Swing's Sermons [pp. 512-532]

SWING'S SERMONS.
article of the Christian Faith? What then remains to us on
this footing, but a dreary skepticism as to the whole field of re ligious and Christian truth? How contrary all this is to the
Bible, the standards of the Presbyterian Church, the logical
possibility of any firm foothold or foundation for religion of any
sort, we need not stop to show. What right has any man, on
such a theory, to demand of men categorically that they believe
that of which he himself is uncertain on pain of perdition to
obey the Saviour's commission, "Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is
baptized, shall be saved; he that believeth not, shall be
damned"?
But we cannot pursue applications of this doctrine, which
might be made ad iifinitum. We hasten to follow Prof. Swing
through some of his own applications of it. He says: "Having in this brief argument found a ground for religious toleration in the natural uncertainty of human knowledge, and
in the fact that men have persecuted their fellows most over the
smallest ideas, I would say only a few words against any form
of intolerance, even when confessed errors exist in their worst
possible forms. Suppose the heretic, as the world calls him,
pronounces Christ an impostor, and denies the existence of
God, still, all the light that will ever come into his mind from
man widl be along the chords of friendship, passing from the
better heart to his. Words spoken without bitterness, spoken
with the confession full and free of human equality, words
wreathed with friendship, are the only ones that ever penetrate
the soul. The man who hates us, and whom we hate, need not
speak. His words are like a discord. Thus the ill-will of the
old Puritans jarred, like bells jangled out of tune, upon the ear
of Thomas Paine, and each anathema from the Church only
separated him further from the presence and beauty of God,
for God is not a God of discord, but of harmony." Truths of
To-Day, 25-6.
We can make nothing of this but a plea, from the uncertainty
of our religions knowledge, for tolerating those in the Churchif any such are found there-who avow themselves unmitigated
Infidels and Atheists. And the argument is logical, if the premise of the uncertainty of all religions be admitted. We
see not what other construction can be put upon it; for, as to
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