Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

38 THE GODS OF THE NATIONSResuming O then for a moment our view of heathenismas a whole, / with regard ~ to the exhibitionof diabolic power in it, let us bear in mind, joinedto the absence of moral teaching, its flagrantly immoraldisposition; secondly, its illogical character,by which it is an insult to human reason whileyet accepted by the human will; and thirdly, thesuperhuman effects noted in it and attached to itsrites, ceremonies, and practices, attested by manygenerations alike of its victims as of its opponents.These proofs have each their own separateforce, but they have likewise as to our conclusiona cumulative force ; and its result is, thatthe existence of a diabolic kino'dom cT and sovereign Othroned in heathenism, pervading its rites anddirecting its operations, which is so expressly declaredin Holy Writ, is no le>s strongly proved bjthe facts of history.6. Now, having sketched in four main pointsthe substance of this polytheism, its multiplicity,its universality, its hold upon daily life, and itsmoral corruption, to all which a consummatingforce is added by the indwelling of diabolic power,it remains to give a srlance at certain conditionsand circum-taiices under which it was acting O onthe minds of men. AVe have here taken it andexamined it by itself, abstracting it from thosepaucos discipulos suos faciunt, plurimorumque doctores. Neque enimpotuit, nisi primum ipsis docentibus. disci quid quisque illorum appetat,quid exhorreat quo invitetur nomine, quo cogatur, unde magicae artesearumque artifices exstiterunt. "