is
true, touched upon these matters before; but when in our day, we hear of
_Latest News from the Kingdom of God_ [Footnote: A missionary paper, of
which the 40th annual number appeared in 1856], we shall not be weary of
bringing old news to mind. And above all, don't let us forget India, the
cradle of the human race, or at least of that part of it to which we
belong, where first Mohammedans, and then Christians, were most cruelly
infuriated against the adherents of the original faith of mankind. The
destruction or disfigurement of the ancient temples and idols, a
lamentable, mischievous and barbarous act, still bears witness to the
monotheistic fury of the Mohammedans, carried on from Marmud, the
Ghaznevid of cursed memory, down to Aureng Zeb, the fratricide, whom the
Portuguese Christians have zealously imitated by destruction of temples
and the _auto de fe_ of the inquisition at Goa. Don't let us forget the
chosen people of God, who after they had, by Jehovah's express command,
stolen from their old and trusty friends in Egypt the gold and silver
vessels which had been lent to them, made a murderous and plundering
inroad into "the Promised Land," with the murderer Moses at their head,
to tear it from the rightful owners,--again, by the same Jehovah's
express and repeated commands, showing no mercy, exterminating the
inhabitants, women, children and all (Joshua, ch. 9 and 10). And all
this, simply because they weren't circumcised and didn't know Jehovah,
which was reason enough to justify every enormity against them; just as
for the same reason, in earlier times, the infamous knavery of the
patriarch Jacob and his chosen people against Hamor, King of Shalem, and
his people, is reported to his glory because the people were
unbelievers! (Genesis xxxiii. 18.) Truly, it is the worst side of
religions that the believers of one religion have allowed themselves
every sin again those of another, and with the utmost ruffianism and
cruelty persecuted them; the Mohammedans against the Christians and
Hindoos; the Christians against the Hindoos, Mohammedans, American
natives, Negroes, Jews, heretics, and others.

Perhaps I go too far in saying _all_ religions. For the sake of truth, I
must add that the fanatical enormities perpetrated in the name of
religion are only to be put down to the adherents of monotheistic
creeds, that is, the Jewish faith and its two branches, Christianity and
Islamism. We hear of nothing of the kind in