The Holy (?) Inquisition

Catholics and Protestants are inclined to call the doings of the Inquisition very unholy. Facing the facts charitably, we remember that it belonged to a less favored day. With enlightenment, thank God, has come a keener sense of the Justice and Love which Jesus inculcated: "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake."--Matthew 5:44; Mark 13:13; Luke 6:27.

The Law given Israel at Mt. Sinai expressed merely Justice in its command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." How seriously indeed portions of God's Word were overlooked in the persecutions of the Inquisition! Not only was there no love nor sympathy, but Justice in every sense of the word was violated. Thank God for the light of a better day!

There is in the human heart a treacherous disposition to do evil, if only an excuse for it can be found. As the Jews found an excuse for crucifying Jesus, stoning Stephen, etc., so the Inquisitors found an excuse for their persecutions. Like Saul of Tarsus, they thought they did God service. Matters have changed greatly, but persecution is still practised along different lines--ostracism, slander, boycotting. The Bible refers to this, saying, "Your brethren which cast you out said, The Lord be glorified! But He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."--Isaiah 66:5.

The mob spirit, the lynching spirit, is but a less legal form of "The Holy Inquisition." A Chicago Methodist Episcopal minister, angered at Prof. Farson, is quoted by the Indianapolis News and the New York Tribune as saying: "If I had the power I would skin that man, salt his hide and tack it on a barn door." The secular editor of the News says, "If such a violent outbreak was made by one who preaches the Gospel of Peace, what may we not expect from the sons of Belial?"

Evidences multiply that the mob spirit, the Inquisition spirit is growing. All should be on guard.