CHAPTER. VIII.

R E L I G I O N .

168

In every human heart some Religious emotions are to be found. There is a consciousness of the existence of a power higher than oneself; and the fact of such superiority, calls forth respect, reverence, worship. But all of these emotions must first be felt towards a mortal, and the more intense they are towards the human, the greater they will be when years and reason bids them look higher.

The father and mother is the God in the eyes of the little child, for it knows of nothing higher, with its infantile reason. We are surprised when we think how differently minds view the attributes of Deity, and yet it is not so wonderful after all, when we study the subject and realize that the parents or the guardians make the ideas of the character of Deity, in the future mature individual.

In the tender years of the child, if the rulings are in love and kindness, and the parents' acts 169 before the child are of the same character, the child will form an idea of God as an all loving Father, seeking the best good for His children, and the chastisements will seem to come from such loving hands, that the pain will all be in the realization of the fact, that a wrong has been committed, or a duty neglected; and there will not need to be any sermons for the purpose of showing the importance of innumerable resolves being made to live a better life in future.

But on the other hand, if the parents are unkind, exacting, assuming, and tyrannical towards the child, having no mercy or justice in dealing with little faults, and utter ignorance, the child will have an idea of a God that is filled with anger, bottled up against a day of impulsive wrath, that shall frighten one into a hope of sinking out of existence in eternity, if there be an annihilation to get to, after we find the eternal shores of the last and final settling up of our earthly accounts, that are written in the great book of His remembrance.

The child with the former training and under the love-to-do-right influence, because it is right, is a thousand times better to its parents, than one with the latter harsh and tyrannical ideas, who must all through life look upon the 170 parents as masters instead of friends; and upon God as the great master and tyrant, that rules with a rod of iron in this world, and burns with fire and brimstone in the world to come, where the fire can never be quenched, and where Deity and saints will glory over their eternal agonies. Indeed, earthly parents have been known to expend all the fury from hands and tongue upon their children, that they dared to do, and then finish up with the representation of a lake of literal fire and brimstone, into which they will be hurled after death by God.

Such parents are most unhappy themselves, and seem not to be able to live without making their children wretched, and so such children go forth and commit all sorts of crimes, with a stolid indifference to consequences, believing that there cannot be a greater Hell out of this life, than there is in it.

Religion has something that is telling, to do with the marriage relation, when such results proceed from the Religious teaching of parents, whether they fill pulpits or groggeries.

Parents that teach their children that the most beautiful part of Religion is the golden rule of the Christ, that so beautifully taught the love principles to God and man, will in turn find the same reflected back upon themselves, 171 and the great humanity, to which we are all under obligations to love as did Christ, and not to turn away with, "be ye fed and be ye clothed," and be ye loved and encouraged, by somebody, but not by us.

No one subject has been discussed by all the world, (where the people have been allowed to think for themselves,) that has produced so much inharmony in the marriage relation as the subject of Religion.

It would seem, that, when there are such a variety of opinions on this subject, and the fact so well known that one's Religious belief is sacred to them, that, when married people know their beliefs are different on denominational subjects, and cannot be made to harmonize, that they would never undertake to discuss the subject.

Much of the inharmony of the marriage relation,(sic) results from a difference in the Religious sentiments, or rather the doctrinal points, as sent forth by leading theologians.

It has been said that "married people can never discuss any subject without getting more or less angry before closing," and this is especially true in Religious discussion, but not because they are married, for all people who do not consent to differ upon this subject, 172 without discussion, feel an enmity towards each other.

But if married people quarrel over subjects under discussion, it is because they have more time to discuss than other people; and as woman under the law, has not as many rights as man, she must of necessity avail herself of her weapon of defence that man cannot legislate away from her.

Religion is almost the only subject about which many women dare to differ from their husbands, whenever a discussion closes.

There is more of intolerance manifested upon this subject than any in the world, and yet here and there, the wife, who is so timid in calling forth a dissent to her ideas on other topics, comes out boldly and makes her own assertions of belief, as if she were really entitled to such expression --as if she had a right to "her say," as a distinct human intelligence.

An advantage is taken of the subject, and a woman is the supreme controller of her own ideas, and will have her will, in their expression. The husband submits because the wife has the advantage, but this compulsory submission does not always make him any more amiable than de often sees his wife, after other discussions 173, where by browbeating or by physical force, he has gained the victory.

It is assuming much more than is modest, to say the least, to expect because two persons enter into the marriage relation, that they ought, or will be likely, to think alike on a subject that the wisest, those who have made theology a special study, differ so widely upon.

As there is something good in all Religious beliefs, there should be a quiet toleration towards all who represent the various forms or ceremonies that are connected with worship. No misrepresentations of the Bible on the inferiority of sex, can ever produce any happiness in the Religious world, any more than elsewhere, and any sect that advocates such a theory, must sooner or later lose all of its intelligent and respectable members. If there is a necessity for men to be active in Religion, there is the same necessity for women, and the same obligation. Hundreds of married people have lived wretchedly and finally separated, in consequence of an advantage having been taken of the writings of Paul as explained in some of our churches.

It is a terrible fact, that there are more quarrels in families on account of the misconstruction of Paul's writings, than any one cause, 174 and among Religious people, I do not know but I am warranted in saying, any combination of causes. Many women have left the church, because they felt their womanhood so degraded by the teachings on this subject.

There is no doubt that the women of Hindostan feel the same king of degradation, when they are compelled to carry out the Religious rites of wife-burning on the funeral pile of husbands.

Men are startled at such comparisons, but thousands of women, even in our churches, would be willing to endure Hindostan martyrdom, at their husbands' funeral, if they could but escape the terrible wrongs that are endured during their lives.

Any Religion that gives the wife a servile position, is beneath the great plans of Deity, and must ultimately be considered one of the tokens of barbarism, that Christ tried to exterminate, by teaching the beautiful golden rule. Unless women in all the churches are elevated to their true positions, as companions of men, and not treated in any way as Religious inferiors, the sects that persist in wrongs of this character, will, sooner or later, be swept out of the religious world; for the beautiful refining, and purifying influences of Religion, were 175 not designed to make women wretched; and everything that has a disturbing or unharmonious effect must be removed.

Both men and women have been martyrized in ages past, for daring to think upon Religious matters differently from those belonging to national churches. But thanks to the sun of progress that is shining brighter and brighter every age, drying up the mists of superstition and intolerance, with which the atmosphere of our loving Father has been filled.

Every age brings with it a clearer view of Him who has been hid by this mist, and ere long we may hope that the masses will see the King of Kings in a pure and glorious light, and point their little ones to Him, as their dearest friend, and not as a tyrant to be feared.

Since the days when men and women were drowned, strangled, and burned, in the old world, because of Religious belief, down to the time of hanging of Quakers in Massachusetts, for their belief, broader and truer ideas have been so disseminated, that, when we have learned of people being imprisoned in Spain for daring to read the ordinary Testament, and of Mrs. Louisa Jeanson of Sweden being jeered and ill-treated in the streets of Saru, Sweden's fashionable resort, for daring to be a Baptist 176, instead of belonging to the established church of Lutherans, all through intelligent society, we hold up our hands in horror, and say, is it possible that such things have occurred within the last ten years? And yet we see progress, for Mrs. Jeanson was not tied to a stake, where the tidal waters of a Loch Long would make her a watery grave, nor has a Spaniard been strangled and burned, as was William Tyndale in the days of Henry VIII., about the year 1534, for translating the Testament into English, so that all could read it. Spain is ashamed of her treatment of a Testament reader, and Sweden would not to-day allow any more of ill-treatment because any of its citizens believed in immersion.

The days of golden rules of Religion will surely come, and in the family relation as well as elsewhere, all will believe Religiously, as seemeth to them good, without any one questioning their inalienable right to do so --no one will, in an authoritative manner say -- why think ye thus? But all will have a liberty of conscience and of speech, which will be such in reality

No Religion is true and genuine, it matters not what church its representatives belong to, unless it is something that makes homes happy, 177 and ennobles life generally, by the precepts and examples of Christ, as embodied in the grandeur of the golden rule.

Those Religious sects living out these principles, it matters not by what names they are known to the world, will live as great and noble bodies while time lasts, and will contribute to make the Marriage relations and homes generally, "The dearest places" and conditions on earth.

THE END.