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Will the Old Book Stand ? 
 
 A REPLY TO 
 
 MR. H. L HASTINGS ON THE INSPIRATION 
 OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 BY 
 
 8. c. (imw% 
 
 j/()(i«.7'ni, N.n. 
 
 i:Ki'i:iyTKh fu'lm - shcui.Ait TiioviniT.- 
 
 TORON'TC), C.\XAr>.\ : 
 
 Printed by C. M. Eu.is, 67 Adelaide Street West. 
 
 1895. 
 Price Five Coni*>. 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 THL UNIVLRSITY OF 
 BRITISH COLUMBIA 
 
 7/i(iiiui> Alurriiv (Jol/i'Clion 
 
 Ciift of 
 The Friends of the Library 
 
MR. H. L. HASTINGS ON THE INSPIRATION 
 OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 AN OPKN LETTKR T.T^f EDITOR „F •> ruu- 
 CHRI.STfAX ,•■ BOSTON, Ii.,^sS '"'' 
 
 " it contains -tdh' ^^Tr V r, '"'"' "'^ '^ ''^' "■ ^ 
 
 the Bible is the .t 'of J^-^'";' ^ ^''7^' " '^^"^"^" ^'^' 
 r^veiotted.o.n...u4J\:--^^-.a.it,.nd 
 
 V on. ntroduce the subject hy saying: 
 
 raisedtmr^Ji^llSv^^^ !^-^ ^"^^^'^ ^^^^ - not 
 ia-Md." And vou ask ' ^l^ "Z ^'■^^■"^^■"" throughout the 
 are we to do ^^ith it ? Is , od' . ''\'° '"^•'''^ *' " ^^'^'^t 
 
 ■I'his question of 1 ' °^ ""■ " '^ "^'"'^ ^'^^^ ? " 
 
 question of the inspirat on of thp '-s.ki , 
 
 ...Lhinkahte. ■ • '"""■"'"''" '" ""PO"".!. and „e„ 
 
 In 2 Tim. x : i6 I reiH • " a?i 
 
 ■ion ofOod And LTL ,^T"^Z T'" ^ ""•""■ 
 not in old tinu- bv th, „ill r ,' " '""''^■"^ camo 
 
 '>-n tr. e, the ,,uestion could n t 1 nv, b "! ^'""^"^ 
 
 ;'-r (with an oath) said to the ;i:,i:;;X^^^ 
 f know not this man .' " he lied str,i.,h. r , ' ''''"• 
 
 l'utwhenhesavstii.t"h 1 ^^^ °"' "'^'^ ^^""Ider ; 
 
 ...oved by t e H , ho't '' "'" " ''°' '^^"''^ ^^ '^^^ «-- 
 he tells the truth. ' "' '''^^-■^P-'^-d to believe that 
 
 If we look at the Bible merelv o^ -. i, i, •• 
 
 ..or .,.„.. ,„a„ a„, „.,„ s::::;; d . L'^'-'k" t 
 
 v.ew ™,brai:es also ihe results i, h, , j j ' ' '' "^ 
 <hose who bdieve ,t ,. ha.' ^ 47 ::',.'" ^'^ '"^ "' 
 fW," it uiusi aooeir I, ^ * .nspiration „f 
 
 '- a ,ea,, ::';!:z:.:.:z:r"' "■ ■ '-'""• ^ '»- ^-^• 
 
 H'ho ever heard of ,„en ctttting each „,„e,, ,h,„,„ „,„ ^ 
 
difference of opinion about Shakespeare's plays, or Plato's 
 Republic or Euclid's (leomeiry ? It is (juite true that when 
 we open a voiume of Shakespenre or Flato. we do not find, 
 " Thus saith the Lord " or " Hear ye the word of the Lord ;" 
 but we do find something of far more importance. U e find 
 facts ; we find representations true to nature ; we find mdica- 
 tions that the men who wrote those hooks were endowed with 
 that valuable mental commodity known as cor.imon sense. 
 
 Shakespeare was in many wajs the most wo.idorfui man the 
 woild has ever seen. His heart and brain seem to have con- 
 tained all there is of love and hate, of joy and sorrow, of 
 pleasure and pain ; and a knowledge of human nature as broad 
 as the whole race of man. His mammoth mind soared to all 
 heights and descended to all depths ; and with an a'most infi- 
 nite perception he searched out and described the hidden 
 motives of the human heart, m a manner that jusil> entitles 
 liim to be ranked among the liighest, if not as the highest, of 
 the sons of men. 
 
 Had it not been for Plato, Christ would still be a man, and 
 not the third part of an incomprehensible god. The writer of 
 the Gospel according to St. John (whoever he was) has stolen 
 the thought of that great philosopher, and this stolen property 
 has become the corner-stone of your religion. 'I"he less you 
 say about Plato the better will it be for you. " All the writers 
 of the Bible rolled into one " could not have produced Plato's 
 dialogue which bears the name of " Lysis,' or the most inferior 
 of Shakespeare's plays : and there are tons of literature pub- 
 lished in our own day which for beauty, purity and mora! tone 
 is as much superior to the Bible as Jesus was to the rabble that 
 crucified him. 
 
 You say : " The Bible must be judged by a standard differ- 
 ent from all other books '' May I ask this simple question, 
 Why ? If your lecture gave any reason, or even a rag of a 
 reason, I would pass on ; but when I remember that, " Hear 
 ye the word of the Lord," "The word of the Lord came unto 
 ine," etc., are alike common (either expressed or implied) to 
 the Koran, the Dhammapada, the Vedas, the Zend-Avesta and 
 the Bible, I am at a loss to understand why the Bible, on that 
 . account, must be " inspired," and the other sacred books of 
 
-eit Iha. has ever been mvJn.J . ''°''"''' "'S>- 
 
 prove the validity of ,h.„,„,lji; ""^"'''^' '<"« "• 
 «acted book the L,d hirie, ,™ ' "">■ ""■ "''' "-"" 
 
 you, tnte : L i„':;i„t:r7;r;:t -rr-'^-r'' -^ 
 
 p,N:ket above principle Profusion, prefer ,o pu, 
 
 Jo7erj;t';:?L':d'' '\"': -"' ''"'■'^- - ^ •"<"-- "■ 
 
 an unan'swerabic argurem oTtead'oT T T" '^"■"*'"S 
 ownsoap-bwhWe " I Zel.T!. ? '"""'>■ '"""""S >™' 
 
 •Ha. cod- J, . j^irrforribj i::::;- r- 
 
 -".ery grave, b« tbere is „o ,ecord tba, C^^^Z^,:;^ ' 
 
to stop the ivar of the tJenients. The hed of every sea is 
 covered with wrecks, and the skeletons of men and women 
 who have gone down amid the hoarse thunder of the storm. 
 Their re(|iiium was chanted hy tha sad sea fowl, hut no Christ 
 has ever heen knoxn to say. " l^eare, he still ' ' When the 
 brave sailor leaves a widow and orphans, does Christ j^ive them 
 " dinners for nothing ? " No. What hecomes of then) ? 'Ihe 
 children are se.it to a poor-house, the widow often becomes a 
 prostitute or starves ; and this in a country where people, with 
 you, believe in Christ and in the '• inspiratif)n " of the IJible. 
 
 After the allegory of " old Jenkins' son ' deceiving the 
 people by passing himself off as a young Knglish nobleman, 
 you deliver this eloquent admonition : " Now, don't be fooled 
 with this soft talk about the Hible being a good book.' 
 
 It is difficult for me to understand how you could write such 
 a sentence, when your whole lecture is little else than a mass 
 of very soft talk about the Hible being a good book. .Speaking 
 for myself, I don't intend being '• fooled " by any such " soft 
 talk." I have, in the course of a not very long lifetime, heard 
 and read a great deal of "soft talk," which was intended to 
 prove what you have attempted to prove in your lecture, and I 
 think you will agree with me that the tone of this letter is 
 evidence of the fact that I have not yet been " fooled" by it. 
 
 But, however that may be, when any evidence is presented 
 to me as authority upon any p(*int, I want to know something 
 about the .source whence the information comes -about the 
 character and credibility of my informant. For example, if I 
 were to read a history of the civil war in your country in 1861- 
 65, before 1 would attach very great weight to the work I would 
 want to know whether the writer was a native born American 
 or a foreigner ; whether he was a Catholic or a I'rotestant, and 
 whether he was a Northern or a Southern symp.ithizer. It 
 would be an easy matter to determine these points, but with 
 the Bible it is entirely different. I ask where, when, and by 
 whom was it written, and what was the character and credibi- 
 lity of the writers, and you cannot tell me ; and no other per- 
 son can tell me : and 1 hope you will not be grieved when 1 
 tell you that you know perfectly well that what I sav is true. 
 When you say, ' There is not another book like it in the 
 
9 
 
 world." I agree with you. I really bdievc that an,on, all the 
 
 I he B„a,«. you say. •' has been refuted, demolished over 
 throNvn and exploded more times than anv orh .1 
 ever heard of." "> "'"'-'■ ''"ok you 
 
 I agree with you again, and only for the unblushing e/Tron 
 tery and unm.t.gated impudence of those interested nTs 
 mamtenance. it would long ago have tilcen ir. ,.1/ . • ! 
 the " Arabian Vi ,h» - . '''^^■^" ''"'""gs'de 
 
 Arabian N.ghts and sm,ilar literature; but not umil 
 .gnorance ceases to b- the mother of devotion wi, It de 
 ts proper evel. Nour sm.litude of the cube of gran te i on 
 
 Next, >ou find occasion for a fling at Voltaire, and here vou 
 
 Chat ,n a hundred years from his time "Christianity wil. itave 
 
 I thought I h.uJ read Voltaire pretty carefully, but son,ehow 
 I must have contrived to miss this beautiful proph!; f hi 
 per expressed such an idea. ,t simply show, that he has a 
 .etter cla.m to the title of '• prophet • than any „,an m n 
 foned .n t e iJ,blc, J.-sus Christ (he he (iod or ma or bo h)" 
 .ncluded ; for. since Xolta.re', day. Christianity has n '^ 
 .neasure passed into history. It „ absolutelv certai tint th 
 religion o Jesus does not wield the same in.luence o er men 
 mmdstodaythat ,t did i .o or even 60 vears a-^o tTfla 
 earth is gone, ,ts witchcraft is gone, the flre^ ..f heM are Z nl 
 dev. IS dead, and at every point where it has been c^n o 'r d 
 I'y the natural and physical sciences its fallacies h^ be^n 
 
 vNtll said S< ,en. e has written over her high altars its ' Nfene 
 epitaph of ail religions. - The Christendom of to-dav is a 
 'n dc desolate by the strife of its denizens in the mad race for 
 'edge It stands aghast begging for its life." 
 
10 
 
 But you attempt to ridirule \nltairc by saying that h- •• has 
 passed int(. history, and nut vt-ry rfs,,ertaf,Ie history either." 
 
 I am not at all surprised to read this sentence. Voltaire was 
 one of a few great and noble men who, to their honor be it 
 said, hated superstition, no matter whether it rame to then^ 
 arrayed m the robes of Hrahma, or .Mohamme.l or Christ : and 
 they did more than any other men to make you and every 
 other Christian priest ashamed of his railing. No wonder 
 then, that youjiate them and stab them on every occasion. 
 
 Did John Calvin, who burned Serv ^s, pass into very re- 
 spectable history ? Don't you think the Presbyterian Church 
 would be glad to expunge the record of that fearful crime from 
 the life of Its founder > Is the history of John Wesley, the 
 defender of witchcraft, a respectable one ? 
 
 Torquemada. Alva, Charles V. and Philip Il.-are their 
 histories respectable ? Yet they were devout Christians, and 
 not only believed in the inspiration of the Bible, but logically 
 cairied out their belief, by racking and roasting to death every 
 man, woman and child who differed from them in opinion 
 
 But, in spite of what you say, I find that many eminently 
 respectable historians have made most honorable mention of 
 Voltaire. Buckle, in his History of Civilization, says he was 
 ' the greatest historian Europe has ever produced " F ecky in 
 his History of Rationalism, says he "did more than any other 
 of the sons of men to do away with that greatest of ill curses 
 religious persecution." Lord Macaulay savs that he and hi^ 
 school « were ready to encounter prinriixilities and powers in 
 the cause of justice, mercy and toleration." Here are respect- 
 able writers who have been honest enough to tell the truth 
 about this great man. whose name .stands first as a benefactor 
 of the human race. A history which does not deal fairly and 
 truthfully with such a man is not respectable. Judged by such 
 a standard, how many respectable histories have you ever read? 
 and how can you claim to be a judge of what a " respectable " 
 history is, unless and until you do read it ? 
 
 In the Encyclopredia Britannica I find also this tatement in 
 reference to Voltaire : " The stories set afloat about his dying 
 m a state of terror and despair on account of his unbelief are 
 certainly false." This gives the lie direct to all the calumnies 
 
"M-'.. 
 
 11 
 
 and fnlsd,oocis of the pulpit about his recantation and hi, de- 
 spamnK death. I>.,n't you think it a little strange th the 
 ^-hn..,a„ pnesthood seen, never to have seen or heard . h! 
 .th^Co..andn..nt when .peaking o." an opponc-.t'o; the.^ 
 
 IVance is a ^re.u nation Some of her sons are anmnu the 
 greatest of .he human fannly She has produced "tnen 
 
 autocrats by the thousand : and yet a respectable history of 
 tlut country cannot be written with the ..me of Volta re left 
 ou But .t .s doubtful if any respectab-e history of th ",i d 
 Stae, t. be written wil, contain even a clue to th let 
 
 tha such a n.an as H. 1.. Hastings ever lived. 
 1 homas I'ame also comes in for . sinr,. ^f 
 
 despa.ru.„,y ,nto a drunkard's grave " 
 
 Unfortunately for you. there is sufficient evidence to p..ve 
 that th.s, hke almost all your other statem-nts .. totally ^al e 
 and had you not lived outside the n.o.ern worM ' i, ^J 
 culture you must surely have been aware that such is th s ' 
 
 I l^ere was a man named Cheetharn, a contemporary of Mr" 
 
 .>-cutedhm..r,ibe,.trL::t;^r:^t:^''-- 
 false h^::;'^.!! r' h' h""^" '^ "^^'^ ^^'^ ^"^^^^^ ^^ -'--^ 
 
 falsehood, all of wh„h yo„ r,n read for yourself in In,ersoll's 
 ^ MKhcafon o, Thomas Paine, published at ,o cents tt j, 
 
 - -tau.ly say m.:h for u,urveranty, that you shoul.-:" 
 late M-i unverifitd storv ahom i „r , > , 
 
 !• . ^" -* ^"""^ a gr<.-at and good man iniiirin-r 
 
 - character and degrading h,s n,enK,rv, wlten a . o ^l^' Zk 
 pub shed at your own door would lurn.sh you wah the L f 
 ."'omas I.aM,e did more for hun.an liber.y than .1 he 
 pnests that ever lived, and Ms whole !iJe-wo,k wL in h n^ 
 l-^tha™y^.^^ 
 
 and t.d:t:tm: :;;:•:'- •"^"^'"^---'-^- 
 
 1 homas l>ame's whole life wa. one of constant adherence to 
 Pr.nc,p,e. and h,s nan,e will be as sweet incense to pure'ld 
 
12 
 
 men when his traducers' becomes but a stench. To his pen 
 as much as to the sword of Washin-ton was due the success 
 of the Revokition ; and to him fully as much as to any ..iher 
 man are you indebted for the liberty you enjoy as a citizen of 
 the great republic. If you did not know these things, you are 
 to be pitied ; if you knew them, you have been guilty of the 
 meanest act that a man can commit against his fellow. 
 
 Colonel Ingersoll also receives some " kindly notice" in you.- 
 lecture. It has always been usual among Christian ministers, 
 when they can't answer a mans arguments, to attack the man.' 
 ^ ou seem to be grieved when you think Mr. Ingersoll can get 
 $200 a night for lecturing. How much did you get for deliver- 
 ing the lecture which is now before me ? How much is it 
 worth ? In my opinion, it is worth less than nothing. 
 
 You not only did not touch the question with which you 
 proposed to deal, but you actually went out of your way to 
 attack Freethinkers and infidels. The real (juestion of inspi- 
 ration you have not touched at all : instead of that, you have 
 filled up your lecture with a lot of scandal and abuse about 
 better men than the Bib'e or Christianity ever produced. You 
 really wasted the time of those who listened to you, for you did 
 not bring forward a single argument to prove your theory that 
 hAs not been worn threadbare time out of mind by every little 
 gospel-huxter and hedge preacher who could gfet people to 
 listen to him. There are few men, and most of these ftw are 
 noc believers in the inspiration of the liible, who <an draw an 
 audience or command a fee like this same Co!. Ingersoll, so I 
 suppose it is but natural for you to feel jealous. 
 
 But you think it is a great wrong for him to make fun of 
 Moses, becauses Moses is dead and can't talk back. How did 
 it come about that you didn't think of that when you were 
 talking about I'aine and Voltaire ? 
 
 In a foot-note at page 7 of your lecture you refer to Colonel 
 Ingersoll's nniitary career, and you say, " It consists of a single 
 engagement, in which he was chased into a hog-yard and sur- 
 rendered to a boy sixteen years old." Of course, I do not 
 know whether this story is true cr not ■ but there is at least 
 one very good reason for doubting its accuracy, and that reason 
 >s, that It comes from a very unreliable source -a minister of 
 
MH^rau^my 
 
 18 
 
 the gospel of Christ. There ..; nr i . . 
 
 to-day Kho has beer, so col nt v !'h' ""^' "^" '" ^--■- 
 hy the orthodox clergy as Co ?^ t '° ""'^"^'y ''^'^ ^^out 
 that have b.en told hLe ,o ' ,^'T' '" '''"■ ''"^^ ^^-es 
 that I .nust hesitate to accept Ir' "^^""' ^° ^^ ^^'-. 
 bv some respectable and reliable autl'^tr" ' " '''''"'''' 
 
 It has been stated oven nri ^ • 
 
 Ingersoll's daughters hJbe ' ' " ''"" '^'^ °"^ °^ Colonel 
 Presbyterian churc that he had"""'''" ^"'^ '^" ^"'-^ ^he 
 Gently a., judgment Cnimb-0^^^^^^^^^ '" '^-^--■e vi- 
 that in .88. he had prophesied th.^ "^^ ^''^^'^^" " " 
 
 he more theatres than chtTes in Th'V'" '""^ 'here would 
 he himself had renoun ed ht 'be , j''' '^^'^^ ' ^"^ '^at 
 Join the church. Although l'?/''"'^ '"'^""''^^ ^f^°"'y to 
 have been denied a d ^fu'ed 7 " '?' ''^"'"'^ --^'-- 
 " -hgious ■• newspaperr-^l' ' -es w.^out number, .til, the 
 
 never to tire Of repeating ^t ^rr' [" "^'"P'— , 
 '•^on,' having been reaped n ^ '° '^''^^^ '''^t his 
 
 -nfidehty, had beco.ne in' ne ! "/'""^P'^-e saturated with 
 asylum; and this in spite ^h r ^'"1 '°"'"^' '" ' '""^'ic 
 B"t suppose any or 1 of h '''' '^ "^^"^^ ^ad a son. 
 
 he did surrender to la' o ^e^r'" " '' ""^ ' ^"P^^^ 
 - prove the inspiration of th " B ^ "'Tb' T" ''" ^^"^ 
 show that the Colonel was unfnr/ ' "'' '^ "'°"'^ only 
 
 'ucky ; but have no Chnsti Is h"''' "" '""'^ '°>' '^^^^ ^"^ 
 to glorify the Bible a fhe e pe^^^^^^^^^ ' ^'"- effort 
 
 to e.xemplify that passage ^s'lueh k'""" °"'>' ^^'^^^^ 
 people who have '' a zeal whi^h '"^ '^"'''^ "'^ •certain 
 
 •^■c^..; and also a saying; ^ J.^r^. ^^^''"1 " ^"^ 
 malicious." fecrsoii b— The meek are often 
 
 I have every reason to believe that Pnl r 
 exemplary n,an in public as i p^ t^^i/"^^ '.'^ -- 
 truest sense, and that the destinfe of h 7 ^ '"' '" ^^'^ 
 -■ght safely be committed to his care j^! f "^^^ People 
 the orthodox bigotry which has fXwed L' ,T T' '"' '°^ 
 and watched him day and ni.ht h J ^^' ^" '"^^d"* 
 
 received the reward of ssrttsLr '"'"^ '"'^ '^- 
 evil, by being placed at the head of th """'''' "'""^ ^"^ ' 
 --- ever seen; but, a.e;:^.-;:?-r^---;;^ 
 
14 
 
 Voltaire and Paine were three of the worst of men, still the 
 crimes of Christians, the cruelties of f.ieir rehgion, and their 
 foohsh belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible would re- 
 main as a dark blot on our civilization and a drawback to our 
 intellectual development. 
 
 The statistics you give as to the number of Bibles and Bible 
 societies are no doubt intended to convey the idea that the 
 question of inspiration is one that can be settled by numbers 
 It IS quite true that 165,000,000 Bibles is a large number and 
 when to that wc^ add the other millions privately published it 
 seems something enormous. But why are so many copies 'of 
 that book published ' One would suppose that with so many 
 of them scattered abroad every year, everybody would have a 
 copy and would be thoroughly familiar with its contents • but 
 what are the facts ? The Bible is not only not read by the 
 mass of people in Christian countries, but certainly has not yet 
 been even seen by the larger portion of the human race ■ and 
 equally true is it that by most educated people, it is regarded 
 as nothing more than the barbarous records of a barba..ms 
 people. To a large extent, it was written by barbarians for 
 barbarians ; and I might almost add, it is believed in only by 
 barbtirians. 
 
 .\nd how are these Bibles produced ? " At ihis very hour " 
 says VV. Stewart Ross, " not only the teachings of the Bibh 
 but the multiplying of copies of the Bible, degrades and de- 
 bases woman," and to support the stat>.ment he quotes a letter 
 from a Mr. Swift, which -.vas published a short time ago in an 
 English paper called the Liberator. From this it appears thar 
 the work involved in producing the cheap Bibles was mainly 
 done by young women, who received wages quite insufficient 
 to procure them food, lodging and clothing, and that, as many 
 of these young women had no relatives to assist them, they 
 were obliged to go on the streets one or two nights in the we, '^ 
 to add to their wages. In answer to their petition, they were 
 told that no higher wages could be paid, as the Bibles must 
 be produced as cheaply as possible. The London T:mes in 
 a leading article, commented strongly on the society's action • 
 and a Mr. Campbell, a Scotch minisic-r at that time residing in 
 London, and who was editor of the Nonawfonuist, sou^^ht 
 
■imm^,^ 
 
 ^i.-^mc. 
 
 u 
 
 they clai„,ed ,o be „ The B h^. , "" '"'""*"' "'"'^'' 
 theories. I once heard ™ , J '"°''' ""'' "^'P=«'>''= 
 
 and , c„.,d m a page' ..,b ^^ ;1 t' "J r^rLlr""' 
 
 ;he B,b,e, ,L ritii^etnTj;;':- :^-i:!;z 
 
 few who really do read it ^-.. n , ^' ""' ''^« 
 
 Th. n *- '■''^ "^*^ ' ^hey read and reiect 
 
 hihies ? Unix ,::::„::':,";: °' '•™; "^^ "'""™ 
 
 "holly cuccir nobody .ouir^^h "'« ="'PP'y '^""W be 
 
 few ,az, p„«,s and B bTe 'd«, : Z" ' T"" "'""" " 
 primed super„i,i„„ '" """' '™<'''" "^ "'a' and 
 
 . -"'o"XrT::xTe:,ar;".-" -• •• •- -^^ «- 
 
 ove^^he'Tla'nr'cate'ial^r" '""' '"' "'^' '"«-^-™ 
 <ha. .he firs, package senr^s \°°f' °" ''""' ""= "'hie, and 
 
 New Vor. ,:"pbX if :f, ' iib'l'eTd"' '"'* " ^ ' 
 <hese ,ln„ss prove i. ,„ he (Jods ll '. '1 "f? " r,™ ' 
 on ihe contrary the va« „„„.r / ' '-'"ami)' not, but 
 
 «*.he.„ora-^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 no':ro:r',e:d:r; ls'^r:::::^,hrrd "- ""= 
 
 America or the eruption of a vial *= "'^^''O- of 
 
1() 
 
 The great trouble with arguments of this kind is. they prove 
 
 lZ7ty f-K T ''^^°'' ^"^'^ '"°"«^ P'^^t''^ ^°"'d join 
 the Cathohc Church to prove the infallibility of the Pope ? If 
 
 ihey prove anything at all it is only that human credulity is 
 a most mfinite that the people are ignorant and the priesthood 
 crafty. Fhe belief m the divine authority of the Bible, like all 
 other rehgious beliefs, had a small beginning ; at most it was 
 only the opm.on of a few. perhaps of one. Others simply 
 beheved the report of those who believed before them, and in 
 the course of time so many believed, it was considered out- 
 rageous or sacrilegious to disbelieve or to demand evidence 
 1 hen the number of believers and the number of Bibles is 
 viewed as an overwhelming proof of the doctrine of divine in- 
 spiration. "'Vine in 
 
 With a kind of sanctified scon, you say, " It is a curious 
 fact that most of our sceptical friends contrive to keep very 
 close to where the shadow of the Bible falls," which conveys 
 to my mind the idea that you, true to the spirit of your religion 
 thin, every Freethinker ought to be banished or burnt. ' \Vhv' 
 do you not do ,,. ? Why do you not light agair. the fires of 
 persecution and redden the heavens with the flame and the 
 earth with the blood of the dying heretic, as ye were wont to 
 do in your oalmy days 250 years ago ? I will tell you why It 
 .s because Voltaire and Paine broke the teeth of the old 
 dragon of religious persecution, and as with the fire of hell 
 branded upon its hideous visage the one word, " Ichabod " 
 
 But. although your religion is impotent, it is willing to per- 
 secute. Not long since, a Spanish newspaper gloated over the 
 agon.es inflicted by the Holy Inquisition, and gloried in the 
 prospect of the Inquisition being re established. And one ot 
 the most celebrated Protestant Doctors of Divinity in /^ merici 
 m addressing a meeting cf the Evangelical Alliance, held in 
 New \ ork a year or two ago, asked : " W hat are the ri.hts of 
 the Atheist ? " and answered thus : '• I would tolerate him as 
 I would a poor lunatic, but in that he has any property or legal 
 r.ghts, I hold that he is utterly disqualified'' These thin; 
 show what religionists would do if they had the power 
 
 Were it not for the influence that has been exerted by such 
 men as Charles Bradlaugh and D. M. Bennett, Horace Lver 
 
17 
 
 and Robert Cooper, Ingersoll and Holyoalce Thri . ^ 
 day would be a perfect hell, and the clan- ''f^^"^°"^ '"■ 
 -eak of the rack, the «roan of t e h e^Tc and th" "'. '" 
 <Ty of priests, would be as common T u ^ ''^""'"^ 
 
 the Reformation. But hannrf . '" " "°"' '^^>'^ ^''^^' 
 religion has been to ' undeVTntoT"""'' ''' ""''''''" 
 and it is only because these hn/ ^""tending camps, 
 
 check that iLral^md r^en : :thr?h'^'' "'" "'^^ '" 
 live in security and peace Christians or not, can 
 
 sp^le :;r^t ^tiiHr rr'^^'' '° - ^^^ 
 
 equally pleased to see the BHthSfl? '°"' '^^^^ '^^" 
 sign of a hotel, where food InH K^i ^ ^^ °'"' " ^°''^' "^ '^' 
 
 ITOcured .. Had he bet a' Cl: '' "' '°'^^^° '^""'^ '^^^ 
 Catholic Spain three hundreH """' "'^"" '^' ^^ores of 
 
 would he have b en th n " 'T ''''' '°"- ""^'^ ^^'"^ o'^ 
 a Mahommecan n ss io;arv aTd ' """"'''"^ ' "'''^ ^^ ^-n 
 Protestants of our own 1 1 h'"' '"""^ ""^^^ ^^'^^°''« - 
 •auer according -l :Z:Zo:y':, T'"'^ '^ ''^^^ ^"^^ "^ ^^e 
 
 ;nXT::::sti,^:::;:-;---^n 
 
 was not safe in any Christian cou .try in all F '' '" '"'^ 
 of his religious opinions. Had not'cod 'f"T T ''™""^ 
 the inspired .3th chanter of n thundered through 
 
 of the faithful'to dest^v he. S T^W^ rh"^'"^'^^ ''' ^"^^ 
 or heretics safer in New Fn.V ^ ^^'^^e Christian sectarians 
 
 Have not the .iv;:an:;opt;of evTn Ch '' • "''.^^""'^^ ' 
 been rendered safer by the eZs of h T themselves 
 
 to wrest power from the hands of th r '"^ ^'^-'h-nkers 
 
 and many another noli m .' ^'■'"""'" '^"^^' ^ ^^"''o 
 
 death bJausetur di inl^r '"""'^^' ^" '-^»- -d to 
 honest unbeliever 1-a I 'fi/ ' r"'^'"' '""' ^'^^'^^ ^^at an 
 of the faithful to take h ",': " ""' ^"' ''^" " ^^ ^^^ ^-y 
 
 ^-Bibie^antf:::^^;:^:; :--^;n;^^^^^^^ 
 
 cution. ueicnaer oJ religious perse- 
 
 f 
 
18 
 
 Both the Old and the New Testament abound in precepts 
 of persecution, and it is only the power of the secular law and 
 the restraining influence of Freethought and advancing civili- 
 zation that prevent religious fanatics again building the martyr 
 fires of the days of Mary and Elizabeth. 
 
 The Bible inspired? Did you ever read the 15th chapter 
 of I Samuel, or the 109th Psa'ln?, or the 68th Psalm? Just 
 look at a few passages. 
 
 I Sam. 15:3. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly de- 
 stroy all that they have, and spare them not ; but slay both 
 man and woman, infant and suckling, o.\ and sheep, camel and 
 ass. 
 
 Has human savagery ever invented a more bloodthirsty and 
 cruel warfare than this divinely-inspired vendetta ? What was 
 the crime of the Amalekites ? That many ages before their 
 forefathers had fought to save their lives and their homes. And 
 Saul himself was punished because he saved the life of the 
 king and took some of the best of the cattle and sheep '. 
 
 What do you think of this from the 68th Psalm ? * That thy 
 foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the 
 tongue of thy dogs in the same." If the annals of hell were 
 written, could they contain a more fiendish passage ? 
 
 How does this strike you coming from the mouth of Paul ? 
 " Hymeneus and Alexander have I delivered unto Satan, that 
 they may learn not to blaspheme." And this from i Cor.5 15 ? 
 " Deliver such an one unto Satan, for the destruction of the 
 flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord," etc. 
 This was what the pious Inquisitors did— destroyed the body 
 in order to save the soul ! 
 
 These and other like horrible passages are the seeds from 
 which all the religious persecutions have grown during the past 
 fifteen hundred years ; and any man ought to be ashamed to 
 defend the book that contains them as a revelation from God. 
 
 It is of no avail for you to say that Catholicism is wholly to 
 blame for religious persecution, for, although Protestantism is 
 the younger and the meaner of the two, still, allowing for the 
 comparatively small chance she has had to show herself, she 
 has been fully as sanguinary as her rival. We often hear of 
 " Bloody Mary," but never of Bloody Elizabeth, although the 
 
gsa 
 
 latter was far the bloodier of the two. As William Cobbett 
 puts u : .. For every drop of blood shed by Mary. Elizabeth 
 
 f'^hl ' Tu\ f "' '" "■">' ^^"S ^"'^-^^ -^ f- --y drop 
 of blood 3hed the Bible is responsible, and in the li.ht of the 
 facts of h.story ,t is impossible for you or any other man to 
 successfully refute this statement. 
 
 The story of the young infidel travelling in the west in com- 
 pany w,th h,s uncle, who was afraid that the keeper of the lo,^ 
 cabm would rob them, but whose fears were dispelled when 
 he saw the,r host take down a Bible, read it. and then offer up 
 a prayer, ,s hke most stories of its class No names or dates 
 
 tlirr ^"'' TT^ '' ' ^'■^'^' ^"PP°^^ ^he old man had 
 taken from the shelf Darwin's "Origin of Species.' or Buch- 
 ners ^ Force and Matter," or Huxley's "Controverted Oues- 
 t.ons do you think the young man would still have ^been 
 afraid of hin ? 
 
 Suppose instead of taking any sort of a book from the shelf 
 he had taken a crucifix and a string of beads, do vou think the 
 plan adopted as to the keeping watch would hav'e been aban- 
 doned ? knowmg what you do or ought to know about the 
 h.story of rel.g-on, in whose hands had you rather trust your- 
 .ef unprotected, those of a Freethinker or a Jesuit > Vou may 
 a> the Jesu.t, but you would act differently if the case were 
 to t^e tested. 
 
 Thousands of lying religious tracts are circulated every year 
 contammgjust such foolish stories as this which are manufac- 
 tured on purpose to cast ridicule on Freethought and Free- 
 hmkers by p.ous persons who, like St. Paui, think it no harm 
 to he for the glory of God ( Rom ms 3 : 8). 
 
 "Everybody knows," you say, " where the Bible has influ- 
 ence ,t makes things safe." Did it make things safe for 
 Quakers m Puritan New England ? Do you not know that 
 hey had the.r ears cropped and were whipped at the cart tail 
 from town to town, by the hundred, and that the Bible was 
 the direct cause of it (Luke '.■.^^)? Did it make things safe 
 for Protestants m the Netherlands in the reign of Charfes V 
 or for Huguenots in France in the reign of Charles IX ? J£as 
 ■t ever mad. things safe.tor Freethinkers anywhere or at any 
 time? Have not thousands of the best and noblest of the 
 
earth, in all places and times since there was a Bible, lived 
 in jeopardy and died either a ciuel death or in poverty and 
 obscurity because its cruelty became the life-blood and the 
 stock-in trade of both priest and king? 
 
 But if the Bible is a cruel book and has produced cruel 
 people, what shall we say of its obscenity ? On this point your 
 lecture is silent, but I would like to ask if, in your opinion, the 
 38th chapter of Genesis could have been inspired by a decent 
 and pure-minded God. What do you think of the 19th chapter 
 of the same book ? Would you think it a perfectly proper 
 thing for a young minister to read the 15th chapter of Leviticus 
 to a class of young ladies unless he could be included among 
 those described in the 20th verse of the 21st chapter of that 
 book ? 
 
 Do you think anyone was ever made better by reading such 
 stuff as is contained in the 5th and 31st chapters of Numbers ? 
 There is not a race of savages on earth to-day whose ideas of 
 sexual morals are not higher and purer than those of the Bible. 
 And, in addition to its obscenity and its cruelty, it gives abun- 
 dant sanction to wars of extermination, to slavery, and even to 
 human sacrifice. (Josh. 6 : 6-26 ; Lev. 25 : 44 and 27 : 29 ; 
 Judges II .-30-39; and Deut. 21 : 11-14.) 
 
 I notice a great number of foolish and nonsensical expres- 
 sions in the P'ble, which in themselves are sufficient to demon- 
 strate not merely its human but its savage origin. For 
 example, in Psalms 91 : 4 I find God described in a manner 
 in which the idea is conveyed to the mind that he is some- 
 thing like an enormous hen, inasmuch as that, under certain 
 circumstances, it is declared thnt " He shall cov-r thee with 
 his feathers." But, notwithstanding its absurdity and its 
 obscenity, you say that "where the Bible holds sway ro^sand 
 quarrels don't come." Don't they? Let me call yout atten- 
 tion to a short extract from I eckey's " History of European 
 Morals." " \n the ' Robber Council ' of Ephesus, Flavius, 
 Bishop of Constantinople, was kicked and beaten by the Bishop 
 of Alexandria, or at least by hi.s followers, and a few days later 
 died from the effect of the blows." 
 
 " In the contested election that resulted in the election of 
 St. Damasus as Pope of Rome, though no theological question 
 
21 
 
 hundred and thirty sev... corpses were found in one of the 
 churches." (Vol. II., p. ,97.) "'^ 
 
 Dean Mihnan, in his - History of Latin Christianity " in 
 speak.ng of the schisn^s in the Church, says: " DIood Ld 
 murder, treachery and assassinations, even during the public 
 worship of God. were the frightful means by which each par y 
 strove to mamtain its opinions and to defeat its adversary '' 
 (Vol. I., pp. 3.4-318.) "'y 
 
 Only a few years ago a Bible Society meeting in the Oty of 
 Hamilton Ont., ended in a free fight. The weapons used by 
 the combatants were Bibles and hymn books. A graphic 
 
 Datly 6pectaor the next day. which said that there were a 
 good many black eyes and broken noses on both sides 
 
 . rnlV°TK '"' ''"''" " '^"'"'^ ''^°'^ ^° '''''' ^^' "^ y^^^ -'thout 
 
 a row ? There ,s not one of all the thousand sects into which 
 Protestantism .s divided which does not owe its birth to a row 
 IS It any wonder? Does not the Bible itself declare that a 
 part of Its mission, or rather the mission of Jesus, is to brin^ 
 divisions to set the child against the parents and the parents 
 against the children, and that a man's enemies shall be those 
 of his own house ? (Matt, ic : 35, 36.) 
 
 Your whole lecture is so grossly at variance with truth and 
 experience that I can hardly persuade myself it was delivered 
 in earnest. 
 
 Your account of the compilation of the New Testament in 
 which you refer to a newspaper article written by an Infidel 
 seems to afford you some amusement. Vou impugn the' 
 authority of the Synodicon and of the article, and attempt to 
 ndicu.e the writers of both by saying that the story of the 
 Gospels getting up on the communion table is " the kind of 
 stuff Infiaels are made to swallow and digest " Did it not 
 occur to you that the Synodicon is of exactly the same eviden- 
 t.al value as the four Gospels .> You surely did not imagine 
 that any infidel believed the story. It was not written for them 
 but for Christians, and thousands of Christians have believed 
 It, and hundreds of cjher stories just as absurd. 
 
 A miracle is a miracle, and it ought not to be more difficult 
 
22 
 
 to perform one than another, and a few pieces of parchment 
 crawling up on a table in answer to prayer is certainly no 
 frreaUr miracle than turning water into wine or a stick into a 
 snake, or for five red herrings and a few pieces of hard lack 
 to satisfy the api)etite of five thousand hungry Jews. 
 
 I have never seen the claim put forward by any Infidel writer 
 that the Council of Nicea: compiled the Bible, but as that was 
 the first " (Ecumenical " council it is reasonably certain that 
 the settlement of the Canon would be brought before it for 
 discussion, and the story of the " jumping gospels " as related 
 by Pappas is exactly the kind of stuff with which the history of 
 the Church for centuri-s is filled. The New Testament as we 
 know it had no existence until about the beginning of the sixth 
 oentury, if not a good deal later, so when you say that Origcn, 
 Tertullian, Clement and Iren;eus quoted it as we quoted it, 
 and believed it as we bt'.ieve it, you state what is wholly untrue, 
 for it had not been completed in their day. 
 
 Some parts of the New Testament, no doubt, were written 
 in or before their times, and they may have cjuoted from some 
 of those unverified and disputed productions, in the same 
 manner as a " Second Advent " preacher might quote fron> 
 your lecture, but that men could quote a book that did not 
 exist in their time is about as " wild " a statement as a mar» 
 could well make. But suppose the New Testament did exist 
 in the times in which these men lived, how do you account for 
 the fact that Origen rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews, the 
 2nd Epistle of Peter, the Epistie of James, the 2nd and 3rd of 
 John and the Epistle of JuJe, but accepted the Shepherd of 
 Hernias as inspired ? 
 
 You quote from Tertullian a passage enjoining upon the 
 faithful the duty of " attending the Apostolic churc^ es where, 
 they can see the chairs and hea.- the authentic letters of the 
 Apostles recited."' This remmds me of the minister who, after 
 his return from a tour in the East, in addressing his Sunday- 
 school, told his scholars Iw had been to see the country where 
 " Our Lord " lived and died. In his journey through .\rmenia 
 on his way home he went to see Mount Ararat, and brought 
 from it a small stone about the size of a nutmeg. Holding up 
 this stone before the eyes of the children, he said, " Some 
 
28 
 
 people deny the story of the Flood. Infidels and l«d people 
 say there never was a flood, but if you ever hear anyone say 
 that, you can tell them it is certainly true, for you have seen a 
 stone that came from Mt. Ararat, where the Ark rested" 
 "That's the kind of stuff" Christians "are made to swallow 
 and digest." 
 
 But here is a sample of the reasoning of Tertullian on the 
 evidences of Christianity. 
 
 "I maintain," 5 ays he, "that the Son of God was born. 
 v\ ny am I not ashamed to maintain such a thing ? Why ? 
 Because it is itself a shamefui thing. I maintain that the Son 
 of God died. Well, that •:. wholly credible because it is most 
 monstrously absurd. I maintain that after having been buried 
 he rose again, and that 1 take to be absolutely true because it 
 IS manifestly impossible." 
 
 What is the evidence of such a man worth ? Christian 
 apologists must be driven to awful straits when they have to 
 rely upon the testimony of a man who couIq ^y the like of 
 that. 
 
 If the evidence of Clement was any good why was his epistle 
 excluded from the Canon. 
 
 As to Irenceus, with the exception of Eusebius, Tertullian, 
 Jerome, Ongen, and Ignatius, he was probably the greatest 
 hypocrite in the whole range of ecclesiastical history. 
 
 It is he who tells the story about the Devil building a 
 monument in honor of Simon xMagus (Acts 8 ; 9-23) on the 
 banks of the Tiber ar.u that the Aprstle John was a priest, a 
 martyr and a Doctor of Divinity and that he wore a petalon, 
 which I suppose is some sort of Popisi. trumpery. 
 
 It is perfectly useless for you to attempt to prove the in- 
 spiration of the Bible by the evidence of such men as these 
 There is no person in the world who really knows the value of 
 evidence who would hang a mad dog on the testimony of any 
 or all of the " Christian Fathers " that ever lived. 
 
 It IS an undeniable fact that not a single trace e.xists of the 
 application of historical criticism to any book of the New- 
 Testament in the e.iriy ages of Christianity, and during the 
 Middle Ages the Church was powerful enough to prevent any 
 and every thing of the kind. Vou know the result. 
 
24 
 
 The Bible ruled and from the seventh to the seventeenth 
 century Eurojx: stood still. " For six hundred years," says 
 Buckle, "Christianity gave to the world no scientific man." 
 
 It would take a good many longer volumes than the Bible 
 to describe the awful conditions under which men lived ir» 
 those times. Ignorance beyond belief, and filth beyond 
 description, were found on every hand. With hypocrisy al 
 the aha; and tyranny upon the throne, between taxes to the 
 state and tithes to the church, the common people were little 
 better than the beasts of the field, and certainly much less 
 cleanly and comfortable. 
 
 It has been demonstrated by men who have given attention 
 to the subject that a population^ unrestricted, will double itself 
 in twenty-five years, but under the rule of the Bible and the 
 religion founded upon it the po-^ulation of Europe did not 
 double in a thousand years. 
 
 Outside of Mohammedan Constantinople, there was not a 
 public batr or sewer on the whole continent, and dogs and 
 swine fought and snarled over favorite morsels of carrion in 
 the public streets of great cities, and he who stepped over hi', 
 threshold on a rainy day went to the ankle in the putrifying 
 remains of animal filth and decomposing vegetable refuse. 
 
 The natural result of this kind of thing was, that every now 
 and then a pestilence would break out and sweep the people 
 into their graves by the million. 
 
 The Ciiental bubo-plague ravaged Italy sixteen times 
 between the years 1119 and 1340. 
 
 Tn 1348 the great plague known as the Black Death broke 
 out and i- • 'x ears carried off 25,000,000 people. 
 
 Medical s ■ •'<,,- there was none, and in accordance with the 
 ignoran : o: the t .iie it was universally ascribed to a conjunc- 
 tion of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. 
 
 The medical schools of former ages were suppressed £s being 
 out of harmony with the genius of Christianity. 
 
 From the beggar by the wayside to the king on the throne, 
 everybody was infested with itch and vermin, and shortly after 
 the discovery of America, syphilis turned the whole continent 
 into a veritable charnel house. Even the Holy Father Leo 
 X., Vicar of Jesus Christ, contracted the shameful disease. 
 
25 
 
 Truly the taunt about faith and filth being partners seems to 
 have a scrap of truth in it. 
 
 In these t lesstd days so much attention was paid to the sav 
 ing of the soul the body was not thought of, except in the case 
 of heretics whose bodies were tortured till the soul left them. 
 
 Add to this the drain on the population brought about by 
 the crusades and the religious wars that are a disgrace to the 
 human name, and it is no wonder that from the days of Con- 
 stantine the Great to the French Revoiutior. the population of 
 Europe had barely doubled. 
 
 These things are not new. They have been said and sung 
 "from the house tops " for the last twenty years. You must 
 have known them to be true, and y.t you told the people who 
 heard your lectu.e that if they would make the Bible their rule 
 of life and conduct their town would be turned into a paradise. 
 What did the Bible do for Switzerland in the da) s of Calvin ? 
 What did it do fjr Scodand under John Knox ? It was all 
 right for you to prophesy to the people of Spenser what would 
 have followed had they taken your advice, but can you point 
 out one solitary nation or race within the whoie scope of his- 
 tory who, with unquestioning faith, have accepted the Bible as 
 the inspired word of (lod, and who have based their laws and 
 their political economy upon it, and exactly the contrary result 
 has not followed ? The history of the religion of Christ is 
 filled with the records of lying and fraud, of debauchery and 
 wickedness of all sorts to a greater extent than is the case with 
 any other religion whatever. Instances could be given by the 
 thousand where unspeakable and almost unthinkable cruelties 
 have been practised by its devotees. In the Irish mas.sacre of 
 1640, Papists took the fat off the intestines of Protestants 
 whom they had slaughtered, made it into candles, and burnt 
 those candles on the altars of the Virgin Mary. In the wars 
 in the Netherlands from 1660 to 1679 the most inhuman bar- 
 barities were transacted by Catholics and Protestants alike. 
 The Catholics skinned some of their victims alive and made 
 the skins into drum heads on which they beat the dead march 
 of others to the stake, and the tearing out of a man's heart and 
 throwing it in his face was an everyday occurrence. One 
 Dutch Protestant stabbed his Catholic enemy, tore his heart 
 
out, bit it with his teeth, and then threw it to a dog that stood 
 near. In England from 1553 to 1558 two hundred and eighty- 
 eight men, women and children were burned at the stake for 
 being Protestants, and from 1558 to the end of Elizabeth's 
 reign the disemboweling of Papists was as common as ditch- 
 water. In Spain and Italy hundreds of people had their eye- 
 lids cut off, had melted lead poured into their ears, and in the 
 case of Martha Constantine of Piedmont, her brecsts were cut 
 off, fried and given to another party of persecutors, who actually 
 ate them without suspecting what they were. 
 
 Behind all this devilry was the Bible. Behind all the fearful 
 things done by the Calvinists in Geneva and by Presbyterians 
 in Scotland and by Puritans in New England, was the Bible ; 
 and there is not a single Christian sect, either Catholic or 
 Protestant, but what would, at this very hour, were they not 
 afraid of the civil law and of each other, with the Bible in one 
 hand and the sword and torch in the other, '• punish heresy 
 with rack and fire." 
 
 Your attempt to explain the "quail story " is a pitiable failure. 
 It stands upon the same level as the statement of the Rev. 
 Ale.xander Cruden, who says in a commentary on the i ith 
 chapter of Numbers that quails are so numerous in the country 
 where this miracle is said to have been performed, that they 
 often alight upon ships in the neighboring waters in such pro- 
 digious numbers as to sink them, — more of the " stuff" Chris- 
 tians " are made to swallow and digest." 
 
 It seems, according to the story, that the children of Israel 
 had become tired of living upon manna. And no wonder ; 
 it was manna in the morning, manna at noon, manna at night. 
 Breakfast, dinner and supper were all alike to them. Day in 
 and day out, week in and week out. from year's end to year's 
 end, it was nothing but manna. Could not an omnipotent god 
 have given them a change of diet once in a while ? Surely a 
 god who could give " a public dinner for nothing to five thou- 
 sand hungry people," could have given them at least one 
 square lueal every day ? Think of a man living for twenty 
 or thirty years on nothing but oatmeal. Do you think you 
 yourself could stand that without a protest ? 
 
 So the Israelites complained, and the Lord sent them quails, 
 

 ( 
 
 27 
 
 and because the people ate the quails the Lord smote them 
 with a very great plague ; and the account closes by saying 
 gnmly enough, that he called the name of that place Kilbroth- 
 hattaavah, " because there they buried the people that lusted " 
 for the quails (Num . r : 34). if he had called the place 
 " Qua.l-broth Have-at-you " it would have been more in keep- 
 ing with the story. 
 
 A company of half-starved savages are travelling in a desert 
 They pray for food. Some birds make their appearance and 
 in accordance with their superstitious belief, they take this as 
 an answer to their petition. Then they eat the birds, only to 
 find that they have been poisoned. How much better is the 
 god of the Jews than the god of these savages ? 
 
 If this frightful story is true, if Jehovah could act in this 
 manner towards those whom he over and over again calls his 
 " chosen people," he is certainly a god to be proud of So far 
 as I am concerned, you are welcome to all the comfor^ you 
 can get out of the story. 
 
 You seem to place a great deal of reliince upon the truth of 
 prophecy, but it is only necessary to examine some of the so- 
 called prophecies recorded in the Bible to prove the truth of 
 what one of the prophets themselves said about his colleagues 
 and predecessors : " The prophet is a fool ; the spiritual man 
 is mad " (Hosea 9:7). 
 
 Jesus Christ assumed the character of a prophet, ai.d is 
 described as a prophet mighty in word and in deed. He' uttered 
 a prophecy about the end of the world, which has not been 
 fulfilled, and which, by the very nature of the case, never can 
 be fulfilled. All the priests, preachers, prelates, patriarchs, 
 primates and popes from his day till now have not been able 
 to explain it away. 
 
 The second advent of Jesus and the end of the world were 
 the hinges upon which the preaching of Jesus and his apostles 
 swung. 
 
 " And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples 
 came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these 
 things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the 
 end of the world " (Matt. 24 : 3). 
 
 After a rigmarole of troubles and trials which should first 
 

 28 
 
 afflict mankind, he tells them that " this gospel of the kingdom 
 shall be preached in all the wor'd for a witness unto all nations, 
 and then shall the eiid cume " (Matt. 24 : 14). 
 
 Then again he enumerates a lot of woes and tribulations, 
 and in verse 54 he says : "Verily, I say unto you, This gene- 
 ration shall not pass till all these things he fulfilled." 
 
 The other gospels contain similar statements. " And he 
 said unto them, Verily I say unto you. That there be some of 
 them that stand here, which shall not taste of death rill they 
 have seen the kingdom of God coi;ie with power " (Mark 9:1). 
 
 " But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here 
 which shall not taste of death till they see the kingdom of 
 God " (Luke 9:27). 
 
 In the loth chapter of Matthev, Jesus is reported to have 
 called his disciples to him, and after havmg given them power 
 over unclean spirits, etc., sent them out to preach. 7. " And 
 as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdo"i of heaven is at hand." 
 In verses 5 and 6, they are told, • Go not into the way of the 
 
 Gentiles" but " to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 
 
 And a reason is assigned for this in verse 23 : " Ye shall not 
 have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be 
 come." 
 
 St. James wrote : " The coming of the Lord draweth nigh " 
 (James 5 : 8). St. Paul ass-'.red the Thessalonians that " We 
 which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with 
 them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (2Thes. 4.17). 
 
 Here are many prophecies from the mouth of Jesus and his 
 apostles which the lapse of time has demonstrated to be false. 
 What are you going to do about it ? You might as well try 
 to move the earth out of its orbit as to attempt to prove that 
 they do not refer to the end of the world. This was what I 
 meant when I said that Voltaire had a better claim tc the title 
 of " prophet " than Jesus or any of his apostles. 
 
 Jeremiah ought to have had a pretty good idea of what the 
 prophets were like, and he says : •' The prophets prophesy 
 falsely, and the priests oear rule by their means ; and my 
 people love to have it 30 " (5 ; 31). " They prophesy falsely 
 unto you in my name ; I have not sent them, saith the Lord " 
 (29 : 9). "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Hearken not unto 
 
29 
 
 r 
 
 IH 'ds or llK" prophets '• (,5 : ,6). « The prophets pro- 
 p. :' lies in my name " (14 : '4)- 
 
 And leremiah himself was openly accused of being a false 
 prophet (Jer. 43 : 2). E.ekiel (,3:4, says : " O Israel, thy 
 |)rophets are hke the foxes of the desert." 
 
 According 10 your lecture, these passages are just as much 
 inspired as any othe, parts of the Hible. Do you explain them 
 l)ycitmg the case of Ahah, where Cod himself put a lying 
 spirit in the mouth of all his |,r<.phets th.- Ahab might be 
 enticed to his death. Will this avail you as an argument to 
 I)rove the inspiration of the Bible ? 
 
 In speaking of the revision of the Bible, you say : " Some 
 learned men, after working for a number of years on the revi- 
 sion of the New Testament, finished their work. Having in- 
 serted a few modern words instead of others which had become 
 obs.;lete, made some slight coirections of errors in translation, 
 and rectified from ancient manuscripts some little errors that 
 had been made by copyists in transcribing," etc. According 
 to this, the errors are both few and unimportant. 
 
 Prof Moses Stewart, ot Andover, says, in speaking of this 
 matter in relation to the Old Testament, that in the Hebrew 
 MSS. that have been examined " some .Soo,ooo various read- 
 ings actually occur as to the Hebrew consonants ; how many 
 as to the vowel points and accents no man knows/' 
 
 As to the Xew Testament, Christian scholars admit that the 
 various readings of the manuscripts Uy which we are indebted 
 for our text are so numerous as to be almost beyond computa- 
 tion I'irst, we heard of 20.000 various readings, then 30,000, 
 then 50,000, till in the collection of MSS. for the Cries'back 
 edition as many as 150.000 were discovered. What does thi.i 
 prove ? just this. 1 hat y.ni intentionally misled those who 
 listened to your lecture. It proves that the Bible is imperfect 
 and f illil.le and is of human origin ; that it is not a revelation 
 from Cod, and that no amount of assertion or assumption on 
 the part of incerestt j hypocrites <:an make it so : and it shows 
 us that iirnomncc n the i^rcat bulwark nnd /ortresaof faith. 
 
 Many men and most women, though completely ignorant of 
 the very rudiments of Biblical criticism, historical n'seaich, o^ 
 scientific knowledge : though they have never read a single 
 
30 
 
 page or understood a single proposition of the writings of those 
 whom they condemn, and have absolutely no rational know- 
 ledge ether of the arguments by which their faith is defended 
 or of those by which it has been impugned, will nevertheless 
 adjudicate with the utmost confidence upon every polemical 
 ((uestion ; will denounce, hate, pity, or pray for the conversion 
 of all who dissent from what they have been taught ; r.nd will 
 assume, as a matter beyond thv. faintest possibility of doubt, 
 that the opinions they have imbibed without inquiry must je 
 true, and the opinions others have arrived at by inquiry must 
 be false. And. strangely enough, they make it a main object 
 of their lives to assail what they call infidelity in every way in 
 their power except by examining the grounds upon which it 
 rests. 
 

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