_Question_. Have you read the remarks made about you by the Rev.
Mr. Banks, and what do you think of what he said?
_Answer_. The reverend gentleman pays me a great compliment by
comparing me to a circus. Everybody enjoys the circus. They love
to see the acrobats, the walkers on the tight rope, the beautiful
girls on the horses, and they laugh at the wit of the clowns. They
are delighted with the jugglers, with the music of the band. They
drink the lemonade, eat the colored popcorn and laugh until they
nearly roll off their seats. Now the circus has a few animals so
that Christians can have an excuse for going. Think of the joy
the circus gives to the boys and girls. They look at the show
bills, see the men and women flying through the air, bursting
through paper hoops, the elephants standing on their heads, and
the clowns, in curious clothes, with hands on their knees and open
mouths, supposed to be filled with laughter.
All the boys and girls for many miles around know the blessed day.
They save their money, obey their parents, and when the circus
comes they are on hand. They see the procession and then they see
the show. They are all happy. No sermon ever pleased them as
much, and in comparison even the Sunday school is tame and dull.
To feel that I have given as much joy as the circus fills me with
pleasure. What chance would the Rev. Dr. Banks stand against a
circus?
The reverend gentleman has done me a great honor, and I tender him
my sincere thanks.
_Question_. Dr. Banks says that you write only one lecture a year,
while preachers write a brand new one every week--that if you did
that people would tire of you. What have you to say to that?
_Answer_. It may be that great artists paint only one picture a
year, and it may be that sign painters can do several jobs a day.
Still, I would not say that the sign painters were superior to the
artists. There is quite a difference between a sculptor and a
stone-cutter.
There are thousands of preachers and thousands and thousands of
sermons preached every year. Has any orthodox minister in the year
1898 given just one paragraph to literature? Has any orthodox
preacher uttered one great thought, clothed in perfect English that
thrilled the hearers like music--one great strophe that became one
of the treasures of memory?
I will make the question a little clearer. Has any orthodox
preacher, or any preacher in an orthodox pulpit uttered a paragraph
of what may be called sculptured speech since Henry Ward Beecher
died? I do not wonder that the sermons are poor. Their doctrines
have been discussed for centuries. There is little chance for
originality; they not only thresh old straw, but the thresh straw
that has been threshed a million times--straw in which there has
not been a grain of wheat for hundreds of years. No wonder that
they have nervous prostration. No wonder that they need vacations,
and no wonder that their congregations enjoy the vacations as keenly
as the ministers themselves. Better deliver a real good address
fifty-two times than fifty-two poor ones--just for the sake of
variety.
_Question_. Dr. Banks says that the tendency at present is not
toward Agnosticism, but toward Christianity. What is your opinion?
_Answer_. When I was a boy "Infidels" were very rare. A man who
denied the inspiration of the Bible was regarded as a monster.
Now there are in this country millions who regard the Bible as the
work of ignorant and superstitious men. A few years ago the Bible
was the standard. All scientific theories were tested by the Bible.
Now science is the standard and the Bible is tested by that.
Dr. Banks did not mention the names of the great scientists who
are or were Christians, but he probably thought of Laplace, Humboldt,
Haeckel, Huxley, Spencer, Tyndall, Darwin, Helmholtz and Draper.
When he spoke of Christian statesmen he likely thought of Jefferson,
Franklin, Washington, Paine and Lincoln--or he may have thought of
Pierce, Fillmore and Buchanan.
But, after all, there is no argument in names. A man is not
necessarily great because he holds office or wears a crown or talks
in a pulpit. Facts, reasons, are better than names. But it seems
to me that nothing can be plainer than that the church is losing
ground--that the people are discarding the creeds and that superstition
has passed the zenith of its power.
_Question_. Dr. Banks says that Christ did not mention the Western
Hemisphere because God does nothing for men that they can do for
themselves. What have you to say?
_Answer_. Christ said nothing about the Western Hemisphere because
he did not know that it existed. He did not know the shape of the
earth. He was not a scientist--never even hinted at any science--
never told anybody to investigate--to think. His idea was that
this life should be spent in preparing for the next. For all the
evils of this life, and the next, faith was his remedy.
I see from the report in the paper that Dr. Banks, after making
the remarks about me preached a sermon on "Herod the Villain in
the Drama of Christ." Who made Herod? Dr. Banks will answer that
God made him. Did God know what Herod would do? Yes. Did he know
that he would cause the children to be slaughtered in his vain
efforts to kill the infant Christ? Yes. Dr. Banks will say that
God is not responsible for Herod because he gave Herod freedom.
Did God know how Herod would use his freedom? Did he know that he
would become the villain in the drama of Christ? Yes. Who, then,
is really responsible for the acts of Herod?
If I could change a stone into a human being, and if I could give
this being freedom of will, and if I knew that if I made him he
would murder a man, and if with that knowledge I made him, and he
did commit a murder, who would be the real murderer?
Will Dr. Banks in his fifty-two sermons of next year show that his
God is not responsible for the crimes of Herod?
No doubt Dr. Banks is a good man, and no doubt he thinks that
liberty of thought leads to hell, and honestly believes that all
doubt comes from the Devil. I do not blame him. He thinks as he
must. He is a product of conditions.
He ought to be my friend because I am doing the best I can to
civilize his congregation.
--_The Plain Dealer_, Cleveland, Ohio, 1898.