Some nations have borrowed their gods; of this number, we are compelled
to say, is our own. The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and
having no further use for a god, our ancestors appropriated him and
adopted their devil at the same time. This borrowed god is still an
object of some adoration, and this adopted devil still excites the
apprehensions of our people. He is still supposed to be setting his
traps and snares for the purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is
still, with reasonable success, waging the old war against our god.
To me, it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and
devils. They are a perfectly natural production. Man has created them
all, and under the same circumstances would create them again. Man has
not only created all these gods, but he has created them out of the
materials by which he has been surrounded. Generally he has modeled them
after himself, and has given them hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears,
and organs of speech. Each nation, made its gods and devils speak its
language not only, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history,
geography, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the
people. No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him. The
negroes represented their deities with black skins and curly hair. The
Mongolian gave to his a yellow complexion and dark almond-shaped eyes.
The Jews were not allowed to paint theirs, or we should have seen
Jehovah with a full beard, an oval face, and an aquiline nose.
Zeus was
a perfect Greek, and Jove looked as though a member of the Roman senate.
The gods of Egypt had the patient face and placid look of the loving
people who made them. The gods of northern countries were represented
warmly clad in robes of fur; those of the tropics were naked. The gods
of India were often mounted upon elephants; those of some islanders were
great swimmers, and the deities of the Arctic zone were passionately
fond of whale's blubber. Nearly all people have carved or painted
representations of their gods, and these representations were, by the
lower classes, generally treated as the real gods, and to these images
and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifice.
"In some countries, even at this day, if the people after long praying
do not obtain their desires, they turn their images off as impotent
gods, or upbraid them in a most reproachful manner, loading them with
blows and curses. 'How now, dog of a spirit,' they say, 'we give you
lodging in a magnificent temple, we gild you with gold, feed you with
the choicest food, and offer incense to you; yet, after all this care,
you are so ungrateful as to refuse us what we ask.'
"Hereupon they will pull the god down and drag him through the filth
of the street. If, in the meantime, it happens that they obtain their
request, then, with a great deal of ceremony, they wash him clean, carry
him back and place him in his temple again, where they fall down and
make excuses for what they have done.
'Of a truth,' they say, 'we were
a little too hasty, and you were a little too long in your grant. Why
should you bring this beating on yourself. But what is done cannot be
undone. Let us not think of it any more. If you will forget what is
past, we will gild you over brighter again than before.'"
Man has never been at a loss for gods. He has worshiped almost
everything, including the vilest and most disgusting beasts. He has
worshiped fire, earth, air, water, light, stars, and for hundreds of
ages prostrated himself before enormous snakes. Savage tribes often make
gods of articles they get from civilized people. The To-das worship
a cow-bell. The Kotas worship two silver plates, which they regard as
husband and wife, and another tribe manufactured a god out of a king of
hearts.
Man, having always been the physical superior of woman, accounts for
the fact that most of the high gods have been males. Had woman been the
physical superior, the powers supposed to be the rulers of Nature would
have been women, and instead of being represented in the apparel of
man, they would have luxuriated in trains, low-necked dresses, laces and
back-hair.
Nothing can be plainer than that each nation gives to its god its
peculiar characteristics, and that every individual gives to his god his
personal peculiarities.
Man has no ideas, and can have none, except those suggested by his
surroundings. He cannot conceive of anything utterly unlike what he has
seen or felt. He can exaggerate, diminish, combine, separate, deform,
beautify, improve, multiply and compare what he sees, what he feels,
what he hears, and all of which he takes cognizance through the medium
of the senses; but he cannot create. Having seen exhibitions of power,
he can say, omnipotent. Having lived, he can say, immortality. Knowing
something of time, he can say, eternity. Conceiving something of
intelligence, he can say, God. Having seen exhibitions of malice, he can
say, devil. A few gleams of happiness having fallen athwart the gloom of
his life, he can say, heaven. Pain, in its numberless forms, having been
experienced, he can say, hell. Yet all these ideas have a foundation
in fact, and only a foundation.
The superstructure has been reared
by exaggerating, diminishing, combining, separating, deforming,
beautifying, improving or multiplying realities, so that the edifice or
fabric is but the incongruous grouping of what man has perceived through
the medium of the senses. It is as though we should give to a lion the
wings of an eagle, the hoofs of a bison, the tail of a horse, the pouch
of a kangaroo, and the trunk of an elephant. We have in imagination
created an impossible monster. And yet the various parts of this monster
really exist. So it is with all the gods that man has made.
Beyond nature man cannot go even in thought--above nature he cannot
rise--below nature he cannot fall.
Man, in his ignorance, supposed that all phenomena were produced by
some intelligent powers, and with direct reference to him. To preserve
friendly relations with these powers was, and still is, the object of
all religions. Man knelt through fear and to implore assistance, or
through gratitude for some favor which he supposed had been rendered. He
endeavored by supplication to appease some being who, for some reason,
had, as he believed, become enraged. The lightning and thunder terrified
him. In the presence of the volcano he sank upon his knees. The great
forests filled with wild and ferocious beasts,
the monstrous serpents
crawling in mysterious depths, the boundless sea, the flaming comets,
the sinister eclipses, the awful calmness of the stars, and, more than
all, the perpetual presence of death, convinced him that he was the
sport and prey of unseen and malignant powers. The strange and frightful
diseases to which he was subject, the freezings and burnings of fever,
the contortions of epilepsy, the sudden palsies, the darkness of night,
and the wild, terrible and fantastic dreams that filled his brain,
satisfied him that he was haunted and pursued by countless spirits
of evil. For some reason he supposed that these spirits differed
in power--that they were not all alike malevolent--that the higher
controlled the lower, and that his very existence depended upon gaining
the assistance of the more powerful. For this purpose he resorted to
prayer, to flattery, to worship and to sacrifice.
These ideas appear to have been almost universal in savage man.
For ages all nations supposed that the sick and insane were possessed by
evil spirits. For thousands of years the practice of medicine consisted
in frightening these spirits away. Usually the priests would make the
loudest and most discordant noises possible. They would blow horns,
beat upon rude drums, clash cymbals, and in the meantime utter the most
unearthly yells. If the noise-remedy failed, they would implore the aid
of some more powerful spirit.
To pacify these spirits was considered of infinite importance. The poor
barbarian, knowing that men could be softened by gifts, gave to these
spirits that which to him seemed of the most value. With bursting heart
he would offer the blood of his dearest child. It was impossible for him
to conceive of a god utterly unlike himself, and he naturally supposed
that these powers of the air would be affected a little at the sight of
so great and so deep a sorrow. It was with the barbarian then as with
the civilized now--one class lived upon and made merchandise of the
fears of another. Certain persons took it upon themselves to appease the
gods, and to instruct the people in their duties to these unseen powers.
This was the origin of the priesthood. The priest pretended to stand
between the wrath of the gods and the helplessness of man. He was man's
attorney at the court of heaven.
He carried to the invisible world a
flag of truce, a protest and a request. He came back with a command,
with authority and with power. Man fell upon his knees before his own
servant, and the priest, taking advantage of the awe inspired by his
supposed influence with the gods, made of his fellow-man a cringing
hypocrite and slave. Even Christ, the supposed son of God, taught that
persons were possessed of evil spirits, and frequently, according to
the account, gave proof of his divine origin and mission by frightening
droves of devils out of his unfortunate countrymen. Casting out devils
was his principal employment, and the devils thus banished generally
took occasion to acknowledge him as the true Messiah; which was not only
very kind of them, but quite fortunate for him.
The religious people
have always regarded the testimony of these devils as perfectly
conclusive, and the writers of the New Testament quote the words of
these imps of darkness with great satisfaction.
The fact that Christ could withstand the temptations of the devil was
considered as conclusive evidence that he was assisted by some god, or
at least by some being superior to man. St. Matthew gives an account of
an attempt made by the devil to tempt the supposed son of God; and it
has always excited the wonder of Christians that the temptation was
so nobly and heroically withstood. The account to which I refer is as
follows:
"Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. And when the tempter came to him, he said: 'If thou be the
son of God, command that these stones be made bread.' But he answered,
and said: 'It is written: man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' Then the devil
taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him upon a pinnacle of
the temple and saith unto him: 'If thou be the son of God, cast thyself
down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning
thee, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone.' Jesus
said unto him: 'It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God.' Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and
sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and
saith unto him: 'All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and
worship me.'"
The Christians now claim that Jesus was God. If he was God, of course
the devil knew that fact, and yet, according to this account, the devil
took the omnipotent God and placed him upon a pinnacle of the temple,
and endeavored to induce him to dash himself against the earth. Failing
in that, he took the creator, owner and governor of the universe up into
an exceeding high mountain, and offered him this world--this grain
of sand--if he, the God of all the worlds, would fall down and worship
him, a poor devil, without even a tax title to one foot of dirt! Is it
possible the devil was such an idiot? Should any great credit be given
to this deity for not being caught with such chaff? Think of it! The
devil--the prince of sharpers--the king of cunning--the master of
finesse, trying to bribe God with a grain of sand that belonged to God!
Is there in all the religious literature of the world anything more
grossly absurd than this?
These devils, according to the bible, were of various kinds--some
could speak and hear, others were deaf and dumb. All could not be cast
out in the same way. The deaf and dumb spirits were quite difficult to
deal with. St. Mark tells of a gentleman who brought his son to Christ
The boy, it seems, was possessed of a dumb spirit, over which the
disciples had no control. "Jesus said unto the spirit: 'Thou dumb and
deaf spirit, I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into
him.'" Whereupon, the deaf spirit (having heard what was said) cried out
(being dumb) and immediately vacated the premises.
The ease with which
Christ controlled this deaf and dumb spirit excited the wonder of his
disciples, and they asked him privately why they could not cast that
spirit out. To whom he replied: "This kind can come forth by nothing but
prayer and fasting." Is there a Christian in the whole world who would
believe such a story if found in any other book? The trouble is, these
pious people shut up their reason, and then open their bible.
In the olden times the existence of devils was universally admitted. The
people had no doubt upon that subject, and from such belief it followed
as a matter of course, that a person, in order to vanquish these devils,
had either to be a god, or to be assisted by one. All founders of
religions have established their claims to divine origin by controlling
evil spirits and suspending the laws of nature.
Casting out devils was
a certificate of divinity. A prophet, unable to cope with the powers
of darkness was regarded with contempt. The utterance of the highest
and noblest sentiments, the most blameless and holy life, commanded but
little respect, unless accompanied by power to work miracles and command
spirits.
This belief in good and evil powers had its origin in the fact that man
was surrounded by what he was pleased to call good and evil phenomena.
Phenomena affecting man pleasantly were ascribed to good spirits, while
those affecting him unpleasantly or injuriously, were ascribed to evil
spirits. It being admitted that all phenomena were produced by spirits,
the spirits were divided according to the phenomena, and the phenomena
were good or bad as they affected man.
Good spirits were supposed to be the authors of good phenomena, and evil
spirits of the evil--so that the idea of a devil has been as universal
as the idea of a god.
to be continued
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