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rance, and the consequent hopes, fears, and errors of men, any other basis than human misconceptions as to physical phenomena, and the causes of that phenomena,-religious feeling, which at first must have been a sentiment, not a calculation, was no sooner systematized than it was corrupted. Religion is not a science, that it may be reduced to system, but a sentiment springing out of human contemplations of the mysteries of things. Nature speaks to man with a most miraculous organ, but few ever hear-none can entirely comprehend her; and, however melancholy may be the reflection, it is nevertheless true, that men are violent in their advocacy of theories and systems, whether of religion or politics, in the ratio of their ignorance; and it is manifestly true, that all religion is based upon opinion merely-opinion too, which, like the waves of the great Atlantic, is in never ceasing motion,-yet do men who truly have "madmen within them," foolishly aim at producing a dead-sea stillness-forgetting that stagnant opinions, like stagnant waters, always engender corruption.

We shall now take leave of the garden of Paradise, its mystical tree of good and evil, and its no less mystical serpent,-feeling that enough has been written to satisfy any considering mind, that if we would get at the meaning of what is contained in the book of Genesis, we must not stop at the literal sense, which is most absurd, contradictory, and (if any thing can be) most degrading to Deity. As observed by Dr. Strauss, in his Introduction to "The Life of Jesus," "Divine things could not have been thus performed, or things thus performed could not have been divine;" but that Doctor, while he disputes the literal or naked sense now attached to the writings of Genesis by orthodox theologians, condemns equally the orthodox religionist and the theological rationalist; and as remarked by M. Lettré," after condemning both these parties, he substitutes the opinions of the theologians who regard these recitals as mythosis, that is to say, as the production of the sentiments, ideas, and beliefs which predominated in the first Christian communities." According to Strauss, Jesus having inspired during his life, and left after his death, the belief that he was the Messiah, and as the type of the Messiah already existed in the Sacred Books, and in the traditions of the Jewish people, there was formed among the first Christians a history of the life of Jesus, in which the particularities of his doctrine and of his destiny combined themselves with that type, which passed by successive modification down to the period when it was definitely fixed in the canonical Evangelists.

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It will be seen from the above, that there is a wide gap between our teachings and those of our learned countryman, Strauss, to whom may be applied the words he has himself used when speaking of Origines: "he abstained from giving a greater extension to that mode of conception (the allegorical) in part, because that he was himself engaged by his prejudices in the belief of the supernatural; in part, because that he feared to scandalise the orthodox Church" but while truth compels us to declare highly against the want of nerve or moral stamina of the GREAT GERMAN, yet it is but fair to state, that his great work, "The Life of Jesus," is, considered in a theological point of view, one of the most important that has issued from the press during the last century. Many of the last centur our readers have supposed "The Existence of Christ Disproved," was a mere re-print or translation of Strauss, which all will now have an opportunity of seeing is not the fact. The German Jew is now occupied with a translation of Strauss; and as his object is two-fold-first, to correct the erroneous notion as to "The Existence of Christ Disproved," being written by Strauss, and, seweekly numbers, to bring it within the reach- -as it were, to the very doors-of the thinking among the poorer classes of society, who, had the translation been published in a volume, or volumes, would have been shut out from the incalculable benefits it is likely to bestow. The people must be enlightened-they must be freed from vain notions and superstitious fears, ere society can be purified, and each man be made a "law unto himself." How it happened that our readers and the press made the mistake of supposing that Dr. Strauss ever wrote a work disproving the existence, as a human being, of Jesus Christ, it is difficult to say; but probably they mistook the import of a remark. contained in this work, "that the substance or marrow of Strauss' philosophy would appear in these Letters," &c. .

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Those who consult the translation (the first number of which has appeared) will soon discover in what we differ, and in what we agree; nor is it necessary to say more at present than that the translation shall be (as far as our abilities will enable us to make it) a faithful one-conveying in the simplest and clearest manner that our knowledge of the English language will permit, the sense and spirit of the author.sertivitei lo state's London: H. Hetherington; A. Heywood, Manchester; and all Booksellers. J. Taylor, Printer, 29, Smallbrook Street, Birmingham.

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EXISTENCE OF CHRIST

AS A HUMAN BEING,

DISPROVED!

BY IRRESISTIBLE EVIDENCE, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS,

FROM A GERMAN JEW,

ADDRESSED TO CHRISTIANS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS.

LETTER 21.

WEEKLY.

ONE PENNY.

"I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 1, even 7, am the Lord, and besides me there is no Saviour."-ISAIAH XLIII. 3, 10, 11.

CHRISTIANS,

The progress of civilization necessarily modifies the religious sentiments of individuals and nations; for religion, although a mere sentiment, having its origin and support in the explained action of Nature, and the wonder to which such mysterious phenomena give birth, it varies with the never-ceasing variations of human condition. Not only has every phase of civilization its corresponding and inseparable religious phase, but every step in the march of improvement-giving a higher tone to all the sentiments of man; that sentiment-called religious-cannot be excluded, and equally with the rest, vibrates harmoniously with the spirit of the times. In vain may philosophers strive to separate intellectuality from sentimentality, calling certain conditions in contradistinction to states of pure feeling; for though these two results of human organism may be, in order to help the human mind, considered as essentially distinct, there is, nevertheless, so far practically, a unity, that the one cannot be degraded or improved without the degradation or improvement of the other; the one cannot suffer or enjoy alone, or in a state of individualization-the one cannot exist without the other. As wise would it be to look at the first break of dawn for the full light of day-as the noon day of morality and the twilight of reason. The morality of nations may be considered

apart from what they know-but not as independent of it; for though our sentiments cannot properly be called our knowledge, they undoubtedly spring out of it,the first giving birth, form, consistency, or in one word, character to the second. If this be, and we think the hypothesis will hardly be denied, it will appear, that the right use of reason, not confining these terms to a pedantic or merely logical sense, will not only largely contribute to moral progression, but is that alone which can develope or draw forth the germs of good, which, as the ice-bound flame, are latent in man,

These considerations open a new road for the free inquirer; as it will enable him to trace with precision, the cause and effect of religion, and how far it is dependant upon, or modified by, the advance of philosophy. It is evident, that the simple water-drinking Gentoo, whose sum of knowledge, though small, has made manifest to him, that to destroy life, or even to injure any living creature, is not good,-will, in his conception of powers more than human, or states of immortal existence, be regulated by the conclusions of his own mind-drawn from his intellectual resources. It is true, that in spite of his knowledge, the poor Gentoo may dream

Of Gods--passionate, revengeful, and unjust,
Whose attributes are-hate, revenge, and lust.

But thus it will be, in spite of his knowledge, which, borne down by the weight of terrors, has still an elastic spring, and eagle-like, tends to soar upwards-an eagle, however, without the necessary complement of feathers in its wing, for knowledge may properly be called humanity's wing, which only requires to be strengthened that it may soar with perfect safety upwards to the highest regions of speculation. The evil is not that men speculate so much, but it rather is that they know so little,—and mistaking their speculations for realities, they blindly fall into the deep and frightful abyss of pride and fanaticism. There is nothing absolutely hostile to human progression and universal happiness in the religious sentiment, which may, and will undoubtedly, receive a higher development, strengthening with the strength of reason, for the religious sentiment has its origin and support in the intellect of man, when contemplating the mysteriousness of things, and its own relationship to things, or the thing called universe; but, though it may be allowed, that there is nothing absolutely hostile to human progression' and universal happiness in the religious sentiment, there is a something quite incompatible with human advancement, liberty, and

happiness, in a religious system, creed, or formulæ, based upon religious sentiment.

That the character of a religion and its usefulness is determined by the progress of just ideas, it seems hardly necessary to insist upon; but, because the reason of man considered in its totality, or as unit, gives the law to the religious sentiment, holds in check the vagrant imaginings, and gives its own colour to the body of faith; by that we must not be understood as admitting that religion is based upon just ideas, or the reason of things, for, as by the very terms reason and faith, we include the idea of difference, if not of opposition, it will be allowed that faith is not reason, and reason is not faith; hence, the expression of My Lord Verulam, "Give unto reason the things which are reason's, and unto faith the things which are faith's.” The religious sentiment, say Christian writers, is indestructible; agreed; for human ignorance is indestructible, and human ignorance of the how and the wherefore, of the causes, existence, and the ends to which all tends, are subjects about which faith, as it employs itself, is manifest, that were there nothing mysterious in nature, there would be no belief or faith-which is simply the faculty to believe (if the paradox may be permitted), when more or less of doubt exists in the mind; for where there is no existence of doubt, there is no room for the exercise of faith, which ceases when the mind is satisfied with its evidence, when opinion gives place to actual knowledge. If, for example, men could see God, all faith in his existence would be destroyed, for they would not then believe in, but know him; and though it would be difficult for even an angel from heaven to say any thing, about which subtile spirits could not find occasion to dispute, it is nevertheless presumed, that none who saw, touched, and talked with such an angelic messenger, would say they believed they did those three things, namely, saw, touched, and talked with an angel, but simply declare their knowledge of the fact.

From the above reasoning, the legitimate conclusion is, that the religion of a nation, whether that nation be civilized or barbaric, is not the reason of such nation; for, as if by reason we understand the just and true ideas of men, which can only be determined as just or true, because they have facts, or absolute knowledge for their ground work, it follows, that the feelings of wonder, ever excited by that with which we are not familiar, is the support, the everlasting basis of all religion, which never can properly be called rational, because there is no standard by which a sentiment, with regard to the unknown, can be measured-no plummet and line by which we

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