Page:Miscellaneous Writings.djvu/371

Rh into Europe. The Spirit bestows spiritual gifts, God's presence and providence. St. Paul stood where Socrates had stood four hundred years before, defending himself against the charge of atheism; in the place where Demosthenes had pleaded for freedom in immortal strains of eloquence.

We need the spirit of the pious Polycarp, who, when the proconsul said to him, “I will set the beasts upon you, unless you yield your religion,” replied: “Let them come; I cannot change from good to bad.” Then they bound him to the stake, set fire to the fagots, and his pure and strong faith rose higher through the baptism of flame.

Methinks the infidel was blind who said, “Christianity is fit only for women and weak men;” but even infidels may disagree. Bonaparte declared, “Ever since the reign of Christianity began the loftiest intellects have had a practical faith in God.” Daniel Webster said, “My heart has always assured and reassured me that Christianity must be a divine reality.”

To turn the popular indignation against an advanced form of religion, the pagan slanderers affirmed that Christians took their infants to a place of worship in order to offer them in sacrifice, — a baptism not of water but of blood, thus distorting or misapprehending the purpose of Christian sacraments. Christians met in midnight feasts in the early days, and talked of the crucified Saviour; thence arose the rumor that it was a part of Christian worship to kill and eat a human being.

Really, Christianity turned men away from the thought of fleshly sacrifice, and directed them to spiritual