The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" RevelationsGraves, Kersey
Religion
The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations
Graves, Kersey
Free thought
good men have written upon the subject; I have looked at their theories
and explanations; I have endeavored to weigh their arguments,--for my
whole soul pants for light and relief on these questions: but I get
neither; and, in the anguish and distress of my soul, I confess I get no
light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me the reason why sin
came into the world, why the earth is strewn with the dying and the
dead, and why man must suffer to all eternity. I have never seen a
particle of light thrown on these subjects that has given a moment's
ease to my tortured mind.... I trust that other men... have not the
anguish of spirit which I have. But I confess, when I look on a world of
sinners and sufferers, upon death-beds and graveyards, and upon a world
of woe filled with hosts to suffer for ever; and when I see my friends,
my parents, my family, my people, my fellow-citizens--when I look upon
a whole race--all involved in this sin and danger; and when I see the
great mass of them wholly unconcerned; and when I feel that God only
can save them, and yet he does not do it,--I am struck dumb. It is
all dark--dark--dark to my soul; and I cannot disguise it" (Practical
Sermons, p. 124). There, reader, you have the candid confession of an
honest-minded, orthodox, and one of the ablest and most talented writers
that ever wielded the pen in defense of the Christian faith. And if such
a talented and logical mind could find no reason, consistency, or moral
principle in the dogmas of orthodoxy, we may readily ask, Who can?
Thousands of other orthodox clergymen have doubtless been perplexed with
the same difficulties, but have not had the honesty to confess it. Those
who do not now perceive them can find the reason by putting their hands
on their own heads. They will find their intellects or logical brains
defective. Moral philosophers now find no difficulty in solving any of
those problems which so much perplexed the mind of Mr. Barnes. They
are all false and unfounded dogmas, except the prevalence of death and
disease in the world. And these casualties are now known to be amongst
the wisest and most useful dispensations of nature. (See chapter headed
Natural and Moral Evil.) And had Mr. Barnes ascended to the plane
of mental and moral science, instead of remaining down in the dark,
orthodox, theological cellar, trying to squeeze truth out of old, dead,
dried-up, dusty, theological dogmas, he would have readily found the
solution to all his problems, and would have rejoiced in thus emerging
into the glorious sunlight of truth.
BIBLES USEFUL IN THEIR PLACE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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