Note 31 — Part II. SCRIPTURE IRRECONCILABLE WITH HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
Reading edition
Our national debt is not half a quarter of this sum, being somewhat less than 800 millions sterling. Suppose an English historian had told us that a king of wealthy England had laid by money enough to pay off the national debt eight times, what would be thought of the statement? But suppose we had been told that one of the kings of Wales or of Northumbria had saved all this money for a church, would the most credulous believe it? France finds it no easy matter to raise 200 millions, and all Europe would be puzzled to find the money instanter, but the king of a little territory considerably smaller than Belgium managed to raise that sum thirty-five times over.