Actual knowledge of the human soul, as a Science of psychology, on the one hand; and the duty of man to himself, to his fellows, and to God, and the destiny of the human soul as essential religion, on the other; must constitute the basis of union, and the point of agreement.
The accredited psychology of to-day has hitherto failed to demonstrate any actual knowledge of the human soul, or even to postulate its existence, as a fact in nature.
The theologies and religions of to-day appeal largely to superstition and fear, and support their dogmas by “revelations,” the diverse interpretations of which have segregated religions into a large number of sects with no bond of union or basis of agreement.
Competition here, in securing proselytes, differs little, except in name, from that everywhere in evidence between commercial organizations. It is hardly “the survival of the fittest,” but rather, as everywhere, and in all ages, the triumph of the most powerful, aggressive, and unscrupulous. The Roman Hierarchy is still in the lead, with its Pope “infallible,” and anathematizing all progress and enlightenment, under the designation of “Modernism,” and all its energy exerted to perpetuate the “Dark Ages.”
It is thus that priestcraft masquerades in the name of religion to enslave the human soul. Still outside this Babel of religion and science, lie numberless cults and organizations professing both liberty and enlightenment along the lines of man’s spiritual nature, not one of which puts forth any clear and definite theorem of the human soul. With mere assertions, instead of demonstrated facts, and appealing often to the desire for wealth, health, and comfort in their followers, they often declare that one has only to “demand” these things, in order to have them. Justice and the law of compensation are often entirely ignored, and the methods employed are unmoral, to say the least, almost without exception, unscientific, and wholly empirical.
Occasionally we find “Leaders,” or “Official Heads,” whose colossal ignorance of either moral or spiritual Law, is only equaled by their monumental egotism, and this does not prevent them from gaining proselytes, and amassing fortunes in their own name.
It would be difficult to see how many of these cults differ, either in principle or practice, or in the results wrought out in their disciples, from the Priestcraft already referred to.
They advertise an open thoroughfare, and seem to promise something for nothing, but from the vicarious atonement, up or down the scale, the votaries pay in “mint, anise, and cummin,” while ignorantly blind to the weightier matters of the law.
To one who for half a century has studied these personal and social problems, and witnessed the rise and fall of many of these cults, from the Fox Sisters and Spiritualism, to Braid and Hypnotism, while Priestcraft and Popery, like Tennyson’s brook, “go on forever,” it all seems pitiful that mankind must pay so dearly for freedom, enlightenment, and knowledge.
And yet, when the real teacher comes, the rabble so long exploited cry, “Away with him,” “Crucify him.” When the rabble at last repent, Priestcraft shifts its tactics and deifies the sacrifice, which it instigated, and so perpetuates the eternal tragedy.