313. Christianity As a Delusion

Christianity As a Delusion

Eze_21:21 : ’93He made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.’94

Two modes of divination by which the King of Babylon proposed to find out the will of God. He took a bundle of arrows, and put them together, mixed them up, then pulled forth one, and by the inscription on it decided which city he should first assault. Then an animal was slain, and by the lighter or darker color of the liver, the brighter or darker prospect of success was inferred. That is the meaning of the text: ’93He made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.’94 Stupid delusion! And yet, all the ages have been filled with delusions. It seems as if the world loves to be hoodwinked, the delusion of the text only a specimen of a vast number of deceits practiced upon the human race.

In the latter part of the last century, Johanna South-cote came forth pretending to have divine power, made prophecies, had chapels built in her honor, and one hundred thousand disciples came forth to follow her. About five years before the birth of Christ, Apollonius was born, and he came forth, and after five years being speechless, according to the tradition, he healed the sick and raised the dead, and preached virtue, and, according to the myth, having deceased, was brought to resurrection. The Delphic Oracle deceived vast multitudes of people; the Pythoness seated in the Temple of Apollo uttering a crazy jargon from which the people guessed their individual or national fortunes or misfortunes. The utterances were of such a nature that you could read them any way you wanted to read them. A general coming forth to battle consulted the Delphic Oracle, and he wanted to find out whether he was going to be safe in the battle, or killed in the battle, and the answer came forth from the Delphic Oracle in such words that if you put the comma before the word ’93never’94 it means one thing, and if you put the comma after the word ’93never’94 it means another thing just opposite. The message from the Delphic Oracle to the general was, ’93Go forth, return never in battle shalt thou perish.’94 If he was killed, that was according to the Delphic Oracle; if he came home safely, that was according to the Delphic Oracle.

So the ancient auguries deceived the people. The priests of those auguries, by the flight of birds, or by the intonation of thunder, or by the inside appearance of slain animals, told the fortunes or misfortunes of individuals or nations. The sibyls deceived the people. The sibyls were supposed to be inspired women who lived in caves and who wrote the sibylline books afterward purchased by Tarquin the Proud. So late as the year 1829, a man arose in New York, pretending to be a divine being, and playing his part so well that wealthy merchants became his disciples and threw their fortunes into his keeping. And so in all ages, there have been necromancies, incantations, witchcrafts, sorceries, magical arts, enchantments, divinations, and delusions. The one of the text was only a specimen of that which has been occurring in all ages of the world. None of these delusions accomplished any good. They deceived, they pauperized the people, they were as cruel as they were absurd. They opened no hospitals, they healed no wounds, they wiped away no tears, they emancipated no serfdom.

But there are those who say that all these delusions combined are as nothing compared with the delusion now abroad in the world, the delusion of the Christian religion. That delusion has today over four hundred million dupes. It proposes to encircle the earth with its girdle. That which has been called a delusion has already overshadowed the Appalachian range on this side the sea, and it has overshadowed the Balkan and Caucasian ranges on the other side the sea. It has conquered England and the United States. This champion delusion, this hoax, this swindle of the ages, as it has been called, has gone forth to conquer the islands of the Pacific, and Melanesia, and Micronesia and Malayan Polynesia have already surrendered to the delusion. Yea, it has conquered the Indian archipelago and Borneo, and Sumatra and Celebes and Java have fallen under its wiles. In the Fiji islands, where there are one hundred and twenty thousand people, one hundred and two thousand have already become the dupes of this Christian religion, and if things go on as they are now going on, and if the influence of this great hallucination of the ages cannot be stopped, it will swallow the globe. Supposing, then, that Christianity is the delusion of the centuries, as some have pronounced it, I propose to show you what has been accomplished by this chimera, this fallacy, this hoax, this swindle of the ages.

And in the first place I remark, that this delusion of the Christian religion has made wonderful transformations of human character. I will go down the aisle of any church in Christendom, and I will find on either side that aisle those who were once profligate, profane, unclean of speech, and unclean of action, drunken and lost. But by the power of this delusion of the Christian religion they have been completely transformed, and now they are kind and amiable and genial and loving and useful. Everybody sees the change. Under the power of this great hallucination they have quit their former associates, and whereas they once found their chief delight among those who gambled and swore and raced horses, now they find their chief joy among those who go to prayer meetings and churches; so complete is the delusion. Yea, their own families have noticed it’97the wife has noticed it, the children have noticed it. The money that went for rum now goes for books and for clothes and for education. He is a new man. All who know him say there has been a wonderful change. What is the cause of this change? This great hallucination of the Christian religion. There is as much difference between what he is now and what he once was, as between a rose and a nettle, as between a dove and a vulture, as between day and night. Tremendous delusion.

Behold a captive of this great Christian delusion. There goes Saul of Tarsus on horseback at full gallop. Where is he going? To destroy Christians. He wants no better play-spell than to stand and watch the hats and coats of the murderers who are massacring God’92s children. There goes the same man. This time he is afoot. Where is he going now? Going on the road to Ostia to die for Christ. They tried to whip it out of him, they tried to scare it out of him, they thought they would give him enough of it by putting him into a windowless dungeon, and keeping him on small diet, and denying him a cloak, and condemning him as a criminal, and howling at him through the street; but they could not freeze it out of him, and they could not sweat it out of him, and they could not pound it out of him, so they tried the surgery of the sword, and one summer day in sixty-six he was decapitated. Perhaps the mightiest intellect of the six thousand years of the world’92s existence hoodwinked, cheated, cajoled, duped by the Christian religion.

Ah! that is the remarkable thing about this delusion of Christianity’97it overpowers the strongest intellects. Gather the critics, secular and religious, of this century together, and put a vote to them as to which is the greatest book ever written, and by large majority they will say, ’93Paradise Lost.’94 Who wrote ’93Paradise Lost?’94 One of the fools who believed in this Bible, John Milton. Benjamin Franklin surrendered to this delusion, if you may judge from the letter that he wrote to Thomas Paine begging him to destroy the ’93Age of Reason’94 in manuscript and never let it go into type, and writing afterward, in his old days: ’93Of this Jesus of Nazareth I have to say that the system of morals he left, and the religion he has given us are the best things the world has ever seen or is likely to see.’94 Patrick Henry, the electric champion of liberty, enslaved by this delusion, so that he says: ’93The book worth all other books put together is the Bible.’94 Benjamin Rush, the leading physiologist and anatomist of his day, the great medical scientist’97what did he say? ’93The only true and perfect religion is Christianity.’94 Isaac Newton, the leading philosopher of his time’97what did he say? That man surrendering to this delusion of the Christian religion, crying out: ’93The sublimest philosophy on earth is the philosophy of the Gospel.’94 David Brewster, at the pronunciation of whose name every scientist the world over uncovers his head, David Brewster saying: ’93Oh! this religion has been a great light to me, a very great light all my days.’94 President Thiers, the great French statesman, acknowledging that he prayed when he said: ’93I invoke the Lord God in whom I am glad to believe.’94 David Livingstone, able to conquer the lion, able to conquer the panther, able to conquer the savage, yet conquered by this delusion, this hallucination, this great swindle of the ages, so when they find him dead they find him on his knees. William E. Gladstone, the strongest intellect in England in his day, unable to resist this chimera, this fallacy, this delusion of the Christian religion, went to the house of God every Sabbath, and often at the invitation of the rector, read the prayers to the people. If those mighty intellects are overborne by this delusion, what chance is there for you and for me?

Beside that, I have noticed that first-rate infidels cannot be depended on for steadfastness in the proclamation of their sentiments. Goethe, a leading sceptic, was so wrought upon by this Christianity that in a weak moment he cried out: ’93My belief in the Bible has saved me in my literary and moral life.’94 Rousseau, one of the most eloquent champions of infidelity, spending his whole life warring against Christianity, cries out: ’93The majesty of the Scriptures amazes me.’94 Altemont, the notorious infidel, one would think he would have been safe against this delusion of the Christian religion. Oh, no! After talking against Christianity all his days, in his last hours he cried out: ’93O Thou blasphemed but most indulgent Lord God! hell itself is a refuge if it hide me from Thy frown.’94 Voltaire, the most talented infidel the world ever saw, writing two hundred and fifty publications, and the most of them spiteful against Christianity, himself the most notorious libertine of the century’97one would have thought he could have been depended upon for steadfastness in the advocacy of infidelity and in the war against this terrible chimera, this delusion of the Gospel. But no; in his last hour he asks for Christian burial, and asks that they give him the sacrament of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why, you cannot depend upon these first-rate infidels; you cannot depend upon their power to resist this great delusion of Christianity. Thomas Paine, the god of modern sceptics, his birthday celebrated in New York and Boston with great enthusiasm’97Thomas Paine, the paragon of Bible haters’97Thomas Paine, about whom his brother infidel, William Carver, wrote in a letter which I have at my house, saying that he drank a quart of rum a day and was too mean and too dishonest to pay for it’97Thomas Paine, the adored of modern infidelity’97Thomas Paine, who stole another man’92s wife in England and brought her to this land’97Thomas Paine, who was so squalid and so loathsome and so drunken and so profligate and so beastly in his habits, sometimes picked out of the ditch, sometimes too filthy to be picked out’97Thomas Paine, one would have thought that he could have been depended on for steadfastness against this great delusion. But no. In his dying hour, he begs the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.

Powerful delusion, all-conquering delusion, earthquaking delusion of the Christian religion. Yea, it goes on, it is so impertinent and it is so overbearing, this chimera of the Gospel, that having conquered the great picture galleries of the world, the old masters and the young masters, it is not satisfied until it has conquered the music of the world. Look over the programme of any magnificent musical festival, and see what are the great performances, and learn that the greatest of all the subjects are religious subjects. What was it when three thousand voices were accompanied with a vast number of instruments? ’93Israel in Egypt.’94 Yes, Beethoven deluded until he wrote the High Mass in D major. Haydn deluded with this religion until he wrote the ’93Creation.’94 Handel deluded until he wrote the oratorios of ’93Jephthah’94 and ’93Esther’94 and ’93Saul’94 and ’93Israel in Egypt,’94 and the ’93Messiah.’94 Three thousand deluded people singing of a delusion to eight thousand deluded hearers.

Yes, this chimera of the Gospel is not satisfied until it goes on and builds itself into the most permanent architecture, so it seems as if the world is never to get rid of it. What are some of the finest buildings in the world? St. Paul’92s, St. Peter’92s, and. the churches and cathedrals of all Christendom. Yes, this impertinence of the Gospel, this vast delusion is not satisfied until it projects itself and in one year gives, contributes, six million two hundred and fifty thousand to foreign missions, the work of which is to make dunces and fools on the other side the world’97people we have never seen. Deluded doctors’97two hundred and twenty physicians meeting week by week in London, in the Union Medical Prayer Circle to worship God.

Deluded lawyers’97Lord Cairns, the highest legal authority in England, the ex-adviser of the throne, spending his vacation in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor people of Scotland. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, once Secretary of State, an old-fashioned evangelical Christian, an elder in the Reformed Church. John Bright, a deluded Quaker. Henry Wilson, a Vice-President of the United States, dying a deluded Methodist or Congregationalist. Earl of Kintore dying a deluded Presbyterian.

The cannibals in South Sea, the Bushmen of Terra del Fuego, the wild men of Australia, putting down the knives of their cruelty, and clothing themselves in decent apparel’97all under the power of this delusion. Judson and Doty and Abeel and Campbell and Williams and the three thousand missionaries of the cross turning their backs on home and civilization and comfort, and going out amid the squalor of heathenism to relieve it, to save it, to help it, toiling until they dropped into their graves, dying with no earthly comfort about them, and going into graves with no appropriate epitaph when they might have lived in this country, and lived for themselves, and lived luxuriously, and been at last put into brilliant sepulchres. What a delusion!

Yea, this delusion of the Christian religion shows itself in the fact that it goes to those who are in trouble. Now, it is bad enough to cheat a man when he is well and when he is prosperous; but this religion comes to a man when he is sick, and says: ’93You will be well again after a while; you are going into a land where there are no coughs and no pleurisies and no consumptions and no languishing; take courage and bear up.’94 Yea, this awful chimera of the Gospel comes to the poor and it says to them: ’93You are on your way to vast estates and to dividends always declarable.’94 This delusion of Christianity comes to the bereft and it talks of reunion before the throne, and of the cessation of all sorrow. And then to show that this delusion will stop at absolutely nothing, it goes to the dying bed and fills the man with anticipations. How much better it would be to have him die without any more hope than swine and rats and snakes. Shovel him under! That is all. Nothing more left of him. He will never know anything again. Shovel him under? The soul is only a superior part of the body, and when the body disintegrates the soul disintegrates. Annihilation, vacancy, everlasting blank, obliteration. Why not present all that beautiful doctrine to the dying, instead of coming with this hoax, this swindle of the Christian religion, and filling the dying man with anticipations of another life, until some in the last hour have clapped their hands, and some have shouted and some have sung, and some have been so overwrought with joy they could only look ecstatic. Palace gates opening, they thought’97diamond coronets flashing’97hands beckoning, orchestras sounding. Little children dying, actually believing they saw their departed parents, so that although the little children had been so weak and feeble and sick for weeks they could not turn on their dying pillow, at the last, in a paroxysm of rapture uncontrollable they sprang to their feet and shouted: ’93Mother, catch me, I am coming!’94

And to show the immensity of this delusion, this awful swindle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I open a hospital and I bring into that hospital the deathbeds of a great many Christian people, and I take you by the hand and I walk up and down the wards of that hospital, and I ask a few questions. I ask, ’93Dying Stephen, what have you to say?’94 ’93Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’94 ’93Dying John Wesley, what have you to say?’94 ’93The best of all is God is with us.’94 ’93Dying Edward Payson, what have you to say?’94 ’93I float in a sea of glory.’94 ’93Dying John Bradford, what have you to say?’94 ’93If there be any way of going to heaven on horseback, or in a fiery chariot, it is this.’94 ’93Dying Neander, what have you to say?’94 ’93I am going to sleep now’97good-night.’94 ’93Dying Mrs. Florence Foster, what have you to say?’94 ’93A pilgrim in the valley, but the mountain tops are all agleam from peak to peak.’94 ’93Dying Alexander Mather, what have you to say?’94 ’93The Lord who has taken care of me fifty years, will not cast me off now; glory be to God and to the Lamb! Amen, amen, amen, amen!’94 ’93Dying John Powson, after preaching the Gospel so many years, what have you to say?’94 ’93My deathbed is a bed of roses.’94 ’93Dying Doctor Thomas Scott, what have you to say?’94 ’93This is Heaven begun.’94 ’93Dying soldier in the last war, what have you to say?’94 ’93Boys, I am going to the front.’94 ’93Dying telegraph operator on a battlefield of Virginia, what have you to say?’94 ’93The wires are all laid, and the poles are up from Stony Point to headquarters.’94 ’93Dying Paul, what have you to say?’94 ’93I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand; I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. O! death, where is thy sting? O! grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’94

O! my Lord, my God, what a delusion, what a glorious delusion. Submerge me with it, fill my eyes and ears with it, put it under my dying head for a pillow’97this delusion’97spread it over me for a canopy, put it underneath me for an outspread wing’97roll it over me in ocean surges ten thousand fathoms deep. If infidelity, and if atheism, and if annihilation are a reality, and the Christian religion is a delusion, give me the delusion.

The strong conclusion of every man and woman in the house is that Christianity producing such grand results cannot be a delusion. A lie, a cheat, a swindle, a hallucination cannot launch such a glory of the centuries. Your logic and your common sense convince you that a bad cause cannot produce an illustrious result; out of the womb of such a monster no such angel can be born. There are many who began with thinking that the Christian religion was a stupid farce, who have come to the conclusion that it is a reality. Why are you in the Lord’92s house today? Why did you sing this song? Why did you bow your head in the opening prayer? Why did you bring your family with you? Why, when I tell you of the ending of all trials in the bosom of God, do there stand tears in your eyes’97not tears of grief, but tears of joy such as stand in the eyes of homesick children far away at school when some one talks to them about going home? Why is it that you can be so calmly submissive to the death of your loved one about whose departure you once were so angry and so rebellious? There is something the matter with you. All your friends have found out there is a great change. And if some of you would give your experience you would give it in scholarly style, and others giving your experience would give it in broken style, but the one experience would be just as good as the other. Some of you have read everything. You are scientific and you are scholalry, and yet if I should ask you, ’93What is the most sensible thing you ever did?’94 you would say, ’93The most sensible thing I ever did was to give my heart to God.’94

But there may be others who have not had early advantages, and if they were asked to give their experience, they might rise and give such testimony as the man gave in a prayer meeting when he said, ’93On my way here to-night, I met a man who asked me where I was going. I said, ’91I am going to prayer meeting.’92 He said, ’91There are a good many religions and I think the most of them are delusions; as to the Christian religion, that is only a notion; that is a mere notion, the Christian religion.’92 I said to him, ’91Stranger, you see that tavern over there?’92 ’91Yes,’92 he said, ’91I see it.’92 ’91Do you see me?’92 ’91Yes; of course, I see you.’92 ’91Now, the time was when everybody in this town knows if I had a quarter of a dollar in my pocket I could not pass that tavern without going in and getting a drink; all the people of Jefferson could not keep me out of that place; but God has changed my heart, and the Lord Jesus Christ has destroyed my thirst for strong drink, and there is my whole week’92s wages, and I have no temptation to go in there; and, stranger, if this is a notion I want to tell you it is a mighty powerful notion; it is a notion that has put clothes on my children’92s back, and it is a notion that has put good food on our table, and it is a notion that has filled my mouth with thanksgiving to God. And, stranger, you had better go along with me; you might get religion, too; lots of people are getting religion now.’92’93

Well, we will soon understand it all. Your life and mine will soon be over. We will soon come to the last bar of the music, to the last act of the tragedy, to the last page of the book’97yea, to the last line and to the last word, and to you and to me it will either be midnoon or midnight!

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage