 
 other. ■ 
 
 Barnabas seems to have been an important man 
 
192 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 among them, and we should have heard more of him but 
 for the same resson that he also had a record not in keep- 
 ing with the doctrines of the church in later times. Paul's 
 companionship with him is favorable to the supposition 
 that he (Paul) did not consider him a rival, for Paul's 
 nature demanded subjection to'his will.' In one instance, 
 however, the people gave Barnabas the superior position, 
 for they called him Jupiter, and Paul Mercurius (Acts 
 xiv, 12). This is inconsistent with the leading part 
 attributed to Paul. 
 
 Lewis, in his Life bf St. Paul states that this may 
 have been owing to Paul's very small stature. He was 
 too small a man to be consistent with their ideas of 
 Jupiter. Nothing in the New Testament shows that Paul 
 was a small-sized man.. When we come to trace these 
 little items of information derived from outside the New 
 Testament, they usually prove to be from some confess- 
 edly untrustworthy source. From a more or less ac- 
 knowledged falsehood a little will often be accepted as 
 truth, simply because it was possible and gratifies curi- 
 osity, or because it is desirable that it be held as truth. 
 The progress of Christianity was not rapid enough to lift 
 any of the characters in the New Testament out of 
 obscurity in their own life times. We know more of 
 Paul than of Barnabas, simply because his doctrines were 
 more acceptable. But we do not know how much of 
 Barnabas's has been suppressed, nor, for the same reason 
 do we know how Paul's intellectual abilities compared 
 with his and with those of the other apostles, for even 
 Paul's more acceptable doctrines were the result of cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
ST. PAUL. 193 
 
 Paul's willingness to include Gentiles in the plan of 
 salvation, did not come through divine revelations to 
 himself, nor through Peter's pretended vision, nor through 
 commands of Christ; neither of which he had ever heard. 
 He did not preach to Gentiles through heavenly wisdom 
 or from a heart over-flowing with loving kindness; but 
 on the contrary it was anger, resentment, spite, that and 
 nothing more that turned Paul to them. He preached to 
 Gentiles because he could not reach the Jews. With him 
 it was Gentile followers or none. 
 
 However much those original compilers and expungers 
 of the Bible may have suppressed, they still overlooked 
 many little items that unintentionally threw light upon 
 that which they would have hidden. Their superstition 
 in part, but mostly their incompetency, blinded them 
 into admitting certain passages that would have been re- 
 jected if they could have realized the full extent of that 
 which they exposed. The 46th verse of the thirteenth 
 chapter of Acts contains one of those items of informa- 
 tion that Usually they would have suppressed. To those 
 men, however, this little item would have been a matter 
 of indifference compared to the greater facts they were 
 intent upon hiding. They wished to suppress all evidence 
 of the local and temporary nature of the teachings of 
 Christ, beside which the mere matter of Paul's personal 
 distinction would hardly seem worthy of notice. Hence 
 it is that the following verse was admitted which robs 
 Paul of the glory of the one doctrine of his that made 
 him the most prominent man in the formation of the 
 Christian religion. He said to the Jews at Antioch: 
 
 " It was necessary that the word of God should first 
 
194 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 have been spoken unto you: but seeing ye put it fronni 
 you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, 
 lo, we turn to the Gentiles." 
 
 The Jews in other places were more incensed against 
 him than against his companions. They drove him out 
 of Thessalonica and Berea, although Silas and Timotheus 
 could remain in the latter city (Acts xvi). He then 
 preached in Athens after which he went to Corinth where 
 there were Jews and a synagogue in which he reasoned 
 every Sabbath. 
 
 The New Testament shows that ^ny Jew, when so 
 disposed, could speak in the synagogues; nor were they 
 prohibited from advancing new doctrines or theories. 
 Their religion was treated about as political questions are 
 now. It was their law, and their synagogues were pub- 
 lic property. It is shown that Christ and his apostles 
 preached their doctrines in the synagogues for a time. 
 When Paul reached Corinth from Athens he evidently 
 spoke in the synagogue at first as a Jew, and did not 
 mention Christ untiPafter the arrival of Silas and Timo- 
 theus. It seemingly required the presence of those men 
 to give him the necessary courage to proclaim those 
 accounts of Jesus that had become so obnoxious to the 
 Jews. But when they arrived, — 
 
 "Paul was pressed in spirit, and testified to the Jews 
 that Jesus was Christ." An assertion which, as usual, 
 angered them. 
 
 "And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, 
 he shook his raiment, and said unto them, ' Your blood 
 be upon your own heads: I am clean: from henceforth I 
 will go unto the Gentiles.'' " Acts xviii, 5, 6. 
 
ST. PAUL. 195 
 
 But Barnabas, unfortunately for him, did not share 
 those feelings with Paul. He and the apostles had sepa- 
 rated from him, and in so doing they turned their backs 
 upon the Christian world, and Christianity from that 
 point left their history in obscurity. The Gentile ques- 
 tion was the rock upon which they split. It was that that 
 caused the suppression of the works of Peter and the 
 other apostles by the church in later times, and caused 
 their otherwise superior position to be superseded by 
 Paul. As it is, Christianity has of them but little more 
 than their names. None of those men were laboring for 
 future generations, and when those generations came 
 they had to ignore them or be left without the religion 
 they had been brought up to believe. 
 
 Gibbon says that — 
 
 " The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all cir- 
 cumcised Jews; and the congregations over which they 
 presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of 
 Christ. It was natural that the primitive traditions of a 
 church which was founded only forty days after the death 
 of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under 
 the immediate inspection of his apostles, should be 
 received as the standard of orthodoxy. The distant 
 churches very frequently appealed to the authority of 
 their venerable parent, and relieved her distresses by a 
 liberal contribution of alms." 
 
 All the inspired writers were Jews. If there is a word 
 in the Bible by a Gentile (and there are many) it is an 
 interpolation. So completely Jewish was the Church 
 that it has been obliged to adopt their great conceit, and 
 admit that the Jews were originally God's chosen peo- 
 ple; but it attempts to escape prolonging this humiliation 
 by asserting that they ceased to be so when they crucified 
 
196 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Christ. But Paul, their great authority, the only apostle 
 who tolerated them, did not so instruct. Such a senti- 
 ment as that would have filled him with indignation. The 
 sacredness and superiority of the Jews was as much the 
 corner stone of the religion of Paul as it was of that of 
 all the apostles. 
 
 Paul explains the matter very differently. All the 
 covenants had been between God and the Jews. No 
 sacred agreements whatever had been made for the Gen- 
 tile world. He shows' the latter that their great misfor- 
 tune consisted in being strangers and aliens from his 
 country. Not being Jews they were without God in the 
 world and no doubt quite unknown to Him. Like Peter, 
 Paul considered that as they were not Jews they were 
 "Dead in trespasses and sins." They could not avail 
 themselves of the sacred bargains made exclusively for 
 the benefit of the Jews. The situation, therefore, left 
 the Gentiles without hope. But Paul alone now took it 
 upon himself to say that through faith in Christ they 
 could be admitted as parties in the sacred contracts. 
 Paul saw no pulling down of the Jews by the crucifixion; 
 .such an idea would have been unendurable to him. The 
 service that Christ rendered was to elevate the Gentiles, 
 though he does not make it clear whether they were 
 elevated to an equality with the Jews in all respects, or 
 not. He probably did not intend to be so understood, 
 for he boasted of how thoroughly a Jew he was, and evi- 
 dently considered that essential to his sacredness and 
 leadership. 
 
 The chapter where Paul explains this has not been 
 tampered with so much but that his views are too clearly 
 
ST. PAUL. 197 
 
 expressed to be misunderstood except by those who will 
 not see. The words are in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 chapter ii. 
 
 12. "That at that time ye were without Christ, being 
 aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers 
 from the covenants of promise, having no hope and with- 
 out God in the world: 
 
 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were 
 far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 
 
 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and 
 foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the 
 household of God. " 
 
 Paul boasted that however much a man might claim 
 as a Jew that he could claim more. He said (Phil, iii, 
 
 4, 5): 
 
 "If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he 
 might trust in the flesh, I more: 
 
 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of 
 the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as 
 touching the law a Pharisee. " 
 
 He has much to say about the law, meaning the Jew- 
 ish religious laws and ceremonies, ten commandments, 
 etc., and by substituting the latter words in place of the 
 law in many instances much light will be thrown on his 
 meaning (see Phil, iii, 6, 9). He has enough to say 
 about the law in connection with Christ to indicate that 
 he recognized difficulties there which required explaining. 
 Whether he did so satisfactorily in all cases is not clear, 
 but the extent of his labors in connection therewith shows 
 that he considered the work important. He clearly 
 taught that keeping the ten commandments alone would 
 not save a man. If so "then Christ is dead in vain." 
 This matter will be treated of elsewhere. 
 
 John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, and St. Paul are nearly 
 
igS THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the sole actors in the beginning of Christianity. John 
 unknowingly originated the movement, and Paul enlarged 
 its field of operations. The part that Christ performed 
 was but little more than a figure. He supplied but the 
 shadowy outlines of a short career which each and every 
 believer in the Christian era has filled up in his imagina- 
 tion according to his ideas of a God. The obscurity of 
 Christ was an indispensable requisite to a successful adop- 
 tion of his divine pretensions. It left full play for the 
 imagination, which has done more for him than all the 
 apostles and all the writers that ever lived. 
 
 Paul evidently possessed great command of language. 
 This has always been a greater power than it would be if 
 people did not so often mistake superior language for 
 wisdom. A fine flow of words often blinds the hearer 
 or reader to erroneous or inconsequential ideas. In those 
 ancient times when so few could read, it is probable that 
 command of language was even a greater power than it 
 is now. Some of Paul's Epistles are looked upon as 
 quite superior — the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthi- 
 ans as an instance. Some of the sentiments it expresses, 
 however, are not exactly true, and the virtue of charity 
 is exaggerated, as compared to other qualities; but its 
 words flow sweetly quite in itself like "'a tinkling cymbal." 
 
 With such command of language as he had, and such 
 strong will and persistency, he did more than any other 
 man (all, in fact,) to sustain and extend the Christian 
 movement in the most critical time of its existence — the 
 years between the crucifixio7i and the capture of Jerusa- 
 lem by Titus. That event evidently gave an impetus to 
 the Christian movement, as it filled the possible, because 
 natural, prophecy of Christ, and was sufficient to prolong 
 it into later times, when new considerations entered into 
 its support. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ST. PAUL AND THE ASCENSION. 
 
 Paul knew nothing of the ascension; it had not been 
 thought of in his time. He often spoke of the resurrec- 
 tion, and always had reference to it only, when alluding 
 to Jesus having arisen. 
 
 The story of the ascension grew in a natural manner, 
 and was probably not inserted in the New Testament 
 until after the promulgation of the canonical gospels, as 
 the only clear account of it is in the first chapter of Acts. 
 It was an outgrowth of the unsupernatural presence of 
 Jesus upon the earth. His ideas were simple. His 
 second coming was to be soon — in the lifetime of his 
 disciples — and no coming would be satisfactory unless he 
 was seen coming " Among the clouds with the angels, 
 armed with great power." And while his coming was 
 intended to be understood as desirable for the world, the 
 description of what it was to be is one of terror. 
 
 His predictions related mostly to Jerusalem and the 
 temple, the destruction of the latter being magnified into 
 a most important event. His field of operation and ideas 
 of time and events were narrow. John the Baptist pro- 
 claimed the coming of the Messiah, and if Jesus was that 
 Messiah, his presence filled John's predictions and the 
 prophesies of the Jews also; and now to still preach of 
 another coming of Christ while he was yet here was 
 equivalent to an admission that this first appearance was 
 
200 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 a disappointment and failure. It was. He did not fill 
 their expectations, because he had been born like other 
 people, and had not come in the clouds, according to their 
 ideas of a God. 
 
 This was the greatest difficulty Christ and his disci- 
 ples had to overcome. People could not believe in the 
 divinity of a man whose life they all knew to have been 
 so commonplace. They said (Matt, xiii, 55 > 56): 
 
 " Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother 
 called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and 
 Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all 
 with us? Whence then hath this man all these things ? " 
 
 This was a natural criticism of one who made such 
 pretenses. They recognized the fact that one claiming 
 to be a God should have supernatural powers in coming 
 to or leaving the earth, and several of the representations 
 of Jesus evidently had their origin in efforts to overcome 
 this difficulty. The doctrine of the immaculate concep- 
 tion, for instance, was an indispensable necessity on the 
 part of those claiming that a man born like other people 
 was, nevertheless, the Son of God. 
 
 The second coming of Christ was simply a promise 
 to do in the future what he should have been able to have 
 done then. He had not come in the clouds, displaying 
 great power and glory at that time, but would do so upon 
 another occasion, in sight of his disciples. But when 
 long afterwards that promise still remained unfulfilled, 
 the then powerful church incorporated into the New Test- 
 ament the story of the ascension. Christ had not origin- 
 ally came in the clouds, but they would remedy this by 
 asserting that, at his final departure, he went up into 
 them. 
 
ST. PAUL. 201 
 
 There are but two sentences in the four gospels in- 
 dorsing the ascension, and they only partially do so. 
 In Luke xxiv, 51, are the words — "And carried up 
 into heaven," and in Mark xvi, 19, are the words — " He 
 was received up into heaven." This is all the gospels 
 contain of the ascension. In neither instance is the idea 
 conveyed that Christ appeared bodily to ascend, as simi- 
 lar expressions even in our time are used in a spiritual 
 sense, and, but for the few words in Acts, i, 9, 10, there is 
 nothing in the New Testament that would even suggest 
 such an idea. Those words are: "He was taken up, and 
 a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they 
 looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up — " 
 These few words give us all the knowldge we have of the 
 ascension. None of the writers of the New Testament 
 exhibit elsewhere any knowledge of that event. 
 
 When Paul was under arrest, and severally examined 
 by Felix, Festus and Agrippa, there were two reasons 
 why all details of his belief would be gone over. One 
 was that the charges against him related to his doctrines, 
 which were those that had previously led to so much dis- 
 turbance. He was — 
 
 " A mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout 
 the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, 
 who also hath gone about to profane the temple. " (Acts 
 xxiv, 5, 6.) 
 
 An investigation, therefore, of the charges against 
 Paul would draw out his views, in making his defense. 
 It involved giving a history of the sect of the Nazarenes, 
 and, consequently, a full account of Christ. 
 
 The other reason was, that, in so doing, he would 
 endeavor (as he evidently did) to convert his examiners 
 
I 
 
 202 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to his doctrines. In doing this, he would necessarily- 
 repeat all the story of Christ, as he understood it, and 
 there is no one event he would have more carefully set 
 forth than the ascension. Such a wonderful event, if true, 
 would then have been capable of abundant proof, and 
 would have been more convincing than anything that 
 could have been related of Christ. In fact, such an event 
 would have been irresistible — it was proof. 
 
 On the other hand, if there had been no ascension, then 
 Paul must have believed that Jesus was still alive, as there 
 was no other account of his death after the resurrection. 
 Festus, under all these circumstances, could not have 
 misunderstood Paul on those two important points — the 
 resurrection and the ascension. Both were equally super- 
 natural and wonderful, and it is very improbable that the 
 one should have been clearly stated and the other utterly 
 ignored. In his account of Paul to Agrippa, Festus 
 said: 
 
 " But had certain questions against him of their own 
 superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom 
 Paul affirmed to be alive. Acts xxv, 19. 
 
 In I Cor. XV, 3 to 8, Paul is represented as enumerat- 
 ing all the leading events in the life of Jesus, but, as 
 usual, his narrative ends with the resurrection. We are 
 not permitted to know what other ideas Paul may have 
 had as to Christ after that time. If any were ever re- 
 corded, they would naturally have been eliminated by 
 the same authorities who interpolated the ascension, and 
 at the same time. 
 
 Paul, therefore, who was so near and who labored so 
 much for the cause, and who could not have been igno- 
 
ST. PAUL. 203 
 
 rant of such an event as the ascension if it had occurred, 
 gave more than his silent testimony against it. All his 
 representations plainly end with the resurrection, and he 
 clearly conveyed the idea' to Festus that he believed Jesus 
 to be still alive. 
 
 (It is worthy of note that this mention of Jesus was 
 made at a little earlier date than that given by Josephus 
 of the man Jesus in Tiberias, who was leader of a band 
 of mariners and poor people.) 
 
 Strauss says (Life of Jesus, page 863): 
 
 "Thus it is undeniable that the above evangelists were 
 ignorant of the ascension: but the conclusion of the most 
 recent criticism, that this ignorance is a reproach to the 
 fif?t evangelist as a sign of his unapostolic character, is 
 the less in place here, because the event in question is 
 rendered suspicious not merely by the silence of two 
 evangelists, but also by the want of agreement between 
 those who narrate it. Mark is at variance with Luke, 
 nay, Luke is at variance with himself. In the account 
 of the former it appears as if Jesus had ascended into 
 heaven immediately from the meal at which he appeared 
 unto the eleven, consequently from out of a house in 
 Jerusalem; ***** Now an ascent into heaven directly 
 out of a room is certainly not easy to imagine; hence 
 Luke represents it as taking place in the open air. In 
 his gospel he makes Jesus immediately before his ascension 
 lead out his disciples as far as Bethany, but in the Acts 
 he places the scene on the mount called Olivet. This, 
 however, cannot be imputed to him as a contradiction, 
 since Bethany lay in the neighborhood of the Mount of 
 Olives." 
 
 Paul claimed to be a Roman citizen, although his 
 right to do so is not apparent. This was in the height 
 of the glory of Roman citizenship, and any false pretense 
 
204 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 of it was sometimes punished with death. When he was 
 before both Felix and Festus he was in a position where 
 his discharge involved greater danger than his trial by 
 the Roman officers. Surrounded as he was with enemies, 
 he could not have gotten out of Judea alive. Under such 
 circumstances claiming to be a Roman and appealing to 
 the Emperor would give him considerable time, with the 
 chance that his explanation of the cause of his claiming 
 the rights of a Roman citizen, might excuse the act. He 
 is represented as having made this claim on a previous 
 occasion, but that instance involved no danger in making 
 it. Felix, Festus and Agrippa were all willing to dis- 
 charge him, and if he had two trials in Rome, as reg^e- 
 sented, may it not be that his second trial was upon a 
 charge of his having unlawfully claimed the rights of a 
 Roman, involving as it did transportation to Rome, and 
 that he was put to death for that reason ? 
 
 When he was a prisoner in Rome and in danger of 
 death, the epistles he then wrote breathe a more relig- 
 ious spirit than was usual with him. Take as an example 
 Phil, iv, 8: 
 
 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, what- 
 soever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, 
 whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
 whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any 
 virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. " 
 
 Sentiments of this nature are natural, and would be 
 advanced in substance by thousands in any age, accord- 
 ing to the degree of their intelligence. Their spirit was 
 created with us and was never for a moment indebted to 
 Christ, the apostles, or anything in the Bible. Precisely 
 what Irving said of Mohammedanism can be said of Chris- 
 
ST. PAUL. 205 
 
 tianity. It is a great truth coupled ivith a great false- 
 hood. There is but one God, and for such divine direc- 
 tions as he wishes to give us he needs neither Mohammed 
 nor Christ. 
 
 There were evidently no Christians in Rome when 
 Paul arrived there. The brethren he met were his Jew 
 brethren. They had never heard of Paul but had heard 
 of the sect he represented, and stated that they were 
 everywhere spoken against. (Acts xxviii, 22.) They had 
 a natural curiosity to hear this new and strange Jewish 
 doctrine, but his denunciation of them in the 25th to 28th 
 verses of that chapter indicate that he met with unsatis- 
 factory results. In the last mentioned verse he again 
 turns to the Gentiles. The spirit of it is that if they would 
 not receive salvation it would be given to the Gentiles. 
 
 Paul's Jewish beliejf was as strong in him as his belief 
 in Christ, and his virtual expulsion from Judea was quite 
 as serious to him as excommunication would have been. 
 In his Epistle to the Hebrews, and in Acts xxi, it is dis- 
 closed that he weakened in the exalted position given 
 Jesus and was willing to both retract and bring him down 
 somewhat if he (Paul) could be restored to favor with 
 his countrymen. The charges as recorded in the 21st 
 verse of the last mentioned chapter were irue. Paul had 
 taught in substance as therein stated that salvation was 
 secured through faith in Christ alone — that it was not 
 necessary to be a Jew, or be circumcised, or have knowl- 
 edge of the laws of Moses. The passages have not been 
 so modified but that it can be clearly seen that the breth- 
 ren were censuring Paul and recommending him to purify 
 himself that " all may know that these charges were 
 
206 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 nothing;" that is to say, were not true (xxi, 24). Paul's 
 compliance with this request by a ceremony that took 
 seven days to perform, is a virtual retraction of those 
 sentiments to which he owes his fame. His being re- 
 quested to purify and the detailed directions given, shows 
 that that ceremony was not one he had, for other causes, 
 deemed necessary to perform. This was immediately 
 after his arrival in Jerusalem, where he had probably gone 
 to stay, as indicated by this submission, and by his hav- 
 ing taken leave of foreign churches by representing that 
 they would see his face no more. 
 
 In his Epistle to the Hebrews he wrote that Jesus 
 was called of God a high priest after the order of Mel- 
 chisedec (v, 6, 10; vi, 20, etc.), a supernatural personage 
 whom he describes as having been without father, without 
 mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, 
 nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abid- 
 eth a priest continually. Now consider, he says, how 
 great this man was, for the patriarch Abraham. gave him a 
 tenth of the spoils, whereas the most favored tribes were 
 made to pay Abraham a tenth. He goes on to show Mel- 
 chisedec to be quite outside of, and superior to, the tribes 
 of Israel and the laws of Moses, to whom he was unknown. 
 He enlarges at some length upon Melchisedec, chiefly 
 in chapter vii, and in his whole description he plainly 
 draws a parallel with Christ with the evident intention of 
 showing his broad claim for Christ to be simply a re- 
 newal of claims they had previously accepted, and ought 
 to accept again. Melchisedec, he says, was like the Son 
 of God, and he places him at the head of an order of 
 priesthood wherein Christ follows in a secondary position. 
 
ST. PAUL. 207 
 
 In efforts to explain away Paul's account of Melchise- 
 • dec, the words, without father, without mother, without 
 descent, are represented to mean without pedigree. This 
 is a weak evasion, and has no bearing upon the most im- 
 portant part of the question. Paul had good command 
 of language, and would not have so expressed himself 
 If the pedigree of noted characters was a matter of inter- 
 est to him, he would have manifested it in the case of 
 others. This explanation would make it appear that 
 Paul gave the absence of Melchisedec's pedigree as one 
 of his marked similarities to Christ. But the gospel 
 writers, in thoir eagerness to give Jesus a pedigree, suc- 
 ceeded in giving him two. 
 
 This subterfuge does not explain Paul's further state- 
 ment that Melchisedec had neither beginning nor end of 
 life. He said he was "Like unto the Son of God," and 
 hence the lower Paul is shown to have placed Melchisedec 
 the lower he placed Christ, for to show a similarity be- 
 tween them was his only object. 
 
 Melchizedek, king of Salem, is mentioned in Genesis 
 xiv, 18, and Abraham's return from the slaughter of the 
 kings, but the remainder of Paul's account is not given. 
 This suggests the question as to how much of the Jewish 
 books were excluded from the Bible that ought to have 
 been admitted. Belief in the divinity of Christ enforced 
 a belief in the sacredness of those books, but this en- 
 forced acceptance would naturally be objectionable and 
 would be resisted as far as possible. No books were 
 evidently accepted except those referred to by Jesus and 
 the apostles, and by one another; but there is nothing to 
 show that all so referred to were admitted. Paul in this 
 
208 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 instance refers to records of which the Christian world 
 knows nothing, but which must have originally formed a 
 part of those works which the church now calls the Word 
 of God. As it is, the New Testament is said to refer to 
 31 of the 39 books of the Old Testament, and those 31 
 no doubt refer to the other 8, and more. 
 
 Paul never had the faintest conception of the pinnacle 
 upon which he was standing. He knew nothing of the 
 renown that awaited him, and of the vast importance that 
 would be attached to his letters. The temporary nature 
 of his religion did not admit of the thought that time and 
 fame would bring together those widely scattered Epistles, 
 and canonize their contents as the inspired wisdom of 
 God. That which he wrote to his countrymen he thought 
 only his countrymen would read, and hence in his anxiety 
 to placate them and be restored to favor, he burdened 
 the church with Melchisedec. According to him this 
 man was a God, and yet the church has not been able to 
 accept him (Melchisedec), as there were already three in 
 the God-head and a fourth was even too much for Christ- 
 ian credulity. That part of Paul's accoimt is therefore 
 numbered with the many parts of the Bible which Christ- 
 ians pretend to beheve but wholly ignore. 
 
 Contrast the full account given of Melchisedec with 
 the limited account of the ascension. The church needed 
 the latter, hence upon a basis of a couple of sentences it 
 has always put forth its finest efforts in language and 
 paintings; but Melchisedec was in the way and he has 
 therefore been left in unexplained obscurity.* 
 
 *Melchisedec is supposed to have been the founder of Jerusalem, about 
 2,050 B. C. — Dean's History of Civilization. 
 
ST. PAUL. 209 
 
 Even the resurrection is but weakly asserted in the 
 gospels. Matthew mentions but two instances of Christ's 
 appearance, and those were in the nature of an apparition 
 where some doubted. According to Mark he appeared 
 three times, first to one who did not recognize him, then 
 in a different form to two others who also did not know 
 him, and finally to the eleven, making fourteen in all. 
 Luke mentions but two instances, and he was not known 
 at first in either. The fourth gospel adds an appearance 
 in Galilee, but still unrecognized. In other words, the 
 gospels mention two, or possibly three, instances of an 
 appearance of Jesus after the crucifixion, and they admit 
 that the very few witnesses did not at first recognize him 
 and some doubted even then. Paul is made to say 
 (I Cor. XV, 6) that he was seen by five hundred, but this 
 testimony came far too late. It is inconsistent with Paul's 
 silence on that point upon other occasions and inconsist- 
 ent with all other accounts. Its late date, and the. im- 
 portance of the item concentrated in a few words, show 
 that it is an interpolation, and exposes that the church 
 had in those later times become awake to the need of 
 more witnesses of the resurrection. 
 
 In confidingly believing that which leads to such vast 
 results upon such slight evidence, the Christian does not 
 make so much of an exhibition of his devotion to Christ 
 as he does of his devotion to. the sanctity of credulity 
 
 It is said that so many eyes have been fastened upon 
 the Bible that from necessity it has come down to us 
 through later certuries unaltered. But two incidents 
 related of Paul suggests that this may be a theory only, 
 and not strictly true. Throughout most of the Christian 
 
2IO THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 era there were few who would be disposed to point out 
 any alterations if discovered, and even at the present 
 time if some old manuscript or other evidence should 
 be unearthed that contained matter unfavorable to the 
 truth of that book, our most honest and intelligent eccle- 
 siastics would not perceive that it was their religious 
 duty to make known such discovery, but, on the con- 
 trary, they would treat it as an occasion for sorrow and 
 tears, and one' which if possible should be relegated back 
 to oblivion. The incidents referred to are narrated in 
 the following verses: 
 
 Acts XX, 9. "And there sat in a window a certain 
 young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep 
 sleep; and as Paul was long preaching he sunk down 
 with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was 
 taken up dead. " 
 
 II Cor. xi, 33. "And through a window in a basket 
 was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands." 
 
 The interest in these incidents center in the fact that 
 there were no windows in use in those times, nor for 
 many hundred years thereafter. Thomas Hope, in his 
 Historical Essay on Architecture, states that — 
 
 "The ancients seem long to have manufactured vases 
 and other portable objects of glass, ere they thought of 
 applying that close and yet diaphanous substance to its 
 most useful and agreealale purpose — that of excluding 
 from apartments the cold and wet of the atmosphere, 
 while admitting all the heat and light of the sun: and the 
 want of the thin plates of glass, now used for that pur- 
 pose, only permitted them to throw into apartments a 
 considerable body of light, by exposing them at the 
 same time to every inclemency of the weather; or to 
 protect them effectually against wet and wind, by ex- 
 cluding in the same proportion all daylight, and content- 
 
ST. PAUL. 211 
 
 ing themselves with the dim glare of lamps. In general, 
 it caused them to seek a medium between the two ex- 
 tremes, by suffering a few straggling rays of light to pen- 
 etrate athwart the ends of the rafters that lay on the 
 walls, and formed the ceiling; or by introducing imme- 
 diately under the shelter and projection of the eaves a 
 sort of wide, low window, which, only commencing, for 
 the sake of restricting its perpendicular opening and per- 
 meability, high from the floor, afforded no view of ex- 
 ternal objects. These restraints, as we before observed, 
 influenced the whole of their architectural system: it 
 caused the smaller temples to receive the requisite light 
 through an enormous door, always open, and the larger 
 ones to remain hypaethral, and thus, even within, little 
 better than external courts; and such was not only the 
 magnificent Temple of Minerva at Athens, but even the 
 Pantheon at Rome, of which the round central opening 
 only shows all the beauties, by permitting every passing 
 shower to deluge its gorgeous pavement. It caused the 
 dwelling-houses, for seclusion as well as safety, to shun 
 all windows outside; to have every aperture for light, as 
 for egress, turned inwardly to a vast open court or imple- 
 torium, and only to present to the street, instead of the 
 multifarious windows of modern habitations, an impene- 
 trable dead wall: it even caused so many apartments of 
 every sort to be left, for warmth and comfort, entirely 
 destitute of windows, or apertures for daylight, of every 
 description, that in the baths of Titus the fine group of 
 the Laocoon was found in a room which, however glitter- 
 ing with precious marbles, depended entirely, for the 
 light that made them visible, on artificial illumination. 
 
 Later, indeed, than Theodosius, in some funeral 
 chapels, such as that built at Ravenna, by Galla Pla- 
 cidia, for all her near relations, and by Constantia, for 
 her father, the windows, probably by way of increasing 
 the gloom, were still so narrow as to resemble mere loop- 
 
212 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 holes; and afterwards, in conventual churches, it again 
 became the general rule to so contract the windows, as 
 to clog their openings by intervening pillars, that they 
 scarcely admitted any direct light. " 
 
 More than two hundred years after Paul's time, Dio- 
 cletian, after his abdication, built a palace that was mueh 
 celebrated for its magnificence. He had been Emperor 
 about twenty years, and must necessarily have brought 
 to bear all the architectural knowledge of the age. Gib- 
 bon gives a description of this palace, in which he says: 
 
 " But they [the rooms] all were attended with two 
 imperfections, very repugnant to our modern notions of 
 taste and conveniency. These stately rooms had neither 
 windows nor chimneys. They were lighted from the top 
 for the building seems to have consisted of no more than 
 one story), and they received their heat by the help of 
 pipes that were conveyed along the walls." 
 
 Pompeii was buried under the mud and ashes of Ve- 
 suvius about 20 or 30 years after the time of Paul, and 
 the absence of windows in its ruins gives the streets a 
 desolate and prison-like appearance. The rare openings 
 that were possible at that time were not such as a man 
 could fall out of. Those two incidents have a wonder- 
 fully modern sound, and could not have been in the New 
 Testament until many hundred years after the time re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 There has been much speculation as to whether Paul 
 ever saw Jesus or not. The circumstances indicate that 
 he did. He said he was a Pharisee, and he was one of 
 the most bitter in persecuting the disciples. He was 
 present when Stephen was stoned to death, to which he 
 consented, and " kept the raiment of them that slew him." 
 He, therefore, had to the fullest extent those prevailing 
 
ST. PAUL. 213 
 
 feelings among the people that forced Pilate to consent 
 to the crucifixion, and, necessarily, he must have become 
 possessed of those feelings from the same cafise. It is 
 true, he might have been absent at the time and have 
 known of those events only by common report. But 
 the mind is never so much impressed by verbal accounts 
 of exciting events as it is by witnessing them. Certainly, 
 verbal accounts would not raise greater feelings than was 
 produced in those that took part in those events; partic- 
 ularly in a man like Paul, whose persistency in his pur- 
 poses indicate anything but a flighty mind. 
 
 Necessarily, before his conversion, he must have been 
 equally devoted to the Jewish faith, as is indicated by 
 his bitterness against Christ's followers. To men of such 
 sentiments as his then were, there was no act so unfor- 
 giving as taking enforced possession of their temple. 
 Necessarily, too, the amount of feeling such desecration 
 would raise in each, would be measured by the extent of 
 their , natural religious mental faculty, and, as stated, it 
 was evidently large in Paul. He must have imbibed 
 these feelings against Christ by personal observation. 
 His subsequent labors would cause him to be reticent 
 upon any offensive part he might have then taken. His 
 reticence, therefore, is evidence that he did take part 
 rather than the contrary, for he was too near those events 
 and had too much bitterness of feeling to have not seen 
 Christ during the tumults in Jerusalem, and he would 
 have so stated if his part at such time had been such as 
 to have been unobjectionable in his new belief. It is 
 probable, therefore, that Paul did see Christ; that he was 
 among those Pharisees who clamored for his crucifixion, 
 and that he was a witness of it. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 FAITH. 
 
 One feature peculiar to the Christian system is the 
 supposition that faith is often tried by the wickedness of 
 this world. It is pictured as a cross upon a rock in the 
 midst of a dark and stormy sea, and it is implied that 
 only by most devout watchfulness and care can faith be 
 retained. It is being constantly held up as the Christian 
 hope and salvation. Fully twenty-five per cent, of all 
 sermons and Christian writings are devoted to it. The 
 word beautifully decorated in countless ways is constantly 
 kept in view, and the importance of the thing itself for 
 the maintenance of their system, is ever before them. 
 As the soldier nerves hiniself to brave the dangers of 
 battle, so does the Christian believer nerve himself to 
 withstand the many severe trials upon his faith that he is 
 made to believe he will encounter in his dealings with the 
 world. 
 
 But if this is true it is important to know just where 
 his faith will be most severely attacked in order that he 
 may be upon his guard and Call in such help as he can to 
 sustain him. Necessarily he does not experience those 
 trials in church, for it is there that he is fortified and con- 
 firmed in the supposed importance of it. His trials must 
 necessarily be when he is away from those influences, and 
 when, for the time, he is guided by his own mind alone. 
 To understand the Christian's trial of faith, therefore, we 
 need to look to his experience outside of rather than 
 
FAITH. 215 
 
 within the church. But in all transactions with other 
 people of every name and nature, there is but one moral 
 question for each party to consider, and that is to see 
 that they deal conscientiously with one another. In his 
 dealing with others, if the believer is cheated, that cir- 
 cumstance has no bearing upon his faith. He may regret 
 the dishonesty of those who cheated him, but it will not 
 in the least disturb his religious opinions. 
 
 But if he himself should happen to be the guilty party, 
 he will find that the teachings of Christianity will lull his 
 mind to quietness and rest. Only within it is there ten- 
 derness expressed for such acts. Only there is he taught 
 that his sin can be forgiven; and though often repeated, 
 it can still as often be forgiven. It is only there that his 
 sin is obscured and made to seem exceedingly small 
 through contrast with a great, mysterious, and unjust 
 load of sin inherited through Adam's fall; and it is only 
 there that he is taught that by faith he can be released 
 from the consequences of his inherited sins, and also from 
 the consequences of those delinquencies for which Adam 
 was not responsible. He has no trials of faith here for it 
 is especially adapted to those who have been wicked or 
 contemplated being so. It is a license rather than the 
 contrary to the tempted. In no place can the Christian 
 retain his faith with such ease as in those transactions 
 wherein his own integrity is at fault. The Christian's 
 faith never undergoes trials in business. 
 
 And yet there are times when the faith of the intelli- 
 gent Christian is most severely tried, when but for early 
 associations and the opinions of others, he would be "en- 
 gulfed in the waves of unbelief" He may study the 
 
2l6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 works of God and find his study expanding more and 
 more with rich new discoveries, and instead of those of a 
 late date conflicting with those of a former, he will find 
 they only the more increase his admiration and wonder 
 of God. The field for further exploration of His works 
 is unlimited, and the facts found by one generation always 
 perfectly agree with those found by the generation before. 
 Whatever branch of God's works he may adopt he will 
 always find it above the comprehension of man. Much 
 may have been discovered, but it will be small as com- 
 pared with that yet to be discovered. It is only after 
 contemplation of those works, and when he turns to his 
 Bible and reads of the ideas of God as expressed by its 
 writers, that the intelligent Christian's faith is tried. 
 
 The believer's trials of faith lies wholly between the 
 works of God and that which they call the word of God. 
 The test which the works of God, as measured by man's 
 understanding, always bears; the so-called word of God 
 never bears. The latter can be understood fully. The 
 ignorance and superstition of its writers are plainly ex- 
 posed in their works, their ideas and motives easily 
 accounted for, and the developments of time are con- 
 stantly widening the gap between those ideas and the 
 better known works of God. The people at large do 
 nothing to disturb the faith of the Christian. He can 
 avoid all study of any of God's works and his life-long 
 schooling in the supposed virtue of faith will secure its 
 retention unclouded with the least doubt. The writers 
 of the Bible knew comparatively nothing of the works of 
 God, and if their followers do not wish to doubt their 
 statements, they must keep their own knowledge down 
 
FAITH. 217 
 
 to a level with those writers. Whenever the believer tries 
 to explain away parts of the Bible either by the favorite 
 plea of allegory, or in any other manner, he is simply 
 shuffling between his better knowledge and his faith; 
 between the enlightenment of our times and the ignor- 
 ance of the past. 
 
 Faith is the abdication of reason. Paul tried to de- 
 fend it from some such a charge as this with the negative 
 argument that " The wisdom of this world is foolishness 
 with God" (I Cor. iii, 19), and expressed the same deter- 
 mination in regard to it that Falstaff did with honor, he 
 tvould have no7ie of it, he would know nothing save Jesus 
 Christ and him crucified. (I Cor. ii, 2.) His ideas of 
 opposition of science was that it was profane babblings, 
 and experience seemed to have taught him, not to com- 
 bat, but to avoid it. (I Tim. vi, 20.) 
 
 And yet Paul wrote nothing more directly to the 
 point than this. The end in view was to convince as 
 many as he could that Jesus was the Son of God, and the 
 reasons he had to offer in proof were such as only the 
 most ignorant, most superstitious, most credulous, could 
 accept; and hence he advocated avoidance of any thing 
 that tended to elevate the people above that condition. 
 He instinctively recognized the point just stated, that to 
 keep faith in Jesus pure, the believer's intelligence must 
 not be above the superstitious nature of the evidence. 
 
 It is not true that the wisdom of this world is foolish- 
 ness with God. It is wisdom so far as it goes, even 
 though it is insufficient to guide the universe. A man 
 might as well willfully close his eyes and stumble around 
 in the dark, because artificial light does not equal the 
 
21 8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 light of the sun, as to willfully refuse to avail himself of 
 such wisdom as man possesses. Even that narrow limit 
 is a large enough ocean for the intellect of those who 
 presume to criticise the management of that God, by 
 asserting that he made a partial failure in His control of 
 the human race. The question of faith is a very small 
 one. There is nothing complicated about it. It came 
 through a natural succession of simple circumstances, and 
 can be easily understood by those who will look at it in 
 the unshaded light of their intelligence. 
 
 The following, taken from the eighth chapter of 
 Matthew, is an illustration of the ideas of a God as man- 
 ifested by the so-called inspired writer, and if his judg- 
 ment therein had been reliable, this incident would have 
 filled us with equally as much awe as it did him. Such 
 difference as time would have developed would have been 
 in the way of disclosing new proofs of Jesus' divine 
 power which those ancient writers did not see. Whether 
 we have growing admiration or growing disgust for such 
 accounts as this is dependent upon whether Jesus was or 
 was not the son of God. As before stated, I believe this 
 to be allegorical, and that it refers to another Jesus; but 
 it is deemed worthy of a place in all the synoptic gospels 
 as the inspired word of God, and Christianity, therefore, 
 is responsible for such intelligence as it displays. 
 
 28. "And when he was come to the other side, into 
 the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two pos- 
 sessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly 
 fierce, so that no man might pass that way. 
 
 29. And behold, they cried out, saying. What have 
 we to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God? art thou 
 come hither to torment us before the time? 
 
FAITH. 219 
 
 30. And there was a good way off from them a herd 
 of many swine, feeding. 
 
 31. So the devils besought him saying, If thou cast 
 us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 
 
 32. And he said unto them, Go. And when they 
 were come out, they went into the herd of swine: and 
 behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a 
 steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 
 
 34. And, behold, the whole city came out to meet 
 Jesus: and when they saw him they besought him that 
 he would depart out of their coasts." 
 
 The strength of that feeling which holds us to our 
 duty to our families and our fellow-men, is an exhibition 
 of the power of our Creator to make us know that which 
 it is indispensable we should know. But Christians rep- 
 resent God as soliciting us to know that Jesus Christ was 
 His son, and proposes by such accounts as this to fix 
 that all-important iteta of knowledge in our minds. This 
 incident makes as strong demand upon our faith as any- 
 thing in the Bible. It has precisely the same authority, 
 and is given as one of the important evidences of the 
 divinity of Christ. It was in the full belief of such inci- 
 dents as this that the first converts were rrtade, and they 
 were the only Christians who ever judged of this question 
 on its merits. People who were deranged they supposed 
 were possessed by devils. Their superstitious fears of 
 devils were great, and no power that Jesus could be said 
 to have possessed would sooner attract their attention or 
 would excite their wonder and awe. The men who were 
 won over to Jesus by such stories as this were the men 
 who fastened the Christian superstition upon the world; 
 
220 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 for after their time other motives and interests entered in 
 to support it, and the opportunity for inde'pendent judg- 
 ment never came again. Until recently, however, all 
 believers within the Christian era have believed in just 
 such stories as this. 
 
 Although believers make so much of their self-created 
 virtue, faith, there was much believed by the highest of 
 the early Christian authorities that is not believed by 
 their successors in our time. While decrying unbelievers 
 in general, they are themselves unbelievers in certain 
 details. The existence of a devil is denied by the more 
 intelligent supporters of the divinity of Christ. But there 
 is no one thing more persistently set forth throughout 
 the Bible, nor more profoundly believed by Christ and 
 his disciples. The devil is represented as possessing 
 powers quite equal with God Himself; in fact the doc- 
 trine of the atonement implies even greater power on the 
 part of satan in some respects. The pretense of saving 
 the world is dependent upon there being a devil from 
 whom to save it. So much of the system throughout is 
 interwoven with accounts of the devil; so much of its 
 story and machinery is with especial reference to him, 
 that belief in the devil (sometimes respectfully called 
 The Adversary) is as fully a dogma of the Christian sys- 
 tem as belief in Christ. The devil is the corner-stone of 
 that system; without him the whole fabric must fall. 
 This has of late been a question of embarrassment to the 
 church, as instances have occurred where it has been 
 necessary to act upon it; and the absurdity and humility 
 of expeUing a member for heresy because he did not 
 believe in a devil was fully recognized. 
 
FAITH. 221 
 
 The Christian whose faith does not include belief in 
 the devil, insults the intelligence of his savior, and denies 
 that there was any necessity for his coming. Christ 
 says: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the 
 servant above his Lord. " (Matt, x, 24.) Therefore any- 
 thing that he believed must not be doubted by his fol- 
 lowers. He not only believed io a devil, but he believed 
 in a variety of them. He said (Mark ix, 29) in reference 
 to a devil that was particularly hard to expel that " This 
 kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and 
 fasting. " 
 
 In the account of Christ in the wilderness the devil is 
 alluded to in respectful terms, and his power treated as 
 though it was practically unlimited. 
 
 According to Jude, the brother of Jesus, even Moses 
 was claimed by the devil, and as high authority as the 
 archangel Michael -"durst not bring against him a railing 
 accusation, but said, 'The Lord rebuke thee.'" Jude, 
 9th verse. 
 
 Necessarily, therefore, all orthodox Christians must 
 believe in the devil as fully as in Christ. However 
 opposite they may be in character, they are inseparable 
 in the system. Faith must include them both. 
 
 The author of the Unseen Universe quotes the follow- 
 ing from the Lord's Prayer, a book written by the Rev. 
 Charles Parsons Reichel, B. D.: 
 
 "If the testimony of Scripture be deemed sufficient, 
 then I cannot see that it is possible to deny the personal 
 existence of Satan any more than that of God. How 
 Satan exists, or where at the present time, or how his 
 power avails, as we are told it does) to contrive and sug- 
 gest temptations to the mind of man; and to what extent 
 
222 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 he is aware of what is passing in men's minds, so as to 
 adapt his suggestions to their weakness, we are not told, 
 and do not therefore know. Biit our not being told the 
 manner in which his power is exercised and brought to 
 bear, is no proof of the unreality of that fearful Being 
 who is everywhere in the New Testament exhibited as 
 the adversary of God and goodness, whether in the indi- 
 vidual or in the development of the human race. " 
 
 The story of Jonah in the whale's belly is also rejected 
 by many within the system, but Christ believed it. He 
 said (Matt, xii, 40): "For as Jonas was three days and 
 three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the son of man 
 be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." 
 
 The fabulous character of the Bible account of Noah 
 and the flood is now established beyond the possibility 
 of doubt; yet Jesus believed it. See Matt, xxiv, 37, 
 
 38, 39- 
 
 We are told that Christ lived and died as much for us 
 as for those of his own time. .It was, therefore, just as 
 important that he should have devoted some time to con- 
 vincing the generations to come, in that which it was so 
 important to believe, as to convincing those in his pres- 
 ence. This he could easily have done by announcing 
 facts then unknown, but which have since been learned, 
 and have done much to elevate mankind. Christ and his 
 followers were„ bitter against idolaters, and as there were 
 worshipers of the Sun in those days, he could have done 
 much to prevent that form or idolatry, and greatly en- 
 hanced human knowledge by explaining what is now 
 known of the sun and solar system. Churchmen now at 
 times endeavor to belittle what is known in astronomy, 
 by showing what astronomers do not know, and also 
 
FAITH. 223 
 
 showing their former theories, which are now known to 
 be erroneous, and give that as a reason for ignoring facts 
 about which there is no question whatever. Our first 
 lessons alone in that study is enough to expose the igno- 
 rance of the so-called inspired writers. There was not a 
 man then in existence who knew that the world was round, 
 or that the sun did not move around it daily. Nothing 
 could have been so convincing of Christ's supernatural 
 powers as such an exhibition of knowledge of important 
 facts then unknown. If he was what is claimed for him, 
 it would have been a very simple matter to have left not 
 the least doubt upon that question. 
 
 The steam engine has produced greater effect upon 
 the prosperity of the world within this century than all 
 that Christians claim for Christianity within its more than 
 eighteen hundred years of existence. All machinery 
 has come into use within a very short time, the invention 
 of the steam engine having led to its introduction. It 
 has revolutionized the world, and has been one of man- 
 kind's greatest blessings. It has done much to secure 
 " Peace on earth, good will among men," a service which 
 Christianity promised, but never rendered. If Christ 
 had given the world the steam engine, he would indeed 
 have appeared like a God. No miracle could have aston- 
 ished his disciples more, and no effects could have been 
 so convincing to subsequent generations. 
 
 The short Epistle by James, in the New Testament, 
 was probably inserted for the same reason that caused 
 the insertion of the Epistle of Peter. It would not do 
 to pass by the brother of Jesus, even though his doc- 
 trines were objectionable. He evidently confined himself 
 
224 THE SAFE STDE. 
 
 to Judea, and his sentiments were promulgated before the 
 wide interest of the church had developed wants in con- 
 flict with them. That Epistle is clearly by a different 
 writer, as it is in marked contrast with the others, and it 
 breathes a purer religious spirit, in proportion to the 
 small percentage of objectionable matter, than any book 
 in the New Testament. It also exhibits a slight family 
 resemblance to Jesus in ideas, by the severe denuncia- 
 tions he makes against the rich. Those two were more 
 severe upon that class than any named in the New Testa- 
 ment. In his address, given in Acts xv, and in his 
 Epistle, a slight personal characteristic is manifested in 
 the frequent use of the words, my brethren. 
 
 In his time, the few believers had not yet awoke to 
 the fact that, to make people believe that Jesus was the 
 Son of God, there must be a consideration attached to, 
 and obtainable only through, that belief. If heaven 
 could be reached without that faith, then such faith 
 was unimportant and unnecessary. But this was un- 
 known in James' time, and he, consequently, gave an 
 honest and natural opinion of the relation that faith 
 should bear to works. His views are fully set forth in 
 the second chapter, wherein it will be seen that he takes 
 direct issue with Paul, the writer of the Gospel of John, 
 the Westminster Catechism, and the church generally. 
 
 17. " Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, 
 being alone. 
 
 20. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith with- 
 out works is dead? 
 
 24. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, 
 and not by faith only. 
 
 25. Likewise also was not Rahab, the harlot, justified 
 by works. 
 
FAITH. 225 
 
 26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so 
 faith without works is dead also," etc., etc. 
 
 But Paul, in particular, repeatedly taught the exact 
 contrary. Two instances are here quoted: 
 
 " Knowing that a man is not justified by the works 
 of the law [the ten commandments], but by the faith of 
 Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that 
 we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by 
 the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall 
 no flesh be justified." Gal. ii, 16. 
 
 " For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that 
 not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. 
 
 Not of works lest any man should boast. " Ephesians 
 ii, 8, 9. 
 
 According to this, boasting of good acts is so 
 objectionable that, rather than incur that danger, the 
 individual had better not cultivate them, but base his 
 expectations of salvation upon his involuntarily inher- 
 ited ideas of Christ. Certainly, a man who has no other 
 claim to goodness than his faith, has nothing in his works 
 to boast of, and the less that is said of them the better it 
 will be for his reputation. 
 
 Paul's Epistle to the Romans is chiefly devoted to two 
 ■subjects: one, the admission of Gentiles, and the other, 
 this question of justification by faith alone, which he 
 establishes in chapters v, vi, ix and x, and also in the 
 third chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians. 
 
 The answer to the 33d question in the Westminster 
 Shorter Catechism is: 
 
 " Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein 
 he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous 
 in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed 
 to us, and received by faith alone." 
 
226 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 It is also further explained in a note that — 
 
 " Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Chris- 
 tianity; and an error about justification is dangerous, 
 like a crack in the foundation. Justification by Christ is 
 a spring of the water of life; and to have the poison of 
 corrupt doctrines cast into this spring, is to destroy life. 
 If it be asked, how can it stand with God's justice and 
 holiness to pronounce us innocent when we are guilty? 
 this answers it: Christ having made satisfaction for our 
 sins, now God may, in equity and justice, pronounce us 
 righteous. " 
 
 The catechism gives the ten commandments at great 
 length and then instructs that those commands cannot be 
 kept. 
 
 "Question 82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the 
 commandments of God? 
 
 Answer. No mere man since the fall is able in this 
 life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but 
 doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed. " 
 
 A man's temptation and his disposition to resist are 
 but partly measured by his natural religious propensities. 
 When, for instance, he has large self-esteem he will judge 
 of things very mildly, and such teachings as the above 
 gives him a wide margin for interpretation as to how much 
 of those commandments it is safe to ignore. The Christ- 
 ian system terrorizes with representations of fictitious 
 sins of its own creation, and if the easy escape it pro- 
 vides for the consequences of sin only covered its imagin- 
 ary one, it would to that extent be harmless in such 
 teachings. But the conceit of many leads them to self- 
 indulgence that carries them beyond those imaginary sins 
 into others of which but for such teachings they would 
 not have been guilty. 
 
FAITH. 227 
 
 Many people boast greatly of the ten commandments, 
 asserting that we would never have had the ideas of right 
 and wrong they convey without the Bible. Nevertheless, 
 they teach us that we cannot keep those commandments, 
 after which we are taught that in lieu of them we can be 
 saved, so far as works are concerned, by performing those 
 acts that involves the support of the priesthood A care- 
 ful examination of the exact things that we must do will 
 show that those things cannot be done without the ser- 
 vice of pastor or priest, and consequently without a pro- 
 portionate contribution to their support. And it will also 
 be found that it is only upon those acts requiring such 
 service of pastor or priest that the church is exacting. 
 Many of its false virtues consist in that which necessitates 
 making use of those officers and many of its false sins in 
 ignoring them. To those who will follow its false vir- 
 tues, it is very indulgent as to their actual wrong doings 
 with their fellow men. 
 
 Keeping the Sabbath day as directed by the church 
 is a virtue wholly within the system. But those who 
 comply with its directions therein, are seldom disturbed 
 by it in any dish9norable acts they may be guilty of. The 
 pecuniary interest of the church would be injured rather 
 than advanced by such discipline and it therefore silently 
 ignores wrongs of the latter nature. 
 
 "Question 86. What is faith in Jesus Christ? 
 
 A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby 
 we receive, and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he 
 is offered to us in the gospel. 
 
 Q. 85. What doth God require of us, that we may 
 escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin? 
 
 A. To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us 
 
228 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repent- 
 ance unto Hfe, with the diligent use of all the outward 
 means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits 
 of redemption. 
 
 Q. 88. What are the outward and ordinary means 
 whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of re- 
 demption? 
 
 A. The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ 
 communicateth to us the benefits of redemption, are his 
 ordinances, especially the word, sacraments, and prayer; 
 all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation. 
 
 Q. 89. How is the word made effectual to salvation? 
 
 A. The spirit of God maketh the reading, but es- 
 pecially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of 
 convincing and converting sinners, and of building them 
 up in holiness and comfort, through faith, unto salvation. " 
 
 Audiences are as necessary for the support of churches 
 as for the support of theatres; without them the priest- 
 hoods' salaries would not be paid, and the whole system 
 would become extinct. How to secure audiences, there- 
 fore, became a question of the greatest magnitude, and 
 has gradually grown to be the chief one to which its 
 eff'orts are directed. In these last several answers, atten- 
 dance upon church service is made to be of more impor- 
 tance than keeping the ten commandments. The church 
 grants its absolution to those who fail to keep the latter, 
 provided they will observe its ordinances which it repre- 
 sents in substance to be attendance at church. It even 
 claims that attendance to be the only exhibition of faith 
 in Christ. 
 
 The church thus teaches that which simply amounts 
 to an exaltation of the priesthood, to which end devotion 
 to Christ has always been a secondary matter. Not 
 
FAITH. 229 
 
 that any body of men within it necessarily deliberately 
 adopted such a policy for personal ends. The church 
 felt the pressure and involuntarily sought its own worldly 
 welfare, in doing which it became diverted from the true 
 object of religion and gradually centered all its discipline 
 upon that which secures the pecuniary and social interest 
 of those who make its doctrines. 
 
 The catechism is necessarily in accord with the Thirty- 
 nine Articles of Religion as given in the Episcopal Prayer 
 Book, the latter adding in substance (Art. XIII) that 
 good works performed by an unbeliever "are not pleasant 
 to God" because they do no spring from faith in Jesus 
 Christ, '^neither do. they make men meet to receive grace " 
 and further states that "we doubt not but they [the un- 
 believer's good works] have the nature of sin." 
 
 Those Articles have been prepared with extreme care 
 and the phraseology critically studied by large numbers 
 of men who were particularly skilled in languages. This 
 fact gives a significance to the words, wc doubt 7iot, that 
 their ordinary use would not convey. If they really did 
 not doubt it was not necessary to make use of those 
 words. Those men were carefully presenting their, to 
 them, all- important Articles of religion, the confiding, 
 unquestioning, abounding belief in which is the burden 
 of all their teachings. In other of those Articles they 
 had designated a lively faith as especially desirable, and 
 now they themselves studiously weakly express an im- 
 portant Article of that faith, which Article is an unavoid- 
 able conclusion to the doctrine upon which Christianity 
 is founded. If faith in Christ is indispensable for salva- 
 tion, then the virtuous, upright, honorable conduct of 
 
230 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 those who repudiate him must be defined, and it must be 
 defined as wicked, or the only value in faith is lost. This 
 service, though disagreeable, was insurmountable, it 
 could not be shirked; but the words, we doubt not, shows 
 that in their enforced labors those many ecclesiastics felt 
 the shame they ought to have felt in the disgraceful and 
 wicked position the logical necessities of their doctrines 
 obliged them to take. 
 
 What is religion for if it is not to make men virtuous 
 and honorable? If there was but one God there could 
 be no such complications, but in ancient times there had 
 been for two or three generations a tradition among a 
 very few ignorant men that a certain . obscure man was 
 also God, and it was to sustain the truth of that tradition 
 that those men stultified themselves, and decried and 
 pronounced wicked the exact service for which God cre- 
 ated the religious faculties. 
 
 The circumstances that caused the promulgation of 
 those Articles of Religion, and the chain of circumstan- 
 ces that led to the deification of Christ, were quite dis- 
 tinct from one another, there being but shght connection 
 between the two. The last has been enumerated in the 
 last part of chapter x, while the former was the growth 
 of time, they being, as stated, but enforced explanations 
 which have been rearranged from time to time as the 
 necessities of the age demanded. The divinity of Christ, 
 and the comfortable places of his ministers, must stand 
 or fall together, and history shows that the latter have 
 never hesitated at any act of shame which by sustaining 
 the one would equally sustain the other. 
 
 A proclamation of rules and regulations, followed by 
 
FAITH. 231 
 
 a notice that they cannot be kept, is equivalent to grant- 
 ing a license for what might not otherwise have been 
 thought of, and is, therefore, worse than no proclamation 
 at all. It is as though the park authorities had posted 
 notices requiring visitors "To keep off the grass, to pluck 
 no flowers, to not stone the swans;" and visitors had then 
 been instructed by the park police that none could keep 
 all those rules. Such a notice would be a license' to 
 pluck the flowers, and would suggest stoning the swans 
 to boys who otherwise might not have thought of so 
 doing. Those rules also would command still less respect 
 and be the more indifferently violated if they were en- 
 cumbered with some that were useless and unnatural, 
 such as — "That visitors were not to admire anything be- 
 longing to others. " And if these latter rules were sup- 
 posed to be the only ones the authorities had in mind in 
 noting that none could keep all the rules, such notice 
 would none the less lead to violation of all the others. 
 If, furthermore, the park police should instruct visitors 
 that instead of observing those rules of the higher author- 
 ities, it was only necessary to employ them (the police) 
 in certain trifling service calling for fees, we would in 
 this have an exact parallel with the Christian system as 
 taught by the Westminster Catechism and the church 
 generally. 
 
 Every commandment that ought to be kept, can be 
 kept, and it is folly to obscure such with useless and un- 
 natural commandments that none obey or are expected 
 to obey. Resisting temptation requires an effort of the 
 mind often involving intense mental labor. If the temp- 
 tation is not resisted it will in all cases be an injury to 
 
232 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 somebody, or to the man himself. The reason for resist- 
 ing is always because of the clearly recognized evil con- 
 sequences that will follow if the temptation is yielded to. 
 But those who believe in justification by faith will have 
 less fear of the consequences of yielding to temptation, 
 and will have correspondingly less power to resist. 
 
 Religious works are of a negative nature. They do 
 not consist so much in what a man does as in what he 
 resists doing. Wherein a man's natural disposition leads 
 him to do his duty, he has no occasion for further incite- 
 ment through religious motives. It is only where certain 
 mental faculties are below what they should be, and con- 
 sequently expose him to temptation, that he has chief 
 cause to strengthen his weak powers by a realization of 
 the greater consequences that may follow his contem- 
 plated wrong, than are apparent in this life alone. The 
 exact point where religion is wanted is where there is 
 temptation, and religious work consists in resisting it. 
 To teach, therefore, that faith is superior to works, is 
 equivalent to teaching that it is better to believe in Christ 
 than to resist temptation. It is equivalent to teaching 
 that a man may ruin his neighbor and escape all conse- 
 quences through repentance unto life and faith in Christ. 
 The church does teach this. 
 
 Only wrong acts — that is to say, wrong works — cause 
 evil consequences and mental pain. If it could be pos- 
 sible that for a time there could be a total failure of a 
 faculty — for instance the faculty of honor, — such tempo- 
 rary suspension would make no difference either to oth- 
 ers or to ourselves provided that during that time we 
 committed no act calling up that faculty. Or, on the 
 
FAITH. 233 
 
 other hand, if we are tempted to violate our honor, but 
 finally resist the temptation, that faculty will have done 
 its duty even though our minds long dwelt upon the 
 question of doing an act that honor required we should 
 not do. The temptation came through a desire to gratify 
 other faculties, which, in their respective branches, were 
 also important; honor is simply a check upon those fac- 
 ulties when their exercise or gratification intrenches upon 
 the rights of others, and if at such times those rights are 
 duly respected and protected, the faculty of honor will 
 have done the exact service for which it was created. 
 The temptation, therefore, was not unnatural, nor always 
 seriously reprehensible, and, if resisted, no sin will have 
 been committed; but, on the contrary, those are the very 
 acts that are especially designated as good. We admire 
 them and call them good because of the self-control or 
 sacrifices that were necessary to perform them. Such 
 works are religious works, and there is no object in hav- 
 ing the religious faculties but to insure their peformance. 
 But the church defines religion to be but a sentiment, 
 a mere matter of belief, and represents its outward mani- 
 festation to consist in ceremonies presided over by those 
 who hold themselves up to be divinely appointed agents 
 of God; while the all important duties of the religious 
 faculties are left to a simple inference that those duties 
 are inseparable from a belief in Jesus Christ. The Christ- 
 ian system thus becomes a license to wrong-doing because 
 it substitutes an easy thing to do in place of that which 
 is hard to do; and because it addresses itself to that 
 which is to be done after the wrong is committed, rather 
 than before. Repentance unto life, and faith in Christ, 
 
234 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 is its panacea for all moral evils in the past, and an im- 
 plied preventative for all in the future; and even that 
 simple receipt is narrowed by defining such repentance 
 and faith as consisting in church attendance and compli- 
 ance with its ceremonies. There has always been a con- 
 sideration involved in accepting this license. At first it 
 consisted in gratifying the ambition of Jesus, but since 
 his time that consideration consists in the consequent 
 pandering to the love of power and social glories of his 
 ministers. 
 
 But when James wrote his Epistle, the latter interest 
 had not as yet been developed. The few believers were 
 still intent upon the coming of the kingdom of heaven 
 which was daily expected, and were held by that only. 
 His opinions upon faith were natural, as his opinions of 
 the Gentiles were local, and both conflicted with the 
 interest of the church. The structure had not sufficiently 
 progressed to expose these faults of his; at least he did 
 not see them, and he had to be suppressed. He would 
 have ruined all if he had been permitted to run on as he 
 did, and he was accordingly sharply cut off in the midst 
 of his Epistle without the courtesy of annexing the usual 
 benediction. How much is suppressed we can never 
 know, but we can plainly see the cause of that suppres- 
 sion, and can see that it was done in the interest of the 
 ancient hierarchy, and not in the interest of religion. 
 
 But, on the other hand, if a man can be saved by 
 good works alone; if he can escape punishment simply 
 because he has done nothing calling for punishment, then 
 there is no necessity for believing in Christ; or, as Paul 
 put it, " Then Christ is dead in vain. " Or, if both good 
 
FAITH. 235 
 
 works and faith in Christ are necessary for salvation, then 
 is faith simply an added burden to those who could have 
 been good without it; and, in either case, how can Christ 
 be a Savior? If faith partially wipes out wickedness, and 
 good works complete the process, then who is to draw the 
 dividing line and show the proportion each should bear 
 to the other? 
 
 That little ambition of Jesus, to be believed to be the 
 Messiah whose coming John the Baptist proclaimed, has 
 cost the world a vast deal of trouble. There must be a 
 consideration for that belief which he demanded, or there 
 is no object in believing. He himself promised every- 
 thing if they would believe his assertion, and the church, 
 from very necessity, has been obliged to promise as much 
 and make faith a virtue so great as to be an offset against 
 wickedness. There can be no half-way work about it; 
 if belief in Jesus Christ cancels any wickedness, it can- 
 cels all. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 
 
 The various steps in the progress of the church came 
 in such natural order, that they can be nearly as well 
 traced in the usual working of the mind as they could 
 have been in history. A connected account of those 
 steps is not supplied by history, and for the reason that 
 the difficulties by which the church was surrounded, and 
 the compromises that followed, were such as to make 
 their publication seriously objectionable. Particularly is 
 this the case with the circumstances that led to the pro- 
 duction of the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 The original and all important organization of the 
 church was at first of but a local nature, consisting 
 mostly in regulations with regard to the care and dis- 
 position of the common property. But the enforced 
 departure of many from Judea, led to the formation of 
 colonies in other countries. Those colonies grew in 
 wealth and numbers, and each naturally established 
 branches in neighboring towns and cities. Necessarily, 
 the organization in each colony became more complex, 
 and the powers of the chief officer (early called a bishop) 
 increased. When time had brought forth a curiosity to 
 know the personal history of Jesus, none would be so 
 much interested in writing it as the various, leaders of 
 those colonies, and probably most of the uncanonical 
 gospels were written, or caused to be written by them. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 237 
 
 Each colony would then have its own gospel, which, tn a 
 few generations, would become sanctified in the minds of 
 its members as the inspired word of their already long- 
 dead founder. Thus those somewhat widely-scattered 
 colonies, each under the direction of an autocrat of its 
 own, and teaching its own ideas as to the nature of Christ, 
 together with other attending theories, created a diver- 
 gence or doctrines within the church greater than has 
 ever existed since 
 
 When 150 years had passed since the crucifixion, 
 some of those colonies had grown to great wealth, and 
 their bishops to great power — a power and social position 
 so desirable as to raise an interest in Christianity much 
 more intense than could be produced by religion alone. 
 Naturally, those positions drew in a more intelligent class 
 of men, and, under their more critical eyes, the conflict 
 in the sentiments of the various colonies would be more 
 serious. Those varying views annulled one another, and 
 if the church and the power of the leaders were to be 
 further augmented, or even its acquired power assured, 
 its organization must be extended, so as to embrace all 
 the colonies, and place them under one head. There 
 could be no difference of opinion as to the advisability of 
 this step, nevertheless there was a great difficulty to be 
 overcome in bringing it about. That difficulty was in 
 the pride of the bishop of each colony. Even if there 
 were a few who did not aspire to be the chosen head, 
 there were none who would not feel averse to parting 
 with his independence and submitting to a rival. This, 
 and the attachment of each colony to its own gospel and 
 doctrines, were, necessarily, two great obstacles in the 
 
238 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 way of consolidation. They were so serious that a com- 
 plete unity never was attained; but most of those colo- 
 nies did unite, and it is clear that their consolidation was 
 secured, as is usual in all such cases, by a compromise. 
 
 That there should be a gospel upon which the whole 
 church should unite, is a simple idea that would suggest 
 itself to every churchman. But that there should be 
 more than one such gospel, is an enlargement of that 
 idea that only circumstances could have suggested, and 
 when once raised it would naturally attach itself to the 
 idea of having a gospel from each of the twelve Apostles. 
 But the church adopted neither. Its adoption of the four 
 gospels was a compromise with the leaders of the most 
 influential colonies. Evidently, three stubborn, promi- 
 nent bishops would not yield, and it was finally agreed to 
 include the gospel of each with certain interpolations, 
 and that unitedly they would write a new gospel, with a 
 view to covering the questions and objections that time 
 had exposed, which objections could not be met by any 
 gospel then extant. 
 
 Nor is the origin of the four gospels, as thus traced 
 through the workings of the human mind, wholly unhis- 
 torical. The only important part that is hypothetical is, 
 that those four gospels were adopted under a compro- 
 mise, and that those bishops themselves wrote the fourth 
 gospel, or caused it to be written. Near the end of the 
 second century, there was a time as narrow as fifteen, and 
 possibly ten, years; before which time the fourth gospel, 
 and the association of the four gospels, were unknown, 
 and after which time they were widely known. Within 
 that short era not only this great change was made, but 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 239 
 
 the church was consolidated, under the leadership of the 
 Bishop of Rome, though of these important events the 
 church gives us no records. That it should be silent of 
 those compromises is natural, and particularly is it natu- 
 ral that it should, to the full extent of its power, obscure 
 its own authorship of the fourth gospel. 
 
 The wide difference that now exists in our ideas of the 
 canonical and uncanonical gospels has been the growth 
 of time. Canonization, as now understood, was an idea 
 those bishops had not advanced to. Both the Christian 
 ideas as to the extreme sacredness of the person of Christ, 
 and the sacredness of the gospels, were unknown in the 
 lifetime of the one, or of the authors of the other. In 
 each instance, their generation had to pass away before 
 that sacredness could become a part of Christian faith. 
 Time was needed to obscure their gross outlines and per- 
 mit the imagination to build up ideas of sanctity and ven- 
 erableness of person that was not possible with their 
 cotemporaries. It had been the same with the Apostles, 
 who looked upon Jesus as only a prophet, and it is doubt- 
 ful if there was a man of his time remaining on the earth 
 when the doctrine was advanced that he was equal with 
 God. 
 
 So with the four gospels. Their disagreements, as, 
 for instance, the two genealogies of Jesus, shows that 
 when those bishops canonized them they did not antici- 
 pate the extreme sacred character which time would 
 attach to each word. It is doubtful if they did more 
 than to indorse those four and pronounce them to be the 
 most reliable, but not necessarily strictly accurate gos- 
 pels. The spirit with which they were put forth did not 
 
240 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 require perfect agreement, except upon the points the 
 bishops strove to build up; and though they claimed 
 divine inspiration, their wildest flights of fancy could not 
 have anticipated the degree of veneration and awe with 
 which those gospels" came to be regarded in after ages. 
 
 If Jesus had been all that was claimed for him, his 
 utterances would never have raised difficulties calling for 
 compromises and phenomenal gospels. On the contrary, 
 time would more and more have confirmed his divine 
 wisdom, by making it manifest that he had foreseen and 
 protected the church from troubles that would otherwise 
 beset it in later times. Coming generations would find 
 themselves but overtaking his ideas, instead of discover- 
 ing that they were only adapted to the narrow intellect 
 of the few followers of his time. 
 
 But, when 150 years had passed since the crucifixion, 
 and the bishops assembled to reconcile their various gos- 
 pels, this fact was conspicuous, that Jesus had not fore- 
 seen the condition the Church was then in, but that, 
 on the contrary, his sayings had created their most seri- 
 ous difficulties, those bishops would not necessarily be 
 influenced by this and abandon the Church. Whatever 
 may have been the motives which originally drew them 
 into that service, there would by that time have been an 
 accumulation of interest foreign to religion that would 
 hold them superior to all other considerations. When a 
 ship is floated into a dock and the water drawn off", there 
 are blocks and stays that continue to support the ship 
 even more rigidly than when floating in the water. So 
 with Christianity, the' ideas of Jesus and the Apostles, 
 that originally floated it, had long since been drained 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 241 
 
 away, but only to leave it far more firmly sustained in 
 the vast personal interest of its many officers. 
 
 The deliberations, therefore, of those men were wholly 
 with reference to defeating their opponents, to supporting 
 their own wishes, and to their continuance in office, and 
 were not with reference to getting at the exact truth of the 
 divinity of Christ. That was something they were deter- 
 mined to sustain under any and all circumstances, and if 
 his words did not meet the condition of their times, they 
 must be made to do so. Under a general organization they 
 would have the power to enforce the support of their own 
 doctrines and gospels, and that power was worth the sac- 
 rifices made to obtain it. Xecessarily, therefore, those 
 bishops would exercise that power immediately after 
 securing it. Consequently the union of the Church under 
 one head, the issuing of its authorized gospels, and the 
 suppression of all other writings seriously conflicting with 
 them, would be three events that would naturally occur at 
 about the same time — the first of the three being neces- 
 sary to the accomplishment of the other two. 
 
 All three of these events were taking place in the 
 latter part of the second century. The supremacy of the 
 Church of Rome was then established, the four gospels* 
 suddenly sprang into existence, and many gospels and 
 other writings known to have been in use at that time 
 promptly disappeared. Many of those works were im- 
 portant, and would have thrown light upon the matter 
 in the four gospels if there had been no interest in con- 
 flict with them. From the time of this more perfect 
 organization the preservation of those works ought to 
 have been assured, if the truth was all that was desired, 
 
242 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 but that which ought to have saved them insured their 
 destruction. Naturally the Church would suppress ac- 
 counts of these suppressions, but failed to do so in the 
 one important instance before referred to. The Gospel 
 of Peter should have stood higher with them than any 
 other, but he represented Christianity to be for the Jews 
 only, and his gospel was destroyed. It will be noticed 
 also that this was taking place about the year 190. 
 
 It is well understood in our own time that important 
 public measures are carried out, not for the glory of the 
 individual, but for the public good. Men attain distinc- 
 tion by the ability they exhibit in the service of the 
 people, and instead of receiving honors for simply agitat- 
 ing for their own prominence, they are brought into dis- 
 credit by so doing. 
 
 But this has not always been so. In ancient times 
 those in authority often made wars simply because they 
 had the power to do so, and used it for their own re- 
 nown. The people would submit to their rulers without 
 looking into the motives that governed them. The fol- 
 lowers of Jesus proclaimed him to be the expected 
 Christ, and he promised safety from horrors of his own 
 invention to all Jews who would believe he was the 
 Messiah he said he was. But no reason was given why 
 believing in him should be necessary. He had no other 
 object than to gratify his own anibition, and his followers 
 were too ignorant to ask for any such reason. But the 
 importance of a reason for Christ's appearance upon 
 earth, and also for believing in him, became apparent as 
 more thoughtful men joined his followers. Those bishops 
 had progressed far enough to see this, and they met 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 243 
 
 those questions by originating that which gave to Jesus 
 the title of Savior. He had come to save the world, and 
 it was necessary to believe in him in order to be saved. 
 But this led to an equally troublesome question, How 
 was the world lost? What were the circumstances that 
 made such an extreme measure necessary? This ques- 
 tion had not as yet penetrated the minds of those Church- 
 men, and hence they made no attempt to solve it. Such 
 explanation as Christianity gives in the fable of the atone- 
 ment is unsupported by the four gospels. 
 
 Questions of this character would naturally embarass 
 those Bishops more than any other, for there could be 
 nothing in the original gospels to answer them. They 
 could not have been raised but for the failure of Christ's 
 prediction of the coming of the kingdom of heaven, and 
 it had taken the intervening time to make that failure 
 manifest. In their solution, much could be done by a 
 few interpolations and eliminations in the most acceptable 
 gospels, but the objects to be accomplished were too 
 numerous and important to be allowed to rest only on 
 such slight alterations. There should be at least one 
 gospel in which such new explanations as they would 
 make could be clearly stated. 
 
 Those Church officers greatly needed such a gospel 
 as the Gospel of John, and all the facts and attending 
 circumstances are confirmatory of the proposition that 
 they themselves caused it to be written. It was un- 
 known before the time mentioned. The first knowledge 
 we have of it is that it was coupled with the other 
 gospels and being issued as an authorized gospel of 
 the church. It represents its author to be the Apos- 
 
244 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 tie John, whom Jesus loved, and hence to deny his au- 
 thorship was to deny the gospel itself. This, taken in 
 connection with the certainty of its late appearance, is 
 now a source of much embarassment to the Church. Its 
 improved and widely different style, and the many im- 
 portant doctrines dependent upon it, has caused much to 
 be written in efforts to sustain it. It is the favorite 
 gospel, and well it may be, for it was written exclusively 
 in the interest of those supported by the Church. 
 
 The author of Supernatural Religion has given all the 
 evidence bearing upon the authorship of the fourth gos- 
 pel, about one-third of his second volume being devoted 
 to that subject. He proves conclusively that it was not 
 only written at a very late date, certainly after the time 
 of Justin Martyr, but that its author was undoubtedly a 
 stranger in Judea. He shows, for instance, that the 
 writer made two or three geographical errors, and alludes 
 to certain Jewish customs as your customs, and mentions 
 the Jews in a manner and with a spirit that would have 
 been hardly possible with the apostle John. He states 
 that "the Jews are represented as continually in virulent 
 opposition to Jesus; they are not spoken of as the favored 
 people of God, but are denounced as children of the 
 devil." 
 
 "The Apocalypse is also said to have been written by 
 the apostle John. The contrast between it and the fourth 
 gospel is so great that no candid man can believe they 
 are both by the same author. " He (the author of Super- 
 natural Religion) further states that the contrast in the 
 original Greek is much greater than it appears in English. 
 He says that — 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 245 
 
 "The external evidence that the apostle John wrote 
 the Apocalypse is more ancient than that for the author- 
 ship of any book of the New Testament, excepting some 
 of the Epistles of Paul, and there is probably not another 
 work in the New Testament the precise date of the com- 
 position of which (A. D. 68, 69), within a few weeks, can 
 be so positively afifirmed." 
 
 Christian writers have given this general knowledge 
 of the fourth gospel at the end of the second century, as 
 an argument in favor of its earlier production. One 
 writer,* as an illustration, says that the first account we 
 have of Thebes is a statement in Homer that "It could 
 send a hundred armies from its hundred gates," but none 
 would assume that that was the beginning of Thebes. 
 So, he argues with the Gospel of John, the general knowl- 
 edge of it at that time indicates an extended preceding 
 existence. 
 
 But the nature of this argument shows the poverty 
 of evidence of an earlier appearance. It contains an 
 admission of the absence of a previous knowledge of it, 
 while its sudden widely extended appearance is not only 
 accounted for in the hypothesis just given, but is import- 
 ant evidence confirmatory of it. 
 
 The following few extracts are taken from Strauss's 
 examination of this gospel :t 
 
 "In the first three gospels, Jesus closely adapts his 
 teachings to the necessities of his shepherdless people, 
 contrasting, at one time, the corrupt institutions of the 
 Pharisees with the moral and religious precepts of the 
 Mosaic law; at another the carnal messianic hopes of the 
 age with the purely spiritual nature of his kingdom, and 
 
 * Norton's Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 
 f Life of yesus, by Dr. David Friedrich Strauss. 
 
246 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the conditions of entrance therein. In the fourth gospel, 
 on the contrary, he is perpetually dilating, and often in a 
 barren, speculative manner, on the doctrine of his person 
 and higher nature: so that in opposition to the diversified 
 doctrinal and practical materials of the synoptical dis- 
 courses, we have in John a one-sided dogmatism." 
 
 "But according to the above supposition [not quoted], 
 the fourth evangelist came as a gleaner after the synop- 
 ticts: now it is certain that all the discourses of Jesus 
 having a practical tendency had not been preserved by 
 them; hence, that the former has almost invariably 
 avoided giving any relic of such discourses, can only be 
 explained by his preference for the dogmatic and specu- 
 lative vein : a preference which must have had both an 
 objective and subjective source, the necessities of his time 
 and circumstances, and the bent of his own mind. This 
 is admitted even by critics who are favorable to the au- 
 thenticity of the fourth gospel, with the reservation, that 
 that preference betrays itself only negatively, by omis- 
 sion, not positively, by addition." 
 
 "The style furnishes no guidance, for this is every- 
 where the same, and is admitted to be the evangelist's 
 own; neither does the sense, for in it also there is no 
 essential difference whether the evangelist speaks in his 
 own name or in that of Jesus: where, then, is the guar- 
 antee that the discourses of Jesus are not, as the author 
 of the Probabilia maintains, free inventions of the fourth 
 evangelist?" 
 
 "We, therefore, hold it to be established, that the dis- 
 courses of Jesus in John's gospel are mainly free compo- 
 sitions of the evangelist; but we have admitted that he 
 has culled several sayings of Jesus from an authentic 
 tradition, and hence we do not extend this proposition to 
 those passages, which are countenanced by parallels in 
 the synoptic gospels. In these compilations we have an 
 example of the vicissitudes which befall discourses that 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 247 
 
 are preserved only in the memory of a second party. 
 Severed from their original connection, and broken up 
 into smaller and smaller fragments, they present when 
 reassembled the appearance of a mosaic, in which the 
 connection of the parts is a purely external one,' and 
 every transition an artificial juncture. The discourses of 
 Jesus in John present just the opposite appearance. Their 
 gradual transition, only rendered occasionally obscure by 
 the mystical depths of meaning in which they lie,— transi- 
 tions in which one thought develops itself out of another, 
 and a succeeding proposition is frequently but an explan- 
 atory amplification of the preceding, — are indicative of a 
 pliable, unresisting, mass, such as is never presented to a 
 writer by the traditional sayings of another, but such as 
 proceeds from the stories of his own thought, which he 
 moulds according to his will. For this reason, the con- 
 tributions of tradition to these stores of thought (apart 
 from the sayings which are also found in the earlier gos- 
 pels), were not so likely to have been particular, inde- 
 pendent dicta of Jesus, as rather certain ideas which 
 formed the basis of many of his discourses, and which 
 were modified and developed according to the bent of a 
 mind of Alexandrian or Greek culture. Such are the 
 correlative ideas oi father and son, light atid darkness, 
 life and death, above and beneath, flesh and spirit; also 
 some symbolical expressions, as bread of life, water of 
 life. These and a few other ideas, variously combined 
 by an ingenious author, compose the bulk of the dis- 
 courses attributed to Jesus by John ; a certain uniformity 
 necessarily attending this elemental simplicity,'' 
 
 M. Renan, on the other hand, treats all the gospels as 
 equally genuine; but I infer that his concessions are 
 hypothetical, for the reason that he passes the weakest 
 points of those gospels without giving reasons for those 
 unnecessary concessions. It is seemingly indifferently 
 made in the first few lines of the first chapter of his Life 
 
248 THE SAFE SIDE 
 
 of Christ. They were unimportant in the position he 
 had taken, and he waives that point with the least 
 trouble to himself. As elsewhere stated, if all the gos- 
 pels were perfect in their unity, and written under the 
 dictation of Jesus himself, it would still be but an imper- 
 ceptible advance in proving that Jesus was what the 
 church represents him to be. The faith of Christians 
 and their ideas of the gospels are inherited. And it is a 
 strong argument in undeceiving them to show the evi- 
 dence or the unreliability of those gospels. In that field 
 only is the question of their authenticity important; but 
 that field is a wide one, and the material M. Renan sup- 
 plies therein will be worth more to the priesthood than 
 his theories to the contrary. Those theories and so called 
 concessions show the author to have still been more of a 
 believer in the Christian system than an unbeliever, and 
 it is doubtful if the Christian world would have objected 
 so much to his work if it were not that it was worth more 
 to them to represent his admissions as the enforced con- 
 cessions of a learned agnostic then to let them rest as 
 the simple statements of a Christian 
 
 The various differences between the synoptic gospels 
 and the fourth gospel betray the thoughts of those who 
 composed it, as well as the difficulties they had to over- 
 come. Those differences show what the synoptics did 
 NOT contain, and an examination will show that without 
 the changes then made there was nothing upon which to 
 build a religion. The entire Christian system stands 
 upon the gospel those bishops then originated and the few 
 interpolations they made in the other gospels. What their 
 eliminations were we can never know, but those interpo- 
 
THF FOURTH GOSPEL. 249 
 
 lations are, in each instance, condensed in a few words, 
 and are usually in direct conflict with the other matter in 
 those gospels. A very important item is sharply stated 
 in a few words, such as could be inserted at the bottom 
 or top of a manuscript, or interlined at some convenient 
 place, or substituted in place of an erasure. The short 
 and explicit characteristic of those interpolations is in 
 sharp contrast with the usual style of the New Testament. 
 Each one of those alterations was to cover objections 
 drawn out by the more intelligent criticism of those later 
 times. Naturally the doctrines of the church would be 
 supposed to be founded upon the gospels; but those 
 doctrines were, as stated, simply necessary explanations, 
 and instead of being founded upon the gospels, the gos- 
 pels were made to conform to them. This was the work 
 of the fourth gospel, the others being simply made, as 
 far as possible, to agree with it. The evident anxiety of 
 the writer of that gospel to represent John the Baptist as 
 acknowledging Jesus to be the Christ, has already been 
 shown, as also the desire to add much needed testimony 
 that Jesus died upon the cross, which it does through an 
 inconsistent story that admitted of drawing in the words 
 he was dead already, and by representing that he was 
 pierced in the side, and by referring to the wound after 
 the resurrection. 
 
 The words Son of God are used but little in the synop- 
 tic gospels, and may not have been in the original at all. 
 In the time of Christ they simply meant a religious per- 
 son.* Those gospels did not state with sufficient clear- 
 ness the nature of the divine attributes of Christ. The 
 
 * Waite's History of Christianity. 
 
250 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 consequence was that at an early day there began to be 
 differences of opinion and various theories advanced as 
 to the relative position he bore to God. Before the Gos- 
 pel of John was written, "the Ebionites, and possibly the 
 Nazarines of Jerusalem, revered Jesus as the greatest of 
 the prophets, endowed with supernatural power, but 
 rejected his divine perfection as the Son of God." (Gib- 
 bon.) This is consistent with the slight use of those 
 words in the synoptic gospels, and is suggestive also of 
 their having been inserted at a later date. The great 
 Arian controversy in the time of Constantine was upon 
 this question, and it has been revived in our time. 
 
 To represent that Christ came to save all nations; to 
 make it appear that the Baptist acknowledged Christ; to 
 show forth Jesus as equal with God; and to deify faith, 
 were evidently the greatly desired ends to be accom- 
 plished through the fourth gospel. It was important to 
 suppress the very existence of the second question, but 
 its testimony on that point is strongly addressed to a 
 party the existence of which they have since hidden from 
 us. We see there was such a question as we see the 
 shadow of an unseen object. The author was deficient in 
 the art of story telling, and his original accounts are 
 therefore weaker than they need be. The desired inter- 
 ested testimony is, as usual in such cases, too promptly 
 set forth, the first five chapters covering all the most im- 
 portant points; otherwise this gospel was no doubt made 
 up from other gospels and writings of those times, but 
 re-arranged in accordance with the doctrines the church 
 wished to promulgate. The seeming somewhat better 
 intelligence of the author may be owing to the fact that 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 25 I 
 
 he wrote in the Hght of 150 or 160 years experience of 
 the church. 
 
 Upon the great question as to how much divine power 
 Jesus possessed, this gospel has much to say, and as far 
 as was in its power it estabhshes his equality with God. 
 It is first clearly brought forward in the fifth chapter, as 
 follows: 
 
 18. "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, 
 because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said 
 also, that God was his Father, making himself equal with 
 God. 
 
 19. Then answered Jesus, and said unto them. Verily 
 verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of him- 
 self, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things 
 soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise, * * 
 
 22. For the Father judgeth no man; but hath com- 
 mitted all judgment unto the Son 
 
 23. That all men should honor the Son even as they 
 honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, hon- 
 oreth not the Father which hath sent him." 
 
 The directness of these words to the controversy then 
 going on, shows the thoughts that actuated its author, or 
 rather the council that directed its author. The same 
 assertion is repeated throughout the work, and so far as 
 it is concerned it turns to the man Jesus that feeling 
 which we should have for God only. 
 
 One of the most ruinous things exposed by the syn- 
 optic gospels was the fact that the ideas of Jesus did 
 not extend beyond Judea and the Jews. A few of the 
 numerous quotations showing this have been given. 
 They were too voluminous and probably too well known 
 to be suppressed. This, however, is abundantly covered 
 in their own gospel, while in the synoptics those writers 
 
252 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 contented themselves with the implication that Christ's 
 words at the time of his crucifixion were more important 
 than they had been on former occasions. They interpo- 
 late a very few words, in that part of those gospels, which 
 are in sharp conflict with his previous teachings. The 
 most marked examples of this are in Mark, as follows: 
 
 XIII. 
 
 lO. "And the gospel must be published in all na- 
 tions." 
 
 XVI. 
 
 15. "And he said unto them. Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the gospel to everj' creature. 
 
 16. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; 
 but he that believeth not, shall be damned. " 
 
 Reference to those chapters will show that in each in- 
 stance those verses are wholly disconnected from the 
 matter in those that precede and follow them. The first 
 quoted verse, in particular, is a palpable break in the 
 words of Christ. It not only does not make sense with 
 the matter it is found with, but the spirit of it is the op- 
 posite from that of the accompanying verses. The first 
 two quoted verses are intended to counteract in the few- 
 est possible words the Jewish exclusiveness of the previ- 
 ous utterances of Christ. The last verse expresses with 
 equal conciseness a point that experience had shown it 
 was desirable to make. Salvation was promised from 
 the first to all who would believe in Jesus Christ, 
 but damnation to those who did not believe, had not 
 been set forth with sufficient clearness. Their fears could 
 only be acted upon through the latter, without which 
 very many might be indifferent whom terror would other- 
 wise drive into the church. Hence the assertion that 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 253 
 
 unbelievers would be damned became coupled with the 
 promise of salvation to those who believed, and was ex- 
 clusivelj' the work of those who originated the fourth 
 gospel. The following words are often quoted, and are 
 looked upon by believers as an exhibition of love. But 
 if true, it was a terrible doctrine to promulgate to an un- 
 believing world, and terror was the feeling they were 
 intended to touch. They are in the third chapter, and 
 are as follows: 
 
 16. " For God so loved the world, that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life. 
 
 18. He that believeth on him, is not condemned; but 
 he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he 
 hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son 
 of God." 
 
 Also in the eighth chapter, 24th verse, Jesus is made 
 to say: 
 
 " For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in 
 your sins." 
 
 And again, xiv, 6: 
 
 " No man cometh unto the Father, but by me," 
 
 Notice, also, that in the last quoted verse from Mark, 
 baptism was made a sine qua non to salvation. This also 
 was a new doctrine. Even at that early day, the church 
 had discovered that a believer should not be allowed to 
 be such undemonstratively at home. They, therefore, 
 made it a requirement that, in addition to faith, there 
 must also be baptism, a ceremony that could be per- 
 formed only by officers of the church, and who could, 
 consequently, dictate the conditions under which that 
 service could be rendered. 
 
2 54 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 In Matt. XV, 24, Jesus states in language that cannot 
 be misunderstood that "He was sent but unto the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel," and his instructions to his 
 disciples in Matt, x, 5, 6, are equally concise and clear. 
 But between these two accounts there is an interpolation, 
 xii, 21. The remaining instances in Matthew are xxiv, 
 14, xxvi, 13, and xxviii, 19. The latter verse is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost. " 
 
 If in the place of all nations the words had originally 
 been the Jews, they would not have been permitted to so 
 remain. The whole verse, however, is probably an inter- 
 polation, as it contains the desired admonition to be 
 baptized, and that it be done in the name of the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Ghost, a direction that had grown 
 out of the contention with the followers of John the 
 Baptist. 
 
 The only instance in Luke where the Gentiles are in- 
 cluded is in the thirty-second verse of the second chapter, 
 but the word Gentiles was probably originally Jews, whom 
 the same verse designates as thy people. The words are: 
 
 "A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy 
 people Israel. " 
 
 The Fourth Gospel endeavors to make the career of 
 Jesus as many years long as the others do weeks by rep- 
 resenting his attendance at several passovers which oc- 
 curred but once a year; and also by dragging in the 
 words. Thou art not yet fifty years old (viii, 57), it hav- 
 ing been stated in the other gospels that he was about 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 255 
 
 thirty years old at his baptism. His taking possession 
 of the temple is represented to have been during the first 
 of his pretended several visits to the passover, and thus 
 the one act that more than any other caused his cruci- 
 fixion is disconnected from that event as much as possi- 
 ble. This important variation is inserted in the second 
 chapter. 
 
 It omits the account of taking the ass in entering 
 Jerusalem, and Christianizes the character of Jesus, and 
 omits all his upbraidings und otherwise modifies the 
 accounts of him, even to omitting the word "hand" in 
 dipping into the dish at the last supper. (Matt, xxvi, 23; 
 John xiii, 26.) It omits Christ's characteristic expres- 
 sion, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Every 
 difference, whether in adding or omitting, points the 
 same way; and all were of a nature to obscure the truth 
 in the interest,of those bishops. On the other hand, the 
 questions that had been troubling the church at that time 
 could not have arisen if this gospel had previously existed. 
 
 Reverting to Christ's Jewish exclusiveness, one in- 
 stance requires more attention than it has received. In 
 Matthew x, 5,6, he says: 
 
 "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any 
 city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to 
 the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 
 
 The Samaritans were neighbors of the Jews, and had 
 nearly the same religion, the chief or only difference 
 bemg that they had a temple of their own and revered 
 Mount Gerizim as the Jews did Mount Zion. They w.ere 
 bitterly hated by the Jews, as is common with rival and 
 similar bodies. This passage shows that Jesus fully 
 
2S6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 sympathized with his countrymen in that local feeling. 
 In this he was human, and not at all like a God. If the 
 Samaritans were excluded from salvation, what could be 
 said for those distant Gentile cities where the Church 
 was mostly domiciled in those later times. Such a record 
 as this was almost ruinous to the Church, and it was in- 
 dispensable that it be counteracted by a full and emphatic 
 statement of an opposite nature. 
 
 It was for this, no doubt, that the incident of the 
 woman at Jacob's well was inserted in the fourth chapter 
 of the bishops' gospel, and must have been a creation of 
 their own. It filled the double purpose of representing 
 Jesus as making no discrimination against the Samari- 
 tans, and, consequently, none against the people of any 
 country. It is too inconsistent with the synoptic gos- 
 pels, too much in the interest of its authors, and first 
 brought out at far too late a date, to be authentic. Fur- 
 thermore, if this account be true, then the New Testa- 
 ment represents Jesus, when disposing of food and drink 
 for the soul, to have directed his disciples not to enter 
 into any city of the Samaritans; but when he wanted 
 food and drink for the body, he sent those disciples into 
 a Samaritan city for the one, and solicited the other from 
 a Samaritan woman, who taunted him, being a Jew, for 
 having done so. 
 
 Strauss states that this incident is unhistorical, and 
 shows it to be an exact parallel with the Old Testament 
 account of Eliezer and Rebekah at the same well. He 
 says: "Thus the interview of Jesus with the woman of 
 Samaria, is only a poetical representation of his ministry 
 among the Samaritans narrated in the sequel; and this is 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 25/ 
 
 itself a legendary prelude to the propagation of the gos- 
 pel in Samaria after the death of Jesus." 
 
 It may be of some interest to the reader to note, in 
 passing, why it is that, considering how numerous the 
 Jews are, there should be no Samaritans in our day, as 
 they were quite the same people. The explanation for 
 this is that scarce 500 years after this time they were ex- 
 terminated, or nearly so, by Christians for refusing to 
 accept the Christian religion. The Emperor Justinian 
 would not tolerate even silent unbelief. Suspected per- 
 sons were subjected to an inquisitorial examination, and 
 were given the alternative of conversion and baptism, or 
 banishment. This hard alternative was presented to the 
 Samaritans. But belief in Christ was impossible with 
 them; to worship him would seem as sacrilegious as to 
 worship an image, for they regarded the divinity in each 
 case as the work of man. They were too honest to pre- 
 tend to comply, and too manly to tamely submit. To 
 resist the officers sent to enforce the emperor's command 
 was necessarily rebellion, and Christian writers refer to 
 that rebellion and the attending destruction as the sole 
 cause for their subsequent misfortunes; the cause for that 
 rebellion not being always mentioned by them. Even 
 Gibbon says that 'under the standard of a desperate 
 leader they rose in arms and retaliated their wrongs on 
 the lives, the property, and the temples of a defenceless 
 people." But no people were ever given a more unjust 
 and cruel alternative, and in the rebellion they chose they 
 could not have been otherwise than on the defensive. 
 They risked death and slavery in defense of their homes 
 and the right to worship the one and only God. 
 
2S8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 They must have fought heroically, for 100,000 gov- 
 ernment troops were killed to the 20,000 killed of their 
 own number, and the balance — 20,000 more — were sold 
 into far distant slavery in Persia and India. A writer in 
 the Biblical Cyclopmdia, prepared by Mr. McClintock 
 and Mr. Strong, relates a few instances where a small 
 body of Samaritans were subsequently mentioned in his- 
 tory as still being in their own country, and probably a 
 few did escape or succeeded in after times in returning to 
 their old homes. The same writer states that as late as 
 1872 there were still dwelling at the foot of Mount Geri- 
 zim 135 Samaritans, 80 of whom were males. He repre- 
 sents them to have been, in personal appearance, much 
 superior to the people in the country about, being tall, 
 well formed, and intelligent. 
 
 We honor the heroes who have bravely fought in 
 battles and survived, but too soon forget the still greater 
 heroes who gave their lives in those battles. So with the 
 Samaritans. The Jews have come down to us through 
 ages of persecution and imposition, but the Samaritans 
 died at the point where heroes die — at that point where 
 life could have been purchased only by hypocrisy and 
 shame. They waded through a red sea- — not to a land 
 flowing with milk and honey — but to a land flowing with 
 their children's tears. Only their enemies remained to 
 write their history; but the slight glimpse they give us 
 of them, coupled with the attending circumstances, indi- 
 cate that it was not on account of their vices, but because 
 of their virtues, that our songs of Zion are not now dis- 
 corded with notes from Gerizim. 
 
 The reader will not find this account in Fox's Book of 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 259 
 
 Martyrs, but is referred to the 47th chapter of Gibbon's 
 Rome for that and many other items of Christian history 
 with which it might be well to refresh the memory at the 
 present time. 
 
 The author of the Fourth Gospel felt that there should 
 have been some supernatural event at the arrest of Jesus 
 somewhat in keeping with the powers that ought to have 
 been at his command. He therefore represents that 
 when Jesus spoke to the men sent to arrest him, "they 
 went backwards and fell to the ground." (xviii, 6.) This 
 incident seems to have been unknown to the writers of 
 the other gospels. » 
 
 Though the church had advanced in intelligence, these 
 men were still ignorant and superstitious. Some of their 
 inconsistencies were owing to this, and some were owing 
 to matter added to the New Testament in later times. 
 That book continued to grow during at least. two centur- 
 ies after their time. The ascension was not thought of 
 by them, and they did not recognize the importance of 
 giving more witnesses to the resurrection. The increased 
 testimony on this latter point was inserted long after- 
 wards (evidently) in I Cor. xv, 6, where Paul is made to 
 say that Christ was seen after the resurrection by above 
 five hundred brethren at once. That this is an interpola- 
 tion is further evidenced by the words, according to the 
 scriptures, which are inserted in the 3d and 4th verses. 
 There were no scriptural records of Christ in Paul's time, 
 not even uncanonical, and hence it was an expression he 
 could not have used. 
 
 When this gospel was written, Christ was already 
 worshiped by large numbers as equal to God, and by a 
 
26o THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 still larger number as but little less than God. It was there- 
 fore written under different circumstances from any other 
 book in the New Testament. The writers of the others 
 could not have had the least conception of the attention 
 their writings were to receive. They did not even think 
 of future generations, but led a comparatively small num- 
 ber of people in a movement that was expected daily to 
 end in the millennium. 
 
 But the author (or authors) of the fourth gospel 
 wrote in a knowledge of the work to be done. Not that 
 even he knew the full extent and success that was to at- 
 tend the Christian movement; but the success was already 
 so great that a full knowledge of the future could not have 
 further excited thought and care in all his statements. It 
 is the only book in the New Testament written for future 
 generations, and with some knowledge of the criticism it 
 would receive. Under such circumstances every new 
 statement would be carefully weighed and necessarily 
 inserted for a purpose. No matter how slight the state- 
 ment may be, whenever it conveys information not given 
 in the synoptic gospels, such information was carefully 
 studied and inserted to accomplish some desired eifect. 
 This fact needs to be taken into consideration in noting 
 the following incident related in the last chapter. In the 
 19th verse Jesus is represented as saying to Peter, ''Fol- 
 low me. " 
 
 20. " Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple 
 whom Jesus loved, following: (which also leaned on his 
 breast at supper, and said. Lord, which is he that betray- 
 eth thee?) 
 
 21. Peter seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what 
 shall this man do? 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 26 1 
 
 22. Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I 
 come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. 
 
 23. Then went this saying abroad among the breth- 
 ren, that that disciple should not die; yet Jesus said not 
 unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry 
 till I come, what is that to thee? 
 
 24. This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, 
 and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony 
 is true. " 
 
 When we consider the time this gospel was issued, 
 and the greatly interested and questionable source from 
 whence it emanated, the object of the information con- 
 tained in those verses is apparent. The author did not 
 venture to directly state that John would live until the 
 second coming of Christ, which was still regarded as 
 being in the near future; but he said enough to convey 
 that belief to the most credulous, and to impress upon 
 the minds of others the idea of John's living to a super- 
 naturally great age. The pretense that he was a disciple 
 whom Jesus specially loved, is peculiar to this gospel 
 only. It is brought in with a labored reference to the 
 Lord's suppers, where this partiality is represented to 
 have been a fact recognized by the other Apostles. 
 
 Those men who caused this gospel to be written knew 
 that the reputed author would at that time have to be 
 nearly two hundred years old, but they also knew the 
 credulity and superstition of their followers, and played 
 upon those qualities so as not only to warmly attach them 
 to this gospel, but to make it seem to emanate more 
 directly than any other from Jesus, through a beloved 
 disciple left upon earth for that purpose. They intended 
 to make the very existence of this gospel to be looked 
 
262 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 upon, by many as miraculous, but have ingeniously so 
 worded it that a Christian can believe much or little of 
 the implied supernatural part, according to the extent of 
 his superstition or credulity. 
 
 In this they have been successful, for there is every 
 variety of opinion concerning John, from a belief in a 
 supernatural great age, to belief that he still lives, and 
 is designated by the latter as the Wandering Jew. Well 
 drilled believers in the virtue of faith are not much af- 
 fected by the late appearance of this gospel. They have 
 much more improbable things to swallow than to believe 
 that the Apostle John lived a couple of centuries. 
 
 This effort of the author is all the more marked if, as 
 some suppose, this gospel originally ended with the pre- 
 ceding chapter, this last having been annexed at a later 
 date. If so, it was for the reason just given, which had 
 probably been suggested, if not necesitated, by criticisms 
 made upon this point. This last chapter is the only one 
 in the New Testament in which Christ is represented to 
 have appeared in Galilee after the resurrection. This 
 appearance, however, is made to agree with the synop- 
 tics by a line in Matt, xxvi, 32, and Mark xiv, 28, where- 
 in Christ is made to foretell the event. But a late dis- 
 covery of a part of a gospel older than Matthew or Mark 
 goes to show that the verse in question is an interpola- 
 tion inserted to force an agreement between the syiioptic 
 gospels and this last chapter of John. The words are: 
 
 "But after I am risen again, I will go before you into 
 Galilee." 
 
 An account of this archaeological discovery was pub- 
 lished in the Chicago Tribune July 11, 1885, from the 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 263 
 
 Vienna correspondent of the London Times, and is as 
 follows: 
 
 Professor Karabacek has been good enough to show me the papyrus 
 which has lately been discovered among the El Fayum manuscripts, and 
 which is alleged to be the fragment of a gospel older than those of St. 
 Matthew and St. Mark. It is a very small fragment, measuring three and 
 a half centimetres in length and four and one-third in width, and contains 
 seven lines, having one hundred and five words. Of these ninety six can 
 be plainly deciphered, but nine are indistinct. .Some lines are mutilated at 
 the beginning and end, and it is supposed that from ninety-one to ninety- 
 eight letters are missing. The number of deficient letters can be reckoned 
 by comparing lines three, four and seven with the others. The seventh 
 contains but four letters. 
 
 The writing is in Greek, and Dr. G. Bickell, of the University of Inns- 
 bruck, who discovered and deciphered the fragment, concludes, from the 
 form of the letters and the abbreviations, that it was written in the third 
 century; but from the style of the composition he infers that it dates origi- 
 nally from the first century, and this is also the opinion of Dr. Edward 
 Harnark, editor of the Theologische Literatur Zdtung of Leipsic. 
 
 Here is the translation of the fragment, line for line. As already re- 
 ported, its parallel is to be found in Matthew xxvi, verses 30 to 34, and 
 Mark xiv, verses 26 to 30: 
 
 1. But after supper, as they went out. 
 
 2. You will all take offense this night. 
 
 3. According to the Scriptures, "I will smite the shepherd, and the 
 sheep will be scattered. " 
 
 4. Then Peter spake, 
 
 5. And if all, not I. 
 
 6. He said to him, 
 
 7. The cock will crow twice, and before that thou shalt deny me thrice. 
 The omission of the words, to be found both in Matthew and Mark, 
 
 "But after I am risen again I wdl go before you into Galilee," is noticeable. 
 Dr. Bickell, reviewing the fragment in the Zeitschrift fur Catholische 
 'I heblogle — a periodical printed at Innsbruck for private circulation — lays 
 stress upon the importance of the manuscript as l^eing the earliest fragment 
 of a written gospel; not canonical indeed, but yet no pseudograph or hereti- 
 cal composition. Dr. Bickell's views are set forth and approvingly com- 
 mented upon in an article by Dr. Harnark, which appears in the last num- 
 ber of the Theologische Literatur Zeitung of Leipsic. Dr. Harnark, who is 
 a fervent Roman Catholic, distinguished for his Greek scholarship, re- 
 marked that, so far as he can judge, Dr. Bickell has taken no liberty with 
 the text, having only added five letters, which it could be plainly guessed 
 were the missing ones, but which simply mended broken words without 
 altering the sense of a line. The antiquity and genuineness of the frag- 
 ment are, he argues, beyond dispute, and he concludes: 
 
 "It is strange that a small strip of papyrus, containing about one hun- 
 dred words, should be able to raise so many important questions with 
 regard to the originality of two of the gospels, but it would be too easy to 
 dispose of these questions by saying that the papyrus is not genuine. 
 Having given our opinion as to the genuineness, we must, in the interest 
 
264 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 of truth, maintain that there is no explaining away the omission of our 
 Lord's prophecy as to His going into Galilee; except by supposing that the 
 author of the manuscript wrote from memory. But what probability is 
 there that, writing from memory, he would have left out the most striking 
 and important passage in our Lord's conversation with His disciples? Let 
 critics more learned than we are endeavor to account for the omission more 
 satisfactorily than we can. For ourselves we must submit that it goes far 
 toward suggesting a doubt as to whether the Gospels ascribed to Matthew 
 and Mark were, in the form in which we know them now, composed by 
 those disciples." 
 
 It will be seen that the fragment has the verses pre- 
 ceding and following the verse quoted, but that verse is 
 "conspicuous for its absence." 
 
 This discovery and the brevity, directness, break in 
 the sense, and importance of the verse quoted, establishes 
 a reasonable certainty that it is an interpolation, intended 
 to fraudulently confirm, not only the Fourth Gospel, but 
 its most questionable chapter. 
 
 The original authors of the Synoptic Gospels no doubt 
 believed what they wrote, their fault being in their judg- 
 ment rather than in their honesty. The Fourth Gospel 
 is the only one in which that mental condition of the au- 
 thor was reversed, and by his arts it has been made the 
 most popular gospel of them all. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE QUESTION AS MET BY MODERN AUTHORS. 
 
 It is commonly assumed that in any controversy those 
 who make the best argument, supported by abundant 
 proof, will win over to their views the parties addressed. 
 But this is the case only where such parties are either dis- 
 interested or undecided upon the question at issue. When 
 there are settled convictions in opposition, the feeling 
 good arguments raise is not one of conviction, but one 
 of cofltention ; and this feeling will be bitter in propor- 
 tion to the strength of the argument. It is this peculiarity 
 that holds large numbers of citizens so persistently 
 to their political parties, regardless of changed circum- 
 stances. Having once enlisted upon one side, any 
 superior position of the other party only increases their 
 feeling of opposition, which is often carried to such 
 lengths that men will support candidates and measures 
 they otherwise would have opposed. Those who do 
 finally change to opposite views do so very slowly and 
 seemingly voluntarily. 
 
 A noted writer says the great changes the public 
 mind undergoes come through new ideas of new genera- 
 tions rather than from any change of those living. The 
 mind is like blank paper upon which, with many, certain 
 ideas are too strongly stamped ever to be erased, no mat- 
 ter how strong may be the proof of error. A few are 
 capable of listening to the argument and proof of an op- 
 
266 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ponentand be convinced, and this is always an intelligent 
 feature. It is even then the work of their own reasoning 
 faculties in part, though acted upon by others. 
 
 Those who take the trouble to write books in support 
 of Christianity must necessarily be more devoted to it 
 than the average, as the matter of their works always 
 shows them to be. Their writings exhibit a strength of 
 belief too great to admit of reasoning from a disinterested 
 standpoint themselves, or of listening to it on the part of 
 others. It is natural enough that they should write, but 
 they should not labor to produce an impression that they 
 were recording the considerations that brought them from 
 unbiased opinions. But this is now frequently done either 
 by the author or the Christian public. One of the most 
 nptable instances of this kind is the work entitled 
 Testimony of the Evangelists , by Simon Greenleaf, L LD. 
 It is made manifest that the author was an eminent jurist, 
 and as such particularly capable of examining evidence, 
 and after such exhaustive investigation as the magnitude 
 of the work indicates, it is implied that the conclusions 
 were irresistable, and should be accepted by his readers. 
 But upon inherited opinions, lawyers, like every- 
 body else, are incapable of reasoning disinterestedly. 
 Their experience enables them to present their own views 
 with superior skill, and that is all the advantage that ex- 
 perience gives them. Lawyers often have to advocate 
 a cause where the facts are all against them, and for that 
 reason they take more pride in successfully advocating a 
 weak cause than a strong one, for it is the greater test of 
 their ability. In doing this their experience has taught 
 them certait) peculiarities of human nature of which they 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 267 
 
 often take advantage. One of the most common, as pre- 
 viously stated, is to raise false issues when they are weak 
 on the true one. Experience shows that the mind is 
 easily misled in this way, and will mistake a settlement 
 of the false issue for a settlement of the whole question. 
 Even in common conversation two men differing upon 
 any subject will more frequently than otherwise run off 
 on to questions quite foreign to that originally raised. 
 It requires considerable thought and skill on the part of 
 a debater to hold the debate strictly to the point under 
 consideration. 
 
 Another deception often practiced of a similar nature 
 is to argue wholly upon the one point upon which the 
 mo'st evidence can be brought, and ignore all others. 
 Lawyers will also at times make great display of books 
 and papers, and by outward appearance try to create an 
 impression of thorough study upon the question under 
 consideration. 
 
 The first and last named features are conspicuous in 
 the work just mentioned. It is a ponderous volume. 
 Every verse in the New Testament is seemingly compared 
 with corresponding parts in all the gospels, and was cer- 
 tainly a great labor. A reader would naturally be im- 
 pressed with a belief that the work covered all the grounds 
 of Christian faith, and that the author's conclusions were 
 irresistible. But the work is of a microscopic nature. 
 It has not taken a comprehensive view of the truthful- 
 ness of Christianity, but has simply magnified an infini- 
 tesimal figment of that question. 
 
 If the gospels differed much in their accounts of 
 Christ, believers would be obliged to adopt one as the 
 
268 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 truth, and reject all parts of the others wherein they dif- 
 fered from it. But if the gospels can be shown to har- 
 monize (and its great labors were upon that point), then 
 believers can base their faith upon the assertion of four 
 simple, credulous disciples, instead of but one. If we 
 should admit that those gospels were not written from 
 one to two hundred years after the birth of Christ, and 
 that it was known who Matthew was, and who was the 
 author of the Gospel of John, and should admit that the 
 authors of each were with Christ every day of his life, 
 and noted down his sayings at the time, and that all their 
 accounts agreed to the letter, it would still be an imper- 
 ceptible advance towards proof of the divinity of Christ. 
 Those who have been taught in their youth to look with 
 awe upon the writings of the Apostles cannot realize how 
 trifling and unimportant their testimony is. If not only 
 the four, but the twelve, or even the seventy, had re- 
 peated the same account, it alone would still be unim- 
 portant evidence. 
 
 The author points out that the question he is about to 
 discuss is to be done as a lawyer, under the rules of evi- 
 dence usual in courts, and he, necessarily, proceeds at 
 once to state what that question is. This he does in his 
 dedication, giving, in a few words, each side of it, one of 
 which is as follows: 
 
 " The religion of Jesus Christ aims at nothing less 
 than the utter overthrow of all other systems of religion 
 in the world; denouncing them as inadequate to the 
 wants of man, false in their foundation, and dangerousin 
 their tendency. It not only solicits the grave attention 
 of all, to whom its doctrines are presented, but it demands 
 their cordial belief, as a matter of vital concernment. 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 269 
 
 These are no ordinary claims, and it seems hardly possi- 
 ble for a rational being to regard them with even a 
 subdued interest, much less to treat them with mere in- 
 difference and contempt. If not true, they are little else 
 than the pretensions of a bold imposter, which, not satis- 
 fied with having already enslaved millions of the human 
 race, seeks to continue its encroachments upon human 
 liberty, until all nations shall be subjected under its iron 
 rule." ■ 
 
 A man. unwilling to admit the divinity of Christ upon 
 the simple ground of the virtue of credulity, and seeking 
 for evidence of that divinity outside of the system, would 
 feel that, in the above, he had found the exact and long- 
 sought-for issue, and would now learn from one particu- 
 larly capable of teaching, why it was that the religion of 
 Jesus Christ was not based upon " the pretensions of a 
 bold imposter.'' It is the root of the Christian system, 
 and, necessarily, the point was soon reached. It was 
 not only soon reached, but passed, in the following few 
 words: 
 
 " The proof that God has revealed himself to man by 
 especial and express communication, and that Christianity 
 constitutes that revelation, is no part of these inquiries. 
 This has already been shown iri the most satisfactory 
 manner, by others, who have written expressly upon this 
 subject. Referring, therefore, to their writings for the 
 argument and proofs, the fact will here be assumed to be 
 true." 
 
 When a heavy body is forced into too small a space 
 for it, something must give way, and an examination will 
 show the exact point of greatest weakness. It is the 
 same with a truth and a falsehood upon the same subject, 
 one or the other must yield. As before stated, the sacred- 
 
270 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ness of the Bible, and every dogma of the Christian sys- 
 tem, are but logical conclusions or necessities following 
 the one great pretense — the divinity of Christ. If that is 
 false, the entire system falls to the ground; and yet, upon 
 that one point there is not an item of proof or argument 
 to be offered, none whatever. The Bible is no evidence, 
 for its sacredness is to be proven by Christ. With his 
 divinity established, the Bible is all that believers claim 
 for it, but otherwise it is nothing. 
 
 The utter absence of any evidence of the divinity of 
 Christ is conspicuous to those who will investigate. Some 
 divines meet this by saying that, if his divinity could be 
 proven, there would be no virtue in faith, which is very 
 true. Its deification was necessary in the absence of 
 any evidence. Few, however, awake to this absence of 
 evidence, because of their accompanying belief in the 
 sacredness of the Bible, or, rather, in ancient conclusions 
 derived from it. 
 
 When, therefore, a learned man, but a constitutional 
 believer, sets out to discuss the evidence upon which that 
 belief was founded, it becomes interesting to observe his 
 collision with that one point. It is like a ponderous body 
 entering a space too narrow for it. Either his learning 
 or honesty must yield, or the truth of the disputed point 
 be established, or the encounter avoided. We have seen 
 how Mr. Greenleaf met that one all-important question, 
 after his implied power to confirm it. With the admis- 
 sion that " God has revealed himself to man through 
 Christianity," a wide field is opened for the learned to try 
 and give that revelation a semblance of even moderate 
 intelligence. With that established, there is latitude for 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 2/1 
 
 argument forevermore, but until then there is but the one 
 question as to Christ's divine authority. 
 
 People grow up having a vague idea that proof of the 
 truth outside of the Bible was originally taught them in 
 Sunday school, or somewhere, in their youth; that it was 
 so simple as to be of a primary nature, like the multipli- 
 cation table, and could be turned to, if necessary, at any 
 moment. Ideas of this nature are so common that a 
 constitutional believer will enter upon a discussion of the 
 truth of Christianity, and be face to face with this one 
 point before he discovers that he cannot, just at the mo- 
 ment, bring to mind those evidences he supposed he had 
 long since learned. Something like this must have been 
 the experience of the author of the Testimony of the 
 Evangelist. He stated in his bill, " If not true, they are 
 little else than the pretensions of a bold imposter," and, 
 therefore, to show that they were not the pretensions of 
 a bold imposter was his self-appointed task. But when 
 he reaches the question of imposter or divinity, he seems 
 to fail to remember just where that overpowering evi- 
 dence was, and avoids the contest, by stating that it was 
 no part of his inquiries. 
 
 An indispensable requisite for unquestioning faith is, 
 that the believer, on questions of his religion, shall hold 
 his own intelligence down to a level with the writers of 
 the gospels. Space in the Bible must be sacred with 
 them; they must revere every word of it. For instance, 
 in Matthew i, 17, is the following: 
 
 " So all the generations from Abraham to David are 
 fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying 
 away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from 
 
272 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are four- 
 teen generations." 
 
 This is a low degree of superstition, and one that, in 
 any other connection, would not now receive the least 
 notice from even quite ignorant men. But so learned a 
 man as the author of the Testimony of the Evangelist , 
 treats this passage as worthy of pious thought, and 
 gravely stops to count up those generations and show 
 the statement to be true. This he seems unable to do 
 without some little rearranging or explanation, after 
 which he gives three columns of names, showing each to 
 be fourteen. 
 
 Paley's Evidence of Christianity is a work wherein 
 the author is actuated by quite the same idea as the author 
 of Testimony of the Evangelist, expending his labors, 
 however, upon Paul's Epistles rather than the Gospels. 
 The author seems to be laboring under the impression 
 that showing Paul's Epistles were not the production of 
 unknown authors, but that they were actually written by 
 Paul himself, was evidence, outside of the Christian sys- 
 tem, of its truth. There is no necessity for questioning 
 most of the points these gentlemen argue upon, but, on 
 the contrary, what is now most demanded of them is that 
 they admit the truths as to those writings, and not in- 
 directly deny them in efforts to explain them away. 
 
 There never has been a time when the truth of the 
 divine pretentions of Christ were so widely disputed 
 among Christian-reared people as now, and never a time 
 when faith was so fast losing ground. The church itself 
 is rejecting some, and quietly ignoring more of its old 
 doctrines, and thousands repudiate them wholly. The 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 2/3 
 
 net amount of belief in the whole system is probably 
 fifty per cent, less than outward appearance indicates. 
 This century, particularly the last half of it, is the begin- 
 ning of the end of that superstition. Mr. Froude stated 
 in 1863 that "The truth of the gospel history is more 
 widely doubted now in Europe than at any time since 
 the conversion of Constantine. " Under these circum- 
 stances ecclesiastics now frequently avoid that one great 
 question by affecting a lofty disdain of it, asserting that 
 its proof has been so long established by both time and 
 numbers as to place it above further discussion. 
 
 The retrograde movement of the planets were believed 
 to be a fact through a lapse of time longer than the 
 Christian era. To doubt those movements was to doubt 
 the evidence of their own eyes, for they could be wit- 
 nessed by any who would patiently observe them. All 
 could see that the planets stopped, turned back on their 
 course, again stopped, then renewed their true course 
 with temporarily increased speed. They could see also 
 that the time between those retrograde movements was 
 not the same in any two planets, and could occur in any 
 part of their orbits. This phenomena was a puzzle to 
 learned men through long ages, and they advanced deep 
 studied theories in explanation of it. But when at last 
 we came to know that the earth revolved around the sun, 
 we then discovered that the retrograde movement of the 
 planets was an optical delusion growing out of our own 
 movement around the sun. No matter how learned or 
 distinguished, or numerous the men were who had sup- 
 ported those theories, nor through what long ages they 
 had been sanctified, the simple truth wiped them all 
 
274 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 away. Neither time nor numbers can ever make a false- 
 hood true. 
 
 Some three hundred million of Chinese, through two 
 or three thousand years, have asserted that their emperor 
 was cousin to the moon. This is a far more modest 
 assertion than the one about which it is insisted there 
 shall be no further argument, and there is exactly the 
 same reason for demanding that its truth be admitted 
 without question. 
 
 When we are reviewing the works of God we must 
 try to comprehend distance, size, and time, as understood 
 by Him. We must not look upon space with the eyes of 
 a surveyor, nor upon time with the eyes of a historian. 
 As we look back over the past we find that the further we 
 get from our own time the less are we interested in the 
 contentions of the people, and the more are we interested 
 in the development those contentions begat. That which 
 is our Creator's only object in our life-long struggles, be- 
 comes in time the only history of interest to us. It is 
 not the history that mah's work makes that we seek, but 
 that which God's work makes. The rise and fall of 
 nations becomes but a little matter of local interest as to 
 time, and unimportant as compared to a knowledge of 
 the intellectual advancement that God is working in us. 
 It is the laws that made that development rather than the 
 human laws of the times that we need to know. 
 
 There will come a time when the whole Christian era 
 will have no other interest than the illustration it supplies 
 of the never failing evil consequences that attends an 
 ethical government based upon that which is false, 
 whether it be by the whole world, or by but a single 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 2/5 
 
 individual; also in its exposition of the nat«al human 
 tendency to mingle superstition with religion; Wid also in 
 the lesson it has so expensively taught us in tnis, — that 
 with advancing intelligence both the importance and the 
 labor of separating truth from falsehood becomes greater, 
 and that our best efforts at all times should be devoted to 
 that end. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher was one of those who recog- 
 nized that the strongest position that can be be taken 
 in support of the divinity of Christ, is to affirm that 
 time and numbers have placed that question above further 
 discussion. In his Life of Christ he objects to the argu- 
 mentative nature of such works, and certainly his is not 
 argumentative, nor does it pretend to be. However 
 liberal he may be otherwise, he was a constitutional 
 believer in the divinity of Jesus Christ, and his work is 
 simply his own prolonged adulation of him. 
 
 The same can be said of all the various Lives of 
 Christ and of the different Apostles, written by Christian 
 writers. The New Testament contains all that is known 
 of any of them, and to enlarge upon their career, the 
 authors from their imagination depict extended details 
 based upon a sentence, or even a word, in the gospels. 
 
 The History of the Christian Religion, by Chas. B. 
 Waite, A. M., can also be said to treat of the testimony 
 of the Evangelist, and it does so in a more thorough 
 manner. But the author, at the close, has a fault similar 
 to Mr. Greenleaf. In his summing up he adds a conclu- 
 sion upon which he had not treated in his work. He 
 stated: 
 
 "In conclusion, as the result of this investigation, it 
 
276 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 may be rafceated that no evidence is found of the exist- 
 ence in tlJPfirst century of either, of the following doc- 
 trines: The imalculate conception, the miracles of Christ, 
 his material resurrection. No one of these doctrines is 
 to be found in the epistles of the New Testament, nor 
 have we been able to find them in any other writings of 
 the first century. 
 
 As to the four gospels, in coming to the conclusion 
 that they were not written in the first century, we have 
 but recorded the convictions of the more advanced schol- 
 ars of the present day, irrespective of their religious 
 views in other respects; with whom the question as now 
 presented is, how early in the second century were they 
 composed? 
 
 Discarding, as inventions of the second century, hav- 
 ing no historical foundation, the three doctrines above 
 named, and much else which must stand or fall with 
 them, what remains of the Christian religion? 
 
 All that is of value — all that is in harmony with the 
 immutable laws of the universe, still remains. We have 
 still the divine teachings of Christ. The more important 
 of these, though more or less interpolated and corrupted, 
 have been preserved and handed down, both by tradition 
 and in writing; and unlike the books referred to, can be 
 traced back to well authenticated records of the first cen- 
 tury. Those teachings impress upon the mind and heart 
 the highest and purest form of morality. They have 
 never been improved upon by any theological speculations. 
 After all the systems of theologians shall have passed 
 away, they will stand forth, shining brighter and brighter 
 even unto the perfect day. " 
 
 The question of Christ's superior teachings was not 
 touched upon in Mr. Waite's book, and certainly there is 
 nothing in the New Testament to sustain those assertions. 
 Such an admission embraces the pith of the whole ques- 
 tion. The false standard of . virtues and sins of the 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 2/7 
 
 Christian system constitute one of its greatest evils. It 
 wastes the best impulses of mankind upon its worthless 
 ethics, while it is too often silent upon those duties the 
 religious feelings would otherwise cause a person to per- 
 form. It is far easier to keep within its false standard 
 than it is to resist those temptations which, if not resisted; 
 will bring loss or sorrow to others; and hence dishonor- 
 able people follow the church's simple standard, and thus 
 secure its influence in giving them respectability in the 
 midst of their corrupt acts 
 
 Evolution and Christianity, by J. F. Yorke, is a work 
 that treats in part upon the same subject that Judge 
 Waite does, while the latter's book is otherwise similar 
 to Sicpernatural Religion, though each occupies a field 
 of their own. All three of those authors write seemingly 
 as Christians, for they credit Christianity with that which 
 involves crediting Christ with having been sent upon a 
 divine mission, and with having been the author of su- 
 pernatural teachings; yet collectively their various rejec- 
 tions leave him without a history, without recorded sen- 
 timents, without a supernatural presence upon earth, and 
 without a reason for his coming. 
 
 The canonical gospels were the church's choice of all 
 that were written, added to which are its many interpo- 
 lations inserted to improve the records of Christ. They 
 not only include all that was known of him, but even 
 more, and a child's two cent primer could contain every 
 recorded word of his; and if he gave any such wonderful 
 teachings, or even uttered one valuable sentiment that 
 the world would never have had but for him, it will be 
 easy to point us to the exact words. 
 
2/8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 This last lingering admission of superiority in Christ 
 is the result of early associations, coupled with deference 
 to public opinion. It is the wound that remains after the 
 tumor has been removed. It is an exhibition of the one 
 greatest power that supports the Christian system in our 
 day. It is a power so great that even after the individ- 
 ual's eyes are open to the vast mental delusion of the 
 system, he will still make this one admission which, if 
 true, confirms the truth of those dogmas which he has 
 rejected. 
 
 The supposition that there must have been intelli- 
 gence of a high order underneath a movement that grew 
 to such magnitude as Christianity, is one of the greatest 
 errors connected with it. We know nothing of God him- 
 self We can only wonder and imagine as to the person- 
 ality of the great Being who made the universe. We see 
 His works only, but as for Him, our imagination must 
 take the place of knowledge. So if those feelings we 
 have for God are to be transferred to Jesus, it is of the 
 utmost importance that we be eqully ignorant of the per- 
 sonality of Jesus. That combination of circumstances 
 that originated a belief in the divinity of Christ, and al- 
 most totally obliterated any personal knowledge of him, 
 was the one greatest indispensable requisite to success in 
 establishing those feelings of veneration for him. The 
 belief that Jesus was equal with God, without any know- 
 ledge of how that belief originated, was what was wanted. 
 The accounts of him, slight as they are, still give a know- 
 ledge of him that is the church's greatest weakness 
 to-day, and will yet overthrow it. 
 
 Dr. DoUinger, in his First Ages of Christianity, 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 279 
 
 piously explains how it happened that there was a follow- 
 ing of John the Baptist separate from those of Jesus by- 
 stating that those followers did not accept Christ be- 
 cause it was their nature to cling to that which was low 
 rather than to that which was higher. 
 
 We know of late years that man has advanced from 
 a very low degree, and if it was human to prefer the 
 low, and if he was naturally depraved, this advancement 
 could never have happened. Man is the exact oppo- 
 site of what Christianity has been teaching. He is nat- 
 urally kind and honorable, and the existence of every 
 government has always depended upon those qualities 
 predominating to a very great degree. Men greatly 
 deficient in them become at enmity with their race, 
 and it is a law of nature that such will work their 
 own ruin and death. Man is always seeking for fur- 
 ther enlightenment, and is the only animal that will 
 improve alone under the working of his individual mind. 
 
 The Doctor's explanation amounts to representing that 
 it was low to join the movement of John the Baptist, 
 which the ancient Christians so anxiously and fraudu- 
 lently absorbed into their own. system. Furthermore, 
 the relative positions of the Baptists and Christ were, at 
 that time, the reverse of what this explanation implies. 
 Christian books and sermons are full of little statements 
 of this nature. They do not admit of the least criticism, 
 nor are they expected to be criticised. They are given 
 as exhibitions of piety, and their acquiescence is ex- 
 pected as other exhibitions of piety. Within the system 
 it is indelicate to point out their inconsistencies and 
 falsehoods, even though, as in this instance, that false- 
 hood is an insult to the Creator. 
 
28o THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The author of The Testimony of the Evangelist did 
 not pass, without careful thought, the place where he 
 should have given arguments outside of the system in 
 proof of revealed religion. He refers, in a note, to 
 Home's Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, an old En- 
 glish work which, in its first few pages, does offer a few 
 ideas upon that point. The manner in which this refer- 
 ence is made indicates that the author's mind ranged far 
 and wide for the much needed evidence, and that he felt 
 the poverty of quoting but one book, for he couples it 
 with a reference to a lecture by Prof. Hopkins, and then 
 withdraws the latter, giving as a reason that Mr. Home 
 refers to all other writers upon the subject. But Mr. 
 Home makes no reference to others offering such argu- 
 ments, nor could I find any arguments in Prof Hopkins' 
 published lectures. The truth is, comparatively nothing 
 has been written to prove the truth of the divinity of 
 Christ that was not based upon belief in some dogma 
 that grew out of it. People are blinded to this fact by 
 the great breadth of the system; they grow up in the 
 faith and are argued out of it, never into it. With the 
 truth of some one of its doctrine's admitted, in argu- 
 ment can be made to sustain others, and thus that which 
 is within the system seems to have a fulcrum outside of 
 it, and, therefore, to have a bearing upon t whole 
 questibn. 
 
 For example, Mr. Home wished to defend the doc- 
 trine of the Fall of Man both from unbelievers and from 
 those within the church, some of the latter having re- 
 sorted to the usual method of getting rid of its most 
 glaring follies by asserting that the Mosaic account is 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 2 81. 
 
 allegorical. To do this he puts in small-caps what he 
 calls an UNDENIABLE FACT. "The evident ruined con- 
 dition of the human race," in witness whereof he cites 
 labor, sorrow, pain, death, nature of social life, and 
 origin of evil. 
 
 But belief that the evils of life did not originally 
 exist, is as much a doctrine of the church as is the doc- 
 trine of the Fall of Man; it is a part of that doctrine. 
 Every step of progress that man has made has been 
 through his efforts to overcome the troubles of life, and 
 if released from that necessity our race would return to a 
 state of ignorance and idleness. The troubles of this life 
 are the result of our own incapacity, and we will yet over- 
 come therp all. This life is but one condition of an 
 existence that is eternal, and those who presume to pass 
 judgment upon its success or failure need to take into 
 consideration the proportion of time that life bears to the 
 whole. 
 
 If eternity was limited to as short a time as one mil- 
 lion years, the duration of this life would still bear such a 
 small proportion to the whole that existence could be an 
 immeasurable blessing, even though this part of it should 
 be passed in poverty, sickness, and wretchedness. Those 
 evils can be an insignificant item in an eternal existence, 
 and, considering the service they render, cannot be called 
 a misfortune, even though seemingly borne by innocent 
 people. We send our little children to school and make 
 them rack their inexperienced minds over simple prob- 
 lems, the solution of which renders us no service. This 
 is often a sore trial to them, from which they would 
 gladly be released. But knowing the great advantage of 
 
282 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 their schooling, none would for a moment presume to 
 pronounce that enforced attendance at school a cruelty. 
 And yet in one day our little children will experience 
 grief at this enforced attendance which bears an immeas- 
 urably greater proportion to the time of their whole lives 
 than does the troubles of this life bear to eternity. 
 
 The seeming unjust distribution of the blessings of 
 this life has attracted universal attention in every age. 
 Nature sometimes seems to never tire of loading some 
 grossly unworthy object with every blessing, not only to 
 the neglect, but even at the expense, of the purest and 
 most deserving of their generation. This discrimination 
 has frequently done such violence to all human ideas of 
 right and justice as to be resorted to in evidence of the 
 non-existence of God; while others offer this fact (as in 
 the present instance) as proof of the existence of a devil. 
 But the extremes of the joys and sorrows of this life sink 
 into insignificance when measured by the life to come. 
 We cannot stake off the distance to the stars with chains 
 and links. We have no use for hours and minutes in 
 measuring eternity; nor can we comprehend God and 
 criticise his laws regarding us from the narrow field of 
 this life. The existence of His never-varying laws indi- 
 cate that He is not omnipresent; and the experience of 
 the past point to the fact that those evils for which so 
 many have been ready to "curse, their God and die" have 
 their base in either our individual or collective ignorance. 
 
 Punishment seems to be a primary law of God. If 
 we do wrong we suffer, and that suffering turns our atten- 
 tion sooner or later to its cause; and consequently to its 
 correction; and consequently to human progress. It is 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 283 
 
 one of the faults of Christianity that it prevents specula- 
 tion as to what the future life may be. Having asserted 
 that the Bible was the sole authority for belief in a future 
 life, it is, from necessity, confined to the crude and 
 ignorant ideas of its authors as to what that future life 
 actually is; and those narrow ideas not only do not 
 admit, but prohibit a study of the objects of this exis- 
 tence, and of the great and important bearing it has upon 
 the life to come. 
 
 Mr. Home's work is a voluminous one, but upon the 
 point in question there is, as usual, but little. Part of 
 the first chapter and all the remainder of his great labors 
 lie wholly within the system, and as an argument to un- 
 believers it is much like one's effort to lift himself in a 
 basket. He begins with the proposition that "Divine 
 revelations are possible, probable and necessary." 
 
 For the probabilities he refers to what was only the 
 workings of natural mental faculties so manifested in 
 ancient superstitions, and cites their curiosity as to future 
 existence; implying' that that curiosity must necessarily 
 be gratified, and that it was done through Christianity. 
 
 He gave eight reasons for the necessities of divine 
 revelation, as follows : 
 
 " 1st. The ideas of the ancients respecting the nature 
 and worship of God were dark, confused and imperfect. " 
 
 The united voices of all the Christians that ever lived, 
 solemnly proclaiming that God lost partial control of the 
 human race, constitutes the greatest insult that humanity 
 can offer to the Creator. Not in history, not in even the 
 most ancient superstition known, is there an exhibition of 
 darker, more confused, and more imperfect ideas of God 
 than this. 
 
284 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 "2d. They were ignorant of the true account of the 
 creation of the world. " 
 
 That is to say, it was not until we had the Bible that 
 we knew the world was made in six days; that the sun 
 was incidental to it and made in one day; and the stars— p 
 compared to which the world is like a pebble on the sea 
 shore — were also made in a day; and that all, sun, moon 
 and stars, were set "in the firmament of the heaven to 
 give light upon the earth." Mr. Home does not explain 
 what use the people made of this knowledge, but church- 
 men claim that civilization was owing to Christianity, and 
 probably in his opinion this important information has 
 much to do with it. It is about all of geology and 
 astronomy that we have in the Bible. 
 
 "jd/ They were also ignorant of the origin of evil, 
 and the cause of depravity and misery which actually- 
 exist among mankind. '' 
 
 Christian ideas upon this subject are of the lowest 
 order known, and the cruelties they practiced upon one 
 another through centuries of the Christian era, is the 
 greatest exhibition of misery known in history. 
 
 " ^th. Equally ignorant were the heathens of any 
 ■means, ordained and established by the Almighty , by 
 zvhich a reconciliation could be effected between God and 
 man. * * * " 
 
 This lies within the system, and is of no interest to 
 an unbeliever. The pretense that there needs to be a 
 reconciliation between God and man, is part of Christi- 
 anity's great insult to God. 
 
 "5th. They were ignorant., at least they taught notli- 
 ing, of divine grace and assistance towards our attain- 
 ment of virtue, and perseverance in it. " 
 
MODERN AUTHORS. 285 
 
 This is not true. It has been shown that the church 
 had no originality in that respect. It was its practice to 
 destroy anything that conflicted with its pretensions. 
 This fifth reason also implies the usual claim of the 
 church that everything good has come through Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 "6th. They had only dark aitd confused notions of 
 the summum bonum or supreme felicity of tna?i. " 
 
 Heaven, as described in Revelation, would be a place 
 of endless mental suffering, and Christians hope to reach 
 it by treating the enjoyments of this life as a branch of 
 human affairs under the especial control of Satan, and 
 therefore to be avoided. 
 
 "yth. They had weak and imperfect notiotis of the 
 immortality of the soul * * *. " 
 
 Belief in the immortality- of the soul is not at all 
 dependent upon the Bible. Neither would our immor- 
 tality be any reason for believing it, if without it (the 
 Bible) there was no evidence of our immortality. Our 
 hopes do not supply evidence that we shall have the 
 thing hoped for. 
 
 "8th. If the philosophers were thtts imcertain con- 
 cerning the immortality of the sonl, their ideas were 
 equally confused respecting the certainty of the eternal 
 rewards and punishments of a future state, and of the 
 resurrection of the body. " 
 
 Here, again, he is within the Christian system, and 
 upon points, too, about which its believers greatly differ. 
 
 In his argument upon his various propositions he cites 
 the views of opposers, and considers it strong evidence 
 against them that they do not agree. But their disagree- 
 
286 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ment is no proof of the truth of Christianity, nor is their 
 disagreement any greater than that within the system. 
 
 According to Christian ideas its opponents ought to 
 be very bad people. Therefore Mr. Home endeavors to 
 show them to be bad. Mr. Blount, for instance, he 
 states, wanted to marry his sister-in-law; and Voltaire 
 was wicked enough to want his book read whether it was 
 believed or not. In short, outside of the system Mr. 
 Home could make no argument or offer the least evi- 
 dence. His extended work supplies another illustration 
 of the fact that to make an argument in support of the 
 many docrines consequent upon belief in the divinity of 
 Christ, at least some one or more of them must be 
 accepted as true before anything can be said at all. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 INERTIA OF IDEAS. 
 
 Our thoughts move quickly only over grounds they 
 have passed before. The wires or track must have been 
 previously laid, otherwise the mind is the slowest of 
 the slow. Originality is far less common than seems to 
 be generally supposed, and it also nearly always consists 
 of but the least little advance into that which was un- 
 known before. All great improvements of every nature 
 are results of the but slightly-new ideas of many different 
 .people. The man who thought of placing the eye near 
 the point of the needle, showed, in that, one of the chief 
 originalities in the sewing machine. The true inventor 
 of reaping and mowing machines was the man who 
 thought of the zig-zag scythe, working like a saw be- 
 tween extended fingers. Honors should, consequently, 
 be given to originality according to the effect it produces, 
 no matter how simple the idea may be. Injustice has 
 often been done through not recognizing this fact. Rail- 
 road companies, as an illustration, lost millions of dollars 
 through the want of a continuous rail, bnt when that 
 object was accomplished by the Fish Plate, they could 
 not bring themselves to give the inventor his due credit, 
 because the idea was so simple. 
 
 Original ideas are not always of a nature to advance 
 mankind. Those who have the latter are few, and those 
 who give the public the benefit of them are fewer still. 
 
288 THE- SAFE SIDE. 
 
 A man may never have had an original idea in -his life, 
 and yet be an intelligent and successful man. There is 
 the same difference between original ideas, and those in 
 common use, that there is between the civil engineers 
 and plodding laborers who slowly survey the route, lay 
 the rails, and work the construction train, and the great 
 commerce and travel that afterwards passes over it. In- 
 dividuals may have passed over the ground before, and 
 let valuable original ideas die with them, for at the best 
 they are seldom favorably received, and their introduc- 
 tion is laborious. 
 
 The slow progress of originality is well illustrated in 
 the present manner of constructing the breech-loading 
 rifle. Men have gloried in their fire-arms, and, since their 
 introduction, some of the best minds in every age have 
 given them their careful study. Wealth has awaited those 
 who could improve them. And yet, the breech-loaders, 
 but recently introduced, are so simple that we can but 
 wonder they were not thought of at the first use of the 
 original blunderbus. But it has taken over four hundred 
 years for the slow-moving mind to advance to the present 
 perfection of that much-thonght-of instrument. 
 
 The tardiness in the discovery of the art of printing 
 also illustrates this natural human tendency to follow 
 closely the beaten track. For a number of thousand 
 years only the most intelligent could write, and large 
 numbers of this class, during all that time, were copying 
 vast numbers of manuscripts, before the simple idea of 
 printing, as first employed, was thought of. Even the 
 simple improvement of leaving a blank space between 
 the words, was not thought of within a lapse of time 
 longer than the Christian era. 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 289 
 
 It is well understood, that those in authority must feel 
 their way carefully in introducing new measures of gov- 
 ernment. The importance of this is so great that, in 
 many instances, men, whose abilities would have made 
 them desirable officers, have been rejected because of their 
 too great precipitancy in employing untried measures. 
 Human progress requires even more care in this respect. 
 Every step needs to be carefully considered before adop- 
 tion, and the more ignorant we are the greater is the 
 necessity for this caution. A vessel among rocks and 
 shoals cannot spread its canvas as confidently as can be 
 done upon the high sea, and it had better remain station- 
 ary than not go right when it does move. So in human 
 progress, its guidance was far above the intelligence of 
 man at a time when he most needed that guidance. But 
 our Creator so constructed the mind as to secure that 
 end. We are made to cling to the old ideas we are 
 familiar with until we shall clearly see the better ideas 
 that should replace them. It is more important that pub- 
 lic customs and laws should possess a certain amount of 
 stability, than that the ideas underlying them should be 
 correct. 
 
 Nor is it practicable for ideas to advance in one branch 
 of knowledge and remain stationary in all others. For 
 instance, if pre-historic men should have advanced to 
 modern customs and ideas of humanity, but should other- 
 wise have remained as they were, their humane treatment 
 of captives would then have worked them more suffering 
 than their cruelties did. Many acres per man was then 
 wanted in their support, and it was far better that the 
 population be kept down, and their physical and mental 
 
290 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 powers stimulated to exertion by frequent wars and mas- 
 sacres of captives, than that that depletion should be the 
 work of famine and pestilence. 
 
 Consequently, each generation of men are made to 
 follow the ideas of the generation that preceded them, 
 and to but slowly incorporate some of the few new ideas 
 of the few who originate them. However erroneous an 
 idea may be, it will go on forever, if originality is in any 
 way prevented. The law of inertia is as applicable to 
 ideas as to matter. 
 
 This cautious, carefully-weighed progress is secured 
 by causing our minds to be more powerfully impressed in 
 youth by that which is taught us by our elders, than it 
 can afterwards be by our observation and experience. 
 Hence, governing ideas must not only have the indorse- 
 ment of the most experienced, but they must have the 
 quite general indorsement of them. Ideas, also, can 
 otherwise be impressed upon the mind with varying de- 
 grees of power. We know, for instance, of the accidents 
 trains of cars are liable to, but are not deterred thereby 
 from traveling in them. If, however, we pass a place 
 where an accident has just occurred, and see the bodies 
 of those who have been killed, our confidence will be 
 much shaken. But those who have passed through an 
 accident, remember what they saw with horror, though 
 the scene was but momentary, and are often so keenly 
 alive to such dangers that, for years thereafter, they take 
 the cars with dread. But in all these instances, it is the 
 same fact impressed upon the mind with varying degrees 
 of power. 
 
 The mind can be equally deeply impressed through 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 29 1 
 
 pleasant associations, also by time, and, also, when a 
 number of mental qualities all tend to the same end. 
 A thing may be learned through two or three senses 
 more quickly than by one. A man may witness the 
 operation of some simple machine and feel confident 
 he can work it, but one short trial at the time will 
 fasten the knowledge in his mind in less time than is 
 possible through observation alone. So, too, with 
 errors ; it is possible for them to be so strongly im- 
 pressed upon the mind, before we know they are 
 errors, that, when we are undeceived, we will continue 
 to cling to them, because of the less impressive power of 
 our later though better knowledge. 
 
 Christian doctrines possess the mind with greater 
 power than the facts that disprove them, and can be 
 removed but slowly even under the most convincing 
 evidence. They became associated with so much that is 
 dear to us, during those years when our minds are espe- 
 cially intended to be overpoweringly impressed, that no 
 power of reason can for many years displace them, and 
 with some those erroneous impressions can never be 
 effaced. This law of the mind has not only taken the 
 most prominent part in perpetuating Christianity, but it 
 has also taken a prominent part in sustaining certain doc- 
 trines within the system; and is, also, responsible for the 
 inability to resuscitate old doctrines that have been re- 
 jected, even though well supported in the Bible. 
 
 The doctrine of the Trinity is an illustration. The 
 church has come down to us firmly seated in that faith, 
 but the thousands who weekly bow their heads in con- 
 formity to it, do not realize the fact that they are Trini- 
 
292 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 tarians simply because the Emperor Theodosius was 
 baptized in that belief just fifteen hundred years ago. He 
 then and there prohibited any further discussion upon 
 that subject by making that belief the law. Arianism, 
 which did not include the holy ghost, nor admit the son's 
 equality with the father (they were Unitarians) was much 
 the more popular belief in the church, and predominated 
 in Constantinople the capital. But Theodosius happened 
 to be much away and accessible to Trinitarians, by whom 
 he was converted to, and baptized in, that belief, at which 
 time he issued the following edict: 
 
 "It is our pleasure that all the nations, which are 
 governed by our clemency and moderation, should stead- 
 fastly adhere to the religion which was taught by St. 
 Peter to the Romans, which faithful tradition has pre- 
 served, and which is now professed by the Pontiff 
 Damasus, and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of 
 apostolic holiness. According to the discipline- of the 
 apostles, and the doctrines of the gospel, let us believe 
 the sole deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost; under an equal majesty, and a pious Trinity. We 
 authorize the followers of this doctrine to assume the title 
 of Catholic Christians; and as we judge that all others 
 are extravagant madmen we brand them with the infam- 
 ous name of Heretics; and declare, that their conventicles 
 shall no longer usurp the respectable appellation of 
 churches. Besides the condemnation of divine justice, 
 they must expect to suffer the severe penalties, which our 
 authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper 
 to inflict upon them.'' 
 
 "The Catholics of Constantinople were animated with 
 joyful confidence by the baptism and edict of Theodosius; 
 and they impatiently waited the effect of his gracious 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 293 
 
 promise. Their hopes were speedily accomplished, and 
 the emperor, as soon as he had finished the operations of 
 the campaign, made his public entry into the capital at 
 the head of a victorious army. The next day after his 
 arrival, he summoned Damophilus to his presence, and 
 offered that Arian prelate the hard alternative of sub- 
 scribing ,the Nicene Creed, or of instantly resigning, to 
 the orthodox believers, the use and possession of the 
 episcopal palace, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and all the 
 churches of Constantinople. 
 
 "The zeal of Damophilus, which in a Catholic saint 
 would have been justly applauded, embraced, without 
 hesitation a life of poverty and exile, and his removal 
 was immediately followed by the purification of the Im- 
 perial City. The Arians might complain, with some 
 appearance of justice, that an inconsiderable congrega- 
 tion of sectaries should usurp the hundred churches, 
 which they were insufficient to fill; whilst the far greater 
 part of the people was cruelly excluded from every place 
 of religious worship. Theodosius was still inexorable; 
 but as the angels who protected the Catholic cause were 
 only visible to the eyes of faith, he prudently re-enforced 
 those heavenly legions with the more effectual aid of 
 temporal and carnal weapons; and the church of St. 
 Sophia was occupied by a large body of the Imperial 
 guards. If the mind of Gregory was susceptible of pride, 
 he must have felt a very lively satisfaction, when the em- 
 peror conducted him through the streets in solemn 
 triumph; and with his own hand, respectfully placed him 
 on the archi-episcopal throne of Constantinople. But the 
 saint (who had not subdued the imperfection of human 
 virtue) was deeply affected by the mortifying considera- 
 tion, that his entrance into the fold was that of a wolf, 
 rather than of a shepherd; and that the glittering arms 
 which surrounded his person, were necessary for his 
 safety; and that he alone was the object of the impreca- 
 tions of a great party, whom, as men and citizens, it was 
 
294 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 impossible for him to despise. He beheld the innumer- 
 able multitude of either sex, and of every age, who 
 crowded the streets, the windows, and the roofs of the 
 houses; he heard the tumultuous voice of rage, grief and 
 astonishment, and despair; and Gregory fairly confessed, 
 that on the memorable day of his installation, the capital 
 of the east wore the appearance of a city taken by storm, 
 and in the hands of a barbarian conqueror. 
 
 "About six weeks afterwards, Theodosius declared his 
 resolution of expelling from all the churches of his domin- 
 ions the bishops and their clergy who should obstinately 
 refuse to believe, or at least to profess, the doctrine of 
 the Council of Nice. His lieutenant. Sapor, was armed 
 with the ample powers of a general law, a special com- 
 mission and a military force; and this ecclesiastical revo- 
 lution was conducted with so much discretion and vigor 
 that the religion of the emperor was established, without 
 tumult or bloodshed,' in all the provinces of the East." — 
 Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Rofnan Empire. 
 
 Trinitarianism was thus forced upon the church, and 
 when a few generations had passed there naturally ceased 
 to be further feeling upon the subject. There was no 
 opportunity for renewed discussion for more than a thou- 
 sand years, during which time, under the working of this 
 natural law of the mind, that doctrine became as firmly 
 seated in the church as Christianity itself. 
 
 Our various mental tendencies drive us to the per- 
 formance of necessary duties, and the strength of our 
 inclination to perform those duties vary according to their 
 importance and the difficulties to be overcome. The 
 commands of Christ came in conflict with certain of those 
 qualities of human nature too great for even his most 
 devout followers, and were therefore ignored. They 
 were followed for a time and then abandoned, and though 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 295 
 
 those commands are set forth in the Bible in language 
 that cannot be misunderstood, yet having once been sup- 
 pressed they have, under inertia of ideas, remained sup- 
 pressed and dishonored to this day. The command in 
 question was that his followers should be non-combatants. 
 No other order of his is so full or so clearly stated. It is 
 in the Sermon on the Mount which churchmen affect to 
 so much admire, and is a part of those teachings which 
 Christianity claims as particularly its own. Christ said 
 Matt, v): 
 
 39. "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but 
 whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn 'to . 
 him the other also. 
 
 40. And if any man will sue thee at law, and take 
 away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. 
 
 41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, 
 go with him twain." 
 
 When Christ commanded men to believe in him and 
 be saved, he gave an order that was a. matter of indiffer- 
 ence to those who did not believe, and but a question of 
 supposed safety to those who did. But when he ventured 
 to order that men should not resist a blow in the face, or 
 protect their property, or fight for their country, he 
 simply exposed his human weakness. Wherein he played 
 upon and exaggerated the natural mental faculties, he 
 succeeded; but when he took direct issue with an impor- 
 tant one, he failed. 
 
 The feelings now manifested towards John the Baptist 
 supplies another illustration of the mental law referred 
 to. Even under Christian idea, he was the next most 
 important man to Christ. They credit him with having 
 received his divine authority direct from God, and to 
 
296 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 have been guided by Him in designating Jesus as the 
 Christ. He uttered the first words in the Christian 
 religion. He baptized Jesus, and is referred to by the 
 Apostles as their superior. After him should come 
 Peter, then Paul, then the Apostle John. This is the 
 order in which they would naturally be placed, accord- 
 ing to their own account. But, on the contrary, the 
 Baptist is apparently placed below them all. St. John 
 always means John the Apostle. At times some second 
 or third rate church is named in honor of John the Bap- 
 tist, but in such instances it must be so stated in full; 
 and when churches are so named it is because there is 
 already a St. Johns in the vicinity. There had been an 
 angry contention about the Baptist during a number of 
 generations in the beginning, and that contention engen- 
 dered sour feelings towards him, and consequent neglect. 
 But though that contention — even a direct record of it — 
 has long since disappeared, yet that neglect under this 
 law of inertia of ideas has been inherited from generation 
 to generation to the present day. The Church is governed 
 by those inherited ideas of the Baptist rather than by the 
 ideas of him conveyed by the words of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 The unnecessary study of the Latin and Greek lan- 
 guages further exemplifies this mental law. They became 
 dead languages at a time when Europe was sinking into 
 ignorance, and they necessarily remained the written 
 languages for several centuries, during all of which time 
 those who aspired to any degree of learning were obliged 
 to learn Latin at least. For several hundred years it was 
 the only channel through which knowledge could be 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 297 
 
 sought, and as all those possessing any education under- 
 stood Latin, and possibly Greek, a knowledge of those 
 languages became in time to have a dignity peculiar to 
 learning itself. The service of the Church was also in 
 Latin, which gave it some degree of religious reverence. 
 In this manner education and those languages became 
 associated in the public mind as substantially one and the 
 same thing; and this idea once thoroughly established, 
 has continued long after the conditions that brought it 
 into existence have passed away. 
 
 I have undertaken to show that through superstition 
 gold was elevated in the mind to the highest position as 
 to its value. Subsequently there never was any reason 
 for changing public ideas regarding it, and it is probable 
 that for many ages this law of the mind took part in 
 holding those ideas unchanged, until, through barter, it 
 grew to be invaluable as a medium of exchange. 
 
 When, therefore, investigation is stopped, either by 
 law, or superstition, or falsehood, or diverted by false 
 issues, the original ideas, no matter how absurd they may 
 be, will go on from generation to generation until the 
 incubus that prevented independent thought is removed. 
 
 Ancient theological questions that were such only 
 through the less enlightened minds of past generations, 
 and were settled at the time through false issues, have, 
 through this law of the mind, been fastened upon all 
 generations since. Christians have obscured the question 
 of the divinity of Christ by their own endless wrangles 
 over imperceptible trifles of certain articles of their own 
 credulity which are of no possible interest to anyone 
 until he is first convinced that Christ is the Son of God. 
 
298 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 When, fifteen hundred years ago, the then quite power- 
 ful Church agitated throughout the Roman Empire their 
 question of the' Trinity, it naturally left an impression 
 upon the mind that the divinity of Christ was a long- 
 settled thing, about which there could be no further dis- 
 cussion. The uproar and extent of that issue obscured 
 the true and important question, and as Christianity then 
 became both the law and the road to official favor, the 
 people following that controversy generally embraced 
 Christianity and safety from seizure of property in the 
 one and the same act. 
 
 The power of the Emperor was without limit. It ex- 
 tended over the lives and property of the people. The 
 following incident, related by Gibbon, illustrates this 
 power, as well as the character of the man who both ex- 
 tinguished Paganism and forced the doctrine of the 
 Trinity upon the Church: 
 
 "The fiery and choleric temper of Theodosius was 
 impatient of the dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and 
 he hastily resolved that the blood of his lieutenant should 
 be expiated by the blood of the guilty people. Yet his 
 mind still fluctuated between the counsels of clemency 
 and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had almost ex- 
 torted from the reluctant emperor the promise of a gen- 
 eral pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flat- 
 tering suggestions of his minister Rufinus, and after 
 Theodosius had despatched the messengers of death he 
 attempted, when it was too late, to prevent the execution 
 of his orders. The punishment of a Roman city was 
 blindly committed to the undistinguishing sword of the 
 barbarians, and the hostile preparations were concerted 
 with the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspir- 
 acy. The people of Thessalonica were treacherously in- 
 vited, in the name of their sovereign, to the games of the 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 299 
 
 circus, and such was their insatiate avidity for these 
 amusements that every consideration of fear or suspicion 
 was disregarded by the numerous spectators. As soon 
 as the assembly was complete the soldiers, who had se- 
 cretly been posted round the circus, received the signal, 
 not of the races, but of a general massacre. The pro- 
 miscuous carnage continued three hours, without dis- 
 crimination of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of 
 innocence or guilt. The most moderate accounts state 
 the number of the slain at seven thousand, and it is 
 affirmed by some writers that more than fifteen thousand 
 victims were sacrificed to the manes of Botheric. A for- 
 eign merchant, who had probably no concern in his mur- 
 der, offered his own life and all his wealth to supply the 
 place of o«e of his sons; but while the father hesitated 
 with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, 
 and unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined his 
 suspense by plunging their daggers at the same moment 
 into the breasts of the defenseless youths. The apology 
 of the assassins, that they were obliged to produce the 
 prescribed number of heads, serves only to increase, by 
 an appearance of order and design, the horrors of the 
 massacre, which was executed by the commands of The- 
 odosius. The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his 
 long and frequent residence at Thessalonica. The situa- 
 tion of the unfortunate city, the aspect of the streets and 
 buildings, the dress and faces of the inhabitants, were 
 familiar and even present to his imagination, and Theo- 
 dosius possessed a quick and lively sense of the existence 
 of the people whom he had destroyed." 
 
 The Polytheist of those times had but little feeling 
 upon the question of accepting Christianity. They cour- 
 teously acknowledged the Gods of other nations, and 
 would as freely accept the Christian religion, the most 
 objectionable feature being the necessity of rejecting 
 their own superstition with it. But even this was com- 
 
300 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 paratively a small matter, and when the edicts ^d feel- 
 ings of the emperor demanded their conversion, it was a 
 simple matter for them to embrace Christianity; for, un- 
 less he did do so, there was not a man in that vast em- 
 pire who was not at the mercy of some church officer, or 
 any party whose interest could be advanced by persecu- 
 tion and seizure of property. Furthermore, the church 
 was then doing nothing to convince the pagan population, 
 for at that time all the intellectual power it could bring 
 to bear was expended upon such questions as the single 
 or double nature or incarnation of Christ, transubstantia- 
 tion, images, etc. These were elevated into questions of 
 the highest magnitude, and the bitterness of feeling en- 
 gendered by them often led to riots and blood-shed. But 
 none of these enigmas have the least bearing upon the 
 question of the divinity of Christ, or of religion, or of 
 morality. They are false issues in every sense, and have 
 through long ages been an imposition upon the public by 
 misleading them into a supposition that in those contro- 
 versies they witnessed a deep display of learning and 
 piety. So vast has the accumulation of such matter be- 
 come that even the word learned as applied to church- 
 men, is largely such only within the system. 
 
 Among the many edicts issued by Theodosius in the 
 interest of the church, he finally made Christianity the 
 law by one issued the same year of the massacre of Thes- 
 saloneans.* This edict of Theodosius was enforced with 
 great vigor by Justinian nearly one hundred and fifty 
 
 * Even Charlemagne, some four hundred years later, by an edict pro- 
 nounced the pain of death against those who refused baptism, or even ate 
 flesh during lent. — State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Henry Hal- 
 lam, LL. D., F. R. A. S. 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 3OI 
 
 years later. That emperor finished the work by seeking 
 pagans in out-of-the-way places and obliging them to ac- 
 cept Christianity. In one mountainous district alone 
 70,000 pagans were thus forced to profess Christianity 
 and be baptized. He also vastly increased the personal 
 interest of that rcHgion by placing all municipal govern- 
 ments in the hands of bishops and other church officers.* 
 The power of any general government and the im- 
 portance of its measures so greatly overshadow any one 
 of its municipal governments that we naturally underrate 
 the importance of the latter. But with the exception of 
 a comparatively few statesmen of national reputation, 
 every citizen has greater personal interest in the affairs of 
 his municipality than he has in the general government. 
 The powers of those many local governments are divided 
 among so many officers, each of whom have jurisdiction 
 over so little territory, that the magnitude of the impor- 
 tance of the whole is lost sight of When Justinian put 
 all municipal governments mto the hands of the church 
 he delegated to it greater power, so far as each citizen of 
 the empire was concerned, than he retained for himself. 
 Few citizens ever had occasion to come in personal con- 
 tact with the emperor, but this new power given the 
 church did reach each and all, and through its local ty- 
 ranny and the edicts of the emperor there could be no 
 safety for the pagan population, of which the largest part 
 of the empire was still composed, t It was immediately 
 following these edicts that the pagan population turned 
 
 * Guizot's History of Civilization in Europe. 
 
 \ Gibbon estimates that at the conversion of Constantine, about two- 
 thirds of a century before the baptism of Theodosius, only about one- 
 twentieth of the inhabitants of the Empire were Christians. 
 
302 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 to Christianity, not from any spirit of loving kindness, or 
 any new light going to prove that Christ was the Son of 
 God, but from personal interest and fear of church au- 
 thorities. 
 
 This was four hundred to five hundred and sixty years 
 after the birth of Christ, and though the church was large, 
 its success up to that time had not been extraordinary. 
 This was its great start, and made so under a combination 
 of false issues, indifference, and the power of the Em- 
 perors. Christianity was largely imposed upon the peo- 
 ple within the Empire, while outside of it its acceptance 
 was often made a consideration in treaties. As late as 
 the year 918 France ceded Normandy to the Normans for 
 certain considerations, one of them being that the Nor- 
 mans accept Christianity.* This was, only a little over 
 100 years before William the Conqueror was born. 
 
 One of the self-imposed duties of Christians is to 
 spread the gospel in every land. They are educated into 
 a double motive for so doing. It is falsely held to be 
 the command of Christ, and they are also taught that 
 Christianity and enlightenment go hand in hand; that it 
 is the true way to civilize any people. Under this double 
 incentive they have expended through many centuries 
 vast sums of money, and have also endeavored by force 
 to support and extend it. If the Christians claims are 
 true, it also had in its help the power and favor of God. 
 But with these actual and supposed advantages, they 
 have not been able to extend their religion beyond the 
 succeeding nations, and their offshoots covered by Theo- 
 
 * State of Europe in the Middle Ages. Henry Hallam, LL.D., F.R.A.S. 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 303 
 
 dosius' edicts. They have not even been able to retain 
 all of the territory they then occupied. 
 
 Taking their wealth and power through long ages 
 into consideration, and their own professed most cher- 
 ished duty, they have no cause for pride in the spread of 
 Christianity. Excepting in the extreme north of Europe 
 there are no Christian believers to-day but the descend- 
 ants of less than half of those who accepted Christianity 
 at the extinction of paganism in the Roman Empire. 
 They have since lost the territory in Asia and Africa 
 embraced in that empire, and gained the then barbarians 
 in the extreme north of Europe. Of course the numbers 
 have vastly increased through increase of population, 
 and the territory greatly extended by the discovery of 
 America, Australia, etc. During all this time believers 
 in Christ have been made so only by impressions made 
 upon the mind in youth in countries where that belief 
 was general. The belief must be inherited to believe at 
 all. Reason, from first to last, has not only not been 
 appealed to, but it has been suppressed. 
 
 But if the magnitude of effects produced by a pre- 
 tense, is proof of its truth, then we ought all to be Mo- 
 hammedans, for the imposition of that superstition upon 
 the people was far more successful than Christianity. It 
 originated over five hundred years after the birth of 
 Christ, and in two hundred years it had become the 
 greatest power in the world and threatened the extinc- 
 tion of Christianity. 
 
 Confucius, also, has had in time nearly as many fol- 
 lowers as Christ. He lived six or seven hundred years 
 earlier, and though the number of his adherents in any 
 
304 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 one generation were not so great, they have been numer- 
 ous enough in its longer career to swell the grand total 
 to a number rivaling Christianity. 
 
 Nothing will so intensely enlist a man's feelings in a 
 cause as to fight for it. No cause was ever fought for 
 under more romantic and exciting circumstances than 
 Christianity was in the Crusade wars. Communication 
 between the different countries then was much less than 
 in our time. A journey from western Europe to Pales- 
 tine was as great an undertaking as a trip around the 
 world would be now. Manners and customs also were 
 in greater variety than in the same countries. now. Under 
 those circumstances the love of adventure would alone 
 be a powerful inducement to thousands to join the cru- 
 sade. Absence from those we love will draw out the 
 most tender feelings, which will be intensified when to 
 long absence is added both great distance and danger, 
 and those feelings would become attached to the cause 
 that drew them forth. Those far distant campaigns ex- 
 tended over a space of two hundred years — a time long 
 enough to make its hardships and glories a part of the 
 history of every family in Europe. 
 
 The romance and adventures attending those cam- 
 paigns supplied causes for excitement and enthusiasm 
 such as has never been known in history. Generation 
 after generation of youths grew to manhood with their 
 minds filled with the exploits of their ancestors, some of 
 whom, to the last crusaders, would seem to be so remote 
 as to be quite in ancient times. To have been a crusader 
 was the highest glory of a soldier. Palestine became 
 associated in the mind as second only to heaven. It then 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 30S 
 
 became "The Most Holy Land,'' and was doubly en- 
 deared to the people through the suffering and death of 
 the many hundreds of thousands who threw their lives 
 away in efforts to secure it in their possession. 
 
 It is well known that when the mind of a mother is 
 intensely occupied upon any subject for a number of 
 months preceeding the birth of a child, that such child 
 will have great developement of those mental faculties 
 then excited in the mother. The great Napoleon is one 
 of the most notable illustrations of this. His mother had 
 unusual experience in a military campaign preceeding his 
 birth, during which time her mind must have been in- 
 tensely occupied with the various details of the campaign. 
 
 During those crusades there was every reason for the 
 minds of hundreds of thousands of mothers, so situated, 
 to be most intensely occupied and excited about Jesus 
 Christ, and Christianity; and the subsequent history of 
 those nations of Europe from whence the crusades issued, 
 show that that superstition developed at that time into a 
 monomania. 
 
 But while these several causes operated to intensify a 
 devotion to that superstition with vast numbers, other 
 causes had a contrary effect upon another smaller class of 
 men whose minds were enlarged and knowledge increased 
 by the wider experiences those campaigns .gave them. 
 This divergence in ideas made the later contentions and 
 cruelties of the church possible. Guizot* says: 
 
 "Though begun under the name and influence of re- 
 ligious belief, the crusades deprived religious ideas, I 
 shall not say of their legitimate share of influence, but of 
 
 *Guizot's History of Civilisation in Europe. 
 
» 
 
 3o6 THE SAFE SIDE. , 
 
 their exclusive and despotic possession of the human 
 mind. 
 
 During the crusades Rome became a halting-place 
 for a great portion of the crusaders, either in going or 
 returning. A multitude of laymen were spectators of its 
 policy and manners, and were able to discover the share 
 which personal interest had in religious disputes. 
 
 Those returning crusaders who were enabled to tarry 
 at Rome, must necessarily have been of the wealthy class 
 and limited in numbers, though large enough to sow the 
 seed of those liberal ideas that culminated in the Refor- 
 mation. 
 
 The sky looks blue, not for what we see in the far 
 distant space, but because of the air immediately around 
 us. So it is with Christianity. Its history, though seem- 
 ingly full preceding the first crusade, is nevertheless quiet 
 as compared to its history since. Those wars, under this 
 combination of causes for excitement, gave that religion 
 an impetus that neither its crimes and cruelties, nor dis- 
 coveries in science, have as yet been able to overcome. 
 
 Those crusades, however, would not have been pos- 
 sible but for the feelings growing out of the wars and 
 encroachments of the Mohammedans within the preceding 
 four hundred years. One feature of the superstition of 
 the latter was that its believers should extend it by means 
 of the sword. Those who died fighting for that cause 
 were made to believe that they would go at once to 
 paradise with all their sins forgiven. With such an 
 enemy and such sentiments there was no hope for Chris- 
 tianity under non-combatant principles. There were no 
 longer any pagans to fight for it, and those unnatural 
 
INERTIA OF IDEAS. 307 
 
 principles had to be abandoned. And yet Christians had 
 a double motive for respecting them, for they were not 
 only the commands of Christ, but the success of their 
 religion had originally been owing* largely to them. 
 Rome had absorbed all the civilized nations of the world, 
 and it could not be otherwise but that the love of country, 
 as applied to that empire, would, for at least a few gener- 
 ations, be exceedingly small, if, indeed, it existed at all 
 among the inhabitants of the recently conquered coun- 
 tries; particularly as Roman citizenship was elevated into 
 a kind of nobility. The disposition to fight for the empire 
 would be small and even odious to many. To all such, 
 the non-combatant principles of Christianity were invit- 
 ing, for within the church they could escape a service 
 that was repulsive to them. 
 
 The non-combatant sentiments of the early Christians, 
 however, never stood in the way of their own aggressions. 
 There was never much blood shed upon questions of 
 Christian doctrines until they began to shed it themselves 
 in their own internal quarrels. 
 
 When war begins argument ceases. Whatever the 
 origin of war may be, the motives that draw in the rank 
 and file of the army is in quite all instances the same. 
 The love of their religion may have influenced a very few 
 Christians to take part therein, but whatever the motives 
 were, those religious wars in later times were seemingly 
 for Christianity, and hence that which was love of glory, 
 or love of country, or love of liberty, or love of plunder, 
 are now all credited to love for the Christian religion. 
 For more than a thousand years the most severe wars 
 were more or less connected with Christianity, during 
 
308 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 which time those who denied its truthfulness were over- 
 whelmed and lost in a sea of passion against which con- 
 tention was impossible. The religious feeling had but 
 little to do with it. The truthfulness of any part of 
 Christianity could not under any circumstances be proven 
 by wars, but they produced a far more powerful feeling 
 than was possible in any other way. They were a series 
 of false issues^^as far as religion was concerned — from 
 beginning to end, under which the divinity of Christ 
 seemed to be proven beyond the possibility of doubt. 
 
 On the other hand, there never his been any disposi- 
 tion to combat Christianity simply on the grounds of its 
 doctrines. It has always been a matter of indifference 
 with unbelievers, so much so that even in our time they 
 generally remain silent rather than incur the opposition 
 those sentiments often create. If they remain silent now 
 for such small reasons, how much less was their speaking 
 probable when to do so was almost certain death. There 
 is not now nor never has been any feeling on but one 
 side of this question, and that is the side where the fear 
 and superstition lie. Both the excitement and interest 
 has always been all their own. The Romans from the 
 first regarded Christian doctrines with indifference and 
 contempt, and that indifference at least has been a char- 
 acteristic of all unbelievers to this day. The two or three 
 instances of persecution encountered before the time of 
 Constantine were not persisted in, and operated to the 
 advantage of the church. Excepting those short seasons 
 Christianity never had serioUs official opposition. If at 
 first there had been even moderate interest antagonistic 
 to it, it would probably never have reached success 
 enough to have been known in history. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CONVERSION. 
 
 One of the numerous mysteries of the mind consists 
 in its seeming connection with other minds. Its action 
 in such cases is as though there was a mental atmosphere 
 — as some have expressed it — by which the same thoughts 
 are telegraphed simultaneously to all. Susceptibility to 
 this varies in individuals, it being so great with some 
 that in times of excitement their minds lose their indi- 
 viduality, and are governed by the united thoughts of 
 those they are with. This phenomenon necessarily can 
 be exhibited only when a number of persons are 
 assembled together and somewhat excited upon one sub- 
 ject. That is all that is required; the subject itself is a 
 matter of indifference. Panics in the army or in the 
 market, or public enthusiasm upon some one subject, or 
 excitement in revivals in churches, are all manifestations 
 of this mysterious external control of the mind. The 
 fact of this phenomenon is fully established, but no satis- 
 factory scientific explanation has as yet been given for it. 
 It is some biological or psychological law as yet unknown. 
 In the Mohammedan and Christian religions great use 
 has been made of this mental peculiarity in establishing 
 confidence in the truth of their doctrines. Those doc- 
 trines are well adapted to work up excitement, and the 
 seeming supernatural effect that follows is readily accepted 
 as an exhibition of divine approval of their own particu- 
 lar religion. Its action in the church has often stimu- 
 
3IO THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 lated the passive fears of moderate church attendants, 
 and led them into a supposition that they had experienced 
 what is represented to them as being a change of heart. 
 Previous belief is a necessary adjunct to the so-called 
 conversion, as it is through the terrors embraced within 
 that belief that the convert's fears are acted upon and his 
 spirits correspondingly depressed. Any depression of 
 spirits, no matter what caused it, will be followed by a 
 reaction. This is a never-failing law of nature. Church- 
 men take advantage of this, or, more correctly, are mis- 
 led by this into representing such reaction to be a divine 
 revelation of the truth, or something of that nature. 
 Large numbers have thus been made to believe they had 
 experienced within themselves a change that was super- 
 natural, not knowing that at that particular hour when 
 they supposed they experienced religion they simply ex- 
 perienced a reaction of feeling from previous doubts and 
 fears, coupled with the phenomenon referred to. 
 
 Necessarily those so-called converts have received no 
 \new light — they know the truth no better than they did 
 before, and have sustained no change of disposition. 
 They have, to a considerable extent, lost control of their 
 minds, under which they are led to join the Church and 
 subscribe to such articles of faith as are dictated to them, 
 part of which they may never have read before. A per- 
 son who was naturally religious might date his conversion 
 from some particular revival, but he was, nevertheless, 
 not improved thereby, as his natural religious propensi- 
 ties would have held him to what he believed to be his 
 duty. Others who have been temporarily weakly car- 
 ried away by the excitement roused at revivals, and 
 
CONVERSION. 311 
 
 have made a mortifying exhibition of themselves, often 
 go to the opposite extreme and reject, all religious 
 impulses. 
 
 The following partial account of one of these mental 
 phenomena at a revival — though an extreme case for in- 
 telligent people — is a fair representation of scenes very 
 common at such meetings among the more ignorant. 
 
 She would walk up and down the aisles with arms outstretched, eyes 
 rolling, and in the greatest mental and physical excitement. Singling out 
 some one on the outside, generally a man, she would go up to him, and 
 with a voice supernaturally grave would point her finger at him and say, 
 "The Lord wants you." This would be continued in some instances for fully 
 five minutes, the victim of her attention during this trying ordeal quaking 
 with embarrassment and shame. When tired of thus harrassing her crouch- 
 ing victim she'd return to the rostrum on which the Rev. H had thrown 
 
 himself, and who in the meantime had kept up his agonizing groans and 
 posturings, and clasping him in her arms, and endeavor to raise him to his 
 feet. A singing band of seven or eight women, kept things awake by their 
 
 shouting and singing. Miss K , during one of these meetings — which, 
 
 by the way, begun at 7 o'clock in the morning, continued all day, and some- 
 times as late as midnight — tore the hat from her head, threw it with great 
 energy upon the floor, and then deliberately laid down on the floor and 
 rolled over it. The unoffending headgear was too gaudyfor her now. She 
 had become inspired. A third party who allowed herself to be carried 
 
 away by excitement was Mrs. W. H . This lady is spoken of by all 
 
 who know her as a modest, retiring, and exemplary woman. Her antics 
 
 were similar to those of Miss , and for vehemence and enthusiasm 
 
 equaled anything of the kind ever witnessed. She was beside herself, and 
 was unconscious of what she was doing. 
 
 As the days passed and these meetings continued, the frenzy seemed 
 to grow in intensity. No pen can describe the abandon and recklessness of 
 the leaders in this farce, and the country people flocked to the building 
 from the surrounding country in such numbers that it was impossible to 
 accommodate them in the hall. The whole town was ablaze with excite- 
 ment. The cooler-headed church members and all of the outsiders were 
 strong in their denunciation of the sacrilege, but no one felt it his duty to 
 interpose any objections, and the "show" went on. Days passed in this 
 way, and the city hall was a pandemonium. The preacher and his leading 
 helpers hardly took time to eat anything, and sleep was out of the question. 
 They had haggard looks and bloodshot eyes, and many of the citizens 
 shook their heads in dismay, wondering where the matter would stop, and 
 predicting that the insane asylum would catch some of the performers. 
 
 During one of the "spirited" seances, when the groanings, lamenta- 
 tions, and contortions of the pastor had been more vigorous than usual, 
 
 and when Mrs. , Miss , Miss , and Mrs. had outdone 
 
 themselves in gesticulating, singing, and posturing, with agonized faces 
 and tear-streaming eyes, a man in the audience was pounced upon by the 
 
312 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 preacher as a fit subject for "wrastling. " This was C . He is wealthy, 
 
 and never squanders a cent for any purpose whatever. As he was sitting 
 
 there in the audience Pastor H espied him. Going to C , H 
 
 said: "The Lord says for you to give up all of your possessions for the 
 good of the church. Will you do it?" C , who had by this time be- 
 come somewhat under the spell of fanaticism himself, responded in a feeble 
 
 tone, "Yes." "Louder," demanded H . "Yes, " responded C with 
 
 a slightly increased accent. "Louder yet," cried H . "Yes, I will," 
 
 answered C , "all but my two ponies." By this time C was stand- 
 ing in the aisle, while H was literally "weeping on his neck." Re- 
 ceiving the last reply H said, "The Lord commands me to thrust you 
 
 aside," and, with a motion that would set a prize-fighter in ecstacies of 
 
 delight, he pushed the submissive C ten feet away, and he was only 
 
 kept from falling to the floor by one of the audience, who steadie.d him as 
 he reeled backward. 
 
 The poor, misguided creatures fully believed there would be a Divine 
 apparition, and the unbelievers were staggered even. They saw so much 
 of the supernatural in the conduct of these people that they were prepared 
 to see anything. The night passed, however, but no vision came, although 
 seven of the faithful, including the pastor, got together in one corner of the 
 hall and remained there praying, shouting, groaning, and gestulating, until . 
 2 o'clock the next morning. 
 
 The following night the pastor made a statement to the meeting to the 
 
 effect that Sister H 's prophecy had been fulfilled; that Christ had 
 
 indeed manifested Himself; that in fact He appeared bodily. He explained 
 
 that Sister C , whom he characterized as *' my child,'' and whom he 
 
 clasped at the same time in his arms, was the only person out of that little 
 band of seven who had been permitted to see the dear Savior. He ex- 
 plained further that " Sister C was kneeling right there in the aisle, 
 
 and after a while the Lord came down. Right down by that post wasn't it, 
 sister?" asked the pastor. "Yes, sir," promptly and proudly answered 
 
 Sister C , " right by that post. There was a bright light, and out of the 
 
 light I saw the dear face of Jesus. His form was beautiful, and he walked 
 majestically," continued the good sister, and the faithful sighed that they 
 had not been permitted to gaze on this Divine picture. 
 
 About this time the pastor went to labor with Dr. H , who was in 
 
 the audience. Said he to H ; " I have a message from the Lord, and 
 
 He is displeased with you." The doctor calmly replied: "If the Lord has 
 a message for me, I would rather He'd send it some other way." The pas- 
 tor became furious, and, rolling his eyes and towering beyond his natural 
 height, he raised his arms to heaven and bellowed forth: " Send the angel 
 of death to this unbeliever." 
 
 The pastor's favorite method of dispersing the meetings was, "The 
 LoM says, Go home." This was the dismissal One day, when the spirit 
 was rather livelier than usual, he left his house, and, taking a position on 
 the principal corner of the town, shouted at the top of his voice: "The 
 Lord says. Come to the hall." This racket was kept up for nearly five 
 minutes. Getting tired of this outdoor exercise, he went into the hall, and, 
 raising a window, craned his neck outside, and repeated his injunction. 
 " The Lord says, Come to the hall." In the meantime " the faithful " were 
 gathering for another season of rejoicing. 
 
CONVERSION. 313 
 
 Although much is said of conversion to Christianity 
 and vast sums are expended for that purpose, there are 
 nevertheless comparatively no converts made; for while 
 those in a Christian country always believed, those in 
 pagan countries can never be made to. The reports of 
 missionary societies show failure in this respect. They 
 have made no progress in their various missionary sta- 
 tions only as they have been able to control the schooling 
 of children and have them brought up in the faith the 
 same as is done at home. But even by this slow and ex- 
 pensive process the number of Christianized pagans is 
 exceedingly small. There are instances of adults claimed 
 as having been converted to Christianity, but their con- 
 version is often of a doubtful character, it having been 
 to their interest to affect conversion. It has been said 
 that the pagans converted to Christianity would weigh no 
 more than the gold expended to convert them. 
 
 Christianity has never had a more convenient mission- 
 ary field than that afforded by the Onandaga Indians in 
 the State of New York, That small handful of pagans 
 has been in the midst of a Christian country for a hun- 
 dred years. For the last fifty years they have been sur- 
 rounded by a dense and rich Christian population; a 
 population that has donated money enough for missionary 
 purposes to have made every Indian of the tribe rich. 
 Those Indians have traded and mingled with the whites 
 all their lives and have been brought up almost in hearing 
 of church bells. 
 
 The following will show what has (not) been accom- 
 plished in converting them. Christian patience has been 
 exhausted, as well it might be, for its story is too pre- 
 
314 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 posterous to be believed even by the simplest adult when 
 unbiased by early training: 
 
 "Bishop Huntington, of Central New York, is out 
 with a remarkable letter with reference to the shocking 
 condition of things among the Indian population of what 
 is known as the Onondaga reservation, in this State, some 
 seven miles from Syracuse. He says: ' Society there 
 stagnates in barbarism; all advance towards civilization 
 is arrested; the motives which prompt men to action and 
 thrift fail; hope is discouraged; the natural indolence of 
 the Indian has no spur; they are virtually no traders; 
 agriculture as a science is unknown; a few framed and 
 painted houses are built by Christians, but the pagans 
 are for the most part content with huts and cabins; 
 fences are rude; roads are scarcely passable; rubbish lit- 
 ters the door yards; swine roam at large; meals are irre- 
 gular; the women cling to their heathen style in dress 
 and manners; they are made to work in the field. Their 
 worship is a howling superstition [!] and, worse yet, 
 wedlock is neither respected nor practiced. Yet all this,' 
 adds the good bishop, ' is right in the heart of the State 
 of New York, and hitherto it has scarcely been alluded 
 to in sermons and appeals, and in journals and assemblies, 
 where Christians are besought to take pity on a foreign 
 heathendom, and money is given to send missionaries of 
 Christ to all the corners of the earth.' 
 
 "There is now a bill before the legislature which con- 
 templates the breaking up of this reservation and the 
 bishop is decidedly in favor of its passage. The Onon- 
 daga Indian is a lazy vagabond, and he thinks it is high 
 time that civil laws as well as Christianity should set him 
 about some useful business, and he does not hesitate to 
 say that ' the sentimentalism which invests his indolence 
 and filth with the romance of a by-gone heroism can do 
 him nothing but harm.' " 
 
 Notice that when an Indian has a good house or has 
 
:0NVERS10N. 315 
 
 advanced a little more than the average, he is claimed as 
 a Christian. It is a theory with the church that there is 
 little or no difference between civilization and Christianity, 
 while in practice the latter is placed above civilization 
 which it will hold back rather than that its doctrines shall 
 be shaken. It is willing to grant its diploma of civiliza- 
 tion to any who profess Christianity. These Indians 
 supply the- most flattering example that the church can 
 produce, of the works of societies whose labors to civil- 
 ize are based upon the theory that that end can be 
 attained by preaching "Christ and him crucified." They 
 also supply another illustration of the fact that none ever 
 believe unless that belief has been impressed upon the 
 mind by parents or guardians, or other instructors in 
 youth. 
 
 The Chinese in this country present a still more invit- 
 ing field for conversion of pagans to Christianity because 
 of their greater intelligence, and items appear in the 
 papers from time to time that imply some progress in 
 that respect was being made. But the following account* 
 shows there are no such conversions, and also illustrates 
 the fradulent character of all such pagan pretensions. 
 
 * Chicago Tribune, Dec. 13th, 1885. 
 
 CHRISTIANIZED CHINESE. 
 New York, Dec. 12. — [Special.] — -The Christianization of the Chinese 
 in this city has had a discouragement. Six separate Sunday-schools for 
 Chinamen have been established here, ranging from the fashionable mission 
 of Grace Church to the class gathered by Miraculous Simpson, a faith- 
 curer, who operates on his own account in the edifice which the late Salmi 
 Morse fitted up for a production of the " Passion Play." Altogether about 
 200 Chinamen have been recruited by these evangelists,- and it was sup- 
 posed from the readiness of the Orientals to assert their firm belief in 
 orthodoxy that the work was highly successful. But this week is devoted 
 by the Chinese quarter to a glorification of Joss in a new temple provided 
 for him. The prosperity of the Chinese in New York is ascribed by them 
 
3l6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Christianity originated among the most enlightened 
 people upon the earth, and it is owing to that circum- 
 stance only that it is among that class to-day. Mankind 
 advanced, not because of Christianity, but in spite of it. 
 But true to its custom, to claim everything and prove 
 nothing, the church claims civilization as its work. But 
 in the 1800 years of its existence, it cannot produce an 
 example of one item of human advancement for which we 
 are indebted to doctrines growing out of assertions that 
 Christ was the Son of God. Its disposition to appropri- 
 ate to itself the credit for any good movement, is illus- 
 trated in its treatment of the temperance question. Very 
 many of the comments now made by churchmen imply, 
 that those who can be made to know Christ, and put their 
 trust in him, will at once imbibe total abstinence prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 That reform not only did not originate in the church, 
 but received, at first, serious opposition from it. Chris- 
 tians upon the other side of the Atlantic, even now, feel 
 indignation at the American pretense that abstinence 
 from wine and liquors is a Christian virtue. But in this 
 country the advantages of that reform" are fully appre- 
 ciated, and the church, true to its universal custom, of 
 late steps forth and impHes that the temperance move- 
 wholly to the benignity of their heiithen god, and they are worshiping him 
 with intense fervor. Investigation shows that few, if any, of the avowed 
 converts to Christianity have Icept aloof from the ceremonies. The truth 
 seems to be, as learned from some of the Chinese merchants, and especially 
 from the Chinese Consul, that the attenda-nts at the Sunday-school are 
 there purely for the sake of getting education in the English language. 
 The Consul declares positively that there is not a single sincere Christian 
 among them, and that they do not dream of turning from Joss as their great 
 divinity. A few may mix a little of Christian doctrine with their native 
 religion, but they invariably give supremacy to Joss. 
 
CONVERSION. 317 
 
 ment is one exclusively its own. The American church's 
 position upon this question is a reflection upon the virtue 
 of Christians in all past ages. The great reformer, John 
 Knox, when he found he was going to die, ordered the 
 head of a hogshead of claret wine knocked in, for the 
 free use of those who came to see him in his sickness. 
 Drdnkenness has always been common in the church, 
 and it is not uncommon in it now. 
 
 Near the Rocky Mountains there was another tribe of 
 Indians, who, as yet, were nearly as unfamiliar with civil- 
 ization as they were when America was discovered. 
 They had probably never seen a church, and missionary 
 accounts of Christianity must have only increased their 
 confidence in their own superstition, for in that, at least, 
 they saw themselves as far advanced as the whites. Their 
 veneratictfi was evidently impressed with the grandeur of 
 nature, and they worshiped God by worshiping it. To 
 do this, they traveled three thousand miles to perform a 
 ceremony that was traditional with them, and performed 
 only at long intervals of time, the last instance having 
 been upon the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, two hundred 
 years before. If their ceremonies, as related in the fol- 
 lowing account, had been performed in a cathedral, with 
 rich regalia and the pomp and vanity peculiar to such 
 places, it would not only have equaled, but would even 
 have surpassed, those of the Christian church. 
 
 Contrast, also, this ceremony with scenes in revival 
 meetings, and particularly with the one just quoted: 
 
 Boston, March 28. — The Zuni Indian priests, who arrived here a week 
 ago, and have since been the lions of the town, to-day performed the reli- 
 gious ceremony which is the main object of their visit here — namely: the 
 procuring of water from the ocean of the rising sun for use in their rites at 
 home. They went to Deer Island in the city steamer at the invitation of 
 
3i8 
 
 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Mayor Green, and accompanied by about three hundred prominent gentle- 
 men with ladies, and on arriving at the island went directly to ten tents, 
 erected at the eastern extremity. Presently the Indians emerged, their 
 faces smeared with paint of various hues and their hands full of feathers 
 and various implements to be used in the observances to follow. Mr. Gush- 
 ing, their guide, who donned his Indian costume before leaving the boat, 
 came with them, also in full paint and feathers. He wore what looked like 
 a bearskin cap, from beneath which hung down over his shoulders long, 
 flowing hair. His companions wore colored handkerchiefs tied tightly 
 around their foreheads. The old chief of the tribe, the high priest, leading, 
 the others followed after him in single file, Mr. Gushing being fifth in 'the 
 line, and with slow steps they proceeded towards the water. There was no 
 , levity on their part, but solemn seriousness was in their faces. Directly in 
 front of this tent was a graveled beach. A short distance to the right, how- 
 ever, there was a low point of rocks, which, as the tide was out, were bare, 
 and appeared, while offering an opportunity for the chiefs to get a little 
 nearer to the deep sea, to be also a more convenient point than the shelving 
 beach from which to dip the sacred water. So they turned in that direc- 
 tion, and a large crovi'd surrounding them hurried in a promiscuous rush, 
 anxious to secure sightly points for observation. Indians and spectators 
 picked their way along, stepping from rock to rock, till they were out two 
 or three hundred feet from the diore. Then the Indians squatted in a small 
 semi-circle, and the spectators, balancing themselves upon the smooth and 
 slippery rocks, formed a larger semi-circle behind them. An enterprising 
 photographer set up his camera directly in front of the pious priests, about 
 ten feet in front of them, and prepared for business. The priests had 
 already begun upon their sacred services, each chanting in his turn a prayer 
 to the god of the ocean, the mother of the ocean, and the father of the 
 world. At the end of every sentence were words which interpreted mean, 
 "Make the road of life for ourselves and for our children to be prolonged," 
 and to represent the roads the sacred meal, composed of ground white corn 
 and sea shells, was scattered in rows. Meanwhile the tide was rapidly ris- 
 ing, and so the people on the ends of the semi-circle found their position 
 becoming^ uncomfortable, and before they were really aware how uncom- 
 fortable it was, the rocks on which they stood were surrounded with water, 
 and the little waves washing over the tops of them. The photographer was 
 suddenly knee-deep in water, and one or two waves larger than the others 
 caused a number of people to lose their equilibrium and step overboard. 
 A general backward movement began about this time, and sedate gentlemen 
 of divinity. Professors, and less distinguished personages jumped about with 
 more or less agility to escape from the approaching flood. Finally the In- 
 dians were left alone. They were wet, but were filled with deep religious 
 fervor and delight, for they believed that the coming of the waters was to 
 . them a marked token of divine favor. Mr. Gushing interrupted the service 
 to suggest to them that they retire to a more comfortable spot, but the high 
 priest turned to him and said: "Be firm. The waters come upon us by the 
 will of the gods. The sun hears us. God hears. This is a beautiful man- 
 ifestation of the truth of our religion, and you must be prepared for it. 
 Even if the waves rise and take you in it will be well." The chanting of 
 prayers occupied about fifteen minutes, and the Divine Providence may 
 be seen in the facts that the founders of this observance centuries ago 
 did not make the services as long again, or to-day they would all have been 
 
CONVERSION. 319 
 
 drowned by the rising tide. The blowing of cigaret smoke into a trayful 
 of feathers followed, and then the high priest threw the feathers out on 
 the water as tokens of gratitude to the gods of the ocean for the favors be- 
 stowed. The two high priests of the Order of the Bow, one of whom is 
 Mr. Gushing, then sprinkled their companions with water, and this closed 
 the second part of the ceremonies, and the procession moved to the tent. 
 The two high priests brought up the rear, swinging the whizzers, announc- 
 ing to the gods of the ocean that the prayers are complete. A prayer chant 
 was sung and the sacred meal sprinkled toward the west, whither their road 
 lies to home. Then the priest returned to the beach, bearing vessels for 
 the sacred water. Two of the priests, who were barefooted, waded into the 
 water and filled the vessels, and after this came the most imposing cere- 
 mony of the afternoon- — the initiation of Gushing into the Order of the Kau 
 Kau. This is the highest religious order among the Zunis, and by his en- 
 trance, Gushing will become possessed of the mythology and early history 
 of all the tribe, which is in possession of but four priests. The high priest 
 and Gushing clasped their arms about each other so as to bring their left 
 sides or their hearts together, and the priest called upon the gods to witness 
 that the man is his son. The four other priests followed this example, and 
 Gushing was baptised and his hands washed with the salt water, and the 
 initiation was as complete as possible. It will be repeated on arriving 
 home, and Mr. Gushing will tjien have his heart's desire — a knowledge 
 which he is pursuing in the interest of Ethnology, of the history of the old- 
 est tribe of men in America. 
 
 The following two accounts further illustrates the 
 great depth of superstition that still remains in the church. 
 The Italian Penetents seem to have changed places with 
 the Indians. This occurred near where Christianity was 
 first mentioned in history, and upon the scene of part of 
 Paul's labors, and near the Christian capitol throughout 
 the Christian era. There is no place in the world where 
 churches and priests are so numerous, nor where so much 
 money has been expended in its cause; and, conse- 
 quently, where such a high state of civilization ought to 
 exist, provided belief has the effect to civilize the 
 believers. 
 
 The English lords, on the other hand, were engaged 
 in precisely the same occupation that the Zuni Indians 
 were, such difference as there was being in favor of the 
 latter. A pilgrimage to the sea shore and worship of the 
 
320 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ocean, is a far more intelligent religion than pilgrimage 
 to and worship at Lourdes. 
 
 ITALIAN PENITENTES. 
 
 [Naples Correspondence London News.'] 
 
 We are in the Province of Grosetto, whicli province is notable for being 
 the worst malaria region in Italy. It is near mid-night on Good Friday. 
 A procession composed of about thirty individuals passes through the 
 streets — most of them being young men from 15 to 25, the others boys from 
 10 to 15 years of age. Their bodies from the waist upwards are bare except 
 for a kind of white cape, which is open behind instead of in front, and thus 
 leaves the back and shoulders bear. Their faces are veiled by a white 
 cloth with two holes for the eyes. They each carry two instruments of tor- 
 ture, one called the sferri, being a whip formed of many flexible thin strips 
 of iron, the other called the spilli, and a whip made of many strings of cord 
 with knots at the end, into which are fastened so many large and crooked 
 pins. On each side of the procession walk men called codini, some of 
 whom carry torches which throw a lugubrious light on the strange proces- 
 sion, and some carrying sticks with which they direct and guide the flagel- 
 lants. These young men and boys walk a distance of at least a mile and a 
 half, now whipping themselves with the sferri, now with the spilli, the first 
 producing red and livid marks on the shoulders, and the last causing the 
 blood to flow from a hundred little pricks and scratches. The signal for 
 changing the mode of torture is given by the codini, who strike their sticks 
 on the ground, at which sound the flagellants change the action of their 
 sferri for that of the spilli, or vice versa, with military precision. After two 
 or three hours of slow walking the procession enters the church and the 
 flagellation is more furiously continued. After this the sore and wounded 
 backs of the penitents are washed with water mixed with vinegar and 
 salt. * * * * 
 
 A Pilgrimage to Lourdes, which is to leave London on May 21, is 
 being organized among the Roman Catholics throughout the kingdom. 
 
 The leaders of this movement are nearly all laymen. The Duke of , 
 
 the Earl of , Lord , and many others more or less well known, 
 
 are organizing the expedition, and statements of what the Journey will cost 
 by the different routes are being put forth in the Catholic papers. It is 
 supposed that no fewer than 250 persons will take part in the pilgrimage, 
 and that, with the exception of a few servants who will accompany them, 
 the pilgrims will all belong to the upper and upper-middle classes of Cath- 
 olic society. The avowed object of the undertaking is said to be that 
 England may be freed from the troubles which threaten her with regard to 
 Ireland. 
 
 At the risk of a slight digression I would like to call 
 attention to the ideas of the Catholic priesthood as to 
 what constitutes education, particularly as they make 
 
CONVERSION. 321 
 
 themselves conspicuously solicitous on that subject and 
 establish their schools nearly as freely as their churches. 
 If religion has any part in it, it at least cannot eiTect the 
 elementary studies, for under any circumstances they 
 must be taught in any school, and no part of our educa- 
 tion requires as much time in proportion as they do. 
 The time now devoted to them in our public schools does 
 not average five hours per day during five days of the 
 week and nine months of the year. This certainly leaves 
 abundant time for religious instructions, and bears as 
 small proportion to the whole time as is possible and do 
 justice to those studies. When, therefore, the Catholic 
 church refuses to accept the free gift of those schools, it 
 in substance says that too much time is given to those 
 studies, for while they are in progress the minds of the 
 scholars cannot be occupied with the subject of religion, 
 no matter in what school they may be taught. 
 
 It was recently announced that the plenary council at 
 Baltimore contemplated withdrawing all Catholic children 
 from public schools for the purpose of sending them to 
 schools of their own. The reason given for this was 
 insulting to the management of those public schools and 
 to the people of the country that made them. Schools 
 to which the most intelligent and respectable people 
 send their children were not moral enough to send the 
 children of that class which supplies the largest percent- 
 age of the most ignorant and criminal part of our popu- 
 lation. This insult was to be accompanied with a demand 
 which, if complied with, would admit of our Government 
 being divided into a thousand petty independent parts. 
 It was to the effect that part of the cost of supporting the 
 
322 ' THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 public schools should be paid to the Catholic church 
 according to the proportion their children bore to the 
 whole. 
 
 This contemplated demand amounts in substance to 
 this: That whereas the people of the United States have 
 enacted certain laws of which we do not approve, we 
 now demand that our proportion of the expenses neces- 
 sary to carry out those laws be transferred to us to be 
 used at our secret pleasure, without accounting to the 
 people who, as citizens, paid those taxes, and whose 
 officers collected them; It is in effect equivalent to a 
 demand to be exempt from taxation for the support of 
 such laws as they did- not approve. 
 
 That church has succeeded in making a large part of 
 the people of Chili all that it wished. It has greater 
 power there than the Government. So powerful does 
 the church act upon the superstition of the people, whose 
 sole religious ideas were obtained through it, that under 
 the orders of a priest large numbers will inflict degrading 
 punishment and even torture upon themselves, and will 
 continue to do so until the priest condescends to release 
 them. The church exacts that all marriage ceremonies 
 shall be performed by its priests, for which service a fee 
 of twenty-five dollars is exacted. The consequence is 
 that over 6o per cent, of the births are illegitimate 
 through the inability of the poor to sustain that severe 
 tax. The Government has of late endeavored to correct 
 this evil by legalizing marriages performed by its own 
 magistrates. The archbishop has had the effrontery to 
 combat the Government for this proper and necessary 
 exercise of its legitimate authority by excommunicating 
 
CONVERSION. 323 
 
 all Government officers making such laws, and all who 
 execute them, or are married under them. The fact that 
 the archbishop can issue such proclamations and not be 
 imprisoned is alone evidence of the great power that 
 church has in that country. Until recently the Govern- 
 ment would not have presumed to enter upon a contest 
 with the superior powers of the church, and even now it 
 is a question if a Government founded purely upon su- 
 perstition shall not prove stronger than a Government 
 founded upon patriotism and love of liberty. 
 
 That contest proves that the morality of the people 
 is a matter of indifference to the Catholic hierarchy as 
 compared to power and revenue. It also exhibits the 
 secular Government solicitous for the morals of the peo- 
 ple; while the church, which assumes that to be its own 
 special duty,. is contending for the right to sell immorality 
 for a high marriage fee. 
 
 The great power of that church in Chili is derived 
 wholly through the ideas the people have as to the 
 divine authority of the priesthood; it is through the 
 impressions they make upon the minds of the youth of 
 Chili in its parochial schools. In those schools the 
 scholars will hear a little of God, still less of Christ, but 
 very much of purgatory, and of the holy fathers, and of 
 their divinely appointed power to stay or increase pun- 
 ishment after death. The most conspicuous outcome of 
 those schools is a population that abjectly, servilely obeys 
 the priesthood, and panders to their love of power and 
 comfort.* 
 
 * Buckle states {History of Civilization in England) that in Spain the 
 highest nobles deemed it an honor to dress the priest when dressing for 
 
324 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 It must be remembered, also, that the Catholic church 
 in Chili and in the United States is under the autocratic 
 control of the same head. Those men in the plenary 
 council in Baltimore receive their appointments from the 
 same central power that appoints bishops and archbish- 
 ops for Chili, and the same authority dictates the policy 
 for each country. When it is considered that the aggran- 
 dizement of its own power and wealth are the real objects 
 and ends of the higher officials of that church, it will be 
 seen that its different policy here is varied to fit the dif- 
 ferent nature of the people. It begs more and domineers 
 less in this country — a condition that will be reversed in 
 the exact proportion that it obtains control of education. 
 
 Judging from its completed work, therefore, as exhib- 
 ited in the instances just referred to in Italy and Chili, 
 and from what we see of its work here, an educated man, 
 in the eyes of the officers of that church, is one who be- 
 lieves a Catholic priest possesses supernatural influence 
 over his welfare in the future existence, who is, conse- 
 sequently, servilely deferential to them, and who will 
 obey their orders and submit to their extortions, through 
 fears of a purgatory from which he can be saved only 
 through the ceremonies dictated by the church, and which 
 can be performed by none but its authorized agents. 
 
 It is true, that many priests and bishops in that church 
 are most excellent men, and exert themselves for the gen- 
 eral good; and many ignorant Catholics can be pointed 
 out who had far better be under the control of a good 
 priest than left to their own guidance. But this slight 
 
 mass. It was also the custom at death to leave something to the church. 
 The array of facts he presents leaves no room to question the ruinous effect 
 of the policy that underlies the government of that church. 
 
CONVERSION. 325 
 
 curtain of good is the ambush behind which the vast evil 
 of that church is hid. It is the slight mixture of truth 
 that, by supporting the falsehood, makes its evil far the 
 greater. The ideas of the heads of that church as to 
 what constitutes education, creates far more of those 
 ignorant Catholics than it can exhibit of good priests; nor 
 is that good a result of its doctrines or teachings. The 
 percentage of those superior men within the church is no 
 greater (if as great) than is found in any association out- 
 side of it. The church does not form those virtues, but, 
 on the contrary, it is a parasite upon them. 
 
 On the other hand, those Protestants who, at times, 
 have demanded that the Bible be read in school are 
 equally at fault. The truth is, however, that Catholicism 
 differs from Protestantism only as strong brandy differs 
 from weak. Every fault of the former is found in the 
 latter in a modified degree. Long experience has brought 
 the church — Catholics and Protestants alike — to the exact 
 point where their social, pecuniary, and political interests 
 lie, and gradually all their efforts have been directed to 
 those points alone; and in their eager pursuit of an end 
 they have mistaken for religion, they have arrayed them- 
 selves in opposition to advanced education, and foster 
 superstition, ignorance and wretchedness. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 WORLDLINESS. 
 
 If we call good every kind of conduct which aids the lives of others, 
 and do this under the belief that life brings more happiness than misery, 
 then it becomes undeniable that, taking into account immediate and remote 
 effects on all persons, the good is universally the pleasurable. — The Data of 
 Ethics, by Herbert Spencer. 
 
 One of the effects of the law of attraction of gravitation 
 is that water will run down hill. This is often a serious 
 trouble. We would prefer that it would not stop and 
 make a swamp here and there while on its way to the 
 sea, and that it would delay its floods at times and avoid 
 destruction of property. Nevertheless, the certainty that 
 that effect of that law will never vary is worth more to us 
 than any suspension of it could possibly be, while the 
 evils it incidentally causes can be cured by the same 
 process that made them. Those evils are to be over- 
 come by the removal of obstructions, and not by beseech- 
 ing the Almighty to suspend His laws. 
 
 It is the same with the mental law of selfishness. It 
 causes great moral cesspools of vice, and at times gathers 
 force and sweeps all other considerations before it in 
 widespread ruin. Selfishness is at the bottom of all 
 human degradation; but for it there would be no tempta- 
 tion, and therefore nothing to resist. Our appetites and 
 avarice are but secondary to selfishness. 
 
 But every good act of man is also based upon selfish- 
 ness. We would not attempt the exercise of any of our 
 mental tendencies but for it. We are misled by other 
 
WORLDLINESS. 32/ 
 
 faculties into, a supposition that the happiness of others 
 is at times an incentive to some of our acts. But such is 
 not the case. Their happiness was secondary to our 
 own, for we had been made by other faculties to take 
 pleasure in their happiness. This most lovable charac- 
 teristic of human nature is the source of some of the 
 greatest pleasures of life. Under some circumstances 
 and mental deficiences persons bring pecuniary ruin upon 
 themselves in their undue indulgence of the happiness 
 of giving joy to' others. 
 
 One of the commonest sorrows of parents is because 
 of the objectionable places of resort sought by their sons. 
 Those disreputable places, and the intemperance they 
 lead to, ruin the happiness of thousands, both of the in- 
 dividuals themselves and all connected with them. The 
 misery bears a great disproportion to the acts that caused 
 it, for those acts were but the slow accumulation of indul- 
 gencies that at last swept away the victims, and all that 
 had built too much upon them. But these young men 
 were exercising faculties that God intended they should 
 exercise. They were simply seeking their pleasure in 
 mental diversion, and they found it in that greatest of all 
 fountains of human happiness — the social pleasures. The 
 fault did not lie in their selfishly seeking those pleasures. 
 The evil was because of the obstructions that stopped the 
 natural flow of those tendencies, and left them to stagnate 
 and breed moral miasma and ruin in obscure and hidden 
 places. 
 
 Mental diversion is not only a pleasure, but it is a 
 necessity. When that great day does come, when, 
 through more perfect laws and a more perfect knowledge 
 
328 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 of human rights, the joys of this life shall be^more widely 
 distributed, it will be found that diversion, even at public 
 expense, will be an important item in political economy, 
 and an expense that will be cheerfully borne because of 
 the great good that will attend it. The mind is renewed 
 by mental diversion, and that we should seek it is as 
 natural as that water should run down hill. It is our 
 duty to know the natural mental wants and bring to bear 
 our highest experience in keeping their indulgence pure, 
 not in vain resistance, but by guiding them through 
 channels that make of .them a living stream of usefulness 
 and pleasure. 
 
 The places that entice young men to their ruin yield 
 but little pleasure, and are conducted by a low degree of 
 intellect. But those resorts supply a want that society 
 too cumbersomely and too infrequently touches upon, 
 and they therefore neglect the one and seek the other. 
 It would be an easy task to provide a social system that 
 would present daily attractions compared to which those 
 low diversions would sink into indifference and deserved 
 contempt. But in doing so a principle of action is de- 
 manded diametrically opposite to that taught by Chris- 
 tianity. That religion is the remote cause of much of 
 that degradation which it claims to be especially adapted 
 to prevent. In its condemnation of the pleasures of life, 
 under the name of WORLDLINESS, it dammed up the nat- 
 ural flow of a gfeat human Want, the supplying of which 
 rendered far greater service than its mere temporary 
 gratification. 
 
 One of the first steps in social and political reform is 
 to give society a certain amount of organization. But 
 
WORLDLINESS. 329 
 
 the Church is a bar to this. It has monopoh'zed that 
 position by establishing itself as the only standard of 
 excellence, and it dictates to society that, which society 
 alone should act upon through an organization of its own. 
 The variety of denominations, also, have cut the social 
 system into too many circles, and in this manner the 
 enormous power that organized society could wield for 
 public good is dissipated and lost. Only the Church 
 presumes to discipline, and that discipline is devoted to 
 the false sins and false virtues of its own system. It has 
 made itself the doorkeeper to society, and exacts for 
 admission that which simply involves priestly service, 
 and which secures only its own support. 
 
 The club system seems to be a germ of that which 
 may eventually develop into an organized social system 
 that would accomplish this object. All such associations, 
 whether social or commercial, are invariably rigid in their 
 demands upon the honor of each member, and cultiva- 
 tion of the faculty of honor is the one greatest public 
 need at the present time. Let us suppose, for instance, 
 that the club system be extended so as to embrace whole 
 families, old and young, male and female, and that 
 instead of a club house of a few hundred thousand dol- 
 lars value, that a vast structure, costing a few million 
 dollars, be built for a daily rendezvous for all members 
 at stated hours, according to age, sex and needs. It can 
 readily be seen what succession of social enjoyments of 
 every nature would accompany such an organization. 
 Every kind of taste could be gratified, and at the same 
 time every enjoyment would be of a highly moral char- 
 acter. Illustrated lectures, music, plays, theatres, balls, 
 
330 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 paintings, libraries, especial parties, and social life gen- 
 erally, both entertaining and instructive, would be estab- 
 lished that w.ould surpass anything now known. The 
 intellectual contest would be valuable and in turn would 
 stimulate study. 
 
 Under an organized social system there would be a 
 less number of circles than now, though there would still 
 be numerous organizations, or clubs, under different 
 degrees of expense, according to the pecuniary means of 
 the members, even to those composed of laborers. It is 
 more important that the poor have those organizations 
 than the rich. Much of that which is now attributed to 
 aristocratic exclusiveness is based simply on the inability 
 of the excluded parties to meet the intellectual or pecun- 
 iary requirements of those with whom they cannot 
 associate. Under these organizations there would be 
 social amenities between different clubs, even between the 
 richest and poorest to some extent, particularly in invita- 
 tions to lectures. The former would in various ways be 
 of much use to the latter, and a better feeling between 
 the wealthy and the working classes be cultivated. 
 
 Men are students always, in fact, properly directed . 
 mental culture is one of the greatest of enjoyments, pro- 
 vided it is pursued in a proper manner. The varying 
 degrees of power by which a fact may be impressed 
 upon the mind ought to be acted upon in all educa- 
 tional matters. For instance: If a school boy is informed 
 that the sun is 880,000 miles in diameter, and that the 
 earth is 8,000 miles in diameter, an important fact is 
 conveyed to his mind with no more power than would 
 have been the case if he had simply been told that 
 
WORLDLINESS. 331 
 
 the sun was vastly larger than the earth. If he was 
 naturally skilled in mathematics he might remember the 
 figures, but even that would not insure comprehension. 
 But if the difference in size could be illustrated by a 
 globe g^-^ feet in diameter, and a marble one inch in 
 diameter, his observation, imagination, and mathematics 
 would all take part in creating a lasting impression upon 
 his mind of the fact. 
 
 Acting upon this principle, thousands of dollars could 
 be advantageously expended in machinery and every 
 variety of apparatus, for the purpose of illustrating 
 various scientific lectures. By doing so they would be 
 made intensely interesting, and the facts set forth would 
 never be forgotten. 
 
 There are many advantages attending such an organi- 
 zation as here proposed that will readily come to the mind 
 of the reader. These suggestions are intended mostly to 
 give an idea of the extent to which the social system 
 ought to be carried, rather than any recommendation as 
 to details. That is a study which would demand, and in 
 time draw out superior abilities in developing and 
 originating new advantages and enjoyments. 
 
 Expulsion from such a body would be as serious as 
 failure in business. Memberships would be so desirable 
 that its regulations would be carefully obeyed through 
 fear of the disgrace of expulsion or even suspension. 
 Great power could thus be brought to bear to cultivate 
 the all-important faculty of honor. As it now is, society 
 greatly needs a defined authority to pass upon the ques- 
 tion of admission or expulsion. Men are now admitted 
 who are known to have been guilty of that which would 
 
332 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 cause their prompt rejection on the part of any committee 
 who might be intrusted with that power. On the other 
 hand there are instances where, through competent in- 
 vestigation, a person's character might be saved that 
 now, under an unfortunate combination of circumstances, 
 is unjustly lost. This in particular is often the case with 
 females. 
 
 Ordinarily the average abilities of public officers 
 would be above the average ability of the whole people, 
 and the honest efforts of the former would secure the 
 confidence and support of the latter. But if those in 
 authority should be corrupt and pass upon the peoples' 
 rights for personal consideration, the effect would be the 
 same as though the intelligence of the governing authori- 
 ties were of a low order. Their unwise course would be 
 palpable to the whole people and general confidence 
 correspondingly lost even though the dishonesty of the 
 officials may not have been detected. This want of 
 confidence is the cause of much internal trouble and a 
 danger to any government. To secure officers whose 
 high sense of honor places them above corruption has 
 always been regarded as of the greatest importance in all 
 governments — municipal or general. 
 
 If the faculty of honor with the people at large is low, 
 it will necessarily average low in its officers, and public 
 rights will be correspondingly over-ridden. All the men- 
 tal faculties must develop in proportion to the enlarged 
 ideas and necessities of more enlightened times. Any 
 tardiness in that respect will sooner or later become a 
 prominent evil, and will arrest further progress until it is 
 corrected. Is not a high sense of honor in public officers 
 
WOKLDLINESS. 333 
 
 the greatest want in most governments at the present 
 day? Everywhere are officials who are selHng the rights 
 and property of the people, and there is a general under- 
 current of fear in consequence. Contrast the honor of the 
 Romans in the time of the Republic with the average 
 degree of honor now. The natural cultivation of that 
 faculty has been intercepted by the church. In place of 
 the ostracism and shame that the bribed official would 
 meet from society, he is now met by the church with a 
 little sentiment as to forgiveness, repentance, and faith, 
 after which he is absolved from the effect of his crime. 
 
 The great power for the discipline of men and women 
 that organized society could wield, and the largest part 
 of the enjoyments it could give, and the better average 
 of knowledge that it would be instrumental in teaching, 
 are now all lost through the false sins and false virtues of 
 the Christian system. It is an easy thing for bar rooms, 
 gambling shops, and other places of low entertainment, 
 to give attractions that will draw many from a society 
 whose teachings of what is good and bad is that taught 
 by Christianity. 
 
 Many within the church of late have awoke to some 
 of the evils of the stale and insipid life that attends a 
 strict following of its teachings, and they begin to retract 
 somewhat by drawing fine lines as to what is, and what 
 is not worldliness. But these discussions only bring into 
 stronger light the depth of superstition that still clings to 
 Christianity. The trifling entertainments it assents to 
 bear a ridiculous proportion to the wants that the im- 
 proved conveniences of life have begat. The poor Hin- 
 doo who holds up his arm until it withers, differs from an 
 
334 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 orthodox Christian only in his more intense devotion to 
 an opinion of God that is. common to them both. The 
 latter, more intelligently, omits physical torture, but 
 equally uselessly condemns himself to self-denials of 
 harmless pleasures and to consequent mental depression, 
 from the same ideas that induces the Hindoo to suffer 
 his physical pains. Universal brotherhood, and peace 
 and good will among men, will be soonest reached 
 through an intelligent cultivation of the joys of life. This, 
 and the future life, are two stages of the same existence, 
 and both are equally holy; if it is wrong to seek our 
 pleasure here, it will be equally so to seek it there. 
 
 We are told that pleasure will divert our minds from 
 religious matters, and attach us too much to this world. 
 There might be something in this if the time for dying 
 was a matter of our own choosing, for in such case enjoy- 
 ments might lead to a refusal to die at all. God has 
 commanded us to love this life by giving us a mental fac- 
 ulty that makes us cling to it through a life time, often, of 
 pain and adversity. If, also, it is wrong to divert the 
 mind for a time from religious matters, then it is wrong 
 to exercise the mind upon any other mental faculty what- 
 ever. 
 
 In summer evenings, wherever we may be, there can 
 be seen a large part of the population lounging in a list- 
 less idleness that is often burdensome. This is not a 
 result of warm weather, but simply a disclosure it inci- 
 dentally makes of a dullness in those evening hours which 
 is perpetual and universal. This is rest for the body, but 
 not necessarily rest for the mind, and the latter is most 
 important of the two. Idleness does not always give 
 
WORLDLINESS. 335 
 
 mental rest, because of our inability to keep the mind off 
 from the subject that has been occupying it. Even sleep 
 in some instances does not fully accomplish this. Men- 
 tal diversion alone can do this, and it needs gratifying 
 daily at the close of working hours. 
 
 With increasing powers to supply our wants, there 
 should have grown up a wider range of enjoyments. The 
 genius that has developed all other branches, should have 
 equally developed this, but the benefits of that growth 
 has been lost to us. We are like a plant part of which 
 has never had the light of the sun. 
 
 Those evening hours should be far the happiest part 
 of the day. They should be so enjoyable as to be looked 
 forward to in pleasurable anticipation throughout the 
 working or business hours. They should be so desirable 
 as to stimulate and enliven our daily duties. It is not a 
 hardship to be hungry, not even objectionable, provided 
 we can have good food at the proper time. It is so with 
 labor of every nature, whether of the body or the mind. 
 If each day could be closed with a few hours of unalloyed 
 enjoyment, those labors would cease to be objectionable. 
 It is not those labors alone that wear upon the mind, but 
 it is because they are interspersed only with hopeless 
 ennui. 
 
 "If our nights could be filled with music, 
 The cares that infest the day, 
 Would fold their tents, like the Arabs, 
 And as silently steal away," 
 
 — From The Day Is Done, by Longfellow . 
 
 So perfectly has nature's system been adjusted to our 
 wants that every duty we owe to others, individually or 
 collectively, yields equally as much advantage to the 
 
336 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 payer as to the payee. When all are justly treated it 
 will be found that no man need be under obligations to 
 another, for each receives as much as he gives. There 
 will be perfect reciprocity and perfect independence. 
 Some of our educated wants are found in advanced ideas 
 of public improvement, and the amount of those works 
 in progress should be so gauged that at all times workmen 
 could rely on them for work. Though those men may 
 be glad to get the work, they have no occasion to be 
 under obligation to the public, for, in effect, it cost 
 nothing, as the enhanced value of property and improved 
 trade secured by that labor will cover its cost. 
 
 But however great the advantage may be in keeping 
 public improvements in progress, there is a limit to the 
 capital that can be devoted to that purpose. There is 
 enough, however, to secure the construction of all known 
 improvements in a reasonable time, and to at all times 
 supply work to the unemployed, provided that capital 
 circulates in a natural manner. Capital is to the people 
 what blood is to the body. In a healthy state the circu- 
 lation of the latter will both renew and build up the sys- 
 tem, but there are conditions where, through some fault 
 of the constitution, it fails to do its whole duty, and 
 expends part of its substance in building up a tumor. 
 So with capital. Under erroneous ideas, that percentage 
 which trade yields for the construction and improvement 
 of streets, walks, sewers, parks, roads, bridges, village 
 water-works, etc., etc., can be diverted to useless ends, 
 and those health-giving and otherwise greatly desired 
 works left undone. 
 
 The salaries paid to over 8o,ooo Protestant clergymen 
 
WORLDLINESS. 337 
 
 in the United States, and to other unknown thousands 
 in that close, money-getting institution — the Catholic 
 church, will account for the poverty-stricken condition of 
 those improvements as compared to the needs of the 
 public and the needs of those who would do the work. 
 However numerous and costly the churches may be, they 
 convey but a small idea of the vast cost of the thousands 
 supported within the system. We need not reach but a 
 few years into the past to cover a time within which 
 1,000,000,000 dollars were so expended. The fact that 
 the money may be said to have been voluntarily con- 
 tributed, makes no difference; the people were corres- 
 pondingly weakened. The money was intended for the 
 public good, but through the worldliness of the clergy it 
 was diverted to their own personal uses. Nor was the 
 church's success in obtaining that money wholly owing 
 to the religious feelings. The most of it was raised 
 through the power and ingenuity it was able to bring to 
 bear through its organization and the vast number of 
 those interested in securing it. 
 
 Thus it is that we are left with but a small percentage 
 of the improvements we ought to have, and the poor are 
 made poorer through the absence of the work those 
 improvements would have given. The greatest burden 
 falls upon the latter. No matter who contributes the 
 money, only those pay who suffer. The vast sums the 
 church intercepts makes it the fountain-head of extreme 
 poverty. 
 
 The most important preventive of crime lies in cer- 
 tain duties before the criminals are born. Their very 
 existence may be largely the fault of our ignorance of 
 
338 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 certain laws of the mind. The mental deformities of 
 criminals may be traceable to the mental discipline and 
 experience of parents. Those faculties that make us 
 patriotic and respect our fellow-men and the laws, can 
 be blunted and finally obliterated under long-continued 
 poverty and misery. The wretchedness of mothers, 
 smarting under a belief of outrage on the part of the 
 laws, will often result in the birth of children who will 
 not respect those laws. We are all linked together. The 
 poverty of a neighborhood, as well as the sickness, re- 
 flects back upon the public at large. It is just as impor- 
 tant to secure to the poor their reasonable support by 
 giving them sufficient work as it is to secure public health 
 through sanitary laws. 
 
 A machinist may not be able to locate the cause of 
 some irregularity in the running of a complicated ma- 
 chine, but by correcting such faults as he does discover 
 he will find that unconsciously he has overcome the 
 unknown defect. The same course should be pursued in 
 affairs of Government. There are extremes of wealth 
 and poverty too great for a perfect system, and yet it is 
 not possible to convincingly locate the cause of that fault, 
 nor is it possible for any man to devise a practicable 
 scheme that would overcome that objection. The prin- 
 ciples that underlies this Government have been evolved 
 out of ages of misrule and bitter experience; and if we 
 will now devote our attention to the correction of any 
 faults we may discover, we will find that we gradually 
 widen the average prosperity of the people and approach 
 a condition of general content. 
 
 When more laborers are employed upon any work 
 
WORLDLINESS. 339 
 
 than the nature of it admits of, those workmen will make 
 an appearance of labor where no service is rendered. 
 They will prolong each item of work and busy themselves 
 about trifles. Too many will take hold to lift or to pull. 
 They will carry their shovels full of dirt to the place of 
 deposit rather than throw them, and endeavor to make 
 up in affectation of labor for the absence of any need for 
 the service of part of them. 
 
 So with the church. The number of those who would 
 fill its many comfortable places have always been so great 
 as to cause them to tax their ingenuity to the utmost in 
 efforts to make work for themselves. Some of its divi- 
 sions into numerous denominations made upon hair- 
 splitting points, had for their origin only the idleness of 
 would-be laborers "in the vineyard of the Lord." Not 
 that those divisions were always deliberately made for 
 that purpose. They were usually the result rather than 
 the cause. Those hair-splitting points not only gave 
 subjects upon which to display mental labor, but they 
 also conveyed an appearance of deep research and pious 
 sensibility. For this reason it has not been difficult to 
 sub-divide the church and thus secure support for larger 
 numbers than would have been possible in a united 
 condition. 
 
 Much of the labor within the church also had its 
 origin in the same cause. Many churches now find some 
 service for every evening in the week, and of late years 
 they are encroaching upon necessary business hours with 
 their noon-day meetings, and other unnatural and un- 
 called for service. This excessive diligence has seldom 
 been based upon piety. It is but the natural result of 
 
340 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 the super-abundants of workmen as compared to the 
 work to be done. Their narrow ideas and useless labors 
 are but so many shovels full of dirt with which they run 
 around in affectation of labor. 
 
 We would not regard it a higher order of intelligence 
 for a band of men to gather by the side of a swamp and 
 there in supplication to God, explain to Him that the 
 water was bad because of His failure to keep control of 
 celestial affairs, and to tell Him of the miasma the swamp 
 engendered, and the consequent sickness and death it 
 caused, and of the vile insects and vermin that were bred 
 within it, and of the good land it covered; and ask Him 
 to suspend His law of attraction of gravitation in this 
 case and cause the water that produced those evils to 
 flow over the adjoining hills and leave the swamp pure 
 and dry. We now know that its removal is simply a 
 question of work, and that in removing it we are culti- 
 vating within ourselves those powers He intended we 
 should cultivate. We know we can get rid of swamps 
 by the same law that made them. If we will remove the 
 obstructions, the water that ran into them will run away 
 from them. 
 
 But it is only by supplicating the Almighty to sus- 
 pend a corresponding law of the mind, that the church 
 proposes to get rid of human swamps of vice and degra- 
 dation. It establishes gospel meetings in the midst of 
 them, and asks the Creator to overcome this evil that 
 was caused by obstructions it alone is responsible for. 
 
 Instead of the pleasures of Hfe being a satanic exhi- 
 bition of worldliness, they are of the greatest importance, 
 and how to increase them is a study of the purest religion. 
 
WORLDLINESS. 341 
 
 Underneath our natural mental tendencies God has estab- 
 lished that universal law that makes us seek our interest 
 and pleasure, and by that law He guides us, through 
 other mental faculties, to such experience as He desires 
 us to have. We can make the same use of the same law. 
 We can draw people away from attractions th^t are vile, 
 by giving them better attractions that are good; and 
 where, through selfishness, the mind now stagnates in 
 moral cess-pools of corruption, there will be a river of 
 living water that will make green that which is now bar- 
 ren. It will enliven our too often dull and weary lives, 
 and instruct where we now ignorantly suffer. We will 
 show ourselves most worthy of heaven in the life to come 
 by making a heaven of the life we are in. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 It has been shown how naturally belief va. justification 
 by faith operates as a license to wrong doing. Forgive- 
 ness of sins is a necessary adjunct to such a doctrine. A 
 person who has done wrong, and has by any process be- 
 come justified, must, necessarily, have been forgiven, 
 and, hence, freed from the future consequences of such 
 wrong. Furthermore, a religious system that represents 
 that all men are born in sin has great need of a corre- 
 sponding easy escape from consequences of sins so 
 innocently acquired. Probably, about no feature of the 
 Christian system has so much sentiment been wasted as 
 about this. The system first terrorizes, and then acts 
 upon the feelings by the unlimited forgiveness promised 
 to the repentant sinner. This play upon the feelings is 
 all the more practicable, because forgiveness among men . 
 is a necessity. Our many errors often lead us into unjust 
 acts and retaliation, for which forgiveness often partly 
 makes amends. 
 
 But our relations to God, in this respect, are widely 
 different. With Him all is perfect. He has committed 
 no errors and has no occasion to violate His laws. In 
 natural religion wrong doing is well defined; we will 
 know it when we come to it, and will be held responsible 
 in proportion. It is not obscured by a vast fictitious 
 wickedness, beside which our actual wickedness sinks 
 
THE" SAFE SIDE. 343 
 
 into insignificance. Men are not born in sin, nor does 
 any one know that God permits any wrong to go unpun- 
 ished. His laws are so far-reaching that all wrong-doing 
 will probably lead to its own punishment. 
 
 There is no originality in wickedness. The same 
 crimes and wrongs of every shade are being committed 
 over and over again. They all come through the same 
 faults and under similar circumstances, and as they have 
 been in the past so will they be in the future. The per- 
 centage will be less as average intelligence increases, but 
 all the various degrees of wickedness will be committed 
 as heretofore. If any sins can be forgiven after they 
 have been committed, then they can be forgiven before. 
 Any little ceremony of repentance, actual or affected, 
 does not alter the principle. Some crimes are sure to be 
 committed, and the criminal has been taught before com- 
 mitting them that he could be forgiven. Such a system, 
 therefore, is equivalent to granting indulgencies for wick- 
 edness before it is committed. It is equivalent to licens- 
 ing the ignorant and depraved to prey upon those whose 
 conduct is irreproachable. 
 
 Salvation is part of the paraphernalia of the Christian 
 system. Having established in the mind fears of a future 
 existence of eternal torture, it became necessary to bal- 
 ance this with the system's theory of salvation. For 
 nearly 1 700 years the church has been playing upon hu- 
 man feelings, by elevating and depressing first one and 
 then the other of these two great opposing doctrines. 
 It is through the constant working of this see-saw. that 
 all of its great financial, social and political success has 
 been attained. Either one of those doctrines would be 
 
344 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 useless to the church without the other. There must be 
 the terror, and the escape, and the church, the self- 
 asserted channel through which alone the latter can be 
 secured. 
 
 But when in time we discover the untruthfulness of 
 the base of all our fears, and then turn to examine the 
 system's doctrine of salvation, we find it unworthy of 
 most of the sentiments we have been wasting upon it, 
 and that it had some most seriously objectionable fea- 
 tures. It is painful to think that the great crimes and 
 cruelties of this world shall go unpunished, simply 
 through a little matter of sentiment, and it is a great 
 public danger to teach such doctrines to those capable of 
 committing them. 
 
 We know of no way of preventing a man from being 
 run over by the cars, except by keeping him off the track 
 when the cars approach; nor is it possible to devise a 
 system by which he could be saved that would not be 
 ruinous to public welfare. He must simply leave the 
 track at such times or be crushed. But when we see a 
 vast bank of fog rolling over the land, there is no time 
 nor space to escape from it. It will surely overwhelm 
 us; but if we will but close our eyes to it, we will be un- 
 conscious of it. So with salvation. From the conse- 
 quences of actual sin there is no salvation. From the 
 consequences of the mythical sins of Christianity there is 
 no need of any. 
 
 When a person has injured another, he will experience 
 mental pain so long as he can see or know the unhappy 
 consequences he caused to the injured party. It is rea- 
 sonable to suppose, therefore, that, in the future life, the 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 345 
 
 same conditions on a larger scale will continue, and, under 
 a higher intelligence, those unhappy consequences may 
 be traced to their remote end. There will come a time 
 when it cannot be seen that the welfare of any person is 
 then affected by the wrong act, and, it may be, that only 
 then will the party who committed wrong be wholly re- 
 leased from further mental pain. Thus the wicked may 
 be saved, not through simple superstitious sentiments 
 formed in this life, but through a law of the mind, that 
 eventually kindly buries all knowledge of their wicked- 
 ness in oblivion. 
 
 The various mental faculties 'often conflict with one 
 another, as in the case of love of money and the affec- 
 tions, or caution, and those faculties that at times call for 
 its resistance. The best acts of men lay in those con- 
 flicts. It is only then that the mind labors and the qual- 
 ities of the individual are made manifest. Those conflicts 
 are most marked in cases of temptation, but they are 
 going on in a smaller degree daily. When we hold our 
 thoughts to our business, or studies or other duties that 
 interfere with our pleasures or liberty, we are resisting 
 other inclinations, and to that degree it is mental labor, 
 and great power and persistency in that respect indicate 
 a superior mind. 
 
 That point where there is a struggle between duty 
 and other inclinations is the point where outside influ- 
 ence can have the most effect and, hence, it is of the 
 greatest importance that such influence be so directed as 
 to throw its weight upon the side of honor and duty. 
 This effect is not produced by teaching the tempted that 
 their contemplated wrong is a small matter, compared to 
 
346 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 their inherited wickedness, and, that, if they yield to the 
 temptation, they can be forgiven. Such teachings are 
 the worst that could be devised. It is as though the Gov- 
 ernment had carefully taught its soldiers that they were 
 all born cowards so great that any yielding to their fears 
 would add but a trifle to their great load of inherited 
 cowardice; and that any exhibition of that cowardice 
 would be forgiven, provided that, when the danger was 
 over, they would express their regrets, coupled with their 
 lasting belief in the perfection of the Government. 
 
 Some men are so deficient that nothing will keep 
 them from crime, while others will be honest regardless 
 of the worst teachings. But far the largest class of crimes 
 can be prevented under proper instruction. Breaches of 
 trust and defalcations, particularly, will come within the 
 latter. Responsible positions are often filled by men 
 placed in them through influence before their trustworthi- 
 ness has been established by experience. Here and 
 there there will be one whose deficiencies will be just 
 enough to make defalcation possible with him. Such a 
 man will feel tempted by the opportunity and often for 
 many months dwell upon it. His contemplated crime is 
 belittled by the magnitude of his inherited sins, and 
 partly justified in his mind by 'the injustice of holding 
 him responsible for what he could not help; while the 
 easy forgiveness he can obtain takes away nearly all fear 
 of punishment. His only fear would be that he might 
 die suddenly and thus not have an opportunity to repent 
 and be forgiven. 
 
 Common sense demands restitution, but many crimes 
 do not admit of it; particularly in that large class of 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 34/ 
 
 crimes and violation of honor growing out of the sexual 
 passions. Nor does restitution always make amends to 
 the injured party in pecuniary affairs. The history of the 
 agony of mind of many who have yielded to temptation, 
 would deter thousands who now fall half leaning upon 
 false teachings of forgiveness, and that they could repent 
 and escape the consequences. 
 
 Forgiveness of sins is a belief wholly within the 
 Christian system. None know that it is true, and as it is 
 contrary to reason and experience, it is probably false. 
 An honest man has no use for that doctrine. A penalty 
 is attached to all wrong acts, and the one and only way 
 to avoid that penalty is to not commit such acts. Belief 
 in Jesus Christ, or in the Bible, or attendance at church, 
 or compliance with any of the explanatory doctrines of 
 Christianity, will in no way stay such penalty. No matter 
 of faith, nor any of the false virtues of Christianity will in 
 the least help those who are guilty. There is no object 
 in having the religious feelings but to prevent such wrong 
 acts, and there is no religion in just the extent they are 
 committed. 
 
 Christianity presents, in substance, this alternative — 
 believe in Jesus Christ and be saved; or refuse to believe 
 in him and suffer damnation. These are given as the two 
 alternatives of the question, and consequently when in 
 doubt it is assumed to be the safe side to believe. 
 These seeming t^wo alternatives is but the Christian pre- 
 sentation of the question. It is one side only. It is 
 their demand to believe in Christ accompanied with what 
 they hold up as an inducement, and as a threat. The 
 other alternative can only be presented by those who 
 
348 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 have taken the other side of the question. But in a 
 Christian country only the Christian presentation of this 
 question is heard and therefore we grow up under the 
 supposition that that presentation includes the two and 
 only alternatives. Hence it is that believing is supposed 
 to be the safe side, and vast numbers are held by that 
 error into a partial support of that religion, a religion the 
 first step in which consists in defaming God, and which 
 grants an unauthorized license to commit wrong by that 
 which, when traced to its remote end, consists only in 
 supplying the unnumbered thousands who preach those 
 doctrines, with enviable social and pecuniary positions. 
 
 Those men teach, for instance, that a man failing to 
 control his temper by giving away to swearing is utterly 
 lost in wickedness, even though he may be otherwise a 
 good man. It is important, then, to understand just 
 what it is in swearing that is irreverent to God.* Swear- 
 ing is language only and its wickedness must necessarily 
 consist in the ideas the language conveys. It is at 
 least a display of bad temper and as such will always 
 be offensive. As a rule we do not work our mental 
 energies up to their full capacity. We should not. We 
 are like any other machine in that respect, and have 
 a margin of strength that on emergencies can be called 
 into action. It is by anger that surplus energies are 
 sometimes awakened. When, therefore, a person be- 
 comes angry, he virtually admits that he has reached his 
 ordinary limits of mental power and now summons his 
 
 * Swearing is most common with English-speaking people and proba- 
 bly had its origin in the Cromwell rebellion. It is probably a corruption of 
 the mode of speech of the Puritans. 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 349 
 
 reserved forces to meet the difficulty before him. Passion 
 too easily raised is thus evidence of weakness. There 
 are times when passion is properly called upon, and in 
 some instances most heroic acts have been displayed 
 under it. At such times many a hero has died with his 
 last word an oath. But such oaths have not the remotest 
 disrespect to God, nor do they evince an evil disposition. 
 
 But Christians assert that God lost control of the 
 world. It is not possible for mere words to be more 
 blasphemous than these. It is not language used in the 
 heat of passion, but it is calmly and deliberately taught 
 as a creed of the church. It is used, too, by those who 
 now have some idea of the magnitude of creation, and 
 know how exceedingly narrow it was supposed to be by 
 those who originated this grossest possible insult human- 
 ity could address to the Creator. This insult is embodied 
 in the very title of Christianity, for it is its explanation 
 as to how it is that Christ is a savior. 
 
 The human mind is incapable of giving as much honor 
 and glory to each of two men filling the duties of one office 
 as it would give to a man who performed those duties 
 alone. If, for instance, the duties of the President of the 
 United States were performed by two men, that office 
 would not be exalted thereby; its glories would simply 
 be divided between the two. Each would have not over 
 half the honors now given to one. 
 
 So in religion. There is a limit to our power to 
 reverence and realize the existence of God, and our re- 
 ligious faculties will draw those feelings out to the full 
 extent of those limits. Therefore all the divinity that is 
 given to Christ is taken from God. Christianity does 
 
35° THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 not increase the religious feelings > it simply divides 
 them. In believing in Christ Christians do not exhibit 
 more religion than those who believe in God alone, and 
 if Christ is not what they claim for him, they exhibit 
 vastly less. In order to make a god of Christ they rob 
 the Almighty of part of the attributes and glory that are 
 His alone. 
 
 In just the degree that a Christian is a be- 
 liever IN Christ, he is an unbeliever in God. 
 
 In just the degree that Christ is a Saviour, 
 God is a failure. 
 
 It is asserted that it is the safe side of this question to 
 thus defame and partially ignore the Almighty, and to 
 act upon the possible truth of Christian explanatory 
 doctrines, in face of the fact that the crimes and wicked- 
 ness committed in its cause greatly surpass the sum total 
 of all other cruelties known in history. Not alone in the 
 wars it led to, but in the cruelties practiced by Christians 
 upon other Christians because of difference upon trifling 
 points of doctrine — questions that in no way take any 
 part whatever in regulating our conduct for our good. 
 Any attempt to enumerate those horrors would but 
 weaken the account, for they extended through many 
 centuries and reach so near our time that even now a 
 picture of a man burning at a stake or enduring other 
 torture is recognized as a holy picture. Darwin states 
 that those crimes were so great as to have effected a 
 deterioration in the intelligence of the human race. He 
 says: 
 
 "During this same period the Holy Inquisition selected 
 with extreme care the freest and boldest men, in order 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 35 1 
 
 to burn or imprison them. In Spain alone some of the 
 best men — those who doubted and questioned, and with- 
 out doubting there can be no progress — were eliminated 
 during three centuries at the rate of a thousand a year." 
 
 Buckle more fully shows the complete success of the 
 Church in securing power over the minds of the Spaniards, 
 and that in the use of that power the people were de- 
 graded and reduced to the lowest degree of poverty, 
 ignorance, and wretchedness. 
 
 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew, the cruelties of the Spaniards in the 
 Netherlands, the Inquisition, etc., etc., created a sym- 
 pathy for the Protestants that obscured their bigotry and 
 intolerance. They were seemingly, though not actually, 
 contending for free religion. Being in revolt against the 
 Catholic Church, they were necessarily usually, on the 
 defensive, and seldom in a position to be aggressive; but 
 in the few instances in which they were in power they 
 exhibited such a spirit as to raise a doubt whether, upon 
 equal footing in Europe, they would have shown them- 
 selves much, if any, less cruel than the Catholics. 
 
 Nor do those doctrines in our day give any increased 
 peace of mind where any increase is needed. The un- 
 natural attendance of large numbers at noon-day prayer 
 and evening meetings, as well as two or three services 
 Sundays, were never begat by religion alone. Those 
 excessive acts of devotion expose the fact that within the 
 system FEAR still predominates over all other feelings. 
 Although of late years many in the Church are ashamed 
 of their eternal torture doctrine, and try to modify it, yet 
 the words it is based upon cannot be expunged from the 
 
352 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 Bible, and those orthodox believers having large caution 
 are haunted with that possibility, and in secret fear are 
 driven to those useless exercises. Their conscience may- 
 be clear as far as their own acts are concerned, but the 
 book for which they have such superstitious awe has ter- 
 rible words in it that no ingenious sophistry of theologians 
 or pretense of loving kindness can wipe away. Many 
 of those dreadful words were the utterances of Christ 
 himself Few were to be saved, and the mysterious 
 allusions to the elect throws some doubt upon even the 
 sanctifying effect of faith itself. 
 
 A man somewhat wanting in self-esteem, having 
 average or large caution and undoubting faith in the 
 Bible, cannot by the most conscientious government of 
 his everyday life ever free himself from doubts as to his 
 future state, and if his self-esteem is quite deficient the 
 doctrines of Christianity will be a life-long terror to him. 
 To such men never for a moment has its teachings been 
 "glad tidings of great joy." The very pretense of it is 
 begat in fear. The heaven of the New Testament is but 
 flattery to the Almighty. It is heaven by not being 
 hell. It is not that it is so much a place of bliss as that 
 it is not a place of torment. Belief in a future exist- 
 ence, accompanied with so much uncertainty and terror 
 as Chris tianity teaches, brings with it no joy, and the 
 mind that is burdened with it would find rehef in the 
 conviction that there was no future life at all. 
 
 But there are just such saintly deaths, and just $uch 
 unhappy ones, as old churchmen delighted to depict, 
 though the respective classes in which they occurred were 
 not always as represented. Here again is where church- 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 353 
 
 men have claimed as their work, feelings that have no 
 base in religion whatever. The sole cause of happiness 
 and confidence in the future on the part of those believ- 
 ers who do have that confidence, is self-conceit. Who 
 is meant by the elect is always clear to the self-conceited. 
 They never have doubts upon that point, and are equally 
 indulgent to themselves in the certainty of forgiveness 
 for their own constantly recurring short-comings. Some 
 of the most saintly deaths of which we have accounts 
 have been those of most odious murderers upon the gal- 
 lows, while on the other hand there are instances of 
 men,, whose whole lives had been as perfect as a most 
 sensitive conscience could make them, who on their death 
 beds were still haunted with their life-long doubts and 
 fears as to their future state; fears that were caused by a 
 terrible belief accompanied with a too poor opinion of 
 themselves. 
 
 Throughout the Christian Era the faculty of self-es- 
 teem has at all times taken an immeasurably greater part 
 in the Christian system than religion. The enormous 
 self-conceit of the ancient Jews was the mud in which the 
 foundation of that system was laid; it was the chief cause 
 of the intolerance and cruelty Christians practiced upon 
 one another through long ages; and it is the only faculty 
 that admits of a man's believing he has been "called of 
 God to preach the gospel.'' It is the most prominent 
 characteristic of the greater part of the priesthood to-day. 
 
 The action of men — particularly public men — is sel- 
 dom, if ever, governed by but one object, even though 
 but one may have first awakened that action. Every 
 faculty of the mind will assert itself when its particular 
 
354 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 function is touched upon. It is very common for certain 
 faculties to awake action that later became governed by 
 stronger faculties wholly disconnected with the original 
 designs. A large part of the laws of every nation at the 
 present time are but the slow growth of regulations made 
 to guard against this mental peculiarity. How often do 
 we see the public spirit or patriotism that excites a man 
 to action become overpowered by more powerful per- 
 sonal motives when his original disinterested exertions 
 has brought him into office. 
 
 It is the same with the church; it has at all times sup- 
 plied as wide a field for ambition, wealth, and social 
 power as any nation, and necessarily all the various fac- 
 ulties appertaining to those various ends have taken part 
 in its government. In that government there has been a 
 larger number of active participants, and more thought 
 expended than upon the laws of any nation, and its dig- 
 nitaries have met from time to time in even greater sol- 
 emnity and, pomp. The minds of those men in every 
 generation of the Christian Era have been intent upon an 
 object, and the preponderance of intellect employed must 
 necessarily have secured a due proportion of success — the 
 great age of the system alone proving that. To know, 
 then, the dominating influence that actuated those men 
 we must look to the nature of their success. No matter 
 of numbers, and time, and learning, and pious protesta- 
 tions; can in the least offset the overwhelming testimony 
 of the actual work turned out. Only the completed 
 work is proof. 
 
 Those men have proclaimed that they were spreading 
 that which was "Glad tidings of great joy," but terror has 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 355 
 
 been the one and almost only mental state they labored 
 to produce. They said it was to be "Peace on earth," 
 but it has been a constant source of wrangles and wars. 
 They said their religion — their labors — was "Good will 
 to men," but the hatred, tortures, and butcheries within 
 their religious systems surpass all known outside of it, 
 and make much of its history a screaming horror. They 
 tell us, too, with pious unction of the Christian hope, but 
 there is no greater hope a man can have than the hope 
 that the state of future existence as taught in that system, 
 is not true. In short the failure in the effect that sys- 
 tem was to produce is as immense as the number within 
 it is large. 
 
 But in face of this failure the priesthood have met with 
 unparalleled success in securing wealth and social and 
 political power. It can be said literally that all the 
 wealth of the world has passed through their hands, and 
 they have even been in possession at one time of a large 
 proportion of all the property in Europe. Their success 
 in that respect is equal to the magnitude of their exer- 
 tions, and the intellectual ability employed. This vast 
 wealth and attending dignity is a tangible thing percept- 
 ible to the senses at all times throughout all Christendom, 
 and it impresses the mind with far greater power than 
 can be done with a mere matter of sentiment or opinion, 
 which is all there is to show for the pretended effects of 
 Christianity. It is an inherited opinion and exists in the 
 mind only. Their utter failure is obscured in the bril- 
 liancy of their success in securing worldly goods and 
 honors for themselves. Whatever they may say to the 
 contrary, the results of their work prove that the personal 
 
3S6 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 interest of the priesthood has at all times predominated 
 over all other considerations. Their minds have been so 
 intent upon their comfortable places that those comfort- 
 able places and Christianity have grown to be one and 
 the same thing. 
 
 We do not ourselves always know the proportion of 
 the various influences that govern us, and are often led 
 into unjust acts through an exaggerated idea of the part 
 some disinterested motive may have taken, hence much 
 that is seeming. hypocrisy is not hypocrisy, but is simply 
 self-ignorance; and it is possible the latter condition may 
 be the state of mind of a large part of those who have 
 mistaken their love of ease and social power for self sac- 
 rificing religion. 
 
 ' A merchant may declare that his inch measure is a 
 yard, and that his flimsy cloth is impervious to wind and 
 weather, and vast numbers may believe that only the 
 impure doubt his word. As long as their belief in his 
 integrity is only a question of trade, his goods may be 
 freely bought with nothing to show but that his measure 
 is the true standard. But when in time those goods 
 come to be used, no amount of faith in his honesty could 
 then hide the fact that his credulous customers had 
 nothing with which to hide their nakedness. 
 
 So with Christianity; history, science, experience, 
 everything has been falsified that its false standand of 
 excellence might be sustained. It has had entire control 
 of education, and has successfully made its ethics the 
 standard of purity. In the mere exercise of that wealth 
 and power there was nothing but their assertions as to 
 the efficacy of that standard in proof of its truth. 
 
THE SAFE SIDE. 357 
 
 But every year's experience makes more and more 
 conspicuous the worthlessness of those fictitious virtues 
 in protecting us from wrongs. There is corruption and 
 crime in abundance committed by those who have un- 
 questioning faith in their salvation through Christ. Our 
 penitentiaries are filled with them. From the saintly 
 dying murderers upon the gallows to bribed and default- 
 ing officials, it is being constantly exposed that practicing 
 those false virtues accomplishes nothing. When we 
 would avail ourselves of the advantages those pretended 
 virtues should give, and which have cost us so much, we 
 find ourselves unprotected and exposed to every variety 
 of crime and corruption committed by those whose faith 
 filled all christian requirements. 
 
 Naturally it would be supposed that evils and unhap- 
 piness of every nature were the results of our own acts, 
 and necessarily those acts must be sins, for they beget 
 punishment, and that is all the penalty attending the 
 commission of any wicked act. On the other hand it 
 would be equally reasonable to suppose that there was 
 no sin in acts that produce no evil consequences. If 
 these two suppositions are facts, and they undoubtedly 
 are, it is important that it be known, for it would then 
 stimulate an examination of the causes of those evils and 
 insure their ultimate correction. But it will be impos- 
 sible to discover if those suppositions are facts as long as 
 we are governed by present ideas of right and wrong, 
 for there will be no evil consequences following a false 
 sin, while on the other hand serious evils follow some 
 acts not known to be bad in that system. This has pro- 
 duced a supine submission to evils we could have cor- 
 
3S8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 rected ; particularly as the system has an explanation for 
 those evils by ascribing them to the machination of the 
 Adversary . 
 
 When it is established that wherever there is trouble 
 or unhappiness of any nature, some one or more human 
 beings are at fault, and that only such faults are sins, it 
 will still be a great study to fully recognize our responsi- 
 bility for much evil that exists. This is in part because 
 some consequences are so remote, and in part because 
 our remedies develop other faults, and'also in part because 
 we are made to suffer for errors of the public as well as 
 our own. Some faults of government, for instance, are 
 exposed and corrected through the misfortunes they work 
 upon innocent parties who are made to suffer for the 
 public good. The discipline that thus advances the 
 people is necessarily more important than that which 
 simply advances the individual, and the seeming injustice 
 that accomplishes this by punishing a few for the incom- 
 petency of the many, can receive abundant compensation 
 in the vast ages of a life to come. The operations of 
 nature's laws clearly shows that all acts are wicked that 
 produce evil consequences, and only such acts are wicked. 
 
 Measured by this law, it is one of the greatest sins to 
 violate our reasoning faculties, for the consequences of so 
 doing have been among the most serious evils of life. It 
 is clearly demanded of us to exercise all our mental 
 powers in the light of the highest inteUigence we can 
 bring to bear. The question of the divinity of Christ 
 cannot be dismissed under the indolent idea that it is the 
 safe side to number credulity among the highest virtues. 
 As between the two alternatives of that question it is the 
 SAFE SIDE to reject it. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 IMMORTALITY. 
 
 It is natural that the hundreds of thousands of eccle- 
 siastics, who are comfortably ensconced in their various 
 agreeable places, should like to point out where there is 
 adequate compensation for the vast cost of their support. 
 In doing this, they greatly exaggerate the effect of belief 
 in immortality, a boon which they pretend is given only 
 by Christianity. But so far as they have taught us of 
 immortality, it has been mainly through their representa- 
 tions of the horrors of hell, rather than the joys of heaven. 
 If this question could be definitely settled, it would 
 make but little difference in the conduct of large numbers 
 of people; and if it was settled in the negative, it would 
 be a happy relief to more worshipers in that " religion of 
 sorrow" than to the contrary. A little reflection will 
 show that it would not do to know of that future life too 
 clearly. The duties of the one we are in are proportion- 
 ally important to those in the life to come, and a too vivid 
 contemplation of the latter might unfit us for the former. 
 That there is a future existence; the nature of it, and the 
 bearing this life has upon it, can be reasoned out with as 
 much certainty as is either practicable or advisable. It 
 is knowledge that is dimly given us. We know it clear 
 enough to brighten this life, and to stimulate us to a care- 
 ful discharge of our duties, and doubtful enough to pre- 
 vent our throwing our lives away. 
 
36o THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The point is often made, that, if the Bible is not the 
 word of God, then we are without evidence of a future 
 existence. But if it could be the fact that only the Bible 
 points to a future life, that circumstance would not have 
 the least bearing upon the question of the divine origin 
 of that book. It would simply be a reason for hoping 
 that it was true, but should make us even more critical 
 in its examination. A man may say that he owns all the 
 country for miles around, and that he will deed us rich 
 possessions, but his title to the property would not be in 
 the least enhanced by our desire for the promised wealth. 
 However desirable it may be to know that the soul is 
 immortal, we do not make it so by making a God of one 
 who was traditionally reported to have implied that it was 
 so. Christianity, and the immortality of the soul, are 
 two separate and distinct questions, the truth of the latter 
 not being dependent upon the truth of the former. But 
 it is the custom of churchmen to claim the former as a 
 doctrine peculiarly their own. They try to make it ap- 
 pear that none can believe in immortality and not believe 
 in Christ. One writer calls it " a remarkable concession," 
 when such a belief was expressed by a theistic author, 
 whom he described as " an advanced and able thinker." 
 
 Napoleon Roussel says of Renan: 
 
 "Our readers, then, need not be surprised if M. Renan, 
 adversary of Jesus as he is, should, nevertheless, think it 
 wise to preserve a certain faith in a future hfe. " 
 
 Such expressions as these are common within the 
 system, and indicates the deficiency of reason which is 
 characteristic of orthodox Christians. 
 
 Christianity gave us no new ideas of immortality, or 
 
IMMORTALITY. 36 1 
 
 of God. Its only originality consists in its ideas as to 
 the divinity of Christ, and the complications consequent 
 thereto; but it has so successfully blended those compli- 
 cations with the natural religious feeling as to produce a 
 mental delusion, and cause those two widely different 
 things to seem but one. It is like a vine covering a fruit 
 tree, which through 1800 years has been credited with 
 fruit that was borne by the tree alone. 
 
 The evidence of a future existence, from a philosophi- 
 cal point of view, has of late received much attention. 
 Perhaps one of the best courses of reasoning upon that 
 subject is in a German work — Phaedon, by Moses Men- 
 delssohn. The author puts into the mouth of Socrates 
 some highly interesting ideas, tending to prove immor- 
 tality. Carlyle writes in the highest terms of this work, 
 and says : " Socrates, to our mind, has spoken in no 
 modern language so like Socrates, as here, by the lips of 
 this wise and cultivated Jew. " An English translation 
 of the reasoning referred to is published in the Democratic 
 Review, vol. 22, pages 59, 124, 225. 
 
 The work entitled The Unseen Universe contains the 
 most original ideas offered in late years upon that sub- 
 ject. Its two authors show that we are seeing but a short 
 process in creation. It is as though we saw laborers 
 passing lumber and brick, but did not see or know of the 
 building that was being erected. All the energies of 
 nature are devoted to the building up of a universe we 
 do not see. Profs. P. G. Tait and B. Stewart are said to 
 be the authors. 
 
 If this life ends all, then for what purpose were all 
 these great worlds made? However vast and numerous 
 
362 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 they may be, their creation and government is not so 
 incomprehensible as the creation of the human mind. 
 Measured by our capacity to understand, the latter is the 
 greatest work of God, and the world must have been 
 made for its development. That which involved incom- 
 prehensible intelligence could not have been incidental 
 to that involving comprehensible intelligence. Conse- 
 quently, this and all other worlds were created for pur- 
 poses connected with the mind, for no other use is made 
 of them, as indicated by the world we live in. If the 
 world was made for man, the plan of creation could not 
 have stopped with this short, struggling, laborious life. 
 From its narrow field no object has been disclosed com- 
 mensurate with the vast extent and grandeur of creation. 
 There must be more than is seen here. Our Creator's 
 designs regarding us must be measured by the extent of 
 all His works, and, hence, the wider the universe 
 proves to be, the greater those designs must be, and 
 the greater the probability that this life is but a part 
 of the process of our creation. The fact that our knowl- 
 edge of a future existence is obscured, is consistent with 
 the proposition just given, for our inexperienced minds 
 would be incapable of comprehending those designs, and 
 any attempt to do so would undoubtedly unfit us for the 
 duties of this life — duties that are, necessarily, as impor- 
 tant in proportion as any we will have in the life to come. 
 Our feelings of humanity were given us by our 
 Maker, and those feelings would prompt us to say that, 
 if this life was all, it would have been better for most of 
 the human race if they had never been born. He would 
 not mock us with feelings and understanding that taught 
 
IMMORTALITY. 363 
 
 US that existence was a cruelty. He has given us powers 
 of the mind with especial reference to our pleasures, and 
 otherwise, by His laws, shows that under them He 
 intended happiness to be the natural state of man. The 
 same Being who through so great a time prepared for us, 
 does not now unnecessarily load us with trouble. It is 
 all for a purpose, and as none is made manifest in this 
 life, it must be in one to come. 
 
 A future existence is the basis of all good and honor- 
 able acts. The world is full of heroes and heroines, who 
 have lived and died in obscurity, but their heroism was 
 such only in the light of a life hereafter, otherwise their 
 self-sacrifices and struggles were foolish. Much of that 
 which is now honorable and good would be but weak- 
 ness, if all ended with this life. 
 
 Mankind does not freely accept isolated facts. One 
 item of knowledge needs to be connected with others to 
 be believed. The mind supplies numbers of such isolated 
 facts to which too little attention has been shown. They 
 cannot be explained and as yet stand alone, part of an 
 unknown science. One of these facts has often been 
 offered as evidence of a future life. It is known that the 
 matter composing our bodies, changes many times over 
 during our lives, but in all those changes the mind keeps 
 along with us unchanged and accumulating knowledge. 
 We remember even trifling things that occurred many 
 years before, though every ounce composing our bodies 
 at that time had long since disappeared. 
 
 The idea has been advanced in explanation of this phe- 
 nomenon, that with each thought a fiber of brain matter 
 is formed which during life keeps in the mind that par- 
 
364 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 ticular item of knowledge. Necessarily the amount of 
 matter thus deposited must be infinitesimal as the mind 
 is constantly at work and yet a life-time does, not supply 
 evidence of an accumulation. This brain matter would 
 also have to be replaced from time to time through the 
 circulation, and this., too, without reproducing the thought 
 that caused the original deposit. People are killed by 
 thoughts sometimes. They die from no hurt or fault of 
 the constitution, nor fault of their own minds; they die 
 simply because of knowledge of certain distressing facts 
 and are otherwise untouched. People also sometimes 
 become violently insane through an impression made 
 upon the mind in a few moments of time. 
 
 If the above theory is correct, then this infinitesimal 
 matter deposited with each thought is, at times, the most 
 powerful poison known, for without this deposit the 
 knowledge that produced those effects would not have 
 remained in the mind. There would still remain, under 
 this theory, equally as great a phenomenon to account 
 for in the fact that while some deposits killed, others gave 
 pleasure. If brain matter with such surprising powers of 
 pain and pleasure were thus deposited with each thought, 
 it would be as great a wonder as the one for which it is 
 intended to account. 
 
 Our whole experience here is with reference to mental 
 exercise and discipline. This all important part of us, it 
 is shown in the facts just stated, has an existence separate 
 from our bodies, and as it can separate in detail, it is 
 reasonable to suppose that it can at death separate from 
 the body wholly. 
 
 This is one of the chief points made by Mendelsshon. 
 
IMMORTALITY. 365 
 
 He showed, in substance, that under the laws of nature, 
 nothing Gould be annihilated; that all things subject to 
 change weje no moment without change; that all changes 
 were gradual; that the body was dying from birth, death 
 being but the culmination of that which had long been in 
 progress; that the -mind throughout this time increased 
 in knowledge, and all experience had been with reference 
 to it. At death, therefore, the mind must continue to 
 exist or be annihilated, which would do violence both to 
 the laws of nature, and to the changes that had been 
 gradually taking place. 
 
 Another feature of the mind is even more mysterious 
 than the one just mentioned. It seems to possess powers 
 entirely unconnected with our own guidance, or else it is 
 acted upon by some invisible power. A person's mind, 
 as an instance, will involuntarily call up some acquaint- 
 ance who has long been absent and long out of mind, and 
 Vill immediately thereafter meet him face to face. Inci- 
 dents of thi^ kind are in the experience of thousands 
 under circumstances that are often very surprising. 
 People will sometimes write letters answering questions 
 that it afterwards transpired had been asked by the corre- 
 spondent in a letter that was on the way when the answer 
 was written. 
 
 A person's eyes will be made to fall upon some word 
 while walking or riding, the meaning of which is so ap- 
 plicable to his thoughts as to often be startling. Some 
 have this experience repeatedly throughout their lives. 
 The dreams of some are often most perfect allegorical 
 pictures of their affairs and acts at the time. They will 
 be, in most instances, superior to the capacity of the 
 dreamer to design when awake. 
 
366 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 A few such instances as these may be called simply 
 coincidences, but they occur very many times during life, 
 and calculation will show that the chances of so many 
 such events happening to the same person are but as one 
 in many hundreds of thousands, and therefore cannot be 
 so explained away. For the same reason more notice 
 should be given to seeming coincidences. More attention 
 to these phenomena will prove both interesting and in- 
 structive. Possibly more would have been said of them 
 but for their seemingly superstitious nature. But the 
 superstition, if any, lies in the explanation; the facts 
 themselves are (at least most of them) well established; 
 but they are isolated facts, as yet unexplained. It is 
 possible that experience of this nature is more common 
 than we are aware of, and by its study an important law 
 of the mind may be discovered. 
 
 The secret of success in life is not fully known, and 
 may never be. Intelligence, honor, energy, etc., etc.* 
 ought to secure success, and they do enough to stimu- 
 late cultivation, but they do not assure it, and are often 
 the marked characteristics of men who are unsuccessful. 
 Neither are successful men always especially distin- 
 guished by the possession of those qualities. It would not 
 do to let it be known precisely upon what success could 
 always be obtained. If, for instance, it be purely a ques- 
 tion of intelligence; if people were known to be success- 
 ful in the exact ratio of their wisdom, then the opinions 
 of such men would be sought for and their advice fol- 
 lowed upon all questions. Their power would be too 
 great. Less successful people would employ them to do 
 their thinking for them, and would be discouraged by 
 
IMMORTALITY. 367 
 
 the wide difference in intelligence as indicated by differ- 
 ence in wealth and honors. 
 
 Or, if success were purely a question of honesty, that 
 circumstance would obscure honesty, as there would be 
 no temptation to be otherwise. The same principle ap- 
 plies to any faculty or combination of them. As it is, 
 different men are successful in some instances from oppo- 
 site qualities, and the causes of success in one is the 
 cause of failure in another. When we come to follow out 
 in detail the cause of a man's success, we find that the 
 combinations to which he owed it were partly mental and 
 partly circumstantial, and often wholly the latter. There 
 is nothing strange in one fortunate combination of cir- 
 cumstances; but the biographies of successful men in 
 every rank of life show that with a certain percentage of 
 them, fortunate circumstances happened repeatedly dur- 
 ing their lives. A calculation of the chances of many 
 circumstances attending the same person always to his 
 advantage, will show that the probability is but as one 
 to many thousands 
 
 These peculiarities are rarely noticed except in suc- 
 cessful men, but that is because their success makes them 
 prominent. But those whose attending circumstances 
 are as constantly to their misfortune, are equally as num- 
 erous, and together make this kind of experience very 
 common. Among these external influences effecting 
 various people's welfare the most common one consists 
 in the opinion others have of them as to their capacities. 
 Later experience sometimes proves this judgment of 
 character to have been wide of the truth, and therefore, 
 fortunate or unfortunate to the individual, as the case 
 may be. 
 
368 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 This feature is not always confined to the opinion 
 formed by one man. On the contrary, favorable opinions 
 seems to mysteriously accompany some men, and seems 
 to impress everybody that hears of them. Such men in 
 business never want for customers, and in politics never 
 want for votes. In some instances the public persistently 
 seek individuals who are wanting in ambition, while other 
 more competent men unsuccessfully devote a life time in 
 courting public favor. Because popularity so often 
 attends social, congenial people, we too readily assume 
 that that is always the reason for it. But in many in- 
 stances a popular man does not possess those qualities, 
 and in the case of some public men their popularity would 
 be lost if their personality was better known. 
 
 We are blinded to these various peculiarities because 
 they are not always marked features of successful men. 
 But they are the sole cause with some, while the opposite 
 extreme is never an attendant with any of them. A per- 
 son possessing them is called lucky or unlucky, and it has 
 been so marked as to have been an element of supersti- 
 tion in all ages. For this reason in part it is now looked 
 upon as unintelligent to attribute anything to chance. 
 But the peculiar fatality so marked in many people is a 
 conspicuous though isolated fact, none the less true be- 
 cause it is unexplained. Those men, also, who owe 
 their successes to this peculiarity, naturally prefer to have 
 it credited to their intelligence, and hence do not make 
 known the many fortunate circumstances to which they 
 owe those successes. Only recently a man died in New 
 York who had made a fortune of many millions of dollars, 
 of whom it was said that "he had a reputation of being 
 
IMMORTALITY. 369 
 
 clairvoyant in all that pertained to the investment of 
 capital. " 
 
 This peculiar fatality that accompanies some people, 
 and the seemingly separate intelligence before mentioned, 
 may both be a manifestation of the same power. They 
 are of the same nature, and it is possible the law that 
 governs them maybe discovered. They at least indicate 
 an outside influence or power of some unknown nature, 
 and to that degree supply evidence of another existence. 
 
 Animals are born with certain items of knowledge. 
 They know where to find their food, and understand the 
 meaning of certain signs or sounds. This knowledge is 
 indispensable at their birth, and hence the Creator has 
 planted it in their minds without the necessity of exper- 
 ience or instruction. Those animals will never have 
 higher to look than to their progenitors, and supernatural 
 knowledge is given them sufficient to enable their pro- 
 genitors to give them due care. May it not be that our 
 higher destiny is also designated by an item of super- 
 natural knowledge of a God given us for the guiding 
 effect that that knowledge will have upon us. The 
 presence of that faculty in the mind may be with that 
 intent and points to a future existence. 
 
 Darwin says {^The Descent of Man, p. 612): 
 
 "I am aware that the assumed instinctive belief in 
 God has been used by many persons as an argument for 
 His existence. But this is a rash argument, as we should 
 thus be compelled to believe in the existence of many 
 cruel and malignant spirits, only a Httle more powerful 
 than man; for the beUef in them is far more general than 
 in a beneficent Deity. The idea of a universal and beni- 
 ficent Creator does not seem to arise in the mind of man 
 until he has been elevated by long-continued culture." 
 
37° THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The evolution theory does not seem to draw sufficient 
 distinction between physical and mental development. 
 The latter is apparently assumed to follow the former as 
 a natural consequence, and to be of a secondary nature. 
 But that theory has been clear only as to physical evolu- 
 tion. The far more important parallel evolution of the 
 mind is still an unexplained mystery. If the acquisition 
 of each new mental faculty called for some new physical 
 power, the evolution of the mind could then have been 
 as clearly traced as it has been for the body. But there 
 has been but slight connection between the two. The 
 physical powers, for instance, of the lowest quadruped 
 would not have unfitted it for possessing the mind of the 
 highest, nor has it been shown that there had been any 
 great degree of mental development up to the highest 
 animals next to man. Prof. Huxley shows that there is 
 more difference between the lowest and highest apes than 
 there is between the highest apes and man. But this 
 applies to the body only. Mental development seems to 
 have taken its greatest start after that time. 
 
 The superior mental powers of man did require cer- 
 tain physical powers not possessed by any animal, and it 
 is clear that those physical powers were being slowly 
 evolved before the mental powers were developed that 
 would require them. Savages possess quite the same 
 mental faculties that we do, for they can be educated, 
 and neither man nor animals can learn in matters requir- 
 ing a faculty they do not possess. We have numerous 
 examples of educated Indians and also of negroes. The 
 human hand, power to walk erect, and organs of speech, 
 were physical powers necessary for human mental powers. 
 
IMMORTALITY. 37 1 
 
 and those physical powers were being slowly evolved by 
 animal not possessing the faculties for which those physi- 
 cal powers were being created. There the thread is 
 broken, but when next taken up we find the earth covered 
 with men, though they were still living quite as low as 
 the higher animals, but possessing the mental power to 
 learn that which cannot be learned in the absence of the 
 higher mental facuties. They were making use of the 
 organs of speech, which organs had been fully developed 
 in the ape {Descent of Man, p. 89). Mathematics could 
 not have been practiced without the physical powers of 
 the human hand, and no condition is known that could 
 have developed that mental faculty before that time. 
 
 Darwin admits that he could not account for the pre- 
 sence of the musical faculty, and some other faculties are 
 not satisfactorily accounted for. Nor does it follow that 
 because we can see the circumstances by which any par- 
 ticular faculty is evolved, that such faculty is an accident 
 of those circumstances. On th^ contrary, those circum- 
 stances or conditions were made to cause such evolution 
 as they produced, as is evidenced by physical develop- 
 ment preceding the mental development that would re- 
 quire it. Hence it was intended that we should have the 
 faculties we do have, and hence that instinctive knowl- 
 edge of God and a future existence, is absolute super- 
 natural knowledge, even though it may have been evolved 
 from ignorance and superstition. All of our faculties are 
 at first ignorantly used, but with higher intelligence the 
 plain uses of each are none the less apparent. Belief in 
 cruel and malignant spirits was but the ignorant use of a 
 
372 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 faculty through which we were to be made to know that 
 there is a God. 
 
 The power to stand or to walk erect is dependent 
 upon some involuntary action of the mind. We are usu- 
 ally unconscious of this, but let us, while standing or 
 walking, be suddenly called upon to endure some unusual 
 mental strain, and we will then feel the relief that sitting 
 will give. A criminal, while undergoing examination, is 
 more liable to break down if made to stand, than he 
 would be if permitted to sit. This is suggestive of the 
 possibility of much of the action of the body, such as 
 the circulation, breathing and digestion, being dependent 
 upon some unknown, mysterious, and involuntary mental 
 power. The mind is everything, the body comparatively 
 nothing. The body is hke a scaffolding, by which the 
 structure is built; it is the umbihcal cord which, by its 
 severance, we are launched upon our true and actual 
 existence. 
 
 All the works of nature are with reference to some 
 result — nothing is lost. It has been shown that our ex- 
 perience here is just what our Maker intended. We are 
 guided by, and exercise our mental faculties for just such 
 duties and trials as we do have, and, as the all-important 
 existence is the one to come, it follows that the experi- 
 ence of this life is with especial reference to the one to 
 come. Furthermore, we have evidence that such is the 
 fact. 
 
 We often hear old people say that it has taken one 
 life to learn how to live. This is an important fact, that 
 nearly all feel as they become old. We then discover 
 that, at the expense of great loss of both time and prop- 
 
IMMORTALITY. 3/3 
 
 erty, we have learned lessons that would have been 
 invaluable to us when young, but which we cannot make 
 use of again. Our lives seem largely to have been de- 
 voted to learning that which when learned we cannot use. 
 But the experience we had was just what our natural 
 mental qualities led to, and, therefore, the lessons we 
 learned it was intended we should learn; and as we can- 
 not make use of the knowledge thus acquired in this life, 
 it must be that it was experience with reference to the 
 life to come. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 
 
 Herbert Spencer says: " That we everywhere see 
 fading away the anthropomorphic conception of the 
 Unknown Cause." 
 
 Coincident with the loss, one by one, of all former 
 ideas of God, there has grown up a knowledge of His 
 works that magnifies the wisdom and grandeur of a 
 Creator far beyond all former conception of Him, and 
 particularly far above the capacities of the so-called in- 
 spired writers. Our inability to understand how there 
 can be a Supreme Being, proves nothing. The reasons 
 for believing that we are under the guidance of super- 
 natural wisdom are much greater than ever known before, 
 while the reason for unbelief has its base in that ungrati- 
 fied curiosity that cannot accept isolated unexplained 
 facts. The sum of all arguments againgt the existence of 
 a God and of our own immortality, amounts to but an 
 expression of disbelief. Because they cannot comprehend 
 how there can be a God, as viewed through the few of 
 nature's laws that have been discovered, they do not 
 believe. Even much of that which we think is explained 
 is not explained. We have in many places linked many 
 facts together and built up quite a system, nevertheless 
 that system will have its imperfections and will border on 
 the supernatural. 
 
 We do not know, for instance, enough of the laws 
 governing the heavenly bodies to account for their exact- 
 
SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 375 
 
 ness in all the details of motion, distance, heat, etc., etc. 
 The range of temperature in which we live is compara- 
 tively very narrow, and but a slight variation in any of 
 several of nature's laws would vary that range sufficient 
 to destrpy every living thing upon the face of the globe. 
 In numerous other regulations life is dependent upon 
 equally as delicate a balance, nor do we know that such 
 exact balance is wholly secured by natural laws. It is 
 probable that while the laws do most, supervision is still 
 necessary. 
 
 The Christian system is itself the cause of much un- 
 belief in a God on the part of those who have rejected its 
 doctrines. It has so blended the name of Jesus Christ 
 with God, and impressed upon the mind its false virtues 
 and false sins as religion, that when an unbeliever can no 
 longer accept that system he does not awake to the broad 
 distinction existing between belief in God and belief in 
 Jesus Christ. Through association of ideas the absurd- 
 ities of that system seem alike to be attached to belief in 
 a future existence and in a God. The truth has been 
 degraded by that which is false, and all rejected together. 
 
 Col. Robert IngersoU says — 
 
 "I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God 
 to do better in another world than He does in this. If 
 He allows injustice to prevail here, why will he not allow 
 the same thing in the world to come? If there is any 
 being with power to prevent it, why is crime permitted? 
 If a man standing upon the railway should ascertain that 
 a bridge had been carried off by a floods and if he also 
 knew that the train was coming filled with men, women 
 and children, with husbands going to their wives, and 
 wives rejoining their families; if he made no effort to 
 
376 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 stop that train; if he simply sat down by the road side to 
 witness the catastrophe, and so remained until the train 
 dashed off the precipice and its load of life became a mass 
 of quivering flesh, he would he denounced by every good 
 man as the most monstrous of human beings. And yet 
 this is exactly what the supposed God does. He, if He 
 exists, sees the train rushing for the gulf. He gives no 
 notice. He sees the ship rushing for the hidden rock. 
 He makes no sign. And He so constructed the world 
 that assassins lurk in the air, hide even in the sunshine; 
 and when we imagine that we are breathing the breath 
 of life, we are taking unto ourselves the seeds of death. " 
 
 ■The Rev. D. H. Hamilton in his work upon Mental 
 Science states that — 
 
 "Nature alone [meaning without God, as though that 
 was possible] in the universe is dark, greedy, and ghastly; 
 a monster and an atheist, knowing nothing; and proof of 
 nothing; ever living by breeding and devouring her own 
 offspring; a most unnatural nature, to which life is death, 
 and death life; a nature which is not nature at all, 
 because alone, and without God and man. " 
 
 The first of those writers, as is well known, is not 
 convinced that there is a God, while the convictions of 
 the latter is a quadripartite complication, in which the 
 control of human and animal nature is represented to 
 have been usurped by the Devil. Between blankness in 
 ideas of the Creator, and ideas that are insulting to Him, 
 those men both stand upon the same platform, in their 
 opinion as to God's supervision of terrestrial affairs. 
 Those who presume to criticise His laws must re- 
 member that all of them were not made solely with 
 reference to our individual wants, or the wants of a sin- 
 gle generation. Our love of life, and the human ideas it 
 engenders, are purely of a local nature; though common 
 
SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 377 
 
 to all, they are for the good of the individual only; but 
 the comments just quoted illustrate the fact, that those 
 natural but local ideas seem to conflict with other more 
 important laws made for the far-distant future, which is 
 as much under our Creator's care as the present. 
 
 We know that sooner or later we must die, but none 
 hold up that certainty of death as a cruelty. Death is 
 not acceptable to us whether in old age or by accident; 
 the difference being only a question of time, and the cru- 
 elty, therefore, if any, consists in God giving us less of 
 what He might have given more. We speak of death by 
 old age as a natural death, but now that the great law of 
 the survival of the fittest, in the struggle for existence, is 
 understood, it is a question if death by old age is any 
 more natural than death through man's incompetency; 
 and with the lower order of animals — as fishes, for in- 
 stance—the most natural death is to be swallowed by 
 their progenitors, or other large fish. Even with animals, 
 the struggle for existence is not wholly physical, and with 
 increasing intelligence the proportion of intellectual com- 
 petition increases until, in our time, that competition is 
 mostly intellectual. Those people who die by disease 
 before old age, die as much through human ignorance as 
 those who lose their lives by accidents, and God's not 
 interfering to prevent such deaths simply consists in His 
 not interfering to prolong the lives of those who lose 
 them through man's neglecting to acquire the knowledge 
 that was within his reach. Death from old age renders 
 no service to human progress, but death through man's 
 incompetency exposes that incompetency and stimulates 
 to its permanent correction. 
 
3/8 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 The fact that much of the effects of our ignorance 
 falls upon innocent parties, only makes our general re- 
 sponsibility the noore marked. We are responsible, indi- 
 vidually and collectively. The evil effects of public 
 errors strikes promiscuously among the whole people, 
 and stimulate the whole to their correction. However 
 serious sorrows aftd misf6rtunes may be to the individual, 
 they are, nevertheless, serious only as viewed from the 
 narrow limits of this life. In the light of an eternal 
 future, they sink into insignificance, and, considering 
 the advancement they superinduce, they cannot be called 
 misfortunes. We are reaping the benefits of the troubles 
 of past generations, and we must bear our proportion for 
 those to come. 
 
 The supposed omnipresence of God is a part of the 
 Christian system; those within it having no discretion 
 upon that question, as it is taught in the gospels. The 
 guiding nature of the laws by which we are developed 
 ought to be satisfactory evidence that by those laws are 
 we mostly guided in that development. It is not neces- 
 sary to be shown the way when the route has been so 
 laid out that the great body cannot go astray. There 
 may be — probably is — supervision, not, necessarily, to 
 always prevent trouble, but to temporarily increase it at 
 times for the purpose of precipitating a needed reform; 
 but it is questionable if there is near, at all times, a 
 supernatural power capable of preventing accidents, even 
 if so disposed. Spiritualists do assert that. supernatural 
 information, in such cases, has often been given, many 
 instances of which are related by Robert Dale Owen, in 
 his work. Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, 
 
SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 379 
 
 but, even if those accounts could be satisfactorily shown 
 to be true, they still would be far too infrequent to affect 
 the rule. 
 
 There are still other reasons why this law should be 
 enforced. Every living thing upon the face of the globe, 
 on land or in the sea, could, in a comparatively short 
 space of time, over-run the whole world, if their increase 
 was not held in check. The same Creator who made the 
 law whereby they procreate their species, also made other 
 laws that holds their numbers down to a certain propor- 
 tion. In the case of some of the animals, the latter law 
 is seen as clearly as the former, and the human race is, 
 undoubtedly, held in check by similar laws. We multi- 
 ply fast enough to have over-ran the whole world beyond 
 its power of support even within the historical period, 
 and yet the human race at all times, like all animals, 
 bear an even proportion to the facilities for their support. 
 It would be a horrible thought for our race, at some 
 future time, to be obliged to take into consideration the 
 question of depleting the population, because of its hav- 
 ing nearly reached the world's limit of support. And 
 yet, such a condition would be reached if even one of the 
 several laws that keep the population down should be 
 suspended. Its suspension would be a far greater inhu- 
 manity than its enforcement, even though it was the law 
 that makes our incompetency lead to death. 
 
 A better knowledge of the laws of health has in- 
 creased the average duration of human life, and the per- 
 centage of loss of life through ignorance must be much 
 less, and these facts have set some men to speculating 
 upon the possible over-population of the world. Specu- 
 
380 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 lations of this kind spring jup from time to time, but they 
 are idle and useless. That part of our government does 
 not appear to have been left in our keeping any more 
 than the movement of the world itself. The question of 
 over-production of human beings will never be presented 
 to us for solution: As far as we are concerned, we must 
 have all the human feeling we do have, and protect life 
 to the best of our ability. Developments of late years 
 exhibit God's far-reaching over-sight in this, for as the 
 loss of life through ignorance decreases with intelligence, 
 the births also decrease. We need not fear an over-pop- 
 ulation of the earth, for the laws that prevent it keeps our 
 intellect bright and clear through our efforts to counter- 
 act them. 
 
 Every being that walks is living breathing evidence 
 that there is a God. The knowledge of man is not equal 
 to even understanding our own mechanism, and it is sur- 
 prising that any can believe that the laws that made us 
 were not made by a Supreme Being for that purpose. 
 There have been at least two lines of development quite 
 distinct from each other that were necessary for man's 
 existence, and both reached the necessary development 
 at the same time. While man has been progressing from 
 a low degree, the earth has also been fitting for his habita- 
 tion. The promptness of man's appearance when the 
 earth was ready for him, is as yet an unexplained mystery. 
 It is a law of nature that nearly everything shall ex- 
 pand with heat and contract with cold. But water 
 expands from both heat and cold (as usually expressed) 
 and without this deviation in that law the earth would be 
 quite uninhabitable. If, when water congealed, it con- 
 
SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 38 1 
 
 tracted instead of expanded, it would sink as fast as ice was 
 formed until the entire body of water was solid ice. The 
 quantity would consequently become so large as to 
 greatly reduce the temperature of the atmosphere. The 
 effect of this would be to bring the frigid zones much 
 nearer the equator and reduce the habitable part of the 
 globe to narrower limits, if indeed life could exist any- 
 where. 
 
 How wide the range of heat may be, from a total ab- 
 sence of caloric to the opposite extreme, may not be 
 known, but it is a number of thousand degrees; and life 
 is only possible within a narrow range of scarcely one 
 hundred degrees each way from the freezing point, and 
 is confined to only about half those limits. That degree 
 of heat where water will expand into steam, and that 
 other degree where it will expand into ice, are very near 
 together, as compared to the wide range of heat and cold. 
 It is but little wider than the range of temperature neces- 
 sary for our existence. This deviation from nature's usual 
 laws at such a delicate point could not have been by 
 chance. It must have been an especial regulation of a 
 Supreme Being, and, therefore, made with reference to 
 human life. 
 
 It is true, the expansion when ice is formed is very 
 small, but this fact only increases the probabilities of its 
 being a special deviation made to overcome the objection 
 referred to. The expansion is barely enough to make 
 ice float and protect water from congealing to any great 
 depth. 
 
 We see to what enormous proportions animals may be 
 developed both in the sea and on land. There is no ap- 
 
382 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 parent reason why there are not equally as powerful 
 birds. In the Oolitic period there were varieties of the 
 Pterodactyles, a species of bat, that had a spread of 
 wings of twenty-seven feet, and it is supposed there were 
 some much larger. The atmosphere was then, proba- 
 bly, denser than it is now, but that can be no reason why 
 such large animals do not grow to great size in our time, 
 for our largest birds fly the highest, where the air is 
 rarest. Size, at least, has nothing to do with any physi- 
 cal difficulty to be overcome. There could have been 
 monsters of the air capable of picking up a man as easily 
 as a hawk does a chicken. But if there had been such, 
 it would have possessed a power over man that would 
 have made human development impossible. Even in our 
 time, with fire arms, such animals would be a constant 
 terror, involving precautions in field work and all isolated 
 positions that would be serious enough to greatly cripple 
 us in all the affairs of life. The fact that there are no 
 such winged monsters, as powerful as animals found on 
 land and in the sea, indicates an especial variation in 
 nature's laws, made immediately preceding the advent 
 of man, for our especial safety. 
 
 The originators of Christianity treated the future ex- 
 istence as one exclusively of rewards and punishments 
 for acts done here, and all its followers since have conse- 
 quently been obliged to look upon it in the same light. 
 Those men were incapable of bringing their imagination 
 to comprehend but a moderate length of time, and hence 
 would not notice the absurdity of placing this compar- 
 atively trifling existence over one that is to be eternal. 
 If there is a future life, then it must be the all important 
 
SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 383 
 
 one. It must also be that only in that one will we be 
 completed beings. We are in process of creation here. 
 This life must be a test in which we are tried and fitted 
 for the all important duties of the true existence, upon 
 which we only enter when this life ends. 
 
 The few years we live here may be more important 
 than many times the same number in the life to come, 
 and yet be insignificant in comparison to the importance 
 of the whole. So, too, with all the ends and aims of this 
 life, there are no values it can give in health, pleasures, 
 and glories, that could offset some slight advantage that 
 is to continue for many ages. It is not reasonable to 
 suppose that our acts here can cloud our eternal future. 
 
 Such ideas as creating the heavens and the earth in 
 six days; an eternal existence of torture; and the omni- 
 presence of God, are all such as could only emanate from 
 half-civilized man, and only by a superstition that makes 
 those ideas sacred, do they find supporters in the pres- 
 ent day. If God were omnipresent there would be no 
 occasion for some of His laws, for He could then guide 
 each and all in detail. That "He numbers the hairs of 
 our head" and "every blade of grass that grows" is an 
 idea in exact keeping with the one that represents Him 
 as making the world in a day. 
 
 This life must naturally be, and undoubtedly is a re- 
 flection of the one to come. We see here a wide range 
 of conditions of adversity and prosperity in close prox- 
 imity. Therefore, in the next world we will see similar 
 conditions on a far more extended scale, and in those 
 widely different positions there will be abundant room 
 for all the rewards and punishments that this life calls 
 
384 THE SAFE SIDE. 
 
 for. If a man can struggle so much and work up so much 
 feeling here for positions of wealth and honors that can 
 be enjoyed but a few years, then how great can our inter- 
 est be in a life that is eternal, and where the range of 
 those positions is vastly wider. Sentiments of this nature 
 will have all the stimulating and restraining effect that 
 the religious faculty can give, and that is all it is required 
 to do. 
 
 If the Almighty should set forth His works and will 
 in characters that men could read. He would not in doing 
 so discriminate in favor of any language, people, or age. 
 His book would be accessible to all people in all times, 
 the only requirement being that reasonable intelligence 
 be exercised by those who read it; and with increasing 
 knowledge it would open to the reader more and more. 
 His imprint would be in this, that the discoveries of later 
 generations would never conflict with those that preceded 
 them. 
 
 Such a work is awaiting readers. In the rocks He 
 has bound a careful and minute account of creation, 
 many chapters of which mankind even now has read. 
 In that awe-inspiring work we find great reason for — not 
 humility — but pride, in noting the vast ages that were 
 employed to create man; and in that pride we are stimu- 
 lated to try and make ourselves worthy of the love and 
 power that has so carefully and patiently made us. 
 
 But however instructive and important that knowl- 
 edge may be, it is yet but a history of the past, and is 
 not sufficient for our wants in the future. We see by it 
 the paths that have led to the present wonderful results, 
 but to follow these paths and carry out the yet-to-be- 
 
SUPERNATURAL SUPERVISION. 385 
 
 developed designs of our Creator, we need that which 
 will in part take the place of a knowledge of those de- 
 signs, and this we have in the guiding nature of the 
 various faculties of the mind. It is the only way that 
 that knowledge could be given us, and only a God could 
 so give it. Without them mankind, even in one genera- 
 tion, would be annihilated, but with them the human 
 race, like an army, is held in rank and file, and being led 
 step by step to the great uses for which he has designed 
 us. 
 
 The superstition that retards this progress by decry- 
 ing and misinterpreting the nfeaning of those especial 
 mental tendencies, and substitutes therefor false virtues, 
 false sins, and false histories, is in direct enmity with 
 that Being its followers pretend to worship; and one of 
 their greatest crimes is in teaching that even if wrong it 
 is the SAFE SIDE of the question to follow them. There 
 is safety only in a correct interpretation of our Creator's 
 designs. Our most religious duty and greatest progress 
 consists in discovering our own powers, and our greatest 
 happiness is found in exercising them. 
 
 THE END.