,,flowers ,,of ,,freethought 7,first ,series7 ,g4 ,w4 ,,foote4 ,,london #ahic4 ,,contents3 ,,preface4 ,,old ,,nick4 ,,fire666 ,,sky ,,pilots4 ,,devil ,,dodgers4 ,,fighting ,,spooks4 ,,damned ,,sinners4 ,,where ,,is ,,hell8 ,,spurgeon ,,and ,,hell4 ,,is ,,spurgeon ,,in ,,heaven8 ,,god ,,in ,,japan4 ,,stanley ,,on ,,providence4 ,,gone ,,to ,,god4 ,,thank ,,god4 ,,judgment ,,day4 ,,shelley',s ,,atheism4 99 ,,long ,,faces4 ,,our ,,father4 ,,wait ,,till ,,you ,,die4 ,,dead ,,theology4 ,,mr4 ,,gladstone ,,on ,,devils4 ,,huxley',s ,,mistake4 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,freethought4 ,,on ,,ridicule4 ,,who ,,are ,,the ,,blasphemers8 ,,christianity ,,and ,,common ,,sense4 ,,the ,,lord ,,of ,,lords4 99 ,,consecrating ,,the ,,colors ,,christmas ,,in ,,holloway ,,gaol4 99 ,,who ,,killed ,,christ8 ,,did ,,jesus ,,ascend8 ,,the ,,rising ,,son4 ,,st4 ,,paul',s ,,veracity4 ,,no ,,faith ,,with ,,heretics4 ,,the ,,logic ,,of ,,persecution4 ,,luther ,,and ,,the ,,devil4 ,,bible ,,english4 ,,living ,,by ,,faith4 ,,victor ,,hugo4 99 ,,desecrating ,a ,,church4 ,,walt ,,whitman4 99 ,,tennyson ,,and ,,the ,,bible4 99 ,,christ',s ,,old ,,coat4 ,,christ',s ,,coat1 ,,number ,,two4 ,,scotched1 ,,not ,,slain4 ,,god-,,making4 ,,god ,,and ,,the ,,weather4 ,,miracles4 ,a ,,real ,,miracle4 99 ,,jesus ,,on ,,women4 ,,paul ,,on ,,women4 ,,mother',s ,,religion4 ,,preface4 ,heinrich ,heine called himself a soldier in the army of human liberation4 ,it was a modest description of himself1 for he was more2 his position was that of a leader1 and his sword was like the mystic ,excalibur1 flashing with the hues of his genius1 and dealing death to the enemies of freedom4 ,humbler fighters than ,heine may count themselves as simple soldiers in that great army1 whose leaders' names are graven deep in the history of modern ,europe4 ,i also venture to rank myself with them1 and it is the summit of my ambition4 ,to be indeed a soldier in that army1 however low and obscure1 is not to have lived in vain2 to persevere1 to fight to the end1 is to live 7if unknown7 in the future of humanity4 ,in the course of my service to the cause ,i have wielded tongue and pen as weapons4 ,the spoken word has gone1 like spilt water1 except as it may have made an impression on the listeners4 ,the written word remains4 ,most of it1 in truth1 was only the week's work1 done honestly1 but under no special impulse4 ,some of the rest--as ,i have been told1 and as in a few cases ,i feel--is of less doubtful value2 having occasionally the merit of a free play of mind on subjects that are too often treated with ignorance1 timidity1 or hypocrisy4 ,this is my reason for publishing in a separate and durable form the articles in this collection4 ,whether it is a sufficient reason the reader will judge for himself4 ,no serious attempt has been made at classification4 ,here and there articles have been placed in intended proximity1 though written at different intervals in the past ten years4 ,sometimes1 for an obvious reason1 the date of composition has been indicated4 ,otherwise there is no approach to systematic arrangement2 and if this is a defect1 the reader has on the other hand the benefit of variety4 ,the ambitious1 and hardly excusable1 thing about this collection is its title4 ,but the selection of a label for such a miscellany was not an easy task1 and ,i ask the reader's indulgence in consideration ef the difficulty4 ,the title ,i have chosen is at least a pretty one1 and in a sense it is appropriate4 ,these articles are flowers of my ,freethought2 the blossomings of my mind on particular occasions1 after much investigation and pondering4 ,wherever ,i have made a rash statement ,i shall be happy to be corrected2 wherever ,i may have argued wrongly1 ,i shall be happy to be set right4 ,but ,i am less amenable to appeals on the ground of taste4 ,they are almost invariably made by those who wish failure to one's propaganda4 ,a fair controversialist will refrain from personalities4 ,i have done this1 and ,i will do no more4 ,i believe in free thought and honest speech4 ,in the war of ideas there is neither treaty nor truce4 ,to ask for quarter is to admit defeat2 and to give it is treachery to ,truth4 ,april1 #ahic4 ,g4 ,w4 ,,foote4 ,,old ,,nick4 ,this gentleman is of very ancient descent4 ,his lineage dwarfs that of the proudest nobles and kings4 ,english peers whose ancestors came in with the ,conqueror2 the ,guelphs1 ,hapsburgs1 and ,hohenzollens of our ,european thrones2 are things of yesterday compared with his ,highness the ,devil4 ,the ,csars themselves1 the more ancient rulers of ,assyria1 and even the ,pharaohs of the first dynasty1 are modern beside him4 ,his origin is lost in the impenetrable obscurity of primitive times4 ,nay1 there have been sages who maintained his eternity1 who made him coeval with ,god1 and placed upon his head the crown of a divided sovereignty of the infinite universe4 ,but time and change are lords of all1 and the most durable things come to an end4 ,celestial and infernal1 like earthly1 powers are subject to the law of decay4 ,mutability touches them with her dissolving wand1 and strong necessity1 the lord of gods and men1 brings them to the inevitable stroke of ,death4 ,senility falls on all beings and institutions--if they are allowed to perish naturally2 and as our august ,monarchy is the joke of wits1 and our ancient ,house of ,lords is an object of popular derision1 so the high and mighty ,devil in his palsied old age is the laughing-stock of those who once trembled at the sound of his name4 ,they omit the lofty titles he was once addressed by1 and fearless of his feeble thunders and lightnings1 they familiarly style him ,old ,nick4 ,alas1 how are the mighty fallen6 ,the potentate who was more terrible than an army with manners is now the sport of children and a common figure in melodrama4 ,even the genius of ,milton1 ,goethe1 and ,byron1 has not been able to save him from this miserable fate4 ,when this sobriquet of ,old ,nick first came into use is unknown4 ,macaulay1 in his essay on ,machiavelli1 says that ,out of his surname they have coined an epithet for a knave1 and out of his ,christian name a synonym for the ,devil4 ,a couplet from ,hudibras is cited to support this view4 ,nick ,machiavel had ne'er a trick ,tho' he gave his name to our ,old ,nick4 ,but we believe1 adds ,macaulay1 there is a schism on this subject among the antiquaries4 ,the learned ,zachary ,gray's edition of ,hudibras shows that our ,english writers1 before ,machiavel's time1 used the word ,old ,nick very commonly to signify the ,devil1 and that it came from our ,saxon ancestors1 who called him ,old ,nicka4 ,no doubt ,butler1 whose learning was so great that he knew everything1 was well acquainted with this fact4 ,he probably meant the couplet as a broad stroke of humor4 ,but there was perhaps a chronological basis for the joke4 ,our ,saxon ancestors did not speak of ,old ,nicka in a spirit of jest or levity4 ,the bantering sense of our modern sobriquet for the ,devil appears to have crept in during the decline of witchcraft4 ,that frightful saturnalia of superstition was the ,devil's heyday4 ,he was almost omnipotent and omnipresent4 ,but as witchcraft died out1 partly through the growth of knowledge1 and partly through sheer weariness on the part of its devotees1 the ,devil began to lose his power4 ,his agency in human affairs was seen to be less potent than was imagined4 ,people called him ,old ,nick playfully1 as they might talk of a toothless old mastiff whose bark was worse than his bite4 ,at length he was regarded as a perfect fraud1 and his sobriquet took a tinge of contempt4 ,he is now utterly played out except in church and chapel1 where the sky-pilots still represent him as a roaring lion4 ,yet1 as a curious relic of old times1 it may be noted that in the law-courts1 where conservatism reigns in the cumbrous wig on the judge's head1 and in the cumbrous phraseology of indictments1 criminals are still charged with being instigated by the ,devil4 ,nearly all the judges look upon this as so much nonsense1 but occasionally there is a pious fossil who treats it seriously4 ,we then hear a ,judge ,north regret that a prisoner has devoted the abilities ,god gave him to the ,devil's service1 and give the renegade a year's leisure to reconsider which master he ought to serve4 ,during the witch mania the world was treated to a great deal of curious information about ,old ,nick4 ,what ,robert ,burns says of him in ,tam ,o',shanter is only a faint reminiscence of the wealth of demonology which existed a few generations earlier4 ,old ,nick used to appear at the witches' ,sabbaths in the form of a goat1 or a brawny black man1 who courted all the pretty young witches and made them submit to his embraces4 ,some of these crazy creatures1 under examination or torture1 gave the most circumstantial accounts of their intercourse with ,satan2 their revelations being of such an obscene character that they must be left under the veil of a dead tongue4 ,it is1 of course1 absurd to suppose that anything of the kind occurred4 ,religious hysteria and lubricity are closely allied1 as every physician knows1 and the filthy fancies of a lively witch deserve no more attention than those of many females in our lunatic asylums4 ,behind these tales of the ,devil there was the pagan tradition of ,pan1 whose upper part was that of a man and his lower part that of a goat4 ,the devils of one religion are generally the gods of its predecessor2 and the great ,pan1 whose myth is so beautifully expounded by ,bacon1 was degraded by ,christianity into a fiend4 ,representing1 as he did1 the nature which ,christianity trampled under foot1 he became a fit incarnation of the ,devil4 ,the horns and hooves and the goat thighs were preserved2 and the emblems of strength1 fecundity and wisdom in the god became the emblems of bestiality and cunning in the demon4 ,heine's magnificent ,gods in ,exile shows how the deities of ,olympus avenged themselves for this ill-treatment4 ,they haunted the mountains and forests1 beguiling knights and travellers from their allegiance to ,christ4 ,venus wooed the men who were taught by an ascetic creed to despise sexual love2 and ,pan1 appearing as the ,devil1 led the women a frightful dance to hell4 ,but as the ,christian superstition declined1 the gods of ,paganism also disappeared4 ,their vengeance was completed1 and they retired with the knowledge that the gods of ,calvary were mortal like the gods of ,olympus4 ,during the last two centuries the ,devil has gradually become a subject for joking4 ,in ,shakespeare's plays he is still a serious personage1 although we fancy that the mighty bard had no belief himself in any such being4 ,but1 as a dramatist1 he was obliged to suit himself to the current fashion of thought1 and he refers to the ,devil when it serves his purpose just as he introduces ghosts and witches4 ,his ,satanic ,majesty not being then a comic figure1 he is spoken of or alluded to with gravity4 ,even when ,macbeth flies at the messenger in a towering rage1 and cries the ,devil damn thee black1 thou cream-faced loon1 he does not lose his sense of the ,devil's dignity4 ,in ,milton's great epic ,satan is really the central figure1 and he is always splendid and heroic4 ,shelley1 in fact1 complained in his preface to ,prometheus ,unbound that the character of ,satan engenders in the mind a pernicious casuistry1 which leads us to weigh his faults with his wrongs1 and to excuse the former because the latter exceed all measure4 ,goethe's ,mephistopheles is less dignified than ,milton's ,satan1 but he is full of energy and intellect1 and if ,faust eventually escapes from his clutches it is only by a miracle4 ,at any rate1 ,mephistopheles is not an object of derision2 on the contrary1 the laugh is generally on his own side4 ,still1 ,goethe is playing with the ,devil all the time4 ,he does not believe in the actual existence of the ,prince of ,evil1 but simply uses the familiar old figure to work out a psychological drama4 ,the same is true of ,byron4 ,satan1 in the ,vision of ,judgment1 is a superb presence1 moving with a princely splendor2 but had it suited his purpose1 ,byron could have made him a very different character4 ,the ,devil is1 indeed1 treated with much greater levity by ,coleridge and ,southey1 and ,shelley knocks him about a good deal in ,peter ,bell the ,third-- ,the ,devil1 ,i safely can aver1 ,has neither hoof1 nor tail1 nor sting2 ,nor is he1 as some sages swear1 ,a spirit1 neither here nor there1 ,in nothing--yet in everything4 ,he is--what we are6 for sometimes ,the ,devil is a gentleman2 ,at others a bard bartering rhymes ,for sack2 a statesman spinning crimes2 ,a swindler1 living as he can4 ,these and many other verses show what liberties ,shelley took with the once formidable monarch of hell4 ,the ,devil's treatment by the pulpiteers is instructive4 ,take up an old sermon and you will find the ,devil all over it4 ,the smell of brimstone is on every page1 and you see the whisk of his tail as you turn the leaf4 ,but things are changed now4 ,satan is no longer a person1 except in the vulgar circles of sheer illiteracy1 where the preacher is as great an ignoramus as his congregation4 ,if you take up any reputable volume of sermons by a ,church parson or a ,dissenting minister1 you find the ,devil either takes a back seat or disappears altogether in a metaphysical cloud4 ,none of these subtle resolvers of ancient riddles1 however1 approaches grand old ,donne1 who said in one of his fine discourses that the ,devil himself is only concentrated stupidity4 ,what a magnificent flash of insight6 ,yes1 the great enemy of mankind is stupidity2 and1 alas1 against that1 as ,schiller said1 the gods themselves fight in vain4 ,yet time fights against it1 and time is greater than the gods2 so there is hope after all4 ,gradually the ,devil has dropped1 until he has at last peached the lowest depth4 ,he is now patronised by the ,salvation ,army4 ,booth exhibits him for a living1 and all the ,salvation ,army ,captains and ,hallelujah ,lasses parade him about to the terror of a few fools and the amusement of everyone else4 ,poor ,devil6 ,belisarius begging an obolus was nothing to this4 ,surely the ,lord himself might take pity on his old rival1 and assist him out of this miserable plight4 ,old ,nick is now used to frighten children with1 and by-and-bye he may be employed like the old garden-god to frighten away the crows4 ,even his scriptural reputation cannot save him from such a fate1 for the ,bible itself is falling into disbelief and contempt1 and his adventures from ,genesis to ,revelation are become a subject of merriment4 ,talking to ,mrs4 ,eve about apples in the form of a serpent2 whispering in ,david's ear that a census would be a good thing1 while ,jehovah whispers a similar suggestion on the other side2 asking ,jesus to turn pebbles into penny loaves1 lugging him through the air1 perching him on a pinnacle1 setting him on the top of a mountain whence both squinted round the globe1 and playing for forty days and nights that preposterous pantomime of the temptation in the desert2 getting miraculously multiplied1 bewildering a herd of swine1 and driving them into a watery grave2 letting seven of himself occupy one lady called ,magdalen1 and others inhabit the bodies of lunatics2 going about like a roaring lion1 and then appearing in the new part of a dragon who lashes the stars with his tail2 all these metamorphoses are ineffably ludicrous1 and calculated to excite inextinguishable laughter4 ,his one serious appearance in the history of ,job is overwhelmed by this multitude of comic situations4 ,poor ,old ,nick is on his last legs and cannot last much longer4 ,may his end be peace6 ,that is the least we can wish him4 ,and when he is dead1 let us hope he will receive a decent burial4 ,those to whom he has been the best friend should follow him to the grave4 ,his obsequies1 in that case1 would be graced by the presence of all the clergy1 and the ,burial ,service might be read by the ,archbishop of ,canterbury4 ,fancy them1 burying their dear departed brother the ,devil1 in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection6 ,,fire666 ,do not be alarmed1 dear reader2 there is no need to rush out into the street1 like poor old ,lot flying from the doomed ,cities of the ,plain4 ,sit down and take it easy4 ,let your fire-insurance policy slumber in its nest4 ,lean back in your chair1 stretch out your legs1 and prepare to receive another dose of ,free-thought physic--worth a guinea a bottle4 ,so6 ,are you ready8 ,very well then1 let us begin4 ,what would man be without fire8 ,would he not be a perfect barbarian8 ,his very food1 even the meat1 would have to be eaten raw1 and as knives and forks would be unknown1 it would have to be devoured with hands and teeth4 ,we read that the ,tartar horseman will put a beefsteak under his saddle1 and supple and cook it in a ten-mile ride2 but we cannot all follow his example1 and many would think the game was not worth the candle4 ,but not only should we be obliged to eat our food uncooked2 we should enjoy none of the blessings and comforts bestowed upon us by science1 which absolutely depends on fire4 ,nay1 our houses would be too cold to shelter us in the winter1 and we should be compelled to burrow in the ground4 ,the whole human race would have to live in tropical countries2 all the temperate regions would be deserted2 and as it is in the temperate regions that civilisation reaches its highest and most permanent developments1 the world would be reduced to a condition of barbarism if not of savagery4 ,no wonder1 then1 that this mighty civiliser has figured so extensively in legend and mythology4 ,next to the worship of the sun1 says ,max ,mller1 there is probably no religious worship so widely diffused as that of ,fire4 ,at bottom1 indeed1 the two were nearly identical4 ,the flame of burning wood was felt to be akin to the rays of the sun1 and its very upward motion seemed an aspiration to its source4 ,sun and fire alike gave warmth1 which meant life and joy2 without them there reigned sterility and death4 ,do we not still speak of the sunshine of prosperity1 and of basking in the rays of fortune8 ,do we not still speak of the fire of life1 of inspiration1 of love1 of heroism8 ,and thus when the tide of our being is at the flood1 we instinctively think of our father the ,sun1 in whom1 far more than in invisible gods1 we live and move--for we are all his children4 ,like everything else in civilised existence1 fire was a human discovery4 ,but superstitious ages imagined that so precious a thing must have descended from above4 ,accordingly the ,greeks 7to take but one illustration7 fabled that ,prometheus stole ,jove's fire from ,heaven and gave it to mankind4 ,and as the gods of early ages are not too friendly to human beings1 it was also fabled that ,prometheus incurred the fierce anger of ,jove1 who fastened him to a rock on ,mount ,caucasus1 where he was blistered by day and frozen by night1 while ,jove's vulture everlastingly preyed upon his vitals4 ,the sun himself1 in oriental countries1 shining down implacably in times of prolonged drought1 became a terrible demon1 and as ,baal or ,moloch was worshipped with cruel and bloody rites4 ,the corruption of the best is the worst2 beneficence changes to malignity4 ,thus fire1 which is a splendid servant1 is an awful master4 ,the very wild beasts dread it4 ,famishing lions and tigers will not approach the camp-fire to seize their prey4 ,men have something of the same instinctive apprehension4 ,how soon the nerves are disturbed by the smell of anything burning in the house4 ,raise the cry of ,fire6 in a crowded building1 and at once the old savage bursts through the veneer of civilisation4 ,it is helter-skelter1 the ,devil take the hindmost4 ,the strong trample upon the weak4 ,men and women turn to devils4 ,even if the cry of ,fire6 be raised in a church--where a believer might wish to die1 and where he might feel himself booked through to glory--there is just the same stampede4 ,people who sit and listen complacently to the story of eternal roastings in an everlasting hell1 will fight like maniacs to escape a singeing4 ,rather than go to heaven in a chariot of fire they will plod for half a century in this miserable vale of tears4 ,man's dread of fire has been artfully seized upon by the priests4 ,all over the world these gentlemen are in the same line of business--trading upon the credulous terrors of the multitude4 ,they fill ,hell with fire1 because it frightens men easily1 and the fuel costs nothing4 ,if they had to find the fuel themselves ,hell would be cold in twenty-four hours4 ,flee from the wrath to come1 they exclaim4 ,what is it8 ask the people4 ,consuming fire1 the priests exclaim1 nay1 not consuming2 you will burn in it without dying1 without losing a particle of flesh1 for ever and ever4 ,then the people want to get saved1 and the priests issue insurance policies1 which are rendered void by change of opinion or failure to pay the premium4 ,buddhist pictures of hell teach the eye the same lesson that is taught the ear by ,christian sermons4 ,there are the poor damned wretches rolling in the fire2 there are the devils shovelling in fuel1 and other devils with long toasting-forks thrusting back the victims that shove their noses out of the flames4 ,wherever the priests retain their old power over the people's minds they still preach a hell of literal fire1 and deliver twenty sermons on ,hades to one on ,paradise4 ,hell1 in fact1 is always as hot as the people will stand it4 ,the priests reduce the temperature with natural reluctance4 ,every degree lost is a sinking of their power and profit4 ,even in ,england--the land of ,shakespeare and ,shelley1 ,newton and ,darwin1 ,mill and ,spencer--the cry of ,fire6 is still raised in thousands of pulpits4 ,catholics bate no jot of their fiery damnation2 ,church of ,england clergymen hold forth on brimstone--with now and then a dash of treacle--in the rural districts and small towns2 it is not long since the ,wesleyans turned out a minister who was not cocksure about everlasting torment2 ,mr4 ,spurgeon preaches hell 7hot1 without sugar7 in mercy to perishing souls2 and ,general ,booth1 who caters for the silliest and most ignorant ,christians1 works hell into his trade-mark4 ,blood and ,fire is a splendid summary of the orthodox faith4 ,all who would be saved must be washed in the ,blood of the ,lamb--a disgusting ablution6 ,all who are not saved fall into the ,fire4 ,a blood-bath or a sulphur-bath is the only alternative4 ,happily1 however1 the people are becoming more civilised and more humane4 ,science and popular education are working wonders4 ,reason1 self-reliance1 and sympathy are rapidly developing4 ,the old primitive terrors are losing their hold upon us1 and the callous dogmas of savage religion are growing impossible4 ,priests cannot frighten men who possess a high sense of human dignity2 and the doctrine of an angry ,god1 who will burn his own children in hell1 is loathsome to those who will fight the flames and smoke of a burning house to save the life of an unknown fellow creature4 ,how amusing1 in these circumstances1 are the wrigglings of the advanced ,christians4 ,archdeacon ,farrar1 for instance1 in despite of common sense and etymology1 contends that everlasting fire only means eternal fire4 ,what a comfort the distinction would be to a man in ,hell6 ,away with such temporising6 ,let the ghastly old dogma be defied4 ,sensible people should simply laugh at the priests who still raise the cry of ,fire6 ,,sky ,,pilots4 ,the authorship of the designation sky pilot is as unknown as that of the four gospels4 ,yet its origin is recent4 ,it has only been in use for a few years1 say ten1 or at the outside twenty4 ,nobody knows1 however1 who was the first man from whose lips it fell4 ,probably he was an ,american1 but his name and address are not ascertained4 ,surely this fact1 which has thousands if not millions of parallels1 should abate the impudence of religionists who ask ,who made the world8 when they do not know who made nine-tenths of the well-known things it contains4 ,whatever its origin1 the designation is a happy one4 ,it fits like a glove1 ,repeat it to the first man you meet1 and though he never heard it before1 he will knew that you mean a minister4 ,for this very reason it makes the men of ,god angry4 ,they feel insulted1 and let you see it4 ,they accuse you of calling them names1 and if you smile too sarcastically they will indulge in some well-selected ,bible language themselves4 ,there are some trades that will not bear honest designations1 and the minister's is one of them4 ,call him what you please1 except what he is1 and he is not disquieted4 ,but call him sky-pilot and he starts up like ,macbeth at the ghost of ,banquo1 exclaiming ,come in any other form but that6 ,go down to the seaside and look at one of those bluff1 weather-beaten1 honest fellows1 who know all the rocks and shoals1 and tides and channels1 for miles around4 ,call one of them a pilot1 and he will not be offended4 ,the term is legitimate4 ,it exactly denotes his business4 ,he is rather proud of it4 ,his calling is honorable and useful4 ,he pilots ships through uncertain and dangerous waters to their destination4 ,he does his work1 takes his pay1 and feels satisfied2 and if you cry pilot6 he answers merrily with a what cheer8 ,but sky in front of pilot makes all the difference4 ,it makes the man of ,god feel like having a cold shower bath2 then the reaction sets in and he grows hot--sometimes as hot as ,h---- well1 ,hades4 ,we are not going to swear if the parson does1 ,but after all1 he is a pilot and a sky pilot4 ,he undertakes to pilot people to ,heaven4 ,let him board your ship and take the helm1 and he will guide you over the ,black ,sea of ,death to ,port ,felicity that1 at least1 is what he says in his trade circular1 though it turns out very differently in practice1 as we shall see presently4 ,let us first notice a great difference between the sea pilot and the sky pilot4 ,the honest salt boards the ship1 and takes her out to sea1 or brings her into port4 ,when the work is over he presents his bill1 or it is done for him4 ,he does not ask for payment in advance4 ,he neither takes nor gives credit4 ,but the sky pilot does take credit and he gives none4 ,he is always paid beforehand4 ,every year he expects a good retaining fee in the shape of a stipend or a benefice1 or a good percentage of the pew rents and collections4 ,but when his services are really wanted he leaves you in the lurch4 ,you do not need a pilot to ,heaven until you come to die4 ,then your voyage begins in real earnest4 ,but the sky-pilot does not go with you4 ,oh dear no6 ,that is no part of his bargain4 ,ah my friend1 he says1 ,i must leave you now4 ,you must do the rest for yourself4 ,i have coached you for years in celestial navigation2 if you remember my lessons you will have a prosperous voyage4 ,good day1 dear friend4 ,i'm going to see another customer4 ,but we shall meet again4 ,now this is not a fair contract4 ,it is really obtaining money under false pretences4 ,the sky pilot has never been to ,heaven himself4 ,he does not know the way4 ,anyhow1 there are hundreds of different routes1 and they cannot all lead to the same place4 ,certainly they all start from this world1 but that is all they have in common1 and where they end is a puzzle4 ,to pay money in such circumstances is foolish and an encouragement to fraud4 ,the best way to pay for goods is on delivery2 in the same way the sky pilot should be paid at the finish4 ,but how is that to be done8 ,well1 easily4 ,all you have to do is to address the sky pilot in this fashion--,dearly beloved pilot to the land of bliss6 let our contract be fair and mutual4 ,give me credit as ,i give you credit4 ,don't ask for cash on account4 ,i'll pay at the finish4 ,your directions may be sound2 they ought to be1 for you are very dogmatic4 ,still1 there is room for doubt1 and ,i don't want to be diddled4 ,you tell me to follow your rules of celestial navigation4 ,well1 ,i will4 ,you say we shall meet at ,port ,felicity4 ,well1 ,i hope so2 and when we do meet ,i'll square up4 ,of course1 it may be objected that this would starve the sky pilots4 ,but why should it do anything of the kind8 ,have they no faith6 ,must all the faith be on our side8 ,should they not practise a little of what they preach8 ,god tells them to pray for their daily bread1 and no doubt he would add some cheese and butter4 ,all they have to do is to ask for it4 ,ask and ye shall receive1 says the text1 and it has many confirmations4 ,for forty years the ,jews were among the unemployed1 and ,jehovah sent them food daily4 ,he rained down bread from heaven4 ,the prophet ,elijah1 also1 lived in the wilderness on the sandwiches ,god sent him--bread and meat in the morning1 and bread and meat in the evening4 ,there was likewise the widow's cruse of oil and barrel of flour1 which supported her and the man of ,god day by day without diminishing4 ,these things actually happened4 ,they are as true as the ,bible4 ,and they may happen again4 ,at any rate they should happen4 ,the sky-pilots should subsist on the fruits of prayer4 ,let them live by faith--not our faith1 but their own4 ,this will prove their sincerity1 and give us some trust in their teaching4 ,and if they should starve in the experiment--well1 it is worth making1 and they will fall martyrs to truth and human happiness4 ,one batch of martyrs will suffice4 ,there will be no need of what ,gibbon calls an annual consumption4 ,the men of ,god pilot us to ,heaven1 but they are very loth to go there themselves4 ,heaven is their home1 but they prefer exile1 even in this miserable vale of tears4 ,when they fall ill1 they do not welcome it as a call from the ,father4 ,they do not sing ,nearer my ,god to thee4 ,we do not find them going about saying ,i shall be home shortly4 ,oh no6 ,they indulge freely in self-pity4 ,like a limpet to a rock do they cling to this wretched1 sinful world4 ,congregations are asked if they cannot do something1 a subscription is got up1 and the man of ,god rushes off to the seaside1 where prayer1 in co-operation with oxygen and ozone1 restore him to health1 enable him to dodge going home1 and qualify him for another term of penal servitude on earth4 ,it appears to us that sky pilots1 like other men1 should be judged by their practice4 ,if they show no belief in what they preach1 we are foolish to believe in it any more than they do4 ,it also appears to us that their profession is as fraudulent as fortune-telling4 ,many a poor old woman has been imprisoned for taking sixpence from a servant girl1 after promising her a tall1 dark husband and eight fine children2 but men dressed in black coats and white chokers are allowed to take money for promises of good fortune in the beautiful land above4 ,it further appears to us that the sky pilots should be compelled to come to a reasonable agreement before their trade is licensed4 ,they should settle where ,heaven is before they begin business4 ,better still1 perhaps1 every applicant for a license should prove that some human soul has been piloted to ,heaven4 ,until that is done1 the profession is only robbery and imposture4 ,,devil ,,dodgers4 ,most people suppose this phrase to be a recent ,americanism4 ,it occurs1 however1 in the ,memoirs of ,james ,lackington1 published in #agia4 ,speaking of certain ranting preachers1 he says--,these devil-dodgers happened to be so very powerful that they soon sent ,john home1 crying out1 that he should be damned4 ,admitting the age of the phrase1 some will ask1 ,is it respectable8 ,well1 that is a matter of taste4 ,is there any standard of respectability8 ,does it not vary with time1 place1 and circumstance8 ,some people hate wearing gloves1 while other people feel half naked without them4 ,a box hat is a great sign of respectability2 when a vestryman wears one he overawes philosophers2 yet some men would as soon wear the helmet of ,don ,quixote4 ,flannel suits are quite shocking in town2 at the seaside they are the height of fashion4 ,and as it is with dress so it is with speech4 ,the respectable classes are apt to rob language of its savor1 clipping and trimming it like the trees in a ,dutch garden4 ,you must go to the common1 unrespectable classes for racy vigor of tongue4 ,they avoid circumlocutions1 eschew diffuseness1 go straight to the point1 and prefer concrete to abstract expressions4 ,they don't speak of a foolish man1 they call him a fool2 a cowardly talebearer they call a sneak2 and so on to the end of the chapter4 ,but is this really vulgar8 ,open your ,shakespeare1 or any other dramatic poet1 and you will find it is not so4 ,a look1 a gesture1 is more expressive than words2 and concrete language carries more weight than the biggest abstractions4 ,let us break up the phrase1 and see where the vulgarity comes in4 ,there is nothing vulgar about the ,devil4 ,he is reputed to be a highly-accomplished gentleman4 ,milton1 ,goethe1 and ,byron have even felt his grandeur4 ,and is not dodger clear as well as expressive8 ,david dodged ,saul's javelin4 ,that was smart and proper4 ,afterwards he attempted a dodge on ,uriah4 ,that was mean and dirty4 ,so that dodge may be good1 bad1 or indifferent1 like man or woman4 ,there is nothing objectionable about it per se4 ,and if devil and dodger are respectable in their single state1 how do they become vulgar when they are married8 ,of course it is quite natural for the clergy and their thorough-paced dupes to cry out against plain language4 ,the clerical trade is founded on mystery1 and behind every mystery there is a cheat4 ,calling things by their right names will always be ugly to impostors4 ,reverend sounds so much nicer than mystery-man1 priest is more dignified than fortuneteller1 clergyman is pleasanter than sky-pilot1 and minister is more soothing than devil-dodger4 ,but plain speech is always wholesome if you keep within the bounds of truth4 ,it does us good to see ourselves occasionally as others see us4 ,and if this article should fall under the eyes of a ,christian man of ,god1 we beg him to keep his temper and read on to the end4 ,we tell the men of ,god1 of every denomination1 that they are ,devil ,dodgers1 and when they cease to be that their occupation is going4 ,old ,nick1 in some form or other1 is the basis of every kind of ,christianity4 ,indeed1 the dread of evil1 the terror of calamity1 is at the bottom of all religion2 while the science which gives us foresight and power1 and enables us to protect ourselves and promote our comfort1 is religion's deadliest enemy4 ,science wars against evil practically2 religion wars against it theoretically4 ,science sees the material causes that are at work1 and counteracts them2 religion is too lazy and conceited to study the causes1 it takes the evil in a lump1 personifies it1 and christens it the ,devil4 ,thus it keeps men off the real path of deliverance1 and teaches them to fear the ,bogie-,man1 who is simply a phantom of superstition1 and always vanishes at the first forward step of courage4 ,what is the ,christian scheme in a nutshell8 ,god made man perfect--though some people1 after reading the life of ,adam1 say that ,god made him a perfect fool4 ,this perfect man was tackled by the ,devil1 a sort of spiritual ,pasteur1 who inoculated him with sin1 which was transmitted to his posterity as original sin4 ,god desires man's welfare1 but the ,devil is too strong tor ,omnipotence4 ,jesus ,christ steps in with the ,holy ,ghost and saves a few men and women1 but the ,devil bags all the rest1 and ,hell is thronged while ,heaven is half empty2 the one place having three families on every flat1 the other having leagues of spacious mansions to let4 ,now in every generation the ,devil is after us4 ,without schools1 or churches1 or armies of professional helpers1 or even so much as an occasional collection1 he carries on single-handed a most successful business4 ,the clergy tell us1 as the ,bible tells them1 that he is monstrously able1 active and enterprising2 never overlooking a single customer1 and delivering damnation at the door1 and even carrying it upstairs1 without charging for carriage or waiting for his bill4 ,all that sort of thing he leaves to the opposition firm1 whose agents are clamorous for payment1 and contrive to accumulate immense sums of the filthy lucre which they affect to despise4 ,this accommodating fiend is the bte noir of the clergy4 ,they are always on his track1 or rather he is on theirs4 ,they help us to dodge him1 to get out of his way1 to be from home when he calls1 to escape his meshes1 to frustrate his wiles1 to save our souls alive--,o4 ,here you are1 they say1 he's coming down the street4 ,we are just running an escape party4 ,if you want to keep out of ,hell1 come and join us4 ,don't ask questions4 ,there's no time for that4 ,hurry up1 or you'll be left behind4 ,and when the party turns the corner the clergy say1 ,ah1 that was a narrow escape4 ,some of you had a very close shave4 ,and the next morning a collector calls for a subscription for the gentleman who saved you from the ,devil4 ,nearly fifty thousand gentlemen are engaged in this line of business1 to say nothing of the ,salvation ,army4 ,fifty thousand ,devil ,dodgers6 ,and this in ,england alone4 ,if we include ,europe1 ,america1 ,south ,africa1 and ,australia1 there are hundreds of thousands of them1 maintained at the expense of probably a hundred millions a year4 ,yet the ,devil is not outwitted4 ,mr4 ,spurgeon says he is as successful as ever2 and1 to use ,mr4 ,stead's expression1 ,spurgeon has tips from ,god4 ,by their own confession1 therefore1 the ,devil ,dodgers are perfectly useless4 ,they take our money1 but they do little else4 ,honesty would make them disband4 ,but they will never do that4 ,they will have to be cashiered1 or starved out by cutting off the supplies4 ,the real truth is1 they never were useful4 ,they were always parasites4 ,they gained their livings by false pretences4 ,they dodged an imaginary enemy4 ,the ,devil is played out in educated circles4 ,presently he will be laughed at by everybody4 ,then the people will dismiss the priests1 and there will be and end of ,devil ,dodgers4 ,,fighting ,,spooks4 ,spooks means ghosts1 sprites1 goblins1 and other such phantasms4 ,the word is not yet endenizened in ,england1 but it will probably take out letters of naturalisation here1 settle down1 and become a very respectable member of the ,english vocabulary4 ,twelve months ago ,i met an ,american in ,london1 who told me that he was a ,freethinker1 but he did not trouble himself about ,freethought4 ,his mind was made up on the supernatural1 and he did not care to spend his time in fighting spooks4 ,that is1 being emancipated himself from superstition1 he was indifferent about the matter1 although millions of his fellow men were still in bondage4 ,this ,american gentleman's remark shows how people can be misled by phrases4 ,fighting spooks is a pretty locution1 and every ,freethinker would admit that fighting spooks is a most unprofitable business4 ,but1 in reality1 it is not the aggressive ,secularist or ,atheist who fights these imaginary beings4 ,he fights those who do fight them--which is a very different thing4 ,let the priests and preachers of all religions and denominations cease abusing the callow mind of childhood2 let them refrain from teaching their fanciful conjectures about the unseen2 let them desist from a peopling the air with the wild creations of their own lawless imagination2 let them tell no more than they know1 and confine their tongues within the strict limits of honest speech2 let them do this1 and ,free-thought will be happy to expire in the blaze of its triumph4 ,there is no joy in fighting superstition1 any more than there is joy in attacking disease4 ,each labor is beneficent and is attended by a relative satisfaction2 but health is better than the best doctoring1 and mental sanity than the subtlest cure4 ,the clergy are the fighters of spooks4 ,they babble of gods1 who get angry with us2 of devils1 who must be guarded against2 of angels1 who fly from heaven to earth1 and earth to heaven2 of saints1 who can do us a good turn if they are properly supplicated4 ,but the chief spooks are of course the devils1 headed by the ,devil1 ,satan1 ,beelzebub1 ,lucifer1 ,abaddon1 the ,serpent--in short1 ,old ,nick4 ,we have an army of red coats1 said old ,fox1 to fight the ,french2 and an army of black coats to fight the ,devil--of whom he standeth not in awe4 ,before the great procession of ,humanity go the priests4 ,hush6 they cry1 the hedges are full of devils4 ,softly1 gently1 beloved6 ,do not rush into unspeakable danger4 ,we will bear the brunt of it1 out of our fatherly affection for you4 ,see1 we stand in front1 on the perilous edge of battle4 ,we dare the demons who lie in wait to catch your immortal souls4 ,we beat the bushes1 and dislodge them from their hiding-places2 strong not in our own strength1 but in the grace of ,god4 ,and behold they fly6 ,did you not see them8 ,did you not perceive the flutter of their black wings8 ,did you not smell their sulphurous taint8 ,beloved1 the road is now clear1 the hedges are safe4 ,forward then6 ,but forget not our loyal services4 ,remember1 beloved1 that the laborer is worthy of his hire1 and--shell out6 ,the services of the black-coats are imaginary1 and their payment should be of the same description4 ,let them live on their own faith1 and trust to him who fed ,elijah in the desert with sandwiches brought by ravens' beaks4 ,clearly the belief in spooks is profitable to the clergy4 ,just as clearly it is expensive to the people4 ,whistling between the hedges is as good as keeping a parson4 ,but that is not the priest's teaching4 ,he says the spooks are real1 and he is the only person to keep them off4 ,grant the first point1 and the second is sure to follow4 ,but are the spooks real8 ,can the clergy show a single live specimen8 ,they cannot1 and they know they cannot1 either for love or money4 ,why then does the business hold out8 ,because an imaginary spook is as good as a real spook1 if the clergy can twist and prejudice the youthful mind in their direction4 ,if a showman never lifts the curtain1 it does not matter whether he has anything or nothing on the other side4 ,the belief in spooks is more than profitable to the priests4 ,it enervates and paralyses the human mind4 ,it is the parent of all sorts of mischief4 ,it is our worst inheritance from our savage progenitors4 ,the black spirits that haunted the swamps and forests of primeval ages1 and terrified the ape-man who lived in mystery and fear1 are not suffered to depart with the ignorance that gave them birth4 ,they are cultivated by priests1 and used to overawe the cradles and schools of civilisation4 ,the ,freethinker does not fight spooks4 ,he would not waste an ounce of powder upon them4 ,he fights the fighters of spooks4 ,he assails the superstition on which they flourish4 ,he seeks to free the human mind from gratuitous fears4 ,he dispels the shadows and deepens the sunshine of life4 ,surely this is a good work4 ,whoever takes part in it is giving the race an unmixed blessing4 ,war with the army of enslavement6 ,down with the seducers of childhood--the spiritual profligates who debauch the youthful mind6 ,banish them1 with their spooks1 from the school1 the college1 the court of justice1 the hall of legislation6 ,let us train generations of sound minds in sound bodies1 full of rich blood1 and nervous energy1 and frank inquiry1 and dauntless courage1 and starry hope2 with faces that never pale at truth1 hearts that hold no terms with falsehood1 knees that never bend before power or mystery1 heads that always keep a manly poise1 and eyes that boldly challenge all things from height to depth4 ,,damned ,,sinners4 ,thou shalt be brought unto the blood of sprinkling1 as an undone helpless1 damned sinner4 --,john ,wesley1 ,sermon on ,justification by ,faith4 ,polite ears1 which are often the longest1 will be shocked at the title of this article4 ,this is an age in which it is accounted vulgar to express plain doctrines in plain language4 ,spurgeon was the last doctor of a good old school4 ,their theology was hateful3 an insult to man and a blasphemy against ,god--if such a being exists2 but they did not beat about the bush1 and if they thought you were booked for hell1 as was most likely1 they took care to let you know it4 ,they called a spade a spade1 not a common implement of agricultural industry4 ,they were steeped in ,bible ,english1 and did not scruple to use its striking substantives and adjectives4 ,when they pronounced hell they aspirated the h and gave the full weight of the two l's4 ,damn and damnation shot from their mouths full and round1 like a cannon ball sped with a full blast of gunpowder4 ,but1 alas1 how are the mighty fallen6 ,no longer do the men of ,god indulge in thunderous ,saxon4 ,they latinise their sermons and diminish the effect of terrible teaching4 ,you shall hear them designate hell with twenty roundabout euphemisms1 and spin damnation into condemnation and damned into condemned1 until it has not force enough to frighten a cat off a garden wall4 ,let us not be blamed1 however1 if we emulate the plain speech of the honest old theologians1 and of the ,english ,bible which is still used in our public schools4 ,we despise the hypocritical cry of vulgar6 ,we are going to write1 not on condemned transgressors1 but on damned sinners4 ,yes1 ,,damned ,,sinners4 ,now1 beloved reader1 it behoves us to define and distinguish1 as well as amplify and expatiate4 ,we must therefore separate the damned from the sinners4 ,not indeed in fact1 for they are inseparable1 being in truth one and the same thing2 for the adjective is the substantive1 and the substantive is the adjective1 and the damned are sinners and sinners are the damned4 ,the separation is merely mental1 for reasons of convenience2 just as we separate the inseparable1 length from breadth1 in our definition of a line4 ,this is necessary to clear and coherent thought2 man's mind being finite1 and incapable of operating in all directions at once4 ,what then are sinners8 ,a simple question1 but not so easy to answer4 ,all men are sinners4 ,but what is a man8 ,a featherless biped8 ,so was the plucked fowl of ,diogenes4 ,a man is--well a man2 and a sinner is--well a sinner4 ,and this is near enough for most people4 ,but it does not satisfy a rational investigator1 to say nothing of your born critic1 who will go on splitting hairs till his head is as bare as a plate1 and then borrow materials from his neighbor's cranium4 ,in ancient ,egypt it was a sin to kill a cat2 in ,england cats are slain in myriads without a tremor of compunction4 ,among the ,jews it is a sin to eat pork1 but an ,english humorist writes you a delicious essay on ,roast ,pig4 ,bigamy is a sin in the whole of ,europe but the south-eastern corner1 and there it is a virtue1 sanctioned by the laws of religion4 ,marrying your deceased wife's sister is a sin in ,england2 four thousand years ago1 in another part of the world1 it was no sin at all2 in fact1 a gentleman of remarkable piety1 whom ,god is said to have loved1 married his wife's sister without waiting for a funeral4 ,did not ,jacob take ,rachel and ,leah together1 and walk out with them1 one on each arm8 ,sin as a fact changes with time and place4 ,sin as an idea is disobedience to the law of ,god2 that is1 to the doctrines of religion2 that is1 to the teaching of priests4 ,crime is quite another thing4 ,it is far less heinous1 and far more easily forgiven4 ,of course crime and sin may overlap2 they may often be the same thing practically2 but this is an accident1 for there are crimes that are no sins1 and sins that are no crimes4 ,it is a crime1 but not a sin1 to torture a heretic2 it is a sin1 but not a crime1 to eat meat on a ,friday4 ,a sinner is a person on bad terms with his ,god4 ,but who1 it may be asked1 is on good terms with him8 ,no one4 ,according to ,christianity1 at any rate1 we have all sinned2 nay1 we are all full of original sin2 we derived it from our parents1 who derived it from ,adam1 who caught it from ,old ,nick1 who picked it up ,god knows where4 ,now every sinner is a damned sinner4 ,he may not know it1 but he is so2 and the great ,john ,wesley advises him to recognise it1 and come as a damned sinner to ,god1 to be sprinkled or washed with the blood of ,christ4 ,what is damned then8 ,we take it that damned sinners1 that is all sinners1 are persons to whom ,god says ,damn you6 ,to whom does he say it8 ,to all sinners2 that is1 to all men4 ,and why does he say it8 ,because he is wroth with them4 ,and why is he wroth with them8 ,because they are sinners4 ,and why are they sinners8 ,because they are men4 ,and why are they men8 ,because they cannot help it4 ,they were born in sin and shapen in iniquity1 and in sin did their mothers conceive them4 ,every ,christian admits this--theoretically4 ,he goes to church and confesses himself a miserable sinner1 but if you called him so as he came out of church he would call you something stronger4 ,a sinner may be damned here1 apparently1 without being damned hereafter4 ,he is liable to hell until he dies1 but after that event he is sometimes reprieved and sent to heaven4 ,but the vast majority of the human race have no share in the atoning blood of ,christ4 ,they were damned sinners in posse before they were born1 they are damned sinners in esse while they live1 and they will be damned sinners for ever when they leap from this life into eternity1 and join the immortal fry ,of almost everybody born to die4 ,this is a very comfortable doctrine for the narrow1 conceited1 selfish elect4 ,for other people--all the rest of us--it is calculated to provoke unparliamentary language4 ,why should ,god damn men8 ,and how can men be sinners8 ,certainly they can sin against each other1 because they can injure each other4 ,but how can they sin against ,god8 ,can they injure him8 ,he is unchangeable4 ,can they rob him8 ,he is infinite4 ,can they deceive him8 ,he is omniscient4 ,can they limit his happiness8 ,he is omnipotent4 ,no1 they cannot sin against him1 but he can sin against them4 ,and if he exists he has sinned against every one of them4 ,not one human being has ever been as strong1 healthy1 wise1 noble1 and happy as ,god might have made him4 ,nor is man indebted to ,god for his creation4 ,there cannot be a debt where there is no contract4 ,it is the creator and not the creature who is responsible1 and the theological doctrine of responsibility is the truth turned upside down4 ,suppose a man had the power of creating another thinking and feeling being4 ,suppose he could endow him with any qualities he chose4 ,suppose he created him sickly1 foolish1 and vicious4 ,would he not be responsible for the curse of that being's existence8 ,man is what he is because he is4 ,he is practically without choice4 ,the cards are dealt out to him1 and he must take them as they come4 ,is it just to damn him for holding a bad hand8 ,is it honest to give him hell for not winning the game8 ,let us use for a moment the cant language of theology4 ,let us imagine the vilest of damned sinners in ,gehenna4 ,does not every scientist1 and every philosopher1 know that the orb of his fate was predetermined8 ,would not that lost soul have the right to curse his maker8 ,might he not justly exclaim ,i am holier than thou8 ,do not imagine1 reader1 that this new reading of the book of fate has no practical significance4 ,when we get rid of the idea of damned sinners1 when we abolish the idea of sin altogether and its correlative punishment1 and learn to regard man as a complicated effect in a universe of causation1 we shall bring wisdom and humanity into our treatment of the criminal classes1 we shall look upon them as moral lunatics and deal with them accordingly4 ,and this spirit will extend itself to all human relations4 ,it will make us less impatient and angry with each other4 ,we shall see that to know all is to pardon all4 ,thus will the overthrow of theology be the preparation for a new moral development4 ,another link of the old serpent of superstition will be uncoiled from the life of humanity1 leaving it freer to learn the splendid truth1 taught by that divine man ,socrates1 that wisdom and virtue are one and indivisible4 ,,where ,,is ,,hell8 ,this is a question of great importance1 or at least of very great interest4 ,according to the ,christian scheme of salvation1 the vast majority of us will have to spend eternity in sulphurous and tormenting flames1 and we are naturally curious as to the situation of a place in which we shall experience such delightful sensations4 ,but there is hardly any subject on which we can obtain so little information4 ,the clergy are becoming more and more reticent about it4 ,what little they ever knew is being secreted in the depths of their inner consciousness4 ,when they are pressed for particulars they look injured4 ,sometimes they piteously exclaim ,don't4 ,at other times they wax wroth1 and exclaim to the questioners about the situation of hell1 ,wait till you get there4 ,just as heaven used to be spoken of as up above1 hell was referred to as down below4 ,at one time1 indeed1 it was believed to be underground4 ,many dark caves were thought to lead to it1 and some of them were called ,hell ,mouth4 ,volcanoes were regarded as entrances to the fiery regions1 and when there was an eruption it was thought that hell was boiling over4 ,classic mythology1 before the time of ,christ1 had its entrances to hell at ,acherusia1 in ,bithynia2 at ,avernus1 in ,campania1 where ,ulysses began his journey to the grisly abodes2 the ,sibyl's cave at ,cum1 in ,argolis2 at ,tnarus1 in the southern ,peloponnesus1 where ,hercules descended1 and dragged ,cerberus up to the daylight2 and the cave of ,trophonius1 in ,lebadea1 not to mention a dozen less noted places4 ,the ,bible always speaks of hell as down1 and the ,apostles' ,creed tells us that ,christ descended into hell4 ,exercising his imagination on this basis1 the learned ,faber discovered that after the ,second ,advent the saints would dwell on the crust of the earth1 a thousand miles thick1 and the damned in a sea of liquid fire inside4 ,thus the saints would tread over the heads of sinners1 and flowers would bloom over the lake of damnation4 ,sir ,john ,maundeville1 a most engaging old liar1 says he found a descent into hell in a perilous vale in ,abyssinia4 ,according to the ,celtic legend of ,st4 ,brandon's ,voyage1 hell was not down below1 but in the moon1 where the saint found ,judas ,iscariot suffering incredible tortures1 but let off every ,sunday to enjoy himself and prepare for a fresh week's agony4 ,that master of bathos1 ,martin ,tupper1 finds this idea very suitable4 ,he apostrophises the moon as the wakeful eye of hell4 ,bailey1 the author of ,festus1 is somewhat vaguer4 ,hell1 he says1 is in a world which rolls thief-like round the universe1 imperceptible to human eyes3 ,a blind world1 yet unlit by ,god1 ,boiling around the extremest edge of light1 ,where all things are disaster and decay4 ,imaginations1 of course1 will differ4 ,while ,martin ,tupper and other gentlemen look for hell in the direction of the moon1 the ,platonists1 according to ,macrobus1 reckoned as the infernal regions the whole space between the moon and the earth4 ,whiston thought the comet which appeared in his day was hell4 ,an ,english clergyman1 referred to by ,alger1 maintained that hell was in the sun1 whose spots were gatherings of the damned4 ,the reader may take his choice1 and it is a liberal one4 ,he may regard hell as under the earth1 or in the moon1 or in the sun1 or in a comet1 or in some concealed body careering through infinite space4 ,and if the choice does not satisfy him1 he is perfectly free to set up a theory of his own4 ,father ,pinamonti is the author of a little book called ,hell ,open to ,christians1 which is stamped with the authority of the ,catholic ,church1 and issued for the special edification of children4 ,this book declares that hell is four thousand miles distant1 but it does not indicate the direction4 ,anyhow1 the distance is so small that the priests might easily set up communication with the place4 ,but perhaps it only exists in the geography or astronomy of faith4 ,father ,pinamonti seems particularly well informed on this subject4 ,he says the walls of hell are more than four thousand miles thick4 ,that is a great thickness4 ,but is it quite as thick as the heads of the fools who believe it8 ,our belief is that hell is far nearer than the clergy teach4 ,omar ,khayyam1 the grand old ,persian poet1 the large infidel1 as ,tennyson calls him1 wrote as follows--in the splendid rendering of ,edward ,fitzgerald3-- ,i sent my soul through the invisible1 ,some letter of that after-life to spell1 ,and by and bye my soul returned to me1 ,and answered1 ,i myself am heaven and hell4 ,hell1 like heaven1 is within us1 and about us in the hearts of our fellow-men4 ,yes1 hell is on earth4 ,man's ignorance1 superstition1 stupidity1 and selfishness1 make a hell for him in this life4 ,let us cease1 then1 to dread the fabled hell of the priests1 and set ourselves to the task of abolishing the real hell of hunger1 vice1 and misery4 ,the very ,churches are getting ashamed of their theological hell4 ,they are becoming more and more secularised4 ,they call on the disciples of ,christ to remedy the evils of this life1 and respond to the cry of the poor for a better share of the happiness of this world4 ,their methods are generally childish1 for they overlook the causes of social evil1 but it is gratifying to see them drifting from the old moorings1 and little by little abandoning the old dogmas4 ,some of the clergy1 like ,archdeacon ,farrar1 go to the length of saying that hell is not a place4 ,precisely so1 and that is the teaching of ,secularism4 ,,spurgeon ,,and ,,hell4 ,charles ,lamb was one of the best men that ever lived4 ,he had his failings1 but he never harmed anyone but himself4 ,he was capable of astonishing generosity1 and those acquainted with the inner tragedy of his life know that it was a long act of self-denial4 ,he was also extremely modest but not utterly devoid of indignation2 and if he could not denounce bitterly1 he could speed a shaft of satire into the breast of wickedness or cruelty4 ,on one occasion1 in the days of his youth1 he was justly annoyed by his friend ,coleridge1 whose character was very inferior to his own1 though he always assumed a tone of moral superiority4 ,lamb was so galled by ,coleridge's air of virtue and piety1 at a moment when the humorist was suffering terribly in consequence of his sister's calamity1 that he sent the transcendental poet a list of stinging questions4 ,one of them asked whether one of the seraphim could fall1 and another whether a man might not be damned without knowing it4 ,this last question suggests itself in the case of ,mr4 ,spurgeon4 ,mrs4 ,spurgeon1 ,dr4 ,pierson1 and other of the great preacher's friends1 are all assuring us that he is in glory4 ,writing seven days after his death1 ,mrs4 ,spurgeon said he has now been a week in heaven4 ,it is natural that she should think so1 and we do not wish to rob her of any consolation1 nor do we suppose that this article will ever come under her notice4 ,but is it not just possible that ,spurgeon has gone to hell8 ,and why should not the question be raised8 ,we mean no personal offence2 we speak in the interest of justice and truth4 ,spurgeon was very glib in preaching about hell1 and we do not know that he had a monopoly of that special line of business4 ,he never blenched at the idea of millions of human beings writhing in everlasting torment2 and why should it be blasphemy1 or even incivility1 to wonder if he himself has gone to perdition8 ,predestination1 as the ,church of ,england article says1 is wonderfully comforting to the elect2 that is1 to those who imagine themselves to be so4 ,but what if they are mistaken8 ,what if a man1 yea a fancied saint1 may be damned without knowing it8 ,god ,almighty has not published lists of the ,sect4 ,many a ,calvinistic ,pharisee is perhaps a self-elected saint after all1 and at the finish of his journey may find that he has been walking in the wrong direction4 ,one of ,spurgeon's rooted notions was that unbelievers were sure of hell4 ,they bore the mark of predestinate damnation broad upon their fore-heads4 ,now at the bottom this means that a man may be damned for believing wrongly4 ,but how can anyone be sure that ,spurgeon was absolutely right8 ,the ,baptists are only one division of ,christians4 ,there are scores of other divisions4 ,all cannot be right1 and all may be wrong4 ,even if one is entirely right1 how do we know it is the ,baptists8 ,according to the law of probabilities1 ,spurgeon was very likely in the wrong2 and if wrong belief1 however sincere1 entails damnation1 it is quite possible that at #aa4e p4m4 on ,sunday1 ,january #ca1 ,spurgeon entered ,hell instead of ,heaven4 99 99 ,the next article will explain this matter4 ,far be it from us to wish a fellow creature in ,hell1 but there is always a certain pleasure in seeing the engineer hoist with his own petard4 ,all tragedy has a touch of comedy4 ,fancy ,spurgeon in ,hades groaning ,i sent other people here by the million1 and here ,i am myself4 ,how would this be worse than the groan of any other lost soul8 ,few men are devils or angels4 ,most are neither black nor white1 but grey4 ,between the best and vilest how much difference is there in the eye of infinite wisdom8 ,and if ,god1 the all-knowing and all-powerful1 created men as they are1 strong and weak1 wise and foolish1 good1 bad1 and indifferent2 there is no more injustice in ,spurgeon's burning in ,hell than in the damnation of the worst wretch that ever cursed the world4 ,spurgeon used to preach hell with a certain gusto4 ,here is a hot and strong passage from his sermon on the ,resurrection of the ,dead3 ,when thou diest'1 thy soul will be tormented alone2 that will be a hell for it2 but at the day of judgment thy body will join thy soul1 and then thou wilt have twin-hells1 thy soul sweating drops of blood1 and thy body suffused with agony4 ,in fire exactly like that which we have on earth thy body will lie1 asbestos-like1 for ever unconsumed1 all thy veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on1 every nerve a string on which the ,devil shall for ever play his diabolical tune of ,hell's ,unutterable ,lament4 ,after preaching this awful doctrine a man should be ill for a fortnight4 ,would it not afflict a kind-hearted man unspeakably to think that millions of his fellow beings1 or hundreds1 or even one1 would suffer such a terrible fate8 ,would it not impair his sleep1 and fill his dreams with terror8 ,but it did not have this effect on ,spurgeon4 ,after preaching hell in that way1 and rolling damnation over his tongue as a dainty morsel1 he went home1 dined with a good appetite1 drank his wine1 and smoked his cigar4 ,there was not the slightest doubt in ,spurgeon's mind as to the endless doom of the damned4 ,here is an extract from another sermon-- ,thou wilt look up there on the throne of ,god and it shall be written1 ',for ever6' ,when the damned jingle the burning irons of their torment they shall say1 ',for ever6' ,when they howl1 echo cries1 ',for ever6' ',for ever' is written on their racks1 ',for ever' on their chains2 ',for ever' burneth in the fire1 ',for ever' ever reigns4 ,how bodies are to burn without consuming1 how a fire could last for ever1 or how a good ,god could roast his own children in it1 are questions that ,spurgeon did not stop to answer4 ,he took the damnable doctrine of damnation as he found it4 ,he knew it was relished by myriads of callous1 foolish people2 and it gave such a pungent flavor to a long sermon6 ,his listeners were not terrified4 ,oh dear no6 ,smith1 the ,newington greengrocer1 was not alarmed2 he twirled his thumbs1 and said to himself1 ,spurgeon's in fine form this morning6 ,archdeacon ,farrar protests against the notion of a fiery1 everlasting hell as the result of fear1 superstition1 ignorance1 hate1 and slavish letter-worship4 ,he declares that he would resign all hope of immortality to save a single human soul from the hell of ,mr4 ,spurgeon4 ,but is not the hell of ,mr4 ,spurgeon the hell of the ,new ,testament8 ,does not ,jesus speak of everlasting fire8 ,why seek to limit the duration of hell by some hocus-pocus of interpretation8 ,it is idle to pretend that everlasting means something less than everlasting4 ,if it means that in relation to hell it must also mean it in relation to heaven4 ,dr4 ,farrar cannot have two different meanings for the same word in the same verse2 and should he ever go to hell 7he will pardon us the supposition71 how much consolation would he derive from knowing that his doom was not everlasting but only eternal8 ,there was more honesty and straightforwardness in ,mr4 ,spurgeon4 ,he preached what the ,bible taught him4 ,he set forth a hateful creed in its true colors4 ,his presentation of ,christianity will continue to satisfy those who belong to the past1 but it will drive many others out of the fold of faith into the broad pastures of ,freethought4 ,,is ,,spurgeon ,,in ,,heaven8 ,when ,mrs4 ,booth died1 the wife of the famous ,general1 the ,army reported her as ,promoted to ,glory from ,clacton-on-,sea4 ,it was extremely funny4 ,clacton-on-,sea is such a prosaic anti-climax after ,glory4 ,one was reminded of ,sir ,horace ,glendower3 ,sprat4 ,but the sense of humor is not acute in religious circles4 ,mr4 ,spurgeon frequently gave expression to his dislike and mistrust of the antics or the ,salvation ,army4 ,he was far from prim himself1 but he held that if people were not won over to ,christ by preaching1 it was idle to bait the hook with mere sensationalism4 ,yet by a strange irony his closest friends1 in announcing his death to his flock1 actually improved on the extravagance of the ,salvationists4 ,here is a copy of the telegram that was affixed to the rails of the ,metropolitan ,tabernacle the morning after his decease3 ,mentone1 #aa4ej4 ,spurgeon's ,tabernacle1 ,london4 ,our beloved pastor entered heaven #aa4e ,sunday night4 ,harrald4 ,this ,harrald was ,mr4 ,spurgeon's private secretary1 but he writes like the private secretary of ,god ,almighty4 ,a leading statesman once said he wished he was as cocksure of anything as ,tom ,macaulay was cocksure of everything2 but what was ,macaulay's cocksureness to the cocksureness of ,harrald8 ,the gentleman could not have spoken with more assurance if he had been ,saint ,peter himself1 and had opened the gate for ,pastor ,spurgeon4 ,we take it that ,spurgeon expired at #aa4e on ,sunday night4 ,that is the fact4 ,all the rest is conjecture4 ,how could his soul enter heaven at the very same moment8 ,is heaven in the atmosphere8 ,he who asserts it is a very bold speculator4 ,is it out in the ether8 ,if so1 where8 ,and how is it our telescopes cannot detect it8 ,if heaven is a place1 as it must be if it exists at all1 it cannot very well be within the astronomical universe4 ,now the farthest stars are inconceivably remote4 ,our sun is more than #ij1jjj1jjj miles distant1 and ,sirius is more than #bjj1jjj times farther off than the sun4 ,there are stars so distant that their light takes more than a thousand years to reach us1 and light travels at the rate of nearly two hundred thousands miles per second6 ,it is difficult to imagine ,spurgeon's soul travelling faster than that2 and if heaven is somewhere out in the vast void1 beyond the sweep of telescopes or the register of the camera1 ,spurgeon's soul has so far not entered heaven that its journey thither is only just begun4 ,in another thousand years1 perhaps1 it will be nearing the pearly gates4 ,perhaps1 we say2 for heaven may be a million times further off1 and ,spurgeon's soul may pull the bell and rouse ,saint ,peter long after the earth is a frozen ball1 and not only the human race but all life has disappeared from its surface4 ,nay1 by the time he arrives1 the earth may have gone to pot1 and the whole solar system may have vanished from the map of the universe4 ,what a terrible journey6 ,is it worth travelling so far to enter the ,bible heaven1 and sing hymns with the menagerie of the ,apocalypse8 ,besides1 a poor soul might lose its way1 and dash about the billion-billion-miled universe like a lunatic meteor4 ,it appears to us1 also1 that ,mr4 ,harrald and the rest of ,mr4 ,spurgeon's friends have forgotten his own teaching4 ,he thoroughly believed in the bodily resurrection of the dead1 and an ultimate day of judgment1 when bodv and soul would join together1 and share a common fate for eternity4 ,how is this reconcileable with the notion that ,spurgeon's soul entered heaven at #aa4e on ,sunday evening1 the thirty-first of ,january1 #ahib8 ,is it credible that the good man went to the ,new ,jerusalem1 will stay there in perfect felicity until the day of judgment1 and will then have to return to this world1 rejoin his old bodv1 and stand his trial at the great assize1 with the possibility of having to shift his quarters afterwards8 ,would not this be extremely unjust1 nay dreadfully cruel8 ,and even if ,spurgeon1 as one of the elect1 only left heaven for form's sake at the day of judgment1 to go through the farce of a predetermined trial1 would it not be a gratuitous worry to snatch him away from unspeakable bliss to witness the trial of the human species1 and the damnation of at least nine-tenths of all that ever breathed8 ,as a matter of fact1 the ,christian ,church has never been able to make up its mind about the state or position of the soul immediately after death4 ,only a few weeks ago we saw that ,sir ,g4 ,g4 ,stokes1 unconsciously following in the wake of divines like ,archbishop ,whately1 holds the view that the soul on leaving the body will lie in absolute unconsciousness until the day when it has to wake up and stand in the dock4 ,the controversies on this subject are infinite1 and all sorts of ideas have been maintained1 but nothing has been authoritatively decided4 ,mr4 ,spurgeon's friends have simply cut the ,gordian knot2 that is1 they are only dogmatising4 ,laying all such subtle disputes aside1 we should like ,mr4 ,harrald to tell us how he knows that ,spurgeon has gone1 is going1 or ever will go to heaven4 ,what certainty can they have in the matter8 ,saint ,paul himself alluded to the possibility of his being a castaway4 ,how can an inferior apostle be sure of the kingdom of heaven8 ,saint ,paul taught predestination1 and so did ,spurgeon4 ,according to this doctrine1 ,god knew beforehand the exact number of human beings that would live on this planet1 though ,omniscience itself must have been taxed to decide where the anthropoid exactly shaded off into the man4 ,he also knew the exact number of the elect who would go to heaven1 and the exact number of the reprobate who would go to hell4 ,the tally was decided before the spirit of ,god brooded over the realm of ,chaos and old ,night4 ,every child born into the world bears the stamp of his destiny4 ,but the stamp is secret4 ,no one can detect it4 ,lists of saved and damned are not published4 ,if they were1 it would save us a lot of anxiety4 ,some would say1 ,i'm all right4 ,others would say1 ,i'm in for it2 ,i'll keep cool while ,i can4 ,but we must all die before we ascertain our fate4 ,we may feel confident of being in the right list1 with the rest of the sheep2 but confidence is not proof1 and impressions are not facts4 ,when we take the great leap we shall know4 ,until then no man has any certitude2 not even the most pious ,christian that ever rolled his eyes in prayer to his ,maker1 or whined out the confession of his contemptible sins4 ,all are in the same perplexity1 and ,spurgeon was no exception to the rule4 ,when predestination was really believed1 the friends of the greatest saint only hoped he had gone to heaven4 ,when they are sure of it predestination is dead4 ,nay1 hell itself is extinguished4 ,spurgeon's friends think he has gone to heaven because they feel he was too good to go to hell4 ,they knew him personally1 and it is hard to think that a man whose hand once lay in yours is howling in everlasting fire4 ,such exceptions prove a new rule4 ,they show that the human heart has outgrown the horrible doctrine of future torment1 that the human mind has outgrown foolish creeds1 that man is better than his ,god4 ,,god ,,in ,,japan4 ,japan has just been visited by a terrible earthquake4 ,without a moment's warning it swept along1 wrecking towns1 killing people1 and altering the very shape of mountains4 ,a vast tidal wave also rushed against the coast and deluged whole tracts of low-lying country4 ,it is estimated that #ej1jjj houses have been destroyed1 and at least #e1jjj men1 women1 and children4 ,the first reports gave a total of #be1jjj slain1 but this is said to be an exaggeration4 ,nevertheless1 as a hundred miles or so of railway is torn to pieces1 and it is difficult to convey relief to the suffering survivors1 the butcher's bill of this catastrophe may be doubled before the finish4 ,if earthquakes are the work of blind1 unconscious ,nature1 it is idle to spend our breath in discussion or recrimination4 ,even regret is foolish4 ,we have to take the world as we find it1 with all its disadvantages1 and make the best of a not too brilliant bargain4 ,instead of screaming we must study2 instead of wailing we must reflect2 and eventually1 as we gain a deeper knowledge of the secrets of ,nature1 and a greater mastery over her forces1 we shall be better able to foresee the approach of evil and to take precautionary measures against it4 ,but the standard teaching of ,england1 to say nothing of less civilised nations1 is not ,naturalism but ,theism4 ,we are told that there is a ,god over all1 and that he doeth all things well4 ,on the practical side this deity is called ,providence4 ,it is ,providence that sends fine weather1 and ,providence that sends bad weather2 ,providence that sends floods1 and ,providence that sends drought2 ,providence that favors us with a fine harvest1 and ,providence that blights the crops1 reducing millions of people1 as in ,russia at this moment1 to the most desperate shifts of self-preservation4 ,it is ,providence that saves ,smith's precious life in a railway accident1 and of course it is4 ,providence that smashes poor ,jones1 ,brown and ,robinson4 ,now it will be observed that the favorable or adverse policy of ,providence is quite irrespective of human conduct1 ,there is no moral discrimination4 ,if ,grace ,darling and ,jack the ,ripper were travelling by the same train1 and it met with an accident1 everybody knows that their chances of death are precisely equal4 ,if there were any difference it would be in favor of ,jack1 who seems very careful of his own safety1 and would probably take a seat in the least dangerous part of the train4 ,some people1 of course1 and especially parsons1 will contend that ,providence does discriminate4 ,they have already been heard to hint that the ,russian famine is on account of the persecution of the ,jews4 ,but this act of brutality is the crime of the ,government1 and the famine falls upon multitudes of peasants who never saw a ,jew in their lives4 ,they have to suffer the pangs of hunger1 but the ,czar will not go without a single meal or a single bottle of champagne4 ,no doubt a pious idiot or two will go to the length of asserting or insinuating that the earthquake in ,japan is a divine warning to the people1 from the ,mikado down to his meanest subject1 that they are too slow in accepting ,christianity4 ,in fact there is a large collection of such pious idiots1 only they are deterred by a wholesome fear of ridicule4 ,hundreds of thousands of people have seen ,mr4 ,wilson ,barrett in ,claudian1 without being in the least astonished that an earthquake1 which ruins a whole city1 should be got up for the hero's spiritual edification4 ,let the pious idiots1 however numerous1 be swept aside1 and let the ,christian with a fair supply of brains in his skull consider ,providence in the light of this earthquake4 ,it is folly to pretend that the ,japanese are particularly wicked at this moment4 ,it is greater folly to pretend that the earthquake killed the most flagitious sinners4 ,it slew like ,jehovah's bandits in the land of ,canaan1 without regard to age1 sex1 or character4 ,the terrible fact must be faced1 that in a country not specially wicked1 and in a portion of it not inhabited by select sinners1 the ,lord sent an earthquake to slay man1 woman1 and child1 and if possible to leave alive nothing that breatheth4 ,lay your hand upon your heart1 ,christian1 and honestly answer this question4 ,would you have done this deed8 ,of course not4 ,your cheek flames at the thought4 ,you would rush to save the victims4 ,you would soothe the dying and reverently bury the dead4 ,why then do you worship a ,moloch who laughs at the writhings of his victims and drinks their tears like wine8 ,see1 they are working and playing2 they are at business and pleasure2 one is toiling to support the loved ones at home2 another is sitting with them in peace and joy2 another is wooing the maiden who is dearer to him than life itself2 another is pondering some benevolent project2 another is planning a law or a poem that shall be a blessing and a delight to posterity4 ,and lo the mandate of ,moloch goes forth1 and his word shall not return unto him void4 ,swifter than thought calamity falls upon the gay and busy scene4 ,hearts that throbbed with joy now quiver with agony4 ,the husband folds his wife in a last embrace4 ,the mother gathers her children like ,niobe4 ,the lover clasps in the midst of horror the maiden no longer coy4 ,homes are shaken to dust1 halls fall in ruins1 the very temples of the gods are shattered4 ,brains are dashed out1 blood flows in streams1 limbs are twisted1 bodies are pinned by falling masonry1 cries of anguish pierce the air1 groans follow1 and lastly silence4 ,moloch then retires to his inmost sanctuary1 filled and sated with death and pain4 ,is it not better1 ,christian friend1 to defy ,moloch instead of worshipping him8 ,is it not still better to regard this deity as the creation of fanciful ignorance8 ,is not existence a terror if ,providence may swoop upon us with inevitable talons and irresistible beak8 ,and does not life become sweeter when we see no cruel intelligence behind the catastrophes of nature8 ,,stanley ,,on ,,providence4 ,buckle1 the historian of ,civilisation1 points out that superstition is most rampant where men are most oppressed by external nature4 ,wild and terrible surroundings breed fear and awe in the human mind4 ,those who lead adventurous lives are subject to the same law4 ,sailors1 for instance1 are proverbially superstitious1 and military men are scarcely less so4 ,the fighter is not always moral1 but he is nearly always religious4 ,no one acquainted with this truth will be surprised at the piety of explorers4 ,there is a striking exception in ,sir ,richard ,burton1 but we do not remember another4 ,from the days of ,mungo ,park down to our own age1 they have been remarkable for their religious temperaments4 ,had they remained at home1 in quiet and safety1 they might not have been conspicuous in this respect2 but a life of constant adventure1 of daily peril and hairbreadth escapes1 developed their superstitious tendencies4 ,it is so natural to feel our helplessness in solitude and danger1 and perhaps in sickness4 ,it is so easy to feel that our escape from a calamity that hemmed us in on every side was due to a providential hand4 ,whether ,stanley1 who is now the cynosure of all eyes1 began with any considerable stock of piety1 is a question we have no means of determining2 but we can quite understand how a very little would go a very long way in ,africa1 amid long and painful marches through unknown territory1 the haunting peril of strange enemies1 and the oppressive gloom of interminable forests4 ,indeed1 if the great explorer had become as superstitious as the natives themselves1 we could have forgiven it as a frailty incident to human nature in such trying circumstances4 ,but when he brings his mental weakness home with him1 and addresses ,englishmen in the language of ideas calculated for the latitude of equatorial ,africa1 it becomes necessary to utter a protest4 ,stanley has had a good spell of rest in ,egypt1 and plenty of time to get rid of the creeps4 ,he should1 therefore1 have returned to ,europe clothed and in his right mind4 ,but instead of this he deliberately sits down and writes the following rubbish for an ,american magazine1 with one eye on ,god above and the other on a handsome cheque below3 ,constrained at the darkest hour humbly to confess that without ,god's help ,i was helpless1 ,i vowed a vow in the forest solitudes that ,i would confess his aid before men4 ,silence1 as of death1 was round about me2 it was midnight2 ,i was weakened by illness1 prostrated by fatigue1 and wan with anxiety for my white and black companions1 whose fate was a mystery4 ,in this physical and mental distress ,i besought ,god to give me back my people4 ,nine hours later we were exulting with a rapturous joy4 ,in full view of all was the crimson flag with the crescent1 and beneath its waving folds was the long-lost rear column4 ,danger and grief are apt to make us selfish1 and no one would be hard on ,stanley for showing weakness in such circumstances4 ,but he rather glories in it4 ,the danger is gone1 and alas6 the egotism remains4 ,others perished miserably1 but he escaped4 ,omnipotence took care of him and let them go to the ,devil4 ,no doubt they prayed in their extremity as heartily as he did1 but their prayers were unheard or neglected4 ,stanley was the lion of the party4 ,yes1 and in parading his egotistic piety in this way1 he is in danger of becoming a lion comique4 ,there is something absolutely farcical in ,stanley's logic4 ,while he was praying to ,god1 millions of other persons were engaged in the same occupation4 ,agonised mothers were beseeching ,god to spare their dear children2 wives were imploring him to restore the bread-winner of the family to health2 entombed miners were praying in the dark depths of coalpits1 and slowly perishing of starvation2 shipwrecked sailors were asking for the help that never came4 ,providence could not1 apparently1 take on too much business at once1 and while ,stanley's fate trembled in the balance the rest of mankind might shift for themselves4 ,but the farce does not end here4 ,stanley's attitude was much like ,jacob's4 ,that smooth-skinned and smooth-tongued patriarch said that if ,god would guarantee him a safe journey1 feed him1 clothe him1 find him pocket money1 and bring him safe back again--well1 then the ,lord should be his ,god4 ,stanley was not so exacting1 but his attitude was similar4 ,he asked ,god to give him back his people 7a few short1 killed or starved1 did not matter71 and promised in return to confess his aid before men4 ,give me the solid pudding1 he says1 and ,i will give you the empty praise4 ,and now he is safe back in ,europe he fulfils his part of the contract1 and goes about trumpeting the praise of ,omnipotence2 taking care1 however1 to get as much cash as possible for every note he blows on the instrument4 ,even this does not end the farce4 ,stanley's piety runs away with his arithmetic4 ,he reminds us of a ,christian lady we heard of the other day4 ,she prayed one night1 on going to bed1 for news from her daughter1 and early the next morning a letter came bearing the ,edinburgh post-mark4 ,this was clearly an answer to her prayer4 ,but a sceptical friend showed her that the letter must have been posted at ,edinburgh before she prayed for it4 ,now ,stanley reasons like that lady4 ,nine hours is no time in central ,africa4 ,the long-lost rear column must have been near1 though invisible1 when ,stanley struck his little bargain with the ,almighty4 ,had it been two or three hundred miles off1 and miraculously transported1 the hand of ,providence would have been unmistakable2 but in the circumstances its arrival was natural1 and the miracle is obviously the creation of ,stanley's heated brain4 ,he was weakened by illness and prostrated by fatigue1 and the absurdity was pardonable4 ,we only protest against his playing the child when he is well and strong4 ,,gone ,,to ,,god4 ,stanley1 the ,african traveller1 is a man of piety4 ,he seems to be on pretty familiar terms with the one above4 ,during his last expedition to relieve ,emin--a sceptical gentleman1 who gets along with less bloodshed than ,stanley--he was troubled with traitors2 that is1 black fellows who thought they had a better right in ,africa than the intrusive whites1 and acted upon that opinion4 ,this put ,stanley in a towering rage4 ,he resolved to teach the traitors a lesson4 ,one of them was solemnly tried--by his executioners1 and sentenced to be hung4 ,a rope was noosed round his neck1 and he was taken under a tree1 which was to be his gallows4 ,the poor devil screamed for mercy1 but ,stanley bent his inexorable brows1 and cried1 ,send him to ,god6 ,we were troubled with no more traitors1 says ,stanley4 ,very likely4 ,but the great man forgot to say what he meant by the exclamation1 ,send him to ,god6 ,did he mean ,send him to ,god for judgment8 ,if so1 it was rather rough to hang the prisoner before his proper trial4 ,did he mean1 ,the fellow isn't fit for earth1 so send him to heaven8 ,if so1 it was a poor compliment to ,paradise4 ,or did he simply use a pious1 impressive form of speech to awe the spectators1 and give them the notion that he had as much traffic with ,god as any ,african mystery-man or ,mohammedan dervish8 ,the middle one of these three theories fits in best with the general sentiment1 or at any rate the working sentiment1 of ,christian ,england4 ,some brutal1 drunken1 or passionate wretch commits a murder4 ,he is carefully tried1 solemnly sentenced1 and religiously hanged4 ,he is declared unfit to live on this planet4 ,but he is still a likely candidate for heaven1 which apparently yawns to receive all the refuse of earth4 ,he is sedulously taken in hand by the gaol chaplain1 or some other spiritual guide to glory1 and is generally brought to a better frame of mind4 ,finally1 he expresses sorrow for his position1 forgives everybody he has ever injured1 delivers himself of a good deal of highly edifying advice1 and then swings from the gallows clean into the ,kingdom of ,heaven4 ,the grotesque absurdity of all this is enough to wrinkle the face of a cab horse4 ,society and the murderer are both playing the hypocrite1 and of course ,society is the worse of the two1 for it is acting deliberately and methodically1 while the poor devil about to be hung is like a hunted thing in a corner1 up to any shift to ease his last moments and make peace with the powers of the life to come4 ,society says he has killed somebody1 and he shall be killed2 that he is not fit to live1 but fit to die2 that it must strangle him1 and call him brother when the white cap is over his face1 and ,god must save his soul2 that he is too bad to dwell on earth1 but it hopes to meet him in heaven4 ,religion does not generate sense1 logic1 or humaneness in the mind of ,society4 ,its effect on the doomed assassin is simply horrible4 ,he is really a more satisfactory figure when committing the murder than when he is posing1 and shuffling and twisting1 and talking piously1 and exhibiting the intense1 unmitigated selfishness which is at the bottom of all religious sentiment4 ,the essence of piety comes out in this tragi-comedy4 ,personal fear1 personal hope1 self1 self1 sell1 is the be-all and the end-all of this sorry exhibition4 ,a case in point has just occurred at ,leeds4 ,james ,stockwell was hung there on ,tuesday morning4 ,while under sentence of death1 the report says1 he slept well and ate heartily1 so that remorse does not appear to have injured his digestion or any other part of his physical apparatus4 ,on learning that he would not be reprieved1 and must die1 he became very attentive to the chaplain's ministrations2 in fact1 he took to preaching himself1 and wrote several letters to his relatives1 giving them sound teetotal advice1 and warning them against the evils of drink4 ,but the fellow lied all the time4 ,his crime was particularly atrocious4 ,he outraged a poor servant girl1 sixteen years of age1 and then cut her throat4 ,he was himself thirty-two years of age1 with a wife and one child1 so that he had not even the miserable excuse of an unmated animal4 ,a plea of insanity was put forward on his behalf1 but it did not avail4 ,when the wretched creature found he was not to be reprieved1 and took kindly to the chaplain's religion1 he started a fresh theory to cover his crime4 ,he said he was drunk when he committed it4 ,now this was a lie4 ,the porter's speech in ,macbeth will explain our meaning4 ,james ,stockwell may have had a glass1 but if he was really drunk1 in the sense of not knowing what he was about1 we believe it was simply impossible for him to make outrage the prelude to murder4 ,if he had merely drunk enough to bring out the beast in him1 without deranging the motor nerves1 he was certainly not drunk in the proper sense of the word4 ,he knew what he was doing1 and both in the crime and in his flight he showed himself a perfect master of his actions4 ,religion1 therefore1 did not convict him of sin4 ,it did not lay bare before him his awful wickedness4 ,it simply made him hypocritical4 ,it induced or permitted him to save his amour propre by a fresh falsehood4 ,james ,stockwell's last letter from gaol was written the day before his execution4 ,it was a comprehensive epistle1 addressed to his father and mother and brothers and sisters4 ,god and ,christ appear in it like an eruption4 ,the writer quotes the soothing text1 ,come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and ,i will give you rest4 ,he was evidently familiar with ,scripture1 and thought this text especially applicable to himself4 ,many a prayer1 he says1 have ,i offered to ,god both on behalf of you and myself1 and he winds up by hoping to meet you all hereafter4 ,not a word about his crime4 ,not a word about his injury to society4 ,not a word about the poor girl he outraged and murdered4 ,james ,stockwell had no thought for her or her relatives4 ,he did not trouble about what had become of ,kate ,dennis4 ,he was careless whether she was in heaven or hell4 ,not once1 apparently1 did it cross his mind that he had destroyed her young life after nameless horror2 that he had killed her in the bloom of maidenhood2 that at one fell swoop he had extinguished all that she might have been--perhaps a happy wife and mother1 living to a white old age1 with the prattle of grandchildren soothing her last steps to the grave4 ,such reflections do not occur to gentlemen who are anxious about their salvation1 and in a hurry to get to heaven4 ,i and mine--my fate1 my mother1 my father1 my sisters1 my brothers--this was the sole concern of ,james ,stockwell under the chaplain's ministrations4 ,in this frame of mind1 we presume1 he has sailed to glory1 and his family hope to meet him there snug in ,abraham's bosom4 ,well1 we don't4 ,we hope to give the haunt of ,james ,stockwell a wide berth4 ,if he and others like him are in the upper circles1 every decent person would rather be in the pit4 ,let not the reader suppose that ,james ,stockwell's case is uncommon4 ,we have made a point of reading the letters of condemned murderers1 and thev all bear a family likeness4 ,religion simply stimulates and sanctifies selfishness4 ,in selfishness it began and in selfishness it ends4 ,extreme cases only show the principle in a glaring light2 they do not alter it1 and the light is the light of truth4 ,james ,stockwell has gone to ,god4 ,no doubt the chaplain of ,leeds gaol feels sure of it4 ,probably the fellow's relatives are just as sure4 ,but what of ,kate ,dennis4 ,is she with ,god8 ,what an awful farce it would be if she were in hell4 ,perhaps she is4 ,she had no time to prepare for death4 ,she was cut off in her sins4 ,but her murderer had three weeks to prepare for his freehold in ,new ,jerusalem4 ,he qualified himself for a place with the sore-legged ,lazarus4 ,he dwells in the presence of the ,lamb4 ,he drinks of the river of life4 ,he twangs his hallelujah harp and blows his hallelujah trumpet4 ,maybe he looks over the battlements and sees ,kate ,dennis in ,hades4 ,the murderer in heaven1 and the victim in hell6 ,nay more4 ,it has been held that the bliss of the saved will be heightened by witnessing the tortures of the damned4 ,in that case ,kate ,dennis may burn to make ,james ,stockwell's holiday4 ,he will watch her writhings with more than the relish of a sportsman who has hooked a lusty trout4 ,ha1 ha1 the worthy ,james may exclaim1 ,i tortured her before ,i killed her1 and now ,i shall enjoy her tortures for ever4 ,,thank ,,god4 ,the peculiarly selfish character of religion is often exemplified1 but we do not remember a better illustration than the one which recently occurred at ,folkestone4 ,the twenty-seven seamen who were rescued from the ,benvenue attended a thanksgiving service at the parish church1 where the vicar delivered a short address suitable to the occasion4 ,their captain and four of his crew were drowned1 and the lucky survivors thanked the ,lord for saving them1 though he let the others perish in the yeasty waves4 ,we should like to see a copy of that vicar's suitable discourse4 ,we suspect it would be an interesting study to a cynic4 ,no doubt the man of ,god's chief motive was professional4 ,the saving of those shipwrecked men was a splendid piece of work1 but it required to be rounded off4 ,it was not complete unless the parson blessed it and approved it with a text4 ,he came in at the finish when the danger was all over1 and gave the perfecting touch in the shape of a cheap benediction4 ,probably the man of ,god put in a good word for ,providence4 ,the poor sailors had been snatched from the jaws of death2 their minds were therefore in a state of agitation1 and at the very best they are not a logical or reflective race of men4 ,very likely1 therefore1 they assented to the theory that they owed their deliverance to the blessing of ,god1 but a little quiet thought about the matter would possibly make them see it in a different light4 ,the persons who visibly did save them from drowning were gallant lifeboat-men1 who put their own lives in deadly peril1 fighting the storm inch by inch in the hope of rescuing a number of unknown fellow creatures4 ,all honor to them6 ,we would sooner doff the hat to them than to any prince in ,christendom4 ,some of them1 perhaps1 take a drop too much occasionally1 and their language may often be more vigorous than polite4 ,but all that is superficial4 ,the real test of a man is what he will do when he is put to it4 ,when those rough fellows saw a brave task before them1 all the skin-deep blackguardism dropped away2 the heroic came out in supreme majesty1 and they were consecrated by it more truly than any smug priest at his profitable altar4 ,as they jumped into the boat they proved the nobility of human nature1 and the damnable falsehood of the ,christian doctrine of original sin4 ,what share ,providence had in the matter is not very apparent4 ,strong arms and stout hearts were in the lifeboat1 and that accounts for her reaching the wreck4 ,had the rowers the choice of a stimulus1 we dare say they would have taken a swig of brandy in preference to any quantity of the ,holy ,spirit4 ,what ,providence might have done if he1 she1 or it was in the humor1 was to keep the shipwrecked sailors safe until the lifeboat arrived4 ,but this was not done1 ,those who were lashed to the rigging were saved1 while the captain and four others1 less fortunately situated1 were lost4 ,where the material means were efficacious there was salvation1 and where they failed there was disaster and death4 ,so much for the logical side of the matter4 ,now let us look at the moral side4 ,religion pretends to minister to the unselfish part of our nature4 ,that is the theory1 but how does it work out in practice8 ,thanking ,god for saving the survivors of a shipwreck implies that he could have saved those who perished4 ,it also implies that he did not choose to do so4 ,it further implies that the saved are more worthy1 or more important1 than the lost2 at least1 it implies that they are greater favorites in the eye of heaven4 ,now this is a frightful piece of egotism1 which everyone with a spark of manhood would be disgusted at if he saw it in its true colors4 ,nor is this all4 ,it is not even the worst4 ,there is a viler aspect of this thanksgiving business4 ,one man is saved in a disaster and another is killed4 ,when the first realises his good luck he congratulates himself1 ,this is natural and pardonable1 but only for a moment4 ,the least disinterestedness1 the least sympathy1 the least imagination1 would make him think of his dead companion4 ,did he suffer much1 poor fellow8 ,what will his wife do8 ,how will his little ones get on without a father8 ,after all1 mightn't it have been better if he had been spared instead of me8 ,who knows8 ,if these reflections did not occur under the stimulated instinct of self-preservation it would be bad enough4 ,how much worse when the survivor keeps up the selfish attitude in cold blood1 and deliberately goes about thanking ,god for his preservation6 ,ordinary reason and humanity would cry shame on such egotism1 but religion steps in and sanctifies it4 ,some of these days an honest man will be provoked into a bit of good strong blasphemy4 ,when he hears a fellow thanking ,providence for his safety1 while others perished1 this honest man will shrug his shoulders4 ,and when the fellow cries ,bless ,god6 this honest man will exclaim ,damn ,god6 ,no doubt the priests would burn that honest man alive if they had the power4 ,but his logic and his feelings will be better than theirs4 ,he will abhor selfishness even in the disguise of piety1 and he will argue that if ,god is to be credited with the lives of those who are saved1 he should also be debited with the lives of those who are lost4 ,and how would the account stand then8 ,,judgment ,,day4 ,the end of the world has been a fertile and profitable theme with pulpit mountebanks and pious adventurers4 ,ever since the primitive ages of ,christianity it has served to frighten the credulous and feather the nests of their deceivers4 ,in the apostolic days the ,second ,coming of ,christ was generally and constantly expected4 ,according to the twenty-fourth of ,matthew1 ,jesus predicted that the end of all things would soon arrive4 ,the sun and moon were to be darkened2 the stars were to fall from heaven2 and the ,son of ,man was to come through the clouds with great power and glory1 and gather the elect together from every quarter of the earth1 ,according to the twenty-fifth of ,matthew1 this wondrous scene was to be followed by a ,great ,assize4 ,all the nations were to be judged before the heavenly throne1 and divided into two lots1 one destined for heaven and the other for hell4 ,and ,jesus significantly added1 ,verily ,i say unto you1 this generation shall not pass1 till all these things be fulfilled4 ,st4 ,paul also1 in the fourth chapter of the first of ,thessalonians1 said that the ,lord would descend from heaven with a shout1 with the voice of the archangel1 and with the trump of ,god3 and the dead in ,christ shall rise first3 ,then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds1 to meet the ,lord in the air4 ,nothing of the sort has happened4 ,there is no sign of the ,lord's coming1 and he is already eighteen centuries behind date4 ,behold ,i come quickly--,surely ,i come quickly4 ,such was the announcement4 ,but1 like many other divine promises1 it has been falsified4 ,the only orthodox way out of the difficulty is to say that the ,lord does not reckon time as we do2 with him a day is as a thousand years1 and a thousand years as a day4 ,the general public1 however1 eighteen hundred years ago1 did not know how long the prophecy was to remain unfulfilled1 and it had an extraordinary power over them4 ,being mostly very ignorant1 and therefore very credulous1 they were easily terrified by the notion that the world was to be burnt up speedily2 and they as readily embraced the doctrine which promised to bring them safely through the catastrophe4 ,from the way in which the game answers still with the ,christian mob1 after nearly two thousand years of exposure1 we can understand what a splendid instrument of proselytising it must have been in the hands of the fanatical preachers of the early ,church4 ,combine with it the ,millennium promised to the saints after the ,second ,coming of ,christ1 in which they were to enjoy themselves royally1 and you will feel the justice of ,gibbon's remark that it must have contributed in a very considerable degree to the progress of the ,christian faith4 ,it was inculcated by a succession of ,fathers1 from ,justin ,martyr to ,lactantius4 ,but when it had served its purpose it was allowed to drop4 ,as ,gibbon says1 it was at first treated as a profound allegory1 was considered by degrees as a doubtful and useless opinion1 and was at length rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and fanaticism4 ,the ,millennium is stigmatised1 in what once stood as the forty-first ,article of the ,english ,church1 as a fable of ,jewish dotage4 ,we wonder whether the plain-spoken divines who drew up that article included ,jesus ,christ1 ,st4 ,paul1 and ,st4 ,john among the ,jewish dotards4 ,at the end of the tenth century the doctrine of the ,second ,coming was revived4 ,the people were led to believe that the old serpent's thousand years of bondage was nearly up1 that he would be let loose about the year #a1jjj1 that ,antichrist would then appear1 and that the end of the world would follow4 ,churches and houses were therefore left to decay1 as they would cease to be wanted4 ,whenever an eclipse of the sun or moon took place1 the people ran into caverns and caves4 ,multitudes hurried off to ,palestine1 where they supposed ,christ would make his descent4 ,they transferred their property to the priests1 who could say with ,iago1 thus do ,i ever make my fool my purse4 ,others not only gave their property to the priests1 but actually became their slaves2 hoping1 says ,mosheim1 that the supreme ,judge would be more favorable to them if they made themselves servants to his servants4 ,jortin justly observes that the priests industriously cherished the delusion for the sake of filthy lucre4 ,they accepted the gifts of their poor dupes1 although earthly possessions would be as useless to them as to the laity if the last days were at hand4 ,donations to the ,church were given by fools and received by knaves4 ,the reason assigned for the gift is generally thus expressed3 ,appropinquante mundi termino--,the end of the world being now at hand499 ,when the tenth century ended without a sign of the ,second ,advent1 people looked at each other and said ,he is not come then4 ,and the priests chuckled1 ,no1 he has not come1 but your property is gone4 ,there was no chance of bringing an action for obtaining money under false pretences1 and ,holy ,mother ,church never gives back a farthing of what she obtains1 for what is once devoted to ,god can never be alienated without sacrilege4 ,although the delusion has been milder since then1 it has always lurked among the ignorant1 and occasionally become acute4 ,silly ,christians still shake their heads when a comet is visible1 and regard it as a blazing portent4 ,they even hint that one of these wanderers through space may collide with our globe and cause the final smash2 not knowing that comets are quite harmless1 and that hundreds of cubic miles of their tails would not outweigh a jar-ful of air4 ,dr4 ,cumming foretold the grand collapse several times4 ,his books were read by thousands of superstitious people4 ,finally1 he was played out1 and he went to his grave a discredited prophet4 ,had he been wiser he would have fixed the event some time after he was likely to be buried4 ,then the game would have lasted his lifetime1 and what does it matter if you are found out when you are dead8 ,how far ,gumming believed his own prophecies is a moot point4 ,it is said that he bought the lease of a house1 which expired about twenty-five years after his date for the day of judgment4 ,prophet ,baxter1 of the ,christian ,herald1 now runs the business4 ,he wrote a book to prove that ,louis ,napoleon was ,antichrist4 ,louis ,napoleon is dead and nearly forgotten4 ,then he proved that ,gambetta was ,antichrist4 ,gambetta is dead and not forgotten4 ,then he proved that ,prince ,jerome was ,antichrist4 ,prince ,jerome is nowhere1 and ,baxter is looking out for a fresh ,antichrist4 ,yet his paper is read by hundreds of thousands4 ,as ,heine said1 the fool-crop is perennial4 ,over in ,america the ,second ,adventists are a numerous body4 ,they watch and pray for the coming of ,christ1 and keep white robes ready for their ascension4 ,some time ago they donned their linen in the expectation that the ,lord was coming that very night4 ,but the ,lord did not put in an appearance1 and the robes were laid up in lavender again4 ,a fat matron trying to fly in that outfit would be a sight worth seeing4 ,it would take several angels to float some of them4 ,even the archangel ,michael might shrink from tackling twenty-stone4 ,like everything else in ,christianity1 except the accursed doctrine of salvation by faith1 the idea of the end of the world and a day of judgment is derived from older sources4 ,the ,hindu ,kalpas1 covering thousands of millions of years1 are periods of creation and destruction1 and each is called a day of ,brahma4 ,during this enormous interval the universe begins and ends4 ,brahma wakes from his slumbrous solitude1 and his thoughts and emotions embody themselves in worlds and creatures4 ,when he falls to rest again1 the whole system of finite things vanishes like the baseless fabric of a vision4 ,the ,stoics also believed in a periodical destruction and renovation of all things4 ,they1 as ,alger says1 conceived of ,god as a pure artistic force or seed of universal energy1 which exhibits its history in the evolution of the cosmos1 and1 on its completion1 blossoms into fire and vanishes4 ,the universal periodical conflagration destroys all evil1 and leaves the indestructible ,god alone in his pure essence again4 ,the ,persians entertained a similar conception1 which more closely resembles the ,christian doctrine4 ,ahura-,mazda creates all things good1 and the race of men happy and immortal4 ,but ,angra-,mainyas1 his adversary1 the old serpent1 corrupts them1 brings upon them misery and death1 and leads their souls to his dark abode4 ,good and evil spirits fill all creation with their conflict4 ,but at last ,ahura-,mazda subdues ,angra-,mainyas1 nullifies all the mischief he has done by means of a great deliverer1 who is sent to instruct and redeem mankind1 raises the dead1 purifies the world with fire1 and restores all nature to its paradisiacal condition4 ,the ,scandinavians had their ,ragnarok1 or ,twilight of the ,gods1 when all the powers of good and evil join in battle4 ,the horn sounds1 the last day dawns in fire and splendor from the sky1 in fog and venom from the abyss4 ,flames destroy the earth1 the combatants mostly slay each other1 but ,gimli1 the heaven of the ,all-,father1 is a refuge for the survivors1 and the beginning of a new and fairer world4 ,chiefly influenced by the ,persian1 and partly by other systems1 the later ,jewish theology1 as represented by the ,pharisees1 taught that ,jehovah would reappear in the last days2 and the ,day of the ,lord1 which in former ages meant any national calamity1 became transformed into the ,day of ,judgment4 ,what was to happen on that occasion is described in the ,book of ,enoch4 ,this was written about a century before ,christ1 yet it is quoted in the ,epistle of ,jude as the work of old transported ,enoch1 the seventh from ,adam2 a fact which throws a singular light on the critical acumen of the early ,christians4 ,jesus ,christ1 ,paul1 and especially the author of ,revelation1 are indebted to the ,book of ,enoch4 ,it provided them with nearly all the plot1 dialogue and scenery of their judgment drama4 ,as judges of the dead1 the ,greeks had ,minos1 who presided at the trial of souls from ,europe2 ,rhada-mauthus1 who examined those from ,asia2 and acus1 who tried those from ,africa1 ,america and ,australia were then unknown1 and souls from those continents were not provided with inspectors4 ,of course the dead who held communication with the living1 never told them more than they knew4 ,the same thing continues to this day4 ,all the messages from the departed given at all the ,spiritist sances have not added a single fragment to the world's stock of information4 ,the ancient ,egyptians believed in after death the judgment4 ,souls were tried in the ,hall of the two-,truths1 or the double ,justice4 ,they were weighed in the balance4 ,thoth noted the result1 and ,osiris pronounced sentence4 ,before burial1 also1 the ,egyptian dead underwent a saner trial4 ,the friends and relatives1 the enemies and accusers of the deceased1 assembled around the sarcophagus before forty-two assessors4 ,he was put on his trial before them2 and if justified1 awarded an honorable burial2 but1 if condemned1 disgraced by the withholding of funeral rites4 ,kings1 as well as commoners1 were apparently subject to the same ordeal4 ,does this account for the beneficent character of their government1 and the prosperous-content of the people1 which is reflected in the placid smile of their sphinxes8 ,probably the antique notion of a general ,day of ,judgment arose from the imposing trials1 where the ,king sat in judgment1 throned1 jewelled1 and guarded2 where all were free to approach and claim justice2 and where the sentences were executed by the soldiers-directly they were passed4 ,add to this scene a general auto da f1 in which ,christ plays the part of ,grand ,inquisitor1 the saints that of familiars1 and the ,devil2 that of executioner1 and you have a very fair idea of the ,christian ,day of ,judgment4 ,day1 we presume1 must not be taken too literally4 ,the ,mohammedans believe the ,great ,assize will last thousands of years4 ,in that case the people who are fond of hearing trials will have a fine time1 until their own turn comes4 ,after all1 even the ,mohammedan computation seems too slender4 ,to say nothing of the scientific antiquity of man1 and reckoning according to the ,bible chronology1 about two hundred thousand million souls have passed into eternity already1 and the ,lord knows how many more will join them4 ,imagination fails in conceiving the time it would take to try all that multitude1 especially if there are a good number of ,tichborne cases4 ,besides1 the whole thing seems unfair4 ,those who get a ticket for heaven at the end of the ,day will enjoy a few thousand years less of bliss than the more fortunate ones who came early2 and those who get a ticket for hell in the first hour will suffer a few thousand years of torture more than those who are sentenced at the finish4 ,the criterion at the ,day of ,judgment will be ,faith4 ,that is a difficult virtue to wise men1 and an easy one to fools4 ,the ninnies1 therefore1 will have the best chance4 ,this must be very consoling to mankind if ,carlyle's estimate of ,england's population--thirty millions1 mostly fools--may be extended to the rest of the world4 ,all who have faith enough to secure a seat in heaven are called sheep1 and they could not be labelled better4 ,all the others are called goats1 that is1 lusty1 strong-legged fellows who despise the game of follow-my-leader1 who object to walking along the road made for them1 and are always leaping the fence to see what is on the other side4 ,there was war in heaven once1 we are told1 but that was before ,satan and his crew were kicked out4 ,there will never be war in heaven again4 ,jesus ,christ will easily be able to manage his sheep4 ,but the ,devil will have a tougher job with his goats4 ,there will always be a kingdom in heaven1 but ten to one there will be a republic in hell4 ,christianity says we are to be saved by faith4 ,our view is different4 ,men are saved by thinking and acting4 ,while ,christian monks were trying to degrade men below the level of brutes1 some unknown ,secularists invented windmills and glass windows4 ,while the ,inquisition was exterminating heresy and purifying the faith1 ,galileo was inventing the telescope4 ,while ,church of ,englandism and ,methodism were fighting over the faith in ,england1 ,watt was discovering the use of steam4 ,faith never saved men here1 and why should it save them hereafter8 ,god1 if he exist1 must be too humane and sensible to judge men according to their belief2 and if he endowed us with reason1 he will never damn us for exercising it4 ,wandering in an immense forest during the night1 said ,diderot1 ,i have only one little light to guide me4 ,a stranger comes to me and says1 ,my friend1 blow out your candle to find your way better4 ,that light is reason1 and that stranger is a theologian4 ,science1 no less than common sense1 dispels ,christian superstition4 ,evolution destroys the idea of a general catastrophe4 ,there was a time when life could not exist on the earth1 and there will probably come a time when it will cease to exist4 ,long before then man will have disappeared4 ,but the aeon of our race may extend to millions of years4 ,is not this time practically infinite8 ,and do not those who make it a cause for lamentation and despair resemble the man that ,spinoza ridicules1 who refuses to eat his dinner to-day because he is not sure of a dinner for ever and ever8 ,sit down1 you fool1 and eat4 ,,shelley',s ,,atheism4 99 99 ,on ,august #d1 #ahib1 the centenary of ,shelley's birth was celebrated at ,horsham1 where it is intended to found a ,shelley ,library1 if not a ,shelley ,museum4 ,the celebrants were a motley collection4 ,they were all concealing the poet's principles and paying honor to a bogus ,shelley4 ,a more honest celebration took place in the evening at the ,hall of ,science1 ,old-street1 ,london1 ,e4,c4 ,six or seven hundred people were addressed by ,dr4 ,furnivall1 ,gr4 ,b4 ,shaw1 and ,g4 ,w4 ,foote2 and every pointed reference to ,shelley's religious1 social1 and political heresy was enthusiastically applauded4 ,charles ,darwin1 the ,newton of biology1 was an ,agnostic--which is only a respectable synonym for an ,atheist4 ,the more he looked for ,god the less he could find him4 ,yet the corpse of this great infidel lies in ,westminster ,abbey1 ,we need not wonder1 therefore1 that ,christians and even parsons are on the ,shelley ,centenary committee1 or that ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse was chosen to officiate as high pontiff at the ,horsham celebration4 ,mr4 ,gosse is a young man with a promising past--to borrow a witticism from ,heine4 ,in the old ,examiner days he hung about the army of revolt4 ,since then he has become a bit of a ,philistine1 though he still affects a superior air1 and retains a pretty way of turning a sentence4 ,the selection of such a man to pronounce the eulogy on ,shelley was in keeping with the whole proceedings at ,horsham1 where everybody was lauding a bogus ,shelley1 as ,mr4 ,shaw remarked at the ,hall of ,science celebration4 ,mr4 ,gosse was good enough to tell the ,horsham celebrants that it was not the poet who was attacked in ,shelley's case1 but the revolutionist1 the enemy of kings and priests1 the extravagant and paradoxical humanitarian4 ,mr4 ,gosse generously called this an intelligent aversion1 and in another sense than his it undoubtedly was so4 ,the classes1 interests1 and abuses that were threatened by ,shelley's principles1 acted with the intelligence of self-preservation4 ,they gave him an ill name and would gladly have hung him4 ,yes1 it was1 beyond all doubt1 an intelligent aversion4 ,byron only dallied with the false and foolish beliefs of his age1 but ,shelley meant mischief4 ,this accounts for the hatred shown towards him by orthodoxy and privilege4 ,mr4 ,gosse himself appears to have an intelligent aversion to ,shelley's principles4 ,he professes a great admiration for ,shelley's poetry2 but he regards it as a sort of beautiful landscape1 which has no other purpose than gratifying the aesthetic taste of the spectator4 ,for the poet's teaching he feels or affects a lofty contempt4 ,shelley the singer was a marvel of delicacy and power2 but ,shelley the thinker was at best a callow enthusiast4 ,had he lived as long as ,mr4 ,gosse1 and moved in the same dignified society1 he would have acquired an intelligent aversion to the indiscretions of his youthful passion for reforming the world2 but fate decided otherwise1 and he is unfortunate enough to be the subject of ,mr4 ,gosse's admonitions4 ,shelley lived like a ,spartan2 a hunk of bread and a jug of water1 dashed perhaps with milk1 served him as a dinner4 ,his income was spent on the poor1 on struggling men of genius1 and on necessitous friends4 ,now as the world goes1 this is simply asinine2 and ,mr4 ,gosse plays to the ,philistine gallery by sneering at ,shelley's vegetarianism1 and playfully describing him as an eater of buns and raisins4 ,it was also lamented by ,mr4 ,gosse that ,shelley1 as a hater of kings1 had an attraction for revolutionists1 a set of persons with whom ,mr4 ,gosse would have no sort of dealings except through the policeman4 ,social anarchists1 likewise1 gathered around the husband of ,godwin's daughter--a pregnant denunciation1 though it leaves us in doubt whether ,shelley1 ,godwin1 or ,mary was the anarch1 or all three of them together2 while the husband seems to imply that getting married was one of the gravest of ,shelley's offences4 ,but the worst of all is to come3 ,those to whom the restraints of religion were hateful marshalled themselves under the banner of the youth who had rashly styled himself as an ,atheist1 forgetful of the fact that ,all his best writings attest that1 whatever name he might call himself1 he1 more than any other poet of the age1 saw ,god in everything4 ,we beg to tell ,mr4 ,gosse that he is libellous and impertinent4 ,he knows little or nothing of ,atheists if he thinks they are only repelled by the restraints of religion4 ,they have restraints of their own1 quite as numerous and imperative as those of any religionist who fears his ,god4 ,what is more1 they have incentives which religion weakens4 ,mr4 ,gosse is perhaps in a state of ignorance on this matter4 ,he probably speaks of the moral condition of ,atheists as a famous ,american humorist proposed to lecture on science1 with an imagination untrammeled by the least acquaintance with the subject4 ,so much 7it is quite enough7 for the libel2 and now for the impertinence4 ,mr4 ,gosse pretends to know ,shelley's mind better than he knew it himself4 ,shelley called himself an ,atheist2 that is indisputable2 but he did so rashly4 ,he was mistaken about his own opinions2 he knew a great many things1 but he was ignorant of himself4 ,but the omniscient ,mr4 ,gosse was born 7or was he born87 to rectify the poet's blunder1 and assure the world that he was a ,theist without knowing it--in fact1 a really ,god-intoxicated person4 ,what wonder is it that ,mr4 ,gosse became intoxicated in turn1 and soared in a rapture of panegyric over a ,shelley of his own construction8 ,the period of prejudice is over1 he exclaimed1 and we are gathered here to-day under the auspices of the greatest poet our language has produced since ,shelley died1 encouraged by universal public opinion and by dignitaries of all the professions--yea1 even by prelates of our national ,church4 ,here the preacher's intoxication became maudlin1 and there should have been an interval for soda-water4 ,curiously enough1 the very last page of ,trelawny's ,records of ,shelley and ,byron contains a conversation between that gallant friend of the two poets and a prelate of our national ,church4 ,some years ago1 one of the most learned of the ,english ,bishops questioned me regarding ,shelley2 he expressed both admiration and astonishment at his learning and writings4 ,i said to the ,bishop1 ',you know he was an ,atheist4' ,he said1 ',yes4' ,i answered3 ',it is the key and the distinguishing quality of all he wrote4 ,now that people are beginning to distinguish men by their works1 and not creeds1 the critics1 to bring him into vogue1 are trying to make out that ,shelley was not an ,atheist1 that he was rather a religious man4 ,would it be right in me1 or anyone who knew him1 to aid or sanction such a fraud8' ,the ,bishop said3 ',certainly not1 there is nothing righteous but truth4' ,and there our conversation ended4 ,trelawny's bishop was willing 7outside church1 and in private conversation7 to deprecate prejudice and acknowledge the supremacy of truth2 and perhaps for that reason he allowed that ,shelley was an ,atheist4 ,mr4 ,gosse's bishops will soon be converting him into a pillar of the ,church4 ,trelawny knew ,shelley a great deal better than ,mr4 ,gosse4 ,he enjoyed an intimate friendship with the poet1 not in his callow days1 but during the last year or two of his life1 when his intellect was mature1 and his genius was pouring forth the great works that secure his immortality4 ,during that time ,shelley professed the opinions he enunciated in ,queen ,mab4 ,he said that the matter of that poem was good2 it was only the treatment that was immature4 ,again and again he told ,trelawny that he was content to know nothing of the origin of the universe2 that religion was chiefly a means of deceiving and robbing the people2 that it fomented hatred1 malice1 and all uncharitableness2 and that it also fettered the intellect1 deterring men from solving the problems of individual and social life1 as well as the problems of nature1 out of regard for the supposed oracles of ,omniscience1 which were after all the teachings of bigoted and designing priests4 ,shelley called himself an ,atheist2 he wrote ,atheist after his name on a famous occasion2 and ,trelawny says he never regretted having done this4 ,the principal fault ,i have to find1 wrote ,trelawny1 is that the ,shelleyan writers1 being ,christians themselves1 seem to think that a man of genius cannot be an ,atheist1 and so they strain their own faculties to disprove what ,shelley asserted from the earliest stage of his career to the last day of his life4 ,he ignored all religions as superstitions4 ,on another occasion ,shelley said to ,trelawny--,the knaves are the cleverest2 they profess to know everything2 the fools believe them1 and so they govern the world4 ,which is a most sagacious observation4 ,he said that ,atheist6 in the mouth of orthodoxy was a word of abuse to stop discussion1 a painted devil to frighten the foolish1 a threat to intimidate the wise and good4 ,mr4 ,gosse may reply that ,shelley's conversations with ,trelawny are not absolute evidence2 that they were written down long afterwards1 and that we cannot be sure of ,shelley's using the precise words attributed to him4 ,very well then2 be it so4 ,mr4 ,gosse has appealed to ,shelley's writings1 and to ,shelley's writings we will go4 ,true1 the epithet best is inserted by ,mr4 ,gosse as a saving qualification2 but we shall disregard it1 partly because best is a disputable adjective1 but more because all ,shelley's writings attest his ,atheism4 ,let us first go to ,shelley's prose1 not because it is his best work 7though some parts of it are exquisitely beautiful1 often very powerful1 and always chaste71 but because prose is less open than verse to false conception and interpretation4 ,in the fine fragment ,on ,life he acutely observes that ,mind1 as far as we have any experience of its properties1 and beyond that experience how vain is argument6 cannot create1 it can only perceive4 ,and he concludes ,it is infinitely improbable that the cause of mind1 that is1 of existence1 is similar to mind4 ,be it observed1 however1 that ,shelley does not dogmatise4 ,he simply cannot conceive that mind is the basis of all things4 ,the cause of life is still obscure4 ,all recorded generations of mankind1 ,shelley says1 have wearily-busied themselves in inventing answers to this question2 and the result has been--,religion4 ,shelley's essay ,on a ,future ,state follows the same line of reasoning as his essay ,on ,life4 ,he considers it highly probable that thought is no more than the relation between certain parts of that infinitely varied mass1 of which the rest of the universe is composed1 and which ceases to exist as soon as those parts change their positions with regard to each other4 ,his conclusion is that the desire to be for ever as we are1 the reluctance to a violent and unexperienced change1 which is common to man and other living beings1 is the secret persuasion which has given birth to the opinions of a future state4 ,if we turn to ,shelley's published letters we shall find abundant expressions of hostility to and contempt for religion4 ,those letters may deserve the praise of ,matthew ,arnold or the censure of ,mr4 ,swinburne2 but1 in either case1 they may be taken as honest documents1 written to all sorts of private friends1 and never intended for publication4 ,byron's letters were passed about freely1 and largely written for effect2 ,shelley's were written under ordinary conditions1 and he unbosomed himself with freedom and sincerity4 ,from one of his early letters we find that he contemplated a translation of the ,system of ,nature1 which is frequently quoted in the notes to ,queen ,mob4 ,he couples ,jehovah and ,mammon together as fit for the worship of those who delight in wickedness and slavery4 ,in a letter to ,henry ,reveley he pictures ,god as delighted with his creation of the earth1 and seeing it spin round the sun2 and imagines him taking out patents to supply all the suns in space with the same manufacture4 ,when the poet was informed by ,oilier that a certain gentleman 7it was ,archdeacon ,hare7 hoped he would humble his soul and receive the spirit into him1 ,shelley replied3 if you know him personally1 pray ask him from me what he means by receiving the spirit into me2 and 7if really it is any good7 how one is to get at it4 ,he goes on to say3 ,i was immeasurably amused by the quotation from ,schlegel about the way in which the popular faith is destroyed--first the ,devil1 then the ,holy ,ghost1 then ,god the ,father4 ,i had written a ,lucianic essay to prove the same thing4 ,in the very year of his death1 writing to ,john ,gisborne1 he girds at the popular faith in ,god1 and with reference to one of its most abhorrent doctrines he exclaims--,as if1 after sixty years' suffering here1 we were to be roasted alive for sixty million more in hell1 or charitably annihilated by a coup de grce of the bungler who brought us into existence at first4--,a dozen other quotations from ,shelley's letters might be given1 all to pretty much the same effect1 but the foregoing must suffice4 ,a thorough analysis of ,shelley's poetry1 showing the essential ,atheism which runs through it from beginning to end1 would require more space than we have at our command4 ,we shall therefore simply point out1 by means of instances1 how indignantly or contemptuously he always refers to religion as the great despot and impostor of mankind4 ,the ,revolt of ,islam stigmatises ,faith as an obscene worm4 ,the sonnet on the ,fall of ,bonaparte concludes with a reference to ,bloody ,faith1 the foulest birth of time4 ,shelley frequently conceives ,faith as serpentine and disgusting4 ,in ,rosalind and ,helen he writes-- ,grey ,power was seated ,safely on her ancestral throne2 ,and ,faith1 the ,python1 undefeated1 ,even to its blood-stained steps dragged on ,her foul and wounded train4 ,in the great and splendid ,ode to ,liberty the image undergoes a ,miltonic sublimation4 ,like one fierce cloud over a waste of waves ,hung tyranny2 beneath1 sat deified ,the sister-pest1 congregator of slaves4 ,invariably does the poet class religion and oppression together--,religion veils her eyes3 ,oppression shrinks aghast4--,destruction's sceptred slaves1 and ,folly's mitred brood4--,and laughter fills the ,fane1 and curses shake the ,throne4 ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer writes with learning and eloquence about the ,power of the ,universe and the ,unknowable4 ,shelley pricked this bubble of speculation in the following passage3 ,what is that ,power8 ,some moonstruck sophist stood ,watching the shade from his own soul upthrown ,fill ,heaven and darken ,earth1 and in such mood ,the ,form he saw and worshipped was his own1 ,his likeness in the world's vast mirror shown4 ,in one verse of the ,ode to ,liberty the poet exclaims3 ,o that the free would stamp the impious name ,of ------ into the dust or write it there4 ,what is the omitted word8 ,mr4 ,swinburne says the only possible word is--,god4 ,we agree with him4 ,anything else would be a ridiculous anti-climax1 and quite inconsistent with the powerful description of-- ,this foul gordian word1 ,which1 weak itself as stubble1 yet can bind ,into a mass1 irrefragably firm1 ,the axes and the rods that awe mankind4 ,pope and ,christ are alike impossible4 ,with respect to mankind they are but local designations4 ,the word must be universal4 ,it is ,god4 ,the glorious speech of the ,spirit of the ,hour1 which terminates the third ,act of ,prometheus ,unbound--that superb drama of emancipate ,humanity--lumps together ,thrones1 altars1 judgment seats1 and prisons1 as parts of one gigantic system of spiritual and temporal misrule4 ,man1 when redeemed from falsehood and evil1 rejects his books of reasoned wrong1 glozed on by ignorance2 and the veil is torn aside from all believed and hoped4 ,and what is the result8 ,let the ,spirit of the ,hour answer4 ,the loathsome mask has fallen1 the man remains ,sceptreless1 free1 uncircumscribed1 but man ,equal1 unclassed1 tribeless1 and nationless1 ,exempt from awe1 worship1 degree1 the king ,over himself2 just1 gentle1 wise2 but man ,passionless8 no1 yet free from guilt or pain1 ,which were1 for his will made or suffered them2 ,nor yet exempt1 though ruling them like slaves1 ,from chance1 and death1 and mutability1 ,the clogs of that which else might oversoar ,the loftiest star of unascended heaven1 ,pinnacled dim in the intense inane4 ,what a triumphant flight6 ,the poet springs from earth and is speedily away beyond sight--almost beyond conception--like an elemental thing4 ,but his starting-point is definite enough4 ,man is exempt from awe and worship2 from spiritual as well as political and social slavery2 king over himself1 ruling the anarchy of his own passions4 ,and the same idea is sung by ,demogorgon at the close of the fifth ,act4 ,the ,earth-born's spell yawns for heaven's despotism1 and ,conquest is dragged captive through the deep4 ,love1 from its awful throne of patient power ,in the wise heart1 from the last giddy hour ,of dread endurance1 from the slippery steep1 ,and narrow verge of crag-like agony1 springs ,and folds over the world its healing wings4 ,gentleness1 ,virtue1 ,wisdom1 and endurance1 ,these are the seals of that most firm assurance ,which bars the pit over ,destruction's strength2 ,and if1 with infirm hand1 ,eternity1 ,mother of many acts and hours1 should free ,the serpent that would clasp her with his length1 ,these are the spells by which to re-assume ,an empire o'er the disentangled doom4 ,to suffer woes which ,hope thinks infinite2 ,to forgive wrongs darker than death or night2 ,to defy ,power1 which seems omnipotent2 ,to love1 and bear2 to hope till ,hope creates ,from its own wreck the thing it contemplates2 ,neither to change1 nor falter1 nor repent2 ,this1 like thy glory1 ,titan6 is to be ,good1 great and joyous1 beautiful and free2 ,this is alone ,life1 ,joy1 ,empire1 and ,victory6 ,this is the ,atheism of ,shelley4 ,man is to conquer1 by love and hope and thought and endurance1 his birthright of happiness and dignity4 ,humanity is to take the place of ,god4 ,it has been argued that if ,shelley had lived he would have repented the indiscretions of his youth1 and gravitated towards a more respectable philosophy4 ,well1 it is easy to prophesy2 and just as easy1 and no less effectual1 to meet the prophet with a flat contradiction4 ,might have been is no better than might not have been4 ,was it not declared that ,charles ,bradlaugh would have become a ,christian if he had lived long enough8 ,was not the same asserted of ,john ,stuart ,mill8 ,one was nearly sixty1 the other nearly seventy2 and we have to wonder what is the real age of intellectual maturity4 ,only a few weeks before his death1 ,shelley wrote of ,christianity that no man of sense could think it true4 ,that was his deliberate and final judgment4 ,had he lived long enough to lose his sense2 had he fallen a victim to some nervous malady1 or softening of the brain2 had he lingered on to a more than ripe 7a rotten7 old age1 in which senility may unsay the virile words of manhood2 it is conceivable that ,shelley might have become a devotee of the faith he had despised4 ,but none of these things did happen4 ,what ,shelley was is the only object of sane discussion4 ,and what he was we know--an ,atheist1 a lover of ,humanity4 ,,long ,,faces4 ,every one who has turned over old volumes of sermons1 adorned with the authors' portraits1 must have been struck with the length of their faces4 ,they seem to say--parodying the famous line of ,dante--,abandon jokes all ye who enter here4 ,those men preached a solemnly absurd creed1 and they looked absurdly solemn4 ,their faces seemed as devoid of merriment as the faces of jackasses1 and the heads above them were often as stupid4 ,justice forbid that ,i should run down a ,hooker1 a ,barrow1 a ,taylor1 or a ,south4 ,they were men of genius1 and all genius is of the blood royal4 ,i read their writings with pleasure and profit1 which is more than nine-tenths of the clergy can say with any approach to honesty4 ,but a single swallow does not make a summer1 and a few men of genius do not elevate a profession4 ,i am perfectly convinced that the great bulk of the preaching fraternity have cultivated a solemn aspect--not perhaps deliberately1 but at least instinctively--in order to impose on the ignorant and credulous multitude4 ,the very tone of voice in which they pray1 give out hymns1 and preach1 is artificial2 in keeping with their artificial ideas and artificial sentiments2 which1 if they were expressed in natural tones1 would excite universal contempt and derision4 ,now this solemnity is the best trick in the priest's game4 ,gravity is always mistaken by the multitude for wisdom4 ,a round-faced merry fellow shall make a bright1 sensible speech1 and he will be voted frivolous2 but a long-faced1 saturnine fellow shall utter a string of dull platitudes1 and he will be voted a ,solon4 ,this is well known to the clergy1 who have developed a perfect art of dullness4 ,they talk an infinite deal of nothing1 use a multitude of solemn words to hide an absurdity or no meaning at all1 and utter the inherited shibboleths of their craft like the august oracles of a recent revelation4 ,concede them the advantage of solemnity1 or reverence1 or whatever else it is called1 and you give them the victory at the beginning of the battle4 ,if you pull a long face over their nonsense1 the spectators1 after all your arguments1 will say1 ,there must be something in it1 though1 for see how serious he is4 ,whereas a light jest and a merry smile will show you are heart-free1 and beyond the range of clerical artillery4 ,i do not pretend1 however1 that the efforts of ,free-thought critics should have no background of seriousness4 ,wit without reason1 says ,heine1 is but a sneeze of the intelligence4 ,but has not wit ever been the keenest weapon of the great emancipators of the human mind8 ,not the mere plaything of an idle mind in an idle hour1 but the coruscating blade to pierce the weak places of folly and imposture4 ,aristophanes1 ,lucian1 ,rabelais1 ,erasmus1 and ,voltaire--to take a few great instances--were all serious in aim and intention4 ,they valued truth1 goodness1 and beauty1 as much as the dreariest preachers4 ,but they felt1 because of their temperament1 that while the dry light of the intellect is suited to the study of science1 it is inadequate in the realm of political1 social1 and religious debate1 where everything is steeped in feeling1 and hopes and fears strive together1 and imagination kindles the very senses into keener play4 ,after all1 perhaps1 this word temperament is a solution in itself4 ,when ,bishop ,south was taken to task by a brother bishop for his witticisms1 he replied1 ,do you mean to say that if ,god had given you any wit you would not have used it8 ,thus is wisdom justified of her children4 ,my friendly though severe critic1 ,dr4 ,coit1 who recently discoursed at ,south-place ,institute 7or is it ,chapel87 on the ,national ,secular ,society in general and myself in particular1 could hardly deny that ,voltaire was a master of wit1 sarcasm1 irony1 and ridicule4 ,well1 now1 let us see what some serious writers have said of this nimble spirit4 ,robert ,browning1 in ,the ,two ,poets of ,croisic thus salutes him3 ,ay1 sharpest shrewdest steel that ever stabbed ,to death ,imposture through the armor-joints6 ,carlyle says ,he gave the death-stab to modern superstition1 and it was a most weighty service4 ,buckle says he used ridicule1 not as the test of truth1 but as the scourge of folly1 and thus produced more effect than the gravest arguments could have done4 ,nor can any one since the days of ,luther be named1 says ,brougham1 to whom the spirit of free inquiry1 nay1 the emancipation of the human mind from spiritual tyranny1 owes a more lasting debt of gratitude4 ,there is a story of the manuscript of ,harrington's ,oceana being filched and given to ,cromwell1 and the sagacious usurper returned it saying1 ,my government is not to be overturned with paper pellets4 ,but the ironical pamphlet1 ,killing no ,murder1 produced a different effect4 ,nor did the royal and imperial despots1 and their priestly abettors1 in the eighteenth century1 dread the solemn lovers of freedom4 ,but the winged pen of ,voltaire was a different matter4 ,bigots and tyrants1 says ,macaulay1 who had never been moved by the wailing and cursing of millions1 turned pale at his name4 ,if ,dr4 ,coit imagines that ,voltaire has lost his influence in ,france1 ,i venture to say he is mistaken4 ,the hand of ,voltaire is on ,renan1 and on dozens of living soldiers in the ,french army of progress4 ,and what man of letters in ,england--a country abounding in the oxen of the gods1 strong1 slow1 and stupid--is free from his influence8 ,carlyle's early essay on ,voltaire is a mixture of hatred and admiration4 ,but read the ,life of ,frederick1 and see how the ,french snake fascinates the ,scotch ,puritan1 until at last he flings every reservation aside1 and hails with glowing panegyric the ,savior of ,calas4 ,let me refer ,dr4 ,coit to the delightful preface of a delightful book--,leland's introduction to his fine translation of ,heine's ,reisebilder4 ,woe to those who are standing near1 says ,leland1 when a humorist of this stamp is turned loose upon the world4 ,he knows nothing of your old laws1--like an ,azrael-,napoleon he advances conscienceless1 feeling nothing but an overpowering impulse1 as of some higher power which bids him strike and spare not4 ,but1 after all1 the main cause of progress is agitation1 and though the agitation may be eminently disagreeable to many1 even friends1 who are brought within its immediate action1 it will be eminently beneficial in the end4 ,yes1 the hard-bound human mind1 like the hardbound soil1 has to be ploughed up4 ,let it shriek as it will1 the work must be done1 or the light and air will never penetrate1 and an ocean of seeds will lie barren on the surface4 ,dr4 ,coit need not fear that ridicule will excite apprehensions about the multiplication table4 ,ridicule has a fine scent for its proper prey4 ,it must detect the ridiculous before it couches and springs4 ,truth1 honor1 consistency1 disinterestedness1 are invulnerable4 ,what ridicule can kill deserves to die4 ,mr4 ,george ,meredith writes of that first-born of common-sense1 the vigilant ,comic1 which is the genius of thoughtful laughter4 ,folly is the natural prey of this hunter1 and ,folly is found in the churches as well as in the streets4 ,some men1 however1 are non-laughers by birthright1 and as men are apt to make a virtue of their deficiencies1 it is not surprising if1 as ,mr4 ,meredith observes1 the laughter-hater soon learns to dignify this dislike as an objection in morality4 ,persons who have read the ,freethinker from the first do not need to be assured of the earnest spirit of its conductors4 ,they fight no less sternly for the iridescent jewels in their swords4 ,but ,dr4 ,coit appears to object to fighting altogether4 ,he seems to bid us rest content with what we have won4 ,that is1 he bids us leave superstition1 with all its brood of lies and wrongs1 in possession of the schools1 the universities1 the churches1 the hospitals1 the workhouses1 and every other institution4 ,he bids us leave it with its large grasp on the private and public life of the community1 and go on with our constructive work in face of all this overwhelming frustration4 ,no doubt he means well1 but we are not foolish enough to take his advice4 ,we tell ,dr4 ,coit that he does not understand the obstructive power of theology1 and that he is thus unable to appreciate the work of the ,national ,secular ,society4 ,but let us return to the point of ridicule1 and the point of blasphemy4 ,dr4 ,coit found two lessons for the day in my ,philosophy of ,secularism1 and he spoke of my ,shadow of the ,sword as a noble plea for peace4 ,but he complained of my exposing the absurdities and immoralities of the ,bible--a book which is thrust into the hands of little children in our public schools4 ,he also complained of my dragging to light the ,crimes of ,christianity4 ,but his anger was most excited by one of my ,bible ,romances--,a ,virgin ,mother4 ,some fastidious persons even object to the title1 thus showing their abysmal ignorance of ,christian literature4 ,the phrase is common in ,catholic books of devotion1 like the ,mother of ,god4 ,it occurs in ,milton's ,ode on the ,nativity and in ,paradise ,lost4 ,i have marked it a dozen times in ,professor ,palgrave's collection of ,sacred ,songs4 ,but ,dr4 ,coit objects to my comparison of the ,holy ,ghost's overshadowing of the ,virgin ,mary with the divine impregnations of earthly women by the gods of the ,greek pantheon4 ,he regards the one as a mystery and the others as vulgar amours4 ,but this depends on your point of view4 ,lord ,bacon found a mine of hidden wisdom in some of these amours1 and ,mr4 ,morris makes beautiful poetry of the loves of ,zeus and ,danae1 which is more than any one has ever succeeded in doing with the relations between the ,holy ,ghost and ,mary4 ,i admit1 however1 that taste is not disputable2 and ,i refer ,dr4 ,coit to the passage of my ,virgin ,mother in which ,i cite ,justin ,martyr as appealing to the ,pagan not to mock at the ,incarnation1 on the express ground that they also taught the same doctrine in their stories-of the demi-gods who were born of women after the embraces of deities4 ,surely1 then1 it is idle to complain of my disrespect of this ,christian dogma4 ,nor is it just to say that my criticism of it cannot be read to a mixed audience4 ,that is the fault of the doctrine4 ,so far as my words go1 there is not a syllable to shock any but a prurient modesty4 ,with respect to ,dr4 ,coit's plea for bringing the kindness of social intercourse into the war of ideas1 ,i have this to say--,it is impossible4 ,timid persons have always sighed for this policy1 but when the fight began they have found themselves between the fell incensed points of mighty opposites4 ,religion should be treated as freely as other subjects4 ,that is all ,i claim1 and ,i will not be satisfied with less4 ,i cannot consent to relinquish any weapon that is legitimate in other warfare4 ,nor for the sake of temporary feeling will ,i be false to the permanent interests of my species4 ,i will laugh at folly1 scorn hypocrisy1 expose falsehood1 and bathe my sword in the heart's blood of imposture4 ,but ,i will not descend to personalities4 ,i do not war with persons1 but with principles4 ,my object is to destroy the ,christian superstition and prepare the way for a more rational and humane condition of society4 ,i shall adapt myself1 as well as ,i can1 to the shifting conditions of the struggle4 ,my aim is to succeed4 ,my policy1 therefore1 will never be determined by a personal preference4 ,i shall follow the path that promises victory4 ,but ,i do not1 and will not1 dictate to others4 ,within the scope of our principles there is room for many policies4 ,let each do his best1 according to his light and opportunity4 ,let ,dr4 ,coit1 too1 go his way as ,i go mine4 ,we travel by different routes1 but perhaps we shall meet at the goal4 ,,our ,,father4 ,god's in his heaven1 ,all's right with the world4 --,r4 ,browning1 ,pippa ,passes4 ,the ,apostles' ,creed1 with which the ,apostles never had anything to do1 begins with the words ,i believe in ,god the ,father ,almighty4 ,the last word1 ,almighty1 is an adjective which we owe to the metaphysical genius of ,christian theologians2 and the first words1 ,i believe1 are the customary shibboleth of the priests of every religion4 ,for the rest1 this extract from the ,creed is taken from the ,lord's ,prayer1 which itself is a brief selection from common ,jewish prayers before the days of ,jesus4 ,according to the evangelists--whoever they were--,jesus taught his disciples to pray to ,our ,father which art in ,heaven for a number of things which no one ever obtained by that process4 ,nevertheless the petition is offered up1 generation after generation1 by millions of ,christians1 whose hands are first folded in the gesture of prayer on their mothers' knees1 and whose lips are taught at the same time a form of words that clings to them for life4 ,our ,father6 ,the words are pretty and touching4 ,when the child hears them he thinks of some one like his own father1 but immensely bigger and more powerful2 and as the child is taught that all the necessaries and comforts of life he enjoys1 at the expense of his parents' labor and loving care1 are really gifts from the ,father behind the scenes1 it is no wonder that this mysterious being becomes the object of gratitude and affection4 ,which art in ,heaven6 ,up there in the region of dreams1 beyond the sailing clouds1 far away through the deep blue1 where imagination builds its fairy palace of delight1 and ,god sits on his golden throne1 and swift1 bright angels speed forth to execute his commands4 ,tell a child anything you please about that land of fancy and you will be believed1 especially if the tale comes from beloved lips1 or from lips that bear the glamor of authority4 ,and what the child is to the adult1 early or savage man is to the civilisee4 ,to the ,african negroes the highest god is the ,sky2 the great deity ,dyu of our ,aryan ancestors was the ,sky2 the ,greek ,zeue and the ,latin ,jupiter were both the ,heaven-,father2 and we still say ,heaven forgive me6 or ,fear the vengeance of ,heaven6 ,this ,heaven1 however1 is no longer credible to any one with a tincture of science4 ,hard as the truth to a child or a savage1 the sky is not a reality1 but an optical illusion4 ,for forty or forty-five miles from the earth's surface there is a belt of atmosphere1 growing rarer and rarer as it approaches the infinite ocean of ther4 ,gone for ever is the old delusion of a solid ,heaven overhead1 with windows in it1 through which ,god and the angels looked down upon the earth and its inhabitants4 ,and what site is there for ,heaven out in the cold blackness of space8 ,that ,heaven is gone1 and where is ,our ,father8 ,science shows us a world of absolute order1 in which what we call the laws of nature--the observed sequence and recurrence of phenomena--are never broken4 ,the world was not fashioned for man's dwelling1 nor is it maintained for his benefit4 ,towards the poles he freezes1 towards the equator he burns4 ,the rain nourishes his crops or rots them1 without asking his pleasure2 the sea bears him or drowns him1 with equal unconcern2 the lightning slays him or spares him1 whether good1 bad or indifferent1 as he happens to be in or out of the line of its dazzling flight2 famine pinches his6 cheeks if he cannot procure food2 the pestilence seizes upon his nerves and blood unless he learns the antidote to its ravages4 ,he stands amidst the play of terrific forces1 and only preserves himself by vigilance1 patience1 courage and industry4 ,if he falls the enemy is upon him1 and the doom of the vanquished is death4 ,nature shows him no mercy4 ,his mistakes are as fatal as his crimes4 ,god has been in his ,heaven for eternity1 but all is not right with the world4 ,man is always endeavoring to improve it1 but what assistance comes from above8 ,a ,father in ,heaven would be a glorious fact4 ,but who can believe it8 ,our ,father is utterly careless of his children4 ,the celestial ,rousseau sends all his offspring to the ,foundling4 ,the late hard weather has thrown thousands of honest men out of employment1 and increased the death-rate alarmingly4 ,where is the wisdom of this8 ,where is the goodness8 ,the worst of men would alter it if they could4 ,but ,god1 they say1 can do it1 and he does not4 ,yet they still look up and say ,our ,father4 ,and the ,father looks down with a face as blenchless as the ,sphinx's1 gazing forthright across the desert sands4 ,what father would permit in his family the gross disparities we see in human life8 ,one gorges and another starves2 one is bloated and another is death's counterfeit2 one is dressed in three-piled velvet and another goes in looped and windowed rags2 one is idle and another slaves2 one is sated with pleasure and another is numbed with pain2 one lolls in a palace and another shivers in a hovel4 ,what human father would not be ashamed to treat his children with such infamous partiality8 ,look at the physical and moral filth1 and the mental abasement1 in our great ,christian cities1 where new churches are constantly built for the worship of ,god1 where ,bibles are circulated by the million1 and where hundreds of sleek gentlemen flourish on the spoils of philanthropy4 ,read ,mr4 ,rudyard ,kipling's story of ,east-end life2 read the lucubrations of ,general ,booth2 listen to the ever-swelling wail over the poverty1 misery1 and degradation of hosts of our people2 and then say if it is not high time to cease all this cant about ,our ,father which art in ,heaven4 ,man has always been his own ,savior4 ,his instrument is science1 his wisdom is self-help4 ,his redemption begins when he turns his eyes from the delusive ,heaven and plucks up his heart from the fear of ,hell4 ,despair vanishes before the steady gaze of instructed courage4 ,hope springs as a flower in the path of endeavor4 ,,wait ,,till ,,you ,,die4 ,pascal remarked that1 whether ,christianity were true or false1 the ,christian was on the safe side2 and ,diderot replied that the priests and apologists of ,mohammedanism1 or any other creed1 could say the very same thing with equal force4 ,the argument1 if it be an argument1 implies the possibility of error1 and what applies to one religion applies to all4 ,the votaries of every creed may be mistaken if there is no absolute certitude2 or1 if there should be one true religion among the multitude1 and but one1 only the devotees of that single faith can be on the safe side4 ,but as no one knows which is the only true religion1 it follows1 according to the law of probabilities1 that the odds are greatly against any particular religion being the right one4 ,the ,christian therefore would have one chance of being right1 and nine hundred and ninety-nine chances of being wrong4 ,he has thus one chance in a thousand above the ,atheist4 ,but1 on the other hand1 if all religions but one are certainly wrong1 what is the chance of a single one being certainly right8 ,does not the ,christian's slight percentage of safety fade into something quite inappreciable in the light of this question8 ,and is what is left--if anything is left--an adequate price for the abnegation of manhood8 ,would it tempt an honest man1 with a sense of human dignity1 to play fast and loose with his intellect1 and accept a creed because it appeals to his selfish hopes and fears8 ,could such a slender chance of profit in the next life compensate for slavery in this life8 ,if belief is the safe side1 the proper course is to believe everything4 ,and it is useless to cry that this is impossible4 ,faith enables men to believe against reason1 and one act of credulity is little easier than a thousand4 ,he whose creed is determined by his fears should give free scope to such emotions4 ,if they are his guides let him follow them4 ,why should he argue when argument may mislead8 ,why should he stumble at trifles when he has surmounted the first great obstacle to credulity8 ,let him believe all the religions of the world at once4 ,he can do this as easily as he can believe in the ,trinity4 ,and having embraced all1 he may rest satisfied that if there be a true religion he undoubtedly possesses it4 ,we do not suppose1 however1 that this reasoning will have any effect on ,christians1 ,buddhists1 ,brahmins1 ,mohammedans1 or ,jews4 ,but that very fact shows the hollow character of the argument from which we started4 ,when the ,christian talks about the safe side he is only displaying the weakness of his faith1 and appealing to timidity when he has no further appeal to reason4 ,the argument of the safe side would have no pertinency1 even with the imbecile1 if man were immortal4 ,it seeks advantage from the fact that every man must die4 ,it tries to paralyse reason with the clutch of fear4 ,how frequent is the superstitionist's remark1 ,wait till you come to die6 ,he does not always use these very words1 but this is the meaning of all his verbiage4 ,he forgets1 or does not know1 that philosophy destroys the terror of death4 ,a rational man is aware of the truth expressed by ,mill1 that death is but one incident in life1 and often the least important4 ,he recognises with ,bacon that we die daily4 ,he knows that every hour is a step towards death4 ,he does not play1 like an ostrich1 with the universal law of mortality2 nor1 on the other hand1 does he allow the tomb to cast its chill obscurity over the business and pleasure of life4 ,he lives without hypocrisy1 and when the time comes he will die without fear4 ,as ,hamlet says1 the readiness is all4 ,another word also comes from the wisest of men--,cowards do often taste of death2 the valiant die but once4 ,a belief that will do for life will do for death4 ,the religionists prove this themselves4 ,whatever a man is confident of is sustaining4 ,the ,christian dies a ,christian1 and the ,mohammedan a ,mohammedan4 ,the one has dying visions of angels--or may be of devils2 the other sees heaven burst open1 and the black-eyed houris of paradise beckon him with rosy fingers4 ,what they leaned on in life supports them in death4 ,its truth or falsity makes no difference at that moment4 ,freethinkers are sustained by convictions4 ,intellect and emotion concur in their case4 ,they have no visions of angels or devils1 but dear loved faces are better than phantoms1 and he who has done a little good in the world1 however humbly and obscurely1 may dream of the happier and nobler days to come1 when true words and good deeds will have brought forth the glorious fruit of happiness for the children of men4 ,we do not mean to assert that no ,freethinker1 at any time1 ever relapsed on his death-bed4 ,such cases have apparently occurred during life1 and while one particular religion is in the ascendant it is not difficult to understand them4 ,the relapses are always to the creed a man finds about him1 or to the creed of his childhood4 ,they simply prove the power of environment and early training1 and that a man needs all his strength to stand against big majorities4 ,at best they are cases of mental pathology4 ,great historic ,freethinkers have always died true to their convictions4 ,they were used to standing alone4 ,for ample proof of this the reader is referred to my ,infidel ,death ,beds4 ,and when smaller ,freethinkers are numerous enough they avoid the greatest danger of physical weakness4 ,it is easy for ,christian relatives or friends to pester a dying ,freethinker2 it is easy even1 in the worst moments of weakness1 to put words in his mouth4 ,but if ,freethought friends visit him1 he feels strengthened and relieved4 ,allies may well be needed1 sometimes1 in such a battle with bigotry4 ,after all1 ,wait till you die6 is an argument of folly and cowardice4 ,what can we conjecture of any other life except from our experience of this8 ,on this earth reason is the safe side1 honesty is the safe side1 humanity is the safe side2 and what is the safe side here is likely to be the safe side elsewhere4 ,,dead ,,theology4 ,this is an age of series4 ,every publisher issues one1 and the number of them is legion4 ,as far as possible they are written by eminent hands1 as old ,jacob ,tonson used to call his wretched scribblers in ,grub-street garrets4 ,but not every publisher can secure such an eminent hand as a live ,archbishop1 ,this has been achieved1 however1 by ,messrs4 ,sampson1 ,low1 ,marston1 and ,company4 ,having projected a series of ,preachers of the ,age1 they were fortunate enough to enlist the ,archbishop of ,canterbury under their banner4 ,his ,grace1 as it is etiquette to call him1 though his natural name is ,edward ,white ,benson1 leads off the publishers' attack on the ,british public with a volume of sermons entitled ,living ,theology4 ,it is well printed on good paper1 the binding is appropriate1 and the price of three-and-sixpence puts it within the reach of the great middle-class public which cares for such things4 ,we are far from sharing the opinion of a carper who remarked that1 as sermons go1 this volume is rather dear4 ,thirteen sermons by an ,archbishop6 ,could any man in his senses expect them for less money8 ,the real wonder is that a man with #ae1jjj a-year should condescend to publish at all4 ,we ought to feel thankful that he does not charge us a guinea a volume4 ,prefixed to the thirteen sermons1 at fourpence apiece1 including the binding1 is an excellent photogravure portrait of the ,archbishop4 ,the face is keen and scholarly1 and not unpleasant4 ,a noticeable nose1 a large fluent mouth1 shrewd eyes1 and a high well-shaped head1 make on the whole an agreeable picture4 ,something about the features shows the preacher1 and something more the ecclesiastic4 ,it is the type1 and the best type1 of the learned priest4 ,nobody could look at this portrait and call ,edward ,white ,benson a fool4 ,but is any one in danger of doing so8 ,would not every one admit some ability in the unhereditary recipient of fifteen thousand a year8 ,parsons are not a brilliant body1 but to wriggle1 or climb1 or rise to the top of the ,black ,army involves the possession of uncommon faculties4 ,the ,archbishop is seldom eloquent1 in the popular sense of the word2 but his style has a certain force and color1 always within the limits of exquisite breeding4 ,if he consigned you to ,gehenna1 he would do it with bland graciousness2 and if he swore at all1 he would swear in ,latin4 ,his language in these sermons1 as in another volume we noticed a year ago1 is pure and nervous1 with an etymological reason for every word4 ,sometimes he is quite felicitous4 ,now and then he uses metaphor with skill and illumination4 ,the habitual concreteness of his style shows the clearness of his perceptions4 ,occasionally he is epigrammatic ,strong enemies1 he says in one place1 are better to us than weak friends4 ,they show us our weak points4 ,finer and higher is another passage in the same sermon--,the yearning of multitudes is not in vain4 ,after yearning comes impulse1 volition1 movement4 ,it would be difficult1 if not impossible1 to better this1 unless a great poet cast it in the mould of a metaphor4 ,we confess that1 on the whole1 we have read the ,archbishop's sermons with some pleasure1 as well as with much attention4 ,it is to his credit that he defies a superficial reading4 ,we do not expect to find another volume in the series at all comparable with his4 ,dr4 ,maclaren1 who comes second1 is on a lower level1 and the next descent to ,mr4 ,price ,hughes is a fall into a slough of incapable and reckless sentimentalism4 ,living ,theology is the title of the ,archbishop's volume1 but this is a misnomer1 for the title belongs only to the first sermon4 ,it misled us in this general application1 as it will probably mislead others4 ,we took it to be a setting forth of so much theology as the ,archbishop thought living1 in contradistinction to what he allowed to be dead4 ,but we find a very miscellaneous lot of sermons1 sometimes rather on ,church work than on ,church teaching4 ,the title1 therefore1 is what ,walt ,whitman would call a suck and a sell4 ,yet it is hardly worth while to labor the complaint1 for titles are often better than the pages that follow them4 ,sometimes1 indeed1 a writer puts all his head into the title1 and the rest of the book displays his imbecility4 ,but this cannot be said of the ,archbishop4 ,another difficulty is this4 ,the ,archbishop's sermons are hard for a ,freethinker to criticise4 ,he seldom expounds and rarely argues4 ,he addresses an audience who take the fundamentals of ,christianity for granted4 ,yet he lays himself open here and there1 and where he does so we propose to meet him4 ,in the first sermon ,dr4 ,benson is surely going beyond his actual belief in referring to the earliest race of man1 with whom the whole race so nearly passed away4 ,he can scarcely take the early chapters of ,genesis literally at this time of day4 ,in the very next sermon he speaks cheerfully of the age of ,evolution4 ,that sermon was preached at ,st4 ,mary's1 ,southampton1 to the ,british ,association in #ahhb4 ,it is on ,the ,spirit of ,inquiry4 ,the ,spirit of ,inquiry1 he says1 is ,god's spirit working in capable men1 to enlarge the measure and the fulness of man's capacity4 ,but if capable men are necessary1 to say nothing of favorable conditions1 the working of ,god's spirit seems lost in the natural explanation4 ,still1 it is pleasant to find the ,archbishop welcoming the ,spirit of ,inquiry1 under any interpretation of its essence2 and it may be hoped that he will vote accordingly when the ,liberty of ,bequest ,bill reaches the ,upper ,chamber4 ,it is also pleasant to read his admission that the ,spirit of ,inquiry 7we keep his capitals7 has made short work not only of the baser religions1 but of the baser forms of ours--to wit1 the ,christian4 ,some of those baser forms are indicated in the following passage3 ,i know not whether any stern or any sensuous religion of heathendom has held up before men's astonished eyes features more appalling or more repulsive than those of the vindictive father1 or of the arbitrary distributor of two eternities1 or again of the easy compromiser of offences in return for houses and lands4 ,dreadful shadows under which1 thousands have been reared4 ,dreadful shadows indeed6 ,and not thousands1 but countless millions1 have been reared under them4 ,those dreadful shadows were for centuries the universal objects of ,christian worship4 ,they still hover over ,spurgeon's tabernacle and a host of other houses of ,god4 ,but they are hateful to ,dr4 ,benson4 ,to him the ,god of orthodoxy1 the ,god of the ,thirty-nine ,articles1 is dead4 ,he dismisses ,predestination1 a vindictive ,god1 and ,everlasting ,torment4 ,he speaks of the very prison where ,christ is said to have preached after his death1 as a place where spirits surely unlearn many a bias1 many a self-wrought blindness1 many a heedless error4 ,hell is therefore a place of purgation1 which is certainly an infinite improvement on the orthodox idea of eternal and irremediable woe1 however it fall7s7 below the conception that the ,creator has no right to punish his own failures4 ,let the reader note who makes these admissions of the intellectual and moral death of the baser forms of ,christianity4 ,it is not an irresponsible franc-tireur of the ,black ,army1 nor an expelled soldier like ,mr4 ,voysey1 nor a resigned soldier like ,dr4 ,momerie4 ,it is the ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 the highest dignitary of the ,church of ,england4 ,his ,grace does not reflect--he cannot afford to reflect--that as the dead theology of to-day was the living theology of the past1 so the living theology of to-day may be the dead theology of to-morrow4 ,the ,archbishop still dogmatises1 even in this sermon on the ,spirit of ,inquiry4 ,in opposition to the man of science who knows of no limits to nature1 he declares that ,there is a sum of created things1 and therefore a real end 7however far off7 to what can be known of them4 ,in a certain sense1 truly1 there is an end to what can be known of nature1 for human knowledge must ever be relative and not absolute4 ,but the ,archbishop's limit is not qualitative in man2 it is quantitative in the universe4 ,herein he goes beyond the bounds of knowledge1 and indulges in the very dogmatism for which he reprehends the materialist4 ,it is dogmatism also to assert that the soul has every reason to believe itself absolutely eternal4 ,absolutely is a word of vast significance4 ,how can it apply to the soul8 ,were the soul to subsist eternally in the future1 it could not be absolutely eternal if it once began to be4 ,every reason is also too comprehensive4 ,dr4 ,benson may think he has good reasons for the soul's immortality1 but he must be aware that divines of his own church have held the contrary doctrine4 ,before the ,spirit of ,inquiry1 says ,dr4 ,benson1 every other religion than ,christianity fades away2 though he has admitted that some parts of ,christianity1 the baser forms1 have shared the same fate4 ,every fresh conquest of the ,spirit of ,inquiry has brought out some trait in the character1 or some divine conception in the mind of ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,this sweeping statement is supported by three very clearly marked instances4 ,the first is that science shows us the unity of life4 ,the latest discovered laws involve at least this1 that the ,life of man is one ,life4 ,and this is no more than the scientific verification of what was long ago stated1 and by ,christians 7at least for a while7 acted on4 ,in support of the ,christian idea of the ,unity of ,life the ,archbishop cites ,st4 ,paul1 who once asked in a callous way if ,god cared for oxen4 ,had the ,archbishop appealed to ,jesus he would have found the oracle dumb1 or something worse2 for the ,nazarene distinctly told his apostles to preach only to the ,jews1 and leave the ,samaritans and ,gentiles in darkness4 ,st4 ,paul took a flight beyond this narrow patriotism4 ,it was he1 and not the personal disciples of ,jesus1 who broke down the barriers between ,jew and ,gentile4 ,it was he who scorned the idea that ,jesus1 to use his own language1 was only sent to the lost sheep of the house ot ,israel4 ,it was he1 and not ,peter1 or ,james1 or ,john1 who said that ,god had made all nations of one blood2 he who declared ye are all one in ,christ4 ,yet it is easy to make too much of this2 for ,st4 ,paul did not include the heathen and unbelievers within the fold of brotherhood2 and when he asserted the fatherhood of ,god1 he appealed to the previous utterance of a ,greek poet1 thus conceding his own want of originality4 ,one might imagine1 too1 that the old ,jewish story of ,creation--which in turn was not original--involved the common descent of the human race2 and as this idea was almost1 if not quite1 universal1 being based on the obvious generic resemblance of the various races of mankind1 it seems a stretch of fancy to put it forward as a ,christian statement in some way connected with ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,the ,archbishop's second instance of the concurrence of modern progress with the teaching of ,jesus1 is1 to say the least of it1 peculiar4 ,from the liberty to inquire1 he says1 comes the liberty to express the results of inquiry4 ,and this is the preamble of the ,charter of ,jesus ,christ4 ,we defy ,dr4 ,benson to find a single plain passage about freedom of thought in the teachings of ,jesus4 ,the ,nazarene was fond of saying1 ,he that hath ears to hear let him hear4 ,but it was reserved for ,ingersoll to say1 ,he that hath a brain to think let him think4 ,the ,archbishop goes on to claim ,darwin as our aged ,master--,darwin1 who rejected ,christianity for forty years of his life6 ,he quotes from ,beale the sentence1 ,intellectual work of every kind must be free4 ,and the ,new ,testament1 he adds1 is still the one volume of books on religion which accepts thia whole statement4 ,this is a bold--some would say a brazen--assertion4 ,if the ,new ,testament teaches anything clearly1 it teaches that belief is necessary to salvation4 ,that doctrine stifles free speech and extinguishes inquiry4 ,why investigate if you may be damned for your conclusions8 ,and why allow investigation if another man's errors may involve your perdition8 ,these questions have been answered logically enough by the ,christian ,church1 and the ,charter of ,jesus ,christ has been the worst of spiritual oppressions4 ,no religion has been so intolerant as the ,christian4 ,mohammedanism has been far less bigoted4 ,buddhism has the proud distinction of never having persecuted one human being in twenty-four centuries4 ,the ,archbishop's third instance is fantastic to the point of grotesqueness4 ,both ,christianity and the spirit of ,inquiry1 he says1 are at one in the demand for fruit4 ,does he mean to imply that other religions set their faces against fruit8 ,buddhism is quite imperative about moral duties4 ,mohammedanism gets itself obeyed in matters of conduct1 while ,christianity is quite ineffectual4 ,drink1 gambling1 and prostitution abound in ,christian countries2 in the ,mohammedan world they have been sternly repressed4 ,this is admitted by ,dr4 ,benson in his volume on ,christ and his ,times2 admitted1 and even emphasised2 so that he may1 as it were1 be confuted out of his own mouth4 ,if we take a leap to the penultimate sermon in the present volume1 we find ,archbishop ,benson indulging in the same kind of loose statement and inconsequential reasoning4 ,its title is ,christ's ,crucifixion1 an ,all in ,all4 ,the preacher scorns the ,greek notion of the ,crucifixion as the shocking martyrdom of a grand young moralist4 ,such a notion1 he says1 is quite inconsistent with the facts4 ,either we know not what ,christ taught1 or else he was more than man4 ,and the ,archbishop sets about proving this by means of a series of leaps over logical chasms4 ,after dilating on the innocence of ,christ1 who was certainly guilty according to the ,mosaic law1 and deserving of death according to the express command of ,jehovah1 the ,archbishop writes as follows3 ,then we look back through our eighteen centuries1 and we see that before the age of three-and-thirty he had fashioned sayings1 had compacted thoughts1 had expressed principles about duty1 about the relative worth of things1 about life1 about love1 about intercourse with ,god1 about the formation of character1 the relation of classes1 the spirit of law1 the essence of government1 the unity of man1 which had not existed1 or which were not formulated when he opened his lips1 but which have been and are the basis of society from the time they were known till now4 ,this is a tissue of false assumptions4 ,the sayings1 thoughts1 and principles of ,jesus did exist before1 and they were formulated when he opened his lips4 ,not one original utterance is ascribed to him in the whole of the ,gospels4 ,it is idle to bandy generalisations2 let the ,archbishop select specimens of ,christ's teaching1 and we will find parallels to them1 sometimes better and more wisely expressed1 in the utterances of his predecessors4 ,nor is it true that ,christ's teachings have been1 or are1 the basis of society4 ,society exists in defiance of them4 ,it is never based1 and it never will be based1 on any abstract teaching4 ,its basis is self-interest1 ever increasing in complexity1 and ever more and more illuminated by the growth of knowledge4 ,take the case of oaths4 ,jesus said plainly1 ,swear not at all4 ,but when earthly potentates wanted their subjects to swear fidelity1 the ,christian priests discovered that ,jesus meant1 ,swear only on special occasions4 ,and it was reserved for an ,atheist1 in the nineteenth century1 to pass an ,act allowing ,christians to obey ,jesus ,christ4 ,take the injunction1 ,lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth4 ,society could never exist upon such a basis1 so the clergy find that ,jesus1 like ,polonius1 spoke tropically4 ,every ,christian is busy laying up treasures on earth1 and ,archbishop ,benson is well to the front in the competition4 ,having made ridiculous claims for ,jesus ,christ1 the ,archbishop proceeds in this wise3 ,next ask yourself whether a stainless1 loving1 sincere1 penetrating person like that makes or enlarges on unfounded declarations as to matters of fact4 ,is it consistent with such a character8 ,now ,jesus speaks of the immense importance of his own person1 he speaks of ,my flesh1 ,my blood as of vital power1 he says ,i and my ,father are one4 ,could he have been deceived8 ,well1 why not8 ,honesty does not guarantee us against error4 ,the best of men have been mistaken1 ,and sincere natures are most liable to be deceived by taking subjective impressions for external realities4 ,there is another explanation which the ,archbishop is too shrewd to pass over in silence4 ,perhaps others said those things for ,jesus1 perhaps they attributed to him sayings which he did not utter4 ,but this1 the ,archbishop says1 only multiplies the difficulty and the astonishment2 for1 to put it briefly1 his biographers in that case were as good at predicting and inventing as himself4 ,and why not8 ,do we not know that the story of the woman taken in adultery1 which is finely told1 and has all along been thought to contain some of ,christ's most characteristic teaching1 does not exist in the earlier manuscripts8 ,it was invented by an unknown writer4 ,and if one unknown writer could 7and did7 invent this story1 other unknown writers may have invented every part of the ,gospel narratives4 ,the attempt to make ,jesus sponsor for himself is the last refuge of hard-driven ,christians4 ,the frame of mind it evinces is seen in ,dr4 ,benson's interpretation of the exclamation ,i thirst1 ascribed to ,jesus on the cross4 ,crucifixion produced an intolerable thirst1 and the exclamation is very natural2 but ,dr4 ,benson says that ,jesus meant ,i thirst for souls1 and and adds that no man can doubt it4 ,such are the shifts to which ,christians are reduced when they cling to faith in defiance of reason4 ,dr4 ,benson's living theology is dead theology4 ,it is sentimentalism and make-believe4 ,perfectly scriptural doctrines are cast aside while others are arbitrary retained4 ,vague talk about ,christ and him crucified takes the place of time-honored dogmas1 logically deduced from the ,word of ,god1 and stamped with the deliberate approval of councils and synods4 ,christianity1 in short1 is becoming a matter of personal taste and preference4 ,the time is approaching when every ,christian will have a ,christianity of his own4 ,this is the moral of the ,archbishop's volume4 ,had space permitted we should have liked to notice other features of his sermons4 ,in one place he says that the so-called ,secularist is the man who deprives things secular of all power and meaning and beauty4 ,we think that he deprives ,christianity of all meaning1 and that being gone its power and beauty are idle themes of wasted eloquence4 ,,mr4 ,,gladstone ,,on ,,devils4 ,when the ,grand ,old ,man crossed swords with ,professor ,huxley on the miracle of ,gadara1 he spent all his time in discussing whether the pigs belonged to ,jews or ,gentiles4 ,the more serious point1 whether a legion of devils were actually cast out of one or two men and sent into a herd of swine1 he sedulously avoided4 ,professor ,huxley1 however1 is too wide-awake to be drawn off the scent2 and while he disputed the points of geography and ethnology1 he insisted upon the fact that their only importance was their relation to a miraculous story1 which marked the parting of the ways between ,science and ,christianity4 ,the demonic theory of disease1 including insanity1 is universal among savages4 ,for proof and illustration the reader has only to consult ,dr4 ,tylor's splendid work on ,primitive ,culture4 ,there are special demons for every malady1 and the way to cure the disease is to cast out the evil spirit4 ,of course insanity is a striking disorder1 and in default of the pathological explanation the savage regards the wild1 wandering words and inexplicable actions of the sufferer as the words and actions of a demon1 who has taken possession of the man's body1 and driven his soul abroad or put it in abeyance4 ,this theory of madness survived through all the centuries of ,christian history until the advent of modern science4 ,mad people were chained up1 exhibited as objects of derision1 and often beaten unmercifully4 ,it was the devil in them1 as in the poor witches1 that was treated in this fashion4 ,and it was a recognised part of a clergyman's business to cast out devils4 ,the ,church of ,england canon is still unrepealed which provides that the clergy1 before engaging in this useful if not agreeable occupation1 must obtain the written authority of their bishops4 ,laugh or smile as we will at this superstition1 it is an integral part of the ,new ,testament4 ,the demonic theory of disease is confessed in the story of ,jesus rebuking the fever of ,peter's mother-in-law1 so that it left her instantaneously1 flying out of the door or window1 or up the chimney4 ,jesus repeatedly cast out devils4 ,he expelled seven1 in succession or at one fell swoop1 from ,mary ,magdalene4 ,he turned a legion--that is1 several thousands--out of the possessed ,gadarenes2 there being at least one apiece for the bedevilled swine who were driven to destruction4 ,paul likewise cast out devils4 ,indeed1 if demonic possession in the ,new ,testament is explained away1 there is no reason why every other miraculous element should not be dealt with in the same manner4 ,mr4 ,gladstone perceives this1 although he does not commit himself in his ,impregnable ,rock of ,holy ,scripture4 ,i am afraid1 he says1 in a letter to the ,rev4 ,j4 ,w4 ,belcher1 that the objections to demoniacal possession involve in germ the rejection of all belief in the supernatural4 ,this is wonderfully clear and straightforward for the ,grand ,old ,man4 ,give up the belief that mad people may be tenanted by devils1 and you should immediately join the ,national ,secular ,society4 ,you have taken the first decisive step on the broad road of infidelity1 and nothing but a want of logic or courage prevents you from hastening to the inevitable conclusion4 ,archbishop ,trench1 in his ,notes on the ,miracles of ,our ,lord1 rejects the theory that the demoniacs were simply insane4 ,no doubt1 he says1 there was a substratum of disease1 which in many cases helped to lay open the sufferer to the deeper evil4 ,but our ,lord ,himself uses language which is not reconcileable with the naturalist theory4 ,it may well be a question moreover1 says ,trench1 if an ,apostle1 or one with apostolic discernment of spirits1 were to enter now into one of our madhouses1 how many of the sufferers there he might not recognise as thus having more immediately fallen under the tyranny of the powers of darkness4 ,dean ,milman1 the discreet1 plausible1 and polished historian of the ,christian superstition1 did not shrink from regarding the ,new ,testament demoniacs as merely insane2 and nothing was more probable1 he remarked1 than that lunacy should take the turn and speak the language of the prevailing superstition of the times4 ,precisely so4 ,but why did ,jesus imitate the lunatics8 ,he addresses the evil spirit and not the madman4 ,hold thy peace1 he says1 and come out of him4 ,no doubt the demoniacs were simply insane2 but in that case ,jesus himself was mistaken1 or the evangelists put into his mouth words that he never used4 ,the first alternative destroys the divinity of ,jesus2 the second destroys the authority of the evangelists4 ,mr4 ,gladstone's position is the only honest and logical one for a professed ,christian4 ,demonic possession cannot be cut out of the ,new ,testament without leaving a gap through which all the infidelity in the world might pass freely4 ,devils are not confined to hell4 ,they are commercial travellers in brimstone and mischief4 ,they go home occasionally2 the rest of the time they are abroad on business4 ,when they see a promising madman they get inside him1 and find warmer quarters than the universal air4 ,very likely they have started ,theosophy1 in order to provide themselves with fresh residences4 ,little devils of course involve the big ,devil--,apollyon1 ,beelzebub1 ,abaddon1 ,satan1 ,lucifer1 ,old ,nick4 ,he commands the infernal armies1 and is one of the deities in ,mr4 ,gladstone's pantheon4 ,he is even embedded in the revised version of the ,lord's ,prayer--like a fly in amber4 ,deliver us from evil now reads ,deliver us from the ,evil ,one4 ,thus the ,devil triumphs1 and the first of living ,english statesmen is reduced by ,christian superstition to the level of modern savages and ancient barbarians4 ,mr4 ,gladstone is perhaps the highest type of the ,christian statesman4 ,but how small and effeminate he appears1 after all1 in comparison with a great ,pagan statesman like ,julius ,csar1 whose brain was free from all superstition6 ,were the mighty ,julius to re-appear on earth1 and see a great statesman believing the story of devils being turned out of men into pigs1 he would wonder what blight had fallen upon the human intellect in two thousand years4 ,,huxley',s ,,mistake4 ,no one will suspect us of any prejudice against ,professor ,huxley4 ,we have often praised his vigorous writings1 and his admirable service to ,freethought4 ,we recognise him as a powerful fighter in the great battle between ,reason and ,faith4 ,he is a born controversialist1 he revels in the vivisection of a theological opponent1 and it is easy to understand how the more placid ,darwin could cry to him admiringly1 ,what a man you are6 ,but for some reason or other it seems the fate of ,professor ,huxley1 as it is the fate of ,herbert ,spencer1 to be made use of by the enemies of ,freethought2 and it must be admitted that1 to a certain extent1 he gratuitously plays into their hands4 ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer has been a perfect god-send to the ,christians with his ,unknowable--the creation of which was the worst day's work he ever accomplished4 ,it is only a big word1 printed with a capital letter1 to express the objective side of the relativity of human1 knowledge4 ,it connotes all that we do not know4 ,it is a mere confession of ignorance2 it is hollowness1 emptiness1 a vacuum1 a nothing4 ,and this nothing1 which ,mr4 ,spencer adorns with endless quasi-scientific rhetoric1 is used as a buttress to prop up tottering ,churches4 ,professor ,huxley has been nearly as serviceable to the ,churches with his ,agnosticism1 which belongs to the same category of substantially meaningless terms as the ,unknowable4 ,no doubt it serves the turn of a good many feeble sceptics4 ,it sounds less offensive than ,atheism4 ,an ,agnostic may safely be invited to dinner1 while an ,atheist would pocket the spoons4 ,but this pandering to respectability is neither in the interest of truth nor in the interest of character4 ,an ,atheist is without ,god2 an ,agnostic does not know anything about ,god1 so he is without ,god too4 ,they come to the same thing in the end4 ,an ,agnostic is simply an ,atheist with a tall hat on4 ,atheism carries its own name at the ,hall of ,science2 when it occupies a fine house at ,eastbourne1 and moves in good society1 it calls itself ,agnosticism4 ,and then the ,churches say1 ,ah1 the true man of science shrinks from ,atheism2 he is only an ,agnostic2 he stands reverently in the darkness1 waiting for the light4 ,nor is this the only way in which ,professor ,huxley has helped the enemy4 ,he is1 for instance1 far too fond of pressing the possibility of miracles4 ,we have no right1 he says1 to declare that miracles are impossible2 it is asserting more than we know1 besides begging the question at issue4 ,perfectly true4 ,but ,professor ,huxley should remember that he uses possibility in one sense and the theologians in another4 ,he uses it theoretically1 and they use it practically4 ,they use it where it has a meaning1 and he uses it where it has no meaning at all1 except in an priori way1 like a pair of brackets with nothing between them4 ,when the ,agnostic speaks of the possibility of miracles1 he only means that we cannot prove a universal negative4 ,let us take an instance4 ,suppose some one asserts that a man can jump over the moon4 ,no one can demonstrate that the feat is impossible4 ,it is possible1 in the sense that anything is possible4 ,but this is theoretical logic4 ,according to practical logic it is impossible1 in the sense that no rational man would take a ticket for the performance4 ,why then does ,professor ,huxley press the possibility of miracles against his ,freethinking friends8 ,he is not advancing a step beyond ,david ,hume4 ,he is merely straining logical formul in the interest of the ,black ,army4 ,now let us take another instance4 ,in a recent letter to the ,times1 with respect to the famous letter of the thirty-eight clergymen who have given the ,bible a fresh certificate1 ,professor ,huxley is once more careful to point out that science knows nothing of the primal origin of the universe4 ,but who ever said that it did8 ,atheists1 at any rate1 are not aware that the universe ever had an origin4 ,as to the ultimate cause of the evolutionary process1 it seems to us mere metaphysical jargon1 as intolerable as anything in the mounding phraseology of the theologians4 ,but this is not all4 ,professor ,huxley delivers himself of the following utterance3 ,in fact it requires some depth of philosophical incapacity to suppose that there is any logical antagonism between ,theism and the doctrine of ,evolution4 ,this is food and drink to a paper like the ,christian ,world4 ,but what does it mean8 ,certainly there is no antagonism between the terms ,theism and ,evolution4 ,they do not fight each other in the dictionary4 ,but is there not antagonism between ,evolution and any kind of ,theism yet formulated8 ,the word ,god means anything or nothing4 ,give your ,god attributes1 and see if they are consistent with ,evolution4 ,that is the only way to decide whether there is any logical antagonism between ,evolution and ,theism4 ,the trouble begins when you are logical enough to deal in definitions2 and the only definition of ,god that will stand the test of ,evolution is a sort of a something4 ,we leave ,professor ,huxley to present that highly edifying ,theistic conclusion to his old theological opponents1 and1 if he likes1 to flaunt it in the faces of his ,freethinking friends4 ,but is it really worth while for ,samson to grind chaff for the ,philistines8 ,we put the question to ,professor ,huxley with all seriousness4 ,let him teach truth and smite falsehood1 without spending so much time in showing that they harmonise when emptied of practical meaning4 ,a sovereign and a feather fall with equal rapidity in a vacuum2 and if you take away fact and experience1 one proposition is as possible as another4 ,but why should a great man waste his energies in propagating such a barren truism8 ,,the ,,gospel ,,of ,,freethought4 ,christians are perpetually crying that we destroy and never build up4 ,nothing could be more false1 for all negation has a positive side1 and we cannot deny error without affirming truth4 ,but even if it were true1 it would not lessen the value of our work4 ,you must clear the ground before you can build1 and plough before you sow4 ,splendor gives no strength to an edifice whose foundations are treacherous1 nor can a harvest be reaped from fields unprepared for the seed4 ,freethought is1 in this respect1 like a skilful physician1 whose function it is to expel disease and leave the patient sound and well4 ,no sick man claims that the doctor shall supply him with something in place of his malady4 ,it is enough that the enemy of his health is driven out4 ,he is then in a position to act for himself4 ,he has legs to walk with1 a brain to devise1 and hands to execute his will ,what more does he need8 ,what more can he ask without declaring himself a weakling or a fool8 ,so it is with superstition1 the deadliest disease of the mind4 ,freethought casts it out1 with its blindness and its terrors1 and leaves the mind clear and free4 ,all nature is then before us to study and enjoy4 ,truth shines on us with celestial light1 ,goodness smiles on our best endeavors1 and ,beauty thrills our senses and kindles our imagination with the subtle magic of her charms4 ,what a boon it is to think freely1 to let the intellect dart out in quest of truth at every point of the compass1 to feel the delight of the chase and the gladness of capture6 ,what a noble privilege to pour treasures of knowledge into the alembic of the brain1 and separate the gold from the dross6 ,the ,freethinker takes nothing on trust1 if he can help it2 he dissects1 analyses1 and proves everything1 ,does this make him a barren sceptic8 ,not so4 ,what he discards he knows to be worthless1 and he also knows the value of what he prizes4 ,if one sweet vision turns out a mirage1 how does it lessen our enjoyment at the true oasis1 or shake our certitude of water and shade under the palm-trees by the well8 ,the masses of men do not think freely4 ,they scarcely think at all out of their round of business2 ,they are trained not to think4 ,from the cradle to the grave orthodoxy has them in its clutches4 ,their religion is settled by priests1 and their political and social institutions by custom4 ,they look askance at the man who dares to question what is established1 not reflecting that all orthodoxies were once heterodox1 that without innovation there could never have been any progress1 and that if inquisitive fellows had not gone prying about in forbidden quarters ages ago1 the world would still be peopled by savages dressed in nakedness1 war-paint1 and feathers4 ,the mental stultification which begins in youth reaches ossification as men grow older4 ,lack of thought ends in incapacity to think4 ,real ,freethought is impossible without education4 ,the mind cannot operate without means or construct without materials4 ,theology opposes education3 ,freethought supports it4 ,the poor as well as the rich should share in its blessings4 ,education is a social capital which should be supplied to all4 ,it enriches and expands4 ,it not only furnishes the mind1 but strengthens its faculties4 ,knowledge is power4 ,a race of giants could not level the ,alps2 but ordinary men1 equipped with science1 bore through their base1 and make easy channels for the intercourse of divided nations4 ,growth comes with use1 and power with exercise1 ,education makes both possible4 ,it puts the means of salvation at the service of all1 and prevents the faculties from moving about in vacuo1 and finally standing still from sheer hopelessness4 ,the educated man has a whole magazine of appliances at his command1 and his intellect is trained in using them1 while the uneducated man has nothing but his strength1 and his training is limited to its use4 ,freethought demands education for all4 ,it claims a mental inheritance for every child born into the world4 ,superstition demands ignorance1 stupidity1 and degradation4 ,wherever the schoolmaster is busy1 ,freethought prospers2 where he is not found1 superstition reigns supreme and levels the people in the dust4 ,free speech and ,freethought go together4 ,if one is hampered the other languishes4 ,what is the use of thinking if ,i may not express my thought8 ,we claim equal liberty for all4 ,the priest shall say what he believes and so shall the sceptic4 ,no law shall protect the one and disfranchise the other4 ,if any man disapproves what ,i say1 he need not hear me a second time4 ,what more does he require8 ,let him listen to what he likes1 and leave others to do the same4 ,let us have justice and fair play all round4 ,freethought is not only useful but laudable4 ,it involves labor and trouble4 ,ours is not a gospel for those who love the soft pillow of faith4 ,the ,freethinker does not let his ship rot away in harbor2 he spreads his canvas and sails the seas of thought4 ,what though tempests beat and billows roar8 ,he is undaunted1 and leaves the avoidance of danger to the sluggard and the slave4 ,he will not pay their price for ease and safety4 ,away he sails with ,vigilance at the prow and ,wisdom at the helm4 ,he not only traverses the ocean highways1 but skirts unmapped coasts and ventures on uncharted seas4 ,he gathers spoils in every zone1 and returns with a rich freight that compensates for all hazards4 ,some day or other1 you say1 he will be shipwrecked and lost4 ,perhaps4 ,all things end somehow4 ,but if he goes down he will die like a man and not like a coward1 and have for his requiem the psalm of the tempest and the anthem of the waves4 ,doubt is the beginning of wisdom4 ,it means caution1 independence1 honesty and veracity4 ,faith means negligence1 serfdom1 insincerity and deception4 ,the man who never doubts never thinks4 ,he is like a straw in the wind or a waif on the sea4 ,he is one of the helpless1 docile1 unquestioning millions1 who keep the world in a state of stagnation1 and serve as a fulcrum for the lever of despotism4 ,the stupidity of the people1 says ,whitman1 is always inviting the insolence of power4 ,buckle has well said that scepticism is the necessary antecedent of all progress4 ,without it we should still be groping in the night of the ,dark ,ages4 ,the very foundations of modern science and philosophy were laid on ground which was wrested from the ,church1 and every stone was cemented with the blood of martyrs4 ,as the edifice arose the sharpshooters of faith attacked the builders at every point1 and they still continue their old practice1 although their missiles can hardly reach the towering heights where their enemies are now at work4 ,astronomy was opposed by the ,church because it unsettled old notions of the earth being the centre of the universe1 and the sun1 moon1 and stars mere lights stuck in the solid firmament1 and worked to and fro like sliding panels4 ,did not the ,bible say that ,general ,joshua commanded the sun to stand still1 and how could this have happened unless it moved round the earth8 ,and was not the earth certainly flat1 as millions of flats believed it to be8 ,the ,catholic ,inquisition forced ,galileo to recant1 and ,protestant ,luther called ,copernicus an old fool4 ,chemistry was opposed as an impious prying into the secrets of ,god4 ,it was put in the same class with sorcery and witchcraft1 and punished in the same way4 ,the early chemists were regarded as agents of the ,devil1 and their successors are still regarded as uncanny in the more ignorant parts of ,christendom4 ,roger ,bacon was persecuted by his brother monks2 his testing fire was thought to have come from the pit1 and the explosion of his gunpowder was the ,devil vanishing in smoke and smell4 ,even at the end of last century1 the clergy-led mob of ,birmingham who wrecked ,priestley s house and destroyed his apparatus1 no doubt felt that there was a close connection between chemistry and infidelity4 ,physiology and ,medicine were opposed on similar grounds4 ,we were all fearfully and wonderfully made1 and the less the mystery was looked into the better4 ,disease was sent by ,god for his own wise ends1 and to resist it was as bad as blasphemy4 ,every discovery and every reform was decried as impious4 ,men now living can remember how the champions of faith denounced the use of ansthetics in painful labor as an interference with ,god's curse on the daughters of ,eve4 ,geology was opposed because it discredited ,moses1 as though that famous old ,jew had watched the deposit of every stratum of the earth's crust4 ,it was even said that fossils had been put underground by ,god to puzzle the wiseacres1 and that the ,devil had carried shells to the hill-tops for the purpose of deluding men to infidelity and perdition4 ,geologists were anathematised from the pulpits and railed at by tub-thumpers4 ,they were obliged to feel their way and go slowly4 ,sir ,charles ,lyell had to keep back his strongest conclusions for at least a quarter of a century1 and could not say all he thought until his head was whitened by old age and he looked into the face of ,death4 ,biology was opposed tooth and nail as the worst of all infidelity4 ,it exposed ,genesis and put ,moses out of court4 ,it destroyed all special creation1 showed man's' kinship with other forms of life1 reduced ,adam and ,eve to myths1 and exploded the doctrine of the ,fall4 ,darwin was for years treated as ,antichrist1 and ,huxley as the great beast4 ,all that is being changed1 thanks to the sceptical spirit4 ,darwin's corpse is buried in ,westminster ,abbey1 but his ideas are undermining all the churches and crumbling them into dust4 ,the gospel of ,freethought brands persecution as the worst crime against humanity4 ,it stifles the spirit of progress and strangles its pioneers4 ,it eliminates the brave1 the adventurous and the aspiring1 and leaves only the timid1 the sluggish and the grovelling4 ,it removes the lofty and spares the low4 ,it levels all the hills of thought and makes an intellectual flatness4 ,it drenches all the paths of freedom with blood and tears1 and makes earth the vestibule of hell4 ,persecution is the right arm of priestcraft4 ,the black militia of theology are the sworn foes of ,free-thought4 ,they represent it as the sin against the ,holy ,ghost1 for which there is no forgiveness in this world or the next4 ,when they speak of the ,holy ,ghost they mean themselves4 ,freethought is a crime against them4 ,it strips off the mystery that invests their craft1 and shows them as they really are1 a horde of bandits who levy black mail on honest industry1 and preach a despot in heaven in order to maintain their own tyranny on earth4 ,the gospel of ,freethought would destroy all priesthoods4 ,every man should be his own priest4 ,if a professional soul-doctor gives you wrong advice and leads you to ruin1 he will not be damned for you4 ,he will see you so first4 ,we must take all responsibility1 and we should also take the power4 ,instead of putting our thinking out1 as we put our washing1 let us do it at home4 ,no man can do another's thinking for him4 ,what is thought in the originator is only acquiescence in the man who takes it at secondhand4 ,if we do our own thinking in religion we shall do it in everything else4 ,we reject authority and act for ourselves4 ,spiritual and temporal power are brought under the same rule4 ,they must justify themselves or go4 ,the ,freethinker is thus a politician and a social reformer4 ,what a ,christian may be he must be4 ,freethinkers are naturally ,radicals4 ,they are almost to a man on the side of justice1 freedom and progress4 ,the ,tories know this1 and hence they seek to suppress us by the violence of unjust law4 ,they see that we are a growing danger to every kind of privilege1 a menace to all the idle classes who live in luxury on the sweat and labor of others--the devouring drones who live on the working bees4 ,the gospel of ,freethought teaches us to distinguish between the knowable and the unknowable4 ,we cannot fathom the infinite mystery of the universe with our finite plummet1 nor see aught behind the veil of death4 ,here is our appointed province3 ,this world which is the world ,of all of us1 and where in the end ,we find our happiness or not at all4 ,let us make the best of this world and take our chance of any other4 ,if there is a heaven1 we dare say it will hold all honest men4 ,if it will not1 those who go elsewhere will at least be in good company4 ,our salvation is here and now4 ,it is certain and not contingent4 ,we need not die before we realise it ,ours is a gospel1 and the only gospel1 for this side of the grave4 ,the promises of theology cannot be made good till after death2 ours are all redeemable in this life4 ,we ask men to acknowledge realities and dismiss fictions4 ,when you have sifted all the learned sermons ever preached1 you will find very little good grain4 ,theology deals with dreams and phantasies1 and gives no guidance to practical men4 ,the whole truth or life may be summed up in a few words4 ,happiness is the only good1 suffering the only evil1 and selfishness the only sin4 ,and the whole duty of man may be expressed in one sentence1 slightly altered from ,voltaire--,learn what is true in order to do what is right4 ,if a man can tell you anything about these matters1 listen to him2 if not1 turn a deaf ear1 and let him preach to the wind4 ,the only noble things in this world are great hearts and great brains4 ,there is no virtue in a starveling piety which turns all beauty into ugliness and shrivels up every natural affection4 ,let the heart beat high with courage and enterprise1 and throb with warm passion4 ,let the brain be an active engine of thought1 imagination and will4 ,the gospel of sorrow has had its day2 the time has come for the gospel of gladness4 ,let us live out our lives to the full1 radiating joy on all in our own circle1 and diffusing happiness through the grander circle of humanity1 until at last we retire from the banquet of life1 as others have done before us1 and sink in eternal repose4 ,,on ,,ridicule4 ,goldsmith said there are two classes of people who dread ridicule--priests and fools4 ,they cry out that it is no argument1 but they know it is4 ,it has been found the most potent form of argument4 ,euclid used it in his immortal ,geometry2 for what else is the reductio ad absurdum which he sometimes employs8 ,elijah used it against the priests of ,baal4 ,the ,christian fathers found it effective against the ,pagan superstitions1 and in turn it was adopted as the best weapon of attack on them by ,lucian and ,celsus4 ,ridicule has been used by ,bruno1 ,erasmus1 ,luther1 ,rabelais1 ,swift1 and ,voltaire1 by nearly all the great emancipators of the human mind4 ,all these men used it for a serious purpose4 ,they were not comedians who amused the public for pence4 ,they wielded ridicule as a keen rapier1 more swift and fatal than the heaviest battle-axe4 ,terrible as was the levin-brand of their denunciation1 it was less dreaded than the ,greek fire of their sarcasm4 ,i repeat that they were men of serious aims1 and indeed how could they have been otherwise8 ,all true and lasting wit is founded on a basis of seriousness2 or else1 as ,heine said1 it is nothing but a sneeze of the reason4 ,hood felt the same thing when he proposed for his epitaph3 ,here lies one who made more puns1 and spat more blood1 than any other man of his time4 ,buckle well says1 in his fine vindication of ,voltaire1 that he used ridicule1 not as the test of truth1 but as the scourge of folly4 ,and he adds-- ,his irony1 his wit1 his pungent and telling sarcasms1 produced more effect than the gravest arguments could have done2 and there can be no doubt that he was fully justified in using those great resources with which nature had endowed him1 since by their aid he advanced the interests of truth1 and relieved men from some of their most inveterate prejudices4 ,victor ,hugo puts it much better in his grandiose way1 when he says of ,voltaire that he was irony incarnate for the salvation of mankind4 ,voltaire's opponents1 as ,buckle points out1 had a foolish reverence for antiquity1 and they were impervious to reason4 ,to compare great things with small1 our opponents are of the same character4 ,grave argument is lost upon them2 it runs off them like water from a duck4 ,when we approach the mysteries of their faith in a spirit of reverence1 we yield them half the battle4 ,we must concede them nothing4 ,what they call reverence is only conventional prejudice4 ,it must be stripped away from the subject1 and if argument will not remove the veil1 ridicule will4 ,away with the insane notion that absurdity is reverend because it is ancient6 ,if it is thousands of years old1 treat it exactly as if it were told the first time to-day4 ,science recognises nothing in space and time to invalidate the laws of nature4 ,they prevailed in the past as well as in the present1 in ,jerusalem as well as in ,london4 ,that is how ,science regards everything2 and at bottom ,science and common-sense are one and the same4 ,professor ,huxley1 in his admirable little book on ,hume1 after pointing out the improbability of centaurs1 says that judged by the canons of science all miracles are centaurs4 ,he also considers what would happen if he were told by the greatest anatomist of the age that he had seen a centaur4 ,he admits that the weight of such authority would stagger him1 but it would scarcely make him believe4 ,i could get no further1 says ,huxley1 than a suspension of judgment4 ,now ,i venture to say that if ,johannes ,mller had told ,huxley any such thing1 he would have at once concluded that the great anatomist was joking or suffering from hallucination4 ,as a matter of fact trained investigators do not see these incredible monstrosities1 and ,huxley's hypothetical case goes far beyond every attested miracle4 ,but ,i do say that if ,johannes ,muller1 or anyone else1 alleged that he had seen a centaur1 ,huxley would never think of investigating the absurdity4 ,yet the allegation of1 a great anatomist on such a matter is infinitely more plausible than any miraculous story of the ,christian religion4 ,the centaurs of faith were seen centuries ago by superstitious people2 and what is more1 the relation of them was never made by the witnesses1 but always by other people1 who generally lived a few generations at least after the time4 ,what on earth are we to do with people who believe in centaurs on such evidence1 who make laws to protect their superstition1 and appoint priests at the public cost to teach the centaur science8 ,the way to answer this question is to ask another4 ,how should we treat people who believed that centaurs could be seen now8 ,why1 of course1 we should laugh at them4 ,and that is how we should treat people who believe that men-horses ever existed at all4 ,does anybody ask that ,i shall seriously discuss whether an old woman with a divining-rod can detect hidden treasures2 whether ,mr4 ,home floated in the air or ,mrs4 ,guppy sailed from house to house2 whether cripples are cured at ,lourdes or all manner of diseases at ,winifred's ,well8 ,must ,i patiently reason with a man who tells me that he saw water turned into wine1 or a few loaves and fishes turned into a feast for multitudes1 or dead men rise up from their graves8 ,surely not4 ,i do what every sensible man does4 ,i recognise no obligation to reason with such hallucinate mortals2 ,i simply treat them with ridicule4 ,so with the past4 ,its delusions are no more entitled to respect than those of to-day4 ,jesus ,christ as a miracle-worker is just as absurd as any modern pretender4 ,whether in the ,bible1 the ,koran1 the ,arabian ,nights1 ,monte ,christo1 or ,baron ,munchausen1 a tremendous walker is the fit subject of a good laugh4 ,and ,freethinkers mean to enjoy their laugh1 as some consolation for the wickedness of superstition4 ,the ,christian faith is such that it makes us laugh or cry4 ,are we wrong in preferring to laugh8 ,there is an old story of a man who was plagued by the ,devil4 ,the fiend was always dropping in at inconvenient times1 and making the poor fellow's life a hell on earth4 ,he sprinkled holy water on the floor1 but by-and-bye the old 'un hopped about successfully on the dry spots4 ,he flung things at him1 but all in vain4 ,at last he resolved on desperate measures4 ,he plucked up his courage1 looked the ,devil straight in the face1 and laughed at him4 ,that ended the battle4 ,the ,devil could not stand laughter4 ,he fled that moment and never returned4 ,superstition is the ,devil4 ,treat him to a hearty wholesome laugh4 ,it is the surest exorcism1 and you will find laughter medicinal for mind and body too4 ,ridicule1 and again ridicule1 and ever ridicule6 ,,who ,,are ,,the ,,blasphemers8 ,atheists are often charged with blasphemy1 but it is a crime they cannot commit4 ,god is to them merely a word1 expressing all sorts of ideas1 and not a person4 ,it is1 properly speaking1 a general term1 which includes all that there is in common among the various deities of the world4 ,the idea of the supernatural embodies itself in a thousand ways4 ,truth is always simple and the same1 but error is infinitely diverse4 ,jupiter1 ,jehovah1 and ,mumbo-,jumbo are alike creations of human fancy1 the products of ignorance and wonder4 ,which is the ,god is not yet settled4 ,when the sects have decided this point1 the question may take a fresh turn2 but until then god must be considered as a generic term1 like tree or horse or man2 with just this difference1 however1 that while the words tree1 horse1 and man express the general qualities of visible objects1 the word god expresses only the imagined qualities of something that nobody has ever seen4 ,when the ,atheist examines1 denounces1 or satirises the gods1 he is not dealing with persons but with ideas4 ,he is incapable of insulting ,god1 for he does not admit the existence of any such being4 ,ideas of god may be good or bad1 beautiful or ugly2 and according as he finds them the ,atheist treats them4 ,if we lived in ,turkey1 we should deal with the god of the ,koran2 but as we live in ,england1 we deal with the god of the ,bible4 ,we speak of that god as a being1 just for convenience sake1 and not from conviction4 ,at bottom1 we admit nothing but the mass of contradictory notions between ,genesis and ,revelation4 ,we attack not a person but a belief1 not a being but an idea1 not a fact but a fancy4 ,lord ,brougham long ago pointed out1 in his ,life of ,voltaire1 that the great ,french heretic was not guilty of blasphemy1 as his enemies alleged2 since he had no belief in the actual existence of tne god he dissected1 analysed1 and laughed at4 ,mr4 ,ruskin very eloquently defends ,byron from the same charge4 ,in ,cain and elsewhere1 the great poet does not impeach ,god2 he merely impeaches the orthodox creed4 ,we may sum up the whole matter briefly4 ,no man satirises the god he believes in1 and no man believes in the god he satirises4 ,we shall not1 therefore1 be deterred by the cry of blasphemy6 which is exactly what the ,jewish priests shouted against ,jesus ,christ4 ,if there is a ,god1 he cannot be half such a fool and blackguard as the ,bible declares4 ,in destroying the counterfeit we do not harm the reality4 ,and as it is better1 in the words of ,plutarch1 to have no notion of the gods than to have notions which dishonor them1 we are satisfied that the ,lord 7if he exist7 will never burn us in hell for denying a few lies told in his name4 ,the real blasphemers are those who believe in ,god and blacken his character2 who credit him with less knowledge than a child1 and less intelligence than an idiot2 who make him quibble1 deceive1 and lie2 who represent him as indecent1 cruel1 and revengeful2 who give him the heart of a savage and the brain of a fool4 ,these are the blasphemers4 ,when the priest steps between husband and wife1 with the name of ,god on his lips1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he resists education and science1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he opposes freedom of thought and liberty of conscience1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he robs1 tortures1 and kills those who differ from him1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he opposes the equal rights of all1 he blasphemes4 ,when1 in the name of ,god1 he preaches content to the poor and oppressed1 flatters the rich and powerful1 and makes religious tyranny the handmaiden of political privilege1 he blasphemes4 ,and when he takes the ,bible in his hand1 and says it was written by the inspiration of ,god1 he blasphemes almost beyond forgiveness4 ,who are the blasphemers8 ,not we who preach freedom and progress for all men2 but those who try to bind the world with chains of dogma1 to burden it1 in ,god's name1 with all the foul superstitions of its ignorant past4 ,,christianity ,,and ,,common ,,sense4 ,there are two things in the world that can never get on together--religion and common sense4 ,religion deals with the next life1 common sense with this2 religion points to the sky1 common sense to the earth2 religion is all imagination1 common sense all reason2 religion deals with what nobody can understand1 common sense with what everybody can understand2 religion gives us no return for our investments but flash notes on the bank of expectation1 common sense gives us good interest and full security for our capital4 ,they are as opposite as two things can possibly be1 and they are always at strife4 ,religion is always trying to fill the world with delusions1 and common sense is always trying to drive them away4 ,religion says ,live for the next world1 and common sense says ,live for this4 ,it is in the very nature of things that religion and common sense should hate and oppose each other4 ,they are rivals for the same prize--aspirants to the same throne4 ,in every age a conflict has been going on between them2 and although common sense is fast getting the upper hand to-day1 the war is far from ended1 and we may see some fierce struggles before the combat closes4 ,there can1 however1 be no doubt as to the issue2 for science has appeared on the scene with the most deadly weapons of destruction1 and science is the sworn ally of common sense4 ,nay1 is not ,science the mighty child of common sense--the fruit of ,reason from the lusty embrace of ,nature8 ,common sense is primitive logic4 ,it does not depend on books1 and it is superior to culture4 ,it is the perception of analogy--the instinct of causation4 ,it guides the savage through trackless forests1 and the astronomer through infinite space4 ,it makes the burnt child dread the fire1 and a ,darwin see in a few obvious facts the solution of a mystery4 ,it built the first hut and the last palace2 the first canoe and the last ocean steamer4 ,it constructed docks1 and laid down railways1 applied steam to machinery and locomotion1 prompted every mechanical discovery1 instigated all material progress1 and transformed an ape-like beast into a civilised man4 ,even the highest art is full of common sense4 ,sanity and simplicity are the distinguishing marks of the loftiest genius1 which may be described as inspired common sense4 ,the great artist never loses touch of fact2 he may let his imagination soar as high as the stars1 but he keeps his feet firm-planted on the ground4 ,all the world recognises the sublimity of ,greek sculpture and ,shakespeare's plays1 because they are both true to nature and fact and coincident with everlasting laws4 ,the true sublime is not fantastic2 it is solid and satisfying1 like a mighty ,alp1 deep-rooted first of all in the steadfast earth1 and then towering up with its vineyards1 its pastures1 its pine-forests1 its glaciers1 its precipices1 and last of all the silence of infinitude brooding over its eternal snows4 ,common sense1 the civiliser1 has had an especially hard fight with that particular form of religion known as ,christianity4 ,when ,tertullian said that ,christianity was to be believed because it was incredible1 he spoke in the true spirit of faith2 just as old ,sir ,thomas ,browne did when he found the marvels of religion too weak for his credulity1 ,david ,hume expressed the same truth ironically at the conclusion of his ,essay on ,miracles1 when he said that it was not reason that persuaded any ,christian of the truth of his creed1 which was established on the higher ground of faith1 and could not be accepted without a miracle4 ,common sense is blasphemy4 ,it is the thing which religion dreads most1 and which the priests most mortally hate4 ,common sense dispenses with learned disquisitions1 and tries everything with simple mother wit4 ,if1 for instance1 it hears that a whale swallowed a man1 and vomited him up safe and sound three days after1 it does not want to know all the physiology of men and whales before deciding if the story is true2 it just indulges in a hearty laugh and blows the story to ,hades4 ,miracle-mongers are quite helpless when a man turns round and says1 ,my dear sir1 that story's just a trifle too thin4 ,they see his case is a hopeless one1 and leave him to the tender mercies of the ,lord of ,hosts4 ,learning is all very well in its way1 but common sense is a great deal better4 ,it is infinitely the best weapon to use against ,christianity4 ,without a knowledge of history1 without being acquainted with any science but that of daily life1 without a command of ,hebrew1 ,latin and ,greek1 or any other language than his own1 a plain man can take the ,bible in his hand and easily satisfy himself it is not the word of ,god4 ,common sense tells him not to believe in contradictory statements2 common sense tells him that a man could not have found a wife in a land where there were no women2 common sense tells him that three millions of people never marched out of any country in one night2 common sense tells him that ,jesus ,christ could not have gone up from two places at once2 common sense tells him that turning devils out of men into pigs is a fable not half as good as the poorest of sop's2 common sense tells him that nobody but a skunk would consent to be saved from the penalty of his own misdeeds by the sufferings of an innocent man2 common sense tells him that while men object to having their pockets picked and their throats cut1 they want no divine command against theft and murder2 common sense tells him that ,god never ordered the committal of such atrocities as those ascribed to him in the ,bible2 and common sense tells him that a ,god of mercy never made a hell4 ,yes1 all this is perfectly clear1 and the priests know it4 ,that is why they cry out ,blasphemy6 every time they meet it4 ,but that is also precisely the reason why we should employ it against them4 ,the best antidote to superstition1 the worst enemy of priestcraft1 and the best friend of man1 is 7to parody ,danton's famous formula7 ,common ,sense1 and again ,common ,sense1 and for ever ,common ,sense4 ,,the ,,lord ,,of ,,lords4 99 99 ,written in ,august1 #ahhd4 ,we are in the midst of a political crisis4 ,the ,house of ,lords opposes a reform unanimously voted by the ,house of ,commons4 ,great demonstrations are being held all over the country1 to insist on the popular will being carried into effect1 and there is a growing cry of ,down with the ,lords4 ,a spectator from another planet might wonder at all the fuss4 ,he might marvel how forty millions of people needed to stamp and gesticulate against a handful of obstructives4 ,he might imagine that they had only to decree a thing and it would immediately be2 that all opposition to their sovereign will would melt away the moment they declared it4 ,this traveller1 however1 would soon be undeceived4 ,a little study would show him that the people are kept in check by faith and custom4 ,he would learn that the nation is tied down like ,gulliver was1 by ligatures springing from its own head4 ,behind the ,king there is a ,king of ,kings2 behind the ,lords there is a ,lord of ,lords4 ,behind every earthly despotism there is a heavenly one4 ,the rulers of mankind overawe the people by religious terrors4 ,they keep a body of men in their pay1 the black army of theology1 whose business it is to frighten people from their rights by means of a ghost behind the curtain4 ,nobody has ever seen the bogie1 but we are taught to believe in it from our infancy1 and faith supplies the deficiencies of sight4 ,thus we are enslaved by our own consent4 ,our will is suborned against our interests4 ,we wear no chains to remind us of our servitude1 but our liberty is restrained by the subtle web of superstition1 which is so fine as to be imperceptible except to keen and well-practised eyes1 and elastic enough to cheat us with a false sense of freedom4 ,yes1 we must seek in religion the secret of all political tyranny and social injustice4 ,not only does history show us the bearing of religion on politics--we see it to-day wherever we cast our gaze4 ,party feeling is so embittered in ,france because the sharp line of division in politics corresponds with the sharp line of division in religion4 ,on the one side there is ,freethought and ,republicanism1 and on the other ,catholicism and ,monarchy4 ,even in ,england1 which at present knows less of the naked despotism of the ,catholic ,church than any other ,european country1 we are gradually approximating to a similar state of things4 ,freethougnt is appearing upon the public stage1 and will play its peculiar part as naturally as religion does4 ,those who fancy that theology and politics have no necessary relations1 that you may operate in the one without affecting the other1 and that they can and should be kept distinct1 are grossly mistaken4 ,cardinal ,newman has well shown how it is the nature of ideas to assimilate to themselves whatever agrees with them1 and to destroy whatever disagrees4 ,when once an idea enters the human mind it acts according to the necessary laws of thought4 ,it changes to its own complexion all its mental surroundings1 and through every mental and moral channel influences the world of practice outside4 ,the real sovereigns of mankind1 who sway its destinies with irresistible power1 are not the czars1 emperors1 kings and lords1 nor even the statesmen who enact laws when public sentiment is ripe2 they are the great thinkers who mould opinion1 the discoverers and enunciators of ,truth1 the men of genius who pour the leaven of their ideas and enthusiasm into the sluggish brain of humanity4 ,even in this crisis it is easy to see how ,religion and ,freethought are at variance4 ,the ,liberal party is not pledged to the abolition of the ,house of ,lords1 but the ,radical party is4 ,orthodox ,liberalism is ,christian1 only a little less so than orthodox ,conservatism2 but ,radicalism is very largely sceptical4 ,it would surprise the dullards of both parties to learn how great a portion of the working energy of ,radicalism is supplied by ,freethinkers4 ,true1 many of them are unavowed ,freethinkers1 yet they are of our party although they do not wear our colors4 ,but setting all these aside1 ,i assert that ,radicalism would be immensely weakened by the withdrawal of declared ,freethinkers from its ranks4 ,no one in the least acquainted with political organisation would think of disputing this4 ,belief in ,god is the source and principle of all tyranny4 ,this lies in the very nature of things4 ,for what is ,god8 ,all definitions of religion from ,johnson's down to that of the latest dictionary agree on this one point1 that it is concerned with man's relations to the unknown4 ,yes1 ,god is the ,unknown1 and theology is the science of ignorance4 ,earl ,beaconsfield1 in his impish way1 once said that where our knowledge ends our religion begins4 ,a truer word was never spoken4 ,now the unknown is the terrible4 ,we become fearful the moment we confront the incalculable4 ,go through the history of religions1 consult the various accounts of savage and barbarous faiths at present extant1 and you will find that the principle of terror1 springing from the unknown1 is the essential feature in which they all agree4 ,this terror inevitably begets slavishness4 ,we cannot be cowardly in this respect without its affecting our courage in others4 ,the mental serf is a bodily serf too1 and spiritual fetters are the agencies of political thraldom4 ,the man who worships a tyrant in heaven naturally submits his neck to the yoke of tyrants on earth4 ,he who bows his intellect to a priest will yield his manhood to a king4 ,everywhere on earth we find the same ceremonies attending every form of dependence4 ,the worshipper who now kneels in prayer to ,god1 like the courtier who backs from the presence of the monarch1 is performing an apology for the act of prostration which took place alike before the altar and the throne4 ,in both cases it was the adoration of fear1 the debasement of the weak before the seat of irresponsible power4 ,authority is still the principle of our most refined creeds4 ,the majority of ,christians believe in salvation by faith2 and what is the ,god of that dogma but a capricious tyrant1 who saves or damns according to his personal whim8 ,the ministers of ,protestantism1 like the priests of ,catholicism1 recognise this practically in their efforts to regulate public education4 ,they dare not trust to the effect of persuasion on the unprejudiced mind2 they must bias the minds of children by means of dogmatic teaching4 ,they bend the twig in order to warp the tree4 ,now ,god is the supreme principle of authority as he is the essence of the unknown4 ,he is thus the head1 front and symbol of terror and slavery1 and as such must be assailed by every true soldier of ,progress4 ,we shall never enfranchise the world without touching people's superstitions2 and even if we abolish the ,house of ,lords we shall still dwell in the house of bondage unless we abolish the ,lord of ,lords2 for the evil principle will remain as a germ to develop into new forms of oppression4 ,freethought is the real ,savior4 ,when we make a man a ,freethinker1 we need not trouble greatly about his politics4 ,he is sure to go right in the main4 ,he may mistake here or falter there1 but his tendency will always be sound4 ,thus it is that ,freethinkers always vote1 work and fight for the popular cause4 ,they have discarded the principle of authority in the heavens above and on the earth beneath1 and left it to the ,conservative party1 to which all religionists belong precisely in proportion to the orthodoxy of their faith4 ,freethought goes to the root4 ,it reaches the intellect and the conscience1 and does not merely work at haphazard on the surface of our material interests and party struggles4 ,it aims at the destruction of all tyranny and injustice by the sure methods of investigation and discussion1 and the free play of mind on every subject4 ,it loves ,truth and ,freedom4 ,it turns away from the false and sterile ideas of the ,kingdom of ,god and faces the true and fruitful idea of the ,republic of ,man4 ,,consecrating ,,the ,,colors ,the ,queen has recently presented new colors to the first battalion of the ,seaforth ,highlanders4 ,there was a great parade at ,osborne1 half the royal family being present to witness her ,majesty perform the one piece of business to which she takes kindly in her old age4 ,she has long been1 as ,lord ,beaconsfield said1 physically and morally unfit for her many duties2 but she is always ready to inspect her troops1 to pin a medal or a cross on the breast of that cheap form of valor which excites such admiration in feminine minds1 or to thank her brave warriors for exhibiting their heroism on foreign fields against naked savages and half-naked barbarians4 ,the ruling passion holds out strong to the last1 and the respectable old lady who is allowed to occupy the ,english throne because of her harmlessness can still sing1 like the ,grand ,duchess in ,offenbach's opera1 ,oh1 ,i dote on the military4 ,but the ,queen is not my game4 ,i am going for the priests behind her1 the mystery-men who give the sanction of religion to all the humbug and hypocrisy1 as well as to all the plunder and oppression1 that obtain amongst us4 ,those new colors were consecrated 7that is the word7 by the ,dean of ,windsor4 ,the old colors were consecrated forty-two years ago by the ,venerable ,dr4 ,vernon ,harcourt1 ,archbishop of ,york1 who was probably a near relative of our pious ,home ,secretary1 the fat member for ,derby4 ,if ,i were a courtier1 a sycophant1 or an ordinary journalist1 ,i might spend some time in hunting up the actual relationship between these two ,harcourts2 but being neither1 and not caring a straw one way or the other1 ,i content myself1 as ,i shall probably content my readers1 with hazarding a conjecture4 ,consecrating the colors6 ,what does that mean8 ,first of all it implies the alliance between the soldier and the priest1 who are the two arms of tyranny4 ,one holds and the other strikes2 one guards and the other attacks2 one overawes with terror and delusion1 and the other smites with material weapons when the spiritual restraints fail4 ,the black and the red armies are both retainers in the service of ,privilege1 and they preach or fight exactly as they are bidden4 ,it makes no real difference that the soldier's orders are clear and explicit1 while the priest's are mysteriously conveyed through secret channels4 ,they alike obey the mandate of their employers1 and take their wages for the work4 ,in the next place it shows the intimate relation between religion and war4 ,both belong to the age of faith4 ,when the age of reason has fairly dawned both will be despised and finally forgotten4 ,they are always and everywhere founded on ignorance and stupidity1 although they are decorated with all sorts of fine names4 ,the man of sense sees through all these fine disguises4 ,he knows that the most ignorant people are the most credulous1 and that the most stupid are the most pugnacious4 ,educated and thoughtful men shrink alike from the dogmas of religion and the brutalities of war4 ,further1 this consecration of the colors reminds us that the ,christian deity is still the lord of hosts1 the god of battles4 ,his eyes delight to look over a purple sea of blood1 and his devotees never invoke his name so-much as when they are about to emulate his sanguinary characteristics4 ,the ,dean of ,windsor does not shock1 he only gratifies1 the feelings of the orthodox world1 when he blesses the flag which is to float over scenes of carnage1 and flame like a fiend's tongue over the hell of battle1 where brothers of the same human family1 without a quarrel in the world1 but set at variance bv thieves and tricksters1 maim and mangle and kill each other with fractricidal hands1 which ought to have been clasped in friendship and brotherhood4 ,yet these hireling priests1 who consecrate the banners of war1 dare to prate that ,god is a loving father and that we are all his children4 ,what monstrous absurdity6 ,what disgusting hypocrisy ,i ,surely the parent of mankind1 instead of allowing his ministers to mouth his name over the symbols of slaughter1 would command them to preach peace1 peace6 ,until the war-drums beat no longer and the battle-flags are furled ,in the parliament of man1 the federation of the world4 ,of course there is a comic side to this1 as to almost everything else4 ,the priests of the various nations consecrate rival banners1 pray for victory for their own side1 and swear that ,god ,almighty is sure to give it them if they trust in him4 ,now what is the ,lord to do when they go on in this way on opposite sides8 ,he is sure to disappoint one party1 and he is likely to get devilish little thanks from the other4 ,a wise ,god would remain neutral1 and say1 ,my comical little fellows1 if you will go knocking out each other's brains because they are not strong enough to settle your differences by peaceful means1 by all means get through the beastly business as soon as possible2 but pray don't trouble me with your petitions for assistance2 both sides are fools1 and ,i wash my hands of the whole affair4 ,i have heard of an old ,dutch commander who actually prayed the ,lord to remain neutral1 although from a different motive4 ,on the eve of battle he addressed the deity in this fashion3 ,o ,lord1 we are ten thousand1 and they are ten thousand1 but we are a darned sight better soldiers than they1 and1 ,o ,lord1 do thou but keep out of it1 and well give them the soundest thrashing they ever had4 ,our ,prayer ,book pays a very poor compliment to the god of battles4 ,give peace in our time1 ,o ,lord1 says the preacher4 ,because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou ,o ,god1 responds the congregation4 ,the compilers of the ,prayer ,book evidently blundered1 unless they secretly felt that the ,lord of hosts was used up1 and not worth a keg of gunpowder or an old musket4 ,consecrating colors1 like consecrating graveyards1 is after all only a trick of trade4 ,the ,dean of ,windsor only practises the arts of his profession1 and probably laughs in his sleeve at his own public performance4 ,perhaps he knows that ,god1 as ,napoleon said1 is on the side of the big battalions2 just as1 probably1 every bishop knows that ,church corpses rot exactly like ,dissenting corpses1 although they lie in consecrated ground4 ,priestly mummeries will last as long as there is a demand for them4 ,it is of little use to quarrel with this supply4 ,the ,freethinker's duty is to lessen the demand4 ,,christmas ,,in ,,holloway ,,gaol4 99 99 ,i was imprisoned there for blasphemy from ,february #ahhc to ,february #ahhd1 by sentence of a ,roman ,catholic judge1 ,mr4 ,justice ,north4 ,the dullest ,christmas ,i ever spent was in her ,majesty's hotel in ,north ,london4 ,the place was spacious1 but not commodious2 it was magnificent in the mass1 but very petty in detail2 it was designed with extreme care for the safety of its many guests1 but with a complete disregard of their comfort2 and it soon palled upon the taste1 despite the unremitting attentions of a host of liveried servants4 ,how ,i longed for a change of scene1 if what ,i constantly gazed upon may be so described2 but ,i was like a knight in some enchanted castle1 surrounded with attendants1 yet not at liberty to walk out4 ,the hospitality of my residence1 however1 was by no means sumptuous4 ,the table did not groan beneath a weight of viands1 or gleam with glowing wines4 ,its poverty was such that a red-herring would have been a glorious treat1 and a dose of physic an agreeable variety4 ,why then1 you may ask1 did ,i not quit this inhospitable hotel1 and put up at another establishment8 ,because ,i was invited by her ,majesty1 and her ,majesty's invitations are commands4 ,speaking by the card1 ,christmas-day in ,holloway was treated as a ,sunday4 ,there was no work and no play then1 the dinner was the poorest and worst cooked in the whole week1 and the only diversion was a morning or afternoon visit to chapel1 where we had the satisfaction of learning that heaven was an eternal ,sunday4 ,the fibre put into my cell to be picked by my industrious fingers had all been removed the previous evening1 lest ,i should desecrate the sacred day by pursuing my ordinary avocation4 ,my apartment was therefore clean and tidy1 and by the aid of a bit of dubbin ,i managed to give an air of newness to my well-worn shoes4 ,the attendants had1 however1 omitted to provide me with a ,sunday suit1 so ,i was obliged to don my working clothes1 in which graceless costume ,i had to perform my religious devotions in the house of ,god1 where an ill-dressed person is always regarded as an exceptionally bad sinner1 and expected to show an extraordinary amount of humility and contrition4 ,linen was never a burning question in ,holloway ,hotel1 and cuffs and collars were unknown1 except when a short guest wore a long shirt4 ,my toilet was therefore easily completed2 and with a good wash1 and the energetic use of a three-inch comb1 ,i was soon ready for the festivities of the season4 ,at eight o'clock ,i received the first instalment of my ,christmas fare1 in the shape of three-quarters of a pint of tea and eight ounces of dry bread4 ,whether the price of groceries was affected by the ,christmas demand1 or whether the kitchen was demoralised by the holiday1 ,i am unable to decide2 but ,i noticed that the decoction was more innocuous than usual1 although ,i had thought its customary strength could not be weakened without a miracle4 ,my breakfast being devised on the plainest vegetarian principles1 there was no occasion for grace before meat1 so ,i sipped the tea and munched the bread 7eight ounces straight off requires a great deal of mastication7 without breathing a word of thanks to the giver of all good things4 ,after a remarkably short hour's tramp round the exercise ring in a thieves' procession1 doing the rogue's march without the music1 ,i returned to my cell1 and sitting down on my little three-legged stool1 ,i was soon lost in thought4 ,i wondered what my wife was doing1 how she was spending the auspicious day4 ,what a merry ,christmas for a woman with her husband eating his heart out in gaol6 ,but that way madness lies1 and ,i had fought down the demon too long to give way then4 ,springing to my feet1 ,i sped up and down my cell like a caged animal1 and after many maledictions on the accursed creed1 ,i succeeded in stilling the tumult of my emotions4 ,a great calm followed this storm1 and resuming my seat and leaning my back against the plank-bed1 ,i took a scornful retrospect of my prosecution and trial4 ,how insignificant looked the ,tylers1 ,giffards1 ,norths and ,harcourts6 ,how noble the friends and the party who had stood by me in the dark hour of defeat6 ,a few short weeks1 and ,i should be free again to join their ranks and strike hard in the thickest of the battle1 under the grand old flag of ,freethought4 ,the chapel-bell roused me from phantasy4 ,the other half of the prison disgorged its inmates1 and ,i could hear the sound of their tramping to the sanctuary4 ,while they were engaged there ,i read a chapter of ,gibbon2 after which ,i heard the miserable sinners return from the chapel to their cells4 ,at twelve o'clock came mv second instalment of ,christmas fare3 six ounces of potatoes1 eight ounces of bread and a mutton chop4 ,being on hospital diet1 ,i had this trinity for my dinner every day for nine months1 and words cannot describe the nauseous monotony of the menu4 ,the other prisoners had the regular ,sunday's diet3 bread1 potatoes and suet-pudding4 ,after dinner ,i went for another short hour's tramp in the yard4 ,the officers seemed to relax their usual rigor1 and many of the prisoners exchanged greetings4 ,how did yer like the figgy duff8 ,did the beef stick in yer stomach8 ,such were the flowers of conversation that afternoon4 ,from the talk around me1 ,i gathered that under the old management1 before the ,government took over the prison1 all the inmates had a blow out on ,christmas-day1 consisting of beef1 vegetables1 plum-pudding and a pint of beer4 ,some of the old hands bitterly bewailed the decadence in prison hospitality4 ,their lamentations were worthy of a ,conservative orator at a rural meeting4 ,the present was a poor thing compared with the past1 and they sighed for the tender grace of a day that is dead4 ,after exercise ,i went to chapel4 ,the schoolmaster1 who was a very pleasant gentleman1 had drilled the singing class into a fair state of efficiency1 and they sang one or two ,christmas hymns in pretty good style2 but the effect of their efforts was considerably marred by the rest of the congregation1 whose unmusical voices1 bad sense of time1 and ignorance of the tune1 more than once nearly brought the performance to an untimely end4 ,parson ,playford followed with a seasonable sermon1 which would have been more heartily relished on a fuller stomach4 ,he told us what a blessed time ,christmas was1 and how people did well to be joyous on the anniversary of their ,savior's birth2 after which ,i presume he returned to the bosom of his family1 and celebrated the birth of ,christ with liberal doses of turkey1 goose1 beef1 pudding1 and communion wine4 ,before dismissing us with his blessing to our little rooms1 which was his habitual euphemism for our cells1 he said that he could not wish us a happy ,christmas in our unhappy condition1 but would wish us a peaceful ,christmas2 and he ventured to promise us that boon1 if after leaving chapel1 we fell on our knees1 and besought pardon for our sins4 ,most of the prisoners received this advice with a grin1 for their cell-floors were black-leaded1 and practising genuflexions in their little-rooms gave too much kneecap to their trousers4 ,at six o'clock ,i had my third instalment of ,christmas fare1 consisting of another eight ounces of bread and three quarters of a pint of tea4 ,the last mouthfuls were consumed to the accompaniment of church bells4 ,the neighboring gospel-shops were announcing their evening performance1 and the sound penetrated into my cell through the open ventilator4 ,the true believers were wending their way to ,god's house1 and the heretic1 who had dared to deride their creed and denounce their hypocrisy1 was regaling himself on dry bread and warm water in one of their prison-cells4 ,and the bells rang out against each other from the many steeples with a wild glee as ,i paced up and down my narrow dungeon4 ,they seemed mad with the intoxication of victory2 they mocked me with their bacchanalian frenzy of triumph4 ,but ,i smiled grimly1 for their clamor was no more than the ancient fool's-shout1 ,great is ,diana of the ,ephesians4 ,great ,christ has had his day since1 but he in turn is dead2 dead in man's intellect1 dead in man's heart1 dead in man's life2 a mere phantom1 flitting about the aisles of churches where priestly mummers go through the rites of a phantom creed4 ,i took my ,bible and read the story of ,christ's birth in ,matthew and ,luke4 ,what an incongruous jumble of absurdities6 ,a poor fairy tale of the world's childhood1 utterly insignificant beside the stupendous wonders which science has revealed to its manhood4 ,from the fanciful little story of the ,magi following a star1 to ,shelley's ,worlds on worlds are rolling ever1 what an advance6 ,as ,i retired to sleep upon my plank-bed my mind was full of these reflections4 ,and when the gas was turned out1 and ,i was left alone in darkness and silence1 ,i felt serene and almost happy4 ,,who ,,killed ,,christ8 ,without committing ourselves to a full acceptance of the ,gospel story of ,christ's death1 with all its monstrous miracles and absurd defiance of ,roman and ,jewish legal procedure1 we propose to take the story as it stands for the purpose of discussing the question at the top of this article4 ,the ordinary ,christian will exclaim that ,jesus was murdered by those infernal ,jews4 ,ever since they had the power of persecuting the ,jews--that is1 ever since the days of ,constantino--the ,christians have acted on the assumption that the countrymen of ,jesus did actually cry out before ,pilate1 ,his blood be on our heads6 and that they and their posterity deserved any amount of robbery and outrage until they unanimously confessed their sin and worshipped him whom they crucified4 ,it made no difference that the contemporaries of ,jesus ,christ could not transmit their guilt to their offspring4 ,the ,christians continued1 century after century1 to act in the spirit of the sailor in the story4 ,coming ashore after a long voyage1 ,jack attended church and heard a pathetic sermon on the ,crucifixion4 ,on the following day he looked into the window of a print-shop1 and saw a picture of ,jesus on the cross4 ,just then a ,jew came and looked into the window2 whereupon the sailor1 pointing to the picture1 asked the ,hebrew gentleman whether he recognised it4 ,that's ,jesus1 said the ,jew1 and the sailor immediately knocked him down4 ,surprised at this treatment1 the ,hebrew gentleman inquired the reason4 ,why1 said the sailor1 didn't you infernal ,jews crucify him8 ,the poor son of ,abraham admitted the fact1 but explained that it happened nearly two thousand years ago4 ,no matter1 said the sailor1 ,i only heard of it yesterday4 ,now it is perfectly clear1 according to the ,gospels1 that the ,jews did not kill ,jesus4 ,unless they lynched him they had no power to put him to death4 ,juda was then a ,roman province1 and in every part of the ,empire the extreme penalty of the law was only inflicted by the ,roman governor4 ,nevertheless it maybe argued that the ,jews really killed him1 although they did not actually shed his blood1 as they clamored for his death and terrorised ,pontius ,pilate into ordering a judicial murder4 ,but suppose we take this view of the case3 does it therefore follow that they acted without justification8 ,was not ,jesus1 in their judgment1 guilty of blasphemy1 and was not that a deadly crime under the ,mosaic law8 ,he that blasphemeth the name of the ,lord1 says ,leviticus xxiv4 #af1 shall surely be put to death4 ,were not the ,jews1 then1 carrying out the plain commandment of ,jehovah8 ,nor was this their only justification4 ,in another part of the ,mosaic law 7,deut4 xiii4 #f-aj71 the ,jews were ordered to kill anyone1 whether mother1 son1 daughter1 husband1 or wife1 who should entice them to worship other gods4 ,now it is expressly maintained by the overwhelming majority of divines that ,jesus asserted his own godhead1 he is reported as saying1 ,i and my father are one1 and1 as ,st1 ,paul says1 ,he thought it no robbery to be equal to ,god4 ,were not the ,jews1 then1 bound to kill him if they could8 ,let it not be supposed that we would have killed him4 ,we are not excusing the ,jews as men1 but as observers of the ,mosaic law and worshippers of ,jehovah4 ,their ,god is responsible for the death of ,jesus1 and if ,jesus was a portion of that very deity1 he was responsible for his own death4 ,his worshippers had learnt the lesson so well that they killed their own ,god when he came in disguise4 ,it is contended by some ,christians that ,pontius ,pilate killed ,jesus4 ,according to these arguers1 ,pilate knew that ,jesus was innocent1 and the execution was therefore a murder4 ,but is it not perfectly obvious from the ,gospel story that ,pilate tried to save ,jesus8 ,did not the obstinate prisoner plead guilty to what was really a charge of sedition8 ,did he attempt any defence8 ,did he call any witnesses8 ,was he not contumacious8 ,and had ,pilate any alternative to sentencing him to the legal punishment of his crime8 ,other friends of ,jesus lay the blame of his death on ,judas ,iscariot1 ,but the whole story of his betrayal of ,jesus is a downright absurdity4 ,how could he sell his master when the commodity was common8 ,what sense is there in his being paid to indicate the best-known man in ,jerusalem8 ,even if the story were true1 it appears that ,jesus knew what ,judas was doing1 and as he could easily have returned to ,galilee1 he was accessory to his own fate4 ,it may also be pointed out that ,judas only killed ,jesus if the tragedy would not have occurred without him2 in which case he was the proximate cause of the ,crucifixion1 and consequently a benefactor to all who are saved by the blood of ,christ4 ,instead of execration1 therefore1 he deserves praise1 and even the statue which ,disraeli suggested as his proper reward4 ,who killed ,christ8 ,why himself4 ,his brain gave way4 ,he was demented4 ,his conduct at ,jerusalem was that of a maniac4 ,his very language showed a loss of balance4 ,whipping the dove-sellers and moneychangers1 not out of the ,temple1 but out of its unsanctified precincts1 was lunatic violence4 ,those merchants were fulfilling a necessary1 reputable function2 selling doves to women who required them as burnt offerings1 and exchanging the current ,roman money for the sacred ,jewish coins which alone were accepted by the ,temple priests4 ,it is easy to call them thieves1 but they were not tried1 and their evidence is unheard4 ,if they cheated1 they must have been remarkably clever1 for all their customers were ,jews4 ,besides1 there were proper tribunals for the correction of such offences1 and no one who was not beside himself would think of going into a market and indiscriminately whipping the traders and dashing down their stalls4 ,certainly any man who did it now would be arrested1 if he were not lynched on the spot1 and would either be imprisoned or detained at ,her ,majesty's pleasure4 ,quite in keeping with these displays of temper was the conduct of ,jesus before ,pilate4 ,a modicum of common sense would have saved him4 ,he was not required to tell a lie or renounce a conviction4 ,all that was necessary to his release was to plead not guilty and defend himself against the charge of sedition4 ,his death1 therefore1 was rather a suicide than a martyrdom4 ,unfortunately the jurisprudence of that age was less scientific than the one which now prevails2 the finer differences between sanity and insanity were not discriminated2 otherwise ,jesus would have been remanded for inquiries into his mental condition4 ,as a man ,jesus died because he had not the sense to live4 ,as a ,god he must have died voluntarily4 ,in either case it is an idle1 gratuitous1 enervating indulgence in the luxury of woe to be always afflicting ourselves with the story of his doom4 ,great and good men have suffered and died since1 and other lessons are needed than any that may be learnt at the foot of the ,cross4 ,,did ,,jesus ,,ascend8 ,the story of the ,ascension of ,jesus ,christ is as absurd as the story of his ,resurrection4 ,both1 in fact1 are the products of an age prone to believe in the wonderful4 ,so prevalent was the popular belief in the supernatural character of great men1 that the comparatively cultivated ,romans accepted a monstrous fable about ,julius ,caesar4 ,the enthusiasm of the multitude1 says ,mr4 ,froude1 refused to believe that he was dead4 ,he was supposed to have ascended into heaven1 not in adulatory metaphor1 but in literal and prosaic fact4 ,similarly the enthusiasm of the first followers of ,jesus1 and especially of hysterical ladies like ,mary ,magdalene1 refused to believe that he was dead4 ,the fable of his resurrection was gradually developed1 and his ascension was devised to round off the story4 ,whoever will read ,st4 ,paul's epistles first1 and the ,gospels and the ,acts afterwards1 will see how the ,christ myth grew from vagueness to precision under the shaping imagination of the ,church of the first century after the age of the ,apostles4 ,it is a significant fact that the appearances of ,jesus after his ,resurrection were all made to the faithful1 and his ascension took place before them1 without a single impartial person being allowed to witness an event of which it was of the utmost importance for the world to have positive assurance4 ,when we turn to the ,gospels and the ,acts1 five documents whose authorship is absolutely unknown1 we find the most contradictory accounts of what happened after the ,resurrection4 ,it may safely be affirmed that five such witnesses would damn any case in a legal court where the laws of evidence are respected4 ,these witnesses cannot even agree as to whether the risen ,jesus was a man or a ghost4 ,now he comes through a closed door1 and anon he eats broiled fish and honeycomb2 now he vanishes1 after walking and talking with his disciples1 and anon he allows the sceptical ,thomas to examine the wounds of his crucifixion as a proof that he was not a spirit1 but solid flesh and blood4 ,according to ,matthew's account1 ,jesus first appeared to the women--as is very probable6 ,mark says his first appearance was to ,mary ,magdalene alone2 ,luke says it was two of the disciples on the road to ,emmaus4 ,his subsequent appearances are recorded with the same harmony4 ,while ,matthew makes him appear but once1 ,mark makes him appear three times--to the women1 to the two disciples going to ,emmaus1 and to the eleven apostles4 ,luke makes him appear but twice1 and ,john four times--to ,mary ,magdalene alone1 to the disciples in a room without ,thomas1 to the same again with ,thomas1 and to the same once more at ,tiberias4 ,john is the only one who tells the pretty story about ,thomas1 and ,john of course is the only one who mentions the spear-thrust in ,christ's side at the crucifixion1 because he wanted a hole for ,thomas to put his hand into1 and the other evangelists had no need of such a provision4 ,matthew and ,mark relate that the disciples were told by an angel to go to ,galilee1 while ,luke keeps them in the ,holy ,city1 and ,acts declares that ,jesus expressly commanded them that they should not depart from ,jerusalem4 ,the ascension itself1 which involved the last appearance of ,jesus1 as well as his disappearance1 is not related by ,matthew1 nor is it related by ,john4 ,now ,matthew and ,john are supposed to have been apostles4 ,if the ascension happened they must have witnessed it2 but both of them are silent1 and the story of the ascension comes from three writers who were not present4 ,nor do these three writers agree with each other4 ,luke informs us that ,jesus ascended from ,bethany1 a short distance from ,jerusalem1 on the very day of the ,resurrection1 or at the latest the next morning2 while ,mark1 without any precision as to time1 distinctly affirms that ,jesus ascended from ,galilee1 which was at least sixty miles from ,jerusalem4 ,now the ascension could not have occurred at two different places1 and1 in the absence of corroborative testimony1 ,mark and ,luke destroy each other as witnesses4 ,the author of ,acts agrees with ,mark as to the place1 but differs both from ,mark and ,luke as to the time4 ,he declares that ,jesus spent forty days 7off and on7 with his disciples before levitating4 ,this constitutes another difficulty4 ,mark1 ,luke1 and the author of ,acts must all leave the court in disgrace1 for it is too late for them to patch up a more harmonious story4 ,according to the detailed account in ,acts1 ,jesus ascended in the presence of his apostles1 including ,matthew and ,john1 who appear to have mistrusted their eyesight4 ,after making a speech he was taken up1 and a cloud received him out of their sight4 ,he was in a cloud1 and they were in a cloud1 and the millions who believe them are in a cloud4 ,the time of the year is seasonable for an examination of the story of the ,ascension4 ,would that the opportunity were taken by ,christians1 who believe what they have been taught with scarcely a moment's investigation1 and read the ,bible as lazily as they smoke their pipes4 ,we do not ask them to take our word for anything4 ,let them examine for themselves4 ,if they will do this1 we have no fear as to the result4 ,a belief in the ,new ,testament story of the supernatural ,christ is impossible to any man who candidly sifts and honestly weighs the evidence4 ,if ,christians would pursue their investigations still further they would soon satisfy themselves that the life1 death1 resurrection1 and ascension of ,jesus ,christ are largely1 if not entirely1 mythical4 ,now1 for instance1 when they are preparing to celebrate the ascension of ,christ1 they are welcoming the ascension of the ,sun4 ,the great luminary is 7apparently7 rising higher and higher in the heaven1 shedding his warmer beams on the earth1 and gladdening the hearts of man4 ,and there is more connection between the ,son and the ,sun than ordinary ,christians imagine4 ,,the ,,rising ,,son4 ,you are requested to read the above title carefully4 ,notice the spelling of the last word4 ,it is son1 not sun4 ,the difference to the eye is only in one letter4 ,the substantial difference is very great4 ,yet in the end the distinction between the ,son and the ,sun vanishes4 ,originally they were one and the same thing1 and they will be so again when ,christianity is properly understood4 ,supposing that ,jesus of ,nazareth ever lived1 it is impossible to know1 with any approach to accuracy1 what he really was4 ,with the exception of four epistles by ,saint ,paul--in which we find a highly mystical ,christ1 and not a portrait or even a sketch of an actual man--we have no materials for a biography of ,jesus written within a hundred years of his death4 ,undoubtedly some documents existed before the ,canonical and ,apocryphal ,gospels1 but they were lost through neglect or suppression1 and what we have is simply the concoction of older materials by an unscrupulous ,church4 ,during the interval between the real or supposed death of ,jesus and the date of the gospels1 there was plenty of time for the accumulation of any quantity of mythology4 ,the east was full of such material1 only waiting1 after the destruction of the old national religions under the sway of ,rome1 to be woven into the texture of a non-national system as wide as the limits of the ,empire4 ,protestants are able to recognise a vast deal of ,paganism in the teaching and ritual of the ,roman ,catholic ,church4 ,on that side they keep an open eye4 ,on the other side their eye is shut4 ,if they opened it they would see plenty of ,paganism in the gospels4 ,the only fixed date in the career of ,jesus is his birthday4 ,this is known by every scholar to be fictitious4 ,the primitive ,church was ignorant of the day on which ,jesus was born4 ,but what was unknown to the apostles1 one of whom is said to have been his very brother1 was opportunely discovered by the ,church three hundred years afterwards4 ,for some time the nativity of ,jesus had been celebrated on all sorts of days1 but the ,church brought about uniformity by establishing the twenty-fifth of ,december4 ,this was the ,pagan festival of the nativity of the ,sun4 ,the ,church simply appropriated it1 in order to bring over the ,pagan population by a change of doctrine without a change or rites and customs4 ,it may be objected that the primitive ,church did not inquire as to the birthday of ,jesus until it was too late to ascertain it4 ,but this objection cannot possibly apply to the resurrection1 the date of which is involved in equal uncertainty1 although one would expect it to be precisely known and regularly commemorated4 ,for many ages the celebration was irregular4 ,different ,sundays were kept1 and sometimes other days1 in various weeks of ,march and ,april4 ,finally1 after fierce disputes and excommunications1 the present system was imposed upon the whole ,catholic world4 ,easter is1 in fact1 decided astronomically1 by a process in which sun-worship and moon-worship are both conciliated4 ,the starting point is the vernal equinox1 which was the time of a common ,pagan festival4 ,the very name of ,easter is of heathen origin4 ,all its customs are bequeathed to us from far-off ,pagan ancestors4 ,easter eggs1 symbolising the life of the universe1 have been traced back to the ,romans1 ,greeks1 ,persians1 and ,egyptians4 ,when the ,christians celebrate the resurrection of ,christ they are imitating the ancient heathen1 who at the same time of the year commemorated the resurrection of the ,sun1 and his manifest triumph over the powers of darkness4 ,and when the moderns prepare to celebrate the ascension of ,christ1 they are really welcoming the ascension of the ,sun4 ,the great luminary--father of light and lord of life--is then 7apparently7 rising higher and higher in heaven1 shedding his warmer beams on the earth1 and gladdening the hearts of men4 ,churches and altars are decked with vegetation1 which is another relic of nature-worship4 ,life is once more bursting forth under the kindling rays of the sun4 ,hope springs afresh in the heart of man4 ,his fancy sees the pastures covered with flocks and herds1 the corn waving in the breeze1 and the grapes plumping in the golden sunshine1 big with the blood of earth and the fire of heaven4 ,according to the ,apostles' ,creed1 ,jesus descended into hell between his death and resurrection4 ,that is also a relic of sun-worship4 ,during the dark1 cold winter the sun descended into the underworld1 which is the real meaning of ,hades4 ,misunderstanding this circumstance1 or deliberately perverting it1 the early ,church fabricated the monstrous fable that ,jesus preached unto the spirits in prison1 as we read in the first epistle of ,peter4 ,one of the apocryphal gospels gives a lively account of how he harried the realm of ,old ,harry1 emptying the place wholesale1 and robbing the poor ,devil of all his illustrious subjects1 from ,adam to ,john the ,baptist4 ,a volume might be filled with illustrations of the mythology of the ,resurrection4 ,our present space is limited1 and we must let the above suffice4 ,anyone who reads the gospel story of the resurrection and ascension of ,jesus ,christ1 with a careful eye and a critical mind1 will see that it is not historical4 ,such witnesses1 so loose in statement and so contradictory of each other1 would collapse in a few minutes in any court of law4 ,they do not write as spectators1 and they were not spectators4 ,what they give us is the legendary and mythical story that had taken possession of the ,christian mind long after all the contemporaries of ,jesus were dead4 ,our belief1 in conclusion1 is that the ,rising ,sun will outlast the ,rising ,son4 ,the latter is gradually1 but very surely1 perishing4 ,even professed ,christians are giving up the miraculous elements of the gospels4 ,but who would give up the ,sun1 which has warmed1 lighted1 and fertilised the earth for millions of years1 and will do so for millions of years after the death of ,christianity8 ,,st4 ,,paul',s ,,veracity4 ,a very pretty storm has been raised 7and settled7 by the ,independent and ,nonconformist4 ,it raged around the ,apostle ,paul and ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer1 who both come out of it apparently not a penny the worse4 ,mr4 ,spencer has a chapter on ,veracity in his recently published ,principles of ,ethics1 wherein he cites ,paul as a violator of this virtue1 and remarks that apparently piquing himself on his craft and guile1 he elsewhere defends his acts by contending that 'the truth of ,god hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory4' ,this roused the ire of the ,independent1 and ,mr4 ,spencer was informed that his extraordinary aspersion on the ,apostle's character was wholly without justification4 ,whereupon the great ,evolutionist replied that two days before receiving the ,independent he had sent to the printer the copy of a cancel to be substituted for the page in which there occurs the error you point out4 ,mr4 ,spencer goes on to say that he had trusted to assistants1 and been misled on this particular point as on a few others4 ,the inductions contained in the ,principles of ,sociology and in ,part ,,ii4 of the ,principles of ,ethics are based mainly1 though not wholly1 upon the classified materials contained in ,the ,descriptive ,sociology1 compiled between #ahfg and #ahha by three ,university men ,i engaged for the purpose4 ,when using this compilation of facts concerning sixty-eight different societies ,i have habitually trusted to the compilers4 ,for even had ,i been in good health1 it would have been impossible for me to verify all their extracts from multitudinous books4 ,in some cases1 where the work was at hand1 ,i have referred for verification2 and have usually done so in the case of extracts from the ,bible2 now and then1 as ,i remember1 rejecting the extracts given to me as being not justified by the context4 ,but in the case in point it seems that ,i had not been sufficiently careful4 ,it is only after reading the preceding chapter that it becomes clear that the passage ,i quoted must be taken as part of an argument with an imaginary interlocutor1 rather than as expressive of ,st4 ,paul's own sentiment4 ,it must1 ,i think1 be admitted that the presentation of the thought is a good deal complicated1 and1 in the absence of the light thrown upon it by the preceding chapter1 is liable to be misunderstood4 ,i regret that ,i misunderstood it4 ,this explanation and apology are1 of course1 most satisfactory4 ,saint ,paul is cleared by ,mr4 ,spencer's certificate1 and the ,independent remarks that this is a noble codicil to ,mr4 ,spencer's chapter on ,veracity4 ,nay1 it professes high admiration for him as the greatest living philosopher of the ,english-speaking race4 ,thus the ,comedy of ,errors is followed by ,all's ,well that ,ends ,well1 and the curtain falls on compliments and embraces4 ,it really seems a shame to disturb this pleasant harmony1 but we feel compelled to say something to the ,independent and to ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer about the ,apostle ,paul4 ,in the first place we must observe that ,mr4 ,spencer's erroneous statement about the great apostle1 while it may be an aspersion1 is certainly not extraordinary4 ,it has repeatedly been made by the apostle's adverse critics1 and even by some of his admirers4 ,without citing a long list of them1 we will give two--both ,english1 and both judicial4 ,jeremy ,bentham1 the great reformer of our jurisprudence1 wrote a work entitled ,not ,paul1 but ,jesus1 in which he contends through four hundred pages that ,paul was mercenary1 ambitious1 and an unscrupulous liar4 ,to cull a single passage from ,bentham's book is like picking one raisin from a rich plum-pudding4 ,every sentence is an indictment4 ,and surely after ,bentham's trenchant performance it is idle for an ,english journal to pretend that there is anything extraordinary in ,mr4 ,spencer's erroneous accusation4 ,the other judicial writer1 also belonging to the ,english race1 is ,sir ,richard ,david ,hanson1 who was for some time ,chief ,justice of ,south ,australia4 ,in his able work on ,the ,apostle ,paul there is an admirable summing-up of the hero's character4 ,after admitting ,paul's ability1 persistence1 courage1 and other virtues1 he remarks--,but these are accompanied by what in an uninspired man would be called pride1 jealousy1 disdain1 invective1 sophistry1 time-serving and intolerance4 ,this is pretty strong2 and sophistry and time-serving are only euphemisms for lying in preaching and practice4 ,so much for the ,independent1 and now for ,mr4 ,spencer4 ,it must be observed that one part of his erroneous statement cannot be repudiated4 ,the apostle distinctly says1 being crafty1 ,i caught you with guile 7#b ,uor4 xii4 #af71 so that piquing himself on his craft and guile must stand while this text remains in the ,epistle4 ,mr4 ,spencer allows that1 in the third of ,romans1 the presentation of the thought is a good deal complicated1 and liable to be misunderstood2 but1 if read in the light of the preceding chapter1 the passage about lying to the glory of ,god must be taken as part of an argument with an imaginary interlocutor4 ,perhaps so2 but which is speaking in the seventh verse8 ,paul or his opponent8 ,mr4 ,spencer does not say4 ,yet this is the real point4 ,to us it seems that ,paul is speaking4 ,of course it may be urged that he is speaking ironically4 ,but this is not ,mr4 ,spencer's contention4 ,it is not clear what he does mean2 in fact1 he seems to have caught a little of ,paul's confusion4 ,we have no objection to reading the seventh verse of the third of ,romans in the light of the preceding chapter4 ,but should it not also be read in the light of ,christian history8 ,have honest openness and strict veracity been ever regarded as essential virtues in the propagation of the gospel8 ,and why is it likely that ,paul1 of all men1 escaped the contagion of fraud1 which has always disgraced the ,christian ,church8 ,the ordinary ,protestant imagines1 or pretends1 that the ,catholic ,church has been the great impostor2 but this is nonsense to the student of early ,christianity4 ,mosheim remarks that the pernicious maxim that those who make it their business to deceive with a view of promoting the cause of truth were deserving rather of commendation than of censure1 was very early recognised by the ,christians4 ,bishop ,ellicott similarly observes that history forces upon us the recognition of pious fraud as a principle which was by no means inoperative in the earliest ages of ,christianity4 ,middleton likewise reflects that the bold defiance of honesty and truth displayed by the ,fathers of the fourth century could not have been acquired1 or become general at once1 but must have been carried gradually to that height1 by custom and the example of former times1 and a long experience of what the credulity and superstition or the multitude would bear4 ,so far1 indeed1 were the earlier ages from being remarkable for integrity1 that ,middleton says there never was any period of time in which fraud and forgery more abounded4 ,the learned ,casaubon also complains that it was in the earliest times of the ,church that it was considered a capital exploit to lend to heavenly truth the help of invention1 in order that the new doctrine might be more readily allowed by the wise among the ,gentiles4 ,mosheim even finds that the period of fraud began not long after ,christ's ascension4 ,and it continued1 without a blush of shame on ,christian cheeks2 not growing worse1 for that was impossible2 until ,eusebius1 in the fourth century1 remarked as a matter of course that he had written what redounded to the glory1 and suppressed whatever tended to the disgrace of religion4 ,now if fraud was practised as a pious principle in the very earliest ages of ,christianity2 if it continued for as many centuries as it could pass with impunity2 if it was so systematic and prolonged1 and carried to such a height1 that ,herder declared ,christian veracity fit to rank with ,punic ,faith2 what right has anyone--even a ,christian editor--to place ,paul above suspicion1 or to find a monstrous blunder in his being accused of lying1 especially when the historic practice of his co-religionists seems to many persons to be more than half countenanced by his own language8 ,we are not concerned to press the charge of lying against ,st4 ,paul4 ,there have been so many liars in the ,christian ,church that one more or less makes very little difference4 ,on the other hand1 we cannot accept ,mr4 ,spencer's certificate without reservation4 ,he admits that ,paul's language is obscure2 and perhaps a little obscurity is to be expected when a man is replying to an accusation which he is not wholly able to rebut4 ,,no ,,faith ,,with ,,heretics4 ,during the ,crusades1 when the ,christians were wantonly fighting against their superiors in civilisation and humanity1 the doctrine1 was promulgated and obeyed that no faith should be kept with infidels1 and this was subsequently put in force against heretics4 ,thousands of ,mohammedan prisoners were butchered in cold blood1 although their safety had been confirmed by an oath2 and this infamous practice was afterwards pursued with respect to the heretical sects when the ,papal troops desolated some of the fairest parts of ,europe4 ,not only was there no salvation outside the ,church1 but even the ordinary laws of human society were held to be abrogated4 ,this wickedness1 perhaps1 reached its culmination in the ,spanish conquest of ,america4 ,few ,christians were civilised enough to condemn these purjured banditti1 but ,montaigne in ,france1 and ,raleigh in ,england1 were glorious exceptions1 and both of them were under a just suspicion of heterodoxy4 ,protestants as well as ,catholics were infected with this infamous bigotry4 ,luther himself was not free from taint1 and ,calvin's treachery against ,servetus is an eternal blot on his character4 ,no faith with heretics took a new form when the downright violation of an oath became too dissonant to the spirit of an improved civilisation4 ,it found expression in robbing the heretic of political and social rights1 and above all in treating him as outside the pale of honor4 ,slandering him was no libel4 ,every bigot claimed the right to say anything against his character1 for the purpose of bringing his opinions into hatred and contempt4 ,all the dictates of charity were cast aside2 his good actions were misrepresented1 and his failings maliciously exaggerated4 ,if ,voltaire spent thousands in charity1 he did it for notoriety2 if he wrote odes to beautiful or accomplished ladies1 he was a wretched debauchee4 ,if ,thomas ,paine made sacrifices for liberty1 he did it because he had a private grudge against authority2 if he befriended the wife and family of a distressed ,republican1 he only sought to gratify his lust2 if he spent a convivial hour with a friend1 he was an inveterate drunkard2 and if he contracted a malignant abscess by lying for months in a damp1 unwholesome dungeon1 his sufferings were the nemesis of a wicked1 profligate life4 ,an ,english precursor of ,voltaire and ,paine wrote ,a ,discourse on ,freethinking4 ,his name was ,anthony ,collins1 and in a certain sense he was the father of ,english ,freethought4 ,he was a man of exemplary life and manners1 yet the saintly ,bishop ,berkeley said he deserved to be denied the common benefit of air and water4 ,one of ,collins's antagonists was the famous ,dr4 ,bentley2 and although ,collins was a man of fortune1 the ridiculous calumny was started that he sought and obtained ,bentley's assistance in adversity4 ,the author of this calumny was ,richard ,cumberland1 a grandson of ,bentley1 and in other respects an estimable man4 ,his mistake was pointed out by ,isaac ,d',israeli1 who told him the person he meant was ,arthur ,collins1 the historical compiler4 ,but ,cumberland perpetuated the calumny1 remarking that it should stand1 because it could do no harm to any but to ,anthony ,collins1 whom he considered little short of an ,atheist4 ,another story about ,collins1 which has frequently done duty in ,christian publications1 is that a visitor found him reading the ,new ,testament1 and that he remarked1 ,i have but one book1 but that is the best4 ,fortunately ,i am able to give the origin of this story4 ,it is told of ,william ,collins1 the poet1 by ,dr4 ,johnson1 and may be found in the second volume 7p4 #bci7 of that writer's ,miscellaneous and ,fugitive ,pieces1 published by ,davies in ,johnson's lifetime4 ,it was not ,anthony ,collins1 therefore2 but what does that matter8 ,it was a gentleman named ,collins2 his other name is indifferent4 ,besides1 the story is so much more affecting when told of ,anthony4 ,look at the lying stories of infidel death-beds2 glance at the scurrilities of an outcast minister which are gratuitously circulated by the enemies of ,colonel ,ingersoll2 observe on how many platforms ,mr4 ,brad-laugh has pulled out his watch and given the ,almighty five minutes to strike him dead2 listen to the grotesque libels on every leading ,freethinker which are solemnly circulated by ,christian malice2 and you will behold the last fruit of a very old tree1 which is slowly but surely perishing4 ,it once bore scaffolds1 stakes1 prisons and torture rooms2 it now bears but libels and insinuations4 ,,the ,,logic ,,of ,,persecution4 ,neither the cruelty of tyrants1 nor the ambition of conquerors1 has wrought so much mischief and suffering1 as the principle of persecution4 ,the crimes of a ,nero1 the ravages of an ,attila1 afflict the world for a season1 and then cease and are forgotten1 or only linger in the memory of history4 ,but persecution operates incessantly like a natural force4 ,with the universality of light1 it radiates in every direction4 ,the palace is not too proud for its entrance1 nor is the cottage too humble4 ,it affects every relationship of life4 ,its action is exhibited in public through imprisonment1 torture1 and bloodshed1 and in private through the tears of misery and the groans of despair4 ,but worse remains4 ,bodies starve and hearts break1 but at last there comes the poppied sleep1 the end of all4 ,grief is buried in the grave1 ,nature covers it with a mantle of grass and flowers1 and the feet of joy trip merrily over the paths once trodden by heavy-footed care4 ,yet the more subtle effects of persecution remain with the living4 ,they are not screwed down in the coffin and buried with the dead4 ,they become part of the pestilential atmosphere of cowardice and hypocrisy which saps the intellectual manhood of society1 so that bright-eyed inquiry sinks into blear-eyed faith1 and the rich vitality of active honest thought falls into the decrepitude of timid and slothful acquiescence4 ,what is this principle of persecution1 and how is it generated and developed in the human mind8 ,now that it is falling into discredit1 there is a tendency on the part of ,christian apologists to ascribe it to our natural hatred of contradiction4 ,men argue and quarrel1 and if intellectual differences excite hostility in an age like this1 how easy it was for them to excite the bitterest animosity in more ignorant and barbarous ages6 ,such is the plea now frequently advanced4 ,no doubt it wears a certain plausibility1 but a little investigation will show its fallacy4 ,men and women are so various in their minds1 characters1 circumstances1 and interests1 that if left to themselves they inevitably form a multiplicity of ever-shifting parties1 sects1 fashions and opinions2 and while each might resent the impertinence of disagreement from its own standard1 the very multiformity of the whole mass must preserve a general balance of fair play1 since every single sect with an itch for persecuting would be confronted by an overwhelming majority of dissidents4 ,it is obvious1 therefore1 that persecution can only be indulged in when some particular form of opinion is in the ascendant3 and if this form is artificially developed2 if it is the result1 not of knowledge and reflection1 but of custom and training2 if1 in short1 it is rather a superstition than a belief2 you have a condition of things highly favorable to the forcible suppression of heresy4 ,now1 throughout history1 there is one great form of opinion which has been artificially developed1 which has been accepted through faith and not through study1 which has always been concerned with alleged occurrences in the remote past or the inaccessible future1 and which has also been systematically maintained in its pristine purity by an army of teachers who have pledged themselves to inculcate the ancient faith without any admixture of their own intelligence4 ,that form of opinion is ,religion4 ,accordingly we should expect to find its career always attended with persecution1 and the expectation is amply justified by a cursory glance at the history of every faith4 ,there is1 indeed1 one great exception2 but1 to use a popular though inaccurate phrase1 it is an exception which proves the rule4 ,buddhism has never persecuted ,but ,buddhism is rather a philosophy than a religion2 or1 if a religion1 it is not a theology1 and that is the sense attached to religion in this article4 ,all such religions have persecuted1 do persecute1 and will persecute while they exist4 ,let it not be supposed1 however1 that they punish heretics on the open ground that the majority must be right and the minority must be wrong1 or that some people have a right to think while others have only the right to acquiesce4 ,no1 that is too shameless an avowal2 nor would it1 indeed1 be the real truth4 ,there is a principle in religions which has always been the sanction of persecution1 and if it be true1 persecution is more than right1 it is a duty4 ,that principle is ,salvation by ,faith4 ,if a certain belief is necessary to salvation1 if to reject it is to merit damnation1 and to undermine it is to imperil the eternal welfare of others1 there is only one course open to its adherents2 they must treat the heretic as they would treat a viper4 ,he is a poisonous creature to be swiftly extinguished4 ,but not too swiftly1 for he has a soul that may still be saved4 ,accordingly he is sequestered to prevent further harm1 an effort is made to convert him1 then he is punished1 and the rest is left with ,god4 ,that his conversion is attempted by torture1 either physical or mental1 is not an absurdity2 it is consonant to the doctrine of salvation by faith4 ,for if ,god punishes or rewards us according to our possession or lack of faith1 it follows that faith is within the power of will4 ,accordingly the heretic1 to use ,dr4 ,martineau's expression1 is reminded not of arguments but of motives1 not of evidence but of fear1 not of proofs but of perils1 not of reasons but of ruin4 ,when we recognise that the understanding acts independently of volition1 and that the threat of punishment1 while it may produce silence or hypocrisy1 cannot alter belief1 this method of procedure strikes us as a monstrous imbecility2 but1 given a belief in the doctrine of salvation by faith1 it must necessarily appear both logical and just4 ,if the heretic will not believe1 he is clearly wicked1 for he rejects the truth and insults ,god4 ,he has deliberately chosen the path to hell1 and does it matter whether he travel slowly or swiftly to his destination8 ,but does it not matter whether he go alone or drag down others with him to perdition8 ,such was the logic of the ,inquisitors1 and although their cruelties must be detested their consistency must be allowed4 ,catholics have an infallible ,church1 and the ,protestants an infallible ,bible4 ,yet as the teaching of the ,bible becomes a question of interpretation1 the infallibility of each ,church resolves itself into the infallibility of its priesthood4 ,each asserts that some belief is necessary to salvation4 ,religious liberty1 therefore1 has never entered into the imagination of either4 ,the ,protestants who revolted against the ,papacy openly avowed the principle of persecution4 ,luther1 ,beza1 ,calvin1 and ,melancthon1 were probably more intolerant than any ,pope of their age2 and if the ,protestant persecutions were not1 on the whole1 so sanguinary as those of the ,roman ,catholic ,church1 it was simply due to the fact that ,catholicism passed through a dark and ferocious period of history1 while ,protestantism emerged in an age of greater light and humanity4 ,persecution cannot always be bloody1 but it always inflicts on heretics as much suffering as the sentiment of the community will tolerate4 ,the doctrine of salvation by faith has been more mischievous than all other delusions of theology combined4 ,how true are the words of ,pascal3 ,jamais on ne fait le mal si pleinement et si gaiement que quand oh le fait par un faux principe de conscience4 ,fortunately a nobler day is breaking4 ,the light of truth succeeds the darkness of error4 ,right belief is infinitely important1 but it cannot be forced4 ,belief is independent of will4 ,but character is not1 and therefore the philosopher approves or condemns actions instead of censuring beliefs4 ,theology1 however1 consistently clings to its old habits4 ,infidels must not be argued with but threatened1 not convinced but libelled2 and when these weapons are futile there ensues the persecution of silence4 ,that serves for a time1 but only for a time2 it may obstruct1 but it cannot prevent1 the spread of unbelief4 ,it is like a veil against the light4 ,it may obscure the dawn to the dull-eyed and the uninquisitive1 but presently the blindest sluggards in the penfolds of faith will see that the sun has risen4 ,,luther ,,and ,,the ,,devil4 ,luther1 says ,heine1 was not only the greatest1 but also the most thoroughly ,german1 hero of our history4 ,carlyle says that no more valiant man1 no mortal heart to be called braver1 ever lived in that ,teutonic kindred1 whose character is valor4 ,michelet calls him the ,arminius of modern ,germany4 ,twenty tributes to ,luther's greatness might be added1 all more or less memorable2 but these1 from three very diverse men1 will suffice for our present purpose4 ,martin ,luther was a great man4 ,whoever questions it must appeal to new definitions4 ,a great difference lay between the cold1 saturnine ,pope of ,geneva and the frank1 exuberant hero of the ,german ,reformation4 ,their doctrines were similar2 there was a likeness between their mistakes2 but what a diversity in their natures6 ,calvin was the perfect type of the theological pedant--vain1 meagre1 and arid2 while ,luther had in him1 as ,heine remarks1 something aboriginal2 and the world has1 after all1 profited by the ,god-like brutality of ,brother ,martin4 ,the nature of this great man was suited to his task4 ,it required no great intellectual power to see through the tricks of ,papal priestcraft1 which had1 indeed1 been the jest of the educated and thoughtful for generations4 ,but it required gigantic courage to become the spokesman of discontent1 to attack an imposture which was supported by universal popular credulity1 by a well-nigh omnipotent ,church1 and by the keen-edged1 merciless swords of kings and emperors4 ,still more1 it required an indisputable elevation of nature to attack the imposture where1 as in the sale of indulgences1 it threatened the very essence of personal and social morality4 ,hundreds of persons may be hatching a new truth in unknown concert1 but when a battle for humanity has to be fought1 someone must begin1 and begin decisively4 ,luther stepped out as protagonist in the great struggle of his time2 and ,freethought is not so barren in great names that it need envy ,brother ,martin his righteous applause4 ,indeed1 it seems to me that ,freethinkers are in a position to esteem ,luther more justly than ,christians4 ,seeing what was his task1 and how it demanded a stormy1 impetuous nature1 we can thank ,luther for accomplishing it1 while recognising his great defects1 his faults of temper and the narrowness of his views2 defects1 ,i would add1 which it were unnecessary to dwell on if ,protestants did not magnify them into virtues1 or if they did not illustrate the inherent vices of ,christianity itself4 ,strong for his life-task1 ,luther was weak in other respects4 ,like ,dr4 ,johnson1 there were strange depths in his character1 but none in his intellect4 ,he emitted many flashes of genius in writing and talking1 but they all came from the heart1 and chiefly from the domestic affections4 ,he broke away from the ,papacy1 but he only abandoned ,catholicism so far as it conflicted with the most obvious morality4 ,he retained all its capital superstitions4 ,mr4 ,froude puts the case very mildly when he says that ,erasmus knew many things which it would have been well for ,luther to have known4 ,erasmus would not have called ,copernicus an old fool1 or have answered him by appealing to ,joshua4 ,erasmus would not have seen a special providence in the most trifling accidents4 ,erasmus would not have allowed devils to worry him4 ,above all1 ,erasmus would not have pursued those who were heretics to his doctrine with all the animosity of a ,papal bigot4 ,such differences induced ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold to call ,luther a ,philistine of genius2 just as they led ,goethe to say that ,luther threw back the intellectual progress of mankind for centuries4 ,another poet1 ,shelley1 seems to me to have hit the precise truth in his ,ode to ,liberty3 ,luther caught thy wakening glance3 ,like lightning from his leaden lance ,reflected1 it dissolved the visions of the trance ,in which1 as in a tomb1 the nations lay4 ,shelley's epithet is perfect4 ,luther's lance was big and potent4 ,it wrought terrible havoc among the enemy4 ,but it was leaden4 ,it overthrew1 but it did not transfix4 ,this is not the place to relate how ,luther played the ,pope in his own way2 how he persecuted the ,zwinglians because they went farther than himself on the subject of the real presence2 how he barked at the ,swiss reformers1 how he pursued ,andreas ,bodenstein for a difference on infant baptism2 how he treated ,mnzer and the ,anabaptists2 how he hounded on the nobles to suppress the peasant revolt and stab1 kill1 and strangle them without mercy2 or how he was for handing over to the executioner all who denied a single article which rested on the ,scripture or the authority of the universal teaching of the ,church4 ,my purpose is to show ,luther's attitude towards the ,devil1 witches1 apparitions1 and all the rest of that ghostly tribe2 and in doing so ,i have no wish to indulge in the most small sneer which ,carlyle reprobates2 although ,i do think it a great pity that such a man as ,luther should have been a slave to superstitions which ,erasmus would have met with a wholesome jest4 ,neither ,jews nor witches fared any the better for the ,reformation1 until it had far outgrown the intention of its founders4 ,brother ,martin hated the ,jews1 thought many of them sorcerers1 and praised the ,duke of ,saxony for killing a ,jew in testing a talisman4 ,as for witches1 he said1 ,i would have no compassion on them--,i would burn them all4 ,poor creatures6 ,yet ,luther was naturally compassionate4 ,it was the fatal superstition which steeled his heart4 ,still there are dainty sceptics who tell us not to attack superstition4 ,i point them to ,martin ,luther burning witches4 ,brother ,martin lived in ,god's presence1 but they were generally three1 for the ,devil was seldom absent4 ,his ,satanic ,majesty plagued the poor ,reformer's life till he wished himself safe in heaven4 ,sometimes the fiend suggested impious doubts1 and at ether times suicide4 ,he attributed his chronic vertigo to the ,devil1 because the physic he took did him no good4 ,so familiar did the ,devil become that ,luther1 hearing him walk overhead at night1 would say ,oh1 is it you8 and go to sleep again4 ,once1 when he was marrying-an aristocratic couple1 the wedding ring slipped out of his fingers at a critical moment4 ,he was frightened1 but1 recovering himself1 he exclaimed1 ,listen1 ,devil1 it is not your business1 you are wasting your time4 ,the famous scene in which ,luther threw an inkstand at the ,devil is legendary1 though ,coleridge1 ,carlyle and others have made it the theme of their eloquence2 and the ink-stain still shown on the wall at ,wartburg is like the stain of ,rizzio's blood in ,holyrood ,palace4 ,luther's own visions were largely due to dyspepsia and an active imagination4 ,he said that the ,devil troubled him less at night when he took a good nightcap1 which made him sleep soundly4 ,he found that the ,devil could not stand music1 being a sad and sombre personage2 just as1 long before1 music was found a sovereign recipe for the melancholia of ,king ,saul4 ,but the surest specific was railing and derision4 ,when ,luther called him names1 or laughed at him1 the ,devil vanished in a huff4 ,brother ,martin was plain-spoken at the best of times1 but on these occasions he was too-downright for quotation4 ,michelet gives a choice sample2 but though the ,french language allows more licence than ours1 he is obliged to give but the first letter of one of ,luther's vigorous substantives4 ,brother ,martin displayed a sly humor in one of his stories about ,satan4 ,a possessed person was taken into a monastery1 and the devil in him said to the monks1 ,o my people1 what have ,i done8--,popule meus1 quid feci tibi8 ,according to ,luther1 fair and foul winds were caused by good and evil spirits4 ,he spoke of a terrible lake in ,switzerland1 haunted by the ,devil1 and said there was a similar one in his own country4 ,if a stone was thrown into it1 a frightful storm shook the whole locality4 ,the ,devil made people idiots1 cripples1 blind1 deaf and dumb2 and ,luther declared that the doctors who treated such infirmities as natural had a great deal to learn in demonology4 ,one or two of his stories of possession are extremely gruesome4 ,with his own lusty love of life1 ,luther could not understand suicide1 so he attributed that also to the ,devil4 ,satan made the suicides think they were doing something else2 even praying1 and thus he killed them4 ,brother ,martin1 indeed1 sometimes feared the ,devil would twist his neck or press his skull into his brains4 ,nor did he shrink from the darkest developments of this superstition4 ,he held that the ,devil could assume the form of a man or a woman1 cohabit with human beings of the opposite sex1 and become a father or a mother4 ,eight years ago1 said ,luther1 ,i saw and touched myself at ,dessau a child who had no parents1 and was born of the ,devil4 ,he was twelve years old1 and shaped like an ordinary child4 ,he did nothing but eat1 and ate as much as three peasants or threshers4 ,when he was touched he cried out like one possessed2 if any unfortunate accident happened in the house1 he rejoiced and laughed2 if1 on the contrary1 all went well1 he wept continually4 ,i said to the princes of ,anhalt1 with whom ,i then was3 ,if ,i commanded here ,i would have that child thrown into the ,moldau1 at the risk of being its murderer4 ,but the ,elector of ,saxony and the princes were not of my opinion4 ,here is a case in which the ,doctor of ,divinity1 though naturally a kind man1 is quite ready to take human life at the behest of a devilish superstition1 while the less fanatical laymen shrink from such inhumanity4 ,the only devil in this story is the devil of fearful ignorance and misbelief in ,brother ,martin4 ,he it was who needed the exorcist1 although the truth would have greatly surprised him4 ,carlyle may use his snarling muscles at the apothecary's apprentice who is able to give a scientific explanation of ,luther's visions2 but1 after all1 the unfortunate persons whom ,luther would have murdered by mistake might be pardoned for preferring the apothecary's apprentice to the ,protestant ,pope4 ,the fact is1 the doctrine of devils1 of demoniacal possession1 of incubi and succubi1 and of sorcery and witchcraft1 was not fostered by laymen so much as by the clergy4 ,lecky remarks that almost all the great works written in favor of the executions were written by ecclesiastics1 and ,tylor asserts that the guilt of thus bringing down ,europe intellectually and morally to the level of negro ,africa lies mainly upon the ,church1 ,protestant being as bad as ,catholic1 for they vied in outraging and killing those who were doomed1 by the ghastliest of superstitions1 to be for life and death of all creatures the most wretched4 ,eternal honor to ,luther for the heroism which sent him to ,worms1 and made him exclaim to his dissuaders3 ,i will go if there are as many devils in ,worms as there are tiles upon the roofs of the houses4 ,but eternal hatred and contempt for the ,creed which degraded heroes into ,jack the ,rippers4 ,i say the ,creed2 for ,christianity cannot be exculpated4 ,witchcraft1 possession1 and sexual intercourse between human and superhuman beings1 are distinctly taught in the ,bible2 and if there were no other indictment of ,christianity1 the awful massacre and torture of millions of helpless women and children would suffice to damn it everlastingly4 ,,bible ,,english4 ,turning over the pages of ,coleridge's ,table ,talk recently1 my attention was arrested oy several passages ,i had marked1 many years ago1 in that suggestive book4 ,two or three of these1 referring to the style of the ,bible1 resuscitated some reflections ,i made on the first reading1 and which ,i now venture to express3 with all deference1 let me add1 to ,coleridge's ethereal genius and magical mastery of words4 ,intense study of the ,bible1 he says1 will keep any writer from being vulgar1 in point of style4 ,granted2 and the sacred scriptures of any people and any creed would have the some influence4 ,vulgarity1 unless it is bestial1 is monkeyish4 ,obviously this is a characteristic alien to religion1 which is based on the sense of wonder1 and deals chiefly with the sublime4 ,while the mind is absorbed by the unseen1 imagination is called into play2 and imagination is the antithesis of vulgarity4 ,the unknown is also the terrible1 and when the mind is alarmed there is no room for the puerilities of egotism4 ,any exaltation of feeling serves the same purpose4 ,the most vulgar woman1 in terror at a danger to her child1 is lifted into the sphere of tragedy1 and becomes a subject for art2 nor could the lowest wretch exhibit vulgarity when committing a murder under the influence of passion4 ,vulgarity1 in short1 is self-consciousness1 or at least only compatible with it2 and displays itself in self-assertion at the expense of others1 or in disregard or in defiance of their feelings4 ,now ,monotheism1 such as the ,bible in its sublimest parts is pregnant with1 naturally banishes this disposition1 just in proportion as it is real4 ,it may tolerate1 and even cherish1 many other evils1 but not that2 for vulgarity1 as ,i understand it1 is absolutely inconsistent with awe4 ,how then do ,i account for the vulgarities of the ,salvation ,army8 ,simply by the fact that these people have no awe2 they show the absurdities of religion without its sentiments4 ,they are townspeople1 used to music-halls1 public-houses1 street-fights1 and frivolous crowds4 ,their antics would be impish to religionists whose awe was nurtured by hills and forests1 the rising and setting sun1 and the majesty of night4 ,not only do we find the same austere simplicity in the ,vedas1 the ,kurn1 and other sacred scriptures2 we find it in most of the old world literature4 ,the characteristic of modern writings is subtlety and dexterity2 that of the ancient1 massiveness and directness2 and the same difference holds good in a comparison of the various stages of our literature4 ,the simplicity of the ,elizabethan lyrics1 to say nothing of ,chaucer1 is only to be emulated in later ages1 whose life is so much more complex1 by a recluse visionary like ,blake4 ,even when ,shelley approaches it1 in such songs as that of ,beatrice in the last act of the ,the ,cenci1 we feel that stream of music is crossed and shaken by subtle under-currents4 ,what ,coleridge claims for the ,bible may be claimed for all imaginative and passionate literature4 schylus1 ,lucretius1 ,dante1 ,milton2 how does the ,bible excel these in that respect8 ,when we come to ,shakespeare we find a sublimity which transcends that of ,isaiah1 ,ezekiel1 and ,job1 with a pathos1 a humor1 and a wit1 such as no ,hebrew writer ever imagined4 ,and ,shakepeare's superb style triumphs easily in all these fields4 ,coleridge recommends the ,bible as an antidote to vulgarity4 ,i would recommend ,milton as much1 ,dante more1 and ,shakespeare beyond all4 ,our version of the ,bible1 ,coleridge elsewhere says1 has preserved a purity of meaning to many terms of natural objects4 ,without this holdfast1 our vitiated imaginations would refine away language to mere abstractions4 ,this is merely saying that our ,bible1 designed for common people centuries ago1 is a monument of ,saxon ,english4 ,clearly that is an accident of our translation1 and not an essence of the ,bible itself4 ,as much may be said for all our ancient standards4 ,coleridge admits that our ,new ,testament is less elegant and correct than the ,old1 and contains slovenly phrases which would never have come from ,ben ,jonson1 or any other good prose writer of the day4 ,yet our ,new ,testament1 according to ,mr4 ,swinburne 7and there is no better judge71 is translated from canine ,greek into divine ,english4 ,the truth is1 the style of our ,bible is owing to the translators4 ,they lived before the hurry of our cheap periodical press1 when men wrote leisurely for leisured readers4 ,there was also no great accumulation of native literature1 and scholars studied almost exclusively the masterpieces of ,greece and ,rome4 ,their sense of style was therefore superior4 ,read the ,dedication to ,king ,james in our authorised version1 then the introduction to our revised version1 and see what an immense difference there is between the styles4 ,or read ,paul's noble praise of charity in the two versions4 ,by substituting love for charity1 the revisers have vitiated the sense1 and destroyed the balance of the style4 ,their mincing monosyllable is too weak to bear the structural weight of the clauses4 ,a closer analysis shows that they have spoiled the passage throughout4 ,they had no ear3 in other words1 no style4 ,the old translators had ears1 and knew other people had4 ,their work was meant to be read aloud1 and it bears the test4 ,that test is the supreme one1 and goes deeper than hearing4 ,flaubert1 a great master of style1 always read his manuscript aloud2 holding that phrases are right when they correspond to all the necessities of respiration1 while ill-written phrases oppress the chest1 disturb the beatings of the heart1 and contravene the conditions of life4 ,shakespeare bears this test triumphantly4 ,in his great passages1 respiration is easy and pronunciation simple2 the language is a splendid and mellifluous stream4 ,i venture to say in conclusion3 ,consult the revised version of the ,bible for meaning1 but read the old one for style4 ,it is a treasury of musical and vigorous ,saxon1 a well of strong ,english undefiled2 although ,hebrew is a poor language1 and the ,greek of the ,new ,testament is perhaps the worst ever written4 ,but do not think1 as ,macaulay pretended1 that the language of the ,bible is sufficient for every purpose4 ,it sustained the genius of ,bunyan1 but the mightier genius of ,shakespeare had to draw from other sources to support its flight4 ,our ,english ,bible contains six thousand words2 ,shakespeare's vocabulary contains nine thousand more4 ,,living ,,by ,,faith4 ,what is ,faith8 ,faith1 said ,paul1 is the substance of things hoped for1 the evidence of things not seen4 ,this is a faith that sensible men avoid4 ,the man of reason may have faith1 but it will be a faith according to knowledge1 and not a faith that dispenses with knowledge4 ,he believes that the sun will rise to-morrow1 that the ground will remain firm under his feet1 that the seasons will succeed each other in due course1 and that if he tills the ground he will reap the harvest4 ,but his belief in these things is based upon experience2 his imagination extends the past into the future1 and his expectations are determined by his knowledge4 ,the future cannot indeed be demonstrated2 it can only be predicted1 and prediction can never amount to an absolute certitude2 yet it may amount to a height of probability which is practically the same thing4 ,religious faith1 however1 is something very different4 ,it is not belief based on evidence1 but the evidence and the belief in one4 ,the result is that persons who are full of faith always regard a demand for evidence as at once a heresy and an insult4 ,their faith seems to them1 in the language of ,paul1 the very substance of their hopes2 and they often talk of the existence of ,god and the divinity of ,christ as being no less certain than their own existence4 ,properly speaking1 faith is trust4 ,this involves a wide latitude beyond our knowledge4 ,if we trust a friend1 we have faith in him1 and we act upon that sentiment4 ,but we are sometimes deceived1 and this shows that our faith was in excess of our knowledge4 ,sometimes1 indeed1 it is quite independent of knowledge4 ,we trust people because we like them1 or because they like us4 ,this infirmity is well known to sharpers and adventurers1 who invariably cultivate a pleasing manner1 and generally practise the arts of flattery4 ,the same principle holds good in religion4 ,it was sagaciously remarked by ,hume that we ought to suspect every agreeable belief4 ,the mass of mankind1 however1 are not so fastidious or discriminating4 ,on the contrary1 they frequently believe a thing because it is pleasant1 and for no other reason4 ,how often have we heard ,christian advocates prove the immortality of the soul to the complete satisfaction of their auditors by simply harping on man's desire to live for ever6 ,nay1 there have been many great philosophers who have demonstrated the same doctrine by exactly the same means4 ,religious faith1 to borrow a definition from ,chambers's ,dictionary1 is usually belief in the statement of another4 ,there are a few mystics who profess to hold personal intercourse with ,god1 but the majority1 of mankind take their religion on trust4 ,they believe it because they were taught it1 and those who taught them believed it for the very same reason4 ,when you trace back the revelation to its beginning1 you always find that it is derived from men who lived a long time ago1 or who perhaps never lived at all4 ,mohammed vouches for the ,koran4 ,yes1 but who will vouch for ,mohammed8 ,thomas ,paine well said that what is revelation to the man who receives it1 is only hearsay to the man who gets it at secondhand4 ,if anyone comes to you with a message from ,god1 first button your pockets1 and then ask him for his credentials4 ,you will find that he has none4 ,he can only tell you what someone else told him4 ,if you meet the original messenger1 he can only cry thus saith the ,lord1 and bid you believe or be damned4 ,to such a haughty prophet one might well reply1 ,my dear sir1 what you say may be true1 but it is very strange4 ,return to the being who sent you and ask him to give you better credentials4 ,his word may be proof to you1 but yours is no proof to me2 and it seems reasonable to suppose that1 if ,god had anything to tell to me1 he could communicate personally to me as well as to you4 ,in ancient times the prophets who were thus accosted worked miracles in attestation of their mission2 but our modern prophets have no such power1 and therefore they can scarcely claim our belief4 ,if they ask us why we reject what they tell us on the authority of the ancient prophets who possessed greater powers1 we reply that what is a miracle to those who see it is only a story to those who hear it1 and that we prefer to see the miracle ourselves4 ,telling us that a man rose from the dead is no reason why we should believe that three times one are one2 it is only proving one wonder by another1 and making a fresh draft on our credulity at every step in the demonstration4 ,there are men who tell us that we should live by faith4 ,but that is impossible for all of us4 ,the clergy live by faith1 yet how could they do so if there were not others to support them8 ,knaves cannot exist without dupes1 nor the ,church without subscribers4 ,living by faith is an easy profession4 ,living on faith1 however1 is more arduous and precarious4 ,elijah is said to have subsisted on food which was brought him by inspired ravens1 but there are few of ,god's ministers willing to follow his example4 ,they ask ,god to give them their daily bread1 yet they would all shrink with horror from depending on what he sends them4 ,,victor ,,hugo4 99 99 ,may #ca1ahhe4 ,two years and a half ago ,france was mourning the death of ,gambetta4 ,every hostile voice was hushed1 and the whole nation bent tearfully over the bier1 where a once mighty heart and fervent brain lay cold and still in death4 ,never1 perhaps1 since ,mirabeau burned out the last of his great life had ,paris been so profoundly moved4 ,gambetta was carried to his grave by a million of men1 and in all that tremendous procession no priest figured1 nor in all the funeral ceremony was there a word of ,god4 ,for the first time in history a nation buried her hero without a shred of religious rites or a whisper of any other immortality than the immortality of fame4 ,france now mourns the death of ,victor ,hugo1 the great poet of the ,republic1 as ,gambetta was its great orator and statesman4 ,these two1 in their several ways1 did the most to demolish the empire4 ,gambetta organised and led the ,republican opposition1 and when the dchance came1 he played deep for the ,republic in the game of life and death1 making the restoration of the empire an impossibility4 ,but long before the young orator challenged the empire1 it was arraigned before the bar of liberty and humanity by the great poet4 ,from his lonely channel rock1 in the bitter grandeur of exile1 ,victor ,hugo hurled the lightnings and thunders of his denunciation at the political burglar of ,france and his parasitical minions4 ,practical people laughed at him1 not knowing that he was more practical than they4 ,they saw nothing but the petty present1 and judged everything by its immediate success4 ,he was nourished by sovereign principles1 rooted in the depths of the human heart and blossoming in its loftiest aspirations4 ,he was a prophet who chanted his own inspiration to the world1 knowing that few would listen at first1 but assured that the message would kindle some hearts1 and that the living flame would leap from breast to breast till all were wrapt in its divine blaze4 ,he scorned the base successful lie and reverenced the noble outcast truth1 and he had unfaltering faith in the response which mankind would ultimately make to the voice of their rightful lord4 ,great he was as a poet1 a romancer and a dramatist1 but he was greatest as a prophet4 ,he lived to see his message justified and his principles triumphant1 and died at the ripe old age of eighty-three1 amid the love and reverence of the civilised world4 ,we are not blind to his failings2 he had1 as the ,french say1 the defects of his qualities4 ,but they do not obscure his glory4 ,his failings were those of other men2 his greatness was his own4 ,victor ,hugo1 like ,gambetta1 was a ,freethinker4 ,we know he professed a belief in ,god1 but he had no theology4 ,his ,god was ,nature1 suffused with passion and ideality2 and his conviction of ,some far-off divine event1 ,to which the whole creation moves1 was only his faith in progress1 extended into the remotest future4 ,he was a true ,freethinker in his grand assertion of the majesty of reason and conscience4 ,he appealed to the native dignity of the individual1 and hated priestcraft with a perfect hatred4 ,lacking humor himself1 and brilliant without wit1 he could recognise these qualities in others1 and he thought them as valid as his own weapons against the dogmas of superstition4 ,how fine was his great word about ,voltaire--,irony incarnate for the salvation of mankind4 ,like ,gambetta1 ,victor ,hugo is to be buried without religious rites1 according to his will4 ,no priest is to profane the sanctity of death by mumbling idle words over his grave concerning what he is as ignorant of as the corpse at his feet4 ,in death1 as in life1 the ,freethinker would confront the universe alone from the impregnable rock of his manhood1 convinced that ,there is no danger to a man that knows ,what life and death is3 there's not any law ,exceeds his knowledge3 neither is it lawful ,that he should stoop to any other law4 ,not only did ,victor ,hugo will that no priest should officiate at his burial1 he ordered that none should approach his bed4 ,but the carrion crows of the death-chamber were not to be deterred by his well-known wishes4 ,the ,archbishop of ,paris offered to visit the dying heretic and administer to him the supreme unction on behalf of the ,church4 ,m4 ,lockroy1 the poet's son-in-law1 politely declined the offer4 ,our newspapers1 especially the orthodox ones1 regard the ,archbishop's message as a compliment4 ,in our opinion it was a brazen insult4 ,suppose ,mr4 ,bradlaugh wrote to say that he would gladly attend the sickbed of ,canon ,wilberforce for the purpose of receiving his confession of ,atheism2 would the orthodox regard it as a compliment or an insult8 ,we fail to see any difference in the two cases1 and we know not why impertinence in an ,atheist becomes civility in a ,christian4 ,fortunately1 ,victor ,hugo's death-chamber was not intruded upon by impudent priests4 ,his relatives respected his convictions the more as they were ,freethinkers themselves4 ,no priest will consecrate his grave1 but it will be hallowed by his greatness2 and what pilgrim1 as he bends over the master's tomb1 will hear in the breeze1 or see in the grass and flowers1 any sign that a priest's benison is wanting to his repose8 ,,desecrating ,a ,,church4 ,there was a ,pantheon at ,rome1 which was a monument of the religious tolerance of the ,empire4 ,it was dedicated1 as appears from the inscription on the portico1 by ,agrippa1 son-in-law to the great ,augustus1 to ,jupiter and all the other gods1 with the same generosity that prompted the ,athenians to erect an altar to the gods that might be unknown4 ,a niche was afforded within its walls to every deity of the provinces whose devotees were willing to accept the hospitality2 and ,christ himself might have figured with the rest1 if his worshippers did not scorn all other gods but their own4 ,the old ,pantheon still exists1 and bears the name of the ,rotunda4 ,but it is no longer a ,pagan temple4 ,it was re-dedicated by ,pope ,boniface the ,fourth1 in ,a4,d4 #fjh1 to the ,virgin ,mary and all the saints4 ,another ,pope1 a thousand years later1 despoiled it of its ornaments1 which had been spared by so many barbarian conquerors4 ,he cast some into cannon1 and with the rest formed a high altar for the ,church of ,st4 ,peter4 ,these alterations were of course justifiable4 ,they were all made in the interest of ,christianity4 ,what could be more proper than the transformation of ,pagan temples into ,christian churches8 ,what more admirable than devoting to the worship of ,christ the edifice which had echoed to the tread of the priests of ,jupiter8 ,what more pious than singing the praises of ,mary and all the saints in a temple where idolaters had celebrated the glories of all the gods and goddesses of ,olympus8 ,such is ,christian logic4 ,but if the temples of one faith may be so transformed1 why may not those of another8 ,if ,christianity had the right to devote the temples of ,paganism to its own uses1 why has not modern civilisation the right to devote the temples of ,christianity to ,secular purposes8 ,the ,church thinks otherwise4 ,it is at present denouncing the secularisation of the ,church of ,st4 ,genevive1 in order that ,victor ,hugo1 who died a ,freethinker and was buried without religious rites1 might repose in an unconsecrated place4 ,this building is the ,french ,pantheon4 ,it was secularised during the ,revolution1 and dedicated by the ,republic1 not to the gods of religion1 but to the heroes of liberty4 ,when the monarchy was restored it was re-consecrated1 and purged of the luciferous taint of ,voltaire's dust4 ,but now the ,republic is once more established on the ruins of monarchy and imperialism1 it again secularises the ,church of ,st4 ,genevive as a tomb for its mighty dead4 ,the ,church is naturally indignant1 but its anathemas are powerless4 ,god does not interpose1 and the ,republic is too strong4 ,nay1 there is even a rumor that the ,roman ,pantheon may be secularised also1 and changed into a national mausoleum1 where the youth of ,italy may bend reverently before the tombs of such glorious soldiers of progress as ,mazzini and ,garibaldi1 instead of honoring the very counterfeit presentment of fabulous old saints1 chiefly renowned for their laziness and dirt4 ,the ,church of ,st4 ,genevive is desecrated1 cries the ,archbishop of ,paris1 and special prayers are offered up to that ancient lady in heaven to avert her wrath from the infidel city which has so insulted her4 ,in one sense the ,archbishop is right4 ,the ,church is desecrated in the strict etymological meaning of the word4 ,it has been converted from sacred to secular uses4 ,but in the secondary meaning of the word the building is not desecrated1 but honored1 by being made a fit receptacle for the mortal remains of ,victor ,hugo4 ,a government decree and the removal of the cross on top of the church were the only steps necessary to its desecration4 ,the consecrated character of the temple is gone4 ,to the carnal eye the structure remains unchanged1 within and without1 except for the loss of a crucifix2 but it is quite possible that a priestly nose would be able to scent the absence of the ,spirit4 ,the ,holy ,ghost has fled1 angels no more haunt the nave and aisles1 and ,st4 ,genevive hides her poor head in grief and humiliation4 ,no doubt2 yet we dare say the building will stand none the less firmly1 and if it should ever be pulled down1 its materials would fetch as much in the market as if they were saturated with divinity4 ,consecration is1 after all1 nothing but a priestly trick4 ,what sensible man believes that the ,holy ,ghost1 if such a being exist1 is at the beck and call of every ,catholic or ,protestant bishop8 ,can the universal spirit dwell exclusively in certain places8 ,can the third person of the ,trinity have sunk into such an abject state as to dodge in and out of buildings1 according as he is wanted or not8 ,is there any difference that the nose1 or any other sensitive organ1 can detect between a consecrated church and an unconsecrated chapel8 ,can the geologist or the chemist discern any difference between the consecrated and the unconsecrated division in a cemetery8 ,is the earth affected by priestly mutterings8 ,do the corpses lie any more peacefully1 or decompose any more slowly1 for the words pronounced over the mould that covers them8 ,or is there any appreciable virtue in the consecrated water1 with which the ,protestant and ,catholic are alike baptised1 and with which the latter sprinkles himself periodically as a preservative against evil8 ,season finds no difference2 it is perceived only by ,faith1 which may be defined as the faculty which enables a man to see what does not exist4 ,,walt ,,whitman4 99 99 ,april1 #ahib4 ,walt ,whitman's death can have taken no one by surprise4 ,for years he had been at the brink of the grave1 and the end comes as a relief4 ,a great soul may be cheerful1 or at least serene1 in all circumstances2 but there is neither pleasure nor dignity in living on as the ghost of one's self4 ,few superber specimens of physical manhood than ,walt ,whitman's have appeared on this planet4 ,he looks like a man1 said ,abraham ,lincoln1 as his gaze followed the poet past a window of the ,white ,house4 ,whitman stood six feet two1 his limbs and torso were splendid1 and his head was magnificently proportioned4 ,his vitality must have been wonderful1 and his health was absolutely perfect until after the ,war1 during which he too assiduously nursed the sick and wounded1 to the lasting detriment of his phenomenal constitution4 ,the flame of his life burnt on for another thirty years1 but his strength was seriously undermined1 and he is far better entitled to be called a martyr than many who have more cheaply earned the distinction4 ,walt ,whitman's great personality can hardly be disputed4 ,he impressed himself as something colossal on all who came into close contact with him4 ,the magnetism of his presence in the military hospitals was more sanative than the doctors' physic4 ,men1 women1 and children felt glad and satisfied in his company4 ,his large1 frank1 healthy nature radiated a perpetual benediction4 ,one who knew him intimately has said that he never saw upon ,whitman's features any trace of mean or evil passions4 ,the man was thoroughly wholesome4 ,even his occasionally free utterances on sexuality are only sins against decorum4 ,they do not violate nature4 ,he never spoke on this subject with the slobbery grin of the voluptuary1 or the leer of prurience4 ,he was at such moments simply unreticent4 ,meaning no harm1 he suspected none4 ,in this respect he belonged to a less self-conscious antiquity1 when nothing pertaining to man was common or unclean1 and even the worship of the powers of generation was not without dignity and solemnity4 ,some of the foremost ,englishmen of our time have acknowledged ,whitman's greatness and sanity--notably ,carlyle1 ,ruskin1 and ,tennyson4 ,mr4 ,swinburne is the only one who has unsaid his praise4 ,tennyson's intimacy with ,whitman--always through correspondence--was simply beautiful4 ,a superficial reader of human nature might have inquired what they had in common--the rough1 amorphous ,american poet1 and the exquisite ,english poet1 a flower of millenniums of culture4 ,but there is something deeper than form4 ,it is substance4 ,there is something deeper than language4 ,it is manhood4 ,and on the common ground of the deeper things of life1 the ,american and ,english poets--otherwise so diverse--clasped hands1 as it were1 across the sundering ocean4 ,whitman's claim to be considered a great poet1 or even a poet at all1 has been the subject of hot dispute4 ,but such questions are not so settled4 ,only give time enough1 and every writer falls by mere gravitation into his proper place1 from which all the controversies in the world can never shift him4 ,where the evidence is largely subjective1 as it must be in appraising genius1 there is sure to be much in our judgment that is incommunicable4 ,the logic of events1 as we say in politics2 or the proof of the pudding1 as we say in the vernacular2 is not so brilliant as logical sword-play1 but it has the merit of being decisive4 ,whitman's poetry looks strange to a reader accustomed to conventional models4 ,it positively offends his eyesight4 ,the ear may detect a certain rhythm1 but where are the set lengths of orthodox versification8 ,here1 however1 there lurks a fallacy4 ,poetry is not the antithesis of prose4 ,the antithesis of prose is verse4 ,some of the finest and noblest poetry in the world's literature is not cast in rhyme1 though rhythm--often subtler than all possible rules--is indispensable4 ,yet there is something precious in poetical form2 ay1 and something durable4 ,many an exquisite lyric1 with no great depth of feeling or reach of thought1 has come down the stream of time1 and will float upon it for ever4 ,no doubt ,dr4 ,johnson was right in calling it a waste of time to carve cherrystones1 but precious stones are the more valued and admired for the art of the lapidary4 ,whitman did not cultivate versification4 ,he almost despised it4 ,he sneered at dulcet rhymes4 ,yet this may hinder his access to posterity4 ,mr4 ,meredith hints as much in his sonnet entitled ,an ,orson of the ,muse1 which surely refers to ,whitman4 ,he allows him to be the ,muse's son1 though he will not wear her livery4 ,him1 whom he blows of ,earth1 and ,man1 and ,fate1 ,the ,muse will hearken to with graver ear ,than many of her train can waken3 him ,would fain have taught what fruitful things and dear ,must sink beneath the tidewaves1 of their weight1 ,if in no vessel built for sea they swim4 ,that ,whitman1 however1 could do great things with rhythm1 and without rhyme1 is proved by his ,funeral ,hymn of ,president ,lincoln1 which ,james ,thomson ranked with ,shelley's ,adonais1 and ,mr4 ,swinburne called the most sublime nocturne ever chanted in the cathedral of the world4 ,that this is a great poem1 and will live1 we have not the slightest doubt4 ,some other of ,whitman's poems will doubtless live with it1 but whole masses of his poetry will probably sink to the bottom--not1 however1 before doing their work and delivering their message4 ,because of his want of form1 ,whitman suffers more than other poets in extracts4 ,we shall make none1 but refer the reader to the whole body of his poetry1 ,some of it is almost wearisome2 the rest will repay study4 ,it contains the utterance of a great soul1 full of love and friendship1 patriotism and humanity1 brooding over the everlasting problems of life and death4 ,untrammelled by schools and systems1 ,whitman was a true ,freethinker4 ,cosmopolitan as he was1 he preached the gospel of individuality4 ,this is what you shall do3 love the earth and the sun and the animals1 despise riches1 give alms to everyone that asks1 stand up for the stupid and the crazy1 devote your income and labor to others1 hate tyrants1 argue not concerning ,god1 have patience and indulgence towards the people1 take off your hat to nothing known or unknown1 or to any man or number of men1 go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and mothers of families1 re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book1 dismiss whatever insults your own soul2 and your very flesh shall be a great poem1 and have the richest fluency1 not only in its words1 but in the silent lines of its lips and face1 and between the lashes of your eyes1 and in every motion and joint of your body4 ,whitman appealed to the brotherhood of all and the dignity of each4 ,he declared he would have nothing which every other man might not have on equal terms4 ,the business of the great poet was to cheer up slaves and horrify despots4 ,men1 too1 should keep in close communion with ,nature1 yet always feel that they could be good or grand only of the consciousness of the supremacy within them4 ,what do you think is the grandeur of storms and dismemberments1 and the deadliest battles and wrecks1 and the wildest fury of the elements1 and the power of the sea1 and the motion of nature1 and of the throes of human desires1 and dignity and hate and love8 ,it is that something in the soul which says-,rage on1 whirl on1 ,i tread master here and everywhere2 master of the spasms of the sky and of the shatter of the sea1 of all terror and all pain4 ,america1 perhaps even more than ,england1 has need of ,whitman's teaching as the poet of ,democracy4 ,he derided the mania of owning things1 he scorned distinctions of caste and class1 he sang the divineness of comradeship--and1 what is more1 he practised it4 ,full-blooded1 strong-limbed1 rich-brained1 large-hearted men and women are a nation's best products1 and if a nation does not yield them1 its wealth will only hasten its doom and pollute its grave4 ,,tennyson ,,and ,,the ,,bible4 99 99 ,october1 #ahib4 ,we owe no apology for speaking of the dead poet as ,tennyson4 ,this is how he will be known by posterity4 ,the rank is but the guinea's stamp1 and in this case it was not requisite4 ,a true poet's gold can neither be made more precious nor more current by empty titles4 ,in our opinion1 it is a degradation1 instead of an honor1 for one of nature's aristocrats to herd with the artificial nobility of an hereditary peerage4 ,we also take the opportunity of regretting that ,tennyson ever became ,poet ,laureate4 ,the court poet should not survive the court dwarf and the court jester4 ,it is painful to see a great writer grinding out professional odes1 and bestowing the excrements of his genius on royal nonentities4 ,the preposterous office of ,poet ,laureate should now be abolished4 ,no poet should write for a clique or a coterie2 he should appeal directly to the heart of the nation4 ,tennyson's funeral took place at ,westminster ,abbey4 ,the heads of that establishment1 following the example set by ,dean ,stanley1 now act as body-snatchers4 ,they appropriate the corpses of distinguished men1 whether they believed or disbelieved the doctrines of the service read over their coffins4 ,charles ,darwin's body is buried there--the great ,agnostic1 who repudiated ,christianity2 ,robert ,browning's too--the poet who said ,i am no ,christian to ,robert ,buchanan4 ,carlyle took care that his corpse should not join the museum4 ,tennyson's1 however1 is now in the catalogue2 and1 it must be admitted1 with more plausibility than in the case of ,browning--with far more than in the case of ,darwin4 ,christian pulpiteers1 all over the country1 have been shouting their praises of ,tennyson as a ,christian poet4 ,they are justified in making the most of a man of genius when they possess one4 ,we do not quarrel with them4 ,we only beg to remark that they have overdone it4 ,the ,christianity of ,tennyson is a very different thing from the ,christianity they vend to the credulous multitude4 ,there is no real evidence that ,tennyson accepted the legendary part of ,christianity4 ,even in ,in ,memoriam1 which was published forty-three years ago1 the thought is often extremely ,pantheistic4 ,it is nearly always so in the later poems4 ,god1 not ,christ1 became more and more the object of the poet's adoration1 ,strong ,son of ,god1 immortal ,love--the first line of tne earlier poem--does not necessarily mean ,christ2 while the exclamation1 ,ring in the ,christ that is to be1 is more symbolic than personal4 ,there is also a strong hope1 rather than the certitude1 of a future life4 ,no thoroughly convinced ,christian could have written of ,the ,shadow cloaked from head to foot1 ,who keeps the keys of all the creeds4 ,nay1 the very deity of ,christ is held loosely1 if at all1 in the thirty-third section1 where he ,whose faith has centre everywhere1 ,nor cares to fix itself to form4 is bidden to leave his sister undisturbed when she prays2 the poet exclaiming ,oh1 sacred be the flesh and blood ,to which she links a truth divine6 ,in the last line of the next stanza this sacred flesh and blood of ,christ 7it is to be presumed7 is called a type--which is a wide departure from orthodox ,christianity4 ,and what shall we say of the final lines of the whole poem8 ,one ,god1 one law1 one element1 ,and one far-off divine event1 ,to which the whole creation moves4 ,like other passages of ,in ,memoriam1 it is a distinct anticipation of the thought of ,the ,higher ,pantheism1 ,flower in the ,crannied ,wall1 ,de ,profundus1 and ,the ,ancient ,sage4 ,much has been made of the ,pilot in one of ,tennyson's last poems1 ,crossing the ,bar4 ,i hope to see my ,pilot face to face ,when ,i have crossed the bar4 ,this has been treated as a reference to ,christ2 but a friend of ,tennyson's1 writing in the ,athenum1 says that the reference was really to the poet's son1 ,lionel ,tennyson1 who crossed the bar of death some years previously4 ,how much more natural and human is the reference in the light of this explanation6 ,yet it appears1 after all1 from a later letter to the press by ,tennyson's surviving son1 that he did mean ,christ4 ,this is not1 however1 a confession of orthodoxy4 ,the sentiment might be shared by men like the venerable ,dr4 ,martineau1 who deny the deity of ,christ and strongly dissent from many time-honored ,christian teachings4 ,tennyson most assuredly revolted against the brutalities of ,christianity2 which1 by the way1 are countenanced by very explicit texts in the ,new ,testament4 ,he did not approve the text1 ,great is your reward in heaven4 ,he was above such huckstering4 ,he sang of ,virtue-- ,she desires no isles of the blest1 no quiet seats of the just1 ,to rest in a golden grove1 or to bask in a summer sky4 ,give her the wages of going on1 and not to die4 ,a noble petition6 though in the teeth of a too patent destiny4 ,the doctrine of eternal ,hell he first turned from1 then denounced1 and finally despised4 ,it was for wavering as to this hideous dogma that the ,rev4 ,f4 ,d4 ,maurice got into trouble with his ,college4 ,he was godfather to ,tennyson's little boy1 and the poet invited him1 in exquisitely charming verse1 to share his hospitality4 ,for1 being of that honest few1 ,who give the ,fiend himself his due1 ,should eighty-thousand college-councils ,thunder ,anathema1 friend1 at you2 ,should all our churchmen foam in spite ,at you1 so careful of the right1 ,yet one lay-hearth would give you welcome 7,take it and come7 to the ,isle of ,wight4 ,tennyson had already1 in ,in ,memoriam1 proclaimed himself a ,universalist1 as ,browning did afterwards in his powerful lines on the old ,morgue at ,paris4 ,he had expressed the hope ,that nothing walks with aimless feet2 ,that not one life should be destroyed1 ,or cast as rubbish to the void1 ,when ,god hath made the pile complete2 ,that not a worm is cloven in vain2 ,that not a moth with vain desire ,is shrivelled in a fruitless fire1 ,or but subserves another's gain4 ,such1 a poet could never see the divinity of the wicked1 awful words1 ,depart from me1 ye cursed1 into everlasting fire4 ,he denounced it in ,despair1 a poem of his old age4 ,well does he make the ,agnostic cry out to the minister-- ,what6 ,i should call on that ,infinite ,love that has served us so well8 ,infinite cruelty rather that made everlasting ,hell1 ,made us1 foreknew us1 foredoomed us1 and does what he will with his own2 ,better our dead brute mother who never has heard us groan6 ,this is fierce denunciation1 but it pales before the attack on ,hell in ,rizpah2 that splendid poem1 which is perhaps the very noblest effort of ,tennyson's genius2 outweighing hundreds of ,balaclava charges and sea-fights2 outshining the flawless perfection of ,maud3--a poem written in heart's blood and immortal tears1 with a wondrously potent and subtle imagination1 and a fire of humanity to burn up whole mountains of brutal superstitions4 ,the passionate words of the poor old dying mother1 full of a deathless love for her boy who was hung1 go straight as an arrow to its mark1 through all the conventions of society and all the teachings of the ,church4 ,election1 ,election and ,reprobation--it's all very well1 ,but ,i go to-night to my boy1 and ,i shall not find him in ,hell4 ,and if he be lost--but to save my soul1 that is all your desire2 ,do you think that ,i care for my soul if my boy be gone to the fire8 ,tennyson gives the very essence of the moral revolt against ,hell4 ,human nature has so developed in sympathy that the sufferings of others1 though out of sight1 afflict our imaginations4 ,we loathe the spectacle of ,abraham and ,lazarus gazing complacently on the torture of ,dives4 ,once it was not so4 ,those who were saved had little or no care for the damned4 ,but the best men and women of to-day do not want to be saved alone4 ,they want a common salvation or none4 ,and the mother's heart1 which the creeds have trampled upon1 hates the thought of any happiness in ,heaven while son or daughter is agonising in ,hell4 ,it is perfectly clear that ,tennyson was far from an orthodox ,christian4 ,quite as certainly he was not a ,bibliolator4 ,he read the ,bible1 of course2 and so did ,shelley4 ,there are fine things in it1 amidst its falsehoods and barbarities2 and the ,english version is a monument of our literature4 ,we regard as apocryphal1 however1 the story of ,tennyson's telling a boy1 ,read the ,bible and ,shakespeare2 the one will teach you how to speak to ,god1 and the other how to speak to your fellow-men4 ,anyhow1 when the poet came to die1 he did not ask for the ,bible and he did ask for ,shakespeare4 ,the copy he habitually used was handed to him2 he opened it at ,cymbeline1 one of the most pagan of ,shakespeare's plays2 he read a little1 and then held the book until ,death came with the fall of tired eyelids upon tired eyes4 ,it was a poetic death1 and a pagan death4 ,there lay the aged1 world-weary poet2 artificial light was withdrawn1 and the moonlight streamed through the window upon his noble figure4 ,wife and son1 doctors and nurses1 were silent around him4 ,and as ,death put the last cold touch on the once passionate heart1 it found him still clasping the book of the mighty magician4 99 ,let it be also noted that no ,christian priest was at his bedside4 ,he needed not the mum-lings of a smaller soul to aid him in his last extremity4 ,hope he may have had1 but no fear4 ,his life ended like a long summer day1 slowly dying into night4 99 ,the present ,lord ,tennyson wrote as follows to ,sir ,arthur ,hodgson1 ,chairman of the ,shakespeare's ,birthplace ,trustees3 ,i beg to convey from my mother and myself our grateful acknowledgment to the ,executive ,committee of ,shakespeare's ,birthplace for their most kind expression of sympathy and for their beautiful wreath4 ,my father was reading ',king ,lear1' ',troilus and ,cressida1' and ',cymbeline' through the last days of his life4 ,on ,wednesday he asked for ,shakespeare4 ,i gave him the book1 but said1 ',you must not try to read4' ,he answered1 ',i have opened the book4' ,i looked at the book at midnight when ,i was sitting by him1 lying dead on the ,thursday1 and found he had opened on one of the passages which he had called the tenderest in ,shakespeare4 ,we could not part with this volume1 but buried a ,shakespeare with him4 ,we had the book enclosed in a metal box and laid by his side4 --,yours faithfully1 ,hallam ,tennyson4 ,,christ',s ,,old ,,coat4 ,the little town of ,trier 7,treves7 will soon wear a festive appearance4 ,pilgrims will be flocking to it from all parts of ,germany1 and ,god knows from where besides4 ,its handful of inhabitants have obtained licenses to open hotels and restaurants2 every inch of available space has been let1 so that whirligigs1 panoramas1 and menageries have to be refused the sites they apply for2 every room in the town is to be let1 more or less furnished2 and not only is the tram company doubling its line1 but the railway company is constructing special stations for special trains4 ,all this excitement springs from a superstitious source4 ,after an interval of several years the ,church will once more exhibit an old rag1 which it calls the ,holy ,coat1 and which it pretends is the very garment we read of in the ,gospels4 ,such a precious relic is1 of course1 endowed with supernatural qualities4 ,it will heal the sick1 cure cripples1 and1 let us hope1 put brains into idiotic heads4 ,hence the contemplated rush to ,trier1 where more people will congregate to see ,christ's coat than ever assembled to hear him preach or see him crucified4 ,the pilgrims will not be allowed to examine the ,holy ,coat4 ,few of them1 perhaps1 would be inclined to do so4 ,thev have the faith which removes mountains1 and swallowing a coat is but a trifle4 ,nor would the ,church allow a close inspection of this curious relic1 any more than it would allow a chemist to examine the bottle in which the blood of ,st4 ,januarius annually liquefies4 ,the ,holy ,coat will be held up by priests at a discreet and convenient distance2 the multitude of fools will fall before it in ecstatic adoration2 and the result will be the usual one in such cases1 a lightening of the devotees' pockets to the profit of ,holy ,mother ,church4 ,according to the ,gospels1 the ,prophet of ,nazareth had a seamless overcoat4 ,perhaps it was presented to him by one of the rich women who ministered unto him of their substance4 ,perhaps it was a birthday gift from ,joseph of ,arimathaea4 ,anyhow he had it1 unless the ,gospels lie2 and1 with the rest of his clothes1 it became the property of his executioners4 ,those gentlemen raffled for it4 ,which of them won it we are not informed4 ,nor are we told what he did with it4 ,it would be a useless garment to a ,roman soldier1 and perhaps the warrior who won the raffle sold it to a second-hand clothes-dealer4 ,this1 however1 is merely a conjecture4 ,nothing is known with certainty4 ,the seamless overcoat disappeared from view as decisively as the person who wore it4 ,for many hundreds of years it was supposed to have gone the way of other coats4 ,no one thought it would ever be preserved in a ,church museum4 ,but somehow it turned up again1 and the ,church got possession of it1 though the ,church could not tell now and when it was found1 or where it had been while it was lost4 ,one coat disappeared2 hundreds of years afterwards another coat was found2 and it suited the ,church to declare them the same4 ,at that time the ,church was discovering relics with extraordinary success and rapidity4 ,almost everything ,christ ever used 7or didn't use7 came to light4 ,his baby linen1 samples of his hair and teeth1 and the milk he drew from ,mary's breast1 the shoes he wore into ,jerusalem1 fragments of the twelve baskets' full of food after the miracle of the loaves and fishes1 the dish from which he ate the last supper1 the thorns that crowned his brow1 the sponge put to his lips on the cross1 pieces of the cross itself--these and a host of other relics were treasured at varions churches in ,europe1 and exhibited with unblushing effrontery4 ,even the prepuce of ,jesus1 amputated at his circumcision1 was kept at ,rome4 ,several churches boasted the same articles4 ,john the ,baptist's body was in dozens of different places1 and the finger with which he pointed to ,jesus as his successor was shown1 in a fine state of preservation1 at ,besancon1 ,toulouse1 ,lyons1 ,bourges1 ,macon1 and many other towns4 ,john ,calvin pointed out1 in his grim ,treatise on ,relics1 that the ,holy ,coat of ,christ was kept in several churches4 ,in our own time1 a book on this subject has been written by ,h4 von ,sybel1 who proves that the ,trier coat is only one of twenty that were exhibited4 ,all were authentic1 and all were guaranteed by the same authority4 ,holy ,mother ,church lied and cheated without a twinge of compunction4 ,nineteen ,holy ,coats have gone4 ,the twentieth is the last of the tribe4 ,while it pays it will be exhibited4 ,when it ceases to pay1 the ,church will quietly drop it4 ,by and bye the ,church will swear it never kept such an article in stock4 ,superstition dies hard1 and it always dies viciously4 ,the ruling passion is strong in death4 ,a journalist has just been sent to prison for casting a doubt on the authenticity of this ,holy ,coat4 ,give the ,catholic ,church its old power again1 and all who laughed at its wretched humbug would be choked with blood4 ,protestants1 as well as ,freethinkers1 laugh at ,catholic relics4 ,were we to quote from some of the old ,english ,reformers1 who carried on a vigorous polemic against ,catholic idolatry1 we should be reproached for soiling our pages unnecessarily4 ,john ,calvin himself1 the ,genevan pope1 declared that so many samples of the ,virgin ,mary's milk were exhibited in ,europe that one might suppose she was a wet nurse or a cow4 ,freethinkers1 however1 laugh at the miracles of ,protestantism1 as well as those of the ,catholic ,church4 ,they are all of a piece1 in the ultimate analysis4 ,it is just as credible that ,christ's ,coat would work miracles1 as that ,elisha's bones restored a corpse to life1 or that ,paul's handkerchiefs cured the sick and diseased4 ,all such things belong to the same realm of pious imagination4 ,thus1 while the ,protestant laughs at the ,catholic1 the ,freethinker laughs at both4 ,,christ',s ,,coat1 ,,number ,,two4 ,jesus ,christ is urgently required on earth again1 to settle the pious dispute between ,treves and ,argenteuil as to which possesses the real seamless coat that was taken from him at the ,crucifixion and raffled for by the ,roman soldiers4 ,no one but the second person of the ,trinity1 unless it be the first or third person of that three-headed monstrosity1 is adequate to the settlement of this distracting quarrel4 ,even the ,papacy1 which represents the ,holy ,trinity on earth1 is at variance with itself4 ,pope ,leo favors ,treves1 and the wicked pilgrims who visit that little old town are to obtain absolution1 if they do not forget to pray for the extirpation of erroneous doctrines4 ,pope ,pius1 his predecessor1 however1 favored ,argenteuil4 ,a portion of the ,holy ,coat treasured in the church there was sent to him1 and in return for the precious gift he forwarded a well-blessed and marvellously-decorated wax taper1 which is still on show in a fine state of preservation4 ,when ,popes differ1 ordinary people1 like pious ,christians1 and even the editors of ,freethought journals1 may be excused if they hesitate to commit themselves4 ,one of these coats may be the true one1 though the evidence is all against it1 being in fact of such a shaky nature that it would hardly suffice to substantiate a claim to a bunch of radishes4 ,but both of them cannot be authentic1 and the problem is1 which is the very coat that ,jesus wore8 ,now it is obvious that no one--barring his two colleagues aforesaid--can possibly determine this question but himself4 ,his re-appearance on earth is therefore most desirable2 nay1 it is absolutely necessary1 unless a lot of people who would fain bow before the cast-off clothes of their ,redeemer are either to stay at home in a state of dubiety or to incur the risk of kneeling before a mouldy old rag that perchance belonged to a ,moorish slave or a ,syrian water-carrier--in any case1 to a dog of an infidel who spat at the very name of ,christ1 for such raiment was never worn by the worshippers of the ,nazarene4 ,if ,christ is coming to decide this great and grave problem1 he will have to make haste1 for ,argenteuil is already on the war-path4 ,its ,holy ,coat is being exhibited before that of ,treves1 and thousands of pilgrims are giving ,number ,two the preference4 ,presently the ,treves relic will attract its thousands1 and the spectacle will be positively scandalous4 ,two ,richmonds in the field were nothing to two ,christ's ,coats1 each pretending to be the real article1 and each blessed by a ,pope4 ,for the sake of decency as well as truth1 ,christ should peremptorily interfere4 ,it is difficult to see how he can refrain4 ,the ,second ,advent may therefore be expected before the date assigned by ,prophet ,baxter1 and we shall probably soon hear the faithful singing ,lo he comes in clouds descending4 ,why should he not come8 we may ask the ,catholics4 ,his mother has often appeared1 if we may believe the solemn affidavits of priests and bishops1 backed up by the ,holy ,see4 ,why should he not come8 we may also ask the ,protestants4 ,his second coming is an article of their faith2 it is plainly taught in the ,new ,testament1 and was recently propounded by ,mr4 ,spurgeon as part of the irreducible minimum of the ,christian faith4 ,that he will come1 then1 may be taken for granted2 and what better opportunity could be desired than the present8 ,surely the faithful1 all over ,europe--ay1 and in ,america1 to say nothing of ,asia1 ,africa1 and ,australia--will cry like one man1 ,come ,lord ,jesus1 quickly come6 ,tell us1 oh tell us1 which of these mouldy old rags did once grace thy holy shoulders8 ,save us1 oh save us1 from the pain1 the ignominy of adoring a dirty relic of some unknown sinner1 who perhaps blasphemed thy holy name4 ,lighten our darkness1 we beseech thee1 ,o ,lord6 ,meanwhile we may point out that1 if ,christ does not come and adjudicate between ,treves and ,argenteuil1 a multitude of ,christians will certainly go on a fool's errand4 ,our private opinion is that all will do so who visit either or these places4 ,nevertheless they will no doubt congratulate themselves1 if they go to ,treves1 on winning absolution4 ,the ,holy ,father at ,rome1 who has a supernatural dispensing power1 promises to wipe out the record of their sins4 ,liars1 cheats1 seducers1 adulterers1 and undetected assassins1 may take a trip1 perform genuflexions before something in a glass case1 and return home with a clean record4 ,who can conceive an easier method of avoiding the consequences of wickedness8 ,as for the prayer which the pilgrims are to offer up for the extirpation of erroneous doctrines1 it will cost them very little effort1 for sinners who are washed clean with such delightful celerity are not likely to be in love with erroneous doctrines that declare the ,pope's dispensing power a sham1 and sternly tell men that the consequences of action1 whether good or bad1 are inevitable4 ,we very much doubt1 however1 if erroneous doctrines will disappear through the prayers of the pilgrims or the curses of the ,pope4 ,scepticism will probably gain by the spectacle of two rival ,coats of ,christ1 both exhibited at the same time1 both attracting crowds of devotees1 and both enjoying the ,papal blessing4 ,it will bring superstition into still further contempt1 and promote the rejection of a creed which has ever traded on ignorance and credulity4 ,,scotched1 ,,not ,,slain4 ,those who have read the foregoing articles on the ,holy ,coat exhibitions at ,treves and ,argenteuil may think that enough space has been devoted to such a ridiculous subject4 ,it is possible1 however1 that the present article will induce them to alter that opinion4 ,hitherto we have treated this outburst of ,christian superstition with jocosity1 but there is a serious aspect of it which must not be neglected4 ,christianity has often made ,freethinkers laugh1 but not unfrequently it has made them weep tears of blood4 ,absurdity is not always a laughing matter4 ,there was a comic side to the orthodox persecution of ,charles ,bradlaugh--but it killed him4 ,bigotry and superstition are fit subjects for jest and ridicule2 when they gain power1 however1 they are apt to substitute agony for laughter4 ,celsus ridiculed ,christianity in the second century2 in the fourth his writings were absolutely destroyed1 and those who shared his opinions1 and dared to express them1 were on the high road to the prison and the stake4 ,more recent events teach the same lesson4 ,thomas ,paine treated ,christianity not only with trenchant argument1 but also with brilliant derision4 ,for this he suffered ostracism and calumny1 and for publishing the ,age of ,reason ,richard ,carlile1 his wife1 his sister1 and his shopmen rotted in ,english gaols4 ,the ,freethinker derided ,christian absurdities1 and its conductors were sent to herd with criminals in a ,christian prison4 ,nearly everyone thought1 as ,sir ,james ,stephen declared in a legal text-book1 that the ,blasphemy ,laws were obsolete2 but it was proved by the inexorable logic of fact that laws are never obsolete until they are repealed4 ,while the ,blasphemy ,laws exist they are always liable to enforcement4 ,they are the standing menace of an absurd creed to those who smile at it too ostentatiously4 ,let us extend the same line of reflection to this ,holy ,coat business4 ,contemptible as it is to the eye of reason1 it excites the piety of millions of persons who never reasoned on religion in the whole course of their lives4 ,hundreds of thousands of men and women will visit these sham relics of a ,savior whose own existence is open to dispute4 ,superstition will be stirred to its depths4 ,the bestial instinct of spiritual slavery inherited from ancient semi-human progenitors will be intensely stimulated4 ,the sacred function of priests will be heightened and intensified4 ,nor must it be forgotten that the pecuniary offerings of the pilgrims will fill the coffers of ,holy ,mother ,church1 who promises heaven to her dupes and seizes wealth and power for herself on earth4 ,superstition is scotched1 but not slain4 ,it has life enough to be a peril to civilisation4 ,the faith which wrecked the grandeur that was ,greece and the glory that was ,rome--the faith which buried the science1 art1 philosophy and literature of antiquity under a monstrous heap of brutal rubbish1 out of which they were slowly and painfully excavated after the lapse of a thousand years--this same faith is still a danger to the highest welfare of mankind2 to its reason1 its conscience1 its sense of dignity1 and its spirit of brotherhood2 above all1 to freedom of thought1 which is the sole guarantee of real and durable progress4 ,if we turn to ,russia1 we see at a single glance the fruits of superstition and its twin-sister tyranny4 ,the ,czar is the head of the ,church and the head of the ,state2 not like ,queen ,victoria1 whose sacred function is only indicated in ,latin on our coinage1 but in literal1 prosaic fact4 ,by means of a swarm of ignorant1 and often drunken and immoral priests1 the masses of the people are kept in wretched subjection--hewers of wood and drawers of water1 toilers for the huge army of officials1 aristocrats1 and princes--and conscripts for the army2 while the best and noblest1 in whom there still throbs the pulse of freedom1 blacken the highways to the mines of ,siberia1 where hell is more than realised on earth1 and the dreams of sour-blooded theologians are outdone in misery and horror4 99 ,over the rest of ,europe1 even in ,france1 the secular ,state is often as insecure as the footsteps of travellers over thin crusts of volcanic soil4 ,bismarck1 the ,titan1 whose great work1 with all its defects and failings1 may appeal from the clamorous passing hour to the quiet verdict of history1 only kept the ,catholic ,church and its ,jesuits in check for a generation4 ,he could not impair its vitality nor diminish its latent power4 ,it is in ,germany that the ,coat of ,christ is being exhibited1 with priests and professors joining hands at the brazen ceremony of imposture2 in ,germany that myriads of pilgrims are wending their way to the shrine of an idolatry as ignominious as anything that ,christianity ever supplanted4 ,even in ,france the one great danger to the ,republic is ,christian superstition4 ,it is the ,church1 her priests and her devotees1 that furnish the real strength of every reactionary movement4 ,that consummate charlatan1 ,general ,boulanger1 took to going to church and cultivating orthodoxy when at the height of his aspiration for power4 ,happily he was defeated by the men of light and leading4 ,happily1 too1 the ablest and most trusted leaders of public life in ,france are on the side of ,freethought4 ,it is this1 more than anything else1 that makes the country of ,voltaire the beacon of civilisation as well as the martyr of democracy4 ,charles ,bradlaugh1 on a very solemn occasion1 warned the ,freethought party that even in ,england their great fight would ultimately be with the ,catholic ,church4 ,he knew that superstition was scotched1 but he also knew it was far from slain4 ,while ,freethinkers are laughing at this exhibition of old rags1 called the ,coat of ,christ1 they should pause for a moment to consider the serious meaning of such a grotesque display of superstition in the land of ,goethe and ,heine1 and in the age of ,darwin4 ,let us jest round our camp-fires1 but let us grip our sword-hilts as we hear the cries1 the jingle of weapons1 and the tramp of men in the camp of our enemy4 ,,god-,,making4 ,man is certainly stark mad2 he cannot make a flea1 and yet he will be making gods by dozens4 ,so wrote honest ,montaigne1 the first great sceptic in modern history1 who was so far in advance of his age that he surprised the world by venturing to doubt whether it was after all a just and sensible thing to burn a man alive for differing from his neighbors4 ,the history of that mental aberration which is called religion1 and a survey of the present state of the world1 from the fetish worshipper of central ,africa to the super-subtle ,theist of educated ,europe1 furnish us with countless illustrations of the truth of ,montaigne's exclamation4 ,god-making has always been a prevalent pastime1 although it has less attraction for the modern than for the ancient mind4 ,it was a recreation in which everyone could indulge1 whether learned or illiterate1 young or old1 rich or poor4 ,all the material needed to fashion gods of was ignorance1 and there was always an unlimited stock of that article4 ,the artificer was imagination1 a glorious faculty1 which is the highest dower of the creative artist and the scientific discoverer1 and in their service is fruitful in usefulness and beauty1 but which in the service of theology is a frightful curse1 filling the mental world with fantastic monsters who waylay and devour4 ,common people1 however1 who did the work of the world1 were not able to do much god-making4 ,their leisure and ability were both limited4 ,but they had a large capacity for admiring the productions of others1 and their deficiencies were supplied by a special class of men1 called priests1 who were set apart for the manufacture of deities1 and who devoted their time and their powers to the holy trade4 ,this pious division of labor1 this specialisation of function1 still continues4 ,carpenters and tailors1 grocers and butchers1 who are immersed all the week in labor or business1 have no opportunity for long excursions in the field of divinity2 and therefore they take their religion at second hand from the priest on ,sunday4 ,it was not the multitude1 but the sacred specialists1 who built up the gigantic and elaborate edifice of theology1 which is a purely arbitrary construction1 deriving all its design and coherence from the instinctive logic of the human mind1 that operates alike in a fairy tale and in a syllogism4 ,primitive man used conveniently-shaped flints before he fashioned flint instruments2 discovery always preceding invention4 ,in like manner he found gods before he made them4 ,a charm resides in some natural object1 such as a fish's tooth1 a queer-shaped pebble1 or a jewel1 and it is worn as an amulet to favor and protect4 ,this is fetishism4 ,by-and-bve counterfeits are made of animals and men1 or amalgams of both1 and the fetishistic sentiment is transferred to these4 ,this is the beginning of polytheism4 ,and how far it extends even into civilised periods1 let the superstitions of ,europe attest4 ,the nun who tells her beads1 and the lady who wears an ornamental crucifix1 are to some extent fetishists2 while the ,catholic worship of saints is only polytheism in disguise4 ,reading the ,bible with clear eyes1 we see that the ancient ,jews worshipped gods of their own making1 which were handed down as family relics4 ,when ,jacob made tracks after sucking his uncle dry1 ,rachel carried off the poor old fellow's teraphim1 and left him without even a god to worship4 ,jahveh himself1 who has since developed into ,god the ,father1 was originally nothing but an image in an ark4 ,micah1 in the book of ,judges1 makes himself a houseful of gods1 and hires a ,levite as his domestic chaplain4 ,how long the practice persisted we may judge from the royal scorn which ,isaiah pours on the image-mongers1 who hewed down cedars and cypresses1 oaks and ashes1 some for fuel and some for idols4 ,let us hear the great prophet3 ,he burneth part thereof in the fire2 with part thereof he eateth flesh2 he roasteth roast1 and is satisfied3 yea1 he warmeth himself1 and saith1 ,aha1 ,i am warm1 ,i have seen the fire3 ,and the residue thereof he maketh a god1 even his graven image3 he falleth down unto it1 and worshippeth it1 and prayeth unto it1 and saith1 ,deliver me1 for thou art my god4 ,twenty-six centuries have elapsed since ,isaiah wrote that biting satire1 yet image-worship still prevails over three-fourths of the world2 and even in ,christian countries1 to use ,browning's phrase1 we see ,god made and eaten every day4 ,a wave of the hand and a muttered spell1 change bread or wafer and port-wine into the body and blood of ,christ1 which are joyously consumed by his cannibal worshippers4 ,not even the higher divinities of the greater faiths are exempt from the universal law4 ,they are not creatures of man's hand1 yet they are creatures of his brain4 ,what are they but his own fancies1 brooded on till they become facts of memory1 and seem to possess an objective existence8 ,the process is natural and easy4 ,a figment of the imagination may become intensely real4 ,have we not a clearer idea of ,hamlet and ,othello than of half our closest acquaintances8 ,feuerbach went straight to the mark when he aimed to prove that the powers before which man crouches are the creatures of his own limited1 ignorant1 uncultured and timorous mind1 and that in especial the being whom man sets over against himself as a separate supernatural existence in his own being4 ,yes1 all theology is anthropomorphism--the making of gods in man's image4 ,what is the ,god of our own theology1 as ,matthew ,arnold puts it1 but a magnified man8 ,we cannot transcend our own natures1 even in imagination2 we can only interpret the universe in the terms of our own consciousness1 nor can we endow our gods with any other attributes than we possess ourselves4 ,when we seek to penetrate the mystery of the infinite1 we see nothing but our own shadow and hear nothing but the echo of our own voice4 ,as we are so are our gods1 and what man worships is what he himself would be4 ,the placid ,egyptian nature smiles on the face of the sphinx4 ,the gods of ,india reflect the terror of its heat and its beasts and serpents1 the fertility of its soil1 and the exuberance of its people's imagination4 ,the glorious ,pantheon of ,greece-- ,praxitelean shapes1 whose marble smiles ,fill the hashed air with everlasting love-- embodies the wise and graceful fancies of the noblest race that ever adorned the earth1 compared with whose mythology the ,christian system is a hideous nightmare4 ,the ,roman gods wear a sterner look1 befitting their practical and imperial worshippers1 and ,jove himself is the ideal genius of the eternal city4 ,the deities of the old ,scandinavians1 whose blood tinges our ,english veins1 were fierce and warlike as themselves1 with strong hands1 supple wrists1 mighty thews1 lofty stature1 grey-blue eyes and tawny hair4 ,thus has it ever been4 ,so ,man created god in his own image1 in the image of ,man created he him2 male and female created he them4 ,,god ,,and ,,the ,,weather4 ,with characteristic inconsistency the ,christian will exclaim ,here is another blasphemous title4 ,what has ,god to do with the weather8 ,everything1 sir4 ,not a sparrow falls to the ground without his knowledge1 and do you think he fails to regulate the clouds8 ,the hairs of your head are numbered1 and do you think he cannot count the rain-drops8 ,besides1 your clergy pray for a change in the weather when they find it necessary2 and to whom do they pray but ,god8 ,true1 they are getting chary of such requests1 but the theory is not disavowed1 nor can it be unless the ,bible is 'discarded as waste-paper2 and the forms of supplication for rain and fine weather still remain in the ,prayer ,book1 although many parsons must feel like the parish clerk who asked ,what's the use of praying for rain with the wind in that quarter8 ,we might also observe that as ,god is omnipotent he does everything1 or at least everything which is not left 7as parsons would say7 to man's freewill1 and clearly the weather is not included in that list4 ,god is also omniscient1 and what he foresees and does not alter is virtually his own work4 ,even if a tile drops on a man's head in a gale of wind1 it falls1 like the sparrow1 by a divine rule2 and it is really the ,lord who batters the poor fellow's skull4 ,an action for assault would undoubtedly lie1 if there were any court in which the case could be pleaded4 ,what a frightful total of damages would be run up against the defendant if every plaintiff got a proper verdict6 ,for1 besides all the injuries inflicted on mankind by accident1 which only means the ,lord's malice or neglect1 it is a solemn fact 7on the ,theist's hypothesis7 that ,god has killed every man1 woman1 and child that ever died since the human race began4 ,we are born here without being consulted1 and hurried away without the least regard to our convenience4 ,but let us keep to the weather4 ,a gentleman who was feeding the fish at sea heard a sailor singing ,britannia rules the waves4 ,does she8 he groaned1 ,then ,i wish she'd rule them straighter4 ,most of us might as fervently wish that the ,lord ruled the weather better4 ,some parts of the world are parched and others flooded4 ,in some places the crops are spoiled with too much sun1 and in others with too little4 ,some people sigh for the sight of a cloud1 and others people see nothing else4 ,occasionally a famine occurs in ,india which might have been averted by half our superfluity of water4 ,even at home the weather is always more or less of a plague4 ,its variation is so great that it is always a safe topic of conversation4 ,you may go out in the morning with a light heart1 tempted by the sunshine to leave your overcoat and umbrella at home2 and in the evening you may return wet through1 with a sensation in the nose that prognosticates a doctor's bill4 ,you may enter a theatre1 or a hall1 with dry feet1 and walk home through a deluge4 ,in the morning a south wind breathes like zephyr on your cheeks1 and in the evening your face is pinched with a vile and freezing northeaster4 ,oh1 say the pious1 it would be hard to please everybody1 and foolish to try it4 ,remember the old man and his ass4 ,perhaps so1 but the ,lord should have thought of that before he made us2 and if he cannot give us all we want1 he might show us a little consideration now and then4 ,but instead of occasionally accommodating the weather to us1 he invariably makes us accommodate ourselves to the weather4 ,that is1 if we can4 ,but we cannot1 at any rate in a climate like this4 ,men cannot be walking almanacks1 nor carry about a wardrobe to suit all contingencies4 ,in the long run the weather gets the better of the wisest and toughest1 and when the doctors have done with us we head our own funeral procession4 ,the doctor's certificate says asthma1 bronchitis1 pulmonary consumption1 or something of that sort4 ,but the document ought to read ,died of the weather4 ,poets have sung the glory of snowy landscapes1 and there is no prettier sight than the earth covered with a virgin mantle1 on which the trees gleam like silver jewels4 ,but what an abomination snow is in cities4 ,the slush seems all the blacker for its whiteness1 and the pure flakes turn into the vilest mud4 ,men and horses are in a purgatory4 ,gloom sits on every face4 ,pedestrians trudge along1 glaring at each other with murderous eyes2 and the amount of swearing done is enough to prove the whole thing a beastly mistake4 ,it seems perfectly clear that when the ,lord designed the weather1 two or three hundred million years ago1 he forgot that men would build cities4 ,he continues to treat us as agriculturalists1 even in a manufacturing and commercial country like this4 ,why should people get drenched in ,fleet-street while the ,buckinghamshire farmers want rain8 ,the arrangement is obviously stupid4 ,god ,almighty ought to drop the rain and snow in the country1 and only turn on enough water in the cities to flush the sewers4 ,he ought also to let the rain fall in the night4 ,during the daytime we want the world for our business and pleasure1 and the ,rain ,department should operate when we are snug in bed4 ,this is a reforming age4 ,gods1 as well as men1 must move on4 ,it is really ridiculous for the ,clerk of the ,weather to be acting on the old lines when everybody down below can see they are behind the time4 ,if he does not improve we shall have to agitate on the subject ,home ,rule is the order of the day4 ,we need ,home for the globe1 and we cannot afford to let the weather be included in the imperial functions4 ,it is a domestic affair4 ,and as the ,lord has considerably mismanaged it1 he had better hand it over to us1 with full power to arrange it as we please4 ,,miracles4 ,what is a miracle8 ,some people would reply1 an act of ,god4 ,but this definition is far too wide4 ,in the theistic sense1 it would include everything that happens2 and in the sense of our archaic bills of lading1 it would include fire and shipwreck4 ,others would reply1 a miracle is a wonder4 ,but this definition would include every new1 or at least every surprising new fact4 ,a black swan would have been a wonder before ,australia was discovered1 but it would have been no miracle4 ,railways1 telegraphs1 telephones1 electric light1 and even gas light1 would be wonders to savages1 yet neither are they miracles4 ,one of the ,mahdi's followers was astonished by an ,english officer1 who pulled out his false eye1 tossed it in the air1 caught it1 and replaced it2 after which he asked the flabbergasted ,arab whether his miraculous ,mahdi could do that4 ,it was a greater wonder than the ,mahdi could perform2 still it was not a miracle4 ,ice was so great a wonder to the ,king of ,siam that he refused to credit its existence4 ,yet it was not miraculous1 but a natural product1 existing in practically unlimited quantities in the polar regions4 ,we might multiply these illustrations ad infinitum1 but what we have given will suffice4 ,if not1 let the reader spend an evening at ,maskelyne and ,cooke's1 where he will see plenty of startling wonders and not a miracle amongst them4 ,hume's definition of a miracle as a violation of a law of nature1 is the best ever given1 and it really is as perfect as such a definition can be4 ,it has been carped at by ,christian scribblers1 and criticised by superior theologians like ,mozley4 ,but1 to use ,mr4 ,gladstone's phrase1 it keeps the field4 ,even the criticisms of ,mill and ,huxley leave its merit unimpaired4 ,the ground taken by these is1 that to say a miracle is a violation of a law of nature is to prejudge the question1 and to rule out all future facts in the interest of a prepossession4 ,mill1 however1 allows that a miracle is a violation of a valid induction1 and as a law of nature means nothing more it is difficult to understand why he takes any exception to ,hume's statement of the case4 ,it is perfectly obvious that ,hume's argument is not metaphysical1 but practical4 ,he does not discuss the possibility but the probability of miracles4 ,he reduces the dispute to a single point1 namely1 whether the person who relates a miracle 7for to the world at large the question is necessarily one of testimony7 is deceived or deceiving1 or whether the otherwise universal experience of mankind is to be disbelieved2 in other words1 whether he or the rest of the world is mistaken4 ,one man may1 of course1 be right1 and all the human race opposed to him wrong1 but time will settle the difference between them4 ,that time1 however1 simply means general experience through long ages2 and that is precisely the tribunal which ,hume s argument appeals to4 ,quarrelling with ,hume's definition is really giving up miracles altogether1 for1 except as supernatural evidence1 they are no more important than shooting stars4 ,the very nature of a miracle1 in whatever formula it may be expressed1 is superhuman1 and having a purpose1 it is also supernatural2 in other words1 it is a special manifestation of divine power for a particular object4 ,whether1 being so1 it is a violation1 a contravention1 or a suspension of the laws of nature1 is a mere question about words4 ,we may say that a miracle has three elements4 ,it is first a fact1 unaccountable by science2 secondly1 it requires a conscious agent2 and thirdly1 it results from the exercise of a power which that agent does not naturally possess4 ,let us descend to illustration4 ,huxley takes the following case4 ,suppose the greatest physiologist in ,europe alleged that he had seen a centaur1 a fabulous animal1 half man and half horse4 ,the presumption would be that he was laboring under hallucination2 but if he persisted in the statement he would have to submit to the most rigorous criticism by his scientific colleagues before it could be believed2 and everybody would feel sure beforehand that he would never pass through the ordeal successfully4 ,the common experience1 and therefore the common sense1 of society would be dead against him1 and probably he would be refused the honor of examination even by the most fervid believers in ancient miracles4 ,but after all the centaur1 even if it existed1 would not be a miracle1 but a monstrosity4 ,it does not contain the three elements we have indicated4 ,real miracles would be of a different character4 ,plenty may be found in the ,bible1 and we may make a selection to illustrate our argument4 ,jesus ,christ was once at a marriage feast1 when the wine ran short1 which was perhaps no uncommon occurrence4 ,being of a benevolent turn of mind1 and anxious that the guests should remember the occasion1 he turned a large quantity of cold water into fermented juice of the grape4 ,now water contains oxygen and hydrogen in definite proportions1 and nothing else1 while wine contains in addition to these1 carbon and other elements1 being in fact a very complex liquid4 ,jesus ,christ must1 therefore1 in turning water into wine1 have created something1 and that transcends human power4 ,here1 then1 we have a complete miracle1 according to ,hume's definition and our own theory4 ,we do not say the miracle never occurred1 although we no more believe in it than we believe the moon is made of green cheese4 ,we are willing to regard it as susceptible of proof4 ,but does the proof exist8 ,to answer this we must inquire what kind of proof is necessary4 ,an extraordinary story should be supported by extraordinary evidence4 ,it requires the concurrent and overwhelming testimony of eye-witnesses4 ,we must be persuaded that there is no collusion between them1 that none of them has anything to gain by deception1 that they had no previous tendency to expect such a thing1 and that it was practically impossible that they could be deluded4 ,now let any man or any ,christian seriously ask himself whether the evidence for ,jesus ,christ's miracle is of this character4 ,four evangelists write his life1 and only one mentions the occurrence4 ,even he was certainly not an eye-witness1 nor does he pretend to be1 and the weight of evidence is against his gospel having been written till long after the first disciples of ,jesus were dead4 ,but even if the writer distinctly declared himself an eye-witness1 and if it were undeniable that he lived on the spot at the time1 his single unsupported testimony would be absurdly inadequate to establish the truth of the miracle4 ,every reader will at once see that the established rules of evidence are not conformed to1 and whoever accepts the miracle must eke out reason with faith4 ,so much for the evidence of miracles4 ,their intellectual or moral value is simply nil4 ,the greatest miracle could not really convince a man of what his reason condemned2 and if a prophet could turn water into wine1 it would not necessarily follow that all he said was true4 ,in fact1 truth does not require the support of miracles2 it flourishes better without their assistance4 ,universal history shows that miracles have always been employed to support falsehood and fraud1 to promote superstition1 and to enhance the profit and power of priests4 ,a ,,real ,,miracle4 99 99 ,may1 #ahia4 ,it is a common belief among ,protestants1 though not among ,catholics1 that the age of miracles is past4 ,for a long time it has been very difficult to find a real case of special providence4 ,there are stories afloat of wonderful faith-cures1 and the followers of ,john ,wesley1 as well as the followers of ,william ,booth1 often shake their heads mysteriously1 and affect to trace the hand of ,god in certain episodes of their experience4 ,but such cases are too personal1 and too subjective1 to challenge criticism or inquiry4 ,investigating them is like exploring a cloud4 ,there is nothing tangible for the mind to seize1 nothing to stand by as the basis of discussion4 ,what is wanted is a real objective miracle1 a positive fact4 ,happily such a miracle has come to the aid of a distressed ,christianity2 it is worth tons of learned apologetics1 and will give the dying creed a fresh lease of life4 ,unfortunately the world at large is in gross ignorance of this astonishing event4 ,like the earthquake1 the eclipse1 and the wholesale resurrection of saints at the crucifixion of ,christ1 it has excited very little public attention4 ,but this dense apathy1 or ,satanic conspiracy of silence1 must not be allowed to hide a precious truth4 ,we therefore do our best to give it publicity1 although in doing so we are blasting our own foundations2 for we belong to a party which boasts that it seeks for truth1 and we are ready to exclaim1 ,let truth prevail though the heavens fall4 ,most of our readers will remember the late accident on the ,brighton line at ,norwood4 ,a bridge collapsed1 and only the driver's presence of mind averted a great loss of life4 ,of course the driver did his obvious duty1 and presence of mind is not uncommon enough to be miraculous4 ,but that does not exhaust the matter4 ,the driver 7,hargraves7 is perfectly sure he received divine assistance4 ,he is a man of pious habits4 ,he never leaves his house without kneeling down with his wife and imploring ,god's protection4 ,he never steps on the engine without breathing another prayer4 ,on the morning of the accident his piety was in a state of unusual excitation4 ,he begged his wife to pray all that day--which we presume she did1 with intervals for refreshment2 and he knelt down himself in the passage before opening his front door4 ,when the accident happened he put the brake on and cried ,lord1 save us1 and according to the ,christian ,world it has since been stated by expert engineers that no train was ever before pulled up in such a short distance4 ,a carping critic might presume to ask the names and addresses of these expert engineers4 ,he might also have the temerity to inquire the precise distance in which the train was pulled up1 the shortest distance in which other trains have been pulled up1 and the weight and velocity of the train in each case4 ,he might also meanly suggest that putting on the brake left as little as possible to ,providence4 ,for our part1 however1 we will not pursue such hyper-criticism4 ,it is applying to a miracle a test which it is not fitted to stand4 ,something must be left to faith1 something must be reserved from reason1 or the stoutest miracle would soon fall into a galloping consumption4 ,the man in whom a pious disposition counteracts the restless play of thought1 will not demand absolute proof2 he will only require an encouraging amount of evidence2 and he will dutifully lift his face and hands to heaven1 exclaiming1 ,lord ,i believe1 help thou mine unbelief4 ,the line we shall follow is a different one4 ,without questioning the miracle1 we venture to ask why it was not more complete4 ,lives were saved1 but several persons were injured4 ,was this due to the fact that ,hargraves' prayer was not sufficiently above proof8 ,did the ,lord answer the prayer according to its insensity8 ,was there a sceptic in the train who partially neutralised its effect8 ,or did the ,lord proceed on the method favored by priests1 preventing the miracle from being too obvious1 but giving the incident a slightly supernatural appearance1 in order to confirm the faith of believers without convincing the callous sceptics1 whose deep sin of incredulity places them beyond the means of grace and the hope of glory8 ,nor are these questions exhaustive4 ,very much remains to be said4 ,it appears that the ,norwood bridge collapsed through a secret flaw in the ironwork4 ,could not the ,lord1 therefore1 in answer to ,hargraves' prayers--which surely extended to the interests of his employers--have inspired one of the ,company's engineers with the notion of some unsoundness in the structure8 ,this would have saved a good deal of property1 and many passengers from suffering a shock whose effects may haunt them for years1 and perhaps send them to untimely graves8 ,might not the ,lord have cleared the roadway below1 knocked down the bridge in the night1 and brought some one to see the collapse who could have carried the tidings to the signalmen8 ,certainly there seems a remarkable want of subtlety in the ways of ,providence4 ,it looks as though the ,deity heard a prayer now and then1 and jerked out a bit of miracle in a more or less promiscuous manner4 ,what has happened to ,providence since the ,bible days8 ,miracles then were clear1 convincing1 and artistically rounded4 ,you could not possibly mistake them for anything else4 ,baalam's ass1 for instance1 was not a performing moke2 it does not appear to have known a single trick2 and when it opened its mouth and talked in good ,moabitish1 the miracle was certain and triumphant4 ,in the same way1 the ,norwood miracle might have been unadultterated with the usual operations of nature4 ,the bridge might have collapsed as the train approached1 driver ,hargraves might have said his prayer1 the train might have leapt across the chasm1 picked up the connection on the other side1 and pursued its way to ,brighton as if nothing had happened4 ,but as the case stands1 ,providence and the safety-brake act together1 and it is difficult to decide their shares in the enterprise4 ,further1 the miracle is sadly mixed4 ,any human being would have planned it better1 and made it stand out clearly and firmly4 ,this ,norwood miracle1 however1 seems the best obtainable in these days4 ,it is a minute return for all the prayers of the clergy1 to say nothing of pious engine-drivers2 a miserable dividend on the gigantic investment in supernaturalism4 ,we pity the poor shareholders1 though we must congratulate the directors on the large salaries they draw from the business4 ,we also pity poor old ,providence1 who seems almost played out4 ,once upon a time he was in fine form2 miracles were as common as blackberries2 ,nature seldom got an innings1 and ,jehovah was all over the field4 ,but nowadays ,nature seems to have got the better of him4 ,she scarcely leaves him a corner for his operations1 and what little he does 7if he does anything7 has to be done in obscurity4 ,poor old ,providence1 we fancy1 has had his day4 ,his vigor is gone1 his lively fancy has degenerated into moping ineptitude1 the shouts of millions of worshippers cannot stimulate his sluggishness into any more effective display than this ,norwood miracle4 ,most sincerely we offer him our condolence as the sleeping partner in the business of religion4 ,by and bye we may offer our condolence to the active partners1 the priests of all denominations1 who still flourish on a prospectus which1 if once true1 is now clearly fraudulent4 ,when their business dwindles1 in consequence of a failing supply of good supernatural articles1 they will only live on the price of actual deliveries1 and a ,norwood miracle will hardly afford six of them a mouthful apiece4 ,,jesus ,,on ,,women4 ,for religions1 says ,michelet1 woman is mother1 tender guardian1 and faithful nurse4 ,the gods are like men2 they are reared1 and they die1 upon her bosom4 ,truer words were never uttered4 ,michelet showed in ,la ,sorcire1 from which this extract is taken1 as well as in many other writings1 that he fully understood the fulcrum of priestcraft and the secret of superstition4 ,women are everywhere the chief1 and in some places the only1 supporters of religion4 ,even in ,paris1 where ,freethinkers abound1 the women go to church and favor the priest4 ,naturally1 they impress their own views on the children1 for while the father's influence is fitful through his absence from home1 the mother's is constant and therefore permanent4 ,again and again the clergy have restored their broken power by the hold upon that sex which men pretend to think the weaker1 although they are obviously the sovereigns of every generation4 ,men may resolve to go where they please1 but if they cannot take the women with them they will never make the journey4 ,women do not resist progress1 they simply stand still1 and by their real1 though disguised1 rule over the family1 they keep the world with them4 ,freethinkers should look this fact in the face4 ,blinking it is futile4 ,whoever does that imitates the hunted ostrich1 who does not escape his doom by hiding his head4 ,the whole question lies in a nutshell4 ,where one sex is1 the other will be2 and there is a terrible1 yet withal a beautiful1 truth in the upshot of ,mill's argument1 that if men do not lift women up1 women will drag men down4 ,in the education and elevation of women1 then1 lies the great hope of the future4 ,leading ,freethinkers have always seen this4 ,shelley's great cry1 ,can man be free if woman be a slave8 is one witness1 and ,mill's great essay on ,the ,subjection of ,women is another4 ,go where you will1 you find the priests courting the women4 ,they act thus1 not because they despise men1 or fear them1 but because they 7often unconsciously7 feel that when they have captured the weaker sex1 the other becomes a speedy prey4 ,perhaps a dim perception of this truth hovered in the minds of those who composed the story of the ,fall4 ,the serpent does not bother about ,adam4 ,he just makes sure of ,eve1 and she settles her stronger half4 ,milton makes ,adam reluct and wrangle1 but it is easy to see he will succumb to his wife's persuasions4 ,he swears he won't eat1 but ,eve draws him all the time with a silken string1 mightier than the biggest cable4 ,when the ,christian monks were proselytising at ,rome1 they were hated1 says ,jortin1 as beggarly impostors and hungry ,greeks who seduced ladies of fortune and quality4 ,hated1 yes2 but what did the hatred avail8 ,the women were won1 and the game was over4 ,men growled1 but they had to yield4 ,the same holds good to-day4 ,watch the congregations streaming out of church1 count ten bonnets to one hat1 and you might fancy ,christianity played out because the men stay at home and neglect its ministrations4 ,nothing of the sort4 ,men may desert the churches as they like1 but while the women go the clergy are safe4 ,examine the church and chapel organisations closely1 and you will see how nine-tenths of everything is designed for women and children4 ,yes1 the bonnet is the priest's talisman4 ,like ,constantine's legendary cross1 it bears the sign ,by this ,conquer4 ,on the other hand1 the clergy never fail to remind women that religion is their best friend4 ,without our doctrines and our holy ,church1 they say1 there would be social chaos2 the wild passions of men would spurn control1 marriage would be despised1 wives would become mistresses1 homes would disappear1 and children would be treated as encumbrances4 ,there is not a grain of truth in this1 for religion has fomented1 countenanced1 or cloaked1 more sensuality and selfishness than it has ever repressed4 ,but it is a powerful appeal to woman's healthy domestic sentiment4 ,she feels1 if she does not know1 that marriage is her sheet-anchor1 and the home an ark on a weltering flood4 ,when the priest tells her that religion is the surety of both1 he plucks at her heart1 which vibrates to its depths1 and she regards him as her savior4 ,historically1 the ,christian religion1 at least1 has never been woman's real friend4 ,it claims credit for everything2 but what has it achieved8 ,monogamy was practised by the rude ,teutons before ,christianity converted them by fraud and force1 and it was the law in pagan ,greece and ,rome before the ,christian era4 ,yet in the ,bible there is not a word against polygamy4 ,god's favorites had as many wives as they could manage1 and ,solomon had enough to manage him4 ,in the ,new ,testament there is only one man who is told to be the husband of one wife1 and that is a bishop4 ,even in his case1 a facetious sceptic hints1 and the ,mormons argue1 that the command only means that he must have one wife at least4 ,there are two supreme figures in the ,new ,testament1 ,paul and ,jesus4 ,what ,paul says about women ,i will deal with presently4 ,for the moment ,i confine myself to ,jesus4 ,let the reader remember that ,christianity cannot transcend the ,bible1 any more than a stream can rise above its source4 ,like most revivalists and popular preachers1 ,jesus had a number of women dangling at his heels1 but his teaching on the subject in hand is barren1 or worse4 ,as a child1 he gave his mother the slip at ,jerusalem1 and caused her much anxiety4 ,during his ministry1 when his mother and his brethren wished to speak with him1 he forgot the natural ties of blood1 and coolly remarked that his family were those who believed his gospel4 ,on another occasion he roughly said to ,mary1 ,woman1 what have ,i to do with thee8 ,these examples are not very edifying4 ,if ,christ is our great exemplar1 the fashion he set of treating his nearest relatives is more honored in the breach than in the observance4 ,jesus appears to have despised the union of the sexes1 therefore marriage1 and therefore the home4 ,he taught that in heaven1 where all are perfect1 there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage2 the saints being like angels1 probably of the neuter gender4 ,in ,matthew xix4 #ab he appears to recommend emasculation1 praising those who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake4 ,this doctrine is too high for flesh and blood1 but ,origen and other early ,christians practised it literally4 ,we may be sure that those who trample on manhood have no real respect for womanhood4 ,hence the ,romish ,church has always praised up virginity1 which is simply an abnegation of sex4 ,cruden shrinks from the literal sense of ,christ's words1 and says that the eunuchs he refers to are those who upon some religious motive do abstain from marriage and the use of all carnal pleasures2 that they may be less encumbered with the cares of the world1 and may devote themselves more closely to the service of ,god4 ,moonshine6 ,origen was a better judge than ,cruden4 ,if ,jesus did not mean what he said1 why did he take the trouble to speak8 ,his doctrine is that of the anchorite4 ,it led naturally to the filthy wretches1 called monks1 who dreaded the sight of a woman1 and hoped to please ,god by stultifying nature4 ,it also led to the ,church law forbidding women to touch the sacrament with their naked hands1 lest they should pollute it4 ,only women who relish that infamous law can feel any respect for the teaching of ,jesus4 ,,paul ,,on ,,women4 ,christianity1 as the centuries have revealed its practical character1 owes more to ,paul than to ,jesus4 ,its dogmas are mostly derived from the epistles of the great apostle4 ,many a true believer thinks he is obeying the carpenter's son1 when all the time he is obeying the ,tarsus tent-maker4 ,the ,christian road to heaven was laid out and paved1 not by ,jesus himself1 but by the gentleman he 7or a sunstroke7 converted outside ,damascus4 ,paul was in some respects a better teacher than ,jesus4 ,he was more practical1 and with all his misty metaphysics he had a firmer hold on the realities of life4 ,but with respect to women1 he follows dutifully in his ,savior's wake1 and elaborates1 rather than supplements1 the sexual injunctions we have already dealt with4 ,like his ,master1 he looks down upon marriage1 and is evidently of opinion that if men should not make themselves eunuchs they should live as such1 ,the ,american ,shakers are only carrying out his policy in this respect4 ,if all the world imitated them the human race would soon expire4 ,it would then be impossible to adopt the children of outsiders1 families would be gradually extinguished1 and the second coming of ,christ would be prematurely hastened4 ,paul was a bachelor1 and a crusty one4 ,according to tradition or calumny1 he was jilted by a ,jewish woman1 and this may account for his peevish attitude towards the sex4 ,in the seventh chapter of the first of ,corinthians he gives vent to a great deal of nasty nonsense4 ,it is good1 he says1 for a man not to touch a woman1 ,if he had meant by this that men were not to thrash their wives we should have thoroughly agreed with him4 ,but what he means is that there should be no sexual intercourse4 ,he was especially severe on young widows who contemplated a second marriage4 ,no doubt if he had seen a young widow whose weeds1 as is generally the case1 were arranged coquettishly1 he would have muttered ,anathema ,maranatha4 ,as his own constitution was liable to occasional weaknesses1 he might have added1 ,get thee behind me1 ,satan4 ,a few verses later he expresses himself with greater clearness than ,jesus ,christ ever attained to3 ,i say therefore to the unmarried and widows1 ,it is good for them if they abide even as ,i4 ,but if they cannot contain1 let them marry2 for it is better to marry than to burn4 ,paul wished the same end as ,jesus4 ,he desired to see every person celibate1 but having a little more common sense than ,jesus1 he saw that such preaching would never be extensively practised 7especially by young widows7 and he was obliged to make a concession to human frailty4 ,the very fact1 however1 shows that his view of the question was radically wrong4 ,marriage is not an excusable weakness1 but the normal condition of mankind4 ,physiologically1 mentally1 and morally this truth holds good4 ,even the highest virtues have never sprung from monasteries and convents1 but from the rude rough world of toiling and suffering men and women outside4 ,according to ,paul1 although marriage was lawful1 virginity was a higher state2 that is1 to be perfect1 a woman must stultify her nature and trample upon her maternal instincts4 ,it also implies that she is essentially impure1 and that she can only please ,god by abnegating her sex4 ,this is the deepest disrespect of womanhood1 as every healthy wife and mother would admit if such stuff were taught by another than ,paul4 ,the great apostle troubled his poor head about the heads of women4 ,if he lived now when the ladies affect short hair he would go raving mad4 ,it was a subject on which he felt profoundly4 ,to his mind a woman losing her long hair1 was like an angel falling from glory4 ,he warns the whole sex against meddling with their tresses4 ,men1 however1 are recommended to crop close1 long hair being shameful4 ,we have a shrewd suspicion that ,paul was bald4 ,perhaps if hair restorer had been then invented a successful trial might have considerably changed his views upon this subject4 ,man was not created for woman1 says ,paul1 but woman for man4 ,he is of course alluding to the old ,rib ,story4 ,but a similar observation would have been as sensible about the two halves of a pair of scissors4 ,when they meet what does it matter which was made for the other8 ,consistently with this view he says1 ,wives1 submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the ,lord444 as the ,church is subject unto ,christ so let the wives be to their husbands in everything4 ,some men have tried this with no great success1 and many a man thinks he is having his own way in everything when he is sweetly and beautifully led by the nose4 ,obedience is a hateful word in marriage4 ,its introduction makes the wife a legalised concubine4 ,besides1 if there must be obedience1 ,paul's rule is ridiculously sweeping1 for some women have more sense and judgment than their husbands4 ,every afflicted woman who applies to the magistrate for relief from the sot who curses her home is flying in the face of ,paul4 ,my dear woman1 the magistrate should say1 your request is very reasonable1 but it is very unorthodox4 ,go home and read the fifth chapter of ,ephesians1 where you will see that wives must obey their husbands in everything4 ,paul 7#a ,cor4 xiv4 #cd1 #ce2 ,tim4 ii4 #aa1 #ab7 warns women to keep silence in church1 for it is not permitted unto them to speak4 ,having written this line1 ,paul must have got up and strutted round the room like a ruffled cock4 ,let the woman1 he says1 learn in silence with all subjection4 ,i suffer not a woman to teach1 nor to usurp authority over the man1 but to be in silence4 ,hear1 hear6 from the males in the body of the synagogue4 ,evidently ,paul could bray on occasion as lustily as ,balaam's ass4 ,if the women will learn anything1 which he clearly thought problematical1 let them ask their husbands at home4 ,fancy some women with no other sources of information6 ,the reason ,paul gives for woman's inferiority is that ,mrs4 ,eve was first tempted by the serpent4 ,and a capital thing too6 ,if ,mrs4 ,eve had not eaten that apple the human race would still number two1 or else1 if none of them died1 they would be thicker than barrelled herrings4 ,our ,church of ,england marriage service follows the teaching of ,paul4 ,while the husband promises to-love the wife1 the wife promises to love1 honor and obey the husband4 ,many ladies say these words at the altar with a mental reservation4 ,when they are obliged to do this they tacitly admit that ,paul and the ,church are wrong4 ,but if so the ,bible is wrong4 ,the fact is that the blessed book1 instead of being woman's best friend1 is her worst enemy4 ,the ,tenth ,commandment makes her domestic property1 and ,paul winds up by telling her that her sole duty is to play second fiddle in a minor key4 ,,mother',s ,,religion4 ,religion is the feminine element in human nature4 ,science is the masculine4 ,one accepts1 the other inquires2 one believes1 the other proves2 one loves the old1 the other the new2 one submits1 the other dares2 one is conservative1 and the other progressive4 ,i say this with no disrespect to women4 ,evolution has made them what they are1 and evolution will remake them4 ,nor do ,i slight the noble band of advanced women1 the vanguard of their sex1 who have shed a lustre on our century4 ,i merely take a convenient metaphor1 which crystallises a profound truth1 though fully conscious of its shortcomings and exclusions4 ,woman is still the citadel of religion4 ,thither the priest flies from the attacks of scepticism4 ,there he finds an inviolable refuge4 ,the mother1 the wife1 the sister1 shield him and his creed2 and their white arms and soft eyes are a better guard than all the weapons in the armory of his faith4 ,his are the coward's tactics1 but all creatures--even priests--plead the necessity of living1 and have the artful instinct of self-preservation4 ,religious by inheritance and training1 woman rears her children for the ,church4 ,spiritual as well as bodily perils shake her prophetic soul as she peers into the future through the eyes of the child upon her knee4 ,she whispers of ,god with accents of awe1 that fall solemnly on the little one's mind4 ,she trains the knee to bend1 the hands to meet in prayer1 and the eyes to look upward4 ,she wields the mighty spell of love1 and peoples the air of life with phantoms4 ,infantile logic knows those dear lips cannot lie1 and all is truth for all is love4 ,alas6 the lesson has to come that the logic is faulty1 that goodness may be leagued with lies1 that a twisted brain may top the sweetest heart4 ,but long ere the lesson is learnt--if it is learnt--the mischief has been wrought4 ,the child has been moulded for the priest1 and is duly burnished with catechisms and stamped with dogmas4 ,and how often1 when the strong mind grows and bursts its bonds1 when the mental eyes wax strong and see the falsehood1 the mother's hand1 through the child's training1 plucks the life back from the fulfilment of its promise4 ,how often1 also1 when the vigorous manhood has swept aside all illusions1 there comes at length the hour of lassitude1 and as the mother's voice steals through the caverns of memory the spectres of faith are startled from their repose4 ,priests are always warning men against deserting the creed of their mothers4 ,and even a savant1 like ,professor ,gazzia1 who writes on ,giordano ,bruno1 knows the trick of touching this facile cord of the human heart4 ,speaking of ,bruno's philosophy1 he says3 ,i call it plainly the ,negation of ,god1 of that ,god1 ,i mean1 of whom ,i first heard at my mother's knee4 ,but ,freethinking mothers--and happily there are such--will use their power more wisely2 and1 above all1 will not shrink from their duty4 ,they have the fashioning of the young life--a transcendent privilege1 with an awful responsibility4 ,they will see that love nurtures the affections without suborning the intellect2 that the young mind is encouraged to think1 instead of being stuffed with conclusions2 and they will some day find their exceeding rich reward4 ,their children1 trained in the school of self-respect and toleration1 will be wiser than the pupils of faith2 and the bonds of love will be all the tenderer and stronger for the perception that the free individuality of the child's life was never sacrificed to the parent's authority4