onal Devil,
and I greatly regret that he imagines that this Devil has so much
power that he can take possession of a human being and deprive God
of their services. It is in sorrow and not in anger, that I find
that he still believes in this ancient superstition. I also regret
that he imagines that I am leading young men to eternal ruin. It
occurs to me that if there is an infinite God, he ought not to
allow anybody to lead young men to eternal ruin. If anything I
have said, or am going to say, has a tendency to lead young men to
eternal ruin, I hope that if there is a God with the power to
prevent me, that he will use it. Dr. Fulton admits that in politics
I am on the right side. I presume he makes this concession because
he is a Republican. I am in favor of universal education, of
absolute intellectual liberty. I am in favor, also, of equal rights
to all. As I have said before we have spent millions and millions
of dollars and rivers of blood to free the bodies of men; in other
words, we have been freeing the cages. My proposition now is to
give a little liberty to the birds. I am not willing to stop where
a man can simply reap the fruit of his hand. I wish him, also, to
enjoy the liberty of his brain. I am not against any truth in the
New Testament. I did say that I objected to religion because it
made enemies and not friends. The Rev. Dr. says that is one reason
why he likes religion. Dr. Fulton tells me that the Bible is the
gift of God to man. He also tells me that the Bible is true, and
that God is its author. If the Bible is true and God is its author,
then God was in favor of slavery four thousand years ago. He was
also in favor of polygamy and religious intolerance. In other
words, four thousand years ago he occupied the exact position the
Devil is supposed to occupy now. If the Bible teaches anything it
teaches man to enslave his brother, that is to say, if his brother
is a heathen. The God of the Bible always hated heathens. Dr.
Fulton also says that the Bible is the basis of all law. Yet, if
the Legislature of New York would re-enact next winter the Mosaic
code, the members might consider themselves lucky if they were not
hung upon their return home. Probably Dr. Fulton thinks that had
it not been for the Ten Commandments, nobody would ever have thought
that stealing was wrong. I have always had an idea that men objected
to stealing because the industrious did not wish to support th