Part 8

Daniel Webster: "Mr. Girard got this provision of his will ('a school unfettered by religious tenets') from Paine's 'Age of Reason.'"

Paul Desjardines (referring to "Age of Reason"): "The book in which the modern conscience first dared, without indirection and without sarcasm, to set itself up as the judge of Christian tradition and laid the basis of a purified religion reduced to the only beliefs which appeared necessary as a foundation of fraternity among men."

Eugene M. Macdonald: "The 'Age of Reason' is irrefutable in its arguments, in its presentation of facts, in its analysis of the Bible, and absolutely convincing to fair-minded men in its conclusions. It was the forerunner of the Higher Criticism."

"During the past thirty years we have heard much of the Higher Criticism; hundreds of learned men throughout Christendom have been investigating the Bible.... These learned men, after working on the problem for many years, have come to the exact conclusions that Thomas Paine arrived at so many years ago."--_Sir Hiram Maxim._

"Paine was a precursor of such men as Colenso, and Robertson Smith, and a large host of scholars besides."--_Rev. O. B. Frothingham._

"It is a singular tribute to his sagacity and common sense that every material fact and conclusion stated by Paine in regard to the Bible has been sustained by the explorations and increased learning since his day."--_T. B. Wakeman._

"Upon this theological treatise is founded all modern biblical criticism."--Elbert Hubbard.

Henry Frank: "There is nothing in the conclusions of the Higher Criticism that Paine did not anticipate."

"As to his anticipation of the Higher Criticism. that should be placed to his credit."--_W. T. Stead._

Henry Yorke (with Paine in England and France): "There is not a verse in it [the Bible] that is not familiar to him."

J. P. Mendum: "As a critic and reviewer of the Bible his 'Age of Reason' is unanswerable."

Sir Leslie Stephen: "Paine's book announced a startling fact, against which all the flimsy collections of conclusive proofs were powerless. It amounted to a proclamation that the creed no longer satisfied the instincts of cultivated scholars. When the defenders of the old orders tried to conjure with the old charms, the magic had gone out of them. In Paine's rough tones they recognized not the mere echo of coffee-house gossip, but the voice of deep popular passion. Once and forever, it was announced that, for the average mass of mankind, the old creed was dead."

Elbert Hubbard: "As Paine's book 'Common Sense,' broke the power of Great Britain in America, and the 'Rights of Man' gave free speech and a free press to England, so did the 'Age of Reason' give pause to the juggernaut of orthodoxy. Thomas Paine was the legitimate ancestor of Hosea Ballou who founded the Universalist church, and of Theodore Parker who made Unitarianism in America an intellectual torch. Channing, Ripley,' Bartol, Martineau, Frothingham, Hale, Curtis, Collyer, Swing, Thomas, Conway, Leonard, Savage, Crapsey, yes--even Emerson, and Thoreau, were spiritual children, all, of Thomas Paine. He blazed the way and made it possible, for men to preach the sweet reasonableness of reason. He was the pioneer in a jungle of superstition."

Abraham Lincoln became and remained a disciple of Thomas Paine.

Chicago Herald (Feb., 1892): "In 1834, at New Salem, Ill., Lincoln read and circulated Vol-ney's 'Ruins' and Paine's 'Age of Reason,' giving to both books the sincere recommendation of his unqualified approval."

Col. Ward H. Lamon (biographer of Lincoln): "He [Lincoln] had made himself familiar with the writings of Paine and Volney--the 'Ruins' of the one, and the 'Age of Reason' of the other,... and then wrote a deliberate essay wherein he reached conclusions similar to theirs."

"In this work he intended to demonstrate:

"'First, that the Bible was not God's revelation;

"'Secondly, that Jesus was not the Son of God.'"

(Lincoln's work was never published.)

"You insist on knowing something which you know I possess, and got as a secret, and that is, about Lincoln's little book on Infidelity. Mr. Lincoln did tell me that he _did write a little book on Infidelity_"--_Col. James H. Matheny, Lincoln's political manager in Illinois._

James Ford Rhodes, LL.D.: "When Lincoln entered upon political life he became reticent regarding his religious opinions, for at the age of twenty-five, influenced by Thomas Paine,... he had written an extended essay against Christianity."

Hon. W. H. Herndon (law partner of Lincoln): "Paine became a part of Mr. Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life."

"It was my good fortune to have had for some years an intimate acquaintance with Lincoln's partner for twenty-two years. Mr. Herndon was a man of academic education, and possessed a number of books that in that day would be considered a good library, and he told me that the books of his which fairly fascinated Lincoln were Volney's 'Ruins' and the works of Thomas Paine, especially the latter, of which he had memorized many pages."--Col. E. A. Stevens.

Hon. James Tuttle: "He [Lincoln] was one of the most ardent admirers of Thomas Paine I ever met. He was continually quoting from the 'Age of Reason.'"

It has been claimed that Lincoln changed his religious opinions after he became President. In a letter, written May 27, 1865, Col. John G. Nicolay, his private secretary, says: "Mr. Lincoln did not, to my knowledge, in any way, change his religious ideas, opinions, or beliefs, from the time he left Springfield till the day of his death."

Hon. Leonard Swett, who placed Lincoln in nomination for the Presidency, in answer to an inquiry from a friend, wrote as follows: "You ask me if Lincoln changed his religion towards the close of his life. I think not."

Next to Mr. Herndon, Lincoln's biographer, Colonel Lamon, has made the fullest and fairest presentation of Lincoln's religious opinions. He did not accept them but he was familiar with them and he was honest enough to present them. In Illinois he was the friend and confidant of Lincoln. When the time approached for Lincoln to take the Executive chair, and the journey from Springfield to Washington was deemed a dangerous one, to Colonel Lamon was intrusted the responsible duty of conducting him to the national capital. During the eventful years that followed he remained at the President's side, holding an important official position in the District of Columbia. When Lincoln was assassinated, at the great funeral pageant in Washington, he led the civic procession, and was, with Judge David Davis and Major General Hunter, selected to convey the remains to their final resting-place at Springfield. Regarding his friend's religious belief Colonel Lamon says: "Mr. Lincoln was never a member of any church, nor did he believe in the divinity of Christ or the inspiration of the scriptures in the sense understood by evangelical Christians" (Life of Lincoln, p. 486). indefinite expressions about 'Divine Providence,' the 'Justice of God,' 'the favor of the Most High,' were easy and not inconsistent with his religious notions. In this accordingly he indulged freely; but never in all that time [1834 to his death] did he let fall from his lips or his pen an expression which remotely implied the slightest faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of men (Ibid, p. 502).

After Lincoln's death Mrs. Lincoln, herself a Christian, made the following statement: "Mr. Lincoln had no hope, and no faith, in the usual acceptation of those words" (Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 489).

Judge David Davis, his life-long friend and his executor, says: "He [Lincoln] had no faith, in the Christian sense of the term."

Lincoln did not believe in a personal God. His law partner, W. H. Herndon, relates the following in proof of this: In 1854 he asked me to erase the word _God_ from a speech which I had written and read to him for criticism, because my language indicated a personal God, whereas he insisted that no such personality ever existed."--_Lamon's Life of Lincoln, p. 445._

The Gettysburg address, as delivered by Lincoln, contained no mention of Deity. The phrase "under God" was inserted afterward, with Lincoln's consent, at the earnest solicitation of a friend. The recognition of God in the Emancipation Proclamation was inserted at the urgent request of Secretary Chase. The pious phrases to be found in his state papers are mostly the work of his cabinet ministers and secretaries.

Thirty years ago Judge James M. Nelson, a son of Thomas Pope Nelson, a distinguished statesman of Kentucky, and a great-grandson of Thomas Nelson, Jr., signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was intimately acquainted with Lincoln, both in Illinois and at Washington, published in the Louisville _Times_ his "Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln." Concerning Lincoln's religious belief Judge Nelson says:

"In religion Mr. Lincoln was of about the same belief as Colonel Ingersoll, and there is no account of his ever having changed. He went to church a few times with his family while he was President, but so far as I have been able to find he remained an unbeliever.... I asked him once about his fervent Thanksgiving Message and twitted him with being an unbeliever in what was published. 'Oh,' said he, '_that is some of Seward's nonsense, and it pleases the fools!_"

Col. Amos C. Babcock, for many years chairman of the Illinois State Republican Committee, and one of Lincoln's confidential agents during the war, in an article published in the Peoria _Journal_, says: "Lincoln was an Agnostic. During the war he sometimes talked religiously, but it was mere statecraft. He knew that everything depended upon his having the support of the religious people,... but he was for all that an utter disbeliever in the Christian religion."

In Springfield, where he lived, Lincoln's rejection of Christianity was known to every person and while he was very popular and greatly beloved by all who were not dominated by their religious prejudices, the bigots always opposed him. During the presidential campaign of 1860 his friends made a canvass of the voters of Springfield for the purpose of ascertaining how they were going to vote for president. The list was given to Lincoln. With Hon. Newton Bateman, state superintendent of public instruction, he went over it carefully, his principal desire being to know how the clergy were going to vote. When they had finished Lincoln said: "Here are twenty-three ministers, of different denominations, and all of them are against me but three; and here are a great many prominent' members of the churches, a very great majority of whom are against me."--_Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 236._

Why, it may be asked, was Lincoln's Infidelity not used against him everywhere in this campaign? Because the managers of both parties knew that Douglas, also, was a disbeliever in Christianity. An agitation of this question would have weakened the chances of both northern candidates while it would have strengthened the chances of Breckinridge, the southern candidate.

Lincoln did not believe in prayer. All the stories about his praying, without a single exception, are pure inventions. Let me cite an example. After Lincoln's death the _Western Christian Advocate_ published the following story, a companion piece to Washington's prayer at Valley Forge: "On the day of the receipt of the capitulation of Lee, as we learn from a friend intimate with the late President Lincoln, the cabinet meeting was held an hour earlier than usual. Neither the President nor any member was able, for a time, to give utterance to his feelings. At the suggestion of Mr. Lincoln all dropped on their knees, and offered in silence and in tears their humble and heartfelt acknowledgment to the Almighty for the triumph he had granted to the national cause."

In reply to an inquiry respecting the authenticity of this story Hugh McCulloch, Lincoln's last secretary of the treasury, wrote as follows: "The description of what occurred at the Executive Mansion, when the intelligence was received of the surrender of the Confederate forces, which you quote from the _Western Christian Advocate_, is not only absolutely groundless, but absurd. After I became Secretary of the Treasury I was present at every Cabinet meeting, and I never saw Mr. Lincoln or any of his ministers upon his knees or in tears."

Our works of art are mostly mythological. And this is true of Christian art, as it is true of Christian theology. The Washington myth is now preserved in bronze, and the Lincoln myth will some day find expression on canvas.

Herndon says: "It is my opinion that no man ever heard Mr. Lincoln pray in the true evangelical sense of that word. His philosophy is against all human prayer as a means of reversing God's decrees."

The partnership of Lincoln and Herndon was formed in 1843. It was dissolved by the assassin's bullet in 1865. The love of these men for each other was like the love of Damon and Pythias. To the moral character of his illustrious partner Mr. Herndon pays this tribute: "The benevolence of his impulses., the seriousness of his convictions, and the nobility of his character, are evidences unimpeachable that his soul was ever filled with the exalted purity and the sublime faith of natural religion."

Lincoln's religion was the religion of Thomas Paine. "To do good is my religion," said Paine; "When I do good I feel good, and when I do bad I feel bad," said Lincoln.

For thirty years the church endeavored to crush Lincoln, but when, in spite of her malignant opposition, he achieved a glorious immortality, this same church, to hide the mediocrity of her devotees, attempts to steal his deathless name.

Six Historic Americans: "The Church claims all great men. But the truth is, the great men of all nations have, for the most part, rejected Christianity. Of these six historic Americans--the six greatest men that have lived on this continent [Paine, Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant]--not one was a Christian. All were unbelievers.

"It is popularly supposed that Paine was a very irreligious man, while Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln and Grant were very religious. The reverse of this is more nearly true. Paine, although not a Christian, was a deeply religious man; while the others, though practicing the loftiest morals, cared little for religion."

("Six Historic Americans" contains more than five hundred pages of evidence in support of the fact that these six eminent men were all disbelievers in orthodox Christianity, including the testimony of one hundred witnesses, mostly friends and acquaintences, in proof of Lincoln's unbelief.)

"The 'Age of Reason' can now be estimated calmly. It was written from the viewpoint of a Quaker who did not believe in revealed religion, but who held that 'all religions are in their nature mild and benign' when not associated with political systems."--_Encyclopedia Britannica._

"All national institutions of churches--whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish--appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind and monopolize power and profit."--_Age of Reason._

"Each of those churches show certain books which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say that their word of God was given by God to Moses face to face; the Christians say that their word of God came by divine inspiration; and the Turks say that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches accuses the others of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbelieve them all."--_Ibid._

Paine's reason for rejecting the Bible is as logical as it is apparent. A plurality of so-called divine revelations cannot be harmonized with the attributes ascribed to. Deity. There are many Bibles. The world is divided into various religious systems. The adherents of each system have their sacred book, or Bible. Brahmins have the Vedas and Puranas, Buddhists the Tripitaka, Zoroastrians the Zend Avesta, Confucians the King, Mohammedans the Koran, and Christians the Holy Bible. The adherents of each claim that their book is a revelation from God--that the others are spurious. Now, if the Christian Bible were a revelation--if it were God's only revelation, as affirmed--would he allow these spurious books to be imposed upon mankind and delude the greater portion of his children?

A divine revelation intended for all mankind can be harmonized only with a universal acceptance of this revelation. God, it is affirmed, has made a revelation to the world. Those who receive and accept this revelation are saved; those who fail to receive and accept it are lost. This God, it is claimed, is all-powerful and all-just. If he is all-powerful he can give his children a revelation. If he is all-just he will give this revelation to all. He will not give it to a part of them and allow them to be saved and withhold it from the others and suffer them to be lost. Your house is on fire. Your children are asleep in their rooms. What is your duty? To arouse them and rescue them--to awaken all of them and save all of them. If you awaken and save only a part of them when it is in your power to save them all, you are a fiend. If you stand outside and blow a trumpet and say, "I have warned them, I have done my duty,", and they perish, you are still a fiend. If God does not give his revelation to all; if he does not disclose his divinity to all; in short, if he does not save all, he is the prince of fiends.

If all the world's inhabitants but one accepted the Bible and there was one who could not honestly accept it, its rejection by one human being would prove that it is not from an all-powerful and an all-just God; for an all-powerful God who failed to reach and convince even one of his children would not be an all-just God. Has the Bible been given to all the world? Do all accept it? Three-fourths of the human race reject it; millions have never heard of it.

"The word of God is the creation we behold."--_Age of Reason_.

"It is only in the creation that all our ideas and conceptions of a word of God can unite. The creation speaketh a universal language, independently of human speech or human languages, multiplied and various as they be. It is an ever-existing original which every man can read. It cannot be forged; it cannot be counterfeited; it cannot be lost; it cannot be altered; it cannot be suppressed. It does not depend upon the will of man whether it shall be published or not; it publishes itself from one end of the earth to the other. It preaches to all nations and to all worlds; and this word of God reveals to man all that is necessary for man to know of God.

"Do we want to contemplate his power? We see it in the immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible Whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God is? Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the scripture called the Creation."--_Ibid._

"The moral duty of man consists in imitating the moral goodness and beneficence of God manifested in the creation towards all his creatures. That seeing as we daily do the goodness of God to all men, it is an example calling upon all men to practice the same towards each other; and, consequently, that everything of persecution and revenge between man and man, and everything of cruelty to animals, is a violation of moral duty."--_Ibid._

"I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."--Ibid.

"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child cannot be a true system."--_Ibid._

"I trouble not myself about the manner of future existence. I content myself with believing, even to positive conviction, that the power that gave me existence is able to continue it, in any form and manner he pleases, either with or without this body."--_Ibid_.

It has been charged that Paine reviled Jesus in his book. He eulogized Jesus. ''Three noble and pathetic tributes to the Man of Nazareth are audible from the last century--those of Rousseau, Voltaire and Paine."--_Dr. Conway_.

"Nothing that is here said can apply, even with the most distant disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and amiable man. The morality that he preached was of the most benevolent kind; and though similar Systems of morality had been preached by Confucius, and by some of the Greek philosophers, many years before; by the Quakers since, and by many good men in all ages, it has not been exceeded by any.... But he preached also against the Jewish priests; and this brought upon him the hatred and vengeance of the whole order of priesthood."--_Age of Reason_.

History repeats itself. What is alleged to have been the fate of Jesus was, in a measure, the fate of Thomas Paine. The penning of his honest thoughts on religion caused his good name to be consigned to everlasting infamy on earth and his soul doomed to endless misery in hell. The Jews who are said to have demanded the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary and the Catholics who burned Bruno at Rome are not more deserving of execration than are the Protestant assassins of Paine's character in England and America.

Referring to Paine's examination and analysis of the Bible and his criticisms of the church presented in the "Age of Reason," William Thurston Brown, in a lecture, said: "He brought to that, examination and analysis what almost no other mind in all the ages has brought: a mind absolutely free, a soul absolutely incorruptible, a character unstained by one act of compromise or treachery to friend or foe, a nature devoted, as few natures in all history have been, to the truth, and, more than all, a sense of the relation of moral and intellectual integrity to personal character and social well-being never surpassed and seldom equaled."

S. Kyd (counselor for Thomas Williams, imprisoned for publishing the "Age of Reason"): "I defy the prosecution to find in the 'Age of Reason' a single passage inconsistent with the most chaste, the most correct system of morals."

Prof. W. F. Jamieson: "I read from this famous book, the 'Age of Reason,' as pure sentiments as were ever penned by mortal man."

"When I was a boy I was often told that the writings of Thomas Paine 'were not fit for anybody to read.' My pastor said so, as did my Sunday school teachers and my parents. None of these had ever read them or knew anything about them....I believed them, and might still do so, had I not accidentally encountered a copy of the 'Age of Reason.' Upon reading it I found it to be as conventional as anything I had ever read in church or Sunday school, to say nothing of its more lofty reasoning."--_Franklin Steiner_.

The Encyclopedia Britannica says that "the 'Age of Reason' contains many passages of earnest and even lofty eloquence in favor of a pure morality."

"Its tone throughout is noble and reverent."--_Rufus Rockwell._

Chapman Cohen: "Assuming Paine to be alive today, with his opinions unchanged, how much fault would he find with the teachings of many preachers? Very little I fancy. But does this mean, or would it mean, that Paine had become converted to Christianity? Not a bit of it. It would only mean that Christianity had become converted to Paine. In its most advanced form today, Christianity is little more than the eighteenth century Deism it so bitterly opposed, with a liberal dash of the word 'Christ.'"