Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again: A Life StoryBarker, Joseph
Religion
Modern Skepticism: A Journey Through the Land of Doubt and Back Again: A Life Story
Barker, Joseph
Barker, Joseph, 1806-1875; Methodist Church -- Clergy -- Biography; Skepticism
purchase me a steam printing press, many Unitarians gave liberal
subscriptions. Several of their leading men attended the meeting at
which the press was presented, and took a leading part in the
proceedings.
I had not mingled long with the Unitarians before I found that they
differed from one another very much in their views. Some few were Arian,
some were Socinian, and some quite Latitudinarian. Some admired
Priestley, some Carpenter, some Channing, and some Parker. Some looked
on Channing as an old fogy, and said there was not an advanced or
progressive idea in his writings; while others thought that everything
beyond Channing bordered on the regions of darkness and death. Some
looked on the Scriptures as of divine authority, and declared their
readiness to believe whatever they could be proved to teach: others
regarded the Scriptures as of no authority whatever, and declared their
determination to accept no views but such as could be proved to be true
independent of the Bible. Some believed Jesus to be a supernatural
person, commissioned by God to give a supernatural revelation of truth
and duty, and empowered to prove the divinity of His mission and
doctrine by supernatural works. Others looked on Christ as the natural
result of the moral development of our race, like Bacon, Shakespeare, or
Baxter. They looked on miracles as impossible, and regarded all the
Bible accounts of supernatural events as fables. They were Deists. One
I found who declared his disbelief in a future life. There was a gradual
incline from the almost Christian doctrine of Carpenter and Channing,
down to the principles of Deism and Atheism.
While in London I became acquainted with Dr. Bowring, afterwards Sir
John Bowring. He was one of my hearers at Stamford Street Chapel, and
complimented me, after the sermon, by calling me the modern John Bunyan.
He had been pleased with the simplicity of my style, and the familiar
and striking character of my illustrations. He invited me to his house,
showed me a multitude of curiosities, which he had collected in his
travels round the world, made me a present of part of a skull which he
had taken from an Egyptian Pyramid--the skull of a prince, who, he said,
had lived in the days of Joseph,--he also made me a present of his
works, including five volumes of translations from the Poets of Russia,
Hungary, and other countries, and some works connected with his own
eventful history. Dr. Bowring was a member of Parliament, and he took me
to the House of Commons, introduced me to a number of the members, got
me into the House of Lords, and did all in his power to make my stay in
London as pleasant as possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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