Countrymen and fellow-Churchmen ashamed of that religious fear and frenzy, which has raged so furiously in these our times, ―ashamed of the violence with which they have maintained, in opposition to the plainest evidence of reason, the time-honoured traditions of former ages,-ashamed of the attempt to bear down and crush under the weight of opprobrious names, and silence by arbitrary measures, fitted only for the dark ages of ecclesiastical despotism, honest and earnest endeavours, on the part of myself and others among the Clergy, to relieve the religious teaching of the National Church from the reproach of being contradictory to the plain conclusions of Science, and far behind the progress of the age. Nay, I am not without hope that some even of those, who have been most severe upon me, may learn meanwhile to entertain a kinder feeling, and come to see that, however unworthily, I have yet according to my light been labouring, as earnestly as they, to sow the seed of Life Eternal, and do the work to which my God has called me,-and so may give to me again the right hand of fellowship, which they have now withheld, as a fellow-labourer with them for the Kingdom of God. J. W. NATAL. LONDON: June 3, 1865. the subject of witches arose among those who were least governed by the Church, advanced with the decline of the influence of the Clergy, and was commonly branded as a phase and manifestation of Infidelity. Yet, on the other hand, it is impossible to deny that the general moderation of the higher Clergy was beyond all praise, and that even those who were most credulous were singularly free from that thirst for blood which was elsewhere so common,' CONTENTS. CHAP. III. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ELOHISTIC PORTIONS OF GENESIS IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NON-ELOHISTIC PORTIONS OF GENESIS XX. THE CORRUPT WORSHIP OF JEHOVAH IN ISRAEL XXI. THE EFFORTS TO REFORM THE WORSHIP OF JEHOVAH IN ISRAEL 296-306 SUPERSTITION, IN ALL TIMES AND AMONG ALL NATIONS, IS THE FEAR OF A SPIRIT WHOSE PASSIONS ARE THOSE OF A MAN, WHOSE ACTS ARE THE ACTS OF A MAN; WHO IS PRESENT IN SOME PLACES, NOT IN OTHERS; WHO MAKES SOME PLACES HOLY, AND NOT OTHERS; WHO IS KIND TO ONE PERSON, UNKIND TO ANOTHER; WHO IS PLEASED OR ANGRY, ACCORDING TO THE DEGREE OF ATTENTION YOU PAY TO HIM OR PRAISE YOU REFUSE TO HIM; WHO IS HOSTILE GENERALLY TO HUMAN PLEASURE, BUT MAY BE BRIBED BY SACRIFICE OF A PART OF THAT PLEASURE INTO PERMITTING THE REST. THIS, WHATEVER FORM OF FAITH IT COLOURS, IS THE CAUSE OF SUPERSTITION. AND RELIGION IS THE CELIEF IN A SPIRIT WHOSE MERCIES ARE OVER ALL HIS WORKS,WHO IS KIND EVEN TO THE UNTHANKFUL AND THE EVIL; WHO IS EVERYWHERE PRESENT, AND THEREFORE IS IN NO PLACE TO CE SOUGHT, AND IN NO PLACE TO RE EVADED; TO WHOM ALL CREATURES, TIMES, AND THINGS ARE EVERLASTINGLY HOLY, AND WHO CLAIMS-NOT TITHES OF WEALTH, NOR SEVENTHS OF DAYS-CUT ALL THE WEALTH THAT WE HAVE, AND ALL THE DAYS THAT WE LIVE, AND ALL THE BEINGS THAT WE ARE,-CUT WHO CLAIMS THAT TOTALITY EFCAUSE HE DELIGHTS ONLY IN THE DELIGHT OF HIS CREATURES, AND BECAUSE THEREFORE, THE ONE DUTY THAT THEY OWE TO HIM, AND THE ONLY SERVICE THEY CAN RENDER HIM, IS TO BE HAPPYA SPIRIT, THEREFORE, WHOSE ETERNAL DENEVOLENCE CANNOT BE ANGERED, CANNOT BR APPEASED; WHOSE LAWS ARE EVERLASTING AND INEXORABLE, SO THAT HEAVEN AND EARTH MUST INDEED PASS AWAY IF ONE JOT OF THEM FAILED,-LAWS WHICH ATTACH TO EVERY WRONG AND ERROE A MEASURED, INEVITABLE PENALTY, TO EVERY RIGHTNESS AND PRUDENCE, AN ASSURED REWARD,-PENALTY, OF WHICH THE REMITTANCE CANNOT BE PURCHASED, AND REWARD, OF WHICH THE PROMISE CANNOT BE BROKEN.RUSKIN, Royal Institute of British Architects, Sessional Papers, 1864–5, p. 143. |