THE OBJECT OF LIFE
Men live for less than their advancement. The object of life is not human improvement. Ambition has not self-denial for a mark but self-gratification. A thousand pander to one. Pa.s.sion, instead of principle, is the power that guides. We do not save to help save the world, to aid progress and truth, but to have means to satisfy selfish desires. The highest consideration of mankind is self. Everything is done for one. Humanity is a word of little meaning. It is not often regarded as a great, living, suffering being, which demands of every person his or her best life. Man is not loved as the supreme fact of Nature. When not a beast of burden, he is too often a beast of pleasure.
As long as self is to be preferred to all, it matters little what is employed to promote it. Self is alone sacred to selfishness. General interest is sacrificed to individual possession. Every man thinks the world _his_ first. It is regarded as magnanimous to leave what you cannot take.
The world no longer permits the stronger to kill the weaker, but it allows the wealthy to oppress the poor. Money is holier than man. Human life is less sacred than property. To save a dollar is regarded as a more necessary virtue than to save a human heart. Society cares more for fortune than for truth. It is easier to win your way with hypocrisy than with honesty. The world does not ask: What are you worth morally? but, what are you worth financially? Self-interest has made it the object of life to injure our fellows. To get an advantage over another is the victory man seeks. One must fall that another may rise.
Those who are at the bottom support those who are on top. The toilers are the foundation of society. We need to be more careful of what is beneath us than of what is above us. "I write not these things to shame you, but to warn you."
When you are falling, you cannot stop where you wish to.
The power that conquers men to-day must be the power of enlightened opinion.
Two dollars given to the son do not atone for one stolen from the father.
MAN
The Hebrew psalmist sings of man:-"Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." A modern psalmist writing on this subject says:-"Man was made a little higher than the brutes." Man is a rare animal; he is the only animal that can make a fire, but he is more than a brute. We do not know how much less than an angel he is, for we do not know the dimensions of an angel.
What we do know is, that this strange, rare being, called man, is capable of doing a good deed, but is p.r.o.ne to do a bad one; that he has developed virtues above the brute and vices below the brute; that he is better in public than in private, and yet take him all in all he might be worse. We have had the weakness of human nature preached until we have almost come to expect man to be immoral and vicious, and are surprised if anyone a.s.serts that man is strong enough to resist temptation, and disappointed if he does not come up, or down, to our expectations of vileness and wickedness.
While we have faith in man in the minority rather than in the majority, still we are inclined to think that most men are bad from circ.u.mstance more than from choice. We trust to better conditions for better men, and depend upon our best men to establish such conditions.
There is some criticism of virtue that vice offers which is as pertinent as the censure of vice which virtue indulges in. We admit that there are a great many sinners that are preferable to some kinds of saints, who are no more to blame for their sins than their more fortunate fellow-beings are for their saintliness. But we do not mean to say that every good man is a villain in disguise, nor every rogue a righteous man who has not been found out.
There are men and women whose goodness is looked upon as "flat, stale, and unprofitable" because it is that kind that is good from favorable circ.u.mstances, and not from the exercise of any strength of their own, but such virtue is better than vice. We cannot afford to lose any power that protects the world from evil, and we rejoice in all the favorable circ.u.mstances that guard human beings.
Men are educated into bad habits through the constant a.s.sertion of human weakness, and the publicity which is given to bad deeds. We can never build man very high on the foundation of "total depravity." It is to be regretted that we think so meanly of mankind. We must start with a better a.s.sumption of human nature than that held by Christianity.
We ought to emphasize man"s strength and give prominence to the good deeds of men. It is not necessary to lie about human nature one way more than another. Man has been painted worse than he is. We do not ask to have him painted better than he is. We want a true likeness. Man will make the best picture without any fict.i.tious coloring.
We are aware that we have not yet outgrown our animal inheritance, that we are still fettered to earthly things. Man can more easily deny his soul than he can his stomach, but for all this there is greatness in him. While man can fall to the lowest depths from which he sprung, he can rise to the height which is visible in his purest hours. What we ought to do is to encourage, all we can, the conditions most favorable to the development of the n.o.blest part of man. Every temptation to vice should be driven from the public gaze. If man must fall, let him fall out of sight.
People who rely most on G.o.d rely least on themselves.
The original sin was not in eating of the forbidden fruit, but in planting the tree that bore the fruit.
The people who boast the loudest of carrying their cross are never around when man cries for help.
An audience composed of the best-dressed people in a town stands for "pure religion and undefiled" to-day.
THE DOGMA OF THE DIVINE MAN
There are growing indications all along the Christian line that the dogma of the divinity of Jesus is being abandoned. It is seen that such a dogma involves confusion and misapprehension. When the question, "How can a G.o.d who is infinite exist in a form that is finite?" is pressed to an answer, no satisfactory reply is forthcoming. There is apparent absurdity in this doctrine. The general definition of G.o.d, as put forth to-day by the Christian Church, is irreconcilable with the dogma of the divinity of Jesus. If Jesus was G.o.d he was not a man; if he was a man, he was not G.o.d.
To talk about his divinity is to talk nonsense, if Joseph was his father and Mary his mother. Man is not divine; G.o.d is not human. The mixing up of these two terms is done simply to impose upon the credulous and superst.i.tious. We cannot think that any man of real good sense believes this Orthodox dogma. It seems impossible for intelligence to so contradict itself. The brain stoops that accepts this dogma. For a man to confess his faith in Jesus as divine is to admit that his hat is not full. The evidence adduced to prove the divinity of Jesus proves the divinity of Apollo, of Hercules, of Prometheus, of hundreds of mythological heroes.
Are Christians prepared to admit this? If not, then they are called upon to tell the world why not. What is meant by divine? What kind of a man is a divine man? Let us see. Divine means superhuman, supernatural, G.o.d-like; hence a divine man is a superhuman man, a supernatural man, a G.o.d-like man. Does anyone know what these definitive terms mean? Does a person know what he is talking about when he says a man is superhuman? Can a man be more than man, more than human, more than natural?
The dogma of a divine man is a dogma of deception. It is a theological cobweb. It is spread to catch flies.
The idea prevailed in the past that what could not be understood must necessarily be profound, as though muddy water was deep water.
Does anyone comprehend the dogma of the Trinity? It is believed because it cannot be comprehended. The tribute of faith has been paid to occult nonsense long enough.
How does anyone know what is superhuman? What is human? The fact is, Jesus has had his day. His reign is drawing to a close. He is being seen for what he is,-a myth. Faith in him as a G.o.d is dying. The belief that Jesus was divine is a blot on the intelligence of this century. But the blot is growing smaller.
Lots of men who would not a.s.sociate with infidels for fear of contaminating their characters are not yet out of jail.
THE RICH MAN"S GOSPEL
The presence of numberless rich men in Christian pews leads one to wonder if the gospel of Jesus has been kicked out of the church. Such men do not, and cannot, respect the person to whom every church is dedicated. The gospel of Jesus is not the gospel of the rich, but of the poor; not of the banker, but of the beggar. It is impossible for the wealthy man to be a Christian. If he had any faith in the doctrines of Jesus he would "sell what he has and give to the poor." And not only this, but he would be poor himself.
Jesus never said a kind word of the rich. He never uttered a word that contains any consolation for the millionaire. He never gave any command that encourages the "laying up treasures upon earth." What is a rich man in the Christian church for? He has no business there, if he is an honest man. He is living exactly opposite to the life Jesus commanded. He is doing what Jesus told men not to do. He refuses to do what Jesus said a man must do in order to be his disciple.