2 "I OD, RELIGION, AND IMMORTALITY: 4 " 5 AN ORATION, DELIVERED AT THE PAINE CELEBRATION IN CINCINNATI, SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 1860. < - V BY JOSEPH TREAT. Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk EMEKSON. CINCINNATI, O. PUBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE. CENTRAL PRINTING OFFICE, COUNER FIFTH SXUEET AND CENTRAL AVENUE. 1860. UCSB LIBRARY GOD, RELIGION, AND IMMORTALITY AN ORATION, DELIVERED AT THE PAINE CELEBRATION IN CINCINNATI, SUNDAY, JANUARY 29, 1860. BY JOSEPH TREAT. " Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk." EMERSON. CINCINNATI, O. PTBLISHED BY THE COMMITTEE. CENTRAL PRINTING OFFICE, CORNER FIFTH STREET AND CENTRAL AVENUE. 1860. ORA/ITO!^. MY BROTHERS, I am afraid you will be disappointed. I have not come to praise Thomas Paine, but to be Thomas Paine to go as far beyond this age, as he went beyond his age and then to go as much beyond him, as he did beyond others. I have come to be Thomas Paine to Thomas Paine. I have come to supersede the Age of Reason ! Be brave enough to hear me. No man has business here to-day cele- brating Thomas Paine, whose heart does not leap to make this Com- memoration a Funeral the Funeral of Superstition : both the Supersti- tion Thomas Paine exploded, and as much, the other that he left. Even if you cannot accept what I utter, yet at least, let it pass in at one ear and out at the other. Dare to allow free discussion in America one hour ! Be as brave as Thomas Paine ! He threw down his gauntlet to the world. I but take it up. He accepted no quarter. Then ask me to give him none. No more bid me cease combating him, than he ever ceased combating others. But follow on, while I make a full end of the work he commenced the Superstition he spared ! Let two wrestle to- gether with none to stop but the final Truth ! Be as brave as I am. Dare to hear, what I dare to speak ; and dare to let me speak, what I dare to think. Expect what I say to shock you, subvert you, overwhelm you but let me say it. Hate what I say, ab- hor it, trample it but give me that right to say it. This country is not worth a song, if a man may not utter his thought ! Once and for all, I challenge you, Let a man say what he thinks ! THERE is NO GOD ! God is the first, great, eternal mistake of the Age of Reason ! God is the grand, pivotal mistake of all systems ! God is the great central Superstition, round which all other Superstitions cling ! God is the sole foundation of Bibles, Sabbaths, Churches, Priesthoods, Religions, Resurrections, Judgments, Heavens, Hells, Spirits, Spirit- Worlds, all ! I strike home at this root ! If there is a God, men can know it; but nobody does know it. If there is a God, there must be proof of the fact ; but there is no proof. If there is a God, there is a thing ; but there is no thing, and there is nothing. If there is a God, what he is makes men see that he is ; but they never see anything, but always take everything for granted. If there is a God, somebody must have produced some argument for him ; but nobody has ever produced one. And, if there is a God, there must be somebody willing to appear as his champion, to defend and substan- date his existence ; but there is not one man in the whole world who dare do it ! There is not one man in the world who dare undertake to prove the existence of any such thing as God ! I defy contradiction to any of the statements I have made. God, God, God there is no God till we know what God is. There is no proof of a God till we know what God is. It is only what God is that shows he is, or that there is a God. God is nothing or something ; if nothing, that settles the whole