No. LVII.
DOCTRINE OF OATHS, CONTINUED.
Every one naturally thinks that his own religion is the true
one. The Mussulman thinks thus of Mahometanism, the Christian
of Christianity, and the Jew of Judaism, and yet it is plain
that they cannot all be right—two out of the three must necessarily
be in error. What then is to be done? Are they all to
go on in listless and lazy indifference, and leave it to another
world to find out whether or not they have been in the right,
or are we to lay it down as a maxim that every one is to
continue in that religion in which he was born, whether
right or wrong, and that therefore the Turk is to remain a
Mahometan, and the Hindoo an idolater, to his life's end?
There are very many in the world who seem to think so,
and who adhere to a religion simply because it was the
religion of their forefathers. Now we grant that no man should
carelessly or lightly abandon the religion of his childhood, and
have no scruple in saying that he who changes his religion as
he would his clothes must be a fool, or something worse. But
we must say, at the same time, that he who retains his religion,
merely as a matter of prejudice or interest, is not a great deal
better, and can hardly be considered as a rational being. Every
being, whom the Creator has endowed with reason, ought to
have a religion and to know why he prefers it to all others.
But perhaps some reader will say, I have a religion—I am a Jew,
and I prefer this religion to all others, because God himself
gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai. To this we reply, But how
do you know that you have got the religion of Moses? If you
really had Moses' religion you could not be wrong, but how can
you prove that the religion which you now profess is really that
true religion? Your fathers in the times of old often forsook
Moses and the Prophets, and taught their children a false religion,
how, then, can you be sure that this is not the case with
what you have got at present? Certainty can be had only by examination
and comparison. The Judaism of the present day must
be compared with the Law and the Prophets. If it agrees with
them, then the Jews have reason to believe that they are in the
right; but if not, then they must be in the wrong. Our own
firm conviction is, that modern Judaism is altogether spurious,
and plainly opposed to that religion which God gave to your
fathers. The doctrine of dispensation from oaths is sufficient
to prove this, as was shown in the last number. But we have
more objections still to make against that doctrine, and all confirmatory
of the conclusion to which we have come. We saw
in our last, that if a man swear an oath to himself only, where
