Part 10 (1/2)
XX. FAITH IN FILTH
No light whatever is shed upon what pa.s.sed in the world after the confounding of language at Babel, until the birth of Abraham. But, before speaking of the history of the Jewish people, it may be proper for me to say that many things are recounted in Genesis, and other books attributed to Moses, of which I do not wish to speak. There are many pages of these books unfit to read, many stories not calculated, in my judgment, to improve the morals of mankind. I do not wish even to call the attention of my readers to these things, except in a general way. It is to be hoped that the time will come when such chapters and pa.s.sages as cannot be read without leaving the blush of shame upon the cheek of modesty, will be left out, and not published as a part of the bible.
If there is a G.o.d, it certainly is blasphemous to attribute to him the authors.h.i.+p of pages too obscene, beastly and vulgar to be read in the presence of men and women.
The believers in the bible are loud in their denunciation of what they are pleased to call the immoral literature of the world; and yet few books have been published containing more moral filth than this inspired word of G.o.d. These stories are not redeemed by a single flash of wit or humor. They never rise above the dull details of stupid vice. For one, I cannot afford to soil my pages with extracts from them; and all such portions of the Scriptures I leave to be examined, written upon, and explained by the clergy. Clergymen may know some way by which they can extract honey from these flowers. Until these pa.s.sages are expunged from the Old Testament, it is not a fit book to be read by either old or young. It contains pages that no minister in the United States would read to his congregation for any reward whatever. There are chapters that no gentleman would read in the presence of a lady. There are chapters that no father would read to his child. There are narratives utterly unfit to be told; and the time will come when mankind will wonder that such a book was ever called inspired.
I know that in many books besides the bible there are immodest lines.
Some of the greatest writers have soiled their pages with indecent words. We account for this by saying that the authors were human; that they catered to the taste and spirit of their times. We make excuses, but at the same time regret that in their works they left an impure word. But what shall we say of G.o.d? Is it possible that a being of infinite purity--the author of modesty, would smirch the pages of his book with stories lewd, licentious and obscene? If G.o.d is the author of the bible, it is, of course, the standard by which all other books can, and should be measured. If the bible is not obscene, what book is? Why should men be imprisoned simply for imitating G.o.d? The christian world should never say another word against immoral books until it makes the inspired volume clean. These vile and filthy things were not written for the purpose of conveying and enforcing moral truth, but seem to have been written because the author loved an unclean thing. There is no moral depth below that occupied by the writer or publisher of obscene books, that stain with l.u.s.t, the loving heart of youth. Such men should be imprisoned and their books destroyed. The literature of the world should be rendered decent, and no book should be published that cannot be read by, and in the hearing of the best and purest people. But as long as the bible is considered as the work of G.o.d, it will be hard to make all men too good and pure to imitate it; and as long as it is imitated there will be vile and filthy books. The literature of our country will not be sweet and clean until the bible ceases to be regarded as the production of a G.o.d.
We are continually told that the bible is the very foundation of modesty and morality; while many of its pages are so immodest and immoral that a minister, for reading them in the pulpit, would be instantly denounced as an unclean wretch. Every woman would leave the church, and if the men stayed, it would be for the purpose of chastising the minister.
Is there any saving grace in hypocrisy? Will men become clean in speech by believing that G.o.d is unclean? Would it not be far better to admit that the bible was written by barbarians in a barbarous, coa.r.s.e and vulgar age? Would it not be safer to charge Moses with vulgarity, instead of G.o.d? Is it not altogether more probable that some ignorant Hebrew would write the vulgar words? The christians tell me that G.o.d is the author of these vile and stupid things? I have examined the question to the best of my ability, and as to G.o.d my verdict is:--Not guilty.
Faith should not rest in filth.
Every foolish and immodest thing should be expunged from the bible.
Let us keep the good. Let us preserve every great and splendid thought, every wise and prudent maxim, every just law, every elevated idea, and every word calculated to make man n.o.bler and purer, and let us have the courage to throw the rest away. The souls of children should not be stained and soiled. The charming instincts of youth should not be corrupted and defiled. The girls and boys should not be taught that unclean words were uttered by ”inspired” lips. Teach them that these words were born of savagery and l.u.s.t. Teach them that the unclean is the unholy, and that only the pure is sacred.
XXI. THE HEBREWS
After language had been confounded and the people scattered, there appeared in the land of Canaan a tribe of Hebrews ruled by a chief or sheik called Abraham. They had a few cattle, lived in tents, practiced polygamy, wandered from place to place, and were the only folks in the whole world to whom G.o.d paid the slightest attention. At this time there were hundreds of cities in India filled with temples and palaces; millions of Egyptians wors.h.i.+ped Isis and Osiris, and had covered their land with marvelous monuments of industry, power and skill. But these civilizations were entirely neglected by the Deity, his whole attention being taken up with Abraham and his family.
It seems, from the account, that G.o.d and Abraham were intimately acquainted, and conversed frequently upon a great variety of subjects.
By the twelfth chapter of Genesis it appears that he made the following promises to Abraham. ”I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great: and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.”
After receiving this communication from the Almighty, Abraham went into the land of Canaan, and again G.o.d appeared to him and told him to take a heifer three years old, a goat of the same age, a sheep of equal antiquity, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Whereupon Abraham killed the animals ”and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another.” And it came to pa.s.s that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that pa.s.sed between the raw and bleeding meat. The killing of these animals was a preparation for receiving a visit from G.o.d. Should an American missionary in Central Africa find a negro chief surrounded by a butchered heifer, a goat and a sheep, with which to receive a communication from the infinite G.o.d, my opinion is, that the missionary would regard the proceeding as the direct result of savagery. And if the chief insisted that he had seen a smoking furnace and a burning lamp going up and down between the pieces of meat, the missionary would certainly conclude that the chief was not altogether right in his mind.
If the bible is true, this same G.o.d told Abraham to take and sacrifice his only son, or rather the only son of his wife, and a murder would have been committed had not G.o.d, just at the right moment, directed him to stay his hand and take a sheep instead.
G.o.d made a great number of promises to Abraham, but few of them were ever kept. He agreed to make him the father of a great nation, but he did not. He solemnly promised to give him a great country, including all the land between the river of Egypt and the Euphrates, but he did not.
In due time Abraham pa.s.sed away, and his son Isaac took his place at the head of the tribe. Then came Jacob, who ”watered stock” and enriched himself with the spoil of Laban. Joseph was sold into Egypt by his jealous brethren, where he became one of the chief men of the kingdom, and in a few years his father and brothers left their own country and settled in Egypt. At this time there were seventy Hebrews in the world, counting Joseph and his children. They remained in Egypt two hundred and fifteen years. It is claimed by some that they were in that country for four hundred and thirty years. This is a mistake. Josephus says they were in Egypt two hundred and fifteen years, and this statement is sustained by the best biblical scholars of all denominations. According to the 17th verse of the 3rd chapter of Galatians, it was four hundred and thirty years from the time the promise was made to Abraham to the giving of the law, and as the Hebrews did not go to Egypt for two hundred and fifteen years after the making of the promise to Abraham, they could in no event have been in Egypt more than two hundred and fifteen years. In our bible the 40th verse of the 12th chapter of Exodus, is as follows:--
”Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.”
This pa.s.sage does not say that the sojourning was all done in Egypt; neither does it say that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt four hundred and thirty years; but it does say that the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. The Vatican copy of the Septuagint renders the same pa.s.sage as follows:--
”The sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years.”
The Alexandrian version says:--”The sojourning of the children of Israel which they and their fathers sojourned in Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years.”
And in the Samaritan bible we have:--”The sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan, and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.”
There were seventy souls when they went down into Egypt, and they remained two hundred and fifteen years, and at the end of that time they had increased to about three million. How do we know that there were three million at the end of two hundred and fifteen years? We know it because we are informed by Moses that ”there were six hundred thousand men of war.” Now, to each man of war, there must have been at least five other people. In every State in this Union there will be to each voter, five other persons at least, and we all know that there are always more voters than men of war. If there were six hundred thousand men of war, there must have been a population of at least three million. Is it possible that seventy people could increase to that extent in two hundred and fifteen years? You may say that it was a miracle; but what need was there of working a miracle? Why should G.o.d miraculously increase the number of slaves? If he wished miraculously to increase the population, why did he not wait until the people were free?
In 1776, we had in the American Colonies about three millions of people.
In one hundred years we doubled four times: that is to say, six, twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight million,--our present population.