a Cornell University 9 Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240289541 25 Cornell University Library BF1251.D26 A6 1868 olln 3 1924 028 954 125 THE APPROACHmG CRISIS: '' BEIN9 A REVIEW DR. BUSHNELL'S COUESE OF LECTUKES, ON THE BIBLE, NATURE, RELIGION, SKEPTICISM, AND IHE SUPERNATURAL. BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, AUTHOE OF "HATUEE'S DIVINE KETELATIONS," " GREAT HAEMONIA," " ABABULA," "8TELLAE KEY," ETC., ETC. BOSTON: WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, BANNBROF LIGHT OFFICE, 158 WAfsniNnTON Street. NBW YOEK : — BEANCH OITICB, 544 BEOADWAT. 1869. Entered according to Act of Congress, in tho year 1868, by ANDEEW JACKSON DAVIS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of New Jerseyi MoCksa & Miller, Btrrbottpbrb. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The Geeat Question of this age, which is des- tined to convulse and 'divide Protestantism, and around which all other religious controversies must necessarily revolve, is exegetically fore- shadowed in this Review ; which is composed of Six Discourses, delivered by the Author before the Harmonial Brotherhood of Hartford. Relis;- ious truths present themselves naturally to a good mind ; and by such a mind they will be most accurately comprehended. Men of the greatest talent and learning frequently reason themselves into the profoundest errors, by commencing with the confusing impression that Truth is complex and supernatural. He who would apprehend the simplicity of Truth and worship at her shrine, must be ready at all times to divest his mind of prejudices and of preconceived opinions, when- ever Trutii reveals their falseness. The author's method will be found to be plain, because such is truly the seal of reason. The views presented concerning the " Word," it may be remarked, are mainly connected wifch the external peculiarities thereof, as the occasion does not now demand a deeper criticism. The AUTHORS PEEFACE. author is acquainted -with a more spiritual Logos, within the original symbolical expression (6 /Id/og Tou Qiov^ " the word of God/' to be found, with identical meanings, in the Zenda Vesta, in the Yedas, also in the Bible), which lies quite un- touched in the present work. Indeed, the spir- itual " Word " here alluded to, as originally sig- nified by John, is not (6 \oyo<^ and "koyoi) Divine " Truth " and " Eeason " dependent upon the paper and ink habiliments of the Old and New Testaments ; but upon the intellectual pro- gress and religious development of the human soul — a growth of parts into a completeness. The organizing, unfolding^ and energizing Spirit of Grod (which is the true translation of John's meaning) will surely be more manifested, or in- worlded, in a New Dispensation than in any con- ceivable number of sacred canons. Supernatural- ism adheres to the form ; the Harmonial Philos- ophy seeks the spirit. Among all the authors recent impressions, there stands no one question so important and con- spicuous as that set forth in the succeeding pages. The most external and supei'ficial aspect is first presented; but deeper investigations are certain to follow. There is much to illuminate our present existence, and far more to joyfully an- ticipate. A. J. D. THE APPROACHING CRISIS. CHAPTEK I. INTEODUCTOBT EBMAEKS. Religious reformation the greatest question of the age. — A letter to the Eev. Dr. Horace Bushnell. — Object of this work. — The Crisis approaching. Faithful to my spiritual impressious, I watch, with constantly deepening interest, all the important and momentous changes of this eventful Era. All superior intelligences regard the origination and universal application of the Art of Printiag, as a power of immense and never-ending value. By it, the world is fast becoming illuminated with the scin- tillations of wisdom, and with the principles of a spiritual republicanism. By it, the early Alteration in the Church became widely diffused — an alteration, which, owing principally to educational convictions, the Catholic Church stigmatizes as the great "Heeest." But all Protestants know, from the various sources of civil and religious experience derived therefrom, that the alteration alluded to was a decided improvement or " Eefoemation " in all matters pertaining to Christi- 6 THE APPROACHING CK18I8. auity. Printing first enlightened the people concern- ing the irreligion and atrocious ceremonies practiced by the early Church. And the world has at last come to see that religious reformation is both possible and beneficial. This conviction has attained a high place in nearly all well-educated and healthy minds. Changes and consequent improvements in almost every department of human interests, are confidently expected by those who live in the Nineteenth Century. While those who are confessedly mortgaged to the dog- matic organization of Old Opinions, can not bring their minds to contemplate Reformations in any thing as possible without being accompanied by some over- whelming disaster either in the Church or State. The enlightened and clear-seeing intellects, however, can read the events of this epoch, — recognizing plainly, in the long, well-defined shadows which approaching changes cast before them, the peculiar crisis or inter- regnum that is certain to precede the establishment of a higher form of ecclesiasticisra and a nobler type of republicanism and religious freedom. Religious reformation is demonstrated to be both practical and beneficial to mankind. Deeply impressed with this conviction, and believing also that the highest point of improvement, in social arrangements and re- ligious institutions and faith, has not yet been reached by man, I obey my inflowing impressions, and strive to help move forward the ponderous Car of human pro- gression. Accordingly, hearing that Hoeaoe Bcshnell, D. D., of the City of Hartford, had in contemplation the delivery of a course of lectures, bearing, as I sup- posed, on the great general question of religious Refor- A LETTEE TO DE. BUSHNELL. 7 mation, I made it a point, by interior direction, to be present on all the occasions, and listen to his dis- closures. Immediately after the pronunciation of his introduc- tory discourse, I penned and addressed the following letter through the Hartford Times; the import of which will appear on perusal : — A LKTIEE TO EEV. DE. BUSHNELL. A SUGGESTION. Haetfobd, December 15, 1851. Deah Snt, — The simple announcement that you had in contemplation the formation and deliverance of a course of lectures " On the Natural- istic Theories of Religion as opposed to Supernatural Eevelatlon,'' gave me much pleasure. Nor did that pleasure experience any diminution on hearing the first lecture of the proposed course, delivered by you last evening. Indeed, I can scarcely express the gratification excited in my mind by the clearness of your definitions, the broadness of your premisesi the fairness of your statements, and by the goodness of your intentions, manifested in the introductory discourse to which I now refer. Tour position in the question is, it seems to me, entirely wilike any other ever assumed by the clergy of Christendom. And your appreci- ation of the magnitude and importance of the subject — nay, its intrinsic momentousness to the welfare of manlcind — is also vastly different and far more just, it seems to me, than I have ever before discovered in any other member of your exalted profession; That the clergy of this city have manifested wisdom in the selection (by suggestion and compliment) of yourself as the person most calculated to approach and treat this great question with ability and candor, is very evident ; and that the enlightened portion of this community will be attracted, gratified, .ind instructed by the manner and method you design to adopt, there can be no doubt. You approach the subject, define your position, and declare your in- tentions and arguments in a manner considerably unlike the method 8 THE APPEOACHIU-Q CEISIS. pursued by most clergymen, viz., with a firm reliance upon ymir own reason or judgment, with which yoa design to address the corresponding faculty in the mind of the hearer. This, as you must be aware, is quite a new method to adopt in the analysis and examination of a Bible ques- tion, so undoubtedly important. Although you seem not to acknowledge the " Sovereignty of Reason,'' in matters pertaining to a supernaturalistic revelation and faith ; yet you very evidently rely upon that faculty (reason) to perform its appro- priate functions in order to convince your audience of the soundness and legitimacy of your conclusions. In addressing you thus publicly, I aim not at discussion or contro- versy ; but simply to make a suggestion to you, and also to the Hartford communityyihat this course of lectures be delivered by you in a place where all parties interested can have an opportunity, should they desire it, to analyze and examine before the same audience the various positions you may assume in the discussion. As the case now stands, the matter at issue is not properly apprehended by half the number of minds that may listen to your discourses. The people do not so clearly realize that very many thousands are more or less involved in the insinuating infidelity of this age ; indeed, I was myself surprised at the statistical information which you imparted on this head. Hence, to most minds, the question has not yet attained that imposing magnitude which, in your own opinion, and in fact, it undoubtedly possesses. I concur entirely with you, and with the clergy of Hartford, that the greatest question of this day is the one you have resolved to answer, viz. : "Whether Eationalism or Supernaturalism shall be triumphant ? Ton propose, as I apprehend you, to reconcile the two forms of faith, and show that Miracles, in the theological definition of the term, are not inconsistent with the operations of unchangeable law and system. Now I think. Reverend Sir, that you will most wjUiugly accede to the foregoing proposition ; inasmuch as you afiirmed, toward the termin- ation of your disco'irse last evening, that in announcing the course of lectures, you had no design to draw people to the North Church, or to imply that you undertook the task from any consciousness of personal qualification. But you very nobly and ingenuously took upon yourself this work of reconciliation from a love of truth, or from an unmixed sense of the magnitude and vital importance of the question to the generality of mankind. I perfectly harmonize in the latter conviction; and, therefore, suggest the teee aualyzation and discussion of the question proposed in your lectures. Will not the citizens of Hartford A. LE'^TER TO DK. BtTSHNELL. 6 adopt some method which will secure to all parties an opportuTiity of free speech 1 Will they not obtain some large and commodious hall ; and would you not, Sir, iu such caserspeai the Introductory lecture of last evening; because you therein lay the foundation broad and satisfactory, and in a manner so frank and truthful, that I would recommend its frequent repetition. I do not know that any persons would avail them- selves of the liberty of speech proposed, and say any thing by way of criticism on the subjects involved in your discourses. I have at present no design to do so myself; but I simply ask, for the parties interested, that the same audience may hear the Pro and Con of the greatest question of the age. I know no other way to obtain a rational verdict. Tery respectfully, A. J. Datis. The breadth and comprehensiveness of the greatest question of this age, and the bold, independent state- ment thereof by Dr. Bushnell in his introductory lec- ture, sent a thrill of pleasure through many truth- seeking and liberty-loving minds. And, necessarily, the result of the foregoing letter was anticipated with no little interest. But no response was received. At the time the letter was penned, I had received no impres- sion to write any discussionary criticism of the Lec- turer's propositions. It was only after it became evident that no heed would be given to the above suggestion, that the interior direction came to me to proceed with a plain, unadorned examination of Dr. B 's principal positions. ' Many hundreds have listened with considerable interest, but with more anxiety, to the affirmative treatment of this high theme ; whilst only a small por- tion of that number heard the analyzations of the main arguments on that side, which constitute the con- tents of this work. Eationalism versus Supernaturalism. This is the great religious question of the age. And 1* 10 THE APPEOACHINQ CEISIS. considering the position of the church, and the condi- tion of faith among the people respecting it, the sub- j.ect has been approached and treated by Dr. B , in a manner as fair and comprehensive as could be reason- ably anticipated from that source. Yet he will per- ceive, it is believed, that a deeper and more candid ex- amination must be instituted before those who have become accustomed to independent thinking, can, with a confiding mind, look to the puli^it for sound argu- ment and practical reform. The _/?'/•«< lecture of his course was delivered by him on the 14th; the second, on the 21st of December, 1851 ; the third, on the 4th ; the fov/rth on the 18th ; and the fifth, on the 25th of January, 1862. The course is supposed not yet completed. But the lectures, thus far, do not solve the most essential problems, which lie at the basis of what is termed, " Infidelity''; and, hence, it is deemed wisdoni briefly to analyze the positions assumed, and state the various dilBculties which threaten to prevent the solution undertaken. The author attended the delivery of these lectures ; but he has had no external access to the MSS. This Beview is, therefore, wholly the result of an interior effort on the part of the author ; and yet it is written in a style adapted to the popular understanding, being free from elaborate and tedious disquisitions. Since the Norman conquest, there have been evident advancements made in every thing, except, perhaps, in supernaturalistic revelations. The seal of infallibility must be broken away, before a new light and beauty can enliven and embellish the mystical disclosures of any seer, prophet, or evangelist; whose soul may be A LETTEE TO DE. BUSHNELL. 11 al)le to reflect the symbols of many truths. Owing to the dogmatism of infallibility, the Bible is taught now- a-days as it was nearly four centuries ago. And al- though very many minds have escaped from the old faiths and creeds, and left the priests to their idols ; yet the strength of popular or external sentiments is such that the seceders are usually constrained to remain very quiet ; and thus they pass in society for very good " lukewarm" Christians, unless, indeed, they have the courage to stem the central current, and establish a new form of worship. If so, they are likely very soon to become respectable, and antagonistic in their turn to those who may prefer a still greater latitude in their theological opinions. It is confidently hoped that the talented mind, whose recent labors have suggested the succeeding criticisms, will find therein some points — or intended-to-be points — of argument on his part, which may require much recon- sideration, in order to subserve the objects for which his lectures were avowedly designed — viz. : — ^to remove doubt and skepticism from the rising generation, and give a new philosophic light to the rai/ionaUstio Chris- tian. He may rest perfectly assured that no captious or merely controversial spirit has dictated this review. On the contrary, the present work is expressly and conscientiously designed to convince him, and the in- vestigating world besides, that Spiritual nationalistic positions are as invulnerable and satisfying as his doc- trines are unsound and insufifieient. 12 THE APPKOACHma CEI8I8. CHAPTEE II. FIEST REVIEW. Truth and custom. — Mental equflibriums. — The modem Martin Luther. — The grounds of supematuralism. — The defective text. — The sacred canons. — The Greelc philosophers. — The foundation of Christianity. Combe's gospel on the Constitution of Man. Strictly speaking, there are, and always have been, in this rudimental and undeveloped world, two classes of minds. One class, being improperly situated in so- ciety, and mentally trammeled and undeveloped, always love and reverence Custom more than Truth. The other class, being endowed with superior powers of mind, combined with social advantages and high conceptions of Justice, always find it easy to reverence Truth inde- pendent of Custom — nay, independent of the horrors of exilement or the keener terrors of the Vatican. The former desire custom to become Truth; the latter, Truth to become custom. The votaries of custom are invariably and universally the mightiest in numbers, and most always in power. Hence this party, being in the majority, universally rule the other portion of man- kind ; and determine, with an iron scepter, what the more truth-loving and advanced party shall do and believe. Tlie custom -serving mind is certain to oppose all at- tempts on the part of a truth loving mind to assert its THE FOrSTDATION OF CHEISTIANITF. 13 independence in matters of faith. Every eifort — no matter liow qniet and ivise it may be — to break away from the multifarious restraints, which have held the church and the world in darkness and degradation for long centuries, is, by the vast majority, invariably condemned, precisely as the Pope censiired Galileo, — as " absurd in itself, false in philosophy, and formally heretical, iecause declared and defined as contrary to Sacred Scripture !" The Roman church is not the only earthly example of religious apprehensiveness and sectarian intolerance. Protestants love to draw comparisons between the Eoman and the English church — showing, by means of contrast, the horrid deformity and intolerance of the one by holding up, before the people, the superior nature, organization, and liberties of the other. Now to this Protestant course I make no objection ; but, what I mean to teach is^that the two classes of minds alluded to are not necessarily churchmen ; they are sub- stantially the citizens of the world — a result, when philosophically considered, of the imperfections or rather gradations, consequent upon a universal system of progressive development in minds and morals. There must be low and high — intolerance and liberty — men and angels, stationed along the rectilinear, but spirally ascending, line of spiritual and material cre- ations. The car of progress will roll speedily, determinedly onward ; and you, my friends, may feel the utmost security in taking seats therein, because conservatism and intolerance are always ready, with their mighty strength, to press the " brake upon the wheels," and 14 THE APPEOACHING CEISI8. prevent the sad, social and religious disasters wliicli might otherwise occur. This pushing and pulling, this progression and retro- gression, this fearlessness and cautiousness, are mani- festly all incorporated with, and developed by, the universal providence of the Living God. In mechanism it is a well-known fact, that all motion is created and maintained by what has been termed a constant destruc- tion of equilibriums. But unless these equilibriums are properly adjusted, the motion — proceeding from their successive and alternate disturbance — is defective and incapable of a useful application. The motion is good and useful only when the equilibriums are harmo- niously arranged and disturbed. So also, the human race : when agitated by the improper arrangement of the progressive and conservative characteristics of mind, it is necessarily very discordant and miserable. But when, like the wise and skillful mechanic, the enlight- ened members of humanity shall give a truer form and better direction to these mental equilibriums, the whole race will experience more happiness and easier progres- sion. All this is mathematically certain. Now, there- fore, as you will perceive, conservatism and even intol- erance (in a certain sense) are not to be dogmatically con- demned, nor yet progression or mental independence ; but only their wrong development and misapplication. This is the matter to study and to determine. The application of the foregoing will be seen when I come to tell you, that I am now impressed to review Dr. BusHNELL ; not on the ground or presumption that his conservatism is wrong in itself, but that it is exceed- ingly at fault in its present mode of manifestation. I THE FOUNDATION OF OHEISTIANITT. 15 speak now as mankind's advocate. In conducting this review, let it be remembered, I am not contending with the local positions, private opinions, and confidential statements of an individual; 'but with an individual definition of the various positions, doctrines, and prin- cipal conclusions, which, unquestionably, are entertained and inculcated in different forms by the most enlight- ened members of the Christian sects. That Dr. Bushnell is, in several respects, the Martin Luther of to-day, — in the church of which he is a recog- nized orthodox member, — is evident from the resem- blance he theologically presents to that early reformer. Therefore, not as Dr. Bushnell, be it remembered, but as the leader of a new and more liberal form of conserv- atism, do I approach the great question which he defined and amplified in his recent lecture. In the lecture — to which I above refer — it was very clearly, frankly, and ingenuously acknowledged, that the greatest question of this era is : that which is sug- gested by the modern " Rationalistic Theories of Re- ligion as opposed to Supernatural Revelation and Faith." A more lucid version would render the ques- tion in substance this : " Whether Rationalism should be permitted to supplant Supernaturalism, and preside henceforth over the minds of the people, and give direction in all matters pertaining to religious teaching, discipline, worship, and social organization?" This is the plain statement of the question as I am impressed to apprehend it. It is exceedingly simple; but none the less important. And it is enough to say, by way of special criticism, that Dr. B stated this powerful problem at length ; with much clearness, beauty, and 16 THE APPKOACHING CRISIS. force of expression ; with much originality of apprecia- tion and method ; and, above all, it was almost wholly free from that presumptuous and dogmatic style, which most clergymen employ, in describing the tendencies of the various innovations and the claims and positions of the reformers of the day. He was frank in his statements ; noble in his realization of the present colossal proportions of the Progressive Party ; and fraternally disposed toward those who think differently from himself And yet, it would not be improper to remark, that, although his language and method were free from uncharitableness and every species of church denunciation, still there was betrayed some severity toward the Progressive reformers, in the tone and alter- nating modulations of his voice. I mention this fact merely to show, that, internally and privately, he experienced sensations of opposition to the different forms of social reform and Progress : from which we may also safely infer, that he desires to establish a species of infallible Conservatism, or theo- logical immutability, contrary in effect to all free thought and mental independence. A man may be very artistic and guarded in the choice of language by which to express his thoughts, and the expression of the muscles of the face may also be considerably controlled by the will ; but how true it is that the eyes and voice are the never-failing indexes of the soul's paramount sensations ! As I am impressed. Dr. B proposes to reconcile, by a course of philosophical argumentation, the various forms of what he terms " Infidelity" with the received claims of "Christianity, as a system of salvation or re- THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITY. 17 demption." He thiuks lie can, or earnestly prays that he may be able to, show conclusively " that the mira- cles, the incarnation of God in Christ, redemption, special providence, and prayer," are all perfectly con- sistent with establislied system and reconcilable with unchangeable principles. In other words, he thinks he can demonstrate that there is nothing which can pre- vent a reasonable reconciliation between " natniral and revealed " religion ; between modei'n Eationalism and the supernatural system of Kevelation and faith. Now one of two things is certain ; either Dr. B does not fully realize or comprehend his own position in the premises, or else, he is not sufficiently single- minded to the demands of truth, and faithful to the silent convictions of his own soul. Because, in the matter of reconciliation, which he has in contemplation, there is surely nothing intrinsically opposed to the fund- amental teachings of JRatioualistic Christianity.* The Harmonial Philosophy — which, be it remembered, in- cludes both ancient and modern spiritualism — has done this to the perfect satisfaction of its most enlightened stu- dents and believers. Miracles, the Incarnation, Be- demption from sin, through the exercise of the Christ- principle, Special Providence through angelic ministra- tions, and Prayer even, are all embraced by the Har- monial Philosophy, as explainable upon unchangeable principles, which have proceeded from Deity into and through the universe. If Dr. B designs to assume this rationalistic method of explaining supernaturalism ; * The reader may not altogether like this name; tut I follow my im- pressions in conforming to the use made of it. 18 THE Al'PEOACHmO CRISIS. why then— I ask— does he excite the apprehensions of his hearers hy describing the various forms of an insin- uating and potent " Infidelity," which loads the mental atmosphere we nnconscionsly breathe with pestilential infections and dangerous skepticism ? K he apprehends no intrinsic antagonism between "Pantheism," when properly interpreted, "Physicalism, Geology, and the Sciences," and the system of a Supernatural Eevelation and its corresponding teachings ; then— I inquire — why does he, in stating the great question, create a general prejudice against these features of modem Rationalism ? "Why create a false issue in the premises ? Why not say frankly, that, in his opinion, the position of the Harmonial Philosophers and Spiritualists, is substan- tially correct ; but that he would prefer to receive the new doctrines with some modifications, and to clothe them, in order to make them his own, in his own pecu- liar and classical nomenclature ? If he sincerely be- lieves the two forms of faith to be reconcilable, and not incompatible ; then I hesitate not to aflBrm that Dr, B has created a useless question of distinction, with- out a difiference, and an issue almost wholly false in the minds of his people. But if, on the other hand. Dr. B means by the system of Christianity, that defini- tion of supernaturalism which is generally accepted as orthodox in all Protestant countries, or among all en- lightened sects ; then he has undertaken a work destined to be utterly valueless to the thinking world — because he would be striving to ^vo-v&ih&t possibilities and impos- sibilities are merely twin-brothers in the great rational- istic or supernaturalistic system of the All- wise Creator. To apprehend Dr. B as admitting, however re- THE FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 18( motely, tlie general doctriBes of rationalistic Christian- ity, would be, as I am impressed psychometrieally to regard his mind, very distasteful and disturbing to him. He would prefer, doubtless, to be apprehended or interpreted, — (for it seems to me that many of his statements require considerable interpretation,) — to mean this : that he does not reject any scriptural defini- tion of Christianity, nor any portion of the scheme of " redemption" therein disclosed. Nay : but at the same time, he must be understood to be the special architect of his own theological temple : the rearer and framer of Ms own theology and Christianity. He believes firmly in the purity and divinity of the Bible-materials. But with those materials no one can construct or ereat a spiritual Zion to meet his wants, except himself ! Hence he differs quite conspicuously from all his breth- ren; not, however, intrinsically and really, but exter- nally and apparently. This fact alone makes him a modern Luther ; a reformer, not in spirit and in truth, but merely in the foem or symbols of Christianity. Let us, then, do Dr. B the justice to apprehend aright what he designedly signifies by Christianity. He means precisely what any other Bihle-ieliever means. And let us, also, do him the justice to comprehend his meaning correctly, when he asserts, in substance, " that Infidelity, in its many and varied forms, is pervading and perme- ating the minds of the people." He means in reality precisely what any other churchman means by that term, viz.: any thing opposed to the form of conserva- tism wliich he has erected, or which is now in the pro- cess of erection, in his own particular mind. Again I say, that I feel no inward opposition to the 20 THE APPBOACHING CKISI8. principle of conservatism, considered as a law of men- tal equilibrium ; only to its misapplication. And I repeat, that I am impressed to regard Dr. B as the leader and embodiment of a new and more interest- ing form of Conservatism than has ever been construct- ed from the fossil vestiges of oriental theologies. But this theological superstructure, — which he now contem- plates and designs to erect in his own mind, and in which he supposes he will always find Christianity in it's, purest and higJiest form, — is happily not yet com- pleted. It is now in the process of formation. And the hopes of the True Reformer, concerning the future usefulness of the mental labors of this Martin LiUlier to the world, must be suspended on the m,ere possibility (which unfortunately is very slight), that, when he comes to frame and adjust the superior portions of his theological temple, he may discover that the compart- ments are too contracted, and the dome too low, to suit the real wants of his expanding and aspiring nature ! It is now my impression to examine the introductory lecture of the course alluded to, on the foundation which he therein laid before the people, viz. : Rational- is7n as opposed to Supernaturalism, — contemplating the ultimate reconciliation of the two theories. For to ap- prehend him to mean, by supernaturalism or Chris- tianity, any thing really different from the generally received opinions on that head, is to impeach the sound- ness of his judgment regarding his own position in the premises, — to do which I have no inclination. I rather desire to believe him to be not fully aware of the deeper workings and convictions of his mind. I come now to the closer criticism. THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITT. 21 The lecturer foreshadowed the whole question, and his future answer thereto, in this comprehensive pas- sage — which he selected frona the first chapter and seventeenth verse of Paul's epistle to the Colossians, — "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Of this scriptural assertion he discovered a parallelism, or coiTespondential indorsement, in the third verse of the first chapter of John ; where it is asserted that " All things were made by him, and with- out him was not any thing made-that was made." Now if Dr. B really believes that Christianity, " as a system of redemption," was originally laid in the wis- dom of the Infinite Mind before any thing was made ; and if he believes that, when that Mind elaborated the world, Christianity was incorporated into the very soul of creation ; then why does he allow himself to betray, or to experience, any feae as to the safety of that sys- tem which God himself created and sustains ? If Dr. B believes Christianity to be a Peinciple of Love and salvation, incorporated in and unfolded out of the system of the world; then he unquestionably occupies nationalistic grounds, in interpreting his theology; and so there is an end to all cause of difference between us, on the fundamental points at issue. But he evidently does not occupy this position ; because he manifested great concern for the welfare and success of Christian- ity, as a scheme of redemption. Furthermore, if Dr. B believes Christianity to be a spiEiT, and not aform — Si prinoij)le operating be- tween God and Man ; not confined to a mere combina- tion of books called " the Bible ;" then he is clearly a believer in the fundamental teachings of the Harmonial 22 THE APrEOACHIITG CBI8IS. Philosophy ; and thu3, again, ends- all cause of contro- versy. But I am impressed not to identify him with that which he himself diA. not originate and acknowl- edge ; for evidently he is never inseasihle to the Litthek feeling — -the marking out of an independent course to suit his own affections and gifted intellect. There is no disguising the plain, palpable fact, that Dr. B is not yet emancipated from the customary or POPTJLAE FOEM of Christianity ; that is to say, he regards the Bible as the precious relic of what occurred twenty and more centuries ago — the Casket of a " sys- tem of Redemption," whose supposed jewels must not be examined ; except by the eye of a confiding, unrea- soning faith. If he is to be received as the representa- tive or exponent of his own thought ; then the above statement of Dr. B 's present position, is perfectly accurate. A mind thus trammeled, and thus manacled by ihe paper and ink habiliments of the Christian reli- gion, can not adapt itself to the workings of the law of Progress. He must, alas ! close his eyes to the opera- tions of a progressive Christianity; the great law of human destiny ! He must step blindfolded along the path of error, describe a circuitous and zigzag course in the fields of humanity and thought ; and, whilst the resplendent beams of an orient sun are lighting up the highway to social harmony and human happiness, he must close his eyes, and pretend not to see any " world- saving truth" in the sublime principles of modern reformation ! Dr. B- is not yet, I repeat, emancipated from the paper and inh relics of Christianity. The New Testa- ment is the only orthodox remains thereof; the only THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITT. 23 SKELETON to remind one of tte departed spirit. Alas ! what a "foundation of sand" to build a spiritual Zion upon. Every wind of doctrine threatens to demolish the splendid superstructure. The Egyptian pyramids have withstood for long centuries the whirlwinds of the desert ; though they approach from " all directions " at the same time. But this is man's work. Surely, if the Bible is the pyramid of Christianity which God himself has erected on the moral desert of this world, then can Dr. B really believe that the " whirlwind of skep- ticism and infidelity, coming at once from all points of the compass," can overthrow the God-made superstruc- ture ? To this question I earnestly solicit a reply. I know that there are watchmen on the towers of the modern Zion of ancient construction, whose cry is, " It is a Christian duty to liold reason in subjection to faith !" Yet the building is in danger, because, forsooth, Teuth alone can withstand the surging billows of Time, of independent investigation, and remain forever unmoved and unchanged. Let us look at another point. If Dr. B sin- cerely believes the New Testament to be a God-made book, and that the authority thereof should not be questioned by an enlightened reason, he surely was very injudicious, to say the least, to object, in the very outset, to the defective translation of a portion of the text which headed his discourse. Nothing can be more productive of absolute faithlessness — especially in the youthful mind and rising generation — than the shadow of a suggestion that a passage of Scripture has been imperfectly or incorrectly translated by the talented English scholars. In one part of his discourse, the lee- 24 THE APPEOACHING CEI9IS. turer stated, in a tone of voice somewhat ironical and sarcastic, that " Eationalists rejoiced and luxuriated in all good men," and that, when " it suited their con- venience, they would even quote passages of Scripture." ISTow I object to such essential unfairness, especially when draped in very respectful and honest-sounding language. Surely, a reasonable man is always pleased and at liberty to adopt the words of any author, in or out of the Bible, should these words express his own promptings and convictions. As for example: Dr. B quoted from Paul a passage which plainly de- clared his own intellectual pre-conceived convictions ; with the qualification, however, that " had the transla- tion rendered the word ' by,' ' in,' as it is in the original, the idea would be much stronger ;" and, consequently, far more suited to the intellectual conception which the Lecturer had formed of the system of the world, and the relation of God to it. Here, then, is an orthodox example of the rationalistic method of quoting Scrip- ture, " when it is convenient," or illustrative of some particular thought or theme. Again, I can not but remark upon the injudioiousness and incautiousness of that mind, which — while it professes to believe the Bible to be the pure and unalloyed Word of God — yet so openly ventures to affirm that a passage therein is not correctly or infallibly translated. In this instance, the mistake of the translators -is not essential. ^vX what assurance have we that greater mistakes have not been made in other passages ? Let us now think of the text. It was asserted that it imparted a clear " outlined conception" of the system of the world. Also, that it showed conclusively, that THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITT. 25 the ■whole " strneture and plan of Christianity " were contemplated before the world was made ; and that it is, consequently, an institution laid within the consti- tution of things. To this I am moved again to reply, that, if Dr. B means, by Christianity, a Principle OF Love — that redemption from sin is practicable through a personal and universal exercise of that prin- ciple — a principle unfolded in the progressive develop- ments of nature and humanity ; then, he is with us, and we with him, and thus satisfactorily ends the con- troversy. In this case, his wliole question, together with all his apprehensions about "Infidelity" and '• Christianity," are based upon his own intellectual misconceptions ; the issue is false, and hence unneces- sary. But that he does not take this ground has already been shown from his method. By Christianity he meams precisely what every other Bible believer means by the term. Hence, in order to he perfectly sound and reasonablein his conclusions. Dr. B must admit that the Deity actually planned — in the holy labyrinths of his wisdom, " before the world was made " — the Garden of Eden ; the fall of man ; the misery of his offspring ; the deluge ; the confusion of tongues ; the vicarious atone- ment ; and the unutterable miseries of hell. Does this category of evils seem like the handiwork of an all-wise and perfectly good Creator? But' — no matter! It must be so — that is, if the text under consideration is, in very truth, the Word of God. For " He is before all things, and m Ilim all things (not a portion of things, remember, but all things) consist." If Dr. B were a rationalistic Christian, the text would dash with no truth which bis affections might feel, or 2 26 THE APPEOAOHUfG CEISIS. judgment comprehend. But as he is not, his position is exceedingly painful, inconsistent, and untenable. Indeed, the conflict which will inevitably be generated in his mind, by the entertainment of such hostile sen- timents, and the attempt to reconcile them, will be sufficient, it seems to me, to force him either into rationalistic doctrines or else into a deeper and more incurable conviction of the asserted truth of the Persian tale of total depravity. That he may never find him- self confirmed in the latter faith — in the slough of Des- pair — in company with the giant bearing that name — is my fervent prayer and hope. The text in question plainly asserts that, " He is be- fore all things, and by (or m) him all things consist." JSTow, I ask : How does Dr. B know that this text foreshadows a truthful conception of the outline or frame-work of Creation ? Does he adopt the rational- istic or eclectic method of quoting Scripture, " when it is convenient," to body forth the sentiments of his own mind? Or, does he take Paul's Epistle to the Colos- sians as divine authority ? If tlie former, then he is a Christian rationalist — a strict follower and advocate of the Harmonial Philosophy. If the latter, then he is standing upon a foundation as impermanent as the changeful sand. Unless he is very careful and sound in the assumption and establishment of his premises, the youthful minds of his congregation, and the rising gener- ation of investigators, will surely find it out. If he takes St. Pattl for his authority, and believes that the text is true on that ground, then I must remind him of a fragment of church history, with which, as a scholar, he must assuredly be well acquainted. THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITT. 27 When the pure Hebrew tongue ceased to be ver- nacvilar, and the Jews had returned from Babylon, there was immediately formed a sacerdotal organiza- tion, and a committee of Rabbis was appointed to col- lect and preserve all the known Hebrew manuscripts. This was done; and the parchments placed in the Sacrarium. It was not, however, until many years after the return of the Jews froni the Eabylonis'.i cap- tivity and exilement, that most of the iooTcs of the Old Testament were heterogeneou!?]y bound together. Tliis was, properly speaking, the " Babylonian Canon ;" be- cause it was originally made by the Chaldeanic Rabbis. But many years subsequent to this collection, there arose some considerable dissatisfaction and discussion among the younger Rabbis concerning the heteroge- neousness of the first canon. Hence, by permission of the sacerdotal authorities, they rejected some books, arranged- others in a different order, interpolated a few passages, and made another Testament. This is properly termed the " Jenisalera Canon ;" because it was made by the Jews of Palestine. During all this time, — owing to local oppressions and temporary emer- gencies, — books, by the Jews, containing multifarious speculations and national prophecies, multiplied very rapidly. Parties and preferences became numerous, and began to create dissatisfaction in regard to the last Canon which was formed ; and so, apparently to keep up with the demands of the times, another Old Testament was formed — the " Alexandiian Canon" — in Egypt. All these compilations, be it remembered, were different. At this time the book of Daniel was generally regarded as the creation of an eccentric old 28 THE APPROACHING CEISI8. Jew, who was talented, and a seceder from tlie regular priesthood. Hence, that interesting part oi' the 2^reserd orthodox Old Testament, was not then uinversally received as containing reliable inspiration. Now I feel moved to inquire : Does Dr. B design to take the ground, that the Bible is the actual and imrantable foundation of religion ? Or, that the New Testament is the only foundation and evidence of Christianity ? Does he believe that, wlien we reject the paper and ink clothing of Christianity, we thereby lose the soul or principle ? Christianity, as it is in fact — and as regarded by all intelligent rationalistic- philosophers — never exerted so much saving or reformatory power vpon t/i e human mind as it did in the first centtiry, when there was no suoh a thing in existence as a New Testament. Christianity is one thing ; the New Testament is quite another. In i'act, the New Testament is a name which does not signify a book ; but a Dispensation. St. Paul did not write his speculations, concerning faith and redemption, to be read and adopted by all generations after him. Ilis thoughts and epistles were developed by, and written for, special and particular occasions. His epistles — to the Komans, to the Thessalonians, to the Colossians, &c. — were especially adapted to the existing wants of thuse respective churches, but they are not adapted to the ■wants and requirements of the people in this Nine- teenth Century. Indeed, the writings of Paul were twice rejected as authority ; and at last it was fully determined by the bench of Bishops, under the Emperor Constantine, that Paul should be placed in the gallery of the old theological masters, as an inspired penman. THE FODNDATION OF CHEISnANITT. 29 Uere, then, is the important point to settle before proceeding further, viz. : Does Dr. B quote from St. Paul a text, axiomatically, as a motto, becalise it expresses the impressions of his own mind? If so, what necessity is there for creating a seeming difference between our rationalism and his supernaturalism ? For in such a case he manifestly assumes the " sovereignty of reason" as superior to Bible revelati.m. This is the crime — the only crime — of the so-called infidels. Or, does he take the New Testament to be the " Word of God," and tiie text in Colossians as divine and immutable au- thority ? If so ; how will he explain t/ie human for- mation of the Bible, and the unsatiffaotory translation of the text ? My impression is, simply, to solicit the Lecturer's attention to the solution of these important considerations in the premises, in order that he may the more perfectly cure the skepticism and rationalism ex- isting and developing in this world. When Dr. B rolled up the curtain, which per- mitted us to view the Greek theater, how artistically did he cause to be enacted the strange drama — almost the tragedy — of " Speculation and Superstition." He showed " the ingenuity " with which the abounding myths and Egyptian superstitions of still earlier times were caused to disappear by the Greek philosophers and sophists. Or, -in other language, how the specula- tists, having " some regard for the religious feelings of the people," concluded to rer.olve the furies and myths into symbols apd presiding deities. Then the Doctor showed his audience what the furies, thus symbolized and classified, did "above ground" and also under tlie earth. And the Greek sophists — said the Lecturer — 30 THE APPBOACHING 0KI3IS. finally succeeded in making God and Creation one and the same tiling; reduced every thing of a religious na- ture to a common level ; and ingeniously demonstrated all things to be moving in harmony Trith the " un- changeable laws of an endless cycle." Now arises a question. Why did Dr. B allude to this piece of Greek history '{ "Why did he dwell on the terms " speculatists, philosophers, and sophists," and the reduction of all religious things to " the un- changeable laws of an endless cycle ?" Surely his text teaches precisely the same doctrine. " In him all things consist," says the text ; which is merely a synoptical or synthetical method of asserting, that " Nature is bathed in the Spirit of God — is penetrated and sustained by him ; that all things exist and operate according to unchangeable law." The talented Doctor, subsequently considered this doctrine of modern ration- alism ; acknowledged "that Hume was right in affirm- ing that nothing could possibly occur contrary to established law and system ;" and substantially con- fessed, also, a belief, in the Harmonial doctrine, that there can not be any real conflict between Nature and Supernaturalism, when the two are properly com- prehended. Now why did he — with such a text, with such convictions, and with such noble concessions — roll up the Greek curtain, to show to the young minds of his congregation the "ingenuity of the Greek Philosophers" in fiifting, rejecting, and symbolizing the religion of that era ; which, he said, they called " Superstition ?" Was it to give them an idea of history? AVas it to display his ability to trace out and comprehend the whole origin and scope of Rationalism ? Far from it. THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITY. 31 His only design was this : To draw a prejudicial par- allelism between the Philosophers of Greece and thoie who are to-day denominated philosophers ; to make tlie people see that the exposition of superstition, by modern " speculatists," is achieved by " ingenuity," and not by Truth ; to create an impression tliat that which is termed Harmonial Philosophy, is merely the revival of old ideas and long exploded speculations ; to prejudice the people, in a word, against almost every thing of this century, which bears the general features of a rational reformation ; and yet, the Doctor, it seems to me, is too highly endowed with a love of truth and benevo- lence to permit him to draw the parallelism too bold and rugged, or to enforce too earnestly its acceptation. The enlightened mind, however, can not but regret any such attempt on the Lecturer's part ; because it shows conclusively, that his mind has not yet attained that moral growth which is capable of conducting a per- fectly free and impartial investigation. Nevertheless, he is far superior to the popular species of clerical op- position to new truth ; and declares himself " no enemy to science ;" nor yet jealous of the truths uttered by Pantheists, or Humeites, or Physicalists, or by Phre- nologists even, whose " gospel," said the Lecturer, " is Combe on the Constitution of Man." These conces- sions give promise of something like a religious refor- mation. That I have apprehended and interpreted Dr. B aright in his parallelism, may be seen from the question he asked in that department of Iiis discourse — viz. : " Is Christianity, as a system of faith and redemption, to meet with the same fate ?" That is : is it to be re- 32 THE APPEOACHING CRISIS. sohed by modem specnlatists— as tlie Greek philoso- phers sifted and resolved the then prevailing supersti- tions — ^into symbols and things, moving in harmony witli the unchangeable laws of an endless cycle ? The Doctor thinks the "Iniidelity" of to-day, is hydra-headed ; coming from all directions — setting in one strong current against, and threatening to over- throw, the foundations of a supematuralistic Christianity. Now, whether a supematuralistic system of Christian- ity will be hurled from its foundations, in the opinion of Dr. B , will be decided and determined by wliat he defines that foundation to be. If he defines the foundation or basis of Christianity to be the Bible ; then he may rest assured that supernaturalism, as the world defines it, will fall ere long to the earth. But, on the other hand, if he resolves, like the Greek phi- losophers, the superstitions of Christianity into symhols^ and, like the so-termed Harmonial Philosophers, ac- cepts the foundation of Christianity as resting wholly upon Principle, then he can also rest perfectly assured, that the ten thousand and one clirrents may set in against it, but its power upon the human lieart will surely be all the more augmented. For assuredly, in this comprehensive sense, Christianity was eternally laid in the Wisdom of the Infinite Mind, '' in whom all things consist." The gospel of " Combe on the Constitution of Man" will contain — if the Lecturer comes to this rational- istic position — ^no injurious or anti-Christian doctrines ; though it proves crime to originate in organization, "confuses," according to his assertion, "duty with penalties and benefits," and leads the reader to social THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITY. 33 reorganization, as a means of redemption from sin and misery. Surely, Dr. B will not desire or attempt to refute tliese doctrines. A little calm reflection will certainly convince him that mental organization and social situation has much to do in molding and des- tinating the individual. If the Lecturer comes to see truths just as and where they are, he will inevitably think better of " Socialism " so called ; better of " Rev- elations about the Spheres," through magnetism ; better of "necromantic conjurations" and spirit-seeing ; better of " Unitarianism," though it does tardily accept the miracles, believes in a remote Christianity, and rejects the person of Christ as a " Kedeemer," in the orthodox signification. But whether he does, or does not, come to see truths just as and where they are, is a question which his present course of lectures will eventually de- termine. I, for one, await the result with no little in- terest; and I can only breathe for than indwelling prayer, that he may work out a system of reform. In conclusion, I again affirm that this criticism is not a matter between two individuals. It is human free- dom and independence against a new modification of an old form of conservatism ; the m.isajjplication of which, to the present wants of mankind and the Age, is the ground of the present controversy. Dr. B referred to the ingenious manner with which the Greek philosophers detected and dissipated the prevailing superstitions. I would ask, if he re- members the historical statement, that Socrates was condemned to swallow the juice of hemlock, for tench- ing the Athenians the existence of a Supreme Being? — a doctrine in which I apprehend the Doctor to be a 2* 34 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. firm believer. Tbe inspiratioB, then, of God — of the doctrine of tlie Unity of God — was extended to the soul of a Greek philosoplier ! Even so, as " all scripture is by inspiration," may not the philosophers of to-day — having the wisdom and experience of the past before them, and receiving the increasing influx of fresher truths from superior spheres into their souls — bring out a fairer faith, and a peinoiple of greater saving power, than the forms and faiths of the present age, which are the bequeathments of superannuated centuries? It seems, according to his expressed declarations, that Dr. B is not jealous of science, nor yet at enmity with the general materialistic tendencies of this age. He seems to contemplate a reconciliation betweeu Nature and Revelation. This is possihle only on the ground which I have already defined; which would, of course, be identical with the one we at present stand npon ; viz., upon nationalistic Christianity; not upon "Su- pernaturalistic Revelation, " as generally defined as truly orthodox by the Christian world. But what Dr. B is destined to accomplish, in the capacity of a modern Luthke — as a theological reformer — is yet to be developed to our perceptions and understandings. "We may say to him, however, and with the most fra- ternal inclinations, too, that Christianity, as received by the citizens of Hartford, will never prove itself to be a satisfactory system of redemption. For if he will philosophically and dispassionately analyze the origin and nature of man's vices and passions, he will surely discover, in the ultimate analysis, that the worst mani- festations of character are fortified in the strong iu- trenchments of religious and social institutions. And THE FOUNDATION OF CHEISTIANITT. 35 the remaining and ordinary evils of mankind, he can legitimately trace to the improper or ignorant procre- ation of our species. I respectfully request Dr. B 's attention to a calm consideration of the ahove prop- ositions. If the high-minded man — who penned that precious "gospel on the constitution of man" — was here, he would speak to us, in his own familiar language, and say : — The clergyman assails the vices and inordinate passions of mankind by the denunciations of the Bible ; but as long as society shall be animated by different principles, and maintain in vigor institutions whose spirit is diametrically opposite to its doctrines, so long will it be difficult for him to effect the realization of his frequently ui^ed precepts in practice. Yet it appears to me, that, by teaching mankind the philosophy of their own nature and of the world in which they live — by demonstrating to them the coincidence between the dictates of this philosophy and true Christian mo- rality, and the inconsistency of their own institutions with both — they may be induced to supplant their bad institutions by good ones ; thus to intrench and strongly fortify the moral attributes of man; and then the triumph of virtue and Religion will be more complete and certain. Those who advocate the exclusive import- ance of a supernaturalistic religion for the improvement and redemption of mankind, appear to me to err in overlooking too rmiah the necessity for complying with the natural conditions on which all true improvement depends. I anticipate that, when schools and colleges shall expound the various branches of this philosophy as portions of the natural revelations of the Creator — 36 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. when the pulpit shall deal with the same principles, show their practical application to man's duties and enjoyments — and when the activities of life shall be so arranged, as to become a field for the pleasxirahle prac- tice at once of our philosophy and our religion; then will man attain the position of a rational being, and Christianity achieve her highest triumph ! THE ■WONDEKS AND EXTENT OF NATTIEE. 37 CHAPTER III. SECOND EEVIEW. Conflict between the affections and understanding. — Tlie new conserva- tism ezliibited. — The system of Nature versus the system of God. — Points of agreement. — The wonders and extent of nature. — A faith above reason. — Human magnetism. — The Mormons. — Shelley. — The Yestiges of Creation. — Confasion in nature. — The question of free agency. — The cramping inflaence of a false theology. Knowledge is progressive ; but faith is conservative. T mean that faith which the mind has been forced or educated to accept in its early years ; a faith whi^-h has attained a high place in the affections, where Reason is seldom allowed to enter. There that conservative opinion stands, venerable with age, an idol of the mind ; supporting itself by two staffs which it holds in its hands — one composed of the sanction of Time; the other, of the authority of great names. Now it fre- quently happens, that when we hear a clear voice emanating from the professional preacher, having all the common features and semblance of pure reason, and causing us to ivnagine, for the time being, that Reason, " that heaven-lighted lamp in man," is really the source of what we hear ; yet, after all, we discover that we merely hear the affectionate and conservative voice of that venerable Idol; whose substance is derived 38 THE APPEOACHING CKI8IB. from past dogmas and whose life is absorbed from the weaker elements of the mind. But then there is a far truer faith ; a pure and pro- gressive/tft EXTENT OF NATURE. 53 could not accomplish this very desirable improvement, they resolved unanimously to embrace something, or any thing else, which appeared to furnish an adequate remedy for the prevailing evils, inequalities, and dis- cords of the world. And as to their religious system, national government, municipal laws, &c., I do not see how Dr. B can consistently and conscientiously object ; because Joseph Smith endeavored to imitate, so far as it was possible and locally convenient, the political peculiarities and character of Moses, and the more prominent habits and military methods of the religious chieftain, Joshua.* It was affirmed that Shelley, the great and gifted bard, " having worked himself into Atheism," still could not live happily without the supernatural faith. Hence he " peopled the forests, flowers, and trees with mythologic beings and beautiful elfs." It is very true, the immortal Shelley had too great and cultivated a soul to permit him to believe in the cruel and capricious God gener- ally worshiped by the Bible Christians. The love of liberty and humanity, combined with a sacred appre- ciatiiin of the advantages of Keason, as man's highest blessing, compelled Shelley to dread the time and land " where kings first leagued against the rights of man, and priests first traded with the name of God." And he had the good fortune to become skeptical in the God of priests ; because he well knew that " human pride is skillful to invent the most serious names to hide its Nevertheless, the poet did desire, as every * For further analogies, see the Great Harmonia, Vol. III., Entitled the "Seer" 54 THE APPEOACHIira CEISIS. enlightened mind must, some better and more harmo- nious faith than he could find in the theological world about him — something more congenial with his culti- vated afi'ections and consonant with his best reason — and, had he known the Harmon ial Philosophy of Nature and Spirituality, it is very probable, nay it is almost certain, that he would have joyfully accepted it; because — yea, because — it is so entirely divested of every thing which is uselessly mysterious and super- natural, and because, also, it addresses the cultivated heart through the expanded understanding. Thus far, then, the alleged evidences of man's "de- sires for a faith in the supernatural" are unsound and fallacious. But I think it must have surprised his intelligent hearers, when the Lecturer appealed to the serial crea- tion of vegetables and animals as an " evidence of the action of the supernatural system upon th« world." And in this connection Dr. B seemed to reject the whole doctrine of progressive development in the great operations and creations of Nature, by alluding to the discovery of the fossil remains of a perfectly vertebrated fish in one of the lower stratifications of rock. Here the Lecturer also alluded to the want of improvement in the system oi nursing the young; and asserted that the plan was more perfect, if any thing, in the salmon, which protects its young from the liquid element, during the first week of its existence, by a soft gelatinous envelopment, than in the so-called higher animals, in- cluding the helpless offspring of man. All this was evidently adduced to confuse the order of progression in the development of animals. Indeed, the confusion THE WONDERS AND EXTENT OF NATURE. 55 ■would be exceedingly difficult to overcome and contro- vert, were it not for the important fact that no such confusion exists. Dr. B set aside the " Vestiges of Creation," and all similar productions on Geology, by informing his audience that he was perfectly aware of the existence of such a work, and feebler attempts at rationalistic speculation. Will the earnest, vigorous minds of his congregation receive this as a conclusive argument against the progressive theory ? Will they henceforth receive the eupernaturalistic theory as proved to a demonstration? The Doctor disposed of the progress- ive theory in a most summary and gladiatorial manner, and then recommended his hearers to read Hugh Mil- ler's recent work, entitled the " Footprints of the Crea- tor." This work is not at all accepted by those who know any thing of practical geology. For it is merely Q,plea of the clergyman in behalf of his theological faith ; an instance of hereditary or erudition al faith employing reason to act as an advocate and special partisan. I have affirmed that no confusion exists in the order of creation. True, by the merest accident, a tree may fall from the hill-top to the valley, and be found centu- ries afterward, standing in an inverted positiou, buried in many feet of stratified earth. But does that circum- stance prove that trees do not grow from the root upward? So also, suppose a fish, the creation of a more recent period, should be found in the rock-forma- tiou of a remoter period : does that simple circumstance confuse the universal testimonies of Nature to the con- trary ? Among all enlightened people, where all juris- prudential proceedings are conducted upon the estab- 56 THE APPEOACnESTG CRISIS. lished fact that every case has two sides, and that verdicts are to be rendered in accordance with the pre- ponderating evidence, I can not but believe that Dr. E 's method of demonstrating supematuralism must be peremptorily repudiated. He brings up the fossil remains of a single fish,, to prove that all the uniform testimonies of ^Nature, in favor of progression, are doubt- ful or valueless. And then, having given himself the " benefit of the doubt," he turns the case over to super- naturalism ; and proceeds to give the impression that the fish could not have been placed in its stony prison, except by the supernatural sj'stem of God operating upon the system of Nature ! But I have tried to dis- cover the location of that fish-skeleton, and I do not find such a fact in Nature, although it is mentioned in the works of three or four authors who have endeavored to throw doubt and discord over the philosophy of pro- gressive development. The supernaturalist should be exceedingly careful in the selection of his evidences ; because, not being a practical geologist himself, he might very easily be imposed upon by so-called factSy which may have no other foundation than the prejudice and conservatism of theologians. But what shall we say about the hthrsing ? Why, simply this : that it is not true that the plan does not advancs with the progression of the species. Every advancement in the organization of animals — especially the mammalial types — is attended with a corresponding improvement in the care of the young. The more in- telligent the animal, the less is the system of nursing a matter of mechanism and instinct. The Salmon is provided with a natural cradle for its young, because it THE WONDEES AND EXTENT OF NATUKE. 57 has not the intelligence to make one. The Kangaroo is provided with a pouch in which to carry its young, because it has not the intelligence to manufacture blankets and garments to protect the young body from the atmosphere. -Now, will Dr. B affirm the hu- man offspring to be less cared for than these lower organisms, because merely the human mother is not provided with those imperfect and cumbrous append- ages ? Surely, the plan of nursing the young is more and more perfected as creation advances from the low- est saurian to the human type. To affirm contrary to this, is to impeach the plainest declarations of the uni- versal system. Thus again, Dr. B 's evidences of supei'natural- ism in nature, are shown to be groundless. But what shall we say about the " acorn " which de- velops the stalwart oak? The Lecturer seemed to re- gard the growth of trees as accomplished by supernatu- ral action ! He said you might plunge a knife into the acorn, and examine it in various ways, still it is nothing but a plain nodule. That is to say, it is a thing in nature. But place thainodiile in the earth, and soon it comes forth, adding length after length of wood ; and, while the seasons come and depart, this tree stands up in difance of the laws of gravitation and chemistry. I think Dr. B was very obscure in what he said of this oak. This obscurity may be regarded, like a bad hand- writing, as evidence of scholarship, but it certainly is no indication of clear thinking or that the individual is naturally and properly a teacher. If I have exhumed the meaning of the lecturer on this point, it signifies this — viz.: that the Acorn derived 3* 5S THE APPEOAOHING CEI8IS. its potency to build the ponderous oak, from the super- natural system of God. That the oak was the type of other and higher miracles ; the prophecy of more spirit- ual demonstrations of supernaturalism. Now if this reasoning be correct, there can not possibly be any uniform law or rationalistic explanation in nature to account for the production of trees. But what are the facts ? Why, the growthr of trees ia a cbemical phe- nomenon. Chemistry has revealed the existence of an invariable Power in nature which promotes union be- tween elements and compounds, even though their apparent natures be strongly opposed. This power is termed " chemical attraction ;" but I can see no reason why it should not be called the unchangeable will of God operating in nature, like the flowing of blood in the human body, an eternal attribute of the one mms- soLUBLE SYSTEM. The acom, or nodule, would not pro- duce an oak, if, instead of placing it in the earth, you should drop it in the water or among stones. There is nothing supernatural in the manifestation. Because the growth of trees depends upon certain favorable external conditions ; whilst, if that result was ever ac- complished by the direct action of God on the world, we should see some variation from the established laws. Dr. B almost ridiculed the idea, that Nature by itself could develop organism endowed with motion, life, sensation, &c. ; but does he not know that flour, dampened with a little water, will, in a iew days or even hours, be transformed into moving, living, feeling, or- ganisms? Does he not know that certain kinds of de- composed vegetation in stagnant water, will, if partially THE W0J]/ss contained but one — just one — lost soul ; we know, granting the Lord to be unable to save, that the angels in heaven^-our departed brothers and sisters — would weep tears enough to extinguish the fires of hell ; and, upon the swelling bosom of an ocean thus formed, that once lost soul would ride triumphantly into the courts of heaven ! Supernaturalism, as scripturally derived and philo- sophically explained by clergymen, utterly fails to ac- count for the origin of evil, on the supposition that every human being is a free moral and self-determin- ing power. Adam did not absolutely know, by any personal experience or spiritual prevision, the entire laws of eternal justice and rectitude ; and hence, when he began to put into practice the normal liberties and voluntary powers of his nature, he did so experi- mentally ; just as we first taste of food to ascertain its flavor, or smell the growing plant in order to learn the nature of its fragrance. If doing that which we Tctww 108 THE APPliOAOHING CKISIS. to be wrong, is sin, then, as knowledge is based upon absolute experience and foresight, Adam does not come nnder the condemnation. Adam was told not to eat the fruit under penalty of inevitable death. The ac- count asserts the information, or positive command- ment, to have been openly communicated by the Lord God unto the man whom he had formed. The external authority, therefore, was of the very highest order. But did the man, with his mind wholly undeveloped and inexperienced, know that the Lord had told him the perfect truth ? You may reply, that the Lord caused Adam internally to feel the truth and the importance of the commandment. But this is going beyond the primary assertions of the foundation of supematuralism — the Bible ; and so, in a discussion of this particular and exceedingly momentous character, no such reply is in any way admissible. Li a very obscure and mystical method, Adam was informed that the effect of eating the forbidden fruit, was certain. death, and that is all! Nothing is said about the asserted consequences of that sin, to be ex- perienced by all subsequent generations, and through- out the interminable centuries of eternity. The latter information might have strengthened Adam's mind, and energized his soul to the everlasting obedience of what he might have supposed to be the laws of supernal justice and i-ight. But according to the account, the first man had no such inducements to be righteous : neither any mental enlightenment as to the trne princi- ples of rectitude, the laws of existence, or the ways of happiness. The penalty of certain death, as a logical sequence of eating a beautiful and inviting fruit, was THE TUUE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 109 " all Greek " to both Adam and Eve. It is like seriously informing a new-horn habe, that the fire wiil burn ; or tlie desert Arab, that thunder issues from the concussion of surcharged clouds. nationalism,, as opposed to supernaturalistic revela- tions and faith, is, therefore, obliged to supplant all mythological theories of evil and redemption, and shed its light over the rugged, ascending pathway of man- kind's progression. The sins and evils in the world must first be rationally explained, as to their origin, before the world can ratiotially set about the work of extermination and human deliverance. For eighteen long, dark, wearisome, eventful centuries, the Bible, or the church medicine, has been administered to the sin- sick soul. But the '"disease" still prevails; and the "Doctors" — of divinity, I mean — continue to feel the public pulse, and to prescribe the old nostrums. While science and philosophy — those darling offspring of the human mind — have, by the invention of print- ing, by the science of navigation, by the discovery of steam, &c., civilized and advanced this portion of the earth ; Christianity, as now understood and interpreted, on the contrary, has been, in the hands of its cham- pions, the great Conservative power in the world, — retarding the march of freedom, and vilifying every member of humanity who has successfully out-rode the storms of the church, and who now ventures to apply new remedies to existing disorders among men. With- out further premising, I will proceed to utter my im- pressions concerning the true origin and nature of evil. In order to give an intelligent and decisive solution to this question, your minds should first recognize a few 110 THE APPKOACHING CEISIS. philosophical preliminaries, respecting the suhordinato system of Nature, especially as unfolded in tlie oartli. A permanent foundation for all true and enliglitencil reasoning may be easily discovered somewhere in the vast world or systems about us ; but, unless we are cer- tain as to the basis or premises, we are not likely long to retain and cherish the superstructure as a temple of truth and reason. The earth, in its primeval condition, was a mere combination of liquid elements — a blazing comet, roll- ing upon its axis and flying eccentrically about the Sun from which it originally was eliminated. For many ages our earth was in this state. If any one of you could then have gazed this way, from the beautiful planet Saturn, which was then peopled, you would have seen a conglobated combination of fire-mist, sending off, in all directions, glowing emanations of light as from a blazing substance. You need no longer fear that this world will in the future be consumed by the dissolving flame. For it has passed that point, and the principle' of progress never permits an actual retrogres- sion in anj"^ thing existing. This description of the origin of our earth you may consider wholly destitute of adequate proof. But I assure you to the contrary, and affirm, that all astronomical discoveries — ^the physical constitution of the sun, the immense terri- tories of luminous nebuloa in space, the eccentric comets, &c., combined with all the geological discoveries of this era — demonstrate conclusively, or as far as an external method of research can bring forth reliable deductions from well-ascertained data, that the earth was originally a vast globe of flaming elements I THE TRUE ORIGIN OF EVIL. Ill In accordance with the laws of progress and devel- opment, the heated, flowing substances gradually began to lose their ignigenous properties, and the process of cooling and stratification imperceptibly commenced. It would be very interesting to notice in detail all the extensive and wondrous changes which resulted from the process of primary stratiiication of the earth's sur- face, but this would not subserve our present purposes. We must pass rapidly over very many ages, and con- template the earth subsequent to the hardening of its circumference. There was nothing orderly or symmetrical. One portion of the planet was covered with water ; anothei", pierced the upper air with towering mountains. Every thing was angular — full of grotesque forms of m atter — irregular and unequal as the thoughts of the inebriate. This was the primary condition of the earth — a stage, when properly denominated, of wildness and universal eccentricity. But soon the beautiful process of crystallization com- menced. The earth, however, contained no rounded and symmetrically sliaped partioles of matter ; and so, as a natural consequence, the minerals and crystals which were formed — ^by the chemical action of exist- ing gases in connection with the pervading heat and the sun's influence — were all replete with angles a)id sharp projections. The first forms were necessarily irregular and almost indescribably fantastical. In proportion, however, to the modifications in the atmos- phere, the refinements in the mineral kingdom, and the improvements in the general physical conditions in nature ; in the same proportion did the productions of 113 THE APPRO ACHING CBISIS. Nature assume a more orderly and harmonious appear- ance. When atoms of matter became intrinsically- improved, the result was forthwith manifested in the development of higher forms in the fields of creation. The highest crystallization or mineralization of particles merged into the lowest form of vegetable life. If you compare the physical construction of a mineral body with any species of plants or vegetation, the coatings and fibers of the latter will appear distinctly, though incipiently, in the former. How like the leaves and fibers of plants do the crystallizations of frost appear on the window-glass ! But you never see mineral bodies so distinctly exhibiting animal organizations. Eecause, in the order of progress, the mineral kingdom im- mediately precedes the vegetable kingdom ; and the latter, the animal creation ; which, in a vast variety of particulars, indicates its parentage and ancestral relationship. In the plant and animal are exhibited many points of likeness. The rounded limb ; the external surface and the narrow; the circulation of fluids and gases through the body ; the drawing of nourishment from the earth, and the absorption of the surrounding at- mosphere — these are the most conspicuous features of similarity. But a closer anatomical inspection wou d reveal certain analogous physiological processes and habits, so to express it, which clearly demonstrate the nearness of the relationship between the two kingdoms. Now you perceive how gradually the principles of progress and development elaborate higher and better productions, from the primary particles which were ex- ceedingly gross and grotesque. But at a point where THE TRUE OKIGIN OF EVIL. 113 the animal kingdom ceases to go on, there the human Mngdotn commences its eternal march of being. What a moment — what an epoch — was this, when the mortal put on immortality ! The animal became the human ; and the new creation asserted its supremacy ! You may not now — at this late day of creation — see the exact point at which the animal glided into the human type ; because the transition species have become nearly extinct; but even yet, when you contrast the lowest types of humanity with the highest animal organiza- tions in nature, you will be greatly astonished at the irotherly likeness presented. The same anatomy and physiology are exhibited; also analogous attractions and habits. I will not now present any particular elucidations on this head ; but proceed directly to as- sure you that there is a unity, and a progressive harmony, in the System of ligature. By the foregoing sketch, you can not but recognize the progressive development of all things from the lowest grossness in the primary condition of the earth to the highest refinement in the human creation. But you ask — what has all this to do with the origin of evil? Be patient with me, and I will fully manifest the application. Gross and angular particles of rnatter make mineral organizations. When the atoms befeome more symmetrical, they pass into the formation of plants. The vegetable kingdom achieves an alteration and improvement in the shape and condition of the particles, and then the latter ascend the scale of being, and unfold the animal. From this point of atomic re- finement, the human kingdom commences ; and this connects the material and the spiritual — the mortal 114 THE APPEOAOHINQ CEI8I8. with immortality ! Now the human Race has gone, or is now passing through a similar system of progression. A 11 development goes by cycles ; the linkn in the end- less, spirally "ascending scale of progress. All things throughout the immeasurable domain of terrestrial and celestial existence — with their forces, laws, move- ments, and developments — are reciprocally related to, and inseparably connected with, each other ; and so there is formed or constituted a magnificent, unita/ry system of existence and causation, of which the Divine Being is the great positive Life-principle and regulat- ing Power. In the suboi-dinate departments of nature, the order of the system stands thus : Earth, Minerals, Yegetables, Animals, Man. The same identical system of cycles has been, or is being, manifested by the progressions of mankind. The order stands historically and ab- solutely, thus : Savagism, Barbarism, Patriarchalism, Civilism, Eepublicanism. The same system is exhibited in the normal life of every individual, thus : Infancy, Youth, Adolescence, Manhood, Maturity. The an- alogy is none the less perfect in the development and association of moving principles, thus : Motion, Life, Sensation, Organization, Intelligence. I am impressed to present these analogies in order to impart a clear conception of the system of the world ; iji contradistinction to the supernatural theory of spe- cific creation of perfect things, and subsequent discord, by the workings of sin. When the individual is yet in the Infant stage of growth, how angular and gro- tesque are the external manifestations of character ! Inconsiderate, impatient, .impetuous, reckless. Thought- THE TRUE OEIGIN OF EVIL. 115 lessly, the inexperienced mind tastes or grasps the first thing presented. It would drink milk or vibriol, so far as its knowledge goes, with an equal degree of readi- ness. TJie milk would nourish ; but the vitriol would impair or destroy life. Behold, in this simple illustra- tion, the whole mystery and philosophy of evil's origin. The child plays with the viper as unconsciously of danger as with a beautiful ribbon. The undisciplined hand reaches forth to grasp the flame of the taper as willingly as " the burnt child " studiously avoids the contact. If the mouth should receive only the milk, the organic laws of the physical economy would then be obeyed ; but the vitriol, although drank with the same degree of willingness, would possibly subvert, temporarily, the organic harmonies, or terminate the bodily existence. If you should Gommand the child not to drink the vitriol under the penalty of cei-tain death, and still leave the inexperienced mind to act from its voluntary impulses ; the child not hiowing any thing definitely about the nature of vitriol or the phenomenon of death, would be very likely to drink the forbidden beverage, should it be the most attractive to all external appearances. As the progress of the Eace is typified in the individual ; so is the origin of evil, or disease and discord, with mankind, manifested in the acts and impulses of the uneducated child. If the child impairs its constitution by various transgres- sions of the physical and organic laws of its being, then the generations succeeding it will surely receive the results of the disturbance, through the laws of heredi- tary descent or transmission. You ask — "How did evil originate?" What do you 116 THE APPBOACHING CRISIS. mean ty " evil ?" Do you mean the diseases, the wars, the cruelties, the discords in the world ? If so, then I reply, in accordance with my impressirms, that they are the consequences of a regular system of progressive development in Nature — just as angular crystals, sharp and craggy rocks, irregula/r vegetation, cumbrous plants with thorns, huge animals, and imperfect developments of the human species, are the steps of a transcending law of progress, in its majestic march from the deepest recesses of grossness and materiality to the highest eminences of refinement and spirituality. I will pres- ently elucidate this point more particularly. The hu- man race, in its passage from savagism to civilization, has been subjected to the laws of experience as the only source of absolute hnowledge. The civilized nations, as they are termed, manifest still the consequences of their journey ; they show, in their laws and institutions, cer- tain predispositions of character which remind us of the early stages of man. Savagism is the great great grandfather of Civilization. The olBFspring bears dis- tinct traces of its parentage! The laws of national hereditary transmission of qualities are immutable. The evils, or rather the numerous mdsdirectio7is, of' savagism, are now nearly extinct among civilized na- tions ; but the features of Patriarchalism are still dis- coverable in the religious and political organizations of the most advanced inhabitants of the earth. One Era sits in judgment against the preceding, as the youth judges his father. The angularities, or misdi- rections, of savagism are condemned by those persons who outgrow them in the order of progress. The American Nation — ^if it can be termed a nation — to- THE TRUE OEiam OF ETIL. 117 day sits in judgment against all the nations of the earth — rebuking them for their evils, their discords, wars, and tyrannical institutions. But America is also condemned by still more liberty-loving spirits for her slavery and local disorders. "We do not know what wrong or misdirection is, until we oiitgrow it in our minds and morals. The doctrine of evil, therefore, is a local and arbitrary matter, which the succeeding generation will alter to suit the standard of another construction. Surely, you see the truth of this statement. How do you know that milk is Tietter than vitriol for babes ?" " By experience," you reply. Do you hnow by per- sonal experience? "Ilfo." How, then, do you know? "By the experience ^nd well- authorized attestations of others." Tes, this is almost knowledge ; because it is based on the experience of the race to which you belong, and in which you unconsciously coniide. So, you learn that slavery is wrong by a knovdedge of liberty and of its blissful concomitants. Again, I affirm that evil is altogether an arbitrary term, which men apply to those inequalities and misdirections which they have themselves, morally as well as intellectually, outgrown, but which others far less developed may still continue to perpetuate. There is a vast difference between perceiving a wrong by the intellect, and resist- ing that wrong by an exercise of the moral sensibilities. One person may be morally and intellectually above the act of theft. In such a case, the mind has nothing to resist; for the act is held by the individual as be- neath the dignity of his inward nature. Another per- son may equally know that theft is wrong, according to 118 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. the laws of the land ; but, when the opportunity pre- sents, he finds his moral feelings not very strongly opposed to the act — in fact, lie does not consider the deed beneath his dignity at all. Clergymen, knowing almost nothing of man's spiritual character, in connection with the laws of progress and development,- are very sanguine as to the correctness of the Bible-idea of sin : and the people are compelled to labor under gospel vituperations and clerical denunci- ations of every description, without knowing how, or daring to obtain a better idea of the sins complained of by their shepherds. It is now my impression to relate, briefly, the real origin of what is termed evil — com- mencing, as the clergymen do, with the beginning of the human species. What has been said, thus far, is concerning the philosophy of sin or discord as developed in the system of Nature. The doctrine, that the race began from a single pair of originally pure and heavenly beings, is vastly far from the real truth. Tou, who have intellectual dis- cernment and comprehension adequate, sliould not allow your minds to misread Nature, which is the book of deific origin. Creation shows, very explicitly, that the commencement of any thing is gross and imperfect. Nothing begins existence with prominent spiritual cliaracteristics, and terminates in the depths of grossness and materiality. I speak now of the great universal system of Nature. The first trees, the first animals, the first men, were quite imperfectly formed and as un- refined. The same is true of every thing invented by man. The first agricultural implements, the first steam- boats, the first locomotive, &c., were exceedingly de- THE TKUE OBIGIN OF EVIL. 119 fective and cumbersome. Progression proves that «' that is not iirst which is spiritual, but natural, and afterward the spiritual." Accordingly, I discover the first types of the huiuan family to have been dwarfed or unadvanced in mental development; but gigantic and powerful in their physical structure and organic constitutions. They were giants in every respect, ex- cept in mind. They were to the present race of men what the megatherium, the missourium, and the mam- moth were to the present existing types of animals. Progression in mind brings physical refinement ; tlius, the animal-man becomes extinct in proportion as the spiritual-man obtains the ascendency. All this I have shown you in considering the wnity of the system of Nature. Asia, as all mythologic traditions and history truly in- dicate, cradled the first born of the huirsan species. By the first born, I do not mean any special creations by a deific hand; but the first type of the mammiferous animals which approached sufliciently near the human type, to be properly denominated the " first born" of the race to which we belong. There were two distinct molds or forms of the matnmiferse organization that as- cended at the same time rapidly toward the human organism. One tribe existed in Eastern, the other in "Western Asia. They did not discover each other until a long period after they had established independent nations or tribes. One race was more effeminate than the other. And when, like the race of modern Gipsies, the former tribe traveled over the fertile country of Asia, and discovered the stronger race, an immediate vmicm was formed ; and thus the two types, combined, 120 THE APPEOACHmO CRISIS. commenced the production of the different nations that subsequently peopled the earth. Still they were savage in habit and ferocious in disposition. They were far more animal than human ; the spiritual was as yet un- developed, and the material greatly preponderated. They lived peacefully and harmoniously so long as the various wants of their physical constitutions were plen- tifully supplied. When these material conditions were not fully complied with, they would like the beasts of the forests, or, perhaps, more as the inhabitants of the Cannibal Islands, manifest the unrefined and savage custom of quarreling and warring with each other and with nature for what they considered to be their rights. But I must hasten away over several centuries; dur- ing which period the youthful types of man employ- ed the natural, or rather rudiniental language — such as motions, gesticulations, coniigurations of the coun- tenance, &c. ; which, by not involving much complic- ity, they contrived to use, witiiout any distinct mod- ification or trouble, until they discovered their ability to make a vast variety of vocal sounds. This discovery was at first hailed with delight. Accordingly, they very rapidly abandoned their primitive habit and form of expression ; and forthwith began to communicate their thoughts by vocal effort. And now, behold, what a great fire a little matter kindleth ! When the early inhabitants used only gesticulations, assisted by a crude form of hieroglyphical language, as means of individual communication, the simplicity and fixedness of the agents employed, prevented all mis- understcmding as to the real import of each other's thoughts. Vegetables, animals, birds, mud-images, THE TKUE OKIGIN Off EVIL. 121 objects -Worked oat of soft stone, — such were their books, their history, their creeds and schools. But with vocal expression came also misunderstanding ! Their minds were not yet sufficiently developed to establish grammatical order and intelligent sounds ; and it was soon discovered that different persons would make different oral sounds to signify the same thing. Not properly" understanding each other's natures, each held the other responsible for intentionally, and with premeditation, varying the sound of the voice when referring to any specifie thing. Many of the youthful nation soon became impatient — honestly supposing that the vocal expressions were breeding falsehoods and deception. They rapidly became displeased with eacli other; and socially miserable and antagonistic. They became envious, cruel, and deceptive; because their intellectual endowments were not enough developed to account for, and properly prevent the abounding mis- understandings. However, there was a chieftain in their midst who declared that they were possessed by a strange and wicked being, who floated in the invisible shades of night in the air, breathing a malignant element into their minds. This piece of mystical specu- lation the chieftain taught them by using their cast-off hieroglyphical images. Thus commenced a discord which caused the youthful family to separate and wander abroad over the earth. One tribe blamed and denounced the other as the cause of the discord ; and thus was formed the jvrst theory in this world of the origin of evil. The separated tribes soon multiplied and established small nations, each developing a different language in order to escape the hypothetical evil of the 122 THE APPKOACHING CEISIS. first vocal sounds employed; and so originated the different nations and the early discords among the human species, All this is demonstrable by the history of races and language. The facts herein disclosed and set forth, concerning the origin of the first discords among the foundation- progenitors of mankind, can be, I am impressed to say, substantiated by reference to various sd&rces of out- ward or external information. All ethnological re- searches into the derivation and distribution of the different races and families of men ; all arch£eological investigations into the mysteries and science of an- tiquities ; all philological discoveries concerning the origin, science, and affinities of the different languages; all geological disclosures, and the science of compara- tive anatomy, each and all stand as so many unexpected and unsought sources of demonstration, that the fore- going statements respecting evil are grounded in his- torical Truth. Indeed the science of the origin of language, of the different races of men, of the diverse religions and mythologies in the world, essentially require, in common reason, something like the above substratum of historical prcecognita or ascertained data from which to commence a train of logical inferences and deductions. Furthermore, how intrinsically probable is this reveal- ment of the origin of discord when compared to any theory now received. The Old Testament asserts the different languages and races of men to have origin- ated, subsequent to a universal deluge, by a super- natural "confusion of tongues" and scattering of the tribes engaged in building the Babel-tower. Geology, THE TRUE OEIGIN OF EVIL. 123 be it distinctly remembered, unfolds evidences against the possihility of a universal inundation ; and besides, the atmosphere could not have sustained watery vapor in sufficient quantity to cover the whole earth on the event of condensation. On the score, therefore, of mere natural reasonable probability, the account, which I have been impressed to relate, must stand pre-em- inently recommended to your understanding and cre- dence. Because, moreover, it appears in the line of all archaeological and geological discoveries with which this age is so exceedingly enriched — a powerful pre- sumptive evidence of its truth, which should not be overlooked by impartial minds. In oflfering these historic suggestions, as so many con- spiring evidences of the verity of this philological reveal- raent, I design not to trouble the reader of this work with the many argumentations which appear adducible. There are, however, a few passages, bearing directly and favorably on this question, which I quote from an admirably written and rationally disposed work,* en- titled " God in Christ," opening with a very valuable dissertation concerning the natural migin and spiritual significancy of human language. In speaking of the origin of vocal sounds, the author says : " It is undoubt- edly true, as many have asserted, that human language * A friend first called my attentioa to this work, because its autlior. Dr. BnaHirELti, has expressed, in the initial chapter, corresponding ideas respecting the disputes and differences which arise from the arbitrary nature and indeterminate use of vocal expression. From the representa- tions, given, I can not see how he can refuse to acknowledge the tracta- bility and probability of the foregoing statement in regard to the origin and establishment of the different languages. 124r THE APPEO ACHING CEISIS. is a gift of God to the race, though not, I think, in the sense often contended for. It is by no means asserted, in the Scriptures to which they refer, that God himself pronounced the sounds, or vocal names, by which the objects of the world were represented, nor that He framed these names into a grammar." Again, in alluding to the instinct of language in the first man being developed by having his mind directed to objects around him, the writer says: "He was, himself, in this view, the occasional cause of the naming process; and, considering the nature of the first man to have been originally framed for language^ he was the creative cause; still the man himself, in his own freedom, is the immediate, operative cause ; the language produced is as truly a human, as a divine product. It is not only /or the race, but it is also of the race — a human development, as truly as knowl- edge, or virtue, or the forms of the social state." The writer is truly aware of the troubles among philological investigators concerning the parentage of vocal expression ; and thinks " the fact, that there are living languages, between which no real affinity can be discovered, still exists in its integrity " — forcing us to " either admit the existence of races originally distinct, or else we must refer these languages to the Scripture solution of a miracle." This conclusion the writer, like a truly philosophic rationalist and thinker, manifests no particular proclivity to accept; but considers no mystery in the idea that the " difi'erent latiguages are so many free developments of the race." On this head, he remarks : " Nor is there any so great impossibility or mystery in this mattei* of originating a language, as THE TEDB ORIGIN OF EYIL. 125 many seem to suppose. I hope it will not offend the romantic or marveling propensity of my readers, if I aliirm that a new language lias been created and has perished in Connecticut, within the present century." Still further on he says : " Nor is there any reason to doubt that incipient and rudimental eflforts of nature, in this direction, are often made, though in cases and modes that escape attention. Indeed, to believe that any two human beings, shut up wholly to each other, to live together until they are of a mature age, would not construct a language, is equivalent, in my estima- tion, to a denial of their proper humanity." All tliis, as the reader perceives, favors the rationalistic solution of the question. As to the tendency of vocal expression, to produce dis- cord and unintentional derangements among men, the writer remarks : "men are so different, even good and true men, in their personal temperament, their modes of feeling, reasoning, and judging, that moral bitter- ness, in its generic sense, will not be a state or exercise of the same precise quality in their minds. Some per- sons will take as bitterness in general, what others will only look upon as faithfulness, or just indignation. And, then, in the particular case to which the word is to be applied, different views and judgments will be formed of the man, his provocations, circumstances, duties, and the real import of his words and actions." " Words," continues the author, " are legitimately used as the signs of thoughts to be expressed. They do not literally convey, or pass over a thought out of one mind into another, as we commonly speak of doing. They are only hints, or images, held up before the mind of 126 THE APPEOACHING CKISIS. another, to put him on generating or reproducing the same thought ; which he can do only as he has the same personal contents, or the generative power out of which to bring the thought required. Hence, there will be dif- ferent measures of understanding or misunderdanding according to the capacity or incapacity, the ingenuous- ness or moral obliquity of the receiving party — even if the communicating party offers only truth, in the best and freshest forms of expression the language provides." From the foregoing paragraphs it is reasonable to infer, that Dr. B has rationally meditated upon the causes of " the interminable disputes of the theologians ;" and has seen, no doubt, several insurmountable difficulties, which he lias labored not to see, standing in the way, pre- venting the reconciliation of an infallible revelation with the aibitrary and indeterminate nature of the language in which that revelation is clothed and forced upon the vast contrariety of intellects that compose the human world. An:ilogous troubles are often generated, by similar trivial causes, among children who just begin to use vocal expression whereby to communicate their thoughts. You will see them playing together, delighted with each other's society,, until something is suggested to be attempted in their gambols, which they have not the words or the power to clearly express and define. In their haste and impetuosity, they misunderstand each other's intentions, and the disturbance quickly embroils and embitters the whole party. Each feels the other to be clearly at fault ; and so, the little angels change their peace into a domestic war. Thus were commenced the first troubles among mankind. THE TRUE OEIQIN OF EVIL. 127 The church theory of evil, on the contrary, attributes or involves a defect in the divine goodness, or in the divine power. One creed represents God allowing evil to appear in the creature-man in order to openly dis- play his own prowess and sovereignty. Another creed represents God as designing to make man morally good, but had not the power to do so consistently with the crea- ture's moral freedom. Consequently, evil walks into the creation in spite of the Creator ; being, according to the supposition, a counterpart or necessary result of the good he would create. My present impressions can not be more intelligibly or practically worded than they have already been by an independent thinker and vigorous writerof this centu- ry,* and as set forth in the following extract: "Thus moralism is the parent of fetichism, or superstitious wor- ship, the parent of all sensual and degrading ideas of God, the parent of all cruel and unclean and abomina- ble worship. Leading me as it does to regard my in- ward self as corrupt, to distrust my heart's affections as the deadliest enmity to God, it logically prompts tlie crucifixion of those affections as especially well pleasing to Him, and bids me therefore offer my child to the flames, clothe my body in sackcloth and ashes, lacer- ate my skin, renounce the comforts and refinements of life, turn hermit or monk, forswear marriage, wear lugubrious and hideous dresses that insult God's day- light, and make myself, in short, under the guise of a voluntary and mendacious humility, perfectly ulcerous * See " Moralism and Christianity ; or, Man's Experience and Destiny." By Henet Jambs, pp. 160, 161, et seq. 128 THE APPKO ACHING CEI3IS. with spiritual pride, a mass of living pumlence and putridity. It is, I repeat, simplj, inevitable that moralism, or the doctrine of man's subjection to society, should pro- duce these effects, should enormously inflame the pride of one class of its subjects, and as enormously de- press that of another class. For if I, being a morally good man, that is, conscientiously abstaining from all injustice or injury to my neighbor, come to regard that character as constituting a distinction for me in the sight oi God, as giving me a distinction there above some poor devil of an opposite character, it is easy to see I must become as inwardly full of conceit and in- humanity as a nut is full of meat. How can it be otherwise ! If the All-seeing behold in me any su- periority to the most leprous wretch that defiles your streets, then clearly I have the highest sanction for esteeming myself above that wretcli, and treating him not with fellow-feeling, but with condescension and scorn. I know the unctuous cant, the shabby sophistry, which prevails upon this subject. I know it will be replied that I " ought not "' forsooth ! to do thus, tliat it "would be wrong" forsooth! for me to exalt myself above this poor wretch on the ground of my superior morality. But wherefore wrong? If tliat morality really distinguish me before God, if it constitute a su perior claim to the divine favor, then it were flat incon- sistency in me, it were flat treason to God, not to acknowledge it in my practice. Can God's judgnaent be unrighteous ? Wherefore then should I hesitate in any case to conform mv conduct to it? THE TRUE OETGIN OF EVIL. 129 "Ah!" replies some one, "but you do not see as God sees. If you saw all the temptations that have beset that poor wretch, if you could see in the first place, the superior intensity of his passions to yours, his comparative intellectual disadvantages, his depraved circumstances from infancy up, and so forth, you would possibly regard your difference as small, and abate somewhat the tone of your triumph." This is all true. This is exactly what I myself say. But then if the circumstances here alleged should affect ray judgment of my poor friend, much more should they affect Ills judgment to whom they are so much better known ! If I cease on these grounds to exalt myself over my fellow, how much more must God cease to exalt me ! But if this be so, what becomes of your moral distinc- tions in His sight ? If He have no higher esteem for me, a morally good man, than he has for you, a morale ly evil man, then it is clear that the moral life is not the life He confers, the life of which He is chiefly solicitious. Tou perceive that you are here in a dilemma. Either God esteems me a virtuous man above you a vicious man, or He does not. If He does, then inas- much as all His judgments are riglit, and designed for our instruction, I should instantly learn to esteetn my- self above you, that is, to withhold from you sympathy or fellowship, in which case I become inhuman by virtue of a direct divine influence. If, on the other hand. He does not esteem me a virtuous man above you a vicious man, then you deny the moral life to be God's life in man. How will you extricate yourself from this dilemma 2 6* 130 THE APPEOACHINQ CEISIS. There is but one way. You will say that it was not your intention to represent God aa holding one man intrinsically superior, or superior in himself, to another, but relatively or socially superior only ; supe- rior, that is, with reference to the purposes of society. There is consequently no further quarrel between us. Moral distinctions belong purely to our earthly gene- sis and history. They do not attach to us as the creatures of God. As the creature of society, I am either good or evil. I am good as keeping my natural gratification within the limits of social prescription, or evil as allowing it to transcend those limits. But as the creature of God, or in my most vital and final selfhood, I am positively good ; good without any op- pugnancy of evil ; good, not by any stinted angelic mediation, but by the direct and unstinted indwelling of the Godhead. I have now expressed my thought with more detail than befits a popular Lecture. But as I conceive the subject to be of especial interest to all thoughtful minds, I am anxious to commend it to your perfect apprehension. With this view, let me still further ask your indulgent attention, while I discuss an objection which may possibly arise in the minds of some of my audience. It was alleged, on the delivery .of the preceding Lecture, that I deny moral distinctions. The allega- tion is vaguely worded, but it is doubtless worthy of respectful investigation. If it mean, then, that I deny any difi'erence between good and evil actions ; that I call murder, adultery, theft, and so forth, good actions, of course the charge is siUy, and not worth refuting. THE TEUE OEIGIN OF EVIL. 131 In this sense no man ever denied moral distinctions. No man — not even the unfortunate subject of them — ever justified adultery, theft, murder, or falsehood. No man ever did one of these things spontaneously, or at the instance of his taste. I have indeed heard of per- sons who had a mania for theft ; who, from some ex- ceptional cerebral organization, could omit no oppor- tunity to enricli themselves at the expense of others. But tliese cases are regarded, of course, as exceptions to the ordinary tenor of human nature, and as putting the subject beyond the pale of responsibility. Because, if there be a cotistitutional aptitude to this offense in the party, you manifestly acquit the party himself of it. You would no more hold him personally respons- ible, under these circumstances, than you would hold him personally liable for a hare-lip or any other morbid development. No man, then, I repeat, ever injured another from taste or spontaneity. Hence no man ever justified a moral delinquency, ever supposed him- self acting worthily in taking his neighbor's life, prop- erty, or good name, or in seducing the afl'ections of his wife. The objector consequently does not mean to say that I confound good and evil actions, since the constitution of the human mind makes that impossible. lie means, then, doubtless, that I do not regard the man who does good actions as intrinsically better than the man who does evil actions. lie means, doubtless, that I do not regard the morally good man as possess- ing any superior claims upon "the divine favor to the morally evil man, but view them both as lieirs of the same eventual and glorious destiny. If the objector 132 THE APPEOACHNIG CEISIS. means this by his charge, then let me suggest an amendment of its form. Let him say to me : you deny, not the existence or importance of moral distinc- tions among men, but simply their divinity. Tou deny that God is in any measure privy ttj these dis- tinctions. To the charge, thus amended, I freely plead guilty. I am persuaded that God's eyes, however uni- versal, their empire, have never yet been astounded by the appearance of evil in His creatures. Whence should that evil come ? It can not come from Himself, who is essentially good. Whence, then, should it have come? For the supposition, you perceive, makes it a phenomenon of God's creation ; it is the possibility of evil in God's creature that we are discussing. How could evil be possible in that creature? You may say that it came from the Devil. Yery well ; let that an- swer stand. If evil came from the Devil, then the Devil, in infusing evil into God's creature, acted either with God's consent, or without it. If he acted with it, then of course God saw that it would not injure the creature, since He had methods of turning it all to the creature's superior proiit, and so proving the Devil a fool for his pains. If he acted without God's consent, then of course you give the Devil not only a superior power to God, but a superior power over God's own work, or in the sphere of God's own activity. That is to say, you make the absolute creature of infinite Good confess himself the offspring of a deeper paternity — ^the pater- nity of infinite Evil. But take either branch you choose of this hideous dilemma, you manifestly absolve the creature himself THE TRUE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 133 of all defilement. For whether the Devil infuse evil into him with or without the consent of Deity, it is clearly an operation under which the creature himself is passive, and I fancy that even the Devil is too good a logician to hold one responsible for his passions, but only for his actions. Any child might otherwise refiite him. My passional nature means my various suscepti- bility of enjoyment and suffering from nature and man; my passions are merely the concrete forms of this vari- ous susceptibility. You would not therefore hold me responsible for my passions, unless you at the same time ascribedto me the paternity of nature and man — unless you at the same time held me to have created this universal frame of nature and society, to which these passions owe all their existence. Thus the Devil turns out an unprofitable hypothesis. He is an infinite lie. No one can trust in him without being confounded. He looms portentously large in all infant cosmologies — in all those theories of creation which are constructed by the sensuous imagination of the race ; but you have only to prick him with the smallest pin of science, and he fairly roars you a con- fession of egregious imbecility. The entire traditional doctrine of the origin of evil is irrational and abhorrent. In one phase it asperses the divine goodness ; in another the divine power. One hypothesis represents God as allowing evil to appear in the creature only that He might display His sovereignty, not in reconciling it with good, and so affording a basis for His own manifestation in nature, but in afflicting it with ceaseless torments. Surely this is a puerile concep- tion of God which makes him capable of ostentation, 13i THE APPEOACUmO CEISI3. capable of enjoying a mere emptj parade of his power. The conception converts Him, in fact, into an aggra- vated bully, intent upon the display of his physical prowess. It is groveling and disgusting beyond every other product of our sensuous imagination. It de- grades Deity below the brute even. For the tiger makes no sacrifice to ostentation. He inflicts no suffer- ing in demonstration of his power and the consequent gratification of his vanity, but only in satisfaction of an honest natural ai)petite. If accordingly, this hypoth- esis of creation were just, moral distinctions would be seen to claim a basis in God's want of love, in his inferiority to tigers. The other hypothesis attributes evil to a defect, not of the divine goodness, but of the divine power. It represents God as designing to make man morally good. But as moral good is in its very nature finite or conditional, as it is conditioned upon the inseparable co-existence of moral evil, so God, however much He may desire it, is practically unable to keep evil out of the universa From the nature of the case, from the nature of the good He designs to bestow. He can not make one man good without making another evil. Hence you perceive that evil stalks into creation in spite of God, being involved in the good He would create. The only way, consequently, in which He might exclude it, would be to forego Ilis creative design altogether. For His design being to create moral good, and moral good standing in the inseparable antagonism of moral evil, in efiect or practically His design is to create the one as much as the other. "We may, indeed, represent the evil man as so much THE TEUE OKIOm OF EVIL. 135 inevitable chips, or waste material ; bnt we gain nothing by this notion. For is not he always esteemed an im- perfect workman who leaves chips behind him, wlio can not work without a shocking waste of material ? Our divines see fit, indeed, to blink all these monstrous contradictions, and doubtless they have a reward. But is it not gratuitous in them to go further than this, and represent the Deity not merely as making chips, but also as vindictively bestowing an everlasting vitality on these chips in order to their never-ending combus- tion ? According to this hypothesis, then, you perceive that moral distinctions among men grow out of a defect in the divine power. The former hypothesis attributes them to a defect of God's goodness, or an inferiority of His internal endowments. The latter attributes them to a defect of his power, or an inferiority of his external endowments. Each proceeds upon an implication of His imperfection, and hence they are both alike intrin- sically absurd and blasphemous." You ask, " If this doctrine of evil does not also imply some defect in the original plan ?" Does it not involve the attributes of the Creator? Could He not have made creation perfect at once, and set man on the path of happiness, preventing all tlie misery and trouble in the world? These questions, my friends, are wholly unanswerable, on the church theory of God and his method of creating. But the Harmonial Philosophy finds no inconsistence or perplexity in these questions ; because it does not admit any such a thing as " creation " in the popular definition of the term. The Deity, con- sidered in the creative capacity, is a divine Heaet in 136 THE APPJBOAOHINO CEI8IS. the universe ; two peinciplks of love and wisdom, which are immutable and invariable. He is himself controlled by those principles which spontaneously flow from his inexhaustible being into and through inlinitude. He does not create worlds, and then day by day labor with his hands, or by a prodigious exercise of spiritual voli- tion, make trees, birds, animals, and man ; but, on the contrary, just as the blood flows through the human body, forming bone and muscle in the system at all points and extremities, so the unchangeable principles of Association, Progression, and Development flow forth from the deific IIeaet of the Universe, unfolding worlds, like flowers, and progressively developing the various forms which animate their surfaces. If the All-pervading Spirit were merely a sovereign, somewhere outside of the material and spiritual uni- verse, then it would become a troublesome question to reconcile imperfection with perfection, as all Christian scholars invariably discover and acknowledge. But when we come to see, by investigating the works and ways of the Actuating Principle, that Progress is a law of existence, and that development follows it as a natural sequence, then we easily recognize that the Moving Spirit is as much under tlie regulations of certain principles as the brain, the organ of man's mind, and even the mind itself, are controlled by laws that are " without variableness, neither shadow of turning." Bnt you ask me another question: "If the AU-per- vadnig Spirit is intrinsically good and perfect, how became man, the effect, so inclined to create and per- petuate evil?" The reply is manifestly very simple THE TEUE OEiam OF EVIL. 137 and self-evident. Evil is not substance ; it is Ignorance. What is termed "evil" disappears in proportion as I'noioledge increases. Barbarism is supplanted by civil- ization. Wild animals become extinct as humanity spreads its wings over the territories of nature. I deny, therefore, that positive "evil" exists anywhere in the universe. A good thing, through ignorance, may be improperly used. The law of combustion, by which tire is produced, is a source of great comfort and immense advantages to the human family. But the first man who came in contact with the element was 'burned, and thus he cursed and vilified the fire ; be- cause, merely, he was ignorant of the organic laws of his being, and ignorant also of the science of controlling and converting fire into a useful agent. Suppose, to continue illustrating, an engineer should construct a machine for some wise and beneficial purpose. If judiciously managed, it will produce ex- ceedingly good results. But an ignorant man, not comprehending tl:e nature and use of the mechanism, sets it in motion, gets involved in the wheels, and is sadly wounded or crushed to death. What shall we say? Shall we condemn the invention ? Shall we exe- crate the engineer, and hold liim morally responsible? Shall we ilcnne any thing or anybody-? God forbid. If we are reasonable, we must say. It was owing to the ignorance of tlie man wliich caused the good mechan- ism to do a disastrous work. Now, the laws which control the moral world are just as perfect and positive as the laws of the physical world. Truth, love, friendship, ambition, &c., are each capable, under wrong development and management, 138 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. of developing discords of various kinds and degrees,* Each man carries in his heart the elements of an angel ; these life-principles are intrinsically good and perfect ; but we see the vicious habitudes thereof only when, from ignorance or causes growing directly or indirectly out of ignorance and defective moral sensibilities, those indwelling principles are subverted and misdirected in their manifestation upon relative personalities and con- tiguous interests. Anger, cupidity, malice, revenge, licen- tiousness, hypocrisy, &c., are not immanent or residing in the constitution of mind. They are the wrong devel- opment, the wrong management and exercise of intrin- sically good and, ultimately to be, angelic principles. Look at intemperance. It would not require much insight to trace the origin of this evil. It frequently occurs that a working-man, chained from day to day to a repugnant and monotonous labor, seeks distraction and alleviation in various ways. Lest his life should be a continuous burden and punishment, he seeks alcohol ; because he finds in drunkenness a temporary relief from his cares, accompanied with an agreeable excitement. Soon it becomes his master, and he has no individual power to resist the temptation. A different social con- struction, making, as a general principle, every man's life happy, his future certain, his labors agreeable and various, would successfully sweep intemperance and licentiousness from the earth. Every man, as I read the human heart, has an in- dwelling disposition toward ease and luxury ; which, when the individual is on the sensuous plane of exist- * See chapter on Moral Cultivation, in Great Hannonia, vol. II. THE TEUE OETGIN OF EVIL. 139 once — having perhaps imich l-nnwing power or intel- lect, but little restraining power or moral sensibilities — is almost certain, in this transitional state of civiliza- tion, to manifest itself in thi-ft or burglary. Betrayed love begets or originates jealousy, which may lead to murder ; disappointed ambition and love of power originate war ; a wounded feeling originates anger. The origin of evil, my friends, is not an historical and theological question ; but a present and practical problem to solve, with an eye to its successful preven- tion. Hark ! Do you hear that multitude of voices ? Do you see those prayers ascending? There are arising, from no less than thirty thousand American pulpits, these words — or words whicli imply their signification : " Our Father, who art in heaven — thy kingdom come : thy will he done on earth as it is in heaven !" Now does the Church do any thing toward establishing this king- dom on earth ? Does it institute practical measures to bring happiness among men ? Does it do any thing conspicuously toward the banishment of oppression and crime ? No ! But it sends forth wordy invocations to heaven — long and loud prayers to God, that his harmo- nious kingdom might come on earth. What was it that refreshed all New York City? What saved the inhabitants from fearful fevers and epidemics ? What introduced the greatest blessings into and through that extensive city? Was it prayers? Was it invocations to the living God ? It was the energy, and enterprise, and intelligence of her citizens that "smote the desert rock," and caused to flow, into the darkest recesses and loftiest dwellings, the pure and 14rO THE APPEOACHING OEISIS. healthy watee. So likewise, this human world will come to see that praying and sermonizing will never refresh and cleanse the moral condition of man, and unfold the " kingdom of heaven " on earth ; but it vs'ill come to be seen that all this, and more than this, will be yet accomplished through the progressive develop- ment and well-directed energy of the human soul. The Chnrch, I repeat, is constantly praying for the will of God to be. " done on earth as it is in heaven," — that is to say, that the laws of God be as much obeyed in this sphere as they are in tlie spheres above. But, friends, I am impressed to say that we should come here to organize ourselves into a form, or body, whicli shall tend to develop this harmonious condition in our- selves and in human society. We sliould come here to develop into fonu and order the great fundamental and essential principles of Christianity — to make every man a law unto himself, and a doer of righteous deeds. By a living fact, as an illustration, the reader will obtain the import of this personal doing of good. In an obscure street in the city of B , there lives an honest, simple-hearted mechanic. Pie belongs to no organization, no moral reform association, or temper- ance society. He has no President to "call him to order," no Secretary to " record liis movements," no Treasurer to " collect and preserve" his funds; and yet that one man has alone and mainly unassisted, defended-, bailed out of prison, and procured healthy employ- ment for about seven hundred criminals and licentious men and women. 1 have met this unpretending man on his mission of love to the haunts of \'ice — to the cell of the prisoner, and liave asked him, " Who sends THE TEUE OEIGIN OF EVIL. 141 yon, my friend, on this blessed mission ? who directs you how to proceed ? who supplies you with the neces- sary means to accomplish all this good?" Said he: "Something here (pointing to his breast) tells me when to go and what to do ; and when I need money, I ask the first apparently rich man I meet for it — and then another, and another, and so on ; and I soon get all I need."* Now, this is the divine principle upon which we should come together — the principle which should actuate and control all our thoughts, our deeds, and' movements. Think of it! Seven hundked vicious and criminal individuals saved from a life of bondage and personal degradation, and furnished with useful and healthy employment — all by one poor, honest-hearted mechanic. And I have heard this man say, that,- in all his famil- iarity with these so-called " depraved characters," he has not yet met with one single instance of absolute ingratitude, or positive indisposition to personal refor- mation. This is very significant. "What, think you, is this man's opinion of the human heart ? What view- does he entertain of man? My friends, I have heard him say, in substance, that he believed the human heart to be pure, and man to be capable of endless develop- ment in goodness ! Who, then, believes in " total de- pravity <" The answer is too plain ! It is believed and * My impressions no-w- embrace two individuals in the city of Boston, veritable brotfiers in tljo field of human suffering — John M. Spear and John Augustus — who. in their efforts to be and to do good, are truly examples of what I mean by being a law unto ourselves. In this rela- tion Mr. Pease of the "Five Points Mission," New York, should be remembered. 142 THE APPEOAOHING 0EISI9. inculcated by the multitude of clergymen — by tbose who never make it their business to bail out of prison, and procure employment for, seven hundred criminals. Most of the evils that afflict the world to-day did not originate in the fabled garden of Eden ; nor yet among the youthful types of mankind ; but they spring out of ignorance, out of defective social and religious institu- tions. For example : one evil in this world, is disease. How did it originate? Shall we go to Genesis to in- quire ? Shall we seek the information from the pulpit ? Nay ; because we find the origin of this evil in our very midst. Ignorance leads the individual to violate the laws of his being, by the injudicious use of food, of sleep, of air, of occupations, &c. ; or, in this state of social isolation and unorganized industry, many persons are constrained to engage in labors which daily violate nature and generate disease. Licentiousness, or incon- stancy, is another evil in present society. How does it originate? Is it a supernatural sin? Is it an evil? According to my impressions, the domestic discords, arising from this cause, could — and in the future will — all be prevented by congenial marriage relations. But why not prevent the evil which grows out of these re- lations to-day ? Do you hesitate because you are all to- tally depraved ? Far from it. Every man who has progressed to the moral scale of feeling, yearns to eradi- cate it at once. But ignorance of human nature — ignorance of the principles and attractions of the human mind — stand between you and the institution of a proper marriage. But inconstancy, or love of change, when properly and philosophically understood, does not at all apply to the institution of marriage, or to the THE TEUE OBIQIN OF EVIL. 143 conjugal affections ; in this sphere it is seen in its sul- verdve or misdirected attitude — giving results, like the wrongly used mechanism, which seem evil and disas- trous to human happiness. Every man has a disposi- tion to alternate the exercise of his pliysical and men- tal faculties. This is a wise and good inclination ; be- cause it maintains health and a proper equilibrium in both body and mind ; and this is the proper sphere for the manifestation of inconstancy by alternating em- ployments. Hence the evil of licentiousness is easily traced to its origin. To my mind all excesses are vi- cious — that is, injurious and hurtful to man and society — whether in itidividuals or institutions. It is an easy thing to sit in judgment upon our neighbors, as clergy- men presumptuously preach against and vilify man- kind ; but it is quite another thing to be on the throne of wisdom, and to judge with a righteous judgment — not from appearances, but from truths ! You ask : " Does not this philosophy of evil relieve the individual of moral responsibility ?" Mankind, I reply, are as a family, in which diverse inclinations and opinions are constantly manifested — one against the other. All discords are traceable to society ; because, without association, there could not be any war, any theft, or cupidity, as now evidently flow from the con- tact of relative tastes and situations. If association is the caxhse of individual disturbances, association must furnish the cure. The individual tinds himself, after attaining to the years or period of discretion (?) placed between two antagonistic forces: the discordant laws of society, and the harmoniously imperative Laws of Nature! The former constrain him; the latter yield 144 THE APPBOACHmG CKI8IS. Lim liberty, ease, and happiness. As to the extent to which the individual should be held morally responsible by society for his deeds, is an arbitrary question, which the highest wisdom and benevolence of every Age will and must decide for its own special regulation or gov- ernment. Our duty surely is to study man. This is the commencement of wisdom, and the vestibule of a temple of truth, whose vast interior and divine pos- sessions may occupy your spirits for countless ages. The more we. study man, the more certain will it be- come that there is no positive evil in existence; only the local disturbances and social imperfections which are consequent upon a progressive system of human development in minds and morals. " Then," you in- quire, " if this be true, how shall we rebuke evils and remove misdirections ?" Plainly ; you who have outr grown the causes of discord should teach otliers how to follow your example, and help them to do so. This effort to remove evil, however, when confined to the individual power of accomplishment, will not work out one-tenth of the good which would be an easy result of organization. One individual can not vote influ- entially unless he belongs to a combination. Hence, on this principle, all merely individual efforts to cure great evils will be little ; while an associative move- ment, or a combination of individual forces, is certain to achieve greater and more permanent results. These are common-place aphorisms ; but clergymen, in their sermons, generally neglect them, and denounce the in- dividual as willfully sinful and degenerate ! Those who bave progressed above the present semi- civilized and transitional stage of human soeiely — THE TEUE OEIGIN OF EVIL. 145 which produces or nourishes the fungus productions, termed orthodox theology and supernaturalistic Christi- anity — should openly avow the new truths manifested to their vision, and teach the people also how to ascend the glorious eminence of religious and spiritual free- dom. Among the numerous reasons why we are moved to free our minds of the existing forms and institutions of supernaturalistic theology, are the following : — It assumes to be — or to possess within its organiza- tion and cardinal doctrines — the medium or totality of inspiration ; and arrogantly proclaims itself to be the supreme and sovereign authority. It arbitrarily deter- mines what book, or what peculiar combination of books, we shall revere as the " Word of God ;" and then denies to us the right of exercising the same amount of intellectual, moral, and religious liberty. It describes the circle in which we shall move, and think, and reason ; and then authoritatively and dogmatically denies to us the moral and religious freedom to advance beyond it. It thus imposes what we conceive to be im- proper and demoralizing restrictions upon our thoughts and investigations — trammels the progressive develop- ment of our minds, and peremptorily denies to us the divine privilege of free discussion and a free expression of our inward sentiments. It unites with society in its unphilosophical and unbrotherly treatment of the criminal, and of the un- fortunate victim of crime ; and it (that is, popular The- ology) sanctions the old barbarian or Mosaic law of Capital Punishment. It justifies society in the perpetuation of personal and national animosities and antagonisms. It permits war t 146 THE APPEOACHIITQ CEISI8. confiscation of property, and carnage ; and it assists to promote successful military chieftains — without regard either to merit or demerit — to the responsible position of emperors and governors. It sanctions the monarchical despotism of monopolies. It smiles, with silent approbation, upon the conflict be- tween Labor and Capital. It permits the present unjust remuneration of the toiling millions.* It permits them to live from day to day without the least guaranty of a home in case of pecuniary adversity or ill health ; and, more than all, it openly and emphatically sanctions, by Scripture arguments, the dark and fearful sin of human slavery ! It deforms and enslaves, but it does hot reform and emancipate the human mind, from the confinements and mournful influences of Sectarianism. Its influence is not positive and reformatory; but it is merely nega- tively restraining. It opposes almost every measure or movement which originates with the people. It engen- ders melancholy and erroneous conceptions of the nature and destiny of man. It keeps up a perpetual warfare between the head and the heart. It encourages a gladi- atorial struggle against liberty of speech and freedom of action. It even opposes temperance reformation, un- less it originates in the church ; and uniformly exerts its multiform influences, to restrain the progress of social and prison reforms, upon identical grounds. It generates cupidity and hypocrisy, by teaching our children to regard certain doctrines as truths, which * These charges apply to no partioular section of this country, hut, generally, to all Christendom. THE TEUE OEIGIN OE EVIL. 147 (because those doctrines are not trne) can not be felf ; but which, nevertheless, are frequently. miinifested with all the show of confidence in their validity. This leads directly to practical dissimulation and deceit. Many persons are in the constant practice of exhibiting piety, who, at the same time, do not (because they can not) J'eel such piety to be sacred truth ; and this apparently willful hypocrisy on the part of some individuals, leads directly to the theological assumption-^an assumption which has retarded human progress for ages — that the heart of man is desperately wicked and depraved by nature. It instills dark and unwholesome thoughts into the minds of our children. It teaches them to believe in the most soul-revolting doctrines. They are educated to consider themselves as " totally depraved " — and as being under the " curse" of the living God. It teaclies them to regard themselves as evil, and "sinners" by nature; and as incapable of being good and heaven- worthy, independent of the Bible and the Church. They are taught to believe in a " God of Love," who, at the same time, encourages hate ; and in a " God of Heaven," who, at the same time, permits the everlast- ing duration of Hell ! Thus our youth become intellect- ually contaminated by the existing methods of religious education ; and, when they advance in years, and be- come men and women, either they become bigots and sectarians, or else skeptics and misanthropes. A sad- ness and gloom are consequently thrown over our minds; and we deprive ourselves and our children of a .large proportion of that enjoyment and progressive happiness which are the inalienable rights of man ! 148 THE APPROACHING CEISIS. It asserts this whole worM of huinan beings to be under an Adamic curse or condemnation. It lias most dogmatically pronounced, and still continues to assert it, that all the sorrows, and perplexities, and vicissitudes, and trials, and discords, and diseases, and all the afflic- tions of this mundane state, are expressly sent by the living God to punish man for his alleged manifold transgressions! And it has openly opposed every medical reform, every social improvement, every be- nevolent design, upon the fabulous ground that such mortal attempts were wicked, and would prove unavail- ing, because they were in opposition to the " will" and punishment of God. It trammels the progress and advancement of mankind, by teaching our children and our communities to believe the erroneous and baneful doctrine, that no improvement or reformation can be permanently accomplished, except through the so- called "divine" instrumentalities and multifarious re- strictions and principles of the established Church. It strives to awaken in our minds what we consider to be imaginary compunctions of conscience. It im- poses what we conceive to be unnecessary and deform- ing "trials" upon us; and causes us to "crucify" ourselves, and " bear crosses" that are wholly unnatural and wrong. We therefore leel that it has defrauded us, and the generations that are gone, of two-thirds of the real happiness and mental consolations which we solemnly believe to be ours, according to the laws of the human constitution and the universal Providence of God ! It dogmatically asserts Nature, and Reason, and. Conscience even, to be svhordinate tc ecclesiastical THE TEUE ORIGIN OF EVIL. Ii9 authority ! It inculcates the baneful doctrine that our very heart-impulses are naturally sinful and opposed to the '•' will of God." Here again it creates a false issue between the heart and the head ; and thus it has been the sole cause of impelling many minds into sad and hopeless insanity. It sheds a melancholy, dismal gloom over our families, our homes, and the nations of the civilized world. It renders this life a dark, and toil- some, and uncertain gift of God ; and, with its clouds of ignorance and superstition, it darkens our thoughts and anticipations of the other life. When our friends resign their material forms to the grave, tl>en this super- naturalistic Theology fills our hearts with sadness, and our minds with distressing doubts, concerning their future welfare and eternal happiness. And thus it spreads gloom, and disconsolation, and suicidal melan- choly, and insane despair, and mental misery, where joy, and cheerfulness, and righteousness, and happiness, should and might exist in abundance. I have affirmed that there is no Positive Evil in existence. Now, what evidence have we that this statement is true? The evidence, I reply, is universal. Tliere is more harmony than discord ; more heat than cold ; more light than darkness ; more peace than war; more order than confusion. Of this I shall speak here- after. But the fact, that there is nothing absolutely devoid of goodness — that every thing is overruled for good in the end — stands as a pyramidal demonstration of the negational or temporary nature of what we term sin or evil. Accordinir to the light wliicli I receive on these questions, every thing that ever occurred has accomplished some good end — yea, always more good 150 THE APrEOACHOTG CEISI8. than evil. Death is a terrible visitation, that is, to all externa] appearance ; but the individual is truly bom again. Just above a sharp thorn, the bud bursts open, and a flower unfolds. So every sorrow embosoms a joy — every grief is accompanied by some beneficent provision to mitigate its intensity, and secure a good result. Wars have at last turned in favor of human freedom. Family or local troubles have been greatly diminished by the art of war. But now, these vestiges of a protracted night of barbarian ignorance and patri- archal error, are, one by one, melting, like the ice that fetters the spring-time rivulets, and aU will soon be converted into a mighty ocean of never-ebbing peace. The morning sun shines out over the kindling skies of the horizon ; the millennial era is imperceptibly stealing over the world. The night has been eventful. Men have groped their way in darkness. Horrid dreams have flitted across the sleeper's mind ; and moral shep- herds have hailed them as the reflections of some dis- turbed and offended Divinity. But the chilliness and darkness of the night gradually subside, and a new dispensation sheds its celestial rays, kindling with rich- ness and wisdom, over the slumbering millions; and, lo ! as the spring day dissipates the mists and gloom of winter, so " old things pass away, and all things become NEW." Errors, like the shadows of escaping clouds, will disappear when the "Sun of Righteousness" — of wisdom, truth, and brotherly love — shall send its all- searching light and healing warmth into their midst. Will you not, then, take a higher position in the moral grades of the spiritual universe? I know you will. Like the eccentric comets, men primarily pursue strange THE TRUE ORIGIN OF EVIL. 151 paths in their revolutions around the Central Source of Eight. But all truth is analogous — all principles immu- table. Therefore, just as certain as the comet finally becomes a beautiful planet, and rolls harmoniously in the orbit of order ; so certainly will humanity event- ually glide into the sphere of harmony and into the paths of eternal rectitude. Humanity may be viewed from two positions : one affords pleasure, the other confusion ; one yields us a true estimate of the whole human faniily ; the other, distracts our sympathies and seems to substantiate the theological theory of man's fallen nature. The best Christian scholars obtain their worst impres- sions of man by constantly viewing him from unfavorable positions and in the most incongruous lights; while the rationalistic philosophers, having obtained more expanded and reasonable conceptions of things, con- template the human family with increasing satisfaction. It may be illustrated by supposing two individuals going forth to examine a landscape. One takes his position at a point of observation from which the eye can survey the entire combination of objects, trees, rocks, flowers, mounds, mountains, lights, and shades, which serve to constitute the most captivating exhi- bition of beaiitiful scenery. The other places himself in immediate contact with the constituents of the scene. We may now suppose that these individuals enter into conversation, through the agency of speaking trumpets, and commence describing what each actually observes and enjoys. The man from the distance, hailing the other who is in direct connection with the scene, asks : "What do you see?" He replies, "Oh, such discord 152 THE APPEOA€rBrN& CEISI8. and trouble ! I wish myself away 1" " What, from that charming prospect?" exclaims the man in the distance. " Indeed, I do," responds the other. " I can not advance a single step without wounding my limbs and lacerating my feet. Insurmountable rocks present themselves; and the narrow pass is overgrown with "poisonous weeds and thorny vines. Eough and angu- lar shapes are visible all around. When I look up, I can scarcely see the sunlight. — so dense and gloomy is the foliage. Even the birds have forsaken this dismal retreat. And the ravines seem so dark and miry, I think the serpents brood therein." The other observer, not appreciating the troubles his friend thus enumerates, asks: "Do you not see any beautiful flowers growing along the path, and musical streamlets leaping through the thicket ?" " Oh, now that you speak of them, I confess I do," responds the friend ; "but I can not enjoy any thing — my ilesh is wounded, and my spirit is fatigued and re- pelled, by the constant effort to surmount craggy ac- clivities and thorny promontories. I will seat myself in this gloomy place — ^though I much tremble to remain — while you describe this repulsive scene as it appears to you from your stand-point." We may now suppose the man in the distance reply- ing thus : " Taking, as I do, a free and comprehensive view of the whole— made up, as it undoubtedly is, of the parts which you have just described — I must con- fess that I never beheld a more perfect exhibition of harmonious beauty. The parts may be exceedingly roughly hevm ; but, to the over-seeing eye, tlie whole displays design, order, proportion, and variety. The THE TEtJE OEIGIN OF EVIL. 153 dense foliage seems like swelling waves of green, about to burst from siirplus life. The craggy rocks lend a variation and strength to the scene ; while the topmost boughs of the stalwart oaks, just catching the rays of the rising sun, shed forth a subdued light over the sur- rounding objects, which no pencil can impart to can- vas, or language describe. Do not — I pray thee — do not condemn the parts when tliey, are so manifestly essential to the linal development of an harmonious Whole r So the case stands to-day between rationalists and Bupernaturalists. The former view humanity from a position wliich enables them to tolerate, to love, to pro- tect, yea, to admire, the parts or the Individuals, for the sake of the variety and grandeur of the whole ; while the latter— the clergymen of Christendom and their followers — knowing comparatively nothing of the grand scheme of existence, devote themselves to the defamation and classical execration of the minor par- ticulars as the only method of altering the entire body to suit the expression they think it should wear. What would you think of an intelligent merchant tailor who had come to the popular clerical conclusion, that one pattern was truly orthodox ; and insists that everybody should wear the established size and shaped garment and no other ? "What would you say ? Would you alter your body to suit the pattern ? Or, the pattern to suit your body ? " The latter, of course," you reply. Now, the supernaturalists saj', that all should and shall wear their pattern.. And all the trouble there is, be- tween the pulpit and the people, arises from the theo- logical cutting and carving of individuals in order to 7* 154: THE APPEOACHING CEISI8. make the one orthodox pattern suit all degrees and shades of mind. But Humanity is a Tree. Its roots begin far down in the constitution of Nature, where the Germ was originally deposited. It commenced its upward growth many ages since. It grew onward in straight lines, until the period arrived for the putting forth of diverse branches. The lowest limbs were gigantic, replete with thorny projections, reaching far out into the air, casting deep shades on the earth. But the branches become smaller, and more beautiful, as the progression of refinement increases. The tree is not yet fully devel- oped. But already the birds of heaven alight on its highest boughs, and the beams of the rising Sun — the bright herald of the approaching crisis — illuminate those tiny leaves which tremblingly unfold their receptive vessels and lay their faces against the firmament. THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 155 CHAPTER Y. FOITETH EEVIEW. The theological fabric — ^Liberties 'with an infallible 'Word.-^The para- doxical compound. — Points of agreement with Swedenborg. — The devil improved. — Things and Powers. — Evidences of the existence of sin. — No Law of Right established. — Propositions analyzed. — The doctrine of blaming. — Governments; their object. — The false issues of theology. In the present discussion, it is deemed proper to define the position which I at present occupy respecting it. My posture is that of a reviewer and spectator. A master-builder is now engaged in constructing a the- ological fabric. My business is to observe the process ; to see whether any new principles of ethnological archi- tecture are truly developed ; to observe the timbers of thought as they are one by one adjusted ; to see whether the materials are sound and skillfully prepared; and to ascertain what the structure is good for when com- pleted. You will, therefore, perceive that I am not now at liberty to turn away, as my soul truly yearns to do, and unfold, to your mental vision and appreciation, the " house not made with hands," wherein reside the immortal truths and eternal revelations of the living God. But I must, as in the capacity of humanity's advocate, devote my present moments to a critical in- spection of the somewhat new form of Conservatism 156 THE APPEOACniNG CEISIS. whicli Dr. Bushnell is now giving birth to — or the new theologic fabric which he is now erecting — on the old Bupernatural foundation. " Know ttyself, presume not God to scan ; The proper study of mankind is man.'' On the broad, democratic, and rationalistic principle that " all scripture is given by inspiration," I am moved to select the foregoing passage according to the inspira- tion of Alexander Pope. This text requires no expounding ; only a practical application. It comes to me, on this occasion, as being highly applicable to you all in general, and to the champions of Supernaturalism in particular. It is not necessary for me to undertake to convince you of the immense value of personal knowledge ; to persuade you that moral and intellectual powers are proportionate to education ; or, that ignorance is the parent of what men term " sin " and misery. These are familiar facts ; requiring no argument ; suggesting no controversy. I will, therefore, proceed presently to show why this text is particularly applicable to supernaturalists. The fourth lecture of the course, on supernaturalism, as opposed to naturalism, was delivered by Dr. B on last Sabbath evening. His text was taken from the twentieth verse of the eighth chapter of Eomans — as follows : " For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." The Lecturer considered this passage, when taken in connection with the brace of verses on either side of it, to embody the whole statement of man's relations and THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 157 abandonmert to the various kinds and degrees of sin, aid also to the supernatural system of redemption, which God had introduced into this world for man's especial benefit and salvation. The Lecturer shows himself to be quite at home in his profession as Doctor of Divinity. Because, on announcing the text, he referred to the fact, that the passage had puzzled neai-ly all the English commenta- tors as to its true signification. In his opinion, the three or four verses in that department of Paul's epistle to the Romans, had not as yet been properly appre- hended or rendered. Consequently, although he pre- sumed not to give the true interior and infallible import, yet he doctored the passages to suit his own preconceived impressions of truth, and made them read as follows.* For mutual meditation and enlightenment, I am again moved to solicit your attention to an inconsist- ency. Inconsistencies or contradictions should be studi- ously avoided as evils that injure the tone and health of the understanding. I allude to the strange idea that fallible texts, or imperfect rendering of texts, can be found to exist in a book which is recommended, and dogmatically forced upon us, as an infallible revelation. I must repeat, and pray for an answer to, these ques- tions : If the Bible is the perfect Word of God, how- came the above text to be imperfectly translated ? Or, if it be admitted that Dr. Busknell rendered the passage for the first time ccirrectly, then, I ask. How * It is regarded as non-essential to an understanding of what succeeds, as the sequel develops the Lecturer's meaning. 158 THE APPKOACHINQ CRISIS. can we place our faith, our hopes, and eternal destiny upon the statements of a book which is proved thus to have been giving mankind wrong impressions for eighteen centuries? The alteration of meaning is very important. The positive or imperative tense, " shall," is removed by a single sweep of the pen, and the mere word " may " is substituted, which so exceedingly weakens the possibil- ity of man's final redemption from sin, that hundreds of human souls — who have been long sustained by the supposed positive promise of God that sin shall be ultimately subdued and destroyed — have now nothing left to think of but disappointment and moral despair ? Again, I ask, can a fallible translation of a text be consistent with an infallible "Word ? By way of criticism, I am compelled by truth to pronounce Dr. B 's last discourse a splendid tirade against, and a learned defamation or vilification of, the human character. It portrayed the supposed iniquities of the heart of the creature-man; and emitted, at several junctions, multitudes of dark, dismal, and denunciatory thoughts. The Lecturer is truly a bold advocate of theological horrors and dogmatism. He thinks man is endowed with the will-power to be an eternal enemy (if he so desires and determines) to the living God, and to his moral government. Man, he afiirms, is supernatural^ because he can overcome mechanical force, and act outside of, or superior to, the natural system of cause and efiect. From the mytho- logic eminence of supernaturalism, he vociferated the church cries against those who dare openly prefer the authoritative promptings of natuee to the dicta of THE FALSE ISStTE8 OF THEOLOGY. 159 dogmatic creeds. It is now manifest what description of conservatism this modern Luthee is at present des- tined to generate, and possibly to establish. It is composed of the following ingredients: Calvinism and Arminianism in equal parts; a small portion of the conciliatory system of Eichard Baxter, who had tlie celebrated Drs. "Watts and Doddeidge for disciples ; a very little originality of thought; a slight proportion of Swedenborgianism ; and about the same quantity of Eationalism, which, being literally interpreted, signifies an understanding of things as they are. The paradoxical character of this compound renders some explanation necessary. Although it is truly be- lieved, that when the various forms and shades of human credulity, in supernatural mysteries are care- fully weighed, contrasted, and compared, the existing differences between popular creeds will greatly recede from view ; the principal troubles and disputes among the clergy, concerning what creed, or particular sliade of faith, is the most orthodox and infallible, will then appear as confounding and astounding only to those who can not readily comprehend the undeviatmg action of psychological principles upon human beings.* The resemblance of Dr. B 's philosophico- super- naturalism to the chief doctrines of Calvinism and Arminianism, is visible only in the original modifica- tion of the old church formulas, which is occasionally attempted at various points of the discussion. Very * The subject here alluded to, receive^ very particular attention in the Great Harmonia, vol. III., entitled "The Seer," uniform with this work. See the chapters, showing the action of psychological laws among religious chieftains. 160 THE APPEO ACHING CRISIS. many Protestants will find their condition typified by the mental exhibitions of the mind under present re- view. He indicates a strange independence. Socinus, himself, never attempted the reformation of church dogmas with more ardor, or never so conspicuously failed to accomplish a reconciliation of difl'erences among his own people. He evidently has tasted of the fruit of the knowledge-tree, and feels disposed to reject the cardinal mysteries of the Christian faith, as held by otlier denominations ; but he places new incom- prehensibilities before the people, in his rationalistic efibrt to manifest the doctrine, that the mission of Christ was designed only to introduce a new moral law, distinguished from all preceding laws by its superior sanctity and perfection. There is all the time a mani- fest proclivity to trace out some hypothetical coinci- dence between the dictations of Reason and the dogmas of supematuralism. Now the mind, thus striving to act natural and unnatural at the same time, one mo- ment afiirms its determination to subject all religious doctrines to the test of Nature and judgment ; but, even before the sentence, containing this afiirmation, is concluded, there comes forth the confounding ideal statement, that in Jesus dwelt the fullness of the Father — enjoying universal power of the Church in heaven and in earth ; that, with logical propriety, the Incarnation being thus perfect, may be termed '■ God in Christ ;" and yet, a mental reaction succeeds this, and a peculiar combination of words changes all the fore- going into something like the doctrines of Uuitarianism — implying, that Jesus was a certain modified imper- sonation of the divine spirit of love and energy- -which THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOQT. 161 considers a similitude or assimilation cf the hnman character to that unfohled by Jesus as equivalent to the all-important Salvation, which other denominations hold to, but with far more startling interpretatioiis at- tached to the term. The desire to develop a reasonable basis for the ever- lasting support of supernaturalistic doctrines, urged Dr. B somewhat unconsciously, I think, into the Swedenborgian method of interpreting the Word. The spiritual relations of Christ to God and to man, appear also slightly tinged by the New Church Doc- trines. On this point the New Jerusalem creed, article second, is exjilicit. It states that — " Jehovah God him- self descended from Heaven, as Divine Truth, which is the "Word, and took upon him Human Nature for the purpose of removing from man the powers of hell, and restoring to order all things in the spiritual world, and all things in the church: that he removed from man the powers of hell, by combats against and vic- tories over them ; in which consisted the great woi-k of Redemption : that by the same acts, which were his temptations, the last of which was the passion of the cross, he united, in his Humanity, Divine Truth to Divine Good, or Divine Wisdom to Divine Love, and so returned into his Divinity in which he was from eternity, together with, and in, his Glorified Human- ity ; whence he forever keeps the infernal powers in subjection to himself: and that all who believe in him, with the understanding, from the heart, and live accord ingly, will be saved." The affirmations of the Lecturer concerning the pos- sibility of evil, as incident to the creation of man, and 162 THE APPEOACHIHQ CKI9IS. as beyond the power of God to prevent in a realm of free moral powers, may be found, differently stated, iu the following Sweden borgian a'rticle of faith : " That the government of the Lord's Divine Love and Wisdom is the Divine Providence ; which is universal, exercised according to certain fixed laws of Order, and extending to the minutest particulars of the life of all men, both of the good and of the evil : that in all its operations it has respect to what is infinite and eternal, and makes no account of things transitory, but as they are sub- servient to eternal ends ; thus that it mainly consists, with man, in the connection of things temporal with things eternal ; for that the continual aim of the Lord, by his Divine Providence, is to join man to himself and himself to man, that he may be able to give him the felicities of eternal life : and that the laws of per- mission are also laws of the Divine Providence ; since evil can not be prevented without destroying the na- ture of man as an accountable agent; and because, also, it can not be removed unless it be known, and can not be known unless it appear ; thus that no evil is per- mitted' but to prevent a greater; and all is overruled, by the Lord's Divine Providence, for the greatest pos- sible good." The resemblance of Dr. B 's assertions, respecting the visitation of good and evil spirits to man, is very well established in Swedenborg's affirmations, "that man, during his abode in the world, is, as to his spirit, in the midst between heaven and hell, acted upon by influences from both ; and thus is kept in a state of spiritual equilibrium between good and evil ; in con- sequence of which he enjoys free will, or freedom of THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 163 choice, in spiritual things as well as in natural, and possesses the capacity of either turning himself to the Lord and his kingdom, or turning himself away from tlie Lord, and connecting himself with the kingdom of darkness ; and that, unless man had such freedom of choice, the Word would be of no use, the church would he a mere name, man would possess nothing by virtue of which he could be enjoined to the Lord, and the cause of evil would be chargeable on God himself." Nor does the similitude cease here. Swedeiiborg also generalized the evils of the world — all the sins against God and all the infernal spirits ; which, when combined and estimated in the aggregate, he termed " the devil." This, as we have seen, is Dr. B 's latest improvement in this oriental myth. But the doctrine is capable of still further amendment. On another head, as to the future good and evil con- sequences of the character, which men establish for themselves in this life, Dr. B , in substance, stated the Swedenborgian doctrine, "that immediately afer death, which is only a putting off of the material body, never to be resumed, man rises again in a spiritual or substantial body, in which he continues to live to eter- nity ; in heaven, if his ruling affections, and thence his life, have been good ; and in hell, if his ruling affec- tions, and thence his life^'have been evil." The similar appearance of the quantity of national- ism, referred to as entering into his conservatism, is discoverable only in the very equivocal use which Dr. B makes of the faculty of Reason, as a power tlirongh which to obtain and establish a philosophical basis upon which to rest the doctrines of supernatural- 164 THE APPEOACHING CRISIS, ism. Sueli are the signs of the times. The watfrs are disturbed, and the storm is hovering nigh. The old church is dying— dying from the internal convulsions accompanying the approaching crisis of a chronic dis- order, slumbering in the vitals of ecclesiasticism — a disease which I am impressed to term " Error !" The result is certain as the approach of spring. That Dr. B has a perfect right to alter and trans- pose passages of Scripture to suit the foregone conclu- sions of his own mind, is indisputable. All reasonable and educated persons — that is to say, all Naturalists and skeptics, so called — take the same dignified liber- ties with the Bible. But what we object to is this : that such liberties should be taken by clergymen with a Book, which is universally believed and recommended by them to be the ^perfect and unalterable Revelation of God's will and promises. Tlie Lecturer paraphrased the already specified text, and then proceeded to say, that in his " previous discourse he had drawn out or sketched the supernatural sysrem of God ; vhich was shown to be a realm of powers not governed by mere cause and effect, not by mechanical force, but by the free will and consent of the inhabitants of that realm." lie thought that that lecture was a proper stepping- stone to the general subject of " evil " or " sin,?' as bodied forth in the present comprehensive text. His last discourse, therefore, was devoted principally to a demonstration of the positive existence of sin ; to prove that vmn, by the exercise of his supernatural power, is the chief snuiee of its origin. Kow, availing myself of the example and conceded liberty of paraphrasing a text of Scripture, in order to THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 165 render the meaning more transparent, I will transfer the passage in Paul to an expression of Dr. B 's extraordin;iry tlieory. God, in creating '■'■powers^'' or free moral agents, was environed, not willingly, but as a necessary incident to man's creation, with the tremendous " possibility " of evil. Therefore, although God did not will or desire it, yet he was compelled, by the exigencies of the case, to subject all mankind to vanity and to the disciplining vicissitudes of evil. This possibility of having trouble in his moral government God could not prevent, and at the same time secure to man the uncontrolled exer- cise of his will or moral freedom. Consequently, the Deity unwillingly submitted the whole human family to the trials and temptations of sin, indulging the forlorn " hope " the while that man would see fit to exercise his supernatural will-power in the right direction ; and thus be ultimately delivered from the bondage of cor- ruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God ! Behold ! how emphatically and demonstratively the revelations of St. Paul prove that Dr. B — — is a trioe exponent of ihe great doctrine of supernaturalism ! The Lecturer said it might appear unnecessary to undertake to prove the existence of evil ; but he deemed it indispensable to his argument to demonstrate that sin is really in the woi'ld. Rationalists, he said, generally denied the existence of sin ; and, therefore, as this sub- ject was an open question, he would proceed to prove thiit sin is a tremendous and fearful reality. In this connection it may be remarked, that the Lec- turer did i\oi prove — which he lugically and historically endeavored to do — the positive existence of evil. Nor 166 THE APPEOACHINQ CEISI8. did he give any very definite or understandable explana- tion of the nature of sin, as a thing in the world ; except this oft-repeated assertion, that sin is a sv/pernatwral and tremendous reality. You will observe, my friends, that there is a vast difference between an assertion and a demonstration ; a difference between stating a propo- sition and proving its utter truthfulness. In just- ice to the Lecturer, however, it should be remarked, that he did undertake to prove the existence of sin by mere negatives; by inferences and implication. As this effort was the vital principle of his whole discourse, I will proceed to examine his several positions, which may be summed up as follows : He asserted that sin exists — iirst, because we Blame; second, because we Forgive ; third, because we have Government ; fourth, because we use Sarcasm ; fifth, because men write and love Tragedy. That is to say, men instinctively ac- knowledge the existence of sin by blaming, forgiving, and governing. These things, Dr. B thought, suf- ficiently proved the tremendous reality of sin. The prison, the rack, the gallows, the laws, the municipal regulation of societies, and cities, &c., he regarded as so many lofty and invulnerable demonstrations of the universal existence of the reality of supernatural evil. We blame, he said, because there is something which we know deserves to be blamed ; we forgive because there is wrong which needs forgiveness ; we govern the family and society because individuals are disposed to do wrong from their nature ; all government proves, he said, that mankind instinctively confess to the existence of a law of right and a tremendous wrong in the world. These were the positions assumed by the Lecturer. To THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 167 a brief examination of these theologic propositions, in addition to what I have already said, I now solicit jour particular attention. Question. — " Is sin a supernatural reality V "What a thought is this ! Dogmatism never suggested a more dismal idea ; neither mythology a more pernicious doc- trine ! How came such u thought in the world ? Was it introduced by the friends and students of humanity? Is it the faith of the noble, the creed of the generous, the theory of the wise? Nay! Dr. B quoted Theodore Parker, Fourier, Dr. Strauss, the author of Festus, and Alexander Pope, as so many rationalistic voices in favor of a more benevolent and generous doe- trine-^not a more generous doctrine to Dr. B 's definitions. Far from it. He denounced it as sophistry — as the foolishness of rationalism ; while his faith he esteemed as given of G-od and worthy of all acceptation ! "Where, then, did Dr. B obtain this idea of sin ? From a careful analysis of man's nature and motives ? Did he draw it from the deep wells of human expe- rience? The reply is negative. He obtained it all from a book ; from the dicta of old writers ; from the Egyptian darkness of the old theology ! He talks learnedly of what God could and could not do ; how the Divine Mind was environed with the '•'■ posnihility of evil" before the world began ; how God wills, hopes^ and executes ; but, of human nature, the Lecturer man- ifested the general ignorance which is characteristic of the clergy everywhere. Surely, upon the walls of the modem Zion, an angel should be permitted to stand ; there to proclaim to the cler.iry of Christendom the text which I have selected from Pope. 168 THE APPEOA.GHIN& CEISIS. The Lecturer obtained liis extraordinary notions of sin from the decaying catacombs of oriental theology ; and, having systematized the suggestions, he labors diligently to bend, to force, and interpret Nature into confirmatory proof of his marvelous assertions. This is his method, as it now appears, of accomplishing the promised reconciliation between supernaturalism and rationalistic theories of religion ! He says, " sin is supernatural." We ask for demonstration. He re- plies, because man, the free-power, can act independent of all cause and effect — superior to all mechanical force. Again, we ask for proof. He says. Nature is bound by the laws of necessity. All Things, he asserts, are com- pelled to exist according to the mechanism of cause and effect, and must, therefore, move as they are acted upon or instigated ; while the Powers — which are hu- man beings, endowed with a free-will or self-determin- ing force — are capable of acting superior to or against the laws of nature, and are, therefore, legitimately supernatural. Again — I ask, what can man do con- trary to the unchangeable laws of Nature ? He replies, man can build ships, procure powder, load a pistol, and shoot his neighbor ; also, he can overcome the law of gravitation by raising a book, &c., all of which phe- nomena are supernatural. Here, then, on this founda- tion, Dr. B rests his ideas of the supernaturalneSs of sin. But in the second review, I adduced several illustra- tions from Nature, showing that volcanoes and coal- mines sometimes do shoot and destroy people ; showing also, that nature, thi-ough the instrumentality and me- diation of man's mind, plans and constructs ships ; and THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 169 that a tornado, in its mighty strength, overcomes the law of gravitation, more extensively and perfectly than any human being, notwithstanding the doctrine of free agency. "What, then, is sin ? Dr. B replies : Man can lie, and cheat, and steal, and murder ; but JS"ature. which is bound by laws of cause and eifect, can not do any thing of this kind. To this I answer, that Nature, according to this definition, does murder through her animals and volcanoes. And it seems that insane or ir- responsible and irrational men will lie, and cheat, and steal at times, by following out certain mental caprices and hereditary proclivities. M"ow, I ask : Are these hu- man beings commiting supernatural sin ? " No, " replies Dr. B , "the supernatural sin is committed only when a human being acts, hnowingly, against the law of Eight or contrary to the moral law of God, as was illustrated in the voluntary transgression of the first man." Here, then, is the point to settle: — Does man voluntarily, from the perversity of his own nature and will, without any sufficient extraneous cause, violate the transparent and known law of Right? I assert that no man* does or can do this ; for which assertion I am moved to assign the following potential reasons : — There is no universally recognized law of God — no universally received standard of measurement by which to determine right from -wrong. This is an important fact, which Dr. B has utterly overlooked in the pending discussion. It is because the race has not yet grown to the discovery of this universal law, that the world is so exceedingly unsettled and discordant as to what Eight is. Man, I am impressed to say, does not hate the law of Eight. He feels its silent workings in 6 170 THE APPROACHING CEISIS. his undeveloped being, without knowing how to inter- pret and apply it to his life. This universal fact, that all men have, or desire to possess, some fixed system of Eight, is a living protest against the doctrine of total depravity, and the Lecturer's definition of sin. The heathen nations have moral codes which they hold sacred as the laws of God, although these laws may be unjust and barbarous in the extreme. Before the champion of supernaturalism proves the whole race of man to be subjected to vanity and sin, it is first absolutely necessary to prove, beyond all contro- versy, that all mankind have a fixed standard of Right — a true law of God, by which to measure the nature and extent of sin — and by which, also, every man shall in his conscience, in all states and circumstances, uner- ringly KNOW that he is doing either right or wrong. But I ask, Is there any universal knowledge as to Bight and Wrong? Moses says — " an eye for an eye." This he recommends as the law of right. But Jesus preaches quite a different doctrine, and teaches us, aa the law of right, " to love one another." Now, both Moses and Jesus have faithful, conscien- tious followers, whose honest convictions of right are thus antagonistic. In this ease — although the disciple might, by the exercise of his will-power, violate the moral law laid down by the master, — ^I ask, Where is the sin ? In a case of jealousy and revenge, the in- volved disciple of Jesus might violate the law of love / but he would, at the same time, if he murdered his en- emy, be acting in harmony with the moral law of Moses! Thus, according to the Bible standard of right, the man who might violate the law of God at THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGr 171 one end, would in the same proportion, be oheying it at the other. Now, Where is his sin ? Dr. B would reply, doubtless, that the old law of God is now re- pealed; that the present law of right, under which sin is punishable, is divulged in the Christian dispensation. • If this position be assumed, then — I ask, How cai\ we know perfectly, that, when we violate the law of love^ we are doing something positively against the law of God? How can we be perfectly certain that the New Testament is the word of God ? Surely, the doctors of divinity openly confess it to be sick, out of order, and wrongly translated in places ! Under this new dispen- sation. Dr. B says, that murder is contrary to the moral government of God. Hence, on man's part, when committed, it is a supernatural sin. But here let me inquire : Is it a sin when a man acts from the con- viction that he is doing right? Certainly not. Why? Because, if it were in all cases a supernatural and pun- ishable sin to commit murder, how manj clergi/men, according to this rule, would suffer the eternal conse- quences thereof for the deliberate method, which they almost everywhere sanction and adopt, of murdering the criminal, immediately after prayers, by the bar- barous process of strangulation ! Do they forgive their enemies? Do, they, when the assassin's knife enters the heart, breathe forth — " Father, forgive him ?" If one man murders another, with the presiding convic- tion that he is doing right; then, in this instance,— I ask. Is the murderer knowingly acting against the moral law of God ? Nay ; because he would be act- ing from the motive or love of right at the moment ; although the deed, in fact, may be unequivocally and 172 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. manifestly wrong. I urge these points in order to demonstrate the fact, which has been confessed, tliat mankind can not be universally subjected in sin or wrong leoause there exists no universally recognized principle of right whereby to judge the world. Dr. B affirms mankind to be naturally prone to go against the law of right. Now, on the ground of educa- tional bias — on the presumption that he is theologically prejudiced and darkened as to the real nature and psychological organization of man — we may let this defamation of humanity pass, with the exhortation, ut- tered in all deference, that lie forthwith sets to the music of practice the text quoted from Pope. Because, to say that man naturally exerts his will-power against the moral law of God, is to assert that which all the race proves to be exceedingly erroneous and pernicious. One man thinks it is right to hold slav^es; another, that it is wrong. One feels justified in hanging the crim- inal ; another, only when he opposes the custom with all his might. One thinks the Sabbath to be a divine institution, which must be devoted exclusively to church-going purposes; another, conscientiously, does not believe any thing of the kind. The Jew is as con- scientious in selling merchandise, when Christian- are going to church, as the Christian is justified, in his edu- cational conscience, in trading on Saturday, when the Jew reverently retires to the synagogue. Of the universal disagreement as to the nature of sin, Dr. B has, in the work heretofore alluded to (pnge 47), acknowledged himself perfectly aware. In speaking of the indeterminate use of language, he says : — '■ The word sin is of this description, and most persons seem THE FAXSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 173 to imagine that it names a given act or state, about wliich there is no diversity of understanding. Contrary to this, no two minds ever had the same impression of" it. The whole personal history of every man, his acts, temptations, wants, and repentances; his opinions of God, of law, and of personal freedom ; his theory of virtue, his decisions of the question, whether sin is an act, or a state; of the will, or of the heart: in fact, his whole theology and life will enter into his impression of this word sin, to change the quality and modity the re- lations of that which it signifies. It will also be found, as a matter of fact, that the interminable disputes of the theologians on this particular subject, originate in fundamental differences of view concerning the na- ture of sin, and are themselves incontestible proofs that, simple as the word is, and on the lips of everybody (as we know it to be), there is yet no virtual agreement of meaning connected with the word." This is a very ratianal confession. All the different governments, different laws, different religious sects, and systems of managing the bodies and souls of men, are so many evidences that mankind are striving, yearning after the Eight; that they are not yet progressed to that point of unity where a universal standard of justice and equity can be perceived and adopted, coextensive with the human family. Second proposition : " That sin is proved to exist, because we instinctively blame mankind." It is my impre.-sion that blame is a complete proof of man's iynurance of man. The wise and noble mind is lenient ; the foolish man is always blaming. Jesus, Galileo, Columbus, everybody, have been the victims of blame. 174 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. Does Dr. B remember how the pious and Christian inhabitants of London rose up in holy horror against Heming, who had tlie audacity to invent street-lamps ? The sun had gone down, and the moon shed none of her accustomed radiance ; and so the genius of Heming, in the exercise of his supernatural will, constructed and substituted lights at proper intervals throughout the city. But he was Uamed for sinning against God. Impious, self-determining man ! But why was he blamed? Wliy, because he was usurping the preroga- tives of the Creator! Does not the Bible distinctly affirm that the Lord had made two lights ; one to rule the day, the other the night? And did not Heming act, in exercising his freedom, against the consummate omniscience of Deity ? Puny, presumptive, audacious man ! how riclily he deserved Mame for such a manifest coir)mission of the supernatural sin ! ■ Dr. Bushnell said that the people were so perfectly conscious of being personally sinful, and of deserving hlame, that tliey would come to the church every Sun- day to have it preached to them, and would pay for it toil ! This was " the unkindest cut of all." But let us think of the statement. The priests bear rule, and the people love to have it so. If Dr. B were a careful student of human nature, he would discover quite different reasons for human actions. The people go to church because they need diversion ; because they wish to be popular in business ; because they desire to see and to be seen. It is true that, now and then, a person attends the sanctuary for instruction ; not so particularly for the purposes of being blamed. But they become accustomed, however, to the perpetual T^E FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 175 defamation of the luiman character, and think there is no remedy for the evil. When Baxter first preached " in- fant damnation" to the English mothers, they rose up en masse against him ; but he was a " doctor of divin- ity," and hence, soon succeeded, by quoting Greek and Hebrew passages and eminent commentators, in quell- ing the rebellious congregation. The mothers finally became tranquil, and ultimately consented to pay quite cheerfully " to be blamed," and to hear preached the diabolical and imaginative dogma. The Lecturer said he would like to see how a ration- alist, who believed that all things and men were con- trolled by the laws of cause and effect, would bear the malicious taunts of an urchin who might be supposed to be thrusting a pin in the skeptic's back. That would be a case of "manifest misdirection," as the rationalist defines sin. "Would the rationalist regard it in the same light as he would the pricking of a splinter from the back of the j)ew ? " No," said he, " the rationalist would hlame the boy," as the self-determining cause of the disturbance, and disturb the congregation by his cries. To this I can only offer my own method of practicing the principles of a generous rationalism. In the first place, I should pity the urchin for being suffi- ciently unfortunate in his phrenological character to be capable of feeling like thus tormenting and disturb- ing another individual. In the second place, I should, without harboring any revengeful feeling, break up the immediate relations subsisting between the youth and myself, either by removing myself from the locality, or else the youth, as the cause of the supposed imeasiness. 176 THE APPEOACHINQ CEISI8. To this matter the doctrine of supernatural blame does not apply ; it is all cause and etfect. As another department of this inferential effort to prove the existence of evil, Dr. B referred to the hypothetical fact, that everybody is out of friendship with themselves — perpetually self-accusing and self- blaming ; which was considered sufficient evidence of their internal guiltiness and moral obliquity. A little real knowledge of the teachings of phrenology/would have solved this problem. In nearly all cases of ex- treme self-condemnation or blame, it will be foVnd that the individuals thus affected, either have received, through hereditary descent, a defective mental consti- tution, or else are th& victims of some atrocious system of ethics and theology. Daily walking about the streets, there is a man who believes he has committed the unpardonable sin ! Of course, he is under constant self-accusation — as a being eternally condemned of God. ISTow, I ask, where did he obtain so horrid an idea? Surely, not from his own sinful, depraved na- ture. Quite the contrary. He is a victim of Church- ianity — a mysterious and incomprehensible system, which Dr. B is laboring to rescue from the ap- proaching flood of intelligence and republicanism, which is hourly rising higher and higher against the combined forces of Christendom. In the thirteenth century, there sprang up in Italy, and was thence propagated throughout almost all the countries of Europe, a denomination of Christians, called the Whippees. Their theology (like Dr. Bush- nell's super naturalism) taught them to spurn and dis- like themselves, and to defame the human character in THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 177 every conceivable manner. Persons of both sexes, and all ranks and ages, ran through the public streets with whips in their hands, lashing tlieir bodies with the most astonishing zeal and severity, with the hope of obtain- ing, by their voluntary mortification and outward pen- ance, the divine mercy and salvation for themselves and others. This sect taught, among other Christian doc- trines, thai flagellation was a vii'tue of equal magnitude with the baptismal ceremony and the other sacramental proceedings, and was called the baptism of blood ! Now will Dr. B assert that \h\& flagellation was a proof that the people were internally conscious of deserving blame ? My impression is, tliat he must assume this psychological position ; because his last discourse, which I am now examining, was as clear an instance of pre- meditated ^heoXogicdl flagellation of the human soul as was ever instituted or practiced by the religious Whip- pers themselves. The long pilgrimages, made by the pagan and early religious sects, were regarded by the Lecturer, -as an- other evidence of instinctive sense of wrong or evil to be atoned for, through sacrificial agency. How super- ficial is this conclusion ! Let us see. Mohammed, for example, esteemed Mecca as the horizon of his spiritual experience. He recommended it as such to his dis- ciples. He loved the city and its beautiful retreats. It was his sacramental altar ; the tahle upon which he first broke the bread and gave the wine to his con- scientious followers. He did not command his people to make a pilgrimage to tlie city once a year. But those who lived in the days of Mohammed were first led to the sacred cave from their affection for its relig- 8* 178 . THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. ious associations. The next generation considered it an established custom, forever to be observed ; the next, a duty, to be discharged at all hazards ; the next, a pen- ance, analogous to all religious ceremonies, quite indis- pensable to the eternal salvation and beatiiication of the soul ! Thus, . Dr. B should have been more philosophical, and discovered a better explanation of the causes of self -cor) demnation aind of self-imposed afflictions ; except in those cases where an enlightened conscience in reality feels offended. I come now to another proposition : That sin exists because we forgive. All the impressions which I have received on that head, amount to this conclusion : that revenge and forgiveness are almost twin brothers ; bora of the prolific parent, Ignorance. There is no such a thing, philosophically and properly considered, asfor^ giveness. A revengeful person is one who, from his peculiar temperament and organization, can not easily control his passions ; he gives blow for blow — takes an eye for an eye — and thus feels that the ends of justice, according to his definition, are at once fully and per- fectly satisfied. But a forgiving person is one who feels injured; he feels offended, he feels you to be decidedly in his debt, and will long remember it ; but he controls his passions, easily, and in a commendable degree, and says, " no matter, I will not hurt you in return, my friend — oh, no ! I forgive you — I can speak words of kindness to you and feel them, too." Now, this is all the forgiveness which is at yet known or developed in tliis world. The forgiving person smiles and stabs. We are told to speak kind words to those we consider our enemies; because, forsooth, those mild THB FALSE IS3TJES OF THEOLOGY. 179 eentences "heap coals of fire upon the offender's head." This is highly gratitying to the ibrgiving individual ! He forgives in order to be all the more revenged. Now I am impressed to consider hla,me, revenge, and such forgiveness, as the legitimate children of Ignorance. " Forgive your enemies ; love them that curse you," &c. ; but I thank Grod that I can behold, in the ap- proaching era, a more transcendent state 'of morals — a state, in which the pure and wise, and high-minded man can not he injured or offended ! Nothing to for- give ; for there is no offense ! The nohle parent does not feel offended at the little infant ; though it might cause some dreadful accident or injury. Men and crimes are quite different things. The little bee makes honey ; but, if molested, it will also sting. I pass on to another proposition : That all govern- ment presupposes the existence of sin in the world. Here, again, I am moved to pronounce Dr. B in transparent error. For governments manifestly pre- suppose the existence of ignorance, imbecility, and diversity of inclinations on the part of the people. An intelligent man, as already shown, is a law unto him- self! A moral and well situated man needs no con- stables, no prisons, no gallows, to keep him in the paths of rectitude and righteousness. Dr. B thought, that, granting the doctrine of cause and effect be true and applicable to man, children should be left to unfold in the family like flowers in the garden ; giving forth their native odors, without the farce of family govern'* ments. But the fact, he thought, was quite to the con- trary. He asserted that man was a self-determining power ; that the family arrangements were made as a 180 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. proof of the expectation of evil as a consequence oi necessity of such freedom. This point I will not novj dispute. For I behold mountains of ignorance in fami lies and states as to the most effectual and salutarj methods of developing and goveruiiig the individual But I will simply remark, that, in a family where rationalistic spiritualism or the harmonial philosophy has displaced the church theology, and it is truly practiced by the parents ; the household regulations are arranged so harmoniously, and with so much liberty for the play of diverse individual inclinations, that the children can have an opportunity to be cultured like the flowers, and to unfold the sweeter elements of their being, without being molested by the horrid dreams of supernaturalism. A judicious and philosophical hus- bandman will fence in his gardens, that no cattle or swine may disturb the growing vegetation ; even so the philosophical parent would put a family government for the purpose of protecting the inward harmony from unnecessary and unnatural molestation. The other evidences of sin in the world, which Dr. B considered under the head of Sarcasm and Tragedy, I am moved to pass by as requiring no special comment. In alluding to the passage in Shakespeare, the Lecturer asked, whether " Lady Macbeth would have exclaimed, in the agonies of a stricken conscience, ' Out, damned spot !' if there were no ' damned spot ' which existed to smite her for her voluntary transgres- sions ?" This question would appear in its true import- ance and legitimate force if I should ask : — When a man, afflicted with a bad circulation of blood, retires, and falling asleep, is heard to labor with the idea that THE FALSE ISSUES OE THEOLOGY. 181 a vulhore is upon his breast — commonly called the night-mare or incubus — would that man be thus troubled if there were no vulture there ? The reader, I think, will apprehend my meaning. Dr. B affirmed that Tragedy is a manifestation of, and con- tention between, right and wrong ! while all natural intellects regard this description or species of theatrical representation as the impersonation of bad dreams and savage cruelties, characteristic of a low and barbarous stage of civilization. " All tragedies are of kings and princes." Dr. B affirmed, in substance, " men write and love tragedies, because it is a terrific display of, and combat between, sin and goodness." But I think, men write and love tragedies, because, to the revengeful mind, they are sublime, and to the undevel- oped imagination, exciting. Again, let it be repeated, if the Lecturer would but receive the exhortation of Pope to " study man," and leave the high truths per- taining to the "Lord of Hosts" for subsequent investi- gation, he would certainly become less theological and more rationalistic. The cause of truth would be thus advanced. This discussion was commenced, apparently, with a perffect, though carefully expressed, assurance of per- sonal competency to philosophically prove the super- naturalness of sin, and the necessity for a supernatural plan of redemption. But the effprt thus far has utterly failed. He can not intelligibly and decisively deter- mine what sin is ; because there exists no universally recognized standard of goodness. Surely, the decalogue, and the Christian Bible, do not constitute a univeroally recognized standard ; for every clergyman in Christen- 182 THE APPEOACHING CRISIS. dom entertains different conceptions of Right, obtained by reading the same identical book and command- ments. Until, therefore, Dr. B ascertains, beyond all dispute, what the law of God absolutely and eter- nally is ; and until that law is acknowledged all over the world as the only admissible and everlasting, crite- rion of Right ; it will remain unqualifiedly impossible for him to supematurally define what sin is, or to con- vict the whole creation as being made subject to vanity, and men as voluntary aliens to the Lord of Hosts. In conclusion, Dr. B urged, quite' logically from his premises, the people to avail themselves forthwith of the redemptive plan of salvation. They were, he afiirmed, all convicted of the tremendous reality of sin, and should, therefore, immediately set about [some- thing of which, I venture to affirm, not ten of the en- tire congregation had the least adequate conception]. His theology is not only time-sanctified, but measurably popular. It acknowledges no necessary connection with, or dependence upon, either nature or common sense; It professes to be estabHsherl upon a basis en- tirely supernatural. It takes no practical and benefi- cial cognizance of the social and natural wants of mankind ; but merely enjoins faith in certain abstract dogmas and incomprehensibilities, which have already divided the world into petty sects, and spread hostility and discord throughout the .land. Whereas, if Dr. B would but study mankind more, I know he would "blame" less, and become of far greater service to the rising generations. By an adequate knowledge of phrenological science, and the law of hereditary transmission of qualities, he would be enabled to judge THE FALSE ISSUES OF THEOLOGY. 183 mantind with a righteous judgment, and to teach the people how to avoid entailing unhealthy and vicious constitutions upon their offspring.* Bat trembling for the safety of doctrines based upon a supernatural foun- dation, the Lecturer discourages the investigation of Nature and her laws; and frowns, dogmatically and sarcastically, upon nearly all the splendid and valuable discoveries which rationalists and researchers have ex- humed from the deep vaults of universal nature. In reply to the Lecturer's concluding earnest and prayer- ful appeal to the people, that they should forthwith avail themselves of the redemptive scheme, and turn all their love and attention to the Lord, I am impressed to partially neutralijze it in the reader's mind, by quoting the following impressive parable, written by Leigh Hunt :— • Abou Ben-Adhem — may his tribe increase I — Awoke one niglit from a sweet dream of "peace, And saw, witliin the moonlight of his room, Making it rich, and lilce a lily bloom, An angel writing in a book of gold. Exceeding peace had made Bea-Adhem bold. And to the visioQ in the room he said : " What writeat thou?" The vision raised its head, And, with a look, made all of sweet accord. Answered, " The names of those who love the Lord." • * See chapters on the action of psychological laws, as applicable to the generation and improvement of the human type, in Grroat Harmonia, vol. III. ; also in the Edinburgh Journal, edited by Combe ; also in the Educational System of A. Bronson Alcott, of Boston, Massachusetts. This mind is most worthy of the attention which has been bestowed upon more popular personages. His spirituality of character render him a natural exponent of the psychological laws of Education, which the shepherds of the land should more fully comprehend. 184 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. " And is mine one ?" said Abou. " Nay, not so," Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, But oheerly still, and said : " I pray thee, then, Write me as one who loves his fellovv-raen." Tlie angel wrote and vanished. The next night It came again, witli a great wal^ening light. And showed the names which love of God had blest, And lol Bes-Adhem's name led all the eest. THE MEDICINE OF EKDEMFnON. 185 CHAPTER VI. FIFTH EEVIEW- Reconciliation impossible. — The end of controversy. — The effort to prove the text. — Mankird vilified. — Nece-ssity for the medieiue of redemption. — Patent remedies and Dr. Bushneli's conclusions. — Xo universally recognized standard of Eight and Wrong. — Nature as it is. De. Bushnell ]ias now attained the summit of the' philosophical argument, in favor of supernaturalism, and against the rationalistic theories of religion. In the progress of the effort, man and nature have been constantly referred to as living witnesses and demon- strations of the supernatural faith and theory. The young minds of the congregation, and- the skeptical members of all professions, were to receive, from this naturalistic argument, ample satisfaction, that nothing but supernaturalism can be the truth. The Rationalist was, in the commencement, promised a philosophical demonstration of the practicability of God in Christ, of the atonement, of the redemptive plan of salvation, of special providences, and prayer. To accomplish this desirable end, this modern Luther has relieved his mind of five discourses, the last of which number I des'g 1 to review on this occasion. The apex of the rational or philosophical argument 18S THE APPEOAOHniTG CRISIS. is now reached by this independent champion of popu- lar theology. During the eccentric march, nothing has been neglected which could, in any conceivable man- ner, impeach the character of man, and bring the entire human family into direct confliction with the nature and will of God, and with the ineffable harmonies of the moral universe. The Lecturer has labored diligently to convict mankind of the most diabolical sins and abominations. He has said very much calculated to weaken the individual in his private efforts to be and to do good ; and has somewhat discouraged those who would strive, by the aid of science and spiritual ration- alism, to live righteous lives in strict obedience to the moral and physical laws of their being. He has, in his in- tellectual gyrations, raised the theological telescope, its lens deeply colored in the dyes of orthodoxy, and bade his Iiearers look through that beclouded medium, at the "system se could be made out to substantiate the text: tiiatj'the creation gruaiielh and travaikth together in pain until now" — all, it was asserted, in THE MEDICINE OF EEDEMPTION. 213 consequence of man's voluntary sins ! Siich are the logical disclosures of an erroueous theology. But I am impressed to consider Ti'm Tkeolngy as tlis holiest and sublimest form of knowledge. It convej-s our thoughts far away into the peopled realms of infin- itude : speaks to us of the harmonies and sublimities of eternitj' ; and leads our aifeetions onward and upward to the Supernal Mind. True theology teaches, that every thing is forever progressing in goodness and per- fection — is eternj^lly grovjiny more and more lovely, more harmonious, more wise, lAore happy. The time hath been when this planet was but a dark and barren desert. Frequent convulsions and earth- quakes sent into the air black and grotesque rocks — creating, in a moment of time, channels for tlie roll of oceans— and forming deep valleys and ravines, dark and dismal as the fabled dominions of Pluto. No bird of song broke the silence ; no creeping thing animated the dust. Thus was"it once with our earth. But the eternal principle of Progression continued still to exert its mighty power upon the physical elements; and soon, there came forth green leaves from the mountain cliffs, lofty palms from the valleys, and sea-mosses quickly gathered, in rich profusion, upon the craggy acclivities. Another long era passed, and the ocean was peopled with living forms — even the earth became animated with mighty saurians; and so, in due order of pro- gression, animals came forth — improving, in their type and character, in harmony with the advancement and refinement of the elements of food, light, air, and the surrounding geographical conditions. And finally, as 214 THE APPEOACHING CEISIB. tbe crowning issue of all — as a coronation of the min- eral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms — there came forth Man ! And Man, physically and spiritually, has stead- ily advanced from the earliest dawn of human life to the present day. Still his course is eternally onward. And the once barren and dismal earth is rapidly becoming an incipient paradise. Old theology complains, through its popular devo- tee, " that Nature is too much praised !" Indeed ! Nature too much praised ? Nay, it can not be. He who would study the works and ways of God, must contemplate nature ; and the creation can not be ex- amined without inspiring the true mind with grati- tude, delight, and religion. Nature teaches that low and imperfect forms always precede high and beautiful creations. But Nature, my friends, is not limited to this little jplanst; neither to the myriads of earths and systems in space ; nor to the infinite system of suns in the upper skies; it is the boundless universe, and "beautiful" as the Living God! i Love-streams break forth from the deep depths of Deity like the impetuous gushings of a mighty foun- tain. In its deep harmonious workings, it sends its startling energies through myriads of planets at the same moment — arousing the little germs, which lie hid- den and slumbering in the earth, into the joy of being — yet, there is no discord ; for "Wisdom describes the method of the vast accomplishments. As progress is the law ; so the development of every thing is gradu- ated upon an infinite scale. Trees grow from the earth upward. And there is a harmony more or less perfect in every thing. The coral worm works with harmoni- THE MEDICINE OF KEDEMPTION. 215 ous still, and builds the mighty reefs ; against which the ponderous waves of old ocean may perpetually roll ; and upon these islands cities might stand secure for ages. The song of birds, too, and the waving willow, blend together in harmonious motion. Sweet fountains gush forth musically ; melodies break forth from rip- pling lakes; the summer winds breathe joyfully over the green fields; and the distant valleys munnur forth a peaceful hymn ! But this natural harmony is more and more perfected as we ascend the spiritual scale of being. The songs of birds foreshadow the perfections of the human voice. The sweet harmonies of the mid- summur season faintly typify the diversified beauties of the Summer Land ! The Universe is beautiful as the Living God : because it is his Temple. 216 THE APPEOAOHOTQ CEI8IS. CHAPTER yn. THE DYING DOGMAS. A prophecy. — Freedom of the will. — The unreliability of eonaciouaness. — The doctrine of moral freedom considered. — The spirit and the father. — The case of Dr. Parkman and Professor Webster. The antagonisms existing between the popular dog- mas of theology and the plainest declarations of Reason are hourly becoming more and more distinct and visi- ble. All efforts to harmonize them muist ultimate in disappointment and defeat. Because there exists no essential affinity between them, no indwelling princi- ple of common sympathy, around which a unitary organization of reason and theology could only be permanently established. Of this there can be but one explanation. The dogmas of theology originated at a period when the human mind had not yet put forth its energetic faculties of understanding. Reason is a re- cent development. It has not yet appeared in its true ministry and glory ; but, slowly as unfolds the spring vegetation, reason is appearing in the broad horizon of the moral world — darting its penetrative illuminations far away into the abysses of ignorance, and most powerfully into the gloomy retreats of long-fostered dogmas. These bequeath ments of the past, these idols . of the sacerdotal orders of men, must now be un- covered and examined. A lifeless and godless form THE DYING DOGMAS. 217 may be draped in the holiest garments ; and, to all ex- ternal seeming, the worshiped idol may present evi- dences of possessing a divine energy and spirit ; but the devotee, should he allow the reason-principle to per- form its functions, will instantly become sufficiently clairvoyant to perceive the emptiness of the dogma, and its utter inapplicability to the present wants of the age, Now it can not be denied that the current churches are the legitimate children of the Catholic organization ; which is the most extraordinary religious institution on the face of the earth, considered either as a political or as a moral combination of educated men and spiritual forces. However, there is a manifest difference be- tween the progenitor and the children. This consists, simply, in the seemingly spiritual character of Protest- ant churches, also in the mental liberties which give rise to democratic institutions of education, and to the still greater blessing of free, representative govern- ments. Nevertheless, thfjre are points of analogy between the parent and the offspring ; which, as honest investigators, we should not fail to recognize and re- veal. As educated Protestants, we stand in open hostility to the graven images and idolatrous ceremonials of the Catholic institution. Wherefore? Because we hold image-worship to be utterly incompatible with true re- ligion ; and irreconcilable with all reverence due the one only and eternal God. Yery well. We, therefore, divest our churches of all idols; and in the same pro- portion, we abandon many forms, and leave ceremonial- worship to the poor, benighted, imbecile devotees of the 10 218 THE APPKOAOHING CRISIS. Catholic religion. How is this? Do we truly, as Protestants, destroy all idols, and worship God only in spirit and in truth ? Let us see. As logical and orthodox Protestants, we still adhere to certain cardinal princi'- ples in theology, as unequivocally essential to the soul's eternal salvation ; also, as the divine doctrines destined to be universally recognized and potentialized, under the direct descenaion of the Divine energy — the Holy Ghost — to the final destruction of all heathenism, and the reconciliation of all things to the glorious liberty of the children of God. These cardinal doctrines we have carefully examined, harmonized, pronounced them " good ;" and deposited them in the theological armory, as our beloved [idols] dogmas or sacredized essentials. The first essential is " original sin," recently defined as being supernat- ural. The Protestant church assigns to this idol a conspicuous position. It is necessary that the people should behold it frequently. Hence it is placed in derm-relievo, and learnedly described, at regular inter- vals, as the foundation of all troubles in this terrestrial sphere — as the grand cause of the unspeakable mani- festations of divine mercy detailed in Scripture. But here a question appears. Clergymen dwell devoutly on the glorious attributes of the Creator. They can not enough express their glowing gratitude for the " Eevelation " of the Divine will and promises. The advent of the only begotten Son, too ; this is the grand consummation of all deific love and wisdom — the Tie plus ultra of all conceivable mercy and providential manifestation. But is it so ? Strange thought ! The realms of spiritual existence contain no such de THE DTING DOGMAS. 219 formed conception of the deiflc natui-e and attributes. Ponder the supposition! Think you that man could ascertain nothing of the Divine Mind through this universe of life and animation ? Was it necessary to plunge the haman family into the depths of discord and degeneration, in order to reveal the Divine attributes to the human affections and reason? Was it first necessary to allow the race to generate every descrip- tion of iniquity, and become dead in trespasses and sins, before the attributes of mercy, love, and wis'^om could be manifested to the earth-children ? If clergy- men eulogize the effects, they certainly can not but condemn the cause and the occasion. It is no better than the oft-uttered assertion, that poverty and squalid wretchedness are expressly designed as means to de- velop and exercise the Christian virtues termed kind- ness, brotherly love, and charity ; while, in real truth, poverty and want are the symptoms of a defective social condition, which symptoms, well-organized talents and industry will effectually remove ; and then the virtues may be normally exercised in the higher sjtheres of human life and interests. Nevertheless, the church idol — " original sin " — must be kept before the people. Tlie devotee must first examine (for this is a glorious attribute or privilege of Protestantism), then believe ; then, to be truly orthodox, he must worship. "In time of peace prepare for war ;" which, in this supernatural department of human interest, signifies the preparation and formidable array of clerical talents and cogent ar- gumentations, against the approach of the vast army of modern sciences and discoveries, whose leader and commander is Reason. 220 THE APPEOACHTNG CKISIS. The second essential is " the Atonement," which is now undergoing extensive repairs. Several very dis- tinguished and adequately qualitied sculptors in the- ology, are now laboring, with a commendable zeal and integrity of motive, being actuated by the, de- sire and design of elaborating a certain ra ionalistic, *' atonement ;" which they confidently believe will meet the reasonable demands of the most intelligent and logical mind in Protestant Christendom. This relig- ious reformation has not escaped the attention of Dr. Bushnell. He has himself done something toward giving the Christian world a more comprehensible theory of " God in Christ ;" though it can not but be regretted, that, in his eflFort to be both classical and natural, independent and truly faitliful to the old masters, he has too deeply buried this beautiful and energetic work of art. Several Unitarians are now preparing to repair the idol of Protestantism. Unfor- tunately, however, they have resolved to copy too accurately many things from the prevailing orthodox pattern. The New Churchmsn* are entirely settled as to the perfect and eternal interpretation of this supernatural problem. The interior import of all visi- ble idols in the primitive history, is clear as the blue vault of heaven to their unfolded faculties ; and so, like the Second Advent people, they devoutly and con- fidently await the " time " when the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, will come down, from God, out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her husband. * "The Seer," contains several impressions and elucidations con- cerning this form of theology. THE DYING DOGMAS. 221 Nor is this all. The third essential is " faith," which is also undergoing the most astounding alterations. This idol is situated, in the Protestant church, directly oi)posite to the other just consideredi The recent ef- forts put forth to place this graven image upon a philo- sophical pedestal — to establish it upon the everlasting foundation of nature and reason — may be regarded as the premonitory indications of the interregnum, which is about to appear in the religious world. Men for- merly received all spiritual nourishment, like infants, through the vessels of the afi'ections ; which is the pri- mary or rudimental process; it is iuvariably character- istic of the most incipient and uncultivated stage of mental deveh)pment. But having spiritually become men, like Paul, they very naturally " put away child- ish things;" and, among those things, numerous minds have been amazed to discover their creeds — the cher- ished idols of childhood. Dr. Bushnell is not alone in the field of altering the theologic, faith. It is a pre- cious idol to abandon; especially, when the mind has not attained .to " the fullness of the stature " of pas- sional and judgmental harmony. Hence, very many individuals have chiseled out a new form of religious faith. But when the deeper analysis comes, the same deformed and decrepit idol is revealed, which was fir.st worshiped throiigli the medium of the unenlightened affections. The exact truth is spoken when I say, that Christendom is now as a slumbering volcano ! The conflicting elements lie underneath all this fair exterior. The thunders of a stupendous reformation are sure to issue from the now open mouth of the Protestant church. The supernatural faith will be shaken as a 222 THE APPEOAOHING CEISI8. reed in the tempest. New channels will be formed for the inflowing of new truths ; and then, a hmg-promised Era will steal npon the religious and political world. It will come forth like the hurricane ; but its action will be gentle as the breathing of flowers. It will sound like the thunderings of the mountainous water-fall; but its influence upon the world will be as the music of " many waters " to the ear of the care-worn and tliirsty pilgrim. It will appear as a moral pestilence, breeding internal agonies and mental despair ; but it will be as the spirit of a glorious divinity, floating un- seen among us, '• creeping, like the summer winds, irom flower to flower." Such are the impressions which I receive concerning the approaching crisis. " Faith," the present idol of Pi'otestantism, will be essentially altered, modifled, and transformed into a milestone to indicate the highway and progression of humanity. Like the pyramids, it will stand as a monument of what the ages have erected in the human world ; and, as such, it will forever possess interest to the historian, to the antiquarian, and the spiritual philosopher. The fourth essential is "free agency ;" which is be- ing re-examined and logically prepared for exhibition. This is the gi-eatest dogma in the orthodox church. It 13 an idol of the utmost importance. All theology ivould be flying in the wind, like the tempest-torn sails jf a ship, if it were not for the potent presence of this iT.vve:] imags. It is a strange work of art! Blocked (;jt by the old masters, subsequently chiseled by the prjfessijnal artists in theology, and placed upon the pedestal of mere assertion, it has become the most fa- vorite Idol in the Protestant institution. Should any THE DYING DOGMAS. 223 rationalistic disorder or epidemic prevail, the " doctors of divinity " forthwith diagnosticate the pathognomonic symptoms of Free Agency, to ascertain conclusively whether the contagion really extends to the cardinal dogma, or to the others. If not ; then nothing is said. If so; then comes a period of theological fumigation. That is, the clergy attempt to produce a kind of intel- lectual blindness among the people, by decomposing, apparently, a few rationalistic arguments with the flame of their iurning eloquence. Such an effort has been recently made ; as we have seen by the discourses " on supernaturalism," under review. How, then, does the matter really stand ? Are Prot- estants not idolaters ? The Catholic has his " holy virgin " in the form of a female statue ; but we also have a " holy virgin " in the form of a man-made book. The Catholic has sacred saints; but we have sacred dogmas. You perceive, then, my friends, that Catho- lics and Protestants are alike idolatrous : the latter being so, intellectually; and the former, sensually. The two forms of religious faith and culture are not essentially distinct; only antagonistic in regard to the ways and means of worship. The logical accuracy of this will appear in the sequel. Can we, then, con- tinue to worship these theologic idols ? Can we still cherish them as the only beings that have brought life and immortality to light ? Children play with balls ; but men amuse themselves with the rolling planets. Young intellects cherish every thing through an ex- ercise of the sightless affections; but matured minds love all things which flow easily through the under- standing. Such are truly harmonial philosophers. 224 THE appeoachhtg ceisis. We, then, as Protestants in Protestantism — being moved to address Protestants as they formerly decried the heresies of the Catliolic chureh — must faithfully ignore those dogmas which pertain to the popular theology. The position of the clergy, amid these sacerdotal idols, is potent to sustain error. The most charitable interpretation which an enlightened mind can indulge in, is the probable honesty of all men \\ho continue to preach the antiquated doctrines. This conclusion, however, must be mainly grounded in benevolence ; for " how," many ask, " can a man remodel and per- petually interpret an idea in theology as truth, when the plainest declarations of science demonstrate it to be an error ? " The only answer is, " Men love dark- ness rather than light," when they have not sufficient independence and integrity of soul to cast aside all forms, and worship God in spirit and in truth." The friends of true freedom have had occasion to regret a recent manifestation of this mental condition. Dr. B has labored to infuse new vitality into the old dogmas ; but the process seems like the action of the galvanic force upon the lifeless body. The muscles contract violently ; the arras ily up against the silent breast; the mouth opens ; the eyes glare like angry lions upon the people; and the strange phenomena immedi- ately disappear. So will all efforts terminate which are designed to add new luster to the dogmas of Chris- tendom. You who do not believe so, may engage in the godless task ; for experience is still the best school- master to those who can not discern the signs of the times. THE DYING DOGMAS. 225 The advocate of superaaturalism, as he unfolded his method, appeared, to the reviewer, in the midst of church doctrines, which he was about to impregnate with new theologic animation. Behind stood the idol called " Original Sin ;" on the right, the idol called "The Atonement;" on the left, the idol called " Faith ;'' and before him, higher than all the others, stood the idol termed " Free Agency." This idol was considered vastly superior to the others in the discus- sion; because, in the opinion of the Lecturer, it was the great thing to establish, as a basis upon which to rest the utility and essentiality of tlie pre-arranged dogmas. The doctrine of "moral freedom," therefore, will be more particularly reviewed on this occasion. In this connection, however, it should be understood that the Lecturer did not present what we would consider cogent reasons to sustain the affirmative, fie depended mainly upon the superficial reasons already given ; and placed himself too confidently upon his consciousness, and upon his prevailing sensations of freedom, to establish the favorite doctrine. This cognitional source of our present being, he considered the "self-evident" demonstration. I will, therefore, first proceed to reveal the fallacy of this conclusion ; and then I will consider the question as it is in nature. It was repeatedly affirmed, as you remember, that " moral freedom is a matter of consciousness " — " every- body feels and knows liis liberty," and so forth ; which, compared with the evidences heretofore considered, was the principal proof presented to substantiate a doctrine BO essentially important to the consistence of the other dogmas. The witness, then, which is called to appear 226 THE APPEOACHIlirG CKISIS. and impart testimony in the pending trial, is conscious- ness. You will observe, that this term has a significa- ti'in quite distinct from the word conscienee. Conscience means the internal faculty of knowing; a self knowl- edge of what constitutes Eight and Wrong. But con- sciousness, on the other hand, signifies something more sensuous; a knowledge of operations and sensations passing in one's own mind; or, the mental phenome- non termed, a cognition of external objects through the medium of the senses. Now the question is : Can the character of this witness be shown to be above impeach- ment? Was it never known to impart, to the court of the human understanding, any false and contradictory im- pressions ? If this witness never deceived the judgment, then it is, indeed and truly, the most complete demon- stration of the dogma under present analysis. But if, on the contrary, it can be shown to be a very treacher- ous and imperfect delineator of truth ; then the testi- mony deposed by this witness can have no important weight in a case of such momentous interest. Let this witness, therefore, be cross-questioned, in order to arrive at the actual pro and con in the premises. Metaphysicians have divided all the consciousness of our mental being into five distinct compartments, termed the five senses. The sensation of existence is consciousness. The windows and doors, through wliiih this sensation goes out from and re-enters the sensoriuni, are the eyes, the ears, the smell, the taste, and the more general sense of feeling by the nervous mechanism. All ideas of the contrariety of objects and influences, constituting the material world, are derived through our consdoiis existence, as defined by the senses. The THE DYING DOGMAS. 227 senses, then, may be regarded as the divisions of con- eciousness; the diiFerent channels through which the nerve-spirit of our present life receives influences and imparts impressions to the understanding. I hope it will not be considered presumption, should I here affirm, that Dr. Bushnell is organized in these respects precisely like every other man ; that, there- fore, his personal declarations, concerning the con- sciousness of the utter freedom of the soul, are worth, in the present investigation, as much, to say the least, as the assertions of any other intelligent individual. Now I am moved to affirm, that human consciousness is a very equivocal and unreliable source of knowledge. Wherefore? Because we are constantly deceived by our sensations. The senses frequently fail to impart accurate impressions to the mind. According to all human consciousness, this earth is neither globular nor revolving. Aside from the opposition founded upon the so-called heresy of asserting the revolution of our planet, Galileo was opposed and confronted by the universal consciousness of the race, that the earth was a vast permanent surface, whose edge had not yet been discovered. The same thing is believed to-day by thou- sands of minds. Our senses declare to us, very dis- tinctly, that the Sun and Moon roll round the earth — rising uniformly in the east, and disappearing behind the western hills. The diurnal motion of the earth is against every man's consciousness ; that is, this witness does not impart a truthful impression to the under- standing. Two years since, while on a visit in the State of New Jersey, a very industrious although uneducated farmer, 228 THE APPROACHING CRISIS. confessed to me his utter inability to believe in the revolution of this orb every twenty-four hours. " Why," he exclaimed, " it is against my consciousness ; against the positive testimony of my senses. Don't I see the sun going from east to west? On the earth, as you know, there are millions of movable things, and great bodies of water. If my house was turned bottomside up once a day, wouldn't the chairs, and the crockery, and every thing movable therein, fall from their places, and be dashed into pieces ? A pail filled with water, you very well know, being turned upside down, would necessarily be immediately.emptied of its contents ; and so, if this earth turned upside down, as people say, wouldn't all things be thrown out of order, and the lakes and rivers be emptied of their waters ?" This man's honest argument, fallacious as it was, very accu- rately and forcibly represents Dr. Bushnell's dogmatic assertion, that his consciousness was a plain demonstra- tion of the freedom of the will. Again : this witness is not ^pliable, or sufficiently unwavering to be received as proper evidence ; because it is known to be extremely susceptible to morbid de- velopments and tendencies. Many present are con- founded by the strange operation of internal sensations, as derived from external sources. A morbid brain is conscious of various inconsistencies. Insane minds imagine — that is, believe the concurrent testimony of their consciousness — that they are certain great distin- guished characters : Napoleon, Paul, Alexander, and BO forth ; and with as much calmness of pretension, too, as would befit the most sane Christian. An intoxicated mind, with the blood whirling in the cerebral recesses THE DTmO DOGMAS. 229 and vessels, is conscious of strange motions among the objects about him. Should he declare his cnnsGiousnt'y.x, on going forth from the brothel into the street, he would affirm he saw the street revolving like the wings of a windmill, and the lofty steeples toppling from their foundations. I would inquire : Which is in motion ? The external objects ; or, the morhid consciousness ? Now, it is by no means an impossible or unnatural thing to suppose a clergyman's mind to be somewhat intoxicated with the spirit of certain dying dogmas, even to imagining himself a perfectly free moral being on the testimony of his morbid consciousness. Enough has been adduced to invalidate the evidence of Dr. B 's principal witness. Its character for prevarication and waywardness is sufficiently made to appear. It is not even reliable on the greatest astro- nomical fact ever revealed to man. Consequently, the rationalistic mind is absolutely forced to seek for evi- dence in other directions. The enlightened judgment, independent of the ordinary plane of consciousness, is forced to consult well-ascertained data, before it can arrive at clear and satisfactory conclusions on any given, subject. I come now to the negative consideration of moral freedom ; which is, that there is no such a fact in exist- ence as absolute independence of the human will. In the first place, let me describe to you the condi- tions upon which alone man could be a perfectly free moral being. The pre-consultations considered as es- sential to the moral freedom of the first man, Adam, in the great experiment of life, are still necessary to every individual. The Christian Church has always had some 230 THE APPROACHING CRI3IS. vague doctrines concerning the pre-existence of the soul. Indeed, when we except the speculations of Thomas Dick and the universal analogies of Sweden- borg, Christians have cherished the most mystical and unsatisfactory opinions of the other life — more vague, even, than the traditional mj'ths and beliefs of tl>e North American Indians. For present purposes, how- ever, we will suppose the pre existence of every human spirit. On this hypothesis, I will now state the condi- tions which are required in order to establish the dogma of man's moral freedom. The parent should have a conversation with the soul of his child, previous to the bestowment of a physical body. The language should convey to the unterres- trialized spirit this unmistakable information : " This material world is a valley of trials and misfortunes. It is replete with hard substances which the soul can use only through the mediation of physical agents. The external world is now — indeed, it always has been — undergoing slow and gradual changes ; and philoso- phers say, these unceasing alterations will in time ren- der this world a serener and more spiritual jSeld of existence." The spirit here asks: "Will you inform me how the inhabitants appear?" " The present human race," replies the parent, " is rude, impulsive, and im- perfect. It is known to consist of different tribes or nations, manifesting considerable varieties of external appearance, and employing diverse kinds of languages. These nations have not outgrown war ; nor the causes of discord and wretchedness. Poverty and wealth, in- dolence and industry, ignorance and wisdom, present the strangest contrasts ; and the world makes in the THE DYING DOGMAS. 231 issue a strange dream, which the human mind here- after clierishes as the dagueri'eotype impression and history of its earth-life. But notwithstanding all this, there is more than enough to compensate man for his strange eventful passage from birth to the final result. We have love, and friendship, and consequent joys : each twining around the family circle, wreathing the plowman's heart, and inspiring the merchant's mind with dreams of wealth and enterprise. We have roll- ing seas, beautiful rivers, mountains swelling with life and loveliness, a sun of inefiable brilliancy, and an earth filled with countless stores of luxurious wealth ; and all for man ! Now," continues the parent, " I de- sire you to become my son, clothed in a physical vest- ure. But we have a religion that teaches the moral freedom of every man ; because this doctrine is alone compatible with the plan of redejnpiion, which is said to have been instituted expressly for our future salva- tion, but which can prove availing only when accepted in the fireedom of the human will. God can not save, they say, unless man is entirely willing. Therefore, I desire you to exercise your freedom in becoming the ofi'spring of an earthly parent." " What is the position of a son ?" inquires the spirit. " To learn some particular trade or profession ; and to do battle with the world of free but conflicting powers about him." " What is the position of a daughter ?" " A daughter has a diflferent sphere. The home, the family, and the social circle, are her proper fields of action." " Then," says the spirit, " if I come to earth I prefer 232 THE APPBOACniNG 0KI8IS. being a daughter. But tell me further : what are the nations called ?" We may now suppose the parent informing the spirit of the names of the different nations, with their colors, declaring himself to be a European. " From what you say," replies the spirit, " I will not be bom into a physical body, unless I can be a Cau- casian or an American. Nor will I consent to become a Christian ; for, according to your relations, it would be better for my eternal welfare if I should be born where the Christian religion is not known or preached; hence, I will only be born on the planet Jupiter or Saturn. Neither will I consent to be born with any physical or mental defect. I require perfection in every particular; thus to be all the more capable of exercising my moral freedom. I will not consent to accept any derangement in my temperaments ; neither in my powers of comprehension. If, therefore, you can im- part to me all I now demand, physically and mentally, I will consent to be born into the material world, and take the eternal salvation of my soul upon my own responsibility." Such a final decision would certainly be made by every well-informed spirit, should it be enlightened, and thus consulted, as to the liberty of choice, prior to its advent upon this or any other planet. And the dogma of moral freedom can not exist, rationally and intelligibly explained, upon any other conceivable basis. As the doctiine now stands interpreted, it as- suredly has nothing to recommend it to the intelli- gent mind. The assumptions of divines on this head can have no important bearing ; when every individual THE DYING DOGMAS. 233 is known to be forced, uniitformed and unconsulted, into this breathing world, frequently " deformed, hnlf- niade up," and with a " nationality," and complexion, too, which may prove a blessing or a curse, just as the tide of human prejudice may chance to flow at the time. Think you, that any being would consent to be born witli a black skin, or with a defective organiza- tion ? AVould any free moral being consent, on the supposition of possessing all due information, to be in- troduced into this life with one leg shorter than the other? — Wit'.i an imbecile brain? — With a hare-lip? — With a predisposition to consumption and scrofula ? — Or, with any other disorder, physical or mental, which children are compelled to accept with their birth ? The utter absurdity of the idea brea^i;s upon the mind with a redoubled force, when suggested by the mon- strous assertions of the clergy, that " we are created free moral powers !" The very fact of beginning to be, implies a primary dependence of the creature upon the Creative Principle. All intelligent mechanics know, that a human inven- tion of "perpetual motion" would be possible were it not for the primary ni cessity of employing perishable materials, and driving home the last screw — implying, thus, that the " motion" would have a beginning, and, consequently, a certain termination. Even so, when considered as to its derivation, the human soul is the result of the harmonious action of a Cieative Principle of Nature; and it depends as much upon the eternal existence of the divine Creator for its everlasting being as the heart depends upon the presence of the human spirit for life and energy. 234 THE APPEOACHINO CEISIS. If you should study the science of man, my friends, you will observe that all liberty or freedom is oom- parative ^ not absolute. All will is consequent; not priinai-y. The soul does not will itself into being ; but after its existence and organization are determined, then the inherited force, through will, sets the mechan- ism in motion. If the physical arrangements are not fi'om birth harmonious, the will can not render them so. Because the will-faculty in an effect of the mental combinations ; not a cause of them. A child has the will, or the desire, to play in the fields ; but the deter- mining power can accomplish nothing, unless the body is well and the limbs free from paralysis. Will, more- over, can not exist as an independent faculty of mind ; because it is a conditional and interfixed power — ^re- ceiving promptings- from the passions, and admonitions from the judgment. If the will acts by the instigations of the teason, then it is merely the lever of the directing power. Or, if will acts by impulses proceeding from the passions ; then, as before, it is executing the impet- uous suggestions of a cause upon which it (the will), as an effect, must necessarily depend. "Will, therefore, is not a self-causing and self-determining power ; but it is, when carefully defined, the focus of the mind. The human spirit, as I see it, is composed of actuat- ing springs, which are Love ; and regulating faculties, which are Wisdom. These, combined and organized, constitute a thinking sun. This spiritual sun, like its representative in the heavens, sends oft" rays in all directions. These rays are inclinations. Tlie reflection or refraction of these inclinations upon the countless external objects which develop and attract them, forms THE BTINQ DOGMAS. 235 a focus in the mind. At this point all tne rays con- verge, and, when all external and contiguous conditions are favorable, \\\q fall force of the internal sun (the mind) is manifested at tliis focus. This focus is the will. It is no more independent of the powers which contain the inclinations, and which emit them, than the focal point in a lens is independent of the rays of the snn. The metaphysical nature of the subject prevents a clearer illustration; which, taken in connection with the fact that no human mind can perfectly analyze and comprehend itself, must serve to explain _ away all ambiguity in the description. The peculiar nature of this review, moreover, does not encourage any elab- orate considerations of this kind. They are deferred to a more requisite occasion; when another, but more carefully prepared, criticism may be called forth frotn the author. Till then, we will let this point rest ; and proceed to consider man in relation to tlie world. You ask : " Are you not mistaken in affirming the partial freedom of man % Do we not behold examples of moral liberty in every man?" To this I reply briefly. As you recollect, Kossuth, the brilliant Hun- garian Governor, was referred to as a fine example of a Man in the exercise of his freedom. Now it seems to me the merest insight into the true philosophy of hu- man existence and events, would have prevented the reference altogether. Development is a transparent principle of nature ; and mankind is the coronation of all the nature which pertains to this earth. It is self- evident that great events develop great men. A Wash- ington appears when the occasion requires. Giants are slumbering : because there is no temple to over- 236 THE APPBOACHIN& CRISIS. throw. Should this people be suddenly oppressed by the invasion of a foreign army, the pressure would develop a Washington as naturally as the spring unfolds the flower. So Kossuth is a development of the times and events of his country. His love of Liberty was born with him, by the direct action of psychological laws upon his unfolding nature. Several of his rela- tions were the victims of Tyranny, to which, very natu rally, his mother became an ardent but speechless foe ! If tho external circumstances did not exist, the great " centerstance," Kossuth, would not be to-day known as the influential Angel of Liberty. To believe that he is self-determining and self-directing is to believe contrary to truth ; for he is, like the head upon the human body, the sensorium and moutlipiece of the Hungarian body, to which, by the most endearing ties, he is firmly attached. He is, therefore, acting out his paramount impulses as spontaneously as (but no more so than) the rose breathes forth its native fra;_ ranee. True, his liberty is greater than the rose ; hence he does more, enjoys more, has greater privileges ; in exact propor- tion to which are his responsibilities — not to the super- natural sphere, remember, but to the events and people by which he is supported. Thus, if the Hungarian is an example of moral freedom, he is also an illu-'itration of moral dependence, as growing out of the universal relationship of all created things. If you will but study his very emotional organization, in connection with the power of circumstances to develop man, I am quite csrtain your legitimate condusions will be anal- ogous. Methinks there now arises another question : " la THE DYING D0QMA3. 237 not man free to go where and do what he wills ? Can he not journey from city to city, and steal, and murder, when he desires V The problem of " blamable wrong " now begins to appear. From the theological presentation of the question, it may be difficult for many minds to turn away, as they should, in order to study the nature of man with an eye single to the acquisition of truthful conclusions. If you divest your minds of all supernat- uralistic notions, and analyze the individual relations which subsist between every man and the external world of effects, the truth will surely break upon you in ail its beautiful connections and simplicity. As already shown, every man's freedom is compara tive and conditional ; not absolute or uncaused. It is, in other words, the result of certain conspiring causes ; hence, it is not self-subsisting, but dependent. Sup- pose, for example, you "Will to visit the city of Boston. Now this will can have no external manifestation or accomplishment, unless all the outer contingencies, over which you individually can have no absolute control, are conspiring to aid you. You depend upon bodily health, upon the existence of safe and certain means of conveyance, and so forth ; which must all be in full operation before you can accomplish the end of the will. These are common-sense affirmations which every one of my audience fully comprehends. But let us look at this matter, as the clergy do, from a moral posture. Suppose an individual had high duties, as personal responsibilities are termed, in Bos- ton, which require his immediate presence and atten- tion. And there being no physical hinderances to pre- 238 THE APPEOAOHING 0EISI3. vent him from going directly among them, upon wliicli an excuse might be properly based ; still he does not, or will not, go forthwith and discharge those duties ; the question is : " Is not that man doing, in some sense, a blamable wrong?" Or, let us again suppose, a man is a partner in business. He plans with the utmost subtilty and care, the impoverishment of his companion ; and, having accomplished his designs, he leaves the country, with all his partner's earnings and his own ; the question is: "Is not that man doing a blamable wrong?" Or, to suppose still further, one man assassinates another, committing the double crime of murder and robbing ; the question is : " Is not that man doing a blamable wrong ?" I think the question of " blamable wrong," in connection with the problem of moral freedom, is here stated in full force ; and my answer, in order to be adequately apprehended, must commence with the consideration of a few principles, to which I now solicit your attention. Man, as we have seen, is introduced into existence without any previous consultations as to his desires or choice. This is, to commence with, a total violation of the conditions of moral freedom. Because, if the theologic assumptions be true, the individual is in danger of ultimating in everlasting woe — his chances being, according to the calculations of some divines, one to seventy-five. All this is irreconcilable with the workings of a divine Perfection. A free moral power should have its choice consulted as to the nature it will accept, and the laws to regulate it. Contrary to this, no man creates the laws of his finite being ; they are made for him; and he, as an inevitable sequence, is THE DTING DOGMAS. 239 compelled to obey them. Man, therefore, in the con- sciousness of his being, is not self-causing or self-deter- mining in any sense ; but is the issue of certain cre- ative principles, which he can no more break or subvert than a planet can leave the orbit in which the laws of condensation and gravitation have fixed it, and take independent voyages through the firmament. Man, I ]-epeat, is not the creator of the inexorable laws of his being; hence, he is their everlasting sub- ject ; hence, too, he obeys. The paramount law of his nature, which he can not alter, is Attraction. He obeys this law every instant of time ; true as the needle to the positive magnet. For present purposes, I will denominate this law, Interest ; because your minds will more readily apprehend the signification of the term. Interest, I say, then, is the ruling principle of every human being; no one can act without it, nor feel the disposition to act. It operates in all degrees or 8i.)here8 of existences, with the same philosophical precision and determination. No man has a will superior to his attractive or moving principle; he can not have; his will is merely the agent, or fulcrum, whereby this law, like a lever, moves the individual from point to point, from attraction to attraction, among the countless con- trarieties which make up existence. Perhaps, my friends, you think me too abstract; but I know I am not so to the over-seeing and comprehensive intellect. However, let me bring the subject home to the indi- vidual. Suppose you now will to walk into the street : the question is — " How came you to feel that will ?" There is Burely an antecedent somewhere, and generated by 24:0 THE APPEOAOHmO CRISIS. Bomething. You can not xoill to walk hence, unless the attraction here diminishes, permitting another at- traction to obtain the ascendency in your minds. The paramount or chief attraction you are under the neces- sity of obeying. But in this you may become confused, like a flock of sheep whose leader is lost in hesita- tion; or, like the tides which, while changing from one point of attraction to another, form eddies and contrary currents. These eddies and contrary cur- rents, in human affairs and deeds, are the very matters about which the clergy are perpetually preaching. Upon them the priesthood predicate all their theories of man's moral freedom ; and I fear it will be long ere the doctors of divinity can be prevailed upon to study man, and the profound philosophy of existence. Men would move in the paths of rectitude as naturally and spontaneously as the planets roll in their respective orbits, without manifesting disorder, if they were, like those planets, subject only to a single unchangeable law of attraction, always developing uniform results. But with man the case is different. He possesses within himself innumerable afiSnities, and, hence, is subject to the influence of countless attractions. These set in upon him from all directions, at the same time causing him to hesitate, to deliberate, to decide, and finally to act in accordance with the paramount attraction. This is all the moral freedom there is in the constitution of things. I will verify this on another occasion. Isow comes the solution of the questions propounded. But first let me direct your attention to the fact, that all the trouble, discords, and abominations in this world arise from the conflict between the laws of nature and THE dthtg dogmas. 241 the government of society. The laws of nature are im- planted in the constitution of every man; but he does not and can not so truly feel the laws of society. These are the creations of ignorant and finite man ; and they are at war with the laws of nature, because they are wrong and unjust. Tiie individual, therefore, is situ- ated between two contending forces — the imperative laws of nature and the restrictive laws of society — and the eonfliction generates all the evils in the world. Society says to the man, " Your duties^ sir, lie in Bos- ton — ^you must proceed there immediately." But the law of nature in him does not affirm the same thing. This law is superior in its influence upon his Will; indeed, he feels only this law, accompanied with its attractions or interests, and can only happily obey it: yet the social law he may fear exceedingly ; and, this gaining the ascendency in his mind, he proceeds to obey it, with certain internal conflicts which he is theo- logically taught to term, *' compunctions of conscience." His mind may be so undeveloped that only ordinary desires and attractions can affect him. Hence, while my mind might esteem his attractions of character as low and demoralizing, he, on the other hand, might consider my attractions as imaginary and poetical. Hence, too, each being ignorant of the other's integrity to the laws of nature, we would commence hlaming one another. I, considered as an orthodox clergyman, might call him "a poor miserable sinner;" and he would call me a penurious shepherd, determined to shear all the wool from the flock. So the compliments might be reciprocated ; until, by my superior ability to use language and arguments, I may finally subdue his 11 242 THE APPEOACHOTQ CEIS18. voice, overcome all his inordinate attractions, place my attractions in the ascendency before him, and, lo ! I have achieved the conversion of a fellow-sinner. Yery well : when this method can be philosophically prac- ticed, instilling high and humanitary sentiments in the undeveloped mind, I will become a co-worker in all religious revivals. This is the practical and logical ten- dency of the Harmonial Philosophy. But what shall we say concerning the " moral free- dom and blamable wrong " of the dexterous and faith- less partner in business. The practical conclusion of the case is, my friends, that society is, to a considerable extent, accountable for his actions. I affirm this under the strongest impression of its entire accuracy. If a suit be instituted for damages, it would be far more just should the individual bring it against society than society against the individual. Society had no right to be so defective as to permit such a disaster. If the fire burns a city to the earth, what do you say ? Do you blame the tire ? or, the defective use made of it, and the combustible nature of the dwellings ? Surely, a fire-proof house is the best preventive against a fire. So with onr social organization. If it is not murder- proof, theft-proof, and proof against the evils com- plained of, it assuredly should not curse the low, mis- directed, or undeveloped powers which very naturally obey the laws proper to their nature, to the disturbance and derangement of the general organism. It is true, thousands obey the laws of society by violating the inward principle ; but such are not happy, because they are actuated or kept in bondage hyfea^, which regulates all their external interests and actions. ButBucb are es- THE DTHTQ DOGMAa. 243 teemed by the clergy as examples of free moral powers id the loyal exercise of their liberfy to do right or wrong — so sv.perfitdal are all theological theories and conclusions. Methinks you inquire : "But is not the delinquent partner al?o deserving blame?" To this I am im- pressed to reply : " lie that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stoneP That is to say, there is blamable wrong in this world ; but let us denounce deeds, not men. Let us not vilify and crucify the indi- vidual ; but the social organization by which the in- dividual is used and molded. But this, you say, is evading the question. Assuredly not. You say, the partner had the ability to ^^an. the mischief, and. hence, the inward power of unoerstanding exactly what he was doing, &c., and should have not done the deed. This is precisely what I say ; only I affirm that he was a misdirected man — acting from what you would pro- nounce the lowest motive of his nature : but at the same time, tlie fact should not be overlooked that the lowest motive was the strongest in his mind. It was his prevailing and psycliologizing Interest to do the mischief; to which all his plans and deliberations were playing the parts of agents and attorneys. The client was the all-absorbing Interest. But you ask : " Where did that low and miserable motive originate f ' Divines affirm it was generated in his own will. This I deny, and ask : "Where did that man obtain his conscious being and its laws? Did he determine his organiza- tion ? Certainly not. But why did not the other partner commit the same theft? Because, perhaps, the other mind was endowed with a higher realization of justice, which no ordinary attractions could influence 244 THE APPROACHING CRISIS. or dilute ; or, he Tmgb.t fear society. He wonld, there- fore, act out the law of his being as faithfully as the other. Still society should not be so structurally defect- ive as to allow the least developed mind an oppor- tunity or tendency to create disorder. This man had a right to demand, from the various dependencies, a feeling superior to the Interest of wealth and its sup- posed joys. You now revert to the instance of the murderer. What shall we say? Is the murderer not guilty? Should we not denounce him as a '■ free moral power " — " do- ing as he was not made to do ?" Yea, verily ! He was doing as he was not made to do ; but the primary cause did not originate in his Will. Whence came it, then ? I answer : Society is guilty of the outrage ; for it permitted the lowest motives of the mind to become paramount and the strongest. No man in his proper condition, ever committed murder from a natural pref- erence. The thought is revolting ! If he should kill from a native taste, whence came that taste ? Did he create himself? Far from it. Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid! How then came that man to destroy his brother ? I answer, he acted as a strong power in the hands of a still more powerful combina- tion of causes ; for which society, not individuals, are truly responsible. Take for example, the case of Dr. Paekman and Prof. Webster. Did the latter murder the former from a spontaneous exercise of his so-called moral freedom ? The facts are quite to the contrary. The crime grew out of a pecuniary obligation and embar- rassment between the individuals. The debtor did not THE DYING DOGMAS. 245 liquidate the debt wlien he promised to do so, and the impatient icreditor became abnormally enspicious. This suspicion generated aggravating insinuations and con- stant inquiries, under whirh Prof. "Webster writhed and smarted as only a proud man could. His wounded pride overpowered his other and higher feelings, and developed a degree of anger altogether insupportable. His strongest Interest was centered in the I'emoval of this bane to his happiness. This led to the murder. Tou say : " He should have restrained himself" Oh, it is exceedingly easy to say wliat a fellow-being should do under given circumstances, and to blame him if he acts contrary to our notions of right and wrong — es- pecially when we nre not organized, situated, and in- fluenced in a similar manner ; but, when our turn comes, we find ourselves acting perhaps no better than he ; only we, being privy to all the causes, can see miti- gating and modifying circumstances accompanying our crimes, which we honestly believe, or wish to believe, would justify utter forgiveness. Society held Prof. Webster responsible for his moral delinquency or mur- derous deed. Is this exact justice ? I hear a })rotesting voice.: — '■ Prof Webster should have more properly instituted a suit for individual damages against society. Because the crime in this case was the legitimate effect of a social relation between debtor and creditor ; of whicli antagonistic relation the distinguished individ- uals were the most unfortunate victims." The precise thought here intended can be much easier misumler- stood than apprehended. It is quite a manifest depart- ure from the popular definitions of Justice ; and, like the traveler in a strange country, the reader may uninten- 246 THB APPEOlCHIJTG CRISIS. tionally wander astray. You exclaim : " Oh, it is all a plea for vice — relieving the individual of moral respons- ibility, and encouraging transgression — by charging all upon the structure of society." Error could not be more remote from Truth, than is this conclusion from the author's meaning. Every individuar is surely do- ing a blamable wrong when he acts inconsistently with the indwelling Law of Right. But who shall say what that Law is? Who shall sit in judgment against his neighbor? According to my impression, this Law is Harmony. Any thing, therefore, which develops dis- cord is wrong ; as a cause, it must receive an unquali- iied condemnation. Now tlie reader will apprehend the signilicancy of my affirmation, if he understands me as condemning the causes of discord or sin, whether trace- able to individuals or to our social construction. la the case of Prof Webster, there is no denying the plain fact, that the murder did not grow out of any innate taste or voluntary desire, but, primarily, out of a money-relation between the parties — to which they were unrighteously subjected. This pecuniary trouble, tlien, taken in connection with the inherited tempera- ments and mental tendencies of the criminal, was the cause of the premeditation and the sin. Therefore, in- asmucli as the first cause of this evil is to be found in our social arrangements, so am I, in common justice to truth, compelled to charge upon society the damages and injuries done to the parties involved. You ask, ''Why does not every man destroy his creditor, when similarly embarrassed in a money rela- tion ?" For the same reason that every man is not physically and mentally organized precisely alike. THE DriNQ DOGjMAS. 24T Each man would be a Newton or a Shakespeaee, were it not for this fact, that the inequalities of birth, the contrarieties of surrounding circumstances, and the different social positions which men occupy — all con- spire against the possibility of every person ieing and doing in a corresponding manner. One man can bear fifty times more embarrassment and vexation than another, and manifest no discomposure or retaliation. It depends altogether upon individual organization, and the use which society mates of that organization, as to the good or evil issues. You inquire : " Who made society ?" Society is the work of ignorant and undeveloped men. Like the first cotton machine, society does not properly accomplish or manufacture what the constructive minds desire. Individuals are not personally responsible for all the evils evolved from present social arrangements. For it is the human aggregate which forms society. The social mechanism can be improved, only, on the event of the masses becoming enlightened as to the actual causes of sin so- called, and as to the best metliods of reorganization. The reader, therefore, will apprehend me as not toler- ating vice, or as exculpating the individual from the commission of discordant deeds which he, as a compar- ative free power, can prevent or abstain from ; but as teaching the doctrine, which can not be successfully refuted, that the greatest evils in this world arise from Ignorance as to the organization of men, and, equally, from a defective social arrangement. A different and harmonious organization of human occupations and interests would render society a better Parent to its offspring ! But the individuals were not the real suf- 248 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS. ferers; beeaitse, when their physical existence termin- ated a better opened upon them ; but they were citi- zens, and husbands, and fathers ! From these relations sprang all the suffering which the murder developed. Society, therefore, receives back, with interest com- pounded, all the wrongs, the insults, and oppressions which its antagonistic relations inflict upon individuals. Society, when it strangulates the murderer, at the same time, absolutely insults the moral feelings of every man who has outgrown theolc^y and the prevailing evils of an undeveloped race. In conclusion, I will briefly reply to the almost thoughtless assertion, that " this philosophy is immoral." This assertion, my friends, is grounded in ignorance and prejudice. The logical fruits are : personal anal- ysis, self -development, harmony, peace, irotherly love, and a universal unity of interests. We are taught to feel ourselves free to do Right ; but we are not free to do wrong. Th6 law of our existence is Justice or harmony ; this is our highest Interest or chief attrac- tion. Almost the last words which broke from the soul of , Jesus, when he separated from his sorrow- stricken disciples, bring out in full force the practical teachings of this philosophy : " lie ye one, even as I and my Father are one " — a blending of interests the most intimate, wise, and divine. This state can never be developed under the teaching of sapernaturalism ; which tolerates social antagonisms on the fallacious theory of man's moral freedom. This doctrine which asserts that each man is a Sflf-determlning and self- regulating power, is disproved by every thing in exist- ence. The mission of the Christ-principle is to reveal THE DYING DOGMAS. 249 to the race the peace and unity of truth. It will un- fold a Wisdom-power among men to the ultimate establishment of a sacred harmony on earth, permanent as the Eternal Mind. I have said that man's will is an effect, and not a cause; that it is, therefore, not absolutely, but com- paratively free. If a man wills to accomplish any thing, the execution thereof depends wholly upon the favorable conspiration of surrounding things. There could be no lying, no stealing, no murder, if every man was an isolated being — an independent, self-caus- ing, self- determining, and self-sustaining power. Nay. Association is the parent of all discordant contrasts in men and deeds ; and the Law of Progression is the parent of the countless varieties of character visible in the human world. I say, then, that man is compara- tively free in his will. He can follow out, or after, his strnvgest attraction or Interest on the condition that all relative influences and circumstances, over which he can have no direct control, are friendly to his pro- ceeding. Kossuth, in the exercise of his freedom, could do nothing, though he might loill forever, if there were no hearts to beat sympathetically with his own. Now I regard his love of, and labors for, Liberty as the natural result of the events which developed him, and of the peculiar organization which, without his consent, he originally derived from his progenitors. Hence, manifestly, the reason why all men are not precisely like Kossuth, is to be found in the fact, that all are not personally organized and situated in a cor- responding manner. So, therefore there is no great cause for aristocracy in feeling ; for the most splendid 11* 250 THE APPROACHING CRISIS. man before the world to-day might have been, through the accident of birth, a negro delving in the earth for a livelihood. But you ask : " If this doctrine be true, how shall we graduate the measure of personal responsibility ?" This question I will more fully answer hereafter. My present reply is : from the mind of fine endowments we should expect line results, all immediately sur- rounding things being favorable. I think many who now pass for good Christian citizens, have never com- mitted theft or murder, simply because they have not been situated amid the adequate temptations. But what might constitute an irresistible temptation to one man, could form no inducement whatever to amither, possessing a different temperament and a higher organ- ization. This fact men are quite too apt to overlook in pronouncing judgment upon the moral delinquencies of the victims of vice. The man who would not be tempted at all to do a certain thing, which some weaker brother was influenced to accomplish in society, sits in cold judgment against the misdirected mind; and consigns him, on the ground of moral freedom, to sorfle loathsome prison or burning hell. Such is the doctrine of supernaturalism ! Man, I repeat, is free to do right; but he is not free to do wrong. When he does right, he glides peacefully along with the divine life-currents of this beautiful universe, like a flower on the ocean's bosom. This is the glorious Liberty of the children of God. But to attempt to do wrong, or rather to be influenced by social laws to go in a wrong direction, is to meet with insurmountable impediments at every step ; it is THE DYING DOGMAS. 251 like an effort to ascend the impetuous tide of Niagara Falls. " According to this philosophy," you ask, " what motive have we to use our comparative freedom ?" I answer : The chief attraction of every soul is Happi- ness. But there are very few who know which road to take to find it. Thousands think it is to be found in licentiousness, in gaming, in prowling through the world, like the prodigal son, in drunkenness and reck- lessness ; but such soon discover their error ; for a miserable experience teaches a different lesson. Happiness, then, is the chief of all attractions ; and a,ll mankind would go directly to it, if they possessed suflBeient wisdom. We, therefore, who have this wis- dom, should impart it to those whose present proceed- ings are against the law of Right. This Law operates in us and upon us, whether we recognize it or not ; and every movement which deviates from its imperative tendency, is attended with the legitimate consequences. These results are recorded in the book of life ; not al- ways in accordance with our educational notions of right and wrong, with our voluntary or involuntary doings ; but, invariably, in proportion to the real devi- ation of the individual. Society does the most injury to individuals in this respect. You ask : " What do you mean by the book of life ?" The book of life, my friends, is composed of the human body and mind. The lids are made of the body ; the folios of the mental faculties. Upon these leaves are written the many deviations of the individual from the paths of rectitude. Tlie recording angel is the Law of Eight, or the Positive Principle of nature, which is Harmony. The mark of transgression is upon the brow. The individ- 253 THE APPEOACHING CEISIS, nal — the book of life — is immortal ; it soon passes away to the Spirit Land. The record of misdirection ap- pears on the living faculties ; is manifested in their deformity and decrepitude ; in their inability immedi- ately to advance, with the higher spirits, upon the eternal highway of Love and Wisdom. Such are the motives, according to this philosophy, which we have for exercising aright all the comparative freedom in our possession. One can righteously affect a Family ; another a Society ; another still, can affect a Com- munity ; and still another, can move a Nation with the power of Mind — if all the immediate outer conditions conspire to that end. But society must be changed. For the greatest injury which can be done ah individ- ual, is to place him, by the mere accident of birth, in a world which favors crime, and the perpetuation of mental misery. THE TEITJMPH OF EEASON. 253 CHAPTEE YIII. corrcLTJSioiT. .itical and Religious causes of tho coming crisis. — A struggle be- tween Catholics and Protestauts. — The triumph of Reason. — The result. The friends of progress should always be able to read that greatest of all living chapters in Creation : the con- dition of the human world. It concerns everybody ; be- cause the world is composed of individuals. And if those ■who stand upon the summit of the hill are incapable of seeing the broad extent of humanity that surrounds them, then who shall go to the contemplation ? The whole world, as a general thing, sees future events through the eyes of a very few persons. Indeed, it is almost true to say that, considered in the historical sense, the entire body of mankind has but two eyes or mediums through which to contemplate the condition of things, namely, Politics and Religion. On this occasion let us look at the world through the medium of Religion. My impressions upon this sub- ject may be briefly written. I, therefore, solicit your clearest discernment to the following points : It is well known by all the inhabitants of Christendom that the world is full of sectarian jargon and bitterness. And that very conspicuously before the world are arrayed, in 254: THE APPEOACUING CEI8I9. bitter and uncompromising liostiiity, two powerful forces — Protestantism and CatJiolicism. In order to bring these religious institutions distinctly before your minds, I will describe their leading charac- teristics. Catholicism is a system of supernaturalism. It claims to be the "One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church "--based upon supernatural authority, claiming unending infallibility. It denies the right of individ- ual judgment upon religious subjects; but inculcates the vii-tues, charities, and hospitalities of Christian- ity through the agency of popes, bishops,' and priests, who profess to have their authority direct from the supernatural source. Protestantism is also a system of supernaturalism — I mean, when considered as a whole. It claims to have discovered the true import of the Sacred Scriptures. It is based upon a supernatural foundation, but encourages the right of private judgment upon all subjects pertain- ing to religion and conscience. It likewise inculcates ■ the virtues and charities of Christianity through the medium of clergymen, schools, and colleges. Now I am not impressed to consider the minor points of either Catholicism or Protestantism, nor the different views which one party or the other entertains concern- ing the truest methods of biblical interpretation. There have already been too many churches built, and t^o many salaries paid, to have these oriental and insignifi- cant affairs discussed. But I have to do only with the foundation upon which these two very popular insti- tutions manifestly stand. It is essential to understand here, what is very generally overlooked, that both of THE TEIUMPH OF REASON. 255 these gigantic religious organizations are struggling to maintain au everlasting position upon the same iden- tical basis. There is one foundation ; but it is not large enough to sustain two such stupendous and in- harmonious superstructures. Hence it inevitably fol- lows that both must fall forever — leaving the ground to be occupied by something more consistent. But one must decline and crumble before the other. Now the question is, which of these two religious institutions is first destined to decay ? Let us leave this question unanswered, for a few moments, and turn our thoughts in another direction. It is well known by the clergy and people generally of the present daj', that there is rapidly growing a rationalistic religion and a phih sophical Spirituality. This is the Harmonial Philosophy. It stands upon the revelations of Nature, and upon the foundations of the highest form of Keasoii. It fully accepts the virtues; charities, truths, and liberalities of every known religion ; and simply rejects every thing which claims to be in- trinsically based upon the miraculous or unprotitalily supernatural. It looks upon the moralisms and pre- cepts of Christianity as a natural development of a well balanced mind — or, more properly, as a natural unfold- ing of truth in the general progress of msmkind. It regards all the real miracles, prophecies, and miraculous powers, as explainable upon philosophical principles; and holds to the doctrine of human progress and uni- versal improvement in the constitution of things. Now, it will be perceived, the declarations and posi- tions of this Philosophy are clear, and positively an- tagonistic to both Protestantism and Catholicism. It is 258 TEE APPEOAOHINa CEISI3. essential that you fix your minds firmly upon this point. The rationalism of this day is positively opposed to ilie two great forms of religious belief. Because, as before said, the quarrel between Protestantism and Catholicism is sustained on the desire which one party has to sup- plant and transcend the other. For they stand upon the same foundation. By this I mean to say, that tbe Bible is the unmistakable originator of both these re- ligious institutions. It is the ground-plan of each ; and the two start from the same degree of apostolic authority ; but there is a vast struggle, not now obvious, but certain to occur between these Powers — a war, des- tined summarily to settle the question of the ground- title, and the divine right of human government. A supernatural religion based upon and supported by miracles equally supernatural, is the basis of both super- structures. There is no denying this plain fact. I would not be understood to consider Catholicism as good in all respects as Protestantism ; for it is clear that the latter lias wrought many improvements in the form of religious worship, has abandoned many expensive and unnecessary ceremonies, and encouraged individual education, and private judgment in scriptural reading. But mankind are now far more civilized and advanced in arts and sciences than in any former era. Men un- derstand each other better now ; and the great laws of nature are more easily and generally comprehended. The shackles of bigotry and intolerance drop off as the cause of Freedom advances ; and all members of hu- manity — of Christendom especially — are becoming more thoroughly reasonable and baptized in the pure waters of wisdom. THE TEI0MPH OF EEASON. 257 Here, tlien, is the point : men are becoming more reasonahle. The fate of Christendom depends wholly upon this one fact: men are '/'