ing, in another place, of the causes which brought about
the decline of Protestantism, etc., Mr. Hallam says: 'We ought to reckon
also among the principal causes of this change, those perpetual
disputes, those irreconcilable animosities, that bigotry, above all, and
persecuting spirit, which were exhibited in the Lutheran and Calvinistic
churches. Each began with a common principle--the necessity of an
orthodox faith. But this orthodoxy meant nothing more than their _own_
belief as opposed to that of their adversaries; a belief acknowledged to
be fallible, yet maintained as certain; rejecting authority with one
breath and appealing to it in the next, and claiming to rest on sure
proofs of reason and Scripture, which their opponents were ready with
just as much confidence to invalidate.'

Luther was one of the many reformers who, feeling the necessity of
freedom for themselves, never dream of according it to others. His
self-hold, his 'me,' was masterful, and led him far astray from the
inevitable logic of his perilous position. His 'I-ness' was so supreme
that he mistook his own convictions for the truths of the Most High--a
common mistake among reformers! He did not feel the sovereignty of man
with regard to his fellow man, his positive inalienable right to deal
with his God alone in matters of faith and religious conviction. The
golden rule of our Master, 'Do as you would be done by,' seems simple
and self-evident, and yet it is a late fruit in the garden of human
culture. Mr. Roscoe says: 'When Luther was engaged in his opposition to
the Church of Rome, he asserted the right of private judgment with the
confidence and courage of a martyr. But no sooner had he freed his
followers from the chains of papal domination, than he forget other in
many respects equally intolerable: and it was the employment of his
latter years to counteract the beneficial effects produced by his former
labors.'

Any system which saps the foundation of religious liberty, which forces
itself between man and his Maker, cannot guarantee to us one of the main
objects of all free governments--security in the pursuit of happiness.
The Reformation did not give us religious freedom, therefore it did not
give or suggest to us our democratic institutions. All that is true and
pure in them springs from the very heart of Christianity itself. 'Where
the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.' Much of the manifestation
of the philosophy of freedom depends