From no other have we been given, in an externalized, practical form, those great, eternal religious principles which must forever stand as the rule and guide of human souls.  No ancient philosopher had evolved to a God-likeness that enabled him to go beyond a high stand-point of moral perfection, or to give to his disciples what was most needed by the world for its comforting in the accumulating, expanding experiences incident to earthly life.

Jesus, our Christ, the Christ of the religion named for him was the transmitter of heavenly truths.  To him the world owes forever a debt for making known a knowledge of the fact of the continued existence of the individual being after physical death, and it was given to him to point out the way of life that can alone lead to eternal happiness and peace.  He is our Teacher, our Leader above all others.  We have nothing to do with the impossible, faked-up personality that the priests have so long exploited as the “blood Redeemer” of the world; it is to the inspired philanthropist, the greatly-loving man that we owe our allegiance.  This will appear more and more as time goes on, and a lot of untruths will fade out and give place to great realities.

THE GODS.

The pagan gods were innumerable and their distinctive attributes were understood.  They well might be, as they were only deified men and women.  The next unfoldment caused them to raise altars to “the unknown God.”  Then came Jesus, the Nazarene, who told them that the “unknown God” was their Heavenly Father, not of a chosen people only, but of all the human race.  The new religion, inspired by Jesus—­our Christ—­and which was to bear his name, naturally brought with it all the superstitions of the pagans, and these have been handed down through the ages, and accepted and believed as true.

The primitive conception of a god was of a being with qualities like their own, and as men delighted in rapine and every possible accompanying vice and crime, so they endowed their gods in like manner, fashioning beings to be feared and to whom must be given big offerings and sacrifices.  So long as these were limited to beasts it was a good thing, because the priests who ate the flesh thus consecrated were sure of cheap meat for a long time thereafter.  But when the “firstlings of the flock” failed to bring satisfactory responses to the demands of the suppliants, they began sacrificing human lives in the vain hope of allaying the anger and vengeance of the dissatisfied all-powerful gods, and beautiful young maidens were thrust into the fiery jaws of Moloch, or crushed in the coils of sacred serpents, or slain upon altars according to the special god whose propitiation was sought.

From all these inhuman practices to a recognition of a God of love and mercy was a step so long that even yet there remain in the teachings of religionists indications of similar ideas, wherein not only nature’s culminating efforts, but all the painful experiences of human beings are accepted and feared as expressions of the “wrath of God.”