Part 12

"Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor "show mercy unto them. * * * Know therefore "that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, "which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that "love him and keep his commandments to a thousand "generations, and repayeth them that hate him to "their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to "him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face." This is the description which the merciful, long-suffer- ing Jehovah gives of himself.

So, he promises great prosperity to the Jews if

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they will only obey his commandments, and says: "And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, "and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt "upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that "hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the people "which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine "eye shall have no pity upon them."

Under the immediate government of Jehovah, mercy was a crime. According to the law of God, pity was weakness, tenderness was treason, kindness was blasphemy, while hatred and massacre were virtues.

In the second chapter of Deuteronomy we find another account tending to prove that Jehovah is a merciful God. We find that Sihon, king of Heshbon, would not let the Hebrews pass by him, and the reason given is, that "the Lord God hardened his "spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might "deliver him into the hand" of the Hebrews. Sihon, his heart having been hardened by God, came out against the chosen people, and God delivered him to them, and "they smote him, and his sons, and all his "people, and took all his cities, and utterly destroyed "the men and the women, and the little ones of "every city: they left none to remain." And in this

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same chapter this same God promises that the dread and fear of his chosen people should be "upon all the "nations that are under the whole heaven," and that "they should "tremble and be in anguish because of" the Hebrews.

Read the thirty-first chapter of Numbers, and see how the Midianites were slain. You will find that "the children of Israel took all the women of Midian "captives, and their little ones," that they took "all "their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods," that they slew all the males, and burnt all their cities and castles with fire, that they brought the captives and the prey and the spoil unto Moses and Eleazar the priest; that Moses was wroth with the officers of his host because they had saved all the women alive, and thereupon this order was given: "Kill "every male among the little ones, and kill every "woman, * * * but all the women children "keep alive for yourselves."

After this, God himself spake unto Moses, and said: "Take the sum of the prey that was taken, "both of man and of beast, thou and Eleazar the "priest * * * and divide the prey into two "parts, between those who went to war, and between "all the congregation, and levy a tribute unto the

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"Lord, one soul of five hundred of the persons, "and the cattle; take it of their half and give it to "the priest for an offering * * * and of the "children of Israel's half, take one portion of fifty of "the persons and the animals and give them unto "the Levites. * * * And Moses and the priest "did as the Lord had commanded." It seems that they had taken six hundred and seventy-five thou- sand sheep, seventy-two thousand beeves, sixty-one thousand asses, and thirty-two thousand women children and maidens. And it seems, by the fortieth verse, _that the Lord's tribute of the maidens was thirty- two_,--the rest were given to the soldiers and to the congregation of the Lord.

Was anything more infamous ever recorded in the annals of barbarism? And yet we are told that the Bible is an inspired book, that it is not a cruel book, and that Jehovah is a being of infinite mercy.

In the twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers we find that the Israelites had joined themselves unto Baal- Peor, and thereupon the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, as usual. No being ever lost his temper more frequently than this Jehovah. Upon this particular occasion, "the Lord said unto Moses, "Take all the heads of the people, and hang them

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"up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce "anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel." And thereupon "Moses said unto the judges of Israel, "Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto "Baal-peor."

Just as soon as these people were killed, and their heads hung up before the Lord against the sun, and a horrible double murder of a too merciful Israelite and a Midianitish woman, had been committed by Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, "the plague was stayed "from the children of Israel." Twenty-four thousand had died. Thereupon, "the Lord spake unto Moses "and said"--and it is a very merciful commandment --"Vex the Midianites and smite them."

In the twenty-first chapter of Numbers is more evi- dence that God is merciful and compassionate.

The children of Israel had become discouraged. They had wandered so long in the desert that they finally cried out: "Wherefore have ye brought us "up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There "is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loatheth "this light bread." Of course they were hungry and thirsty. Who would not complain under similar cir- cumstances? And yet, on account of this complaint, the God of infinite tenderness and compassion sent

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serpents among them, and these serpents bit them-- bit the cheeks of children, the breasts of maidens, and the withered faces of age. Why would a God do such an infamous thing? Why did he not, as the leader of this people, his chosen children, feed them better? Certainly an infinite God had the power to satisfy their hunger and to quench their thirst. He who overwhelmed a world with water, certainly could have made a few brooks, cool and babbling, to follow his chosen people through all their jour- neying. He could have supplied them with miracu- lous food.

How fortunate for the Jews that Jehovah was not revengeful, that he was so slow to anger, so patient, so easily pleased. What would they have done had he been exacting, easily incensed, revengeful, cruel, or blood-thirsty?

In the sixteenth chapter of Numbers, an account is given of a rebellion. It seems that Korah, Dathan and Abiram got tired of Moses and Aaron. They thought the priests were taking a little too much upon themselves. So Moses told them to have two hundred and fifty of their men bring their censers and put incense in them before the Lord, and stand in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation

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with Moses and Aaron. That being done, the Lord appeared, and told Moses and Aaron to separate themselves from the people, that he might consume them all in a moment. Moses and Aaron, having a little compassion, begged God not to kill everybody. The people were then divided, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood in the door of their tents with their wives and their sons and their little children. And Moses said:

"Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent "me to do all these works; for I have not done them "of my mine own mind. If these men die the "common death of all men, or if they be visited "after the common visitation of all men, then the "Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a "new thing, and the earth open her mouth and "swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, "and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall "understand that these men have provoked the "Lord." The moment he ceased speaking, "the "ground clave asunder that was under them; and "the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, "and their houses, and all the men that appertained "unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that "appertained to them went down alive into the pit,

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"and the earth closed upon them, and they perished "from among the congregation."

This, according to Mr. Talmage, was the act of an exceedingly merciful God, prompted by infinite kind- ness, and moved by eternal pity. What would he have done had he acted from motives of revenge? What would he Jiave done had he been remorse- lessly cruel and wicked?

In addition to those swallowed by the earth, the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense were consumed by "a fire that came out from the "Lord." And not only this, but the same merciful Jehovah wished to consume all the people, and he would have consumed them all, only that Moses pre- vailed upon Aaron to take a censer and put fire therein from off the altar of incense and go quickly to the congregation and make an atonement for them. He was not quick enough. The plague had already begun; and before he could possibly get the censers and incense among the people, fourteen thousand and seven hundred had died of the plague. How many more might have died, if Jehovah had not been so slow to anger and so merciful and tender to his children, we have no means of knowing.

In the thirteenth chapter of the same book of

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Numbers, we find that some spies were sent over into the promised land, and that they brought back grapes and figs and pomegranates, and reported that the whole land was flowing with milk and honey, but that the people were strong, that the cities were walled, and that the nations in the promised land were mightier than the Hebrews. They reported that all the people they met were men of a great stature, that they had seen "the giants, the sons of Anak "which come of giants," compared with whom the Israelites were "in their own sight as grasshoppers, "and so were we in their sight." Entirely discour- aged by these reports, "all the congregation lifted up "their voice and cried, and the people wept that "night * * * and murmured against Moses and "against Aaron, and said unto them: Would God "that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would "God we had died in this wilderness!" Some of them thought that it would be better to go back,-- that they might as well be slaves in Egypt as to be food for giants in the promised land. They did not want their bones crunched between the teeth of the sons of Anak.

Jehovah got angry again, and said to Moses: "How long will these people provoke me? * * *

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"I will smite them with pestilence, and disinherit "them." But Moses said: Lord, if you do this, the Egyptians will hear of it, and they will say that you were not able to bring your people into the promised land. Then he proceeded to flatter him by telling him how merciful and long-suffering he had been. Finally, Jehovah concluded to pardon the people this time, but his pardon depended upon the violation of his promise, for he said: "They shall "not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, "neither shall any of them that provoked me see it; "but my servant Caleb, * * * him will I bring "into the land." And Jehovah said to the people: "Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all "that were numbered of you according to your "whole number, from twenty years old and upward, "which have murmured against me, ye shall not "come into the land concerning which I sware to "make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of "Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your "little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them "will I bring in, and they shall know the land "which ye have despised. But as for you, your "carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your "children shall wander in the wilderness forty

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"years * * * until your carcasses be wasted in "the wilderness."

And all this because the people were afraid of giants, compared with whom they were but as grass- hoppers.

So we find that at one time the people became exceedingly hungry. They had no flesh to eat. There were six hundred thousand men of war, and they had nothing to feed on but manna. They naturally murmured and complained, and thereupon a wind from the Lord went forth and brought quails from the sea, (quails are generally found in the sea,) "and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's "journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey "on the other side, round about the camp, and as it "were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. "And the people stood up all that day, and all that "night, and all the next day, and they gathered the "quails. * * * And while the flesh was yet be- "tween their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of "the Lord was kindled against the people, and the "Lord smote the people with a very great plague."

Yet he is slow to anger, long-suffering, merciful and just.

In the thirty-second chapter of Exodus, is the ac-

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count of the golden calf. It must be borne in mind that the worship of this calf by the people was before the Ten Commandments had been given to them. Christians now insist that these commandments must have been inspired, because no human being could have constructed them,--could have conceived of them.

It seems, according to this account, that Moses had been up in the mount with God, getting the Ten Com- mandments, and that while he was there the people had made the golden calf. When he came down and saw them, and found what they had done, having in his hands the two tables, the work of God, he cast the tables out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount. He then took the calf which they had made, ground it to powder, strewed it in the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. And in the twenty-seventh verse we are told what the Lord did: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Put every man "his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate "to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man "his brother, and every man his companion, and "every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi "did according to the word of Moses; and there fell "of the people that day about three thousand men."

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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;" and in the book of Revelation: "All liars shall have "their part in the lake which burneth with fire and "brimstone;" yet in First Kings, twenty-second chapter, I find the following: "And the Lord said: "Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and

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"fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this "manner, and another said on that manner. And "there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, "and said: I will persuade him. And the Lord said "unto him: Wherewith? And he said: I will go "forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all "his prophets. And he said: Thou shalt persuade "him, and prevail also. Go forth, and do so."

In the Old Testament we find contradictory laws about the same thing, and contradictory accounts of the same occurrences.