The worst religion of the world was the Presbyterianism of Scotland as
it existed in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The kirk had all
the faults of the church of Rome, without a redeeming feature. The kirk
hated music, painting, statuary, and architecture. Anything touched with
humanity--with the dimples of joy--was detested and accursed. God was
to be feared, not loved. Life was a long battle with the devil. Every
desire was of Satan. Happiness was a snare, and human love was wicked,
weak, and vain. The Presbyterian priest of Scotland was as cruel,
bigoted, and heartless as the familiar of the inquisition. One case will
tell it all. In the beginning of this, the nineteenth century, a boy
seventeen years of age, Thomas Aikenhead, was indicted and tried
at Edinburgh for blasphemy. He had on several occasions, when cold,
jocularly wished himself in hell, that he might get warm. The poor,
frightened boy recanted--begged for mercy; but he was found guilty,
hanged, thrown in a hole at the foot of the scaffold; and his weeping
mother vainly begged that his bruised and bleeding body might be given
to her.