unt the death of the
mother of us all. I have no respect for any book that does not treat
woman as the equal of man. And if there is any God in this universe who
thinks more of me than he thinks of my wife, he is not well acquainted
with both of us. And yet they say that that was done on account of the
hardness of their hearts; and that was done in a community where the
law was so fierce that it stoned a man to death for picking up sticks
on Sunday. Would it not have been better to stone to death every man
who abused his wife and allowed them to pick up sticks on account of
the hardness of their hearts? If God wanted to take those Jews from
Egypt to the land of Canaan, why didn't He do it instantly? If He was
going to do a miracle why didn't He do one worth talking about?

After God had killed all the first-born in Egypt, after He had killed
all the cattle, still Egypt could raise an army that could put to
flight six hundred thousand men. And because this God overwhelmed the
Egyptian army, he bragged about it for a thousand years, repeatedly
calling the attention of the Jews to the fact that he overthrew Pharaoh
and his hosts. Did he help much with their six-hundred thousand men?
We find by the records of the day that the Egyptian standing army at
that time was never more than one hundred thousand men. Must we
believe all these stories in order to get to Heaven when we die? Must
we judge of a man's character by the number of stories he believes?
Are we to get to Heaven by creed or by deed? That is the question.
Shall we reason, or shall we simply believe? Ah, but they say the
Bible is not inspired about those little things. The Bible says the
rabbit and the hare chew the cud. But they do not. They have a
tremulous motion of the lip. But the Being that made them says they
chew the cud. The Bible, therefore, is not inspired in natural
history. Is it inspired in its astrology? No. Well, what is it
inspired in? In its law? Thousands of people say that if it had not
been for the ten commandments we would not have known any better than
to rob and steal. Suppose a man planted an acre of potatoes, hoed them
all summer, and dug them in the fall; and suppose a man had sat upon
the fence all the time and watched him? Do you believe it would be
necessary for that man to read the ten commandments to find out who, in
his judgment had a right to take those potatoes? All laws against
larceny have been made by indu