Folk Lore | Page 7

not made a religious duty.
There are physical sins and there are moral sins, and the punishment for
the first is apparently even more direct than for the second, for in the
case of physical sins we are punished without mercy. Through neglect
of these laws, we are continually suffering punishment, shortening and
making miserable our own lives and the lives of those dependent upon
us; and periodically judgments descend on the careless community, in
the form of severe epidemics. Any religion which advocates practices,
or teaches doctrines inconsistent with our physical, intellectual, or

moral well-being, cannot be from God, and _vice versa_; and this is a
strong argument in favour of Christianity as taught by its Founder. I
wish I could say the same of the Christianity taught by our ecclesiastics,
either Protestant or Catholic.
The introduction into the heathen world of the fundamental truths that
there is but one God, omnipotent and omniscient, who overrules every
event, that He has revealed Himself through His Son as a God of love
and mercy, and that man's duty to Him is obedience to His laws, was a
mighty step in advance of the gross conceptions of idolatry formerly
prevalent among these nations. But neither heathens nor Christians had
for a long time any clear idea that the overruling of God in Providence
was according to fixed laws. Being ignorant on this point, they ascribed
to unseen supernatural agency, working in a capricious fashion, all
phenomena which appeared to differ from, or disturb the ordinary
course of events. Upon such matters heathen and Christian ideas
commingled, and thus heathen ideas and practices were incorporated
with Christian ideas and practices. Then, when ecclesiastical councils
met to determine truth, and formulate their creeds, these combined
heathen and Christian ideas being accepted by them, became dogmas of
the Church, and henceforth those who differed from the dogmatic creed
of the Church, or advocated views in advance of these confessions,
were regarded as enemies of truth. Naturally, as the Church became
powerful she became more repressive, and opposed all enquiry which
appeared to lead to conclusions different from those already
promulgated by her, and finally, it became a capital offence to teach
any other doctrines than those sanctioned by the Church. The beliefs of
the members of these councils being, as we have already seen, a
mixture of heathen and Christian ideas, the Church thus became a great
conservator of superstition; and to show that this was really so, we may
adduce one example:--Pope Innocent VIII. issued a Bull as follows:--"It
has come to our ears that members of both sexes do not avoid to have
intercourse with the infernal fiends, and that, by this service, they
afflict both man and beast, that they blight the marriage bed, destroy
the births of women and the increase of cattle, they blast the corn on the
ground, the grapes of the vineyard and the fruits of the trees, and the
grass and herbs of the field." The promulgation of this Bull is said to
have produced dreadful consequences, by thousands being burned and

otherwise put to death, for having intercourse with the fiends.
We regret to say such beliefs and such means of repressing free enquiry
were not confined to one branch of the Christian Church. Protestants as
well as Roman Catholics, when they had the power, suppressed many
of the practices of heathenism after a cruel fashion, but at the same time
fostered the superstitions and Pagan beliefs which had originated these
practices, and punished those who protested against these beliefs. The
same method of procedure is in operation at the present day.
Nevertheless, the introduction of Christianity into the heathen world
made a wonderful revolution in their religious practices as well as in
their beliefs. Their idols and the symbols of their divinities were
abolished, along with the sacrifices offered to these. Their great
festivals, at which human sacrifices were offered and abominable
practices committed, were so modified as to be stripped of their
immorality and cruelty, and while being retained--retained because they
could not be utterly abolished--they were Christianized,--that is, a
Christian colouring was given to them,--and they became Church
festivals or holydays,--a subject I will treat more fully of in another
chapter.
It is not, as I have already said, my intention to trace the gradual
development of our modern idea of Providence, our ascription of
universal government, of all direction of the phenomena of nature and
of life to the one only omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God,
but rather to place before the reader the practices and beliefs which
prevailed in this country during the early years of the present century.
And from this survey we shall discover what a mass of old Pagan ideas
still survived and influenced the minds and practice of