the God of Creation,' he writes, 'this savage
idol, Jehovah, of an obscure tribe, and we have renounced him and
are ashamed of him, not because of any later divine revelation, but
because mankind have become too enlightened to tolerate Jehovah.'"

Ernest Bax, an Englishman, one of the greatest authorities in the world
on Socialism, an author who, even in America, has been styled "the most
accomplished writer on behalf of Socialism in this and perhaps in any
country," in his book, "Religion of Socialism," thus testifies to the
relation existing between Socialism and religion:

"In what sense Socialism is not religious will now be clear. It
utterly despises the other world with all its stage
properties--that is, the present objects of religion." ["Religion
of Socialism," by Ernest Belfort Bax, page 52 of 1891 edition.]

Who could imagine any more convincing testimony of the atheistic and
anti-religious nature of the Socialist movement than the following words
of the English Socialist, James Leathan, in "Socialism and Character":

"At the present moment I cannot remember a single instance of a
person who is at one and the same time a really earnest and
intelligent Socialist and an orthodox Christian. Those who do not
openly attack the church and the fabric of Christianity, show but
scant respect to either the one or the other in private.... And
while all of us are thus indifferent to the church, many of us are
frankly hostile to her. Marx, Lassalle and Engels among earlier
Socialists; Morris, Bax, Hyndman, Guesde and Bebel among
present-day Socialists--are all more or less avowed atheists; and
what is true of the more notable men of the party is almost equally
true of the rank and file the world over."

In 1910 a pamphlet entitled "Socialism and Religion" was issued by the
Revolutionists of Great Britain. One quotation from it will amply
suffice to show the utter contempt of the English[15] Socialist for
religion:

"If a man supports the church, or in any respect allows religious
ideas to stand in the way of principles of Socialism, or activity
of the party, he proves thereby that he does not accept Socialism
as fundamentally true and of the first importance, and his place is
outside. No man can be consistently both a Socialist and a
Christian. It must either be the Socialist or the religious