True religion does not regard God as a personal monarch, governing the universe by the caprices of an angry and fickle mind, but as the living, moving, all-pervading, self-sustaining, energizing, vivifying power which moves and sustains the machinery of the whole universe, and controls, by a concatenation of laws, the myriads of worlds which move in majestic grandeur through infinite space, and causes them to act in concert and harmony without a discordant jar. It does not write its inspiration and revelation in a dead language or unintelligible Hebrew, but in living characters, which all can read and understand. It indulges in no spirit of bigotry, consigns no man or woman to endless torment, never talks of total depravity or original sin. It is a natural and godlike religion, calculated to satisfy the deep, unutterable longings of the soul, and bring blessings and happiness to all who live up to its requirements. It is a tree bearing the fruit of practical righteousness. It does not teach that all of God's truth is shut up in a printed book. It knows no sects, no creeds, and no thirty-nine articles. It does not pilot the pilgrim through life with a dark lantern, nor search for living truths among the religious mummies of the dark ages, but regales itself upon the living truths of the age. Its devotees do not require temples made with hands in which to worship the Father. It does not require holy houses, holy days, or holy sacraments. It recommends all to search for truth as a pearl of great price. It teaches all to worship God by a life of practical goodness, and by cherishing kindly feelings toward every human being. This is a religion that will impart true pleasure in life, and afford sure comfort in a dying hour.

THE RELIGION FOR THIS AGE

Is a religion founded upon truth and goodness;—a religion freed from the old, worn-out superstitious, Oriental myths. The people are becoming too Enlightened to tolerate them much longer; they are becoming tired of being fed on the stale food of past ages; they have been kept in a state of spiritual stagnation long enough. They are becoming too intelligent to wish to listen to old mythological doctrines which have been preached by Christians for centuries. We want a religion better adapted to the wants of the age. We want a religion that will furnish better nourishment for man's moral and spiritual nature,—a religion calculated to develop true manhood, instead of repressing it; a religion whose doctrines do not conflict with established principles of science; a religion which our moral sense does not condemn, and against which our reason will not rebel. We want a religion that builds no walls between reason and revelation, and forms no creeds and no barriers to the spontaneous outgrowth of every faculty of the soul. We want a religion that does not require men and women to be born several times before they can be honest, truthful, and reliable, or "good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven." We want a religion which acknowledges no law but truth and justice,—a religion that will tolerate no wrong, and forgive no sin. We want a religion whose bond is love, whose temple is truth, and whose altar is a guiltless conscience, and whose creed is a life of practical righteousness. We want a religion which will teach us to cherish kindly feelings toward all mankind, and which will prompt us to labor to spread flowers instead of thorns in the pathway of every one with whom we come in contact, and thus make them better and happier beings; for this is the true end of all true religion and all true preaching.

We want a religion which will estimate men and women for what they are, and not for what they believe,—a religion that does not measure their moral worth by their creeds, but by their practical lives. We want a religion that will banish all creeds and mind-enslaving dogmas from the earth, and substitute in their place brotherly love and goodness. We want a religion that will do away with ignorance and poverty, that will labor to prevent any one from suffering for the needful things of life, and that will bind all together in the ties of universal brotherhood. In fine, we want a religion which will make truth and love and true practical righteousness the pole-star of every man and woman who embrace it. This is the religion we need; this is the religion for the age; this is the religion that would and will banish all unrighteousness from the earth, and elevate the race to a higher plane than they ever have or ever can attain under their soul-cramping, creed-bound religions; this is the religion the author is laboring for, and has earnestly desired for twenty-three years to see established among "all nations, tongues, kindred, and people." This religion is not derived from any Bible, but is an outgrowth of man's moral and religious nature, as all true religions in all countries have been. A religion derived from this source would prompt us to labor daily to promote the happiness of our neighbors and fellow-beings generally, instead of studying every hour of our lives to practically rob them, as do most men in civilized countries, including nearly all Christian professors, who are positively for bidden by their Bible and lawgiver (Christ) to lay up any treasure on earth; yet it is their constant study how to draw all the money possible out of the pockets of their neighbors, with but little regard to their wants, necessities, or even sufferings, that they may die in the midst of wealth. It is a strange, yet almost universal, infatuation, that the inauguration of the true religion will banish from the earth.