improvement of existing conditions, so long as the Greek Church has
the education of the masses in charge. To become politically free, men
must first be intellectually emancipated. If a Russian is not
permitted to choose his own religion, will he be permitted to choose
his own form of government? If he will allow a priest to impose his
religion upon him, why may he not permit the Czar to impose despotism
upon him? If it is wrong for him to question the tenets of his
religion, is it not equally wrong for him to discuss the laws of his
government? If a slave of the church, why may he not be also a slave
of the state? If there is room upon his neck for the yoke of the
church, there will be room, also, for the yoke of the autocracy. If he
is in the habit of bending his knees, what difference does it make to
how many or to whom he bends them?

Not until Russia has become religiously emancipated, will she conquer
political freedom. She must first cast out of her mind the fear of the
church, before she can enter into the glorious fellowship of the free.
In Turkey, all the misery of the people will not so much as cause a
ripple of discontent, because the Moslem has been brought up to submit
to the Sultan as to the shadow on earth of Allah. Both in Russia and
Turkey, the protestants are the heretics. The orthodox Turk and the
orthodox Christian permit without a murmur both the priest and the
king to impose upon them at the point of a bayonet, the one his
religion, and the other his government. It is only by taking the
education of the masses out of the hands of the clergy that either
country can enjoy any prosperity. Orthodoxy and autocracy are twins.

Let me now try to present to you a picture of the world under
Christianity about the year 400 of the present era. Let us discuss
this phase of the subject in a liberal spirit, extenuating nothing,