Fanaticism | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 18, 1865

Fanaticism.

"An opprobrious epithet is worse than the bad name given to a dog—it is like a sounding, clattering, tin-kettle tied to his tail, which frightens him and everybody else. Given to a man, the title saves his fellow-creatures from the trouble of thought, furnishes them with a ready-made verdict, and includes both a measure and its superior in one generalized condemnation. We remember the time when he who thought that all white men should vote, was regarded as a fanatic. We remember the time when he who thought alcohol a drink damaging to the constitution, was proclaimed a fanatic. We remember the time when he who believed in railways was stigmatized as a fanatic. We remember the time when the projectors of steam-ocean-navigation were proved to be fanatics—by Dr. Dionysius Lardner! We remember almost the time when Dr. Jenner was branded as a fanatic. We remember perfectly the time when street railways were denounced as fanaticism—by the proprietors of the street stages! We remember the time when telegraphing was a piece of pure, concrete fanaticism. We remember the time when cheap postage was condemned as the empty notion of a fanatic. We remember the time (and now we come back to the first point) when he who thought Human Slavery to be not only immoral, but dangerous, was proclaimed in pulpits and from platforms a roaring wild beast of a fanatic, to be caught, caged, scourged, bound, flogged, indicted, hung! Time seems to have demonstrated—at least it has to our satisfaction—that he who supposed Slavery to be a God-ordained institution, as sacred as the gospel and as permanent as the church, was the true fanatic. Bishop Elliot, of Georgia, has not yet recovered from his delusion. It is the pro-Slavery people, few, dispirited, not over-respectable, who are the fanatics now. Will they allow us to extend to them the assurances of our kindly and cordial commiseration? It is no tolerable fate to be left to hug delusions after they have been abandoned by the majority—to see one's faith demonstrated to be folly—to find the Deity all at once deserting his special institution, and leaving it at the mercy of events every one of which is fatal to its perpetuity! The wise will revise their theology. The fanatics will not."—N. Y. Tribune.*