to go, the sooner it
gives up the ghost the better, to save the medical
expense."

At various era-marking periods in the annals of history, the
multitudes have been thus disturbed. They have felt that the old-time
beliefs of their fathers, the tradition of ages, the oracles, which
from early infancy they have learned to revere and hold most sacred,
were being demolished. This naturally aroused bitter antagonism in
their souls. They believed they were carrying out God's wishes when
like Saul of Tarsus, they aided in slaying heretics. Thus when the
great Nazarene taught a higher, sweeter, and nobler code of ethics
than the ancient Jewish law-givers and teachers, he was persecuted and
slain because the Jews believed he sought to overthrow their revered
and sacred truths. In a like manner Paul and the early advocates of
Christianity, when they proclaimed their religion in Gentile lands
frequently aroused the bitterest antagonism. At a later date Galileo's
demonstrations and Sir Isaac Newton's discovery occasioned precisely
the game dismay, and called forth bitter and pronounced opposition,
because it was felt that in one case the authority of the Bible was
impeached, and in the other that God was to be taken out of the
universe. When Luther and the Reformation broke the dead calm of
centuries of growing corruption and externalization in the religious
life of Europe, Christendom felt a thrill of dismay. New disturbing
elements had entered the fields. The general uneasiness on the part of
tens of thousands of people who believed they were sincere worshippers
of God, was succeeded by an intense desire to crush out this dangerous
heresy with fire and torture, if necessary. The terrible days, months,
and years that followed the dawn of the Reformation, bear melancholy
testimony to the innate ferocity of man's nature, and the relentless
character of religious warfare. Nevertheless, in spite of persecution,
the new truth spread. A broader horizon opened to man's view. That
conflict marked the birth of one of the grandest epochs in humanity's
onward march. Thus has it ever been. To-day stones the prophet,
to-morrow tearfully rears a monument and treasures his lofty
utterances.

Yet with every transition period comes the old-time struggle, the
apprehension and anguish of spirit, _the night of doubt_. It is,
therefore, not surprising that the oppression of fear weighs on the
minds of all those who believe that