THE ATMOSPHERE.

The atmosphere is the gaseous envelope encircling the earth; and it constitutes the ocean of air at the bottom of which we live. We become aware of the existence of the air when we move rapidly and experience the resistance offered to the passage of our bodies, and also when the air is set in motion, giving rise to a wind. We notice the pressure of the atmosphere if we withdraw the air from beneath the hand by a powerful air-pump, for we then find that the hand is pressed down with a force equal to 1.033 kilos. on a square centimeter, or nearly 15 lbs. on every square inch. The total atmospheric pressure which the human body has to support hence amounts to several tons. But this pressure is not felt under ordinary circumstances, because the pressure exercised is exerted equally in every direction. The instrument used for measuring the pressure of the air is termed a barometer, and the average pressure at the sea level is equal to that exerted by a column of mercury 760 mm. high. The air being elastic and having weight, it is clear the lower layers of air must be more compressed than those above them, and hence the density of the air must vary at the different hights above the sea level. The density of the air being thus dependent on the pressure to which it is subjected, the higher strata of air become generally rarefied, and it is hence difficult to say whereabouts the air ceases, but it appears that the limit of the atmosphere is about 200 to 300 miles from the level of the sea. If the whole atmosphere were of the same density throughout as it is at the earth’s surface, it would reach only to a height of a little more than five miles above the sea level.

Aqueous vapor is contained in the air in quantities varying in different localities and at different times, and depending mainly on the temperature of the air. Air at a given temperature cannot contain more than a certain quantity of moisture in solution; and when it has taken up its maximum quantity, it is said to be saturated with aqueous moisture. The higher the temperature of the air the more water can it retain as vapor; and when air saturated with moisture is cooled, the water is deposited in liquid form in very small globules, forming a mist, fog, or cloud. This is the cause of the fall of rain, snow, and hail; when warm air heavily laden with moisture from the ocean passes into a higher and colder position, or meets with a stratum of air of lower temperature, it cannot any longer retain so much aqueous vapor, and a large quantity assumes a liquid form, falling as rain when the temperature is above the freezing-point, or crystallizing as snowflakes if the temperature is below that point. Hail is caused by the congelation of raindrops in passing through a stratum of air below the freezing-point. The deposition of dew is caused by the rapid cooling of the earth’s surface by radiation after sunset, and by the consequent cooling of the air near the ground below the temperature at which it begins to deposit moisture. In general the air contains from 50 to 70 per cent. of aqueous vapor of the quantities necessary to saturate it. If the quantity be not within these limits the air is either unpleasantly dry or unpleasantly moist.

The air contains, besides the gases of oxygen and nitrogen, carbonic acid, ammonia, accidental impurities, and volatile organic matter, which latter is the most important, as it probably influences to a great extent the healthfulness of the special situation. We become aware of the existence of such organic putrescent substances when entering a crowded room from the fresh air; and it is probable that the well-known unhealthiness of marshy and other districts is owing to the presence of some organic impurities.

We may have occasion to refer to this when speaking of the deluge, etc.

CHAPTER III.

THE CHEMICAL ASPECT.

By the word chemistry we understand the science which investigates the composition of all material substances, taking them apart or separating them, by a chemical process, and discovers the nature and properties of the minutest particle. These small particles have received the name, elements or elementary substances; that term is applied in chemistry to those forms of matter which have hitherto resisted all attempt to decompose them.

“We know that we have earth, air, water, and we have seen in Chapter II that the earth’s crust is made up of many substances, rocks, coral reefs, clay, marl, feldspar, quartz, limestone, granite, etc., etc. These substances are composed of small particles, or elements, and are called minerals or inorganic substances. There is another class of substances, called organic, that are derived from living things or beings. These are also taken apart or separated into their elementary substances. As plants or animals, all such elementary substances have received the name organic substances because plants and animals have organs of reproduction, hence the name.

The taking apart of any substance into its constituent elements is called analysis by chemists.

The same elements can also be put together to produce various substances; that is termed synthesis.

Chemists have adopted a name for each of the elements, and these names are represented by symbols, or letters.

Compound substances may contain two or more elements. When the composition of a substance is determined by splitting the compound into its elementary constituents a chemical analysis of that substance is said to have been made; and if the proportions by weight in which each of the constituents is present be determined, a quantitative analysis of the substance has been made, etc.

By chemical action, we signify that which occurs when two or more substances so act upon one another as to produce a third substance differing altogether from the original ones in properties; or when a substance is brought under such conditions that it forms two or more bodies differing from the original one in properties. Chemistry is called an experimental science. In investigating all the materials within his reach, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, whether contained in the earth, sea, or air; whether belonging to the mineral, animal, or vegetable creation, the chemist finds himself obliged to divide substances into two classes: (1) compound substances—those which he is able to split up into two or more essentially different materials; (2) elements or simple substances—those which he is unable thus to split up, and out of which nothing essentially different from the original substances has been obtained.

Compound bodies are made up of two or more elementary substances chemically combined with each other; thus sulphur, copper, lead, are elementary bodies; out of each of these nothing different from sulphur, copper, lead, can be obtained; whereas when two of these bodies are heated together, a compound is formed from which both of the original elementary constituents can at any time be obtained. Water is a compound body—it can be split up into two elementary gases, hydrogen and oxygen; common salt, again, is a compound of a gas (chlorine) with a metal (sodium); and limestone, clay, sugar, and wax may serve as examples of compound bodies; whilst phosphorus, charcoal, iron, mercury, and gold may be mentioned as belonging to the class of simple substances.

As to physical properties of gases—they have weight, volume, diffusion, density, etc.

Theologians insist that there is a God, a God that was first introduced to us by a man with the name of Abraham, advertised by Moses, and has been palmed off upon the masses as a something exceedingly wonderful. A multitude of men who find it to their interest to advocate his pretended claims, are still doing their utmost to sustain their God. We are trying to discover where he is to be found, whether he is a local or a universal God, what he is composed of, whether he resides on earth permanently or transiently, whether he controls the entire solar system or more systems, whether he occasionally takes a trip to other planets; and if he has created everything we want to find out how he has created it. For that reason we have to search, taking a glimpse among the stars, in the earth, atmosphere, etc. Since geology does not respond favorably, we are trying to discover what this earth is composed of. The elementary bodies at present recognized amount to sixty-four in number. Of these about fifty belong to the class called metals. Several of them are of recent discovery, and as yet very imperfectly known. The distinction between metals and certain non-metallic substances or metalloids, although very convenient for purposes of description, is entirely arbitrary, since the classes graduate into each other in the most indefinite manner. The following is a complete list of the elementary substances known, giving their names, symbols, and combining weight:

Symbols. METALLOIDS. Combining Weight.
Elements of life: of primary importance. O Oxygen [1]II 16
H Hydrogen I 1
N Nitrogen V 14
C Carbon IV 12
Elements of secondary importance. Cl Chlorine I 35.5
Br Bromine I 80
I Iodine I 127
F Fluorine I 29
P Phosphorus V 31
S Sulphur VI 32
Si Silicon IV 28
B Boron III 11
Se Selenium VI 79.5
Te Tellurium VI 179
Mechanics, arts, science, and medicine. Al Aluminium IV 27.4
Ca Calcium II 40
(Cuprum) Cu Copper II 63.5
(Ferrum) Fe Iron IV 56
(Plumbum) Pb Lead IV 207
Mn Manganese IV 55
(Hydrargyrum) Hg Mercury II 200
(Kalium) K Potassium I 39.1
(Argentum) Ag Silver I 108
(Natrium) Na Sodium I 23
(Stannum) Sn Tin IV 118
Zn Zinc II 65.3
(Stibium) Sb Antimony V 122
As Arsenic V 75
Ba Barium II 137
Bi Bismuth V 210
Cr Chromium VI 52.2
Co Cobalt IV 58.7
(Aurum) Au Gold III 197
In Indium IV 74
Mg Magnesium II 24
Ni Nickel IV 58.7
Pd [2]Palladium IV 106.6
Pt Platinum IV 197.5
Sr Strontium II 87.5
Ti Titanium IV 50
W Tungsten VI 184
U Uranium IV 120
Little known, rarely used. Be Beryllium II 9.3
Cd Cadmium II 112
Cs Cæsium I 133
Cr Cerium IV 92
D Didymium II 95
E Erbium II 112.6
Ir Iridium IV 198
La Lanthanum II 92
Li [3]Lithium I 7
Mo Molybdenum VI 96
Nb Niobium V 94
Os Osmium IV 199.2
Rh Rhodium IV 104.4
Rb Rubidium I 85.4
Ru Ruthenium IV 104.4
Ta Tantalum V 182
Tb Terbium
Tl Thallium III 204
Th Thorium II 231.5
V Vanadium V 51.3
Y Yttrium II 61
Zr Zirconium III 89.6

All matter is made up of very small particles which are chemically indivisible and which are termed atoms, and the atom of each elementary substance differs essentially from that of every other. All the atoms of each element are alike, and chemical compounds are formed by the combination of unlike atoms. Hence the smallest particle of a compound consists of a group of atoms. This group, which can be divided by chemical but not by mechanical means, is termed a molecule. The smallest particle of an element in a free state is, however, not a single atom, but a group of atoms mechanically indivisible, or a molecule. This explains why elementary bodies act more energetically and enter more readily into combination at the moment of their liberation from a combination than when in the free state.

When chemical changes occur, it is the molecules which react upon one another, and the change consists in the change of position of certain atoms contained in the groups. When an element is set free from a compound, the liberated join together to form molecules, unless some body is present with which the element can combine.

By an atom we therefore understand the smallest portion of a chemical element which can enter into a chemical compound; by a molecule, the smallest portion of a simple compound body which can occur in the free state or which can take part in a chemical action.

All the elements, with the single exception of fluorine, combine with oxygen to form oxides. In this act of combination, which is termed oxidation, heat is always, and light is frequently, given off. When bodies unite with oxygen, evolving light and heat, they are said to burn, or undergo combustion. All bodies which burn in the air burn with increased brilliancy in oxygen gas; and many substances, such as iron, which do not readily burn in the air, may be made to do so in oxygen.

Oxygen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor smell.

Hydrogen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor smell. It is the lightest gas known, being 14.47 times lighter than air. It combines with oxygen to form water.

Nitrogen is a colorless, tasteless, inodorous gas, slightly lighter than air. It does not combine readily with bodies, and it is a very inert substance, neither supporting combustion or animal life, nor burning itself. It has, however, no poisonous qualities, and animals plunged into a jar of this gas die simply of suffocation from want of oxygen. Nitrogen exists in a free state in the air, of which it constitutes four-fifths by bulk. It occurs combined in the bodies of plants and animals, and in various chemical compounds, such as nitre, whence the gas derives its name.

Carbon is a solid element; it is not known in the free state, either as a liquid or as a gas. Carbon is remarkable as existing in three distinct forms, which in outward appearance or physical properties have nothing in common, whilst their chemical relations are identical. These three allotropic forms of carbon are (1) diamond, (2) graphite or plumbago, (3) charcoal. These substances differ in hardness, color, specific gravity, etc., but they each yield on combustion in the air or oxygen the same weight of the same substance, carbonic acid or carbon dioxide. Carbon is the element which is especially characteristic of animal and vegetable life, as every organized structure, from the simplest to the most complicated, contains carbon. If carbon were not present on the earth, no single vegetable or animal body such as we know could exist. In addition to the carbon which is found free in these three forms, and contained combined with hydrogen and oxygen in the bodies of plants and animals, it exists combined with oxygen as free carbon dioxide in the air, and with calcium and oxygen as calcium carbonate in limestone, chalk, marble, corals, shells, etc. Plants are able when exposed to sunlight to decompose the carbon dioxide in the air, liberating the oxygen, and taking the carbon for the formation of their vegetable structure, whilst all animals, living directly or indirectly upon vegetables, absorb oxygen, and evolve carbon dioxide. Thus the sun’s rays, through the medium of plants, effect deoxidation, or reduction, whilst animals act as oxidizing agents with respect to carbon.

Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon—these are the life-giving elements. They are the life-producing and life-sustaining elements. Neither animal nor vegetable life can exist without them. The entire activity of nature depends upon them. Every organic substance contains them.

No organic substance can exist without them.

The principle of life is due to them.

From a blade of grass to an insect, from an insect to an animal, including man, one cannot emerge into life without these elements.

The birth, growth, and development of plant and animal depend upon them, the sustenance and nurture.

All our food-substances are almost wholly made up of these elements.

No force, power, or energy can be produced without their presence.

Our muscular strength, our nervous force, our very thoughts, our imagination, as well as digestion, respiration, circulation of the blood, depend on these elements.

Our sensations, our pleasures, our pains, depend upon them. All the excitement and depression in life are dependent on them.

The beauties of vegetation, all the various shades and colors of flower and blossom, the tints and odors, are dependent on them.

No phenomenon in nature, no matter how terrible, delightful, or enchanting, can be manifested without these elements.

No earthquake, thunder, storm, lightning, wind, hail, rain, snow, or ice could exist without them.

No light, heat, or motion—in fact, none of the physical forces, could be evolved without them.

Our atmosphere, ocean, seas, rivers, forests, are composed of them.

No art, science, mechanics, architecture, nor indeed anything that we now enjoy, could exist without them.

Gunpowder, dynamite, electricity, and all else are dependent on these elements.

Why attempt to enumerate the extraordinary roles they play on earth and in the universe?

Every plant would wither, every life would perish, without Oxygen; this element may be truly called the breath of life.

The creation of God is dependent on these elements, because were it not for man God would never have been.

The ark, made of wood, was composed of them. The figure of Christ, and the Virgin Mary, as she is called, as well as all the saints, were and are composed of Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, etc. We know that these chemical elements enter into the composition of all things in nature—mineral, vegetable, animal.

We also may be absolutely certain that no more elements exist now, at this present time, than existed ten, twenty, or one thousand million of years ago.

Chemical elementary substances have no greater relative weight towards one another, nor a greater volume, at this present time than they had at any time since the existence of this earth. The total weight of all elements that enter into the formation of this terrestrial globe has never varied, whether they were in solid, fluid, or gaseous state.

The law of gravitation has always existed.

Elements that enter into the formation of organic beings, vegetable or animal, must in due time undergo decomposition and return to the same elements of which they were composed.

The chemical action has always been the same. All substances are subject to chemical action when exposed to the primary elements, oxygen and hydrogen especially.

An element can never be annihilated.

It may not be out of place to mention some of the substances in daily use. For example, water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. Air is composed of oxygen and nitrogen. Bread, of starch, sugars—oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Meats, of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, etc. Salt, of sodium and chlorine. Vegetables, fruits, etc., of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. Fats, of oil. alcohols, of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The tissues of the animal body are composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.

The combination of five elements produces electricity, thus: Zinc (Zn) + copper (Cu) + sulphuric acid, which consists of hydrogen (H2), sulphur (S), and oxygen (O4), = electricity.

A few examples in the changes of the combination of oxygen and hydrogen are shown in water. Under conditions of heat and cold it becomes ice, steam, dew, rain, hail, snow, clouds, etc., etc. These phenomena are known.

We merely mention these facts to show how much has been discovered by human skill, but of how much more remains to be discovered we can not form the slightest notion. All that has been done in the field of science has been of actual benefit to humanity. For the discoveries are based on fact and truth. They are ushered into this world to alleviate and to lighten the struggle and the burden of men. They come without oppression, without crime, without bloodshed. They come as the great benefactors of mankind. Men would be much better off to-day if they received for their Sunday lessons instruction in the natural, instead of wasting their precious time in repeating the silly twaddle of supernatural extravagance, that tends to stupefy instead of clearing up the understanding.

Scientific research has advanced so far, that not only are we able to know, from the discoveries made, the elementary composition of this earth, and all that belongs thereto, but other far more difficult problems have been partially solved. That is, with the aid of newly discovered instruments, we can ascertain, to a considerable extent, the elementary composition of the sun, stars, and distant planets.

In 1802 Dr. Wollaston, and later Fraunhofer, discovered and perfected an instrument called the spectroscope. It consists of a prism, fixed upon an iron stand, and a tube carrying a slit. When light passes through a slit it impinges upon a flint glass prism, by which it is dispersed. The light of burning metals has been tested in that manner. Thus when any light passes through the slit of a spectroscope, the substance giving the light may be determined, the elements burning ascertained. If the solar spectrum be examined—the light of the sun’s rays—numerous dark lines parallel with the edge of the prism are observed, and reveal a number of colors giving the following: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. These are intersected by fine black lines of different degrees of breadth and shade, which are always present, and always occupy the same relative position in the solar spectrum. These are called Fraunhofer’s lines. By the means of this instrument, the spectra of the sun, planets, and moon have been analyzed, and the color and position, the kind of metals these distant bodies are composed of. The sun’s atmosphere, from experiments made, is known to contain metals, such as soda, iron, etc., in the condition of glowing gas, the white light proceeding from the solid or liquid strongly heated mass of the sun which lies in the interior. The metals hitherto detected in the sun’s atmosphere are about fifteen or more—iron, sodium, strontium, cadmium, magnesium, calcium, chromium, nickel, barium, zinc, cobalt, manganese, aluminium, titanium, hydrogen, etc.

So delicate is this instrument that 1⁄180000000​ part of a grain of sodium can be detected, and a portion of lithium weighing 1⁄6000000​ part of a grain has been detected; thus showing that there exists a very strong probability that the sun, planets, and moons are composed of similar, if not the same, elements that this earth is composed of.

[1] Explanation.—The Roman numerals placed opposite the above list of elementary substances present the difference or equivalent or saturating power of each element. Hydrogen, for example, is a monad, a simple particle, or atom, or unit. Oxygen is a dyad, represented by II, two. It requires two atoms of hydrogen to saturate one of oxygen, or its equivalent, to form water. A triad, III, requires three monads; a tetrad, IV, four; a pentad, V, five; a sexad, VI, six units or monads, their respective equivalents or saturating power. A monad or monogenic element replaces another one by one. An atom of a polygenic element, that is, a dyad, etc., on the other hand, always takes the place of, or is equivalent to, two or more atoms of a monogenic element. [↑]

[2] Important. [↑]

[3] Exception. [↑]

CHAPTER IV.

THE SUN.

The Colossus, or brazen statue of the Sun, was placed across the mouth of the harbor of Rhodes, its legs stretched to such a distance that a large ship under sail might easily pass between them. It was seventy cubits high, or a hundred English feet; its fingers were as long as ordinary statues, and few men with both arms could grasp one of its thumbs. Scarcely sixty years had elapsed before this work of art was thrown down by an earthquake, which broke it off at the knees, in which position it remained till the conquest of Rhodes by the Saracens (A.D. 684), when it was beaten to pieces and sold to a Jew merchant, who loaded nine hundred camels with its spoils.

Anaxagoras (500 B.C.) taught that there was but one god, and that the sun was only a fiery globe and should not be worshiped. He attempted to explain eclipses and other celestial phenomena by natural causes, saying that there is no such thing as chances, these being only names for unknown laws. For this audacity and impiety, as his countrymen considered it, he and his family were doomed to perpetual banishment. “Man,” said Protagoras of Abra (430 B.C.), “is the measure of all things.… Of the Gods I know nothing, neither whether they be nor whether they be not; for there is much that stands in the way of knowledge, as well the obscurity of the matter as the shortness of human life.”

St. John begins his writings: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” But John, like many others of his time, knew nothing more than the use of words to make riddles, which he himself could not see through and no one else could understand. The man or men who first composed that part of scripture that informs us how the sun and earth were created, certainly knew nothing about it, because all that is at present known is of comparatively recent date. For many centuries, the established religion, the church, and the representatives of the theo-Christian organization, did all in their power to prevent light from penetrating their hidden benighted doings. They looked upon themselves as being all in all, knowing all in all—as having had everything worth knowing revealed to them by an agency no one else had access to. The ideas of their mysterious doings, of their mysterious Gods, are hidden from view in deep obscurity—like the temple of the Egyptian Isis, that bore the inscription: “I am all that is, that was, and that will be, and no mortal has lifted my veil.”

The ancient writers of the scripture were full of deep, mysterious ways, and their writings of hidden meanings. Ordinary mortals were prohibited from making inquiry because the subject was considered too mysterious, and much too sacred.

Since then, many mysteries have been dissolved, or have been analyzed by the crucial test of science, and it has been discovered that there is nothing hidden except what our ignorance prevents us from knowing. We have lifted the sacred veil and looked into the temple of nature, as she is, and not as she appears. The more we search, the more we discover, the nearer we get to the truth.

There is not the slightest reason why every man, woman, and child at proper age should not be instructed in matters wherein they are immediately interested, the knowledge whereof would undoubtedly be to their benefit.

Men have lived through centuries of fable, ages of fiction, long periods of myth. The Christian God is as much of a myth as any myth that ever existed. Humanity having passed through these various mental afflictions, gone through so many bloody surgical operations, we are, as it were, approaching a condition that will soon be declared as convalescent, and this most miserable of theological nurses may at not a very remote period be dismissed.

We can say, without the slightest conscientious scruple, or fear of contradiction, with reason to sustain us and the light of science to prove the truth, that There is no God.

There never was—except such a one as men have invented, held sacred, and worshiped. There is nothing sacred except what man makes sacred, nothing holy except what man makes holy, nothing divine except what man makes divine. He makes his own God, and he religiously, piously, devoutly prays to and worships it. The more regularly he does so, the more saintly he becomes, or esteems himself.

For many thousand years the Sun was worshiped, held sacred, sacrificed to, entempled, etc. As reason and understanding increased, they forsook him as a god, dismissed him as they had dismissed many gods before him. Yet the sun was by far their greatest benefactor and best friend—more than they were aware of.

The sun is 93,000,000 miles from the earth. Supposing a railway could be built to the sun, an express train traveling day and night, at the rate of thirty miles an hour, would require 352 years to reach its destination. The light of the sun is equal to 5,563 wax candles held at a distance of one foot from the eye. The heat of the sun that we receive annually is sufficient to melt a layer of ice 180 feet thick, extending over the whole earth. Yet the sunbeam is only 1⁄300000​ part as intense as it is at the surface of the sun. Moreover, the heat and light stream off into space equally in every direction. Of this vast flood, but one twenty-three-hundred-millionth part reaches the earth.

The diameter of the sun is about 860,000 miles. Its volume is 1,300,000 times that of the earth, i.e., it would take 1,300,000 earths to make a globe the size of the sun. Its mass is 750 times that of all the planets and moons in the solar system, and 300,000 times that of the earth. Its weight may be expressed in tons thus: 1,910,278,070,000,000,000,000,000,000. The density of the sun is only about one-fourth that of the earth, or 1.41 that of water, so that the weight of a body transferred from the earth to the sun would not be increased in proportion to the comparative size of the sun. The sun rotates on his axis, like a wheel, once in about 25 days.

Our astronomers tell us that the solar heat is gradually diminishing. In time the sun will cease to shine, as the earth did long since. Newcomb says that in 5,000,000 years, at the present rate, the sun will have shrunk to half its present size, and that it cannot sustain life on the earth more than 10,000,000 years longer. Of this we may be assured, there is enough heat to support life on our globe for millions of years to come.

The sun consists of a central orb, liquid or solid, of exceeding brightness, which of itself would give a continuous spectrum, or in other words which emits all kinds of light. The sunlight is decomposed by means of the spectroscope, already alluded to, in order to discover the kind of elements it is composed of. Therefore Tyndall says: “I think we now possess knowledge sufficient to raise us to the level of one of the most remarkable generalizations of our age. It has long been supposed that the sun and planets have had a common origin and that hence the same substances are more or less common to them all. Can we detect the presence of any of our terrestrial substances in the sun?… I have said that the bright bands of a metal are characteristic of the metal; that we can without seeing the metal declare its name from the inspection of the bands. The bands are, so to speak, the voice of the metal declaring its presence.

“Professor Kirchhoff finds iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, chromium, etc., in the sunlight spectrum. We know also the total amount of solar heat received by the earth in a year, and we can calculate the entire quantity of heat emitted by the sun in a year. Conceive a hollow sphere to surround the sun, its center the sun’s center, and its surface at the distance of the earth from the sun. The section of the earth cut by this surface is to the whole area of the hollow sphere as 1 to 2,300,000,000; hence the quantity of solar heat intercepted by the earth is only 1⁄2300000000​ of the total radiation.

“The heat emitted by the sun, if used to melt a stratum of ice applied to the sun’s surface would liquefy the ice at the rate of 2,400 feet an hour. It would boil per hour 700,000 millions of cubic miles of ice-cold water. Expressed in another form, the heat given out by the sun per hour is equal to that which would be generated by the combustion of a layer of solid coal 10 feet thick entirely surrounding the sun; hence the heat emitted in a year is equal to that which would be produced by the combustion of a layer of coal 17 miles in thickness. These are the results of actual measurements; and should greater accuracy be conferred on them by future determinations, it will not deprive them of their astonishing character. And this expenditure has been going on for ages, without our being able, in historic times, to detect the loss. When the tolling of a bell is heard at a distance, the sound of each stroke soon sinks, the sonorous vibrations are quickly wasted, and renewed strokes are necessary to maintain the sound. Like the bell,

“Die Sonne tönt nach alter weise.

“But how is its tone sustained? How is the perennial loss made good? We are apt to overlook the wonderful in the common. Possibly to many of us—and to some of the most enlightened among us—the sun appears as a fire differing from our terrestrial fires only in the magnitude and the intensity of its combustion. But what is the burning matter which can thus maintain itself? All that we know of cosmical phenomena declares our brotherhood with the sun—affirms that the same constituents enter into the composition of his mass as those already known to chemistry. But no earthly substance with which we are acquainted—no substance which the fall of meteors has landed on the earth—would be at all competent to maintain the sun’s combustion. The chemical energy of such substances would be too weak, and their dissipation would be too speedy. Were the sun a solid block of coal, and were it allowed a sufficient supply of oxygen to enable it to burn at the rate necessary to produce the observed emissions, it would be utterly consumed in 5,000 years. On the other hand, to imagine it a body originally endowed with a store of heat—a hot globe now cooling—necessitates the ascription to it of qualities wholly different from those possessed by terrestrial matter. If we knew the specific heat of the sun, we could calculate its rate of cooling. Assuming this to be the same as that of water—the terrestrial substance which possesses the highest specific heat—at its present rate of emission, the entire mass of the sun would cool down 15,000° Faht. in 5,000 years. In short, if the sun be formed of matter like our own, some means must exist of restoring to him his wasted power. The facts are so extraordinary, that the soberest hypothesis regarding them must appear wild. The sun we know rotates upon his axis; he turns like a wheel once in 25 days: can it be the friction of the periphery of this wheel against something in surrounding space which produces the light and heat? Such a notion has been entertained. But what forms the brake, and by what agency is it held, while it rubs against the sun? The action is inconceivable; but, granting the existence of the brake, we can calculate the total amount of heat which the sun could generate by such friction. We know his mass, we know his time of rotation; we know the mechanical equivalent of heat; and from these data we deduce, with certainty, that the entire force of rotation, if converted into heat, would cover more than one, but less than two, centuries of emission. There is no hypothesis involved in this calculation.

“There is another theory, which, however bold it may at first sight appear, deserves our earnest attention. I have already referred to it as the meteoric theory of the sun’s heat. Solar space is peopled with ponderable objects. Kepler’s celebrated statement that ‘there are more comets in the heavens than fish in the ocean’ refers to the fact that a small portion only of the total number of comets belong to our system, and are seen from the earth. But besides comets, and planets, and moons, a numerous class of bodies belong to our system—asteroids, which from their smallness might be regarded as cosmical atoms. Like the planets and the comets these smaller bodies obey the law of gravity, and revolve in elliptic orbits around the sun; and it is they, when they come within the earth’s atmosphere, that, fired by friction, appear to us as meteors and falling stars. On a bright night twenty minutes rarely pass at any part of the earth’s surface without the appearance of at least one meteor. At certain times (the 12th of August and the 14th of November), they appear in enormous numbers. During nine hours of observation in Boston, when they were described as falling as thick as snowflakes, 240,000 meteors were calculated to have been observed. The number falling in a year might perhaps be estimated at hundreds or thousands of millions, and even these would constitute but a small portion of the total crowd of asteroids that circulate round the sun. From the phenomena of light and heat, and by the direct observation of Encke, on his comet, we learn that the universe is filled with a resisting medium, through the friction of which all the masses of our system are drawn gradually toward the sun. And though the larger planets show, in historic times, no diminution of their periods of revolution, this may not hold good for the smaller bodies. In the time required for the mean distance of the earth from the sun to alter a single yard, a small asteroid may have approached thousands of miles nearer to our luminary.

“Following up these reflections we should infer that while this immeasurable stream of ponderable matter rolls unceasingly towards the sun, it must augment in density as it approaches the center of convergence. And here the conjecture naturally rises that that weak nebulous light, of vast dimensions, which embraces the sun—the Zodiacal light—may owe its existence to these crowded meteors. However this may be, it is at least proved that the luminous phenomenon arises from matter which circulates in obedience to planetary laws; the entire mass constituting the Zodiacal light must be constantly approaching, and incessantly raining its substance down upon, the sun.

“We observe the fall of an apple and investigate the law which rules its motion. In the place of the earth we set the sun, and in place of the apple we set the earth, and thus possess ourselves of the key to the mechanics of the heavens. We now know the connection between hight of fall, velocity, and heat at the surface of the earth. In the place of the earth let us set the sun, with 300,000 times the earth’s mass, and instead of a fall of a few feet, let us take cosmical elevations; we thus obtain a means of generating heat which transcends all terrestrial power.

“It is easy to calculate both the maximum and the minimum velocity imparted by the sun’s attraction to asteroids circulating round him; the maximum is generated when the body approaches the sun from an infinite distance as the entire pull of the sun being then expended upon it; the minimum is that velocity which would barely enable the body to revolve round the sun close to his surface. The final velocity of the former, just before striking the sun, would be 390 miles a second, that of the latter 276 miles a second. The asteroid on striking the sun with the former velocity, would develop more than 3,000 times the heat generated by the combustion of an equal asteroid of solid coal; while the shock, in the latter case, would generate heat equal to that of the combustion of upward of 4,000 such asteroids. It matters not whether the substances falling into the sun be combustible or not; their being combustible would not add sensibly to the tremendous heat produced by their mechanical collision.

“Here then we have an agency competent to restore his lost energy, and to maintain a temperature at his surface which transcends all terrestrial combustion. The very quality of the solar rays—their incomparable penetrating power—enables us to infer that the temperature of their origin must be enormous; but in the fall of asteroids we find the means of producing such a temperature. It may be contended that this showering down of matter must be accompanied by the growth of the sun in size; it is so; but the quantity necessary to produce the observed calorific emission, even if accumulated for 4,000 years, would defy the scrutiny of our best instruments. If the earth struck the sun it would utterly vanish from perception, but the heat developed by the shock would cover the expenditure of the sun for a century.

“To the earth itself apply considerations similar to those which we have applied to the sun. Newton’s theory of gravitation, which enables us, from the present form of the earth, to deduce its original state of aggregation, reveals to us, at the same time, a source of heat powerful enough to bring about the fluid state—powerful enough to fuse even worlds. It teaches us to regard the molten condition of a planet as resulting from mechanical union of cosmical masses, and thus reduces to the same homogeneous process the heat stored up in the body of the earth, and the heat emitted by the sun. Without doubt the whole surface of the sun displays an unbroken ocean of fiery fluid matter. On this ocean rests an atmosphere of flowing gas—a flame atmosphere, or photosphere. But gaseous substances, when compared with solid ones, emit, even when their temperature is very high, only a feeble and transparent light. Hence it is probable that the dazzling white light of the sun comes through the atmosphere from the more solid portions of the surface.… In conclusion, thus writes Professor Thomson: ‘The source of energy from which the solar heat is derived is undoubtedly meteoric.… The principal source—perhaps the sole appreciable efficient source—is in the bodies circulating round the sun at present inside the earth’s orbit seen in the sunlight by us called “Zodiacal light.” The store of energy for future sunlight is at present partly dynamical—that of the motions of these bodies round the sun; and partly potential—that of their gravitation towards the sun. This latter is gradually being spent, half against the resisting medium, and half in causing a continuous increase of the former. Each meteor thus goes on moving faster and faster, and getting nearer and nearer the center, until some time, very suddenly, it gets so much entangled in the solar atmosphere as to begin to lose its velocity. In a few seconds more it is at rest on the sun’s surface, and the energy given up is vibrated across the district where it was gathered during so many ages, ultimately to penetrate as light the remotest regions of space.…

“ ‘The heat of rotation of the sun and planets, taken all together, would cover the solar emission for 134 years; while the heat of gravitation (that produced by falling into the sun) would cover the emission for 45,589 years. There is nothing hypothetical in these results; they follow directly and necessarily from the application of the mechanical equivalent of heat to cosmical masses.’…

“But, continues Helmholtz, though the store of our planetary system is so immense as not to be sensibly diminished by the incessant emission which has gone on during the period of man’s history, and though the time which must elapse before a sensible change in the condition of our planetary system can occur is totally incapable of measurement, the inexorable laws of mechanics show that this store, which can only suffer loss, and not gain, must finally be exhausted. Shall we terrify ourselves by this thought? Men are in the habit of measuring the greatness of the universe, and the wisdom displayed in it, by the duration and the profit which it promises to their own race; but the past history of the earth shows the insignificance of the interval during which man has had his dwelling here. What the museums of Europe show us of the remains of Egypt and Assyria we gaze upon in silent wonder, and despair of being able to carry back our thoughts to a period so remote. Still, the human race must have existed and multiplied for ages before the Pyramids could have been erected. We estimate the duration of human history at 6,000 years; but vast as this time may appear to us, what is it in comparison with the period during which the earth bore successive series of rank plants and mighty animals, but no man? Periods during which, in our own neighborhood (Kœnigsberg) the amber tree bloomed and dropped its costly gum on the earth and in the sea; when in Europe and North America groves of tropical palms flourished, in which gigantic lizards, and after them elephants, whose mighty remains are still buried in the earth, found a home. Different geologists, proceeding from different premises, have sought to estimate the length of the above period, and they set it down from one to nine million of years. The time during which the earth has generated organic beings is again small, compared with the ages during which the world was a mass of molten rocks. The experiments of Bischoff upon basalt show that for our globe to cool down from 2,000° to 200° centigrade would require 350 millions of years. And with regard to the period during which the first nebulous masses condensed, so as to form our planetary system, conjecture must entirely cease. The history of man, therefore, is but a minute ripple in the infinite ocean of time. For a much longer period than that during which he has already occupied the world, the existence of a state of inorganic nature, favorable to man’s existence, seems to be secured; so that for ourselves, and for long generations after us, we have nothing to fear. But the same forces of air and water, and of the volcanic interior, which produced former geological revolutions, and buried one series of living forms after another, still act upon the earth’s crust. They, rather than those distant cosmical changes of which we have spoken, will end the human race, and perhaps compel us to make way for new and more complete forms of life, as the lizard and the mammoth have given way to us and our contemporaries.

“Grand, however, and marvelous as are these questions regarding the physical constitution of the sun, they are but a portion of the wonders connected with our luminary. His relationship to life is yet to be referred to. The earth’s atmosphere contains carbonic acid, and the earth’s surface bears living plants; the former is the nutriment of the latter. The plant seizes the combined carbon and oxygen and tears them asunder, storing the carbon and letting the oxygen go free. By no special force, different in quality from other forces, do plants exercise this power—the real magician here is the sun. We have seen how heat is consumed in forcing asunder the atoms and molecules of solids and liquids, converting itself into potential energy, which reappears as heat when the attractions of the separated atoms are again allowed to come into play. Precisely the same considerations which we then applied to heat we have now to apply to light; for it is at the expense of the solar light that the decomposition of the carbonic acid is effected. Without the sun the reduction cannot take place, and an amount of sunlight is consumed exactly equivalent to the molecular work accomplished. Thus trees are formed, thus meadows grow, thus the flowers bloom. Let the rays fall upon the surface of sand, the sand is heated, and finally radiates away as much as it receives; let the same rays fall upon a forest, the quantity of heat given back is less than that received, for the energy of a portion of the sunbeams is invested in building up the trees. I have here a bundle of cotton which I ignite; it bursts into flame, and yields a definite amount of heat; precisely that amount of heat was abstracted from the sun in order to form that bit of cotton. This is a representative case—every tree, plant, and flower, grows and flourishes by the grace and bounty of the sun.

“But we cannot stop at vegetable life; for this is the source, mediate or immediate, of all animal life. In the animal body vegetable substances are brought again into contact with their beloved oxygen, and they burn within as a fire burns in a grate. This is the source of all animal power; and the forces in play are the same, in kind, as those which operate in inorganic nature. In the plant the clock is wound up, in the animal it runs down. In the plant the atoms are separated, in the animal they recombine. And as surely as the force which moves a clock’s hands is derived from the arm which winds the clock, so surely is all terrestrial power drawn from the sun. Leaving out of account the eruption of volcanoes and the ebb and flow of the tides, every mechanical action on the earth’s surface, every manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, vital or physical, is produced by the sun. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the atmosphere a gas, and all the storms which agitate both are blown by the mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers and glaciers up the mountains; and thus the cataract and avalanche shoot with an energy derived immediately from him. Thunder and lightning are also his transmuted strength. Every fire that burns and every flame that glows dispenses light and heat which originally belonged to the sun. In these days, unhappily, the news of battle is familiar to us, but every shock, and every charge, is an application or misapplication of the mechanical force of the sun. He blows the trumpet, he urges the projectile, he bursts the bomb. And remember this is not poetry, but rigid mechanical truth. He rears, as I have said, the whole vegetable world, and through it the animal; the lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the muscle, he urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fleetness is in the lion’s foot; he springs in the panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake. He builds the forest, and hews it down, the power which raised the tree and that which wields the axe being one and the same. The clover sprouts and blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings, by the operation of the same force. The sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the iron, he rivets the plates, he boils the water, he draws the train. He not only grows the cotton, but he spins the fiber and weaves the web. There is not a hammer raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is not raised, and turned, and thrown by the sun. His energy is poured freely into space, but our world is a halting-place where the energy is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; the self-same essence takes a million of shapes and hues, and finally dissolves into its primitive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as heat; he quits us as heat; and between his entrance and departure the multiform powers of our globe appear. They are all special forms of solar power—the molds into which his strength is temporarily poured, in passing from its source through infinitude.

“Presented rightly to the mind, the discoveries and generalizations of modern science constitute a poem more sublime than has yet been addressed to the intellect and imagination of man. The natural philosopher of to-day may dwell amid conceptions which beggar those of Milton. So great and grand are they, that in the contemplation of them a certain force of character is requisite to preserve us from bewilderment. Look at the integrated energies of the world—the stored power of our coal fields; our winds and rivers; our fleets, armies, and guns; what are they? They are all generated by a portion of the sun’s energy, which does not amount to 1⁄2300000000​th of the whole. This, in fact, is the entire fraction of the sun’s force intercepted by the earth, and, in reality, we convert but a small fraction of that fraction into mechanical energy. Multiplying all our powers by millions of millions, we do not reach the sun’s expenditure. And still, notwithstanding this enormous drain, in the lapse of human history we are unable to detect a diminution of his store; measured by our largest terrestrial standards, such a reservoir of power is infinite; but it is our privilege to rise above these standards and to regard the sun himself as a speck in infinite extension—a mere drop in the universal sea. We analyze the space in which he is immersed, and which is the vehicle of his power. We pass to other systems and other suns, each pouring forth energy like our own, but still without infringement of the law, which reveals immutability in the midst of change, which recognizes incessant transference and conversion, but neither final gain nor loss. This law generalizes the aphorism of Solomon that there is nothing new under the sun, by teaching us to detect everywhere, under its infinite variety of appearances, the same primeval force. To nature nothing can be added; from nature nothing can be taken away; the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost that man can do in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the application of physical knowledge, is to shift the constituents of the never-varying total, and out of one of them to form another. The law of conservation rigidly excludes both creation and annihilation. Waves may change into ripples, and ripples into waves—magnitude may be substituted for number, and number for magnitude—asteroids may aggregate to suns, and suns may resolve themselves into flora and fauna, and flora and fauna melt in air—the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music through the ages, and all the terrestrial energy—the manifestations of life, as well as the display of phenomena, are but the modulations of the rhythm” (Tyndall Lecture XII).

CHAPTER V.

GENESIS—THE CREATION.

Man must pass through infancy and childhood before he reaches manhood and maturity. Races and nations also had to pass the stages of infancy and childhood, with all their mistakes, fancy, and fable. In these stages any kind of information and interpretation is readily accepted, without inquiry and without investigation, for the reason that they are not capable of either. To inquire, is the awaking of knowledge; and to investigate, requires understanding. Whatever knowledge has been acquired, that knowledge can be imparted, but no more. If it be true, it cannot be denied or contradicted; if that knowledge be not true, it will be subject to denial, controversy, and dispute, when experience has ripened the understanding. Childhood will listen to anything without contradiction. It accepts the matter as told and believes it. As years pass on, the story that once seemed so impressive and pretty, that was listened to so eagerly, loses its charm, for lack of truth. Fairy tales of past ages were abundant. Every locality had them, and was by them adorned in mystery and wonder. They were ordinarily recited with startling impressiveness. With awe places were pointed out of perhaps some strange apparition, or prodigious occurrence. All of such accounts were either deliberate inventions, or concoctions of a prolific imagination. Early writings abound in them. The improbability of a story grows stronger the farther you go back in the history of humanity. Many of these stories were incorporated in poems, in heroic legends, in tales of the mysterious births of kings and queens, descendants of gods. And the vast majority of the writers of antiquity mix fiction and fact, the possible with the impossible. They treat on the conduct of men, their deeds and misdeeds, according to the extravagant customs of the time.

The Book called scripture writings is composed of three elements—fiction, exaggeration, and fact. The fiction consists of all that portion of the writings that relates to God and his miraculous works. The exaggeration consists of impossible doings of men, such as accounts of miracle-healers, resurrectionists, flights to heaven, etc. The facts appertain to the Jewish race actually—that they did exist as a nation, and conducted their affairs in as barbarous a fashion as their neighbors.

For nearly two thousand years Christianity has done its utmost to sustain the fiction portion as being absolutely true, and still it teaches these absurdities to be true, and anyone doubting their accuracy is liable to persecution. For every doubter of the current belief, whether in ancient or modern times, is subject to discipline of the church to which he belongs. Recently in our own city many have been subjected to a mild form of persecution for doubting. They were declared to be heretics, blasphemers, etc. I speak of such men as Dr. Newton, Dr. Briggs, and others. Yet, we must concede that every organization has a right to judge as to the qualifications of any one of its members, especially if he is an office-holder. They may reject or accept any member. But since his membership depends on whether he believes in their mode of interpreting this fiction, he must say that he believes it, and proclaim to others that it is true, though he knows it is not.

Nothing on earth has given rise to so much dispute, angry quarrel, bitter hatred and abuse, as this fiction. It has been the cause of more villainy, brutality, massacres, and bloody wars than all matters that concern humanity put together.

Science universally agrees that the biblical story has not a particle of truth in it; and the older it gets the more it suffers, the weaker it gets, and it finally must undergo complete dissipation, in the presence of the strong light of natural truth.

We have a great deal to be thankful for, to have and to enjoy the privilege, the freedom, of exercising and giving expression to opinions concerning matters that have been considered too sacred to be contradicted or criticised.

The time has come, or is coming very fast, that we shall be able to dispense with God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Bible as a sacred text-book, both the Old and New Testament. In order to do this we must examine some portion of its text. We should do this for educational purposes. Every man and woman should acquire a proper amount of knowledge, to enable them to think for themselves. Every person knows, or ought to know, that priest and preacher are especially educated to keep the masses as ignorant as they can possibly keep them. It is their trade. It is their bread and butter, like that of every other trade or profession—it is their business, their function, their profit, to sustain and uphold this tottering fabric, this hollow sham, this aerial nothing, with not a truth, not even a shadow of a truth, to support it.

[Chapter i, verse 1, of Genesis]: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” Verse [2]: “The earth was without form and void.”

(1) God could not have created the earth, as a planet distinct and separate by itself. This terrestrial globe belongs to a system of planets, and they are all not only dependent on one another, but all dependent on the sun for their existence.

(2) How can God create a planet, this earth? Where did he get his material from? And was it possible for God to overcome the laws of gravitation?

(3) Does it not seem strange that God, who seemed to have direct dealings with Moses, did not give him more information about it?

(4) Theologians claim that God is the architect, the designer, the first cause, the creator. Why did it take God to make this terrestrial globe six days? If he was able to make it in six days, he might as well have made it in one day, yes, one hour. If the Word was God, and God was the Word, then the Word ought to have displayed this magical art; he might have simply said, Go!

The term designer, architect, creator, implies skill, human skill, a being that has brain.

(5) As to heaven, that part that is scripturally indicated as heaven is the atmosphere.

(6) We are nowhere told where God was when he was doing all this work. Whether he was floating in space among the meteors and asteroids, or had his residence on Mars or Venus, we are not informed.

(7) This earth always had a form. A globe that revolves round its own axis, once in twenty-four hours, and round the sun besides, cannot be without form. It must necessarily have a globular form; nor was it ever void. There is no such thing as a void in fact; it may appear so to one ignorant of natural phenomena. That was undoubtedly the case when that matter was written up.

(8) It must also be remembered that every planet in the system of the sun receives a portion of his light. The contact of the sun’s rays with the elements of this earth is fatal to any such nonsensical proposition as a void.

(9) As to “the darkness on the face of the deep,” that could exist only in isolated places, because of an intense fog or mist. The whole surface of the earth could not have a fog at one time. That is impossible. Wherever the sun shines there is light.

(10) “And the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.” What waters? Where? We know that only one thing in this solar system can disperse a fog; that is the sun.

Verse [3]: “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.”

This is worse than childish; it is stupid.

(1) How could God have light when the sun was not made?

(2) And if the sun existed, it was silly on his part to say it.

Verse [4]: “And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.”

How is it possible for any sane person to believe such nonsense, when everybody with a grain of common sense knows that light and darkness depend on the sun, as day and night do?

And this is said to have constituted the first day’s work. If any man will read it carefully he will perceive that the composition is of a nature to entertain simple-minded people, children, who are unable to understand the ordinary phases of nature.

The second day’s work is very droll.

Verse [6]: “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,” etc.

Verse [7]: “And God made the firmament,” and divided the waters which were under the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so.

Verse [8]: “And called the firmament heaven.”

There is not a particle of sense in this.

If the firmament is heaven, and heaven the atmosphere, we know that we cannot have any water above the firmament. We may have clouds, or a certain quantity of moisture, but no water. If the atmosphere is overloaded with moisture, that moisture is sure to return to the earth in the shape of rain or other form.

This portion is important to pious persons, that they may know where their souls go when they go to “heaven”—to the atmosphere!

Theologians and religious writers contend that this earth was in a state of aqueous solution. That is all wrong. We have not oxygen and hydrogen enough to produce such a state with. Besides, if it was in an aqueous solution what became of the sixty-two elementary substances that never enter into the composition of water? Nor can the majority of the elements be held in suspension by water. The specific gravity of the different elements cannot be suspended to please anybody. Elisha is supposed to have performed that miracle; he made an axe-head swim ([2 Kings vi, 6]). This same man also beheld a chariot of fire and horses of fire with which Elijah went to heaven. It seems surprising that men who claim to know something of science insist upon this miraculous supernatural work. They ought to know better. They ought to know that neither God nor man can stop the chemical action of the elements in the presence or absence of the sun’s heat. They ought to know that no supernatural power can suspend nature’s forces, or nature’s laws. They ought to know that no spirit, whether belonging to God or not, can effect such an aqueous solution as these pious gentlemen would have us believe.

The third day’s work is remarkable. It embraces the 9th to the 13th verses inclusive. “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let dry land appear.” Was God ignorant of the existence of more oceans than one? of the numerous seas and lakes? or was this creation a local affair near the Gulf of Persia?

There is a singular phraseology used: the first day’s work is not qualified; the second day, “It was so;” on the third day, “It was so, it was good.” Thus, it seems, God did not discover the quality of his work until the third day, when he has it twice—“It was so,” as if in surprise, and then that “it was good,” as if he lacked self-reliance, or was uncertain how the work would turn out.

Verse 11: “And let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind,” etc.

It is a pertinent question, or questions:

(1) On what part of the globe were these planted?

(2) In what season of the year were they planted?

(3) Did these thrive and flourish in the absence of sunlight? and

(4) In what kind of soil and in what locality? Were these trees, grass, herbs, planted at the North Pole, equator, in a subtropical or in a mild climate? Was it winter, spring, summer, or autumn? Was it sandy soil, as in the deserts of Arabia, or hill, valley, or mountain? Or was it really somewhere in Chaldea where the story originated?

Remember, we have no sun yet.

Verse 13: “And the evening and the morning were the third day.” God takes his rest during the night, like any other toiler on the surface of this terrestrial globe. He did not believe in working after proper hours. No doubt he started with sunrise and stopped at sunset, as shepherds and agriculturists usually do. And God simply suspended the natural operations and went to bed. I don’t blame him. He was tired.

Then again, grass might and does grow in a season, but trees do not. It takes quite a number of seasons for trees to bear fruit. The elements that enter into their composition differ. Some have more of one element, and grow on certain soil and flourish, while others do not. Moreover, there are only certain localities on earth where the growth of any can be accomplished.

The fourth day’s work is something prodigious:

Verse 14: “And God said, Let there be light in the firmament of the heaven” (in the eighth verse God calls the firmament heaven, but in the 14th calls it the firmament of the heaven) “to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.”

Verse 15: “And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon earth: and it was so.”

Verse 16: “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser to rule the night: he made the stars also.”

The inventor or the writer of these passages had not the slightest conception of what he was talking about. He spoke and wrote of the mere appearance of what he beheld daily and nightly, the sun and the moon. They could not know, in those remote ages, the important role the sun plays in the solar system, because whatever is known thereon is of very recent date. Talk of setting the sun in the firmament, 93,000,000 miles’ distance from the earth, considering its bulk, weight, and condition, is an outrage on common sense. It is a monstrous piece of stupidity to make children believe it, and it is an infamous fraud for any priest or preacher to teach it.

Writers in order to explain away the above difficulty quote, for example: “Maimonides (born 1131 A.D.) in his guide, Rashi (1030) and Aben Ezra (1119) in their commentaries, hold that the light of the first day was that of the sun itself, which revolving in its sphere from west to east and from east to west made a day of twenty-four hours. The scripture’s saying that it was created on the fourth day is incident to its thus demonstrating its effects upon plants, which appeared on the third day; rain, which proceeded from the exhalations and vapors raised from the earth by the action of the sun’s heat thereon, being necessary to their vegetation. Therefore, it is clear that there was no new creation on the fourth day; but the heat implies that on that day the sun developed the effects of his heat on plants.” This is one of many explanations of philosophical commentators who have tried to explain away the difficulty of creation, owing to the many doubts that arose in the minds of learned men about the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D.; and especially the Greek philosophers, Aristotle[1] and others. Volumes upon volumes have been written in order to explain away the difficulties theologians encounter. As science advances, explanations and reconciliations become more difficult. Maimonides, in his pious enthusiasm, after having consulted Aristotle and others, is not quite certain, but he claims (according to More, xi, 15): “I propose to show that the creation of the world, as our religion teaches, is not impossible, and all philosophical reasonings to the effect that it is not so, as I have said, they may overthrow, but cannot make any objection against us. As for me, I stand firm in my belief on the question, of whether the world had a beginning or not. I accept the solution of this problem from the prophets, as the prophets explain these things, which speculation cannot reach,” etc. (Kusari I, 65, 67). In other words, Maimonides, the authors of the Talmud, and all other writers, theological philosophers, Hebrew and Christian, prove the truth of the Bible by the Bible. One portion of scripture must prove another portion to be true. The Jews use their own biblical authorities to demonstrate one another’s statements. Isaiah gives evidence for Moses, and Moses is made to testify for Isaiah, and so the Jewish philosophers whip the devil round the ring. The Christians have a double hold. They have a New Testament. They prove the statements made by persons figuring in the Old Testament by statements made in the New Testament. That is, they make Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Moses, etc., give testimony for John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke; and then make Luke, Matthew, Mark, and John give evidence for Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Elisha, Elijah, etc.

The majority of theological writings and commentaries, yes, all of them, were composed and written during the Christian era, and nearly one-half of these after the twelfth century. All are employed with the same subject-matter. Although they lay claim that the Talmud and other works treat of mathematics, physics, medicine, etc., they knew little or nothing about these things, and the little they did know was mostly appropriated from the Greek and other nations.

It is not an unusual occurrence for modern thinkers to interpret the statements of ancient writers as they originally never intended. They spoke in enigmas, parables, simply philosophical phrases, without stating a single fact, implying nothing in particular and everything in general.

“And he made the stars also.” Make the stars! We have shown in a previous chapter that this our solar system is but a speck among the starry host of the universe.

From verse 20 to 23 inclusive, God created moving creatures in the water, and fowl that may fly above the earth. This general statement, like all other statements in the Bible, is based on the principle that “with God everything is possible.” Unfortunately for God’s adherents, that is absolutely not the case. The laws of nature are fixed, permanent. There is no exception in favor of any mortal and natural being, and certainly not for any supernatural and imaginary being.

Does it not seem strange that the only animal mentioned in the fifth and sixth days’ performance is the whale? “Great whales,” it says. Why great whales? They had heard something about the whale, he therefore received prominence, and was mentioned. They had no knowledge of other animals. Or was this great whale purposely inserted to do that extraordinary service to Jonah?

And after all this work was done, God saw that it was good. Evidently pleased with his handiwork.

On the sixth day he finishes his work—he “brings forth living creatures.” Why living creatures? Are not fish, fowl, and whales living creatures? Next come cattle and creeping things. After he created the creeping things he made man.

Verse 27: “So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.”

If man was made in his own image, God’s image, God must have the semblance of man, otherwise man would not be like him. If God has the semblance of man, and creates and desires, works and rests, like a man, he is a man, therefore cannot be supernatural—a God!

Verses 28, 29, 30: God places all that he has created at the service of man, giving him full control and dominion to make use of these benefits as he, man, thinks best. “And behold it was very good,” and then God took a rest.

The entire creation must have taken place in a mild or warm climate, in some isolated locality on the face of the globe. No mention is made of icebergs, snow or hail. There does not seem to have occurred the slightest impediment in any of the work done. No evolutionary period, except the night’s rest God reserved for himself, in addition to the whole day Sunday, or rather the seventh day.

We are now prepared to make some very pertinent remarks and ask some very pertinent questions:

(1) What period elapsed from the time man was created to the time man could use words or speech intelligently?

(2) We may assume that no one was present at the time of creation, because man and woman were made the last thing on the sixth day.

(3) Who was the first man that received this information? After how many generations or centuries was this news published, and to whom?

(4) We are not informed, even by the holy book, of the man’s name who was the fortunate recipient of this valuable information.

(5) Is it not highly probable that the man who first told this story might also have invented it? We have no proof to the contrary, except the mere say-so of somebody.

The statement, as written, is well enough as a fable; that’s all. As to fact, there is not a particle of truth to sustain it. But if men are determined to believe it, and are not open to conviction, if they are willfully blind to the truth, they must remain the slaves to a powerful ecclesiastical organization.

The 14th verse, however, betrays its origin. When the sun and moon were made for seasons, days, and years, as also for signs, that shows a high degree of civilization. These divisions did not take place before man was created? Were really these divisions made before a living creature inhabited this earth? For whom? For whose use? Writing had not been invented. Athates, or Hermes, the Egyptian, is supposed to be the founder of hieroglyphics, 2,136 B.C. And we do not hear of writing until 1,494 B.C. It is claimed that writing was taught to the Latins by Europa, daughter of Agenar, king of Phœnicia. The doctrine of the solar system as it is now accepted was first taught by Pythagoras of Samos about 529 B.C. Copernicus proved it in the sixteenth century, and Newton demonstrated the truth fully in the year 1695. History claims for the Egyptians that they were the first who fixed the length of the year. The Chaldeans and Persians had adopted the lunar year before Abraham ever dreamed of being exiled by his countrymen, the Chaldeans. Can any man be so silly as to believe that an almanac was made before man was created? There is not an intelligent priest living who is ass big enough to believe any such nonsense.

[1] Aristotle, 343 B.C., logician and philosopher, founder of the Peripatetics. [↑]

CHAPTER VI.

GENESIS—THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

The custom of six days’ labor and one day’s rest is a human invention, and is based on the principles of economy, power-saving, labor-saving, and had been a recognized institution long before the date of the supposed creation. For if the statement of Baily be true (and we have no right to discredit it), human beings have existed, in one state or another, above 4,000,000 years. The record of the Hebrew race is insignificant in comparison.

The modern eight-hour movement is the outcome of the economic reforms of labor. Had the composers of the scripture known something of it at that time God might have worked only eight hours instead of from sunrise to sunset.

We cannot have the slightest doubt that the above first-given labor regulation existed long, long ago. The Chaldeans had their mode of government, their laws, their social rules and regulations; other neighboring nations had theirs; it was therefore nothing new. This six days’ labor clause was incorporated, but there was no need of a God to make it.

Verse 4: “And these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” What generations of heaven?

Verse 7: “And the Lord God [In this chapter an extra title is assigned to God—it is the Lord God! Why?] formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

This is a very grave error. Man is not made of dust of the ground. There is comparatively very little dust in his composition.

(1) Man contains no more dust than any other animal; the proportion of inorganic constituents in him and other animals is about the same.

(2) Animals are constructed anatomically and physiologically the same. They have the same organs, the same number of muscles, and same number of bones, with some few exceptions. They are built on the same general principles as man; or rather, as man came later, we will say that man is constructed on the same general principles as the animals.

(3) The same mechanism and functions are to be found in the one as in the other—respiration, circulation, digestion, etc.

(4) The proportion of mineral matters contained in a man—or dust, as it is termed in scripture—is about 1⁄23​ to 1⁄24​ of the bodily weight. That is, a body weighing about 125 to 130 pounds would yield about 4½ to 5 pounds of dust, or rather ashes, and the largest proportion of these ashes comes from the solid framework, the skeleton, the bones, composed of phosphates and carbonate of lime.

(5) More than two-thirds of the body’s weight is water—that is, hydrogen and oxygen. The principal elements found in the body are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon. There are traces of sulphur, etc., besides the mineral substances above alluded to. Thus man is not made of dust, but of water, oxygen and hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. If they had made God say that he made man out of water, he would have been much nearer the truth. Solomon repeats the same in his [Eccles. iii, 20]: “All go unto one place; all are of dust, and all turn to dust again.” In the burial service the same absurdity is repeated. Alter your service, your prayer—put water in place of dust. Or better, give all the four elements a chance.

Do not teach children we are made out of dust. It is not true. Teach the young what is true. What is the good of lying because some man said, God said so?

The “breath of life.” Is it not time that men of intelligence, in this age of progress and civilization we boast so much of, cease to pretend to believe such nonsense? It is absurd to talk of its being “parables” and “figures of speech.” Either the text means what it says, or it means nothing.

There has been an immense amount of controversy over two Hebrew words, viz.: nephesh—breath, respiring, life, life strength, animal soul; ruach—anamos, breath, wind, psyche, soul, spirit, etc. They thought that the life is in the blood. [Lev. xvii, 11]: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” [Gen. ix, 4, 5]: “But the flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof,” etc., etc. This controversy has given rise to no end of studies, as psychology—derived from the word psyche,—soul. The literature that has been expended on this subject, psyche, soul, cannot be easily estimated. The matter has been twisted into a science, discussed, argued, lectured on, etc. On the word Theo, Theon—Deos—God, societies and sects, etc., have been formed, as the Theosophists.

What is the breath of life that caused so much controversy, in church and out of church? Oxygen. Deprive a man of oxygen and he dies. Deprive a beast of oxygen and it dies. Oxygen thus is essential to life. Neither man nor beast, as we said, can live without it. The issues which this has given rise to are bewildering—theological, metaphysical, Theosophical, philosophical, Agnostic, gnostic, spiritual, etc., etc. Oxygen, however, covers the ground. It represents all, so far as the life of a body is concerned.

We now come to Paradise, or the garden of Eden.

We will try to locate this garden of Eden geographically, as nearly as possible correctly. Verse 8: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward of Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” That was very kind of God. Verse 9: “God planted the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” A wonderful tree surety. What is most to be regretted is that the species has become extinct. What a boon to humanity if but one tree were planted in every church. Verse 10: “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it parted, and became into four heads.” Verse 11: “The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.” Verse 12: “And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone.” Verse 13: “And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.” Verse 14: “And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.”

Assyria was founded about 2247 B.C. and is situated near the Persian gulf; and seems to be wedged in between the Persian empire on the east, Arabia on the west, or Badien el Arab, and on the southern point the gulf of Persia.

Ethiopia comprises Nubia, Sennaar, and Northern Abyssinia, and takes in a stretch of country on the west shore of the Red sea. The two countries are separated by the Red sea, and by Arabia, which extends from the east shores of the Red sea to the west shores of the Gulf of Persia, and Assyria. Some one made a big blunder, or Johnston’s atlas is wrong, or they—God—made a mistake in the name. There is considerable distance between the two countries. Assyria lies in Asia and Ethiopia in Africa. Egypt lies farthest north of what is usually known as Ethiopia. Assyria is hemmed in, north by Armenia, west by Media and Susiana, south and southeast by Babylon and Mesopotamia. The river Tigris is the dividing line on the south and southeast. The Parachoatras and Zagrus mountains form the dividing line on the western border, and Armenia is the boundary on the north.

Chaldea is, comparatively speaking, a small tract of land situated between the river Euphrates and the Arabian desert, or Badien el Arab, with Babylon on its north and the Gulf of Persia on the southwestern point.

The river Euphrates takes its rise in the Gulf of Persia and runs westward, and divides into four branches.

The first branch, the Pasitigris, runs somewhat westward through Susiana; the second, Chaosper or Kirkhah, runs northward through Susiana; the third, the river Tigris, runs north, northwest, separating Babylon from Susiana by Assyria; the fourth, the river Euphrates, the farthest south, runs westward, etc.

This is the only river near the Gulf of Persia that divides into four branches, and these are the four rivers that are indicated where the garden of Eden was planted. This is near enough geographically to locate this garden which the Lord God planted. It will indeed afford great pleasure for pious people to know whereabouts they can find the garden of Eden. In this rapid-transit age, they can get an excursion ticket and reach this Paradise in a few weeks. This garden was planted in Chaldea.

We will now see what God did next.

Verse 15: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.” God gave the position of gardener to Mr. Adam. The only stipulation in the contract between the Lord God and Adam was (verses 16, 17), he could eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge. There is a God for you—wants to keep the man he made in his own image, a living soul, as ignorant and as stupid as possible; in addition tempting him to commit a wrong act.

Verse 18: “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.” Very considerate indeed on the part of God.

Verse 21: “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof.” This is the cleverest kind of surgical operation that was ever performed, without loss of blood, use of antiseptics or anesthetics, without ligature, etc. And out of this rib he made a woman. Why did God make a man of dust and the woman out of the man’s rib? Why did he breathe into the nostrils of the man and forget to do it to the woman? The only reasonable explanation that can be given is that, in those days, among the Chaldeans, woman was considered an inferior creature, possessing no soul. She was the slave sometimes, but the servant always. She was the creature of man’s lust, of his passion, and she was placed in the Bible by the man that wrote it in just the position and condition she occupied at that period. This is a gross falsehood, it is debasing, it is an infamous libel on truth. Does any woman believe that she is a bone of her husband’s bone, and flesh of his flesh?

Verse 25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” What is there extraordinary about that? Savage races up to this present time are found in many instances nude. Cæsar describes the Germans as bathing promiscuously in a nude state. Columbus found our American Indians nude. Evidently a degree of civilization had already been attained when this story was evolved. The story had its origin in the romantic regions of Chaldea, somewhere in the neighborhood of the Persian gulf, near the river Euphrates. The singer, the story-teller, or the traveling minstrel tramped from place to place, from one shepherd’s tent to another, relating the story to his crude, barbarous countrymen, reciting the curious yet pretty fable of how man was made; the world made; the garden made; how gold, onyx, and bdellium were found, and where; lauding and glorifying their own country, and making out that they were the immediate descendants of the gods.

Every nation has its fairy tales, its fables, its myths, its songs, and its romances. Whether they have their origin in Egypt, or come down embellished from Mount Olympus, whether they are the fairy tales of the Rhine, or those from the river Euphrates in Chaldea, they are only the products of imagination.

“They spring from fountains and from sacred groves,

And holy streams that flow into the sea” (Od. x, 350).

Next we come to chapter iii—the childish account of the serpent, and the woman and the fruit she ate. The serpent is made to say, verse 5: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good from evil.”

The first knowledge they acquired was, that they discovered they were without clothes. “And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” Why sewed? With what? Aprons were a very late invention, and were never intended for any such purpose. And then, the conversation between the Lord God and Adam! God calls for Adam while he is hiding. God inquires with a Chinese simplicity, “Where art thou?” This is the blandest kind of conversation that has ever taken place between mortal man and a God. Adam tells him that he has eaten some fruit. Like the boy who had stolen jam out of the jar, it seems Adam could not lie. God grows petulant, angry, cross; scolds him, and immediately deprives him of his position and turns him out of the garden. God had two reasons for doing what he did. One reason was to punish Adam for disobedience; the second, that God got afraid of Adam.

Verse 22: “And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us” (were there more gods than one?), “to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand; and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—— Was it the fear of competition—that men might interfere with God’s occupation, infringe on his monopoly?

It seems to have a priestly ring, this forbidding and preventing ordinary mortals to become intelligent. The story is so framed as to express the line of conduct of the higher towards the lower, of the slave towards his master, of the laborer towards his lord; and the 19th verse expresses the subjugation of the poor ignorant creature: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” It is the church and the priest that have taken care to keep the dust in the eyes of the masses. They are the cherubim with a flaming sword that keep the masses away from the tree of life.

Chapter iv relates to the crime of murder. God instigates the crime. Abel kept sheep. Cain tilled the ground. Cain brought vegetables to God, and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and fat. God’s taste ran in the meat line; he was somewhat of an epicurean. He respected Abel and his offering, but did not respect Cain’s. Then God asks Cain why he is cross, and after Cain kills his brother Abel, he, God, says: Where is thy brother Abel? And God dispossesses Cain and drives him east of Eden to Arabia. A very arbitrary landlord this God.

Chapter v: The fourth chapter winds up with Enos the son of Seth. Verse 26: “Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” Now, Adam lived 930 years, Seth 912 years, and Enos 905 years. God during this period was wholly occupied with these people. Murder is the only incident of importance during the first thousand years. God takes a long rest for nearly 2,000 years before anything of importance occurs.

This chapter treats of the genealogy, age, and death of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah.

The records of creation are by no means harmonious. There are no less than one hundred and twenty opinions on the subject. The difference between the latest and remotest dates is no less than 3,268 years. Here are some of the dates of the supposed creation of the world. They may be interesting to some, as showing the uncertainty and inaccuracy:

Hebrew, 4004 B.C.
Septuagint, 5873 B.C.,,
Talmudistic, 5344 B.C.,,
Scaliger, 3950 B.C.,,
Petovias, 3984 B.C.,,
Dr. Hale, 5411 B.C.,, etc.

Here we give the genealogy of Adam and his line:

Age.
930 Adam, Born 4004 B.C. Died 3074 B.C.
Abel, Died,, 3875 B.C.,,
912 Seth, Born,, 3874 B.C.,,
905 Enos, Born,, 3769[1]B.C.,,
910 Cainon, Born,, 3679 B.C.,,
895 Mahaloled, Born,, 3609 B.C.,,
962 Jared, Born,, 3544 B.C.,,
815 Enos, Born,, 3282 B.C.,,
969 Methuselah, Born,, 3317 B.C.,,
777 Lamech, Born,, 3130 B.C.,,
365 Enoch, Born,, 3017 B.C.,, (Translated?)
815 Noah, Born,, 2948 B.C.,, 500 bef. flood.
315 aft. flood.,,

We may venture to make a very strong interrogation mark after these years. They are, however, in harmony with the rest of the story. Noah closes the fabulous period. We hear no more of God’s doings until we come to Abraham, 1921 B.C. And Abraham reached the age of 175 years only.

Chapter vi, on the sons of God, etc., is next. I beg to remind the reader we are still in Chaldea, near the Gulf of Persia; near the river Euphrates; near the garden of Eden, where God created man; where we found gold and precious stones; the place where murder was committed; near Arabia, etc. The geographical location is important, and let the reader also remember that the whole tract of land where all these transactions are supposed to have taken place is not so large as any moderate-sized state in our Union.

If you will examine a map of this particular region, it will help to bring the truth to your mind, and add considerably to your understanding. It is also well to bear in mind that in this small territory the art of agriculture was pursued, as well as fruit-growing, sewing was invented and aprons were made, and Eve had an apron before she had a dress, and this high state of civilization existed as soon as man and woman appeared on earth! What a contrast with other barbaric, savage, and uncivilized tribes! Eve had a decided advantage over the young female that was captured when Columbus landed December 12th. She was perfectly naked; so says history.

Verse 2: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; and they took them wives all which they chose.”

Sons of God! Was God married? If so, to whom? How many wives had he? How many sons and daughters? Where was God’s residence, if he had any? Were his domestic relations pleasant or not? Was his family large or small? Pray give us some information. Our theologians will tell us, “Ah, that has a spiritual meaning.”

Verse 3: “And the Lord [not God] said: My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” Who?—God? “Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty.” This is a crafty statement, because it shows that the average length of life was the same as it is now, with some few exceptions, and as the fabulous age was past, the only way to get out of the difficulty was to give timely notice that extraordinary ages should not occur again.

Verse 4: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Who were these descendants of God that became mighty and men of renown?

After God’s sons intermarry with the daughters of men, the affairs of man grow worse, instead of better. And God grows despondent:

Verse 5: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Think of God’s sons causing all this wickedness on earth. He ought to have brought them up better. What can we expect of a God that cannot raise his own children properly?

“Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart.” This exhibits the profound ignorance of God. Though he made man, he did not know what the various organs in the body were for. He ought to have known that the heart does not think. Its function is to circulate the blood—a truth which was not discovered until 1618 by Harvey, of England.

Verse 6: “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Ha! God has a heart, and he has flesh, and he has sons; he knows what is good, evil, wickedness; repents and grieves; and has domestic relations with—evidently ladies, by whom he has children.

We will not mind the preparations of the ark, or the shipbuilding instructions given by God. A God that knew something of mechanics, shipbuilding, dimensions, measurement, etc.—no wonder theologians call God a designer, an architect. He showed some skill in the construction of this boat.

As soon as Noah had everything prepared, had loaded his cattle, etc., food and provender, God was ready to destroy his own sons and their relations by drowning them.

[1] Weights and measures were invented about this period. [↑]

CHAPTER VII.

THE DELUGE.

As to the region where the deluge occurred—on the northern edge ascend the Persian mountains; on the east the steep and lofty parallel chains of the Indo-Persian boundary mountains, and on the south the plateau for a thousand miles along the Persian gulf and Arabian sea is bounded by the wild terraced regions of Beloochistan and Faristan. The second division includes the mountainous regions of Armenia, Koordistan, and Azerbijan. Here the table-land is compressed about half its general width. From this plateau, of which a part is mentioned in scripture as the “mountains of Ararat,” rises the volcanic cone commonly styled Mount Ararat, to the hight of 17,212 feet above the sea level.

The highlands of Syria rise gradually from the neighboring desert to the hight of 10,000 feet in Libanus and Antilibanus, and slope steeply in terraces down to the narrow coastlands of Phœnicia and Palestine.

Of the Syrian and Arabian lowlands, the south is hot and arid, with almost no oasis; but the north is watered by the Tigris and Euphrates.

Near this isolated corner of Asia, in the neighborhood of the Persian gulf and the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, where the deluge is supposed to have occurred, in the lowlands of that region, Chaldea, immense chains of mountains run in several directions, with highlands 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Verse 4: “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.”

This deluge is supposed to have taken place about 2348 B.C. Hale puts it at 3154 B.C. The sons of God came upon earth and married the daughters of men about 2948 B.C.; about this date ought to be nearer the flood. Noah was 600 years old when he floated in his ark.

We will consider, first, a general deluge.

A deluge over the whole earth is an impossibility.

1. We have to take in consideration the inequality of the earth’s surface—lowlands, highlands, hills and mountains, plateaus, etc.

As to mountains: Asia possesses no less than sixty or seventy mountains, the highest being some 29,000 feet above the sea’s level—the Himalaya, Everest.

Africa boasts of some thirty or forty mountains, the Kenia and Killamandja being 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, the other mountains grading downward in hight.

Europe is adorned with some seventy or eighty mountains, Mount Blanc being the highest, others ranging downwards.

South America boasts of some forty or more mountains, the Tupengater being the highest, 22,450 feet above the level of the sea.

North America counts some seventy or more mountains, Mt. Elias being 17,900 above the level of the sea.

We have plateaus and table-lands ranging from 10,000 feet above the level of the sea downward to near the sea’s level.

The great basins between the highest points of the earth’s surface are filled with water. These immense expanses form oceans, seas, lakes, rivers. The ocean bed is just as uneven as the dry portion of the earth’s surface. The numerous islands are the mountains of the ocean bed, some of greater, others of lesser extent.

2. The fluid part of the terrestrial globe fills the hollow places of the solid portion of the earth’s crust. These are the great and small depressions, or greater and smaller basins.

3. The earth’s weight has always been the same, neither increased nor diminished. This includes both the solid and liquid part of this terrestrial globe.

4. The fluid portion of this terrestrial globe has neither increased nor diminished. It cannot, because the quantity of oxygen and hydrogen is limited to this earth. None can get away, and none can come to it.

5. Water may change its position, or state—split up into elements; make clouds, mist, hail, snow, or rain, or dew—but it ultimately returns to the great basin of water where it came from.

6. If water rises in any one locality beyond the ordinary sea level, water has diminished in some other locality. The quantity of water on the earth’s surface has not increased, except in one locality.

7. Rain cannot fall over the whole surface of this earth at one time.

8. There is always daylight and sunshine, night and darkness, on this earth.

9. Heat and cold vary in the different parts of this earth. The atmosphere is different in the various parts of the earth’s surface. There is a perpetual winter, summer, spring, or autumn in various parts on this globe.

10. The rays of the sun strike the various portions of the earth at different times. This variation in the direction of the sun’s rays produces a corresponding variation in the intensity of the sun’s heat and light at different places, and accounts for the difference between the torrid and the frigid regions, etc.

11. The atmosphere does not, and cannot, carry beyond a certain percentage of aqueous vapor. When it becomes overcharged the moisture must fall, in raindrops when the temperature is warm enough.

12. The sun’s heat regulates the amount of aqueous vapor the atmosphere can carry in the form of clouds. When the atmosphere is fully saturated, rain must fall.

13. When the atmosphere is cool or cold, the raindrops congeal, and we have snow or hail.

14. There are regions on the earth where it never rains, probably never rained. The rainless region of Asia is of vast extent. It includes part of Tibet, the great desert of Gobi, and part of Mongolia—a space estimated to comprise about 2,000,000 square miles. There are other rainless regions on the face of the earth’s surface. There is a great diversity in the yearly amount of rainfall; the highest is about 60 inches, the lowest 21 and less.

15. There is no great difference between the polar and equatorial diameter of the earth, the average number of miles being about 8,000.

Taking the above facts in consideration—the conformation of the earth’s surface, the elevation above the sea level, table-lands or plateaus, and mountains, the fixed quantity of water upon the surface of the earth, the influence of heat and cold, the condition of the atmosphere, etc., a general deluge must be rigidly excluded.

Supposing it rained forty days and forty nights, how many inches of rainfall could we possibly get? We can know to an inch the quantity of rain that would fall. The water would certainly roll down the hills and mountains, fill up the lakes and rivers, overflow the banks, and rise in the lowlands to a certain hight.

The deluge, Noah’s deluge, was a local affair, if it ever occurred. Granting such a flood did take place, it never extended beyond that portion of Asia, Chaldea. Supposing that the rivers Tigris and Euphrates may have overflowed and caused a flood say of fifty feet rise above the level of the sea (which is impossible, because the surplus waters would flow into the seas and oceans), how insignificant is the rise of fifty feet even in comparison with table-lands 10,000 feet above the sea-level, and mountains 20 to 30,000 feet above the sea-level.

As to the extent of the rainstorm that caused this deluge, I do not suppose that the clouds held in the atmosphere extended over 500, or say 1,000, square miles over the region where the rain fell.

As to collecting the animals for the ark from all over the globe, that is just as ridiculous as the deluge itself.

It is to be presumed that the person or persons who wrote the first seven chapters of the Bible had not the slightest idea of the geographical condition of the earth’s surface. It was not known. They thought that their locality embraced the whole earth. Even in Columbus’s time they had no idea of the extent of this earth. The seas that they probably had some knowledge of may have been the Gulf of Persia, the Red sea, the Mediterranean or Arabian sea, probably the Caspian. That was about the extent. They had means neither of land travel nor of navigation.

Verse 20: “Fifteen cubits upward did the water prevail, and the mountains were covered.”

A cubit, standard, contains 21 inches. Fifteen multiplied by 21 gives 315 inches, or 26 feet 3 inches. How can 26 feet 3 inches of water cover plateaus 10,000 feet high and mountains like the Ida, 4,000 feet, and the Himalayas 29,000 feet in height? Mount Ararat in Asia Minor is 17,112 feet high.

These are figures. They do not lie. We have here positive proof. I defy contradiction. Every man and woman with a little sense can prove it. And any priest or clergyman that will maintain the truth of a general deluge after reading this statement, is either a fool, or a fraud and an infamous liar.

In fact, the entire rainfall during the forty days and nights would have had as much effect on this globe as a pint of water would have to drown an elephant.

Verse 21: “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man.”

Verse 22: “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that was on dry land, died.”

Verse 23: “And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.”

Verse 24: “And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.”

Mount Ararat is situated in Persia about 150 to 200 miles south of the Black sea, and about 300 miles west of the Caspian sea, about 500 miles east of Aleppo and the Mediterranean sea, and about 700 miles north of the Gulf of Persia, from Mount Sinai about 1,000 or more miles northeast, and a similar distance from the Red sea.

Arabia is about 700 miles across between the Persian gulf and the Red sea. The distance between the shores of the Persian gulf and the Caspian sea is about five hundred miles.

The Caspian chain of mountains are situated about two hundred miles north of Mount Ararat, and they extend from the Sea of Azof north, running southwest to the Caspian sea.

The entire tract of territory where this deluge is said to have occurred does not embrace one thousand miles in any given direction, and takes in but two countries—Turkey and Persia—and only a portion of either. It does not extend farther north than the Caspian mountains and the Black sea, east than the Mediterranean sea, west than the Caspian sea, and south than the Persian gulf and Arabia.

Turkistan, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan form the eastern boundary of Persia.

The twenty-six feet three inches of the rise of water in consequence of the rain could not have extended beyond the limits indicated above.

At the period of the deluge there were immense countries east of Turkistan, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan—Russia north, the Chinese empire and Hindostan farthest south. Europe and Africa could not be reached. So that all living substance was not destroyed and could not be destroyed. Nor was all living substance destroyed in the country where the flood occurred, because those living on high table-lands were out of reach of the flood.

We must necessarily draw our own conclusions as to the truth or falsity of the statements contained in verses 21, 22, 23. Some destruction of life may have taken place, limited to the locality.

There are other evidences that go to show the incorrectness of the scripture. The Hindoo era, or the era of the Caleyung, dates 3001 B.C., seven hundred and fifty-six years before the deluge. This country was flourishing at the time of the flood. Moreover, the Hindoos counted their months by the progress of the sun through the Zodiacs.

Keep the figures of the deluge in mind, 2348 B.C.

China, north of Hindostan and east of the deluged territory, was flourishing 2700 B.C. It was not touched by the flood. It had its own floods, separate and distinct from Noah’s.

In 2347 B.C., one year after the flood, Noah made wine from grapes.

Babylon was founded by Belus 2245 B.C.
Astronomical observations were made 2234 B.C.
Bricks were made 2247 B.C.
Babylon was built 2247 B.C.

All this region was in a state of civilization one hundred years later, when all men had been destroyed, and the region had been under water twenty-six feet three inches for one hundred and fifty days. One hundred years seems a long time, and a great deal can be done, that’s true. In those days civilization was exceedingly slow. People did not progress so rapidly as we do in this New World. There are regions where hardly any progress has been made. They are at a standstill, as it is termed. The people live, feed, and die.

The inconsistency, the untruth, of the story of the deluge will be palpable to everyone, if he or she will take the trouble to examine the geographical, physical, and historical facts.

I especially call the attention of hysterical, fanatical theologians, supernaturalists, and the whole priestly class, to the declaration that God had nothing to do with this deluge; that the God in whom they believe must be an ass to think that he can drown out the whole terrestrial globe with forty days and nights’ rain, with a rise of water of twenty-six feet three inches.

It is impossible to enter into every detail in this brief statement. There is, however, ample proof that a general deluge never occurred, and that all animals, whether men or beasts, were never destroyed.

How much honor it would reflect for a convention of clergymen, or a gathering of archbishops in saintly conclave assembled, to solemnly declare the whole beginning of Genesis a fabrication, a fiction, a fable—that God had nothing to do with any such performance; that God could not do anything so foolish; that God never did anything contrary to the laws of nature; that neither God nor man could, if they wished, do anything contrary to the laws of nature. And that “We, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy in general, further declare and aver, that we, the sacred representatives of the ignorant masses, no longer believe that God, the so-called father almighty, created either heaven or earth, or beast or man, or anything; that we repudiate, deny, and reject all of the statements made in the book called the Bible; that we do not believe in any supernatural interference; that we have erred and have misinstructed and misguided the masses; that the whole story is false, frivolous, and incredible; that neither the creation, as recited, nor the deluge, or any part thereof, as described, is true.”

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SCRIPTURAL GOD—THE CREATION.

The Chaldeans were undoubtedly great admirers of nature at the time we first hear the name of Abraham mentioned in connection with the Bible, about the year 1921 B.C.

The people had already arrived at a high degree of civilization. The country belonged to the Assyrian empire under Ninus the Jupiter, 2069 B.C. How long this section of country had been populated, and its inhabitants under a proper form of government, we have no record—in all probability, for many centuries.

The Chaldeans had already invented a judicial astrology, which was transmitted to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The science of astronomy was known to them, and of it there are records as early as 2234 B.C. The science of arithmetic was used by them—in all probability invented by them; concerning it we have nothing recorded. The kingdom of Babylon existed 2245 B.C. An art of architecture of some kind was already in use among its people, as we see from the fact that they had built important structures. We have no records as to the proficiency they had arrived at in any other branch of science or art. That the art of writing was known to them is probable, otherwise they could not have recorded certain facts about astronomy. The credit of first using hieroglyphics, 2212 B.C., is given to Athates, or Hermes, the Egyptian.

The correct division of the days of the week, the months, and the seasons may probably have been known to them, though the Jews take the credit.

That these Chaldeans were great observers will not be disputed—otherwise they could not have discovered the fixed stars, planetary system, etc. That they must have had considerable intellectual qualities—perceptive powers and skill in reasoning—developed will be admitted, inasmuch as they were the inventors of astrology, and of what more we have no knowledge.

They were great admirers of nature. We may infer that from the fact that they were students of astronomy, acute and close observers of nature.

What myths or fables they had, we have at the present time no idea. We have no historical knowledge of these people. We know very little of their manners, culture, science, arts, degree of civilization.

Other events occurred about that period. A Phœnician colony under Partholani landed in Ireland 2048 B.C.

In 2207 B.C. the government of China was established—it had an imperial dynasty. Fohi was the Chinese monarch.

In 2089 B.C. Sicyon was king of Greece.

In 2188 B.C. Egypt was established.

In 2085 B.C. Egypt was conquered by the shepherd kings of Phœnicia.

In 1998 B.C. Ching Hong teaches the Chinese the art of husbandry, and the method of making bread from wheat and wine from rice.

In 2095 B.C. pyramids and canals in Egypt. The science of geometry begins to be cultivated.

In 2100 B.C. sculpture and painting are employed to commemorate the exploits of Asymandyas.

We have no difficulty in arriving at a conclusion that considerable progress had been made in the art of government, in the political and social world, in the arts and sciences, and also in the moral and religious departments of life.

As to whatever myths and fables they had, of their origin we know very little, or I may say nothing. The story of the creation and the deluge is in all probability native to the soil. The deluge was in all likelihood a local affair—an overflow of the river Euphrates or the Gulf of Persia. Whether it rained forty days and nights or more, water enough could not fall to the ground to do any serious damage, beyond the locality where it occurred. It would be not amiss even for the most pious, God-fearing man to understand that the rainwater that falls to the surface of the earth was originally taken from the waters that are found on the surface of the earth. The actual quantity of water on the earth was no more after the flood, or after any flood, than before. The water changes position from one locality to another; it does not increase or diminish in quantity, whether it consolidates, evaporates, or liquefies. Whatever elementary form it may assume, the law of gravitation holds its elements down to mother earth.

The idea entertained by many theologians, that the whole earth was covered with water, is absurd. We have not water enough on the surface of this earth to serve any such purpose. This problem is just as feasible as trying to drown a man in two inches of water—attempting to cover the entire earth with the water that is upon it.

From historical evidence we gather that the people that inhabited this region occupied their time chiefly with raising cattle, and were prone both to the observation of nature and to superstition.

The nervous system had at this time undergone considerable training and culture. Their faculties were already developed. They discussed and reasoned about current subjects, especially about those subjects which were nearest and dearest to them—religion and politics. And we are still discussing the same subjects with as much eagerness, acrimony, and hate as these Chaldean shepherds did.

They were adorers of nature, which was perfectly in harmony with their occupation. The beauties, the phases, the phenomena of nature, these they could not explain. Ignorant of their character and composition, not understanding the natural, they reasoned themselves into conclusions that there must be a power beyond that sets all these things in motion.

They knew nothing of God. In all probability they created nothing new, but may have modified whatever was handed down to them by their fore-fathers—notions, customs, well-outlined rules of conduct, observances, policy, government, etc.

The wiser and best-instructed portion of the community selected those things that to them were most beneficial, and for which they thought they ought to be grateful—in their wonderment and admiration they made selection of that which was to them most striking—and this gradually led to a systematization of certain qualities, certain excellences.

All things in nature are object-teachers. When we have seen a thing several times, we know it—learn its qualities, etc. So the forefathers of the Chaldeans, admiring nature, came to recognizing what was best, either in themselves or round about them.

In order to present these ideas, powers, and excellences in the most striking manner to the senses, symbolic representations, or typical forms, were made, about in the same or similar manner as playthings are made to instruct and amuse children.

All the idols and mythological gods are drawn from nature, associated and endowed with such qualities as the human beings had from time to time attained.

The motives that suggested these were just as pure as any motives are now.

We have symbols and idols among us at this day, four thousand years later. It makes no difference whether it is Christ on a stick, the Virgin Mary on a canvas, or the sacred heart of a saint, it amounts to precisely the same thing; it is object-teaching—an object-lesson.

These Chaldeans had any number of symbols and idols, and men were assigned to watch and guard them. They had their ceremonies, their gowns or priestly garbs; they had their places for worship, out of doors or indoors—everything that gave beauty, dignity, and sanctity to their performances. In short, we may conclude that they had what may be called an established religion, with ceremonies, sacrifices, idols, as well as social, moral, and political rules to govern them.

There was dissension in those days as there is now. Men differed, argued, discussed; and differences arose. New ideas were intolerated then, as they are now. The old would not yield to the new. Wrangling, anger, passion, jealousy, led to new formations, antagonistic to the old. The old systems had in all probability grown corrupt, domineering, cruel, selfish, and rapacious. A reformation of some kind was in order. Men of ability and sagacity began to grow skeptical as regards the quality and ability of these numerous idols. Something similar is agitating the world to-day. Doubtless it is always to be found.

Abraham was an agitator, a reformer, if you will. Josephus thus speaks of him (Chap. VII): “He was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions; for which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and to change the opinions all men happened then to have concerning God; for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion: That there was but one God, the creator of the universe; and that as to other (gods) if they contributed anything to the happiness of men, each of them afforded it only according to his appointment, and not of their own power. His opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happened to the sun and moon and all the heavenly bodies. ‘If,’ said he, ‘these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions; but since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain, that so far as they coöperate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities; but as they are subservient to him that commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honor and thanksgiving.’ For which doctrines when the Chaldeans, and the people of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country.”

In other words, he was driven from his country for sedition and heresy, when he was seventy-five years old. He settled down in a land called Canaan, where he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God.

In this manner Abraham began to cultivate a reformation and religion among his own people, who were quite numerous.

The Egyptians at this period were in a flourishing condition. Canaan was invaded by famine. So Abraham went down to Egypt, “both to partake of the plenty they enjoyed, and to become an auditor for their priests, and to know what they said concerning the gods; designing either to follow them, if they had better notions than he, or convert them to a better way, if his own notions proved the truer.”

At this time, too, much dissension, quarrel, and antagonism existed between the religious orders, and Abraham was not going to lose such an excellent opportunity. Josephus describes the condition of affairs as follows: “For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another’s sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abraham conferred with each of them, and confuting the reasoning they made use of, every one for their own practices, he demonstrated that such reasoning was vain and void of truth; whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences, as a very wise man and of great sagacity when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy,” etc.

Finding perhaps that he could not make proselytes he returned to Canaan. He there divided the tract of land between himself and Lot, each one pursuing his own particular course, Abraham with his notions and Lot with his, unable to agree.

An incident worthy of notice occurred. The Assyrians made war on a number of kings, the Sodomites and Lot among them. The Assyrians conquered, and Lot, among the rest, was made captive. Abraham, with three hundred and eighteen men, pursued the Assyrians, slew them, captured all they had, and gained a signal victory—thus showing that Abraham was a power.

Lot’s affairs with his daughters we pass over, since they have no special interest for us.

Abraham had several wives or women, by whom he had a number of children. He had six sons by Katurah, Ishmael by Hagar, Isaac by Sarah, etc.

None of the sons adopted his method of thinking except Isaac, who at the age of twenty-five was to have been sacrificed to God. Isaac, being a mild-mannered young man, generous, and obedient to his father’s will, readily consented. Upon that, Abraham changed his mind. Isaac then became the heir both of his property and of his ideas concerning God.

Abraham had two brothers, Nahor and Haron. Haron left a son, Lot, and two daughters, Sarai and Milcha. Nahor married Milcha and Abraham married Sarai. In this manner the family concentration began. And when Isaac was forty it was decided that he should marry the granddaughter of his brother Nahor, Rebeka, the sister of Laban.

Isaac in turn made choice of Jacob as heir to his ideas and property—who took flight on account of Esau, and landed safely at his uncle Laban’s house in Mesopotamia. Jacob married Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel, as well as their handmaids, Zilpha and Bilhah. Now, Laban and his family were idolators. So were Esau and his family. Rachel took along with her the images of the gods which, according to their laws, they used to worship in their own country, etc. Jacob raised his children strict to the rules laid down by his grandfather and father; and the views as regards the rites of worship and circumcision, as well as God in the abstract with all the carnal passions and emotions of man that formerly were the attributes of the idols, as also the sacrifices.

The story of Joseph is too well known to be repeated. It is quite enough for our purpose that a famine drove this Jacob’s family, as it did Abraham, to Egypt, where they increased and multiplied during a period of nearly four hundred years; that Joseph was famous in the land, and the king gave Jacob and his children leave to live in Heliopolis—for in that city the king’s shepherds had their pasturage.

This in brief is the story, stripped of the peculiar phraseology, which no doubt was in those days customary.

The trouble had begun with Terah, Abraham’s father, who hated the Chaldeans; and the Chaldeans returned the same with interest, I suppose. So they moved to Haran in Canaan and settled down on a tract of land, by the right of squatter sovereignty, as it would be called in our times. Terah, the first squatter, turned this land over as a heritage to his son, Abraham; Abraham to Isaac, and Isaac to Jacob. In this manner it became the promised land, the heritage of their fathers.

It is no easy matter to suppress and eradicate a practice, a habit, a custom, once firmly ingrafted in a community. Prohibit it as much as you will, it will be done secretly. So after circumcising the Hamerites and Shechemites, the sons of Jacob slaughtered them, on account of the seduction of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He and his family had to leave for fear of their neighbors, so Jacob told his household to put away the strange gods that were among them, and “be clean and change your garments,” he said ([Gen. xxxv, 2]).

This abstract idea of God that Abraham called into life was not so firmly rooted as might have been expected. The taint of the ancient gods more or less remained among them and occasionally cropped up here and there in a most prominent manner. For four hundred years we hear nothing of God or his workings—whether the Jews flourished or were oppressed—nor have the other descendants ever made mention. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob call on this imaginary god when in an emergency, when some task has to be accomplished, some journey has to be undertaken, or a battle has to be fought.

During the whole of the period they were in Egypt, notwithstanding they were sorely oppressed, this God paid no attention to them, until a man arose that produced a great crisis in the affairs of this people, in the destiny of this family which had grown into a nation. This was really the first reformation—that is, modification—of the existing religious practices—their numerous gods, perhaps their rites, etc. The sacrifices the Jews retained, with most of the usages and priestly rituals.

How many reformations or modifications had taken place before Abraham the reformer, we do not know; and how long these gods (they were very numerous) were in existence we know still less.

The evolution of these idols, the existing gods, did not take place all of a sudden. It may have taken thousands of years for anything we know. It required considerable mental training to produce them. Intelligence had assumed some importance, because the people had become proficient in argument, skillful in reasoning, and observers of nature.

The ordinary barbarian possesses no such capabilities. His brain is not sufficiently cultured. So long as his wants are amply supplied, there is no necessity to exert himself, the nervous system lies inactive, and this inactivity involves the perpetuation of ignorance.

We may reasonably presume that these Chaldeans, these shepherds, had through many centuries of slow culture acquired the knowledge they possessed, the customs and habits they practiced, the laws they promulgated, and the rules of conduct enacted both for social and political purposes.

And any innovation on the established laws was resisted and punished, pretty much as it is to-day. So when Abraham, or Terah his father before him, started the reformation, it caused a good deal of commotion and alarm. The upholders of the settled state of affairs were shocked. Anger, passion, partisanship, ran their course then, as they do now. These idolators were just as intolerant then as Christians are to-day. It was either submit or leave. Thus Abraham’s and Terah’s leaving the land of their fathers and settling on a tract of land where they could cultivate their new idea, their new God, was without any special act, without miracle, without supernaturalism, without mystery, perfectly human, perfectly natural.

CHAPTER IX.

THE CREATION OF GOD—ABRAHAM.

God, such God as we know of now, like all other things and beings on this terrestrial globe was evolved very, very slowly in the minds of man—crude, ill-shapen, ill-fashioned, grotesque, barbarous, savage, semi-civilized: harmonizing with his existing mental condition and all his surroundings; a product of man’s rudeness, of his uncultured nature, his inexperienced special senses, with his nervous system just emerging from an instinctive animal life to a grade or two above its former intelligence—the first step towards real humanity.

God was not always presented to humanity in his present guise. Oh, no; everyone with a moderate degree of intelligence who chooses to examine the records will find that God has undergone vast and important changes—changes in tendencies and character, conforming with the progressive or retrogressive forms of political and social life of the various communities, corresponding with the periods of the time in which they lived.

The idea, in its primary conception, was slowly evolved, without special meaning or signification, dark, mysterious, incomprehensible. We may say, however, that this idea of God was endowed with characteristics best known to men, but of a higher quality than ordinarily then existing; largely reflecting their makers, an embodiment of their own powers and capabilities.

There was a time, no matter how remote, when there were creatures resembling the present form of man but of inferior nervous development, that had no knowledge of either God or religion.

Nor had man in those ages any more intelligence than he had acquired by experience, or was necessary for his immediate use. It improved as the exigencies of his wants arose, fresh experience leading to new observations, slowly adding to the already accumulated stock.

The intelligence of to-day would have been useless a hundred years ago, to the same race even, and of less use still two hundred years ago, and so on.

It is very doubtful whether man at first was even conscious of his own existence, any more than the higher type of brute life. This consciousness slowly dawned upon him as his intelligence increased. A child is not conscious of its own existence. It exists so long as the necessary material is contributed towards its existence, or until it has grown strong enough to contribute towards its own. It may after a while acquire intelligence sufficient to become conscious of its own existence or not. The same rule holds good among the types of man such as we find on earth at the present time.

During the early stages of man’s existence, the muscular powers were exercised most, we may say almost exclusively, the special senses serving in their function as a guide for those powers, with the degree of intelligence obtained from the number of impressions received. These senses had acquired their several experiences from the necessities that from time to time were made manifest.

There are writers who make use of extraordinary expressions in regard to nature, as for example, that Nature is mighty, beautiful, wise, etc.

Nature is mighty only under certain conditions. Peculiar combinations of elements are essential. The presence or absence of the sun’s heat plays always an important part.

Nature’s being beautiful depends largely upon the education of the senses, the capability of discerning symmetry, harmony, color, etc., and this is acquired by comparison, taste, and habit. What strikes one eye as beautiful, may have just a contrary effect on another, or be passed with perfect indifference by a third.

As to wisdom, nature can be wise only through a cultured, well-educated, evenly balanced mind. The expression is applicable only to man. Wisdom is a particular quality eminently and evidently the product of a highly trained nervous system.

It is not an easy task at the present time to unravel the mental process of the earliest races of man that first led to the formation and the adoption of the idea that something existed more potent and more powerful than themselves.

Yet if we carefully examine the mental condition of some of the wild, barbarous nations existing at the present time, we may infer, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, the mental process the earliest races of man were capable of.

Races or tribes, no matter how low in the scale of civilization, that were perfectly secure in their possessions, amply provided by nature against the encroachments of other races, man or animals, existed right along perfectly content, exerting themselves just enough to gather in those substances which they found contributive to the sustenance of their lives. The surplus time was spent in gamboling, frisking, playing, amusing themselves in their primitive condition like children of nature as they were. Progress they made none. There was no occasion for it. Their senses were exercised to the extent of their immediate wants and no more. The natural head of the family or tribe was the oldest, the father. He controlled or governed his descendants. So long as the father was able to exercise his supreme power he was the recognized head, adviser, leader, etc. While in this condition, the primitive customs, habits, or usages practiced in their natural mode of living began, and continued with very few changes for ages.

Their language was as simple and crude as their mode of life, just sufficient for their wants. This mode of communication originated mainly from the necessities of life, as hunger, danger, pleasure, protection, surprise, fear, etc. For all these they found expressions, sounds that conveyed the notions to one another, quite intelligible among themselves. They adopted names for things and beings with which they came in contact in their daily lives, and for such instruments, utensils, and clothing as they from time to time invented or discovered by accident. The sounds that expressed their immediate necessity of communicating with one another, their wants—the cries of call, pain, etc.—had no form in particular, no grammatical construction, no rules. Their emotions and passions were limited, because they knew no wants, no conflicts, other than those that arise from feelings inspired by their five senses. And they really had language enough for all purposes—suitable and ample for their condition in life.

Arts and sciences they had none. Their simple domestic arrangements were as primitive as they were. Their furniture consisted of little or nothing. Cooking utensils they needed none. There was no occasion to cook; nature’s food was ample. This they collected, selected, and fed upon.

Clothing they had no use for, in the warm climate they lived in. They were clad in nature’s garb, male and female alike. Innocence and virtue was well understood among them. They were moral in their way, committed no wrong—there was no occasion for it. There was plenty for everyone. The larders of nature were free, open, and plentiful. Therefore all were satisfied and happy.

Wealth or property they had. All they surveyed was theirs. What belonged to one belonged to the other. Mine and thine was unknown. The more civilized qualifications of property right developed many centuries later.

Commerce they knew nothing of. There was no need for that, since furniture, utensils, implements of agriculture, weapons, clothing of any kind, they had no use for.

They had no laws—nor law-makers, nor justices, nor judges, nor any officials known in later times.

And what is more, they had no God, or idol, or myth, or symbol, or worship, or prayer or religion, or soul, or spirit. Nor did they know anything about what we indicate by the epithets physical or metaphysical, neither theological nor psychological, neither gnostic nor agnostic.

They did not know of any of those things. These were evolved and invented later, as the necessities and exigencies arose, as their wants increased, and circumstances changed from internal to external conditions.

Consequently, their language was limited. They made use of a limited number of words, or produced articulate sound enough to express just what they wanted, and no more. They may have had two or three hundred different words or sounds in use. We have men to-day among us that have not many more words at command, and their ideas generally correspond in number and quality to their stock of words.

The stock of words and the stock of ideas always depend upon the amount of experience and the amount of exercise the five senses have had; together with the urgencies and difficulties they have had to contend with. The power of observation is developed in accordance as the opportunities arise.

Each particular special sense develops its own faculties, from the practice, use, and experience of that sense, the role it is called upon to play as necessities arise. And as each object is perceived or observed by the special sense, it is recorded, a picture of the same is retained in the great nervous storehouse for future reference. The retention and recognition of the same goes to the formation of memory. As the stock of objects increases, words or sounds designating the same also increase in number, and the material for the formation of ideas is also largely increased.

Ideas can be formed only about such things as we know, or rather such things as any one special sense has been impressed with, has perceived and recognized. Those things or beings by which any one sense has not been impressed, the mind neither has perceived nor is able to recognize. Everyone, whether barbarian or civilized, is perfectly familiar with those things or beings that immediately surround him—that is, all those things and beings which the senses have already been impressed with, perceived and recognized. Sounds, or words, have been invented to designate all such; and these are known; the picture representing any one object is retained, stored away in the great nervous storehouse, the brain—are remembered. The oftener a thing is perceived, the more familiar it becomes and the more easily recognized, the firmer it becomes fixed and the more easily it is recollected.

Thus primitive man, with his few wants, and these wants amply supplied by nature, had or invented names for all of them. These formed the earliest collection of names of objects—their appearance, their actions, their habits, etc. All these qualities were associated, identified, and presented by words, in due time, without the presence of the objects. That is to say, the simplest ideas were in this manner formed, and the ideas so formed corresponded with the number of words, and the number of words corresponded with the number of impressions received by the senses.

Each sense presents its share—one sense more, another less. A person may have received a large number of impressions on the organ of vision—a painter, for instance—and may have stored away a wealth of artistic knowledge, yet the sense of hearing may be exceedingly poor in the number of impressions received. Such an individual would be rich in artistic ideas but comparatively poor in musical ideas. So it is with all the special senses.

Each sense receives impressions on its own account. It has its own special nervous center, and these special centers again are closely connected with the great mass of brain matter. Collectively they have for their function, to receive impressions, retain them, store them away, recollect them, and reproduce them by articulate sound, or to recognize them.

In this process then we have the formation of idea, memory, thought; recollection is the endeavor to call back, or form a figure of, an object once already perceived—felt by the senses.

CHAPTER X.

MOSES.—THE CONFIRMATION OF THE IDEA OF GOD.

We will here sketch the military career of Moses.

We omit the early incidents of the life of Moses—his childhood, his growth, his education—and begin with his active life.

“And the occasion he laid hold of was this: The Ethiopians, who are next neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad into their country, which they seized upon, and carried off the effects of the Egyptians, who in their rage, fought against them, and revenged the affronts they had received from them; but being overcome in battle some of them were slain, and the rest ran away in a shameful manner, and by that means saved themselves, whereupon the Ethiopians followed after them in the pursuit, and thinking that it would be an act of cowardice if they did not subdue all Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with greater vehemence; and when they had tasted the sweets of the country, they never left off the prosecution of the war; and as the nearest parts had not courage enough at first to fight with them, they proceeded as far as Memphis, and the sea itself, while not one of the cities was able to oppose them. The Egyptians, under this sad oppression, betook themselves to their oracles and prophecies” (Josephus, Ch. X).

Moses thereupon was appointed general of the Egyptian army against the Ethiopians, and conquered them in the following manner:

“But Moses prevented the enemies, and took and led his army, before those enemies were apprised of his attacking them; for he did not march by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents, which it produces in vast numbers, and indeed is singular in some of these productions, which other countries do not breed, … When he had therefore proceeded thus on his journey he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and joining battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them of the hopes they had of success against the Egyptians, and went on in overturning their cities, and indeed made great slaughter of these Ethiopians. Now when the Egyptian army had once tasted of this prosperous success by the means of Moses, they did not slacken their diligence, insomuch that the Ethiopians were in danger of being reduced to slavery, and all sorts of destruction. And at length they retired to Saba, which was the royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses afterwards named Meroe, after the name of his own sister. This place was to be besieged with very great difficulty, since it was both compassed by the Nile quite round, and the other rivers Astapus and Astaboms made it a very difficult thing for such as attempted to pass over them; for the city was situate in a retired place, and was inhabited after the manner of an island, being encompassed by a strong wall, and having the rivers to guard them from their enemies, and having great ramparts between the wall and the rivers, insomuch, that when the waters come with the greatest violence, it can never be drowned; which ramparts make it next to impossible for even such as are gotten over the rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was uneasy at the army’s lying idle (for the enemies durst not come to battle), an accident happened: Tharbis was the daughter of the king of the Ethiopians; she happened to see Moses as he led his army near the walls, and fought with good courage, and admiring the subtlety of his undertakings, she believed him to be the author of the Egyptians’ success, when they had before despaired of recovering their liberty, and to be the occasion of the great danger the Ethiopians were in, when they had before boasted of their great achievements, she fell deeply in love with him; and upon the prevalency of that passion, sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him upon their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer on condition she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to take her to be his wife, and that when he had once taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land” (Josephus, Chap. V.)

These are simple facts, wherein God plays no part. It is a human transaction, a conflict of forces; the strongest and most skillful wins. And when the last place of refuge, the fortress, is besieged, and the Ethiopians are thoroughly beaten, the place seeming impregnable, the army discouraged, a woman, the king’s daughter, betrays it, and Moses is victorious. Thermutis, his mother by adoption, raised him and educated him after the manner of princes. He was a great favorite. Her influence gave him not only her protection, advice, and information, but other great advantages such as no other being could obtain, she being constantly at court and a sister to the king.

It was no small glory, as well as experience, he reaped. That conquest made him the first man in the land. That jealousies, antagonism and hatred were engendered against him by his rivals, that conspiracies were formed, may readily be imagined, and that finally his life was threatened. Finding it rather dangerous to remain in the country, since he was being closely watched, and all the roads were guarded, and being no doubt fully informed of the plot, Moses fled. “He took flight through the deserts, where his enemies could not suspect he would travel; though he was destitute of food, he went on, and despised that difficulty courageously” (Jos.).

Moses was born in 1571 B.C., and was made general of the Egyptian army when he was about thirty-five or thirty-seven years of age. In 1531 B.C. he fled from Egypt and arrived at Midian. He made the acquaintance of a priest named Raguel or Jethro—his future father-in-law, for he married Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter.

Aaron, his brother, three years older, being born 1574 B.C., must have been a man of considerable influence. He remained during Moses’s absence in Egypt. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt took place in 1491.

Daring his forty years’ stay with Jethro he minded his cattle near Mount Sinai, where many supposed wonders are related to have occurred.

That Moses was not idle is self-evident. A man of that particular type could not remain inactive. What took place between him and Aaron or between him and Thermutis his stepmother is not recorded in history. That some systematic organization did take place is very probable. That all followed in the ordinary course of human events, is to be presumed. And that the plans were laid and matured, how these people were to be molded into a nation, and in what manner they were to leave Egypt, we cannot have a reasonable doubt.

It is more than likely that after the successful conquest, he was fired with the ambition to become a ruler himself. Envy and jealousy prevented his ever assuming the crown of Egypt, but what was to hinder him becoming the head and leader of his own people? In his solitary wanderings about Mount Sinai, he was inspired with the thought of delivering his own people, especially as the Pharaoh, his former protector, was dead. Having all the necessary material at hand in court and out of court, he proceeded to carry out his plans.

Moses was the man who created Jehova. [Ex. vi, 3]: “And I appeared unto Abraham and Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God almighty; but by my name Jehova was I not known to them.” Not likely! Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were of little or no culture. They were herdsmen who simply differed from their neighbors by substituting an imaginary God for the numerous images and idols that were then in fashion. They had not the remotest idea of the meaning of the God they worshiped, such as Moses now put into the word God. It was no longer a mere abstract copy with him—a thing to dispute, to reason, to argue about. To Moses it became a stern reality. The brain, the nervous system, the senses, the faculties, had undergone a revolution during the four hundred years. Moses, with all the scholastic advantages, raised and educated to rule and govern man and nations, ambitious for power, a great general, a man of determination and force, a man that was capable of plotting against plotters, conspiring against conspirators, who deliberately and shrewdly went to work to organize his people—he conceived then the idea that the simple old-fashioned Adonay—Lord—had lost its importance, being a common-place, every-day God among the Hebrews. He invented the unpronounceable Jehova. It makes little difference whence it is derived, whether from Io, Jovis, Jupiter, etc.

Jehova and Mount Sinai are inseparable. Moses knew every stone and crag about that mountain. A man does not live near a mountain, especially a man of great vigor, action, and intellect, but that he observes every nook, every spot, every footpath, and every turn. The conception of Jehova originated at Mount Sinai; and later the power, the establishing and the realization, of his ambition, of his Jehova, took place.

The miraculous pretensions and the wonderful workings that appear in the scriptural phraseology were no doubt necessary for the purpose of carrying out the scheme Moses had concocted. In modern times we can regard it only as a very peculiar method of writing up a history.

Moses had his emissaries and leaders among his people. When they were told about the wonderful occurrences about Mount Sinai, and what the Great Jehova said to Moses, the story was rehearsed and repeated—about the promised land, their preservation, their liberty. Of course, what could they do otherwise than yield? Their hopes were elated, and they were really interested, and believed that the God of their forefathers had sent Moses as their deliverer.

Moses had already their confidence by his past history. The hero, the great conqueror of the Ethiopians, the savior of Egypt—that alone was an immense prestige. But when it was announced that the Jehova, the Lord God, etc., had said this and that to him, that he commanded him to do this and that, where is the miracle, where is the wonder, that they obeyed?

When Moses found that the Hebrews would be obedient to whatsoever he should direct, as they promised to be, and were in love with liberty, he began his negotiations with the king of Egypt, who had but lately received the government.

As to his contest with the Egyptian priests in performing their respective tricks, called miracles, what wonder that these ignorant creatures believed, when we find stupid people enough of all nations that believe in the miraculous cures of an old rag, purporting to have belonged to Christ or some one else? Whatever was done, and how it was done, we shall never know. That there was nothing supernatural about the transaction is absolutely certain. The people may have believed it to be supernatural, as many millions believe to this day. You may believe a circle to be square, but that does not make it so. The untutored brain is surprised at a trifle, astonished at what it does not understand, and regards every new trick as a miracle.

Neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob could perform miracles. They had no use for them, knew nothing of them, and really had not the talent to produce them. Miracles had not been invented, or become the fashion.

Moses was undoubtedly a proficient master of the magic arts, and accomplished his purpose thereby. After all, those performances were simply a side-show. He knew the strength of his people. A general of his capacity does not undertake a task of that magnitude without calculating the convincing force to back his demands. Six hundred thousand men on foot—besides children and women—organized under leaders, and no doubt equipped and ready for any emergency—an army of that size means a revolution of no small importance to a state. To avert greater danger, Egypt let them go.

Henceforth Moses is the imperial master of the situation, the dictator, the ruler, the lawgiver, as determined as he is imperious—“I am the Lord thy God.” And the man Moses knew what he was talking about, and the class of people he was talking to. He was the organizer of the nation, the creator of Jehova, the intimate of God. No other man throughout the Bible before or after Moses pretended to talk with God face to face except Moses. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord ([Ex. xxiv, 2]). And he took every care that no other man should discover his secret workings. “I am that I am;” that is Moses. “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” ([Ex. iii, 14]). Who but a man accustomed to command and be obeyed would dare use such language?

Moses was fully familiar with the locality; and Mount Sinai, where he developed his scheme, he would permit no one to approach. “Take heed to yourself that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it; whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death” ([Ex. xix, 12]). He would brook no nonsense. He kept these poor ignoramuses in constant terror, in constant dread, of his Jehova. These precautions were used, and terrible things threatened, so that no one should intrude upon his privacy on the mountain, and no doubt were necessary in order to secure his success.

We have no clear account of the manner in which these people left Egypt. The population must have numbered close upon three millions. This is entirely omitted. What God said to Moses, and Moses said to God, is continually repeated, but historical facts are wanting. We learn one important fact, however—they did not leave poor. When they departed from Egypt this multitude had to be kept busy, otherwise they would lose confidence in Jehova and in Moses, and relapse into making images.

What kind of a God was this Jehova? In [Ex. xxxi] we find him giving directions about working in brass, silver, gold, furniture, designating who should work at it; but God himself turns stone-mason—in verse 18 we find two tables of Testimony, tables of stone, written by the finger of God. If God had a finger, he had a whole hand. If he had one hand he may have had two. To write needs practice, sight, brain, and all other parts belonging to a man. No doubt, when the tables, etc., were written, it was done by a man.

As to the Ten Commandments, they were not new with Moses. They were a codification of Chaldean and Egyptian laws.

The day of rest was recognized long ago in those slave-making days. It was a principle of economy, power-saving. Six of the Commandments are natural laws and are instinctively obeyed even among lower animals. All other laws were adopted from recognized customs and usages of the people, mostly taken from the Egyptians, with some few alterations, perhaps, suitable to the existing emergency.

When this Republic was founded, there were actually no new laws made, but old laws modified to suit our case; thus the Constitution was framed. Moses did precisely the same thing. The laws were the recognized habits, practices, customs, laws, usages, long established among the nations in that region. And God, or Jehova, had as much to do with the framing of them as he had with the Constitution of this nation.

Leviticus may be truly called the cookery-book of Jehova. Just think of it, that God himself told them what to select and how to cook it. They were instructed to forsake the idols or the images of God, but retained the grosser barbaric practices of sacrificing. The detailed account given of the bill of fare is interesting. For a full description we beg to refer the reader to Leviticus.

Human nature was strong in Moses. He did what any man high in the affairs of a state would do. He installed his own relations into office—first his own tribe, the Levites. These were immediately installed as a permanent bureaucracy, as well as aristocracy. They were the rulers, lawmakers, preachers, doctors, etc. ([Num. i, 47], et seq.). His brother Aaron and his sons were at once installed in the permanent offices. A hereditary aristocracy was established and consecrated as priests of the nation ([Lev. viii]). And the tribe of Levi were also selected to minister unto the priests, Aaron and sons.

The actions of this supposed God are very curious, and even amusing. He assumes so many shades of color, character, and passion, just as a man would under various degrees of excitement, disappointment, and discontent. “Whenever Moses found it necessary to act with promptness and resolution he found it convenient to use his Lord God, Jehova, and usually with excellent effect. But when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rebel Moses gives God advice ([Num. xvi, 15]). “And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord: Respect not thou their offering.” He at once suppresses the rebellion with a strong hand and puts an end to it.

Wipe out of the biblical story the dust and cob-webs of superstition and ignorance, cleanse it of the mire and dirt of barbarism, and you find in Moses a man of action, sagacity, and determination; skillful in the arts of war; a man of great will power, energy, and pluck, breaking down all barriers, overcoming all obstacles, conquering all difficulties, in order to secure the final success of his immense undertaking; the creator of Jehova, the great I AM, the maker of God, the leader of a great army, the organizer of a nation, the lawmaker, the lawgiver, the molder and master mind of this great work.

His stratagem to preserve the Egyptian army from serpents by filling baskets with ibises, who devour and destroy serpents, is an instance of his foresight, leading his army safely through the swamps without damage, during the war with the Ethiopians.

The great feature of Moses’s Mount Sinai expedition, and his absence for forty days, and the production of the Ten Commandments, keeps the theological world in a constant stew of wonder and admiration. From the point of reason, common sense, and the light we have now, there is nothing remarkable or wonderful about the forty days’ absence or the Ten Commandments. Moses was provided with all the food he needed, and all the assistance he needed, during his stay in the mountain. His own family, as well as his wife’s relatives, knew all about the mountain, while the masses were kept at a respectful distance, on penalty of death.

What are these Ten Commandments?

1. One God (the concentrated essence of the Chaldean gods), worship him only.
2. Have no other God, image, etc.
3. Don’t swear by God.
4. Rest on the seventh day (economy of muscular forces).
5. Honor thy parents. Natural laws of self-preservation and self-protection.
6. Do not commit murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not bear false witness.
10. Do not desire another man’s property.

All these laws had been in existence centuries before the coming of Moses. Nations had already adopted them, as a matter of necessity. Crimes of murder and robbery, etc., were familiar among the Chaldeans and other nations. When Isaac sent messengers to Nahor in order to secure Rebeka for his wife, they had to pass through Mesopotamia, “in which it was tedious traveling, both in winter, for a depth of clay, and in summer for a want of water; and besides this, for the robberies there committed” (Jos.).

It must be remembered that society had reached a degree of organization and civilization; that these fundamental principles, these natural laws, are observed to a considerable extent even among the lower animals, and that they were strictly enforced in every barbarian as well as more civilized community. In the codification of these laws by Moses there is nothing wonderful, nothing miraculous, supernatural. The whole matter consisted in the adoption of these fundamental principles, these common-law usages, and the proclaiming of them as the laws to govern this newly organized nation, as all other nations had done centuries before them.

The laws incorporated in the book of Leviticus, etc., consisting in the regulation or government of the nation, appointing communities or families, dealing with food, dress, sacrifice, crime and its punishment, trade, commerce, domestic affairs, marriage, and above all church affairs, were mostly adoptions from other nations with certain modifications, written up in the manner we find them.

The supernatural phenomena recited in the Bible in the books of Moses—what descended from heaven, clouds, pillars, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, rain, deluge, fire, etc., on and about Mount Sinai—and that God performed these wonders to oblige Moses, because he exercised his influence in prayer upon Jehova—form the greatest piece of nonsense that ever was written.

Clouds belong to the earth, are composed of earthly elements, are taken from the surface of the earth by a natural process and return to the earth by a natural process. Neither God nor man can influence them. The same may be said of all other phenomena. Water cannot be composed from any other elements than oxygen and hydrogen, and the silly theological twaddle cannot change it. What we ought to know is, at least something of the natural. The more we know of the natural the less we believe of the supernatural—in fact, the latter has largely disappeared. In time, let us hope, these childish delusions will be regarded as some of the remnants of the past and infantile ages of humanity.

In all ages and at all times, men of great merit have been admired and honored by mankind. But the mythology and theology that enshrouds ancient heroes, the deification, the supernaturalism, the sanctity, the holiness, and the delusions that accompany and surround their actions, are entirely superfluous. We have outgrown these fables. And truly, these imaginary attributions, these visionary productions, have outlived their usefulness. Whether it be Moses, David, Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, or Washington, they were men, nothing but men, and their actions, as also the great good resulting from their actions, that benefited humanity, were natural, not influenced in any way or shape by the smallest particle of supernaturalism.

Josephus speaking of Moses says: “He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in understanding, and made the best use of what understanding suggested to him. He had a very grateful way of speaking and addressing himself to the multitude. As to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than himself. He was also such a general of an army as was seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree that whatsoever he pronounced, you would think you heard the voice of God himself” (B. iv, ch. viii, 49).

The following verse in the Bible is undoubtedly true: “And there was not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

Moses deserves all the credit for molding the Chaldean God into shape, for creating Jehova, and for inventing prophets and the Jewish oracles.

These oracles, or pretended consultations or inquiries of God, whether heathen or Hebrew, were all of a similar nature and character. Whenever the question asked was concerning the success or non-success of a battle, whether they should fight or not, the answer depended on the circumstances and the condition of affairs. If the army was well disciplined, had a good leader, a good general, better than the enemy, they were going to fight. If not so well organized, weaker numerically, or with an indifferent general, they would let fighting alone. The priests if well informed would give either a positive or a negative answer, but if they knew nothing about either party, they would deliver the answer of the oracle in such dubious expressions or terms, that let what would happen to the inquirer, the answer might be accommodated or explained to mean the event that came to pass.

The expressions of the Bible during and after the time of Moses are of oracular form, and for that reason of a dubious nature, of marvelous elasticity, accommodating any and every opinion or inquiry, susceptible of a vast variety of interpretations. Many portions may be made to mean anything or everything. There being nothing positive about these biblical expressions, followers of these doctrines have been explaining and explaining. And as new views or opinions are set afloat, clever talkers explain and explain, and grow enthusiastic in explaining. And as fashions change, the explanations change. For centuries these explanations and interpretations have been going on—over what?

Among the Jews there were several sorts of oracles: as, first, those that were delivered viva voce, as when God spoke to Moses; secondly, prophetic dreams, as those of Joseph and others; thirdly, visions, as when a prophet in an ecstasy, a nervous, excitable condition, being properly neither asleep nor awake, had what they called supernatural revelations; fourthly, when they were accompanied with the wearing of an ephod, or the pectoral worn by the high priest, who was endowed with the gift of foretelling future things upon extraordinary occasions; and fifthly, by consulting the prophets or messengers sent by God.

Moses was the first great prophet, the first great general, the first great lawgiver, the first and only organizer, and with his death God, Jehova, ceases to be active.

Everything appears wonderful or miraculous if we do not understand it, or are ignorant and credulous. Thus it was with the manna, that usually falls in certain seasons of the year in that region. Even Moses himself did not know what it was, until it had stuck to his hands and he had tasted it. It was no special favor to the Jews. It falls for all creatures alike, but is not used until it is discovered that it has reached the season when it is good to eat. Nevertheless, it is in our Bible accounted a miracle.

No man has ever performed a miracle except to deceive or delude another, who is ignorant of what he is performing, or how it is performed.

Miracles are natural events occurring to those that are ignorant, or of little understanding; or they are intentionally performed with the intent to deceive, delude, or defraud.

God himself, all believers should know, cannot perform a miracle, contrary to the laws of nature—whether it be the laws governing planets or the laws that govern the various phenomena that appear from time to time on earth. All are simply the result of some natural process.

What shrewdness Moses used, whatever cunning, whatever diplomacy, whatever wisdom or courage, was the production of his own will power, the evolution of his own brain, acquired by education and training. He utilized these powers to gain his ends, to the best advantage and welfare of the people he was trying to organize.

He may have fully believed in the oracles he invoked, the conception of his own powerful imagination. He may have inspired himself by a concentration of nervous force, stimulated by the immense responsibility that rested upon him.

The solitude he enjoyed in the mountain was of great service to his reflecting mind. It gave him an opportunity to analyze every detail, think over every circumstance, form his ideas and his plans. That it was to him a sanctuary, a holy retreat, we can easily imagine, as every place that becomes a retreat for great thinkers is a sanctum to them, and where, when they are deliberating, communing with themselves, it is no place for strangers to intrude.

We must, however, not lose sight of an important fact—that whatever may be the products of the brain, of the nervous system, however stimulated or inspired the workings of the imagination and the production of ideas, evolving powerful thoughts, and however sublime and beautiful they may be, they are the effect of the educated faculties; the result of the combined forces of the great nervous centers.

Notwithstanding the sagacity and cleverness of Moses, the barbarism and brutality of the age in which he lived was predominant in all his actions towards his enemies. Neither God nor Jehova had any mitigating sentiment, neither pity nor mercy. The ark was a superstitious symbol, and the priest the ready tool to carry out any system to deceive and delude the masses. The ark, the creation of Moses, Aaron, Jethro & Co., was nothing more than an idol of another form. Whether the idol is in the image of somebody or a four-cornered box wherein lies the difference?

For several centuries this wooden box plays an important role among these half-civilized barbarians. They were no better than their neighbors, and were not any farther advanced in civilization than the neighboring nations were—indeed, not so much.

How Christianity can hold that book, the Bible, as sacred, as a guide for the present civilized age, is indeed a greater wonder and a far more complicated miracle than ever was performed in the Bible.

The superstitious, cowardly army of Joshua refused to cross the river Jordan, but the miracle was performed when the priest carried the ark across the river—which was fordable, because they could see the sand at the bottom, and the stream was neither strong nor swift. So the army forded the stream, following the wooden box. The same box was used before the walls of Jericho. The falling of the walls is related in a mysterious fashion, but the slaughter of men, women, and children is made quite plain. The only thing saved was that prostitute Rahab who betrayed the city—and that was all the doings of God and the Box.

Joshua sends to Ai three thousand men, and the Israelites get beaten. Then after some hocus-pocus Joshua goes to Ai with thirty thousand and he beats them, “and all the men and women that were killed at Ai were twelve thousand” (Josh, viii, 25). And then he hanged the king of Ai (verse 29). And this was a miraculous victory. Every natural phenomenon was interpreted as a miracle. A hailstorm, an aerial phosphorescence imitating sun and moon, the clouds, thunder, etc.—are all miracles, if they help to beat the enemy. And after the slaying was done the kings were hanged (x, 26).

Altogether, Joshua conquered thirty-one kings and took possession of their territories. These kingdoms could not have been very large affairs, since the whole land is not very large. The presumption is that superior numbers and better leadership in reality won the day.

When the strong hand of Moses and Joshua has disappeared (Jehova is no longer the stronghold) quarrels, outrages, and discontent arise. Eleven tribes retire from the field of action. Judah, the warrior tribe, does the fighting. The Levites, this aristocratic tribe, watch and guide the nation, dwelling in the forty cities assigned to them. I mention these two tribes especially on account of the important role they play hereafter.

A few statements of the mere facts will suffice. Joshua dies in 1443 B.C. Othniel succeeds. Judah’s military force fights and beats the Canaanites. Discord and fighting continue, until Eglon the king of Moab enslaves them, 1343 B.C. When Eglon is killed they are freed for a short period, when Jabin the Canaanite subdues them. They are again freed and again enslaved, and so on. Meantime they have their heroes, as Shamgar, who kills six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad, and Samson, who kills one thousand Philistines with a jawbone of an ass, etc.

I will append to this chapter a description of some events of Moses’s career from Tacitus, Chapter III: “Many authors agree, that when once an infectious distemper was arisen in Egypt and made men’s bodies impure, Bocchorius, their king, went to the oracle of (Jupiter) Hammon and begged he would grant him some relief against this evil, and he was enjoined to purge his nation of them, and to banish this kind of men into other countries, as hateful to the gods. That when he had sought for, and gotten them all together, they were left in a vast desert; that hereupon the rest devoted themselves to weeping and inactivity; but one of those exiles, Moses by name, advised them to look for no assistance from any of the gods or from any of mankind, since they had been abandoned by both, but bade them believe in him, as in a celestial leader, by whose help they had already gotten clear of their present miseries. They agreed to it; and though they were unacquainted with every thing, they began their journey at random: but nothing tried them so much as want of water; and now they laid themselves down on the ground to a great extent, as just ready to perish, when a herd of wild asses came from feeding, and went to a rock overshadowed by a grove of trees. Moses followed them, as conjecturing that there was (thereabouts) some grassy soil, and so opened large sources of water for them.”

Chapter IV: “As for Moses, in order to secure the nation firmly to himself, he ordained new rites, and such as were contrary to other men. All things are with them profane which with us are sacred; and again, those practices are allowed among them which are by us esteemed most abominable. They sacrifice rams by way of reproach to (Jupiter) Hammon. An ox is also sacrificed, which the Egyptians worship under the name of Apis,” etc.

CHAPTER XI.

SAMUEL THE KINGMAKER—THE WARWICK OF ANTIQUITY.

Our forefathers of antiquity, no matter to what nation they belonged, dressed every important event with a halo of mystery—fable, myth, and miracle. They knew no better.

The mind, the brain, the senses, had reached a stage of development that might well be called childish, with sensuality and selfishness predominating. Fighting, cruelty, and lust were the leading actions prompted. And as in the case of children, ghosts and hobgoblins scared them, shadows and darkness frightened them, unusual sights and noises surprised and alarmed them. And in their calmer moments they wondered. And any natural phenomenon was interpreted as miraculous if it aided any undertaking, and resulted favorably to them.

Wealth and women were considered the capital prizes in those days. (That was three thousand years ago; how is it with us?) They were men in physique, but children in the development of their mental faculties.

It was then as it is now—every man talks about that which is uppermost in his mind; he makes his comparisons with those things he is most familiar with; his illustrations are drawn from those objects he sees most frequently; his language never extends beyond the number of words at his command; his memory is only equal to the number of things he has stored away; his mind is made up or composed of those ideas that he has gathered from the experience of his senses; his ideas from the number of objects he has come in contact with; his knowledge consists of that which he has learned; his thoughts and reflections extend to that which he knows and never beyond; his understanding depends on all these; and comparatively speaking, few men are in advance of the age in which they live.

Ideas, like other things terrestrial, have their birth, growth, development, maturity, and decline, and finally they partially or wholly disappear.

The birth of the idea of God, without the various objective representations, had its origin in the mind of man; Abraham being the first, or supposed to be the first, man who conceived the notion that these images, idols, were not the proper thing. He doubted the quality of the gods, and the principal objection to these idols was that they had ears that did not hear, eyes that could not see, etc., etc., but the new God, the later Jehova, could. The strangest of all inconsistencies lies in the fact that while they endowed him with the human faculties, passions, emotions, desires, and feelings, there is nothing tangible about his body.

Nothing was accomplished with this God during several centuries in Egypt. Moses brought his Jehova out—as a stern reality. He skillfully manipulated the idea. His own intellect and experience, his force and character, were concentrated in this Jehova. His masterly organization, his discipline, his impressive sternness, imperative and imperial, his stupendous will power, left a lasting impress upon this people during the four centuries. This idea was nursed, nourished, and sustained by the Levites, and when they found their influence was waning they established a concentrated form of government by selecting a sanhedrin or council of seventy and electing the most eligible person they could find on the recommendation of Samuel as their king. This king was Saul, whose reign, fortunately or unfortunately, did not last very long.

Competition and struggle with other nations had, if anything, an educational tendency. As they grew numerically stronger, jealousies arose. Ambitious men were grasping for power, and contending faction naturally was the result.

The story about the lost asses is like that about another ass we have heard of, that saw the angel and talked—we have many such, even at the present day. These stories are excellent fabrications to entertain juveniles with. And people must be precious asses to believe this nonsense, that God would be such an ass as to interfere with these asses.

But something occurred which was perfectly human, and shows the character of the man. It happened to be one of those critical moments in a nation’s existence. Nahash the Ammonite had made war against Israel, and encamped against Jabest-Gilead. Saul hearing of it, he did as follows ([1 Sam. xi, 7]): “And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coast of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out with one consent.” Thus Saul collected an army of three hundred thousand men. That is what may be termed practical politics. He was victorious over the Ammonites. As to the prisoners of war, whether captured or having given themselves up, he caused their right eyes to be put out. He plucked their right eyes out, making them useless for war in the future.

When he went to war against the Philistines, his army observed how numerous the enemy were. God’s army was scared and hid in caves. So he sent to Samuel to consult the oracle, like any other respectable heathen.

He also made a conquest of the Amalekites, whom he utterly destroyed. The Hebrews and these people had a grudge of several centuries’ standing, because when the Jews went out of Egypt they requested permission to pass through the Amalekites’ country, which was refused them ([Ex. xvii], et seq.).

But Saul offended God by saving Agag, the king of the Amalekites, so said Samuel ([1 Sam. xv, 32, 33]). “Then Samuel said, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is passed. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.”

Saul’s tenderness and mercy towards Agag displeased the stern, cruel priest and soldier. His, Agag’s, life had to pay the penalty of death, by the hand of the priest himself, for an offense his forefathers were presumed to have been guilty of, several centuries before. All barbarities, cruelties, and slaughter were done in Jehovah’s, God’s, the Lord’s, name. The same pious crimes were repeated centuries later, under the pretext of doing some imaginary brutal God a great favor.

For this transgression Saul is rejected by this priestly Warwick. For this human action this wily priest denounces him, and Saul’s act of kindness is interpreted by this domineering priest as a crime against his God. To carry out his political scheme, Samuel went to Beth-lehem. “And the elders of the town trembled at his coming” ([1 Sam. xvi, 4]). The revengeful priest, with a nerve of iron and a will of steel, was not going to stand any nonsense. Saul had not obeyed him to the letter—it is, Off with your head!

Samuel with all the church palaver, priest discipline, and pious hypocrisy, selects a successor, without compunction, without ceremony, and David is anointed to reign instead of Saul. From this time forth to the end of his life Saul is constantly in hot water. He slinks to his home at Gibeah ([1 Sam. xv, 34]) like a whipped cur, rejected and excommunicated by the priest. Full of apprehension and fear, he blunders at every step he takes. The priestly influence is gone, and God has departed from him and is now with David. The crafty Samuel uses the expression, when others question the propriety of his action: “Men do not see as God seeth.” No! Men must have no will except the priest’s will. Harassed and maddened by priestly cunning, jealous and angered at David’s success in acts of heroism, Saul loses courage, as well as prestige with the people, to such an extent that David finds it not a difficult task to organize a small army of his own, carrying on a sort of desultory war on his own account.

Samuel dies, having governed his people twelve years himself, and jointly with Saul eighteen years. He was the greatest man, priest, and general since the times of Moses, a man of singular sagacity and courage, no doubt right royal and honest in his intentions and to his nation. Samuel did more to solidify the nation, and terrify neighboring nations, to infuse courage in his people and inspire them to acts of heroism, than any other of the judges, or any other man, during this period.

A curious incident is related of the manner in which Samuel came into the world. It is the first one of its kind in the Bible. Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, had no children, or as the Bible phrase has it, “The Lord had shut up her womb” ([1 Sam. i, 5, 6]). So she continued praying before the Lord, and Eli the priest marked her mouth (verse [12]). She conceived and bore a son, and she named him Samuel. And Eli the priest adopted Samuel. “And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest” ([ii, 12]). What the relations were between Hannah and Eli is not known, but that his own sons were not very righteous is testified to by the following passage ([1 Sam. ii, 20]): “Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

It was not an unusual thing, in the temples of the heathens, for women to accommodate the gods whenever they felt piously inclined; and also the priests lost no opportunity to gratify their saintly passions, or permit others to gratify theirs so long as it was to benefit the church.

Samuel’s father, or rather reputed father, did not belong to the priestly tribe. He was an Ephrathite. Eli his adopted father belonged to the priestly caste. I simply cite this story to show how completely human these holy Jehovaists were. Many crimes and disreputable acts were committed under the very shadow of the Lord. Yet Jehova was pleased with anything these priests delighted in.

Eli was a heavy man ([iv, 18]). Fat, which I suppose they meant, shows he was a good liver. He broke his neck by falling off his seat on hearing the ark was taken by the Philistines and Israel beaten.

When Samuel took the reins of government he was still young. He subdued the Philistines, regained the ark, and reorganized and consolidated the nation. He made Saul king and general, and a stream of prosperity followed; the choice was a good one, and Saul served his nation well so long as he was obedient to Samuel’s commands. Saul’s humanity got the better of him, he offended this stern, dictatorial priest, and lost his favor. David, his rival, was already chosen and in the field, on whom all Samuel’s influence and priestly glory was shed. Now God deserted Saul and his cause. Henceforth the Lord was with David.

Samuel was the first and only kingmaker; Saul and David were his handiwork. He was a priest, a soldier and a statesman of more than ordinary capacity and qualities, far superior to any of the judges that governed Israel during the last four centuries. He was stern and severe, but without blemish otherwise. He was, as far as we can learn from history, a relentless and cruel man towards his enemies. He was of immense will-power, resolute and energetic. He was honored to an extraordinary degree by the people for whom he accomplished so much. He left the nation at his death more firmly united than it had ever been—with an organized army, a stable government, and a well-filled treasury. It was Samuel that really raised the nation to the utmost hight that it ever attained, for he laid the foundation for Solomon’s glory, the zenith of Hebrew nationality.

It is he that closes the second period of national life, the people having attained under him its maximum standing as a nation, and the greatness which culminated in Solomon, and the only political unity as a nation that the Hebrews ever had.

A parallel may be drawn between the two periods. The Egyptian period: Four centuries or so pass without anything being done, until a man rises possessing the necessary qualifications to mold these people into a nation. The second period consists of a struggle with other nations, almost continuously, to exist. Necessities arise; men present themselves who seize the opportunity to fill up the want for the time being, until the coming of Samuel, the right man, at the right time, for the right place. He closes the second act of the Hebrews’ struggle for nationality by giving them a centralized form of government, and placing a king at their head to rule them.

All the transactions of his life were human, natural. His conduct was perfectly in harmony with the age he lived in. The nation as a whole had become a little more civilized, and had reached as high a point of intelligence as it ever attained—that is, as a nation.

Thus far we have not seen anything in their history that other nations had not to contend with. To attribute their acts, individually or as a nation, to any supernatural power, to God, Jehova, or the Lord, is preposterous. In their dealings, their fightings, their cruelty, their brutality, their superstition, and their ignorance, they were in no sense superior to any of the contemporaneous nations. They were no better in their conduct than their neighbors. The strongest had always the best of it; the conquered had to submit to slavery or be killed, women are captured and used, and the plunder is divided.

Notwithstanding the priestly rule of the Levites, the Hebrews are constantly relapsing into idolatry, brought back to the fold, and relapsing again.

The church was at this time used for all sorts of corrupt purposes. The Jehova that had been brought into the theological world with such an immense boom by Moses had expended a good deal of its original force.

The remembrance of that stupendous crisis of the Hebrew national existence was kept alive and the flames were fanned by priestly interest. The God after Moses, the Jehova, had shrunk into the Lord, and the ark was the representative of God. “The ark of God was taken,” … “when she heard tidings of the ark of God” ([1 Sam. iv], etc.). And the success or failure of the Hebrews depended on the man who led them. With a weak man as general or leader they were beaten, with a strong man they won.

Other nations meanwhile had sprung into life, and become powerful, without Jehova—without the God of the Hebrews. They had, however, idols and images, which seemed to behave with far greater propriety than the God of Israel. So well did these mythological deities manage their affairs, that they almost swallowed up the whole Hebrew race.

Samuel, having established a kingdom, and crowned two kings, Saul and David, dies, leaving these two competitors in the field.

CHAPTER XII.

GOD SAVE THE KING!

That was the shout, with the commencement of the new era, when the tallest man in the nation appeared in the midst of the people that had assembled at the call of Samuel ([1 Sam. x, 24]).

I will give a short chronology of this United Kingdom under three kings—Saul, David, and Solomon:

Saul is made king 1095
Dies 1055
Rules over Israel about 40 years
David born 1085
Kills Goliath 1062
Reigns in Hebron 1055
King over Israel 1048
Dies 1016
Rules over Israel about 40 years
Solomon is born 1036
Is crowned king 1015
Lays foundation of Temple 1012
Dedicates the Temple 1004
Worships idols 985
Dies 975
Rules over Israel about 40 years

These figures may not be accurate. They are as near as the dates can be had. Josephus gives the dates as follows:

Saul reigned with Samuel 18 years
After the death of Samuel 22 years,,
David lived 70 years,,
Reigned in Hebron 7 yrs 6m
Reigned,, in,, Jerusalem 33 years
Solomon lived 94 years,,
Having reigned 80 years,,

There is a discrepancy somewhere. Something is wrong in dates, like most other facts in the Bible.

David was twenty-three years old when he killed Goliath. Solomon was twenty-one years old when he was crowned king; according to Josephus, fourteen years of age.

We have no further interest in the dates of those men, but more in their acts and character. Being the rulers of God’s own chosen people—with Jehova for a pilot, protector, and guide—with the wooden Box, the ark, with all its mysterious secrets and its holy enchantments; priests, prophets, and sacrifices, with all their secret necromantic performances, these three men, with all their godly professions, were no better than they should have been, even for the age in which they lived.

They were brutal, gross, and licentious. Barbarous crimes were committed by them, with the sanction of their preposterous imaginary God—who is lauded at this present day to the very echo, but the most stupendous piece of folly that ever was palmed off on civilized humanity.

Saul, the first king, in exercising his terrible cruelty towards his enemies perhaps only followed the practices and customs of other nations. Why this bloodthirsty man caused 385 persons to be murdered; why he slaughtered all the inhabitants of Nob, men, women, and children, because Abimelech the priest supplied David with food, are some of those things that pulpit orators can best explain. The life of the priest was not sufficient to expiate the offense he had committed, but Saul had his whole family exterminated.

The ark was no longer available. Jehova had taken the juvenile David in hand. The priestly oracle refused to be consulted. He, Saul, had recourse to a fortune-telling woman of Endor, who was employed to call up the spirit of Samuel.

Saul’s jealousies, his quarrels with David, and all his misdeeds, as well as bravery, may be read by those that feel an interest in the matter. He finally committed suicide by falling on his own sword, and the next day the Philistines cut his and his sons’ heads off, and deposited them before their idols, Dagon, etc.

Where was God? Can it be possible that our Christian neighbors believe that the life and conduct of Saul was directed by any supreme power? That God directed Saul to do so many foolish, barbarous, and murderous acts?

We shall probably be more interested in David, the man after God’s own heart.

David, like Saul, was judiciously selected by Samuel. David’s acts and David’s conduct were no different from the acts and conduct of any other man in his position and possessing his characteristics. He combined a good deal of philosophy with his bravery; if the Psalms were written by him we have before us a higher type of brain culture, a mind that has undergone some training, is capable of analyzing its own feelings and giving expression to them. His comparisons never extend beyond that—beyond what he knows. He appeals to the higher qualities of men—their good acts, their virtues, their just conduct, their self-restraint, their passions, emotions, faults, and weaknesses. He recognizes them in others, and sees them reflected clearly in himself. His distress and his fears, his gladness and his joys, his trust in an unseen power, are all poetic, some sweet and sentimental. He speaks of his Lord, of his God, as of the pleasant recollections of a dream. Jehova had long since lost the stern reality of Moses, and had changed with the changes the nation had undergone. The formalities had been kept up, the priestly luxuries had increased, the ceremonies were more formal and business-like, but the central power, the centralized government of the people, the mantle of authority, had been shifted from high priest to king.

The God, Jehova, was no longer the guide, the power it had been. For twenty-two years after the death of Samuel, Saul had conducted his government and fought his battles without God, ark, or priest, and sought advice and counsel from other and human sources.

Skeptics even at this early period began to doubt the existence of a God, “The fool saith in his heart, There is no God” ([Ps. xiv, 1]).

The theocratic period of 395 years from Exodus to Saul had already developed corruption in the church and licentiousness in the Temple. The priestly power received a terrible blow at the hands of Saul when he slaughtered the priest, Abimelech, and his family, thus showing that the representative of God no longer inspired terror; that the priest was nothing more than any other man; that neither God, Jehova, ark, nor any other sanctified paraphernalia could protect him, nor miracle interfere for his preservation.

Opinions were freely expressed, discussion arose, and arguments were not wanting to sustain the doubts that had arisen as to the genuineness, the truth, of the God they had adopted. Neighboring nations had their gods. How was it, if their gods were not more potent, that they should win so many battles, and enslave the nation of the true God?

The same or similar arguments that Abraham brought to bear on the Chaldean gods were now beginning to be used against Jehova.

David, besides being an excellent soldier, a brave general, was a dreamer, a man of imagination. God was to him a sublime vision, a reflected glory of the past. To him, an intense admirer of the beautiful, trees, hills, and valleys, and the phenomena of nature in general, were the wonders of his imaginary God. He was a musician, a poet, a dreamer, in his moments of leisure. Everything he beheld courted, kindled his admiration, awoke new feeling in his sensitive nature, from a pretty flower to a beautiful woman.

The conversations which he holds with his visionary God are the simplest and most confidential. He pours out his grievances and his delight to him. “Thou hast put gladness in my heart.… I will both lay me down in peace and sleep” ([Ps. iv, 8, 9]).

That Christian translators of the Bible presume to interpret certain passages and words to mean, to foretell, things or events that occurred one thousand years later, is an assumption, and warrantable neither by the text nor by the actions of the persons writing them.

David is supposed to have written the Psalms. When he speaks he refers mainly to himself, addresses himself personally to his Lord. He, David, is himself interested. Then again he speaks of man and things in general, without ever alluding to any one thing or body in the coming future.

David’s [Psalm ii] is headed “The Kingdom of Christ.” The writer had no more idea of Christ than he had of Peter the Great at the time that that Psalm was written.

David wrote one hundred and fifty Psalms as printed in the Bible. In the headings, the superscriptions, the solicitude of Christian believers, trying to torture meanings and significations out of sentences or expressions, led them to commit gross errors, as false as they are ridiculous. Judge for yourself:

[Psalm ii, 1]—The Kingdom of Christ.

“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?” Verse [10]: “Be wise, now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth.”

[Psalm xlv, 1]—The majesty and Grace of Christ’s Kingdom.

“My heart is inditing a good matter; I speak of the things which I have made touching the king; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.”

Verse [10]—The Duty of the Church, etc.

“Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house.”

[Psalm xlvi, 1]—Confidence Which the Church, etc.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

[Psalm xlvii]—The Nations are Exhorted Cheerfully to Entertain the Kingdom of Christ.

[Psalm xlviii]—The Ornaments and Privileges of the Church.

In not one of these Psalms is there the slightest allusion to a church. It is the extravagant language of an exuberant mind, the outcome of an overwrought imagination upon the subject he was thinking about.

[Psalm l, 1]—The Majesty of God in the Church.

[Psalm li, 18]—He Prayeth for the Church.

[Psalm lxviii, 7]—For His Care of the Church.

[Psalm lxxii, 1]—David Praying for Solomon, etc.; and The Truth of Christ’s Kingdom.

[Psalm xciii]—The Majesty and Power of Christ’s Kingdom.

[Psalm cxviii, 19]—Coming of Christ’s Kingdom, etc.

The passage referred to, viz., verse [19], is: “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord.”

The absurdity of the interpretation is evident from the fact that out of one hundred and fifty Psalms the Christian Bible-makers were able to find only five that could be twisted to make allusion to Christ—the [ii], [xlv], [lxxii], [xcviii], and [cxviii], and from these certain sentences were selected, and these verses have as much connection with Christ or his kingdom as they have with the man in the moon. Six of all the chapters are supposed to allude to the church; those are above cited.

David had not the remotest notion what would or could happen at any time during his life, or at any time after his death. He was a child of circumstances like Saul, and like many other men after and before them. The same may be said of Moses and Abraham. Opportunity makes the man, if the man is fitting, able, to seize the opportunity when it occurs. No supernatural power had anything to do with any one of these men, or any man that figured in the Bible, any more than God had to do with men that played prominent parts as leaders, rulers, kings, or governors of other nations. Whatever power, skill, intellect, or imagination was developed, it was the proper sum-total of the experience, observation, and instruction of the world’s progress.

The Hebrews perhaps had special advantages in some respects over other nations, through their migratory instinct or inclination. The contact with so many other nations gave them the advantage of a broader experience and a greater variety of culture.

David had enjoyed special advantages. After his first heroic action, he became the leader of a band of desperadoes. And Saul himself unwittingly helped him, by making the bargain with David that if he, David, brought him one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, Saul would give him his daughter Michal for wife. David with his band of chosen men brought him two hundred, and thus obtained his wife Michal. Henceforth David leads a kind of bandit’s life, with his six hundred brave followers, evading Saul, who is in hot pursuit of him, and meantime fighting other nations, Philistines, Amalekites, etc.; levying contributions, making conquests, whenever and wherever there was a chance; falling in love easily and gracefully as the most expert leader of a gallant band. The pretty, attractive face of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, was an irresistible temptation. Nabal died from fright, it is said. Later in life when he happened to cast his eyes upon the beautiful nude figure of Bathsheba, he immediately fell in love. Since he was a man of action he satisfied his passion almost immediately, and poor Uriah, a captain of his, was sent to the war to be killed.

He was a shrewd and bold warrior, a great lover of woman, a philosopher and a poet. His Psalms bear witness of his acts, deeds, and thoughts. In consequence of his overindulgence with women he contracted a disease, a disease of which he complains most bitterly. [Psalm iv]: His bones are vexed, he is weary with groaning—“All night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears” (verse [6]). [Psalm xxxviii]: He is in a sad plight: verse [3]: “There is no soundness in my flesh;” verse [5]: “My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness;” verse [7]: “For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease; and there is no soundness in my flesh,” etc. The gentleman in all probability was afflicted with a disease known as syphilis in its tertiary stage. There is more of it.

A sober reading of these psalms will find them full of indications of human nature with its frailties, weaknesses, impulses, mixed with superstitious fear, a vivid imagination, and an excitable temperament.

When his greatness had been established, many conquests made, great wealth accumulated, numerous victories gained, festivities were inaugurated. In order to honor God and the ark, David danced and jumped in complete undress before the Box, in a true half-civilized fashion.

We must not consider all these acts as faults. He simply followed the customs of the age. He was the highest representative type of the then struggling civilization. Samuel began, Saul developed, and David consummated a new era of this part of the world of human history—while other sections of the globe were keeping abreast in organizing and drilling the human race to a higher sort of culture, forming nations, establishing kingdoms, producing heroes, evolving lawgivers and poets, and advancing in the arts and war, etc.

David died seventy years of age, leaving a large and numerous family. Of his score of sons, there is none worth talking about, except Solomon, his successor. The immense wealth he amassed laid the foundation for the glory of Solomon, who spent it lavishly, luxuriously, freely.

All in all David was an excellent character. He preserved the Twelve Tribes, exalting the nation, consolidating the government, making it respected and feared without, and giving them by his valor peace and security and prosperity for the next ruler and for the nation.

This young gentleman, Solomon, however, had been fed with a golden spoon. His senses and his passions were prematurely ripe. He did not have to search for opportunity; his desires were easily accommodated and satisfied. His indulgences were many and frequent, and his authority and arbitrariness were soon made manifest.

He was surrounded with the best scholars of the day, and whatever facilities were then to be had were got, either in philosophical works or in other books. The higher studies consisted in close observance of moral conduct, and contemplation of the outer world without knowing anything more than the outward appearances. Science, art, and mechanics were little known.

The school of poesy had begun. Theological disputes were in fashion, and thus theological doubt furnished ample food for conjecture, hypothesis, and imagination. Men had already entered the field of controversy as to the falsity or the truth of the prevailing opinions.

King Solomon in all his glory was the greatest showman upon earth at the time he was living.

Let it be understood that it is not our purpose to write history. That has long since been exhausted; nothing new can be discovered. It may, however, be profitable to call attention to the fact that all these men that figure in the scripture were human, perfectly human. That they acted and spoke in accordance with the prevailing degree of intelligence and customs of nations. That in all their dealings and doings there is not one scintilla of evidence that they were anything else than perfectly natural. That they were struggling as a nation for a position among the family of nations. That their methods of warfare were no better than those of their neighbors. By good generalship, brave conduct, and hard fighting they gained influence, affluence, and prestige. By their conquests and victories they got into possession of a fair tract of land. By robbery and plunder they amassed an immense amount of wealth. By their continual successes under David’s brave leadership they secured peace from their enemies, their surrounding neighbors; while those nations were subdued and weakened, the Israelites became powerful and strong. A well-disciplined army, a strong and united nation, was the inheritance Solomon received.

He was the prince-royal—his father a clever king, and his mother the captain’s wife, Mrs. Bathsheba, later queen-wife of David. He was the first real prince that had ever ruled Israel—and also the one that caused their ruin, as a nation, by his extravagant and lascivious conduct.

The scriptural story begins in Kings, with the death of David. Solomon, the prince of the blood, was now king in his stead. He ascended the throne when he was twenty-one years of age, having received every educational advantage of a prince. He, after Moses, is the second ruler of Israel that had been instructed and prepared for the high position he was about to occupy. That is the only comparison that can be made between him and Moses. The latter was a giant of intellect, action, and determination, while the former was a luxurious debauchee and squanderer of his father’s patrimony.

Why there should be so much adoration and adulation poured out on this man, I fail to see. Because he built the temple and made profuse exhibition of his gold and silver? He could not have built it if his father had not plundered other nations, and given him, Solomon, the money to build with.

Because he had an immense number of chariots and soldiers, decked with costly trappings? The money was there to provide these with, and later the people were pretty heavily taxed for his extravagance.

The only real point of glory may perhaps lie in the fact that he had one thousand women to play with. We all know that he beats the record on that particular branch of human enterprise. There was truly none like him before or since.

And lastly, we have his purported writings, consisting of the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Songs of Solomon.

No sooner was he seated on his throne than he began to remove all objectionable persons, those that were likely to be troublesome or dangerous. His elder brother, Adonijah, whose aspiration led him to great things, was dispatched by Benaiah, Solomon’s future general. Abiathar, the priest, he removed where he could do least damage. Joab, David’s general, who sought the altar of the temple for protection, Solomon ordered Benaiah to behead. Zadock he made high priest in place of Abiathar. Shimei was the next man on the list for death, and Benaiah received order to kill him. Having removed all dangerous or antagonistic men, Solomon settled himself firmly in his kingdom. Those that are curious may read all about the Temple, his house, the wall, cherubim, vessels and the like of gold, the royal palace, splendors, etc., etc. He became what is termed a glorious king, but luxury and women soon had their effect upon his judgment.

He had reached the zenith of Israel’s greatness. He had touched the highest point of its eminence. It was the golden age of the Hebrews—the age of pomp, pride, braggadocio, and exhilaration. Jerusalem became the great center of attraction. Everything obtainable was collected within its walls. No expense was spared. Indeed, the city became the center of luxury, extravagance, and licentiousness. And Solomon was surely, though slowly, paving the way for the destruction of the nation. The older he grew the worse he got. His reason gradually deserted him; he wasted his energy and his strength on his women, so that when he died he was despised, if not hated, by his people. And he left such a rotten condition of affairs that it tumbled to pieces almost before he was dead.

In the course of human events, certain results follow a given line of conduct in the affairs of man. The current of events depends upon our actions, whether good or bad, better or worse. Drain or waste of force and energy, of an individual or of a collective body as a community, state, or nation, slowly but surely weakens, undermining the natural healthy condition, and ultimately leads to a breaking down, and may bring about a final disintegration.

Solomon began his reign with an abundance. He had a plenty both of means and health; a most extraordinary opportunity, with an ample training and education; an immense, well-organized army; a stable, firm government, with a full quota of understanding or wisdom.

As a rule men get wiser as they grow older. They acquire greater deliberation, sounder judgment, better understanding, more skill in the management of affairs, of man and of state. They are generally more conservative in their actions, more cautious in their dealings, more abstemious in their desires. Their pleasures are restricted, their passions subdued, their wants few, and their pursuits in life so evenly regulated, their conduct so accurately adjusted, that a justice and a wisdom seem to guard every thought and every reflection.

Solomon’s course was like that of a balloon. He started chockfull of wisdom. He was a marvel, and made a prodigious show. He was a startling phenomenon, the wonder of the age. (You know he asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him; why did not God keep him wise?)

In old age he lacked wisdom. He had almost grown into a senseless imbecile. He was a squanderer of energy, a roué, a debauchee, a frivolous and licentious old man who frittered away his time and his brains on his women and their playthings.

When the pomp, pride, vanity, show, and bluster of his youth and manhood were exhausted, all there was left was the remnants of a glaring painted show. He had, as it were, danced and skipped and capered, sung and spoken his lines, in a blaze of glory and extravaganza on the stage of human affairs; the curtain drops, and alas, you behold, when the paint and gorgeous dress are removed, a simpering, brainless old image-worshiper.

But what a colossal church figure this man makes! What a miraculous personality he is made to be! What a wonderful creation of the Christians’ God! A pity some pope has not canonized him and manufactured him into a saint.

As to his writings—if he really wrote them, and they were not compiled or written for him—it is to be regretted that his conduct was not regulated by them.

A most astonishing perversion of truth is the attribution to the eight chapters of the Song of Solomon of the subject of the church’s love unto Christ.

The following are the chief interpretations:

Chapter i, verse 1: “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.”

Meaning—The church’s love unto Christ.

Verse 5: “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.”

Meaning—She confesseth her deformity.

Verse 7: “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon,” etc.

Meaning—And prayeth to be directed to his flock.

Verse 8: “If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth,” etc.

Meaning—Christ directeth her to the shepherd’s tent.

Verse 9: “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.”

Meaning—And showing his love to her.

Verse 11: “We will make thee borders of gold and studs of silver.”

Meaning—Giveth her gracious promise.

Verse 12: “While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”

Meaning—The church and Christ congratulate each other.

Chapter ii, verse 1: “I am the rose of Sharon and lily of the valley.”

Meaning—The mutual love of Christ and his church.

Verse 8: “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”

Meaning—The hope.

Verse 10: “My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

Meaning—The calling of the church.

Verse 14: “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.”

Meaning—Christ’s care of the church.

Verse 16: “My beloved is mine and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.”

Meaning—The profession of the church, her faith and hope.

Chapter iii, verse 1: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.”

Meaning—The church’s fight and victory in temptation.

Verse 6: “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh, and frankincense, with all the powders of the merchant?”

Meaning—The church glorieth in Christ.

Chapter iv, verse 1: “Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is like a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead.”

Meaning—Christ setteth forth the graces of the church.

Verse 8: “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse,” etc.

Meaning—He showeth his love to her.

Verse 16: “Awake O north wind; and come thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.”

Meaning—The church prayeth to be made fit for his presence.

Chapter v, verse 1: “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk; eat O friends; drink ye, drink abundantly, O beloved.”

Meaning—Christ awaketh his church with his calling.

Verse 2: “I sleep, but my heart waketh, it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undented; for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.”

Meaning—The church having a taste of Christ’s love, is sick of love.

Verse 9: “What is my beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?”

Meaning—A description of Christ and his graces.

Chapter vi, verse 1: “Whither is my beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is my beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with them.”

Meaning—The church professeth her faith in Christ.

Verse 4: “Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.”

Meaning—Christ showeth the grace of the church.

Verse 10: “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”

Meaning—And his love towards her.

Chapter vii, verse 1: “How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince’s daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.”

Meaning—A further description of the church’s graces.

Verse 10: “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me.”

Meaning—“The church professeth her faith and desire.”

Chapter viii, verse 1: “O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee; yea, I should not be despised.”

Meaning—The love of the church to Christ.

Verse 6: “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is as strong as death; jealousy as cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”

Meaning—The vehemency of love.

Verse 8: “We have a little sister; and she hath no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?”

Meaning—The calling of the Gentiles.

Verse 14: “Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountain of spices.”

Meaning—The church prayeth for Christ’s coming.

These are the verses specifically interpreted and marked for Christian worshipers. It must be remembered that the most decent were selected. To say the interpretations are absurd, is putting it very mildly. Solomon had no more idea of Christ than he had of the laws of gravitation.

He was describing and writing about that which was constantly occupying his mind and his time. He portrays a love-sick swain, with all the details that are pleasing both to his eye and to his fancy. He gloats and feeds upon his passions, thus:

“His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me” (viii, 4).

“How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights” (vii, 6).

“There are threescore queens and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number” (vi, 8).

“His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved,” etc. (v, 16).

“Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue” (iv, 11).

“Behold his bed, which is Solomon’s; threescore valiant men are about it,” etc. (iii, 7).

“His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me” (ii, 6).

“Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes” (i, 15).

It is an outrage on decency even to attempt to construe the intent of these songs. The man sang about his woman, like any other swain who delights in his love. Solomon enjoyed nude beauties, as many men do in our day, and he represented the various parts of the female anatomy most accurately. He reveled in the luxurious contemplation of them. Pull down the curtain of hypocrisy and falsehood and let’s have the truth—as it was, as it is.

Solomon died at a pretty fair old age, having lived ninety-four years. The country had been harassed by robbers, the factions began to be restless, conspiracies were forming, and the people were nervously yet patiently waiting for a chance to revolt. No sooner was he dead than the nation split into two kingdoms. Henceforth this people as a nation is doomed. It soon disappears from the family of nations.

But—where is Jehova all this while?

Note.—“Solomon’s wickedness became intolerable, fully confirming my former observations, that his wickedness began early and continued very long” (Josephus, Bk. viii, Chapter vii).