Part 29

4. That man is a "fallen 7. That instead of worshiping God, creature," and unable to improve we should direct all our efforts to by his own unassisted efforts. improve ourselves, letting "gods attend on things for gods to know." 5. That man can be "saved" only through the blood and merits of 8. That man, wherever he may exist, Christ. it is rational to believe, will be fitted to his condition. An 6. That belief in the Christian unbroken everlasting sleep, which system involves moral merit; probably awaits us all, affords no disbelief, sin. ground for fear. And how infinitely preferable to a future state of 7. That it is man's duty to punishment in which the majority of worship God by prayer and praise. our race will be forever miserable!

8. That a comparatively small 9. That the teachings of reason and portion of mankind in the future the lessons of experience are the will be happy; the greater only revelations man has received. portion will be in torment eternally. 10. That the Bible should be tested by the same rules of historical and 9. That man has received a book modern criticism that are applied revelation, of which, however, to other ancient documents. but a comparatively small part of the race has ever obtained 11. That the barbarous acts of the information. Israelites, like those of other ancient nations, were the result of 10. That reason should be their undeveloped, and uncivilized subordinated to the teachings of condition. the Bible. 12. That the universe is full of 11. That the acts of the Jews, mysteries, above our comprehension, such as are practiced now by but none contrary to our reason. barbarians only, were commanded by God, and were, therefore, 13. That the difference of opinion right. among Liberals is consistent with their common position that man has 12. That there are mysteries no infallible standard. That the contrary to experience and enlightened reason of man is the reason, which must nevertheless highest and best standard he be believed. possesses.

13. Although God has given man a 14. That woman is man's equal and revelation, there is great natural companion--exists for him uncertainty as to what he meant only in the sense in which he to say on several subjects of exists for her. great importance. 15. That slavery, polygamy, and 14. That woman is man's inferior despotism are evils whenever and and subordinate, was made for his wherever they exist. gratification and convenience, while man was made for himself 16. That man should attend to the and the glory of God. affairs of this world, and, contrary to the notion of Jesus, 15. That God has approved and should take "thought for the sanctioned polygamy, slavery, and morrow." despotism. 17. That evil is due to natural 16. That man should take no causes. Man can gradually remove thought for the morrow. He should the evils that afflict him by pattern after the lilies of the becoming acquainted with his field. nature, relations, and surroundings. 17. That man's ills and sufferings are ascribable largely 18. Jesus was probably a reformer, to the immediate agency of a a "come-outer," an "Infidel" of his personal, malicious Devil--a time. We can esteem him as a being of extended presence, of benefactor without worshiping him almost infinite knowledge, of as a God. great strategy, and immense power. 19. The present is better than the past, and the golden age of the 18. That Jesus was God Almighty world is in the future. incased in human flesh.

19. That the golden age of the earth was in the past. B. F. Underwood.

"Safest to Believe."

It has often been argued that credulity is safer than skepticism--that "it is safest to believe;" inasmuch as if a man believes in heaven and hell, and there be no such places, he is, if no gainer, at least no loser; whereas the Infidel may lose, and cannot gain. Upon the same principle, it were safest to believe all the religions of the world at once--Christian, Mohammedan, Jewish, Hindoo, Confucian, and all the rest; because it is but insuring the matter by halves to trust to one only. If Allah be not the only God and Mahomet be an imposter, there is no harm done and nothing lost; and if there be not a paradise in another world, there has been a pleasant dream of anticipated joys in this.

Let us ask, is the balance of profit and loss fairly struck? Are the chances all in favor of the believer and all against the skeptic? Is there nothing to be thrown into the opposite scale? Surely much. If religion be a fallacy, it is a fallacy pregnant with mischief. It excites the fears without foundation; it fosters feelings of separation between the believer and the unbeliever; it consumes valuable time that can never be recalled, and valuable talents that ought to be better employed; it draws money from our pockets to support a delusion; it teaches the elect to look upon their fellow men as heathen and castaways, living in sin here, and doomed to perdition hereafter; it awakens harassing doubts, gloomy despondency, and fitful melancholy; it turns our thoughts from the things of the world, where alone true knowledge is found; it speaks of temporal miseries and temporal pleasures as less than nothing and vanity, and thus fosters indifference to the causes of the weal and woe of mankind; worse than all, it chains us down to an antiquated orthodoxy, and forbids the free discussion of those very subjects which it most concerns us to investigate. If religion be a fallacy, its votaries are slaves. Whereupon, then, rests the assertion, that if the believer does not gain, he cannot lose? Is it nothing to lose time and talents, to waste our labor on that which is not bread, and our money upon that which profiteth not? Is it nothing to feel that the human beings that surround us are children of the devil and heirs of hell? Is it nothing to think that we may perhaps look across the great gulf and see some one we have loved on earth tormented in a fiery lake; and hear him ask us to dip a finger in water that it may cool his parched tongue? Is it no loss to live in disquiet by day, and in fear by night; to pass through dark seasons of doubt and temptation, and to be conscious that we are but as strangers and pilgrims here, toiling through a weary valley of cares and sorrows? Is it no loss to hold back when truth oversteps the line of orthodoxy, and when there ought to be free discussion, to shrink before we know not what? Is all this no loss? Or, is it not rather the loss of all that a free and rational being most values?

Those engaged in the trade of religion, imagine themselves to have a mighty advantage against Infidels upon the strength of the old, worn out argument that whether the Christian religion be true or false there can be no harm in believing; and that belief is, at any rate, the safer side. Now to say nothing of this old popish argument, which a sensible man must see is the very essence of popery, and would oblige us to believe all the absurdities and nonsense in the world: inasmuch as if there be no harm in believing, and there be some harm and danger in not believing, the more we believe, the better; and all the argument for any religion whatever would be, that it should frighten us out of our wits; the more terrible, the more true; and it would be our duty to become the converts of that religion, whatever it might be, whose priests could swear the loudest, and damn and curse the fiercest. This is a wolfish argument in sheep's clothing. (Truth Seeker tract.)

The "Safe Side."

"Ours is the safe side," says the Christian; "for if Infidelity be true then both Infidel and Christian have the same destiny, namely to die and end all, but if Christianity be true what will become of the Infidel?" In reply to this we say, that although at death both believer and unbeliever fall asleep side by side upon the bosom of mother earth, yet it does not make yours the safe side; because if Christianity be true then the most of the human race go into eternal torment. Orthodoxy has always taught that "many are called but few are chosen." Now if nine tenths of the race are going to suffer endless pain I do not see how those who are going to constitute a large part of that number and are to be eternally lost, can call it the "safe side." For it should not be forgotten that the vast majority of those who are going to suffer the wrath of God, are professed Christians. "Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them--I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity." (Mat. 7 : 22, 23.)

No, no, it will not do to trust that side as the "safe side" where "many are called but few are chosen."

We need something safer than that.

Again, we do not see how it can be the "safe side," to despise this life, in hopes of another that we know nothing of. If Infidelity be true, all Christians are superstitious idolaters. If Infidelity be true, Christians are deceived and are corrupting the minds of millions of children with superstition which will render them bigoted, cruel, and unhappy. And this is about the size of it. How, then, can it be the safe side. The safe side is always to be fair and honorable. It is safe always to examine both sides. It is safe to be on the alert for more truth. It is safe to accept the truth even when it cuts away old prejudices and old beliefs. It is safe not to be a sectarian. It is not safe to be a partizan, but it is safe to be free, courageous, and honest in all things. It is not safe for you to cling to myths, fables, and superstitions, and to leave them as a blighting inheritance to your children.

Popular Objections to Infidelity Answered, Showing Some Mistakes of Christians.

1. That we are negative, only.--We deny what we deem to be false, we affirm what we believe to be true, Christians do the same; only much that they affirm, we deny, and much that they deny, we affirm. Negation is necessary and healthful. No affirmation is possible that does not presuppose a negation. Negation is but the assailing side of affirmation. We deny the fables of mythology; we affirm the demonstrable truths of science.

2. That we have no incentive to good deeds.--If the Christian acts as he believes, he does good to escape hell and gain heaven--he respects the rights of others through fear of punishment and hope of reward. Hence it is that he cannot understand how the man who rejects his creed can be a good man. We do right because all the experience of the race has shown that what we call "right" is conducive to happiness; because the line of right action is the line of least resistance; because we believe in the principle of reciprocity, and because every act of every individual becomes a part of the inheritance of the race, and thus as we are, so shall be our children. If we are intemperate, diseased, and criminal, our children shall suffer in consequence thereof. What higher or stronger incentive to right action can be offered?

3. That we are unhappy.--Why should we be more unhappy than the Christian? Why should we not be more happy? We live in the same world; we believe in making the most of its opportunities for obtaining happiness, while he (theoretically, at least,) believes that earthly joy depreciates heavenly bliss; we are cursed by no fear of an angry God, by no dreams of an endless hell and of a revengeful devil; the Christian no more than the Infidel, is exempt from accident, sickness and death, and the agony of parting with loved ones is his no less than ours. He accepts Revelation and Creation, and hence believes that we belong to a falling race; we accept Science and Evolution, and hence believe that we belong to a rising race. Which is the most rational and hope inspiring belief?

4. That it is "safest to believe."--If this proves anything it proves too much. If our future (if we have one) can be rendered more secure by pretending to believe when we do not, then the Protestant should accept Catholicism, and the Catholic, Protestantism, while the members of every sect should believe all that is taught by all other sectarists and Christians of every school should believe all that is contained in the sacred books of other religions.

5. That we hurt the feelings of those who cherish the old faith.--Why should the Christian complain that we disturb settled convictions and cut loose the anchored bark of faith? Has not Christianity ever been a missionary religion? It seeks to disturb the religion of the whole world. Christians attack all religions other than their own--our offence is that we include Christianity in the category of false faiths. (Lucifer.)

"All Owing to the Bible."

"It is a very common argument with Christians, that only those nations which have had the Bible are refined, civilized and learned. The following is the boastful manner in which Christians set forth the claims of their religion: "Take a map of the world, draw a line around those countries that have enjoyed the highest degree of refinement, and you will encircle just those nations that have received the Bible as their authority in religion." In refutation of this assumption Horace Seaver writes: "From this language the plain inference is, that those nations have been indebted to the influence of the Bible for the positions to which they have attained. Let us follow out a little this line of argument and see where it will lead.

"The ancient Egyptians stood as far in advance of their contemporaries as do the nations of Christendom at the present day, as the remains of their cities and temples fully attest. And if the argument is good, they were indebted for that superiority to their worship of cats, crocodiles, and onions!

"The ancient Greek might have exclaimed, as he beheld the proud position to which Greece attained--'See what we owe to a belief in our glorious mythology; we have reached the highest point of enlightenment the world has ever witnessed; we stand unequaled in power, wealth, the cultivation of the arts, and all that makes a nation refined, polished, and great!'

"How immeasurably would his faith in the elevating tendency of his religion have been increased could he have looked with prophetic eye into the distant ages of the future, and beheld the enlightened and Christianized nations of the nineteenth century adopting the remains of Grecian architecture, sculpture, painting, oratory, music and literature as their models! Pagan Rome, too, once mistress of the world and arbitress of nations--the home of philosophers and sages--the land in which the title 'I am a Roman citizen,' was the proudest that mortal could wear--Rome, by the above Christian argument, should have ascribed all her honor, praise, and glory to her mythology.

"The Turk and the Saracen, likewise, have had their day of power and renown. Bagdad was the seat of science and learning at a time when the nations of Europe were sunk in darkness and superstition. The Turk and Saracen should have pointed to the Koran as the source of their refinement.

"Thus we see that the Christian argument we are noticing, if it proves anything, it proves too much. If the nations of Christendom are indebted to the Bible for their enlightenment, likewise were the Egyptians indebted to their cat and crocodile and onion worship, the Greeks and Romans to their mythology and the Turks and Saracens to their Koran."--Seaver.

The following is from William Denton's "Common Sense Thoughts on the Bible:"

"'But it is well known, that in those countries where the Bible is read, studied, and believed in, there is more knowledge and greater freedom, more virtue and happiness, than in any other countries.'"

"If true, and if all this was the result of reading and believing the Bible, it would not prove the Bible to be divine. A book may be useful, though merely human. But where is the proof that we owe our virtue, liberty, and enlightenment to the Bible? The Abyssinians have had the Bible in their possession twice as long as the Anglo-Saxons, and yet they are a race of barbarians still. What did the Bible accomplish for the people of Syria, and Asia Minor, who were first blessed with it? So little, that the Koran superseded it; the Mohammedans being superior in almost every respect, to the Christians whom they conquered and converted. The Greeks and Romans were as far in advance of surrounding nations as we are or profess to be. Was it the Bible that elevated and made them and made their unsurpassed poets, painters, sculptors, and orators? Their priests, doubtless, attributed their superiority to the superior religion they possessed. So Bible believers oppose science and reform to the last; but when they triumph in spite of their opposition, they are the first to shout glory to the Bible for what it has accomplished."--Denton.

"I had a conversation with a gentleman once--and these gentlemen are always mistaking something that goes along with a thing for the cause of the thing--and he stated to me that his particular religion was the cause of all advancement. I said to him, 'No, sir; the causes of all advancement in my judgment, are plug hats and suspenders.' And I said to him, 'You go to Turkey, where they are semi-barbarians, and you won't find a pair of suspenders or a plug hat in all that country; you go to Russia, and you will find now and then a pair of suspenders at Moscow or St. Petersburg; but you go on down until you strike Austria, and black hats begin; then you go to Paris, Berlin, and New York, and you will find everybody wears suspenders and everybody wears black hats. Wherever you find education and music, there you will find black hats and suspenders.' He said that any man who said to him that plug hats and suspenders had done more for mankind than the Bible and religion he would not talk to." (Ingersoll's "Ghosts.")

THE BIBLE ON TEMPERANCE.

Passages Commending or Enjoining the Use of Wine or Strong Drink, or Both, or including a Plentiful supply of Wine among the Blessings to be Bestowed upon Favored individuals or tribes, etc.; or including the Deprivation of it among the Punishments inflicted upon the Disobedient.

"Jacob, blessing Judah, said: (Gen. 49 : 11, 12): 'Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.'

"Doesn't look as though Yahweh, the 'God of Jacob,' thought wine a very bad article.

"Num. 6 : 20: 'After that the Nazarite may drink wine.'

"In Deut. 7 : 13, God, through Moses, said to his chosen people: 'And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; and he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil,' etc., etc.

"Just think of it, Woman's Christian Temperance Union people, God has solemnly promised to bless his faithful children with an especially large vintage, a better vintage than that of their unbelieving neighbors! Rather rough on the heretic French and the Infidel Germans!

"Deut. 11 : 14: 'That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil.'

"Yahweh is determined that the supply of wine shall not fall short.

"Deut. 14 : 26: 'And thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth; and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household.'

"Rev. Mr. Stevenson to the box! Repeat your testimony, please. 'I said that, The education of the children of the republic in temperance principles logically involves the maintenance in those schools of the Bible as the great text book in morals.'

"Deut. 15 : 14: 'Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy wine-press of that wherewith the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.'

"This is said regarding the manumitted Hebrew slave. And so it is a blessing for God to give the fruit of the wine-press to his children? And we are to emulate him?

"It seems that God punishes his people by blasting their vineyards, and thus cutting short their supply of wine, as below:

"Deut. 28 : 39: 'Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but thou shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them.'

"Verse 51 of the same chapter tells the people that their cattle and wine and oil shall be taken from them if they disobey God's commands. This is the famous 'cursing chapter' of the Bible, and is just the reading calculated to make a man believe that God was the first pope of Rome.

"Deuteronomy is a very good book for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and I suggest that it hold a special meeting to pray for the evidently 'rum'-loving god who wrote it. There is much other matter in it that helps to make it an admirable work for use in the schools.

"Judges 9 : 13: 'And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?'

"Ah! so it appears that God, the 'original prohibitionist,' according to the Woman's Christian Temperance Union drinks wine, else how could it cheer him?

"Second Sam. 6 : 19: 'And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, as well to the women as men, to every one a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine.'

"Query: What would the Christian temperance ladies have done with that wine had they been present when David, the man after God's own heart, dealt it out to all, men as well as women?

"Second Sam. 16 : 2: 'And Ziba said, The asses be for the king's household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine that such as faint in the wilderness may drink.'

"In Kansas and Iowa many get 'faint in the wilderness,' judging by the business of the drugstores. No doubt they have all seen this prescription given by God.

"Second Chron. 2 : 10: 'And behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.'

"The article which Solomon, 'the wisest of all men,' gave to the servants of the king of Tyre in one-fourth payment for their labor in preparing the temple which he built to the Lord, was probably especially blessed by the Lord for that use, and so rendered non-intoxicating, else we must conclude that he pays those who build houses for him in what friend St. John would call 'liquid damnation.'