But the preacher took the ground that it was a very cruel and barbarous
thing to exterminate those nations, or to put them to the sword. He
dwelt on the barbarous ideas that then prevailed, contrasting them with
the toleration that prevails now. He said that we convert men now,
instead of killing them. He took the ground that the extermination of
those people was due to an entire misconception of the divine command.
It struck me at the moment that such an idea was entirely contrary to
the fact. Here is the command, and the substance of it was often
repeated: "Ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations
which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and
upon the hills, and under every green tree; and ye shall overthrow their
altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye
shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of
them out of that place."
The divine command, then, was not misconceived. We may see plainly now
its wisdom and real kindness. But Israel made an unwise and unholy
compromise. By this compromise that was made, the surrounding heathen
tribes in some cases were spared. The consequence was that there was a
constant incitement to idolatry. Again and again, Israel fell into this
sin, and paid severely for their crime. I think it is not too much to
say that had Israel inflexibly carried out the divine command, the
Jewish nation might have been the strongest in the world to-day.
But what has all this to do with the theory of Restoration? A great
deal. In the light of that larger truth, extermination was not the harsh
measure that at the first glance it seems. It was simply the removal of
those incorrigible races to other scenes where they would have better
chances of reform; and it was the removal of a constant snare to Israel.
Under the old idea, those heathen tribes were consigned to eternal
torment. Even for the women and children there was no escape. They were
not fit for Heaven; so they must all go to hell; that was the naked,
bald idea. Even if the children were saved, how were they prepared for
the scenes of bliss? But when we once entertain the idea of a future
process of reformation, a door of hope is opened for the worst of them.