But all the cruelties in the Old Testament are ab- solute mercies compared with the hell of the New Testament. In the Old Testament God stops with the grave. He seems to have been satisfied when he saw his enemies dead, when he saw their flesh rotting in the open air, or in the beaks of birds, or in the teeth of wild beasts. But in the New Testament, ven- geance does not stop with the grave. It begins there, and stops never. The enemies of Jehovah are to be pursued through all the ages of eternity. There is to be no forgiveness--no cessation, no mercy, nothing but everlasting pain. And yet we are told that the author of hell is a being of infinite mercy. _Second_; All intelligent Christians will admit that there are many passages in the Bible that, if found in the Koran, they would regard as impure and immoral. It is not necessary for me to specify the passages, nor to call the attention of the public to such things. I am willing to trust the judgment of every honest reader, and the memory of every biblical student. 245 The Old Testament upholds polygamy. That is infinitely impure. It sanctions concubinage. That is impure; nothing could or can be worse. Hun- dreds of things are publicly told that should have re- mained unsaid. No one is made better by reading the history of Tamar, or the biography of Lot, or the memoirs of Noah, of Dinah, of Sarah and Abraham, or of Jacob and Leah and Rachel and others that I do not care to mention. No one is improved in his morals by reading these things. All I mean to say is, that the Bible is like other books produced by other nations in the same stage of civilization. What one age considers pure, the next considers impure. What one age may consider just, the next may look upon as infamous. Civiliza- tion is a growth. It is continually dying, and continu- ally being born. Old branches rot and fall, new buds appear. It is a perpetual twilight, and a perpetual dawn--the death of the old, and the birth of the new. I do not say, throw away the Bible because there are some foolish passages in it, but I say, throw away the foolish passages. Don't throw away wisdom because it is found in company with folly; but do not say that folly is wisdom, because it is found in its company. All that is true in the Bible is true whether 246 it is inspired or not. All that is true did not need to be inspired. Only that which is not true needs the assistance of miracles and wonders. I read the Bible as I read other books. What I believe to be good, I admit is good; what I think is bad, I say is bad; what I believe to be true, I say is true, and what I believe to be false, I denounce as false. _Third_. Let us see whether there are any contra- dictions in the Bible. A little book has been published, called "Self "Contradictions of the Bible," by J. P. Mendum, of The Boston Investigator. I find many of the apparent contradictions of the Bible noted in this book.