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One of the first things that strikes a man in turning
his mind to the existing religions, is their great number
and variety. No nation has yet been discovered without
some kind of religion, or some object of worship. This
indicates plainly that man was originally created for
God, and that he cannot help feeling at times that there
is a higher Being on whom he depends, and to whom he
owes something. But the manner in which men seek to
serve and worship God differs most widely: There are
heathen religions in which the priest can take any piece
of stone, wood, or iron, any feather, fruit, or other
thing, and consecrate it an object of worship for the
people. In some pagan lands God is worshipped under
the symbol of animals, such as cows, alligators, serpents,
or that of fire and light, or of the sun, moon, and
stars. In India, besides the highest God, or Brahm,
many subordinate deities are worshipped. Others, again,
assert that themselves and all existing things together,
constitute the Deity. Now with these different polytheistic
and pantheistic systems we will have nothing more to
do on the present occasion, as it is not supposed that,
for any one reading these lines, they can have the slightest
attraction. Nor is any attempt trade to persuade us
to embrace them. They only show that man cannot live
without God and without religion; so that, if he does
not know the true God |
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and the true religion, he will invent for himself
false deities and false modes of worship.
But besides these polytheistic or pantheistic, and
therefore erroneous and heathen creeds, there remain
three religions claiming an origin in a special divine
revelation, and equally professing the worship of the
one true God, the Creator and Lord of all, namely, the
Jewish, the Muhammadan, and the Christian.1
These three contain, in their monotheistic character,
a most essential element of the true religion. But as
they also differ from one another in many respects,
and on most important questions, they cannot all be
equally true; and if we do not wish to entertain the
preposterous idea that all religions are false, and
that in regard to his highest, that is his religious,
wants man is left entirely in the dark without the unerring
light of a divine revelation, we must allow that one
of them is the true religion in the highest and absolute
sense. Now which of the three is it? On this momentous
question we shall endeavour, by what follows, to enable
the reader, with the blessing of God, to arrive at a
clear and well-founded conviction.
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