THEN they say to me: "What do you propose? You have torn this down, what
do you propose to give us in place of it?"
I have not torn the good down. I have only endeavored to trample out the
ignorant, cruel fires of hell. I do not tear away the passage: "God will
be merciful to the merciful." I do not destroy the promise; "If you will
forgive others, God will forgive you." I would not for anything blot out
the faintest star that shines in the horizon of human despair, nor in
the sky of human hope; but I will do what I can to get that infinite
shadow out of the heart of man.
"What do you propose in place of this?"
Well, in the first place, I propose good fellowship--good friends all
around. No matter what we believe, shake hands and let it go. That is
your opinion; this is mine: let us be friends. Science makes friends;
religion, superstition, makes enemies. They say: Belief is important.
I say: No, actions are important. Judge by deed, not by creed. Good
fellowship--good friends--sincere men and women--mutual forbearance,
born of mutual respect. We have had too many of these solemn people.
Whenever I see an exceedingly solemn man, I know he is an exceedingly
stupid man. No man of any humor ever founded a religion--never. Humor
sees both sides. While reason is the holy light, humor carries the
lantern, and the man with a keen sense of humor is preserved from
the solemn stupidities of superstition. I like a man who has got good
feeling for everybody; good fellowship. One man said to another:
"Will you take a glass of wine?"
"I do not drink."
"Will you smoke a cigar?"
"I do not smoke."
"Maybe you will chew something?"
"I do not chew."
"Let us eat some hay."
"I tell you I do not eat hay."
"Well, then, good-by, for you are no company for man or beast."
I believe in the gospel of Cheerfulness, the gospel of Good Nature; the
gospel of Good Health. Let us pay some attention to our bodies. Take
care of our bodies, and our souls will take care of themselves. Good
health! And I believe the time will come when the public thought will be
so great and grand that it will be looked upon as infamous to perpetuate
disease. I believe the time will come when man will not fill the future
with consumption and insanity. I believe the time will come when we will
study ourselves, and understand the laws of health and then we will say:
We are under obligation to put the flags of health in the cheeks of our
children. Even if I got to heaven, and had a harp, I would hate to
look back upon my children and grandchildren, and see them diseased,
deformed, crazed--all suffering the penalties of crimes I had committed.
I believe in the gospel of Good Living. You can not make any god happy
by fasting. Let us have good food, and let us have it well cooked--and
it is a thousand times better to know how to cook than it is to
understand any theology in the world.
I believe in the gospel of good clothes; I believe in the gospel of
good houses; in the gospel of water and soap. I believe in the gospel
of intelligence; in the gospel of education. The school-house is
my cathedral. The universe is my Bible. I believe in that gospel of
justice, that we must reap what we sow.
I do not believe in forgiveness as it is preached by the church. We do
not need the forgiveness of God, but of each other and of ourselves. If
I rob Mr. Smith and God forgives me, how does that help Smith? If I, by
slander, cover some poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime,
and she withers away like a blighted flower and afterward I get the
forgiveness of God, how does that help her? If there is another world,
we have got to settle with the people we have wronged in this. No
bankrupt court there. Every cent must be paid.
The Christians say, that among the ancient Jews, if you committed a
crime you had to kill a sheep. Now they say "charge it." "Put it on the
slate." It will not do. For every crime you commit you must answer to
yourself and to the one you injure. And if you have ever clothed another
with woe, as with a garment of pain, you will never be quite as happy as
though you had not done that thing. No forgiveness by the gods. Eternal,
inexorable, everlasting justice, so far as Nature is concerned. You must
reap the result of your acts. Even when forgiven by the one you have
injured, it is not as though the injury had not been done. That is what
I believe in. And if it goes hard with me, I will stand it, and I will
cling to my logic, and I will bear it like a man.
And I believe, too, in the gospel of Liberty, in giving to others what
we claim for ourselves. I believe there is room everywhere for thought,
and the more liberty you give away, the more you will have. In liberty
extravagance is economy. Let us be just. Let us be generous to each
other.
I believe in the gospel of Intelligence. That is the only lever capable
of raising mankind. Intelligence must be the savior of this world.
Humanity is the grand religion, and no God can put a man in hell in
another world, who has made a little heaven in this. God cannot make a
man miserable if that man has made somebody else happy. God cannot hate
anybody who is capable of loving anybody. Humanity--that word embraces
all there is.
So I believe in this great gospel of Humanity.
"Ah! but," they say, "it will not do. You must believe." I say, No. My
gospel of health will bring life. My gospel of intelligence, my gospel
of good living, my gospel of good-fellowship will cover the world with
happy homes. My doctrine will put carpets upon your floors, pictures
upon your walls. My doctrine will put books upon your shelves, ideas in
your minds. My doctrine will rid the world of the abnormal monsters born
of ignorance and superstition. My doctrine will give us health, wealth
and happiness. That is what I want. That is what I believe in. Give us
intelligence. In a little while a man will find that he can not steal
without robbing himself. He will find that he cannot murder without
assassinating his own joy. He will find that every crime is a mistake.
He will find that only that man carries the cross who does wrong, and
that upon the man who does right the cross turns to wings that will bear
him upward forever. He will find that even intelligent self-love embraces
within its mighty arms all the human race.
"Oh," but they say to me, "you take away immortality." I do not. If we
are immortal it is a fact in nature, and we are not indebted to priests
for it, nor to bibles for it, and it cannot be destroyed by unbelief.
As long as we love we will hope to live, and when the one dies that we
love we will say: "Oh, that we could meet again," and whether we do or
not it will not be the work of theology. It will be a fact in nature. I
would not for my life destroy one star of human hope, but I want it
so that when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby to the
dimpled darling, she will not be compelled to believe that ninety-nine
chances in a hundred she is raising kindling wood for hell.
One world at a time is my doctrine.
It is said in this Testament, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof;" and I say: Sufficient unto each world is the evil thereof.
And suppose after all that death does end all. Next to eternal joy, next
to being forever with those we love and those who have loved us, next to
that, is to be wrapt in the dreamless drapery of eternal peace. Next to
eternal life is eternal sleep. Upon the shadowy shore of death the
sea of trouble casts no wave. Eyes that have been curtained by the
everlasting dark, will never know again the burning touch of tears. Lips
touched by eternal silence will never speak again the broken words of
grief. Hearts of dust do not break. The dead do not weep. Within the
tomb no veiled and weeping sorrow sits, and in the ray-less gloom is
crouched no shuddering fear.
I had rather think of those I have loved, and lost, as having returned
to earth, as having become a part of the elemental wealth of the
world--I would rather think of them as unconscious dust, I would rather
dream of them as gurgling in the streams, floating in the clouds,
bursting in the foam of light upon the shores of worlds, I would rather
think of them as the lost visions of a forgotten night, than to have
even the faintest fear that their naked souls have been clutched by an
orthodox god. I will leave my dead where nature leaves them. Whatever
flower of hope springs up in my heart I will cherish, I will give it
breath of sighs and rain of tears. But I can not believe that there
is any being in this universe who has created a human soul for eternal
pain. I would rather that every god would destroy himself; I
would rather that we all should go to eternal chaos, to black and
starless night, than that just one soul should suffer eternal agony.
I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to
the merciful.