While some religions are much better than others, every man gets as [{56}] good a religion and as much of it as he has capacity for. Nothing has been more clearly demonstrated by thousands of years of strenuous missionary effort than this fact.

Furthermore, any religion is better than none.

“For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight,
His can’t be wrong, whose life is in the right”

RELIGION, in its primary sense of something to bind back, to bind fast, is a force which restrains a [{57}] man from acts temporarily attractive but eventually hurtful to himself and others.

Some religions, like the Hebrew, promise in addition to spiritual benefits, long life, worldly success, peace, happiness, and blessings to the children, even to the third and fourth generations.

The Brahmin and Buddhist promise a Nirvana—a dreamless rest from the troubles of life.

The Christian and Mahometan promise an eternity of ineffable bliss.

All of these are based upon the elements of moral science and, at least, [{58}] give a man a fairly reliable sailing chart for the voyage of life.

Defective as many of them may be, they are the best that human intelligence has so far produced.