1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



411 



Im f CIM#. 



For even the Son of man came not U> be minister- 

 ed unto, but to minister, and to give his lite a ran- 

 som for many.— Makk 10: 45. 



^lOME of the friends may remember a 

 ^ letter in the Home J'apers for May, issi , 

 by W. E. Leonard, which was answered 

 partly in that nnmber, and another part of 

 it in the Jnne No. ^Vell, friend Leonard 

 wrote another letter last December, which 

 he is very anxions indeed I shonld pnblish. 

 He heads his letter, as yon see, with a verse 

 from John ; bnt I hardly think he means it 

 as a text, for he calls it absurd. Here is the 

 letter : — 



And there arc also many other things which Jesus 

 did, the which, if they should he written every one, 

 I suppose that even tiie whole world itself could not 

 contain the books that should be written. Amen.— 



Friend Boot. — Gleanings comes to hand every 

 month bright and clean; not one word of spite can 

 be found on its pages, unless written by some one 

 who is not as good an infidel as yourself, and you 

 very properly put him into the Growler}'. When I 

 wrote yovi ia May last, I had no thought you would 

 publish it; and you would be surprised to see the 

 number of letters that was sent to me from seven 

 different States in the Inionia regard to that letter. 

 One kind-hearted man sent me a book from Utah, 

 which stated that "Joe Smith foimd the real Bible 

 in the county of Ontario, N. Y., a.d. 1837!" 



Now, what we believe and what we do not believe 

 does not alter the truth; and in your answers to my 

 letter, the heathen priest can use them with the 

 same force, to prove that his stone idol is the God of 

 the universe; and his theory would have this advan- 

 tage over your reasonings: he could show his god, 

 while yours is invisible. I am not an atheist, and 

 will not deny that thtre is some power that rules the 

 universe; but I must deny that the God described 

 in the Bible is the power that rules the universe. 



The Christian religion is concentrated selfishness. 

 " I am going to heaven, you are going to hell," Is the 

 whole matter in a nutshell, and this is the teaching 



of the Bible: " Believe, or you will be d d." Now, 



belief is the result of education and circumstances; 

 and how can I believe, when my reason and educa- 

 tion teach me that the Bible is not God's word, but 

 man wrote it in an ignorant age? and my quotation 

 at the head of this letter proves the truth of this re- 

 mark? 



I have headed this article with some Scripture, as 

 you do your articles. How does it sound? It is ab- 

 surd, to say the least that can be said about it. 

 Again, in I.Tim. 5 : 23, " Take a little wine for the 

 stomach's sake." Amos says, "Take none at all," 

 and I will believe Amos in preference to Timothy. 

 When a man says he knows two parallel lines will 

 never meet, it sounds egotistical; and when I said 

 that I knew that God did not write the Bible, it was 

 because it is an impossibility; but I will admit that 

 I should have qualified the assertion; therefore I 

 will admit the reproof, and confess that I am an ig- 

 norant man, and not a learned one by any means. 



You think you feel the presence of God in the 

 morning sun, and the heathen priest of India says 

 he feels the presence of his stone idol when the rain 

 falls and the grass grows, and the common people 



clap their hands for joy. Now, are you not both de- 

 luded or mistaken? • 



Your idea of " saving souls " must be erroneous, 

 as it is an utter impossibility to save that which 

 never can be lost. As no man can create any thing, 

 neither can he destroy it; and if there is a soul, no 

 one can save, kill, or destroy it, as it must be eternal, 

 like other matter ! The fact is (in mj- opinion), that 

 friend Root is a better infidel than the writer. You 

 are practicing the teachings of Plato and Socrates, 

 and think you are a Christian. In trying to make 

 people better, and learn the truth, I will do all I can, 

 and only regret that I have not the power to bo t'S 

 good an infidel as A. I. Root. 



Now, do not think me unkind because I use this 

 term, as I think I can prove the truth of this asser- 

 tion. Did you ever know any church to offer any 

 thing (except that which they did not have). In the 

 shape of goods or money, to any person, man or 

 woman, to leave off a bad habit? yet A. I. Root of- 

 fers anj' man who will quit making a smokehouse of 

 himself, an article that will do all the smoking that 

 anyone should do, worth one dollar. Now, this is 

 pure infidelity; and as I wish to keep somewhere 

 near you in the good work, and not be called a 

 Christian, I inclose you two. dollars; one for the 

 smoker fund, and one for Gleanings, as I fear you 

 will not be able to keep the good work a going unless 

 some infidels assist you, as you have undertaken a 

 great task; and I earnestly hope any infidel who pe- 

 ruses this letter will see the necessity of sending 

 you a dollar for this fund; and if any Christian 

 wants to practice a little infidelity, let him help in 

 the good work. 



Now, in fairness I shall have to ask you to publish 

 my letter, to let my intidel friends know that I am 

 not dead, but will try to live for the benefit of hu- 

 manity; and when my days are ended, I do not wish 

 to go to the Christian heaven. Why? because they 

 have made their heaven the same as the heathens 

 have in the past. You may ask theEsqviimaux where 

 is heaven, and he will tell you it is where the rivers 

 don't freeze, and he can drive his bone spear into 

 the seals, and live on seal-oil for ever! You may 

 ask the Indian the question, and his answer is on 

 the same plan, and the Christian is no better. Ask 

 them, and they will tell you that heaven is a place 

 where the streets are paved with gold, and they will 

 have gold crowns, gold harps, and sing for ever. 



Now, this proves that man has always made his 

 heaven just what his physical wants need most; 

 therefore I don't want to go to the heaven of gold, 

 but will exclaim, as an ancient writer did, " I believe 

 in one God and no more, and hope for happiness 

 hereafter." William E. Leonard, 



Port Huron, Mich., Dec. 37, 1881. 



I thank you, friend Leonard, for your kind 

 words and kind letter, and especially for 

 your expressions of friendship toward me, 

 even if we do not read the Bible alike ; but 

 I wish yon might say that it seems to you an 

 impossibility that the Bible should be an in- 

 spired book, instead of declaring, point 

 blank, it is an "impossibility.'' Humanity 

 universally agree, that two parallel lines can 

 never meet ; but humanity are very far in- 

 tieed from agreeing in regard to the Biljle. 

 Let us put it in this way : Suppose you and 

 I think just as we do now about the parallel 

 lines, but, to our great surprise, we should 

 find, by talking the matter over, that Doolit- 



