First, what is the origin of the crime known as blasphemy? It is the
belief in a God who is cruel, revengeful, quick tempered and
capricious; a God who punishes the innocent for the guilty; a God who
listens with delight to the shrieks of the tortured and gazes
enraptured on their spurting blood. You must hold this belief before
you can believe in the doctrine of blasphemy. You must believe that
this God loves ceremonies, that this God knows certain men to whom He
has told all His will. It then follows that, if this God loves
ceremonies and has certain men to teach His will and perform these
ceremonies, these men must have a place to live in. This place was
called a temple, and it was sacred. And the pots and pans and kettles
and all in it were sacred too. No one but the priests must touch them.
Then the God wrote a book in which He told His covenants to men, and
gave this book to priests to interpret. While it was sacrilege to
touch with the hands the pots and pans of the temple, it was blasphemy
to doubt or question anything in the book. And then the right to think
was gone, and the right to use the brain that God had given was taken
away, and religion was entrenched behind that citadel called blasphemy.
God was a kind of juggler. He did not wish man to be impudent or
curious about how He did things. You must sit in audience and watch
the tricks and ask no questions. In front of every fact He has hung
the impenetrable curtain of blasphemy. Now, then, all the little
reason that poor man had is useless. To say anything against the
priest was blasphemy and to say anything against God was blasphemy--to
ask a question was blasphemy. Finally we sank to the level of
fetishism. We began to worship inanimate things. If you will read your
bible you will find that the Jews had a sacred box. In it were the rod
of Aaron and a piece of manna and the tables of stone. To touch this
box was a crime. You remember that one time when a careless Jew thought
the box was going to tip he held it. God killed him. What a warning
to baggage smashers of the present day.
We find also that God concocted a hair oil and threatened death to any
one who imitated it. And we see that He also made a certain perfume
and it was death to make anything that smelt like it. It seems to me
this is carrying protection too far. It always has been blasphemy to
say "I do not know whether God exists or not." In all Catholic
countries it is blasphemy to doubt the bible, to doubt the sacredness
of the relics. It always has been blasphemy to laugh at a priest, to
ask questions, to investigate the Trinity. In a world of superstition,
reason is blasphemy. In a world of ignorance, facts are blasphemy. In
a world of cruelty, sympathy is a crime, and in a world of lies, truth
is blasphemy. Who are the real blasphemers? Webster offers the
definition; blasphemy is an insult offered to God by attributing to Him
a nature and qualities differing from His real nature and qualities,
and dishonoring Him. A very good definition, if you only know what His
nature and qualities are. But that is not revealed; for, studying Him
through the medium of the bible, we find Him illimitably contradictory.
He commands us not to work on the Sabbath day, because it is holy. Yet
God works himself on the Sabbath day. The sun, moon and stars swing
round in their orbits, and all the creation attributed to this God goes
on as on other days. He says: "Honor thy father and mother," and yet
this God, in the person of Christ, offered honors, and glory, and
happiness a hundred fold to any who would desert their father and
mother for Him. Thou shalt not kill, yet God killed the first-born of
Egypt, and he commanded Joshua to kill all His enemies, not sparing old
or young, man, woman or child, even an unborn child. "Thou shalt not
commit adultery," he says, and yet this God gave the wives of defeated
enemies to His soldiers of Joshua's army. Then again He says, "Thou
shalt not steal." By this command He protected the inanimate property
and the cattle of one man against the hand of another, and yet this God
who said "Thou shalt not steal," established human slavery. The
products of industry were not to be interfered with, but the producer
might be stolen as often as possible. "Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbor." And yet the God who said this said
also, "I have sent lying spirits unto Ahab." The only commandment He
really kept was, "Thou shalt have none other gods but Me."
Is it blasphemous to describe this God as malicious? You know that
laughter is a good index of the character of a man. You like and
rejoice with the man whose laugh is free and joyous and full of good
will. You fear and dislike him of the sneering laugh. How does God
laugh? He says, "I will laugh at their calamity and mock at their
misfortune," speaking of some who have sinned. Think of the malice and
malignity of that in an infinite God when speaking of the sufferings He
is going to impose upon His children. You know that it is said of a
Roman emperor that he wrote laws very finely, and posted them so high
on the walls that no one could read them, and then he punished the
people who disobeyed the laws. That is the acme of tyranny: to
provide a punishment for breach of laws the existence of which were
unknown. Now we all know that there is sin against the Holy Ghost
which will not be forgiven in this world nor in the world to come.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven to the lunatic asylum
by the thought that they had committed this unpardonable sin. Every
educated minister knows that that part of the bible is an
interpolation, but they all preach it. What that sin against the Holy
Ghost is, is not specified. I say, "Oh, but my good God, tell me what
this sin is." And He answers, "Maybe now asking is the crime. Keep
quiet." So I keep quiet and go about tortured with the fear that I
have committed that sin. Is it blasphemy to describe God as needing
assistance from the Legislature? Calling for the aid of a mob to
enforce His will here, compare that God with a man, even with Henry
Bergh. See what Mr. Bergh has done to awaken pity in our people and
call sympathy to the rescue of suffering animals. And yet our God was a
torturer of dumb brutes.
It is blasphemy to say that our God sent the famine and dried the
mother's breast from her infant's withered lips? Is it blasphemy to
say that He is the author of the pestilence; that He ordered some of
His children to consume others with fire and sword? Is it blasphemy to
believe what we read in the 109th Psalm? If these things are not
blasphemy, then there is no blasphemy. If there be a God I desire Him
to write in the book of judgment opposite my name that I denied these
lies for Him.
Let us take another step; let us examine the Presbyterian confession of
faith. If it be possible to commit blasphemy, then I contend that the
Presbyterian creed is most blasphemous, for, according to that, God is
a cruel, unrelenting, revengeful, malignant and utterly unreasonable
tyrant. I propose now to pay a little attention to the creed. First,
it confesses that there is such a thing as a light of nature. It is
sufficient to make man inexcusable, but not sufficient for salvation;
just light enough to lead man to hell. Now imagine a man who will put
a false light on a hilltop to lure a ship to destruction. What would
we say of that man? What can we say of a God who gives this false
light of nature which, if its lessons are followed, results in hell?
That is the Presbyterian God. I don't like Him. Now it occurred to
God that the light of nature was somewhat weak, and He thought He'd
light another burner. Therefore He made His book and gave it to His
servants, the priests, that they might give it to men. It was to be
accepted, not on the authority of Moses, or any other writer, but
because it was the word of God. How do you know it's the word of God?
You're not to take the word of Moses, or David, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah,
or any other man, because the authenticity of their work has nothing to
do with the matter; this creed expressly lets them out. How are you to
know that it is God's word? Because it is God's word. Why is it God's
word? What proof have we that it is God's word? Because it is God's
word.
Now, then, I find that the next thing in this wonderful confession of
faith of the Presbyterians is the decree of predestination. [Reads the
decree.] I am pleased to assure you that it is not necessary to
understand this. You have only to believe it. You see that by the
decree of God some men and angels are predestinated to heaven and
others to eternal hell, and you observe that their number is so certain
and definite that it can neither be changed nor altered. You are asked
to believe that billions of years ago this God knew the names of all
the men and women whom He was going to save. Had 'em in His book, that
being the only thing except Himself that then existed. He had chosen
the names by the aid of the secret council. The reason they called it
secret was because they knew all about it.
In making His choice, God was not at all bigoted. He did not choose
John Smith because He foresaw that Smith was to be a Presbyterian, and
was to possess a loving nature, was to be honest and true and noble in
all his ways, doing good himself and encouraging others in the same.
Oh, no! He was quite as likely to pick Brown, in spite of the fact
that He knew long before that Brown would be a wicked wretch. You see
He was just as apt to send Smith to the devil and take Brown to
heaven--and all for "His glory." This God also blinds and hardens--ah!
he's a peculiar God. If sinners persevere, He will blind and harden
and give them over at last to their own wickedness instead of trying to
reclaim and save them.
Now we come to the comforting doctrine of the total depravity of man,
and this leads us to consider how he came that way. Can any person
read the first chapters of Genesis and believe them unless his logic
was assassinated in the cradle? We read that our first parents were
placed in a pleasant garden; that they were given the full run of the
place and only forbidden to meddle with the orchard; that they were
tempted as God knew they were to be tempted; that they fell as God knew
they would fall, and that for this fall, which He knew would happen
before He made them, He fixed the curse of original sin upon them, to
be continued to all their children. Why didn't He stop right there?
Why didn't He kill Adam and Eve and make another pair who didn't like
apples? Then when He brought His flood why did He rescue eight people
if their descendants were to be so totally depraved and wicked? Why
didn't He have His flood first, and then drown the devil? That would
have solved the problem, and He could then have tried experiments
unmolested.
The Presbyterian confession says this corruption was in all men. It was
born with them, it lived through their life, and after death survived
in the children. Well, can't man help himself? No, I'll show you,
God's got him. Listen to this. [Reads extracts.] So that a natural
man is not only dead in sin and unable to accomplish salvation, but he
is also incapable of preparing himself therefore. Absolutely incapable
of taking a trick. He is saved, if at all, completely by the mercy of
God. If that's the case, then why doesn't He convert us all? Oh, He
doesn't. He wishes to send the most of us to hell--to show His justice.
Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerate. So also are all persons
incapable of unbelief. That includes insane persons and idiots,
because an idiot is incapable of unbelief. Idiots are the only fellows
who've got the dead wood on God. Then according to this, the man who
has lived according to the light of nature, doing the best he knew how
to make this earth happy, will be damned by God because he never heard
of His son. Whose fault is it that an infinite God does not advertise?
Something wrong about that. I am inclined to think that the
Presbyterian church is wrong. I find here how utterly unpardonable sin
is. There is no sin so small but it is punished with hell, and away
you go straight to the deepest burning pit unless your heart has been
purified by this confession of faith--unless this snake has crawled in
there and made itself a nest. Why should we help religion? I would
like people to ask themselves that question. An infinite God, by
practicing a reasonable economy, can get along without assistance.
Loudly this confession proclaims that salvation comes from Christ
alone. What, then, becomes of the savage who, having never known the
name of Christ, has lived according to the light of nature, kind and
heroic and generous, and possessed of and cultivating all the natural
virtues? He goes to hell. God, you see, loves us. If He had not
loved us what would He have done? The light of nature then shows that
God is good and therefore to be feared--on account of his goodness, to
be served and honored without ceasing. And yet this creed says that on
the last day God will damn anyone who has walked according to this
light. It's blasphemy to walk by the light of nature.
The next great doctrine is on the preservation of the saints. Now,
there are peculiarities about saints. They are saints without their
own knowledge or free will; they may even be down on saints, but its no
good. God has got a rolling hitch on them, and they have to come into
the kingdom sooner or later. It all depends on whether they have been
elected or not. God could have made me a saint just as easy as not,
but He passed me by. Now you know the Presbyterians say I trample on
holy things. They believe in hell and I come and say there is no hell.
I hurt their hearts, they say, and they add that I am going to hell
myself. I thank them for that; but now let's see what these tender
Presbyterians say of other churches. Here it is:
This confession of faith calls the pope of Rome anti-Christ and a son
of perdition. Now there are forty Roman Catholics to one Presbyterian
on this earth. Do not the Presbyterians rather trample on the things
that are holy to the Roman Catholics, and do they respect their
feelings? But the Presbyterians have a pope themselves, composed of the
presbyters and preachers. This confession attributes to them the keys
of heaven and hell and the power to forgive sins. [Here extracts are
read.] Therefore these men must be infallible, for God would never be
so foolish as to entrust fallible men with the keys of heaven and hell.
I care nothing for their keys, nor for any world these keys would open
or lock; I prefer the country.
We are told by this faith that at the last day all the men and women
and children who have ever lived on the earth will appear in the self
same bodies they have had when on earth. Everyone who knows anything
knows the constant exchange which is going on between the vegetable and
animal kingdom. The millions of atoms which compose one of our bodies
have all come from animals and vegetables, and they in their turn drew
them from animals and vegetables which preceded them. The same atoms
which are now in our bodies have previously been in the bodies of our
ancestors. The negro from Central Africa has many times been mahogany
and the mahogany has many times been negro. A missionary goes to the
cannibal islands and a cannibal eats him and dies. The atoms which
composed the missionary's body now compose in great part the cannibal's
body. To whom will these atoms belong on the morning of the
resurrection?
How did the devil, who had always lived in heaven among the best
society, ever happen to become bad? If a man surrounded by angels
could become bad, why cannot a man surrounded by devils become good?
Here is the last Presbyterian joy: At the day of judgment the
righteous shall be caught up to heaven and shall stand at the right
hand of Christ and share with Him in judging the wicked. Then the
Presbyterian husband may have the ineffable pleasure of judging his
wife and condemning her to eternal hell, and the boy will say to his
mother, echoing the command of God: "Depart, thou accursed, into
everlasting torment!" Here will come a man who has not believed in
God. He was a soldier who took up arms to free the slaves and who
rotted to death in Andersonville prison rather than accept the offer of
his captors to fight against freedom. He loved his wife and his
children and his Home and his native country and all mankind, and did
all the good he knew. God will say to the Presbyterians, "What shall
We do to this man?"; and they will answer, "Throw him into hell."
Last night there was a fire in Philadelphia, and at a window fifty feet
above the ground Mr. King stood amid flame and smoke and pressed his
children to his breast one after the other, kissed them, and threw them
to the rescuers with a prayer. That was man. At the last day God
takes His children with a curse and hurls them into eternal fire.
That's your God as the Presbyterians describe Him. Do you believe that
God--if there is one--will ever damn me for thinking Him better than He
is? If this creed be true, God is the insane keeper of a mad house.
We have in this city a clergyman who contends that this creed gives a
correct picture of God, and furthermore says that God has the right to
do with us what He pleases--because He made us. If I could change this
lamp into a human being, that would not give me the right to torture
him, and if I did torture him and he cried out, "Why torturest thou
me?" and I replied, "Because I made you," he would be right in
replying, "You made me, therefore you are responsible for my
happiness." No God has a right to add to the sum of human misery. And
yet this minister believes an honest thought blasphemy. No doubt he is
perfectly honest. Otherwise he would have too much intellectual pride
to take the position he does. He says that the bible offers the only
restraint to the savage passions of man. In lands where there has been
no bible there have been mild and beneficent philosophers, like Buddha
and Confucius. Is it possible that the bible is the only restraint,
and yet the nations among whom these men lived have been as moral as
we? In Brooklyn and New York you have the bible, yet do you find that
the restraint is a great success? Is there a city on the globe which
lacks more in certain directions than some in Christendom, or even the
United States? What are the natural virtues of man? Honesty,
hospitality, mercy in the hour of victory, generosity--do we not find
these virtues among some savages? Do we find them among all
Christians? I am also told by these gentlemen that the time will come
when the infidel will be silenced by society. Why that time came long
ago. Society gave the hemlock to Socrates, society in Jerusalem cried
out for Barabbas and crucified Jesus. In every Christian country
society has endeavored to crush the infidel.
Blasphemy is a padlock which hypocrisy tries to put on the lips of all
honest men. At one time Christianity succeeded in silencing the
infidel, and then came the dark ages, when all rule was ecclesiastical,
when the air was filled with devils and spooks, when birth was a
misfortune, life a prolonged misery of fear and torment, and death a
horrible nightmare. They crushed the infidels, Galileo, Kepler,
Copernicus, wherever a ray of light appeared in the ecclesiastical
darkness. But I want to tell this minister tonight, and all others
like him, that that day is passed. All the churches in the United
States can not even crush me. The day for that has gone, never to
return. If they think they can crush free thought in this country, let
them try it. What must this minister think of you and the citizens of
this republic when he says, "Take the fear of hell out of men's hearts
and a majority of them will become ungovernably wicked." Oh, think of
an angel in heaven having to allow that he was scared there.
This minister calls for my arrest. He thinks his God needs help, and
would like to see the police crush the infidel. I would advise Mr.
Talmage (hisses) to furnish his God with a rattle, so that when he is
in danger again he can summon the police immediately.
I'll tell you what is blasphemy. It is blasphemy to live on the fruits
of other men's labor, to prevent the growth of the human mind, to
persecute for opinion's sake, to abuse your wife and children, to
increase in any manner the sum of human misery.
I'll tell you what is sacred. Our bodies are sacred, our rights are
sacred, justice and liberty are sacred. I'll tell you what is the true
bible. It is the sum of all actual knowledge of man, and every man who
discovers a new fact adds a new verse to this bible. It is different
from the other bible, because that is the sum of all that its writers
and readers do not know.