(1872.)
An Honest God is the Noblest Work of Man--Resemblance of Gods to
their Creators--Manufacture and Characteristics of Deities--Their
Amours--Deficient in many Departments of Knowledge--Pleased with the
Butchery of Unbelievers--A Plentiful Supply--Visitations--One God's
Laws of War--The Book called the Bible--Heresy of Universalism--Faith
an unhappy mixture of Insanity and Ignorance--Fallen Gods, or
Devils--Directions concerning Human Slavery--The first Appearance of
the Devil--The Tree of Knowledge--Give me the Storm and Tempest of
Thought--Gods and Devils Natural Productions--Personal Appearance
of Deities--All Man's Ideas suggested by his Surroundings--Phenomena
Supposed to be Produced by Intelligent Powers--Insanity and Disease
attributed to Evil Spirits--Origin of the Priesthood--Temptation of
Christ--Innate Ideas--Divine Interference--Special Providence--The
Crane and the Fish--Cancer as a proof of Design--Matter and
Force--Miracle--Passing the Hat for just one Fact--Sir William Hamilton
on Cause and Effect--The Phenomena of Mind--Necessity and Free Will--The
Dark Ages--The Originality of Repetition--Of what Use have the Gods been
to Man?--Paley and Design--Make Good Health Contagious--Periodicity of
the Universe and the Commencement of Intellectual Freedom--Lesson of
the ineffectual attempt to rescue the Tomb of Christ from the
Mohammedans--The Cemetery of the Gods--Taking away Crutches--Imperial
Reason