heart of fire and crowns of snow; with its forests and plains, its rocks and seas; with its every wave and cloud; with its every leaf and bud and flower, confirms its every word, and the solemn stars, shining in the infinite abysses, are the eternal witnesses of its truth.

I

F we abandon myth and miracle, if we discard the supernatural and the scheme of redemption, how are we to civilize the world?

¶ Is falsehood a reforming power? Is credulity the mother of virtue? Is there any saving grace in the impossible and absurd? Did wisdom perish with the dead? Must the civilized accept the religion of savages?

¶ If we wish to reform the world we must rely on truth, on fact, on reason. We must teach men that they are good or bad for themselves, that others can not be good or bad for them, that they can not be charged with the crimes, or credited with the virtues, of others. We must discard the doctrine of the atonement, because it is absurd and immoral. We are not accountable for the sins of “Adam,” and the virtues of Christ can not be transferred to us There can be no vicarious virtue, no vicarious vice. Why should the sufferings of the innocent atone for the crimes of the guilty? se se

According to the doctrine of the atonement, right and wrong do not exist in the nature of things, but in the arbitrary will of the Infinite. This is a subversion of all ideas of justice and mercy.

¶ An act is good, bad or indifferent, according to its consequences. No power can step between an act and its natural consequences. A governor may pardon the

criminal, but the natural consequences of the crime remain untouched. A god may forgive, but the consequences of the act forgiven are still the same. We must teach the world that the consequences of a bad action can not be avoided, that they are the invisible police, the unseen avengers, that accept no gifts, hear no prayers, that no cunning can deceive.

¶ We do not need the forgiveness of gods, but of ourselves and the ones we injure. Restitution without repentance is far better than repentance without restitution.

¶ We know nothing of any god who rewards, punishes or forgives.

We must teach our fellow men that honor comes from within, not from without, that honor must be earned, that it is not alms, that even an infinite God could not enrich the beggar's palm with the gem of honor.

¶Teach them also that happiness is the bud, the blossom and the fruit of good and noble actions, that it is not the gift of any god; that it must be earned by man—must be deserved

¶ In this world of ours there is no magic, no sleight of hand, by which consequences can be made to punish the good and reward the bad.

¶Teach men not to sacrifice this world for some other, but to turn their attention to the natural, to the affairs of this life. Teach them that theology has no known foundation, that it was born of ignorance and fear, that it has hardened the heart, polluted the imagination and made fiends of men.

¶Theology is not for this world. It is no part of real religion. It has nothing to do with goodness or virtue.

Religion does not exist in worshiping gods, but in adding to the well-being, the happiness, of man. No human being knows whether any god exists or not, and all that has been said and written about our god" or the gods of other people has no known fact for a foundation. Words without thoughts, clouds without, rain.

¶ Let us put theology out of religion.

¶ Let us develop the brain, civilize the heart, and give wings to the imagination.

APPINESS is the true end and aim in life. It is the

HAP

task of intelligence to ascertain the conditions of happiness, and when found, the truly wise will live in accordance with them. By happiness is meant not simply the joy of eating and drinking-the gratification of the appetite- but good, well-being, in the highest and noblest forms. The joy that springs from obligations discharged, from duty done, from generous acts, from being true to the ideal, from a perception of the beautiful in Nature, art and conduct. The happiness that is born of and gives birth to poetry and music, that follows the gratification of the highest wants. Happiness is the result of all that is really right and sane

ORTHO

RTHODOXY dies hard, and its defenders tell us that this fact shows that it is of divine origin. Judaism dies hard. It has lived several thousand years longer than Christianity. The religion of Mohammed dies hard Buddhism dies hard. Why do all these religions die hard? Because intelligence increases slowly.

R

ELIGION is supposed to consist in a discharge of

the duties we owe to God. In other words, we are taught that God is exceedingly anxious that we should believe a certain thing. For my part, I do not believe that there is any infinite being to whom we owe anything. The reason I say this is, we can not owe any duty to any being who requires nothing-to any being that we can not possibly help, to any being whose happiness we can not increase. If God is infinite, we can neither give, nor can He receive anything. Anything that we do or fail to do, can not, in the slightest degree, affect an Infinite God; consequently, no relations can exist between the finite and the Infinite, if by relations is meant mutual duties and obligations.

¶ Some tell us that it is the desire of God that we should worship Him. What for? Why does He desire worship? Others tell us that we should sacrifice something to Him. What for? Is He in want? Can we assist Him? Is He unhappy? Is he in trouble? Does He need human sympathy? We can not assist the Infinite, but we can assist our fellow men

WHENEVER

HENEVER a man believes that he has the exact truth from God, there is in that man no spirit of compromise. He has not the modesty born of the imperfections of human nature; he has the arrogance of theological certainty and the tyranny born of ignorant assurance. Believing himself to be the slave of God, he imitates his master, and of all tyrants the worst is a slave in power. ¶ When a man really believes that it is necessary to do a certain thing to be happy forever, or that a certain belief

is necessary to insure eternal joy, there is in that man no spirit of concession. He divides the whole world into saints and sinners, into believers and unbelievers, into God's sheep and Devil's goats, into people who will be glorified and people who will be damned.

Now

OW and then some one says that the religion of his father and mother is good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should desire a better. Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in religion, any more than in politics, science or art. China has been petrified by the worship of ancestors. If our parents had been satisfied with the religion of theirs, we would be still less advanced than we are. If we are, in any way, bound by the belief of our fathers, the doctrine will hold good back to the first people who had a religion; and if the doctrine is true, we ought now to be believers in that first religion. In other words, we would all be barbarians! You can not show real. respect to your parents by perpetuating their errors. Good fathers and mothers wish their children to advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled them, and to correct the errors of their education. If you wish to reflect credit upon your parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems that they could not understand, and build better than they knew. To sacrifice your manhood upon the grave of your father is an honor to neither. Why should a son who has examined a subject throw away his reason and adopt the views of his mother? Is not such a course dishonorable to both?

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We must remember that this ancestor" argument is as old at least as the second generation of men; that it has