Now, no one who has the capacity to think, believes in special providence. Of course there are some pious imbeciles who think that pestilence and famine, cyclone and earthquake, flood and fire are the weapons of God, the tools of his trade, and that with these weapons, these tools, he kills and starves, rends and devours, drowns and burns countless thousands of the human race.

If God governs this world, if he builds and destroys, if back of every event is his will, then he is neither good nor wise, He is ignorant and malicious.

A few days ago, in Paris, men and women had gathered together in the name of Charity. The building in which they were assembled took fire and many of these men and women perished in the flames.

A French priest called this horror an act of God.

Is it not strange that Christians speak of their God as an assassin? How can they love and worship this monster who murders his children?

Intelligence seems to be leaving the orthodox church. The great divines are growing smaller, weaker, day by day. Since the death of Henry Ward Beecher no man of genius has stood in an orthodox pulpit. The ministers of intelligence are found in the liberal churches where they are allowed to express their thoughts and preserve their manhood. Some of these preachers keep their faces toward the East and sincerely welcome the light, while their orthodox brethren stand with their backs to the sunrise and worship the sunset of the day before.

During these years of change, of decay and growth, the author of this book looked and listened, became familiar with the questions raised, the arguments offered and the results obtained. For his work a better man could not have been found. He has no prejudice, no hatred. He is by nature

candid, conservative, kind and just.

He does not attack

persons. He knows the difference between exchanging epithets and thoughts. He gives the facts as they appear to him and draws the logical conclusions. He charges and proves that Christianity has not always been the friend of morality, of civil liberty, of wives and mothers, of free thought and honest speech. He shows that intolerance is its nature, that it always has, and always will persecute to the extent of its power, and that Christianity will always despise the doubter.

Yet we know that doubt must inhabit every finite mind. We know that doubt is as natural as hope, and that man is no more responsible for his doubts than for the beating of his heart. Every human being, who knows the nature of evidence, the limitations of the mind, must have "doubts" about gods and devils, about heavens and hells, and must know that there is not the slightest evidence tending to show that gods and devils ever existed.

God is a guess.

An undesigned designer, an uncaused cause, is as incomprehensible to the human mind as a circle without a diameter.

The dogma of the Trinity multiplies the difficulty by three. Theologians do not, and cannot believe that the authority to govern comes from the consent of the governed. They regard God as the monarch, and themselves as his agents. They always have been the enemies of liberty.

They claim to have a revelation from their God, a revelation that is the rightful master of reason. As long as they believe this, they must be the enemies of mental freedom. They do not ask man to think, but command him to obey.

If the claims of the theologians are admitted, the church becomes the ruler of the world and to support and obey priests will be the business of mankind. All these theologians

claim to have a revelation from their God and yet they cannot agree as to what the revelation reveals. The other day, looking from my window at the bay of New York, I saw many vessels going in many directions, and yet all were moved by the same wind. The direction in which they were going did not depend on the direction of the breeze, but on the set of the sails. In this way the same Bible furnishes creeds for all the Christian sects. But what would we say if the captains of the boats I saw, should each swear that his boat was the only one that moved in the same direction the wind was blowing?

I agree with Mr. Taber that all religions are founded on mistakes, misconceptions and falsehoods and that superstition is the warp and woof of every creed.

This book will do great good. It will furnish arguments and facts against the supernatural and absurd. It will drive phantoms from the brain, fear from the heart, and many who read these pages will be emancipated, enlightened and ennobled.

Christianity, with its ignorant and jealous God-its loving and revengeful Christ-its childish legends-its grotesque miracles-its "fall of man"-its atonement-its salvation by faithits heaven for stupidity and its hell for genius, does not and cannot satisfy the free brain and the good heart.

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.

CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION AND CHRISTIAN

W

MORALITY.

E hear much of Christian civilization and of Christian morality! There is no Christian civilization or Christian morality, any more than there is Christian mathematics or Christian astronomy; though Christians seem to assume that they have a sort of monopoly of civilization and of morality, and that (as she is often called) "the great Christian nation!" England, is the great exemplar of all that is elevating, just and virtuous. What are the facts?

Is slavery a civilizing and moral institution? What is England's record in regard to it? Did she not foster the slave-trade and was not slavery maintained just so long as it was profitable to her? Jefferson, speaking of England's encouragement of the slave-trade, said: "This piratical warfare (the opprobrium of infidel powers) is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain."

In 1775, Lord Dartmouth (Secretary of State for the Colonies), one of the most conspicuous leaders of the religious world, said: "We cannot allow the Colonies to discourage a trade so beneficial to the nation." South Carolina, herself, among other colonies, remonstrated against the importation. of slaves, but Acts of Parliament were passed prohibiting the state governors from assenting to any measures which should tend to restrict the slave-trade. (See Lecky's History.)

Is it civilizing and moral in its effects, to send rum and opium to (what Christian England calls) "the heathen?” Canon Farrar says "where the English have converted one Hindoo to Christianity, they have made one hundred drunkards." Quoting the above, the Christian at Work adds, "Where the English have converted one Chinaman to Christianity they have made two hundred addicted to the opium habit." Bishop