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to him : ' elsewhere , that he has * received of the Lord ' certain facts concerning the Holy Supper : and that his Gospel was ' given to him by revelation . ' If any modern made such statements to us , and on this ground demanded our credence , it would be allowable , and indeed obligatory , to ask many questions of him . What does he mean by saying that he has had a « revelation ? ' Did he see a sight , or hear a sound ? or was it an inward impression ? and how does he distinguish it as divine ? Until these questions are fully answered , we have no materials at all before us for deciding to accept his results ; to believe him merely because he is earnest and
persuaded would be judged to indicate the weakness of inexperience . How then can it be pretended that we have , or can possibly get , the means of assuring ourselves that the apostles held correct principles of evidence and applied them justly , when we are notable to interrogate them ? * * * I farther inquired what sort of miracle I could conceive that would alter my opinion on a moral question . Hosea was divinely ordered to go and unite himself to an impure woman : could I possibly think that God ordered me to do so , if I heard a voice in the air commanding it ? Should I not rather disbelieve my hearing than disown my moral preceptions ? If not ,
where am I to stop ? I may practise all sorts of heathenism . A man who , in obedience to a voice in the air , kills his innocent wife or child will either be called mad , and shut up for safety , or will be hanged as a desperate fanatic : do I dare to condemn this modern judgment of him ? Would any conceivable miracle justify my slaying my wife ? God forbid ! It must be morally light to belie \ e moral rather than sensible perceptions . No outward impressions on the eye or ear can be so valid an assurance to me of God's will as my inward judgment . How amazing , then , that Paul and
James could look on ^ Abraham ' s intention to slay his son as indicating a praiseworthy faith !—And yet not amazing ; it does but show that these apostles , like ourselves , scrutinized antiquity with different eyes from modern events . If Paul had been ordered by a supernatural voice to slay Peter , he would have attributed the voice to the devil , the prince of the power of the air , ' and would have despised it . He praises Abraham , but he certainly would never have imitated him . Just so the modern divines who laud Joseph ' s piety toward * Mary , would be very differently affected if events and persons were transported to the present day . "
Incidentally Mr . Newman glances at a question which is of immense historical importance , but which we have never yet seen adequately treated—it is the question of the Influence of Christianity upon our Civilization . People perpetually and authoritatively assert that we owe our present superiority , moral and intellectual , to the doctrines of Christianity ; that it is Christianity which makes us superior to Greeks , Romans , and Indians . This is the current opinion . While far from denying the superiority of Christianity , we must question the historical validity of such an assumption . To identify Christianity with all that is good in Christian nations is a facile but unphilosophic procedure . It has only been one element—a most important one we admit—amidst the various elements of our civilization . It has
accompanied and hastened our progress , it has not made the progress . Mr . Newman says : — *• Even a superficial survey of the history shows that the first improvement of spiritual doctrine in the dark ages came from a study of the moral works of Cicero and and Boeihius—a fact notorious in the common historians . The Latin moralists effected what ( strange to think !) the New Testament could not do . " In the fifteenth century , when Constantinople was
taken by the Turks , learned Greeks were driven out to Italy and to other parts of the west , and the Roman Catholic world began to read the old Greek literature . All historians agree that the enlightenment of mind hence arising was the real origin of the Reformation ; and learned Protestants of Germany have even believed that this great event would have been brought about more equably and profoundly if Luther had never lived , and the passions of the vulgar had never been stimulated against the externals of Romanism .
" At any rate it gradually opened upon mo that the free cultivation of the understanding which Latin and Greek literature had imparted to Europe , were the chief causes of our comparative religious purity . The Greeks in Constantinople had been slaves . Without free intellect , the works of their fathers did their souls no good : so in Europe , just in proportion to the freedom of learning , has boon the force of the result . In Spain and Italy such studios were nearly extinguished ; in France and Austria they were crippled ; in Protestant countries they have been freest . And then we impute all their effects to tho Bible !
" I at length saw how untenable is tho argument drawn iiom the inward history of Christianity in favour of if siiprrhnniiin ori gin . In fact , this religion cannot ] irc > tcu < l UMiclf'Sustainhvj powrr . lLirdly was it . started on its cour * t > , when it . organ to be polluted by the heathenism and false philosophy around it . With the decline of national genius mid civil culture it became more and more debased . So far from beim * able to uphold the
existing morality of the best Pagan trachcrs , it became bnrb ; iri / , ed itself , and sank into deep superstition and manifold moral corruption . From ferocious men it learnt ferocity . When civil society bc ^ an to coalesce into order , Christianity also turned for the better , and presently learned to u *« e the wisdom of Latin moralists . JJy gradual and human means , Kurope , like ancient ( jrcece , grew up towards better political institutions ; and Christianity improved with them—the Christianity of the more educated . Beyond Europe , where there have been
no such institutions , there has been no Protestant Reformation—that is , in the Greek , Armenian , Syrian , Coptic churches . Not unreasonably then do Franks in Tnrkey disown the title Nazarene as denoting that Christianity which has not been purified by European laws and European learning . Christianity rises and sinks with political and literary influences : in so far it does not differ from other religions . " He examines also the outward spread of Christianity , refuting the current assertion that to its moral influence alone has its empire been , due : —
" It had a great moral superiority over Roman paganism , in its humane doctrine of universal brotherhood , its unworldliness , its holiness : consequently it attracted to itself ( among other and baser materials ) all the purest natures and most enthusiastic temperaments : its first conquests were noble and admirable . But there is nothing superhuman or unusual in this . Mohammedism in the same way conquers those Pagan creeds which are morally inferior to it . The Seljuk and the Ottoman Turks were Pagans , but adopted the religion of Tartars and Persians , whom they subjugated , because it was superior , and was blended with a superior civilization ; exactly as the German conquerors of the Western Empire of Rome adopted some form of Christianity . " But if it is true that the sword of Mohammed was
the influence which subjected Arabia , Egypt , Syria , and Persia to the religion of Islam , it is no less true that the Roman empire was first conquered to Christianity by the sword . Before Constantine , Christians were but a small fraction of the empire . In the preceding century they had gone on deteriorating in good sense , and most probably , therefore , in moral worth , and had made no such rapid progress in numbers as to imply that b y the mere process of conversion they would ever Christianize the
empire . In fact , it teas the Christian soldiers in Constantine ' s army tcho conquered the empire for Christianity ; and finally , the sword of Theodosius violently suppressed heathen worship . So also , it was the spear of Charlemagne which drove the Saxons to baptism , and decided the extirpation of Paganism from Teutonic Europe . There is nothing in all this to distinguish the outward history of Christianity from that of Mohammedism . "
He refutes also the notions that Christianity has raised the influence of woman , and abolished slavery : — " Not one of the Christian apostles , " he says , " even opens his lips at all against slavery . Paul sent back the fugitive Onesimus to his master Philemon , with kind recommendations and apologies for the slave , but without a hint to the master that he ought to make him legally free . At this day , in consequence , the New Testament is' argumentative stronghold of those in the "United States of America , who are trying to keep up the accursed
system . Indeed , for several centuries in which Christianity anted in the Roman empire , it developed no recorded and public opposition to slavery as an institution . The humanity of good Pagan emperors softened the harshness of the laws of bondage , and manumission was common ; but that slavery , as a system , is essentially immoral , no Christian of those days appears to have suspected . Yet it existed in its worst forms under Rome . Whole gangs of slaves were mere tools of capitalists , and were numbered like cattle , with no moral relationship to the owner ; and young women of beautiful person were sold as articles of voluptuousness .
" Zoal for the liberation of serfs in Europe first rose in the breasts of the clergy , after the whole population had become nominally Christian . It was not men , but Christians , that the clergy of the Middle Ages desired to make free . This was creditable , but not peculiar . Mohammedans also have a conscience against enslaving Mohammedans , and often bestow freedom on a slave as soon as he adopts their religion . Moreover , the desire of the kings to raise the chartered cities as an arm against their barons , was that which chiefly made rustic slavery
untenable in its coarsest form , fora * villain' who escaped into the free cities could not be recovered . In later times the first public act against slavery came from republican France , in the madness of atheistic enthusiasm , when she declared black and white men to be equally free , and liberated the negroes of Domingo . In Britain the battle of social freedom has been fought chiefly by that religious sect which rests least on the letter of the Scripture ; nor indeed will any wise advocate of black freedom deal much in quoting texts . "
Nothing can be more demonstrable . Even . Guizot admits that " Christianity never—either on its first appearance or during the early ages of its poweraddressed itself to the social condition of mankind ; it openly announced that it would not meddle in such matters ; it ordered the slave to obey his master ; it attacked none of the groat evils , none of the flagrant abuses of society in that day . " ( Civilization en Europe , Lceonl . ) Indeed a profound investigation of history must result in tho conviction that
religion , so far from being the parent of our present civilization , has never at any period been sufficient alone to cope with the great evils of society . It was not Christianity that emancipated the slaves . The great apostles of Emancipation were doubtless men of deep piety , and greatly aided their cause by enlisting Christianity on their side ; but many of the eloquent advocates were not Christians . Nor arc the preachers of Fraternity and Equality in Franco , Germany , and England to be called Christians for the most part . To take a more striking and less complex example as furnished by Condorcet : —When
the Church was in its plenitude of power , and thundered against the sin of duelling as leading- to eternal perdition , duels were frightfully frequent . Custom—the opinion of the world—was more powerful than the Church with all its prospective terrors . Yet now , when the Church has no longer a tithe of that power , duels are extremely rare ; because with us the military spirit has been replaced by the industrial spirit , which not countenancing duelling , public opinion uproots the evil . It is perfectly
clear that Christianity did not — could not — abolish duelling ; perfectly clear that Christianity condemns it as a sin ; and perfectly clear that , because writers have called it unchristian , they believe that it is owing to Christianity that it has disappeared . Jn truth , Christianity is a term of equivocal use . " Very often it is taken as the sum total of our culture it is identified with our civilization , and we are then asked if it has not given us the blessings of civilization ?— a strange method of reasoning ! But if
Christianity be the doctrine taught in the New Testament , and only that , then we say it is not to Christianity that we entirely owe our civilization ; for the doctrine itself bears no application in many instances , and , even where it seems most directly to bear , does not , and cannot of itself , determine the result . It is often asserted that the superiority shown in the fact that the Christian nations have a progressive civilization , while the Mahometans show scarcely any progress , is solely attributable to the doctrine of Christianity . "We doubt this . In the first place , a
progressive civilization is shown in Greece and Rome quite as conclusive in favour of polytheism over the monotheism of the East . In the next place , the very fact of the Mahometans not being progressive tells against the argument by showing how independent religion is of the various forces which impel civilization . Moreover , if to Christianity alone this progress is attributable , how does it come to pass that the Armenians , Copts , Greeks , and Syrians , who have the Christian doctrine as well as ourselves , have been no more progressive than the Moslems they reside among ?
This question , which we can only open here without the space to do it adequate justice , is one of immense importance , not merely in historical science , but also in practical result . We should like to see Mr . Newman grappling with it . Meanwhile we must reserve for our next number the concluding remarks upon his ' * Phases of Faith . "
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Pictorial Half Hours . Edited by Charles Knight . Tart 1 . C . Knight . A marvel of cheapness , and only possible after an enormous expenditure upon woodcuts for other works . Charles Knight has published so many and such various illustrated books , cyclopaedias , penny magazines , &c , that he has of course an unrivalled collection of " blocks " on almost all subjects . Pictorial Half Hours is a project for selecting some seven or eight hundred of these ( including some that are to be new ) with a definite purpose , and accompanied by brief letter press descriptions . It is likely to be one of his most successful speculations ; for , although some of the woodcuts are , it must be confessed , deplorably bad , many of them are exquisite , and ail
useful . The Imperial Cyclopccdia . Part II . C . Knight . Besides maps of Australasia , Dublin , and Edinburgh , this part contains engravings of the principal buildings in the two last named cities . The articles , " Bengal " and " Birmingham , " are admirable , full , yet brief . rrashinglo 7 i Irving ' a JForks . ( Bonn ' s Shilling Scries . ) H . G . Bohn . What needs there to be said in favour of the graceful style , the charming spirit , and the artistic completeness of Washington Irving ' s works ? He is the only American writer of Belles Lettres whom Europe has accepted ;
and his fame is European . A style perfectly fascinating in its felicity of diction , easy idiomatic grace of evolution , and rhythmic melody ; a fancy at once sportive and airy ; observation delicate and minute ; great powers of narrative ; and a generous genial disposition , make him one of the few writers for whom the public conceives a personal affection . He belongs to a class which no longer exists , and takes his rank somewhere between Addison nnri ftnM smith . The Sketch Hook and Bracebridne Hall
are among our " Household Words . " Who over forgot " The Stout Gentleman " " Kip Van Winkle ? " Who that has lingered over those glowing Legends of the Conquest of Spain and Granada can forget their southern splendour and romantic beauty ? The public has reason to be grateful to Mr . Bohn for presenting them with Irving ' s works in so handsome and so cheap a / orm . But their publication rccals forcibly to our minds the wretched state which " competition" is driving the publishers into . At this moment three or four booksellers are issuing rival editions of the sumo works and at the same
price , thereby materially injuring each other . Surely , instead of rivalry there could be some mutual understanding ! Say that three men are each determinrd on reprinting Hume ' s History of England for a shilling , would it not manifestly be wiser and for all parties more
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282 Qttte % eatjet + [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), June 15, 1850, page 282, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1842/page/18/
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