Smyrna times., 1873-08-27
SkepticiSm.

Skepticism.
1t may as well be understood among Chris
tian men and women that they are every day
doing that which brings their religion under
suspicion with the unbeiving world. The
world does not see the fruits Of that divine in
fuence which is claimed for the Christian re-
ligiOn by its professors. Nothing is more no.
tOriOus than that the educated men of France
Italy and Spain are nfidel and nothing has
been better calculated to make them so than
the whole policy of the Catholic Church in
those countries. They have seen pOpulace
kept In ignorance and poverty through many
generations by a Christian Church. They
have seen that popuace fed with traditions,
machine miracles, shows, professions, hum
bugs, by priesthood that is foolish if it knows
no better, and knavish If it does know better
they have seen that priesthood taking side with
tyranny against every popular struggle for lib
erty and liberal institutions; they have seen
that priesthood grasplng at wealth and power,
and intriguing for temporal influence all over
the world. This is the Christianity they have
seem it is all they have seen and their CON
clIsiOns, when made against the Catholic
Church, are made against Christianity itself.
Does anybody blame them? Not we
The influences OF the prevalent form of
Christianity in England are very little better
than in the nations mentioned. The world
looks on and sees livlngs bought and sold like
commission in the army-ploces made in the
church for younger sOns-wine drinking, plea
sure-loylng men i'll the pulpit; and then, when
it sees any action, it s with regard to candles
and YestmentS and rites and ceremonies that
have no more vital relation to the redemption
of mankind and the service of God than then
have to the policy of the Gar in Turkey Is
1t supposed that men Of common Sense do not
and cannot see through all this stuff anu non
sense? -Four hundred of these ciergymen
have just petitoned for what they call "sacra-
mental confession" Drifting towards Roman
ism, grasping after new and old machinery,
busted only with husks and human inventions,
quarrelmg over baubles, communicating their
own free thinkers and free speakers. obSequi-
Gus to worldly grandeurS, mingling in politics,
| fTOwnng upon non cOnformiStS as social in
feriors, the great majority Of the English clergy
are doing what they can TO manufacture inf
dels out of all Englishmen who do their own
thinking.
! And here in America, how much better are
we doing? We tritter away our energies and
waste our substance in building costly churches
for the rich, in multiplying sectS and kee ping
up the differences between them, and in apiug
the wretched religious fooleries of the Old
| World. Our organization into hundred re
! uRlOuS SSClS aUlOunlS 10 Ltc INSTRUMENTATION OI
! Christianity. There are thousands of towns
! lying religiously dead to day because there is
not Christianity enough in them to unite in
! obtaining the services of n minister who has
! brains enough to teach them; ani as rule,
! there are from three to SIX religious societies
in all these tOwns-starve ing churcheS-mon-
uments only to the ambition of the SectS which
/ they represent. The world looks on and Scotfs.
The world looks on and recognizes the lack of
! power in Christianity, or of such Christianity
as it sees, to unity the church in feeling and
effort, and it learns only contempt for it.
Every pulpit, as a rule, is a party pulpit.
| Every religious press Is a party preSS-publSh-
ed in the interest of a sect and supported by
it. So unusual is the spectacle Of various bod
les Of Christians coming together for the ac-
cOmplshment OF a common Christian purpose,
that it is noted as something remarkable, and
pointed at with selt.cOmplacent bOasting. We
have fashionable churches, and churches made
attractive by music that costs enough to sup
port Christian teachers in half a dozen barren
districts, and enough of the exhibition of a
worldly spirit to show to keenly- y-observing out
Siders that the Christian spirit of self sacrifice
and the Christian faith in the hereafter are
not in US are hardly in the best of us.
We would not be harsh but we ask, in all
candOr, if there is not in every Christian cOun-
| try enough in the aspect of Christian people to
make their religion seem hollow pretenSe, a
thing without vital power, a system not halt
believed in by those who profess it. Does not
the world find us quarreling about non essen
tial things, striving for sectarian precedence,
and practically ignoring the fact that the world
needs to be saved through simple faith in and
following of Jesus Christ? Really when the
scientist and the naturalist come, with their
scalpels and crucibles and blow pipes, and tell
US they will believe in nothing they cannot see
and weigh and measure, there is hut little left
for them to do. Whose fault is it that they
find their work so easy2 Why is it that there
is such a hutter when they speak. except that
those who profess to be Christians do not half
believe in Christianity, and have no rational
comprehension of the basis of such belief as
| they pOssesS2
Two things must come before skepticism will
be overthrow, viz: lst. A perfect willing
ness TO go into an examination of Christianity
| for the truths sake alone Any man who is
| interested as a partisan, either for Christianity
or against it, it unfit for the investigation.
SO far as the claims OF Christianity are to be
settled by investigation, he2t are to be settied
bV 1len aOhOSe supreme desire as to find the truth,
tohereUer 1t may lead or land them. ID Chris
tianity must be better illustrated in life by
those who profess it. When Christians every
where are controlled by love that takes in
God and every human being when "divine
service" consists Of ministry TO the poor and
the suffering and not of clothes and candles !;
when the Christian name is greater than all
sectarian names and obliterates them all when
benevolence is law, and humbleSt service..is
highest honor, and life becomes divine, then
skeptlcism will cease, and not til then.-Dr.
y. g. Holland, in Scrtbner's for September.