TENDENCY OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
To conclude, the direct tendency of the christian religion is to purify the heart, and to make men everything which the perfect happiness of society requires. After Paul had gone into a long detail of christian virtues, he concludes in his sweeping style, which suffers not one virtue to escape: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are venerable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are amiable, whatever things are of good fame; if there be any virtue, and if any praise be due, think on and practice these things." One miracle there is which Mr. Owen must believe at all events, on the whole premises before us. He must believe that a set of vile impostors, deceivers of the basest stamp, the greatest cheats and liars that ever lived, did give birth to the purest system of morality the world ever saw—did recommend the practice of every virtue which human reason in the most cultivated state of society can admire and approve. He must believe that all the true religion and genuine virtue now existing depends upon the forgeries of a pack of charlatans, who went about from place to place declaring that they had heard what they never did hear, and that they had seen what they never saw. This miracle Mr. Owen must believe, which is a miracle of a more incredible character than any one in the volume, especially when we take into view the circumstances attendant on the progress and sufferings of these wicked impostors. "If weak thy faith, why choose the harder side?" But still I have not made sufficiently emphatic the tendency of christianity upon every one who embraces it. This I will again lay before you. It becomes the more necessary to call this up again, because our opponent execrates christianity more because of its "idle fears and terrors" than on any other account. To me, from childhood, it has seemed strange why mankind should more fear the threats than hope for the promises of Jesus Christ. If not to a consciousness of the just desert of all that is threatened, perhaps anterior to any notice of the threats, I know not to what other cause this is to be attributed. For certain it is that threats and promises are equally credible or incredible. They both rest upon the same testimony. Now christianity, if rationally regarded, can never fill but one class of mankind with fears. If it be regarded as a fraud or imposition, its hopes and fears are equally disannulled. If it be regarded as true, what is its truth save pardon and peace to every one who submits to the government of Jesus Christ? No person can, then, be filled with any fears or terrors from the New Testament, but he that believes and will not obey. The infidel cannot; the christian cannot. To the infidel it is all a romance; to the christian it is all peace, hope, and joy, real as life itself. Who, then, does christianity make unhappy? The very persons, and none but the persons, it ought to make unhappy, viz: those who believe, and will not obey Jesus Christ. And if it did not make such unhappy, it would be unworthy of its Author and its object. And the man who labors to divest the guilty of his fears is a misanthrope, and not a philanthropist.—Campbell in debate with Owen, p. 382.