The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-09-21

known here. He believed that religion
consisted in being good and doing good
| He believed in a benevolent design )r
creation. If he can be classed with any
church at ALL he was a Unitarian liz
was certainly not more orthodox than
| that. In one of his letters he calls him
| self a materialist, contrasting h1msell
with Christ, who was splrltuahsL lie
rejected the Trinity. the divinity OF
! Christ, and the Holy Ghost.
| He classed Jesus with Socrates, and
| other great teachers. regretting that ne
wrote nothing. and that we have to takf
so much of His doctrine on hearsay.
He (Jesus) had no one to write for Hin
as Socrates and Epictetus had, but. or
| the contrary the learned men of his
! country were all against him for feal
that His teachings might undermine Their
| power and riches. His doctrines Therefore
! fell to ignorant men, who wrote from
! memory long after the transactions mac
! passed
| Notwithstanding these Disadvantages
| Jesus presented a system OF morals Whici
| If filed UP in the spirit of the rich rag
| ments He left us would be the most per
| feet and sublime that has ever beer
| taught by man. Whether Mr.. Jefferson
was acquainted with the system OF
morals taught among the Hindus LONG
before the time of Jesus nowhere appears
| 1t would seem that he compared the
system of Jesus with the moral teach
irgs Of the Jews, the Romans and the
Greeks-not with those of ancient Egypt
or of India.
He says that Jesus. like other reform
ers who try to benefit mankind, fell a
victim to the jealousy and combination
ior J,a a1t nd throne Hence
did not reach the full maturity and en-
ergy OF his reasoning faculties. and his
doctrines were defective as whole.
What he did say has come down 10 us
mutilated misstated and often unntel-
ligible.
These fragmentary doctrines have been
still more disdgured by the corruptions
Of lschisnsatizing followers, who have
found an interest IN perverting the sim
pie doctrines he taught. frittering them
into subtleties obscuring them with jar
gon until they have caused good men TO
reject the whole in disgust. and to view
Jesus Himself as an impostor He con-
tended that it was the priest-not Jesus
Himself, who put forward the claims that
His origin was miraculous and divine. Ao
read the Bible just as he read Euripides.
Aeschylus or Xenophon. From the New
Testament he made the volume called
Jcfferson's Bible, which contains the life
and teachings of Christ emitting every
thing about His miraculous birth and
resurrection.
In writing to a friend about this little
book Mr. Jefferson regretted that he
did not have time TO prepare q similar
volume from the teachings OF Epicurus
"a philosopher whom he defends against
Cicero and the StoiGA Writing to the
son Of his dearest friend, Dabney Carr,
he tells this young man, his nephew.
to put the Bible on a par with Livy and
Tacitus, to read the Just as he
would the others: and by inference as
plain as inference can be, advises him
t. reject the story that Joshua made
the sun stand STILL and that Christ was
the Son OF God. born of a virgin. Who
reversed all the laws of nature and as
cendcd bodily into heaven. He tells his
young nephew that when he reads of a
miracle in the Bible he ought to class it
with the showers of blood and the statues
and animals which in the books of Liyy
and Tacitus are made to speak. In
other letters he charges in effect that
the early founders of the Christian church
borrowed the idea of the Trinity from
the Roman Cerberus. which had one body
and three heads. Calvn's creed excited
his especial horror; and his language was
never more violent than when denounc-
ing it.
But the doctrine of the Trinity aroused