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 Antichrist. Blame not  the  preachers;  'tis  useless  to break  the  bread  of  life  when  men  have  lost  their  appetite. The real  culprits  were  the  original  mutineers on Peter's  bark — the  authors  of  religious  privateering and  piracy. That bark  was  moored  while  Jesus taught; they  weighed  anchor  only  when  He  ordered them to  let  down  their  nets  for  a  draught. Though progressive in  her  methods,  the  Church  in  her  teaching is  necessarily  conservative. The so-called  reformers, on  the  contrary,  hauled  up  the  anchor  of conservatism,  and  drifting,  suffered  shipwreck  of their  faith. Their followers  to-day  are  only  nominally Christian. The natural  part  of  Christianity — humanitarianism — remains,  but  the  supernatural  virtues are  practically  unknown. Purely natural  virtue will never  save  a  soul,  much  less  a  people,  from  God's anger. Herein among  other  respects  our  nation much resembles  the  ancient  Romans. They had many good  and  noble  traits,  but  the  patrician's  religion was  culture  and  refinement,  while  the  worship of the  gods  was  left  to  freedmen  and  to  slaves. Lax marriage laws  resulted  in  the  degradation  of  their womankind and  the  shattering  of  the  nation's  corner-stone— the  family. Verily, at  no  distant  day, America bids  fair  to  out-Roman  the  Romans,  for, over and  above  the  other  evils  we  have  copied  from her, we  have  accomplished  a  dangerous  something Rome never  attempted — the  divorce  of  religion  and education. But the  acme  of  Rome's  guilt  was  her hostility to  Christianity. For that,  God  crushed  her, and so  suddenly  that  Vespasian,  with  all  his  glory,