I am well aware that some Jewish doctors, wishing to vindicate their fathers from crimes so unnatural have sought to prove that “causing children to pass through the fire” was a rite of purification and not actual murder. The attempt is futile:――――(1.) Because some of the expressions are perfectly unequivocal; _e. g._――“Even their sons have they burnt in the fire to their Gods” (Deut. 12: 31). See also the cases in 2 Kings 17: 31, and 2 Chron. 28: 3, and Jer. 7: 31, and 19: 5.――――(2.) The phrase――“To make to pass through the fire unto their gods” is used in the same sense as the phrase――“to burn in the fire.”――――(3.) That the Phenicians and Carthagenians, closely related to the ancient Canaanites, did offer human sacrifices is a well established fact of history. (See Smith’s Bible Dictionary; “Moloch.”) * * * * * We have seen that the title of Israel to Canaan falls back upon God’s prior title――upon his right to deed it to whom he would. On the same principle the question whether it was right and just for them to extirpate the Canaanites falls back upon two prior questions――(a.) Was it right and just for God to extirpate them?――――(b.) Was it wise for Him to command the Israelites to do this work of extirpation, rather than do it himself by miracle, and without human hands? Here are our two great questions. (a.) As to the first――the right of God to destroy them for their crimes and the justice of doing it――I see not how it can be denied or questioned without denying to God the right to punish sin at all. Has God any right to govern his own universe――any right to resist the influence of sin and rebellion in his kingdom――any right to protect innocent children from being burned to death in homage to the devil? Alas for the universe if this doctrine can be maintained!――――Truly we may say――If God has no right to exterminate from the earth any one individual sinner, or a nation of many thousands who are too corrupt to live, then he lacks the essential rights of a God! If he has not the power to do it, he lacks the power necessary to a God. If he has not the firmness――the nerve (shall we say?)――the sense of justice and right that would forbid his evading the duty, then he lacks the essential attributes of a God. If he has so little love for his offspring that he can see their welfare sacrificed in the worship of the devil and in the sweep of unutterable social pollutions, then he is incompetent to govern a world of sinners! (b.) But the objector will make his chief stand upon the secondary question――Was it wise for God to employ Israel to extirpate the corrupt Canaanites?