the hypothesis that he exists, he is Creator, and being Creator, the absolute right of dominion over his creatures necessarily follows, . . . to deny this right is to deny God's existence."

If by absolute dominion be meant the right to govern without regard to the principles of justice, written by God's own finger on the tablet of the human heart, we fail to see it. The right of dominion is not the tyrant's right. Suppose I had the power to speak into sentient life the sands of the sea, and to endue them with mental, moral, and physical being, would I be justified, because the creator of such, in inflicting suffering upon them from mere caprice, or for my own pleasure? No. And to ascribe a kindred right to God is to assert that he has the right to do wrong, to violate the eternal laws of his own being-is to aver that power is holiness.

"God has a right to take life." Granted; but should he or would he convert the world into a slaughter-house and depute his chosen people, as human butchers, to slay, not only men, but women, children, and babes unborn? Death comes by fire and flood, and from the innumerable accidents to which humanity is exposed. But whether from the lightning's flash, the tempest's breath, the devouring flame, or as a calm exit, as by peaceful slumber; by it the heart is softened, the affections refined and chastened, and unholy passion rebuked and subdued. But when the hounds of hate are unchained and their fangs drip blood; when in demoniacal rage man meets man in deadly conflict, seeking to mutilate and kill, a picture is seen on which the fiends of hell should look with pity. For everything which is pure in sentiment, noble in conception, or holy in love is defiled and blasphemed. Hence war in its mildest form obdurates the soul. Its demoralizing influences, mitigated by all the military amenities and mercies of to-day, extend to generations unborn.

But what shall we say of wars where prisoners were tor

tured, the bodies of the dead mutilated in emulation of savagery; where sex was not spared, nor tottering age respected; where helpless babes were carved and hammered into pulp; where not even a tear of pity rewarded the prayer for mercy ? What must have been the effect of such inhuman brutalities on those who participated in them? Charge such deeds to ignorance if you will, but not to him the double crime-the death of the victims of unholy religious hate, and worse than the soul's death of their murderers. Such are not the acts of men instigated by a being who, as Matthew Arnold would say, "maketh for righteousness."

But the heathen nations were "so wicked!" But what of the Jewish people and their anointed rulers? From the days of Abraham the lash of the Almighty was held in terrorem over their backs, and his will was made clearly manifest to them; and yet, with all, they were in a state of chronic rebellion against their divine ruler. Not content to make gods with their own hands they borrowed them from the heathen and worshipped them.

The killing of the heathen by the idolatrous Jews is justified, although the heathen nations were ignorant of the divine law and its penalties, because they had been revealed to their ancestors hundreds of years before. As if that were a revelation to them. Suppose all our acts of assembly should be burned and not reprinted for ten generations, would any just judge condemn a criminal for the violation of a law of which he had never heard because ages before his ancestors had read it?

Mr. Ingersoll is severely reprimanded because he avers that, according to Scripture, captive maidens were surrendered to their lustful captors. He is accused of being reckless in statement. The charge he makes is termed a baseless assertion and an appeal to ignorance.

Lambert.-"I flatly deny the truth of your statement given above, etc. . . . If you study the 21st chapter of Deuteronomy, verses 10 to 14, you will learn that the soldier was obliged to make the captive his wife, or to respect her person and honor."

Why does the Father say "to" and not through the 14th verse? Without divining the motive it will be apparent that by so doing he would have disproved his own assertion and have justified Mr. Ingersoll's statement. I will quote from verse 10 to 14 inclusive:

10. "When thou goeth forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive,

II. "And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;

12. "Then thou shalt bring her home to thy house; and she shall shave her head and pare her nails;

13. "And she shalt put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

14. "And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her."

Certainly; a lady of the present day would, no doubt, feel sufficiently "humbled" by treatment like this. If not suited to the delicacy of capricious lust, she, humbled and defiled, is sent adrift, unwept and unloved. "You shall be her husband," and she "thy wife." So in the plenitude of thy mercy sell her not, noble man! devoted husband! but with a wave of thy hand waft her to the uncertain waves of fortune less pitiless than the deity whose mandates you obey.

"Rattle his bones, over the stones;

He is only a pauper whom nobody owns."

This, Father, is a proverb of mercy in compare with verse 14, to which you forgot to refer.

But the proof is not exhausted. Read Numbers xxxi. 14 to 19, and you will see that Moses was not sated with the wholesale slaughter of the Midianite soldiery, but was wroth because women and male children were suffered to live. Listen to his command:

"Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children that hath not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." Female innocence to be offered a sacrifice on the altar of lust! Noble trophies of victory!

Lambert.-" God abhors lying spirits; false prophets, false philosophers; yet he permits them to exist because he cannot [What!] make them impossible without destroying free will or human liberty."

The good priest has at last confessed it. There be some things which even God cannot do. To the extent of his inability he is of course "limited."

We now agree that somethings are impossible with God, even if we disagree as to what is and what is not impossible.

But did the God of the Hebrews, as the Father avers he did, abhor lying spirits? A man might employ an agent, from policy, whom he abhors. But with God there is no scarcity of messengers to do his will.

I Kings xxii. 20 to 24. "And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.

"And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also; go forth and do so. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee." Would it not appear from this that the "lying spirit" was on good terms with Deity when he volunteered his services to lie for him, which tender was accepted and approved?

When will humanity exchange the swaddling-clothes of its infancy for garments becoming its mature manhood?