A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
THE very title of this book may give offense. "A New Witness for God!"
will exclaim both ministry and laity of Christendom; "are not the Old
Witnesses sufficient? Has not their testimony withstood the assaults of
unbelievers, atheists and agnostics alike for nineteen centuries? What
need have we for a New Witness? Every weapon that hostile criticism
could suggest, has been brought to bear against the tower of our
faith based on the testimony of the Old Witnesses; and it stands more
victorious now than ever, four square to all the winds that blow. [1]
The testimony of the Old Witnesses has outlived the ridicule of
Voltaire, the solemn sneers of Gibbon, the satire of Bolingbroke, the
ribaldry of Paine; just as it will outlive the insidious assaults of
the German mythical school, and the rationalistic school of critics,
which are now much in vogue. Such the confident boast of orthodox
Christians.
"Meanwhile, every diocesan conference rings with the wail over 'infidel
opinions.' It grows notoriously more and more difficult to get educated
men to take any interest in the services or doctrines of the church;
* * * literature and the periodical press are becoming either more
indifferent, or more hostile to the accepted Christianity year by year;
the upper strata of the working class, upon whom the future of that
class depends, either stand coldly aloof from all the Christian sects,
or throw themselves into secularism. Passionate appeals are made to all
sections of Christians, to close their ranks, not against each other,
but against the 'skepticism rampant' among the cultivated class and the
religious indifference of the democracy." [2]
In the face of these facts, notwithstanding the confident boasts of
orthodox Christians about the invulnerableness of the testimony of the
Old Witnesses, it will be well for us to look a little more closely
into the achievements of Christianity, Catholic as well as Protestant,
and see if they are as satisfactory when measured by actual results, as
they are claimed to be in the fervid rhetoric of the orthodox special
pleader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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