I Will Work In My Own Way,

It Is Wonderful How Shy Even Liberal Ministers Generally Are About Trusting People With The Plain Truth Concerning Their Religion. They Want To Veil It In A Supernatural Haze. They Are Very Reluctant To Part With The Old Idea That God Has Given To Jews And Christians A Peculiar Monopoly Of Truth. It Is A Selfish View Of God's Government Of The World, And It Is Time That We Knew Enough To Outgrow It.

Thy Treasures Of Gold Are Dim With The Blood Of The Hearts Thou Hast Sold; Thy Home May Be Lovely, But Round It I Hear The Crack Of The Whip, And The Footsteps Of Fear.

In The First Place, The Government Ought Not To Be Invested With Power To Control The Affections, Any More Than The Consciences Of Citizens. A Man Has At Least As Good A Right To Choose His Wife, As He Has To Choose His Religion. His Taste May Not Suit His Neighbors; But So Long As His Deportment Is Correct, They Have No Right To Interfere With His Concerns.

The Existence Of Very Pious Feelings, In Conjunction With Intolerance, Cruelty, And Selfish Policy, Has Never Ceased To Surprise And Perplex Those Who Have Viewed It Calmly From A Distance. ... It Is Impossible To Exaggerate The Evil Work Theology Has Done In The World. What Destruction Of The Beautiful Monuments Of Past Ages, What Waste Of Life, What Disturbance Of Domestic And Social Happiness, What Perverted Feelings, What Blighted Hearts, Have Always Marked Its Baneful Progress!

England May As Well Dam Up The Waters Of The Nile With Bulrushes As To Fetter The Step Of Freedom, More Proud And Firm In This Youthful Land Than Where She Treads The Sequestered Glens Of Scotland, Or Couches Herself Among The Magnificent Mountains Of Switzerland.