Each one lost his life many times, and was just as ready for the next conflict. My own opinion is, that God kept them alive by raising them from the dead after each battle, for the purpose of punishing the Jews. God used his enemies as instruments for the civilization of the Jewish people. He did not wish to convert them, because they would give him much more trouble as Jews than they did as Canaanites.
He had all the Jews he could conveniently take care of. He found it much easier to kill a hundred Canaanites than to civilize one Jew.
_Question_. How do you account for the fact that the heathen were not surprised at the stopping of the sun and moon?
393
_Answer_. They were so ignorant that they had not the slightest conception of the real cause of the phenomenon. Had they known the size of the earth, and the relation it sustained to the other heavenly bodies; had they known the magnitude of the sun, and the motion of the moon, they would, in all probability, have been as greatly astonished as the Jews were; but being densely ignorant of as- tronomy, it must have produced upon them not the slightest impression. But we must remember that the sun and moon were not stopped for the purpose of converting these people, but to give Joshua more time to kill them. As soon as we see clearly the purpose of Jehovah, we instantly perceive how ad- mirable were the means adopted.
_Question_. Do you not consider the treatment of the Canaanites to have been cruel and ferocious?
_Answer_. To a totally depraved man, it does look cruel; to a being without any good in him,--to one who has inherited the rascality of many generations, the murder of innocent women and little children does seem horrible; to one who is "contaminated in "all his parts," by original sin,--who was "conceived "in sin, and brought forth in iniquity," the assassina- tion of men, and the violation of captive maidens,
394
do not seem consistent with infinite goodness. But when one has been "born again," when "the love "of God has been shed abroad in his heart," when he loves all mankind, when he "overcomes evil with "good," when he "prays for those who despite- "fully use him and persecute him,"--to such a man, the extermination of the Canaanites, the violation of women, the slaughter of babes, and the destruc- tion of countless thousands, is the highest evidence of the goodness, the mercy, and the long-suffering of God. When a man has been "born again," all the passages of the Old Testament that appear so horrible and so unjust to one in his natural state, become the dearest, the most consoling, and the most beautiful of truths. The real Christian reads the accounts of these ancient battles with the greatest possible satisfaction. To one who really loves his enemies, the groans of men, the shrieks of women, and the cries of babes, make music sweeter than the zephyr's breath.
_Question_. In your judgment, why did God destroy the Canaanites?
_Answer_. To prevent their contaminating his chosen people. He knew that if the Jews were allowed to live with such neighbors, they would
395
finally become as bad as the Canaanites themselves.
He wished to civilize his chosen people, and it was therefore necessary for him to destroy the heathen.
_Question_. Did God succeed in civilizing the Jews after he had "removed" the Canaanites?
_Answer_. Well, not entirely. He had to allow the heathen he had not destroyed to overrun the whole land and make captives of the Jews. This was done for the good of his chosen people.
_Question_. Did he then succeed in civilizing them?
_Answer_. Not quite.
_Question_. Did he ever quite succeed in civilizing them?
_Answer_. Well, we must admit that the experi- ment never was a conspicuous success. The Jews were chosen by the Almighty 430 years before he appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai. He was their direct Governor. He attended personally to their religion and politics, and gave up a great part of his valuable time for about two thousand years, to the management of their affairs; and yet, such was the condition of the Jewish people, after they had had all these advantages, that when there arose among them a perfectly kind, just, generous and honest man, these people, with whom God had been laboring for so
396
many centuries, deliberately put to death that good and loving man.
_Question_. Do you think that God really endeav- ored to civilize the Jews?
_Answer_. This is an exceedingly hard question.
If he had really tried to do it, of course he could have done it. We must not think of limiting the power of the infinite. But you must remember that if he had succeeded in civilizing the Jews, if he had educated them up to the plane of intellectual liberty, and made them just and kind and merciful, like him- self, they would not have crucified Christ, and you can see at once the awful condition in which we would all be to-day. No atonement could have been made; and if no atonement had been made, then, according to the Christian system, the whole world would have been lost. We must admit that there was no time in the history of the Jews from Sinai to Jerusalem, that they would not have put a man like Christ to death.
_Question_. So you think that, after all, it was not God's intention that the Jews should become civilized?
_Answer_. We do not know. We can only say that "God's ways are not our ways." It may be that God took them in his special charge, for the
397
purpose of keeping them bad enough to make the necessary sacrifice. That may have been the divine plan. In any event, it is safer to believe the explana- tion that is the most unreasonable.
_Question_. Do you think that Christ knew the Jews would crucify him?
_Answer_. Certainly.
_Question_. Do you think that when he chose Judas he knew that he would betray him?
_Answer_. Certainly.
_Question_. Did he know when Judas went to the chief priest and made the bargain for the delivery of Christ?
_Answer_. Certainly.
_Question_. Why did he allow himself to be be- trayed, if he knew the plot?
_Answer_. Infidelity is a very good doctrine to live by, but you should read the last words of Paine and Voltaire.
_Question_. If Christ knew that Judas would betray him, why did he choose him?
_Answer_. Nothing can exceed the atrocities of the French Revolution--when they carried a woman through the streets and worshiped her as the goddess of Reason.
398
_Question_. Would not the mission of Christ have been a failure had no one betrayed him?
_Answer_. Thomas Paine was a drunkard, and re- canted on his death-bed, and died a blaspheming infidel besides.
_Question_. Is it not clear that an atonement was necessary; and is it not equally clear that the atone- ment could not have been made unless somebody had betrayed Christ; and unless the Jews had been wicked and orthodox enough to crucify him?
_Answer_. Of course the atonement had to be made. It was a part of the "divine plan" that Christ should be betrayed, and that the Jews should be wicked enough to kill him. Otherwise, the world would have been lost.
_Question_. Suppose Judas had understood the divine plan, what ought he to have done? Should he have betrayed Christ, or let somebody else do it; or should he have allowed the world to perish, in- cluding his own soul?
_Answer_. If you take the Bible away from the world, "how would it be possible to have witnesses "sworn in courts;" how would it be possible to ad- minister justice?
_Question_. If Christ had not been betrayed and
399
crucified, is it true that his own mother would be in perdition to-day?
_Answer_. Most assuredly. There was but one way by which she could be saved, and that was by the death of her son--through the blood of the atonement. She was totally depraved through the sin of Adam, and deserved eternal death. Even her love for the infant Christ was, in the sight of God,-- that is to say, of her babe,--wickedness. It can not be repeated too often that there is only one way to be saved, and that is, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
_Question_. Could Christ have prevented the Jews from crucifying him?
_Answer_. He could.