infinite: for only one part, one being, or one thing can be infinite. There can not be two infinite beings,--self-evidently not. And there are other logical difficulties in the way of admitting the existence of an infinite personal God. If there could be such a thing as an infinite personality or organized being, it is evident that only one such being could exist. What, then, becomes of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and also the Devil? They are all spoken of in the Bible as being omnipresent. Hence they must all be infinite, which is another self-evident impossibility. We could as easily conceive of two heads wearing the same hat at the same time, as two such beings being infinite. If one of them is infinite, the others can not be; and yet each is represented as being omnipresent, which would make them infinite. And thus we fail in every attempt to make a personal God infinite. David, in speaking of the God Jehovah, says, "If I descend into hell, behold thou art there." Then he would not find the Devil there; for two infinite beings could not be found there. And, if God's dwelling-place is in hell as well as in heaven, it can make but little difference which of the two places we go to, as we are told our happiness will consist in being in his presence. The defenders of a personal God sometimes have recourse to an illustrative argument. They tell us that the sun is a local, circumscribed body, and yet shines to a boundless extent. It is here assumed that the rays of the sun are a part of the sun; but this is not true. They once constituted a part of the sun, it is true; but to assume that they are still a part of the sun, after they have left it, is as absurd as to assume that the breath is still a part of the human body after it has escaped from the mouth. Thus every argument and every illustration fail to establish the self-evident absurdity of a personal God of the orthodox world being an infinite being; or, in other words, of their conception of a God conforming to the teachings of science and good sense. Those who assume the existence of a personal God must hold him accountable for all the crime and all the misery existing in the world. For such a God could not be controlled or circumscribed in his actions by any arbitrary laws; and hence could and should, by personal interference, put a stop to all the crime, misery, suffering, and wrong of every description existing on earth; and the fact that he does not do it we hold to be _prima-facie_ evidence that there is no personal God, but that every thing is governed by fixed, immutable laws, which control God himself, and which no God can alter. Note.--We have shown in the twelve preceding chapters that all the leading doctrines of Christianity are wrong,--from that of a belief in divine revelation to that of the conception of a personal God. Hence a better religion is needed for this age. CHAPTER XLV.--EVIL, NATURAL AND MORAL, EXPLAINED.