is pleasanter than
"sky-pilot," and "minister" is more soothing than "devil-dodger." But
plain speech is always wholesome if you keep within the bounds of truth.
It does us good to see ourselves occasionally as others see us. And if
this article should fall under the eyes of a Christian man of God, we
beg him to keep his temper and read on to the end.

We tell the men of God, of every denomination, that they are Devil
Dodgers, and when they cease to be that their occupation is going. Old
Nick, in some form or other, is the basis of every kind of Christianity.
Indeed, the dread of evil, the terror of calamity, is at the bottom of
all religion; while the science which gives us foresight and power, and
enables us to protect ourselves and promote our comfort, is religion's
deadliest enemy. Science wars against evil practically; religion wars
against it theoretically. Science sees the material causes that are at
work, and counteracts them; religion is too lazy and conceited to study
the causes, it takes the evil in a lump, personifies it, and christens
it "the Devil." Thus it keeps men off the real path of deliverance,
and teaches them to fear the Bogie-Man, who is simply a phantom of
superstition, and always vanishes at the first forward step of courage.

What is the Christian scheme in a nutshell? God made man perfect--though
some people, after reading the life of Adam, say that God made him
a perfect fool. This perfect man was tackled by the Devil, a sort of
spiritual Pasteur, who inoculated him with sin, which was transmitted
to his posterity as _original_ sin. God desires man's welfare, but the
Devil is too strong tor Omnipotence. Jesus Christ steps in with the Holy
Ghost and saves a few men and women, but the Devil bags all the rest,
and Hell is thronged while Heaven is half empty; the one place having
three families on every flat, the other having leagues of spacious
mansions "to let."

Now in every generation the Devil is after us. Without schools, or
churches, or armies of professional helpers, or even so much as an
occasional collection, he carries on single-handed a most successful
business. The clergy tell us, as the Bible tells them, that he is
monstrously able, active and enterprising; never overlooking a single
customer, and delivering damnation at the door, and even carrying it
upstairs, without charging for carriage or waiting for his bill. All
that sort of thing he leaves to the opposition firm, whose ag