Occasion to Blaspheme

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 31, 1871

Occasion to Blaspheme.

THE prophet reproved David for his sin, because he had given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. See from the following article, published in the New York Nation, what occasion fighting Christians give the heathen, and infidels generally, to blaspheme that which professes to be the religion of the Prince of Peace. How long will Christians have to fight to convert the world?

Considering that last Christmas day was the eighteen hundred and sixty-ninth anniversary of the birth of Christ, and that the religion he founded was, above all things, the religion of love, the condition of the Christian world presents a curious spectacle. Some forty millions of German Christians are helping in every way in their power to kill and maim a similar number of French Christians, and destroy their property. Large numbers of young French Christians, too, are lying in wait behind hedges and in ditches, trying to shoot passing German Christians through the head; and, when German Christians catch them, they shoot them through the head. Over half of France the Christian churches are turned into hospitals for persons whom their brother Christians have horribly gashed and mutilated. In another quarter of Europe, Russian Christians announce their determination to kill and maim any number of Latin Christians, besides Mohammedans, that may be necessary in order to secure themselves the privilege of keeping in the Black Sea, as many instruments for destroying human life and property as they think proper; and the Latin Christians reply that they will, in turn, slaughter any number of Greek Christians sooner than submit to anything of the kind. Over here we do not at present propose to kill anybody; but it was only a few weeks since, a notorious Massachusetts Christian got up and calmly proposed, as a means of making political capital for the party, that American Christians generally should go to killing English and Canadian Christians, and destroying their property, on account of a certain sum of money; and large numbers of the more “advanced” Christians think that, although he was mistaken, he is still a dear, delightful, naughty man, and that they must really forgive him. To a heathen looker-on of some cultivation and sense of humor, the whole thing, the festival included, would be as good as a play.