Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1902-05-02
A Mans God Is as Good One as
He Deserves.

~ WAT 0Ou 10 DIS NUN q SuS dS
He Deserves.
The theory that people enjoy as
good government as 1T deserves is
generally accepted.
The same idea can be applied to the
religions which govern mems con-
sciences.
A mans religion and the God which
he worShipS are as good as he deserves
to have, that is to say, good in proper
tion to his capacity for noble concep-
tion.
There has been much discussion recent
ly concerning Immortality, future life,
eternal happiness, eternal punishment
and so on. This is a continuation of
the discussion which began with the
birth of religion, a great many thous-
and years ago.
II you study the history Of men and
observe their moral development you
will find their belief IN an omnipotent
ruler Of the universe changing gradu-
ally with their own characters.
Among the lowest savages in Africa
you will find men who worship God,
and that God reflects their own char
acter. He is God that loves human
blood and sacrifices. To please him,
innocent creatures must be slaughter
ed.
A little higher in the scale you will
find men worshiping a God filled with
ideas of vengeance, a God who SEN
fences creatures that he has made to
punishment in eternal fire.
You find this idea of God prevailing
long after the intelligent LEADERS OF
the religion have ceased to believe in
that which they teach.
The jealous, revengeful God who
burns human beings alive for all eter.
nifty is kept alive in the churches part
ly that the churches influence may
not die out and more especially be-
cause the religious teachers feel that
those whom they seek to influence
can only be influenced through fear.
Thousands of earnest preachers have
done much good in the world, forcing
men to behave themselves by filling
those men with the belief in fiery
hereafter In which the teachers them
selves had no belief at all.
The next step in religious belief
eliminates the idea of future torment
entirely, puts it quietly in the back
ground, and dwells mainly upon the
rewards that come to those that are
good.
This class of religious believers have
freed themselves from the ideas OF
cruelty and cannot imagine venge.
full God throwing wicked human be-
ings forever in lake of fire. They
don't say what happens to the wicked.
They just pass that over.
Next comes class OF men whose re-
ligious feelings consist in profounc
reverence for the mysterious which
creates and maintains the world.
The belief of these men in God is at
least as strong as that of any Of the
others, much stronger, for instance,
than that Of the African with his hui
man sacrifice. They do not pretend
to measure or describe the God whom
they worship, to lay down rules for
his conduct or to endow him with the
hatreds and vengeful passions of i'm.
perfect human beings.
When all men shall deserve a kline
and feeling God and religion free
from terrors and threats, the eartl
will be inhabited by better people
Possibly, when that time comes, mel
will even be permitted to form some
feeble conception of the actual char
acter of Divine wisdom and its sources
While men remain as at present, the
vast majority of them moved only by
fear for their personal welfare, it Ii
well that religion should combine
threats with promises and that &
vengeful God should sit threateninglJ
above the heads of those who can be-
have themselves only in obedience to
fear.-Hearst's Chicago American.
The unrighteous war in South Afri-
ca has cost England over S7l5,000,000