FREETHOUGHT RAMPANT.

Otago Witness, Volume 15, Issue 1562, 15 October 1881, Page 26

FREETHOUGHT RAMPANT.

By Colonus.

The thought of man about religious subjects for many ages suffered incarceration, and, loaded with chains, may be said to, have been confined in a dark and gloomy dungeon, its bigoted and self-interested jailors ref using it any access to light and liberty. For a long period the tyrants of human thought— the worst sort of tyrantsemployed barbarous, coarse, and brutal methods for retaining human thought In durance vile. At first the attempt was made to crush private judgment, and uphold ecclesiastical authority, by acting upon men's natural fear of bodily pain, and horror of death. The gibbet, rack, and atake, and manifold ingenious methods of inflloting torture were brought Into requisition to appal and enslave the human intellect, and like demons of hell, the upholders of ecclesiastlcal authority, with the help of civil power, revelled and rioted in the blood, agony, and tears, of their innocent fellow men. When the world had become more humane and enlightened, and the alllanoe between the ecclesiastical and civil powers was dissolved, and there was a relaxation of the coarser methods of subduing the human intellect, human thought fell under the tyranny of public opinion, and those who presumed to have a private opinion on religious questions were ostraoised, or kicked ont of good society, and sent to Coventry. It Is only, within a very recent period that human thought has become emancipated to any considerable extent from the thraldom of publio opinion. Considering the elastic and expansive nature of the mind of man, and the length of time human thought had been enchained and imprisoned, it (might well be expected as an inevitable consequence of its regaining liberty that the human lntelleot would, Jike a bird long kept in c bu- (- finemenfc, on emerging from its cage take a somewhat ecoentric flight. Now when most men presume to exercise the right of private judgment, and many men express their ideas about religion through the press, lecture room, or on the platform, the inevitable con- j sequence must be that opinions on religious ' subjects will be eccentric and extraordinary, as they are multitudinous. Considering however, that it requires the loftiest Intel- i leotual power, and the highest wisdom eyer I granted to mortal man, to grasp In anything like an efficient manner the significant and tremendous subjects with which religion concerns itself ; considering how very rarfe It Is that any member of the human family is raised very far above his fellows by the possession of extraordinary mental powei, and that the intellectual grasp of very few men is adequate to perform the stupendous task of dealing in anything like a fit and proper manner with those profound mysteries which vex the soul of man, it is not a matter; of wonder that when some men, enjoying the pleasurable excitement incident to the .expression and starting of strange and novel ideas, take upon themselves to flourish their opinions before the face of the public, those opinions should, though not always, yet not uncommonly, be crude, erroneous, preposterous, absurd, and insignificant, and In their effects dangerous, pernioious, alarming and mischievous. Christianity, nay, the sacred person of Ohrlatj himself, appears about) to become the butt against which aay n>an with a big or little mind may level his shift. Now for. my part, I can regard with indifferenoe, or even oomplaoency, assaults made upon dogmatic theology. I oare not so much for strictures concerning historical records and incidents, or the speculations of learned men about the authorship of the goßpels,' or the authenticity of, at least, the minor events recorded in them ; but when I see the attempt made to degrade in the estimation of men, and to drag Ignomlnlously from the place he ban so long held in the affections of human beings, the noblest, most heroio, and most self-sacrificing of men who ever walked upon the face of the earth ; when I see the loftiest wisdom that ever emanated from the mouth of man, oriticlsed or ridiculed, and the importance and significance of that great work done in Palestine questioned and undervalued, and the attempt made to treat lightly that great example of courage, fortitude, and obedience to the calls of duty, upheld to human view in the life and death of Christ, and to undervalue the services of one who died for man in the flower of his age upon the bitter cross, I am horrified, grieved, and disgusted. If through the I outward dogmatic and historical husk, we seek the kernel of Christianity, we shall find that Christ, having a moral perception high : above his fellows, became imbued with a lofty desire, or felt it a duty incumbent on him to improve human nature, and shed around it the halo of a diviner light. Notwithstanding certain expressions, the authenticity of which Borne savans tell us is doubtful, or the meaning of which has probably been mist interpreted, yet taking the gospels as a whole, there is no indication in them of any attempt to enslave the human intellect. The great aim of Christ appears simply to have been to check those human propensities which degrade and destroy humanity, and which if unchecked would produce a paudemonium on earth, and to induce men to cultivate those higher instincts and Impulses which ennoble and bless humanity, and are productive of happiness and social peace. It Is notable tlat Christ, though he did not tolerate or excuse those carnal and coarser Bias and vices which had been comdemned before he camo, condemned most severely and poured oat the full vials of his wrath upon delinquencies which until he came had never been condemned as they deserved, and perhaps hardly been f ally recognised as sins — such as tyranny, hypocrisy, bigotry, uncharitableness, relentless vengeance, iusatlable cupidity, and excessive worldlineas. He was a democrat of the best sort, the friend rather of the poor, feeble, and weak than of the strong and mighty His career was v protest against tyranny of thought, and he did much to secure to men that liberty of speech and action they now enjoy, though some are apt to turn and bite the hand which gave It to them, like the frozen asp, nourished to life In the bosom of the husbandman. The whole gist of Christ's teaching seems to have heen the endeavour to drag ftujmn nature out ot the mud, to

Induce men to lead a higher sort of life, and to give them a loftier idea of duty and' a nobler conception of their relations towards God and each other. If he condemned men for not believing in him it simply amounted to this, that if some men's minds were bo morally obtuse that they oouid not discern the excellence of his precepts, it argued in them an amount of moral obtuseness or . insensibility which was calculated to preolude or hinder them from the enjoyment .of a higher state of existence, As to Christ bejing the Messiah and God'a messenger, e^ery good man who leads men's souk along (the better way, from darkness into light, Is a messenger of God, and around such a man's head is the aureole of divinity. After all, however, perhaps Christianity is not as likely to be degraded so much in the future by the folly, Impertinence, and want' of reverence of some Freethinkers as it has in the past been degraded and made offensive to reasonable and liberal-minded men by the want of spiritual comprehension and discernment, the offspring of whioh is dogmttlc theology, and that love of power over others, and Beif-glorifioation, of whioh priestcraft and ecclesiastical domination are thereßults. Between the upper millstone of granite-Uke orthodoxy and the nether millstone of hard rationalism there seems at present some danger of true^ and vital Christianity being ground to powder.