THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 333 



the Christianity of the early centuries as the Republicanism of 

 America is in advance of that of old Rome. 



Theologians may say what they will about the modern churches 

 adhering to the strict and rigid doctrines of primitive Christian- 

 ity, it is nevertheless true that the whole course of Christian 

 ideas and interpretation of dogmas lias greatly changed from 

 what it was fifteen to eighteen centuries ago. The following are 

 instances in point : The material Heaven, the mansions in the 

 skies, with angels ascending and descending, the excessive and 

 inconceivable torments reserved for unbelievers, all so vividly 

 pictured in every part of the New Testament without the least 

 implication of an allegorical meaning; the scriptural evidences 

 of conversion, " and these signs shall follow them that believe ; 

 in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new 

 tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly 

 thing it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick and 

 they shall recover," (Mark 16 : 17, 18). The working of miracles 

 through faith, " If ye have faith and doubt not ye shall say unto 

 this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, 

 and it shall be done " (Math. 21 : 21) ; the expected second com- 

 ing of the Messiah, declared in Luke 21 : 2T-31, and then in verse 

 32, " verily I say unto yon, this generation shall not pass away 

 till all be fulfilled ; " the authority of the ministers of Christ to 

 forgive sins, " whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto 

 them ; and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained" (John 

 20 : 23) ; the resurrection of the natural bodies of all mankind 

 on the last great day. All these and many other doctrines pecu- 

 liar to the earlier and materialistic stages of the Christian religion 

 are now either given iip or ignored or passed over to metaphors. 



If then religions have been successively and in a measure 

 evolved out of each other, and have grown with the advancing 

 ages, there is no point in that growth where it can be said that 

 previous votaries were condemned by the law, while those subse- 

 quent to it were relieved from its condemnation. St. Paul, the 

 great apostle of the Gentiles, says to the Romans (Rom. 2 : 14), 

 " For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature 

 the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a 



