PIONEER PITH ^1*^5^ • (srisf • ot • LSecf upes • orj r'* ^1©S' - BY ROBERT C. ADAMS l^esidcnt of the Montreal Pioneer Freetliought Club Author of "Travels in Faith from Tradition to Reason "Evolution: A Summary of Evidence" New York THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY 28 Lafayette Place ^^ti^^^ti g^g.^^. g. -a>^^r.:: ^caSg ia. ^^JJ S35 :• ' !i i: :' t! !■ :• ij ;; ■ ti i; !* it •; i* 11 !; :■ n T u». / / .|''.i THE TRUTH SEEKER. THE LEADING FREETHOUGHT JOURNAL OF THE WORLD. LARGEST, CHEAPEST, AND BEST. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT |3.00 PER YEAR ; $1.C0 FOR SIX MONTHS. SAMPLE COPIES FREE. 28 LAFAYETTE PLACE. NEW YORK CITY, Amonff the reforms The Truth Seeker alms to effect are ; Total separation of church and state, Including the equitable taxation of church property; secularization of the public schools, abolition of Bun- day laws, abolition of chaplaincies, prohibition of public appropriations for religious purposes, and all other measures necessary to the same ^^'"lls sixteen largo pages are filled every week with scientific, philo- sophic and Freeihought articles and communications by the ablest Iree- ihlnkors In the country. It glvs all the Liberal news and keeps Its rearlfsrs posted 6n cu rrent secular and theological events. It is the armory from which hundreds draw their weapons In contests with priesthood. All the Liberal papers are good, but The Truth Seeker ia 1 HE Bt&r A XD f ARGE.n\ It is conducted In a broad and truly Liberal spirit, ana gi /H overvono a hearing upon ell subjects pertaining to the welfa/e of the humttu race. OPINIONS EEuARDINa IT. A vaiirr lite The Truth Seeker is something more and better? than to,a advocate of truth. Through it its subscribers touch elbows with each o.her Each reader knows that ho is one of a goodly company who find comfort and Inspiration In Us pages. If they should meet each other they would feel like brothers and sisters. They hav lived under one Intellect- ual roof felt the glow of the same fireside, and broken togethrr the bread of 'life. Such a paper Is to thousands a substitulo lor the church.— George CUAINEY, in This World. The TRUTH SEEKER, founded by D. M. Bennett, Is to-day perhaps the Btroncest loo with which superstition has to contend, and a long future of great usefulness is, wo trust and believe, before i\..— WiniUJ, Conn., Prest. There ought to bo five hundred subscribers to The Truth Seeker In this county, Just to rebuke tho Infamous church bigots who are using force and fraud to auppress Liberalism.— IFor f> « a 4 u k ■^ V Q _ (/ O V u W 0* ' u •"'"^ » e (.u OtfciOou ♦« Qui New York THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY 28 LAFAYETTE PLACE Copyrighted, 1889, BY f HB Truth Seekbr CoMPXiry. .1 t « • 1/ a « • Jot ,1 / "» • • » « « A ** n 9» • « • • » « * :^* « 4 O » ^ ,' ♦ « • » ♦ «j 6 d tf y .* • * * * » *4 <• « * • • » < • • • ■ • « • * ■> < • c •• J » •» CONTENTS. Pioneer Pith, ---.-. 5 Evolution, ----...g •The Principles of Liberalism, - - - 13 The History of Religion, - - - - 16 The History of Christianity, - - - 23 Hebrew Mythology, - - ... 27 The Pagan Origin of Christianity, - - 31 Modern Criticism of the Bible, - - - 36 Prophecy, 44 The Resurrection of Jesus, - - - - 48 Creeds, -.53 Religion— Is It Permanent? - - - - 67 Theism and Atheism, 61 The Origin and Growth of Morality, - - 68 The Promotion of Morality, - - - 73 Sabbath Observance, ----- 77 Ancient Morality, ------ 82 What Have Unbelievers Done for the World? 85 Christianity and Civilization, - - . - 92 The Secular New Year, 96 PIONEER PITH. What men want nowadays is pith; the marrow, kernel, substance, bottom fact, bed-rock truth. Con- densed thought is in demand ; for knowledge is so vast and time so short, that only a few can grasp any great bulk of the treasures of learning. Specialists must master every detail in their several depart- ments of study, but the pith of their conclusions must be extracted and diffused to promote general intelligence. The facts to be first presented should be the pioneer truths, which, as the word signifies, must go before to remove obstructions and prepare the way for human advance in the path of progress. The first essential to efficient action is a right con- ception of the order of the universe. Work cannot be well done, unless the* conditions that control its performance are understood. The engineer must know the laws of steam. Man needs to know the laws that control his being. All religions, therefore, depend upon a cosmogony, a theory as to the origin and nature of the world. The Christian religion presents a theory of exist- ence founded on miracle and supernatural powers. To deliver men from bondage to these erroneous ideas, and from subjection to those who live by their 6 . PIONEER PITH. perpetuation, they must be given the pith of radical ideas. The pioneer pith of Rationalism is the fact that the universe is controled by natural laws, and de- velops by uninterrupted successions of cause and effect ; no arbitrary supernatural will ever interferes. Once grasp the idea, , Nature never nods, * ■ Nor leaves her work to gods, and all the dogmas of theology will be cast off. Tetich men that connected causes produce all re- sults, and. the ground is cleared of the rubbish of faith and is ready for the plowshare of reason and the seed of knowledge. Whatever happens, The only cause . .,:; Is nature's laws. . • ' Nobody knows how nature's laws originated, or, if they had a beginning, how they started. But, if there was a starter, there is no evidence that he ever interferes with their working, nor is there any answer to the question. Who started the starter? Science has proved that orderly evolution is the law of the universe. It therefore follows that this world was not made suddenly by the word of a god, nor was man made out of the dust ; no serpent tempted man to fall, and he needs no atonement ; no revelation was ever given by a being superior to man, but all knowledge has been gained by man's own study of nature ; no miracle ever happened, and no prayer to supernatural powers was ever answered ; no savior was born of a virgin; no one ever rose from the dead. PIONEER PITH. 7 Put this pith of natural law into every man*s mind and slavery will cease. No longer will man be the victim of beliefs about gods, angels, and devils, and be the prey of those who thrive by his bondage. All the dogmatic structures of religion will crumble, the mazes of theolog}^ will be made straight, the multi- farious creeds will be abandoned, and the emanci- pated Christian will adopt • THE PITHY CREED OF RATIONALISM. Jehovah ranks with Jupiter ; The Bible's Hebrew literature ; Confucius, Jesus, both were men ; A future life's beyond our ken. A miracle do not expect ; Seek nature's cause for each effect. From man have come all gods and creeds ; . . Your only savior is your deeds. EVOLUTION. Evolution is the tLeory that all the varied details of the universe are the result of a gradual develop- ment from simpler conditions, through the working of - the laws of nature which now surround us. Worlds, minerals, plants, animals, man, language, morals, ^ laws, literature, arts and sciences, as they exist to- day, are the outcome of the unceasing successions of cause and effect that have taken place, through the . preceding ages, in accordance with natural law. But the term as popularly used refers more espe- cially to life, and in this sense Evolution is the theory that all existing forms of life have been pro- duced from simpler forms by a gradual process of change. Instead of an unchangeable universe, orig- inated by special creation, the Evolutionist, seeing constant variation in each kind or species of plants and animals, has learned that these variations may increase, until, in a long course of natural descent, forms are produced that appear to be distinct species. In the breeding of domestic animals and in the cross- ing of plants, such marked differences result in a short time, that it becomes certain that such varia- tion continued through a long period would produce forms appearing to differ in kind from their ancestors. It is therefore seen to be both possible and prob- EVOLUTION 9 able that all existing forms of life have developed from a few simple forms, or even from one form, by- slow processes of change continued through vast ages. The great work of Darwin was to point out the main process through which the evolution of forms takes place. More organisms come into life than the means of subsistence can support. This leads to a struggle for existence. There is some variety in the forms of the individuals of each species of plants and animals, and those possessing the variations most suited to their conditions are enabled to survive, while those less adapted to the circumstances perish. This is called the survival of the fittest. These indi- viduals reproduce in their offspring the variations that have benefited them, and new variations occur, those that are useful being perpetuated. Thus there is a continual divergence from the parent stock, wherever there is a change of sur- rounding conditions that causes variations that are serviceable to existence. When tliese variations ai-e long continued, they form new species. But where there is no change in the circumstances of life, and the means of existence are abundant, there is little or no change in the forms of life. This process, by which nature selects the forms best suited to their surroundings, is called by Darwin, Natural Selec- tion. , To summarize the evidences, we find : 1. The Nebular Hypothesis — the formation of worlds from the moving "star dust" — agrees with all known facts concerning the solar system, and is accepted as the best explanation of the universe. 10 ^ EVOLUTION. 2. All the orders of the animal vrorld show a con- nection, more or less complete, by which an ascend- ing tree of life spreads out from a common root. 3. All the classes of the vegetable kingdom are likewise allied by a continuous succession of forms. 4. Animal and vegetable life meet in the lowest forms and suggest a common origin. 5. All vegetable and animal life originate in cells of protoplasm which, to all appearance, are alike. 6. Every animal before reaching its adult form passes through forms common to the races below it. These changes occur either wholly before birth, as in the case of quadrupeds and man, or partly after birth, as with frogs and butterflies. Tlie only intel- ligible way of accounting for this development of in- dividuals, is to suppose that the races to whi they belong have developed in a similar manner from lower orders, and the history of their descent is re- peated in the history of each individual. " Develop- ment repeats descent." 7. Animals and plants have rudiments of organs which are useless, and in some cases disappear in adult life. This can only be explained by the sup- position that these forms are inherited from ances- tors who possessed them fully developed. 8. Change of surroundings causes change in the organs of animals, in consequence of the survival of those who possess any peculiarity that makes them better fitted to endure the changes, and these pecu- liarities become fixed in their descendants. 9. These changes of surroundings sometimes lead animals to revert to the forms of lower organisms, making it probable that their race formerly arose EYOLUTION. 11 from those forms through the influence of changed conditions, which ceasing, the new forms are no longer useful and disappear. 10. The mimicry by animals of resemblances thai are useful, shows that new species may arise by the pepietuation of useful variations of form or color. 11. The distribution of animals and plants over the earth shows that natural causes account for the presence of each kind in its locality. 12. The study of fossil remains of plants and ani- mals reveals links between orders so separate that they have been regarded as special creations. But these intermediate forms show the transition rom one species to another. 13. In the oldest rocks the lowest forms of life are found, and higher forms appear successively in later deposits, the highest creature — man — being found in the latest strata, proving that the series of forms that we now observe in existing life have been gradually developed in the same ascending series during the vast periods of the past. 14. The development of mind is traced upward from the lowest instincts, as truly as is the develop- ment of organic forms from simpler organisms, show- ing no need for the theory of the special creation of man's reasoning powers. 15. The study of languages reveals an orderly, gradual development of speech, corresponding to the growth of forms of life. 16. Moral sentiments have unfolded in animals and man by a process of development, similar to what is observed in organic fc ns. 17. There is no evidence that any thing has sud-. 12 EVOLUTION. denly come into existence in a completely developed form of varied structure. It is probable that the lowest and simplest form of life is the result oi the combmation of particles of matter by their own in- herent energy, and that all subsequent developments have arisen from progressive changes that occurred in accordance with the same laws of nature that sur- round us to-day. 18. Finally, one of the principal causes of these progressive changes is observed to be the struggle for existence, which secures the survival of the fittest, or Natural Selection. The idea of the special creation of the world by divine fiat, as described in the book of Genesis, has been abandoned in favor of the theory of Evolution by nearly all learned men. Professor Huxley says, in " The Liie and Letters of Charles Darwin," " I do not think that there is a single zoologist, or botanist, or paleontologist among the multitude of active work- ers of this generation who is other than an Evolu- tionist, profoundly influenced by Darwin's views." PEINCIPLES OF LIBERALISM. In the multitude of disputes about religious dogmas, people lose sight of the essential difference in the standpoints of Liberalism and orthodox Christianity. The whole question in dispute can be narrowed down to this, Is the universe ordered by the present con- scious will of a supreme being, or does the universe proceed in its development by an orderly succession of cause and effect ? The contest is between miracle and natural law. If God ordains and directs each event, we can believe in miracles, revelations, and the power of prayer. But if no one interferes with the orderly evolution of nature, we need only concern ourselves with learning her method of development. Instead of prayer for rain, we shall study meteorology ; instead of healing by faith, we shall study hygiene ; instead of worship, we shall employ research. Liberalism is founded on this belief in the invio- lability of nature's order and the right of free inquiry concerning it. The establishment of the theory of Evolution has settled nature's order; and human progress in the last century has shown the benefit of free inquiry. These results are so widely accepted that the church is trying to find a way to adopt them and preserve her organization, for they are seen to be fatal to her existence. The method generally 14 THE rniNCIPLES 01 LI'^RRAIISIC chosen is that portrayed in Professor Drummond's book, " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," which shows that supernatural doctrines are constructed upon the same lines as natural facts, and therefore, it is claimed, may be deemed true. But the weak- ness of the position consists in begging the question by assuming that there is a spiritual world ; and the assertion that religious dogmas are counterparts of what men perceive in nature, only illustrates the truth which Liberalism insists on, that men have made religion. Of course, they would make it after familiar models, and must create an unseen world after the pattern of the seen. The great protest of Liberalism is against this con- cern with the unknown. We find vast organizations, institutions for theological learning, churches and councils, all engaged in investigating the duration of a hell that never existed, the nature of an atonement that never was made, the composition of a trinity that nobody knows of, and the welfare of souls which are only an assumption. The dispute of the school- men as to how many angels could stand on the point of a cambric needle is no more foolish and unprofit- able. Here is nature just bursting forth with her secrets. Here are steam, electricity, chemistry, in- vention, and economic questions pressing for solu- tion, demanding all the brain of the world, while social questions call for its heart. Liberalism pro- tests against this waste of treasure and effort upon the propagation of theological ideas, while natural science and economics are neglected. A common charge against Liberalism is, that it is destructiye and not constructive. A sailor was asked, THE nilNCIPLES OF LIB£KAU8M. 16 " What is meant by humbugging ?" He replied, " It is sawing wood with a hammer." If you take the hammer away and give the man a saw, he may, in ignorance, declare you have hindered his work, whereas you have taken away the tool with which he was wasting his time and have given him the means of construction. That is what Liberalism does. It sees men trying to advance the world by belief in miraculous help, and it destroys that idea and teaches men to depend on themselves and look for natural results. It tells men to throw away the old hammers of prayer, pilgrimage, and penance, and take the saws of learning, labor, and liberty. Orthodoxy is con- cerned for the glory of God, Liberalism strives for the uplifting of man. All progress arises from Naturalism. Prayer and processions have been vainly tried against small-pox and floods, but isolation checked the epidemic and dykes restrained the waters. Liberalism was defined by Prof. W. K. Clifford as "organized common sense," and that is truly its essence. Let any one depend on natural means and use common sense, and he is a Liberal, no matter by what name he is called. Common sense in this age does not trust in miracles. The mission of Liber- alism is to teach self-reliance in place of divine pau- perism. THE IIISrORY OF RELIGION. A NEW science has lately arisen — the comparison of religions. It is new, because the opinion has pre- vailed that Christianity is the only true relij^ion aud came from God, while all other religions are false and came from the devil These last were therefore unworthy of notice. The doctrine of Evolution having shown the prob- ability of the gradual development of all existing forms of life from lower orders, analogy suggested that all social customs and beliefs had likewise de- veloped in accordance with the same laws of nature. As the special creation of man was disproved, so the special revelation of one true religion was over- thrown, and it was seen that the existing religions have been gradually developed from earlier faiths, and are all, therefore, deserving objects of study. There are three principal methods of research into past religion — the study of written history, observa- tion of existing races of men, and the study of lan- guage. History permits the comparison of the ideas of different eras. Observation of savage races sug- gests what may have been the primitive religious be- liefs of man, and the study of the ideas of men in higher states of civilization suggests the manner in which religions have grown. Customs and ideas are THE HISTOBY OF UELIQION. 17 recorded in words, just as fossils are presoryod in the rocks ; and skilful scholars like Max Mailer, George Smith, BawlinsoD, and others, have unfolded his- tories of extinct races by the study of cuneiform and hieroglyphic writings, and by tracing in modern speech the roots derived from ancient languages. The oldest people that can be traced are the Tu- ranians, known only by caves and gravel relics. The oldest civilization comes from them or from a closely allied race represented by the Akkadians in Mesopo- tamia, who gave their traditions to their successors in Babylon. The Aryans succeeded the Turanians in Central Asia; and all Europeans, except Finns, Magyars, and Turks, have sprung from this race. Their religion was nature-worship or animism. Their chief god was Dyaits, the sky, which became in India Dyaics-pitar, heaven-father; in Greece, Zeiis-pater ; and in Rome Jupiter. Their rites advanced from sac- rifices to thanksgivings and sin-offerings, showing a gradual development from fear to love and conscience. Altars were revered, temples were built over them, priests were ordained to relieve the people from the burdensome ritual, and thinking was finally left to them. Descendants of the Aryans conquered the older settlers of India, who are now re})resented by Finns, Lapps, and Mongols. In the sacred books, the Vedas, can be traced the progress of religious ideas from the Aryan animism. Miiller says, " We can follow in the Vedic hymns, step by step, the development which changes the sun into a creator, preserver, ruler, and rewarder of the world, in fact, into a divine or su- preme being." He styles India " the birthplace of •18 THE HISTOBY OF RELIGION. religions'* and the exemplar of their growth. First came a perception of the infinite, back of mountains, rivers, and sky : then henotheism, a belief in single equal deities ; then polytheism, or one supreme being over other deities ; then monotheism, one only god ; and lastly atheism, or a belief in only one existence manifested in the varied forms of the universe. The study of all races shows that this i^ the natural order of the development of religious ideas. Religion in India assumed the form of Brahman- ism, the worship of a trinity composed of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the conservator, and Sivah the destroyer of the world. About 900 B.C. Vishnu was incarnated in the form of Chrishna, who, according to Sir William Jones, was said to have been descended from a royal family, was born among herdsmen, and escaped from the tyrant Cansa, who destroyed the new-born males. He performed miracles, raised the dead, descended to the lowest regions, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and was followed by disciples who preached his doctrines. These re- semblances between this legendary man-god and Jesus are striking. Buddhism arose later as a revolt from the power of the ^priests, and bears the same relation to Brah- manism that Christianity does to Judaism. It also had its savior, Gautama Buddha, who was miracu- lously born, and at the age of about thirty started out as a reformer. He gave ten commandments, which include prohibitions of intoxicating drink, anger, hatred, and bitter language, idle and vain talk, envy, pride, revenge, malice, or desire of neighbors' death or misfortune. Brahmanism finally became I THE HISTORY OP RELIGION. 19 supreme by conquest, and Buddhism, being driven out of India, spread in the east of Asia. When the first Roman Catholic missionaries went to Thibet they found the Buddhist priests with shaven heads, kneeling to images, worshiping relics, wearing strings of beads, using bells and holy water, and hearing confessions. They declared that the devil had made a mockery of their faith, not realizing that they had reached one of the sources of their religion. In Persia, religious ideas developed out of the Aryan faith, through the in^a(> ce of Zoroaster, who is supposed to have lived about 1200 B.C. He taught the existence of two powers — good and evil, which became personified as god and devil — the immortality of the soul, heaven and hell, resurrection and judg- ment. His followers still believe in the coming of Sosiosh, a spiritually begotten savior, to redeem the world. The Jews during their captivity came under the influences of these ideas, and many of the doctrines of the Hebrew and Christian religions ap- pear to have been derived from that source. Max Miiller says, " If the battles of Marathon and Sala- mis had been lost and Greece had succumbed to Persia, the worship of Ormuzd might have become the religion of the whole civilized world." On such human causes does the acceptance of " revelation " depend. In China, religion is traced back to the twelfth century before Christ, and shows elements of fetish- ism with worship of spirits. Its development seems to have been more rapid than in any other country, for it reached the atheistic stage in the time of Con- fucius, 500 B.C. Confucianism is now adhered to by 20 THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. all the cultivated classes. It is rather a system of morality than a religion, as it avoids supernatural- ism, and is in fact secularism. The more ignorant people indulge in various stages of supernatural be- lief, and profess either the Taouist or the Buddhist religion. The religion of Egypt shows traces of animism, and a development of ideas is noticed, which were modi- fied through conquests by Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks. But Egypt in return influenced the Hebrews and Phoenicians, and gave to Rome the worship of the virgin, the miraculous conception, and its style of god. The history of the Hebrews shows a gradual ad- vance through polytheism to monotheism, and an improvement in the character of their god Yahveh (Jehovah), as they learned the good traits of other gods and became more civilized themselves. After the captivity in Babylon Ezra organized Judaism, the priestly religion that grew out of the Mosaism of the prophets, and, under the influence of Greek phi- losophy and humanity and oriental doctrines, Chris- tianity naturally evolved, and, through Rome's uni- versal sovereignty, gained its sway. Its rival, Mo- hammedanism, being better suited to the genius and mental condition of the southern races, has estab- lislied supremacy in many countries and is now spreading rapidly over Africa. A study of the religions of Greece, Rome, Scandi- navia, and America reveals the same law of mental progress. Each religion takes on the characteristics of the people. The joyous negro has a poetic myth- ology, the gloomy Indian a more somber one ; the THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. 21 pastoral races have a mild theology, and the warlike races a cruel one. It is clear that each people makes its own god and creed according to its requirements. Spencer shows that a savage man needs a savage god. The Christian fathers, who thought one of the de- lights of heaven would be the contemplation of the torments of the damned, needed a severe god to keep them in order. All are "good for their times and places." " Though bad in the abstract, they are rela- tively good — are the best which the then existing conditions admit." A survey of the religions of the world shows their connected development and their equally human origin. The race has progressed as a child pro- gresses. Most of the dogmas of religion and the mytlis and fairy tales of all peoples, can be traced back to stories suggested in the childhood of the human race by observation of the phenomena of nature, the contest between light and darkness and the struggle between good and evil. Cinderella is the dawn-maiden pursued by the sun-god. Jack the Giant Killer, William Tell, and most of the nursery- tale heroes are traced back to the old Aryan sun- myths. As the child's mind advances out of belief in fairy tales, so has the race grown in religious ideas according to its education and civilization. These facts should teach us toleration, for anger and malice toward earlier stages of growth are absurd and impolitic. They should give us hope ; for, if religion has advanced, or rather improved, for religion in the sense of the worship of supernatural powers steadily declines as races progress, we may hope for the extinction of supernatural beliefs. Im- 22 THE HISTORY OF RELIOION. provements always being possible, we have a stimu- lus each to add his mite toward the uplifting of the human race above the childish fancies that hinder its mature development IirSTORY OF CHRrSTIANITY. The Christian religion is founded upon the alleged life, death, and resurrection of a person called Jesus the Christ, or anointed. So far as we are aware, no eye-witness of his existence has ever recorded the fact ; and the only testimony that we possess as to his life is contained in four gospels, which were probably compiled about one hundred and fifty years after his death. By comparing the points upon which the first three gospels a^ree, a " triple tradition " is obtained, which is considered to be the nearest ap- proach to an accurate account of what was believed about him in his own time. This shows him to have been an earnest preacher of righteousness, of natural birth, who was believed to have wrought some mira- cles common to all the religions of that era. He was put to death, and never rose again. He taught noth- ing new, but in the sayings attributed to him are summarized much of the ethical teaching of the past. After his death legends grew around his simple story ; Paul added dogmas to the moral creed of Jesus, and founded Christianity, a religion which since then has constantly increased its doctrines ; the latest one, papal infallibility, having been added in 1870 ; thirty- four councils having met during these ages to settle beliefs. 24 THE 'history of CHRISTIANITY. The early Christian fathers, who developed and added to the doctrines of Paul, though devout, were mostly ignorant and credulous men. They could not be trusted in controversial matters, for their zeal often triumphed over truth and honesty. The new "Religion spread by means of the earnest- ness of its teachers, its high morality, and its fitness to the age. But its final establishment was due to the emperor Constantine, who, though a monster of depravity, for politic reasons made Christianity the state religion in the early part of the iourth century. Through wars, massacres, and missions tlie system has extended over the known world. For centuries dissensions have raged about the nature of Christ and many other dogmas, and as to the books that should compose the sacred canon. Some of these questions were settled by votes, and others by blood. Ceremonies and holy days were established, saints were created, images were adored, relics became precious, and miracles were proclaimed. For three hundred years during "the dark ages" ignorance and credulity reigned supreme. Rivalry existed among the church dignitaries, but the bishops of Kome became the most powerful, and in the fifth century Leo became the first pope. In the eleventh century Gregory VII. established the supremacy of the popes over the civil powers, declar- ing the pope to be the sun and the king the moon. He also instituted the celibacy of the priests. The patriarchs of Constantinople had many dissensions with the popes of Rome, and in the eleventh century the Eastern and Western divisions finally separated — the former being since known as the Greek church. THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY. 25 In the eleventli century fanatical crusades were undertaken to gain possession of the holy sepulcher at Jerusalem. Seven million lives were lost, and the priDcipal gains were an increase of knowledge, exten- sion of commerce, and respect for " intidels." In the twelfth century reason began to combat the current religion, but heresy was crushed by persiacu- tion, and for four hundred years Euroj/e was deluged with blood by religious wars. The massacres of the Waldenses and Huguenots, the tortures of the Inqui- sition, the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, the Hussite wars, slaughter in the Netherlands, and other atrocities destroyed the most intelligent people of the times and delayed the advance of civilization. In the fifteenth century the printing-press began its work of education, and early in the next century Martin Luther voiced the growing sentiment in favor of free thought — the right of private judgment., Through many vicissitudes this principle has spread, and the writings of rationalists in Germany, France, England, and America have brought the Protesta.nt church steadily away from Catholic Christianity toward the goal to which it is destined — the adop- tion of reason as the only guide. The alternative is trust in authority. This the church of Rome still maintains ; and it is doubtless the only basis upon which belief in unprovable things can be preserved. Protestants who cannot be freethinkers will drift back to the historic church of Christianity. The conflict of the future will be between Rome and reason, the church and freethought. The history of Christianity shows that, like all religions, its origin and growth are purely human. 26 THE HISTORY OP CHRISTIANITY. It has contributed some beneficial effects, but its ex- altation of belief over morality and its opposition to science have been injurious. Its crimes and cruelties show man's barbarous nature, which knowledge and experience are slowly refining. It is to be regarded as a system rather than as a doctrine, for, like Pro- teus, it changes its forms, and whenever defeated in attack, if policy so dictates, it adopts the proved ideas of its assailants, and thus preserves its organi- zation, which is more essential to its official sup- porters than are its dogmas. These are abandoned or changed whenever expediency dictates, making aggressive effort very difficult ; for whenever a point is successfully assailed, it is declared to be " unes- sential," or else not to belong to triie Cliristianity. Everything is abandoned but natural morality, and still men call themselves Christians and support the system which has no excuse for continuance unless miracle and revelation are facts. When rationalists see the duty of consistency, they will cease to uphold a system which has no logical existence apart from supernaturalism. HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. In its early days every race Las invented myths or fables to explain the mysteries o^ nature. Tylor says a myth is the savage way of satisfying scientific curi- osity. Miiller traces their growth by the applications of names of deities to natural objects, as when the sun pursuing the dawn is personilied as Apollo pur- suing Daphne. Lang and other writers show that these myths are of world-wide extent, and that simi- lar stories prevail amidst widely different languages. Savages regard all objects as personal and allied to themselves. Uncle Remus extends his faculties to "Brer Rabbit." Fabulous stories naturally arise from this habit of mind. The Old Testament contains many wonderful nar- rations, which are paralleled in the literature of all nations. The creation of the world is said in Persian legend to have been divided into six parts by Ormuzd, and on the sixth day he made Adama and Evah, who were tempted by a serpent and fell. The Babylo- nians had this legend fifteen hundred years before the Hebrews heard of it. The Hindoos and Egyp- tians had legends of the Tree of Life ; and in China, Madagascar, Scandinavia, and Mexico similar stories have prevailed. The deluge story is common to all lands, and arose from freshets, eruptions, and subsi- 28 HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. dences of the earth. The sacrifice of Isaac corre- spouds to the tales of the Hindoos and Greeks, all doubtless composed to discourage human sacrifices. Jacob's ladder expresses the belief in the transmi- gration of souls, the Egyptians having pigs and monkeys on their ladders to represent wicked men. The stone pillar was a phallic emblem of the re- productive powers of nature. The marvels of the Exodus are equaled in the feats of Bacchus, who changed his rod into a serpent and crossed the Red Sea with an army dryshod. He divided the waters of the rivers Orontes and Hydaspus, drew water from a rock, and in other ways did deeds ascribed to Moses. All nations have had revelations on mount- ains, and Buddha's ten commandments are in some respects superior to those of Moses. Samson is a counterpart of Hercules and the Babylonian hero Izdubar. Samson is the Arabic word for sun, and the story represents the struggle of the sun for six months with mist and darkness. Jonah is also a name for the sun, which was fabled to be swallowed by night for three days at the winter solstice, De- cember 22d to 25th. Hercules was swallowed by a whale at Joppa, and retained three days. Numerous heroes have had the same experience, and Little Red Riding Hood, who was swallowed by the wolf, repre- sents the same natural event, the sun's conquest by night. Joshua had many imitators in stopping the sun, and one of Buddha's disciples cut the moon iui two. Parallels to Elijah's ascent in the chariot, David and Goliath, Balaam's ass, the confusion oil tongues, in fact all the incidents of Hebrew uarra-l HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. 29 tion, are met with in the mythologies and legends of other nations. Christians have maintained that the Bible stories are true, but all others are imitations, and prove the genuineness of the Hebrew tales as a counterfeit proves the existence of a genuine coin. But it has been conclusively shown that many of these legends were borrowed from other nations by the Hebrews and were not first revealed to them. George Smith found cuneiform inscriptions made two thousand years before Christ, which prove that the Babylonians then possessed ancient legends of the creation fuller in some respects than those of the Hebrews. Many of these stories were unknown to the Hebrews before the captivity and were learned in exile. Max Miiller says, "The opinion that the pagan religions were mere corruptions of the religion of the Old Testa- ment, is now as completely surrendered as the at- tempt of explaining Greek and Latin as the corrup- tions of Hebrew." The writings of Miiller, Baring- Gould, John Fiske, Andrew Lang, the compilations of the author of " Bible Myths," and numerous others have established the opinion that the Old Testament stories are either borrowed from other literature, or are the mythical explanations of nature's marvels such as are invented by all savage or unenlightened people. This view is so {generally accepted that the articles in the standard encyclopedias are based upon it, and there is no longer controversy upon the subject among scholars ; and yet we have the as- Itounding fact that in churches and Sunday-schools these fables are taught as truths. Who is respon- sible for keeping the people in this ignorance ? Do I 30 HEBIIEW MYTHOLOGY. not the ministera Lnow these things, aiul cau they justify their silence by the plea that the people are not able to bear the light of knowledge ? Is not falsehood always injurious to those who entertain it, and is not deception ever degrading to tho^e who practice it? Mankind are perishing for lack of knowledge of natural laws, and yet one day in seven is devoted to teaching them fables that originated in the childhood of the world, and that the learning and common sense of the unbiased, educated mind have outgrown- rilE PAGAN O RIG IN OF CHRIS- TIANITY. Christianity is not a revelation, but it is a devel- opment, having its roots in the religious soil of early pagan ideas. Renan says: "Nearly everything in Christianity is mere baggage brought from the pagan mysteries." Its central idea is that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ ; but the dogma of in- carnation is common to all nations, and was believed long before the Christian era. The author of " Bible Myths" mentions forty-eight persons born of virgins; and Kersey Graves has written the stories of " Six- teen Crucified Saviors." In India, 900 B.C., Chrishna was born of the virgin Devaki, and, 500 B.C., Buddha was born of the virgin Maya. In Egypt, Horus and his virgin mother, Isis, were worshiped long before the time of Christ ; and their black images and pict- ures were adopted in Romish churches to represent Jesus and Mary. Justin Martyr (a.d. 140), in his apology to the Emperor Adrian, says : " As to his (Jesus Christ) having been born of a virgin, you have your Perseus to balance that." The history of the man-gods is very similar. They were usually born on Christmas day, in caves or humble places, when the mother was on a journey. The heavenly bodies gave signs of their birth ; they were visited by wise men, pursued by a king, and 82" THE PAGAN ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. tempted by the devil. They worked miracles, died and rose again, and were to return and reform the world. Modern Christians have claimed that these stories arose after the time of Jesus and were distortions of his true life. But the early Christian fathers knew i^jtter, and claimed that Satan had stolen God's de- signs and made spurious issues in advance. Hence the saying, "The devil has his Christs." Modern scholarship has demonstrated t]ie priority of many of these stories to the story of Jesus. The doctrine of the trinity was held by the Brah- mans, who worshiped Brahma, Yishnu, and Siva, and by the Buddhists, who reverenced " the three pure, precious, and honorable Fo " (Buddha). The term Logos, or Word, was applied to Apollo ; and the Holy Ghost is symbolized by the dove of Venus. The sacrament of bread and wine was observed in honor of Osiris, the risen god of ancient Egypt, and of Mithra, the Persian savior. The Greeks said that Ceres gave flesh to eat and Bacchus blood to drink. Baptism was a universal custom. Buddhists dipped three times and Brahmans sprinkled. Persians dipped to Mithra and marked adults with the sign of the cross. Confirmation at the age of fifteen was also practiced by the ancient Persians. The cross is a world-wide symbol of vast antiquity, probably originating as a phallic emblem, a symbol of the male generative organs. In the museum of London University there is a mummy with a cross onl its breast. An ancient race in North Italy reverencedl the cross a thousand years before Christ. The sigrl of the cross that Constantino saw in vision was thel THE PAGAN ORIGIN OF CHBISTIANITY. 83 monogram of Osiris and Jupiter Ammon. I. H. S. was the monogram of Bacchus. Festivals to saints and martyrs replaced pagan festivals. Faustus wrote to St. Augustine : " Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans, except that you hold your assemblies apart from them." St. Gregoi'y, bishop of Neo-Ceesarea A.D. 240, was commended by Gregory of Nyas? ;, for changing the pagan festivals into Christian holidays, the better to draw the heathen to the religion of Christ. The 25th of March, observed by G-jeeks and Romans in honor of the mother of the gods, is now Lady Day, and the festival of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is held on the day of the festival of the blessed virgin Juno. Christmas was the birthday of the gods, and was the ancient feasi of the sun, that then returns after the winter solstice. Our manner of observing it was condemned by Tertullian, a.d. 200, who said it was "rank idolatry" to deck doors with ''garlands or flowers on festival days according to the custom of the heathen." The fish is an emblem of deity. Dag is Hebrew for fish, and Dagon was a fish god. The fish was sacred to Yenus, and was eaten on Friday in her honor, as it now is devoted to Jesus. Good Friday and Easter were observed in honor of Adonis, and Easter takes its name from the Saxon goddess Ostara, whose festival was observed on that day. All the doctrines that are deemed essential to I Christianity are the outgrowths of earlier beliefs. Atonement was made not only by animals, but by [men and gods. The title mediator was applied to 84 THE PAGAN ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. Mithra in Persia. Regeneration, or being born again, was symbolized by a person passing through clefts in rocks, as though born out of the earth. The end of the world, the day of judgment, and future punish- ment were matters of belief in remote times. Beligion, beginning, perhaps, with Nature worship or sun worship, has gradually evolved its existing forms ; and the evolution of religion is now as clearly f itablished as is the evolution of all other character- istics of life and of the universe. The same laws have controled the development of all. There has been neither miracle nor revelation, but natural selection and the su;:vival of the fittest have determined the form of beliefs as well as the development of natural objects. The Essenes, a sect of advanced Pharisees, were probably the immediate originators of both Chris- tianity and Mohammedanism. A branch called Ther- apeutsB held similar doctrines to those afterward adopted by Christians. The Rev. Robert Taylor wrote the "Diegesis," showing the origin of the Christian gospels and doctrines from Egyptian and other Oriental sources ; and, having been imprisoned in England for it, he said : " Those who offer truth to the Christian community must ever provide for their escape for so doing." The author of " Bible Myths " says at the close of j his voluminous account of the correspondences be- tween Christianity and paganism : " We have seen, then, that the only difference between Christianityl and paganism is that Brahma, Ormuzd, Osiris, Zeusj Jupiter, etc., are called by another name; ChrishnaJ Buddha, Bacchus, Adonis, Mithras, etc., have beeiJi THE PAGAN OKIGIN OP CHRISTIANITY. , 35 turned into Jesus ; Venus's pigeons into the Holy Ghost ; Diana, Isis, Devaki, etc., into the Virgin Mary, and the demigods and heroes into saints. The ex- ploits of the one are represented as the miracles of the other. Pagan festivals became Christian holi- days, and pagan temples became Christian churches." Every Christian doctrine, rite, and symbol can be shown to have preexisted in pagan usage. Therefore they cannot have been revealed at the time of Christ. Christianity is thus proved to be an evolution out of older beliefs, and takes its place in the universal brotherhood of religions made by men. Books in large numbers may be found that tell these things, but the influence of the clergy prevents their being read. People should heed the advice of Buddha, "Do not believe merely on the authority of your teachers and masters, or believe and practice merely because thej believed and practiced." MODERN CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE. Criticism is the art of pointing out the merits or defects of a production. Literary criticism — the analysis, comparison, and estimation of writings — has almost come to mean fault-finding, so keen has been the analysis. To this there is one marked exception. Concerning the Bible, only favorable criticism is tolerated. In the past, the dungeon, axe, and fagot, and in later times obloquy and social ostracism, have been reserved for the daring investigator who pre- sumed to see aught but perfection in " the word of God." The demand for evidence, that proof shall precede belief, is now made even to the claims the church presents for the Bible, for, as Matthew Arnold says, " We must accept what is verified, not what is as- sumed." The spirit of modern criticism of the Bible is marked by reverence, fairness, and judicial calmness,! and is in strong contrast to the antagonism shown] by such writers as Paine, Voltaire, and their modernj successors. It holds that the Bible can be studiec like all other books, yet treated reverently ; anc those who write most destructively lavish prais( whenever it is possible. The method of modern criticism consists in schol-l MODERN CRITICISM OP THE BIBLE. 37 arly research, in contrast with Paine's method of appealing to reason and common sense to show the absurdity of Bible statements. It studies the com- parison of religions. It compares the sacred books of all nations. It studies folk-lore and traces the growth of similar fables in different climes. It makes minute examination of the text and history of the Bible, and analyzes its contents with the closeness and impartiality that pertain to the chemist's labora- tory. The results of modern criticism of the Bible estab- lish the fact that the book contains a collection of Hebrew literature, fragmentary and of mixed and uncertain authorship, extending over a period of a thousand years. These writings, when compared with other sacred books and the histories of other people, show that the Hebrews claim descent from Terah, on the same principle that led tlie Greeks to trace descent from Hellen and the Bomans from Bomulus, and all are equally fabulous. Their re- ligion was first fetishism, then the worship of various goas, and finally of their chief God Yahweh (Jeho- vah). Their history was preserved by oral tradition till about the end of the ninth century before Christ, five hundred years after the time of Moses. Then books began to be written, and were edited and re- edited, each editor altering or adding as he felt it desirable. The writing was in consonants, without vowels or punctuation, and different words could be made from the same letters. The manuscripts had to be copied by pen, and the writers were liable to mistakes. The oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament now t 38 MODERN CRITICISM OP THE BIBLE. extant were written in the ninth century a.d., but they probably do not differ much from those of the first century, when it is thought one standard reading was adopted, and the many varying copies were sup- pressed, just as Caliph Othman destroyed all copies of the Koran which diverged from the standard text that he had adopted. Most of the books of the Bible are anonymous, and names of authors have been supplied. The Pentateuch, called the books of Moses, probably contains nothing written by Moses except the basis of the ten commandments. Samuel, David, and Elijah showed no knowledge of the laws of Leviti- cus, and no writer before the Babylonish captivity, 588 B.C., mentions Adam, Eden, the fall, or the flood. It is therefore clear that these things could not have become known at an earlier date. Robertson Smith says : " It is impossible that God laid down rules in the wilderness that had no part in Israel's history for one thousand years." Two different stories of the creation are given in the first and second chapters of Genesis. Beautiful Sarah, who bewitched kings and caused Abraham to lie, was ninety years old ; baby Ishmael was fifteen to twenty years old, and little Benjamin was the father of ten children. Conflicting stories of the flood are given, and many discrepancies and contra- dictions are noted. An explanation is found in the discovery that different documents have been inter- woven ; two of these are known as the Elohistic and Jehovistic, from the fact that one always speaks of God as Elohim and the other as Jehovah (Yahweh). These two writings are traced to the end of the book MODllRN CRITICISM OP THE BIBLE. 39 of Joshua. Geographical names are mentioned which were not given to the phices till long after Moses's death, and events are referred to not known for hun- dreds of years later. There is good evidence that the Pentateuch was compiled in three parts : first, about 750 B.C., the Yahvist narrative beginning with Gen. ii, 4 ; second, about 620 B.C., a priest wrote Deuteronomy, and Josiah introduced it; third, after the return from captivity, about 444 B.C., Ezra rearranged the books and introduced Leviticus, drawn up by priests in Babylon. Judges refers to the captivity, and that part of it certainly could not have been written earlier. The historical books show the writings of different periods. Samuel says Yahweh tempted David, but Chronicles says Satan tempted him. The latter was written after the captivity, when Satan had been remodeled after the Persian Ahriman. Most of the first thirty- nine chapters of Isaiah were written about 740-710 B.C., but from the fortieth chapter we have writ- ings later than the captivity, probably 545-530 B.C. Zechariah is thought to contain three different writ- ings. The Psalms are a collection of poems extend- ing over five hundred years ; there are only a few that scholars agree in attributing to the authorship of David. Proverbs is a similar collection. The last written book of the Old Testament is Daniel, which is composite as to authorship and of different dates, but has parts not older than 165 B.C. It con- tains past events recorded u;ider the guise of proph- ecy. The oldest books are thought to be Song of Solo- 40 MODERN CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE. men, Amos, Hosea, Zechariali ix-xi, Isaiah i-xxvii, and Micah. The scribes collected all the approved writings into three books, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms or Sacred Writings, but additions were occa- sionally made, and a number of books referred to in the Old Testament are lost. The Babylonian captivity changed the Hebrew re- ligious ideas greatly, driving out idolatrous notions and bringing in beliefs in angels, devils, the future life, judgment, and the resurrection. Then Greek influence became ascendant for two hundred years. Many Jews went to Alexandria, and Egyptian ideas were gained. Then came Rome's control, and out of these varying religions Christianity was born. The books of the New Testament grew as did those of the Old. The earliest writings are some of Paul's epistles. After his death some one wrote Hebrews to exalt faith, and another writer produced James to uphold works. Revelation was probably written just before the fall of Jerusalem, to comfort Christians with the assurance of the speedy triumphant return of the crucified Messiah. As Jesus failed to return, traditions of his life were gathered, and four " Gos- pels" have been preserved. Some fifty Gospels, thirty-five books of Acts, and one hundred Epistles have been rejected, and more than fifty works of the second century, that would have thrown great light upon the New Testament, have mysteriously disap- peared, probably destroyed by the sectarian zeal of the Christian Fathers. The first clear mention of any of our Gospels was by Theophilus of Antioch, 180 A.D., who mentions MODERN CRITIOISM OP THE BIBLE. 41 John's Gospels. Irenoous, about 200 a.d., first men- tions the four Gospels. The author of " Supernatural Religion " examines every supposed quotation before 150 A.D., and shows that none agree exactly with our Gospels. It therefore is probable that they were not written in their present form till after that date. It is found that the authors of the gospels of . Matthew, Mark, and Luke have evidently copied from some earlier record, and by writing out this triple tradition, in which they all agree, a story is given of Jesus as a purely human person, an enthu- siastic prophet, who hoped to bring about the estab- lishment of a kingdom of righteousness on earth. This story omits the genealogies, miraculous incar- nation, the details of infancy, the greatest miracles, the resurrection, and ascension. To this narrative, tradition gradually added more marNelous incidents, and writers in the second century compiled the ex- isting materials. John's Gospel is supposed to be written by some one who had imbibed the Alexandrine doctrines of . Philo, who taught that matter and God were eternal, and God worked on matter by powers, the highest of which was the Logos. This author borrowed the idea, and made Jesus the Logos or Word. A controversy between Peter and Paul was con- tinued and extended by factions after the death of the apostles, and each selected the writings support- ing his views. Majorities in councils finally chose , out a few writings to form the New Testament, and by degrees they came to be considered inspired. Some books were long in dispute. The present Catholic Bible was only settled by the Council of 42 MODERl^ CRITtCISM OP THE BIBLE. Trent in the sixteenth century, and the Protestant canon was settled by the Westminster Assembly in the seventeenth century. We have no manuscript earlier than the fourth century, and only five earlier than the tenth century, a.d. The comparison of religions, the study of folk-lore and of sacred books, reveal the fact that the miracles and dogmas of the Bible correspond to the beliefs of all other peoples, and the Hebrew religion and its writings take their place in the record of the orderly evolution of human ideas. The results obtained completely overthrow the theory of verbal inspiration, for it would have been of no use unless the copyists had been inspired. Griesbach has noted 150,000 different readings in the manuscripts of the New Testament. Modern authors always read proof, and are we to suppose that God is less intelligent than man? If he gave an inspired message, would he not have revised the copies ? He even neglected to keep his own name correct, for Yahweh was wrongly written Jehovah. The theory of inspiration held by modern critics is this : That, as in the process of evolution the Greeks produced the best art and the Romans the best laws, so the Hebrews developed the best religious ideas ; and we accept Greek statues, Roman laws, and He- brew books upon their merits as the best of their kind, but differing from the works of other people only in degree, not in the nature of their origin. Renan says : " The Bible is more beautiful when we have learned to see therein, ranged in order on a canvas of a thousand years, each aspiration, each sigh, each prayer of the most exalted religious con- MODERN CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE. 43 sciousness that ever existed, than when we force our- selves to view it as a book unlike any other, com- posed, preserved, interpreted in direct opposition to all the ordinary rules of the human intellect." Many of the greatest scholars of the world now hold the opinions referred to, but it is asked, if these things are true, why do we not hear thera from our pulpits ? Let an eminent orthodox minister answer. He wrote to a friend : " I do, without any conceal- ment, declare that I do not believe the whole Bible to be true, that there are human additions and inter- polations, that, in fact, Robertson Smith is right in the view he takes. Must I say all I think to the weak and stupid public — for such it is ? I never say anything I don't believe. I only act on Christ's own principle, ' I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.' Yes, God is afraid of up- setting weak minds, if Christ echoed the divine view of things in that statement." Consideration for the feeble minds of " the weak and stupid public " leads many ministers to withhold these results till the people, in their opinion, "are able to bear it." We would not destroy the Bible, but we would destroy bibliolatry. We would rescue this valuable book from the bad use men have made of it, dishonor- ing to " God " and degrading to man. " We won't give up the Bible ;" but on the shelf, where we place our choicest books, with Homer, Shakespeare, Mac- aulay, Emerson, Longfellow, there will we place this noble collection of Hebrew literature. PROPHECY. The power to foretell future events has always been considered a proof of divine inspiration. The belief that the Bible writers have had this gift has been one of the strongest bulwarks of the claim that this book is the "Word of God." Alleged fuKilment of the prophecies concerning Jesus, the dispersion of the Jews, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the sway of the pope of Home, have been among the strongest means of compelling faith, and have led to eager but fantastic efforts to discern the whole course of the future, wrapped up in the mystic visions of the holy seers, to be unfolded by any student who possessed the aid of the Holy Spirit. Vast arrays of learning, exercises of ingenious fancy, and amounts of time have been expended in these researches ; and multi- tudes are still squandering precious opportunities in this matching of texts with past events and guesses at their application to things to come. Modern scholarship joined with common sense has shown that every claimed fulfilment of Bible proph- ecy is fairly met by the explanation of coincidence, forgery, invention, or the correct date of the writings. The entire claim for the inspiration of the Bible on the score of its prophecies is completely overthrown by their examination. It requires no scholarship to trace the alleged prophecies of Christ ; any one with PROPHECY. 45 a reference Bible can do it, and will find that most of the prophecies have no reference to Jesus, or, where they seem to have such, the probability is that the event has been recorded so as to fit the prediction. Thomas Paine made a good " Examination of the passages in the New Testament, quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies of tha coming of Jesus Christ." It is what every one can do for himself ; so it may merely be said that the result is to show that no such prophecies exist, but that the passages quoted allude to other events transpiring in the times of the writers. The book of Daniel has been the great treasure- house of prophecy-seekers. But all results are ex- ploded by the now well-established fact that the story, which purports to deal with events occurring nearly six hundred years before Christ, was actually written, or compiled in its present form, between 168 and 164 B.C., and its prophecies refer to events then past, or to those transpiring in connection with the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes and the wars of the Maccabees. A few interpolations have been made by later hands. The book becomes intelliijible viewed from this standpoint, and all its mystery is dispelled. Prophecies of the Jews are disposed of by the dis- covery of the dates of the writings, which show that they were written after the event, or were merely guesses of events so near and probable that it re- quired no wisdom to foretell them. The book of Bevelation is the storehouse for pre- dictions against the pope, or for the coming of Christ, according as one belongs to the post-millen- 46 . PROPHECY. narian or pre-millennarian schools. So obscure is this "Divine Eevelation," that Christians cannot agree as to whether it has been fulfilled in whole, in part, or not at all, there being earnest and learned advocates for each theory. An Andover professor once said to his students, " The study of the book of Eevelation either finds or leaves a man crazy." So uncertain a revelation scarcely can be termed divine without serious implications against divinity. The genuineness and authenticity of this book have been in great dispute. It was -said by early fathers to be a forgery of Cerinthus ; for a thousand years it was not recognized by a majority of the Greek church, and it was opposed by Luther. The establishment of the date of its composition, and a study of the history of that time, make clear its intent. The book was probably written between 64 and 70 a.d. The first part between 64 and 68 A.D., when the temple was uninjured and Jerusalem standing, and the latter part between 68 and 70 a.d. It was written to console Christians in that time of persecution. The Anti-Christ was Nero, who was popularly sup- posed not to be dead, but to have escaped to Parthia. His return and destruction would introduce the mil- lennium. The number of the beast, 666, applies as well to his name as to the hundred others with whom it has been connected. The book contains a veiled history of Nero and his times, and a prophecy of a millennium which failed of fulfilment. If one would study Bible prophecies, let him first consult the most scholarly authorities as to the dates of the writings, then let him study the history of corresponding times, and see if events then past or PBOPHEOY. ' 47 near at hand do not satisfactorily account for the subject-matter. The overthrow of belief in prophecy will put an end to a great waste of intellect, and allow the ingenious minds now wandering in the mazes of Oriental mysticism to devote their powers to the discovery of those secrets of nature which may be practically applied to the present welfare and advancement of mankind. THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of Christianity. Paul so taught, for he says : " If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ;" and such writers as Dean Mansel and Canon Farrar admit that in this instance " the entire Christian faith must stand or fall with our belief in the supernatural," and if it is not a fact, " then our religion has been founded upon an error." Nothing concerning Jesus need be deemed incredible if this event is proved. But proof is demanded. An excellent bishop says : " Here and there to-day there is a demand for proofs of religion — a wicked and adulterous generation seek- ing after a sign." This marks the distinction between superstition and science — one submits to authority, the other examines. Surely such a marvelous event should produce its evidence. In vain do we search contemporaneous history : Philo, Josephus, Seneca, Pliny, Diogenes, Pausanias, Suetonius, and a dozen other writers of the first and second centuries, mention neither Jesus nor his res- urrection. The early fathers felt this such a blow to their claims that they forged a passage in Jose- phus, mentioning Jesus. The only accounts of the resurrection are to be found in the four gospels, which are proved by modern scholarship to have been compiled from traditions, THE RESURRECTION OP JESUS. 49 and put in the present form at least a century after the alleged date of the death of Jesus. The earliest writer who alludes to the resurrection of Jesus as a fact, is Paul, who wrote about a.d. 68. He is the only person who says he saw the risen Jesus, and it is clear that he only saw him in a vision. He says that Cephas, James, and all the apostles saw him ; but Peter, James, John, and Jude wrote epistles, and make no mention of any such experience. He says he was seen, of " above five hundred brethren at once," but this is only hearsay evidence and lacks confirmation. There is no direct testimony from a single person that Jesus was seen bj him on earth after his alleged resurrection. The writers of the Gospels are the only authorities for the occurrence. If they give an inspired revela- tion, it should be consistent and intelligible, but their stories do not agree. Let any one write out their testimony in parallel columns and he will notice the following discrepancies : Matthew says that at the death of Jesus " the earth did quake ; and the rocks were rent ; and the tombs were opened ; and many bodies of the saints that were fallen asleep were raised, and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered into the holy city and appeared unto many." No other writer mentions those astounding events, which, had they occurred, would certainly have become known to the whole world. As to the time of the visit to the tomb, Matthew says, " as it began to dawn ;" Mark says, " when the sun was risen ;" Luke says, " at early dawn ;" John says, " while it was yet dark." 50 THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. As to the persons who came to the tomb, Matthew mentions " Mary Magdalene and the other Mary ; " Mark says, " Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome ;" Luke says, " Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them told these things unto the apostles ;" John mentions only Mary Magdalene. As to the opening of the tomb, Matthew says, " And behold there was a great earthquake ; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came, and rolled away the stone and sat upon it." No one else mentions this manner of opening. Matthew says one angel sat upon the stone outside the tomb ; Mark says one sat in the tomb on the right side ; Luke says two stood in the tom.b ; John makes no mention of angels at this time, but says that on a second visit Mary saw two angels sitting in the tomb. Matthew, Luke, and John say the women told the disciples ; Mark says, " they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid." As to the number, time, and place of the appear- ances of Jesus they all differ. The first appearance is said by Matthew to have been to " Mary Magda- lene and the other Mary ;" by Mark, " to Mary Mag- dalene ;" by Luke, " to two of them going that very day to a village called Emmaus;" by John, "to Mary at the tomb." Matthew mentions only one other appearance, in Galilee at a mountain ; Mark mentions two, one of them near, the other in Jerusalem ; Luke mentions one in Jerusalem ; John mentions three, two in Jerusalem and one at the Sea of Tiberias. The writer of the Acts says he appeared unto them THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 61 "by the space of forty days." Paul speaks of six appearances— none of them to women — and one of these was his own vision after the ascension. As to the ascension, only one of the four evan- gelists, Luke, mentions it; but a later writer has added an account to the gospel of Mark, to supply so glaring a deficiency ; but he speaks uf it as though it occurred from Jerusalem, while Luke says, " over against Bethany," and the writer of the Acts says it took place " from the mount called Olivet." This is the evidence on which belief in the resur- rection rests. It is so contradictory that no court of justice would accept it even if given by professed eye-witnesses. But the evidence is entirely of a hearsay character and merely amounts to this, that theologians say, that evangelists say, that others say, that they saw Jesus alive after he was buried. Only one witness at the grave says " he is arisen," and that one was an angel. Thus we rest our belief in the resurrection upon the fact that somebody says, that somebody says, that somebody said, that an angel said "he is arisen." Angel stories are not deemed final authority in this age, but are considered Bure evidence of myths. Is it possible that a miracle upon which the salvation of the world depends would not have been supported by clearer evidence ? But the fact of its belief is by some considered evidence of its truth. Then may all the marvels of Buddhism and Mohammedanism be true. It is asked, how could such a story arise if Jesus never arose from the dead? Read John Fiske's "Myths and Mythmakers," and S. Baring-Gould's "Legends of Patriarchs and Prophets," and " Myths of the Middle rh 62 THE RESURRECTION OP JESUS. Ages," and it will be seen how legends and folk-lore are born and grow. Read Kersey Graves's " Sixteen Crucified Saviors," and see how every nation has similar legends, and how Ohrishna, Zoroaster, iEs- culapius, Adonis, Bacchus, and Hercules were fore- runners of Jesus. The Pagans celebrated the resur- rection of their gods at Easter. Christians have merely added a new name to the deity. Other explanations have been offered. Possibly Jesus did not die by the crucifixion. He was only from four to six hours on the cross. He may have revived, appeared to a few, and lived and died in obscurity. Possibly imagination, prompted by affec- tion, caused his friends to believe they saw him. Walter Scott thus saw Lord Byron. Modern Spiritu- alists claim that Jesus was a medium, and was " ma- terialized " after his death. The article " Gospels " in the new Encyclopedia Britannica gives a good account of the probable growth of the gospel tradi- tions, and in " Supernatural Religion " and Greg's " Creed of Christendom " may be seen a good exam- ination of the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. If this event is disproved, the whole scheme of Christian theology falls to the ground, and we are rid of the belief that salvation depends upon the accept- ance of the story of Jesus. But there still remains the foundation truth which this myth symbolizes, that good ever lives and eventually triumphs over evil; that truth, though for a time vanquished by error, rises again with power. CREEDS. Creeds are expressions of belief. In politics they are called platforms. In love, which is belief in one supreme woman, they are styled declarations. In society they are known as fashions. In religion, the standard statements of the various sects are called creeds. These concise summaries of religious belief are very useful for the purpose of conveying instruction as to the avowed tenets of an organization, and they are very handy for reference by its members when they have occasion to know what they believe. By this means they can become informed of what are presumed to be their beliefs, without the mortifica- tion of applying to their spiritual advisers to give them the instruction. Probably a very small pro- portion of the professors of religion could give a full account of the tenets, the belief of which is theoret- ically so important. Though creeds have a use, they are in many respects harmful, for they cause mental slavery and repress free thought. Prof. Francis W. Newman says : " Nowhere from any body of priests, clergy, or ministers, as an order, is religious progress to be anticipated until intellectual creeds are de- stroyed." Devotion to creeds fosters ignorance by preventing study of those subjects upon which final opinions are pronounced. The creeds of politics. 54 CREEDS. science, and fashion are not considered unalterable, being only formulations of current opinion, knowl- edge, or taste ; but religious creeds pretend to be statements of divinely revealed truths, and therefore of final authority. The fatal blow to the claim that creeds contain the ultimate truth, is the fact that there are so many of them. Truth is one, and a divine revelation when it comes will be understood harmoniously. But now we find a great number of religions in the world, and each religion divided into many sects ; there being one hundred and forty-six distinct denominations of Protestant Christians in Great Britain, nearly all of which have definite creeds, each sect deeming its own to be infallibly true, and all the rest more or less erroneous. A creed of religion cannot therefore be denied by a professor without his incurring a more serious condemnation from his associates than would be applied to a dissenter from established opinions upon secular subjects. Persons may refuse to be- lieve in protection, in allopathy, or in wearing cor- sets, and still be respected, but let them deny the creed and they are the victims of social ostracism here and of threatening of suffering in another life. Creeds of fashion have made women squeeze their feet in China and their waists in America ; and creeds of religion have compressed their minds. But we need to learn that the creeds of religion, like the creeds of fashion, are only of human authority and may be freely inquired into and discarded if found to be neither true nor useful. Kr' ., ,. ^e of the origin and growth of religious ere \h p vucipates the mind from any consideration CREEDS. 55 for their authority beyond the force of merit. The "Apostles' Creed " was composed about four hundred years after the time of the apostles, being compiled from similar earlier statements. The clauses, "he descended into hell," and, " the communion of saints," with some others, are later insertions. The creed grew up with the religion during centuries. The Nicene Creed was composed by the Council of Nicsea, 325 A.D.,for the purpose of settling the vexed question whether Christ was of the "same substance" as the Father, or of "like substance." The " Atha- nasian Creed " was composed in the fifth century, long after the death of Athanasius, to embody his doctrine of the trinity, but it received alteration as late as the ninth century. Constant disputes about beliefs con- tinued until the Council of Trent, in the middle of the sixteenth century, made more elaborate state- ments of the doctrines which now govern the Romish church. The principal of the multitude of Protestant creeds are the Lutheran, the Calvinistic, the Thirty- nine Articles of the Church of England, and the Westminster Confession. The latter contains thirty- three chapters, and was composed by a body, chiefly clergymen, who met 1,163 times in five-and-a-half years, from 1643 to 1649 a.d. The theory of evolution and the establishment of the human authorship of the Bible have overthrown these creeds, and to preserve the organization de- pending iipon them it has been necessary to re- interpret, revise, or remodel them. What is known in New England as the New Congregational Creed is an effort to so change the expressions of the creed as to allow men to hold rationalistic opinions under its ^Q OREEBS. cover, that is, to say one thing and think another. It is said to be meant to find new expressions for the old ideas, and to put now ideas into old expressions. The statements have " grown into new meaning under the brighter light of to-day." It uses old terms, " but shades or expands its definitions so as to accord with the thought of the age." We rejoice at the liberal tendency shown by these changes, though we may not commend their hypoc- risy. Dishonest creeds lead to dishonest deeds; and when the church dissembles its belief it is no wonder that so many of its members confuse their accounts, and the definition of stealing is expanded into borrowing. It is plain then that creeds are only men's opinions and may be. changed as ideas grow. But we need not rail at them any more than at old coaches, all good in their day. We should strive, however, to deliver men from bondage to what is untrue, un- seemly, or unprofitable, and make them free to ex- amine all opinions, saying to them, " And you may foster as you will Your unbelief in all the creeds. So that you keep your faith still strong In the great gospel of good deeds." RELIGION-IS IT PERMANENT? The origin of the word " religion " is in dispute, and the definitions of it are as varied as its forms. A comprehensive definition of it is, adoration of supernatural powers with expectation of benefit. Religion in this sense is universal, and no people have yet been discovered who were entirely destitute of it. Universality proves that it is congenial to man's nature, but does not insure its continuance. Smoking, drinking, and war are universal, but total abstainers and peace men look for their extinction. Religion has doubtless been in a measure beneficial, but in the light of present knowledge it appears illogical, unnecessary, harmful, and doomed to ex- tinction. Religion is illogical. It is based on second-hand revelation. Samuel should worship if God speaks to him and demands it, but Thomas does right to de- mand a message by " direct wire " to himself. This acceptance of other people'?:, revelations is the root of all religious delusion. Education destroys super- natural belief, and logic demands that the observ- ances that arose from and depend upon that belief should be dropped. Holyoake remarks that speaking of a thing lessens the performance ; the enthusiasm goes off in words instead of in acts. Merchants and artists might as well meet and glorify trade and art 58 RELIGION — IS IT PERMANENT? abstractly, singing hymns to commerce and uttering aspirations to beauty ; but it is more logical to put the enthusiasm into the work. Knowledge of nature teaches that prayer is illogical; for the course of events is never arbitrarily interfered with. Eflfect is always preceded by natural cause. Religion is unnecessary. Men find they can do without it. Its consolations are not effective, nor are its restraints heeded by educated people. A sea captain in a storm said : " There is now no hope but to put our trust in God." An old lady exclaimed : "OLord! has it come to that?" People now trust in human skill and knowledge. God has never asked for sidoration, and cannot need it, and the emotion is more effective for man's benefit, if practically applied. Religion is harmful. It gives supernatural ex- planations, and keeps people from looking into things. It has opposed all progress of science that conflicted with its "revelations." Claiming divine authority, it is necessarily intolerant ; and, logically, can kill, persecute, or malign those who ignore its claims. It prevents interest in this world by teach- ing that "religion is the chief concern of mortals here below." It considers the building of churches more important than the construction of drains ; the maintenance of priests of more consequence than the provision of schoolmasters and health-officers ; the future welfare of the soul of more moment than the piresent advantage of the body. It inculcates the study of the Hebrew scriptures and the Christian gospels and epistles as divine oracles; thus laying the foundation of sectarianism, and wasting intellect upon the rhapsodies and vagaries oj the ancient ori- RELIOION— IS IT PERMANENT? 69 ental mind, instead of applying it to the opening of nature's secrets for the advantage of man. Religion is doomed to extinction. It began in ignorance and fear, and declines coincidently with advance in knowledge of nature. The most ignorant and immoral peoples are the most religious. The degree of intelligence is shown by the distance at which God is placed. The supposed nearness of cause and effect corresponds to the education. The savage believes in immediate divine agency, but knowledge ever discovers new links in the chain of causation. The evolution of religion is shown by Max Miiller and other writers to progress through henotheism, polytheism, and monotheism to atheism. Advance in science is coincident with the demand for a natural explanation of the universe. Progress, therefore, demands the abolition of religion, and the analogy of its past course of development points to its extinction. Religion may continue in name, and we see a great effort now made to interpret it as "morality," "as- piration to the best," "the consideration of man's relation to the universe," thus preserving its existence and vested interests while abandoning its doctrines. But this is not historic religion, nor is it an honest use "of the word. As belief in religious doctrines de- clines, there is evidence of a union of all Christian denominations to combat Rationalism. They no longer can afford to quarrel among themselves, and too many know their minor distinctions to be false 5 but a struggle for existence is impending. It there- fore behooves Rationalists to assume open and un- compromising hostility to religion and its forms. 60 RELIGION — IS IT PERMANENT? There wil) be enough half-way Liberals to remain in the church and reform it from within. But opposi- tion from without is essential to this reform, and all who see the falsity of supernatural religion should act up to their light. The worship of God absorbs a vast amount of thought, emotion, and money that might be directed more profitably to the considera- tion of the welfare of man. Every lover of humanity should insist that the welfare of man here and now should henceforth be ** the chief concern of mortals here below," THEISM AND ATHEISM. The Hebrews considered the name of God too jsacred to be spoken ; and even now a mysterious fear of inquiry into the being of God largely per- vades the Christian world. But the first cause is as legitimate an object of inquiry as electricity; and modern science is searching the universe for God. The Psalmist remarkfi : " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." One often meets that kind of an atheist now ; a man who, owing to a Christian education, ignorantly thinks that morality depends upon the commands of God, and, in order that he may enjoy congenial immoralities, says in his heart, "There is no God." But, with reference to the existence of a personal supreme being, such as the Bible describes, wise men are now saying in their heads, " There is no God." They find no trace of a personal existence superior to the universe, and though their hearts are in harmony with good, their heads are opposed to God. Their hearts also are opposed to the conceptions of God which seem to violate natural morality ; and if any idea of God is to be tolerated, they insist that it shall not be in- ferior to the current conceptions of good. Men in all ages have personified their highest conceptions of goodness in a supreme being, making a god to stand for their notions of good. The 02 THEISM AND ATHEISM. Hebrews thus made Taliweh the representative of the best traits they knew, and as they gained knowl- edge from Greece, Persia, India, and Egypt, they improved his attributes. Christians have made the mistake of continuing this God in the condition in which the Bible writers left him ; and as goodness grows with knowledge, and the God of the Bible does not change, we find that their God is inferior to current morality and no longer represents good. It therefore becomes imperative that friends of good should be foes of God. Taking warning from the past, and recognizing that goodness constantly ad- vances, they will no longer personify good in a form that in a short time may be obsolete and a hindrance to progress. It is doubtless a help to many to per- sonify their highest conceptions in • a god, just as children personify heroism in Jack the Giant-killer, and virtue and grace in Cinderella; but it marks mental advancement to be able to contemplate good- ness abstractly. If men personified present ideas of good as god, it would not be so objectionable ; but when they make the goodness of two thousand or three thousand years ago their god, as all do who worship the God of the Bible, then their god is an injury to man. The chief arguments in support of Theism are universality of belief in God and evidence of design in nature. To the first we reply : Ignorance is also universal, and the effect of knowledge is always to remove God farther away. Where knowledge ends, God begins ; and the more ignorant a man is the nearer he brings God to a connection with present events. The explanation of phenomena by the uu- THEISM AND ATHEISM. 63 taught is, " God did it ;" but science finds immediate natural causes, and now has put God away back of the conception of the plan of evolution. The infer- ence is that as God continually recedes before the advance of knowledge, he will reach a vanishing- point. Napoleon was shocked that Laplace had made no mention of God in the "Mecanique Celeste," but the great mathematician replied, " Sire, I have no need of that hypothesis." The Resign argument claims that things showing adaptation must have had a maker, therefore the universe has a maker — God. Which we answer by asking. Who made God? It is just as easy to con-' ceive of a self-existent universe as of an eternal God, and the former idea deals with one perplexity less. A boy asked, " Father, how could God make himself when he wasn't made himself yet ?" Holyoake speaks of God as " a being who began to be before there was time for anything to be, who was everywhere before there was anywhere to occupy." We further deny that the universe shows design. Darwin says : " The old argument from design in nature, as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of natural selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for in- stance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings and in the action of natural selection, than in the course which the wind blows." Darwin wrote to Dr. Gray : "An innocent and good man stands under a tree and is killed by a flash of lightning. Do you believe that 64 THEISM AND ATHEISM. God designedly killed this man ? If you believe so, do you believe that when a swallow snaps up a gnat God designs that that particular swallow should snap up that particular gnat at that particular in- stant ? I believe that the man and the gnat are in the same predicament. If the death of neither man nor gnat are designed, I see no good reason to be- lieve that their first birth or production should be necessarily designed." Evolution accounts satisfactorily for progress. All atoms are endowed with consciousness, so far at least as to desire to avail themselves of the most agreeable sensations, i. e., to do the best for them- selves. This necessarily tends toward improvement; so that progress is "of the nature of things." Given the existence of matter with the faculty of choice, no interposition of divine guidance is needed to direct the development of the universe. Having now rea- sonable explanations of things back to the first exist- ence of forceful matter, it seems logical to expect that any preceding operations would be in harmony with all the later methods. We need not, therefore, bring in the hypothesis of a god at this point, but wait in confidence that the growing faculties of man will in time discern the natural causes which have promoted what we now call the beginning of things. Now beginnings will then appear for the solution of their origin ; and analogy insures the continuance of natural explanations. Among the evils of Theism may be mentioned the following : As man makes God in his own image, a low conception of the universe is the result. The Hebrew ideas of morality were inferior to those of THEISM AND ATHEISM. 65 the present age, and any god they were capable of creating could not be worthy of entire respect now. Like master, like man ; and the worship of an un- worthy object degrades the worshiper. Diderot said, " The God of the Bible is a father who cares a good deal for his apples and little for his children." Hol- yoake styles him " an unsleeping policeman." The idea of God as the author of all events checks inquiry and restricts the growth of knowledge. " God did it " is the answer of ignorance, another way of say- ing, "Don't know." A little girl, when asked who made her, said, " God made me that long, and I growed the rest myself." War and intolerance are caused by the belief that one's conception of God is the only true one. More cruelty and murder has re- sulted from this cause than from any other, unless it be covetousness. The worship of God is a waste of emotion that might be directed to stimulate practical effort for man. It leads to great waste of effort in working for imaginary effects, such as salvation, and substitutes feeling in place of reason, teaching, " Trust in the Lord and lean not upon thine own un- derstanding." It causes a great waste of money. The temple of God and the house of the priest rear their gorgeous structures amid the hovels of the worshipers in the ill-paved, undrained streets. At- tention to God means neglect of man. Where God is elevated man is depressed. The conscience is satisfied by the worship of God; and immorality thrives best where the people are the most formally religious. The God idea is the foundation of tyranny and slavery. The heavenly ruler must have his vicegerents on earth. King, priest, and master op- GQ THEISM AND ATHEISM. press humanity by virtue of " God*8 word," which enjoins obedience to the powers that be. Man will not be free until he escapes from the conception of a being superior to himself. By this imagined authority the king says, Obey or be killed ; the priest says, Believe or be damned ; the master says, Sub- mit or starve. God, king, priest, and master must give place to the equal brotherhood of man. Among the benefits of atheism are these : Self- reliance and fortitude in the place of dependence and weakness ; work instead of worship ; knowledge in the room of faith ; investigation and improvement instead of prayer; the elevation of man in conse- quence of the belief that he is the highest manifesta- tion of natural forces, and that his welfare is the chief concern ; the growth of morality by regarding it as what is useful rather than as what is com- manded ; the strengthening of reason by its exercise as the only guide ; the growth of reverence by the substitution of the idea of the evolution of the uni- verse, in place of its ordering by a divine magician. Lord Bacon said : " Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputa- tion, all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue though religion were not ; but superstition dis- mounts all these." It is the fashion now for men of rationalistic mind to call themselves agnostics and not atheists ; for while all equally deny the existence of a personal God, such as is conceived by Hebrews and Christians, it is felt that the existence of an infinite conscious Power is a matter that admits neither of proof nor disproof, and therefore it is wise neither to affirm TflEISM AND ATHEISM. 67 hor deny the possibility of what lies beyond the range of man's present mental capacity. In this sense, among educated rationalists, there are no atheists, but all are agnostics ; while as regards be- lief in Jehovah and the Christian God all are atheists. In a temple at Fuh Chau, where multitudes worship before an idol of the latest and most approved form, there is an anteroom where a thousand images are laid upon thQ shelf — old forms of gods that have had their day and ceased to be. In another wing of the temple, some years ago, lived an English missionary, who was laboring to supplant the idol by the Chris- tian God. So in the temple of humanity, the gods have been erected, and in turn removed. The Chris- tian God is pushing into the place of Buddha, but in turn is being superseded by the God of Evolution, who must give place in time to still higher concep- tions of the mystery of the universe, which, though now unknown, may not be forever unknowable ; and in the distant future we see the form of one like the Son of Man, who shall gain dominion over the earth, but it is the form of Enlightened Humanity, whose right it is to reign, and who will put under its feet all gods and every influence that opposes the progress of Naturalism. To support this progress is to be "an enemy of God." This now opprobrious epithet will become an honorable distinction when men understand that the friends of good must be foes of God. THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF MORALITY. Morality may be defined as the art of right living ; the practice of what ought to be. Its rules and obli- gations are popularly supposed to be derived from and to rest on the Christian religion. An eminent preacher lately voiced ti ^ opinion when he said : " There is no moral foundation in the agnostic creed on which a noble life reposes. Atheists entirely break down when desired to give a basis for moral- ity." If this is true, every Freethinker will say, Let Free thought perish ! What claim has Christianity to be considered the source of moral ideas ? Its central dogmas are, that man is a depraved being, condemned by his maker to punishment, which may be escaped by believing that God himself was born of a virgin, suffered, was cruci- fied, and ascended from his grave into heaven. So far from promoting morality, these ideas are all immoral in their tendency. To assure men that they are depraved is to induce them to act accordingly ; and to teach them that a life of crime may be atoned for by a death-bed emotion of trust in Jesus, is to remove the strongest safeguard of morality, the as- surance of the natural retribution of ill-doing. But some claim that the precepts of Jesus are the \ source of our morality. He certainly was largely THE OUIGIN AND GROWTH OP MORALITY. 69 imbued with the spirit of morality, but Seneca and Epictetus gave procepts equally elevated. Renan savs : "Jesus Christ neither overturned nor dis- covered anything." Some of his teachings are im- practicable, and some of his acts are open to criti- cism. Indiscriminate alms-giving, voluntary poverty, the cursing of the fig-tree, the whipping of the money- changers, the destruction of two thousand swine, are not in accord with present ideas of morality. The New Testament gives low views of marriage, represses woman, upholds tyranny by preaching submission to " the powers that be," gives but slight intimation of kindness to animals, and attempts to show that when God seemed to care for oxen it was really min- isters of the gospel who were the objects of his con- cern. Infanticide, suicide, and slavery received no condemnation, and worldly learning and physical culture were despised. The Hebrew scriptures are equally defective as a moral standard. Some of the commandments are inferior to those given by Buddha, which included injunctions against strong liquors, anger, malice, idle and vain talk, and the best of them were known to the world long before Jehovah gave them to Moses. A newspaper that copies from earlier issues is de- spised. A hint about ether, steam, or electricity, would have been a more convincing proof of revela- tion than the repetition of ideas known to China, India, or Persia, long before. Many of the Old Tes- tament rules are sentimental or inappropriate. It is not now considered immoral to wear mixed garments, and if Moses had ever eaten a Cincinnati ham he would never have heard Jehovah's edict against pork. to THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF MORALITY. - Religion is not the author of morality, for among civilized countries the most religious are the most immoral. Spain, Italy, and Ireland are the most devout, the most ignorant, and the most criminal among modern nations, and suggest that ignorance is the mother both of devotion and of crime. It is reason, not revelation, that has taught moral- ity. Locke, in his "Essay on the Human Under- standing," gives unanswerable reasons to prove that experience is the true source of morals. Bentham shows thiit utility is the true test of right, " the greatest good of the greatest number," and Spencer maintains that what are called innate ideas, con- science, and " the voice of God in the soul," are in- herited ideas secured by the experience of ancestors. Fourier says pain is the sign of error, pleasure the sign of truth. These are sufficient instructors. That reason and not revelation is the source of morality, is proved by the constant change of moral rules. Clothing, marriage, slavery, food, are regulated by progressive laws of society, and what is moral in one age becomes immoral in the next, and vice versa. Men through reason may bridge rivers, tunnel - .ount- ains, span continents with railways, and girdle the world with telegraphs, but Christians declare that men could not learn of themselves that it is wrong to kill, steal, and bear false witness. Moses must get a stone from heaven with these rules graven on it, and morality would die if his priestly successors could not support its claims with miracle stories. John Stuart Mill says : " It can do truth no service to blink the fact known to all who have the most ordinary acquaintance with literary history, that a tflfi OltlOil^ AND QROWTrt OP MORALlTT?. 71 large portion of the noblest and most valuable moral teaching has been the work, not only of men who did not know, but of men who knew and rejected the Christian faith." The theory of the rational origin and growth of morality rests upon a scientific basis. Modern re- search has proved that the embryo of man passes through successive forms common to the animals below him, and the only consistent interpretation of this fact is that in the development of the individual we have the history of the growth of his race. An- alogy wouM suggest that the mental development of each individual shows the manner in which society has grown. We find that the child has no moral rules, but is governed by fear ; the youth is controlled by authority; the adult is influenced by reason. Corresponding to this we find that the religion of savages rests upon fear, that of the masses of civil- ized nations upon the authority of church, priests, and sacred books, while the more highly educated are swayed wholly by reason. Rationalism is, there- fore, proved to be the highest order and latest de- velopment of mental evolution. These three stages in the growth of morality may be illustrated by the conduct of persons in a park, where is placed the warning, " Keep off the grass." One says. If I go on the grass I shall be arrested and fined. He is re- strained by fear. Another says, The law should be respected by all good citizens. He is ruled by authority. A third person says, If I walk on the grass I shall injure the appearance of the park. He is influenced by reason. A fourth, and still higher, stage will be reached when long continuance in 72 THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OP MORALITSr. rational well-doing becomes a habit, and men do right as a matter of course. Punishment and the law are useful means of restraint for those who are in low stages of moral development, but they are useless for the more advanced. Some are restrained from ill-doing by fear of hell and God ; still more by fear of the policeman ; others, without thought, follow the orders of church and state, while the most en- lightened believe, with Kant, that duty ought to be done for duty's sake. These last certainly are not the people that Christian ministers should hold up to scorn. It ill becomes those who are under the restraint of the lower motives to rail at those who have the loftier considerations. Morality may, therefore, be considered to be the current opinion of society as to what course of con- duct is most conducive to the general welfare. It has its origin, not in revelation, but in human experi- ence. Gods may be dethroned and religion become extinct, and still men will do what is right, simply because what is right is best. And the sooner men rise above the need of the restraints of fear and law, and are influenced by reason, having for its supreme motive love to man, the sooner will come — not the " kingdom of heaven " — but a righteous earth, with- out a ruler and without a God. THE PROMOTION OF MORAL- ITY. Two things are essential to the welfare of man, knowledge and goodness. If men were learned but not good, knowledge would only be the means for greater oppression of their fellows ; and if they were good but not learned, they would remain the victims of natural ills that knowledge might enable them to overcome. Nature's method of advancement seems to be to let knowledge coincide with goodness. Im- provements in practical science appear concurrently with development in morals. Explosives, steam, and electricity, if known in barbarous ages, would have been used with disastrous results. Dynamite outrages show the danger from physical knowledge in immoral hands. Advance in goodness or the pro- motion of morality should receive equal attention with the cultivation of learning. The first requisite for man's moral improvement is the one generally last thought of — prosperity. Means of existence must be supplied before preaching and tracts can be e£fective. We should therefore try to solve the problems of capital and labor, co-operation, land reform, and the distribution of wealth, so that one man may not possess a hundred million dollars while a hundred million people are distressed to secure daily bread. Comfort must precede educa- 74 'i'ME PROMOTION OF MOllAlItY. tion; and leisure is necessary for both moral and mental development. A second aid to moral in provement is the sure detection of crime. Science ib continual]" promoting this. The press, railroad, telegraph, and photograph assist the search for the criminal, and so perfect is this system in the United States that the only refuge from a present hell is Canada ; and this gate it is hoped will soon be closed. New inventions, such as the microphone, which makes audible secret whis- pers, may assist in the discovery of Crime ; and if there is truth in the claims made for mind-reading, its development will tend to make discovery so cer- tain that wrong-doing will cease, simply because it can no longer attain its desired ends. Men are im- moral, not because they prefer evil to good in itself, but because evil acts promise to secure them the greatest present enjoyment and benefit. When se- cresy and concealment are no longer possible, and public opinion discountenances ill-doing, men wil) find more advantage in beiiig good. A third means of promoting morality is ethicri culture. Let pure modern morals be taught in the schools in place of Biblical instruction. Teach children that morality is wholly independent of theology, and its claims are enforced, not by Sinai, but by usefulness. The Christian declares that morality is the result of a special and exceptional divine revelation through teachers. Bibles, or con- sciences, whereas the rationalist claims that morality is revealed in the same manner as geology, architec- ture, ship-building, and every other branch of knowl- edge, namely, by the toilsome experience of man. THE PROMOTION OP MORALITY. 75 One revelation pervades all nature, and there are no exceptions to the manner of its promulgation. Knowledge is revealed to man when his earnest re- search and labored experience have found it out. In this way he has discovered what is moral, or, in an- other word, best, and people need to be taught these results and learn the reasons upon which right-doing rests. When duty appears to them not as a com- mand from the skies, but as the course of conduct most conducive t;o the welfare of themselves and others, its claims will not need pressing. Finally, it must be shown that morality pays. Men are eager enough for gain. They will stand day and night before the broker's office to secure shares in a new enterprise. But while morality is deemed the demand of an unseen God, as the price of a far away and intangible blessedness av'^ involving present sac- rifice and suffering, it will not iiave a popular following. Is morality now essential to worldly success ? Are our capitalists, our thriving merchants and manufacturers, our prominent statesmen, the men most noted for goodness, and has morality been the pathway to suc- cess? No; the whole system of society opposes moral progress. It is based on making profit out of the labors of others without rendering a full return. Each man strives to get more than he gives, and thus store up a surplus either for extra indulgence and dis- play, or for the glory of possession. Of what use is it to preach good-will to others when a man's only chance of a good livelihood is to overreach others in trade ? When badness ceases to pay, men will be good. The friends of morality must turn their attention chiefly to such practical changes in society as will make 76 THE PROMOTION OF MORALITY, goodness profitable. A merchant said : " I have made a good record so far, but one never knows what he may have to do for his wife and children." Competition aided by fraud was everywhere pressing against him, and a declining business made him face the possibility of being obliged to adopt the prac- tices that gave other men their gain. Remove this pressure by a change that shall make a man's pros- perity depend upon his usefulness and good-will to( others, instead of as now upon his powers to outwit, supplant, deceive, and trample down his fellow im the struggle for existence, and we shall then see thei spread of morality without ministers and the reign of goodness without God. When men combine toi work together for mutual benefit, the moral senti- ments, being found to be the most useful, will becomei the prevailing habit SABBATH OBSERVANCE. The observance of a periodical day of rest is almost universal, and its origin is obscured beyond the dawn* of history. Akkadian inscriptions show that it was known before the time of Abraham, and is not of Hebrew origin. Josephus and other Jewish writers admit that the week was common to all ori- ental nations. Every day in the week has been ob- served as a rest or sacred day ; Sunday by Christians, Monday by Greeks, Tuesday by Persians, Wednesday by Assyrians, Thursday by Egyptians, Friday by Turks, and Saturday by Jews. So universal a custom indicates a human need, and the beneficial effect of a rest day was never more fully acknowledged than in the busy whirl of the ending nineteenth century. But differences of opinion exist as to the proper way of observing the rest day ; and an attempt is now being made to revive and fasten more firmly upon Sunday some of the observances of the Jewish Sabbath, on the ground that the law of the Sabbath, as purported to have been given by God to Moses, is binding upon the present generation on the first day of the week. This claim is believed by many to be unscriptural, unchristian, and unreasonable. It is unscriptural, for in the Old Testament it is always the observance of the seventh day that is enjoined, and there is not 78 SABBATH OBSERVANCE. a word in the New Testament that authorizes its change to the first day. Jesus was regarded as a Sab- bath breaker. Paul refused to insist on the Sabbath being kept, and was "afraid of" those who observed it. The first day of the week is mentioned only twice as a time of assembly, and the term Lord's day is only used once, and is thought by many to mean the day of the Lord. It is said that the reputed resur- rection of Jesus on Sunday furnishes a reason for changing the Sabbath to that day, but there is not a word of scripture to this effect. The observance of Sunday as the Sabbath is un- christian. The early Christian fathers did not recog- nize the day in that light, and though their writings contain great lists of faults, no allusion is made to neglect in observing Sunday as a Sabbath, nor is it anywhere enjoined. In the second century Justin Martyr wrote in his controversy with Trypho, the Jew, " You see that the heavens are not idle, nor do they observe the Sabbath ;" and he says of Sabbaths, "There is no need of them since Jesus Christ ;" and he speaks of the custom as " weakmindedness." Ire- nseus, Clement, Tertullian, Origen, and others, spoke against Sabbath observance. It was not sanctioned till 321 A.D., when Constantino gave the edict, " Let all judges and inhabitants of cities and all craftsmen rest on the venerable day of the sun. But country- men may freely and lawfully attend to the cultivation of the fields, lest by delay the opportunity granted by the favor of heaven should be lost." Through the middle ages the day was kept with great laxity, and the reformers strongly opposed the sabbatical idea. Luther said : " If, anywhere, the day is mada SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 79 holy for the- mere day's sake ; if, anywhere, any one sets up its observance on a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to ride on it, to feast on it, to do anything to remove this encroachment on Christian liberty." When John Knox visited Calvin on Sunday afternoon, he found him playing at bowls. The enforcement of the Sabbath was opposed by John Milton, Eichard Baxter, John Bunyau, Jeremy Taylor, Dr. Paley, Archbishop Whately, and many other distinguished members of the Christian church. The first Sunday laws were enacted in England dur- ing Queen Elizabeth's reign [1558], and their rigorous enforcement suited the disposition of the Puritans, who, Macaulay says, " hated bear-baiting not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators." He says: "In defiance of the express and reiterated declaration of Luther and Calvin, they turned the weekly festival, by which the church had from the primitive times commemorated the resurrection of our Lord, into a Jewish Sabbath." In 1595, Mr. Bound published a book maintaining that the Mosaic law of the Sabbath was applicable to Sunday. The idea suited the fanatical temperament of the age, and in 1643 the Sabbath doctrine was adopted into the Westminster Confession of Faith. It is only in English-speaking countries that the doctrine has gained ground, and an overwhelming mass of testimony shows that it is unsupported by the faith and practice of the historic church and its founders, and is therefore unchristian. It is unreasonable. The Sabbath rests on the statement that Ood made the world in six days, and rested the seventh. Every scholar knows that this 80 SABBATH OBSERVANCE. statement is false ; its deductions are therefore un- warranted. It is absurd to prescribe the same form of rest for all. The man who works his brain all the week needs physical labor on Sunday. The outdoor laborer may do well on Sunday to rest his body and exercise his brain. The toilers in workshops, stores, and mills, need the country air and sunshine. " Means of grace" are not limited to churches, but on the sunny lawns and in the shady groves of the park, on the breezy brow of the mountain, by the roaring waves of the sea, or on the placid lake, nature gives inspiration to every aspirant after physical and men- tal improvement, and there no sexton can close the windows and poison the lungs, and no preacher of false dogmas can depress the mind. The distinction between secular and sacred is harm- ful. All days are equally holy, and man's welfare should be paramount in all. Instead of limiting his rest, we would extend it. Toiling from twelve to sixteen hours a day, and then a total release for a day, is not a wise arrangement, nor does it give enough rest and leisure for man's welfare and best develo'Dment. Short hours of labor must be secured for all, and a rest day when every form of true recre- ation may be available. Excursions to the country at cheap prices must be arranged ; libraries, mu- seums, art galleries, and lecture halls must be opened. It is unreasonable to close all means of secular in- struction and diversion on the workingman's only day of leisure. The reform is being carried out with admirable results in many cities. Libraries, museums, art galleries, and kindred institutions should be open on Sunday. Is God's ear better pleased with the SABBATH OBSEBYANOE. 81 clang of cliurch bells than with the music of the band : or is man more elevated bv the former than by the latter ? Everything good for man should be tolerated on Sunday. " Good deeds have no Sab- bath." The refreshment of the body and the culti- vation of the mind are good deeds, and no day is too holy for their exercise. Men must be free to go to church or anywhere else on Sunday, as judgment and inclination might dictate. The Lord's day must be- come man's day in fulfilment of the words of Jesus, " The Sabbath was made for man." Those who have to work on Sunday for the benefit of their fellows, should enjoy another reh' day. We should all unite to preserve a day of rest in seven, and to secure a larger amount of leisure and more rational use of it. The ministers cannot be blamed for adopting the spirit of the national policy and protective tariff, and endeavoring to suppress any and all competitive at- tractions and rivals to the church ; they are only acting as enterprising manufacturers and business men are doing, but the people have a right to say whether they will tolerate this monopoly, and if they find it is not supported by Scripture, but that the texts quoted by ministers all refer to the Jewish Sabbath ; if they learn that the Christian church has in the past opposed turning Sunday into a Sabbath, and if they realize that reason dictates diversity of recrea- tion, and liberty demands freedom of choice, they will demand the sweeping away of all Sunda; laws and allow common sense to decide what is the best use of Sunday for each and all. ANCIENT MORALITY, It is often assumed that, apart from Christianity, there is no morality, and that we are indebted to the teachings of Jesus for what are termed " Chris- tian virtues." A review of the teachings of ancient moralists shows that no nation has any monopoly of goodness or of moral ideas, and that the division of the world into Christian and heathen, as implying the moral and the immoral, is unwarrantable. A few quotations may be serviceable to show the unity of opinion about general morality in all nations and times, and to prove that the revelation of good- ness is not confined to any peculiar people, but is the reward of every student of nature. Rig-Yeda-Sanhita, 1500 B.C. "His path is easy and without thorns who does what is right." "To the giver thou givest." Manu, 1200 B.C. "There are two roads that con- duct to perfect virtue — to be true and to do no evil to any creature." "Where women are honored, there the deities are pleased ; but when they are \ dishonored, then all religious acts become fruitless." Zoroaster, 1200 B.C. "Your only savior is your deeds." "Give me, O God, the two desires to see and to self-question." " Let us be such as help the life of the future." Arthava Veda. "Truth which is mighty, right- eousness which is strong, consecration and dedication to holiness, sustain the world." ANCIENT MORALITY. 83 Buddha, born 622 b.c. "Never will I seek nor re- ceive private individual salvation, never enter into final peace alone, but forever and everywhere will I live and strive for the universal redemption of every creature throughout all worlds. Until all are deliv^ ered, never will I leave the world of sin, sorrow, and struggle, but will remain where I am." " A man who foolishly does me wrong, I will return to him the protection of my ungrudging love ; the more evil comes from him, the more good shall go from me." " If anything is to be done, let a man do it ; let him attack it vigorously." Lao-tze, 604 B.C. " Virtue in its grandest aspect is neither more nor less than following reason." "Recompense injury with kindness." Confucius, 551-479 B.C. " What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others." " While you are not able to serve men, how can you serve the gods?" " A man should not be concerned that he has no place, he should be concerned to fit himself for one." " Acknowledge thy benefits by the return of other benefits, but never return injuries.'" " Recom- pense injury with justice, and return good for good." " Who lay up goodness have gladness, who lay up evil have sadness." Thales, 643-548 B.C. " Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." " Know thyself." Solon, 638-558 B.C. " Make reason thy guide." Pittacus, 570 B.C. " Whatever you do, do it weil." He wrote the " Golden Rule." Cleobulus, 671 B.O. " Love your enemies." "Avoid excess." Chilo, 542 B.O. "Honest loss is preferable to 84 ANCIENT MORALITY. shameful gain." ** Think before you speak." "Never ridicule the unfortunate." Socrates, 469-400 B.C. " True felicity is not to be derived from external possessions, but from wisdom, which consists in the knowledge and practice of vir- tue." "The honest man is alone happy." Aristippus, 365 B.C. " Prefer labor to idleness, un- less you prefer rust to brightness." "Friendship is reciprocal benevolence, which inclines each person to be as anxious for another person's welfare as for his own." "Young people should be taught those things which shall be useful to them when they be- come men." Democritus, 470-361 B.C. " It is criminal not only to do miscliief, but to wish it." " He who sub- dues his passions is more heroic than he who van- quishes an enemy." " Do nothing shameful though you are alone." "Every country is open to a wise man, for he is a citizen of the world." Epicurus, 341-270 B.C. " To be impious is not to take away from the illiterate the gods which they have, it is to attribute to these gods the opinions of the vulgar." Euripides, 400 B.C., made a player say, "I swore with my mouth, but not with my heart." Socrates was so offended that he left the theater, and the poet was tried for suggesting the utterance of falsehood. Cicero. " Promote the happiness of one another." "Love the public good." These few extracts show parallels to all the moral maxims of Jesus, and are in no wise inferior in spirit An extensive collection of wise sayings of the ancients may be found in Conway's " Sacred Anthology." WHAT HAVE UNBEUEVERS DONE FOR THE WORLD? This question has been- repeatedly hurled from the pulpit in a tone implying that the answer must be — " Nothing." The saying attributed to Jesus, " By their fruits ye shall know them," is a wise maxim, and it behooves those whom Christians style unbelievers to show that rationalistic opinions are justified by their re- sults. If they fail to show that the views they sup- port have been beneficial to those who hold them and to the world at large, they leave ground for the impu- tation that these ideas are false, for what is true is useful. The term, unbeliever, as used by the clergy, means one who denies that the Bible is the word of God, or a revelation in any sense that may not be applied to other writings, and who, therefore, does not accept its teachings as necessarily true. They are often called opponents of the Bible, but they are no more so than they are opponents of Homer, iEsop's Fables, or Mother Goose. They accept what appears to be true in all literature, and oppose what is proved to be false. Belief in the inspiration of the Bible has compelled the support of all its statements, for, as Kenan says, " In a divine book everything must be true. It must have no contradictions." As the 36 WHAT HAVE UNBELIEVERS Bible is merely a record of human opinion in earlier ages, it follows that nearly every great discoverer has been deemed an opponent of the Bible. If we, there- fore, take the verdict of the church as to the pro- moters of progress, we shall reply to the question — What have unbelievers done for the world? — Every- thing ! For a thousand years the world lay dormant under the spell of belief in revelation, but observation ol nature gradually awoke doubt and dissent. Coper- nicus discovered the present system of astronomy, but dying a few hours after his book was issued, he escaped the persecution commenced by the Christian church against all who held that the world moved, and thus were unbelievers in the Bible. Giordano Bruno, who espoused this theory and proclaimed it over all Europe, even to the University of Oxford, was burned to death under the walls of the Vatican. Galileo, with the telescope, gained proof of the move- ment of the earth, but after braving Christian perse- cution, imprisonment, and perhaps torture, he was forced to pronounce publicly and on his knees liis recantation : " I, Galileo, being in my seventieth year, being a prisoner and on my knees and before your examiners, having before my eyes the holy gospels, which I touch with my hands, abjure, curse, and de- test the error and the heresy of the movement of the earth." Galileo's persecution repressed the expressions of Descartes and other unbelievers in Bible science, but Campanella, the seven times tortured, wrote an apology for Galileo, and Vanini, who taught the new knowledge, was killed by the church. Kepler DONE FOR THE WORLD? 87 proclaimed his three laws of planetary motion, and in spite of Romish curses and Protestant persecu- tions, he maintained his views, and wrote to his ad- versaries, the believers in the Bible, " Ye would pro- hibit the promulgation of the true system of the structure of the universe." Newton followed, and conlirmed the Copornican theories. Leibnitz, the German philosopher, said, " Newton has robbed the deity of some of his most excellent attributes, and has sapped the foundation of natural religion." But the evidence had now^ become too strong to be re- sisted, and Christians decided that the Bible was not inspired about astronomy. Men next began to doubt the truth of Bible geol- ogy. In the sixteenth century Fracastoro and Palissy, the famous potter, said that fossils proved the great age of the world. Those who adopted this opinion were pronounced " opponents of the Bible," and their books were destroyed. Buffon, tlie French natur- alist, published views, now generally accepted, as to the formation of continents, but the Parisian Faculty of Theology compelled him to recant and say, "I abandon everything in my book respecting the for- mation of the earth, and generally all that may be contrary to the narration of Moses." In the present century, believers in the Bible have assailed the most eminent geologists as " infidels," " impuguers of the sacred records," and "assailants of the volume of God." Hugh Miller, unable to reconcile the Bible with facts, sought refuge in death ; but Sir Charles Lyell braved the Bible and the church, and founded modern geology ; and now' Christians tell us " The Bible was not written to teach geology." But these 88 WHAT HAVE UNBELIEVERS concessions are only made when the battle is won*, until then the supporters of the Bible are the oppo- nents of progress and term its promoters unbelievers. The early chemists were treated by believers as sorcerers, and struggled against the prejudices ex- cited by belief in the Bible. Roger Bacon, who made known the composition of gunpowder, and invented the magnifying glass, was interdicted by the pope from teaching in the university, and suffered impris- onment ; and even as late as the last century, Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, and of whom Pro- fessor Huxley says, " the number of discoveries that he made was something marvelous," was driven from England by religious bigotry. Surgery was prohibited by the church of Rome ; and many of the noted men who have promoted knowledge of anatomy have been treated with obloquy and persecution by believers. Unbelief has become so identified with this branch of science, that a proverb says, "Where there are three doctors, there are two atheists." Anesthetics were opposed as impious, but the objection was answered on Bible grounds by Sir James Young Simpson, who called attention to the story of the first surgical operation. Before Jehovah took the rib out of Adam, he caused a deep sleep to fall on him. A large proportion of the eminent names in modern science are those of men who have been termed un- believers. From the Freethinker, Franklin, to the Agnostic, Huxley, a long roll of names represent re- jecters of revelation. Galton has ascertained that among English men of science only two in ten have any religious bias, and not many actively accept DONE FOR THE WOSLD? 89 revelation; and that out of six hundred and sixty names on the council lists of scientific societies, only sixteen are clergymen. It is well known that many of the great inventors of the age, like the most emi- nent of all, Edison, are unbelievers. In philosophy and literature, from Descartes to Spencer, many of the brightest names are those that have been denounced by believers. Among them we may recall those of Spinoza, Montaigne, Bolingbroke, Mirabaud, D'Holbach, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mat- thew Tindal, Thomas Hobbes, Anthony Collins, Hunter, Gibbon, Yolney, Voltaire, Paine, Goethe, Madame Roland, " George Sand," Harriet Martineau, Carlyle, George Eliot, Dr. Draper, Max Mttller, Holyoake, Mill, Darwin, and Spencer. Do we need to ask. What have these done for the world ? Even one who has made the world laugh, as the unbeliev- ing "Mark Twain" has done, may be accounted a benefactor. In poetry we have Burns, Byron, Shelley, Emerson, and Longfellow ranking among unbelievers. Among statesmen and reformers we have Washing- ton, Jefferson, Lincoln, Garibaldi, Mazzini, Garrison, Sumner, Phillips, and other leaders in the anti- slavery movement. Woman's suffrage was first agi- tated by Freethinking women, and now that it is winning its way Christians are espousing it. " Infi- dels " have ever been leaders in reform. Among many philanthropists, unbelievers in the Bible, who have donated large sums of money, we may note Robert Owen, who gave half a million dol- lars to promote education and cooperation ; Peter B. Brigham, who gave three millions for a hospital; Stephen Girard, who gave six millions for education ; 90 WHAT HAVE UNBELIEVERS James Lick, who gave a million for science ; Peter Cooper, who gave three millions for education ; Smithson, who founded the Smithsonian Institution at Washington ; Seybert, Maclure, and Redmond. Unitarians have been foremost in humanitarian work, and the names of Channing, Martineau, and Parker will ever be honored for their advocacy of human rights and good works. This brief sketch shows that many of the world's benefactors have been called unbelievers, but we might consistently claim that all advance is due to the principle of unbelief. The progress of mankind depends on investigation of phenomena and diffusion of knowledge. Skepticism is necessary to secure this. Doubt is the father of knowledge. Liberty to examine is the idea of Freethought. The authority of a church or a Bible is fatal to this principle. We might retort, What have believers done for the world? We might say that almost every scientific advance or social reform has been opposed by Chris- tians. We could mention that when the art of print- ing was discovered, the Bishop of London said, "We must in some way destroy this infernal art, or it will some day destroy us." We could quote John Bright, who said, "The bishops of the church of England have seldom aided legislation in the interest of hu- manity ;" Macaulay, who says, " The church of Eng- land for a hundred and fifty years was the steady enemy of public liberty;" Lange, who says, "Edu- cation and enlightenment, as a rule, go hand in hand with the decrease of the clergy ;" Spencer, who says, "But for science we should still be worshiping fetishes." Believers have been so concerned with a DONE FOR THE WORLD? 91 future world that they have left the improvement of this world to unbelievers. If the question is to be settled by counting heads, unbelievers have nothing to fear. But when the question is rightly interpreted to mean, Is progress best promoted by adherence to traditional authority or by free inquiry? then com- mon sense joins with universal experience to pro- claim that unbelief in the finality of old customs or established opinions is essential to all advance. When asked, What have unbelievers done for the world? we may fitly answer. They have shown that all improvement arises from unbelief in revelation upon any topic. Where revelation begins, inquiry ends. A man who believed that God had revealed the true system of road-making, or ship-building, or science, or religion, would never dare to think of im- proving either. But the skeptic would not be de- terred from advance. The theory that the Bible or the church has final knowledge upon any subject has been the greatest drawback to progress. The forward march of the world follows the vanguard of unbelief. CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZA- TION. The countries where the highest civilization pre- vails are known as Christendom. It is therefore as- serted that the Christian religion is the cause of civilization. This is a most important question, be- cause our best way of learning how to promote prog- ress in the future is to find out what has been the chief means of its advancement in the past. All that is distinctive in Christianity is the doctrine that the salvation of men from punishment after death de- pends upon belief in the God-man Jesus. Its other dogmas are common to older religions, and its ap- proved ethics are merely restatements of universal morality. If the advancement of society depends upon belief in Jesus, we should expect the evidence to be appar- ent in every community where this creed exists. But Abyssinia has had Christianity for fifteen hundred years, and is one of the most degraded nations. Italy, Spain, Ireland, and French Canada are the most Christian nations. Are they the most enlight- ened ? Other Christian countries, such as Armenia, Bussia, and Greece, have made but little progress ; and Mexico, South America, and the Philippine Islands, that have enjoyed the influences of Chris- tianity for a ^ong time, are chiefly engrossed by tumults and cock-fighting. CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 98 For sixteen centuries Christianity had opportunity to show its power in Europe, but it was only when the printing-press got to work and scholars circu- lated a knowledge of the laws of nature that society made any marked or rapid advance. The most pro- gressive countries are those where the principle of free inquiry has modified Christianity. Skeptical Germany is in the forefront of progress, and as Eng- land, France, and America escape from the trammels of ecclesiasticism, just so fast do their institutions improve. The history of reform legislation in England com- pletely refutes the claim of Christianity as a civilizer. The prelates of the English church are legislators, and their application of religion to politics is a fair test of the question. In the House of Lords they have joined with the peers in opposing nearly all the great reforms of this century. In 1807, they rejected the education bill, and down to the present have bit- terly opposed free education and the board schools. In 1810, they rejected the bill abolishing the death penalty for stealing goods worth five shillings ; and in 1839 they continued the death penalty for sheep- stealing. In 1825, they rejected the Catholic relief bill. They denied rights to the Jews until 1858. Twenty-one bishops assisted in rejecting the reform bill in 1831. For thirty years they prevented the protection of miners and opposed many factory acts. They have fought all efforts to extend suffrage ; have refused -justice to Ireland; refused to legalize mar- riage with a deceased wife's sister ; opposed life peerages and reform of the House of Lords ; rejected the army purchase bill, and the bill for the housing 94 CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. of the poor ; refused to amend burial laws or to abolish ch^irch rates ; opposed affirmation bills and abolition of university tests ; rejected the bill taking the tax off paper, which meant a cheap press. But to enumerate their misdeeds would be to mention almost every advance that society has made. Their obstructive conduct arises from the fact that they have taken the customs, morality, and dogmas of ancient peoples to be of divine obligation at the present time. The Christian religion and its enforce- ment of the authority of the Bible is the cause of all these evils. Every advance in learning beyond the knowledge of the Hebrews has been assailed by Christians as blasphemy. They opposed Copernicus, burned Bruno, imprisoned Galileo, tortured Campanella, killed Vanini, denounced Kepler, Newton, and Priest- ley ; and all the scientists and reformers of this cent- urj have had to encounter attacks from believers in the Bible. Modern progress is coincident with the advance of science. It is knowledge of nature, not belief in God, that has elevated mankind. The compass, the printing-press, steam, electricity, inventions and arts, have become the servants of man, and have done more for his advancement in three centuries than prayers and faith in Jesus accomplished in fifteen centuries preceding. If the teachings of Jesus and the apostles had been heeded, there would always have been submission to "the powers that be," who " are ordained of God ;" the revolutions in England, America, and France would never have taken place, and the world would have been groaning under the CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. 95 thralldom of kings and priests in a far greater degree than at present. Jesus taught non-resistance and the turning of the cheek to the smiter, but all the nations promote civilization by the sword. Early Christianity opposed the culture of Greece and the science of Egypt. Libraries, schools, ob- servatories, and laboratories were put under the ban and destroyed, and Christianity is largely to blame for the ten centuries of ignorance that followed. We are indebted to the Mohammedant' for the preserva- tion of learning during this period and its introduc- tion into Spain, where, however, Christianity again crushed it. Learned writers have shown that priority is due to the Buddhists for the establishment of hospitals, and to the Mohammedans for the founding of insane asylums. Almshouses existed among the Chinese long before the time of Christ. Rome and Greece cared for the poor, the sick, and the aged. It is true that in the most civilized countries the Bible is read, but it is also true that they are all in the temperate zone and that their inhabitants are mainly of the so-called Caucasian race. Christianity cannot be the essential cause of progress, for obser- vation shows that social advance is coincident with the decline of " faith." It is as men gain freedom of thought and liberty of action that knowledge increases and society improves ; but supernatural religion is opposed to this development. Men must be emanci- pated from these beliefs ; and under the reign of reason prosperity and happiness will flourish and endure. , THE SECULAR NEW YEAR. . Many of us remember the Christian New Year of our youth. The solemn sermon on the last Sunday of the year — " The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved ;" the frantic effort to " become a Christian " before the new year ; the watch-night prayer-meeting, waiting till the midnight bell tolled, the New Year was ushered in, and the awful question arose, " Does it find my soul redeemed or am I still a lost sinner ?" the New Year's written resolutions — to pray, to read the Bible, never to speak ill of any one, not to be angry ; the utter failure at the end of a week ; the despair of salvation ; the growing indifference, until the next revival effort in the church or another New Year. What orthodox child has not had some such experience in " the good old times " of religion, faith, and God, now happily fading into the better day of science, reason, and good. There is doubtless profit in the use of set times for retrospect of our lives, examination of our purposes, and resolves as to future effort, and the New Year is an appropriate season for it. Secularism permits all that is good in this custom, but banishes the fear of hell, the morbid conscience, the waste of emotion, the misdirected effort. It teaches — learn from the past how to do better and be l?etter in the future; THE SECtJLAR NEW YEAB. 97 brood not over mistakes and misfortunes, but having learned their lesson apply it to making your life suc- cessful. It gives the cheer of knowing that there is no arbitrary interference with the course of events either by a wrathful God or a chastening father, but that cause and e£fect pursue their unhindered way, and it is only a question of man's knowledge or igno- rance as to in what degree events shall be benefits or injuries. The Christian has always the dread before him that God, in fierce displeasure or infinite mercy and loving kindness, may see fit to thwart all his schemes, destroy his property, bereave him of family, and wreck his earthly happiness ; but he tries to enjoy the consolation that it will be for his spiritual and everlasting welfare. The Secularist, on the other hand, is free from this element of uncertainty in his calculations. If his plans are well laid, his efforts commensurate, his knowledge sufficient, and his work in accord with nature's conditions, he will succeed and he need not fear that a loving but meddlesome father will interfere, snatch away the fruits of his toil and give them to some lazy scoundrel who has done nothing to deserve them. If he does fail, it is owing to the limitations of human knowledge ; and its lesson is not submission to God and the study of apology for conduct on his part, which, if indulged in by a fellow-man, would be considered mean and cruel, but the misfortune stimulates to a study of its causes and to future efforts to remove the obstacles to human progress, which are solely those that man's conquest of natural forces will overcome. Christianity is the religion of childhood. Secular- ism is the faith of manhood. The child begins the 98 THE SECULAB NEW YEAR. New Year happy in the thought, My father will pro- vide for me in the coming months. The man says, Life is before me ; my character, industry, and intel- ligence are the means for its development ; I will do my best, and if results are hindered by causes be- yond my control, I will accept the inevitable and try again to overcome. Christianity is dependence ; Secularism is self-reliance and fortitude. The child, the slave, the pauper, possess a kind of careless en- joyment ; but the highest happiness comes from suc- cessful achievement. Manly effort is better for the individual and for the world than childish, slavish, or beggarly dependence. Any one who has escaped from Christianity to Ra- tionalism knows that he has gained in cheerfulness. The great bugbear God is no longer a disturbing ele- ment in his orbit, the horror of a hell into which his amiable but heretical fellows are being plunged yearly by millions has vanished, an eternal world is deferred consideration until its existence is proved ; and thought and purpose are concentrated upon present effort and earthly hopes. The Christian sometimes says, I will not give up my religion until you can give me something bettor. There it is, good instead of God; natural consequences in place of heaven and hell; manly self-reliance instead of childhood and pauperism ; hopefulness for the human race ; fellow- ship with all men, regulated only by personal worth and attainment, not determined by divine election ; a belief in natural forces in place of supernatural fancies ; escape from gods, angels, devils, witches, ghosts, and miracles ; reason in place of supersti- tion ; sense instead of nonsense ; knowledge in lieu THE SECULAR NEW YEAR. 99 of ignorance ; freedom of thought as a substitute for mental slavery. Who would live in the medieval huts of Christianity when he may inhabit the modern palace of Reason, founded on the rock of Naturalism, adorned with Knowledge, and surrounded by the fields of Freedom ? The celebration of a New Year's Day is a custom of great antiquity and was generally an occasion of festive rejoicing. The early Christian fathers — Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, and others — " pro- hibited in Christian use all festive celebration, and, on the contrary, directed that the Christian year should be opened with a day of prayer, fasting, and humiliation." It is said that we are indebted to that " great monarch and great man," Julian the Apostate, for the promotion of the festive celebration of the day, and the Fathers did not succeed in wholly ex- tinguishing its joys with their " most holy religion." Let us then enter on the New Year with exaltation instead of humiliation, with feasting instead of fast- ing, and with work instead of prayer ; and in its days and months let our aim be to preserve the cheerful- ness that comes of hopefulness, the contented mind that is a continual feast, and the diligent use of op- portunities for our own advancement and the world's benefit ; and so we shall find in Secularism — a Happy New Year. I. • • !< . • • • . • ••• •♦ ♦• • *•«• A ,1 if « 4 4 4 ■) » ... J •"'',» « ' c ■' • - • .,.,.'<". ..»■•• ^ • '. ■ '. ' " e a « ^ * • > . ' '. J '■ • 1. ' ■'" '''- «« « ao «•<■* til >' ,. .: * V -.0 .:, C - f * '^ - • t- 1 o ^♦■*' 'c*-o fr ■ O « f. ^' *_ «« vie' • f.a**':^' J. o * ,« » \. * •> ■' ♦ B. F. UNDERWOODS WORKS. Essays and Lectures. Embracing Influence of Chris* liunity on Civilization ; Christianity and Materialism ; What Lib eralism offers in Placo of Christianity; Scientiti'^ Materialism; Woman; Spiritualism from a Materialistic Standpoint; Paine the Political and Religions Reformer, Materialism and Crime; Will the Coming Man Worship God? Crimes and Cruelties o! Christianity; the Authority of the Bible; Freethought Judged by its Fruits; Our Ideas of God. 300 pp., paper, 60 centa,* cloth, $1. Influence of Christianity upon Ciyilization. 25 centa Christianity and Materialicm. 15 cents. What Liberalism Ofl'ers in Place of Christianity. 10 cents. 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BIBLE MYTHS, AND THEIR PARALLELS IN OTHER RELIGIONS: nRiNa A Comparison of iie Old and New Testament Myths and Bliraeles with thoso of Heathen Nations of Antiquity, CONSIDERING ALSO THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING. ■WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS. \^HeatheH Illustration of the Temptation.'^ The Bundehesh (a sacred book of the Persians,) states that Ahuramazda after creating the first man and woman, Mashya and Mashyana, bade them *'to be humble of heart; to observe the law ; to be pure in their thoughts, pure in their speech, pure in their actions." But an evil demon came to them in the form oi 2i Serpent., sent by Ahriman, the prince of devils, and gave them fruit of, a wonderful tree, which imparted immortality. Evil inclinations then entered their hearts, and all their moral excellence was destroyed. Conse- quently they fell, and forfeited the eternal happiness foi which they were destined. They killed beasts, and clothed themselves in their skins. 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INQALL8. 12mo, 820pp., largo typo, good paper, Rllk cloth, $1. CoNTENTH.— Economic BciIiooIh— A Brief Kevitiw of tlioir Origin and Growth' Riuoand Growtli of CnnitaliHin ; Unenrnj'dliicreaHc— Profit, IntoroHt, llrnt; Con- servation of Weal til ; T«)o1h and Improved Machinery; Tlio Nature of Wagea; I'li- vateand Social Wealtli ; Iian<10wnerBhip; Private Property in Land; Capital and the Productive Factors; Partnoraliip and Co-operation ; Lawof Contracta ; Mom y and Credit ; Of Value, or Economic Putioa; Taxation aa a Ilemedy; KeforniH, not Itcmcdiea ; Suggeationa to Legialatora ; Summary of Definitions— Economic and laonomic. ExTBAOT.— From conQueats witli Mudgeona, aworda, and apeara, as in the earlier agea, civiliam liiia inaugiirntcd a war of cunning and fraud, wlioae weapona are teclinical ternia, anrewd devieca, claaa legialation, and forma of law recognizing no rightt) au Buprcmu but thouu of i)ropurty and the law of tho market. ExTitACT.— To get something for nothing bccomea a habit and acultua.whicb, aa a man growa in years, ho tries to reduce to an art. If, by ahrewd device or subtle pretenae, ho can whollv escape work, and saddle tho expouso of life upon othera, ho learns that, under tho teachinga of our exact economy and reformed tlieology, ho will bo entiled to aociai distiuction and respect, and to have his position defoudod by learned professor and titled dignitary, both secular and religious. Shows throughout a complete mastery of the aubjoct. — ^ociolooist. Very radical in his views. Written with force and evident thought.— X^artjtaa Cily Times. A work of inestimable value in the new field of thought, and very clearly written.- H'orZd. A critical review of tho varioua systems of property and labor in vogue for many ueiiti.—AUi~uiiil. A Btudy in politioal economy, and evinces wide erudition and deep thought.— Yules Co. (N. Y.) Chronicle. All who can should read it, particularly the very wealthy, who aro in the greatest danger.— 27te Liberal. Tho author evinces a mind free from bias, canvassing the subjects treated with vigor and clearness.— Tru^/i Heekar (N. Y.). Tho result of profound investigation, careful reading, and deep thought. Em- bodies tho moat advanced ideas of gcouovdxcb.— Washington Post. Every workingman should read it, and every thinking man may obtain en- lightenment and food for thought from ii.—Easton Labor JuuriuH. Takes radical ground and contains matter that not only ad\ranced thinkera, but tho public goueraily, may well considor with c&VQ.—Dav Slar (N. Y.). The argument is directed toward points of investigation which often eacapo the economist, but which, when settled, serve to make the rest clear.— Jo/i?i SxaintorVs Paper. Intelligence— an exact and systematized knowledge of tho groat governing laws of life— ho considers to bo tho only solvent of the groat problems of tho ago. — Banner of Light. One of the beat publications on this subject. Able, thorough, and logical. Many of the chapters are roma.rkablo for their deptli ol: thought, and aro worth three timea tho price of the book.— (S'ttndai/ Gazetteer. tl^The highest praise any book on this subject could receive has been ac- corded this work, tho policy of silence iu regard to it having been pursued by nearly all of tho capitalistic press. _■£] THE TBUTH S££££B CO., 28 Lafayette Place, New York. MEN, WOMEN, AND GODS, AND OTHER LECTURES. By HELEN H. GAKDENER. WITH JN INTRODUCTION By col. R. G. INOERSOLL. PubliHhed by Tme Tuutii 8ekkeii Company, J.8 Lafayette Pi., Now York, ivy popcri handuom«)ly bound iu cloth, ll.UO ; paper covurn, DO ccuta. I' PUKSS NOTICES. [The Chicafiro Times is one of tho most wido-awako and independent newB- paporH in Amorica. ItH daily circulation Ih 4a,(X)0 (lopicjH ; itH Sunday circulation iH ijut a few hundrerl Ichh tlian 50,000. The daily edition iH never Ichh than ten •ugeH, while itH Biinday edition ol'teu reacluH twenty. Helen H. Gardener may hereioro couifratulate lierself that her book has induced ho wici'^ly reji(l a journal to Kive itH world an opinion ho daiuaL'iuif to the claioiH of Ciiriutiauity QH tho following notice of "Men, VVcunen, and Oodw :"1 " Men, Women, uud OodH, and Oth of all persons, should l-sHst support tho Bible and tho churches which hold it in reverence. Till) tirst lecture is u surprisingly bitter and scathing denunciation of tho Old Testament as tho sum of all ci'uelty and brutality toward women, and sho makes upastartlingly strong case from the pages of tlio book itself. Ii any one does not think tho case can l)o made strong let him read carefully this book and also tho thirty-tirst chapter of " Numbers," Tho second lecture arraigns vicarious atonement as an inexcusable injustice in itself, weakening and corrupting iu its influence, like indiscriminate alms- giving, and points out tliat it is not peculiar to Christianity, but is found in Hoiuo form in every religious system known in history. Both these lectures are strong productions, but are disfigured with a good deal of flippant phrasing, designed, no doubt, to catch the popular attention by tickling tlio popular ear. The lecturer's strongest work is done in tho third lecture, Avlioro nor purpose is to show that our civilization is in no sense based upon Christianity, and that tho Christian religion has especially not contrib- uted to tho elevation of woman in any respect. Here she drops largely her Uippancy of style and settles down to earnest work. Civilization sho holds to be chiefly tho creature of environment, the basis of which, in this world, is in climate and soil. In support of ^ler view of the posi- ti<)n of woman she quotes largely from Sir Henry Maine, showing among other tuings that the position of woman in Boman law and iisage, before the intro- duction of Christianity, was in advance of what it is even now in some respects, and that the tendency of the canon (church) law was invariably to force her back into the degradation from which she had been rescued by a long and painfu* evolution. In this lecture, too, she answers the questions as to what sho would substi- tute for the sanctions ot Christianity, and she takes considerable pains to show, what one would think need scarcely be insisted upon in our day, that the morals of civilization— morals in general, indeed— are not at all based iu or dependent upon religion, certainly not on Christianity, since tho so-called golden rule," the highest principle of morality, antedates Christianity a tnousaua years. TUB TRUTH SEEKER CO: 3 PURLICATIONB. THE TRUTH SEEKER. Leading Journal of Froelhouffht and Reform. Lnitfc-Ht, ChcuiHirit, bt'Ht. Thf Kiuiny v\ Hnix-JHlilion ; tm- Fruinl t.f IIu- iimiiity. E. AI. Macdoiialdt Editor. 0. i'. Hoiiifi'b^, liiiHiiutMn itliiimtfer. Wocklyi IlluHtiateUi Folio, lOoiKfiH. Y(iirl>,$3; Four luonttiH, :tl. Hiiniplu (/'opicrii Circuiarut and Club TurniH, iukk. Paiiio'H Great rolltical and Theological ^Vorks. With Porlraii and liifu. 1 vol., Octavo, HIM) PI). 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