f Christ. But we guess it will be
a long time before they sing "Lo, he comes, in clouds descending."
Besides, it would be a bad job for _them_. Their occupation would be
gone. A wholesale conversion would cut up the retail traders. On the
whole, we have no doubt the men of God prefer the good old plan. If
Jesus came he would take the bread out of their mouths. That would be
shabby-after they had devoted themselves to the business. The very
publicans demand compensation, and could the sky-pilots do less? But
perhaps Jesus would send them all _home_. We should like to see them go.
It would give the world a chance.

ATHEIST MURDERERS. *

* January, 1894.

An Open Letter to the Bishop of Winchester.

Bishop,--You are a high and well-paid dignitary of the Church of
England. You are therefore a State official, as much as a soldier or
a policeman; and, as such, you are amenable to public criticism. It is
possible that you never heard of me before, but I am a member of the
English public, and as a citizen I help (very unwillingly) to support
the Church, and therefore to support _you_. My right to address you is
thus indisputable. I make no apology or excuse for doing so; and, as for
my reason, it will appear in the course of this letter.

I notice in the daily and weekly newspapers a paragraph which concerns
you--_and me_. The paragraph is exactly the same in all the papers I
have seen; it must therefore have emanated from, and been circulated
by, one hand; and that hand I suspect is yours, particularly as
it insinuates the necessity of supporting Christian Missions in
England--that is, of subscribing to Church agencies over and above the
nine or ten millions a year which your Establishment spends (or devours)
in ministering to what you call "the spiritual needs" of the English
people.

The paragraph I refer to states that you have converted and confirmed
an Atheist, and that this Atheist has been hung for the crime of murder;
and it plainly hints that his crime was the natural result of his
irreligious opinions.

As you make so much of this case, I presume that this murderer--who was
not good enough to live on earth, and whom you have sent to live for
ever in heaven--is the only Atheist you have ever converted; so that in
every way the case is one of exceptional interest.

And now, before I go any farther, let me tell you why the case concerns
me as well as you. I am an Atheist, and a teacher of Atheism. I