Chapter I: Front Matter

NEED TO REDO ALL THE "REMOVE" LINES:

THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

"ARGUMENTS CANNOT BE ANSWERED WITH INSULTS. KINDNESS IS STRENGTH; ANGER BLOWS OUT THE LAMP OF THE MIND. IN THE EXAMINATION OF A GREAT AND IMPORTANT QUESTION, EVERY ONE SHOULD BE SERENE, SLOW-PULSED AND CALM."

IN TWELVE VOLUMES VOLUME VI.

DISCUSSIONS

1900

Dresden Edition

CONTENTS.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

(1881.)

I. Col. Ingersoll's Opening Paper--Statement of the Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Reasons for Thinking that Portions of the Old Testament are the Product of a Barbarous People--Passages upholding Slavery, Polygamy, War, and Religious Persecution not Evidences of Inspiration--If the Words are not Inspired, What Is?--Commands of Jehovah compared with the Precepts of Pagans and Stoics--Epictetus, Cicero, Zeno, Seneca, Brahma--II. The New Testament--Why were Four Gospels Necessary?--Salvation by Belief--The Doctrine of the Atonement--The Jewish System Culminating in the Sacrifice of Christ--Except for the Crucifixion of her Son, the Virgin Mary would be among the Lost--What Christ must have Known would Follow the Acceptance of His Teachings--The Wars of Sects, the Inquisition, the Fields of Death--Why did he not Forbid it All?--The Little that he Revealed--The Dogma of Eternal Punishment--Upon Love's Breast the Church has Placed the Eternal Asp--III. The "Inspired" Writers--Why did not God furnish Every Nation with a Bible?

II. Judge Black's Reply--His Duty that of a Policeman--The Church not in Danger--Classes who Break out into Articulate Blasphemy--The Sciolist--Personal Remarks about Col. Ingersoll--Chief-Justice Gibson of Pennsylvania Quoted--We have no Jurisdiction or Capacity to Rejudge the Justice of God--The Moral Code of the Bible--Civil Government of the Jews--No Standard of Justice without Belief in a God--Punishments for Blasphemy and Idolatry Defended--Wars of Conquest--Allusion to Col. Ingersoll's War Record--Slavery among the Jews--Polygamy Discouraged by the Mosaic Constitution--Jesus of Nazareth and the Establishment of his Religion--Acceptance of Christianity and Adjudication upon its Divinity--The Evangelists and their Depositions--The Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Persecution and Triumph of the Church--Ingersoll's Propositions Compressed and the Compressions Answered--Salvation as a Reward of Belief--Punishment of Unbelief--The Second Birth, Atonement, Redemption, Non-resistance, Excessive Punishment of Sinners, Christ and Persecution, Christianity and Freedom of Thought, Sufficiency of the Gospel, Miracles, Moral Effect of Christianity.

III. Col. Ingersoll's Rejoinder--How this Discussion Came About--Natural Law--The Design Argument--The Right to Rejudge the Justice even of a God--Violation of the Commandments by Jehovah--Religious Intolerance of the Old Testament--Judge Black's Justification of Wars of Extermination--His Defence of Slavery--Polygamy not "Discouraged" by the Old Testament--Position of Woman under the Jewish System and under that of the Ancients--a "Policeman's" View of God--Slavery under Jehovah and in Egypt--The Admission that Jehovah gave no Commandment against Polygamy--The Learned and Wise Crawl back in Cribs--Alleged Harmony of Old and New Testaments--On the Assertion that the Spread of Christianity Proves the Supernatural Origin of the Gospel--The Argument applicable to All Religions--Communications from Angels ana Gods--Authenticity of the Statements of the Evangelists--Three Important Manuscripts--Rise of Mormonism--Ascension of Christ--The Great Public Events alleged as Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Judge Black's System of "Compression"--"A Metaphysical Question"--Right and Wrong--Justice--Christianity and Freedom of Thought--Heaven and Hell--Production of God and the Devil--Inspiration of the Bible dependent on the Credulity of the Reader--Doubt of Miracles--The World before Christ's Advent--Respect for the Man Christ--The Dark Ages--Institutions of Mercy--Civil Law.

THE FIELD-INGERSOLL DISCUSSION.

(1887.)

An Open Letter to Robert G. Ingersoll--Superstitions--Basis of Religion--Napoleon's Question about the Stars--The Idea of God--Crushing out Hope--Atonement, Regeneration, and Future Retribution--Socrates and Jesus--The Language of Col. Ingersoll characterized as too Sweeping--The Sabbath--But a Step from Sneering at Religion to Sneering at Morality.

A Reply to the Rev. Henry M. Field, D. D.--Honest Differences of Opinion--Charles Darwin--Dr. Field's Distinction between Superstition and Religion--The Presbyterian God an Infinite Torquemada--Napoleon's Sensitiveness to the Divine Influence--The Preference of Agassiz--The Mysterious as an Explanation--The Certainty that God is not what he is Thought to Be--Self-preservation the Fibre of Society--Did the Assassination of Lincoln Illustrate the Justice of God's Judgments?--Immortality--Hope and the Presbyterian Creed--To a Mother at the Grave of Her Son--Theological Teaching of Forgiveness--On Eternal Retribution--Jesus and Mohammed--Attacking the Religion of Others--Ananias and Sapphira--The Pilgrims and Freedom to Worship--The Orthodox Sabbath--Natural Restraints on Conduct--Religion and Morality--The Efficacy of Prayer--Respect for Belief of Father and Mother--The "Power behind Nature"--Survival of the Fittest--The Saddest Fact--"Sober Second Thought."

A Last Word to Robert G. Ingersoll, by Dr. Field--God not a Presbyterian--Why Col. Ingersoll's Attacks on Religion are Resented--God is more Merciful than Man--Theories about the Future Life--Retribution a Necessary Part of the Divine Law--The Case of Robinson Crusoe--Irresistible Proof of Design--Col. Ingersoll's View of Immortality--An Almighty Friend.

Letter to Dr. Field--The Presbyterian God--What the Presbyterians Claim--The "Incurably Bad"--Responsibility for not seeing Things Clearly--Good Deeds should Follow even Atheists--No Credit in Belief--Design Argument that Devours Itself--Belief as a Foundation of Social Order--No Consolation in Orthodox Religion--The "Almighty Friend" and the Slave Mother--a Hindu Prayer--Calvinism--Christ not the Supreme Benefactor of the Race.

COLONEL INGERSOLL ON CHRISTIANITY.

(1888.)

Some Remarks on his Reply to Dr. Field by the Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone--External Triumph and Prosperity of the Church--A Truth Half Stated--Col. Ingersoll's Tumultuous Method and lack of Reverential Calm--Jephthah's Sacrifice--Hebrews xii Expounded--The Case of Abraham--Darwinism and the Scriptures--Why God demands Sacrifices of Man--Problems admitted to be Insoluble--Relation of human Genius to Human Greatness--Shakespeare and Others--Christ and the Family Relation--Inaccuracy of Reference in the Reply--Ananias and Sapphira--The Idea of Immortality--Immunity of Error in Belief from Moral Responsibility--On Dishonesty in the Formation of Opinion--A Plausibility of the Shallowest kind--The System of Thuggism--Persecution for Opinion's Sake--Riding an Unbroken Horse.

Col. Ingersoll to Mr. Gladstone--On the "Impaired" State of the human Constitution--Unbelief not Due to Degeneracy--Objections to the Scheme of Redemption--Does Man Deserve only Punishment?--"Reverential Calm"--The Deity of the Ancient Jews--Jephthah and Abraham--Relation between Darwinism and the Inspiration of the Scriptures--Sacrifices to the Infinite--What is Common Sense?--An Argument that will Defend every Superstition--The Greatness of Shakespeare--The Absolute Indissolubility of Marriage--Is the Religion of Christ for this Age?--As to Ananias and Sapphira--Immortality and People of Low Intellectual Development--Can we Control our Thought?--Dishonest Opinions Cannot be Formed--Some Compensations for Riding an "Unbroken Horse."

ROME OR REASON?

(1888.)

"The Church Its Own Witness," by Cardinal Manning--Evidence that Christianity is of Divine Origin--The Universality of the Church--Natural Causes not Sufficient to Account for the Catholic Church---The World in which Christianity Arose--Birth of Christ--From St Peter to Leo XIII.--The First Effect of Christianity--Domestic Life's Second Visible Effect--Redemption of Woman from traditional Degradation--Change Wrought by Christianity upon the Social, Political and International Relations of the World--Proof that Christianity is of Divine Origin and Presence--St. John and the Christian Fathers--Sanctity of the Church not Affected by Human Sins.

A Reply to Cardinal Manning--I. Success not a Demonstration of either Divine Origin or Supernatural Aid--Cardinal Manning's Argument More Forcible in the Mouth of a Mohammedan--Why Churches Rise and Flourish--Mormonism--Alleged Universality of the Catholic Church--Its "inexhaustible Fruitfulness" in Good Things--The Inquisition and Persecution--Not Invincible--Its Sword used by Spain--Its Unity not Unbroken--The State of the World when Christianity was Established--The Vicar of Christ--A Selection from Draper's "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe"--Some infamous Popes--Part II. How the Pope Speaks--Religions Older than Catholicism and having the Same Rites and Sacraments--Is Intellectual Stagnation a Demonstration of Divine Origin?--Integration and Disintegration--The Condition of the World 300 Years Ago--The Creed of Catholicism--The "One true God" with a Knowledge of whom Catholicism has "filled the World"--Did the Catholic Church overthrow Idolatry?--Marriage--Celibacy--Human Passions--The Cardinal's Explanation of Jehovah's abandonment of the Children of Men for four thousand Years--Catholicism tested by Paganism--Canon Law and Convictions had Under It--Rival Popes--Importance of a Greek "Inflection"--The Cardinal Witnesses.

IS DIVORCE WRONG?

(1889.)

Preface by the Editor of the North American Review--Introduction, by the Rev. S. W. Dike, LL. D.--A Catholic View by Cardinal Gibbons--Divorce as Regarded by the Episcopal Church, by Bishop, Henry C. Potter--Four Questions Answered, by Robert G. Ingersoll.

DIVORCE.

Reply to Cardinal Gibbons--Indissolubility of Marriage a Reaction from Polygamy--Biblical Marriage--Polygamy Simultaneous and Successive--Marriage and Divorce in the Light of Experience--Reply to Bishop Potter--Reply to Mr. Gladstone--Justice Bradley--Senator Dolph--The argument Continued in Colloquial Form--Dialogue between Cardinal Gibbons and a Maltreated Wife--She Asks the Advice of Mr. Gladstone--The Priest who Violated his Vow--Absurdity of the Divorce laws of Some States.

REPLY TO DR. LYMAN ABBOTT.

(1890)

Dr. Abbott's Equivocations--Crimes Punishable by Death under Mosaic and English Law--Severity of Moses Accounted for by Dr. Abbott--The Necessity for the Acceptance of Christianity--Christians should be Glad to Know that the Bible is only the Work of Man and that the New Testament Life of Christ is Untrue--All the Good Commandments, Known to the World thousands of Years before Moses--Human Happiness of More Consequence than the Truth about God--The Appeal to Great Names--Gladstone not the Greatest Statesman--What the Agnostic Says--The Magnificent Mistakes of Genesis--The Story of Joseph--Abraham as a "self-Exile for Conscience's Sake."

REPLY TO ARCHDEACON FARRAR.

(1890.)

Revelation as an Appeal to Man's "Spirit"--What is Spirit and what is "Spiritual Intuition"?--The Archdeacon in Conflict with St. Paul--II. The Obligation to Believe without Evidence--III. Ignorant Credulity--IV. A Definition of Orthodoxy--V. Fear not necessarily Cowardice--Prejudice is Honest--The Ola has the Advantage in an Argument--St. Augustine--Jerome--the Appeal to Charlemagne--Roger Bacon--Lord Bacon a Defender of the Copernican System--The Difficulty of finding out what Great Men Believed--Names Irrelevantly Cited--Bancroft on the Hessians--Original Manuscripts of the Bible--VI. An Infinite Personality a Contradiction in Terms--VII. A Beginningless Being--VIII. The Cruelties of Nature not to be Harmonized with the Goodness of a Deity--Sayings from the Indian--Origen, St. Augustine, Dante, Aquinas.

IS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT DEGRADING?

(1890.)

A Reply to the Dean of St. Paul--Growing Confidence in the Power of Kindness--Crimes against Soldiers and Sailors--Misfortunes Punished as Crimes--The Dean's Voice Raised in Favor of the Brutalities of the Past--Beating of Children--Of Wives--Dictum of Solomon.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; INGERSOLL'S OPENING PAPER

[Ingersoll-Black]

By Robert G. Ingersoll

In the presence of eternity the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

A PROFOUND change has taken place in the world of thought. The pews are trying to set themselves somewhat above the pulpit. The layman discusses theology with the minister, and smiles. Christians excuse themselves for belonging to the church, by denying a part of the creed. The idea is abroad that they who know the most of nature believe the least about theology. The sciences are regarded as infidels, and facts as scoffers. Thousands of most excellent people avoid churches, and, with few exceptions, only those attend prayer-meetings who wish to be alone. The pulpit is losing because the people are growing.

Of course it is still claimed that we are a Christian people, indebted to something called Christianity for all the progress we have made. There is still a vast difference of opinion as to what Christianity really is, although many warring sects have been discussing that question, with fire and sword, through centuries of creed and crime. Every new sect has been denounced at its birth as illegitimate, as a something born out of orthodox wedlock, and that should have been allowed to perish on the steps where it was found. Of the relative merits of the various denominations, it is sufficient to say that each claims to be right. Among the evangelical churches there is a substantial agreement upon what they consider the fundamental truths of the gospel. These fundamental truths, as I understand them, are:

That there is a personal God, the creator of the material universe; that he made man of the dust, and woman from part of the man; that the man and woman were tempted by the devil; that they were turned out of the Garden of Eden; that, about fifteen hundred years afterward, God's patience having been exhausted by the wickedness of mankind, he drowned his children with the exception of eight persons; that afterward he selected from their descendants Abraham, and through him the Jewish people; that he gave laws to these people, and tried to govern them in all things; that he made known his will in many ways; that he wrought a vast number of miracles; that he inspired men to write the Bible; that, in the fullness of time, it having been found impossible to reform mankind, this God came upon earth as a child born of the Virgin Mary; that he lived in Palestine; that he preached for about three years, going from place to place, occasionally raising the dead, curing the blind and the halt; that he was crucified--for the crime of blasphemy, as the Jews supposed, but that, as a matter of fact, he was offered as a sacrifice for the sins of all who might have faith in him; that he was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, where he now is, making intercession for his followers; that he will forgive the sins of all who believe on him, and that those who do not believe will be consigned to the dungeons of eternal pain. These--it may be with the addition of the sacraments of Baptism and the Last Supper--constitute what is generally known as the Christian religion.

It is most cheerfully admitted that a vast number of people not only believe these things, but hold them in exceeding reverence, and imagine them to be of the utmost importance to mankind. They regard the Bible as the only light that God has given for the guidance of his children; that it is the one star in nature's sky--the foundation of all morality, of all law, of all order, and of all individual and national progress. They regard it as the only means we have for ascertaining the will of God, the origin of man, and the destiny of the soul.

It is needless to inquire into the causes that have led so many people to believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures. In my opinion, they were and are mistaken, and the mistake has hindered, in countless ways, the civilization of man. The Bible has been the fortress and defence of nearly every crime. No civilized country could re-enact its laws, and in many respects its moral code is abhorrent to every good and tender man. It is admitted that many of its precepts are pure, that many of its laws are wise and just, and that many of its statements are absolutely true.

Without desiring to hurt the feeling? of anybody, I propose to give a few reasons for thinking that a few passages, at least, in the Old Testament are the product of a barbarous people.

In all civilized countries it is not only admitted, but it is passionately asserted, that slavery is and always was a hideous crime; that a war of conquest is simply murder; that polygamy is the enslavement of woman, the degradation of man, and the destruction of home; that nothing is more infamous than the slaughter of decrepit men, of helpless women, and of prattling babes; that captured maidens should not be given to soldiers; that wives should not be stoned to death on account of their religious opinions, and that the death penalty ought not to be inflicted for a violation of the Sabbath. We know that there was a time, in the history of almost every nation, when slavery, polygamy, and wars of extermination were regarded as divine institutions; when women were looked upon as beasts of burden, and when, among some people, it was considered the duty of the husband to murder the wife for differing with him on the subject of religion. Nations that entertain these views to-day are regarded as savage, and, probably, with the exception of the South Sea Islanders, the Feejees, some citizens of Delaware, and a few tribes in Central Africa, no human beings can be found degraded enough to agree upon these subjects with the Jehovah of the ancient Jews. The only evidence we have, or can have, that a nation has ceased to be savage is the fact that it has abandoned these doctrines. To every one, except the theologian, it is perfectly easy to account for the mistakes, atrocities, and crimes of the past, by saying that civilization is a slow and painful growth; that the moral perceptions are cultivated through ages of tyranny, of want, of crime, and of heroism; that it requires centuries for man to put out the eyes of self and hold in lofty and in equal poise the scales of justice; that conscience is born of suffering; that mercy is the child of the imagination--of the power to put oneself in the sufferer's place, and that man advances only as he becomes acquainted with his surroundings, with the mutual obligations of life, and learns to take advantage of the forces of nature.

But the believer in the inspiration of the Bible is compelled to declare that there was a time when slavery was right--when men could buy, and women could sell, their babes. He is compelled to insist that there was a time when polygamy was the highest form of virtue; when wars of extermination were waged with the sword of mercy; when religious toleration was a crime, and when death was the just penalty for having expressed an honest thought. He must maintain that Jehovah is just as bad now as he was four thousand years ago, or that he was just as good then as he is now, but that human conditions have so changed that slavery, polygamy, religious persecutions, and wars of conquest are now perfectly devilish. Once they were right--once they were commanded by God himself; now, they are prohibited. There has been such a change in the conditions of man that, at the present time, the devil is in favor of slavery, polygamy, religious persecution, and wars of conquest. That is to say, the devil entertains the same opinion to-day that Jehovah held four thousand years ago, but in the meantime Jehovah has remained exactly the same--changeless and incapable of change.

We find that other nations beside the Jews had similar laws and ideas; that they believed in and practiced slavery and polygamy, murdered women and children, and exterminated their neighbors to the extent of their power. It is not claimed that they received a revelation. It is admitted that they had no knowledge of the true God. And yet, by a strange coincidence, they practised the same crimes, of their own motion, that the Jews did by the command of Jehovah. From this it would seem that man can do wrong without a special revelation.

It will hardly be claimed, at this day, that the passages in the Bible upholding slavery, polygamy, war and religious persecution are evidences of the inspiration of that book. Suppose that there had been nothing in the Old Testament upholding these crimes, would any modern Christian suspect that it was not inspired, on account of the omission? Suppose that there had been nothing in the Old Testament but laws in favor of these crimes, would any intelligent Christian now contend that it was the work of the true God? If the devil had inspired a book, will some believer in the doctrine of inspiration tell us in what respect, on the subjects of slavery, polygamy, war, and liberty, it would have differed from some parts of the Old Testament? Suppose that we should now discover a Hindu book of equal antiquity with the Old Testament, containing a defence of slavery, polygamy, wars of extermination, and religious persecution, would we regard it as evidence that the writers were inspired by an infinitely wise and merciful God? As most other nations at that time practiced these crimes, and as the Jews would have practiced them all, even if left to themselves, one can hardly see the necessity of any inspired commands upon these subjects. Is there a believer in the Bible who does not wish that God, amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, had distinctly said to Moses that man should not own his fellow-man; that women should not sell their babes; that men should be allowed to think and investigate for themselves, and that the sword should never be unsheathed to shed the blood of honest men? Is there a believer in the world, who would not be delighted to find that every one of these infamous passages are interpolations, and that the skirts of God were never reddened by the blood of maiden, wife, or babe? Is there a believer who does not regret that God commanded a husband to stone his wife to death for suggesting the worship of the sun or moon? Surely, the light of experience is enough to tell us that slavery is wrong, that polygamy is infamous, and that murder is not a virtue. No one will now contend that it was worth God's while to impart the information to Moses, or to Joshua, or to anybody else, that the Jewish people might purchase slaves of the heathen, or that it was their duty to exterminate the natives of the Holy Land. The deists have contended that the Old Testament is too cruel and barbarous to be the work of a wise and loving God. To this, the theologians have replied, that nature is just as cruel; that the earthquake, the volcano, the pestilence and storm, are just as savage as the Jewish God; and to my mind this is a perfect answer.

Suppose that we knew that after "inspired" men had finished the Bible, the devil got possession of it, and wrote a few passages; what part of the sacred Scriptures would Christians now pick out as being probably his work? Which of the following passages would naturally be selected as having been written by the devil--"Love thy neighbor as thyself," or "Kill all the males among the little ones, and kill every woman; but all the women children keep alive for yourselves."?

It may be that the best way to illustrate what I have said of the Old Testament is to compare some of the supposed teachings of Jehovah with those of persons who never read an "inspired" line, and who lived and died without having received the light of revelation. Nothing can be more suggestive than a comparison of the ideas of Jehovah--the inspired words of the one claimed to be the infinite God, as recorded in the Bible--with those that have been expressed by men who, all admit, received no help from heaven.

In all ages of which any record has been preserved, there have been those who gave their ideas of justice, charity, liberty, love and law. Now, if the Bible is really the work of God, it should contain the grandest and sublimest truths. It should, in all respects, excel the works of man. Within that book should be found the best and loftiest definitions of justice; the truest conceptions of human liberty; the clearest outlines of duty; the tenderest, the highest, and the noblest thoughts,--not that the human mind has produced, but that the human mind is capable of receiving. Upon every page should be found the luminous evidence of its divine origin. Unless it contains grander and more wonderful things than man has written, we are not only justified in saying, but we are compelled to say, that it was written by no being superior to man. It may be said that it is unfair to call attention to certain bad things in the Bible, while the good are not so much as mentioned. To this it may be replied that a divine being would not put bad things in a book. Certainly a being of infinite intelligence, power, and goodness could never fall below the ideal of "depraved and barbarous" man. It will not do, after we find that the Bible upholds what we now call crimes, to say that it is not verbally inspired. If the words are not inspired, what is? It may be said that the thoughts are inspired. But this would include only the thoughts expressed without words. If ideas are inspired, they must be contained in and expressed only by inspired words; that is to say, the arrangement of the words, with relation to each other, must have been inspired. For the purpose of this perfect arrangement, the writers, according to the Christian world, were inspired. Were some sculptor inspired of God to make a statue perfect in its every part, we would not say that the marble was inspired, but the statue--the relation of part to part, the married harmony of form and function. The language, the words, take the place of the marble, and it is the arrangement of these words that Christians claim to be inspired. If there is one uninspired word,--that is, one word in the wrong place, or a word that ought not to be there,--to that extent the Bible is an uninspired book. The moment it is admitted that some words are not, in their arrangement as to other words, inspired, then, unless with absolute certainty these words can be pointed out, a doubt is cast on all the words the book contains. If it was worth God's while to make a revelation to man at all, it was certainly worth his while to see that it was correctly made. He would not have allowed the ideas and mistakes of pretended prophets and designing priests to become so mingled with the original text that it is impossible to tell where he ceased and where the priests and prophets began. Neither will it do to say that God adapted his revelation to the prejudices of mankind. Of course it was necessary for an infinite being to adapt his revelation to the intellectual capacity of man; but why should God confirm a barbarian in his prejudices? Why should he fortify a heathen in his crimes? If a revelation is of any importance whatever, it is to eradicate prejudices from the human mind. It should be a lever with which to raise the human race. Theologians Have exhausted their ingenuity in finding excuses for God. It seems to me that they would be better employed in finding excuses for men. They tell us that the Jews were so cruel and ignorant that God was compelled to justify, or nearly to justify, many of their crimes, in order to have any influence with them whatever. They tell us that if he had declared slavery and polygamy to be criminal, the Jews would have refused to receive the Ten Commandments. They insist that, under the circumstances, God did the best he could; that his real intention was to lead them along slowly, step by step, so that, in a few hundred years, they would be induced to admit that it was hardly fair to steal a babe from its mother's breast. It has always seemed reasonable that an infinite God ought to have been able to make man grand enough to know, even without a special revelation, that it is not altogether right to steal the labor, or the wife, or the child, of another. When the whole question is thoroughly examined, the world will find that Jehovah had the prejudices, the hatreds, and superstitions of his day.

If there is anything of value, it is liberty. Liberty is the air of the soul, the sunshine of life. Without it the world is a prison and the universe an infinite dungeon.

If the Bible is really inspired, Jehovah commanded the Jewish people to buy the children of the strangers that sojourned among them, and ordered that the children thus bought should be an inheritance for the children of the Jews, and that they should be bondmen and bondwomen forever. Yet Epictetus, a man to whom no revelation was made, a man whose soul followed only the light of nature, and who had never heard of the Jewish God, was great enough to say: "Will you not remember that your servants are by nature your brothers, the children of God? In saying that you have bought them, you look down on the earth, and into the pit, on the wretched law of men long since dead, but you see not the laws of the gods."

We find that Jehovah, speaking to his chosen people, assured them that their bondmen and their bondmaids must be "of the heathen that were round about them." "Of them," said Jehovah, "shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids." And yet Cicero, a pagan, Cicero, who had never been enlightened by reading the Old Testament, had the moral grandeur to declare: "They who say that we should love our fellow-citizens, but not foreigners, destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind, with which benevolence and justice would perish forever."

If the Bible is inspired, Jehovah, God of all worlds, actually said: "And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished; notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money." And yet Zeno, founder of the Stoics, centuries before Christ was born, insisted that no man could be the owner of another, and that the title was bad, whether the slave had become so by conquest, or by purchase. Jehovah ordered a Jewish general to make war, and gave, among others, this command: "When the Lord thy God shall drive them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them." And yet Epictetus, whom we have already quoted, gave this marvelous rule for the guidance of human conduct: "Live with thy inferiors as thou would'st have thy superiors live with thee."

Is it possible, after all, that a being of infinite goodness and wisdom said: "I will heap mischief upon them: I will spend mine arrows upon them. They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also, with the man of gray hairs"; while Seneca, an uninspired Roman, said: "The wise man will not pardon any crime that ought to be punished, but he will accomplish, in a nobler way, all that is sought in pardoning. He will spare some and watch over some, because of their youth, and others on account of their ignorance. His clemency will not fall short of justice, but will fulfill it perfectly."

Can we believe that God ever said of any one: "Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow; let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places; let the extortioner catch all that he hath and let the stranger spoil his labor; let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children." If he ever said these words, surely he had never heard this line, this strain of music, from the Hindu: "Sweet is the lute to those who have not heard the prattle of their own children."

Jehovah, "from the clouds and darkness of Sinai," said to the Jews: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them; for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." Contrast this with the words put by the Hindu into the mouth of Brahma:

"I am the same to all mankind. They who honestly serve other gods, involuntarily worship me. I am he who partaketh of all worship, and I am the reward of all worshipers."

Compare these passages. The first, a dungeon where crawl the things begot of jealous slime; the other, great as the domed firmament inlaid with suns.