<p>VIII. THE PHILOSOPHY OF CHRIST</p>
<p>MILLIONS assert that the philosophy of Christ is perfect—that he was
the wisest that ever littered speech.</p>
<p>Let us see:</p>
<p><i>Resist not evil. If smitten on one cheek turn the other</i>.</p>
<p>Is there any philosophy, any wisdom in this? Christ takes from goodness,
from virtue, from the truth, the right of self-defence. Vice becomes the
master of the world, and the good become the victims of the infamous.</p>
<p>No man has the right to protect himself, his property, his wife and
children. Government becomes impossible, and the world is at the mercy of
criminals. Is there any absurdity beyond this?</p>
<p><i>Love your enemies</i>.</p>
<p>Is this possible? Did any human being ever love his enemies? Did Christ
love his, when he denounced them as whited sepulchers, hypocrites and
vipers?</p>
<p>We cannot love those who hate us. Hatred in the hearts of others does not
breed love in ours. Not to resist evil is absurd; to love your enemies is
impossible.</p>
<p><i>Take no thought for the morrow</i>.</p>
<p>The idea was that God would take care of us as he did of sparrows and
lilies. Is there the least sense in that belief?</p>
<p>Does God take care of anybody?</p>
<p>Can we live without taking thought for the morrow? To plow, to sow, to
cultivate, to harvest, is to take thought for the morrow. We plan and work
for the future, for our children, for the unborn generations to come.
Without this forethought there could be no progress, no civilization. The
world would go back to the caves and dens of savagery.</p>
<p><i>If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand offend
thee, cut it off.</i></p>
<p>Why? Because it is better that one of our members should perish than that
the whole body should be cast into hell.</p>
<p>Is there any wisdom in putting out your eyes or cutting off your hands? Is
it possible to extract from these extravagant sayings the smallest grain
of common sense?</p>
<p><i>Swear not at all; neither by Heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the
Earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is his holy city.</i></p>
<p>Here we find the astronomy and geology of Christ. Heaven is the throne of
God, the monarch; the earth is his footstool. A footstool that turns over
at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, and sweeps through space at the
rate of over a thousand miles a minute!</p>
<p>Where did Christ think heaven was? Why was Jerusalem a holy city? Was it
because the inhabitants were ignorant, cruel and superstitious?</p>
<p><i>If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have
thy cloak also</i>.</p>
<p>Is there any philosophy, any good sense, in that commandment? Would it not
be just as sensible to say: "If a man obtains a judgment against you for
one hundred dollars, give him two hundred."</p>
<p>Only the insane could give or follow this advice.</p>
<p><i>Think not I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace,
but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother.</i></p>
<p>If this is true, how much better it would have been had he remained away.</p>
<p>Is it possible that he who said, "Resist not evil," came to bring a sword?
That he who said, "Love your enemies," came to destroy the peace of the
world?</p>
<p>To set father against son, and daughter against father—what a
glorious mission!</p>
<p>He did bring a sword, and the sword was wet for a thousand years with
innocent blood. In millions of hearts he sowed the seeds of hatred and
revenge. He divided nations and families, put out the light of reason, and
petrified the hearts of men.</p>
<p><i>And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake,
shall receive an hundredfold, shall inherit everlasting life.</i></p>
<p>According to the writer of Matthew, Christ, the compassionate, the
merciful, uttered these terrible words. Is it possible that Christ offered
the bribe of eternal joy to those who would desert their fathers, their
mothers, their wives and children? Are we to win the happiness of heaven
by deserting the ones we love? Is a home to be ruined here for the sake of
a mansion there?</p>
<p>And yet it is said that Christ is an example for all the world. Did he
desert his father and mother? He said, speaking to his mother: "Woman,
what have I to do with, thee?"</p>
<p>The Pharisees said unto Christ: "Is it lawful to pay tribute unto Cæsar?"</p>
<p>Christ said: "Show me the tribute money." They brought him a penny. And he
saith unto them: "Whose is the image and the superscription?" They said:
"Cæsar's." And Christ said: "Render unto Cæsar the things that
are Cæsar's."</p>
<p>Did Christ think that the money belonged to Cæsar because his image
and superscription were stamped upon it? Did the penny belong to Cæsar
or to the man who had earned it? Had Cæsar the right to demand it
because it was adorned with his image?</p>
<p>Does it appear from this conversation that Christ understood the real
nature and use of money?</p>
<p>Can we now say that Christ was the greatest of philosophers?</p>
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