The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1886-04-28
denotes are shown in the humber of sects

dencies are shown in the humber of sects
which exist among them.
He then philosophically proceeds to say
that God is good, beautiful, blessed and
perfect. He therefore cannot change; for
if he were to change it would be for the
worse. Therefore God cannot come down
to men. He cannot assume mortal
body. He cannot do it in reality, for that
would be contrary to nature; he could not
do it in appearance, for that would be to
deceive, and God cannot deceive. Indeed
the idea is absurd. What advantage could
be gained by his coming? Does he not
know all things? Has he not power to do
all things without assuming a body? Is
be. not able as God to do everything that
he could do as incarnared God? And no
real advantage is got for men, for they do
not know God better by seeing him in
bodily form. A God should be too just to
allow an innocent person TO become the
seapegoat for the sins of the wicked. God
always works for the whole. Did he wax
en- at that particular moment and resolve
to rescue few from sin? Was he indif-
ferent to all mankind before, to all the ma
tiens of the earth? And is he to continue
to show the same especial favor only for
select few? Not only are the Christians
wrong in this, but they are wrong in sup
posing that the world was made for man.
/ Again, it ia the whole that is cared for.
/ And we can see signs in nature that anil
mails are equal if not superior to man in
many points,. IF he hunts the deer, the
lion hunts him and feeds on him. Bees
have cities and rulers. Some animals
speak to each other. Some can foretell
the future. Some are religious. In fact,
for neither animals nor man was the uni
verse made.
! In exhibiting the superiority Of the
Greek doctrines over the Christian, CELSIUS
pointed to the circumstance that the
Greeks appealed to reason-the Christians
Icry out, sBelieve! Believey' He COM
pared the prophesies of the Greeks with
those of the Christians, and spoke Of the
resurrection as a, religious belief. The
i doctrine OF the Son of God, he said, was
! borrowed from Plato. The devil owed
/ his origin to 2 distortion of4a Greek opin-
lion. Their belief in salvation by faith
alone, he considered, had an immoral ten
j dencY. He ridiculed the union of three
Gods in one: He considered the sacrifice
at lie.
a survival Of some barbaric custom-like
the eating, from affection, of children by
! parents, and parents by children, practiced
i by some barbarous tribes. The life, mir
acles and ascension of Jesus, he said, were
an inferior imitation Of the life, miracles
and ascension of Appolonius. There was
no such thing as inspiration. If person
was inspired, every believer in the inspired
person would have to be inspired in order
to know it. The story of the miraculous
birth of Christ was not different from the
similar stories of the miraculous birth of
the different heroes and demi-gods of bar
barOus nations.
j incidentally he compared the Greek and
Roman heroes with their high aims, noble
impulses and sublime virtues, with the
meaner Christian saints, whose principal
virtues were apparently to lead a selfish,
solitary life and avoid washing themselves.
He appealed to the educaSed to awake
from their Indifference, to resist the spread
| ing Of the pernicious doctrine; that it was
being rapidly spread by unscrupulous men
among the ignorant masses; that their
thorough organization and the belief in
the inspiration of their church leaders
were menace to liberty that their big
otry and fanaticism in the hands Of an un-
scrupulous demagogue might at some fl-
ture time oyerWhelm the state; that should
they ever achieve a political ascendancy
their bigoted enmity to all science, artand
culture would drown the intellectual world
in eternal night.
Much more he said, but the horror 7
felt at the blasphemy of his statements
awoke me, and I have forgotten many
things that he laid great stress upon.
Dream images are usually deducible
from Impressions lately received, and
from association, but what connection or
similarity could there be between the
false teachings Of Mormonism and that Of
Christianity-the living truth?
Farm Machinery Free.