WHAT IS KELIGION? 233 



the blind, both shall fall into a pit." When we see 

 and hear the vain repetitions, the hypocrisy, and the 

 ostentatious apparel for the priests enlarge the borders 

 of their garments and love the chief places at feasts 

 and the chief seats in the churches, then we know tha.t 

 they are but the successors of a school that it was 

 the avowed object of Jesus Christ to condemn. If 

 miracles are not true, then must the great mass of 

 the reputed acts of Jesus Christ be interpolations of a 

 crafty priesthood. 



That there was such a one as Jesus Christ there can 

 be little doubt that his role was short was probable. 

 That he taught an enlightening, sympathizing, altru- 

 istic religion is undoubted ; that he commanded us to 

 look for the future on this earth for a better condition 

 of things is equally true. And does not science do 

 the same ? There is good evidence that he taught 

 pure philosophy, and all over and above that has been 

 the addition of the priests, a body of men he condemned 

 in the most telling and forcible manner. 



u Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in heaven 

 so on earth " is a true conception. When we have 

 knowledge we obey the teaching of Nature this points 



real, and their insolence is real, but their king is a phantom and their 

 palace is a dream." 



" The man who leads a truly religious life in order to go to heaven 

 is not more to be admired than the man who leads a regular and 

 industrious life in order to make a fortune in the city ; and the man 

 who endeavours to secure a celestial inheritance by going to church, 

 and by reading chapters in the Bible, and by having family prayers, 

 and by saying grace in falsetto with eyes hypocritically closed, is not 

 above the level of those who fawn and flatter at oriental courts in 

 order to obtain a monopoly or an appointment." (" The Martyrdom 

 of Man," Winwood Reade, 1890, pp. 534, 535.) 



