In the days of slavery, negroes used to buy dried roots of other negroes, and put these roots in their pockets, so that a whipping would not give them pain. Kings have bought diamonds to give them luck. Crosses and scapularies are still worn for the purpose of affecting the inevitable march of events.
People still imagine that a verse in the Bible can step in between a cause and its effect; really believe that an amulet, a charm, the bone of some saint, a piece of a cross, a little image of the Virgin, a picture of a priest, will affect the weather, will delay frost, will prevent disease, will insure safety at sea, and in some cases prevent hanging. The banditti of Italy have great confidence in these things, and whenever they start upon an expedition of theft and plunder, they
322
take images and pictures of saints with them, such as have been blest by a priest or pope. They pray sincerely to the Virgin, to give them luck, and see not the slightest inconsistency in appealing to all the saints in the calendar to assist them in robbing honest people.
Edmund About tells a story that illustrates the belief of the modern Italian. A young man was gambling.
Fortune was against him. In the room was a little picture representing the Virgin and her child. Before this picture he crossed himself, and asked the assist- ance of the child. Again he put down his money and again lost. Returning to the picture, he told the child that he had lost all but one piece, that he was about to hazard that, and made a very urgent request that he would favor him with divine assistance. He put down the last piece. He lost. Going to the picture and shaking his fist at the child, he cried out: "Miserable bambino, I am glad they crucified you!"
The confidence that one has in an image, in a relic, in a book, comes from the same source,--fetichism.
To ascribe supernatural virtues to the skin of a snake, to a picture, or to a bound volume, is intellectually the same.
Mr. Talmage has still another argument in favor
323
of the inspiration of the Scriptures. He takes the ground that the Bible must be inspired, because so many people believe it.
Mr. Talmage should remember that a scientific fact does not depend upon the vote of numbers;-- it depends simply upon demonstration; it depends upon intelligence and investigation, not upon an ignorant multitude; it appeals to the highest, in- stead of to the lowest. Nothing can be settled by popular prejudice.
According to Mr. Talmage, there are about three hundred million Christians in the world. Is this true?
In all countries claiming to be Christian--including all of civilized Europe, Russia in Asia, and every country on the Western hemisphere, we have nearly four hundred millions of people. Mr. Talmage claims that three hundred millions are Christians. I sup- pose he means by this, that if all should perish to- night, about three hundred millions would wake up in heaven--having lived and died good and consist- ent Christians.
There are in Russia about eighty millions of people --how many Christians? I admit that they have re- cently given more evidence of orthodox Christianity than formerly. They have been murdering old men;
324
they have thrust daggers into the breasts of women; they have violated maidens--because they were Jews.
Thousands and thousands are sent each year to the mines of Siberia, by the Christian government of Russia. Girls eighteen years of age, for having ex- pressed a word in favor of human liberty, are to-day working like beasts of burden, with chains upon their limbs and with the marks of whips upon their backs. Russia, of course, is considered by Mr.
Talmage as a Christian country--a country utterly destitute of liberty--without freedom of the press, without freedom of speech, where every mouth is locked and every tongue a prisoner--a country filled with victims, soldiers, spies, thieves and executioners.
What would Russia be, in the opinion of Mr. Tal- mage, but for Christianity? How could it be worse, when assassins are among the best people in it?
The truth is, that the people in Russia, to-day, who are in favor of human liberty, are not Christians.
The men willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of others, are not believers in the Christian religion.
The men who wish to break chains are infidels; the men who make chains are Christians. Every good and sincere Catholic of the Greek Church is a bad citizen, an enemy of progress, a foe of
325
human liberty. Yet Mr. Talmage regards Russia as a Christian country.
The sixteen millions of people in Spain are claimed as Christians. Spain, that for centuries was the as- sassin of human rights; Spain, that endeavored to spread Christianity by flame and fagot; Spain, the soil where the Inquisition flourished, where bigotry grew, and where cruelty was worship,--where murder was prayer. I admit that Spain is a Chris- tian nation. I admit that infidelity has gained no foothold beyond the Pyrenees. The Spaniards are orthodox. They believe in the inspiration of the Old and New Testaments. They have no doubts about miracles--no doubts about heaven, no doubts about hell. I admit that the priests, the highway- men, the bishops and thieves, are equally true be- lievers. The man who takes your purse on the highway, and the priest who forgives the robber, are alike orthodox.
It gives me pleasure, however, to say that even in Spain there is a dawn. Some great men, some men of genius, are protesting against the tyranny of Cath- olicism. Some men have lost confidence in the cathedral, and are beginningto ask the State to erect the schoolhouse. They are beginning to suspect
326
that priests are for the most part impostors and plunderers.
According to Mr. Talmage, the twenty-eight mil- lions in Italy are Christians. There the Christian Church was early established, and the popes are to- day the successors of St. Peter. For hundreds and hundreds of years, Italy was the beggar of the world, and to her, from every land, flowed streams of gold and silver. The country was covered with convents, and monasteries, and churches, and cathedrals filled with monks and nuns. Its roads were crowded with pilgrims, and its dust was on the feet of the world.
What has Christianity done for Italy--Italy, its soil a blessing, its sky a smile--Italy, with memories great enough to kindle the fires of enthusiasm in any human breast?
Had it not been for a few Freethinkers, for a few infidels, for such men as Garibaldi and Mazzini, the heaven of Italy would still have been without a star.
I admit that Italy, with its popes and bandits, with its superstition and ignorance, with its sanctified beggars, is a Christian nation; but in a little while,-- in a few days,--when according to the prophecy of Garibaldi priests, with spades in their hands, will dig ditches to drain the Pontine marshes; in a little
327
while, when the pope leaves the Vatican, and seeks the protection of a nation he has denounced,--asking alms of intended victims; when the nuns shall marry, and the monasteries shall become factories, and the whirl of wheels shall take the place of drowsy prayers --then, and not until then, will Italy be,--not a Christian nation, but great, prosperous, and free.
In Italy, Giordano Bruno was burned. Some day, his monument will rise above the cross of Rome.
We have in our day one example,--and so far as I know, history records no other,--of the resurrection of a nation. Italy has been called from the grave of superstition. She is "the first fruits of them that "slept."
I admit with Mr. Talmage that Portugal is a Chris- tian country--that she engaged for hundreds of years in the slave trade, and that she justified the infamous traffic by passages in the Old Testament. I admit, also, that she persecuted the Jews in accordance with the same divine volume. I admit that all the crime, ignorance, destitution, and superstition in that country were produced by the Catholic Church. I also admit that Portugal would be better if it were Protestant.
Every Catholic is in favor of education enough to
328
change a barbarian into a Catholic; every Protestant is in favor of education enough to change a Catholic into a Protestant; but Protestants and Catholics alike are opposed to education that will lead to any real philosophy and science. I admit that Portugal is what it is, on account of the preaching of the gospel. I admit that Portugal can point with pride to the triumphs of what she calls civilization within her borders, and truthfully ascribe the glory to the church. But in a litde while, when more railroads are built, when telegraphs connect her people with the civilized world, a spirit of doubt, of investigation, will manifest itself in Portugal.
When the people stop counting beads, and go to the study of mathematics; when they think more of plows than of prayers for agricultural purposes; when they find that one fact gives more light to the mind than a thousand tapers, and that nothing can by any possibility be more useless than a priest,--then Por- tugal will begin to cease to be what is called a Christian nation.
I admit that Austria, with her thirty-seven millions, is a Christian nation--including her Croats, Hungar- ians, Servians, and Gypsies. Austria was one of the assassins of Poland. When we remember that John
329
Sobieski drove the Mohammedans from the gates of Vienna, and rescued from the hand of the "infidel"
the beleagured city, the propriety of calling Austria a Christian nation becomes still more apparent. If one wishes to know exactly how "Christian" Austria is, let him read the history of Hungary, let him read the speeches of Kossuth. There is one good thing about Austria: slowly but surely she is undermining the church by education. Education is the enemy of superstition. Universal education does away with the classes born of the tyranny of ecclesiasticism-- classes founded upon cunning, greed, and brute strength. Education also tends to do away with intellectual cowardice. The educated man is his own priest, his own pope, his own church.
When cunning collects tolls from fear, the church prospers.
Germany is another Christian nation. Bismarck is celebrated for his Christian virtues.
Only a little while ago, Bismarck, when a bill was under consideration for ameliorating the condition of the Jews, stated publicly that Germany was a Christian nation, that her business was to extend and protect the religion of Jesus Christ, and that being a Christian nation, no laws should be passed
330
ameliorating the condition of the Jews. Certainly a remark like this could not have been made in any other than a Christian nation. There is no freedom of the press, there is no freedom of speech, in Ger- many. The Chancellor has gone so far as to declare that the king is not responsible to the people. Ger- many must be a Christian nation. The king gets his right to govern, not from his subjects, but from God.
He relies upon the New Testament. He is satisfied that "the powers that be in Germany are ordained "of God." He is satisfied that treason against the German throne is treason against Jehovah. There are millions of Freethinkers in Germany. They are not in the majority, otherwise there would be more liberty in that country. Germany is not an infidel nation, or speech would be free, and every man would be allowed to express his honest thoughts.
Wherever I see Liberty in chains, wherever the expression of opinion is a crime, I know that that country is not infidel; I know that the people are not ruled by reason. I also know that the greatest men of Germany--her Freethinkers, her scientists, her writers, her philosophers, are, for the most part, in- fidel. Yet Germany is called a Christian nation, and ought to be so called until her citizens are free.
331
France is also claimed as a Christian country. This is not entirely true. France once was thoroughly Catholic, completely Christian. At the time of the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, the French were Christians. Christian France made exiles of the Huguenots. Christian France for years and years was the property of the Jesuits. Christian France was ignorant, cruel, orthodox and infamous. When France was Christian, witnesses were cross-examined with instruments of torture.
Now France is not entirely under Catholic control, and yet she is by far the most prosperous nation in Europe. I saw, only the other day, a letter from a Protestant bishop, in which he states that there are only about a million Protestants in France, and only four or five millions of Catholics, and admits, in a very melancholy way, that thirty-four or thirty-five millions are Freethinkers. The bishop is probably mistaken in his figures, but France is the best housed, the best fed, the best clad country in Europe.
Only a little while ago, France was overrun, trampled into the very earth, by the victorious hosts of Ger- many, and France purchased her peace with the savings of centuries. And yet France is now rich and prosperous and free, and Germany poor, discontented