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human sacrifice is practised, even down to the present day. There are some 
other points I should have liked to have mentioned, but I will not go into 
them now, as I fear I have already occupied too much of your time. 
(Applause.) . 
Mr. Hormvuzp Rassam.—I am somewhat reluctant to make any remark 
on a paper in the author’s absence ; nevertheless, I feel bound to take notice 
of two allusions he has made and to which I take great exception. I believe 
the majority of those present will agree with me in thinking it is very heretical 
to the Christian belief which, I presume, is held by all of us, to hear what 
the writer asserts with regard to heathenism :—He says,“ There has been 
a time when the Christian Church viewed everything called religion outside 
its own fold much as the Greeks looked at the world beyond the confines of 
their peninsula, and lumped together alien beliefs of every variety and merit 
under the general title of heathenism.” I should be sorry to think that the 
Christians did not believe this of the other religions, barring Judaism and 
Mohammedanism ; these two faiths, of course, could not be characterised as 
heathenism, because both Jews and Mehammedans believe in the true God. 
The writer goes on to say: “ But, happily, a more appreciative spirit now 
prevails, and we ‘are coming to see that there is much in other systems of 
belief which deserves our admiration, and not a little that has served the 
Divine purpose in educating the world wp to the understanding of a purer 
revelation.” Now, I am pained to see the author make such a remark, 
because it makes the belief in revealed religion quite inconsistent.* Then, 
further on, the same writer says :—‘‘ Whether these are vanishing traces of a 
primitive xevelation, or the result of their own reflections, or have been bor- 
rowed from the religion, particularly the Hari-worship, of the Hindoos, we 
will not here inquire. It is, at any rate, certain that the contemplation of 
their highest god has little effect in regulating conduct.” We, who believe 
in Revelation, know very well that there was at one time throughout the 
world a universal belief in one God Almighty ; that through the wicked- 
ness of man’s nature he was alienated from his Creator, and that conse- 
quently God chose the Jews as His people in preference to any other, 
because they continued to worship Him like their forefathers, Abraham and 
his immediate progeny. It is the same with regard to Christianity, and we 
must believe that, if people will only take the Bible and examine it in relation , 
to the other religions, they will find that those other beliefs are nothing more , 
than corruptions of Revealed Religion. If we take Mohammedanism as it 
exists at present, we shall find that it has adopted some truths of the Old and 
New Testaments, although we cannot, of course, admit that the Koran is 
inspired ; and so, with regard to other religions, according to the received 
theory, they are nothing but corrupt belief in God. We need not go further 
than the present century to see that among all the denominations of religious 
belief, whether Jew, Mohammedan, or Christian, this has been the case ; and 
I could mention many instances of particular superstitions in which, although 
* See note, page 95. 
