I interjected, “If a man makes his own destiny, what is the use of the church or parsons?” “Use! Why to help make it better, for good, not by any delusions, deceptions, false hopes, jugglery of ordinances or soft sayings. ‘Believe, have faith in this or that and you will be saved.’ Let the priests and all religious teachers warn the people of sin, show them the fearful and inevitable consequences of the violation of the spiritual and moral laws; that as a man lives so he dies, and as he dies so will be his eternal condition. Give him no chance for an excuse, of dodging, of trying to escape through somebody’s influence. Educate him, threaten him, frighten him by the awful present and eternal consequences of sin, into a better life. Make no apologies for sinning. Give him to understand that he is making his own heaven or hell. As the Persian poet puts it: ‘I sent my soul through the invisible, Some letter of that after life to spell, And bye and bye my soul returned to me, And answered, I, myself, am heaven or hell!’ “There is nothing truer than the saying of Kant. ‘Every action carries with it its own punishment, and its own reward.’ ‘It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul.’ ‘Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.’ “The great mistake is, that salvation from sin is made so easy; is considered so cheap a thing, that few pay any attention to it. Make men understand that their eternal destiny is of their own making—with the help of God always—that no mediation, intercession of others can possibly change their evil nature, or do away with the fearful consequences of the violation of God’s law. I would not smooth over anything. I would show them that the most difficult thing in life is to be good, and yet that every difficulty can be overcome and the way become delightfully pleasant if the mind and strength of the heart and soul are inclined to it. When a man has wasted his life, sucked the sweets from every flower to gratify his pampered appetite, and the fires of his passions have gone out, he becomes devout, builds a church, endows a hospital, says his prayers, and is cock sure of heaven, as if the eyes of justice were blind and the record of his misspent life could be erased by a few donations of money or the mumbling of a few prayers! “Away with all such cant and hypocrisy! Money can do a great deal on earth, for all on it, even immortal men are purchasable, but it would be blasphemy to think that the justice of Heaven could be thwarted by bribes, or the records of wrong-doing be washed away by a few tardy tears.