Religious Enthusiasm and Fanaticism
By H. Clay Trumbull
"Paul, thou art beside thyself." There is nothing in which men are more likely to be charged with insanity or fanaticism, when they are simply in earnest, than in religion. If a man gives himself up to money-making, or to the pushing of business plans, and drives at it year in and year out, he is "a very enterprising fellow." If he is all carried away with political partisanship, he is "a wide-awake citizen." If he lives for pleasure and pursues it recklessly day and night, he may be called "a little fast." But if he is in dead earnest in his purpose to honor Christ and to save souls; if he feels so deeply, in his desire to turn his fellow-men from their ruin, that he talks to them as though he believed what he said—then he is "a religious enthusiast," or "a fanatic;" and there are a great many people who "don't see why a Christian should make a fool of himself." It is better, however, to be thought crazy because of one's religious enthusiasm, than to be so little concerned about Christ and salvation as to never seem excited on the subject.—H. Clay Trumbull.