But the people arising as one man
against the measure, the appointment failed, the council was overthrown
by a popular revolution, and the city still pays a pension to the
disappointed aspirant. But in lamentable contrast with that event is one
of more recent occurrence. As late as 1864, when the little town of
Uster was about to elect a pastor, the candidate declared himself "a
friend of progress and light." Some religious men, unwilling to see
their children placed under the instruction of a skeptic, took upon
themselves the task of showing in what the "progress" consisted. They
accordingly published a notice to their fellow citizens in which they
set forth the avowed opinions of their candidate. The document asserted
that he believed the Bible to be a tissue of fictions and fables; Jesus
a sinful man like others, neither risen from the dead, nor sitting in
the glory of his Father; no one can assert with positiveness a life
beyond the grave; and the opinion that we are reconciled to God by Jesus
Christ, merely a superstition and a day-dream.
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