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

ON THE MORALS OF CIIllISTIANS. 271ill lioucsty, would bo ucglcctcd. This goes much further as an clementof the prevailing morality in securing punctual payment, thanreligion.lo85.That religion has actually very little to do with mercantile morals,must be evident, since it is never, on change, an object of inqnirij. Whenmen arc about to trust large sums, they do not inquire how often the otherparty goes to church, nor to what church he goes. It has never been mylot to know any one whom I thought better for his religion. I have knownmany whom I thought better through native goodness of heart than theywould have been if left to the influence of their bigoted opinions alone.I heard a clergyman, distinguished for his amiability and liberality insocial intercourse, speak fromdevil."the pulpit of infidelity as ^^ the work of the138G. There are allegations of this kind made from the pulpit which tome appear tobe absolutely calumnious, though those who make them donot conceive themselves to be calumniators.It is, in truth, their false religionwhich speaks ;they are possessed as if by an evil spirit, yet the goodnessof their hearts prevents them from realizing any such calumnies intheir personal intercourse with society. Dr. Berg said it was not lie (Dr.Berg) that spoke when he used ill language to Barker, but the Bible.There is a want of Christian moderation in the language of Christ, andJohn the Baptist, and in some of the Psalms, which seems inconsistent withChrist's precepts.John, addressing the Pharisees as '^vipers fleeing fromthe wrath to come," representing them as poisonous reptiles, and God asenraged against them. The language of Christ respecting some of thesame sect, to which allusion has been made, is even more abusive.1387. But among the calumnies to which I have alluded, are thosewhich represent the human heart asinnately wicked, and only to be correctedby religious regeneration. All the souls created since Adam atethe apple, must be born anew, thus drawing a marked distinction betweenthose who have gone through this second birth, and such as myself, whohave not undergone this recuperative process. But what man of commonsense draws a line between those who are thought to have been born overagain, and those who have not? The great majority of those who callthemselves Christians, do not put any more trust in one who has gonethrough this second birth, than in one who is not deemed to have beenthus regenerated.Progress of Literature and SciencePontiffs, calledin Arabia under the MohammedanCaliphs.1388. "While the science and literature of the Roman Empire sankunder the influence of the Christian pontiff (pope) into ignorance, superstition,and vice, the Arabians, under the influence of their Mohammedanpontifi's, (caliphs,) arose from barbarism to a comparatively superior state