National Christianity, Or Caesarism and Clericalism (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from National Christianity, or Caesarism and Clericalism IN dealing with the question of National Churches, one is struck with the difficulty of approaching such a subject with a perfectly unprejudiced mind. If ever there was need of attending to Dr. Johnson's advice, and clearing the mind of cant, it is on a topic like this. The Christian world is divided into two camps on this subject. There are those who are opposed to any relation of the Church to the State, and who see in this connection only another form of worldliness. Again, there are those who desire to maintain this connection, and who, while admitting the worldliness resulting from it, refer it to other causes, or to certain local peculiarities not inseparable from the institution itself. As long as men reason in this way, setting out with certain prepossessions for or against the connec tion of Church and State, and drawing conclusions perfectly logical from these arbitrary prepossessions, it is impossible to advance the cause of truth and charity. Logic, in fact, is a lever so irresistible, that it only wants a fulcrum of self-interest with which to move the world. This explains why it is that dogmatic state ments on either side have such little weight. Either we admit the premises, and the conclusion then becomes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.