The philosophy of Jake Haiden (late Jacob K. Huff) : $b selected from the columns of the Reading Times, Reading, Pennsylvania : with a biographical appreciation by his friend Henry W. ShoemakerHuff, Jacob K.
Philosophy
The philosophy of Jake Haiden (late Jacob K. Huff) : $b selected from the columns of the Reading Times, Reading, Pennsylvania : with a biographical appreciation by his friend Henry W. Shoemaker
Huff, Jacob K.
American essays; Huff, Jacob K., 1851-1910
Again, was it right that Jesus Christ should be crucified on a cross?
This is the most horrible death any living animal can die—nailed alive
to a cross of wood with cruel nails driven through feet and hands, and
left to die of terrible pain and anguish of soul. The good book says God
planned it. If so, then God himself indorses the rule of wrong and the
sufferings of right.
Socrates was forced to drink the deadly hemlock, for the crime of
teaching men the right. Socrates knew that the system taught by the
ruling spirits of his country was a wrong theory. It kept the people in
darkest ignorance and darkest slavery. He strove to lift them up and free
them from their mental and physical slavery. The men who fattened on the
spoils of the wrong system realized that Socrates would ultimately rob
them of their slaves and half-fed servants, by teaching them the truth,
and their natural rights, so they put Socrates to death. God did not
interfere or intervene; so he must surely indorse the violent rule of
wrong.
Almost every one knows of King Leopold’s cruelty to the natives of the
Congo Free State. It is said of him that he had instructed his agents to
inflict terrible punishment on the natives if they failed to bring in the
required quantity of rubber. Many of the poor, god-forsaken creatures
have had a hand cut off, or a foot removed, for failing to bring in
wealth to the agents of this monstrosity of a ruler. If I stood on the
banks of the crater known as the bottomless pit and saw such deeds of
brutality inacted in hell, I could not believe my own eyes; and to hear
of such things being done on top of ground, makes one’s soul groan in
utter despair of Right ever being able to dethrone Wrong and usher in the
rule of peace and love.
And the latest outrage Wrong has perpetrated against the world was the
murder of Ferrer, the Spanish reformer. And they tell me it was done in
the name of religion! The shameless idea of that half-idiot, Alfonso,
King of Spain, ordering the death of a man towering intellectually so far
above the pigmy dummy who ornaments the Spanish throne, insults the very
fiber of my soul.
Ferrer was teaching the men the science of human rights, just as Socrates
had done centuries ago. The crime is always the same, and the excuse for
killing the reformer is always the same. The world is made to believe
that the killing is done to protect religion, and to defend God. The plot
is dark and deep—deeper than orthodox hell itself; for hell is said to be
the everlasting abode of wrong, and wrong doers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account