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Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 1, 1910.

Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 1, 1910. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1910 blu1910050101 These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 1, 1910. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1910 $IMLS This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognitio n (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has be en done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Librar ies Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. I iila a in BLUEGRA8S BLADE jtI ILETON KENTUCKY SUNDAY MAY 1st 1910 711 Number 20 I 1 t HOLY ROLLERS Put Under One Whose DontKnowI Differs from Your Dont Know J BY M GRIER KIDDER Religion teaches something of nothing or nothing of something then persecutes who ever questions the Information or doubts the geo graphy Think of quarreling about another path to unknown somewhere fighting over a new road to no where jailing somebody because his dont know differs from your dont know Of the millions murdered for oPPos- Ing an old hcpe with a new guess Only mediums claim to prove the hereafter and only lunatics believe- mediums The more certain orthodox Christians are of the future the more they doubt the man who says he has proved It I doubt anything too sa cred to be doubted too well estab lished to be proved We have many beliefs of what we are Ignorant as many methods to express our Ignor ance And ei cry method Is regulated by the social standing of the express er The somersault of the redeemed nigger and the To Deum of the con secrated prelate differ In degree not in kind In dignified doctrines en thusiasm lurks like a subcutaneous ex iawithout breaking out Salva t tionis strietlytentre nous redemp tion sub rosa In other creeds tidings of great Joy aretoo good to keep One converts by clerical convincing tother by congregational cavorting Yet all are bound to the same place But although each knows nothing of the direction of the objective point everyone Is certain the others are steering a wrong course Some times of starting bea fellow disapproves fore he knows where hell stop then all the others accuse him of insult- Ing his mothers religion The Holy Rollers are not nuisances because they make a noise but be rauso theymake a new olse beginners wile have Inventedian lmprove mont on time honored uproar It takes time and prestige to dignify devotional monkey shines social position to accentuate the soul saving efficacy of a war whoop Its mighty hard for a poor man in the minority to express his feelings without ad vertising his vulgarity The only time an Impoverished brother appears f dignified Is when ho la silent or dead Even then his taciturnity is likely to be charged to sullenness stupidity or a Just visitation of Prov- Idence I hrve visited Holy Roller pow wows and have been much fied But what puzzled me is If all that fuss Is caused by a convincing prospect of salvation what would be suggested by a reasonable expectation of damnation Every body jump ed and at tho same conclusion that he was saved I hope he was but if t some get what they claimed it will tiobe at the expense of Gods good taste During the Intervals between the explosions several of the saved made a foray into the audience to round up lost sheep One sister took both my hands and asked Are you a Christian Have you ever been full of the Holy Ghost Do you speak In t unknown tongues I told her that I had been called every thing else been full of every thing else and charged half my trouble to too much known togue and nothing else I ask ed her if anybody understood these unknown tongues She said nobody but God The usefulness of a vernacular nobody understands but God will appear at a glance She said it was a gift and when she was full of the Holy Ghost God turned her Into a sort of phonograph loaded with tho mysterious language In plain English she explained tho un knowable by tine unknown the im provable by tho untranslatable what nobody comprehends by what nobody understands When something was inside of her she know nothing about she Imparted her symptoms tc somebody else In a language both knew nothing about Think of explain- Ing Socialism In an unknown ten guo Think of explaining et al all But granting all this how long has nonsense been heresy absurdity treason making a damn tool of self unconstitutional But the holy Rollers are noisy Are church bells a sedative Merely a case of instrumental against vocal bells vs bellows If they have driven people crazy what creed hasnt Af ter money What sect isnt minor aJ Whats the matter with carol meetings Sincere Who questions r the sincerity of taqjr lattc must doubt tho hypocrlsj lesdeis Foots act like fools for rascali but ras dont act like Lmisforxiinthingr AsI long as demand hungersfor supply several of us will be fools for Christs sake Some of us rascals for our own But what have you to do wit i that If I am obstii at because I dont want to do as yoriteU me why ret you stubborn for Insthtigpn my doing so These popplo charged with only what their accusers were charged were charged with and what they themselves will chdrgo others it4 Human nature Is the same regulated not by conscience Mercy Is the re sult of weakness tyranny the conse quence of power The Unitarian preacher who woirtd run the Holy Rollers out of town forgets that the orthodox he has Join ed to persecute these harmless cranks given the power would run Unitarian- Ism out of the country Doesnt he know that hla church Is hero because law Is here That brotherly love continues because the police continue I Lelttve several things are good but I am certain of the worth of bnt one and that one is liberty Newer restrictions more police and a gallows in every town round out my ideal In my judgment the gibbet ranks next to the public school and those who oppose the latter consist ently furnish riidttt candidates for the former Who In to judge of what constitutes Inspiration Jones kneels and looks to Jesus Sniftii turns a somersault and hallelujahs tor tho Holy Ghost then JoneBihns Smith arrested accus ed of evgrx old thing of which every old fool can accuse every new fool I e br It s Iratic- tlyTsiilvo ton hns7rever a ed thypothlcal stage Under the circum stances I dont know how Id act probably In some fnanner distasteful to the majority Id rather anouncc my individuality by going to the devil in a new way than to heaven accord- Ing to the statute made and provide Some of these old sects fancy they havo copyrighted the evidences of Christianity patented tho formula for inspired gymnastics Daniel Webster once said If you destroy the Union what will become of ME Jesse If every new phase of foolishness Is to be suppressed where do I Como out I know of thing more monotonous than being tho same old fool When descend from my normal sublimity my only relaxation is a new nonsense If cant be an original jackass with fresh bray Ill eschew the recreation of Intellectual variety- A marked Holy Roller peculiarity Is the adding of urruh to every sentence thusly 0 Lord urruh DIesI these yere sinners whos a with tho devil urruh On my last visit was struck by one of the elect whose proboscis tilted up as if he smelled something and reckon he did urruh Well this brother passed the thirtythird degree early In the dog watch and they hung the gentleman across a bench with the starch out And there ho hung for an hour without a quiver If he at least assumedwas a hypocrite he a sincere attitude Tho room eoched with groans grunts howls and every othir symptom of aggravated salvation The boss of this conservatory walked about overseeing the performers and lurnlsb ng data to the unregenerate He seem ed prayer proof and gavo no evidence of being saved Three sisters ns usual led the antics of the menagerie and several spoke eloquently In known tongues tho only women I havo ever mot who couldnt express their feelings with one known tOll uo Faith in some is largely contltu li the child of temperniifnt tbb d i ghter of emotion rather than of leason To such people taiklnon sel e In an unknown tonu more convincing than talking ncnsonuo in a know togue An old woman yelps Slim slam jlgameree he diddle diddle and tries to stand on her tend Then the rest dance roll on the floor and hurrah to beat the band You ask the cause of this physical cub turo and are told shes full of the Holy Ghost And for all this harms slobbering Idiocy these people are to bo run out of town If Daisy Mooro had contracted nervous prostra tlon from one of the old sects noth ing would havo been said Corner a preacher and he says These things are not for uu to know A fool can ask a question no wise man can an swer Carral a Holy Roller and he says Film lam squish squish squilyee urr uhltWill omebodYI quench my curiosity by telling me which Is tho more Instructive One gives no answer totber an answer no qody understands but God Why coerce these as pious jumping jacks Before fighting dyer the right road toglory let us fond out whether there be a glory Before jailing IleoI plefor their method ov Leaching i in J New Jerusalem let us prove the ex istence of that heavenly metropolis Then we can argue on which fs he best way to get there belngjiivBfted In on the breath of silent prayer orl rocketing over the pearly gates like a richocbet shot Reason has no mbro to do with faith than the multiplica tion table has to dtf with thq Trinityf or comparative philology with un known tongues When will religious Intolerance cease When those who fancied they had monopolized the stock of nonsense cease to envy those who have discovered a fresh supply- A Unitarian counseling religious per secution reminds me of a lately freed man upholding the Fugitive Slave Law or a vivisectionist berating the Span ish Inquisition After prayerful thought I cant say which 1d rather be a Holy Roller or a Unitarian The world swarms with sectsfand each spends time telling thetruth about the otters and tyIng aftltit It SltrlA man says he believes none of them and they boycott his husinew another says that he believes ta at cArreaven ry him there and they call film a Heretic mother that he knows through proof and they call him a liar In short body knows but one and the rest agree that he lies and that is the extent of their agreement Every believer cites the Bible as aii thority and every one gives a differs construction It makes no difference whether he has read it or Is taking It on hearsay Square Blank of Bruns wick County N C never was toldlof a bill being passed that he dldnttl- tr sttfa tftianla QaQldi r hearing of a new bill passed by gress he declared as usual Hits on cornstltootional and somebody ask- Ing Squire did you ever read the Constitution He replied Read belli I cant read a wurrd And so It goes everybody believing differently and quarrelling over their differences in viting to give the lie to the man who says he knows and trying to run folks out of town for quoting what God says about It in an unknown tongue One opinion suppressed means two expressed All of our liberty began from emulating the mule in saying what the majority didnt want to hear in doing what the powerful said shouldnt be done Luther didnt want to start the new he wished to modify the old Leo X was the real reformer The most brilliant of the popes didnt know that Thou shalt not naturally breeds I will that Believe or be damned necessarily begets If I believe Ill be damned So he excom municated Luther Protestantism is the result And as Protestantism is emulating Leo X Holy Rollerlsm will be the result as certainly us Holy Rollerlsm will emulate Protestantism making some other tomfoolery the suIt Man as naturally rebels against persecution when weak as he persecutes when strong None of us are satisfied with the mqnotomy of doing only as we please too much like mind Ing our own business The SocialistsI acknowledge If they could with our present bosses they would make us all equal with Socialists Per sonnlly I dont want to be made equal any more than made anything else prefer to be anything I am to being compelled to be something better to bo a voluntary slave to being free against my I spoke of the nude He was my precedent in tender years even if the author of his being has been too often my inspiration since maturity Obstinacy is the mother of liberty contrarl ness the wetnurse of freedom Policy is as surely the filthy dam of Intellectual slavery as any slavery Is an In vltatlon to any tyranny Concession is as rarely distinguished from compromise as compromise from submls slon Dont confound policy with tact Tact is as essential to a gentleman as policy is a disgrace to a white man tact vacates policy blunders in Of course I care nothing for these Holy Rollers And free speech In their mouths la like a jewel in a swines snout But Jewelry is jewelry and stealing a diamond from a dirty shirt Is stealing a diamond Compast may nourish violets and if through abusing these tramps for extravagant non seniM tho of free speech Is fur thelassured they will have fulfilled tibl mission F TALISM OR FEDERATION Dlade pleased to see Brother Chan Fdlk reply to my criti Fatalism I desire criticism for it is by such that led to think and it Is by thought and reasoning that we learn t uth If I should attempt to reply tp evjery point in detail It would take lr space than you would be willc Ingr allow so I will state the fundn mpjyl points of difference and wbellt i e given my reason for my belles that will answer all the minor critl cijmrf he canolteroIiells right In his statement where ho ns Either a conscious intelligenece IIanoiitSjflth matematlcal certainty or It is ya blind and unconscious power urposes that are being worked out wll mathematical certainty or It Is PIPIvp that the first proposition is rigHB that the universe is run by a cojwious intelligence who is workI out certain plans and purposes jwftjjj mathematical certainty and I wilt prove this by a plain syllogism Where there Is design or Est manifest there must have been a ner This is an axiom that needs proof jSocond Nature Is not a blind un conscious force but does manifest de agn or purpose In the works of inatire This second proposition rrlljprove by opr scientific text books on anatomy physiology and 5Hgeno of the human body not only pofijt out the different organs of the liodr and classify them but state for is31use they are Intended for In dtoQce eye is for seeing the car foBjjhearlng etc There is only one n of body I have been told ihfl Its use is not known and that sjtjme appendix but this does roep that It has no use but that there rs some things In nature that sclen tilt have not yet discovered their use jjw might take up any of the other iiceS particjilarly that of astron rand see the wisdom purpose and rmanlfest Jnthe construction of Qiou3 partagihateco to make the whole but tt Is notnecessary tronomy no doubt had Its origin among the shepherds of old who watched and studied the stars as they watched over their flocks by night King David was a shepherd lad and was doubtless Inspired to write that beautiful psalm The Heavens declare the glory of God and the flrmanent showeth his handiwork while watch- Ing his flocks by night He doubtless was inspired for he knew nothing of astronomy as we do today Dr Dick who wrote two large umes on the sciences more especially on astronomy I believe was the one who said The undevout astronomer Is mad It Is needless to add further testimony to establish my second proposition that nature does manifest purpose in the works of nature hence it follows as a conclusion that nature is not that blind unconscious force but is run by a conscious in telligence that Is working out a defi nite plan or purpose I do not have to explain why nature put a tapeworm In the stomach of Moses Hull or why cyclones earthquakes etc are permitted to destroy thousands of lives but for the sake of argument I will admit that I do not know This does not prove that there is no design only that I am Ignorant of what that design may be I would have to be imnlclent to bo able to explain everything in nature Because nature has provided so wonderfully for the growth and development of man as demonstrated by the science of evolution I believe that nature God will complete his work In mak ing man a perfect being Agnostics and skeptics repudiate faith they want knowledge but there are some things we must accept and act by faith The farmer plants his corn by faith not knowing that he will gather a crop All the great achievements that have been carried on in the world to a successful issue have been done by faith By faith Columbus dlscov ered America He believed the world was round end by sailing westward he could reach the East Indies Our forefathers gained our Independence by faith In their cause They believed It a Just cause and this Inspired them with courage and resolution and this led them on to victory Agnosticism or doubt never accomplished any thing Only a firm unwavering faith founded on reason will Inspire true courage and heroism In tho hearts ol men that brings success in any under taking In life A E WADE Chaff ee Mo r Utiv 1MIRACLES 1 A Learned Discourse on What They are and What They are Not The nameless author of The Prince Peace tells things The change which religion works In the human is a continuous miracle The sentence exactly defines the word mlra cle Mir or Myr is a root which means to deceive the mind Webster And for that reason Is a part of the word mirror In miracle it retains tha same meaning as indicating a mental operation When your little ones eat play dinner their minds accept the bits of cut turnips as bread or meat they eat bread and meat by faith and It constitutes a miracle such as is in evidence when as little chll dren the five thousand are fed on five biscuits and two sardines We use the feminine termination In Latin names of ideas to avoid confus- Ing them with physical entities so we Introduce miracles In all sacred writings to sinew that they deal only with mental operations when man at tempts to turn concepts into real tities or things then trouble begins Bro Nameless speaks as an oracle I will not deny that God would perform a miracle etc and shunts the subject to eating watermelon and thoughts upon their growth Tho very fact that God Is spirit proves that a physical universe is not his WORK even if the Bible does say God thought it out Crea is a root word meaning to think and It states that In the beginning God CREATED the heavens and the earth and the world which Is spoken of In John that logis or reason created Is a universe of ideas Without this logis or reason we could have no orderly ar rangement of ideas or Intellectual unl verse nor correct arrangement ol ideas which is truth What is It that having a watch is a time keeper but having It not is but rbuucir ohfislatayThe grextlop 1m plies that it is the soul of the watch spoken of That an educated man should make so many misstatements In so small n space as he applies to the watermelon seed shows either the lack of knowledge of the English language or a desire to misrepresent It goes to work it forces raw material through a tiny stem it constructs a watermelon it covers this melon with a coating of green inside of the green it puts a layer of white and within tho white a core of red and all through the read it scatters little seed lie asks Where did that little seed yet its tremendous power Brother Nameless doesnt mean what he says It is a figure of speech to mislead his readers In the language of man the seed ceases being a seed when it gets roots and leaves Only preacher a God or In the dreams an miracles of the Bible where Idea alone abstracted from the reality are treated of do we find the seed retaining its Identity and even Paul tells us that a seed must needs rot ere It grow but we know that In man language If a seed rot or die It will never growNameless knows full well that the molllcules In his circulation acts and builds tears down and reconstructs ONLY when freed from the trammels of gravitation through separation of such particles In mass they are ject to gravity and for that reason unable to build As Individuals they are useful as a compact body they serve as a dead weight or clog to progress Just as with people parable In his body the heart forces the fluids un til In minute capillaries which these molllcules construct they work and de posit bone muscle etc removing wornout tissue until ladened with waste they aro entangled In gravity are withdrawn by the action of IIand heart and exposed to the purifying of air the eliminating office of certain organs or voided The watermelon seed needs no heart to pump for moisture never collects In undue quantities In a seed Filtering in the fluids work they not the seed build fiber and root and vine when laden ed they construct leaves for self purification and lacking moisture they return from leaf to earth and con struct more root fibers Nameless assumes that somebody Is trying to sot limits to Gods power and calls upon such a one to explain a watermelon Ha ha Before Nameless assumes too much we shall ex pect him to explain tho terms ho uses and preserve such sense throughout sentence Such a use of language we would consider according to an Immaculate conception and we have no use for any other conception unless we wish to swindle somebody In a published article one writer states that truth is relative and In a letter he says There Is absolute truth When a man pushes beyond the confines of a possible conception when he assumes that ideas are real things then we have spirits and spirit ualists ghosts holy and otherwise and forgetting tho real heaven of happiness of a normal activity of the Images constituting his temple or mind he thinks to construct an embattled fortress beyond the confines of reality for the dim vista of his Imagination Yes man Is essentially devout with an undertow for the money which his fellow creatures earn In striv ing to build n church militant he for p gets to turn out or permit his Login to do so the money changers within this temple of his mind It seems strange that these soph ists do not claim that God invented sound We have often wondered that they allow man the ability to produce sound from the vibrating air One fellow states that He who formedd the ear can hear As well say he who makes a fiddle can play it Most fiddles are made by machinery and while we have seen a machine playa fiddle that machine could not make lone Every time we moves foot or lift a weight wo temporarily Interfere with the operation of the most universal of natures laws Do we Really r should think a man standing on one foot as heavy as when both were on the floor Temporarily or not gravity continues WhysltouldI deny that a divine tinadted s iiiultltude= Wii1 =uifaw loaves and fishes I am sure I dont know unless you dont think he did But my friend It wont do you any good to chew the rag about It now Its all over and unless you work or steal or beg you will have to go hungry now God used to kill and make alive but now he only gives tremendous power to watermelon seeds and gravity and a few things llko that which run the universe while he rests as stated In Genesis We astonish ourselves often need lessly we wonder where space ends where time leaves off What Is called time Is pimply our measure of exist ence If time was a real something there would be vast quantities of it stored away in the garrets of eternity and a future quantity at the time shops 1Space Is the possibility of exten sslon space as an entity has no ex is the absence of anything and only as objects exist or events transpire can we measure this void of Imo and space IWithout particles of matter In space light and heat could not be transmit ted from place to placetiTake a box with glass ends and painted black Inside a pencil of light may be seen passing through such box but coat the Inside with glycerine and set aside a few days until all particles of dust collect thereon and while the light is seen to enter the pencil can not be seen inside the box We give names to various Ideas or concepts which have no existence out side the mind Faith hope space sound and Infinity are some of these wonderful subjects for speculation Divide 100 by 3 and you have an ex ample of infinity In not and fin lie finished that is all there Is to It For the purposes of clear thinking men made a crude division of natural objects Into animal vegetable and mln eral kingdoms also their Ideas of such Into a spiritual or Intellectual king dom They applied the rules govern Ing minerals to the animal and tried to purify the minds of men by burn Ing with flro and torture of their bodies Today wo also try to phsunl men for crimes a disease due to lack of education or mistreatment In child hood and youth Men used to think of the world as being flat supported on four legs or a pedestal Their thinking so did not change the reality We now think of the earth as a heavy body supported force and riffhy some one or some culo or defame all who differ from our Continued on Page J it BLUE GRASS BLADE FOUNDED Dr CHARLES CHILTON MOORE and edited by him until his death February JAMES E HUGHES Proprietor 12C128 Uorth Limestone Street Lexington Kentucky P Box SUBSCRIPTION RATES By mall postpaid 100 pr yr In advance L Five new yearly subscribers at one mittance cents each Foreign subscriptions postpaid 16 i per year ADVERTISING RATES i One Inch tingle column Insertion cents one month or tour Insertions 1100 six months 500 one year 800 Quarter column insertion 200 one month 400 six months 2000 one l 0year 3000 Hair column whole column or larger advertisements plication at special rates on ap AIL SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Blade will be discontinued at the expiration of the term for which the subscription has been paid up In advance The address slip on tie paper will show subscribers- thn date of expiration subscription Back numbers or numbers cmltted wlll be sent If asked fc upon renewal case j of dlscontlnuan n SHOULD ANY SUBSCHIBEU change his or her address advln this once giving both old and new dress as desired t TilE OFFICE of publfatlon of the Blade at 126128 North Limestone Street Lexington Kentucky to which all Freethinkers will be given a hearty wel 1comeTHE BLADE entered at the Postoflln at Lexington Kentucky as second clas mailing matter ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO JAMES E HUGHES Box Lexlng on Kentucky IAsthe result of an action filed in the United States District Court at Frankfort on idly 5 the establish I meat of James E Hughes from which the Blade has been published was forced into involuntary bankruptcy Wo are glad to announce I however thut this proceeding will in no wise interfere with the Blade which will appear each week as heretofore Whilst incidents that led up to this action have delayed the ap pearance of this issue a few days the time will shortly be caught up and every subscriber will receive his full quota of papers For several months the Blade hay hadan uphill fight It has never been a moneymaker We are publishing at one dollar a year a paper that costs us 3120 each year to postIi cost of material and labor for wrap ping and mailing The income from the advertising columns is prac tically nothing The paper must look solely to its subscribers for support Though for several months we have printed and published the paper at great loss we have never faltered Wl have an abiding faith UnitedIstant that they would permit the paper to go down In times gone by we published the paper in adversity and pulled it through We shall pull it through again lhis establish ment will rise up Phoenixlike and live through years to come We have never appealed to our friends in vain We have two ap peals to make to our subscribers now If your subscription is paid upwill you not endeavor to interest some of rohr friends in the paper to the ex tent of securing their subscriptions Three thousand subscribers at one dollar each will not pay 3328 We needmore subscribers With two thousand more and all paying the paper would make money Second perhaps you owe us a dollarper haps more Over n thousand of you do That dollar is a little thing you but that thousand is a toI thing to us just now Look ter squarely in the face Can you afford to owe us that dollar longer under the circumstances Sit down now and send it in If everyone of yon paid up that would still leave 328 behind In all reason that is as much as ought to be expected of us Surely another thousand ought yourdutyreasonably expect to receive th paper free Let us have that dif ferenco at once Time establishment will soon be on its feet The chief cause ot the present seeming disaster is that peo ple who owe us do not pay us Dont stop to sleep over this but send us what you owe first Then sleep THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD To tht Editor Blue Grass Blade SlrIn the Blue Grass Diode dated April 33 thero are several very Interesting communications- I do not know whether the Blue- Grass Blade Is supposed to be an organ of atheism or not but the tate ment of Messrs Ward Weaver Kerr and Wettstoln are certainly astound Ing In the list of Mr Wards posed lecture tour Montreal Is cluded so I am naturally Interested If ho comes here and calls onm as the best known rationalistic pagan In Montreal I shall receive him kind ly invite him to dinner with me as would do to a Jewish Rabbi a Call olic priest or Protestant clergyman that might visit me but when he lectures on the subject That he knows that there Is no God or soul or ture life I shall take the earliest portunity of repudiating such dramatic theories as being the views of either myself or tho Montreal rationalists In as I am concerned the gods can defend themselves I am opposed- to the making of tiny laws against blasphemy any or all of them or making laws to put any day aside for worshipping any of them Most of the misunderstanding that has arisen about this exasperating matter In recent years has been tirely owing to the improper use of words What is God Is slmpl means mans conception of some power superior to himself Mans conception of such powen have aljfvays varied according to the state of his mental condition The God idea is pure fiction because no one ever discovered the origin and cause of natural phenomena Now I could not suite a good novel to save my life but I can tell good fiction when I real Furthermore I cannot undertake to give a description of the superior powers that ruled the phenomenon of nature that will be satisfactory to myself or the public but I can pass Judgment on the comparisons between the various heathen Hebrew Mahonv etton and Christian gods My prin cipal objection to the Hebrew god Is that he is the worst type in the whole range of mythologyIAll the gods that we have yet heard of have been human creations There is one thing to be admired about the Atheists and that is their bravery and courage but I cannot say as much for their wisdom There have been some excellent men who called themselves Atheists in recent years When Bradlaugh died the old an tagnolsm had died out in the British House of Commons and the resolu tion of expulsion was rescinded from the record The opinion prevails however that the great Bradlaughs usefulness was very much reduced by his foolish dogmatic HURRAY Montreal Canada THE GOD ALLAH Allah composed of the article al and llah1 e the worthy to be adored Is the Arabic name of one God to whoes worship Moham- med pledg2d his followers and the word has passed Into languages wherever the name of Islum has been heard The motions of the character of this God is given by Mohammed In the Koran Dear manifest traces of Jewish and Christian Influence and are much superior to the national su lerstltlons and impassioned fancies of the orientals in general Above all other things Mohammed Inculcated the unity of God in the strictest sense in opposition not only to Idolatry but also In soma points to the belief of the Jews and Christians as is seen in the following formula or creed There is no god but the god Allah This only true great and highest god had his existence of himself Is eter nal and not begotten and begets not suffices for himself fills the universe with his infinity is the center in whom all things unite manifest and concealed Lord of the corporeal and spiritual worlds creator and ruler almighty ailwise allgod merciful and his decrees irrevocable He then says If all the trees on earth were pens and If there were seven oceans full of ink they would not suffice to describe the wonders of the almighty Mohammed holds his god Allah in high oBtlmaln Wo glory In his good souse n good god Is worth having J M BERRY WHAT WE HAVE AND WHAT WE HAVE NOT FOUND FROM READING THE BIBLE Wo have not yet found the name of God signed as author to a word in the book We cant find any beginning neither any limit to either time or space We find a time spoken of be Core tho world was but what kind of a time that was the writer falls to tell us We are also told of a time when there will be no time But we conclude that will be a hlljof a time with no one having to tell what time It stopped We are told that all scripture Is given by InspIra- tion of God but we find one writer In the New Testament who signs himself as author of no less than fifteen of Its books Who says That which J speak I speak it not after the Lord Again ho says to tho rest speak t not the Lord and still again he says I speak this by permission and not command from either the Lord or one else Ho it seems wants them to understand that he prefers doln his own Inspiring and not charging ft up to the Lord Quite a help to the Lord indeed f He then right a way puts a daiiipoi on all that he has said by rellfnrf the people that he told a lie That the truth of God might the more abound Now as he is the only writer we find who has tho courage to tell truth about god We glory In his honesty for there are other writers who tell ten times bigger lies than he has then charged them all up to the Inspira tion of tho Lord For our part we dont charge any god with lying The bible writers can do enough of that for us For Instance one writer says that with god all things are possible An other will say that it is impossible for god to lie Which statement are wj to believe Another writer says that god is not n man that he should lie neither the son of man that he shouU repent Another says It repented the Lord that ha had made man on the earth Another will say that with god there Is no variableness neither shadow of turning While another says that god saw the works that they turned from their evil way and god repented of evil that he had said that he wo lId do unto them and he did it not Now we ask in the name of all that Is Just and holy what is the honest truthful unprejudiced per son to do when he meets with such barefaced eeif contradictions asthd above when reading his bible Is he going to swallow them all down as the Inspired word of god and true n letter because he finds them In the forbid that any should be so bigoted and superstitious as to do It There are plenty though we arts ashamed to say who claim they do believe them But as a rule they are of that class not capable of thinking or reasoning for themselves all they know about such things is what the priest end preachers have told honest intelligent person will consider them for a moment He will simply consider the source from which they came and pass them by as noto rious bible lies We cant even conjecture what could be the object of an infinite all wise god in creating a beautiful world like this pronouncing it very good then in a short time comparatively becoming discouraged over what he had done npents for It Then da stroys the whole business goes to work and makes another Just like the first That dont look like a very wise thing for an allwise god to do Ingersoll says that the trouble with the first world was that god did not make tiny devil for It We find that the devil comes in first of all the time for a world with out a devil In it would bo like a heaven without a hell Neither one worth living In Or a bible without a serpent In it not worth reading- If there had been no devil In the Garden of Eden then there would have been no fall of man no need of any Jesus to die for sins of world no need of any priest or preacher to deceive the people and scare them to death with the fires if an endless hell No need of any crlcifixlon reburrectlon or ascension No need of any miraculous birth for ministers to worry and dispute over trying to find out who tho man In the case really was Then there would have been no need of but one god for god the son and god the holy ghost would have been useless- It is stated in the bible that the devil is the father of liars Now wo can show by the words of the bible Itself that that statement is a He irlz God told Adam and Evo that on the very day they ate of fruit they should surely die Tho serpent- or devil which ever you please tells them they should not surely die Now this Is tho first Instance on record of the devil over speaking and no grander tiuth do we find recorded In the book titan he here tells for they ate of the fruit and lived right along to a good ol age So god on seeing himself so badly beaten by the devil gets furiously mad and instead of carrying out his threat to Adam and Eve and causing them to die he goes back on his word turns upon them and curses rot only them but theIr posterity and even the ground upon which they valkCd to all eternity and to every thing that he could lay hIs tongue to While on the other hand we lout find a single Instance where the devil ever told n lie made prom ises that ho did not fulfill went bad on his word cursed any one or anything Neither do wo find him guilty of any murder using any vulgar o r profane language or doing unto other s as bo would not wish to be done by Such we find to be tho difference be tween a god and a devil Wo next ccmo to a problem that wo fear is n ost too much for us t handle so we will kindly ask Brc F S Weaver of Vera S D if he will not apply allegorical machine and help us out The caso is this We find on one occasion Jesus asking his father If he will not glorify him with the glory they had together before the world was Now the bible writers tell us that this same Jews was not born some four thcusand years after tltl world was and then born of a woma- the same as other men are Now what wo want to find out is what kind a rectifying process does this have to go through within order ti get from one locality to the other and still maintain his identity If god was his father before tho world was was he also his father again four thousand years after tho world was hereJesus says I and my father are one That not only makes a full fledged myth out of Jesus but It is a slur un on the dignity ofa god A myth Is all we can make out of a Jesus and as far as gol we dont know We can find nothing In the bible concerning a future life No ono knows any more about the future than I do myself And for our part we pro fer not knowing Wo know nothing about this life In advance we will know nothing about any other until we get there One life at a time is enough and all we can live success fully And in case we did not know It would only have a tendency to make this life more unpleasant So wo pre fer letting things rest tho way they are until a more convenient season JOEL M BERRY May modern science be a beacon to lighten the nation and not a fire to sume them May modern industry with its immense resources be the means of Ufa and hope and Joy to the millions that toll and not the Instru ment of their oppression and degrada tion Let us never forget that all knowledge wealth and power are use ful and honorable only so far as they are devoted to the service of Man and all nations and all individuals are but elements of Humanity and can only be Justified In so far as they are her true servants It Is In the progress of Humanity Its growing knowledge and power the ever widening scope of hu man duty that we may find comfort and support in the sorrows and trials of each generation In spite of all Hu manity advance H Swlnny NEW PRAYER FOR CHILDREN Our Humanity which art every where Beloved be thy name Thy reign of Reason come Thy gen tie will be done In this and In all other give unto theo this day our dally pray for forgiveness but voice thine Impartial Justice Lead us In the ways of honor and deliver us from meanness The welfare of Humanity be our re ward and the consciousness of having deserved Its gratitude our glory for ever AmenM M Mangasarlan BLOODY IGNORANCE By C E Johnson Tho great volcano of Vesuvlous which destroyed and devastated PompeII and Herculanlum the great earthquakes of Lisbon and San Fran cisco with the great Johnstown and Galveston storms Is comparatively nothing beside of the great destructions of lives and property that haa fiendishly been committed in the name of God and Christianity This hydraheaded monster of super stition wears on its brow Ignorance as the trade mark with which It brands Its victims in Its traffic of human lives As wo turn the pages of history and view the bloodstained columns of cruel massacres and bloody murders unmerciful wars and outrages we shud der to thlnlc that this monster still lives with the blood of Its victims yet drinking from its teeth which it wags Its tall In gluttonous satisfaction ilt feasts on the mangled bodies of suf humanity This is the dreaded monster that has waged her bloodless rwar against with the Torch of lien son and the battle ax of Science With these mighty wcaixins wo hope to In tho near future to have on the battlefield the grandest nrmy of men and women that ever gave battle lo the opposing foe When victory is won When the squirming monster has breathed his last we will carry Its stinking car cass to the burying ground of deat religions nn1 tie a rock to its polluted hotly and cast It into the Scrbonlan bogs and watch the last remnant of a mighty superstition sink Into on Hvion And we will turn and see the beau tlful flowers and hear tho sweet mel ody of the birds Wo like Narcissus stand enrapt In admiration for Na thre has come to her own Mndlll Okla H PERCY WARD rO LECTURE Morrison House Great Bend Kansas April 6 1910 Editor Blue Grass BladeI ar rived in this country about two months ago and liavi given a number thenam now a through the principal cities of the placesnare as May 22Kansas City Mo May 29St Louis Juno 5Chicago June 12Cleveland Juno 19 Pillsburg Juno 26 Washington July 3Philadelphia July lONew York July 17 New York July 24 Boston July 31 Montreal Aug 7Toronto Aug 14 Buffalo Aug 21Detroit On the enclosed list are some of the subjects of my lectures In the above cities where there are Free thought Societies I shall be pleased to lecture from their platforms against idolatry and superstition In those cities I visit in which there are no such societies I shall be happy to hear from any friend therein wh iare willing to assist in the organization of my meetings and to supply mo with information garding available hajls Am I imposing too much upon your good nature in asking if you will bz kind enough to draw your read ers ntcntion to the contents of this letter and that of the enclosed handbill With cordial greetings and sincere good wishes I remain Sincerely yours H PERCY WARD TWO GREAT SOIENTIFIO DISCOVERIES The World has no God and Man has no Soul A worldwide movement to make them known and perpetua ted For particulars send a self addressed envelope to the Presi dent of the Church of Humanity- W U KERR Oront Bend Kansas U S A A TRIP TO ROME by DR J WILSON The International Congress of Free thinkers was held In the City of Rome Italy September The author attended that Congress as the American delegate H Is an account of travel and personal experiences that has received an universal encomium fro1 press and people In It religious dogmas and tales of priestly fiction are ruthlessly exposed while the general style Is without parison In American literature of travel Cloth bound pages Illustrated Address orders to CLUE GRASS BLADE Lexington Ky Oral BLUE ORASS BLADE Uiliztoa PublsbersI EXCURSION 150 CINCINNATI AND RETURN SUNDAYMAY SPECIAL TRAIN Leaving Lexington 725 A M PARTICULARSI If you want to be of ser= vice to the cause you es= pouse and at the same time help some of your friends you can have The Blade sent to ten of them one year for Five Dollars WINTER TOURIST TICKETS TO THE SOUTHand SOUTHEAST ON SALE DAILY vtA QUEEN CRESCENT ROUTE GOOD RETURNING UNTIL MAY 31st 1910 For PartIculars till on or write 0 G KING P T A Mala St Ky THE SAME PAINE STILL An Effort to Account For and Nail a Persistent Lie Tho real Thomas Pnlno died In 1803 nnd a desperate effort was made to bury him forever In Ignominy calumy nnd reproach But In 1892 thanks to tho kind offices of Dr Moncuro U Conway ho experienced a glorious res urrection since which time nil at tempts to reInter him have signally there Is a danger which an ad mirer of Paine encounters who would stato tho truth about the man and his work tho danger of over statement which might rob him of his courageous stand against hypocrisy and self seek log That is to say In declaring that Paino was not an atheist which Indeed he was not one might go to tho ex treme of declaring that he was a very religious man which no doubt ho may have been but tho fact to be empha sised is his repugnance to bottled igion bls viler abhorrence for the church as a futile Institution- I have but lately come across a feiillleton which natively purports to bo the Life of Thomas Paine The author editor and publisher carefully screen themselves behind an Impen dlslclaimscharacter of Thomas Paine or of giv ing any detailed account of his life but to present a fair statement of the main facts of his life as deduced from an Impartial study of original and reo liable sources of information Having thus prepared us for at least one grain of wheat In his bushel of chaff he stead fans the dust from his straw thereby hoping to blind us The first chapter is but the prelude to a grand symphony of falsity which he consist ently carries forward a la crescendo There Is damnation In his scant praise It Is the same old story of praising a man to heaven and butting him to pel dltion It is as if he said Paine is a scallawag whom no one would follow but he wrought much mischief by his diabolical influence over folks the wo rks of Paine are such as could only emanate from his misguided mind but they are not original The best of his tine associated with him but it was out of compassion t Paine was none of tho things set forth In this pamphlet published In 1872 and ho was many things of which tho author never dreamed and though the writer was apparently a Christian and may have been conscientious he has grossly misrepresented Paine and shall woaccount ion thls state things The answer Is ono word Cheetham The willful end malicious lies which originated with Cheetham have rolled onward down the years losing nothing of their error or venom as they came until Dr Conway published his most cellent life and dissipated these almost disastrous deceits to the four winds of of Cheetham we have Con way in place of the mythical we have the real Paine We find him to have been a big staunch truo man of principle with a mind to grasp the true Inwardness of each situation and a facile pen to portray his conception of Its significance to tho uplifting of tin Is a man to be respected for what ho was to honored for what ho did and to be glorified for what he clear vision the Republic of America owes much that Is good In her HARRY BOLAND THE MASTERPIECE LIBRARY The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine Ingersolls Lecturers and Essays 3 volumes Life of Jesus by Ernest Renan Tho Apostles by Ernest Renan Phases of Faith by Prof Newman Emersons Etsays and Addresses Rights of Man by Thomas Paine Man versus tho State an exposure of Socialism by Herbert Spencer Fundamental Principles of Compotes Positive Philosophy Creed of Christendom by W R Gregory Education by Herbert Spencer Evolution of the Idea of God by Grant of Species by Charles Darwin 25c each for 125 postpaid NORMAN MURRAY 246 St James St Montreal Canada best qually of a preacher Is that ao should bo able to look solemnly illly and blaze away oratorically over something which neither Ills congre ation nor himself knows anything about Every ono in tho pews and who Is not asleep is under the Impres slon that he Is listening to the deep things of God And you have been taught to believe Implicitly that them post mortem fato of your soul depends reverently howupon your listening ever stupidly to thoso deep things Saladin FATIIDIt OK ItfTHRNATIOXAf 1M3AO- KHarriott M CloiD- ipellllllIgmllcllt and occasional disaster arc hut incidental to the greater and grander growth of the individual or of institutions Tlio xm pic have pereninlly scorned their prophets traduced their thinkers and cruciliod their Saviors Throughout the centuries we have hecn diligent in worshipping our warriors by exulting their brutali ties and rewording their destructive ness The vision of the prophet Thomas Paine was rot limited to his ago nor circumscribed by our century for he scanned the horizon of fu turity and predicted possibilities which even his disciples have as yet lint dimly discerned Paine the Prophet of the People was not only loyal to the masses lint he was tire less in his labors for tho liberation of mankind Tn realizing the needs and hopes and aspirations in understanding deIspnirprogressve fulfillment the ill these elements of experence Thomas Paine a century and a half ago formulated championed in ternational pence freedom of press and speech nnd opinion abolition of property rights in human beings equality of the sexes humane trent ment of animals nod the religion of humanity or the brotherhood of unit For all these and more he stood sponsor nod while the re ligionists repudiate the personality as unworthy they yet pretend to represent his rRECI ITS and while the people are blindly groping to yard the goal of toleration nnd lib erty the harbingers of the drawn arc appearing The Paino Association is doing a work that is conmicndnhlc and im perishable in bringing to the hearts of the people the grandeur of the work and character of this Phophct of Progress THOMAS PAINE and we his admirers are honored in tIp opportunity to express our appreci lion The nearer any government ap proaches a republic the less business there is for a kingPnine- If we carry out the same logic must gild rile nearer the people npproach enlightened freedom ttm less business there is for organized governmentPeoples Press IhI11AC1CtsPROTESTS 3f M MANaASAMAX The recent events in Europe lustrate the alertness of the Vatii cnn to make its position known on any question which involves the prestige of the Catholic Church When for instance the other day an Italian ecclesiastic called on MrI Roosevelt in Home after the had refused to grant an audience the expresident the Vatican toI out an instants delay repudiated the attention shown Roosevelt by the Roman abbot Again in vienna the papal nuncio calls on the distinguished American and immediately the Vatican issues all responsibility a statement denying for the visit In fact there has never been a time in history when the Vatican has not instantly and unequicoeally denounced the man who disobeys or the act that compromises the authority of UP church Anti yet the Vatican did not open its mouth for twentyfive years ngainst the murderers of a girl still in her teens neither ngainst tho iniquitous proceedings which lasted for four months nor ngainst her outrageous death in the presence of a cardinal bishops and host of priests It was the state which finally broke the silence of the church by demanding a revision of the ecclesiastical verdict against inn Yet even then while the verdict was changed not a hair on dead of any of her murderers was ached This is tho way the case stands Wicked England coveted the blood of Joan of Are and paid for it in English gold to the priests What lid the Vatican do to these priests who sold themselves for gold It corded them by promotions to hi liar honors and increased incomes Ts that the way popes in the fifteenth century disciplined the iriests who disgraced the church Why was not the Vatican as alert in denouncing the murderers of Joan it is today in disowning acts of those who coiled on NY fool eltTho abbot who called on Mr looscvclt in Rome has just been Iroppcd by the Vatican anti the nmcio in AMenna escapes punish uent on the ground that he mot Roosevelt h accident What a leautiful spirit And this is the 1 + + + + + + 4o J + + + + + 1909 1909 YYJ Blue Grass Blade Bound Volume i EContaining Fiftytwo Copies of The Blade and all handsomely bound in Blue Buckram with gold letters + Y + 300 Reduced from last years price 300 X Subscribe NOW and get your name on the list in time + A STILL BETTER OFFER f 3For Five New Subscribers For Five New Subscribers i IiWewill send ONE COPY of the Bound Volume i i iIr To any person sending us five new subscribers in one club at the regular rates before Dec 31 1909 jTHE CLUB IS PREFERABLE GET UP ONE SECURE A COPY FREE 2 2 BLUE GRASS BLADE Lexington Kry + ++ JJ + + t + + + ++ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + institution that is going to milk ni lore one another- Apology and compromise clan do much hut they cannot get aver the fact that the priests who net the gold for burning a girl of nififctwn g t nlsi liinors for it from the iToly Nether Jf English gold did wit buy the whole Catholic Church why worn nut those of the priests who IIcIh1 the bribe punished They were never punished Of course something good can be saidof any man or institution of the Vatican for grudging Mr Roosevelt the courtesy shown him by Catholic priests in Rome and Vienna of the Sultan with his butch cries noelof Russian autocracy with its depotism Fortunately an absolutely corrupt man or institution is an impossibilityPeoples Pres Chardon Ohio U S A May 8 1910 U Dhamaloka Rangoon India Dear Sir Your highly interesting letter of February 10th in reply m letter of December 2tithaid dressed in care of T C Jeffries 1512 Ansil Road Cleveland was by Mr Jeffries put into another en velojMj and addressed to me You say that you believe the day will come when the Continent of North American will do justice to Thomas Pnineit will be a long time if everHad it not have been for his energy his devotion in the cause to r which aroused the dis heartenedand despondent soldiers Washington would have gone down in despair and defeat We Buddhist admire him for Jiis writings etc That shows that you are a Liberal cast I am glad to know that So many thousands of copies of his Age of Reason read by your people If I correcUy understand you Buddhist look upon Buddha as a moral philosopher and not i nany sense as a superhuman or devine personage In the Worlds Sages by D M Bennett and the 1C Crucified Saviors by Graves is given some of the sayings of Buddhi which are distinct and in my judgment unsur passed But isnt there n grain ofsuper titian in the Buddhist people Why tie yoursclve to Buddhi Isnt it of the same tenor as the Chinese tying themselves to Confucious and tIle Perishions to Zaraster These two moral philosophers nre deserv ing of admiration are then not titled to as much praise as Buddhi if you say notT ask why not Bennett says that Confucious gave the world the best code of morals that she has ever had Sep Tho Sages I am exceedingly gratified to know that have no use for Christian missionaries In Ohio they have just been defeated in an ittempt to have a Base Ball Sunday Law I now desire to refer to a few valuable books which if you have not seen will surely interest you History of the Christian Religion by Waite For the last fourteen years of his life I corresponded with him His friendship I always remember AntiChrist by Burr For twentyfive years I corresponded with him Ingersoll called him limo litteiw detective ttUJ i i A Le f y y I Searchlight I I A I AA J t t y Y iPublished by J D SHAW Waco Texas A y A Price of Subscription 1 a Year Af1 Single Copies 10 CentsA f yY i t a copy Y y f L + + j1 Nf t He was an ardent admirer of Mr Paine and maintained that he was the author of jenious letters and The Declaration of Independence which I fully accept He was a Baconian bully repudiating the Shaboperian by Tothiers A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BIBLEBy There is more valuable matter to be found in it than any work of similar size that I know of If you can bring these three works before the conciderate people of any enlightenedcountrybenefit will follow as great scholarship coupled with vast research was given to the subjects treated As you failed to state whether you had met Dr Peebles and also to give me the address of Mr Virehand n Gandhi I call your attention to them again I sincerely hope to know more of you and the Buddhist people I have always had a desire to rend the Vcdirs oldest bible of the world I believe it is now printed in English In conclusion will say that the Interview in the April 16 issue of the Truth Seeker on the Poets was hy my brother C 0 not C Trusting in a full reply to my points I remain yours for cnlight ment upon all issues pertaining to the well being of manB FENTON THE AGE OF REASON It appears by the T S of April 1C that Abbott Lyman has stated that this book has been consigned to tho oblivion it deserves Let us see Mr Dhamaloka has informed the English reading pubic that ten thousand copies of the Age of Reason were sold in tho year of 1909 in India I am not a prophet but will ven ture to say that the Age of Rea son will be printed called for and sold for a thousand years after the nnme of Lyman Abbott Is forgotten and buried in oblivious night never to be resurrected The Age of Reason and tin name of its author belong to the immortalsIJESUS CHRIST If correctly understand Joel M Berry he maintains the hypothesis that Jesus Christ was a myth Ladd Wakeman Mangasarian and ninny others of distinction hold to the same conclusion Will any of the four named gentlemen give their idea as to the real origin of the four gospels eradicating therefrom the central figure of which they pre port to deal Time absurdities contradictions and impossibilities have no bearing whatever on the point at issue In the Unknown Life of Christ it is maintained that he was in during thos years of which InninI Y is as sielnt as the tomb This work purports to be the ing of an old MMS in a monetary of India by N Notovich introduction is by Virchlasd n Gandhi who was in the U S at the time of the worlds fair my copy was presented by him My object in allud ing fo thisis to try and have more of our Liberals rend it Brother Berry what called Gospels into existenceB FBNTOX A pair once got married On kisses and cheese limit shortly they parted Because the lack of these itI z Will mall on receipt at SIJO BLUE GRASS BLADE Publishers Box Lexington SEtDSBuckbees Full Northern Pedigreed Seeds have a reputation years o teed growing behind them 1t the Specialties BBANS Earliest Valentine Extra Early poi Wardwells Wax White Wax Curries Rust Wax 450 PEAS Extra Early Alaska Early Gradus Horsfords Market Garden Buckbees Lightning Express Lettuce Tomato and a line zeds Plants and at growing prices Send catalogue or submit a your requirements quote prices direct the growerSave Write today this paper H W BUCKBEE RECORD OF CHRISTIANITY Search tho Scriptures for In then yo think yo have eternal life Yes wo would advise every intelligent lion est unprejudiced person in search of truth by all means to search the Scriptures Not bncauso of the truth we think they will find in themlIut because of the truth they will not find Neither will it benefit them a particle to commence searching them with their minds already made up that the are true To all such It would not only be a waste of time for they woulc not be looking for truth they would only be reading something they had already decided to be true It would bo true before they commenced and true when they were done Intelligen people read not only the Scripture but read everything else for the purpose of finding the truth and being bene fitted by it We were taught from infancy to read the Scripture with the understanding that It was the inspired word of God and true in every verse and word consequently was not heneflttec a particle The great BugaBoo of the Scriptures is to scare people in der to make them believe With the Ignorant and superstitious It works like a charm but with the person who has the brains to think and reason for himself It wont affect him a particle To frighten a person into confessing to the truth of something that his better judgment tolls him Is not true to make a deceptive and a hypocrlU out of him Tt is a good basis on whit criminality loves to build upon This gives the only good reason for that reasonable unjust cruel Scripture statement which says He that Ieves and confesses Me before men shall be saved but he that bellevetl not shall be damned If the Scrip tural statements concerning the life of Jesus are true then His teaching were decidedly onesided and Imperfect and His teachings by precept and example decidedly wrong And even today If His precepts were put Into practice they would soon wreck so clety and destroy the peace and hap plness of the world Take for stance those inhuman unGodllke statements such as Think not that am come to send peace on earth sup pose ye that I come to give peace or earth I tell you nay How It gives the lie to the song of the heavenly host mentioned In Luke 214 rejoicing over Jesus when an in fant in the manger Glory to God the highest rnd on earth peace good will toward men He is representea as being morbidly ambitious for glory As His reputed prayer Just before His crucifixion slows He says Father the hour has come glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee and now oh father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory I had with thee before the world was But His father didnt glorify Him all the same He begs like a hero for His father to spare His life and glorify Him but His father rays no more attention to His pleadings than to a convict beg ging for mercy but lets Him die between two thieves Instead of glorify log Him How such work as that repudiates and shows up the fallacy of the statements of Jesus where he says Ask and ye shall receive whatsoever ye ask the father In my name that will he do Here Ic Jesus asking his father in his own name for a little favor but his father pays no attention to him How consoling it must be for the good Christian believer to read such inhuman ungodly and contradictory statements as the above thep give God the glory for hearing and answering their prayers But that is thefrults of Christianlsm in alf Its beauty Now we wish to ask where was Jesus and His father when they were having such a glorious time together before the world was or the founda tions of it laid Can any one tell us The Gospel writers tell us that Jesus was born here on this earth of a woman the same as others are born only a few hundred years ago That looks like some one was doing a little lying Let each one decide for him self and it will suit us We decided the case years ago for ourselves The record of Christianity for the last1900 years shows it to be a fraud and de- l caption There is not half as fair prospects today for the world being saved through Christs teachings as there were before he preached His first ser mon on the Mount The world was getting along fine until Jesus came and set the people to fighting and mur dering each other over religious be liefs Christians are not willing to believe for a moment that any contra dictions occur In their Bible The mention of such a thing Is very an noying to the minister and he will at once brand you as an Infidel or filthy little Atheist But give him something tainted strongly of the myth cal or miraculous and he will jump at it quick if ae finds it In the Bible But toll him that n mountain of faith wouldnt move a grain of sand and he will at once not only call you a fool hut tho biggest of all fools his Bible tells him that tho becauseI verso of that is tho truth that scientific truth and reason teach us that tho moment the least breath leaves the body or tho moment we stop breathing we are called dead But ho is not ready to believe that bccausi his Bible tells thlm of a man wh stopped breathing for four days alid was burled in the ground and at tlie request of friends Jesus went and dug him up and started him to breathing again He will also tell us of another man who lived three days and three nights in the stomach of a whale then jumped out on dry land all safe anl if the minister had read of such unreasonable lies as these In other book than the Bible he would have been among the first to denounce them as fraudulent deceptions finding them related in his Bible butI accepts them as inspired truth and nounces all others who dont accept them as though a lie found In the Bible was not Just as big a lie 1 If found in any other book The greatest truth we find recorded In the Bible is the one told by tht devil or serpent as he Is called the Garden of Eden If the Bible dont mean what It says then it dont men anything and all efforts to rover up and mystify the lies it contains Is cul a plait confession that they don t be lieve It to bo true It seems that when Christians read their Bible they lay aside all respectpr regard forthe truth and are ready and willing to believe anything It salt The trouble we find to be is the people and especially those calling themselves Christians are too anxious to believe They want to believe something but dont know just what They will finally decide upon something then go to work to find out whether it is true or not It is like sentencing criminal then trying him before a court of Jus to see if he is guilty or not It Is plenty time to believe after the truth is furnished but that dont suit my good Christian brother and he will at once advise me to read my Blbln He bcilevps we will live another lift be cause the Bible says so but when I ask him to show up his God he cant find him so you see his Bible author- Ity Is of no use to Mm because he cant prove the truth of a word in It Show me the person who depends upon others to do his thinking for him and tells him what he must or must not believe and I will show you a slave to religious tyranny one who is afraid to believe the truth when he finds It because It Is not in harmony with what his Bible and minister have taught him so he pasts It by in si the day that Jesus declares that He came with a sword instead of a proclamation of peace the Chrik tlans of this world have been mur dering each other and quarrelling over their religions and their Gods Their religious beliefs have made lunatics out of them In fact they have been taught to believe that an angry God is waiting for them and the fear of death sets them crazy Faith and belief two of the most deceptive two of the most useless and two f tllJ most fraudulent words found in the Bible are calculated to deceive the very elect An intelligent truthful honest person has no use for either one for faith without works is dead and belief without truth is worse than says if any man hear my word and believe not I Judge him not So word Is of noyou see belief In Gods account unless It Is true Believe all that Is true of course but find out the truth first Christians believe In ad vance they put faith ahead of nth and It makes lunatics of them If the Able is not true without faith and Uilof no amount of faith an belief fclll make It true So we conclude to let the Christian enjoy his deceptive faith and belief but for our part we will only believe what we know to be rue nothing more Believe the truth md the truth shall make you a good Freethinker JOEL M BERRY RiTUALISM AND SOCIALISM- I read M KIdders article on Spiritualism and Socialism It Is evl ence conclusive that he Is an llllb eral liberal His article is full of sarcasm and wit He has a diarrhoea of words and a constipation of ideas He has three and onehalf columns of ridicule not a line of argument He says Why worry about the dead This proves his ignorance of Spirit alisra We believe that what Is called death Is but a spirit birth The message of scientific Spiritualism points beyond the crumbling clay and finds life enlarging that beyond the door of death we enter Into the larger room We see in death the end of one chapter a turning of the page e next On to development is the Cometi lions of Chrlnts who havo lived loved suffered and conquered and re celved the white seal and arc vlcton in tho celestial realms of immortality Plato said When death approachei a man tho mortal part dies but the immortal departs safe and uncorrupt ed Socrates said Do not say that Socrates is burled say that yov burled my body All historic records of the un molest antiquity of the Oriental races the records of Brahmins Buddhists Jews Christians a well as the orades Greece and Rome all abound In test monies of a living conscious existence beyond the tomb Is it not pr posterous for such a man as Kidder to call such men as Prof Brookes one of our most eminent Scientists worldsIHeber Newton Wm R Stead with millions of Spiritualists all over tin world Feebleminded Kidder says We can occasionally reform a liar but a foolGod help a fool Again he says I have arrived at the settled conviction that this world will not be what It should be until it is favored with a new atonement devoted exclusively to the Intellectual redemption of the Spiritualists soI clety and the Socialist party If Kidder would consult the standard dictionary he would find this dcfinl tlon of Socialism A theory to secure the reconstruc Lion of society Increase of wealth and- a more equal distribution of the products of labor by collective ownership of labor and capital and the collective management of all Industries Its motto Is Everyone according to hla Frances Willard said So cialism is applied Christianity If Kidder belongs to either old party he stands for competition graft peed trusts and monopolies 11m agine he would grind humanity to dust for profits and dividends Socialism will lead all peoples and nations to cooperate for the good and safety of all It will abolish war and unionize all people in tho bonds of good will- Under Socialism we will not have bursting graneries nor starving peo pIe we will not have diamond bedecked dogs and starving children vice will not be garbed in silk and virtue in ragsPERRY ENGLE D GODt By A B White speak of God as it they knew And were on friendlyy terms With one who from the boundless bluo Rules oer us earthly worms They tell us of a city fair No human foot hath trod A Paradise off In the air Where In abides this God They say this God so loved the earth He sent his only son Who was they claim of virgin birth But dont tell how twas done To save mankind from mortal sin And all earths wicked ways That he this Paradise might win And Godd great mercy praise lut when you question how they know With saintly touch and look All solemnly to you theyll show Their little sacred book But though you read it oer and oer Through all its pages plod Youll be no wiser than before Concerning this great God Poor foolish man to even dream That he should be selected And little minnows in the stream Should have their souls neglected While Nature loudly doth proclaim To all above the sod That men and minnows fare the same Regardless of a o tell the truth I do believe Salvations senseless plan Was ml1nufactured to deceive The clouded brain of man And to the things we cannot see Or reasons for advance Priests took the name of Deity To hide their Ignorance BRIFF BIOGRAPHY OF 4MR MANGA8ARIAN M M Mtiflgasarlan was born of rmonlan parents about fortynine yearaago The Armenians are the oldest Christian people in the world The national Church of Annenlr is the Gregorian which is much like the Catholic Church with the Pope left out Both of Mr Mangasarlans parents were Protestants and were mom bers of the Congressional Church His lother who is still living being the tighter of a devout Christian had vowed to bring up her son to be a preacher of the Gospel With this In view he was sent to college later to the Presbyterian Theologiral seminary In Princeton N J After graduation Mr Mangasarlan became the astor of the Spring Garden Presby arlan Church In Philadelphia When he could no longer preach the West minister Catechism ho made a trip to Boston to confer with James Freenmi Clarke and Edward Everett Halt Soon after this ho tendered his resit nation not waiting for a heresy trial to convince Mm that ho was a hcrctli After four years of independent le turlng in St Georges Hall Phllade phla Mr Mnngasarlan was Invited tl Now York to lecture for the Ethical Society In that city and later re placed the lecturer of tho Ethical So clety In Chicago In 1900 a few friends assisted Mr Mangasarlan to organize the Independent Religious Society whose lecturer he has been during the past nine years Tho Rationalist Dulletln1 The common man who undertakes to teach atheism to young people and carry on a commercial enterprise at the same time usually finds trouble and plenty of It We may try to show how nature proceeds In building plant or animal to bo met by the remark You cant mako me believe that anything Is less somebody made it an thesi folks are young school teahcers or seventh and eighth grade pupils I have asked the question in pUblic schools Herr many are studying sci ence to have every pupil reply not I Ordinarily there Is no association of the word science and mathematics and I have heard pupils working percentage and square root ask what Is mathematics The object of reading as taught n our schools is to get a grade advance the ideas of the author or beauty of expression being of little or no cot cern so long as certain facts or date is obtained that will be of use In an swerlng examination questions and these fellows will grin when you tell them that matter acts of its own volt tlon producIng not only gravity and all natural forms and phenomena known to man but many which man has not yet discovered We are taught that body building Is due to heart action but plant build ling without heart action proves the mode of motion whether animate or inanimate Is due to atomic- activity while natural forms represents the difference between atomic force and suspended motion With the Idea grounded into chil dren that the solidity of tho earth creases as we approach the center how can they believe that the solid substance of the earths surface rises and falls dally as well as its tidewaters With our Christian science set rntlflc farming etc the word science lis as meaningless as phlogiston are taught re use the word science Ir place of agriculture mechanics etc until scientist and fakir command the same respect Mathematics is science because twice two is four apart from all ap plications science Is knowledge unengaged having no necessary physical basis outside of the activity of living brain ideas are the facts of science and the moment man can entertain ideas as facts independent of material forms and conditions he cecomes a creator a master of an Intellectual universe and capable of formulating his own conduct otherwise he must depend upon surroundings for the ernment of his movements and sonic other pson to do his thinking Time was when infidelity could be whipped out of children now liberal zing Instruction Is deferred to the lege days when policy and self Interes will bar Its way Human experience points to an tellectual cause back of all natural activities while belief in God is accordance with our Ignorance of par tlcular motives and to uproot such belief without supplying a scientific basis for phenomena Is a waste ol good material While not berating Iconoclasm we believe the systematic introduction ol topics which will Interest the young and secure an expression of their views upon religious topics their ideas of the dividing line between the human and the divine will certainly advance their line of though and in traduce liberal literature where never goes today To have tlielr name andj views be fore the public Is an Incentive that might multiply liberals among the ris ing generation The cause must soon be placed their keeping Let us encourage them In an expression of their feelings in loy or girl believes the priest and preachers conduct must be bound by the same moral code that enjoins the common citizen and put llshes such views we have an em Freethinker he dont need to abuse the Bible to prove his liberalism an give him the right hand of fellow ship without hesitation RespectfullyF VER Vera South Dakota iJog Fennel In the Orient ought to be In everybodys book case National Military Home April 1910 Dear Friend Hughes The Blade has just come It Is full of the choicest writings my own along with the rest- I hope you may keep up and let us hear from c C Moore as often as you can I write nothing only what know to be true and try to make them as teresting as possible I wish I was able to do more I shall always hold the Blade In the highest esteem on count of Its noble good hearted found er I guess Brother Charlesworth ha left me out I have not Heard from him for a long time He must not think he car win my affections from tho Blade- I wrote you a few days ago telling you what I could and would do In or der to help you along Let me hear what you think of my offer Perhaps you can offer me a better one Dont let us have the Blade go down have some more copy already wrote which I enclose with this letter So hoping the Lcrd will help those that help themselves I watt patiently to hear what you will have to say Yours truly- JQEL M BERRY THE MASTERPIECE LIBRARY The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine IngersoHs Lecturers and Essays 3 volumes Life of Jesus by Ernest Renan The Apostles by Ernest Renan Phases of Faith by Prof Newman Emersons Etsays and Addresses Rights of Man by Thomas Paine Man versos the State an exposure of Socialism by Herbert Spencer Fundamental Principles of Competes Positive Philosophy Creed of Christendom by W R Gregory Education by Herbert Spencer Evolution of the Idea of God by Grant of Species by Charles Darwin 25c each 6 for 125 postpaid NORMAN MURRAY 246 St James St Montreal Canad- aMIRACLES Continued from Page readymade superstition e over standing lack of understanding There is nothing In nature that Is mysterious except as we try to apply or misapply ideas relating to one class of objects or operations to another class differing In character When we consider physics we be gin with the atom bearing In mind that each one of the many compos Ing matter In the universe has a normal motion or a continuous tendency so long as such motion Is not frus trated while this motion and the changes due to its disturbances become the cause of the various forms and operations to bo onserved of matter Wo may consider the atom as a re tInfiniteweight no tendency to conflict with Iother atoms no gravity We observe title atom when Involved with others as a stone upon tho earth now It must travel In an orbit whoso diameter Is that of the earth and Its natural tendency is to seek a normal orbit pas sible only at tho center of the globe wo havo gravity being an effort of all the atoms In any object to travel the shorter distance the quantity and condition of atoms become the measure of the weight of any object Suppose this object were placed at tho center of the earth dlslntergra tlon would take place there being nothing to prevent the separation of tho atoms gas and other like sub stances would result Passing down tIl the arch of tale earth crust pre vents superincumbent pressure our atom would have less and less gravity until Its texture is changed there fore we would find the earth a hollow globe filled vlth gas which torces It self out through crevasses as volca noes and If a hole large enough were formed our earth would change Its tation taking an erratic path as n comet As matters now stand the ex nslve pressure from Inside coun Ill gravitation1 and that which to minds and senses Is of great has no tendency to fall down and hence there Is no need for the four legs or the pedestal of our fathers to support the earth If we divide a fluid into atomic fine ness as In the capillaries of plants the atom having no gravity or weight ascends and performs according to the tendencies given by heredity of such plant or animal and constructsj another similar plant or animal when conditions favor We hang out a wet garment the fibers dividing the mois ture permits the atoms of moisture to depart or heat of fire or sun giving artificial gravity to the atoms enough to overcome their connection with strata above they are condensed and fall as raindrops- It takes not only time and a clear distinction of related ideas to ex plain a watermelon but with all that some acumen of the person for whom the explanation is given With a textbook of mtslc before them and a teacher to explain the technique some men are still unable to play the violin Some continue to think tho sun moves and wonder why they cant Invest a clod with life They imagine it Is In the nature f God and possible for him to make a two year old steer in a minute forgetting that if produced In a minute It would require months time to fulfill the statement Men con tinue to ask the question Which lItthink thoughts with the hands handle things Very truly T S WEAVER toJ If you want to be of service I to the cause you es= pouse and at the same time help some of your friends you can have The Blade sent to ten of them one year for Five Dollars L I WINTER TOURIST TICKETS TO THE SOUTHand SOUTHEAST ON SALE DAILY VIA QUEEN CRESCENT ROUTE GOOD RETURNING UNTIL MAY 31st 1910 c For Pirtlcohri call or writeIC KING P a T A Milo St lexicon Ky

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