conclusion that Jesus would let the robbers alone, inasmuch as they give the good Samaritan a chance to practice piety and to show compassion. The beggar and the robber you always have with you, Jesus seems to say, for how can men be kind and forgiving without them?

In conclusion, the lesson of the parables, to an unprejudiced mind, is this: the more worthless and degraded a man, the more loaded down with debts, the more dangerous he is to his fellows, the more suitable he will be to prove that God saves whom he wishes, independent of the question of merit, and that "the righteousness of man is as filthy rags."* A more opprobrious phrase could not have been used to express utter contempt for human virtues. According to the Gospel, "the whores and harlots," as well as beggars and robbers,† "shall enter the kingdom of God," "before the righteous, or the wise of this world." But upon what grounds? "It is my whim.”

* Isaiah lxiv, 6.

"Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you." Matthew xxi, 31.

For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise."-I Corinthians i, 27. Paul also states that the way to be wise is by becoming a fool:

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let

him become a fool, that he may be wise." -I Corinthians iii, 18.

I

PART VII.

I.

A Better Bible

AM not able to say what makes a book "holy," but I would like to give my idea of a good book. No book deserves to be called good or great which does not grapple with the problems of life in such an open and disinterested way as to challenge the most unsparing tests which may be applied to its conclusions, or to the methods by which it has arrived at them. The book that objects to or fears criticism, or is injured by it, is certainly not a great book. Even as gold outlives the fire, a great book must outlive criticism.

The works of such men as Copernicus and La Place, and of Galileo and Herschel, who opened up for us the heavens, are truly great, for the reason that not only do they not plead for protection against criticism, but they resist all the strain that the freest and boldest criticism can bring to bear upon them. The same is true of the works of Darwin, Haeckel, Herbert Spencer, who need neither the sword of the king nor the curse of the priest to prove their conclusions true. And men like Shakespeare, who have circumnavigated the human intellect, and sailed around the globe of beauty and truth, may justly be proud of their work, because criticism can no more hurt them than fire the gold. Can the bible stand the test which proves greatness? To answer this question we have only to observe

how vehemently the bible objects to criticism: "He that believeth not shall be damned," and "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed" that is to say, who believe blindly. And the defenders of the bible have, alas! committed every conceivable crime in their effort to prevent criticism of the bible. Does this prove the greatness of the bible?

Let us make a brief comparison between the Book of God and some of the books of man. Suppose we wished to teach the splendid truth of the solidarity of the human race - the oneness of mankind — is there anything, either in the New or the Old Testament, which in breadth or beauty approaches the thoughts of the pagan philosophers on this subject?

I am a citizen of the world.- Socrates.

Nature ordains that a man should wish the good of every man, whoever he may be, and for this very reason that he is a man.- Cicero.

Did any Jew, or Christian, ever say anything like that?

I was not born for one corner; my country is this whole world.- Seneca.

And it was not a slave, but a citizen of the proudest empire the world ever saw, who thus opens his sympathies to embrace the whole of the human family. Where is the bible prophet, or apostle, who could transcend creed and country with the same elan?

The much admired Republic of Zeno aimed simply at this, that neither in cities nor towns we should live under distinct laws, one from another, but should look on all men as our fellow countrymen and citizens like a flock feeding together with equal rights in a common pasture.- Plutarch.*

*The Fortune of Alexander, 6.

What would not Jews or Christians give for such a passage in their "holy" book! How proudly the clergy would quote it, to prove the divinity of their religion, if this beautiful gem sparkled somewhere within the covers of their bible!

I am a man, and nothing human can be foreign to me.— Terrence.

A sentiment like that makes the whole page which expresses it of solid gold. In vain do we look for so big an utterance in "infallible" books. To the Hebrew there was no world outside Israel, and to Jesus all that came before him were "thieves and robbers." Not until Christianity crossed over into Europe did its missionaries discover that "God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth," though even then it was a creed they had to accept or perish.

In the name of the universal brotherhood which binds together all men under the common father of nature.

Nature is the only impartial father. The chosen people of this father are those of whatever race and religion who conquer knowledge and follow Reason.- Quintillian.

Love mankind.- Antoninus.

Is it not better than the "love one another," of Jesus, which really meant, "love only your fellowbeliever"? Jesus declared that it will be worse for those who rejected him and his apostles, on the last day, than for Sodom and Gomorrah, which were consumed by fire from heaven.

What good man will look on any suffering as foreign to himself? Juvenal.

The Universe is but a great city; never, in reply to the question to what country you belong, say you are an Athenian, or a Corinthian, but say you are a Cosmopolitan- a citizen of the world.-Epictetus.*

But it was not only in their universalism that the

* Discourses i, 9.

European writers excelled the Asiatic seers and miracle-workers. It has been persistently claimed that both love and justice are exclusively biblical virtues. We regret to say that this is another untruth, the extensive circulation of which was deemed necessary to protect the bible against its rivals.

Love is the foundation of the law. Cicero.

Sympathy is what distinguishes us from brutes.- Juvenal. The love of all to all.-Pythagoras.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it. It is never right to return an injury. Plato.

We should be good to our enemy and make him our friend. - Cleobulus.

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Ask thyself daily to how many ill-minded persons thou hast shown a kind disposition.- Antoninus.

To the very end of life we will be in action, we will not cease to labor for the common weal, to help individuals, to give aid even to our enemies.- Seneca.

Moreover, the motives which the philosophers held forth were very much more creditable to human nature than the rewards, either here or in the next world, which the bible held out as inducements to action.

What more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service than the fact of having done it? Art thou not content to have done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it, as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the foot for walking? - Seneca.*

If so sweet and sane, so large and pure a sentiment could be found in any part of the Word of God, I shall forever after keep my mouth closed. The servitude of man, not the service of man, is the theme of the bible; and if Jesus said that the charities should be done in secret, it was because that was the best way to secure a public reward. And your father which seeth in secret," said Jesus, "will reward you openly.”

* De Benef ix, 41.

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