, vicarious
atonement, the mode of baptism, the Trinity, the possession of the Holy
Spirit, or any form of ecclesiastical organization or church polity?

Salvation, and Jesus so taught, pertains to this life exclusively. It
simply means _to save this life_,--not from physical death, nor hell
hereafter,--but to its proper function, use and purpose, according to
the will of God, as revealed in nature and human experience. In
simpler words, it is to save this life from sin, wrong doing of every
kind, and making of it the highest, noblest and best it is capable of.

This is what Jesus taught; and Jesus is the savior of mankind _only_ in
that he has taught mankind _how to live_,--not by dying for it. Thus
to save this life to the highest, noblest and best of which it is
capable, is to save it from sin unto righteousness; and this is to save
it both here and hereafter. He that _continually lives right_ cannot
die wrong. And whatever the next life may be, it is but a
continuation, a larger unfolding and fruition of this. Salvation is
here, not hereafter.

_HEAVEN AND HELL_

But do I not believe in heaven and hell? Yes, and no. I believe in
both, and neither. I do not believe in either the kind of heaven or
hell I was taught in the church. Yet, I have already said that I did
not believe any sin ever committed by man ever went unpunished, either
here or hereafter, until the full penalty was paid, and the punishment
had completed its remedial and corrective purpose. And I will say here
that I do not believe any good deed or word ever performed or said by
man ever went unrewarded up to the full value of its merit, either here
or hereafter. But I believe both heaven and hell to be
_conditions_,--not places,--and we have them both here in this life,
and will have them hereafter. Each individual makes his own heaven, or
his own hell, and carries it with him when he leaves this life. To
quote from Omar Khayyam:

"I sent my Soul thru the invisible
Some letter of that After-life to spell;
And by and by my Soul returned to me
And answered: I myself am Heaven and Hell;
Heaven's but the vision of fulfilled desire,
And Hell the shadow of a Soul on fire."

The idea of a literal lake of fire and brimstone to be the eternal
abode of by far the larger part of the human race, according to the
orthodox doctrine of Christianity, is not only unreasonable, but
unthinkable. If it exists God must have made it;