_Question_. I want to ask you a few questions
about Mr. Talmage's third sermon. What do
you think of it?
_Answer_. I often ask myself the questions: Is
there anything in the occupation of a minister,--any-
thing in his surroundings, that makes him incapable
of treating an opponent fairly, or decently? Is there
anything in the doctrine of universal forgiveness that
compels a man to speak of one who differs with him
only in terms of disrespect and hatred? Is it neces-
sary for those who profess to love the whole world,
to hate the few they come in actual contact with?
84
Mr. Talmage, no doubt, professes to love all man-
kind,--Jew and Gentile, Christian and Pagan. No
doubt, he believes in the missionary effort, and thinks
we should do all in our power to save the soul of the
most benighted savage; and yet he shows anything
but affection for the "heathen" at home. He loves
the ones he never saw,--is real anxious for their wel-
fare,--but for the ones he knows, he exhibits only
scorn and hatred. In one breath, he tells us that
Christ loves us, and in the next, that we are "wolves
"and dogs." We are informed that Christ forgave
even his murderers, but that now he hates an honest
unbeliever with all his heart. He can forgive the
ones who drove the nails into his hands and feet,--
the one who thrust the spear through his quivering
flesh,--but he cannot forgive the man who entertains
an honest doubt about the "scheme of salvation."
He regards the man who thinks, as a "mouth-maker
"at heaven." Is it possible that Christ is less for-
giving in heaven than he was in Jerusalem? Did he
excuse murderers then, and does he damn thinkers
now? Once he pitied even thieves; does he now
abhor an intellectually honest man?
_Question_. Mr. Talmage seems to think that you
have no right to give your opinion about the Bible.
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Do you think that laymen have the same right as
ministers to examine the Scriptures?
_Answer_. If God only made a revelation for
preachers, of course we will have to depend on the
preachers for information. But the preachers have
made the mistake of showing the revelation. They
ask us, the laymen, to read it, and certainly there is
no use of reading it, unless we are permitted to think
for ourselves while we read. If after reading the Bible
we believe it to be true, we will say so, if we are
honest. If we do not believe it, we will say so, if we
are honest.
But why should God be so particular about our
believing the stories in his book? Why should God
object to having his book examined? We do not
have to call upon legislators, or courts, to protect
Shakespeare from the derision of mankind. Was not
God able to write a book that would command the
love and admiration of the world? If the God of
Mr. Talmage is infinite, he knew exactly how the
stories of the Old Testament would strike a gentle-
man of the nineteenth century. He knew that many
would have their doubts,--that thousands of them--
and I may say most of them,--would refuse to believe
that a miracle had ever been performed.
86
Now, it seems to me that he should either have left
the stories out, or furnished evidence enough to con-
vince the world. According to Mr. Talmage, thou-
sands of people are pouring over the Niagara of
unbelief into the gulf of eternal pain. Why does not
God furnish more evidence? Just in proportion as
man has developed intellectually, he has demanded
additional testimony. That which satisfies a barbarian,
excites only the laughter of a civilized man. Cer-
tainly God should furnish evidence in harmony with
the spirit of the age. If God wrote his Bible for the
average man, he should have written it in such a way
that it would have carried conviction to the brain and
heart of the average man; and he should have
made no man in such a way that he could not, by any
possibility, believe it. There certainly should be a
harmony between the Bible and the human brain. If
I do not believe the Bible, whose fault is it? Mr.
Talmage insists that his God wrote the Bible for me.
and made me. If this is true, the book and the man
should agree. There is no sense in God writing
a book for me and then making me in such a way that
I cannot believe his book.
_Question_. But Mr. Talmage says the reason why
you hate the Bible is, that your soul is poisoned; that
87
the Bible "throws you into a rage precisely as pure
"water brings on a paroxysm of hydrophobia."
_Answer_. Is it because the mind of the infidel is
poisoned, that he refuses to believe that an infinite
God commanded the murder of mothers, maidens and
babes? Is it because their minds are impure, that
they refuse to believe that a good God established
the institution of human slavery, or that he protected
it when established? Is it because their minds are
vile, that they refuse to believe that an infinite God
established or protected polygamy? Is it a sure
sign of an impure mind, when a man insists that
God never waged wars of extermination against his
helpless children? Does it show that a man has
been entirely given over to the devil, because he
refuses to believe that God ordered a father to sacri-
fice his son? Does it show that a heart is entirely
without mercy, simply because a man denies the
justice of eternal pain?
I denounce many parts of the Old Testament
because they are infinitely repugnant to my sense
of justice,--because they are bloody, brutal and in-
famous,--because they uphold crime and destroy
human liberty. It is impossible for me to imagine
a greater monster than the God of the Old Testa-
88
ment. He is unworthy of my worship. He com-
mands only my detestation, my execration, and my
passionate hatred. The God who commanded the
murder of children is an infamous fiend. The God
who believed in polygamy, is worthy only of con-
tempt. The God who established slavery should be
hated by every free man. The Jehovah of the Jews
was simply a barbarian, and the Old Testament is
mostly the barbarous record of a barbarous people.
If the Jehovah of the Jews is the real God, I do
not wish to be his friend. From him I neither ask,
nor expect, nor would I be willing to receive, even an
eternity of joy. According to the Old Testament,
he established a government,--a political state,--and
yet, no civilized country to-day would re-enact these
laws of God.
_Question_. What do you think of the explanation
given by Mr. Talmage of the stopping of the sun and
moon in the time of Joshua, in order that a battle
might be completed?
_Answer_. Of course, if there is an infinite God,
he could have stopped the sun and moon. No one
pretends to prescribe limits to the power of the
infinite. Even admitting that such a being existed,
the question whether he did stop the sun and moon,
89
or not, still remains. According to the account, these
planets were stopped, in order that Joshua might con-
tinue the pursuit of a routed enemy. I take it for
granted that a being of infinite wisdom would not
waste any force,--that he would not throw away any
"omnipotence," and that, under ordinary circum-
stances, he would husband his resources. I find that
this spirit exists, at least in embryo, in Mr. Talmage.
He proceeds to explain this miracle. He does not
assert that the earth was stopped on its axis, but sug-
gests "refraction" as a way out of the difficulty. Now,
while the stopping of the earth on its axis accounts for
the sun remaining in the same relative position, it does
not account for the stoppage of the moon. The moon
has a motion of its own, and even if the earth had been
stopped in its rotary motion, the moon would have gone
on. The Bible tells us that the moon was stopped. One
would suppose that the sun would have given sufficient
light for all practical purposes. Will Mr. Talmage be
kind enough to explain the stoppage of the moon?
Every one knows that the moon is somewhat obscure
when the sun is in the midst of the heavens. The moon
when compared with the sun at such a time, is much
like one of the discourses of Mr. Talmage side by side
with a chapter from Humboldt;--it is useless.
90
In the same chapter in which the account of the
stoppage of the sun and moon is given, we find that
God cast down from heaven great hailstones on
Joshua's enemies. Did he get out of hailstones?
Had he no "omnipotence" left? Was it necessary
for him to stop the sun and moon and depend entirely
upon the efforts of Joshua? Would not the force
employed in stopping the rotary motion of the earth
have been sufficient to destroy the enemy? Would
not a millionth part of the force necessary to stop the
moon, have pierced the enemy's centre, and rolled up
both his flanks? A resort to lightning would have
been, in my judgment, much more economical and
rather more effective. If he had simply opened the
earth, and swallowed them, as he did Korah and his
company, it would have been a vast saving of
"omnipotent" muscle. Yet, the foremost orthodox
minister of the Presbyterian Church,--the one who
calls all unbelievers "wolves and dogs," and "brazen
"fools," in his effort to account for this miracle, is
driven to the subterfuge of an "optical illusion."
We are seriously informed that "God probably
"changed the nature of the air," and performed this
feat of ledgerdemain through the instrumentality of
"refraction." It seems to me it would have been fully
91
as easy to have changed the nature of the air breathed
by the enemy, so that it would not have supported
life. He could have accomplished this by changing
only a little air, in that vicinity; whereas, according
to the Talmagian view, he changed the atmosphere
of the world. Or, a small "local flood" might have
done the work. The optical illusion and refraction
view, ingenious as it may appear, was not original
with Mr. Talmage. The Rev. Henry M. Morey, of
South Bend, Indiana, used, upon this subject, the fol-
lowing language; "The phenomenon was simply
"optical. The rotary motion of the earth was not
"disturbed, but the light of the sun was prolonged by
"the same laws of refraction and reflection by which
"the sun now appears to be above the horizon when
"it is really below. The medium through which the
"sun's rays passed, might have been miraculously
"influenced so as to have caused the sun to linger
"above the horizon long after its usual time for dis-
"appearance."
I pronounce the opinion of Mr. Morey to be the
ripest product of Christian scholarship. According to
the Morey-Talmage view, the sun lingered somewhat
above the horizon. But this is inconsistent with the
Bible account. We are not told in the Scriptures that
92
the sun "lingered above the horizon," but that it "stood
"still in the midst of heaven for about a whole day."
The trouble about the optical-illusion view is, that it
makes the day too long. If the air was miraculously
changed, so that it refracted the rays of the sun, while
the earth turned over as usual for about a whole day,
then, at the end of that time, the sun must have been
again visible in the east. It would then naturally
shine twelve hours more, so that this miraculous day
must have been at least thirty-six hours in length.
There were first twelve hours of natural light, then
twelve hours of refracted and reflected light, and then
twelve hours more of natural light. This makes the
day too long. So, I say to Mr. Talmage, as I said to
Mr. Morey: If you will depend a little less on
refraction, and a little more on reflection, you will see
that the whole story is a barbaric myth and foolish
fable.
For my part, I do not see why God should be
pleased to have me believe a story of this character.
I can hardly think that there is great joy in heaven
over another falsehood swallowed. I can imagine
that a man may deny this story, and still be an excel-
lent citizen, a good father, an obliging neighbor, and
in all respects a just and truthful man. I can also
93
imagine that a man may believe this story, and yet
assassinate a President of the United States.
I am afraid that Mr. Talmage is beginning to be
touched, in spite of himself, with some new ideas. He
tells us that worlds are born and that worlds die.
This is not exactly the Bible view. You would think
that he imagined that a world was naturally pro-
duced,--that the aggregation of atoms was natural,
and that disintegration came to worlds, as to men,
through old age. Yet this is not the Bible view.
According to the Bible, these worlds were not born,--
they were created out of "nothing," or out of
"omnipotence," which is much the same. According
to the Bible, it took this infinite God six days to make
this atom called earth; and according to the account,
he did not work nights,--he worked from the morn-
ings to the evenings,--and I suppose rested nights,
as he has since that time on Sundays.
Admitting that the battle which Joshua fought
was exceedingly important--which I do not think--
is it not a little strange that this God, in all subse-
quent battles of the world's history, of which we
know anything, has maintained the strictest neu-
trality? The earth turned as usual at Yorktown,
and at Gettysburg the moon pursued her usual
94
course; and so far as I know, neither at Waterloo
nor at Sedan were there any peculiar freaks of "re-
"fraction" or "reflection."
_Question_. Mr. Talmage tells us that there was in
the early part of this century a dark day, when
workmen went home from their fields, and legis-
latures and courts adjourned, and that the darkness
of that day has not yet been explained. What is
your opinion about that?
_Answer_. My opinion is, that if at that time we
had been at war with England, and a battle had
been commenced in the morning, and in the after-
noon the American forces had been driven from their
position and were hard pressed by the enemy, and
if the day had become suddenly dark, and so dark
that the Americans were thereby enabled to escape,
thousands of theologians of the calibre of Mr. Tal-
mage would have honestly believed that there had
been an interposition of divine Providence. No
battle was fought that day, and consequently, even
the ministers are looking for natural causes. In
olden times, when the heavens were visited by
comets, war, pestilence and famine were predicted.
If wars came, the prediction was remembered; if
95
nothing happened, it was forgotten. When eclipses
visited the sun and moon, the barbarian fell upon his
knees, and accounted for the phenomena by the
wickedness of his neighbor. Mr. Talmage tells us
that his father was terrified by the meteoric shower
that visited our earth in 1833. The terror of the
father may account for the credulity of the son.
Astronomers will be surprised to read the declaration
of Mr. Talmage that the meteoric shower has never
been explained. Meteors visit the earth every year
of its life, and in a certain portion of the orbit they
are always expected, and they always come. Mr.
Newcomb has written a work on astronomy that
all ministers ought to read.
_Question_. Mr. Talmage also charges you with
"making light of holy things," and seems to be aston-
ished that you should ridicule the anointing oil of
Aaron?
_Answer_. I find that the God who had no time to
say anything on the subject of slavery, and who found
no room upon the tables of stone to say a word
against polygamy, and in favor of the rights of
woman, wife and mother, took time to give a recipe
for making hair oil. And in order that the priests
96
might have the exclusive right to manufacture this oil,
decreed the penalty of death on all who should
infringe. I admit that I am incapable of seeing the
beauty of this symbol. Neither could I ever see the
necessity of Masons putting oil on the corner-stone
of a building. Of course, I do not know the exact
chemical effect that oil has on stone, and I see no harm
in laughing at such a ceremony. If the oil does good,
the laughter will do no harm; and if the oil will do no
harm, the laughter will do no good. Personally, I am
willing that Masons should put oil on all stones; but,
if Masons should insist that I must believe in the effi-
cacy of the ceremony, or be eternally damned, I
would have about the same feeling toward the
Masons that I now have toward Mr. Talmage. I
presume that at one time the putting of oil on a
corner-stone had some meaning; but that it ever did
any good, no sensible man will insist. It is a custom
to break a bottle of champagne over the bow of
a newly-launched ship, but I have never considered
this ceremony important to the commercial interests
of the world.
I have the same opinion about putting oil on
stones, as about putting water on heads. For my
part, I see no good in the rite of baptism. Still, it
97
may do no harm, unless people are immersed during
cold weather. Neither have I the slightest objection
to the baptism of anybody; but if people tell me that
I must be baptized or suffer eternal agony, then I deny
it. If they say that baptism does any earthly good, I
deny it. No one objects to any harmless ceremony;
but the moment it is insisted that a ceremony is neces-
sary, the reason of which no man can see, then the
practice of the ceremony becomes hurtful, for the
reason that it is maintained only at the expense of
intelligence and manhood.
It is hurtful for people to imagine that they can
please God by any ceremony whatever. If there is
any God, there is only one way to please him, and
that is, by a conscientious discharge of your obliga-
tions to your fellow-men. Millions of people imagine
that they can please God by wearing certain kinds
of cloth. Think of a God who can be pleased with
a coat of a certain cut! Others, to earn a smile of
heaven, shave their heads, or trim their beards, or
perforate their ears or lips or noses. Others maim
and mutilate their bodies. Others think to please
God by simply shutting their eyes, by swinging
censers, by lighting candles, by repeating poor Latin,
by making a sign of the cross with holy water, by
98
ringing bells, by going without meat, by eating fish,
by getting hungry, by counting beads, by making
themselves miserable Sundays, by looking solemn,
by refusing to marry, by hearing sermons; and
others imagine that they can please God by calumni-
ating unbelievers.
There is an old story of an Irishman who, when
dying, sent for a priest. The reputation of the
dying man was so perfectly miserable, that the priest
refused to administer the rite of extreme unction.
The priest therefore asked him if he could recollect
any decent action that he had ever done. The dying
man said that he could not. "Very well," said the
priest, "then you will have to be damned." In a
moment, the pinched and pale face brightened, and
he said to the priest: "I have thought of one good
"action." "What is it?" asked the priest. And the
dying man said, "Once I killed a gauger."
I suppose that in the next world some ministers,
driven to extremes, may reply: "Once I told a lie
"about an infidel."
_Question_. You see that Mr. Talmage still sticks to
the whale and Jonah story. What do you think of
his argument, or of his explanation, rather, of that
miracle?
99
_Answer_. The edge of his orthodoxy seems to be
crumbling. He tells us that "there is in the mouth
"of the common whale a cavity large enough for a
"man to live in without descent into his stomach,"--
and yet Christ says, that Jonah was in the whale's
belly, not in his mouth. But why should Mr. Tal-
mage say that? We are told in the sacred account
that "God prepared a great fish" for the sole pur-
pose of having Jonah swallowed. The size of the
present whale has nothing to do with the story. No
matter whether the throat of the whale of to-day is
large or small,--that has nothing to do with it. The
simple story is, that God prepared a fish and had
Jonah swallowed. And yet Mr. Talmage throws out
the suggestion that probably this whale held Jonah
in his mouth for three days and nights. I admit that
Jonah's chance for air would have been a little better
in his mouth, and his chance for water a little worse.
Probably the whale that swallowed Jonah was the
same fish spoken of by Procopius,--both accounts
being entitled, in my judgment, to equal credence.
I am a little surprised that Mr. Talmage forgot
to mention the fish spoken of by Munchausen--an
equally reliable author,--and who has given, not
simply the bald fact that a fish swallowed a ship, but
100
was good enough to furnish the details. Mr. Talmage
should remember that out of Jonah's biography
grew the habit of calling any remarkable lie, "a fish
"story." There is one thing that Mr. Talmage
should not forget; and that is, that miracles should
not be explained. Miracles are told simply to be
believed, not to be understood.
Somebody suggested to Mr. Talmage that, in
all probability, a person in the stomach of a whale
would be digested in less than three days. Mr. Tal-
mage, again showing his lack of confidence in God,
refusing to believe that God could change the nature
of gastric juice,--having no opportunity to rely
upon "refraction or reflection," frankly admits that
Jonah had to save himself by keeping on the
constant go and jump. This gastric-juice theory of
Mr. Talmage is an abandonment of his mouth hy-
pothesis. I do not wonder that Mr. Talmage thought
of the mouth theory. Possibly, the two theories had
better be united--so that we may say that Jonah,
when he got tired of the activity necessary to
avoid the gastric juice, could have strolled into
the mouth for a rest. What a picture! Jonah
sitting on the edge of the lower jaw, wiping the
perspiration and the gastric juice from his anxious
101
face, and vainly looking through the open mouth
for signs of land!
In this story of Jonah, we are told that "the Lord
"spake unto the fish." In what language? It must
be remembered that this fish was only a few hours
old. He had been prepared during the storm, for
the sole purpose of swallowing Jonah. He was a
fish of exceedingly limited experience. He had no
hereditary knowledge, because he did not spring
from ancestors; consequently, he had no instincts.
Would such a fish understand any language? It
may be contended that the fish, having been made
for the occasion, was given a sufficient knowledge
of language to understand an ordinary command-
ment; but, if Mr. Talmage is right, I think an order
to the fish would have been entirely unnecessary.
When we take into consideration that a thing the
size of a man had been promenading up and down
the stomach of this fish for three days and three
nights, successfully baffling the efforts of gastric
juice, we can readily believe that the fish was as
anxious to have Jonah go, as Jonah was to leave.
But the whale part is, after all, not the most won-
derful portion of the book of Jonah. According to
this wonderful account, "the word of the Lord came
102
"to Jonah," telling him to "go and cry against the
"city of Nineveh;" but Jonah, instead of going,
endeavored to evade the Lord by taking ship for
Tarshish. As soon as the Lord heard of this, he
"sent out a great wind into the sea," and frightened
the sailors to that extent that after assuring them-
selves, by casting lots, that Jonah was the man, they
threw him into the sea. After escaping from the
whale, he went to Nineveh, and delivered his pre-
tended message from God. In consequence of his
message, Jonah having no credentials from God,--
nothing certifying to his official character, the King
of Nineveh covered himself with sack-cloth and sat
down in some ashes. He then caused a decree to
be issued that every man and beast should abstain
from food and water; and further, that every man and
beast should be covered with sack-cloth. This was
done in the hope that Jonah's God would repent, and
turn away his fierce anger. When we take into con-
sideration the fact that the people of Nineveh were
not Hebrews, and had not the slightest confidence in
the God of the Jews--knew no more of, and cared no
more for, Jehovah than we now care for Jupiter, or
Neptune; the effect produced by the proclamation of
Jonah is, to say the least of it, almost incredible.
103
We are also informed, in this book, that the
moment God saw all the people sitting in the ashes,
and all the animals covered with sack-cloth, he
repented. This failure on the part of God to destroy
the unbelievers displeased Jonah exceedingly, and
he was very angry. Jonah was much like the
modern minister, who seems always to be personally
aggrieved if the pestilence and famine prophesied by
him do not come. Jonah was displeased to that
degree, that he asked God to kill him. Jonah then
went out of the city, even after God had repented,
made him a booth and sat under it, in the shade,
waiting to see what would become of the city. God
then "prepared a gourd, and made it to come up
"over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his
"head to deliver him from his grief." And then we
have this pathetic line: "So Jonah was exceedingly
"glad of the gourd."
God having prepared a fish, and also prepared
a gourd, proposed next morning to prepare a worm.
And when the sun rose next day, the worm that
God had prepared, "smote the gourd, so that
"it withered." I can hardly believe that an in-
finite being prepared a worm to smite a gourd
so that it withered, in order to keep the sun from
104
the bald head of a prophet. According to the
account, after sunrise, and after the worm had
smitten the gourd, "God prepared a vehement east
"wind." This was not an ordinary wind, but one
prepared expressly for that occasion. After the wind
had been prepared, "the sun beat upon the head of
"Jonah, and he fainted, and wished in himself to
"die." All this was done in order to convince
Jonah that a man who would deplore the loss of a
gourd, ought not to wish for the destruction of a city.
Is it possible for any intelligent man now to
believe that the history of Jonah is literally true?
For my part, I cannot see the necessity either of
believing it, or of preaching it. It has nothing to do
with honesty, with mercy, or with morality. The
bad may believe it, and the good may hold it in
contempt. I do not see that civilization has the
slightest interest in the fish, the gourd, the worm, or
the vehement east wind.
Does Mr. Talmage think that it is absolutely neces-
sary to believe _all_ the story? Does he not think it
probable that a God of infinite mercy, rather than
damn the soul of an honest man to hell forever, would
waive, for instance, the worm,--provided he believed
in the vehement east wind, the gourd and the fish?
105
Mr. Talmage, by insisting on the literal truth of
the Bible stories, is doing Christianity great harm.
Thousands of young men will say: "I can't become
"a Christian if it is necessary to believe the adven-
"tures of Jonah." Mr. Talmage will put into the
paths of multitudes of people willing to do right,
anxious to make the world a little better than it is,--
this stumbling block. He could have explained it,
called it an allegory, poetical license, a child of the
oriental imagination, a symbol, a parable, a poem, a
dream, a legend, a myth, a divine figure, or a great
truth wrapped in the rags and shreds and patches of
seeming falsehood. His efforts to belittle the miracle,
to suggest the mouth instead of the stomach,--to
suggest that Jonah took deck passage, or lodged in
the forecastle instead of in the cabin or steerage,--
to suggest motion as a means of avoiding digestion,
is a serious theological blunder, and may cause the
loss of many souls.
If Mr. Talmage will consult with other ministers,
they will tell him to let this story alone--that he will
simply "provoke investigation and discussion"--two
things to be avoided. They will tell him that they
are not willing their salary should hang on so slender
a thread, and will advise him not to bother his gourd
106
about Jonah's. They will also tell him that in this
age of the world, arguments cannot be answered by
"a vehement east wind."
Some people will think that it would have been
just as easy for God to have pulled the gourd up, as
to have prepared a worm to bite it.
_Question_. Mr. Talmage charges that you have
said there are indecencies in the Bible. Are you
still of that opinion?
_Answer_. Mr. Talmage endeavors to evade the
charge, by saying that "there are things in the Bible
"not intended to be read, either in the family circle,
"or in the pulpit, but nevertheless they are to be
"read." My own judgment is, that an infinite being
should not inspire the writing of indecent things.
It will not do to say, that the Bible description of sin
"warns and saves." There is nothing in the history
of Tamar calculated to "warn and save and the
same may be said of many other passages in the
Old Testament. Most Christians would be glad
to know that all such passages are interpolations.
I regret that Shakespeare ever wrote a line that
could not be read any where, and by any person.
But Shakespeare, great as he was, did not rise en-
107
tirely above his time. So of most poets. Nearly all
have stained their pages with some vulgarity; and I
am sorry for it, and hope the time will come when
we shall have an edition of all the great writers and
poets from which every such passage is elimi-
nated.
It is with the Bible as with most other books. It
is a mingling of good and bad. There are many
exquisite passages in the Bible,--many good laws,--
many wise sayings,--and there are many passages
that should never have been written. I do not pro-
pose to throw away the good on account of the
bad, neither do I propose to accept the bad on
account of the good. The Bible need not be taken
as an entirety. It is the business of every man who
reads it, to discriminate between that which is good
and that which is bad. There are also many passages
neither good nor bad,--wholly and totally indifferent
--conveying 110 information--utterly destitute of
ideas,--and as to these passages, my only objection
to them is that they waste time and paper.
I am in favor of every passage in the Bible that
conveys information. I am in favor of every wise
proverb, of every verse coming from human ex-
perience and that appeals to the heart of man. I am
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in favor of every passage that inculcates justice,
generosity, purity, and mercy. I am satisfied that
much of the historical part is false. Some of it
is probably true. Let us have the courage to take
the true, and throw the false away. I am satisfied
that many of the passages are barbaric, and many of
them are good. Let us have the wisdom to accept
the good and to reject the barbaric.
No system of religion should go in partnership
with barbarism. Neither should any Christian feel
it his duty to defend the savagery of the past. The
philosophy of Christ must stand independently of the
mistakes of the Old Testament. We should do jus-
tice whether a woman was made from a rib or from
"omnipotence." We should be merciful whether
the flood was general, or local. We should be kind
and obliging whether Jonah was swallowed by a fish
or not. The miraculous has nothing to do with the
moral. Intelligence is of more value than inspiration.
Brain is better than Bible. Reason is above all
religion. I do not believe that any civilized human
being clings to the Bible on account of its barbaric
passages. I am candid enough to believe that every
Christian in the world would think more of the Bible,
if it had not upheld slavery, if it had denounced
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polygamy, if it had cried out against wars of exter-
mination, if it had spared women and babes, if it had
upheld everywhere, and at all times, the standard of
justice and mercy. But when it is claimed that the
book is perfect, that it is inspired, that it is, in fact,
the work of an infinitely wise and good God,--then
it should be without a defect. There should not be
within its lids an impure word; it should not express
an impure thought. There should not be one word
in favor of injustice, not one word in favor of slavery,
not one word in favor of wars of extermination.
There must be another revision of the Scriptures.
The chaff must be thrown away. The dross must
be rejected; and only that be retained which is in
exact harmony with the brain and heart of the
greatest and the best.
_Question_. Mr. Talmage charges you with unfair-
ness, because you account for the death of art in
Palestine, by the commandment which forbids the
making of graven images.
_Answer_. I have said that that commandment was
the death of art, and I say so still. I insist that by
reason of that commandment, Palestine produced no
painter and no sculptor until after the destruction of
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Jerusalem. Mr. Talmage, in order to answer that
statement, goes on to show that hundreds and thou-
sands of pictures were produced in the Middle Ages.
That is a departure in pleading. Will he give us the
names of the painters that existed in Palestine from
Mount Sinai to the destruction of the temple? Will
he give us the names of the sculptors between those
times? Mohammed prohibited his followers from
making any representation of human or animal life,
and as a result, Mohammedans have never produced
a painter nor a sculptor, except in the portrayal and
chiseling of vegetable forms. They were confined
to trees and vines, and flowers. No Mohammedan
has portrayed the human face or form. But the
commandment of Jehovah went farther than that of
Momammed, and prevented portraying the image of
anything. The assassination of art was complete.
There is another thing that should not be forgotten.
We are indebted for the encouragement of
art, not to the Protestant Church; if indebted to any,
it is to the Catholic. The Catholic adorned the cathedral
with painting and statue--not the Protestant.
The Protestants opposed music and painting, and
refused to decorate their temples. But if Mr. Tal-
mage wishes to know to whom we are indebted for
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art, let him read the mythology of Greece and Rome.
The early Christians destroyed paintings and statues.
They were the enemies of all beauty. They hated
and detested every expression of art. They looked
upon the love of statues as a form of idolatry. They
looked upon every painting as a remnant of Pagan-
ism. They destroyed all upon which they could lay
their ignorant hands. Hundred of years afterwards,
the world was compelled to search for the fragments
that Christian fury had left. The Greeks filled the
world with beauty. For every stream and mountain
and cataract they had a god or goddess. Their
sculptors impersonated every dream and hope, and
their mythology feeds, to-day, the imagination of
mankind. The Venus de Milo is the impersonation
of beauty, in ruin--the sublimest fragment of the
ancient world. Our mythology is infinitely unpoetic
and barren--our deity an old bachelor from eternity,
who once believed in indiscriminate massacre. Upon
the throne of our heaven, woman finds no place.
Our mythology is destitute of the maternal.
_Question_. Mr. Talmage denies your statement
that the Old Testament humiliates woman. He also
denies that the New Testament says anything
against woman. How is it?
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_Answer_. Of course, I never considered a book up-
holding polygamy to be the friend of woman. Eve,
according to that book, is the mother of us all, and
yet the inspired writer does not tell us how long she
lived,--does not even mention her death,--makes
not the slightest reference as to what finally became
of her. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-
nine years, and yet, there is not the slightest mention
made of Mrs. Methuselah. Enoch was translated,
and his widow is not mentioned. There is not a
word about Mrs. Seth, or Mrs. Enos, or Mrs. Cainan,
or Mrs. Mahalaleel, or Mrs. Jared. We do not
know the name of Mrs. Noah, and I believe not the
name of a solitary woman is given from the creation
of Eve--with the exception of two of Lamech's
wives--until Sarai is mentioned as being the wife
of Abram.
If you wish really to know the Bible estimation of
woman, turn to the fourth and fifth verses of the
twelfth chapter of Leviticus, in which a woman, for
the crime of having borne a son, is unfit to touch a
hallowed thing, or to come in the holy sanctuary for
thirty-three days; but if a woman was the mother
of a girl, then she became totally unfit to enter the
sanctuary, or pollute with her touch a hallowed thing,
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for sixty-six days. The pollution was twice as great
when she had borne a daughter.
It is a little difficult to see why it is a greater crime
to give birth to a daughter than to a son. Surely, a
law like that did not tend to the elevation of woman.
You will also find in the same chapter that a woman
had to offer a pigeon, or a turtle-dove, as a sin offer-
ing, in order to expiate the crime of having become a
mother. By the Levitical law, a mother was unclean.
The priest had to make an atonement for her.
If there is, beneath the stars, a figure of complete
and perfect purity, it is a mother holding in her arms
her child. The laws respecting women, given by
commandment of Jehovah to the Jews, were born of
barbarism, and in this day and age should be re-
garded only with detestation and contempt. The
twentieth and twenty-first verses of the nineteenth
chapter of Leviticus show that the same punishment
was not meted to men and women guilty of the
same crime.
The real explanation of what we find in the Old
Testament degrading to woman, lies in the fact, that
the overflow of Love's mysterious Nile--the sacred
source of life--was, by its savage authors, deemed
unclean.
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_Question_. But what have you to say about the
women of the Bible, mentioned by Mr. Talmage,
and held up as examples for all time of all that is
sweet and womanly?
_Answer_. I believe that Esther is his principal
heroine. Let us see who she was.
According to the book of Esther, Ahasuerus who
was king of Persia, or some such place, ordered
Vashti his queen to show herself to the people
and the princes, because she was "exceedingly fair
"to look upon." For some reason--modesty per-
haps--she refused to appear. And thereupon the
king "sent letters into all his provinces and to every
"people after their language, that every man should
"bear rule in his own house;" it being feared that
if it should become public that Vashti had disobeyed,
all other wives might follow her example. The king
also, for the purpose of impressing upon all women
the necessity of obeying their husbands, issued a
decree that "Vashti should come no more before
"him," and that he would "give her royal estate
"unto another." This was done that "all the
"wives should give to their husbands honor, both to
"great and small."