Christianity in relation to Freethought, Scepticism, and Faith: Three discourses by the Bishop of Peterborough with special replies by Mr. C. BradlaughBradlaugh, Charles
Religion
Christianity in relation to Freethought, Scepticism, and Faith: Three discourses by the Bishop of Peterborough with special replies by Mr. C. Bradlaugh
Compare these two men in their lives and their deaths, and see which was
the nobler and the braver. Jesus did not come to save the world. He
said, I am sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus told his
disciples not to go to the Gentiles, be forbade them even to visit the
Samaritans, and it was not till after his resurrection that he said, Go
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. I have
spoken in language which you may think unfitting for such a theme. Do
you believe the Bishop, that Jesus died to save all mankind? Do you
believe the doctrine, that only those who have faith in Jesus can be
saved? What is to become of those who have never heard his name? Do you
believe that all the Chinese will be damned? If you believe this, what
must you think of God? If you believe that the Chinese will be pardoned,
because they cannot be expected to believe in Jesus of whom they have not
heard, how can you be so wicked as to send them Bibles and missionaries,
which may bring them to damnation? I plead here for what some call
infidelity, for what some call heresy. I plead for the rights of
humanity. I plead against a system which, to my mind, has greatly
hindered the education of the world, and impeded its improvement; and if
you tell me that my language is coarse and blasphemous, I will ask you in
what language do your missionaries describe the Mohammedan and his Koran,
the Brahmin and his Vedas? You call me an Infidel; what are you? You
disbelieve all the religions of the world save one, I disbelieve that one
also; my disbelief is but one degree greater than yours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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