'The famous Witch of Endor has always been a subject of great dispute among the fathers of the Church. The sage Theodoret, in his sixty-second question on the Book of Kings, asserts, that it is universally the practice for the dead to appear with the head downwards; and that what terrified the witch was Samuel being upon his legs.
'St. Augustin, when interrogated by Simplicion, replies in the second book of his questions, that there is nothing more extraordinary in witches invoking a shade, than in the Devil transporting Jesus Christ through the air, to the pinnacle of the temple, on the top of a mountain.'
Chapter xix., vv. 2, 7, and 10. Here three cities of refuge are directed with a condition that three more may afterwards be added; while in Numbers, chap, xxxv., vv. 13 and 14, six are directed unconditionally.
Chapter ix., vv. 16, 17, and 18. By this command to 'save alive nothing that breatheth,' we may judge of the mercy and loving kindness of the God of the Jews. Why were the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Ferrizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to be mercilessly slaughtered? I am answered that they were idolaters. So were the Jews. And even if they were idolaters, the Omnipotent Deity had permitted them to become so, without giving them the benefit of any revelation from himself or the chance of listening to any of his prophets; in fact, by preferring the Jews, he must, to some extent, have neglected these unfortunate nations; and can it be wondered that such barbarous nations worshipped false Gods in those dark ages, when in the enlightened latter moiety of the nineteenth century, in the highly civilised country of England, there are more sects than there are books in the Bible; each drawing from that Book entirely different doctrines as to the Deity, and each declaring that theirs only is the true faith, and that all the others merit damnation (vide the Reverend preachers of Surrey Gardens on the one hand, and of Exeter Hall on the other)?
Chapter xxi., w. 10 to 14. According to this highly moral Book, if one of the Jewish warriors perceived a beautiful woman amongst the captives, he could take her home, keep her until he grew tired of her, and then desert her; he was only prohibited from selling her.
Verse 15. Polygamy is evidently a recognised institution amongst the Jews. In the present day, we are told that polygamy amongst the Mormons is an evidence of the grossly sensual character of Mor-monism.
Chapter xxii., w. 9, 10, 11. These verses seem to me to be too trifling and absurd to have a place amongst the ordinances of the infinite Deity.
Chapter xxiii., v. 3. An Ammonite, or a Moabite, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even unto their tenth generation. Yet David was only the third, and Solomon the fourth, generation, from the Moabitish woman Ruth (see Ruth, chap, iv., w. 21 and 22). Verses 1 to 6 seem positively unjust. Why should ten generations suffer; they did not choose their birth-place—whether Ammon or Judea.
Verses 13 and 14. I should not notice these verses, were it not for the gross absurdity of the 14th. The 13th contains a very useful sanitary regulation, although hardly worthy of a place in a revelation from the infinite and eternal ruler of the universe; but to suppose that God would perceive the 'unclean thing, and turn away,' is really too ridiculous to need further remark.
Verse 18. Why is a dog an abomination to the Lord? Dogs are of all animals the least likely to be an abomination to any one. They are more faithful to man than any animal except, perhaps, the horse. They possess better organisations than the majority of the brute family, and one is at a loss to understand the reason for this dislike to a dog on the part of the Deity, especially when we remember that the same Deity is alleged to be the creator of the dog, and of all other animals.
