a war of deadlier weapons, tends
generally to widen the differences and increase the antipathies of the
combatants. And so it was here. And one party certainly went further and
travelled faster in the way of error after this exciting contest than he
had done before.

And greater extremes produced more bitterness of feeling in my
opponents. One man wished me dead, and said to a near relation of mine,
"If there was a rope round his neck, and I had hold of it, I would hang
him myself." And this was a man remarkable, in general, for his meekness
and gentleness. Another said he "should like to _stick_ me:" but _he_
was a butcher. Another person, a woman, said, "Hanging would be too
good for him: hell is not bad enough for him." There was one even among
my relations that would not speak to me; a relation that before had
regarded me with pride. At some places where I was announced to lecture,
men organized and plotted to do me bodily injury, and in some cases they
threatened me with death. On more than one occasion I had narrow escapes
with my life. Once I was struck on the head with a brick, which almost
took away my consciousness, and came near putting an end to my life. On
another occasion I was hunted by a furious mob for hours, and had
repeated hair-breadth escapes from their violence. One man advocated my
assassination in a newspaper, and the editor inserted the article, and
quietly gave it his sanction.

All this was natural, but it was not Christian, nor was it wise. "The
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." Hard bricks have no
tendency to soften a man's heart. These attempts to force me into
submission made me more rebellious. They roused my indignation to the
highest pitch, and fearfully increased my hatred of the churches and
their creeds, and made me feel as if I ought to wage against my
persecutors an unsparing and eternal war.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE BIBLE QUESTION. INSPIRATION, INFALLIBILITY. HISTORY OF MY VIEWS ON
THE SUBJECT.

A PRAYER.

Help me, O Thou Great Good Father of my spirit, in the work on which I
am now about to enter. Enable me, on the great and solemn subject on
which I am now to speak, to separate the true from the false, the
doubtful from the certain, the important from the unimportant. And may I
be enabled to make all plain. And save me, O my Father, from going too
far. Let me not run to any extreme. Yet enable me to go far enough. May
I not, through needless fear, or