"charity" which "thinketh no evil." But the hireling advocates and
champions of Christianity have ever treated the apostle's counsel with
contempt in their dealings with sceptics and heretics. Public discussion
is avoided by these professors of the gospel of love and practisers of
the gospel of hatred. They find it "unprofitable." Consequently they
neglect argument and resort to personalities. They frequently insinuate,
and when it is safe they openly allege, that all who do not share their
opinions are bad husbands, bad fathers, bad citizens, and bad men. Thus
they cast libellous dust in the eyes of their dupes, and incapacitate
them from seeing the real facts of the case for themselves. A notable
illustration of this evil principle may be found in a recent speech by
the Bishop of Chester. Dr. Jayne presided at a Town Hall meeting of the
local branch of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children, and took advantage of the occasion to slander a considerable
section of his fellow citizens. With a pious arrogance which is peculiar
to his boastful faith, he turned what should have been a humanitarian
assembly into a receptacle for his discharge of insolent fanaticism.
Parentage is a natural fact, and the love of offspring is a well-nigh
universal law of animal life. It would seem, therefore, that a Society
for preventing cruelty to children by parents of perverted instincts,
might live aloof from sectarian squabbles. But the Bishop of Chester
is of a different opinion. He is a professional advocate of one form of
faith, and his eye is strictly bent on business. He appears to be unable
to talk anything but "shop." Even while pressing the claims of poor,
neglected, ill-used children on the sympathy and assistance of a
generous public, he could not refrain from insulting all those who have
no love for his special line of business. And the insult was not only
gratuitous; it was groundless, brutal, and malignant; so much so,
indeed, that we cherish a hope that the Bishop has overreached himself,
and that his repulsive slander will excite a re-action in favor of the
objects of his malice.

Dr. Jayne told the meeting that "the persons who were most liable to be
guilty of cruelty to their children were those artisans who had taken up
Secularist opinions, and who looked upon their children as a nuisance,
and were glad to get them out of the way."

Now, on the face of it, the statement is positively grotesque in