ants now is
larger than it was in the time of Humboldt. The Church is a
department-store that puts in the particular goods that the people ask
for.

Freethinkers do not leave the Church; the Church is built on a Goodyear
patent, and its lines expand when Freethinkers get numerous, so as to
include them.

The Church would rather countenance vice, as it has in the past, than
disband. In New York City we now have the spectacle of the Church
operating a saloon and selling strong drink. In all country towns,
religion, failing in being attractive, has, to keep churches alive,
resorted to raffles, lotteries, concerts, chicken-pie socials, and
lectures and exhortations by strange men in curious and unique garb, and
singers of reputation.

The Church, being a part of society, evolves as society evolves.
Christianity is a totally different thing now from what it was in
Humboldt's time; it was a different thing in Humboldt's time from what
it was a hundred years before.

Behold the spectacle of a thousand highly educated and gentle men, from
all over the world, decorating with garlands the statue of Bruno in
Rome, on the site where Churchmen piled high the fagots and burned his
living body! I foretell that when the next World's Congress of
Freethinkers occurs in Rome, the Pope will welcome the delegates, and
their deliberations will occur by invitation in the wide basilica of
Saint Peter's. The world moves, and the Pope and all the rest of us move
with it.

When a meeting was recently called in Jersey City to welcome Turner, the
so-called anarchist, the Mayor forbade the meeting and then placed a
cordon of policemen around the intended meeting-place. But, lo, in their
extremity the "anarchists" were invited by a clergyman to come and use
his church and he led the way to the sacred edifice, warning the police
to neither follow nor enter. As we become better we meet better
preachers.

Humboldt could see no rift through the clouds outside of the death of
the Church and the disbanding of her so-called sacred institutions. We
now perceive that very rarely are religious opinions consciously
abandoned; they change, are modified and later evolve into something
else. Churches are now largely social clubs. In America this is true
both of Catholic and of Protestant. Most all denominations are
interested in social betterment, because the trend of human thought is
in that direction.

The Church is being swept along upon the tide of