A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer.

  • Farmer, John S.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    II. Thf (Uhocaq/of InmortaliiT/under coTuUiians so inhuman and cruel, as io be top horrible for credence. I.—The greatest stumbling-block of Christendom are the “ miracles,”' or spiritual gifts, upon which she predicates her raison d'etre, and her belief in an invisible spiritual world. If, as is asserted, the “ miracles ” were the chief supports of Christianity in its early days, it is equally certain that they are now its main difficulty, and the primary cause of the dilemma in which the Church finds itself with relation to Modern Bcience. A vastly increased knowledge of Nature has revealed the immuta- bility of action connected with her lav's, and unbroken succession of cause and effect. The knowledge of the absolute uniformity of all her operations, together with the fact that many things, now traced to natural causes, have ia the past been regarded as miraculous, has naturally created a distrust of the supernatural in general, and of the Christian miracles, or evidences of immortality, iir particular. Slowly, yet surely, the basis of the expressed faith of the Church in the supernatural has given way beneath her feet. She points in vain to the ancient miracles, because she regards them as beyond‘the reign or action of law, and confined to a certain period of time. Practical demonstration to-day is needed, that being, in the eyes of Science, the only absolute authority; and look where we will throughout all Christendom, this demonstration is only conspicuous by its absence. Faith, no doubt, is powerful in its influence upon the soul, but even.: faith at times must be reinforced and stengthened by actual knowledge- Paul charged the ancient Christians to add to their faith, knowledge. If this was advisable then, at the very time when the memory of the- ‘ ‘ signs and wonders,” wrought by the Founder of the Christian faith Himself, was fresh and vivid in the minds of many—at a time, too, when, similar manifestations were daily enacting in their midst—how much more are they needed noiv, when all the faith-upbuilding signs havo disappeared from the midst of Christendom ? If the “ miracles” were- worked for the purpose of (jivinrj faith in Christ and the Bible, it is per- tinent to inquire whether tliey are not as necessary now to restore it T V'erily did Luther, brave heart though he was, in standing firmly against the abuses which had crept into the Church of his day, sow also the seeds of her decay.* In sweeping away the truth contamed •“The Christian system of the spiriliuil and materiai world stood for 1500 years; unshaken. .tSJlatonce the monk Copernicus stood forth. With a mighty hand ho- pushed aVay the globe from the centre of creation, fixed the sun in its place, and ha,de the former make the circuit of the latter in a year, and revolve on its axis in twenty-four hours. By this fortunate discovery much tiiat was incomprehcnsihlo- became intelligil)lc, much tliat was innxplicahle, demonstrable. Tfio Pope and the clergy were struck with consternation at it. Tliey tlireatened curses and excom- miuiication, but Copernicus hod already made his e;'oapo from them, the earth wa» now in motion, and no anathema was able to arrest Its ))rogress. “But Protestantism was not salistle<l with this. It went further. It promulgated the dogma that there were no such things as apparitions, or middle state. Luther and bis confederates rcuounecd all claim to the government of the invisible world • t^y ex^finguished the fires of purgatory, and enlaryed the bounds of hell by adding lladi» to If. No middle state of purification was any longer believed in, but every departed soul entered upon its place of destination, either heaven or hell. Presentiments visions, and apparitions were regarded either as deceptiouB, delusions, or imagina-