se up to my
memory, I will mention but one, which had a powerful influence on the
career of some of those present. I had been reading an account of the
Crusades, and my enthusiasm had been unusually stirred up on the
subject. "I wish that I could have lived in those days!" I exclaimed
(I was but a lad it must be remembered.) "What a glorious work those
warriors of old undertook, who with sword and lance, under the banner of
the cross, they went forth to conquer infidels, to establish the true
faith, to recover the blessed land, hallowed by the Redeemer's
footsteps, from the power of the cruel followers of the false prophet of
Mecca. How degenerate are we Christians of the present generation! Who
among us dreams of expelling the Turks from Syria? On the contrary, our
statesmen devote their energies to keep them there. I really believe
that were Peter the Hermit to rise from his grave, he would not find a
dozen true men to follow him."

"Possibly not," said my father, quietly; "though he might find two dozen
fully as wise, and as honest, too, as those he led to destruction. But
has it not struck you, David, that there are other conquests to be
achieved in the present age more important than winning Palestine from
the Moslem; that there is more real fighting to be done than all the
true soldiers of the cross, even were they to be united in one firm
phalanx, could accomplish? Sword and spear surely are not the weapons
our loving Saviour desires His followers to employ when striving to
bring fresh subjects under His kingdom. That they were to be used was
indeed the idea of our ignorant ancestors, when the teaching of a
corrupt Church had thrown a dark veil over their understandings.
Christians only in name, the truth was so disfigured and transformed
among them, that it exercised no influence over their hearts; and though
they believed the Bible to be of value, they regarded it rather in the
light of a mystic charm than the word of God. Thus all the great truths
of our most holy faith were so travestied and changed as to produce
alone a degrading superstition. They believed that the Bible had the
power of exorcising spirits of evil. So it has; but it is not the
closed Bible, which they in their ignorance employed--not the mere
printed paper bound into a volume--unread, or if read, misunderstood, at
which the devil and his angels tremble. No; it is the open Bible--the
Bible in many tongues--read and understood t