Jerusalem, Alexandria, Damascus, Rome, Mexico; from the wheels, racks, and gibbets of the world; let the men who died in religious wars, always the bloodiest and most remorseless; the women, whom nothing could save from a fate yet more awful; the babes, newly born, who perished in the sack and conflagration of idolatrous and heretical cities, when for the sake of Religion men violated its every precept, and in the name of God broke down his Law, and trampled his image into bloody dust;—let all these speak, to admonish, and to blame.
But it is not well to rest on general terms alone. Paul had no little fanaticism, when he persecuted the Christians; kept the garments of men who stoned Stephen. Moses had much of it, if, as the story goes, he commanded the extirpation of nations of idolaters, millions of men, virtuous as the Jews; Joshua, Samuel, David, had much of it, and executed schemes bloody as a murderer's most sanguine dream. It has been both the foe and the auxiliary of the Christian Church. There is a long line of Fanatics, extending from the time of Jesus, reaching from century to century, marching on from age to age, with the banner of the Cross over their heads, and the Gospel on their tongues, and fire and sword in their hands.[1] The last of that Apocalyptic rabble has not as yet passed by. Let the clouds of darkness hide them. What need to tell of our own fathers; what they suffered, what they inflicted; their crime is fresh and unatoned. Rather let us take the wings of an angel, and fly away from scenes so awful, the slaughter-house of souls.
But the milder forms of Fanaticism we cannot escape. They meet us in the theological war of extermination, which sect now wars with sect, pulpit with pulpit, man with man. If one would seek specimens of Superstition in its milder form, let him open a popular commentary on the Bible, or read much of that weakish matter which circulates in what men call, as if in mockery, "good, pious books.” If he would find Fanaticism in its modern and more Pharisaic shape, let him open the sectarian newspapers, or read theological polemics. To what mean uses may we not descend? The spirit of a Caligula and a Dominic, of Alva
- ↑ See the Book of Revelation, passim.
