126 At the Darkest Hour. 



It was this terribly difficult " art of being kind " that 

 Siddhartha sought to inculcate, yet no sooner had 

 Buddhism become an established religion than it in- 

 augurated saturnalias of persecution. 



It was the gospel of brotherly love, mercy, and coopera- 

 tion that Jesus taught, as the corner stone of his " King- 

 dom of God " on earth. " Love one another " and " resist 

 not evil." The early Christians were thrown to the lions, 

 unresistant, and dying, prevailed marvelously over the' 

 whole world ; yet no sooner was Christianity formulated 

 as an established religion, than Christian Rome exceeded 

 the cruelties of Pagan Rome, and taxed all human ingenu- 

 ity in search of devices for torturing. 



So it is well that religious systems pass. No calamity 

 is so great as their survival over time. Buddhism, Mo- 

 hammedanism, and the Christianity of Constantinople and 

 Rome are now among the greatest obstacles to human prog- 

 ress. Help them to pass, not to be perpetuated. 



It is, in very truth, a sterner gospel into which we of 

 this generation have to be baptized. We have partaken of 

 the tree of knowledge. The pleasant illusions of man's 

 early creeds have been brushed ruthlessly away. We 

 face Nature's hard law with no fairy tale to disguise its 

 inclemency. Immortal life will be achieved by the aid of 

 applied science ; it is what the whole scheme of evolution 



