t in the fire to their gods. The destruction
of these idolators, who were burning their own sons and daughters in the
fire, furnishes unbelievers and skeptics with a great deal of capital,
which can be used with ignorance, but not with intelligence.

What was the law governing in the case? The answer is in these words: The
course of conduct which is for the greatest good of the greatest number is
right. This law is known in the science of civil government. It has its
place in the history of all civil governments. Without it we are unable to
account for the facts known in the history of our own government. It is a
law that lies at the foundation of all moral and social institutions.
Those wicked tribes in the land of Canaan, and upon its borders, were in
the way of the establishment of any civil institution. It is to be
remembered, also, that the children of Israel did not forfeit their rights
in the land by going down into Egypt in the time of a famine.

The land was theirs by right of preoccupancy and by gift. Upon their
return from Egypt they found no civil institutions in the land, but, on
the contrary, the people were burning their own children in the fire. They
were also guilty of every abominable thing that was hateful in the sight
of God. They were utterly unqualified for citizenship in any civil state,
so they were cut off as cankers upon the body.

To the same end, the greatest good to the greatest number, our government
has cut off thousands of better men. When the children of Israel went into
the idolatrous worship of those wicked heathen and burned their sons and
daughters in the fire to Molech, the Lord gave them statutes and laws
which were not good, and whereby they might not live. He served them
right. How can civil government be perpetuated, or even exist, in the
midst of such heathenish idolatry? If infidel objections, based upon the
destruction of such wicked hordes as were put to death in Canaan, are
worth anything they are worth enough to sanction, by the protection of
civil government, all manner of abominations that are known among
barbarous heathen.

These enemies of God and the Bible talk as though such an outrage as
burning sons and daughters in the fire to idol gods should not be visited
with such punishment. Would they do any better? Could they manage such
barbarous murderers better for the general good? If it was possible for a
civil government to allow such characters the rights of citize