They were always predicting the downfall of Jeru- salem. They revelled in defeat and captivity. They loved to paint the horrors of famine and war. For the most part, they were envious, hateful, misan- thropic and unjust.
There seems to have been a war between church and state. The prophets were endeavoring to pre- serve the ecclesiastical power. Every king who would listen to them, was chosen of G.o.d. He instantly became the model of virtue, and the prophets a.s.sured him that he was in the keeping of Jehovah. But if the king had a mind of his own, the prophets im- mediately called down upon him all the curses of heaven, and predicted the speedy destruction of his kingdom.
If our own country should be divided, if an empire should rise upon the ruins of the Republic, it would be very easy to find that hundreds and thousands of
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people had foretold that very thing. If you will read the political speeches of the last twenty-two years, you will find prophecies to fit any possible future state of affairs in our country. No matter what happens, you will find that somebody predicted it.
If the city of London should lose her trade, if the Parliament house should become the abode of moles and bats, if "the New Zealander should sit upon the "ruins of London Bridge," all these things would be simply the fulfillment of prophecy. The fall of every nation under the sun has been predicted by hundreds and thousands of people.
The prophecies of the Old Testament can be made to fit anything that may happen, or that may not happen. They will apply to the death of a king, or to the destruction of a people,--to the loss of com- merce, or the discovery of a continent. Each pro- phecy is a jugglery of words, of figures, of symbols, so put together, so used, so interpreted, that they can mean anything, everything, or nothing.
_Question_. Do you see anything "prophetic" in the fate of the Jewish people themselves? Do you think that G.o.d made the Jewish people wanderers, so that they might be perpetual witnesses to the truth of the Scriptures?
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_Answer_. I cannot believe that an infinitely good G.o.d would make anybody a wanderer. Neither can I believe that he would keep millions of people with- out country and without home, and allow them to be persecuted for thousands of years, simply that they might be used as witnesses. Nothing could be more absurdly cruel than this.
The Christians justify their treatment of the Jews on the ground that they are simply fulfilling prophecy.
The Jews have suffered because of the horrid story that their ancestors crucified the Son of G.o.d. Chris- tianity, coming into power, looked with horror upon the Jews, who denied the truth of the gospel. Each Jew was regarded as a dangerous witness against Christianity. The early Christians saw how neces- sary it was that the people who lived in Jerusalem at the time of Christ should be convinced that he was G.o.d, and should testify to the miracles he wrought. Whenever a Jew denied it, the Christian was filled with malignity and hatred, and immediately excited the prejudice of other Christians against the man simply because he was a Jew. They forgot, in their general hatred, that Mary, the mother of Christ, was a Jewess; that Christ himself was of Jewish blood; and with an inconsistency of which, of all
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religions, Christianity alone could have been guilty, the Jew became an object of especial hatred and aversion.
When we remember that Christianity pretends to be a religion of love and kindness, of charity and for- giveness, must not every intelligent man be shocked by the persecution of the Jews? Even now, in learned and cultivated Germany, the Jew is treated as though he were a wild beast. The reputation of this great people has been stained by a persecution spring- ing only from ignorance and barbarian prejudice.
So in Russia, the Christians are anxious to shed every drop of Jewish blood, and thousands are to-day fleeing from their homes to seek a refuge from Chris- tian hate. And Mr. Talmage believes that all these persecutions are kept up by the perpetual intervention of G.o.d, in order that the homeless wanderers of the seed of Abraham may testify to the truth of the Old and New Testaments. He thinks that every burning Jewish home sheds light upon the gospel,--that every gash in Jewish flesh cries out in favor of the Bible,--that every violated Jewish maiden shows the interest that G.o.d still takes in the preservation of his Holy Word.
I am endeavoring to do away with religious
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prejudice. I wish to subst.i.tute humanity for super- st.i.tion, the love of our fellow-men, for the fear of G.o.d. In the place of ignorant worship, let us put good deeds. We should be great enough and grand enough to know that the rights of the Jew are pre- cisely the same as our own. We cannot trample upon their rights, without endangering our own; and no man who will take liberty from another, is great enough to enjoy liberty himself.
Day by day Christians are laying the foundation of future persecution. In every Sunday school little children are taught that Jews killed the G.o.d of this universe. Their little hearts are filled with hatred against the Jewish people. They are taught as a part of the creed to despise the descendants of the only people with whom G.o.d is ever said to have had any conversation whatever.
When we take into consideration what the Jewish people have suffered, it is amazing that every one of them does not hate with all his heart and soul and strength the entire Christian world. But in spite of the persecutions they have endured, they are to-day, where they are permitted to enjoy reasonable liberty, the most prosperous people on the globe. The idea that their condition shows, or tends to show, that
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upon them abides the wrath of Jehovah, cannot be substantiated by the facts.
The Jews to-day control the commerce of the world. They control the money of the world. It is for them to say whether nations shall or shall not go to war. They are the people of whom nations borrow money. To their offices kings come with their hats in their hands. Emperors beg them to discount their notes. Is all this a consequence of the wrath of G.o.d?
We find upon our streets no Jewish beggars. It is a rare sight to find one of these people standing as a criminal before a court. They do not fill our alms- houses, nor our penitentiaries, nor our jails. In- tellectually and morally they are the equal of any people. They have become ill.u.s.trious in every de- partment of art and science. The old cry against them is at last perceived to be ignorant. Only a few years ago, Christians would rob a Jew, strip him of his possessions, steal his money, declare him an out- cast, and drive him forth. Then they would point to him as a fulfillment of prophecy.
If you wish to see the difference between some Jews and some Christians, compare the addresses of Felix Adler with the sermons of Mr. Talmage.
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I cannot convince myself that an infinitely good and wise G.o.d holds a Jewish babe in the cradle of to-day responsible for the crimes of Caiaphas the high priest. I hardly think that an infinitely good being would pursue this little babe through all its life simply to get revenge on those who died two thou- sand years ago. An infinite being ought certainly to know that the child is not to blame; and an infinite being who does not know this, is not ent.i.tled to the love or adoration of any honest man.
There is a strange inconsistency in what Mr. Tal- mage says. For instance, he finds great fault with me because I do not agree with the religious ideas of my father; and he finds fault equally with the Jews who do. The Jews who were true to the re- ligion of their fathers, according to Mr. Talmage, have been made a by-word and a hissing and a re- proach among all nations, and only those Jews were fortunate and blest who abandoned the religion of their fathers. The real reason for this inconsistency is this: Mr. Talmage really thinks that a man can believe as he wishes. He imagines that evidence de- pends simply upon volition; consequently, he holds every one responsible for his belief. Being satisfied that he has the exact truth in this matter, he meas-
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ures all other people by his standard, and if they fail by that measurement, he holds them personally responsible, and believes that his G.o.d does the same.
If Mr. Talmage had been born in Turkey, he would in all probability have been a Mohammedan, and would now be denouncing some man who had denied the inspiration of the Koran, as the "champion blas- "phemer" of Constantinople. Certainly he would have been, had his parents been Mohammedans; because, according to his doctrine, he would have been utterly lacking in respect and love for his father and mother had he failed to perpetuate their errors.
So, had he been born in Utah, of Mormon parents, he would now have been a defender of polygamy.
He would not "run the ploughshare of contempt "through the graves of his parents," by taking the ground that polygamy is wrong.
I presume that all of Mr. Talmage"s forefathers were not Presbyterians. There must have been a time when one of his progenitors left the faith of his father, and joined the Presbyterian Church. Ac- cording to the reasoning of Mr. Talmage, that particular progenitor was an exceedingly bad man; but had it not been for the crime of that bad man, Mr. Talmage might not now have been on the road to heaven.
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I hardly think that all the inventors, the thinkers, the philosophers, the discoverers, dishonored their parents. Fathers and mothers have been made immortal by such sons. And yet these sons demon- strated the errors of their parents. A good father wishes to be excelled by his children.
SIXTH INTERVIEW.
_It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second- hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication-- after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be inc.u.mbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.--Thomas Paine._
_Question_. What do you think of the argu- ments presented by Mr. Talmage in favor of the inspiration of the Bible?
_Answer_. Mr. Talmage takes the ground that there are more copies of the Bible than of any other book, and that consequently it must be in- spired.
It seems to me that this kind of reasoning proves entirely too much. If the Bible is the inspired word of G.o.d, it was certainly just as true when there was only one copy, as it is to-day; and the facts con- tained in it were just as true before they were
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written, as afterwards. We all know that it is a fact in human nature, that a man can tell a falsehood so often that he finally believes it himself; but I never suspected, until now, that a mistake could be printed enough times to make it true.
There may have been a time, and probably there was, when there were more copies of the Koran than of the Bible. When most Christians were ut- terly ignorant, thousands of Moors were educated; and it is well known that the arts and sciences flourished in Mohammedan countries in a far greater degree than in Christian. Now, at that time, it may be that there were more copies of the Koran than of the Bible. If some enterprising Mohammedan had only seen the force of such a fact, he might have established the inspiration of the Koran beyond a doubt; or, if it had been found by actual count that the Koran was a little behind, a few years of in- dustry spent in the multiplication of copies, might have furnished the evidence of its inspiration.
Is it not simply amazing that a doctor of divinity, a Presbyterian clergyman, in this day and age, should seriously rely upon the number of copies of the Bible to substantiate the inspiration of that book? Is it possible to conceive of anything more fig-leaflessly
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absurd? If there is anything at all in this argument, it is, that all books are true in proportion to the number of copies that exist. Of course, the same rule will work with newspapers; so that the news- paper having the largest circulation can consistently claim infallibility. Suppose that an exceedingly absurd statement should appear in _The New York Herald_, and some one should denounce it as utterly without any foundation in fact or probability; what would Mr. Talmage think if the editor of the Herald, as an evidence of the truth of the statement, should rely on the fact that his paper had the largest circulation of any in the city? One would think that the whole church had acted upon the theory that a falsehood re- peated often enough was as good as the truth.
Another evidence brought forward by the reverend gentleman to prove the inspiration of the Scriptures, is the a.s.sertion that if Congress should undertake to pa.s.s a law to take the Bible from the people, thirty, millions would rise in defence of that book.
This argument also seems to me to prove too much, and as a consequence, to prove nothing. If Con- gress should pa.s.s a law prohibiting the reading of Shakespeare, every American would rise in defence of his right to read the works of the greatest man
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this world has known. Still, that would not even tend to show that Shakespeare was inspired. The fact is, the American people would not allow Con- gress to pa.s.s a law preventing them from reading any good book. Such action would not prove the book to be inspired; it would prove that the American people believe in liberty.