“Religion,” continued Hitt, “is that which binds us to the real. Alas! what a farce mankind have made of it. And why? Because, in its mad desire to make matter real and to extract all pleasures from it, the human mind has tried to eliminate the soul.”
“We have been having a bad spell of materialism, that’s true,” interposed Doctor Morton. “But we are progressing, I hope.”
“Well,” Hitt replied, “perhaps so. Yet almost in our own day France put God out of her institutions; set up and crowned a prostitute as the goddess of reason; and trailed the Bible through the streets of Paris, tied to the tail of an ass! What followed? Spiritual destitution. And in this country we have enthroned so-called physical science, and, as Comte predicted, are about to conduct God to the frontier and bow Him out with thanks for His provisional services. With what result? As our droll philosopher, Hubbard, has said, ‘Once man was a spirit, now he is matter. Once he was a flame, now he is a candlestick. 97 Once he was a son of God, now he is a chemical formula. Once he was an angel, now he is plain mud.’”
“But,” exclaimed Reverend Moore, visibly nettled, “that is because of his falling away from the Church––”
“My friend,” said Hitt calmly, “he fell away from the Church because he could not stagnate longer with her and be happy. Orthodox theology has largely become mere sentimentalism. The average man has a horror of being considered a namby-pamby, religiously weak, wishy-washy, so-called Christian. It makes him ashamed of himself to stand up in a congregation and sing ‘My Jesus, I love Thee,’ and ‘In mansions of glory and endless delight.’ What does he know about Jesus? And he is far more concerned about his little brick bungalow and next month’s rent than he is about celestial mansions. And I don’t blame him. No; he leaves religion to women, whom he regards as the weaker sex. He turns to the ephemeral wisdom of human science––and, poor fool! remains no wiser than before. And the women? Well, how often nowadays do you hear the name of God on their lips? Is He discussed in society? Is He ever the topic of conversation at receptions and balls? No; that person was right who said that religion ‘does not rise to the height of successful gossip.’ It stands no show with the latest cabaret dance, the slashed skirt, and the daringly salacious drama as a theme of discourse. Oh, yes, we still maintain our innumerable churches. And, though religion is the most vital thing in the world to us, we hire a preacher to talk to us once a week about it! Would we hire men to talk once a week to us about business? Hardly! But religion is far, far less important to human thought than business––for the latter means automobiles and increased opportunities for physical sensation.”
“Well, Mr. Hitt,” objected Doctor Siler, “I am sure this is not such a godless era as you would make out.”
“No,” returned Hitt. “We have many gods, chief of whom is matter. The world’s acknowledged god is not spirit, despite the inescapable fact that the motive-power of the universe is spiritual, and the only action is the expression of thought.
“But now,” he continued, “we have in our previous discussions made some startling deductions, and we came to the conclusion that there is a First Cause, and that it is infinite mind. But, having agreed upon that, are we now ready to admit the logical corollary, namely, that there can be but one real mind? For that follows from the premise that there is but one God who is infinite.”
“Then we do not have individual minds?” queried Miss Wall.