80 Years Ago

17 80 YEARS AGO (Reproduced from, the February issue of the Review of Religions, 1910) X. It is said that there is no other means of remission of sins save the atonement of Jesus. But we see that God has provided the means of the remission of sins in nature. If a person takes an unwholesome food, he sins against nature and.is immediately punished for it, i.e; he begins to feel pain in his stomach. But when he turns to its remedy and takes some medicine, such as peppermint or the namk—i—Sulaimani, the pain is removed. And if he takes a suitable medicine before the pain begins, he feels no pain at all. This is a natural remedy for the sins committed against nature. If God has made so much provision for the body which is dust and which at last returns to dust, can it be supposed that He has made no provision for the soul? Every sensible man will admit that He must have provisions for it. But have any of the readers ever heard of a physician who, when a patient suffering from a pain in the stomach went to him for treatment, thrust a knife into his own stomach so that his patient might get rid of the pain? A physician who, in order to relieve his patient from pain in the belly or the head, rips open his own stomach or knocks out his own brains, will not be regarded as a wise physician, but as a lunatic. From this it is clear that the so-called atonement of Jesus is a foolish doctrine. XI. We see in the world that it is always the lower things that are sacrificed for the higher. The higher are never sacrificed for the lower. The soldier fights in the first ranks in the battle field, the officers stand behind, the Commander—in-Chief takes the most secure position and the king is safe in his castle. The Sepoy gives his life for the Captain, the Captain for the Colonel, the Colonel for the General and the General for the Commander—in—Chief. The commanding officer or the king is never sacrificed to save the life of a private. Similarly, the green waving corn of the field is sacrificed so that the cattle may live, the cattle are sacrificed so that men may five. Our Government has destroyed millions of rats in order to save the fives of men. Flasks of phenyl are poured into the sewers to destroy noxious germs so that the health of human beings may not suffer. But we have never seen human beings being sacrificed for the sake of worms and cattle. How can then God be sacrificed for the sake of men who are of no importance compared with Him? Such an idea is against reason, against our observation and against the laws of nature, and will (continued on page 44)