Philosophy of Modern Infidelity [pp. 359-361]

PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN INFIDELITY.
He laid his patriarchal hand upon his head! Yes,
and I would rather have felt that hand pressing my
head, than to have felt the weight of the precarious
crown of empire. I would rather have the charac ter of old Mr. Faithful, than all that the Rothschilds
possess, and all that Louis Philippe ever lost. The
wealth of the former, by the revolutions of time,
may take wings and fly away; the latter, by a revo lution, lost his crown: but old Mr. Faithful has a
treasure that time cannot affect, and a crown that
will never fade away, reserved in heaven for him.
And, in the course of nature, he will soon be there
to enjoy them for ever. Peace to his ashes when he
is gone! And let this epitaph be inscribed upon his
tomb,
TO THE MEMORY OF
MR. FAITHFUL.
His name was indicative of his character in all the
relations of life.
Who will emulate his virtues? I cannot better
conclude this article than by the following quotation: "In the nmorning sow thy seed, and in the
evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest
not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or
whether they both shall be alike good."
PHILOSOPHY OF MODERN INFIDELITY.
BY ]EDWARD C.'MERwRICK.
"THE fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
To this climax of folly the human mind has arrived
only after a long progression in sin, a hopeless bewilderment in the mazes of error, and a total enslavement of the heart to its own corruptions. Long
did the remnants of its former purity, the yet unobscured traces of the image of God, contend with the
spirit of evil and the gathering strength of carnal
corruption, ere man's guardian angel took his despairing flight, and left him to sink into this awful
chaos. The immediate descendants of Adam, when,
in the pride and rebellion of their hearts, they revolted from their allegiance to God, had not arrived at
such a degree of impiety as to deny his existence.
They degraded that existence to the level of their
own sensual imaginations, and substituted for his
worship a most debasing adoration of the works of
their own hands, or of the perishing and filthy reptiles of earth. Though the carnal mind is enmity
against God, it required a fearful development of its
corruptions to enable it to acknowledge, even to its
own consciousness, that the end of all its desires was
to strike the Deity from existence, and to range the sea
of licentiousness, unawed by fears of retribution. It
required the cultivated depravity of more enlightened
ages to cut loose from all obligation to Divine authority, to strike at every principle of social stability,
and to turn men loose, as a herd of wild beasts, to
prey upon each other till the whole race should perish from the earth.
Heathenism in the classic ages had its disbelievers.
But they contented themselves with a mere withdrawal of credence from a system of monstrous
superstitions, which popular ignorance and priestly
cunning had dignified with the name of religion.
There was nothing in the classic mythology to excite their fears of retribution for crimes of which
the very gods were guilty: there was no standard of
moral excellence with which to contrast their own
vileness of heart, and thus destroy their lofty selfappreciation. It was not their interest to attack a
system of superstition which imposed upon the brutish mass restraints necessary to society. This negative opposition was tolerated even by a pampered
priesthood as perfectly harmless to their privileges
and emoluments.
How strangely does this contrast with the unsparing warfare which infidelity has waged against Christianity in every stage of its existence! Nor can we
fail to account for this hostility upon universally admitted principles of human nature. The Christian
system characterizes the human heart as deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked. It represents man, even in the exercise of his boasted virtues,
and in his most exalted character, as a rebel against
his Creator, as totally depraved in heart and life, and
as the dupe of an abominable pride. It exhibits corruption in his loftiest efforts, and exposes his littleness in the presence of the great "I AM." It poisons his most delicious moments of sinful enjoyment
by the threatenings of the awful future. It wages
an uncompromising war upon the cherished silns of
his heart, and points to the narrow path of self-denial as the only way to an immortality of blessedness.
Proud, misguided spirits, revolted from the humiliation of confession and repentance. The purity of
God's holy law, reflected in the lives of humble Christians, darkly contrasted with their corruption of heart
and life. The rewards of humble obedience, present
peace and eternal blessedness, sickened their hearts
with envy, as they compared these themes of high
and holy consolation with their own miserable lot of
unsatisfactory indulgence, sated appetites, and blighted hopes, with all the unalleviated ills of the present,
and the dreadful anticipations of the future. With
devilish malignity they endeavored to cut off from
all mankind the hopes and consolations which they
could not enjoy without sacrificing their dearest idols.
They hoped to alleviate their own misery by contemplating that of the whole hutnan race. They aimed
to sap the foundation of the Christian's faith,
"And with infernal chemistry to wring
The last sweet drop from sorrow's bitter cup of gall."
Such is modern infidelity. Men educated in the
principles of the Bible, have, with black ingratitude,
turned their knowledge and intellectual discipline
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