But Jahweh was an object of portable size, for, omitting for the present the descriptions in the Pentateuch--which seem likely to be of later date, and not too trustworthy, through their strenuous Jehovistic editing--he was carried from Shiloh in his ark to the front during the great battle with the Philistines at Ebenezer; and the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "A god is come into the camp." But when the Philistines captured the ark, the rival god, Dagon, fell down and broke in pieces--so Hebrew legend declared--before the face of Jahweh. After the Philistines restored the sacred object, it rested for a time at Kirjath-jearim till David, on the capture of Jerusalem from the Jebusites, went down to that place to bring up from thence the ark of the god; and as it went, on a new cart, they "played before Jahweh on all manner of instruments," and David himself "danced before Jahweh."... The children of Israel in early times carried about with them a tribal god, Jahweh, whose presence in their midst was intimately connected with a certain ark or chest containing a stone object or objects. This chest was readily portable, and could be carried to the front in case of warfare. They did not know the origin of the object in the ark with certainty; but they regarded it emphatically as "Jahweh their god, which led them out of the land of Egypt."... I do not see, therefore, how we can easily avoid the obvious inference that Jahweh the god of the Hebrews, who later became sublimated and etherealised into the God of Christianity, was, in his origin, nothing more nor less than the ancestral sacred stone of the people of Israel, however sculptured, and, perhaps, in the very last resort of all, the unhewn monumental pillar of some early Semitic sheikh or chieftain. It was, indeed, as the Rev. C. E. Beeby says, in his book _Creed and Life_, a sad mistake of St. Augustine to tack this tribal fetish in his box on to the Christian religion as the All-Father, and Creator of the Universe. For Jehovah was a savage war-god, and, as such, was impotent to save the tribe who worshipped him. But let us look further into the accounts of this original God of the Christians, and see how he comported himself, and let us put our examples under separate heads; thus: Jehovah's Anger Jahweh's bad temper is constantly displayed in the Bible. Jahweh made a man, whom he supposed to be perfect. When the man turned bad on his hands, Jahweh was angry, and cursed him and his seed for thousands of years. This vindictive act is accepted by the Apostle Paul as a natural thing for a God of Love to do.