The Sin of Scoffing at Religion 4

Next Part The Sin of Scoffing at Religion 5

III. Let me now exhibit to you the CHARACTER of this vice of scoffing.

1. Scoffing is IRRATIONAL. Do not think that there is anything manly or courageous in the conduct of the scorner. It is a practice in which the weakest and silliest of mankind have indulged; to which the drunkard, when his reason is half drowned in his cups, and he himself is reduced to a driveler, resorts for his sport; to which brainless fops and witless heads have had recourse, as the easiest way to gain a measure of reputation as clever people.

Religion, whether taken as a whole or regarded in its component parts, is a subject of infinite importance; it involves the present duties and the eternal destinies of the universe—it respects man as an immortal creature, and influences his happiness for everlasting ages. Compared with this, the most momentous questions which have interested, agitated, and divided the greatest geniuses and the profoundest intellects—are subjects of small and evanescent importance. To sport with such a thing is consummately, preposterously absurd, and the scoffer stands upon the confines of idiocy! No argument is necessary beyond his own act to prove that he is a fool; nor is any eloquence necessary to illustrate his folly. One need not do anything more to proclaim the greatness of a man's absurdity, than to say that he scoffs at religion.

Admitting that a man has proved to his own satisfaction that there is neither a God nor a future state, there is something so horribly dreadful in his calamitous discovery, so gloomy and so wretched in his system, that instead of looking with derision on those of an opposite sentiment, he should be appalled and affrighted by the terrors of his own. An infidel ridicule others! What, when he has blotted out the idea of a powerful Creator, a wise Governor, a merciful Benefactor of the human race, and substituted in his place the misrule of 'blind chance'—when he has sunk heaven and all its glories in the gloom of annihilation—that man find leisure from the misery of his own reflections—to laugh at others who are cheering themselves with the consolations of religion!

An atheist, if he has any sense of moral beauty, instead of being pleased with his creed, should start back with horror and affright from the progeny of his mind; and if he has any pity, instead of holding it up to the caresses of the world, should conceal it from observation, and restrain its operation as a demon born to curse mankind. Miserable creature! where is your rationality? where is your humanity? You cannot plead conscience for disturbing the lovely vision; for upon his own principles an atheist can have no conscience.

Nay, a scoffing temper is irrational, as it perfectly unfits the mind for the investigation of true religion—it has its origin either in pride or levity; both of which disqualify us for the investigation of truth. A man given to merriment and scorn is ever seeking for wit, not for truth; and will be so bent upon the former as most willingly to sacrifice the latter. Such a person is impatient and incapable of cool and sedate reflection. The calm exercise of the judgment is essential to our arriving at just opinions; and to expect calmness of judgment to be coupled with a disposition for scorn, is to expect that a feather will be still amidst a violent gust of wind. Ridicule is neither the test of truth in others, nor the way to obtain it for ourselves.

2. Scoffing is CRUDE and UNCIVIL. Though we may oppose the convictions of others, we ought not to do so with vulgarity and sarcasm. Politeness demands that we treat those who differ from us with respect. "Be courteous to all," is a maxim of good breeding, and is essential to the well being of society. Now there is nothing more at variance with courtesy than scoffing and sarcasm. A decent respect is due to every man's convictions on the subject of religion, though they may be erroneous. "Whoever, therefore, instead of refuting errors by reason and kindness, will treat in a contemptuous manner, that which in the eyes of others bears a sacred character, can only occasion scandal where he should attempt reformation, and must show himself to be equally a stranger to good sense and to good manners." The scoffer, then, is not only not a Christian—but he is not even a gentleman; and is not merely unfit company for the wise and the good—but is fit only to associate with the very offscouring of the earth. His society is a nuisance to all except to men of like propensities—he is not only guilty in the sight of God—but offensive in the eyes of the better classes of his fellow creatures.

3. Scoffing is a most CRUEL and INHUMAN sin. A man who is really in earnest on the subject of religion, attaches to his opinions an infinite importance. They are of more value in his eyes and are dearer to his heart than all he possesses upon earth. He would not only part with the last farthing of his property—but the last drop of his blood, rather than give them up. He is prepared for martyrdom—but not for apostasy. His sentiments may be erroneous in the opinion of others; but in his eyes they appear with the radiance of immutable truth; they may be entirely visionary—but they are beheld by him as eternal realities. Convince him if you can, that he is in error—but insult him not with mockery.

This is more cruel than to scoff at the deformed child which the mother holds in her arms and presses to her heart. Every man believes that there is a sanctity in his religious opinions; he considers them as a voice from the excellent glory; a response from the heavenly oracle; the very word of God; and to him it is the desecration of everything sacred, to hear them converted into matter of unhallowed scorn. Every jest that is thrown at his religion is a dagger piercing him to the heart, and the words of the scorner's tongue are sharper than drawn swords. Even admitting that he is in error, and that error is a deformity of mind, derision is not the way to remove it; and is not one whit more lawful, or one whit less cruel, than sporting with bodily deformity.

Pity it and cure it if you can—but do not laugh at it. The scoffer has not the pity of a barbarian or a brute. Did he but consider how many there are, who amidst the vicissitudes and the trials of life, have no ray of consolation from any other source to fall upon their dreary path; no other shelter from the storms of time; no other hope amidst the wreck of fortune, than religion—would he follow them to their last refuge, and attempt to drive them by unhallowed scorn even from thence?

4. Scoffing is a most HARDENING vice. It marks a dreadful progress in the career of sin, a peculiar boldness of iniquity, and plainly proves that the transgressor is still going forward to greater obduracy of heart. That man who can allow himself the liberty of scoffing at religion, as a whole, or any part of it; either at any particular doctrine or any pious practice; who can allow himself to sneer at the righteous, or divert others with anything pertaining to their character or conduct, has a conscience which is already partially benumbed, and which will soon be seared as with a hot iron. Nothing so rapidly hardens the heart as this; nothing closes so fast the avenues of moral perception, nor so completely petrifies the spiritual sensibilities. The mocker will soon be past feeling. Neither the terrors of God's justice, nor the loveliness of God's mercy make any impression on his heart—to admonish him is nearly a hopeless task. The sacred writers speak of a scorner as almost irreclaimable.

5. But its impiety in the sight of God surpasses all description. True religion is at once the production, the offspring and the image of Deity; and to scoff at religion therefore, is to scoff at God. When we ridicule a volume, we ridicule its author; when we laugh at the features of a portrait, we despise the artist; and to treat either piety or the pious with derision, is to throw our scorn at the heavens, and to insult the Deity. It is a sin to mock our fellow-creatures; our parents, for instance; or our governors. All loyal men join in reprobating the attempt to bring the monarch of the realm into contempt—to ridicule the vices of a bad king would be an offence against the well-being of the state—but to hold up to insult the virtues of a good one, is an outrage upon all loyalty and morality.

How then shall we set forth the enormity of scoffing at God. Rash, impious, and puny mortal! Can you find no other being to make the object of your contempt, than Jehovah? Go, select some human genius sublime as Milton; some philosopher profound as Newton; some reasoner powerful as Bacon; some philanthropist benevolent as Howard; call up the mightiest of the dead from their graves; or go and perform your apish tricks before their marble sepulchers. And where the wise and the great, and the good, never stand but with mute admiration and solemn awe—shoot the sneering lip, and point the finger, and utter words of scorn. This would be innocent and wise compared with scoffing at God, even as he is seen in the piety of the lowest of his saints.

Did you ever think of the Divine Being? Has one most solemn thought of him ever penetrated your soul? And without such thoughts, what is reason, what is mind, what is man? If you have thought of God, through what defect or infatuation of mind, or what depravity of heart, or what searedness of conscience, have you been able to bring yourself to scoff at the Self-existent, Eternal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient Spirit—at whose voice the very pillars of the earth tremble, and before whom the angels veil their faces, as if unable to look upon his all holy brightness? Would you have scoffed had you been at Sinai? "If it were a thing we might be allowed to imagine, that the Divine Being were to manifest himself in some striking manner, as by some resplendent appearance at midnight, or by rekindling on an elevated mountain the long-extinguished fires of Horeb, and uttering voices from amidst those fires—would you ridicule him then?"

Miserable man! stop your sport; first ask if it be lawful and safe. Think against whom your scoffing is directed. Consider the attributes of Deity; think of all his glories and all his claims, and then ask which of them may be innocently and safely converted into matter of buffoonery. Be instructed that it is both safer and wiser to stand by the crater of a volcano, and laugh at the streams of burning lava as they are disgorged upon the mountain; or to place yourself under the cloud surcharged with a thousand thunderbolts, and laugh at the forked lightnings as they flash, than to mock at piety. For this is to mock at God, whose name should never be pronounced but with reverence, and the most distant thought of whom should never be presented to the soul without awing it at once into the posture of devotion.

6. Scoffing is a CONTAGIOUS and INJURIOUS vice. Scorners are the chief instruments of Satan, the promoters of his cause, his most zealous apostles, his most able advocates, and his most successful emissaries. Not content with perishing themselves, their object is to drag others into the vortex of their own ruin. They are a moral plague, the destruction that wastes at noon-day; their breath is pestilential, and they carry an infected atmosphere about with them, which multitudes of the unwary inhale—and perish! Of all characters on the face of the earth, none is to be more shunned and dreaded than the witty man, who, by a perversion of his talents, turns the gifts of heaven against their Author. A person of humor, possessing a talent for mimicry, irony, and satire, who employs his powers to ridicule true religion for the entertainment of others, is the most dangerous and destructive enemy to moral and religious feeling, that walks the earth. His prototype is found nowhere but in the representation which our great bard has given of the serpent which tempted Eve. Of such an individual beware; his name is Apollyon—the destroyer!

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