But the believer in the inspiration of the Bible is compelled to declare
that there was a time when slavery was right--when men could buy and
women sell their babes. He is compelled to insist that there was a time
when polygamy was the highest form of virtue; when wars of extermination
were waged with the sword of mercy; when religious toleration was a
crime, and when death was the just penalty for having expressed an
honest thought. He must maintain that Jehovah is just as bad now as he
was four thousand years ago, or that he was just as good then as he is
now, but that human conditions have so changed that slavery, polygamy,
religious persecutions and wars of conquest are now perfectly devilish.
Once they were right--once they were commanded by God himself; now, they
are prohibited. There has been such a change in the conditions of man
that, at the present time, the devil is in favor of slavery, polygamy,
religious persecution and wars of conquest. That is to say, the devil
entertains the same opinion to-day that Jehovah held four thousand
years ago, but in the meantime Jehovah has remained exactly the
same--changeless and incapable of change.