Scientists are the last men upon the earth that should deal unfairly with
the Bible. They profess to investigate, to analyze, to demonstrate. In one
word, they profess to be in the lead of thought in a very progressive age;
therefore we expect just a little more from them than from the
unscientific. But, alas! many of them are mere socialists, and many who
are scientists have never investigated the Bible, do not understand its
facts, and are also averse to its claims.
“Science takes account of phenomenon, and seeks to understand its law.”
Now let us apply the test to some of the objectionable facts of the Bible,
and note the result.
Moses said to the children of Israel, Understand, therefore, this day,
that the Lord thy God is he who goeth over before thee. As a consuming
fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face;
so shalt thou drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord hath
said unto thee. Deut. 9: 3. This language has reference to the inhabitants
of the land of Canaan. Their wickedness appears in the following
quotations. Deut. 12: 29, 31. When the Lord thy God shall cut off the
nations from before thee, take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by
following them, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How
did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt
not do so unto the Lord thy God: for _every abomination_ to the Lord,
which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and
their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. The destruction
of these idolators, who were burning their own sons and daughters in the
fire, furnishes unbelievers and skeptics with a great deal of capital,
which can be used with ignorance, but not with intelligence.
What was the law governing in the case? The answer is in these words: The
course of conduct which is for the greatest good of the greatest number is
right. This law is known in the science of civil government. It has its
place in the history of all civil governments. Without it we are unable to
account for the facts known in the history of our own government. It is a
law that lies at the foundation of all moral and social institutions.
Those wicked tribes in the land of Canaan, and upon its borders, were in
the way of the establishment of any civil institution. It is to be
remembered, also, that the children of Israel did not forfeit their rights
in the land by going down into Egypt in the time of a famine.
The land was theirs by right of preoccupancy and by gift. Upon their
return from Egypt they found no civil institutions in the land, but, on
the contrary, the people were burning their own children in the fire. They
were also guilty of every abominable thing that was hateful in the sight
of God. They were utterly unqualified for citizenship in any civil state,
so they were cut off as cankers upon the body.
To the same end, the greatest good to the greatest number, our government
has cut off thousands of better men. When the children of Israel went into
the idolatrous worship of those wicked heathen and burned their sons and
daughters in the fire to Molech, the Lord gave them statutes and laws
which were not good, and whereby they might not live. He served them
right. How can civil government be perpetuated, or even exist, in the
midst of such heathenish idolatry? If infidel objections, based upon the
destruction of such wicked hordes as were put to death in Canaan, are
worth anything they are worth enough to sanction, by the protection of
civil government, all manner of abominations that are known among
barbarous heathen.
These enemies of God and the Bible talk as though such an outrage as
burning sons and daughters in the fire to idol gods should not be visited
with such punishment. Would they do any better? Could they manage such
barbarous murderers better for the general good? If it was possible for a
civil government to allow such characters the rights of citizenship it
would be at the expense of giving license to all other crimes, for there
are no crimes greater in their heinousness than _murderous idolatry_. If
infidels ever get the power in this or any other civil government, and
carry out the spirit of their lectures against the God of the Bible, the
government will soon come to an end, and crime of every grade and
character will prevail. American citizens have seen many better men than
old Amalek die. It is possible that a few unbelievers who were out in the
late civil war have seen better men die. It is possible that a few
unbelieving colonels have killed better men upon Southern battle-fields,
and it is possible that a few of them are traveling over the country
abusing Moses and the God of the Bible for putting worse men to death.
Let us ever remember that the eternal laws of right, sometimes,
necessitate the destruction of human life. The greatest good of the
greatest number is an object that should always govern the action of a
nation. This law should never be disregarded. Murder, having no connection
with the general good, is a very different thing. When an individual is
put to death by an individual to gratify malice its relations are not with
the general good.
All sensible men, who are acquainted with the Bible, know that the facts
of the Bible, known in the ancient wars of the nation of Israel, like the
facts known in the wars of our own nation, would look terrible in the
relations of murder. Things out of their relations are always ugly. A man
and a woman living together as husband and wife outside of the marriage
relation, would be in adultery, while others living in the same manner,
but inside of the matrimonial relation, would be in a grand and
praiseworthy union. Why is it that sensible men will wrest the Scriptures,
taking things out of their proper relations, and do it to their own
condemnation? “Happy is the man who condemneth not himself in that thing
which he alloweth.”