(1866.)
when i survey with pious joy the present world of christendom, finding everywhere that the true believers love their neighbors as themselves and are specially enamored of their enemies; that no one of them takes thought for the morrow, what he shall eat or what he shall drink, or wherewithal he or she shall be clothed; that all the pastors and flocks endeavor to outstrip each other in laying not up for themselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; and all are so intensely eager to quit this earthly tabernacle and become freeholders of mansions in the skies; when i find faith as universal as the air, and charity as common as cold water; i sometimes wonder how it is that any misbelievers and unbelievers are left, and feel astonished that the new jerusalem has not yet descended, and hope that the next morning’s times (rechristened the eternities) will announce the inauguration of the millennium.
what delayeth the end? can there indeed be any general hindering sin or imperfection among the pure saints, the holy, unselfish, aspiring, devout, peaceful, loving men and women who make up the population of every christian land? can any error infect the teachings of the innumerable divines and theologians, who all agree together in every particular, drawing all the same doctrines from the same texts of the one unvaried word of god? i would fain believe that no such sin or error exists, not a single inky spot in the universal dazzling whiteness; but then why have we to deplore the continued existence of heathens and infidels? why is the new jerusalem so long a-building? why is the millennium so long a-coming? why have we a mere sardowa instead of armageddon?
after long and painful thought, after the most serious and reverent study, i think i have found the rock on which the ship of the church has been wrecked; and i hasten to communicate its extreme latitude and interminable longitude, that all christian voyagers may evade and circumvent it from this time forward.
the error which i point out, and the correction which i propose, have been to a certain extent, in a vague manner, pointed out and proposed before. a clergyman named malthus, not in his clerical capacity, but condescending to the menial study of mundane science, is usually considered the first discoverer. but mundane science is conditioned, limited, vague, its precepts are full of hesitation; while celestial science is absolute, unlimited, clear as the noonday sun, and its precepts are imperiously forthright.
it seems to me that the one fatal error which has lurked in our otherwise consummate christianity, and which demands immediate correction is this, that the propagation of children is reconcileable with the propagation of the faith—an error which while it lasts adjourns sine die the day of judgment, and begins the millennium with the greek kalends.
one need not quote the numerous texts throughout the new testament (let matthew xix., 12, suffice) proving that jesus and the epistolary apostles accounted celibacy essential to the highest christian life. one only of the disciples, so far as we know, was married; and he it was who denied his master; and most of the more profound divines consider that peter was justly punished for marrying, when christ cured his mother-in-law of that fever which might else have carried her off.
but many modest people may be content with a respectable christian life which is not of the very highest kind. they may think that as husbands and wives they will make very decent middle-class saints in heaven, after a comfortable existence on earth, leaving the nobler crowns of holiness for more daring spirits. humility is one of the fairest graces, and we revere it; but there is a consideration, most momentous for the kind christian heart, which such good people must have overlooked—very naturally, since it is very obvious.
jesus tells us that many are called but few are chosen; that few enter the strait gate and travel the narrow way, while many take the broad way that leadeth to destruction. in other words, the large majority of mankind, the large majority of even those who have the gospel preached to them must be damned. when a human soul is born into the world, the odds are at least ten to one that the devil will get it. can any pious member of the church who has thought of this take the responsibility of becoming a parent? i thoroughly believe not. i am convinced that we have so many christian parents only because this very conspicuous aspect of the case has not caught their view. if the parents could have any assurance that the piety of their offspring would be in proportion to their own, they would be justified in wedding in holiness. but alas! we all know that some of the most religious parents have had some of the most wicked children. dearly beloved brethren and sisters pause and calculate that for every little saint you give to heaven, you beget and bear at least nine sinners who will eventually go to hell.
the remedy proposed is plain and simple as a gospel precept: let no christian have any child at all—a rule which, in the grandeur of its absoluteness makes the poor timid and tentative malthusianism very ridiculous indeed. for this rule is drawn immediately from the new testament and cannot but be perfect as its source.
let us think of a few of the advantages which would flow from its practice. the profane have sometimes sneered that jesus and his disciples manifestly thought that the world would come to an end, the millennium be inaugurated, within a very few years from the public ministry of jesus. luckily the profane are always ignorant or shallow, or both. for, as the new jerusalem is to come down while christians are alive, and as christians in the highest sense or christians without offspring must have come to an end with the first generation, it is plain that the belief which has been sneered at was thoroughly well founded; and that it has been disappointed only because the vast majority of christians have not been christians in the highest sense at all, but in their ignorance have continued to propagate like so many heathen proletarians.
now, supposing the very likely case that all christians now living reflect upon the truth herein expounded, and see that it is true, and, therefore, always act upon it, it follows that, with the end of our now young generation, the whole of christendom will be translated into the kingdom of heaven. either the mere scum of non-christians left upon the earth will be wholly or in great part converted by an example so splendid and attractive, and thus translate all christendom in the second edition in a couple of generations more; or else the world, being without any christianity, will, as a matter of course, be so utterly vile and evil that the promised fire must destroy it at once, and so bring in the new heavens and new earth.
roman catholic christians may indeed answer that, although the above argument is irresistible to the protestants, who have no mean in the next life between heaven and hell, yet that it is not so formidable to them, seeing that they believe in the ultimate salvation of nearly every one born and reared in their communion, and only give a temporary purgatory to the worst of their own sinners. and i admit that such reply is very cogent. yet, strangely enough, the catholics, even more than the protestants, recognise and cultivate the supreme beatitude of celibacy; their legions of unwedded priests, and monks, and nuns and saints are so many legions of concessions to the truth of my main (arguement).
i am aware that one of the most illustrious dignitaries of our own national church, the very reverend and reverent dr. swift, dean of st. patrick’s, has advocated on various grounds, and with impressive force of reasoning, the general eating of babies: and i anticipate that some prudent christians may, therefore, argue that it is better to get babies and eat them than to have none at all, since the souls of the sweet innocents would surely go to heaven, while their bodies would be very nourishing on earth. unfortunately, however, the doctrine of original sin, as expounded and illustrated by many very thoughtful theologians, and specially theologians of the most determined protestant type, makes it very doubtful whether the souls of infants are not damned. it will surely be better, then, for good protestants to have no infants at all: q. e. d.
