It is a curious kind of a spectacle to see a few hundred people paying a few thousand dollars a year for the purpose of hearing these great problems discussed: "Was Adam the first man?" "Who was Cain's wife?" "Has anyone seen a map of the land of Nod?" "Where are the four rivers that ran murmuring through the groves of Paradise?" "Who was the snake? How did he walk? What language did he speak?" This turns a church into a kind of nursery, makes a cradle of each pew, and gives to each member a rattle with which he can amuse what he calls his mind. The great theologians of Andover--the gentlemen who wear the brass collars furnished by the dead founder--have been disputing among themselves as to what is to become of the heathen who fortunately died before meeting any missionary from that institution. One can almost afford to be damned hereafter for the sake of avoiding the dogmas of Andover here. Nothing more absurd and childish has ever happened--not in the intellectual, but in the theological world. There is no need of the Freethinkers saying anything at present. The work is being done by the church members themselves. They are beginning to ask questions of the clergy. They are getting tired of the old ideas--tired of the consolations of eternal pain--tired of hearing about hell--tired of hearing the Bible quoted or talked about--tired of the scheme of redemption--tired of the Trinity, of the plenary inspiration of the barbarous records of a barbarous people--tired of the patriarchs and prophets--tired of Daniel and the goats with three horns, and the image with the clay feet, and the little stone that rolled down the hill--tired of the mud man and the rib woman--tired of the flood of Noah, of the astronomy of Joshua, the geology of Moses--tired of Kings and Chronicles and Lamentations--tired of the lachrymose Jeremiah--tired of the monstrous, the malicious, and the miraculous. In short, they are beginning to think. They have bowed their necks to the yoke of ignorance and fear and impudence and superstition, until they are weary. They long to be free. They are tired of the services-- tired of the meaningless prayers--tired of hearing each other say, "Hear us, good Lord"--tired of the texts, tired of the sermons, tired of the lies about spontaneous combustion as a punishment for blasphemy, tired of the bells, and they long to hear the doxology of superstition. They long to have Common Sense lift its hands in benediction and dismiss the congregation. --_Brooklyn Citizen_, April, 1886. TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS. _Question_. What do you think of the trial of the Chicago Anarchists and their chances for a new trial?