Infidelity by Jos. Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 13, 1874

Infidelity.

By Jos. Clarke

We do not hold that infidels have done no good; we do not say that infidels have been useless as public or obscure men; nor do we justify those who persecuted them for their avowed principles. We do not hold that none of Thomas Paine's writings were of any account? His imprisonment was an error of the intolerance of his times. No doubt he did much by his writings to open the eyes of our people as to the evils of tyranny and oppression. No doubt he met with cold ingratitude for his persevering efforts to oppose the armies of Great Britain in the war of the American Revolution; and his influence was felt in the spread of the then new doctrine of a church without the State, and the State without a king. So far, all right; but his ultra views are far from correct; for he would, if it had been possible, have had no church at all. So with all who advocate principles undermining public confidence in the Bible; they go beyond the mark.

All that is good in society, or in public morals, proceeds from God, and the Bible is his book; and nature itself curses the course of infidel principles; for infidelity is contrary to nature. Such men as Paine, Voltaire, and Hume, are the natural outgrowth of false Christianity. They saw the workings of the union of church and State in Europe; and, seeing no further, they condemned the whole system of Christianity. There are fine sentiments woven into all the productions of these writers; but who would sit down to eat at a sumptuous repast if it were tinctured with arsenic? So with the writings of infidels. We abhor the poison. JOS. CLARKE.