just hinting to him
that he had a few more wives than were absolutely necessary? He had a
thousand we are told, which leaves Brigham Young away behind. Yet there
are Christians to-day who teach their children that Solomon was the
wisest man who ever lived, and that Brigham Young was very close to the
biggest fool. It is not strange that some of these children infer that
the trouble with Brigham was that he had not wives enough, and that
if he had only married the whole state of Massachusetts he and Solomon
would now occupy adjoining seats on the other shore, and use the same
jew's-harp?

Do you believe for one moment that a God ever talked with any man and
told him to murder a whole nation of men, to steal their property, to
butcher in cold blood the mothers, and to give the young girls to a camp
of brutal soldiers--_and that he helped to do it?_ Do you believe any
God ever told a man to give so many of those girls to one tribe, so
many to another, and to burn so many as an offering to himself? Do you
believe it? I don't. Would you worship him if he had? I would not.

And yet it is true that he did help in such work, or else the word
of Moses is not worth a nickel. God did this, or else our religion is
founded upon a fraud. He did it, or orthodoxy is a mistake. He did it,
or the Bible is an imposition. If it is true, no woman should submit to
such a fiend for an hour; if it is false, let her unclasp the clutches
of the superstition which is built upon her dishonor and nourished by
her hand.

They say it is a shame for a woman to attack the Bible. I say she is
the one who should do it. It is she who has everything to gain by its
overthrow. It is she who has everything to lose by its support. They
tell me it is the word and will of God. I do not, I cannot, believe
it! And it does seem to me that nothing but lack of moral perception
or mental capacity could enable any human being who was honest (and not
scared) to either respect or believe in such a God.

As a collection of ingenious stories, as a record of folly and
wickedness, as a curious and valuable old literary work, keep the Bible
in the library. But put it on the top shelf--or just behind it, and
don't let the children see it until they are old enough to read it
with discrimination. As a mythological work it is no worse than several
others. As a divine revelation it is simply monstrous.

Among your other tales you might tell the children some from it. You
mig