here now are its assailants? And
the answer must be, that many of its assailants are in their graves, but
that some of them are yet alive, and there are more to follow. But the
combat is very unequal. If the Rationalists could for only a few
years have the support of the Crowns, Parliaments, Aristocracies,
Universities, Schools, and Newspapers of the world; if they could preach
Science and Reason twice every Sunday from a hundred thousand pulpits,
perhaps the Christians would have less cause for boasting.

But as things are, we "Infidels" must cease to sigh for whirlwinds, and
do the best we can with the bellows.

So: the Christians claim that their religion has done wonders for the
world; a claim disputed by the Rationalists.

Now, when we consider what Christianity has done, we should take account
of the evil as well as the good. But this the Christians are unwilling
to allow.

Christians declare that the divine origin and truth of their religion
are proved by its beneficent results.

But Christianity has done evil as well as good. Mr. G. K. Chesterton,
while defending Christianity in the _Daily News_, said:

Christianity has committed crimes so monstrous that the sun might
sicken at them in heaven.

And no one can refute that statement.

But Christians evade the dilemma. When the evil works of their
religion are cited, they reply that those evils were wrought by false
Christianity, that they were contrary to the teachings of Christ, and so
were not the deeds of Christians at all.

_The Christian Commonwealth_, in advancing the above plea as to real
and false Christianity, instances the difference between Astrology and
Astronomy, and said:

We fear Mr. Blatchford, if he has any sense of consistency,
must, when he has finished his tirade against Christianity,
turn his artillery on Greenwich Observatory, and proclaim the
Astronomer Royal a scientific quack, on account of the follies
of star-gazers in the past.

But that parallel is not a true one. Let us suppose that the follies of
astrology and the discoveries of astronomy were bound up in one book,
and called the Word of God. Let us suppose we were told that the whole
book--facts, reason, folly, and falsehoods--was divinely inspired and
literally true. Let us suppose that any one who denied the old crude
errors of astrology was persecuted as a heretic. Let us suppose that any
one denying the theory of Laplace or the the