"Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt, v. 48). All Christian professors admit that this perfection is to be attained by following his practical example, and that the way to become acquainted with this practical example is to read the Bible. Let us see, then, where a practical compliance with this precept, as thus understood, will lead us. If the God of the Bible is to be accepted as our "heavenly Father," then a compliance with this precept will leave no crime uncommitted, and no sin not perpetrated; for he is represented as either committing or sanctioning every species of crime, wickedness, and immorality known to society in the age in which the Bible was written. That the truth of this statement may not be called in question, we will proceed to bring forward evidence to prove it.

I. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS MURDER.

We find a scriptural warrant for the highest crime known to the law,—that of murder. God is represented as saying to his holy people, "Go ye out and slay every man his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor" (Exod. xxii. 27). And, relative to the dissenter from the faith, he is represented as saying, "Ye shall stone him with stones that he die." Now, if such texts are not calculated to foster the spirit of murder, and to extinguish the natural repugnance to cruelty and bloodshed in the human mind, we can conceive of no language that would have such an effect, especially when it is taken in connection with Christ's injunction, "He that hath not a sword, let him sell his coat, and buy one."

And the practical lives of Christian professors, from the earliest establishment of the Church, furnishes proof of the demoralizing influence of such texts as these upon the readers of the Bible. These injunctions to murder and slaughter have been faithfully obeyed; and the effect has been to submerge Christendom in a sea of blood. Look, for proof, at the war among the churches for many years about the doctrine of the Eucharist, which resulted in the destruction of three hundred thousand lives; the fight about images, in which fifty thousand men, women, and children were murdered; the war of a dozen churches against the sect of the Manicheans in the ninth century (A.D. 845) about some trivial doctrine of the Christian creed, and which left on the battle-field no less than a hundred thousand murdered human beings; the Church schism, in the time of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, followed by the war of the Hussites, which resulted in a bloody slaughter of a hundred and fifty thousand fellow-Christians; the war known as "The Holy Inquisition," established in the year 1208, made a record in its history of human butchery of two hundred thousand Christian professors who had to atone in blood for assuming the liberty to differ from the popular creed; and, finally, the Thirty Years' war which strewed the earth with bloody corpses to the frightful number of five millions of human beings, The whole makes a sum total of eighteen millions, a large portion of which were Christian professors,—all the work of Christian hands and Christian churches, professed followers of the "Prince of peace." But, if the text quoted above means any thing (requiring his followers to buy swords), he appears also to have been the Prince of war. All the bloody tragedies cited above, which form but a small number of the cases which indelibly stain the records of the Christian Church,' show how faithfully Christian professors have lived out the demoralizing injunctions of their Bible, and prove that the Book has been a powerful lever for evil as well as for good. Even the shocking cruelties displayed in the execution of these bloody tragedies finds a warrant in the Bible. In their efforts to carry out the Bible injunction to exterminate heretics, no species of cruelty was left untried as a punishment for the honest dissenter from the faith. The sword of the Church was unsheathed, and plunged with a fierce and relentless ferocity into the bosoms and bowels of their neighbors and fellow-Christian professors, whose only offense was that of believing and worshiping God according to the dictates of their consciences. With a burning hatred for heretics, stimulated by reading the Bible injunction to put them to death in a cruel manner, they leaped upon them with the ferocity of tigers, and tortured them to death with every species of cruelty their ingenuity could invent. They tied them to the whipping-post, or chained them to the fiery fagot; lacerated their bodies; cut their tongues from their mouths; tore their flesh from their bones with iron hooks, tongs, and pincers; cut off their lips, and tore out their tongues, so that their piercing cries and heart-rending agonies could convey no intelligible sound; tore their nails from their fingers, and thrust needles into the bleeding wounds; melted red-hot metal, and poured it down their throats; plucked out their eyes, and threw them to beasts; and, in some cases, their bodies were "stretched upon the rack, and flayed alive, or torn limb from limb". But I forbear: the picture is too shocking. Oh that the waves of oblivion could roll over and cover such deeds of cruelty for ever! I rejoice that the age for such atrocities is passed, and, I trust, can never return. I hope the churches will never again hold the reins of government, and shape all the laws of the country. The reason we do not witness such horrible scenes now is, that many church-members have outgrown their Bible; and, if there are any who have not, they are restrained by laws enacted by liberal minds of too much good feeling and good sense to permit the churches to thus cruelly persecute each other, or those who conscientiously differ from them. I have stated that the shocking cruelties and barbarities practiced by Christians upon each other in past ages, find a warrant in the Bible. The act of David, "the man after God's own heart," in placing the children of Ammon under saws and harrows of iron, is scarcely equaled in atrocity by any act recorded in the history of the Fiji cannibals. It is revolting to every impulse of benevolence, every feeling of humanity, and all ideas of mercy or justice. And his wicked prayer, contained in the one hundred and ninth Psalm, breathes forth the same spirit. It is a series of fiendish imprecations poured out upon the heads of those who differed from his creed, and worshiped a different God. We will quote some of his language: "Set thou a wicked man over him. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him; let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow; let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let his posterity be cut off, and their name blotted out; let the extortioner get all that he hath; let his prayer become sin; let the stranger spoil his land; let not the sin of his mother be blotted out."

Here is a series of most malignant imprecations issuing from a mind rankling and burning with a feeling of implacable revenge, which is shocking to contemplate. It is murderous in its intent, and demoralizing in its effect upon those who accept it as being in accordance with the will of God. No person can contemplate the cruelties practiced by this "man of God" upon his unoffending neighbors, or read his vengeful prayer, and accept it as emanating from "the man after God's own heart," without having his moral strength and resolution weakened, his moral standard lowered, and his ideas of the moral perfection of Deity degraded. And it was by deriving their conceptions of God from such a source that the Christian world has come to entertain such low, belittling, and dishonorable views of "the Supreme Ruler of the universe," as is shown in their preaching and their writings; and it furnishes their children with a low and imperfect standard of morality. And this must always be the condition of things while the Bible, with its numerous bad examples and bad morality, is accepted as a guide by those teachers and preachers who mold the moral sentiments of the people. It will be observed, that "the man after God's own heart" invokes the divine vengeance upon innocent children, and prays that they may beg and starve, merely because their father was not a worshiper of the savage Jewish Jehovah which exhibits a mind devoid of all idea of justice or humanity.

And this is a part of the religion of the Christian's "Holy Bible," claimed as the product of divine inspiration. Now, who can not see that such a religion as this is calculated to engender bad feelings, bad ideas, and bad morals, and to repress the lofty moral emotions of the human mind?

II. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS THEFT OR ROBBERY.

Robbery, practiced under the false pretense of borrowing, is another crime claiming the sanction of God's "Holy Word" and that "Holy Being" whose morality we are taught to imitate by the injunction, "Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." We are told (in Exod. xii.) that the Jews, or Hebrews, when leaving Egypt, robbed or stole from the inhabitants to such an extent, that "they spoiled the Egyptians," which leads to the conclusion that the robbery must have been very extensive: and for this merciless, wholesale robbery, they claimed the sanction of a just and righteous God; for we are told he sanctioned or commanded the act. And this is a part of the code of morals "the Evangelical Christian Union" would have us incorporate into the Constitution of the United States; but it is evident, from the facts already presented, that such an act would be a step towards barbarism.

III. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS WAR.

Another immoral feature of the Christian Bible, and one which proves it to be a relic or record of barbarism, and a very unsuitable book to "constitute the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our conduct" (as recommended and urged by the Evangelical Christian Union), is found in its frequent sanction of human butchery; and a just and righteous God is represented as leaving his throne "in the heavens" to come down to take a part in their savage and bloody battles with different nations about their religious creeds.. He is represented as standing in the front ranks during every battle fought by his "holy people." And, by long experience on the field of human butchery, he came to receive the military title of "God of War," "A Man of War," "The Lord of Hosts," &c.; and his success in destroying human beings won for him the reputation of a great and skillful general, and placed him above other Gods in valor in his own estimation. He is represented as becoming so excited with anger, so blood-thirsty and revengeful in spirit, that he commanded his holy people to strike down every living creature with the sword, whether men or animals. The word of command was "to spare nothing;" "save nothing alive that breathes." He is even represented as commanding the slaughter of innocent babes. The order was, so says Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 3), "Spare them not, but slay both men and women, infants and sucklings." Now, of all the blood-dyed mandates that ever issued from human lips, or was heard on the plains of human butchery, none ever excelled it in cruelty and malignant barbarity, claimed as coming from the mouth of a God of infinite justice and infinite benevolence. Think of the murder, in cold blood, of thousands of little innocent, prattling babies, who never lisped an evil word, or conceived an evil thought, in their lives! and this by command of the loving Father of the human family! Who believes it? Who can believe it? Ay, who dare believe it, if he would escape the charge of blasphemy? Neither Nero nor Caligula was ever guilty of any thing so ruthless, so fiendish, so cruel, and so vindictive. And this is the God the Evangelical Union tell us the Constitution of the United States should recognize as the Supreme Ruler of nations. This is the Bible which they tell us should become "the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our conduct." This is the religion which they are trying to revive and fasten upon us in this enlightened nineteenth century. This is the religion we are required to believe came from a God of infinite justice, infinite mercy, and loving kindness, or be denounced as infidels, and be eternally damned. But could a person be more damned than to believe in such a religion? Now, those who have studied the philosophy and impressibility of the human mind know that no extortion or contortion of the language of the text, no symbolical or spiritual construction that can be forced upon it, can prevent the reading and believing a book from producing pernicious effects, which represents such barbarous deeds as having the divine sanction. Nothing can prevent it from exercising a demoralizing influence upon a Christian community. The sooner, therefore, it can cease to be placed in the hands of the heathen and the young people of Christian lands, and cease to constitute the basis of our religion, the better for the progress of true morality, and a virtuous system of religion.

IV. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS THE EVIL OF INTEMPERANCE.

There are a number of texts in the Bible, which, if human language can mean any thing, most unquestionably furnish a warrant for drunkenness, whatever might have been the intention of the writer; and that they have had the effect to sustain and promote this evil, the practical history of Christian countries furnish proof that can not be gainsaid. That teacher of Bible morality—that wise man who is said to have received his wisdom directly from God, and must consequently be considered good authority—is represented as saying, "Give to him that is athirst, and wine to those of heavy heart. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." Here we are virtually recommended to drown our sorrows, and benumb the pangs of poverty, by becoming dead drunk; for it is only after the inebriate has quaffed the contents of the intoxicating bowl, or swung the bottle to his lips till he becomes stupefied and insensible (i.e., "dead drunk"), that he can "forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." We dare not deny, then, that Solomon recommended a state of beastly intoxication as a means of drowning our troubles; for no other meaning can be forced upon the text than that which we have assigned it, without assuming an unwarrantable use of language. Away, then, with such a book as "the source of moral and religious instruction for the heathen," or as a reading-book for youth and children! The question is not what the Bible can be made to teach; but what is it naturally understood to teach, and what are the moral consequences of so understanding it?

And we find in Exodus a still more explicit license, not only for drinking, but for buying and selling, intoxicating drinks It is proclaimed, upon the authority of Jehovah, "Thou shalt spend thy money for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after" (Dent, xiv. 26). We are sometimes told, but without reliable authority, that the wine here referred to did not possess very intoxicating properties. But it will be observed that the text did not stop at wine, but "strong drink;" thus leaving no doubt upon the mind of the reader but that they used strong liquors, even if we were warranted in assuming the wine was not of this character, which, however, we are not, and which we know is not true: for, although like the wine of the grape in other countries, it would not intoxicate while new, yet in that warm climate, as travelers affirm, it will ferment in a few hours. It is evident, then, that wine was one of their intoxicating beverages in addition to "strong drinks." And here we find a license for buying and selling and using both in a book which the orthodox churches would have us adopt as "the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our conduct," ostensibly for the improvement of the morals of the people; when it is known to unbiased investigators of the subject that these and similar texts have been a stumbling-block in the progress of the temperance reform among that class of people who take the Bible as it reads without studying the art of extracting the old meaning with the clerical force-pump, and coining a new meaning of their own especially adapted to the occasion,—an art studied and practiced by the spiritually blinded devotees of all "the Holy Bibles" which God is assumed to have inspired for the salvation of the human race. I will cite one case in proof of the statement that a Bible containing such texts as I have cited is calculated to do much mischief in the way of retarding the temperance reform by furnishing the plainest authority for drinking and trafficking in intoxicating liquors. A friend, upon whom I can rely, related to me the following case:

A man addicted to intemperate habits was converted to religion and induced to sign a temperance pledge, partly by the influence of a speaker who quoted from "the word of God" such texts as these: "Woe unto him who holds the bottle to his neighbor's mouth" (Hab. ii. 15); "Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging" (Prov, xx. 1). But a few days after his conversion, as he was turning the leaves of the Bible, his eye accidentally caught sight of one of the texts I have quoted,—"Thou shalt spend thy money for strong drink," &c. Here he discovered that his Bible and his God both declared that buying and drinking intoxicating beverages was all right. It was enough. His resolution gave way; his firmness was unmanned, his moral manhood prostrated, his pledge overruled; and, in less than two hours, he was again lying in the ditch "dead drunk." Here is a proof of the mischief that can be wrought by one single text upon those who have accepted the Bible as "the supreme rule of their conduct." You may proclaim the evil of intemperance with the tongue of a Cicero, or paint it with the pencil of a Raphael, and muster all the texts you can find in the book condemning the practice, yet one such text as I have quoted will poison the moral force, of it all while the Bible is read and adored as "the rule of their conduct." As one drop of belladonna or prussic acid will poison a whole pint of water, in like manner will one immoral text, when found in a book accepted by the people as their highest authority in practical morals, have the effect to neutralize the moral force of every sound precept that may be found in the book. It is useless, and labor comparatively lost, for a book or a moral teacher to inculcate good precepts, while it is known they are morally capable of teaching or preaching bad ones. One spark of fire is sufficient to explode a powder-magazine. Bad precepts and bad examples are both very contagious in a morally undeveloped and unenlightened age; and their pernicious effects can not be wholly counteracted or prevented by any number of precepts of an opposite character.

But we are told the precepts above quoted are in the Old Testament, and not the New, which is now accepted as higher authority. But then it should be borne in mind, that the Old Testament is still being printed and bound with the New as a part of "the Holy Bible," and "God's perfect revelation to man" for "the guidance of his moral conduct." It is still circulated both in Christian and heathen countries by the million with the New, and as of equal authority with the New Testament. It takes both to make "the Holy Bible." It will be in vain, then, to plead any extenuation or apology for the immoralities of the Old Testament on this ground. They will both stand or fall together. The "new dispensation" could not stand a day without the Old Testament as a basis. And then, when we push our investigations a step further, we find the New Testament lending its sanction to most of the evils and crimes which are supported by the Old Testament; and among this number is that under review,—the vice or sin of intemperance. Paul, one of the principal founders and expounders of the religion of the New Testament, and one of the leading examples and teachers of its morals, in his letter of exhortation to Timothy, advises him to "drink no longer water, but take a little wine for the stomach's sake" (1 Tim. v. 23). As for the plea or purpose for which the intoxicating beverage was to be used on this occasion "for the stomach's sake," it is the same that dram-drinkers and drunkards have always had recourse to to justify the use of strong drink. It is always drunk for "the stomach's sake." And, when we find Christ himself converting a large quantity of water into wine (see John ii.), we must conclude that the New Testament does not teach a system of morals calculated to arrest the sin of intemperance. Those, then, who wish still to continue floundering in the cesspool of drunkenness, can find in the New Testament, as well as the Old, a justification for this sin.

V. THE CRIME OF SLAVE-HOLDING SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE.

The Bible contains a warrant for the perpetual enslavement of men, women, and children. It is well known to the pioneer-laborers in the antislavery reform, that this book constituted a strong bulwark in support of the system; that it was one of the principal obstacles in the way of effecting its extermination.

Its defenders quoted such texts as the following: "Of the heathen round about you, shall ye buy bondmen and bond maids, and they shall be your possession for ever" (Lev. xxv. 44). Among Christian professors, such positive and explicit license for the practice of slave-holding was hard to be set aside; and it undoubtedly had an influence to perpetuate the accursed system of slavery.

VI. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS POLYGAMY.

The practice of polygamy is indorsed by the Christian Bible. It is frequently sanctioned in the Old Testament, both by precept and example, while it is nowhere condemned by the Book, either in the Old or New Testament. This fact makes Mormonisin an impregnable institution; and this is the reason it bids defiance to the efforts of a Christian nation to put it down. It is a Bible institution. Hence a Bible-believing nation dare not attack it. The hand of the government is powerless to put it down, because it is justified by the "Holy Book." Hence it continues to exist, a stigma upon the nation. Were it as explicitly and strongly condemned by the Bible as idolatry is, it would have been banished from the country long ago.

VII. LICENTIOUSNESS IS SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE.

It can hardly be wondered at that so many Christian professors fall victims to licentious habits, as is evident from reports almost daily published in the periodicals, from which one traveler has collected more than two thousand cases of priests, the professed teachers of morality, who have fallen victims to the vice of illegal sexual intercourse within a few years; and probably the number whose deeds are never brought to light is much greater. As we have already remarked, this licentiousness among Bible believers and Bible teachers is no cause of wonder when we reflect that it is taught in their Bible, both by example and precept, and even, we are told, commanded by Jehovah himself. In the thirty-first chapter of Numbers it is written, that the Lord commanded Moses to slay all the Midianites, except the women and girls who "had never known man," amounting to about thirty thousand. They were even ordered to kill every male among the little ones; and it is declared they left "nothing alive that breathes," except the thirty thousand maids saved to gratify the lust of those murderous libertines. Who that has any mercy, justice, or refinement in their nature, can believe that such cruelty and licentiousness was the work of a righteous God? Christian professors contemplate these revolting pictures with an anxious desire to save the credit of the Book, until, by dint of determination to believe (for they are afraid even to doubt), they finally persuade themselves, that, somehow or other, they must be right, notwithstanding their revolting nature. They conclude they don't understand them, or that it is our fine moral sensibilities, and our natural love of virtue, that is at fault. And thus our moral manhood is deadened and sacrificed to our barbarous religion. It is an evident fact, and a sorrowful truth, that the moral sensibilities of all Christendom are more or less blunted and seared in this way, and their standard of virtue lowered. Such is the demoralizing influence of the "Holy Book" when idolized and regarded as the source of our morals, and "the supreme rule of our conduct." It is evident we never can reach that elevated standard of morals and true refinement which is the natural outgrowth of civilization till the Bible is lowered to a more subordinate position, and is no longer allowed to shape our morals, and mold our religion, and retard our civilization. The texts I have cited are but samples of many similar passages which evince a sickly, licentious state of morals amongst "the Lord's holy people." By the moral code of Moses and Jehovah, a Jew was authorized to seize a beautiful woman (if he should see one amongst the captives taken in war), and take her to his house for his wife; but, if he finds upon trial that she don't suit him, then he can turn her out, and let her go whither she will. He was licensed to turn her adrift upon the cold charities of the world. "If it shall be that thou find no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will" (Deut. xxi. 14). It does not appear that her wishes were consulted in any case. She was a captive at first, and a slave to the end. And these hard-hearted, licentious men were "God's holy people." Those pious and devout Christians who are so inveterately opposed to, and horrified at, "Free-Lovism" should not let it be known they believe in the Bible, lest they should get into the same difficulty the Rev. Mr. Hitchkiss did while in Arabia. Having stated to a Mahomedan that there was a class of people in America known as "Free-Lovers," and that they were infidels and Spiritualists, the disciple of the Koran remarked, in reply, "I suppose you are a Free-Lover also."—"What makes you entertain that supposition?" asked the reverend. "Because," said the Mussulman, "you are a believer in the Christian Bible; and I have observed, by reading that its leading men were practical Free-Lovers.' The wise Solomon was so highly esteemed by God, that he opened to him the fountain of wisdom; and hence he must have been looked up to by the Jews as a leading authority in matters of religion and morals, and an example be followed in practical life; and he practiced 'Free-Lovism,' or licentiousness, on a very large scale. His subjects and victims were numbered by the thousand; and with three hundred of them he maintained no legal relation. Hence they were what are now called prostitutes. And his father David, 'the man after God's own heart,' was also a 'F ree-Lover, and indirectly committed murder in order to increase his number of victims; and Abraham, the father and founder of the Jewish nation, also belonged to that class. I suppose, therefore, you consider it all right." The reverend gentleman replied, "I believe it was right for them, but would not be right for us." "Then," said the Mahomedan, "you believe that moral principles change,—that what is right to day may be wrong tomorrow, and vice versa. Now, it is evident, that, if they can change once, they can change again, and may thus be perpetually changing; so that it would be impossible to know what true morality is, for it would be one thing to-day and another tomorrow. I hold that the principles of morality are perfect, and hence can not change without becoming immorality." Thus reasoned the "unconverted heathen;" and thus closed his controversy with the Christian missionary. The reader can judge which had the better end of the argument.

VIII. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS WIFE-CATCHING.

In the Book of Judges (Judges xxi. 20) we learn that the Israelites of the tribe of Benjamin were instructed in the art of wife-catching. "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards; and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man a wife" (Judges xxi. 21). "And they did so." Now it was certainty rather shameful business for God's oracles to be engaged in,—that of advising rude and lustful men to hide in ambush in the vineyards, and, when they saw the young maidens approaching, to pounce upon them while dancing, and carry or drag them off without a moment's warning. It was called catching a wife; but, in this age of a higher moral development, it would not be designated by such respectful language, but would be placed in the list of crimes, and punished as a State-prison offense.

IX. THE CRIMES OF TREACHERY AND ASSASSINATION.

In the fourth chapter of Judges we find a case of barbarity related, comprising the double crime of treachery and murder, for which a parallel can scarcely be found in the annals of any heathen nation, and which appears to have received the approval of the Jewish Jehovah. It is exhibited in the history of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. We read, that as a poor fugitive by the name of Sisera was fleeing from "the Lord's holy people," who were pursuing him with uplifted swords with the determination to kill him, not for any crime whatever, but because he professed a different religion, and refused to worship their cruel God (for they seemed to consider themselves authorized by their God to exterminate all nations who dissented from their creed),—as this fugitive was flying from the swords of the worshipers of Jehovah, Jael went out to meet him (Sisera), and said unto him, "Turn in, my lord: turn in to me. Fear not." And, when he had turned in unto her in the tent, she covered him with a mantle, and feigned much pity for him; and, when he asked for a little water, she gave him milk: but, as soon as he had fallen asleep, "she took a nail of the tent and a hammer, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temple, and fastened it into the ground." Who can read this deed of treachery and cruelty without emotions of horror, and thrilling chilly sensations at the heart? And yet Jehovah, the God of Israel, is represented as saying, "Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, be" (Judg. v. 24). Now, what is this but a premium offered for treachery and cold-blooded murder? I believe, with Lord Bacon, that "it is better to believe in no God than to believe in one possessing dishonorable traits of character;" and I can not see how it would be possible to ascribe more dishonorable traits of character to any being than are ascribed to the Jewish Jehovah. And this is the God the orthodox world wants put into the Constitution of the United States; but most unfortunate for our progress in morals and civilization would it be to adopt such a measure. And this is the book which the churches are constantly appealing to the people for aid to circulate among the heathen as necessary to improve their morals, and save their souls; but no other book could be put into their hands so completely calculated to deaden and obliterate every feeling of humanity, every natural impulse of justice and mercy, and kindle feelings of murder and revenge. Such a book should not be admitted into their families to corrupt their natural sense of right and justice.

I will cite another case evincing the same spirit, and teaching the same kind of moral lesson. We are told in Judges (chap. iii.) that the Lord sent a man by the name of Ehud to murder Eglon, King of Moab, and sent him with a lie upon his lips. As he came near to the king, he said unto him, "I have a message from God unto thee" (Judg. iii. 20, 21). And, while conversing with him under the guise of a friend, he drew out a dagger which he had concealed under his garments, and plunged it into his body, and killed him. And the Lord, "the God of Israel," is represented as raising up the bloody-minded Ehud for the special purpose of perpetrating this shocking deed of murder. To circulate a book among the heathen, detailing such revolting deeds of cruelty as consistent with sound morality, and approved by a just and righteous God, is an evil of no small magnitude.

I will cite one other case illustrative of Bible intolerance. It is found in the history of the godly Phinehas, related in the twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers. He was one of "The Lord's peculiar people," who were such violent sectarians that they showed no mercy towards any nation or any individual who dissented from their creed. Hence, when it was reported to Moses and his God that Zimri and his wife Cozbi had become converts to the Baal-peor religion, they sent Phinehas after them with deadly weapons to slay them for heresy; and he chased them into their tents, and slew them with a javelin upon their own hearthstone for no crime whatever against the moral law, but for simply exercising their God-given right to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences. It was a feeling of sectarianism, intolerance, and bitter animosity which prompted the act. We can not wonder, therefore, that Christian Bible believers, who have chosen this book as "the supreme rule of their conduct," should have written their history in blood, and that the whole pathway of their pilgrimage is strewn with the bones of their murdered victims, who were slain for being true to their consciences, and for believing in and worshiping God according to their convictions of right and duty.

In addition to the long list of crimes already enumerated as being sanctioned by the Bible, we will name a few others:—

Lying.—We find that nearly all the leading characters who figure in Bible history, and who are held up as moral exemplars of the human race, were guilty of lying either directly or indirectly. We will cite a few cases:—

It is shown that Abraham and his wife (Gen. xx.), and Isaac (Gen. xxvi.), and Jacob (Gen. xxxi.), were all guilty of falsehood; also Rachel, Jacob's wife (Gen. xxxi.), Jacob's sons (Gen. xxxvii.), and Samson (Judg. xvi.), and Elisha (2 Kings), and four hundred prophets (1 Kings xxii.). And Jeremiah makes out all the prophets were virtual liars (Jer. vi. 13). Peter lied three times in about seventy-five minutes (Luke xxii.). And Paul justifies lying (Rom. iii—7). With so many examples of lying by "inspired and holy men of old," the custom became popular among the early Christians, and was upheld and justified by them, as stated by the popular Christian writer, Mosheim. And some of "the heathen nations," for this reason, were accustomed to calling the Jews "the sons of falsehood." Now, we appeal to the moral consciousness of every honest reader to decide in his own mind whether it is possible for a book containing such defective moral inculcations to be calculated to promote true virtue, or a love of truth, in either Christian or heathen nations, and whether it should not, on this account, be kept out of the hands of the heathen, as being calculated to weaken their natural appreciation of truth.

Swearing.—Let the reader turn to his Bible concordance, and observe the hundreds of cases in which God and his people are represented as swearing. He can then understand why profanity is now more prevalent in Christian than in heathen countries. God himself is several times represented as swearing in his wrath (Ps. xcv. 11). It should therefore be expected to be prevalent amongst Christian Bible believers.

As a Christian missionary was recently returning from India on board a British vessel, observing a Christian professor frequently swearing, he stepped to him, and observed, "Here, sir, is my son, twenty-one years old, born and raised in a heathen land, and to-day is the first time he ever heard a profane oath." Rather a withering lesson for a Christian professor. There are obviously two causes for the great prevalency of profane swearing in all Christian countries. One is its frequent indorsement in the Bible, and the other is the common custom of the priesthood apparently indulging in the practice in the pulpit. In their godly zeal to convert sinners, they exclaim, "God will damn you." The boys in the congregation catch the refrain, run into the street, and repeat the oath (dropping one word), "God damn you." Before we can expect this foolish and demoralizing practice to be abandoned, we must have a different Bible and different religious teachers; and also before we can prevent the heathen who read our Bible from imitating our example in swearing, or using profane language.

Cursing.—The numerous cases of cursing recorded in the Bible-from Jehovah to Elisha, who cursed the sportive, saucy boys, and then destroyed them with bears, are calculated to engender and foster the worst and most malignant passions of the human mind. The very name of the Jews' God, Jehovah (Elohim), is derived from a root which signifies "to curse and to swear." And the immoral practice of cursing is continued from the Old Testament through the New.

Murder.—We have spoken of murders perpetrated by the Jews under the authority of a theocratic government. We will now cite some cases of a more private character: Cain, the first man born into the world, was a murderer; and, instead of being punished for it, he appears to have been honored. He went into the land Nod, and built a great city. "The man after God's own heart" (David) indirectly killed Uriah; Judith cut off the head of Holofernes while in bed with him,—a most shocking case; Jehoiada, the priest, murdered his queen at the high gate in cold blood; Jael, the wife of Heber, murdered the flying fugitive Sisera by driving a nail though his head; Ehud murdered the King of Eglon under the guise of friendship; Absalom murdered Ammon; Joab murdered Absalom; Solomon murdered his brother Adonijah; Baasha murdered Nadab; Zimri murdered Elah; Omri murdered Zimri Ahab murdered Naboth; Jehu murdered Ahab and Joram. Shallum murdered Zachariah; Hoshea murdered Pekah. Numerous other cases might be cited. Some of these murderers were leading men among the Jews,—men whose life and character exercised great influence; and consequently such examples were very pernicious, and the moral lesson they impart to Bible readers must be corrupting to their moral feelings, if not their moral conduct.

Flogging.—The practice of flogging is regarded as a relic of barbarism by all modern writers on moral ethics. We find it was prescribed by law under the Hebrew monarchy. Forty lashes, in some cases, while the victim was tied or held down was the penalty for certain crimes. (See Deut. xxv.) If they were schooled in the councils of infinite wisdom as they claimed to be, their God should have taught them a less severe and more enlightened method of treating offenders.

Witchcraft.—"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exod. xxii. 18) has been the watchword and the authority for the slaughter of great numbers of human beings. Figures can not compute the tortures, the shocking cruelties, and the heart-crushing sufferings which have been endured as the legitimate fruit of this superstitious, barbarous law of "God's holy people." It was continued in force to a late period, and has been more extensively practiced by Christians than by Jews.

The number of victims in Christian England alone amounts to hundreds of thousands. A large portion of them were tied hand and foot, and thrown into the water. If they sank, that terminated the case, guilty or not guilty; if they swam or floated, that was regarded as an evidence of guilt, and they were taken out, and burned or hanged. During its reign in England, thirty thousand harmless women were burned as witches, mostly poor women who had no means of self-defense.

Even the learned Sir Matthew Hale, one of England's most enlightened Christian jurists, sentenced a "number of poor women to be hanged in 1664 as witches;" and the reason he assigned for it was, that "the Bible leaves no doubt as to the reality of witchcraft, and the duty of putting its subjects to death." Thus we have an illustration of the enormous evils which have grown out of Bible superstitions, perpetuated by those who were so ignorant as to accept the book as authority. Witchcraft, which was believed by Bible writers and Bible Christians to be the work of the Devil or of evil spirits, is now well understood in the light of modern science as to its causes, of which Bible revelation was ignorant.

As the want of space will permit no farther exposition or enumeration of Bible crimes, we will sum up the whole thus:

Murder, theft, robbery, war, slavery, intemperance, polygamy, concubinage, fornication, rape, piracy, lying, assassination, treachery, tyranny, revenge, persecution for religious opinions, vagabondism, degradation and enslavement of women, hypocrisy, breach of faith, suicide, vulgarity or obscenity, witchcraft, flogging, cursing, swearing, &c.

We have cited texts and examples in proof of the statement that all these crimes, and others not here enumerated, are sanctioned by God's "holy word," and were perpetrated by God's "holy people," as they are called. And yet a Christian writer declares, "The Lord kept his people pure, holy, and upright through every period of their history." A statement could hardly be made that would be farther from the truth. It is another evidence of the blinding effect of a false religion.

Again we ask, should a book, lending its sanction to the long catalogue of crimes herein enumerated, and which represents them as being in accordance with the will of a holy and a righteous God, be placed in the hands of the illiterate and credulous heathen as a guide for their moral conduct? Most certainly it must have a deleterious effect upon their morals; and yet hundreds of thousands are distributed amongst them every year by the Christian churches and missionary societies. And then think of making such a book "the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our conduct," as urged by the Evangelical Alliance and the orthodox churches. We almost tremble at the thought of such a step toward barbarism and demoralization.