For God is not so white as he is painted, and he gets on better with
the Devil than people think. The Devil is too useful for him to wish
him ill and, in like manner, half the Devil's trade would be at an
end should any great mishap bring God well down in the world. For
all the mouths they make at one another they play into each other's
hands and have got on so well as partners, playing Spenlow and
Jorkins to one another, for so many years that there seems no reason
why they should cease to do so. The conception of them as the one
absolutely void of evil and the other of good is a vulgar notion
taken from science whose priests have ever sought to get every idea
and every substance pure of all alloy.
God and the Devil are about as four to three. There is enough
preponderance of God to make it far safer to be on his side than on
the Devil's, but the excess is not so great as his professional
claqueurs pretend it is. It is like gambling at Monte Carlo; if you
play long enough you are sure to lose, but now and again you may win
a great deal of excellent money if you will only cease playing the
moment you have won it.
Christianity
i
As an instrument of warfare against vice, or as a tool for making
virtue, Christianity is a mere flint implement.
ii
Christianity is a woman's religion, invented by women and womanish
men for themselves.
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