to ask for it. And there we are. We shall be damned if we do not come
to God, and we cannot come to God unless he calls us. Besides, could
anything be more mythical than a righteousness which can only be
imputed to us,--any righteousness of our own being but "filthy rags?"

The Christian religion has the appearance of being one great myth,
constructed out of many minor myths. It is the same with
Mohammedanism, or Judaism, which latter is the mischievous parent of
both the Mohammedan and the Christian faiths. It is the same with all
supernatural creeds. Myth is the dominating element in them all.
Compared with these Asiatic religions how glorious is science! How
wholesome, helpful, and luminous, are her commandments!

If I were to command you to believe that Mount Olympus was once
tenanted by blue-eyed gods and their consorts,--sipping nectar and
ambrosia the live-long day,--you will answer, "Oh, that is only
mythology." If I were to tell you that you cannot be saved unless you
believe that Minerva was born full-fledged from the brain of Jupiter,
you will laugh at me. If I were to tell you that you must punish your
innocent sons for the guilt of their brothers and sisters, you will
answer that I insult your moral sense. And yet, every Sunday, the
preacher repeats the myth of Adam and Eve, and how God killed his
innocent son to please himself, or to satisfy the devil, and with
bated breath, and on your knees, you whisper, _Amen._

How is it that when you read the literature of the Greeks, the
literature of the Persians, the literature of Hindoostan, or of the
Mohammedan world, you discriminate between fact and fiction, between
history and myth, but when it comes to the literature of the Jews, you
stammer, you stutter, you bite your lips, you turn pale, and fall upon