I have a letter from an "orthodox Christian," who says the only hope
for humanity lies in the "old-fashioned religion."
Then he proceeds to tell me how carefully he has studied human nature,
"in business, in social life, and in himself," and that he finds it all
vile--selfish--sinful.
Of course he does, because he studies it from a false and harmful
standpoint, and looks for "the worm of earth" and "the poor, miserable
sinner," instead of the _divine_ man.
We find what we look for in this world.
I have always been looking for the noble qualities in human beings, and
I have found them.
There are great souls all along the highway of life, and there are
great qualities even in the people who seem common and weak to us
ordinarily.
One of the grandest souls I know is a man who served his term in prison
for sins committed while in drink.
He was not "born bad", he simply drifted into bad company and formed
bad habits.
He paid the awful penalty of five years behind prison bars, but the
divine man within him asserted itself, and today I have no friend I
feel prouder to call that name.
Mr. John L. Tait, secretary of the Central Howard Association, of
Chicago, writes me regarding his knowledge of ex-convicts:
According to my experience with a number of men of this class during
the last two years, more than 90 per cent of them are worthy of the
most cordial support and assistance.
If this can be said of men who have been criminals, surely humanity is
not so vile as my "orthodox" correspondent would have me believe.
A "Christian" of that order ought to be put under restraint, and not
allowed to associate with mankind.
He carries a moral malaria with him, which poisons the air.
He suggests evil to minds which have not thought it.
He is a dangerous hypnotist, while pretending to be a disciple of
Christ.
The man who believes that all men are vicious, selfish and immoral is
_projecting pernicious mind stuff_ into space, which is as dangerous to
the peace of the community as dynamite bombs.
The world has been kept back too long by this false, unholy and
blasphemous "religion."
It is not the religion of Christ--it is the religion of ignorant
translators, ignorant readers.
Thank God, its supremacy is past. A wholesome and holy religion has
taken its place with the intelligent progressive minds of the day, a
religion which says: "I am all goodness, love, truth, mercy, health. I
am a necessary part of God's universe. I am a divine soul, and only
good can come through me or to me. God made me, and He could make
nothing but goodness and purity and worth. I am the reflection of all
His qualities."
This is the "new" religion; yet it is older than the universe. It is
God's own thought put into practical form.