serve Man as effectually as he who
gives himself wholly to the service of Man.

As the religion of Humanism concerns itself solely with the good of
humanity, I claim that it is more beneficial to humanity than is the
Christian religion, which divides its service and love between Man and
God.

Moreover, this division is unequal. For Christians give a great deal
more attention to God than to Man.

And on that point I have to object, first, that although they _believe_
there is a God, they do not _know_ there is a God, nor what He is like.
Whereas they do know very well that there are men, and what they are
like. And, secondly, that if there be a God, that God does not need
their love nor their service; whereas their fellow-creatures do need
their love and their service very sorely.

And, as I remarked before, if there is a Father in Heaven, He is likely
to be better pleased by our loving and serving our fellow-creatures (His
children) than by our singing and praying to Him, while our brothers
and sisters (His children) are ignorant, or brutalised, or hungry, or in
trouble.

I speak as a father myself when I say that I should not like to think
that one of my children would be so foolish and so unfeeling as to erect
a marble tomb to my memory while the others needed a friend or a meal.
And I speak in the same spirit when I add that to build a cathedral, and
to spend our tears and pity upon a Saviour who was crucified nearly two
thousand years ago, while women and men and little children are being
crucified in our midst, without pity and without help, is cant, and
sentimentality, and a mockery of God.

Please note the words I use. I have selected them deliberately and
calmly, because I believe that they are true and that they are needed.

Christians are very eloquent about Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, and Our Father which is in Heaven. I know nothing about gods and
heavens. But I know a good deal about Manchester and London, and about
men and women; and if I did not feel the real shames and wrongs of the
world more keenly, and if I did not try more earnestly and strenuously
to rescue my fellow-creatures from ignorance, and sorrow, and injustice
than most Christians do, I should blush to look death in the face or
call myself a man.

I choose my words deliberately again when I say that to me the most
besotted and degraded outcast tramp or harlot matters more than all the
gods and angels that humanity ev