like
the antique statues, but shriveled deformities studying with furtive
glance the cruel face of power.

No religionist seems capable of comprehending this plain truth. There
is this difference between thought and action: For our actions we are
responsible to ourselves and to those injuriously affected; for
thoughts there can, in the nature of things, be no responsibility to
gods or men, here or hereafter. And yet the Protestant has vied with
the Catholic in denouncing freedom of thought, and while I was taught
to hate Catholicism with every drop of my blood, it is only justice to
say that in all essential particulars it is precisely the same as every
other religion. Luther denounced mental liberty with all the coarse
and brutal vigor of his nature; Calvin despised from the very bottom of
his petrified heart anything that even looked like religious
toleration, and solemnly declared to advocate it was to crucify Christ
afresh. All the founders of all the orthodox churches have advocated
the same infamous tenet. The truth is that what is called religion is
necessarily inconsistent with free thought.

A believer is a songless bird in a cage, a freethinker is an eagle
parting the clouds with tireless wings.

At present, owing to the inroads that have been made by liberals and
infidels, most of the churches pretend to be in favor of religious
liberty. Of these churches we will ask this question: "How can a man
who conscientiously believes in religious liberty worship a God who
does not?" They say to us: "We will not imprison you on account of
your belief, but our God will. We will not burn you because you throw
away the sacred scriptures; but their Author will," "We think it an
infamous crime to persecute our brethren for opinion's sake; but the
God whom we ignorantly worship will on that account damn his own
children forever." Why is it that these Christians do not only detest
the infidels, but so cordially despise each other? Why do they refuse
to worship in the temples of each other? Why do they care so little
for the damnation of men, and so much for the baptism of children? Why
will they adorn their churches with the money of thieves, and flatter
vice for the sake of subscription? Why will they attempt to bribe
science to certify to the writings of God? Why do they torture the
words of the great into an acknowledgment of the truth of Christianity?
Why do they stand with hat in hand before presidents, ki