Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

232 INFLUENCE OF SCRIPTUREthe reacli of its influence, and have remained so for nearly two thousandyears.Moreover, those who have been made acquainted with Christianityare unable to agree in what itconsists.1204. As I have already urij^cd, if we were to judge of the extention ofChristianity by the number of Christians who do not in practice violate theprecepts of Christ, it might be a question whether the name of Christendomis applicable to any part of the world.On the massacre at Sinojye, as a prohahlc consequence of Rclifjious Fanaticismand Intolerance.1205. As in consideration of the idolatry of the Amalekites the Israeliteswere, according to the Bible, authorized to extirpate that nation, fora wrong done to Israel some hundred years before, may not the Russiansimagine themselves justified for the massacre of Sinope ?(1 Sam. xv.)120G. The Turks have done vastly more harm to the Greek Christians,when, with fire and sword, they subdued the Greek empire, and obligedeach man to pay annually for wearing his head, than the tribe of Amalekdid to the Hebrews. In the one case there does not appear to have beenfor centuries any repetition of the wrong; but in the other the wrongswere reiterated, and of an enduring nature. It is true that the Mohammedansovereigns were in Turkey more tolerant of their Christian subjectsthan Christian sovereigns were of Mohammedans ; or even of the Albigenses,Lollards, Wicliffitcs, Lutherans, or Calvinists.The Turks neverintroduced an inquisitorial tribunal to burn or torture unbelievers.On this account they may think themselves less open to the charge ofcruel intolerance than some of the self-called disciples of Christ; and nodoubt the discordancy between the conduct of those disciples and theprecepts of their teacher, may have contributed to their contemptuousopinions of those whom they improperly call infidels to Mohammed, notperceiving that people who have not professed a religion,can no more beinfidels thereto than one man can be guilty of infidelity to another man'swife.This argument, however, would be answered by the fact that Christianscall Mohammedans infidels, not in consequence of any violation oftheir faith in Mohammed, but because they have never had any faith inChrist.1207. Such skeptical Mohammedans as Lady Mary Wortley Montaguemade mention of in her letters from Constantinople, will no doubt considerthe term infidel applicable only to such as break their professed faith,Nwhatever it may be.1208. Agreeably to this definition, every fighting or wealth -seeking^Christian is an infidel to the religion which he professes ; every Mohamimedanwho indulges in wine isan infidel.1209. The religion taught by Mohammed, like that of Moses, authoriizedthe most cruel wars, the extermination of nations for erroneous belief.