It is then recorded, that “_God came unto Balaam, and said, what men are those with thee?_” This inquiry of the Jewish God appears strange, when he must have known all about it without asking; but here, as in hundreds of other passages, the _man-made God_ appears. But, for the information of the Lord, Balaam gives a suitable answer. The Lord then informs the fortune-teller that he must not go to Balak, _nor curse them, for they are blessed_. The elders then returned to the King, to inform him that Balaam could not come, because the God of Israel had forbid him so to do. Again, Balak sent others, more honorable than the first, with promises of riches and honor. The Lord came again to Balaam, and told him to go with the men to Balak, King of the Moabites, but to mind what the Lord had said to him. Balaam went off with the princes of Moab; but the Devil, or something else, got into the jack-ass on which the old fortune-teller rode, and he became skittish; and although then dumb, he seemed to say to his master, “I shall go no further.” Balaam became enraged, and laid some heavy stripes on poor jack; but still the animal refused to go on, until neither the Lord nor jack could bear it any longer. The beast then broke silence, and reasoned with the old prophet on his brutality. All of a sudden, Balaam saw an angel with a drawn sword in his hand, who told him if it had not been for jack’s superior eye-sight, he would have been a dead man. The angel then told Balaam to go on, but to mind what he did against Israel. What contemptible humbug is all this! two miracles performed to do nothing! The first, to send an angel down from nobody knows where; and the second, to make a dumb ass reprove his owner. And what was Balaam’s fault? He was going on as the Lord commanded; and to complete this solemn farce, an apostle quotes it as a real fact that actually took place, by saying—“And the dumb ass spake with man’s voice, and forbade the madness of the prophet.” After returning to Balak, Balaam ordered seven altars to be built, on which were to be offered seven bullocks and seven rams: and again, the Lord came to see the process, and in private conversation with the fortune-teller, told him that it would not answer; Israel must not be cursed. This was repeated by Balaam three times; so that twenty-one bullocks, and as many rams, were offered up to no purpose: and at each offering, the Lord came down and conversed in private with Balaam. Is it possible that men possessed of reason can believe that in this account there is one word of truth, as it respects the Governor of the Universe having any thing to do with it? If this account, or any one like it, was recorded in any other book than the Bible, no man of a sound mind would give the least credit to it. But yet the Christian dares not doubt it; for even the apostles of Jesus speak of it as a real fact that took place with the miracles attending it.