Year: 1879




cause it is repugnant to mans divine anc


immortal nature. The highest degree o


righteousness is holiness, and the Law


commands, "Ye shall be holy, for l, God
your Lord, am holy" This righteous


ness, or holiness, makes man god-like


that is, it elevates his soul to godly puri


ty and goodness. hence to Immortality


and happiness. This is undoubtedly the


foundation and spirit of the law. You


believe in God, says Moses and say the


prophets, and you are taught to reach


the supreme good, to find salvation here


and hereafter by the continuous practice


of righteousness This will be blessing


to you and the society in which you live


1t will fill your hearts with salts faction
and your souls with the light of heaven.


1t will bring peace and prosperity to you
and your fellow man, and will lead you
onward and heavenward to moral perfec-


tion, holiness and happiness. This is the
tenor of the law; therefore one of the
ancient rabbis said, "The divine com
mandments were given to man to rescue
him from the angel of death"


No, says the priest. this will do you no
good. You must first believe certain
eousness you can enter the kingdom of
ASdfcu 1AO &OOo VI uldu Is III
his faith, in believing that against which
his reason revolts. But since nine-tenths
of all human beings from Adam to this
day have not believed the priests dog
mas, and they have not believed it be-
cause it is not in human nature to do it
spontaneously therefore it is evident
that God has made man so from the be-
ginning that he be wretched here and
damned hereafter 1t is blasphemy to
say it, it is unreasonable to believe it, it
is nugatory to mans morals to teach it.


Look upon it in the proper light. Here
is John, Abraham or Mordecai You tell
him, John you are bad sinner, you are
lost, you are a child of damnation, be-
cause you do not believe the priests dog
mas. John being naturally timid and
pliable, gives in, and persuades himself
to believe all this and all that What
can you now honestly expect of him p
Can you expect of him that he will open
his heart to the sublime virtues of man.
that he will cultivate the generous and
noble feelings of exalted humanity, or
that he will anxiously seek the path of
truth and light in the labyrinth of events
or the avenues of nature? Can you ex-
pect of him, that he will go and seek the
poor and needy, the sick and suffering,
in order to have the pleasure of helping
them; that he will help and assist phi
lanthropists in bringing consolation, en-
and happiness to weeping
humanity Can you expect of John,
who has persuaded himself to believe the
priests. dogmass, that he will advance
higher in moral perfection, or do better
than keep himself out of mischief You
can not, for you have told him in the
start that you want his faith, and this
shall be his supreme good; you have
promised him that by this faith, all his
sins are forgiven, those which he has
and all those he will commit
hereafter, shall not disturb him in etern-
ity, if he only comes there with his faith
in the priests dogmas; you step up to
the criminal, to the murderer John, and
make him believe, and make the world
believe the murderer John is now as
good child of God, because he believes
the priests dogmas, as if he had led a
sanity life all his lifetime. Why should
John care for virtue, purity, righteous
ness and goodness, if he can do so well
without either? Why should he, if he is
told at least once week, all the good
ness, virtue, purity, righteousness of
hose who believe not the priests dogma,
ire of no avail, count nothing, can not
'ave them or bring them nearer to God ?
Therefore, John does not care and the
whole doctrine is nugatory to mans
morals it demoralizes thousands before
t elevates one.


How is it that the crimes grow over
'our heads here and in Europe. and we
lave ever so many churches and priests ?
low is it that your cities are full of dens
If crime and shame, and men in power
-
them? How does it happen
hat you have so many churches and |
priests and ever so many bankruptcies, |
lefalcations, embellishments, dishonest
Iealers and suspected officers? ANY man
Who is not blind must see it, that there |
s something wrong somewhere. The !
rinciple is wrong, and therefore the Sc
uence are pervert. They make man
elieve their faith in priests dogmas suf-
ices, and preach it SO often and SO loudly, |
hat virtue and purity, morals and right
business, have become secondary consid
rations. So society is being ruined
nore and more every day, and upon the
uins grow the poisonous plants of mis-
ry.


Well, then, take the question of the
upreme good from this simple and prac-
ical standpoint, with the aid of your
ally experience, and then ask yourself
he question Which is best for the hap
iness of the human family-is it best to
each that faith in the priests dogmas or
hat righteousness is mans supreme
ood 1t would not take a reasoning
nan long to-bring out the answer: Prac-
ically spoken, it is vastly more beneh-
ial to man and mankind to look upon
righteousness than upon the priests dog
nas as mans supreme good. Therefore,
Without being an optimist, one must adj
nit, therefo fore, there is salvation in right
business, that is sure; whether there is
Aviation in the priests dogmas, we have
20 means to ascertain. In regard to the
rgument of probability perhaps those
ogmas will do you some good hereafter


answer in the words of the Scriptures
The mysteries (secret things) belong to
he Lord our God, and the things reveal
d belong to US and our children forever,
O do all the words of this Law" (Deuter-
nomy xix, 29).


And so Scriptures, common sense and
experience teach there is salvation in
ighteousness. 1t is not necessary for
ne to go beyond this empiric evidence.


think, however, as long as the pulpits
re used for the purpose of expounding
nd defending first and foremost the
,riest's dogmas; then and next to look
O the interests of this or that particular
ect, with its creed and it's little differ
nces with other sects, and last and least
here is to come in the feeble echoes of |
righteousness as a sort of cadence; so
ong churches and dens of crime and
hame will remain on the same square
Preach salvation and righteousness first,