Mexico weekly ledger., 1891-06-11
MEXICO MISSOURI, THURSDAY, JUNE II, 1891.

MEXICO, MISS(
uel Davidson. whose scholarship
entities him to recognition as an au-
thority in such matters, says: mo
New Testament canon, except a
! partial and unauthoritative one, ex-
isted till the latter half of the Sec
Eond century. n One hum
dred and seventy years from the
coming of Christ elapsed before the
collection assumed a form that car
ried with it the idea Of holy and in
spired. The way in which it was
done was by raising the apostolic
writings higher and higher i n
SO that the church might have
rule Of appeal. n It is clear
that the earliest church fathers did
not use the books of the New Testa-
ment as sacred documents, clothed
with Divine authority
| Thus. it appears that for at least
$50 years after the death Of Jesus,
during the pentecostal era of Chris
tianity, when the religion taught by
the Master was in it's primitive pur-
ity and eonquering the hearts of men
by thousands, during the whole
apostolic period, the doctrine Of
New Testament inspiration, which
the modern church makes an essen
tial part OF Christian faith, was un-
heard of. True or false, this doc
trine is an addition to primitive
Christianity. 1t is no part of the
religion of Jesus. A man may be-
lieye what he pleases about the in
spiration Of the New Testament and
still be a Christian.
| TEACHINGS OF CHRIST.
Still, again, Christianity does not
include the belief that Jesus was
miraeulously begotten and born of
a virgin, and that he was Divine in
the popular sense Of being "God of
every God," equal in wisdom and
power and authority with the
Father. This belief is declared to
be of supreme Importance. He who
denies this is held by the ''orthodox'
wing Of the church to stand among
the chief OF sinners. But the Glib
eral' wing claims that this belief,
whether true Or false, forms no part
Of essential Christian faith. The
Christianity of Christ. as far as it is
something to be believed, is what
Christ taught, and, as far as the
record shows, he did not teach men
that he was miraculously born, or
that he was equal in rank with the
father. On the contrary, he said:
s'My father is greater than l." He
taught men to love God and to love
one another, and said: ION these
two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets He said to
men: "All things whatsoever ye
would that man should do to you,
do ye even so to them, for this is
the law and the prophets
And reason declares that the es-
sential value of what He taught is
altogether separated from and who'll
ly independent of his birth and
rank. The truth does not depend
on how it's teacher was born, or ON
what rank He held. Considerations
of the teachers birth and rank may
| influence weak minded men to ac-
cept or reject what He says, but
they can in no way affect the char
acter Of His teaching. Truth is
true, and talsehood is false, whether
the teacher be miraculously or nat
urally born, whether He be God or
man. Christianity rests not on arfy
theory of the birth and rank of it's
founder, but on its own intrinsic
merits. The sayings Of Jesus would
be no less true had they been spoken
by the meanest fisherman that ever
cast net in the Sea Of Galilee; and,
Jesus himself being Judge, whose
ever heareth these sayings of His
and doeth them is like a wise man
| who founds his house upon a rock,
so that it will remain mistaken
| when the rain descends and the
floods come and the winds blow and
beat upoA it. These sayings OF His
constitute Christianity as taught by
Him, and the man who hears and
does these sayings is a Christian,
! whatever he may believe about the
birth and rank OF Him who said
them.
And 50 with the whole catalogue
of dogmas which the ''orthodox'
wing of the church requires men to
believe on 'pain of excommunica-
tion.'' Not one of them, whether
true or false, is fundamental in
Christianity; not one of them be-
longs to the essential faith taught
bv Jesus. On the contrary, they
cover up and hide from men the
lpure and simple religion of the Mas
ter. As DIR. Claiming said: "Chris-
tianity. becoming identified with so
many dark doctrines, is looked on
by many as a subject for theolog-
ians to quarrel about, but too thorny
or perplexed for common minds,
while it is spurned by many more
as an insult on human reason and a
triumph of fanaticism over common
sense
| PROTEST AGAINST BONDAGE.
| 1t is against insisting upon the
acceptance Of these dogmas as a
part OF Christianity that liberal
Christians are protesting. They
say, 'Believe as you please about
them, but do not make belief in
them necessary to the enjoyment of
Christian fellowship" They are
protesting not against God, not
against Christ, not against religion
as taught by Christ, but against
bondage to medieval ereeds and
worthless forms, worn out with age,
which the church seeks to impose
} upon them in the name of God and
Christ and Christianity. They are