The Bible says: Be not among eaters of flesh. The Bible says: It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the hymns of fools. The Bible says: If an animal dieth of itself do not eat it but give it to thy neighbor and let him eat thereof. The Bible says: Who knoweth that the spirit of man goeth upward and the spirit of the beast goeth downward? The Bible says: Your stomachs are an open sepulchre. The Bible says: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. The Bible says: Prove all things and hold fast of that which is good. The Bible says: Do not be as the hypocrites are, testifying in public places and yet living apart from God. The Bible says: Reason is too high for a fool. The Bible says: He that follows after mercy findeth life. The Bible says: The wise man's eyes are in his head (he reasons), but the fool's eyes are neither here nor there, he walketh in darkness. The Bible says: When a man's ways are in harmony with higher consciousness he maketh his enemies be at peace with him. The Bible says: The Spirit of God made Samson a murderer. The Bible says: The beasts of the field shall honor me. The Bible says: Fool thou art to believe all that the prophets have said. The Bible says: God sent plagues to torment his people. The Bible says: Shed not innocent blood. The Bible says: Praise the Lord every living creature—the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and earth, the fish of the waters and all mankind. The Bible says: Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. The Bible says: Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. The Bible says: There are many false lords and false gods the people are worshipping. The Bible says: Come now, let us reason together. The Bible says: Faith without works is dead. The Bible says: He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a human. The Bible says: Beast and man have one breath; so that man hath no pre-eminence above the beast; as one dieth so dieth the other. The Bible says: Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. The Bible says: Every moving thing that liveth (grain, fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc.) shall be food for you, but flesh with the life thereof which is blood shall ye not eat. The Bible says: God blessed every creature. The Bible says: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth and every tree, on the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food. The Bible says: All that cry Lord, Lord, are not of God. The Bible says: They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my Holy Mountain. The Bible says: I am God, I change not. The Bible says: Do a little consistent heart cleaning so that the human mind's eye shall be spiritual to see and segregate right from wrong. The Bible says: Christ taught love, leniency, forgiveness, tenderness and mercy. The Bible says: Dead flies cause the apothecary's ointment to send forth a stinking savour. Capital punishment or legalized murder is another miscarriage of consistency; it does not dovetail into mercy and it does not blend into the law that God has given man an allotted time upon the earth. What right have twelve jurors to virtually cancel the life of a murderer? Incarcerate the offender under a life sentence with proper food and training, and ultimately that murderer's heart and soul might be purer than Judge, jurors and all connected with the courts of justice. If a criminal under excitement or cool premeditation takes the life of a human being, the cool, considerate jurors, responsible for the death penalty, are just as guilty of murder as the prisoner. The butcher is rejected as a juror on a murder trial on the ground that his business has hardened his heart, and yet the Judge of the Superior Court, the sheriff and his deputies and the eligible jurors all eat of the beef the butcher slaughters. Despite the protests that may come to the surface in reading the inspired, pointed truths, the fact should be reiterated that Justice, Kindness and Mercy for every living creature is in the heart and soul of the true religionist. The sand-blind carnivorous faith curist (who reads his Bible through a pair of eye-glasses not made by God Almighty) tells us of a divine healing power. We hear many testimonies from the lips of these people praising this wonderful (?) curative agency, but when sensibly considered we know the "power" removes only visionary ills. Imaginary tumors, etc., hypochondria and other nervous troubles readily yield to this mythical physician, but no disease or defect in reality, can be removed until we remove the physical cause. If we continue living regardless of natural health laws all the "belief" and all the "faith" and all the "Blood" cannot offset the inevitable result of continued disobedience. They sometimes speculate as to the stubbornness and apparent incurability of an ailment and finally lay the blame to a spiritual insufficiency. Ridiculous! Mankind is filled with patriotism when a victorious war is ended, forgetting the awful gloom pervading some poor mother's home. The higher self should make us grieve with those that grieve rather than be exultant at the loss or downfall of any nation. We should love all nations and nationalities as we do our own, and be bound together by inseparable bonds, realizing that we all must pass to the final tomb of man on the same level. A bow of horse hair coming in contact with the gut strings of a violin produces exquisite harmony that thrills every fibre of our being with ecstasy. We can attribute the melody to the spirit of the deceased animal appealing to the human heart. Strange that after life has departed we can charm the muses with tones produced on a stringed instrument. What human being has ever bequeathed to the world a substance to awaken the emotions of our soul through concord of sweet sounds like unto the gut of a deceased animal? Evidently there is more harmony in the entrails of lower creatures than we find in the entire carcass of religious civilized carnivorous man. The scientist who upholds painful experimental surgery in the interest of science should give over his own body for experiment instead of encouraging the cruelties of vivisection. It hurts being "cut to pieces," consequently the heartless scientific fellow, instead of offering his own body for the dissecting table, tortures a poor friendless dog or other animal. The horrible suffering thousands of helpless creatures have undergone through the process of vivisection is heartrending. There should be stringent law against such inhumanity. A DEVOUT (?) ADMONITION.E. E. Kusel, Sir: I read your "Humanitarian Philosophy" booklet and I take it as a mass of devil talk. It is not in favor of the Holy Bible and it says it is wrong to kill animals. This is crossing God's word. You say it says swine meat is forbidden. That is the only true statement in your book but that is the law for the Jews only. You say it says thou shalt not kill; of course it does, and that has references to the human family only. You say the religious man that does not shudder at the works of a butcher is heartless and godless. You tell a falsehood there. I have been a believer fifteen years and I know all animals were made for man. I can see the devil has a powerful influence over you as it had over Voltaire, Paine, Ingersoll, Edison, Hubbard and other non-believers. You infidels preach against God's Bible and will be burned in the everlasting fires of hell for it. You will be glad to have a drop of cold water in your suffering, but god will not have mercy—it will be too late then. Hell is full of agnostics and infidels and non-believers burning and suffering and I warn you to have a care as to what you say. The Catholics and Christian Scientists are as much of the devil's doings as you are, so you'll have company if you do not repent of your infidelity. You are adding to God's word and it is punishable by his wrath (Rev. 22:18.) Your book is a lot of lies and infidelity. N. S. W. A REPLY.Mr. N. S. W., My dear sir: In reply to your letter of Jan. 30th, concerning my "Humanitarian Philosophy," I wish to candidly tell you that I am not at all afraid of your sort of god. The God I worship is not very likely to materialize in a selfish fanatical subject, but always comes to the surface in the heart and soul of honorable, conscientious thinking men—men who either profess nothing and live according to custom or in men who profess religion and uphold their God as kind, loving and merciful. This latter man is an ethical vegetarian and will not accept the cruelties and inconsistencies of the Bible but says "it is an error in translation." As to the lower animals, one preying upon the other, the conscientious, devout Bible believer presents the theory of his own freeing God Almighty from the sinful responsibility. He divides Bible truth from Bible error—he accepts the lofty and beautiful and holds fast to that which is good. If you intend to preach a gospel of Love you will find it an utter impossibility to do so if you do not live a Humanitarian life—a life that forbids the killing of any thing that suffers pain, and fear of death as you yourself may sometimes suffer. In conclusion I wish to impress you with the fact that your letter is sufficient proof that you read the Bible in a haphazard style and know not its contents. Every assertion, every quotation and every conclusion in my "Humanitarian Philosophy," my dear sir, is absolutely true and justified. Respectfully, FROM THE W. A. T. L.The tobacco smoking on street cars has been very much discussed in your valuable paper recently. Now, I will suggest that all persons who object to the poisonous effects of tobacco register a protest every chance they get and spend some good money, as I am doing, to back up their argument against the most deadly plant used by human beings. There is no traffic so degrading in its influence and effect as tobacco. It goes hand in hand with liquor, and when we stop the youth of the land from using the weed, then the saloon will have no customers. G. L. R. Founder World's Anti-Tobacco League, (From Los Angeles Herald.) THE "WORST" SIN.The church element construe the Bible to blend into their own desires and appetites and then in the name of their god (little g) they commit every iniquity under the sun, the most abominable of which is the eating of "a beef which has been battered in the head by the blow of an ax or mutton which has had its throat cut from ear to ear." Get yourself in touch with the Infinite and you will see that the taking of animal life for food is a greater sin than smoking, drinking or satisfying animal desires. The three last named are only sinning against the body but not commendable by any means, while the first is the horrible sin of taking life. Carnivorous reader (church people included) think these lines over well and then move thy tongue seven times before thou speakest of sin! E. E. KUSEL. Los Angeles, Cal. (From Los Angeles Herald.) MAN AND BEAST.What queer and wild notions religious faddists get into their heads. T. J. W. wants us to quit killing cattle and hogs, etc., in fact all kinds of animals and birds because God has put them on earth. I would like Mr W. to tell us what would become of us if we followed his advice. Why, the animals would crowd man off the earth in a short while. The farmer could not raise any crops. Cattle, deer, hares and sheep would eat his grain, the coyotes his chickens and the lions would eat him. C. V. Pasadena, Cal. (From Los Angeles Herald.) VEGETARIAN'S REPLY.If you please, Mr. V., I am not a "religious faddist." I am not religious at all. I am a firm believer in the Golden Rule, applying it to man and beast. In reply to your query, Mr. V. I will answer briefly: Self-preservation is the first law of nature, so protect yourself against the presumed invasion of tame and wild beasts, birds, etc., but do not presume we have the right to take life of anything which endures pain or runs away from impending danger unless occasion calls for it. My letter to the Herald, if you please, was for those who profess to be godly and "in the kingdom." Religious people must be strictly humane or they are minus the God character and their profession is either a phantom or hypocrisy. Of course men like yourself, who are afraid of being crowded off the earth, have a special self-given right to raise and cruelly slaughter any living creature for eating. Meat eating will continue until the end of the world, no doubt, but the Humanitarian will not eat it; it will be devoured by ungodly church people and outsiders who like the flavor of flesh food, regardless of the wrong of premeditated killing. T. J. W. Compton, Cal. (From Los Angeles Herald.) Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. A Table of Contents has been added. The repetition of the headings "QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS" on five and "IN AND BETWEEN THE LINES" on three consecutive pages has been removed. |