“There is scarcely a Psalm that has not a passage showing that God is willing to forgive and receive all those who come to Him direct and in the right spirit. Why mystify and muddle a thing that is so plain that any one can easily understand? I cannot conceive how a holy God, and more, a God of infinite mercy, could be willing to accept, much less take delight in, any worship or sacrifice that would cause suffering to even the most insignificant animal. No one can think of vivisection, though for philanthropic purposes, without a sense of pain. I cannot see the slaughter of an animal or bird, even when they are for food, without a feeling of pity. How then can I, though a weak mortal, yet having such feelings, bow down and worship a God who is declared to take pleasure in the destruction of life and offerings of blood! May God forgive me if I am wrong, but I cannot help thinking and feeling as I do. I would rather believe that all mankind are in error than to hold such an idea of the God I love and worship. “Vicarious atonement is contrary to all the principles of justice. The sufferings of innocent victims to appease the wrath of an angry God is repugnant to the noblest instincts of the human race and a degrading superstition of which only the lowest heathen should be guilty. Moral justice can never be satisfied by the death or punishment of the innocent for the guilty. Nowhere on earth is one allowed to suffer in place of another. To buy off justice is bribery and to accept a bribe is a crime. How then can people attribute to a just God what is considered by universal mankind an act of infamy? “Jesus is to the world an example of what a human being should be, and not as a sacrifice to an offended God or to satisfy a broken law. “Having escaped from the old theological dogmas, how was it possible for me to go back to them? How could I accept such a horrible statement as this, made by a very prominent divine, who wrote text books on theology still used in the divinity schools? ‘The saints in glory will be far more sensible how dreadful the wrath of God is, and will better understand how dreadful the sufferings of the damned are, yet this will be no occasion of grief to them, but rejoicing. They will not be sorry for the damned, it will cause no uneasiness or dissatisfaction to them, but, on the contrary, when they see this sight it will occasion rejoicing and excite them to joyful praise.’