The Hour Before the Dawn. 125 



of each and every great religion in turn that it arrogated 



to itself all the truth in the Universe, denounced every 



other as wicked and kindled fires of relentless persecution. 



Each in turn was the one and only revelation from the 



true God, the others devil-born. 



That, indeed, is the hardest thing about them all to 



forgive, or to have charity for : their horrible intolerance 



of each other, their ridiculous bigotry, their disgusting 



self- righteousness. Each in turn, Christian, pagan alike, 



no sooner acquired power than it reddened the earth 



with blood, the sky with torture-fires. Sincerity there 



may have been, but a sincerity merciless, murderous, 



abominable. 



" O ye who walk the Narrow Way, 

 By Tophet flare to Judgment Day, 

 Be gentle when the heathen pray." 



But gentleness there was none. From the Stone Age 

 to Mecca and Rome, innocent blood cries to heaven against 

 them all. 



It is these dark pages of man's religious history which 

 oftenest make us despair of bis future, and which some- 

 times lead even the optimist to doubt whether the great 

 brain-ape is really worthy of preservation in the universe. 



" So many sects, so many creeds, 

 So many paths that wind and wind, 

 When just the art of being kind 

 Is all this sad world needs." 



