"The Bible they made a bludgeon with which to brain heretics, forged
its word into chains, and with its leaves kindled martyr fires.
"They have arraigned the reason, the heart and the knowledge of the
race against Jesus Christ and His religion. They stretched Galileo
on the rack for inventing a telescope which gave new beauty to
the psalm, 'The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament
showeth His handiwork.'
"They are driving manhood from the modern Church. Your New York
congregations average four women to one man. Of forty-three Governors
of our states, only seventeen are members of any church; yet all
profess allegiance to the religion of Jesus. The men have formed
secret societies outside the Church.
"The Church triumphant will be a social power. Man to-day is more
than an individual. The individual has played his role in the growth
of the centuries. This is the age of federation, organisation,
society, humanity. Man can no longer live to himself or die to
himself.
"I proclaim again the universal priesthood of believers. I call
for those mighty forces among the unordained which thrilled the
Waldenses, the Franciscans, the Puritan and early Methodists and
sent them on their glorious careers.
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