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trick" of Oriental conjurors at the present day; while the conversion of a rod into a serpent was performed as successfully by the sorcerers of Pharaoh as it was by the inspired Moses. The waters of Jordan and of the Red Sea are made to stand up in walls, for an adequate purpose, it is true; but we are assured, upon authority quite as reliable, that the Pamphylian Sea behaved in precisely a similar manner to admit the passage of Alexander the Great. The miracle of Jonas in the whale's belly is hardly justified by the importance of the event: besides, Eastern mythology furnishes us with an exact parallel, if not with the original of the story. And the derangement of the entire universe by the arrest of the sun's, or rather of the earth's, progress, must be deemed an extravagant mode of gratifying even Hebrew revenge. These and a crowd of similar marvels may be passed over as either above or beneath criticism:-the subject of miracles will be attended to later on. But when we speak of internal evidence we allude to the moral teaching of the Old Testament, and to the character or nature of the Being from whom the revelation is alleged to come. We shall see that the instances of intervention are stamped throughout with a rankly human character, and with features so odious that no plea of symbolism, no allowance for antiquity of style, no outcry of sacrilege, can save them from emphatic condemnation.

If language of this kind should provoke you to cast aside these letters, I ask you to reflect calmly, if you can, upon the passages now laid before you. With what feelings are we to contemplate the conduct of Jacob who cheats his blind and aged father with the lie, "I am Esau, thy first-born," and who swindles his famished brother out of a birthright and blessing,-which means "the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine?" It matters little what we think of the patriarch and father of his people; but these things gravely affect our conception of

a God who chooses such an one for his special favourite. Another patriarch is upheld as an everlasting model of righteous faith, because in a moment of fanaticism he is ready to sacrifice his child to the demon of his superstition. Would a heaven full of voices justify any of us in so treating our children? Would any amount of miracle authorise the smallest amount of crime? Clearly a miracle in itself can prove nothing but supernatural power. Is not the Bible full of the devil's miracles? St. Paul says, "Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel, &c., let him be accursed" (Gal. i. 8). Also Christ himself, "For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders," &c. And who does not know that, in the days of Abraham, the pagan rite of human sacrifice was as common as it is in Dahomey or in Central Africa to this hour?

In Numbers xiv. it is related how the children of Israel, frightened (naturally enough) when told that the land. of Canaan was (6 a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof," and was full of giants, in whose sight they were "as grasshoppers," wished themselves back in Egypt; and how, for so wishing, Jehovah determines to smite them with a pestilence; but being cajoled by an appeal to his vanity-Moses tells him what the nations will say of him—changes his mind; yet after all declares, "Your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness."

In Judges iv., Jehovah punishes the children of Israel by selling them into the hand of Jabin, king of Canaan; the captain of whose host was Sisera. Some twenty years after this selling, the Jewish God (as is his wont) changes his mind, and discomfits Sisera and all his hosts, so that "there was not a man left." Howbeit Sisera escapes to the tent of Heber, a friend of Jabin, where Jael-Heber's wife treacherously allures him to rest in the sacred

security of hospitality. She gives him milk; she covers him with a mantle; and as soon as he sleeps, murders him by smiting a nail into his temples. And the moral, as sung by Deborah the prophetess, is-" Blessed above all women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent."

I suppose every child brought up in awe of the Bible conceives a pious hatred for the Philistines, the Moabites, the Edomites, and all the other foes of the people of Israel. Thus the seeds of intolerance, of bigotry, and of sectarian animosity, are thickly sown, and take deep root in the credulous hearts of children, when they learn how their Heavenly Father can hate capriciously, and show vengeance upon the enemies of his chosen people. Yet what was the real truth concerning these nations? Until the invasion by the Hebrews, Canaan was their home, as much as Mexico and Peru were the homes of the primitive races before the Spanish Conquest of America. The Hebrews invaded Canaan just as the Syrians and Assyrians afterwards invaded Israel; just as the Scythians and Chaldees in turn invaded the countries of both. The Hebrews were usurpers and marauders: and unless patriotism be a crime, and plundering be a virtue, then is it the Philistines, not the Jews, who deserve our admiration. But look at the part which the God of the Old Testament is made to assume towards the unfortunate Canaanites. In Exodus xvii. 14, Jehovah bids Moses write a memorial for Joshua, to the effect that he "will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven;" the crime of the Amalekites being that of fighting for their country (1 Sam. xv. 3). In obedience to the Lord of Hosts, Samuel commands Saul to "smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." No mercy even to the dumb animals! But Saul does spare Agag the

king of the Amalekites; and for this he is to lose his kingdom. Samuel hews Agag in pieces with his own hand.

Turn to that wonderful chapter, Numbers xxxi., where the awful tale is told of the spoiling of the Midianites. Jehovah Himself bids Moses "avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites." And "as the Lord commanded Moses, they slew five kings of Midian, and took all the women of Midian captives and their little ones, &c.; and they burnt all the cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles with fire." But when Moses found that some of the women had been spared, he was wroth; and ordered every married woman and "every male among the little ones to be massacred. But the virgins he ordered them to "keep alive for yourselves." Can mothers realise this wholesale murder of babes, and not pause before they instil such lessons as these into the hearts of their own little ones? Are we striving to put down Jaggernauth amongst our people in India, and shall we teach our children to worship a Molech at home?

The hostility of the Philistines and the Edomites, which ended in the dispersion of Judea, was unquestionably due to the unjust aggressions of David. And the conquest of Samaria by the Syrian kings and all the sorrows it afterwards entailed upon the Jews, were probably due to the same cause. Some of the surrounding nations, whom we are taught to hate, were evidently disposed to be kind and generous to the Jews. The king of Moab, when appealed to, at once gave a friendly welcome to David; and sheltered his father and mother against Saul. But see the way in which David requites this act of kindness (2 Sam. viii.); without any apparent reason, "he smote Moab," &c., and "with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive." That is, he barbarously massacred two out of three of them. No wonder their neighbours, the Ammonites, were suspicious of King

David's friendly overtures. Yet what was the penalty they had to pay for insulting the messengers of this man after God's own heart? Joab is sent to lay waste the country of Ammon; and David takes the king's crown and sets it on his own head. (1 Chron. xx. 3.) "And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon." Even so!

So too Joab deals with Edom until he has cut off every male. Is it edifying, think you, to have one's sympathies thus perverted; to be brought up to believe that God is always on the side of cruelty and injustice?

Again, David, this greatest and best of the Hebrew monarchs, is seized with brute-passion for his friend's wife: and how does he behave? He employs Joab-worthy instrument for such purpose-to get the husband put out of the way: and having committed murder, David commits adultery.

Look at his dealings with the children of Saul. (2 Sam. xxi.) There being a famine in the land, David inquires of the Lord. "And the Lord answered, It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." So instigated by his terrible deity, David asks the Gibeonites what atonement they wish to exact in order that Jehovah may avert the famine. The Gibeonites reply: "Let seven men of his (Saul's) sons be delivered unto us; and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah." And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites." Now, although this act resulted from David's inquiries of Jehovah, although the line of David's conduct was clearly indicated by Jehovah, we find in 2 Kings xiv. 6: "But the children of the murderers he slew not; according to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children; nor the children be

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