The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-03-19

oOCOCOoOAs III SIEVE
hiiled CITY Of old, from beneath til
shadow of the dome Of st. Peter
sat in site and sent forth his mar
dates to temporal and spiritus
worlds.
But what change when print
ing came; when the new-fount
power reused the dormant intellec
of the world and mental culture be
gan to be sought after. 1t was tn
awakening to life of a power befor
which all other powers pale and halt
the entering of a little wedge to riv,
universal society asSunder and Il
reknlt it together, under more pro
pltiouS circumstances, with z
leaven of fairness and a oneness Of
interest and common destiny fol
all. The Bible was one OF
the first books printed, and
was the book most sought for
of all books. No sooner could men
procure and read it for themselves,
than they began to judge of the " av
of salvation for themselves. They
began to do their own thinking and
the farther they advanced in their
spiritual experiences, the stronger
they became and the more qualified
were they to travel alone. PriestIy
power with all its accumulated ter
rors and ghOstly penalties, even
making it death to print or read the
forbidden book, could not stop its
circulation, and with its circulation
pYtpndnd ifc I1oIUar Ro,,11 ~
from the people for fourteen CEN
turtles, in language strange and un-
known, its mission Of enlighten-
ment. liberty and equality, was
powerless. Yet fanaticism itself had
aided on the good work Of emancipa-
ton and assisted in breaking the
thrall of ignorance; and the cru
sades, precipitating Europe upon
Asa, awoke learning from its sleep
Of ages. The translation of the
Bible into the vulgar tongue and its
diffusion by printing, had given
rise to new ideas, and as a natural
outgrowth Of the diffusion of knowl-
edge, came the reformation, and
nearly one-haif of the Christian
world, at once and forever, threw
off the dominion of Rome, and then
on a larger scale than ever before
was displayed the bitterness of re-
ligious hate, and the unavailable
nature of moral right and obligation,
unsupported by physical might,
when battering with the supeisti-
lions and bigotry of heaven-cl aimed
inspiration and dominion.
In Pagan times, long anterior to
the introduction of Christianity,
religious contentious and persecu-
tions had ragged, not so much for
purposes of PROSECUTING as of defence
against oppression, or, on the other
hand, to extend dominion. Thel e
was similarity in all Pagan rites,
and apostacy ather consisted in an
increase in the number of gods wor-
SHIPPED than departure from former
belief. The victorious followers of
one god may have compelled the
vanquished 10 worship their deity,
but seldom went so far as to pro-
hibit the worship of their own. The
wars of BacchuS were most probably
mythical, and the sacred wars of
Egypt and Greece Sprang more from
sectional wrong than difference of
belief. But the theocracy of the
Jews, admitting neither of craven
image nor created thing. led to de-
vastating overthrows and murder
Gus determinations. When Pagan
ism and Christianity came in con-
tact and engaged in the death-erap-
pie, there could be no truce,
no cessation of strife, until
one or the other was van
pushed. The bitterness and bloody
malevolence OF religious strife as
sumed its vastest proportions in this
conflict, during the prosecutions of
Nero, Caligula, Maximian, DiOcle-
tian and the philosophical Julian.
But victorious at last, the church
inherited the same uncOmpromising
and soul-crushing spillt which
helped to vanquish its foes and swell
It's triumphs. Political and social
disqualification, burnings, quarter
ingS. with all he veXatiOuS delays
of the law; losses of fortune and
fame were retaliated by the victori-
Gus churchmen upon their foes; and
the followers of the holy NaZarene.
whose sayings and teachings are all
colored by the forgivi1g mercy of a
God, were foremost in offering heca-
tombs Of helpless victims upon the
altar Of the Moloch of religious in
tolerence.
AS strange distempers and dis
eases at times ravage the earth and
scourge its inhabitants into despair,
SO often has been the operations of
religious frenzy. The raging hatred
of rival sectaries, belief in witch
craft. judicial astrology, the opera
tions of evil spirits, headed by the
evil one himself. has caused man
kind to rush into the widest ex-
cesses and the most fiendish, unrea-
s0nable prosecutions. Nor even now,
are the uneducated portions of the
community entirely free from the
grossness of such errors, the spirit
of such intolerant ignorance direct
ing the words and actions Of many,
and guided by evil disposed and am
bilious men, it paralyzes the efforts
of legislative wisdom, and serves as
an engine of oppression and injus-
lice. Yet they who say the world
has religiouSly refrigerated, have to
but little purpose studied the records
Of tie past. Evils there are, and
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