A Persian after having read our religion, with its frightful
descriptions of perdition, wrote these words: "Two angels flying out
from the blissful city of God--the angel of love and the angel of
pity--hovered over the eternal pit where suffered the captives of
hell. One smile of love illumined the darkness and one tear of pity
extinguished all the fires." Has orthodoxy produced anything as
generously beautiful as this? Let me read you this: Sectarians, hear
this: Believers in eternal damnation, hear this: Clergy of America who
expect to have your happiness in heaven increased by seeing me burning
in hell, hear this:
This is the prayer of the Brahmins--a prayer that has trembled from
human lips toward heaven for more than four thousand years:
"Never will I seek or receive private individual salvation. Never will
I enter into final bliss alone. But forever and everywhere will I labor
and strive for the final redemption of every creature throughout all
worlds, and until all are redeemed. Never will I wrongly leave this
world to sin, sorrow and struggle, but will remain and work and suffer
where I am."
Has the orthodox religion produced a prayer like this? See the infinite
charity, not only for every soul in this world, but of all the shining
worlds of the universe. Think of that, ye parsons who imagine that a
large majority are going to eternal ruin.
Compare it with the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, and compare it with the
imprecation of Christ: "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels;" with the ideas of Jeremy Taylor, with the
creeds of Christendom, with all the prayers of all the saints, and in no
church except the Universalist will you hear a prayer like this.
"When thou art in doubt as to whether an action is good or bad, abstain
from it."
Since the days of Zoroaster has there been any rule for human conduct
given superior to this?
Are the principles taught by us superior to those of Confucius? He was
asked if there was any single word comprising the duties of man. He
replied: "Reciprocity." Upon being asked what he thought of the
doctrine of returning benefits for injuries, he replied: "That is not
my doctrine. If you return benefits for injuries what do you propose
for benefits? My doctrine is; For benefits return benefits; for injuries
return justice without any admixture of revenge."
To return good for evil is to pay a premium upon wickedness. I cannot
put a man under obligation to do me a favor by doing him an injury.
Now, to-day, right now, what is the church doing? What is it doing, I
ask you honestly? Does it satisfy the craving hearts of the nineteenth
century? Are we satisfied? I am not saying this except from the honesty
of my heart. Are we satisfied? Is it a consolation to us now? Is it
even a consolation when those we love die? The dead are so near and the
promises are so far away. It is covered with the rubbish of the past.
I ask you, is it all that is demanded by the brain and heart of the
nineteenth century?
We want something better; we want something grander; we want
something that has more brain in it, and more heart in it. We want to
advance--that is what we want; and you cannot advance without being a
heretic--you cannot do it.
Nearly all these religions have been upheld by persecution and
bloodshed. They have been rendered stable by putting fetters upon the
human brain. They have all, however, been perfectly natural productions,
and under similar circumstances would all be reproduced. Only by
intellectual development are the old superstitions outgrown. As only
the few intellectually advance, the majority is left on the side of
superstition, and remains there until the advanced ideas of the few
thinkers become general; and by that time there are other thinkers still
in advance.
And so the work of development and growth slowly and painfully proceeds
from age to age. The pioneers are denounced as heretics, and the
heretics denounce their denouncers as the disciples of superstition
and ignorance. Christ was a heretic. Herod was orthodox. Socrates was a
blasphemer. Anytus worshiped all the gods. Luther was a skeptic, while
the sellers of indulgences were the best of Catholics. Roger Williams
was a heretic, while the Puritans who drove him from Massachusetts were
all orthodox. Every step in advance in the religious history of the
world has been taken by heretics. No superstition has been destroyed
except by a heretic. No creed has been bettered except by a heretic.
Heretic is the name that the orthodox laggard hurls at the disappearing
pioneer. It is shouted by the dwellers in swamps to the people upon the
hills. It is the opinion that midnight entertains of the dawn. It is
what the rotting says of the growing. Heretic is the name that a stench
gives to a perfume.
With this word the coffin salutes the cradle. It is taken from the lips
of the dead. Orthodoxy is a shroud--heresy is a banner. Orthodoxy is
an epitaph--heresy is a prophecy. Orthodoxy is a cloud, a fog, a
mist--heresy the star shining forever above the child of truth.
I am a believer in the eternity of progress. I do not believe that Want
will forever extend its withered hand, its wan and shriveled palms, for
charity. I do not believe that the children will forever be governed by
cruelty and brute force. I do not believe that poverty will dwell with
man forever. I do not believe that prisons will forever cover the earth,
or that the shadow of the gallows will forever fall upon the ground. I
do not believe that injustice will sit forever upon the bench, or that
malice and superstition will forever stand in the pulpit.
I believe the time will come when there will be charity in every heart,
when there will be love in every family, and when law and liberty and
justice, like the atmosphere, will surround this world.
We have worshiped the ghosts long enough. We have prostrated ourselves
before the ignorance of the past.
Let us stand erect and look with hopeful eyes toward the brightening
future. Let us stand by our convictions. Let us not throw away our idea
of justice for the sake of any book or of any religion whatever. Let us
live according to our highest and noblest and purest ideal.
By this time we should know that the real Bible has not been written.
The real Bible is not the work of inspired men, or prophets, or
apostles, or evangelists, or of Christs.
Every man who finds a fact, adds, as it were, a word to this great
book. It is not attested by prophecy, by miracles, or signs. It makes
no appeal to faith, to ignorance, to credulity or fear. It has no
punishment for unbelief, and no reward for hypocrisy. It appeals to man
in the name of demonstration. It has nothing to conceal. It has no
fear of being read, of being contradicted, of being investigated and
understood. It does not pretend to be holy, or sacred; it simply claims
to be true. It challenges the scrutiny of all, and implores every reader
to verify every line for himself. It is incapable of being blasphemed.
This book appeals to all the surroundings of man. Each thing that exists
testifies to its perfection. The earth, with its heart of fire and
crowns of snow; with its forests and plains, its rocks and seas; with
its every wave and cloud; with its every leaf and bud and flower,
confirms its every word, and the solemn stars, shining in the infinite
abysses, are the eternal witnesses of its truth.
Ladies and gentlemen you cannot tell how I thank you this evening; you
cannot tell how I feel toward the intellectual hospitality of this great
city by the Pacific sea. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you--I thank you
again and again, a thousand times.