Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1899-08-17

| Who wrote Paradise Lost? one of
the fools who believed in the Bible
John Milton. Benjamin Franklin sur
rendered to this delusion, If you may
Judge from the letter that he wrote to
Thomas Paine, begging him to destroy
the age Of Reason in manuscript,
and never let it go into type; and writ
ing afterward, in his old days: "Of
| this Jesus of Nazareth l have to say
that the system Of morals he left, and
the religion he has given us are the
best things the world has seen or is
likely to see." Patrick Henry, the
electric champion of liberty, was en-
shaved by this delusion, so that he
says: THE book worth all other books
put together is the Bible" Benjamin
Rush, the leading psychologist and
anatomist of his day, the great med
ical scientist-what did he say? "The
only true and perfect religion is Chris
tianity." Isaac Newton, the leading
philosopher of his time-what did
he say? That man, surrendering to
this delusion of the Christian religion,
cried out: The sublimest philosophy
on earth is the philosophy of the Cos
pei" David Brewster, at the pronun-
citation of whose name every scientist
the world over uncovers his head-Da-
vid Brewster saying, "Oh, this religion
has been great light to me-a very
great light all my days" President
Theirs, the great French statesman,
acknowledging that he prayed when he
said: Il invoke the Lord God, in whom
| am glad to believe" David Living
stone, able to conquer the lion, able to
conquer the panther, able to conquer
the savage, yet conquered by this de-
fusion, this hallucination, this great
sWindle of the ages, so when they find
him dead they find him on his knees.
William e. Gladstone, the strongest in
tellect in England, unable to resist this
chimera, this fallacy, this delusion of
the Christian religion, went to the
house of God every Sabbath, and often
at the invitation of the rector read the
prayers to the people. If those mighty
intellects are overborne by this delu-
sion, what chance is there for you and
for me?
The cannibals in south sea, the bush
men of Terra del Fuego, the wild men
of Australia, putting down the knives
of their cruelty, and clothing them
selves in decent apparel-all under the
| power of this delusion. Judson and
Doty and Abeel and Campbell and Will
liams and the three thousand mission
aries of the cross turning their backs
on home and civilization and comfort,
and going out amid the squalor of
| heathenism to relieve it, to save it, to
help it, toiling until they dropped into
| their graves, dying with no earthly
comfort about them, and going into
graves with no appropriate epitaph
when they might have lived in this
country, and lived for themselves and
| lived luXuriously, and been at last put
into brilliant sepulchers. What a de-
| lusion!
Yea, this delusion of the Christian
religion shows itself in the fact that
it goes to those who are in trouble.
Now, it is bad enough to cheat man
when he is we'll and when he is pros
| porous; but this religion comes to
man when he is sick, and says: you
will be we'll again after a while; you
are going into a land where there are
no coughs and no pleurisies and no
consumptions and no languishing; take
courage and bear up" Yes, this awful
chimera of the gospel comes to the
poor and it says to them: you are
on your way to vast estates and to div
idends always declarable." This delu-
sion of Christianity comes to the berett
and it talks of reunion before the
| throne, and of the cessation of all sor-
row. And then, to show that this de-
fusion will stop at absolutely nothing
it goes to the dying bed and fills the
man with anticipations. How much
better it would be to have him die
without any more hope than swine and
rats and snakes! Shovel him under
That is all. Nothing more left of him.
He will never know anything again.
Shovel him under! The soul is only a
superior part of the body, and when
|
tegrates. Annihilation, vacancy, ever
lasting blank, obliteration! Why not
present all that beautiful doctrine to
the dying, instead Of coming with this
hoax, this swindle of the Christian re-
! ligion, and filling the dying man with
anticipations of another life, until
some in the last hour have clapped
their hands, and some have shouted
and some have sung, and some have
been so overwrought with joy that
they could only look ecstatic. Palace
| gates opening, they thought-diamond
coronets flashing, hands reckoning
orchestras sounding. Little children
dying actually believing they saw their
departed parents, so that although the
little children had been so weak and
feeble and sick for weeks they could not
turn on their dying pillow, at the last
in a paroxysm of rapture uncontrolla-
BILE, they sprang to their feet and
shouted: Mother, catch me; I am
coming"
The strong conclusion of every rea-
sonable man and woman is that Chris
tianity, producing such grand results,
cannot be a delusion. A lie, a cheat,
swindle, a hallucination cannot
launch such a glory of the centuries.
Your logic and your common sense
convince you that a bad cause cannot
produce an illustrious result; out of