Deity. I make my choice now. I despise that doctrine, and
I'll tell you why. It has covered the cheeks of this world with tears.
It has polluted the heart of children. It has been a pain and terror
to every man that ever believed it. It has filled the good with horror
and fear, but it has had no effect upon the infamous and base. I tell
you it is a bad doctrine. I read in the papers today what Henry Ward
Beecher, whom I regard as the most intellectual preacher in the pulpit
of the United States--I will read from the paper what he said
yesterday, and you will see an abstract of it in the New York Times of
today. He has had the courage, and he has had the magnificent manhood,
to say:

"I say to you, and I swear to you, by the wounds in the hands of
Christ--I swear to you by the wounds in the body and feet of Christ,
that this doctrine of eternal hell is a most infamous nightmare of
theology! It never should be preached again."

What right have you, sir; you, minister, as you are, to stand at the
portal of eternity, or the portal of the tomb, and fill the future with
horror and with fear? You have no right to do it. I don't believe it,
and neither do you. You would not sleep one night. Any man who
believes it, who has got a decent heart in his bosom, will go insane.
Yes, sir, a man that really believes that doctrine and does not go
insane, has got the conscience of a snake and the intellect of a hyena.
O! I thank my stars that you do not believe it. You cannot believe it,
and you never will believe it. Old Jonathan Edwards, the dear old
soul, he is in heaven I suppose, said: "Can the believing husband in
heaven be happy with his unbelieving wife in hell? Can the believing
father in heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in hell? Can
the loving wife in heaven be happy with her unbelieving husband in
hell? I tell you yea. Such will be their sense of justice that it
will increase rather than diminish their happiness."

Think of these infamous doctrines that have been taught in the name of
religion! Do not stuff these things into the minds of your children.
Give them a chance. Let them read. Let them think. Do not treat your
children like posts, to be set in the orthodox road, but like trees,
that need light and sun and air. Be honest with them. Be fair with
them. In old times they used to make all children go to bed when they
were not sleepy, and all of them got up when they were sleepy. I s