he reward of my thought."

In old times there was a great difference between a clergyman and
a layman. The clergyman was educated; the peasant was ignorant.
The tables have been turned. The thought of the world is with the
laymen. They are the intellectual pioneers, the mental leaders,
and the ministers are following on behind, predicting failure and
disaster, sighing for the good old times when their word ended
discussion. There is another good thing, and that is the revision
of the Bible. Hundreds of passages have been found to be
interpolations, and future revisers will find hundreds more. The
foundation crumbles. That book, called the basis of all law and
civilization, has to be civilized itself. We have outgrown it.
Our laws are better; our institutions grander; our objects and aims
nobler and higher.

_Question_. Do many people write to you upon this subject; and
what spirit do they manifest?

_Answer_. Yes, I get a great many anonymous letters--some letters
in which God is asked to strike me dead, others of an exceedingly
insulting character, others almost idiotic, others exceedingly
malicious, and others insane, others written in an exceedingly good
spirit, winding up with the information that I must certainly be
damned. Others express wonder that God allowed me to live at all,
and that, having made the mistake, he does not instantly correct
it by killing me. Others prophesy that I will yet be a minister
of the gospel; but, as there has never been any softening of the
brain in our family, I imagine that the prophecy will never by
fulfilled. Lately, on opening a letter and seeing that it is upon
this subject, and without a signature, I throw it aside without
reading. I have so often found them to be so grossly ignorant,
insulting and malicious, that as a rule I read them no more.

_Question_. Of the hundreds of people who call upon you nearly
every day to ask your help, do any of them ever discriminate against
you on account of your Infidelity?

_Answer_. No one who has asked a favor of me objects to my religion,
or, rather, to my lack of it. A great many people do come to me
for assistance of one kind or another. But I have never yet asked
a man or woman whether they were religious or not, to what church
they belonged, or any questions upon the subject. I think I have
done favors for persons of most denominations. It never occurs to
me whether they are Christians or Infidels. I do not