Non-believer

“ Let us never say, ‘I am a believer but he is an infidel’, ‘I am near to God, whilst he is an outcast’. We can never know what will be the final judgment! Therefore let us help all who are in need of any kind of assistance. ”

“ If they believed right the reverse of the elect,—believed that God was their enemy and that Christ was not their Saviour, they would be believers. But if they believed what the fifty converts did, they would be unbelievers. We here repeat one premise laid down in our last discourse—viz. In order for any man to be styled a believer or unbeliever, there must first be presented some truth for him to embrace or reject.
Now either God has given us eternal life in Christ before the world began, or he has not. If he has, then we are unbelievers if we reject it. ”

“ The question proposed is, 'Whether is the believer or the unbeliever the more likely to be saved, taking the Scriptures to be of divine authority!' And I stand here, on this divine authority, to prove that the unbeliever is the more likely to be saved: that unbelief, and not belief, is the safe side, and that a man is more likely to be damned for believing the gospel, and because of his having believed it, than for rejecting and despising it, as I do.... ”

“ On one day, as I was reading my Bible, she exclaimed with a profane expression, "I wish you'd pitch that book overboard, it's enough to sink the ship;" the contradiction implied in the words showing the weakness of her atheism, which, while it promises a man the impunity of non-existence, and degrades him to desire it, very frequently seduces him to live as an infidel, but to die a terrified and despairing believer. ”

“ But their sensual habit would fix the believer to his last position, whilst he as inevitably advances; and presently the unbeliever, for love of belief, burns the believer.
Great believers are always reckoned infidels, impracticable, fantastic, atheistic, and really men of no account. The spiritualist finds himself driven to express his faith by a series of skepticisms. Charitable souls come with their projects, and ask his cooperation. ”

“ Nor, indeed, is there any more stereotyped and approved calumny, than the declaration so often emphatically enunciated from the pulpit, that unbelief in the Christian miracles is the fruit of a wicked heart and of a soul enslaved to sin. Thus do estimable and well-meaning men, deceived and deceiving one another, utter base slander in open church, where it is indecorous to reply to them,—and think that they are bravely delivering a religions testimony. ”

“ When the unbeliever shall convince the people that this man, whose whole life was straightforward, truthful, clear, and honest, was a sham and a hypocrite, then, but not before, may he make the world doubt his Christianity. ”

“ But when we speak of infidels and unbelievers, we speak of ungodly men who dislike the truth of God, and who manifest this dislike in their triumph when any supposed error in the life or the doctrines of Jesus Christ is detected, or any evil (for which He is held responsible) is exposed in His followers, and who keep an ample mantle of charity for those who disbelieve, but none for those who believe in Jesus Christ as their only Saviour. ”

“ After the first ceremonies, we sat for some time silent; at length I drew up a heavy sigh, and uttered a pathetic sentiment, relative to the deplorable condition of those, who live, and die in unbelief; and I concluded a violent declamation, by pronouncing, with great earnestness, He, that believeth not, shall be damned.
"And pray, sir," said the young lady, with great sweetness, "Pray, sir, what is the unbeliever damned for not believing?"
What is he damned for not believing? Why, he is damned for not believing. ”

“ But the unbelievers, of whom I speak, have scarcely a way left of returning to God; they insult the Lord whom they know; they blaspheme that religion which they still preserve in their heart: they resist the impressions of conscience, which still inwardly espouse the cause of faith against themselves; in vain does the light of God shine upon their heart, it serves only to render more inexcusable the treachery of their impiety. ”

“ For, are you, who make a boast of unbelief, thoroughly acquainted with what is an unbeliever? He is a man without morals, probity, faith, or character, who owns no rule but his passions, no law but his iniquitous thoughts, no master but his desires, no check but the dread of authority, no God but himself: an unnatural child, seeing he believes that chance alone hath given him fathers; a faithless friend, seeing he looks upon men, merely as the wretched fruits of a wild and fortuitous concurrence, to whom he is connected only by transitory ties ”

“ I ask the infidel world what they can give in exchange for the faith I have in Jesus Christ and the religion I believe in and practice. If I am wrong, mistaken, over-zealous, enthusiastic and bewildered in my imagination, what can you give me? "Nothing, we have nothing; we do not believe in anything." ”

“ Sunk for the most part in ignorance, and held as infidels for wanting faith in what they never heard, they nevertheless attract attention chiefly by their Faith, and by their zealous worship of the Being, whom, although in darkest ignorance as to His attributes and laws, their original creed would teach them to believe the one Eternal God. ”

“ And although he be by his saying a Christian, he denies by deed and shows that he is not. But especially in three ways, is a man called an apostate and false Christian, either because he believes not what he should, as does the Bulgar, and the heretic, and the apostate, who deny their belief; or because he sins against the belief that he believes, as do the perjured and the liars of the belief; or believes more than he should, as do the diviners and the witches and the sorceresses, who work by the devil’s power. And all those that in such things believe and put their trust, sin deadly. ”

“ And this truth is more evident from this, that the majority of those who profess themselves unbelievers, live, nevertheless, in perpetual variations upon the point even of unbelief. In certain moments they are affected with the truths of religion: they feel themselves torn with the keenest remorses ”

“ But the individual who denies the faith, is one, who has taken upon himself the solemn vow before God and men, that he will act out what his profession supposes him to be in possession of, which is superior in its influence, to the infidel's principles, yet he fails to do as much. ”

“ For what is unbelief? It is the conviction that Christianity is false. Now, how can such a conviction be arrived at against eighteen centuries of genius and virtue, against the authority of the Gospel, against Christ Himself? How can any man reasonably attain the position of being able to confront those eminent men and facts, and say:—"I am quite sure that you have deceived the world ... ”

“ The preacher who professes to believe in God is here having a part with an infidel contrary to the Word of God. You who are professing to be a light in the world, how can you in the fear of God take the oaths necessary to make you a member of a secret order? How can you join in the worldly hurrah and laughter, and foolish, ungodly pranks as played upon the candidate within the secret walls? What do you think of a preacher, or layman, becoming the laughing-stock of infidels, lawyers, saloon-keepers, drunkards, and gamblers, as he trembles beneath the blindfold? ”

“ Well, I used to say, I am an infidel, for I do not believe anything of this; when you bring me a people built up and believing according to the New Testament I will believe that they are right. When you find such a people you will find the people and Church of God, with all the gifts and graces of the Gospel in their midst; and you will find the kingdom of God on the earth." They labored with me, but finally declared that I was an infidel, for I could not believe in their doctrines and principles. ”

“ I have given you the true portrait—the true likeness—of the man without religion. Were you given to see a devil and the soul of an infidel at the same time, you would find the sight of the devil more bearable than that of the infidel. ”

“ So true is this, that scholars and honest men will not hesitate to say frankly:—"The matter is not one of argument; only retrench from your religion several small commandments of God and the Church, which we need not specify, and then we will be on your side."
That is the secret of unbelief. It is not faith that is wanting, but the courage to do what is right.
How, then, are we to get rid of those preachers who are always taken up with unbelievers? How delivered from those endless sermons addressed to unbelievers? They do us much harm and very little good. ”

“ Can you deny one of them, without denying the bible?—It is hard for you to kick against the pricks!
“They persuade (you say) multitudes of people, that they cannot be true Christians, but by adhering to their doctrines.” Why, who says they can? Whosoever he be, I will prove him to be an infidel. Do you say, that any man can be a true Christian, without loving God and his neighbour? Surely you have not so learned Christ! It is your doctrine, as well as mine, and St. Paul’s, Though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, though I have all knowledge, and all faith ”

“ They can see clearly the lens of their telescope is not dim. Who drifts into unbelief? Those whose hearts are full of the smoke of sin, of the mist of evil passions; those who are averse to the holy truths of religion and detest its threats and admonitions on account of the sinful lives they are leading. It would be wonderful indeed, if such persons could see as clearly as those who, free from evil passions, follow after truth.
3. Yes, it is vice, evil, unruly, unbridled passions, which deprive men of their faith. ”

“ Again, on the other hand, are to be considered the evils that may, and undoubtedly do, spring from a spirit of too much faith — a spirit of excessive credulity — which in the name of religion is ever ready to grasp every and all ridiculous beliefs and superstitious practices. ”

“ For however much men may doubt, deny, or dispute about religion, they can never impugn the fact that they are individually sinners. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;" ”

“ The Christian can believe past doubt, that "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" that "with what judgment we judge, we shall be judged; and with what measure we mete, it shall be measured to us again." But the infidel has no foundation for such a faith. ”

“ They argue, that God has expressly declared, He that believeth shall be saved; and therefore it is not only absurd but impious, and in a manner calling God a liar, for a man to say, "I believe the Gospel, but have doubts nevertheless of my own salvation." They maintain that unbelief is the unpardonable sin. ”

“ If, indeed, we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Alas for the dulness of our heart, that we do not examine our ways, to try if our heart even do not reprehend us; but after having seared our conseiences, we dissemble our sins, as a nation that had done justice, and care so little for progress in the way of the Lord !
Christ. If you would judge yourselves, you certainly should not be judged. But because you excuse yourselves from self-examination, do you not receive the greater judgment? ”

“ My design is not to enter into the foundation of the proofs which render testimony to the truth of faith; I mean only to expose the falsity of unbelief: I mean to prove, that the greatest part of those who call themselves unbelievers, are not so; that almost all those sinners who vaunt, and are continually alleging to us their doubts, as the only obstacle to their conversion, have actually none; and that, of all the pretexts employed as an excuse for not changing their life, that of doubts upon religion, now the most common, is the least true and the least sincere. ”

“ If the credulous infidel, whose convictions are without evidence and against evidence, should, after all, be in the right, and Christianity prove to be a fable, what harm could ensue from being a Christian? ”

“ We are persecuted, our names are cast out as evil, we have the world arrayed against us. And who are at the head of this? The Christians. You go to a real infidel—one brought up to disbelieve in, and pay no attention to, this book as the word of God, and we receive little persecution from him; none whatever in comparison with what we receive from those who profess to believe it. ”

“ Such, my brethren, is the situation of almost all who give themselves out in the world as unbelievers; they have investigated neither the difficulties nor the respectable proofs of religion; they know not even enough to doubt of them. They hate it; for how is it possible to love our condemnation? And upon that hatred are founded their doubts and their only arguments to oppose it. ”

“ No other sin exists in the world save unbelief. All others are mere trifles, as when my little Hans or Lena misbehave themselves in the corner, for we all take that as a big joke. In the same way faith covers the stench of our filth before God.... ”

“ Belief and unbelief are independent in man, the same as other attributes. Men can acknowledge or reject, turn to the right or to the left, rise up or remain seated: you can say that the Lord and his Gospel are not worthy of your notice, or you can bow to them. When the Elders went into your neighbourhoods to preach the Gospel, you had the privilege of believing or disbelieving. You believed it; your neighbours disbelieve it. It is free and at your own option to di [s] pose of at your pleasure. Could not your neighbours have believed the truth as well as you? ”