23/60 Negative, cold, corrosive, sneering, it operated like poison--it froze--it killed--it never gave life. Thus, it never produced--even against the errors it assailed, which were but the human alloy of a divine idea--the whole effect it should have elicited. It made sceptics, instead of believers. The theocratic reaction was prompt and universal, as it ought to have been. Impiety alone will never ruin a human worship: a faith destroyed must be replaced by a faith. |