Made a Fool of!

In the days when I was a Christian, I was like a man I once saw under the influence of mesmerism,—who was given a potato and told it was an apple. The person began to eat the potato believing it to be an apple. But as soon as he had the use of his reason, to his disgust he found that he had been made a fool of. That was my case exactly. I was told the Bible was the unerring word of an all wise and loving God. It was represented to me that just as sure as a ship without ballast would be swampt in the ocean; so would mankind be swampt in his own wickedness without the Bible. I was told the Bible contained all that it was necessary for man to know. I was told to let the Bible be my guide. I was told the Bible was the fountain whence all good sprang, and without the Bible there would be no good in the world. Good gracious me! What a dolt I must have been not to have seen (reading the Bible every day) that page 32 the book was exactly the contrary; and I feel the blush of shame upon my poor old wrinkled brow when I think of the state of lunacy I must have been in at the time not to have seen the lie.