The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" RevelationsGraves, Kersey
Religion
The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations
Graves, Kersey
Free thought
The Quaker Church (of which the author was once a member) have a clause
in their discipline forbidding their members to read pernicious books,
which are defined by one of the founders of the Church (William Penn)
to be "such books and publications as contain language which appears to
sanction crime or wrong practices, or teach bad morals." And hundreds
of cases cited in this work prove that the Christian Bible may be ranked
with works of this character. If the advice of the Hindoo editor had
been complied with many years ago,--to "revise all Bibles, and leave
out their bad precepts and examples," and change their obscene
language,--the Christian Bible might now be a very useful and
instructive book. But we are willing to leave it to the conscience of
every honest reader, who places truth and morality above Bibles and
creeds, to decide, after reading this work, whether the Bible, with all
its ennobling precepts, does not contain too strong an admixture of bad
morality to make it a safe or suitable book to be relied on as a guide
in morals and religion. According to Archbishop Tillotson, Bibles shape
the morals and religion of the people in all religious countries,--they
are derived from the examples and precepts of these "Holy Books." If
this be true, we most solemnly and seriously put the question to every
Bible reader, What must be the effect upon the morals and religion of
Christian countries of such moral examples as Abraham, Moses, Noah,
Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, and nearly all the prophets, with their
long string of crimes, as shown in this work? Let us not be guilty of
the folly of suffering our inherited, stereotyped predilections, and
exalted veneration for "the Holy Book," to rule our moral sense, and
control our judgment in this matter, but muster the moral courage to
look at the thing in its true light. Let us be independent moralists and
philanthropists, rather than slaves to Bibles and creeds. "Every book,"
says a writer, "has a spirit which it breathes into the minds of its
readers;" and, if it contains bad morals or bad language, the habitual
reading of it will gradually reconcile the mind to those immoral
lessons, and finally cause them to be looked upon as God-given truths.
Such is the omnipotent force of habit. And we appeal to all Bible
readers to testify if this has not been their experience. All Christian
professors, when they first commenced reading the Bible, doubtless found
many things in it which shocked their moral sense, did violence to
their reasoning faculties, and mortified their love of decorum. But a
perseverance in reading it, through the force of habit and education,
has finally reconciled their minds to those immoral lessons, and blinded
the judgment, so that they are not now conscious of their real character
and deleterious influence upon the mind.
TWO THOUSAND BIBLE ERRORS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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