We had a Kansas girl who followed in the footsteps of this “blessed woman.” Years ago, across the prairies of southern Kansas stretched a lonely road. By its side, far from other habitations, stood an unpretentious dwelling, inhabited by four persons—father, mother, son, and daughter. But the daughter was the ruling spirit there. Their only volume, we are told, was a Bible, and this the daughter read. The house contains two rooms besides the cellar. The rooms are separated simply by a curtain. In the front room is kept a small stock of groceries. Here, too, with its back against the curtain, and fastened to the floor, stands a chair. Above the door is a sign with this inviting word, “Provisions.” A traveler enters and makes some purchases, displaying a well-filled purse. He is treated hospitably, and invited to remain awhile and rest. Wearied, he drops into the chair, his head pressing against the curtain. Armed with a hammer, this follower of Jael now approaches from the rear. One well-directed blow, and the tired traveler sinks into eternal rest. His pockets are rifled, and his body thrown into the cellar, to be taken out at night and buried in the little garden behind the dwelling. Time rolls on; the traveler does not return. Day after day his wife at home, with anxious heart, peers through the window and sighs, “Why don’t he come?” At length suspicion rests upon this den of infamy. A search is instituted, and the garden is found to be a cemetery, filled with the bodies of murdered travelers—one a little child. In the mean time this female monster with her kin has fled. Detectives are still searching for her. They’ll never find her. Where is she? In heaven with Jael. Now let some modern Deborah sing, “Blessed above maidens shall Kate Bender be!”
War.
I refuse to accept the Bible as a moral guide because it sanctions wars of conquest and extermination.
“Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight” (Ps. cxliv, 1).
The Old Testament is largely a record of wars and massacres. God is represented as “a man of war.” At his command whole nations are exterminated.
“Ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, ... and ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein” (Num. xxxiii, 52, 53).
“And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them” (Deut. vii, 16).
“Of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: but thou shalt utterly destroy them” (Deut. xx, 16, 17).
“And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.... And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles with fire” (Num. xxxi, 7–10).