Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-08-07

GA piSoo Jul luOuShtS. DO hoV ioA
a moment that think people who disa-
gree with me are bad people. | admit, and
cheerfully admit, that a very large pro-
portion of mankind, and very large ma
jjority, vast number, are reasonably hon
est. believe that most Christians believe
what they teach; that most ministers are
endeavOring to make this world better. l
do not pretend to be better than they are.
1t is an intellectual question. 1t is ques-
tiOn to be settled at the bar of human
reason. do not pretend to be better than
they are.
Probably am a good deal worse than
many of them, but that is not the ques-
ton. The question is: Bad as l am, have
| the right to think p And l think have
for two reasons: First / cannot help it.
And, secondly, like it. The whole ques-
tion is right at point. If have not
right to express my thoughts, who has ?
Oh they say, we will allow you to think,
we will not burn YOU All right why
won't you burn me?' Because we think
decent man will allow others to think and
express his thoughts Then the reason
you do not prosecute me for my thoughts
is that you believe it would be infamous
in you?' Yes And yet you worship a
God who will, as you declare, punish me
forever?' Surely an infinite God ought to be
as Just as man. Surely, no God can have
the right to punish his children for being
honest He should not reward hypocrisy
with heaven, and punish candor with
eternal pain.
The next question then is: Can | COM
NIT sin against God by thinking? If
God did not intend l should, why did He
give me a thinker? For one, / am con-
yinced, not only that 1 have the right to
think, but it is my duty to express my
honest thoughts. Whatever the gods may
say we must be true to ouselves.
I'VE have got what they call the Chris
tian system of religion, and thousands of
people wonder how can be wicked enough
to attack that system. There are many
good things about it, and / shall never at
tack anything that l believe to be good.
l shall never fear to attack anything /
honestly believe to be wrong. We have
what they call the Christian re-
hgion, and / fnd just in proper
ton that nations have been re-
GgiOus, just in that proportion
they have cluDg to the religion OF their
founders; they have gone back to barbarism.
find that Spain and Portugal are the two
worst nations in Europe. / find that the
nation nearest infdel is the most prosper
ous-France. And so | say there can be
no danger in the exercise of absolute in
tellectual freedom. l find among our
selves that the men who think are at least
as good as those who do not.
The Christian system is founded upon
what Christians are pleased to call the
n, " the Nea
Testament do not KNOW. VINO does
know? Nobody. We have found manu-
scripts containing portions of the New
Testament. Some of these manuscripts
leave out five or six books-maDy Of them.
Others more others less. No two OF these
manuscripts agree. Nobody knows who
wrote these manuscripts. They are all
written in Greek. The disciples OF Ch.ist,
so far as we know, knew only Hebrew.
Nobody ever saw, so far as know, one Of
the original Hebrew manuscripts. Nobody
ever saw anybody who had seen anybody
who had heard OF anybody that had ever
seen anybody that had ever seen one of
the original Hebrew manuscripts. No
doubt the clergy of your city have told
you these facts thousands OF times, and
they will be obliged to me for having re-
peated them once more. These manu-
scripts are written in what are called capi-
tai Greek letters. They are called Uncial
manuscripts, and the New Testament was
not divided into chapters and verses even
until the year of grace 1861. In the Origi-
nal the manuscripts and gospels are signed
by nobody The epistles are addressed to
nobody; and they are signed by the same
person. All the addresses, all the pretended
earmarks, showing to whom they were
written and by whom they were written,
are simply interpretations, and everybody
who has studied the subject knows it.
Christ never wrote solitary word OF the
New Testament-not one word. There is an
account that he once stopped and wrote
something in the sand, but that has not
been preserved. He never told any body
to write word. He never said: Matthew,
remember this Mark, do not forget to
put that down. Luke, be sure that in
your gospel you have this John, do not
forget it Not word And it has always
seemed to me that being coming from
another world, with a message of infinite
importance to mankind, should at least
have verified that message by his sigma
ture. Is it not wonderful that not one
word was written by Christ? Is it not
strange that he gave no orders to have his
words preserved-words upon which hung
the salvation of world E? Why was
nothing written? l will tell you. In my
judgment they expected the end OF the
world in few days. That generation was
not to pass away until the heavens should
be rolled up as a scroll, and until the earth
should melt with fervent heat. They be-
lieved the world was to be destroyed, and
there was to be another coming, and the
saints were to govern the earth, and even
went so far among the apostles as to divide
out the Offices in advance, as the Republi-
can and Democratic parties do now, before
election. Laughter and applause. This
Testament, as it now is, was not written
for hundreds of years after the apostles
were dust Many of the pretended facts
lived in the open mouth of credulity. They
were in the waste basket of forgetfulness.
They depended upon the inaccuracy of le-
gend, and for centuries these doctrines
and stories were blown about by the in
constant winds, and when reduced to writ
ing some gentleman would write by the
side of the passage his idea of it, and the
next copyist would put that in as part of
the text And, when it was mostly writ
ten, and the church got into trouble, and
wanted a passage to help it out, one was
to order. So that now it is
among the easiest things in the world to
pick out at least one hundred interpOla-
tions in the Testament; and will pick
some of them out before get through.
"For thousands of years the world has
been asking the question, What must we
do to be saved? Saved from poverty? No.
Saved from crime? No. Tyranny? No.
But, What must We do to be saved from
the eternal wrath of God, who made us