<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Is The Bible Worth Reading</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.73em"><span style="font-size: 173%">And Other Essays</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.20em"><span style="font-size: 120%">By</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.44em"><span style="font-size: 144%">Lemuel K. Washburn</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">New York</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">The Truth Seeker Company</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em">1911</p>
</div>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Contents</span></h1>
<ul class="tei tei-index tei-index-toc"><li><SPAN href="#toc1">Dedication</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc3">Is The Bible Worth Reading</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc5">Sacrifice</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc7">The Drama Of Life</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc9">Nature In June</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc11">The Infinite Purpose</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc13">Freethought Commands</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc15">A Rainbow Religion</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc17">A Cruel God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc19">What Is Jesus</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc21">Deeds Better Than Professions</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc23">Give Us The Truth</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc25">The American Sunday</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc27">Lord And Master</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc29">Are Christians Intelligent Or
Honest</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc31">The Danger Of The Ballot</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc33">Who Carried The Cross</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc35">Modern Disciples Of Jesus</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc37">A Poor Excuse</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc39">Profession And Practice</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc41">Where Is Truth</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc43">What Does It Prove</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc45">Human Responsibility</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc47">Abolish Dirt</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc49">Religion And Morality</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc51">Jesus As A Model</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc53">Singing Lies</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc55">A Walk Through A Cemetery</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc57">Peace With God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc59">Saving The Soul</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc61">The Search For Something To
Worship</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc63">Where Are They</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc65">Some Questions For Christians To
Answer</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc67">The Image Of God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc69">Religion And Science</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc71">The Bible And The Child</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc73">When To Help The World</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc75">The Judgment Of God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc77">Christianity And Freethought</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc79">The Brotherhood And Freedom
Of Man</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc81">Whatever Is Is Right</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc83">The Object Of Life</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc85">Man</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc87">The Dogma Of The Divine Man</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc89">The Rich Man's Gospel</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc91">Speak Well Of One Another</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc93">Disgraceful Partnerships</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc95">Science And Theology</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc97">Unequal Remuneration</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc99">The Old And The New</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc101">Guard The Ear</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc103">The Character Of God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc105">Not Important</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc107">Oaths</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc109">Dead Words</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc111">Confession Of Sin</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc113">Death's Philanthropy</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc115">Our Attitude Towards Nature</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc117">Reverence For Motherhood</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc119">The God Of The Bible</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc121">The Measure Of Suffering</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc123">Nature</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc125">Creeds</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc127">Don't Try To Stop The Sun Shining</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc129">Follow Me</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc131">Can We Never Get Along Without
Servants?</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc133">A Heavenly Father</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc135">Worship Not Needed</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc137">Was Jesus A Good Man</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc139">How To Help Mankind</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc141">On The Cross</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc143">Equal Moral Standards</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc145">Authority</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc147">A Clean Sabbath</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc149">Human Integrity</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc151">Is It True</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc153">Keep The Children At Home</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc155">Teacher And Preacher</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc157">Fear Of Doubts</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc159">Bible-Backing</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc161">Beggars</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc163">Habits</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc165">Can Poverty Be Abolished</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc167">The Roman Catholic God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc169">Human Cruelty</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc171">Infidelity</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc173">Atheism</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc175">Christian Happiness</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc177">What God Knows</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc179">The Meaning Of The Word God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc181">What Has Jesus Done For The
World</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc183">The Agnostic's Position</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc185">Orthodoxy</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc187">Ideas Of Jesus</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc189">The Silence Of Jesus</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc191">Does The Church Save</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc193">Save The Republic</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc195">A Woman's Religion</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc197">The Sacrifice Of Jesus</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc199">Fashionable Hypocrisy</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc201">The Saturday Half-Holiday</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc203">The Motive For Preaching</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc205">The Christian's God</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc207">Indifference To Religion</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc209">Sunday Schools</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc211">Going To Church</SPAN></li>
<li><SPAN href="#toc213">Who Is The Greatest Living Man</SPAN></li></ul></div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-body" style="margin-bottom: 6.00em; margin-top: 6.00em">
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page001"></span><SPAN name="Pg001" id="Pg001" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<p class="tei tei-p" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em"></p>
<div class="tei tei-figure" style="width: 60%; text-align: center"><ANTIMG src="images/frontispiece.png" alt="Illustration." title="Lemuel K. Washburn" /><div class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: center; margin-bottom: 1.00em; margin-top: 1.00em">Lemuel K. Washburn</div>
</div></div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page005"></span><SPAN name="Pg005" id="Pg005" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc1" id="toc1"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf2" id="pdf2"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Dedication</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The writer of this
book dedicates it to all
men and women of
common honesty and
common sense.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page007"></span><SPAN name="Pg007" id="Pg007" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc3" id="toc3"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf4" id="pdf4"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Is The Bible Worth Reading</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
That depends. If a man is going to get his
living by standing in a Christian pulpit, I should
be obliged to answer, Yes! But if he is going to
follow any other calling, or work at any trade, I
should have to answer, No! There is absolutely
no information in the Bible that man can make
any use of as he goes through life. The Bible is
not a book of knowledge. It does not give instruction
in any of the sciences. It furnishes no
help to labor. It is useless as a political guide.
There is nothing in it that gives the mechanic any
hint, or affords the farmer any enlightenment in
his occupation.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If man wishes to learn about the earth or the
heavens; about life or the animal kingdom, he has
no need to study the Bible. If he is desirous of
reading the best poetry or the most entertaining
literature he will not find it in the Bible. If he
wants to read to store his mind with facts, the
Bible is the last book for him to open, for never yet
was a volume written that contained fewer facts
than this book. If he is anxious to get some information
that will help him earn an honest living
he does not want to spend his time reading Genesis,
Exodus, Numbers, Kings, Psalms, or the Gospels.
If he wants to read just for the fun of reading
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page008"></span><SPAN name="Pg008" id="Pg008" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
to kill time, or to see how much nonsensical
writing there is in one book, let him read the Bible.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
I have not said that there are not wise sayings in
the Bible, or a few dramatic incidents, but there
are just as wise sayings, and wiser ones, too, out
of the book, and there are dramas of human life
that surpass in interest anything contained in the
Old or New Testament.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No person can make a decent excuse for reading
the Bible more than once. To do such a thing
would be a foolish waste of time. But our stoutest
objection to reading this book is, not that it
contains nothing particularly good, but <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">that it
contains so much that is positively bad</span></em>. To read
this book is to get false ideas, absurd ideas, bad
ideas. The injury to the human mind that reads
the Bible as a reliable book is beyond repair. I
do not think that this book should be read by children,
by any human being less than twenty years
of age, and it would be better for mankind if not
a man or woman read a line of it until he or she
was fifty years old.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What I want to say is this, that there is nothing
in the Bible that is of the least consequence to the
people of the twentieth century. English literature
is richer a thousand fold than this so-called
sacred volume. We have books of more information
and of more inspiration than the Bible. As
the relic of a barbarous and superstitious people,
it should have a place in our libraries, but it is not
a work of any value to this age. I pity men who
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page009"></span><SPAN name="Pg009" id="Pg009" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
stand in pulpits and call this book the word of God.
I wish they had brains enough to earn their living
without having to repeat this foolish falsehood.
The day will come when this book will be estimated
for what it a worth, and when that day comes, the
Bible will no longer be called the word of God, but
the work of ignorant, superstitious men.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The cross everywhere is a dagger in the heart
of liberty.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A miracle is not an explanation of what we cannot
comprehend.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The statue of liberty that will endure on this
continent is not the one made of granite or bronze,
but the one made of love of freedom.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Take away every achievement of the world and
leave man freedom, and the earth would again
bloom with every glory of attainment; but take
away liberty and everything useful and beautiful
would vanish.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page010"></span><SPAN name="Pg010" id="Pg010" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc5" id="toc5"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf6" id="pdf6"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Sacrifice</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The sacrifice of Jesus, so much boasted by the
Christian church, is nothing compared to the
sacrifice of a mother for her family. It is not to
be spoken of in the same light. A mother's sacrifice
is constant: momentary, hourly, daily, life-long.
It never ceases. It is a veritable providence;
a watchful care; a real giving of one life
for another, or for several others; a gift of love so
pure and holy, so single and complete, that it is
an offering in spirit and in substance.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This is to me the highest, purest, holiest act of
humanity. All others, when weighed with this
unselfish consecration to duty, seem small and insignificant.
There is, in a mother's life, no counting
of cost, no calculation of reward. It is enough
that a duty is to be done; that a service is to be
rendered; that a sacrifice is called for. The true
mother gives herself to the offices of love without
hope, expectation, or wish of recompense. A
mother's love for her children cannot be determined
by any earthly measure, by any material
standard. It outshines all glory, and is the last
gleam of light in the human heart. A mother's
love walks in a thousand Gethsemanes, endures a
thousand Calvaries, and has a thousand agonies
that the dying of Jesus upon a cross cannot symbolize.
This maternal sacrifice is the greater that
it is made cheerfully, without a murmur, and even
with joy. If it is not sought; it is never pushed
aside.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page011"></span><SPAN name="Pg011" id="Pg011" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A mother's sacrifice for her family makes a
chapter of suffering, of patient toil and strife, of
heroic endurance and forbearance, that religion
is not yet high enough to appreciate; and this sublime
devotion is not in one home, but in <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">hundreds
of thousands in every land</span></em> everywhere on earth,
and it is real, true, heart-born, and the utmost of
renunciation that human life has revealed.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The brief martyrdom of Jesus was not voluntary,
was not lasting in its pain or in its service to
mankind. His death was cruel, his suffering and
agony terrible to think of, but it was all soon over.
A few hours of torture make up the tragedy of the
cross. But the story of this crucifixion may be
fictitious, imaginary; most likely is such. Perhaps
no such man died such a death in any such way.
Then how vain and foolish to waste our sympathy
on a fanciful sufferer, an imaginary martyr, who
never existed outside of the brain of the writer of
the story, while there are actual, real beings living
who are making a greater sacrifice, doing a holier
duty, within our reach!</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We need not go to a Bible to find those who deserve
our tears, or who have earned our admiration.
The bravest heart that ever author wrote
into being, fails to come up to the lofty height of
endurance, of a life inspired by love, of heroic sacrifice,
that can be found in hundreds of homes in our
land.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Far be it from my intention to paint less any
deed of mortal that has brightened the lot of man,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page012"></span><SPAN name="Pg012" id="Pg012" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
or to throw discredit upon aught that is worthy of
human gratitude and praise. I yield most ready
sympathy and most willing admiration to every
noble soul that has lived or died to make earth
better and happier, but I do not believe that greatness,
goodness and love are all dead, and that our
whole duty is to stand and weep around a tomb.
I believe in living men and women, in living hearts
and souls, in living greatness and goodness and
love, and I tell you all that the earth never bore
more loving, more humane, tenderer, braver, or
truer hearts than beat today in the living breasts
of mankind.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
And I place above all that is brave and true,
great and good, in the past or present, the mothers
of our age.—What man cannot see that silent,
patient mother in her home, the victim of a multitude
of trials, crosses, annoyances, day after day
and week after week, meeting all, bearing all, with
a saint's look and manner; and what man, seeing
her there, at the side of the sick, worn out with
watching and waiting, and then at the bed of
death, faithful and true to the last, though wounded
in heart and spirit never faltering in the way of
duty, that would not say if there be one sacrifice
that is above, and greater than, all others, it is
that of a mother's love?</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page013"></span><SPAN name="Pg013" id="Pg013" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc7" id="toc7"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf8" id="pdf8"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Drama Of Life</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
With the passing of the season we are reminded
of the rapid flight of life. It seems but yesterday
that the first bluebird of spring lit on the bare
bough of the apple-tree in the orchard near by,
and the early robin sang his welcome notes in our
glad ears, and yet the bluebird and robin are seen
and heard no more, and the green promise of spring
has changed to the brown harvest of autumn,
which will soon be stored for winter's use. This
is the way every season comes and goes; a little
long in coming sometimes; but never long in going;
and every year grows shorter as we grow older,
and every year goes more quickly as we near the
border of old age. Life soon changes from a glad
look ahead to a sad glance behind. From baby
to boy, from boy to man, from man to tottering
age;—how swiftly the scenes change, and life comes
and life goes, and the door of death opens almost
before the door of birth closes. The cradle and the
grave touch, and the blithe youth that lends his
strength to feeble age finds himself ere long leaning
upon the arm of youth and strength. The circle
of years soon rolls round, and life is but a day of
toil and a night of dreams. As we look back upon
vanished time and see the happy scenes of childhood
mingled with the surroundings of later life,
days and months shrink to hours, and years seem
to be spanned by a sunrise and a sunset with a
little laughter and perhaps some tears between.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page014"></span><SPAN name="Pg014" id="Pg014" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We who have travelled more than half way on the
road cannot look backward without a sigh, cannot
think backward without a pang. Many of us have
left the graves of father and mother behind, perhaps
the smaller graves of children, where some
of our heart lies buried too. The storms that beat
on us make life seem shorter; make the days go
faster, and the night draw nearer; and all of us
have already, or must sometime, bow our heads
to the blast.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
One human being in the great world of man, and
in the greater world of Nature, plays but a small
part. Of but little account is a human life in the
vast, limitless universe. A man fills but a little
space while alive, and touches but a few hearts
when he dies. We are fortunate if we make during life,
one true, loyal friend who stands by us
while that life lasts. We reckon this, after all, the
grandest triumph of the human soul. It is not
difficult to gather dollars—quite a number, at
least,—nor to win a measure of fame, but to live,
to be, to act, in such way as to bind one true heart
to ours, is a victory which we may be proud of.
Some lives have larger circumferences than others,
radiate farther, influence more, but none can win
the rare tribute of perfect friendship from more than
one or two. Yes! man plays but a small part in
the great drama of life. He is on the stage but a
few short hours, and most men are but poor or indifferent
actors at best.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Who cares when a man dies? Not the sun, for it
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page015"></span><SPAN name="Pg015" id="Pg015" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
shines just as gaily when he closes his eyes to its
golden light; not the birds, for they chatter and
sing over his coffin, and hop and sing on his grave;
not the brook, for it runs laughing on and never
stops its gambols and song; not any of the things
of earth, but man.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When man dies, a few say, Is he gone? and then
forget that he ever lived; a few go to help carry his
dead body to the grave, and then turn away to
join the business and pleasure of life, and forget
that they have buried a man; a few, some days after,
call at the house where he lived and drop a tear of
sympathy for the weeping widow and tearful children,
and then forget that the husband and father
is no more. But does no one care? Perhaps a
wife, who will carry his dead image in her heart as
long as it beats; perhaps a daughter, who will remember
him a year or two, or a little longer, who
will miss his happy greeting, his loving kiss, his
proud, kind look as he lifts the heart's dearest idol
to his knee; and this is all. And this is enough.
We care for only a few; and why should many care
for us?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Though life is short and not always heroic; and
though, when it ends, the world goes on just the
same, we love life and it is sweet while it lasts.
Though we travel quickly over the road, we enjoy
for the most part, the journey of life. We have
pain, it is true; we learn of sorrow and grief; we
feel the pang of parting and weep on the white
face of some loved one, and yet, we find happiness,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page016"></span><SPAN name="Pg016" id="Pg016" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
we enjoy living, and we regret when the curtain is
rung down and our part is played and the lights
turned out. When we strike the balance between
pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, happiness and
misery, most find that life is worth living.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A dogma will thrive in soil where the truth
could not get root.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The measure of liberty which man enjoys determines
the civilization of the age in which he
lives.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The person who can make a loaf of bread is more
to the world than the person who could perform
a miracle.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The indifference to Christianity may well alarm
the men who live on the credulity that gives it the
show of life, but to those who delight in actions of
sincerity, it affords the greatest encouragement,
for it promises to the world a day when intelligence
and integrity will be respected more than
ignorance and hypocrisy.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page017"></span><SPAN name="Pg017" id="Pg017" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc9" id="toc9"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf10" id="pdf10"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Nature In June</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We can hardly look anywhere in Nature without
having the conviction grow in the mind that
there are more or less superfluous things on this
spot of the universe where our lot is cast, however
it may be in Mars, Venus, Saturn, or any other of
the Greek-named planets or any heavenly constellations
with or without names. Just at this particular
season of the year, the presence of weeds in
the garden or on the farm raises a colossal doubt as
to the fact of any wisdom guiding the divine voice
when, in a majestic sweep of its omnipotent power
on the third day of the drama of creation, it called
into being the grass, the herb, the tree and whatsoever
bears leaf or blade or flower. To those who
have to pull the weeds out of the ground they are
a curse of the first magnitude, and how a creator,
who had common sense, could take pride in making
such vegetable abortions as weeds we cannot comprehend.
The most worthless things in Nature
are the most prolific. Chickweed will cover an
acre while clover is considering where it is best to
go into business, and every pesky, nasty little
weed will live and laugh when the queenly corn
droops its head in the sun, and the beet and turnip
cannot get nourishment enough to keep them
alive.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is just the same in the animal world. An immense
quantity of useless beings go about on two
and four legs or on none at all. The only excuse
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page018"></span><SPAN name="Pg018" id="Pg018" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
for the snake is that he was made to eat the toad;
for the toad, that he was made to eat insects; for
the insects—well, nobody has yet made a wholesome
excuse for their existence, anyway. It looks
as though one being in Nature was made simply
to kill another being, and the last-made being,
man, is the supreme killer of the whole lot. Take
the whole range of wild beasts, and find, if you can,
aught but malice in their creation, if they were
created. No plague ever destroyed hyenas and
jackals. No one ever found a sick rattlesnake or
an invalid hornet. The fittest survive? The fittest
for what? To worry man, to make life miserable.
Mosquitoes, wasps, fleas, reptiles and wild
beasts, poisonous vines and shrubs, noxious blossoms
whose perfume is the kiss of death, weeds
that push and crowd decent plants until they die
in utter despair—these are the sturdiest triumphs
of the creative art. We cannot help wishing that
the Lord-God had not rested on the seventh day,
but instead, had gone around and destroyed about
seven-eighths of what he had created. We might
then have had quite a decent world to live in.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man builds a home for her he loves, he plants
beside it all that will make it beautiful to the eyes
of his wife. He works and brings what is fair to
adorn it, and makes every room a casket to hold
the jewel of love. He looks at his home with
pride, and feels that it is <span class="tei tei-q">“the dearest spot on
earth,”</span> a refuge safe and secure. The cyclone
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page019"></span><SPAN name="Pg019" id="Pg019" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
comes and in a moment all is swept away. Man
cannot trust the God of the winds.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no more terrible calamity that afflicts
our globe at the present time than an earthquake.
It comes without warning, by day or night, when
man is at his place of business or when he is at
rest. There is no way of preventing it, no way of
preparing for it. It may wait a hundred, a thousand,
years before it works its deadly ruin. But
when it comes, havoc is left. An earthquake may
be good for the earth, but it is almighty discouraging
to the people that live on it. It may seek a
beneficent end, but it goes to work in a cruel manner
to accomplish it. Human life counts no more
than the life of rats when an earthquake gets
started. This infernal visitor does not seek a spot
where its malevolence can be wrecked upon the
rocks and hills. Oftener it goes to the thickly
populated city or town and topples over houses
and swallows up dwellings, with men, women and
children. Does God send the earthquake? If he
does, where is the evidence of his love for man?
If He does not, who does?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is pretty tough business to try to reconcile
Nature with the idea of God's watchful care over
man. If the winds did not turn to hurricanes; if
the sunshine did not make drought; if the rain never
became a flood; if the sea never grew angry and
sunk the ship; if the clouds always dissolved in
gentle rain or in dew; if there were no wild beasts;
no venomous snakes; no poisonous vines or flowers;
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page020"></span><SPAN name="Pg020" id="Pg020" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
if there were only what is bright and fair and good
on earth and nothing that was dark and cold and
repulsive, we might believe that a heavenly father
had made the earth for a dwelling-place for man.
But as it is, we have to think as well of Nature as
possible and dodge her lightning, run from her
water-spouts, keep out of the way of cyclones and
shift for ourselves while here. What follows nobody
knows. It may be better for us beyond this
life; we hope it is no worse. And it may be only
sleep, sleep with no dreams and no awakening.
We should dislike to die on this side of the grave
with the fear that we should come out on the other
only to meet a hurricane in the teeth, or find an
earthquake had been put under us to give us a
shaking up the first thing on that <span class="tei tei-q">“shining shore,”</span>
or to be caught in a furious torrent that poured
down the sides of some heavenly mountain. Earth
is a pretty good place when the conditions are all
favorable, but if we are to have another life it
ought to be a better one or else we should be saved
the trouble of dying.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The feet of progress have always been shod by
doubt.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A true man will not join anything that in any way
abridges his freedom or robs him of his rights.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page021"></span><SPAN name="Pg021" id="Pg021" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc11" id="toc11"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf12" id="pdf12"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Infinite Purpose</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A Christian writer recently said:—<span class="tei tei-q">“The supreme
duty of humanity is to get into touch with the infinite
purpose.”</span> This may be so, but we want
first to understand just what the infinite purpose
is before we subscribe to it. When the infinite purpose
is bent on getting up an earthquake we
do not care to <span class="tei tei-q">“get into touch”</span> with it, not much.
When this purpose is forging an electric bolt to
shoot out of the clouds, we have no desire to <span class="tei tei-q">“get
into touch”</span> with any such thing. It makes a vast
difference what this purpose is bent upon, whether
or not we want to go into partnership with it.
Now, when the infinite purpose is at work on the
earth, turning dirt into flowers, or vegetables, or
trees, we should feel a joy in sharing its labor, but
when it is determined to burn and scorch everything
on the face of the ground with a heat that
knows no abatement, we should want to sell out
our interest in the concern at once.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is just as much nonsense connected with
the use of this phrase <span class="tei tei-q">“the infinite purpose”</span> as
there is with <span class="tei tei-q">“special Providence”</span> or <span class="tei tei-q">“Divine love,”</span>
or any other religious expression which expresses
nothing unless you are religious. Where this <span class="tei tei-q">“purpose”</span>
<span class="tei tei-q">“makes for righteousness,”</span> as Matthew Arnold
delighted to believe, we are willing to catch
on to it, but where it is going in the other direction
we prefer to go our own way.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This notion of uniting the finite with the infinite
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page022"></span><SPAN name="Pg022" id="Pg022" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
purpose is all right, providing the latter does not
conflict with the former, but we have serious objection
to doing anything that will interfere with
the highest development of our humanity. The
purpose which is at work in the world does not
make for health any more than for disease. It
seems to carry a tubercle with as much satisfaction
as a ray of sunshine, and lends all its forces to
assist the highwayman with no more charge than
it makes to the law-abiding citizen.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It seems to us that it is necessary to divorce the
<span class="tei tei-q">“infinite purpose”</span> from a lot of intentions that do
not work for human interests, before it will be
desirable to assume intimate relations with this
purpose. We do not want to <span class="tei tei-q">“get into touch”</span>
with what is not going our way; that is, the way
of health, of prosperity, of happiness. We do not
deny that we need to give a higher direction to
human thought. We affirm this fact as positively
as our most Christian contemporary. But before
we advise mankind to harness its wagon to the infinite
purpose we want to be sure where it is going.
Man has to go to mill and market as well as to
meeting, and there is just as good a purpose manifested
in getting the most wholesome food for our
stomachs as there is in getting the safest creed for
our souls. We are loth to trust any religious purpose
as opposed to a human one. We believe in
man first, last, and all the time.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Now, let us admit that humanity needs a wiser
purpose to guide it, but let us also admit that it
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page023"></span><SPAN name="Pg023" id="Pg023" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
can be found in a wiser human head and human
heart. If what is called the infinite purpose is
working for the highest end of human life, there
is no evidence of the fact. If there is anything
better than human energy back of a good human
thought that will help this world, we do not know
what it is.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who accepts the faith of Calvin is miserable
in proportion to the extent he carries it out.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Whatever tends to prolong the existence of ignorance
or to prevent the recognition of knowledge
is dangerous to the well-being of the human race.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A higher respect for man has been one of the chief
promoters of civilization. Advancement has always
been toward right and truth when the ranks
were imbued with a proper regard for human
hearts and human happiness.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page024"></span><SPAN name="Pg024" id="Pg024" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc13" id="toc13"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf14" id="pdf14"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Freethought Commands</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Say nothing about others that you would not
have others say about you.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Be severe toward yourself; be kind to your
fellow-man.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Do not give advice that you cannot follow.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Do not thank God for what man does.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Serve neither God nor Mammon, but humanity
alone.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Do not try to be perfect as a "Father in heaven,"
but try to be better than you yourself are.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Seek first to improve the earth, and heaven will
be of less consequence.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Let us not forget that men speak according to the
measure of their knowledge and light, and that a
superior enlightenment is a higher authority.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
History shows that there is nothing so easy to
enslave and nothing so hard to emancipate as ignorance,
hence it becomes the double enemy of
civilization. By its servility it is the prey of tyranny,
and by its credulity it is the foe of enlightenment.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page025"></span><SPAN name="Pg025" id="Pg025" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc15" id="toc15"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf16" id="pdf16"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Rainbow Religion</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is little doubt that the faith of the early
Christians was what might be classed under the
head of rainbow religion. We learn from the New
Testament that it was taught that those who
accepted the faith held by John and Jesus and
Paul were in some peculiar manner to be protected
from the common ills of life, and were to be especial
favorites of their <span class="tei tei-q">“Father in heaven.”</span> How sincerely
this faith was held we cannot now determine,
nor to what extent it was put into practice, but
that it possessed the mind in a considerable degree
there is no room whatever to doubt. But this is
not the question that we want settled, but rather
the value of this faith.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is pleasant and comforting to believe that one
is watched over by a superior power which at any
moment of peril or temptation is ready to stretch
forth its hand and rescue from danger and death,
and it is on account of the wonderful seductiveness
of this faith that it has lasted so long and has been
so hard to overcome. But what we are interested
in is, whether or not such a belief has any foundation
in fact or in human experience. When Jesus
bid his followers to cease giving thought to what
they should eat and drink and wear, telling them
that their <span class="tei tei-q">“heavenly Father”</span> fed the fowls of the
air, and that they were better than such fowls, thus
implying that their heavenly Father would take
proportionately better care of them, was there any
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page026"></span><SPAN name="Pg026" id="Pg026" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
ground for any such teaching, and is there any
ground for this faith today? We claim that the
<span class="tei tei-q">“heavenly Father”</span> referred to by Jesus never fed
anything, neither fowl nor man; and that no human
being was ever taken care of by any superior power
or snatched by it from danger or death. Such a faith
is the veriest delusion, and it could lodge and take
root only in the childish mind. Jesus also taught
that the <span class="tei tei-q">“Father which is in heaven”</span> would <span class="tei tei-q">“give
good things to them that ask him.”</span> Is there any
ground for this rainbow religion? Is there any
evidence that there is a <span class="tei tei-q">“Father in heaven”</span> who
has good things to give to those who ask for them?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We presume that this faith led men to give up
work and to trust to begging for a living. But
the question is, which got the most good things,—those
who studied the laws of Nature and of life
and worked in harmony with them, or those who
prayed for good things? How is it to-day? What
good things can be had by praying? Who has any
good thing that he received by asking his <span class="tei tei-q">“Father
in heaven”</span> for it? The asking business has been
carried on for hundreds of years, and all that has
been asked of God has had to be given by man or
has not been given at all.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Has it ever been true that Christians had any
immunity from danger that others did not have,
or that they could live in defiance of the laws of
Nature? Jesus told his followers that in his name
they shall cast out devils, they shall take up serpents,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page027"></span><SPAN name="Pg027" id="Pg027" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
and if they drink any deadly thing it shall
not hurt them and they shall have the power to cure
the sick by laying their hands upon them. Have
men, who professed to follow Jesus, ever done the
things which he said they shall do? Is there any
man to-day who can do these things? Is there any
evidence that Christians are treated by any power
of the universe differently from what others are
treated? And is there any evidence that they
possess any gift that is not shared by others? As
far as we can see Christians are subject to the
same laws of Nature that all others must obey,
and they cannot either defy those laws or act
independently of them. If they fool with deadly
serpents they will get bitten and probably die—just
the same as would an infidel; if they drink
a cup of poison, they will suffer and perhaps die
just the same as an unbeliever; if they have any
sickness, they do not trust to the laying-on of
hands by a fellow-Christian, but send for a doctor
the same as a freethinker. The fact is, the world
has learned better than to put faith in these teachings
of Jesus.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian faith belonged to the childhood
of the race, and ought no longer to be preached
to man. No one attempts to put this faith into
practice, to carry into life the teachings of Jesus.
And why not? Simply because <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">it is known to be
false</span></em>. Christianity is a rainbow religion, a representation
of things for which there is no warrant
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page028"></span><SPAN name="Pg028" id="Pg028" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
in Nature; a picture painted in false colors; a view
of life copied from a diseased imagination; a falsehood
fed by priests upon which they live.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is not an intelligent man or woman living
to-day who has any faith in the rainbow religion
taught by Jesus; not an intelligent man or woman
who believes that a heavenly Father or a God will
provide food or drink or clothes for a human being;
nor an intelligent man or woman who has faith
that he or she can get good things by asking a
"Father in heaven" for them and not an intelligent
man or woman who cares or dares to put the
declaration of Jesus to the test; that those who
have faith in him can play with serpents without
danger, and drink deadly poison with no more
harm than attends quaffing a glass of water.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We are then to conclude that Christianity is
held only by the ignorant.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is greater argument in one fact than in
all the creeds.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is easier to believe that a man is honest who
says the Bible is the word of God than to believe
that he is bright.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page029"></span><SPAN name="Pg029" id="Pg029" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc17" id="toc17"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf18" id="pdf18"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Cruel God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There may be some other religion in the world
that sings of a God more cruel than the God of
Christianity, but we do not know of any. At any
rate, we believe it is safe to say that no religion of
a civilized people has a God who is more vindictive.
We have always wondered how men and women
could set such infernal ideas to music as we find
in Christian hymns. It is really too bad that
human beings are compelled to sing such lies as
we find in the pious song-books of the church.
The sentiments contained in them are not fit for
savages. It can only brutalize the heart to sing
of blood, and nothing but blood, no matter whose
blood it is. The <span class="tei tei-q">“precious blood of Jesus”</span> is just
as suggestive of cruelty as the blood on the executioner's
knife. Men become what they read,
what they think, what they sing, what they believe.
Religions have made men wicked, cruel,
hard, unkind. It is impossible to have faith in a
God of wrath and vindictiveness without in time
developing these qualities. Men grow into the
likeness of their belief. As a man believes, so is he,
to a certain extent.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The influence of cruel sentiments on the mind
is greater with the young than with adults. Some
hymns sung in Christian churches are positively
brutal in tone. Think of <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">human</span></em> beings singing
the following verse:—</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page030"></span><SPAN name="Pg030" id="Pg030" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">But vengeance and damnation lie</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">On rebels who refuse His grace;</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Who God's eternal Son despise,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The </span><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">hottest hell shall be their place</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div>
</div></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christians seem to delight in pictures of hell.
God would hardly be God to them if he did not
damn somebody. In painting the divine idea
vengeance and damnation are laid on thick.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Here is the Christian notion of father and son:—</p>
<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">How justice frowned and vengeance stood</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">To drive me down to endless pain!</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">But the great Son propos'd his blood,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">And </span><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">heavenly wrath grew mild again</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%">.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div>
</div></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Think of the religion based on such an idea of
God! And think on the terrible effect on men and
women which such religion must have!</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The following description of the Christian God
was probably written by one of his adorers:—</p>
<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Adore and tremble for our God</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Is a consuming fire!</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">His jealous eyes with wrath inflame,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And raise His vengeance higher.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Almighty vengeance, how it burns,</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">How bright His fury glows!</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Vast magazines of plagues and storms</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Lie treasured for His foes.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Those heaps of wrath, by slow degrees,</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Are force into a flame:</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">But kindled, Oh! how fierce they blaze!</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And rend all nature's frame.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">At His approach the mountains flee,</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And seek a watery grave;</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The frighted sea makes haste away,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">And shrinks up every wave.</span></div>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page031"></span><SPAN name="Pg031" id="Pg031" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Through the wide air the weighty rocks</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Are swift as hailstones hurled;</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span style="font-size: 90%">Who dares engage His fiery rage,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">That shakes the solid world?</span></div>
</div>
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 1.80em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Thy hand shall on rebellious kings</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span style="font-size: 90%">A fiery tempest pour,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">While we, beneath Thy sheltering wings,</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left; margin-left: 3.60em"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Thy </span><em class="tei tei-emph" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-style: italic">just</span></em><span style="font-size: 90%"> revenge adore.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div>
</div></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
And we are asked to love this God! We should
just as soon think of loving a tiger, a cyclone, a
deluge, a fiend. Love goes out to what is lovely.
We can love what is good, what is beautiful, what
is noble; a great-hearted man, a pitying woman
we cannot help loving, but if we should say that we
love such a God as is pictured in the words of that
hymn we should lie. Man cannot love hate, vengeance,
wrath—even in a God.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian church, down through the ages,
has been like the God it worshipped—full of hate,
malice and cruelty. The world has grown kind
and humane just in proportion as it has given up
worship of this divine monster. We judge gods
as we judge men, and we can respect and love only
what is worthy of respect and love from a human
point of view. If there is such a God as is painted
in Christian literature he deserves, not to be worshipped,
but to be shot.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Bible upon which Christianity is founded
does not say what Christianity is, what a Christian
is, nor what we must do in order to be a Christian.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page032"></span><SPAN name="Pg032" id="Pg032" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc19" id="toc19"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf20" id="pdf20"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">What Is Jesus</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Time was when Jesus was looked upon as
God, or the Son of God. No one had any doubt
of his divinity or divine character; or if he had, he
wisely deferred to the superstitious majority and
kept his mouth shut and so kept his head on his
shoulders. This idea that Jesus was God has been
steadily declining for several hundred years. Intelligence
has pretty much given it up, except
where it is paid a big salary for preaching it.
There is no rational defence that can be made of
the dogma of the divinity of Jesus. It is one of
many theological absurdities that was born when
gods were popular.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A large number believe that Jesus was a man and
nothing more; a good man, but still human. They
look upon him as a product of human nature. He
is allowed a human father and mother, although
the gospels, in which is found the story of his life,
hardly warrant so much earthly parentage. He
is regarded as a part of humanity, and his extraordinary
deeds merely as exaggerated performances of
heart and hand of man. The people that look upon
Jesus as a man have a superstitious reverence for
his humanity. He is called <span class="tei tei-q">“the one perfect man,”</span>
the <span class="tei tei-q">“pattern of the race,”</span> etc. Though a man, they
will have him every inch a man.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Yet others see nothing remarkable in the career
of Jesus; nothing which marks him for universal
emulation; nothing which compels praise and admiration.
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page033"></span><SPAN name="Pg033" id="Pg033" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
They think he was a sort of mild lunatic,
possessed of the idea that he was the Messiah
of his people, and that in endeavoring to further
his scheme he antagonized the existing authority
and met the just punishment of his ambition.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But it is neither as God nor as a man that Jesus
must be regarded, but as a myth. No such person
ever lived either as a human or divine existence.
He is simply a creature of fancy, the fruit of the
imagination. He is a character of the brain, the
creation of religious genius.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no justifiable Christianity in this age.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A dogma is the hand of the dead on the throat
of the living.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The progress of the world depends upon freedom
of thought and freedom of utterance.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If you can forgive the man who wronged you, the
neighbor who slandered you and help the poor
about you, you need not be particular about making
any professions of righteousness.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page034"></span><SPAN name="Pg034" id="Pg034" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc21" id="toc21"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf22" id="pdf22"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Deeds Better Than Professions</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We have tears of regret to shed over the wreck
of beauty and talent; but if we take no steps to
preserve beauty and talent from wreck, our compassion
is not to our honor but to our disgrace.
The feeling of pity which to-day expends itself in
solemn warning or solemn weeping for the poor
unfortunates of earth, must devise means to rescue
them from misery, or it is but a mockery and a
shame. One arm inspired with love of man will
do more than a thousand tender sentiments.
Sympathy must take the form of assistance, or it
is not sincere.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When we do not love man as we ought, we hate
ourselves. The way to get heaven for ourselves
is to give it to others. The way to be happy is to
make others happy. Selfishness kills every noble
feeling and defeats every good desire. We cannot
have peace when we give pain to others. Our
deeds reward us. What wrongs man is wrong
for man to do. We should live so as not to regret
the past nor fear the future. We set too great a
value upon earthly possessions, and spend our
lives in gaining what we cannot hold. We best
enjoy the things of earth when we give up wanting
them wholly for ourselves. The best part of our
happiness is having someone to share it.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page035"></span><SPAN name="Pg035" id="Pg035" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc23" id="toc23"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf24" id="pdf24"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Give Us The Truth</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If there is one tree that man needs to eat of,
it is the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good
and evil; and if any knowledge will keep him alive
and make him happy and perfect, it is just this
knowledge which God forbid him to acquire. We
are dying to-day from ignorance, not from knowledge,—dying
because we do not know the good
from the evil; and we are dooming ourselves and
future generations to premature death because we
do not eat more of the tree of knowledge.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">know</span></em> more is what we need. Let us look
into things and find out what the world means. If
this universe is only an illuminated deception, the
man who discovers the fact will be a public benefactor.
If things which exist around us are lying
to us,—if the stars that shine out through the deep
space above us are only fire-flies of the night, let
us know it. Knowledge will not hurt us so much
as ignorance and deception. If the flowers that
uncover their beauty for our delight have but a
phantom loveliness, and nought is real in the enchanting
world about us, then let us be told the
truth. The soul can bear it better than to be
deceived. We may be trusted with the knowledge
of good and evil and of right and wrong, ye God
of Genesis! and praise be to the first-created man
for breaking the command to remain in ignorance
and taking the first step toward solving the riddle
of life!</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page036"></span><SPAN name="Pg036" id="Pg036" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We learn everything by living. The truth is
not revealed to us: we must discover it. It is
seen when we climb high enough to see it, or live
wise enough to feel it, or act true enough
to utter it. When we hear the truth, we hear only
the echo of the universe. The last thing that we
have to fear is the truth and the consequences of
knowing it. Let us not fear to speak it or to hear
it. And let us go with it whenever found. They
who are keeping the world from the knowledge
of good and evil, who are trying to discourage the
preaching of truth, are the enemies of mankind.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If man had no knowledge except what he has got
out of the Bible he would not know enough to
make a shoe.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The great work of man has ever been to rescue
the present from the past; to turn the mind from
what it has left behind to the opportunities and
duties which are around it. For this has genius
toiled down the ages, sung its song of love, carved
its dream of beauty and whispered to the world's
dull ear its bright message of hope.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page037"></span><SPAN name="Pg037" id="Pg037" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc25" id="toc25"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf26" id="pdf26"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The American Sunday</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Everybody has heard of what is called the
<span class="tei tei-q">“Christian sabbath,”</span> and nearly everybody has
a tolerably clear idea of what is meant by a <span class="tei tei-q">“continental
sabbath.”</span> A <span class="tei tei-q">“continental sabbath”</span> may
be described as a sort of week-day Sunday, that
is, as a religious holiday with more secular, than
pious, features. A Christian sabbath is so near
dead in this country as a religious fact that a
definition of it cannot be had from real life. We
find the ideal sabbath of the Christians in the
history of early New England. For two centuries
the people have been gradually outgrowing the
austere religion which made Sunday a day to be
dreaded all the week. The attempt has been frequently
made by a small puritan contingent, which
has survived all these years, to resuscitate this dead
sabbath and inflict it upon the world again. But
so far the effort has only met with deserved failure.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Resurrections have never been successful. When
the inhabitants of graves have come out of their
abodes it has been only to walk the streets for a
brief period, and then to return again to silence
and rest. The stories of ghosts, when true, are
always short. These visitants never stop long
or do anything that is of any worth to the world.
When the grave is once made over the dead it is
best to let it alone. There is nothing in cemeteries
to aid progress or civilization.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not need the revival of old customs or
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page038"></span><SPAN name="Pg038" id="Pg038" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
of old faiths. To endeavor to rehabilitate the sabbath
of our forefathers is as foolish as to try to
make people go back into log houses and cook
over a fire-place. Some persons can never realize
that the world grows; that what was a help to one
age becomes a hindrance to another; that time
corrects the mistakes of men and that respect and
reverence for our ancestors do not necessarily
require us to adopt their clothes or their habits.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men and women are made fossils by their religion.
The people who are trying to-day to resurrect the
puritan sabbath are people who have got religion,
but not much of anything else. A man who allows
religion to dominate all his thoughts, all his efforts,
all his acts, usually is a nuisance, if nothing worse.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A day of rest once a week is a good thing in itself,
but it is a bad thing when controlled by religion.
We are in favor of Sunday as a day when man can
lay aside his business, his care, his tools, and enjoy
himself, but we want everybody to take their
hands off of it. Sunday is not a day for religion
alone. If certain people wish to go to church on
Sunday, let them go; but when these people, who
go to church on Sunday, wish to compel everyone
else to do the same, they need to be informed that
<span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">liberty on Sunday is just as much a human right as
liberty on Monday</span></span>. There are better things that
man has found than religion. Liberty is better,
truth is better, happiness is better. We would
like to see an American Sunday on this continent,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page039"></span><SPAN name="Pg039" id="Pg039" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
a Sunday in harmony with the principles upon
which our government was founded, a Sunday
which was not run by religion, a Sunday for man
and not for the church. Such a day would not be
a sabbath, but it would be a free day, a happy day.
The notion of Sunday as a holy day is too absurd,
too ridiculous to deserve respectful attention. No
man can have fifty-two holy days in a year.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The minister must take his pious grasp off of
the throat of Sunday.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A true man is not troubled by anything but his
own acts.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The true man walks the earth as the stars walk
the heavens, grandly obedient to those laws which
are implanted in his nature.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many people are afraid of knowledge,
but we have seen hundreds of people that we thought
would be improved if they knew more, but we
have never seen one that we thought would be
better if he knew less.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page040"></span><SPAN name="Pg040" id="Pg040" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc27" id="toc27"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf28" id="pdf28"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Lord And Master</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian is fond of referring to Jesus as
his lord and master. We wonder why, for it is
evident that not a Christian of this century takes
Jesus for his lord and master. The fact is, that
there is nothing that a <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">man</span></em> objects to more strongly
than a master. Man wants to be independent.
He does not want anybody to be lord over him.
The struggle of the race for ages has been to get
rid of lords and masters, to be free from tyrants.
Religion is after all only dead politics. The church
makes sacred what the state casts off. What sense
is there in fighting for long centuries to liberate
the body, and voluntarily accepting slavery for
the mind? Jesus is the ghost of a dead king. But
why should the world prostrate itself before his
invisible throne when it refuses to acknowledge
by its obedience that he is fit to rule the kingdom
of conduct?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What hypocrites Christians are! What a farce
it is for men and women to call Jesus lord and master!
They do not obey his slightest command,
and they ignore his teachings as undeserving their
regard. There is not a precept, that the Christian
church teaches came from the lips of Jesus, that
Christians honor by practice, not one. Never did
a lord receive so little honest respect from his
vassals; never a master so little true obedience
from his servants.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men and women are not sincere when they profess
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page041"></span><SPAN name="Pg041" id="Pg041" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
to accept Jesus as their lord and master. They
doubtless feel grateful to him for saving them from
the fires of hell hereafter, but they look upon him
as a mighty poor example for them to follow here.
As everybody knows, the church does not require
that its members shall practice the precepts given
by Jesus. If she did demand this of men and
women her membership would speedily be reduced
to zero. We do not regard a man as honest, or
worthy of respect, who calls Jesus his lord and master
and turns his back in contempt upon the precepts
he gave his disciples to practice.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
You cannot stuff your minds with the lives of
saints and grow good on the stuffing.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Some persons are remembered solely for their
virtues and others solely for their faults. This is
why we have a Jesus and a Judas.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page042"></span><SPAN name="Pg042" id="Pg042" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc29" id="toc29"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf30" id="pdf30"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Are Christians Intelligent Or Honest</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Future generations will regard the men who
accept the Christian superstitions either as simple
or dishonest.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We are forced to doubt the sanity or sincerity
of people who profess to believe in the doctrine of
the trinity, in a <span class="tei tei-q">“begotten Son of God,”</span> in miraculous
conception, in the resurrection of the body, in
the Bible as the word of God, in miracles, and in
heaven and hell. We ask ourselves:—Are men intelligent
who believe these things, or do they merely
profess to believe them, and are dishonest? We
cannot reconcile faith in the Christian superstitions
with mental soundness and good sense.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What is there in Nature to suggest any of the
Christian doctrines? Does not everything we
know, everything we have seen, everything we
have experienced, deny and disprove the Christian
superstitions? Why, then, do people accept
them? We find no one that acts as though Christianity
were true, no one who lives as though hell
were under his feet and liable at any moment to
pull him down to eternal damnation. We find
men spending all their energies in trying to get the
good things of earth, just as though they were told
to do so by God, instead of commanded not to lay
up treasures upon earth, etc.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is one of the serious problems of the age to
know how to deal with Christians. They are,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page043"></span><SPAN name="Pg043" id="Pg043" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
as a rule, respectable and decent; they have good
manners generally, and they eat and drink, dress
and talk, live and die very much as other people,
and yet they profess a faith that is absurd and foolish
and that has no foundation in fact or philosophy.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We like to think well of our fellow-beings, and
we would like to think well of Christians, but we
cannot do so as long as they pretend to believe
what a person of intelligence, of good sense, cannot
believe. Are Christians honest? Perhaps they
think so, but have they ever really examined their
belief in the light of the knowledge of the twentieth
century? If they will do this, we do not see how
they can longer profess to be Christians, if they
are honest.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When men are hungry roast mutton is better than
the lamb that taketh away wrath.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If a man can look in the mirror of his own soul
without shame, he can look the whole world in the
face without a blush.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page044"></span><SPAN name="Pg044" id="Pg044" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc31" id="toc31"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf32" id="pdf32"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Danger Of The Ballot</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men speak usually as though voters ranged themselves
on one side of a political question, or another,
according to their convictions or principles. We
wish this were so, then we should be nearer having
a pure ballot. But we cannot share this lofty
view. It does not seem to us that the average
voter is a man of either political convictions or
principles. Party service does not require intelligent,
independent action, and politics to-day
stands for party fealty more than for governmental
ethics.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The main question that is decided by an election
in our country is, which political party shall have
the privilege of dispensing the offices of Government?
There is a desire on the part of certain
persons to obtain office, for either personal or
party advantage, and this desire is oftentimes so
fierce that it will betray the honor of citizenship.
Where this is done, or attempted, lies the danger
of the ballot.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If men voted only as their political convictions
dictated, we should have a higher party morality
and purer officers, but we must face the facts even
though the duty is not an agreeable one. Politics
has degenerated to a dirty business and political
trickery and bribery secure victory where honor,
integrity and principle suffer defeat. The plain
truth is, we have a large class of voters who make
merchandise of their right of suffrage, and a set
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page045"></span><SPAN name="Pg045" id="Pg045" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
of demagogues whose business it is to bribe or coerce
voters for the advancement of selfish ends.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The honest, virtuous, intelligent, independent
vote is the noblest power of a freeman, but the
purchasable vote, the ignorant vote, the vicious
and servile vote, is the opportunity of the knave
and the scoundrel. The purity of the ballot is
the only safety of a Republic, and no greater danger
threatens this nation to-day than that which
arises from the corruption of the suffrage. A ballot
should be the honest declaration of our principles,
the expression of our own opinions, the
badge of our manhood; but when it is held in the
hand that has sold it for a price, or will deposit it
at the dictation of another, it is the prostitute of
greed and the hired assassin of the despot.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every man should select his own ballot and vote
to please himself, and any person that would interfere
with his right and duty to do this, should
be disfranchised forever. <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">The individual who does
not know enough to select his own ballot has no right
to vote in this country.</span></span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There have been too many voters led to the
polls, and used as party troops. There are still
slaves on election day who are afraid of the crack
of the whip. There ought to be permitted in this
nation no political or religious disability on account
of the honest exercise of the right of suffrage. A
man should be protected from the politician and
the priest. When a man votes as he thinks, he
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page046"></span><SPAN name="Pg046" id="Pg046" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
has discharged the highest duty of citizenship,
but when he votes through bribe or fear, he forfeits
the privilege of the ballot. The polls are more
sacred to man than the altar. Religion might die
and man could still have every blessing of earth,
but when liberty is killed, the noblest blessing of
earth has departed.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The petty salvation offered by Christianity is
not much sought after to-day, while the world is
bending its mighty energies in the direction of
knowledge as never before, and the glory of the
electric light, the song of the steam-whistle, the
music of the telegraph, the chorus of machinery
and the grand anthem of countless enterprises tell
of a bright and golden future time when man will
master the elements of Nature and guide his life
through its course of years in perfect safety and
security and step down at the end of it,—<span class="tei tei-q">“Like one
who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and
lies down to pleasant dreams.”</span></p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page047"></span><SPAN name="Pg047" id="Pg047" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc33" id="toc33"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf34" id="pdf34"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Who Carried The Cross</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Who carried the cross upon which Jesus was
crucified? Such a question ought to be easy to
answer, if the event ever occurred. There ought to
be no disagreement upon so simple a matter as this.
But there is disagreement, and quite a serious one
at that. Three of the gospels declare that Simon
carried the cross, while the fourth gospel says that
<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Jesus</span></em> himself carried the cross upon which he was
crucified. Now, which is right? Is John right?
If so, then Matthew, Mark and Luke are wrong.
If Simon carried it, Jesus could not have done so;
and if Jesus carried it, then Simon did not.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
That there is such a discrepancy in the accounts
of this alleged event does not so much indicate
that one is right and the others wrong in regard
to the carrying of the cross as that none is right.
To our mind this disagreement of the gospels is an
indication that no such event as the carrying of
a cross upon which to crucify Jesus ever occurred.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christians put forth the Bible as a work which
in some way came from God; as a book which is
reliable in its statements, and correct in its narrative
of events. Now, it is patent to everyone that
in the gospels there are two distinct accounts of
the carrying of the cross. How can Christians
reconcile this fact with their theory that God is the
author of the Bible?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It must be admitted by all that one mind could
not have written or inspired both of these stories,
and it must also be admitted that if one is true the
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page048"></span><SPAN name="Pg048" id="Pg048" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
other is false. What is the natural conclusion
that an unprejudiced mind would arrive at after
reading the account of the carrying of the cross for
the crucifixion of Jesus in the four gospels? Is it
not that no such cross was ever carried for any
such purpose?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are too many gospels, too many stories
of Jesus. It would have been better for Christianity
had all but one of these narratives been destroyed.
They contradict each other in so many
essential points as to make them totally unreliable
as records of facts. It is plain that <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">not one of the
writers of the four gospels knew of what he was
writing</span></em>.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We must in honesty say that no one knows who
carried the cross on which Jesus was crucified, and
no one knows whether Jesus was crucified or not,
and no one knows whether any such person as
Jesus ever lived, to be crucified.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Civilization has come about by going to school
more than to church.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Nature is the volume from which all of our knowledge
has been translated.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page049"></span><SPAN name="Pg049" id="Pg049" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc35" id="toc35"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf36" id="pdf36"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Modern Disciples Of Jesus</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The modern disciples do not resemble very
closely the ancient disciples of Jesus. In fact
it is very hard to find a reason why Christian
preachers call themselves disciples of Jesus at
all. According to the narrative of the New Testament
Jesus was not in love with money and what
money will buy; he did not have a high appreciation
of the good things of the world; he did not
express any anxiety about his food or dress, nor
manifest any desire to have aesthetic surroundings.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
And if we can credit the story of the gospels,
Jesus charged his disciples to be and do pretty
much as he himself was and did. He said to them:
<span class="tei tei-q">“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead,
cast out devils; ... Provide neither gold nor silver,
nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey,
neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet
staves, for the workman is worthy of his meat....
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Whether or not the ancient disciples heeded
these words of their master, and carried out his
instructions, we do not know, but there is abundant
evidence that his modern disciples do not
pay his commands the compliment of obedience.
If there is one item that the clergyman of to-day
looks after it is his salary. He deliberately disobeys
all of the injunctions of Jesus to his disciples,
and thinks he is doing his duty to do so.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This is the funny part of his discipleship to us.
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page050"></span><SPAN name="Pg050" id="Pg050" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
He does not consider the charge of Jesus worthy
of being heeded. When we point to the commands
of Jesus, and ask some Christian minister why he
does not obey them, he coolly informs us that it
would be the height of folly in this age to attempt
to do as Jesus commanded his first disciples. In
other words the Christian clergyman acts upon the
ground that the orders of Jesus to his apostles are
incompatible with personal dignity and decent
living, and that only a person utterly devoid of all
sense of fitness and social responsibility would
undertake to follow his directions.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We agree with the action of the modern disciple
of Jesus in regarding his commands as foolish and
unfit to be obeyed, but we want him to take an
honest stand before the world and say so like a
man. Now he is a hypocrite, when he assumes
a place in the Christian ranks but refuses to obey
the orders of his master. The modern disciple of
Jesus is more concerned about putting money in a
bank or investing it in real estate than he is about
<span class="tei tei-q">“laying up treasures in heaven.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If there is one person who believes thoroughly
in looking after himself and his in the world, and
getting all the good things out of it, it is the Christian
minister. He is well housed, well fed, well
dressed, and, as a rule, has a comfortable income.
How he must laugh when he reads the New Testament!
He probably regards Jesus as a chump to
tell men and women to take no thought for what
they shall eat and drink and wear, and not to lay
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page051"></span><SPAN name="Pg051" id="Pg051" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
up a few dollars for a rainy day. He has to make
believe honor the poor, unsophisticated peasant
of Galilee, in order to get his fat living. He has
to fool the fools that support him in luxury, but
all the reverence he has for Jesus you could put
in your eye.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If it paid better to tell the truth and to take an
honest position in the world, we presume that most
ministers would quit playing the hypocrite, but
as long as Christianity pays its preachers more
than they can get from any other source, we may
expect them to profess to follow Jesus and then
do as they please.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every fact is backed up by the whole universe.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christianity is a black spot on the page of civilization.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The church is a bank that is continually receiving
deposits but never pays a dividend.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page052"></span><SPAN name="Pg052" id="Pg052" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc37" id="toc37"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf38" id="pdf38"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Poor Excuse</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The excuse of the poor for not going to church
is a poor excuse. The woman who does not go
to church because she cannot dress well enough,
cannot have much respect for her master. Jesus
did not rail against the poor, but the rich. He
did not condemn Lazarus, but Dives. Christian
churches should be filled with rags, not silks; with
paupers, not bankers. No one can be too poor
to feel at home in the church of him who was too
poor to have a place to lay his head. A Christian
church is the church of poverty, and its minister
should welcome the tramp, the beggar, the rag-muffin,
and should give the cold shoulder to the
rich merchant, the well-dressed politician, the
prosperous citizen.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is a singular thing that while silks despise
rags, rags respect silks. The poor Christians
ought to glory in their poverty, ought to be proud
of their patches. They should have utter contempt
for good clothes, and go to the church of
Jesus with a feeling of pride that they honor him
by being poor, as he was. Velvet, satin and broad-cloth
are insults to him whose ragged royalty
they profess to reverence.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the poor were not as big hypocrites as the
rich, they would drive the richly-dressed worshipers
out of the church dedicated to the poverty-stricken
Nazarene, who has been elected to the
office of savior. A person has not very much
Christianity when his religion is ashamed of his
old clothes.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page053"></span><SPAN name="Pg053" id="Pg053" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc39" id="toc39"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf40" id="pdf40"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Profession And Practice</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are a great many persons who are anxious
to pass for more than they are worth, to stand
for more than they represent. They always get
on the side of the majority, because that is considered
the safe side, the side that is most likely
to have the largest number of loaves and fishes.
These people are willing to pay the price of popularity;
willing to do anything that is regarded as
respectable, even to denying their own souls. The
easiest way to win favor is by professing the popular
faith, no matter what it is. A true man will
be true to his convictions, true to his principles;
but such a man may not receive applause, may
not make money, may not be allowed to enter the
door of society. In order to win the favor and
secure the good-will of the majority, it is necessary
to go with it, no matter where it is going. The
thoughtless, the weak and simple, follow the crowd.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Profession is demanded of him who would join
the ranks of the pious. Profession is required of
the man or woman who belongs to the church.
The performance of every duty, the practice of
every virtue, is not a sufficient recommendation
to popular favor. It is a fact that profession without
practice is accepted in preference to practice
without profession.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who gives his life to man without
thought or care about God is considered a bad
man, while he who gives his life to God without
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page054"></span><SPAN name="Pg054" id="Pg054" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
thought or care about man is regarded as holy
and saintly. Nobody can do God any good or
any harm, and all the worship that is offered him
is a waste of time.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who stands up in public and asks
God in prayer to help the poor, to bless the suffering,
is looked upon as a good man, while he who
does not pray nor ask God to do anything, but
helps his needy brothers and sisters, is pronounced
wicked and sinful. Values have become strangely
mixed in the eyes of mankind. Religion is considered
as worth more than morality; worship
more than work; prayer more than performance
and profession more than practice. This is wrong,
false and foolish.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Profession is a mighty poor jewel, a cheap and
flashy substitute for the diamond of practice. It
is a confession of fraud; a mask for a face; a coward's
excuse; a hypocrite's wile. Honesty need
not profess to be honest.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When a minister says that God will help you, ask
him to put up the collateral.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The church spends thousands of dollars to save
a dogma, where it spends a cent to find a truth.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page055"></span><SPAN name="Pg055" id="Pg055" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc41" id="toc41"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf42" id="pdf42"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Where Is Truth</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men have enthroned truth in some far-off kingdom,
away from the world, as though it were too
pure to live on earth. It has been made supernatural,
and only to be known by being revealed.
But truth is everywhere; its voice is heard in
everything. The very pebble at our feet holds its
image, and its light twinkles in the white splendor
of the distant star.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man has searched for truth in books, but has
not found it there. He has invented words to
conceal his disappointment, such as God, heaven,
providence, etc. Nature contains all the truth,
and so far as men have read Nature aright they
have learned what is true, but we cannot catch
and hold Nature in our philosophies. She breaks
through all the finely-woven theories we put about
her, and man, in his attempt to bind Nature with
his thoughts, binds only himself.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men in all ages have tried to read the secret of
the universe. We have been told that God directs
it, that a divine mind planned it and keeps it in
motion. Why not let the universe explain itself?
Why not read it by its own light? Why not confess
our ignorance? God is a figure of speech, but
Nature is a reality. Let us trust what we know.
Nature is never capricious. Fire will always burn,
water will always drown, frost will always freeze.
Though we have confidence in Nature, let us acknowledge
that we do not yet comprehend the
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page056"></span><SPAN name="Pg056" id="Pg056" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
meaning of things. The old habit of inventing
words to hide our ignorance has been adopted by
science as well as by religion. Evolution does not
reduce the mystery of existence to a simple problem.
What we call truth is more than we have
yet found. The unknown is still provocative of
investigation, and the only prayer of the mind is,
more light. We must beware of accepting dogmas,
whether of science or religion. No statement is
the last word of truth. Doubt is the first step of
progress, and inquiry is the way to knowledge.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing that stands more in the way of
human advancement than the authority of opinions.
Some dragon of assertion ever disputes our right
to the golden fleece of truth. If we ask for proof
of God's existence or man's immortality, we are
answered with a text, but a text is only the dead
opinion of a dead man. This age demands truth,
not the belief of a person who lived centuries ago.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Because superstition holds the contents of a
book sacred we are not to enslave reason to its
statements. We will not be bound by the opinions
of others, neither must we bind others to our opinions.
We must make freedom sacred, and cease
condemning men for disbelief or unbelief. The
bondage of faith is the slavery of the soul. It
makes man unjust, unwise and unkind. Allegiance
to a creed makes us ill use a man simply because
he does not believe as we do.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page057"></span><SPAN name="Pg057" id="Pg057" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No church has all the truth, and no school either.
So-called religion merely shows where the search
after truth ended. But truth is the infinite reality,
and it will always be for man to find.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christianity is like a slow clock—always being
moved ahead.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The day of the Bible is passed. Books have
taken its place.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Better be late to church Sunday morning than
late at home Saturday night.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man to-day has more and better ways of getting
a living than at any time in the history of the race.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page058"></span><SPAN name="Pg058" id="Pg058" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc43" id="toc43"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf44" id="pdf44"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">What Does It Prove</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christians say that the resurrection of Jesus
proves his claim to be the Messiah. But what
proves the resurrection? Certainly not the contradictory
stories of the gospels. The story of the
resurrection of Jesus from the tomb merely proves
that somebody lied, that is all. A pretty Messiah
Jesus was! The Messiah of the Jews was to be a
king who should restore the lost splendor of the
house of David; who should overthrow the power
of the Romans and build up the Israelitish kingdom.
This king never came. Jesus was just
about as much a Jewish Messiah as Crispus Attucks
was a President of the United States.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No creed can be stretched to the size of
truth; no church can be made as large as man.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To correct in ourselves what we condemn
in others would remove most of the evils of life.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page059"></span><SPAN name="Pg059" id="Pg059" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc45" id="toc45"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf46" id="pdf46"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Human Responsibility</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing that tends to perpetuate the
weakness of humanity more than religion. Men
have been taught for ages that they were dependent
upon God for all they have. This kind of teaching
must be corrected; it is false. Man is dependent
upon man. No God will help or hurt him. Be
he ever so good no God will praise him; be he ever
so bad no God will blame him. What he wants to
escape is his own condemnation.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In order to develop an independent spirit in
man it is necessary to increase his responsibility.
Man must be taught to rely upon his own strength,
upon his own body and mind. He must learn his
relations to Nature and abide by the laws of his
being. He must know this: if he would have anything
he must deserve it. Human destiny follows
human conduct.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The old notion that man is responsible to God
cannot be proved. There are no facts that corroborate
that notion. Man is responsible to himself.
It is this truth that is calculated to elevate and
ennoble human life. Let human beings understand
that there is that within themselves that is
to be respected, and that they are responsible to
themselves for all they do, and they will be more
worthy of respect and live more worthy lives.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page060"></span><SPAN name="Pg060" id="Pg060" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc47" id="toc47"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf48" id="pdf48"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Abolish Dirt</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We should like to see one generation brought up
to hate dirt. Every child ought to be taught that
clean hands and face and clean clothes help to a
clean life. There are too many homes on this
earth that human beings live in that are dirty, in
which those three household gods—the broom,
the mop, and the dust-rag—have no place.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Children should be taught to drive dirt out of
the house as they would a mad dog. Dirt is the
food of disease. It is the enemy of health and
happiness. Abolish dirt.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If God exists, what objection can he have
to saying so?</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When we have nothing to give a beggar,
we can at least tell him so kindly.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page061"></span><SPAN name="Pg061" id="Pg061" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc49" id="toc49"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf50" id="pdf50"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Religion And Morality</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A religious man is not trusted to-day because
he is religious. Faith in vicarious atonement is
not accepted as a moral substitute for meeting one's
obligations. Worship of God is not equivalent
to helping your neighbor. The fact that a man
is religious may not be proof that he is a bad man,
but it is no evidence that he is a good man. The
most contemptible wretch that ever robbed the
widow or orphan could shine in a prayer-meeting,
where words are passed for virtues. The veriest
scoundrel can pay a pew tax and march up the
aisle of the church with sanctimonious countenance.
Religion is such a superficial affair that it carries
no moral recommendation. Without morality religion
could not borrow a dollar on its name, while
morality without religion can get all the accommodation
it asks for. The real virtues of a man do
not depend upon religion. Men have lived good
lives while believing in dozens of gods and without
faith in a single god. Morality is not the offspring
of theology. You cannot pick out a moral man
by hearing him pray. A great deal of religion is
worn to conceal moral defects.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We should watch the man who stands up in
public and says: I am moral. We should say to
him: It is not necessary for you to proclaim your
morality; your daily life will show how moral
you are. The world is becoming suspicious of
him who stands up in public and says: I am religious.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page062"></span><SPAN name="Pg062" id="Pg062" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many people seem to think if they profess
to love God it is not necessary for them to love man.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We are not denying that a great many good
men and women are religious; that a great many
good men and women go to church and prayer-meeting.
We do not deny that a great many
moral men and women profess faith in total depravity,
in vicarious atonement, but we do not see
how their faith has anything to do with their morality.
There is no particular necessity for Christians
to be good. Their faith saves them, not their
conduct. Religion is not doing, it is believing,
or pretending to.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is a big opportunity to lie in religion. You
cannot tell when a person says he believes in God
whether he is telling the truth or not. It is mighty
easy to be religious. But the moral man has no
such chance. He is not judged by his professions,
but by his actions.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Religion makes hypocrisy easy, but morality
offers the hypocrite no show whatever.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Never forget the good deeds that others do to
you, nor remember those that you do to others.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page063"></span><SPAN name="Pg063" id="Pg063" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc51" id="toc51"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf52" id="pdf52"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Jesus As A Model</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is common to speak of Jesus as though he
touched the borders of every human experience,
and sounded the depths of every joy and every woe,
but there is no warrant for such statements.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
He lived a very narrow life, and his brief career
cannot be stretched to cover the limits of our earthly
existence. He is held up for us to imitate, as
though he had left a pattern for every hour of our
lives, and a model for every day from the cradle
to the grave. This is simply nonsense. This
<span class="tei tei-q">“model”</span> business has been overworked. Jesus
had a great many crude, foolish ideas, and did a
great many deeds that are not worth repeating.
As a model of what is best in this age he is a wretched
failure. It is a mistake to look upon Jesus as a
fit person to lead our century to a higher life.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing to live for in the past.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We must condemn christianity, not christians;
strike the church, but spare the heart.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page064"></span><SPAN name="Pg064" id="Pg064" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc53" id="toc53"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf54" id="pdf54"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Singing Lies</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Go into any Christian church and you will hear
the choir and the congregation singing lies. Is it
not time to stop it? Is music married irrevocably
to falsehood? Take up an ordinary hymn-book
and you will hardly find a sensible line in it. The
entire contents of the book is about God, heaven,
salvation, and other equally unknown quantities,
states and conditions. Why not sing sense? Why
not sing facts? Why not sing truth? Why not
sing the glories of Nature, of life, of man?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Music is a wonderful power, a wonderful educator
of the feelings and emotions. It is essential,
therefore, that music be inspired by what is true,
by what is good, by what is right. Truth should
be set to music and the lips taught to sing what
science has discovered, what art has done, what the
universe reveals, what the world is living for.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The common Christian music is a wail of despair,
a cry of sorrow, a shriek of fear. It is composed
of false conceptions of Nature, of humanity, of life.
It is a <span class="tei tei-q">“doleful sound.”</span> The triumph of faith
which it celebrates is not a full, round, complete
joy.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Church does not know the music of laughter,
the music of the heart. Its song seems always to
hover on the brink of fear. It is not the glad note
of natural freedom, but the uncertain joy of the
escaped convict.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The free song must come from the free heart,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page065"></span><SPAN name="Pg065" id="Pg065" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
must denote the free thought. Let life that is
healthy, happy and human be set to music. Let us
sing as we live, as we think, as we feel. The music of
the hand, the mind, the heart, should be on the lips.
If we could only sing what sings through us, the
world would listen with rapture. We do not want
<span class="tei tei-q">“harmonious madness”</span> nor harmonious idiocy.
Pious music is stupid, false. It is inspired by the
sickness of the world. We need a stronger note,
a sturdier song.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Lies enough have been sung. Let truth now
fill the air. Out of the great hope of the race let
new songs come. We are beginning to live for
life on earth, for happiness here, for love here, for
victory here. Let the hands and feet, the brains
and hearts of men and women move to the music
of truth.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is not a village where poverty does
not pinch the stomach or starve the mind, where
misery does not need charity and where wealth
could not bless.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Piety could do nothing better than imitate
morality.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page066"></span><SPAN name="Pg066" id="Pg066" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc55" id="toc55"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf56" id="pdf56"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Walk Through A Cemetery</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In walking through a country graveyard one sees
a prominent granite or marble monument here
and there, but more of the stones that mark the
resting-places of the dead are modest in appearance,
plain and humble. But there are some
graves that are unmarked by any outward token
of remembrance. Such graves may hold the dust
of as great and good men and women as those spots
above which has been raised the lofty shaft and
costly design.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Graveyards are just as deceptive as are the
homes of the living. A fine house is not proof of
the moral, the manly or womanly worth of its occupant.
Saints do not sleep beneath the gilded
roof any more than under a leaky thatch. So
also the wise, the good, the true, are not the ones
over whose ashes rises the chiseled stone. The
dead may deserve monuments that the living are
not able to buy.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A graveyard might be called a library of lies. Epitaphs
are to be read, and believed, if you can believe
them. We have found as big falsehoods in
cemeteries as in newspapers. <span class="tei tei-q">“Say nothing bad
of the dead”</span> is kindly counsel, but, say nothing of
the dead on a tombstone, is wiser.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We have seen a towering stone covered with
words of praise over the ashes of a man, who, while
living, was simply a lover of money. We have
seen the sunken grave of a woman, with no marble
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page067"></span><SPAN name="Pg067" id="Pg067" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
to adorn it, who lived a heroic life of love and duty
beyond words to tell. If virtues bore monuments
one would rise over the neglected grave of that
saintly woman that would reach the clouds, and
that other grave would be stripped of its marble
and left to oblivion.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Though a cemetery is more or less a museum of
vanity and pride, there is at the bottom of the
costly display of granite and marble a tender feeling,
a commendable virtue. There may be as
much love and respect for those in unmarked
graves as for those who sleep in costly masonry or
beneath sculptured stone. In walking through a
graveyard, if our steps should go to the places
where no monument invited the eye, they would
be more likely to walk over the dust of those who
did life's duty well, than if they paused only before
the imposing shaft or read the marble tale of
virtue that never was told in deeds.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
God never helps those who need the help of
men and women.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man ever knew Providence to interpose when
his neighbor's hens are scratching up his garden.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page068"></span><SPAN name="Pg068" id="Pg068" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc57" id="toc57"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf58" id="pdf58"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Peace With God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A good, pious lady said to us not long ago:
<span class="tei tei-q">“Don't you think that you ought to make your
peace with God?”</span> We have never had a bit of
trouble with God. We have got along with him
tip top. He has never shown that it was at all
necessary for us to make peace with him. We
have never quarrelled. If we are not at peace
with God, we did not know it. We have no wish
to have a row with anyone, and if God has the
idea that we are mad with him or want to injure
him in any way, we wish to disabuse his mind of
such a notion.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We wish to say that we have never had any
dealings with God, to our knowledge. If we have
seen him, we did not know it. If he has spoken
to us, we were not aware of the fact. If he has
been in our presence at any time, we were not conscious
of it.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not know that we have ever wronged
God or that God has ever wronged us. We do not
say that some word or act of ours may not have
injured God.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
All we can say is that we have no way of finding
out whether such is the fact or not. Of course,
we could not take the word of a priest or minister
on this point. We want God's own assurance
in the matter.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Up to this time God has made no complaint to
us that we have wronged him, or that we need to
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page069"></span><SPAN name="Pg069" id="Pg069" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
make our peace with him, and until we hear from
his own lips that we owe him an apology, we do
not intend to make one.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
God is just as good to us as though he was dead.
He does not cross our path, stand in our light, dog
our steps, or interfere with what we are doing. He
does not get in our way any more than if he lived
in the planet Jupiter. So we do not see that we
need to make our peace with him. We do not
comprehend how there can be any collision between
us.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Priests will pardon thieves but not philosophers.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Priest and God have formed some of the worst
combinations in history.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Too long has this world been at the feet of the
priest. Man is never in that position for his own
benefit, but for the benefit of the priest.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page070"></span><SPAN name="Pg070" id="Pg070" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc59" id="toc59"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf60" id="pdf60"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Saving The Soul</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who can deliberately, and in cold blood,
as it were, try to save his soul, must be grossly
selfish. To do that which shall redound to one's
own advantage or profit, without care or consideration
of another, shows little humanity. The
finer feeling is that which looks after others rather
than one's self. It can only increase selfishness
to seek salvation.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When a man gets the idea that his soul must be
saved, and goes to work to save it, the things that
he will do in order to insure its salvation tend to
lessen its value; and by the time he thinks his soul
is saved it is generally not worth saving. The
more willing we are to be lost, the more chance
there is that we will not be.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The cheapest method of saving one's soul is by
believing something. This requires but little effort
and no brains. Christianity is organized gullibility.
It tells people to believe what it teaches
and it will save their souls. It remains to be seen
whether Christianity fulfils its part of the contract.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It occurs to us that before we try to save our
soul we ought to know that we have a soul and that
it needs saving. We fail to see any necessity for
anxiety on account of our soul. We do not care
to go into the salvation business and let the priest
get all the dividends. Any person who can seriously
talk about <span class="tei tei-q">“saving his soul”</span> ought to have a
guardian.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page071"></span><SPAN name="Pg071" id="Pg071" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc61" id="toc61"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf62" id="pdf62"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Search For Something To Worship</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What is there in the universe that deserves
worship? Is there anything? What is there
that men and women should kneel to, pray to
and adore? If there is anything that deserves
such worship from human beings, where is it?
Let us see if we can find any such thing.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We look at the earth and its inhabitants, and
while we see much which calls for admiration, we
find nothing to worship. The mountain impresses
us with its towering grandeur, the ocean with its
vast extent and terrible power, but we cannot get
on our knees to rocks, no matter how high they are
piled; nor pray to water, no matter how much there
is of it. The flower elicits our wondering delight,
but we cannot adore a rose, a sunflower or a daisy.
We own the marvelous beauty of the animal form,
but we cannot worship a horse, a tiger or a dog.
We hear the gladness and madness of melody which
comes from the throat of the bird, but sweet and
entrancing as it is, we cannot adore a skylark, a
nightingale or a thrush. We see man, the fairest
form that walks the earth, the most marvelous
piece of work that Nature reveals to our senses, but
we cannot worship our own image.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Beyond earth the eye looks, and cloud, black
or bright, is seen and the endless blue beyond the
cloud, but man cannot get on his knees to vapor
or pray to the sky. In the daytime the sun is seen,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page072"></span><SPAN name="Pg072" id="Pg072" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
and at night the moon and countless stars, but
man cannot worship a ball of fire nor a dying planet,
or adore a point of light.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We can find nothing on the earth or in the heavens
that we can worship. Is there something not on
the earth or in the heavens? If so, what is it and
where is it? What do men and women kneel to?
Nothing. What do men and women pray to?
Nothing. What do men and women worship?
Nothing.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Coals out of the ashes of love will never light the
fires of friendship.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The names of most men live on account of the
falsehoods told about them.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We should scorn the person who would be mean
enough to allow his fellow-being to be punished
for his deeds. Yet we have a religion in our
midst that is founded on this kind of meanness.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page073"></span><SPAN name="Pg073" id="Pg073" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc63" id="toc63"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf64" id="pdf64"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Where Are They</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the sons of gods that loved the
daughters of men?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the nymphs, the goddesses of the
winds and waters?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the gnomes that lived inside the earth?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the goblins that used to play tricks
on mortals?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the fairies that could blight or bless
the human heart?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the ghosts that haunted this globe?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are the witches that flew in and out of
the homes of men?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where is the devil that once roamed over the
earth?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where are they? Gone with the ignorance
that believed in them.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man was ever yet canonized for minding
his own business.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man was ever yet sorry to find that he had
married a good cook.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page074"></span><SPAN name="Pg074" id="Pg074" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc65" id="toc65"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf66" id="pdf66"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Some Questions For Christians To Answer</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
How do ministers know what pleases God?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What is <span class="tei tei-q">“inspiration of God?”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When God <span class="tei tei-q">“inspired men of old,”</span> what did he
do to them?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What has God revealed to man that has ever
helped him get a living?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If we do not need to worship God six days in the
week why do we need to worship him on the seventh?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If there were no ministers and no priests, how
long would there be any churches?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If God will answer prayer, what is the necessity
of working?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If God weeps when the poor suffer, what does he
make it so cold for?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If rich men cannot enter the kingdom of God,
what business have rich men to be in Christian
churches?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If God is our <span class="tei tei-q">“father,”</span> does he take very good
care of his children?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If God sends what blesses us, who sends what
curses us?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If Christianity makes the world better, why is
there so much vice and crime?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If <span class="tei tei-q">“salvation is free,”</span> why is anybody lost?</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page075"></span><SPAN name="Pg075" id="Pg075" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc67" id="toc67"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf68" id="pdf68"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Image Of God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We wonder if anyone knows what is meant by
the expression, <span class="tei tei-q">“the image of God.”</span> It is said in
the Bible that God <span class="tei tei-q">“created man in his own image.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If man makes anything in his image we know
how this thing looks, but when God creates something
in <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">his</span></em> image we are at a loss to comprehend
what is meant unless God has the likeness of man.
In ancient times there is no doubt but what the
assertion that God <span class="tei tei-q">“created man in his own image”</span>
was accepted literally, that the people looked upon
God as a big man. Later they came to look upon
man as a little god.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But we are dealing with the brain of the twentieth
century, with the common sense of a scientific
age, when it is no longer believed that God <span class="tei tei-q">“created”</span>
man at all. To-day the <span class="tei tei-q">“image of God”</span> is a
puzzle. If God <span class="tei tei-q">“created man in his own image,”</span>
in whose image did he create the elephant, the lion,
the bear, the ox, the goat, the snake, the beetle,
the bee, the fly, the gnat? These could not all
have been created in the divine image, unless the
divine image is a multitudinous likeness.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is it not about time that a few literary murders
were committed, that some one went through our
literature and killed off a lot of nonsensical expressions
that, if they ever meant anything, are
meaningless today? If there was more honesty
in the pulpit a great many Bible expressions would
go out of fashion. One of the first that needs to
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page076"></span><SPAN name="Pg076" id="Pg076" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
die or be killed is this foolish expression, <span class="tei tei-q">“the
image of God.”</span> It may be religious, but it lacks
sense. It means nothing in this age. God is a
term that eludes definition. It is a survival of
an age of ignorance.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A man may be a fool and not know it, but he
cannot be a fool without others knowing it.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is a pious regard for certain men and women
who have in past ages been, as it were, the
world's salvation. We would honor these men
wherever piety offers her praise, but we would not,
like piety, forbid man the right to excel them.
We all know how much easier it is to be saved by
another than to save ourselves, but it cannot be
denied that there is a certain respect, a feeling of
admiration, a thrill of reverence for the man who
says: I am a free moral being and scorn to allow
another to suffer for my sins.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page077"></span><SPAN name="Pg077" id="Pg077" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc69" id="toc69"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf70" id="pdf70"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Religion And Science</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When religion attacks science it is like trying
to cut down the tree of truth with the hatchet of
falsehood. It is unfortunate for Christianity that
it was founded on the book of Genesis. A scientific
fact is higher authority today than a religious
fable. Science has found so many facts that contradict
the stories of Genesis that to accept these
stories as divine truth is to make falsehood the
word of God.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The one particular enemy of every religion is
science. With merciless labor her votaries have
dethroned one after another idol of man. Science
has no creed, no dogmas. Her search is for facts,
and on these she stands. If what is discovered by
lovers of truth is contrary to the tenets of religion,
such tenets must be abandoned, for what is scientifically
false cannot be religiously true.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian church is built upon a lot of divine
say-soes. Science has found that these say-soes
are not so. The only honest thing for Christians
to do is to give up the book of Genesis as a
reliable record. What men have said that God
has said is not necessarily sacred. Men may have
lied, and lies are not holy. Christianity has been
afraid of the divine name. What it has found in
the name of God it has blindly worshiped as the
word of God. This stupid action has been a
prolific source of mischief. Faith has carried on its
innocent back a thousand impositions through fear
to doubt.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page078"></span><SPAN name="Pg078" id="Pg078" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Science has not found the name of God in the
earth or in the heavens. It has ignored the guide-board
which the priest of religion nailed to the
Bible, <span class="tei tei-q">“this book shows the way to truth,”</span> and has
studied the volume of Nature instead. Whatever
it has found has been told. What may be honestly
inferred from the facts of science is that all religions
are humbugs, and that Christianity is a fraud.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The only way to a better life is by living better.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The person who tells a lie does not know what he
will have to do next.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many persons have the idea that the universe
would run off the track but for them.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Have a good time, make life cheerful and bright,
dance if you want to, sing if you can, play as long
as you live and leave the world with a smile.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page079"></span><SPAN name="Pg079" id="Pg079" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc71" id="toc71"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf72" id="pdf72"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Bible And The Child</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The longer we live the more are we convinced
that no adult person would accept the Bible as a
divine work if he had not been taught the dogma
of the Bible's divinity when a child. Let the
matured mind come to the perusal of the Bible
without the religious prejudice in favor of its divine
character, and it would reject the book as unworthy
the consideration of the intelligent, educated man.
Let the refined sense, which all education in art,
manners and social morals seeks to cultivate, begin
to read the Bible, without the religious prejudice
in favor of its sacred character, and before a
dozen pages had been read, it would close the volume
with disgust and hide it out of sight, or burn it as
soon as possible.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Bible's divinity rests upon the mental and
moral corruption of the young. Were children
not taught that this book was sacred, men and
women would look upon it as unholy. Do people
realize what harm they are doing to the mind of the
child when they teach it to accept the Bible as God's
word? They are telling the child that falsehood
is sacred; that ignorance is holy; that foul stories
are pure; that vile words are clean, in the mouth of
God. Fathers and mothers would not tell their
children what they, and what priests and ministers,
tell them God wrote or inspired man to write.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What is needed to-day is to tell the truth about
the Bible. Tell men and women that ignorant,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page080"></span><SPAN name="Pg080" id="Pg080" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
uncultured, unrefined men wrote it hundreds of
years ago, and that it is unfit in its present shape
to put into the hands of a child that a mother wishes
to grow up honest, true and pure.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Liberals should not allow their children to touch
the Bible. They should keep it from them until
they are old enough to know that no book was ever
written by a God, and then, if they read the Bible,
they would see its true character. We must guard
the minds of our children from Christian influences.
We pity the child that is taught that the Bible is
the word of God, but we despise the man that
teaches this falsehood.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Most men would kill the truth if truth would
kill their religion.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The truths which God revealed have been overthrown
by the truths which man has discovered.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
People used to think that to mix religion with
business spoiled the religion, now they think it
spoils the business.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page081"></span><SPAN name="Pg081" id="Pg081" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc73" id="toc73"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf74" id="pdf74"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">When To Help The World</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Recently an old man, over eighty years of age,
lay on his death-bed. He could no longer keep
possession of the wealth he had accumulated. In
a few hours he must leave it to the world from
which he had taken it and kept it so many years.
He had not been a generous man. He had loved
money. He loved to get it and loved to keep it,
and if he could have carried his wealth with him,
whither he was going with that unknown guide,
Death, there is no doubt but that he would have
done so. He had given nothing to the world while
he lived and he would not have given anything
when he died, only that he was obliged to do so.
This is the only charity of a great many people.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When death comes, then the hand of avarice
must open. Nothing can be carried through the
grave. So the old man must at last release his
hold upon his gains. He must leave his loved dollars
to somebody. He had gathered them for
himself, not for others. He had thought only of
himself when he gathered them, and now, when he
was to part with them, he did not know what disposition
to make of them. The lawyer was present
at his bedside; the minister was also with him.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The will had been drawn. He had bequeathed
certain sums to public charities and remembered
the church. Life was almost gone. He hesitated
yet to give up the control of his money to others.
The pen was placed in his dying fingers for him to
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page082"></span><SPAN name="Pg082" id="Pg082" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
affix his name to the will. But he had waited too
long. He died with the name unwritten, the pen
unused in his dead hand.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Not voluntarily did he part with a cent of his
fortune. His millions will now be divided by
the law.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is there in the bare possession of money the
happiness that men desire, that men dream of, that
men <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">want</span></em>? Is a dollar the highest goal of human
effort, the crown of human endeavor? Is this dollar,
the insignia of fortune, the true sign of good
fortune? We believe not. The man who works
for this and nothing else, is the slave of avarice; as
hard, as cruel, as merciless a tyrant as ever cursed
the earth.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Let every man strive for independence. Let
man be rewarded well for his labor. Let every
hand keep busy, but let there be a desire higher
than money, a dream nobler than of gain, a want
above the possession of riches.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is a better charity than that unwilling gift
which death compels us to make; it is to help the
world while we live. There are two ways of doing
this: by giving back a part of what we take,—that
is one way and a good way—and by taking less
from others, that is another way and a better way.
The help that men need to-day is justice. Thousands
are poor that one may be rich. Thousands
toil that one may live in idleness. Thousands are
in want that one may live in luxury. Thousands
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page083"></span><SPAN name="Pg083" id="Pg083" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
have not a dollar that one may have millions. This
is not right, not fair, not just. Men must take less
while they go through life.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is not enough that a man on his deathbed give
a college a million, a public library a million, a
public park a million. <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">He should have no millions
to give.</span></em> He should live a more just life and help
others by trying to get less for himself. The public
bequest is the popular atonement for large fortunes,
but such atonement does not efface the
sufferings of poverty and want they entail.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We say to the rich, do not wait until you die before
you try to help your fellow-men. Help them
while you are living. When a man has made money
he should make a noble use of it, or he wrongs himself
and the world.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Where the cross has been planted only superstitions
have grown.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Religion is no more the parent of morality than
an incubator is the mother of a chicken.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Unless some people change their habits before
they die, there will be a lot of dirty angels in the
next world, if there is any next world.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page084"></span><SPAN name="Pg084" id="Pg084" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc75" id="toc75"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf76" id="pdf76"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Judgment Of God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We hear less of what is called the <span class="tei tei-q">“judgment of
God”</span> than formerly, but quite enough to show that
this foolish superstition still lingers in the human
mind. It used to be believed that God was on the
lookout for the bad boy who went fishing or skating
on his holy sabbath and that when he caught
him he immediately made use of him to prove his
loving-kindness and tender mercy by making him
get into the water where he could drown him. It
was never related that God took this boy by the
shoulder or even by the ear and led him back home
to his parents with the request that they take
better care of him in the future. This was not
God's way. There would be no judgment in this.
God must murder the poor boy who could see no
difference in the conduct of the birds and fishes on
Sunday from their conduct on Saturday, and have
him carried back to his father's arms and his mother's
heart a corpse, a cold, dead thing, no longer needing
love, kindness, and a parent's great, forgiving
charity. This was God's way. He delighted in
seeing a dead boy taken out of the frozen stream
and laid down in the presence of his poor, grief-crazed
mother. He thought this would make the
mother love him more and other boys keep his holy
sabbath. So when any misfortune befell on Sunday
a human being who was not on his way to God's
house, or engaged in other pious occupation, it was
believed to be a judgment of God and people took
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page085"></span><SPAN name="Pg085" id="Pg085" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
care to avoid a similar punishment. This kind of
religious teaching does not enjoy the reputation
that it once did for the reason that it has become
discredited by human experience. All things considered
it is just as safe to go sailing or swimming,
fishing, or driving, on Sunday as on Monday and
men have learned that no penalty attaches to violation
of the fourth commandment. As people become
sensible they cease to be religious.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Prayer is begging from a pauper.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The egg of prayer never yet became a chicken.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Prayer is like a pump in an empty well, it makes
lots of noise, but brings no water.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many people who worship Jesus would
not let him come in at the back door.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page086"></span><SPAN name="Pg086" id="Pg086" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc77" id="toc77"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Christianity And Freethought</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christianity is opposed to freedom, and consequently
freedom is opposed to Christianity. A
Christian cannot be a freethinker, and a freethinker
cannot be a Christian. When a man is required to
believe certain doctrines, he is not free to think. A
creed is to keep the mind from inquiry. Questions
lead to doubt, and doubt is the death of faith.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The church condemns freethought, because freethought
cannot be bound by its chain of dogma.
There is no place in the Christian church for the
exercise of liberty. If the mind finds a new truth
that contradicts the old dogma, the truth must be
strangled that the dogma may hold its power over
the thoughts and deeds of men.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To be a Christian is to surrender to the priest or
minister in the name of Christ. It is to be a monkey
on the end of an ecclesiastical string to get
pennies for his master. It is to crawl at the feet
of superstition.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To be a freethinker is to search for truth without
fear. Where there is love of freedom there is no
reverence for authority. There is no faith in God
as sacred as love of man.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There may be lots of Providence in the world,
but no man seems to know just where it can be
found.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page087"></span><SPAN name="Pg087" id="Pg087" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc79" id="toc79"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Brotherhood And Freedom Of Man</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
From the fall of Rome a new era marks the history
of man; a new soul was born out of human experience.
The idea which had been prophesied by the
philosophers of India, Egypt and Greece now appeared
in life, and what had been hoped for seemed
about to be realized. Born in an age of slaughter
and inhumanity the thought of the brotherhood of
man fell upon the world like a star out of the night's
sky. Though the power of this idea was not fully
comprehended by the people upon whom it blazed
forth, still the promise it contained was able to kindle
enthusiasm in the hearts of the few, who bequeathed
it to the world as the destiny of mankind.
Human life was inspired with a new purpose under
the power of this grand and noble sentiment. Although
it was not understood and the subject of
much misapprehension, the thought of uniting man
in one great endeavor grew and endowed nations
with a feeling that never before had moved their
hearts. Its advent gave the world a new ambition
and the mind was enlisted in the great cause of love
and fellowship of man.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There was another sentiment not less true or
beautiful but more revolutionary, which about the
same time began to assume likeness in human
affairs, which must be considered of larger importance
in the new social movement, which, during
the first century of the so-called Christian era, commenced
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page088"></span><SPAN name="Pg088" id="Pg088" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
to be felt. The declaration of the sovereignty
of man was more prophetic of change in government
and society than the doctrine of the brotherhood
of man. No government taught that man
ought to judge for himself what is right, and no
church preached that man should love his neighbor
as himself.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Political and religious organizations then as now
were arrayed against individual rights. The state
and the church controlled the person. Man was
crucified between these two thieves. One robbed
him of his body, the other of his soul. Our history
assigns the origin of these two great principles—man's
right to judge for himself and his duty to
help his fellow-being—to Christianity. But one
was born before the beginning of the Christian era
and the other long after the Christian church was
established. One represents man as opposed to
authority; the other the soul resisting tradition.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is more or less talk about the freedom and
brotherhood of man, but they exist as ideas yet
more than as facts. It is true that man enjoys a
certain measure of liberty in many directions, but
the victory of freedom has not yet been won. So
too is there a kind of human sympathy in society,
but the broad and magnificent destiny which dwells
in the bosom of human brotherhood is more a dream
than a reality.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There has been too much time wasted in disputing
who was the human author of these great and sublime
conceptions, and too little expended in trying
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page089"></span><SPAN name="Pg089" id="Pg089" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
to plant them in human hearts and cultivate them
in human lives. It is unimportant who first stood
against the world of tyranny and demanded his
right of independence, or who first felt indignation
for the wrongs inflicted upon his race and pity for
the victims of cruelty, and pleaded for more humanity
towards man. The secret can never be wrested
from the silent past, and we can gain nothing by
fighting over graves.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The world seems nearer the full realization of human
freedom and brotherhood than ever before.
What is needed now to hasten the fruition of the
glad promise of a better destiny for the world is to
take authority from the priest and selfishness from
man.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Prayer is a hook that never caught any fish. It
is a gun that never brought down any game.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man ever got an answer to prayer that he
could show to another person.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page090"></span><SPAN name="Pg090" id="Pg090" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc81" id="toc81"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Whatever Is Is Right</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are a great many familiar sayings, that
are in the mouths of nearly everybody, which are
perfect nonsense, and one of these many sayings is
the one we have chosen for the subject of this article.
One would imagine that falsehood became sacred
by repetition, judging from the way that certain
untruths live in the literature and language of
mankind. Many a holy text is only holy by being
with what is true, as we pay respect to many a man
whom we know to be unworthy because he is related
to respectable people.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The saying that <span class="tei tei-q">“whatever is is right,”</span> is a
dogma of the philosophy of indifference. To anyone
who works for the right and suffers wrong, such a
dogma is impertinent. Is the deed that sinks a man
to the realm of brutes, and the deed that lifts him
to heights where virtue in her high estate dwells
alone, both right? The worst light for a human soul
is that light in which a bad act looks like a good one.
We cannot afford to trifle with things pure and true.
To succeed grandly in life we must side with what is
right.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is a class of people that hold a don't-care
philosophy. These people don't care what they
say or do; they don't care what takes place in the
world or what the world suffers or endures. The
tent in which they dwell is pitched above the plane
of human wants and sufferings. They look
from their serene abode upon the troubled elements
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page091"></span><SPAN name="Pg091" id="Pg091" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
below, and, in contemplation of what is beneath
them, pronounce with pious gravity the highest
text of their system of philosophy: <span class="tei tei-q">“Whatever is is
right.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To those who have never seen the bitter tear
start under the infliction of injury; to those who
have never heard the sigh that disappointment and
deception have wrung from a breaking heart; to
those who have never witnessed the sufferings which
tyranny imposes upon its victims; to those who have
never felt the miseries which selfishness heaps upon
human beings, this doctrine may seem true; but to
those who have beheld the consequences of evil doing,
and felt the hard hand of injustice upon their
lives; to those who have been the victims of deception,
and realized the terrible fate of disappointment;
to those who have been trodden upon and
denied the rights of men; to those who have been the
slaves of the world's cruel masters, how false it is!</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We cannot disguise the fact that there is wrong
in the world. It haunts every dwelling-place of
man. It follows man to his business, to his work.
It goes with him when he seeks his pleasure. It
does not leave him when he enters his home.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every harsh word is wrong, every unjust judgment
is wrong, every cruel act is wrong, every deception
is wrong, every wicked or impure thought
is wrong. Go where we will we shall meet the ugly
face of wrong. On the street its presence will bring
shame into the face; in our dealings with the world
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page092"></span><SPAN name="Pg092" id="Pg092" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
it will come before our eyes in all its hideous reality.
Even when alone we cannot keep this phantom
away.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is it right that a human being should cause another
pain and anguish that will leave their marks on
the heart and brow for life? Is it right to make a
man suffer unjustly, to add to misfortune the weight
of cruelty? Is it right to deprive one of honor, of
fortune, of life? Is it right to bear false witness
against a brother-man, to abuse a neighbor, to slander
and malign a human soul? Is wrong right?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Go to the garret of the poor wretch where want
stares him in the face, where extortion robs his
family of every joy and every comfort, where the
day is made dark from no ray of human love coming
into the heart, and the night darker from the absence
of warmth and light. Go to the home rent
asunder by vice and see the broken promises once
so fair and bright, now blushing with shame; hear
curses from lips that once spoke in love; see the
skeletons of vows beautiful when breathed by the
lips of the holiest passion on earth, but now hideous
in their ruin. Go to the den of wickedness, to the
house of crime supported by lust and greed; look
upon the pictures of wretchedness and sorrow, of
sin and guilt painted by the hand of wrong; behold
the wrecked human lives that are floating on the sea
of existence, only drifting until some sudden wave
shall overwhelm them and sink them out of sight,
leaving behind a memory that man should contemplate
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page093"></span><SPAN name="Pg093" id="Pg093" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
with pity and which kindness would blot
out forever. See the world in its vice, in its suffering,
in its misery, in its tears and its shame and let
your lips say, if they can, that <span class="tei tei-q">“Whatever is is right.”</span></p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is necessary to distinguish between the virtue
and the vice of obedience.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
I believe that if God dwelt above the earth in the
twelfth century of the Christian era, and witnessed
the cruelty of priests and heard the cries
of their poor victims when their bones were broken
upon the rack or their flesh was burning in the
wicked flames, and these priests should have lifted
up their voices to this God and given him the glory
of the awful sacrifice, he would have said to them:
You lie; I never commanded one of my children to
murder another. You are no ministers of mine,
and your victims, with their heresies, are a thousand
times holier in my sight than are you with
your pious dogmas and holy sacraments.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page094"></span><SPAN name="Pg094" id="Pg094" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc83" id="toc83"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf84" id="pdf84"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Object Of Life</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men live for less than their advancement. The
object of life is not human improvement. Ambition
has not self-denial for a mark but self-gratification.
A thousand pander to one. Passion, instead of
principle, is the power that guides. We do not save
to help save the world, to aid progress and truth,
but to have means to satisfy selfish desires. The
highest consideration of mankind is self. Everything
is done for one. Humanity is a word of little
meaning. It is not often regarded as a great, living,
suffering being, which demands of every person his
or her best life. Man is not loved as the supreme
fact of Nature. When not a beast of burden, he is
too often a beast of pleasure.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
As long as self is to be preferred to all, it matters
little what is employed to promote it. Self is alone
sacred to selfishness. General interest is sacrificed
to individual possession. Every man thinks the
world <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">his</span></em> first. It is regarded as magnanimous to
leave what you cannot take.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The world no longer permits the stronger to kill
the weaker, but it allows the wealthy to oppress the
poor. Money is holier than man. Human life is
less sacred than property. To save a dollar is regarded
as a more necessary virtue than to save a
human heart. Society cares more for fortune than
for truth. It is easier to win your way with hypocrisy
than with honesty. The world does not ask:
What are you worth morally? but, what are you
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page095"></span><SPAN name="Pg095" id="Pg095" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
worth financially? Self-interest has made it the
object of life to injure our fellows. To get an advantage
over another is the victory man seeks.
One must fall that another may rise.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Those who are at the bottom support those who
are on top. The toilers are the foundation of
society. We need to be more careful of what is beneath
us than of what is above us. <span class="tei tei-q">“I write not
these things to shame you, but to warn you.”</span></p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When you are falling, you cannot stop where you
wish to.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The power that conquers men to-day must be the
power of enlightened opinion.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Two dollars given to the son do not atone for
one stolen from the father.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page096"></span><SPAN name="Pg096" id="Pg096" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc85" id="toc85"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Man</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Hebrew psalmist sings of man:—<span class="tei tei-q">“Thou
madest him a little lower than the angels.”</span> A
modern psalmist writing on this subject says:—<span class="tei tei-q">“Man
was made a little higher than the brutes.”</span>
Man is a rare animal; he is the only animal that can
make a fire, but he is more than a brute. We do
not know how much less than an angel he is, for we
do not know the dimensions of an angel.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What we do know is, that this strange, rare being,
called man, is capable of doing a good deed, but is
prone to do a bad one; that he has developed virtues
above the brute and vices below the brute; that he
is better in public than in private, and yet take him
all in all he might be worse. We have had the weakness
of human nature preached until we have almost
come to expect man to be immoral and vicious, and
are surprised if anyone asserts that man is strong
enough to resist temptation, and disappointed if he
does not come up, or down, to our expectations of
vileness and wickedness.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
While we have faith in man in the minority rather
than in the majority, still we are inclined to think
that most men are bad from circumstance more than
from choice. We trust to better conditions for
better men, and depend upon our best men to establish
such conditions.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is some criticism of virtue that vice offers
which is as pertinent as the censure of vice which
virtue indulges in. We admit that there are a great
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page097"></span><SPAN name="Pg097" id="Pg097" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
many sinners that are preferable to some kinds of
saints, who are no more to blame for their sins than
their more fortunate fellow-beings are for their
saintliness. But we do not mean to say that every
good man is a villain in disguise, nor every rogue a
righteous man who has not been found out.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are men and women whose goodness is
looked upon as <span class="tei tei-q">“flat, stale, and unprofitable”</span> because
it is that kind that is good from favorable
circumstances, and not from the exercise of any
strength of their own, but such virtue is better than
vice. We cannot afford to lose any power that protects
the world from evil, and we rejoice in all the
favorable circumstances that guard human beings.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men are educated into bad habits through the
constant assertion of human weakness, and the publicity
which is given to bad deeds. We can never
build man very high on the foundation of <span class="tei tei-q">“total
depravity.”</span> It is to be regretted that we think so
meanly of mankind. We must start with a better
assumption of human nature than that held by
Christianity.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We ought to emphasize man's strength and give
prominence to the good deeds of men. It is not
necessary to lie about human nature one way more
than another. Man has been painted worse than he
is. We do not ask to have him painted better than
he is. We want a true likeness. Man will make
the best picture without any fictitious coloring.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We are aware that we have not yet outgrown our
animal inheritance, that we are still fettered to
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page098"></span><SPAN name="Pg098" id="Pg098" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
earthly things. Man can more easily deny his soul
than he can his stomach, but for all this there is
greatness in him. While man can fall to the lowest
depths from which he sprung, he can rise to the
height which is visible in his purest hours. What
we ought to do is to encourage, all we can, the conditions
most favorable to the development of the
noblest part of man. Every temptation to vice
should be driven from the public gaze. If man
must fall, let him fall out of sight.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
People who rely most on God rely least on
themselves.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The original sin was not in eating of the forbidden
fruit, but in planting the tree that bore the fruit.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The people who boast the loudest of carrying
their cross are never around when man cries for
help.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
An audience composed of the best-dressed people
in a town stands for "pure religion and undefiled"
to-day.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page099"></span><SPAN name="Pg099" id="Pg099" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc87" id="toc87"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Dogma Of The Divine Man</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are growing indications all along the
Christian line that the dogma of the divinity of Jesus
is being abandoned. It is seen that such a dogma
involves confusion and misapprehension. When
the question, <span class="tei tei-q">“How can a God who is infinite exist
in a form that is finite?”</span> is pressed to an answer, no
satisfactory reply is forthcoming. There is apparent
absurdity in this doctrine. The general definition
of God, as put forth to-day by the Christian
Church, is irreconcilable with the dogma of the
divinity of Jesus. If Jesus was God he was not a
man; if he was a man, he was not God. To talk
about his divinity is to talk nonsense, if Joseph was
his father and Mary his mother. Man is not divine;
God is not human. The mixing up of these
two terms is done simply to impose upon the credulous
and superstitious. We cannot think that
any man of real good sense believes this Orthodox
dogma. It seems impossible for intelligence to so
contradict itself. The brain stoops that accepts
this dogma. For a man to confess his faith in Jesus
as divine is to admit that his hat is not full. The
evidence adduced to prove the divinity of Jesus
proves the divinity of Apollo, of Hercules, of Prometheus,
of hundreds of mythological heroes. Are
Christians prepared to admit this? If not, then
they are called upon to tell the world why not.
What is meant by divine? What kind of a man is
a divine man? Let us see. Divine means superhuman,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page100"></span><SPAN name="Pg100" id="Pg100" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
supernatural, God-like; hence a divine
man is a superhuman man, a supernatural man, a
God-like man. Does anyone know what these
definitive terms mean? Does a person know what
he is talking about when he says a man is superhuman?
Can a man be more than man, more than
human, more than natural?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The dogma of a divine man is a dogma of deception.
It is a theological cobweb. It is spread
to catch flies.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The idea prevailed in the past that what could
not be understood must necessarily be profound, as
though muddy water was deep water.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Does anyone comprehend the dogma of the
Trinity? It is believed because it cannot be comprehended.
The tribute of faith has been paid to
occult nonsense long enough.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
How does anyone know what is superhuman?
What is human? The fact is, Jesus has had his
day. His reign is drawing to a close. He is being
seen for what he is,—a myth. Faith in him as a
God is dying. The belief that Jesus was divine is a
blot on the intelligence of this century. But the
blot is growing smaller.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Lots of men who would not associate with infidels
for fear of contaminating their characters
are not yet out of jail.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page101"></span><SPAN name="Pg101" id="Pg101" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc89" id="toc89"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf90" id="pdf90"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Rich Man's Gospel</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The presence of numberless rich men in Christian
pews leads one to wonder if the gospel of Jesus has
been kicked out of the church. Such men do not,
and cannot, respect the person to whom every
church is dedicated. The gospel of Jesus is not the
gospel of the rich, but of the poor; not of the banker,
but of the beggar. It is impossible for the wealthy
man to be a Christian. If he had any faith in the
doctrines of Jesus he would <span class="tei tei-q">“sell what he has and
give to the poor.”</span> And not only this, but he would
be poor himself.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Jesus never said a kind word of the rich. He
never uttered a word that contains any consolation
for the millionaire. He never gave any command
that encourages the <span class="tei tei-q">“laying up treasures upon earth.”</span>
What is a rich man in the Christian church for?
He has no business there, if he is an honest man.
He is living exactly opposite to the life Jesus commanded.
He is doing what Jesus told men not to
do. He refuses to do what Jesus said a man must
do in order to be his disciple.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Either the rich man who joins the church is a
hypocrite, or the minister, that receives such a man
into the church, is. There is a hypocrite somewhere.
You do not find that Jesus went into the
temple to flatter the money-changers; he went in
there to drive them out with a whip.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The rich man's gospel is not found in the New
Testament. That is sure. It may be preached
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page102"></span><SPAN name="Pg102" id="Pg102" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
from a Christian pulpit by a so-called Christian
minister, but the man who preaches this gospel
denies his professed Lord and Master. Jesus did
not say, <span class="tei tei-q">“Lay up treasures upon earth.”</span> Take all
you can from the poor. Form trusts and combinations
to enrich yourselves. Worship Mammon.
There is a misunderstanding evidently on the part
of the rich man who joins the Christian church.
If he would read the New Testament he would
learn his mistake, and see that he was in the wrong
place. He does not seem to be aware what Jesus
preached. There is one thing certain, the Christian
church that receives into fellowship a millionaire,
has more reverence for the millionaire than for
Jesus.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The beating of humanity's heart cannot be felt
by placing the finger on the church's pulse.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What a queer thing is Christian salvation!
Believing in firemen will not save a burning house;
believing in doctors will not make one well, but
believing in a savior saves men. Fudge!</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page103"></span><SPAN name="Pg103" id="Pg103" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc91" id="toc91"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf92" id="pdf92"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Speak Well Of One Another</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing that will make this world brighter
and happier than to speak well of one another.
We sometimes wonder how a mean story about a
fellow-mortal gets started, and how it is kept going.
Surely no base report ever had birth in a
kind intention, and no mouth ever repeated it with
the wish to make the world better.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Envy, malice and ill-will can make no decent defence
of themselves. Now, it costs no more to
say a good word of a brother or sister than to say a
bad one, and there is no obligation on the part of a
person to blacken human reputation. It is a mean
heart that cannot do justice to another. If we
must speak of our neighbors, let us speak kindly.
Let us refer to those things that are pleasant, and
discuss that in their characters that is worthy of
praise. It hurts us to say bad things of other people,
and it may hurt them. There is certainly
some part of everyone's life that can be commended.
What we know of others that is not
good, let us not refer to. Silence is never more
charitable than when it spares a human heart.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are many of our friends who are striving
to make a success in life. Nothing will aid them
more than to speak well of them. Everybody can
be generous with kind words, and yet they are worth
more than gold. They are the diamonds of speech,
which the poorest can wear.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Don't be afraid to speak well of men, to praise
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page104"></span><SPAN name="Pg104" id="Pg104" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
good deeds. No one will think worse of you for
speaking kindly of others. It is not necessary that
we speak well only of those deeds that men sing in
words of song. There are scores of little every-day
acts, that give the perfume of self-denial, of sacrifice,
and that deserve praise. If we were to give
any advice to a man or woman, who wished to help
the world as they passed through it, it would be
this, Speak well of men and women.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A receipt for bringing up a child will not apply
to a whole family.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To build one house for man is better than to
build a dozen houses to God.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We often hear a man say that the world owes
him a living. So it does, if he earns it. But man
owes the world something. The debt is on both
sides, and it is only by giving what is due to others
that we get what is due to ourselves. We receive
assistance when we render it, and it is by a law
of our nature that the world turns from a man
who turns from the world.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page105"></span><SPAN name="Pg105" id="Pg105" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc93" id="toc93"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf94" id="pdf94"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Disgraceful Partnerships</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Six marriages out of ten are disgraceful partnerships.
The ones to question our assertion will be
the married men, and the very ones, too, responsible
for the disgrace. Marriage is a union where
the two partners should share alike the profits and
the losses. There should be no head of the firm in
the sense of making one subservient in any way to
the other. The wife has just the same right to
handle the money of the firm as the husband. The
family purse should not be carried in the husband's
pocket unless he is willing to pass it out whenever
his partner requests it, and no questions asked.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Most men treat their wives worse than servants.
If a wife asks for some money, the husband, in
most instances, wants to know what she is going to
do with it and how much she wants, instead of giving
her what is her right. Married men do not
recognize their wives as equal partners in the family
concern. They think they should have what they
want and their wives what they are pleased to give
them. How many homes have been broken up by
carrying out such a principle as this? More than
men will confess.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This state of things is not confined to the homes
of poverty. Not at all. It exists where there is
plenty. Many a proud woman is almost daily
humiliated by a man to whom she is obliged to go
for what money she needs. The pain that niggardly
husbands inflict upon sensitive wives is only
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page106"></span><SPAN name="Pg106" id="Pg106" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
known by themselves. Many a woman has said:
<span class="tei tei-q">“I would rather go without the money than have so
much trouble to get it from my husband.”</span> What
must a woman have suffered to be forced to make
such a confession as that!</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A marriage in which a woman is daily made to
feel her dependence upon a man, is attended with
the gravest moral perils. The only just rule is for
the husband to allow his wife a fair share of his
income, for her to do with as she pleases. Not
only marital harmony would be promoted by such
an arrangement as this, but love would burn longer
and purer on the family altar, private morality
would be conserved, and all the relations of life
elevated and dignified thereby.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The most beautiful thing is the beauty we see in
those we love.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The money that men waste would make them
rich, and the time they waste would make them
wise.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page107"></span><SPAN name="Pg107" id="Pg107" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc95" id="toc95"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf96" id="pdf96"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Science And Theology</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every day we are told of some wonderful discovery
of science. But what has theology discovered?
The scientist is searching for the truth;
the theologian is trying to save his idols. Of all
the great inventions and discoveries that go to
make human life easier, happier, more rich and
glorious, not one can be laid to the work of theology.
These triumphs all belong to science. Some day
the world will become wise enough to confess that
the priest is of no benefit to mankind. The investigator,
the student, the inventor, is the true philanthropist,
the real benefactor. He finds what is useful
to his race, what adds comfort and joy to existence.
Science is the hope of the world, the only
savior that humanity has had adown the ages or
will have as man lives on through the centuries.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Many a man who was too good to play cards
has broken a bank.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A dog can get rid of another dog that cannot get
rid of the flea on his back.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page108"></span><SPAN name="Pg108" id="Pg108" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc97" id="toc97"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf98" id="pdf98"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Unequal Remuneration</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many small men draw large salaries, and a
great many large men draw small salaries. Of
course we measure men by their ability to do something
of value to their race. It is a sorry fact that
one person is paid ten thousand dollars a year for
playing base ball or riding a race-horse, and that
another person in unable to earn seven hundred and
fifty dollars for the same length of time by performing
some useful labor. A mechanic, who
actually adds to the wealth of the nation, who produces
something of value, is paid less than a jockey
or a base ball pitcher whose business (?) is chiefly
maintained for purposes of gambling.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But there are other phases of this question that
present equally disproportionate features. An
actor, who merely repeats the words of another, receives
one thousand dollars a night for his performance,
while a lecturer who imparts original
knowledge to his hearers, is paid twenty dollars and
his expenses for his thought and labor. A singer
is given five thousand dollars for appearing three
nights of a week upon the stage, and a reformer is
allowed what her audience will drop into the contribution
box. One explanation of this is: <span class="tei tei-q">“There
is only one Caruso.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is another explanation, and that is: People
will pay more to be entertained, to be pleased, than
to be instructed, to be enlightened or to be told what
is right and best.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page109"></span><SPAN name="Pg109" id="Pg109" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is a sad fact that many are paid too little for
what they do. As a rule the actual laborers, the
real workers of the world, both male and female,
do not receive fair compensation for their work,
while thousands of people who merely hold an office
are paid far more than they are worth. Teachers,
writers and professors are all underpaid. The
highest work that man or woman is doing is the
work of education, training the human mind to
think truly, to act nobly, and yet a lawyer receives
more in a day than a teacher in a year.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The world that will pay one thousand dollars an
hour to hear the voice of Melba, will grumble at
paying ten cents an hour to a washerwoman. The
world that will give a person ten thousand dollars
a year for pitching base ball will object to raising
the wages of our mill operatives five per cent.
The world that will pay ten thousand dollars a year
for riding a horse, wants a woman to teach school
for fifty dollars a month.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We say, pay talent well and genius generously,
but pay well also the arm that toils; pay the needle,
the saw, the spade, the hoe, the mop.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every man who claims the right to <span class="tei tei-q">“life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness,”</span> is bound to show
that he deserves this right.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page110"></span><SPAN name="Pg110" id="Pg110" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc99" id="toc99"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf100" id="pdf100"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Old And The New</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This is essentially an age of change. Things
which have been established for centuries are no
longer regarded as fixed. That which has been
looked upon as absolute is now respectfully held to
be uncertain. The foundations of old ideas are being
disturbed and man finds that he has built upon
sandy bottom. Much which in times past answered
the human soul, now affords no satisfaction. It is
plain that a revolution has commenced that will be
far reaching and important in its actions and reactions.
There is to be a general overhauling of
matters secular and religious, political and social
and a wholesale clearing out of old words and forms,
of outgrown habits and customs, may be expected.
The world of man is about to take account of stock
and to have a universal comparison of estimates
of values. Too long have we been subsisting upon
the say-soes of our ancestors and taking their eyes
and ears as infallible.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
For many years men have regarded all questions
of religion as settled, and that the whole duty of
this and future generations was to accept the conclusions
of the past upon all religious matters.
We do not understand how men ever came to regard
such conclusions as final or how they came to
expect the whole human race to receive them as the
utmost of human knowledge. We do not look upon
the questions of religion as settled, and the growing
doubts of the infallibility of the common religious
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page111"></span><SPAN name="Pg111" id="Pg111" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
ideas demand that we reconsider these questions.
To do this we have not to go into any
theological discussion. No learned authorities are
to be consulted to establish or refute any line of
argument. No dictionary of terms is to be examined
to settle the meanings of words. We have
only to decide whether mankind had better facilities
for observing and studying the phenomena of
the universe in past times than we have to-day;
whether their eyes and ears were better than ours,
and their methods and opportunities for ascertaining
the truth of things higher than those of this age.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If men in the past had facilities inferior to ours
for observing the phenomena of the universe, it
would follow that their ideas of the universe would
be inferior. Now, if we have superior ideas of the
universe, ideas nearer the truth of things, why
should we be expected to surrender these and hold
ideas which are false?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It seems to us that the questions of religion may
be settled by deciding whether or not we are to believe
our own eyes and ears and trust our own
knowledge and experience. It is certain that if we
can trust our senses and our knowledge, the old
ideas of the universe, of the origin of earth, of life,
of man, and of good and evil and the whole catalogue
of religious things are incorrect; and if we
accept them we do so contrary to our reason and
understanding.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
With faith in the present, and in all that makes
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page112"></span><SPAN name="Pg112" id="Pg112" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
it peculiar,—its scientific tendencies,—and with the
belief that out of the doubt and uncertainty that
are now around us will come higher convictions
which will deepen and widen life's purpose and
make humanity a fairer word and a fairer reality,
we say:</p>
<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Ring out the old, ring in the new;</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Ring out the false, ring in the true.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div>
</div></div>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Hell is where cowards have sent heroes.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A man never fell down stairs that he did not
blame the stairs.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The cross people carry to-day is made of gold
or set with diamonds.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing in this world of ours that will
work harder, fight harder, wait more patiently
and suffer longer than love, unless it be hate.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page113"></span><SPAN name="Pg113" id="Pg113" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc101" id="toc101"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf102" id="pdf102"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Guard The Ear</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Much of our character depends upon what we
hear. A person may be saved or lost by what reaches
him through the ear. The ear has no defense.
It is open to every sound. It cannot be deaf. It
<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">must</span></em> hear. We cannot open it to one person or
shut it to another. It is filled with songs of deepest
thoughts or words of ugliest shape without
choosing either. It is at the mercy, and the soul
as well, of whatever is uttered. The ear is falsehood's,
as well as truth's, servant. It carries what
it hears, and is as faithful to the vilest as to the
purest speech. It is temptation's peculiar channel.
The eyes may be shut, the lips may be closed, but
the ear is always open. We may decide what we
will say, what we will see, but not what we shall
hear.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We perceive how important it is that none but
pure, true, brave and sincere words be spoken. If
a person never heard a bad word he would never
utter one. The character of everyone born into
the world is determined largely by the world. Men
do pretty much what they are taught to do. The
heart at birth is pure, and were it not taught impurity,
would remain so. We regard the ear as the
chief door of the assault against the human heart.
Guard the ear and you save the boy and girl.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page114"></span><SPAN name="Pg114" id="Pg114" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc103" id="toc103"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf104" id="pdf104"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Character Of God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The character of God would stand vastly higher
in human estimation if he had visited the garden in
which he had placed the first human pair and picked
up the serpent and cast him over the garden wall
before he had a chance to tempt Eve, instead of
waiting until the mischief was done, and then
cursing the whole lot for what he might so easily
have prevented.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man can be himself with fear always at his
heels.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Death can get into a house when everything
else can be kept out.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is plain enough that men and women care for
God. This is too apparent to be disputed, unless
men and women are hypocrites. What is not so
plain is that God cares for men and women.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page115"></span><SPAN name="Pg115" id="Pg115" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc105" id="toc105"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf106" id="pdf106"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Not Important</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A Christian contemporary says: <span class="tei tei-q">“No question is
so important to mankind as religion.”</span> We wonder
how a person could write that sentence without
writing after it, a la Artemus Ward, <span class="tei tei-q">“This is a goak.”</span>
Of course, a preacher is the author of it, or a person
who gets his living out of religion. Had the writer
said, <span class="tei tei-q">“No question is so important to ministers and
priests as religion,”</span> he would have told the truth;
but as it stands, it is a falsehood. We can mention
several questions of more importance to mankind
than religion. The question of something to eat
and the question of something to wear are of vastly
greater importance than that of religion. So, too,
is the question of education, or the question of
government, of more importance than religion. It
is first necessary for man to live, then to find a place
to live, then to find the things to sustain life, then to
live happily and well. All this is prior to any religious
consideration. We believe the church as an
organization would go to pieces but for clergymen
and those who are interested in keeping it alive in
order to get a living out of it. It would be nearer
the truth to say: No question is less important to
mankind than religion.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A man's reputation oftentimes depends upon the
success he has had in hiding his character.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page116"></span><SPAN name="Pg116" id="Pg116" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc107" id="toc107"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf108" id="pdf108"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Oaths</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The superstition prevails that unless man swears
to tell the truth he will tell a lie. This superstition
makes the sanctity of the oath. But is it a fact
that a person will, under oath, always tell <span class="tei tei-q">“the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”</span>
It is the general opinion that judicial swearing is
simply a judicial farce. We concur in the general
opinion.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
An oath is the liar's retreat. Behind it falsehood
puts on the robes of truth. The perjurer delights
in swearing, for the act invests him with the appearance
of honesty. An oath makes the tongue
of vice as pure as the lips of virtue. It gives a rogue
the weapon of the gentleman. It permits guilt to
wear the dress of innocence.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who is willing to tell the truth feels that
his honesty is impeached when asked to take an
oath, while the knave, who is bound to lie, feels that
his knavery is protected by the God in whose
name he swears. No more senseless custom survives
in our age than the administration of the oath. We
do not believe that a judge or lawyer has one whit
more confidence in human testimony because it is
given in the divine name.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is it not time to recognize this fact, that men can
tell the truth without the help of God, and that
those, who cannot do so, do not succeed any better
with his help? In other words, an oath is calculated
to pass a scoundrel for an honest man. While
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page117"></span><SPAN name="Pg117" id="Pg117" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
it does not insure truth-telling, it does serve to dignify
a falsehood. It is time that a lie was obliged
to stand on its own bottom, and not be passed for
what it is not, because it is told in the name of God.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
God's name is not considered good at the banks.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To depend upon God is like holding on to the
tail-end of nothing.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A man cannot be happy who believes in hell,
any more than he can sweeten his coffee with a
pickle.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The church wants us to believe that God will go
out of his way to strike a blasphemer and work a
week to save the soul of a murderer.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page118"></span><SPAN name="Pg118" id="Pg118" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc109" id="toc109"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf110" id="pdf110"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Dead Words</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is not one real, true, live word in the
Christian vocabulary of salvation. Eden, the
stage on which was performed the tragedy of original
sin, is a dead word; devil, the name of the scaly
gentleman who took the leading part in this tragedy
is a dead word; hell, the abode of all those who descended
from the original sinners, is a dead word;
Christ, the title of the man who offered to ransom
the human race and save men and women from hell,
is a dead word; atonement, the word that stands for
the expiation to be made by Christ, is a dead word.
These words that the Christian church uses in its
exhortations to mankind have no heart of truth in
them. They stand for no facts; they represent no
realities. Take away these dead words from the
Christian preacher, and you take away his powder,
shot and wads. Let the Christian be held to facts
and obliged to tell the truth, and his lips would be
dumb. There never was such a place as the Garden
of Eden; never such an individual as the devil.
There is no such place as hell. There never was a
Christ, and no atonement made, for there was no
necessity of any being made. If there was no such
thing as faith, Christianity could not make a convert
on the earth. If ministers were obliged to furnish
the proof of their statements, there would
be no preaching.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page119"></span><SPAN name="Pg119" id="Pg119" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc111" id="toc111"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf112" id="pdf112"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Confession Of Sin</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When the church teaches that <span class="tei tei-q">“confession is good
for the soul,”</span> it teaches false doctrine; it is only good
for the church. Men once confessed their sins, believing
that it was the evidence of the loftiest courage
to acknowledge that they had made fools of
themselves or that they were the veriest knaves.
But never was a greater mistake made. Confession
is itself a sin, a base betrayal of one's own
heart. It shows utter lack of shame. Our sins
should be sacred. We should let no eyes see them
but our own. To exhort one to confess one's sins
is to ask the sinner to become the slave of his confessor.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man has learned to keep still in respect to those
things that concern no one but himself. He has
found that where he has done wrong it is wiser to
hold his tongue than to speak. We are not likely
to confess what will harm us. This prudence is
utility in morals. A wanton confession of wrongdoing
shows a loss of self-respect, and a virtuous
confession is proof of mental weakness. No human
necessity requires self-degradation. To tell what
we have done is to pay a compliment to prurient
curiosity which it does not deserve. When we are
commanded to do such a thing, resistance is a
greater virtue than compliance.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The human conscience to-day says: <span class="tei tei-q">“Hands off.”</span>
It is impertinent to touch the soul against its will.
Secrecy is our right. No one can demand that we
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page120"></span><SPAN name="Pg120" id="Pg120" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
expose our indiscretions. If the church asks if we
have sinned, we feel justified in answering: <span class="tei tei-q">“It is
none of your business.”</span> A man's sins are his own.
Our actions are private and subject only to voluntary
betrayal. We are at liberty to own our weakness
or our meanness and to tell whatever we have
done; but when another attempts to coerce a confession
from us, we refuse to submit to such unwarrantable
authority, and assert our right to be
custodians of our own deeds. The court which does
not require a man to criminate himself is higher than
the church which bids a man lay bare his soul.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no ear pure enough to listen to the story
of the secret struggles of the human heart. The
doctrine of <span class="tei tei-q">“confession of sin,”</span> which has been
taught by the Christian church, is detrimental to
manhood and womanhood. It is a police arrangement
where the private conscience is under the eye
of the priest. There can be no independence where
the soul has surrendered to another.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To make crime easy is to make criminals. One
cannot rob the clothes-line if the clothes are in the
house.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page121"></span><SPAN name="Pg121" id="Pg121" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc113" id="toc113"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf114" id="pdf114"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Death's Philanthropy</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every now and then a man dies and the world
praises his name, and men die every day whose
names we never hear.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Why is the one lifted up above the other?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In the case we have in mind it was because the
man, when he died, left several millions of dollars
to churches, to charities, and to public benefactions.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This age honors the accumulation of wealth. It
puts its stamp of honor upon the man who gathers
a large fortune into his hands. If this man at his
death bequeathes all of his fortune, or a large portion
of it, for what the world is pleased to call charitable
purposes, he is called a good man, and his
name is spoken with pride and praise.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Now, we believe in all the virtues that would
make a man wealthy, but not in the vices: and we
believe that a man may have all of these virtues
and not have much money when he becomes old, or
when he reaches the banks of the river of death.
We want to praise the man that the world does not
praise, the man who does not live or die for praise,
and who does not care for it. We do not think that
death's philanthropy is as grand and beautiful as
life's philanthropy.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who lives to get money and to keep
money, that at the last, when he can no longer keep
it, he may bestow it where it will be a monument to
his name, is not half so noble as the man who lives
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page122"></span><SPAN name="Pg122" id="Pg122" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
in such a way that he makes life easier for his fellow-beings,
giving his little every week, here and there,
and letting his gift fall quietly and out of sight of
men. It is the truest philanthropy not to rob man,
not to take money from the world and hold it until
the stronger hand of death opens the strong hand
of greed. This is man's noblest way to live; to take
only what can be used for profit or pleasure. To
take more than this is to rob mankind.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What generosity is there in parting with money
only when death makes the fingers let go? Men
who carry their millions to the grave would carry
them beyond it, if they could. When only death
can conquer selfishness, its noblest bequest merits
but little praise.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no vicarious suffering for the one who
has eaten too much.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The nation that proclaims the right of free
speech, but will not protect that right, has abandoned
its principles.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page123"></span><SPAN name="Pg123" id="Pg123" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc115" id="toc115"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf116" id="pdf116"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Our Attitude Towards Nature</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The idea that Nature is to be worshipped, either
as God, the unknown, or the incomprehensible, is
being seriously questioned. We wish first to know
what good such worship does. It cannot be of any
benefit to Nature. Is it of any benefit to man?
This is the only question to be answered.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Almost everybody is ready to say that man should
not worship the sun, the moon, the stars, or any
earthly thing; but a great many still think that
man should worship the mysterious something
of which everything is a manifestation. We have
outgrown the worship of objects. We look upon
the person who sees a God in any natural object as
an idolater; as one whose mental vision is unillumined
by any true idea of the universe. But there
is a demand that man shall worship God, or the unknown
force or power in Nature that is the source
of all things.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We admit the unknown quantity of the universe;
but we do not see the necessity of worshiping it.
We do not see any good in praying to it, or in singing
to it. Nature is all a mystery and all the mystery
there is, but why do we need to keep saying so
in prayer and praise when the silent fact is ever before
our eyes? We do not need to go down on our
knees to every mysterious thing, and stay there.
Let us freely and frankly confess that Nature is incomprehensible,
and then go about our business
like men, and try to learn what will help ourselves
and our fellow-beings.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page124"></span><SPAN name="Pg124" id="Pg124" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc117" id="toc117"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf118" id="pdf118"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Reverence For Motherhood</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
An author of some note, in an article published
in a Protestant journal, while admitting that
the <span class="tei tei-q">“holy Catholic church”</span> had been about as
unholy an institution as could well exist, claimed
that Romanism had its good points. Among
them he instanced <span class="tei tei-q">“its reverence for motherhood.”</span>
For proof of his assertion he pointed to the homage
paid to the image of Mary and her child by the
average Roman Catholic.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We admit the homage, but deny the reverence.
To begin with, where is the reverence for motherhood
among the Roman Catholic priests? Why,
these men have not respect enough for woman to
elevate her to the dignity and honor of motherhood.
These men are married to the church, to Christ
and not to women. Their sacred office would be
lowered by taking a wife.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The holy vows of these priests are not half as
holy as the marriage vow. A priest never had
half as pure a thought as is born in the heart of a
father. He never performed a rite half as consecrating
as dancing a laughing child on his knee.
These holy old bachelors have done all their
religion would allow them to dishonor motherhood.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The pretence that woman as woman, as mother,
as wife, as sister, or daughter, is particularly
respected by Roman Catholics is simply absurd.
To prove this we point to the homes of the Roman
Catholics. We confess that the Romish church encourages
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page125"></span><SPAN name="Pg125" id="Pg125" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
motherhood, that Roman Catholics are
urged to help increase the church membership, but
we claim that nowhere is there less reverence of
woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, as
daughter, than among the Roman Catholics.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Because a Catholic crosses himself before a
wooden Madonna, or a plaster-paris image of the
mother of Jesus, it is no proof of his reverence for
motherhood. Not a bit. The Catholic reverences
Mary as the mother of God; he pays her homage as
a divine person; worships her, not as a mother,
but as a superior being.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man that has reverence for motherhood is
the man who loves and tenderly cares for his own
mother and the mother of his children, but the
man who prostrates his mind before a carved
figure of the <span class="tei tei-q">“Virgin Mary”</span> and pounds his wife
and kicks his daughter into the street has reverence
for nothing.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Adam might have obeyed God, but he could not
resist Eve.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It looks easy to break off a bad habit that somebody
else has got.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page126"></span><SPAN name="Pg126" id="Pg126" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc119" id="toc119"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf120" id="pdf120"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The God Of The Bible</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The blind, foolish faith in the Bible is the cause
of intellectual dishonesty, moral hypocrisy, and
religious tergiversations without number. This
faith makes the twentieth century kneel to a
God that it would be ashamed to introduce among
civilized beings.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We would no sooner go to Moses to learn about
deity than we would go to Noah to learn how to
build a steamship. We do not believe in getting
divinity through a straw three thousand years long.
If we must have a God, let us have one that has had
the advantages of civilization. We might possibly
give this Lord God of the Bible a quarter of mutton,
as did Abel, or a peck of potatoes, as did Cain, if
we were convinced that he was living anywhere in
the universe, just to keep on the right side of him,
but we would not care to be on an out-of-the-way
road with him after dark unless we had a revolver
with us. We know of no more villainous character
in all literature; and for men and women, who
pretend to love what is pure and good, who pretend
to honor what is upright and just and who
pretend to revere what is noble and true, to worship
this God of Christianity, this God of Moses,
this God of the Bible, is a sad commentary on
human intelligence and human integrity.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We know that all theological discussions have
been wretchedly barren of results; we know that
theology has made no contribution to actual
knowledge; we know that no one knows anything
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page127"></span><SPAN name="Pg127" id="Pg127" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
about any such being as God, and we also know
that every God worshipped to-day by men and
women is only an imaginary person or thing. No
one knows what God is or where he is, and yet ministers
speak about him just as though they had
been to his house and taken tea with him.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Theology has received attention out of proportion
to its achievements. It has done the cackling
while science has laid the egg.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not like to hear men say: <span class="tei tei-q">“God did this”</span>
and <span class="tei tei-q">“God said this,”</span> when he has never opened his
lips to speak to man and never lifted his hand to
help him. We call such language dishonest, and
the time will come when the men who have made
such use of the divine name will be condemned
as impostors.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What this generation should do is to take the
Lord God of the Israelites, that lies dead on the
banks of time and bury him from human sight
forever. Not another human being born on this
earth should be allowed to read of his cruel deeds,
and if Christian ministers were honest, and had
the courage of their honesty, they would tell the
world that the being called God in the Bible was
no God, only an idol of a rude and barbarous age.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A theologian is a person who uses the word <span class="tei tei-q">“God”</span>
to hide his ignorance.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page128"></span><SPAN name="Pg128" id="Pg128" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc121" id="toc121"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf122" id="pdf122"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Measure Of Suffering</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The little boy who asked his mother <span class="tei tei-q">“if hell was
worse than the toothache?”</span> imagined that the
limits of suffering were reached in his agony.
Many of us have doubtless experienced pain that
we thought marked the utmost of endurance. In
the Christian dream of future punishment man is
represented as burning eternally. Fire probably
inflicts the intensest pain that the human body has
ever suffered. Hell is fitly represented by fire.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Suffering takes various shapes. Pain comes in a
thousand forms. But there is a limit to the endurance
of pain. Unconsciousness comes to the
relief of the mind when agony can no longer be borne.
Hell, such as has been taught by Christianity, is
not a logical conclusion. All suffering that we
know anything about ends itself. The victim is
released by exhaustion. Hell is impossible.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The finer suffering which is called remorse, which
follows wrong-doing, gradually wears out. Its lash
loses its sting. The sinner becomes callous to his
act or finds a balm for his regret in the lapse of
years. The finger of time erases the memory of
every wrong, and soothes with its touch every pang.
We can escape the fate of wrong-doing by doing
better. Reform opens the door of every hell invented
for man's punishment. The man who does
right, wherever he is, will have the reward of right-doing,
the fate of right-doing.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is this fact which makes the idea of endless pain
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page129"></span><SPAN name="Pg129" id="Pg129" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
for man's deeds done on earth illogical. Man can
turn around on the road of evil as well as on the road
of good, and hence he can change his fate whenever
he changes his life. The measure of human suffering
makes it impossible for man to endure pain forever.
He must either perish utterly as a sentient
being or be driven by his punishment to better
behavior.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man ever yet tore down his altar and found
a God behind it.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Trying to find God is a good deal like looking
for money one has lost in a dream.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We could believe in God if he shortened the road
for the lame, led the blind or fed the starving.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We are told that <span class="tei tei-q">“all things are possible with
God,”</span> and yet God cannot boil an egg in cold water.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page130"></span><SPAN name="Pg130" id="Pg130" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Nature</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Some people are afraid of the word Nature. They
cross themselves when they hear it pronounced. It
has a sound like <span class="tei tei-q">“Old Nick”</span> in their ears. To these
pious souls the word Nature banishes God from the
universe. This is looked upon by many as the highest
offence of language. It has been the custom for
several centuries to abuse Nature, to call it bad
names, and associate it with depravity and everything
evil. Theology has condemned the word, and
the pulpit has touched it only with the tips of its
fingers. To speak of Nature as anything good is
regarded as throwing dirt in the eyes of God.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Nothing clings to the world like a superstition.
Start a fear in the human breast, and it will make
every heart quake before it can be driven out. Let
a bad habit become fixed, and it will be as hard to
dislodge it as it is to plant a good habit.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But men are getting over their fright somewhat.
The natural is found to be the true, not the false;
the right, not the wrong; the good, not the bad.
Nature has been slandered, lied about. It was once
thought necessary to assassinate this word in order
to preserve the Orthodox religion. The necessity
still remains, but orthodoxy is dying.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Nature is a large word. It means about all there
is. If there is a God, he is natural.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Creeds</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This is the age of revision. Churches are all
hurrying to catch up with the world. There is a
desire to square ideas with facts, and shape beliefs
with knowledge. Religion must suffer in this process.
Something will be lost, but only what is bad,
false and wrong. Creeds are out of date. They
are behind the times. They are the dead leaves
from the tree of knowledge, the dead branches on
the tree of life. The world's faith is in the living;
in the bud, the blossom, the promise of things—not
in the husk, the shell, in dead and useless things.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
New creeds are to take the place of old ones.
What people believe now, not what people believed
hundreds or thousands of years ago, must be put
into a profession of faith. For a man to profess
what his father and mother believed is to make
birth useless and existence valueless. We are to
live to add to life, not to repeat it. Is theology the
only thing that people put their trust in? A theological
creed has to be accepted with the eyes shut.
We want a creed of the heart, of the head, of the
senses, of the whole man. There is no theology
worth believing in. The creed of the church is a
gravestone.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If we were to make a creed for the world of men
to accept we would make it out of human hearts.
We would go where a man had helped another;
where a woman had sat beside the sick and suffering;
where man had been crucified for being true;
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page132"></span><SPAN name="Pg132" id="Pg132" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
where he had been burned for being honest; where
he had stood against the world protesting against
its wrongs and proclaiming the right, and where he
had fallen with a martyr's crown upon his forehead;
and we would write these into a creed, and have
men say: I believe in men and women who have
lived good lives, who have taken the unfortunate
by the hand and lifted up the fallen, who have pardoned
a woman's fault, who have shown their love
of truth by being true, and who have done right
even when they were wronged for so doing.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The grandest life is the grandest creed; and, if
man's faith was faith in what has made the world
better and brighter and happier, he would be better
off than by believing in a God that is cruel, unjust
and unkind, and in a heaven where the highest joy
is found in laughing at those who are in hell.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It has been discovered that the man who was
lost in thought was not a church member.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not say that another world is not worth
a single thought, but rather that this world is
worth all our thoughts, and needs them.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Don't Try To Stop The Sun Shining</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If there is one person on earth who is to be envied
it is the happy, cheerful man or woman who always
sees the bright side of life, the good side of a fellow-being,
and the warm, sunny side of what belongs
to earth. If there is a person to be pitied, it is the
sour, gloomy man or woman, who sees only the
dark side of life, the bad side of a fellow-being, and
the cold, cloudy side of what belongs to earth.
Everything bright, beautiful, fair, sweet, and good
grows in the sunshine. We would not have a
flower without the sun. Cheerfulness is to the human
heart what the sunbeam is to the earth—the
source of gladness.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We ought to cultivate happiness. We ought to
have the home filled with what is beautiful. We
ought to let the sun shine into our lives. People
who are sour and moody look upon the smiling,
happy person as foolish, and wonder what there is
in life that one can find to enjoy. They want to
tear the flower to pieces, stop the bird singing,
trample upon the joy of the child, and hush the
laugh of mirth. If you cannot enjoy life, don't try
to prevent others from doing so. Don't throw a
shadow on the human heart. Don't try to stop
the sun shining.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Laying up treasures in heaven never kept a
man out of the poor-house.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Follow Me</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Jesus said: <span class="tei tei-q">“Follow me.”</span> But we decline; we
had rather not. We do not wish to follow a person
until we know where he is going.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If by following Jesus is meant living as he lived,
doing as he did, believing as he believed, teaching
as he taught and dying as he died, we are not in it.
We shall have to say: Thank you, we guess not.
We prefer to go some other way.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not see any necessity of following anybody
very far, if at all. This following business is
played out. Those who profess to follow Jesus
don't do it in the daytime.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But we can go a little farther and say that we
do not think Jesus was a man that a self-respecting
person would like to follow. He does not inspire
us with any particular admiration. The man who
could let his lips forget to speak kindly of his mother
cannot have our admiration. The man who
came not to bring peace, but a sword, to the world
cannot have our admiration. The man who said:
<span class="tei tei-q">“believe and be saved, believe not and be damned,”</span>
cannot have our admiration.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If we follow anybody, it is going to be a person
that commands our respect, whose greatness and
goodness compel our admiration, and who did not
try to win men by tricks. We regard Jesus, as he
is painted in the four gospels, as a character below
the ideal of this age, a character that, to imitate,
would dwarf the noblest man. If Jesus were alive
it would be his duty to-day to follow others, rather
than to command others to follow him.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Can We Never Get Along Without Servants?</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We recently overheard a remark which made us
query if we cannot get along without servants?
A lady was commenting on the character of the
<span class="tei tei-q">“help,”</span> which one was obliged to employ to-day,
and expressed the opinion that, if our public schools
continued to fill the heads of children with the notion
that one person was as good as another, it
would not be long before it would be impossible to
get help at all.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There seems to be an idea abroad in this land as
well as in others, that a certain class of people are
for the purpose of producing servants for another
class of people, and that this servant-producing
class has no right to give their children an education
that is calculated to elevate them above the
position of their parents. We are not in sympathy
with this idea. If there is one person on this
earth that is of less account than another it is
the person who is helpless, who is dependent upon
others for everything that makes life possible or
endurable. We must confess that there are too
many people in this country who are of this kind,
who must have someone to do for them what they
ought to do for themselves.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Why should one person be expected to wait upon
another? Why should a man or woman look upon
a fellow-being as fit only to be a servant? Is one
born to serve and the other to be waited upon?</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page136"></span><SPAN name="Pg136" id="Pg136" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Such notions have no right on our democratic soil.
In this country there must be no caste, no division
of society into classes.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We rejoice that such a criticism of the character
of the <span class="tei tei-q">“help”</span> employed in the houses of the rich as
we overheard, is true, for it reveals a condition of
things that may lead to what is much needed to-day,
viz.: a simpler mode of living on the part of a
great many of our American people. Is it necessary
to live in such a way that a dozen or more servants
are required in a home to keep it in order?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We believe the community in which all are independent
and none are servants is the ideal one.
Why should not this be the ambition of the race,
to live in a manner that will leave others their independence
and encourage in them the desire for a
home? Our children all ought to be taught to
work, and be made to work, and not be brought up
with the notion that they have the right to expect
others to wait upon them.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not wish to imply that one individual
should not consider it his or her duty to help another
or to work for another. What we desire to
convey is this, that if people did more of their own
work, and waited upon their own wants more, they
would not only be doing what is best for themselves,
but also what is best for the community in general.
For men or women to be dependent upon servants
and almost helpless without them, is not a
condition to be proud of, but to be ashamed of.
The man who cannot harness or drive his horse; the
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page137"></span><SPAN name="Pg137" id="Pg137" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
woman who cannot buy and cook a dinner for her
family, has not been properly educated.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The home in which there are the fewest servants
is the happiest home. The father that brings up
his sons to work, to know how to earn a living; the
mother who teaches her daughters to cook, to sew,
to do housework, is doing them good, not harm.
There are too many know-nothings and do-nothings
in the world. It is honorable to be useful in this
world, and it ought to be dishonorable to be useless.
Let us work for the day when we can get
along without servants; when life shall be so simple
that each family can do its own work. The servant
system is but little different from the slave
system, and it ought to be abolished.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The money man gives to get him into heaven
is what he ought to use to improve the earth.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Unitarian walks with a cane, the Congregationalist,
Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist
go with crutches, the Episcopalian has to be
pushed about in an invalid's chair, while the Roman
Catholic crawls on his hands and knees and
is led around with a ring in his nose by a priest.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Heavenly Father</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It may pay some persons to talk about a heavenly
father who cares for his earthly children, but we
prefer to get money in a more honorable business.
Honor bright, now, gentlemen of the pulpit, did
you ever see anything that convinced you that
there is a power in the universe outside of the human
body, that cared a snap for men, that showed any
more love for a child than for a crocodile? Tell
the truth, and let us see how far apart we are on
this question.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We have no objection to being taken care of by a
heavenly father, or by any person or power that is
wiser and kinder than man. But we do not want
to put our trust in such a being or power and then,
just when we needed most the help and counted on
it, find that we had been deceived. We admit the
good that is in Nature, the beautiful, the attractive,
but we cannot put faith in the God of earthquakes.
When we listen to a bird's full-throated song, and
surrender ourselves in delicious rapture to the spell
of its wondrous melody, we are ready to acknowledge
that a benignant power gave life to this sweet
little charmer, that can start such a flood of joy in
the human heart, but when in strolling among the
meadow's blossoms we are confronted with the repulsive
head and ominous attitude of the rattlesnake,
we ask: Who made you? We admire Nature
in some forms, but detest it in others. We
pick the rose with a blessing on its perfect beauty
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page139"></span><SPAN name="Pg139" id="Pg139" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
and perfumed breath, but we shun the white flower
of the dogwood—the poisonous hypocrite. When
the sky is fair and blue, and a smile is on the face
of heaven, we feel that only kindness and love sit
enthroned above us, but when the blue changes to
black and the smile to a frown, which grows deeper
and darker until the whole heavens threaten destruction
to earth; when the heedless lightning, with
brutal stroke, fells at our feet a form we love, we
wonder where the kindness and love have gone that
we saw only a few hours before. Nature does not
keep one mood long. She has made things fair and
things foul; she blesses, but she curses also; she wins
us with some temptation of beauty, and then punishes
us for yielding; she puts in our heart an angel
of love, but she puts there, too, a devil of hate; she
caresses us one minute and kicks us the next; she
licks our hand, and then without warning she bites
us.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is more power to-day in a drop of ink than
in a ton of powder.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A man may have respect for old age and not like
to find gray hairs in his butter.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Worship Not Needed</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The world will never throb with new life until
the spell of worship is broken. Nothing holds mankind
down so much as veneration for its idols.
Shake off the lethargy that worship has brought
upon the soul. Live like men, and you need not
worship gods. When we live true to the soul we
cease to ask for anything. Worship is denial of
self. Let us have no disputes about divinity. Let
God take care of himself. The light of the stars
proves their existence. The universe needs no counsel
of defence. That which is evident need not be
explained.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The great question for us to answer is not what
God wants, but what men need. Let us live to ourselves.
Worship is interruption. Let our life satisfy.
Worship is apology. If we are doing our best,
what need to excuse our work? What good does it
do to praise God? That is the true love which
obeys, not that which adores. We want willing
hands, not lifted ones. Worship is superfluous. It
adds nothing to the soul. It increases our cares,
not our virtues. The test of everything is, does it
help man?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We challenge the church to prove its claim to
man's support. It throws a shadow upon the earth
instead of letting more light upon it. The priest is
in man's way. Worship is a compliment to the
deity that he does not need, and a burden upon man
which he is not able to bear. Nature does not worship.
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She grows. Worship is opposition to reform.
It palsies the world's thought. It means stagnation.
It is difficult to get advocated what will correct
society, because mankind spends so much time
in the church that it has no time to spend in the
theatre of improvement. Worship is hypocrisy's
disguise. What a train of splendid deceit marches
up the aisles of the church! What a mask is worship,
but the world can see through it. When falsehood
kneels in praise of truth; when extortion and
cruelty call God father; when meanness and vice
are the disciples of Jesus, and when crime and sin
say, <span class="tei tei-q">“Thy will be done,”</span> the name of religion is a
blush on the forehead of the world.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We would not dethrone the world's heroes. The
more human beings we can get the world to honor
and respect the better humanity will be, but when
a man or woman has been for ages almost worshipped
by the world; when time, with its forgiving
hand, has erased deed after deed until naught else
is left of the man or woman but a holy memory, an
unreal soul, whose virtues are as ghostly as shadows
cast by the moon, it behooves us to look with unprejudiced
mind at this phantom of existence and
to see with naked eye this object of adoration, for
one may be certain that beneath the idol's robes
will be found a human form and with it all the
peculiarities of human nature.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Was Jesus A Good Man</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We denied in the presence of a Christian, who
wished to have a religious talk with us, that Jesus
was divine. This denial was somewhat anticipated,
we imagine, as the gentleman who challenged our
views was knowing to the fact that we did not pay
pew rent anywhere. But he thought to secure assent
from us by saying, <span class="tei tei-q">“You will have to admit
that Jesus was a good man.”</span> What constitutes a
good man? A good man is a man who is kind, loving,
merciful, reasonable, and just. Would a just
man pay the laborer who had worked but one hour
as much as he paid him who had toiled all day?
Would a reasonable man curse a fig tree because
it did not have fruit on it out of season? Would a
loving man say: He that hateth not father and
mother is not worthy of me? Would a merciful
man send those who did not agree with him into
everlasting fire? Would a kind-hearted man
bring a sword rather than peace on earth?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The truth is, we do not know <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">what</span></em> kind of a man
Jesus was. Good men have been killed by bad
ones, and bad men killed by good ones. If Jesus
was killed because he was a blasphemer the chances
are that he was better than those who put him
to death, but if he was killed because he sought
to overturn the government and secure the throne
for himself, he may have been a very bad man.
But by the gospel-record we hold that Jesus was
not a man for this age to honor or imitate.</p>
</div>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">How To Help Mankind</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are various ways of helping the world, and
all are to be commended. Perhaps the way that
costs the least, and consequently helps the least,
is the giving of good advice. This, we believe, is
about the poorest thing that can be given to man.
It is a gratuity on the giver's part which is never
received quite as it is bestowed. But it is usually
born of good intentions, and so we have to be thankful
for it, even if we do not use it. To those who
are inclined, however, to render assistance to their
fellow-beings, we would say: Give good advice last,
or, at any rate, give something with it. There is
no use telling a poor man where there is a good
restaurant when he has no money in his purse.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Another way of helping the world is the material
way—giving something that will relieve its wants,
pay its debts, or add to its independence. The
sympathy that takes the shape of dollars and cents
always reaches the heart. The rarest virtue in this
world of ours is generosity, and the rarest man is he
who gives to the world asking for no dividends but
in the happiness of his fellow-creatures. Money,
when wisely bestowed, comes about as near the
shape of an angel as any earthly thing can assume.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But there are other ways of assisting the world,
and while we admit all the good that can be done
with money, men and women need to-day to be
helped with truth, helped with justice. Mankind
are suffering from falsehoods, from wrongs as well
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page144"></span><SPAN name="Pg144" id="Pg144" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
as from ignorance, from want and poverty. Those
who are unjust to their fellows should help them by
dealing justly by them. Those who are keeping
the world in darkness should help it by telling the
truth. Truth and justice are every man's right,
and every man's due. You can help the world by
being just to it, by using your fellow-beings honestly,
squarely, justly. You can help it by telling
the truth and by concealing nothing that is true.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man needs an education in unselfishness. He
must learn to work for himself without working
against others. The advantage which a man gains
to-day is too often at the disadvantage of his brother
or sister. It is a poor victory which inflicts suffering.
The true measure of man's success is the joy
his life confers upon the world.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who wants to be an angel is never in a
hurry to begin.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who gets on his knees has not learned
the right use of his legs.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Ignorance is all that saves some people: if they
knew more they would do worse.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page145"></span><SPAN name="Pg145" id="Pg145" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc141" id="toc141"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf142" id="pdf142"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">On The Cross</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christianity teaches that Jesus was divine. To
admit that he was not divine is to give up Christianity.
In the light of this teaching let us look at
Jesus on the cross. After a brief, but rather peaceful
career, Jesus is arrested, tried and convicted as a
blasphemer, and sentenced to be put to death. It
is said that he died on a cross. How did he die?
It is said by Christians <span class="tei tei-q">“like a God.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There have been brave deaths on the gallows and
at the stake. Men have died sublimely whom
society has condemned as criminals. In our day
there has been as lofty heroism evinced in the face
of the most terrible of deaths as ever martyr of old
manifested when dying for his faith. We know
that men have walked into the arms of an ignominious
death without a tremor, and with magnificent
courage shining in their faces.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Brave dying proves less than brave living. The
sacrifice of a lifetime shows the courage that commands
our deepest admiration. Some mother,
some sister, or daughter who has offered herself for
years upon the hidden altar of duty has performed
a deed beside which a moment's suffering is as
naught. But the average mind fails to discern heroism,
except where the suffering is apparent.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We will admit for the moment that Jesus died
upon the cross. We will allow all the pain and agony
of such a cruel and terrible death. We will
let every picture of his suffering that has drawn tears
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page146"></span><SPAN name="Pg146" id="Pg146" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
from the eyes of women be accepted as true. We
would not rob the manner of his death of a single
pang. It was merciless, pitiless, devilish. Crucifixion
is the essence of cruelty, the refinement of torture,
the invention of brutality. We acknowledge
all the horrors of the cross. We do not wonder that
a man should shrink from being nailed to its arms,
but we do wonder that a God should. We are not
surprised that human weakness should cry out of its
breaking heart for sympathy and help, but we cannot
understand why divine strength should ask for
pity or aid. If Jesus was God he should have died
in divine silence. The record of the last hours of
Jesus shows that he died disappointed. The cross
proves that Jesus was human. When he cried out:
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," a
keener anguish pierced his heart than when the cruel
iron was driven through his flesh.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The dogma of the divinity of Jesus should have
died on the cross, when the man of Nazareth gave up
the ghost.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man who does no thinking before he acts
does twice as much afterwards.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Adam may not have been so perfect after the
<span class="tei tei-q">“fall,”</span> but he was not so big a fool.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page147"></span><SPAN name="Pg147" id="Pg147" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc143" id="toc143"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf144" id="pdf144"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Equal Moral Standards</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Why are girls brought up with more care as to
their personal habits than boys? And why do women
have fewer vices than men? It is an undeniable
fact that what is looked upon with indifference
in a man would be regarded with disgust, if not horror,
in a woman. Boys do things that would not
be tolerated in girls. Why are there two standards
of behavior? Why is one sex held to stricter moral
account than the other? Why is a man allowed
to do what is condemned in a woman?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The average daughter is better behaved, has
better personal habits, than the average son. The
average mother has fewer vices than the average
father. The average woman is less vicious than the
average man. Whose fault is it that this is so? It
is somebody's. Whose is it? It is time to find out.
Have men fixed the standard for women, and women
for men? It is approximately true that either
sex is what the other demands of it. Women are
too indulgent towards the other sex. We believe
it lies with them more than with men to elevate the
moral standard of the world.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A father would not take his daughter to places
where he takes his son, would not condone in her
habits which he overlooks, if not encourages, in his
boy. Picture a father going to a saloon with his
daughter, and there treating her to a <span class="tei tei-q">“Tom and
Jerry,”</span> or a <span class="tei tei-q">“beer,”</span> and then calling for cigars for
two, and sitting there smoking together for half an
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page148"></span><SPAN name="Pg148" id="Pg148" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
hour or so! A man will do this with his boy but not
with his girl. Why not? If it is right and harmless
for one, why not for the other? Is it true or
not that what is right for men is wrong for women?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We ought to have only one moral standard. The
sexes should be held to like behavior. Men can
have just as good habits as women. We do not believe
in forgiving in one what we condemn in another,
in allowing a young man to do with impunity what
we will not tolerate in a young woman.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If we are to have one standard of morals, which
shall it be? Shall it be the highest or lowest?
Shall it be the standard for man or for woman?
Shall we permit women to do as men do, or shall we
insist that men shall be equally pure in personal
habits with women? The divided standard of conduct
which now exists should be done away with.
Let us demand equal behavior of the sexes, and
let that behavior be fashioned after the highest
moral demand of society. We do not wish to educate
boys to be girls, but we can educate boys to
have as good habits as girls have, which would be a
great gain to the world.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We must hold women largely responsible for the
vices of men. There is not a vicious habit which a
man would not lay at the feet of woman did she demand
it. Not a man would tolerate in a woman
what a woman tolerates in a man. Let us have one
moral standard for men and women, for both sexes,
and mete out to each the same punishment for violation
of its restrictions.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page149"></span><SPAN name="Pg149" id="Pg149" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc145" id="toc145"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf146" id="pdf146"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Authority</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The man that does what his reason says is right
is the man that should be honored by men. There
can be no higher authority for doing a thing than
that it is right. It is not whether a thing has ever
been done before, but, <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Is it right</span></em>? If there is no
precedent, then it is a duty to establish one.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
How many accept the opinions of others because
they fear to question their authority! This regard
for what other people think and say is well enough
only when it does not destroy independence of
thought and speech in ourselves. Another's opinion
is not to be respected when it is a fetter to our
freedom.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We need not rehearse the evils which the world
has borne on account of its fear to do right <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">alone</span></em>.
Man must have someone to share the danger, to
share the blame, but a dozen cowards are not worth
so much as one brave man, and right is no <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">more</span></em>
right because ten say it instead of one. A thousand
felt what Luther said; a thousand believed
what Parker did. The best man in us is often the
one that does not speak. The truest belief of the
heart is the one never confessed. Man seldom
comes to the surface. He rarely has a call to be
himself, but to be somebody that will please the
world. Man is obliged to make himself into a
theological likeness; into a political representation.
It will be centuries before men can assert themselves
fearlessly without injury.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page150"></span><SPAN name="Pg150" id="Pg150" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is no easy matter for a man to set himself
against popular opinion and maintain his position.
Every power is brought to bear upon him that
falsehood can invent and malice employ. A person
who refuses to acknowledge the authority of the
hour asserts a higher. When a man slaps the world
in the face he should have truth on his side and
courage to meet the stake and the cross. The
majority never forgives him who denies its judgment.
The individual that challenges the majority
must prove his right of defiance. When a man
is greater or better than men he must pay the penalty.
The world cannot yet forgive anyone for excelling
it. Authority when it debases man should
be disputed; when it denies man his rights should
be rejected.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is plain to be seen, without illustration or example,
that man's authority is not found in his own
mind. He has no history that reaches beyond custom.
Man begins with man so far as facts prove.
Society rests upon hearsay and religion upon tradition.
A claim has only to be made upon ignorance
to be granted. This good-natured world of
ours would believe anything, or make-believe believe
it, to save its soul. It takes either a very
shrewd man or a moderately mean one to dodge
every duty of life and remain respectable. It is
dangerous to go outside the beaten path, not only
on account of the persecution of the present but on
account of the folly of the future. The world can
easily twist an action into a law or a man into a God
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page151"></span><SPAN name="Pg151" id="Pg151" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
if profit hang on the end of its deed. The authority
of half man's actions to-day depends upon some
accident or fraud of the past. Man wants a little
of the fabulous yet in his meat and drink. He
loves to think that Jesus is present when he drinks
his wine and eats his bit of bread, although it is a
mystery.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Popular opinion is the authority of most words
and actions. We speak to men as to children—to
please them. We tell them some parable or fairy
story instead of telling them their faults honestly
and trying to make them better. Most men begin
by bowing to public opinion and end by carrying
it on their backs.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The authority of the world may be disputed without
any of the stars being thrown out of their course
or any of the processes of life being disturbed. The
notion that all has been discovered that is essential
to the welfare of man is a mistaken one. The other
notion that the preservation of whatever is elevating
and refining depends upon the religious opinions
of mankind, is equally delusive. The authority of
the Bible, of Jesus, of the church, has been quoted
until the world is prepared for a better. We might
lose the Bible and not lose our place in the ranks of
civilization. Jesus might be forgotten and man
would still strive for a higher life. The church
might perish in a night and not a single particle of
goodness be lost. If we speak honest words, do
honest work and live honest lives, we need not ask
for God's help or the help of anybody. We do not
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page152"></span><SPAN name="Pg152" id="Pg152" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
give to immorality the hours we redeem from superstition.
We give to manhood and womanhood
every hour which we make natural and free. It is
not necessary for a man to go to church in order to
be righteous. The world found assistance before
Jesus was born. There has always been saints outside
of a convent. We need no book holy that good
counsel shall be valuable. The highest authority
is the highest human enlightenment. It needs no
priest back of opinion to give it force.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Why does a man enter the Christian ministry?</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The reason that revelation is always made to the
simple is that the wise could not be imposed upon.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no sadder grief than that which lies at
the bottom of a life that has been wrecked through
deception.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
An organization that requires the suppression of
facts and the discouragement of knowledge in
order to maintain its supremacy, is the relic of a
tyranny which our free age and our free thought
are in duty bound to remove from the earth.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page153"></span><SPAN name="Pg153" id="Pg153" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc147" id="toc147"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf148" id="pdf148"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Clean Sabbath</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In a discussion with a lady, recently, upon the
Sunday question, after the various pros and cons
had been set up and bowled down, she exclaimed:
<span class="tei tei-q">“For mercy's sake, don't say any more against the
sabbath. Why, if it were not for Sunday, most
people would never wash themselves nor change
their clothes.”</span> Sunday, then, is to be established
for the sake of cleanliness. The command for keeping
the sabbath should therefore read: Six days
shalt thou labor and do all thy work, and on the
seventh day wash thyself and change thy clothes.
If people will not keep clean without a divine command,
we are in favor of cleanliness. We do not
know of any better use to put God's name to. Sunday
is certainly the cleanest day of the week. If
people will make themselves clean and neat only
for God's sake, we are willing to endure a little superstition
for the blessing of cleanliness. But is
there any ground for the assertion of the lady? As
everyone knows, religion has produced the filthiest
specimens of humanity that ever offended the
senses of man. Dirt, and not cleanliness, was
deemed next to godliness by the saints of old. The
filthier a human being became, the holier he grew.
It was regarded in the middle ages, that is, in the
ages when everything was sacrificed to religion, as
almost a sin to keep clean. It was waste of time to
care for the body. It was taught that it was holier
to worship than to wash. Nor did these dirty old
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page154"></span><SPAN name="Pg154" id="Pg154" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
saints of old go nasty entirely on their own authority.
They were nasty for Christ's sake. They
went unclean because Jesus had encouraged nastiness.
He believed more in clean hearts than in
clean hands. He taught his disciples that <span class="tei tei-q">“to eat
with unwashed hands defileth not a man.”</span> Dirty
Christians are still plenty, but civilization prevails
over superstition and the reign of dirt is doomed.
The follower of Jesus quotes his master to defend
his filthy condition in vain to-day. The gospel of
decency has been preached, and what is manly and
womanly is honored more than what is godly and
pious. Clean infidelity is preferable in good society
to nasty piety. There may be honor in rags, but
there is none in dirt. Soap and water cost less than
religion, but are worth a thousand times as much to
the world. If Romanism required its devotees to
take a bath instead of going to mass, it would confer
a greater boon upon the world.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No man gets estimated for exactly what he is,
and it is lucky he doesn't.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many men and women are remembered
for what somebody has said about them.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page155"></span><SPAN name="Pg155" id="Pg155" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc149" id="toc149"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf150" id="pdf150"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Human Integrity</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is hard for a man to be a man. It is easier to
be almost anything else. We do not find the reason
for what we do in ourselves, but seek it in someone
else, or somewhere else. Manhood is not our
standard of action. Human integrity is generally
looked upon as an eccentricity. We almost despise
a person who is more upright than the conventional
man. Throughout society there runs a stream of
circumstance upon which lives float like chips.
The man who turns against this stream, and seeks
to stem it, is looked upon as a madman or a fool.
Everybody admits that the world is hardly going
right, but everybody goes with it. The current of
human life can be turned into a larger channel by a
larger man. Mind follows mind.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not demand the truth; we do not insist
upon the right; we are satisfied with less than integrity.
It is not in a spirit of carping that we say
this, but because it is true. Let us glance at the
world as it lies before us. Theories pass for facts,
faith for evidence. We assert without knowledge;
we are positive without proof. Man is condemned
for not believing, although living a pure and noble
life; he is praised for believing, although living a
selfish and cruel life. Men are not judged by human
nature, but by opinions which are uppermost in
public esteem. Men and women are bad according
to the standard of one age; good according to
that of another. Theologies, which may be wrong,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page156"></span><SPAN name="Pg156" id="Pg156" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
condemn men who may be right. Justice is never
man's precedent. The world quotes Moses, David,
Paul, Jesus, to defend its conduct or prove its guilt.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Authority is another's opinion. Law is what
has been done and sanctioned by mankind. The
decision of one court binds another. One text is
quoted to prove another. A man's act is made a
rule of life. We say, to defend ourselves: <span class="tei tei-q">“He did
it.”</span> The world's power of attorney is in its own
handwriting. Our appeal is to some one else. We
get our politics from our fathers, our religion from
our mothers. The church is preaching what others
believed.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The mind still leans. Only a few could stand
without a support. The props of the world keep it
from falling. Men are not upright of their own
strength. No man's action is the patent of manhood.
The world does not ask, <span class="tei tei-q">“What virtues are
yours?”</span> but, <span class="tei tei-q">“What creed do you accept?”</span> A
dozen agree and call some one else a doubter, a
Freethinker, an Infidel, an Atheist. To be able to
stand alone is to be blamed by those who cannot do
so.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man must learn this, that he has no greater
strength than his own; that he has no higher
duty than to obey the behest of his own nature.
When we forsake the world's follies and shams we
shall find something better. We are never abandoned
until we have been abandoned by ourselves.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page157"></span><SPAN name="Pg157" id="Pg157" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When we refuse to do our duty we must still expect
Nature to do hers. The sun and moon do not
stand still at man's command. It is greater to
keep one's integrity than it is to gain the whole
world.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is harder to live when those we love are dead.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The trouble with divine revelation is that we do
not know who did the business.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A person has not much excuse for living who can
make no better use of life than passing it in a
nunnery.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men talk of alleviating the aching hearts and
souls of the world, but if they would relieve the
aching backs and arms of men and women by being
kinder to those who toil, there would be fewer
suffering hearts for their sympathy's consolation.
It sounds vulgar, perhaps, to speak of backaching,
but the pains of work are among the saddest facts
of human life.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page158"></span><SPAN name="Pg158" id="Pg158" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc151" id="toc151"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf152" id="pdf152"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Is It True</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is a lot of sentiment going around the world
strangely at variance with human action. No one
lives as he professes to believe, as he says he thinks.
Men declare a thing to be true but act as though
they wished it false. It is frequently stated that:</p>
<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">“</span><span style="font-size: 90%">Honor and shame from no condition rise,</span></span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span class="tei tei-q" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">Act well your part, there all the honor lies.</span><span style="font-size: 90%">”</span></span></div>
</div></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Who believes it? Did Pope when he wrote it?
Does a person that reads it? I doubt it.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It ought to be true, perhaps, that men should be
respected, honored, and praised just as much for
carrying a hod well as for writing a poem or acting
Hamlet well, but it is not so regarded.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A man as a man may be just as worthy, just as
honorable, just as much deserving the respect of
his fellows who uses a pick and shovel on the highway,
but it is a fact that the common laborer as
such is not respected nor honored as much as the
man who pays him for his labor. All the honor
may lie in doing well whatever he has to do, but it is
<em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">what a man does</span></em>, not how he does it, that receives
the honor of the world, just the same. Probably
thousands of women are acting well their part as
washerwomen in Boston at this time, but are they
honored as Sarah Bernhardt is for acting Cleopatra?
Would wealthy women pay ten dollars to see a woman
scrub a floor, even if she could scrub better
than any woman who ever scrubbed before? We
guess not. There is the point.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page159"></span><SPAN name="Pg159" id="Pg159" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no such epitaph as this on the marble of
the world: He acted well his part as a coal-heaver.
It is true that Lincoln is pointed to as having been
a rail-splitter when a young man, but had he never
been anything else he would not have had a monument
an inch above the ground. It is not Garfield
the tow-boy, but Garfield the statesman, the
President, that is honored.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is a fact that merit is not always appreciated,
but it is equally a fact that no merit is seen in the
common occupations of life. A person might wear
his fingers to bones in what is regarded as menial
employment, and all his giant labor would not call
forth a single word of praise. A dollar or two a day
is all the reward the world gives for manual labor.
No one sees heroism in farm work, in kitchen work.
No one contributes money to erect a statue to the
hod-carrier. Work is not honored. The man or
woman who is obliged to work in order to live is regarded
with pity or contempt by those who live upon
the labor of others.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is not true that all the honor lies in doing well
whatever we have to do. Such a saying is as false
as to say <span class="tei tei-q">“Ask, and you shall receive.”</span> Honor is
not given gratuitously. It has to be earned. But
it is a fact that we do not honor all labor, all virtue,
equally.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page160"></span><SPAN name="Pg160" id="Pg160" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc153" id="toc153"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf154" id="pdf154"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Keep The Children At Home</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Fathers and mothers want to see their children
grow up into good, moral, respectable men and women.
How to insure this desirable result is a serious
problem. It is seen that the school is not
sufficient to insure character, nor does the church
exert sufficient influence to guide the feet in right
paths.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We have the deepest faith in what the school is
doing and trying to do, and would help it in every
way to promote the instruction in those branches
of knowledge which are deemed essential to a sound
and useful education, but we cannot fail to see that
the school, however much it may assist the child in
the formation of good habits, is not of itself competent
to build up character. The school cannot
take the place of the home, nor can the teacher do
the work of the parent. We believe that the best
way to have good boys and girls, and therefore good
men and women, is to have good homes for them to
live in. If parents gave more attention to making
their homes attractive to their children, they would
not be so apt to seek amusement in other places.
The more a child is kept at home, the more certain
it will be to escape the evils of life. A good home
is the first and most powerful factor in forming the
character of children.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is too much thought given by parents generally
to the church and too little to the home.
They shirk their duty and their responsibility, and
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page161"></span><SPAN name="Pg161" id="Pg161" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
pray God to look after what they neglect. With
the father at work and the mother at mass, the
children will be in the street. Those parents who
put the home above the church are throwing around
their children the best influences that earth affords.
When children are left to the care of God they too
often fall into the hands of the policeman. Let the
path between the home and the school be well worn,
but never mind if the grass grows in the road that
leads to the church.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The child will usually love home if home is made
lovely. If parents wish to drive their children into
temptation, let them shut the sunshine of joy out
of the house, forbid the playing of games, burn up
the pack of cards that is found in one of the boy's
rooms, call a ball-room the <span class="tei tei-q">“devil's headquarters,”</span>
and pronounce a malediction upon all youthful
sports. It is easy enough to drive a boy or girl out
into the dark. Put out the lights at home. Those
parents who know the evil influences of the world
will make their homes bright and beautiful and
then keep their children there as long as they can.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The doctrine of salvation by faith is a libel on
justice and has done more to undermine the virtue
of the world than vice itself.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page162"></span><SPAN name="Pg162" id="Pg162" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc155" id="toc155"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf156" id="pdf156"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Teacher And Preacher</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is one great change which we hope to see
brought about in the near future, because we think
it ought to be brought about as a matter of justice.
It is this: the elevation of teachers above preachers.
Civilization, and all that this word stands for today,
depends more upon the school than upon the
church. It is the teacher and not the preacher that
trains the growing minds of our children, that
builds the structure of character for future men and
women, and gives to the young the sacred touch
that keeps them in right paths. The world does
not half appreciate the work done by the school
teacher, while it exaggerates out of all proportion
to its worth, the work done by the preacher. The
church may fall, but if the school stands, liberty
will remain; the paths of knowledge will be free; the
brow of civilization will still shine white against the
skies of life, and the glorious cup of learning be
pressed to the thirsting mouth of youth; but should
the school fall, though the church might stand, all
this would be reversed;—liberty would be driven
from the earth, the highways of knowledge would
be closed, civilization would fade into the night of
the "dark ages," and the thirsting lips of life be fed
with Bible scraps and the logic of dead creeds. The
teacher is the mighty power in this republic, the
truest friend of our nation's institutions, the one
person above all others that this country should
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page163"></span><SPAN name="Pg163" id="Pg163" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
honor and reward. One teacher is worth a thousand
priests; one school, a thousand churches.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The person whose duty it is to direct the education
of the young holds the sceptre of a nation's
destiny, and the school teacher occupies the most
important station to which one can be elected. We
fear that the profession of teaching is not rightly
prized by the American people, and we are sure it is
not justly rewarded. No class in the land are paid
so poorly, according to the service they perform, as
our school teachers, while no class should be paid so
well. Far more valuable to our government is the
teacher than the preacher, and yet the salary of the
latter exceeds the former in every city and town in
the land. This should be changed. Preaching a
superstition is no benefit but an injury to a people,
while training the mind to read, to think, to gather
knowledge is the highest service which one can
perform.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We have the greatest respect for the men and
women who have prepared themselves for the high
office of teacher, and we would see them rewarded
for their labor as it deserves. The hope of a country
is in the right education of its people, and the
way to secure such education is to encourage the
teacher by showing a just appreciation of his or her
labors. So we say, put the school above the church,
the teacher above the preacher.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page164"></span><SPAN name="Pg164" id="Pg164" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc157" id="toc157"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf158" id="pdf158"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Fear Of Doubts</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We cannot help thinking that Goethe showed
lack of courage when he said: <span class="tei tei-q">“I will listen to any
one's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to
yourself, I have plenty of my own!”</span> It seems to us
that only a coward is afraid of doubts. If our convictions
are false is it not better to know it and correct
them? Doubt is the way to truth. It is the
attitude of the mind that wants to know things just
as they are. They who are unwilling to be deceived
are the ones to doubt, to inquire. Let us hear all
the doubts of the world, for they are knocks at the
door of knowledge. To accept without question is
to be the willing dupe of imposition.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The doubter is the safe man; the man who can be
depended upon. He does not build upon a foundation
of guesswork, and the structure he erects will
stand. Let us not fear doubt, but rather fear to
have falsehood passed for truth.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no authority that can be quoted against
a man but the authority of some other man.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Nine times out of ten the man who declares that
God is tender to the sparrow that falls is not the
man to buy a winter's coal for a poor widow.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page165"></span><SPAN name="Pg165" id="Pg165" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc159" id="toc159"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf160" id="pdf160"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Bible-Backing</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is less backing one's thoughts with the
Bible than formerly. The world is getting weaned
from this book. The idea is gaining ground that,
if anything is true, it can support itself. When a
man leans on God he is so much less a man. Mental
uprightness disdains the Bible's support. Honest
thought can defend itself without appealing to
divine authority.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Once a man hardly dared speak unless he quoted
from the Scriptures a line or verse that ran parallel
with his speech.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
To-day men say what they think, without caring
whether Moses, or David, or John, agree with them
or not. We have reached a healthy independence.
We have commenced to trust our convictions. Such
a stage of intellectual development is not favorable
to the divinity of one's thoughts. The report of one
mind is no more divine than that of another, and no
more to be trusted, only as it is more accurate.
There is a higher standard than the word of God
for this age—that is, the word of truth. Whosoever
speaks truth can face the world alone.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When a man needs to go to the Bible to sustain
his argument he has a weak argument. When a
dogma does not commend itself to human intelligence
it is useless to declare it infallible. It will
die, even though it be professed a thousand years.
It can be accepted only by ignorance and avowed
only by hypocrisy.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page166"></span><SPAN name="Pg166" id="Pg166" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Any man who will quote a Bible-text to defend
his opinion in the sense that such text proves his
opinion true, proves himself a dolt. A Bible-text
is only a human opinion, and as humanity surpasses
it in the evolution of experience, it loses its authority
and force. We have learned that human reason
does not need to be backed by the Bible, and we
have learned also that the Bible <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">does</span></em> need to be
backed by human reason, or it has no value.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The heart that can deride misfortune confesses
its own deformity.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When we are satisfied with the present we do
not think of the future.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The more mystery is encouraged, the more
deceit can impose upon the human mind.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If wisdom and diamonds grew on the same tree
we could soon tell how much men loved wisdom.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page167"></span><SPAN name="Pg167" id="Pg167" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc161" id="toc161"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf162" id="pdf162"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Beggars</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We have come to look upon the poor beggar as a
nuisance; upon the man who comes to our doors for
food or clothes as one who has no claim upon our
charity. The common beggar is, as a rule, a worthless
character, but let us be fair to him. He asks
for but little; seldom for more than a bite, or for a
few pennies. The poor beggar has only himself to
enforce his appeal, and often he is an injury to his
own cause. A dirty, ragged, vice-stained wreck of
humanity is a poor argument to offer for sympathy
or help. The man who begs in the name of man,
and with that name rubbed in the dirt besides, gets
little for his asking.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not like any beggars, but we need to understand
that it is not the man in rags, who asks for a
piece of bread or meat, that is the only beggar in the
world. There is another and more dangerous beggar
that we open our doors to, and treat with politeness
and respect, and whose appeals we honor;
it is the well-dressed beggar who asks for the money
which the arm of labor has coined from its strength,
who takes not pennies where he can get dollars, and
who enforces his appeal with the name of God; it
is the ecclesiastical beggar, whose hand is stretched
out to take the earnings of toil, or the profits of
trade; whose hand would as soon take little from
poverty as plenty from affluence.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The rich beggar is a worse enemy to society and
to the nation than the poor beggar. It is the priest,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page168"></span><SPAN name="Pg168" id="Pg168" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
and not the tramp, whose begging we need to scorn.
The man who asks for food in the name of hunger,
for help in the name of want, makes, at least, an
honest appeal to our generosity, but the man who
begs in the name of God is an impostor. The
tramp's appeal is the truth—the priest's is a lie.
God never yet commissioned a human being to beg
for him, and the person who uses the divine name
to enforce his demand is little better than a thief.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In the paths of our life may be seen the footprints
of our ancestors.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If you are poor, be thankful that you have the
power of bettering your circumstances by bettering
yourself; if you are rich, do not forget that you
have the means of doing good, a luxury that is too
seldom indulged.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Men need nothing so much to-day as self-reliance;
courage to stand up manfully for the right, all alone,
without prop or pay, daring everything for an idea,
counting not the cost, but seeing only the grand
result which would follow its triumph and working
for that with single purpose and courageous fidelity.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page169"></span><SPAN name="Pg169" id="Pg169" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc163" id="toc163"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf164" id="pdf164"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Habits</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Habit makes the man, but man makes the habit.
It is here where we want to get in a word. A habit
seems a little thing in itself, but it is the most terrible
tyrant that rules the world. And it <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">does</span></em> rule it,
say what we will. Now, it is essential in this life
of ours to start right if we are going to come out
right. And the best thing to start with is a good
habit. It is just as easy when a young man is forming
his habits to form good ones as bad ones. Good
habits are not expensive. A virtue does not cost a
quarter as much to support as does a vice.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We sometimes wonder how it is that a being with
brains, with intelligence, with reason, could ever
become a slave to habit. It does not seem possible
that a MAN cannot order his conduct. But
we must recognize facts. Men are victims of
habits. They do not perceive that they are bound
until they try to be free, and then the strong power
of habit asserts itself. How does this terrible
despot conquer the mind, the will, the man? What
is this invisible force that drives the strongest and
the brightest with a whip of iron? It is only an act
repeated again and again, but it has become a second
nature, a part of the man, and it has conquered
by the power of reinforcement by repetition.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The only way to be superior to bad habits is never
to acquire them. Do not do the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">first</span></em> bad act. Stop
before you begin to go wrong. The time when a
man is saved is when he is young. The time to
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page170"></span><SPAN name="Pg170" id="Pg170" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
plant or sow is in the Spring. The harvest depends
upon the seed. We cannot pick figs from thistles.
A bad habit will end in a bad life. Watch the feet
of the boy and the man's will not need watching.
We must begin with the young, and see that right
habits are acquired in early life.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is only a foot from a good habit to a bad one,
but it is a mile back again. We may lose in an hour
all we have made in a year. We can undo in a day
what we have done in a lifetime. A habit is a
plant of which an act is the seed. It will bear fruit
if it be a good act, but ashes if it be a bad act. It
is the first step that starts the race. To start right
is the best way to go right and to end right. Never
let a bad habit fasten to your life.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It takes the shingles from the widow's cottage
to put paint on the house of God.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Many persons who claim that they are <span class="tei tei-q">“clothed
with righteousness”</span> do not seem to have got
very good fits.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page171"></span><SPAN name="Pg171" id="Pg171" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc165" id="toc165"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf166" id="pdf166"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Can Poverty Be Abolished</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is poverty a malady of the individual or of society?
To answer this question is to determine
how to treat the disease. If the individual is alone
responsible for being poor, then he alone is to apply
the remedy; but if society is to blame for poverty,
then must society take the steps to effect a cure.
Poverty is an evil. A human being who is starved
physically is starved mentally and morally. Civilization
begins when man has risen above want.
Man is only a brute when all of his energies are absorbed
in the effort to get bread.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In the present state of society we have dependence
and independence; a few have escaped from
the burdens of toil, but the many are still slaves
to physical wants. But the few enjoy their independence
at the expense of those beneath them, and
oftentimes by inflicting wrong and injustice upon
their fellows. Such a condition ought not to be
allowed. Prosperity is the accumulated efforts of
mankind. No man has created all the benefits he
enjoys; no one has sowed all that he reaps. The
rich man to-day is rich because he has, by advantageous
circumstances, obtained possession of more
than his share of the world's wealth, or because he
has inherited what others have obtained in the same
way, or because by thrift and economy and good
luck he has succeeded in getting money and keeping
it.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But what makes the poor man? Not one thing,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page172"></span><SPAN name="Pg172" id="Pg172" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
or one condition. He is the victim sometimes of
his own follies, vices or laziness, although he is often
not to be blamed for his poverty. There are individual
cases where doubtless destitution is the child
of misfortune, but the general poverty of the world,
and of this country in particular, cannot be charged
to any such account.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In our land there is a balance every year to the
credit of wealth, but is it not true that this balance
finds its way to the pockets already filled, rather
than to those that are empty? <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">What diverts the products
of labor from the hands of labor?</span></em> Find out
that, and then we will begin to give labor its due.
There is enough produced every year to make every
person in the land better off at the end of the year.
Why are so few richer, and so many poorer, or, at
least, no better off? There is one thing sure,—labor,
thrift, economy, virtue and good habits are to
be commended and encouraged, while idleness, vice,
profligacy and bad habits are to be condemned and
discouraged. We do not look to any external
change in society for a remedy for poverty, but
rather to an internal change in man. It is not social
revolution that will help the world, but humanity—the
willingness to do what is right.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
<span class="tei tei-q">“It rains on the just and the unjust,”</span> but rarely
just enough on either.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page173"></span><SPAN name="Pg173" id="Pg173" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc167" id="toc167"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Roman Catholic God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Cicero said that <span class="tei tei-q">“men, having exhausted all the
mad extravagancies they are capable of, have yet
never entertained the idea of eating the God whom
they adore.”</span> The extravagance which was beyond
the contemplation of the Pagan mind, is an every
day affair with a large part of the Christian world.
The Roman Catholic eats his God every week, and
Catholics have been guilty of this religious cannibalism
for centuries.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In the celebration of the eucharist, which is a
service commemorative of the death of Jesus, bread
and wine are used in Protestant churches as emblems
of the body and blood of the crucified one.
But in Roman Catholic churches the real presence
of Jesus is seen in the <span class="tei tei-q">“host,”</span> which, in itself, is a
little wafer of baked flour and water, but when consecrated
by the priest and offered as a sacrifice,
during mass, becomes the actual body of God.
According to Roman Catholic doctrine, dough is
changed to Deity by the mumbling of a few Latin
words over it by a priest. When the priest swallows
the consecrated wafer he really swallows this
God he adores.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is an absurdity which the doctrine of
transubstantiation is accountable for, which cannot
be paralleled among all the religions of heathenism.
Not only does this doctrine make it possible for one
God to be eaten by one priest, but for thousands of
gods to be thus devoured. The Roman Catholic
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page174"></span><SPAN name="Pg174" id="Pg174" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
religion teaches that God is manufactured out of
flour and water by a pastry cook. Every time a
wafer is turned into a <span class="tei tei-q">“host,”</span> a God is made.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Were there a tribe in Asia or Africa guilty of such
ridiculous practices as are witnessed in the Roman
Catholic church, missionaries would be sent out to
them. It seems to us, that if people know no better
than to believe that when the priest swallows a
little lump of bread he is actually swallowing the
body of a person who lived eighteen hundred years
ago, whom they look upon as God, they are not intelligent
enough to be ranked in the army of progress
and civilization.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
No one is to blame for what no one knows.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is singular that people want to live another
life when it is so hard to live this.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A church that sets up a religious faith as more
essential than purity, than kindness, charity or
goodness, is a dangerous institution.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page175"></span><SPAN name="Pg175" id="Pg175" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc169" id="toc169"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Human Cruelty</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The mosquito inflicts his sting upon the place
whence he draws his life. Not unlike this venomed
insect is the person who, through malice, wounds
the feelings of a human being. There seems to be
in certain organizations the poison of hatred, and
woe betide those on whom it falls. The heart that
can take delight in saying cruel things, in raising
unkind doubts or starting unpleasant thoughts,
ought never to have had a human face to hide behind.
Such an individual ought to crawl in its native
shape that it might be crushed under the heel
of scorn.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The only way to treat a human viper is to keep
away from it, ignore its presence, and to shut the
ears to its venomed hiss. We know of no more
cruel occupation than wounding human hearts and
human feelings.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many men believe in providence until
they get caught in a railroad accident.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Treasures well used on earth will help the world
more than treasures laid up in heaven.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page176"></span><SPAN name="Pg176" id="Pg176" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc171" id="toc171"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Infidelity</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When the minister wants to frighten his congregation
he draws a picture of infidelity. The infidel
has been used for years to scare weak-minded persons
into accepting Christianity. Outwardly the
infidel is painted like a man, but the world is warned
not to trust to appearances, for the infidel is not
what he looks to be; he is <span class="tei tei-q">“a fiend in human shape;”</span>
he is <span class="tei tei-q">“a moral monster,”</span> and a mirror in which
everything bad and vicious can see its face.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not wonder that a minister paints the infidel
in black. He has hurt the minister's business,
and so must suffer for what he has done. But we
do wonder that so large a part of the world is frightened
at the word <span class="tei tei-q">“infidelity.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is a fact that an infidel would never be known
if he himself did not disclose his character. To
conceal his infidelity he has only to keep still, to
hide behind silence.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Infidelity is nothing more or less than intellectual
fidelity, and an infidel is a man too honest to disguise
his real thoughts and convictions. Had the
infidel not been honest he would still be in the
church, a hypocrite, to be sure, but this could not
affect his religious status at all. Intellectual and
moral uprightness is the distinguishing characteristic
of modern infidelity. The modern infidel trusts
his brain and his heart; he accepts as true what appeals
to his reason, and makes known his convictions
as though to conceal them were a vice or a crime.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page177"></span><SPAN name="Pg177" id="Pg177" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The infidel gains nothing by avowing his convictions;
on the contrary, he is condemned for making
them known. The Christian presumes upon
the right to damn infidels here and to teach that
God will damn them hereafter. It is in the face of
a fate, in many instances cruel, that a man acknowledges
that his honest thoughts, his honest
convictions place him in antagonism to the popular
faith, and yet he is denounced, rather than praised,
for his brave action.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Infidelity is the proof of an honest man. Hypocrisy
cannot hide in its shadow. Every man in
the Christian church may be a hypocrite, a knave,
a pretender professing its faith, while laughing inwardly
at its foolish superstitions, but every man
who espouses infidelity must reveal his true character,
must show exactly what he is.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A dishonest or hypocritical infidel is an impossibility.
There is nothing to be gained, but much to be
lost, by confessing one's disbelief of the Christian
dogmas. It is the man who prizes self-respect above
the world's approval who takes the fate of infidelity—be
it what it may.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Don't put too much faith in the man who wants
to know the distance to the nearest church before
he has written his name in the hotel register.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page178"></span><SPAN name="Pg178" id="Pg178" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Atheism</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What is called atheism is not a light, flippant
assertion, but a calm, thoughtful conclusion. It is
a conviction which human experience and human
reflection have generated. Atheism is not the irresponsible
opinion of moral debauchery; it is the
outcome of an intelligent consideration of Nature
and life. The atheist has been honest with himself
and with the world. He has made a careful
survey of the universe, as far as he is able, and has
canvassed the facts of life which have come within
the range of his observation, and he has candidly
declared the result of his study and freely related
the reasons for his conclusions.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Atheism is the universe as science finds it and as
interpreted by human understanding. It is an
attempt to state the simple truth, to give a fair
likeness of things, to photograph facts. Atheism
is denial of nothing true, of nothing good, of nothing
that can be proved. We see no good reason for
abusing the atheist. His opinions don't make him
a bad citizen or a bad man. He is as moral as his
Christian neighbor, and is as ready to help a fellow-being.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In countries where atheism is a crime, hypocrisy
is more honored than integrity.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great many who expect to hear the angels sing
always get near the stage at a comic opera.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page179"></span><SPAN name="Pg179" id="Pg179" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc175" id="toc175"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf176" id="pdf176"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Christian Happiness</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Christians are constantly telling <span class="tei tei-q">“how happy
their religion makes them,”</span> how happy they feel
<span class="tei tei-q">“since they found Jesus.”</span> We will take them at
their word and believe that they are just as happy
as they say they are. What has their religion done
for them, what has Jesus done for them, that they
should be so happy? They will answer that they
have been saved, that their souls have been rescued
from destruction. Without going into the question
whether they need to be saved or whether their
souls are in any danger of destruction, let us
see what kind of happiness the Christian enjoys.
The great song of Christians is: <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">My</span></em> soul is saved.
The Christian is happy on his own account alone;
he rejoices in his own good fortune; he is pleased to
think that he is out of it. The Christian's happiness
is a purely selfish feeling. In his exultation
is no thought of another's condition, of another's
lot.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If some are saved, others are lost, for all do not
accept the Christian faith, all do not find Jesus.
The Christian can be happy while others are
miserable; he can rejoice while knowing that others
are in peril; he can exult over his own salvation
while seeing others going to destruction. This is a
fiendish happiness, a devilish joy. For one to be
happy while knowing that a brother or sister is lost
shows a hard, selfish, cruel heart.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Think of the Christian mother being happy for
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page180"></span><SPAN name="Pg180" id="Pg180" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
having been rescued from her burning home in
whose fatal flames her children all perished! Think
of the Christian father filled with joy at his escape
from the sinking ship in which his wife and babe
sailed to the port of death! Think of a Christian
man or woman exulting over their good fortune in
not having a disease which took away those who
were nearest and dearest! Such joy, such happiness,
as this is not human, it is brutish.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian is welcome to all the happiness
his heartless religion affords him. I want none of
it. Such a religion would drive me mad.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The loving heart is happiest in the joy of those it
loves; it is happy in seeing others happy, but there
could be no joy for it to be saved while those it
loved were lost. Christianity is a heartless religion,
a cruel faith, a selfish scheme, and it is for those who
care more about being saved than saving others.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The highest freedom is the freedom to say
what we believe to be right.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It was a childless woman who said: The happiest
woman is she whose bosom pillows the sweet head
of a child.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page181"></span><SPAN name="Pg181" id="Pg181" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc177" id="toc177"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">What God Knows</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We see in Christian papers a great deal about
what God knows. How does any one know what
God knows? It has been the habit, where man
lacked any particular knowledge, of saying, <span class="tei tei-q">“God
knows.”</span> But what is the good of God knowing
anything if he keeps his knowledge to himself? If
he will not tell what he knows, how is man improved
or benefited by all the wisdom in the divine
cranium? What is known by the inhabitants of
Venus does the inhabitants of earth no good. But
let us come down to facts. Is there any proof that
God knows anything? Let men own up, and not
try to deceive themselves or others any longer.
What God knows nobody else knows.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is no evidence that God knows what man
does not, and it is bare assumption only to ascribe
knowledge to deity. It is first necessary for man to
know that there is a God, before endowing him with
mental wealth or attributes. The Christian practice
of saying that <span class="tei tei-q">“God loves man,”</span> and that <span class="tei tei-q">“God
cares for man”</span> has no basis of facts to stand upon,
and it is only pious conceit that indulges in such
statements.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing in the universe but the universe
itself; nothing in the universe that reveals a God.
The earth does not, the sun does not, the moon does
not, and not a planet or star reveals the existence of
a God. All these reveal their own existence; so of a
flower, of a tree, of a man. It is only divinity that
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page182"></span><SPAN name="Pg182" id="Pg182" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
can reveal the existence of divinity. Who has seen
or heard this divinity? No one. Men have said,
or men have made other men say, that they have
seen God, heard God, and talked with God. But
they lied. No human eye ever saw the divine form
or features; no human ear ever heard the divine
voice; no human being ever had any knowledge of a
divine being.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is a waste of words to talk about God and what
he knows and what he does. No man knows that
God does anything, that God knows anything, or
that there is a God.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Blessings on the man who first dared to doubt.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The improvement in ways of travel and methods
of labor has altered our reverence.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every kiss of love imprinted by a mother's lips
on the face of her babe gives the lie to the Christian
doctrine of total depravity, and every gift which
the heart of pity lays in the hand of misfortune
brands this doctrine as false and a libel on our
human nature.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page183"></span><SPAN name="Pg183" id="Pg183" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc179" id="toc179"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Meaning Of The Word God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
I do not deny that the word <span class="tei tei-q">“God”</span> has today a
moral and religious meaning which is derived from
his supposed beneficence, but this idea is not the one
that I find at the bottom of the Christian faith. I
object very seriously to the attempt, which is being
made by certain interested parties, to represent the
God of Christianity better than he is. This word
loses its terror when we realize that it stands for an
unknown quantity. It is the attempt to account
for what we cannot understand; the effort to explain
the universe. The word <span class="tei tei-q">“God”</span> is a definition
of human ignorance. It represents what we do
not know. This word does not stand for a person, an
object, or a thing. It is an idea that we can have no
idea of, a thought of what one cannot think. People
who use the word <span class="tei tei-q">“God”</span> do not know what they
are talking about. The word fits nothing that has
yet been discovered. Theology is the science of
what no one knows anything about. It does not
belong to the family of knowledge. When the
hands of theology are laid on a man's head his brains
are consecrated to do nothing. Every time a
minister is made, a man is lost. Nothing disgraces
American civilization more than the theology
preached in Christian churches. It is worse than
childish; it is old-womanish. The dark ages cast
their shadows across the bright skies of the twentieth
century, and the relics of that benighted time,
the priests, are still walking the streets, like ghosts
of bad deeds.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page184"></span><SPAN name="Pg184" id="Pg184" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every theology ends in a creed. A creed is the
night-cap of religion. It is a sign that the intellect
is asleep. When faith is in, sense is out. A man
with a creed has bought the coffin for his mind. The
rest of his life will be a funeral service for the dead.
A creed is the grave of thought. When a person
subscribes to certain articles of belief, he has no further
use for his brains. It does not require any
mental exercise to believe. Belief does not signify
any process of intellectual assimilation or digestion.
When a man joins a church, he makes his last will
and testament. When reason abdicates in favor
of credulity, crime becomes a saint, and folly a
martyr. Too much faith makes a Pocasset tragedy.
The foolishness of trying to make God intelligible to
human understanding is shown in the creeds of
Christendom. The dogma of the trinity ought
not to pass to any further generation. It is not the
<span class="tei tei-q">“likeness of anything that is in the heaven above,
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under the earth.”</span></p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page185"></span><SPAN name="Pg185" id="Pg185" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc181" id="toc181"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf182" id="pdf182"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">What Has Jesus Done For The World</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great deal is said about <span class="tei tei-q">“what Jesus has done
for the world.”</span> We wish some of those people who
repeat this statement would take ten or fifteen minutes
and tell us just what Jesus <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">has</span></em> done for the
world. It would puzzle the most ardent admirer
of the Galilean reformer to point out anything that
Jesus ever did to help man in this life. There is too
much of this thoughtless, senseless praise of Jesus.
Not a Christian on this earth but what owes a thousand
times more to his father and mother than he
owes to Jesus, but who ever heard one acknowledge
it? We could name hundreds of men who have
lightened the labor of the world by their inventions.
Did Jesus do anything of the kind? We can name
hundreds of men who have made the homes of mankind
brighter and more enjoyable by their genius
and toil. Did Jesus do anything of the kind?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The imaginary service which this imaginary person
did is of no consequence to the poor, to the
workers, to the starvers. What the poor man wants
is not a Savior for another world, but a helper for
this world, and the person who lessens the poverty
and misery of earth is worth a thousand times
more to humanity than Jesus.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We are told that Jesus died for man. Well!
What of it? Socrates died for man. Bruno died
for man. Emmet died for man. John Brown died
for the black man. Every day somebody is dying
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page186"></span><SPAN name="Pg186" id="Pg186" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
for man. Why emphasize the death of Jesus more
than the death of another? The fact that Jesus
died does not help you or me. He could have
helped us far more by living, if he had lived wisely
and well.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The great fact in regard to Jesus is this: He does
not touch this age; its aspirations, its interests, its
reforms, its work, its spirit. We are living contrary
to Jesus, contrary to all he taught and did.
He is left behind, outgrown, and, consequently,
whatever he did is of no value to this age. His
star is set. He has had his day. Instead of trying
to bring about a kingdom of poverty, a millennium
of idleness, the world is striving for a kingdom
of plenty and a good time for everybody.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Everything connected with Jesus has been exaggerated.
The man himself has been exaggerated,
his words have been exaggerated, his performances
have been exaggerated, and his importance has been
exaggerated. He has been given a character that
he is not entitled to, and his teachings have been
clothed with a value which they do not possess.
Jesus has been passed for more than he is worth.
Let his name no longer bear the stamp of divinity.
Let his deeds no longer be called miracles. The
real Jesus of fact would be a very ordinary man.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page187"></span><SPAN name="Pg187" id="Pg187" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc183" id="toc183"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf184" id="pdf184"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Agnostic's Position</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Some avowed Liberal writers are engaged in abusing
the Agnostic. One looks upon him as a
fool, while another considers him a hypocrite. One
pities him for his ignorance, the other abuses him
for confessing it. I side with the Agnostic. I sit
down with the ignorant. I take my place in the
class of <span class="tei tei-q">“I-don't-know.”</span> The difference between
people is this: Some don't know, and some don't
know that they don't know, and the rest won't admit
that they don't know.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It seems to me that the Agnostic's position is an
honest one. He is asked the question; Is there a
future life for man? What shall he answer? If he
does not know whether there is not, why should he
not say so? To say: I believe there is, is not an
answer to the question. He must say, I know, or,
I do not know. On this question are we not all
Agnostics?</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The foolish and cruel notion that a wife is to obey
her husband has sent more women to the grave
than to the courts for a divorce.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page188"></span><SPAN name="Pg188" id="Pg188" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc185" id="toc185"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf186" id="pdf186"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Orthodoxy</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is as much perfumery in petroleum as there
is righteousness in orthodoxy. Its dead theology
and make-believe piety have no value only to the
priest. Orthodoxy survives only by right of possession.
Turn it out of the churches and it would
never re-enter them. The church to-day is a hospital
for sick dogmas. Every Christian doctrine is
a cripple; not one can walk or stand alone. Orthodoxy
has put a false valuation on things. It calls
a man good who goes to church, offers a prayer in
public and accepts the Bible as the word of God; it
calls a man bad who stays at home and enjoys himself
with his family on Sunday, who eats without
asking God to bless his food, and who does not expect
to go to heaven on the vicarious railroad.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The thirty-nine articles of orthodoxy are only
the ashes of the mind.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A handsome bonnet covers a multitude of sins.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page189"></span><SPAN name="Pg189" id="Pg189" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc187" id="toc187"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf188" id="pdf188"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Ideas Of Jesus</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is a vast difference between knowledge of
the Bible and knowledge. A person may know all
there is in the Bible, and not know but little. In
fact, so much of the Bible is either pure fiction or
doubtful history that one is not sure when he has
got hold of what is reliable. Probably no person
whose name appears in the Bible is less a historical
figure than Jesus. As we see him in either gospel
he is more the product of the artist than the
work of the biographer. He is less a human being
than the character of a drama.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Had Jesus been pictured as a man, who was born
as men are born, who worked as men worked, who
lived and died as men live and die, then there
would be less divergence in the views entertained
respecting him. To-day, the Jesus of Galilee is
looked upon as either a God or a tramp; a divine
Savior or an impostor; the perfect man or a lunatic.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The reason of this is that the gospels are found,
as it were, photographs of all those characters
labelled Jesus. A person with no fixed idea of what
Jesus was, whether human or divine, whether a
Christ or a madman, would be unable, after reading
the gospels to come to any intelligent conclusion
as to what he was. He certainly could not accept
the statements of the authors and regard Jesus
as a man.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We fail to understand how anyone can read the
New Testament story of Jesus and not regard him
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page190"></span><SPAN name="Pg190" id="Pg190" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
as a myth. No being ever lived on earth and performed
the miracles recorded in the gospels. That
is just as sure as the light of the stars. Miracles
are not evidence of divinity, but of falsehood.
Where we read that a man was raised from the dead
we know that somebody has written what is not
true. How human beings, who are possessed of
ordinary intelligence, can accept the accounts of
miraculous events in the four gospels as records of
actual facts surpasses our comprehension.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Those persons who see in the words of Jesus evidence
of <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">his</span></em> divine character, see in such words,
when in the mouth of any other person, proof of
insanity.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There are contradictory ideas of Jesus contained
in the gospels. He is spoken of as a man, as a
Christ, as a son of God, and as God himself. Now,
he could not have been all these. Which was he?
Was he God? Was he the son of God? Was he
the Christ or King of the Jews? Was he the son of
Mary and Joseph? Was he a man? Or was he
neither?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Our opinion is that Jesus is a myth, that no such
being as is painted in the New Testament ever lived.
This seems to be the only rational idea of Jesus.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page191"></span><SPAN name="Pg191" id="Pg191" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc189" id="toc189"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf190" id="pdf190"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Silence Of Jesus</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A Christian minister not long ago spoke upon
the subject: <span class="tei tei-q">“When the Bible is Silent.”</span> He said
a great many silly things about his subject, but not
one sensible one. This preacher wishes us to believe
that when the Bible is silent it is because we
cannot hear. He said the silence of Jesus before
Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, shows that Jesus knew
they would not have understood his words if he had
answered them. He further said that Jesus <span class="tei tei-q">“treated
each with whom he came in contact according to the
spirit that was in him.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is it not more likely that Jesus knew he could not
impose upon these men as he could upon his ignorant,
superstitious followers, and hence dared not
speak? Is not his silence a confession of his weakness?
Had he been able to answer Caiaphas, Pilate
and Herod, think you he would not have done
so? Of course he would. It is a little singular that
the <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">most momentous questions ever put to Jesus were
not answered by him</span></em>. The very things the people
wished to know he did not reveal. Why not? Why,
because he <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">could</span></em> not.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Should we to-day pronounce a man wise and good
who professed to possess knowledge that would benefit,
if not save, the world, but who refused to impart
that knowledge? We reckon not. We should
either denounce him as the foe of man or else as a
charlatan.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When Jesus was taken before the high priest,
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page192"></span><SPAN name="Pg192" id="Pg192" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
Caiaphas, and was asked about the charges against
him, he <span class="tei tei-q">“held his peace.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When he was asked by Pilate. <span class="tei tei-q">“What is truth?”</span>
Jesus was silent; and when Pilate again asked,
<span class="tei tei-q">“Whence art thou?”</span> Jesus <span class="tei tei-q">“gave him no answer.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When Herod <span class="tei tei-q">“questioned with him in many
words,”</span> <span class="tei tei-q">“he answered him nothing.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
What are we to infer from this silence? What
the minister wishes us to infer, or that Jesus saw
that he was unable to maintain his claim and so
sought refuge in silence?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The silence of Jesus condemns him. He was in
duty bound to prove that he was the Christ, the
Son of God, as he claimed to be, or else have impostor
written on his forehead.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The world will some day grow large enough not
to be fooled by a minister. When it does, Jesus will
take his place where he belongs,—in the graveyard
of the gods.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page193"></span><SPAN name="Pg193" id="Pg193" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc191" id="toc191"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf192" id="pdf192"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Does The Church Save</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The church pretends to save man from a hell
hereafter, but does it do so? How are we to know
whether it does or not? We cannot take its word
for it. We want the proof. We do not want to pay
for work unless the work is done. We do not want
to believe in order to be saved, unless we are sure
that the church can deliver the salvation it takes
pay for. The world has taken the promise to save
long enough. It has not seen a single soul that has
been saved, nor does it know for a fact that a single
soul has been saved.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Is it not time that the church showed that it can
do what it claims to do? We want salvation demonstrated.
Let the church produce a specimen of
its work; let it exhibit a soul that it has saved, or
let it publish the affidavit, duly subscribed and
affirmed, of a soul that has escaped the fate of hell
through the efficacy of faith in Jesus. Anything
less than this is deception, is imposition, is false
pretense. Either this should be done by the church
or else it should go out of the salvation-business
altogether.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is astonishing how long the priest has carried
on his trade. Here is a man who claims to deal in
the affairs of another world for which he demands
pay in this world, but he does not show that he
carries out his part of the agreement. Men have
been paying the priest for thousands of years, for
doing what it is impossible to prove has been, or
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page194"></span><SPAN name="Pg194" id="Pg194" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
can be, done. Can anything more stupid than this
be imagined? The business of saving man's soul
is a cheat, a fraud. Every priest and minister who
preaches that man can be saved from hell hereafter
by believing in Jesus, or anybody else, is preaching
what they know nothing about, and they are doing
it for the money in it. The church is cheating man,
defrauding him, practicing upon his ignorance, his
superstition, his fear. Religion, as far as it relates
to any other life than this, has no foundation. Its
God no one knows anything about; its heaven and
hell no one has ever seen, nor does anyone know
where they are; its whole business is run on fictitious
capital.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The only thing that the church has saved so far
is itself.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Freethought Precepts</p>
<div class="block tei tei-quote" style="margin-bottom: 1.80em; margin-left: 3.60em; margin-top: 1.80em; margin-right: 3.60em">
<div class="tei tei-lg" style="margin-bottom: 0.90em; margin-top: 0.90em">
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The strong should be gentle to the weak.</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The rich should not oppress the poor.</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The prosperous should be generous to the unfortunate.</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The self-reliant should give a hand to the helpless.</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The educated should pity the ignorant.</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The virtuous should not be cruel to the vicious.</span></div>
<div class="tei tei-l" style="text-align: left"><span style="font-size: 90%">The beautiful should be kind to the plain.</span></div>
</div></div>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page195"></span><SPAN name="Pg195" id="Pg195" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc193" id="toc193"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf194" id="pdf194"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Save The Republic</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Which shall it be, Christianity or the Republic?
It is apparent that the Christian church under a
purely secular government, where justice is granted
to all and where favors are allowed to none, cannot
long survive. The Christian church in this country
to-day is the worst foe of our free republic that
exists within its borders. If the state survives it is
plain to us that the church must perish, and the
church can only flourish on the ruins of free institutions.
We may have Christianity with a certain
form of human government in America, but if the
principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence
and the rights implied in the national constitution
are to survive, then we cannot have Christianity
in this land.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The next conflict in our nation is to be between
secularism and ecclesiasticism, between men who
love liberty and priests who uphold tyranny, between
the lovers of our republic and the foes of secular
institutions. This conflict is nearer than the
public imagines; in fact, it is already going on, and
the growth of sentiment in the next generation in
favor of human freedom and human rights will determine
whether secularism will be upheld in our
nation, or whether the reign of ecclesiasticism is to
be dethroned.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The work of the Christian church throughout the
land is to prevent the spread of secular principles and
to hinder the further secularization of the government.
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page196"></span><SPAN name="Pg196" id="Pg196" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
This is the only hope of saving Christianity.
If the state will not continue to exempt church property
from taxation, to uphold the Christian sabbath,
to prescribe prayers and Bible-reading in the
public schools, to enforce the oath in courts of justice,
and to otherwise lend its aid and support to the
Christian religion, there is no chance of this religion
resisting the spread of science and the arguments of
rationalism.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every victory won by Christianity is a nail in the
coffin of this republic. Our government at the present
time is a travesty of free institutions. Where
does the freethinker have equal rights with the
Christian, equal freedom, equal justice? He is
obliged to take a Christian oath or have his word
discredited in court; he is taxed to help support
Christian chaplains in the state prisons, in the legislatures,
and in the army and navy; he is made by
law to pay the taxes on church property which is
no benefit to him; he has to send his children to
schools where religious services are conducted that
to him are false and foolish, and in many other ways
help maintain a religion that he considers more injurious
than beneficial to the world.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The church in this country is not working for the
good of the nation; it is working to save itself.
What they, who love our free land, should do, is to
make the government secular in every part, and
compel Christianity to take its grasp off of the nation's
life. We must destroy Christianity if we
would save the republic.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page197"></span><SPAN name="Pg197" id="Pg197" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc195" id="toc195"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">A Woman's Religion</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian church of to-day is the church of
women. Woman is certainly the better-half of Christianity.
She is the minister's right bower. The
Christian soldier is an Amazon. The first at the
prayer-meeting, at the donation party, at the missionary
convention, at the Sunday service, at the
altar, at the Sunday school is woman, and the last
is woman, too. Without its female members, adherents
and workers the Christian church would be
an abandoned wreck within a week. It is true
that men give money to the church, but they do it
generally to please the women or at their solicitation.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The Christian religion is a female religion. It is
emotional piety. There is nothing robust, independent
about it, nothing that appeals to strength,
intellect, reason. It is a vine, not an oak. Even
its chief idol was fashioned for female worship.
The songs of Christianity were written for women
to sing, rather than men. The God of Christianity
is a father, its savior is a young man, and its angels
are all of the masculine gender. The Christian
heaven is a he-kingdom, as far as its administration
is concerned—a sort of celestial harem—for
certainly ten women go there to one man, if the
membership of the church determines the election
of candidates to heavenly bliss. The two favorite
hymns at the prayer-meeting, the two that are
sung with most feeling, are <span class="tei tei-q">“Jesus, lover of my soul,”</span>
and <span class="tei tei-q">“Nearer, my God, to thee.”</span></p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page198"></span><SPAN name="Pg198" id="Pg198" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Religion was invented to catch women. The
priest is the spider and woman the fly. Upon the
altar of every faith woman has been the sacrifice.
Religion claims its female victims in this age just
as surely as when the Hindoo widow was sent to
join her dead husband on wings of flame. Woman
to-day is not killed to appease a God, but she is still
made a fool of by the priest. The spirit of the offering
is the same, the form, only, is different. The
foundation of every Christian church is woman;
the salary-raiser of every Christian minister is woman.
Woman is the keystone in every arch of
Christian endeavor that spans the earth. She is
"the bright, particular star" of the church's hope.
Men are not so easily caught by the Christian
scheme of salvation as women. They want to see
some return for their money on earth. It is the
woman who is caught in the religious toils; it is the
woman who is the slave of God, the victim of
priest and minister.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The declaration that will kindle enthusiasm
in the human breast most quickly is that a new
way has been discovered to get rich.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page199"></span><SPAN name="Pg199" id="Pg199" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc197" id="toc197"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf198" id="pdf198"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Sacrifice Of Jesus</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
A great deal has been written, preached and said
about the great sacrifice which Jesus made for the
world. We deny that he made any such sacrifice
as is claimed for him by the Christian church. In
fact, we cannot see, find or learn from any record of
the New Testament that he made any sacrifice at
all. This whole idea about the sacrifice of Jesus
depends upon a theological assumption.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Jesus had no earthly honor, position or estate to
sacrifice, even had he been disposed to offer such
for the good of mankind. Not only is there no evidence
of any tangible renunciation possible by
Jesus, but there is no proof and no sign that Jesus
possessed even the spirit of sacrifice. We challenge
the Christian admirer of Jesus to point to a
single act of this hero that can honestly be called a
sacrifice. We know of no such act. We have
studied the gospels to find such an act, and we have
studied them in vain.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When a mother sees her boy pinned to the timbers
of a wrecked car where the scalding steam must
escape into his face and destroy his life, and to save
her boy, voluntarily stands where this steam, with
its hot breath, will take her life instead of her boy's,
this mother makes a sacrifice that is apparent, real.
Such an act is sublime, grand, beyond heroism.
Such an act wipes the Christian slander of total depravity
from human nature. Such an act makes
us almost worship the heart great enough to perform
it.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page200"></span><SPAN name="Pg200" id="Pg200" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Jesus did no such things as this. He braved no
danger for another. He did not walk in the path
of peril to save the life of friend or fellow. On the
contrary, he seemed bent on a selfish mission, inspired
by a purely personal ambition. He did not
say: This world is suffering from oppression; I will
lay down my life to make it free. He did not seek
to destroy the throne and the sceptre that bear so
heavily on the poor and weak; but he sought a
throne and a sceptre for himself that <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">he</span></em> might rule
the world.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Jesus sacrifice himself for the world! No! He
demanded that the world sacrifice itself to exalt
him! A poorer specimen of self-sacrifice could hardly
be found in all the historical out-of-the-way
places that we know anything about. Jesus had
nothing to give up, nothing to renounce, nothing
but his life to offer to the world, <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">and this, even when
it was taken, did the world no good</span></em>.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The only incident in the whole career of Jesus
which has been construed as a sacrifice was his crucifixion,
but this was not voluntary on the part of
the victim. <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">Jesus, in dying, made no sacrifice.</span></em> He
surrendered his life at the command of a political
power; he did not offer it for the world's advancement.
Jesus was the sport of circumstances, the
victim of a cruel fate. He played for high stakes
and lost. He was an adventurer, and suffered the
penalty of failure. Taking the account of his
career in the gospels as true, it is totally barren of
any lofty, sublime action for the good of the human
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page201"></span><SPAN name="Pg201" id="Pg201" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
race. He did not throw his efforts into the public
strife to elevate the condition of the majority, but
he loaded himself on the shoulders of his followers
to ride into divine greatness. Like hundreds of
others, he threw the dice of political chance and
was beaten.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In following the gospel steps of the deluded Nazarene
we are not sure which are his and which are
not, but take all the stories as true which his
devoted disciples have told about him, they
do not reveal a mind consecrated to any lofty purpose.
He was working to establish the <span class="tei tei-q">“kingdom
of heaven,”</span> but nobody knows what that is. He
talked about his <span class="tei tei-q">“father in heaven,”</span> but nobody
knows who he is. He had no practical ideas, he
did no practical work. History would have written
this man's name among the unfortunate victims of
political revolutions, if it had preserved it at all,
which is doubtful, but Jesus was made by priestcraft
to play a leading part in a theological drama,
and religion has immortalized his name.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But it is a false part that Jesus has played. No
such character has any reason for existing. The
necessity for any human offering to God does not
exist. The idea of an atoning sacrifice is a relic of at
barbarous faith. It is time to take Christianity off
the stage. It is an insult to the twentieth century.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The silly, sickly superstition of the sacrifice of
Jesus should be left to die. It sprang from falsehood
and has no basis in fact, in reason or in truth.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page202"></span><SPAN name="Pg202" id="Pg202" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Fashionable Hypocrisy</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is nothing more inconsistent than for the
rich to praise Jesus. There is dishonesty in every
word that the wealthy speak in approbation of the
poverty-preacher of Galilee. Jesus was poor, almost
a beggar. He had no house, no home. But
more than this, he did not see the good of such
things. He did not tell his disciples to work and
try to improve their earthly condition. There is no
sound, sensible advice for a man to follow, who has
to live and support his family, to be found in the so-called
teachings of Jesus.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is simply hypocrisy for a man who is rich or
well-to-do, and who is living to add to his wealth or
to increase his comforts, to pretend to honor Jesus.
The truth is, Jesus did not do anything that deserves
the honor of those who are trying to fill the
earth with flowers of happiness, who are laboring to
make brighter the homes they live in, and who are
sowing the seeds of plenty and joy. Jesus did not
do what this age regards as best for man, and he did
not teach the philosophy which the wisest men to-day
apply to human life.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Now, was Jesus right or wrong? That is the
question. It is pure nonsense for the people of this
country to claim to respect Jesus. We cannot
respect a person who does what we think is foolish,
or we cannot do so and have any self-respect. We
are right or think we are, and Jesus was wrong; or
else Jesus was right. Which is it?</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page203"></span><SPAN name="Pg203" id="Pg203" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The whole world, Christian and unbeliever alike,
is living contrary to the precept and example of the
New Testament preacher. Is every person on earth
doing what he believes to be wrong; doing what he
believes to be injurious to himself; doing what he
considers will end in disaster and misery; doing
what he feels will bring suffering and sorrow upon
humanity? Not a bit of it. Every man is doing
what he believes to be right when he is working to
get out of poverty and degradation; when he is trying
to better his condition in society; when he is
improving his home and giving his family more
blessings, more enjoyments.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We unhesitatingly declare that Jesus was wrong.
It is impossible to make poverty popular. There
is not an argument in its favor. Poverty has not a
single blessing. It is a curse, pure and simple, everywhere
and for everybody. It is not to be praised;
it is to be condemned and got rid of. It is the father
of vice and the mother of suffering. It sheds more
tears than grief. It cuts more throats than crime.
It breaks more hearts than cruelty. It is the one
great giant evil of earth. It is the foe that every
Knight of Labor is sworn to battle. Every heart
that loves another is pledged to drive poverty off
the earth. This monster devours more children
than disease, and tortures the aged more than pain.
Want is a flood, a drought, a famine, a pestilence.
It is a prison, a work-house, a convict's cell. It is
the hell of the twentieth century.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page204"></span><SPAN name="Pg204" id="Pg204" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Can we praise Jesus and be honest? No! Jesus
and his gospel of poverty are not in harmony with
the work, the love, the desire of this age, and for any
one who is living above want, on the walls of whose
home is the sunshine of peace and comfort, to pretend
to honor Jesus or to follow his teaching is to
be guilty of hypocrisy!</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When religion comes in at the door common
sense goes out at the window.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The churches erected in the name of God
will ere long be tombstones to his memory.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Churches do not stand for moral influence.
Not a Christian minister preaches salvation by
good behavior. What a poor business Roman
Catholicism would do among men if it advertised
to save only those who were temperate, upright,
intelligent and moral.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page205"></span><SPAN name="Pg205" id="Pg205" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Saturday Half-Holiday</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is pretty certain that the laborer is hereafter
to have more time for himself. That fact is already
settled, and the demand will be conceded
sooner or later. Eat, work and sleep is the ancient
trinity of slavery. The modern life demands
leisure; the opportunity for enjoyment and self-improvement.
How it is best to be secured is a
question about which there is a variety of opinions.
One of the plans to give the workingman more time
for himself is that of the Saturday half-holiday.
We see no particular advantage in this over the
eight-hour-for-a-day's-work plan.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It seems to us that if laborers worked eight hours
a day and had Sunday for a holiday instead of a holy
day, all their requirements would be better answered
than in any other way. We do not need a day
nor an hour when either work or play would be a
crime, and before any other portion of the week is
set apart for a holiday, let Sunday be made free to
enjoyment and recreation.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is the eternal bugbear of religion to oppose
this scheme, but that is all. The minister, who
under free trade on Sunday would be obliged to
close up his business, is in favor of a Sabbath law
of protection for sermons and prayers, but why
should a few clergymen who have six holidays in
the week and only one work-day, be favored
against millions of toilers, who work six days in the
week and are liable to be arrested if they do not go
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page206"></span><SPAN name="Pg206" id="Pg206" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
to church on the seventh day? Not a Saturday
half-holiday but a Sunday whole-holiday is the
first rational step towards justice to the working-man.
There is very little in the average Sunday
service that is instructive and nothing that is entertaining,
and it is based upon the erroneous notion
that man owes something that he knows nothing
about, a debt of worship one day in seven. Man's
brain should be emancipated from the superstition
that there is a God in the universe that requires
him to sacrifice his own good to divine vanity.
Work is holier than worship, and to play is better
for man than to pray.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man wants leisure to enjoy himself, not to worship
God. He can have it when he becomes sensible
enough to demand it.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page207"></span><SPAN name="Pg207" id="Pg207" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc203" id="toc203"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Motive For Preaching</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Why does a man enter the Christian ministry?
Why do men preach the Christian faith? There is
some reason for doing so. What is it? We have
been told that the men who adopt the profession of
preaching for a living make a sacrifice of personal
advantage by doing so; that these men, had they
entered any other profession, could not only more
readily achieve greatness, but could also make more
money. We do not believe it. As a rule, we believe
that the men who are getting a living to-day
as ministers, earn more money and enjoy more
fame, than they could get in any other business or
calling. Ministers are not martyrs. That idea
needs to be given up.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is another idea that people have entertained
too long, and that is, that all the young men
who graduate from a divinity school are intellectual
giants. Brains are not the capital of the pulpit.
We gladly acknowledge the exception to what we
have stated as a rule, and are not only willing, but
anxious, to testify to the occasional brilliant
preacher. We are speaking of the overwhelming
majority and not of the conspicuous few.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Most men go into the ministry because they think
they can get a living more easily by preaching than
by doing anything else. The pulpit is founded not
on spiritual sands, but on an earthly rock. It is
the salary that makes it attractive.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Now, let us look at the facts in the case. The
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page208"></span><SPAN name="Pg208" id="Pg208" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
work of the minister is less than the work of the average
laborer, and the pay of the preacher is more
than the pay of the average mechanic or working-man.
Here is the key to the pulpit for a lot of
young men. A young man who has a taste for
reading and loafing, and no genius for work, sees a
chance to employ what talent he possesses by studying
theology, and we venture to say that nine out
of ten of the candidates for the ministry enter the
profession from purely business, or, if you will, mercenary
motives. The Lord does not pick out
preachers. They pick themselves out.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
There is just as much striving for the loaves and
fishes among ministers as among other men; and
the religious society that pays the largest salary is
the vineyard that has the most applications for the
job. We do not say that preachers are worse
than other professional characters, but that they
are human. They preach for money, and where
the highest salary is there will the ministers be most
anxious to go.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not wish to cut anybody's wings, but when
we read that certain new-fledged preachers are about
to <span class="tei tei-q">“work for the Lord,”</span> and that they have <span class="tei tei-q">“entered
upon God's chosen profession through their
love of saving souls,”</span> we want to correct the statements.
They are going to work for themselves the
best they know how, having entered upon their
duties, not so much because they love their fellow-men,
as because they love the good things of this
world.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page209"></span><SPAN name="Pg209" id="Pg209" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The truth is this, the motive for preaching to-day
is the pay, and the religion of the pulpit is to say
nothing that will cause a panic in the pews.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man's history is below his life, his destiny
above it.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
All that secularists ask is that their thoughts
be met fairly and honestly, and that the world
accept what will lead it in the highest and surest
way.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If a person can join the salvation army corps
and still be respected by his fellow-beings, he
ought to be at liberty to enlist in the ranks of
reason and common sense and not forfeit respect.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
God has done nothing for men and women
except to scare them out of their wits.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page210"></span><SPAN name="Pg210" id="Pg210" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc205" id="toc205"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf206" id="pdf206"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">The Christian's God</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man is like the God he worships, and history
shows that the Christian church has been as cruel
as its God. A Christian minister damns just as
his God does. He sends every free soul to hell just
as his God does. He demands obedience just as
his God does. The tyranny of heaven is repeated
on earth and every tyrant quotes God for his authority.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Think of the Christian superstition demanding
recognition and acceptance! It seems almost incredible
that a man can be found in this age to
preach such glaring inconsistencies and absurdities,
such a ridiculous faith, such injustice and cruelty,
as the Christian religion stands for. We can
hardly believe our own ears when we go inside of a
Christian church. We cannot understand how
this terrible superstition has obtained possession of
the mind, nor how human beings can be so blinded
and apparently stultified! Were there on this
earth a judge who should pronounce sentence upon
a person on account of his religious belief, mankind
would brand the name of that judge with the
deepest obloquy. He would be stripped of his robe
of office and disgraced forever in the eyes of every
true man and woman on the globe. His deed would
be a black spot on the page of history and his memory
a burden to the world.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Put this judge on the throne of the universe and
you have the Christian's God.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page211"></span><SPAN name="Pg211" id="Pg211" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
<SPAN name="toc207" id="toc207"></SPAN>
<SPAN name="pdf208" id="pdf208"></SPAN>
<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Indifference To Religion</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The pulpit complains that people are indifferent
to religion. Why shouldn't they be? It is about
time they were indifferent to it. Our wonder is,
that the people tolerate a single priest or church
on earth. Of what benefit is religion to mankind?
Come now, ye that uphold religion, tell us what it
does to make the world better, nobler, truer? Why
should man worship God? Why should he build
thousands of costly churches all over the earth, and
pay priests and ministers large salaries to preach
and pray in these churches?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the churches were the humblest buildings in
the land; if the ministers and priests were paid no
more than carpenters or spinners, if there were any
agreement between what religion <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">professes to be</span></em> and
what it <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">is as matter of fact</span></em>, then less could be said in
the way of condemnation of religion. But think
you that men who live in hovels can respect men
who preach in palaces as followers of the man of
Nazareth? The thing is too ridiculous. The
world is beginning to see how it has been humbugged,
and it is becoming indifferent. It may in
time become indignant. There will then be occasion
for ministers to be alarmed.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But just now the people have reached a condition
of utter indifference respecting religion. They
don't care for it. They don't care to build it up or
tear it down. They don't care whether it is good
or bad. They don't care anything about it.</p>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page212"></span><SPAN name="Pg212" id="Pg212" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Some regret this state of things; we rejoice in it. It
shows that the people are thinking, and when the
people think long enough they will find what is
true and right.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the government can carry a letter across
the continent for two cents, why cannot it send
a telegraphic message correspondingly cheap?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the government can build and manage a
navy, why cannot it build and operate a railroad?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the government can run the treasury
department, why cannot it run the banks?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the government can maintain an army of
soldiers in idleness, why cannot it support an
army of laborers at some useful occupation?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the government can serve at less cost
than private corporations, why does it not do so?</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page213"></span><SPAN name="Pg213" id="Pg213" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Sunday Schools</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Of all the stupid things we meet with, Sunday
school lessons are the stupidest. There seems to
be only one way to account for this, and that is that
stupid persons are connected with Sunday schools
and can comprehend only stupid things. It seems
to us as though a bright boy or girl at the age of
twelve years ought to be able to overthrow every
argument employed in a Sunday school to bolster
up the Christian superstition. The lessons taught
in them are adapted to undeveloped brains, and
the literature one gets from their libraries is of that
variety that is calculated to discourage any robust
independence of mind. We believe that any religious
or theological instruction is a positive injury
to the young; that it is utterly wrong to instill into
the immature mind ideas of God, of a future life, of
heaven and hell, of angels and devils. All that we
know about God is what we don't know. The
same may be said of other branches of religion.
How much better it would be to teach something
useful, something of importance, something real,
true! Parents owe it to their children to save them
from being taught the false and foolish dogmas of
Christianity. False education is the bane of humanity,
and the falsehood that is learned in Sunday
schools poisons and deforms the life of man as long
as he lives. Fear of God—the most terrible spectre
that ever haunted the human soul—is a product of
the Sunday school. The victims of this fear can be
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page214"></span><SPAN name="Pg214" id="Pg214" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
counted to-day by millions. This one fact ought to
be sufficient to condemn this nursery of superstition
and evil. There is no earthly reason to fear
God, and other reasons should have no weight.
The black shadow of fear which darkens the whole
earth is the result of faith in God. The catechisms
used in the Sunday schools are mostly filled
with pious trash. The questions and answers they
contain are written out of ignorance, written, too,
in most cases, for the purpose of making the intellect
the slave of the priest and minister. There
is no mystery so shallow as a theological mystery,
because it is founded on deception. The only
mysteries that the human mind can contemplate
with real wonder are the sublime mysteries of Nature,
the mysteries of life and death, of sand and
star, of flower and feeling. Before these great,
overwhelming mysteries, that everywhere surround
us, the petty ideas of Gods and devils, of
saviors and mediators, of heaven and hell, are trivial
and cheap. We condemn Sunday schools, because
they do not teach what is real, what is true,
what is necessary to a noble human life on earth;
because they inculcate superstitions, and elevate
the belief of religious dogmas above scientific and
useful knowledge; because they put God above man,
heaven hereafter above the home here, and the performance
of religious duties above the life of honesty,
purity and love. Sunday schools are the
poorest schools on the face of the earth, and there
is only one excuse for their existence, and that is to
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page215"></span><SPAN name="Pg215" id="Pg215" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
perpetuate the church, to keep alive the superstitions
upon which it was built and upon which
the clergy depend for a living.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Our duty to the god of christianity is to bury
him.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Nothing from nothing and nothing remains,
Nothing from nothing and nothing is the same.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
If the factory pays taxes and the church does
not, it follows that the church will some day own
the factory.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
When christian ministers stand up in their
pulpits and say <span class="tei tei-q">“Let us pray,”</span> if they would
sometimes vary the invitation and say: Let us
laugh, they would do their congregations more
good.</p>
</div>
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page216"></span><SPAN name="Pg216" id="Pg216" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Going To Church</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Every little while some minister wakes up to the
fact that a large proportion of the people of our
cities do not go to church, and he blames the people
for this state of affairs. Nobody blames men and
women if they keep away from the theatre, from
the library, from the art gallery, from the public
park; in fact, it is generally admitted that people
can exercise their own judgment in visiting these
places and not be liable to censure on the part of
anybody. Not so, however, when they keep away
from the church.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Why does a man go to the theatre? Obviously
because he is pleased by the performance he witnesses
there. Why does a man not go to a church?
Obviously because he is <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">not</span></em> pleased with the performance
he witnesses <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">there</span></em>. The notion that
men and women are to go to a place where they do
not like to go, where they derive no pleasure but as a
matter of duty is about all the argument for church-going
that can be advanced to-day. We admit
that man should do his duty, no matter how disagreeable
it may be. We cannot shirk our responsibilities
on the ground that they are irksome or unpleasant.
But <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">is</span></em> it man's duty to go to church?
That is the question. If it is, then he should go.
Who is to decide the matter? Of course priests
and ministers will say that everybody ought to go
to church. But what for? Is it a man's duty to
go to <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">every</span></em> church, or only to some particular
<span class="tei tei-pb" id="page217"></span><SPAN name="Pg217" id="Pg217" class="tei tei-anchor"></SPAN>
church? We are told that we shall be better for
going to church. To which church? The Roman
Catholic would not admit that a man would be
better for going to a Methodist church, and the
Methodist would not advise a person to go to a Roman
Catholic church to improve his mental or moral
condition. Who shall decide the matter <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">where</span></em> we
shall go to church?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
In going to the theatre, we do not always go to
the same place, nor to hear the same play, nor to
witness the same actors; nor do we always visit the
same gallery or park when we desire to see paintings
or statuary, or to enjoy the flowers and general
beauties of Nature. Why should men <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">join</span></em> one
church and go to it all their lives? Why should
men hear only <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">one</span></em> kind of religion preached? Why
should men listen all their lives to the preaching of
one set of dogmas?</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Supposing a man were to go once or twice a week
for fifty years to see one tragedy or comedy played,
would he be a better judge of the drama than if he
had seen during that time a hundred tragedies and
comedies? The man who goes all his life to one
church is made a denominational or sectarian bigot.
Is the object of churches to make bigots? That is
about all they have made up to date.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We hold that it is not man's duty to <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">go</span></em> to any
church, to <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">belong</span></em> to any church, or to <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">support</span></em> any
church. <em class="tei tei-emph"><span style="font-style: italic">There are no religious duties.</span></em> Man is under
no obligation whatever to worship God.
Churches must be placed upon the same ground as
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other places of instruction and amusement, and if
they cannot be supported by legitimate patronage
then must they be given up. If a man goes to
church to hear a minister, let him pay for it like a
man, but if he is not pleased with what he hears he
need not go again.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The notion that there is anything of greater
value to be had in the church than elsewhere cannot
be defended. This idea does not fool people of
any sense. The pulpit has no divine message for
the world, but generally talks about what no one
knows anything about. Intelligent people who do
not go to church have come to the conclusion that
they can derive more pleasure from other sources.
That is about the reason why they do not go to
church.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We cannot go ahead without leaving something
behind.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The convent is opposed to all that is sacred
in human nature.</p>
</div>
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<hr class="page" /><div class="tei tei-div" style="margin-bottom: 5.00em; margin-top: 5.00em">
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<h1 class="tei tei-head" style="text-align: left; margin-bottom: 3.46em; margin-top: 3.46em"><span style="font-size: 173%">Who Is The Greatest Living Man</span></h1>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Written November 19, 1893.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
My answer is <span class="tei tei-hi"><span style="font-style: italic">Robert G. Ingersoll</span></span>.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
One gets the conviction of this man's superiority
by simply being in his presence. The outer
man makes the impression of greatness upon the
mind.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
It is not the silent assertion of a splendid form
however, that persuades us. A large body serves
to accent and emphasize a large mind, but heroic
physical proportions are not essential to greatness.
The king of men to-day is not he who, like Saul,
<span class="tei tei-q">“from his shoulders and upward is higher than any
of his people.”</span> Dr. Watts truly said: <span class="tei tei-q">“The mind's
the standard of the man.”</span></p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
But we cannot think of Robert G. Ingersoll with
a diminutive physical equipment. His ample form
radiates the man. But it is the royalty of his intellect
that makes him great. It is in the kingdom
of mind that he is master. Every mental tool fits
his hand. He has wit, learning, imagination, eloquence,
philosophy, and that rare quality, sense.
He is a great lawyer, a great orator, a great poet,
and a great man. He is too large for conventionalities,
too large to respect what smaller minds have
declared right, what weaker minds have made holy.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
The intellectual grandeur of the man is no less
apparent than his moral fearlessness. He is greatest
where most men are little—in the face of a
powerful and domineering superstition. He knows
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that the highest manhood makes the trappings of
religion but the playthings of feeble minds.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
His love of liberty is only equalled by his passion
for truth, and he listens to the timid whisper of
doubt with the chivalrous attention that others
give to confident faith. He strips things of their
clothes, of fashions, of falsehood, of pretension, and
demands that they stand for what they are and no
more. He has the sincerity of greatness and his
mind wears the white robe of spotless integrity.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Above all living men he possesses the power of
utterance. He has the highest literary instinct,
and never marries a mean word to a noble thought.
He uses language as Phidias used marble. He is
the literary artist of the age, and knows all the
colors in the brain. He can make words laugh and
weep.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
This man has a large heart. He is filled with
human sympathy. He does not care for gods, but
he pities men. The springs of feeling feed the
mighty rivers of thought that cross the continent
of his mind. There is about him the warmth, the
kindness of summer—Nature's season of forgiveness.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
He has the highest philosophy—that of cheerfulness.
The clouds never cover all his sky. He
is the apostle of good humor, and preaches the gospel
of sunshine to dry the tears of the world.</p>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
He is true to himself, loyal to his head and his
heart, and upon his brow shines the jewel of
self-respect.</p>
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<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Robert G. Ingersoll has the greatness of genius.
It is useless to try to account for an intellectual
giant. Dowered by Nature, parents are of small
account. We cannot find the secret of his marvelous
power by digging in a graveyard.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
Man is what he is, because his origin was
what it was.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
God cannot be put into the national Constitution
without putting liberty out of it.</p>
<div class="tei tei-tb"><hr style="width: 50%" /></div>
<p class="tei tei-p" style="margin-bottom: 1.00em">
We do not want holy books, but true ones;
not sacred writings, but sensible writings.</p>
</div>
</div>
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