As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to
their own husbands in everything. (Eph. 5 : 24.)
The church has uniformly maintained this doctrine, and demanded
in the marriage ceremony that she promise to love, honor, and obey
her husband.
For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither
was the man created for the woman but the woman (was created)
for the man. (1 Cor. 11 : 8, 9.)
Divorce.
Woman is unjustly treated in the matter of divorce, in both the Old
and the New Testament. In the Old Testament the husband had the power
to divorce his wife if she failed to please him, while the wife could
not divorce her husband for any cause.
When a man hath taken a wife and marries her, and it come to pass
that she find no favor in his eye, then let him write her a bill
of divorcement, and give it into her hand and send her out of
his house. (Deut. 24 : 1.)
When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies and the Lord
thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken
them captives and seest among the captives a beautiful woman,
and hast a desire unto her that thou wouldst have her to be thy
wife, then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, she shall
shave her head and pare her nails and she shall put the raiment
of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house
and bewail her father and mother a full month, and after that
thou shalt go in unto her and be her husband, and she shall
be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her,
then thou shalt let her go whither she will, but thou shalt not
sell her at all for money; thou shalt not make merchandise of
her because thou hast humbled her. (Deut. 21 : 10-14.)
Jesus says, "Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another,
committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from
her husband, committeth adultery." (Luke 16 : 18.)
In this case there is a lack of qualification as to whether the man
be innocent or not; and there is no allowance made in case the man
who married her who was put away should be ignorant of her being a
divorced woman.
Again, "But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his
wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit
adultery, and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth
adultery." (Mat. 5 : 32.)
Here we find not a word about the fornication of the husband. In
short, there is no equality of rights and duties taught in these
passages. Jesus, in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke teaches
that it is adultery to marry a divorced woman. No matter what the
crime of the husband has been, a wife is not allowed to put him away
and marry another. If he is a fornicator, and his wife is divorced
from him and remarries, she commits adultery. This is only a slight
modification of the divorce law--that old law according to which the
husband had only to write his wife a bill of divorcement and send her
off; but it was not lawful for the wife to write a bill and send the
husband away. All Christian nations have repudiated the teachings of
both the Old and the New Testament on the question of divorce.
Marriage is now rapidly losing its sacramental character. If matches
are made in heaven, it is evident that the work is poorly done, and
for all practical purposes they might as well be made on earth; and
the general opinion is inclined so strongly in that direction that
greater attention is now given to the laws of life, which instruct
us how to make happy earthly matches, leaving the matches of heaven
to be formed when we get there.
The Jews practiced the sale of their daughters:
And if any man shall sell his daughter to be a maid-servant,
she shall not go out as the man-servants do. If she pleases not
her master who hath betrothed her to himself. (Ex. 21 : 7.)
Jacob purchased Leah and Rachel, by serving Laban their father seven
years for each of them. He agreed to serve seven years for Rachel, and
after he had fulfilled his obligation, Laban deceived him by palming
off Leah in the dark upon him as Rachel. But though so deeply wronged
Jacob did not despair, but served another seven years for her whom
he loved. See Genesis twenty-ninth chapter.
In the purchase of wives there was usually no ceremony, more than the
witnessing of the sale. We read of David and Solomon taking wives,
but no mention is made of any marriage ceremony.
A jealous husband could torture his wife, by having her poisoned. See
Numbers 5 : 11-31. There was no such law for a jealous wife. There
was no law of even-handed justice for a greatly wronged and outraged
wife. The laws were made for the benefit of man, not for the protection
of woman. Why? Because they were made by man.
The New Testament as well as the Old, Holds Woman in Servile Bondage.
Jesus and Paul were celibates, and their teachings and practice in
regard to woman, have done her incalculable wrong.
The man is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man. Neither
was the man created for the woman; but the woman (was created)
for the man. (1 Cor. 11 : 8, 9.)
Paul gets this idea from the mythical story of creation in Genesis.
In that childish story God is represented as making woman as "an
help meet," for Adam. Indeed her creation does not seem to have been
intended at all, but the Creator seeing that it was not good for man
to be alone, "caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept;
and he took out one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead:
And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man, made he a
woman, and brought her unto the man." (Gen. 2 : 21, 22.) Woman was an
afterthought to the Lords of creation then, and she is an afterthought
to the lords of creation now.
In that ancient myth woman was doomed to perpetual servitude because
she was of an investigating turn of mind, and sought to know good
and evil. The sentence was, "Thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee." (Gen. 3 : 16.)
Neither Jesus nor Paul proclaimed the dignity of marriage, or discerned
the necessity of enlarging the sphere of woman. Jesus shared the
common sentiments of his age, and looked upon the marriage relation
as incompatible with the establishment of the kingdom of heaven. He
deemed it necessary to call his disciples away from their families,
and even to advise the men to make eunuchs of themselves if they were
able to do so. (Mat. 19 : 12.) In his teachings on the question of
divorce, he is far from perceiving the even-handed justice which
the case demands. He says (Mark 10 : 11, 12) that if either the
husband or the wife put away one the other and marry again, commits
adultery. All second marriages would therefore be unlawful according
to this teaching. In Matthew (5 : 32) he permits the husband to put
away the wife for the crime of fornication, but makes no provision for
the wife to put away the husband for the same offense. His disciples
received an unfavorable impression of marriage, and after listening
to him on this subject, they suggested: "If the case of the man be so
with his wife, it is not good to marry." (Mat. 19 : 10.) How could
these plain people have misunderstood him upon a subject with so
little chance for misapprehension?
Paul's teachings were adverse to the marital relations: "Art thou
loosed from a wife? seek not a wife." (1 Cor. 7 : 27.)
"It is better to marry than to burn." (1 Cor. 7 : 9.) What an idea
of marriage! He does not have the least conception of love, or of the
higher and refining joys of the conjugal relation. But permits him who
cannot keep himself from beastliness to marry. In this his judgment is
remarkably short-sighted, for he does not regard the sacrifice which
the woman must make who marries the beast. He looks upon woman as a
mere safety-valve for men's passions,--her rights are not considered:
she has no rights. He will permit man to marry, but young widows he
denounces as heaping up damnation to themselves in marrying: "But the
younger widows refuse, for when they have begun to wax wanton against
Christ, they will marry having damnation, because they cast off their
first faith." (1 Tim. 5 : 11, 12.) To marry was to wax wanton against
Christ, which was nothing less than damnation! But old widows who
were above sixty years of age could join the church if they had "been
the wife of one man" and "had washed the saints' feet." (1 Tim. 5 :
9, 10.) I wonder what he thought of rejecting all young widowers,
and accepting none under sixty years of age, and only those of them
who had washed their grandmother's feet?
Paul not only advocates celibacy which is an evil to woman, but
where the marriage relation exists he insists upon the subjection of
woman to her husband: "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your
own husbands;" (1 Peter 3 : 1.) "Obedient to their own husbands;"
(Titus 2 : 5.) "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection;"
(1 Tim. 2 : 11.) "Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ so let
the wives be (subject) to their own husbands in everything." (Eph.
5 : 24.)
The reasons given for woman's subjection are, "The man is not
of the woman, but the woman is of the man. Neither was the
man created for the woman, but the woman (was created) for the
man." (1 Cor. 11 : 8, 9.) "Let the woman learn in silence with
all subjection." Wherefore? Because "Adam was first formed, then
Eve." "And Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was
in the transgression." (1 Tim. 2 : 11-14.) Woman has always been the
guilty cause of man's great misfortune. Adam was not to blame but Eve
was the guilty one. Lot was innocent but his daughters were fearfully
wicked. Joseph did not tempt anyone, but his master's wife tempted
him. Job, dear man, was all patience, but his wife flew into a rage,
and tried to have him curse God and die. Solomon, the pure-hearted and
single-minded man of seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines
was inspired to say, "One man among a thousand have I found, but a
woman among all these have I not found." (Eccl. 7 : 28.)
And to this day the Christian marriage ceremony demands of woman that
she promise to love, honor, and obey her husband.
The Bible Sanctions Slavery.
What driveling idiots we mortals have been to suppose for a moment
that a good being, a heavenly father, would let one part of his family
hold the other in slavery!
Moreover of the children of the strangers, that do sojourn,
of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you,
which they begat in your land, and they shall be your possession.
And ye shall take as an inheritance for your children after you, to
inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever,
but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule
one over another with rigor. (Lev. 25 : 45, 46.)
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the
seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself
he shall go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife shall
go out with him; if his master has given him a wife, and she has
borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be
her master's and he shall go out by himself. (Ex. 21 : 2-4.)
The New Testament Sanctions Slavery.
Servants, obey in all things your master according to the flesh;
not with eye-service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart,
fearing God. (Col. 3 : 22.)
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to
the good and gentle, but also to the froward. (1 Peter 2 : 18.)
In addition to these positive indorsements of slaveholding, it should
be remembered that Jesus never condemned it, and it was not difficult,
therefore, for the church also to indorse and support it.
The American Church was the Bulwark of American Slavery.
The slave system in this country always received the support of
the church. In the early history of the country it was occasionally
condemned by some of the bravest ministers, but as the nation grew
powerful, so also did this sum of all villainies. Not only the
ministers of the slave states, but ministers of the free states lent
their support to this despotism. The Rev. N. Bangs, D.D., of New
York, said:
It appears evident that however much the apostles might have
deprecated slavery as it then existed throughout the Roman empire,
he did not feel it his duty as an embassador of Christ, to disturb
those relations which subsisted between master and servants,
by denouncing slavery as such a mortal sin that they could not
be the servants of Christ in such a relation.
Rev. E. D. Simms, professor in Randolph-Macon college, a Methodist
institution, affirmed that, "Those extracts from Holy writ
unequivocally assert the right of property in slaves."
The Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D., late president of the (Methodist) Wesleyan
university, in Connecticut: "The relation of master and slave may
and does in many cases, exist under such circumstances as free the
master from the just charge of immorality."
Rev. Moses Stuart, of Andover, insisted that, "the precepts of the
New Testament respecting the demeanor of slaves and their masters,
beyond all question, recognized the existence of slavery."
The Rev. Dr. Taylor, of Yale college, said: "I have no doubt that if
Jesus Christ was now on earth, he would, under certain circumstances,
become a slaveholder."
The "Independent" makes an admission. Speaking of the degradation
of the Southern negroes, it says: "For this Protestant Christianity
solely is to blame. It allowed slavery. It was slow to see its
enormity. In the South it supported slavery with all its power. It
let the negroes live in ignorance of the word of God. It raised no
voice against unchristian laws forbidding slaves to be taught to read,
and forbidding marriage."
We could give hundreds of just such quotations from ministers who
upheld slavery as a divine institution. And these were the blind
leaders of the blind until leaders and people were precipitated into
the life and death struggle of the nation. If the preachers had been
honest and brave we would never have had to pass through the terrible
ordeal of the great rebellion.
The northern churches were almost all in sympathy with the "divine
institution." Their ministers did not dare to condemn the system
lest they should be deposed for their abolitionism. The writer was
pastor of a Methodist church in Brooklyn in 1859, and was dismissed
from his pastorate on account of his anti-slavery preaching. After
President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation the synods and general
conferences arrayed themselves against the system, but not before.
The Reformation.
It is a common belief in Protestant countries that Protestantism
has been the cause of all modern enlightenment, "overlooking," says
Mr. Buckle, "the important fact that until enlightenment had begun,
there was no Protestantism required. Enlightenment was the cause of
Protestantism. Many causes had been at work to bring up the public
mind to a higher intelligence and a braver love of independence."
The reformation broke out at least twenty times before Luther,
and was put down. Arnold, of Brescia was put down; Fra Dolcino was
put down; the Albigenses were put down; the Vaudois were put down;
the Lollards were put down; the Hussites were put down.--Mill,
on Liberty.
The reformation was therefore the result of previous enlightenment,
a demand for larger liberty. It was the protest of reason against
authority. Liberalism is the full protest against all forms of
superstition and despotism. We have greatly over-estimated the work of
the reformation. It did not greatly change the humanities of society,
as the Protestants so fondly imagine. Protestants were found to be
the persecutors when they had the power, just as the Romanists had
been; circumstances, however, modified and restrained them from such
atrocities as the latter had perpetrated.
Persecution for religious heterodoxy, in all its degrees, was in
the sixteenth century, the principle as well as the practice of
every church. (Hallam, "Middle Ages," vol. 2, p. 48.)
Christianity Teaches Immorality.
The doctrine of the atonement has been the dry rot in our
civilization. It has led millions to believe that they could escape the
consequences of violated laws of nature. Millions of people believe
to-day that they can go through life in utter disregard of all that
is right and good, and at the last moment when they come to shuffle
off this mortal coil, all they will then need to do will be simply to
call upon Jesus and receive his approbation and permission to enter
the shining courts above. "Jesus died and paid it all," relieves
the votary from the demands of morality, and, "the Devil tempted me
and I sinned," exonerates him from all guilt. This sort of teaching
has filled our prisons with those who fully believe it--and they are
behind the bars because they have lived according to their belief. The
malignant and mendacious cry that Freethought leads the truthseeker
always downward to a bad life is refuted by the fact that those who
fill the prisons of our country are not Infidels, but believers in the
divine revelation who have lived up to the advantages offered by the
"gathering them in" doctrine of atonement.
The murderers who are hanged on Friday in the different states almost
every week, nearly all Christians, are prepared to go to heaven and
there join in the company and songs of innocent children and pure
maids and matrons who, by their presence, make heaven worthy the
name; but these fiends, if they should happen to be pardoned by the
governor, there could not be found a reputable Christian who would
want to take one of them home to live in his family of noble wife and
lovely children, for a single day. And yet he is fit for heaven, fit
for the company of angels and the purified of earth. The dying words
of a good religious man were, "I am no Infidel," and that man's name
is John D. Lee, of Utah, who, in cold blood, murdered innocent men,
women, and children, and after eluding justice for twenty years or more
was arrested, tried, found guilty and shot to death, with the words
on his lips, "I am no Infidel." But his confession was unnecessary,
as Freethinkers do not die that way, and the reason they do not die
in that manner is because they do not believe in the great bankrupt
act--the atonement. They have no savior, and hence have to save
themselves. They have no titles to mansions in the skies but have some
claims on earth which they prefer to stay with as long as they can.
The doctrine of the atonement is very immoral and no one can begin
to estimate the wickedness it has fostered in society, by leading
people to believe they can pass through life committing all sorts of
crimes and at last, when they find themselves about to die, can call
upon Jesus and find eternal life "by believing on his name."
"Long as the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return."
"This couplet has helped many a one to die easy." Oh, yes, it has,
but it has encouraged too many to live easy--to live entirely too
easy--so easy that they did not need to gain intelligence, to practice
morality and pay their honest debts.
"Between the saddle and the ground
Was mercy asked and pardon found."
A salvation so extemporaneously performed, I fear could not endure;
it resembles too closely the winter revivals whose fruits have all
disappeared before the summer's harvest is over.
"Nothing, either great or small,
Nothing, sinner, no!
Jesus did, did it all
Long, long ago.
Weary, working, burdened one,
Wherefore toil you so?
Cease your doing, all was done
Long, long ago.
Till to Jesus' work you cling
By a simple faith,
Doing is a deadly thing,
Doing ends in death.
Cast your deadly doing down,
Down at Jesus' feet,
Rise in him, in him alone,
Gloriously complete."
Where are those who have risen in him gloriously complete? Show us
just one.
Prayer is Immoral.
It is immoral because it seeks to accomplish certain ends without
using the proper means, or it tries to do what reason teaches us
cannot be done. When some years ago we had yellow fever at Memphis
the praying people all over this country united in supplicating
the unknown to remove the plague; but notwithstanding their united
petitions to a throne of grace and to "a prayer-answering God," they
utterly failed. The yellow fever remained until the angel of frost
came and touched the air with its white wings of health.
Fred Douglass said he prayed for freedom twenty years, but received
no answer until he prayed with his legs.
"Give us this day our daily bread," is a childish superstition. What
millions of poor women have starved to death with this prayer on
their lips. Jesus made a prayer in the garden of Gethsemane which was
not answered. Now if the son of God may pray and receive no answer,
what can the common rank and file sinner expect?
When the native African sees an eclipse, he fancies some huge monster
is attempting to devour the sun, or the moon, as the case may be. He
resorts to his tom-tom, by which he hopes to frighten away the fearful
monster. After the eclipse has passed away he turns to his skeptical
brethren and says, "I told you so," just as his more civilized brother
who prays for rain, and after it comes, no matter whether it is a
day or a month afterward, turns upon his incredulous friends, and
asks them triumphantly, "Didn't I tell you so?"
The tom-tom business in Africa and Christian prayers for rain, are
on a dead level with each other.
Sinner.--Is God infinite in his wisdom?
Parson.--He is.
Sinner.--Does he at all times know just what ought to be done?
Parson.--He does.
Sinner.--Does he always do just what ought to be done?
Parson.--He does.
Sinner.--Why do you pray to him?
Parson.--Because he is unchangeable. ("Ingersoll's Interviews,"
p. 83.)
Prayer is simply supplication to God. God is a mystery; a mystery so
profound that nothing is known of him, save that he is a mystery. Even
his existence cannot be demonstrated. His non-existence is equally
undemonstrable, because no man has a definite conception of him to
use as a starting point for investigation. Some claim that he is
a person, others that he is omnipresent. Both of these cannot be;
for personality and omnipresence are incompatible. Prayer is based
on the supposition of his personality. It implies necessarily a
person in a certain place, and possessed of certain attributes. He
must be omnipotent, omniscient, unchangeable, and all-good. Nothing
less than this will come up to the conception of what a God should
be. Christians tell us God possesses all these attributes. We accept
their statement because it is impossible to prove the contrary. On
this basis, then let us examine prayer.
God is said to be all goodness. Goodness is the performance of
duty. Perfect goodness is the performance of all duty, and of nothing
beyond. It is also the performance of all duty without reluctance or
hesitation. Prayer is an insult to this quality of God's character. It
implies that his goodness is not perfect. Every blessing for which
man can ask, it is the duty of God either to grant or to withhold. In
either case, prayer implies the possibility of imperfection. To ask God
to grant a blessing which it is his duty to grant, is to assume that
he will not do his duty without being urged. Such an assumption is
downright insolence. To ask for a blessing which it is God's duty to
withhold, is to assume that he can be persuaded to commit sin. This,
too, can only be regarded as an insult. In both cases prayer is
useless, because God is not likely to grant a blessing asked in the
same breath an insult is given.
We are told that God is pleased with prayer, because it shows our faith
in his goodness. It rather shows our lack of faith. To be continually
asking for blessings, implies a doubt whether we shall get them if we
do ask. He who never prays shows the most faith, for he takes it for
granted that God is good, and if he is good, he will provide for his
children unasked. The child has faith that his father will provide
for him, but he never asks him to do so. Such conduct would prove
him unworthy of his father's care. So with prayer; the praying man
is the true skeptic, and the Infidel is the true believer.
Prayer makes God a changeable being. It implies that he will grant any
favor we ask, whether he had previously designed to do so or not. If
we were privy to his designs, and knew what blessings he intended to
bestow, we could ask only for such as he had intended to give us. In
the absence of this knowledge we pray blindly for blessings which it
may be, he has determined to withhold. This necessarily implies that
he may change his designs. If the object pleaded for is a good one,
such a change would be perfectly proper in an earthly monarch. In
God it would be fanciful in the extreme. It would place his will at
the disposal of a million fallible human beings. It would overthrow
the harmony of his government, and replace it by the most reckless
chance. Our reception of a blessing would depend no longer on God's
goodness; it would depend on whether some other person of greater
persuasive power, was or was not asking an opposite blessing at the
same time. God would be in constant indecision, and we should be in
constant doubt. Prayer, then, is based on the changeableness of an
unchangeable being, and therefore valueless.
Prayer, in theory, is based on the supposition of God's personality;
prayer, in practice, assumes that God is omnipotent. It supposes
that he can be in all places at all times. People are praying at
all hours of the day and in all quarters of the globe. To hear them
all God must be at such places at such times. To do this he must
cease to be a personal being, he must cease to be God. He will then
have no intelligence, no volition, for these depend on a personal
organization. Prayer, therefore, logically annihilates the being to
whom it is addressed.
Prayer implies doubt of the wisdom of God. To pray is to ask for a
certain blessing. We assume that such a blessing is best for us, and
inform God of the fact. After insulting his goodness by asking for a
blessing, we insult his intelligence by specifying what that blessing
shall be. Prayers are rarely or never asked for general blessings
alone. A person who asks for a blessing and leaves the choice of that
blessing wholly to God, is liable to be considered a lunatic by all
true believers. Yet to do otherwise is to deny God's omniscience. It
assumes that God does not know what our wants are. If God is a rational
being, he can only treat such an assumption with contempt. Prayer has
been tried for two thousand years and with no result. No prayer has
ever been directly or indirectly answered by God. On the contrary,
he apparently delighted in mocking those who call upon him. When the
Ville du Havre went down, over two hundred ministers were praying
for their lives, but in vain. Two girls who trusted not in prayers,
but in swimming-belts, alone were saved. ("Logic of Prayer," Charles
Stevenson.)
Some years ago when the yellow fever raged at Memphis, Tennessee, the
pious people of this country prayed most devoutly to have the plague
swept away. These prayers were repeated, were offered up by the most
faithful in the Christian ranks, but all in vain. They had read in
their Bible that the prayers of the righteous availeth much. They
had been taught to believe that "all things whatsoever ye shall ask
in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." (Mat. 21 : 22.) There is no
one thing that Jesus taught more explicitly than this; the prayers
of those who truly believe shall be answered. He said:
Therefore I say unto you, What things so ever ye desire when ye
pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. (Mark
21 : 24.)
But we see that prayers are not answered. And besides, those prayers
which it is claimed are answered carry no proof of the fact with them.
Did not millions of Christians pray for the restoration of President
Garfield? How utterly delusive it is to palm off as truth the following
promise upon credulous minds:
Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as
touching anything ye shall ask, it shall be done for them of my
Father, which is in heaven. (Mat. 18 : 19.)
Jesus himself offered a prayer that was not answered. In the garden
of Gethsemane he prayed:
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Mat. 26 : 39.)
There is no evidence that God has ever interfered in the affairs of
men. The hand of earth is stretched uselessly toward heaven. From
the clouds there comes no help. In vain the shipwrecked cry to
God. In vain the imprisoned ask for liberty and light--the world
moves on, and the heavens are deaf and dumb and blind. The frost
freezes, the fire burns, slander smites, the wrong triumphs, the
good suffer, and prayer dies upon the lips of faith. ("Ingersoll's
Interviews," p. 49.)
"Ask and it shall be given thee" is an erroneous and immoral
teaching. It is false. It is not true that people get what they
pray for. We hear pious persons praying, "Give us this day our daily
bread," but none of them expect to get their bread in that way. What
an irresistible smile would wrinkle the faces of the devout if a poor
widow should pray: "Give us this day our daily coal," and another of
the praying circle should ask, "Give us this day our daily potatoes,"
and another should beg, "Give us this day our daily beefsteak."
While no one expects to get his daily supplies in answer to prayer,
yet millions of pious souls are scandalized if you doubt the efficacy
of prayer. They will admit that they have to work for their "daily
bread," "but after all God gives it to us just the same." He gives
it to the sinner who does not pray in the same manner, that is,
if he labors he earns his own bread.
In vain the seamstress in her sickness and poverty, prays, "Give
us this day our daily bread." She dies with these her last words on
her lips.
In vain the noble souls who have been thrown into prison for daring
to tell and defend the truth, have fervently appealed to the judge
of all the earth for freedom.
In vain the martyr looked to heaven for deliverance.
Faith in Prayer.
"I will close this letter with a little incident, the story of which
may not be so startling, but it is true. It is a story of child
faith. Johnny Quinlan, of Evanston, has the most wonderful confidence
in the efficacy of prayer, but he thinks that prayer does not succeed
unless it is accompanied with considerable physical strength. He
believes that adult prayer is a good thing, but doubts the efficacy
of juvenile prayer.
"He has wanted a Jersey cow for a good while, and tried prayer, but
it didn't seem to get to the central office. Last week he went to a
neighbor who is a Christian and believer in the efficacy of prayer,
also the owner of a Jersey cow.
"'Do you believe that prayer will bring me a yaller Jersey cow?' said
Johnny.
"'Why, yes, of course. Prayer will remove mountains. It will do
anything.'
"'Well, then, suppose you give me the cow you've got and pray for
another one.'" (Bill Nye.)
A Specimen Prayer.
"O Lord, our Heavenly Father, thou who dwellest in heaven [flattery]
Thou art the creator and preserver of all things; [flattery] we thank
Thee that we live and move and have our being; [Imagine a response of,
'You are quite welcome, I am sure,'] that we are neither dead nor
damned--for hadst Thou visited one sin in a thousand, we should be
beyond the reach of hope and mercy. [He's not just, or He would have
done it.] Thousands of our fellow mortals, as good by nature as we,
and far better by practice, are now trying the unalterable laws of
an unending eternity. [Not a very good comment on His justice.] Yet
we have [by His partiality] still another opportunity to make our
calling and election sure. We come before Thee, O Lord, to ask the
forgiveness of our sins. [Must have indulgence.] O Lord, look in mercy
on us and remember us in thy love. O we pray Thee that Thou wouldst
prosper Thy cause. [He hadn't thought of that for sometime before.] O
send more laborers into the harvest, for the harvest is great and
the laborers are few, [another piece of information.] O Lord, hasten
the time when all shall know Thee from the least unto the greatest
[We are satisfied that you are not diligent enough in this matter,
and we want you to hurry up.] O Lord, check the progress of evil [You
ought to know enough to do it without being told,] and promote the
cause of truth, [which you would do, if you were as much interested
in the matter as we are.] O Lord, hear our prayer [Do pay attention
and don't forget in an hour, like a stupid dolt, what we have been
telling you,] and answer our petitions. And in the end, when we are
called to die, save us [which on account of our unworthiness, you may
not do, or on account of your forgetfulness you may neglect, and leave
us the subject of one of the devil's infernal jokes,] and the praise,
and the honor, and the glory, we will ascribe through endless ages to
Thee. [A great consideration, which will certainly be some inducement
to you to save,--only just think what an advantage such an arrangement
will be to you.] All of which we ask for Jesus' sake, Amen."
(Newspaper Clipping.)
The Boston Man's Prayer.
"Oh God, if there be a God, save my soul if I have a soul, from hell
if there is a hell, Amen, if it is necessary."
Prayer an Echo.
'From the earliest dawn of Nature's birth,
Since sorrow and sin first darkened the earth;
From sun to sun, from pole to pole,
Where'er the waves of Humanity roll,
The breezy robe this planet wears
Has quivered and echoed with countless prayers.
Each hour a million knees are bent,
A million prayers to heaven are sent;
There's not a summer beam but sees
Some humble suppliant on his knees;
There's not a breeze that murmurs by
But wafts some faithful prayer on high;
There's not a woe afflicts our race
But someone bears to the Throne of Grace;
And for every temptation our souls may meet
We ask for grace at the Mercy Seat.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The beams smile on, and heaven serene
Still bends, as though no prayers had been;
And the breezes moan, as still they wave,
When man is powerless, heaven cannot save."
--Charles Stevenson.
Other Worldliness.
It seems to some people selfish for one to attempt to live in the
personal enjoyment of this world, but to lend all one's energies
toward gaining heaven is to them just right. Caring for one's health
and family is selfishness, but struggling to save one's soul is the
noblest work of life.
The truth is Christian doctrines are purely selfish. When man does
certain duties, as they are called, because he wants to get to heaven,
his conduct is intensely selfish. The gospel constantly invites the
followers of Jesus to act, from the consideration that "great is your
reward in heaven." Very many Christians say that if it were not for
the hope of future reward, they would not try to do right. In other
words they confess that they do not act from moral motives. They are
moved by the selfish motives of other worldliness. To act morally we
must do right because it is right and for no other consideration. When
we look beyond the act to see how much we are going to make out of it,
then our conduct is not moral. He who is going through the performance
of duties because he wants to get to heaven, has yet to learn the
meaning of morality.
Christianity is Intolerant.
Revelation does not admit of two sides to religious questions. There
is only one side, say the Moodys and Talmages, and that side is
God's side. We have no right to question Holy Writ. We must accept
it. "Believe or be damned," does not admit of the latitude of free
thought, or the right of reason to question the authority of the Bible.
"Reason is 'carnal,' says the Christian idolator, and you cannot rely
upon it--only trust in Jesus and you are saved."
The following historical facts prove beyond question that intolerance
is the very soul of Christianity:
"When any step was taken to establish a system of permanent
institutions, which might effectually protect liberty from the
invasions of power in general, the church always ranged herself on
the side of despotism." (Guizot's "History of Civilization in Europe,"
p. 154.)
"Persecution for religious heterodoxy, in all its degrees, was in
the sixteenth century, the principle as well as the practice of every
church." (Hallam's "Middle Ages," vol. 2, p. 48.)
When Queen Mary, the first queen of England, had burned Latimer,
Ridley and others, and her ministers had chided her for it, she replied
that she did not think God could be angry with her for burning the
heretics a few hours in this world, for their heresy, since he was
going to burn them eternally in the next world for the same thing.
Here you have the unadulterated article. It is nothing, if not
intolerant, and in every age and country, with sword and hand,
has commanded the trembling people to believe or be damned. And
the Christian who does not do his utmost toward having heretics and
infidels burned at the stake, is trying to be better than his God.
Hell, Hades, Gehenna, Sheol.
How many mortals have been frightened out of their senses by the
false alarm of fire in the next world. Preachers have pictured
to mothers their children who died without the sacraments of the
church being administered to them, as rolling on the fiery billows of
hell. Parents have been demented by such descriptions, and have gone
to lunatic asylums, or to their graves in consequence. Millions thus
frightened have joined the church, and confessed belief in the creed,
although they may not have known the meaning of a single article of
it. But once having avowed their adherence to the church have lived
lives of hypocrisy ever afterward because they had not the honor
and the courage to break away from their bondage. What stories the
pulpit has related of Infidels being struck dead for profanity and
blasphemy. These holy pulpit alarmists will have much to answer for
if there is any such thing as a judgment day or a God in Israel.
It is plain that Jesus taught the doctrine of future, if not endless
punishment. It was endless punishment to those who committed the
unpardonable sin: "And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of
man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world,
neither in the world to come." (Mat. 12 : 32.)
Other passages may be cited to show that Jesus taught the horrible
doctrine of eternal torment, and all efforts on the part of modern
commentators to explain away hell are in vain. "And these shall
go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life
eternal." (Mat. 25 : 46.)
If these words do not teach the doctrine of endless torment, it would
be a hard matter to express it in the vernacular.
Pictures of Hell.
John Bunyan describes this interesting locality, and its inhabitants
thus: "All the devils in hell will be with thee howling and roaring,
screeching and yelling in such a manner that, thou wilt be at thy wits
end, and be ready to run stark mad from anguish and torment. * * * Here
thou must lie and fry, and scorch, and broil, and burn forevermore."
The father of New England theology, Jonathan Edwards, portrays his
own imagination after this fashion:
"The saints in glory will be far more sensible, how dreadful the wrath
of God is, and will better understand how terrible the sufferings
of the damned are, yet this will be no occasion of grief to them,
but rejoicings. They will not be sorry for the damned: it will cause
no uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them, but on the contrary when
they see this sight, it will occasion rejoicing, and excite them to
joyful praises."
Dr. Emmons reveals his own "true inwardness" by giving it the following
description:
"The happiness of the elect in heaven will in part consist of watching
the torment of the damned in hell. Among these it may be their
own children, parents, husbands, wives and friends on earth. One
part of the business of the blest is to celebrate the doctrine of
reprobation. While the decree of reprobation is eternally executing
on the vessels of wrath, the smoke of their torment will be eternally
ascending in view of the vessels of mercy who instead of taking the
part of those miserable objects will sing, Amen, hallelujah: praise
the Lord."
Again, he says: "When they (the saints) see how great the misery is
from which God hath saved them and how great a difference he hath
made between their state and the state of others who were by nature,
and perhaps by practice no more sinful and ill deserving than they,
it will give them more a sense of the wonderfulness of God's grace
to them in making them so to differ. The sight of hell-torments will
exalt the happiness of the saints forever."
"Where saints and angels from their blest abode,
Chanting loud hallelujahs to their God.
Look down on sinners in the realm of woe
And draw fresh pleasures from the scenes below."
The Rev. Thomas Button, describes the bottomless character of his
fancies thus:
"The godly wife shall applaud the justice of the judge in the
condemnation of her ungodly husband. The godly husband shall say,
Amen! to the damnation of her who lay in his bosom. The godly parent
shall say hallelujah! at the passing of the sentence upon the ungodly
child. And the godly child, shall from his heart, approve the damnation
of his wicked parents who begot him, and the mother who bore him."
Thomas Vincent, a reverend, raves after this fashion: "This will
fill them, the saints, with astonishing admiration and joy, when
they see some of their near relatives going to hell; their fathers,
their mothers, their children, their husbands, their wives, their
human friends, and companions while they themselves are saved. * * *
Those affections they now have for relatives out of Christ will cease,
and they will not have the least trouble to see them sentenced to
hell and thrust into the fiery furnace."
My thoughts on awful subjects roll,
Damnation and the dead;
What horrors seize the guilty soul
Upon a dying bed.
Where endless crowds of sinners lie,
And darkness makes their chains;
Tortured with keen despair they cry,
Yet wait for fiercer pains.
Then swift and dreadful she descends
Down to the fiery coast
Amongst abominable fiends,
Herself a frighted ghost.
Adore and tremble, for your God
Is a consuming fire;
His jealous eyes with wrath inflame,
And raise his vengeance higher.
Almighty vengeance, how it burns!
Vast magazines of plagues and storms
Lie treasured for his foes.
These grisly rhymes full of horrors are found in one of Watt's hymn
books written in England in the early part of the last century,
but they are omitted from all modern hymn books.
Tertullian finds great joy in the idea of seeing his enemies in hell.
"What shall be the magnitude of that scene! How shall I laugh! How
shall I rejoice! How shall I triumph when I behold so many and such
illustrious kings, who were said to have mounted into heaven, groaning
with Jupiter their god, in the lowest darkness of hell." (Quoted by
Lecky, "Rationalism in Europe," vol. 1, p. 329.)
"One great objection to the Old Testament is the cruelty said to
have been commanded by God, but all the cruelties recounted in the
Old Testament ceased with death. The vengeance of Jehovah stopped at
the portal of the tomb. He never threatened to avenge himself upon
the dead; and not one word, from the first mistake in Genesis to the
last curse of Malachi, contains the slightest intimation that God
will punish in another world. It was reserved for the New Testament
to make known the frightful doctrine of eternal pain. It was the
teacher of universal benevolence who rent the veil between time and
eternity, and fixed the horrified gaze of man on the lurid gulfs of
hell. Within the breast of non-resistance was coiled the worm that
never dies." (Ingersoll's Reply to Black.)
"Is it necessary that heaven should borrow its light from the glare
of hell? Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice,
immortal meanness. To worship an eternal gaoler hardens, debases,
and pollutes the soul. While there is one sad and breaking heart in
the universe, no perfectly good being can be perfectly happy. Against
the heartlessness of this doctrine every grand and generous soul
should enter its solemn protest. I want no part in any heaven where
the saved, the ransomed, and the redeemed drown with merry shout the
cries and sobs of hell--in which happiness forgets misery--where the
tears of the lost increase laughter and deepen the dimples of joy. The
idea of hell was born of ignorance, brutality, fear, cowardice, and
revenge. This idea tends to show that our remote ancestors were the
lowest beasts. Only from dens, lairs, and caves--only from mouths
filled with cruel fangs--only from hearts of fear and hatred--only
from the conscience of hunger and lust--only from the lowest and
most debased, could come this most cruel, heartless, and absurd of
all dogmas." (Ingersoll's Reply to Black.)
"A religion that teaches a mother that she can be happy in heaven,
with her children in hell--in everlasting torment--strikes at the
very roots of family affection. It makes the human heart stone. Love
that means no more than that, is not love at all. No heart that has
ever loved can see the object of its affection in pain, and itself
be happy. The thing is impossible. Any religion that can make that
possible is more to be dreaded than war or famine or pestilence or
death. It would eat out all that is great and beautiful and good in
this life. It would make life a mockery and love a curse." (Helen
H. Gardener's "Men, Women, and Gods.")
"They divided the world into saints and sinners, and all the saints
were going to heaven, and all the sinners yonder. Now, then, you
stand in the presence of a great disaster. A house is on fire,
and there is seen at a window the frightened face of a woman with
a babe in her arms, appealing for help; humanity cries out, "Will
some one go to the rescue?" They do not ask for a Methodist, Baptist,
or a Catholic; they ask for a man. All at once there starts from the
crowd one that nobody ever suspected of being a saint; one may be,
with a bad reputation; but he goes up the ladder and is lost in the
smoke and flame; and a moment after he emerges, and the great circles
of flames hiss around him; in a moment more he has reached the window;
in another moment, with the woman and child in his arms, he reaches
the ground and gives his fainting burden to the by-standers, and the
people all stand hushed for a moment, as they always do at such times,
and then the air is rent with acclamations. Tell me that that man in
going to be sent to hell, to eternal flames, who is willing to risk
his life rather than a woman and child should suffer from the fire
one moment! I despise that doctrine of hell! Any man that believes
in eternal hell is afflicted with at least two diseases; petrifaction
of the heart and putrefaction of the brain." (Ingersoll's "Ghosts.")
The Church Opposed to Progress.
"The church has opposed every reform and until quite recently, almost
every useful invention. In the England of Elizabeth it was declared
from the pulpit that the introduction of forks would demoralize the
people and provoke the divine wrath." ("Martyrdom of Man," p. 38.)
In the year 1444 Caxton published the first book ever printed in
England. In 1474 the then bishop of London, in a convocation of his
clergy, said, "If we do not destroy this dangerous invention it will
one day destroy us." That bishop was a prophet.
Hume says: "It was remarkable that no physician in Europe, who had
reached the age of forty years, ever to the end of his life adopted
Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood, and that his
practice in London diminished extremely, from the reproach drawn on
him by that great and signal discovery. So slow is the progress in
every science even when not opposed by factitious and superstitious
prejudices." (Hume's "History of England.")
When Buffon had published Natural History, in which was included his
"Theory of the Earth," he was officially informed by the faculty of
theology in Paris that several of his propositions were "reprehensible
and contrary to the creed of the church."
And when Columbus asserted the rotundity of the earth, he was ridiculed
by the clergy, who maintained that "everything would roll off on the
other side and be consumed in the fires of hell, if the world should
turn over."
Benjamin Franklin's experiments with the lightning, were condemned,
as he was only invoking upon himself the wrath of an angry God.
Professor Morse was freely ridiculed by the clergy for his attempt
to construct a telegraph.
Roger Bacon, who invented spectacles and improved the telescope,
was accused of having "sold himself to the devil."
It is scarcely necessary to recall the persecutions of Copernicus,
Bruno, and Galileo on account of their discoveries in astronomy.