Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn
All earthly things but virtue.”
“Falsehood demands but gold to pay the pangs
Of outraged conscience; for the slavish priest
Sets no great value on his hireling faith.”
“But human pride
Is skillful to invent most serious names
To hide its ignorance.”
—Shelley.
At this time, in this age of agitation, unrest, dissatisfaction, and doubt among the masses, and all classes, in every civilized part of the globe, in all communities and human organizations, in church and out of church, ecclesiastical bodies of all shades; besides the vast number of theories and doctrines of a popular socialistic, anti-poverty, communistic order, etc., a prevailing skepticism has seized the minds of men, as to the truth, validity, and stability of the entire religious fabric. The unsettled condition of the minds of men, the disturbing elements of the laboring classes, the church quarrels, clerical litigations, disputes, wrangling, and mutual hate about scriptural authenticity, its truth and supernaturalism, the heresies and blasphemies, the unsatisfactory condition of the Roman church, the constant and unremitting papal correspondence, the petty bickering, the selfish zeal, the greed for money, the anxiety to raise funds for all kinds of ecclesiastical establishments, naturally arouse suspicion whether the idea of a God is not going out of fashion, whether the clergy has not lost faith in the Book, whether the Jew, the Jehovistic aristocrat, has not been the primary inventor of these supernatural wares, whether the Christian theologians are not beginning to lose their sway and grip and their pretended supernatural authority over their ignorant devotees. We may ask frankly, honestly, truthfully, and in perfect good faith: