Show TRUTHS THAT POINT THE WAY eureka july 22 1904 my dear sir and friend your communication reached me some time ago and would have been attended to much sooner if it had been in my power to do so my time is so taken up attending to the necessary pur cults ot life that my spare hours ae a e few to study those subjects you of however I 1 am pleased to answer your request through the channel you suggest and trust al we may differ la our opinions there will be no offense as there Is none intended you will see by follow ing out your suggestion that I 1 consider myself tree to act on any subject that may come up I 1 fall to see you in any position but that of a subject still i hope your intelligence will not be duly offended if I 1 should presume to doubt or question your perfect in depend ence I 1 will show you before I 1 get through as far as my reason will al low me to do in regard to the order you speak of the one fosters the spirit of freedom and independence the other persistently ignores the in his own right I 1 am afraid you are like the boy in kentucky rid ing the mule he never knew on what side of the lence he was going to land you draw my attention to the theology ot the church and churches in gen eral now it is not my desire to single out ny particular one I 1 will speak of them as a whole church people as a mass do not mean or wih to be in error there are many good honest souls in them bai although we may differ very much in regard to what constitutes true the I 1 have been looking very acx over the different fields for such but to be candid it is like look ing tor diamonds in a dunghill true theology has got so disintegrated that it must either be lost or dead the great teacher of true principle jesus during his short career exemplified ell the beauty greatness and virtue of a noble mind what is there more beautiful more just more rational more in accordance with nature and more beneficial to mankind than the ten classes of duties he gave to the people in his address at the toot ot the mountain at there Is nothing that can be produced in the form of a code of morals so comprehensive and yet so compact there is nothing to be dispensed with and nothing lacking every form of duty which is capable and necessary to render a people happy is embraced in it and every superfluous austere cal or in any wise opposed to the de of our true natures is ex eluded from it therefore it may be said that his moral obligations are the best ever devised he not only gave to the people the most complete code of morals but he gave them the most sublime and exalted ideas of mans inward self he gave glimpses of the nature of the soul and of the great god of the universe not such as was taught then nor even at the pres ent day had he been allowed to con dinue in the good work mankind would have greatly improved from that date to the present where are the most of his sublime doctrines 7 some lost some perverted and others silly and vicious substituted in their place when you listen to such teach ng as he brought before the people then you had something to build upon but the powers that were hold ing the reins of the people in his day it was more than they could stand he was enlightening the people he was showing them their true position A few more years of such teaching and every one of them would be out of their positions they knew it they bad to go or he had and yet they were called the holy order of the priesthood why the difference be tween thema can vou tella true theology Is the science of god always mystical often mythical every chris tian no matter what body he may be long to is necessarily a mystic al though all mystics are not christians theologies I 1 find have been follow ing each other as rapidly as the waves on the ocean each one in their time having their ardent believers laughing in good earnest at the folly of their predecessors as we do theirs many things which are now firmly believed by the various bodies will ap pear to other generations as absurd our children after us if they are fortunate enough to keep their agency in their own hands will look back with pity and contempt on the crudeness of present theology many points where imbecility now has her bounds set to investigation and where cunning speculation has usurp ed the dominion of fact all theologies I 1 care not what school they come from or how many misty ages they bave passed through it they are not founded on eternal truth the time is coming when all will be burled in one common grave with no one to mourn their loss except the crafty who bave all along sought to have power over the masses that secret power enslaved by their on n passions and prejudices that is aiming to keep the people enslaved to their opinions then look and find the face of the infinite veiled in mystery and mystery aher ever it Is found is the mother of all abominations true religion is helpful it is arpir ing it is inspiring but thanks for the enlightenment of the present age civil 1 be motor that moves the world xue intelligent begin to view them in their true light the theology of the past and present is a laggard in the school of thought our arts and commerce are thousands of years in advance let me say in plain language that the preacher and every one that has a boundary line drawn around himself are the on ones not per bitted to eat of the tree of knowl edge to the mathematician it has said you may go so far in your calca latsons that you shall measure the dis tance between the stars and from them to himself but the moment you speak of any power outside of them beyond the ken of the religion you have labeled thus saith the lord the cry has been hands off it has been enslaving it has fettered man hand and foot he has not been free to think or act that little story about mother eve in the garden of eden Is in line with the above she was strict ly f bidden to partake of the tree of knowledge even to touch it is said ehe was decoyed by a snake into dis obedience it matters not she placed herself on a footing that made her a free agent and adam with her she was the smarter of the two by long odds but you see they got turned out it would be the same today but better out and have a knowledge of the truth than in the garden and not know their true condition not even aware they were naked to show you the kernel of the mighty fruit of the L tree of knowledge if you would eat ot that fruit understandingly first plant the tree with your own hands tend and it with a philosopher s pa tience and then and then alone wll it yield to our taste the true knowl edge of good and evil then only will you eat for yourself and not through the senses of another al ow no one to usurp authority oer you and set bounds for your thoughts as regards these vital matters be true to your self be yo ir own master your bacul ties and powers are agven to you as an intelligent responsible being to guide you in this and other spheres on to individual immortality civilization is a revelation because it utilizes every element of the universe tor its ad van cement it is a revelation because t adjusts the laws of nature to the uses of man theology has heaven it has hell it has elected men to the one place it has consigned men to he other without a bottom to be burned with fire and brimstone now we all know brimstone is very heavy and needs a good support it must tall through in short brimstone and fire are of the earth earthy and has no power over the spirit of anything spirit is above and beyond fire it has made heaven a high and glorified place beyond the conception of man it has created heaven out of the most precious metals out of the most beau ticul stone the streets are paved with gold and they picture to the concep tion of man that he is to enjoy these wonderful gifts theology of that class is not sufficiently alive now to be anything more than a traditional cu dosity any science of theology we have to day is learned from the ages in which the science of medicine consisted in bleeding chemistry was a black art astronomy was the profession of a fakir and electricity the manifesta tion of the devil the human race has grown from infancy to mature man hood the knowledge of the world been increased through every hour of its history and yet theology Is nothing more nor less than a mummy the old stage coach has given place to the limited the sailing ves sels to the floating palaces while the goes back and lal up the bones and ashes of the dead past and weeps and wails over the graves of a mythical adam and eve look back for fifty years over the face of this continent the progress our cities have made some of them huge aises that can count their population by the millions human slavery has been abolished and the nation baptized in blood has risen to a new life steam and electricity practically ap plied and the face of the earth trans formed the telegraph and telephone has made the world like unto a whis lenng gallery the cylinder printing press universal education a fact not a dream so much for civilization old things are passing away can any reasonable mind wonder that the man bood and brain which has made this age the miracle of history treat the average church with contempt man will not and cannot be held in bon dage and why the roman slave could not be held within the confines of his owner today nor will there fifty years hence be the condition be tween labor and capital that hold men apart that today exists and how is it to comee by a higher humanity a higher religious life a higher intel development that belongs to the race I 1 believe every formulated faith has had its usefulness its place and its influence and in order to keep pace with the times and in sympathy with antell gence they must be found ed on facts not absurd fictions con arary to the old teachings we know today that the silvery tranquil beams of the moon serve as a lamp of night to illumine this earth in the absence of the lustrous orb of day and that the sun is the source of all light as far as our solar system is concerned worlds and suns innumerable families of suns worlds and moons similar to our own all making a gradual revola tion around some central spot of the universe and that there exists that great power that great soul and mind which is the source of all life that exists throughout the boundless expanse of matter and space the great god of life of light of love and motion not the figment of the human imaginations as taught to day those noble sons of nature and reason was a step in the right diorec tion what religious people call the reformation in one direction it gave rise to savonarola luther coyola calvin knok and others these were the forces that gave to their century its creeds the orthodox creeds and power from that period to the present these were followed at a later day by men of a different grade who sought to reform those creeds such men as george fot fo t ann lee wesley joseph smith hlavatsky Bla eddy and a host ot others now you will see what folly it would be to attempt a organization out of such d creeds what are creeds tora simply to compel this diversity of mind that cannot see alike to subscribe by faith to what they can t think and thus ac capt the ideas of the creed makers creeds are like political platforms devised to give profit some command obedience and subjection through their powers over the masses others de celop individual intelligence and a sense of individual responsibility light and darkness these two powers were arrayed in conflict one with the other at the very cradle of humanity and are still as irrepressible as ever up to the dawning of the twentieth as the babylonian furnace has led the sons and daughters of faith barefooted and blindfolded over burning plowshares sparing not for the groan of age motherhood nor the lisp of the little child they have assaulted science and set back the progress of he world science is the revelator of god in nature and yet they sought to put out the light of science in the name of god when printing was in vented the priesthood said it was the work of the devil and so we have the printer s devil and yet today with this same devil they are printing the bibles by the million which are sent to the so called heathens when har vey discovered the circulation of the blood they said he ought to lose his life for teaching such a preposterous theory gallilea Gal lileo taught the rotundity of the earth the priesthood and the ecclesiastics condemned him also and he was obliged to recant which has triumphed nowa truth needs no mar ayrs and still in this enlightened cen tury people are chosen seemingly to fix the bounds beyond which the mind of man shall not even dare to think then insist that the very language of human dogmatism that smells of the dust and rubbish of the dark ages shall be considered me and indal lible sacred because of ancient origin now as to the difference existing in your mind in regard to your order for the want of space it must be short it you have passed through the con zodiac of the skies and un der stand the pillars by which the overarching vault of heaven Is up held then you are like the oak raised from the germ you are in a fair way to comprehend true theology before closing I 1 will quote one of the famous bible characters one of the many wonders of bygone days joshua commanding that great luminary the sun to stand still on gibon and the moon in the valley of abelon and as history has it they stood still for the space of nearly ono whole day that there has not been a day like it neither before nor after it and what was it all fora simply that he as commander of the armies of israel might have good daylight to complete his barbarous work when the great god of the universe uni put all matter into motion by mingling with it his divine essence and the power 0 his love and wisdom as the various phenomena came forth they were en dowed with fixed and perpetual laws it these laws were broken the result would be ruin and destruction god never condescends to alter his fixed principle in any of his works with best wishes I 1 remain cordially yours R S ROBERTSON |