e truth is, all
priests teach religion which no wit can reconcile with reason, and very
many of them make their followers believe, and perhaps believe
themselves, that to villify, abuse, and hunt down 'infidels,' are acts
acceptable in the sight of God. The idea of compensating poor
unbelievers in this world by an extra quantum of comfort for the
torments they are doomed to suffer in the next, never enters their head.
Indeed, not a few of them gloat with satisfaction over the prospect of
'infidels' gnashing their teeth in that fiery gulph prepared for the
devil and his angels. By this odious class of fanatics neither the worm
that dieth not, nor the flame never to be extinguished, is deemed
sufficient punishment for the wretch whose thoughts concerning religion
are not as their thoughts. By them the imagined 'Creator of the Heavens
and the earth' is dressed, up in attributes the most frightful. Witness
the character of Him implied in the conceit of that popular preacher who
declared 'there are children in hell not a span long'--a declaration
which could only be made by one whose humanity was extinguished by
divinity.

Our pulpits can furnish many such preachers of 'a religion of charity,'
while a whole army of Christian warriors might be gathered from
metropolitan pulpits alone, who deeming it impious to say their God of
mercy would permit the burning of infants not a span long, do
nevertheless, firmly believe that 'children of a larger growth' may
justly be tormented by the great king of kings; and as _ignorantia legis
non excusat_ is a maxim of _human law_, so, according to them, ignorance
of _divine_ law is no excuse whatever, either for breaking or
disregarding it.

The Author of this Apology was recently in Scotland, where a vast number
of religious tracts were put into his hand, one of which contains the
following among other striking paragraphs:--

'Man could, not _create_ himself, and far less can he save himself. When
God made him, he brought him out of nothing; when God. saves him, he
brings him out of a state far lower and worse than nothing. If in the
one case, then, everything depended, upon God's will and decree, much
more in the other. There can be no injustice here. Had God pleased, He
might have saved the whole world. But he did not; and thousands are now
in hell, and shall be to all eternity.'

'Hell is peopled already with millions of immortal souls doomed to fiery
wrath; while Heaven is filled w