,
that it is necessary to preach hell to the blind and brutal populace, that
there is a real necessity for such teaching, whether it be true or false.
He seems to regard it untrue, but necessary. What an idea! The harmony and
consistency of unbelievers is (?) grand. It is no wonder that Voltaire's
name should stand, along with the names of Atheists and Pantheists and
Deists, above the head line upon the first page of the _Boston
Investigator_.

IS GOD THE AUTHOR OF DECEPTION AND FALSEHOOD?

There is a want of fair dealing with Bible language manifested by all the
enemies of our religion. The unbelievers of our time will find it very
difficult for them to sustain the reputation of moral honesty and, at the
same time, retain many of the old, worn out objections which they have
urged against the Bible. They should remember that while the light of
scientific investigation is exposing the old, unscientific and
unscriptural tenets of the creeds of our forefathers, and making it hard
for candid, sensible men to defend them, it is also shedding light upon
Bible truth to such an extent that unbelievers are finding it equally
difficult to retain their silly objections to the Bible. They have
asserted from 1st Kings 32, that God kept false as well as true prophets.
This charge is not only without foundation in fact, but also false and
contemptible. The four hundred prophets mentioned in the sixth verse of
that chapter are emphatically denominated "Ahab's prophets,"
notwithstanding they professed to be the Lord's prophets. This wicked King
of Israel had those wicked, false prophets in his service. The address of
Micaiah to the two kings in verses 19-23 is a mere parable showing what,
in the providence of God, would shortly take place, and the divine
permission for the agents, spoken of, to act. Micaiah did not tell the mad
and impious Ahab that his prophets were all liars; but he represents the
whole by a parable, and, in language equally strong and inoffensive, he
says that which amounts to the same thing. Unbelievers of the schools of
modern spiritualism and Bostonian infidelity, both say that God inspired
prophets with false messages, and violated his own word.

The charge of inspiring prophets with false messages is founded,
pretendingly, upon 1st Kings 22: 22, 23, Jeremiah 4: 10, and Ezekiel 14:
9. To answer this, it is only necessary to know that it is an idiom of the
original languages to express, in the imperati