them in his tent. For this atrocious crime it seems
that the Lord denied any victories to the Jews until
they found out the wicked criminal. When they dis-
covered poor Achan, "they took him and his sons
"and his daughters, and his oxen and his asses and
"his sheep, and all that he had, and brought them unto
"the valley of Achor; and all Israel stoned him with
"stones and burned them with fire after they had
"stoned them with stones."
After Achan and his sons and his daughters and
his herds had been stoned and burned to death, we
are told that "the Lord turned from the fierceness of
"his anger."
And yet it is insisted that this God "is merciful,
"and that his loving-kindness is over all his works."
In the eighth chapter of this same book, the infi-
nite God, "creator of heaven and earth and all that is
"therein," told his general, Joshua, to lay an ambush
for a city--to "lie in wait against the city, even be-
"hind the city; go not very far from the city, but be
"ye all ready." He told him to make an attack and
then to run, as though he had been beaten, in order
that the inhabitants of the city might follow, and
thereupon his reserves that he had ambushed might
rush into the city and set it on fire. God Almighty
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planned the battle. God himself laid the snare. The
whole programme was carried out. Joshua made
believe that he was beaten, and fled, and then the
soldiers in ambush rose out of their places, enter-
ed the city, and set it on fire. Then came the
slaughter. They "utterly destroyed all the inhabit-
"ants of Ai," men and maidens, women and babes,
sparing only their king till evening, when they
hanged him on a tree, then "took his carcase down
"from the tree and cast it at the entering of the
"gate, and raised thereon a great heap of stones
"which remaineth unto this day." After having
done all this, "Joshua built an altar unto the Lord
"God of Israel, and offered burnt offerings unto the
"Lord." I ask again, was this cruel?
Again I ask, was the treatment of the Gibeonites
cruel when they sought to make peace but were
denied, and cursed instead; and although permitted
to live, were yet made slaves? Read the mandate
consigning them to bondage: "Now therefore ye
"are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed
"from being bondmen and hewers of wood and
"drawers of water for the house of my God."
Is it possible, as recorded in the tenth chapter of
Joshua, that the Lord took part in these battles, and
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cast down great hail-stones from the battlements of
heaven upon the enemies of the Israelites, so that
"they were more who died with hail-stones, than
"they whom the children of Israel slew with the
"sword"?
Is it possible that a being of infinite power would
exercise it in that way instead of in the interest of
kindness and peace?
I find, also, in this same chapter, that Joshua took
Makkedah and smote it with the edge of the sword,
that he utterly destroyed all the souls that were
therein, that he allowed none to remain.
I find that he fought against Libnah, and smote
it with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed
all the souls that were therein, and allowed none to
remain, and did unto the king as he did unto the king
of Jericho.
I find that he also encamped against Lachish, and
that God gave him that city, and that he "smote it
"with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that
"were therein," sparing neither old nor young, help-
less women nor prattling babes.
He also vanquished Horam, King of Gezer, "and
"smote him and his people until he left him none
"remaining."
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He encamped against the city of Eglon, and killed
every soul that was in it, at the edge of the sword,
just as he had done to Lachish and all the others.
He fought against Hebron, "and took it and
"smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king
"thereof,"--and it appears that several cities, their
number not named, were included in this slaughter,
for Hebron "and all the cities thereof and all the
"souls that were therein," were utterly destroyed.
He then waged war against Debir and took it, and
more unnumbered cities with it, and all the souls that
were therein shared the same horrible fate--he did
not leave a soul alive.
And this chapter of horrors concludes with this
song of victory:
"So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and
"of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs,
"and all their kings: he left none remaining, but
"utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord
"God of Israel commanded. And Joshua smote
"them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza, and all the
"country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon. And all these
"kings and their land did Joshua take at one time,
"because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel."
Was God, at that time, merciful?
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I find, also, in the twenty-first chapter that many
Icings met, with their armies, for the purpose of
overwhelming Israel, and the Lord said unto Joshua:
"Be not afraid because of them, for to-morrow about
"this time I will deliver them all slain before Israel.
"I will hough their horses and burn their chariots
"with fire." Were animals so treated by the com-
mand of a merciful God?
Joshua captured Razor, and smote all the souls
that were therein with the edge of the sword, there
was not one left to breathe; and he took all the
cities of all the kings that took up arms against him,
and utterly destroyed all the inhabitants thereof.
He took the cattle and spoils as prey unto himself,
and smote every man with the edge of the sword;
and not only so, but left not a human being to
breathe.
I find the following directions given to the Israel-
ites who were waging a war of conquest. They are
in the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy, from the
tenth to the eighteenth verses:
"When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight
"against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it
"shall be, if it make thee an answer of peace, and
"open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people
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"that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee,
"and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no
"peace with thee, but will war against thee, then
"thou shalt besiege it. And when the Lord thy
"God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt
"smite every male thereof with the edge of the
"sword; but the women, and the little ones, and
"the cattle, and all that is in the city, even the spoil
"thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou
"shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the
"Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou
"do unto all the cities which are very far off from
"thee, which are not of the cities of these nations."
It will be seen from this that people could take
their choice between death and slavery, provided
these people lived a good ways from the Israelites.
Now, let us see how they were to treat the inhabit-
ants of the cities near to them:
"But of the cities of these people which the Lord
"thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou
"shalt save alive nothing that breatheth. But thou
"shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites,
"and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites,
"the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the Lord thy God
"hath commanded thee."
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It never occurred to this merciful God to send
missionaries to these people. He built them no
schoolhouses, taught them no alphabet, gave them
no book; they were not supplied even with a copy of
the Ten Commandments. He did not say "Reform,"
but "Kill;" not "Educate," but "Destroy." He gave
them no Bible, built them no church, sent them no
preachers. He knew when he made them that he
would have to have them murdered. When he
created them he knew that they were not fit to live;
and yet, this is the infinite God who is infinitely
merciful and loves his children better than an earthly
mother loves her babe.
In order to find just how merciful God is, read the
twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, and see what
he promises to do with people who do not keep all of
his commandments and all of his statutes. He curses
them in their basket and store, in the fruit of their
body, in the fruit of their land, in the increase of their
cattle and sheep. He curses them in the city and in
the field, in their coming in and their going out. He
curses them with pestilence, with consumption, with
fever, with inflammation, with extreme burning, with
sword, with blasting, with mildew. He tells them
that the heavens shall be as brass over their heads
225
and the earth as iron under their feet; that the rain
shall be powder and dust and shall come down on
them and destroy them; that they shall flee seven
ways before their enemies; that their carcasses shall
be meat for the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the
earth; that he will smite them with the botch of
Egypt, and with the scab, and with the itch, and with
madness and blindness and astonishment; that he
will make them grope at noonday; that they shall be
oppressed and spoiled evermore; that one shall be-
troth a wife and another shall have her; that they
shall build a house and not dwell in it; plant a vine-
yard and others shall eat the grapes; that their
sons and daughters shall be given to their enemies;
that he will make them mad for the sight of their
eyes; that he will smite them in the knees and in the
legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed, and
from the sole of the foot to the top of the head;
that they shall be a by-word among all nations; that
they shall sow much seed and gather but little; that
the locusts shall consume their crops; that they shall
plant vineyards and drink no wine,--that they shall
gather grapes, but worms shall eat them; that they
shall raise olives but have no oil; beget sons and
daughters, but they shall go into captivity; that all
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the trees and fruit of the land shall be devoured by
locusts, and that all these curses shall pursue them
and overtake them, until they be destroyed; that they
shall be slaves to their enemies, and be constantly in
hunger and thirst and nakedness, and in want of all
things. And as though this were not enough, the
Lord tells them that he will bring a nation against
them swift as eagles, a nation fierce and savage, that
will show no mercy and no favor to old or young,
and leave them neither corn, nor wine, nor oil, nor
flocks, nor herds; and this nation shall besiege them
in their cities until they are reduced to the necessity
of eating the flesh of their own sons and daughters;
so that the men would eat their wives and their
children, and women eat their husbands and their
own sons and daughters, and their own babes.
All these curses God pronounced upon them if they
did not observe to do all the words of the law that
were written in his book.
This same merciful God threatened that he would
bring upon them all the diseases of Egypt--every
sickness and every plague; that he would scatter
them from one end of the earth to the other; that
they should find no rest; that their lives should hang
in perpetual doubt; that in the morning they would
227
say: Would God it were evening! and in the even-
ing, Would God it were morning! and that he would
finally take them back to Egypt where they should
be again sold for bondmen and bondwomen.
This curse, the foundation of the _Anathema
maranatha_; this curse, used by the pope of Rome to
prevent the spread of thought; this curse used even
by the Protestant Church; this curse born of barba-
rism and of infinite cruelty, is now said to have
issued from the lips of an infinitely merciful God. One
would suppose that Jehovah had gone insane; that
he had divided his kingdom like Lear, and from the
darkness of insanity had launched his curses upon a
world.
In order that there may be no doubt as to the
mercy of Jehovah, read the thirteenth chapter of
Deuteronomy:
"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy
"son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or
"thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee
"secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods,
"which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers;
" * * * thou shalt not consent unto him, nor
"hearken unto him; neither shall thine eyes pity him,
"neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal
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"him; but thou shalt surely kill him: thine hand
"shall be first upon him to put him to death, and
"afterwards the hand of all the people; and thou
"shalt stone him with stones that he die, because he
"hath sought to entice thee away from the Lord thy
"God."
This, according to Mr. Talmage, is a commandment
of the infinite God. According to him, God ordered
a man to murder his own son, his own wife, his own
brother, his own daughter, if they dared even to sug-
gest the worship of some other God than Jehovah.
For my part, it is impossible not to despise such
a God--a God not willing that one should worship
what he must. No one can control his admiration,
and if a savage at sunrise falls upon his knees and
offers homage to the great light of the East, he can-
not help it. If he worships the moon, he cannot help
it. If he worships fire, it is because he cannot control
his own spirit. A picture is beautiful to me in spite
of myself. A statue compels the applause of my
brain. The worship of the sun was an exceedingly
natural religion, and why should a man or woman be
destroyed for kneeling at the fireside of the world?
No wonder that this same God, in the very next
chapter of Deuteronomy to that quoted, says to his
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chosen people: "Ye shall not eat of anything that
"dieth of itself: thou shalt give it unto the stranger
"that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou
"mayest sell it unto an alien: for thou art a holy
"people unto the Lord thy God."
What a mingling of heartlessness and thrift--the
religion of sword and trade!
In the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy, Jehovah
gives his own character. He tells the Israelites that
there are seven nations greater and mightier than
themselves, but that he will deliver them to his chosen
people, and that they shall smite them and utterly
destroy them; and having some fear that a drop of
pity might remain in the Jewish heart, he says:
"Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor
"show mercy unto them. * * * Know therefore
"that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God,
"which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that
"love him and keep his commandments to a thousand
"generations, and repayeth them that hate him to
"their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to
"him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face."
This is the description which the merciful, long-suffer-
ing Jehovah gives of himself.