Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

ON THE MORALS OF CHRISTIANS. 245The Docd'inc of a 2'>cculiar Belief he hig ncce^uiry to Sahatlon, and acounterpoise for Sin, a source of discord originaUy confined to Judea,2)erior Moralit//, and far more unquestionahle Certainty of tlieCommunicationsfrom the Spirit }Yorld.e.rpanded with Christiroiif// and Islam ism ; verifyine} ClirisCs allcriation,that he came "as a iSword, not as a Messemjer of PeaceJ'— Su-127G. It were in vain, I think, to find in the apple of discord, in themischiefs let loose from Pandora's box, or any other figurative exemplification,any idea adequate to convey my conception of the mischief done tothe world by iutroducinj^ the dogma, that belief could be the means ofsalvation ; so that if God had so constituted or so situated a people, thatthey could not believe what was communicated to them by certain itinerantpreachers, it should be v/orse for them in the day of judgment than forSodom and Gomorrah; two cities which God had destroyed because he hadnot so organized them, and circumstanced them, as to make them as virtuousas he, subsequently to their creation, desired.1277. Christ fully justified this opinion, when he alleged himself tohave come as a sword, not as a messenger of peace, and to set father andson, mother and daughter, &c., at variance with each other, making thepeople of a man's own household his foes. It may be said that he identifiedhimself with piety and rectitude; so that it was for the virtue of whichhe, as the Son or missionary of God, was the representative, that he pleadbut this pious devotion has much more of self in it than people imagine.They identify God or Christ with the welfare of their souls and bodies. Itit through the hope of benefit to these that they take such a deep interestin God.1278. But is it not strange that the Christian religion should be treatedas a harbinger of peace and harmony, when, with its entrance into theworld, came the intolerance, before confined to Judea, and when by itsfounder it is represented as a sword, to sever the dearest ties by introducingthe poisoning idea that belief could be a virtue or a sin ?It seems tohave been the cause of a peculiar animosit}^ which has always accompaniedits progress, if not its endurance, and which set the example to Mohammedof attaching the same fanatical idea to another basis, comporting withhis individual aggrandizement, at the expense of much human misery.1279. The language of Christ held to his apostles, showing that he consideredthem as thirsting for temporal honours, and his aspiration for thethrone of his glory, situated, of course, in the same mundane region, maywarrant the surmise that his views did not differ from those of 3Iohammedas to the ultimate object, however much he may have found it necessary,under the Roman despotism, to fight with the tongue instead of the sword.1280. But how can this sentiment be justified in which he makes devotionto himself irreconcilable with the holy ties between the child and his