Forlong - Rivers of Life

10
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
SACRIFICES.—In the most barbarous ages everywhere human, vide Egypt, and
Abraham. The sons of Saul given by David “to the Lord” to appease a
famine! See also the story of Jephtha’s daughter, &c.
MASSACRES.—The Mahomedan Sheeas, by the Mahomedan Soonites. The Christian
Protestants, by the Christian Romanists, and similarly in every land and age.
PILGRIMAGES.—Alike by Brahman, Boodhists, Jews, Christians, and Mahomedans.
MIRACLES AND IDOLS.—In every religion, save that of the great Chinese philosopher
Confucius. With worship in their presence, as the bull-calf of
Egypt and of the East, the gorgeous tree, the symbol of creative power, the
living energy in Sun and Fire, Isis, Horus, the Virgin and Child, and
symbolic cross.
BIBLES AND SACRED BOOKS.—Lastly, all religions have Bibles, before whose
words, nay, even in many cases before whose names, not only the voice but
the head and the knee of man are bent, and even this would be a small
thing, were it not that intellect and reason, God’s highest gifts to man,
which alone raise him above the rest of his animal creation, are bent,
crippled, nay, broken, and ordered to be subservient to the foolish diets,
words, and ideas, often found in these books called Bibles, and this for no
other reason than because there written; thus do nations turn such books
into fetishes. It is forgotten or ignored, that though placed there by good
and holy, though in our day what would be called ignorant men; who when
their spirit was fixed with holy thoughts, wrote—“Thus saith the Lord;” yet
we know, for our reason and conscience, if not historians tell us, that the
words and dogmas we are told to bow before, have been too often written by
conquerors and tyrants and bad men, who thus desired to justify their
unjust acts.
Who can tell what misery, blood and money a single text 1 in one of those so-called
revealed bibles has cost mankind, simply because men thought each text a direct
command from God? It is vain to argue or reason with the poor Biblicist, for those who
most implicitly follow, are always those who have taken no pains to enquire into
or to verify the book and its pretensions. “To doubt is to be damned,” is the Bibliolater’s
cry, and it is urged that the more foolish and unreasonable the doctrine, the
more certainly has it come from God, “expressly to try our faith!”
Past results and expediency, as well as reason, common sense and morality, have
no place in the head or heart of a thorough Bibliolater. An editor of an Indian daily
Church producing such a book (I judge it only
by its title and the publisher’s circular note),
testifies to the power which a true knowledge of
all other religions as well as our own will yet
exercise even on Catholic priests.
1 Mahomedans will not paint, nor will many
engrave or photograph, on account of a single text.