It gave us fiends and imps with wings like bats. It gave us ghosts and goblins, spooks and sprites, and little devils that swarmed in the bodies of men, and it gave us hell where the souls of men will roast in eternal flames. Shall we thank the church? Shall we thank the orthodox churches? Shall we thank them for the hell they made here? Shall we thank them for the hell of the future? II. WE must remember that the church was founded and has been protected by God, that all the popes, and cardinals, all the bishops, priests and monks, all the ministers and exhorters were selected and set apart--all sanctified and enlightened by the infinite God--that the Holy Scriptures were inspired by the same Being, and that all the orthodox creeds were really made by him. We know what these men--filled with the Holy Ghost--have done. We know the part they have played. We know the souls they have saved and the bodies they have destroyed. We know the consolation they have given and the pain they have inflicted--the lies they have defended--the truths they have denied. We know that they convinced millions that celibacy is the greatest of all virtues--that women are perpetual temptations, the enemies of true holiness--that monks and priests are nobler than fathers, that nuns are purer than mothers. We know that they taught the blessed absurdity of the Trinity--that God once worked at the trade of a carpenter in Palestine. We know that they divided knowledge into sacred and profane--taught that Revelation was sacred--that Reason was blasphemous--that faith was holy and facts false. That the sin of Adam and Eve brought disease and pain, vice and death into the world. We know that they have taught the dogma of special providence--that all events are ordered and regulated by God--that he crowns and uncrowns kings--preserves and destroys--guards and kills--that it is the duty of man to submit to the divine will, and that no matter how much evil there may be--no matter how much suffering--how much pain and death, man should pour out-his heart in thankfulness that it is no worse. Let me be understood. I do not say and I do not think that the church was dishonest, that the clergy were insincere. I admit that all religions, all creeds, all priests, have been naturally produced. I admit, and cheerfully admit, that the believers in the supernatural have done some good--not because they believed in gods and devils--but in spite of it. I know that thousands and thousands of clergymen are honest, self-denying and humane--that they are doing what they believe to be their duty--doing what they can to induce men and women to live pure and noble lives. This is not the result of their creeds--it is because they are human. What I say is that every honest teacher of the supernatural has been and is an unconscious enemy of the human race. What is the philosophy of the church--of those who believe in the supernatural?