_Answer_. This is an exceedingly hard question. If he had really tried to do it, of course he could have done it. We must not think of limiting the power of the infinite. But you must remember that if he had succeeded in civilizing the Jews, if he had educated them up to the plane of intellectual liberty, and made them just and kind and merciful, like him- self, they would not have crucified Christ, and you can see at once the awful condition in which we would all be to-day. No atonement could have been made; and if no atonement had been made, then, according to the Christian system, the whole world would have been lost. We must admit that there was no time in the history of the Jews from Sinai to Jerusalem, that they would not have put a man like Christ to death. _Question_. So you think that, after all, it was not God's intention that the Jews should become civilized? _Answer_. We do not know. We can only say that "God's ways are not our ways." It may be that God took them in his special charge, for the 397 purpose of keeping them bad enough to make the necessary sacrifice. That may have been the divine plan. In any event, it is safer to believe the explana- tion that is the most unreasonable. _Question_. Do you think that Christ knew the Jews would crucify him? _Answer_. Certainly. _Question_. Do you think that when he chose Judas he knew that he would betray him? _Answer_. Certainly. _Question_. Did he know when Judas went to the chief priest and made the bargain for the delivery of Christ? _Answer_. Certainly. _Question_. Why did he allow himself to be be- trayed, if he knew the plot? _Answer_. Infidelity is a very good doctrine to live by, but you should read the last words of Paine and Voltaire. _Question_. If Christ knew that Judas would betray him, why did he choose him? _Answer_. Nothing can exceed the atrocities of the French Revolution--when they carried a woman through the streets and worshiped her as the goddess of Reason. 398 _Question_. Would not the mission of Christ have been a failure had no one betrayed him? _Answer_. Thomas Paine was a drunkard, and re- canted on his death-bed, and died a blaspheming infidel besides. _Question_. Is it not clear that an atonement was necessary; and is it not equally clear that the atone- ment could not have been made unless somebody had betrayed Christ; and unless the Jews had been wicked and orthodox enough to crucify him? _Answer_. Of course the atonement had to be made. It was a part of the "divine plan" that Christ should be betrayed, and that the Jews should be wicked enough to kill him. Otherwise, the world would have been lost. _Question_. Suppose Judas had understood the divine plan, what ought he to have done? Should he have betrayed Christ, or let somebody else do it; or should he have allowed the world to perish, in- cluding his own soul?