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said Mr. Beecher, for an honest, conscientious man to know just what to preach and what not to preach. A man who values morality, and who ha the good of his fellowman at heart, cannot be careless as to the things he ought to teach. His own head had often reeled, and his mind had been greatly troubled when he reflected upon his responsibility in this matter. It was no easy matter to re move the rotten timbers and replace them with sound ones, and not stop the voyage of the ship. It was said that Adam was created per fect. It was also said that Adam sinned, and that in consequence of that sin, the whole human race fell. The human race had existed on the earth for thousands and thousands of years, and had gone on propagating and multiply ing, until all the waves of the ocean which had rolled in upon the shore during those centuries did not contain drops enough, nor the sands of the sea particles enough, not all the figures of the arithmetic numbers enough, to compute the preface, to say nothing of the body, of the great history of the human race. The numbers of ths human race were actually be yond computation, and for thousands and thousands and thousands of years they had been born into the world, had lived, and struggled, and finally died, and gone where— where ? “ If you- tell me that they have all gone to heaven, my answer will be that such a sweeping of mud into heaven would defile its purity, and I cannot accept that. If you tell me that they have gone to hell, then I swear by the Lord Jesus Cbrist, whom I have sworn to worship forever, that you will make an in fidel of me. The doctrine that God has been for thousands of years peopling this earth with human beings, during a period three-fourths of which was not illuminated by an altar or a church, md in places where a vast population of those people are yet without that light, is to transform the Almighty into a monster more hideous than Satan himself and I swear by all that is sacred that I will never worship Satan, though he should appear dressed in royal robes and seated on the throne of Jehovah. Men may say, ‘ you will not go to heaven.’ A heaven presided over by such a demon as that, who has been peopling this world with millions of human beings, and then sweeping them off into hell, not like dead flies, but without taking the trouble even to kill them, and gloating and laughing over their eternal misery, is not such a heaven as I want to go to. The doctrine is too horrible. I cannot believe it and I won’t. They say the saints in heaven are so happy that they do not mind the torments of the damned in hell; but what sort of saints must they be whd could be happy while looking down upon the horrors of the bottomless pit ? They don’t mind—they’re safe—they’re happy! W hat would the mother think of the 16 year old daughter who,when her infant was lying dead in the house,should come singing and dancing into the parlor, and exclaim, ‘ Oh! I’m so happy mother! I don’t care for the dead baby in the cofiiin!” Would she not be shocked? And so with this doctrine; and by the blood of Christ I denounce it; by the wounds in his hands and his side, I abhor it; by his groans and agony, I abhor and denounce it as the most hideous nightmare of theology.” [Written Inspirationally for^the M e d iu m a n d D a y b r e a k .] TH E STRO N G H O L D S OF OR1JIO- D O X Y . B y T iio s . W a l k e r . To one whose mind has imbibed the conta gious freedom of the nineteenth century, and who has been baptized in the flood of restored science and renovated spiritual liberty, it is a matter for concern and wonder that the human mind should be so loth to relinquish error The Olive Branch. and so backward at accepting truth when it is presented in its sweet and native nakedness. A mind formed, based, and cultured in an hon est conscience, canuot but imagine that other minds should act from common motives, and with the same incentives give similar re sults. This, however, is found not to be the case, and ignorance and folly, vested interest and power, are ever at war with reform and progress, truth and justice. The fact that er- ror is so popular aud superstition so strong, evidence powerful and subtle causes at work somewhere. In order to remove the delete rious effects everywhere visible around us, to destroy the baneful results of mediaeval theol ogy and Pagan Christianity—to banish from our midst the pestilential atmosphere, the moral degradation, and the spiritual bondage, stifling the breathing of man’s divinest nature, and cutting at the very root of progress,—we must deal with their causes and repair them. We have in the past too much neglected them, and depended for our success in making prose lytes, upojn the beauty of our philosophy, the indisputable evidence we have furnished in its support, and the cold but potent reasoning of its adherents. These are all well in their place, and as necessary for true conviction to the matured mind as the s.un is to effulgent day. But permit me briefly to point out some of the subtle causes leading to the permanent and popular success of orthodox error. I will use for my illustrations the Roman Church, the mother of Orthodoxy in all its manifold forms and divisions. It commences practically with the knowledge gathered by cen turies of experience of human nature. Know ing well the heart of man, it has taken advan tage of every weakness to ensure its own pow er. There is not a sense in man that in exer cise gives him pleasure, but meets with gratifi cation in his religion. Every opportunity is taken advantage of to strengthen the power of religious association, such as connecting days with certain religious observances, and associa ting certain acts with periodical devotions. Reverence aud respect are inspired by the self- denial, celibacy, and profound learning of the priests, in comparison with the ignorance of the people. Awe, wonder, aud undying ad miration are induced by the finest edifices, the most gorgeous, romantic, and magnificent of architectural achievements of mediaeval and modern times. Obedience and submissive piety are the results of the unmistakable power in possession of the priesthood. Enthusiasm is chiefly the child of position, it being advanta geous to no slight degree to exhibit zeal when wealth, honor, respect, and powers political, social, and religious, are to be gained thereby. Devotion is called forth by playing upon the same faculties, the religious sentiments, that are either latent or active in all m en—the same organs that in exercise make the Hindoo sing Vedec hymns, the Greek to immortalize his deities, the Saracen to worship Allah, and Christendom its Christ, and the truest man, humanity and God. These attributes are un dying, and but change as to their associations as man is ignorant or wise. But in addition to all these devices, which are sufficient to ensure the continuity of a Vol. iii.— No. 1 Church, there are other methods employed to preserve the superstition of the past intact in the present. On the Sabbath morn the parish- bells chime out their merry tunes, and the joyest peal sends the music of the ancients to the ears enraptured by the sound. The still summer morning, the air laden with the frag rance from the rose, the buttercup, and daisy; the chirp of the happy robin, the song of the high-soaring lark, the flutter of the thrush as startled from the hedge it gives a shrill and pensive note; the brook that ripples through the dell to the music of its own murmurs and whispering of the neighbouring trees, all remind one of, and are generally associated with, the sunny days of childhood, when the Church was a Sunday luxury. In Church the organ shakes the roof and very spires with its mysterious tones and makes one tremble at its powers; the stained-glass windows take the mind a-wandering, ancl as the sunbeams through them steal revealing the scenes and characters, there depicted, we are with Jesus on Mount Olivet, with P eter in his prison, with Mary at the tomb, or more probably with Simon in a trance or Joseph in a dream. The half-sung Dominus vobiseum from the priest, the rendi tion on the organ, the anthem from the choir,, combined with the robes, ceremonies, and con duct of the p istor, the fleeting, flitting, gowned group of boys assisting in the performance, completely intoxicate the intellect and senses and drown the voice of reason. Then the good father may lull and soothe his hearers, exhort them to practical faith and their duty to the Church. He may raise their sympathies by re lating the stories of ot't-repeated martyrdom of the saints and fathers. He may indoctrinate, them as he pleases, for they cannot resist his thetoric or raise one dissenting voice to what he says. The sweet smell from the altar hath sacrificed their judgment, aud the light from the flickering tapers has blinded their per ception. Tne Sabbath passes and saints’ days, fast days, and feast days follow, into the spirit of which the good Catholic enters. New ceremonies, imposing, grand, and incomprehensible, crowd themselves one upon the other, and he who- witnesses is filled with awe and fear, followed by devotion. In the dizzy whirl of form and ritual—this giddy display of meaningless ac tion and scenic effect—who can stop for a sin gle moment and think? Who, in witnessing, can ask the origin of all these ? It is thus that, unquestioning, we accept these rites and trust all dogmas. And is not heresy guarded against most effectually ? The confessional terrifies the weak-minded, and prevents all investigation into forbidden realms. The fear of excommu nication, from such a formidable luxure, gives reason shackles, and conscience the cradle.. And in the past more than mere excommunica tion was to be feared. The fates of Bruno and Hypatia, the banishment of Nestor, Arius, and Pelagius, the impiisonment of Galileo, the excommunication of Copernicus, the Spanish Inquisition, and the massacre of St. Barthole- mew, are undying lessons of what the Church in her power had done when insubordination, had been manifested ; and she stands over the
