Part 6 (1/1)
”I discern in matterthe promise and potency of all forms and qualities of life”--_Tyndall_
”A poorvoices bid hi and confusing manner
What shall he do? By far the greater part of said Gods, current in the public, whether canonized by Pope or Populas, are mere dumb asses and beautiful prize-oxen--nay, some of them, who have articulate faculty, are devils instead of Gods A poor man that would save his soul alive is reduced to the sad necessity of _sharply trying his Gods_ whether they are divine or not, which is a terrible pass for mankind, and lays an awful problem upon each man”--_Tomas Carlyle_
”These Gospels, so important to the Church, have not come to us in one undisputed foruage, so that we inally written The authorities from which we derive their sacred text are various ancient copies, written by hand on parchment Of the Gospels there are es, from the fourth century after Christ to the fifteenth, when printing supersededfor publication of books Of these five hundred and more, _no two_ are in all points alike: probably in no two of the more ancient can _even a few consecutive verses_ be found in which all the words agree”--_Dean Alford, ”How to Study the New Testament_” ”I find Armenian Christians who say that it is a sin to eat a hare; Greeks who affirm that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from the Son; Nestorians who deny that Mary is the mother of God: Latins who boast that in the extreme West the Christians of Europe think quite contrary to those of Asia and Africa I know that ten or twelve sects in Europe anathematise each other; the Musselmen disdain the Christians, whom they nevertheless tolerate; the Jews hold in equal execration the Christians and Muselmen; the Fire-worshi+ppers despise them all; the remnant of the Sabeans will not eat with either of the Other sects; and the Brahmin cannot suffer either Salbeans, or Fire-Worshi+ppers, or Christians, or Musselmen, or Jews I have a hundred ti to be incarnated in Judea, had united all the sects under his laws I have asked hts of his divinity; why, in co to deliver us frohten all men, he has left al; I know that froate the Being of Beings; but I may, like Job, raise a voice of respectful sorrow from the bosom of my misery”--_Voltaire_