The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-16
Our Contributors.
The Huguenots and Human
Rights.
BY REV. R. L. DABNEY, D. D.
No Q

ono iiSh1e VI Consclence, ana OF the NUM-
clpal charters, deprived France of the
very elements ofregulated liberty. Moth
ing was left save, on one side the despotic
throne, surrounded by venal and de-
bauched nobility; on another, the selfish
prosecuting. and hated hierarchy; and
on another, populace, without legalizei
rights, without the habitudes of constitu-
tlonal liberty, without precedents of reg
ulated freedom, with nothing but its mis-
cries and its hatreds. French civil So
ciety was an inverted pyramid. When
the tall came, it brought, instead of the
ordered liberty of England, after 1858,
"the Terror" and the despotism of the
Convention. 1t was chiefly the persecu-
ton of Louis XIV which prepared this
catastrophe for the throne of his descend
ants. Every reader has heard some
thing of the part which French infidelity
played in the horrors of the revolution.
This malignant disease of the national
mind was due chiefly to the dragon
nades." Bayle, himself Huguenot, but
also free-thinker, exclaimed to the per-
scouting party: deceive not yourselves;
your triumphs are those of Deism, not
of the true faith" "For many CEN
turtles you have been the most conspicu-
GUS part of Christianity and it is by
you, that men Judge the whole. And
how can they judge of Christianity, reck-
oning by your conduct? Must they not
judge it as a religion loving blood and
carnage?"-"a religion which, to estab-
hsh Its tyranny over consciences, and to
manufacture knaves and hypocrites
IN force any means, falsehoods, perjuries,
dragons, man-sworn judges, tricksters,
dishonest pleaders. false witnesses, hang
men, inquisitions"
Infdelity is not rare fruit of perse-
cution for religious opinions-in France
it was the sure fruit. The literary ere
naissamce" which shed so much glory on
the times of Louis XIV, had taught men
to think, and to respect the rights of the
human mind. To revere those rights
was the religion of the philosophic.
Hence, when they saw popery, the pro-
tessed representative of Christianity, take
the lead in trampling on those rights,
under pretexts of most disgusting false
hood, at the prompting of the vilest pas
sions, and by means the most cruel and
outrageous, the most enlightened spirits
OF France fell into the natural error of
rejecting Christianity. They said to
themselves, that to hate this odious tyran-
ny was the most sacred duty the well-in-
formed could pay to humanity and to
God. They came to regard Romanism
(Which to them was all of Christianity,
because she had exterminated her rival
out of the land) not with indifference,
but with passionate adherence and con-
tempt. These emotions came to be the
signatures of the cultivated and phllan-
thropic. The prosecutions produced eff
fects equally poisonous upon the souls of
the victims who submitted. Half of the
Presbyterians fled their country forever,
for the sake Of spiritual liberty; many
OF them, however. not until they had
defled their consciences by pretended
abiuration, which their pastors taught
them, in the lands Of their refuge, to re-
pent and confess with deep compunc-
tons. The other half bent to the storm,
and purchased safety, homes, and pro-
perty, by hypocritical profession of
popery. This could not but debauch
their spirits. 1t grieved that divine
Agent, from whose indwelling they pro-
fessed to derive their principles. 1t left
them sore from wounded self-respect.
The solace which it was natural for these
fallen spirits to take, which was almost
inevitably sought, was, to cherish the as
sertion that all religions are Indifferent;
that one is as good as another; and that
there is no sanctity or authority attach
ing to either, which deserves high sacri-
fee. Rebuked by the contrasted moral
courage Of their brethren, who had sur
rendered all for Christ; they found their
justification in estimating that heroigm as
quixotry. The immense wrong done
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