ot for nothing.

"But," you may say, "the poor, the failures, the wretched--what of
them?" And I answer: "Ah! that is one of the weak points of _your_
religion, not of mine." Consider these unhappy ones, what do you offer
them? You offer them an everlasting bliss, not because they were starved
or outraged here--not at all. For your religion admits the probability
that those who came into this world worst equipped, who have here been
most unfortunate, and to whom God and man have behaved most unjustly,
will stand a far greater chance of a future of woe than of happiness.

No. According to your religion, those of the poor or the weak who get
to Heaven will get there, not because they have been wronged and must be
righted, but because they believe that Jesus Christ can save them.

Now, contrast that awful muddle of unreason and injustice with what
you call my "counsels of despair." I say there may be a future life and
there may not be a future life. If there is a future life, a man will
deserve it no less, and enjoy it no less, for having been happy here.
If there is no future life, he who has been unhappy here will have lost
both earthly happiness and heavenly hope.

Therefore, I say, it is our duty to see that all our fellow-creatures
are as happy here as we can make them.

Therefore I say to my fellow-creatures, "Do not consent to suffer, and
to be wronged in this world, for it is immoral and weak so to submit;
but hold up your heads, and demand your rights, here and now, and leave
the rest to God, or to Fate."

You see, I am not trying to rob any man of his hope of Heaven; I am only
trying to inspire his hope on earth.

But I have been asked whether I think it right and wise to "shake the
faith of the poor working man--the faith that has helped him so long."

What has this faith helped him to do? To bear the ills and the wrongs
of this life more patiently, in the hope of a future reward? Is that the
idea? But I do not want the working man to endure patiently the ills and
wrongs of this life. I want him, for his own sake, his wife's sake,
his children's sake, and for the sake of right and progress, to demand
justice, and to help in the work of amending the conditions of life on
earth.

No, I do not want to rob the working-man of his faith: I want to awaken
his faith--in himself.

Religion promises us a future Heaven, where we shall meet once more
those "whom we have loved long since and lost awhile," and that