Question. Do you really believe that the infiniteGod killed some animals, took their skins from them,cut out and sewed up clothes for Adam and Eve?Answer. The Bible says so; we know that hehad patterns for clothes, because he showed someto Moses on Mount Sinai.Question. About how long did God continueto pay particular attention to his children in thisworld?Answer. For about fifteen hundred years; andsome of the people lived to be nearly a thousandyears of age.Question. Did this God establish any schools orinstitutions of learning? Did he establish any church?Did he ordain any ministers, or did he have any re-vivals?Answer. No; he allowed the world to go onpretty much in its own way. He did not even keephis own boys at home. They came down and made373love to the daughters of men, and finally the worldgot exceedingly bad.Question. What did God do then?Answer. He made up his mind that he would drownthem. You see they were all totally depraved,—inevery joint and sinew of their bodies, in every dropof their blood, and in every thought of their brains.Question. Did he drown them all?Answer. No, he saved eight, to start with again.Question. Were these eight persons totally de-praved?Answer. Yes.Question. Why did he not kill them, and startover again with a perfect pair? Would it not havebeen better to have had his flood at first, before hemade anybody, and drowned the snake?Answer. "God's way are not our ways;" andbesides, you must remember that "a thousand years"are as one day" with God.Question. How did God destroy the people?Answer. By water; it rained forty days and fortynights, and "the fountains of the great deep were"broken up."Question. How deep was the water?Answer. About five miles.374Question. How much did it rain each day?Answer. About eight hundred feet; though thebetter opinion now is, that it was a local flood. In-fidels have raised objections and pressed them to thatdegree that most orthodox people admit that theflood was rather local.Question. If it was a local flood, why did they putbirds of the air into the ark? Certainly, birds couldhave avoided a local flood?Answer. If you take this away from us, what doyou propose to give us in its place? Some of thebest people of the world have believed this story.Kind husbands, loving mothers, and earnest patriotshave believed it, and that is sufficient.Question. At the time God made these people,did he know that he would have to drown them all?Answer. Of course he did.Question. Did he know when he made them thatthey would all be failures?Answer. Of course.Question. Why, then, did he make them?Answer. He made them for his own glory, andno man should disgrace his parents by denying it.Question. Were the people after the flood just asbad as they were before?375Answer. About the same.Question. Did they try to circumvent God?Answer. They did.Question. How?Answer. They got together for the purpose of build-ing a tower, the top of which should reach to heaven,so that they could laugh at any future floods, and goto heaven at any time they desired.Question. Did God hear about this?Answer. He did.Question. What did he say?Answer. He said: "Go to; let us go down," andsee what the people are doing; I am satisfied theywill succeed.Question. How were the people prevented fromsucceeding?Answer. God confounded their language, so thatthe mason on top could not cry "mort'!" to thehod-carrier below; he could not think of the wordto use, to save his life, and the building stopped.Question. If it had not been for the confusion oftongues at Babel, do you really think that all thepeople in the world would have spoken just the samelanguage, and would have pronounced every wordprecisely the same?376Answer. Of course.Question. If it had not been, then, for the con-fusion of languages, spelling books, grammars anddictionaries would have been useless?Answer. I suppose so.Question. Do any two people in the whole worldspeak the same language, now?Answer. Of course they don't, and this is one ofthe great evidences that God introduced confusioninto the languages. Every error in grammar, everymistake in spelling, every blunder in pronunciation,proves the truth of the Babel story.Question. This being so, this miracle is the bestattested of all?Answer. I suppose it is.Question. Do you not think that a confusion oftongues would bring men together instead of separa-ting them? Would not a man unable to conversewith his fellow feel weak instead of strong; andwould not people whose language had been con-founded cling together for mutual support?Answer. According to nature, yes; according totheology, no; and these questions must be answeredaccording to theology. And right here, it may bewell enough to state, that in theology the unnatural377is the probable, and the impossible is what has alwayshappened. If theology were simply natural, anybodycould be a theologian.Question. Did God ever make any other specialefforts to convert the people, or to reform the world?Answer. Yes, he destroyed the cities of Sodomand Gomorrah with a storm of fire and brimstone.Question. Do you suppose it was really brim-stone?Answer. Undoubtedly.Question. Do you think this brimstone came fromthe clouds?Answer. Let me tell you that you have no rightto examine the Bible in the light of what people arepleased to call "science." The natural has nothingto do with the supernatural. Naturally there wouldbe no brimstone in the clouds, but supernaturallythere might be. God could make brimstone out ofhis "omnipotence." We do not know really whatbrimstone is, and nobody knows exactly how brim-stone is made. As a matter of fact, all the brimstonein the world might have fallen at that time.Question. Do you think that Lot's wife waschanged into salt?Answer. Of course she was. A miracle was per-378formed. A few centuries ago, the statue of salt madeby changing Lot's wife into that article, was standing.Christian travelers have seen it.Question. Why do you think she was changedinto salt?Answer. For the purpose of keeping the eventfresh in the minds of men.Question. God having failed to keep people in-nocent in a garden; having failed to govern themoutside of a garden; having failed to reform them bywater; having failed to produce any good result by aconfusion of tongues; having failed to reform themwith fire and brimstone, what did he then do?Answer. He concluded that he had no time towaste on them all, but that he would have to selectone tribe, and turn his entire attention to just a fewfolks.Question. Whom did he select?Answer. A man by the name of Abram.Question. What kind of man was Abram?Answer. If you wish to know, read the twelfthchapter of Genesis; and if you still have any doubtsas to his character, read the twentieth chapter of thesame book, and you will see that he was a man whomade merchandise of his wife's body. He had had379such good fortune in Egypt, that he tried the experi-ment again on Abimelech.Question. Did Abraham show any gratitude?Answer. Yes; he offered to sacrifice his son, toshow his confidence in Jehovah.Question. What became of Abraham and hispeople?Answer. God took such care of them, that inabout two hundred and fifteen years they were allslaves in the land of Egypt.Question. How long did they remain in slavery?Answer. Two hundred and fifteen years.Question. Were they the same people that Godhad promised to take care of?Answer. They were.Question. Was God at that time, in favor ofslavery?Answer. Not at that time. He was angry at theEgyptians for enslaving the Jews, but he afterwardsauthorized the Jews to enslave other people.Question. What means did he take to liberatethe Jews?Answer. He sent his agents to Pharaoh, and de-manded their freedom; and upon Pharaoh s refusing,he afflicted the people, who had nothing to do with380it, with various plagues,—killed children, and tor-mented and tortured beasts.Question. Was such conduct Godlike?Answer. Certainly. If you have anything againstyour neighbor, it is perfectly proper to torture hishorse, or torment his dog. Nothing can be noblerthan this. You see it is much better to injure hisanimals than to injure him. To punish animals forthe sins of their owners must be just, or God wouldnot have done it. Pharaoh insisted on keeping thepeople in slavery, and therefore God covered thebodies of oxen and cows with boils. He also bruisedthem to death with hailstones. From this we infer,that "the loving kindness of God is over all his works."Question. Do you consider such treatment of ani-mals consistent with divine mercy?Answer. Certainly. You know that under theMosaic dispensation, when a man did a wrong, hecould settle with God by killing an ox, or a sheep,or some doves. If the man failed to kill them, ofcourse God would kill them. It was upon this prin-ciple that he destroyed the animals of the Egyptians.They had sinned, and he merely took his pay.Question. How was it possible, under the old dis-pensation, to please a being of infinite kindness?381Answer. All you had to do was to take an innocentanimal, bring it to the altar, cut its throat, and sprinklethe altar with its blood. Certain parts of it were to begiven to the butcher as his share, and the rest was tobe burnt on the altar. When God saw an animal thusbutchered, and smelt the warm blood mingled withthe odor of burning flesh, he was pacified, and thesmile of forgiveness shed its light upon his face.Of course, infidels laugh at these things; but whatcan you expect of men who have not been "born"again"? "The carnal mind is enmity with God."Question. What else did God do in order to in-duce Pharaoh to liberate the Jews?Answer. He had his agents throw down a canein the presence of Pharaoh and thereupon Jehovahchanged this cane into a serpent.Question. Did this convince Pharaoh?Answer. No; he sent for his own magicians.Question. What did they do?Answer. They threw down some canes and theyalso were changed into serpents.Question. Did Jehovah change the canes of theEgyptian magicians into snakes?Answer. I suppose he did, as he is the only onecapable of performing such a miracle.382Question. If the rod of Aaron was changed intoa serpent in order to convince Pharaoh that God hadsent Aaron and Moses, why did God change thesticks of the Egyptian magicians into serpents—whydid he discredit his own agents, and render worth-less their only credentials?Answer. Well, we cannot explain the conduct ofJehovah; we are perfectly satisfied that it was forthe best. Even in this age of the world God allowsinfidels to overwhelm his chosen people with argu-ments; he allows them to discover facts that hisministers can not answer, and yet we are satisfiedthat in the end God will give the victory to us. Allthese things are tests of faith. It is upon this prin-ciple that God allows geology to laugh at Genesis,that he permits astronomy apparently to contradicthis holy word.Question. What did God do with these peopleafter Pharaoh allowed them to go?Answer. Finding that they were not fit to settlea new country, owing to the fact that when hungrythey longed for food, and sometimes when their lipswere cracked with thirst insisted on having water,God in his infinite mercy had them marched roundand round, back and forth, through a barren wilder-383ness, until all, with the exception of two persons,died.Question. Why did he do this?Answer. Because he had promised these peoplethat he would take them "to a land flowing with"milk and honey."Question. Was God always patient and kind andmerciful toward his children while they were in thewilderness?Answer. Yes, he always was merciful and kindand patient. Infidels have taken the ground that hevisited them with plagues and disease and famine;that he had them bitten by serpents, and now andthen allowed the ground to swallow a few thousandsof them, and in other ways saw to it that they werekept as comfortable and happy as was consistent withgood government; but all these things were for theirgood; and the fact is, infidels have no real sense ofjustice.Question. How did God happen to treat the Is-raelites in this way, when he had promised Abrahamthat he would take care of his progeny, and when hehad promised the same to the poor wretches whilethey were slaves in Egypt?Answer. Because God is unchangeable in his na-384ture, and wished to convince them that every beingshould be perfectly faithful to his promise.Question. Was God driven to madness by theconduct of his chosen people?Answer. Almost.Question. Did he know exactly what they woulddo when he chose them?Answer. Exactly.Question. Were the Jews guilty of idolatry?Answer. They were. They worshiped other gods—gods made of wood and stone.Question. Is it not wonderful that they were notconvinced of the power of God, by the many mira-cles wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness?Answer. Yes, it is very wonderful; but the Jews,who must have seen bread rained from heaven; whosaw water gush from the rocks and follow them up hilland down; who noticed that their clothes did notwear out, and did not even get shiny at the knees,while the elbows defied the ravages of time, andtheir shoes remained perfect for forty years; it iswonderful that when they saw the ground openand swallow their comrades; when they saw Godtalking face to face with Moses as a man talks withhis friend; after they saw the cloud by day and the385pillar of fire by night,—it is absolutely astonishingthat they had more faith in a golden calf that theymade themselves, than in Jehovah.Question. How is it that the Jews had no confi-dence in these miracles?Answer. Because they were there and saw them.Question. Do you think that it is necessary forus to believe all the miracles of the Old Testamentin order to be saved?Answer. The Old Testament is the foundation ofthe New. If the Old Testament is not inspired, thenthe New is of no value. If the Old Testament isinspired, all the miracles are true, and we cannotbelieve that God would allow any errors, or falsestatements, to creep into an inspired volume, and tobe perpetuated through all these years.Question. Should we believe the miracles, whetherthey are reasonable or not?Answer. Certainly; if they were reasonable, theywould not be miracles. It is their unreasonablenessthat appeals to our credulity and our faith. It is im-possible to have theological faith in anything thatcan be demonstrated. It is the office of faith tobelieve, not only without evidence, but in spite ofevidence. It is impossible for the carnal mind to386believe that Samsons muscle depended upon thelength of his hair. "God has made the wisdom of"this world foolishness." Neither can the uncon-verted believe that Elijah stopped at a hotel kept byravens. Neither can they believe that a barrel wouldin and of itself produce meal, or that an earthen potcould create oil. But to a Christian, in order that awidow might feed a preacher, the truth of thesestories is perfectly apparent.Question. How should we regard the wonderfulstories of the Old Testament?Answer. They should be looked upon as "types"and "symbols." They all have a spiritual signifi-cance. The reason I believe the story of Jonah is,that Jonah is a type of Christ.Question. Do you believe the story of Jonah tobe a true account of a literal fact?Answer. Certainly. You must remember thatJonah was not swallowed by a whale. God "pre-"pared a great fish" for that occasion. Neither is it byany means certain that Jonah was in the belly ofthis whale. "He probably stayed in his mouth."Even if he was in his stomach, it was very easyfor him to defy the ordinary action of gastric juiceby rapidly walking up and down..387Question. Do you think that Jonah was really inthe whale's stomach?Answer. My own opinion is that he stayed in hismouth. The only objection to this theory is, that itis more reasonable than the other and requires lessfaith. Nothing could be easier than for God to makea fish large enough to furnish ample room for onepassenger in his mouth. I throw out this suggestionsimply that you may be able to answer the objectionsof infidels who are always laughing at this story.Question. Do you really believe that Elijah wentto heaven in a chariot of fire, drawn by horses offire?Answer. Of course he did.Question. What was this miracle performed for?Answer. To convince the people of the power ofGod.Question. Who saw the miracle?Answer. Nobody but Elisha.Question. Was he convinced before that time?Answer. Oh yes; he was one of God's prophets.Question. Suppose that in these days two menshould leave a town together, and after a while oneof them should come back having on the clothes ofthe other, and should account for the fact that he had388his friend's clothes by saying that while they weregoing along the road together a chariot of fire camedown from heaven drawn by fiery steeds, and there-upon his friend got into the carriage, threw him hisclothes, and departed,—would you believe it?Answer. Of course things like that don't happenin these days; God does not have to rely on wondersnow.Question. Do you mean that he performs nomiracles at the present day?Answer. We cannot say that he does not performmiracles now, but we are not in position to call atten-tion to any particular one. Of course he supervisesthe affairs of nations and men and does whatever inhis judgment is necessary.Question. Do you think that Samson's strengthdepended on the length of his hair?Answer. The Bible so states, and the Bible is true.A physiologist might say that a man could not usethe muscle in his hair for lifting purposes, but thesesame physiologists could not tell you how you movea finger, nor how you lift a feather; still, actuated bythe pride of intellect, they insist that the length of aman's hair could not determine his strength. Godsays it did; the physiologist says that it did not; we389can not hesitate whom to believe. For the purposeof avoiding eternal agony I am willing to believeanything; I am willing to say that strength dependsupon the length of hair, or faith upon the length ofears. I am perfectly willing to believe that a mancaught three hundred foxes, and put fire brands be-tween their tails; that he slew thousands with a bone,and that he made a bee hive out of a lion. I willbelieve, if necessary, that when this man's hair wasshort he hardly had strength enough to stand, andthat when it was long, he could carry away the gatesof a city, or overthrow a temple filled with people.If the infidel is right, I will lose nothing by believing,but if he is wrong, I shall gain an eternity of joy.If God did not intend that we should believe thesestories, he never would have told them, and whyshould a man put his soul in peril by trying to dis-prove one of the statements of the Lord?Question. Suppose it should turn out that someof these miracles depend upon mistranslations of theoriginal Hebrew, should we still believe them?Answer. The safe side is the best side. It isfar better to err on the side of belief, than on theside of infidelity. God does not threaten anybodywith eternal punishment for believing too much.390Danger lies on the side of investigation, on theside of thought. The perfectly idiotic are absolutelysafe. As they diverge from that point,—as they risein the intellectual scale, as the brain develops, as thefaculties enlarge, the danger increases. I know thatsome biblical students now take the ground thatSamson caught no foxes,—that he only took sheavesof wheat that had been already cut and bound, setthem on fire, and threw them into the grain stillstanding. If this is what he did, of course there isnothing miraculous about it, and the value of thestory is lost. So, others contend that Elijah was notfed by the ravens, but by the Arabs. They tell usthat the Hebrew word standing for "Arab" alsostands for "bird," and that the word really means"migratory—going from place to place—homeless."But I prefer the old version. It certainly will do noharm to believe that ravens brought bread and fleshto a prophet of God. Where they got their breadand flesh is none of my business; how they knewwhere the prophet was, and recognized him; or howGod talks to ravens, or how he gave them directions,I have no right to inquire. I leave these questionsto the scientists, the blasphemers, and thinkers.There are many people in the church anxious to391get the miracles out of the Bible, and thousands,I have no doubt, would be greatly gratified to learnthat there is, in fact, nothing miraculous in Scripture;but when you take away the miraculous, you takeaway the supernatural; when you take away thesupernatural, you destroy the ministry; and whenyou take away the ministry, hundreds of thousandsof men will be left without employment.Question. Is it not wonderful that the Egyptianswere not converted by the miracles wrought in theircountry?Answer. Yes, they all would have been, if Godhad not purposely hardened their hearts to preventit. Jehovah always took great delight in furnishingthe evidence, and then hardening the man's heart sothat he would not believe it. After all the miraclesthat had been performed in Egypt,—the most won-derful that were ever done in any country, theEgyptians were as unbelieving as at first; they pur-sued the Israelites, knowing that they were protectedby an infinite God, and failing to overwhelm them,came back and worshiped their own false gods just asfirmly as before. All of which shows the unreason-ableness of a Pagan, and the natural depravity ofhuman nature.392Question. How did it happen that the Canaaniteswere never convinced that the Jews were assisted byJehovah?Answer. They must have been an exceedinglybrave people to contend so many years with thechosen people of God. Notwithstanding all theircities were burned time and time again; notwith-standing all the men, women and children were putto the edge of the sword; notwithstanding the takingof all their cattle and sheep, they went right onfighting just as valiantly and desperately as ever.Each one lost his life many times, and was just asready for the next conflict. My own opinion is, thatGod kept them alive by raising them from the deadafter each battle, for the purpose of punishing theJews. God used his enemies as instruments for thecivilization of the Jewish people. He did not wishto convert them, because they would give him muchmore trouble as Jews than they did as Canaanites.He had all the Jews he could conveniently take careof. He found it much easier to kill a hundredCanaanites than to civilize one Jew.Question. How do you account for the fact thatthe heathen were not surprised at the stopping of thesun and moon?393Answer. They were so ignorant that they hadnot the slightest conception of the real cause ofthe phenomenon. Had they known the size ofthe earth, and the relation it sustained to the otherheavenly bodies; had they known the magnitude ofthe sun, and the motion of the moon, they would,in all probability, have been as greatly astonished asthe Jews were; but being densely ignorant of as-tronomy, it must have produced upon them not theslightest impression. But we must remember thatthe sun and moon were not stopped for the purposeof converting these people, but to give Joshua moretime to kill them. As soon as we see clearly thepurpose of Jehovah, we instantly perceive how ad-mirable were the means adopted.Question. Do you not consider the treatmentof the Canaanites to have been cruel and ferocious?Answer. To a totally depraved man, it does lookcruel; to a being without any good in him,—to onewho has inherited the rascality of many generations,the murder of innocent women and little childrendoes seem horrible; to one who is "contaminated in"all his parts," by original sin,—who was "conceived"in sin, and brought forth in iniquity," the assassina-tion of men, and the violation of captive maidens,394do not seem consistent with infinite goodness. Butwhen one has been "born again," when "the love"of God has been shed abroad in his heart," whenhe loves all mankind, when he "overcomes evil with"good," when he "prays for those who despite-"fully use him and persecute him,"—to such a man,the extermination of the Canaanites, the violationof women, the slaughter of babes, and the destruc-tion of countless thousands, is the highest evidenceof the goodness, the mercy, and the long-sufferingof God. When a man has been "born again," allthe passages of the Old Testament that appear sohorrible and so unjust to one in his natural state,become the dearest, the most consoling, and themost beautiful of truths. The real Christian readsthe accounts of these ancient battles with the greatestpossible satisfaction. To one who really loves hisenemies, the groans of men, the shrieks of women,and the cries of babes, make music sweeter than thezephyr's breath.Question. In your judgment, why did God destroythe Canaanites?Answer. To prevent their contaminating hischosen people. He knew that if the Jews wereallowed to live with such neighbors, they would395finally become as bad as the Canaanites themselves.He wished to civilize his chosen people, and it wastherefore necessary for him to destroy the heathen.Question. Did God succeed in civilizing the Jewsafter he had "removed" the Canaanites?Answer. Well, not entirely. He had to allow theheathen he had not destroyed to overrun the wholeland and make captives of the Jews. This was donefor the good of his chosen people.Question. Did he then succeed in civilizing them?Answer. Not quite.Question. Did he ever quite succeed in civilizingthem?Answer. Well, we must admit that the experi-ment never was a conspicuous success. The Jewswere chosen by the Almighty 430 years before heappeared to Moses on Mount Sinai. He was theirdirect Governor. He attended personally to theirreligion and politics, and gave up a great part of hisvaluable time for about two thousand years, to themanagement of their affairs; and yet, such was thecondition of the Jewish people, after they had had allthese advantages, that when there arose among thema perfectly kind, just, generous and honest man, thesepeople, with whom God had been laboring for so396many centuries, deliberately put to death that goodand loving man.Question. Do you think that God really endeav-ored to civilize the Jews?Answer. This is an exceedingly hard question.If he had really tried to do it, of course he couldhave done it. We must not think of limiting thepower of the infinite. But you must remember thatif he had succeeded in civilizing the Jews, if he hadeducated them up to the plane of intellectual liberty,and made them just and kind and merciful, like him-self, they would not have crucified Christ, and youcan see at once the awful condition in which wewould all be to-day. No atonement could havebeen made; and if no atonement had been made,then, according to the Christian system, the wholeworld would have been lost. We must admit thatthere was no time in the history of the Jews fromSinai to Jerusalem, that they would not have put aman like Christ to death.Question. So you think that, after all, it was notGod's intention that the Jews should become civilized?Answer. We do not know. We can only saythat "God's ways are not our ways." It may bethat God took them in his special charge, for the397purpose of keeping them bad enough to make thenecessary sacrifice. That may have been the divineplan. In any event, it is safer to believe the explana-tion that is the most unreasonable.Question. Do you think that Christ knew theJews would crucify him?Answer. Certainly.Question. Do you think that when he choseJudas he knew that he would betray him?Answer. Certainly.Question. Did he know when Judas went to thechief priest and made the bargain for the deliveryof Christ?Answer. Certainly.Question. Why did he allow himself to be be-trayed, if he knew the plot?Answer. Infidelity is a very good doctrine to liveby, but you should read the last words of Paine andVoltaire.Question. If Christ knew that Judas would betrayhim, why did he choose him?Answer. Nothing can exceed the atrocities of theFrench Revolution—when they carried a womanthrough the streets and worshiped her as the goddessof Reason.398Question. Would not the mission of Christ havebeen a failure had no one betrayed him?Answer. Thomas Paine was a drunkard, and re-canted on his death-bed, and died a blaspheminginfidel besides.Question. Is it not clear that an atonement wasnecessary; and is it not equally clear that the atone-ment could not have been made unless somebodyhad betrayed Christ; and unless the Jews had beenwicked and orthodox enough to crucify him?Answer. Of course the atonement had to bemade. It was a part of the "divine plan" that Christshould be betrayed, and that the Jews should bewicked enough to kill him. Otherwise, the worldwould have been lost.Question. Suppose Judas had understood thedivine plan, what ought he to have done? Shouldhe have betrayed Christ, or let somebody else do it;or should he have allowed the world to perish, in-cluding his own soul?Answer. If you take the Bible away from theworld, "how would it be possible to have witnesses"sworn in courts;" how would it be possible to ad-minister justice?Question. If Christ had not been betrayed and399crucified, is it true that his own mother would be inperdition to-day?Answer. Most assuredly. There was but oneway by which she could be saved, and that was bythe death of her son—through the blood of theatonement. She was totally depraved through thesin of Adam, and deserved eternal death. Even herlove for the infant Christ was, in the sight of God,—that is to say, of her babe,—wickedness. It can notbe repeated too often that there is only one way tobe saved, and that is, to believe in the Lord JesusChrist.Question. Could Christ have prevented the Jewsfrom crucifying him?Answer. He could.Question. If he could have saved his life and didnot, was he not guilty of suicide?Answer. No one can understand these questionswho has not read the prophecies of Daniel, and hasnot a clear conception of what is meant by "the full-"ness of time."Question. What became of all the Canaanites, theEgyptians, the Hindus, the Greeks and Romans andChinese? What became of the billions who diedbefore the promise was made to Abraham; of the400billions and billions who never heard of the Bible,who never heard the name, even, of Jesus Christ—never knew of "the scheme of salvation"? Whatbecame of the millions and billions who lived in thishemisphere, and of whose existence Jehovah himselfseemed perfectly ignorant?Answer. They were undoubtedly lost. Godhaving made them, had a right to do with them ashe pleased. They are probably all in hell to-day, andthe fact that they are damned, only adds to the joyof the redeemed. It is by contrast that we are ableto perceive the infinite kindness with which God hastreated us.Question. Is it not possible that something canbe done for a human soul in another world as well asin this?Answer. No; this is the only world in whichGod even attempts to reform anybody. In theother world, nothing is done for the purpose ofmaking anybody better. Here in this world, whereman lives but a few days, is the only opportunityfor moral improvement. A minister can do a thou-sand times more for a soul than its creator; and thiscountry is much better adapted to moral growth thanheaven itself. A person who lived on this earth a401few years, and died without having been converted,has no hope in another world. The moment he arrivesat the judgment seat, nothing remains but to damnhim. Neither God, nor the Holy Ghost, nor JesusChrist, can have the least possible influence withhim there.Question. When God created each human being,did he know exactly what would be his eternal fate?Answer. Most assuredly he did.Question. Did he know that hundreds and millionsand billions would suffer eternal pain?Answer. Certainly. But he gave them freedomof choice between good and evil.Question. Did he know exactly how they woulduse that freedom?Answer. Yes.Question. Did he know that billions would useit wrong?Answer. Yes.Question. Was it optional with him whether heshould make such people or not?Answer. Certainly.Question. Had these people any option as towhether they would be made or not?Answer, No.402Question. Would it not have been far better toleave them unconscious dust?Answer. These questions show how foolish it isto judge God according to a human standard. Whatto us seems just and merciful, God may regard in anexactly opposite light; and we may hereafter bedeveloped to such a degree that we will regard theagonies of the damned as the highest possible evi-dence of the goodness and mercy of God.Question. How do you account for the fact thatGod did not make himself known except to Abra-ham and his descendants? Why did he fail toreveal himself to the other nations—nations that,compared with the Jews, were learned, cultivatedand powerful? Would you regard a revelation nowmade to the Esquimaux as intended for us; andwould it be a revelation of which we would beobliged to take notice?Answer. Of course, God could have revealed him-self, not only to all the great nations, but to eachindividual. He could have had the Ten Command-ments engraved on every heart and brain; or hecould have raised up prophets in every land; buthe chose, rather, to allow countless millions of hischildren to wander in the darkness and blackness of403Nature; chose, rather, that they should redden theirhands in each other's blood; chose, rather, that theyshould live without light, and die without hope;chose, rather, that they should suffer, not only in thisworld, but forever in the next. Of course we haveno right to find fault with the choice of God.Question. Now you can tell a sinner to "believe"on the Lord Jesus Christ;" what could a sinner havebeen told in Egypt, three thousand years ago; andin what language would you have addressed a Hinduin the days of Buddha—the "divine scheme" at thattime being a secret in the divine breast?Answer. It is not for us to think upon thesequestions. The moment we examine the Christiansystem, we begin to doubt. In a little while, we shallbe infidels, and shall lose the respect of those whorefuse to think. It is better to go with the majority.These doctrines are too sacred to be touched. Youshould be satisfied with the religion of your fatherand your mother. "You want some book on the"centre-table," in the parlor; it is extremely handyto have a Family Record; and what book, other thanthe Bible, could a mother give a son as he leaves theold homestead?Question. Is it not wonderful that all the writers404of the four gospels do not give an account of theascension of Jesus Christ?Answer. This question has been answered longago, time and time again.Question. Perhaps it has, but would it not bewell enough to answer it once more? Some maynot have seen the answer?Answer. Show me the hospitals that infidelshave built; show me the asylums that infidelshave founded.Question. I know you have given the usual an-swer; but after all, is it not singular that a miracleso wonderful as the bodily ascension of a man, shouldnot have been mentioned by all the writers of thatman's life? Is it not wonderful that some of themsaid that he did ascend, and others that he agreed tostay with his disciples always?Answer. People unacquainted with the Hebrew,can have no conception of these things. A storyin plain English, does not sound as it does in Hebrew.Miracles seem altogether more credible, when told ina dead language.Question. What, in your judgment, became ofthe dead who were raised by Christ? Is it notsingular that they were never mentioned afterward?405Would not a man who had been raised from thedead naturally be an object of considerable interest,especially to his friends and acquaintances? Andis it not also wonderful that Christ, after havingwrought so many miracles, cured so many lame andhalt and blind, fed so many thousands miraculously,and after having entered Jerusalem in triumph as aconqueror and king, had to be pointed out by oneof his own disciples who was bribed for the purpose?Answer. Of course, all these things are exceed-ingly wonderful, and if found in any other book,would be absolutely incredible; but we have noright to apply the same kind of reasoning to theBible that we apply to the Koran or to the sacredbooks of the Hindus. For the ordinary affairs ofthis world, God has given us reason; but in theexamination of religious questions, we should de-pend upon credulity and faith.Question. If Christ came to offer himself a sacri-fice, for the purpose of making atonement for thesins of such as might believe on him, why did henot make this fact known to all of his disciples?Answer. He did. This was, and is, the gospel.Question. How is it that Matthew says nothingabout "salvation by faith," but simply says that God406will be merciful to the merciful, that he will forgivethe forgiving, and says not one word about thenecessity of believing anything?Answer. But you will remember that Mark says,in the last chapter of his gospel, that "whoso be-"lieveth not shall be damned."Question. Do you admit that Matthew saysnothing on the subject?Answer. Yes, I suppose I must.Question. Is not that passage in Mark generallyadmitted to be an interpolation?Answer. Some biblical scholars say that it is.Question. Is that portion of the last chapter ofMark found in the Syriac version of the Bible?Answer. It is not.Question. If it was necessary to believe on JesusChrist, in order to be saved, how is it that Matthewfailed to say so?Answer. "There are more copies of the Bible"printed to-day, than of any other book in the world,"and it is printed in more languages than any other"book."Question. Do you consider it necessary to be"regenerated"—to be "born again"—in order to besaved?407Answer. Certainly.Question. Did Matthew say anything on the sub-ject of "regeneration"?