Then there is another gentleman, and he a rabbi, a Rabbi Bien, or Bean,
or whatever his name is, and he comes to the defense of the Great
Law-giver. There was another rabbi who attacked me in Cincinnati, and
I couldn't help but think of the old saying that a man got off when he
said the tallest man he ever knew, his name was Short. And the fattest
man he ever saw, his name was Lean. And it is only necessary for me to
add that this rabbi in Cincinnati was Wise.
The rabbi here, I will not answer him, and I will tell you why. Because
he has taken himself outside of all the limits of a gentleman; because
he has taken it upon himself to traduce American women in language the
beastliest I ever read; and any man who says that the American women
are not just as good women as any God can make and pick his mud today,
is an unappreciative barbarian.
I will let him alone because he denounced all the men in this country,
all the members of Congress, all the members of the Senate, and all the
judges upon the Bench; in his lecture he denounced them as thieves and
robbers. That won't do. I want to remind him that in this country the
Jews were first admitted to the privileges of citizens; that in this
country they were first given all their rights, and I am as much in
favor of their having their rights as I am in favor of having my own.
But when a rabbi so far forgets himself as to traduce the women and men
of this country, I pronounce him a vulgar falsifier, and let him alone.
Strange, that nearly every man that has answered me has answered me
mostly on the same side. Strange, that nearly every man that thought
himself called upon to defend the Bible was one who did not believe in
it himself. Isn't it strange? They are like some suspected people,
always anxious to show their marriage certificate. They want at least
to convince the world that they are not as bad as I am.
Now, I want to read you just one or two things, and then I am going to
let you go. I want to see if I have said such awful things, and
whether I have got any scripture to stand by me. I will read only two
or three verses. Does the Bible teach man to enslave his brother? If
it does, it is not the word of God, unless God is a slaveholder.
"Moreover, all the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you,
of them shall ye buy of their families which are with you, which they
beget in your land, and they shall be your possession. Ye shall take
them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit them.
They shall be your bondsmen forever."--(Old Testament.)
Upon the limbs of unborn babes this fiendish God put the chains of
slavery. I hate him.
"Both thy bondmen and bondwomen shall be of the heathen round about
thee and them shall ye buy, bondmen and bondwomen."
Now let us read what the New Testament has. I could read a great deal
more, but that is enough.
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the
flesh in fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto
Christ."
This is putting the dirty thief that steals your labor on an equality
with God.
"Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the
good and gentle but also to the froward."
"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully."
The idea of a man on account of conscience toward God stealing another
man, or allowing him nothing but lashes on his back as legal-tender for
labor performed.
"Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters
worthy of all honor, that the name of God and His doctrine be not
blasphemed."
How can you blaspheme the name of God by asserting your independence?
How can you blaspheme the name of a God by striking fetters from the
limbs of men? I wish some of your ministers would tell you that. "And
they that have believing masters let them not despise them." That is to
say, a good Christian could own another believer in Jesus Christ; could
own a woman and her children, and could sell the child away from its
mother. That is a sweet belief. O, hypocrisy!
"Let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do
them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the
benefit."
Oh, what slush! Here is what they will tell the poor slave, so that he
will serve the man that stole his wife and children from him:
"For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out. Having food and raiment let us be therewith content."
Don't you think that it would do just as well to preach that to the
thieving man as to the suffering slave? I think so. Then this same
Bible teaches witchcraft, that spirits go into the bodies of the man,
and pigs, and that God himself made a trade with the devil, and the
devil traded him off--a man for a certain number of swine, and the
devil lost money because the hogs ran right down into the sea. He got
a corner on that deal.
Now let us see how they believed in the rights of children:
"If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son which will not obey the
voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they
have chastened him, will not harken unto them, then shall his father
and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of
his city, and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the
elders of his city, 'This, our son, is stubborn and rebellious, he will
not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard.' And all the men of
this city shall stone him with stones, that he die, so shalt thou put
evil away."
That is a very good way to raise children. Here is the story of
Jephthah. He went off and he asked the Lord to let him whip some
people, and he told the Lord if He would let him whip them, he would
sacrifice to the Lord the first thing that met him on his return; and
the first thing that met him was his own beautiful daughter, and he
sacrificed her. Is there a sadder story in all history than that? What
do you think of a man that would sacrifice his own daughter? What do
you think of a God that would receive that sacrifice? Now, then, they
come to women in this blessed gospel, and let us see what the gospel
says about women. Then you ought all to go to church, girls, next
Sunday and hear it. "Let the woman learn in silence with all
subjection; but I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority
over the man, but to be in silence for Adam was formed first, not Eve."
Don't you see?
"And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing if
they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety." (That
is Mr. Timothy.) "But I would have you know that the head of every man
is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ
is God."