Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-03-02
CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZA-
TION.
BY SAMUEL G. ARNOLD.

If Mr.. Ingersolrs articles in the North
American Review are to be taken as fail
samples of the bolts which he is forging
to shiyer Christianity, there is quite a
prospect of its surviving yet for some
days. What Christianity has done and
is doing for the peace and good order OF
the world has evidently attracted his
attention, but not seriously invited his
assaults. He says, rather fiippantly: at
is still claimed that we are Christian
people, indebted to something called
Christianity for all the progress we have
made but he does not deny the prog.
ress, nor give US any good reason for
thinking that it is not due to Christian
ity. 1t is clear enough, however, that
he ignores Christianity as an effective
force, and undertakes to show that the
world could have got along as well or
better without it. Here is his statement
on that point:
"To every one, except the theologian,
it is perfectly easy to account for the
mistakes and crimes of the past by say
ing that civilization is a slow growth
that the moral perceptions are cultiyat-
ed through ages of tyranny, of want, of
crime, of heroism; that it requires CEN
turles for man to put out the eyes of
self and hold in lofty equipose the scales
OF Justice; that mercy is the child of i'm
agination-of the power to put ones
self in the sufferers place, and that man
advances only as he becomes acquainted
with his surroundings"
In other words, man, originally had,
progressed by experience; a fact which
may, perhaps, be generally admitted. At
any rate, Mr.. Ingersoll does not put it
too strongly when he says that civiliza-
ton, under such circumstances, sis a
slow growth" He might have gone still
further and said that in many cases it is
of no growth. OF no percepUible growth.
For how many ages did the cave-dwell-
ers, or the South Sea Islanders, or the
North American Indians grope in their
ignorance2 How long did it take them
to put out -the eyes Of self" and make
them acquainted with their surround
ings ?" Even under more favorable cir
cumstances. in cases where higher CIV
ilizatiOn evershadows q lower, growth
towards better conditions is apt to be a
little slow. The Romans held posses
sion of Great Britain for FIVE hundred
years, but when they left the Celts were
the same rude barbarians rs before, and
the masters seemed to have carried away
both their civilization and their Ian
guags. In our own times the occupation
of India by the English has produced
little perceptibls change beyond the es-
tablishment of voluntary missions, and
the light and education which they diff
fuse. The effect of our own high civili-
zation on the North American Indians,
what has it been? For two hundred
years We have been parading our ad-
advantages before them,' but, outside of
religious influences, they appear to be
Indians still.
The world has had Babylon, and MIN
eveh, and Egypt, and Greece, and Rome; /;
but one civilization has followed anoth-
er without seeming to be effected by it.
If we should single out the last and
mightiest, and hold it up for Mr.. Inger-
soils admiration, after the experience
of thousand years in "cultivating the
moral perceptions" he would hardly re-
gard it as model for ''lofty and equal
equipose" in holding the scales of JUS
tice." He hates slavery, and tyranny
and aggressive war, but Rome trampled
down the nations to the last and lived
by the sword
Mr.. Ingersolls theory about the "atroc-
titles and crimes of the past" may all be
right. but it is utterly and shamefully
insufficient to account for our growth
out of them. There is no such thing in
the history of the world, outside of Chris
tianity, as regular growth towards hu-
manity and justice. None Of the old
civilizations reached down to lift up the
lower classes. Even the great astronom-
ical and scientific discoveries of the
Greeks in the days of Ptolmies seem not
to have benefited the common people.
The great Egyptian pyramid is marvel
of astronomical and scientific advance
ment, but, if old Heroditus is to be cred
tied, it was built by nation of slaves.
a - .Au