aradise is at the zenith and hell at the nadir. Yes;
but if Paradise be above the heavens, and hell below the seventh
earth, then how can Sirat be extended over hell for people to pass
to Paradise? "We reply," say the authors of the Hak ul Yakeen,
"that speculation on this subject is not necessary, nor to be
regarded. Implicit faith in what the prophets have revealed must
be had; and explanatory surmises, which are the occasion of
Satanic doubts, must not be indulged."26 Certainly this exclusion
of reason cannot always be suffered. It is fast giving way
already. And it is inevitable that, when reason secures its right
and bears its rightful fruits in moral subjects as it now does in
physical subjects, the mediaval theology must be rejected as
mediaval science has been. It is the common doctrine of the Church
that Christ now sits in heaven in a human body of flesh and blood.
Calvin separated the Divine nature of Christ from this human body;
but Luther made the two natures inseparable and attributed
ubiquity to the body in which they reside, thus asserting the
omnipresence of a material human body, a bulk of a hundred and
fifty pounds' weight more or less. He furiously assailed Zwingle's
objection to this monstrous nonsense, as "a devil's mask and
grandchild of that old witch, mistress Reason." 27 The Roman
Church teaches, and her adherents devoutly believe, that the house
of the Virgin Mary was conveyed on the wings of angels from
Nazareth to the eastern slope of the Apennines above the Adriatic
Gulf.28 The English Church, consistently interpreted, teaches that
there is no salvation without baptism by priests in the line of
apostolic succession. These are but ordinary specimens of
teachings still humbly received by the mass of Christians. The
common distrust with which the natural operations of reason are
regarded in the Church, the extreme reluctance to accept the
conclusions of mere reason, seem to us discreditable to the
theological leaders who represent the current creeds of the
approved sects. Many an influential theologian could learn
invaluable lessons from the great guides in the realm of science.
The folly which acute learned wise men will be guilty of the
moment they turn to theological subjects, where they do not allow
reason to act, is both ludicrous and melancholy. The victim of
lycanthropy used to be burned alive; he is now placed under the
careful treatment of skilful and humane physicians. But the
heret