Transcriber's Note.

Apparent typographical errors have been corrected; inconsistencies in the use of hyphens have been retained.

COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO RELIGION; OR, THE BIBLE AND THE PEOPLE.

BY CATHARINE E. BEECHER.

AUTHOR OF "LETTERS TO THE PEOPLE ON HEALTH AND HAPPINESS," "PHYSIOLOGY AND CALISTHENICS," "DOMESTIC ECONOMY," "DOMESTIC RECEIPT-BOOK," &c., &c.

NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE.

MONTREAL: BENJAMIN DAWSON. 1857.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.

TO THE PEOPLE, AS THE SAFEST AND TRUEST INTERPRETERS OF THE BIBLE, AND TO WOMAN, AS THE HEAVEN-APPOINTED EDUCATOR OF MIND, THIS WORK Is respectfully Dedicated.

INDEX.

INTRODUCTION.

This work is the result of thirty years of devotion to the training of the human mind for the great end for which it was created. Early in that period it was felt that at the very foundation of such efforts were opposing theological theories, that seemed at war with both the common sense and the moral sense of mankind.

In the progress of such duties, a work was prepared on Mental and Moral Science, as a text-book for the institution under the care of the writer, which was printed, but never published. After submitting this work to the criticism of a number of the leading minds of various schools and sects, it was found to contain so much that might result in theological controversy, that it was deemed modest and wise to wait until age, experience, and farther examination had lent their maturing influence.

After a delay of over a quarter of a century, the conviction above stated not only remains, but has been strengthened by the discussions and developments that have intervened in that period.

While the great practical truths both of natural and revealed religion have seemed constantly to be gaining a more controlling influence over the intellect and feelings of mankind, the theological dogmas referred to have been more and more evaded or rejected, even by those who receive and respect the Bible as containing authentic and authoritative revelations from God.

At the same time, there is apparent a manifest and strong tendency, especially among the young and most highly-educated of both sexes, to infidelity; not to that species of a former age which involved a hatred and contempt for the Bible, nor to the entire rejection of it as a very respectable and useful collection of most interesting writings, but to a rejection of it as a sure and authoritative guide in faith and morals.

Though there may be other assignable causes for this, it is certain that not the least powerful is the repellency of dogmas claimed to be contained in the Bible, which are revolting both to the intellect and to the moral nature of man.

Instead of being able to meet their religious teachers with the assumption that all which they have felt to be contrary to reason, to common sense, and to common honesty is not contained in the Sacred Writings, many have gradually drawn off to the religion of reason and nature, and left the Bible to theologians and the Church.

At the same time, there has been a new development of philanthropy, in which those who either repudiate the Bible as of any binding authority, or disallow its commonly-accepted teachings, are as prominent and earnest in works of benevolence as the most orthodox of any sect. To these are added religious teachers, who set forth the morality and benevolence demanded in the Bible as obligatory, and as satisfactorily deducible from the light of nature, so that no revelation is needful to make them more so. Meantime, in popular forms and by popular writers, all the most plausible and startling difficulties that oppose the claims of the Bible are widely disseminated, while little is done to counteract these influences.

Another class of religionists has also arisen, that numbers probably its hundreds of thousands, the Spiritualists, who rest their faith on a new species of so-called revelations, which ordinarily clash with the accepted teachings of the Bible, and by vast numbers are received as of superior authority.

Meantime the press and public lectures are extensively supplanting the pulpit as organs of moral and religious influence over large portions of the community, while a large part of the most popular speakers and writers avowedly reject the Bible as of any binding authority in deciding moral and religious questions.

At the same time, there has arisen a freedom of investigation, and an aversion to all traditional or conservative bonds, such as probably never before was so universal and dominant in this nation, especially among those religiously educated.

All these influences have combined to place the Bible, and the systems of theology that claim to be educed from it, in entirely new relations. Nothing now is safe on the ground of tradition, or of authority, or of the reverence that belongs to age, learning, genius, or experience. Every thing in religion, as well as other matters, is to stand on its own claims, and not by any factitious supports.

In this state of the public mind, the following considerations have had influence in leading to the presentation of the views contained in this volume.

It is the distinctive maxim of Protestant Christianity that "every person is to be his own interpreter of the revelations of God contained in the Bible, responsible only to his Maker." This, of course, implies the practicability of a proper qualification for this duty in every individual, so that no person shall necessarily be dependent on other minds for a correct knowledge of all that relates to his own duty and dangers.

It is manifest that the Creator designed that woman should have the leading position as the educator of mind, especially at that period when the habits and principles of life are formed. This being so, it is clear that it was designed that she should be qualified to gain by her own independent powers all that is revealed by God that will aid her in this great work.

The theological theories referred to, as seemingly opposing the moral sense and common sense of mankind, are those that relate to the foundation principle on which the training of mind is to start. They involve the most practical questions of every-day life, both as to individual responsibility and to the education of the young.

These theories, then, are to be examined and tested by the laity as much as by theologians, and especially are they to be examined and decided on by woman, as the heaven-appointed educator of infancy and childhood.

In this examination, these theories are to be tested, not by the decisions of ecclesiastical bodies, nor by the writings of theologians, but by those principles of reason and common sense, and those laws of language, which guide mankind in all other practical and personal duties. In order to this, these principles must be evolved and stated in simple and popular form, for particular application on these questions; for no man or woman can decide whether a thing agrees with, or is contrary to the moral sense, or to the principles of reason and common sense, till they clearly perceive what those principles are, and have learned to apply them appropriately.

The leading object of this volume is, then, to present these principles in a popular form, and to make it apparent that they can be practically employed by the laity in deciding what is truth, both as to the claims of the Bible as containing authoritative revelations from the Creator, and also as to the true interpretation of it.