That is orthodox Christianity. Every man that is hanged--there is a
minister there, and the minister tells him he is all right. All he has
to do is just to believe on the Lord.
Another objection this gentleman has, and that is that I am scurrilous.
Scurrilous! And the gentleman, in order to show that he is not
scurrilous, calls infidels, "donkeys, serpents, buzzards." That is
simply to show that he is not scurrilous.
Dr. Lorimer is also of the opinion that the mind thinks independently of
the will; and I propose to prove by him that it does. He is the last
man in the world to controvert that doctrine--the last man. In spite of
himself his mind absorbed the sermon of another man, and he repeated it
as his own. I am satisfied he is an honest man; consequently his mind
acted independently of his will, and he furnishes the strongest evidence
in favor of my position that it is possible to conceive. I am infinitely
obliged to him for the testimony he has unconsciously offered.
He also takes the ground that infidelity debases a man and renders him
unfit for the discharge of the highest duties pertaining to life, and
that we show the greatest shallowness when we endeavor to overthrow
Calvinism. What is Calvinism? It is the doctrine that an infinite God
made millions of people, knowing that they would be damned. I have
answered that a thousand times. I answer it again. No God has a right to
make a mistake, and then damn the mistake. No God has a right to make
a failure, and a man who is to be eternally damned is not a conspicuous
success. No God has a right to make an investment that will not finally
pay a dividend.
The world is getting better, and the ministers, all your life and all
mine, have been crying out from the pulpit that we are all going wrong,
that immorality was stalking through the land, that crime was about to
engulf the world, and yet, in spite of all their prophecies, the world
has steadily grown better, and there is more justice, more charity, more
kindness, more goodness, and more liberty in the world to-day than
ever before. And there is more infidelity in the world to-day than ever
before.