attended to their wardrobes. I never could believe it. Just
think of one angel hunting another and saying: "There goes another
button." I cannot believe it.

There must be a mistake somewhere or somehow. Do you believe the real
God--if there is one--ever killed a man for making hair-oil? And yet
you find in the Pentateuch that God gave Moses a recipe for making
hair-oil to grease Aaron's beard; and said if anybody made the same
hair-oil he should be killed. And He gave him a formula for making
ointment, and He said if anybody made ointment like that he should be
killed. I think that is carrying patent-laws to excess. There must be
some mistake about it. I cannot imagine the infinite Creator of all
the shining worlds giving a recipe for hair-oil. Do you believe that
the real God came down to Mount Sinai with a lot of patterns for making
a tabernacle-patterns for tongs, for snuffers, and such things? Do you
believe that God came down on that mountain and told Moses how to cut a
coat, and how it should be trimmed? What would an infinite God care on
which side he cut the breast, what color the fringe was, or how the
buttons were placed? Do you believe God told Moses to make curtains of
fine linen? Where did they get their flax in the desert? How did they
weave it? Did He tell him to make things of gold, silver and precious
stones, when they hadn't them? Is it possible that God told them not
to eat any fruit until after the fourth year of planting the trees?
You see all these things were written hundreds of years afterwards, and
the priests, in order to collect the tithes, dated the laws back. They
did not say, "This is our law," but, "Thus said God to Moses in the
wilderness." Now, can you believe that? Imagine a scene: The eternal
God tells Moses "Here is the way I want you to consecrate my priests.
Catch a sheep and cut his throat." I never could understand why God
wanted a sheep killed just because a man had done a mean trick; perhaps
it was because his priests were fond of mutton. He tells Moses further
to take some of the blood and put it on his right thumb, a little on
his right ear, and a little on his right big toe? Do you believe God
ever gave such instructions for the consecration of His priests? If
you should see the South Sea Islanders going through such a performance
you could not keep your face straight. And will you tell me that it
had to be done in order to consecrate a man to the service