My name was soon on the membership roll of this church, where I hope it will remain until I am translated, no matter where else I may serve and place it. It was here that I first found my bearings and placed my feet on the solid rock of rational religion. The supreme satisfaction, the peace of mind, serene content, and supernal joy of this situation I shall not attempt to describe. Those that were born in a liberal faith and have never known anything else can neither understand nor appreciate it. It is indeed a new birth, a new light, a new life of freedom, fellowship and fraternity in a common service for God and humanity.
THE NEW CALL TO PREACH
I have before described what I once interpreted as a "divine call to preach." It was the new-born enthusiasm of one who felt himself "a brand snatched from the eternal burning" to proclaim the same deliverance to what he believed to be a lost and ruined world; to warn sinners to "flee from the wrath to come." It was then the consuming passion of a soul on fire with zeal for the salvation of all mankind from what he believed to be an overwhelming and eternal destruction that awaited them, and might come upon them at any moment without warning.
And now, having tasted of the sweets of liberty, I desired "to proclaim liberty thruout the land to all the inhabitants thereof," the same liberty to those yet in the bondage of fear from which I had escaped and to those who were still wandering in the deserts of doubt, looking for a haven of rest, and not knowing that it was so near. I knew that the great masses were inside of the houses in which they were born, with the doors all bolted and the windows fastened down. Not a ray of light is permitted to enter there, because a new thought might explode their delusions and disturb their repose. For these there is little hope.
But I knew there were yet thousands—I had met and talked with many of them—who, as I was for years, were wandering in the deserts, hungering for the bread of life, looking for a fellowship where they might have freedom of thought and conscience, and yet join with others of like minds in the free worship of Nature's one great God.
I would address myself to these. I was so long one of them, I thought my experience might be of benefit. It would aid me in helping them. I would tell my story of bondage, of deliverance, of wandering in the deserts of doubt, of the dawning light, of the full blaze of the sun of liberty, of freedom and fellowship in the worship of God and the service of mankind.
I have now spent five years in this service, the happiest and best years of my life. They have been crowned with some degree of success. I am not yet old. I hope to be able to devote at least a score of years yet to this happy service. Having escaped from Bondage to Liberty myself, my only ambition now is to carry the message of deliverance to others, until they shall likewise find freedom in The Fatherhood of God, The Brotherhood of Man, The Leadership of Jesus, Salvation by Character instead of Creed, and the hope of the Progress of Mankind Onward and Upward Forever. My only regret is that I did not discover this way of light and liberty long before, so that I might have had more years to devote to this happy service.
AN AFTERWORD
Dear reader, my story is finished. I have had but one motive in writing it: A hope that I may in some way help others who are still in the meshes of ecclesiastical bondage, or disturbing doubts, to find the way of light and liberty in a rational religious faith. To what extent I have succeeded or failed, only the future and my readers can determine. If you have derived any benefit from it; if I have been able to cast any ray of light along your pathway; if it has helped you to solve any problem that has perplexed you, I am fully repaid for the labor of writing it. I have not said nearly all that is in my heart, nor all I would like to say, but all the compass of this work would permit. But if I have stirred up in the mind of the reader a desire to know more of the questions so briefly discussed herein, and to press his investigations further for this purpose, I have little doubt as to what will be the ultimate result.
And just one more thing, dear reader: If this book has been of any benefit to you; if it has helped to clear up any doubts in your mind, and point the way toward light and liberty in your own life and experience, may it not do as much for others? It may be the saving of a life from Bondage to Liberty; to that "peace that passeth understanding," in a rational religious faith, based, not upon dogma or creed, but upon man's fundamental nature and need, interpreted and applied by that highest and best light that man has, ENLIGHTENED REASON, for the same God who is the Author of Religion is also the Author of Reason.