orm, with a sustained fire of one hundred thousand prayers every
second. His first requisite for a prosperous church would be a good
water-power for prayer-mills. And yet, absurd as these prayer-mills of
the heathen really are, it may not be safe to bring them under
unqualified condemnation: for who among us has not sometimes heard windy
prayers even in our Christian churches? Young clergymen are especially
liable and, I might say, prone to this mockery. These, however, are but
exceptions to the general Christian rule, viz.: that the Omniscient
careth only for heart-service; and that, before Him, all mere
lip-service or machine-service, is simply an abomination.

A less innocent kind of praying is one of the religious humbugs of the
bloody and cruel Sandwich Islands form of heathenism. Here a practice
prevailed, and does yet, of paying money to a priest to pray your enemy
to death. For cash in advance, this bargain could always be made, and so
groveling was the spiritual cowardice of these poor savages, that, like
the negro victim of Obi, the man prayed at seldom failed to sicken as
soon as he found out what was going on, and to waste away and die.

This bit of heathen humbug now in operation, from so many distant
portions of the earth, shows how radically similar is all heathenism. It
shows, too, how mean, vulgar, filthy, and altogether vile, is such
religion as man, unassisted, contrives for himself. It shows, again, how
sadly great is the proportion of the human race still remaining in this
brutal darkness. And, by contrast, it affords us great reason for
thankfulness that we live in a land of better culture, and happier hopes
and practices.

CHAPTER XLIX.

ORDEALS.--DUELS.--WAGER OF BATTLE.--ABRAHAM THORNTON.--RED HOT
IRON.--BOILING WATER.--SWIMMING.--SWEARING.--CORSNED.--PAGAN ORDEALS.

Ordeals belong to times and communities of rudeness, violence,
materialism, ignorance, gross superstition and blind faith. The theory
of ordeals is, that God will miraculously decide in the case of any
accused person referred to Him. He will cause the accused to be
victorious or defeated in a duel, will punish him on the spot for
perjury, and if the innocent be exposed to certain physical dangers,
will preserve him harmless.

The duel, for instance, used to be called the "ordeal by battle," and
was simply the commitment of the decision of a cause to God. Duels were
regularly prefaced by the solemn prayer "God show the