Arguments Against the Divine Origin and in Support of the Human Origin of the Bible.

A celebrated theologian has used with much ingenuity and effect the watch as an argument in support of the divine origin of the universe. I have a watch. Like other watches it is not infallible. But supposing that I should claim for it infallibility and divinity; that while other watches are of human invention and workmanship, this particular make of watches is the work of God. The claim would be deemed too absurd for serious consideration. I would be regarded as a lunatic or a jester. Now, it is no more absurd to claim infallibility and divinity for a watch than it is to claim infallibility and divinity for a book. Yet millions of people of recognized sanity and intelligence profess to believe, and many of them do sincerely believe, that a book called the Bible is divine. How do we account for this? It is simply the result of centuries of religious education. I could have taken my children and taught them that my watch is divine. Had I kept them isolated as far as possible from other people, had I commanded them to shun discussion, and forbidden them to reason about it, as the clergy do in regard to the Bible, they would probably believe it. I was taught that the Bible is divine. I believed it. But in a fortunate hour I listened to the voice of Reason; I examined the claims of its advocates; I read it; and the halo of holiness surrounding the old book vanished.

As a supplement to my review of the Bible I shall present some arguments, thirty-six in number, against the divine origin and in support of the human origin of the Bible. The brevity and incompleteness of many of them will, I admit, justify the conclusion not proven. I have space for little more than a mere statement of them. The evidence supporting them will be found in the preceding chapters of this book.

In a discussion of this question the champion of the Bible is placed at a tremendous disadvantage—is handicapped as it were—at the very commencement by this fact: While both the advocates and opponents of Bible divinity admit that man exists and has written books, it has not been proven that a God even exists, much less that he has written or inspired a book. But let us concede, for the sake of argument, that there is a God; that he is all-powerful, all-wise, and all-just; and that he can write or inspire a book. Is the Bible the work of such a Being? It is not. The following are my arguments:

1. Its mechanical construction and appearance. The Bible is printed with type made by man, on paper made by man, and bound in a volume by man. In its mechanical construction and appearance it does not differ from other books.

2. The character of its contents. The contents of this book consist of thoughts—human thoughts—every thought bearing unmistakable evidence of having emanated from the human mind. There is not a thought expressed in the Bible, the meaning of which can be comprehended, that is beyond the power of man to conceive. If it contains thoughts, the meaning of which cannot be comprehended, they are not a revelation, and are self-evidently human.

3. The manner in which its contents were communicated to man. These thoughts are expressed in human language. The Bible originally appeared, it is claimed, in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages, two of them obscure languages of Western Asia. The president of the United States does not issue an important proclamation in the Cherokee or Tagalese language, and the ruler of the universe would not have issued a message intended for all mankind in the most obscure languages of the world. Had he given a message to man he would have provided a universal language for its transmission.

4. Lack of divine supervision in its translation into other tongues. Failing to provide a universal language for its transmission, God would at least have supervised its translation into other languages. Only in this way could its inerrancy and divinity have been preserved. Yet no divine supervision has been exercised over the translators, the transcribers, and the printers of this book. Divine supervision, it is admitted, was confined to the original writers.

5. Not given to man until at a late period in his existence. This is an argument advanced by Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon rejected the Bible. He said that if it had been given to man at the creation he might have accepted it, but that its late appearance proved to him that it was of human origin.

6. Not given as a guide to all mankind, but only to an insignificant portion of it. Not only has the Bible been confined to a small period of man’s existence, it is nearly all addressed to one small race of earth’s inhabitants. While Christians affirm that it is a universal message intended for all, its doctrines and ceremonies pertain to the Jews. This is wholly true of the Old Testament, and, with the exception of a few doubtful passages, true of the Four Gospels, the chief books of the New Testament. Now, is it reasonable to suppose that this great and just All-Father, as he is called, would for centuries take into his special confidence and care a few of his children and ignore and neglect the others?

7. It deals for the most part, not with the works of God, but with the works of man. What man does and knows is not a divine revelation. Paine says: “Revelation, therefore, cannot be applied to anything done upon earth, of which man himself is the actor or witness; and consequently all the historical and anecdotal part of the Bible, which is almost the whole of it, is not within the meaning and compass of the word revelation, and therefore is not the word of God.”

8. But one of many Bibles. There are many Bibles. The world is divided into various religious systems. The adherents of each system have their sacred book, or Bible. Brahmins have the Vedas and Puranas, Buddhists the Tripitaka, Zoroastrians the Zend Avesta, Confucians the five King, Mohammedans the Koran, and Christians the Holy Bible. The adherents of each claim that their book is a revelation from God—that the others are spurious. Now, if the Christian Bible were a revelation—if it were God’s only revelation, as affirmed—would he allow these spurious books to be imposed upon mankind and delude the greater portion of his children?

9. Many versions of this Bible. Not only are there many Bibles in the world, there are many versions of the Christian Bible. The believers in a divine revelation have not been agreed as to what books belong to this revelation. The ancient Jews, who are said to have sustained more intimate relations with God than any other race, were not agreed in regard to this. The accepted Hebrew version contains 39 books (22 as divided by the Jews), the Samaritan version contains but 6 books (some copies 5); while the Septuagint version contains 50. The early Christians were not agreed. The Syriac version of the New Testament contains 22 books; the Italic 24 (some copies 25); the Egyptian 26; the Vulgate 27. The Sinaitic and Alexandrian MSS. each contains 29 books, but they are not all the same. The Gothic version omitted four books in the Old Testament. The Ethiopic omitted books in both the Old and New Testaments which are now accepted, and included books in both which are now rejected. The Bibles of the Roman Catholic, of the Greek Catholic, and of the Protestant churches do not contain the same books. This disagreement regarding the books of the Bible is proof of their human origin.

10. Incompetency of those who determined the canon. If the Bible were the word of God it would not have required the deliberations of a church council to determine the fact. And yet the Christian canon was determined in this manner; and it took centuries of time and many councils to make a collection of books that was acceptable to the church. Not until the close of the fourth century were all the books of the Bible adopted.

It is commonly supposed that the members of these councils were men of great learning and still greater honesty. On the contrary, they were mostly men of little learning and less honesty. They were ignorant, fanatical, and immoral. Their deliberations were characterized by trickery, lying, mob violence, and even murder. Many of them, so far from being able to read and critically examine the books of the Bible, could not read their own names. Even the molders of their opinions concerning the canon—IrenÆus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Jerome, and Augustine—were they living now, would be considered very ordinary clay. The historical facts in regard to the formation of the Bible, if generally known, would be sufficient to dispel all illusions respecting its divinity.

11. Books belonging to this so-called revelation lost or destroyed. There were many other Jewish and Christian writings for which divinity was claimed and which Bible writers themselves declare to be of as much importance and authority as those which still exist. The transitory and perishable nature of these books proves their human origin, and shows that while those that remain are more enduring they are not immortal and imperishable, and hence not divine.

12. Different versions of the same book do not agree. There are a hundred versions and translations of the books of the Bible. No two versions of any book agree. The translators and copyists have altered nearly every paragraph. The earlier versions alone contain more than 100,000 different readings. The original text no longer exists and cannot be restored. Every version, it is admitted, abounds with corruptions. Now, to assert that a book is at the same time divine and corrupt is a contradiction of terms. God, it is affirmed, is all-wise, all-powerful, and all-just. If he is all-wise he knew when his work was being corrupted; if he is all-powerful he could have prevented it; if he is all-just he would have prevented it. This God, it is declared, is everywhere and sees everything. He watches the sparrows when they fall, and numbers the hairs of our heads. He knows the secrets of every heart. If he made a revelation to his children, upon the acceptance and observance of which depends their eternal happiness, and then knowingly and wilfully allowed this revelation to be perverted and misunderstood, he is not a just God, but an unjust devil.

13. The mutability of its contents. The alterations made by transcribers and translators demonstrate the mutability of its contents, and this disproves its divine character. To admit that man can alter the work of God is to admit that human power transcends divine power. If the thoughts composing the Bible were divine man could not alter them.

14. The anonymous character of its books. If the Bible is to be accepted even as a reliable human record its authors ought, at least, to be persons of acknowledged intelligence and veracity. And yet almost nothing is known of its authors. The authorship of fully fifty books of the Bible is absolutely unknown. Its books are nearly all either anonymous or self-evident forgeries. This is true of the most important books. The Pentateuch we know was not written by Moses, nor the Four Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Aside from the anonymous character of the writings of the Bible, with a few exceptions, they evince neither a superior degree of intelligence nor a high regard for the truth.

15. Its numerous contradictions. If the Bible were divine there would be perfect harmony in all its statements. One contradiction is fatal to the claim of inerrancy and divinity. Now the Bible contains not merely one, but hundreds of contradictions. Nearly every book contains statements that are contradicted by the writers of other books. This is especially true of the Four Gospels. The writers of these agree that a being called Jesus Christ lived and died; but regarding nearly every event connected with his life and death they disagree. Human discord, and not divine harmony, dwells in its pages.

16. Its historical errors. If the Bible were divine its history would be infallible. But it is not. It presents as historical facts the most palpable fictions, and denies or misstates the best authenticated truths of history. Referring to Bible writers, the eminent Dutch divines, Drs. Kuenen, Oort, and Hooykaas, in their preface to “The Bible for Learners,” say: “As a rule, they concern themselves very little with the question whether what they narrated really happened so or not.” Its history is fallible and human.

17. Its scientific errors. God, the alleged author of this book, it is claimed, created the universe. He ought, then, to be familiar with his own works. The writers of the Bible, on the contrary, display a lamentable ignorance of the universe and its phenomena. The Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander, orthodox Calvinist, in his “Biblical Theology,” referring to these writers, says: “We find in their writings statements which no ingenuity can reconcile with what modern research has shown to be scientific truth.” The demonstrated truths of modern science were unknown to them. They give us the crude ideas of primitive man and not the infallible knowledge of an omniscient God.

18. Its alleged miracles. The Bible is filled with marvelous stories. The sun and moon stand still; the globe is submerged with water to the depth of several miles; rods are transformed into serpents, dust into lice, and water into blood and wine; animals hold converse with man in his own language; men pass through fiery furnaces unharmed; a child is born without a natural father; the dead arise from the grave and walk the earth again. These marvelous stories—these miracles—are adduced to prove the divine origin of the Bible. They prove its human origin. If these miracles prove the divinity of the Bible, then nearly all the books of old are divine, for they abound with these same miracles. If these stories be true, if these miracles occurred, the laws of nature were arrested and suspended. The laws of nature are immutable. If the laws of nature are immutable they cannot be suspended. The laws of nature cannot be suspended; they never have been suspended; these stories are false; and being false, the Bible is not divine.

19. Its immoral teachings. If the Bible were of divine origin its moral teachings would be divine. It would be what its adherents affirm it to be, an infallible moral guide. But its moral teachings are not divine; it is not an infallible moral guide. It contains, like other Bibles, some moral precepts; but it also sanctions nearly every crime and vice. War and murder, bigotry and persecution, tyranny and slavery, demonism and witchcraft, adultery and prostitution, drunkenness and vagrancy, robbery and cheating, falsehood and deception, are all authorized and commended by this book. It cannot, therefore, be divine.

20. Its inferior literary character. If the Bible were the word of God, as a literary composition it would be above criticism. It would be as far superior to all other books as God is superior to man. Its rhetoric would transcend in beauty the glorious coloring of a Titian. Its logic would be faultless. The Bible is not such a book. It contains some admirable pieces and these owe much of their literary merit to the translators, appearing as our version did in the golden age of English literature. As a whole it is far inferior to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome; inferior to the literature of modern Italy, of France, of Germany, and of England. If the Bible be the word of God it is a long way from God up to Shakespeare.

21. Its writers do not claim to be inspired. Had the writers of the Bible been inspired they would have known it and would have proclaimed it. Had they claimed to be inspired it would not prove the Bible to be divine, for like Mohammed, they might have been deluded, or, like a more recent finder of a holy book, impostors. But they do not even claim that their books are divine revelations. Some of these books contain what purport to be divine revelations, but the books themselves do not pretend to be divine. The only exception is the book called Revelation, admittedly the most doubtful book of the Bible.

“All scripture is given by inspiration.” Waiving the questions of authenticity and correct translation, who wrote this? Paul. What was the scripture when he wrote? The Old Testament, the Old Testament alone. The writers of the Old Testament do not claim to be divinely inspired. This is a claim made by the later Jews and by the early Christians. Paul and the other writers of the New Testament do not claim that their writings are divine. This, too, is a claim made by others long after they were written.

The fact that the writers of the Bible do not believe and do not assert that their books are of divine origin, that this claim was first made many years after they were composed, by those who knew nothing of their origin, is of itself, in the absence of all other evidence, sufficient to demonstrate their human origin.

22. God has never declared it to be his word. The Bible does not, as we have seen, purport to be the word of God. Nowhere, neither in the book nor outside of it, has he declared it to be his revealed will. It contains various messages, chiefly of local concern, which he is said to have delivered to man; but the book, as such, is not ascribed to him nor claimed by him.

23. Whatever its origin it cannot be a divine revelation to us. Even supposing that the writers of the Bible had claimed to be inspired and that these books really were a divine revelation to them, they would not, as Paine justly argues, be a divine revelation to us. The only evidence we would have of their divinity would be the claim of the writer—a claim that any writer might make—a claim that even an honest writer might make were he, like many religious writers, the victim of a delusion.

24. A written revelation unnecessary. To affirm the necessity of a written revelation from God to man, as Christians do, is to deny his divine attributes and ascribe to him the limitations of man. If God be omnipotent and omnipresent a written revelation is unnecessary. To impute to him an unnecessary act is to impute to him an imperfection, and to impute to him an imperfection is to impugn his divinity. We do not write a communication to one who is present. Think of an infinite, all-powerful, and ever-present God communing with his living children through an obscure and corrupted message said to have been delivered to a tribe of barbarians three thousand years ago!

25. Its want of universal acceptance. A divine revelation intended for all mankind can be harmonized only with a universal acceptance of this revelation. God, it is affirmed, has made a revelation to the world. Those who receive and accept this revelation are saved; those who fail to receive and accept it are lost. This God, it is claimed, is all-powerful and all-just. If he is all-powerful he can give his children a revelation. If he is all-just he will give this revelation to all. He will not give it to a part of them and allow them to be saved and withhold it from the others and suffer them to be lost. Your house is on fire. Your children are asleep in their rooms. What is your duty? To arouse them and rescue them—to awaken all of them and save all of them. If you awaken and save only a part of them when it is in your power to save them all you are a fiend. If you stand outside and blow a trumpet and say, “I have warned them, I have done my duty,” and they perish, you are still a fiend. If God does not give his revelation to all; if he does not disclose its divinity to all; if he does not make it comprehensible and acceptable to all; in short, if he does not save all, he is the prince of fiends.

If all the world’s inhabitants but one accepted the Bible and there was one who could not honestly accept it, its rejection by one human being would prove that it is not from an all-powerful and an all-just God; for an all-powerful God who failed to reach and convince even one of his children would not be an all-just God. Has the Bible been given to all the world? Do all accept it? Three-fourths of the human race reject it; millions have never heard of it.

26. Non-agreement of those who profess to accept it. If the Bible were the work of God there would be no disagreement in regard to its teachings. Its every word would be as clear as the light of day. Yet those who profess to accept it as divine are not agreed as to what it means. In the Christian world are a hundred sects, each with a different interpretation of its various teachings. Take the rite of baptism. Baptism is enjoined by the Bible. But what is baptism? The three leading Protestant denominations of this country are the Baptist, the Presbyterian, and the Methodist. I ask the Baptist what constitutes baptism, and he tells me immersion; I ask the Presbyterian, and he tells me sprinkling; I ask the Methodist which is proper, and he tells me to take my choice. Sectarianism is conclusive proof that the Bible is human.

27. Inability of those who affirm both a human and a divine element in it to distinguish the one from the other. Confronted by its many glaring errors and abominable teachings, some contend that a part of it is the work of man and a part the work of God. And yet they are unable to separate the one from the other. If a hundred attempts were made by them to eliminate the human from the divine no two results would be the same. Their inability to distinguish this supposed divine element from the human is proof that both have the same origin—that both are human.

28. The character of its reputed divine author. The Bible is an atrocious libel on God. It traduces his character, and denies his divinity. The God of the Bible is not this all-powerful, all-wise, and all-just Ruler of the universe, but a creature of the human imagination, limited in power and knowledge, and infinite only in vanity and cruelty.

29. The belief of primitive Christians in its divinity not an immediate conviction but a growth. Had the books of the Bible been divinely inspired their divinity would have been recognized at once. When they originally appeared they were believed and known to be the works of man and accepted as such.

Referring to the Old Testament, Dr. Davidson says: “The degree of authority attaching to the Biblical books grew from less to greater, till it culminated in a divine character, a sacredness rising even to infallibility” (The Canon of the Bible, p. 274).

Of the New Testament Dr. Westcott says: “It cannot, however, be denied that the idea of the inspiration of the New Testament, in the sense in which it is maintained now, was the growth of time” (On the Canon of the New Testament, p. 55).

The admitted fact that these books were originally presented and received as human productions, and that the idea of inspiration and divinity was gradually and slowly developed by the priesthood, is conclusive proof that they are of human and not of divine origin.

30. Its acceptance by modern Christians the result of religious teaching. In India the people believe that the Vedas and other sacred books or Bibles are divine. Why do they believe it? Because for a hundred generations they have been taught it by their priests. The Turks believe that the Koran came from God. They believe it because for twelve centuries this has been their religious teaching. For nearly two thousand years Christian priests have taught that the Holy Bible is the word of God. As a result of this the masses of Europe and America believe it to be divine. Each generation, thoroughly impregnated with superstition, transmitted the disease to the succeeding one and made it easy for the clergy to impose their teachings on the people and perpetuate their rule. The belief of Christians in the divinity of the Bible, like the belief of Hindoos in the divinity of the Vedas, and of Mohammedans in the divinity of the Koran, is the result of religious teaching.

The ease with which a belief in the divine character of a book obtains, even in an enlightened age, is illustrated by the inspired (?) books that have appeared in this country from time to time, and for several of which numerous adherents have been secured. About seventy-five years ago a curious volume, called the Book of Mormon, made its appearance. A few impostors and deluded men proclaimed its divinity. A priesthood was established; Mormon education and Mormon proselytism began their work, and already nearly a million converts have been made to the divinity of this book.

Dr. Isaac Watts says: “The greatest part of the Christian world can hardly give any reason why they believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but because they have always believed it, and they were taught so from their infancy.” Really the entire Christian world—pope, bishop, priest, and layman—the learned and the unlearned—can give no other valid reason.

Profoundly true are these words of the historian Lecky: “The overwhelming majority of the human race necessarily accept their opinions from authority. Whether they do so avowedly, like the Catholics, or unconsciously, like most Protestants, is immaterial. They have neither time nor opportunity to examine for themselves. They are taught certain doctrines on disputed questions as if they were unquestionable truths, when they are incapable of judging, and every influence is employed to deepen the impression. This is the origin of their belief. Not until long years of mental conflict have passed can they obtain the inestimable boon of an assured and untrammeled mind. The fable of the ancient is still true. The woman even now sits at the portal of life, presenting a cup to all who enter in which diffuses through every vein a poison that will cling to them for ever. The judgment may pierce the clouds of prejudice; in the moments of her strength she may even rejoice and triumph in her liberty; yet the conceptions of childhood will long remain latent in the mind to reappear in every hour of weakness, when the tension of the reason is relaxed, and when the power of old associations is supreme” (History of Rationalism, Vol. II., pp. 95, 96).

Schopenhauer says: “There is in childhood a period measured by six, or at most by ten years, when any well inculcated dogma, no matter how extravagantly absurd, is sure to retain its hold for life.” Considering the impressionable character of the immature mind, and how nearly impossible it is to eradicate the impressions of childhood, the wonder is not that so many believe in the divinity of the Bible, unreasonable as the belief is, but rather that so many disbelieve it.

31. An article of merchandise. Bibles are manufactured and sold just as other books are manufactured and sold. Some are printed on poor paper, cheaply bound, and sold at a low price; while others are printed on the best of paper, richly bound, and sold at a high price. But all are sold at a profit. The publisher and the book seller, or Bible agent, derive pecuniary gain from their publication and sale. It may be urged that the Bible can be obtained for the asking, that millions of copies are gratuitously distributed. But this is done in the interest of Christian propagandism. Nearly all religious, political, and social organizations, to promote their work, make a free distribution of their literature.

The printing and selling of Bibles is as much a part of the publishing business as the printing and selling of novels. One of the leading publishing houses of this country is that of the American Bible Society. Wealthy and deluded Christians have been successfully importuned to contribute millions to this Society. Directly or indirectly the clergy reap the harvest, leaving the gleanings to the lay employees, many of whom labor at starvation wages. In Great Britain the crown has claimed the sole and perpetual right to print the Bible (A. V.). For monetary or other considerations her kings have delegated this right to publishers who have amassed fortunes from its sale. Twenty years ago Bible publishing was characterized as the worst monopoly in England. If the Bible were divine God would not allow it to be used as merchandise. It would be as free as light and air.

32. A pillar of priestcraft. Not only is the Bible printed and sold like other books, but its so-called divine teachings themselves are used as merchandise. There are in Christendom half a million priests and preachers. These priests and preachers are supported by the people. Even the humble laborer and the poor servant girl are obliged to contribute a portion of their hard earnings for this purpose. In this country alone two thousand million dollars are invested for their benefit; while two hundred million dollars are annually expended for their support. For what are these men employed? To interpret God’s revelation to mankind, we are told. An all-powerful God needing an interpreter! According to the clergy, God though omnipresent has had to send a communication to his children, and though omnipotent he cannot make them understand it. Those ignorant of other tongues and unable to make known their wants require interpreters. The various Indian tribes employ them. For the sake of gain these men degrade their God to the level of an American savage, representing him as incapable of expressing his thoughts to man, and representing themselves as the possessors of both human and divine wisdom and authorized to speak for him.

These Bibles are simply the agents employed by priests to establish and perpetuate their power. They claim to be God’s vicegerents on earth. As their credentials they present these old religious and mythological books. These books abound with the marvelous and mysterious—the impossible and unreasonable—and are easily imposed upon the credulous. If the contents of a book be intelligible and reasonable you can not convince these people that it is other than natural and human; but if its contents be unintelligible and unreasonable it is easy to convince them that it is supernatural and divine. Smith’s Bible Dictionary says: “The language of the Apostles is intentionally obscure.” Of course; if it were not obscure there would be no need of priests to interpret it, and what is Scripture for if not to give employment to the priests?

We are triumphantly told that the Bible has withstood the assaults of critics for two thousand years. But as much can be said of other sacred books. Any business will thrive as long as it is profitable. Bibles will be printed as long as there is a demand for them; and there will be a demand for them as long as priests do a lucrative business with them. Considering their abilities the vendors of the Gospel are among the best paid men in the world to-day. The wealth of men and the smiles of women are bestowed upon them more lavishly than upon any other class. There are thousands in the ministry enjoying comfortable and even luxurious livings who would eke out a miserable subsistence in any other vocation.

33. Its advocates demand its acceptance by faith rather than by reason. In the Gospels and in the Pauline Epistles, the principal books of the New Testament, Christ, the reputed founder, and Paul, the real founder of the Christian religion, both place religious faith, i. e., blind credulity, above reason. This evinces a lack of divine strength and is a confession of human weakness.

Modern advocates of the Bible in presenting the dogma of divine inspiration ask us to discard reason and accept it by faith. In the affected opinion of these men, to examine this question is dangerous, to criticise the Bible is impious, and to deny or even doubt its divinity is a crime. What is this but a tacit acknowledgment that the faith they wish us to exercise is wanting in themselves? This condemnation of reason and commendation of credulity is an insult to human intelligence. A dogma which reason is obliged to reject, and which faith alone can accept, is self-evidently false; and its retention is not for the purpose of supporting a divine truth, but for the purpose of supporting a human lie.

34. The refusal of its advocates to correct its acknowledged errors. That the clergy are controlled by mercenary motives rather than a love of truth is attested by the fact that they continue to teach the admitted errors of the Bible. Our Authorized version, it is conceded by Christian scholars, contains hundreds of errors. That the Revisers corrected many of these errors is admitted. Yet the clergy cling to these errors and refuse to accept a corrected text. The principal reasons assigned for retaining the Old version instead of adopting the New are these: 1. The English of three hundred years ago possesses a certain charm which distinguishes the Bible from more modern works and secures for it a greater reverence. 2. Its division into chapters and verses renders it more convenient. 3. The adoption of the New would expose the errors of the Old, suggest the possible fallibility of the New, and sow the seeds of doubt. Thus expediency prompts them to teach the acknowledged errors of man in preference to what they claim to be the truths of God. This proves the human character of the Bible and the insincerity of its professed exponents.

35. Its authority maintained by fraud and force. For sixteen hundred years—from the time that Constantine, to gain a political advantage over his rivals, became a convert to the Christian faith—corruption and coercion have been the predominant agents in maintaining its supremacy. Fagot, and sword, and gun, and gibbet, and rack and thumbscrew, and every artifice that cunning and falsehood could devise, have been used to uphold the dogma of this book’s divinity. To-day, in nearly every nation of Europe, the powers of the state are employed to compel allegiance to it. And in this free Republic, everywhere, with bribe and threat, the authorities are invoked to force its bloody and filthy pages into the hands of innocent school girls to pollute with superstition, lust, and cruelty their young and tender minds. These deeds of violence, these pious frauds, these appeals to the civil powers, all prove it to be the work of man and not the word of God.

36. The intelligence of the world for the most part rejects it. If the Bible were divine the wise would be the best qualified to realize and appreciate the fact; for while all may err the judgment of the intelligent is better than the judgment of the ignorant. In Christendom the ignorant nearly all believe the Bible to be the infallible word of God, every verse of which is to be accepted literally. A more intelligent class reject the objectionable portions of it, or give to them a more rational and humane interpretation. Those of the highest intelligence—the great leaders of the world in national affairs, in the domain of literature, in science and philosophy, and in Biblical and religious criticism—the Washingtons and Lincolns, the Franklins and Jeffersons, the Fredericks and Napoleons, the Gambettas and Garibaldis; the Shakespeares and Byrons, the Goethes and Schillers, the Carlyles and Emersons, the Eliots and de StaËls; the Humboldts and Darwins, the Huxleys and Haeckels, the Drapers and Tyndalls, the Comtes and Spencers; the Humes and Gibbons, the Voltaires and Renans, the Bauers and Strausses, the Paines and Ingersolls—all these reject its divinity. A Gladstone is an anomaly.

Dr. Watson of Scotland gives frank expression to a fact of which his fellow clergymen are fully cognizant, but which they are loth to admit. He says: “The great, and the wise, and the mighty, are not with us. These men, the master minds, the imperial leaders among men are outside our most Christian church.”

The ignorant suppose that the intelligent accept the Bible; because the intelligent, dependent in a large degree upon the ignorant, and knowing that of all passions religious prejudice and hatred are the worst, do not care to arouse their antagonism by an unnecessary avowal of their disbelief. This is especially true of men in public life. But these men think; and to their intellectual friends they talk.

In his “History of the Bible,” Bronson C. Keeler says: “The only men distinguished for their learning who now believe it to be the inspired word of God, are the men who are, either directly or indirectly, making their living out of it.” Do these learned divines themselves believe it? Nearly every intelligent clergyman entertains and confidentially expresses opinions regarding the Bible which he dare not proclaim from the pulpit. But master and slave are alike growing weary—the master of his duplicity, the slave of his burden. Emancipation for both is approaching. To-day the clergy smile when they meet; some day they will laugh outright, this stupendous farce will be ended, and man will be free.