cer of Christianity.
Oatmeal is responsible for the worst features of Scotch Presbyterianism.
Half cooked beans account for the religion of the Puritans. Fried
bacon and saleratus biscuit underlie the doctrine of State Rights.
Lent is a mistake, fasting is a blunder, and bad cooking is a crime.

_Question_. It is stated that you went to Brooklyn while Beecher
and Talmage were holding revivals, and that you did so for the
purpose of breaking them up. How is this?

_Answer_. I had not the slightest idea of interfering with the
revivals. They amounted to nothing. They were not alive enough
to be killed. Surely one lecture could not destroy two revivals.
Still, I think that if all the persons engaged in the revivals had
spent the same length of time in cleaning the streets, the good
result would have been more apparent. The truth is, that the old
way of converting people will have to be abandoned. The Americans
are getting hard to scare, and a revival without the "scare" is
scarcely worth holding. Such maniacs as Hammond and the "Boy
Preacher" fill asylums and terrify children. After saying what he
has about hell, Mr. Beecher ought to know that he is not the man
to conduct a revival. A revival sermon with hell left out--with
the brimstone gone--with the worm that never dies, dead, and the
Devil absent--is the broadest farce. Mr. Talmage believes in the
ancient way. With him hell is a burning reality. He can hear the
shrieks and groans. He is of that order of mind that rejoices in
these things. If he could only convince others, he would be a
great revivalist. He cannot terrify, he astonishes. He is the
clown of the horrible--one of Jehovah's jesters. I am not responsible
for the revival failure in Brooklyn. I wish I were. I would have
the happiness of knowing that I had been instrumental in preserving
the sanity of my fellow-men.

_Question_. How do you account for these attacks?

_Answer_. It was not so much what I said that excited the wrath
of the reverend gentlemen as the fact that I had a great house.
They contrasted their failure with my success. The fact is, the
people are getting tired of the old ideas. They are beginning to
think for themselves. Eternal punishment seems to them like eternal
revenge. They see that Christ could not atone for the sins of
others; that belief ought not to be rewarded and honest doubt
punished forever; that good deeds are better than bad creeds, and
that