"Without the shedding of blood there can be no remission for sin." The doctrine of this text constitutes the basis of all the plans of salvation which various ages and nations have founded on dead Gods and living devils. Nearly every religious nation known to history cherished the belief that God is an irritable, irascible, and vindictive being, subject to fits or paroxysms of anger; and, when in this furious and unbalanced and ungovernable state of mind, he frequently poured out his vengeance upon his disobedient children, often subjecting them to the most terrible penalties in this life, and then threatened them with a still worse doom in the next. To avert this direful calamity,--at least so far as it appertained to the life beyond the grave,--most religious nations invented schemes which came to be known as systems or plans of salvation. The original model seems to have been furnished by the Hindoos, and borrowed from them by the Egyptians, and thence transmitted to the Persians and Grecians, and was finally incorporated into the Christian system, and now constitutes what is known as "the Christian plan of salvation." Each system was composed of three cardinal principles: 1. The primeval innocency and moral perfection of man. 2. His temptation and downfall into a state of moral depravity. 3. His restoration to the divine favor by the voluntary sacrifice and atoning offering of a God (one of the three members of the trinity). These three cardinal doctrines constitute what Christians denominate "the great and glorious plan of salvation," and on which a thousand volumes have been written, and ten thousand sermons are preached every year. As it professes to point out the road, and the only road, to heaven, it merits a somewhat critical examination. We will therefore analyze and examine its several principles, to see whether it has a true moral basis, or is in strict accordance with the principles of natural justice. The first proposition assumes that man primordially occupied the highest plane of moral perfection, and that all his animal propensities were held in strict abeyance to his moral convictions, and that he consequently led a morally pure, perfect, and holy life. The first and most important query to which this proposition or assumption gives rise is, Can it be shown to be true? Can it be sustained by either the principles of natural or moral science, or by the facts of history comprised in man's practical life? Now, it so happens that facts have been accumulating for thousands of years, gathered from almost every department of science and history, to prove and demonstrate that the proposition is entirety untenable,--that it is not true. Geology alone demonstrates its falsity. It has written its negative verdict upon a thousand rocks beneath our feet.