Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: into existence as visible agents for the well being of the universe, when this implanted light received the royal decree to ' shine out of darkness,' at which command all things became vitally extant. What had for days remained senseless and motionless in dreary darkness, by the mani festative power of light received breath, animation, vigour, and joyful perception, at which event we are told 'the morning stars sang in praise, and the angels of heaven shouted for All perception, all knowledge, all wisdom, and whatever is true and faithful, is based upon light as its foundation. 'Whatever might be said to the contrary, religion, as a faith, is a system of ethics built entirely upon metaphysical conviction. Undermine the constitutional fabric of Nature, as the means of exhibiting the connexion between things seen and unseen creation and the Creator, 'who dwelleth in light inaccessible, and which no man can approach unto,' and morality instantly becomes deluged in sensuality and vice; wisdom and understanding take their departure ; faith in a hereafter proves a fable; and hope a subterfuge. Many are the irregularities, and abundant are the obscure significations, of the modern translations of the sacred writings, rendered evident upon very slight examination; and who is responsible for results ? As a solitary example, take the prophetical allusion of the Psalmist referred to by St. Peter in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, concerning our Saviour's resurrection: 'Thou will not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,' and what person, believing the Bible to be the foundation of faith, durst deny that the Lord descended into the infernal regions; understanding as they are bound to do, following the teachings of the Church i...
|
