times of ignorance this was easy to
do. The credulity of the savage was almost boundless. To him the
marvelous was the beautiful, the mysterious was the sublime.
Consequently, every religion has for its foundation a miracle--that is
to say, a violation of nature--that is to say, a falsehood.

No one, in the world's whole history, ever attempted to substantiate a
truth by a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of miracle. Nothing
but falsehood ever attested itself by signs and wonders. No miracle
ever was performed, and no sane man ever thought he had performed one,
and until one is performed, there can be no evidence of the existence
of any power superior to, and independent of nature.

The church wishes us to believe. Let the church, or one of its
intellectual saints, perform a miracle, and we will believe. We are
told that nature has a superior. Let this superior, for one single
instant, control nature, and we will admit the truth of your assertion.

We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy,
idealess, vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your bible
and the works of your best minds. We have heard your prayers, your
solemn groans and your reverential amens. All these amount to less
than nothing. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one little
fact. We pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and
implore you for just one fact. We know all about your moldy wonders
and your stale miracles. We want this year's fact. We ask only one.
Give us one fact of charity. Your miracles are too ancient. The
witnesses have been dead for nearly two thousand years. Their
reputations for "truth and veracity" in the neighborhood where they
resided is wholly unknown to us. Give us a new miracle, and
substantiate it by witnesses who still have the cheerful habit of
living in this world. Do not send us to Jericho to hear the winding
horns, nor put us in the fire with Shadrach, Moshech, and Abednego. Do
not compel us to navigate the sea with Captain Jonah, nor dine with Mr.
Ezekiel. There is no sort of use in sending us fox-hunting with
Samson. We have positively lost interest in that little speech so
eloquently delivered by Balaam's inspired donkey. It is worse than
useless to show us fishes with money in their mouths, and call our
attention to vast multitudes stuffing themselves with five crackers and
two sardines. We demand a new miracle and we demand it now. L