And our law works a little that way yet; being the result of ecclesiastical law it naturally would.*
* See Appendix N. 5 and P. 5.
Next we have Num. xxxvi.:
8 And every daughter that possesseth an inheritance in any
tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto one
of the family of the tribe of her father, that the children
of Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his
fathers.
9 Neither shall the inheritance remove from one tribe to
another tribe; but every one of the tribes of the children
of Israel shall keep himself to his own inheritance.
10 Even as the Lord commanded Moses, so did the daughters
of Zelophehad.
That is all the women were for—articles of conveyance for property. Save the land, no matter about the girls. Now these silly women actually believed that God told Moses whom they had to marry just because Moses said so! I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it is not safe to take heavenly communications at second-hand. Second-hand articles are likely to be varnished over, and have to be taken at a discount. And it seems to me that, if the Lord is at all particular as to whom a girl should marry, she is the one for him to discuss the matter with. Moses didn't have to live with the sons of Zelophehad, and consequently wasn't the one to talk the matter over with. But, you see, it won't do to question what Moses said God told him, because upon his veracity the whole structure is built. He had more personal interviews with the Deity than any other man—he and Solomon—and hence they are the best authority.
I have here the 31st chapter of Numbers, but it is unfit to read. It tells a story of shame and crime unequalled in atrocity. It tells that God commanded Moses and Eleazar, the priest, to produce vice and perpetrate crime on an unparalleled scale. It tells us that they obeyed the order, and that 16,000 helpless girls were dragged in the mire of infamy and divided amongst the victorious soldiers. They were made dissolute by force, and by direct command of God!
This one chapter stamps as false, forever, the claim of inspiration for the Bible. That one chapter would settle it for me. Do you believe that God told Moses that? Do you believe there is a God who is a thief, a murderer, and a defiler of innocent girls? Do you believe it? Yet this religion is built upon Moses' word, and woman's position was established by him. It seems to me time for women to retire Moses from active life. Coax him to resign on account of his health. Return him to his constituency. He has been on the supreme bench long enough. Don't let your children believe in such a God. Better let them believe in annihilation. Better let them think that the sleep of death is the end of all! Better, much better, let them believe that the tender kiss at parting is the last of all consciousness for them, and after that eternal rest! Don't let their hearts be seared, their lives clouded, their intellects dwarfed by the cruel dread of the God of Moses! Better, thrice better, let the cold earth close over the loved and loving dust forever, than that it should enter the portals of infinite tyranny.
Next we will take Deut. xx. 10-16:
10 When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it,
then proclaim peace unto it. [Good scheme!]
11 And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and
open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people
that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and
they shall serve thee.
12 And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make
war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it:
13 And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thy
hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of
the sword:
14 But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and
all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof,
shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil
of thy enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.
15 Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very
far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these
nations.
16 But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy
God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive
nothing that breatheth.
The injunction to proclaim peace unto a city about to be attacked and plundered strikes me as a particularly brilliant idea. When you go to rob and murder a man, just tell him to keep cool and behave like a gentleman and you won't do a thing to him but steal all his property and cut his throat and retire in good order, God always seemed to fight on the side of the man who would murder most of his fellow-men and degrade the greatest number of women. He seemed, in fact, to rather insist on this point if he was particular about nothing else. And, by the way, if you had happened to live in one of those cities, what opinion do you think you would have had of Jehovah? Would he have impressed you as a loving Father? Here we have 2 Samuel v. 10, 12-13: