The corruption of Christianity takes us further away from the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.  But Christian truth, like fires that smolder in dry wood, has consumed its covering and broken forth.  The meaning of Christianity has already been revealed to everyone, and its action is becoming greater than the veil that covers it.

I see a new religion, founded on confidence in man, calling upon the unspoiled sentiments that are lying asleep in us, believing that we can love good for itself without any idea of recompense and that the divine principle is in us.  (Solter)

What we require, what is necessary for the people, and what our time needs for us to be raised from the mud of egotism in which we are plunged is faith.  Thanks to it, our souls will stop wandering in pursuit of selfish ends and will be able to march in unison by acknowledging one origin, one law, and one end.  Every firm belief that rises from the ruins of former religions modifies the order of existing things, for all strong beliefs accompany every branch of human activity.

Humanity repeats in two different formulas and in different degrees the words of the prayer, “May your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”  (Mazzini)

One can neither weigh nor measure the evil that false religion has caused and is still causing.  Religion is the establishment of the relation that exists between man, God, and the universe, and the definition of man’s mission that results from it.  How miserable our lives would be if this relation and this definition were false.

It is not sufficient to throw away the false religion, that is to say, the false relation of man as regards the universe.  We must still establish the true one.  (Daily Reading, September 19th)

It is rather tragic that one part of the pagan world accepted a religious doctrine, which, far from being at the highest moral level of the society of that time, sapped the bases of the social state.  But, even worse, at the same time it constitutes the most fortunate event that could happen to nations professing the Christian religion.

Presented to pagans in an unnatural form, this doctrine appeared to them as a simple attenuation of their vulgar conception of the divinity, and as a higher idea of the mission of man and his moral needs.  But the real significance of the doctrine was so hidden from them by dogmas and practices of their cults that they did not even suspect it.  All this was true, in spite of the precise teaching of Christ in the Scriptures, which is acknowledged as a divine revelation by the Church.  Happily, this doctrine corresponds so well with the spiritual nature of man that, in spite of the mass of dogmas under which it is buried, those who have greater intuition of the truth see through its real meaning and realize how it contradicts the order of existing things.

The fathers of the ancient church – Tatian, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, and others – had already realized this contradiction.  It was the same in the Middle Ages.  It was revealed with particular force in modern times.  And its recognition is shown by the appearance of a great number of religious sects, which reject government that is contrary to the Christian doctrine condemning violence.

It was equally recognized by the humanitarian doctrines that claim to have nothing in common with Christianity, and which are really nothing else than partial manifestations of the Christian conscience.   Such are the socialist, communist, and anarchist doctrines.

The cause of the sufferings of Christian nations is thus the theoretical acceptance of a doctrine that, when applied, should inevitably abolish the order of things to which these nations are accustomed, and which they do not wish to renounce.  Their great good fortune is having admitted Christianity, which, even when false, includes the truth.  In fact, today these nations are brought to the necessity of recognizing the true meaning of the doctrine, which alone is able to save men from their present hopeless condition.