to the
ingenuity of mankind were employed for the torture and death of
heretics--all in the name of Christ and for the salvation of the world.
Catholics tortured and burned Protestants and Protestants murdered each
other. Calvin consented to the burning of Servetus and the New England
Puritans hung witches and persecuted Quakers and Baptists by burning
holes in their tongues with hot irons, and driving them from their
midst as they would the pestilence. I wondered how, if God ever takes
any interest in affairs on earth and hears the prayers of his children,
he could sit supinely by on his throne and permit such things to be
done in his name and for his glory! If his spirit could enter into the
hearts of men and direct their thoughts and minds, why did He not do it
and stop this useless slaughter? Again I turned back to the beginning
of things. If God foresaw what Adam would do and the dreadful
consequences of it, why did He not make him different so he would not
fall? Was it not just as easy? But if God can be better glorified by
saving a fallen creature than by keeping him from falling, then why did
He not make this "plan of salvation" so plain and clear that there
could be no possibility of misunderstanding or misconstruing it? If
God was to be ultimately glorified in the sacrifice of his son as a
means of salvation for the world, and this salvation was to come simply
by faith in this promise, why did He not make this promise so specific
and clear that the most ignorant and benighted could not misunderstand
and fail to accept it? Why did not God reveal this promise to all
mankind alike, so that all might be saved, instead of to one family and
one nation? And when this son came and "died for the world" why did
not God make it known to the entire world instead of a handful of Jews
in an obscure corner of the earth? And when this "plan" was completed,
why was it not heralded in every nook and corner of the earth, wherever
man was found, instead of being confined for centuries around the
shores of the Mediterranean? Then again, I say, why was not this
"plan" made so plain and unequivocal that no man, however ignorant,
could possibly fail to comprehend it, and all men understand it exactly
alike, and thus live in the bonds of a true brotherhood, the sons of
the one great God, instead of butchering each other for fifteen hundred
years in the name of religion, each sect claiming to be the only true
followers of th