THE IDOL OF PAPER AND INK. 527 



robbed them of their gods, and raised their minds, 

 through pain and sorrow, to a higher faith ? The 

 religion which I teach is as high above Christianity as 

 that religion was superior to the idolatry of Rome. 

 And when the relative civilizations of the two ages are 

 compared, this fetich of ink and paper, this Syrian 

 book is, in truth, not less an idol than those statues 

 which obtained the adoration of the Italians and the 

 Greeks. The statues were beautiful as statues; the 

 book is admirable as a book ; but the statues did 

 not come down from heaven ; the book was not a 

 magical composition ; it bears the marks not only of 

 human genius, but also of human depravity and super- 

 stition. 



As for the advocates of Deism they acknowledge that 

 Christianity is unsuited to the mental condition of the 

 age ; they acknowledge that the Bible ought to be at- 

 tacked as Xenophanes attacked Homer ; they acknow- 

 ledge that the fables of a god impregnating a woman, of a 

 god living on the earth, are relics of pagan superstition ; 

 they acknowledge that the doctrine of eternal punish- 

 ment is incompatible with justice, and is therefore in- 

 compatible with God. But they declare that Christi- 

 anity should not be destroyed but reformed ; that its 

 barbarous elements should be expelled, and that then, 

 as a pure God-worship, it should be offered to the 

 world. "It is true, that God is an idol, an image 

 made of human ideas which, to superior beings, 

 would appear as coarse and vile for such a pur- 

 pose as the wood and the stone of the savage appear 

 to us. But this idolatry is conducive to the mor- 

 ality of man. That exquisite form which he raises 

 in his mind, and before which he prostrates him- 

 self in prayer, that God of purity and love becomes his 



