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Darwin ; slavery has been abolished ; witches are no longer burnt at 

 the stake ; polygamy is discountenanced ; and human sacrifice, murder, 

 rapine, theft and personal assaults are no longer justified. All these 

 immoralities are distinctly and prominently taught in the Christian 

 Bible, but have been expunged from the moral code of this century. 

 Were Christianity now dead instead of dying the same amount of good 

 would accrue to the race as before ; and, judging from past history, 

 there would be a very vast decrease in the opposition that has for two 

 thousand years been offered to progress. 



The question after all is not what Christianity has done, but whether 

 or not its story is a true one. As already stated, if the creation and 

 fall stories are not true the whole scheme of Christianity, with its god- 

 man and its sacraments, is a fraud and a delusion. No religion that 

 cannot bear the test of reason, and be maintained on a public platform 

 can be founded on truth. If the Christian story be true there is no 

 need for the holy ones to secure themselves behind the fortifications of 

 ' coward's castle ' every Sunday to preach their doctrines ; the open 

 platform being a more suitable place from which to propagate the truth. 

 But what are the facts ? The man who dares to submit the religion to 

 the test of reason, or even to discourse publicly upon evolution or any 

 other scientific theory that is likely to interfere with the steady flow of 

 bullion into the collection box, is denounced from the pulpit, the holy 

 ones branding him as a dangerous infidel, and using all the means in 

 their power to blacken his character and to insidiously undermine his 

 business. The challenge to debate is never accepted. 



The question before us is a momentous one. Creation or Evolution ? 

 Moses or Darwin ? We cannot follow both. 



