riefly
summarized to illustrate the folly and sad consequences of suppressing
the Bible and Bible readers in that nation. The historic value of these
incidents should make this story interesting and instructive to every
student and teacher.

ATHEISM, DEISM, PHILOSOPHISM

Louis XV, king of France, at the end of a reign of fifty-nine years,
dies unwept and unmourned in 1774. Affirming there is no God or heaven,
at the beginning of his long reign, and not permitting any of his
courtiers to mention the word "death" in his presence, he abandons
himself to a life of forbidden pleasure, humiliates and scandalizes the
people of France instead of enlightening and elevating them. He inherits
and maintains the tyrannous and oppressive feudal system, that prevents
the common people from acquiring ownership of land. His career has been
described, "as an hideous abortion and mistake of nature, the use and
meaning of which is not yet known." The persecution of Bible readers, or
Protestants, is begun with a general massacre at Paris, on the
anniversary of Saint Bartholomew in 1572. Those who escape the bloody
horrors of that occasion, are commanded to emigrate from France, on pain
of death. The following events occur, during the latter part of the
last half century, preceding the French Revolution.

The leaders in thought are the shameless and selfish infidels and
deists, Voltaire, Rosseau, Robespierre and others like them. Paris
admires her deistical authors and makes them the objects of
hero-worship. They are called "Philosophs," and Bible readers must not
stand in their way. Philosophism sits joyful in glittering saloons, is
the pride of nobles and promises a coming millennium. Crushing and
scattering the last elements of the Protestant Reformation, they blindly
and falsely talk of a Reformed France. The people applaud, instead of
suppressing these false teachers. The highest dignitaries of the church
waltz with quack-prophets, pick pockets and public women. The invisible
world of Satan is displayed and the smoke of its torment goes up
continually. No provision is made for the general education of the
common people and yet the government is fast becoming bankrupt.

In 1774 Louis XVI succeeds his father, as the last King of France. He is
youthful, uneducated, imbecile. He is wedded to a giddy superficial
queen. Both are infidels and incapable of any intelligent acts of
government. With imbecility and credulity on the throne, co