maginary
Devil; yet we call ourselves a _practical_ people. Christianity has it
roots-deep down in the _wealth_ of England, and this is the secret of
its power, allied of course with its usurped authority over the minds
of little children. The-churches and chapels are mostly social
institutions, Sunday resorts of the "respectable" classes. For any
purpose connected with the real welfare of the people Christianity
might just as well be dead and buried--as it will be when the people see
the truth.

CONVERTED INFIDELS.

Christian logic is a curious thing. There is nothing like it, we should
imagine, in the heavens above or the waters under the earth. Certainly
there is nothing like it on the earth itself, unless we make an
exception in the case of Christian veracity, which is as much like
Christian logic as one cherry is like another.

It is a long time since Christians began arguing--it would be an outrage
on the dictionary to call it reasoning. They have been at it for nearly
two thousand years. Their founder, Jesus Christ, seldom argued. He
uttered himself dogmatically at most times; occasionally he spoke in
parables; and whenever he was cornered he escaped on a palpable evasion.
His great disciple, Paul, however, was particularly fond of arguing. His
writings abound in "for" and "whereas." The argument he most affected
was the circular one. He could run round a horseshoe, skip over from
point to point, and run round again as nimbly as any man on record. In
a famous chapter in Corinthians, for instance, he first proves the
resurrection of the dead by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and then
proves the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the resurrection of the dead.
It is in the same chapter that he enunciates the botanical truth (a
truth of Bible botany, observe) that a seed does not bear anything
unless it dies. Altogether the great Apostle is a first-rate type of
the Christian logician, and there are some who declare him to be a
first-rate type of the Christian truth-teller.

Speeding down the stream of time to the present age, we see that
Christian logic (yes, and Christian veracity) has undergone little if
any alteration. It is as infantile and as impudent as ever. Arguments
that would look fallacious in the nursery are used in the pulpit,
generation after generation, with an air of solemn profundity, as though
they were as wise as the oracles of omniscience. To select from such
a plethora is almost imposs