Americanism versus Christianity

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Introduction

Much has been said recently about open discussion and open treaties. Secret diplomacy and secret treaties were denounced and a large hope has been fostered for a candid declaration of world confidence. This was in the political field of human interests, but the political diplomats availed themselves of the most guarded seclusion in all matters of great importance. The hope and promise did not materialize.

In the same way do we hear a great deal about the new aims of the church. "Service" is the great slogan in the open. Sermons, prayer and sacraments are not very essential. Saving the individual soul from the "wrath of God" is not popular in the open, and of the saints in glory we hear only in hymn and funeral oration.

Salvation Army "doughnuts" are the gods of today and from all indications Y. M. C. A. preachments are taboo. However, when the Convent and Sundayschool are investigated, "doughnuts" are still regarded as dangerous to the "soul." Among the diplomats of the creeds, the world is still the work of six days and the serpent is still endowed with the cunning of human language. Death is punishment and blood a remedy for vice.

Perhaps the best criterion of the present aim and content of Christian instruction may be gleaned from the contemporary "practical lessons" of the Sundayschool quarterlies. There are twelve selected Lessons, and here follows the Sundayschool sentiment as expressed by the diplomats of the creeds: — First lesson: "God demands our undivided service." Second:

" Jesus' life, death and resurrection evidence his deity." Third: "Christ died for our sins and was raised for our justification." Fourth: "United prayer will prevail." Fifth: "Man is God's handiwork. He is not the result of an evolutionary process." Sixth: "The wages of sin is death." Seventh: "We are saved by faith and not by our good deeds." Eighth: "Now is the day of salvation." Ninth: "Faith secures deliverance and cleansing from sin." Tenth: "He that doeth the will of God endureth forever." Eleventh: "Prayer offered aright is assured of an abundant answer." Twelfth: "Our greatest need is to have the love of Christ planted in our souls. ' '

But the new time is rich in open confessions in defense of an entirely different religious program. The fighting men and the working men came out of the war with quite a changed view of "Practical Lessons." In the open everything is for deeds — nothing for creeds. "Courage, Unselfishness, Skill." This is the new "Savior." Favorable conditions and adapted environments — the new sacraments.

Among the many expressions along this line which have come to my notice recently, the following by three famous men are representative. Fred B. Smith, interchurch movement worker of national fame, as reported in the Rocky Mountain News, said: "Money, religious work and efficiency of organization will all go for nothing unless we have a real gospel that will better every human being in every day life. The old idea of individual salvation must give way to a desire to look out for the salvation of the community. The saving of the soul of one's fellowman must consist in caring for his body as well as his soul, in giving him a decent living, the right sort of working conditions, so that his physical condition will not interfere with the development of his spiritual being."

The same sentiment is expressed by Judge Ben B. Lindsey in

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INTRODUCTION

the Denver Post: " 'Y' preachers overdid the type of preaching from the text: 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?' while the people were thinking 'What shall it profit a man if he save his own soul if the whole world is to be lost?' The preachers were preaching the old cowardly religion of individual salvation. The people were living the brave new religion of the salvation of the world. In the great war which society is always waging against the forces of nature, the men in the trenches of industry are the front-line soldiers protecting the world against want and hardship, while they themselves suffer and die, that others may be safe. Great masses of these others, the idle rich and leisured classes, live without a thought for the welfare of the man who toils for them. They go to church to be told how to save their own selfish souls, and their religion has as little appeal to the soldier of peace as to the soldier of war. ' '

In his latest book, "Another Sheaf," John Galsworthy says: "By courage and kindness modern man exists, warmed by the glow of the great human fellowship. He has rediscovered the old Greek saying, 'God is the helping of man by man,' has found out in his unself-conscious way that if he does not help himself and his fellows, he cannot reach the inner peace which satisfies. To do his bit, and be kind. It is by that creed, rather than by any mysticism, that he finds the salvation of his soul." We have in these quotations a remarkable rejection of the very center and highest ambition of orthodox Christianity. To this "salvation" of the community by physical, industrial and commercial conditions, the "Practical Lessons" of the Sundayschool have not the slightest relation. There, and in the convent and conference of ministerial diplomats, nothing is known of human help. There, faith, prayer and blood are all sufficient. There, the beggar subsisting on "crumbs" — the man without where to lay his head — are the idols and models. The well-to-do man enjoying life, the prosperous farmer building larger granaries — the stockman buying oxen — the man getting married — the land man — these are the evil ones to be despised and denounced.

In the open, the worship of poverty is dead, salvation by faith and prayer renounced and the tragedy of a dying God on a cross is rejected; but secretly and in great ecclesiastical convocations, the "holy alliance" method is still in practice — the world can be saved not by self-help or better living conditions, but by Christ alone who is God and the Bible alone which is God's word.

Against these disastrous fabrications, we protest with all the forces of discovery and argument at our command.

The Author.

THE AMERICAN SPIRIT

To form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common Defence, promote the general Welfare and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity. — Preamble to the United States Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. — Constitution.

All men are created equal and are endowed with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. — Declaration of Independence.

For, happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction and to persecution no assistance, requires only that those who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens. — George Washington.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see it. — Abraham Lincoln.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth. — Abraham Lincoln.

Be just and kind and do not be proud, and you are safe in any world and in any life. — Myron W. Reed.

"The American's creed" for which the city of Baltimore offered a prize of $1,000 was made public here today. Its selects]

tion was the result of a "national citizens' creed contest' ' approved by President Wilson, Speaker Clark and many other famous Americans. The author of the creed, who wins the $1,000 prize, is William Tyler Page of Friendship Heights, Maryland.

The American's Creed — I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people ; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I, therefore, believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.

BOOK I The Bible in the Public Schools

No teacher or student of any public educational institution shall ever be required to attend or participate in any religious service whatever. No sectarian tenets or doctrines shall ever be brought into the public schools, nor shall any distinction or classification of pupils be made on account of race or color. — Article 9, Section 8, Colorado State Constitution.

We cannot doubt that the use of the Bible as a textbook in the public schools has a tendency to inoculate sectarian ideas, and sectarian instruction is prohibited by the constitution.- — Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the United States. — United States Constitution.

The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. — Treaty with Tripoli.

Before proceeding with my subject, I want to say a few words by way of introduction. I wish to mention two things in particular; and, first, I will say to this audience that I am here tonight, strictly, and without any other affiliation than, an American citizen.

To me there is no other name or title so expressive of nobility and high aspirations as the name American. Whatever may be said of other empires and kingdoms, either civil or ecclesiastical — in liberty, in generosity, in humanity and in the recognition of the rights of man — America outranks them all. Theology and the church insist that the Infinite is interested in nothing but Christianity. But there's not the slightest doubt in my mind that when that great day of judgment dawns (if it ever does) there will be a splendid appropriation of space in the Heavenly Republic for Americans. And, I think, that great judgment will not be so much of a police court as it will be a great universal carnival, patterned somewhat after the Chicago Columbian Exposition. Somehow or other, when I read the lives of our great Americans and compare their views and conduct with the contentions of the church, I am afraid their credentials would scarcely admit them to the Golden Streets of the New Jerusalem.

So, instead of narrowing down theology to the petty confines of Christendom, I widen it out to the splendid conceptions of our American form of Government, which takes in every interest, creed or color ; and instead of but one New City, one New Jerusalem, there will be a New Washington, a New Paris, a New London ; and there will not only be represented the interests of this earth, but the interests of a thousand million worlds, of which the imagination of man has never dreamed. And there, among the largest and most glorious exhibits, will be the American Exhibit. And there will be a mighty White House, where George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine will tell us how they won the Revolution, how Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and how Ben Franklin caught the lightning from the clouds. And there will be magnificent state buildings where Lincoln and Garrison and Wendell Phillips and Grant will tell how they freed four million slaves. And there will be grand and glorious mansions, where Emerson and Lowell and Holmes and Whittier will tell us all about how they wrote their beautiful poems and essays. And there will be fine theatres, where Booth and Barrett and Joseph Jefferson will play Othello, and Hamlet, and Julius

Caesar, and Shakespeare will drop in from the English quarter and clap his hands and stamp his feet with delight. And Souza will be there with his great band, and New York and Chicago will be there with their baseball teams. And the builders of the railroads will be there, and Thomas Edison will be there with his inventions. And the schools and colleges and universities will be there ; and science and art and business and labor. Everybody will be there with his exhibit and there will be prizes and admiration and pity and consolation for all. No tickets, no bars, no doors, or locks, to the American Heaven.

I am very certain the Infinite is at least as good as the average American and will not damn a man on account of his religion.

In the next place, I want to mention in particular that whatever indiscreet word I may say will fall on my own head. In delivering this address, I am quite within my rights ; and if you will simply grant me the right which you claim for yourself, namely, to think about religion according to the dictates of my conscience, we will get along nicely. I hope you will do this while I now address you on the subject, "WHY WE DON'T WANT THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.' '

The human mind, when properly educated, is an index to universal creation. Without the human mind, the universe would be a blank. Time and space, force and matter, could in no wise become known or understood if human reason failed in its high office. Earth, Heaven and all conceptions, material and immaterial, derive their names and classification from the functions of the human mind. Mind is the great factor at the beginning and in the accomplishment of all attainments. In every enterprise, in every effort, in every activity, in reading, writing and thinking, in science and state, in business and trade, in the pursuit of every calling, high or low, secular or divine, mind,

["3 reason, intelligence stands at our side and guides our word and work.

And just in proportion to the training and culture that a mind receives does it become possessed of those powers and faculties which are useful in the promotion of human life and happiness. Quench the human mind, and the world becomes a madhouse ; but store it with useful knowledge and moral resolve, and it will transform the wilderness into a garden and fill the world with music and song.

And this is the high calling of our public schools, in whose welfare we are so earnestly interested. Gladly do we contribute our support to these excellent institutions, and with a zealous eye do we guard their high and unsurpassed qualifications. And we want to preserve them free and untarnished from the hand of every foe, and free from supersitition.

Oh, the beauty and grandeur of true education! What promises and hopes, what achievements and triumphs do we not apprehend from the power of knowledge! What glories shall not follow in the wake of intellectual expansion! What undiscovered heights and what unknown depths shall not become known! Knowledge of mysteries now inconceivable. Comprehension of the whirling suns and aquaintance with the wonderful atom. Understanding of endless space and conception of eternal time. Discernment of the great first cause and the determination of life. The facts of the universe tabulated and a register to the constellations as well as to the smallest particle of matter. Intellectual expansion to catch and harness unknown forces — to find voices in distant planets and send messages of greeting to other worlds. To bridge the spaces between these worlds as we now bridge the ocean between continents. To bring perpetual health where now disease and death hold sway. To overcome every defect, every fraud, every falsehood, every superstition and transform the world into a habitation of universal joy and gladness. This is the "ultimate end of education; and every teacher, inasmuch as he is true to his high calling, becomes a stepping-stone to this ultimate consummation so devoutly hoped for.

Teacher, your calling is noble and grand above every other calling. Inculcate the rules of proper conduct, and the preacher becomes a superfluous appurtenance. Diffuse the knowledge and comprehension of civil law and the rights of man, and the lawyer will have to take down his shingle. Worship at the shrine of moderation, temperance and purity, and the doctors must become extinct. But in order to serve the cause of this high destiny, you must be leaders, not mere followers. You must be openminded to all questions, and, above all, you must cut loose from superstition; and what I say to the teacher, I say to each and every one in this house.

Don't think for a moment you can harm the universe by using your reason.

Don't think others have rights which you have not. Your heart and your hands and your head have equal rights. Your heart must beat, your hands must work and your brain must think. This is the economy of life.

Human progress, in all its various departments, would be impossible were it not for the fact that almost every human being is a living question mark — a constant interrogation.

Eyes and ears must be alert to catch the sight and sound which have promise of new knowledge. Brain and hand must be active in the solution of new mysteries. The heavens must be scanned and the earth examined, and a thousand wonders explained. The courses of suns and planets are already traced on maps defining spaces billions of miles in extent. The forces of nature are harnessed, and lightning, fire and water do the bidding of man. The history of the earth is read in fossil and strata, and life is traced to its simplest form through a thousand centuries of time. This studying and questioning of the dark and unknown began with the earliest generations. By it, measures and weights were determined and latitudes fixed. By it the grains and metals were classified. By it the arts and sciences were developed. In short, from this tendency to doubt and question and investigate came everything of past and present achievement; and the man who seeks to discourage this study and search for the higher and better renders a mighty poor service to mankind. The growth and progress of man will cease when his doubts and investigations cease. And yet, thousands are dead to this important truth. Thousands put belief above knowledge, blind obedience above independent thought. They accept without question the most ridiculous propositions and defend the meanest superstitions. Many men start out in life with a free and untrammeled intellect, but later become converts to some creed and there they camp. Minds which might render noble service by original investigation settle down in front of a belief and accept everything in submission and spend their life in devotion to an incomprehensible fiction. They dismiss all doubts and discard all study. To them a doubt becomes a dangerous enemy. To them all truth has been discovered; all progress achieved, and new light becomes an impossibility.

The duty of man is not to camp in front of any belief, but to go forward in the search of truth and wisdom in all the realms of an infinite universe and explore and conquer it to the full extent of his ability.

Protected by eternal goodness and power and guided by infinite intelligence and wisdom it is our duty to be of useful service to the world and aid in carrying it forward to that "divine event toward which the whole creation moves." And this we can only do by original thought, by looking up to the highest heights and into the deepest depths and telling or recording our observations, that others may be guided to still higher and deeper investigations, and so solve the riddle of the universe. But while education and science are carrying on this grand work, they are doing it under a mighty handicap. Every step forward is beset by enemies who would pull the world back and chain it to the superstitions of barbaric ages. And it is with pain that I must here accuse the church as one of these enemies ; and as the church receives its instruction and authority from the Bible, we must abide by the logic of a modern Bible scholar when he says, "As the Constitution of the United States is the final authority in all matters of government for the United States, so the Bible is the sole authority in all questions as to the Christian religion. ' ' — (Dr. John McDowell, in Bible Record.)

This is all very well with the Constitution ; for that is not a fixed or divine authority, but derives its powers from the consent of the governed, or human reason. But with the Bible, it is different. No matter how absurd or dangerous the Statutes of the Bible may be or become, they are final ; and any attempt to reform or adapt laws made two, three or four thousand years ago to present conditions becomes treason and rebellion against established authority. The Bible as the sole authority in a progressive world becomes a tyrant and despot whenever or wherever in power. Now somehow or other, it has happened that for the last three years in connection with our commencement exercises an effort has been made to mix into our schools a large amount of religion ; and when it comes to that I want to have a hand in it.

But this is a perplexing proposition. It is decreed by the powers that be that teachers must be church members, or, at least, associate with the clan. Church hymns and church prayers

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are the order of the day and preachers are the high dignitaries during graduating exercises. After the teachers with highgrade certificates and untiring effort have for nine months taught the truths of science and ethics, on the last day a minister is called in to declare that all the educational efforts are nil, and that the only thing worthy of any consideration is the church and her superstitions.

For three years in succession, this very thing has taken place in Sterling. Last year the minister of the Methodist church delivered a baccalaureate sermon on "The Bible in the Public School," which was a slander on science, and an imposition on American citizenship. It may seem somewhat immodest for a layman to dispute with the "man of the cloth;" but after long and deliberate thought, I have concluded that an independent discourse on that subject was quite in order.

As you may have noticed from what I have already said, I am in favor of absolute freedom of thought. I believe in questioning everything and everybody. If I belonged to any one of the 700 Christian denominations, you could to some extent determine what I am going to say. But as I am American only, you are at a loss how to judge my philosophy; for under the American form of government each citizen is a sovereign, a king. He may worship or he may abstain from it. He may believe in traditional creeds or he may frame a creed all his own. He may believe in the God of Abram, Isaac and Jacob, or he may deny every God from the bushman's fetich to the image worshipped by Elijah II. There are no chains or dungeons for the worshiper in America and we are glad of that. Free as the air — free as the fleet-winged bird — the American sweeps up or down, east or west; — all directions are open to him and he soars unhampered by any system of religious doctrine, up, up to the sun and drinks in the light. Just as the mountains appear never alike, each hill and peak having its own peculiar aspect, so each and every American is different. This is the great privilege which our American form of government gives us and which the Christian form of government absolutely denies. And this is the first and chief reason why we do not want the Bible in our schools.

The Constitution says plainly that freedom of conscience shall not be prohibited, that freedom of thought and free speech shall be preserved. l ' Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. ' ' This is plain enough; and inasmuch as this is in direct contradiction to the precepts of the Bible, we want to avoid the conflict arising from this controversy in our schools.

This country stands for the principle that all authority is derived from the people. The Bible says that authority is derived from quite a different source. We have seen fit as a nation to completely separate the church and state. I suppose there are plenty of good reasons why this has been done. Almost every country in the world is trying to get rid of the church as an authority, and in the history of the world we find why this is so. It would seem, if the Bible were a good thing, the institutions founded on it would be good also, but what do we find? From the earliest time when the Bible or the religion of the Bible came into power it resulted in the most fearful tyranny and we now look back to that time and call it the Dark Ages. Martin Luther, infidel to Rome and Protestant reformer, thought he could still retain the Bible and also have religious liberty but what does history tell us? Protestantism in power with the Bible as its guide can but follow in the footsteps of Rome and say, "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me," or "He who belie veth not shall be damned."

Read the history of any country, Spain, France, Germany,

England, the American Colonies, wherever Christianity became possessed of power you will find the same record of intolerance, persecution and death. And let me say right here to you who perhaps innocently enough want to christianize the world: I do not doubt that your intentions are of the best; you think very likely, if you could send enthusiastic Christians to our legislatures you could obtain great things. Nothing fraught with more danger could happen to this, or any other country, than to have it christianized. Spain is christianized ; Mexico is christianized ; South America is christianized. All these countries want to get rid of Christianity. They want to get rid of Bible government. They want freedom of thought, freedom of religion. The Bible knows nothing of these blessings and rights. The Bible demands belief, submission, and is the enemy of human reason. To show you how Christianity would act if it had power, let me quote to you a few ideas of representative Christian ministers.

In his address last year, the Methodist minister made this statement, and these are his identical words: "Pray tell me who it is that wants the Bible out of the schools? I will tell you who it is. It is that man with a low brow and shuffling step, who believes neither in God nor humanity — that anarchist, who would throttle law and justice, assassinate the ruler and eliminate God from the universe."

There are several million people in this country who fall into this class.

"Pray tell me who it is that wants the Bible out of the schools ? ' '

Let me answer that question in the light of the actual facts.

First, I myself want the Bible out of the schools. To myself must be attributed the qualities which the minister describes as belonging to "that man" who wants the Bible out of the schools.

Next, all the Jews and very nearly all Catholics, and then, the great majority of those not identified with the churches; next, nearly all scientists and all those who belong to the classes known as Infidels, Evolutionists, Agnostics, Sceptics, Independents, Freethought and New Thoughtists, Unitarians, Universalists, Spiritualists, Occultists, etc. I shall not mention any individuals, although the names I could produce tempt me greatly to do so.

The answer which the minister makes to his question is an insinuation, if not a direct statement, that all those who do not want the Bible in the schools belong to the class which he describes. But to vilify and degrade those who see things differently is the chief vocation of the church, and if the preacher had the power to act as he has the privilege to vent his malice and hate, there is little doubt as to what he would do to those who are opposed to the Bible in the schools.

The defender of the Bible is a believer in religious persecution. The instances where punishment and death are inflicted upon those of a different faith are almost countless. Jesus and Paul are agreed, and the church has never failed to execute their awful declarations: "He who believeth not shall be damned. Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."

This is Christianity according to Jesus. Paul puts the same thing in a different form : " If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha." "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:9.)