I got among the
followers of Christ; I gave free scope, I gave full play, to my better
affections, and heavenward tendencies. I read, I prayed, I wrote, I
lectured, I preached. I gave free utterance to what I believed, and
while doing so, came to believe still more, and to believe with fuller
assurance. I used no violence with myself, except my lower self. I went
no further in my preaching than I had gone in my belief, and I accepted
no doctrines or theories which did not present themselves to my soul as
true and right. But I came at length to see, not the perfection and
divinity of any particular system of theology, but the perfection and
divinity of Christianity, and the substantial perfection and divinity of
the Sacred Scriptures.
13. I examined the popular objections to Christianity and the Bible.
Some were exceedingly childish; some seemed wicked; some, it was plain,
originated in ignorance; some in error. Paine, Owen, Parker, and certain
students of nature, came to erroneous conclusions with regard to Christ
and the Bible, because they tried them by false standards. Jesus said
nothing on the value of representative and democratic forms of
government, so Paine considered Him ignorant of the conditions of human
happiness.
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