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PUBLISHING CO
NY'S EDITION.
A lecture
DELIVERED TO IMMENSE AUDIENCES IN THE
METHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY,
63, FLEET STREET, E.O.
1883.
PRICE THREEPENCE.
�[“A brilliant, gonial gentleman; a man of brains, and a heart as tender as a
woman's; a man greatly respected and admired by all who know him, greatly
detested by many among those who do not, and who do not agree with him in
opinion; a man who does his own thinking, and who says what he thinks, and
thinks before he says, is about to address you in review of a great historical
character. He will do this from his own standpoint, and in his own way. Had
he lived one hundred years ago, and succeeded in doing this, he would, under the
forms of law, had been imprisoned — if, indeed, he were suffered to live —his
children taken from him, his property confiscated, his name traduced and his
memory vilified. Times have changed. The world of thought and opinion moves
as well as the world of matter. He may speak to you here to-day, freely and
without reserve. He may give his honest thought. You have come to hear him
and not me. Let me introduce him—Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll.” ]
�MISTAKES OF MOSES.
Ladies and Gentlemen : Now and then some one
asks me why I am endeavoring to interfere with the
religious faith of others, and why I try to take from
the world the consolation naturally arising from a
belief in eternal fire. And I answer, I want to do
what little I can to make my country truly free. I
want to broaden the intellectual horizon of our people.
I want it so that we can differ upon all these questions,
and yet grasp each other’s hands in genuine friend
ship. I want, in the first place, to free the clergy. I
am a great friend of theirs, but they don’t seem to
have found it out generally. I want it so that every
minister will not be a parrot, not an owl sitting upon
a ‘dead limb of the tree of knowledge, and hooting the
hoots that have been hooted for 1800 years. But I
want it so that each one can be an investigator, a
thinker; and I want to make his congregation grand
enough so that they will not only allow him to think,
but will demand that he shall think, and give to them
the honest truth of his thought. As it is now, ministers
are employed like attorneys—for the plaintiff or the
defendant. If a few people know of a young man in
the neighborhood, maybe, who has not had a good con
stitution—he may not be healthy enough to be wicked
—a young man who has shown no decided talent—
it occurs to them to make him a minister. They con
tribute and send him to some school. If it turns out
that that young man has more of the man in him
than they thought, and he changes his opinion, every
one who contributed will feel himself individually
swindled, and they will follow that young man to the
grave with the poisoned shafts of malice and slander.
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Mistakes of Moses.
I want it so that every one will be free—so that a
pulpit will not be a pillory. They have in Massachussetts, at a place called Andover, a kind of minister fac
tory, and every professor in that factory takes an oath
once in five years—that is as long as an oath will last
—that not only has he not during the last five years,
but so help him God, he will not during the next five
years, intellectually advance, and probably there is no
oath he could easier keep. Since the foundation of
that institution there has not been one case of perjury.
They believe the same creed they first taught when the
foundation stone was laid, and now when they send
out a minister they brand him, as hardware from Shef
field and Birmingham. And every man who knows
where he was educated knows his creed, knows every
argument of his creed, every book that he reads, and
just what he amounts to intellectually, and knows he
will shrink and shrivel, and become solemnly stupid,
day after day, until he meets with death. It is all
wrong; it is cruel. Those men should be allowed to
grow. They should have the air of liberty and the
sunshine of thought.
I want to free the schools of our country. I want it
so that when a professor in a college finds some fact
inconsistent with Moses, he will not hide the fact, that
it will not be the worse for him for having discovered
the fact. I wish to see an eternal divorce and separa
tion between church and schools. The common school
is the bread of life; but there should be nothing taught
in the schools except what somebody knows ; and any
thing else should not be maintained by a system of
general taxation. I want its professors so that they
will tell everything they find; that they will be free
to investigate in every direction, and will not be tram
melled by the superstitions of our day. What has
religion to do with facts ? Nothing. Is there any
such thing as Methodist mathematics, Presbyterian
botany, Catholic astronomy, or Baptist biology ? What
has any form of superstition or religion to do with a
fact or with any science? Nothing but to hinder,
delay, or embarrass. I want, then, to free the schools;
and I want to free the politicians, so that a man will
�Mistakes 0/ Moses.
5
not have to pretend that he is a Methodist, or his wife
a Baptist, or his grandmother a Catholic; so that he
can go through a campaign, and when he gets through
will find none of the dust of hypocrisy on his knees.
I want the people splendid enough that when they
desire men to make laws for them, they will take
one who knows something, who has brain enough to
prophesy the destiny of the American Republic, no
matter what his opinions may be upon any religious
subject. Suppose we are in a storm out at sea, and
the billows are washing over our ship, and it is
necessary that some one should reef the topsail, and
a man presents himself. Would you stop him at the
foot of the mast to find out his opinion on the five
points of Calvinism ? What has that to do with it ?
Congress has nothing to do with baptism or any par
ticular creed, and from what little experience I have
had of Washington, very little to do with any kind
of religion whatever. Now, I hope this afternoon
this magnificent and splendid audience will forget
that they are Baptists or Methodists, and remember
that they are men and women. These are the highest
titles humanity can bear—man and woman ; and every
title you add belittles them. Man is the highest ;
woman is the highest. Let us remember that we are
simply human beings, with interests in common. And
let us all remember that our views depend largely
upon the country in which we happen to live. Sup
pose we were born in Turkey, most of us would have
been Mohammedans ; and when we read in the book
that when Mohammed visited heaven he became ac
quainted with an angel named Gabriel, who was so
broad between his eyes that it would take a smart
camel three hundred days to make the journey, we
probably would have believed it. If we did not,
people would say: “ That young man is dangerous ;
he is trying to tear down the fabric of our religion.
What do you propose to give us instead of that angel ?
We cannot afford to trade off an angel of that size
for nothing.” Or if we had been born in India, we
would have believed in a god with three heads. Now,
we believe in three gods with one head. And so we
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Mistakes oj Moses.
might make a tour of the world and see that every
superstition that could be imagined by the brain of
man has been in some place held to be sacred.
Now, some one says: “The religion of my father
and mother is good enough for me.” Suppose we all
said that, where would be the progress of the world ?
We would have the rudest and most barbaric religion,
which no one could believe. I do not believe that
it is showing real respect to our parents to believe
something simply because they did. Every good
father and every good mother wish their children to
find out more than they knew ; every good father
wants his son to overcome some obstacle that he could
not grapple with ; and if you wish to reflect credit
on your father and mother, do it by accomplishing
more than they did, because you live in a better time.
Every nation has had what you call a sacred record,
and the older the more sacred, the more contradictory
and the more inspired is the record. We, of course,
are not an exception, and I propose to talk a little
about what is called the Pentateuch, a book, or a
collection of books, said to have been written by Moses.
And right here in the commencement let me say that
Moses never wrote one word of the Pentateuch—not
one word was written until he had been dust and
ashes for hundreds of years. But as the general
opinion is that Moses wrote these books, I have entitled
this lecture “ The Mistakes of Moses.” For the sake
of this lecture, we will admit that he wrote it. Nearly
every maker of religion has commenced by making
the world ; and it is one of the safest things to do,
because no one can contradict as having been present,
and it gives free scope to the imagination. These
books, in times when there was a vast difference be
tween the educated and the ignorant, became inspired,
and people bowed down and worshipped them.
I saw a little while ago a Bible with immense oaken
covers, with hasps and clasps large enough almost for
a penitentiary, and I can imagine how that book would
be regarded by barbarians in Europe when not more
than one person in a dozen could read and write. In
imagination I saw it carried into the cathedral, heard
�Mistakes of Moses.
7
the chant of the priest, saw the swinging of the censer
and the smoke rising; and when the Bible was put
on the altar I can imagine the barbarians looking at
it and wondering what influence that black book could
have on their lives and future. I do not wonder that
they imagined it was inspired. None of them could
write a book, and consequently when they saw it
they adored it ; they were stricken with awe ; and
rascals took advantage of that awe.
Now they say that the book is inspired. I do not
care whether it is or not; the question is, is it true ?
If it is true it does not need to be inspired. Nothing
needs inspiration except a falsehood or a mistake. A
fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth
scorns the assistance of wonders. A fact will fit every
other fact in the universe, and that is how you can tell
whether it is or is not a fact. A lie will not fit any
thing except another lie made for the express purpose ;
and, finally, someone gets tired of lying, and the last
lie will not fit the next fact, and then there is a chance
for inspiration. Right then and there a miracle is
needed. The real question is : In the light of science,
in the light of the brain and heart of the nineteenth
century, is this book true ? The gentleman who wrote
it begins by telling us that God made the universe out
of nothing. That I cannot conceive ; it may be so, but
I cannot conceive it. Nothing, in the light of raw
material, is, to my mind, a decided and disastrous
failure. I cannot imagine of nothing being made into
something, any more than I can of something being
changed back into nothing. I cannot conceive of force
aside from matter, because force, to be force, must be
active, and unless there is matter there is nothing for
force to act upon, and consequently it cannot be active.
So I simply say I cannot comprehend it. I cannot
believe it. I may roast for this, but it is my honest
opinion. The next thing he proceeds to tell us is that
God divided the darkness from the light; and right
here let me say when I speak about God I simply mean
the being described by the Jews. There may be in
immensity some being beneath whose wing the uni
verse exists, whose every thought is a glittering star,
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Mistakes of Moses.
but I know nothing about him—not the slightest—and
this afternoon I am simply talking about the being
described by the Jewish people. When I say God, I
mean him. Moses describes God dividing the light
from the darkness. I suppose that at that time they
must have been mixed. You can readily see how light
and darkness can get mixed. They must have been
entities. The reason I think so is because in that same
book I find that darkness overspread Egypt so thick
that it could be felt, and they used to have on exhihition in Rome a bottle of -the darkness that once over
spread Egypt. The gentleman who wrote this in
imagination saw God dividing light from the darkness.
I am sure the man who wrote it believed darkness to
be an entity, a something, a tangible thing that can be
mixed with light.
The next thing that he informs us is that God divided
the waters above the firmament from those below the
firmament. The man who wrote that believed the
firmament to be a solid affair. And that is what the
Gods did. You recollect the Gods came down and made
love to the daughters of men—and I never blamed
them for it. I have never read a description of any
heaven I would not leave on the same errand. That is
where the Gods lived. That is where they kept the
water. It was solid. That is the reason the people
prayed for rain. They believed that an angel could
take a lever, raise a window, and let out the desired
quantity. I find in the Psalms that “ he bowed the
heavens and came down ; ” and we read that the chil
dren of men built a tower to reach the heavens and
climb into the abode of the Gods. The man who wrote
that believed the firmament to be solid. He knew
nothing of the laws of evaporation. He did not know
that the sun wooed with amorous kiss the waves of
the sea, and that, disappointed, their vaporous sighs
changed to tears and fell again as rain. The next
thing he tells us is that the grass began to grow, and
the branches of the trees laughed into blossom, and
the grass ran up the shoulder of the hills, and yet not
a solitary ray of light had left the eternal quiver of the
sun. Not a blade of grass had ever been touched by a
�Mistakes of Moses.
9
gleam of light. And I do not think that grass will
grow to hurt without a gleam of sunshine. I think
the man who wrote that simply made a mistake, and
is excusable to a certain degree. The next day he
made the sun and moon—the sun to rule the day, and
the moon to rule the night. Do you think the man
who wrote that knew anything about the size of the
sun ? I think he thought it was about three feet in
diameter, because I find in some book that the sun
was stopped a whole day to give a general named
Joshua time to kill a few more Amalekites; and the
moon was stopped also. Now, it seems to me the sun
would give light enough without stopping the moon ;
but as they were in the stopping business they did it
just for devilment. At another time, we read, the sun
was turned ten degrees backward to convince Heze
kiah that he was not going to die of a boil. How
much easier it would have been to cure the boil! The
man who wrote that thought the sun was two or three
feet in diameter, and could be stopped and pulled
around like the sun and moon in a theatre. Do you
know that the sun throws out every second of time as
much heat as could be generated by burning eleven
thousand millions tons of coal ? I don’t believe he
knew that, or that he knew the motion of the earth.
I don’t believe he knew that it was turning on its axis
at the rate of a thousand miles an hour, because, if he'
did, he would have understood the immensity of heat
that would have been generated by stopping the world.
It has been calculated by one of the best mathemati
cians and astronomers that to stop the world would
cause as much heat as it would take to burn a lump of
solid coal three times as big as the globe. And yet we
find in that book that the sun was not only stopped,
but turned back ten degrees, simply to convince a gen
tleman that he was not going to die of a boil! They
may say I will be damned if I do not believe that, and
I tell them I will if I do.
Then he gives us the history of astronomy, and he
gives it to us in five words. “ He made the stars also.”
He came very near forgetting the stars. Do you be
lieve that the man who wrote that knew that there are
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Mistakes of Moses.
stars as much larger than this earth as this earth is
larger than the apple which Adam and Eve are said to
have eaten ? Do you believe that he knew that this
world is but a speck in the shining, glittering universe
of existence ? I would gather from that that he made
the stars after he got the world done. The telescope,
in reading the infinite leaves of the heavens, has ascer
tained that light travels at the rate of 192,000 miles per
second, and it would require millions of years to come
from some of the stars to this earth. Yet* the beams of
those stars mingle in our atmosphere, so that if those
distant orbs were fashioned when this world began,
we must have been whirling in space not six thousand,
but many millions of years. Do you believe the man
who wrote that as a history of astronomy really knew
that this world was but a speck compared with mil
lions of sparkling orbs ? I do not. He then proceeds
to tell us that God made fish and cattle, and that man
and woman were created male and female. The first
account stops at the second verse of the second chapter.
You see the Bible originally was not divided into
chapters; the first Bible that was ever divided into
chapters in our language was made in the year of grace
1550. The Bible was originally written in the Hebrew
language, and the Hebrew language at that time had
no vowels in writing. It was written entirely with
consonants, and without being divided into chapters
or into verses, and there was no system of punctuation
whatever. After you go home to-night write an
English sentence or two with only consonants close
together, and you will find that it will take twice as
much inspiration to read it as it did to write it. When
the Bible was divided into verses and chapters, the
divisions were not always correct, and so the division
between the first and second chapter of Genesis is not
in the right place. The second account of the creation
commences at the third verse, and it differs from the
first in two essential points. In the first account man
is the last made; in the second, man is made before
the beasts. In the first account man is made “ male
and female ; ” in the second only a man is made, and
there is no intention of making a woman whatever.
�Mistakes of Moses.
11
You will find by reading that second chapter that
■God tried to palm off on Adam a beast as his helpmeet.
Everybody talks about the Bible, and nobody reads it:
that is the reason it is so generally believed. I am
probably the only man in the United States who has
read the Bible through this year. I have wasted that
time, but I had a purpose in view. Just read it, and
you will find, about the twenty-third verse, that God
caused all the animals to walk before Adam in order
that he might name them. And the animals came
like a menagerie into town, and as Adam looked at
all the crawlers, jumpers, and creepers, this God stood
by to see what he would call them. After this proces
sion passed, it was pathetically remarked : “ Yet was
there not found any helpmeet for Adam.” Adam
didn’t see anything that he could fancy. And I am
glad he didn’t. If he had, there would not have been
a Freethinker in this world; we should have all died
orthodox. And finding Adam was so particular, God
had to make him a helpmeet; and, having used up the
nothing, he was compelled to take part of the man to
make the woman with, and he took from the man a
rib. How did he get it ? And then imagine a God
with a bone in his hand, and about to start a woman,
trying to make up his mind whether to make a blonde
or a brunette. Right here it is only proper that 1
should warn you of the consequences of laughing at
any story in the Holy Bible. When you come to die,
your laughing at this story will be a thorn in your
pillow. As you look back upon the record of your
life, no matter how many men you have wrecked and
ruined, and no matter how many women you have de
ceived and deserted—all that may be forgiven you;
but if you recollect that you have laughed at God’s
book you will see, through the shadows of death, the
leering looks of fiends and the forked tongues of
devils. Let me show you how it will be. For in
stance, it is the day of judgment. When the man is
•called up by the recording secretary, or whoever does
the cross-examining, he says to his soul: “ Where are
you from ? ” “ I am from the world.” “ Yes, sir.
What kind of a man were you ? ” “ Well, I don’t like
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Mistakes of Moses.
to talk about myself.” “ But you have to. What kind
of a man were you?” “Well, I was a good fellow; I
loved my wife, I loved my children. My home was
my heaven ; my fireside was my paradise, and to sit
there and see the lights and shadows falling on the
faces of those I love, that to me was a perpetual joy.
I never gave one of them a solitary moment of pain.
I don’t owe a dollar in the world, and I left enough
to pay my funeral expenses, and keep the wolf of
want from the door of the house I loved. That is
the kind of man I am.” “Did you belong to any
church ? ” “I did not. They were too narrow for me.
They were always expecting to be happy simply be
cause somebody else was to be damned.” “Well, did
you believe that rib story ? ” “ What rib story ? Do
you mean that Adam and Eve business ? No, I did not.
To tell you the God’s truth, that was a little more than
I could swallow ” “ To hell with him ! Next. Where
are you from?” “I’m from the world, too.” “ Do1
you belong to any church?” “Yes, sir, and to the
Young Men’s Christian Association.” “ What is your
business ? ” “ Cashier in a bank.” “ Did you ever run
off with any of the money ? ” “ I don’t like to tell, sir.”
“Well, but you have to.” “Yes, sir, I did.” “What
kind of a bank did you have ? ” “ A savings’ bank.”
“ How much did you run off with ?” “ One hundred
thousand dollars.” “ Did you take anything else along
with you?” “Yes, sir.” “What?” “I took my
neighbor’s wife.” “ Did you have a wife and children
of your own?” “Yes, sir.” “And you deserted
them ? ” “ Oh, yes ; but such was my confidence in
God that I believed he would take care of them.”
“ Have you heard of them since?” “No, sir.” “Did
you believe that rib story ? ” “ Ah, bless your soul,,
yes! I believed all of it, sir; I often used to be sorry
that there were not harder stories yet in the Bible, so
that I could show what my faith could do.” “ You
believed it, did you?” “Yes, with all my heart.”
“ Give him a harp.”
I simply wanted to show you how important it is to
believe these stories. Of all the authors in the world
God hates a critic the worst. Having got this woman
�Mistakes of Moses.
13
done he brought her to the man, and they started
housekeeping, and a few minutes afterwards a snake
came through a crack in the fence and commenced to
talk with her on the subject of fruit. She was not
acquainted with the neighborhood, and she did not know
whether snakes talked or not, or whether they knew
anything about the apples or not. Well, she was
misled, and the husband ate some of those apples and
laid it all on his wife; and there is where the mistake
was made. God ought to have rubbed him out at once.
He might have known that no good could come of
starting the world with a man like that. They were
turned out. Then the trouble commenced, and people
got worse and worse. God, you must recollect, was
holding the reins of government, but he did nothing for
them. He allowed them to live 669 years without
knowing their A. B. C. He never started a school, not
even a Sunday school. He didn’t even keep his own
boys at home. And the world got worse every day,
and finally he concluded to drown them. Yet that
same God has the impudence to tell me how to raise
my own children. What would you think of a neigh
bor who had just killed his babes, giving you his views
on domestic economy ? God found that he could do
nothing with them, and he said : “ I will drown them
all except a few.” And he picked out a fellow by the
name of Noah, that had been a bachelor for 500 years.
If I had to drown anybody, I would have drowned
him. I believe that Noah had then been married
something like 100 years. God told him to build a
boat, and he built one 500 feet long, 80 or 90 feet
broad, and 55 feet high, with one door shutting on the
outside, and one window 22 inches square. If Noah
had any hobby in the world it was ventilation. Then
into this ark he put a certain number of all the animals
in the world. Naturalists have ascertained that at
this time there were at least 100,000 insects necessary
to go into the ark, about 40,000 mammalia, 1,600 reptilla, to say nothing about the mastodon, the elephant
and the animalculae, of which thousands live upon a
single leaf, and which cannot be seen by the naked
eye. Noah had no microscope, and yet he had to pick
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Mistakes of Moses.
them out by pairs. You have no idea the trouble that
man had. Some say that the flood was not universal,
that it was partial. Why, then, did God say: “ I will
destroy every living thing beneath the heavens ?” If
it was partial, why did Noah save the birds ? An ordi
nary bird, tending strictly to business, can beat a
partial flood. Why did he put the birds in there—the
eagles, the vultures, the condors—if it was only a
partial flood ? And how did he get them in there ?
Were they inspired to go there, or did he drive them
up ? Did the polar bear leave his home of ice and
start for the tropics inquiring for Noah ; or could the
kangaroo come from Australia unless he was inspired,
or somebody was behind him ? Then there are animals
on this hemisphere, not on that. How did he get them
across ? And there are some animals which would be
very unpleasant in an ark unless the ventilation was
very perfect.
When he got the animals in the ark, God shut the
door and Noah pulled down the window. And then
it began to rain, and it kept on raining until the water
went 29 feet over the highest mountain. Chimborazo,
then as now, lifted its head above the clouds, and then
as now, there sat the condor. And yet the water rose
and rose over every mountain in the world—29 feet
above the highest peaks, covered with snow and ice.
How deep were these waters ? About 5-g- miles. How
long did it rain ? Forty days. How much did it have
to rain a day ? About 800 feet. How is that for
dampness ? No wonder they said the windows of the
heavens were open. If I had been there I would have
said the whole side of the house was out. How long
were they in this ark ? A year and ten days, floating
around with no rudder, no sail, nobody on the outside
at all. The window was shut, and there was no door,
except the one that shut on the outside. Who ran this
ark—who took care of it ? Finally it came down on
Mount Ararat, a peak 17,000 feet above the level of the
sea, with about 3,000 feet of snow, and it stopped there
simply to give the animals from the tropics a chance.
Then Noah opened the window and got a breath of
fresh air, and he let out all the animals ; and then
�Mistakes of Moses.
15
Noah took a drink, and God made a bargain with him
that he would not drown us any more, and he put a
rainbow in the clouds and said : “ When 1 see that I
will recollect that I have promised not to drown you.”
Because if it was not for that, he is apt to drown us at
any moment. Now, can anybody believe that that is
the origin of the rainbow ? Are you not all familiar
with the natural causes which bring those beautiful
arches before our eyes ? Then the people started out
again, and they were as bad as before. Here let me
ask why God did not make Noah in the first place ?
He knew he would have to drown Adam and Eve and
all his family. Then another thing, why did he want
to drown the animals ? What had they done ? What
crime had they committed ? It is very hard to answer
these questions—that is, for a man who has only been
born once. After a while they tried to build a tower
to get into heaven, and the Gods heard about it and
said : “ Let’s go down and see what man is up to.”
They came and found things a great deal worse than
they thought, and thereupon they confounded the
language to prevent them succeeding, so that the fellow
up above could not shout down “mortar ” or “ brick ”
to the one below, and they had to give it up. Is il
possible that anyone believes that that is the reason
why we have the variety of languages in the world ?
Do you know that language is born of human expe
rience, and is a physical science ? Do you know that
every word has been suggested in some way by the
feelings or observations of man—that there are words
as tender as the dawn, as serene as the stars, and others
as wild as the beasts ? Do you know that language is
dying and being born continually—that every language
has its cemetery and cradle, its bud and blossom, and
withered leaf ? Man has loved, enjoyed, and suffered,
and language is simply the expression he gives those
experiences.
Then the world began to divide, and the Jewish
nation was started. Now, I want to say that at one
time your ancestors, like mine, were barbarians. If
the Jewish people had to write these books now they
would be civilised books, and I do not hold them
�16
Mistakes of Moses,.
responsible for what their ancestors did. We find the
Jewish people first in Canaan, and there were seventy
of them, counting Joseph and his children, already
in Egypt. They lived 215 years, and they then went
down to Egypt and stayed there 215 years. They
were 430 years in Canaan and Egypt. How many
did they have when they went to Egypt ? Seventy.
How many were they at the end of 215 years ? Three
millions. That is a good many. We had at the time
of the Revolution in this country 3,000,000 of people.
Since that time there have been four doubles, until
we have 48,000,000 to-day. How many would the
Jews number at the same ratio in 215 years ? Call
it eight doubles, and we have 40,000. But instead
of 40,000 they had 3,000,000. How do I know they
had 3,000,000 ? Because they had 600,000 men of war.
For every honest voter in the State of Illinois there
will be five other people, and there are always more
voters than men of war. They must have had, at
the lowest possible estimate, 3,000,000 of people. Is
that true ? Is there a minister in the city of Chicago
that will certify to his own idiocy by claiming that
they could have increased to 3,000,000 by that time ?
If there is, let him say so. Do not let him talk about
the civilizing influence of a lie.
When they got into the desert they took a census
to see how many first-born children there were. They
found they had 22,273 first-born males. It is reason
able to suppose there was about the same number
•of first-born girls, or 45,000 first-born children. There
must have been about as many mothers as first-born
children. Dividing 3,000,000 by 45,000 mothers, and
you will find that the women in Israel had to have
on the average sixty-eight children apiece. Some
stories are too thin. This is too thick. Now, we
know that among 3,000,000 people there will be about
300 births a-day ; and according to the Old Testament
whenever a child was born the mother had to make
a sacrifice—a sin offering for the crime of having been
a mother. If there is in this universe anything that
is infinitely pure, it is a mother with her child in
her arms. Every woman had to have a sacrifice of
�Mistakes of Moses.
17
a couple of doves, a couple of pigeons, and the priests
had to eat those pigeons in the most holy place. At
that time there were at least 300 births a day, and the
priests had to cook and eat those pigeons in the most
holy place ; and at that time there were only three
priests. Two hundred birds apiece per day ! I look
upon them as the champion bird-eaters of the world.
Then where were these Jews ? They were upon
the desert of Sinai; and Sahara compared to that is
a garden. Imagine an ocean of lava, torn by storm
and vexed by tempest, suddenly gazed at by a Gorgon,
and changed to stone. Such was the desert of Sinai.
The whole supplies of the world could not maintain
3,000,000 of people on the desert of Sinai for forty
years. It would cost one hundred thousand millions
of dollars, and would bankrupt Christendom. And
yet there they were with flocks and herds—so many
that they sacrificed over 150,000 first-born lambs at
one time. It would require millions of acres to sup
port those flocks, and yet there was no blade of grass,
and there is no account of it raining bailed hay. They
sacrificed 150,000 lambs, and the blood had all to be
sprinkled on the altar within two hours, and there
were only three priests. They would have to sprinkle
the blood of 1,250 lambs per minute. Then all the
people gathered in front of the tabernacle eighteen
feet deep. Three millions of people would make a
column six miles long. Some reverend gentlemen
say they were ninety feet deep. Well, that would
make a column of over a mile.
Where were these people going ? They were going
to the Holy Land. How large was it ? Twelve
thousand square miles—one-fifth the size of Illinois—
a frightful country, covered with rocks and desolation.
There never was a land agent in the city of Chicago
that would not have blushed with shame to have
described that land as flowing with milk and honey.
Do you believe that God Almighty ever went into
partnership with hornets ? Is it necessary unto salva
tion ? God said to the Jews : “ I will send hornets
before you to drive out the Canaanites.” How would
a hornet know a Canaanite ? Is it possible that God
�18
Mistakes of Moses.
inspired the hornets—that he granted letters of marque
and reprisals to hornets ? I am willing to admit that
nothing in the world would be better calculated to
make a man leave his native country than a few hor
nets attending strictly to business. God said : “ Kill
the Canaanites slowly.” Why ? “ Lest the beasts of
the field increase upon you.” How many Jews were
there ? Three millions. Going to a country, how
large ? Twelve thousand square miles. But were
there nations already in this Holy Land ? Yes, there
were seven nations “mightier than the Jews.” Say
there would' be 21,000,000 when they got there, or
24,000,000 with themselves. Yet they were told to kill
them slowly, lest the beasts of the field increased upon
them. Is there a man in Chicago that believes that ?
Then what does he teach it to little children for ? Let
him tell the truth.
So the same God went into partnership with snakes.
The children of Israel lived on manna—one account
says all the time, and another only a little while. That
is the reason there is a chance for commentaries, and
you can exercise faith. If the book was reasonable
everybody could go to heaven in a moment. But
whenever it looks as if it could not be that way, and
you believe, you are almost a saint, and when you
know it is not that way and believe, you are a
saint. He fed them on manna. Now manna is
very peculiar s'tuff. It would melt in the sun, and
yet they used to cook it by seething and baking. I
would as soon think of frying snow or boiling icicles.
But this manna had other peculiar qualities. It shrunk
to an omer, no matter how much they gathered, and
swelled up to an omer, no matter how little they
gathered. What a magnificent thing manna would be
for the currency, shrinking and swelling according to
the volume of business ! There was not a change in
the bill of fare for forty years, and they knew that
God could just as well give them three square meals
a day. They remembered about the cucumbers, and
the melons, and the leeks and the onions of Egypt, and
they said : “ Our souls abhorreth this light bread.”
Then this God got mad—you know cooks are always
�Mistakes of Moses.
19
touchy—and thereupon he sent snakes to bite the men,
women and children. He also sent them quails in
wrath and anger, and while they had the flesh between
their teeth, he struck thousands of them dead. He al
ways acted in that way, all of a sudden. People had no
chance to explain—no chance to move for a new trial—
nothing. I want to know if it is reasonable he should kill
people for asking for one change of diet in forty years.
Suppose you had been boarding with an old lady for
forty years, and she never had a solitary thing on her
table but hash, and one morning you said : “ My soul
abhorreth hash.” What would you say if she let a
basketful of rattlesnakes upon you ? Now is it possible
for people to believe this ? The Bible says that their
clothes did not wax old—they did not get shiny at the
knees or elbows—and their shoes did not wear out.
They grew right along with them. The little boy
starting out with his first pants grew up, and his pants
grew with him. Some commentators have insisted
that angels attended to their wardrobes. I never could
believe it. Just think of one angel hunting another
and saying : “ There goes another button.” I cannot
believe it.
There must be a mistake somewhere or somehow. Do
you believe the real God—if there is one—ever killed
a man for making hair oil ? And yet you find in
the Pentateuch that God gave Moses a recipe for
making hair oil to grease Aaron’s beard ; and said
if anybody made the same hair oil he should be killed.
And he gave him a formula for making ointment,
and he said if anybody made ointment like that he
should be killed. I think that is carrying patent laws
to excess. There must be some mistake about it. I
cannot imagine the infinite Creator of all the shining
worlds giving a recipe for hair oil. Do you believe
that the real God came down to Mount Sinai with
a lot of patterns for making a tabernacle—patterns
for tongs, for snuffers, and such things ? Do you
believe that God came down on that mountain and
told Moses how to cut a coat, and how it should be
trimmed ? What would an infinite God care on which
side he cut the breast, what color the fringe was, or
�20
Mistakes of Moses.
how the buttons were placed ? Do you believe God
told Moses to make curtains of fine linen ? Where
did they get their flax in the desert ? How did they
weave it ? Did he tell him to make things of gold,
silver, and precious stones when they hadn’t them?
Is it possible that God told them not to eat any fruit
until after the fourth year of planting the trees ? You
see all these things were written hundreds of years
afterwards, and the priests, in order to collect tithes,
dated the laws back. They did not say: “This is our
law,” but: “Thus said God to Moses in the wilderness.”’
Now, can you believe that ? Imagine a scene : The
eternal God tells Moses, “ Here is the way I want you
to consecrate my priests. Catch a sheep and cut his
throat.” I never could understand why God wanted
a sheep killed just because a man had done a mean
trick ; perhaps it was because his priests were fond
of mutton. He tells Moses further to take some of
the blood and put it on his right thumb, a little on
his right ear, and a little on his right big toe. Do
you believe God ever gave such instructions for the
consecration of his priests ? If you should see the
South Sea Islanders going through such a performance'
you could not keep your face straight. And will you
tell me that it had to be done in order to consecrate a
man to the service of the infinite God! Supposing the
blood got on the left toe !
Then we find in this book how God went to work
to make the Egyptians let the Israelites go. Supposewe wish to make a treaty with the Mikado of Japan,,
and Mr. Hayes sent a commissioner there ; and sup
pose he should employ Hermann, the wonderful Ger
man, to go along with him; and when they came in
the presence of the Mikado Hermann threw down an
umbrella, which changed into a turtle, and the com
missioner said : “ That is my certificate.” You would
say the country is disgraced. You would say the
president of a Republic like this disgraces himself'
with jugglery. Yet we are told God sent Moses and
Aaron before Pharaoh, and when they got there Moses
threw, down a stick, which turned into a snake. That
God is a juggler—he is the infinite prestidigitator..
�Mistakes of Moses.
21
Is that possible ? Was that really a snake, or was it
the appearance of a snake ? If it was the appearance
■of a snake, it was a fraud. Then the necromancers of
Egypt were sent for, and they threw down sticks,
which turned into snakes, but those were not so
large as Moses’ snake, which swallowed them. I
tain that it is just as hard to make small snakes
.as it is to make large ones ; the only difference is, that
.to make large snakes either larger sticks or more prac
tice is required.
Do you believe that God rained hail on the innocent
■cattle, killing them in the highways and in the field ?
Why should he inflict punishment on cattle for some
thing their owners had done ? I could never have any
respect for a God that would so inflict pain upon a
brute beast simply on account of the crime of its owner.
Is it possible that God worked miracles to convince
Pharaoh that slavery was wrong ? Why did he not
tell Pharaoh that any nation founded on slavery could
not stand ? Why did he not tell him: “ Your govern
ment is founded on slavery, and it will go down, and
the sands of the desert will hide from the view of man
your temples, your altars, and your fanes ? ” Why ,
did not he speak about the infamy of slavery ? Be
cause he believed in the infamy of slavery himself.
Oan we believe that God will allow a man to give his
wife the right of divorcement, and make the mother
•of his children a wanderer and a vagrant ? There is
not one word about women in the Old Testament ex
cept the word shame and humiliation. The God of the
Bible does not think woman is as good as man. She
was never worth mentioning. It did not take the pains
to recount the death of the mother of us all. I have no
respect for any book that does not treat woman as the
equal of man. And if there is any God in this uni
verse who thinks more of me than he thinks of my wife,
he is not well acquainted with both of us. And yet
they say that that was done on account of the hardness
of their hearts; and that was done in a community
where the law was so fierce that it stoned a man to
death for picking up sticks on Sunday. Would it not
have been better to stone to death every man who
�Mistakes of Moses.
abused his wife, and to allow them to pick up stickson account of the hardness of their hearts ? If God
wanted to take those Jews from Egypt to the land of
Canaan, why didn’t he do it instantly? If he wasgoing to do a miracle, why didn’t he do one worth
talking about ?
After God had killed all the first-born in Egypt, after
he had killed all the cattle, still Egypt could raise an
army that could put to flight 600,000 men. And be
cause this God overwhelmed the Egyptian army, he
bragged about it for a thousand years, repeatedly
calling the attention of the Jews to the fact that heoverthrew Pharaoh and his hosts. Did he help mucin
with their 600,000 men ? We find by the records of theday that the Egyptian standing army at that time was
never more than 100,000 men. Must we believe all
these stories in order to get to heaven when we die ?
Must you judge of a man’s character by the number of
stories he believes ? Are we to get to heaven by creed
or by deed ? That is the question. Shall we reason,,
or shall we simply believe? Ah, but they say the
Bible is not inspired about those little things. The
Bible says the rabbit and the hare chew the cud, but
they do not. They have a tremulous motion of the'
lip. But the being that made them says they chew
the cud. The Bible, therefore, is not inspired in na
tural history. Is it inspired in its astrology? No..
Well, what is it inspired in? In its law? Thousands
of people say that if it had not bee.n for the ten com
mandments we would not have known any better than
to rob and steal. Suppose a man planted an acre of
potatoes, hoed them all summer, and dug them in the
fall; and suppose a man had sat upon the fence all thetime and watched him, do you believe it would benecessary for that man to read the ten commandmentsto find out who, in his judgment, had a right to take
those potatoes ? All laws against larceny have been
made by industry to protect the fruits of its labor.
Why is there a law against murder ? Simply because
a large majority of people object to being murdered.
That is all. And all these laws were in force thou
sands of years before that time.
�Mistakes of Moses.
23
One of the commandments said they should not
make any graven images, and that was the death of art
in Palestine. No sculptor has ever enriched stone with
the divine forms of beauty in that country; and any
commandment that is the death of art is not a good
commandment. But they say the Bible is morally in
spired, and they tell me there is no civilisation without
this Bible. Then God knows that just as well as you
do. God always knew it, and if you can’t civilise a
nation without a Bible, why didn’t God give every
nation just one Bible to start with? Why did God
allow hundreds of thousands and billions of billions to
go down to hell just for the lack of a Bible ? They
say that it is morally inspired. Well, let us examine
it. I want to be fair about this thing, because I am
willing to stake my salvation or damnation on this
question, whether the Bible is true or not. I say it is
not; and upon that I am willing to wager my soul. Is
there a woman here who believes in the institution of
polygamy ? Is there a man here who believes in that
infamy? You say : “No, we do not.” Then you are
better than your God was 4,000 years ago. Four thou
sand years ago he believed in it, taught it, and upheld
it. I pronounce it and denounce it the infamy of in
famies. It robs our language of every sweet and
tender word in it. It takes the fireside away for ever.
It takes the meaning out of the words father, mother,
sister, brother, and turns the temple of love into a vile
den, where crawl the slimy snakes of lust and hatred.
I was in Utah a little while ago, and was on the moun
tain where God used to talk to Brigham Young. He
never said anything to me. I said it was just as rea
sonable that God in the nineteenth century would talk
to a polygamist in Utah as it was that 4,000 years ago,
on Mount Sinai, he talked to Moses upon that hellish
and damnable question.
I have no love for any God who believes in poly
gamy. There is no heaven on this earth save where
the one woman loves the one man, and the one man
loves the one woman. I guess it is not inspired on the
polygamy question. Maybe it is inspired about reli
gious liberty. God says that if anybody differs with
�24
Mistakes of Moses.
you about religion, “ kill him.” He told his peculiar
people: “ If anyone teaches a different religion, kill
him! ” He did not say : “ Try and convince him that
he is wrong,” but “ kill him.” He did not say : “ I
am in the miracle business, and I will convince him,”
but “ kill him.” He said to every husband : “ If your
wife, that you love as your own soul, says, 1 Let us go
and worship other gods,’ then ‘ Thy hand shall be first
upon her, and she shall be stoned with stones until
she dies.’ ” Well, now, I hate a God of that kind, and
I cannot think of being nearer heaven than to be away
from him. A God tells a man to kill his wife simply
because she differs with him on religion 1 If the real
God were to tell me to kill my wife, I would not do it.
If you had lived in Palestine at that time, and your
wife—the mother of your children—had woke up at
night and said : “ I am tired of Jehovah. He is always
turning up that board bill. He is always telling about
whipping the Egyptians. He is always killing some
body. I am tired of him. Let us worship the sun.
The sun has clothed the world in beauty; it has
covered the earth with green and flowers ; by its
divine light I first saw your face; its light has enabled
me to look into the eyes of my beautiful babe. Let us
worship the sun, father and mother of light and love
and joy.” Then what would it be your duty to do—
kill her ? Do you believe any real God ever did that ?
Your hand should be first upon her, and when you
took up some ragged rock and hurled it against the
white bosom filled with love for you, and saw running
away the red current of her sweet life, then you would
look up to heaven and receive the congratulations of
the infinite fiend whose commandments you had to
obey. I guess the Bible was not inspired about reli
gious liberty. Let me ask you right here. Suppose, as
a matter of fact, God gave those laws to the Jews, and
told them : “ Whenever a man preaches a different
religion, kill him,” and suppose that afterwards that
same God took upon himself flesh and came to the
world and taught and preached a different religion,
and the Jews crucified him, did he not reap exactly
what he sowed ?
�Mistakes of Moses.
25
Maybe this book is inspired about war. God told
the Israelites to overrun that country, and kill every
man, woman, and child for defending their native
land. Kill the old men? Yes. Kill the women?
Certainly. And the little dimpled babes in the cradle
that smile and coo in the face of murder—dash out
their brains ? That is the will of God. Will you tell
me that any God ever commanded such infamy ? Kill
the men and the women, and the young men and the
babes! “What shall we do with the maidens?”
“Give them to the rabble murderers!” Do you be
lieve that God ever allowed the roses of love and the
violets of modesty that shed their perfume in the heart
of a maiden to be trampled beneath the brutal feet of
lust ? If there is any God, I pray him to write in the
book of eternal remembrance, opposite to my name,
that I denied that lie. Whenever a woman reads a
Bible and comes to that passage she ought to throw the
book from her with contempt and scorn. Do you tell
me that any decent God would do that ? What would
the devil have done under the same circumstances ?
Just think of it; and yet that is the God that we wish
to get into the Constitution. That is the God we teach
our children about, so that they will be sweet and
tender, amiable and kind ! That monster—that fiend!
I guess the Bible is not inspired about religious liberty,
nor about war.
Then, if it is not inspired about these things, may
be it is inspired about slavery. God tells the Jews to
buy up the children of the heathen round about, and
they should be servants for them. What is a “ser
vant” ? If they struck a “servant” and he died imme
diately, punishment was to follow; but if the injured
man lingered a while there was no punishment,
because the servant represented their money! Do you
believe that it is right—that God made one man to
work for another and to receive pay in rations ? Do
you believe God said that a whip on the naked back
was the legal tender for labor performed ? Is it possi
ble that the real God ever gave such infamous blood
thirsty laws ? What more does he say ?
When the time of a married slave expired, he could
�26
Mistakes of Moses.
not take his wife and children with him. Then if the
slave did not wish to desert his family, he had his ears
pierced with an awl, and became his master’s property
for ever. Do you believe that God ever turned the
dimpled cheeks of little children into iron chains to
hold a man in slavery ? Do you know that a God like
that would not make a respectable devil! I want
none of his mercy. I want no part and no lot in the
heaven of such a God. I will go to perdition where
there is human sympathy. The only voice we have
ever had from either of those other worlds came from
hell. There was a rich man who prayed his brothers
to attend to Lazarus, so that they might “ not come to
this place.” That is the only instance, so far as we
know, of souls across the river having any sympathy..
And I would rather be in hell asking for water than
in heaven denying that petition. Well, what is this
book inspired about? Where does the inspiration
come from ? Why was it that so many animals were
killed ? It was simply to make atonement for man—
that is all. They killed something that had not com
mitted a crime, in order that the one who had com
mitted a crime might be acquitted. Based upon that
dea is the atonement of the Christian religion. That
is the reason I attack this book; because it is the basis
of another infamy—viz., that one man can be good for
another, or that one man can sin for another. I deny
it. You have got to be good for yourself; you have
got to sin for yourself. The trouble about the atone
ment is, that it saves the wrong man. For instance, I
kill some one. He is a good man. He loves his wife
and children, and tries to make them happy ; but he is
not a Christian, and he goes to hell. Just as soon as I
am convicted and cannot get a pardon, I get religion,,
and I go to heaven. The hand of mercy cannot reach
down through the shadows of hell to my victim.
There is no atonement for the saint—only for the
sinner and the criminal. The atonement saves the
wrong man. I have said that I would never make a
lecture at all without attacking this doctrine. I did
not care what I started out on. I was always going to
attack this doctrine. And in my conclusion I want to
�Mistakes of Moses.
27
draw you a few pictures of the Christian heaven. But
before I do that I want to say the rest I have to say
about Moses. I want you to understand that the Bible
was never printed until 1488. I want you to know
that up to that time it was in manuscript, in possession
of those who could change it if they wished ; and they
did change it, because no two ever agreed. Much of
it was in the waste basket of credulity, in the open
mouth of tradition, and in the dull ear of memory. I
want you also to know that the Jews themselves neveragreed as to what books were inspired, and that therewere a lot of books written that were not incorporated
in the Old Testament. I want you to know that twoor three years before Christ, the Hebrew manuscript
was translated into Greek, and that the original from,
which the translation was made has never been seen
since. Some Latin Bibles were found in Africa, but
no two agreed ; and then they translated the Septua. gint into the languages of Europe, and no two agreed..
Henry VIII. took a little time between murdering his
wives to see that the Word of God was translated cor
rectly. You must recollect that we are indebted tomurderers for our Bibles and our creeds. Constantine,
who helped on the good work in its early stage, mur
dered his wife and child, mingling their blood with
the blood of the Savior.
The Bible that Henry VIII. got up did not suit, and
then his daughter, the murderess of Mary Queen of
Scots, got up another edition, whichfalso did not suit
and, finally, that philosophical idiot, King James, pre
pared the edition which we now have. There are at
least 100,000 errors in the Old Testament, but every
body sees that it is not enough to invalidate its claim
to infallibility. But these errors are gradually being
fixed, and hereafter the prophet will be fed by Arabs
instead of “ ravens,” and Samson’s 300 foxes will be
300 “sheaves” already bound, which were fired and
thrown into the standing wheat. I want you all toknow that there was no contemporaneous literature at
the time the Bible was composed, and that the Jews
were infinitely ignorant in their day and generation—
that they were isolated by bigotry and wickedness
�.28
Mistakes of Moses.
from the rest of the world. I want you to know that
there are 1,400,000,000 of people in the world; and that
with all the talk and work of the societies, only
120,000,000 have got Bibles. I want you to understand
that not one person in 100 in this world ever read the
Bible, and no two ever understood it alike who did
read it, and that no person probably ever understood it
-aright. I want you to understand that where this Bible
has been man has hated his brother—there have been
dungeons, racks, thumbscrews and the sword. I want
you to know that the cross has been in partnership
with the sword, and that the religion of Jesus Christ
was established by murderers, tyrants, and hypocrites.
I want you to know that the church carried the black
flag. Then talk about the civilizing influence of this
religion.
Now, I want to give an idea or two in regard to the
Christian’s heaven. Of all the selfish things in this
world, it is one man wanting to get to heaven caring
nothing what becomes of the rest of mankind. “ If I *
can only get my little soul in.” I have always noticed
that the people who have the smallest souls make the
most fuss about getting them saved. Here is what we
are taught by the Church to-day. We are taught
by it that fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters
can all be happy in heaven, no matter who may be in
hell ; that the husband can be happy there with the
wife that would have died for him at any moment
of his life, in hell. But they say : “We don’t believe
in fire. What we believe in now is remorse.”
What will you have remorse for ? For the mean
things you have done when you are in hell ? Will
.you have any remorse for the mean things you have
done when you are in heaven ? Or will you be so good
then that you won’t care how you used to be ? Don’t
.you see what an infinitely mean belief that is ? I tell
you to-day that, no matter in what heaven you may be,
no matter in what star you are spending the summer,
if you meet another man you have wronged you will
drop a little behind in the tune. And no matter in
what part of hell you are, and you meet some one
whom you have succored, whose nakedness you have
�Mistakes of Moses.
29'
clothed, and whose famine you have fed, the fire will
cool up a little. According to this Christian doctrine,
when you are in heaven you won’t care how mean you
were once.
What must be the social condition of a gentleman in
heaven who will admit that he never would have been
there if he had not got scared ? What must be the
social position of an angel who will always admit that
if another had not pitied him he ought to have been
damned ? Is it a compliment to an infinite God to say
that every being he ever made deserved to be damned
the minute he got him done, and that he will damn
everybody he has not had a chance to make over ? Is
it possible that somebody else can be good for me, and'
that this doctrine of the atonement is the only anchor
for the human soul ?
For instance, here is a man seventy years of age,,
who has been a splendid fellow and lived according to'
the laws of nature. He has got about him splendid'
children, whom he has loved and cared for with all
his heart. But he did not happen to believe in this
Bible ; he did not believe in the Pentateuch. He did
not believe that because some children made fun of a
gentleman who was short of hair, God sent two bears
and tore the little darlings to pieces. He had a tender
heart, and he thought about the mothers who would
take the pieces, the bloody fragments of the children,
and press them to their bosoms in a frenzy of grief ;
he thought about their wails and lamentations, and
could not believe that God was such an infinite mon
ster. That was all he thought, but he went to hell..
Then, there is another man who made a hell on earth
for his wife, who had to be taken to the insane asylum,
and his children were driven from home and were
wanderers and vagrants in the world. But just be
tween the last sin and the last breath, this fellow got
religion, and he never did another thing except to take
his medicine. He never did a solitary human being a
favor, and he died and went to heaven. Don’t you
think he would be astonished to see the other man
in hell, and say to himself: “ Is it possible that
such a splendid character should bear such fruit,.
�30
Mistakes of Moses.
and that all my rascality at last has brought me next
to God ? ”
Or, let us put another case. You were once alone in
in the desert—no provisions, no water, no hope. Just
when your life was at its lowest ebb, a man appeared,
gave you water and food and brought you safely out.
How you would bless that man. Time rolls on. You
die and go to heaven; and one day you see through
the black night of hell, the friend who saved your life,
begging for a drop of water to cool his parched lips. He
cries to you : “ Remember what I did in the desert—
give me to drink.” How mean, how contemptible you
would feel to see his suffering and be unable to relieve
him. But that is the Christian heaven. We sit by the
fireside and see the flames and the sparks fly up the
•chimney —everybody happy, and the cold wind and
sleet are beating on the window, and out on the door
step is a mother with a child on her breast freezing.
How happy it makes a fireside, that beautiful con
trast. And we say “ God is good,” and there we sit, and
she sits and moans, not one night but for ever. Or we
are sitting at the table with our wives and children,
everybody eating, happy and delighted, and Famine
•comes and pushes out its shrivelled palms, and with
hungry eyes, implores us for a crust; how that
would increase the appetite ! And yet that is the
Christian heaven. Don’t you see that these infamous
doctrines petrify the human heart. And I would have
every one who hears me, swear that he will never con
tribute another dollar to build another church, in which
are taught such infamous lies. I want every one of you
to say that you never will, directly or indirectly, give a
dollar tetany man to preach that falsehood. It has done
harm enough. It has covered the world with blood.
It has filled the asylums with the insane. It has cast
a shadow in the heart, in the sunlight, of every good
and tender man and woman. I say, let us rid the
heavens of this monster, and write upon the dome :
“ Liberty, love, and law.”
No matter what may come to me or what may come to
you, let us do exactly what we believe to be right, and
let us give the exact thought in our brains. Rather
�Mistakes of Moses.
31
than have this Christianity true, I would rather all the
'Gods would destroy themselves this morning. I would
rather the whole universe would go to nothing, if such
a thing were possible, this instant. Rather than have
the glittering dome of pleasure reared on the eternal
abyss of pain, I would see the utter and eternal destruc
tion of this universe. I would rather see the shining
fabric of our universe crumble to unmeaning chaos
and take itself where oblivion broods and memory for
gets. I would rather the blind Samson of some im
prisoned force, released by thoughtless chance, should
so rack and strain this world that man in stress and
straint, in astonishment and fear, should suddenly fall
back to savagery and barbarity. I would rather that
this thrilled and thrilling globe, shorn of all life, should
in its cycles rub the wheel, the parent star, on which the
light should fall as fruitlessly as falls the gaze of love
on death, than t@ have this infamous doctrine of eter
nal punishment true ; rather than have this infamous
selfishness of a heaven for a few and a hell for the
many established as the word of God !
One world at a time is my doctrine. Let us make
someone happy here. Happiness is the interest that a
decent action draws, and the more decent actions you
do the larger your income will be. Let every man try
to make his wife happy, his children happy. Let every
man try to make every day a joy, and God cannot afford
to damn such a man. I cannot help God ; I cannot
injure God. I can help people. I can injure people.
Consequently humanity is the only real religion.
I cannot better close this lecture than by quoting
four lines from Robert Burns :
“ To make a happy fireside clime
To weans and wife,
That’s the true pathos and sublime
Of human life.”
��
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Mistakes of Moses : a lecture delivered to immense audiences in the United States
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Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 31 p. ; 18 cm.
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Freethought Publishing Company
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1883
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N375
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Bible
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Bible. O.T. Pentateuch
Moses
NSS
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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False divinities or, Moses, Christ & Mahomet
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A Foreign Theolologist
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 83, [1] ; p. 22 cm.
Series number: no.7
Notes: Annotations in ink. Donated by Mr Garley. Published anonymously by 'A Foreign Theologist'.
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F. Truelove
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1870
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G5082
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Atheism
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Atheism
Deism
Jesus Christ
Moses
Muhammad
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GOD’S COMMANDMENTS
ACCORDING TO MOSES, ACCORDING TO CUBIST,
AND
ACCORDING TO OUR PRESENT KNOWLEDGE.
A SKETCH
SUGGESTIVE OF
A NEW WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH
FOR THE LAITY OF THE 19th CENTURY.
ADDRESSED TO ALL WHO DEEM IT THEIR HIGHEST DUTY
AS WELL AS RIGHT TO
“THINK FOR THEMSELVES.”
“HAPPY IS THE MAN THAT FINDETH WISDOM, AND THE MAN THAT GETTETH UNDERSTANDING."
PROV. III. 13.
LONDON :
N. TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1867.
PRICE SIXPENCE.
�From an Essay entitled, ‘ Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion on the
Temporal Happiness of Mankind,’ under the nom de plume of Philip Beauchamp
(printed 1822, and reprinted by Saville and Edwards, Chandos Street, Covent
Garden, 1866), the following extract is made as bearing to some extent on the
present work.
The evils which flow from the belief, not founded on experience, of the inter
ference of an unseen agent infringing at pleasure the laws of nature, are thus
described:—
1 As this persuasion utterly disqualifies mankind for the task of filtering truth
from falsehood, so the multitude of fictitious tales for which it has obtained
credence and currency in the world, exceeds all computation. To him who
believes in the intervention of incomprehensible and unlimited Beings, no
story can appear incredible. The most astonishing narratives are exempted
from cross-examination, and readily digested under the title of miracles or
prodigies. Of these miracles every nation on the face of the earth has on
record and believes thousands. And as each nation disbelieves all except
its own, each, tho’ it believes a great many, yet disbelieves more. The
most enthusiastic believers in miracles, therefore, cannot deny that an
enormous excess of false ones have obtained credence amongst the larger
portion of mankind.’
AV e heartily concur in the following observations on this Essay borrowed
from the Westminster Review for April, 1866. ‘ If it is rightly attributed to a
distinguished historian, we think it greatly to be regretted that he has not
given us in a separate essay his ripest thoughts on the subject.’ . . . . ‘ If
Philip Beauchamp would write something on these subjects, not grudging
to lend the well-earned authority of a known name, and in a manner going di
rectly to his object, he would meet with a more fitting circle of readers than he
could have done five-and-forty years ago.’
We also extract the following passage from an Address of the Rev. Dr
Robert Lee, delivered at the opening of the Theological Class in the University
of Edinburgh (Published by Williams and Norgate) :—
‘ In these days no class of men can possibly have, or should have at any
time, any real weight and authority in guiding opinion, unless it occupy a
somewhat independent position. Prisons and fetters are for the lawless
and disobedient, for thieves and murderers, and all those abandoned classes
who exist and thrive by injuring their neighbours and disturbing society.
Christian teachers, we hope, do not deserve or need to be so guarded, confined,
and pinioned; they are not so set upon perverting the truth, corrupting re
ligion, seducing the people, as that they should be required by law to swear,
at the beginning of their professional life, that they hold not only the great
Articles of the Christian Faith, which are both very simple and very few,
but a positive and categorical opinion regarding many hundreds of proposi
tions which they have not had time to weigh and study ; much less that
they should be required to swear that they will so think on all those points
. which they are now required to profess ‘ during all the days of their life.’ ’
JulIN CHILES AND SON, PRINTERS.
�GOD’S COMMANDMENTS.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
The complaint against those, who have dared to think for themselves,
and to throw aside the authority of all or some of what are called the or
thodox Dogmas of Religion,—for instance, the plenary inspiration of the
Bible, original sin, the eternity of hell torments,—that they leave the
unhappy man, woman, or child, whom they may succeed in enticing from the
pleasant paths of Orthodoxy, without a guide for their future conduct in
life, is not altogether an unjust complaint. The effort of almost all
free thought, no doubt, has hitherto been more on the negative side,—the
pulling down of the old, rather than the constructing a new Faith, or
putting the New Faith into such simple terms as to be at once understood
by all classes.
Now this New Faith, no longer confined to a few isolated thinkers
but spreading quietly in every quarter, on the one hand denies that
God has only revealed himself to man at a particular time or up to a
particular date in his history, and has since left him without any
further revelation beyond what he can obtain by groping about for
the meanings of a number of old books, written in various dead lan
guages, of uncertain dates and authorship, and of which, whilst the origin
als are certainly lost, it is impossible to know whether the oldest extant
copies, or supposed copies, are accurate or are not interpolated or even
forgeries. On the other hand, this New Faith expressly declares that God
is and ever has been revealing himself to man in the works of his Creation,
and that He has never revealed himself in any other way. This Faith, it
will be seen, interferes not with our freest speculations, nor with our
highest aspirations. Thus on the question of a life hereafter, while some
may maintain that one ground of their hope is, that only by a future life
can the misery in this be compensated; others will be free to hold and
will hold, that, while permitted to look forward to a future existence as
being within the scope of the Divine will, still, God’s governance of this
world is perfect and docs not absolutely require to be supplemented by
the life hereafter, to make up for the imagined short-comings, impcrfec-
�•1
tions, and injustice, in the arrangements for our life on earth ; and, more
over, that our obedience to God’s Laws ought to be quite independent of,
and not consequent on, the expectation of a future existence.
Now although there are many learned treatises setting forth the
grounds for this Faith, there is no hand-book for the unlearned to refer
to; there is no standard book or ‘ Catechism ’ of which the free-thinking
father or mother may say, ‘ This little book contains what I believe to be
a true exposition of God’s laws, and out of this I desire my child to
be taught his duty, his religious principles.’ We here use the word ‘re
ligious ’ advisedly and as the proper term, although the multitude may
think that it can be used only by the believers in miracles, in a devil, and
in the monstrous doctrine of the eternity of punishment, and of the end
less woe of those whom it shall not please God arbitrarily to call to ever
lasting happiness.
The present pamphlet is put forth as a partial attempt to supply this
want and to put into plain language what many men, while allowing their
children to learn by rote ten Commandments (possibly compiled for the
Hebrews, long after the time of Moses), and likewise the curious denuncia
tion of themselves contained in the Church-Catechism, as ‘ children of
wrath!’ really do teach them in the practical lessons of every-day life. Its
object is also to bring home to many men the dishonesty of not declaring
more openly what they believe on religious subjects, and at the same time
to give them aid in expressing their convictions, where from want of time
or inclination they have never exactly formularized what they do believe,
though feeling great repugnance to the dogmas sought to be imposed
upon them by the clergyman, who gives priestly consolation to their wives
and daughters. We have none of us, probably, very far to look without
finding among our friends or acquaintances some in this state; men who
are not masters in their own household, who may command the affections,
but have not the least influence over the theological or spiritual lives of
the members of their own family. In many cases utter worldliness or
amiable weakness is pleaded as an excuse for that dishonesty to which we
have taken exception.
Take, for example, a husband and wife—the latter, perhaps, not very
well grounded in her orthodox views : ‘ It will never do to bring up our
children otherwise than according to Church principles. How can we
expect they will get on ? ’ The wife will say, ‘ don’t give these new no
tions to the girls; even for the boys it will be far safer not to be marked
as unsound Churchmen. Think of their being called Infidels, Theists,
Atheists, and all those other shocking names. Why not leave well alone ?
The world got on very well, before that horrible Bishop of Natal was
heard of.’ And then, perhaps, the thought of a rich old uncle will arise,
and the wife will add the conclusive argument,f If he were to get the idea
�into his head that we were not bringing up our children in the strictest
Church principles, you know he would disinherit us and leave all his pro
perty to charities ; pray be careful?
Again, the following is not altogether an isolated or imaginary picture,
the result of an appeal from one free-thinker to another to come forward
with his name, on a subscription, say, for the Essays and Reviews Fund, or
still later for the Colenso Testimonial. ‘ I will give you willingly my £20 ;
but pray keep my name a secret. I would not have my wife suspect me of
thinking as I do on any account. If she were to imagine that I do not
believe exactly as she does, that I have doubts about Bible inspiration,
whatever that may mean, that I do not feel quite steady in my adherence to
the doctrines laid down with such peculiar clearness and force in the Athanasian Creed, or to any other of the so-called fundamental dogmas, she
would be quite miserable. Pray never give her a hint of such a thing.
We have lived so peaceably together for years. It would be quite cruel
on my part to give her an idea of my holding different views from her
own, and what would be the use of it ? It would only unsettle her mind,—
if not her faith, in which she is so wrapped up and contented !’ Thus two
beings, with reasoning faculties, living together nominally as one, profess
ing to have no secrets from each other, are yet perfectly estranged on the
most important of subjects, have no real interchange of thoughts; and
the man, on his side, acts a lifelong lie on the plea at best of good and
amiable motives.
We will not here undertake to judge our friend. Doubtless it may
be said with truth that any attempt on his ’part to f convert1 his wife
would at their time of life be useless ; but this we will say, many a man
imagines the difficulty far greater than it is. How often, if a husband
were quietly to explain to his wife his opinions and the grounds for them,
would he meet with a ready listener; and even should he fail to convince,
he would still have placed himself in the right position towards the
woman he has chosen for his life companion. If his own views have only
gradually opened to a wider sphere of thought, still is he not to
be at liberty to speak his thoughts ? Is free speaking to be the peculiar
privilege of the orthodox ? Are the clergy for ever to have their
own way, and is a husband in his own house to be the only person not al
lowed to express an honest opinion ? Ought not every sensible wife, in
stead of being shocked, to be gratified by the confidence shown in her
better judgment ? Her true complaint should be, of that confidence having
been so long delayed.
One cause for men not discussing these subjects with their wives may
not unfrequently be, that they have not worked out for themselves their
own faith ; they have perhaps discarded the traditional theory of religion,
they may disbelieve in miracles, but have never completely argued out the
�6
why and the wherefore with themselves ; they may not feel the force of the
dogmatic assertions that every thing is true that is in the Bible, and that
all our knowledge must be cut and shaped so as to,suit and fit into the
narrow compass of that book; but they have never seized the true argu
ment in reply; they have no clear and definite notion as to God’s
governance of the world. Consequently they feel uneasy when reproach
fully asked, ‘And where is your substitute for God’s Bible ?’ And they
think it far pleasanter to smother up their difficulties and let their wives,
who have no doubt on any one subject, and scorn, in the plenitude
of their blind faith, to notice the few little intricate difficulties in the
dogmas of the Church (difficulties which by-the-way eighteen centuries of
learned controversy have not solved), take the lead and give true orthodox
religious principles to their children. And be assured these fortun
ate children will never be allowed to suppose that any but very wicked
people, who are sure to go to hell, can hold any other views on the Catho
lic Faith.
To some of our male friends who find themselves thus situated, the
perusal of these pages may suggest a little self-examination, and the act
ing out their lives, according to the straight-forward promptings of their
reason.
The f Commandments ’ which will be found at the end of this work are
drawn up as a suggestion for a Code by which the principles of duty
may be taught to our children, in preference to the Ten Commandments
of the Jewish law, or to any selection of precepts, in the words which
tradition gives us as uttered by Christ. Apart from questions of dogma,
many of these Commandments will be accepted by the ‘orthodox.’
They necessarily illustrate the unfitness of the New Testament as a school
book, by the direct contrast which becomes evident between many of its
precepts, in their literal if not in their actual sense, and the real teaching
which we all ought to give to our children for their conduct in life,
—in one word, to make them truly ‘ righteous.’ We need however
scarcely observe that the quotations from the sayings of Christ are not
given as an attempt to decry his teaching; nor, in framing Command
ments for children who have never been crammed with the (to them) con
fusing lessons of the Old and New Testaments, would the apparently an
tagonistic reference to the sayings or precepts attributed to Christ here
introduced be at all necessary. They are, as will be seen, introduced to
counteract what is often the effect of teaching children from a collection
of books unsuited to their capacities.
We may be told that some passages, such as ‘ take no thought for to
morrow,’ and others, are not properly rendered in the authorized version
of the Bible. Our answer is, perhaps not; but if so, you, the ‘ orthodox,’
should not be so opposed as you admittedly are to an amended version,
�and until it is amended, you cannot blame us for objecting to the use of
words in a book you acknowledge to be faulty. There are nevertheless
other passages, about which no doubt as to the correctness of the transla
tion exists, and which still do not give us the proper teaching we require.
Let us, however, emphatically repeat that nothing written below is in
tended to cast contempt on the sayings of Christ here referred to. Wo
cannot be sure of the sense in which his hearers were intended to under
stand him, even if we have his very words. The language in which his
discourses have been handed down to us is the figurative, and often beau
tifully poetic, language of the East; but it is not the language in which we
want to teach our own children—still less the little plough-boys and the
girls of our country villages—their plain lessons of moral duty. Go into
any Sunday-school throughout the land, and calmly listen to the blunder
ing attempts of the well-meaning volunteer teachers, and hear what a mess
they make, what utter confusion they introduce to the children’s minds, in
stumbling overpassages which, if they explain properly, they have frequent
ly to declare mean exactly the reverse of what the words say; while, to
keep up a consistency between these words and their teaching, they have
to repeat to the children at every breath ‘ the words are figurative, are
allegorical, are spiritual/ We ask, ought this to be? Without much
presumption we may express a hope, that what is here written may give
some of these teachers a clearer view of the way in which they should, in
the words of the Church Catechism, teach a child to ‘keep God’s holy
will and commandments and walk in the same all the days of his life.’
It will be said that the language of these Commandments is not wholly
suited for children. That may be true, although the greatest care has
been taken to make the language as simple as possible. These Com
mandments are sketched out to assist parents and others in teach
ing their children—not by merely cramming by heart, but by patient
explanation and training ; and at any rate, there is nothing contradictory
in the language used, as in the passages to which we have taken excep
tion.
According to the age and development of the child, so ought the
teaching to be. It would be difficult to say how early thought does not
guide some of an infant’s acts. The infant takes food at first without
knowing the result; but before long, because it remembers the pleasure
experienced on former occasions. The child must then have formed an
idea, must have begun to think; and from that moment his education
has commenced. How ever little the parents and nurses may notice the
fact, the child, before he can speak or understand a word that is spoken,
may learn something of God’s Commandments. Through the language
of frowns and caresses, he learns the duty of obedience,—blind obedi-
�8
cnee at first, necessitated by his ignorance. Before the child can speak,
much more read, he will, in any well-regulated house, have learned much.
Even when he does begin to speak and read, how few are the words he
can understand. The difficulty of teachers is and always must be, to
adapt their language to the capacity of a child, and it is almost impossi
ble to put Commandments into words that shall be absolutely suitable to
children of all ages, and also to grown-up persons.
Here let us say a few words on obedience of children. Many parents
fear to lose their authority, if they encourage their children to think for
themselves, too early as they would say. They inculcate blind obedience,
just as the parson tries to inculcate it upon all his parishioners, whom he
would like to keep as children, in the bondage of authority, all their
lives. Why should this be so ? Is it not that the parents, through
indolence and want of proper education, have never attained to a thorough
knowledge of the reasons and principles which ought to govern their own
and their children’s conduct ? They have no faith of their own, of which
they can give a rational account. They are, moreover, afraid of tell
ing their children that they, their parents, are and must be ignorant of
many things; and, they take, as they suppose, the proper course of
teaching—by dogmatically telling the child he must do what he is bid,
without a reason; when, by a little pains, the child would obey with his
understanding, instead of on mere authority.
Instead of repressing a young child’s eager searching for a reason,
we ought to be gently leading him on with a kindly ‘ think for yourself on
all occasions, and on all subjects.’ IIow few parents dare to do this !
On the contrary, both parents and priests do just the reverse, saying,
‘ Think as I think ’—adding, when religion is the subject—‘ under pain of
loss of your eternal happiness ; ’ and thus they crush out that early instinct
implanted in all of us; for the child will think for himself if only encour
aged, instead of being snubbed. We are almost inclined to say, that nearly
the only independent thoughts of many men have been those of their in
fancy.
We trust, in conclusion, that nothing in this pamphlet will be taken
as intentionally offensive to the clergy. We number among them many
as our truest friends, and gratefully acknowledge the zeal of the whole
body in good works ; nevertheless, we look forward to the time when,
set free from the trammels of dogmatic authority, and no longer feeling
bound to expend their energies in ‘ reconciling ’ old books and fables
with the facts of modern science, they will join still more heartily with the
laity in aiding the intellectual and moral development of the human race.
�9
THE COMMANDMENTS,
ACCORDING TO MOSES AND TO CHRIST.
If the question be asked how many Commandments has God given to
us, the almost invariable answer, in the stereotyped words of the catechism,
will be, ‘ Ten/
Few of those making such an answer will have ever troubled them
selves with a thought on the subject. Satisfied with what they learnt like
parrots, when children, ‘ on their mothers’ laps,’ they have taken for
granted that what is said in the Prayer Book is the correct, the only
possible answer to the question.
Now let us ask, Has God given us ten, and only ten, or as many as ten
Commandments ? Many in reply will refer to the Decalogue as conclu
sive ; but let us hope that this answer will not continue to satisfy us and
our children.
It is true that Moses is said to have received Ten ; but on the face of
the Pentateuch itself it is impossible to say exactly what the Ten were, for,
as we shall see below, there are at least two * differing versions even of
these Ten. And, moreover, the Pentateuch contains many more Com
mandments said to have been given by God himself to Moses. The
* Besides the versions of the Decalogue in the xx. chap, of Exodus and in the
v. chap, of Deuteronomy, we find in the xxxiv. chap, of Exodus a third version.
This version is declared to have been delivered, quite as authoritatively as the
other two, by God to Moses. Here we will merely notice that it gives Sab
batical Commandments which, if any such are binding on Christians, must be
equally so with the 4th in the xx. chap, of Exodus.
v. 18. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt
eat» unleavened bread.
v. 21. Six days thou slialt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest : in
earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
v. 22. And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the first-fruits of wheat
harvest and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
2 '
�10
question remains, ought a Christian to be satisfied with merely looking
for God's Commandments in the Old Testament ? Should he not give
a preference to what he may find in the New Testament as uttered by
Christ, the founder of his religion ?
Let us compare the Decalogues given in Exodus and Deuteronomy
with the Commandments given in the New Testament.
The Commandments recorded as The Commandments recorded in the
given to Moses—written by God
Gospels—as declared by Christ.
HIMSELF IN TWO TABLETS OF STONE.
From Exodus xx. 2—16.
From Mark xii. 28.
And one of the Scribes asked
him, which is the first Com
mandment of all ? (or, as
quoted in Matt. xxii. 36,
which is the great Command
ment in the Law ?) And Jesus
answered him, The first of all
the Commandments is:
1. I am the Lord thy God, which have 1. f Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our
brought thee out of the land of
God is one Lord, and thou shalt
Egypt, out of the house of bond
love the Lord thy God with all thy
age. Thou shalt have no other
heart and with all thy soul and
gods before me.
with all thy mind and with all thy
strength.' This is the first (and
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee
‘ great' in Matt.) Commandment.
any graven image, or any likeness
[This command is taken by
of any thing that is in heaven
Christ from Deut. vi. 5.
above, or that is in the earth be
Omitting all reference to the
neath, or that is in the water
land of Egypt, it is of uni
under the earth. Thou shalt not
versal application alike to
bow down thyself to them, nor
Jew and Gentile; while, to
serve them : for I the Lord thy
quote the words of the author
God am a jealous God, visiting
of the ‘ Sabbath,' ‘ it far more
*
the iniquity of the fathers upon
distinctly proclaims the unity
the children, unto the third and
of God, and it enjoins what
fourth generation of them that
the Commandment in the
hate me, and shewing mercy unto
Decalogue does not, — the
thousands of them that love me,
Christian duty of Love to
and keep my commandments.
God.']
3. Thou shalt not take the name of
the Lord thy God in vain : for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless
* See a reference to this work in the
that taketh his name in vain.
note to page 13.
�11
4. Remember the Sabbath-day, to
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labour, and do all thy work. But
the seventh day is the Sabbath of
the Lord thy God: in it thou
shalt not do any work, thou, nor
thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant,
nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger
that is within thy gates : For in six
days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them
is, and rested the seventh day :
wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
And the second is like it: name
ly, this—■
2. Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
[This command is taken by
Christ from Lev. xix. 18.]
There is none other greater than
these (Mark xii. 28—31).
On these two Commandments
hang all the law and the Prophets
(Matt. xxii. 36—40).
A new Commandment give I
unto you, that ye love one another
(Jno. xiii. 34).
In all the four Gospels not one
word can be found, as uttered by
Christ, in favour of keeping one
day holy above the others, or
against doing work on the Jewish
Sabbath, nor for change of the
Sabbath from the seventh to the
first day of the week, nor for hon
ouring him or God by the observ
ance of days. On the contrary,
Christ is reported as having on
some occasions worked or com
manded unnecessary work to be
done on the Sabbath day. Christ
*
evidently held different views from
* Plucking corn, Matt. xii. 1 ; Mark ii. 23; Luke vi. 1. Christ did not
deny that this was a breach of the Sabbath; but defended his disciples by quoting
David’s act as a precedent.
Healing on the Sabbath day a woman who had been ill for 18 years, and who
could well have waited one day longer. Luke xiii. 12, 13.
The impotent man takes up his bed, and thus deliberately, by Christ’s orders,
did unnecessary work (John v. 8). It could not even have been necessary for
him to do so to show that he was cured. The cure must have been evident
without his carrying a burden,—contrary to God’s injunction in Jeremiah xvii. 21.
1 Jesus spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the
eyes of the blind man with the clay’ (John ix. 6). Clearly, however trifling,
this was unnecessary work for one who is believed to have been God omnipotent.
Christ, again, joined a large feast on the Sabbath. Luke xiv. 1, 7—12.
�12
those of our modern English and
But in the version given in
Scotch Sabbatarian. Christ’s great
Deut. v. 14, the reason stated
apostle Paul also distinctly tells
for this Commandment is
his Christian converts that they
quite different.
need not observe days.
*
‘ That thy manservant and thy
It is possibly on this ground, that
maidservant may rest as well as
in the Catechism no reference is
thou. And remember that thou
made, either in the summary of our
wast a servant in the land of
duty to God or to our neighbour,
Egypt, and that the Lord thy God
to any obligation to observe one
brought tliec out thence through
day above another.
a mighty hand and by a stretched
out arm : therefore the Lord thy And from Mark x. 17 ;
And one asked him, Good
God commanded thee to keep the
Master, what shall I do that I
Sabbath day?
may inherit eternal life ? And
Jesus said unto him—Why
callest thou me good ; there is
none good but one, that is
God. Thou knowest the Comman dm ent s.f
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. 3. Do not commit adultery.
4. Do not kill.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
5. Do not steal.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness 6. Do not bear false witness.
7. Defraud not.
against thy neighbour.
The 10th Commandment of the
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neigh
bour’s house, thou shalt not covet Decalogue is not referred to by
thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man Christ. He may have considered
servant, nor his maidservant, that his far more universal Com
nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any mandment of ‘Love your neighbour’
thing that is thy neighbour’s.
was sufficient.
* ‘ Let no man, therefore, judge you in respect of an holyday, or of the New
Moon, or of the Sabbath days.’ Colos. ii. 1G.
‘O foolish Galatians (iii. 1), how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly ele
ments whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days and months
and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour
in vain.’ Gal. iv.
t What an opportunity was here lost by Jesus of enforcing the keeping
of the Sabbath if he had intended to enforce it,—an opportunity that our
modern Divines would only too gladly avail themselves of.
�13
5. Honour thy father and thy 8. Honour thy father and mother.
mother that thy days may be long
[It is surely better to teach
upon the land which the Lord
this Commandment as given
thy God giveth thee.
by Christ than with the ad
In the version given in Deu
dition of such a weak or in
teronomy the ground sug
complete ground as we find
gested for keeping this Com
in Exodus.] *
mandment varies from that in
Exodus, and is more explicit.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother
as the Lord thy God hath com
manded thee, that thy days may
And he answered and said,
be prolonged, and that it may go
Master, all these things have
well with thee in the land which
I observed from my youth.
the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Then Jesus beholding him,
Deut. v. 16.
loved him, and said unto him,
One thing thou lackest. [If
thou wilt be perfect, Matt,
xix. 21.]
9. Go thy way; sell whatsoever
thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven.
A Commandment set aside in
our day, not only by the very
rich, as this man is repre
sented to have been, but by
Christians in general.
In addition to the nine Commandments here selected from Christ’s
teaching, and which Christians may be recommended to use as being his
substitute for the Decalogue, we find many more quite as solemnly laid
down by Christ as of universal obligation. Let us refer to Matt. v. and
vi., in which Christ in the Sermon on the Mount is represented as giving
new Commandments.
* If the reader of this pamphlet cares to look further into the parallel here
drawn between what maybe called Christ’s substitute for the Decalogue, and to
satisfy himself that the Decalogue was written for the Jews and not for Chris
tians, he is referred to ‘ The Sabbath ’ (Chapman and Hall, 1855), vol. ii., in the
first chap, of which, the Mosaic Sabbath is very fully considered.
�14
10. Swear not at all—but let your
communication be yea, yea, nay,
nay.
11. Resist not evil: but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right
cheek, turn to him the other also.
12. Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neigh
bour and hate thine enemy : but
I say unto you f Love your
enemies?
13. When thou prayest enter into
thy closet, and when thou hast
shut thy door pray to thy Father
which is in secret.
14. But when ye pray use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do.
15. Take no thought, saying, What
shall we eat and what shall we
drink, or wherewithal shall we be
clothed ? Take no thought for
the morrow. Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof.
And from Luke vi. 80.
16. Give to every man that asketh
of thee, and of him that taketh
away thy goods ask them not
again.
Some of these are wisely ignored by Christians at the present day ;
while two which might be obeyed, with no detriment—if with no positive
good, namely, (1) praying in secret only and not parading- prayers in
churches, and, (2) not using vain repetitions in praying—are universally
disobeyed by the great body of professing Christians.
Christ, therefore, at any rate did not confine himself to Ten; ac
cording to the Catechism, he did not give the proper reply to the ques
tion. He nevei’ repeated all the Commandments of the Decalogue.
For anything that Christ is reported to have uttered, he need not even have
been aware of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 10th Commandment of the
Decalogue, as handed down to us ; or of the statement in Deuteronomy
that the Ten Commandments were written by God himself in two tables of
stone. Even in giving out those Commandments of the Law which he
�15
did refer to, lie did not repeat them in the order in which they stand in
the Decalogue; and on the subject of the 4th and the 5th Commandments,
he certainly has not enlightened us as to which is the true version,—the
true Commandments, written in the tables of stone.
It is singular that Christians should not have sufficient faith in the
words of their Saviour to adopt his express teaching on the subject of
Commandments. For example, had they such faith, they would not now,
running back to the ‘weak and beggarly elements ’ of the Jewish Scrip
tures, repeat every Sunday they are at church such a Commandment as
the 4th, never uttered by Christ, and which not one of them attempts to
keep, in its strict letter and meaning,—that of absolute cessation from
work and nothing else.
*
We may here remark that the Catechism errs not only in limiting
the number of God’s Commandments, expressly contrary to the teaching of
Christ; but it further makes the child declare that he learns from these
Ten Commandments what no one ever could learn from them. What is
laid down in the Catechism as the child’s duty is a very fair summary of
moral law and duty as believed in and practised by many at the present
day; but to say that the child or grown-up person ‘chiefly learns’ from the
Ten Commandments all that is there put down is not true. Where do we
find in the Ten a word about ‘ submitting ourselves to our spiritual pastors
and masters ’ ? or ‘ ordering ourselves lowly and reverently to our
betters’ ? or ‘keeping our bodies in temperance and soberness’'?
* See on this point ‘ The Sabbath,’ vol. ii. p. 179.
�16
THE COMMANDMENTS,
WHICH BELIEVERS IN A GOD, WILLINGLY CALLING THEMSELVES CHRIS
TIANS, MAY CONSIDER OBLIGATORY UPON THEM.
Turning now to the realities of life, we will look at the Commandments
from our own point of view.
Surveying dispassionately the history of religious opinion through
all ages of the world, we perceive that, notwithstanding all the assump
tions of infallibility by Popes and Ecclesiastics in general, there
has been a constant progress in religious belief. We also per
ceive that the saying of old, that ‘ God made Man in his own image/
should be replaced by the real fact that ‘ Man has always been and
is still making God in his own image ’; that as human knowledge
increases, as our ideas of what is right and noble and true go on
improving, so do our ideas of what a perfect God must be. We have long
since given up the crude notion of an angry and jealous God—of a God
who was ready to walk in a Garden on earth, and to come at the call of
every patriarch who chose to summon him,—and though kings and earthly
potentates may still invoke the God of Battles in their prayers, and Arch
bishops and Bishops may still write prayers on cattle plagues and cholera,
deprecating God’s wrath, and urging him to interfere and abrogate his
own laws at the call of man, we express the hope that the days of such
mistaken attempts to honour God are numbered, and that the time is
rapidly coming when true science or knowledge shall have swept away
these lingering superstitions of bygone ages.
And what is prayer—the only prayer fitted for educated minds,—un
less it be, in the spirit of the Axiom stated below, an earnest searching
after and earnest endeavour to obey all the unchanging laws, moral as well
as physical, which govern this world? In this sense alone can ‘prayer with
out ceasing ’ be possible. In this sense men of science, though possibly
never entering a church built by the hands of man, may be constantly
offering up their ‘praise and thanksgiving’ to the Unknown ‘whose
temple is all space/ and ‘ with whom/ as was well said several hundred
years ago, ‘ is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’
The Commandments which we, who have not been brought out of the
land of Egypt, and who are not Israelites, but the descendants of Gen
tiles, may believe to be binding on us, though not given out, as the
Ten Commandments are said to have been, on the top of Mount Sinai, are
�17
such as we now derive from the united wisdom and experience accumu
lated by mankind during the past and present ages.
Our only AXIOM is this :—
It is our duty with all our energies to ascertain the laws, both moral
and physical, which govern this world and ourselves; to be constantly
endeavouring to obey these laws when ascertained, and never to
hesitate to give up an opinion or belief on what is called religion, any
more than on any other subject, if we find that that opinion or belief,
even though handed down to us from very ancient times, is inconsist
ent with our better knowledge at the present day.
Acting up to this axiom we accept St John’s declaration, (Little
children, let no man deceive you : he that doeth righteousness is right
eous,’ 1 John iii. 7. We also readily accept, as a bond of brotherhood
between Christ and ourselves, his declaration in Matt. xii. 50, f Whoso
ever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my
brother, and sister, and mother.’ Looking also to Christ’s earnest en
deavour to enforce the law ‘ Love your neighbour as yourself,’ we
desire to be called Christians, although we may utterly repudiate all
the miraculous stories of the Old and New Testaments,—although we may
utterly repudiate any belief in a personal Devil, just as we do in witch
craft,—and although we admit neither sacraments nor priests of any
kind, and look upon the miscellaneous books bound up together and
called the Bible as entitled to no more respect than what is due to them
as ancient records of what men have believed and have felt in former ages.
We differ from the priests of all denominations and the self-styled
orthodox in this ; that, while believing much that is in the Bible, we be
lieve nothing merely because it is in the Bible. We seek enlightenment
in the place of dogmatic assurance, and we accept the declaration of the
man of science, who, to use the words of Professor Huxley (in his lecture
on improving Natural Knowledge, delivered at St Martin’s Hall, London,
on Sunday evening, 7th January, 1866), f absolutely refuses to acknow
ledge authority as such ; for him scepticism is the highest duty, blind
faith the one unpardonable sin. The man of science has learnt to believe
in justification, not by faith, but by verification.’ Our faith may be
described as a simple ‘ Faith in Works.’
The Commandment which we may state includes all others is to (love
thy neighbour as thyself.’ This was, so far as we have any record, first
laid down, not by Christ, as many suppose, but in Levit. xix. 18; but
there its meaning was narrowed by the words which follow, ‘ Thou shalt
hate thine enemy.’ Christ could truly say to the Jews that he gave it to
them as ‘a new Commandment,’ earnestly endeavouring to counteract
the narrow teaching in Leviticus by telling his hearers to love their
�18
enemies, and showing here and elsewhere, that by ‘neighbour* we should
understand every human being. Five hundred years before Christ, Con
fucius, the great Chinese Philosopher, wrote the precept, ‘Do unto another
what thou would he should do unto you, and do not unto another what
thou would not should be done unto you. Thou only needest this Law
alone. It is the foundation and principle of all the rest? The heathen,
*
Seneca, also said ‘ Live for another as you would live for yourself? Now
we do not accept even this Commandment because it was uttered by Moses,
by Confucius, by Christ, or by Seneca, but because all our experience
teaches us that, whether uttered by them or not, it is, in complete accord
ance with the above Axiom, a true law of God;—for the more we study the
laws of this world, both moral and physical, the more do we find that the
happiness of ourselves and of our fellow-creatures—in one word, our
well-being in this life—is intended to be the great object of our existence
here, and that the real happiness of each individual is dependent on the
happiness of others; that a man cannot be truly happy if those around
him are miserable. It may be added that by acting thus, and only thus,
by really loving ourselves and our neighbours, can we show reverence and
love to that mysterious ‘ unknown/—that, to us in our present state,
incomprehensible Power which we call GOD, and believe to have, in
some way wholly beyond our capacity to imagine, created the Universe,
of which our little world is the merest atom.
We therefore, to prevent a possible misapprehension of Christ’s
meaning, would alter the order in which in selecting the two Command
ments from Deut. vi. 6, and Lev. xix. 18, he is recorded as having placed
them, and would say : ‘ first, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, and
by so doing (secondly) thou wilt, and in this way only canst thou, show thy
love to God? In this sense love to God may be said to be the first (mean
ing by the first the ‘ greatest/ Matt. xx. 38) Commandment.
Only think of the cruelties and murders practised by Christians in all
ages under the plea of ‘ first love God/ and we shall agree how important
is the alteration in the order of the two Commandments as here suggested.
What were the Crusades and all the religious wars since the commence
ment of the Christian Era—all the martyrdoms and persecutions of Pro
testants by Catholics, and no less of Catholics by Protestants; and in a
less degree, what are all the bitter persecutions and religious feuds and
heart-burnings of the present day, but miserable, mistaken attempts to
love and honour God by hating and ill-using instead of loving our neigh
bour ?
* Confucius also said, ‘ Desire not the death of thine enemy. We may have
an aversion for an enemy, without desiring revenge? This probably is the doc
trine practically held by most Christians at the present day, of whom it would
be a stretch of imagination to say that they consider it a duty to llove their
enemies.’
�19
THE COMMANDMENTS.
1. Love your neighbour as yourself. Do unto others as you, in the
exercise of your best intelligence, think they ought to do unto you.
And how ought I to love myself? This is a question not generally put
to children. The duty itself is not properly enforced—but is rather depre
cated under the fear of inculcating ' selfishness.’ The following may be
stated as some of the laws, without obedience to which it is impossible to
say, ( I truly love myself?
2. Parents.—As a parent or guardian of children, so instruct and
educate them, and so conduct yourself, that they may learn to honour
and obey you, and prepare themselves in their turn to instruct their chil
dren, without troubling themselves too much whether ‘their days may be
long’ or short, but taking every pains that 'it may go well with them’
in the land of their birth or adoption; and that they may, in learning to hon
our and obey you, in your imperfection, learn still more to reverence and
obey that perfect Power, which is revealing itself continuously in the
works of the Creation, and which we worship as God, the Father Uni
versal.
The Hebrews of old said, the sins of the parents are visited on the chil
dren unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate God.
While rejecting the idea implied by the literal statement of a jealous God
punishing mankind for merely hating him, we accept these words partly as
meaning, If you do not obey the laws of God, but disobey them either
through wilfulness or ignorance, the consequences of your conduct or
your bad example will, by God’s unvarying laws, injure not only yourself
but also your children. Remember too that your neglect of your children
will react upon yourself.
Assist also in educating the poor—those whom their parents are
unable or neglectful themselves to educate. Be to them as a parent, where
opportunity offers. All of us are liable to suffer, and arc constantly suffer
ing through the ignorance of what are called the lower classes, although
this effect of their ignorance is very generally overlooked.
3. Health.—Will ye ‘ take no thought for your health, what ye shall
eat and what ye shall drink; and for your body, what ye shall put on ? ’
Matt. vi. 25. On the contrary, study the laws which govern your body
and your mind. Make yourself well acquainted with the beauty of that
wonderful piece of mechanism, that temple in which you dwell and which
constitutes your ' self,’ and strive to preserve it in perfect health as your
most valued treasure—'that it may be well with you’ on this earth.
�20
Though Solomon’s finery, made by human hands, was not so wonderful
as the lily, yet Solomon’s body without any clothing at all was at least as
glorious, and so is your own naked body, as any lily of the field or any
other of the comparatively simple works of creation.
Do no injury wilfully to your own body, nor to that of any man or
creature. ‘ If thine eye cause thee to offend’ (Matt. v. 29 and 30) ever so
much, do not pluck it out; ‘ if thine hand offend thee,’ do not cut it off;
but keep both eye and hand, both body and mind, under proper control.
You cannot ‘cut off’ the real offender, your brain and will.
In the carelessness for health, we continually find the sins of the parents
visited on the children, as instanced by madness, gout, and other diseases
properly called hereditary. Without health you are incapable of doing
your duty, and you become a burden to those whom you ought to protect
and to comfort. Thus fasting is no duty to us. We must take the greatest
care to get good food, though never eating or drinking too much ; while if
we purposely eat or drink too little, simply to ‘ mortify the flesh,’ we do
an injury to our health, and thus do wrong.
Remember also that mind or soul and body are one. You cannot
separate what God has truly joined together. A strong and healthy body
enables the mind to act healthily. A weak body tyrannizes over the mind.
4. Conduct.—Form good habits when young. Think for yourself.
Study to do right. Do not be misled by the common notion that what
is called ‘ Conscience ’ is an intuitive ’faculty or gift at your birth which
will develope itself without effort on your part. As a child gradually
learns to stand upright, wholly unconscious of the slight mental and
bodily effort still necessary to sustain him in that position, so by the care
ful exercise and training of his moral and intellectual powers may a man
gradually learn to judge, almost unconscious of an effort, when he is act
ing uprightly or otherwise. Watch over this faculty continually so as to
keep it, like the rest of your bodily and mental powers, in an ever
healthy state. Be just; be industrious, frugal, and careful, thus avoiding
*
debt (understand by this word inability to fulfil your engagements) as the
greatest shame, and becoming a self-supporting member of the community
in which you live. Be sober, be temperate, be chaste, controlling your
passions and preserving your health; but if you are struck on one
cheek (Matt. v. 39) do not offer the other cheek to be struck. Or if
a man takes your coat (Matt. v. 40), do not let him have your cloak
also; of him that taketh away thy goods, do ask for them again (Luke
vi. 30). If a man wastes your time by making you walk a mile with him
* The reader is referred on this question to an able treatise, A Discourse on
Ethics of the School of Paley, by W. Smith, Esq. London, Pickering, 1839.
8vo, price 3s. Gd.
�21
(Matt. v. 41), do not add to his folly and your own by walking two with
him. On the contrary, and notwithstanding what is said in Matt. v. 39,
< resist evil ’ always to the best of your ability. If injured by another,
strive to have him punished, that his conduct may be amended.
Be considerate of the feelings and opinions of others; but still be not
frightened out of plainly expressing your honest convictions either from
false delicacy towards others who differ from you or from a fear of their
coldness or hatred. Never give way to anger in discussion. Be moie
particularly guarded when the question is a religious one, for here its very
importance is apt to excite. The inclination to anger may anse fiom
vanity rather than zeal for the truth, and should warn you that you are
possibly in error or have not mastered the subject.
Judge others, that in so doing you may learn to judge yourself. While
obeying the injunction, Mudge not, and ye shall not be judged; con
demn not, and ye shall not be condemned’ (Luke vi. 37), to the extent
of not blaming others where, as constantly happens, you cannot know all
the motives of their acts ; do not think that by judging leniently of others,
you will escape f judgment/ or the consequences of your own folly or
wickedness.
Moreover be not deceived! Justice may be, but mercy, in the usual sense
of the word, is not an attribute of that Great Power which governs and con
trols this world. Punishment, either direct or indirect, in the depriva
tion more or less of that state of well-being for which we are fitted, at
tends every breach of God’s laws, physical or moral. Neither ignorance
nor good intention can be pleaded with success. The infant that burns
its hand in the fire or falls out of window, suffers punishment, without
mercy. The man who swallows poison, believing it to be medicine—
and the man who, knowingly, drinks strong liquors in excess, equally suffer
for their acts ; and so does the man who gives way to his passions, whether
he has, or has not, had the advantage of a good education. For a
definition of what may in one sense be called mercy, we might quote the
Psalmist, ‘ Thou, Lord, art mercifdl; for thou rewardest every man ac
cording to his works/ Psalm lxii. 12. The true mercy shown is the gift
of reason, which enables us by care and foresight to protect ourselves and
our children from nearly all suffering. For the rest, we must be con
tented, seeing that all things are not possible even to a God. How can
we be free-agents, and yet be secured against all suffering from our own
acts and the acts of other free-agents like ourselves ?
5. Language, Truthfulness, and Oaths.—Strive for the greatest accu
racy in expressing yourself, and early teach your children the true mean
ing of the words they utter, and urge on them the importance of correct
expression. A child is often made unhappy from inability accurately to con
�22
vey its meaning; and through life what constant quarrels and misery, among
even those who ought to be nearest and dearest to each other, arise from
carelessness or inaccuracy in the use of language.
Speak the truth at all hazards ; but do not suppose it to be a duty to say
at all times every thing you happen to believe. When called upon in a
court of justice to give evidence, do not accept the direction "Swear not
at alP (Matt. v. 34) literally; but swear or promise in the way that other
men may think most binding on the conscience, even though you feel that
in thus doing you in no way increase your obligation to speak the truth,
and nothing but the truth.
6. Promises.—Keep your promises, unless in keeping them you are
committing a greater error than in breaking them; but to avoid the dis
grace of breaking a promise, be extremely guarded in making any pro
mises at all. You are not able to foretell what may happen, and you may
find you cannot keep rash promises. Who but the most infatuated would
now hold up Jephtha’s slaughter of his only daughter, on account of a
rash and superstitious promise, as any thing but a fouL murder, an abom
inable wickedness ?
7. Property.—Lay up for yourselves treasures here (Matt. vi. 19).
Take thought for to-morrow, so that you may be able not only to keep
yourself and your children from want and bodily suffering, and conse
quent ill health; but may have a surplus for those who through real mis
fortune, or mental or bodily incapacity, have need of assistance. Bear
always in mind that although two of us shall agree to ask something
(Matt, xviii. 19), it is not true that God will grant it merely for the asking.
Nor if, like fowls of the air, none of us sow nor reap, nor gather into
barns, shall we be fed as they (Matt. vi. 26) ; but we shall starve, and de
servedly so. Though God has clothed us with a body more beautiful
and complex in its structure than any lily of the field (Matt. vi. 28),
still his having done so is no reason for supposing that we shall have,
without proper exertions on our own part, proper clothing to protect us
from the inclemency of the weather. The lilies of the field want no
clothing; but you will die of cold unless you clothe yourself.
8. Charity.—Do not e sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the
poor’ (Luke xviii. 22); for if you do, you will only increase improvidence
and want. On the contrary, never ‘ give to him that asks you ’ (Matt. v.
42), merely because he asks you; neither give to the poor merely because
they are poor. Rather suspect that the beggar is an unworthy object;
and remember that the giving alms to such a one is a bad act on your
part (prompted by your own ill-regulated impulsiveness), for it is—not
�23
only an encouragement to idleness, but a discouragement to the industri
ous neighbour of that beggar, and increases the evil you thus thought
lessly try to remedy.
Neither purposely give your alms ‘in secret,’ relying on the promised
reward in Matt. vi. 4; rather attend to the instructions to ‘ let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works ’ (Matt. v. 16).
Alms openly and judiciously given, will offer an example and encourage
ment to your neighbour to do likewise. Still give not alms ostentatiously
nor in expectation of praise or of mercenary reward here or hereafter. If
the knowledge that you are doing good to a neighbour is not a sufficient
reward, you must have been very badly trained as a child.
Probably the greatest real charity you can bestow is to assist in
having the children of those who are unable or indifferent, properly
trained and taught, so that ‘ they may learn and labour truly to get
their own living, and do their duty in that state of life’ in which they
may be placed, or to which they may attain by their own intelligence.
9. Observance.of Days.—Keep each day as holy as any other;—God,
in the only way we can see him, namely, in his works, works every day
alike ; He never rests. Vary your occupations, arrange them as may be
expedient (‘ all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expe
dient,’ St Paul in 1 Cor. vi. 12) ; but your work in life—working
righteousness—must be continuous as God’s is.
*
* Freed from superstitious observance of days as being one more holy than
another, such an institution as a periodical cessation from ordinary work
is eminently ‘ expedient ’ among a hard-working people, so expedient that as
mankind grows in wisdom neither the penalty of death enacted by Moses nor the
5s. fine of our modern legislation will be wanted to enforce it. The Sunday as a
day more particularly set apart by man for assembling together, either in public
or private, for worship, or for moral instruction and training, which if true must
be religious,—for family and social reunions and intercourse,—and for the enjoy
ment of healthy recreation, bodily exercise, and innocent amusement,—may be
an institution of the utmost importance for promoting the love of ourselves
and our neighbours.
We have to remember, however, that the real rest given by God to man is the
portion of time allotted to sleep. If it were not that man commits excesses in
labour, both mental and bodily, periodical days of rest would certainly not be
necessary, however enjoyable. A proper amount of labour judiciously varied in
its kind every day in the year would be quite as conducive to health ; but just
as a man, who commits excesses in eating and drinking all the week long, may
recruit himself by abstinence on one day in the week, so may we, in the present
state of society, be in every respect benefited by a cessation from labour.
Let us remember also that the artisan, shut out by the superstition of the age
from national museums, picture galleries, botanical gardens, and other places
�21
10. Idolatry.—‘ Little children, keep yourselves from idols’ (1 John
v. 21). Avoid Idolatry in any form, whether it be in making an idol of
one day over another, or of a book, of an idea, or of a man. Accept
a belief from no man. To adopt or to hold a belief because it is written
in a book, or because a man or a church, in olden times or at the present
day, declares it to be true, is idolatry and superstition just as much as to
fall down before a stone, a picture, a graven image, a piece of bread, or a
wafer, and worship it. Think for yourself, unfettered, and undismayed
by the fear of consequences, or by the knowledge that the multitude is
against you. If you wish for a saying of Christ in support of this, re
member the passage (Matt. x. 35), ‘ for I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’
If you thus obey the command to love yourself and your neighbour
alike, you will, in the only way possible to man, show your real love to
GOD, and you may truly say with the Deuteronomist—
‘The Lord our God is one Lord, whom we love with all our
heart, and with all our mind, and with all our strength.’
In conclusion, we would ask our Christian neighbours to think for
themselves, whether it would not be better to teach their children even
from such a code of Commandments as is here imperfectly sketched out,
than from those of the Jewish Decalogue. We would also ask them
whether they would not prefer that their children should, on their en
trance into the world, have some such plain and simple guidance for
their inexperience, in the place of solemnly binding themselves to believe,
most usually without pretence of understanding them, three Creeds, differ
ing one from another, and the present Thirty-nine Articles of our National
Church ? In the one case they will be free to use their God-given
faculty of reason; in the other, they will grow up under a crushing bond
age, slaves to a priesthood and their barbarous anathema, ‘ To doubt is
damnation ! ’
How can a Church be truly national, if it does not permit the widest
differences on questions of mere intellectual belief !
where he might have a chance of learning God’s ways to man—has a perfect right
to spend the Sunday in his ordinary employment, and far better will it be that
he should do so than in mere idleness.
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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God's commandments according to Moses, according to Christ, and according to our present knowledge: a sketch suggestive of a new Westminster Confession of Faith for the laity of the 19th century
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 24 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by John Childs and Son. "Addressed to all who deem it their highest duty as well as right to "think for themselves" [Title page].
Publisher
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N. Trubner & Co.
Date
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1867
Identifier
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G5267
Subject
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Presbyterianism
God
Creator
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[Unknown]
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (God's commandments according to Moses, according to Christ, and according to our present knowledge: a sketch suggestive of a new Westminster Confession of Faith for the laity of the 19th century), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
God
Moses
Presbyterian Church
Westminster Confession of Faith