The Goddess of Reason

“Throughout the nation, wherever the inhabitants wanted to show themselves as having fully embraced the Revolution, the people imitated this installation of the Goddess of Reason.”^{7Sir Walter Scott, Life of Napoleon, volume 1, chapter 17.}LF 117.1

When the “goddess” was brought into the Convention, the speaker took her by the hand, turned to the assembly, and said: “‘Mortals, cease to tremble before the powerless thunders of a God whom your fears have created. From now on, acknowledge no god but Reason. I offer you its noblest and purest image. If you must have idols, sacrifice only to such as this....’LF 117.2

“The goddess, after being embraced by the president, was seated on a magnificent vehicle and taken to the cathedral of Notre Dame, to take the place of God. There she was raised up on a high altar and received the adoration of all present.”^{8M. A. Thiers, History of the French Revolution, volume 2, pages 370, 371.}LF 117.3

The church had begun the work that atheism was completing, hurrying France on to ruin. In referring to the horrors of the Revolution, writers say that these excesses are the fault of the kings and the church. (See Appendix.) Strict justice requires them to be charged upon the church. The papal system had poisoned the minds of kings against the Reformation. The spirit of Rome inspired the cruelty and oppression that came from the throne.LF 117.4

Wherever people received the gospel, their minds were awakened. They began to throw off the chains that had kept them slaves of ignorance and superstition. Kings saw it and trembled for their power.LF 117.5

Rome was not slow to inflame their jealous fears. In 1525, the pope said to the regent of France, “This mania [Protestantism] will not only defeat and destroy religion, but all states, nobility, laws, orders, and ranks besides.” A papal official warned the king: “The Protestants will upset all civil as well as religious order.... The throne is in as much danger as the altar.”^{9J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, book 2, chapter 36.} Rome succeeded in turning France against the Reformation.LF 117.6

The teaching of the Bible would have implanted in the hearts of the people the principles of justice, temperance, and truth, which are the cornerstone of a nation's prosperity. “Righteousness exalts a nation.” “A throne is established by righteousness.” (Proverbs 14:34; 16:12. See Isaiah 32:17.) The person who obeys God's law is the one who will most truly respect and obey the laws of the country. But France prohibited the Bible. Century after century Christians of integrity, of intellectual and moral strength, who had the faith to suffer for truth, worked as slaves in ships’ galleys, died at the stake, or rotted in dungeon cells. For 250 years after the start of the Reformation, thousands found safety only by leaving France.LF 117.7

“Scarcely was there a generation of Frenchmen during that long period that did not see the gospel's disciples fleeing from the insane fury of the persecutor, and taking with them the intelligence, the arts, the industry, the order, in which they were typically their country's best, to enrich the lands in which they found a refuge.... If France had kept all those who were driven away, what a ... great, prosperous, and happy country—a pattern to the nations—she would have been! But a blind and unrelenting bigotry chased from her soil every teacher of virtue, every champion of order, every honest defender of the throne.... At the end, the ruin of the state was complete.”^{10James A. Wylie, History of Protestantism, book 13, chapter 20.} The Revolution, with all its horrors, was the result.LF 118.1