"Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt, v. 48). All
Christian professors admit that this perfection is to be attained by
following his practical example, and that the way to become acquainted
with this practical example is to read the Bible. Let us see, then,
where a practical compliance with this precept, as thus understood,
will lead us. If the God of the Bible is to be accepted as our "heavenly
Father," then a compliance with this precept will leave no crime
uncommitted, and no sin not perpetrated; for he is represented as
either committing or sanctioning every species of crime, wickedness, and
immorality known to society in the age in which the Bible was written.
That the truth of this statement may not be called in question, we will
proceed to bring forward evidence to prove it.
I. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS MURDER.
We find a scriptural warrant for the highest crime known to the
law,--that of murder. God is represented as saying to his holy people,
"Go ye out and slay every man his brother, every man his companion,
and every man his neighbor" (Exod. xxii. 27). And, relative to the
dissenter from the faith, he is represented as saying, "Ye shall stone
him with stones that he die." Now, if such texts are not calculated to
foster the spirit of murder, and to extinguish the natural repugnance to
cruelty and bloodshed in the human mind, we can conceive of no
language that would have such an effect, especially when it is taken in
connection with Christ's injunction, "He that hath not a sword, let him
sell his coat, and buy one."
And the practical lives of Christian professors, from the earliest
establishment of the Church, furnishes proof of the demoralizing
influence of such texts as these upon the readers of the Bible. These
injunctions to murder and slaughter have been faithfully obeyed; and
the effect has been to submerge Christendom in a sea of blood. Look, for
proof, at the war among the churches for many years about the doctrine
of the Eucharist, which resulted in the destruction of three hundred
thousand lives; the fight about images, in which fifty thousand men,
women, and children were murdered; the war of a dozen churches against
the sect of the Manicheans in the ninth century (A.D. 845) about
some trivial doctrine of the Christian creed, and which left on the
battle-field no less than a hundred thousand murdered human beings; the
Church schism, in the time of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, followed
by the war of the Hussites, which resulted in a bloody slaughter of a
hundred and fifty thousand fellow-Christians; the war known as "The Holy
Inquisition," established in the year 1208, made a record in its history
of human butchery of two hundred thousand Christian professors who had
to atone in blood for assuming the liberty to differ from the popular
creed; and, finally, the Thirty Years' war which strewed the earth with
bloody corpses to the frightful number of five millions of human beings,
The whole makes a sum total of eighteen millions, a large portion of
which were Christian professors,--all the work of Christian hands and
Christian churches, professed followers of the "Prince of peace." But,
if the text quoted above means any thing (requiring his followers to buy
swords), he appears also to have been the Prince of war. All the bloody
tragedies cited above, which form but a small number of the cases
which indelibly stain the records of the Christian Church,' show
how faithfully Christian professors have lived out the demoralizing
injunctions of their Bible, and prove that the Book has been a powerful
lever for evil as well as for good. Even the _shocking cruelties_
displayed in the execution of these bloody tragedies finds a warrant
in the Bible. In their efforts to carry out the Bible injunction to
exterminate heretics, no species of cruelty was left untried as a
punishment for the honest dissenter from the faith. The sword of the
Church was unsheathed, and plunged with a fierce and relentless ferocity
into the bosoms and bowels of their neighbors and fellow-Christian
professors, whose only offense was that of believing and worshiping God
according to the dictates of their consciences. With a burning hatred
for heretics, stimulated by reading the Bible injunction to put them
to death in a cruel manner, they leaped upon them with the ferocity of
tigers, and tortured them to death with every species of cruelty their
ingenuity could invent. They tied them to the whipping-post, or chained
them to the fiery fagot; lacerated their bodies; cut their tongues from
their mouths; tore their flesh from their bones with iron hooks, tongs,
and pincers; cut off their lips, and tore out their tongues, so that
their piercing cries and heart-rending agonies could convey no
intelligible sound; tore their nails from their fingers, and thrust
needles into the bleeding wounds; melted red-hot metal, and poured it
down their throats; plucked out their eyes, and threw them to beasts;
and, in some cases, their bodies were "stretched upon the rack, and
flayed alive, or torn limb from limb". But I forbear: the picture is too
shocking. Oh that the waves of oblivion could roll over and cover such
deeds of cruelty for ever! I rejoice that the age for such atrocities is
passed, and, I trust, can never return. I hope the churches will never
again hold the reins of government, and shape all the laws of the
country. The reason we do not witness such horrible scenes now is, that
many church-members have outgrown their Bible; and, if there are any who
have not, they are restrained by laws enacted by liberal minds of too
much good feeling and good sense to permit the churches to thus cruelly
persecute each other, or those who conscientiously differ from them.
I have stated that the shocking cruelties and barbarities practiced by
Christians upon each other in past ages, find a warrant in the Bible.
The act of David, "the man after God's own heart," in placing the
children of Ammon under saws and harrows of iron, is scarcely equaled in
atrocity by any act recorded in the history of the Fiji cannibals. It
is revolting to every impulse of benevolence, every feeling of humanity,
and all ideas of mercy or justice. And his wicked prayer, contained in
the one hundred and ninth Psalm, breathes forth the same spirit. It is
a series of fiendish imprecations poured out upon the heads of those who
differed from his creed, and worshiped a different God. We will quote
some of his language: "Set thou a wicked man over him. Let there be none
to extend mercy unto him; let his children be fatherless, and his wife
a widow; let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let his
posterity be cut off, and their name blotted out; let the extortioner
get all that he hath; let his prayer become sin; let the stranger spoil
his land; let not the sin of his mother be blotted out."
Here is a series of most malignant imprecations issuing from a mind
rankling and burning with a feeling of implacable revenge, which is
shocking to contemplate. It is murderous in its intent, and demoralizing
in its effect upon those who accept it as being in accordance with the
will of God. No person can contemplate the cruelties practiced by
this "man of God" upon his unoffending neighbors, or read his vengeful
prayer, and accept it as emanating from "the man after God's own heart,"
without having his moral strength and resolution weakened, his moral
standard lowered, and his ideas of the moral perfection of Deity
degraded. And it was by deriving their conceptions of God from such
a source that the Christian world has come to entertain such low,
belittling, and dishonorable views of "the Supreme Ruler of the
universe," as is shown in their preaching and their writings; and it
furnishes their children with a low and imperfect standard of morality.
And this must always be the condition of things while the Bible, with
its numerous bad examples and bad morality, is accepted as a guide
by those teachers and preachers who mold the moral sentiments of the
people. It will be observed, that "the man after God's own heart"
invokes the divine vengeance upon innocent children, and prays that they
may beg and starve, merely because their father was not a worshiper of
the savage Jewish Jehovah which exhibits a mind devoid of all idea of
justice or humanity.
And this is a part of the religion of the Christian's "Holy Bible,"
claimed as the product of divine inspiration. Now, who can not see that
such a religion as this is calculated to engender bad feelings, bad
ideas, and bad morals, and to repress the lofty moral emotions of the
human mind?
II. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS THEFT OR ROBBERY.
Robbery, practiced under the false pretense of borrowing, is another
crime claiming the sanction of God's "Holy Word" and that "Holy Being"
whose morality we are taught to imitate by the injunction, "Be ye
perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." We are told (in Exod.
xii.) that the Jews, or Hebrews, when leaving Egypt, robbed or
stole from the inhabitants to such an extent, that "they spoiled the
Egyptians," which leads to the conclusion that the robbery must have
been very extensive: and for this merciless, wholesale robbery, they
claimed the sanction of a just and righteous God; for we are told he
sanctioned or commanded the act. And this is a part of the code of
morals "the Evangelical Christian Union" would have us incorporate into
the Constitution of the United States; but it is evident, from the facts
already presented, that such an act would be a step towards barbarism.
III. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS WAR.
Another immoral feature of the Christian Bible, and one which proves
it to be a relic or record of barbarism, and a very unsuitable book
to "constitute the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our
conduct" (as recommended and urged by the Evangelical Christian Union),
is found in its frequent sanction of human butchery; and a just and
righteous God is represented as leaving his throne "in the heavens"
to come down to take a part in their savage and bloody battles with
different nations about their religious creeds.. He is represented as
standing in the front ranks during every battle fought by his "holy
people." And, by long experience on the field of human butchery, he came
to receive the military title of "God of War," "A Man of War," "The Lord
of Hosts," &c.; and his success in destroying human beings won for him
the reputation of a great and skillful general, and placed him above
other Gods in valor in his own estimation. He is represented as becoming
so excited with anger, so blood-thirsty and revengeful in spirit, that
he commanded his holy people to strike down every living creature with
the sword, whether men or animals. The word of command was "to spare
nothing;" "save nothing alive that breathes." He is even represented
as commanding the slaughter of innocent babes. The order was, so says
Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 3), "Spare them not, but slay both men and women,
infants and sucklings." Now, of all the blood-dyed mandates that ever
issued from human lips, or was heard on the plains of human butchery,
none ever excelled it in cruelty and malignant barbarity, claimed
as coming from the mouth of a God of infinite justice and infinite
benevolence. Think of the murder, in cold blood, of thousands of little
innocent, prattling babies, who never lisped an evil word, or conceived
an evil thought, in their lives! and this by command of the loving
Father of the human family! Who believes it? Who can believe it? Ay,
who dare believe it, if he would escape the charge of blasphemy? Neither
Nero nor Caligula was ever guilty of any thing so ruthless, so fiendish,
so cruel, and so vindictive. And this is the God the Evangelical Union
tell us the Constitution of the United States should recognize as the
Supreme Ruler of nations. This is the Bible which they tell us should
become "the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule of our conduct."
This is the religion which they are trying to revive and fasten upon
us in this enlightened nineteenth century. This is the religion we are
required to believe came from a God of infinite justice, infinite mercy,
and loving kindness, or be denounced as infidels, and be eternally
damned. But could a person be more damned than to believe in such a
religion? Now, those who have studied the philosophy and impressibility
of the human mind know that no extortion or contortion of the language
of the text, no symbolical or spiritual construction that can be forced
upon it, can prevent the reading and believing a book from producing
pernicious effects, which represents such barbarous deeds as having the
divine sanction. Nothing can prevent it from exercising a demoralizing
influence upon a Christian community. The sooner, therefore, it can
cease to be placed in the hands of the heathen and the young people of
Christian lands, and cease to constitute the basis of our religion,
the better for the progress of true morality, and a virtuous system of
religion.
IV. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS THE EVIL OF INTEMPERANCE.
There are a number of texts in the Bible, which, if human language can
mean any thing, most unquestionably furnish a warrant for drunkenness,
whatever might have been the intention of the writer; and that they have
had the effect to sustain and promote this evil, the practical history
of Christian countries furnish proof that can not be gainsaid. That
teacher of Bible morality--that wise man who is said to have received
his wisdom directly from God, and must consequently be considered good
authority--is represented as saying, "Give to him that is athirst, and
wine to those of heavy heart. Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and
remember his misery no more." Here we are virtually recommended to drown
our sorrows, and benumb the pangs of poverty, by becoming dead drunk;
for it is only after the inebriate has quaffed the contents of the
intoxicating bowl, or swung the bottle to his lips till he becomes
stupefied and insensible (i.e., "dead drunk"), that he can "forget his
poverty, and remember his misery no more." We dare not deny, then,
that Solomon recommended a state of beastly intoxication as a means of
drowning our troubles; for no other meaning can be forced upon the text
than that which we have assigned it, without assuming an unwarrantable
use of language. Away, then, with such a book as "the source of moral
and religious instruction for the heathen," or as a reading-book for
youth and children! The question is not what the Bible can be made to
teach; but what is it naturally understood to teach, and what are the
moral consequences of so understanding it?
And we find in Exodus a still more explicit license, not only for
drinking, but for buying and selling, intoxicating drinks It is
proclaimed, upon the authority of Jehovah, "Thou shalt spend thy
money for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for
whatsoever thy soul lusteth after" (Dent, xiv. 26). We are sometimes
told, but without reliable authority, that the wine here referred to did
not possess very intoxicating properties. But it will be observed that
the text did not stop at wine, but "strong drink;" thus leaving no doubt
upon the mind of the reader but that they used strong liquors, even if
we were warranted in assuming the wine was not of this character, which,
however, we are not, and which we know is not true: for, although like
the wine of the grape in other countries, it would not intoxicate while
new, yet in that warm climate, as travelers affirm, it will ferment in a
few hours. It is evident, then, that wine was one of their intoxicating
beverages in addition to "strong drinks." And here we find a license
for buying and selling and using both in a book which the orthodox
churches would have us adopt as "the fountain of our laws, and the
supreme rule of our conduct," ostensibly for the improvement of the
morals of the people; when it is known to unbiased investigators of the
subject that these and similar texts have been a stumbling-block in the
progress of the temperance reform among that class of people who take
the Bible as it reads without studying the art of extracting the old
meaning with the clerical force-pump, and coining a new meaning of their
own especially adapted to the occasion,--an art studied and practiced by
the spiritually blinded devotees of all "the Holy Bibles" which God is
assumed to have inspired for the salvation of the human race. I will
cite one case in proof of the statement that a Bible containing such
texts as I have cited is calculated to do much mischief in the way of
retarding the temperance reform by furnishing the plainest authority for
drinking and trafficking in intoxicating liquors. A friend, upon whom I
can rely, related to me the following case:
A man addicted to intemperate habits was converted to religion and
induced to sign a temperance pledge, partly by the influence of a
speaker who quoted from "the word of God" such texts as these: "Woe unto
him who holds the bottle to his neighbor's mouth" (Hab. ii. 15); "Wine
is a mocker, and strong drink is raging" (Prov, xx. 1). But a few days
after his conversion, as he was turning the leaves of the Bible, his
eye accidentally caught sight of one of the texts I have quoted,--"Thou
shalt spend thy money for strong drink," &c. Here he discovered that his
Bible and his God both declared that buying and drinking intoxicating
beverages was all right. It was enough. His resolution gave way;
his firmness was unmanned, his moral manhood prostrated, his pledge
overruled; and, in less than two hours, he was again lying in the ditch
"dead drunk." Here is a proof of the mischief that can be wrought by one
single text upon those who have accepted the Bible as "the supreme rule
of their conduct." You may proclaim the evil of intemperance with the
tongue of a Cicero, or paint it with the pencil of a Raphael, and muster
all the texts you can find in the book condemning the practice, yet one
such text as I have quoted will poison the moral force, of it all while
the Bible is read and adored as "the rule of their conduct." As one drop
of belladonna or prussic acid will poison a whole pint of water, in
like manner will one immoral text, when found in a book accepted by the
people as their highest authority in practical morals, have the effect
to neutralize the moral force of every sound precept that may be found
in the book. It is useless, and labor comparatively lost, for a book or
a moral teacher to inculcate good precepts, while it is known they are
morally capable of teaching or preaching bad ones. One spark of fire is
sufficient to explode a powder-magazine. Bad precepts and bad examples
are both very contagious in a morally undeveloped and unenlightened age;
and their pernicious effects can not be wholly counteracted or prevented
by any number of precepts of an opposite character.
But we are told the precepts above quoted are in the Old Testament,
and not the New, which is now accepted as higher authority. But then it
should be borne in mind, that the Old Testament is still being printed
and bound with the New as a part of "the Holy Bible," and "God's perfect
revelation to man" for "the guidance of his moral conduct." It is still
circulated both in Christian and heathen countries by the million with
the New, and as of equal authority with the New Testament. It takes
both to make "the Holy Bible." It will be in vain, then, to plead any
extenuation or apology for the immoralities of the Old Testament on this
ground. They will both stand or fall together. The "new dispensation"
could not stand a day without the Old Testament as a basis. And
then, when we push our investigations a step further, we find the New
Testament lending its sanction to most of the evils and crimes which
are supported by the Old Testament; and among this number is that under
review,--the vice or sin of intemperance. Paul, one of the principal
founders and expounders of the religion of the New Testament, and one
of the leading examples and teachers of its morals, in his letter of
exhortation to Timothy, advises him to "drink no longer water, but take
a little wine for the stomach's sake" (1 Tim. v. 23). As for the plea
or purpose for which the intoxicating beverage was to be used on this
occasion "for the stomach's sake," it is the same that dram-drinkers
and drunkards have always had recourse to to justify the use of strong
drink. It is always drunk for "the stomach's sake." And, when we find
Christ himself converting a large quantity of water into wine (see John
ii.), we must conclude that the New Testament does not teach a system
of morals calculated to arrest the sin of intemperance. Those, then, who
wish still to continue floundering in the cesspool of drunkenness, can
find in the New Testament, as well as the Old, a justification for this
sin.
V. THE CRIME OF SLAVE-HOLDING SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE.
The Bible contains a warrant for the perpetual enslavement of men,
women, and children. It is well known to the pioneer-laborers in the
antislavery reform, that this book constituted a strong bulwark in
support of the system; that it was one of the principal obstacles in the
way of effecting its extermination.
Its defenders quoted such texts as the following: "Of the heathen round
about you, shall ye buy bondmen and bond maids, and they shall be your
possession for ever" (Lev. xxv. 44). Among Christian professors, such
positive and explicit license for the practice of slave-holding was hard
to be set aside; and it undoubtedly had an influence to perpetuate the
accursed system of slavery.
VI. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS POLYGAMY.
The practice of polygamy is indorsed by the Christian Bible. It is
frequently sanctioned in the Old Testament, both by precept and example,
while it is nowhere condemned by the Book, either in the Old or New
Testament. This fact makes Mormonisin an impregnable institution; and
this is the reason it bids defiance to the efforts of a Christian nation
to put it down. It is a Bible institution. Hence a Bible-believing
nation dare not attack it. The hand of the government is powerless
to put it down, because it is justified by the "Holy Book." Hence it
continues to exist, a stigma upon the nation. Were it as explicitly
and strongly condemned by the Bible as idolatry is, it would have been
banished from the country long ago.
VII. LICENTIOUSNESS IS SANCTIONED BY THE BIBLE.
It can hardly be wondered at that so many Christian professors fall
victims to licentious habits, as is evident from reports almost daily
published in the periodicals, from which one traveler has collected more
than two thousand cases of priests, the professed teachers of morality,
who have fallen victims to the vice of illegal sexual intercourse within
a few years; and probably the number whose deeds are never brought to
light is much greater. As we have already remarked, this licentiousness
among Bible believers and Bible teachers is no cause of wonder when we
reflect that it is taught in their Bible, both by example and precept,
and even, we are told, commanded by Jehovah himself. In the thirty-first
chapter of Numbers it is written, that the Lord commanded Moses to slay
all the Midianites, except the women and girls who "had never known
man," amounting to about thirty thousand. They were even ordered to kill
every male among the little ones; and it is declared they left "nothing
alive that breathes," except the thirty thousand maids saved to gratify
the lust of those murderous libertines. Who that has any mercy, justice,
or refinement in their nature, can believe that such cruelty and
licentiousness was the work of a righteous God? Christian professors
contemplate these revolting pictures with an anxious desire to save the
credit of the Book, until, by dint of determination to believe (for
they are afraid even to doubt), they finally persuade themselves, that,
somehow or other, they must be right, notwithstanding their revolting
nature. They conclude they don't understand them, or that it is our fine
moral sensibilities, and our natural love of virtue, that is at fault.
And thus our moral manhood is deadened and sacrificed to our barbarous
religion. It is an evident fact, and a sorrowful truth, that the moral
sensibilities of all Christendom are more or less blunted and seared in
this way, and their standard of virtue lowered. Such is the demoralizing
influence of the "Holy Book" when idolized and regarded as the source
of our morals, and "the supreme rule of our conduct." It is evident we
never can reach that elevated standard of morals and true refinement
which is the natural outgrowth of civilization till the Bible is lowered
to a more subordinate position, and is no longer allowed to shape our
morals, and mold our religion, and retard our civilization. The texts
I have cited are but samples of many similar passages which evince a
sickly, licentious state of morals amongst "the Lord's holy people."
By the moral code of Moses and Jehovah, a Jew was authorized to seize
a beautiful woman (if he should see one amongst the captives taken in
war), and take her to his house for his wife; but, if he finds upon
trial that she don't suit him, then he can turn her out, and let her
go whither she will. He was licensed to turn her adrift upon the cold
charities of the world. "If it shall be that thou find no delight in
her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will" (Deut. xxi. 14). It
does not appear that her wishes were consulted in any case. She was
a captive at first, and a slave to the end. And these hard-hearted,
licentious men were "God's holy people." Those pious and devout
Christians who are so inveterately opposed to, and horrified at,
"Free-Lovism" should not let it be known they believe in the Bible,
lest they should get into the same difficulty the Rev. Mr. Hitchkiss did
while in Arabia. Having stated to a Mahomedan that there was a class of
people in America known as "Free-Lovers," and that they were infidels
and Spiritualists, the disciple of the Koran remarked, in reply, "I
suppose you are a Free-Lover also."--"What makes you entertain that
supposition?" asked the reverend. "Because," said the Mussulman, "you
are a believer in the Christian Bible; and I have observed, by reading
that its leading men were practical Free-Lovers.' The wise Solomon was
so highly esteemed by God, that he opened to him the fountain of wisdom;
and hence he must have been looked up to by the Jews as a leading
authority in matters of religion and morals, and an example be followed
in practical life; and he practiced 'Free-Lovism,' or licentiousness,
on a very large scale. His subjects and victims were numbered by
the thousand; and with three hundred of them he maintained no legal
relation. Hence they were what are now called prostitutes. And his
father David, 'the man after God's own heart,' was also a 'F ree-Lover,
and indirectly committed murder in order to increase his number of
victims; and Abraham, the father and founder of the Jewish nation,
also belonged to that class. I suppose, therefore, you consider it all
right." The reverend gentleman replied, "I believe it was right for
them, but would not be right for us." "Then," said the Mahomedan, "you
believe that moral principles change,--that what is right to day may be
wrong tomorrow, and _vice versa_. Now, it is evident, that, if they
can change once, they can change again, and may thus be perpetually
changing; so that it would be impossible to know what true morality is,
for it would be one thing to-day and another tomorrow. I hold that the
principles of morality are perfect, and hence can not change without
becoming immorality." Thus reasoned the "unconverted heathen;" and thus
closed his controversy with the Christian missionary. The reader can
judge which had the better end of the argument.
VIII. THE BIBLE SANCTIONS WIFE-CATCHING.
In the Book of Judges (Judges xxi. 20) we learn that the Israelites of
the tribe of Benjamin were instructed in the art of wife-catching. "Go
and lie in wait in the vineyards; and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh
come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and
catch you every man a wife" (Judges xxi. 21). "And they did so." Now it
was certainty rather shameful business for God's oracles to be engaged
in,--that of advising rude and lustful men to hide in ambush in the
vineyards, and, when they saw the young maidens approaching, to pounce
upon them while dancing, and carry or drag them off without a moment's
warning. It was called catching a wife; but, in this age of a higher
moral development, it would not be designated by such respectful
language, but would be placed in the list of crimes, and punished as a
State-prison offense.
IX. THE CRIMES OF TREACHERY AND ASSASSINATION.
In the fourth chapter of Judges we find a case of barbarity related,
comprising the double crime of treachery and murder, for which a
parallel can scarcely be found in the annals of any heathen nation, and
which appears to have received the approval of the Jewish Jehovah. It is
exhibited in the history of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. We read,
that as a poor fugitive by the name of Sisera was fleeing from "the
Lord's holy people," who were pursuing him with uplifted swords with the
determination to kill him, not for any crime whatever, but because he
professed a different religion, and refused to worship their cruel
God (for they seemed to consider themselves authorized by their God
to exterminate all nations who dissented from their creed),--as this
fugitive was flying from the swords of the worshipers of Jehovah, Jael
went out to meet him (Sisera), and said unto him, "Turn in, my lord:
turn in to me. Fear not." And, when he had turned in unto her in the
tent, she covered him with a mantle, and feigned much pity for him; and,
when he asked for a little water, she gave him milk: but, as soon as he
had fallen asleep, "she took a nail of the tent and a hammer, and went
softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temple, and fastened
it into the ground." Who can read this deed of treachery and cruelty
without emotions of horror, and thrilling chilly sensations at the
heart? And yet Jehovah, the God of Israel, is represented as saying,
"Blessed above women shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, be"
(Judg. v. 24). Now, what is this but a premium offered for treachery and
cold-blooded murder? I believe, with Lord Bacon, that "it is better to
believe in no God than to believe in one possessing dishonorable traits
of character;" and I can not see how it would be possible to ascribe
more dishonorable traits of character to any being than are ascribed
to the Jewish Jehovah. And this is the God the orthodox world wants put
into the Constitution of the United States; but most unfortunate for our
progress in morals and civilization would it be to adopt such a measure.
And this is the book which the churches are constantly appealing to the
people for aid to circulate among the heathen as necessary to improve
their morals, and save their souls; but no other book could be put into
their hands so completely calculated to deaden and obliterate every
feeling of humanity, every natural impulse of justice and mercy,
and kindle feelings of murder and revenge. Such a book should not be
admitted into their families to corrupt their natural sense of right and
justice.
I will cite another case evincing the same spirit, and teaching the same
kind of moral lesson. We are told in Judges (chap. iii.) that the Lord
sent a man by the name of Ehud to murder Eglon, King of Moab, and sent
him with a lie upon his lips. As he came near to the king, he said unto
him, "I have a message from God unto thee" (Judg. iii. 20, 21). And,
while conversing with him under the guise of a friend, he drew out a
dagger which he had concealed under his garments, and plunged it
into his body, and killed him. And the Lord, "the God of Israel," is
represented as raising up the bloody-minded Ehud for the special purpose
of perpetrating this shocking deed of murder. To circulate a book among
the heathen, detailing such revolting deeds of cruelty as consistent
with sound morality, and approved by a just and righteous God, is an
evil of no small magnitude.
I will cite one other case illustrative of Bible intolerance. It is
found in the history of the godly Phinehas, related in the twenty-fifth
chapter of Numbers. He was one of "The Lord's peculiar people," who were
such violent sectarians that they showed no mercy towards any nation
or any individual who dissented from their creed. Hence, when it was
reported to Moses and his God that Zimri and his wife Cozbi had become
converts to the Baal-peor religion, they sent Phinehas after them with
deadly weapons to slay them for heresy; and he chased them into their
tents, and slew them with a javelin upon their own hearthstone for no
crime whatever against the moral law, but for simply exercising their
God-given right to worship God according to the dictates of their
consciences. It was a feeling of sectarianism, intolerance, and bitter
animosity which prompted the act. We can not wonder, therefore, that
Christian Bible believers, who have chosen this book as "the supreme
rule of their conduct," should have written their history in blood, and
that the whole pathway of their pilgrimage is strewn with the bones
of their murdered victims, who were slain for being true to their
consciences, and for believing in and worshiping God according to their
convictions of right and duty.
In addition to the long list of crimes already enumerated as being
sanctioned by the Bible, we will name a few others:--
_Lying_.--We find that nearly all the leading characters who figure in
Bible history, and who are held up as moral exemplars of the human race,
were guilty of lying either directly or indirectly. We will cite a few
cases:--
It is shown that Abraham and his wife (Gen. xx.), and Isaac (Gen.
xxvi.), and Jacob (Gen. xxxi.), were all guilty of falsehood; also
Rachel, Jacob's wife (Gen. xxxi.), Jacob's sons (Gen. xxxvii.), and
Samson (Judg. xvi.), and Elisha (2 Kings), and four hundred prophets (1
Kings xxii.). And Jeremiah makes out all the prophets were virtual liars
(Jer. vi. 13). Peter lied three times in about seventy-five minutes
(Luke xxii.). And Paul justifies lying (Rom. iii--7). With so many
examples of lying by "inspired and holy men of old," the custom became
popular among the early Christians, and was upheld and justified by
them, as stated by the popular Christian writer, Mosheim. And some of
"the heathen nations," for this reason, were accustomed to calling the
Jews "the sons of falsehood." Now, we appeal to the moral consciousness
of every honest reader to decide in his own mind whether it is possible
for a book containing such defective moral inculcations to be calculated
to promote true virtue, or a love of truth, in either Christian or
heathen nations, and whether it should not, on this account, be kept out
of the hands of the heathen, as being calculated to weaken their natural
appreciation of truth.
_Swearing_.--Let the reader turn to his Bible concordance, and observe
the hundreds of cases in which God and his people are represented as
swearing. He can then understand why profanity is now more prevalent
in Christian than in heathen countries. God himself is several times
represented as swearing in his wrath (Ps. xcv. 11). It should therefore
be expected to be prevalent amongst Christian Bible believers.
As a Christian missionary was recently returning from India on board a
British vessel, observing a Christian professor frequently swearing, he
stepped to him, and observed, "Here, sir, is my son, twenty-one years
old, born and raised in a heathen land, and to-day is the first time he
ever heard a profane oath." Rather a withering lesson for a Christian
professor. There are obviously two causes for the great prevalency
of profane swearing in all Christian countries. One is its frequent
indorsement in the Bible, and the other is the common custom of the
priesthood apparently indulging in the practice in the pulpit. In their
godly zeal to convert sinners, they exclaim, "God will damn you." The
boys in the congregation catch the refrain, run into the street, and
repeat the oath (dropping one word), "God damn you." Before we can
expect this foolish and demoralizing practice to be abandoned, we must
have a different Bible and different religious teachers; and also before
we can prevent the heathen who read our Bible from imitating our example
in swearing, or using profane language.
_Cursing_.--The numerous cases of cursing recorded in the Bible-from
Jehovah to Elisha, who cursed the sportive, saucy boys, and then
destroyed them with bears, are calculated to engender and foster the
worst and most malignant passions of the human mind. The very name of
the Jews' God, Jehovah (Elohim), is derived from a root which signifies
"to curse and to swear." And the immoral practice of cursing is
continued from the Old Testament through the New.
_Murder_.--We have spoken of murders perpetrated by the Jews under the
authority of a theocratic government. We will now cite some cases of a
more private character: Cain, the first man born into the world, was
a murderer; and, instead of being punished for it, he appears to have
been honored. He went into the land Nod, and built a great city. "The
man after God's own heart" (David) indirectly killed Uriah; Judith cut
off the head of Holofernes while in bed with him,--a most shocking case;
Jehoiada, the priest, murdered his queen at the high gate in cold blood;
Jael, the wife of Heber, murdered the flying fugitive Sisera by driving
a nail though his head; Ehud murdered the King of Eglon under the guise
of friendship; Absalom murdered Ammon; Joab murdered Absalom; Solomon
murdered his brother Adonijah; Baasha murdered Nadab; Zimri murdered
Elah; Omri murdered Zimri Ahab murdered Naboth; Jehu murdered Ahab and
Joram. Shallum murdered Zachariah; Hoshea murdered Pekah. Numerous other
cases might be cited. Some of these murderers were leading men among
the Jews,--men whose life and character exercised great influence; and
consequently such examples were very pernicious, and the moral lesson
they impart to Bible readers must be corrupting to their moral feelings,
if not their moral conduct.
_Flogging_.--The practice of flogging is regarded as a relic of
barbarism by all modern writers on moral ethics. We find it was
prescribed by law under the Hebrew monarchy. Forty lashes, in some
cases, while the victim was tied or held down was the penalty for
certain crimes. (See Deut. xxv.) If they were schooled in the councils
of infinite wisdom as they claimed to be, their God should have taught
them a less severe and more enlightened method of treating offenders.
_Witchcraft_.--"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exod. xxii.
18) has been the watchword and the authority for the slaughter of great
numbers of human beings. Figures can not compute the tortures, the
shocking cruelties, and the heart-crushing sufferings which have been
endured as the legitimate fruit of this superstitious, barbarous law of
"God's holy people." It was continued in force to a late period, and has
been more extensively practiced by Christians than by Jews.
The number of victims in Christian England alone amounts to hundreds of
thousands. A large portion of them were tied hand and foot, and thrown
into the water. If they sank, that terminated the case, guilty or not
guilty; if they swam or floated, that was regarded as an evidence of
guilt, and they were taken out, and burned or hanged. During its reign
in England, thirty thousand harmless women were burned as witches,
mostly poor women who had no means of self-defense.
Even the learned Sir Matthew Hale, one of England's most enlightened
Christian jurists, sentenced a "number of poor women to be hanged in
1664 as witches;" and the reason he assigned for it was, that "the Bible
leaves no doubt as to the reality of witchcraft, and the duty of putting
its subjects to death." Thus we have an illustration of the enormous
evils which have grown out of Bible superstitions, perpetuated by those
who were so ignorant as to accept the book as authority. Witchcraft,
which was believed by Bible writers and Bible Christians to be the work
of the Devil or of evil spirits, is now well understood in the light of
modern science as to its causes, of which Bible revelation was ignorant.
As the want of space will permit no farther exposition or enumeration of
Bible crimes, we will sum up the whole thus:
Murder, theft, robbery, war, slavery, intemperance, polygamy,
concubinage, fornication, rape, piracy, lying, assassination, treachery,
tyranny, revenge, persecution for religious opinions, vagabondism,
degradation and enslavement of women, hypocrisy, breach of faith,
suicide, vulgarity or obscenity, witchcraft, flogging, cursing,
swearing, &c.
We have cited texts and examples in proof of the statement that all
these crimes, and others not here enumerated, are sanctioned by God's
"holy word," and were perpetrated by God's "holy people," as they are
called. And yet a Christian writer declares, "The Lord kept his people
pure, holy, and upright through every period of their history." A
statement could hardly be made that would be farther from the truth. It
is another evidence of the blinding effect of a false religion.
Again we ask, should a book, lending its sanction to the long catalogue
of crimes herein enumerated, and which represents them as being in
accordance with the will of a holy and a righteous God, be placed in the
hands of the illiterate and credulous heathen as a guide for their moral
conduct? Most certainly it must have a deleterious effect upon their
morals; and yet hundreds of thousands are distributed amongst them every
year by the Christian churches and missionary societies. And then think
of making such a book "the fountain of our laws, and the supreme rule
of our conduct," as urged by the Evangelical Alliance and the orthodox
churches. We almost tremble at the thought of such a step toward
barbarism and demoralization.