One can scarce fail to be struck with the great appropriateness of the symbols made use of in the book of the Apocalypse to represent the two leading superstitions of the modern world—Islamism and Romanism. The one by “a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace;" the other by a wild beast which rises out of the abyss, bearing on its form the unmistakeable characters of ferocity and cruelty. In all their essential elements these two superstitions are alike, and hence a common origin is assigned them. Both ascend out of the abyss. Very much alike, too, as might have have been inferred from the symbols by which they are foreshadowed, has been their action on the world. Both have operated injuriously ; but each has operated after its own way. A smoke, especially if charged with mephitic or pestilential particles, will work as fearful havoc as the sword of war or the beast of prey; but its operation is more slow and gradual. The wild beast surprises his victim with a spring; and with overmastering violence rends him in pieces. With the indications of the inspired symbols agree most thoroughly the whole history of Islamism and Romanism. The former has been no such ferocious persecutor as the latter. It may have been as destructive within its own territory, but not nearly so much so beyond it. “ The sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" There ensued a thorough obfuscation of both the political and spiritual heavens. The faculties of men were benumbed and stupified. The great lights of religion, of science, of Government were barely visible through the thick haze; and at last they went out altogether, overwhelming the East in unnatural and portentous night. The green rust of ruin began to cover all things. And now, what at this day, is the condition of this region of the world? The blighted earth, the mouldering cities, the livid face of man, bespeak a region long shut out from the wholesome air and light, and long exposed to the mephitic influence of “the smoke from the pit.” It has been otherwise with Romanism, as its symbol indicated it should be. It burst upon the world like wild beast, and its progress may be tracked by its ravages. In all periods of its existence it has been animated by an intensely bitter and bloodthirsty malignity, if we except, a few brief intervals of dormancy, during which it had retired like the gorged wolf to its lair.
The religious element is the dominant and germinating one in every society. It is that out of which not only the morals, but also the social privileges and political rights, of a people grow. Penetrate to the heart of every political Constitution in the world, and there you will find a religious dogma. Like the primal salt dropped into the solution, to begin the crystallisation of the mass, this religious dogma serves as a nucleus, around which all the other dogmas, whether of a political or social kind, may cluster. In India, in Turkey, in Papal Europe, and in Britain, you find this to be the case. Brahmanism in India, Islamism in Turkey, Romanism in Europe, and Protestantism in Britain, determine, in their respective countries, the form and character of the political Government. In Islamism and Romanism, as in all false religions, you find the despotic element and accordingly the Government is despotic. These systems being infallible in their claims, and at the same time contrary to nature and truth, necessarily require the coercion of the human understanding, and the restriction of political action. Christianity, on the other hand, admits unbounded liberty, both of thought and of social development, because it is agreeable to the constitution of things. Thus, necessarily, the religion of a people determines their character and destinies. It determines whether they shall live under a despotism or under a free Government, and whether in ages to come they shall exhibit a moral and physical ruin like Turkey, or a scene of vigor and progressive development like Britain, The corollary deducible from this is, that all those theories of politics which overlook the religious element, —which do not give it the very first place among causes contributing to the order, freedom, and prosperity of the nations,—are altogether false. They ignore the very principle out of which grows all political liberty, with the material and commercial advantages which always attend it.
The simultaneous and sudden revival of these religious systems,—we mean Islamism and Romanism,—forms a remarkable sign of these latter times. Both in the East and in the West they are giving a form and color to politics. In the West the spiritual has asserted its superiority over the temporal; governments have again become the tool of the church; and a system, claiming to be infallible, is trampling upon the rights of society and the independence of nations. In the East, too, Islamism, as a religious system, has suddenly risen into unusual power. The priests of that faith meet every effort at national reform with the unanswerable objection,'the Koran forbids it.' The Turk cannot borrow from the infidel, because it is contrary to the law of the Prophet. He cannot wear the dress or adopt the policy of the nations of the West, because in doing so he would violate his creed. The Koran is the basis of the political as well as of the ecclesiastical system of the Ottoman empire ; and no reform can be introduced into any department with out endangering the foundations of the monarchy. The prerogatives of the Sultan, who is head of both church and state, cannot be curtailed, the legislative and judicial codes cannot be amended, nor can the social and political privileges of the people be in the least enlarged, without destroying the great fundamental principles of the State. Such is the unhappy predicament of the Ottoman. They have come into the same dead lock with the Papal nations of the West. They must abandon their faith, or perish. Mahommedanism, like Romanism, is effete as a popular superstition, and the masses have been driven by their physical and political sufferings into revolt against it. Thus it is that the great struggle between religious dominancy and national existence has begun in that quarter of the world, as well as in the West.
On the great principles we have indicated ought all our home legislation to proceed. Our great object ought to be to protect and still further develops the primal element in our Constitution, which is our Protestantism. We firmly believe, that while Britain remains Protestant, the world will not be able to subdue her. Free Trade is something, the extension of the franchise is something, and so is financial reform; but our Protestantism is worth them all, because it is the palladium of them all; and what we now need at home is not so much material reforms, as the strengthening of the Constitution by the maintenance of its great fundamental principles. But further, any administration which would aspire worthily to govern the country must have fixed principles as regards their foreign policy. Our extensive and intimate relations with other countries demand this, as well as the position we hold as the first political and moral Power in the world. It is a miserable policy which counsels us to shut ourselves up within our own island, to occupy ourselves with our trade and our commerce, and to give ourselves no concern about the principles which may triumph or fall on the Continent. In the first place, this policy is singularly selfish. Nothing that appertains to the happiness of nations ought to be foreign to us. An injury inflicted on one member of the human family is hurtful to all. We promote the good of each individual part when we promote the good of the species. Greater selfishness we can scarce imagine than for a nation, with the political and moral influence of Britain, to stand silently by and permit the universal extinction of all political and social rights. Our own home is undisturbed, and therefore we can look unmoved on a world in ruins. But this policy is not more inhuman than it is short-sighted. Those sordid interests themselves, for the sake of which this policy is advocated, are eminently put in peril. What commerce can we have with nations sinking deeper every day in physical and financial ruin? What can a beggared people, living on soils which oppression scarce leaves them time to cultivate, give us in return for our products? No inconsiderable section of the Italian population now live on alms and acorns. The rich resources of the country the hand of tyranny is locking against the foreign trader, as well as against the natives of the soil. In fine, such a policy is as impolitic as regards our own safety, as it is selfish, and sordid, and short sighted. If the principles which have led to our own prosperity be crushed abroad, how long shall we be able to maintain them at home? What have we made by the timid, un-English, un-Protestant, un-manly policy we have pursued those four years past? Have we gained respect or influence abroad? We have lost both. We do not say that we ought to have intervened by arms; but till lately England could have rescued the victim and held the oppressor in check by her word. And while we have been sitting silently by, a vast military confederacy has been rising on the Continent, which now overawes Europe, and threatens England herself. Should these threats be realised, as assuredly they will if the Jesuits have their way, along with higher interests, those base and earthly ones, for which we have sacrificed the prestige and honor of Britain, will perish. Nor is it only in Europe that the horizon is troubled,—a dark cloud is gathering in the East. We shall some of these days be startled by the crash of an old empire, and may get involved in the partitions and conflicts consequent on its fall. At home, too, matters are not in the most prosperous train. The Church of England gives some signs of breaking up. The Irish Catholics are displaying and propagating sentiments of bitter hostility against England—and her Government. Ceaseless and insidious attempts are being made to undermine our Constitution, which are all the more successful that it is not perceived by statesmen wherein lies its great strength. The Jesuits are more numerous, and are more busily intriguing, than has been the case in England since the days of Elizabeth. There is a more general movement towards Rome among the upper classes than has been witnessed since the fall of the Stuarts. But these signs of evil at home only make it the more indispensable to have a foreign policy steadily adverse to the pretensions of Rome. It is surely better to fight our enemies on a foreign soil, than to join battle with them on our own.—Australian Witness.
Banner (Melbourne, Vic. 1853,) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article179482179
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