As a literary composition and as a partial exposition of the peculiar tenets of a heretical Jewish sect, the Sermon on the Mount is interesting; but as a moral code it is of little value. Along with some admirable precepts, it contains others, like the following, which are false and pernicious: "Blessed are the poor in spirit;" "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;" "If thy right eye offend thee pluck it out;" "If thy right hand offend thee cut it off;" "Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery;" "Resist not evil;" "Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also;" "If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also;" "Love your enemies;" "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth;" "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on;" "Take therefore no thought for the morrow." Christians claim that unbelievers have no moral standard, that they alone have such a standard--an infallible standard--the Bible. If we ask them to name the best precept in this standard they cite the Golden Rule. And yet the Golden Rule is in its very nature purely a human rule of conduct. "Whatsoever ye [men, not God] would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." This rule enjoins what Christians profess to condemn, that every person shall form his own moral standard. In this rule the so-called divine laws are totally ignored. The Golden Rule, so far as the Bible is concerned, is a borrowed gem. Chinese, Greek, and Roman sages had preached and practiced it centuries before the Sermon on the Mount was delivered. This rule, one of the best formulated by the ancients, is not, however, a perfect rule of human conduct. It does not demand that our desires shall always be just. But it does recognize and enjoin the principle of reciprocity, and is immeasurably superior to the rule usually practised by the professed followers of Jesus: Whatsoever we would that you should do unto us, do it; and whatsoever we wish to do unto you, that will we do. The three Christian virtues, faith, hope, and charity, fairly represent this whole system of so-called Bible morals--two false or useless precepts to one good precept. Charity is a true virtue, but "faith and hope," to quote Volney, "may be called the virtues of dupes for the benefit of knaves." And if the knaves have admitted charity to be the greatest of these virtues, it is because they are the recipients and not the dispensers of it. Bible Models. The noblest types of manhood, like Bruno, Spinoza, Paine, and Ingersoll, have been slandered, anathematized, and slain by Christians, while the gods, the heroes, the patriarchs, the prophets, and the priests of the Bible have been presented as the highest models of moral excellence. Of these, Jehovah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Paul, and Christ are represented as the greatest and the best.