o the poor,
without distinction of Jew, Christian, or Mohammedan. Yet this brilliant
ruler had to repel Christian attacks on his dominions, and to witness
the most abominable cruelty wrought by the soldiers of the Cross. Where,
in the annals of Christendom, shall we find such a noble example of true
charity; of charity which overflows the petty barriers of creeds, and
loses itself in the great ocean of humanity?

RELIGION AND MONEY.

"Every religion is a getting religion; for though I myself get nothing,
I am subordinate to those that do. So you may find a lawyer in the
Temple that gets little for the present; but he is fitting himself to be
in time one of those great ones that do get."--Selden's Table Talk.

"The Divine stands wrapt up in his cloud of mysteries, and the amused
Laity must pay Tithes and Veneration to be kept in obscurity, grounding
their hope of future knowledge on a competent stock of present
ignorance."--George Farquhar.

Religion and priestcraft may not be the same thing in _essence_. That
is a point on which we do not intend to dogmatise, and this is not the
opportunity to argue it. But _practically_ religion and priestcraft
_are_ the same thing. They are inextricably bound up together,. and
they will suffer a common fate. In saying this, however, we must
be understood to use the word "religion" in its ordinary sense, as
synonymous with _theology_. Religion as non-supernatural, as the
idealism of morality, the sovereign bond of collective society, is a
matter with which we are not at present concerned.

Priestcraft did not _invent_ religion. To believe that it did is
the error of an impulsive and uninformed scepticism. But priestcraft
developed it, systematised it, enforced it, and perpetuated it. This
could not be effected, however, except in alliance with the temporal
power; and accordingly, in every country--savage, barbaric, or
civilised--the priests and the privileged classes are found in harmony.
They have occasional differences, but these are ultimately adjusted.
Sometimes the priesthood overrules the temporal power, but more
frequently the former gives way to the latter; indeed, it is instructive
to watch how the course of religion has been so largely determined by
political influences. The development of Judaism was almost entirely
controlled by the political vicissitudes of the Hebrews. The political
power really decided the great controversy between Arianism and
Athanasianism.