(d) It is constructive, because it inspires man with a thirst for knowledge, and puts him in sympathy with science. (e) It is positive and reconstructive in inspiring man with moral courage. "What will you give us in place of religion?" (a) We would put in place of religion, liberty, morality, honesty, courage, knowledge, and manliness. (b) We do not wish to take away the Golden Rule; but we insist that it is not a Christian precept. It was in the world long before Jesus, before Moses, and before Abraham. Long before the pyramids were built mothers called their children to their knees and said to them, "Children be good to each other to-day." This is the Golden Rule. We see then that it is of human origin, and not a part of Christianity, as Christianity is founded upon the supernatural. It is the old, old way that religions have of borrowing human virtues and ascribing them to the gods. (c) We do not teach men to despise charity, but to so improve human conditions that charity and charitable institutions shall not be needed. (d) "What will you give us in place of the Bible?" We do not propose to take it away. We only ask people to read it as they do other books--accepting the good and rejecting the bad. "What are we to have in place of the consolation of the gospel?" The gospel means glad tidings. What are the glad tidings? 1. That man is totally depraved and polluted. Good news! 2. That he deserves eternal torment. Glad tidings! 3. And that nine tenths of the human race will get their deserts. "Many are called, but few are chosen." Glorious news! 4. That hell is in view,--near at hand. Delightful tidings! 5. That the reprobate cannot escape. Glorious gospel! 6. That God hates the most of the race and has from eternity doomed them to eternal woe. And all this is the gospel of glad tidings! Suppose we expose the delusion of eternal torments, what does man want in its place? Does he need a smaller hell to taper off on, before he can give up hell altogether? What does any one want in place of infant damnation? And so also with witchcraft, polygamy, slavery, and many other wrongs--must we have something to take their place? I heard of a kid gloved dude, who put his finger into a bucket of water, and after taking it out looked for the hole in the water. As well might the poor fellow sick in the hospital ask the doctor, who promises to cure him of the small pox, what he will give him in its stead. Does he want the itch or measles in place of the small pox? "How does the Freethinker come to know so much more than millions of good and great men who for eighteen centuries have believed in Christianity?" (a) Here we have the old question of majorities. Millions of good and great men once firmly believed in witchcraft. Luther said: "I would have no compassion on these witches, I would burn them all." John Wesley said: "Giving up witchcraft is giving up the Bible." Sir Matthew Hale believed in witchcraft.