"Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes" (Isa. xiii, 16). "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces" (Hosea xiii, 16). "As he [Elisha] was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him.... And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them" (2 Kings ii, 23, 24). It advocates the punishment of children for the misdeeds of their parents. "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children" (Ex. xx, 5). "I will stir up the Medes against them, ... their eye shall not spare children" (Isa. xiii, 17, 18). "I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children" (Lev. xxvi, 22). David prays that the children of his adversaries may become vagabonds and beggars; and Jeremiah, that the children of his enemies may perish by famine. God kills Bath-sheba's child: "And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore unto David, and it was very sick.... And it came to pass on the seventh day that the child died" (2 Sam. xii, 15-18). Poor babe! tortured and murdered for its parents' crime! Cruelty to Animals. I refuse to accept the Bible as a moral guide because it sanctions and enjoins unkindness and cruelty to animals. Portions of the Old Testament, and particularly those relating to sacrifices, are calculated to foster a spirit of brutality, and a total disregard for animal life. God revels in the blood of the innocent. The offering of fruits made by Cain is rejected by him; the bloody sacrifice of Abel is accepted. Nearly the entire book of Leviticus is devoted to such laws as these: "If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar" (Lev. iii, 7, 8). "And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar" (Lev. i, 14, 15). The minutest directions for conducting these bloody sacrifices come from the lips of Jehovah himself, and are too brutal and disgusting to repeat. The number of animals sacrificed was incredible. At times whole herds were killed. On one occasion Asa sacrificed 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. David made an offering of 1,000 bullocks and 2,000 sheep. At the dedication of the temple, 142,000 domestic beasts were sacrificed by Solomon.