133red
No. 74.-VoL. V.
*Iran Cathglir grad. PERTH, THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 1879.
PRICE 6D
ENGLAND.
forced upon the Empire of China, education and trust them for a coming ally going on, and we gladly recognize against the repeated and still continued era of virtue and happiness. But what that a deep religious instinct still aniprotests of the Government, are the facts ? In spite of many millions mates the better portion of the English The Bishop of Salford on " Our the trade and Chinese consumption of this spent on education,-in spite of an in- people ; but it seems that, except among poisonous and baneful drug. Present Evils." The re- crease of measures for the direct a comparatively small minority, belief sult of this trade upon China is, that repression of crime,-in spite of shorter in distinct doctrines of revelation is be400,000 Chinese, it is said, annually hours for work that the labourer may coming more and more vague, undefined, I. fall victims to its use and abuse. The have time for rest and culture,-in spite and diluted. It is easy to see where However painful and humiliating, let benefit reaped by the British Empire of larger wages and every kind of this must end. Already the pioneers of us look at some of the actual evils from through the trade is ten millions ster- material improvement, and in spite open atheism are amongst us. The which we suffer. The knowledge of ling added to our Indian revenue. We moreover of a quite extraordinary ac- sappers and miners of Satan's army, them will leacrus to the conclusion, that have before us the awful spectale of the tivity and expenditure among the 135 composed of the enemies of God and penance and repentance have never been two most populous Empires in the different religious sects into which the men, are busy among the population. world-the British, with its 287 mil- Registrar-General tells us that England Their blasphemous prints are circulated more needful than they are now. Never was there a time when the lions, including dependencies, and the is now divided, having among them in millions, and their blasphemous doctrines and practices of faith, with- Chinese, with its 400 millions of sub- 19,900 places of worship-in spite of lectures cn atheism, delivered in our out which it is impossible to please jects, engaged by treaty, the one pacifi- all this and much more, the record of noblest papers. There appears to be no God and to be saved, were so generally cally and silently to destroy the other. our public crime has increased sixfold public authority in the land able or disregarded, rejected, and trampled fhe cleverer and more enterprising is in fact, or threefold relatively to popu- willing to issue a protest in the name upon among the nations which once poisoning the older and more populous lation, within a period of 50 years. of God and of the people, or to forbid empire by means of a fascinating and deIt is a lamentable consideration that the blasphemous propaganda of atheism. formed Christendom. But can we be surprised at the catasThe revolt from the authority of the moralising drug-and this for the price the number of crimes classified under Church in the sixteenth century is of the drug. Thus at home and abroad Table I., namely, crimes of murder, trophe of faith which has come upon us ? do we annually sacrifice to Mammon rape and robbery with violence, was' The Reformation threw away the bearing its bitter fruit and is running higher in 1876-7, than it had ever been Divine guidance which God had profast to seed. Legislatures and Parlia- some 500,000 human beings. It is well known that men's passions, during any year in the history of the vided in His Church for the intellect ments have ceased to make the profeswhen encouraged, are stronger than their coun try. sion of Christianity, or even of Theism, and will of man. a condition of membership ; they have reason ; and it seems to be tacitly II. The first consequence has been that ceased to hold Christianity to be the understood that they whose passion is The outlook upon what were once emancipated reason is abandoned to basis of legislation. The active presence for strong drink, or for opium, shall be the fervent countries of Christendom is itself, or a prey to false teachers. and interference of Jesus Christ, speak- sacrificed to augment the imperial sad and gloomy. Supernatural faith is Physical science says : " Believe in revenue. If the cruelty, the inhumanity ing through His Church, has been as nothing but in the laws of nature : of this proceeding be objected to, it is dying out among nations, as nations. there is nothing above me." Materialeffectively put aside as was the Image Take our own urged conntry ; how that many of the unfortunate victims of Christ by the Roman Senate when ism says : " Eat and drink and live as Chriseven desire it. the distinctive truths of Alexander Severus proposed to allot to themselves agree, happily as you can life lasts ; tianity are held as positive The periodical certainties by human sacrifices of the Our Lord a place among the gods. there is no other life after this." the people of England King ? of How Dahomey are more bloody, it is many, Certain crimes of blasphemy, sacrilege, even among nominal Christians, hold a Scepticism says : " Whatever you think infidelity, and atheism, which were less true ; and the victims of his passions positive and distinct belief in the doc- or desire may be true : tolerate equally than a century ago punishable by our are unwilling and recalcitrant : but the trine of the Trinity of God ? How many all opinions ; no certainty is attainable own law, have been practically wiped human victims which we immolate are far the more numerous, and our sacrifice believe that Onr Saviour Jesus Christ by man." The whole atmosphere is out of the Statute Book. Every docis the God and Creator of the Universe ? charged and heavy with unbelief. You trine of faith is subjected to purely is continual. Our conduct is also the How many believe in sacraments, in breathe it everywhere. It is carried more disastrous and the more cruel, for human tribunals, or is entirely ignored like a poison into places where it has it reaches and destroys the souls as well the existence of grace, in the malice not been bred. As the Divine law of Christian marriage seed in the thistleof sin, in an as absolute the and bodies of indeits victims. This has been repealed by nearly every State, down is carried by the winds, so are the pendent moral law, in wholesale, the this eternity legalised imperial crime and parental rights in the matter of of punishment as of reward, seeds of doubt and unbelief blown over education are on the highway to com- is ignored, salved over, excused ; it is the land. in the immortality of the soul ? Are plete absorption by a despotic secular necessary for the revenue ; it is the With increasing unbelief, national homage and the sacrifice demanded by any three of these truths held with abauthority. solute certainty by one-tenth of our education neccessarily becomes more The world tramples under foot the Mammon. It is put out of sight-put thinking and scientific leaders in this and more independent of, and hostile to, Divine authority of the Church of God, out of sight by man, not by God, for its faith. How can they who have no ? and everywhere sets up a rival human wickedness ascends perpetually before country How few outside the Church, even among those who profess to be firm belief in revelation impose authority, which, while it is uncertain, him. The blood and the souls of our its doctrines on the young ? For a time vacillating, and liable to every kind of brethren, whether at home or in China, Christians, hold these fundamental verities of Christianity with a positive, ab- they may do so from regard to prejudice error, becomes imperious, tyrannical, plead for vengeance on their destroyers, Like the -but how long will prejudice survive and cruel in a high degree. They who as the blood of Abel pleaded against his solute, divine certainty pagan philosopher, Cicero, men are con- the corroding process of unbelief ? refuse to serve God themselves in the brother Cain. The second consequence is, that the It comes then to this, that in our fessing that their faith is only, after all, end become slaves ; their backs are a probability. But what is this but to will being emancipated from the laws of scourged by rods prepared by their own emancipation from the laws of the Church, in our rejection of the immacu- proclaim the absolute wreck of divine faith, is led to trust entirely to its own bands. faith ? strength and to reject the idea of Divine We might illustrate the general ten- late and life-giving sacrifice of the altar, The growth of unbelief, during the grace as a dream and delusion. Hence, dency of modern society to the profes- in the midst of our boasted civilisation last thirty years, has advanced with a within a period of fifty years vice in sion of naturalism, by examples from and modern humanity, we have returned, the various nations of Europe. But it as a nation, to the period of human desolating and astonishing rapidity England has increased sixfold. And this in spite of a prodigious increase in may be fitter to confine ourselves to the sacrifices, and this upon a scale among all classes. A few years ago the publication of all kinds of human agencies and appliconsideration of the state of our own hitherto unknown to any age of the certain Essays and Reviews sent a pang ances to diminish it. country. We have a special interest world. of horror through English Christianity. The third consequence is, that the in our land ; we are closely bound up Can we be surprised then, if, with so with its life ; we are more or less re- portentous an example of imperial But the doctrines they contained have intellect and will being emancipated sponsible for its crimes and errors ; and criminality in pursuit of revenue before long since found their place, and he from the control of faith, man's whole we are assuredly called upon to make their eyes, men be found willing to whose free thought goes no further idea of progress consists in material every legitimate exertion to bring about sacrifice the interest and happiness of than these is now considered behind the civilisation, that is to say, in the ada national repentance and improvement. their brethren, in detail, in their private age. Every class of society seems to vance of physical science, and of art, be equally affected. Men, and not a literature, and mental culture as Look, then, for a moment, at the pursuit of wealth ?-if adulteration and quality and character of our Imperial imposition be described as a national few women, in what is called the best ministering to pleasure, in the multiplimorality, as illustrated by the means we art, and defended upon principle as society, have lost all belief in a revealed cation and development of the material make use of to augment our national " customs of the trade ?"-if masters, religion. They openly avow it ; the comforts and conveniences of this life, who began by over -reaching their work- profession of scepticism has become and of whatever wealth and care can revenue. By what means do we raise and men, are in time turned upon by coali- fashionable. Unbelief with indifference obtain towards the gratification of our augment our Imperial revenue ? By tions of operatives, and if these again has filtra.ed down into the lowest tastes and inclinations. The fourth consequence is, ambition an ever-increasing sale of poisons, which confound the good with the bad, the classes. Religion has lost her hold on are known to destroy the souls as well honest with the dishonest, the Christian millions of the population. It is cer- of conquest among nations, and covetousas the bodies of men by thousands an- with the unchristian, in their mad and tain that a large proportion of the non- ness among individuals. These vices Catholic population is not even baptized. breed others ; discontent, envy, hatred, nually. It is computed that 60,000 unreasoning vengeance ? Can we be Does one -fifth regularly frequent any combinations of the weak against the persons a year die in this country from surprised if, in pursuit of wealth, strong, communism, socialism, and the drink, and that another 60,000 a year business is conducted with reckless im- place of religious worship ? The number of persons annually horrors of civil war. But assuredly, if die from its indirect consequences ; in prudence and dishonesty, and if the reall 120,000 victims a year to drink. turns for 1877 show that our public married without any religious rite is a there be no future life, no eternal But this is the smaller item of the ac- bankruptcies in England and Wales fair test of the growth of religious in- reward and punishment, no immortality count. We hold and govern India. were then at the rate of about difference. The number steadily in- of the soul, no Saviour Jesus Christ, creases year by year. In the year 1838 no message from God to man, no perThe British Government, for pur- 20,000,0001. a year ? there were only 2,186 persons thus sonal God, communism and socialism poses of revenue, has established for itYet there are some who assure us married, in 1876 the number of such are justified in thpir war against capital self in Bengal a monopoly in the culti- that we are now on the highway to persons had increased to 43,418. and wealth ; and every excess may be vation and sale of opium. By smug- the perfectibility of mankind. They We are far from saying that a con- applauded, if it be only triumphant. gling. by war, and by treaty, we have bid us give them fuller powers over stant struggle with evil is not perpetuThe hot consequeoce issuing ;
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