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A human skeleton found at a depth of sixteen feet, under four buried forests, has been allowed an antiquity of fifty thousand years."

John Fiske says that the American continent was inhabited by human beings at least four hundred thousand years ago. Tools of human workmanship have been discovered which Wallace reckons were left five hundred thousand years ago. Lesly believes our race to have been upon the earth for very many hundreds of thousands of years.

Prof. McGee (at the Scientific Convention, Rochester, April 22, 92,) expressed the opinion that the duration of life on the earth was not less than fifteen million years.

Not only is the Bible inconsistent, contradictory, inaccurate and absurd, but the effect of its teachings has been, probably, more calamitous than has resulted from any other single cause. It has restrained innocent mirth by requiring us to "mourn and weep." It has furnished authority for the husband to "rule over" the wife. It has encouraged tyrants by urging submission to "the powers that be." It has discouraged learning. It has been the most inveterate foe of science. It has incited bigotry. It has encouraged the fabulous, the marvelous, the miraculous. It has made superstition its chief and almost entire support. It has held virtuous conduct as secondary to its dogmatic postulates. It has made imitators of the attempted or pretended sacrifice of Isaac, many an innocent child having become the victim of some fanatical Christian parent. It has shattered the reason of millions of intelligent, but credulous, human beings, who have had faith in the (socalled) "inspired word."

Prof. Felix Adler says: "It is a paradox that the gentlest, most loving, religious teacher whoever lived should have become the founder of a religion that has, perhaps, shown more cruelty and shed more blood than any other."

Deut. xiii: 6-9, furnishes the warrant by which "from the tenth to the end of the sixteenth century, not less than three million heretics'-scholars and free inquirers-had to expiate their love of truth in the flames of the stake."

At least five million of our fellow-beings were sacrificed on the altar of fanaticism during the crusades alone.

"The extermination of the Moriscos reduced the population of Spain by seven millions."(Prof. Oswald.)

The English author, Grant, states the result of belief in the verse of the Bible, "Thou shalt not permit a witch to live," to be the martyrdom of nine millions of human beings.

"The dogma of exclusive salvation by faith made forcible conversion appear an act of mercy, and stimulated those wars of aggression that have cost the lives of more than thirty million of our fellow-men."-(Oswald.)

"Religion raging with inhuman zeal,

Arms every hand and points the fatal steel-
Whatever names divine the parties claim,
In craft and fury they are both the same."

In concluding this line of thought, I give what are infinitely better (of course) than any words of my own, those of the incomparable Ingersoll :

"The real oppressor, enslaver and corrupter of the people is the Bible. That book burnt heretics, built dungeons, founded the Inquisition, and trampled upon all the liberties of man. That book spread the pall of superstition over the colleges and schools. That book puts out the eyes of science and makes honest investigation a crime. That book fills the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear. If cathe

drals had been universities, if dungeons of the Inquisition had been laboratories, if Christians had believed in character instead of creed, if they had taken from the Bible all the good and thrown away the wicked and absurd, if domes of temples had been observatories, if priests had been philosophers, if missionaries had taught the useful arts, if astrology had been astronomy, if the black art had been chemistry, if superstition. had been science, if religion had been humanity, this world. would have been a heaven filled with love, with liberty and joy.

TAXATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY.

HERE is no. ranker injustice than that a portion of the community should be compelled, by law, to pay for the support of institutions in which it not only does not believe, but which it regards as a positive injury to the well-being of the community at large.

And yet such injustice is in constant practice among us by the system now prevailing in nearly every part of our country, and known as that of exempting Church property from taxation.

Why is this done? It is because an influential portion of the community assumes that the Churches exert a moral influence, and that therefore, the people at large should be compelled to support the Churches; this influential portion of the community also impudently claiming that there is no morality outside of Christianity!

There are other institutions, other agencies besides Christianity, which exert a moral influence on the community, but. which are not exempt, and do not claim exemption, from taxation.

But do the Churches exert a moral influence? Do they encourage that enlightened desire for knowledge, that persistent, unbiased search for truth, which is the basis of true morality? Do they discourage that injustice with the practice of which no morality can be genuine? Do they recognize the moral obligation demanded by the "golden rule?" Do they render to Cæsar (or the State) the things that are Cæsar's," or, rather, do they not utterly repudiate the demands which Christ thus makes, by refusing to render to the State that which is its due, as tax on their Church property?

The superstitions which are encouraged in both the Roman. Catholic and Protestant Churches are, and have been for centuries, the chief obstacles to the advance of civilization, of intellectual and scientific and elevating thought. The immoral doctrine of the atonement, that the innocent could justly be punished for the crimes or sins of the guilty; that upright men and women are to suffer endless torment for no other reason than that they act upon the dictates of their consciences, which have been enlightened by the free exercise of their intellectual faculties, while murderers and others who have led the most reprobate of lives are to enjoy an eternity of bliss, if only at the last moment of their wretched existence they profess faith in the dogmas of the Christian Church; the teachings of the Bible, its untrustworthy statements and obscene recitals; all these inculcations of Christianity are of so objectionable a character as to impel those opposed to it to do what they can to lessen its influence and as far as possible to arrest its progress. As T. B. Wakeman, Esq., says: "Those opposed to the exemption of Church property have conscientious convictions against furnishing means to teach the doctrines of total depravity, hell, fall of man, atonement, forgiveness of sins by prayer, absolution by penance, baptism, infallibility of Pope, Church, Bible or revelation."

Statistics prove that, with rare exceptions, our criminal class have been brought under the influence of the Church, either Roman Catholic or Protestant. Dexter A. Hawkins, an eminent lawyer in the City of New York, who made such matters very largely the study of the closing years of his active and useful life, has shown by figures that attendants on the schools of the Christian Church became inmates of jails, in the proportion of more than three to one of those who were educated in our public schools.

And yet, notwithstanding the conscientious convictions of persons opposed to the influences of the Churches, notwithstanding the proven demoralization of their teachings, notwithstanding that two-thirds of the inhabitants of the country are not church-goers, and have no interest whatever in the

maintenance of the Church, these persons are forced to contribute to the support of the Church, compelled to pay for its maintenance.

The system known as exempting Church property from taxation is an evasion of the well-known principle which underlies the Constitution of the United States and of the several States with reference to the question of religion, there being express provisions against the donating of the public moneys for the support of religion, or indeed of even the recognition of any religion. We have the high authority of the late Judge Story of the Supreme Court of the United States for saying that it is unconstitutional for any one to "be compelled to support any place of worship or to maintain any ministry against his consent."

What is this exemption of Church property from taxation but an "evasion?"

What difference does it make whether our legislators openly donate so much of the public money every year to the support of the Churches, or whether such Churches are exempted by legislative action from the operation of a general tax law? None whatever.

"Tax exemption is equivalent to direct appropriation." "An exemption is simply the presentation of a receipted bill for taxes."

"In this country, where we are wont to indulge in the proud boast of freedom from any "entangling alliance" whatever with the Church, we are contributing to the support of the Church, practically, precisely the same as in those countries where a union of Church and State is recognized.

The exemption of Church property from taxation, in utter disregard of the rights of a minority, is an abuse of power which should be expected only from monarchical governments. It is opposed to every principle upon which a republican government is founded.

Let no one say that we have not a Union of Church and State in this country so long as the practice of exempting Church property from taxation continues.