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

246 INFLUENCE OF SCRIPTUREparents, or tbe parents and tlicir cliildrcn ? The God of Spiritualismwould view parental and filial love as tbe truest piety. He asks only thatlove. He has not constituted us to have that sort of love for him. Hadhe wished it,he would have made us so, as to be thus actuated.1281. "Ug that believeth in me shall have eternal life." ''Thy faithhath made thee whole. '^at large.These allegations produced a change in the worldThat bigotry and animosity which led the Jews to consider thatall who did not agree withthem in creed, were objects of spoliation, massacre,rape, enslavement, were now extended to other parts of the world.1282. No doubt the success of this exclusive notion, on the part ofChrist, led to its adoption by Mohammed, and thus some hundred millionshave been actuated by this mischievous impression, which is now at workon the Russian territory. It has been already suggested that this ideaalways begets persecution to the extent of the power to exercise it.Whileseeing the horrid consequences of this error in the persecution of theFrench Calvinists, Calvin could not avoid the diabolic impulse in the instanceof Servetus. It cannot be necessary to recall to our readers themany bloody persecutions and religious wars which have disgraced Christendomfar more than any other part of the globe, nor to allude to thetyranny reciprocally employed by any sectYet with these consequences beforethe mind—the facts which I have adducedto prove that the morality of Christendom ishaving complete ascendancy.not due to Scripturethe tocsin is sounded wherever any effort is made to get rid of the crimesand indecencies of the Old Testament, or the error of making bigotedbelief, under the name of faith, a primary consideration on the part of theNew Testament. People are taught that every thing good is due to Scripture;that thence alone can we get any correct notions of moralit}', anyknowledge of a future state. The idea is entertained that Christianitymade a great change for the better as soon as it prevailed, and that withoutit we should sink into a state of demoralization.1283. Consistently with my experience of the effect of a confident beliefin a future state of existence on my own mind, as already suggested,I was always under the impression, prior to my conversion, that those whobelieved in a future state must be happier; and if that belief were not associatedwith mischievous error, that it should not be assailed. The ideathat what I considered as bigotry, should be a counterpoise for sin, I didconsider a mischievous error, tending to substitute devotion for good works,and as I saw, too, made nations selfish. The love of hoarding was verycommonly coupled with this selfishness, which operated at once to produceefforts to lay up treasure on earth by close dealing, and in heaven by strictsectarianism, bigotry, and intolerance.But, nevertheless, I was restrainedfrom any effort to cure these errors, from the conviction that religion, unaccompaniedby the expectation of a future state, can never take hold ofthe human heart.