Another Reason for the Pocasset Murder.
By Editor
IN noticing the horrible tragedy at Pocasset, Mass., we remarked on the unreasonable views expressed by most of the secular papers when speaking of religious matters. The Portland, Maine, Transcript is confessedly an able paper, in most respects; yet the following is its version of the cause of the terrible transaction:— "It is only an illustration of the dangers of that religious ecstacy which puts a literal interpretation of the Scriptures, and accepts them as a guide for every act," etc. One must certainly infer that the Bible is a very dangerous book, when strictly followed. It will probably answer as a foundation for a "high-toned" and "progressive" religion, which nominally accepts it as a rule of faith, while it does not really believe what it says, nor practice what it teaches. Were we to ascribe this foolish utterance of the editor of the Transcript to his eating dried codfish our reasoning would be as logical as his. Why? because we have a strong aversion to that kind of diet, as he appears to have to a literal acceptance of the Scriptures; and this is the only possible ground imaginable for either opinion. We think it would trouble the editor of the Transcript, notwithstanding his ability, to show how a literal acceptance of the Scriptures leads to a violation of God's commandments. A religious mania led this man and his associates to follow their own impressions in disregard of the plain precepts of the Bible, and the evil result is laid to the charge of the Bible! The lunacy of such reasoning may not be as immediately dangerous as that of Freeman and his associates, but it is no less apparent.