frescoes of Vasari , describing the attack upon the admiral , the king in council plotting the massacre , and the massacre itself . Gregory sent Charles the Golden Rose ; and four months after the massacre , . . . he listened complacently to the sermon of a French priest , . . . who spoke of ' that day so full of happiness and joy , when the most holy father received the news , and went in solemn state to render thanks to God and St . Louis .'" --Henry White , The Massacre of St . Bartholomew , ch . 14 , par . 34 .
The same master spirit that urged on the St . Bartholomew Massacre led also in the scenes of the Revolution . Jesus Christ was declared to be an impostor , and the rallying cry of the French infidels was , " Crush the Wretch ," meaning Christ . Heaven-daring blasphemy and abominable wickedness went hand in hand , and the basest of men , the most abandoned monsters of cruelty and vice , were most highly exalted . In all this , supreme homage was paid to Satan ; while Christ , in His characteristics of truth , purity , and unselfish love , was crucified .
" The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them , and shall overcome them , and kill them ." The atheistical power that ruled in France during the Revolution and the Reign of Terror , did wage such a war against God and His holy word as the world had never witnessed . The worship of the Deity was abolished by the National Assembly . Bibles were collected and publicly burned with every possible manifestation of scorn . The law of God was trampled underfoot . The institutions of the Bible were abolished . The weekly rest day was set aside , and in its stead every tenth day was devoted to reveling and blasphemy . Baptism and the Communion were prohibited . And announcements posted conspicuously over the burial places declared death to be an eternal sleep .
The fear of God was said to be so far from the beginning of wisdom that it was the beginning of folly . All religious worship was prohibited , except that of liberty and the country . The " constitutional bishop of Paris was brought forward to play the principal part in the most impudent and scandalous farce ever acted in the face of a national representation . . . . He was brought forward in full procession , to declare to the Convention that the religion which he had taught so many years was , in every respect , a piece of priestcraft , which had no foundation either in history or sacred truth . He disowned , in solemn and explicit terms , the existence of the Deity to whose worship he had been consecrated , and devoted himself in future to the homage of liberty , equality , virtue , and morality . He then laid on the table his episcopal decorations , and received a fraternal embrace from the president of the Convention . Several apostate priests followed the example of this prelate ." -Scott , vol . 1 , ch . 17 .
" And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them , and make merry , and shall send gifts one to another ; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth ." Infidel France had silenced the reproving voice of God ' s two witnesses . The word of truth lay dead in her
167