The wild beasts or dogs ate the
children thus exposed, and no one was shocked. Whoever might
care to take such an exposed child could keep that child for a
slave forever. That kind of crime we have outgrown certainly.
The Presbyterian teaching of infant damnation seems to us
horrible. We shudder at the statement that God would condemn a
helpless baby to eternal punishment simply because it had not
been baptized. The idea seems cruel now. But it was invented by
the well-meaning early Christians in order to make women give up
the legal practice of infanticide. The mother was made to
believe that her unbaptized child went to hell, and that she must
follow later on for not having had it baptized. Thus women were
afraid to expose their children secretly, and infanticide was
stamped out by a Christian doctrine which now seems so brutal.
----
And note one thing above all: Crime still lingers among us. But
it is now LABELED AS CRIME. We no longer have horrible crimes
sanctioned by law.
We read that a criminal has tortured some old man or woman for
money--and then murdered the victim. We can scarcely believe in
such atrocity. But only a little while ago--barely two
centuries-- IT WAS THE REGULAR LEGAL CUSTOM TO TORTURE OLD
PEOPLE AND YOUNG.
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