x hat-band; he'll tell you.) And then he burns a pinch of it
(that is probably for luck), and at this point it is time to make the
woman drink some more of the filthy water (which he does with great
alacrity), and "if she be guilty the water will turn bitter within
her,"... "and she shall be accursed among her people." (You doubtless
perceive that her defence has been most elaborate throughout.) Do you
think that water would be bitter to the priest?

*See Numbers v. 11-31.

But if she does not complain that the water is bitter, and if her "Amen"
is perfectly satisfactory all round, and she be pronounced innocent,
what then? Is the husband in any way reproved for his brutality? Did the
Lord "reveal" to Moses that he should drink the rest of that holy water
and dirt? No! That wasn't in Moses' line. Neither he nor the husband
drink the rest of that water--priest doesn't either; they don't even
take a pinch of the barley. But after she is subjected to this, and the
show is over, "if she be innocent, then shall she go free!" Oh, ye
gods! what magnificent generosity! I should have thought they would have
hanged her then for being innocent.

"And then shall the man be guiltless of iniquity, and the woman shall
bear her iniquity."

_If she is innocent she shall bear her iniquity_. You all see how that
is done I suppose. If you don't, ask your little number six theological
student, and he will tell you all about it, and he will also prove to
you, without being asked, that he and God are capable of regulating the
entire universe without the aid of General Butler.

But I am told that I ought to respect and love the Bible; that all women
ought to take an active part in teaching it to the heathen, to show
them how good Jehovah is to his daughters. But if he is, he has been
unusually unfortunate in his choice of executors.

Nor is it only in the Old Testament that such morals and such justice
are taught. The clergy put that part off by saying--"Oh, that was
a different dispensation, and God, the Unchangeable, has changed his
mind." That is the sole excuse they give for all the "holy" men, who
used to talk personally with God, practicing polygamy and all the
other immoralities. They maintain that it was God's best man who upheld
polygamy then, and that it is the Devil's best man who does it now.
Odd idea, isn't it? Simply a question of time and place; and as Col.
Ingersoll says, you have got to look on a map to see whether