me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy "servant Solomon, hath he not called. Is this thing done by my lord the king, "and thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my "lord the king after him?

"Then king David answered and said, Call me Bath-sheba. And she came into "the king's presence, and stood before the king. And the king sware, and said, "As the lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, even as I "sware unto thee by the Lord God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son "shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day. Then Bath-sheba bowed with her face to the earth, and "did reverence to the king, and said, Let my lord king David live for ever.

"And king David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and "Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. The king also "said unto them, Take with you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my "son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon: And let Zadok "the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon. Then ye shall come up "after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my "stead: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. And "Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the Lord God "of my lord the king say so too. As the Lord hath been with my lord the king, even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my "lord king David. And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and "the people piped their pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent "with the sound of them.

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"And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had "made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, "Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an uproar? And while he yet spake, 'behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came and Adonijah said unto "him, Come in; for thou art a valiant man, and bringest good tidings. And "Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, Verily our lord king David hath made "Solomon king. And the king hath sent with him Zadok the priest, and Nathan "the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the Pele'thites, and they have caused him to ride upon the king's mule: and Zadok the 'priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise "that ye have heard. And also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom. "And moreover the king's servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, “God make the name of Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed. And also "thus said the king, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it. And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and went every man his way.

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"And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught "hold on the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king Solomon; for, lo, he hath caught hold on the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me to day that he will not slay his "servant with the sword. And Solomon said, If he will shew himself a worthy 'nan, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth: but if wickedness shall be "found in him, he shall die. So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down "from the altar. And he came and bowed himself to king Solomon: and Solomon "said unto him, Go to thine house."

(To be continued.)

LONDON: PUBLISHED BY M. PATTIE, 31, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND GEORGE GLAISHER, 470, NEW OXFORD Street.

Printed by W. Ostell, Hart-street, Bloomsbury.

THE PATHFINDER,

A JOURNAL OF

PURE THEISM AND RELIGIOUS FREETHOUGHT,

THE ORGAN OF INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS REFORM.

CONDUCTED BY P. W. PERFITT.

New Series, No. 8.]

FEBRUARY 23, 1861.

[PRICE 2D.

BUTLER AND THE APOLOGISTS.

ACCORDING to the clerical theory, the greatest work yet written in defence of the orthodox religion is that known as "Butler's Analogy." Churchmen are very proud of it, and usually, when anxious inquirers ask their pastors to solve some religious problem which has caused them to feel very uneasy, they advise a reading of that work, which they seem to look upon as a sort of panacea for all sceptical affections. It happens, however, that in the majority of instances wherein the advice is given, it is evident either that they have not comprehended the question proposed, or that they have not read the book, for it contains no answer to any of the more important objections which occur to the mind of the modern inquirer. It is called a great bulwark of revealed religion, but every thoughtful man who has read it as it deserves to be read, knows it is nothing of the kind. Its author designed to show that as much may be said against "Natural" as against "Revealed Religion." He starts with the statement that, as there are difficulties in the way of our comprehending nature, so the same difficulties may be expected in relation to revelation, and the whole work is devoted to the proof of that proposition. There is no attempt made, or even proposed, in order to prove the truth of those works which are said to have come into existence through God inspiring human beings to compose them; neither is any attempt made to lessen the various difficulties which meet the inquirer who is diligently engaged comparing the various books, chapters, and doctrines. All the skill and power of the author is devoted to the task of showing that such difficulties were to be looked for. Over and over again it is set forth of difficulties, that, as we meet with them in nature, therefore they are to be looked for in revelation. His argument is based upon analogy, but the same analogy is fatal to all revelation theories. For instance, it is of the utmost consequence to man that he should become correctly informed respecting the nature and effects of various bodies found in the heart and upon the surface of the earth. To mistake the nature of arsenic is fatal; to take foxglove and belladonna in mistake for simple herbs is fatal to the body, and, according to the theory of the Churches, fatal to the soul also. They say that the body must be preserved for a time, in order that the soul may be saved. Does it not follow, then, that men should have had revelations made unto them respecting the nature of various agents which VOL. V. NEW SERIES. VOL. I.

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would poison? All agree that we have not. All seem to be satisfied that God will not give anything of the kind, and by analogy it may be argued, therefore, He will not furnish revelations of any other character.

Probably, it is to the poverty of the clerical mind we are to attribute the praise bestowed upon a treatise of this character, for a little reflection would have served to show any one that the existence of one difficulty in nature furnishes no proof that a second in " "revelation came from Heaven, as it would satisfy all that, when God condescends to reveal His will to mankind, He will do so quite as plainly as it could be done by a human being, so that doubt as to His meaning will be impossible. The idea of a revelation is that God has undertaken to explain to man certain things which man could not discover for himself, and we submit that, in such a case, it is not to be expected there will be any difficulty in understanding what is meant. The author had evidently forgotten that a revelation is a laying bare the truth, and, consequently, that it is not reasonable to expect any difficulty in comprehending the meaning, such as we encounter when we plunge into the heart of the earth to read its history, or move amid the stars to discover the laws by which they are sustained in motion.

At some future period we shall endeavour to reply to that work, when, as a light task, we shall lay bare its many fallacies. At present, it is merely noticed because, although imperfectly, it suggests the truth that we must encounter difficulties in all our inquiries as we now exist, dependant as we are upon human teachers, none of whom are capable of conveying their full meaning in any known form of words, we must expect in all great works to find many passages which will require close thought, in order that we may reach the meaning of the writer. Nothing, indeed, is more difficult than to convey in simple words a series of abstract ideas. The works of such men as Sir Thomas Brown, Immanuel Kant, and Schelling, require, for their due appreciation, that the reader shall pause frequently in his course, in order to make sure that he has caught the idea the author wished to convey. And not unfrequently it happens, as in solving some of the higher geometrical problems, the work has to be done over again, because at some point in the argument, or the calculation, our attention failed, or our signs were wrongly arranged there is nothing for it but care, patience, and intense mental application.

But, although admitting this, it is to be argued, in opposition to Butler, that the rule does not apply to the series of facts recorded in the Gospels. There are discourses of Jesus, which will tax all a man's power of thought in order fully to appreciate his meaning, and in relation to such portions of the Gospels great latitude must be conceded; but the same latitude cannot be extended to the other parts in which professed historical narratives are given. There may be a seeming contradiction in the doctrines taught, which, however, will probably turn out to be no contradiction at all when we put forth all our power of thought to comprehend the deeper meanings which lie beneath the passages; but thought can exercise no power strong enough to harmonise the contradictions about the time when the twelve disciples were called, about the ministry of Jesus in Galilee, and numberless discrepancies of a similar character.

The usual practice of biblicists is to shield the latter class of contradictions behind the sound argument that protects the others, but such a course is alike immoral and fatal to the progress of truth. Each division must stand or fall by itself; for, as no historical demonstration of the falsity of many gospel nar

ratives will serve to destroy the truth, which lies embedded, like a rich vein of ore, in some of the discourses, so that truth cannot be cited to prove the correctness of statements which, in other ways, have been demonstrated to be false. If gold and iron are put into one vessel, they do not change each other's nature, and it is as unreasonable to argue that, because the gold is proven to be gold, therefore the iron with which it is mixed is gold also, as to say that, because there is truth of the highest order in some of the reported discourses, therefore the false narratives are true also.

In all ages, the intelligent students of the New Testament have been rendered painfully conscious of the existence of these contrary elements, and hence have come the various protests against the Christian theory. In the early days. of Christianity, the fictitious portions were not permitted to operate very largely for evil, because of the fact that the Christian consciousness was held to be supreme above all that was recorded in books. IGNATIUS advised his hearers to do nothing but in accordance with the Christian consciousness. To him it appeared, as it has done to the Society of Friends, that the power within is supreme over all that is without, and while that remained as the conviction of the teachers, there was no ground for any critical disquisitions upon the truth of what tradition was preserving wherewith to form our Gospels. But when those Gospels were erected into the absolute standards of Christian truth, when they were declared to be supreme over the conscience, and men were called upon, irrespective of their perceptions, to declare that all their contents were true, a protest was entered, and from that hour to the present it has been earnestly repeated. Brave men have, over and over again, demanded that at least some show of evidence should be furnished, but none was given, and they were silenced. What will the Church do, now that her own leading members are speaking out? What answer can be given to the Oxford Essayists? They have not told all the truth, as yet, and probably because the men were afraid of killing too many with fright all at once; they have more to tell, and it will be told. We rejoice greatly, because, now that the war has begun within the ranks of the clergy, there is every reason for hoping the heads of the Establishment will consent to put out a defence-not a diatribe, without either charity or reason. They are challenged to the proof now, and it will go hard if they do not find Butler to be a broken reed, from which no help can come; and, losing him, they may look out into the universe, and say, behold! we have no friend upon our side.

The Bishop of Oxford knew well enough what he was driving at when he said that a time of trouble was coming, in which churchmen would be severely tried; and while lamenting that the intellectual giants are no longer to be found within the charmed circles, he indicates his fear of failure. The Churches have trusted to the books and authority of the dead, but, as the writers were not conversant with the facts of science, as laid bare in modern times, they could not do more than meet the difficulties of their own age. To-day, the Church is called upon by her own children to justify her teaching, and to show that her sacred books are in harmony with that book of Nature, which never lies. It is useless for her to answer that Butler wrote his Analogy to satisfy all minds; useless to declare that his work is enough for all reasonable men. It has been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; for they who are earnestly seeking after the truth cannot any longer be satisfied with being told that the difficulties of revelation are to be overlooked, because there are kindred difficulties in nature.

P. W. P.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REFORMATION.-VIII.

LANGUEDOC; THE LAND OF HERESY.

EVEN as, in looking upon the physical world, we see the ocean ever impinging upon the land and washing it away, and the land constantly encroaching upon the ocean and driving it back, so in history we see a similar struggle going on between civilisation and barbarism-the difference being this, that, whereas the land and ocean mutually compensate for their several encroachments, and the balance remains always the same, civilisation is an everwidening sea, destined in the end to submerge the barbarism with which it is at war. Some such movement as this was going on in Europe in the midst of the Dark Ages. The superstition and ignorance fostered by the Church, never utterly extinguished the science and learning of antiquity, or succeeded in destroying the germs of truth planted in a former time. We have seen

that when civilisation was driven from the West it found a home in the East. These germs of truth had already made their appearance in the teachings of Berenger, Abelard, and others; while the wave of civilisation, which had receded for a time, was now again to impinge upon the European barbarism, and gradually gain upon it.

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Taking a map of Europe, and tracing the frontiers of the present Empire of France, towards the South, it will be seen that a portion of Southern France forms the coast-line of the Mediterranean. The portion of France thus washed by the Mediterranean, and lying between the Pyrenees on the West and the Italian Alps on the East, was in the twelfth century a country distinct from France, known as Languedoc. "An aged land is this Languedoc," says Michelet, "you meet here ruins on ruins-the Camisards upon the Albigenses, the Saracens upon the Goths, under these, the Romans, then "the Iberians.' It may be called the cradle of European civilisation, for there it was the Greeks set up their first colony, long ere the Roman Empire was founded. Since then the Roman glory rose, and waned, and set, and rough Northern Goths took possession. Later on, but in a time which we call ancient, the Saracens swarmed over those Pyrenees and bid fair to make their footing good in this old land. There Charles Martel, the father of Charlemagne, fought out the matter with them, and drove them back into Spain. And in the twelfth century, once again emerged from barbarism, Languedoc, now the home of the Troubadours, has a language and a literature, while all the rest of Europe uses the barbarous dialects which sprang out of the junction of the Latin with the vernacular of the barbarians who seized the Roman provinces. No history, no poem, hardly a ballad or a song even has yet appeared in any other than the language of Languedoc, while the Provençal, the beautiful language of Oc, is already rich in poetry, satire, and song.

Thus, in the midst of the surrounding darkness, a civilisation had grown up in this Languedoc. A fertile country was well cultivated by an industrious people. Political freedom was existent among them, and each of the many rich cities of this region was a little republic. Feudalism had never made good its footing here, owing to the old Roman law, and the franchises arising out of it, never having been completely destroyed. This, then, was the country which became the scene of the first great insurrection against the despotism of the Church. Before, however, proceeding to the consideration of that, we must seek to understand why this Languedoc presented so strong a