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Guesses at Truths, Ethical, Social, Political and Literary
Guesses at Truths Ethical Social Political and Literary Author:David Christie Murray General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1908 Original Publisher: Hurst and Blackett Subjects: English essays Fiction / Classics Literary Collections / General Literary Collections / Essays Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / American / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Iri... more »sh, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: TOLSTOY'S SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. I purpose now to consider Count Tolstoy's proposals for the abolition of all the means on which the world relies for its protection against the predatory classes. It has been hailed as a true return to the principles of primitive Christianity ; and it will be my object to show that it is nothing of the kind, but in plain fact a mad and mischievous perversion of those principles. I do not care to argue that if Tolstoy's position were accepted and acted on Society would fall into instant chaos. That is quite evident, but it is apart from the present question -- which is simply whether the theory affords a just representation of the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount, on which it pretends to found itself. It is not at all to the point to invoke the authority of the early fathers ; as, for instance, the belief of Tertullian that no Christian could hold the office of magistrate and administer imprisonment, or that of Ambrose, who held it forbidden to defend oneself against a murderous assault. The appeal is to the Sermon on the Mount. Let us accept the challenge on the ground on which it is offered. To be quite sure that Tolstoy is not being misrepresented, it will be well to have his words before us. He has a perfectly competent knowledge of our language, and he has written to the lady who ha...« less