is only in those, who, like Christians, profess to be enlightened, that it becomes a culpable act. Several writers have shown that idols were really practically useful, in a religious point of view, in the primitive spiritual condition of mankind, and are yet so to the lower classes in various countries; that is, to those who dwell upon the sensorial plane, and whose spiritual _perceptions_ are hence too feeble to soar to an ethereal world to find the great object of spiritual worship. The learned Hindoo, Roh Mun Roy, who wrote a work against idolatry, and who condemned the Christian churches for "worshiping an idol in the person of Jesus Christ," beautifully sets forth the true nature and purpose of idolatry when he says (after stating that idols were not made for the learned), "The Vedas [Hindoo Bible] directs those who are spiritually incapable of adoring the invisible Supreme Being to apply their minds to some visible object as an external manifestation of the only true God, rather than lose themselves in the mazes of irreligion, the bane of society. As God exists everywhere, and pervades every thing (even idols), such means were mercifully provided for the ignorant and untrained to lead them on to true mental adoration and spiritual worship." And thus idols were used as aids and stepping-stones to the true worship for those who were mentally incapable of raising their minds from "nature up to nature's God," as taught by this heathen writer. Thus they served the same purpose as pictures do for children, and were equally innocent and useful. It is, therefore, no more sinful to be an idolater than to be a child. In fact, idolatry was a necessity of man's religious nature. The Vedas makes God say, "The ignorant believe me visible while I am invisible." The able, pious Abel Fezzel (a Mahomedan writer) says, in his "Aren Akberry," "The Brahmins and Hindoos all believe in the unity of the God-head; yet they hold images in high veneration, because they represent celestial beings, and prevent the mind from wandering." Swedenborg says in like manner, "The heathen kept images not only in their temples, but in their houses, not to worship them, but to call to mind the heavenly being they represented." Thus it will be observed that the idol was the sanctuary where man, in his childhood, met to commune with his God, just as the Christian now seeks his spiritual presence at the communion-table or the altar. The pagan, who was a child in religious experience, was morally necessitated to have a God, or representation of God, he could see, feel, and handle. And it is remarkable that the Christian world, after two thousand years' religious experience, still occupy the same plane,--are still pagans or children with respect to believing in visible external Gods, as they virtually worship two, Jehovah and Jesus Christ, who, according to the teaching of their Bible and their established creeds, were often seen in the human form, and one of them with a human body.