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they will only obey his commandments, and says:
"And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness,
"and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt
"upon thee, but will lay them upon all them that
"hate thee. And thou shalt consume all the people
"which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine
"eye shall have no pity upon them."
Under the immediate government of Jehovah,
mercy was a crime. According to the law of God,
pity was weakness, tenderness was treason, kindness
was blasphemy, while hatred and massacre were
virtues.
In the second chapter of Deuteronomy we find
another account tending to prove that Jehovah is a
merciful God. We find that Sihon, king of Heshbon,
would not let the Hebrews pass by him, and the
reason given is, that "the Lord God hardened his
"spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might
"deliver him into the hand" of the Hebrews. Sihon,
his heart having been hardened by God, came out
against the chosen people, and God delivered him to
them, and "they smote him, and his sons, and all his
"people, and took all his cities, and utterly destroyed
"the men and the women, and the little ones of
"every city: they left none to remain." And in this
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same chapter this same God promises that the dread
and fear of his chosen people should be "upon all the
"nations that are under the whole heaven," and that
"they should "tremble and be in anguish because of"
the Hebrews.
Read the thirty-first chapter of Numbers, and see
how the Midianites were slain. You will find that
"the children of Israel took all the women of Midian
"captives, and their little ones," that they took "all
"their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods,"
that they slew all the males, and burnt all their cities
and castles with fire, that they brought the captives
and the prey and the spoil unto Moses and Eleazar
the priest; that Moses was wroth with the officers
of his host because they had saved all the women
alive, and thereupon this order was given: "Kill
"every male among the little ones, and kill every
"woman, * * * but all the women children
"keep alive for yourselves."
After this, God himself spake unto Moses, and
said: "Take the sum of the prey that was taken,
"both of man and of beast, thou and Eleazar the
"priest * * * and divide the prey into two
"parts, between those who went to war, and between
"all the congregation, and levy a tribute unto the
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"Lord, one soul of five hundred of the persons,
"and the cattle; take it of their half and give it to
"the priest for an offering * * * and of the
"children of Israel's half, take one portion of fifty of
"the persons and the animals and give them unto
"the Levites. * * * And Moses and the priest
"did as the Lord had commanded." It seems that
they had taken six hundred and seventy-five thou-
sand sheep, seventy-two thousand beeves, sixty-one
thousand asses, and thirty-two thousand women
children and maidens. And it seems, by the fortieth
verse, _that the Lord's tribute of the maidens was thirty-
two_,--the rest were given to the soldiers and to the
congregation of the Lord.
Was anything more infamous ever recorded in the
annals of barbarism? And yet we are told that the
Bible is an inspired book, that it is not a cruel book,
and that Jehovah is a being of infinite mercy.
In the twenty-fifth chapter of Numbers we find
that the Israelites had joined themselves unto Baal-
Peor, and thereupon the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them, as usual. No being ever lost
his temper more frequently than this Jehovah. Upon
this particular occasion, "the Lord said unto Moses,
"Take all the heads of the people, and hang them
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"up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce
"anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel."
And thereupon "Moses said unto the judges of Israel,
"Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto
"Baal-peor."
Just as soon as these people were killed, and their
heads hung up before the Lord against the sun, and
a horrible double murder of a too merciful Israelite
and a Midianitish woman, had been committed by
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, "the plague was stayed
"from the children of Israel." Twenty-four thousand
had died. Thereupon, "the Lord spake unto Moses
"and said"--and it is a very merciful commandment
--"Vex the Midianites and smite them."
In the twenty-first chapter of Numbers is more evi-
dence that God is merciful and compassionate.
The children of Israel had become discouraged.
They had wandered so long in the desert that they
finally cried out: "Wherefore have ye brought us
"up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There
"is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loatheth
"this light bread." Of course they were hungry and
thirsty. Who would not complain under similar cir-
cumstances? And yet, on account of this complaint,
the God of infinite tenderness and compassion sent
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serpents among them, and these serpents bit them--
bit the cheeks of children, the breasts of maidens,
and the withered faces of age. Why would a God
do such an infamous thing? Why did he not, as the
leader of this people, his chosen children, feed them
better? Certainly an infinite God had the power
to satisfy their hunger and to quench their thirst.
He who overwhelmed a world with water, certainly
could have made a few brooks, cool and babbling,
to follow his chosen people through all their jour-
neying. He could have supplied them with miracu-
lous food.
How fortunate for the Jews that Jehovah was not
revengeful, that he was so slow to anger, so patient,
so easily pleased. What would they have done had
he been exacting, easily incensed, revengeful, cruel,
or blood-thirsty?
In the sixteenth chapter of Numbers, an account is
given of a rebellion. It seems that Korah, Dathan
and Abiram got tired of Moses and Aaron. They
thought the priests were taking a little too much
upon themselves. So Moses told them to have two
hundred and fifty of their men bring their censers
and put incense in them before the Lord, and stand
in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
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with Moses and Aaron. That being done, the Lord
appeared, and told Moses and Aaron to separate
themselves from the people, that he might consume
them all in a moment. Moses and Aaron, having a
little compassion, begged God not to kill everybody.
The people were then divided, and Dathan and
Abiram came out and stood in the door of their
tents with their wives and their sons and their little
children. And Moses said:
"Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent
"me to do all these works; for I have not done them
"of my mine own mind. If these men die the
"common death of all men, or if they be visited
"after the common visitation of all men, then the
"Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a
"new thing, and the earth open her mouth and
"swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them,
"and they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall
"understand that these men have provoked the
"Lord." The moment he ceased speaking, "the
"ground clave asunder that was under them; and
"the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up,
"and their houses, and all the men that appertained
"unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that
"appertained to them went down alive into the pit,
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"and the earth closed upon them, and they perished
"from among the congregation."
This, according to Mr. Talmage, was the act of an
exceedingly merciful God, prompted by infinite kind-
ness, and moved by eternal pity. What would he
have done had he acted from motives of revenge?
What would he Jiave done had he been remorse-
lessly cruel and wicked?
In addition to those swallowed by the earth, the
two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense
were consumed by "a fire that came out from the
"Lord." And not only this, but the same merciful
Jehovah wished to consume all the people, and he
would have consumed them all, only that Moses pre-
vailed upon Aaron to take a censer and put fire
therein from off the altar of incense and go quickly
to the congregation and make an atonement for them.
He was not quick enough. The plague had already
begun; and before he could possibly get the censers
and incense among the people, fourteen thousand and
seven hundred had died of the plague. How many
more might have died, if Jehovah had not been so
slow to anger and so merciful and tender to his
children, we have no means of knowing.