And what a wretched piece of sophistry it is. How utterly shallow and vain. As if the Giver of life could not take back what he had given--the right to it having been forfeited--without committing a crime! As if the Author and Ruler of the universe could not repeal or suspend one of his own enactments, without being a law-breaker! Think of it: Colonel Ingersoll, an experienced lawyer, a practitioner and devotee of the science of jurisprudence, denying to the great Law-Giver a right inherent in and exercised by the humblest legislative body on earth! To such illogical extremes will men go, when they presume to pass judgment upon Providence. The Case of the Canaanites.--Joshua's war upon the Canaanites was a just war, designed to rid the earth of a corrupt generation, which had forfeited its right to longer remain, encumbering the soil, particularly that part which the Creator and Owner of the planet had given to a worthier people. Jehovah's command to clear the ground upon which he proposed erecting a national structure that should stand as a temple of wisdom and light for the welfare of all succeeding generations, did not impinge upon any command of his previously given. Neither is the Divine One amenable to human judgment. "Thou shalt not kill" was a commandment _from_ God, not to him. His word is superior to all human enactments and to all man's notions of right and wrong. The war waged by Joshua and the hosts of Israel against the wicked and usurping Canaanites was in every respect justifiable, so far as it was conducted according to Jehovah's command. [14] "The King Can Do No Wrong."--This proverb, when used by corrupt rulers to justify and cloak their crimes, is flagrantly false and pernicious. When applied to the King of Heaven, it is eminently and unquestionably true. The Author of life can send forth the destroyer and lay waste his enemies, without blood-guiltiness or even the shadow of wrong-doing. He can decree wars, and allow the wicked to slay the wicked, without partaking of their evil deeds or making himself responsible for their demon-inspired atrocities. These must all be accounted for at the bar of Eternal Justice. The American Revolution.--It was not Satan who caused the heroic struggle of the American colonies, giving them power to win their freedom and independence, to the end that a nation might arise upon this chosen soil with a mission to foster and protect the infant and growing Church of Christ. That was a righteous war, and the divine inspiration for it rested upon the Patriot Fathers, [15] who, at the hazard of their lives, signed the immortal Declaration, and drew their swords to defend and perpetuate that sublime annunciation of liberty and equal rights.