terward, and who certainly could have known nothing of the
facts except from hearsay?

The best religion, after all, is common sense; a religion for this
world, one world at a time, a religion for to-day. We want a
religion that will deal in questions in which we are interested.
How are we to do away with crime? How are we to do away with
pauperism? How are we to do away with want and misery in every
civilized country? England is a Christian nation, and yet about
one in six in the city of London dies in almshouses, asylums,
prisons, hospitals and jails. We, I suppose, are a civilized
nation, and yet all the penitentiaries are crammed; there is want
on every hand, and my opinion is that we had better turn our
attention to this world.

Christianity is charitable; Christianity spends a great deal of
money; but I am somewhat doubtful as to the good that is accomplished.
There ought to be some way to prevent crime; not simply to punish
it. There ought to be some way to prevent pauperism, not simply
to relieve temporarily a pauper, and if the ministers and good
people belonging to the churches would spend their time investigating
the affairs of this world and let the New Jerusalem take care of
itself, I think it would be far better.

The church is guilty of one great contradiction. The ministers
are always talking about worldly people, and yet, were it not for
worldly people, who would pay the salary? How could the church
live a minute unless somebody attended to the affairs of this world?
The best religion, in my judgment, is common sense going along hand
in hand with kindness, and not troubling ourselves about another
world until we get there. I am willing for one, to wait and see
what kind of a country it will be.

_Question_. Does the question of the inspiration of Scriptures
affect the beauty and benefits of Christianity here and hereafter?

_Answer_. A belief in the inspiration of the Scriptures has done,
in my judgment, great harm. The Bible has been the breastwork for
nearly everything wrong. The defenders of slavery relied on the
Bible. The Bible was the real auction block on which every negro
stood when he was sold. I never knew a minister to preach in favor
of slavery that did not take his text from the Bible. The Bible
teaches persecution for opinion's sake. The Bible--that is the
Old Testament--upholds polygamy, and just to the extent that men,
through the Bible, have believed that slavery