He spoke of the fearful slaughter of the preceding winter, in which
neither years nor sex had been spared, as a triumph of the righteous
cause, and as an encouragement to persevere. Then, by a transition that
was not extraordinary in an age so remarkable for religious subtleties,
Meek returned to the more mild and obvious truths which pervade the
doctrines of him whose church he professed to uphold. His hearers were
admonished to observe lives of humility and charity, and were piously
dismissed, with his benediction, to their several homes.
The congregation quitted the building with the feelings of men who thought
themselves favored by peculiar and extraordinary intelligences with the
author of all truth, while the army of Mahomet itself was scarcely less
influenced by fanaticism than these blinded zealots. There was something
so grateful to human frailty in reconciling their resentments and their
temporal interests to their religious duties, that it should excite little
wonder when we add that most of them were fully prepared to become
ministers of vengeance in the hands of any bold leader.
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