All Bibles, and nearly every religious nation known to history, have taught that God often gets angry at the creatures of his own creation. But, in the light of modern science, nothing could be more transcendently absurd, or more absolutely impossible, than that a being possessing all knowledge—a being infinite in power, infinite in wisdom, and filling all space throughout the boundless universe—should be a victim to the weakness and ungovernable impulse of passion. The very idea is revolting and blasphemous, and presents to every reflecting and unbiased mind a self-evident impossibility. The emotion of anger can only be the weakness of finite and imperfect beings. It is self-evidently impossible for a being possessing infinite perfection, and consequently infinite self-government, to cherish the feeling of anger for a moment, as the following consideration will show:—

1. The modern study of mental philosophy has demonstrated anger to be a species of moral weakness; and hence it could not, for a single moment, occupy a mind possessing infinite perfection. A being, therefore, who is assumed to possess such a weakness is self-evidently not a God, but merely an imaginary being, fit only to be worshiped by ignorant slaves.

2. The practical experience of every person demonstrates anger to be a species of unhappiness, and often of absolute misery; and the indulgence of this passion not only makes the possessor unhappy, but destroys the happiness of every one around him. If, therefore, God were an angry being, instead of heaven being a place or state of happiness, it would be the most miserable place imaginable; for God is represented by the Christian Bible as getting angry every day (see Ps. vii. 11), and so angry that the "fury comes up in his face." As a Yankee would say, "He gets mad all over." I frankly confess I don't want to live in such a heaven, or with such a God. Indeed, it would be no heaven at all for anybody; for heaven is a state of happiness.

3. In the third place, the modern study of the science of philosophy has discovered that anger is a species of disease, which may result in mental and even physical suicide if carried far enough. It produces a congested state of the blood-vessels of the brain, which, if not arrested in its progress, will produce death. Dr. Gunn, in his work on domestic medicine, reports several cases in which an inquest was held over a dead body by a coroner's jury, and the verdict rendered, "Came to his death in a fit of anger." However irreverent, the thought forces itself upon us, that such a verdict might be given over the dead body of Jehovah if we were compelled to believe all we read of his getting angry; for it is a scientific deduction that can not be resisted, that, if anger can produce death in one being, it may in all beings subject to its influence.

4. Again: as the result of the study of mental philosophy, anger is now known to be a species of insanity. It deranges, more or less, all the faculties of the mind, and often disqualifies the possessor for doing any thing right, or acting rationally, while under its influence. It often causes him to act without reason or judgment, and is liable to drive him to the commission of crime. As well think of entering the cage of a tiger as to take up our abode in a heaven ruled by such a God,—a heaven controlled by a God bereft of reason by the ungovernable action of his own passions. We could not be happy in such a heaven: we should be constantly under the influence of fear and apprehension, lest he should become enraged, and his vengeance fall upon us. Where there is fear there is no heaven or happiness. If, as the Bible tells us, he is liable to repent, he might experience this mental perturbation at any time, and repent for having admitted us into the heavenly kingdom, and consequently expel us. Under such circumstances our motives would be very much weakened for laboring to reach such a heaven, not knowing that we should be permitted to remain there a single hour. How supremely ridiculous, when logically analyzed, is the conception of an angry God! It is entirely behind the age, and adapted only to the lowest stages of barbarism; and yet thousands of Christian clergymen preach this demoralizing doctrine from the pulpit every sabbath day. It is demoralizing, because no person can believe in an angry, sin-punishing God, without cherishing such feelings in his own bosom. It is impossible for him to avoid it. Indeed, he has no motives for trying to avoid it; but, on the contrary, he possesses the strongest motives for cultivating such feelings. For Archbishop Whately says, "Religious people always try to be like the God they worship." They consider it not only their privilege, but their duty, to imitate him. Hence, if they believe he gets mad occasionally, and pours out his vengeance upon his offending children (his disobedient subjects), they will naturally feel like following his example, and be cruel and revengeful to those who excite their anger. This preaching the doctrine of an angry God has a tendency to foster vengeful and vindictive feelings amongst the people; when, if the clergy would preach only a God of infinite love, infinite goodness, infinite perfection in all his attributes, we should soon see a marked change in society. Kindness, love, and good-will would be manifested between man and man; and cruel, vengeful, and vindictive feelings would gradually die out, and be numbered amongst the things which have been and are not. Then would the kingdom of peace be established on earth, and the millennium be ushered in. But we can not expect the priests to be better than their God, nor the people to be better than their priests. "Like God like priest, and like priest like people." The priest deals out damnation upon the people to be like his God; and the people follow in his foot steps, and exercise cruel and revengeful feelings toward each other. It seems astonishing that such an immoral and blasphemous doctrine should have been so long and so extensively tolerated in professedly enlightened countries, as it is evident it must have had a bad effect; and past experience proves it has had a demoralizing effect upon the people where the doctrine has been preached. It furnishes an illustration of the omnipotent power of custom.