This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... PART XII. Theism contrasted with Christianity. In this, my twelfth and last of the papers on Theism, which the editor of The Weekly Times and Echo has so generously allowed me to contribute, it will be my duty to say some painful words, perhaps all the more to be listened to and weighed on that ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ... PART XII. Theism contrasted with Christianity. In this, my twelfth and last of the papers on Theism, which the editor of The Weekly Times and Echo has so generously allowed me to contribute, it will be my duty to say some painful words, perhaps all the more to be listened to and weighed on that account, seeing that I am a human being and would not willingly wound other people's feelings. I shall have to show how far, if Theism be true, it comes into collision with the orthodox Christian beliefs. Persons who do not see very far beyond the immediate present have often said to me, "Why do you not leave other people's beliefs alone? Why are you not content with simply stating that which you believe to be true, and let it work its own way quietly without raising controversy?" This plausible plea, often suggested by good motives, might have some weight if the facts of history did not betray the fallacy. Without controversy, no change, no progress, no real improvement would have been possible. Christianity itself, a vast improvement on the Paganism which it supplanted, owed its conquests and its triumphs entirely to the controversies carried on by its founders. St. Paul could do nothing without it. His Epistles teem with it; and all who had anything to do with the promulgation of the Gospel had to fight with existing errors and superstitions as well as to proclaim the purer and nobler truths. Now, if you have to teach arithmetic to children or others who have never had any arithmetical instruction before, your obvious duty would be to confine yourself as a teacher to the positive truths of arithmetic--e.g., the multiplication table, as we know it--and it would be folly for the teacher to drag in specimens of false arithmetic in order to prove...
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