p. 36 | Untitled article

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 17, 1858

BY THEIR FRUITS.

It is interesting as well as profitable to trace the practical outworkings of any theological system. The doctrine of the conscious state of the dead, and the immediate ascension of the righteous to heaven, is a heresy that bore a conspicuous part in the great apostasy that resulted in the development of the "Mother of harlots." What were the immediate results, at about the commencement of the fifth century, may be learned from the following extract which we introduce from Gibbon. It may be urged that the worship of saints and relics is not a necessary result of a belief in the consciousness of the dead; as many hold that belief, who will not join the Papist in the invocation of saints. But while we admit this, let us ask, If the scriptural sentiment of the sleep of the dead had never been obscured and lost sight of, and if mankind had ever believed, as the Bible teaches, that when a man dies he knows not anything, till he is restored to life again, where would have been the practice under consideration? It could not have existed. If there had been no such foundation, such a superstructure never could have arisen: if there had existed no such root, we never should have beheld an ungainly tree, springing therefrom. In this doctrine therefore it has its root and foundation; and we may be assured that a good tree doth not bring forth evil fruit, nor a fountain send forth sweet water and bitter.

From "Gibbon's Decline and Fall," chap. xxviii, secs. iii & iv, we take the following:

"The innumerable miracles, of which the tombs of the martyrs were the perpetual theater, revealed to the pious believer the actual state and constitution of the invisible world; and his religious speculations appeared to be founded on the firm basis of fact and experience. Whatever might be the condition of vulgar souls, in the long interval between the dissolution and the resurrection of their bodies, it was evident that the superior spirits of the saints and martyrs did not consume that portion of their existence in silent and inglorious sleep. It was evident (without presuming to determine the place of their habitation, or the nature of their felicity) that they enjoyed the lively and active consciousness of their happiness, their virtue, and their powers; and that they had already secured the possession of their eternal reward. The enlargement of their intellectual faculties surpassed the measure of the human imagination; since it was proved by experience, that they were capable of hearing and understanding the various petitions of their numerous votaries; who, in the same moment of time, but in the most distant parts of the world, invoked the name and assistance of Stephen or of Martin. The confidence of their petitioners was founded on the persuasion, that the saints, who reigned with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon earth; that they were warmly interested in the prosperity of the Catholic Church; and that the individuals, who imitated the example of their faith and piety, were the peculiar and favorite objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes, indeed, their friendship might be influenced by considerations of a less exalted kind: they viewed, with partial affection, the places which had been consecrated by their birth, their residence, their death, their burial, or the possession of their relics. The meaner passions of pride, avarice, and revenge, may be deemed unworthy of a celestial breast; yet the saints themselves condescended to testify their grateful approbation of the liberality of their votaries; and the sharpest bolts of punishment were hurled against those impious wretches, who violated their magnificent shrines, or disbelieved their supernatural power. Atrocious indeed must have been the guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism of those men if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine agency, which the elements, the whole range of the animal creation, and even the subtle and invisible operations of the human mind, were compelled to obey. The immediate, and almost instantaneous effects that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the offence, satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor and authority which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the Supreme God; and it seemed almost superfluous to inquire whether they were continually obliged to intercede before the throne of grace; or whether they might not be permitted to exercise, according to the dictates of their benevolence and justice, the delegated powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation and worship of the Universal cause, eagerly embraced such inferior objects of adoration as were more proportioned to its gross conceptions and imperfect faculties. The sublime and simple theology of the primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the monarchy of heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was degraded by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended to restore the reign of polytheism.

"As the objects of religion were gradually reduced to the standard of the imagination, the rites and ceremonies were introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect the senses of the vulgar. If, in the beginning of the fifth century, Tertullian, or Lactantius, had been suddenly raised from the dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint, or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment, and indignation, on the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the doors of the church were thrown open, they must have been offended by the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers, and the glare of lamps, and tapers, which diffused, at noon-day, a gaudy, superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light. If they approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their way through the prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most part, of strangers and pilgrims, who had resorted to the city on the vigil of the feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication of fanaticism, and perhaps of wine. Their devout kisses were imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred edifice; and their fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be the language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or the ashes of the saint, which were usually concealed, by a linen or silken veil, from the eyes of the vulgar. The Christians frequented the tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of obtaining, from their powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more especially of temporal, blessings. They implored the preservation of their health, or the cure of their infirmities; the fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the safety and happiness of their children. Whenever they undertook any distant or dangerous journey, they requested that the holy martyrs would be their guides and protectors on the road; and if they returned without having experienced any misfortune, they again hastened to the tombs of the martyrs, to celebrate, with grateful thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with symbols of the favors which they had received; eyes, and hands, and feet, of gold and silver: and edifying pictures, which could not long escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion, represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same uniform original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the most distant ages and countries, the same methods of deceiving the senses of mankind: but it must ingenuously be confessed, that the ministers of the Catholic church imitated the profane model, which they were impatient to destroy. The most respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals."

In this we have revealed to us also another prime cause of the decline and corruption of the church: it was the persuasion of those "respectable bishops" that the "ignorant rustics" would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism if they found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity. Conformity to the customs of those around, for the sake of gaining their favor, or of making proselytes, ever has been and ever will be while practiced, the bane of the church. So it appears that in the early ages of the church, the converting principle was not all on the side of Christianity. Christianity and Paganism met face to face; they made mutual concessions; and the Papacy was the result. It was during this interchange of institutions and sentiments that the "festival of the sun," took its station in the church.

So at the present day. The nominal churches talk of converting the world, and appear to know not that the world has converted them. Instead of raising the world to the standard of the teachings and precepts of the gospel, they have gradually lowered the standard to a level with the world, until we have arrived to the strange pass, that almost the surest way to prosperity and success in worldly schemes, and worldly business, is through the portals of the church.

Let us, brethren, derive tangible instruction from these facts. Let us raise the standard so high that those who conform to it will be saved, though by doing this we should gain but few, rather than bring it so low that though all the world should flock around it, they would all be lost. Let us strive for pure, simple, apostolic religion.