of absolute intellectual liberty, and that man is my friend.

Is there a God who says that if man does so and so He will damn him?
Can there be such a fiend? I am not responsible to man unless I injure
him; nor to God unless I injure Him, but one cannot injure God, for "He
is infinite."

When I was young I was told that the bible was inspired, written by
God, that even the lids of the book were inspired. They say He is a
personal God; if so, He has not revealed Himself to me. There may be
many gods. As I look around I see that justice does not prevail, that
innocence is not always effectual and a perfect shield. If there be a
God these things could not be. If God made us all, why did He not make
us all equally well. He had the power of an infinite god. Why did God
people the earth with so many idiots? I admit that orthodoxy could not
exist without them, but why did God make them? If we believe the bible
then He should have made us all idiots, for the orthodox Christian says
the idiots will not be damned, simply transplanted, while the sensible
man, who believeth not, will be sent to eternal damnation? If there is
any God that made us, what right had He to make idiots? Is a man with
a head like a pin under any obligation to thank God? Is the black man,
born in slavery, under any obligation to thank God for his badge of
servitude?

What kind of a God is it that will allow men and women to be put in
dungeons and chains simply because they loved Him and prayed to Him?
And what kind of a God is it that will allow such men and women to be
burned at the stake? If God won't love such men and women, then under
what circumstances will he love?

Famine stalks over the land and millions die, not only the bad but the
good, and there in the heavens above sits an infinite God who can do
anything, can change the rocks and the stones, and yet these millions
die. I do not say there is no God, but I do ask, what is God doing?
Look at the agony, and wretchedness and woe all over the land. Is
there goodness, is there mercy in this? I do not say there is not, but
I want to know, and I want to know if a man is to be damned for asking
the question?

(He eloquently recited the agonies that clustered around the French
Bastille, where great men and heroic women suffered and died for loving
liberty, and said: If there is a God, I think that one word, Bastille,
would bring the blush of shame to His face.)

I find that the me