This work is the result of thirty years of devotion

Common Sense Applied to Religion; Or, The Bible and the People by Catharine Esther Beecher, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here. INTRODUCTION.

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.

In asking the attention of the laity, including her own sex, to the discussion of topics which have heretofore been deemed the most difficult, recondite, and profound, it is with the full conviction that most of the difficulties that heretofore have opposed such investigations have belonged, not to the topics themselves, but to the methods of discussion.

It is believed that, though this small volume embraces most of those points in metaphysics which have been considered the most difficult, there is not a page that can not be perfectly comprehended by any man or woman of only an ordinarily good education, and with less intellectual effort than is demanded of little girls in acquiring an ability to parse the English language.

It is true that close thought and attention are requisite for a full appreciation of all in this volume; but not more of these are required than the dignity and importance of the great topics involved properly demand.

In attempting what is here proposed, it can be seen that there are great difficulties to be met. As a general fact, these subjects have not been presented in popular forms, but have been confined to works of metaphysics and theology, and there enveloped in scientific techniques and formulas not interesting or intelligible to the common mind. For this reason, it has been suggested that, before presenting the abstract portion, a practical illustration of the subject, embodied in the history of the opinions of the author, as they have been formed or modified by these principles, would have far more effect on the class of readers for whom the work is written than the bare statement of principles and argument, while it would certainly be more likely to be read.

It has been still farther urged that, in attempting to controvert long-established theories, embodied as a part of religious truth in the popular mind, there will be an opposition of feeling to be overcome, which needs a counterbalancing appeal to the feelings such as an individual history can best offer.

As to the propriety of such a measure, it is now so common to offer autobiographies, and histories of life and opinions by living authors, that this will be no innovation on the customs of the literary world.

To this, a more weighty consideration should be added, and that is, that all questions of propriety and of duty are regulated by circumstances of risk and danger. A woman, suddenly roused from sleep to save her children from the flames, has a very different rule of propriety in appearing before the public from that demanded on ordinary occasions. In this view, a believer in the risks of the eternal loss of the soul must withhold nothing, however sacred and cherished, if there is the shadow of a probability that it will avail aught in aiding, it may be, but one struggling, darkened mind in the death-agony of the soul.

From these considerations, the writer has been led to prefix to the exhibition of principles and arguments of this work, a mental history that shall particularly illustrate the subjects discussed. The article was prepared for certain personal and family friends, and is inserted very nearly in its original form.

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