12. Where did Cain find carpenters and masons to build his city, if his father and mother constituted the whole human race?
13. Did not Jehova know when he accepted Abel's offering and rejected Cain's, that he was sowing the seeds of discord that would lead to murder?
14. And did he not set a bad example by showing partiality, as there is no reason assigned for preferring Abel's offering?
15. Had not Cain just ground for believing that his offering of herbs would be accepted, inasmuch as Jehovah had ordered Adam to use herbs for food?
16. Must we conclude that Jehovah had a carnivorous appetite, which caused him to prefer animals to vegetables for sacrifices?
17. What sense was there in dooming Cain to be a vagabond among men, when there was but one man in the world, and that his father?
III. THE ARK OF THE COVENANT, ABSURDITIES OF.—1 SAM. CHAP. VI.
We find no case in any history of superstition reaching a more exalted climax than that illustrated in the history of the Jewish ark of the covenant. It appears that up to the time of Solomon the Jews had no temple for their God to dwell in, but for some time previous hauled him about in box, about four feet long by thirty inches deep, known as the "ark of the covenant". Let it not be supposed that we misrepresent in saying that Jehovah was supposed to dwell in this box; for it is explicitly stated that he dwelt between the cherubims, which constituted a part of the accoutrements of the ark. (See 1 Sam. iv.)
One of the most singular and ridiculous features connected with this story is, that Jehovah, in giving instructions for the construction of the ark, told the people they must offer, among other curious things, badger-skins, goat's hair, and red ram's skins (i.e., ram's skins dyed red). What use God Almighty could have had for the hides and hair of these dead animals is hard to conjecture. Could superstition descend lower than this? As minute a description is given of the whole affair by Jehovah and Moses as if there were some sense in it. The box was hauled about by two cows; and it was enjoined that those selected by the Philistines should be cows that had never been worked or harnessed, and that their calves should be shut up and left at home. This is descending to a "bill of particulars." The calves must have suffered, as their dams were driven far away and then slaughtered. What became of the calves is not stated; but we are told that the cows kept up a continual bellowing, or "lowing." Perhaps this was designed as a kind of base or tenor for the music which accompanied them; and this accounts for the calves being left at home. It is curious to observe that the cows were not yoked to the cart on which the ark was drawn, but tied to it,—probably by their tails. The Jews did not seem to possess sufficient mechanical skill or genius to invent an ox-yoke. Another singular part of this singular story is, that the Philistines constructed six golden mice to accompany the ark; and yet we are told that the Jews were not allowed to have images of any thing (Ex. xx. 4). The most serious consideration connected with this affair was the vast destruction of human life. In the first place the Philistines, in a battle with the Lord's people, slew thirty thousand of them, and captured this box, as we must presume, with the Lord in it. It seems strange that, when Jehovah had fought so many successful battles, he would allow himself to be captured. It was some time, too, before he was recovered from the Philistines. When this was effected, as the ark was being conveyed back under the superintendence of David, with a company of thirty thousand people, while passing over some rough ground, the cart jostled, and the ark came near being thrown off, with the Lord Jehovah in it, who would probably have been considerably bruised by the fall. But a very clever man by the name of Uzzah clapped his hand upon the cart to prevent this awful catastrophe; and, although probably actuated by the best and most pious motives, he was immediately killed for it. This part of the story has a bad moral. On another occasion, on the arrival of the ark at Bethshemesh, because one or two persons attempted to gratify a very natural curiosity by looking into the ark, Jehovah became so much enraged that he killed fifty thousand of the people of Bethshemesh. Here is another of the many cases in which thousands of innocent people were punished for the sin of one man or a few persons. How can any good grow out of the relation of such unjust, unprincipled, and superstitious doings recorded in a book designed for the moral instruction and salvation of the world? We are told that at every place to which this box was carried, while in the hands of the Philistines, it caused death and destruction, or some other serious calamity. At Ashdod it produced disease and destruction among the people to an alarming extent; and similar results followed while the ark was at Ekron. Assuming that there is any truth in the story, the thought is here suggested that the box might have been affected with some malarious disease. While at Jagon it caused the God of that place to fall down in the night from his resting-place; on the second night he lost both his hands. Who that is acquainted with Jewish history can not sec that this circumstance is related to show that the God of the Jews was superior to other Gods, as he excelled them in working miracles, in Egypt and other places? That it was a borrowed tradition is quite evident from the fact that the Hindoos and Egyptians had practiced similar rites and customs anterior to that period.
The Hindoo ark was carried on a pole by four priests; and, wherever it touched ground, it wrought miracles in the shape of deaths and births, or the outgushing of springs of water. The Egyptian ark was constructed of gold, which probably made the box more valuable than the God within. All such wooden or metal Gods were supposed to operate as talisman, or protection against evil. When will the believers in divine revelation and divine prodigies learn that all such superstitious customs and inventions were the work of men, and not of God?