of God to women. Neither one of those men
was fit to speak of a respectable woman. With the superior morals of our
time neither one of them would be considered fit to live outside of a
brothel.

And don't let them tell you what "Saint" Paul said either. What did he
know about women anyway? He was a brilliant but erratic old bachelor
who fought on whichever side he happened to find himself on. He could
accommodate himself to circumstances and accept the situation almost
as gracefully as that other biblical gentleman who quietly went to
housekeeping inside of a whale, and held the fort for three days.

AS MUCH INSPIRED AS ANY OF IT.

Did it ever occur to you that those absurd tales have as much claim to
be called the "word of God" as any of the rest of it? How can people
say they believe such nonsense? And how can they think it is evidence of
goodness to believe it? They say it takes a horribly wicked man to doubt
one of those yarns; and to come right out and say honestly, "I don't
believe it," will elect you, on the first ballot, to a permanent seat
in the lower house. Mr. Talmage says four out of five Christians "try to
explain away" these tales by giving them another meaning, and he urges
them not to do it. He says, stick to the original story in all its
literal bearings. The advice is certainly honest, but it would take
a brave man to follow it. And four out of five of even professed
Christians is a pretty heavy balance on the side of intellectual
integrity; and even Mr. Tal-mage's mammoth credulity fails to tip the
scale.

They simply can't believe these biblical stones, so they try to explain
the marvellous part entirely away. It has about come to this, in this
day of thought and intelligence, that when a thinking man claims to
believe these tales, and says it is an evidence of righteousness to
believe them, there are just two things to examine, his intellect and
his integrity. If one is all right the other is pretty sure to be out
of repair. Defective intellect or doubtful integrity is what he suffers
from. He has got one of them sure, and he may have both.

Now I should just like to ask you one honest question. Why should any
book bind us to sentiments that we would not tolerate if they came from
any other source? And why tolerate them coming from it? Do you know who
compiled the Bible? Do you know it was settled by vote which manuscripts
God did and which he did not write? The ballot is a very good thi