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pamphlets
^or the Peop/e
No* 6
THE DEVIL
CHAPMAN COHEN
THE PIONEER PRESS
�The Devil
The Devil is one of the foundation-stones of historic
Christianity. Jesus Christ is another. God the
Father lingers in the rear, and in modern Christianity
hardly appears; while the Holy Ghost forms, natur
ally, a shadowy background. But the foundations of
Christianity are Jesus Christ and the Devil. To
gether they form the two halves of what is signifi
cantly known as Christian truth. The necessity for
Jesus Christ lies in the activity of the Devil. With
out him there would have been no Fall, no Scheme of
Redemption, no Plan of Salvation, and every human
being would have had to bear the consequences of his
or her actions, instead of first blaming the Devil for
his ill-deeds and then “ passing the buck ” onto Jesus.
Without the Devil there would have been no gospel
to preach, and no Christian Churches in which to
preach it; indeed, there is considerable Christian
authority for saying that without the Devil there
would have been no human beings either to preach
or to be preached at. The whole population of the
world would have remained at two, and although
the woman might have preached at the man, the
listening half of the population would hardly have
justified the use of the term “ congregation.” At
any rate, there would have been no excuse for, and
small profit in, making a collection.
The clergy have a great deal for which to thank the
Devil. He is really their greatest benefactor. If one
studies the history of early and medieval Christianity
the Devil is the most prominent character that is men
tioned.
A multitude of stories centre round the
Devil, and most of the prominent religious characters
appear to have been engaged in constant struggles
with him, often of a personal character. Cathedral
2
<
�3
sculptures figure devils very prominently, and Devil's
Bridges, etc., are numerous in all countries. One
religious authority places the number of devils at
work in the world as 7,405,926. Such arithmetical
exactitude is very impressive. Fear of the Devil has
been responsible for very many of the benefactions
from which the Churches have benefited. The
Christian clergy have justified their existence by their
fight against the influence of the Devil, and have ex
plained their failures by his ceaseless activities. It is
one of the scandals of latter day theology that so little
is now said about him. It is monstrous that in the
whole of Christendom not a single monument has
ever been raised to the Devil in recognition of the
help he has been to the Church. It is the supreme
exhibition of Christian ingratitude.
There is the highest Christian authority for saying
that both Jesus Christ and the Devil came from the
same “ home town.” Jesus came from heaven, and
after a short and exciting stay on earth returned
thereto. The Devil also began his career in heaven,
but was “ cast out,” after which he appeared to have
enjoyed a free and wide run on earth. He is respect
fully referred to in the Bible as one of the “ sons of
God,” and appears in heaven discussing various
matters with his father. It was at one of these gather
ings that God entered into a controversy with Satan,
and a kind of wager was agreed upon as to whether
“ my servant Job ” could be weaned from his allegi
ance. Job was not consulted on the subject, and
from God’s point of view came well out of the test;
but while Job vindicated his character for steadfast
ness and God won the wager, it is quite evident that
in the discussion Satan came out on top. God was
good on boils, but weak in argument.
It may be noted that devils are common figures
in most mythologies. In primitive religions they are
THE DEVIL
�THE DEVIL
4
not so much devils as members of the numerous com
pany of gods, each ruling his particular sphere, as
princes of so many independent provinces. At a later
stage, when mankind has created definite categories
of good and bad, inferior and superior, devils are
often no more than degraded gods, who sink to a
secondary position as a result of conquest. They are
deposed kings who have been banished to another
region, but with their power little diminished and still
•bearing marks of their previous greatness. Even the
nimbus which surrounds the head of a Christian saint,
and in the old biblical pictures, of the deity, is
retained in the horns that decorate the head of Satan.
When a man is born in the purple, the “ sacredness ”
of kings will cling to him for a long while.
That the Christian devils were degraded gods was
the view of that great Christian, Justin Martyr; in
this he was following the lead of St. Paul who said
that the gods whom the pagans worshipped were
devils. But although some of the early Christian
writers modified this theory, and substituted the
Jewish rabbinical belief that devils were fallen angels,
there was no actual denial of the pagan gods as real
existences Until towards the end of the seventeenth
century. A Dutch author was the first to treat them
as completely fictitious. His book was rendered into
English by Mrs. Aphra Behn, the well-known play
wright, who appears to have had a decided streak of
heresy in her composition. But such a thing as deny
ing the existence of the pagan gods never appears
to have entered the heads of the early Christians.
They even used them as an explanation of the then
■unquestioned and unquestionable likeness between
the Christian and the Pagan doctrines, ceremonies
and symbols. Christian writers explained that the
Devil knew Christianity was coming, and in order to
discredit it he invented certain doctrines, and estab-
�5
fished them in the world before Christ came. It was
a case of “ queering the pitch,” a practice well known
in the political world of to-day.
It is only within recent years -that some leading
Christians have denied the existence of a personal
devil—but, it must be remembered that many leading
Protestants still assert his existence, and the Roman
Catholic Church affirms it as an unquestionable
dogma. Founders of sects such as Wesley, preachers
-such as Spurgeon, and a host of lesser lights, would
have considered a repudiation of a personal devil as
equivalent to a confession of Atheism. After all, hell
« part of the historic teachings of the Christian
Church as a whole, and hell implies devils just as
devils imply hell. It is also impossible to accept the
Jesus of the New Testament without also accepting a
personal devil. Jesus had personal conflicts with the
devils of the New Testament, and1 plainly accepted
as beyond doubt that all disease was caused by
devils. The clergy of the Church of England and of
the Roman Church are all endowed with the power to
cast out devils. Leave the devil out and it is impos
sible to understand a very large part of Christian
history.
We are too apt in this matter to take half-hearted
and humane believers as representative of Christians,
as a whole. They are not. There are millions of
believers in this country who still believe in a
personal devil and a literal hell. Their outlook is
as barbarous and as brutal as that of the primitive
Christians. Even with those Churches that have
ceased to preach what Harold Frederic called
“ straight flat-footed hell,” there is no definite and
explicit rejection of the belief. And there would be
a holy row in the Churches if a clear official repudia
tion of the doctrine was forthcoming. The clergy try
to keep their hold on the more backward by carefully
THE DEVIL
�6
THE DEVIL
chosen language that implies a belief in hell, and also
hope to retain the good-will of the more enlightened
by saying nothing about it.
But consider this, which up to about twenty years
ago, formed part of the Wesleyan Methodist
Catechism, and was written for “ children of tender
years.”
What sort of a place is hell?
A dark and bottomless pit, full of fire and brim
stone.
How will the wicked be punished there?
Their bodies will be tormented with fire, and their
souls by a sense of the wrath of God.
How long will their torments last?
The torments will last for ever and ever.
Or this from a Roman Catholic pamphlet, one written
for “ Children and young persons,” and published at'
one penny. It describes to a child what a room in
hell is like : —
Look into this room.
What a dreadful place it is.
The roof is red hot, the walls are red hot, the floor is
like a thick sheet of red iron.
See, on the middle of
that red-hot floor stands a girl. . . .
Look, she says(to the devil), at my burnt and bleeding feet.
Let me
go off this burning floor for one moment. . . .
The
devil answers her question. . . . No, not for one single
moment during the never-ending eternity of years shall
you ever leave this red-hot floor.
There is plenty more of this kind of thing published
by the criminals (I use the word advisedly), respon
sible for the essay, but I will return to the general
subject of hell in another pamphlet. All that it is
necessary to note now is that this was the common
doctrine of Christianity for many, many centuries.
The brutal savagery of it almost passes belief. Here
is a specimen from a Christian writer of the sixth
century, St. Fulgentius : —
Little children who have begun to live in their mother’s
womb and have there died, or who, having been born',
�THE DEVIL
7
have passed away from the world without the sacrament
of holy baptism administered in the name of Father, Son
and Holy Ghost, must be punished by the eternal torment
of undying fire.
And a greater writer than the one just cited, Peter
Lombard, wrote that “ the elect shall go forth . . .
to see the torments of the impious, and seeing this
t they will not be affected with grief, but will be
satiated with joy at the sight of the unutterable
calamity of the impious.”
Let us go to the devil, or rather let us get back u
him, although his company would certainly be pre
ferable to these “ fathers of the Church.” One
might get along with the devil with dignity; it would
be impossible to be with these “ Saints ” without
degradation. As the old lady remarked to the parson
who was trying to cheer her last moments with
thoughts of heaven, “ Heaven is all right for climate,
but hell is the place for good company.”
In many plays and tales the Devil appears as a
polished scholar.
But the pamphlet for children
from which I have just cited, presents us with the
following description of him: —
St. Francis saw him.
He was sitting on a long beam
which passed through the middle of hell.
His feet went
down into the lowest depths of hell.
They rested on
the. floor of hell.
They were fastened with great heavy
chains.
These chains were fixed to an immense ring
in the floor.
His hands were chained up to the roof.
One of his hands were turned up to heaven to blaspheme
against God. His other hand was stretched out pointing
to the lowest depths of hell. His tremendous and horrible
head was raised up on high and touched the roof. From his
head came two immense horns ... his enormous mouth
was wide open.
Out of it there was running a river of
which gave no light, but a most abominable
smell. ...
Round his neck was a collar of red-hot iron..
A burning chain tied him round the middle. The ugliness
of his face was such that no man or devil could "bear
it. . . .
One of the Saints who saw the Devil said she
�8
THE DEVIL
would rather be burnt for a thousand years than look at
the devil for one moment.
St. Francis saw him\ That guarantees the accuracy
of the description.
But most presentations of the devil are more
flattering than this one, written for children. Uncon
sciously most of the Christian biographers of the
devil have borne 'unwilling, perhaps unconscious,
testimony to his greatness and intelligence. They
have glorified God officially, but they have given their
real praise to the Devil. Thus Martin Luther refers
to “ the wonderful cleverness displayed by knowing
Satan against .poor half-witted God.” (Michelet’s
Life of Satan, Bonn’s Ed., p. 249.) Certainly, in
most of the contests between Satan and God, Satan
appears to have scored.
According to Christian theologians God made man
for his own glory. Also according to Christian theo
logians the majority of those whom God made for
himself go straight to hell and spend their best time
in serving Satan’ before going there. . God has to be
content with the fragments of the feast he prepared
for himself.
St. Augustine described the whole
human race as one damned batch and mass of per
dition.” (Cited by Alger, Critical History of the
Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 398). St. Chrysostomdoubted if of the 100,000 inhabitants of Antioch, 100
would be saved. Du Moulin, a writer of the seven
teenth century, was certain that from the time of
Adam, not more than one in a million would escape
hell. Jonathan Edwards was equally emphatic on the
limited number that would escape damnation. And
God made man for his own glory I As Martin Luther
said, “ Poor half-witted God! ” The world he made
becomes the playground of his greatest competitor.
The creatures he created for himself spend their time
in paying service to his enemy. God cast Satan out
�THE DEVIL
9
of heaven, but how much wiser it would have been to
have kept him there so that he might have had an
eye on him. It looks as though the evangelical cry
of “ Get right with God ! ” ought to give way to
“ Get right with the DevilT ”
Perhaps there is some recognition of the wisdom of
doing this in the comparatively respectful way in
which common usage treats the devil. One notes the
freely popular manner in which the name of God is
treated, from the “ Gawd blimey ” of the street to
the “ swelpmegawd ” of the police court. There is,
of course, the almost equally popular phrase, “ What
the devil ! ’ but that merely expresses uncertainty
as to what is likely to happen, or puzzlement as to
what the devil will do next. But there is a distinct
indictment implied in the common expression “ Good
God,” when one is told of a disaster at sea or an
earthquake. Such a saying as “ Trust in God, but
keep your powder dry,” is another illustration of the
riskiness of concluding That God will do the right
thing at the right time.
There is, on the other side of the ledger, such say
ings as “ having a devil of a time,” which implies a
rather jolly time. No religious writer that I know of
has ever spoken of having a jolly time with God.
There is also a popular saying that “ The Devil
looks after his own,” and it is believed he does this
in this world. But it is quite clear, from the nature
of the petitions to God that no one can rely upon him
doing what his followers would like him to do. It
really looks as though mankind has possibly been
backing the wrong horse,” and that we ought to
have paid greater attention to the devil than we have
one. Moncure Conway, in his Demonology and
Devil Lore, speaks of a lady who taught her children
always to rise and bow when the name of the devil was
mentioned. She explained that she thought it safer.
�10
THE DEVIL
We are not dealing with the natural, but the
Christian, origin of the Devil, and, according to the
Book of Revelation, he began his existence as one
of the chief angels in heaven. But there was “ war in
heaven,” and the revolt was led by the being whom
God had, with very questionable judgment, selected
as his commander-in-chief. In the end Satan lost the
war—and common sense suggests that God should
have treated Satan as the Allies did Napoleon, after
the return from Elba. Instead of that, he was given
a free pass to go where he liked and do what he
liked, and a new residence was prepared for him, the
character of which Hoes not appear to have hurt
either Satan or his followers, but was to be eternally
uncomfortable for men and women.
Satan was
really serving God as chief gaoler.
Two charges are, either directly or indirectly,
brought by the Christian Church against the Devil.
The first is that he was ambitious and wished men to
worship him. But ambition, while it may lead a man
into dubious paths, is not a very serious crime; any
person of moderate intelligence might get weary of
a place where the only form of dissipation appears to
be eternally singing songs of the Lamb. But the
Christian God does not like competition, and Satan’s
“ better to reign in hell than serve in heaven,” was
bound to create friction.
For Satan to seek worship was a more serious
offence. It hit at both God and the Church. For
while the Church flourishes on belief, the gods live
on worship. All the gods of the past have lived upon
worship. While they were worshipped the gods of
Egypt, of Rome, of Greece, were fine, lusty fellows,
who gave their followers all that the Christian God
gives his worshippers. These gods of the ancient
world sent rain and gave their followers good health;
they answered prayers; they sent their faithful wor
�II
shippers to a prepared heaven and their enemies
to a prepared hell. But as man’s worship declined
so the objects of the worship declined also. Gods
are fragile things, they may be killed by a whifi
of science or a dose of common sense. They thrive
on servility and shrink before independence. They
feed upon worship as kings do upon flattery. That
is why the cry of gods at all times is “ "Worship us or
we perish.” A dethroned monarch may retain some
of his human dignity while driving a taxi foi- a living.
But a god without his thunderbolt is a poor object.
The second charge against Satan is one that reflects
credit upon him and discredit on the Christian
Church. Unconsciously the Church presented the
devil as the inspirer of knowledge, the fount of
human improvement. The first offence after the
creation of man, which the Bible attributes to Satan,
was that of inducing man to seek knowledge and
acquire independence. God had forbidden Adam and
Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge. Men were to
grow up as ignorant as cows and as docile as sheep.
And but for the devil they might have lived “ accord
ing to plan.” It was the devil that first set man on
the path of knowledge. And of all the leading figures
of the Christian mythology Satan is the most im
pressive. He is the hero of Milton’s Paradise Lost,
the central figure of Goethe’s Faust, and the most
interesting in Byron’s Vision of Judgment.
In most cases advances in scientific knowledge
were attributed to the influence of the devil. The art
and science and philosophy of ancient Greece came
undei the Christian fear of being due to the inspira
tion of the devil.
Scientific medicine was mainly
inspired by the devil because it interfered with the
traffic of the Church in miracle cures; and with St.
Gall curing epilepsy, St. Blaise curing sore throats,
St. Gervase curing rheumatism, and a special saint
THE DEVIL
�12
THE DEVIL
allotted to each disease, the inquisitiveness of medical
men was obviously a piece of Atheistic impertinence.
The printing press was an invention of the devil.
It was said that Copernicus was inspired by the devil
to teach his revival of the old Greek astronomy. In
oculation against smallpox was an invention of the
devil; part of the oppositon was that smallpox was
sent by God so that any attempt to prevent it was
inspired by Satan. The same objection was later
brought against the use of chloroform in the case of
women in child-birth, the objection here being that
God had ordained that women should bear children
in suffering, and any attempt to evade this could only
be inspired by the devil. Chemistry was clearly due
:to the same source of origin. So was the attempt to
prove that geological phenomena owed their origin
to known natural causes. When I was a youth, the
Prime Minister of England, W. E. Gladstone, was
denouncing the theory of evolution as an attempt to
turn God out of his own universe, an obvious device
of the devil.
The list need not be prolonged; there is not a single
advance in which the interests of the Christian
Church were threatened, and this at one time covered
everything not expressly sanctioned by the Bible and
the Church, that was not put down to the credit of
the devil. The things not put to the credit of the
devil were the rack, the thumbscrew, the burning of
heretics at the stake, the slaughter of thousands of
old women and children for witchcraft—these and
similar things were admittedly done to carry out
“ God’s will.”
If we are guided by Christian records we are war
ranted in considering the devil as the patron saint of
intelligence, invention, and discovery. The Church
never ceased to dwell upon his cunning, his mental
alertness, his readiness to induce men to tread new
�13
and unfamiliar paths. M?en like Bishop Barnes, who
profess to believe in the adventures of science, and
who somehow manage to still believe in a God, ought
to pray daily, “ Thank God for the Devil! ” With
out the devil, man might have been fit for heaven,
but not for anywhere else.
I only know of one case in which the Christian
Church has persistently cast discredit on the intelli
gence of Satan. This is the ever-recurring instance
in which the Church has depicted him as taking extra
ordinary means, and paying an enormous price in
order to capture the soul of a monk or a priest.
After all, there should be some kind of relation
between the value of the object purchased and the
price paid.
Robert Buchanan rightly made Satan say (in his
The Devil’s Case): —
THE DEVIL
In spite of the Almighty,
I have leavened its afflictions,
Teaching men the laws of Nature,
Wisdom, Love and Self-control.
This I have achieved entirely,
By the very means forbidden—
At the first by the Almighty—
Teaching men to see and know.
I’m the father of all Science,—
Master-builder, stock-improver,
First authority on drainage,
Most renowned in all the arts.
While the priests have built their Churches,
To a God who does not heed them,
I have fashioned decent dwellings,
Public hospitals and baths.
Thus for ages after ages,
I, the Devil, have drained the marshes,
Cleansed the cesspools, taught the people,
Like a true progressionist.
By the living soul within me, ■
I have conquered—tho’ for ages
I have been most grossly libelled
By the foolish race of mortals.
�14
THE DEVIL
A greater than Buchanan, Carducci, in his Hymn
to Satan, makes Satan say: —
I animate all who fight against servitude and
somnolence. The heroes and martyrs of liberty and pro■ gress in every age have drunk of the strength of my
spirit.
I inspire the revolter, the scorner, the sceptic,
the satirist. I still distribute the fruit of the Tree of
Knowledge.
I am the soul of the world.
The fire of
my inspiration may consume, but it gives unspeak
able rapture.
I am the Prometheus of the universe,
and keep it from stagnating under the icy hand of
power.
Milton, Goethe and Byron made me the hero of
their greatest poems, and felt my power in despite of
themselves.
Burns spoke of me with a tenderness
he never displayed towards God.
Wits and humorists
own my sway.
I moved the minds of Aristophanes
and Lucian, of Erasmus and Rabelais, and through
the pen of Voltaire I shattered the mental slavery of
Europe. I am the lightning of the human mind.
I level thrones and altars, and annihilate binding customs.
With the goad of a restless aspiration I urge
men on, until they outgrow faith and fear, until the
•Slave stands erect before the Tyrant and defies his
curse.
But just as mankind is indebted to the Devil for the
development of the thirst for knowledge, so the
Church owes him all its power and the larger part of
its wealth. Fear of hell is responsible for a much
larger proportion of gifts and legacies to the Church
than is love of heaven. The only thing that could
possibly have made heaven worth entering was that
there was a hell to keep out of. It was for the sake of
securing release from purgatory, that most of the
legacies fell to the Church, and if the number of this
species of legacy has been fewer in recent times, it is
because the fear of hell has waned. The Church very
early seized upon hell as a powerful weapon for its
enrichment, and the following from Dr. G. G.
Coulton’s Medieval Studies, is worth noting in this
connexion: —
�THE DEVIL
15
Apart from the very small minority who were rich
enough to make written wills, every man was
obliged to dispose of his property on his death-bed by
word of mouth, in the presence of the parish priest.
Let us put ourselves for a moment in the dying man's
place. Whatever else the poor wretch may believe or
disbelieve of hell and purgatory he has never been allowed
to doubt. . . . Whenever he entered his parish church,
there stood the ghastly picture of the Last Judgment
staring down on him from the walls—blood and fire and
devils in such pitiless realism that, when they come to
light nowadays, even sympathetic restorers are often fain
to cover them again under decent whitewash.
A picture
of that kind, seen once or twice a week for fifty years,
is indelibly branded into the soul of the dying man, and
however little he may have allowed these things to influence
the conduct of his life, however deliberately he may have
overreached and cheated and robbed in his generation to
scrape his little hoard together, here on his death-bed he
has at least the faith of a devil—he believes and trembles.
He knows that gifts to the Church are universally held
to be one of the surest preservatives against the pains of
purgatory; he has even seen men burned at the stake for
denying a truth so essential to the Roman Catholic creed.
What wonder then if death-bed legacies to the clergy and
to the churches became so customary that the absence of
such pious gifts was taken for proof presumptive of heresy,
and that in some districts the dying man was compelled
as a matter of course to leave a third of his goods to the
Church. Moreover, this laudable custom, when once
established, would exercise a practically binding fore® over
the written wills, which were themselves also invalid until
they had been duly “ proved ” in the Church courts,
(pp. 135-6).
At the hands of the Christian Churches the Devil
has had what the Americans call a “ raw deal.” For
centuiies this historic figure, the subject of sculp
ture, song and story, has not a single monument in
any of the Churches, which without him would never
have been. Man’s ingratitude to man is said to be
great enough to make angels, weep. But what is this
compared with the ingratitude of the Church to the
greatest of its benefactors ?
�l6
THE DEVIL
But ingratitude brings its nemesis. The devil and
God are the components of a Siamese twin. Neither
has any existence apart from the other. In denying
the existence of the one, Christians have helped to
kill the other. If there need to be no fear of hell,
people may well ask what is the attraction of heaven ?
Gods and devils were born together.
Gods and
devils will die together.
PAMPHLETS FOR THE PEOPLE
By CHAPMAN COHEN
1. Did Jesus Christ Exist?
2. Morality Without God.
3. What is the Use of Prayer?
4. Christianity and Woman.
5. Must We Have a Religion ?
6. The Devil.
7. What Is Freethought ?
8. Gods and Their Makers.
9. Giving ’em Hell.
10. The Church’s Fight for the Child.
11. Deity and Design.
12. What is the Use of a Future Life?
13. Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to Live.
14. Freethought and the Child.
15. Agnosticism or ... ?
16. Atheism.
17. Christianity and Slavery.
Other Pamphlets in this Series to be published shortly
Twopence Each; Postage One Penny.
ZsswecZ for the Secular Society Limited, and
Printed and Published by
The Pioneer Press (G-. W. Foote & Co., Ltd.),
2 & 3, Furnival Street, London, E.C.4,
ENGLAND.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The devil
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Cohen, Chapman [1868-1954]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 16 p. ; 18 cm.
Series title: Pamphlets for the People
Series number: No. 6
Notes: Published for the Secular Society. Publisher's series list on back page. Tentative date of publication from KVK. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Pioneer Press
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[1910?]
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N142
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Devil
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The devil), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Devil-Christianity
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If the Devil should die, voould God make another ?
■ H. > :
fh •
A LECTURE
y
BY
ROBERT 0. INGERSOLL.
1
’I'
London : '
F R. FORDER, 28 STONECUTTER-STREET, E.C.
Price Sixpence.
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�mis
THE DEVIL.
If the Devil should die, would God make another?
A LECTURE
BY
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL.
London :
R. FORDER, 28 STONECUTTER-STREET, E.C.
1899.
��„TOOSWinoaSTVHOUVN
THE DEVIL.
I.
IF THE DEVIL SHOULD DIE, WOULD GOD MAKE
ANOTHER ?
A little while ago I delivered a lecture on “ Super
stition,” in which, among other things, I said that the
Christian world could not deny the existence of the
Devil ; that the Devil was really the keystone of the
arch, and that to take him away was to destroy the
entire system.
A great many clergymen answered or criticised this
statement. Some of these ministers avowed their belief
in the existence of his Satanic Majesty, while others
actually denied his existence ; but some, without stating
their own position, said that others believed, not in the
existence of a personal devil, but in the personification
of evil, and that all references to the Devil in the Scrip
tures could be explained on the hypothesis that the
Devil thus alluded to was simply a personification of
evil.
When I read these answers I thought of this line
from Heine : “ Christ rode on an ass, but now asses
ride on Christ.”
�4
THE DEVIL.
Now, the questions are, first, whether the Devil does
really exist; second, whether the sacred Scriptures
teach the existence of the Devil and of unclean spirits ;
and, third, whether this belief in devils is a necessary
part of what is known as “ orthodox Christianity.”
Now, where did the idea that a Devil exists come
from ? How was it produced ?
Fear is an artist—a sculptor—a painter. All tribes
and nations, having suffered, having been the sport and
prey of natural phenomena, having been struck by light
ning, poisoned by weeds, overwhelmed by volcanoes,
destroyed by earthquakes, believed in the existence of a
Devil, who was the king—the ruler—of innumerable
smaller devils, and all these devils have been from time
immemorial regarded as the enemies of men.
Along the banks of the Ganges wandered the Asuras,
the most powerful of evil spirits. Their business was
to war against the Devas—that is to say, the gods—and at the same time against human beings. There,
too, were the ogres, the Jakshas, and many others who
killed and devoured human beings.
The Persians turned this around, and with them the
Asuras were good and the Devas bad. Ormuzd was
the good (the god), Ahriman the evil (the devil), and
between the god and the devil was waged a perpetual
war. Some of the Persians thought that the evil would
finally triumph, but others insisted that the good would
be the victor.
In Egypt the devil was Set—or, as usually called,
Typhon—and the good god was Osiris. Set and his
legions fought against Osiris and against the human
race.
�THE DEVIL.
5
Among the Greeks the Titans were the enemies of
the gods. Ate was the spirit that tempted, and such
was her power that at one time she tempted and misled
the god of gods, even Zeus himself.
These ideas about gods and devils often changed,
because in the days of Socrates a demon was not a
devil, but a guardian angel.
We obtain our Devil from the Jews, and they got him
from Babylon. The Jews cultivated the science of
Demonology, and at one time it was believed that there
were nine kinds of demons : Beelzebub, prince of the
false gods of the other nations ; the Pythian Apollo,
prince of liars ; Belial, prince of mischief-makers ;
Asmodeus, prince of revengeful devils; Satan, prince of
witches and magicians ; Meresin, prince of aerial devils,
who caused thunderstorms and plagues ; Abaddon, who
caused wars, tumults, and combustions ; Diabolus, who
drives to despair; and Mammon, prince of the tempters.
It was believed that demons and sorcerers frequently
came together and held what were called “Sabbats”;
that is to say, orgies. It was also known that sorcerers
and witches had marks on their bodies that had been
imprinted by the Devil.
Of course these devils were all made by the people,
and in these devils we find the prejudices of their makers.
The Europeans always represent their devils as black,
while the Africans believed that theirs were white.
So it was believed that people by the aid of the Devil
could assume any shape that they wished. Witches
and wizards were changed into wolves, dogs, cats, and
serpents. This change to animal form was exceedingly
common.
�6
THE DEVIL.
Within two years, between 1598 and 1600, in one
district of France, the district of Jura, more than six
hundred men and women were tried and convicted
before one judge of having changed themselves into
wolves, and all were put to death.
This is only one instance. There are thousands.
There is no time to give the history of this belief in
devils. It has been universal. The consequences have
been terrible beyond the imagination. Millions and
millions of men, women, and children, of fathers and
mothers, have been sacrificed upon the altar of this
ignorant and idiotic belief.
Of course, the Christians of to-day do not believe that
the devils of the Hindus, Egyptians, Persians, or Baby
lonians existed. They think that those nations created
their own devils, precisely the same as they did their own
gods. But the Christians of to-day admit that for many
centuries Christians did believe in the existence of
countless devils; that the Fathers of the Church
believed as sincerely in the Devil and his demons as
in God and his angels ; that they were just as sure
about hell as heaven.
I admit that people did the best they could to accoun
for what they saw, for what they experienced. I admit
that the devils as well as the gods were naturally pro
duced—the effect of nature upon the human brain. The
cause of phenomena filled our ancestors not only with
wonder, but with terror. The miraculous, the super
natural, was not only believed in, but was always
expected.
A man walking in the woods at night—just a glim
mering of the moon—everything uncertain and shadowy
�THE DEVIL.
—sees a monstrous .form.
One arm is raised.
7
His
blood grows cold, his hair lifts. In the gloom he sees
the eyes of an ogre—eyes that flame with malice. He
feels that the something is approaching. He turns, and
with a cry of horror takes to his heels. He is afraid to
look back. Spent, out of breath, shaking with fear, he
reaches his hut and falls at the door. When he regains
consciousness, he tells his story, and, of course, the
children believe. When they become men and women
they tell father’s story of having seen the Devil to their
children, and so the children and grandchildren not only
believe, but think they know, that their father their
grandfather—actually saw a devil.
An old woman sitting by the fire at night a storm
raging without—hears the mournful sough of the wind.
To her it becomes a voice. Her imagination is touched,
and the voice seems to utter words. Out of these words
she constructs a message or a warning from the unseen
world. If the words are good, she has heard an angel,
if they are threatening and malicious, she has heard a
devil. She tells this to her children, and they believe.
They say that mother’s religion is good enough for
them. A girl suffering from hysteria falls into a trance
—has visions of the infernal world. The priest sprinkles
holy water on her pallid face, saying : “ She hath a
devil.” A man utters a terrible cry; falls to the ground;
foam and blood issue from his mouth ; his limbs are
convulsed. The spectators say : “ This is the Devil s
work.”
Through all the ages people have mistaken dreams
and visions of fear for realities. To them the insane
were inspired; epileptics were possessed by devils ;
�8
THE DEVIL.
apoplexy was the work of an unclean spirit. For many
centuries people believed that they had actually seen the
malicious phantoms of the night, and so thorough was
this belief—so vivid—that they made pictures of them.
They knew how they looked. They drew and chiselled
their hoofs, their horns—all their malicious deformities.
Now, I admit that all these monsters were naturally
produced.
The people believed that hell was their
native land ; that the Devil was a king, and that he and
his imps waged war against the children of men.
Curiously enough, some of these devils were made out
of degraded gods, and, naturally enough, many devils
were made out of the gods of other nations. So that,
frequently, the gods of one people were the devils of
another.
In nature these are opposing forces. Some of the
forces work for what man calls good ; some for what
he calls evil. Back of these forces our ancestors put
will, intelligence, and design. They could not believe
that the good and evil came from the same being. So
back of the good they put God ; back of the evil, the
Devil.
�II.
THE ATLAS OF CHRISTIANITY IS THE DEVIL.
The religion known as “Christianity” was invented
by God himself to repair in part the wreck and ruin that
had resulted from the Devil’s work.
Take the Devil from the scheme of salvation—from
the atonement—from the dogma of eternal pain—and
the foundation is gone.
The Devil is the keystone of the arch.
He inflicted the wounds that Christ came to heal. He
corrupted the human race.
The question now is : Does the Old Testament teach
the existence of the Devil ?
If the Old Testament teaches anything, it does teach
the existence of the Devil, of Satan, of the Serpent, ot
the enemy of God and man, the deceiver of men and
women.
Those who believe the Scriptures are compelled to
say that this Devil was created by God, and that God
knew when he created him just what he would do, the
exact measure of his success ; knew that he would be
a successful rival ; knew that he would deceive and
corrupt the children of men ; knew that, by reason of
this Devil, countless millions of human beings would
suffer eternal torment in the prison of pain. And this
God also knew, when he created the Devil, that he,
�IO
THE DEVIL.
God, would be compelled to leave his throne, to be born
a babe in Palestine, and to suffer a cruel death. All
this he knew when he created the Devil. Why did he
create him ?
It is no answer to say that this Devil was once an
angel of light and fell from his high estate because he
was free. God knew what he would do with his freedom
when he made him and gave him liberty of action, and,
as a matter of fact, must have made him with the inten
tion that he should rebel; that he should fall; that he
should become a devil; that he should tempt and corrupt
the father and mother of the human race; that he should
make hell a necessity, and that, in consequence of his
creation, countless millions of the children of men would
suffer eternal pain. Why did he create him ?
Admit that God is infinitely wise. Has he ingenuity
enough to frame an excuse for the creation of the
Devil ?
Does the Old Testament teach the existence of a real,
living Devil ?
The first account of this being is found in Genesis,
and in that account he is called the “Serpent.” He is
declared to have been more subtle than any beast of the
field.
According to the account, this Serpent had a
conversation with Eve, the first woman. We are not
told in what language they conversed, or how they
understood each other, as this was the first time they
had met. Where did Eve get her language ? Where
did the Serpent get his ? Of course, such questions are
impudent, but, at the same time, they are natural.
The result of this conversation was that Eve ate the
forbidden fruit and induced Adam to do the same. This
�THE DEVIL.
ir
is what is called the “ Fall,” and for this they were
expelled from the Garden of Eden.
On account of this, God cursed the earth with weeds
and thorns and brambles, cursed man with toil, made
woman a slave, and cursed maternity with pain and
sorrow.
How men, good men, can worship this God ; how
women, good women, can love this Jehovah, is beyond
my imagination.
In addition to the other curses the Serpent was cursed
—-condemned to crawl on his belly and to eat dust. We
do not know by what means, before that time, he moved
from place to place, whether he walked or flew ; neither
do we know on what food he lived ; all we know is that
after that time he crawled and lived on dust. Jehovah
told him that this he should do all the days of his life.
It would seem from this that the Serpent was not at
that time immortal ; that there was somewhere in the
future a milepost at which the life of this Serpent
stopped. Whether he is living yet or not, I am not
certain.
It will not do to say that this is allegory, or a poem,
because this proves too much. If the Serpent did not
in fact exist, how do we know that Adam and Eve
existed? Is all that is said about God allegory and
poetic, or mythical ? Is the whole account, after all, an
ignorant dream ?
Neither will it do to say that the Devil—the Serpent
—-was a personification of evil. Do personifications of
evil talk ? Can a personification of evil crawl on its
belly? Can a personification of evil eat dust? If we
say that the Devil was a personification of evil, are we
�12
THE DEVIL.
not at the same time compelled to say that Jehovah was
a personification of good ; that the Garden of Eden was
the personification of a place, and that the whole story
is a personification of something that did not happen ?
Maybe that Adam and Eve were not driven out of the
Garden ; they may have suffered only the personifica
tion of exile. And maybe the cherubim placed at the
gate of Eden, with flaming swords, were only personi
fications of policemen.
There is no escape. If the Old Testament is true, the
Devil does exist, and it is impossible to explain him
away without at the same time explaining God away.
So there are many references to devils, and spirits of
divination and of evil, which I have not the time to call
attention to ; but, in the Book of Job, Satan, the Devil,
has a conversation with God. It is this Devil that
brings the sorrows and losses on the upright man. It
is this Devil that raises the storm that wrecks the homes
of Job’s children. It is this Devil that kills the children
of Job. Take this Devil from that book, and all mean
ing, plot, and purpose fade away.
Is it possible to say that the Devil in Job was only a
personification of evil ?
In Chronicles we are told that Satan provoked David
to number Israel. For this act of David, caused by the
Devil, God did not smite the Devil, did not punish
David, but he killed 70,000 poor innocent Jews, who
had done nothing but stand up and be counted.
Was this Devil who tempted David a personifica
tion of evil, or was Jehovah a personification of the
devilish ?
In Zachariah we are told that Joshua stood before the
�THE DEVIL.
13
angel of the Lord, and that Satan stood at his right
hand to resist him, and that the Lord rebuked Satan.
If words convey any meaning, the Old Testament
teaches the existence of the Devil.
All the passages about witches and those having
familiar spirits were born of a belief in the Devil.
When a man who loved Jehovah wanted revenge on his
enemy, he fell on his holy knees, and from a heart full
of religion he cried : “ Let Satan stand at his right
hand.”
�III.
TAKE THE DEVIL FROM THE DRAMA OF CHRISTIANITY
AND THE PLOT IS GONE.
The next question is : Does the New Testament teach
the existence of the Devil ?
As a matter of fact, the New Testament is far more
explicit than the Old. The Jews, believing that Jehovah
was God, had very little business for a devil. Jehovah
was wicked enough and malicious enough to take the
Devil’s place.
The first reference in the New Testament to the Devil
is in the fourth chapter of Matthew. We are told that
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted of the Devil.
It seems that he was not led by the Devil into the
wilderness, but by the Spirit ; that the Spirit and the
Devil were acting together in a kind of pious con
spiracy.
In the wilderness Jesus fasted forty days, and then
the Devil asked him to turn stones into bread. The
Devil also took him to Jerusalem and set him on a
pinnacle of the temple, and tried to induce him to leap
to the earth. The Devil also took him to the top of a
mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world,
,and offered them all to him in exchange for his worship.
�THE DEVIL.
i5
Jesus refused. The Devil went away, and angels came
and ministered to Christ.
Now, the question is : Did the author of this account
believe in the existence of the Devil, or did he regard
this Devil as a personification of evil, and did he intend
that his account should be understood as an allegory,
or as a poem, or as a myth ?
Was Jesus tempted ? If he was tempted, who tempted
him? Did anybody offer him the kingdoms of the
world ?
Did the writer of the account try to convey to the
reader the thought that Christ was tempted by the
Devil ?
If Christ was not tempted by the Devil, then the
temptation was born in his own heart. If that be true,
can it be said that he was divine ? If these adders,
these vipers, were coiled in his bosom, was he the son
of God? Was he pure ?
In the same chapter we are told that Christ healed
“ those which were possessed of devils, and those which
were lunatic, and those that had the palsy.”
From this it is evident that a distinction was made
between those possessed with devils and those whose
minds were affected and those who were afflicted with
diseases.
We are told that at the same time, a good way off,
many swine were feeding, and that the devils besought
Christ, saying: “ If thou cast us out, suffer us to go
away into the herd of swine.” And he said unto them :
“ Go.”
Is it possible that personifications of evil would desire
to enter the bodies of swine, and is it possible that it
�i6
THE DEVIL.
was necessary for them to have the consent of Christ
before they could enter the swine? The question
naturally arises : How did they enter into the body of
the man ? Did they do that without Christ’s consent,
and is it a fact that Christ protects swine and neglects
human beings ? Can personifications have desires ?
In the ninth chapter of Matthew there was a dumb
man brought to Jesus, possessed.with a devil. Jesus
cast out the devil, and the dumb man spake.
Did a personification of evil prevent the dumb man
from talking ? Did it in some way paralyze his organs
of speech ? Could it have done this had it only been a
personification of evil ?
In the tenth chapter Jesus gives his twelve disciples
power to cast out unclean spirits. What were unclean
spirits supposed to be ? Did they really exist ? Were
they shadows, impersonations, allegories?
When Jesus sent his disciples forth on the great
mission to convert the world, among other things he
told them to heal the sick, to raise the dead, and to
cast out devils. Here a distinction is made between
the sick and those who were possessed by evil spirits.
Now, what did Christ mean by devils?
In the twelfth chapter we are told of a very remark
able case. There was brought unto Jesus one possessed
with a devil, blind and dumb, and Jesus healed him.
The blind and dumb both spake and saw. There
upon the Pharisees said : “ This fellow doth not cast
out devils^ but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”
Jesus answered by saying : “ Every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation. If Satan cast
out Satan, he is divided against himself.”
�THE DEVIL.
17
Why did not Christ tell the Pharisees that he did not
cast out devils—only personifications of evil ; and that
with these personifications Beelzebub had nothing to
do ?
Another question : Did the Pharisees believe in the
existence of devils, or had they the personification
idea ?
At the same time Christ said : “ If I cast out devils
by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is
come unto you.”
If he meant anything by these words, he certainly
intended to convey the idea that what he did demon
strated the superiority of God over the Devil.
Did Christ believe in the existence of the Devil ?
In the fifteenth chapter is the account of the woman
of Canaan who cried unto Jesus, saying : “ Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is
sorely vexed with a devil.” On account of her faith
Christ made the daughter whole.
In the sixteenth chapter a man brought his son to
Jesus. The boy was a lunatic, sore vexed, oftentimes
falling in the fire and water. The disciples had tried to
cure him and had failed. Jesus rebuked the devil, and
the devil departed out of him, and the boy was cured.
Was the devil in this case a personification of evil ?
The disciples then asked Jesus why they could not
cast that devil out. Jesus told them that it was
because of their unbelief, and then added : “ Howbeit
this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.”
From this it would seem that some personifications
were easier to expel than others.
The first chapter of Mark throws a little light on the
�18
THE DEVIL.
story of the temptation of Christ. Matthew tells us
that Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilder
ness to be tempted of the Devil. In Mark we are
told who this Spirit was :—
“And straightway coming up out of the water he
saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove
descending upon him.
“ And there came a voice from heaven, saying:
‘Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’
“And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the
wilderness.”
Why the Holy Ghost should hand Christ over to the
tender mercies of the Devil is not explained. And it is
all the more wonderful when we remember that the
Holy Ghost was the third person in the Trinity and
Christ the second, and that this Holy Ghost was, in
fact, God, and that Christ also was, in fact, God, so
that God led God into the wilderness to be tempted of
the Devil.
We are told that Christ was in the wilderness forty
days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts,
and that the angels ministered unto him.
Were these angels real angels, or were they personi
fications of good, of comfort ?
So we see that the same Spirit that came out of
heaven, the same Spirit that said “This is my beloved
son,” drove Christ into the wilderness to be tempted of
Satan.
Was this Devil a real being? Was this Spirit who
claimed to be the father of Christ a real being, or was
he a personification ? Are the heavens a real place ?
Are they a personification ? Did the wild beasts live,
�THE DEVIL.
i9
and did the angels minister unto Christ ? In other
words, is the story true, or is it poetry, or metaphor,
or mistake, or falsehood ?
It might be asked : Why did God wish to be tempted
by the Devil ? Was God ambitious to obtain a victory
over Satan ? Was Satan foolish enough to think that
he could mislead God, and is it possible that the Devil
offered to give the world as a bribe to its creator and
owner, knowing at the same time that Christ was the
creator and owner, and also knowing that he (Christ)
knew that he (the Devil) knew that he (Christ) was the
creator and owner ?
Is not the whole story absurdly idiotic ? The Devil
knew that Christ was God, and knew that Christ knew
that the tempter was the Devil.
It may be asked how I know that the Devil knew
that Christ was God. My answer is found in the same
chapter. There is an account of what a devil said to
Christ
“ Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou
Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I
know thee. Thou art the holy one of God.”
Certainly, if the little devils knew this, the Devil him
self must have had like information. Jesus rebuked
this devil and said to him : “ Hold thy peace, and come
out of him.” And when the unclean spirit had torn
him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
So we are told that Jesus cast out many devils, and
suffered not the devils to speak because they knew him.
So it is said in the third chapter that “ unclean spirits,
when they saw him, fell down before him and cried,
.saying : ‘ Thou art the son of God.’ ”
�20
THE DEVIL.
In the fifth chapter is an account of casting out the
devils that went into the swine, and we are told that
“ all the devils besought him saying : ‘ Send us into the
swine.’ And Jesus gave them leave.”
Again I ask : Was it necessary for the devils to get
the permission of Christ before they could enter swine ?
Again I ask : By whose permission did they enter into
the man ?
Could personifications of evil enter a herd of swine,
or could personifications of evil make a bargain with
Christ ?
In the sixth chapter we are told that the disciples
“ cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that
were sick.” Here, again, the distinction is made
between those possessed by devils and those afflicted
by disease. It will not do to say that the devils were
diseases or personifications.
In the seventh chapter a Greek woman, w'hose
daughter was possessed by a devil, besought Christ
to cast this devil out. At last Christ said : “ The devil
is gone out of thy daughter.”
In the ninth chapter one of the multitude said unto
Christ: “ I have brought unto thee my son which hath
a dumb spirit. I spoke unto thy disciples that they
should cast him out, and they could not.”
So they brought this boy before Christ, and when
the boy saw him the spirit tare him, and he fell on the
ground and “wallowed, foaming.”
Christ asked the father : “ How long is it ago since
this came unto him ?” And he answered : “ Of a child,
and ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire and into the
waters to destroy him.”
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Then Christ said : “ Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into
him.”
“ And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came
out of him ; and he was as one dead ; insomuch that
many said : ‘ He is dead.’ ”
Then the disciples asked Jesus why they could not
cast them out, and Jesus said : “This kind can come
forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.”
Is there any doubt about the belief of the man who
wrote this account ? Is there any allegory, or poetry,
or myth in this story ? The devil, in this case, was not
an ordinary, every-day devil. He was dumb and deaf;
it was no use to order him out, because he could not
hear. The only way was to pray and fast.
Is there such a thing as a dumb and deaf devil ? If
so, the devils must be organized. They must have ears
and organs of speech,and they must be dumb because
there is something the matter with the apparatus of
speaking, and they must be deaf because something is
the matter with their ears. It would seem from this
that they are not simply spiritual beings, but organized
on a physical basis. Now, we know that the ears do
not hear. It is the brain that hears. So these devils
must have brains—that is to say, they must have been
what we call “ organized beings.”
Now, it is hardly possible that personifications of evil
are dumb or deaf. That is to say, that they have
physical imperfections.
In the same chapter John tells Christ that he saw
one casting out devils in Christ’s name who did not
follow with them, and Jesus said : “ Forbid him not.”
�22
THE DEVIL.
By this he seemed to admit that some one, not a
follower of his, was casting out devils in his name,
and he was willing that he should go on, because, as
he said: “For there is no man which shall do a
miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of
me.”
In the fourth chapter of Luke the story of the tempta
tion of Christ by the Devil is again told with a few
additions. All the writers, having been inspired, did
not remember exactly the same things.
Luke tells us that the Devil said unto Christ, having
shown him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
of time : “ All this power will I give thee and the glory
of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomso
ever I will I give it. If thou wilt worship me, all shall
be thine.”
We are also told that when the Devil had ended all
the temptation he departed from him for a season. The
date of his return is not given.
In the same chapter we are told that a man in the
synagogue had a “spirit of an unclean devil.” This
devil recognized Jesus, and admitted that he was the
Holy One of God.
As a matter of fact, the Apostles seemed to have
relied upon the evidence of devils to substantiate the
divinity of their Lord.
Jesus said to this devil: “ Hold thy peace and come
out of him.” And the devil, after throwing the man
down, came out.
In the forty-first verse of the same chapter it is said :
“And devils also came out of many, crying out and
saying : ‘Thou art Christ, the Son of God.’ ”
�THE DEVIL.
23
It is also said that Christ rebuked them and suffered
them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ.
Now, it will not do to say that these devils were
diseases, because diseases could not talk, and diseases
would not recognize Christ as the Son of God. After
all, epilepsy is not a theologian. I admit that lunacy
comes nearer.
In the eighth chapter is told again the story of the
devils and the swine. In this account Jesus asked the
devil his name, and the devil replied “ Legion.”
In the ninth chapter is told the story of the devil
that the disciples could not cast out, but was cast out
by Christ, and in the thirteenth chapter it is said that
the Pharisees came to Jesus, telling him to go away,
because Herod would kill him, and Jesus said unto
these Pharisees : “ Go ye, and tell that fox, behold, I
cast out devils.”
What did he mean by this ? Did he mean that he
cured diseases? No. Because in the same sentence
he says, “And I do cures to-day,” making a distinction
between devils and diseases.
In the twenty-second chapter an account of the
betrayal of Christ by Judas is given in these words :
“Then entered Satan into Judas Iscariot, being of
the number of the twelve.”
“ And he went his way and communed with the chief
priests and captains how he might betray him unto
them.
“ And they were glad, and covenanted to give him
money.”
According to Christ, the little devils knew that he was
the Son of God. Certainly, then, Satan, king of all the
�24
THE DEVIL.
fiends, knew that Christ was divine. And he not only
knew that, but he knew all about the scheme of salva
tion. He knew that Christ wished to make an atone
ment of blood by the sacrifice of himself.
According to Christian theologians, the Devil has
always done his utmost to gain possession of the souls
of men. At the time he entered into Judas, persuading
him to betray Christ, he knew that if Christ was
betrayed he would be crucified, and that he would make
an atonement for all believers, and that, as a result,
he, the Devil, would lose all the souls that Christ
gained.
What interest had the Devil in defeating himself?
If he could have prevented the betrayal, then Christ
would not have been crucified. No atonement would
have been made, and the whole world would have gone
to hell. The success of the Devil would have been
complete. But, according to this story, the Devil out
witted himself.
How thankful we should be to his Satanic Majesty.
He opened for us the gates of paradise and made it
possible for us to obtain eternal life. Without Satan,
without Judas, not a single human being could have
become an angel of light. All would have been wing
less devils in the prison of flame. In Jerusalem, to the
extent of his power, Satan repaired the wreck and ruin
he had wrought in the Garden of Eden.
Certainly the writers of the New Testament believed
in the existence of the Devil.
In the eighth chapter it is said that out of Mary
Magdalene were cast seven devils. To me Mary
Magdalene is the most beautiful character in the New
�THE DEVIL.
25
Testament. She is the one true disciple. In the
darkness of the crucifixion she lingered near.
She
was the first at the sepulchre. Defeat, disaster, dis
grace, could not conquer her love. And yet, according
to the account, when she met the risen Christ he said :
“ Touch me not. ” This was the reward of her infinite
devotion.
In the Gospel of John we are told that John the
Baptist said that he saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove, and that it abode upon Christ.
But in the Gospel of John nothing is said about the
Spirit driving Christ into the wilderness to be tempted
by the Devil. Possibly John never heard of that, or
forgot it, or did not believe it. But in the thirteenth
chapter I find this :
“ And supper being ended, the Devil having now put
into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray
him.”.......
In John there are no accounts of the casting out of
devils by Christ or his apostles. On that subject there
is no word. Possibly John had his doubts.
In the fifth chapter of Acts we are told that the
people brought the sick and those which were vexed
with unclean spirits to the apostles, and the apostles
healed them. Here, again, there is made a clear dis
tinction between the sick and those possessed by
devils. And in the eighth chapter we are told that
“ unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of
them.”
In the thirteenth chapter Paul calls Elymas the
child of the Devil, and in the sixteenth chapter an
account is given of “ a damsel possessed with a spirit
�26
THE DEVIL.
of divination, who brought her masters much gain by
soothsaying.”
Paul and Silas, it would seem, cast out this spirit,
and by reason of that suffered great persecution.
In the nineteenth chapter certain vagabond Jews
pronounced over those who had evil spirits the name
of Jesus, and the evil spirits answered : “Jesus I know,
and Paul I know ; but who are ye ?”
“ And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on
them, so that they fled naked and wounded.”
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, in the eighth chapter
says :
“ I would not that ye should have fellowship with
devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of devils. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s
table and the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord
to jealousy ?”
In the eleventh chapter he says that long hair is the
glory of woman, but that she ought to keep her head
covered because of the angels.
In those intellectual days people believed in what
were called the Incubi and the Succubi. The Incubi
were male angels and the Succubi were female angels,
and, according to the belief of that time, nothing so
attracted the Incubi as the beautiful hair of women,
and for this reason Paul said that women should keep
their heads covered. Paul calls the Devil the “ prince
of the power of the air.”
So in Jude we are told “that Michael, the archangel,
when contending with the devil he disputed about the
body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing
accusation, but said : ‘The Lord rebuke thee.’ ”
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27
Was this devil with whom Michael contended a
personification of evil, or a poem, or a myth ?
In First Peter we are told to be sober, vigilant,
“ because your adversary, the Devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.
Are people devoured by personifications or myths ?
Has an allegory an appetite, or is a poem a cannibal ?
So in Ephesians we are warned not to give place to
the Devil, and in the same book we are told : “ Put on
the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the Devil.”
And in Hebrews it is said that “ him that had the
power of death—that is, the Devil”; showing that the
Devil has the power of death.
And in James it is said that if we resist the Devil he
will flee from us ; and in First John we are told that he
that committeth sin is of the Devil, for the reason that
the Devil sinneth from the beginning ; and we are also
told that “ for this purpose was the Son of God mani
fested, that he may destroy the works of the Devil.
No Devil—no Christ.
In Revelation, the insanest of all
following : “And there was war in
and his angels fought against the
dragon fought and his angels.
“And prevailed not ; neither was
books, I find the
heaven. Michael
dragon, and the
their place found
any more in heaven.
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole
world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels
were cast out with him.
“ Therefore, rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell
�28
THE DEVIL.
in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of
the sea ; for the Devil is come down unto you, having
great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time.”
From this it would appear that the Devil once lived
in heaven, raised a rebellion, was defeated and cast
out; and the inspired writer congratulates the angels
that they are rid of him, and commiserates us that we
have him.
In the twentieth chapter of Revelation is the fol
lowing :—
“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his
hand.
“And he laid hold on the dragon—that old serpent,
which is the Devil and Satan—and bound him a thou
sand years.
“And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him
up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the
nations no more till the thousand years should be ful
filled ; and after he must be loosed a little season.”
It is hard to understand how one could be confined
in a pit without a bottom, and how a chain of iron could
hold one in eternal fire, or what use there would be to
lock a bottomless pit; but these are questions probably
suggested by the Devil.
We are further told that “when the thousand years
are expired Satan shall be loosed out of his prison.”
“And the Devil was cast jinto the lake of fire and
brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are,
and shall be tormented day’and night forever.”
In the light of the passages that I have read we can
�THE DEVIL.
29
clearly see what the writers of the New Testament
believed. About this there can be no honest difference.
If the Gospels teach the existence of God—of Christ they teach the existence of the Devil. If the Devil
does not exist—if little devils do not enter the bodies
of men—the New Testament may be inspired, but it is
not true.
The early Christians proved that Christ was divine
because he cast out devils. The evidence they offered
was more absurd than the statement they sought to
prove. They were like the old man who said that he
saw a grindstone floating down the river. Someone
said that a grindstone would not float. “Ah,” said
the old man, “ but the one I saw had an iron crank
in it.”
Of course, I do not blame the authors of the Gospels.
They lived in a superstitious age, at a time when
Rumor was the historian, when Gossip corrected the
“proof,” and when everything w’as believed except the
facts.
The Apostles, like their fellows, believed in miracles
and magic. Credulity was regarded as a virtue.
The Rev. Mr. Parkhurst denounces the Apostles as
worthless cravens. Certainly I do not agree with him.
I think that they were good men. I do not believe that
any one of them ever tried to reform Jerusalem on the
Parkhurst plan. I admit that they honestly believed in
devils—that they were credulous and superstitious.
There is one story in the New Testament that illus
trates my meaning.
In the fifth chapter of John is the following :—
“Now, there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep market, a
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THE DEVIL.
pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue ‘ Bethesda,
having five porches.
“ In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk—of
blind, halt, withered—waiting for the moving of the water.
“ For an angel went down at a certain season into
the pool and troubled the water : whosoever then first
after the troubling of the water stepped in was made
whole of whatsoever disease he had.
“And a certain man was there which had an infirmity
thirty and eight years.
“When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had
been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him :
‘ Wilt thou be made whole ?’
“ The impotent man answered him : ‘ Sir, I have no
man when the water is troubled to put me into the
pool ; but while I am coming another steppeth down
before me.’
“Jesus saith unto him : ‘Rise, take up thy bed and
walk. ’
“ And immediately the man was made whole and took
up his bed and walked.”
Does any sensible human being now believe this
story? Was the water of Bethesda troubled by an
angel ? Where did the angel come from ? Where
do angels live ? Did the angel put medicine in the
water—just enough to cure one ? Did he put in
different medicines for different diseases, or did he
have a medicine, like those that are patented now,
that cured all diseases just the same ?
Was the water troubled by an angel ? Possibly what
apostles and theologians call an angel a scientist knows
as carbonic acid gas.
�THE DEVIL.
3i
John does not say that the people thought the water
was troubled by an angel, but he states it as a fact.
And he tells us, also, as a fact, that the first invalid
that got in the water after it had been troubled was
cured of what disease he had.
What is the evidence of John worth ?
Again, I say that if the Devil does not exist, the
Gospels are not inspired. If devils do not exist,
Christ was either honestly mistaken, insane, or an
impostor.
t
If devils do not exist, the Fall of Man is a mistake
and the Atonement an absurdity. If devils do not exist,
hell becomes only a dream of revenge.
Beneath the structure called “ Christianity ” are
four cornerstones—the Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and
Devil.
�IV.
THE EVIDENCE OF THE CHURCH.
The Devil was Forced to Father the Failures of God.
All the fathers of the Church believed in devils.
All the saints won their crowns by overcoming devils.
All the popes and cardinals, bishops and priests,
believed in devils. Most of their time was occupied in
fighting devils. The whole Catholic world, from the
lowest layman to the highest priest, believed in devils.
They proved the existence of'devils by the New Testa
ment. They knew that these devils were citizens of
hell. They knew that Satan was their king. They
knew that hell was made for the Devil and his angels.
The founders of all the Protestant churches—the
makers of all the orthodox creeds—all the leading
Protestant theologians, from Luther to the president
of Princeton College—were, and are, firm believers in
the Devil. All the great commentators believed in
the Devil as firmly as they did in God.
Under the “ Scheme of Salvation ” the Devil was a
necessity. Somebody had to be responsible for the
thorns and thistles, for the cruelties and crimes.
Somebody had to father the mistakes of God. The
Devil was the scapegoat of Jehovah.
For hundreds of years good, honest, zealous Chris
tians contended against the Devil. They fought him
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day and night, and the thought that they had beaten
him gave to their dying lips the smile of victory.
For centuries the Church taught that the natural
man was totally depraved ; that he was by nature a
child of the Devil, and that new-born babes were
tenanted by unclean spirits.
As late as the middle of the sixteenth century every
infant that was baptized was, by that ceremony, freed
from a devil. When the holy water was applied the
priest said : “ I command thee, thou unclean spirit, in
the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, that thou come out and depart from this infant,
whom our Lord Jesus Christ has vouchsafed to call to
his holy baptism, to be made a member of his body,
and of his holy congregation.”
At that time the fathers—the theologians, the com
mentators—agreed that unbaptized children, including
those that were born dead, went to hell.
And these same fathers—theologians and commen
tators—said : “ God is love.”
These babes were pure as Pity’s tears, innocent as
their mother’s loving smiles, and yet the makers of our
creeds believed and taught that leering, unclean fiends
inhabited their dimpled flesh.
O, the unsearchable
riches of Christianity !
For many centuries the Church filled the world with
devils—with malicious spirits that caused storm and
tempest, disease, accident, and death—that filled the
night with visions of despair; with prophecies that
drove the dreamers mad. These devils assumed a
thousand forms—countless disguises in their efforts to
capture souls and destroy the Church. They deceived
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THE DEVIL.
sometimes the wisest and the best; made priests forget
their vows. They melted virtue’s snow in passion’s
fire, and in cunning ways entrapped and smirched the
innocent and good. These devils gave witches and
wizards their supernatural powers, and told them the
secrets of the future.
Millions of men and women were destroyed because
they had sold themselves to the Devil.
At that time Christians really believed the New
Testament. They knew it was the inspired word of
God, and, so believing, so knowing—as they thought—
they became insane.
No man has genius enough to describe the agonies
that have been inflicted on innocent men and women
because of this absurd belief. How it darkened the
mind, hardened the heart, and poisoned life ! It made
the Universe a madhouse presided over by an insane
God.
Think ! Why would a merciful God allow his
children to be the victims of devils ? Why would a
decent God allow his worshippers to believe in devils,
and by reason of that belief to persecute, torture, and
burn their fellow-men ?
Christians did not ask these questions.
They
believed the Bible ; they had confidence in the words of
Christ.
�V.
PERSONIFICATIONS OF EVIL.
The Orthodox Ostrich Thrusts His Head into the Sand.
Many of the clergy are now ashamed to say that they
believe in devils. The belief has become ignorant and
vulgar. They are ashamed of the lake of fire and
brimstone. It is too savage.
At the same time they do not wish to give up the
inspiration of the Bible. They give new meanings to
the inspired words. Now they say that devils were
only personifications of evil.
If the devils were only personifications of evil, what
were the angels ? Was the angel who told Joseph who
the father of Christ was, a personification ? Was the
Holy Ghost only the personification of a father? Was
the angel who told Joseph that Herod was dead a per
sonification of news ?
Were the angels who rolled away the stone and sat
clothed in shining garments in the empty sepulchre of
Christ a couple of personifications ?
Were all the
angels described in the Old Testament imaginary
shadows—bodily personifications ?
If the angels of
the Bible are real angels, the devils are real devils.
Let us be honest with ourselves and each other, and
give to the Bible its natural, obvious meaning. Let us
�36
THE DEVIL.
admit that the writers believed what they wrote. If
we believe that they were mistaken, let us have the
honesty and courage to say so. Certainly we have no
right to change or avoid their meaning, or to dis
honestly correct their mistakes. Timid preachers sully
their own souls when they change what the writers of
the Bible believed to be facts to allegories, parables,
poems, and myths.
It is impossible for any man who believes in the inspi
ration of the Bible to explain away the Devil.
If the Bible is true, the Devil exists. There is no
escape from this.
If the Devil does not exist, the Bible is not true.
There is no escape from this.
I admit that the Devil of the Bible is an impossible
contradiction ; an impossible being.
This Devil is the enemy of God, and God is his.
Now, why should this Devil, in another world, torment
sinners, who are his friends, to please God, his enemy ?
If the Devil is a personification, so is hell and the
lake of fire and brimstone. All these horrors fade into
allegories—into ignorant lies.
Any clergyman who can read the Bible, and then say
that devils are personifications of evil, is himself a per
sonification of stupidity or hypocrisy.
�VI.
Does any intelligent man now, whose brain has not
been deformed by superstition, believe in the existence
of the Devil ? What evidence have we that he exists ?
Where does this Devil live ? What does he do for a
livelihood ? What does he eat ? If he does not eat, he
cannot think. He cannot think without the expen
diture of force. He cannot create force ; he must
borrow it—that is to say, he must eat. How does he
move from place to place ? Does he walk or does he
fly, or has he invented some machine ? What object
has he in life ? What idea of success ? This Devil,
according to the Bible, knows that he is to be defeated ;
knows that the end is absolute and eternal failure;
knows that every step he takes leads to the infinite
catastrophe. Why does he act as he does ?
Our fathers thought that everything in this world
came from some other realm ; that all ideas of right
and wrong came from above ; that conscience dropped
from the clouds ; that the darkness was filled with imps
from perdition, and the day with angels from heaven ;
that souls had been breathed into man by Jehovah.
What there is in this world that lives and breathes
was produced here. Life was not imported. Mind is
not an exotic. Of this planet man is a native. This
world is his mother. The maker did not descend from
the heavens. The maker was, and is, here. Matter
�38
THE DEVIL.
and force, in their countless forms, affinities, and repul
sions, produced the living, breathing world.
How can we account for devils ? Is it possible that
they creep into the bodies of men and swine ? Do they
stay in the stomach or brain, in the heart or liver ?
Are these devils immortal, or do they multiply and
die? Were they all created at the same time, or did
they spring from a single pair ? If they are subject to
death, what becomes of them after death ? Do they go
to some other world, are they annihilated, or can they
get to heaven by believing on Christ ?
In the brain of science the devils have never lived.
There you will find no goblins, ghosts, wraiths, or imps
—no witches, spooks, or sorcerers. There the super
natural does not exist. No man of sense in the whole
world believes in devils, any more than he does in
mermaids, vampires, gorgons, hydras, naiads, dryads,
nymphs, fairies, or the anthropophagi—any more than he
does in the Fountain of Youth, the Philosopher’s Stone,
Perpetual Motion, or Fiat Money.
There is the same difference between religion and
science that there is between a madhouse and a univer
sity—between a fortune-teller and a mathematician—between emotion and philosophy—between guess and
demonstration.
The devils have gone, and with them they have taken
the miracles of Christ. They have carried away our
Lord. They have taken away the inspiration of the
Bible, and we are left in the darkness of nature without
the consolation of hell.
But let me ask the clergy a few questions :—
How did your Devil, who was at one time an angel
�THE DEVIL.
39
of light, come to sin? There was no other devil to
tempt him. He was in perfectly good society—in the
company of God—of the Trinity. All of his associates
were perfect. How did he fall? He knew that God
was infinite, and yet he waged war against him, and
induced about a third of the angels to volunteer. He
knew that he could not succeed ; knew that he would
be defeated and cast out; knew that he was fighting
for failure.
Why was God so unpopular ?
Why were the angels
so bad ?
According to the Christians, these angels were spirits.
They had never been corrupted by flesh—by the passion
of love. Why were they so wicked ?
Why did God create those angels, knowing that they
would rebel ? Why did he deliberately sow the seeds
of discord in heaven, knowing that he would cast them
into the lake of eternal fire—knowing that for them
he would create the eternal prison, whose dungeons
would echo forever the sobs and shrieks of endless
pain ?
How foolish is infinite wisdom I
How malicious is mercy 1
How revengeful is boundless love 1
Again, I say that no sensible man in all the world
believes in devils.
Why does God allow these devils to enjoy themselves
at the expense of his ignorant children ? Why does he
allow them to leave their prison ? Does he give them
furloughs or tickets-of-leave ?
Does he want his children misled and corrupted so
that he can have the pleasure of damning their souls ?
�VII.
THE MAN OF STRAW.
Some of the preachers who have answered me say
that I am fighting a man of straw.
I am fighting the supernatural—the dogma of in
spiration—the belief in devils—the atonement, salva
tion by faith—the forgiveness of sins, and the savagery
of eternal pain. I am fighting the absurd, the mon
strous, the cruel.
The ministers pretend that they have advanced—
that they do not believe the things that I attack. In
this they are not honest.
Who is the “ man of straw ” ?
The man of straw is their master. In every ortho
dox pulpit stands this man of straw—stands beside the
preacher—stands with a club, called a “creed,” in his
upraised hand. The shadow of this club falls athwart
the open Bible—falls upon the preacher’s brain, darkens
the light of his reason, and compels him to betray
himself.
The man of straw rules every sectarian school and
college—every orthodox church.
He is the censor
who passes on every sermon. Now and then some
minister puts a little sense in his discourse—tries to
take a forward step. Down comes the club, and the
man of straw demands an explanation—a retraction.
�THE DEVIL.
4i
If the minister takes it back—good. If he does not,
he is brought to book. The man of straw put the
plaster of silence on the lips of Professor Briggs, and
he was forced to leave the Church or remain dumb.
The man of straw closed the mouth of Professor
Smith, and he has not opened it since.
The man of straw would not allow the Presbyterian
creed to be changed.
The man of straw took Father McGlynn by the
collar, forced him to his knees, made him take back his'
words and ask forgiveness for having been abused.
The man of straw pitched Professor Swing out of
the pulpit, and drove the Rev. Mr. Thomas from the
Methodist Church.
Let me tell the orthodox ministers that they are
trying to cover their retreat.
You have given up the geology and astronomy of
the Bible.
You have admitted that its history is
untrue. You are retreating still. You are giving
up the dogma of inspiration ; you have your doubts
about the Flood and Babel; you have given up the
witches and wizards ; you are beginning to throw
away the miraculous ; you have killed the little devils,
and in a little while you will murder the Devil him
self.
In a few years you will take the Bible for what it
is worth. The good and true will be treasured in the
heart; the foolish, the infamous, will be thrown away.
The man of straw will then be dead.
Of course, the real old petrified, orthodox Christian
will cling to the Devil.
He expects to have all of his
sins charged to the Devil, and at the same time he will
�42
THE DEVIL.
be credited with all the virtues of Christ. Upon this
showing on the books, upon this balance, he will be
entitled to his halo and harp. What a glorious, what
aji equitable, transaction 1 The sorcerer Superstition
changes debt to credit. He waves his wand, and he
who deserves the tortures of hell receives an eternal
reward.
But if a man lacks faith the scheme is exactly
reversed. While in one case a soul is rewarded for
the virtues of another, in the other case a soul is
damned for the sins of another. This is justice when
it blossoms in mercy.
Beyond this idiocy cannot go.
�VIII.
KEEP THE DEVILS OUT OF CHILDREN.
William Kingdon Clifford, one of the greatest men
of this century, said : “ If there is one lesson that
history forces upon us in every page, it is this :—Keep
your children away from the priest, or he will make
them the enemies of mankind.”
In every orthodox Sunday-school children are taught
to believe in devils.
Every little brain becomes a
menagerie, filled with wild beasts from hell.
The
imagination is polluted with the deformed, the mon
strous, and malicious. To fill the minds of children
with leering fiends—with mocking devils—is one of
the meanest and basest of crimes.
In these pious
prisons—these divine dungeons—-these Protestant and
Catholic inquisitions—children are tortured with these
cruel lies. Here they are taught that to really think is
wicked ; that to express your honest thought is blas
phemy ; and that to live a free and joyous life, depend
ing on fact instead of faith, is the sin against the Holy
Ghost.
Children thus taught—thus corrupted and deformed—
become the enemies of investigation—of progress. They
are no longer true to themselves. They have lost the
veracity of the soul. In the language of Professor
Clifford, “ they are the enemies of the human race.”
�44
'
THE DEVIL.
So I say to all fathers and mothers: Keep your children
away from priests ; away from orthodox Sunday-schools ;
away from the slaves of superstition.
They will teach them to believe in the Devil ; in hell ;
in the prison of God ; in the eternal dungeon, where the
souls of men are to suffer for ever. These frightful
things are a part of Christianity. Take these lies from
the creed, and the whole scheme falls into shapeless ruin.
This dogma of hell is the infinite of savagery—-the dream
of insane revenge. It makes God a wild beast—an
infinite hyena. It makes Christ as merciless as the
fangs of a viper. Save poor children from the pollution
ot this horror. Protect them from this infinite lie.
�IX.
CONCLUSION-
I admit that there are many good and beautiful
passages in the Old and New Testament; that from
the lips of Christ dropped many pearls of kindness—
of love. Every verse that is true and tender I treasure
in my heart. Every thought, behind which is the
tear of pity, I appreciate and love. But I cannot
accept it all. Many utterances attributed to Christ
shock my brain and heart.
They are absurd and
cruel.
Take from the New Testament the infinite savagery,
the shoreless malevolence of eternal pain, the absurdity
of salvation by faith, the ignorant belief in the exist
ence of devils, the immorality and cruelty of the Atone
ment, the doctrine of non-resistance that denies to
virtue the right of self-defence, and how glorious it
would be to know that the remainder is true ! Com
pared with this knowledge, how everything else
in nature would shrink and shrivel! What ecstasy
it would be to know that God exists ; that he
is our father, and that he loves and cares for the chil
dren of men I To know that all the paths that human
beings travel, turn and wind as they may, lead to the
�46
THE DEVIL.
gates of stainless peace 1 How the heart would thrill
and throb to know that Christ was the conqueror of
Death ; that at his grave the all-devouring monster was
baffled and beaten forever ; that from that moment the
tomb became the door that opens on eternal life I To
know this would change all sorrow into gladness.
Poverty, failure, disaster, defeat, power, place, and
wealth would become meaningless sounds. To take
your babe upon your knee and say : “ Mine, and mine
forever !” What joy ! To clasp the woman you love
in your arms, and to know that she is yours, and for
ever—yours though suns darken and constellations
vanish ! This is enough : To know that the loved and
dead are not lost; that they still live and love and wait
for you. To know that Christ dispelled the darkness
of death and filled the grave with eternal light. To
know this would be all that the heart could bear.
Beyond this joy cannot go. Beyond this there is no
place for hope.
How beautiful, how enchanting, Death would be !
How we would long to see his fleshless skull ! What
rays of glory would stream from his sightless sockets,
and how the heart would long for the touch of his
stilling hand ! The shroud would become a robe of
glory, the funeral procession a harvest home, and the
grave would mark the end of sorrow, the beginning of
eternal joy.
And yet it were better far that all this should be
false than that all of the New Testament should be
true.
It is far better to have no heaven than to have
heaven and hell ; better to have no God than God
�THE DEVIL.
47
and Devil ; better to rest in eternal sleep than to be
an angel and know that the ones you love are suffer
ing eternal pain ; better to live a free and loving life—
a life that ends forever at the grave—than to be an
immortal slave.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The Devil : a lecture
Creator
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899.]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 47 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: No. 17b in Stein checklist. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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R. Forder
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1899
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N338
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Devil
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The Devil : a lecture), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Devil-Christianity
NSS
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Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The birth, life, and death of the devil: an argument, in which the beginning & extinction of evil in Biblically demonstrated and the popular personal devil proved to be a pagan myth
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Antipas, F. D. [1843-1919]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 32 p. : ill. (engravings) ; 19 cm.
Notes: Includes correspondence raised by the lecture. Annotations in ink. Two new publications from the publisher listed on numbered pages at the end.
Publisher
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Martin & Co.
Date
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[188-?]
Identifier
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G5125
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Christianity
Devil
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The birth, life, and death of the devil: an argument, in which the beginning & extinction of evil in Biblically demonstrated and the popular personal devil proved to be a pagan myth), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Devil-Christianity
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.NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
FREETHOUGIIT PITBLISHING COMPANY’S EDITION'.
BY
COL. R. G. INGERSOLL.
[tenth
thousand.]
LONDON:
FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
63, FLEET STREET E.C.
1 8 8 4.
PRICE
ONE
PENNY.
�LONDON :
PRINTED BT ANNIE BESAHT AND CHARLES BRADLAVGII,
63, FLEET STREET, E.C.
�DIVINE
VIVISECTION.
a bell was born of revenge and brutality on the one
side, and cowardice on the other. In my judgment the American
people are too brave, too charitable, too generous, too magnanimous, to believe in the infamous dogma of an eternal hell. I have
no respect for any human being who believes in it. I have no
respect for any man who preaches it. I have no respect for the
man who will pollute the imagination of childhood with that in
famous lie. I have no respect for the man who will add to the
sorrows of this world with that frightful dogma. I have no respect
for any man who endeavors to put that infinite cloud, that infinite
shadow, over the heart of humanity.
For a good many years the learned intellects of Christendom
j
into the religions of other countries in the
world, the religions of the thousands that have passed away. They
examined into the religion of Egypt, the religion of Greece, the
religion of home and of the Scandinavian countries. In the pre
sence of the ruins of those religions the learned men of Christen
dom insisted that those religions were baseless, that they were
fraudulent. But they have all passed away. While this was being
done the Christianity of our day applauded, and when the learned
^?en
brpugh with the religions of other countries they turned
bhen attention to our religion. By the same mode of reasoning,
by the same methods, by the same arguments that they used with
the old religions,. they are overturning the religion of our day.
Why Every religion in this world is the work of man. Every
t?k
bas been written by man. Men existed before the books.
It books had existed before man, I might admit there was such a
thing as a sacred volume. Man never had an idea, man will never
have an idea, except those supplied to him by his surroundings,
very idea m the world that man has, came to him by nature.
You can imagine an animal with the hoof of a bison, with the
pouch of the kangaroo, with the wings of an eagle, with the beak
of a bn’d, and with the tail of the lion; and yet every point of this
monster you borrow from nature. Every thing you can think of,
eveiy 'thing you can dream of, is borrowed from your surround
ings. And there is nothing on this earth coming from any other
sphere whatever. Man has produced every religion in the world.
And why Because each religion bodes forth the knowledge and
the belief of the people at the time it was made, and in no book is
there any knowledge found, except that of the people who wrote
it. In no book is there found any knowledge, except that of the
�20
firnn in which it was written. Barbarians have produced, and
always will produce, barbarian religions; barbarians have pro
duced, and always will produce, ideas in harmony with then- sur
roundings, and all the religions of the past were produced by
barbarians. We are making religions to-day. That is to say, we
are changing them, and the religion of to-day is not the religion
of one year ago. What changed it ? Science has done it edu
cation and the growing heart of man has done it. And just to the
extent that we become civilised ourselves, will we improve thereligion of our fathers. If the religion of one hundred years ago,
compared with the religion of to-day, is so low, what will it be nr
one thousand years ?
, .
,
3
-u- 1,
If we continue making the inroads upon orthodoxy which we
have been making during the last twenty-five years, what will it
be fifty years from to-night ? It will have to be remonetized by
that time, or else it will not be legal tender. In my judgment,
every religion that stands by appealing to miracles is dishonored.
Every religion in the world has denounced every other rehgion asa fraud. That proves to me that they all tell the truth aBout
others. Why, suppose Mr. Smith should tell Mr. Brown that he
—Smith—saw a corpse get out of the grave and that when he
first saw it, it was covered with the worms of death, and that in
his presence it was reclothed m healthy, beautiful flesh. Ai
then suppose Mr. Brown should tell Mr. Smith I
sa
thing myself. I was in a graveyard once, and I saw a dead man
rise.” Shippose then that Smith should say to Brown, You re a
liar” and Brown should reply to Smith, “And you re a bar
what would you think ? It would simply be because Smith, never
having seen it himself, did’nt believe Brown; and Brown, nevei
bavin* seen it, did’nt believe Smith had. Now, if Smith had
really°seen it, and Brown told him he had seen it too, then Smith
would regard it as a corroboration of his story, and he would legard Brown as one of his principal witnesses. But, on the con
trarv he says, “You never saw it.” So, when a man says, 1
was5 upon Mount Sinai, and there I met God, and he told me,
‘ Stand aside and let me drown these people ;
and anotJe1’
savsto him, “ I was up upon a mountain, and there 1 met tne
Supreme Brahma,” and Moses says, “That’s not true and con
tends that the other man never did see Brahma, and he conten
that Moses never did see God, that is in my judgment proof that
tkEver°y\X^onmthS,’ has charged every other religion with
havino-^been an unmitigated fraud ; and yet, if any man had evei
seen the miracle himself, his mind would be prepared to believe
that another man had seen the same thing. Whenever a man
appeals to a miracle he tells what is not true. Truth relies upon,
reason and the undeviating course of all the laws of nature.
Now, we have a religion—-that is, some people have.
ij
pretend to have religion myself. I Believe m
“ *
L t
—that’s my doctrine—to make everybody happy that y ou can.
�21
the future take care of itself, and if I ever touch the shores o£
another world, I will be just as ready and anxious to get into some
ramnn era,five employment as anybody else. Now, we have got in
this country a religion which men have preached for about eighteen
hundred years, and just in proportion as their belief in that religion
has grown great, men have grown mean and wicked; just in pro
portion as they have ceased to believe it, men have become just
and charitable. And if they believed it to-night as they once be
lieved it, I wouldn’t be allowed to speak in the city of New York.
It is from the coldness and infidelity of the churches that I get my
right to preach; and I say it to their credit. Now, we have a.
religion. What is it ? They say in the first place that all this
vast universe was created by a Deity. I don’t know whether it
was or not. They say, too, that had it not been for the first sin of
Adam there never would have been anyMdevil in this world, and if
there had been no devil there would have been no sin, and if there
had been no sin there never would have been any death. For my
part, I am glad there was death in this world, because that gave
me a chance. Somebody had to die to give me room, and when
my turn comes I’ll be willing to let somebody else take my place.
But whether there is another life or not, if there is any being who
gave me this, I shall thank him from the bottom of my heart, be
cause, upon the whole, my life has been a joy. Now they say,
because of this first sin all men .were consigned to eternal hell.
And this because Adam was our representative. Well, I always
had an idea that my representative ought to live somewhere about
the same time I do. I always had an idea that I should have some
voice in choosing my representative. And if I had a voice I never
should have voted for the old gentleman called Adam. Now, in
order to regain man from the frightful hell of eternity, Christ
himself came to this world and took upon himself flesh, and in
order that we might know the road to eternal salvation he gave us
:a book, and that book is called the Bible, and wherever that Bible
has been read men have immediately commenced cutting each
others’ throats. Wherever that Bible has been circulated, they
have invented inquisitions and instruments of torture, and have
commenced hating each other with all their hearts. But I am told
now, we are all told, that this Bible is the foundation of civilisa
tion ; I say that this Bible is the foundation of hell, and we never
shall get rid of the dogma of hell until we have got rid of the idea
that it is an inspired book.
Now, what does the Bible teach ? I am not going to talk about
what this minister or that ministei’ says it teaches ; the question
is: “ Ought a man to be sent to eternal hell for not believing this
Bible to be the work of a merciful Father ? ’ ’ and the only way to
find out is to read it; and as very few people do read it now, I will
read a few passages. This is the book to be read in the schools, in
•order to make our children charitable and good ; this is the book
that we must read in order that our children may have ideas of
mercy, charity, and justice.
�22
Does the Bible teach mercy ? Now be honest. I read : “ I will
make mine arrows drunk with blood; and my sword shall devour
flesh” (Deut. xxxii., 42). Pretty good start for a mercifjil God!
‘ ‘ That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and
the tongue of thy dogs in the same” (Ps. lxviii., 23.) Again:
‘ ‘ And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by
little and little; thou mayst not consume them at once, lest the
beasts of the field increase upon thee” (Deut. vii., 23).
Pead the glorious exploits of Joshua, chosen captain of theLord, and note how, having coveted the fertile land of Goshen, he
smote the people, houghed their horses, despoiled their cities, and
put all that breathed to the edge of the sword, as the moral God
had commanded. Moreover, he came against them suddenly, not
a solitary trumpet blast from the celestial orchestra was therecalling upon the people to yield, or to move out of their country,
bag and baggage. No; instantaneous fire and butchery. Ob
serve, too, the charming naivete of the statement: ‘ ‘ There was
not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the
Hivites.” Why ? Because the Lord “ hardened their hearts, that
they should come against Israel in battle that he might destroy
them utterly.”
Do you wish further examples of a God of mercy ? Pead in
Exodus how the Lord ordered the harrying of cities and thewholesale slaughter of the inhabitants. ‘ ‘ Thou shalt save alive
nothing that breatheth; but thou shalt utterly destroy them.”
The old men and the maidens, and the sweet-dimpled babe smiling
upon the lap of its mother.
Pecollect, these instructions were given to an army of invasion,
and the people who were fighting were guilty of the crime of
fighting for their homes. The Old Testament is full of curses,
vengeance, jealousy, and hatred; of barbarity and brutality..
Now, do not for one moment believe that these words were written
by the most merciful God. Don’t pluck from the heart the sweet
flowers of piety and crush them by superstition. Do not believe
that God ever ordered the murder of innocent women and helpless
babes. Do not let this supposition turn your hearts into stone.
When anything is said to have been written by the most merciful
God, and the thing is not merciful, then I deny it, and say he
never wrote it. I will live by the standard of reason, and if'
thinking in accordance with reason takes me to perdition, then I
will go to hell with my reason rather than to heaven without it.
Now, does this Bible teach political freedom, or does it teach
political tyranny ? Does it teach a man to resist oppression ? Does ■
it teach a man to tear from the throne of tyranny the crowned
thing and robber caUed a king ? Let us see. “ Let every soul be
subject to the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God:
the powers that be are ordained of God ” (Pom. xiii., 1). All the
kings and princes, and governors, and thieves, and robbers that
happened to be in authority were placed there by the infinite fatherof all! “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the
�23
ordinance of God.” And when George Washington resisted the
power of George the Third, he resisted the power of God. And
when our fathers said “resistance to tyrants is obedience to God,”
they falsified the Bible itself. “ For he is the minister of God to
thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for,he
beareth not the sword in vain ; for he is the minister of God, the
revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore
ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for con
science’s sake ” (Eom. xiii., 4, 5).
I deny this wretched doctrine. Wherever the sword of rebellion
is drawn to protect the rights of man, I am a rebel. Wherever the
sword of rebellion is drawn to give man liberty, to clothe him in
all his just rights, I am on the side of that rebellion. I deny that
rulers are crowned by the Most High; the rulers are the people,
and the presidents and others are but the servants of the people.
All authority comes from the people, and not from the aristocracy
of the air. Upon these texts of Scripture which I have just read
rest the thrones of Europe, and these are the voices that are re
peated from age to age by brainless kings and heartless kings.
Does the Bible give woman her rights ? Is this Bible humane ?
Does it treat woman as she ought to be treated, or is it barbarian ?
Let us see. “Let woman learn in silence with all subjection” (1
Timothy ii., 11). If a woman would know anything let her ask
her husband. Imagine the ignorance of a lady who had only that
source of information. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor
to usurp authority over a man, but to be in silence.” Observe the
magnificent reason. “ For Adam was first formed, then Eve.. And
Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the
transgression.” Splendid! “But I would have you know that
the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is of
the man ; and the head of Christ is God.” That is to say, there is
as much difference between the woman and man as there is between
Christ and man. There is the liberty of woman. “For the man
is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man. Neither was
the man created for the woman.” Well, who was he created for ?
“ But the woman was created for the man.” “Wives, submit your
selves unto your husbands, as unto the Lord.” There’s libe-ty 1
‘ ‘ For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is, the
head of the church; and he is the savior of the body. Therefore,
as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own
husbands in everything.” Even the Savior didn’t put man and.
woman upon any equality. The man could divorce the wife, but
the 'wife could not divorce the husband, and according to the Old
Testament, the mother had to ask forgiveness for being the mother
of babes. Splendid!
Here is something from the Old Testament: “ When thou goest
forth' to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath
delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive.
And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire
unto her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife. Then thou shalt
�24
bring lier home to thine house ; and she shall shave her head, and
pare her nails” (Deut. xxi., 10, 11, 12). That is in self-defence, I
suppose!
This sacred book, this foundation of human liberty, of morality,
does it teach concubinage and polygamy ? Read the thirty-first
chapter of Numbers, read the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy,
read the blessed lives of Abraham, of David, or of Solomon, and
then tell me that the sacred scripture does not teach polygamy and
concubinage ! All the language of the world is not sufficient to
express the infamy of polygamy ; it makes a man a beast and
a woman a stone. It destroys the fireside and makes virtue an out
cast. And yet it is the doctrine of the Bible. The doctrine
defended by Luther and Melancthon ! It takes from our language
those sweetest words—father, husband, wife, and mother, and
takes us back to barbarism and fills our hearts with the crawling,
slimy serpents of loathsome lust.
Does the Bible teach the existence of devils? Of course it
does. Yes, it teaches not only the existence of a good Being, but
a bad being. This good Being had to have a home ; that home
was heaven. This bad being had to have a home j and that home
was hell. This hell is supposed to be nearer to earth than I would
care to have it, and to be peopled with spirits, hobgoblins, and all
the fiery shapes with which the imagination of ignorance and fear
could people that horrible place ; and the Bible teaches, the ^existence of hell and this big devil and all these little devils. The
Bible teaches the doctrine of witchcraft, and makes us behove that
there are sorcerers and witches, and that the dead could be raised
by the power of sorcery. Read the account of the spiritual séance
at which Saul and the Witch of Endor assisted, and which resulted
in the calling up of Samuel. Does anyone believe that now t
In another place it is declared that ‘witchcraft is an abomination
unto the Lord. He wanted no rivals in this business. Now what
does the New Testament teach ? Turn to the story of Jesus being
led into the wilderness for the devil to experiment upon him. He
was starved forty days and nights, and then asked to work a
miracle ! After that the devil placed him on a pinnacle of the temple,
ami endeavored to persuade him to cast himself down to prove that
he was the Son of God. Is it possible that anyone can believe that
the devil absolutely took God Almighty, and put him on the pin
nacle of the temple and endeavored to persuade him to jump down/
» Again the devil taketh him into an exceeding high mountain,
and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them ; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee,, it thou
wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him. Get
thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve ” (Matt, iv., 8—11). ^9^’
the devil must have known at that time that he was God, and God.
at that time must have known that the other was the devil.. How
Could the latter be conceived to have the impudence to promise God
a world in which. he did not have a tax-title to an inch of land ♦
�25
Then there is that pig story. When, the “boss devil had left
Jesus and angels had ministered unto him, and he had taken a
short sea voyage, there came out to meet him a man possessed of a
number of minor devils, and a man whom no one could tame, nor
bind, no not with chains, and who dwelt among the tombs. A nice
puict citizen truly ! And after some parley the devils beseech Jesus,
saying:—“Send us into the swine that we may enter into them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits
went out, and entered into the swine ; and the herd ran violently
down a steep place into the sea (there were about two thousand)
and were choked in the sea.” No doubt a good riddance; hut what
the owner of the swine thought of the transaction, or whether he
was indemnified for the loss of his porkers deponent cannot say.
Are we reasonable men in the nineteenth century in the United
States of America and believe this ? I deny it. These fables of
devils have covered the world with blood; they have Tilled the
world with fear, and I am going to do what I can to free the
world of these insatiate monsters. Small and great, they aavG
-filler! the world with monsters, they have made the world a
synonym of bar and ferocity.
_
And it is this book that ought to be read in all the schools this book that teaches man to enslave his brother. If it is larceny
to steal the result of labor, how much more is it larceny to steal
the laborer himself ? ‘ ‘ Moreover, of the children of the strangers
that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye ouy, and of their
-Families that are with you, which they begat in your- land ; and
they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an in
heritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a posses
sion; they shall be your bondmen for ever; but over your brethren
the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with
rigor ” (Lev. xxv., 45, 46). Why i Because they are not as good
as you will buy of the heathen roundabout.
These are edifying texts. Consult also Exod. xxi., where you
will find a complete slave code. No detail is wanting. . Ender cer
tain conditions the master is to bring his servants to the judges, then
he is to lug him to the doorpost and bore his ear through with an
awl—“And he shall serve him for ever.” This is the doctrine which
has ever lent itself to the chains of slavery, and makes a man im
prison himself rather than desert wife and children. I hate it!
What does this same book with its glad tidings of great joy for
all people say of the rights of children ? Let us see how they are
treated by the “ most merciful God.” “ If a man hath a stubborn
and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father,, or
the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him,
will not hearken unto them. Then shall his father and his mother
lay hold of him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and
unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of
his city : This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey
our voice, he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his
city shall stone him with stones, that he die; so shalt thou put evil
�26
away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear ” ("Dout.
xxi., 18).
Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice,
and he intended to obey. The boy was not consulted.
Did you ever hear the story of Jcpthah’s daughter ? Is there in
the history of the world a sadder story than that ? Can a God who
would accept such a sacrifice be worthy of the worship of civilised
men ? I believe in the rights of children. I plead for the republic
of home, for the democracy of the fireside, and for this I am culled
a heathen and a devil by those who believe in the cheerful and
comforting doctrine of eternal damnation. Dead the book of Job I
God met the devil and asked him where he had been, and he said:
“Walking up and down the country,” and the Lord said to him :
c ‘ Have you noticed my man Job over here, how good he is ? ” And
the devil said : “Of course he’s good, you give him everything he
wants. Just take away his property and he’ll curse you. Youjust
try it.” And he did try it, and took away his goods, but Job still
remained good. The devil laughed and said that he had not been
tried enough. Then the Lord touched his flesh, but he was still
true.. Then he took away his children, but he remained faithfid,
and in the end, to show how much Job made by his fidelity, his
property was all doubled, and he had more children than ever. If
you have a child, and you love it, would you be satisfied with a
God who would destroy it, and endeavor to make it up by giving
you another that was better looking ? Mo, you want that one ;
you want no other, and yet this is the idea of the love of children
taught in the Bible.
Does the Bible teach you freedom of religion ? To-day we say
that every man has a right to worship God or not, to worship him
as he pleases. Is it the doctrine of the Bible ? Bead Deut. xii., 6.
If a brother, or son, or daughter or wife proposes to serve any god
but your own, or that of your fathers, thou shalt not pity, nor
spare, nor conceal. “ Thou shalt surely kill him ; thine hand shall
be the first upon him to put him to death, and thou shalt stone
him with stones that he die.”
. And do you know, according to that, if you had lived in Pales
tine, and your wife that you love as your own soul had said to
you: ‘ ‘ Let us worship the sun whose golden beams clothe the
world in glory; let us bow to that great luminary; I love the sun
because it gave me your face; because it gave me the features of
my babe ; let us worship the sun ; ” it was then your duty to lay
your hands upon her, your eye must not pity her, but it was your
duty to cast the first stone against that tender and loving breast!
I hate such doctrine' I hate such books ! I hate gods that will
•write such books ! I tell you that it is infamous! That is the
religious liberty of the Bible—that’s it. And this God taught that
doctrine to the Jews, and said to them, “Anyone that teaches a
different religion, kill him ! ” Now, let me ask, and I want to do
it reverently:
If, as is contended, God gave these frightful laws to the Jews,
�and afterwards this same God took upon himself flesh, and came
among the Jews, and taught a different religion, and these Jews,
in accordance with the laws which this same God gave them, cruci
fied hire, did he not reap what he had sown. ? The mercy of all
this comes in what is called “the plan of salvation.” What is
that plan? According to this great plan the innocent suffer "for
the guilty to satisfy a law.
What sort of a law must it be that would be satisfied with the
suffering of innocence ? According to this plan, the salvation of
the whole world depends upon the bigotry of the Jews and the
treachery of Judas. According to the same plan, there would have
been no death in the world if there had been no sin, and if there
had been no deaths you and I would not have been called into ex
istence, and if we did not exist we could not have been saved, so
we owe our salvation to the bigotry of the Jews and the treachery
of Judas, and we are indebted to the devil for our existence. I
speak this reverently. It strikes me that what they call the atone
ment is a kind of moral bankruptcy. Under its merciful provisions
man is allowed the privilege of sinning credit, and whenever he is
guilty of a mean action, he says : “Charge it.” In my judgment,
this kind of bookkeeping breeds extravagance in sin.
Suppose we had a law in New York that every merchant should
give credit to every man who asked it, under pain and penitentiary,
and that every man should take the benefit of the bankruptcy sta
tute any Saturday night ? Doesn’t the credit system in morals
breed extravagance in sin ? That’s the question. Who’s afraid of
punishment which is so far away ? Whom does the doctrine of
hell stop ? The great, the rich, the powerful ? No ; the poor, the
weak, the despised, the mean. Did you ever hear of a man going
to hell who died in New York worth a million of dollars, or ■with
an income of twenty-five thousand a year ? Did you ever hear of
a man going to hell who rode in a carriage ? Never. They are the
gentlemen who talk about their assets, and who say: “ Hell is not
for me, it is for the poor. I have all the luxuries I want, give that
to the poor.” Who go to hell ? Tramps !
Let me tell you a story. There was once a frightful rain, and all
the animals held a convention to see whose fault it was, and the fox
nominated the bon for chairman. The -wolf seconded the motion,
and the hyena said, that suits. When the convention was called to
order, the fox was called upon to confess his sins. He stated, how
ever, that it would be much more appropriate for the bon to com
mence first. Thereupon the lion said: “I am not conscious of
having committed evil. It is true I have devoured a few men, but
for what other purpose were men made ? ” And they all cheered,
and were satisfied. The fox gave his views upon the goose ques
tion, and the wolf admitted that he had devoured sheep, and occa
sionally had killed a shepherd, but “ ab acquainted with the history
of my family wib bear me out when I say that shepherds have been
the enemies of my family from the beginning of the world.” Then
away in the rear there arose a simple donkey, with a kind of Abra-
�28
hamic countenance. He said: “I expect it’s, I. I had eaten nothing
for three days except three thistles. I was passing a monastery;
the monks were at mass. The gates were open leading to a yard
full of sweet clover. I knew it was wrong, but I did slip in and I
took a mouthful, but my conscience smote me, and I went out.”
Then all the animals shouted, “He’s the fellow! ” and in two
minutes they had his hide on the fence. That’s the kind of people
that go to hell.
Now, this doctrine of hell, that has been such a comfort to my
race, which so many ministers are pleading for, has been defended
for ages by the fathers of the Church. Your preachers say that the
sovereignty of God implies that he has an absolute, unlimited, and
independent right to dispose of his creatures as he will, because he
made them. Has he ? Suppose I take this book and change it
immediately into a sentient human being. Would I have a right
to torture it because I made it ? No ; on the contrary. I would
say: Having brought you into existence, it is my duty to do the
best for you I can. They say God has a right to damn me because
he made me. I deny it.
Another one says: God is not obliged to save even those who
believe in Christ, and that he can either bestow salvation upon his
children or retain it without any diminution of his glory. Another
one says : God may save any sinner whatsoever, consistently with
his justice. Let a natural person—and I claim to be one—moral or
immoral, wise or unwise, let him be as just as he can, no matter
what his prayers may be, what pains he may have taken to bo saved,
or whatever circumstances he may be in, God, according to this
writer, can deny him salvation, without the least disparagement of
his glory. His glories will not be in the least obscured; there is
no natural man, be his character what it may, but God . may cast
him down to hell, without being charged with unfair dealing in any
respect with regard to that man. Theologians tell us that God’s
design in the creation was simply to glorify himself. Magnificent
object! “ The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of .God,
which is poured out • without mixture into the cup of his indigna
tion ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb
(Rev. i., 10).
Do you know nobody would have had an idea of hell in this
world if it hadn’t been for volcanoes ? They were looked upon as
the chimneys of hell. The idea of eternal fire never, would have
polluted the imagination of man but for them. An eminent theolo
gian, describing hell, says : ‘ ‘ There is no recounting up the million
of ages the damned shall suffer. All arithmetic ends here ” and
all sense, too .' “ They shall have nothing to do in passing away
this eternity but to conflict with torments. God shall have no other
use or employment for them.” These words were said by gentle
men who died Christians and who are now in the harp business in
the world to come. Another declares there is nothing to keep any
man or Christian out of hell except the mere pleasure of God, and
�29
their pains never grow any easier by their becoming accustomed to
them P It is also declared that the devil goes about like a hon, ready
to devour the wicked. Did it never occur to you what a con
tradiction it is to say that the devil will persecute his own friends
He wants all the recruits he can get; why then should he PerS0cute
his friends ? In my judgment he should give them the best hell
It is in the very nature of things that torments inflicted have no
tendency to bring a wicked man to repentance. Then why tor
ment him if it will not do him good ? It is simply unadulterated
revenge. All the punishment in the world will not reform a man
unless he knows that he who inflicts it upon him does it for the
sake of reformation, and really and truly loves him and has his
¡rood at heart. Punishment inflicted for gratifying the appetite
makes man afraid, but debases him. Various, reasons are given
for punishing the wicked; first that God will vindicate his ^jured
majesty. Well, I am afraid of that 1 Second, He will glorify his
justice-think of that. Third, He will show and glorify his grace
Every time the saved shall look upon the damned in hell it will
cause in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God.
Every look upon the damned will double the ardor and the joy of
the saints in heaven.' Can the believing husband in heaven look
down upon the torments of the unbelieving wife in hell and then
feel a thrill of joy ? That’s the old doctrine—that if you saw your
wife in hell—the wife you love, who, in your last sickness, nursed
you, that perhaps supported you by her needle when you were ill ;
the wife who watched by your couch mght and day, and held youi
corpse in her loving arms when you were dead—the sight would
give you great joy. That doctrine is not preached to-day. Ihey
do not preach that the sight would give you joy; but they do
preach that it will not diminish your happiness. That is the doc
trine of every orthodox minister in New York, and I repeat that
I have no respect for men who preach such, doctrines, lne signt
of the torments of the damned in hell will increase the ecstasy of
the saints for ever ! On this principle a man never enjoys a good.
dinner so much as when a fellow-creature is dying of famine before
his eyes, or he never enjoys the cheerful warmth of his own fiiesi e
so greatly as when a poor and abandoned wretch is dying on the
door-step. The saints enjoy the ecstasy, and the groans of the
tormented are music to them. I say here to-night that you cannot
commit a sin against an infinite being. I can sm against my
brother or my neighbor, because I can injure them. There can be
no sin where there is no injury. Neither can a finite being commit
infinite sin.
......
r
n.
An old saint believed that hell was in the interior of the earth,
and that the rotation of the earth was caused by the souls trying
to get away from the fire. The old church at Stratford-on-Avon,
Shakspere’s home, is adorned with pictures of hell and the like.
One of the pictures represents resurrection-morning. People are
getting out of their graves, and devils are catching hold oi tneir
�30
heels. In one place there is a huge brass monster, and devils are
driving scores of lost souls into his mouth. Over hot fires hang
chaldrons with fifty or sixty people in each, and devils are poking
the fires. People are hung up on hooks by their tongues, and
devils are lashing them. Up in the right-hand corner are some of
the saved, with grins on their faces stretching from ear to ear.
They seem to say: “Aha, what did I tell you ? ”
Some of the saints—gentlemen who died in the odor of sanctity,
and arc now in glory—insisted that heaven and hell would be
plainly in view of each other. Only a few years ago, Eev. J.
Furniss (an appropriate name) published a little • pamphlet called
“ A Sight of Hell.” I remember when I first read that. My little
child, seven years old, was ill and in bed. I thought she would
not hear me, and I read some of it aloud. She arose and asked :
“Who says that?” I answered: “That’s what they preach in
some of the churches.” “ I never will enter- a church as long as I
live ' ” she said, and she never has.
The doctrine of orthodox Christianity is that the damned shall
suffer torment for ever and for ever. And if you were a wanderer,
footsore, weary, with parched tongue, dying for a drop of water,
and you met one who divided his poor portion with you, and died
as he saw you reviving—if he was an -unbeliever and you a believer,
and he called you from hell for a draught of water, it would be
your duty to laugh at him.
Eev. C. Spurgeon says that everywhere in hell will be written
the words “for ever.” They-will be branded on every wave of
flame, they will be forged in every link of every chain, they will
be seen in every lurid flash of brimstone—everywhere will be the
words ‘ ‘ for ever.” Everybody will be yelling and screaming them.
Just think of that picture of the mercy and justice of the eternal
Father of us aU. If these words are necessary why are they not
written now everywhere in the world, on every tree, and every
field, and on every blade of grass ? I say I am entitled to have it
so. I say that it is God’s duty to furnish me with the evidence.
In old times they had to find a place for hell, and they found a
hundred places for it. One said that it was under Lake Avernus,
but the Christians thought differently. One divine tells us that
it must be below the earth because Christ descended into hell.
Another gives it as his opinion that hell is the sun, and he tells us
that nobody, without an express revelation from God, can prove
that it is not there. Most likely. Well, he had the idea at aU
events of utilising the damned as fuel to warm the earth. Another
divine preached a sermon no further back than 1876, in which he
said that the damned will grow worse, and the same divine says
that the devil was the first Universalist. Then I am on the side
cf the devil.
The fact is, that you have got not merely to believe the Bible ;
but you must also believe in a certain interpretation of it, and,
mind you, you must also believe in the doctrine of the Trinity.
If you don’t understand it, it is your own fault. You must believe
�31
in it all the same. If you do not all the orthodox churches agree
in condemning you to everlasting flames. We have got to burn
through all our lives simply with the view of making them happy.
We are taught to love our enemies, to pray for those that perse
cute us, to forgive. Should not the merciful God practise what he
preaches ? I say that reverently. Why should he say ‘ ‘ Fosgive
your enemies ” if he will not himself forgive ? Why should he say
‘ ‘ Pray for those that despise and persecute you, but if they refuse
to believe my doctrine I will burn them for ever?” I cannot
believe it. Here is a little child, residing in the purlieus of the
■city—some little boy who is taught that it is his duty to steal by
his mother, who applauds his success, and pats him on the head
.and calls him a good boy—would it be just to condemn him to an
eternity of torture ? Suppose there is a God; let us bring to this
■question some common sense.
I care nothing about the doctrines of religions or creeds of the
past. Let us come to the bar of the nineteenth century and judge
the matter by what we know, by what we think, by what we love.
But they say to us : “If you throw away the Bible what are we to
depend on then ? ” But no two persons in the world agree as to
what the Bible is, what they are to believe, or what they are not to
believe. It is like a guide-post that has been thrown down in
some time of disaster, and has been put up the wrong way. No
body can accept its guidance, for nobody knows where it would
direct him. I say, “ Tear- down the useless guide-post,” but they
.answer : “ Oh, do not do that or we will not have nothing to go
by.” I would say: “ Old Church, you take that road, and I will
take this.” Another minister has said that the Bible is the great
town clock, at which we all may set our watches. But I have said
to a friend of that minister: ‘ ‘ Suppose we all should set our
watches by that town clock, there would be many persons to tell
you that in old times the long hand was the hour hand, and be
sides, the clock hasn’t been wound up for a long time.” I say, let
us wait till the sun rises and set our watches by nature. For my
part I am willing to give up heaven to get rid of hell. I had
rather there should be no heaven, than that any solitary soul
should be condemned to suffer for ever and ever. But they tell
me that the Bible is the book of hope. Now, in the Old Testa
ment there is not, in my judgment, a single reference to another
life. Is there a burial service mentioned in it, in which a word of
hope is spoken at the grave of the dead ? The idea of eternal
life was not born of any book. The wave of hope and joy ebbs
and flows, and will continue to ebb and flow as long as love kisses
the lips of death.
Let me tell you a tale of the Persian religion—of a man who,
having done good for long years of his life, presented himself at
the gates of Paradise, but the gates remained closed against him.
He went back and followed up his good works for seven years
longer, and the gates of Paradise still remaining shut against him,
he toiled in works of charity until at last they were opened unto
�32
him. Think of that, and send out your missionaries among those
people. There is no religion but goodness, but justice, but charity.
Religion is not theory—it is life. It is not intellectual conviction
■—it is divine humanity, and nothing else. There is another tale
from the Hindu of a man who refused to enter Paradise without a
faithful dog, urging that ingratitude was the blackest of all sins.
“And the god,” he said, “ admitted him, dog and all.” Compare
that religion with the orthodox tenets of the city of New York.
There is a prayer which every Brahmin prays, in which he de
clares that he will never enter into a final state of bliss alone, but
that everywhere he will strive for universal redemption,' that
never will he leave the world of sin and sorrow, but remain suffer
ing and striving and sorrowing after universal salvation. Comparethat with the orthodox idea, and send out your missionaries to the
benighted Hindus.
The doctiine of hell is infamous beyond all power to express. I
wish there were words mean enough to express my feelings of
loathing on this subject. What harm has it not done? What
waste places has it not made ? It has planted misery and wretched
ness in this world; it has filled the future with selfish joys and.
lurid abysses of eternal flame. But we are getting marc sense
every day. We begin to despise those monstrous doctrines. If
you want to better men and women, change their conditions here.
Don’t promise them something somewhere else. One biscuit will do
more good than all the tracts that were ever peddled in the world.
Give them more whitewash, more light, more air. You have to
change men physically before you change them intellectually. I
believe the time will come when every criminal will be treated as
we now treat the diseased and sick, when every penitentiary will
become a reformatory; and that if criminals go to them with
hatred in their bosoms, they will leave them without feelings of
revenge. Let me tell you the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Eurydice had been carried away by the god of hell, and Orpheus,
her lover, went in quest of her. He took with him his. lyre, and
played such exquisite music that all hell was amazed. Ixion forgot
his labors at the wheel, the daughters of Danaus ceased from their
hopeless task, Tantalus forgot his thirst, oven Pluto smiled, and,
for the first time in the history of hell, the eyes of the Furies were
wet with tears. As it was -with the lyre of Orpheus, so it is to-day
with the great harmonies of science, which are rescuing from theprisons of superstition the torn and bleeding heart of man.
�
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Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Divine vivisection
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: 2nd ed.
Place of publication: London
Collation: [19]-32 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Freethought Publishing Company
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1884
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N340
Subject
The topic of the resource
Hell
Christianity
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Divine vivisection), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Devil-Christianity
Hell
NSS