I HAVE read the sermon on "Sowing and Reaping," and I now understand Mr.
Moody better than I did before. The other day, in New York, Mr. Moody
said that he implicitly believed the story of Jonah and really thought
that he was in the fish for three days.
When I read it I was surprised that a man living in the century of
Humboldt, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer and Haeckel, should believe such an
absurd and idiotic story.
Now I understand the whole thing. I can account for the amazing
credulity of this man. Mr. Moody never read one of my lectures. That
accounts for it all, and no wonder that he is a hundred years behind the
times. He never read one of my lectures; that is a perfect explanation.
Poor man! He has no idea of what he has lost. He has been living on
miracles and mistakes, on falsehood and foolishness, stuffing his mind
with absurdities when he could have had truth, facts and good, sound
sense.
Poor man!
Probably Mr. Moody has never read one word of Darwin and so he still
believes in the Garden of Eden and the talking snake and really thinks
that Jehovah took some mud, moulded the form of a man, breathed in its
nostrils, stood it up and called it Adam, and that he then took one
of Adam's ribs and some more mud and manufactured Eve. Probably he has
never read a word written by any great geologist and consequently still
believes in the story of the flood. Knowing nothing of astronomy, he
still thinks that Joshua stopped the sun.
Poor man! He has neglected Spencer and has no idea of evolution. He
thinks that man has, through all the ages, degenerated, the first pair
having been perfect. He does not believe that man came from lower forms
and has gradually journeyed upward.
He really thinks that the Devil outwitted God and vaccinated the human
race with the virus of total depravity.
Poor man!
He knows nothing of the great scientists--of the great thinkers, of the
emancipators of the human race; knows nothing of Spinoza, of Voltaire,
of Draper, Buckle, of Paine or Renan.
Mr. Moody ought to read something besides the Bible--ought to find
out what the really intelligent have thought. He ought to get some
new ideas--a few facts--and I think that, after he did so, he would be
astonished to find how ignorant and foolish he had been. He is a good
man. His heart is fairly good, but his head is almost useless.
The trouble with this sermon, "Sowing and Reaping," is that he
contradicts it. I believe that a man must reap what he sows, that every
human being must bear the natural consequences of his acts. Actions are
good or bad according to their consequences. That is my doctrine.
There is no forgiveness in nature. But Mr. Moody tells us that a man may
sow thistles and gather figs, that having acted like a fiend tor seventy
years, he can, between his last dose of medicine and his last breath,
repent; that he can be washed clean by the blood of the lamb, and that
myriads of angels will carry his soul to heaven--in other words, that
this man will not reap what he sowed, but what Christ sowed, that this
man's thistles will be changed to figs.
This doctrine, to my mind, is not only absurd, but dishonest and
corrupting.
This is one of the absurdities in Mr. Moody's theology. The other is
that a man can justly be damned for the sin of another.
Nothing can exceed the foolishness of these two ideas--first: "Man can
be justly punished forever for the sin of Adam." Second: "Man can be
justly rewarded with eternal joy for the goodness of Christ."
Yet the man who believes this, preaches a sermon in which he says that
a man must reap what he sows. Orthodox Christians teach exactly the
opposite. They teach that no matter what a man sows, no matter how
wicked his life has been, that he can by repentance change the crop.
That all his sins shall be forgotten and that only the goodness of
Christ will be remembered.
Let us see how this works:
Mr. A. has lived a good and useful life, kept his contracts, paid his
debts, educated his children, loved his wife and made his home a heaven,
but he did not believe in the inspiration of Mr. Moody's Bible. He died
and his soul was sent to hell. Mr. Moody says that as a man sows so
shall he reap.
Mr. B. lived a useless and wicked life. By his cruelty he drove his wife
to insanity, his children became vagrants and beggars, his home was a
perfect hell, he committed many crimes, he was a thief, a burglar, a
murderer. A few minutes before he was hanged he got religion and his
soul went from the scaffold to heaven. And yet Mr. Moody says that as a
man sows so shall he reap.
Mr. Moody ought to have a little philosophy--a little good sense.
So Mr. Moody says that only in this life can a man secure the reward of
repentance.
Just before a man dies, God loves him--loves him as a mother loves her
babe--but a moment after he dies, he sends his soul to hell. In the
other world nothing can be done to reform him. The society of God and
the angels can have no good effect. Nobody can be made better in heaven.
This world is the only place where reform is possible. Here, surrounded
by the wicked in the midst of temptations, in the darkness of ignorance,
a human being may reform if he is fortunate enough to hear the words
of some revival preacher, but when he goes before his maker--before the
Trinity--he has no chance. God can do nothing for his soul except to
send it to hell.
This shows that the power for good is confined to people in this world
and that in the next world God can do nothing to reform his children.
This is theology. This is what they call "Tidings of great joy."
Every orthodox creed is savage, ignorant and idiotic.
In the orthodox heaven there is no mercy, no pity. In the orthodox hell
there is no hope, no reform. God is an eternal jailer, an everlasting
turnkey.
And yet Christians now say that while there may be no fire in hell--no
actual flames--yet the lost souls will feel forever the tortures of
conscience.
What will conscience trouble the people in hell about? They tell us that
they will remember their sins.
Well, what about the souls in heaven? They committed awful sins, they
made their fellow-men unhappy. They took the lives of others--sent many
to eternal torment. Will they have no conscience? Is hell the only place
where souls regret the evil they have done? Have the angels no regret,
no remorse, no conscience?
If this be so, heaven must be somewhat worse than hell.
In old times, if people wanted to know anything they asked the preacher.
Now they do if they don't.
The Bible has, with intelligent men, lost its authority.
The miracles are now regarded by sensible people as the spawn of
ignorance and credulity. On every hand people are looking for facts--for
truth--and all religions are taking their places in the museum of myths.
Yes, the people are becoming civilized, and so they are putting out the
fires of hell. They are ceasing to believe in a God who seeks eternal
revenge.
The people are becoming sensible. They are asking for evidence. They
care but little for the winged phantoms of the air--for the ghosts and
devils and supposed gods. The people are anxious to be happy here and
they want a little heaven in this life.
Theology is a curse. Science is a blessing. We do not need preachers,
but teachers; not priests, but thinkers; not churches, but schools; not
steeples, but observatories. We want knowledge.
Let us hope that Mr. Moody will read some really useful books.