Let us recapitulate: Jesus taught a magical, not a scientific morality. It was by being born of "water and the Holy Ghost," whatever that might mean, and not by intellectual and moral effort, that people were to be saved. He placed the creed above the deed, and himself above humanity. "Believe in me, do good for my sake," gives to morality a sectarian stamp, or taint, which is bound to corrupt it. Morality is born of liberty. Christianity is the religion of absolutism, in which Jesus or God is everything, and man a mere puppet. Christianity denies to man the right to reason. He must only obey. There is no morality where there is no liberty. By his doctrine of an impending catastrophe, a future hell, and by his promises of fabulous wealth and glory beyond--Jesus helped to disturb and distort the judgment of the weak and the fearful, preventing thereby the cultivation of sane thoughts of life. The morality of Jesus was the morality of panic. And what do we offer in place of supernaturalism, whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedanism, Brahmanism, or any other "ism"? In place of magic or miracle, we offer science; in place of "belief," we offer knowledge--the open light of day and the unhampered interchange of human love and thought. In place of Christ or God--both absent, and neither dependent upon anything we can do for him--we offer Humanity, forever at our side, and in daily need of our bravest service and most unstinted love. THE STORY OF MY MIND OR HOW I BECAME A RATIONALIST _Price, Fifty Cents_ ¶ In this latest publication of the Independent Religious Society, M. M. Mangasarian describes his religious experience--how, starting as a Calvinist, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, and a pastor of the Spring Garden Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, he thought and fought his way up to =RATIONALISM= ¶ The book contains a dedication to "My Children," in which the author says: "I am going to put the story in writing, that you may have it with you when I am gone, to remind you of the aims and interests for which I lived, as well as to acquaint you with the most earnest and intimate period in my career as a teacher of men." _ORDER THROUGH_ THE INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS SOCIETY ORCHESTRA HALL BUILDING CHICAGO End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Is the Morality of Jesus Sound?, by M. M. Mangasarian