Christians are constantly telling “how happy their religion makes them,”
how happy they feel “since they found Jesus.” We will take them at their
word and believe that they are just as happy as they say they are. What
has their religion done for them, what has Jesus done for them, that they
should be so happy? They will answer that they have been saved, that their
souls have been rescued from destruction. Without going into the question
whether they need to be saved or whether their souls are in any danger of
destruction, let us see what kind of happiness the Christian enjoys. The
great song of Christians is: _My_ soul is saved. The Christian is happy on
his own account alone; he rejoices in his own good fortune; he is pleased
to think that he is out of it. The Christian’s happiness is a purely
selfish feeling. In his exultation is no thought of another’s condition,
of another’s lot.
If some are saved, others are lost, for all do not accept the Christian
faith, all do not find Jesus. The Christian can be happy while others are
miserable; he can rejoice while knowing that others are in peril; he can
exult over his own salvation while seeing others going to destruction.
This is a fiendish happiness, a devilish joy. For one to be happy while
knowing that a brother or sister is lost shows a hard, selfish, cruel
heart.
Think of the Christian mother being happy for having been rescued from her
burning home in whose fatal flames her children all perished! Think of the
Christian father filled with joy at his escape from the sinking ship in
which his wife and babe sailed to the port of death! Think of a Christian
man or woman exulting over their good fortune in not having a disease
which took away those who were nearest and dearest! Such joy, such
happiness, as this is not human, it is brutish.
The Christian is welcome to all the happiness his heartless religion
affords him. I want none of it. Such a religion would drive me mad.
The loving heart is happiest in the joy of those it loves; it is happy in
seeing others happy, but there could be no joy for it to be saved while
those it loved were lost. Christianity is a heartless religion, a cruel
faith, a selfish scheme, and it is for those who care more about being
saved than saving others.
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The highest freedom is the freedom to say what we believe to be right.
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It was a childless woman who said: The happiest woman is she whose bosom
pillows the sweet head of a child.