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RAISING OF THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD by means of the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii.). (Where are the witches of the present day?) The DESTRUCTION OF 600 PHILISTINES with an ox-goad, by one man (Judges iii.). The TURNING OF WATER INTO BLOOD throughout all the land of Egypt, by Moses's magic rod (Ex. vii. 21), notwithstanding which the magicians (22) are said to have repeated the transformation. The PLAGUE OF FROGS, LICE, AND FLIES, by Aaron's magic rod; the cattle-horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep-being killed over and over again (Ex. viii. and ix.).

INSPIRED REVELATION

IX.

THE CHRISTIAN SCHEME OF

SALVATION, AND THE IMMORALITY OF ITS CONCEPTION -THE DEITY AS A MURDERER-THE ELECT AND CHOSEN ONES.

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WE have already seen how the dreams of men have led them to believe that they have received an inspiration" or "revelation" by supernatural agency. This revelation, to be believed by another, must be accepted on faith, for it would be impossible for any other person to be an actual observer, and therefore witness, of the aggregation of ideas which make up the vision of the dreamer; and no evidence has ever yet been forthcoming that any of the "revelations" supposed to have been received by the various messiahs of the world during moments of "inspiration" have been received by any natural agency. No one but the self-constituted recipient, or messiah, has ever yet seen either god or angel descend from the skies with a divine message. Revelations are, therefore, blindly accepted by credulous people on the simple ipse dixit of some other person. It is well known that debilitated subjects, or the dying, of a religious turn of mind frequently see visions, in which angels generally take part, which are simply a recapitulation of that which they have pictured to themselves during health, and which are really the wanderings of an anæmic brain; and these visions are related to, and accepted by, relatives as actual facts-affection and religion combining to produce the necessary credulity.

In the event of any revelation, other than one manifested to us by the ordinary natural mode-i.e., by the observation of phenomena and the discoveries of science-we naturally ask ourselves certain questions before we accept it as true, just as we should with regard to anything else we might be

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asked to believe. And when there exists more than one revelation claiming to be "divine,” and these are of a contradictory nature, we naturally again seek to know which of them is the true one, for they cannot all be true, and yet contradictory; and whether any one of them is true; or whether the only revelation that is possible, and which we know anything about, is the natural one, which, as we have seen above, is derived from science.

The very fact of there being more than one "revelation" is sufficient to raise doubts in the minds of reasoning people as to the validity of any of them. The particular "revelation" which the average man accepts depends upon the accident of his birth. Creeds follow geographical lines. If we happen to be born in Great Britain or the British colonies, we adopt one of the many varieties of Christianism; if in Turkey, Mohammedanism; if in China, Taoism, Confucianism, or Buddhism; if in India, Brahmanism; if in Persia or a certain quarter of Bombay, Parseeism, etc. And each "revelation" claims divine origin. The Mohammedan appeals to the Koran, the Parsee to the Zend-avesta, the Taoist to the Tau-teh-king, the Buddhist to his Tripitaka, the Brahman to his Vedas, and the Christian to his Bible. All are divine! Though we observe in these phases of faith many resemblances suggestive of borrowing and derivation, we also observe differences in important details. Each considers itself orthodox, and regards the rest as heretical or infidel. Our notion of truth or heresy, therefore, is modified according to the place of our birth and the sphere of our education.

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We have seen, then, that most countries have adopted some one "revelation as their own. This adoption has been generally due to accident in the first instance, the result of heated controversy or actual war; adherence to any particular revelation by individuals being, in the majority of cases, thus dependent upon the accident of birth, though occasionally we see thinkers adopt an extraneous religion by choice. The particular revelation which fortuitous circumstances have placed in a dominant position in Europe, and which the accident of birth has placed us in imminent contact with, is the "Christian" revelation. This not only claims our interest and attention, but it somewhat aggressively demands these from us.

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Now, for all practical purposes, we may consider the Christian Church to be divided into two portions-Protestant and Catholic; but neither of these represents the teaching of either the Jessæans, as the first Christians were called, or of the "early" Christians. For a thousand years the doctrine of the "Atonement" was unknown in the Christian Church; "it originated," says Draper, "among the Gnostics, and was not admitted by the Alexandrian theological school, nor was it brought into its present commanding position until the time of Anselm [1033-1109]. Philo Judæus speaks of the story of the 'Fall' as symbolical; Origen regarded it as an allegory!"

Now, it strikes us at once that the manner of the delivery of this Christian "revelation "-intended, as it is asserted, for the salvation of the whole world-was distinctly clumsy, and much too badly conceived to have any claim to divine origin, and therefore to acceptance by those whose minds are open to reason. The existence of the great American continent, and of the greater part of the European, African, and Asiatic continents, was evidently unknown, and their peoples were entirely omitted from the scheme of salvation; while a handful of ignorant, obscene, and superstitious gipsy tribes in and around Judæa were taken into the divine confidence. And not a line of this so-called revelation was left by the Messiah himself, whose special mission it was to proclaim it; but, instead, we find a collection of old writings-some Jewish and others early Christian—all of which are, as regards authorship, worse than anonymous; for they had names attached to them, as authors, of ignorant and illiterate fishermen, because of their being "Apostles" of the so-called "Messiah,' in order to deliberately deceive the reader. These old writings were so numerous, and so full of absurd legends —which, if retained, would expose their origin-that they had to be "weeded out," and a great many discarded. Some were discarded which had previously been decided to have been "inspired "; and some which had previously been discarded, and decided not to be inspired, were, at a later day, decided to be "inspired." These which were finally decided to be authentic, and were retained, forming what is called the "Bible Canon," have all the evidences, equally with the discarded writings, of purely human origin; and

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the sources of the dogmas which are founded upon them can be distinctly traced chiefly to Buddhism, and to the older religions of Babylonia, Persia, Phoenicia, Egypt, etc. They were bound together with the Hebrew "Pentateuch," and form what is called by Christians "The Bible."

The leading myths-such as the supernatural birth and death of a Saviour," to redeem mankind from a sin supposed to have been committed by ancestors many centuries before, and the various other events in his life-contained in this "revelation" are found forming prominent features in old Jewish, Essene, and Buddhist legends, having been added to and embellished through successive generations.

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Then, as regards the scheme of salvation contained in the "revelation." Believers are not even agreed among themselves as to its details, or the conditions for obtaining the promised salvation, but are divided up into a bewildering array of sects, from Catholicism-which is itself divideddown to the latest development of Protestantism. The good Catholic hopes to obtain eternal life by perpetually eating the flesh of his God; the good Protestant declares this to be an abomination, and places his hopes on a simple act of faith in the saving power of a name. energies and resources of both are wasted in quarrelling and fighting among themselves-even to the extent of cruel persecution and death; and they employ their time adopting subtle and artful devices to make converts from each other. In these schisms they simply exemplify the contradictions presented by their "revelation "; yet, marvellous to relate, the only point these sects agree upon is the necessity of appeal to this written "revelation," the vagueness of whose mysterious allegories yields so many interpretations! It is blindly accepted on the assumption that it is "inspired "-very few ever attempting to inquire or to trouble themselves as to whether it is or is not; and those who refuse to blindly accept as inspired and true what reason and evidence disprove, are threatened with divine vengeance of eternal duration.

When we come to analyze the nature of this "revelation," we find that it contains a scheme of redemption arranged on distinctly immoral lines. It consists in the creation of man, his temptation by his Creator, his consequent "fall" from

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