THEY WERE SEEKING TO KILL HIM.
By H. Clay Trumbull
There was no so common answer to Paul's preaching as a proposition to kill him. And that mode of meeting an argument—especially on religious subjects—has always been popular. The first murder was prompted by religious bigotry. Various bodies of Christians—Protestant as well as Romanist—have tried to kill off those who differed with them on points of theology. It would hardly be safe to-day to trust any religious denomination with irresponsible and unlimited power over other denominations. The probability is that there would be more or less killing done; at all events, violence would not be unknown. But killing a man never answers his arguments; nor does it destroy the cause he represents—whether that cause be good or bad. Killing a man, or offering him violence for his religious opinions, is the poorest way of dealing with him, notwithstanding the venerable precedents in its favor.—H. Clay Trumbull.