The intention was to vary the exercises, even the religious, so as to do away with that everlasting monotony prevalent in the churches; to make all of moral benefit and intellectual profit, as well as attractive and entertaining. The subjects of the lectures, articles and sermons, took a wide range from earth to heaven, from the physiology of plants and animals to astronomy, the care of the homes, the health of our bodies, the welfare of our moral natures, temperance a most prominent topic, the restraint of our passions and the immortality of our souls, everything that might make us cleaner, healthier, wiser and nobler. We believed in useful work to make people happy, to fit them to live on earth, more than in worrying them about what they might be hereafter, or in troubling them about “the ineffable relations of the Godhead before the remotest beginnings of time;” in making a heaven for them in this life and trust to God and their own fitness for the one to come; not so much in trying to penetrate the mysteries and glories of heaven, as to realize the facts and realities of every day life on earth; less in describing the many mansions and the golden pavements of the new Jerusalem, but caring more about improving the homes and cleaning the alleys of the poor, giving them good bread for which they were hungering daily, instead of wasting time on dilated descriptions of the imagined joys of the blessed, so very far away. It seemed to be a settled conviction among us that if we could get our people to live good, clean, honest, happy lives here, they would run no risk of enjoying the life to come. Who dare say that we had not the right to try the experiment, and to do as we pleased in the matter? Why should we not start our society, found our church, if we choose to call it such, as any other set of men to found theirs? If the church of Rome, the church of England, the Presbyterian or any one of the other thousand heterogeneous sects could set up for itself, why should we not do the same? They did not ask us or anybody for their privileges, why need we ask anything of them? We were not responsible for them as they certainly would deny any responsibility to us. Should they say that they had divine authority, could we not make the same claim for ourselves? Since God our father created us, as we believe He did, as He created them, why could we not have a share in His divine rights as well as they? We conceded to all others the same privilege, the right to do as they deemed best, and claimed the same right for ourselves.