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The reason for this slaughter is thus given: "For "Moses had said: Consecrate yourselves to-day to "the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon " his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing "this day."
Now, it must be remembered that there had not been as yet a promulgation of the commandment u Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This was a punishment for the infraction of a law before the law was known--before the commandment had been given. Was it cruel, or unjust?
Does the following sound as though spoken by a God of mercy: "I will make mine arrows drunk "with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh"?
And yet this is but a small part of the vengeance and destruction which God threatens to his enemies, as recorded in the thirty-second chapter of the book of Deuteronomy.
In the sixty-eighth Psalm is found this merciful passage: "That thy foot may be dipped in the blood "of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the "same.
So we find in the eleventh chapter of Joshua the reason why the Canaanites and other nations made war upon the Jews. It is as follows: "For it was of
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"the Lord to harden their hearts that they should "come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy "them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but "that he might destroy them."
Read the thirtieth chapter of Exodus and you will find that God gave to Moses a recipe for making the oil of holy anointment, and in the thirty-second verse we find that no one was to make any oil like it and in the next verse it is declared that whoever compounded any like it, or whoever put any of it on a stranger, should be cut off from the Lord's people.
In the same chapter, a recipe is given for per- fumery, and it is declared that whoever shall make any like it, or that smells like it, shall suffer death.
In the next chapter, it is decreed that if any one fails to keep the Sabbath "he shall be surely put to death."
There are in the Pentateuch hundreds and hun- dreds of passages showing the cruelty of Jehovah.
What could have been more cruel than the flood?
What more heartless than to overwhelm a world?
What more merciless than to cover a shoreless sea with the corpses of men, women and children?
The Pentateuch is filled with anathemas, with curses, with words of vengeance, of jealousy, of hatred, and brutality. By reason of these passages,
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millions of people have plucked from their hearts the flowers of pity and justified the murder of women and the assassination of babes.
In the second chapter of Second Kings we find that the prophet Elisha was on his way to a place called Bethel, and as he was going, there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said: "Go up thou bald head; Go up thou bald "head! And he turned back and looked on them "and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And "there came forth two she bears out of the wood and "tare forty and two children of them."
Of course he obtained his miraculous power from Jehovah; and there must have been some communi- cation between Jehovah and the bears. Why did the bears come? How did they happen to be there?
Here is a prophet of God cursing children in the name of the Lord, and thereupon these children are torn in fragments by wild beasts.
This is the mercy of Jehovah; and yet I am told that the Bible has nothing cruel in it; that it preaches only mercy, justice, charity, peace; that all hearts are softened by reading it; that the savage nature of man is melted into tenderness and pity by it, and that only the totally depraved can find evil in it.
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And so I might go on, page after page, book after book, in the Old Testament, and describe the cruelties committed in accordance with the commands of Jehovah.
But all the cruelties in the Old Testament are ab- solute mercies compared with the hell of the New Testament. In the Old Testament God stops with the grave. He seems to have been satisfied when he saw his enemies dead, when he saw their flesh rotting in the open air, or in the beaks of birds, or in the teeth of wild beasts. But in the New Testament, ven- geance does not stop with the grave. It begins there, and stops never. The enemies of Jehovah are to be pursued through all the ages of eternity. There is to be no forgiveness--no cessation, no mercy, nothing but everlasting pain.
And yet we are told that the author of hell is a being of infinite mercy.
_Second_; All intelligent Christians will admit that there are many passages in the Bible that, if found in the Koran, they would regard as impure and immoral.
It is not necessary for me to specify the passages, nor to call the attention of the public to such things.
I am willing to trust the judgment of every honest reader, and the memory of every biblical student.
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The Old Testament upholds polygamy. That is infinitely impure. It sanctions concubinage. That is impure; nothing could or can be worse. Hun- dreds of things are publicly told that should have re- mained unsaid. No one is made better by reading the history of Tamar, or the biography of Lot, or the memoirs of Noah, of Dinah, of Sarah and Abraham, or of Jacob and Leah and Rachel and others that I do not care to mention. No one is improved in his morals by reading these things.
All I mean to say is, that the Bible is like other books produced by other nations in the same stage of civilization. What one age considers pure, the next considers impure. What one age may consider just, the next may look upon as infamous. Civiliza- tion is a growth. It is continually dying, and continu- ally being born. Old branches rot and fall, new buds appear. It is a perpetual twilight, and a perpetual dawn--the death of the old, and the birth of the new.
I do not say, throw away the Bible because there are some foolish passages in it, but I say, throw away the foolish passages. Don't throw away wisdom because it is found in company with folly; but do not say that folly is wisdom, because it is found in its company. All that is true in the Bible is true whether
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it is inspired or not. All that is true did not need to be inspired. Only that which is not true needs the assistance of miracles and wonders. I read the Bible as I read other books. What I believe to be good, I admit is good; what I think is bad, I say is bad; what I believe to be true, I say is true, and what I believe to be false, I denounce as false.
_Third_. Let us see whether there are any contra- dictions in the Bible.
A little book has been published, called "Self "Contradictions of the Bible," by J. P. Mendum, of The Boston Investigator. I find many of the apparent contradictions of the Bible noted in this book.
We all know that the Pentateuch is filled with the commandments of God upon the subject of sacrificing animals. We know that God declared, again and again, that the smell of burning flesh was a sweet savor to him. Chapter after chapter is filled with direc- tions how to kill the beasts that were set apart for sacrifices; what to do with their blood, their flesh and their fat. And yet, in the seventh chapter of Jeremiah, all this is expressly denied, in the following language: "For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded "them in the day that I brought them out of the land "of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices."
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And in the sixth chapter of Jeremiah, the same Jehovah says; "Your burnt offerings are not ac- "ceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me."
In the Psalms, Jehovah derides the idea of sacrifices, and says: "Will I eat of the flesh of "bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God "thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most "High."
So I find in Isaiah the following: "Bring no more "vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; "the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of as- "semblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even "the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your "appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble "to me; I am weary to bear them." "To what "purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?
"saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of "rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not "in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
"When ye come to appear before me, who hath re- "quired this at your hand?"
So I find in James: "Let no man say when he is "tempted: I am tempted of God; for God cannot be "tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man;"
and yet in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis I
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find this: "And it came to pass after these things, "that God did tempt Abraham."
In Second Samuel we see that he tempted David.
He also tempted Job, and Jeremiah says: "O Lord, "thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived." To such an extent was Jeremiah deceived, that in the fourteenth chapter and eighteenth verse we find him crying out to the Lord: "Wilt thou be altogether "unto me as a liar?"
So in Second Thessalonians: "For these things "God shall send them strong delusions, that they "should believe a lie."
So in First Kings, twenty-second chapter: "Behold, "the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all "these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil "concerning thee."
So in Ezekiel: "And if the prophet be deceived "when he hath spoken a thing, I, the Lord, have de- "ceived that prophet."
So I find: "Thou shalt not bear false witness;"