DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5541#0386
356
MAHOMET ANISM.
[Chap. xx.
admitted, and they had their effect on almost every act of
human life. When, therefore, the absurdities and incon-
sistencies of Popery were laid bare, its fall did not neces-
sarily entail indifference to religion ; and man was not only
willing, but anxious, while throwing away the unprofitable
husk in which truth had been concealed, to retain more
firmly the living kernel of a purified and wholesome faith.
But the times are altered; the independent spirit of
the age, proud of the increased powers of human reasoning,
has spread over all a tinge of scepticism and of infidelity;
and, having destroyed the superstitious terrors of an igno-
rant age, has filled the human mind with vain-glory, pre-
disposing it to trust in its own resources and aspirations.
Thus, no sooner arc the false doctrines of a superstitious
creed overthrown, than pride and arrogance rush in, and
persuade the mind unoccupied by any fixed principle that
religion is absurd, and all religious doctrine useless. The
Turks are now in this predicament, and the only religious
change they are likely to undergo is from Mahometanism
to atheism : it has been frequently remarked in various
parts of Turkey that those who have been the most eager
supporters of the reform measures of Sultan Mahmoud are
bad Mahometans, and careless observers even of the out-
ward forms of their religion; but in this they have made
no step towards the truths of Christianity, and have only
changed the precise formalities of Mahometanism for the
vague uncertainties of scepticism.
MAHOMET ANISM.
[Chap. xx.
admitted, and they had their effect on almost every act of
human life. When, therefore, the absurdities and incon-
sistencies of Popery were laid bare, its fall did not neces-
sarily entail indifference to religion ; and man was not only
willing, but anxious, while throwing away the unprofitable
husk in which truth had been concealed, to retain more
firmly the living kernel of a purified and wholesome faith.
But the times are altered; the independent spirit of
the age, proud of the increased powers of human reasoning,
has spread over all a tinge of scepticism and of infidelity;
and, having destroyed the superstitious terrors of an igno-
rant age, has filled the human mind with vain-glory, pre-
disposing it to trust in its own resources and aspirations.
Thus, no sooner arc the false doctrines of a superstitious
creed overthrown, than pride and arrogance rush in, and
persuade the mind unoccupied by any fixed principle that
religion is absurd, and all religious doctrine useless. The
Turks are now in this predicament, and the only religious
change they are likely to undergo is from Mahometanism
to atheism : it has been frequently remarked in various
parts of Turkey that those who have been the most eager
supporters of the reform measures of Sultan Mahmoud are
bad Mahometans, and careless observers even of the out-
ward forms of their religion; but in this they have made
no step towards the truths of Christianity, and have only
changed the precise formalities of Mahometanism for the
vague uncertainties of scepticism.