Many church people say immortality must be true, or the great majority would not believe in it. But do they? They do not talk or write as if they did. If language means anything, I think the majority believe in annihilation. Most people speak of the dead body of a man as though it were the man. They say, "He was buried at Greenwood," or, "She was cremated at Forest Hills." And we hear the "late" Mr. Smith left an immense fortune. If Mr. Smith still exists, why do they say the _late_ Mr. Smith? If people didn't believe that the soul and body are one, and that life ceases and mind expires when the body dies, why do they say, "They were"? What little the Church has learned has been by _main force_ so to speak. A friend of mine many years ago was a college student. At that time they were all compelled to attend the college church. On one occasion he heard the preacher, who was also a college professor, make these statements: _First_, that the _elect_ alone would be saved. _Second_, that among those who by the world were called Christians, probably not more than one in a hundred belonged really and truly to the _elect_. _Third_, that the others, by reason of their Christian privileges, would suffer more hereafter than the heathen, who had never heard the Gospel at all. The young man made a note of these propositions, and on the strength of them drew up a petition to the Faculty soliciting exemption from further attendance at church, as only preparing for himself a more terrible future. He said: "The congregation here amounts to six hundred persons, and nine of these are the college professors. Now if only one in a hundred is to be saved, it follows that three even of the professors must be damned, and I, being a mere student, could not expect to be saved in preference to a professor." Far, he said, be it from him to cherish so presumptuous a hope. Nothing remained for him, therefore, but perdition. In this melancholy state of affairs he was anxious to abstain from anything that might aggravate his future punishment; and as church attendance had been shown to have this influence on the _non-elect_, he trusted that the Faculty would for all time exempt him from it. The result was he came very near being expelled from the college--simply by heeding their sermons. The professors of some colleges have learned something, and do not insist on the students attending church. * * * * * Ponder for a moment on the many dishonest ways churches have for raising money. Think of the amount of money they can raise at a church-fair--alias, a confidence-game.