The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-01-14
RELIGION--IDEAL AND PRACTICAL,
TRUE AND FALSE.

The Carthagenians were indebted to
the Tyrians for their origin, manners,
customs, laws, religion, and language,
which was the Hebrew tongue, or at
least language said to be entirely de-
rived from it. The Carthagenians wor-
SHIPPED five or six orders Of deities. Ju-
piter, Juno, and Apollo; Hercules,
Iolaus, Mars, Triton, and Neptune, Ce-
lestis called also Urania, or the moon,
and Saturn, known in Scripture by the
name of Moloch, were their chief deIties,
to whom they paid particular alteration.
Human beings were sacrificed to Saturn,
and those persons who possessed no
children would purchase those of the
poor, that they might enjoy the merit
of such a sacrifice. Diodorus states
''that there was brazen statue of
Saturn, the hands of which were turned
downward, so that whenever a child
was laid on them it dropped immedi-
ately into hollow, where was fiery
furnace" Mothers considered it mer-
itorious act, and strong proof of relig
ious fidelity, to view this soul-harrow-
ing spectacle without tear or a sigh,
believing that any emotion on their
part rendered the sacrifice less accepta-
bic to this deity, and consequently of
no effect.
AS Agathocles was about to besiege
Carthage, the inhabitants, aroused by
the extremity Of their situation, i'm
puted their danger to the anger of
Saturn; and to propitiate the wrath of
this insatiate god, sacrificed to him two
hundred children Of the noblest families
Of Carthage, besides more than three
hundred citizens, from a sense Of guilt
in defrsuding him by offering ignobls
gifts, voluntarily sacrificed themselves.
Plutarch pertinently asks, "Had 1t not
not been better for the Carthagenians to
have had a Critias, or q Diagoras, and
such like open and undisguised atheists
for their law-givers, than to have estab-
lished so frantic and wicked a religion?"
Such were the sentiments Of heather
concerning the excesses and horrid
crimes of these infatuated worshipers,
and they, too, possessing the language
of the people to whom had been deliv-
cred the commandments written on
stone by the finger of God.
The Greeks, so refined and polished
in their philosophy, were yet actuated
in all their undertakings, both private
and public, by the spirit of divination
from the multitude of their tutelary
gods. The Athenians, the most exalted
among the people of ancient Greece,
were proud, naughty, and inconstant,
''wavering with every wind" and car
ried to the most extreme excesses, in
the name Of their gods, and the oracular
expressions of their attending priests
and priestesses. These gods and god
esses were in many instances those who
had once inhabited this earth, and
whom, irrespective of character, they
considered worthy of being worshiped
after their decease. While they insisted
upon the most delicate and ardent at
tention in their worship, insomuch
that Socrates fell q victim to their sus-
picions, they yet permitted their poets
and comedians to attribute the vilest
characteristics to their Juno, Venus,
and Diana, and it is no wonder that
Plutarch, even from his standpoint, as
heather philosopher, should declare
that it were better to believe there are
no gods than to worship such as these.
Open and declared impiety is surely less
prOfane than so gross and absurd su-
perstition, and it would certainly seem
to reasoning mind that the latter
could not be more impious than the
former. Indeed, it is impossible to read
the record of their blind faith without
the conviction that those most jealous
in this idolatrous veneration united
''the most odious vices, professed i'm
modesty, breach of faith, injustice, and
cruelty" with the hope Of a certain i'm
mortality. 1t is impossible to notice,
in these narrow limits, other than those
nations acknowledged to be most en-
lightened and refined among the
heather, but look where we may, we
! ind the same record, with perhaps