esley.

A ground frequently taken by Christian theologians is that the
progress and civilisation of the world are due to Christianity; and
the discussion is complicated by the fact that many eminent servants of
humanity have been nominal Christians, of one or other of the sects. My
allegation will be that the special services rendered to human progress
by these exceptional men, have not been in consequence of their adhesion
to Christianity, but in spite of it; and that the specific points of
advantage to human kind have been in ratio of their direct opposition to
precise Biblical enactments.

A. S. Farrar says (1) that Christianity "asserts authority over
religious belief in virtue of being a supernatural communication
from God, and claims the right to control human thought in virtue of
possessing sacred books, which are at once the record and the instrument
of the communication, written by men endowed with supernatural
inspiration".

1 Farrar's "Critical History of Freethought".

Unbelievers refuse to submit to the asserted authority, and deny this
claim of control over human thought: they allege that every effort at
freethinking must provoke sturdier thought.

Take one clear gain to humanity consequent on unbelief, i.e. in the
abolition of slavery in some countries, in the abolition of the slave
trade in most civilised countries, and in the tendency to its total
abolition. I am unaware of any religion in the world which in the past
forbade slavery. The professors of Christianity for ages supported it;
the Old Testament repeatedly sanctioned it by special laws; the New
Testament has no repealing declaration. Though we are at the close of
the nineteenth century of the Christian era, it is only during the
past three-quarters of a century that the battle for freedom has been
gradually won. It is scarcely a quarter of a century since the famous
emancipation amendment was carried to the United States Constitution.
And it is impossible for any well-informed Christian to deny that the
abolition movement in North America was most steadily and bitterly
opposed by the religious bodies in the various States. Henry Wilson, in
his "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America"; Samuel J. May, in his
"Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict"; and J. Greenleaf Whittier,
in his poems, alike are witnesses that the Bible and pulpit, the Church
and its great influence, were used against abolition and in favor of the
slaveown