The Index Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 Excerpt: ..."true" Christians, and -re fair specimens of the religion, surely we ought to consider how scant are our opportunities of knowing the homely goodness of thousands in humble or retired life among the vast millions of foreigners, of whom we are apt to judge by the conduct of their lords and oppressors, or their official tools, or perhaps from those who are corrupted by foreign contact. While much deduction, nay, very much, has to be made from the self-complacent admiration of Christendom, indulged in by those who say (as said the Jews of old according to the prophet), "The kingdom of the Lord are We: " it is not intended here to deny that Christianity on the whole, as a moral sys tem, is superior both to the older national religions and to Mohammedanism. But that at which I here point is, that the moral goodness of religious pre-cepts in no sense guarantees to us the truth of histor-ical any more than of scientific statements made in the books of a religion; not even though the religion inculcate Truth as a duty. To judge rightly of his-torical truth is a faculty which grows up slowly and uncertainly--a faculty which only a very small frac-tion of the most cultivated nations has yet attained. Out of a multitude of honest Englishmen or Amer-icans, taken at random, no large percentage is capa-ble of telling accurately the details of an unusual and exciting event. A still smaller fraction can sift the truth of a story which has passed from mouth to mouth through several narrators; and the more any alleged marvel gratifies the moral cravings of man-kind, so much the more greedily do a majority of simple good men believe it. The phenomena of Mornionism are very instructive. "Good news" is preached, far and wide, that there is a la...