,is ,the ,bible ,worth ,reading ,and ,other ,essays ,by ,lemuel ,k4 ,washburn ,new ,york ,the ,truth ,seeker ,company #aiaa ,,contents ,dedication ,is ,the ,bible ,worth ,reading ,sacrifice ,the ,drama ,of ,life ,nature ,in ,june ,the ,infinite ,purpose ,freethought ,commands ,a ,rainbow ,religion ,a ,cruel ,god ,what ,is ,jesus ,deeds ,better ,than ,professions ,give ,us ,the ,truth ,the ,american ,sunday ,lord ,and ,master ,are ,christians ,intelligent ,or ,honest ,the ,danger ,of ,the ,ballot ,who ,carried ,the ,cross ,modern ,disciples ,of ,jesus ,a ,poor ,excuse ,profession ,and ,practice ,where ,is ,truth ,what ,does ,it ,prove ,human ,responsibility ,abolish ,dirt ,religion ,and ,morality ,jesus ,as ,a ,model ,singing ,lies ,a ,walk ,through ,a ,cemetery ,peace ,with ,god ,saving ,the ,soul ,the ,search ,for ,something ,to ,worship ,where ,are ,they ,some ,questions ,for ,christians ,to ,answer ,the ,image ,of ,god ,religion ,and ,science ,the ,bible ,and ,the ,child ,when ,to ,help ,the ,world ,the ,judgment ,of ,god ,christianity ,and ,freethought ,the ,brotherhood ,and ,freedom ,of ,man ,whatever ,is ,is ,right ,the ,object ,of ,life ,man ,the ,dogma ,of ,the ,divine ,man ,the ,rich ,man's ,gospel ,speak ,well ,of ,one ,another ,disgraceful ,partnerships ,science ,and ,theology ,unequal ,remuneration ,the ,old ,and ,the ,new ,guard ,the ,ear ,the ,character ,of ,god ,not ,important ,oaths ,dead ,words ,confession ,of ,sin ,death's ,philanthropy ,our ,attitude ,towards ,nature ,reverence ,for ,motherhood ,the ,god ,of ,the ,bible ,the ,measure ,of ,suffering ,nature ,creeds ,don't ,try ,to ,stop ,the ,sun ,shining ,follow ,me ,can ,we ,never ,get ,along ,without ,servants8 ,a ,heavenly ,father ,worship ,not ,needed ,was ,jesus ,a ,good ,man ,how ,to ,help ,mankind ,on ,the ,cross ,equal ,moral ,standards ,authority ,a ,clean ,sabbath ,human ,integrity ,is ,it ,true ,keep ,the ,children ,at ,home ,teacher ,and ,preacher ,fear ,of ,doubts ,bible-,backing ,beggars ,habits ,can ,poverty ,be ,abolished ,the ,roman ,catholic ,god ,human ,cruelty ,infidelity ,atheism ,christian ,happiness ,what ,god ,knows ,the ,meaning ,of ,the ,word ,god ,what ,has ,jesus ,done ,for ,the ,world ,the ,agnostic's ,position ,orthodoxy ,ideas ,of ,jesus ,the ,silence ,of ,jesus ,does ,the ,church ,save ,save ,the ,republic ,a ,woman's ,religion ,the ,sacrifice ,of ,jesus ,fashionable ,hypocrisy ,the ,saturday ,half-,holiday ,the ,motive ,for ,preaching ,the ,christian's ,god ,indifference ,to ,religion ,sunday ,schools ,going ,to ,church ,who ,is ,the ,greatest ,living ,man ,illustration4 ,lemuel ,k4 ,washburn ,,dedication ,the writer of this book dedicates it to all men and women of common honesty and common sense4 ,,is ,,the ,,bible ,,worth ,,reading ,that depends4 ,if a man is going to get his living by standing in a ,christian pulpit1 ,i should be obliged to answer1 ,yes6 ,but if he is going to follow any other calling1 or work at any trade1 ,i should have to answer1 ,no6 ,there is absolutely no information in the ,bible that man can make any use of as he goes through life4 ,the ,bible is not a book of knowledge4 ,it does not give instruction in any of the sciences4 ,it furnishes no help to labor4 ,it is useless as a political guide4 ,there is nothing in it that gives the mechanic any hint1 or affords the farmer any enlightenment in his occupation4 ,if man wishes to learn about the earth or the heavens2 about life or the animal kingdom1 he has no need to study the ,bible4 ,if he is desirous of reading the best poetry or the most entertaining literature he will not find it in the ,bible4 ,if he wants to read to store his mind with facts1 the ,bible is the last book for him to open1 for never yet was a volume written that contained fewer facts than this book4 ,if he is anxious to get some information that will help him earn an honest living he does not want to spend his time reading ,genesis1 ,exodus1 ,numbers1 ,kings1 ,psalms1 or the ,gospels4 ,if he wants to read just for the fun of reading to kill time1 or to see how much nonsensical writing there is in one book1 let him read the ,bible4 ,i have not said that there are not wise sayings in the ,bible1 or a few dramatic incidents1 but there are just as wise sayings1 and wiser ones1 too1 out of the book1 and there are dramas of human life that surpass in interest anything contained in the ,old or ,new ,testament4 ,no person can make a decent excuse for reading the ,bible more than once4 ,to do such a thing would be a foolish waste of time4 ,but our stoutest objection to reading this book is1 not that it contains nothing particularly good1 but that it contains so much that is positively bad4 ,to read this book is to get false ideas1 absurd ideas1 bad ideas4 ,the injury to the human mind that reads the ,bible as a reliable book is beyond repair4 ,i do not think that this book should be read by children1 by any human being less than twenty years of age1 and it would be better for mankind if not a man or woman read a line of it until he or she was fifty years old4 ,what ,i want to say is this1 that there is nothing in the ,bible that is of the least consequence to the people of the twentieth century4 ,english literature is richer a thousand fold than this so-called sacred volume4 ,we have books of more information and of more inspiration than the ,bible4 ,as the relic of a barbarous and superstitious people1 it should have a place in our libraries1 but it is not a work of any value to this age4 ,i pity men who stand in pulpits and call this book the word of ,god4 ,i wish they had brains enough to earn their living without having to repeat this foolish falsehood4 ,the day will come when this book will be estimated for what it a worth1 and when that day comes1 the ,bible will no longer be called the word of ,god1 but the work of ignorant1 superstitious men4 ,the cross everywhere is a dagger in the heart of liberty4 ,a miracle is not an explanation of what we cannot comprehend4 ,the statue of liberty that will endure on this continent is not the one made of granite or bronze1 but the one made of love of freedom4 ,take away every achievement of the world and leave man freedom1 and the earth would again bloom with every glory of attainment2 but take away liberty and everything useful and beautiful would vanish4 ,,sacrifice ,the sacrifice of ,jesus1 so much boasted by the ,christian church1 is nothing compared to the sacrifice of a mother for her family4 ,it is not to be spoken of in the same light4 ,a mother's sacrifice is constant3 momentary1 hourly1 daily1 life-long4 ,it never ceases4 ,it is a veritable providence2 a watchful care2 a real giving of one life for another1 or for several others2 a gift of love so pure and holy1 so single and complete1 that it is an offering in spirit and in substance4 ,this is to me the highest1 purest1 holiest act of humanity4 ,all others1 when weighed with this unselfish consecration to duty1 seem small and insignificant4 ,there is1 in a mother's life1 no counting of cost1 no calculation of reward4 ,it is enough that a duty is to be done2 that a service is to be rendered2 that a sacrifice is called for4 ,the true mother gives herself to the offices of love without hope1 expectation1 or wish of recompense4 ,a mother's love for her children cannot be determined by any earthly measure1 by any material standard4 ,it outshines all glory1 and is the last gleam of light in the human heart4 ,a mother's love walks in a thousand ,gethsemanes1 endures a thousand ,calvaries1 and has a thousand agonies that the dying of ,jesus upon a cross cannot symbolize4 ,this maternal sacrifice is the greater that it is made cheerfully1 without a murmur1 and even with joy4 ,if it is not sought2 it is never pushed aside4 ,a mother's sacrifice for her family makes a chapter of suffering1 of patient toil and strife1 of heroic endurance and forbearance1 that religion is not yet high enough to appreciate2 and this sublime devotion is not in one home1 but in hundreds of thousands in every land everywhere on earth1 and it is real1 true1 heart-born1 and the utmost of renunciation that human life has revealed4 ,the brief martyrdom of ,jesus was not voluntary1 was not lasting in its pain or in its service to mankind4 ,his death was cruel1 his suffering and agony terrible to think of1 but it was all soon over4 ,a few hours of torture make up the tragedy of the cross4 ,but the story of this crucifixion may be fictitious1 imaginary2 most likely is such4 ,perhaps no such man died such a death in any such way4 ,then how vain and foolish to waste our sympathy on a fanciful sufferer1 an imaginary martyr1 who never existed outside of the brain of the writer of the story1 while there are actual1 real beings living who are making a greater sacrifice1 doing a holier duty1 within our reach6 ,we need not go to a ,bible to find those who deserve our tears1 or who have earned our admiration4 ,the bravest heart that ever author wrote into being1 fails to come up to the lofty height of endurance1 of a life inspired by love1 of heroic sacrifice1 that can be found in hundreds of homes in our land4 ,far be it from my intention to paint less any deed of mortal that has brightened the lot of man1 or to throw discredit upon aught that is worthy of human gratitude and praise4 ,i yield most ready sympathy and most willing admiration to every noble soul that has lived or died to make earth better and happier1 but ,i do not believe that greatness1 goodness and love are all dead1 and that our whole duty is to stand and weep around a tomb4 ,i believe in living men and women1 in living hearts and souls1 in living greatness and goodness and love1 and ,i tell you all that the earth never bore more loving1 more humane1 tenderer1 braver1 or truer hearts than beat today in the living breasts of mankind4 ,and ,i place above all that is brave and true1 great and good1 in the past or present1 the mothers of our age4--,what man cannot see that silent1 patient mother in her home1 the victim of a multitude of trials1 crosses1 annoyances1 day after day and week after week1 meeting all1 bearing all1 with a saint's look and manner2 and what man1 seeing her there1 at the side of the sick1 worn out with watching and waiting1 and then at the bed of death1 faithful and true to the last1 though wounded in heart and spirit never faltering in the way of duty1 that would not say if there be one sacrifice that is above1 and greater than1 all others1 it is that of a mother's love8 ,,the ,,drama ,,of ,,life ,with the passing of the season we are reminded of the rapid flight of life4 ,it seems but yesterday that the first bluebird of spring lit on the bare bough of the apple-tree in the orchard near by1 and the early robin sang his welcome notes in our glad ears1 and yet the bluebird and robin are seen and heard no more1 and the green promise of spring has changed to the brown harvest of autumn1 which will soon be stored for winter's use4 ,this is the way every season comes and goes2 a little long in coming sometimes2 but never long in going2 and every year grows shorter as we grow older1 and every year goes more quickly as we near the border of old age4 ,life soon changes from a glad look ahead to a sad glance behind4 ,from baby to boy1 from boy to man1 from man to tottering age2--how swiftly the scenes change1 and life comes and life goes1 and the door of death opens almost before the door of birth closes4 ,the cradle and the grave touch1 and the blithe youth that lends his strength to feeble age finds himself ere long leaning upon the arm of youth and strength4 ,the circle of years soon rolls round1 and life is but a day of toil and a night of dreams4 ,as we look back upon vanished time and see the happy scenes of childhood mingled with the surroundings of later life1 days and months shrink to hours1 and years seem to be spanned by a sunrise and a sunset with a little laughter and perhaps some tears between4 ,we who have travelled more than half way on the road cannot look backward without a sigh1 cannot think backward without a pang4 ,many of us have left the graves of father and mother behind1 perhaps the smaller graves of children1 where some of our heart lies buried too4 ,the storms that beat on us make life seem shorter2 make the days go faster1 and the night draw nearer2 and all of us have already1 or must sometime1 bow our heads to the blast4 ,one human being in the great world of man1 and in the greater world of ,nature1 plays but a small part4 ,of but little account is a human life in the vast1 limitless universe4 ,a man fills but a little space while alive1 and touches but a few hearts when he dies4 ,we are fortunate if we make during life1 one true1 loyal friend who stands by us while that life lasts4 ,we reckon this1 after all1 the grandest triumph of the human soul4 ,it is not difficult to gather dollars--quite a number1 at least1--nor to win a measure of fame1 but to live1 to be1 to act1 in such way as to bind one true heart to ours1 is a victory which we may be proud of4 ,some lives have larger circumferences than others1 radiate farther1 influence more1 but none can win the rare tribute of perfect friendship from more than one or two4 ,yes6 man plays but a small part in the great drama of life4 ,he is on the stage but a few short hours1 and most men are but poor or indifferent actors at best4 ,who cares when a man dies8 ,not the sun1 for it shines just as gaily when he closes his eyes to its golden light2 not the birds1 for they chatter and sing over his coffin1 and hop and sing on his grave2 not the brook1 for it runs laughing on and never stops its gambols and song2 not any of the things of earth1 but man4 ,when man dies1 a few say1 ,is he gone8 and then forget that he ever lived2 a few go to help carry his dead body to the grave1 and then turn away to join the business and pleasure of life1 and forget that they have buried a man2 a few1 some days after1 call at the house where he lived and drop a tear of sympathy for the weeping widow and tearful children1 and then forget that the husband and father is no more4 ,but does no one care8 ,perhaps a wife1 who will carry his dead image in her heart as long as it beats2 perhaps a daughter1 who will remember him a year or two1 or a little longer1 who will miss his happy greeting1 his loving kiss1 his proud1 kind look as he lifts the heart's dearest idol to his knee2 and this is all4 ,and this is enough4 ,we care for only a few2 and why should many care for us8 ,though life is short and not always heroic2 and though1 when it ends1 the world goes on just the same1 we love life and it is sweet while it lasts4 ,though we travel quickly over the road1 we enjoy for the most part1 the journey of life4 ,we have pain1 it is true2 we learn of sorrow and grief2 we feel the pang of parting and weep on the white face of some loved one1 and yet1 we find happiness1 we enjoy living1 and we regret when the curtain is rung down and our part is played and the lights turned out4 ,when we strike the balance between pleasure and pain1 joy and sorrow1 happiness and misery1 most find that life is worth living4 ,a dogma will thrive in soil where the truth could not get root4 ,the measure of liberty which man enjoys determines the civilization of the age in which he lives4 ,the person who can make a loaf of bread is more to the world than the person who could perform a miracle4 ,the indifference to ,christianity may well alarm the men who live on the credulity that gives it the show of life1 but to those who delight in actions of sincerity1 it affords the greatest encouragement1 for it promises to the world a day when intelligence and integrity will be respected more than ignorance and hypocrisy4 ,,nature ,,in ,,june ,we can hardly look anywhere in ,nature without having the conviction grow in the mind that there are more or less superfluous things on this spot of the universe where our lot is cast1 however it may be in ,mars1 ,venus1 ,saturn1 or any other of the ,greek-named planets or any heavenly constellations with or without names4 ,just at this particular season of the year1 the presence of weeds in the garden or on the farm raises a colossal doubt as to the fact of any wisdom guiding the divine voice when1 in a majestic sweep of its omnipotent power on the third day of the drama of creation1 it called into being the grass1 the herb1 the tree and whatsoever bears leaf or blade or flower4 ,to those who have to pull the weeds out of the ground they are a curse of the first magnitude1 and how a creator1 who had common sense1 could take pride in making such vegetable abortions as weeds we cannot comprehend4 ,the most worthless things in ,nature are the most prolific4 ,chickweed will cover an acre while clover is considering where it is best to go into business1 and every pesky1 nasty little weed will live and laugh when the queenly corn droops its head in the sun1 and the beet and turnip cannot get nourishment enough to keep them alive4 ,it is just the same in the animal world4 ,an immense quantity of useless beings go about on two and four legs or on none at all4 ,the only excuse for the snake is that he was made to eat the toad2 for the toad1 that he was made to eat insects2 for the insects--well1 nobody has yet made a wholesome excuse for their existence1 anyway4 ,it looks as though one being in ,nature was made simply to kill another being1 and the last-made being1 man1 is the supreme killer of the whole lot4 ,take the whole range of wild beasts1 and find1 if you can1 aught but malice in their creation1 if they were created4 ,no plague ever destroyed hyenas and jackals4 ,no one ever found a sick rattlesnake or an invalid hornet4 ,the fittest survive8 ,the fittest for what8 ,to worry man1 to make life miserable4 ,mosquitoes1 wasps1 fleas1 reptiles and wild beasts1 poisonous vines and shrubs1 noxious blossoms whose perfume is the kiss of death1 weeds that push and crowd decent plants until they die in utter despair--these are the sturdiest triumphs of the creative art4 ,we cannot help wishing that the ,lord-,god had not rested on the seventh day1 but instead1 had gone around and destroyed about seven-eighths of what he had created4 ,we might then have had quite a decent world to live in4 ,man builds a home for her he loves1 he plants beside it all that will make it beautiful to the eyes of his wife4 ,he works and brings what is fair to adorn it1 and makes every room a casket to hold the jewel of love4 ,he looks at his home with pride1 and feels that it is 8the dearest spot on earth10 a refuge safe and secure4 ,the cyclone comes and in a moment all is swept away4 ,man cannot trust the ,god of the winds4 ,there is no more terrible calamity that afflicts our globe at the present time than an earthquake4 ,it comes without warning1 by day or night1 when man is at his place of business or when he is at rest4 ,there is no way of preventing it1 no way of preparing for it4 ,it may wait a hundred1 a thousand1 years before it works its deadly ruin4 ,but when it comes1 havoc is left4 ,an earthquake may be good for the earth1 but it is almighty discouraging to the people that live on it4 ,it may seek a beneficent end1 but it goes to work in a cruel manner to accomplish it4 ,human life counts no more than the life of rats when an earthquake gets started4 ,this infernal visitor does not seek a spot where its malevolence can be wrecked upon the rocks and hills4 ,oftener it goes to the thickly populated city or town and topples over houses and swallows up dwellings1 with men1 women and children4 ,does ,god send the earthquake8 ,if he does1 where is the evidence of his love for man8 ,if ,he does not1 who does8 ,it is pretty tough business to try to reconcile ,nature with the idea of ,god's watchful care over man4 ,if the winds did not turn to hurricanes2 if the sunshine did not make drought2 if the rain never became a flood2 if the sea never grew angry and sunk the ship2 if the clouds always dissolved in gentle rain or in dew2 if there were no wild beasts2 no venomous snakes2 no poisonous vines or flowers2 if there were only what is bright and fair and good on earth and nothing that was dark and cold and repulsive1 we might believe that a heavenly father had made the earth for a dwelling-place for man4 ,but as it is1 we have to think as well of ,nature as possible and dodge her lightning1 run from her water-spouts1 keep out of the way of cyclones and shift for ourselves while here4 ,what follows nobody knows4 ,it may be better for us beyond this life2 we hope it is no worse4 ,and it may be only sleep1 sleep with no dreams and no awakening4 ,we should dislike to die on this side of the grave with the fear that we should come out on the other only to meet a hurricane in the teeth1 or find an earthquake had been put under us to give us a shaking up the first thing on that 8shining shore10 or to be caught in a furious torrent that poured down the sides of some heavenly mountain4 ,earth is a pretty good place when the conditions are all favorable1 but if we are to have another life it ought to be a better one or else we should be saved the trouble of dying4 ,the feet of progress have always been shod by doubt4 ,a true man will not join anything that in any way abridges his freedom or robs him of his rights4 ,,the ,,infinite ,,purpose ,a ,christian writer recently said3--8,the supreme duty of humanity is to get into touch with the infinite purpose40 ,this may be so1 but we want first to understand just what the infinite purpose is before we subscribe to it4 ,when the infinite purpose is bent on getting up an earthquake we do not care to 8get into touch0 with it1 not much4 ,when this purpose is forging an electric bolt to shoot out of the clouds1 we have no desire to 8get into touch0 with any such thing4 ,it makes a vast difference what this purpose is bent upon1 whether or not we want to go into partnership with it4 ,now1 when the infinite purpose is at work on the earth1 turning dirt into flowers1 or vegetables1 or trees1 we should feel a joy in sharing its labor1 but when it is determined to burn and scorch everything on the face of the ground with a heat that knows no abatement1 we should want to sell out our interest in the concern at once4 ,there is just as much nonsense connected with the use of this phrase 8the infinite purpose0 as there is with 8special ,providence0 or 8,divine love10 or any other religious expression which expresses nothing unless you are religious4 ,where this 8purpose0 8makes for righteousness10 as ,matthew ,arnold delighted to believe1 we are willing to catch on to it1 but where it is going in the other direction we prefer to go our own way4 ,this notion of uniting the finite with the infinite purpose is all right1 providing the latter does not conflict with the former1 but we have serious objection to doing anything that will interfere with the highest development of our humanity4 ,the purpose which is at work in the world does not make for health any more than for disease4 ,it seems to carry a tubercle with as much satisfaction as a ray of sunshine1 and lends all its forces to assist the highwayman with no more charge than it makes to the law-abiding citizen4 ,it seems to us that it is necessary to divorce the 8infinite purpose0 from a lot of intentions that do not work for human interests1 before it will be desirable to assume intimate relations with this purpose4 ,we do not want to 8get into touch0 with what is not going our way2 that is1 the way of health1 of prosperity1 of happiness4 ,we do not deny that we need to give a higher direction to human thought4 ,we affirm this fact as positively as our most ,christian contemporary4 ,but before we advise mankind to harness its wagon to the infinite purpose we want to be sure where it is going4 ,man has to go to mill and market as well as to meeting1 and there is just as good a purpose manifested in getting the most wholesome food for our stomachs as there is in getting the safest creed for our souls4 ,we are loth to trust any religious purpose as opposed to a human one4 ,we believe in man first1 last1 and all the time4 ,now1 let us admit that humanity needs a wiser purpose to guide it1 but let us also admit that it can be found in a wiser human head and human heart4 ,if what is called the infinite purpose is working for the highest end of human life1 there is no evidence of the fact4 ,if there is anything better than human energy back of a good human thought that will help this world1 we do not know what it is4 ,the man who accepts the faith of ,calvin is miserable in proportion to the extent he carries it out4 ,whatever tends to prolong the existence of ignorance or to prevent the recognition of knowledge is dangerous to the well-being of the human race4 ,a higher respect for man has been one of the chief promoters of civilization4 ,advancement has always been toward right and truth when the ranks were imbued with a proper regard for human hearts and human happiness4 ,,freethought ,,commands ,say nothing about others that you would not have others say about you4 ,be severe toward yourself2 be kind to your fellow-man4 ,do not give advice that you cannot follow4 ,do not thank ,god for what man does4 ,serve neither ,god nor ,mammon1 but humanity alone4 ,do not try to be perfect as a ,father in heaven1 but try to be better than you yourself are4 ,seek first to improve the earth1 and heaven will be of less consequence4 ,let us not forget that men speak according to the measure of their knowledge and light1 and that a superior enlightenment is a higher authority4 ,history shows that there is nothing so easy to enslave and nothing so hard to emancipate as ignorance1 hence it becomes the double enemy of civilization4 ,by its servility it is the prey of tyranny1 and by its credulity it is the foe of enlightenment4 ,a ,,rainbow ,,religion ,there is little doubt that the faith of the early ,christians was what might be classed under the head of rainbow religion4 ,we learn from the ,new ,testament that it was taught that those who accepted the faith held by ,john and ,jesus and ,paul were in some peculiar manner to be protected from the common ills of life1 and were to be especial favorites of their 8,father in heaven40 ,how sincerely this faith was held we cannot now determine1 nor to what extent it was put into practice1 but that it possessed the mind in a considerable degree there is no room whatever to doubt4 ,but this is not the question that we want settled1 but rather the value of this faith4 ,it is pleasant and comforting to believe that one is watched over by a superior power which at any moment of peril or temptation is ready to stretch forth its hand and rescue from danger and death1 and it is on account of the wonderful seductiveness of this faith that it has lasted so long and has been so hard to overcome4 ,but what we are interested in is1 whether or not such a belief has any foundation in fact or in human experience4 ,when ,jesus bid his followers to cease giving thought to what they should eat and drink and wear1 telling them that their 8heavenly ,father0 fed the fowls of the air1 and that they were better than such fowls1 thus implying that their heavenly ,father would take proportionately better care of them1 was there any ground for any such teaching1 and is there any ground for this faith today8 ,we claim that the 8heavenly ,father0 referred to by ,jesus never fed anything1 neither fowl nor man2 and that no human being was ever taken care of by any superior power or snatched by it from danger or death4 ,such a faith is the veriest delusion1 and it could lodge and take root only in the childish mind4 ,jesus also taught that the 8,father which is in heaven0 would 8give good things to them that ask him40 ,is there any ground for this rainbow religion8 ,is there any evidence that there is a 8,father in heaven0 who has good things to give to those who ask for them8 ,we presume that this faith led men to give up work and to trust to begging for a living4 ,but the question is1 which got the most good things1--those who studied the laws of ,nature and of life and worked in harmony with them1 or those who prayed for good things8 ,how is it to-day8 ,what good things can be had by praying8 ,who has any good thing that he received by asking his 8,father in heaven0 for it8 ,the asking business has been carried on for hundreds of years1 and all that has been asked of ,god has had to be given by man or has not been given at all4 ,has it ever been true that ,christians had any immunity from danger that others did not have1 or that they could live in defiance of the laws of ,nature8 ,jesus told his followers that in his name they shall cast out devils1 they shall take up serpents1 and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and they shall have the power to cure the sick by laying their hands upon them4 ,have men1 who professed to follow ,jesus1 ever done the things which he said they shall do8 ,is there any man to-day who can do these things8 ,is there any evidence that ,christians are treated by any power of the universe differently from what others are treated8 ,and is there any evidence that they possess any gift that is not shared by others8 ,as far as we can see ,christians are subject to the same laws of ,nature that all others must obey1 and they cannot either defy those laws or act independently of them4 ,if they fool with deadly serpents they will get bitten and probably die--just the same as would an infidel2 if they drink a cup of poison1 they will suffer and perhaps die just the same as an unbeliever2 if they have any sickness1 they do not trust to the laying-on of hands by a fellow-,christian1 but send for a doctor the same as a freethinker4 ,the fact is1 the world has learned better than to put faith in these teachings of ,jesus4 ,the ,christian faith belonged to the childhood of the race1 and ought no longer to be preached to man4 ,no one attempts to put this faith into practice1 to carry into life the teachings of ,jesus4 ,and why not8 ,simply because it is known to be false4 ,christianity is a rainbow religion1 a representation of things for which there is no warrant in ,nature2 a picture painted in false colors2 a view of life copied from a diseased imagination2 a falsehood fed by priests upon which they live4 ,there is not an intelligent man or woman living to-day who has any faith in the rainbow religion taught by ,jesus2 not an intelligent man or woman who believes that a heavenly ,father or a ,god will provide food or drink or clothes for a human being2 nor an intelligent man or woman who has faith that he or she can get good things by asking a ,father in heaven for them and not an intelligent man or woman who cares or dares to put the declaration of ,jesus to the test2 that those who have faith in him can play with serpents without danger1 and drink deadly poison with no more harm than attends quaffing a glass of water4 ,we are then to conclude that ,christianity is held only by the ignorant4 ,there is greater argument in one fact than in all the creeds4 ,it is easier to believe that a man is honest who says the ,bible is the word of ,god than to believe that he is bright4 ,a ,,cruel ,,god ,there may be some other religion in the world that sings of a ,god more cruel than the ,god of ,christianity1 but we do not know of any4 ,at any rate1 we believe it is safe to say that no religion of a civilized people has a ,god who is more vindictive4 ,we have always wondered how men and women could set such infernal ideas to music as we find in ,christian hymns4 ,it is really too bad that human beings are compelled to sing such lies as we find in the pious song-books of the church4 ,the sentiments contained in them are not fit for savages4 ,it can only brutalize the heart to sing of blood1 and nothing but blood1 no matter whose blood it is4 ,the 8precious blood of ,jesus0 is just as suggestive of cruelty as the blood on the executioner's knife4 ,men become what they read1 what they think1 what they sing1 what they believe4 ,religions have made men wicked1 cruel1 hard1 unkind4 ,it is impossible to have faith in a ,god of wrath and vindictiveness without in time developing these qualities4 ,men grow into the likeness of their belief4 ,as a man believes1 so is he1 to a certain extent4 ,the influence of cruel sentiments on the mind is greater with the young than with adults4 ,some hymns sung in ,christian churches are positively brutal in tone4 ,think of human beings singing the following verse3-- 8,but vengeance and damnation lie ,on rebels who refuse ,his grace2 ,who ,god's eternal ,son despise1 ,the hottest hell shall be their place40 ,christians seem to delight in pictures of hell4 ,god would hardly be ,god to them if he did not damn somebody4 ,in painting the divine idea vengeance and damnation are laid on thick4 ,here is the ,christian notion of father and son3-- 8,how justice frowned and vengeance stood ,to drive me down to endless pain6 ,but the great ,son propos'd his blood1 ,and heavenly wrath grew mild again40 ,think of the religion based on such an idea of ,god6 ,and think on the terrible effect on men and women which such religion must have6 ,the following description of the ,christian ,god was probably written by one of his adorers3-- 8,adore and tremble for our ,god ,is a consuming fire6 ,his jealous eyes with wrath inflame1 ,and raise ,his vengeance higher4 8,almighty vengeance1 how it burns1 ,how bright ,his fury glows6 ,vast magazines of plagues and storms ,lie treasured for ,his foes4 8,those heaps of wrath1 by slow degrees1 ,are force into a flame3 ,but kindled1 ,oh6 how fierce they blaze6 ,and rend all nature's frame4 8,at ,his approach the mountains flee1 ,and seek a watery grave2 ,the frighted sea makes haste away1 ,and shrinks up every wave4 8,through the wide air the weighty rocks ,are swift as hailstones hurled2 ,who dares engage ,his fiery rage1 ,that shakes the solid world8 8,thy hand shall on rebellious kings ,a fiery tempest pour1 ,while we1 beneath ,thy sheltering wings1 ,thy just revenge adore40 ,and we are asked to love this ,god6 ,we should just as soon think of loving a tiger1 a cyclone1 a deluge1 a fiend4 ,love goes out to what is lovely4 ,we can love what is good1 what is beautiful1 what is noble2 a great-hearted man1 a pitying woman we cannot help loving1 but if we should say that we love such a ,god as is pictured in the words of that hymn we should lie4 ,man cannot love hate1 vengeance1 wrath--even in a ,god4 ,the ,christian church1 down through the ages1 has been like the ,god it worshipped--full of hate1 malice and cruelty4 ,the world has grown kind and humane just in proportion as it has given up worship of this divine monster4 ,we judge gods as we judge men1 and we can respect and love only what is worthy of respect and love from a human point of view4 ,if there is such a ,god as is painted in ,christian literature he deserves1 not to be worshipped1 but to be shot4 ,the ,bible upon which ,christianity is founded does not say what ,christianity is1 what a ,christian is1 nor what we must do in order to be a ,christian4 ,,what ,,is ,,jesus ,time was when ,jesus was looked upon as ,god1 or the ,son of ,god4 ,no one had any doubt of his divinity or divine character2 or if he had1 he wisely deferred to the superstitious majority and kept his mouth shut and so kept his head on his shoulders4 ,this idea that ,jesus was ,god has been steadily declining for several hundred years4 ,intelligence has pretty much given it up1 except where it is paid a big salary for preaching it4 ,there is no rational defence that can be made of the dogma of the divinity of ,jesus4 ,it is one of many theological absurdities that was born when gods were popular4 ,a large number believe that ,jesus was a man and nothing more2 a good man1 but still human4 ,they look upon him as a product of human nature4 ,he is allowed a human father and mother1 although the gospels1 in which is found the story of his life1 hardly warrant so much earthly parentage4 ,he is regarded as a part of humanity1 and his extraordinary deeds merely as exaggerated performances of heart and hand of man4 ,the people that look upon ,jesus as a man have a superstitious reverence for his humanity4 ,he is called 8the one perfect man10 the 8pattern of the race10 etc4 ,though a man1 they will have him every inch a man4 ,yet others see nothing remarkable in the career of ,jesus2 nothing which marks him for universal emulation2 nothing which compels praise and admiration4 ,they think he was a sort of mild lunatic1 possessed of the idea that he was the ,messiah of his people1 and that in endeavoring to further his scheme he antagonized the existing authority and met the just punishment of his ambition4 ,but it is neither as ,god nor as a man that ,jesus must be regarded1 but as a myth4 ,no such person ever lived either as a human or divine existence4 ,he is simply a creature of fancy1 the fruit of the imagination4 ,he is a character of the brain1 the creation of religious genius4 ,there is no justifiable ,christianity in this age4 ,a dogma is the hand of the dead on the throat of the living4 ,the progress of the world depends upon freedom of thought and freedom of utterance4 ,if you can forgive the man who wronged you1 the neighbor who slandered you and help the poor about you1 you need not be particular about making any professions of righteousness4 ,,deeds ,,better ,,than ,,professions ,we have tears of regret to shed over the wreck of beauty and talent2 but if we take no steps to preserve beauty and talent from wreck1 our compassion is not to our honor but to our disgrace4 ,the feeling of pity which to-day expends itself in solemn warning or solemn weeping for the poor unfortunates of earth1 must devise means to rescue them from misery1 or it is but a mockery and a shame4 ,one arm inspired with love of man will do more than a thousand tender sentiments4 ,sympathy must take the form of assistance1 or it is not sincere4 ,when we do not love man as we ought1 we hate ourselves4 ,the way to get heaven for ourselves is to give it to others4 ,the way to be happy is to make others happy4 ,selfishness kills every noble feeling and defeats every good desire4 ,we cannot have peace when we give pain to others4 ,our deeds reward us4 ,what wrongs man is wrong for man to do4 ,we should live so as not to regret the past nor fear the future4 ,we set too great a value upon earthly possessions1 and spend our lives in gaining what we cannot hold4 ,we best enjoy the things of earth when we give up wanting them wholly for ourselves4 ,the best part of our happiness is having someone to share it4 ,,give ,,us ,,the ,,truth ,if there is one tree that man needs to eat of1 it is the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil2 and if any knowledge will keep him alive and make him happy and perfect1 it is just this knowledge which ,god forbid him to acquire4 ,we are dying to-day from ignorance1 not from knowledge1--dying because we do not know the good from the evil2 and we are dooming ourselves and future generations to premature death because we do not eat more of the tree of knowledge4 ,to know more is what we need4 ,let us look into things and find out what the world means4 ,if this universe is only an illuminated deception1 the man who discovers the fact will be a public benefactor4 ,if things which exist around us are lying to us1--if the stars that shine out through the deep space above us are only fire-flies of the night1 let us know it4 ,knowledge will not hurt us so much as ignorance and deception4 ,if the flowers that uncover their beauty for our delight have but a phantom loveliness1 and nought is real in the enchanting world about us1 then let us be told the truth4 ,the soul can bear it better than to be deceived4 ,we may be trusted with the knowledge of good and evil and of right and wrong1 ye ,god of ,genesis6 and praise be to the first-created man for breaking the command to remain in ignorance and taking the first step toward solving the riddle of life6 ,we learn everything by living4 ,the truth is not revealed to us3 we must discover it4 ,it is seen when we climb high enough to see it1 or live wise enough to feel it1 or act true enough to utter it4 ,when we hear the truth1 we hear only the echo of the universe4 ,the last thing that we have to fear is the truth and the consequences of knowing it4 ,let us not fear to speak it or to hear it4 ,and let us go with it whenever found4 ,they who are keeping the world from the knowledge of good and evil1 who are trying to discourage the preaching of truth1 are the enemies of mankind4 ,if man had no knowledge except what he has got out of the ,bible he would not know enough to make a shoe4 ,the great work of man has ever been to rescue the present from the past2 to turn the mind from what it has left behind to the opportunities and duties which are around it4 ,for this has genius toiled down the ages1 sung its song of love1 carved its dream of beauty and whispered to the world's dull ear its bright message of hope4 ,,the ,,american ,,sunday ,everybody has heard of what is called the 8,christian sabbath10 and nearly everybody has a tolerably clear idea of what is meant by a 8continental sabbath40 ,a 8continental sabbath0 may be described as a sort of week-day ,sunday1 that is1 as a religious holiday with more secular1 than pious1 features4 ,a ,christian sabbath is so near dead in this country as a religious fact that a definition of it cannot be had from real life4 ,we find the ideal sabbath of the ,christians in the history of early ,new ,england4 ,for two centuries the people have been gradually outgrowing the austere religion which made ,sunday a day to be dreaded all the week4 ,the attempt has been frequently made by a small puritan contingent1 which has survived all these years1 to resuscitate this dead sabbath and inflict it upon the world again4 ,but so far the effort has only met with deserved failure4 ,resurrections have never been successful4 ,when the inhabitants of graves have come out of their abodes it has been only to walk the streets for a brief period1 and then to return again to silence and rest4 ,the stories of ghosts1 when true1 are always short4 ,these visitants never stop long or do anything that is of any worth to the world4 ,when the grave is once made over the dead it is best to let it alone4 ,there is nothing in cemeteries to aid progress or civilization4 ,we do not need the revival of old customs or of old faiths4 ,to endeavor to rehabilitate the sabbath of our forefathers is as foolish as to try to make people go back into log houses and cook over a fire-place4 ,some persons can never realize that the world grows2 that what was a help to one age becomes a hindrance to another2 that time corrects the mistakes of men and that respect and reverence for our ancestors do not necessarily require us to adopt their clothes or their habits4 ,men and women are made fossils by their religion4 ,the people who are trying to-day to resurrect the puritan sabbath are people who have got religion1 but not much of anything else4 ,a man who allows religion to dominate all his thoughts1 all his efforts1 all his acts1 usually is a nuisance1 if nothing worse4 ,a day of rest once a week is a good thing in itself1 but it is a bad thing when controlled by religion4 ,we are in favor of ,sunday as a day when man can lay aside his business1 his care1 his tools1 and enjoy himself1 but we want everybody to take their hands off of it4 ,sunday is not a day for religion alone4 ,if certain people wish to go to church on ,sunday1 let them go2 but when these people1 who go to church on ,sunday1 wish to compel everyone else to do the same1 they need to be informed that liberty on ,sunday is just as much a human right as liberty on ,monday4 ,there are better things that man has found than religion4 ,liberty is better1 truth is better1 happiness is better4 ,we would like to see an ,american ,sunday on this continent1 a ,sunday in harmony with the principles upon which our government was founded1 a ,sunday which was not run by religion1 a ,sunday for man and not for the church4 ,such a day would not be a sabbath1 but it would be a free day1 a happy day4 ,the notion of ,sunday as a holy day is too absurd1 too ridiculous to deserve respectful attention4 ,no man can have fifty-two holy days in a year4 ,the minister must take his pious grasp off of the throat of ,sunday4 ,a true man is not troubled by anything but his own acts4 ,the true man walks the earth as the stars walk the heavens1 grandly obedient to those laws which are implanted in his nature4 ,a great many people are afraid of knowledge1 but we have seen hundreds of people that we thought would be improved if they knew more1 but we have never seen one that we thought would be better if he knew less4 ,,lord ,,and ,,master ,the ,christian is fond of referring to ,jesus as his lord and master4 ,we wonder why1 for it is evident that not a ,christian of this century takes ,jesus for his lord and master4 ,the fact is1 that there is nothing that a man objects to more strongly than a master4 ,man wants to be independent4 ,he does not want anybody to be lord over him4 ,the struggle of the race for ages has been to get rid of lords and masters1 to be free from tyrants4 ,religion is after all only dead politics4 ,the church makes sacred what the state casts off4 ,what sense is there in fighting for long centuries to liberate the body1 and voluntarily accepting slavery for the mind8 ,jesus is the ghost of a dead king4 ,but why should the world prostrate itself before his invisible throne when it refuses to acknowledge by its obedience that he is fit to rule the kingdom of conduct8 ,what hypocrites ,christians are6 ,what a farce it is for men and women to call ,jesus lord and master6 ,they do not obey his slightest command1 and they ignore his teachings as undeserving their regard4 ,there is not a precept1 that the ,christian church teaches came from the lips of ,jesus1 that ,christians honor by practice1 not one4 ,never did a lord receive so little honest respect from his vassals2 never a master so little true obedience from his servants4 ,men and women are not sincere when they profess to accept ,jesus as their lord and master4 ,they doubtless feel grateful to him for saving them from the fires of hell hereafter1 but they look upon him as a mighty poor example for them to follow here4 ,as everybody knows1 the church does not require that its members shall practice the precepts given by ,jesus4 ,if she did demand this of men and women her membership would speedily be reduced to zero4 ,we do not regard a man as honest1 or worthy of respect1 who calls ,jesus his lord and master and turns his back in contempt upon the precepts he gave his disciples to practice4 ,you cannot stuff your minds with the lives of saints and grow good on the stuffing4 ,some persons are remembered solely for their virtues and others solely for their faults4 ,this is why we have a ,jesus and a ,judas4 ,,are ,,christians ,,intelligent ,,or ,,honest ,future generations will regard the men who accept the ,christian superstitions either as simple or dishonest4 ,we are forced to doubt the sanity or sincerity of people who profess to believe in the doctrine of the trinity1 in a 8begotten ,son of ,god10 in miraculous conception1 in the resurrection of the body1 in the ,bible as the word of ,god1 in miracles1 and in heaven and hell4 ,we ask ourselves3--,are men intelligent who believe these things1 or do they merely profess to believe them1 and are dishonest8 ,we cannot reconcile faith in the ,christian superstitions with mental soundness and good sense4 ,what is there in ,nature to suggest any of the ,christian doctrines8 ,does not everything we know1 everything we have seen1 everything we have experienced1 deny and disprove the ,christian superstitions8 ,why1 then1 do people accept them8 ,we find no one that acts as though ,christianity were true1 no one who lives as though hell were under his feet and liable at any moment to pull him down to eternal damnation4 ,we find men spending all their energies in trying to get the good things of earth1 just as though they were told to do so by ,god1 instead of commanded not to lay up treasures upon earth1 etc4 ,it is one of the serious problems of the age to know how to deal with ,christians4 ,they are1 as a rule1 respectable and decent2 they have good manners generally1 and they eat and drink1 dress and talk1 live and die very much as other people1 and yet they profess a faith that is absurd and foolish and that has no foundation in fact or philosophy4 ,we like to think well of our fellow-beings1 and we would like to think well of ,christians1 but we cannot do so as long as they pretend to believe what a person of intelligence1 of good sense1 cannot believe4 ,are ,christians honest8 ,perhaps they think so1 but have they ever really examined their belief in the light of the knowledge of the twentieth century8 ,if they will do this1 we do not see how they can longer profess to be ,christians1 if they are honest4 ,when men are hungry roast mutton is better than the lamb that taketh away wrath4 ,if a man can look in the mirror of his own soul without shame1 he can look the whole world in the face without a blush4 ,,the ,,danger ,,of ,,the ,,ballot ,men speak usually as though voters ranged themselves on one side of a political question1 or another1 according to their convictions or principles4 ,we wish this were so1 then we should be nearer having a pure ballot4 ,but we cannot share this lofty view4 ,it does not seem to us that the average voter is a man of either political convictions or principles4 ,party service does not require intelligent1 independent action1 and politics to-day stands for party fealty more than for governmental ethics4 ,the main question that is decided by an election in our country is1 which political party shall have the privilege of dispensing the offices of ,government8 ,there is a desire on the part of certain persons to obtain office1 for either personal or party advantage1 and this desire is oftentimes so fierce that it will betray the honor of citizenship4 ,where this is done1 or attempted1 lies the danger of the ballot4 ,if men voted only as their political convictions dictated1 we should have a higher party morality and purer officers1 but we must face the facts even though the duty is not an agreeable one4 ,politics has degenerated to a dirty business and political trickery and bribery secure victory where honor1 integrity and principle suffer defeat4 ,the plain truth is1 we have a large class of voters who make merchandise of their right of suffrage1 and a set of demagogues whose business it is to bribe or coerce voters for the advancement of selfish ends4 ,the honest1 virtuous1 intelligent1 independent vote is the noblest power of a freeman1 but the purchasable vote1 the ignorant vote1 the vicious and servile vote1 is the opportunity of the knave and the scoundrel4 ,the purity of the ballot is the only safety of a ,republic1 and no greater danger threatens this nation to-day than that which arises from the corruption of the suffrage4 ,a ballot should be the honest declaration of our principles1 the expression of our own opinions1 the badge of our manhood2 but when it is held in the hand that has sold it for a price1 or will deposit it at the dictation of another1 it is the prostitute of greed and the hired assassin of the despot4 ,every man should select his own ballot and vote to please himself1 and any person that would interfere with his right and duty to do this1 should be disfranchised forever4 ,the individual who does not know enough to select his own ballot has no right to vote in this country4 ,there have been too many voters led to the polls1 and used as party troops4 ,there are still slaves on election day who are afraid of the crack of the whip4 ,there ought to be permitted in this nation no political or religious disability on account of the honest exercise of the right of suffrage4 ,a man should be protected from the politician and the priest4 ,when a man votes as he thinks1 he has discharged the highest duty of citizenship1 but when he votes through bribe or fear1 he forfeits the privilege of the ballot4 ,the polls are more sacred to man than the altar4 ,religion might die and man could still have every blessing of earth1 but when liberty is killed1 the noblest blessing of earth has departed4 ,the petty salvation offered by ,christianity is not much sought after to-day1 while the world is bending its mighty energies in the direction of knowledge as never before1 and the glory of the electric light1 the song of the steam-whistle1 the music of the telegraph1 the chorus of machinery and the grand anthem of countless enterprises tell of a bright and golden future time when man will master the elements of ,nature and guide his life through its course of years in perfect safety and security and step down at the end of it1--8,like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams40 ,,who ,,carried ,,the ,,cross ,who carried the cross upon which ,jesus was crucified8 ,such a question ought to be easy to answer1 if the event ever occurred4 ,there ought to be no disagreement upon so simple a matter as this4 ,but there is disagreement1 and quite a serious one at that4 ,three of the gospels declare that ,simon carried the cross1 while the fourth gospel says that ,jesus himself carried the cross upon which he was crucified4 ,now1 which is right8 ,is ,john right8 ,if so1 then ,matthew1 ,mark and ,luke are wrong4 ,if ,simon carried it1 ,jesus could not have done so2 and if ,jesus carried it1 then ,simon did not4 ,that there is such a discrepancy in the accounts of this alleged event does not so much indicate that one is right and the others wrong in regard to the carrying of the cross as that none is right4 ,to our mind this disagreement of the gospels is an indication that no such event as the carrying of a cross upon which to crucify ,jesus ever occurred4 ,christians put forth the ,bible as a work which in some way came from ,god2 as a book which is reliable in its statements1 and correct in its narrative of events4 ,now1 it is patent to everyone that in the gospels there are two distinct accounts of the carrying of the cross4 ,how can ,christians reconcile this fact with their theory that ,god is the author of the ,bible8 ,it must be admitted by all that one mind could not have written or inspired both of these stories1 and it must also be admitted that if one is true the other is false4 ,what is the natural conclusion that an unprejudiced mind would arrive at after reading the account of the carrying of the cross for the crucifixion of ,jesus in the four gospels8 ,is it not that no such cross was ever carried for any such purpose8 ,there are too many gospels1 too many stories of ,jesus4 ,it would have been better for ,christianity had all but one of these narratives been destroyed4 ,they contradict each other in so many essential points as to make them totally unreliable as records of facts4 ,it is plain that not one of the writers of the four gospels knew of what he was writing4 ,we must in honesty say that no one knows who carried the cross on which ,jesus was crucified1 and no one knows whether ,jesus was crucified or not1 and no one knows whether any such person as ,jesus ever lived1 to be crucified4 ,civilization has come about by going to school more than to church4 ,nature is the volume from which all of our knowledge has been translated4 ,,modern ,,disciples ,,of ,,jesus ,the modern disciples do not resemble very closely the ancient disciples of ,jesus4 ,in fact it is very hard to find a reason why ,christian preachers call themselves disciples of ,jesus at all4 ,according to the narrative of the ,new ,testament ,jesus was not in love with money and what money will buy2 he did not have a high appreciation of the good things of the world2 he did not express any anxiety about his food or dress1 nor manifest any desire to have aesthetic surroundings4 ,and if we can credit the story of the gospels1 ,jesus charged his disciples to be and do pretty much as he himself was and did4 ,he said to them3 8,heal the sick1 cleanse the lepers1 raise the dead1 cast out devils2 444 ,provide neither gold nor silver1 nor brass in your purses1 nor scrip for your journey1 neither two coats1 neither shoes1 nor yet staves1 for the workman is worthy of his meat4444 ,it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master40 ,whether or not the ancient disciples heeded these words of their master1 and carried out his instructions1 we do not know1 but there is abundant evidence that his modern disciples do not pay his commands the compliment of obedience4 ,if there is one item that the clergyman of to-day looks after it is his salary4 ,he deliberately disobeys all of the injunctions of ,jesus to his disciples1 and thinks he is doing his duty to do so4 ,this is the funny part of his discipleship to us4 ,he does not consider the charge of ,jesus worthy of being heeded4 ,when we point to the commands of ,jesus1 and ask some ,christian minister why he does not obey them1 he coolly informs us that it would be the height of folly in this age to attempt to do as ,jesus commanded his first disciples4 ,in other words the ,christian clergyman acts upon the ground that the orders of ,jesus to his apostles are incompatible with personal dignity and decent living1 and that only a person utterly devoid of all sense of fitness and social responsibility would undertake to follow his directions4 ,we agree with the action of the modern disciple of ,jesus in regarding his commands as foolish and unfit to be obeyed1 but we want him to take an honest stand before the world and say so like a man4 ,now he is a hypocrite1 when he assumes a place in the ,christian ranks but refuses to obey the orders of his master4 ,the modern disciple of ,jesus is more concerned about putting money in a bank or investing it in real estate than he is about 8laying up treasures in heaven40 ,if there is one person who believes thoroughly in looking after himself and his in the world1 and getting all the good things out of it1 it is the ,christian minister4 ,he is well housed1 well fed1 well dressed1 and1 as a rule1 has a comfortable income4 ,how he must laugh when he reads the ,new ,testament6 ,he probably regards ,jesus as a chump to tell men and women to take no thought for what they shall eat and drink and wear1 and not to lay up a few dollars for a rainy day4 ,he has to make believe honor the poor1 unsophisticated peasant of ,galilee1 in order to get his fat living4 ,he has to fool the fools that support him in luxury1 but all the reverence he has for ,jesus you could put in your eye4 ,if it paid better to tell the truth and to take an honest position in the world1 we presume that most ministers would quit playing the hypocrite1 but as long as ,christianity pays its preachers more than they can get from any other source1 we may expect them to profess to follow ,jesus and then do as they please4 ,every fact is backed up by the whole universe4 ,christianity is a black spot on the page of civilization4 ,the church is a bank that is continually receiving deposits but never pays a dividend4 ,a ,,poor ,,excuse ,the excuse of the poor for not going to church is a poor excuse4 ,the woman who does not go to church because she cannot dress well enough1 cannot have much respect for her master4 ,jesus did not rail against the poor1 but the rich4 ,he did not condemn ,lazarus1 but ,dives4 ,christian churches should be filled with rags1 not silks2 with paupers1 not bankers4 ,no one can be too poor to feel at home in the church of him who was too poor to have a place to lay his head4 ,a ,christian church is the church of poverty1 and its minister should welcome the tramp1 the beggar1 the rag-muffin1 and should give the cold shoulder to the rich merchant1 the well-dressed politician1 the prosperous citizen4 ,it is a singular thing that while silks despise rags1 rags respect silks4 ,the poor ,christians ought to glory in their poverty1 ought to be proud of their patches4 ,they should have utter contempt for good clothes1 and go to the church of ,jesus with a feeling of pride that they honor him by being poor1 as he was4 ,velvet1 satin and broad-cloth are insults to him whose ragged royalty they profess to reverence4 ,if the poor were not as big hypocrites as the rich1 they would drive the richly-dressed worshipers out of the church dedicated to the poverty-stricken ,nazarene1 who has been elected to the office of savior4 ,a person has not very much ,christianity when his religion is ashamed of his old clothes4 ,,profession ,,and ,,practice ,there are a great many persons who are anxious to pass for more than they are worth1 to stand for more than they represent4 ,they always get on the side of the majority1 because that is considered the safe side1 the side that is most likely to have the largest number of loaves and fishes4 ,these people are willing to pay the price of popularity2 willing to do anything that is regarded as respectable1 even to denying their own souls4 ,the easiest way to win favor is by professing the popular faith1 no matter what it is4 ,a true man will be true to his convictions1 true to his principles2 but such a man may not receive applause1 may not make money1 may not be allowed to enter the door of society4 ,in order to win the favor and secure the good-will of the majority1 it is necessary to go with it1 no matter where it is going4 ,the thoughtless1 the weak and simple1 follow the crowd4 ,profession is demanded of him who would join the ranks of the pious4 ,profession is required of the man or woman who belongs to the church4 ,the performance of every duty1 the practice of every virtue1 is not a sufficient recommendation to popular favor4 ,it is a fact that profession without practice is accepted in preference to practice without profession4 ,the man who gives his life to man without thought or care about ,god is considered a bad man1 while he who gives his life to ,god without thought or care about man is regarded as holy and saintly4 ,nobody can do ,god any good or any harm1 and all the worship that is offered him is a waste of time4 ,the man who stands up in public and asks ,god in prayer to help the poor1 to bless the suffering1 is looked upon as a good man1 while he who does not pray nor ask ,god to do anything1 but helps his needy brothers and sisters1 is pronounced wicked and sinful4 ,values have become strangely mixed in the eyes of mankind4 ,religion is considered as worth more than morality2 worship more than work2 prayer more than performance and profession more than practice4 ,this is wrong1 false and foolish4 ,profession is a mighty poor jewel1 a cheap and flashy substitute for the diamond of practice4 ,it is a confession of fraud2 a mask for a face2 a coward's excuse2 a hypocrite's wile4 ,honesty need not profess to be honest4 ,when a minister says that ,god will help you1 ask him to put up the collateral4 ,the church spends thousands of dollars to save a dogma1 where it spends a cent to find a truth4 ,,where ,,is ,,truth ,men have enthroned truth in some far-off kingdom1 away from the world1 as though it were too pure to live on earth4 ,it has been made supernatural1 and only to be known by being revealed4 ,but truth is everywhere2 its voice is heard in everything4 ,the very pebble at our feet holds its image1 and its light twinkles in the white splendor of the distant star4 ,man has searched for truth in books1 but has not found it there4 ,he has invented words to conceal his disappointment1 such as ,god1 heaven1 providence1 etc4 ,nature contains all the truth1 and so far as men have read ,nature aright they have learned what is true1 but we cannot catch and hold ,nature in our philosophies4 ,she breaks through all the finely-woven theories we put about her1 and man1 in his attempt to bind ,nature with his thoughts1 binds only himself4 ,men in all ages have tried to read the secret of the universe4 ,we have been told that ,god directs it1 that a divine mind planned it and keeps it in motion4 ,why not let the universe explain itself8 ,why not read it by its own light8 ,why not confess our ignorance8 ,god is a figure of speech1 but ,nature is a reality4 ,let us trust what we know4 ,nature is never capricious4 ,fire will always burn1 water will always drown1 frost will always freeze4 ,though we have confidence in ,nature1 let us acknowledge that we do not yet comprehend the meaning of things4 ,the old habit of inventing words to hide our ignorance has been adopted by science as well as by religion4 ,evolution does not reduce the mystery of existence to a simple problem4 ,what we call truth is more than we have yet found4 ,the unknown is still provocative of investigation1 and the only prayer of the mind is1 more light4 ,we must beware of accepting dogmas1 whether of science or religion4 ,no statement is the last word of truth4 ,doubt is the first step of progress1 and inquiry is the way to knowledge4 ,there is nothing that stands more in the way of human advancement than the authority of opinions4 ,some dragon of assertion ever disputes our right to the golden fleece of truth4 ,if we ask for proof of ,god's existence or man's immortality1 we are answered with a text1 but a text is only the dead opinion of a dead man4 ,this age demands truth1 not the belief of a person who lived centuries ago4 ,because superstition holds the contents of a book sacred we are not to enslave reason to its statements4 ,we will not be bound by the opinions of others1 neither must we bind others to our opinions4 ,we must make freedom sacred1 and cease condemning men for disbelief or unbelief4 ,the bondage of faith is the slavery of the soul4 ,it makes man unjust1 unwise and unkind4 ,allegiance to a creed makes us ill use a man simply because he does not believe as we do4 ,no church has all the truth1 and no school either4 ,so-called religion merely shows where the search after truth ended4 ,but truth is the infinite reality1 and it will always be for man to find4 ,christianity is like a slow clock--always being moved ahead4 ,the day of the ,bible is passed4 ,books have taken its place4 ,better be late to church ,sunday morning than late at home ,saturday night4 ,man to-day has more and better ways of getting a living than at any time in the history of the race4 ,,what ,,does ,,it ,,prove ,christians say that the resurrection of ,jesus proves his claim to be the ,messiah4 ,but what proves the resurrection8 ,certainly not the contradictory stories of the gospels4 ,the story of the resurrection of ,jesus from the tomb merely proves that somebody lied1 that is all4 ,a pretty ,messiah ,jesus was6 ,the ,messiah of the ,jews was to be a king who should restore the lost splendor of the house of ,david2 who should overthrow the power of the ,romans and build up the ,israelitish kingdom4 ,this king never came4 ,jesus was just about as much a ,jewish ,messiah as ,crispus ,attucks was a ,president of the ,united ,states4 ,no creed can be stretched to the size of truth2 no church can be made as large as man4 ,to correct in ourselves what we condemn in others would remove most of the evils of life4 ,,human ,,responsibility ,there is nothing that tends to perpetuate the weakness of humanity more than religion4 ,men have been taught for ages that they were dependent upon ,god for all they have4 ,this kind of teaching must be corrected2 it is false4 ,man is dependent upon man4 ,no ,god will help or hurt him4 ,be he ever so good no ,god will praise him2 be he ever so bad no ,god will blame him4 ,what he wants to escape is his own condemnation4 ,in order to develop an independent spirit in man it is necessary to increase his responsibility4 ,man must be taught to rely upon his own strength1 upon his own body and mind4 ,he must learn his relations to ,nature and abide by the laws of his being4 ,he must know this3 if he would have anything he must deserve it4 ,human destiny follows human conduct4 ,the old notion that man is responsible to ,god cannot be proved4 ,there are no facts that corroborate that notion4 ,man is responsible to himself4 ,it is this truth that is calculated to elevate and ennoble human life4 ,let human beings understand that there is that within themselves that is to be respected1 and that they are responsible to themselves for all they do1 and they will be more worthy of respect and live more worthy lives4 ,,abolish ,,dirt ,we should like to see one generation brought up to hate dirt4 ,every child ought to be taught that clean hands and face and clean clothes help to a clean life4 ,there are too many homes on this earth that human beings live in that are dirty1 in which those three household gods--the broom1 the mop1 and the dust-rag--have no place4 ,children should be taught to drive dirt out of the house as they would a mad dog4 ,dirt is the food of disease4 ,it is the enemy of health and happiness4 ,abolish dirt4 ,if ,god exists1 what objection can he have to saying so8 ,when we have nothing to give a beggar1 we can at least tell him so kindly4 ,,religion ,,and ,,morality ,a religious man is not trusted to-day because he is religious4 ,faith in vicarious atonement is not accepted as a moral substitute for meeting one's obligations4 ,worship of ,god is not equivalent to helping your neighbor4 ,the fact that a man is religious may not be proof that he is a bad man1 but it is no evidence that he is a good man4 ,the most contemptible wretch that ever robbed the widow or orphan could shine in a prayer-meeting1 where words are passed for virtues4 ,the veriest scoundrel can pay a pew tax and march up the aisle of the church with sanctimonious countenance4 ,religion is such a superficial affair that it carries no moral recommendation4 ,without morality religion could not borrow a dollar on its name1 while morality without religion can get all the accommodation it asks for4 ,the real virtues of a man do not depend upon religion4 ,men have lived good lives while believing in dozens of gods and without faith in a single god4 ,morality is not the offspring of theology4 ,you cannot pick out a moral man by hearing him pray4 ,a great deal of religion is worn to conceal moral defects4 ,we should watch the man who stands up in public and says3 ,i am moral4 ,we should say to him3 ,it is not necessary for you to proclaim your morality2 your daily life will show how moral you are4 ,the world is becoming suspicious of him who stands up in public and says3 ,i am religious4 ,a great many people seem to think if they profess to love ,god it is not necessary for them to love man4 ,we are not denying that a great many good men and women are religious2 that a great many good men and women go to church and prayer-meeting4 ,we do not deny that a great many moral men and women profess faith in total depravity1 in vicarious atonement1 but we do not see how their faith has anything to do with their morality4 ,there is no particular necessity for ,christians to be good4 ,their faith saves them1 not their conduct4 ,religion is not doing1 it is believing1 or pretending to4 ,there is a big opportunity to lie in religion4 ,you cannot tell when a person says he believes in ,god whether he is telling the truth or not4 ,it is mighty easy to be religious4 ,but the moral man has no such chance4 ,he is not judged by his professions1 but by his actions4 ,religion makes hypocrisy easy1 but morality offers the hypocrite no show whatever4 ,never forget the good deeds that others do to you1 nor remember those that you do to others4 ,,jesus ,,as ,a ,,model ,it is common to speak of ,jesus as though he touched the borders of every human experience1 and sounded the depths of every joy and every woe1 but there is no warrant for such statements4 ,he lived a very narrow life1 and his brief career cannot be stretched to cover the limits of our earthly existence4 ,he is held up for us to imitate1 as though he had left a pattern for every hour of our lives1 and a model for every day from the cradle to the grave4 ,this is simply nonsense4 ,this 8model0 business has been overworked4 ,jesus had a great many crude1 foolish ideas1 and did a great many deeds that are not worth repeating4 ,as a model of what is best in this age he is a wretched failure4 ,it is a mistake to look upon ,jesus as a fit person to lead our century to a higher life4 ,there is nothing to live for in the past4 ,we must condemn christianity1 not christians2 strike the church1 but spare the heart4 ,,singing ,,lies ,go into any ,christian church and you will hear the choir and the congregation singing lies4 ,is it not time to stop it8 ,is music married irrevocably to falsehood8 ,take up an ordinary hymn-book and you will hardly find a sensible line in it4 ,the entire contents of the book is about ,god1 heaven1 salvation1 and other equally unknown quantities1 states and conditions4 ,why not sing sense8 ,why not sing facts8 ,why not sing truth8 ,why not sing the glories of ,nature1 of life1 of man8 ,music is a wonderful power1 a wonderful educator of the feelings and emotions4 ,it is essential1 therefore1 that music be inspired by what is true1 by what is good1 by what is right4 ,truth should be set to music and the lips taught to sing what science has discovered1 what art has done1 what the universe reveals1 what the world is living for4 ,the common ,christian music is a wail of despair1 a cry of sorrow1 a shriek of fear4 ,it is composed of false conceptions of ,nature1 of humanity1 of life4 ,it is a 8doleful sound40 ,the triumph of faith which it celebrates is not a full1 round1 complete joy4 ,the ,church does not know the music of laughter1 the music of the heart4 ,its song seems always to hover on the brink of fear4 ,it is not the glad note of natural freedom1 but the uncertain joy of the escaped convict4 ,the free song must come from the free heart1 must denote the free thought4 ,let life that is healthy1 happy and human be set to music4 ,let us sing as we live1 as we think1 as we feel4 ,the music of the hand1 the mind1 the heart1 should be on the lips4 ,if we could only sing what sings through us1 the world would listen with rapture4 ,we do not want 8harmonious madness0 nor harmonious idiocy4 ,pious music is stupid1 false4 ,it is inspired by the sickness of the world4 ,we need a stronger note1 a sturdier song4 ,lies enough have been sung4 ,let truth now fill the air4 ,out of the great hope of the race let new songs come4 ,we are beginning to live for life on earth1 for happiness here1 for love here1 for victory here4 ,let the hands and feet1 the brains and hearts of men and women move to the music of truth4 ,there is not a village where poverty does not pinch the stomach or starve the mind1 where misery does not need charity and where wealth could not bless4 ,piety could do nothing better than imitate morality4 ,a ,,walk ,,through ,a ,,cemetery ,in walking through a country graveyard one sees a prominent granite or marble monument here and there1 but more of the stones that mark the resting-places of the dead are modest in appearance1 plain and humble4 ,but there are some graves that are unmarked by any outward token of remembrance4 ,such graves may hold the dust of as great and good men and women as those spots above which has been raised the lofty shaft and costly design4 ,graveyards are just as deceptive as are the homes of the living4 ,a fine house is not proof of the moral1 the manly or womanly worth of its occupant4 ,saints do not sleep beneath the gilded roof any more than under a leaky thatch4 ,so also the wise1 the good1 the true1 are not the ones over whose ashes rises the chiseled stone4 ,the dead may deserve monuments that the living are not able to buy4 ,a graveyard might be called a library of lies4 ,epitaphs are to be read1 and believed1 if you can believe them4 ,we have found as big falsehoods in cemeteries as in newspapers4 8,say nothing bad of the dead0 is kindly counsel1 but1 say nothing of the dead on a tombstone1 is wiser4 ,we have seen a towering stone covered with words of praise over the ashes of a man1 who1 while living1 was simply a lover of money4 ,we have seen the sunken grave of a woman1 with no marble to adorn it1 who lived a heroic life of love and duty beyond words to tell4 ,if virtues bore monuments one would rise over the neglected grave of that saintly woman that would reach the clouds1 and that other grave would be stripped of its marble and left to oblivion4 ,though a cemetery is more or less a museum of vanity and pride1 there is at the bottom of the costly display of granite and marble a tender feeling1 a commendable virtue4 ,there may be as much love and respect for those in unmarked graves as for those who sleep in costly masonry or beneath sculptured stone4 ,in walking through a graveyard1 if our steps should go to the places where no monument invited the eye1 they would be more likely to walk over the dust of those who did life's duty well1 than if they paused only before the imposing shaft or read the marble tale of virtue that never was told in deeds4 ,god never helps those who need the help of men and women4 ,no man ever knew ,providence to interpose when his neighbor's hens are scratching up his garden4 ,,peace ,,with ,,god ,a good1 pious lady said to us not long ago3 8,don't you think that you ought to make your peace with ,god80 ,we have never had a bit of trouble with ,god4 ,we have got along with him tip top4 ,he has never shown that it was at all necessary for us to make peace with him4 ,we have never quarrelled4 ,if we are not at peace with ,god1 we did not know it4 ,we have no wish to have a row with anyone1 and if ,god has the idea that we are mad with him or want to injure him in any way1 we wish to disabuse his mind of such a notion4 ,we wish to say that we have never had any dealings with ,god1 to our knowledge4 ,if we have seen him1 we did not know it4 ,if he has spoken to us1 we were not aware of the fact4 ,if he has been in our presence at any time1 we were not conscious of it4 ,we do not know that we have ever wronged ,god or that ,god has ever wronged us4 ,we do not say that some word or act of ours may not have injured ,god4 ,all we can say is that we have no way of finding out whether such is the fact or not4 ,of course1 we could not take the word of a priest or minister on this point4 ,we want ,god's own assurance in the matter4 ,up to this time ,god has made no complaint to us that we have wronged him1 or that we need to make our peace with him1 and until we hear from his own lips that we owe him an apology1 we do not intend to make one4 ,god is just as good to us as though he was dead4 ,he does not cross our path1 stand in our light1 dog our steps1 or interfere with what we are doing4 ,he does not get in our way any more than if he lived in the planet ,jupiter4 ,so we do not see that we need to make our peace with him4 ,we do not comprehend how there can be any collision between us4 ,priests will pardon thieves but not philosophers4 ,priest and ,god have formed some of the worst combinations in history4 ,too long has this world been at the feet of the priest4 ,man is never in that position for his own benefit1 but for the benefit of the priest4 ,,saving ,,the ,,soul ,the man who can deliberately1 and in cold blood1 as it were1 try to save his soul1 must be grossly selfish4 ,to do that which shall redound to one's own advantage or profit1 without care or consideration of another1 shows little humanity4 ,the finer feeling is that which looks after others rather than one's self4 ,it can only increase selfishness to seek salvation4 ,when a man gets the idea that his soul must be saved1 and goes to work to save it1 the things that he will do in order to insure its salvation tend to lessen its value2 and by the time he thinks his soul is saved it is generally not worth saving4 ,the more willing we are to be lost1 the more chance there is that we will not be4 ,the cheapest method of saving one's soul is by believing something4 ,this requires but little effort and no brains4 ,christianity is organized gullibility4 ,it tells people to believe what it teaches and it will save their souls4 ,it remains to be seen whether ,christianity fulfils its part of the contract4 ,it occurs to us that before we try to save our soul we ought to know that we have a soul and that it needs saving4 ,we fail to see any necessity for anxiety on account of our soul4 ,we do not care to go into the salvation business and let the priest get all the dividends4 ,any person who can seriously talk about 8saving his soul0 ought to have a guardian4 ,,the ,,search ,,for ,,something ,,to ,,worship ,what is there in the universe that deserves worship8 ,is there anything8 ,what is there that men and women should kneel to1 pray to and adore8 ,if there is anything that deserves such worship from human beings1 where is it8 ,let us see if we can find any such thing4 ,we look at the earth and its inhabitants1 and while we see much which calls for admiration1 we find nothing to worship4 ,the mountain impresses us with its towering grandeur1 the ocean with its vast extent and terrible power1 but we cannot get on our knees to rocks1 no matter how high they are piled2 nor pray to water1 no matter how much there is of it4 ,the flower elicits our wondering delight1 but we cannot adore a rose1 a sunflower or a daisy4 ,we own the marvelous beauty of the animal form1 but we cannot worship a horse1 a tiger or a dog4 ,we hear the gladness and madness of melody which comes from the throat of the bird1 but sweet and entrancing as it is1 we cannot adore a skylark1 a nightingale or a thrush4 ,we see man1 the fairest form that walks the earth1 the most marvelous piece of work that ,nature reveals to our senses1 but we cannot worship our own image4 ,beyond earth the eye looks1 and cloud1 black or bright1 is seen and the endless blue beyond the cloud1 but man cannot get on his knees to vapor or pray to the sky4 ,in the daytime the sun is seen1 and at night the moon and countless stars1 but man cannot worship a ball of fire nor a dying planet1 or adore a point of light4 ,we can find nothing on the earth or in the heavens that we can worship4 ,is there something not on the earth or in the heavens8 ,if so1 what is it and where is it8 ,what do men and women kneel to8 ,nothing4 ,what do men and women pray to8 ,nothing4 ,what do men and women worship8 ,nothing4 ,coals out of the ashes of love will never light the fires of friendship4 ,the names of most men live on account of the falsehoods told about them4 ,we should scorn the person who would be mean enough to allow his fellow-being to be punished for his deeds4 ,yet we have a religion in our midst that is founded on this kind of meanness4 ,,where ,,are ,,they ,where are the sons of gods that loved the daughters of men8 ,where are the nymphs1 the goddesses of the winds and waters8 ,where are the gnomes that lived inside the earth8 ,where are the goblins that used to play tricks on mortals8 ,where are the fairies that could blight or bless the human heart8 ,where are the ghosts that haunted this globe8 ,where are the witches that flew in and out of the homes of men8 ,where is the devil that once roamed over the earth8 ,where are they8 ,gone with the ignorance that believed in them4 ,no man was ever yet canonized for minding his own business4 ,no man was ever yet sorry to find that he had married a good cook4 ,,some ,,questions ,,for ,,christians ,,to ,,answer ,how do ministers know what pleases ,god8 ,what is 8inspiration of ,god80 ,when ,god 8inspired men of old10 what did he do to them8 ,what has ,god revealed to man that has ever helped him get a living8 ,if we do not need to worship ,god six days in the week why do we need to worship him on the seventh8 ,if there were no ministers and no priests1 how long would there be any churches8 ,if ,god will answer prayer1 what is the necessity of working8 ,if ,god weeps when the poor suffer1 what does he make it so cold for8 ,if rich men cannot enter the kingdom of ,god1 what business have rich men to be in ,christian churches8 ,if ,god is our 8father10 does he take very good care of his children8 ,if ,god sends what blesses us1 who sends what curses us8 ,if ,christianity makes the world better1 why is there so much vice and crime8 ,if 8salvation is free10 why is anybody lost8 ,,the ,,image ,,of ,,god ,we wonder if anyone knows what is meant by the expression1 8the image of ,god40 ,it is said in the ,bible that ,god 8created man in his own image40 ,if man makes anything in his image we know how this thing looks1 but when ,god creates something in his image we are at a loss to comprehend what is meant unless ,god has the likeness of man4 ,in ancient times there is no doubt but what the assertion that ,god 8created man in his own image0 was accepted literally1 that the people looked upon ,god as a big man4 ,later they came to look upon man as a little god4 ,but we are dealing with the brain of the twentieth century1 with the common sense of a scientific age1 when it is no longer believed that ,god 8created0 man at all4 ,to-day the 8image of ,god0 is a puzzle4 ,if ,god 8created man in his own image10 in whose image did he create the elephant1 the lion1 the bear1 the ox1 the goat1 the snake1 the beetle1 the bee1 the fly1 the gnat8 ,these could not all have been created in the divine image1 unless the divine image is a multitudinous likeness4 ,is it not about time that a few literary murders were committed1 that some one went through our literature and killed off a lot of nonsensical expressions that1 if they ever meant anything1 are meaningless today8 ,if there was more honesty in the pulpit a great many ,bible expressions would go out of fashion4 ,one of the first that needs to die or be killed is this foolish expression1 8the image of ,god40 ,it may be religious1 but it lacks sense4 ,it means nothing in this age4 ,god is a term that eludes definition4 ,it is a survival of an age of ignorance4 ,a man may be a fool and not know it1 but he cannot be a fool without others knowing it4 ,there is a pious regard for certain men and women who have in past ages been1 as it were1 the world's salvation4 ,we would honor these men wherever piety offers her praise1 but we would not1 like piety1 forbid man the right to excel them4 ,we all know how much easier it is to be saved by another than to save ourselves1 but it cannot be denied that there is a certain respect1 a feeling of admiration1 a thrill of reverence for the man who says3 ,i am a free moral being and scorn to allow another to suffer for my sins4 ,,religion ,,and ,,science ,when religion attacks science it is like trying to cut down the tree of truth with the hatchet of falsehood4 ,it is unfortunate for ,christianity that it was founded on the book of ,genesis4 ,a scientific fact is higher authority today than a religious fable4 ,science has found so many facts that contradict the stories of ,genesis that to accept these stories as divine truth is to make falsehood the word of ,god4 ,the one particular enemy of every religion is science4 ,with merciless labor her votaries have dethroned one after another idol of man4 ,science has no creed1 no dogmas4 ,her search is for facts1 and on these she stands4 ,if what is discovered by lovers of truth is contrary to the tenets of religion1 such tenets must be abandoned1 for what is scientifically false cannot be religiously true4 ,the ,christian church is built upon a lot of divine say-soes4 ,science has found that these say-soes are not so4 ,the only honest thing for ,christians to do is to give up the book of ,genesis as a reliable record4 ,what men have said that ,god has said is not necessarily sacred4 ,men may have lied1 and lies are not holy4 ,christianity has been afraid of the divine name4 ,what it has found in the name of ,god it has blindly worshiped as the word of ,god4 ,this stupid action has been a prolific source of mischief4 ,faith has carried on its innocent back a thousand impositions through fear to doubt4 ,science has not found the name of ,god in the earth or in the heavens4 ,it has ignored the guide-board which the priest of religion nailed to the ,bible1 8this book shows the way to truth10 and has studied the volume of ,nature instead4 ,whatever it has found has been told4 ,what may be honestly inferred from the facts of science is that all religions are humbugs1 and that ,christianity is a fraud4 ,the only way to a better life is by living better4 ,the person who tells a lie does not know what he will have to do next4 ,a great many persons have the idea that the universe would run off the track but for them4 ,have a good time1 make life cheerful and bright1 dance if you want to1 sing if you can1 play as long as you live and leave the world with a smile4 ,,the ,,bible ,,and ,,the ,,child ,the longer we live the more are we convinced that no adult person would accept the ,bible as a divine work if he had not been taught the dogma of the ,bible's divinity when a child4 ,let the matured mind come to the perusal of the ,bible without the religious prejudice in favor of its divine character1 and it would reject the book as unworthy the consideration of the intelligent1 educated man4 ,let the refined sense1 which all education in art1 manners and social morals seeks to cultivate1 begin to read the ,bible1 without the religious prejudice in favor of its sacred character1 and before a dozen pages had been read1 it would close the volume with disgust and hide it out of sight1 or burn it as soon as possible4 ,the ,bible's divinity rests upon the mental and moral corruption of the young4 ,were children not taught that this book was sacred1 men and women would look upon it as unholy4 ,do people realize what harm they are doing to the mind of the child when they teach it to accept the ,bible as ,god's word8 ,they are telling the child that falsehood is sacred2 that ignorance is holy2 that foul stories are pure2 that vile words are clean1 in the mouth of ,god4 ,fathers and mothers would not tell their children what they1 and what priests and ministers1 tell them ,god wrote or inspired man to write4 ,what is needed to-day is to tell the truth about the ,bible4 ,tell men and women that ignorant1 uncultured1 unrefined men wrote it hundreds of years ago1 and that it is unfit in its present shape to put into the hands of a child that a mother wishes to grow up honest1 true and pure4 ,liberals should not allow their children to touch the ,bible4 ,they should keep it from them until they are old enough to know that no book was ever written by a ,god1 and then1 if they read the ,bible1 they would see its true character4 ,we must guard the minds of our children from ,christian influences4 ,we pity the child that is taught that the ,bible is the word of ,god1 but we despise the man that teaches this falsehood4 ,most men would kill the truth if truth would kill their religion4 ,the truths which ,god revealed have been overthrown by the truths which man has discovered4 ,people used to think that to mix religion with business spoiled the religion1 now they think it spoils the business4 ,,when ,,to ,,help ,,the ,,world ,recently an old man1 over eighty years of age1 lay on his death-bed4 ,he could no longer keep possession of the wealth he had accumulated4 ,in a few hours he must leave it to the world from which he had taken it and kept it so many years4 ,he had not been a generous man4 ,he had loved money4 ,he loved to get it and loved to keep it1 and if he could have carried his wealth with him1 whither he was going with that unknown guide1 ,death1 there is no doubt but that he would have done so4 ,he had given nothing to the world while he lived and he would not have given anything when he died1 only that he was obliged to do so4 ,this is the only charity of a great many people4 ,when death comes1 then the hand of avarice must open4 ,nothing can be carried through the grave4 ,so the old man must at last release his hold upon his gains4 ,he must leave his loved dollars to somebody4 ,he had gathered them for himself1 not for others4 ,he had thought only of himself when he gathered them1 and now1 when he was to part with them1 he did not know what disposition to make of them4 ,the lawyer was present at his bedside2 the minister was also with him4 ,the will had been drawn4 ,he had bequeathed certain sums to public charities and remembered the church4 ,life was almost gone4 ,he hesitated yet to give up the control of his money to others4 ,the pen was placed in his dying fingers for him to affix his name to the will4 ,but he had waited too long4 ,he died with the name unwritten1 the pen unused in his dead hand4 ,not voluntarily did he part with a cent of his fortune4 ,his millions will now be divided by the law4 ,is there in the bare possession of money the happiness that men desire1 that men dream of1 that men want8 ,is a dollar the highest goal of human effort1 the crown of human endeavor8 ,is this dollar1 the insignia of fortune1 the true sign of good fortune8 ,we believe not4 ,the man who works for this and nothing else1 is the slave of avarice2 as hard1 as cruel1 as merciless a tyrant as ever cursed the earth4 ,let every man strive for independence4 ,let man be rewarded well for his labor4 ,let every hand keep busy1 but let there be a desire higher than money1 a dream nobler than of gain1 a want above the possession of riches4 ,there is a better charity than that unwilling gift which death compels us to make2 it is to help the world while we live4 ,there are two ways of doing this3 by giving back a part of what we take1--that is one way and a good way--and by taking less from others1 that is another way and a better way4 ,the help that men need to-day is justice4 ,thousands are poor that one may be rich4 ,thousands toil that one may live in idleness4 ,thousands are in want that one may live in luxury4 ,thousands have not a dollar that one may have millions4 ,this is not right1 not fair1 not just4 ,men must take less while they go through life4 ,it is not enough that a man on his deathbed give a college a million1 a public library a million1 a public park a million4 ,he should have no millions to give4 ,he should live a more just life and help others by trying to get less for himself4 ,the public bequest is the popular atonement for large fortunes1 but such atonement does not efface the sufferings of poverty and want they entail4 ,we say to the rich1 do not wait until you die before you try to help your fellow-men4 ,help them while you are living4 ,when a man has made money he should make a noble use of it1 or he wrongs himself and the world4 ,where the cross has been planted only superstitions have grown4 ,religion is no more the parent of morality than an incubator is the mother of a chicken4 ,unless some people change their habits before they die1 there will be a lot of dirty angels in the next world1 if there is any next world4 ,,the ,,judgment ,,of ,,god ,we hear less of what is called the 8judgment of ,god0 than formerly1 but quite enough to show that this foolish superstition still lingers in the human mind4 ,it used to be believed that ,god was on the lookout for the bad boy who went fishing or skating on his holy sabbath and that when he caught him he immediately made use of him to prove his loving-kindness and tender mercy by making him get into the water where he could drown him4 ,it was never related that ,god took this boy by the shoulder or even by the ear and led him back home to his parents with the request that they take better care of him in the future4 ,this was not ,god's way4 ,there would be no judgment in this4 ,god must murder the poor boy who could see no difference in the conduct of the birds and fishes on ,sunday from their conduct on ,saturday1 and have him carried back to his father's arms and his mother's heart a corpse1 a cold1 dead thing1 no longer needing love1 kindness1 and a parent's great1 forgiving charity4 ,this was ,god's way4 ,he delighted in seeing a dead boy taken out of the frozen stream and laid down in the presence of his poor1 grief-crazed mother4 ,he thought this would make the mother love him more and other boys keep his holy sabbath4 ,so when any misfortune befell on ,sunday a human being who was not on his way to ,god's house1 or engaged in other pious occupation1 it was believed to be a judgment of ,god and people took care to avoid a similar punishment4 ,this kind of religious teaching does not enjoy the reputation that it once did for the reason that it has become discredited by human experience4 ,all things considered it is just as safe to go sailing or swimming1 fishing1 or driving1 on ,sunday as on ,monday and men have learned that no penalty attaches to violation of the fourth commandment4 ,as people become sensible they cease to be religious4 ,prayer is begging from a pauper4 ,the egg of prayer never yet became a chicken4 ,prayer is like a pump in an empty well1 it makes lots of noise1 but brings no water4 ,a great many people who worship ,jesus would not let him come in at the back door4 ,,christianity ,,and ,,freethought ,christianity is opposed to freedom1 and consequently freedom is opposed to ,christianity4 ,a ,christian cannot be a freethinker1 and a freethinker cannot be a ,christian4 ,when a man is required to believe certain doctrines1 he is not free to think4 ,a creed is to keep the mind from inquiry4 ,questions lead to doubt1 and doubt is the death of faith4 ,the church condemns freethought1 because freethought cannot be bound by its chain of dogma4 ,there is no place in the ,christian church for the exercise of liberty4 ,if the mind finds a new truth that contradicts the old dogma1 the truth must be strangled that the dogma may hold its power over the thoughts and deeds of men4 ,to be a ,christian is to surrender to the priest or minister in the name of ,christ4 ,it is to be a monkey on the end of an ecclesiastical string to get pennies for his master4 ,it is to crawl at the feet of superstition4 ,to be a freethinker is to search for truth without fear4 ,where there is love of freedom there is no reverence for authority4 ,there is no faith in ,god as sacred as love of man4 ,there may be lots of ,providence in the world1 but no man seems to know just where it can be found4 ,,the ,,brotherhood ,,and ,,freedom ,,of ,,man ,from the fall of ,rome a new era marks the history of man2 a new soul was born out of human experience4 ,the idea which had been prophesied by the philosophers of ,india1 ,egypt and ,greece now appeared in life1 and what had been hoped for seemed about to be realized4 ,born in an age of slaughter and inhumanity the thought of the brotherhood of man fell upon the world like a star out of the night's sky4 ,though the power of this idea was not fully comprehended by the people upon whom it blazed forth1 still the promise it contained was able to kindle enthusiasm in the hearts of the few1 who bequeathed it to the world as the destiny of mankind4 ,human life was inspired with a new purpose under the power of this grand and noble sentiment4 ,although it was not understood and the subject of much misapprehension1 the thought of uniting man in one great endeavor grew and endowed nations with a feeling that never before had moved their hearts4 ,its advent gave the world a new ambition and the mind was enlisted in the great cause of love and fellowship of man4 ,there was another sentiment not less true or beautiful but more revolutionary1 which about the same time began to assume likeness in human affairs1 which must be considered of larger importance in the new social movement1 which1 during the first century of the so-called ,christian era1 commenced to be felt4 ,the declaration of the sovereignty of man was more prophetic of change in government and society than the doctrine of the brotherhood of man4 ,no government taught that man ought to judge for himself what is right1 and no church preached that man should love his neighbor as himself4 ,political and religious organizations then as now were arrayed against individual rights4 ,the state and the church controlled the person4 ,man was crucified between these two thieves4 ,one robbed him of his body1 the other of his soul4 ,our history assigns the origin of these two great principles--man's right to judge for himself and his duty to help his fellow-being--to ,christianity4 ,but one was born before the beginning of the ,christian era and the other long after the ,christian church was established4 ,one represents man as opposed to authority2 the other the soul resisting tradition4 ,there is more or less talk about the freedom and brotherhood of man1 but they exist as ideas yet more than as facts4 ,it is true that man enjoys a certain measure of liberty in many directions1 but the victory of freedom has not yet been won4 ,so too is there a kind of human sympathy in society1 but the broad and magnificent destiny which dwells in the bosom of human brotherhood is more a dream than a reality4 ,there has been too much time wasted in disputing who was the human author of these great and sublime conceptions1 and too little expended in trying to plant them in human hearts and cultivate them in human lives4 ,it is unimportant who first stood against the world of tyranny and demanded his right of independence1 or who first felt indignation for the wrongs inflicted upon his race and pity for the victims of cruelty1 and pleaded for more humanity towards man4 ,the secret can never be wrested from the silent past1 and we can gain nothing by fighting over graves4 ,the world seems nearer the full realization of human freedom and brotherhood than ever before4 ,what is needed now to hasten the fruition of the glad promise of a better destiny for the world is to take authority from the priest and selfishness from man4 ,prayer is a hook that never caught any fish4 ,it is a gun that never brought down any game4 ,no man ever got an answer to prayer that he could show to another person4 ,,whatever ,,is ,,is ,,right ,there are a great many familiar sayings1 that are in the mouths of nearly everybody1 which are perfect nonsense1 and one of these many sayings is the one we have chosen for the subject of this article4 ,one would imagine that falsehood became sacred by repetition1 judging from the way that certain untruths live in the literature and language of mankind4 ,many a holy text is only holy by being with what is true1 as we pay respect to many a man whom we know to be unworthy because he is related to respectable people4 ,the saying that 8whatever is is right10 is a dogma of the philosophy of indifference4 ,to anyone who works for the right and suffers wrong1 such a dogma is impertinent4 ,is the deed that sinks a man to the realm of brutes1 and the deed that lifts him to heights where virtue in her high estate dwells alone1 both right8 ,the worst light for a human soul is that light in which a bad act looks like a good one4 ,we cannot afford to trifle with things pure and true4 ,to succeed grandly in life we must side with what is right4 ,there is a class of people that hold a don't-care philosophy4 ,these people don't care what they say or do2 they don't care what takes place in the world or what the world suffers or endures4 ,the tent in which they dwell is pitched above the plane of human wants and sufferings4 ,they look from their serene abode upon the troubled elements below1 and1 in contemplation of what is beneath them1 pronounce with pious gravity the highest text of their system of philosophy3 8,whatever is is right40 ,to those who have never seen the bitter tear start under the infliction of injury2 to those who have never heard the sigh that disappointment and deception have wrung from a breaking heart2 to those who have never witnessed the sufferings which tyranny imposes upon its victims2 to those who have never felt the miseries which selfishness heaps upon human beings1 this doctrine may seem true2 but to those who have beheld the consequences of evil doing1 and felt the hard hand of injustice upon their lives2 to those who have been the victims of deception1 and realized the terrible fate of disappointment2 to those who have been trodden upon and denied the rights of men2 to those who have been the slaves of the world's cruel masters1 how false it is6 ,we cannot disguise the fact that there is wrong in the world4 ,it haunts every dwelling-place of man4 ,it follows man to his business1 to his work4 ,it goes with him when he seeks his pleasure4 ,it does not leave him when he enters his home4 ,every harsh word is wrong1 every unjust judgment is wrong1 every cruel act is wrong1 every deception is wrong1 every wicked or impure thought is wrong4 ,go where we will we shall meet the ugly face of wrong4 ,on the street its presence will bring shame into the face2 in our dealings with the world it will come before our eyes in all its hideous reality4 ,even when alone we cannot keep this phantom away4 ,is it right that a human being should cause another pain and anguish that will leave their marks on the heart and brow for life8 ,is it right to make a man suffer unjustly1 to add to misfortune the weight of cruelty8 ,is it right to deprive one of honor1 of fortune1 of life8 ,is it right to bear false witness against a brother-man1 to abuse a neighbor1 to slander and malign a human soul8 ,is wrong right8 ,go to the garret of the poor wretch where want stares him in the face1 where extortion robs his family of every joy and every comfort1 where the day is made dark from no ray of human love coming into the heart1 and the night darker from the absence of warmth and light4 ,go to the home rent asunder by vice and see the broken promises once so fair and bright1 now blushing with shame2 hear curses from lips that once spoke in love2 see the skeletons of vows beautiful when breathed by the lips of the holiest passion on earth1 but now hideous in their ruin4 ,go to the den of wickedness1 to the house of crime supported by lust and greed2 look upon the pictures of wretchedness and sorrow1 of sin and guilt painted by the hand of wrong2 behold the wrecked human lives that are floating on the sea of existence1 only drifting until some sudden wave shall overwhelm them and sink them out of sight1 leaving behind a memory that man should contemplate with pity and which kindness would blot out forever4 ,see the world in its vice1 in its suffering1 in its misery1 in its tears and its shame and let your lips say1 if they can1 that 8,whatever is is right40 ,it is necessary to distinguish between the virtue and the vice of obedience4 ,i believe that if ,god dwelt above the earth in the twelfth century of the ,christian era1 and witnessed the cruelty of priests and heard the cries of their poor victims when their bones were broken upon the rack or their flesh was burning in the wicked flames1 and these priests should have lifted up their voices to this ,god and given him the glory of the awful sacrifice1 he would have said to them3 ,you lie2 ,i never commanded one of my children to murder another4 ,you are no ministers of mine1 and your victims1 with their heresies1 are a thousand times holier in my sight than are you with your pious dogmas and holy sacraments4 ,,the ,,object ,,of ,,life ,men live for less than their advancement4 ,the object of life is not human improvement4 ,ambition has not self-denial for a mark but self-gratification4 ,a thousand pander to one4 ,passion1 instead of principle1 is the power that guides4 ,we do not save to help save the world1 to aid progress and truth1 but to have means to satisfy selfish desires4 ,the highest consideration of mankind is self4 ,everything is done for one4 ,humanity is a word of little meaning4 ,it is not often regarded as a great1 living1 suffering being1 which demands of every person his or her best life4 ,man is not loved as the supreme fact of ,nature4 ,when not a beast of burden1 he is too often a beast of pleasure4 ,as long as self is to be preferred to all1 it matters little what is employed to promote it4 ,self is alone sacred to selfishness4 ,general interest is sacrificed to individual possession4 ,every man thinks the world his first4 ,it is regarded as magnanimous to leave what you cannot take4 ,the world no longer permits the stronger to kill the weaker1 but it allows the wealthy to oppress the poor4 ,money is holier than man4 ,human life is less sacred than property4 ,to save a dollar is regarded as a more necessary virtue than to save a human heart4 ,society cares more for fortune than for truth4 ,it is easier to win your way with hypocrisy than with honesty4 ,the world does not ask3 ,what are you worth morally8 but1 what are you worth financially8 ,self-interest has made it the object of life to injure our fellows4 ,to get an advantage over another is the victory man seeks4 ,one must fall that another may rise4 ,those who are at the bottom support those who are on top4 ,the toilers are the foundation of society4 ,we need to be more careful of what is beneath us than of what is above us4 8,i write not these things to shame you1 but to warn you40 ,when you are falling1 you cannot stop where you wish to4 ,the power that conquers men to-day must be the power of enlightened opinion4 ,two dollars given to the son do not atone for one stolen from the father4 ,,man ,the ,hebrew psalmist sings of man3--8,thou madest him a little lower than the angels40 ,a modern psalmist writing on this subject says3--8,man was made a little higher than the brutes40 ,man is a rare animal2 he is the only animal that can make a fire1 but he is more than a brute4 ,we do not know how much less than an angel he is1 for we do not know the dimensions of an angel4 ,what we do know is1 that this strange1 rare being1 called man1 is capable of doing a good deed1 but is prone to do a bad one2 that he has developed virtues above the brute and vices below the brute2 that he is better in public than in private1 and yet take him all in all he might be worse4 ,we have had the weakness of human nature preached until we have almost come to expect man to be immoral and vicious1 and are surprised if anyone asserts that man is strong enough to resist temptation1 and disappointed if he does not come up1 or down1 to our expectations of vileness and wickedness4 ,while we have faith in man in the minority rather than in the majority1 still we are inclined to think that most men are bad from circumstance more than from choice4 ,we trust to better conditions for better men1 and depend upon our best men to establish such conditions4 ,there is some criticism of virtue that vice offers which is as pertinent as the censure of vice which virtue indulges in4 ,we admit that there are a great many sinners that are preferable to some kinds of saints1 who are no more to blame for their sins than their more fortunate fellow-beings are for their saintliness4 ,but we do not mean to say that every good man is a villain in disguise1 nor every rogue a righteous man who has not been found out4 ,there are men and women whose goodness is looked upon as 8flat1 stale1 and unprofitable0 because it is that kind that is good from favorable circumstances1 and not from the exercise of any strength of their own1 but such virtue is better than vice4 ,we cannot afford to lose any power that protects the world from evil1 and we rejoice in all the favorable circumstances that guard human beings4 ,men are educated into bad habits through the constant assertion of human weakness1 and the publicity which is given to bad deeds4 ,we can never build man very high on the foundation of 8total depravity40 ,it is to be regretted that we think so meanly of mankind4 ,we must start with a better assumption of human nature than that held by ,christianity4 ,we ought to emphasize man's strength and give prominence to the good deeds of men4 ,it is not necessary to lie about human nature one way more than another4 ,man has been painted worse than he is4 ,we do not ask to have him painted better than he is4 ,we want a true likeness4 ,man will make the best picture without any fictitious coloring4 ,we are aware that we have not yet outgrown our animal inheritance1 that we are still fettered to earthly things4 ,man can more easily deny his soul than he can his stomach1 but for all this there is greatness in him4 ,while man can fall to the lowest depths from which he sprung1 he can rise to the height which is visible in his purest hours4 ,what we ought to do is to encourage1 all we can1 the conditions most favorable to the development of the noblest part of man4 ,every temptation to vice should be driven from the public gaze4 ,if man must fall1 let him fall out of sight4 ,people who rely most on ,god rely least on themselves4 ,the original sin was not in eating of the forbidden fruit1 but in planting the tree that bore the fruit4 ,the people who boast the loudest of carrying their cross are never around when man cries for help4 ,an audience composed of the best-dressed people in a town stands for pure religion and undefiled to-day4 ,,the ,,dogma ,,of ,,the ,,divine ,,man ,there are growing indications all along the ,christian line that the dogma of the divinity of ,jesus is being abandoned4 ,it is seen that such a dogma involves confusion and misapprehension4 ,when the question1 8,how can a ,god who is infinite exist in a form that is finite80 is pressed to an answer1 no satisfactory reply is forthcoming4 ,there is apparent absurdity in this doctrine4 ,the general definition of ,god1 as put forth to-day by the ,christian ,church1 is irreconcilable with the dogma of the divinity of ,jesus4 ,if ,jesus was ,god he was not a man2 if he was a man1 he was not ,god4 ,to talk about his divinity is to talk nonsense1 if ,joseph was his father and ,mary his mother4 ,man is not divine2 ,god is not human4 ,the mixing up of these two terms is done simply to impose upon the credulous and superstitious4 ,we cannot think that any man of real good sense believes this ,orthodox dogma4 ,it seems impossible for intelligence to so contradict itself4 ,the brain stoops that accepts this dogma4 ,for a man to confess his faith in ,jesus as divine is to admit that his hat is not full4 ,the evidence adduced to prove the divinity of ,jesus proves the divinity of ,apollo1 of ,hercules1 of ,prometheus1 of hundreds of mythological heroes4 ,are ,christians prepared to admit this8 ,if not1 then they are called upon to tell the world why not4 ,what is meant by divine8 ,what kind of a man is a divine man8 ,let us see4 ,divine means superhuman1 supernatural1 ,god-like2 hence a divine man is a superhuman man1 a supernatural man1 a ,god-like man4 ,does anyone know what these definitive terms mean8 ,does a person know what he is talking about when he says a man is superhuman8 ,can a man be more than man1 more than human1 more than natural8 ,the dogma of a divine man is a dogma of deception4 ,it is a theological cobweb4 ,it is spread to catch flies4 ,the idea prevailed in the past that what could not be understood must necessarily be profound1 as though muddy water was deep water4 ,does anyone comprehend the dogma of the ,trinity8 ,it is believed because it cannot be comprehended4 ,the tribute of faith has been paid to occult nonsense long enough4 ,how does anyone know what is superhuman8 ,what is human8 ,the fact is1 ,jesus has had his day4 ,his reign is drawing to a close4 ,he is being seen for what he is1--a myth4 ,faith in him as a ,god is dying4 ,the belief that ,jesus was divine is a blot on the intelligence of this century4 ,but the blot is growing smaller4 ,lots of men who would not associate with infidels for fear of contaminating their characters are not yet out of jail4 ,,the ,,rich ,,man',s ,,gospel ,the presence of numberless rich men in ,christian pews leads one to wonder if the gospel of ,jesus has been kicked out of the church4 ,such men do not1 and cannot1 respect the person to whom every church is dedicated4 ,the gospel of ,jesus is not the gospel of the rich1 but of the poor2 not of the banker1 but of the beggar4 ,it is impossible for the wealthy man to be a ,christian4 ,if he had any faith in the doctrines of ,jesus he would 8sell what he has and give to the poor40 ,and not only this1 but he would be poor himself4 ,jesus never said a kind word of the rich4 ,he never uttered a word that contains any consolation for the millionaire4 ,he never gave any command that encourages the 8laying up treasures upon earth40 ,what is a rich man in the ,christian church for8 ,he has no business there1 if he is an honest man4 ,he is living exactly opposite to the life ,jesus commanded4 ,he is doing what ,jesus told men not to do4 ,he refuses to do what ,jesus said a man must do in order to be his disciple4 ,either the rich man who joins the church is a hypocrite1 or the minister1 that receives such a man into the church1 is4 ,there is a hypocrite somewhere4 ,you do not find that ,jesus went into the temple to flatter the money-changers2 he went in there to drive them out with a whip4 ,the rich man's gospel is not found in the ,new ,testament4 ,that is sure4 ,it may be preached from a ,christian pulpit by a so-called ,christian minister1 but the man who preaches this gospel denies his professed ,lord and ,master4 ,jesus did not say1 8,lay up treasures upon earth40 ,take all you can from the poor4 ,form trusts and combinations to enrich yourselves4 ,worship ,mammon4 ,there is a misunderstanding evidently on the part of the rich man who joins the ,christian church4 ,if he would read the ,new ,testament he would learn his mistake1 and see that he was in the wrong place4 ,he does not seem to be aware what ,jesus preached4 ,there is one thing certain1 the ,christian church that receives into fellowship a millionaire1 has more reverence for the millionaire than for ,jesus4 ,the beating of humanity's heart cannot be felt by placing the finger on the church's pulse4 ,what a queer thing is ,christian salvation6 ,believing in firemen will not save a burning house2 believing in doctors will not make one well1 but believing in a savior saves men4 ,fudge6 ,,speak ,,well ,,of ,,one ,,another ,there is nothing that will make this world brighter and happier than to speak well of one another4 ,we sometimes wonder how a mean story about a fellow-mortal gets started1 and how it is kept going4 ,surely no base report ever had birth in a kind intention1 and no mouth ever repeated it with the wish to make the world better4 ,envy1 malice and ill-will can make no decent defence of themselves4 ,now1 it costs no more to say a good word of a brother or sister than to say a bad one1 and there is no obligation on the part of a person to blacken human reputation4 ,it is a mean heart that cannot do justice to another4 ,if we must speak of our neighbors1 let us speak kindly4 ,let us refer to those things that are pleasant1 and discuss that in their characters that is worthy of praise4 ,it hurts us to say bad things of other people1 and it may hurt them4 ,there is certainly some part of everyone's life that can be commended4 ,what we know of others that is not good1 let us not refer to4 ,silence is never more charitable than when it spares a human heart4 ,there are many of our friends who are striving to make a success in life4 ,nothing will aid them more than to speak well of them4 ,everybody can be generous with kind words1 and yet they are worth more than gold4 ,they are the diamonds of speech1 which the poorest can wear4 ,don't be afraid to speak well of men1 to praise good deeds4 ,no one will think worse of you for speaking kindly of others4 ,it is not necessary that we speak well only of those deeds that men sing in words of song4 ,there are scores of little every-day acts1 that give the perfume of self-denial1 of sacrifice1 and that deserve praise4 ,if we were to give any advice to a man or woman1 who wished to help the world as they passed through it1 it would be this1 ,speak well of men and women4 ,a receipt for bringing up a child will not apply to a whole family4 ,to build one house for man is better than to build a dozen houses to ,god4 ,we often hear a man say that the world owes him a living4 ,so it does1 if he earns it4 ,but man owes the world something4 ,the debt is on both sides1 and it is only by giving what is due to others that we get what is due to ourselves4 ,we receive assistance when we render it1 and it is by a law of our nature that the world turns from a man who turns from the world4 ,,disgraceful ,,partnerships ,six marriages out of ten are disgraceful partnerships4 ,the ones to question our assertion will be the married men1 and the very ones1 too1 responsible for the disgrace4 ,marriage is a union where the two partners should share alike the profits and the losses4 ,there should be no head of the firm in the sense of making one subservient in any way to the other4 ,the wife has just the same right to handle the money of the firm as the husband4 ,the family purse should not be carried in the husband's pocket unless he is willing to pass it out whenever his partner requests it1 and no questions asked4 ,most men treat their wives worse than servants4 ,if a wife asks for some money1 the husband1 in most instances1 wants to know what she is going to do with it and how much she wants1 instead of giving her what is her right4 ,married men do not recognize their wives as equal partners in the family concern4 ,they think they should have what they want and their wives what they are pleased to give them4 ,how many homes have been broken up by carrying out such a principle as this8 ,more than men will confess4 ,this state of things is not confined to the homes of poverty4 ,not at all4 ,it exists where there is plenty4 ,many a proud woman is almost daily humiliated by a man to whom she is obliged to go for what money she needs4 ,the pain that niggardly husbands inflict upon sensitive wives is only known by themselves4 ,many a woman has said3 8,i would rather go without the money than have so much trouble to get it from my husband40 ,what must a woman have suffered to be forced to make such a confession as that6 ,a marriage in which a woman is daily made to feel her dependence upon a man1 is attended with the gravest moral perils4 ,the only just rule is for the husband to allow his wife a fair share of his income1 for her to do with as she pleases4 ,not only marital harmony would be promoted by such an arrangement as this1 but love would burn longer and purer on the family altar1 private morality would be conserved1 and all the relations of life elevated and dignified thereby4 ,the most beautiful thing is the beauty we see in those we love4 ,the money that men waste would make them rich1 and the time they waste would make them wise4 ,,science ,,and ,,theology ,every day we are told of some wonderful discovery of science4 ,but what has theology discovered8 ,the scientist is searching for the truth2 the theologian is trying to save his idols4 ,of all the great inventions and discoveries that go to make human life easier1 happier1 more rich and glorious1 not one can be laid to the work of theology4 ,these triumphs all belong to science4 ,some day the world will become wise enough to confess that the priest is of no benefit to mankind4 ,the investigator1 the student1 the inventor1 is the true philanthropist1 the real benefactor4 ,he finds what is useful to his race1 what adds comfort and joy to existence4 ,science is the hope of the world1 the only savior that humanity has had adown the ages or will have as man lives on through the centuries4 ,many a man who was too good to play cards has broken a bank4 ,a dog can get rid of another dog that cannot get rid of the flea on his back4 ,,unequal ,,remuneration ,a great many small men draw large salaries1 and a great many large men draw small salaries4 ,of course we measure men by their ability to do something of value to their race4 ,it is a sorry fact that one person is paid ten thousand dollars a year for playing base ball or riding a race-horse1 and that another person in unable to earn seven hundred and fifty dollars for the same length of time by performing some useful labor4 ,a mechanic1 who actually adds to the wealth of the nation1 who produces something of value1 is paid less than a jockey or a base ball pitcher whose business 787 is chiefly maintained for purposes of gambling4 ,but there are other phases of this question that present equally disproportionate features4 ,an actor1 who merely repeats the words of another1 receives one thousand dollars a night for his performance1 while a lecturer who imparts original knowledge to his hearers1 is paid twenty dollars and his expenses for his thought and labor4 ,a singer is given five thousand dollars for appearing three nights of a week upon the stage1 and a reformer is allowed what her audience will drop into the contribution box4 ,one explanation of this is3 8,there is only one ,caruso40 ,there is another explanation1 and that is3 ,people will pay more to be entertained1 to be pleased1 than to be instructed1 to be enlightened or to be told what is right and best4 ,it is a sad fact that many are paid too little for what they do4 ,as a rule the actual laborers1 the real workers of the world1 both male and female1 do not receive fair compensation for their work1 while thousands of people who merely hold an office are paid far more than they are worth4 ,teachers1 writers and professors are all underpaid4 ,the highest work that man or woman is doing is the work of education1 training the human mind to think truly1 to act nobly1 and yet a lawyer receives more in a day than a teacher in a year4 ,the world that will pay one thousand dollars an hour to hear the voice of ,melba1 will grumble at paying ten cents an hour to a washerwoman4 ,the world that will give a person ten thousand dollars a year for pitching base ball will object to raising the wages of our mill operatives five per cent4 ,the world that will pay ten thousand dollars a year for riding a horse1 wants a woman to teach school for fifty dollars a month4 ,we say1 pay talent well and genius generously1 but pay well also the arm that toils2 pay the needle1 the saw1 the spade1 the hoe1 the mop4 ,every man who claims the right to 8life1 liberty and the pursuit of happiness10 is bound to show that he deserves this right4 ,,the ,,old ,,and ,,the ,,new ,this is essentially an age of change4 ,things which have been established for centuries are no longer regarded as fixed4 ,that which has been looked upon as absolute is now respectfully held to be uncertain4 ,the foundations of old ideas are being disturbed and man finds that he has built upon sandy bottom4 ,much which in times past answered the human soul1 now affords no satisfaction4 ,it is plain that a revolution has commenced that will be far reaching and important in its actions and reactions4 ,there is to be a general overhauling of matters secular and religious1 political and social and a wholesale clearing out of old words and forms1 of outgrown habits and customs1 may be expected4 ,the world of man is about to take account of stock and to have a universal comparison of estimates of values4 ,too long have we been subsisting upon the say-soes of our ancestors and taking their eyes and ears as infallible4 ,for many years men have regarded all questions of religion as settled1 and that the whole duty of this and future generations was to accept the conclusions of the past upon all religious matters4 ,we do not understand how men ever came to regard such conclusions as final or how they came to expect the whole human race to receive them as the utmost of human knowledge4 ,we do not look upon the questions of religion as settled1 and the growing doubts of the infallibility of the common religious ideas demand that we reconsider these questions4 ,to do this we have not to go into any theological discussion4 ,no learned authorities are to be consulted to establish or refute any line of argument4 ,no dictionary of terms is to be examined to settle the meanings of words4 ,we have only to decide whether mankind had better facilities for observing and studying the phenomena of the universe in past times than we have to-day2 whether their eyes and ears were better than ours1 and their methods and opportunities for ascertaining the truth of things higher than those of this age4 ,if men in the past had facilities inferior to ours for observing the phenomena of the universe1 it would follow that their ideas of the universe would be inferior4 ,now1 if we have superior ideas of the universe1 ideas nearer the truth of things1 why should we be expected to surrender these and hold ideas which are false8 ,it seems to us that the questions of religion may be settled by deciding whether or not we are to believe our own eyes and ears and trust our own knowledge and experience4 ,it is certain that if we can trust our senses and our knowledge1 the old ideas of the universe1 of the origin of earth1 of life1 of man1 and of good and evil and the whole catalogue of religious things are incorrect2 and if we accept them we do so contrary to our reason and understanding4 ,with faith in the present1 and in all that makes it peculiar1--its scientific tendencies1--and with the belief that out of the doubt and uncertainty that are now around us will come higher convictions which will deepen and widen life's purpose and make humanity a fairer word and a fairer reality1 we say3 8,ring out the old1 ring in the new2 ,ring out the false1 ring in the true40 ,hell is where cowards have sent heroes4 ,a man never fell down stairs that he did not blame the stairs4 ,the cross people carry to-day is made of gold or set with diamonds4 ,there is nothing in this world of ours that will work harder1 fight harder1 wait more patiently and suffer longer than love1 unless it be hate4 ,,guard ,,the ,,ear ,much of our character depends upon what we hear4 ,a person may be saved or lost by what reaches him through the ear4 ,the ear has no defense4 ,it is open to every sound4 ,it cannot be deaf4 ,it must hear4 ,we cannot open it to one person or shut it to another4 ,it is filled with songs of deepest thoughts or words of ugliest shape without choosing either4 ,it is at the mercy1 and the soul as well1 of whatever is uttered4 ,the ear is falsehood's1 as well as truth's1 servant4 ,it carries what it hears1 and is as faithful to the vilest as to the purest speech4 ,it is temptation's peculiar channel4 ,the eyes may be shut1 the lips may be closed1 but the ear is always open4 ,we may decide what we will say1 what we will see1 but not what we shall hear4 ,we perceive how important it is that none but pure1 true1 brave and sincere words be spoken4 ,if a person never heard a bad word he would never utter one4 ,the character of everyone born into the world is determined largely by the world4 ,men do pretty much what they are taught to do4 ,the heart at birth is pure1 and were it not taught impurity1 would remain so4 ,we regard the ear as the chief door of the assault against the human heart4 ,guard the ear and you save the boy and girl4 ,,the ,,character ,,of ,,god ,the character of ,god would stand vastly higher in human estimation if he had visited the garden in which he had placed the first human pair and picked up the serpent and cast him over the garden wall before he had a chance to tempt ,eve1 instead of waiting until the mischief was done1 and then cursing the whole lot for what he might so easily have prevented4 ,no man can be himself with fear always at his heels4 ,death can get into a house when everything else can be kept out4 ,it is plain enough that men and women care for ,god4 ,this is too apparent to be disputed1 unless men and women are hypocrites4 ,what is not so plain is that ,god cares for men and women4 ,,not ,,important ,a ,christian contemporary says3 8,no question is so important to mankind as religion40 ,we wonder how a person could write that sentence without writing after it1 a la ,artemus ,ward1 8,this is a goak40 ,of course1 a preacher is the author of it1 or a person who gets his living out of religion4 ,had the writer said1 8,no question is so important to ministers and priests as religion10 he would have told the truth2 but as it stands1 it is a falsehood4 ,we can mention several questions of more importance to mankind than religion4 ,the question of something to eat and the question of something to wear are of vastly greater importance than that of religion4 ,so1 too1 is the question of education1 or the question of government1 of more importance than religion4 ,it is first necessary for man to live1 then to find a place to live1 then to find the things to sustain life1 then to live happily and well4 ,all this is prior to any religious consideration4 ,we believe the church as an organization would go to pieces but for clergymen and those who are interested in keeping it alive in order to get a living out of it4 ,it would be nearer the truth to say3 ,no question is less important to mankind than religion4 ,a man's reputation oftentimes depends upon the success he has had in hiding his character4 ,,oaths ,the superstition prevails that unless man swears to tell the truth he will tell a lie4 ,this superstition makes the sanctity of the oath4 ,but is it a fact that a person will1 under oath1 always tell 8the truth1 the whole truth1 and nothing but the truth80 ,it is the general opinion that judicial swearing is simply a judicial farce4 ,we concur in the general opinion4 ,an oath is the liar's retreat4 ,behind it falsehood puts on the robes of truth4 ,the perjurer delights in swearing1 for the act invests him with the appearance of honesty4 ,an oath makes the tongue of vice as pure as the lips of virtue4 ,it gives a rogue the weapon of the gentleman4 ,it permits guilt to wear the dress of innocence4 ,the man who is willing to tell the truth feels that his honesty is impeached when asked to take an oath1 while the knave1 who is bound to lie1 feels that his knavery is protected by the ,god in whose name he swears4 ,no more senseless custom survives in our age than the administration of the oath4 ,we do not believe that a judge or lawyer has one whit more confidence in human testimony because it is given in the divine name4 ,is it not time to recognize this fact1 that men can tell the truth without the help of ,god1 and that those1 who cannot do so1 do not succeed any better with his help8 ,in other words1 an oath is calculated to pass a scoundrel for an honest man4 ,while it does not insure truth-telling1 it does serve to dignify a falsehood4 ,it is time that a lie was obliged to stand on its own bottom1 and not be passed for what it is not1 because it is told in the name of ,god4 ,god's name is not considered good at the banks4 ,to depend upon ,god is like holding on to the tail-end of nothing4 ,a man cannot be happy who believes in hell1 any more than he can sweeten his coffee with a pickle4 ,the church wants us to believe that ,god will go out of his way to strike a blasphemer and work a week to save the soul of a murderer4 ,,dead ,,words ,there is not one real1 true1 live word in the ,christian vocabulary of salvation4 ,eden1 the stage on which was performed the tragedy of original sin1 is a dead word2 devil1 the name of the scaly gentleman who took the leading part in this tragedy is a dead word2 hell1 the abode of all those who descended from the original sinners1 is a dead word2 ,christ1 the title of the man who offered to ransom the human race and save men and women from hell1 is a dead word2 atonement1 the word that stands for the expiation to be made by ,christ1 is a dead word4 ,these words that the ,christian church uses in its exhortations to mankind have no heart of truth in them4 ,they stand for no facts2 they represent no realities4 ,take away these dead words from the ,christian preacher1 and you take away his powder1 shot and wads4 ,let the ,christian be held to facts and obliged to tell the truth1 and his lips would be dumb4 ,there never was such a place as the ,garden of ,eden2 never such an individual as the devil4 ,there is no such place as hell4 ,there never was a ,christ1 and no atonement made1 for there was no necessity of any being made4 ,if there was no such thing as faith1 ,christianity could not make a convert on the earth4 ,if ministers were obliged to furnish the proof of their statements1 there would be no preaching4 ,,confession ,,of ,,sin ,when the church teaches that 8confession is good for the soul10 it teaches false doctrine2 it is only good for the church4 ,men once confessed their sins1 believing that it was the evidence of the loftiest courage to acknowledge that they had made fools of themselves or that they were the veriest knaves4 ,but never was a greater mistake made4 ,confession is itself a sin1 a base betrayal of one's own heart4 ,it shows utter lack of shame4 ,our sins should be sacred4 ,we should let no eyes see them but our own4 ,to exhort one to confess one's sins is to ask the sinner to become the slave of his confessor4 ,man has learned to keep still in respect to those things that concern no one but himself4 ,he has found that where he has done wrong it is wiser to hold his tongue than to speak4 ,we are not likely to confess what will harm us4 ,this prudence is utility in morals4 ,a wanton confession of wrongdoing shows a loss of self-respect1 and a virtuous confession is proof of mental weakness4 ,no human necessity requires self-degradation4 ,to tell what we have done is to pay a compliment to prurient curiosity which it does not deserve4 ,when we are commanded to do such a thing1 resistance is a greater virtue than compliance4 ,the human conscience to-day says3 8,hands off40 ,it is impertinent to touch the soul against its will4 ,secrecy is our right4 ,no one can demand that we expose our indiscretions4 ,if the church asks if we have sinned1 we feel justified in answering3 8,it is none of your business40 ,a man's sins are his own4 ,our actions are private and subject only to voluntary betrayal4 ,we are at liberty to own our weakness or our meanness and to tell whatever we have done2 but when another attempts to coerce a confession from us1 we refuse to submit to such unwarrantable authority1 and assert our right to be custodians of our own deeds4 ,the court which does not require a man to criminate himself is higher than the church which bids a man lay bare his soul4 ,there is no ear pure enough to listen to the story of the secret struggles of the human heart4 ,the doctrine of 8confession of sin10 which has been taught by the ,christian church1 is detrimental to manhood and womanhood4 ,it is a police arrangement where the private conscience is under the eye of the priest4 ,there can be no independence where the soul has surrendered to another4 ,to make crime easy is to make criminals4 ,one cannot rob the clothes-line if the clothes are in the house4 ,,death',s ,,philanthropy ,every now and then a man dies and the world praises his name1 and men die every day whose names we never hear4 ,why is the one lifted up above the other8 ,in the case we have in mind it was because the man1 when he died1 left several millions of dollars to churches1 to charities1 and to public benefactions4 ,this age honors the accumulation of wealth4 ,it puts its stamp of honor upon the man who gathers a large fortune into his hands4 ,if this man at his death bequeathes all of his fortune1 or a large portion of it1 for what the world is pleased to call charitable purposes1 he is called a good man1 and his name is spoken with pride and praise4 ,now1 we believe in all the virtues that would make a man wealthy1 but not in the vices3 and we believe that a man may have all of these virtues and not have much money when he becomes old1 or when he reaches the banks of the river of death4 ,we want to praise the man that the world does not praise1 the man who does not live or die for praise1 and who does not care for it4 ,we do not think that death's philanthropy is as grand and beautiful as life's philanthropy4 ,the man who lives to get money and to keep money1 that at the last1 when he can no longer keep it1 he may bestow it where it will be a monument to his name1 is not half so noble as the man who lives in such a way that he makes life easier for his fellow-beings1 giving his little every week1 here and there1 and letting his gift fall quietly and out of sight of men4 ,it is the truest philanthropy not to rob man1 not to take money from the world and hold it until the stronger hand of death opens the strong hand of greed4 ,this is man's noblest way to live2 to take only what can be used for profit or pleasure4 ,to take more than this is to rob mankind4 ,what generosity is there in parting with money only when death makes the fingers let go8 ,men who carry their millions to the grave would carry them beyond it1 if they could4 ,when only death can conquer selfishness1 its noblest bequest merits but little praise4 ,there is no vicarious suffering for the one who has eaten too much4 ,the nation that proclaims the right of free speech1 but will not protect that right1 has abandoned its principles4 ,,our ,,attitude ,,towards ,,nature ,the idea that ,nature is to be worshipped1 either as ,god1 the unknown1 or the incomprehensible1 is being seriously questioned4 ,we wish first to know what good such worship does4 ,it cannot be of any benefit to ,nature4 ,is it of any benefit to man8 ,this is the only question to be answered4 ,almost everybody is ready to say that man should not worship the sun1 the moon1 the stars1 or any earthly thing2 but a great many still think that man should worship the mysterious something of which everything is a manifestation4 ,we have outgrown the worship of objects4 ,we look upon the person who sees a ,god in any natural object as an idolater2 as one whose mental vision is unillumined by any true idea of the universe4 ,but there is a demand that man shall worship ,god1 or the unknown force or power in ,nature that is the source of all things4 ,we admit the unknown quantity of the universe2 but we do not see the necessity of worshiping it4 ,we do not see any good in praying to it1 or in singing to it4 ,nature is all a mystery and all the mystery there is1 but why do we need to keep saying so in prayer and praise when the silent fact is ever before our eyes8 ,we do not need to go down on our knees to every mysterious thing1 and stay there4 ,let us freely and frankly confess that ,nature is incomprehensible1 and then go about our business like men1 and try to learn what will help ourselves and our fellow-beings4 ,,reverence ,,for ,,motherhood ,an author of some note1 in an article published in a ,protestant journal1 while admitting that the 8holy ,catholic church0 had been about as unholy an institution as could well exist1 claimed that ,romanism had its good points4 ,among them he instanced 8its reverence for motherhood40 ,for proof of his assertion he pointed to the homage paid to the image of ,mary and her child by the average ,roman ,catholic4 ,we admit the homage1 but deny the reverence4 ,to begin with1 where is the reverence for motherhood among the ,roman ,catholic priests8 ,why1 these men have not respect enough for woman to elevate her to the dignity and honor of motherhood4 ,these men are married to the church1 to ,christ and not to women4 ,their sacred office would be lowered by taking a wife4 ,the holy vows of these priests are not half as holy as the marriage vow4 ,a priest never had half as pure a thought as is born in the heart of a father4 ,he never performed a rite half as consecrating as dancing a laughing child on his knee4 ,these holy old bachelors have done all their religion would allow them to dishonor motherhood4 ,the pretence that woman as woman1 as mother1 as wife1 as sister1 or daughter1 is particularly respected by ,roman ,catholics is simply absurd4 ,to prove this we point to the homes of the ,roman ,catholics4 ,we confess that the ,romish church encourages motherhood1 that ,roman ,catholics are urged to help increase the church membership1 but we claim that nowhere is there less reverence of woman as woman1 as mother1 as wife1 as sister1 as daughter1 than among the ,roman ,catholics4 ,because a ,catholic crosses himself before a wooden ,madonna1 or a plaster-paris image of the mother of ,jesus1 it is no proof of his reverence for motherhood4 ,not a bit4 ,the ,catholic reverences ,mary as the mother of ,god2 he pays her homage as a divine person2 worships her1 not as a mother1 but as a superior being4 ,the man that has reverence for motherhood is the man who loves and tenderly cares for his own mother and the mother of his children1 but the man who prostrates his mind before a carved figure of the 8,virgin ,mary0 and pounds his wife and kicks his daughter into the street has reverence for nothing4 ,adam might have obeyed ,god1 but he could not resist ,eve4 ,it looks easy to break off a bad habit that somebody else has got4 ,,the ,,god ,,of ,,the ,,bible ,the blind1 foolish faith in the ,bible is the cause of intellectual dishonesty1 moral hypocrisy1 and religious tergiversations without number4 ,this faith makes the twentieth century kneel to a ,god that it would be ashamed to introduce among civilized beings4 ,we would no sooner go to ,moses to learn about deity than we would go to ,noah to learn how to build a steamship4 ,we do not believe in getting divinity through a straw three thousand years long4 ,if we must have a ,god1 let us have one that has had the advantages of civilization4 ,we might possibly give this ,lord ,god of the ,bible a quarter of mutton1 as did ,abel1 or a peck of potatoes1 as did ,cain1 if we were convinced that he was living anywhere in the universe1 just to keep on the right side of him1 but we would not care to be on an out-of-the-way road with him after dark unless we had a revolver with us4 ,we know of no more villainous character in all literature2 and for men and women1 who pretend to love what is pure and good1 who pretend to honor what is upright and just and who pretend to revere what is noble and true1 to worship this ,god of ,christianity1 this ,god of ,moses1 this ,god of the ,bible1 is a sad commentary on human intelligence and human integrity4 ,we know that all theological discussions have been wretchedly barren of results2 we know that theology has made no contribution to actual knowledge2 we know that no one knows anything about any such being as ,god1 and we also know that every ,god worshipped to-day by men and women is only an imaginary person or thing4 ,no one knows what ,god is or where he is1 and yet ministers speak about him just as though they had been to his house and taken tea with him4 ,theology has received attention out of proportion to its achievements4 ,it has done the cackling while science has laid the egg4 ,we do not like to hear men say3 8,god did this0 and 8,god said this10 when he has never opened his lips to speak to man and never lifted his hand to help him4 ,we call such language dishonest1 and the time will come when the men who have made such use of the divine name will be condemned as impostors4 ,what this generation should do is to take the ,lord ,god of the ,israelites1 that lies dead on the banks of time and bury him from human sight forever4 ,not another human being born on this earth should be allowed to read of his cruel deeds1 and if ,christian ministers were honest1 and had the courage of their honesty1 they would tell the world that the being called ,god in the ,bible was no ,god1 only an idol of a rude and barbarous age4 ,a theologian is a person who uses the word 8,god0 to hide his ignorance4 ,,the ,,measure ,,of ,,suffering ,the little boy who asked his mother 8if hell was worse than the toothache80 imagined that the limits of suffering were reached in his agony4 ,many of us have doubtless experienced pain that we thought marked the utmost of endurance4 ,in the ,christian dream of future punishment man is represented as burning eternally4 ,fire probably inflicts the intensest pain that the human body has ever suffered4 ,hell is fitly represented by fire4 ,suffering takes various shapes4 ,pain comes in a thousand forms4 ,but there is a limit to the endurance of pain4 ,unconsciousness comes to the relief of the mind when agony can no longer be borne4 ,hell1 such as has been taught by ,christianity1 is not a logical conclusion4 ,all suffering that we know anything about ends itself4 ,the victim is released by exhaustion4 ,hell is impossible4 ,the finer suffering which is called remorse1 which follows wrong-doing1 gradually wears out4 ,its lash loses its sting4 ,the sinner becomes callous to his act or finds a balm for his regret in the lapse of years4 ,the finger of time erases the memory of every wrong1 and soothes with its touch every pang4 ,we can escape the fate of wrong-doing by doing better4 ,reform opens the door of every hell invented for man's punishment4 ,the man who does right1 wherever he is1 will have the reward of right-doing1 the fate of right-doing4 ,it is this fact which makes the idea of endless pain for man's deeds done on earth illogical4 ,man can turn around on the road of evil as well as on the road of good1 and hence he can change his fate whenever he changes his life4 ,the measure of human suffering makes it impossible for man to endure pain forever4 ,he must either perish utterly as a sentient being or be driven by his punishment to better behavior4 ,no man ever yet tore down his altar and found a ,god behind it4 ,trying to find ,god is a good deal like looking for money one has lost in a dream4 ,we could believe in ,god if he shortened the road for the lame1 led the blind or fed the starving4 ,we are told that 8all things are possible with ,god10 and yet ,god cannot boil an egg in cold water4 ,,nature ,some people are afraid of the word ,nature4 ,they cross themselves when they hear it pronounced4 ,it has a sound like 8,old ,nick0 in their ears4 ,to these pious souls the word ,nature banishes ,god from the universe4 ,this is looked upon by many as the highest offence of language4 ,it has been the custom for several centuries to abuse ,nature1 to call it bad names1 and associate it with depravity and everything evil4 ,theology has condemned the word1 and the pulpit has touched it only with the tips of its fingers4 ,to speak of ,nature as anything good is regarded as throwing dirt in the eyes of ,god4 ,nothing clings to the world like a superstition4 ,start a fear in the human breast1 and it will make every heart quake before it can be driven out4 ,let a bad habit become fixed1 and it will be as hard to dislodge it as it is to plant a good habit4 ,but men are getting over their fright somewhat4 ,the natural is found to be the true1 not the false2 the right1 not the wrong2 the good1 not the bad4 ,nature has been slandered1 lied about4 ,it was once thought necessary to assassinate this word in order to preserve the ,orthodox religion4 ,the necessity still remains1 but orthodoxy is dying4 ,nature is a large word4 ,it means about all there is4 ,if there is a ,god1 he is natural4 ,,creeds ,this is the age of revision4 ,churches are all hurrying to catch up with the world4 ,there is a desire to square ideas with facts1 and shape beliefs with knowledge4 ,religion must suffer in this process4 ,something will be lost1 but only what is bad1 false and wrong4 ,creeds are out of date4 ,they are behind the times4 ,they are the dead leaves from the tree of knowledge1 the dead branches on the tree of life4 ,the world's faith is in the living2 in the bud1 the blossom1 the promise of things--not in the husk1 the shell1 in dead and useless things4 ,new creeds are to take the place of old ones4 ,what people believe now1 not what people believed hundreds or thousands of years ago1 must be put into a profession of faith4 ,for a man to profess what his father and mother believed is to make birth useless and existence valueless4 ,we are to live to add to life1 not to repeat it4 ,is theology the only thing that people put their trust in8 ,a theological creed has to be accepted with the eyes shut4 ,we want a creed of the heart1 of the head1 of the senses1 of the whole man4 ,there is no theology worth believing in4 ,the creed of the church is a gravestone4 ,if we were to make a creed for the world of men to accept we would make it out of human hearts4 ,we would go where a man had helped another2 where a woman had sat beside the sick and suffering2 where man had been crucified for being true2 where he had been burned for being honest2 where he had stood against the world protesting against its wrongs and proclaiming the right1 and where he had fallen with a martyr's crown upon his forehead2 and we would write these into a creed1 and have men say3 ,i believe in men and women who have lived good lives1 who have taken the unfortunate by the hand and lifted up the fallen1 who have pardoned a woman's fault1 who have shown their love of truth by being true1 and who have done right even when they were wronged for so doing4 ,the grandest life is the grandest creed2 and1 if man's faith was faith in what has made the world better and brighter and happier1 he would be better off than by believing in a ,god that is cruel1 unjust and unkind1 and in a heaven where the highest joy is found in laughing at those who are in hell4 ,it has been discovered that the man who was lost in thought was not a church member4 ,we do not say that another world is not worth a single thought1 but rather that this world is worth all our thoughts1 and needs them4 ,,don',t ,,try ,,to ,,stop ,,the ,,sun ,,shining ,if there is one person on earth who is to be envied it is the happy1 cheerful man or woman who always sees the bright side of life1 the good side of a fellow-being1 and the warm1 sunny side of what belongs to earth4 ,if there is a person to be pitied1 it is the sour1 gloomy man or woman1 who sees only the dark side of life1 the bad side of a fellow-being1 and the cold1 cloudy side of what belongs to earth4 ,everything bright1 beautiful1 fair1 sweet1 and good grows in the sunshine4 ,we would not have a flower without the sun4 ,cheerfulness is to the human heart what the sunbeam is to the earth--the source of gladness4 ,we ought to cultivate happiness4 ,we ought to have the home filled with what is beautiful4 ,we ought to let the sun shine into our lives4 ,people who are sour and moody look upon the smiling1 happy person as foolish1 and wonder what there is in life that one can find to enjoy4 ,they want to tear the flower to pieces1 stop the bird singing1 trample upon the joy of the child1 and hush the laugh of mirth4 ,if you cannot enjoy life1 don't try to prevent others from doing so4 ,don't throw a shadow on the human heart4 ,don't try to stop the sun shining4 ,laying up treasures in heaven never kept a man out of the poor-house4 ,,follow ,,me ,jesus said3 8,follow me40 ,but we decline2 we had rather not4 ,we do not wish to follow a person until we know where he is going4 ,if by following ,jesus is meant living as he lived1 doing as he did1 believing as he believed1 teaching as he taught and dying as he died1 we are not in it4 ,we shall have to say3 ,thank you1 we guess not4 ,we prefer to go some other way4 ,we do not see any necessity of following anybody very far1 if at all4 ,this following business is played out4 ,those who profess to follow ,jesus don't do it in the daytime4 ,but we can go a little farther and say that we do not think ,jesus was a man that a self-respecting person would like to follow4 ,he does not inspire us with any particular admiration4 ,the man who could let his lips forget to speak kindly of his mother cannot have our admiration4 ,the man who came not to bring peace1 but a sword1 to the world cannot have our admiration4 ,the man who said3 8believe and be saved1 believe not and be damned10 cannot have our admiration4 ,if we follow anybody1 it is going to be a person that commands our respect1 whose greatness and goodness compel our admiration1 and who did not try to win men by tricks4 ,we regard ,jesus1 as he is painted in the four gospels1 as a character below the ideal of this age1 a character that1 to imitate1 would dwarf the noblest man4 ,if ,jesus were alive it would be his duty to-day to follow others1 rather than to command others to follow him4 ,,can ,,we ,,never ,,get ,,along ,,without ,,servants8 ,we recently overheard a remark which made us query if we cannot get along without servants8 ,a lady was commenting on the character of the 8help10 which one was obliged to employ to-day1 and expressed the opinion that1 if our public schools continued to fill the heads of children with the notion that one person was as good as another1 it would not be long before it would be impossible to get help at all4 ,there seems to be an idea abroad in this land as well as in others1 that a certain class of people are for the purpose of producing servants for another class of people1 and that this servant-producing class has no right to give their children an education that is calculated to elevate them above the position of their parents4 ,we are not in sympathy with this idea4 ,if there is one person on this earth that is of less account than another it is the person who is helpless1 who is dependent upon others for everything that makes life possible or endurable4 ,we must confess that there are too many people in this country who are of this kind1 who must have someone to do for them what they ought to do for themselves4 ,why should one person be expected to wait upon another8 ,why should a man or woman look upon a fellow-being as fit only to be a servant8 ,is one born to serve and the other to be waited upon8 ,such notions have no right on our democratic soil4 ,in this country there must be no caste1 no division of society into classes4 ,we rejoice that such a criticism of the character of the 8help0 employed in the houses of the rich as we overheard1 is true1 for it reveals a condition of things that may lead to what is much needed to-day1 viz43 a simpler mode of living on the part of a great many of our ,american people4 ,is it necessary to live in such a way that a dozen or more servants are required in a home to keep it in order8 ,we believe the community in which all are independent and none are servants is the ideal one4 ,why should not this be the ambition of the race1 to live in a manner that will leave others their independence and encourage in them the desire for a home8 ,our children all ought to be taught to work1 and be made to work1 and not be brought up with the notion that they have the right to expect others to wait upon them4 ,we do not wish to imply that one individual should not consider it his or her duty to help another or to work for another4 ,what we desire to convey is this1 that if people did more of their own work1 and waited upon their own wants more1 they would not only be doing what is best for themselves1 but also what is best for the community in general4 ,for men or women to be dependent upon servants and almost helpless without them1 is not a condition to be proud of1 but to be ashamed of4 ,the man who cannot harness or drive his horse2 the woman who cannot buy and cook a dinner for her family1 has not been properly educated4 ,the home in which there are the fewest servants is the happiest home4 ,the father that brings up his sons to work1 to know how to earn a living2 the mother who teaches her daughters to cook1 to sew1 to do housework1 is doing them good1 not harm4 ,there are too many know-nothings and do-nothings in the world4 ,it is honorable to be useful in this world1 and it ought to be dishonorable to be useless4 ,let us work for the day when we can get along without servants2 when life shall be so simple that each family can do its own work4 ,the servant system is but little different from the slave system1 and it ought to be abolished4 ,the money man gives to get him into heaven is what he ought to use to improve the earth4 ,the ,unitarian walks with a cane1 the ,congregationalist1 ,methodist1 ,presbyterian and ,baptist go with crutches1 the ,episcopalian has to be pushed about in an invalid's chair1 while the ,roman ,catholic crawls on his hands and knees and is led around with a ring in his nose by a priest4 ,a ,,heavenly ,,father ,it may pay some persons to talk about a heavenly father who cares for his earthly children1 but we prefer to get money in a more honorable business4 ,honor bright1 now1 gentlemen of the pulpit1 did you ever see anything that convinced you that there is a power in the universe outside of the human body1 that cared a snap for men1 that showed any more love for a child than for a crocodile8 ,tell the truth1 and let us see how far apart we are on this question4 ,we have no objection to being taken care of by a heavenly father1 or by any person or power that is wiser and kinder than man4 ,but we do not want to put our trust in such a being or power and then1 just when we needed most the help and counted on it1 find that we had been deceived4 ,we admit the good that is in ,nature1 the beautiful1 the attractive1 but we cannot put faith in the ,god of earthquakes4 ,when we listen to a bird's full-throated song1 and surrender ourselves in delicious rapture to the spell of its wondrous melody1 we are ready to acknowledge that a benignant power gave life to this sweet little charmer1 that can start such a flood of joy in the human heart1 but when in strolling among the meadow's blossoms we are confronted with the repulsive head and ominous attitude of the rattlesnake1 we ask3 ,who made you8 ,we admire ,nature in some forms1 but detest it in others4 ,we pick the rose with a blessing on its perfect beauty and perfumed breath1 but we shun the white flower of the dogwood--the poisonous hypocrite4 ,when the sky is fair and blue1 and a smile is on the face of heaven1 we feel that only kindness and love sit enthroned above us1 but when the blue changes to black and the smile to a frown1 which grows deeper and darker until the whole heavens threaten destruction to earth2 when the heedless lightning1 with brutal stroke1 fells at our feet a form we love1 we wonder where the kindness and love have gone that we saw only a few hours before4 ,nature does not keep one mood long4 ,she has made things fair and things foul2 she blesses1 but she curses also2 she wins us with some temptation of beauty1 and then punishes us for yielding2 she puts in our heart an angel of love1 but she puts there1 too1 a devil of hate2 she caresses us one minute and kicks us the next2 she licks our hand1 and then without warning she bites us4 ,there is more power to-day in a drop of ink than in a ton of powder4 ,a man may have respect for old age and not like to find gray hairs in his butter4 ,,worship ,,not ,,needed ,the world will never throb with new life until the spell of worship is broken4 ,nothing holds mankind down so much as veneration for its idols4 ,shake off the lethargy that worship has brought upon the soul4 ,live like men1 and you need not worship gods4 ,when we live true to the soul we cease to ask for anything4 ,worship is denial of self4 ,let us have no disputes about divinity4 ,let ,god take care of himself4 ,the light of the stars proves their existence4 ,the universe needs no counsel of defence4 ,that which is evident need not be explained4 ,the great question for us to answer is not what ,god wants1 but what men need4 ,let us live to ourselves4 ,worship is interruption4 ,let our life satisfy4 ,worship is apology4 ,if we are doing our best1 what need to excuse our work8 ,what good does it do to praise ,god8 ,that is the true love which obeys1 not that which adores4 ,we want willing hands1 not lifted ones4 ,worship is superfluous4 ,it adds nothing to the soul4 ,it increases our cares1 not our virtues4 ,the test of everything is1 does it help man8 ,we challenge the church to prove its claim to man's support4 ,it throws a shadow upon the earth instead of letting more light upon it4 ,the priest is in man's way4 ,worship is a compliment to the deity that he does not need1 and a burden upon man which he is not able to bear4 ,nature does not worship4 ,she grows4 ,worship is opposition to reform4 ,it palsies the world's thought4 ,it means stagnation4 ,it is difficult to get advocated what will correct society1 because mankind spends so much time in the church that it has no time to spend in the theatre of improvement4 ,worship is hypocrisy's disguise4 ,what a train of splendid deceit marches up the aisles of the church6 ,what a mask is worship1 but the world can see through it4 ,when falsehood kneels in praise of truth2 when extortion and cruelty call ,god father2 when meanness and vice are the disciples of ,jesus1 and when crime and sin say1 8,thy will be done10 the name of religion is a blush on the forehead of the world4 ,we would not dethrone the world's heroes4 ,the more human beings we can get the world to honor and respect the better humanity will be1 but when a man or woman has been for ages almost worshipped by the world2 when time1 with its forgiving hand1 has erased deed after deed until naught else is left of the man or woman but a holy memory1 an unreal soul1 whose virtues are as ghostly as shadows cast by the moon1 it behooves us to look with unprejudiced mind at this phantom of existence and to see with naked eye this object of adoration1 for one may be certain that beneath the idol's robes will be found a human form and with it all the peculiarities of human nature4 ,,was ,,jesus ,a ,,good ,,man ,we denied in the presence of a ,christian1 who wished to have a religious talk with us1 that ,jesus was divine4 ,this denial was somewhat anticipated1 we imagine1 as the gentleman who challenged our views was knowing to the fact that we did not pay pew rent anywhere4 ,but he thought to secure assent from us by saying1 8,you will have to admit that ,jesus was a good man40 ,what constitutes a good man8 ,a good man is a man who is kind1 loving1 merciful1 reasonable1 and just4 ,would a just man pay the laborer who had worked but one hour as much as he paid him who had toiled all day8 ,would a reasonable man curse a fig tree because it did not have fruit on it out of season8 ,would a loving man say3 ,he that hateth not father and mother is not worthy of me8 ,would a merciful man send those who did not agree with him into everlasting fire8 ,would a kind-hearted man bring a sword rather than peace on earth8 ,the truth is1 we do not know what kind of a man ,jesus was4 ,good men have been killed by bad ones1 and bad men killed by good ones4 ,if ,jesus was killed because he was a blasphemer the chances are that he was better than those who put him to death1 but if he was killed because he sought to overturn the government and secure the throne for himself1 he may have been a very bad man4 ,but by the gospel-record we hold that ,jesus was not a man for this age to honor or imitate4 ,,how ,,to ,,help ,,mankind ,there are various ways of helping the world1 and all are to be commended4 ,perhaps the way that costs the least1 and consequently helps the least1 is the giving of good advice4 ,this1 we believe1 is about the poorest thing that can be given to man4 ,it is a gratuity on the giver's part which is never received quite as it is bestowed4 ,but it is usually born of good intentions1 and so we have to be thankful for it1 even if we do not use it4 ,to those who are inclined1 however1 to render assistance to their fellow-beings1 we would say3 ,give good advice last1 or1 at any rate1 give something with it4 ,there is no use telling a poor man where there is a good restaurant when he has no money in his purse4 ,another way of helping the world is the material way--giving something that will relieve its wants1 pay its debts1 or add to its independence4 ,the sympathy that takes the shape of dollars and cents always reaches the heart4 ,the rarest virtue in this world of ours is generosity1 and the rarest man is he who gives to the world asking for no dividends but in the happiness of his fellow-creatures4 ,money1 when wisely bestowed1 comes about as near the shape of an angel as any earthly thing can assume4 ,but there are other ways of assisting the world1 and while we admit all the good that can be done with money1 men and women need to-day to be helped with truth1 helped with justice4 ,mankind are suffering from falsehoods1 from wrongs as well as from ignorance1 from want and poverty4 ,those who are unjust to their fellows should help them by dealing justly by them4 ,those who are keeping the world in darkness should help it by telling the truth4 ,truth and justice are every man's right1 and every man's due4 ,you can help the world by being just to it1 by using your fellow-beings honestly1 squarely1 justly4 ,you can help it by telling the truth and by concealing nothing that is true4 ,man needs an education in unselfishness4 ,he must learn to work for himself without working against others4 ,the advantage which a man gains to-day is too often at the disadvantage of his brother or sister4 ,it is a poor victory which inflicts suffering4 ,the true measure of man's success is the joy his life confers upon the world4 ,the man who wants to be an angel is never in a hurry to begin4 ,the man who gets on his knees has not learned the right use of his legs4 ,ignorance is all that saves some people3 if they knew more they would do worse4 ,,on ,,the ,,cross ,christianity teaches that ,jesus was divine4 ,to admit that he was not divine is to give up ,christianity4 ,in the light of this teaching let us look at ,jesus on the cross4 ,after a brief1 but rather peaceful career1 ,jesus is arrested1 tried and convicted as a blasphemer1 and sentenced to be put to death4 ,it is said that he died on a cross4 ,how did he die8 ,it is said by ,christians 8like a ,god40 ,there have been brave deaths on the gallows and at the stake4 ,men have died sublimely whom society has condemned as criminals4 ,in our day there has been as lofty heroism evinced in the face of the most terrible of deaths as ever martyr of old manifested when dying for his faith4 ,we know that men have walked into the arms of an ignominious death without a tremor1 and with magnificent courage shining in their faces4 ,brave dying proves less than brave living4 ,the sacrifice of a lifetime shows the courage that commands our deepest admiration4 ,some mother1 some sister1 or daughter who has offered herself for years upon the hidden altar of duty has performed a deed beside which a moment's suffering is as naught4 ,but the average mind fails to discern heroism1 except where the suffering is apparent4 ,we will admit for the moment that ,jesus died upon the cross4 ,we will allow all the pain and agony of such a cruel and terrible death4 ,we will let every picture of his suffering that has drawn tears from the eyes of women be accepted as true4 ,we would not rob the manner of his death of a single pang4 ,it was merciless1 pitiless1 devilish4 ,crucifixion is the essence of cruelty1 the refinement of torture1 the invention of brutality4 ,we acknowledge all the horrors of the cross4 ,we do not wonder that a man should shrink from being nailed to its arms1 but we do wonder that a ,god should4 ,we are not surprised that human weakness should cry out of its breaking heart for sympathy and help1 but we cannot understand why divine strength should ask for pity or aid4 ,if ,jesus was ,god he should have died in divine silence4 ,the record of the last hours of ,jesus shows that he died disappointed4 ,the cross proves that ,jesus was human4 ,when he cried out3 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me1 a keener anguish pierced his heart than when the cruel iron was driven through his flesh4 ,the dogma of the divinity of ,jesus should have died on the cross1 when the man of ,nazareth gave up the ghost4 ,the man who does no thinking before he acts does twice as much afterwards4 ,adam may not have been so perfect after the 8fall10 but he was not so big a fool4 ,,equal ,,moral ,,standards ,why are girls brought up with more care as to their personal habits than boys8 ,and why do women have fewer vices than men8 ,it is an undeniable fact that what is looked upon with indifference in a man would be regarded with disgust1 if not horror1 in a woman4 ,boys do things that would not be tolerated in girls4 ,why are there two standards of behavior8 ,why is one sex held to stricter moral account than the other8 ,why is a man allowed to do what is condemned in a woman8 ,the average daughter is better behaved1 has better personal habits1 than the average son4 ,the average mother has fewer vices than the average father4 ,the average woman is less vicious than the average man4 ,whose fault is it that this is so8 ,it is somebody's4 ,whose is it8 ,it is time to find out4 ,have men fixed the standard for women1 and women for men8 ,it is approximately true that either sex is what the other demands of it4 ,women are too indulgent towards the other sex4 ,we believe it lies with them more than with men to elevate the moral standard of the world4 ,a father would not take his daughter to places where he takes his son1 would not condone in her habits which he overlooks1 if not encourages1 in his boy4 ,picture a father going to a saloon with his daughter1 and there treating her to a 8,tom and ,jerry10 or a 8beer10 and then calling for cigars for two1 and sitting there smoking together for half an hour or so6 ,a man will do this with his boy but not with his girl4 ,why not8 ,if it is right and harmless for one1 why not for the other8 ,is it true or not that what is right for men is wrong for women8 ,we ought to have only one moral standard4 ,the sexes should be held to like behavior4 ,men can have just as good habits as women4 ,we do not believe in forgiving in one what we condemn in another1 in allowing a young man to do with impunity what we will not tolerate in a young woman4 ,if we are to have one standard of morals1 which shall it be8 ,shall it be the highest or lowest8 ,shall it be the standard for man or for woman8 ,shall we permit women to do as men do1 or shall we insist that men shall be equally pure in personal habits with women8 ,the divided standard of conduct which now exists should be done away with4 ,let us demand equal behavior of the sexes1 and let that behavior be fashioned after the highest moral demand of society4 ,we do not wish to educate boys to be girls1 but we can educate boys to have as good habits as girls have1 which would be a great gain to the world4 ,we must hold women largely responsible for the vices of men4 ,there is not a vicious habit which a man would not lay at the feet of woman did she demand it4 ,not a man would tolerate in a woman what a woman tolerates in a man4 ,let us have one moral standard for men and women1 for both sexes1 and mete out to each the same punishment for violation of its restrictions4 ,,authority ,the man that does what his reason says is right is the man that should be honored by men4 ,there can be no higher authority for doing a thing than that it is right4 ,it is not whether a thing has ever been done before1 but1 ,is it right8 ,if there is no precedent1 then it is a duty to establish one4 ,how many accept the opinions of others because they fear to question their authority6 ,this regard for what other people think and say is well enough only when it does not destroy independence of thought and speech in ourselves4 ,another's opinion is not to be respected when it is a fetter to our freedom4 ,we need not rehearse the evils which the world has borne on account of its fear to do right alone4 ,man must have someone to share the danger1 to share the blame1 but a dozen cowards are not worth so much as one brave man1 and right is no more right because ten say it instead of one4 ,a thousand felt what ,luther said2 a thousand believed what ,parker did4 ,the best man in us is often the one that does not speak4 ,the truest belief of the heart is the one never confessed4 ,man seldom comes to the surface4 ,he rarely has a call to be himself1 but to be somebody that will please the world4 ,man is obliged to make himself into a theological likeness2 into a political representation4 ,it will be centuries before men can assert themselves fearlessly without injury4 ,it is no easy matter for a man to set himself against popular opinion and maintain his position4 ,every power is brought to bear upon him that falsehood can invent and malice employ4 ,a person who refuses to acknowledge the authority of the hour asserts a higher4 ,when a man slaps the world in the face he should have truth on his side and courage to meet the stake and the cross4 ,the majority never forgives him who denies its judgment4 ,the individual that challenges the majority must prove his right of defiance4 ,when a man is greater or better than men he must pay the penalty4 ,the world cannot yet forgive anyone for excelling it4 ,authority when it debases man should be disputed2 when it denies man his rights should be rejected4 ,it is plain to be seen1 without illustration or example1 that man's authority is not found in his own mind4 ,he has no history that reaches beyond custom4 ,man begins with man so far as facts prove4 ,society rests upon hearsay and religion upon tradition4 ,a claim has only to be made upon ignorance to be granted4 ,this good-natured world of ours would believe anything1 or make-believe believe it1 to save its soul4 ,it takes either a very shrewd man or a moderately mean one to dodge every duty of life and remain respectable4 ,it is dangerous to go outside the beaten path1 not only on account of the persecution of the present but on account of the folly of the future4 ,the world can easily twist an action into a law or a man into a ,god if profit hang on the end of its deed4 ,the authority of half man's actions to-day depends upon some accident or fraud of the past4 ,man wants a little of the fabulous yet in his meat and drink4 ,he loves to think that ,jesus is present when he drinks his wine and eats his bit of bread1 although it is a mystery4 ,popular opinion is the authority of most words and actions4 ,we speak to men as to children--to please them4 ,we tell them some parable or fairy story instead of telling them their faults honestly and trying to make them better4 ,most men begin by bowing to public opinion and end by carrying it on their backs4 ,the authority of the world may be disputed without any of the stars being thrown out of their course or any of the processes of life being disturbed4 ,the notion that all has been discovered that is essential to the welfare of man is a mistaken one4 ,the other notion that the preservation of whatever is elevating and refining depends upon the religious opinions of mankind1 is equally delusive4 ,the authority of the ,bible1 of ,jesus1 of the church1 has been quoted until the world is prepared for a better4 ,we might lose the ,bible and not lose our place in the ranks of civilization4 ,jesus might be forgotten and man would still strive for a higher life4 ,the church might perish in a night and not a single particle of goodness be lost4 ,if we speak honest words1 do honest work and live honest lives1 we need not ask for ,god's help or the help of anybody4 ,we do not give to immorality the hours we redeem from superstition4 ,we give to manhood and womanhood every hour which we make natural and free4 ,it is not necessary for a man to go to church in order to be righteous4 ,the world found assistance before ,jesus was born4 ,there has always been saints outside of a convent4 ,we need no book holy that good counsel shall be valuable4 ,the highest authority is the highest human enlightenment4 ,it needs no priest back of opinion to give it force4 ,why does a man enter the ,christian ministry8 ,the reason that revelation is always made to the simple is that the wise could not be imposed upon4 ,there is no sadder grief than that which lies at the bottom of a life that has been wrecked through deception4 ,an organization that requires the suppression of facts and the discouragement of knowledge in order to maintain its supremacy1 is the relic of a tyranny which our free age and our free thought are in duty bound to remove from the earth4 ,a ,,clean ,,sabbath ,in a discussion with a lady1 recently1 upon the ,sunday question1 after the various pros and cons had been set up and bowled down1 she exclaimed3 8,for mercy's sake1 don't say any more against the sabbath4 ,why1 if it were not for ,sunday1 most people would never wash themselves nor change their clothes40 ,sunday1 then1 is to be established for the sake of cleanliness4 ,the command for keeping the sabbath should therefore read3 ,six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work1 and on the seventh day wash thyself and change thy clothes4 ,if people will not keep clean without a divine command1 we are in favor of cleanliness4 ,we do not know of any better use to put ,god's name to4 ,sunday is certainly the cleanest day of the week4 ,if people will make themselves clean and neat only for ,god's sake1 we are willing to endure a little superstition for the blessing of cleanliness4 ,but is there any ground for the assertion of the lady8 ,as everyone knows1 religion has produced the filthiest specimens of humanity that ever offended the senses of man4 ,dirt1 and not cleanliness1 was deemed next to godliness by the saints of old4 ,the filthier a human being became1 the holier he grew4 ,it was regarded in the middle ages1 that is1 in the ages when everything was sacrificed to religion1 as almost a sin to keep clean4 ,it was waste of time to care for the body4 ,it was taught that it was holier to worship than to wash4 ,nor did these dirty old saints of old go nasty entirely on their own authority4 ,they were nasty for ,christ's sake4 ,they went unclean because ,jesus had encouraged nastiness4 ,he believed more in clean hearts than in clean hands4 ,he taught his disciples that 8to eat with unwashed hands defileth not a man40 ,dirty ,christians are still plenty1 but civilization prevails over superstition and the reign of dirt is doomed4 ,the follower of ,jesus quotes his master to defend his filthy condition in vain to-day4 ,the gospel of decency has been preached1 and what is manly and womanly is honored more than what is godly and pious4 ,clean infidelity is preferable in good society to nasty piety4 ,there may be honor in rags1 but there is none in dirt4 ,soap and water cost less than religion1 but are worth a thousand times as much to the world4 ,if ,romanism required its devotees to take a bath instead of going to mass1 it would confer a greater boon upon the world4 ,no man gets estimated for exactly what he is1 and it is lucky he doesn't4 ,a great many men and women are remembered for what somebody has said about them4 ,,human ,,integrity ,it is hard for a man to be a man4 ,it is easier to be almost anything else4 ,we do not find the reason for what we do in ourselves1 but seek it in someone else1 or somewhere else4 ,manhood is not our standard of action4 ,human integrity is generally looked upon as an eccentricity4 ,we almost despise a person who is more upright than the conventional man4 ,throughout society there runs a stream of circumstance upon which lives float like chips4 ,the man who turns against this stream1 and seeks to stem it1 is looked upon as a madman or a fool4 ,everybody admits that the world is hardly going right1 but everybody goes with it4 ,the current of human life can be turned into a larger channel by a larger man4 ,mind follows mind4 ,we do not demand the truth2 we do not insist upon the right2 we are satisfied with less than integrity4 ,it is not in a spirit of carping that we say this1 but because it is true4 ,let us glance at the world as it lies before us4 ,theories pass for facts1 faith for evidence4 ,we assert without knowledge2 we are positive without proof4 ,man is condemned for not believing1 although living a pure and noble life2 he is praised for believing1 although living a selfish and cruel life4 ,men are not judged by human nature1 but by opinions which are uppermost in public esteem4 ,men and women are bad according to the standard of one age2 good according to that of another4 ,theologies1 which may be wrong1 condemn men who may be right4 ,justice is never man's precedent4 ,the world quotes ,moses1 ,david1 ,paul1 ,jesus1 to defend its conduct or prove its guilt4 ,authority is another's opinion4 ,law is what has been done and sanctioned by mankind4 ,the decision of one court binds another4 ,one text is quoted to prove another4 ,a man's act is made a rule of life4 ,we say1 to defend ourselves3 8,he did it40 ,the world's power of attorney is in its own handwriting4 ,our appeal is to some one else4 ,we get our politics from our fathers1 our religion from our mothers4 ,the church is preaching what others believed4 ,the mind still leans4 ,only a few could stand without a support4 ,the props of the world keep it from falling4 ,men are not upright of their own strength4 ,no man's action is the patent of manhood4 ,the world does not ask1 8,what virtues are yours80 but1 8,what creed do you accept80 ,a dozen agree and call some one else a doubter1 a ,freethinker1 an ,infidel1 an ,atheist4 ,to be able to stand alone is to be blamed by those who cannot do so4 ,man must learn this1 that he has no greater strength than his own2 that he has no higher duty than to obey the behest of his own nature4 ,when we forsake the world's follies and shams we shall find something better4 ,we are never abandoned until we have been abandoned by ourselves4 ,when we refuse to do our duty we must still expect ,nature to do hers4 ,the sun and moon do not stand still at man's command4 ,it is greater to keep one's integrity than it is to gain the whole world4 ,it is harder to live when those we love are dead4 ,the trouble with divine revelation is that we do not know who did the business4 ,a person has not much excuse for living who can make no better use of life than passing it in a nunnery4 ,men talk of alleviating the aching hearts and souls of the world1 but if they would relieve the aching backs and arms of men and women by being kinder to those who toil1 there would be fewer suffering hearts for their sympathy's consolation4 ,it sounds vulgar1 perhaps1 to speak of backaching1 but the pains of work are among the saddest facts of human life4 ,,is ,,it ,,true ,there is a lot of sentiment going around the world strangely at variance with human action4 ,no one lives as he professes to believe1 as he says he thinks4 ,men declare a thing to be true but act as though they wished it false4 ,it is frequently stated that3 8,honor and shame from no condition rise1 ,act well your part1 there all the honor lies40 ,who believes it8 ,did ,pope when he wrote it8 ,does a person that reads it8 ,i doubt it4 ,it ought to be true1 perhaps1 that men should be respected1 honored1 and praised just as much for carrying a hod well as for writing a poem or acting ,hamlet well1 but it is not so regarded4 ,a man as a man may be just as worthy1 just as honorable1 just as much deserving the respect of his fellows who uses a pick and shovel on the highway1 but it is a fact that the common laborer as such is not respected nor honored as much as the man who pays him for his labor4 ,all the honor may lie in doing well whatever he has to do1 but it is what a man does1 not how he does it1 that receives the honor of the world1 just the same4 ,probably thousands of women are acting well their part as washerwomen in ,boston at this time1 but are they honored as ,sarah ,bernhardt is for acting ,cleopatra8 ,would wealthy women pay ten dollars to see a woman scrub a floor1 even if she could scrub better than any woman who ever scrubbed before8 ,we guess not4 ,there is the point4 ,there is no such epitaph as this on the marble of the world3 ,he acted well his part as a coal-heaver4 ,it is true that ,lincoln is pointed to as having been a rail-splitter when a young man1 but had he never been anything else he would not have had a monument an inch above the ground4 ,it is not ,garfield the tow-boy1 but ,garfield the statesman1 the ,president1 that is honored4 ,it is a fact that merit is not always appreciated1 but it is equally a fact that no merit is seen in the common occupations of life4 ,a person might wear his fingers to bones in what is regarded as menial employment1 and all his giant labor would not call forth a single word of praise4 ,a dollar or two a day is all the reward the world gives for manual labor4 ,no one sees heroism in farm work1 in kitchen work4 ,no one contributes money to erect a statue to the hod-carrier4 ,work is not honored4 ,the man or woman who is obliged to work in order to live is regarded with pity or contempt by those who live upon the labor of others4 ,it is not true that all the honor lies in doing well whatever we have to do4 ,such a saying is as false as to say 8,ask1 and you shall receive40 ,honor is not given gratuitously4 ,it has to be earned4 ,but it is a fact that we do not honor all labor1 all virtue1 equally4 ,,keep ,,the ,,children ,,at ,,home ,fathers and mothers want to see their children grow up into good1 moral1 respectable men and women4 ,how to insure this desirable result is a serious problem4 ,it is seen that the school is not sufficient to insure character1 nor does the church exert sufficient influence to guide the feet in right paths4 ,we have the deepest faith in what the school is doing and trying to do1 and would help it in every way to promote the instruction in those branches of knowledge which are deemed essential to a sound and useful education1 but we cannot fail to see that the school1 however much it may assist the child in the formation of good habits1 is not of itself competent to build up character4 ,the school cannot take the place of the home1 nor can the teacher do the work of the parent4 ,we believe that the best way to have good boys and girls1 and therefore good men and women1 is to have good homes for them to live in4 ,if parents gave more attention to making their homes attractive to their children1 they would not be so apt to seek amusement in other places4 ,the more a child is kept at home1 the more certain it will be to escape the evils of life4 ,a good home is the first and most powerful factor in forming the character of children4 ,there is too much thought given by parents generally to the church and too little to the home4 ,they shirk their duty and their responsibility1 and pray ,god to look after what they neglect4 ,with the father at work and the mother at mass1 the children will be in the street4 ,those parents who put the home above the church are throwing around their children the best influences that earth affords4 ,when children are left to the care of ,god they too often fall into the hands of the policeman4 ,let the path between the home and the school be well worn1 but never mind if the grass grows in the road that leads to the church4 ,the child will usually love home if home is made lovely4 ,if parents wish to drive their children into temptation1 let them shut the sunshine of joy out of the house1 forbid the playing of games1 burn up the pack of cards that is found in one of the boy's rooms1 call a ball-room the 8devil's headquarters10 and pronounce a malediction upon all youthful sports4 ,it is easy enough to drive a boy or girl out into the dark4 ,put out the lights at home4 ,those parents who know the evil influences of the world will make their homes bright and beautiful and then keep their children there as long as they can4 ,the doctrine of salvation by faith is a libel on justice and has done more to undermine the virtue of the world than vice itself4 ,,teacher ,,and ,,preacher ,there is one great change which we hope to see brought about in the near future1 because we think it ought to be brought about as a matter of justice4 ,it is this3 the elevation of teachers above preachers4 ,civilization1 and all that this word stands for today1 depends more upon the school than upon the church4 ,it is the teacher and not the preacher that trains the growing minds of our children1 that builds the structure of character for future men and women1 and gives to the young the sacred touch that keeps them in right paths4 ,the world does not half appreciate the work done by the school teacher1 while it exaggerates out of all proportion to its worth1 the work done by the preacher4 ,the church may fall1 but if the school stands1 liberty will remain2 the paths of knowledge will be free2 the brow of civilization will still shine white against the skies of life1 and the glorious cup of learning be pressed to the thirsting mouth of youth2 but should the school fall1 though the church might stand1 all this would be reversed2--liberty would be driven from the earth1 the highways of knowledge would be closed1 civilization would fade into the night of the dark ages1 and the thirsting lips of life be fed with ,bible scraps and the logic of dead creeds4 ,the teacher is the mighty power in this republic1 the truest friend of our nation's institutions1 the one person above all others that this country should honor and reward4 ,one teacher is worth a thousand priests2 one school1 a thousand churches4 ,the person whose duty it is to direct the education of the young holds the sceptre of a nation's destiny1 and the school teacher occupies the most important station to which one can be elected4 ,we fear that the profession of teaching is not rightly prized by the ,american people1 and we are sure it is not justly rewarded4 ,no class in the land are paid so poorly1 according to the service they perform1 as our school teachers1 while no class should be paid so well4 ,far more valuable to our government is the teacher than the preacher1 and yet the salary of the latter exceeds the former in every city and town in the land4 ,this should be changed4 ,preaching a superstition is no benefit but an injury to a people1 while training the mind to read1 to think1 to gather knowledge is the highest service which one can perform4 ,we have the greatest respect for the men and women who have prepared themselves for the high office of teacher1 and we would see them rewarded for their labor as it deserves4 ,the hope of a country is in the right education of its people1 and the way to secure such education is to encourage the teacher by showing a just appreciation of his or her labors4 ,so we say1 put the school above the church1 the teacher above the preacher4 ,,fear ,,of ,,doubts ,we cannot help thinking that ,goethe showed lack of courage when he said3 8,i will listen to any one's convictions1 but pray keep your doubts to yourself1 ,i have plenty of my own60 ,it seems to us that only a coward is afraid of doubts4 ,if our convictions are false is it not better to know it and correct them8 ,doubt is the way to truth4 ,it is the attitude of the mind that wants to know things just as they are4 ,they who are unwilling to be deceived are the ones to doubt1 to inquire4 ,let us hear all the doubts of the world1 for they are knocks at the door of knowledge4 ,to accept without question is to be the willing dupe of imposition4 ,the doubter is the safe man2 the man who can be depended upon4 ,he does not build upon a foundation of guesswork1 and the structure he erects will stand4 ,let us not fear doubt1 but rather fear to have falsehood passed for truth4 ,there is no authority that can be quoted against a man but the authority of some other man4 ,nine times out of ten the man who declares that ,god is tender to the sparrow that falls is not the man to buy a winter's coal for a poor widow4 ,,bible-,,backing ,there is less backing one's thoughts with the ,bible than formerly4 ,the world is getting weaned from this book4 ,the idea is gaining ground that1 if anything is true1 it can support itself4 ,when a man leans on ,god he is so much less a man4 ,mental uprightness disdains the ,bible's support4 ,honest thought can defend itself without appealing to divine authority4 ,once a man hardly dared speak unless he quoted from the ,scriptures a line or verse that ran parallel with his speech4 ,to-day men say what they think1 without caring whether ,moses1 or ,david1 or ,john1 agree with them or not4 ,we have reached a healthy independence4 ,we have commenced to trust our convictions4 ,such a stage of intellectual development is not favorable to the divinity of one's thoughts4 ,the report of one mind is no more divine than that of another1 and no more to be trusted1 only as it is more accurate4 ,there is a higher standard than the word of ,god for this age--that is1 the word of truth4 ,whosoever speaks truth can face the world alone4 ,when a man needs to go to the ,bible to sustain his argument he has a weak argument4 ,when a dogma does not commend itself to human intelligence it is useless to declare it infallible4 ,it will die1 even though it be professed a thousand years4 ,it can be accepted only by ignorance and avowed only by hypocrisy4 ,any man who will quote a ,bible-text to defend his opinion in the sense that such text proves his opinion true1 proves himself a dolt4 ,a ,bible-text is only a human opinion1 and as humanity surpasses it in the evolution of experience1 it loses its authority and force4 ,we have learned that human reason does not need to be backed by the ,bible1 and we have learned also that the ,bible does need to be backed by human reason1 or it has no value4 ,the heart that can deride misfortune confesses its own deformity4 ,when we are satisfied with the present we do not think of the future4 ,the more mystery is encouraged1 the more deceit can impose upon the human mind4 ,if wisdom and diamonds grew on the same tree we could soon tell how much men loved wisdom4 ,,beggars ,we have come to look upon the poor beggar as a nuisance2 upon the man who comes to our doors for food or clothes as one who has no claim upon our charity4 ,the common beggar is1 as a rule1 a worthless character1 but let us be fair to him4 ,he asks for but little2 seldom for more than a bite1 or for a few pennies4 ,the poor beggar has only himself to enforce his appeal1 and often he is an injury to his own cause4 ,a dirty1 ragged1 vice-stained wreck of humanity is a poor argument to offer for sympathy or help4 ,the man who begs in the name of man1 and with that name rubbed in the dirt besides1 gets little for his asking4 ,we do not like any beggars1 but we need to understand that it is not the man in rags1 who asks for a piece of bread or meat1 that is the only beggar in the world4 ,there is another and more dangerous beggar that we open our doors to1 and treat with politeness and respect1 and whose appeals we honor2 it is the well-dressed beggar who asks for the money which the arm of labor has coined from its strength1 who takes not pennies where he can get dollars1 and who enforces his appeal with the name of ,god2 it is the ecclesiastical beggar1 whose hand is stretched out to take the earnings of toil1 or the profits of trade2 whose hand would as soon take little from poverty as plenty from affluence4 ,the rich beggar is a worse enemy to society and to the nation than the poor beggar4 ,it is the priest1 and not the tramp1 whose begging we need to scorn4 ,the man who asks for food in the name of hunger1 for help in the name of want1 makes1 at least1 an honest appeal to our generosity1 but the man who begs in the name of ,god is an impostor4 ,the tramp's appeal is the truth--the priest's is a lie4 ,god never yet commissioned a human being to beg for him1 and the person who uses the divine name to enforce his demand is little better than a thief4 ,in the paths of our life may be seen the footprints of our ancestors4 ,if you are poor1 be thankful that you have the power of bettering your circumstances by bettering yourself2 if you are rich1 do not forget that you have the means of doing good1 a luxury that is too seldom indulged4 ,men need nothing so much to-day as self-reliance2 courage to stand up manfully for the right1 all alone1 without prop or pay1 daring everything for an idea1 counting not the cost1 but seeing only the grand result which would follow its triumph and working for that with single purpose and courageous fidelity4 ,,habits ,habit makes the man1 but man makes the habit4 ,it is here where we want to get in a word4 ,a habit seems a little thing in itself1 but it is the most terrible tyrant that rules the world4 ,and it does rule it1 say what we will4 ,now1 it is essential in this life of ours to start right if we are going to come out right4 ,and the best thing to start with is a good habit4 ,it is just as easy when a young man is forming his habits to form good ones as bad ones4 ,good habits are not expensive4 ,a virtue does not cost a quarter as much to support as does a vice4 ,we sometimes wonder how it is that a being with brains1 with intelligence1 with reason1 could ever become a slave to habit4 ,it does not seem possible that a ,,man cannot order his conduct4 ,but we must recognize facts4 ,men are victims of habits4 ,they do not perceive that they are bound until they try to be free1 and then the strong power of habit asserts itself4 ,how does this terrible despot conquer the mind1 the will1 the man8 ,what is this invisible force that drives the strongest and the brightest with a whip of iron8 ,it is only an act repeated again and again1 but it has become a second nature1 a part of the man1 and it has conquered by the power of reinforcement by repetition4 ,the only way to be superior to bad habits is never to acquire them4 ,do not do the first bad act4 ,stop before you begin to go wrong4 ,the time when a man is saved is when he is young4 ,the time to plant or sow is in the ,spring4 ,the harvest depends upon the seed4 ,we cannot pick figs from thistles4 ,a bad habit will end in a bad life4 ,watch the feet of the boy and the man's will not need watching4 ,we must begin with the young1 and see that right habits are acquired in early life4 ,it is only a foot from a good habit to a bad one1 but it is a mile back again4 ,we may lose in an hour all we have made in a year4 ,we can undo in a day what we have done in a lifetime4 ,a habit is a plant of which an act is the seed4 ,it will bear fruit if it be a good act1 but ashes if it be a bad act4 ,it is the first step that starts the race4 ,to start right is the best way to go right and to end right4 ,never let a bad habit fasten to your life4 ,it takes the shingles from the widow's cottage to put paint on the house of ,god4 ,many persons who claim that they are 8clothed with righteousness0 do not seem to have got very good fits4 ,,can ,,poverty ,,be ,,abolished ,is poverty a malady of the individual or of society8 ,to answer this question is to determine how to treat the disease4 ,if the individual is alone responsible for being poor1 then he alone is to apply the remedy2 but if society is to blame for poverty1 then must society take the steps to effect a cure4 ,poverty is an evil4 ,a human being who is starved physically is starved mentally and morally4 ,civilization begins when man has risen above want4 ,man is only a brute when all of his energies are absorbed in the effort to get bread4 ,in the present state of society we have dependence and independence2 a few have escaped from the burdens of toil1 but the many are still slaves to physical wants4 ,but the few enjoy their independence at the expense of those beneath them1 and oftentimes by inflicting wrong and injustice upon their fellows4 ,such a condition ought not to be allowed4 ,prosperity is the accumulated efforts of mankind4 ,no man has created all the benefits he enjoys2 no one has sowed all that he reaps4 ,the rich man to-day is rich because he has1 by advantageous circumstances1 obtained possession of more than his share of the world's wealth1 or because he has inherited what others have obtained in the same way1 or because by thrift and economy and good luck he has succeeded in getting money and keeping it4 ,but what makes the poor man8 ,not one thing1 or one condition4 ,he is the victim sometimes of his own follies1 vices or laziness1 although he is often not to be blamed for his poverty4 ,there are individual cases where doubtless destitution is the child of misfortune1 but the general poverty of the world1 and of this country in particular1 cannot be charged to any such account4 ,in our land there is a balance every year to the credit of wealth1 but is it not true that this balance finds its way to the pockets already filled1 rather than to those that are empty8 ,what diverts the products of labor from the hands of labor8 ,find out that1 and then we will begin to give labor its due4 ,there is enough produced every year to make every person in the land better off at the end of the year4 ,why are so few richer1 and so many poorer1 or1 at least1 no better off8 ,there is one thing sure1--labor1 thrift1 economy1 virtue and good habits are to be commended and encouraged1 while idleness1 vice1 profligacy and bad habits are to be condemned and discouraged4 ,we do not look to any external change in society for a remedy for poverty1 but rather to an internal change in man4 ,it is not social revolution that will help the world1 but humanity--the willingness to do what is right4 8,it rains on the just and the unjust10 but rarely just enough on either4 ,,the ,,roman ,,catholic ,,god ,cicero said that 8men1 having exhausted all the mad extravagancies they are capable of1 have yet never entertained the idea of eating the ,god whom they adore40 ,the extravagance which was beyond the contemplation of the ,pagan mind1 is an every day affair with a large part of the ,christian world4 ,the ,roman ,catholic eats his ,god every week1 and ,catholics have been guilty of this religious cannibalism for centuries4 ,in the celebration of the eucharist1 which is a service commemorative of the death of ,jesus1 bread and wine are used in ,protestant churches as emblems of the body and blood of the crucified one4 ,but in ,roman ,catholic churches the real presence of ,jesus is seen in the 8host10 which1 in itself1 is a little wafer of baked flour and water1 but when consecrated by the priest and offered as a sacrifice1 during mass1 becomes the actual body of ,god4 ,according to ,roman ,catholic doctrine1 dough is changed to ,deity by the mumbling of a few ,latin words over it by a priest4 ,when the priest swallows the consecrated wafer he really swallows this ,god he adores4 ,there is an absurdity which the doctrine of transubstantiation is accountable for1 which cannot be paralleled among all the religions of heathenism4 ,not only does this doctrine make it possible for one ,god to be eaten by one priest1 but for thousands of gods to be thus devoured4 ,the ,roman ,catholic religion teaches that ,god is manufactured out of flour and water by a pastry cook4 ,every time a wafer is turned into a 8host10 a ,god is made4 ,were there a tribe in ,asia or ,africa guilty of such ridiculous practices as are witnessed in the ,roman ,catholic church1 missionaries would be sent out to them4 ,it seems to us1 that if people know no better than to believe that when the priest swallows a little lump of bread he is actually swallowing the body of a person who lived eighteen hundred years ago1 whom they look upon as ,god1 they are not intelligent enough to be ranked in the army of progress and civilization4 ,no one is to blame for what no one knows4 ,it is singular that people want to live another life when it is so hard to live this4 ,a church that sets up a religious faith as more essential than purity1 than kindness1 charity or goodness1 is a dangerous institution4 ,,human ,,cruelty ,the mosquito inflicts his sting upon the place whence he draws his life4 ,not unlike this venomed insect is the person who1 through malice1 wounds the feelings of a human being4 ,there seems to be in certain organizations the poison of hatred1 and woe betide those on whom it falls4 ,the heart that can take delight in saying cruel things1 in raising unkind doubts or starting unpleasant thoughts1 ought never to have had a human face to hide behind4 ,such an individual ought to crawl in its native shape that it might be crushed under the heel of scorn4 ,the only way to treat a human viper is to keep away from it1 ignore its presence1 and to shut the ears to its venomed hiss4 ,we know of no more cruel occupation than wounding human hearts and human feelings4 ,a great many men believe in providence until they get caught in a railroad accident4 ,treasures well used on earth will help the world more than treasures laid up in heaven4 ,,infidelity ,when the minister wants to frighten his congregation he draws a picture of infidelity4 ,the infidel has been used for years to scare weak-minded persons into accepting ,christianity4 ,outwardly the infidel is painted like a man1 but the world is warned not to trust to appearances1 for the infidel is not what he looks to be2 he is 8a fiend in human shape20 he is 8a moral monster10 and a mirror in which everything bad and vicious can see its face4 ,we do not wonder that a minister paints the infidel in black4 ,he has hurt the minister's business1 and so must suffer for what he has done4 ,but we do wonder that so large a part of the world is frightened at the word 8infidelity40 ,it is a fact that an infidel would never be known if he himself did not disclose his character4 ,to conceal his infidelity he has only to keep still1 to hide behind silence4 ,infidelity is nothing more or less than intellectual fidelity1 and an infidel is a man too honest to disguise his real thoughts and convictions4 ,had the infidel not been honest he would still be in the church1 a hypocrite1 to be sure1 but this could not affect his religious status at all4 ,intellectual and moral uprightness is the distinguishing characteristic of modern infidelity4 ,the modern infidel trusts his brain and his heart2 he accepts as true what appeals to his reason1 and makes known his convictions as though to conceal them were a vice or a crime4 ,the infidel gains nothing by avowing his convictions2 on the contrary1 he is condemned for making them known4 ,the ,christian presumes upon the right to damn infidels here and to teach that ,god will damn them hereafter4 ,it is in the face of a fate1 in many instances cruel1 that a man acknowledges that his honest thoughts1 his honest convictions place him in antagonism to the popular faith1 and yet he is denounced1 rather than praised1 for his brave action4 ,infidelity is the proof of an honest man4 ,hypocrisy cannot hide in its shadow4 ,every man in the ,christian church may be a hypocrite1 a knave1 a pretender professing its faith1 while laughing inwardly at its foolish superstitions1 but every man who espouses infidelity must reveal his true character1 must show exactly what he is4 ,a dishonest or hypocritical infidel is an impossibility4 ,there is nothing to be gained1 but much to be lost1 by confessing one's disbelief of the ,christian dogmas4 ,it is the man who prizes self-respect above the world's approval who takes the fate of infidelity--be it what it may4 ,don't put too much faith in the man who wants to know the distance to the nearest church before he has written his name in the hotel register4 ,,atheism ,what is called atheism is not a light1 flippant assertion1 but a calm1 thoughtful conclusion4 ,it is a conviction which human experience and human reflection have generated4 ,atheism is not the irresponsible opinion of moral debauchery2 it is the outcome of an intelligent consideration of ,nature and life4 ,the atheist has been honest with himself and with the world4 ,he has made a careful survey of the universe1 as far as he is able1 and has canvassed the facts of life which have come within the range of his observation1 and he has candidly declared the result of his study and freely related the reasons for his conclusions4 ,atheism is the universe as science finds it and as interpreted by human understanding4 ,it is an attempt to state the simple truth1 to give a fair likeness of things1 to photograph facts4 ,atheism is denial of nothing true1 of nothing good1 of nothing that can be proved4 ,we see no good reason for abusing the atheist4 ,his opinions don't make him a bad citizen or a bad man4 ,he is as moral as his ,christian neighbor1 and is as ready to help a fellow-being4 ,in countries where atheism is a crime1 hypocrisy is more honored than integrity4 ,a great many who expect to hear the angels sing always get near the stage at a comic opera4 ,,christian ,,happiness ,christians are constantly telling 8how happy their religion makes them10 how happy they feel 8since they found ,jesus40 ,we will take them at their word and believe that they are just as happy as they say they are4 ,what has their religion done for them1 what has ,jesus done for them1 that they should be so happy8 ,they will answer that they have been saved1 that their souls have been rescued from destruction4 ,without going into the question whether they need to be saved or whether their souls are in any danger of destruction1 let us see what kind of happiness the ,christian enjoys4 ,the great song of ,christians is3 ,my soul is saved4 ,the ,christian is happy on his own account alone2 he rejoices in his own good fortune2 he is pleased to think that he is out of it4 ,the ,christian's happiness is a purely selfish feeling4 ,in his exultation is no thought of another's condition1 of another's lot4 ,if some are saved1 others are lost1 for all do not accept the ,christian faith1 all do not find ,jesus4 ,the ,christian can be happy while others are miserable2 he can rejoice while knowing that others are in peril2 he can exult over his own salvation while seeing others going to destruction4 ,this is a fiendish happiness1 a devilish joy4 ,for one to be happy while knowing that a brother or sister is lost shows a hard1 selfish1 cruel heart4 ,think of the ,christian mother being happy for having been rescued from her burning home in whose fatal flames her children all perished6 ,think of the ,christian father filled with joy at his escape from the sinking ship in which his wife and babe sailed to the port of death6 ,think of a ,christian man or woman exulting over their good fortune in not having a disease which took away those who were nearest and dearest6 ,such joy1 such happiness1 as this is not human1 it is brutish4 ,the ,christian is welcome to all the happiness his heartless religion affords him4 ,i want none of it4 ,such a religion would drive me mad4 ,the loving heart is happiest in the joy of those it loves2 it is happy in seeing others happy1 but there could be no joy for it to be saved while those it loved were lost4 ,christianity is a heartless religion1 a cruel faith1 a selfish scheme1 and it is for those who care more about being saved than saving others4 ,the highest freedom is the freedom to say what we believe to be right4 ,it was a childless woman who said3 ,the happiest woman is she whose bosom pillows the sweet head of a child4 ,,what ,,god ,,knows ,we see in ,christian papers a great deal about what ,god knows4 ,how does any one know what ,god knows8 ,it has been the habit1 where man lacked any particular knowledge1 of saying1 8,god knows40 ,but what is the good of ,god knowing anything if he keeps his knowledge to himself8 ,if he will not tell what he knows1 how is man improved or benefited by all the wisdom in the divine cranium8 ,what is known by the inhabitants of ,venus does the inhabitants of earth no good4 ,but let us come down to facts4 ,is there any proof that ,god knows anything8 ,let men own up1 and not try to deceive themselves or others any longer4 ,what ,god knows nobody else knows4 ,there is no evidence that ,god knows what man does not1 and it is bare assumption only to ascribe knowledge to deity4 ,it is first necessary for man to know that there is a ,god1 before endowing him with mental wealth or attributes4 ,the ,christian practice of saying that 8,god loves man10 and that 8,god cares for man0 has no basis of facts to stand upon1 and it is only pious conceit that indulges in such statements4 ,there is nothing in the universe but the universe itself2 nothing in the universe that reveals a ,god4 ,the earth does not1 the sun does not1 the moon does not1 and not a planet or star reveals the existence of a ,god4 ,all these reveal their own existence2 so of a flower1 of a tree1 of a man4 ,it is only divinity that can reveal the existence of divinity4 ,who has seen or heard this divinity8 ,no one4 ,men have said1 or men have made other men say1 that they have seen ,god1 heard ,god1 and talked with ,god4 ,but they lied4 ,no human eye ever saw the divine form or features2 no human ear ever heard the divine voice2 no human being ever had any knowledge of a divine being4 ,it is a waste of words to talk about ,god and what he knows and what he does4 ,no man knows that ,god does anything1 that ,god knows anything1 or that there is a ,god4 ,blessings on the man who first dared to doubt4 ,the improvement in ways of travel and methods of labor has altered our reverence4 ,every kiss of love imprinted by a mother's lips on the face of her babe gives the lie to the ,christian doctrine of total depravity1 and every gift which the heart of pity lays in the hand of misfortune brands this doctrine as false and a libel on our human nature4 ,,the ,,meaning ,,of ,,the ,,word ,,god ,i do not deny that the word 8,god0 has today a moral and religious meaning which is derived from his supposed beneficence1 but this idea is not the one that ,i find at the bottom of the ,christian faith4 ,i object very seriously to the attempt1 which is being made by certain interested parties1 to represent the ,god of ,christianity better than he is4 ,this word loses its terror when we realize that it stands for an unknown quantity4 ,it is the attempt to account for what we cannot understand2 the effort to explain the universe4 ,the word 8,god0 is a definition of human ignorance4 ,it represents what we do not know4 ,this word does not stand for a person1 an object1 or a thing4 ,it is an idea that we can have no idea of1 a thought of what one cannot think4 ,people who use the word 8,god0 do not know what they are talking about4 ,the word fits nothing that has yet been discovered4 ,theology is the science of what no one knows anything about4 ,it does not belong to the family of knowledge4 ,when the hands of theology are laid on a man's head his brains are consecrated to do nothing4 ,every time a minister is made1 a man is lost4 ,nothing disgraces ,american civilization more than the theology preached in ,christian churches4 ,it is worse than childish2 it is old-womanish4 ,the dark ages cast their shadows across the bright skies of the twentieth century1 and the relics of that benighted time1 the priests1 are still walking the streets1 like ghosts of bad deeds4 ,every theology ends in a creed4 ,a creed is the night-cap of religion4 ,it is a sign that the intellect is asleep4 ,when faith is in1 sense is out4 ,a man with a creed has bought the coffin for his mind4 ,the rest of his life will be a funeral service for the dead4 ,a creed is the grave of thought4 ,when a person subscribes to certain articles of belief1 he has no further use for his brains4 ,it does not require any mental exercise to believe4 ,belief does not signify any process of intellectual assimilation or digestion4 ,when a man joins a church1 he makes his last will and testament4 ,when reason abdicates in favor of credulity1 crime becomes a saint1 and folly a martyr4 ,too much faith makes a ,pocasset tragedy4 ,the foolishness of trying to make ,god intelligible to human understanding is shown in the creeds of ,christendom4 ,the dogma of the trinity ought not to pass to any further generation4 ,it is not the 8likeness of anything that is in the heaven above1 or that is in the earth beneath1 or that is in the water under the earth40 ,,what ,,has ,,jesus ,,done ,,for ,,the ,,world ,a great deal is said about 8what ,jesus has done for the world40 ,we wish some of those people who repeat this statement would take ten or fifteen minutes and tell us just what ,jesus has done for the world4 ,it would puzzle the most ardent admirer of the ,galilean reformer to point out anything that ,jesus ever did to help man in this life4 ,there is too much of this thoughtless1 senseless praise of ,jesus4 ,not a ,christian on this earth but what owes a thousand times more to his father and mother than he owes to ,jesus1 but who ever heard one acknowledge it8 ,we could name hundreds of men who have lightened the labor of the world by their inventions4 ,did ,jesus do anything of the kind8 ,we can name hundreds of men who have made the homes of mankind brighter and more enjoyable by their genius and toil4 ,did ,jesus do anything of the kind8 ,the imaginary service which this imaginary person did is of no consequence to the poor1 to the workers1 to the starvers4 ,what the poor man wants is not a ,savior for another world1 but a helper for this world1 and the person who lessens the poverty and misery of earth is worth a thousand times more to humanity than ,jesus4 ,we are told that ,jesus died for man4 ,well6 ,what of it8 ,socrates died for man4 ,bruno died for man4 ,emmet died for man4 ,john ,brown died for the black man4 ,every day somebody is dying for man4 ,why emphasize the death of ,jesus more than the death of another8 ,the fact that ,jesus died does not help you or me4 ,he could have helped us far more by living1 if he had lived wisely and well4 ,the great fact in regard to ,jesus is this3 ,he does not touch this age2 its aspirations1 its interests1 its reforms1 its work1 its spirit4 ,we are living contrary to ,jesus1 contrary to all he taught and did4 ,he is left behind1 outgrown1 and1 consequently1 whatever he did is of no value to this age4 ,his star is set4 ,he has had his day4 ,instead of trying to bring about a kingdom of poverty1 a millennium of idleness1 the world is striving for a kingdom of plenty and a good time for everybody4 ,everything connected with ,jesus has been exaggerated4 ,the man himself has been exaggerated1 his words have been exaggerated1 his performances have been exaggerated1 and his importance has been exaggerated4 ,he has been given a character that he is not entitled to1 and his teachings have been clothed with a value which they do not possess4 ,jesus has been passed for more than he is worth4 ,let his name no longer bear the stamp of divinity4 ,let his deeds no longer be called miracles4 ,the real ,jesus of fact would be a very ordinary man4 ,,the ,,agnostic',s ,,position ,some avowed ,liberal writers are engaged in abusing the ,agnostic4 ,one looks upon him as a fool1 while another considers him a hypocrite4 ,one pities him for his ignorance1 the other abuses him for confessing it4 ,i side with the ,agnostic4 ,i sit down with the ignorant4 ,i take my place in the class of 8,i-don't-know40 ,the difference between people is this3 ,some don't know1 and some don't know that they don't know1 and the rest won't admit that they don't know4 ,it seems to me that the ,agnostic's position is an honest one4 ,he is asked the question2 ,is there a future life for man8 ,what shall he answer8 ,if he does not know whether there is not1 why should he not say so8 ,to say3 ,i believe there is1 is not an answer to the question4 ,he must say1 ,i know1 or1 ,i do not know4 ,on this question are we not all ,agnostics8 ,the foolish and cruel notion that a wife is to obey her husband has sent more women to the grave than to the courts for a divorce4 ,,orthodoxy ,there is as much perfumery in petroleum as there is righteousness in orthodoxy4 ,its dead theology and make-believe piety have no value only to the priest4 ,orthodoxy survives only by right of possession4 ,turn it out of the churches and it would never re-enter them4 ,the church to-day is a hospital for sick dogmas4 ,every ,christian doctrine is a cripple2 not one can walk or stand alone4 ,orthodoxy has put a false valuation on things4 ,it calls a man good who goes to church1 offers a prayer in public and accepts the ,bible as the word of ,god2 it calls a man bad who stays at home and enjoys himself with his family on ,sunday1 who eats without asking ,god to bless his food1 and who does not expect to go to heaven on the vicarious railroad4 ,the thirty-nine articles of orthodoxy are only the ashes of the mind4 ,honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence4 ,a handsome bonnet covers a multitude of sins4 ,,ideas ,,of ,,jesus ,there is a vast difference between knowledge of the ,bible and knowledge4 ,a person may know all there is in the ,bible1 and not know but little4 ,in fact1 so much of the ,bible is either pure fiction or doubtful history that one is not sure when he has got hold of what is reliable4 ,probably no person whose name appears in the ,bible is less a historical figure than ,jesus4 ,as we see him in either gospel he is more the product of the artist than the work of the biographer4 ,he is less a human being than the character of a drama4 ,had ,jesus been pictured as a man1 who was born as men are born1 who worked as men worked1 who lived and died as men live and die1 then there would be less divergence in the views entertained respecting him4 ,to-day1 the ,jesus of ,galilee is looked upon as either a ,god or a tramp2 a divine ,savior or an impostor2 the perfect man or a lunatic4 ,the reason of this is that the gospels are found1 as it were1 photographs of all those characters labelled ,jesus4 ,a person with no fixed idea of what ,jesus was1 whether human or divine1 whether a ,christ or a madman1 would be unable1 after reading the gospels to come to any intelligent conclusion as to what he was4 ,he certainly could not accept the statements of the authors and regard ,jesus as a man4 ,we fail to understand how anyone can read the ,new ,testament story of ,jesus and not regard him as a myth4 ,no being ever lived on earth and performed the miracles recorded in the gospels4 ,that is just as sure as the light of the stars4 ,miracles are not evidence of divinity1 but of falsehood4 ,where we read that a man was raised from the dead we know that somebody has written what is not true4 ,how human beings1 who are possessed of ordinary intelligence1 can accept the accounts of miraculous events in the four gospels as records of actual facts surpasses our comprehension4 ,those persons who see in the words of ,jesus evidence of his divine character1 see in such words1 when in the mouth of any other person1 proof of insanity4 ,there are contradictory ideas of ,jesus contained in the gospels4 ,he is spoken of as a man1 as a ,christ1 as a son of ,god1 and as ,god himself4 ,now1 he could not have been all these4 ,which was he8 ,was he ,god8 ,was he the son of ,god8 ,was he the ,christ or ,king of the ,jews8 ,was he the son of ,mary and ,joseph8 ,was he a man8 ,or was he neither8 ,our opinion is that ,jesus is a myth1 that no such being as is painted in the ,new ,testament ever lived4 ,this seems to be the only rational idea of ,jesus4 ,,the ,,silence ,,of ,,jesus ,a ,christian minister not long ago spoke upon the subject3 8,when the ,bible is ,silent40 ,he said a great many silly things about his subject1 but not one sensible one4 ,this preacher wishes us to believe that when the ,bible is silent it is because we cannot hear4 ,he said the silence of ,jesus before ,caiaphas1 ,pilate and ,herod1 shows that ,jesus knew they would not have understood his words if he had answered them4 ,he further said that ,jesus 8treated each with whom he came in contact according to the spirit that was in him40 ,is it not more likely that ,jesus knew he could not impose upon these men as he could upon his ignorant1 superstitious followers1 and hence dared not speak8 ,is not his silence a confession of his weakness8 ,had he been able to answer ,caiaphas1 ,pilate and ,herod1 think you he would not have done so8 ,of course he would4 ,it is a little singular that the most momentous questions ever put to ,jesus were not answered by him4 ,the very things the people wished to know he did not reveal4 ,why not8 ,why1 because he could not4 ,should we to-day pronounce a man wise and good who professed to possess knowledge that would benefit1 if not save1 the world1 but who refused to impart that knowledge8 ,we reckon not4 ,we should either denounce him as the foe of man or else as a charlatan4 ,when ,jesus was taken before the high priest1 ,caiaphas1 and was asked about the charges against him1 he 8held his peace40 ,when he was asked by ,pilate4 8,what is truth80 ,jesus was silent2 and when ,pilate again asked1 8,whence art thou80 ,jesus 8gave him no answer40 ,when ,herod 8questioned with him in many words10 8he answered him nothing40 ,what are we to infer from this silence8 ,what the minister wishes us to infer1 or that ,jesus saw that he was unable to maintain his claim and so sought refuge in silence8 ,the silence of ,jesus condemns him4 ,he was in duty bound to prove that he was the ,christ1 the ,son of ,god1 as he claimed to be1 or else have impostor written on his forehead4 ,the world will some day grow large enough not to be fooled by a minister4 ,when it does1 ,jesus will take his place where he belongs1--in the graveyard of the gods4 ,,does ,,the ,,church ,,save ,the church pretends to save man from a hell hereafter1 but does it do so8 ,how are we to know whether it does or not8 ,we cannot take its word for it4 ,we want the proof4 ,we do not want to pay for work unless the work is done4 ,we do not want to believe in order to be saved1 unless we are sure that the church can deliver the salvation it takes pay for4 ,the world has taken the promise to save long enough4 ,it has not seen a single soul that has been saved1 nor does it know for a fact that a single soul has been saved4 ,is it not time that the church showed that it can do what it claims to do8 ,we want salvation demonstrated4 ,let the church produce a specimen of its work2 let it exhibit a soul that it has saved1 or let it publish the affidavit1 duly subscribed and affirmed1 of a soul that has escaped the fate of hell through the efficacy of faith in ,jesus4 ,anything less than this is deception1 is imposition1 is false pretense4 ,either this should be done by the church or else it should go out of the salvation-business altogether4 ,it is astonishing how long the priest has carried on his trade4 ,here is a man who claims to deal in the affairs of another world for which he demands pay in this world1 but he does not show that he carries out his part of the agreement4 ,men have been paying the priest for thousands of years1 for doing what it is impossible to prove has been1 or can be1 done4 ,can anything more stupid than this be imagined8 ,the business of saving man's soul is a cheat1 a fraud4 ,every priest and minister who preaches that man can be saved from hell hereafter by believing in ,jesus1 or anybody else1 is preaching what they know nothing about1 and they are doing it for the money in it4 ,the church is cheating man1 defrauding him1 practicing upon his ignorance1 his superstition1 his fear4 ,religion1 as far as it relates to any other life than this1 has no foundation4 ,its ,god no one knows anything about2 its heaven and hell no one has ever seen1 nor does anyone know where they are2 its whole business is run on fictitious capital4 ,the only thing that the church has saved so far is itself4 ,freethought ,precepts ,the strong should be gentle to the weak4 ,the rich should not oppress the poor4 ,the prosperous should be generous to the unfortunate4 ,the self-reliant should give a hand to the helpless4 ,the educated should pity the ignorant4 ,the virtuous should not be cruel to the vicious4 ,the beautiful should be kind to the plain4 ,,save ,,the ,,republic ,which shall it be1 ,christianity or the ,republic8 ,it is apparent that the ,christian church under a purely secular government1 where justice is granted to all and where favors are allowed to none1 cannot long survive4 ,the ,christian church in this country to-day is the worst foe of our free republic that exists within its borders4 ,if the state survives it is plain to us that the church must perish1 and the church can only flourish on the ruins of free institutions4 ,we may have ,christianity with a certain form of human government in ,america1 but if the principles embodied in the ,declaration of ,independence and the rights implied in the national constitution are to survive1 then we cannot have ,christianity in this land4 ,the next conflict in our nation is to be between secularism and ecclesiasticism1 between men who love liberty and priests who uphold tyranny1 between the lovers of our republic and the foes of secular institutions4 ,this conflict is nearer than the public imagines2 in fact1 it is already going on1 and the growth of sentiment in the next generation in favor of human freedom and human rights will determine whether secularism will be upheld in our nation1 or whether the reign of ecclesiasticism is to be dethroned4 ,the work of the ,christian church throughout the land is to prevent the spread of secular principles and to hinder the further secularization of the government4 ,this is the only hope of saving ,christianity4 ,if the state will not continue to exempt church property from taxation1 to uphold the ,christian sabbath1 to prescribe prayers and ,bible-reading in the public schools1 to enforce the oath in courts of justice1 and to otherwise lend its aid and support to the ,christian religion1 there is no chance of this religion resisting the spread of science and the arguments of rationalism4 ,every victory won by ,christianity is a nail in the coffin of this republic4 ,our government at the present time is a travesty of free institutions4 ,where does the freethinker have equal rights with the ,christian1 equal freedom1 equal justice8 ,he is obliged to take a ,christian oath or have his word discredited in court2 he is taxed to help support ,christian chaplains in the state prisons1 in the legislatures1 and in the army and navy2 he is made by law to pay the taxes on church property which is no benefit to him2 he has to send his children to schools where religious services are conducted that to him are false and foolish1 and in many other ways help maintain a religion that he considers more injurious than beneficial to the world4 ,the church in this country is not working for the good of the nation2 it is working to save itself4 ,what they1 who love our free land1 should do1 is to make the government secular in every part1 and compel ,christianity to take its grasp off of the nation's life4 ,we must destroy ,christianity if we would save the republic4 ,a ,,woman',s ,,religion ,the ,christian church of to-day is the church of women4 ,woman is certainly the better-half of ,christianity4 ,she is the minister's right bower4 ,the ,christian soldier is an ,amazon4 ,the first at the prayer-meeting1 at the donation party1 at the missionary convention1 at the ,sunday service1 at the altar1 at the ,sunday school is woman1 and the last is woman1 too4 ,without its female members1 adherents and workers the ,christian church would be an abandoned wreck within a week4 ,it is true that men give money to the church1 but they do it generally to please the women or at their solicitation4 ,the ,christian religion is a female religion4 ,it is emotional piety4 ,there is nothing robust1 independent about it1 nothing that appeals to strength1 intellect1 reason4 ,it is a vine1 not an oak4 ,even its chief idol was fashioned for female worship4 ,the songs of ,christianity were written for women to sing1 rather than men4 ,the ,god of ,christianity is a father1 its savior is a young man1 and its angels are all of the masculine gender4 ,the ,christian heaven is a he-kingdom1 as far as its administration is concerned--a sort of celestial harem--for certainly ten women go there to one man1 if the membership of the church determines the election of candidates to heavenly bliss4 ,the two favorite hymns at the prayer-meeting1 the two that are sung with most feeling1 are 8,jesus1 lover of my soul10 and 8,nearer1 my ,god1 to thee40 ,religion was invented to catch women4 ,the priest is the spider and woman the fly4 ,upon the altar of every faith woman has been the sacrifice4 ,religion claims its female victims in this age just as surely as when the ,hindoo widow was sent to join her dead husband on wings of flame4 ,woman to-day is not killed to appease a ,god1 but she is still made a fool of by the priest4 ,the spirit of the offering is the same1 the form1 only1 is different4 ,the foundation of every ,christian church is woman2 the salary-raiser of every ,christian minister is woman4 ,woman is the keystone in every arch of ,christian endeavor that spans the earth4 ,she is the bright1 particular star of the church's hope4 ,men are not so easily caught by the ,christian scheme of salvation as women4 ,they want to see some return for their money on earth4 ,it is the woman who is caught in the religious toils2 it is the woman who is the slave of ,god1 the victim of priest and minister4 ,the declaration that will kindle enthusiasm in the human breast most quickly is that a new way has been discovered to get rich4 ,,the ,,sacrifice ,,of ,,jesus ,a great deal has been written1 preached and said about the great sacrifice which ,jesus made for the world4 ,we deny that he made any such sacrifice as is claimed for him by the ,christian church4 ,in fact1 we cannot see1 find or learn from any record of the ,new ,testament that he made any sacrifice at all4 ,this whole idea about the sacrifice of ,jesus depends upon a theological assumption4 ,jesus had no earthly honor1 position or estate to sacrifice1 even had he been disposed to offer such for the good of mankind4 ,not only is there no evidence of any tangible renunciation possible by ,jesus1 but there is no proof and no sign that ,jesus possessed even the spirit of sacrifice4 ,we challenge the ,christian admirer of ,jesus to point to a single act of this hero that can honestly be called a sacrifice4 ,we know of no such act4 ,we have studied the gospels to find such an act1 and we have studied them in vain4 ,when a mother sees her boy pinned to the timbers of a wrecked car where the scalding steam must escape into his face and destroy his life1 and to save her boy1 voluntarily stands where this steam1 with its hot breath1 will take her life instead of her boy's1 this mother makes a sacrifice that is apparent1 real4 ,such an act is sublime1 grand1 beyond heroism4 ,such an act wipes the ,christian slander of total depravity from human nature4 ,such an act makes us almost worship the heart great enough to perform it4 ,jesus did no such things as this4 ,he braved no danger for another4 ,he did not walk in the path of peril to save the life of friend or fellow4 ,on the contrary1 he seemed bent on a selfish mission1 inspired by a purely personal ambition4 ,he did not say3 ,this world is suffering from oppression2 ,i will lay down my life to make it free4 ,he did not seek to destroy the throne and the sceptre that bear so heavily on the poor and weak2 but he sought a throne and a sceptre for himself that he might rule the world4 ,jesus sacrifice himself for the world6 ,no6 ,he demanded that the world sacrifice itself to exalt him6 ,a poorer specimen of self-sacrifice could hardly be found in all the historical out-of-the-way places that we know anything about4 ,jesus had nothing to give up1 nothing to renounce1 nothing but his life to offer to the world1 and this1 even when it was taken1 did the world no good4 ,the only incident in the whole career of ,jesus which has been construed as a sacrifice was his crucifixion1 but this was not voluntary on the part of the victim4 ,jesus1 in dying1 made no sacrifice4 ,he surrendered his life at the command of a political power2 he did not offer it for the world's advancement4 ,jesus was the sport of circumstances1 the victim of a cruel fate4 ,he played for high stakes and lost4 ,he was an adventurer1 and suffered the penalty of failure4 ,taking the account of his career in the gospels as true1 it is totally barren of any lofty1 sublime action for the good of the human race4 ,he did not throw his efforts into the public strife to elevate the condition of the majority1 but he loaded himself on the shoulders of his followers to ride into divine greatness4 ,like hundreds of others1 he threw the dice of political chance and was beaten4 ,in following the gospel steps of the deluded ,nazarene we are not sure which are his and which are not1 but take all the stories as true which his devoted disciples have told about him1 they do not reveal a mind consecrated to any lofty purpose4 ,he was working to establish the 8kingdom of heaven10 but nobody knows what that is4 ,he talked about his 8father in heaven10 but nobody knows who he is4 ,he had no practical ideas1 he did no practical work4 ,history would have written this man's name among the unfortunate victims of political revolutions1 if it had preserved it at all1 which is doubtful1 but ,jesus was made by priestcraft to play a leading part in a theological drama1 and religion has immortalized his name4 ,but it is a false part that ,jesus has played4 ,no such character has any reason for existing4 ,the necessity for any human offering to ,god does not exist4 ,the idea of an atoning sacrifice is a relic of at barbarous faith4 ,it is time to take ,christianity off the stage4 ,it is an insult to the twentieth century4 ,the silly1 sickly superstition of the sacrifice of ,jesus should be left to die4 ,it sprang from falsehood and has no basis in fact1 in reason or in truth4 ,,fashionable ,,hypocrisy ,there is nothing more inconsistent than for the rich to praise ,jesus4 ,there is dishonesty in every word that the wealthy speak in approbation of the poverty-preacher of ,galilee4 ,jesus was poor1 almost a beggar4 ,he had no house1 no home4 ,but more than this1 he did not see the good of such things4 ,he did not tell his disciples to work and try to improve their earthly condition4 ,there is no sound1 sensible advice for a man to follow1 who has to live and support his family1 to be found in the so-called teachings of ,jesus4 ,it is simply hypocrisy for a man who is rich or well-to-do1 and who is living to add to his wealth or to increase his comforts1 to pretend to honor ,jesus4 ,the truth is1 ,jesus did not do anything that deserves the honor of those who are trying to fill the earth with flowers of happiness1 who are laboring to make brighter the homes they live in1 and who are sowing the seeds of plenty and joy4 ,jesus did not do what this age regards as best for man1 and he did not teach the philosophy which the wisest men to-day apply to human life4 ,now1 was ,jesus right or wrong8 ,that is the question4 ,it is pure nonsense for the people of this country to claim to respect ,jesus4 ,we cannot respect a person who does what we think is foolish1 or we cannot do so and have any self-respect4 ,we are right or think we are1 and ,jesus was wrong2 or else ,jesus was right4 ,which is it8 ,the whole world1 ,christian and unbeliever alike1 is living contrary to the precept and example of the ,new ,testament preacher4 ,is every person on earth doing what he believes to be wrong2 doing what he believes to be injurious to himself2 doing what he considers will end in disaster and misery2 doing what he feels will bring suffering and sorrow upon humanity8 ,not a bit of it4 ,every man is doing what he believes to be right when he is working to get out of poverty and degradation2 when he is trying to better his condition in society2 when he is improving his home and giving his family more blessings1 more enjoyments4 ,we unhesitatingly declare that ,jesus was wrong4 ,it is impossible to make poverty popular4 ,there is not an argument in its favor4 ,poverty has not a single blessing4 ,it is a curse1 pure and simple1 everywhere and for everybody4 ,it is not to be praised2 it is to be condemned and got rid of4 ,it is the father of vice and the mother of suffering4 ,it sheds more tears than grief4 ,it cuts more throats than crime4 ,it breaks more hearts than cruelty4 ,it is the one great giant evil of earth4 ,it is the foe that every ,knight of ,labor is sworn to battle4 ,every heart that loves another is pledged to drive poverty off the earth4 ,this monster devours more children than disease1 and tortures the aged more than pain4 ,want is a flood1 a drought1 a famine1 a pestilence4 ,it is a prison1 a work-house1 a convict's cell4 ,it is the hell of the twentieth century4 ,can we praise ,jesus and be honest8 ,no6 ,jesus and his gospel of poverty are not in harmony with the work1 the love1 the desire of this age1 and for any one who is living above want1 on the walls of whose home is the sunshine of peace and comfort1 to pretend to honor ,jesus or to follow his teaching is to be guilty of hypocrisy6 ,when religion comes in at the door common sense goes out at the window4 ,the churches erected in the name of ,god will ere long be tombstones to his memory4 ,churches do not stand for moral influence4 ,not a ,christian minister preaches salvation by good behavior4 ,what a poor business ,roman ,catholicism would do among men if it advertised to save only those who were temperate1 upright1 intelligent and moral4 ,,the ,,saturday ,,half-,,holiday ,it is pretty certain that the laborer is hereafter to have more time for himself4 ,that fact is already settled1 and the demand will be conceded sooner or later4 ,eat1 work and sleep is the ancient trinity of slavery4 ,the modern life demands leisure2 the opportunity for enjoyment and self-improvement4 ,how it is best to be secured is a question about which there is a variety of opinions4 ,one of the plans to give the workingman more time for himself is that of the ,saturday half-holiday4 ,we see no particular advantage in this over the eight-hour-for-a-day's-work plan4 ,it seems to us that if laborers worked eight hours a day and had ,sunday for a holiday instead of a holy day1 all their requirements would be better answered than in any other way4 ,we do not need a day nor an hour when either work or play would be a crime1 and before any other portion of the week is set apart for a holiday1 let ,sunday be made free to enjoyment and recreation4 ,there is the eternal bugbear of religion to oppose this scheme1 but that is all4 ,the minister1 who under free trade on ,sunday would be obliged to close up his business1 is in favor of a ,sabbath law of protection for sermons and prayers1 but why should a few clergymen who have six holidays in the week and only one work-day1 be favored against millions of toilers1 who work six days in the week and are liable to be arrested if they do not go to church on the seventh day8 ,not a ,saturday half-holiday but a ,sunday whole-holiday is the first rational step towards justice to the working-man4 ,there is very little in the average ,sunday service that is instructive and nothing that is entertaining1 and it is based upon the erroneous notion that man owes something that he knows nothing about1 a debt of worship one day in seven4 ,man's brain should be emancipated from the superstition that there is a ,god in the universe that requires him to sacrifice his own good to divine vanity4 ,work is holier than worship1 and to play is better for man than to pray4 ,man wants leisure to enjoy himself1 not to worship ,god4 ,he can have it when he becomes sensible enough to demand it4 ,,the ,,motive ,,for ,,preaching ,why does a man enter the ,christian ministry8 ,why do men preach the ,christian faith8 ,there is some reason for doing so4 ,what is it8 ,we have been told that the men who adopt the profession of preaching for a living make a sacrifice of personal advantage by doing so2 that these men1 had they entered any other profession1 could not only more readily achieve greatness1 but could also make more money4 ,we do not believe it4 ,as a rule1 we believe that the men who are getting a living to-day as ministers1 earn more money and enjoy more fame1 than they could get in any other business or calling4 ,ministers are not martyrs4 ,that idea needs to be given up4 ,there is another idea that people have entertained too long1 and that is1 that all the young men who graduate from a divinity school are intellectual giants4 ,brains are not the capital of the pulpit4 ,we gladly acknowledge the exception to what we have stated as a rule1 and are not only willing1 but anxious1 to testify to the occasional brilliant preacher4 ,we are speaking of the overwhelming majority and not of the conspicuous few4 ,most men go into the ministry because they think they can get a living more easily by preaching than by doing anything else4 ,the pulpit is founded not on spiritual sands1 but on an earthly rock4 ,it is the salary that makes it attractive4 ,now1 let us look at the facts in the case4 ,the work of the minister is less than the work of the average laborer1 and the pay of the preacher is more than the pay of the average mechanic or working-man4 ,here is the key to the pulpit for a lot of young men4 ,a young man who has a taste for reading and loafing1 and no genius for work1 sees a chance to employ what talent he possesses by studying theology1 and we venture to say that nine out of ten of the candidates for the ministry enter the profession from purely business1 or1 if you will1 mercenary motives4 ,the ,lord does not pick out preachers4 ,they pick themselves out4 ,there is just as much striving for the loaves and fishes among ministers as among other men2 and the religious society that pays the largest salary is the vineyard that has the most applications for the job4 ,we do not say that preachers are worse than other professional characters1 but that they are human4 ,they preach for money1 and where the highest salary is there will the ministers be most anxious to go4 ,we do not wish to cut anybody's wings1 but when we read that certain new-fledged preachers are about to 8work for the ,lord10 and that they have 8entered upon ,god's chosen profession through their love of saving souls10 we want to correct the statements4 ,they are going to work for themselves the best they know how1 having entered upon their duties1 not so much because they love their fellow-men1 as because they love the good things of this world4 ,the truth is this1 the motive for preaching to-day is the pay1 and the religion of the pulpit is to say nothing that will cause a panic in the pews4 ,man's history is below his life1 his destiny above it4 ,all that secularists ask is that their thoughts be met fairly and honestly1 and that the world accept what will lead it in the highest and surest way4 ,if a person can join the salvation army corps and still be respected by his fellow-beings1 he ought to be at liberty to enlist in the ranks of reason and common sense and not forfeit respect4 ,god has done nothing for men and women except to scare them out of their wits4 ,,the ,,christian',s ,,god ,man is like the ,god he worships1 and history shows that the ,christian church has been as cruel as its ,god4 ,a ,christian minister damns just as his ,god does4 ,he sends every free soul to hell just as his ,god does4 ,he demands obedience just as his ,god does4 ,the tyranny of heaven is repeated on earth and every tyrant quotes ,god for his authority4 ,think of the ,christian superstition demanding recognition and acceptance6 ,it seems almost incredible that a man can be found in this age to preach such glaring inconsistencies and absurdities1 such a ridiculous faith1 such injustice and cruelty1 as the ,christian religion stands for4 ,we can hardly believe our own ears when we go inside of a ,christian church4 ,we cannot understand how this terrible superstition has obtained possession of the mind1 nor how human beings can be so blinded and apparently stultified6 ,were there on this earth a judge who should pronounce sentence upon a person on account of his religious belief1 mankind would brand the name of that judge with the deepest obloquy4 ,he would be stripped of his robe of office and disgraced forever in the eyes of every true man and woman on the globe4 ,his deed would be a black spot on the page of history and his memory a burden to the world4 ,put this judge on the throne of the universe and you have the ,christian's ,god4 ,,indifference ,,to ,,religion ,the pulpit complains that people are indifferent to religion4 ,why shouldn't they be8 ,it is about time they were indifferent to it4 ,our wonder is1 that the people tolerate a single priest or church on earth4 ,of what benefit is religion to mankind8 ,come now1 ye that uphold religion1 tell us what it does to make the world better1 nobler1 truer8 ,why should man worship ,god8 ,why should he build thousands of costly churches all over the earth1 and pay priests and ministers large salaries to preach and pray in these churches8 ,if the churches were the humblest buildings in the land2 if the ministers and priests were paid no more than carpenters or spinners1 if there were any agreement between what religion professes to be and what it is as matter of fact1 then less could be said in the way of condemnation of religion4 ,but think you that men who live in hovels can respect men who preach in palaces as followers of the man of ,nazareth8 ,the thing is too ridiculous4 ,the world is beginning to see how it has been humbugged1 and it is becoming indifferent4 ,it may in time become indignant4 ,there will then be occasion for ministers to be alarmed4 ,but just now the people have reached a condition of utter indifference respecting religion4 ,they don't care for it4 ,they don't care to build it up or tear it down4 ,they don't care whether it is good or bad4 ,they don't care anything about it4 ,some regret this state of things2 we rejoice in it4 ,it shows that the people are thinking1 and when the people think long enough they will find what is true and right4 ,if ,if the government can carry a letter across the continent for two cents1 why cannot it send a telegraphic message correspondingly cheap8 ,if the government can build and manage a navy1 why cannot it build and operate a railroad8 ,if the government can run the treasury department1 why cannot it run the banks8 ,if the government can maintain an army of soldiers in idleness1 why cannot it support an army of laborers at some useful occupation8 ,if the government can serve at less cost than private corporations1 why does it not do so8 ,,sunday ,,schools ,of all the stupid things we meet with1 ,sunday school lessons are the stupidest4 ,there seems to be only one way to account for this1 and that is that stupid persons are connected with ,sunday schools and can comprehend only stupid things4 ,it seems to us as though a bright boy or girl at the age of twelve years ought to be able to overthrow every argument employed in a ,sunday school to bolster up the ,christian superstition4 ,the lessons taught in them are adapted to undeveloped brains1 and the literature one gets from their libraries is of that variety that is calculated to discourage any robust independence of mind4 ,we believe that any religious or theological instruction is a positive injury to the young2 that it is utterly wrong to instill into the immature mind ideas of ,god1 of a future life1 of heaven and hell1 of angels and devils4 ,all that we know about ,god is what we don't know4 ,the same may be said of other branches of religion4 ,how much better it would be to teach something useful1 something of importance1 something real1 true6 ,parents owe it to their children to save them from being taught the false and foolish dogmas of ,christianity4 ,false education is the bane of humanity1 and the falsehood that is learned in ,sunday schools poisons and deforms the life of man as long as he lives4 ,fear of ,god--the most terrible spectre that ever haunted the human soul--is a product of the ,sunday school4 ,the victims of this fear can be counted to-day by millions4 ,this one fact ought to be sufficient to condemn this nursery of superstition and evil4 ,there is no earthly reason to fear ,god1 and other reasons should have no weight4 ,the black shadow of fear which darkens the whole earth is the result of faith in ,god4 ,the catechisms used in the ,sunday schools are mostly filled with pious trash4 ,the questions and answers they contain are written out of ignorance1 written1 too1 in most cases1 for the purpose of making the intellect the slave of the priest and minister4 ,there is no mystery so shallow as a theological mystery1 because it is founded on deception4 ,the only mysteries that the human mind can contemplate with real wonder are the sublime mysteries of ,nature1 the mysteries of life and death1 of sand and star1 of flower and feeling4 ,before these great1 overwhelming mysteries1 that everywhere surround us1 the petty ideas of ,gods and devils1 of saviors and mediators1 of heaven and hell1 are trivial and cheap4 ,we condemn ,sunday schools1 because they do not teach what is real1 what is true1 what is necessary to a noble human life on earth2 because they inculcate superstitions1 and elevate the belief of religious dogmas above scientific and useful knowledge2 because they put ,god above man1 heaven hereafter above the home here1 and the performance of religious duties above the life of honesty1 purity and love4 ,sunday schools are the poorest schools on the face of the earth1 and there is only one excuse for their existence1 and that is to perpetuate the church1 to keep alive the superstitions upon which it was built and upon which the clergy depend for a living4 ,our duty to the god of christianity is to bury him4 ,nothing from nothing and nothing remains1 ,nothing from nothing and nothing is the same4 ,if the factory pays taxes and the church does not1 it follows that the church will some day own the factory4 ,when christian ministers stand up in their pulpits and say 8,let us pray10 if they would sometimes vary the invitation and say3 ,let us laugh1 they would do their congregations more good4 ,,going ,,to ,,church ,every little while some minister wakes up to the fact that a large proportion of the people of our cities do not go to church1 and he blames the people for this state of affairs4 ,nobody blames men and women if they keep away from the theatre1 from the library1 from the art gallery1 from the public park2 in fact1 it is generally admitted that people can exercise their own judgment in visiting these places and not be liable to censure on the part of anybody4 ,not so1 however1 when they keep away from the church4 ,why does a man go to the theatre8 ,obviously because he is pleased by the performance he witnesses there4 ,why does a man not go to a church8 ,obviously because he is not pleased with the performance he witnesses there4 ,the notion that men and women are to go to a place where they do not like to go1 where they derive no pleasure but as a matter of duty is about all the argument for church-going that can be advanced to-day4 ,we admit that man should do his duty1 no matter how disagreeable it may be4 ,we cannot shirk our responsibilities on the ground that they are irksome or unpleasant4 ,but is it man's duty to go to church8 ,that is the question4 ,if it is1 then he should go4 ,who is to decide the matter8 ,of course priests and ministers will say that everybody ought to go to church4 ,but what for8 ,is it a man's duty to go to every church1 or only to some particular church8 ,we are told that we shall be better for going to church4 ,to which church8 ,the ,roman ,catholic would not admit that a man would be better for going to a ,methodist church1 and the ,methodist would not advise a person to go to a ,roman ,catholic church to improve his mental or moral condition4 ,who shall decide the matter where we shall go to church8 ,in going to the theatre1 we do not always go to the same place1 nor to hear the same play1 nor to witness the same actors2 nor do we always visit the same gallery or park when we desire to see paintings or statuary1 or to enjoy the flowers and general beauties of ,nature4 ,why should men join one church and go to it all their lives8 ,why should men hear only one kind of religion preached8 ,why should men listen all their lives to the preaching of one set of dogmas8 ,supposing a man were to go once or twice a week for fifty years to see one tragedy or comedy played1 would he be a better judge of the drama than if he had seen during that time a hundred tragedies and comedies8 ,the man who goes all his life to one church is made a denominational or sectarian bigot4 ,is the object of churches to make bigots8 ,that is about all they have made up to date4 ,we hold that it is not man's duty to go to any church1 to belong to any church1 or to support any church4 ,there are no religious duties4 ,man is under no obligation whatever to worship ,god4 ,churches must be placed upon the same ground as other places of instruction and amusement1 and if they cannot be supported by legitimate patronage then must they be given up4 ,if a man goes to church to hear a minister1 let him pay for it like a man1 but if he is not pleased with what he hears he need not go again4 ,the notion that there is anything of greater value to be had in the church than elsewhere cannot be defended4 ,this idea does not fool people of any sense4 ,the pulpit has no divine message for the world1 but generally talks about what no one knows anything about4 ,intelligent people who do not go to church have come to the conclusion that they can derive more pleasure from other sources4 ,that is about the reason why they do not go to church4 ,we cannot go ahead without leaving something behind4 ,the convent is opposed to all that is sacred in human nature4 ,,who ,,is ,,the ,,greatest ,,living ,,man ,written ,november #ai1 #ahic4 ,my answer is ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll4 ,one gets the conviction of this man's superiority by simply being in his presence4 ,the outer man makes the impression of greatness upon the mind4 ,it is not the silent assertion of a splendid form however1 that persuades us4 ,a large body serves to accent and emphasize a large mind1 but heroic physical proportions are not essential to greatness4 ,the king of men to-day is not he who1 like ,saul1 8from his shoulders and upward is higher than any of his people40 ,dr4 ,watts truly said3 8,the mind's the standard of the man40 ,but we cannot think of ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll with a diminutive physical equipment4 ,his ample form radiates the man4 ,but it is the royalty of his intellect that makes him great4 ,it is in the kingdom of mind that he is master4 ,every mental tool fits his hand4 ,he has wit1 learning1 imagination1 eloquence1 philosophy1 and that rare quality1 sense4 ,he is a great lawyer1 a great orator1 a great poet1 and a great man4 ,he is too large for conventionalities1 too large to respect what smaller minds have declared right1 what weaker minds have made holy4 ,the intellectual grandeur of the man is no less apparent than his moral fearlessness4 ,he is greatest where most men are little--in the face of a powerful and domineering superstition4 ,he knows that the highest manhood makes the trappings of religion but the playthings of feeble minds4 ,his love of liberty is only equalled by his passion for truth1 and he listens to the timid whisper of doubt with the chivalrous attention that others give to confident faith4 ,he strips things of their clothes1 of fashions1 of falsehood1 of pretension1 and demands that they stand for what they are and no more4 ,he has the sincerity of greatness and his mind wears the white robe of spotless integrity4 ,above all living men he possesses the power of utterance4 ,he has the highest literary instinct1 and never marries a mean word to a noble thought4 ,he uses language as ,phidias used marble4 ,he is the literary artist of the age1 and knows all the colors in the brain4 ,he can make words laugh and weep4 ,this man has a large heart4 ,he is filled with human sympathy4 ,he does not care for gods1 but he pities men4 ,the springs of feeling feed the mighty rivers of thought that cross the continent of his mind4 ,there is about him the warmth1 the kindness of summer--,nature's season of forgiveness4 ,he has the highest philosophy--that of cheerfulness4 ,the clouds never cover all his sky4 ,he is the apostle of good humor1 and preaches the gospel of sunshine to dry the tears of the world4 ,he is true to himself1 loyal to his head and his heart1 and upon his brow shines the jewel of self-respect4 ,robert ,g4 ,ingersoll has the greatness of genius4 ,it is useless to try to account for an intellectual giant4 ,dowered by ,nature1 parents are of small account4 ,we cannot find the secret of his marvelous power by digging in a graveyard4 ,man is what he is1 because his origin was what it was4 ,god cannot be put into the national ,constitution without putting liberty out of it4 ,we do not want holy books1 but true ones2 not sacred writings1 but sensible writings4