' WHAT IS KELIGIOX ? 235 



of knowledge, and it exists only within us. And 

 knowledge shows that Nature (or if we like to call 

 Nature God) maketh the sun to rise on the evil and 

 the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust 

 in a word Nature works by natural laws, and not by 

 exceptions miracles. To suppose that evil falls upon 

 the wicked is absurd ; we see that which we think 

 is evil flourishing, and the good despised. Or that 

 "those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, 

 and killed them, think ye that they were offenders 

 above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem ? " This is a 

 recognition of the grand principle that God or Nature 

 does not deal with the individual, but with all-reaching 

 omnipotent, fixed and eternal laws. 



The kingdom of knowledge is a growth, the result of 

 a higher or more complex brain organism in the 

 aggregate. For the kingdom of knowledge cometh not 

 with observation. Hence, until that mental growth 

 has reached an efficient stage it has been full of hazard 

 to teach the kingdom of knowledge, for if we cast our 

 pearls before swine they trample them under their feet 

 and turn to rend us. Thus Galileo and other pioneers 

 of science have suffered. The conditions now, how- 

 ever, are altered ; human intelligence is ascending. 

 When the higher reasoning powers are brought 

 forth in the human being, and when the individuals 

 having these powers are sufficiently numerous, they 

 speak with overwhelming force, and the weak and the 

 vacillating will follow this overwhelming opinion. This 

 power is commencing to appear in no uncertain terms, 

 and if priestcraft will not bend, then must the in- 

 heritance -of the priests be taken away from them 



