Preliminaries for Religion

In 1835 there was published in London, a 'Book of the Denominations.' This publication, of about 700 pages, contains an account of nearly sixty different sects, all serving God under various creeds, ceremonies and expectations. Truly was it said, 'when the shepherd is smitten the sheep will scatter.' To obviate the objection, however, so often made to revelations, as believed by the Latter Day Saints, we have though [thought] it advisable to make an extract from the writer's preliminary remarks. It is not all gold that shines, neither is every pile of rubbish destitute of jewels: By proving contrarieties, truth often manifests itself so clearly that he that runs may read, and he that reads may understand.

Now to the extract:-

"For eighteen centuries it has been the singular fate of christianity to attach to itself, and yet to seperate [separate] from each other, those who have professed to embrace it as a revelation from heaven. Its promulgation has been uniformly marked by this two-fold character of unity and division. The most violent zealots for opposite or different opinions, have yet ranged themselves under the common standard of the faith; they have all strenuously adhered to the name of their founder, while they have strangely used that name as the watchword of dissension and persecution. So remarkably has the anomalous exhibition of the christian religion prevailed, that there has scarcely been a moment during its progress in which its friends, because they were its friends, have not been opponents of each other. Thus the odium of engendering strife, and every uncharitable and

antisocial feeling in the human bosom, has been fixed, not upon any particular sect, church, or denomination, but upon the gospel itself; and superficial objectors have inferred, that because professing christians in all ages and of all parties have been the persecutors of each other, that Christianity is nothing more than a mischievous delusion, designed to impose upon the credulity, and to awaken into active energy the worst passions, of mankind.

The preliminary duty of the author of a work like the present, unquestionably, is to meet and refute a conclusion so utterly unsupported by the facts from which it is ostensibly derived.

Assuming the facts to be true, can it indeed be shown, that Christianity is in the slightest degree responsible for the conflicting opinions and persecuting animosities, which have so unhappily disgraced its disciples and tarnished its glory?

A notion has very generally prevailed, that a revelation from heaven ought to be so clear, distinct and luminous, as to render uniformity of sentiment upon the subject of its discoveries the almost necessary consequence of its promulgation. This notion as applied to Christianity has operated very differently upon different minds. It has induced infidelity in one class and intolerance in the other. The sceptic [skeptic] waits for the perfect agreement of all Christians, before he will admit their religion to be divine; the bigot contends that among true Christians this agreement is indispensable, that the most trifling departure from his own opinions which are of course the only opinions founded in truth, is a mark of heresy; in the suppression of which, he suffers himself to be hurried into all the extravagances of remorseless persecution. The favorite position of both is, that diversity of sentiment regarding the contents of alleged revelation is fatal to its pretensions; perhaps the only point in which the infidel and the zealot are agreed, the practical influence of which is to make one the enemy of himself, and the other the enemy of all mankind. As a subtle and dangerous fallacy it deserves exposure; and for this, a very little sagacity will suffice: those who maintain it, are perhaps hardly aware of its legitimate consequences, any more than they are prepared to direct the sophism on which it is founded. It has not probably occurred to them, that this, their strongest argument for two of the worst things in the world, infidelity and bigotry, is subversive of not only revealed, but of natural religion. If everything assuming the character of a revelation from heaven is to be rejected simply on the ground of the differences and contrarieties of opinion, which may prevail among its advocates, then there is nothing true, nothing divine, in the universe. For what is there in the whole range of philosophy that has not occasioned disputation, and divided the most acute and sagacious reasoners?-Uniformity is, and ever has been confined within the narrow limits of self-evident truths and mathematical demonstrations. There are no duplicates in human nature, no classes where individuals possess an exact resemblance. It is not therefore possible, unless the capacities of different minds could be equalized, and their circumstances rendered precisely similar, they should entertain identical opinions, and contemplate under the same aspects, and with the same convictions, the doctrine which they believe to be true. Universal concert and perfect agreement are utterly unknown in this world of ignorance, prejudice and passion, where a thousand influences conspire to obscure the most glorious truths, and to diminish the force of the most powerful arguments.'