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A LOOK BACKWARD AND A PROPHECY. 1
SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT. 10
"SOWING AND REAPING." 11
SABBATH SUPERSTITION. 14
SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO SUNDAY SCHOOL? 18
JESUS CHRIST. 21
A YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES TO-DAY. 22
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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A LOOK BACKWARD AND A PROPHECY.
1898
I CONGRATULATE The Truth Seeker on its twenty-fifth birthday.
It has fought a good fight. It has always been at the front. It has
carried the flag, and its flag is a torch that sheds light.
Twenty-five years ago the people of this country, for the most
part, were quite orthodox. The great "fundamental" falsehoods of
Christianity were generally accepted. Those who were not
Christians, as a rule, admitted that they ought to be; that they
ought to repent and join the church, and this they generally
intended to do of them had.
The ministers had few doubts. The most of them had been
educated not to think, but to believe. Thought was regarded as
dangerous, and the clergy, as a rule, kept on the safe side.
Investigation was discouraged. It was declared that faith was the
only road that led to eternal joy.
Most of the schools and colleges were under sectarian control,
and the presidents and professors were defenders of their creeds.
The people were crammed with miracles and stuffed with absurdities.
They were taught that the Bible was the "inspired" word of God,
that it was absolutely perfect, that the contradictions were only
apparent, and that it contained no mistakes in philosophy, none in
science. The great scheme of salvation was declared to be the
result of infinite wisdom and mercy. Heaven and hell were waiting
for the human race. Only those could be saved who had faith and who
had been born twice.
Most of the ministers taught the geology of Moses, the
astronomy of Joshua, and the philosophy of Christ. They regarded
scientists as enemies, and their principal business was to defend
miracles and deny facts. They knew, however, that men were
thinking, investigating in every direction, and they feared the
result. They became a little malicious -- somewhat hateful. With
their congregations they relied on sophistry, and they answered
Bank of Wisdom
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A PROPHECY.
their enemies with epithets, with misrepresentations and slanders;
and yet their minds were filled with a vague fear, with a sickening
dread, Some of the people were reading and some were thinking.
Lyell had told them something about geology, and in the light of
facts they were reading Genesis again. The clergy called Lyell an
Infidel, a blasphemer, but the facts seemed to care nothing for
opprobrious names. Then the "called," the "set apart," the " Lord's
anointed " began changing the "inspired" word. They erased the word
"day" and inserted "period," and then triumphantly exclaimed: "The
world was created in six periods." This answer satisfied bigotry,
hypocrisy, and honest ignorance, but honest intelligence was not
satisfied.
More and more was being found about the history of life, of
living things, the order in which the various forms had appeared
and the relations they had sustained to each other. Beneath the
gaze of the biologist the fossils were again clothed with flesh,
submerged continents and islands reappeared, the ancient forest
grew once more, the air was filled with unknown birds, the seas
with armored monsters, and the land with beasts of many forms that
sought with tooth and claw each other's flesh.
Haeckel and Huxley followed life through all its changing
forms from monad up to man. They found that men, women, and
children had been on this poor world for hundreds of thousands of
years.
The clergy could not dodge these facts, this conclusion by
calling "days " periods, because the Bible gives the age of Adam
when he died, the lives and ages to the flood, to Abraham, to
David, and from David to Christ, so that, according to the Bible,
man at the birth of Christ had been on this earth four thousand and
four years and no more.
There was no way in which the sacred record could be changed,
but of course the dear ministers could not admit the conclusion
arrived at by Haeckel and Huxley. If they did they would have to
give up original sin, the scheme of the atonement, and the
consolation of eternal fire.
They took the only course they could. They promptly and
solemnly, with upraised hands, denied the facts, denounced the
biologists as irreverent wretches, and defended the Book. With
tears in their voices they talked about "Mother's Bible," about the
"faith of the fathers," about the prayers that the children had
said, and they also talked about the wickedness of doubt. This
satisfied bigotry, hypocrisy, and honest ignorance, but honest
intelligence was not satisfied.
The works of Humboldt had been translated, and were being
read; the intellectual horizon was enlarged, and the fact that the
endless chain of cause and effect had never been broken, that
Nature had never been interfered with, forced its way into many
minds. This conception of nature was beyond the clergy. They did
not believe it; they could not comprehend it. They did not answer
Humboldt, but they attacked him with great virulence. They measured
his works by the Bible, because the Bible was then the standard.
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A PROPHECY.
In examining a philosophy, a system, the ministers asked:
"Does it agree with the sacred book?" With the Bible they separated
the gold from the dross. Every science had to be tested by the
Scriptures. Humboldt did not agree with Moses. He differed from
Joshua. He had his doubts about the flood. That was enough.
Yet, after all, the ministers felt that they were standing on
thin ice, that they were surrounded by masked batteries, and that
something unfortunate was liable at any moment to happen. This
increased their efforts to avoid, to escape. The truth was that
they feared the truth. They were afraid of facts. They became
exceedingly anxious for morality, for the young, for the
inexperienced. They were afraid to trust human nature. They
insisted that without the Bible the world would rush to crime. They
warned the thoughtless of the danger of thinking. They knew that it
would be impossible for civilization to exist without the Bible.
They knew this because their God had tried it. He gave no Bible to
the antediluvians, and they became so bad that he had to destroy
them. He gave the Jews only the Old Testament, and they were
dispersed. Irreverent people might say that Jehovah should have
known this without a trial, but after all that has nothing to do
with theology.
Attention had been called to the fact that two accounts of
creation are in Genesis, and that they do not agree and cannot be
harmonized, and that, in addition to that, the divine historian had
made a mistake as to the order of creation; that according to one
account Adam was made before the animals, and Eve last of all, from
Adam's rib; and by the other account Adam and Eve were made after
the animals, and both at the same time. A good many people were
surprised to find that the Creator had written contradictory
accounts of the creation, and had forgotten the order in which he
created.
Then there was another difficulty. Jehovah had declared that
on Tuesday, or during the second period, he had created the
"firmament" to divide the waters which were below the firmament
from the waters above the firmament. It was found that there is no
firmament; that the moisture in the air is the result of
evaporation, and that there was nothing to divide the waters above
from the waters below. So that, according to the facts, Jehovah did
nothing on the second day or period, because the moisture above the
earth is not prevented from falling by the firmament, but because
the mist is lighter than air.
The preachers, however, began to dodge, to evade, to talk
about "oriental imagery." They declared that Genesis was a "sublime
poem," a divine "panorama of creation," an "inspired vision;" that
it was not intended to be exact in its details, but that it was
true in a far higher sense, in a poetical sense, in a spiritual
sense, conveying a truth much higher, much grander than simple
fact. The contradictions were covered with the mantle of oriental
imagery. This satisfied bigotry, hypocrisy, and honest ignorance,
but honest intelligence was not satisfied.
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A PROPHECY.
People were reading Darwin. His works interested not only the
scientific, but the intelligent in all the walks of life. Darwin
was the keenest observer of all time, the greatest naturalist in
all the world. He was patient, modest, logical, candid, courageous,
and absolutely truthful. He told the actual facts. He colored
nothing. He was anxious only to ascertain the truth. He had no
prejudices, no theories, no creed. He was the apostle of the real.
The ministers greeted him with shouts of derision. From nearly
all the pulpits came the sounds of ignorant laughter, one of the
saddest of all sounds. The clergy in a vague kind of way believed
the Bible account of creation; they accepted the Miltonic view;
they believed that all animals, including man, had been made of
clay, fashioned by Jehovah's hands, and that he had breathed into
all forms, not only the breath of life, but instinct and reason.
They were not in the habit of descending to particulars; they did
not describe Jehovah as kneading the clay or modeling his forms
like a sculptor, but what they did say included these things.
The theory of Darwin contradicted all their ideas on the
subject, vague as they were. He showed that man had not appeared at
first as man, that he had not fallen from perfection, but had
slowly risen through many ages from lower forms. He took food,
climate, and all conditions into consideration, and accounted for
difference of form, function, instinct, and reason, by natural
causes. He dispensed with the supernatural. He did away with
Jehovah the potter.
Of course the theologians denounced him as a blasphemer, as a
dethroner of God. They even went so far as to smile at his
ignorance. They said: "If the theory of Darwin is true the Bible is
false, our God is a myth, and our religion a fable."
In that they were right.
Against Darwin they rained texts of Scripture like shot and
shell. They believed that they were victorious and their
congregations were delighted. Poor little frightened professors in
religious colleges sided with the clergy. Hundreds of backboneless
"scientists" ranged themselves with the enemies of Darwin. It began
to look as though the church was victorious.
Slowly, steadily, the ideas of Darwin gained ground. He began
to be understood. Men of sense were reading what he said. Men of
genius were on his side. In a little while the really great in all
departments of human thought declared in his favor. The tide began
to turn. The smile on the face of the theologian became a frozen
grin. The preachers began to hedge, to dodge. They admitted that
the Bible was not inspired for the purpose of teaching science --
only inspired about religion, about the spiritual, about the
divine. The fortifications of faith were crumbling, the old guns
had been spiked, and the armies of the "living God" were in
retreat.
Great questions were being discussed, and freely discussed.
People were not afraid to give their opinions, and they did give
their honest thoughts. Draper had shown in his "Intellectual
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A PROPHECY.
Development of Europe" that Catholicism had been the relentless
enemy of progress, the bitter foe of all that is really useful. The
Protestants were delighted with this book.
Buckle had shown in his "History of Civilization in England"
that Protestantism had also enslaved the mind, had also persecuted
to the extent of its power, and that Protestantism in its last
analysis was substantially the same as the creed of Rome.
This book satisfied the thoughtful.
Hegel in his first book had done a great work and it did great
good in spite of the fact that his second book was almost a
surrender. Lecky in his first volume of "The History of
Rationalism" shed a flood of light on the meanness, the cruelty,
and the malevolence of "revealed religion," and this did good in
spite of the fact that he almost apologizes in the second volume
for what he had said in the first.
The Universalists had done good. They had civilized a great
many Christians. They declared that eternal punishment was infinite
revenge, and that the God of hell was an infinite savage.
Some of the Unitarians, following the example of Theodore
Parker, denounced Jehovah as a brutal, tribal God. All these forces
worked together for the development of the orthodox brain.
Herbert Spencer was being read and understood. The theories of
this great philosopher were being adopted. He overwhelmed the
theologians with facts, and from a great height he surveyed the
world. Of course he was attacked, but not answered.
Emerson had sowed the seeds of thought -- of doubt -- in many
minds, and from many directions the world was being flooded with
light. The clergy became apologetic; they spoke with less
certainty; with less emphasis, and lost a little confidence in the
power of assertion. They felt the necessity of doing something, and
they began to harmonize as best they could the old lies and the new
truths. They tried to get the wreck ashore, and many of them were
willing to surrender if they could keep their side-arms; that is to
say, their salaries.
Conditions had been reversed. The Bible had ceased to be the
standard. Science was the supreme and final test.
There was no peace for the pulpit; no peace for the shepherds.
Students of the Bible in England and Germany had been examining the
inspired Scriptures. They had been trying to find when and by whom
the books of the Bible were written. They found that the Pentateuch
was not written by Moses; that the authors of Joshua, Judges, Ruth,
Samuel, Yangs, Chronicles, Esther, and Job were not known; that the
Psalms were not written by David; that Solomon had nothing to do
with Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, or the Song; that Isaiah was the work
of at least three authors; that the prophecies of Daniel were
written after the happening of the events prophesied. They found
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A PROPHECY.
many mistakes and contradictions, and some of them went so far as
to assert that the Hebrews had never been slaves in Egypt -- that
the story of the plagues, the exodus, and the pursuit was only a
myth.
The New Testament fared no better than the Old. These critics
found that nearly all of the books of the New Testament had been
written by unknown men; that it was impossible to fix the time when
they were written; that many of the miracles were absurd and
childish, and that in addition to all of this, the gospels were
found filled with mistakes, with interpolations and contradictions;
that the writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke did not understand the
Christian religion as it was understood by the author of the gospel
according to John.
Of course, the critics were denounced from most of the
pulpits, and the religious papers, edited generally by men who had
failed as preachers, were filled with bitter denials and vicious
attacks. The religious editors refused to be enlightened. They
fought under the old flag. When dogmas became too absurd to be
preached, they were taught in the Sunday schools; when worn out
there, they were given to the missionaries; but the dear old
religious weeklies, the Banners, the Covenants, the Evangelists,
continued to feed their provincial subscribers with known mistakes
and refuted lies.
There is another fact that should be taken into consideration.
All religions are provincial. Mingled with them all and at the
foundation of all are the egotism of ignorance, of isolation, the
pride of race, and what is called patriotism. Every religion is a
natural product -- the result of conditions. When one tribe became
acquainted with another, the ideas of both were somewhat modified.
So when nations and races come into contact a change in thought, in
opinion, is a necessary result.
A few years ago nations were strangers, and consequently hated
each other's institutions and religions. Commerce has done a great
work in destroying provincialism. To trade commodities is to
exchange ideas. So the press, the steamships, the railways, cables,
and telegraphs have brought the nations together and enabled them
to compare their prejudices, their religions, laws and customs.
Recently many scholars have been studying the religions of the
world and have found them much the same. They have also found that
there is nothing original in Christianity; that the legends,
miracles, Christs, and conditions of salvation, the heavens, hells,
angels, devils, and gods were the common property of the ancient
world. They found that Christ was a new name for an old biography;
that he was not a life, but a legend; not a man, but a myth.
People began to suspect that our religion had not been
supernaturally revealed, while others, far older and substantially
the same, had been naturally produced. They found it difficult to
account for the fact that poor, ignorant savages had in the
darkness of nature written so well that Jehovah thousands of years
afterwards copied it and adopted it as his own. They thought it
curious that God should be a plagiarist.
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A PROPHECY.
These scholars found that all the old religions had recognized
the existence of devils, of evil spirits, who sought in countless
ways to injure the children of Men. In this respect they found that
the sacred books of other nations were just the same as our Bible,
as our New Testament.
Take the Devil from our religion and the entire fabric falls.
No Devil, no fall of man. No Devil, no atonement. No Devil, no
hell.
The Devil is the keystone of the arch,
And yet for many years the belief in the existence of the
Devil -- of evil spirits -- had been fading from the minds of
intelligent people. This belief has now substantially vanished. The
minister who now seriously talks about a personal Devil is regarded
with a kind of pitying contempt.
The Devil has faded from his throne and the evil spirits have
vanished from the air.
The man who has really given up a belief in the existence of
the Devil cannot believe in the inspiration of the New Testament --
in the divinity of Christ. If Christ taught anything, if he
believed in anything, he taught a belief in the existence of the
Devil. His principal business was casting out devils. He himself
was taken possession of by the Devil and carried to the top of the
temple.
Thousands and thousands of people have ceased to believe the
account in the New Testament regarding devils, and yet continue to
believe in the dogma of "inspiration" and the divinity of Christ.
In the brain of the average Christian, contradictions dwell in
unity.
While a belief in the existence of the Devil has almost faded
away, the belief in the existence of a personal God has been
somewhat weakened. The old belief that back of nature, back of all
substance and force, was and is a personal God, an infinite
intelligence who created and governs the world, began to be
questioned. The scientists had shown the indestructibility of
matter and force. Buchner's great work had convinced most readers
that matter and force could not have been created. They also became
satisfied that matter cannot exist apart from force and that force
cannot exist apart from matter.
They found, too, that thought is a form of force, and that
consequently intelligence could not have existed before matter,
because without matter, force in any form cannot and could not
exist.
The creator of anything is utterly unthinkable.
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A PROPHECY.
A few years ago God was supposed to govern the world. He
rewarded the people with sunshine, with prosperity and health, or
he punished with drought and flood, with plague and storm. He not
only attended to the affairs of nations, but he watched the actions
of individuals. He sank ships, derailed trains, caused
conflagrations, killed men and women with his lightnings, destroyed
some with earthquakes, and tore the homes and bodies of thousands
into fragments with his cyclones.
In spite of the church, in spite of the ministers, the people
began to lose confidence in Providence. The right did not seem
always to triumph. Virtue was not always rewarded and vice was not
always punished. The good failed; the vicious succeeded; the strong
and cruel enslaved the weak; toil was paid with the lash; babes
were sold from the breasts of mothers, and Providence seemed to be
absolutely heartless.
In other words, people began to think that the God of the
Christians and the God of nature were about the same, and that
neither appeared to take any care of the human race.
The Deists of the last century scoffed at the Bible God. He
was too cruel, too savage. At the same time they praised the God of
nature. They laughed at the idea of inspiration and denied the
supernatural origin of the Scriptures.
Now, if the Bible is not inspired, then it is a natural
production, and nature, not God, should be held responsible for the
Scriptures. Yet the Deists denied that God was the author and at
the same time asserted the perfection of nature.
This shows that even in the minds of Deists contradictions
dwell in unity.
Against all these facts and forces, these theories and
tendencies, the clergy fought and prayed. It is not claimed that
they were consciously dishonest, but it is claimed that they were
prejudiced -- that they were incapable of examining the other side
-- that they were utterly destitute of the philosophic spirit. They
were not searchers for the facts, but defenders of the creeds, and
undoubtedly they were the product of their conditions and
surroundings, and acted as they must.
In spite of everything a few rays of light penetrated the
orthodox mind. Many ministers accepted some of the new facts, and
began to mingle with Christian mistakes a few scientific truths. In
many instances they excited the indignation of their congregations.
Some were tried for heresy and driven from their pulpits, and some
organized new churches and gathered about them a few people willing
to listen to the sincere thoughts of an honest man.
The great body of the church, however, held to the creed --
not quite believing it, but still insisting that it was true. in
private conversation they would apologize and admit that the old
ideas were outgrown, but in public they were as orthodox as ever.
In every church, however, there were many priests who accepted the
new gospel; that is to say, welcomed the truth.
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A PROPHECY.
To-day it may truthfully be said that the Bible in the old
sense is no longer regarded as the inspired word of God. Jehovah is
no longer accepted or believed in as the creator of the universe.
His place has been taken by the Unknown, the Unseen, the Invisible,
the Incomprehensible Something, the Cosmic Dust, the First Cause,
the Inconceivable, the Original Force, the Mystery. The God of the
Bible, the gentleman who walked in the cool of the evening, who
talked face to face with Moses, who revenged himself on unbelievers
and who gave laws written with his finger on tables of stone, has
abdicated. He has become a myth.
So, too, the New Testament has lost its authority. People
reason about it now as they do about other books, and even orthodox
ministers pick out the miracles that ought to be believed, and when
anything is attributed to Christ not in accordance with their
views, they take the liberty of explaining it away by saying
"interpolation."
In other words, we have lived to see Science the standard
instead of the Bible. We have lived to see the Bible tested by
Science, and, what is more, we have lived to see reason the
standard not only in religion, but in all the domain of science.
Now all civilized scientists appeal to reason. They get their
facts, and then reason from the foundation. Now the theologian
appeals to reason. Faith is no longer considered a foundation, The
theologian has found that he must build upon the truth and that he
must establish this truth by satisfying human reason.
This is where we are now.
What is to be the result? Is progress to stop? Are we to
retrace our steps? Are we going back to superstition? Are we going
to take authority for truth?
Let me prophesy.
In modern times we have slowly lost confidence in the
supernatural and have slowly gained confidence in the natural. We
have slowly lost confidence in gods and have slowly gained
confidence in man. For the cure of disease, for the stopping of
plague, we depend on the natural -- on science. We have lost
confidence in holy water and religious processions. We have found
that prayers are never answered.
In my judgment, all belief in the supernatural will be driven
from the human mind. All religions must pass away. The augurs, the
soothsayers, the seers, the preachers, the astrologers and
alchemists will all lie in the same cemetery and one epitaph will
do for them all. In a little while all will have had their day.
They were naturally produced and they will be naturally destroyed.
Man at last will depend entirely upon himself -- on the development
of the brain -- to the end that he may take advantage of the forces
of nature -- to the end that he may supply the wants of his body
and feed the hunger of his mind.
In my judgment, teachers will take the place of preachers and
the interpreters of mature will be the only priests.
END
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SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT.
IT was thought at one time by many that science would do away
with poetry -- that it was the enemy of the imagination. We know
now that is not true. We know that science goes hand in hand with
imagination. We know that it is in the highest degree poetic and
that the old ideas once considered so beautiful are flat and stale.
Compare Kepler's laws with the old Greek idea that the planets were
boosted or pushed by angels. The more we know, the more beauty, the
more poetry we find. Ignorance is not the mother of the poetic or
artistic.
So, some people imagine that science will do away with
sentiment. In my judgment, science will not only increase sentiment
but sense.
A person will be attracted to another for a thousand reasons,
and why a person is attracted to another, may, and in some degree
will, depend upon the intellectual, artistic and ethical
development of each.
The handsomest girl in Zulu-land might not be attractive to
Herbert Spencer, and the fairest girl in England might not be able
to hasten the pulse of a Choctaw brave. This does not prove that
there is any lack of sentiment. Men are influenced according to
their capacity, their temperament, their knowledge.
Some men fall in love with a small waist, an arched instep or
curly hair, without the slightest regard to mind or muscle. This we
call sentiment.
Now, educate such men, develop their brains, enlarge their
intellectual horizon, teach them something of the laws of health,
and then they may fall in love with women because they are
developed grandly in body and mind. The sentiment is still there --
still controls -- but back of the sentiment is science.
Sentiment can never be destroyed, and love will forever rule
the human race.
Thousands, millions of people fear that science will destroy
not only poetry, not only sentiment, but religion. This fear is
idiotic. Science will destroy superstition, but it will not injure
true religion. Science is the foundation of real religion. Science
teaches us the consequences of actions, the rights and duties of
all. Without science there can be no real religion.
Only those who live on the labor of the ignorant are the
enemies of science. Real love and real religion are in no danger
from science. The more we know the safer all good things are.
Do I think that the marriage of the sickly and diseased ought
to be prevented by law?
I have not much confidence in law -- in law that I know cannot
be carried out. The poor, the sickly, the diseased, as long as they
are ignorant, will marry and help fill the world with wretchedness
and want.
Bank of Wisdom
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SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT.
We must rely on education instead of legislation.
We must teach the consequences of actions. We must show the
sickly and diseased what their children will be. We must preach the
gospel of the body. I believe the time will come when the public
thought will be so great and grand that it will be looked upon as
infamous to perpetuate disease -- to leave a legacy of agony.
I believe the time will come when men will refuse to fill the
future with consumption and insanity. Yes, we shall study
ourselves. We shall understand the conditions of health and then we
shall say: We are under obligation to put the flags of health in
the cheeks of our children.
Even if I should get to heaven and have a harp, I know that I
could not bear to see my descendants still on the earth, diseased,
deformed, crazed -- all suffering the penalties of my ignorance.
Let us have more science and more sentiment -- more knowledge and
more conscience -- more liberty and more love.
END
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"SOWING AND REAPING."
I HAVE read the sermon on "Sowing and Reaping," and I now
understand Mr. Moody better than I did before. The other day, in
New York, Mr. Moody said that he implicitly believed the story of
Jonah and really thought that he was in the fish for three days.
When I read it I was surprised that a man living in the
century of Humboldt, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer and Haeckel, should
believe such an absurd and idiotic story.
Now I understand the whole thing. I can account for the
amazing credulity of this man. Mr. Moody never read one of my
lectures, That accounts for it all, and no wonder that he is a
hundred years behind the times. He never read one of my lectures;
that is a perfect explanation.
Poor man! He has no idea of what he has lost. He has been
living on miracles and mistakes, on falsehood and foolishness,
stuffing his mind with absurdities when he could have had truth,
facts and good, sound sense.
Poor man!
Probably Mr. Moody has never read one word of Darwin and so he
still believes in the Garden of Eden and the talking snake and
really thinks that Jehovah took some mud, molded the form of a man,
breathed in its nostrils, stood it up and called it Adam, and that
he then took one of Adam's ribs and some more mad and manufactured
Eve. Probably he has never read a word written by any great
geologist and consequently still believes in the story of the
flood. Knowing nothing of astronomy. he still thinks that Joshua
stopped the sun.
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"SOWING AND REAPING."
Poor man! He has neglected Spencer and has no idea of
evolution. He thinks that man has, through all the ages,
degenerated, the first pair having been perfect. He does not
believe that man came from lower forms and has gradually journeyed
upward.
He really thinks that the Devil outwitted God and vaccinated
the human race with the virus of total depravity.
Poor man!
He knows nothing of the great scientists -- of the great
thinkers, of the emancipators of the human race; knows nothing of
Spinoza, of Voltaire, of Draper, Buckle, of Paine or Renan.
Mr. Moody ought to read something besides the Bible -- ought
to find out what the really intelligent have thought. He ought to
get some new ideas -- a few facts -- and I think that, after he did
so, he would be astonished to find how ignorant and foolish he had
been. He is a good man. His heart is fairly good, but his head is
almost useless.
The trouble with this sermon, "Sowing and Reaping," is that he
contradicts it. I believe that a man must reap what he sows, that
every human being must bear the natural consequences of his acts.
Actions are good or bad according to their consequences. That is my
doctrine.
There is no forgiveness in nature. But Mr. Moody tells us that
a man may sow thistles and gather figs, that having acted like a
fiend for seventy years, he can, between his last dose of medicine
and his last breath, repent; that he can be washed clean by the
blood of the lamb, and that myriads of angels will carry his soul
to heaven -- in other words, that this man will not reap what he
sowed, but what Christ sowed, that this man's thistles will be
changed to figs.
This doctrine, to my mind, is not only absurd. but dishonest
and corrupting.
This is one of the absurdities in Mr. Moody's theology. The
other is that a man can justly be damned for the sin of another.
Nothing can exceed the foolishness of these two ideas --
first: "Man can be justly punished forever for the sin of Adam."
Second: "Man can be justly rewarded with eternal joy for the
goodness of Christ."
Yet the man who believes this, preaches a sermon in which he
says that a man must reap what he sows. Orthodox Christians teach
exactly the opposite. They teach that no matter what a man sows, no
matter how wicked his life has been, that he can by repentance
change the crop. That all his sins shall be forgotten and that only
the goodness of Christ will be remembered.
Let us see how this works:
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
12
"SOWING AND REAPING."
Mr. A. has lived a good and useful life, kept his contracts,
paid his debts, educated his children, loved his wife and made his
home a heaven, but he did not believe in the inspiration of Mr.
Moody's Bible. He died and his soul was sent to hell. Mr. Moody
says that as a man sows so shall he reap.
Mr. B. lived a useless and wicked life. By his cruelty he
drove his wife to insanity, his children became vagrants and
beggars, his home was a perfect hell, he committed many crimes, he
was a thief, a burglar, a murderer. A few minutes before he was
hanged he got religion and his soul went from the scaffold to
heaven. And yet Mr. Moody says that as a man sows so shall he reap.
Mr. Moody ought to have a little philosophy -- a little good
sense.
So Mr. Moody says that only in this life can a man secure the
reward of repentance.
Just before a man dies, God loves him -- loves him as a ,other
loves her baby -- but a moment after he dies, he sends his soul to
hell. In other words nothing can be done to reform him. The society
of God and the angels can have no good effect. Nobody can be made
better in heaven. This world is the only place where reform is
possible. Here, surrounded by the wicked in the midst of
temptations, in the darkness of ignorance, a human being may reform
if he is fortunate enough to hear the words of some revival
preacher, but when he goes before his maker -- before the Trinity
-- he has no chance. God can do nothing for his soul except to send
it to hell.
This shows that the power for good is confined to people in
this world and that in the next world God can do nothing to reform
his children. This is theology. This is what they call "Tidings of
great joy."
Every orthodox creed is savage, ignorant and idiotic.
In the orthodox heaven there is no mercy, no pity. In the
orthodox hell there is no hope, no reform. God is an
eternal jailer, an everlasting turnkey.
And yet Christians now say that while there may be no fire in
hell -- no actual flames -- yet the lost souls feel forever the
tortures of conscience.
What will conscience trouble the people in hell about? They
tell us that they will remember their sins.
Well, what about the souls in heaven? They committed awful
sins, they made their fellow-men unhappy. They took the lives of
others -- sent many to eternal torment. Will they have no
conscience? Is hell the only place where souls regret the evil they
have done? Have the angels no regret, no remorse, no conscience?
If this be so, heaven must be somewhat worse than hell.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
13
"SOWING AND REAPING."
In old times, if people wanted to know anything they
asked the preacher. Now they do if they don't.
The Bible has, with intelligent men, lost its authority.
The miracles are now regarded by sensible people as the spawn
of ignorance and credulity. On every hand people are looking for
facts -- for truth -- and all religions are taking their places in
the museum of myths.
Yes, the people are becoming civilized, and so they are
putting out the fires of hell. They are ceasing to believe in a God
who seeks eternal revenge.
The people are becoming sensible. They are asking for
evidence. They care but little for the winged phantoms of the air
-- for the ghosts and devils and supposed gods. The people are
anxious to be happy here and they want a little heaven in this
life.
Theology is a curse. Science is a blessing. We do not need
preachers, but teachers; not priests, but thinkers; not churches,
but schools; not steeples, but observatories. We want knowledge.
Let us hope that Mr. Moody will read some really useful books.
END
**** ****
SABBATH SUPERSTITION.
THE idea that one day in the week is better than the others
and should be set apart for religious purposes; that it should be
considered holy; that no useful work should be done on that day;
that it should be given over to pious idleness and sad ceremonies
connected with the worship of a supposed Being, seems to have been
originated by the Jews.
According to the Old Testament, the Sabbath was marvelously
sacred for two reasons; the first being, that Jehovah created the
universe in six days and rested on the seventh: and the second,
because the Jews had been delivered from the Egyptians.
The first of these reasons we now know to be false; and the
second has nothing, so far as we are concerned, to do with the
question.
There is no reason for our keeping the seventh day because the
Hebrews were delivered from the Egyptians.
The Sabbath was a Jewish institution, and, according to the
Bible, only the Jews were commanded to keep that day. Jehovah said
nothing to the Egyptians on that subject; nothing to the
Philistines, nothing to the Gentiles.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
14
SABBATH SUPERSTITION.
The Jews kept that day with infinite strictness, and with them
this space of time known as the Sabbath became so holy that he who
violated it by working was put to death. Sabbath-breaking and
murder were equal crimes. On the Sabbath the pious Jew would not
build a fire in his house. He ate cold victuals and thanked God.
The gates of the city were closed. No business was done, and the
traveler who arrived at the city on that day remained outside until
evening. If he happened to fall, he remained where he fell until
the sun had gone done.
The early Christians did not hold the seventh day in such
veneration. As a matter of fact, they ceased to regard it as holy,
and changed the sacred day from the seventh to the first. This
change was really made by Constantine, because the first day of the
week was the Sunday of the Pagans; and this day had been given to
pleasure and recreation and to religious ceremonies for many
centuries.
After Constantine designated the first day to be kept and
observed by Christians, our Sunday became the sacred time.
The early Christians, however, kept the day much as it had
been kept by the Pagans. They attended church in the morning, and
in the afternoon enjoyed themselves as best they could.
The Catholic Church fell in with the prevailing customs, and
to accommodate itself to Pagan ways and superstitions, it agreed,
as far as it could, with the ideas of the Pagan.
Up to the time of the Reformation, Sunday had been divided
between the discharge of religious duties and recreation.
Luther did not believe in the sacredness of the Sabbath. After
church he enjoyed himself by playing games, and wanted others to do
the same.
Even John Calvin, whose view had been blurred by the "Five
Points," allowed the people to enjoy themselves on Sunday
afternoon.
The reformers on the continent never had the Jewish idea of
the sacredness of the Sabbath.
In Geneva, Germany and France, all kinds of innocent amusement
were allowed on that day; and I believe the same was true of
Holland.
But in Scotland the Jewish idea was adopted to the fullest
extent. There Sabbath-breaking was one of the blackest and one of
the most terrible crimes. Nothing was considered quite as sacred as
the Sabbath.
The Scotch went so far as to take the ground that it was wrong
to save people who were drowning on Sunday, the drowning being a
punishment inflicted by God. Upon the question of keeping the
Sabbath most of the Scottish people became insane.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SABBATH SUPERSTITION.
The same notions about the holy day were adopted by the
Dissenters in England, and it became the principal tenet in their
creed.
The Puritans and Pilgrims were substantially crazy about the
sacredness of Sunday. With them the first day of the week was set
apart for preaching, praying, attending church, reading the Bible
and studying the catechism. Walking, riding, playing on musical
instruments, boating, swimming and courting, were all crimes.
No one had the right to be happy on that blessed day. It was
a time of gloom, sacred, solemn and religiously stupid.
They did their best to strip their religion of every redeeming
feature. They hated art and music -- everything calculated to
produce joy. They despised everything except the Bible, the church,
God, Sunday and the creed.
The influence of these people has been felt in every part of
our country. The Sabbath superstition became almost universal. No
laughter, no smiles on that day; no games, no recreation, no
riding, no walking through the perfumed fields or by the winding
streams or the shore of the sea. No communion with the subtitle
beauties of nature; no wandering in the woods with wife and
children, no reading of poetry and fiction; nothing but solemnity
and gloom, listening to sermons, thinking about sin, death,
graves, coffins, shrouds, epitaphs and ceremonies and the
marvelous truths of sectarian religion, and the weaknesses of
those who were natural enough and sensible enough to enjoy
themselves on the Sabbath day.
So universal became the Sabbath superstition that the
Legislatures of all the States, or nearly all, passed laws to
prevent work and enjoyment on that day, and declared all
contracts void relating to business entered into on Sunday.
The Germans gave us the first valuable lesson on this
subject. They came to this country in great numbers; they did not
keep the American Sabbath. They listened to music and they drank
beer on that holy day. They took their wives and children with
them and enjoyed themselves; yet they were good, kind,
industrious people. They paid their debts and their credit was
the best.
Our people saw that men could be good and women virtuous
without "keeping" the Sabbath.
This did us great good, and changed the opinions of hundreds
of thousands of Americans.
But the churches insisted on the old way. Gradually our
people began to appreciate the fact that one-seventh of the time
was being stolen by superstition. They began to ask for the
opening of libraries, for music in the parks and to be allowed to
visit museums and public places on the Sabbath.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
16
SABBATH SUPERSTITION.
In several States these demands were granted, and the
privileges have never been abused, The people were orderly,
polite to officials and to each other.
In 1876, when the Centennial was held at Philadelphia, the
Sabbatarians had control. Philadelphia was a Sunday city, and so
the gates of the Centennial were closed on that day.
This was in Philadelphia where the Sabbath superstition had
been so virulent that chains had been put across the streets to
prevent stages and carriages from passing at that holy time.
At that time millions of Americans felt that a great wrong
was done by closing the Centennial to the laboring people; but
the managers -- most of them being politicians -- took care of
themselves and kept the gates closed.
In 1876 the Sabbatarians triumphed, and when it was
determined to hold a world's fair at Chicago they made up their
minds that no one should look upon the world's wonders on the
Sabbath day.
To accomplish this pious and foolish purpose committees were
appointed all over the country; money was raised to make a
campaign; persons were employed to go about and arouse the
enthusiasm of religious people; petitions by the thousand were
sent to Congress and to the officers of the World's Fair, signed
by thousands of people who never saw them; resolutions were
passed in favor of Sunday closing by conventions, presbyters,
councils and associations. Lobbyists were employed to influence
members of Congress. Great bodies of Christians threatened to
boycott the fair and yet the World's Fair is open on Sunday.
What is the meaning of this? Let me tell you. It means that
in this country the Scotch New England Sabbath has ceased to be;
it means that it is dead. The last great effort for its salvation
has been put forth, and has failed. It belonged to the creed of
Jonathan Edwards and the belief of the witch burners, and in this
age it is out of place.
There was a time when the minister and priest were regarded
as the foundation of wisdom; when information came from the
altar, from the pulpit; and when the sheep were the property of
the shepherd.
That day in intelligent communities has passed. We no longer
go to the minister or the church for information. The orthodox
minister is losing his power, and the Sabbath is now regarded as
a day of rest, of recreation and of pleasure.
The church must keep up with the people. The minister must
take another step. The multitude care but little about
controversies in churches, but they do care about the practical
questions that directly affect their daily lives.
Must we waste one day in seven; must we make ourselves
unhappy or melancholy one-seventh of the time?
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
17
SABBATH SUPERSTITION.
These are important questions and for many years the church
in our country has answered them both in the affirmative, and a
vast number of people not Christians have also said "yes" because
they wanted votes, or because they feared to incite the hatred of
the church.
Now in this year of 1893 a World's Fair answered this
question in the negative, and a large majority of the citizens of
the Republic say that the officers of the Fair have done right.
This marks an epoch in the history of the Sabbath. It is to
be sacred in a religious sense in this country no longer.
Henceforth in the United States the Sabbath is for the use of
man.
Many of those who labored for the closing of the Fair on
Sunday took the ground that if the gates were opened, God would
visit this nation with famine, flood and fire.
It hardly seems possible that God will destroy thousands of
women and children who had nothing to do with the opening of the
Fair; still, if he is the same God described in the Christian
Bible, he may destroy our babes as he did those of the Egyptians.
It is a little hard to tell in advance what a God of that kind
will do.
It was believed for many centuries that God punished the
Sabbath-breaking individual and the Sabbath-breaking nation. Of
course facts never had anything to do with this belief, and the
prophecies of the pulpit were never fulfilled. People who were
drowned on Sunday, according to the church, lost their lives by
the will of God. Those drowned on other days were the victims of
storm or accident. The nations that kept the Sabbath were no more
prosperous than those that broke the sacred day. Certainly France
is as prosperous as Scotland.
Let us hope, however, that these zealous gentlemen who have
predicted calamities were mistaken; let us be glad that hundreds
of thousands of workingmen and women will be delighted and
refined by looking at the statues, the paintings, the machinery,
and the countless articles of use and beauty gathered together at
the great Fair, and let us be glad that on the one day that they
can spare from toil, the gates will be open to them.
END
**** ****
SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN
TO SUNDAY SCHOOL?
SHOULD parents, who are Infidels, unbelievers or Atheists,
send their children to Sunday schools and churches to give them
the benefit of Christian education?
Parents who do not believe the Bible to be an inspired book
should not teach their children that it is. They should be
absolutely honest. Hypocrisy is not a virtue, and, as a rule,
lies are less valuable than facts.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
18
SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN
TO SUNDAY SCHOOL?
An unbeliever should not allow the mind of his child to be
deformed, stunted and shriveled by superstition. He should not
allow the child's imagination to be polluted. Nothing is more
outrageous than to take advantage of the helplessness of
childhood to sow in the brain the seeds of falsehoods, to
imprison the soul in the dungeon of Fear, to teach dimpled
infancy the infamous dogma of eternal pain -- filling life with
the glow and glare of hell.
No unbeliever should allow his child to be tortured in the
orthodox inquisitions. He should defend the mind from attack as
he would the body. He should recognize the rights of the soul. In
the orthodox Sunday schools, children are taught that it is a
duty to believe -- that evidence is not essential -- that faith
is independent of facts and that religion is superior to reason.
They are taught not to use their natural sense -- not to tell
what they really think -- not to entertain a doubt -- not to ask
wicked questions, but to accept and believe what their teachers
say. In this way minds of the children are invaded, corrupted and
conquered. Would an educated man send his child to a school in
which Newton's statement in regard to the attraction of
gravitation was denied -- in which the law of falling bodies, as
given by Galileo, was ridiculed -- Kepler's three laws declared
to be idiotic, and the rotary motion of the earth held to be
utterly absurd?
Why then should an intelligent man allow his child to be
taught the geology and astronomy of the Bible? Children should be
taught to seek for the truth -- to be honest kind, generous,
merciful and just. They should be taught to love liberty and to
live to the ideal.
Why then should an unbeliever, an Infidel, send his child to
an orthodox Sunday school where he is taught that he has no right
to seek for the truth -- no right to be mentally honest, and that
he will be damned for an honest doubt -- where he is taught that
God was ferocious, revengeful, heartless as a wild beast -- that
he drowned millions of his children -- that he ordered wars of
extermination and told his soldiers to kill gray-haired and
trembling age, mothers and children, and to assassinate with the
sword of war the babes unborn?
Why should an unbeliever in the Bible send his child to an
orthodox Sunday school where he is taught that God was in favor
of slavery and told the Jews to buy of the heathen and that they
should be their bondmen and bond-women forever; where he is
taught that God upheld polygamy and the degradation of women?
Why should an unbeliever, who believes in the uniformity of
Nature, in the unbroken and unbreakable chain of cause and
effect, allow his child to be taught that miracles have been
performed; that men have gone bodily to heaven; that millions
have been miraculously fed with manna and quails: that fire has
refused to burn clothes and flesh of men; that iron has been made
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN
TO SUNDAY SCHOOL?
to float; that the earth and moon have been stopped and that the
earth has not only been stopped, but made to turn the other way;
that devils inhabit the bodies of men and women; that diseases
have been cured with words, and that the dead, with a touch, have
been made to live again?
The thoughtful man knows that there is not the slightest
evidence that these miracles ever were performed. Why should he
allow his children to be stuffed with these foolish and
impossible falsehoods? Why should he give his lambs to the care
and keeping of the wolves and hyenas of superstition?
Children should be taught only what somebody knows. Guesses
should not be palmed off on them as demonstrated facts. If a
Christian lived in Constantinople he would not send his children
to the mosque to be taught that Mohammed was a prophet of God and
that the Koran is an inspired book. Why? Because he does not
believe in Mohammed or the Koran. That is reason enough. So, an
Agnostic, living in New York, should not allow his children to be
taught that the Bible is an inspired book. I use the word
"Agnostic" because I prefer it to the word Atheist. As a matter
of fact, no one knows that God exists and no one knows that God
does not exist. To my mind there is no evidence that God exists
-- that this world is governed by a being of infinite goodness,
wisdom and power, but I do not pretend to know. What I insist
upon is that children should not be poisoned -- should not be
taken advantage of -- that they should be treated fairly,
honestly -- that they should be allowed to develop from the
inside instead of being crammed from the outside -- that they
should be taught to reason, not to believe -- to think, to
investigate and to use their senses. their minds.
Would a Catholic send his children to a school to be taught
that Catholicism is superstition and that Science is the only
savior of mankind?
Why then should a free and sensible believer in Science, in
the naturalness of the universe, send his child to a Catholic
school?
Nothing could be more irrational, foolish and absurd.
My advice to all Agnostics is to keep their children from
the orthodox Sunday schools, from the orthodox churches, from the
poison of the pulpits.
Teach your children the facts you know. If you do not know,
say so. Be as honest as you are ignorant. Do all you can to
develop their minds, to the end that they may live useful and
happy lives.
Strangle the serpent of superstition that crawls and hisses
about the cradle. Keep your children from the augurs, the
soothsayers, the medicine-men, the priests of the supernatural.
Tell them that all religions have been made by folks and that all
the "sacred books " were written by ignorant men.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
20
SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN
TO SUNDAY SCHOOL?
Teach them that the world is natural. Teach them to be
absolutely honest. Do not send them where they will contract
diseases of the mind -- the leprosy of the soul. Let us do all we
can to make them intelligent.
END
**** ****
JESUS CHRIST.
FOR many centuries and by many millions of people, Christ
has been worshiped as God. Millions and millions of eulogies on
his character have been pronounced by priest and layman, in all
of which his praises were measured only by the limitations of
language -- words were regarded as insufficient to paint his
perfections.
In his praise it was impossible to be extravagant. Sculptor,
poet and painter exhausted their genius in the portrayal of the
peasant, who was in fact the creator of all worlds.
His wisdom excited the wonder, his sufferings the pity and
his resurrection and ascension the astonishment of the world.
He was regarded as perfect man and infinite God. it was
believed that in the gospels was found the perfect history of his
life, his words and works, his death, his triumph over the grave,
and his return to heaven. For many centuries his perfection, his
divinity -- have been defended by sword and fire.
By the altar was the scaffold -- in the cathedral, the
dungeon -- the chamber of torture.
The story of Christ was told by mothers to their babes. For
the most part his story was the beginning and end of education.
It was wicked to doubt -- infamous to deny.
Heaven was the reward for belief and hell the destination of
the denier.
All the forces of what we call society, were directed
against investigation. Every avenue to the mind was closed. On
all the highways of thought, Christians placed posts and boards,
and on the boards were the words "No Thoroughfare," "No
Crossing." The windows of the soul were darkened -- the doors
were barred. Light was regarded as the enemy of mankind.
During these Christian years faith was rewarded with
position, wealth and power. Faith was the path to fame and honor.
The man who investigated was the enemy, the assassin of souls.
The creed was barricaded on every side, above it were the glories
of heaven -- below were the agonies of hell. The soldiers of the
cross were strangers to pity. Only traitors to God were shocked
by the murder of an unbeliever. The true Christian was a savage.
His virtues were ferocious, and compared with his vices were
beneficent. The drunkard was a better citizen than the saint. The
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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JESUS CHRIST.
libertine and prostitute were far nearer human, nearer moral,
than those who pleased God by persecuting their fellows.
The man who thought, and expressed his thoughts, died in a
dungeon -- on the scaffold or in flames.
The sincere Christian was insane. His one object was to save
his soul. He despised all the pleasures of sense. He believed
that his nature was depraved and that his desires were wicked.
He fasted and prayed -- deserted his wife and children --
inflicted tortures on himself and sought by pain endured to gain
the crown.
END
**** ****
A YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES TO-DAY.
A FEW years ago there were many thousand miles of railroads
to be built, a great many towns and cities to be located,
constructed and filled; vast areas of uncultivated land were
waiting for the plow, vast forests the axe, and thousands of
mines were longing to be opened. In those days every young man of
energy and industry had a future. The professions were not
overcrowded; there were more patients than doctors, more
litigants than lawyers, more buyers of goods than merchants. The
young man of that time who was raised on a farm got a little
education, taught school, read law or medicine -- some of the
weaker ones read theology -- and there seemed to be plenty of
room, plenty of avenues to success and distinction So, too, a few
years ago a political life was considered honorable, and so in
politics there were many great careers. So, hundreds of towns
wanted newspapers, and in each of those towns there was an
opening for some energetic young man. At that time the plant cost
but little; a few dollars purchased the press -- the young
publisher could get the paper stock on credit.
Now the railroads have all been built; the canals are
finished; the cities have been located; the outside property has
been cut into lots, and sold and mortgaged many times over. Now
it requires great capital to go into business. The individual is
counting for less and less; the corporation, the trust, for more
and more. Now a great merchant employs hundreds of clerks; a few
years ago most of those now clerks would have been merchants. And
so it seems to be in nearly every department of life. Of course,
I do not know what inventions may leap from the brains of the
future; there may be millions and millions of fortunes yet to be
made in that direction, but of that I am not speaking.
So, I think that a few years ago the chances were far more
numerous and favorable to young men who wished to make a name for
themselves, and to succeed in some department of human energy
than now.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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A YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES TO-DAY.
In savage life a living is very easy to get. Most any savage
can hunt or fish; consequently there are few failures. But in
civilized life competition becomes stronger and sharper;
consequently, the percentage of failures increases, and this
seems to be the law. The individual is constantly counting for
less. It may be that, on the average, people live better than
they did formerly, that they have more to eat, drink and wear;
but the individual horizon has lessened; it is not so wide and
cloudless as formerly. So I say that the chances for great
fortunes, for great success, are growing less and less.
I think a young man should do that which is easiest for him
to do, provided there is an opportunity; if there is none, then
he should take the next. The first object of every young man
should be to be self-supporting, no matter in what direction --
be independent. He should avoid being a clerk and he should avoid
giving his future into the hands of any one person. He should
endeavor to get a business in which the community will be his
patron, and whether he is to be a lawyer, a doctor or a day-
laborer depends on how much he has mixed mind with muscle.
If a young man imagines that he has an aptitude for public
speaking -- that is, if he has a great desire to make his ideas
known to the world -- the probability is that the desire will
choose the way, time and place for him to make the effort.
If he really has something to say, there will be plenty to
listen. If he is so carried away with his subject, is so in
earnest that he becomes an instrumentality of his thought -- so
that he is forgotten by himself; so that he cares neither for
applause nor censure -- simply caring to present his thoughts in
the highest and best and most comprehensive way, the probability
is that he will be an orator.
I think oratory is something that cannot be taught.
Undoubtedly a man can learn to be a fair talker. He can by
practice learn to present his ideas consecutively, clearly and in
what you may call "form," but there is as much difference between
this and an oration as there is between a skeleton and a living
human being clad in sensitive, throbbing flesh.
There are millions of skeleton makers, millions of people
who can express what may be called "the bones" of a discourse,
but not one in a million who can clothe these bones.
You can no more teach a man to be an orator than you can
teach him to be an artist or a poet of the first class. When you
teach him there is the same difference between the man who is
taught, and the man who is what he is by virtue of a natural
aptitude, that there is between a pump and a spring -- between a
canal and a river -- between April rain and water-works, It is a
question of capacity and feeling -- not of education. There are
some things that you can tell an orator not to do. For instance,
he should never drink water while talking, because the interest
is broken and for the moment he loses control of his audience. He
should never look at his watch for the same reason. He should
never talk about himself. He should never deal in personalities.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
23
A YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES TO-DAY.
He should never tell long stories, and if he tells any story he
should never say that it is a true story, and that he knew the
parties. This makes it a question of veracity instead of a
question of art. He should never clog his discourse with details.
He should never dwell upon particulars -- he should touch
universals, because the great truths are for all time.
If he wants to know something, if he wishes to feel
something, let him read Shakespeare. Let him listen to the music
of Wagner, of Beethoven, or Schubert. If he wishes to express
himself in the highest and most perfect form, let him become
familiar with the great paintings of the world -- with the great
statues -- all these will lend grace, will give movement and
passion and rhythm to his words. A great orator puts into his
speech the perfume, the feelings, the intensity of all the great
and beautiful and marvelous things that he has seen and heard and
felt. An orator must be a poet, a metaphysician, a logician --
and above all, must have sympathy with all.
**** ****
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
**** ****
The Bank of Wisdom Inc. is a collection of the most
thoughtful, scholarly and factual books. These computer books are
reprints of suppressed books and will cover American and world
history; the Biographies and writings of famous persons, and
especially of our nations Founding Fathers. They will include
philosophy and religion. all these subjects, and more, will be
made available to the public in electronic form, easily copied
and distributed, so that America can again become what its
Founders intended --
The Free Market Place of Ideas.
The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
us, we need to give them back to America.
**** ****
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
24
E-Mail Fredric L. Rice / The Skeptic Tank