every man his companion, and every man his neighbor,” and when 3,000 men had fallen he bade the murderers: “Consecrate yourselves to-day to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow a blessing upon you” (w., 27—29). Yet it is blasphemy to deny that this great wickedness was god-inspired. It is blasphemy to deny that “the Lord spake unto Moses face to face” (Ex. xxxiii., 11); also it is blasphemy to deny that god told Moses: “Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live” (v. 20, compare with ch. xxiv., 10, 11). And while it is blasphemy to deny that god is “without parts” (Art 1), it is equally blasphemy to deny that he has “back parts” (Ex. xxxiii., 23). Either the Prayer Book or the Bible clearly needs revision; meanwhile it is blasphemy to deny either. It is interesting to observe the fashion in which Christians pick and choose among the commandments given “by divine authority” while they imprison heretics for attacking those of which they, in their turn, disapprove. Thus we have (Ex. xxxv., 2, 3): “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord; whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.” The Sabbatarians quote verse 2 as a reason for shutting up all museums and art galleries on “the Lord’s day,” and they abuse as rebels against the law of god all the liberal-minded of their own creed. But they quietly ignore verse 3, because that would cause discomfort to themselves, and the very peers who, in the House of Lords, vote to shut working men out of art education go home to sit over their comfortable fires, and to wander through their own galleries wanned by a fire kindled against their god’s direct command. Wonderful, indeed, are the ways of religious men! The book of Leviticus is “of divine authority.” It is blasphemy to deny that a bullock, flayed and cut into pieces and burned, makes a sweet smell to god (Lev. L, 5—9). Tastes differ. Also burning a goat, with “the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks” (iii., 14, 15), makes a sweet savor as it frizzles and drips. The tabernacle of the congregation must have smelt like the kitchen of a dirty cook. Yet it is blasphemy to deny that god enjoyed it. “All the fat is the Lord’s” (16). Not a morsel of fat might the Israelite eat (17). Personally, I should have been quite willing to give all the fat to the Lord, but some of the people probably felt envious.