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diff --git a/35539.txt b/35539.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24f1ccc --- /dev/null +++ b/35539.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6410 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays +by Lemuel K. Washburn + + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no +restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under +the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or +online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license + + + +Title: Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays + +Author: Lemuel K. Washburn + +Release Date: March 10, 2011 [Ebook #35539] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE WORTH READING AND OTHER ESSAYS*** + + + + + + Is The Bible Worth Reading + + And Other Essays + + By + + Lemuel K. Washburn + + New York + + The Truth Seeker Company + + 1911 + + + + + +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 Servants? +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 + + + + + + + [Illustration.] + + Lemuel K. Washburn + + + + + +DEDICATION + + +The writer of this book dedicates it to all men and women of common +honesty and common sense. + + + + + +IS THE BIBLE WORTH READING + + +That depends. If a man is going to get his living by standing in a +Christian pulpit, I should be obliged to answer, Yes! But if he is going +to follow any other calling, or work at any trade, I should have to +answer, No! There is absolutely no information in the Bible that man can +make any use of as he goes through life. The Bible is not a book of +knowledge. It does not give instruction in any of the sciences. It +furnishes no help to labor. It is useless as a political guide. There is +nothing in it that gives the mechanic any hint, or affords the farmer any +enlightenment in his occupation. + +If man wishes to learn about the earth or the heavens; about life or the +animal kingdom, he has no need to study the Bible. If he is desirous of +reading the best poetry or the most entertaining literature he will not +find it in the Bible. If he wants to read to store his mind with facts, +the Bible is the last book for him to open, for never yet was a volume +written that contained fewer facts than this book. If he is anxious to get +some information that will help him earn an honest living he does not want +to spend his time reading Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Kings, Psalms, or the +Gospels. If he wants to read just for the fun of reading to kill time, or +to see how much nonsensical writing there is in one book, let him read the +Bible. + +I have not said that there are not wise sayings in the Bible, or a few +dramatic incidents, but there are just as wise sayings, and wiser ones, +too, out of the book, and there are dramas of human life that surpass in +interest anything contained in the Old or New Testament. + +No person can make a decent excuse for reading the Bible more than once. +To do such a thing would be a foolish waste of time. But our stoutest +objection to reading this book is, not that it contains nothing +particularly good, but _that it contains so much that is positively bad_. +To read this book is to get false ideas, absurd ideas, bad ideas. The +injury to the human mind that reads the Bible as a reliable book is beyond +repair. I do not think that this book should be read by children, by any +human being less than twenty years of age, and it would be better for +mankind if not a man or woman read a line of it until he or she was fifty +years old. + +What I want to say is this, that there is nothing in the Bible that is of +the least consequence to the people of the twentieth century. English +literature is richer a thousand fold than this so-called sacred volume. We +have books of more information and of more inspiration than the Bible. As +the relic of a barbarous and superstitious people, it should have a place +in our libraries, but it is not a work of any value to this age. I pity +men who stand in pulpits and call this book the word of God. I wish they +had brains enough to earn their living without having to repeat this +foolish falsehood. The day will come when this book will be estimated for +what it a worth, and when that day comes, the Bible will no longer be +called the word of God, but the work of ignorant, superstitious men. + + ------------------------------------- + +The cross everywhere is a dagger in the heart of liberty. + + ------------------------------------- + +A miracle is not an explanation of what we cannot comprehend. + + ------------------------------------- + +The statue of liberty that will endure on this continent is not the one +made of granite or bronze, but the one made of love of freedom. + + ------------------------------------- + +Take away every achievement of the world and leave man freedom, and the +earth would again bloom with every glory of attainment; but take away +liberty and everything useful and beautiful would vanish. + + + + + +SACRIFICE + + +The sacrifice of Jesus, so much boasted by the Christian church, is +nothing compared to the sacrifice of a mother for her family. It is not to +be spoken of in the same light. A mother's sacrifice is constant: +momentary, hourly, daily, life-long. It never ceases. It is a veritable +providence; a watchful care; a real giving of one life for another, or for +several others; a gift of love so pure and holy, so single and complete, +that it is an offering in spirit and in substance. + +This is to me the highest, purest, holiest act of humanity. All others, +when weighed with this unselfish consecration to duty, seem small and +insignificant. There is, in a mother's life, no counting of cost, no +calculation of reward. It is enough that a duty is to be done; that a +service is to be rendered; that a sacrifice is called for. The true mother +gives herself to the offices of love without hope, expectation, or wish of +recompense. A mother's love for her children cannot be determined by any +earthly measure, by any material standard. It outshines all glory, and is +the last gleam of light in the human heart. A mother's love walks in a +thousand Gethsemanes, endures a thousand Calvaries, and has a thousand +agonies that the dying of Jesus upon a cross cannot symbolize. This +maternal sacrifice is the greater that it is made cheerfully, without a +murmur, and even with joy. If it is not sought; it is never pushed aside. + +A mother's sacrifice for her family makes a chapter of suffering, of +patient toil and strife, of heroic endurance and forbearance, that +religion is not yet high enough to appreciate; and this sublime devotion +is not in one home, but in _hundreds of thousands in every land_ +everywhere on earth, and it is real, true, heart-born, and the utmost of +renunciation that human life has revealed. + +The brief martyrdom of Jesus was not voluntary, was not lasting in its +pain or in its service to mankind. His death was cruel, his suffering and +agony terrible to think of, but it was all soon over. A few hours of +torture make up the tragedy of the cross. But the story of this +crucifixion may be fictitious, imaginary; most likely is such. Perhaps no +such man died such a death in any such way. Then how vain and foolish to +waste our sympathy on a fanciful sufferer, an imaginary martyr, who never +existed outside of the brain of the writer of the story, while there are +actual, real beings living who are making a greater sacrifice, doing a +holier duty, within our reach! + +We need not go to a Bible to find those who deserve our tears, or who have +earned our admiration. The bravest heart that ever author wrote into +being, fails to come up to the lofty height of endurance, of a life +inspired by love, of heroic sacrifice, that can be found in hundreds of +homes in our land. + +Far be it from my intention to paint less any deed of mortal that has +brightened the lot of man, or to throw discredit upon aught that is worthy +of human gratitude and praise. I yield most ready sympathy and most +willing admiration to every noble soul that has lived or died to make +earth better and happier, but I do not believe that greatness, goodness +and love are all dead, and that our whole duty is to stand and weep around +a tomb. I believe in living men and women, in living hearts and souls, in +living greatness and goodness and love, and I tell you all that the earth +never bore more loving, more humane, tenderer, braver, or truer hearts +than beat today in the living breasts of mankind. + +And I place above all that is brave and true, great and good, in the past +or present, the mothers of our age.--What man cannot see that silent, +patient mother in her home, the victim of a multitude of trials, crosses, +annoyances, day after day and week after week, meeting all, bearing all, +with a saint's look and manner; and what man, seeing her there, at the +side of the sick, worn out with watching and waiting, and then at the bed +of death, faithful and true to the last, though wounded in heart and +spirit never faltering in the way of duty, that would not say if there be +one sacrifice that is above, and greater than, all others, it is that of a +mother's love? + + + + + +THE DRAMA OF LIFE + + +With the passing of the season we are reminded of the rapid flight of +life. It seems but yesterday that the first bluebird of spring lit on the +bare bough of the apple-tree in the orchard near by, and the early robin +sang his welcome notes in our glad ears, and yet the bluebird and robin +are seen and heard no more, and the green promise of spring has changed to +the brown harvest of autumn, which will soon be stored for winter's use. +This is the way every season comes and goes; a little long in coming +sometimes; but never long in going; and every year grows shorter as we +grow older, and every year goes more quickly as we near the border of old +age. Life soon changes from a glad look ahead to a sad glance behind. From +baby to boy, from boy to man, from man to tottering age;--how swiftly the +scenes change, and life comes and life goes, and the door of death opens +almost before the door of birth closes. The cradle and the grave touch, +and the blithe youth that lends his strength to feeble age finds himself +ere long leaning upon the arm of youth and strength. The circle of years +soon rolls round, and life is but a day of toil and a night of dreams. As +we look back upon vanished time and see the happy scenes of childhood +mingled with the surroundings of later life, days and months shrink to +hours, and years seem to be spanned by a sunrise and a sunset with a +little laughter and perhaps some tears between. + +We who have travelled more than half way on the road cannot look backward +without a sigh, cannot think backward without a pang. Many of us have left +the graves of father and mother behind, perhaps the smaller graves of +children, where some of our heart lies buried too. The storms that beat on +us make life seem shorter; make the days go faster, and the night draw +nearer; and all of us have already, or must sometime, bow our heads to the +blast. + +One human being in the great world of man, and in the greater world of +Nature, plays but a small part. Of but little account is a human life in +the vast, limitless universe. A man fills but a little space while alive, +and touches but a few hearts when he dies. We are fortunate if we make +during life, one true, loyal friend who stands by us while that life +lasts. We reckon this, after all, the grandest triumph of the human soul. +It is not difficult to gather dollars--quite a number, at least,--nor to win +a measure of fame, but to live, to be, to act, in such way as to bind one +true heart to ours, is a victory which we may be proud of. Some lives have +larger circumferences than others, radiate farther, influence more, but +none can win the rare tribute of perfect friendship from more than one or +two. Yes! man plays but a small part in the great drama of life. He is on +the stage but a few short hours, and most men are but poor or indifferent +actors at best. + +Who cares when a man dies? Not the sun, for it shines just as gaily when +he closes his eyes to its golden light; not the birds, for they chatter +and sing over his coffin, and hop and sing on his grave; not the brook, +for it runs laughing on and never stops its gambols and song; not any of +the things of earth, but man. + +When man dies, a few say, Is he gone? and then forget that he ever lived; +a few go to help carry his dead body to the grave, and then turn away to +join the business and pleasure of life, and forget that they have buried a +man; a few, some days after, call at the house where he lived and drop a +tear of sympathy for the weeping widow and tearful children, and then +forget that the husband and father is no more. But does no one care? +Perhaps a wife, who will carry his dead image in her heart as long as it +beats; perhaps a daughter, who will remember him a year or two, or a +little longer, who will miss his happy greeting, his loving kiss, his +proud, kind look as he lifts the heart's dearest idol to his knee; and +this is all. And this is enough. We care for only a few; and why should +many care for us? + +Though life is short and not always heroic; and though, when it ends, the +world goes on just the same, we love life and it is sweet while it lasts. +Though we travel quickly over the road, we enjoy for the most part, the +journey of life. We have pain, it is true; we learn of sorrow and grief; +we feel the pang of parting and weep on the white face of some loved one, +and yet, we find happiness, we enjoy living, and we regret when the +curtain is rung down and our part is played and the lights turned out. +When we strike the balance between pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, +happiness and misery, most find that life is worth living. + + ------------------------------------- + +A dogma will thrive in soil where the truth could not get root. + + ------------------------------------- + +The measure of liberty which man enjoys determines the civilization of the +age in which he lives. + + ------------------------------------- + +The person who can make a loaf of bread is more to the world than the +person who could perform a miracle. + + ------------------------------------- + +The indifference to Christianity may well alarm the men who live on the +credulity that gives it the show of life, but to those who delight in +actions of sincerity, it affords the greatest encouragement, for it +promises to the world a day when intelligence and integrity will be +respected more than ignorance and hypocrisy. + + + + + +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 cast, however it may be in Mars, Venus, +Saturn, or any other of the Greek-named planets or any heavenly +constellations with or without names. Just at this particular season of +the year, the presence of weeds in the garden or on the farm raises a +colossal doubt as to the fact of any wisdom guiding the divine voice when, +in a majestic sweep of its omnipotent power on the third day of the drama +of creation, it called into being the grass, the herb, the tree and +whatsoever bears leaf or blade or flower. To those who have to pull the +weeds out of the ground they are a curse of the first magnitude, and how a +creator, who had common sense, could take pride in making such vegetable +abortions as weeds we cannot comprehend. The most worthless things in +Nature are the most prolific. Chickweed will cover an acre while clover is +considering where it is best to go into business, and every pesky, nasty +little weed will live and laugh when the queenly corn droops its head in +the sun, and the beet and turnip cannot get nourishment enough to keep +them alive. + +It is just the same in the animal world. An immense quantity of useless +beings go about on two and four legs or on none at all. The only excuse +for the snake is that he was made to eat the toad; for the toad, that he +was made to eat insects; for the insects--well, nobody has yet made a +wholesome excuse for their existence, anyway. It looks as though one being +in Nature was made simply to kill another being, and the last-made being, +man, is the supreme killer of the whole lot. Take the whole range of wild +beasts, and find, if you can, aught but malice in their creation, if they +were created. No plague ever destroyed hyenas and jackals. No one ever +found a sick rattlesnake or an invalid hornet. The fittest survive? The +fittest for what? To worry man, to make life miserable. Mosquitoes, wasps, +fleas, reptiles and wild beasts, poisonous vines and shrubs, noxious +blossoms whose perfume is the kiss of death, weeds that push and crowd +decent plants until they die in utter despair--these are the sturdiest +triumphs of the creative art. We cannot help wishing that the Lord-God had +not rested on the seventh day, but instead, had gone around and destroyed +about seven-eighths of what he had created. We might then have had quite a +decent world to live in. + +Man builds a home for her he loves, he plants beside it all that will make +it beautiful to the eyes of his wife. He works and brings what is fair to +adorn it, and makes every room a casket to hold the jewel of love. He +looks at his home with pride, and feels that it is "the dearest spot on +earth," a refuge safe and secure. The cyclone comes and in a moment all is +swept away. Man cannot trust the God of the winds. + +There is no more terrible calamity that afflicts our globe at the present +time than an earthquake. It comes without warning, by day or night, when +man is at his place of business or when he is at rest. There is no way of +preventing it, no way of preparing for it. It may wait a hundred, a +thousand, years before it works its deadly ruin. But when it comes, havoc +is left. An earthquake may be good for the earth, but it is almighty +discouraging to the people that live on it. It may seek a beneficent end, +but it goes to work in a cruel manner to accomplish it. Human life counts +no more than the life of rats when an earthquake gets started. This +infernal visitor does not seek a spot where its malevolence can be wrecked +upon the rocks and hills. Oftener it goes to the thickly populated city or +town and topples over houses and swallows up dwellings, with men, women +and children. Does God send the earthquake? If he does, where is the +evidence of his love for man? If He does not, who does? + +It is pretty tough business to try to reconcile Nature with the idea of +God's watchful care over man. If the winds did not turn to hurricanes; if +the sunshine did not make drought; if the rain never became a flood; if +the sea never grew angry and sunk the ship; if the clouds always dissolved +in gentle rain or in dew; if there were no wild beasts; no venomous +snakes; no poisonous vines or flowers; if there were only what is bright +and fair and good on earth and nothing that was dark and cold and +repulsive, we might believe that a heavenly father had made the earth for +a dwelling-place for man. But as it is, we have to think as well of Nature +as possible and dodge her lightning, run from her water-spouts, keep out +of the way of cyclones and shift for ourselves while here. What follows +nobody knows. It may be better for us beyond this life; we hope it is no +worse. And it may be only sleep, sleep with no dreams and no awakening. We +should dislike to die on this side of the grave with the fear that we +should come out on the other only to meet a hurricane in the teeth, or +find an earthquake had been put under us to give us a shaking up the first +thing on that "shining shore," or to be caught in a furious torrent that +poured down the sides of some heavenly mountain. Earth is a pretty good +place when the conditions are all favorable, but if we are to have another +life it ought to be a better one or else we should be saved the trouble of +dying. + + ------------------------------------- + +The feet of progress have always been shod by doubt. + + ------------------------------------- + +A true man will not join anything that in any way abridges his freedom or +robs him of his rights. + + + + + +THE INFINITE PURPOSE + + +A Christian writer recently said:--"The supreme duty of humanity is to get +into touch with the infinite purpose." This may be so, but we want first +to understand just what the infinite purpose is before we subscribe to it. +When the infinite purpose is bent on getting up an earthquake we do not +care to "get into touch" with it, not much. When this purpose is forging +an electric bolt to shoot out of the clouds, we have no desire to "get +into touch" with any such thing. It makes a vast difference what this +purpose is bent upon, whether or not we want to go into partnership with +it. Now, when the infinite purpose is at work on the earth, turning dirt +into flowers, or vegetables, or trees, we should feel a joy in sharing its +labor, but when it is determined to burn and scorch everything on the face +of the ground with a heat that knows no abatement, we should want to sell +out our interest in the concern at once. + +There is just as much nonsense connected with the use of this phrase "the +infinite purpose" as there is with "special Providence" or "Divine love," +or any other religious expression which expresses nothing unless you are +religious. Where this "purpose" "makes for righteousness," as Matthew +Arnold delighted to believe, we are willing to catch on to it, but where +it is going in the other direction we prefer to go our own way. + +This notion of uniting the finite with the infinite purpose is all right, +providing the latter does not conflict with the former, but we have +serious objection to doing anything that will interfere with the highest +development of our humanity. The purpose which is at work in the world +does not make for health any more than for disease. It seems to carry a +tubercle with as much satisfaction as a ray of sunshine, and lends all its +forces to assist the highwayman with no more charge than it makes to the +law-abiding citizen. + +It seems to us that it is necessary to divorce the "infinite purpose" from +a lot of intentions that do not work for human interests, before it will +be desirable to assume intimate relations with this purpose. We do not +want to "get into touch" with what is not going our way; that is, the way +of health, of prosperity, of happiness. We do not deny that we need to +give a higher direction to human thought. We affirm this fact as +positively as our most Christian contemporary. But before we advise +mankind to harness its wagon to the infinite purpose we want to be sure +where it is going. Man has to go to mill and market as well as to meeting, +and there is just as good a purpose manifested in getting the most +wholesome food for our stomachs as there is in getting the safest creed +for our souls. We are loth to trust any religious purpose as opposed to a +human one. We believe in man first, last, and all the time. + +Now, let us admit that humanity needs a wiser purpose to guide it, but let +us also admit that it can be found in a wiser human head and human heart. +If what is called the infinite purpose is working for the highest end of +human life, there is no evidence of the fact. If there is anything better +than human energy back of a good human thought that will help this world, +we do not know what it is. + + ------------------------------------- + +The man who accepts the faith of Calvin is miserable in proportion to the +extent he carries it out. + + ------------------------------------- + +Whatever tends to prolong the existence of ignorance or to prevent the +recognition of knowledge is dangerous to the well-being of the human race. + + ------------------------------------- + +A higher respect for man has been one of the chief promoters of +civilization. Advancement has always been toward right and truth when the +ranks were imbued with a proper regard for human hearts and human +happiness. + + + + + +FREETHOUGHT COMMANDS + + +Say nothing about others that you would not have others say about you. + +Be severe toward yourself; be kind to your fellow-man. + +Do not give advice that you cannot follow. + +Do not thank God for what man does. + +Serve neither God nor Mammon, but humanity alone. + +Do not try to be perfect as a "Father in heaven," but try to be better +than you yourself are. + +Seek first to improve the earth, and heaven will be of less consequence. + + ------------------------------------- + +Let us not forget that men speak according to the measure of their +knowledge and light, and that a superior enlightenment is a higher +authority. + + ------------------------------------- + +History shows that there is nothing so easy to enslave and nothing so hard +to emancipate as ignorance, hence it becomes the double enemy of +civilization. By its servility it is the prey of tyranny, and by its +credulity it is the foe of enlightenment. + + + + + +A RAINBOW RELIGION + + +There is little doubt that the faith of the early Christians was what +might be classed under the head of rainbow religion. We learn from the New +Testament that it was taught that those who accepted the faith held by +John and Jesus and Paul were in some peculiar manner to be protected from +the common ills of life, and were to be especial favorites of their +"Father in heaven." How sincerely this faith was held we cannot now +determine, nor to what extent it was put into practice, but that it +possessed the mind in a considerable degree there is no room whatever to +doubt. But this is not the question that we want settled, but rather the +value of this faith. + +It is pleasant and comforting to believe that one is watched over by a +superior power which at any moment of peril or temptation is ready to +stretch forth its hand and rescue from danger and death, and it is on +account of the wonderful seductiveness of this faith that it has lasted so +long and has been so hard to overcome. But what we are interested in is, +whether or not such a belief has any foundation in fact or in human +experience. When Jesus bid his followers to cease giving thought to what +they should eat and drink and wear, telling them that their "heavenly +Father" fed the fowls of the air, and that they were better than such +fowls, thus implying that their heavenly Father would take proportionately +better care of them, was there any ground for any such teaching, and is +there any ground for this faith today? We claim that the "heavenly Father" +referred to by Jesus never fed anything, neither fowl nor man; and that no +human being was ever taken care of by any superior power or snatched by it +from danger or death. Such a faith is the veriest delusion, and it could +lodge and take root only in the childish mind. Jesus also taught that the +"Father which is in heaven" would "give good things to them that ask him." +Is there any ground for this rainbow religion? Is there any evidence that +there is a "Father in heaven" who has good things to give to those who ask +for them? + +We presume that this faith led men to give up work and to trust to begging +for a living. But the question is, which got the most good things,--those +who studied the laws of Nature and of life and worked in harmony with +them, or those who prayed for good things? How is it to-day? What good +things can be had by praying? Who has any good thing that he received by +asking his "Father in heaven" for it? The asking business has been carried +on for hundreds of years, and all that has been asked of God has had to be +given by man or has not been given at all. + +Has it ever been true that Christians had any immunity from danger that +others did not have, or that they could live in defiance of the laws of +Nature? Jesus told his followers that in his name they shall cast out +devils, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it +shall not hurt them and they shall have the power to cure the sick by +laying their hands upon them. Have men, who professed to follow Jesus, +ever done the things which he said they shall do? Is there any man to-day +who can do these things? Is there any evidence that Christians are treated +by any power of the universe differently from what others are treated? And +is there any evidence that they possess any gift that is not shared by +others? As far as we can see Christians are subject to the same laws of +Nature that all others must obey, and they cannot either defy those laws +or act independently of them. If they fool with deadly serpents they will +get bitten and probably die--just the same as would an infidel; if they +drink a cup of poison, they will suffer and perhaps die just the same as +an unbeliever; if they have any sickness, they do not trust to the +laying-on of hands by a fellow-Christian, but send for a doctor the same +as a freethinker. The fact is, the world has learned better than to put +faith in these teachings of Jesus. + +The Christian faith belonged to the childhood of the race, and ought no +longer to be preached to man. No one attempts to put this faith into +practice, to carry into life the teachings of Jesus. And why not? Simply +because _it is known to be false_. Christianity is a rainbow religion, a +representation of things for which there is no warrant in Nature; a +picture painted in false colors; a view of life copied from a diseased +imagination; a falsehood fed by priests upon which they live. + +There is not an intelligent man or woman living to-day who has any faith +in the rainbow religion taught by Jesus; not an intelligent man or woman +who believes that a heavenly Father or a God will provide food or drink or +clothes for a human being; nor an intelligent man or woman who has faith +that he or she can get good things by asking a "Father in heaven" for them +and not an intelligent man or woman who cares or dares to put the +declaration of Jesus to the test; that those who have faith in him can +play with serpents without danger, and drink deadly poison with no more +harm than attends quaffing a glass of water. + +We are then to conclude that Christianity is held only by the ignorant. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is greater argument in one fact than in all the creeds. + + ------------------------------------- + +It is easier to believe that a man is honest who says the Bible is the +word of God than to believe that he is bright. + + + + + +A CRUEL GOD + + +There may be some other religion in the world that sings of a God more +cruel than the God of Christianity, but we do not know of any. At any +rate, we believe it is safe to say that no religion of a civilized people +has a God who is more vindictive. We have always wondered how men and +women could set such infernal ideas to music as we find in Christian +hymns. It is really too bad that human beings are compelled to sing such +lies as we find in the pious song-books of the church. The sentiments +contained in them are not fit for savages. It can only brutalize the heart +to sing of blood, and nothing but blood, no matter whose blood it is. The +"precious blood of Jesus" is just as suggestive of cruelty as the blood on +the executioner's knife. Men become what they read, what they think, what +they sing, what they believe. Religions have made men wicked, cruel, hard, +unkind. It is impossible to have faith in a God of wrath and +vindictiveness without in time developing these qualities. Men grow into +the likeness of their belief. As a man believes, so is he, to a certain +extent. + +The influence of cruel sentiments on the mind is greater with the young +than with adults. Some hymns sung in Christian churches are positively +brutal in tone. Think of _human_ beings singing the following verse:-- + + + "But vengeance and damnation lie + On rebels who refuse His grace; + Who God's eternal Son despise, + The _hottest hell shall be their place_." + + +Christians seem to delight in pictures of hell. God would hardly be God to +them if he did not damn somebody. In painting the divine idea vengeance +and damnation are laid on thick. + +Here is the Christian notion of father and son:-- + + + "How justice frowned and vengeance stood + To drive me down to endless pain! + But the great Son propos'd his blood, + And _heavenly wrath grew mild again_." + + +Think of the religion based on such an idea of God! And think on the +terrible effect on men and women which such religion must have! + +The following description of the Christian God was probably written by one +of his adorers:-- + + + "Adore and tremble for our God + Is a consuming fire! + His jealous eyes with wrath inflame, + And raise His vengeance higher. + + "Almighty vengeance, how it burns, + How bright His fury glows! + Vast magazines of plagues and storms + Lie treasured for His foes. + + "Those heaps of wrath, by slow degrees, + Are force into a flame: + But kindled, Oh! how fierce they blaze! + And rend all nature's frame. + + "At His approach the mountains flee, + And seek a watery grave; + The frighted sea makes haste away, + And shrinks up every wave. + + "Through the wide air the weighty rocks + Are swift as hailstones hurled; + Who dares engage His fiery rage, + That shakes the solid world? + + "Thy hand shall on rebellious kings + A fiery tempest pour, + While we, beneath Thy sheltering wings, + Thy _just_ revenge adore." + + +And we are asked to love this God! We should just as soon think of loving +a tiger, a cyclone, a deluge, a fiend. Love goes out to what is lovely. We +can love what is good, what is beautiful, what is noble; a great-hearted +man, a pitying woman we cannot help loving, but if we should say that we +love such a God as is pictured in the words of that hymn we should lie. +Man cannot love hate, vengeance, wrath--even in a God. + +The Christian church, down through the ages, has been like the God it +worshipped--full of hate, malice and cruelty. The world has grown kind and +humane just in proportion as it has given up worship of this divine +monster. We judge gods as we judge men, and we can respect and love only +what is worthy of respect and love from a human point of view. If there is +such a God as is painted in Christian literature he deserves, not to be +worshipped, but to be shot. + + ------------------------------------- + +The Bible upon which Christianity is founded does not say what +Christianity is, what a Christian is, nor what we must do in order to be a +Christian. + + + + + +WHAT IS JESUS + + +Time was when Jesus was looked upon as God, or the Son of God. No one had +any doubt of his divinity or divine character; or if he had, he wisely +deferred to the superstitious majority and kept his mouth shut and so kept +his head on his shoulders. This idea that Jesus was God has been steadily +declining for several hundred years. Intelligence has pretty much given it +up, except where it is paid a big salary for preaching it. There is no +rational defence that can be made of the dogma of the divinity of Jesus. +It is one of many theological absurdities that was born when gods were +popular. + +A large number believe that Jesus was a man and nothing more; a good man, +but still human. They look upon him as a product of human nature. He is +allowed a human father and mother, although the gospels, in which is found +the story of his life, hardly warrant so much earthly parentage. He is +regarded as a part of humanity, and his extraordinary deeds merely as +exaggerated performances of heart and hand of man. The people that look +upon Jesus as a man have a superstitious reverence for his humanity. He is +called "the one perfect man," the "pattern of the race," etc. Though a +man, they will have him every inch a man. + +Yet others see nothing remarkable in the career of Jesus; nothing which +marks him for universal emulation; nothing which compels praise and +admiration. They think he was a sort of mild lunatic, possessed of the +idea that he was the Messiah of his people, and that in endeavoring to +further his scheme he antagonized the existing authority and met the just +punishment of his ambition. + +But it is neither as God nor as a man that Jesus must be regarded, but as +a myth. No such person ever lived either as a human or divine existence. +He is simply a creature of fancy, the fruit of the imagination. He is a +character of the brain, the creation of religious genius. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is no justifiable Christianity in this age. + + ------------------------------------- + +A dogma is the hand of the dead on the throat of the living. + + ------------------------------------- + +The progress of the world depends upon freedom of thought and freedom of +utterance. + + ------------------------------------- + +If you can forgive the man who wronged you, the neighbor who slandered you +and help the poor about you, you need not be particular about making any +professions of righteousness. + + + + + +DEEDS BETTER THAN PROFESSIONS + + +We have tears of regret to shed over the wreck of beauty and talent; but +if we take no steps to preserve beauty and talent from wreck, our +compassion is not to our honor but to our disgrace. The feeling of pity +which to-day expends itself in solemn warning or solemn weeping for the +poor unfortunates of earth, must devise means to rescue them from misery, +or it is but a mockery and a shame. One arm inspired with love of man will +do more than a thousand tender sentiments. Sympathy must take the form of +assistance, or it is not sincere. + +When we do not love man as we ought, we hate ourselves. The way to get +heaven for ourselves is to give it to others. The way to be happy is to +make others happy. Selfishness kills every noble feeling and defeats every +good desire. We cannot have peace when we give pain to others. Our deeds +reward us. What wrongs man is wrong for man to do. We should live so as +not to regret the past nor fear the future. We set too great a value upon +earthly possessions, and spend our lives in gaining what we cannot hold. +We best enjoy the things of earth when we give up wanting them wholly for +ourselves. The best part of our happiness is having someone to share it. + + + + + +GIVE US THE TRUTH + + +If there is one tree that man needs to eat of, it is the forbidden tree of +the knowledge of good and evil; and if any knowledge will keep him alive +and make him happy and perfect, it is just this knowledge which God forbid +him to acquire. We are dying to-day from ignorance, not from +knowledge,--dying because we do not know the good from the evil; and we are +dooming ourselves and future generations to premature death because we do +not eat more of the tree of knowledge. + +To _know_ more is what we need. Let us look into things and find out what +the world means. If this universe is only an illuminated deception, the +man who discovers the fact will be a public benefactor. If things which +exist around us are lying to us,--if the stars that shine out through the +deep space above us are only fire-flies of the night, let us know it. +Knowledge will not hurt us so much as ignorance and deception. If the +flowers that uncover their beauty for our delight have but a phantom +loveliness, and nought is real in the enchanting world about us, then let +us be told the truth. The soul can bear it better than to be deceived. We +may be trusted with the knowledge of good and evil and of right and wrong, +ye God of Genesis! and praise be to the first-created man for breaking the +command to remain in ignorance and taking the first step toward solving +the riddle of life! + +We learn everything by living. The truth is not revealed to us: we must +discover it. It is seen when we climb high enough to see it, or live wise +enough to feel it, or act true enough to utter it. When we hear the truth, +we hear only the echo of the universe. The last thing that we have to fear +is the truth and the consequences of knowing it. Let us not fear to speak +it or to hear it. And let us go with it whenever found. They who are +keeping the world from the knowledge of good and evil, who are trying to +discourage the preaching of truth, are the enemies of mankind. + + ------------------------------------- + +If man had no knowledge except what he has got out of the Bible he would +not know enough to make a shoe. + + ------------------------------------- + +The great work of man has ever been to rescue the present from the past; +to turn the mind from what it has left behind to the opportunities and +duties which are around it. For this has genius toiled down the ages, sung +its song of love, carved its dream of beauty and whispered to the world's +dull ear its bright message of hope. + + + + + +THE AMERICAN SUNDAY + + +Everybody has heard of what is called the "Christian sabbath," and nearly +everybody has a tolerably clear idea of what is meant by a "continental +sabbath." A "continental sabbath" may be described as a sort of week-day +Sunday, that is, as a religious holiday with more secular, than pious, +features. A Christian sabbath is so near dead in this country as a +religious fact that a definition of it cannot be had from real life. We +find the ideal sabbath of the Christians in the history of early New +England. For two centuries the people have been gradually outgrowing the +austere religion which made Sunday a day to be dreaded all the week. The +attempt has been frequently made by a small puritan contingent, which has +survived all these years, to resuscitate this dead sabbath and inflict it +upon the world again. But so far the effort has only met with deserved +failure. + +Resurrections have never been successful. When the inhabitants of graves +have come out of their abodes it has been only to walk the streets for a +brief period, and then to return again to silence and rest. The stories of +ghosts, when true, are always short. These visitants never stop long or do +anything that is of any worth to the world. When the grave is once made +over the dead it is best to let it alone. There is nothing in cemeteries +to aid progress or civilization. + +We do not need the revival of old customs or of old faiths. To endeavor to +rehabilitate the sabbath of our forefathers is as foolish as to try to +make people go back into log houses and cook over a fire-place. Some +persons can never realize that the world grows; that what was a help to +one age becomes a hindrance to another; that time corrects the mistakes of +men and that respect and reverence for our ancestors do not necessarily +require us to adopt their clothes or their habits. + +Men and women are made fossils by their religion. The people who are +trying to-day to resurrect the puritan sabbath are people who have got +religion, but not much of anything else. A man who allows religion to +dominate all his thoughts, all his efforts, all his acts, usually is a +nuisance, if nothing worse. + +A day of rest once a week is a good thing in itself, but it is a bad thing +when controlled by religion. We are in favor of Sunday as a day when man +can lay aside his business, his care, his tools, and enjoy himself, but we +want everybody to take their hands off of it. Sunday is not a day for +religion alone. If certain people wish to go to church on Sunday, let them +go; but when these people, who go to church on Sunday, wish to compel +everyone else to do the same, they need to be informed that _liberty on +Sunday is just as much a human right as liberty on Monday_. There are +better things that man has found than religion. Liberty is better, truth +is better, happiness is better. We would like to see an American Sunday on +this continent, a Sunday in harmony with the principles upon which our +government was founded, a Sunday which was not run by religion, a Sunday +for man and not for the church. Such a day would not be a sabbath, but it +would be a free day, a happy day. The notion of Sunday as a holy day is +too absurd, too ridiculous to deserve respectful attention. No man can +have fifty-two holy days in a year. + +The minister must take his pious grasp off of the throat of Sunday. + + ------------------------------------- + +A true man is not troubled by anything but his own acts. + + ------------------------------------- + +The true man walks the earth as the stars walk the heavens, grandly +obedient to those laws which are implanted in his nature. + + ------------------------------------- + +A great many people are afraid of knowledge, but we have seen hundreds of +people that we thought would be improved if they knew more, but we have +never seen one that we thought would be better if he knew less. + + + + + +LORD AND MASTER + + +The Christian is fond of referring to Jesus as his lord and master. We +wonder why, for it is evident that not a Christian of this century takes +Jesus for his lord and master. The fact is, that there is nothing that a +_man_ objects to more strongly than a master. Man wants to be independent. +He does not want anybody to be lord over him. The struggle of the race for +ages has been to get rid of lords and masters, to be free from tyrants. +Religion is after all only dead politics. The church makes sacred what the +state casts off. What sense is there in fighting for long centuries to +liberate the body, and voluntarily accepting slavery for the mind? Jesus +is the ghost of a dead king. But why should the world prostrate itself +before his invisible throne when it refuses to acknowledge by its +obedience that he is fit to rule the kingdom of conduct? + +What hypocrites Christians are! What a farce it is for men and women to +call Jesus lord and master! They do not obey his slightest command, and +they ignore his teachings as undeserving their regard. There is not a +precept, that the Christian church teaches came from the lips of Jesus, +that Christians honor by practice, not one. Never did a lord receive so +little honest respect from his vassals; never a master so little true +obedience from his servants. + +Men and women are not sincere when they profess to accept Jesus as their +lord and master. They doubtless feel grateful to him for saving them from +the fires of hell hereafter, but they look upon him as a mighty poor +example for them to follow here. As everybody knows, the church does not +require that its members shall practice the precepts given by Jesus. If +she did demand this of men and women her membership would speedily be +reduced to zero. We do not regard a man as honest, or worthy of respect, +who calls Jesus his lord and master and turns his back in contempt upon +the precepts he gave his disciples to practice. + + ------------------------------------- + +You cannot stuff your minds with the lives of saints and grow good on the +stuffing. + + ------------------------------------- + +Some persons are remembered solely for their virtues and others solely for +their faults. This is why we have a Jesus and a Judas. + + + + + +ARE CHRISTIANS INTELLIGENT OR HONEST + + +Future generations will regard the men who accept the Christian +superstitions either as simple or dishonest. + +We are forced to doubt the sanity or sincerity of people who profess to +believe in the doctrine of the trinity, in a "begotten Son of God," in +miraculous conception, in the resurrection of the body, in the Bible as +the word of God, in miracles, and in heaven and hell. We ask +ourselves:--Are men intelligent who believe these things, or do they merely +profess to believe them, and are dishonest? We cannot reconcile faith in +the Christian superstitions with mental soundness and good sense. + +What is there in Nature to suggest any of the Christian doctrines? Does +not everything we know, everything we have seen, everything we have +experienced, deny and disprove the Christian superstitions? Why, then, do +people accept them? We find no one that acts as though Christianity were +true, no one who lives as though hell were under his feet and liable at +any moment to pull him down to eternal damnation. We find men spending all +their energies in trying to get the good things of earth, just as though +they were told to do so by God, instead of commanded not to lay up +treasures upon earth, etc. + +It is one of the serious problems of the age to know how to deal with +Christians. They are, as a rule, respectable and decent; they have good +manners generally, and they eat and drink, dress and talk, live and die +very much as other people, and yet they profess a faith that is absurd and +foolish and that has no foundation in fact or philosophy. + +We like to think well of our fellow-beings, and we would like to think +well of Christians, but we cannot do so as long as they pretend to believe +what a person of intelligence, of good sense, cannot believe. Are +Christians honest? Perhaps they think so, but have they ever really +examined their belief in the light of the knowledge of the twentieth +century? If they will do this, we do not see how they can longer profess +to be Christians, if they are honest. + + ------------------------------------- + +When men are hungry roast mutton is better than the lamb that taketh away +wrath. + + ------------------------------------- + +If a man can look in the mirror of his own soul without shame, he can look +the whole world in the face without a blush. + + + + + +THE DANGER OF THE BALLOT + + +Men speak usually as though voters ranged themselves on one side of a +political question, or another, according to their convictions or +principles. We wish this were so, then we should be nearer having a pure +ballot. But we cannot share this lofty view. It does not seem to us that +the average voter is a man of either political convictions or principles. +Party service does not require intelligent, independent action, and +politics to-day stands for party fealty more than for governmental ethics. + +The main question that is decided by an election in our country is, which +political party shall have the privilege of dispensing the offices of +Government? There is a desire on the part of certain persons to obtain +office, for either personal or party advantage, and this desire is +oftentimes so fierce that it will betray the honor of citizenship. Where +this is done, or attempted, lies the danger of the ballot. + +If men voted only as their political convictions dictated, we should have +a higher party morality and purer officers, but we must face the facts +even though the duty is not an agreeable one. Politics has degenerated to +a dirty business and political trickery and bribery secure victory where +honor, integrity and principle suffer defeat. The plain truth is, we have +a large class of voters who make merchandise of their right of suffrage, +and a set of demagogues whose business it is to bribe or coerce voters for +the advancement of selfish ends. + +The honest, virtuous, intelligent, independent vote is the noblest power +of a freeman, but the purchasable vote, the ignorant vote, the vicious and +servile vote, is the opportunity of the knave and the scoundrel. The +purity of the ballot is the only safety of a Republic, and no greater +danger threatens this nation to-day than that which arises from the +corruption of the suffrage. A ballot should be the honest declaration of +our principles, the expression of our own opinions, the badge of our +manhood; but when it is held in the hand that has sold it for a price, or +will deposit it at the dictation of another, it is the prostitute of greed +and the hired assassin of the despot. + +Every man should select his own ballot and vote to please himself, and any +person that would interfere with his right and duty to do this, should be +disfranchised forever. _The individual who does not know enough to select +his own ballot has no right to vote in this country._ + +There have been too many voters led to the polls, and used as party +troops. There are still slaves on election day who are afraid of the crack +of the whip. There ought to be permitted in this nation no political or +religious disability on account of the honest exercise of the right of +suffrage. A man should be protected from the politician and the priest. +When a man votes as he thinks, he has discharged the highest duty of +citizenship, but when he votes through bribe or fear, he forfeits the +privilege of the ballot. The polls are more sacred to man than the altar. +Religion might die and man could still have every blessing of earth, but +when liberty is killed, the noblest blessing of earth has departed. + + ------------------------------------- + +The petty salvation offered by Christianity is not much sought after +to-day, while the world is bending its mighty energies in the direction of +knowledge as never before, and the glory of the electric light, the song +of the steam-whistle, the music of the telegraph, the chorus of machinery +and the grand anthem of countless enterprises tell of a bright and golden +future time when man will master the elements of Nature and guide his life +through its course of years in perfect safety and security and step down +at the end of it,--"Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him +and lies down to pleasant dreams." + + + + + +WHO CARRIED THE CROSS + + +Who carried the cross upon which Jesus was crucified? Such a question +ought to be easy to answer, if the event ever occurred. There ought to be +no disagreement upon so simple a matter as this. But there is +disagreement, and quite a serious one at that. Three of the gospels +declare that Simon carried the cross, while the fourth gospel says that +_Jesus_ himself carried the cross upon which he was crucified. Now, which +is right? Is John right? If so, then Matthew, Mark and Luke are wrong. If +Simon carried it, Jesus could not have done so; and if Jesus carried it, +then Simon did not. + +That there is such a discrepancy in the accounts of this alleged event +does not so much indicate that one is right and the others wrong in regard +to the carrying of the cross as that none is right. To our mind this +disagreement of the gospels is an indication that no such event as the +carrying of a cross upon which to crucify Jesus ever occurred. + +Christians put forth the Bible as a work which in some way came from God; +as a book which is reliable in its statements, and correct in its +narrative of events. Now, it is patent to everyone that in the gospels +there are two distinct accounts of the carrying of the cross. How can +Christians reconcile this fact with their theory that God is the author of +the Bible? + +It must be admitted by all that one mind could not have written or +inspired both of these stories, and it must also be admitted that if one +is true the other is false. What is the natural conclusion that an +unprejudiced mind would arrive at after reading the account of the +carrying of the cross for the crucifixion of Jesus in the four gospels? Is +it not that no such cross was ever carried for any such purpose? + +There are too many gospels, too many stories of Jesus. It would have been +better for Christianity had all but one of these narratives been +destroyed. They contradict each other in so many essential points as to +make them totally unreliable as records of facts. It is plain that _not +one of the writers of the four gospels knew of what he was writing_. + +We must in honesty say that no one knows who carried the cross on which +Jesus was crucified, and no one knows whether Jesus was crucified or not, +and no one knows whether any such person as Jesus ever lived, to be +crucified. + + ------------------------------------- + +Civilization has come about by going to school more than to church. + + ------------------------------------- + +Nature is the volume from which all of our knowledge has been translated. + + + + + +MODERN DISCIPLES OF JESUS + + +The modern disciples do not resemble very closely the ancient disciples of +Jesus. In fact it is very hard to find a reason why Christian preachers +call themselves disciples of Jesus at all. According to the narrative of +the New Testament Jesus was not in love with money and what money will +buy; he did not have a high appreciation of the good things of the world; +he did not express any anxiety about his food or dress, nor manifest any +desire to have aesthetic surroundings. + +And if we can credit the story of the gospels, Jesus charged his disciples +to be and do pretty much as he himself was and did. He said to them: "Heal +the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; ... Provide +neither gold nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your +journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves, for the workman +is worthy of his meat.... It is enough for the disciple that he be as his +master." + +Whether or not the ancient disciples heeded these words of their master, +and carried out his instructions, we do not know, but there is abundant +evidence that his modern disciples do not pay his commands the compliment +of obedience. If there is one item that the clergyman of to-day looks +after it is his salary. He deliberately disobeys all of the injunctions of +Jesus to his disciples, and thinks he is doing his duty to do so. + +This is the funny part of his discipleship to us. He does not consider the +charge of Jesus worthy of being heeded. When we point to the commands of +Jesus, and ask some Christian minister why he does not obey them, he +coolly informs us that it would be the height of folly in this age to +attempt to do as Jesus commanded his first disciples. In other words the +Christian clergyman acts upon the ground that the orders of Jesus to his +apostles are incompatible with personal dignity and decent living, and +that only a person utterly devoid of all sense of fitness and social +responsibility would undertake to follow his directions. + +We agree with the action of the modern disciple of Jesus in regarding his +commands as foolish and unfit to be obeyed, but we want him to take an +honest stand before the world and say so like a man. Now he is a +hypocrite, when he assumes a place in the Christian ranks but refuses to +obey the orders of his master. The modern disciple of Jesus is more +concerned about putting money in a bank or investing it in real estate +than he is about "laying up treasures in heaven." + +If there is one person who believes thoroughly in looking after himself +and his in the world, and getting all the good things out of it, it is the +Christian minister. He is well housed, well fed, well dressed, and, as a +rule, has a comfortable income. How he must laugh when he reads the New +Testament! He probably regards Jesus as a chump to tell men and women to +take no thought for what they shall eat and drink and wear, and not to lay +up a few dollars for a rainy day. He has to make believe honor the poor, +unsophisticated peasant of Galilee, in order to get his fat living. He has +to fool the fools that support him in luxury, but all the reverence he has +for Jesus you could put in your eye. + +If it paid better to tell the truth and to take an honest position in the +world, we presume that most ministers would quit playing the hypocrite, +but as long as Christianity pays its preachers more than they can get from +any other source, we may expect them to profess to follow Jesus and then +do as they please. + + ------------------------------------- + +Every fact is backed up by the whole universe. + + ------------------------------------- + +Christianity is a black spot on the page of civilization. + + ------------------------------------- + +The church is a bank that is continually receiving deposits but never pays +a dividend. + + + + + +A POOR EXCUSE + + +The excuse of the poor for not going to church is a poor excuse. The woman +who does not go to church because she cannot dress well enough, cannot +have much respect for her master. Jesus did not rail against the poor, but +the rich. He did not condemn Lazarus, but Dives. Christian churches should +be filled with rags, not silks; with paupers, not bankers. No one can be +too poor to feel at home in the church of him who was too poor to have a +place to lay his head. A Christian church is the church of poverty, and +its minister should welcome the tramp, the beggar, the rag-muffin, and +should give the cold shoulder to the rich merchant, the well-dressed +politician, the prosperous citizen. + +It is a singular thing that while silks despise rags, rags respect silks. +The poor Christians ought to glory in their poverty, ought to be proud of +their patches. They should have utter contempt for good clothes, and go to +the church of Jesus with a feeling of pride that they honor him by being +poor, as he was. Velvet, satin and broad-cloth are insults to him whose +ragged royalty they profess to reverence. + +If the poor were not as big hypocrites as the rich, they would drive the +richly-dressed worshipers out of the church dedicated to the +poverty-stricken Nazarene, who has been elected to the office of savior. A +person has not very much Christianity when his religion is ashamed of his +old clothes. + + + + + +PROFESSION AND PRACTICE + + +There are a great many persons who are anxious to pass for more than they +are worth, to stand for more than they represent. They always get on the +side of the majority, because that is considered the safe side, the side +that is most likely to have the largest number of loaves and fishes. These +people are willing to pay the price of popularity; willing to do anything +that is regarded as respectable, even to denying their own souls. The +easiest way to win favor is by professing the popular faith, no matter +what it is. A true man will be true to his convictions, true to his +principles; but such a man may not receive applause, may not make money, +may not be allowed to enter the door of society. In order to win the favor +and secure the good-will of the majority, it is necessary to go with it, +no matter where it is going. The thoughtless, the weak and simple, follow +the crowd. + +Profession is demanded of him who would join the ranks of the pious. +Profession is required of the man or woman who belongs to the church. The +performance of every duty, the practice of every virtue, is not a +sufficient recommendation to popular favor. It is a fact that profession +without practice is accepted in preference to practice without profession. + +The man who gives his life to man without thought or care about God is +considered a bad man, while he who gives his life to God without thought +or care about man is regarded as holy and saintly. Nobody can do God any +good or any harm, and all the worship that is offered him is a waste of +time. + +The man who stands up in public and asks God in prayer to help the poor, +to bless the suffering, is looked upon as a good man, while he who does +not pray nor ask God to do anything, but helps his needy brothers and +sisters, is pronounced wicked and sinful. Values have become strangely +mixed in the eyes of mankind. Religion is considered as worth more than +morality; worship more than work; prayer more than performance and +profession more than practice. This is wrong, false and foolish. + +Profession is a mighty poor jewel, a cheap and flashy substitute for the +diamond of practice. It is a confession of fraud; a mask for a face; a +coward's excuse; a hypocrite's wile. Honesty need not profess to be +honest. + + ------------------------------------- + +When a minister says that God will help you, ask him to put up the +collateral. + + ------------------------------------- + +The church spends thousands of dollars to save a dogma, where it spends a +cent to find a truth. + + + + + +WHERE IS TRUTH + + +Men have enthroned truth in some far-off kingdom, away from the world, as +though it were too pure to live on earth. It has been made supernatural, +and only to be known by being revealed. But truth is everywhere; its voice +is heard in everything. The very pebble at our feet holds its image, and +its light twinkles in the white splendor of the distant star. + +Man has searched for truth in books, but has not found it there. He has +invented words to conceal his disappointment, such as God, heaven, +providence, etc. Nature contains all the truth, and so far as men have +read Nature aright they have learned what is true, but we cannot catch and +hold Nature in our philosophies. She breaks through all the finely-woven +theories we put about her, and man, in his attempt to bind Nature with his +thoughts, binds only himself. + +Men in all ages have tried to read the secret of the universe. We have +been told that God directs it, that a divine mind planned it and keeps it +in motion. Why not let the universe explain itself? Why not read it by its +own light? Why not confess our ignorance? God is a figure of speech, but +Nature is a reality. Let us trust what we know. Nature is never +capricious. Fire will always burn, water will always drown, frost will +always freeze. Though we have confidence in Nature, let us acknowledge +that we do not yet comprehend the meaning of things. The old habit of +inventing words to hide our ignorance has been adopted by science as well +as by religion. Evolution does not reduce the mystery of existence to a +simple problem. What we call truth is more than we have yet found. The +unknown is still provocative of investigation, and the only prayer of the +mind is, more light. We must beware of accepting dogmas, whether of +science or religion. No statement is the last word of truth. Doubt is the +first step of progress, and inquiry is the way to knowledge. + +There is nothing that stands more in the way of human advancement than the +authority of opinions. Some dragon of assertion ever disputes our right to +the golden fleece of truth. If we ask for proof of God's existence or +man's immortality, we are answered with a text, but a text is only the +dead opinion of a dead man. This age demands truth, not the belief of a +person who lived centuries ago. + +Because superstition holds the contents of a book sacred we are not to +enslave reason to its statements. We will not be bound by the opinions of +others, neither must we bind others to our opinions. We must make freedom +sacred, and cease condemning men for disbelief or unbelief. The bondage of +faith is the slavery of the soul. It makes man unjust, unwise and unkind. +Allegiance to a creed makes us ill use a man simply because he does not +believe as we do. + +No church has all the truth, and no school either. So-called religion +merely shows where the search after truth ended. But truth is the infinite +reality, and it will always be for man to find. + + ------------------------------------- + +Christianity is like a slow clock--always being moved ahead. + + ------------------------------------- + +The day of the Bible is passed. Books have taken its place. + + ------------------------------------- + +Better be late to church Sunday morning than late at home Saturday night. + + ------------------------------------- + +Man to-day has more and better ways of getting a living than at any time +in the history of the race. + + + + + +WHAT DOES IT PROVE + + +Christians say that the resurrection of Jesus proves his claim to be the +Messiah. But what proves the resurrection? Certainly not the contradictory +stories of the gospels. The story of the resurrection of Jesus from the +tomb merely proves that somebody lied, that is all. A pretty Messiah Jesus +was! The Messiah of the Jews was to be a king who should restore the lost +splendor of the house of David; who should overthrow the power of the +Romans and build up the Israelitish kingdom. This king never came. Jesus +was just about as much a Jewish Messiah as Crispus Attucks was a President +of the United States. + + ------------------------------------- + +No creed can be stretched to the size of truth; no church can be made as +large as man. + + ------------------------------------- + +To correct in ourselves what we condemn in others would remove most of the +evils of life. + + + + + +HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY + + +There is nothing that tends to perpetuate the weakness of humanity more +than religion. Men have been taught for ages that they were dependent upon +God for all they have. This kind of teaching must be corrected; it is +false. Man is dependent upon man. No God will help or hurt him. Be he ever +so good no God will praise him; be he ever so bad no God will blame him. +What he wants to escape is his own condemnation. + +In order to develop an independent spirit in man it is necessary to +increase his responsibility. Man must be taught to rely upon his own +strength, upon his own body and mind. He must learn his relations to +Nature and abide by the laws of his being. He must know this: if he would +have anything he must deserve it. Human destiny follows human conduct. + +The old notion that man is responsible to God cannot be proved. There are +no facts that corroborate that notion. Man is responsible to himself. It +is this truth that is calculated to elevate and ennoble human life. Let +human beings understand that there is that within themselves that is to be +respected, and that they are responsible to themselves for all they do, +and they will be more worthy of respect and live more worthy lives. + + + + + +ABOLISH DIRT + + +We should like to see one generation brought up to hate dirt. Every child +ought to be taught that clean hands and face and clean clothes help to a +clean life. There are too many homes on this earth that human beings live +in that are dirty, in which those three household gods--the broom, the mop, +and the dust-rag--have no place. + +Children should be taught to drive dirt out of the house as they would a +mad dog. Dirt is the food of disease. It is the enemy of health and +happiness. Abolish dirt. + + ------------------------------------- + +If God exists, what objection can he have to saying so? + + ------------------------------------- + +When we have nothing to give a beggar, we can at least tell him so kindly. + + + + + +RELIGION AND MORALITY + + +A religious man is not trusted to-day because he is religious. Faith in +vicarious atonement is not accepted as a moral substitute for meeting +one's obligations. Worship of God is not equivalent to helping your +neighbor. The fact that a man is religious may not be proof that he is a +bad man, but it is no evidence that he is a good man. The most +contemptible wretch that ever robbed the widow or orphan could shine in a +prayer-meeting, where words are passed for virtues. The veriest scoundrel +can pay a pew tax and march up the aisle of the church with sanctimonious +countenance. Religion is such a superficial affair that it carries no +moral recommendation. Without morality religion could not borrow a dollar +on its name, while morality without religion can get all the accommodation +it asks for. The real virtues of a man do not depend upon religion. Men +have lived good lives while believing in dozens of gods and without faith +in a single god. Morality is not the offspring of theology. You cannot +pick out a moral man by hearing him pray. A great deal of religion is worn +to conceal moral defects. + +We should watch the man who stands up in public and says: I am moral. We +should say to him: It is not necessary for you to proclaim your morality; +your daily life will show how moral you are. The world is becoming +suspicious of him who stands up in public and says: I am religious. + +A great many people seem to think if they profess to love God it is not +necessary for them to love man. + +We are not denying that a great many good men and women are religious; +that a great many good men and women go to church and prayer-meeting. We +do not deny that a great many moral men and women profess faith in total +depravity, in vicarious atonement, but we do not see how their faith has +anything to do with their morality. There is no particular necessity for +Christians to be good. Their faith saves them, not their conduct. Religion +is not doing, it is believing, or pretending to. + +There is a big opportunity to lie in religion. You cannot tell when a +person says he believes in God whether he is telling the truth or not. It +is mighty easy to be religious. But the moral man has no such chance. He +is not judged by his professions, but by his actions. + +Religion makes hypocrisy easy, but morality offers the hypocrite no show +whatever. + + ------------------------------------- + +Never forget the good deeds that others do to you, nor remember those that +you do to others. + + + + + +JESUS AS A MODEL + + +It is common to speak of Jesus as though he touched the borders of every +human experience, and sounded the depths of every joy and every woe, but +there is no warrant for such statements. + +He lived a very narrow life, and his brief career cannot be stretched to +cover the limits of our earthly existence. He is held up for us to +imitate, as though he had left a pattern for every hour of our lives, and +a model for every day from the cradle to the grave. This is simply +nonsense. This "model" business has been overworked. Jesus had a great +many crude, foolish ideas, and did a great many deeds that are not worth +repeating. As a model of what is best in this age he is a wretched +failure. It is a mistake to look upon Jesus as a fit person to lead our +century to a higher life. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is nothing to live for in the past. + + ------------------------------------- + +We must condemn christianity, not christians; strike the church, but spare +the heart. + + + + + +SINGING LIES + + +Go into any Christian church and you will hear the choir and the +congregation singing lies. Is it not time to stop it? Is music married +irrevocably to falsehood? Take up an ordinary hymn-book and you will +hardly find a sensible line in it. The entire contents of the book is +about God, heaven, salvation, and other equally unknown quantities, states +and conditions. Why not sing sense? Why not sing facts? Why not sing +truth? Why not sing the glories of Nature, of life, of man? + +Music is a wonderful power, a wonderful educator of the feelings and +emotions. It is essential, therefore, that music be inspired by what is +true, by what is good, by what is right. Truth should be set to music and +the lips taught to sing what science has discovered, what art has done, +what the universe reveals, what the world is living for. + +The common Christian music is a wail of despair, a cry of sorrow, a shriek +of fear. It is composed of false conceptions of Nature, of humanity, of +life. It is a "doleful sound." The triumph of faith which it celebrates is +not a full, round, complete joy. + +The Church does not know the music of laughter, the music of the heart. +Its song seems always to hover on the brink of fear. It is not the glad +note of natural freedom, but the uncertain joy of the escaped convict. + +The free song must come from the free heart, must denote the free thought. +Let life that is healthy, happy and human be set to music. Let us sing as +we live, as we think, as we feel. The music of the hand, the mind, the +heart, should be on the lips. If we could only sing what sings through us, +the world would listen with rapture. We do not want "harmonious madness" +nor harmonious idiocy. Pious music is stupid, false. It is inspired by the +sickness of the world. We need a stronger note, a sturdier song. + +Lies enough have been sung. Let truth now fill the air. Out of the great +hope of the race let new songs come. We are beginning to live for life on +earth, for happiness here, for love here, for victory here. Let the hands +and feet, the brains and hearts of men and women move to the music of +truth. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is not a village where poverty does not pinch the stomach or starve +the mind, where misery does not need charity and where wealth could not +bless. + + ------------------------------------- + +Piety could do nothing better than imitate morality. + + + + + +A WALK THROUGH A CEMETERY + + +In walking through a country graveyard one sees a prominent granite or +marble monument here and there, but more of the stones that mark the +resting-places of the dead are modest in appearance, plain and humble. But +there are some graves that are unmarked by any outward token of +remembrance. Such graves may hold the dust of as great and good men and +women as those spots above which has been raised the lofty shaft and +costly design. + +Graveyards are just as deceptive as are the homes of the living. A fine +house is not proof of the moral, the manly or womanly worth of its +occupant. Saints do not sleep beneath the gilded roof any more than under +a leaky thatch. So also the wise, the good, the true, are not the ones +over whose ashes rises the chiseled stone. The dead may deserve monuments +that the living are not able to buy. + +A graveyard might be called a library of lies. Epitaphs are to be read, +and believed, if you can believe them. We have found as big falsehoods in +cemeteries as in newspapers. "Say nothing bad of the dead" is kindly +counsel, but, say nothing of the dead on a tombstone, is wiser. + +We have seen a towering stone covered with words of praise over the ashes +of a man, who, while living, was simply a lover of money. We have seen the +sunken grave of a woman, with no marble to adorn it, who lived a heroic +life of love and duty beyond words to tell. If virtues bore monuments one +would rise over the neglected grave of that saintly woman that would reach +the clouds, and that other grave would be stripped of its marble and left +to oblivion. + +Though a cemetery is more or less a museum of vanity and pride, there is +at the bottom of the costly display of granite and marble a tender +feeling, a commendable virtue. There may be as much love and respect for +those in unmarked graves as for those who sleep in costly masonry or +beneath sculptured stone. In walking through a graveyard, if our steps +should go to the places where no monument invited the eye, they would be +more likely to walk over the dust of those who did life's duty well, than +if they paused only before the imposing shaft or read the marble tale of +virtue that never was told in deeds. + + ------------------------------------- + +God never helps those who need the help of men and women. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man ever knew Providence to interpose when his neighbor's hens are +scratching up his garden. + + + + + +PEACE WITH GOD + + +A good, pious lady said to us not long ago: "Don't you think that you +ought to make your peace with God?" We have never had a bit of trouble +with God. We have got along with him tip top. He has never shown that it +was at all necessary for us to make peace with him. We have never +quarrelled. If we are not at peace with God, we did not know it. We have +no wish to have a row with anyone, and if God has the idea that we are mad +with him or want to injure him in any way, we wish to disabuse his mind of +such a notion. + +We wish to say that we have never had any dealings with God, to our +knowledge. If we have seen him, we did not know it. If he has spoken to +us, we were not aware of the fact. If he has been in our presence at any +time, we were not conscious of it. + +We do not know that we have ever wronged God or that God has ever wronged +us. We do not say that some word or act of ours may not have injured God. + +All we can say is that we have no way of finding out whether such is the +fact or not. Of course, we could not take the word of a priest or minister +on this point. We want God's own assurance in the matter. + +Up to this time God has made no complaint to us that we have wronged him, +or that we need to make our peace with him, and until we hear from his own +lips that we owe him an apology, we do not intend to make one. + +God is just as good to us as though he was dead. He does not cross our +path, stand in our light, dog our steps, or interfere with what we are +doing. He does not get in our way any more than if he lived in the planet +Jupiter. So we do not see that we need to make our peace with him. We do +not comprehend how there can be any collision between us. + + ------------------------------------- + +Priests will pardon thieves but not philosophers. + + ------------------------------------- + +Priest and God have formed some of the worst combinations in history. + + ------------------------------------- + +Too long has this world been at the feet of the priest. Man is never in +that position for his own benefit, but for the benefit of the priest. + + + + + +SAVING THE SOUL + + +The man who can deliberately, and in cold blood, as it were, try to save +his soul, must be grossly selfish. To do that which shall redound to one's +own advantage or profit, without care or consideration of another, shows +little humanity. The finer feeling is that which looks after others rather +than one's self. It can only increase selfishness to seek salvation. + +When a man gets the idea that his soul must be saved, and goes to work to +save it, the things that he will do in order to insure its salvation tend +to lessen its value; and by the time he thinks his soul is saved it is +generally not worth saving. The more willing we are to be lost, the more +chance there is that we will not be. + +The cheapest method of saving one's soul is by believing something. This +requires but little effort and no brains. Christianity is organized +gullibility. It tells people to believe what it teaches and it will save +their souls. It remains to be seen whether Christianity fulfils its part +of the contract. + +It occurs to us that before we try to save our soul we ought to know that +we have a soul and that it needs saving. We fail to see any necessity for +anxiety on account of our soul. We do not care to go into the salvation +business and let the priest get all the dividends. Any person who can +seriously talk about "saving his soul" ought to have a guardian. + + + + + +THE SEARCH FOR SOMETHING TO WORSHIP + + +What is there in the universe that deserves worship? Is there anything? +What is there that men and women should kneel to, pray to and adore? If +there is anything that deserves such worship from human beings, where is +it? Let us see if we can find any such thing. + +We look at the earth and its inhabitants, and while we see much which +calls for admiration, we find nothing to worship. The mountain impresses +us with its towering grandeur, the ocean with its vast extent and terrible +power, but we cannot get on our knees to rocks, no matter how high they +are piled; nor pray to water, no matter how much there is of it. The +flower elicits our wondering delight, but we cannot adore a rose, a +sunflower or a daisy. We own the marvelous beauty of the animal form, but +we cannot worship a horse, a tiger or a dog. We hear the gladness and +madness of melody which comes from the throat of the bird, but sweet and +entrancing as it is, we cannot adore a skylark, a nightingale or a thrush. +We see man, the fairest form that walks the earth, the most marvelous +piece of work that Nature reveals to our senses, but we cannot worship our +own image. + +Beyond earth the eye looks, and cloud, black or bright, is seen and the +endless blue beyond the cloud, but man cannot get on his knees to vapor or +pray to the sky. In the daytime the sun is seen, and at night the moon and +countless stars, but man cannot worship a ball of fire nor a dying planet, +or adore a point of light. + +We can find nothing on the earth or in the heavens that we can worship. Is +there something not on the earth or in the heavens? If so, what is it and +where is it? What do men and women kneel to? Nothing. What do men and +women pray to? Nothing. What do men and women worship? Nothing. + + ------------------------------------- + +Coals out of the ashes of love will never light the fires of friendship. + + ------------------------------------- + +The names of most men live on account of the falsehoods told about them. + + ------------------------------------- + +We should scorn the person who would be mean enough to allow his +fellow-being to be punished for his deeds. Yet we have a religion in our +midst that is founded on this kind of meanness. + + + + + +WHERE ARE THEY + + +Where are the sons of gods that loved the daughters of men? + +Where are the nymphs, the goddesses of the winds and waters? + +Where are the gnomes that lived inside the earth? + +Where are the goblins that used to play tricks on mortals? + +Where are the fairies that could blight or bless the human heart? + +Where are the ghosts that haunted this globe? + +Where are the witches that flew in and out of the homes of men? + +Where is the devil that once roamed over the earth? + +Where are they? Gone with the ignorance that believed in them. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man was ever yet canonized for minding his own business. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man was ever yet sorry to find that he had married a good cook. + + + + + +SOME QUESTIONS FOR CHRISTIANS TO ANSWER + + +How do ministers know what pleases God? + +What is "inspiration of God?" + +When God "inspired men of old," what did he do to them? + +What has God revealed to man that has ever helped him get a living? + +If we do not need to worship God six days in the week why do we need to +worship him on the seventh? + +If there were no ministers and no priests, how long would there be any +churches? + +If God will answer prayer, what is the necessity of working? + +If God weeps when the poor suffer, what does he make it so cold for? + +If rich men cannot enter the kingdom of God, what business have rich men +to be in Christian churches? + +If God is our "father," does he take very good care of his children? + +If God sends what blesses us, who sends what curses us? + +If Christianity makes the world better, why is there so much vice and +crime? + +If "salvation is free," why is anybody lost? + + + + + +THE IMAGE OF GOD + + +We wonder if anyone knows what is meant by the expression, "the image of +God." It is said in the Bible that God "created man in his own image." + +If man makes anything in his image we know how this thing looks, but when +God creates something in _his_ image we are at a loss to comprehend what +is meant unless God has the likeness of man. In ancient times there is no +doubt but what the assertion that God "created man in his own image" was +accepted literally, that the people looked upon God as a big man. Later +they came to look upon man as a little god. + +But we are dealing with the brain of the twentieth century, with the +common sense of a scientific age, when it is no longer believed that God +"created" man at all. To-day the "image of God" is a puzzle. If God +"created man in his own image," in whose image did he create the elephant, +the lion, the bear, the ox, the goat, the snake, the beetle, the bee, the +fly, the gnat? These could not all have been created in the divine image, +unless the divine image is a multitudinous likeness. + +Is it not about time that a few literary murders were committed, that some +one went through our literature and killed off a lot of nonsensical +expressions that, if they ever meant anything, are meaningless today? If +there was more honesty in the pulpit a great many Bible expressions would +go out of fashion. One of the first that needs to die or be killed is this +foolish expression, "the image of God." It may be religious, but it lacks +sense. It means nothing in this age. God is a term that eludes definition. +It is a survival of an age of ignorance. + + ------------------------------------- + +A man may be a fool and not know it, but he cannot be a fool without +others knowing it. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is a pious regard for certain men and women who have in past ages +been, as it were, the world's salvation. We would honor these men wherever +piety offers her praise, but we would not, like piety, forbid man the +right to excel them. We all know how much easier it is to be saved by +another than to save ourselves, but it cannot be denied that there is a +certain respect, a feeling of admiration, a thrill of reverence for the +man who says: I am a free moral being and scorn to allow another to suffer +for my sins. + + + + + +RELIGION AND SCIENCE + + +When religion attacks science it is like trying to cut down the tree of +truth with the hatchet of falsehood. It is unfortunate for Christianity +that it was founded on the book of Genesis. A scientific fact is higher +authority today than a religious fable. Science has found so many facts +that contradict the stories of Genesis that to accept these stories as +divine truth is to make falsehood the word of God. + +The one particular enemy of every religion is science. With merciless +labor her votaries have dethroned one after another idol of man. Science +has no creed, no dogmas. Her search is for facts, and on these she stands. +If what is discovered by lovers of truth is contrary to the tenets of +religion, such tenets must be abandoned, for what is scientifically false +cannot be religiously true. + +The Christian church is built upon a lot of divine say-soes. Science has +found that these say-soes are not so. The only honest thing for Christians +to do is to give up the book of Genesis as a reliable record. What men +have said that God has said is not necessarily sacred. Men may have lied, +and lies are not holy. Christianity has been afraid of the divine name. +What it has found in the name of God it has blindly worshiped as the word +of God. This stupid action has been a prolific source of mischief. Faith +has carried on its innocent back a thousand impositions through fear to +doubt. + +Science has not found the name of God in the earth or in the heavens. It +has ignored the guide-board which the priest of religion nailed to the +Bible, "this book shows the way to truth," and has studied the volume of +Nature instead. Whatever it has found has been told. What may be honestly +inferred from the facts of science is that all religions are humbugs, and +that Christianity is a fraud. + + ------------------------------------- + +The only way to a better life is by living better. + + ------------------------------------- + +The person who tells a lie does not know what he will have to do next. + + ------------------------------------- + +A great many persons have the idea that the universe would run off the +track but for them. + + ------------------------------------- + +Have a good time, make life cheerful and bright, dance if you want to, +sing if you can, play as long as you live and leave the world with a +smile. + + + + + +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 child. Let the matured mind come to the +perusal of the Bible without the religious prejudice in favor of its +divine character, and it would reject the book as unworthy the +consideration of the intelligent, educated man. Let the refined sense, +which all education in art, manners and social morals seeks to cultivate, +begin to read the Bible, without the religious prejudice in favor of its +sacred character, and before a dozen pages had been read, it would close +the volume with disgust and hide it out of sight, or burn it as soon as +possible. + +The Bible's divinity rests upon the mental and moral corruption of the +young. Were children not taught that this book was sacred, men and women +would look upon it as unholy. Do people realize what harm they are doing +to the mind of the child when they teach it to accept the Bible as God's +word? They are telling the child that falsehood is sacred; that ignorance +is holy; that foul stories are pure; that vile words are clean, in the +mouth of God. Fathers and mothers would not tell their children what they, +and what priests and ministers, tell them God wrote or inspired man to +write. + +What is needed to-day is to tell the truth about the Bible. Tell men and +women that ignorant, uncultured, unrefined men wrote it hundreds of years +ago, and that it is unfit in its present shape to put into the hands of a +child that a mother wishes to grow up honest, true and pure. + +Liberals should not allow their children to touch the Bible. They should +keep it from them until they are old enough to know that no book was ever +written by a God, and then, if they read the Bible, they would see its +true character. We must guard the minds of our children from Christian +influences. We pity the child that is taught that the Bible is the word of +God, but we despise the man that teaches this falsehood. + + ------------------------------------- + +Most men would kill the truth if truth would kill their religion. + + ------------------------------------- + +The truths which God revealed have been overthrown by the truths which man +has discovered. + + ------------------------------------- + +People used to think that to mix religion with business spoiled the +religion, now they think it spoils the business. + + + + + +WHEN TO HELP THE WORLD + + +Recently an old man, over eighty years of age, lay on his death-bed. He +could no longer keep possession of the wealth he had accumulated. In a few +hours he must leave it to the world from which he had taken it and kept it +so many years. He had not been a generous man. He had loved money. He +loved to get it and loved to keep it, and if he could have carried his +wealth with him, whither he was going with that unknown guide, Death, +there is no doubt but that he would have done so. He had given nothing to +the world while he lived and he would not have given anything when he +died, only that he was obliged to do so. This is the only charity of a +great many people. + +When death comes, then the hand of avarice must open. Nothing can be +carried through the grave. So the old man must at last release his hold +upon his gains. He must leave his loved dollars to somebody. He had +gathered them for himself, not for others. He had thought only of himself +when he gathered them, and now, when he was to part with them, he did not +know what disposition to make of them. The lawyer was present at his +bedside; the minister was also with him. + +The will had been drawn. He had bequeathed certain sums to public +charities and remembered the church. Life was almost gone. He hesitated +yet to give up the control of his money to others. The pen was placed in +his dying fingers for him to affix his name to the will. But he had waited +too long. He died with the name unwritten, the pen unused in his dead +hand. + +Not voluntarily did he part with a cent of his fortune. His millions will +now be divided by the law. + +Is there in the bare possession of money the happiness that men desire, +that men dream of, that men _want_? Is a dollar the highest goal of human +effort, the crown of human endeavor? Is this dollar, the insignia of +fortune, the true sign of good fortune? We believe not. The man who works +for this and nothing else, is the slave of avarice; as hard, as cruel, as +merciless a tyrant as ever cursed the earth. + +Let every man strive for independence. Let man be rewarded well for his +labor. Let every hand keep busy, but let there be a desire higher than +money, a dream nobler than of gain, a want above the possession of riches. + +There is a better charity than that unwilling gift which death compels us +to make; it is to help the world while we live. There are two ways of +doing this: by giving back a part of what we take,--that is one way and a +good way--and by taking less from others, that is another way and a better +way. The help that men need to-day is justice. Thousands are poor that one +may be rich. Thousands toil that one may live in idleness. Thousands are +in want that one may live in luxury. Thousands have not a dollar that one +may have millions. This is not right, not fair, not just. Men must take +less while they go through life. + +It is not enough that a man on his deathbed give a college a million, a +public library a million, a public park a million. _He should have no +millions to give._ He should live a more just life and help others by +trying to get less for himself. The public bequest is the popular +atonement for large fortunes, but such atonement does not efface the +sufferings of poverty and want they entail. + +We say to the rich, do not wait until you die before you try to help your +fellow-men. Help them while you are living. When a man has made money he +should make a noble use of it, or he wrongs himself and the world. + + ------------------------------------- + +Where the cross has been planted only superstitions have grown. + + ------------------------------------- + +Religion is no more the parent of morality than an incubator is the mother +of a chicken. + + ------------------------------------- + +Unless some people change their habits before they die, there will be a +lot of dirty angels in the next world, if there is any next world. + + + + + +THE JUDGMENT OF GOD + + +We hear less of what is called the "judgment of God" than formerly, but +quite enough to show that this foolish superstition still lingers in the +human mind. It used to be believed that God was on the lookout for the bad +boy who went fishing or skating on his holy sabbath and that when he +caught him he immediately made use of him to prove his loving-kindness and +tender mercy by making him get into the water where he could drown him. It +was never related that God took this boy by the shoulder or even by the +ear and led him back home to his parents with the request that they take +better care of him in the future. This was not God's way. There would be +no judgment in this. God must murder the poor boy who could see no +difference in the conduct of the birds and fishes on Sunday from their +conduct on Saturday, and have him carried back to his father's arms and +his mother's heart a corpse, a cold, dead thing, no longer needing love, +kindness, and a parent's great, forgiving charity. This was God's way. He +delighted in seeing a dead boy taken out of the frozen stream and laid +down in the presence of his poor, grief-crazed mother. He thought this +would make the mother love him more and other boys keep his holy sabbath. +So when any misfortune befell on Sunday a human being who was not on his +way to God's house, or engaged in other pious occupation, it was believed +to be a judgment of God and people took care to avoid a similar +punishment. This kind of religious teaching does not enjoy the reputation +that it once did for the reason that it has become discredited by human +experience. All things considered it is just as safe to go sailing or +swimming, fishing, or driving, on Sunday as on Monday and men have learned +that no penalty attaches to violation of the fourth commandment. As people +become sensible they cease to be religious. + + ------------------------------------- + +Prayer is begging from a pauper. + + ------------------------------------- + +The egg of prayer never yet became a chicken. + + ------------------------------------- + +Prayer is like a pump in an empty well, it makes lots of noise, but brings +no water. + + ------------------------------------- + +A great many people who worship Jesus would not let him come in at the +back door. + + + + + +CHRISTIANITY AND FREETHOUGHT + + +Christianity is opposed to freedom, and consequently freedom is opposed to +Christianity. A Christian cannot be a freethinker, and a freethinker +cannot be a Christian. When a man is required to believe certain +doctrines, he is not free to think. A creed is to keep the mind from +inquiry. Questions lead to doubt, and doubt is the death of faith. + +The church condemns freethought, because freethought cannot be bound by +its chain of dogma. There is no place in the Christian church for the +exercise of liberty. If the mind finds a new truth that contradicts the +old dogma, the truth must be strangled that the dogma may hold its power +over the thoughts and deeds of men. + +To be a Christian is to surrender to the priest or minister in the name of +Christ. It is to be a monkey on the end of an ecclesiastical string to get +pennies for his master. It is to crawl at the feet of superstition. + +To be a freethinker is to search for truth without fear. Where there is +love of freedom there is no reverence for authority. There is no faith in +God as sacred as love of man. + + ------------------------------------- + +There may be lots of Providence in the world, but no man seems to know +just where it can be found. + + + + + +THE BROTHERHOOD AND FREEDOM OF MAN + + +From the fall of Rome a new era marks the history of man; a new soul was +born out of human experience. The idea which had been prophesied by the +philosophers of India, Egypt and Greece now appeared in life, and what had +been hoped for seemed about to be realized. Born in an age of slaughter +and inhumanity the thought of the brotherhood of man fell upon the world +like a star out of the night's sky. Though the power of this idea was not +fully comprehended by the people upon whom it blazed forth, still the +promise it contained was able to kindle enthusiasm in the hearts of the +few, who bequeathed it to the world as the destiny of mankind. Human life +was inspired with a new purpose under the power of this grand and noble +sentiment. Although it was not understood and the subject of much +misapprehension, the thought of uniting man in one great endeavor grew and +endowed nations with a feeling that never before had moved their hearts. +Its advent gave the world a new ambition and the mind was enlisted in the +great cause of love and fellowship of man. + +There was another sentiment not less true or beautiful but more +revolutionary, which about the same time began to assume likeness in human +affairs, which must be considered of larger importance in the new social +movement, which, during the first century of the so-called Christian era, +commenced to be felt. The declaration of the sovereignty of man was more +prophetic of change in government and society than the doctrine of the +brotherhood of man. No government taught that man ought to judge for +himself what is right, and no church preached that man should love his +neighbor as himself. + +Political and religious organizations then as now were arrayed against +individual rights. The state and the church controlled the person. Man was +crucified between these two thieves. One robbed him of his body, the other +of his soul. Our history assigns the origin of these two great +principles--man's right to judge for himself and his duty to help his +fellow-being--to Christianity. But one was born before the beginning of the +Christian era and the other long after the Christian church was +established. One represents man as opposed to authority; the other the +soul resisting tradition. + +There is more or less talk about the freedom and brotherhood of man, but +they exist as ideas yet more than as facts. It is true that man enjoys a +certain measure of liberty in many directions, but the victory of freedom +has not yet been won. So too is there a kind of human sympathy in society, +but the broad and magnificent destiny which dwells in the bosom of human +brotherhood is more a dream than a reality. + +There has been too much time wasted in disputing who was the human author +of these great and sublime conceptions, and too little expended in trying +to plant them in human hearts and cultivate them in human lives. It is +unimportant who first stood against the world of tyranny and demanded his +right of independence, or who first felt indignation for the wrongs +inflicted upon his race and pity for the victims of cruelty, and pleaded +for more humanity towards man. The secret can never be wrested from the +silent past, and we can gain nothing by fighting over graves. + +The world seems nearer the full realization of human freedom and +brotherhood than ever before. What is needed now to hasten the fruition of +the glad promise of a better destiny for the world is to take authority +from the priest and selfishness from man. + + ------------------------------------- + +Prayer is a hook that never caught any fish. It is a gun that never +brought down any game. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man ever got an answer to prayer that he could show to another person. + + + + + +WHATEVER IS IS RIGHT + + +There are a great many familiar sayings, that are in the mouths of nearly +everybody, which are perfect nonsense, and one of these many sayings is +the one we have chosen for the subject of this article. One would imagine +that falsehood became sacred by repetition, judging from the way that +certain untruths live in the literature and language of mankind. Many a +holy text is only holy by being with what is true, as we pay respect to +many a man whom we know to be unworthy because he is related to +respectable people. + +The saying that "whatever is is right," is a dogma of the philosophy of +indifference. To anyone who works for the right and suffers wrong, such a +dogma is impertinent. Is the deed that sinks a man to the realm of brutes, +and the deed that lifts him to heights where virtue in her high estate +dwells alone, both right? The worst light for a human soul is that light +in which a bad act looks like a good one. We cannot afford to trifle with +things pure and true. To succeed grandly in life we must side with what is +right. + +There is a class of people that hold a don't-care philosophy. These people +don't care what they say or do; they don't care what takes place in the +world or what the world suffers or endures. The tent in which they dwell +is pitched above the plane of human wants and sufferings. They look from +their serene abode upon the troubled elements below, and, in contemplation +of what is beneath them, pronounce with pious gravity the highest text of +their system of philosophy: "Whatever is is right." + +To those who have never seen the bitter tear start under the infliction of +injury; to those who have never heard the sigh that disappointment and +deception have wrung from a breaking heart; to those who have never +witnessed the sufferings which tyranny imposes upon its victims; to those +who have never felt the miseries which selfishness heaps upon human +beings, this doctrine may seem true; but to those who have beheld the +consequences of evil doing, and felt the hard hand of injustice upon their +lives; to those who have been the victims of deception, and realized the +terrible fate of disappointment; to those who have been trodden upon and +denied the rights of men; to those who have been the slaves of the world's +cruel masters, how false it is! + +We cannot disguise the fact that there is wrong in the world. It haunts +every dwelling-place of man. It follows man to his business, to his work. +It goes with him when he seeks his pleasure. It does not leave him when he +enters his home. + +Every harsh word is wrong, every unjust judgment is wrong, every cruel act +is wrong, every deception is wrong, every wicked or impure thought is +wrong. Go where we will we shall meet the ugly face of wrong. On the +street its presence will bring shame into the face; in our dealings with +the world it will come before our eyes in all its hideous reality. Even +when alone we cannot keep this phantom away. + +Is it right that a human being should cause another pain and anguish that +will leave their marks on the heart and brow for life? Is it right to make +a man suffer unjustly, to add to misfortune the weight of cruelty? Is it +right to deprive one of honor, of fortune, of life? Is it right to bear +false witness against a brother-man, to abuse a neighbor, to slander and +malign a human soul? Is wrong right? + +Go to the garret of the poor wretch where want stares him in the face, +where extortion robs his family of every joy and every comfort, where the +day is made dark from no ray of human love coming into the heart, and the +night darker from the absence of warmth and light. Go to the home rent +asunder by vice and see the broken promises once so fair and bright, now +blushing with shame; hear curses from lips that once spoke in love; see +the skeletons of vows beautiful when breathed by the lips of the holiest +passion on earth, but now hideous in their ruin. Go to the den of +wickedness, to the house of crime supported by lust and greed; look upon +the pictures of wretchedness and sorrow, of sin and guilt painted by the +hand of wrong; behold the wrecked human lives that are floating on the sea +of existence, only drifting until some sudden wave shall overwhelm them +and sink them out of sight, leaving behind a memory that man should +contemplate with pity and which kindness would blot out forever. See the +world in its vice, in its suffering, in its misery, in its tears and its +shame and let your lips say, if they can, that "Whatever is is right." + + ------------------------------------- + +It is necessary to distinguish between the virtue and the vice of +obedience. + + ------------------------------------- + +I believe that if God dwelt above the earth in the twelfth century of the +Christian era, and witnessed the cruelty of priests and heard the cries of +their poor victims when their bones were broken upon the rack or their +flesh was burning in the wicked flames, and these priests should have +lifted up their voices to this God and given him the glory of the awful +sacrifice, he would have said to them: You lie; I never commanded one of +my children to murder another. You are no ministers of mine, and your +victims, with their heresies, are a thousand times holier in my sight than +are you with your pious dogmas and holy sacraments. + + + + + +THE OBJECT OF LIFE + + +Men live for less than their advancement. The object of life is not human +improvement. Ambition has not self-denial for a mark but +self-gratification. A thousand pander to one. Passion, instead of +principle, is the power that guides. We do not save to help save the +world, to aid progress and truth, but to have means to satisfy selfish +desires. The highest consideration of mankind is self. Everything is done +for one. Humanity is a word of little meaning. It is not often regarded as +a great, living, suffering being, which demands of every person his or her +best life. Man is not loved as the supreme fact of Nature. When not a +beast of burden, he is too often a beast of pleasure. + +As long as self is to be preferred to all, it matters little what is +employed to promote it. Self is alone sacred to selfishness. General +interest is sacrificed to individual possession. Every man thinks the +world _his_ first. It is regarded as magnanimous to leave what you cannot +take. + +The world no longer permits the stronger to kill the weaker, but it allows +the wealthy to oppress the poor. Money is holier than man. Human life is +less sacred than property. To save a dollar is regarded as a more +necessary virtue than to save a human heart. Society cares more for +fortune than for truth. It is easier to win your way with hypocrisy than +with honesty. The world does not ask: What are you worth morally? but, +what are you worth financially? Self-interest has made it the object of +life to injure our fellows. To get an advantage over another is the +victory man seeks. One must fall that another may rise. + +Those who are at the bottom support those who are on top. The toilers are +the foundation of society. We need to be more careful of what is beneath +us than of what is above us. "I write not these things to shame you, but +to warn you." + + ------------------------------------- + +When you are falling, you cannot stop where you wish to. + + ------------------------------------- + +The power that conquers men to-day must be the power of enlightened +opinion. + + ------------------------------------- + +Two dollars given to the son do not atone for one stolen from the father. + + + + + +MAN + + +The Hebrew psalmist sings of man:--"Thou madest him a little lower than the +angels." A modern psalmist writing on this subject says:--"Man was made a +little higher than the brutes." Man is a rare animal; he is the only +animal that can make a fire, but he is more than a brute. We do not know +how much less than an angel he is, for we do not know the dimensions of an +angel. + +What we do know is, that this strange, rare being, called man, is capable +of doing a good deed, but is prone to do a bad one; that he has developed +virtues above the brute and vices below the brute; that he is better in +public than in private, and yet take him all in all he might be worse. We +have had the weakness of human nature preached until we have almost come +to expect man to be immoral and vicious, and are surprised if anyone +asserts that man is strong enough to resist temptation, and disappointed +if he does not come up, or down, to our expectations of vileness and +wickedness. + +While we have faith in man in the minority rather than in the majority, +still we are inclined to think that most men are bad from circumstance +more than from choice. We trust to better conditions for better men, and +depend upon our best men to establish such conditions. + +There is some criticism of virtue that vice offers which is as pertinent +as the censure of vice which virtue indulges in. We admit that there are a +great many sinners that are preferable to some kinds of saints, who are no +more to blame for their sins than their more fortunate fellow-beings are +for their saintliness. But we do not mean to say that every good man is a +villain in disguise, nor every rogue a righteous man who has not been +found out. + +There are men and women whose goodness is looked upon as "flat, stale, and +unprofitable" because it is that kind that is good from favorable +circumstances, and not from the exercise of any strength of their own, but +such virtue is better than vice. We cannot afford to lose any power that +protects the world from evil, and we rejoice in all the favorable +circumstances that guard human beings. + +Men are educated into bad habits through the constant assertion of human +weakness, and the publicity which is given to bad deeds. We can never +build man very high on the foundation of "total depravity." It is to be +regretted that we think so meanly of mankind. We must start with a better +assumption of human nature than that held by Christianity. + +We ought to emphasize man's strength and give prominence to the good deeds +of men. It is not necessary to lie about human nature one way more than +another. Man has been painted worse than he is. We do not ask to have him +painted better than he is. We want a true likeness. Man will make the best +picture without any fictitious coloring. + +We are aware that we have not yet outgrown our animal inheritance, that we +are still fettered to earthly things. Man can more easily deny his soul +than he can his stomach, but for all this there is greatness in him. While +man can fall to the lowest depths from which he sprung, he can rise to the +height which is visible in his purest hours. What we ought to do is to +encourage, all we can, the conditions most favorable to the development of +the noblest part of man. Every temptation to vice should be driven from +the public gaze. If man must fall, let him fall out of sight. + + ------------------------------------- + +People who rely most on God rely least on themselves. + + ------------------------------------- + +The original sin was not in eating of the forbidden fruit, but in planting +the tree that bore the fruit. + + ------------------------------------- + +The people who boast the loudest of carrying their cross are never around +when man cries for help. + + ------------------------------------- + +An audience composed of the best-dressed people in a town stands for "pure +religion and undefiled" to-day. + + + + + +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 abandoned. It is seen that such a dogma +involves confusion and misapprehension. When the question, "How can a God +who is infinite exist in a form that is finite?" is pressed to an answer, +no satisfactory reply is forthcoming. There is apparent absurdity in this +doctrine. The general definition of God, as put forth to-day by the +Christian Church, is irreconcilable with the dogma of the divinity of +Jesus. If Jesus was God he was not a man; if he was a man, he was not God. +To talk about his divinity is to talk nonsense, if Joseph was his father +and Mary his mother. Man is not divine; God is not human. The mixing up of +these two terms is done simply to impose upon the credulous and +superstitious. We cannot think that any man of real good sense believes +this Orthodox dogma. It seems impossible for intelligence to so contradict +itself. The brain stoops that accepts this dogma. For a man to confess his +faith in Jesus as divine is to admit that his hat is not full. The +evidence adduced to prove the divinity of Jesus proves the divinity of +Apollo, of Hercules, of Prometheus, of hundreds of mythological heroes. +Are Christians prepared to admit this? If not, then they are called upon +to tell the world why not. What is meant by divine? What kind of a man is +a divine man? Let us see. Divine means superhuman, supernatural, God-like; +hence a divine man is a superhuman man, a supernatural man, a God-like +man. Does anyone know what these definitive terms mean? Does a person know +what he is talking about when he says a man is superhuman? Can a man be +more than man, more than human, more than natural? + +The dogma of a divine man is a dogma of deception. It is a theological +cobweb. It is spread to catch flies. + +The idea prevailed in the past that what could not be understood must +necessarily be profound, as though muddy water was deep water. + +Does anyone comprehend the dogma of the Trinity? It is believed because it +cannot be comprehended. The tribute of faith has been paid to occult +nonsense long enough. + +How does anyone know what is superhuman? What is human? The fact is, Jesus +has had his day. His reign is drawing to a close. He is being seen for +what he is,--a myth. Faith in him as a God is dying. The belief that Jesus +was divine is a blot on the intelligence of this century. But the blot is +growing smaller. + + ------------------------------------- + +Lots of men who would not associate with infidels for fear of +contaminating their characters are not yet out of jail. + + + + + +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 church. Such men do not, +and cannot, respect the person to whom every church is dedicated. The +gospel of Jesus is not the gospel of the rich, but of the poor; not of the +banker, but of the beggar. It is impossible for the wealthy man to be a +Christian. If he had any faith in the doctrines of Jesus he would "sell +what he has and give to the poor." And not only this, but he would be poor +himself. + +Jesus never said a kind word of the rich. He never uttered a word that +contains any consolation for the millionaire. He never gave any command +that encourages the "laying up treasures upon earth." What is a rich man +in the Christian church for? He has no business there, if he is an honest +man. He is living exactly opposite to the life Jesus commanded. He is +doing what Jesus told men not to do. He refuses to do what Jesus said a +man must do in order to be his disciple. + +Either the rich man who joins the church is a hypocrite, or the minister, +that receives such a man into the church, is. There is a hypocrite +somewhere. You do not find that Jesus went into the temple to flatter the +money-changers; he went in there to drive them out with a whip. + +The rich man's gospel is not found in the New Testament. That is sure. It +may be preached from a Christian pulpit by a so-called Christian minister, +but the man who preaches this gospel denies his professed Lord and Master. +Jesus did not say, "Lay up treasures upon earth." Take all you can from +the poor. Form trusts and combinations to enrich yourselves. Worship +Mammon. There is a misunderstanding evidently on the part of the rich man +who joins the Christian church. If he would read the New Testament he +would learn his mistake, and see that he was in the wrong place. He does +not seem to be aware what Jesus preached. There is one thing certain, the +Christian church that receives into fellowship a millionaire, has more +reverence for the millionaire than for Jesus. + + ------------------------------------- + +The beating of humanity's heart cannot be felt by placing the finger on +the church's pulse. + + ------------------------------------- + +What a queer thing is Christian salvation! Believing in firemen will not +save a burning house; believing in doctors will not make one well, but +believing in a savior saves men. Fudge! + + + + + +SPEAK WELL OF ONE ANOTHER + + +There is nothing that will make this world brighter and happier than to +speak well of one another. We sometimes wonder how a mean story about a +fellow-mortal gets started, and how it is kept going. Surely no base +report ever had birth in a kind intention, and no mouth ever repeated it +with the wish to make the world better. + +Envy, malice and ill-will can make no decent defence of themselves. Now, +it costs no more to say a good word of a brother or sister than to say a +bad one, and there is no obligation on the part of a person to blacken +human reputation. It is a mean heart that cannot do justice to another. If +we must speak of our neighbors, let us speak kindly. Let us refer to those +things that are pleasant, and discuss that in their characters that is +worthy of praise. It hurts us to say bad things of other people, and it +may hurt them. There is certainly some part of everyone's life that can be +commended. What we know of others that is not good, let us not refer to. +Silence is never more charitable than when it spares a human heart. + +There are many of our friends who are striving to make a success in life. +Nothing will aid them more than to speak well of them. Everybody can be +generous with kind words, and yet they are worth more than gold. They are +the diamonds of speech, which the poorest can wear. + +Don't be afraid to speak well of men, to praise good deeds. No one will +think worse of you for speaking kindly of others. It is not necessary that +we speak well only of those deeds that men sing in words of song. There +are scores of little every-day acts, that give the perfume of self-denial, +of sacrifice, and that deserve praise. If we were to give any advice to a +man or woman, who wished to help the world as they passed through it, it +would be this, Speak well of men and women. + + ------------------------------------- + +A receipt for bringing up a child will not apply to a whole family. + + ------------------------------------- + +To build one house for man is better than to build a dozen houses to God. + + ------------------------------------- + +We often hear a man say that the world owes him a living. So it does, if +he earns it. But man owes the world something. The debt is on both sides, +and it is only by giving what is due to others that we get what is due to +ourselves. We receive assistance when we render it, and it is by a law of +our nature that the world turns from a man who turns from the world. + + + + + +DISGRACEFUL PARTNERSHIPS + + +Six marriages out of ten are disgraceful partnerships. The ones to +question our assertion will be the married men, and the very ones, too, +responsible for the disgrace. Marriage is a union where the two partners +should share alike the profits and the losses. There should be no head of +the firm in the sense of making one subservient in any way to the other. +The wife has just the same right to handle the money of the firm as the +husband. The family purse should not be carried in the husband's pocket +unless he is willing to pass it out whenever his partner requests it, and +no questions asked. + +Most men treat their wives worse than servants. If a wife asks for some +money, the husband, in most instances, wants to know what she is going to +do with it and how much she wants, instead of giving her what is her +right. Married men do not recognize their wives as equal partners in the +family concern. They think they should have what they want and their wives +what they are pleased to give them. How many homes have been broken up by +carrying out such a principle as this? More than men will confess. + +This state of things is not confined to the homes of poverty. Not at all. +It exists where there is plenty. Many a proud woman is almost daily +humiliated by a man to whom she is obliged to go for what money she needs. +The pain that niggardly husbands inflict upon sensitive wives is only +known by themselves. Many a woman has said: "I would rather go without the +money than have so much trouble to get it from my husband." What must a +woman have suffered to be forced to make such a confession as that! + +A marriage in which a woman is daily made to feel her dependence upon a +man, is attended with the gravest moral perils. The only just rule is for +the husband to allow his wife a fair share of his income, for her to do +with as she pleases. Not only marital harmony would be promoted by such an +arrangement as this, but love would burn longer and purer on the family +altar, private morality would be conserved, and all the relations of life +elevated and dignified thereby. + + ------------------------------------- + +The most beautiful thing is the beauty we see in those we love. + + ------------------------------------- + +The money that men waste would make them rich, and the time they waste +would make them wise. + + + + + +SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY + + +Every day we are told of some wonderful discovery of science. But what has +theology discovered? The scientist is searching for the truth; the +theologian is trying to save his idols. Of all the great inventions and +discoveries that go to make human life easier, happier, more rich and +glorious, not one can be laid to the work of theology. These triumphs all +belong to science. Some day the world will become wise enough to confess +that the priest is of no benefit to mankind. The investigator, the +student, the inventor, is the true philanthropist, the real benefactor. He +finds what is useful to his race, what adds comfort and joy to existence. +Science is the hope of the world, the only savior that humanity has had +adown the ages or will have as man lives on through the centuries. + + ------------------------------------- + +Many a man who was too good to play cards has broken a bank. + + ------------------------------------- + +A dog can get rid of another dog that cannot get rid of the flea on his +back. + + + + + +UNEQUAL REMUNERATION + + +A great many small men draw large salaries, and a great many large men +draw small salaries. Of course we measure men by their ability to do +something of value to their race. It is a sorry fact that one person is +paid ten thousand dollars a year for playing base ball or riding a +race-horse, and that another person in unable to earn seven hundred and +fifty dollars for the same length of time by performing some useful labor. +A mechanic, who actually adds to the wealth of the nation, who produces +something of value, is paid less than a jockey or a base ball pitcher +whose business (?) is chiefly maintained for purposes of gambling. + +But there are other phases of this question that present equally +disproportionate features. An actor, who merely repeats the words of +another, receives one thousand dollars a night for his performance, while +a lecturer who imparts original knowledge to his hearers, is paid twenty +dollars and his expenses for his thought and labor. A singer is given five +thousand dollars for appearing three nights of a week upon the stage, and +a reformer is allowed what her audience will drop into the contribution +box. One explanation of this is: "There is only one Caruso." + +There is another explanation, and that is: People will pay more to be +entertained, to be pleased, than to be instructed, to be enlightened or to +be told what is right and best. + +It is a sad fact that many are paid too little for what they do. As a rule +the actual laborers, the real workers of the world, both male and female, +do not receive fair compensation for their work, while thousands of people +who merely hold an office are paid far more than they are worth. Teachers, +writers and professors are all underpaid. The highest work that man or +woman is doing is the work of education, training the human mind to think +truly, to act nobly, and yet a lawyer receives more in a day than a +teacher in a year. + +The world that will pay one thousand dollars an hour to hear the voice of +Melba, will grumble at paying ten cents an hour to a washerwoman. The +world that will give a person ten thousand dollars a year for pitching +base ball will object to raising the wages of our mill operatives five per +cent. The world that will pay ten thousand dollars a year for riding a +horse, wants a woman to teach school for fifty dollars a month. + +We say, pay talent well and genius generously, but pay well also the arm +that toils; pay the needle, the saw, the spade, the hoe, the mop. + + ------------------------------------- + +Every man who claims the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of +happiness," is bound to show that he deserves this right. + + + + + +THE OLD AND THE NEW + + +This is essentially an age of change. Things which have been established +for centuries are no longer regarded as fixed. That which has been looked +upon as absolute is now respectfully held to be uncertain. The foundations +of old ideas are being disturbed and man finds that he has built upon +sandy bottom. Much which in times past answered the human soul, now +affords no satisfaction. It is plain that a revolution has commenced that +will be far reaching and important in its actions and reactions. There is +to be a general overhauling of matters secular and religious, political +and social and a wholesale clearing out of old words and forms, of +outgrown habits and customs, may be expected. The world of man is about to +take account of stock and to have a universal comparison of estimates of +values. Too long have we been subsisting upon the say-soes of our +ancestors and taking their eyes and ears as infallible. + +For many years men have regarded all questions of religion as settled, and +that the whole duty of this and future generations was to accept the +conclusions of the past upon all religious matters. We do not understand +how men ever came to regard such conclusions as final or how they came to +expect the whole human race to receive them as the utmost of human +knowledge. We do not look upon the questions of religion as settled, and +the growing doubts of the infallibility of the common religious ideas +demand that we reconsider these questions. To do this we have not to go +into any theological discussion. No learned authorities are to be +consulted to establish or refute any line of argument. No dictionary of +terms is to be examined to settle the meanings of words. We have only to +decide whether mankind had better facilities for observing and studying +the phenomena of the universe in past times than we have to-day; whether +their eyes and ears were better than ours, and their methods and +opportunities for ascertaining the truth of things higher than those of +this age. + +If men in the past had facilities inferior to ours for observing the +phenomena of the universe, it would follow that their ideas of the +universe would be inferior. Now, if we have superior ideas of the +universe, ideas nearer the truth of things, why should we be expected to +surrender these and hold ideas which are false? + +It seems to us that the questions of religion may be settled by deciding +whether or not we are to believe our own eyes and ears and trust our own +knowledge and experience. It is certain that if we can trust our senses +and our knowledge, the old ideas of the universe, of the origin of earth, +of life, of man, and of good and evil and the whole catalogue of religious +things are incorrect; and if we accept them we do so contrary to our +reason and understanding. + +With faith in the present, and in all that makes it peculiar,--its +scientific tendencies,--and with the belief that out of the doubt and +uncertainty that are now around us will come higher convictions which will +deepen and widen life's purpose and make humanity a fairer word and a +fairer reality, we say: + + + "Ring out the old, ring in the new; + Ring out the false, ring in the true." + + + ------------------------------------- + +Hell is where cowards have sent heroes. + + ------------------------------------- + +A man never fell down stairs that he did not blame the stairs. + + ------------------------------------- + +The cross people carry to-day is made of gold or set with diamonds. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is nothing in this world of ours that will work harder, fight +harder, wait more patiently and suffer longer than love, unless it be +hate. + + + + + +GUARD THE EAR + + +Much of our character depends upon what we hear. A person may be saved or +lost by what reaches him through the ear. The ear has no defense. It is +open to every sound. It cannot be deaf. It _must_ hear. We cannot open it +to one person or shut it to another. It is filled with songs of deepest +thoughts or words of ugliest shape without choosing either. It is at the +mercy, and the soul as well, of whatever is uttered. The ear is +falsehood's, as well as truth's, servant. It carries what it hears, and is +as faithful to the vilest as to the purest speech. It is temptation's +peculiar channel. The eyes may be shut, the lips may be closed, but the +ear is always open. We may decide what we will say, what we will see, but +not what we shall hear. + +We perceive how important it is that none but pure, true, brave and +sincere words be spoken. If a person never heard a bad word he would never +utter one. The character of everyone born into the world is determined +largely by the world. Men do pretty much what they are taught to do. The +heart at birth is pure, and were it not taught impurity, would remain so. +We regard the ear as the chief door of the assault against the human +heart. Guard the ear and you save the boy and girl. + + + + + +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 Eve, instead of waiting until the mischief was done, and +then cursing the whole lot for what he might so easily have prevented. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man can be himself with fear always at his heels. + + ------------------------------------- + +Death can get into a house when everything else can be kept out. + + ------------------------------------- + +It is plain enough that men and women care for God. This is too apparent +to be disputed, unless men and women are hypocrites. What is not so plain +is that God cares for men and women. + + + + + +NOT IMPORTANT + + +A Christian contemporary says: "No question is so important to mankind as +religion." We wonder how a person could write that sentence without +writing after it, a la Artemus Ward, "This is a goak." Of course, a +preacher is the author of it, or a person who gets his living out of +religion. Had the writer said, "No question is so important to ministers +and priests as religion," he would have told the truth; but as it stands, +it is a falsehood. We can mention several questions of more importance to +mankind than religion. The question of something to eat and the question +of something to wear are of vastly greater importance than that of +religion. So, too, is the question of education, or the question of +government, of more importance than religion. It is first necessary for +man to live, then to find a place to live, then to find the things to +sustain life, then to live happily and well. All this is prior to any +religious consideration. We believe the church as an organization would go +to pieces but for clergymen and those who are interested in keeping it +alive in order to get a living out of it. It would be nearer the truth to +say: No question is less important to mankind than religion. + + ------------------------------------- + +A man's reputation oftentimes depends upon the success he has had in +hiding his character. + + + + + +OATHS + + +The superstition prevails that unless man swears to tell the truth he will +tell a lie. This superstition makes the sanctity of the oath. But is it a +fact that a person will, under oath, always tell "the truth, the whole +truth, and nothing but the truth?" It is the general opinion that judicial +swearing is simply a judicial farce. We concur in the general opinion. + +An oath is the liar's retreat. Behind it falsehood puts on the robes of +truth. The perjurer delights in swearing, for the act invests him with the +appearance of honesty. An oath makes the tongue of vice as pure as the +lips of virtue. It gives a rogue the weapon of the gentleman. It permits +guilt to wear the dress of innocence. + +The man who is willing to tell the truth feels that his honesty is +impeached when asked to take an oath, while the knave, who is bound to +lie, feels that his knavery is protected by the God in whose name he +swears. No more senseless custom survives in our age than the +administration of the oath. We do not believe that a judge or lawyer has +one whit more confidence in human testimony because it is given in the +divine name. + +Is it not time to recognize this fact, that men can tell the truth without +the help of God, and that those, who cannot do so, do not succeed any +better with his help? In other words, an oath is calculated to pass a +scoundrel for an honest man. While it does not insure truth-telling, it +does serve to dignify a falsehood. It is time that a lie was obliged to +stand on its own bottom, and not be passed for what it is not, because it +is told in the name of God. + + ------------------------------------- + +God's name is not considered good at the banks. + + ------------------------------------- + +To depend upon God is like holding on to the tail-end of nothing. + + ------------------------------------- + +A man cannot be happy who believes in hell, any more than he can sweeten +his coffee with a pickle. + + ------------------------------------- + +The church wants us to believe that God will go out of his way to strike a +blasphemer and work a week to save the soul of a murderer. + + + + + +DEAD WORDS + + +There is not one real, true, live word in the Christian vocabulary of +salvation. Eden, the stage on which was performed the tragedy of original +sin, is a dead word; devil, the name of the scaly gentleman who took the +leading part in this tragedy is a dead word; hell, the abode of all those +who descended from the original sinners, is a dead word; Christ, the title +of the man who offered to ransom the human race and save men and women +from hell, is a dead word; atonement, the word that stands for the +expiation to be made by Christ, is a dead word. These words that the +Christian church uses in its exhortations to mankind have no heart of +truth in them. They stand for no facts; they represent no realities. Take +away these dead words from the Christian preacher, and you take away his +powder, shot and wads. Let the Christian be held to facts and obliged to +tell the truth, and his lips would be dumb. There never was such a place +as the Garden of Eden; never such an individual as the devil. There is no +such place as hell. There never was a Christ, and no atonement made, for +there was no necessity of any being made. If there was no such thing as +faith, Christianity could not make a convert on the earth. If ministers +were obliged to furnish the proof of their statements, there would be no +preaching. + + + + + +CONFESSION OF SIN + + +When the church teaches that "confession is good for the soul," it teaches +false doctrine; it is only good for the church. Men once confessed their +sins, believing that it was the evidence of the loftiest courage to +acknowledge that they had made fools of themselves or that they were the +veriest knaves. But never was a greater mistake made. Confession is itself +a sin, a base betrayal of one's own heart. It shows utter lack of shame. +Our sins should be sacred. We should let no eyes see them but our own. To +exhort one to confess one's sins is to ask the sinner to become the slave +of his confessor. + +Man has learned to keep still in respect to those things that concern no +one but himself. He has found that where he has done wrong it is wiser to +hold his tongue than to speak. We are not likely to confess what will harm +us. This prudence is utility in morals. A wanton confession of wrongdoing +shows a loss of self-respect, and a virtuous confession is proof of mental +weakness. No human necessity requires self-degradation. To tell what we +have done is to pay a compliment to prurient curiosity which it does not +deserve. When we are commanded to do such a thing, resistance is a greater +virtue than compliance. + +The human conscience to-day says: "Hands off." It is impertinent to touch +the soul against its will. Secrecy is our right. No one can demand that we +expose our indiscretions. If the church asks if we have sinned, we feel +justified in answering: "It is none of your business." A man's sins are +his own. Our actions are private and subject only to voluntary betrayal. +We are at liberty to own our weakness or our meanness and to tell whatever +we have done; but when another attempts to coerce a confession from us, we +refuse to submit to such unwarrantable authority, and assert our right to +be custodians of our own deeds. The court which does not require a man to +criminate himself is higher than the church which bids a man lay bare his +soul. + +There is no ear pure enough to listen to the story of the secret struggles +of the human heart. The doctrine of "confession of sin," which has been +taught by the Christian church, is detrimental to manhood and womanhood. +It is a police arrangement where the private conscience is under the eye +of the priest. There can be no independence where the soul has surrendered +to another. + + ------------------------------------- + +To make crime easy is to make criminals. One cannot rob the clothes-line +if the clothes are in the house. + + + + + +DEATH'S PHILANTHROPY + + +Every now and then a man dies and the world praises his name, and men die +every day whose names we never hear. + +Why is the one lifted up above the other? + +In the case we have in mind it was because the man, when he died, left +several millions of dollars to churches, to charities, and to public +benefactions. + +This age honors the accumulation of wealth. It puts its stamp of honor +upon the man who gathers a large fortune into his hands. If this man at +his death bequeathes all of his fortune, or a large portion of it, for +what the world is pleased to call charitable purposes, he is called a good +man, and his name is spoken with pride and praise. + +Now, we believe in all the virtues that would make a man wealthy, but not +in the vices: and we believe that a man may have all of these virtues and +not have much money when he becomes old, or when he reaches the banks of +the river of death. We want to praise the man that the world does not +praise, the man who does not live or die for praise, and who does not care +for it. We do not think that death's philanthropy is as grand and +beautiful as life's philanthropy. + +The man who lives to get money and to keep money, that at the last, when +he can no longer keep it, he may bestow it where it will be a monument to +his name, is not half so noble as the man who lives in such a way that he +makes life easier for his fellow-beings, giving his little every week, +here and there, and letting his gift fall quietly and out of sight of men. +It is the truest philanthropy not to rob man, not to take money from the +world and hold it until the stronger hand of death opens the strong hand +of greed. This is man's noblest way to live; to take only what can be used +for profit or pleasure. To take more than this is to rob mankind. + +What generosity is there in parting with money only when death makes the +fingers let go? Men who carry their millions to the grave would carry them +beyond it, if they could. When only death can conquer selfishness, its +noblest bequest merits but little praise. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is no vicarious suffering for the one who has eaten too much. + + ------------------------------------- + +The nation that proclaims the right of free speech, but will not protect +that right, has abandoned its principles. + + + + + +OUR ATTITUDE TOWARDS NATURE + + +The idea that Nature is to be worshipped, either as God, the unknown, or +the incomprehensible, is being seriously questioned. We wish first to know +what good such worship does. It cannot be of any benefit to Nature. Is it +of any benefit to man? This is the only question to be answered. + +Almost everybody is ready to say that man should not worship the sun, the +moon, the stars, or any earthly thing; but a great many still think that +man should worship the mysterious something of which everything is a +manifestation. We have outgrown the worship of objects. We look upon the +person who sees a God in any natural object as an idolater; as one whose +mental vision is unillumined by any true idea of the universe. But there +is a demand that man shall worship God, or the unknown force or power in +Nature that is the source of all things. + +We admit the unknown quantity of the universe; but we do not see the +necessity of worshiping it. We do not see any good in praying to it, or in +singing to it. Nature is all a mystery and all the mystery there is, but +why do we need to keep saying so in prayer and praise when the silent fact +is ever before our eyes? We do not need to go down on our knees to every +mysterious thing, and stay there. Let us freely and frankly confess that +Nature is incomprehensible, and then go about our business like men, and +try to learn what will help ourselves and our fellow-beings. + + + + + +REVERENCE FOR MOTHERHOOD + + +An author of some note, in an article published in a Protestant journal, +while admitting that the "holy Catholic church" had been about as unholy +an institution as could well exist, claimed that Romanism had its good +points. Among them he instanced "its reverence for motherhood." For proof +of his assertion he pointed to the homage paid to the image of Mary and +her child by the average Roman Catholic. + +We admit the homage, but deny the reverence. To begin with, where is the +reverence for motherhood among the Roman Catholic priests? Why, these men +have not respect enough for woman to elevate her to the dignity and honor +of motherhood. These men are married to the church, to Christ and not to +women. Their sacred office would be lowered by taking a wife. + +The holy vows of these priests are not half as holy as the marriage vow. A +priest never had half as pure a thought as is born in the heart of a +father. He never performed a rite half as consecrating as dancing a +laughing child on his knee. These holy old bachelors have done all their +religion would allow them to dishonor motherhood. + +The pretence that woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, or +daughter, is particularly respected by Roman Catholics is simply absurd. +To prove this we point to the homes of the Roman Catholics. We confess +that the Romish church encourages motherhood, that Roman Catholics are +urged to help increase the church membership, but we claim that nowhere is +there less reverence of woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, as +daughter, than among the Roman Catholics. + +Because a Catholic crosses himself before a wooden Madonna, or a +plaster-paris image of the mother of Jesus, it is no proof of his +reverence for motherhood. Not a bit. The Catholic reverences Mary as the +mother of God; he pays her homage as a divine person; worships her, not as +a mother, but as a superior being. + +The man that has reverence for motherhood is the man who loves and +tenderly cares for his own mother and the mother of his children, but the +man who prostrates his mind before a carved figure of the "Virgin Mary" +and pounds his wife and kicks his daughter into the street has reverence +for nothing. + + ------------------------------------- + +Adam might have obeyed God, but he could not resist Eve. + + ------------------------------------- + +It looks easy to break off a bad habit that somebody else has got. + + + + + +THE GOD OF THE BIBLE + + +The blind, foolish faith in the Bible is the cause of intellectual +dishonesty, moral hypocrisy, and religious tergiversations without number. +This faith makes the twentieth century kneel to a God that it would be +ashamed to introduce among civilized beings. + +We would no sooner go to Moses to learn about deity than we would go to +Noah to learn how to build a steamship. We do not believe in getting +divinity through a straw three thousand years long. If we must have a God, +let us have one that has had the advantages of civilization. We might +possibly give this Lord God of the Bible a quarter of mutton, as did Abel, +or a peck of potatoes, as did Cain, if we were convinced that he was +living anywhere in the universe, just to keep on the right side of him, +but we would not care to be on an out-of-the-way road with him after dark +unless we had a revolver with us. We know of no more villainous character +in all literature; and for men and women, who pretend to love what is pure +and good, who pretend to honor what is upright and just and who pretend to +revere what is noble and true, to worship this God of Christianity, this +God of Moses, this God of the Bible, is a sad commentary on human +intelligence and human integrity. + +We know that all theological discussions have been wretchedly barren of +results; we know that theology has made no contribution to actual +knowledge; we know that no one knows anything about any such being as God, +and we also know that every God worshipped to-day by men and women is only +an imaginary person or thing. No one knows what God is or where he is, and +yet ministers speak about him just as though they had been to his house +and taken tea with him. + +Theology has received attention out of proportion to its achievements. It +has done the cackling while science has laid the egg. + +We do not like to hear men say: "God did this" and "God said this," when +he has never opened his lips to speak to man and never lifted his hand to +help him. We call such language dishonest, and the time will come when the +men who have made such use of the divine name will be condemned as +impostors. + +What this generation should do is to take the Lord God of the Israelites, +that lies dead on the banks of time and bury him from human sight forever. +Not another human being born on this earth should be allowed to read of +his cruel deeds, and if Christian ministers were honest, and had the +courage of their honesty, they would tell the world that the being called +God in the Bible was no God, only an idol of a rude and barbarous age. + + ------------------------------------- + +A theologian is a person who uses the word "God" to hide his ignorance. + + + + + +THE MEASURE OF SUFFERING + + +The little boy who asked his mother "if hell was worse than the +toothache?" imagined that the limits of suffering were reached in his +agony. Many of us have doubtless experienced pain that we thought marked +the utmost of endurance. In the Christian dream of future punishment man +is represented as burning eternally. Fire probably inflicts the intensest +pain that the human body has ever suffered. Hell is fitly represented by +fire. + +Suffering takes various shapes. Pain comes in a thousand forms. But there +is a limit to the endurance of pain. Unconsciousness comes to the relief +of the mind when agony can no longer be borne. Hell, such as has been +taught by Christianity, is not a logical conclusion. All suffering that we +know anything about ends itself. The victim is released by exhaustion. +Hell is impossible. + +The finer suffering which is called remorse, which follows wrong-doing, +gradually wears out. Its lash loses its sting. The sinner becomes callous +to his act or finds a balm for his regret in the lapse of years. The +finger of time erases the memory of every wrong, and soothes with its +touch every pang. We can escape the fate of wrong-doing by doing better. +Reform opens the door of every hell invented for man's punishment. The man +who does right, wherever he is, will have the reward of right-doing, the +fate of right-doing. + +It is this fact which makes the idea of endless pain for man's deeds done +on earth illogical. Man can turn around on the road of evil as well as on +the road of good, and hence he can change his fate whenever he changes his +life. The measure of human suffering makes it impossible for man to endure +pain forever. He must either perish utterly as a sentient being or be +driven by his punishment to better behavior. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man ever yet tore down his altar and found a God behind it. + + ------------------------------------- + +Trying to find God is a good deal like looking for money one has lost in a +dream. + + ------------------------------------- + +We could believe in God if he shortened the road for the lame, led the +blind or fed the starving. + + ------------------------------------- + +We are told that "all things are possible with God," and yet God cannot +boil an egg in cold water. + + + + + +NATURE + + +Some people are afraid of the word Nature. They cross themselves when they +hear it pronounced. It has a sound like "Old Nick" in their ears. To these +pious souls the word Nature banishes God from the universe. This is looked +upon by many as the highest offence of language. It has been the custom +for several centuries to abuse Nature, to call it bad names, and associate +it with depravity and everything evil. Theology has condemned the word, +and the pulpit has touched it only with the tips of its fingers. To speak +of Nature as anything good is regarded as throwing dirt in the eyes of +God. + +Nothing clings to the world like a superstition. Start a fear in the human +breast, and it will make every heart quake before it can be driven out. +Let a bad habit become fixed, and it will be as hard to dislodge it as it +is to plant a good habit. + +But men are getting over their fright somewhat. The natural is found to be +the true, not the false; the right, not the wrong; the good, not the bad. +Nature has been slandered, lied about. It was once thought necessary to +assassinate this word in order to preserve the Orthodox religion. The +necessity still remains, but orthodoxy is dying. + +Nature is a large word. It means about all there is. If there is a God, he +is natural. + + + + + +CREEDS + + +This is the age of revision. Churches are all hurrying to catch up with +the world. There is a desire to square ideas with facts, and shape beliefs +with knowledge. Religion must suffer in this process. Something will be +lost, but only what is bad, false and wrong. Creeds are out of date. They +are behind the times. They are the dead leaves from the tree of knowledge, +the dead branches on the tree of life. The world's faith is in the living; +in the bud, the blossom, the promise of things--not in the husk, the shell, +in dead and useless things. + +New creeds are to take the place of old ones. What people believe now, not +what people believed hundreds or thousands of years ago, must be put into +a profession of faith. For a man to profess what his father and mother +believed is to make birth useless and existence valueless. We are to live +to add to life, not to repeat it. Is theology the only thing that people +put their trust in? A theological creed has to be accepted with the eyes +shut. We want a creed of the heart, of the head, of the senses, of the +whole man. There is no theology worth believing in. The creed of the +church is a gravestone. + +If we were to make a creed for the world of men to accept we would make it +out of human hearts. We would go where a man had helped another; where a +woman had sat beside the sick and suffering; where man had been crucified +for being true; where he had been burned for being honest; where he had +stood against the world protesting against its wrongs and proclaiming the +right, and where he had fallen with a martyr's crown upon his forehead; +and we would write these into a creed, and have men say: I believe in men +and women who have lived good lives, who have taken the unfortunate by the +hand and lifted up the fallen, who have pardoned a woman's fault, who have +shown their love of truth by being true, and who have done right even when +they were wronged for so doing. + +The grandest life is the grandest creed; and, if man's faith was faith in +what has made the world better and brighter and happier, he would be +better off than by believing in a God that is cruel, unjust and unkind, +and in a heaven where the highest joy is found in laughing at those who +are in hell. + + ------------------------------------- + +It has been discovered that the man who was lost in thought was not a +church member. + + ------------------------------------- + +We do not say that another world is not worth a single thought, but rather +that this world is worth all our thoughts, and needs them. + + + + + +DON'T TRY TO STOP THE SUN SHINING + + +If there is one person on earth who is to be envied it is the happy, +cheerful man or woman who always sees the bright side of life, the good +side of a fellow-being, and the warm, sunny side of what belongs to earth. +If there is a person to be pitied, it is the sour, gloomy man or woman, +who sees only the dark side of life, the bad side of a fellow-being, and +the cold, cloudy side of what belongs to earth. Everything bright, +beautiful, fair, sweet, and good grows in the sunshine. We would not have +a flower without the sun. Cheerfulness is to the human heart what the +sunbeam is to the earth--the source of gladness. + +We ought to cultivate happiness. We ought to have the home filled with +what is beautiful. We ought to let the sun shine into our lives. People +who are sour and moody look upon the smiling, happy person as foolish, and +wonder what there is in life that one can find to enjoy. They want to tear +the flower to pieces, stop the bird singing, trample upon the joy of the +child, and hush the laugh of mirth. If you cannot enjoy life, don't try to +prevent others from doing so. Don't throw a shadow on the human heart. +Don't try to stop the sun shining. + + ------------------------------------- + +Laying up treasures in heaven never kept a man out of the poor-house. + + + + + +FOLLOW ME + + +Jesus said: "Follow me." But we decline; we had rather not. We do not wish +to follow a person until we know where he is going. + +If by following Jesus is meant living as he lived, doing as he did, +believing as he believed, teaching as he taught and dying as he died, we +are not in it. We shall have to say: Thank you, we guess not. We prefer to +go some other way. + +We do not see any necessity of following anybody very far, if at all. This +following business is played out. Those who profess to follow Jesus don't +do it in the daytime. + +But we can go a little farther and say that we do not think Jesus was a +man that a self-respecting person would like to follow. He does not +inspire us with any particular admiration. The man who could let his lips +forget to speak kindly of his mother cannot have our admiration. The man +who came not to bring peace, but a sword, to the world cannot have our +admiration. The man who said: "believe and be saved, believe not and be +damned," cannot have our admiration. + +If we follow anybody, it is going to be a person that commands our +respect, whose greatness and goodness compel our admiration, and who did +not try to win men by tricks. We regard Jesus, as he is painted in the +four gospels, as a character below the ideal of this age, a character +that, to imitate, would dwarf the noblest man. If Jesus were alive it +would be his duty to-day to follow others, rather than to command others +to follow him. + + + + + +CAN WE NEVER GET ALONG WITHOUT SERVANTS? + + +We recently overheard a remark which made us query if we cannot get along +without servants? A lady was commenting on the character of the "help," +which one was obliged to employ to-day, and expressed the opinion that, if +our public schools continued to fill the heads of children with the notion +that one person was as good as another, it would not be long before it +would be impossible to get help at all. + +There seems to be an idea abroad in this land as well as in others, that a +certain class of people are for the purpose of producing servants for +another class of people, and that this servant-producing class has no +right to give their children an education that is calculated to elevate +them above the position of their parents. We are not in sympathy with this +idea. If there is one person on this earth that is of less account than +another it is the person who is helpless, who is dependent upon others for +everything that makes life possible or endurable. We must confess that +there are too many people in this country who are of this kind, who must +have someone to do for them what they ought to do for themselves. + +Why should one person be expected to wait upon another? Why should a man +or woman look upon a fellow-being as fit only to be a servant? Is one born +to serve and the other to be waited upon? + +Such notions have no right on our democratic soil. In this country there +must be no caste, no division of society into classes. + +We rejoice that such a criticism of the character of the "help" employed +in the houses of the rich as we overheard, is true, for it reveals a +condition of things that may lead to what is much needed to-day, viz.: a +simpler mode of living on the part of a great many of our American people. +Is it necessary to live in such a way that a dozen or more servants are +required in a home to keep it in order? + +We believe the community in which all are independent and none are +servants is the ideal one. Why should not this be the ambition of the +race, to live in a manner that will leave others their independence and +encourage in them the desire for a home? Our children all ought to be +taught to work, and be made to work, and not be brought up with the notion +that they have the right to expect others to wait upon them. + +We do not wish to imply that one individual should not consider it his or +her duty to help another or to work for another. What we desire to convey +is this, that if people did more of their own work, and waited upon their +own wants more, they would not only be doing what is best for themselves, +but also what is best for the community in general. For men or women to be +dependent upon servants and almost helpless without them, is not a +condition to be proud of, but to be ashamed of. The man who cannot harness +or drive his horse; the woman who cannot buy and cook a dinner for her +family, has not been properly educated. + +The home in which there are the fewest servants is the happiest home. The +father that brings up his sons to work, to know how to earn a living; the +mother who teaches her daughters to cook, to sew, to do housework, is +doing them good, not harm. There are too many know-nothings and +do-nothings in the world. It is honorable to be useful in this world, and +it ought to be dishonorable to be useless. Let us work for the day when we +can get along without servants; when life shall be so simple that each +family can do its own work. The servant system is but little different +from the slave system, and it ought to be abolished. + + ------------------------------------- + +The money man gives to get him into heaven is what he ought to use to +improve the earth. + + ------------------------------------- + +The Unitarian walks with a cane, the Congregationalist, Methodist, +Presbyterian and Baptist go with crutches, the Episcopalian has to be +pushed about in an invalid's chair, while the Roman Catholic crawls on his +hands and knees and is led around with a ring in his nose by a priest. + + + + + +A HEAVENLY FATHER + + +It may pay some persons to talk about a heavenly father who cares for his +earthly children, but we prefer to get money in a more honorable business. +Honor bright, now, gentlemen of the pulpit, did you ever see anything that +convinced you that there is a power in the universe outside of the human +body, that cared a snap for men, that showed any more love for a child +than for a crocodile? Tell the truth, and let us see how far apart we are +on this question. + +We have no objection to being taken care of by a heavenly father, or by +any person or power that is wiser and kinder than man. But we do not want +to put our trust in such a being or power and then, just when we needed +most the help and counted on it, find that we had been deceived. We admit +the good that is in Nature, the beautiful, the attractive, but we cannot +put faith in the God of earthquakes. When we listen to a bird's +full-throated song, and surrender ourselves in delicious rapture to the +spell of its wondrous melody, we are ready to acknowledge that a benignant +power gave life to this sweet little charmer, that can start such a flood +of joy in the human heart, but when in strolling among the meadow's +blossoms we are confronted with the repulsive head and ominous attitude of +the rattlesnake, we ask: Who made you? We admire Nature in some forms, but +detest it in others. We pick the rose with a blessing on its perfect +beauty and perfumed breath, but we shun the white flower of the +dogwood--the poisonous hypocrite. When the sky is fair and blue, and a +smile is on the face of heaven, we feel that only kindness and love sit +enthroned above us, but when the blue changes to black and the smile to a +frown, which grows deeper and darker until the whole heavens threaten +destruction to earth; when the heedless lightning, with brutal stroke, +fells at our feet a form we love, we wonder where the kindness and love +have gone that we saw only a few hours before. Nature does not keep one +mood long. She has made things fair and things foul; she blesses, but she +curses also; she wins us with some temptation of beauty, and then punishes +us for yielding; she puts in our heart an angel of love, but she puts +there, too, a devil of hate; she caresses us one minute and kicks us the +next; she licks our hand, and then without warning she bites us. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is more power to-day in a drop of ink than in a ton of powder. + + ------------------------------------- + +A man may have respect for old age and not like to find gray hairs in his +butter. + + + + + +WORSHIP NOT NEEDED + + +The world will never throb with new life until the spell of worship is +broken. Nothing holds mankind down so much as veneration for its idols. +Shake off the lethargy that worship has brought upon the soul. Live like +men, and you need not worship gods. When we live true to the soul we cease +to ask for anything. Worship is denial of self. Let us have no disputes +about divinity. Let God take care of himself. The light of the stars +proves their existence. The universe needs no counsel of defence. That +which is evident need not be explained. + +The great question for us to answer is not what God wants, but what men +need. Let us live to ourselves. Worship is interruption. Let our life +satisfy. Worship is apology. If we are doing our best, what need to excuse +our work? What good does it do to praise God? That is the true love which +obeys, not that which adores. We want willing hands, not lifted ones. +Worship is superfluous. It adds nothing to the soul. It increases our +cares, not our virtues. The test of everything is, does it help man? + +We challenge the church to prove its claim to man's support. It throws a +shadow upon the earth instead of letting more light upon it. The priest is +in man's way. Worship is a compliment to the deity that he does not need, +and a burden upon man which he is not able to bear. Nature does not +worship. She grows. Worship is opposition to reform. It palsies the +world's thought. It means stagnation. It is difficult to get advocated +what will correct society, because mankind spends so much time in the +church that it has no time to spend in the theatre of improvement. Worship +is hypocrisy's disguise. What a train of splendid deceit marches up the +aisles of the church! What a mask is worship, but the world can see +through it. When falsehood kneels in praise of truth; when extortion and +cruelty call God father; when meanness and vice are the disciples of +Jesus, and when crime and sin say, "Thy will be done," the name of +religion is a blush on the forehead of the world. + + ------------------------------------- + +We would not dethrone the world's heroes. The more human beings we can get +the world to honor and respect the better humanity will be, but when a man +or woman has been for ages almost worshipped by the world; when time, with +its forgiving hand, has erased deed after deed until naught else is left +of the man or woman but a holy memory, an unreal soul, whose virtues are +as ghostly as shadows cast by the moon, it behooves us to look with +unprejudiced mind at this phantom of existence and to see with naked eye +this object of adoration, for one may be certain that beneath the idol's +robes will be found a human form and with it all the peculiarities of +human nature. + + + + + +WAS JESUS A GOOD MAN + + +We denied in the presence of a Christian, who wished to have a religious +talk with us, that Jesus was divine. This denial was somewhat anticipated, +we imagine, as the gentleman who challenged our views was knowing to the +fact that we did not pay pew rent anywhere. But he thought to secure +assent from us by saying, "You will have to admit that Jesus was a good +man." What constitutes a good man? A good man is a man who is kind, +loving, merciful, reasonable, and just. Would a just man pay the laborer +who had worked but one hour as much as he paid him who had toiled all day? +Would a reasonable man curse a fig tree because it did not have fruit on +it out of season? Would a loving man say: He that hateth not father and +mother is not worthy of me? Would a merciful man send those who did not +agree with him into everlasting fire? Would a kind-hearted man bring a +sword rather than peace on earth? + +The truth is, we do not know _what_ kind of a man Jesus was. Good men have +been killed by bad ones, and bad men killed by good ones. If Jesus was +killed because he was a blasphemer the chances are that he was better than +those who put him to death, but if he was killed because he sought to +overturn the government and secure the throne for himself, he may have +been a very bad man. But by the gospel-record we hold that Jesus was not a +man for this age to honor or imitate. + + + + + +HOW TO HELP MANKIND + + +There are various ways of helping the world, and all are to be commended. +Perhaps the way that costs the least, and consequently helps the least, is +the giving of good advice. This, we believe, is about the poorest thing +that can be given to man. It is a gratuity on the giver's part which is +never received quite as it is bestowed. But it is usually born of good +intentions, and so we have to be thankful for it, even if we do not use +it. To those who are inclined, however, to render assistance to their +fellow-beings, we would say: Give good advice last, or, at any rate, give +something with it. There is no use telling a poor man where there is a +good restaurant when he has no money in his purse. + +Another way of helping the world is the material way--giving something that +will relieve its wants, pay its debts, or add to its independence. The +sympathy that takes the shape of dollars and cents always reaches the +heart. The rarest virtue in this world of ours is generosity, and the +rarest man is he who gives to the world asking for no dividends but in the +happiness of his fellow-creatures. Money, when wisely bestowed, comes +about as near the shape of an angel as any earthly thing can assume. + +But there are other ways of assisting the world, and while we admit all +the good that can be done with money, men and women need to-day to be +helped with truth, helped with justice. Mankind are suffering from +falsehoods, from wrongs as well as from ignorance, from want and poverty. +Those who are unjust to their fellows should help them by dealing justly +by them. Those who are keeping the world in darkness should help it by +telling the truth. Truth and justice are every man's right, and every +man's due. You can help the world by being just to it, by using your +fellow-beings honestly, squarely, justly. You can help it by telling the +truth and by concealing nothing that is true. + +Man needs an education in unselfishness. He must learn to work for himself +without working against others. The advantage which a man gains to-day is +too often at the disadvantage of his brother or sister. It is a poor +victory which inflicts suffering. The true measure of man's success is the +joy his life confers upon the world. + + ------------------------------------- + +The man who wants to be an angel is never in a hurry to begin. + + ------------------------------------- + +The man who gets on his knees has not learned the right use of his legs. + + ------------------------------------- + +Ignorance is all that saves some people: if they knew more they would do +worse. + + + + + +ON THE CROSS + + +Christianity teaches that Jesus was divine. To admit that he was not +divine is to give up Christianity. In the light of this teaching let us +look at Jesus on the cross. After a brief, but rather peaceful career, +Jesus is arrested, tried and convicted as a blasphemer, and sentenced to +be put to death. It is said that he died on a cross. How did he die? It is +said by Christians "like a God." + +There have been brave deaths on the gallows and at the stake. Men have +died sublimely whom society has condemned as criminals. In our day there +has been as lofty heroism evinced in the face of the most terrible of +deaths as ever martyr of old manifested when dying for his faith. We know +that men have walked into the arms of an ignominious death without a +tremor, and with magnificent courage shining in their faces. + +Brave dying proves less than brave living. The sacrifice of a lifetime +shows the courage that commands our deepest admiration. Some mother, some +sister, or daughter who has offered herself for years upon the hidden +altar of duty has performed a deed beside which a moment's suffering is as +naught. But the average mind fails to discern heroism, except where the +suffering is apparent. + +We will admit for the moment that Jesus died upon the cross. We will allow +all the pain and agony of such a cruel and terrible death. We will let +every picture of his suffering that has drawn tears from the eyes of women +be accepted as true. We would not rob the manner of his death of a single +pang. It was merciless, pitiless, devilish. Crucifixion is the essence of +cruelty, the refinement of torture, the invention of brutality. We +acknowledge all the horrors of the cross. We do not wonder that a man +should shrink from being nailed to its arms, but we do wonder that a God +should. We are not surprised that human weakness should cry out of its +breaking heart for sympathy and help, but we cannot understand why divine +strength should ask for pity or aid. If Jesus was God he should have died +in divine silence. The record of the last hours of Jesus shows that he +died disappointed. The cross proves that Jesus was human. When he cried +out: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," a keener anguish pierced +his heart than when the cruel iron was driven through his flesh. + +The dogma of the divinity of Jesus should have died on the cross, when the +man of Nazareth gave up the ghost. + + ------------------------------------- + +The man who does no thinking before he acts does twice as much afterwards. + + ------------------------------------- + +Adam may not have been so perfect after the "fall," but he was not so big +a fool. + + + + + +EQUAL MORAL STANDARDS + + +Why are girls brought up with more care as to their personal habits than +boys? And why do women have fewer vices than men? It is an undeniable fact +that what is looked upon with indifference in a man would be regarded with +disgust, if not horror, in a woman. Boys do things that would not be +tolerated in girls. Why are there two standards of behavior? Why is one +sex held to stricter moral account than the other? Why is a man allowed to +do what is condemned in a woman? + +The average daughter is better behaved, has better personal habits, than +the average son. The average mother has fewer vices than the average +father. The average woman is less vicious than the average man. Whose +fault is it that this is so? It is somebody's. Whose is it? It is time to +find out. Have men fixed the standard for women, and women for men? It is +approximately true that either sex is what the other demands of it. Women +are too indulgent towards the other sex. We believe it lies with them more +than with men to elevate the moral standard of the world. + +A father would not take his daughter to places where he takes his son, +would not condone in her habits which he overlooks, if not encourages, in +his boy. Picture a father going to a saloon with his daughter, and there +treating her to a "Tom and Jerry," or a "beer," and then calling for +cigars for two, and sitting there smoking together for half an hour or so! +A man will do this with his boy but not with his girl. Why not? If it is +right and harmless for one, why not for the other? Is it true or not that +what is right for men is wrong for women? + +We ought to have only one moral standard. The sexes should be held to like +behavior. Men can have just as good habits as women. We do not believe in +forgiving in one what we condemn in another, in allowing a young man to do +with impunity what we will not tolerate in a young woman. + +If we are to have one standard of morals, which shall it be? Shall it be +the highest or lowest? Shall it be the standard for man or for woman? +Shall we permit women to do as men do, or shall we insist that men shall +be equally pure in personal habits with women? The divided standard of +conduct which now exists should be done away with. Let us demand equal +behavior of the sexes, and let that behavior be fashioned after the +highest moral demand of society. We do not wish to educate boys to be +girls, but we can educate boys to have as good habits as girls have, which +would be a great gain to the world. + +We must hold women largely responsible for the vices of men. There is not +a vicious habit which a man would not lay at the feet of woman did she +demand it. Not a man would tolerate in a woman what a woman tolerates in a +man. Let us have one moral standard for men and women, for both sexes, and +mete out to each the same punishment for violation of its restrictions. + + + + + +AUTHORITY + + +The man that does what his reason says is right is the man that should be +honored by men. There can be no higher authority for doing a thing than +that it is right. It is not whether a thing has ever been done before, +but, _Is it right_? If there is no precedent, then it is a duty to +establish one. + +How many accept the opinions of others because they fear to question their +authority! This regard for what other people think and say is well enough +only when it does not destroy independence of thought and speech in +ourselves. Another's opinion is not to be respected when it is a fetter to +our freedom. + +We need not rehearse the evils which the world has borne on account of its +fear to do right _alone_. Man must have someone to share the danger, to +share the blame, but a dozen cowards are not worth so much as one brave +man, and right is no _more_ right because ten say it instead of one. A +thousand felt what Luther said; a thousand believed what Parker did. The +best man in us is often the one that does not speak. The truest belief of +the heart is the one never confessed. Man seldom comes to the surface. He +rarely has a call to be himself, but to be somebody that will please the +world. Man is obliged to make himself into a theological likeness; into a +political representation. It will be centuries before men can assert +themselves fearlessly without injury. + +It is no easy matter for a man to set himself against popular opinion and +maintain his position. Every power is brought to bear upon him that +falsehood can invent and malice employ. A person who refuses to +acknowledge the authority of the hour asserts a higher. When a man slaps +the world in the face he should have truth on his side and courage to meet +the stake and the cross. The majority never forgives him who denies its +judgment. The individual that challenges the majority must prove his right +of defiance. When a man is greater or better than men he must pay the +penalty. The world cannot yet forgive anyone for excelling it. Authority +when it debases man should be disputed; when it denies man his rights +should be rejected. + +It is plain to be seen, without illustration or example, that man's +authority is not found in his own mind. He has no history that reaches +beyond custom. Man begins with man so far as facts prove. Society rests +upon hearsay and religion upon tradition. A claim has only to be made upon +ignorance to be granted. This good-natured world of ours would believe +anything, or make-believe believe it, to save its soul. It takes either a +very shrewd man or a moderately mean one to dodge every duty of life and +remain respectable. It is dangerous to go outside the beaten path, not +only on account of the persecution of the present but on account of the +folly of the future. The world can easily twist an action into a law or a +man into a God if profit hang on the end of its deed. The authority of +half man's actions to-day depends upon some accident or fraud of the past. +Man wants a little of the fabulous yet in his meat and drink. He loves to +think that Jesus is present when he drinks his wine and eats his bit of +bread, although it is a mystery. + +Popular opinion is the authority of most words and actions. We speak to +men as to children--to please them. We tell them some parable or fairy +story instead of telling them their faults honestly and trying to make +them better. Most men begin by bowing to public opinion and end by +carrying it on their backs. + +The authority of the world may be disputed without any of the stars being +thrown out of their course or any of the processes of life being +disturbed. The notion that all has been discovered that is essential to +the welfare of man is a mistaken one. The other notion that the +preservation of whatever is elevating and refining depends upon the +religious opinions of mankind, is equally delusive. The authority of the +Bible, of Jesus, of the church, has been quoted until the world is +prepared for a better. We might lose the Bible and not lose our place in +the ranks of civilization. Jesus might be forgotten and man would still +strive for a higher life. The church might perish in a night and not a +single particle of goodness be lost. If we speak honest words, do honest +work and live honest lives, we need not ask for God's help or the help of +anybody. We do not give to immorality the hours we redeem from +superstition. We give to manhood and womanhood every hour which we make +natural and free. It is not necessary for a man to go to church in order +to be righteous. The world found assistance before Jesus was born. There +has always been saints outside of a convent. We need no book holy that +good counsel shall be valuable. The highest authority is the highest human +enlightenment. It needs no priest back of opinion to give it force. + + ------------------------------------- + +Why does a man enter the Christian ministry? + + ------------------------------------- + +The reason that revelation is always made to the simple is that the wise +could not be imposed upon. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is no sadder grief than that which lies at the bottom of a life that +has been wrecked through deception. + + ------------------------------------- + +An organization that requires the suppression of facts and the +discouragement of knowledge in order to maintain its supremacy, is the +relic of a tyranny which our free age and our free thought are in duty +bound to remove from the earth. + + + + + +A CLEAN SABBATH + + +In a discussion with a lady, recently, upon the Sunday question, after the +various pros and cons had been set up and bowled down, she exclaimed: "For +mercy's sake, don't say any more against the sabbath. Why, if it were not +for Sunday, most people would never wash themselves nor change their +clothes." Sunday, then, is to be established for the sake of cleanliness. +The command for keeping the sabbath should therefore read: Six days shalt +thou labor and do all thy work, and on the seventh day wash thyself and +change thy clothes. If people will not keep clean without a divine +command, we are in favor of cleanliness. We do not know of any better use +to put God's name to. Sunday is certainly the cleanest day of the week. If +people will make themselves clean and neat only for God's sake, we are +willing to endure a little superstition for the blessing of cleanliness. +But is there any ground for the assertion of the lady? As everyone knows, +religion has produced the filthiest specimens of humanity that ever +offended the senses of man. Dirt, and not cleanliness, was deemed next to +godliness by the saints of old. The filthier a human being became, the +holier he grew. It was regarded in the middle ages, that is, in the ages +when everything was sacrificed to religion, as almost a sin to keep clean. +It was waste of time to care for the body. It was taught that it was +holier to worship than to wash. Nor did these dirty old saints of old go +nasty entirely on their own authority. They were nasty for Christ's sake. +They went unclean because Jesus had encouraged nastiness. He believed more +in clean hearts than in clean hands. He taught his disciples that "to eat +with unwashed hands defileth not a man." Dirty Christians are still +plenty, but civilization prevails over superstition and the reign of dirt +is doomed. The follower of Jesus quotes his master to defend his filthy +condition in vain to-day. The gospel of decency has been preached, and +what is manly and womanly is honored more than what is godly and pious. +Clean infidelity is preferable in good society to nasty piety. There may +be honor in rags, but there is none in dirt. Soap and water cost less than +religion, but are worth a thousand times as much to the world. If Romanism +required its devotees to take a bath instead of going to mass, it would +confer a greater boon upon the world. + + ------------------------------------- + +No man gets estimated for exactly what he is, and it is lucky he doesn't. + + ------------------------------------- + +A great many men and women are remembered for what somebody has said about +them. + + + + + +HUMAN INTEGRITY + + +It is hard for a man to be a man. It is easier to be almost anything else. +We do not find the reason for what we do in ourselves, but seek it in +someone else, or somewhere else. Manhood is not our standard of action. +Human integrity is generally looked upon as an eccentricity. We almost +despise a person who is more upright than the conventional man. Throughout +society there runs a stream of circumstance upon which lives float like +chips. The man who turns against this stream, and seeks to stem it, is +looked upon as a madman or a fool. Everybody admits that the world is +hardly going right, but everybody goes with it. The current of human life +can be turned into a larger channel by a larger man. Mind follows mind. + +We do not demand the truth; we do not insist upon the right; we are +satisfied with less than integrity. It is not in a spirit of carping that +we say this, but because it is true. Let us glance at the world as it lies +before us. Theories pass for facts, faith for evidence. We assert without +knowledge; we are positive without proof. Man is condemned for not +believing, although living a pure and noble life; he is praised for +believing, although living a selfish and cruel life. Men are not judged by +human nature, but by opinions which are uppermost in public esteem. Men +and women are bad according to the standard of one age; good according to +that of another. Theologies, which may be wrong, condemn men who may be +right. Justice is never man's precedent. The world quotes Moses, David, +Paul, Jesus, to defend its conduct or prove its guilt. + +Authority is another's opinion. Law is what has been done and sanctioned +by mankind. The decision of one court binds another. One text is quoted to +prove another. A man's act is made a rule of life. We say, to defend +ourselves: "He did it." The world's power of attorney is in its own +handwriting. Our appeal is to some one else. We get our politics from our +fathers, our religion from our mothers. The church is preaching what +others believed. + +The mind still leans. Only a few could stand without a support. The props +of the world keep it from falling. Men are not upright of their own +strength. No man's action is the patent of manhood. The world does not +ask, "What virtues are yours?" but, "What creed do you accept?" A dozen +agree and call some one else a doubter, a Freethinker, an Infidel, an +Atheist. To be able to stand alone is to be blamed by those who cannot do +so. + +Man must learn this, that he has no greater strength than his own; that he +has no higher duty than to obey the behest of his own nature. When we +forsake the world's follies and shams we shall find something better. We +are never abandoned until we have been abandoned by ourselves. + +When we refuse to do our duty we must still expect Nature to do hers. The +sun and moon do not stand still at man's command. It is greater to keep +one's integrity than it is to gain the whole world. + + ------------------------------------- + +It is harder to live when those we love are dead. + + ------------------------------------- + +The trouble with divine revelation is that we do not know who did the +business. + + ------------------------------------- + +A person has not much excuse for living who can make no better use of life +than passing it in a nunnery. + + ------------------------------------- + +Men talk of alleviating the aching hearts and souls of the world, but if +they would relieve the aching backs and arms of men and women by being +kinder to those who toil, there would be fewer suffering hearts for their +sympathy's consolation. It sounds vulgar, perhaps, to speak of backaching, +but the pains of work are among the saddest facts of human life. + + + + + +IS IT TRUE + + +There is a lot of sentiment going around the world strangely at variance +with human action. No one lives as he professes to believe, as he says he +thinks. Men declare a thing to be true but act as though they wished it +false. It is frequently stated that: + + + "Honor and shame from no condition rise, + Act well your part, there all the honor lies." + + +Who believes it? Did Pope when he wrote it? Does a person that reads it? I +doubt it. + +It ought to be true, perhaps, that men should be respected, honored, and +praised just as much for carrying a hod well as for writing a poem or +acting Hamlet well, but it is not so regarded. + +A man as a man may be just as worthy, just as honorable, just as much +deserving the respect of his fellows who uses a pick and shovel on the +highway, but it is a fact that the common laborer as such is not respected +nor honored as much as the man who pays him for his labor. All the honor +may lie in doing well whatever he has to do, but it is _what a man does_, +not how he does it, that receives the honor of the world, just the same. +Probably thousands of women are acting well their part as washerwomen in +Boston at this time, but are they honored as Sarah Bernhardt is for acting +Cleopatra? Would wealthy women pay ten dollars to see a woman scrub a +floor, even if she could scrub better than any woman who ever scrubbed +before? We guess not. There is the point. + +There is no such epitaph as this on the marble of the world: He acted well +his part as a coal-heaver. It is true that Lincoln is pointed to as having +been a rail-splitter when a young man, but had he never been anything else +he would not have had a monument an inch above the ground. It is not +Garfield the tow-boy, but Garfield the statesman, the President, that is +honored. + +It is a fact that merit is not always appreciated, but it is equally a +fact that no merit is seen in the common occupations of life. A person +might wear his fingers to bones in what is regarded as menial employment, +and all his giant labor would not call forth a single word of praise. A +dollar or two a day is all the reward the world gives for manual labor. No +one sees heroism in farm work, in kitchen work. No one contributes money +to erect a statue to the hod-carrier. Work is not honored. The man or +woman who is obliged to work in order to live is regarded with pity or +contempt by those who live upon the labor of others. + +It is not true that all the honor lies in doing well whatever we have to +do. Such a saying is as false as to say "Ask, and you shall receive." +Honor is not given gratuitously. It has to be earned. But it is a fact +that we do not honor all labor, all virtue, equally. + + + + + +KEEP THE CHILDREN AT HOME + + +Fathers and mothers want to see their children grow up into good, moral, +respectable men and women. How to insure this desirable result is a +serious problem. It is seen that the school is not sufficient to insure +character, nor does the church exert sufficient influence to guide the +feet in right paths. + +We have the deepest faith in what the school is doing and trying to do, +and would help it in every way to promote the instruction in those +branches of knowledge which are deemed essential to a sound and useful +education, but we cannot fail to see that the school, however much it may +assist the child in the formation of good habits, is not of itself +competent to build up character. The school cannot take the place of the +home, nor can the teacher do the work of the parent. We believe that the +best way to have good boys and girls, and therefore good men and women, is +to have good homes for them to live in. If parents gave more attention to +making their homes attractive to their children, they would not be so apt +to seek amusement in other places. The more a child is kept at home, the +more certain it will be to escape the evils of life. A good home is the +first and most powerful factor in forming the character of children. + +There is too much thought given by parents generally to the church and too +little to the home. They shirk their duty and their responsibility, and +pray God to look after what they neglect. With the father at work and the +mother at mass, the children will be in the street. Those parents who put +the home above the church are throwing around their children the best +influences that earth affords. When children are left to the care of God +they too often fall into the hands of the policeman. Let the path between +the home and the school be well worn, but never mind if the grass grows in +the road that leads to the church. + +The child will usually love home if home is made lovely. If parents wish +to drive their children into temptation, let them shut the sunshine of joy +out of the house, forbid the playing of games, burn up the pack of cards +that is found in one of the boy's rooms, call a ball-room the "devil's +headquarters," and pronounce a malediction upon all youthful sports. It is +easy enough to drive a boy or girl out into the dark. Put out the lights +at home. Those parents who know the evil influences of the world will make +their homes bright and beautiful and then keep their children there as +long as they can. + + ------------------------------------- + +The doctrine of salvation by faith is a libel on justice and has done more +to undermine the virtue of the world than vice itself. + + + + + +TEACHER AND PREACHER + + +There is one great change which we hope to see brought about in the near +future, because we think it ought to be brought about as a matter of +justice. It is this: the elevation of teachers above preachers. +Civilization, and all that this word stands for today, depends more upon +the school than upon the church. It is the teacher and not the preacher +that trains the growing minds of our children, that builds the structure +of character for future men and women, and gives to the young the sacred +touch that keeps them in right paths. The world does not half appreciate +the work done by the school teacher, while it exaggerates out of all +proportion to its worth, the work done by the preacher. The church may +fall, but if the school stands, liberty will remain; the paths of +knowledge will be free; the brow of civilization will still shine white +against the skies of life, and the glorious cup of learning be pressed to +the thirsting mouth of youth; but should the school fall, though the +church might stand, all this would be reversed;--liberty would be driven +from the earth, the highways of knowledge would be closed, civilization +would fade into the night of the "dark ages," and the thirsting lips of +life be fed with Bible scraps and the logic of dead creeds. The teacher is +the mighty power in this republic, the truest friend of our nation's +institutions, the one person above all others that this country should +honor and reward. One teacher is worth a thousand priests; one school, a +thousand churches. + +The person whose duty it is to direct the education of the young holds the +sceptre of a nation's destiny, and the school teacher occupies the most +important station to which one can be elected. We fear that the profession +of teaching is not rightly prized by the American people, and we are sure +it is not justly rewarded. No class in the land are paid so poorly, +according to the service they perform, as our school teachers, while no +class should be paid so well. Far more valuable to our government is the +teacher than the preacher, and yet the salary of the latter exceeds the +former in every city and town in the land. This should be changed. +Preaching a superstition is no benefit but an injury to a people, while +training the mind to read, to think, to gather knowledge is the highest +service which one can perform. + +We have the greatest respect for the men and women who have prepared +themselves for the high office of teacher, and we would see them rewarded +for their labor as it deserves. The hope of a country is in the right +education of its people, and the way to secure such education is to +encourage the teacher by showing a just appreciation of his or her labors. +So we say, put the school above the church, the teacher above the +preacher. + + + + + +FEAR OF DOUBTS + + +We cannot help thinking that Goethe showed lack of courage when he said: +"I will listen to any one's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to +yourself, I have plenty of my own!" It seems to us that only a coward is +afraid of doubts. If our convictions are false is it not better to know it +and correct them? Doubt is the way to truth. It is the attitude of the +mind that wants to know things just as they are. They who are unwilling to +be deceived are the ones to doubt, to inquire. Let us hear all the doubts +of the world, for they are knocks at the door of knowledge. To accept +without question is to be the willing dupe of imposition. + +The doubter is the safe man; the man who can be depended upon. He does not +build upon a foundation of guesswork, and the structure he erects will +stand. Let us not fear doubt, but rather fear to have falsehood passed for +truth. + + ------------------------------------- + +There is no authority that can be quoted against a man but the authority +of some other man. + + ------------------------------------- + +Nine times out of ten the man who declares that God is tender to the +sparrow that falls is not the man to buy a winter's coal for a poor widow. + + + + + +BIBLE-BACKING + + +There is less backing one's thoughts with the Bible than formerly. The +world is getting weaned from this book. The idea is gaining ground that, +if anything is true, it can support itself. When a man leans on God he is +so much less a man. Mental uprightness disdains the Bible's support. +Honest thought can defend itself without appealing to divine authority. + +Once a man hardly dared speak unless he quoted from the Scriptures a line +or verse that ran parallel with his speech. + +To-day men say what they think, without caring whether Moses, or David, or +John, agree with them or not. We have reached a healthy independence. We +have commenced to trust our convictions. Such a stage of intellectual +development is not favorable to the divinity of one's thoughts. The report +of one mind is no more divine than that of another, and no more to be +trusted, only as it is more accurate. There is a higher standard than the +word of God for this age--that is, the word of truth. Whosoever speaks +truth can face the world alone. + +When a man needs to go to the Bible to sustain his argument he has a weak +argument. When a dogma does not commend itself to human intelligence it is +useless to declare it infallible. It will die, even though it be professed +a thousand years. It can be accepted only by ignorance and avowed only by +hypocrisy. + +Any man who will quote a Bible-text to defend his opinion in the sense +that such text proves his opinion true, proves himself a dolt. A +Bible-text is only a human opinion, and as humanity surpasses it in the +evolution of experience, it loses its authority and force. We have learned +that human reason does not need to be backed by the Bible, and we have +learned also that the Bible _does_ need to be backed by human reason, or +it has no value. + + ------------------------------------- + +The heart that can deride misfortune confesses its own deformity. + + ------------------------------------- + +When we are satisfied with the present we do not think of the future. + + ------------------------------------- + +The more mystery is encouraged, the more deceit can impose upon the human +mind. + + ------------------------------------- + +If wisdom and diamonds grew on the same tree we could soon tell how much +men loved wisdom. + + + + + +BEGGARS + + +We have come to look upon the poor beggar as a nuisance; upon the man who +comes to our doors for food or clothes as one who has no claim upon our +charity. The common beggar is, as a rule, a worthless character, but let +us be fair to him. He asks for but little; seldom for more than a bite, or +for a few pennies. The poor beggar has only himself to enforce his appeal, +and often he is an injury to his own cause. A dirty, ragged, vice-stained +wreck of humanity is a poor argument to offer for sympathy or help. The +man who begs in the name of man, and with that name rubbed in the dirt +besides, gets little for his asking. + +We do not like any beggars, but we need to understand that it is not the +man in rags, who asks for a piece of bread or meat, that is the only +beggar in the world. There is another and more dangerous beggar that we +open our doors to, and treat with politeness and respect, and whose +appeals we honor; it is the well-dressed beggar who asks for the money +which the arm of labor has coined from its strength, who takes not pennies +where he can get dollars, and who enforces his appeal with the name of +God; it is the ecclesiastical beggar, whose hand is stretched out to take +the earnings of toil, or the profits of trade; whose hand would as soon +take little from poverty as plenty from affluence. + +The rich beggar is a worse enemy to society and to the nation than the +poor beggar. It is the priest, and not the tramp, whose begging we need to +scorn. The man who asks for food in the name of hunger, for help in the +name of want, makes, at least, an honest appeal to our generosity, but the +man who begs in the name of God is an impostor. The tramp's appeal is the +truth--the priest's is a lie. God never yet commissioned a human being to +beg for him, and the person who uses the divine name to enforce his demand +is little better than a thief. + + ------------------------------------- + +In the paths of our life may be seen the footprints of our ancestors. + + ------------------------------------- + +If you are poor, be thankful that you have the power of bettering your +circumstances by bettering yourself; if you are rich, do not forget that +you have the means of doing good, a luxury that is too seldom indulged. + + ------------------------------------- + +Men need nothing so much to-day as self-reliance; courage to stand up +manfully for the right, all alone, without prop or pay, daring everything +for an idea, counting not the cost, but seeing only the grand result which +would follow its triumph and working for that with single purpose and +courageous fidelity. + + + + + +HABITS + + +Habit makes the man, but man makes the habit. It is here where we want to +get in a word. A habit seems a little thing in itself, but it is the most +terrible tyrant that rules the world. And it _does_ rule it, say what we +will. Now, it is essential in this life of ours to start right if we are +going to come out right. And the best thing to start with is a good habit. +It is just as easy when a young man is forming his habits to form good +ones as bad ones. Good habits are not expensive. A virtue does not cost a +quarter as much to support as does a vice. + +We sometimes wonder how it is that a being with brains, with intelligence, +with reason, could ever become a slave to habit. It does not seem possible +that a MAN cannot order his conduct. But we must recognize facts. Men are +victims of habits. They do not perceive that they are bound until they try +to be free, and then the strong power of habit asserts itself. How does +this terrible despot conquer the mind, the will, the man? What is this +invisible force that drives the strongest and the brightest with a whip of +iron? It is only an act repeated again and again, but it has become a +second nature, a part of the man, and it has conquered by the power of +reinforcement by repetition. + +The only way to be superior to bad habits is never to acquire them. Do not +do the _first_ bad act. Stop before you begin to go wrong. The time when a +man is saved is when he is young. The time to plant or sow is in the +Spring. The harvest depends upon the seed. We cannot pick figs from +thistles. A bad habit will end in a bad life. Watch the feet of the boy +and the man's will not need watching. We must begin with the young, and +see that right habits are acquired in early life. + +It is only a foot from a good habit to a bad one, but it is a mile back +again. We may lose in an hour all we have made in a year. We can undo in a +day what we have done in a lifetime. A habit is a plant of which an act is +the seed. It will bear fruit if it be a good act, but ashes if it be a bad +act. It is the first step that starts the race. To start right is the best +way to go right and to end right. Never let a bad habit fasten to your +life. + + ------------------------------------- + +It takes the shingles from the widow's cottage to put paint on the house +of God. + + ------------------------------------- + +Many persons who claim that they are "clothed with righteousness" do not +seem to have got very good fits. + + + + + +CAN POVERTY BE ABOLISHED + + +Is poverty a malady of the individual or of society? To answer this +question is to determine how to treat the disease. If the individual is +alone responsible for being poor, then he alone is to apply the remedy; +but if society is to blame for poverty, then must society take the steps +to effect a cure. Poverty is an evil. A human being who is starved +physically is starved mentally and morally. Civilization begins when man +has risen above want. Man is only a brute when all of his energies are +absorbed in the effort to get bread. + +In the present state of society we have dependence and independence; a few +have escaped from the burdens of toil, but the many are still slaves to +physical wants. But the few enjoy their independence at the expense of +those beneath them, and oftentimes by inflicting wrong and injustice upon +their fellows. Such a condition ought not to be allowed. Prosperity is the +accumulated efforts of mankind. No man has created all the benefits he +enjoys; no one has sowed all that he reaps. The rich man to-day is rich +because he has, by advantageous circumstances, obtained possession of more +than his share of the world's wealth, or because he has inherited what +others have obtained in the same way, or because by thrift and economy and +good luck he has succeeded in getting money and keeping it. + +But what makes the poor man? Not one thing, or one condition. He is the +victim sometimes of his own follies, vices or laziness, although he is +often not to be blamed for his poverty. There are individual cases where +doubtless destitution is the child of misfortune, but the general poverty +of the world, and of this country in particular, cannot be charged to any +such account. + +In our land there is a balance every year to the credit of wealth, but is +it not true that this balance finds its way to the pockets already filled, +rather than to those that are empty? _What diverts the products of labor +from the hands of labor?_ Find out that, and then we will begin to give +labor its due. There is enough produced every year to make every person in +the land better off at the end of the year. Why are so few richer, and so +many poorer, or, at least, no better off? There is one thing sure,--labor, +thrift, economy, virtue and good habits are to be commended and +encouraged, while idleness, vice, profligacy and bad habits are to be +condemned and discouraged. We do not look to any external change in +society for a remedy for poverty, but rather to an internal change in man. +It is not social revolution that will help the world, but humanity--the +willingness to do what is right. + + ------------------------------------- + +"It rains on the just and the unjust," but rarely just enough on either. + + + + + +THE ROMAN CATHOLIC GOD + + +Cicero said that "men, having exhausted all the mad extravagancies they +are capable of, have yet never entertained the idea of eating the God whom +they adore." The extravagance which was beyond the contemplation of the +Pagan mind, is an every day affair with a large part of the Christian +world. The Roman Catholic eats his God every week, and Catholics have been +guilty of this religious cannibalism for centuries. + +In the celebration of the eucharist, which is a service commemorative of +the death of Jesus, bread and wine are used in Protestant churches as +emblems of the body and blood of the crucified one. But in Roman Catholic +churches the real presence of Jesus is seen in the "host," which, in +itself, is a little wafer of baked flour and water, but when consecrated +by the priest and offered as a sacrifice, during mass, becomes the actual +body of God. According to Roman Catholic doctrine, dough is changed to +Deity by the mumbling of a few Latin words over it by a priest. When the +priest swallows the consecrated wafer he really swallows this God he +adores. + +There is an absurdity which the doctrine of transubstantiation is +accountable for, which cannot be paralleled among all the religions of +heathenism. Not only does this doctrine make it possible for one God to be +eaten by one priest, but for thousands of gods to be thus devoured. The +Roman Catholic religion teaches that God is manufactured out of flour and +water by a pastry cook. Every time a wafer is turned into a "host," a God +is made. + +Were there a tribe in Asia or Africa guilty of such ridiculous practices +as are witnessed in the Roman Catholic church, missionaries would be sent +out to them. It seems to us, that if people know no better than to believe +that when the priest swallows a little lump of bread he is actually +swallowing the body of a person who lived eighteen hundred years ago, whom +they look upon as God, they are not intelligent enough to be ranked in the +army of progress and civilization. + + ------------------------------------- + +No one is to blame for what no one knows. + + ------------------------------------- + +It is singular that people want to live another life when it is so hard to +live this. + + ------------------------------------- + +A church that sets up a religious faith as more essential than purity, +than kindness, charity or goodness, is a dangerous institution. + + + + + +HUMAN CRUELTY + + +The mosquito inflicts his sting upon the place whence he draws his life. +Not unlike this venomed insect is the person who, through malice, wounds +the feelings of a human being. There seems to be in certain organizations +the poison of hatred, and woe betide those on whom it falls. The heart +that can take delight in saying cruel things, in raising unkind doubts or +starting unpleasant thoughts, ought never to have had a human face to hide +behind. Such an individual ought to crawl in its native shape that it +might be crushed under the heel of scorn. + +The only way to treat a human viper is to keep away from it, ignore its +presence, and to shut the ears to its venomed hiss. We know of no more +cruel occupation than wounding human hearts and human feelings. + + ------------------------------------- + +A great many men believe in providence until they get caught in a railroad +accident. + + ------------------------------------- + +Treasures well used on earth will help the world more than treasures laid +up in heaven. + + + + + +INFIDELITY + + +When the minister wants to frighten his congregation he draws a picture of +infidelity. The infidel has been used for years to scare weak-minded +persons into accepting Christianity. Outwardly the infidel is painted like +a man, but the world is warned not to trust to appearances, for the +infidel is not what he looks to be; he is "a fiend in human shape;" he is +"a moral monster," and a mirror in which everything bad and vicious can +see its face. + +We do not wonder that a minister paints the infidel in black. He has hurt +the minister's business, and so must suffer for what he has done. But we +do wonder that so large a part of the world is frightened at the word +"infidelity." + +It is a fact that an infidel would never be known if he himself did not +disclose his character. To conceal his infidelity he has only to keep +still, to hide behind silence. + +Infidelity is nothing more or less than intellectual fidelity, and an +infidel is a man too honest to disguise his real thoughts and convictions. +Had the infidel not been honest he would still be in the church, a +hypocrite, to be sure, but this could not affect his religious status at +all. Intellectual and moral uprightness is the distinguishing +characteristic of modern infidelity. The modern infidel trusts his brain +and his heart; he accepts as true what appeals to his reason, and makes +known his convictions as though to conceal them were a vice or a crime. + +The infidel gains nothing by avowing his convictions; on the contrary, he +is condemned for making them known. The Christian presumes upon the right +to damn infidels here and to teach that God will damn them hereafter. It +is in the face of a fate, in many instances cruel, that a man acknowledges +that his honest thoughts, his honest convictions place him in antagonism +to the popular faith, and yet he is denounced, rather than praised, for +his brave action. + +Infidelity is the proof of an honest man. Hypocrisy cannot hide in its +shadow. Every man in the Christian church may be a hypocrite, a knave, a +pretender professing its faith, while laughing inwardly at its foolish +superstitions, but every man who espouses infidelity must reveal his true +character, must show exactly what he is. + +A dishonest or hypocritical infidel is an impossibility. There is nothing +to be gained, but much to be lost, by confessing one's disbelief of the +Christian dogmas. It is the man who prizes self-respect above the world's +approval who takes the fate of infidelity--be it what it may. + + ------------------------------------- + +Don't put too much faith in the man who wants to know the distance to the +nearest church before he has written his name in the hotel register. + + + + + +ATHEISM + + +What is called atheism is not a light, flippant assertion, but a calm, +thoughtful conclusion. It is a conviction which human experience and human +reflection have generated. Atheism is not the irresponsible opinion of +moral debauchery; it is the outcome of an intelligent consideration of +Nature and life. The atheist has been honest with himself and with the +world. He has made a careful survey of the universe, as far as he is able, +and has canvassed the facts of life which have come within the range of +his observation, and he has candidly declared the result of his study and +freely related the reasons for his conclusions. + +Atheism is the universe as science finds it and as interpreted by human +understanding. It is an attempt to state the simple truth, to give a fair +likeness of things, to photograph facts. Atheism is denial of nothing +true, of nothing good, of nothing that can be proved. We see no good +reason for abusing the atheist. His opinions don't make him a bad citizen +or a bad man. He is as moral as his Christian neighbor, and is as ready to +help a fellow-being. + + ------------------------------------- + +In countries where atheism is a crime, hypocrisy is more honored than +integrity. + + ------------------------------------- + +A great many who expect to hear the angels sing always get near the stage +at a comic opera. + + + + + +CHRISTIAN HAPPINESS + + +Christians are constantly telling "how happy their religion makes them," +how happy they feel "since they found Jesus." We will take them at their +word and believe that they are just as happy as they say they are. What +has their religion done for them, what has Jesus done for them, that they +should be so happy? They will answer that they have been saved, that their +souls have been rescued from destruction. Without going into the question +whether they need to be saved or whether their souls are in any danger of +destruction, let us see what kind of happiness the Christian enjoys. The +great song of Christians is: _My_ soul is saved. The Christian is happy on +his own account alone; he rejoices in his own good fortune; he is pleased +to think that he is out of it. The Christian's happiness is a purely +selfish feeling. In his exultation is no thought of another's condition, +of another's lot. + +If some are saved, others are lost, for all do not accept the Christian +faith, all do not find Jesus. The Christian can be happy while others are +miserable; he can rejoice while knowing that others are in peril; he can +exult over his own salvation while seeing others going to destruction. +This is a fiendish happiness, a devilish joy. For one to be happy while +knowing that a brother or sister is lost shows a hard, selfish, cruel +heart. + +Think of the Christian mother being happy for having been rescued from her +burning home in whose fatal flames her children all perished! Think of the +Christian father filled with joy at his escape from the sinking ship in +which his wife and babe sailed to the port of death! Think of a Christian +man or woman exulting over their good fortune in not having a disease +which took away those who were nearest and dearest! Such joy, such +happiness, as this is not human, it is brutish. + +The Christian is welcome to all the happiness his heartless religion +affords him. I want none of it. Such a religion would drive me mad. + +The loving heart is happiest in the joy of those it loves; it is happy in +seeing others happy, but there could be no joy for it to be saved while +those it loved were lost. Christianity is a heartless religion, a cruel +faith, a selfish scheme, and it is for those who care more about being +saved than saving others. + + ------------------------------------- + +The highest freedom is the freedom to say what we believe to be right. + + ------------------------------------- + +It was a childless woman who said: The happiest woman is she whose bosom +pillows the sweet head of a child. + + + + + +WHAT GOD KNOWS + + +We see in Christian papers a great deal about what God knows. How does any +one know what God knows? It has been the habit, where man lacked any +particular knowledge, of saying, "God knows." But what is the good of God +knowing anything if he keeps his knowledge to himself? If he will not tell +what he knows, how is man improved or benefited by all the wisdom in the +divine cranium? What is known by the inhabitants of Venus does the +inhabitants of earth no good. But let us come down to facts. Is there any +proof that God knows anything? Let men own up, and not try to deceive +themselves or others any longer. What God knows nobody else knows. + +There is no evidence that God knows what man does not, and it is bare +assumption only to ascribe knowledge to deity. It is first necessary for +man to know that there is a God, before endowing him with mental wealth or +attributes. The Christian practice of saying that "God loves man," and +that "God cares for man" has no basis of facts to stand upon, and it is +only pious conceit that indulges in such statements. + +There is nothing in the universe but the universe itself; nothing in the +universe that reveals a God. The earth does not, the sun does not, the +moon does not, and not a planet or star reveals the existence of a God. +All these reveal their own existence; so of a flower, of a tree, of a man. +It is only divinity that can reveal the existence of divinity. Who has +seen or heard this divinity? No one. Men have said, or men have made other +men say, that they have seen God, heard God, and talked with God. But they +lied. No human eye ever saw the divine form or features; no human ear ever +heard the divine voice; no human being ever had any knowledge of a divine +being. + +It is a waste of words to talk about God and what he knows and what he +does. No man knows that God does anything, that God knows anything, or +that there is a God. + + ------------------------------------- + +Blessings on the man who first dared to doubt. + + ------------------------------------- + +The improvement in ways of travel and methods of labor has altered our +reverence. + + ------------------------------------- + +Every kiss of love imprinted by a mother's lips on the face of her babe +gives the lie to the Christian doctrine of total depravity, and every gift +which the heart of pity lays in the hand of misfortune brands this +doctrine as false and a libel on our human nature. + + + + + +THE MEANING OF THE WORD GOD + + +I do not deny that the word "God" has today a moral and religious meaning +which is derived from his supposed beneficence, but this idea is not the +one that I find at the bottom of the Christian faith. I object very +seriously to the attempt, which is being made by certain interested +parties, to represent the God of Christianity better than he is. This word +loses its terror when we realize that it stands for an unknown quantity. +It is the attempt to account for what we cannot understand; the effort to +explain the universe. The word "God" is a definition of human ignorance. +It represents what we do not know. This word does not stand for a person, +an object, or a thing. It is an idea that we can have no idea of, a +thought of what one cannot think. People who use the word "God" do not +know what they are talking about. The word fits nothing that has yet been +discovered. Theology is the science of what no one knows anything about. +It does not belong to the family of knowledge. When the hands of theology +are laid on a man's head his brains are consecrated to do nothing. Every +time a minister is made, a man is lost. Nothing disgraces American +civilization more than the theology preached in Christian churches. It is +worse than childish; it is old-womanish. The dark ages cast their shadows +across the bright skies of the twentieth century, and the relics of that +benighted time, the priests, are still walking the streets, like ghosts of +bad deeds. + +Every theology ends in a creed. A creed is the night-cap of religion. It +is a sign that the intellect is asleep. When faith is in, sense is out. A +man with a creed has bought the coffin for his mind. The rest of his life +will be a funeral service for the dead. A creed is the grave of thought. +When a person subscribes to certain articles of belief, he has no further +use for his brains. It does not require any mental exercise to believe. +Belief does not signify any process of intellectual assimilation or +digestion. When a man joins a church, he makes his last will and +testament. When reason abdicates in favor of credulity, crime becomes a +saint, and folly a martyr. Too much faith makes a Pocasset tragedy. The +foolishness of trying to make God intelligible to human understanding is +shown in the creeds of Christendom. The dogma of the trinity ought not to +pass to any further generation. It is not the "likeness of anything that +is in the heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the +water under the earth." + + + + + +WHAT HAS JESUS DONE FOR THE WORLD + + +A great deal is said about "what Jesus has done for the world." 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 world. It would +puzzle the most ardent admirer of the Galilean reformer to point out +anything that Jesus ever did to help man in this life. There is too much +of this thoughtless, senseless praise of Jesus. Not a Christian on this +earth but what owes a thousand times more to his father and mother than he +owes to Jesus, but who ever heard one acknowledge it? We could name +hundreds of men who have lightened the labor of the world by their +inventions. Did Jesus do anything of the kind? We can name hundreds of men +who have made the homes of mankind brighter and more enjoyable by their +genius and toil. Did Jesus do anything of the kind? + +The imaginary service which this imaginary person did is of no consequence +to the poor, to the workers, to the starvers. What the poor man wants is +not a Savior for another world, but a helper for this world, and the +person who lessens the poverty and misery of earth is worth a thousand +times more to humanity than Jesus. + +We are told that Jesus died for man. Well! What of it? Socrates died for +man. Bruno died for man. Emmet died for man. John Brown died for the black +man. Every day somebody is dying for man. Why emphasize the death of Jesus +more than the death of another? The fact that Jesus died does not help you +or me. He could have helped us far more by living, if he had lived wisely +and well. + +The great fact in regard to Jesus is this: He does not touch this age; its +aspirations, its interests, its reforms, its work, its spirit. We are +living contrary to Jesus, contrary to all he taught and did. He is left +behind, outgrown, and, consequently, whatever he did is of no value to +this age. His star is set. He has had his day. Instead of trying to bring +about a kingdom of poverty, a millennium of idleness, the world is +striving for a kingdom of plenty and a good time for everybody. + +Everything connected with Jesus has been exaggerated. The man himself has +been exaggerated, his words have been exaggerated, his performances have +been exaggerated, and his importance has been exaggerated. He has been +given a character that he is not entitled to, and his teachings have been +clothed with a value which they do not possess. Jesus has been passed for +more than he is worth. Let his name no longer bear the stamp of divinity. +Let his deeds no longer be called miracles. The real Jesus of fact would +be a very ordinary man. + + + + + +THE AGNOSTIC'S POSITION + + +Some avowed Liberal writers are engaged in abusing the Agnostic. One looks +upon him as a fool, while another considers him a hypocrite. One pities +him for his ignorance, the other abuses him for confessing it. I side with +the Agnostic. I sit down with the ignorant. I take my place in the class +of "I-don't-know." The difference between people is this: Some don't know, +and some don't know that they don't know, and the rest won't admit that +they don't know. + +It seems to me that the Agnostic's position is an honest one. He is asked +the question; Is there a future life for man? What shall he answer? If he +does not know whether there is not, why should he not say so? To say: I +believe there is, is not an answer to the question. He must say, I know, +or, I do not know. On this question are we not all Agnostics? + + ------------------------------------- + +The foolish and cruel notion that a wife is to obey her husband has sent +more women to the grave than to the courts for a divorce. + + + + + +ORTHODOXY + + +There is as much perfumery in petroleum as there is righteousness in +orthodoxy. Its dead theology and make-believe piety have no value only to +the priest. Orthodoxy survives only by right of possession. Turn it out of +the churches and it would never re-enter them. The church to-day is a +hospital for sick dogmas. Every Christian doctrine is a cripple; not one +can walk or stand alone. Orthodoxy has put a false valuation on things. It +calls a man good who goes to church, offers a prayer in public and accepts +the Bible as the word of God; it calls a man bad who stays at home and +enjoys himself with his family on Sunday, who eats without asking God to +bless his food, and who does not expect to go to heaven on the vicarious +railroad. + +The thirty-nine articles of orthodoxy are only the ashes of the mind. + + ------------------------------------- + +Honesty is never seen sitting astride the fence. + + ------------------------------------- + +A handsome bonnet covers a multitude of sins. + + + + + +IDEAS OF JESUS + + +There is a vast difference between knowledge of the Bible and knowledge. A +person may know all there is in the Bible, and not know but little. In +fact, so much of the Bible is either pure fiction or doubtful history that +one is not sure when he has got hold of what is reliable. Probably no +person whose name appears in the Bible is less a historical figure than +Jesus. As we see him in either gospel he is more the product of the artist +than the work of the biographer. He is less a human being than the +character of a drama. + +Had Jesus been pictured as a man, who was born as men are born, who worked +as men worked, who lived and died as men live and die, then there would be +less divergence in the views entertained respecting him. To-day, the Jesus +of Galilee is looked upon as either a God or a tramp; a divine Savior or +an impostor; the perfect man or a lunatic. + +The reason of this is that the gospels are found, as it were, photographs +of all those characters labelled Jesus. A person with no fixed idea of +what Jesus was, whether human or divine, whether a Christ or a madman, +would be unable, after reading the gospels to come to any intelligent +conclusion as to what he was. He certainly could not accept the statements +of the authors and regard Jesus as a man. + +We fail to understand how anyone can read the New Testament story of Jesus +and not regard him as a myth. No being ever lived on earth and performed +the miracles recorded in the gospels. That is just as sure as the light of +the stars. Miracles are not evidence of divinity, but of falsehood. Where +we read that a man was raised from the dead we know that somebody has +written what is not true. How human beings, who are possessed of ordinary +intelligence, can accept the accounts of miraculous events in the four +gospels as records of actual facts surpasses our comprehension. + +Those persons who see in the words of Jesus evidence of _his_ divine +character, see in such words, when in the mouth of any other person, proof +of insanity. + +There are contradictory ideas of Jesus contained in the gospels. He is +spoken of as a man, as a Christ, as a son of God, and as God himself. Now, +he could not have been all these. Which was he? Was he God? Was he the son +of God? Was he the Christ or King of the Jews? Was he the son of Mary and +Joseph? Was he a man? Or was he neither? + +Our opinion is that Jesus is a myth, that no such being as is painted in +the New Testament ever lived. This seems to be the only rational idea of +Jesus. + + + + + +THE SILENCE OF JESUS + + +A Christian minister not long ago spoke upon the subject: "When the Bible +is Silent." He said a great many silly things about his subject, but not +one sensible one. This preacher wishes us to believe that when the Bible +is silent it is because we cannot hear. He said the silence of Jesus +before Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, shows that Jesus knew they would not +have understood his words if he had answered them. He further said that +Jesus "treated each with whom he came in contact according to the spirit +that was in him." + +Is it not more likely that Jesus knew he could not impose upon these men +as he could upon his ignorant, superstitious followers, and hence dared +not speak? Is not his silence a confession of his weakness? Had he been +able to answer Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, think you he would not have +done so? Of course he would. It is a little singular that the _most +momentous questions ever put to Jesus were not answered by him_. The very +things the people wished to know he did not reveal. Why not? Why, because +he _could_ not. + +Should we to-day pronounce a man wise and good who professed to possess +knowledge that would benefit, if not save, the world, but who refused to +impart that knowledge? We reckon not. We should either denounce him as the +foe of man or else as a charlatan. + +When Jesus was taken before the high priest, Caiaphas, and was asked about +the charges against him, he "held his peace." + +When he was asked by Pilate. "What is truth?" Jesus was silent; and when +Pilate again asked, "Whence art thou?" Jesus "gave him no answer." + +When Herod "questioned with him in many words," "he answered him nothing." + +What are we to infer from this silence? What the minister wishes us to +infer, or that Jesus saw that he was unable to maintain his claim and so +sought refuge in silence? + +The silence of Jesus condemns him. He was in duty bound to prove that he +was the Christ, the Son of God, as he claimed to be, or else have impostor +written on his forehead. + +The world will some day grow large enough not to be fooled by a minister. +When it does, Jesus will take his place where he belongs,--in the graveyard +of the gods. + + + + + +DOES THE CHURCH SAVE + + +The church pretends to save man from a hell hereafter, but does it do so? +How are we to know whether it does or not? We cannot take its word for it. +We want the proof. We do not want to pay for work unless the work is done. +We do not want to believe in order to be saved, unless we are sure that +the church can deliver the salvation it takes pay for. The world has taken +the promise to save long enough. It has not seen a single soul that has +been saved, nor does it know for a fact that a single soul has been saved. + +Is it not time that the church showed that it can do what it claims to do? +We want salvation demonstrated. Let the church produce a specimen of its +work; let it exhibit a soul that it has saved, or let it publish the +affidavit, duly subscribed and affirmed, of a soul that has escaped the +fate of hell through the efficacy of faith in Jesus. Anything less than +this is deception, is imposition, is false pretense. Either this should be +done by the church or else it should go out of the salvation-business +altogether. + +It is astonishing how long the priest has carried on his trade. Here is a +man who claims to deal in the affairs of another world for which he +demands pay in this world, but he does not show that he carries out his +part of the agreement. Men have been paying the priest for thousands of +years, for doing what it is impossible to prove has been, or can be, done. +Can anything more stupid than this be imagined? The business of saving +man's soul is a cheat, a fraud. Every priest and minister who preaches +that man can be saved from hell hereafter by believing in Jesus, or +anybody else, is preaching what they know nothing about, and they are +doing it for the money in it. The church is cheating man, defrauding him, +practicing upon his ignorance, his superstition, his fear. Religion, as +far as it relates to any other life than this, has no foundation. Its God +no one knows anything about; its heaven and hell no one has ever seen, nor +does anyone know where they are; its whole business is run on fictitious +capital. + +The only thing that the church has saved so far is itself. + +Freethought Precepts + + + The strong should be gentle to the weak. + The rich should not oppress the poor. + The prosperous should be generous to the unfortunate. + The self-reliant should give a hand to the helpless. + The educated should pity the ignorant. + The virtuous should not be cruel to the vicious. + The beautiful should be kind to the plain. + + + + + +SAVE THE REPUBLIC + + +Which shall it be, Christianity or the Republic? It is apparent that the +Christian church under a purely secular government, where justice is +granted to all and where favors are allowed to none, cannot long survive. +The Christian church in this country to-day is the worst foe of our free +republic that exists within its borders. If the state survives it is plain +to us that the church must perish, and the church can only flourish on the +ruins of free institutions. We may have Christianity with a certain form +of human government in America, but if the principles embodied in the +Declaration of Independence and the rights implied in the national +constitution are to survive, then we cannot have Christianity in this +land. + +The next conflict in our nation is to be between secularism and +ecclesiasticism, between men who love liberty and priests who uphold +tyranny, between the lovers of our republic and the foes of secular +institutions. This conflict is nearer than the public imagines; in fact, +it is already going on, and the growth of sentiment in the next generation +in favor of human freedom and human rights will determine whether +secularism will be upheld in our nation, or whether the reign of +ecclesiasticism is to be dethroned. + +The work of the Christian church throughout the land is to prevent the +spread of secular principles and to hinder the further secularization of +the government. This is the only hope of saving Christianity. If the state +will not continue to exempt church property from taxation, to uphold the +Christian sabbath, to prescribe prayers and Bible-reading in the public +schools, to enforce the oath in courts of justice, and to otherwise lend +its aid and support to the Christian religion, there is no chance of this +religion resisting the spread of science and the arguments of rationalism. + +Every victory won by Christianity is a nail in the coffin of this +republic. Our government at the present time is a travesty of free +institutions. Where does the freethinker have equal rights with the +Christian, equal freedom, equal justice? He is obliged to take a Christian +oath or have his word discredited in court; he is taxed to help support +Christian chaplains in the state prisons, in the legislatures, and in the +army and navy; he is made by law to pay the taxes on church property which +is no benefit to him; he has to send his children to schools where +religious services are conducted that to him are false and foolish, and in +many other ways help maintain a religion that he considers more injurious +than beneficial to the world. + +The church in this country is not working for the good of the nation; it +is working to save itself. What they, who love our free land, should do, +is to make the government secular in every part, and compel Christianity +to take its grasp off of the nation's life. We must destroy Christianity +if we would save the republic. + + + + + +A WOMAN'S RELIGION + + +The Christian church of to-day is the church of women. Woman is certainly +the better-half of Christianity. She is the minister's right bower. The +Christian soldier is an Amazon. The first at the prayer-meeting, at the +donation party, at the missionary convention, at the Sunday service, at +the altar, at the Sunday school is woman, and the last is woman, too. +Without its female members, adherents and workers the Christian church +would be an abandoned wreck within a week. It is true that men give money +to the church, but they do it generally to please the women or at their +solicitation. + +The Christian religion is a female religion. It is emotional piety. There +is nothing robust, independent about it, nothing that appeals to strength, +intellect, reason. It is a vine, not an oak. Even its chief idol was +fashioned for female worship. The songs of Christianity were written for +women to sing, rather than men. The God of Christianity is a father, its +savior is a young man, and its angels are all of the masculine gender. The +Christian heaven is a he-kingdom, as far as its administration is +concerned--a sort of celestial harem--for certainly ten women go there to +one man, if the membership of the church determines the election of +candidates to heavenly bliss. The two favorite hymns at the +prayer-meeting, the two that are sung with most feeling, are "Jesus, lover +of my soul," and "Nearer, my God, to thee." + +Religion was invented to catch women. The priest is the spider and woman +the fly. Upon the altar of every faith woman has been the sacrifice. +Religion claims its female victims in this age just as surely as when the +Hindoo widow was sent to join her dead husband on wings of flame. Woman +to-day is not killed to appease a God, but she is still made a fool of by +the priest. The spirit of the offering is the same, the form, only, is +different. The foundation of every Christian church is woman; the +salary-raiser of every Christian minister is woman. Woman is the keystone +in every arch of Christian endeavor that spans the earth. She is "the +bright, particular star" of the church's hope. Men are not so easily +caught by the Christian scheme of salvation as women. They want to see +some return for their money on earth. It is the woman who is caught in the +religious toils; it is the woman who is the slave of God, the victim of +priest and minister. + + ------------------------------------- + +The declaration that will kindle enthusiasm in the human breast most +quickly is that a new way has been discovered to get rich. + + + + + +THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS + + +A great deal has been written, preached and said about the great sacrifice +which Jesus made for the world. We deny that he made any such sacrifice as +is claimed for him by the Christian church. In fact, we cannot see, find +or learn from any record of the New Testament that he made any sacrifice +at all. This whole idea about the sacrifice of Jesus depends upon a +theological assumption. + +Jesus had no earthly honor, position or estate to sacrifice, even had he +been disposed to offer such for the good of mankind. Not only is there no +evidence of any tangible renunciation possible by Jesus, but there is no +proof and no sign that Jesus possessed even the spirit of sacrifice. We +challenge the Christian admirer of Jesus to point to a single act of this +hero that can honestly be called a sacrifice. We know of no such act. We +have studied the gospels to find such an act, and we have studied them in +vain. + +When a mother sees her boy pinned to the timbers of a wrecked car where +the scalding steam must escape into his face and destroy his life, and to +save her boy, voluntarily stands where this steam, with its hot breath, +will take her life instead of her boy's, this mother makes a sacrifice +that is apparent, real. Such an act is sublime, grand, beyond heroism. +Such an act wipes the Christian slander of total depravity from human +nature. Such an act makes us almost worship the heart great enough to +perform it. + +Jesus did no such things as this. He braved no danger for another. He did +not walk in the path of peril to save the life of friend or fellow. On the +contrary, he seemed bent on a selfish mission, inspired by a purely +personal ambition. He did not say: This world is suffering from +oppression; I will lay down my life to make it free. He did not seek to +destroy the throne and the sceptre that bear so heavily on the poor and +weak; but he sought a throne and a sceptre for himself that _he_ might +rule the world. + +Jesus sacrifice himself for the world! No! He demanded that the world +sacrifice itself to exalt him! A poorer specimen of self-sacrifice could +hardly be found in all the historical out-of-the-way places that we know +anything about. Jesus had nothing to give up, nothing to renounce, nothing +but his life to offer to the world, _and this, even when it was taken, did +the world no good_. + +The only incident in the whole career of Jesus which has been construed as +a sacrifice was his crucifixion, but this was not voluntary on the part of +the victim. _Jesus, in dying, made no sacrifice._ He surrendered his life +at the command of a political power; he did not offer it for the world's +advancement. Jesus was the sport of circumstances, the victim of a cruel +fate. He played for high stakes and lost. He was an adventurer, and +suffered the penalty of failure. Taking the account of his career in the +gospels as true, it is totally barren of any lofty, sublime action for the +good of the human race. He did not throw his efforts into the public +strife to elevate the condition of the majority, but he loaded himself on +the shoulders of his followers to ride into divine greatness. Like +hundreds of others, he threw the dice of political chance and was beaten. + +In following the gospel steps of the deluded Nazarene we are not sure +which are his and which are not, but take all the stories as true which +his devoted disciples have told about him, they do not reveal a mind +consecrated to any lofty purpose. He was working to establish the "kingdom +of heaven," but nobody knows what that is. He talked about his "father in +heaven," but nobody knows who he is. He had no practical ideas, he did no +practical work. History would have written this man's name among the +unfortunate victims of political revolutions, if it had preserved it at +all, which is doubtful, but Jesus was made by priestcraft to play a +leading part in a theological drama, and religion has immortalized his +name. + +But it is a false part that Jesus has played. No such character has any +reason for existing. The necessity for any human offering to God does not +exist. The idea of an atoning sacrifice is a relic of at barbarous faith. +It is time to take Christianity off the stage. It is an insult to the +twentieth century. + +The silly, sickly superstition of the sacrifice of Jesus should be left to +die. It sprang from falsehood and has no basis in fact, in reason or in +truth. + + + + + +FASHIONABLE HYPOCRISY + + +There is nothing more inconsistent than for the rich to praise Jesus. +There is dishonesty in every word that the wealthy speak in approbation of +the poverty-preacher of Galilee. Jesus was poor, almost a beggar. He had +no house, no home. But more than this, he did not see the good of such +things. He did not tell his disciples to work and try to improve their +earthly condition. There is no sound, sensible advice for a man to follow, +who has to live and support his family, to be found in the so-called +teachings of Jesus. + +It is simply hypocrisy for a man who is rich or well-to-do, and who is +living to add to his wealth or to increase his comforts, to pretend to +honor Jesus. The truth is, Jesus did not do anything that deserves the +honor of those who are trying to fill the earth with flowers of happiness, +who are laboring to make brighter the homes they live in, and who are +sowing the seeds of plenty and joy. Jesus did not do what this age regards +as best for man, and he did not teach the philosophy which the wisest men +to-day apply to human life. + +Now, was Jesus right or wrong? That is the question. It is pure nonsense +for the people of this country to claim to respect Jesus. We cannot +respect a person who does what we think is foolish, or we cannot do so and +have any self-respect. We are right or think we are, and Jesus was wrong; +or else Jesus was right. Which is it? + +The whole world, Christian and unbeliever alike, is living contrary to the +precept and example of the New Testament preacher. Is every person on +earth doing what he believes to be wrong; doing what he believes to be +injurious to himself; doing what he considers will end in disaster and +misery; doing what he feels will bring suffering and sorrow upon humanity? +Not a bit of it. Every man is doing what he believes to be right when he +is working to get out of poverty and degradation; when he is trying to +better his condition in society; when he is improving his home and giving +his family more blessings, more enjoyments. + +We unhesitatingly declare that Jesus was wrong. It is impossible to make +poverty popular. There is not an argument in its favor. Poverty has not a +single blessing. It is a curse, pure and simple, everywhere and for +everybody. It is not to be praised; it is to be condemned and got rid of. +It is the father of vice and the mother of suffering. It sheds more tears +than grief. It cuts more throats than crime. It breaks more hearts than +cruelty. It is the one great giant evil of earth. It is the foe that every +Knight of Labor is sworn to battle. Every heart that loves another is +pledged to drive poverty off the earth. This monster devours more children +than disease, and tortures the aged more than pain. Want is a flood, a +drought, a famine, a pestilence. It is a prison, a work-house, a convict's +cell. It is the hell of the twentieth century. + +Can we praise Jesus and be honest? No! Jesus and his gospel of poverty are +not in harmony with the work, the love, the desire of this age, and for +any one who is living above want, on the walls of whose home is the +sunshine of peace and comfort, to pretend to honor Jesus or to follow his +teaching is to be guilty of hypocrisy! + + ------------------------------------- + +When religion comes in at the door common sense goes out at the window. + + ------------------------------------- + +The churches erected in the name of God will ere long be tombstones to his +memory. + + ------------------------------------- + +Churches do not stand for moral influence. Not a Christian minister +preaches salvation by good behavior. What a poor business Roman +Catholicism would do among men if it advertised to save only those who +were temperate, upright, intelligent and moral. + + + + + +THE SATURDAY HALF-HOLIDAY + + +It is pretty certain that the laborer is hereafter to have more time for +himself. That fact is already settled, and the demand will be conceded +sooner or later. Eat, work and sleep is the ancient trinity of slavery. +The modern life demands leisure; the opportunity for enjoyment and +self-improvement. How it is best to be secured is a question about which +there is a variety of opinions. One of the plans to give the workingman +more time for himself is that of the Saturday half-holiday. We see no +particular advantage in this over the eight-hour-for-a-day's-work plan. + +It seems to us that if laborers worked eight hours a day and had Sunday +for a holiday instead of a holy day, all their requirements would be +better answered than in any other way. We do not need a day nor an hour +when either work or play would be a crime, and before any other portion of +the week is set apart for a holiday, let Sunday be made free to enjoyment +and recreation. + +There is the eternal bugbear of religion to oppose this scheme, but that +is all. The minister, who under free trade on Sunday would be obliged to +close up his business, is in favor of a Sabbath law of protection for +sermons and prayers, but why should a few clergymen who have six holidays +in the week and only one work-day, be favored against millions of toilers, +who work six days in the week and are liable to be arrested if they do not +go to church on the seventh day? Not a Saturday half-holiday but a Sunday +whole-holiday is the first rational step towards justice to the +working-man. There is very little in the average Sunday service that is +instructive and nothing that is entertaining, and it is based upon the +erroneous notion that man owes something that he knows nothing about, a +debt of worship one day in seven. Man's brain should be emancipated from +the superstition that there is a God in the universe that requires him to +sacrifice his own good to divine vanity. Work is holier than worship, and +to play is better for man than to pray. + +Man wants leisure to enjoy himself, not to worship God. He can have it +when he becomes sensible enough to demand it. + + + + + +THE MOTIVE FOR PREACHING + + +Why does a man enter the Christian ministry? Why do men preach the +Christian faith? There is some reason for doing so. What is it? We have +been told that the men who adopt the profession of preaching for a living +make a sacrifice of personal advantage by doing so; that these men, had +they entered any other profession, could not only more readily achieve +greatness, but could also make more money. We do not believe it. As a +rule, we believe that the men who are getting a living to-day as +ministers, earn more money and enjoy more fame, than they could get in any +other business or calling. Ministers are not martyrs. That idea needs to +be given up. + +There is another idea that people have entertained too long, and that is, +that all the young men who graduate from a divinity school are +intellectual giants. Brains are not the capital of the pulpit. We gladly +acknowledge the exception to what we have stated as a rule, and are not +only willing, but anxious, to testify to the occasional brilliant +preacher. We are speaking of the overwhelming majority and not of the +conspicuous few. + +Most men go into the ministry because they think they can get a living +more easily by preaching than by doing anything else. The pulpit is +founded not on spiritual sands, but on an earthly rock. It is the salary +that makes it attractive. + +Now, let us look at the facts in the case. The work of the minister is +less than the work of the average laborer, and the pay of the preacher is +more than the pay of the average mechanic or working-man. Here is the key +to the pulpit for a lot of young men. A young man who has a taste for +reading and loafing, and no genius for work, sees a chance to employ what +talent he possesses by studying theology, and we venture to say that nine +out of ten of the candidates for the ministry enter the profession from +purely business, or, if you will, mercenary motives. The Lord does not +pick out preachers. They pick themselves out. + +There is just as much striving for the loaves and fishes among ministers +as among other men; and the religious society that pays the largest salary +is the vineyard that has the most applications for the job. We do not say +that preachers are worse than other professional characters, but that they +are human. They preach for money, and where the highest salary is there +will the ministers be most anxious to go. + +We do not wish to cut anybody's wings, but when we read that certain +new-fledged preachers are about to "work for the Lord," and that they have +"entered upon God's chosen profession through their love of saving souls," +we want to correct the statements. They are going to work for themselves +the best they know how, having entered upon their duties, not so much +because they love their fellow-men, as because they love the good things +of this world. + +The truth is this, the motive for preaching to-day is the pay, and the +religion of the pulpit is to say nothing that will cause a panic in the +pews. + + ------------------------------------- + +Man's history is below his life, his destiny above it. + + ------------------------------------- + +All that secularists ask is that their thoughts be met fairly and +honestly, and that the world accept what will lead it in the highest and +surest way. + + ------------------------------------- + +If a person can join the salvation army corps and still be respected by +his fellow-beings, he ought to be at liberty to enlist in the ranks of +reason and common sense and not forfeit respect. + + ------------------------------------- + +God has done nothing for men and women except to scare them out of their +wits. + + + + + +THE CHRISTIAN'S GOD + + +Man is like the God he worships, and history shows that the Christian +church has been as cruel as its God. A Christian minister damns just as +his God does. He sends every free soul to hell just as his God does. He +demands obedience just as his God does. The tyranny of heaven is repeated +on earth and every tyrant quotes God for his authority. + +Think of the Christian superstition demanding recognition and acceptance! +It seems almost incredible that a man can be found in this age to preach +such glaring inconsistencies and absurdities, such a ridiculous faith, +such injustice and cruelty, as the Christian religion stands for. We can +hardly believe our own ears when we go inside of a Christian church. We +cannot understand how this terrible superstition has obtained possession +of the mind, nor how human beings can be so blinded and apparently +stultified! Were there on this earth a judge who should pronounce sentence +upon a person on account of his religious belief, mankind would brand the +name of that judge with the deepest obloquy. He would be stripped of his +robe of office and disgraced forever in the eyes of every true man and +woman on the globe. His deed would be a black spot on the page of history +and his memory a burden to the world. + +Put this judge on the throne of the universe and you have the Christian's +God. + + + + + +INDIFFERENCE TO RELIGION + + +The pulpit complains that people are indifferent to religion. Why +shouldn't they be? It is about time they were indifferent to it. Our +wonder is, that the people tolerate a single priest or church on earth. Of +what benefit is religion to mankind? Come now, ye that uphold religion, +tell us what it does to make the world better, nobler, truer? Why should +man worship God? Why should he build thousands of costly churches all over +the earth, and pay priests and ministers large salaries to preach and pray +in these churches? + +If the churches were the humblest buildings in the land; if the ministers +and priests were paid no more than carpenters or spinners, if there were +any agreement between what religion _professes to be_ and what it _is as +matter of fact_, then less could be said in the way of condemnation of +religion. But think you that men who live in hovels can respect men who +preach in palaces as followers of the man of Nazareth? The thing is too +ridiculous. The world is beginning to see how it has been humbugged, and +it is becoming indifferent. It may in time become indignant. There will +then be occasion for ministers to be alarmed. + +But just now the people have reached a condition of utter indifference +respecting religion. They don't care for it. They don't care to build it +up or tear it down. They don't care whether it is good or bad. They don't +care anything about it. + +Some regret this state of things; we rejoice in it. It shows that the +people are thinking, and when the people think long enough they will find +what is true and right. + + ------------------------------------- + +If + +If the government can carry a letter across the continent for two cents, +why cannot it send a telegraphic message correspondingly cheap? + +If the government can build and manage a navy, why cannot it build and +operate a railroad? + +If the government can run the treasury department, why cannot it run the +banks? + +If the government can maintain an army of soldiers in idleness, why cannot +it support an army of laborers at some useful occupation? + +If the government can serve at less cost than private corporations, why +does it not do so? + + + + + +SUNDAY SCHOOLS + + +Of all the stupid things we meet with, Sunday school lessons are the +stupidest. There seems to be only one way to account for this, and that is +that stupid persons are connected with Sunday schools and can comprehend +only stupid things. It seems to us as though a bright boy or girl at the +age of twelve years ought to be able to overthrow every argument employed +in a Sunday school to bolster up the Christian superstition. The lessons +taught in them are adapted to undeveloped brains, and the literature one +gets from their libraries is of that variety that is calculated to +discourage any robust independence of mind. We believe that any religious +or theological instruction is a positive injury to the young; that it is +utterly wrong to instill into the immature mind ideas of God, of a future +life, of heaven and hell, of angels and devils. All that we know about God +is what we don't know. The same may be said of other branches of religion. +How much better it would be to teach something useful, something of +importance, something real, true! Parents owe it to their children to save +them from being taught the false and foolish dogmas of Christianity. False +education is the bane of humanity, and the falsehood that is learned in +Sunday schools poisons and deforms the life of man as long as he lives. +Fear of God--the most terrible spectre that ever haunted the human soul--is +a product of the Sunday school. The victims of this fear can be counted +to-day by millions. This one fact ought to be sufficient to condemn this +nursery of superstition and evil. There is no earthly reason to fear God, +and other reasons should have no weight. The black shadow of fear which +darkens the whole earth is the result of faith in God. The catechisms used +in the Sunday schools are mostly filled with pious trash. The questions +and answers they contain are written out of ignorance, written, too, in +most cases, for the purpose of making the intellect the slave of the +priest and minister. There is no mystery so shallow as a theological +mystery, because it is founded on deception. The only mysteries that the +human mind can contemplate with real wonder are the sublime mysteries of +Nature, the mysteries of life and death, of sand and star, of flower and +feeling. Before these great, overwhelming mysteries, that everywhere +surround us, the petty ideas of Gods and devils, of saviors and mediators, +of heaven and hell, are trivial and cheap. We condemn Sunday schools, +because they do not teach what is real, what is true, what is necessary to +a noble human life on earth; because they inculcate superstitions, and +elevate the belief of religious dogmas above scientific and useful +knowledge; because they put God above man, heaven hereafter above the home +here, and the performance of religious duties above the life of honesty, +purity and love. Sunday schools are the poorest schools on the face of the +earth, and there is only one excuse for their existence, and that is to +perpetuate the church, to keep alive the superstitions upon which it was +built and upon which the clergy depend for a living. + + ------------------------------------- + +Our duty to the god of christianity is to bury him. + + ------------------------------------- + +Nothing from nothing and nothing remains, Nothing from nothing and nothing +is the same. + + ------------------------------------- + +If the factory pays taxes and the church does not, it follows that the +church will some day own the factory. + + ------------------------------------- + +When christian ministers stand up in their pulpits and say "Let us pray," +if they would sometimes vary the invitation and say: Let us laugh, they +would do their congregations more good. + + + + + +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 church, and he blames +the people for this state of affairs. Nobody blames men and women if they +keep away from the theatre, from the library, from the art gallery, from +the public park; in fact, it is generally admitted that people can +exercise their own judgment in visiting these places and not be liable to +censure on the part of anybody. Not so, however, when they keep away from +the church. + +Why does a man go to the theatre? Obviously because he is pleased by the +performance he witnesses there. Why does a man not go to a church? +Obviously because he is _not_ pleased with the performance he witnesses +_there_. The notion that men and women are to go to a place where they do +not like to go, where they derive no pleasure but as a matter of duty is +about all the argument for church-going that can be advanced to-day. We +admit that man should do his duty, no matter how disagreeable it may be. +We cannot shirk our responsibilities on the ground that they are irksome +or unpleasant. But _is_ it man's duty to go to church? That is the +question. If it is, then he should go. Who is to decide the matter? Of +course priests and ministers will say that everybody ought to go to +church. But what for? Is it a man's duty to go to _every_ church, or only +to some particular church? We are told that we shall be better for going +to church. To which church? The Roman Catholic would not admit that a man +would be better for going to a Methodist church, and the Methodist would +not advise a person to go to a Roman Catholic church to improve his mental +or moral condition. Who shall decide the matter _where_ we shall go to +church? + +In going to the theatre, we do not always go to the same place, nor to +hear the same play, nor to witness the same actors; nor do we always visit +the same gallery or park when we desire to see paintings or statuary, or +to enjoy the flowers and general beauties of Nature. Why should men _join_ +one church and go to it all their lives? Why should men hear only _one_ +kind of religion preached? Why should men listen all their lives to the +preaching of one set of dogmas? + +Supposing a man were to go once or twice a week for fifty years to see one +tragedy or comedy played, would he be a better judge of the drama than if +he had seen during that time a hundred tragedies and comedies? The man who +goes all his life to one church is made a denominational or sectarian +bigot. Is the object of churches to make bigots? That is about all they +have made up to date. + +We hold that it is not man's duty to _go_ to any church, to _belong_ to +any church, or to _support_ any church. _There are no religious duties._ +Man is under no obligation whatever to worship God. Churches must be +placed upon the same ground as other places of instruction and amusement, +and if they cannot be supported by legitimate patronage then must they be +given up. If a man goes to church to hear a minister, let him pay for it +like a man, but if he is not pleased with what he hears he need not go +again. + +The notion that there is anything of greater value to be had in the church +than elsewhere cannot be defended. This idea does not fool people of any +sense. The pulpit has no divine message for the world, but generally talks +about what no one knows anything about. Intelligent people who do not go +to church have come to the conclusion that they can derive more pleasure +from other sources. That is about the reason why they do not go to church. + + ------------------------------------- + +We cannot go ahead without leaving something behind. + + ------------------------------------- + +The convent is opposed to all that is sacred in human nature. + + + + + +WHO IS THE GREATEST LIVING MAN + + +Written November 19, 1893. + +My answer is _Robert G. Ingersoll_. + +One gets the conviction of this man's superiority by simply being in his +presence. The outer man makes the impression of greatness upon the mind. + +It is not the silent assertion of a splendid form however, that persuades +us. A large body serves to accent and emphasize a large mind, but heroic +physical proportions are not essential to greatness. The king of men +to-day is not he who, like Saul, "from his shoulders and upward is higher +than any of his people." Dr. Watts truly said: "The mind's the standard of +the man." + +But we cannot think of Robert G. Ingersoll with a diminutive physical +equipment. His ample form radiates the man. But it is the royalty of his +intellect that makes him great. It is in the kingdom of mind that he is +master. Every mental tool fits his hand. He has wit, learning, +imagination, eloquence, philosophy, and that rare quality, sense. He is a +great lawyer, a great orator, a great poet, and a great man. He is too +large for conventionalities, too large to respect what smaller minds have +declared right, what weaker minds have made holy. + +The intellectual grandeur of the man is no less apparent than his moral +fearlessness. He is greatest where most men are little--in the face of a +powerful and domineering superstition. He knows that the highest manhood +makes the trappings of religion but the playthings of feeble minds. + +His love of liberty is only equalled by his passion for truth, and he +listens to the timid whisper of doubt with the chivalrous attention that +others give to confident faith. He strips things of their clothes, of +fashions, of falsehood, of pretension, and demands that they stand for +what they are and no more. He has the sincerity of greatness and his mind +wears the white robe of spotless integrity. + +Above all living men he possesses the power of utterance. He has the +highest literary instinct, and never marries a mean word to a noble +thought. He uses language as Phidias used marble. He is the literary +artist of the age, and knows all the colors in the brain. He can make +words laugh and weep. + +This man has a large heart. He is filled with human sympathy. He does not +care for gods, but he pities men. The springs of feeling feed the mighty +rivers of thought that cross the continent of his mind. There is about him +the warmth, the kindness of summer--Nature's season of forgiveness. + +He has the highest philosophy--that of cheerfulness. The clouds never cover +all his sky. He is the apostle of good humor, and preaches the gospel of +sunshine to dry the tears of the world. + +He is true to himself, loyal to his head and his heart, and upon his brow +shines the jewel of self-respect. + +Robert G. Ingersoll has the greatness of genius. It is useless to try to +account for an intellectual giant. Dowered by Nature, parents are of small +account. We cannot find the secret of his marvelous power by digging in a +graveyard. + + ------------------------------------- + +Man is what he is, because his origin was what it was. + + ------------------------------------- + +God cannot be put into the national Constitution without putting liberty +out of it. + + ------------------------------------- + +We do not want holy books, but true ones; not sacred writings, but +sensible writings. + + + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IS THE BIBLE WORTH READING AND OTHER ESSAYS*** + + + +CREDITS + + +March 10, 2011 + + Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1 + Produced by Adam Buchbinder, David King, and the Online + Distributed Proofreading Team at <http://www.pgdp.net/>. 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