5. "Then shalt thou bring forth that man, or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die." Under this law if the woman you loved had said: "Let us worship the sun; I am tired of this jealous and bloodthirsty Jehovah; let us worship the sun; let us kneel to it as it rises over the hills, filling the world with light and love, when the dawn stands jocund on the mountain's misty top; it is the sun whose beams illumine and cover the earth with verdure and with beauty; it is the sun that covers the trees with leaves, that carpets the earth with grass and adorns the world with flowers; I adore the sun because in its light I have seen your eyes; it has given to me the face of my babe; it has clothed my life with joy; let us in gratitude fall down and worship the glorious beams of the sun." For this offence she deserved not only death, but death at your hands: "Thine eye shall not pity her; neither shalt thou spare; neither shalt thou conceal her. "But thou shalt surely kill her: thy hand shall be the first upon her to put her to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. "And thou shalt stone her with stones that she die." For my part I had a thousand times rather worship the sun than a God who would make such a law or give such a command. This you may say is the doctrine of the Old Testament--what is the doctrine of the New? "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be damned." That is the religious liberty of the New Testament. That is the "tidings of great joy." Every one of these words has been a chain upon the limbs, a whip upon the backs of men. Every one has been a fagot. Every one has been a sword. Every one has been a dungeon, a scaffold, a rack. Every one has been a fountain of tears. These words have filled the hearts of men with hatred. These words invented all the instruments of torture. These words covered the earth with blood. For the sake of argument, suppose that the Bible is an inspired book. If then, as is contended, God gave these frightful laws commanding religious intolerance to his chosen people, and afterward this same God took upon himself flesh, and came among the Jews and taught a different religion, and they crucified him, did he not reap what he had sown? DOES THE BIBLE DESCRIBE A GOD OF MERCY? XI. IS it possible to conceive of a more jealous, revengeful, changeable, unjust, unreasonable, cruel being than the Jehovah of the Hebrews? Is it possible to read the words said to have been spoken by this Deity, without a shudder? Is it possible to contemplate his character without hatred? "I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh."--_Deut. xxxii._ Is this the language of an infinitely kind and tender parent to his weak, his wandering and suffering children?