After nearly ten years of service in the Ethical field, I felt
constrained to withdraw from the fraternity of lecturers, because I
realized that under the guise of a new name we were all slowly slipping
back into the net of theology, from which we had escaped after years
of struggle and suffering. When I look over my own lectures delivered
during my connection with the Ethical Movement, I find in them clearly
the traces of the same reactionary bias. The atmosphere of theology is
perceptible on nearly every page, Passages about the moral supremacy of
Jesus, His uniqueness, and the indebtedness of the ages to Him, will be
found in the publications which will not only show that I had swerved
from the path into which I had entered when I left Calvinism, and in
which I had persevered against numerous temptations to leave it, but
also, what a powerful influence my new environment exerted upon me. In a
lecture delivered before the Chicago Ethical Society, I try to prove
the spiritual resurrection of Jesus, and His incomparable greatness. In
another, delivered before the New York Society, in Carnegie Music
Hall, I fail to appreciate the services of such intellectual Titans
as Voltaire and Thomas Paine--who flung themselves against a thousand
abuses, and by opposing, succeeded in putting an end to them. I make
these confessions to show that there was in my course from Calvinism to
Rationalism, a break, after all. I missed the straight path, despite
all my vigilance, and cannot, therefore, claim the happiness, nor the
distinction which belongs to those who have been more consistent than I
have been.
But it was not very long before I began to see whither I was drifting.
I discovered that I was using two sets of weights and measures--one set
for Calvinistic Christianity, and another set for _my_ Christianity, and
it was only necessary to submit my own interpretations to the same
tests which had shown the untenability of Calvinism to discover my
self-deception. I had rejected Calvinism because it offered no evidence
in support of its dogmas, but what evidence did I offer to prove the
moral superiority of _my_ Jesus which I claimed to find in the gospels?
Why is not Calvin's word as good as mine, if an assertion may pass
for an argument? I began to see, even more clearly than ever before,
perhaps, because of my temporary backsliding or _egarement_, as the
French would it is as impossible to construct a character of Jesus as
it is to write a life of Jesus out of the data in hand. No less an
authority than Prof. Conybeare, of Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy
and Doctor of Theology, admits that "We cannot, then, aspire to write
a life of Jesus. Even Renan failed, and from the hands of a Farrar
we merely get under this rubric a farago of falsehood, absurdity, and
charlatanry." * This is strong language, but there is no exaggeration
in it. If, however, a life of Jesus cannot be written, it follows that,
under the circumstances a character of Jesus can not be constructed. How
can the character of a man be known whose life is unknown to us? Are
a few floating aphorisms ascribed to Jesus enough to justify his
beatification? And yet, the other Ethical lecturers, as well as myself,
were speaking of Jesus not only as the religious genius of the ages, but
also as the one being in whom humanity's hopes and dreams came true. I
have quoted elsewhere ** Adler's description of Christ as "a personality
of such superlative excellence, so radiant, so incomparably lofty in
mien and port and speech and intercourse." But this rhetorical praise is
as untrue of Jesus as it would be of Moses or Mohammed.
* Myth, Magic and Morals, page 140.
* The Truth About Jesus, page 257.
In the fall of 1899 there was presented to me the opportunity of either
going to Philadelphia, the scene of my earlier intellectual struggles,
as the lecturer of an Independent Society, or of returning to Chicago,
after an absence of four years from that city, to be the lecturer of
a society which promised to help support a platform pledged to an
uncompromising Rationalism. Considerable objection was made by members
and lecturers of the Ethical Societies to my trying to organize an
Independent Society in Chicago. Was not one liberal society enough in
Chicago? it was asked. Did not the Ethical platform answer the purposes
which the proposed society wished to serve? Would I not be dividing and
thereby weakening the cause by engaging a new lecture hall? My critics
did not object to my going to cities where there were no Ethical
Societies, but in cities where there was one, I was not needed, was
their argument. But time has shown that the society of which I have
been the lecturer for the past ten years, does not in the least conflict
with, or duplicate the work of the Ethical Societies. There is a radical
difference between Ethical Culture and Rationalism, which may be brought
out by the help of an illustration: A certain king had many slaves. This
king had been a slave-holder for a long, long time. And his slaves had
lived in slavery ever since they could remember. There were among the
slaves of the king, young and old, men and women, rich and poor.
Now there came to the slave-holder, one day, men from a strange country,
who demanded that the slaves be given their freedom. The king put them
to death, and continued to hold his slaves. From time to time others
came demanding freedom for the slaves, but they met a similar fate.
Some of the preachers of freedom were burned at the stake, others were
tortured to death in dungeons, and others again were put to the sword.
But this did not stop the coming of new preachers of liberty.
When the number of people believing in freedom for the slave increased
sufficiently to command respect, the slave-holder changed his policy. He
received the messengers of liberty with great courtesy and hospitality,
and expressed the hope that he and they might arrive at a satisfactory
arrangement.
"Why do you demand the freedom of the slaves?" he asked, very politely.
"It is their right, and it alone can develop the best possibilities in
them," they answered.
"I am perfectly willing,--indeed, I shall cooperate with you toward that
laudible end, but on one condition: they shall continue to remain in my
care and obey me as their guide and protector."
"No," said some of the apostles of liberty, "as slaves they can never be
helped to the fuller and better life. Before everything else, they
must conquer freedom to obey not you, but their own unfettered and
enlightened consciences. Besides, you have been an evil Master, and can
no longer be entrusted with the care of others. With the fall of slavery
falls all your pretended rights to the allegiance of these men and
women. And the slaves can not become free until your real character is
exposed and your pretensions to authority divine exploded."
But, on the other hand, there were those among the preachers of freedom
who were inclined to accept the slave-owner's proposition: "We will
come in and do what we can to educate and reform the people. We will
say nothing to them about their slavery, or against your authority over
them. All we wish is to make good men and women out of them," they said.
Behold the difference between "liberal" Christian and Ethical movements,
and a thoroughgoing and uncompromising Rationalism. The former think
that the intellectual bondage of the church is not an obstacle to the
moral and mental development of man, the latter hold, and to my mind,
justly, that the first condition of salvation for a slave is that he be
free--free from gods, christs, bibles and churches, as well as kings.
But the Rationalist Societies of Europe and America need no
justification for their existence. They do a work which neither
Unitarianism nor Ethical Culture attempt even to do. The work of the
Rationalists of Chicago has been singularly successful, both in building
up a self-supporting Society with a large membership and a much larger
audience which regularly fills Orchestra Hall--the largest and finest on
Michigan Avenue, but it has also, together with the other progressive
forces at play in the modern world, profoundly influenced the life and
thought of the community. Superstition is more ashamed to show her face
in Chicago, than perhaps in any other city of its size in America. There
are no doubt, Rationalists in many of our other cities, and in large
numbers, but in Chicago, Rationalists are organized. They maintain a
regular platform, and disseminate Rationalistic publications by the
thousands.
The ten years in which I have been engaged in this work of constructive
Rationalism have been the most fruitful years of my life. They have
been years of conscious development in the knowledge and grasp of
truths which enrich as well as interpret life. The sense of freedom from
inconsistency, which is a kind of insincerity, is a great source, both
of power and happiness. Then, the militant note to which the soul of the
Rationalist vibrates,--for he is a soldier sworn to free men from the
fear of the gods and their priests--a soldier to help man break his
holy chains--gives him all the alertness, watchfulness, and courage of
a sentinel at his vigil. There have been those who have helped man to
political liberty, and others who are nobly endeavoring to help him
conquer industrial liberty: but not until man has thrown off the yoke
of the gods can he be free indeed. The last king to be dethroned is the
heavenly king. If he stays, Tzar and Kaiser, tyrant and despot, pope and
priest, in some form or other, will remain with us. Here and there men
may succeed in banishing or overthrowing the tyrant,--king or priest,
but these will come back again and again, perhaps disguised, but
ever really the same, until God from whom they derive their power is
unseated, and man becomes forever free. Honor to those who taught us not
to kneel before Caesar, but greater honor to him who shall teach us not
to kneel at all, and to accept nothing that is given to us for kneeling.