COMMON SENSE THOUGHIITS
THE BIBLE.
COMMON SENSE PEOPLE.
BY WILLIAM DENTON.
FOURTH EDITION, ENLARGED AND REVISED.
EIGHTEENTH THOUSAND.
BOSTON:
..ILLIAM DENTON, PUBLISHER.
1871.
ON
-FOR 
-7s
.6.3.
THIS pamphlet, which was first published by me sixteen years ago,
has been out of print for some time. At the urgent request of many
who have been benefited by its perusal, I have, after rewriting it, sent
it out again to stir up thought and help men out of darkness into
light.
WILLIAM DENTON.
W.L:sLE~Y, June, 1869. 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS
ox
THE BIBLE.
THERE is nothing more sacred than truth.  We should
love it above all things, and be willing to make any sacrifice
for its sake. We should abide by its teachings, how far
soever they may lead us from what some men call orthodoxy, and into what the same men call heterodoxy. For
truth is a blessing to all, being the perception of things as
they are: but error is a constant curse, whether  in the
beggar's heart or the doctor's; spoken by the fireside, or
from the tasselled pulpit.
We never can be sure that our ideas are correct, or our
beliefs true, until we have examined them fairly, and scrutinized them without prejudice; otherwise we maybe hugging an error to our bosoms, because we were taught it, and
casting the truth from us with disdain. The more nearly
allied to our present welfare and future happiness any thing
is or professes to be, the more narrowly should we examine,
the more carefully should we investigate it; remembering
that there is nothing good that is false, and that a wise man
will always be glad to exchange an error for a truth.
The subject I purpose to examine is the BIBLE.  IS it
all true?  Should we esteem it as holy, and make it our
guide in all things? or should we regard it as a human
production, liable to all the errors and mistakes common to
man's work, and no more to be regarded as a rule of faith
and practice than it can be pro-ed to be reasonable and
true?
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4  COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS o T THE BIBLE.
With the exception of the Quakers, Christian sects unite
in calling the Bible the word of God, and regard it as the
infallible standard of truth and duty.
Taking the ideas of God generally held by Christians, J
will give some reasons for not believing this.
THE BIBLE ITSELF MAKES NO SUCH PRETENSIONS.
It nowhere says that the sixty-six books of which it is
composed are the word of God. If it did, it would be no
proof that it was so; but that God should write a book, or
cause it to be written, and never tell us that he had done
so, or that the book was his, is extremely improbable. In
no single passage of the Bible is any such doctrine taught:
it was left for men in after-times thus to exalt these records
and traditions of the past.  There is not only no statement
in the Scriptures that the whole Bible is the word of God,
but there is no writer of it who claims that his book or
books are the word of God.  (David seems to have regarded
the ten commandments, and the law supposed to be given
by Moses, as God's word; but this is far from claiming
that title for all the books that now go by that name.
Several of the Bible writers say, "Thus saith the Lord," as
a preamble to some portions of their writings; but they
leave us to conjecture how he said it, - by audible voice, by
impression on the mind, or whether they use the expression,
as the early Quakers did, for the strong impression of their
own minds. Paul, indeed, says, " All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction," &c. But it should be remembered that the
books of the New Testament were not referred to by Paul,
for at that time they had no existence; and if the books of
the Old Testament, to which he refers, were all profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in
righteousness, he must have had a different list from ours.
There are several theories of inspiration. The most
commonly received and orthodox theory of the inspiration
of the Bible, is, that God appointed men to write it, and
breathed his spirit into them: so that they gave a faithful
transcript of his mind or will.  Some believe that every
word was dictated to them; while others believe that the
ideas were suggested, and ttey were left to choose the
language in which to convey those ideas. 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.   5
Let us by the light of reason, man's sure guide, aided by
nature, that universal revelation of the infinite Spirit,let us test this book, and see whether it is such a book as we
might reasonably expect God to dictate, either verbally or
ideally; whether it is in agreement with reason, with
nature, and with the character ascribed by its believers to
the divine Being.
A BOOK TO BE GOD'S SHOULD AGREE WITH NATURE.
If the Bible is God's word, it will agree with the sciences
of geology, astronomy, geography, meteorology, and a]ll others
based on immutable law.
In the first chapter of the Book of Genesis, tbe writer
represents God as being employed for five days in making
this little globe, and yet forming the countless millions of 
celestial orbs in one day. Five days spent by Omanipotence
in framing and adorning this tiny atom; and the universe,
with its millions of mighty suns, formed at A breath, and
carelessly dismissed with the five little worls, "He made
the stars also "! The same writer informs us that there
were three evenings and mornings upon'a e earth before
thlie sun was made, though one reason giv -n for its creation
is "to divide the day from the night."  I  would be just as
reasonable to represent apples growing before trees had
an existence, or trees before the earth, or children before
their fathers, as this. There is the best of reason for
believing that the earth is the child of the sun, and that
our great luminous centre existed for ages before the earth
came into being.
The Bible writers speak of the stars falling from heaven
and falling to the earth (Matt. xxiv. 29; Rev. vi. 13; Is..
xxxv. 4), when it is certain, if one fell, there would be no room
for another; and, since most ofthe stars are larger than the
earth, if there was any falling, by the law of gravitation, the
earth would fallto the stars. The Bible teaches that there is
a firmament, which God called heaven, dividing the waters
that are on the earth from the waters that are above the
earth, consequently, the firmament is bcl,w the clouds; and
that in this firmament are set the srp and moon: there
are windows in it, which are opened 4 ) allow- the rain to
fall through, and shut again, that theb arch may be blest
with fair weather.  The sun and moJ' -.  therefore below 
6  COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
the clouds, and on a fine day cannot be more than four or
five miles high! See Gen. i. 6, 14-18, vii. 11, viii. 2.
The geography of the Bible is quite as incorrect as its
astronomy.  It speaks  of the "ends of the earth" in
Jer. x. 13, and in more than twenty other places; of the
"foundations of the earth" in Isa. li. 13, and in a dozen
other places; the "pillars of the earth" in Sam. ii. 8,
and two other places; and David assures us in the Ninetythird Psalm, "that the world is established, that it cannot
be moved." Under the earth, some of the Bible writers
supposed there was a large collection of water, inhabited
by various animals (Ex. xx. 4), and that, on  this subterranean ocean, God had founded the world (Ps. xxiv. 1).
The man who wrote the account of the deluge saw no
difficulty in the way of drowning  the world when  the
"fountains" of this "great deep were broken up."
Its geology is no nearer the truth.  It teaches that God
made the earth and all upon it, the heavens and all therein,
in six days, about six thousand years ago. (Ex. xx. 11;
Gen. i.) According to King James's Bible, the one in common use, from Adam to the flood was 1,656 years; from the
flood to Jesus, 2,348 years; and thence to us, 1,869 years;
making in all, 5,873 years. Since Adam was made on the
sixth day, the "beginning" was but one week previous to
this. What says science? Astronomy teaches that there
are stars so distant, that light would take millions of years
to travel from them to us. Geologists teach that the earth
has existed for millions of years. Lyell, speaking of them,
says, "All have arrived at the same conclusion respecting
the great antiquity of the globe, and that, too, in opposition
to their earliest prepossessions, and to the popular belief of
the age."
The Bible also teaches that the first created organic
existences were grass, herbs, and fruit-trees (Gen. i. 11).
Nothing could be much farther from the truth. Dr.
MIantell says, "A few fuci, mollusca, and polyparia are the
first evidence of organic existence; these are followed by
fishes, next reptiles, then birds and mammals." Instead
of grass, herbs, and fruit-trees, then, we have seaweeds,
shellfish, and coral polyps.   In this agree all geologists;
for in all parts of the earth, the lowest fossiliferous rocks
yield only marine forms exceedingly low in the scale of existence; and many millions of years passed after living beings 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  7
came into existence, before grass, herbs, and fruit-trees
made their appearance.  Prof. Hitchcock, in his "Geology"
(page 295), says, "Moses describes vegetables to have been
created on the third day, but animals not until the fifth.
Hence about one-third of the fossiliferous rocks, reckoning
upwards, or those deposited during the first three days,
ought to contain only vegetables: whereas animals are
found as deep in the rocks as vegetables; nay, in the
lowest group, nothing but animals has yet been found."
Should land-plants of very simple forms be found very
much lower than they have yet been discovered, which is
very probable, it will still be true that vast ages passed
after living beings existed on the globe, before grass, herbs,
and fruit-trees had any being.
The writer of the first chapter of Genesis informs us,
that, on the fifth day, God created every winged fowl, every
living creature that moveth, and great whales (Gen. i. 2022).   According to him, the first created animals were
"moving  creatures, that hath life," whatever  that may
mean, fowls and whales; and these were brought into existence on the same day.  Gray and Adams in their "Geology" say (page 315), "The earliest animals were principally
radiata, mollusca, and fishes.- They prevailed almost exclusively until near the close of the carboniferous period, when
we find the first evidence of the existence of reptiles. With
the triassic period, birds were for the first time introduced."
(This work is a text-book for schools, and is as biblical as its
authors could decently make it.) No remains of whales
have yet been found below the chalk. Animals, then, that
are separated, geologically, by millions of years, are by this
writer-created on the same day.
He further states, in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth
verses, that God created beasts, cattle, creeping things, and
men, on the same day, though the geologist knows that they
did not appear in this order, and are separated by immense
periods. Creeping things, or reptiles, are found as low as
the base of the carboniferous formation; but cattle do not
make their appearance till the tertiary period, nor man till
near its close.
The Bible teaches, that the first man came into existence
less than six thousand years ago; yet we now know that a
savage race of hunters wandered through the woods of
France, Germany, and England, chasing elephants, rhi 
8 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
noceroses, and bears, of species now extinct, and were
themselves chased by lions, tigers, and hyenas, of species
equally extinct, at a time so far distant, that Lyell, one
of the most careful as he is one of the most reliable
geologists, does not presume, as he says, to place it at less
than a hundred thousand years ago. The fact that man
has existed for more than six thousand years is now
generally acknowledged by both geologists and archeolo gists.  Dr. Nott, in "Indigenous Races" (page 354), says,
"It is proven beyond dispute, from the venerable monu ments of Egypt, that the races of men, of all colors, now
seen around the Mediterranean, inhabited the same
countries, with their present physical characteristics, full
five thousand years ago," which is long before the birth of
Moses or Noah. Nothing can be much plainer than that
these various races of men, of different colors, existing five
thousand years ago, were entirely unknown to the Bible writers, or they never would have placed Adam so near our
own time, or represented all mankind as having descended
from Noah, who was saved in the ark, according to the
Bible, a little more than four thousand years ago.
The Bible teaches, that there was no rain upon the earth
till after the creation of every plant of the field, and every
herb (Gen. ii. 5). All geologists know that this is incorrect;
for we find impressions of raindrops in both Silurian and
Devonian rocks, laid down before plants and herbs of the
field had an existence.
.The Bible's errors of omission are as great as its errors
of commission. It says nothing of the original fiery con dition of the globe; makes no statement of the law of
progress, so observable in the testimony of the rocks; and
gives no hint of the millions of species of plants and
animals that have become extinct. There is nothing
said of the constant interchange of sea and land; but
David, in opposition to this well-known fact, tells us, that
God has set bounds to the sea, that the waves may not pass
over (Ps. civ. 9); and Jeremiah declares, that the Lord has
placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual
decree, and that the waves cannot pass over it (Jer. v.22).
In short, there is nothing said that would indicate that God
had any thing to do with the Bible, and every thing to
show that its writers were,, on scientific subjects, very
ignorant men. 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  9
THE BIBLE SHOULD AGREE WITH ITSELF.
If God has written a book to be the universal guide of
man, to teach him what to do and what not to do to
deliver him from death and exalt him to everlasting bliss,
we may reasonably expect that one part will perfectly
agree with another; or how, if our guide points in different
directions, shall we be able to know the way we should go?
If God is the same in all ages, man's nature the same,
and the laws of right eternally the same, the Bible, to be
his word, should certainly teach the unvarying right and
true from one end to the other. Let us see whether the
Bible possesses this essential element of consistency.
"God is a spirit" (John iv. 24).  "No man hath seen
God at any time" (John i. 18).  "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
whom no man hath seen nor can see" (1 Tim. vi. 16).
"There shall no man see me and live" (Ex. xxxiii. 20).
What language can more strongly state the fact, that God
is invisible and always has been? But Jacob says, "I
have seen God face to face" (Gen. xxxii. 30). "Then
went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy
of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel"
(Ex. xxiv. 9, 10). "They died then." No such thing: the
writer expressly informs us in the next verse, that "they
saw God, and did eat and drink."  Micaiah, the prophet of
the Lord, says, "I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and
all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand
and on his left" (1 Kings xxii. 19).  Isaiah had a similar
experience, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and
his train filled the temple. Then said I, Woe is me! for
I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." But no evil
seems to have befallen him in consequence.
We  learn from  Eph. iv. 6, that God is omnipresent.
"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in yol all."  And, again, in Jer. xxiii. 24, " Do not
I fill heaven and earth?"  I turn over to Gen. xi. 5, and
read, "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower,
which the children of men builded." He was not there,
'i -1.. 
10 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
I am taught in Heb. iv. 13, that God is omnisc ent,
"All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with
whom we have to do."  "He needs not that any one should
inform him of what is transpiring at a distance: he can
never be the victim of false reports." But you cannot be
sure, till you have read every other passage in the Bible;
for in Gen. xviii. 20, we read, "And the Lord said, Because
the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their
sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether
they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which
is come unto me; and if not, I will know." God acknowledges that the reports he has received may be false,
and that the journey is necessary to enable him to determine.
In Deut. xiii. 3, we read, " The Lord our God proveth
you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul." It is evident, then,
that this Jewish Jehovah does not know all things, and
that he has to use means to find out what he is ignorant
of.
In Gen. ix. 16, God says to Noah, "I do set my bow
in the clouds, that I may remember the covenant between
me and thee." Here is the God who knows all things,
setting a bow in the clouds, that he may remember! And,
since the bow must have been in the clouds millions of
years before that time, how could he then have set it, and
and how could that help him to remember?
Peter says (Acts x. 34), "I perceive that God is no
respecter of persons." But Paul assures us, that God does
respect persons, and that, even before they are born.  "For
the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was
said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is
written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." How
could a being that had no respect to persons hate an
unborn child? This hatred appears to have extended to
him during his life; for, through Malachi (i. 3), God says,
" I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste for the dragons of the wilderness." If the true God
is no respecter of persons, nothing can be more certain
than that the God of the Bible is not that true God.  He
choos; thy HJw   out of all races, delivers them from 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 11
bondage by miracle, gives them his laws, and inspires their
prophets; he feeds them with bread from heaven; when
they need water, Moses strikes the flinty rock, and out
it pours in a stream; when they arrive at Canaan, by the
command of God they slay the people, or make slaves
of them, and take possession of the vineyards they never
planted, and houses they never built. They are his
"peculiar people," his "chosen people," blessed Jews; the
rest of the world, cursed Gentiles, fit only to be killed when
in the way of God's people, or, if kept alive, to be slaves,
they and their children, an inheritance for their Jewish
slaveholders forever.
Does God ever become fatigued?  No, never: what a
question to ask!  "The Creator of the ends of the earth
fainteth not, neither is weary."
Yes, he certainly did at one time; for in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he
rested, and was refreshed" (Ex. xxxi. 17). Does God ever
repent, or change his mind?  That is impossible; for it
would argue imperfection in his knowledge, and it is
contrary to these plain passages: "God is not a man, that
he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent"
(Num. xxiii. 19). "I am the Lord; I change not"
(Mal. iii. 6).  "The Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James i. 17).
Yes, God does frequently repent, and change his mind;
for "it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the
earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. vi. 6). The
Israelites on one occasion offended God, and he said unto
Moses, "Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against
them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of
thee a great nation." But, after Moses had expostulated
with him, it is said, "The Lord repented of the evil which
he thought to do unto his people" (Ex. xxxii. 10, 14).
Again: we find God telling Eli, "I said, indeed, that thy
house. and the house of thy father, should walk before me
forever; but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me: for
them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me
shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam. ii 30).  In man, this
would be called lying; in a God who knows all things from
the beginning, what shall we call it? In Jer. xv. 6, we
read that God says, nor wonder that he says it, "I am
weary with repenting." 
1l COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
A  more  contradictory book than the Bible does not
probably exist.  It teaches us that we are to demand "an
eye for an eye, wound for wound, stripe for stripe;" but it
teaches us, also, to "resist not evil," and to love our
enemies. We may spend our money "for wine, or for
strong drink," or whatsoever our souls desire; for God told
the  Israelites  that they might  (Deut. xiv. 26).  But
we  are at the same time to remember that "wine is a
mocker," and "strong drink is raging"   (Prov. xx. 1).
We are not even to look upon it, lest we should be tempted
to indulge; yet we are to "give strong drink unto him
that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of
heavy hearts. Let him drink," says this double-tongued
guide, "and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no
more."   We must remember the sabbath day to keep it
holy, and we must remember that Paul says, "One man
esteemeth one day above another, another regardeth every
day alike; let every man be fully persuaded in his own
mind."  We must not be angry, for "anger rests in the
bosom of fools;" but we learn from the same record that
"God is angry with the wicked every day." We are to
consider the ant, which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food
in the harvest (though, by the way, the ant does no such
thing), and, at the same time, we are to take no thlfought
for our life what we shall eat, drink, or wear, we are to
"labor not for the meat that perisheth" (John vi. 27),
"lay not up for ourselves treasures on earth (Matt. vi. 19),
and "take no thought for to-morrow" (Matt. vi. 34).  To
believe the Bible we should believe what no sane mind can
believe; and to obey it we should have to do what no
person can possibly accomplish, any more than he can be
bodily present in two different places at the same moment
of time.
SINCE GOD IS GOOD, AND DELIGHTS IN GOODNESS, HIS
WORD SHOULD CONTAIN NO COMMANDS THAT ARE BAD:
IT SHOULD ENCOURAGE NOTHING THAT IS WICKED, BUT
INVARIABLY INCULCATE TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.
While there are in the Bible many good moral precepts,
though not a whit superior to those we find in the writings
of men we style pagans, there is, at the same time, much 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  13
fe
that could never proceed from a God of goodness, purity,
and love.  No Attila, who was entitled the "Terror of the
World," ever gave more cruel and blood-thirsty command,
than this Bible attributes to God. Read the twentieth
chapter of Deuteronomy, beginning at the eleventh verse.
If the Israelites went against a city, and the inhabitants
made peace with them, then all the people became their
tributaries; but if they did not make peace, when it was
conquered, they were to kill every male, and save the women
ald the little ones for themselves; in other words make
slaves of them.   This was the most generous provision
made. "But," God adds, "of the cities of these people,
which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance,
thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth." They march
into Canaan with the grand charter of death: the people
have been guilty of the terrible crime of living in the land
which God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
and they must suffer the extreme penalty of the bloody
law.  Thus we are told, that, when Jericho was taken, "they
utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both mail and
woman, young and old, with the edge of the sword." The
only exception was Rahab the harlot, and her family, who
is praised, both in New Testament and Old, because she hid
the Jewish spies, and lied to save the men who led the
wretches that butchered the inhabitants of her city, to whom
she gave no word of warning.  What  enlightened mind
can believe that God employed one portion of his children
to butcher another portion,- men, women, and unoffending
children?   Did the Spirit of the universe ever, by his
command, turn his children into murderers and fiends,
destroying cities, and sparing neither age nor sex? It is
infinitely more likely that a cruel Jewish general told this
false story to stimulate his soldiers, than that God ever gave
any such commands.
I may be told that earthquakes destroy multitudes, and
spare neither age nor sex. True: but, in them, the philesopher sees the operation of natural law, the inevitable
results of a cooling globe, more destructive before man came
on the earth than they are now; and henee never to be
classed with  inhuman  butcheries perpetrated by direct
command.
In Judges xiv. 19, it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord
came upon Samson, and he went down to Ashkelon, and 
14  COMiMON SENSE THOUGHITS ON:HE BIBLE.
slew thirty men, and took their spoil, and gave changes of
garments unto them which had expounded his riddle." It
appears that Samson, on the occasion of his marriage, made
a feast, and, at the feast, put forth a riddle to thirty young
men who attended it. If they could not discover the riddle,
they were to give him thirty sheets, and thirty changes of
garments; and, if they did discover it, he was to give them
thirty sheets, and thirty changes of garments. Through the
connivance of his wife, they discovered his riddle: then the
Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and he murdered
and robbed thirty men to obtain the sheets and garments
necessary to pay his foolish bet.  If God is love, as tIhis
book says, the Spirit of God must be a spirit of love: how.
then, could Samson, under its influence, slay thirty men
innocent and unoffending as they appear to have been?
Suppose a man in the present day makes a bet of thirty
Indian robes that he will accomplish some feat, and, failing
to do it, goes over to the Indian Territory, slays thirty men,
and steals their robes to pay his bet, and, when taken up
and imprisoned for the murder, tells us that the Spirit of
God inspired him to commit the act!  Who could believe
him?  He would be regarded as a wicked wretch, guilty
of murder in killing these men, and of blasphemy in fathering the deed upon God.
In Judges xv. 14-20, we are told that the "Spirit of the
Lord came mightily upon Samson,... and he found a new
jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and
slew a thousand men therewith.... And he was sore
athirst; and he called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast
given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant;
and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the
uncircumcised?  But God clave a hollow place that was in
the jaw, and there came water thereout; and, when he had
driunk, his spirit came again, and he revived."  Supposing
that it took Samson one minute to slay each man, and it
could scarcely have taken less with such an unsuitable
weapon, there was then nearly seventeen hours of blood:Lnd
murder without a moment's intermission.  And now the
sun's last rays gild the distant hills, and soon night will
hide the horrible scene. There, on the plain, stands Samson,
his long hair streaming in the evening breeze, his robe stiff
with human gore: the bloody jaw is still in his hand, half
worn with repeated blows; while around lie the bodies of
I 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  1.1
his thousand victims, cold, stiff, and ghastly. He views them
with a fiendish smile, and then exultingly exclaims, "Heaps
upon heaps!  With the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a
thousand men."
But his long-continued and hard labor has made him
thirsty. His tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth; he
lools on every side for water, but in vain; he must die,
unliess deliverance speedily comes. At this moment, he ren)(,mbers whose servant he is, and by whose arm he has
iacc,omplished the mighty deed; and he kneels to pray.  To
p?ray?  Yes, to pray.  To whom, Mars or Jupiter? or is
he a Devil worshipper, about to offer his supplications to
the dark god of evil, who has assisted him in this fiendish
work? No: he prays to the God of mercy, truth, and love,
the Chiristian's God, who  inspired  Jesus  to say, "Be
ye merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful," and
" Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."
And God hears the prayers of this faithful servant of his,
and causes water to spring out of the gory jaw-bone, that
Samson's strength may be renewed for future labors!
In the passage of the children of Israel from Egypt to
Canaan, they came in contact with the Midianites, who appear, from Num. xxv., to have converted many of them to
their form of religion: so that the followers of Jehovah
bowed themselves before the Midianie gods.  Moses represents Jehovah as becoming, in consequence, extremely
angry; and, in Num. xxxi.. we are told that God commanded
Mloses to war against them.  A thousaind men of each tribe
were appointed, who went up against Midian, slew all the
males, burnt all the cities, and took all the spoil, and brought
them to the camp.  -As they return, Moses and all the
princes of the congregation go out to meet them.   See
Moses, as he looks upon the returning army, his sunburnt
cheek flushed with anger.  "Here comes Moses," whisper
the captains to each other.  "How aintgry lie looks!  What
have we done?  Have we gone beyond our commission?
In the hlieat of battle, have we killed when we should hlave
saved alive, and burnt and destroyed when we should have
preseiwed? and does this meekest man's heart rise with
indignation against us for our cruelty?"   On comes the
victorious host; a troop of broken-hearted mothers, whose
husbands and brothers have been slain, their terrified chlildren, holding their hands and clinging to their garments, 
16 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS O_r THE BIBLE.
follow in the rear. Striding fiercely up to them, the man
of God thunders in their astonished ears, "Have ye saved
all the womnen alive? Now, therefore, kill every inale among
the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man
by lying with him; but all the women children keep alive
for yourselves." Even the stony-hearted and bloody-handed
Israelitish captains tremble as they hear the brutal command of their leader.  There stand, trembling, the widowed
mothers and fatherless children, interpreting the looks of
their conquerors; and even the Israelite butchers weep as
they plunge their swords, red with the blood of their fathers
and husbands, into the innocent infants and helpless mothers, and drag off thirty-two thousand unsullied maidens for
themselves, reserved for a fate worse by far than death.
Talk of blasphemy: what blasphemy can equal that of the
men who have palmed upon humanity such stories as these
in the name of God?
According to the writer of the Book of Judges (Judg.
xx.), "the children of Israel went up to the house of God,
and asked counsel of Ilim, saying, Which of us shall go up first
to battle against the children of Benjamin? And the Lord
said, Judah shall go up first."  Judah went up accordingto the counsel of the Lord; but, instead of conquering their
enemies, they were (liscomfited, and twenty-two thousand
of them slain.  Sore wept the children of Israel.  "Did we
not wrong in fighting against Benjamin our brother? Let
us return to our homes; but first we will inquire of the
Lord," "Shall I go up again to battle against the children
of Benjamin, my brother, or shall I cease? And the Lord
said, Go up against him." In the second contest, Benjamin
slew eighteen thousand of them.  With heart-rending sobs
and lamentations, the people again inquire of the Lord,
"Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of
Benjamin, my brother, or shall I cease?  And the Lord
said, Go, I will deliver tihem into thy hand."  With this
assurance, they went up again, and, by placing a part of the
army in ambush, they surprised the Benjamites, and slew
twenty-five thoiisand. Thus, in these three battles, these
chosen people of God, by his direct command, slew of each
other no less than sixty-five thousand men; and the people
on whose side God was lost fifteen thousand more than the
other.
In t Sam. xv., we are told that Samuel said to Saul, 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  7
"Thus saith the Lord( of hosts, I remember that which
Amalek did to Israel; how he laid wait for him in the way,
when  he came  up  from  Egypt.   Now  go and  smite
Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare
them  not, but slay both mnan and-woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."  Because their ancestors, more than three hundred years before, had troubled
Israel, these their innocent descendants are to be murdered in cold blood, infants and sLucklings too.  Think of
it, mothers! It would be just aslikely, and just as right, for
God to command the people of tlie United States to murder
every man, woman, and child among the Indians, on account
of some injury done by them to the Spaniards under Columbus.  Would -a Christian minister tellhlg such a story today be credited by any intelligent man?  And why' should
we believe it any sooner because it happened three thousand
years ago, and a cruel Jewish priest tells the story?
Looking at these things with minds divested of the prejudices caused byi early false training, we are shocked at the
horrible atrocities perpetrated, as we are informed, by the
express command of Jehovah. If any being ever gave any
such commands, that would be evidence sufficient that he
was unworthy of reverence.  So a Christian would think of
a Hindoo book: why not of a Hiebrew?
THE WORK OF GOD SHOULD BE REASONABLE.
The Bible believer regards God as the Author of reason:
his word to man cannot, therefore, be contrary to reason.
It may, we will allow, reveal that concerning which we can
have no other means of ascertaining the truth, and, in this
respect, be above our reason;, but all its statements that canl
be understood must exactly harmonize with what the reason
affirms.  No   an can betas sure that any book is inspired
by (rod as he is sure that his reason is from God: hence
whatever is contrary to what:he is certain, came from God,
be's safe in rejecting.  Reason is the test to try all things
by: what will not bear its scrutiny is worthless.  Peason is
the balance  put ascertained truth in the one scale, and the
currency thou wishest to examine in the other, and whatever
thou findest lightecast fearlessly away; its- possession may
prevent thee from obtaining the sterinig ecoin of heaven.,
-In Gen. ii., we are told, that, after God had created.the
heavens and;.th,e,earth:in six days, he rested,. on the sev 
18 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON Tom BIBLE.
enth day.  And in Exod. xxxi. we are again told that "he
rested acd was refreshed." - How unreasonable to suppose
that God was. ever tired with labor, and that he rested
and refreshed himself by ceasing to labor!  When did God
cease to work?   WVho kept the universe in motion while
he rested:?  How low and childish must have been the
idea of God in the mind of the man who wrote such an
account as that!  It is altogether unreasonable to suppose that God placed
the destiny of the human race in the hands of one pair, and
made the future weal or woe of unborn  millions to depend
uponi their eating or abstaining from the fruit of a certain
tree in at garden.  What had I to do with the eating of that
friit?. Why should I be- cursed, or the ground be cursed
to me, on account of Adam and Eve's disobedience, several
thousand years ago?   Tefact is, that no such curse exists;
and the story regarding it can only be regarded as a fable.
Geology proves that death was in the world millions of ages
before man dwelt here.  Carnivorous animals lived, and
preyed upon their helpless victims in -the world's young
days, as they do now.
How unreasonable it is to suppose that God made coats
of skins, and clothed Adam and Eve (Gen.  iii. 21), and
that he made the Egyptian midwives houses! (Exod. i. 21.)
Since man is endowed with constructiveness, and material
abounds everywhere, God, doubtless, left them  to make
their own coats, and build their own houses.
The  Bible informns us, that, on account of ihe exceeding sinfulness of the people living upon  the earth, "it
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and
it; grieved him at his heart:" so that-he swept off man and
east and creeping thing, -all that lived, except Noah,
and his family, an  they that werewithhin in the ark by
whom the world was.repeopled   Is it reasonable to sppose that God destroyed mnkind anid     ani mated beings
because it repented him that he had made tlem and then
saved several mdividuals from the old sck and peopled
the wowild again with men %ho were just as likely to grieve
him'as -th.-' anteiluvias- had; done,,?  What  should-' wI
think of a gardener who l:ad an apple-tree that grieved
him on accout of the rness of'the fruit, s? that he
determined to destroy it, but, before doing so, cut off several
8cions to i'nsert in other stocks, that so this bad fruit mighet 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  19
have a chance to become good?  Or what s.ould we think
of a man who destroyed a machine because it did not answer the purpose' for which it was made, and then made
another resembling the former in every respect?   We
should not give either of them much credit' for wisdom;
and shall we believe that God acted thus foolishly?  Is it
likely, indeed, that God should'be angry, and grieved at his
heart, about what'he knew from the beginning, -the natura
consequence of his own  plans, foreknown  and thierefore
fore-ordained from the-beginning?:'
The account of the deluge is -unreasonable throughout,
and bears on its face all the marks of a-fable.  There is
not water on the earth, in the earth, nor above the earth
to cover it to the tops of the' highest, mountains.   If all
the. moisture in the atmosphere was precipitated on'the
earth, it would not make' a sheet a foot' thick; so say'the
best authorities.    The ark. taking  the" large'st proposed
measurement, was a'box five hundred' and fifty'feet long,
ninety-one feet eight-inches broad, and. fifty-five feet high.
Into this were to be taken' seven of every'kind of bird;
and, since there are 6;266 birds, there must have been
43,862 birds, or nearly  three for every square yard of
standing-room.  Of beasts there would be over five thousand, of reptiles nine hundred and fourteen, of insects  a
million and a half, and' of ]and snails nine thousand two
hundred.  Then think- of the food for these animals for one
year and ten days, thle time they were iii the ark,-  )ay f6r
the herbivorous animals (a moderate calculation shows they
would require three thousand five hundred tons, wliich alone
would take up two-thirds of the arkl's capacity);'grain for
thousands  of birds, rodents, and other animals; flesh for
lions, tigers, leopards, ounces,  wiId-cats, wolves  bears,
hyenas, jackals, dogs0,'and:f6xes, eagles, condors, vultures,
buzzards,"filcO6ns, hawks,:kites,'owls, crcodils,and serpets,
nearly every' one'ofwl w      ould eat'it' eght'in a-m'onti;
fish' for pelicans, gull      s, c'st orks, m ormorants,  herons, spoonbills, penguins,' albatrosses, fi-sh hawks,' and king-fishers;
' fruit for four''huindre'and'forty-two monkeys,'plantaineaters, fruit,pigeons, to ucans,' parrots, paroquets,'cckatoos,
and hosts of  Others "insects for g    suers.  swallows,
swifts, martins,'shrikes, bee:'ea'ters, orioles, sparrows, trogons,
and'jacamar,,rmol.as,shre'w', hedgehogs,,t atoeaters, aar
vlarks, and p'aninoin i..' 
:.20 COMMON SENSE THOU GHTS,ON THE BIBLE.
Supposing that all the animals could be collected fr, m
every continent and every large island on the globe, a.ad
food of all kinds gathered for them, h,ow could eight persons
attend to the mightyl host?  Each person, women included,
must have fed, cle'aied, and watered every day 5,482 birds,
645 beasts, t114 reptiles, 1,150  land-snails, and 187,500
insects.
sHow did they live without light in two of the stories,
since there was only one winldow?  and how could they
breathle when that Window was closed, and " God had shut
them in"?
After they left the ark, we are. told that Noah  offered
burnt, offerings on an altar which lie built; "and the Lord
smelled a sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I, will
not again curse t]ie ground any more for man's sake; for
the imagination of' mans heart''is evil from his youtL:.
'neither will I again sm ite every living thinig' as I have
don'e.;"   Is' it. reasonable to: suppose that.the smell of' a
roasted beast was pleasing to God?. Thie reason God gives
for destroying the earth is, that " every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually;" yet now
he gives that' very reason for not destroying the earth
again.  -If it was a good' reason for not-destroying the earth
again, why was it not a good reason for preventing its
destruction?
It is unreasonable to suppose that God had.to look on the
rainbow, that he might remember'his.Covenant with Noah
(Gen. ix. 16); or to. suppose that he hardened Pharaoh's
heart, and then punished him'and millions of ifinocent
people, because he was hard-hearted; or,that he plagued
another Pharaoh and his house  with great plagues, they
being entirely innocent, and permitted'Abram and his wife,
who were the guilty parties, to,go unpunished. (Gen.' xii.)
In Numii. xiv. 1120, we are informed,. tha't God. was
-aigry  with the Jews,because  they beieved.the'.ten'spies
who brought ba,ck an  evil report of the land of Canaan,
raterth  han the two who brought back a good report.  And
the Lord said unto Moses,l     I wil  smite them with t-..the
pestilence, and disinherit Ethem, and, Wi  make' of theea. a
greater nafion, and mightier, tha'n they.   And  ~fose;,said
'n'ito the Lord Then: the' gy.tian's ashall hear it,....:nd
"thiey will.tjlel it.to the i'a."'b,itnts of t,his,'land'[:..  W,
'"iou  hi't  kiall thois"e6pie's Die man, then the n'nations 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  2
which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,
Because the Lord was not able to bring this people into the
land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them
in the wilderness." It appears that Moses succeeded in appeasing Jehovah by these appeals to his love of approbation;
and he concludes that he will not destroy them as he had
previously proposed. How very likely for some knave to
tell such a story, and thus increase his importance among
the people! but how exceedingly unreasonable to believe
that the soul of the universe could ever be moved by such
contemptible appeals!
Is it reasonable to suppose that God ever instituted such
a cruel, useless, and indecent rite as circumcision, and ordered every one to be killed on whom it was not practised;
or that the Israelites multiplied from seventy persons to
about three millions in two hundred and fifteen years; or,
that 4,538,480,640 cubic yards of quails fell round the
Jewish camp to supply the people with flesh (Nunum. xi. 31)?
-a quantity sufficient to make a wall round the world
eighty feet high and.twelve feet thick 
Is it reasonable to believe that Godmoved David to number Israel, and then, because he did so, slew 70,000 people
(2 Sam. xxiv.); or that God slew 50,070 men in an obscure
village, because they looked into an old box called an ark
(1 Sam. vi.); or that one man slew a thousand with no other
weapon than a jawbone; or that Goa ever said that a liar,
thief, adulterer, and murderer hlad kept his commandments,
and followed him with all his heart; doing only that which
was right in his eyes (1 Kings xiv. 8); and that a man
whose life was stained with the foulest crimes never turned
aside from any thing that God commanded him.all his life,
save once (1 Kings xv. 5)?
Is it reasonable that people should take no thought for
their life as to what they shall eat, drink, or wear; no thought
for the morrow; that they should judge no one, and give to
every man that asks of them? Is it reasonable to suppose
that God was made flesh, became a puling infant in his
mother's arms, helped his father at his business, commenced
to preach when he was about thirty years of age, and soon
afterward allowed the Jews to crucify him?  These things
Are taught in the Bible. They are unreasonable: can we do
otherwise than conclude that the Bible is entirely of human
origin? 
22 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS Oi;: THE BIBLE.
THE WORD OF GOD SHOULD BE PURE.
If the Bible came from a God of purity and holiness, to
teach men to be pure and holy, there should be nothing in
it impure, nothi)g vulgar, nothing that would tend to debase the mind and brutalize the man. If the Bible had
been God's book, and intended by him to be in the hands
of all, he certainly would' have made it fit for all to read:
but many parts of the Bible are filthy, indecent; many of
the examples placed before the reader, without note or comment, are totally unfit to put into the hands of young persons, to say the least, and, were they in any other book, a
decent man would be ashamed for it to be seen in his house.
W~hat can be more disgusting than the conduct of Lot and
his daughters, after leaving Sodom: and if true, which is
very unlikely, what possible benefit can we derive from reading the statement! The account of Tamar and Judah,
many of the stories in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, those old Jewish cattle-raisers, and who seem to
have partaken of the nature of the brutes they reared, would
never be tolerated in any modern book; and any man writing similar stories now would be regarded as a miscreant
There are few writings more thoroughly sensual than the
book called Solomon's Song; and yet credulous orthodoxy
sees in it beautiful references to Christ and his Church.
By putting spiritual meanings into the words of Don Juan,
it might as consistently be placed among writings divinely
inspired.
THE WORD OF GOD SHOULD CONTAIN NOTHING TRIFLING
OR TEMPORARY.
If God had written, or inspired men to write, a book which
should be man's guide to happiness and heaven in all future
ages, is it not reasonable to expect to find it filled with the
most important truths, and nothing but what is of universal
benefit?  But how much of the Bible is occupied with trifling matters, that are of no importance to any one, and
a great deal more with what might have been important
to the Jews, but does not in the least concern us?  Look at
the long and conflicting genealogies; the chapters filled with
-the names of obscure villages, of no more importance to us
than the names of the Choctaw villages of a thousand years 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. a
ago; the dreadful accounts of rapine and.burder, and the
numerous gossipping stories, with which the Old Testament
and some of the New abounds.  Of what use is it to us to
know how the tabernacle was built, how many curtains were
made for it, and what were the length and breadth of them,
and what ceremonies attended its dedication?- descriptions
of which occupy ten whole chapters, six long verses being
devoted to a single candlestick.  How much better are we
for knowing the fashion of the clothes worn by Aaron an(]
his sons, the coats, girdles, bonnets, and breeches so catrefully enumerated? The lives of the flies that buzzed around(
the Israelitish encampment would be quite as valuable.
Such petty details might suit the cramped minds of a semibarbarous nation; but what;world-wide use or beauty is there
in them, that they should be regarded by intelligent persons
of the present day as divine oracles?
Men have preached, it is true, from "old shoes and clouted," and no doubt their admiring congregation received
spiritual nourishment from the mouldy fare; and I dare say
Aaron's breeches might serve as a suitable heading for other
spiritual discourses: but such passages are like " Dame
WTad(lle's teapot," they can only pour out as much as has
been poured in.
What should we think of a college professor who spent a
large portion of his time in teaching the young men committed to his charge to make mud-pies, to play at marbles,
and fly paper kites? Yet hlie would be a philosopher, compared with the Jewish Jehovah, who, writing a book to be
the complement of Nature, a guide to men in all ages in
reference to their most important interests, takes up so great
a portion of it with filthy stories, that no decent woman can
listen to without blushling; rambling tales, in which we
can find no good moral; lives of bigoted priests, heartless
tyrants, and shameless women; long lists of hard-to-pronounce and useless names, and dark, enigmatical passages,
that mean any thing or nothing.  Take a specimen from
Isaiah, the "evangelical prophet."  (Is. vii. 17.) The Lord
speaking to Ahaz, king of Judah, says, "The Lord shall
bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's
house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim
departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria." It is very
difficult to tell what this means, and especially the last
clause; but what follows is still darker. "And it shall come 
24  COMMON SENSE TFIOUGHTS ON THIE BIBLE.
to pass in that day" (what day?) "that the Lord shall hiss
for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of
Egypt, and for the bee that is ill the land of Assyria. And
they shall come, and shall rest, all of them, in the desolate
valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns,
and upon all bushes.  In the same day" (what day, we ask
again?) "shall the Lord shave" (the Lord shave! himself, or
some one else?) "with a razor that is hired, namely, by them
beyond the river," (does this mean that God will shave by
them beyond the river, or that he will hire the razor by
them beyond the river?) "by the king of Assyria," (worse
and worse: do those beyond the river hire the razor by the
king of Assyria, or does God shave with the hired razor by
the;n, and they shave by the king of Assyria? Who can
tell?  But we will read on) " the head, and the hair of the
feet: and it shall also consume the beard."  A razor might
be made to shave the head, it could not properly be said to
consume the beard, though we may tolerate the expression
when made by a poet like Isaiallh; but what are we to think
of shaving the hair of the feet?  "And it shall come to pass
in that day" (what a wonderful day that must be!) "that a
man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep; and it shlill
come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give,
he shal  eat butter; for butter and honey shall every one
eat that is left in the land."  Who can be benefited by
reading such riddles? You may say the translators failed
to give the meaning of the original: then the question arises,
Why did God, after writing the Bible correctly, allow blundering translators to spoil the work, and make nonsense of
important, eternal truths?
There is that in the Bible which is true and right; that
which is in agreement with mali's nature, and which it will
oe his duty and interest to perform as long as he exists:
but how small a part is this of the whole? certainly not the
one-twenitieth; and this mixed up with so much that is tenmporary, false, foolish, indecent, and wicked, that its value is
in a great measure destroyed.
THE WORD OF GOD SHOULD BE PLAIN.
A book made by God to be a guide in the most important matters to young and old, learneld and unlearned, should
be written in the plainest possible manner, that all might
understand and obey.  As that only can build up the body 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  2~
which is digested; by the stomach, so that only can benefit
the mind which is received by the understand(ing.  The ignorant belief of a book full of mysteries can benefit no one.
But the Bible contains a great deal that the most of people
cannot understand, and not a little that no one can understand. 
'Take the Book of Revelation, for instance: hundreds of
persols have written comments upon it, and yet no two appear to agree as to its meaning, -a proof that it is any thing
but plain.  One supposes that it reveals the history of the
('ihristian Church to the end of the world; another, that it
refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the wars of the
IRomans.  Protestants think that it points, in the very plainest manner, to the Roman antichrist and the final destruction of popery; while the Catholic is equally certain that it
refers to the antichrist Luther and the final destruction of
Pirotestantism. The greatest portion of Ezekiel is a cloud
of thick darkness, that the mind's eye seeks in vain to penetrate; and Isaiah is not much better. Both abound with passages capable of many interpretations, and every man can
give them such a one as best suits him. Peter says of
"Brother Paul's Epistles," that there are some things in
them hard to be understood; and, if Brother Paul had read
Peter's Epistles, he might have found some things in them
equally as hard to be understood.  In fact, excepting the
historical parts of the Bible, a great proportion of it is dark
and mysterious, and comparatively little of it plain, and easy
to be understood.  Henlce wre have a thousand contending
sects and parties, each professing to make the Bible its
guide, yet all satisfied that thIe rest are wrong.  New sects
are constantly rising, each different from all preceding, yet
all professing to be guided by the same clear, plain, infallible
book.
The Bible is so'dark, that it reflects the image of every
sofet professing to be based upon its teaclhings. The Alethod(.ist looks tlihereiin, anl sees the religious system of John
Wesley, in all its goodly proportions; tlhe Plesbyterianl sees
his partial, cruel deity, and the everlasting damnation of all
but the chosen fe'; the Uniealit tle  ternal felicity of
all; the Quaker findls his lplaiii language andlltl the indwelling
spirit that wiltllea. him into all:,truth: iiix short, every.one
sees thle image ofl his ow l.-e ief,' as: in a,mirror, and.per
suades.hlimself thlat he -:lone is riglit.  If: the Bible w, lnt 
26 COMMON SENSE THOUGHITS ON THE BIBLE.
obscure, there could not be this world-wide difference of
opinion among honest, well-meaning men, as thousands of
sectarians are.
THE WORD OF GOD SHOULD BE PERFECT AND UNAL                       TERABLE.
It would be of little use for us to know that the Bible
hadl been God's book once: it must be so now.  It should
not only have been perfect when first ipenned, but so perfect,
that it could not become imperfect.  W'hat advantage would
it be for me to know that God had written a book, but that
the men into whose hands it passed had, either by carelessness or design, left out a number of God's words, and I did
not know what they were, nor how many, and that they had
also added words of their own, and I had no certain means
of knowing them either?
Is it likely that God would cause a book to be written,
containing the most important truths, on which the destiny
of millions should hang, and then allow it to be tampered
with in this way? Yet the books of the Bible have been
thus dealt -with.   All commentators allow that passages
have been added.  Some  speak of whole chapters, which
formed no part of the original record. The Scriptures themselves quote passages, and refer to books, as of equal authority, of whose existence, otherwise, we know nothing; for
instance, "the Book of the Wars of tlies Lord" (Num. xxi.
14), "the Bookl of Jasher" (2 Sam. i. 18), and " the Book of
Nathan the Prophet, the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite,
and the Visions of Iddo the Seer" (2 Chron. ix. 29). Sir
Isaac Newton, Adam Clarke, Albert Barnes, and nearly all
commentators, agree that the seventh verse of the fifth chapterof' the 1st Epistle of John is an interpolation. Clarke.
though a zealous Trinitarian, says, "Of all manuscripts yet
discovered which  contain this epistle, amounting to one
hundred and twelve, three only, two of which  are of no
authority, have the text." Yet multitudes'read this passage,
and quot,' it, having no breath of suspicion that it is a base
forgery. How many such passages exist, which we have
no means of discovering!  Theodore Beza, the successor
of Calvin, who published a Greek New Testament, frankly
declared that he did not hesitate,:in his -translation of the
Scriptures, to often correct the apostles, because they did
not know what they were talking about.  Yet his Greek 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 27
Testament was taken as the basis of our authorized English
New Testament. There is no copy of any book of the Bible
existing as written by its original author; nor have we any
reason to suppose that we have any first, or even tenth hand
copy from the original book. The oldest that we have,
aboi,ut thirteen hundred years old, are many removes from
the originals, and blundered at every remove.  No  man
could copy the whole New Testament without blundering.
Several of the old manuscripts are so worn and damaged,
that only small portions can be read.  Did God leave his
word at the mercy of damp, mould, and nibbling mice?
John Mills collected thirty thousand readings of the New
Testament alone: the question is, Which is correct? which
did God dictate?  Who shall decide?  If we believed in an
infallible pope, the matter might be easily decided.  When
men imnaginie they are led by God, and trusting in his word,
it may be the word of some designing knave, or concocter
of pious frauds, of whom, as Mosheim, the ecclesiastical
historian, informs us, there were multitudes, soon after
Christ's ascension, who wrote gospels and epistles, forging
the names of apostles and other illustrious characters to give
them currency.
King James's Bible, the one now in common use, was
published in 1611; but, ill- 1711, it was corrected by Bishops
Tenlison and Lloyds  thousands of errors having crept into
it.  In 1769, Dr. Ilayney corrected a multitude of new
errors, reformed the text in many places, and rectified some
material errors in chlronology.  MIore recently, "the British
and Foreign Bible Society, after having circulated millions
of copies of it, have declared that a faithful examination
of it gives rise to serious doubts whether it can be truthfully called the word of God."*  In 1847, the American
Bible Society appointed a committee of its members to
prepare a standard edition of King Jamnes's version, free
fromn typographical errors.  They prepare4d such an edition,
Correcting, as they stated, twenty-four:-'thousand' errors;
bu t, alarmed at the attacks made upon it, it was withdrawn:
ai 1 the American Bible Society continues to this day to
circulate for the word of God a book having in it twentyfour thousand acknowledged errors.
* Address of Dr. T. S. Bell before the Bible Revision Association, 1858. 
28 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE
THE WORD OF GOD SHOULD BE IN THE HANDS OF AL:..
Is it necessary to our comfort and well-being that s3
should see? then  the world is bathed in light; and the
soul lives not that it does not bless. Food is needed for the
sustenance of our bodies: it springs out of the ground; it
swims in the water; it flies in the air; it is wide-spread as
the globe.   Drink is needful: see the clouds distil the
choicest nectar; it flows from every mountain, and the universal earth holds it like a sponge, that the wants of all
may be supplied. 
The well-being of man's body does not depend on chance,
or the caprice of another. Has Nature been less mindful
of people's souls than of their bodies? Has she made such
wonderful, bounteous, and universal provision for the one,
and such scanty and inadequate provision for the other?
No one pretends that there was any Bible in existence for
about three thousand years, during which time millions of
human beings must have passed away destitute of all knowledge of this God's blook; nor was it till sixteen hundred
years after this, that any part of it was known to any other
people than the Jews. Even now, the Bible is an unknown
book to two-thirds of mankind, notwithstanding the zealous endeavors of its firm believers to spread it wide as the
world: then it must follow, either that the Bible is not
needful to man's happiness and well-being, or that God
is partial and unkind to the greater portion of his children.
Had the Bible been from God, its revelations would have
been as universal as those of Nature, which come to every
human soul.
THE BIBLE GIVES MEN UNREASONABLE VIEWS OF GOD.
The Jehovah of the Jews is a magnified man, -half
soldier, half saint, yet entirely a Jew. The Old-Testament
writers never appear to have regarded him as the Universal
Parent, bestowing his blessings equally on all.  He was the
"God of Israel;" he dwelt in Zion; he was the Lord of
their hosts, the fighter of their battles, their cihamnpion
against the world.    The  small portion of his family
descended from Abraham were his dear children, whom he
favored with priests and prophets; while the rest of the
world, poor illegitimttes, cursed Gentiles, were left to grope
their way in thick darkness 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 29
Nor are the views held by Bible believers to-day mich
better than these. Many believe that God from all eternity
has chosen a certain portion of mankind, without any re.
gard to their well or ill doing; that he sent Jesus to die
for these, and for no other; and that, in consequence of his
death, God will give these chosen ones eternal blessedness,
l)ut the rest of mankind, which includes by far the greater
number, are left to devouring flames and eternal torment.
MVany more believe, that, on account of one man's sin,
God causes every child to be born with a sinful nature, colntindally disposed to evil, and naturally averse to all goodness; and, while in this condition, permits a malignant
Devil, with millions of subordinate devils, to do their utmost
to keep him in it, and yet, if he continues in that state,
dooms him to everlasting fire. They also believe that God
could not admit even the righteous to his favor, until his
innocent Son had satisfied his justice, and turned away
his wrath, by suffering a cruel death. The people who hold
these notions believe them to be scriptural: they quote
passages in proof of their truth; and there is no doubt that
many parts of the Bible. do strongly favor such horrible
ideas.   A  man whose charac   was as bad as that attributed by the orthodox to (would  be considered too
vile to live.
I am told that the Bible teaches that God is love, and
that he is just, merciful, kind, and that his tender mercies
are over all his works. Certainly it does: but it also teaches
that " the Lord is a man of war," and a "consuming fire;"
that he is "angry with the wicked every day;" and  that
"he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom
he will he, hardeneth." Thie God of the Bible commands
men to steal and murder, and teaches others to prevaricate,
if not to lie; he becomes angry, and swears in his wrath;
he can be persuaded and pleased as well as offended by
man, and is thus at the mercy of his own creatures. He
tells Hosea'to take unto him a wife of whoredoms (Hos.
i. 1), and after that to love an adulteress, whom he bought
unto him. In short, his character as revealed in the Bible
is one of the vilest ever presented for the reverence of mankind. No wonder that the people who believe these things
have low, unworthy, childish views of God! no wonder that
they regard him as the miraculous originator of disease,
and believe that he often kills little children because their 
30 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
parents love them too fondly! No wonder that orthodo3
people have been so intolerant as to persecute the best men
and women to death: the vengeance of their God fiameth
forever, and the fierce fire of his anger is never quenched.
TI'he most excruciating tortures that man can inflict upon
man are but as a drop compared to the ocean of his wrath:
and, if persecution can save men from that, it is a duty that
every Christian should practise, and, generally, they have
not been slack in its performance.
It is true that men may be good, and yet believe the
Bible to be God's word, and regard it as the rule of their
faith and practice; but such persons frequently read it not
as it is, but as they think it should be. They give a worthy
meaning to many an unworthy passage, and see truth and
goodness where neither exists. Having a good thought,
they put it into some mystical passage of the Bible, and
then take it out again, and exclaim, "What a wonderful
book the Bible is!" Is there any thing foolish or contradictory in the Holy Book?  "Oh! it does not mean that."
Though corruption swims upon the surface, their anointed
vision sees virtue lying beneath. Thus do men reconcile
impossibilities; thus does,tjhe girdle of their faith tie the
opposing poles together.- ":iLet every one have the same
latitude, and the Koran is a God's book, too, replete with
holy wisdom; the book of Mormon ceases to be a jumble
of absurdities, and on every page sparkles divinest wisdom.
IT GIVES MEN FALSE VIEWS OF DUTY.
People are led to imagine that they can please God by
spending one-seventh of their time in idleness; by allowing
themselves to be dipped in water, or by having it sprinkled
in their faces; by washing one another's feet; by telling God
how good and great and gracious he is; and by a multitude
of other observances, that have in them no virtue whatever,
and are, in some cases, decidedly hurtful; as drinking a
villainous compound of alcohol in church, and thus giving
a holy sanction to the accursed drinking customs of the
land. I once heard a reformed drunkard declare that the
taste for alcoholic drinks was revived in him by taking
wine at the sacrament, and it was the cause of his return
to former degrading habits.
Men, in consequence of their belief in the infallible in Bpiration of the Bible, are led to suppose that God requires 
COMMIION SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 31
something more of them than being tood and doing good.
and that religious observances are more important than
mental culture and the performance of virtuous actions:
thus superstition takes the place of science, and the deductions of reason are set aside for the stupid drivellings
of folly. Roman-Catholic countries groan under the accumulated mummeries that have been reared on this foundation.
IT LEADS PEOPLE TO BELIEVE THAT SIN CAN BE FOR                         GIVEN.
We are taught in the Scriptures, that, if we repent and
believe, God will forgive; though crimsoned with crime, lie
can wash us white as snow. In agreement with this
are the creeds of evangelical churches, their sermons, and
their hymns.
A man may live in the daily commission of the blackest
crimes, till he is seventy or eighty years of ages, and in five
minutes be transmuted into a being of angelic purity; and,
should he die the next moment, heaven is his everlasting
home. Thus we may sow a lifetime of sin, and reap an
e,ternity of happiness; sow to the flesh, and reap life everlasting. What can be more false and injurious than such
a doctrine!   It offers a premium  to vice.   The lifelong
criminal who is forgiven is in an infinitely better condition
than the moral man who is unforgiven. But I cannot
drink intoxicating drinks, and another get drunk for me;
I cannot take poison, and another die for me; nor can I put
my hand in the fire, and another be burned for me. Where
is the evidence that I can sin, and Jesus suffer the penalty
due to my guilt?  Does the drunkard, who rises from his
knees at the revival-meeting, shouting, "Glory be to God!
my sins are forgiven," have a new constitution given him
at that moment, so that the consequences of his past miisdeeds no longer affect him?  Is his misspent time made
good to him, and his beclouded brain restored to clearness
and soundness in a moment? If not, what does forgiveness
of sin mean? Does it mean, that if we cease to do evil,
and do well, we shall reap the reward of well doing?
If so, then all mankind are in a state of forgiveness, and
they never were in any other. But sin and suffering go
hand in hand, crime and penalty are as cause and effect;
and he that teaches any other doctrine teaches what our
I 
32 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS O_v THE BIBLE.
every-day experience proves to be false. Not a sin, t,it
hinders us forever: the wound that it makles leaves an
eternal scar; and nothing can make it be as though it had
never been.   The blood of Jesus is as impotent as the
blood of a sheep; for the consequences of wrong-doing follow the wrong-doer in consequence of the order of Nature,
-.an order that is never violated.
IT HAS MADE MILLIONS MISERABLE BY ITS DOCTRINE OF
A MALIGNANT DEVIL AND AN EVERLASTING HELL.
It teaches the existence of a fiend, whose nature is pure
malignity, whose power is second only to that of God himself, and whose constant employment is to draw mankind
from virtue to vice, and from happiness to endless misery.
It also teaches the existence of a bottomless pit, where
sinners are doomed to dwell in everlasting fire. There' the
smoke of their torment ascendeth forever," "their worm dieth
not, and the fire never shall be quenched." Oh the unutterable anguish, the indescribable torment, that these doctrines have caused to thousands, aye, millions, of the purest
and gentlest souls; for such are most impressed by them!
Every doubt that crossed their minds respecting the truth
of orthodox notions was thought to be a suggestion of the
Devil; and the yawning gulf threatened them for every
exercise of reason. The conflict thus produced has often
resulted in hopeless lunacy. The dread of a future hell
has made a present one for multitudes. If none go to hell
but the wicked, then hell is empty. If none go to heaven
but the righteous, then "heaven's echoing aisles" are as
destitute of occupants as the orthodox dogmas are of reason.
Al] men are partly good and partly bad. From the worst
man to the best man; there is an infinite gradation.  Where,
then, can a line be drawn, on one side of which all are to
go to eternal t.eormnts, and, on the other side, to everlasting
happiness?;  What kind of a being is that who would
quench the slumbering fire of virtue that still lives in the
worst man's heart? Imagination never painted a blacker
devil.
The idea that any soul will ever be placed in a position
in which he can never rise, never become wiser, never become better, but must continue in misery forever, is truly
horrible, and can hardly be entertained by an intelliger t
and benevolent mind. How many inherit deficient intel 
COLIMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 33
lects, and large, active animal propensities from their
parents!  How many are educated among unfavorable cir
cumstances all their lives, breathing a poisonous moral
atmosphere from their birth! And shall these souls be shut
out from hope forever? Forbid it, says every charitable
soul. And it is forbidden. Nature, that gives all an opportunity here, and continues it through life, will give all an
opportunity there, and continue it in the next life.
THE BIBLE HAS DONE MUCH HARM BY THE DEGRA.DIN(O
POSITION IN WHICH IT PLACES WOMAN.
The writer of the garden-of-Eden story in Genesis com mene-s the mischief by representing God as cursing the
woman by causing man to rule over her. "Thy desire
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Man,
unwilling to allow God's curse to fall to the ground, con tinues to rule over her to this day. Paul very foolishly
swallows the fable, and argues from it, "The head of the
woman is the man."  "Man is the glory of God;  but the
woman is the glory of the man."  Women "are commanded
to be under obedience."  "Wives submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord." "As the church is
subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husband in every thing" (Epli. v. 22-24).  What better charter can a tyrannical husband have than that!  If woman
had been permitted to write her Bible, we should have
found some different stories and different commands in it.
How absurd to think that God requires a woman to be
subject to her husband in every thing.  The wife, a noble
matron, thoughtful and wise; the husband, a mean, despicable wretch, whose moral perceptions are drowned in
whiskey: and that woman must obey this man, because he
is her husband, and that not in some things, but in all
things: she is to "submit herself unto him as unto the
Lord."
I am told that the Bible says, "Husbands, love your
wives."   True; but the obedience of the wife is not to
depend upon the love of the husband: she must obey him
whether he loves or hates her, and whether his commands
are in agreement with her sense of right or not. Quarrels
innumerable take place in pious families from the attempt
of husbands to maintain the unjust authority that the Bible
,bus gives them. 
34 COMMON SENSE TIHOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
According to the Mosaic law, so called, if a woman gave
birth to a male child, she was to be unclean seven c ays;
but, if a female, she was to be unclean fourteen lays.'Why
this difference?  Had it been the contrary, it would have
been less unreasonable. If a man went to wai, and found
among the captives a beautiful woman, he was permitted
to make her his wife; and if afterwards he had no delight
in her, he was to let her go where she would. No help for
the woman if she found no delight in him. If a man married a wife, and was dissatisfied with her, he could give her
a writing of divorcement, and send her home. "But, Moses,
I am dissatisfied with my husband: he makes my life miserable continually," says the Jewess. "' I cannot help it,"
replies Moses, "the Lord has no message for you."  This
man-made Jehovah cares but little for woman, and woman
should care but little for him.
Paul  says,  "Let  your women  keep  silence in the
churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak."
He tells us, that the man was not created for the woman,
but the woman was created for the man, and gives us as a
reason why woman "should learn in silence with all subjection," that "Adnm was first formed, then Eve" (1 Tim.
ii. 13). What a reason!  Suppose Adam was made first:
am I any better for that? Suppose Eve was made last: is
any woman the worse on that account? Horses and dogs,
according to the Bible, were made before men: horses
should therefore be in the saddle, and men go hunting for
the benefit of the dogs.   How infatuated those persons
must be, who consider such lack of reasoning as this the
inspired wisdom of the Universal Soul! But it was the
apostle Paul who said this; and multitudes of women
listen with admiration, and adoringly kiss the foot that
tramples them in the dust.  Can any good reason be given
ivhy woman should be subject to man, any more than man
to woman? Is it not as proper for woman to speak in
churich as man?  Men and women should go hand in hand
together, mutually assisting each other, and harmoniously
educating their children. When woman's influence is more
directly and widely felt in Church and State, the world will
be the better for it.
THE BIBLE SANCTIONS SLAVERY.
Every person in the United States is heavil) taxed today in consequence of that sanction. Had it not been for 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 35
the indorsement of slavery by thie Jewish Jehovah, and its
consequent indorsement by nearly the whole Christian
Church, we should never have suffered the terrible penalty
which slaveholding has entailed upon us as a people.
God's command to the Jews was, "Both thy bondmen
and thy bondmaids which thou shalt have shall be of the
heathen that are round about you: of them shall ye buy
bondmen and bondmaids.  And  ye shall take them-as an
inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for
a possession; they shall be your bondmen forever." If a
Jew struck one of these bondmen so as to cause his death,
if he lingered for a day or two before he died, the Jewish
slaveholder was not to be punished.  Why?  Listen, you
that think the Bible does not sanction slavery.  "For he
is his money" (Ex. xxi. 20, 21). What kind of a spirit
dictated the passage that tells us that one man  is another
man's money?
In the New Testament, servants are commanded to "be
obedient to them that are their masters according to their
flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as
unto Chlirist" (Eph. vi. 5). We read in Col. iii. 22-24,
"Servants, obey in all things your masters according to
the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singlene.s of heart, fearing God."  In Tit. ii. 9, "Exhort
servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to
please them in all things  not answering again."  And in
Pet. ii. 18, "Servants, be subject to your masters with
all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the
froward."  If the slavelholder himself had written the Bible,
he could not have inserted any thing better calculated to
serve his purpose. Servants are to obey their masters, not
in some things, not in right tl)iiigs, but in all things; and
that with fear and trembling: yea, with all fear, and  not
only the good, but the "' froward" also.
What becomes of the will amnd conscience of the sernant?
Wlhere are his manliness'and nobility of soul?  Crushed
out of him; and lie has become the crawling tool of a tyrant,
to whom he must be obedient, as unto Chlrist.  It is true
that suchl is -not the whole tenor of the Bible: many passages lay be axe at the very root of tyranny; but there is
so much of an opposite character, under shelter of which
the vilest abominations have been committed!I 
36 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
THE BIBLE HAS RETARDED THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
The Scriptures have been brought forward to knock down
or strangle every new scientific thought.   Our orthodox
ministers have stood like highwaymen on the road, and
called to every new thought, "Your assistance for our cause,
or your life!"  Science has flourished, not because it had
the Bible to help it, but in spite of its direst opposition.
Astr(m)nmy discovered that the earth is round, and revolves;
but'he Bible taught something widely different: and hence,
the astronomer was an infidel, and astronomy a dangerous.
science. Geology proved the world to be millions of years
old, and the wail over its infidelity has not yet subsided.
It is well known that man was on the earth ages before
the time of the creation of Adam, according to the Bible;
but how cautious men are in saying so! and how theologians
denounce these who dare to do so, for it is not in agreement with the unknown writer of Genesis! It will be generally acknowledged that universal man is not descended
from one pair, and that man had a natural origin: but
our scientific men, especially Americans, have a padlock on
their lips; and orthodoxy keeps the key.
People have been led to believe that a doctrine is true if
taught in the Bible, and false if not taught there, or its
opposite taught.   Hence passages have been twisted and
tortured and turned, till they have cried out the Shibboleths of every party. A day means a year, or a thousand, or
an indefinite period of time. Every living thing means a
few animals in an obscure valley; and the whole earth
means a spot so small that no one can find it.
If the English text cannot readily be made to harmonize
with the demands of science, then the dead Greek and longer
dead Hebrew are called from their musty graves, and a
favorable answer demanded, which is seldom refused.
Thousanids of men have spent their lives in trying to elucidate mysteries, harmonize contradictions, and make absurdities appear reasonable; while our scientific works are disfigured by constant attempts on the part of their timid
writers to reconcile the statements of Nature with the childish stories and wild conceits of the writer of Genesis.
" Tle Bible is an infallible guide to happiness.  It has
mde millions happy, and led them on to joys on high; and 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBILE. 37 
if all mnen would believe its teachings, and follow its rules
precisely, all moral evil would ceasefronz the earth."
Will you please to inform us which Bible is this infallible guide? Is it King James's Bible, containing sixty-six
books, which was translated by forty-seven Church-of-Enigland priests, after instructions from  his "most excellent
Majesty?"  Is it the Roman-Catholic Bible, in universal
use before the Reformation, and which contains seventy-six
books? or is it Luther's Bible, which does not contain Revelation? or Boothroyd's, which excludes Solomon's Song?
Pe(rhaps it is the Samaritan Bible, which contains the five
books of Moses and Joshua; or the Jewish Bible, which,
according to Josephus, contains twenty-two books.  There
are so many Bibles, all differing from each other, that we
ought to know which is this infallible guide. Supposing
the books that constitute King James's Bible were infallible at first, they cannot be so now: there are as many
variations in existing manuscripts of the New Testament
as there are words in the book.  Who knows which of
them is correct, or if any are? Were the English priests
infallibly inspired to pick out just the one that was right,
and to insert the infallibly true where it was missing?
There is no man living that can obey all the rules of the
Bib]e, nor even of the NewTestament. Jesus did not even
obey his own teachings; and I never knew a man who
tried to obey them for any length of time. And if, in order
to be happy, we need to obey the teachings of the Bible,
no mortal can be happy.  For a man to follow all the rules
of the Bible, he must return evil fbr evil, and in no case
return evil for evil; circumcise his children, and yet pay no
attention to circumcision; abstain from swine's flesh and
things strangled, and yet eat any thing that seems to him
good; perform his oaths, yet never take an oath fin any
account; keep Saturday holy, not even lighting a fire on
that day, and yet regard every day alike. In short, he
must do a hundred contradictory things, which, of course,
it would be impossible for any one to do.
For a man to profess to believe all that is taught in the
Bible, and attempt to practise all that is commanded therein, would be plain proof that he was deranged; and his
friends would take care of him.  Many who profess to make
the Bible their guide take such portions as agree with their
notions, and translate other portions into the language of 
38 COMMON SENSE THOUGHITS ON THE.BIBLE.
common sense; and thus follow their own counsel, while
pretending to follow the Bible's.
If people were to follow Bible examples and obey Bible
teachings, they would be slaveholders, polygamists, and
liars with Abraham; for we are told that Abraham obeyed
God's voice, and kept his charge, his commandments, and
his laws (Gen. xxvi. 5). His evil deeds are related without
a word of comment; and he is called "The father of the
faithful, and the friend of God." They would be liars,
thieves, and murderers with David; for we are distinctly
told that God said that David kept his commandments, followed him with all his heart, and did that only which was
right in his eyes (1 Kings xiv. 8 ); and, in the next chapter, that he never departed from any thing that he commanded him, "save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."
Here is an absolute indorsement of all his other villanies,
which can hardly be exceeded in the whole annals of crime.
A following of such teachings as these would make earth a
pandemonium of sin and woe.
"It is absurd to suppose that Moses could palm on a
whole nation a festival like the passover, to commemorate an event that never took place."
Not so absurd as you may suppose. What would have
been easier than for Joseph Smith to palm upon the whole
Mormon people any ceremony that he chose in commemoration of any event mentioned in his Bible, and that, too,
in this age of enlightenment and investigation? How
much easier for Moses, in that day of ignorance, had he been
so disposed!  What was the passover intended to celebrate? The murder of the first-born throughout the land of
Egypt, and the deliverance of the Israelites. This could not
have been known to the whole body of the peolle, had it
been so.  According to the story, they commei.-ed their
journey that very day, and could know but little of what
took place throughout the land of Egypt, and must have
relied upon the statements of Moses and Aaron. By reading 2 Chron. xxxiv., we find, that, in the reign of King Josiah, there was but one copy of the book of Moses in all
Judea, and this was found by Hilkiah the priest. What
is there that could not be palmed upon a people in such a
condition? Any thing almost that this priest might desire.
In Neh. viii., we find that the whole Jewish people had forgotten'the feast of tabernacles, and that Ezra the priest, 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.  09
and the Levites, read in the book of the law of God what
should be done, and taught the people. Ceremonies are
often instituted, and the occasion of their institution, in
time, becomes entirely forgotten; when it is no difficult matter to invent a story to account for them, and no hard thing
to induce the people to believe it.
"EEqually difflcult would it- have been for the apostles
to tell the people of their day, that they had seen and done
what they had never seen and done."
Do you, then. know what the apostles told the people of
tl.ei: day v    You have no reliable evidence to prove that
tfiy t6ld them any of the miraculous stories recorded in
the Gospels, or, if they told them, that the people credited
them. If they had, it would have been no more than the
Mormons do. - I have heard a Mormon elder declare publicly that he had raised the dead; and there were witnesses
present who bore testimony to the truth of his statement:
the Mormons present seemed to have no difficulty in accepting the story; their faith had prepared them. We have
no evidence of the existence of the Gospels till more than a
hundred years after the death of Jesus. The story of the
Nazarene seems to have gathered as it rolled; and what
facts existed on which it was built, it is impossible now to
tell. We may be sure, however, that the miraculous part
of his story cannot be true. You take too much for granted
that requires proof, -proof, too, that neither you nor any
other person can give.
"-But you must acknowledge that Jesus was a perfect
examp,le, a mo(tel maan for the race."
I can acknowledge no such thing. No man can be a perfect
model for another; and it is preposterous to talk of this
Jewish reformer being a model for all. If all persons were
to imitate him, none would marry, and, in a few years, the
world would be depopulated; men would cease to labor,
and spend their time in preaching, and take no  more
thought about what they should eat or drink than the
sparrows or the roses, and promise those who followed them
blessbilgs in this world, and, in the world to come, life everlasting. I cannot say that I have much respect for a man
who talks to the people mysteriously, "in parables,"  and
only explains to a dozen what he means; who calls himself
Master, and denounces to everlasting fire all who do not
believe and obey his teachings. This has been the method 
40 COIMMON SENSE THOUGHITS ON THE BIBLE.
of religious impostors in every age; and if Jesus was lio
impostor, and he probably was not, he certainly was a
fanatic, and a very extravagant one.
"1'Ie external evidence of the Bible challenges belief."
We should like to see the evidence that would prove that
Moses wrote the books that go by his name, and that God
inspired him to make the code of laws contained thereill,
many of which are so manifestly absurd, cruel, and bloody.
Does this evidence prove that the apostles wrote the contradictory accounts of Jesus that are found in the Gospels?
Does it prove that the amatory Song of Solomon was penned
under divine influence? The fact is, the external evidence,
so much talked of, amounts to nothing: it can prove nothing
of all tlat wve so much need to have proved.
"Its internal evidence is ample."
True; but it is no evidence of its being a revelation from
God, but of the contrary. It proves it to be contradictory
in its statements of doctrines and facts, and that not once
or twice, but hundredl of times,- false in philosophy, unworthy of confidence in history, unsound in logic, ignorant
in science, dark, mysterious, childish, and unsatisfactory.
It abounds in indecent and foolish stories, ridiculous and
childish conceits, anal wild and extravagant accounts. There
is no order in its arrangement, no unity in its style, and no
connection in its argument.  It abounds with bad grammar, bad morals, and bad philosophy. It sanctions kingly
tyranny and parental brutality, upholds slavery, and has
recorded the lives of some of the vilest of wretches with
such commendations that we may regard them as patterns
of all excellency. There are innumerable important moral
and scientific truths of which it says nothing; while a great
portion of it is taken up in telling the same things over and
over again, sometimes in precisely the same words; while
other portions are occupied in relating what is of no use
to anybody.
" There is plain teaching enough to show man  all his
duty, without his plunging into the mists of obscurity."
You are mistaken: there is a great portion of man's
duty that the Bible does not teach; and many things that
it does teach menl to do are no duties at all.  What does it
teach respecting the laws of health and the duty of obedience to them? If it does teach any thing in one place, it
is almost certain to contradict it in another. It favors the 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 41
drinking of intoxicating drinks, and it favors abstinence
from them; it favors flesh-eating, and abstinence from flesh;
marriage, and abstinence from marriage: but of the great
laws of health, obedience to which is of such vital importance, it scarcely says a word. It teaches blind and complete
submission of children to parents, wives to husbands, servants to masters, and subjects to kings; destroying the will
and manliness of the weaker party, and giving to the tyrant
all the power that he may desire. Where it gives good
advice, it is done in such general terms, that each man must
julge for himself the method to be pursued; and there is
no man who has tried to learn his duty from the Bible, that
has not been plunged into "mists of obscurity."
" Its books teach the same great trtths."
The existence of the spirit after death is a great truth.
One book teaches that "a man has no pre-eminence above
a beast," and that "as the one dieth, so dieth the other;" 
while others teach man's future existence. Some books of
the Bible, such as Esther and Solomon's Song, contain no
great truths at all.
"Its discrepancies are those of independent observers."
If true, it would not prove the Bible to be a divine revelation any more than the agreement of separate histories
of England would prove them to be divine. But it is not
true.   Read the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, the
conflicting accounts of the birth of Jesus, his sermon, the
calling of his disciples, his miracles, and his resurrection.
The differences are numerous and irreconcilable, and plainly
show that the men who wrote the Gospels were not observers
at all.
"How can we do without a true standard of appeal in
religious matters?  How are we to know what is error,
and what is truth?"
We may all see how we can do without it; for nothing is
more certain than that we have no such standard, nor is it
necessary. We ha-. no such standard of beauty, of architecture, )or of good manners; yet we can form the beautiful, behold it around us, and enjoy it. We can build structures
useful and elegant, and behave with propriety, without any
such standards.  If by religion you mean goodness, doing at
all times what is best for ourselves and all around us, why
cannot we do this without a standard? If you mean any
thing other than this, superstition would be the propey 
42 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
name for it; and certainly that needs no standard Yoprofess to have a standard of appeal, and of what use is it
to you?  Do all that appeal to it agree in opinion?  Are
their opinions any nearer to each other and to truth than
they would be without that standard? The Universalist
appeals to the Scriptures, and thinks he proves from them
the final happiness of all sentient beings; while the Calvinist finds there damnation to all but the chosen few. On
this foundation, the Roman Catholic builds his palace of
mnummery; and the Quaker, his worship, which rivals in simplicity that of thle6 ancient fishermen.   The Shaker, who
denounces all sexual intercourse, finds his authority in the
Bible, equally with the Mormon, who, like a Jewish
patriarch, lords it over a dozen women, the scriptural victims
of his lust.  You can find no greater difference, nor yet as
great difference, between the creeds of those who do not
regard the Bible as authority than of those who do. Of what
use, then, is your standard?
If the United States possessed a standard measure of a
yard, to which all parties had access, and yet we found
honest men with measures that they called yards, of fifteen,
thirty, and fifty inches in length, which they all declared they
had made from the standard, what should we  think?   We
might possibly think that the standard differed in length
at different times, or that the men had not sufficient knowledge to form their standard from it; but, at all events, we
should conclude, that, as a standard, it was of no earthly
use whatever, and that they would be likely to do better
without it than with it   nd  what are we to think of the
Bible as a standard of truth, when we find honest, intelligent men who come to it, differ so very widely in their
opinions respecting God, man, duty, and truth generally?
We can only rationally conclude, that, as a standard, the
ok is of no use.
"The Bible bears on its face the proof that it is God's
word.  The unity and  beauty of its style, the morality
cf its precepts, the purity, majesty, sublimity, and perfection of its character, bespeak its origin divine."
Are all books divine that are beautiful, whose style is
uniform, and that contain excellent moral precepts? If so,
we should have many divine books; but the Bible would
not be of the number. You speak of it as a whole, as one
single book, the production of one author, and equally good 
(COM31ON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 43
in every part, - Genesis, Solomon's Song, and Revelation.
You could not speak more highly of it, had you seen it drop
from the heavens at mid-day, with the name of Jehovah
inscribed in characters of light upon the titlepage. Just
so Afussulmans feel about the Koran, and for the very same
reason; and if you and they would examine both, divested
of early prejudices, the true character of these respective
sacred books would be revealed. The style of the Bible is
as varied as its writers; some of whom give us a rugged
narration of incidents unenlivened by a poetic expression,
while others revel in all the beauties of Oriental imagery.
There is no comparison between the best book of the Bible
and the writings of Plato, Epictetus, and Seneca. Old
heathens as you call them, Jehovah's favorites cannot begin
to equal them for reason, good sense, or morality.
So far is the Bible from being pure, that, unless a person
is familiar with it, he must carefully scan what he is about
to read, lest he bring the blush of shame to the face of his
aees.
There is in the Bible truth; and no one should reject it
because it is there: but every one should take the liberty
of separating the precious from the vile, the pure from the
filthy, the true and natural from the false and superstitious.
There is a great difference between the foolish and wicked
exploits of Samnson, and the sayings and doings of Jesus.
The amatory and indelicate Song of Solomon is little like
the Epistles of John.
The Bible is an armory, where the honest may equip
themselves for the true warfare, and where the murderer
may find weapons to destroy. It is a mine containing gold
and worthless rock, true riches and heaps of rubbish. It
is a mixture of good and bad, wisdom and folly, old wives'
fables and old men's reasons, Jewish prejudices and ever  lasting truths.  It is a sea into which men cast the net, and
draw t) shore both good and bad; and they should be wise
enough to keep the good, and throw the bad away.
"If you reject one part of the Bible, you might as well
throw it all away."
That does not follow. In reading Roman history, we
may reject the fable of Romulus and Remus being suckled
by a wolf, and yet give credence to a thousand facts recorded
therein. If some one should bind up in one volume Eu ~lid's Elements of Geometry and the Exploits of Baron 
44 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
Munchausen, we surely might reject the boasting stor. es
of the baron without being under the necessity of throwing away the demonstrable truths of the geometer. We
may then reject the ridiculous stories and childish ideas of
the Bible, yet believe what seems to us to be reasonable,
and be benefited by it.
Men have made the Bible an idol: the ministers of the
different churches are its priests, who  have  entl roned it;
while the multitude have bowed and worshipped, offering
their time, talents, and even reason, a sacrifice to this paper
god. Those who cannot worship this idol, who will not
bow the knee to this image, are denounced and treated as
the vilest wretches. But error cannot always rule, neither
can falsehood be forever triumphant.   Dislike it as the
fogies may, the time has come when every thing must be
examined. There is nothing that can escape the strictest
scrutiny, however old, sacred, or firmly rooted it may be;
though its foundations lie deep in the rubbish of ages,
there are those who will dig and discover whether it rests
on sand or rock; though its head reach the clouds, there
are daring spirits who will mount as the eagle, and examine
its top-stone.   Tremble, thou old gray-headed lie, thou
pagan fable, thou unmanly superstition; for, though enshrined in the Holy of holies, the day is approaching, the
hour, that shall drag thee to light, and expose thy hidden
deformities to thy blinded worshippers. The flood is rising
that shall sweep away thy temple, and leave not a trace
behind.
It is well that *his scrutinizing spirit should be abroad.
It is time that every door was opened, not excepting the
church-door, and reason invited to walk in. Truth fears not
a microscope; but the glance of a true man's eye is sufficient
to blast a lie. Feet are ours to walk with, eyes to see with,
and reasoning powers to think, search, and prove all things
with. Neglecting to do this, acting upon the principle that
there are things to be believed without examination, because
they are too sacred to be meddled with, in Turkey you
would cry, "There is one God, and Mohammed is his
prophet;" firmly believe in his heavenly flight and angelic
visions, and denounce as infidels all who had doubts of the
Moslem faith. In India you would be a devotee of Juggernaut, and be willing to sacrifice your life to a grim
image of wood; and in China, knock your forehead on the 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLF,. 45
threshold of an idol temple, and burn incense to Confucius
as the highest representative of humanity the world has
yet seen. In all countries, dogmas are taught, which are
regarded as too sacred for rational investigation; and the
consequence is, that men are made the dupes of the superstitious and crafty, allowing their eyes to be closed, when,
in fact, they h]lave most need of them; and thus become the
slaves of childish fears and wild delusions, which, like
phantoms, revel in the darksome night, but disappear in the
light of reason.
"TVtat should we have done without the Bible? "
It is difficult to tell exactly what we should have done
without the Bible, as it is difficult to tell what we should
have done without the steam-engine. We do knlow, however, that, long before the first chapter of Genesis was
written, men had formed languages, erected houses, made
pottery, smelted iron and manufactured it, built ships,
domesticated wild animals, learned how to write, paint,
weave, plough, sow, reap, grind, and make bread; they were
married, formed nations, framed wise laws and moral codes,
and were marching constantly to a still higher civilization.
It is but fair to presume, that, since they did sp well without the Bible, they would have continued to do well without it.
"Th7at are you going to give us instead of the Bible?"
We have no wish to take the Bible away: we are only
desirous that people should have rational views regarding
it. Let the Bible stand, to be studied by men and women,
that they may learn the crude religious conceptions of early
times and primitive peoples. It will serve the purpose of
a mile-stone, to show us the rate of our advance. But if
you wish to study the history of the world in which you
live, and to learn how it came into its present condition,
don't fritter away your time in reading and studying the
first and second chapters of Genesis, with the notes of
modern commentators from Stackhouse to Albert Barles;
for you will know less, if possible, than when you began.
Geology will give you knowledge and satisfaction on this
subject as it has to all who have investigated it. Would
you be healthy, study physiology; would you know the
laws of mind, study phrenology, where alone you can find
the record of them; and, if you would know the condition
of nian after death, listen to the living testimony of your 
46 COMMON SENSE THOUTGHTS ON THE B1IBLE.
own spirit-friends, who will satisfy you that the writers of
the Bible were as ignorant on'this subject as they were re
garding the revelations of modern science.
The model according to which you need to shape your
life must of necessity be within you. If you wish to be a
hero in life's battle, aim to live each day up to your highest
ideal; to-morrow you will have a better, nobler model; and
so, through life, each day will find you a holier, happier man.
As you scale the mountain of manhood, the prospect will
enlarge around you, the heavens grow clearer above you,
the birds will discourse to you sweeter music; and the happiness of angels will be no stranger to your heart. And
when the ripened spirit shall pant for a wider freedom and
a sunnier clime, death, the strong deliverer, shall lead you
home.
Allow me now to ask you a few questions. If the Bible
is a revelation from God, does it contain the whole of his
will, or only a part?
If we can learn some portions of his will without such
revelation, why not all?
You cannot but acknowledge that Bible writers erred in
their conduct. Moses, on account of his error, was not
allowed to enter the promised land; David acknowledges
his sinfulness; Solomon departed from the faith; Paul rebuked Peter because he was to blame; and Paul acknowledges that he was far from perfect. And, since they erred
in their conduct, they must have erred in their judgment,
or been wilful sinners. If they erred in their judgment,
what was to prevent them from writing their errors? and,
if they were wilful wrong-doers, what confidence can we
place in them as infallible writers of a holy book?
Did the writers of the Bible know that they were in
spired of God to write it? and, if they did, how did they
know it?
Do you know any man who makes the Bible his guide,
and attempts to obey all its teachings? Do you know any
one who tries to obey all the New-Testament commands?
If you do not (and there are certainly no such persons),
what is it that informs them that some should be obeyed,
and others neglected?
If this is their reason or judgment, is not that, after all,
their guide; and would it not be much better to allow it
to operate untrammelled? 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE  47
" Destroy our belief in the divine authority of the Bible,
and all our hopes of eternal life are fled: we rush blindly
forward along a pathway shrouded by continual gloom."
If you have no stronger or better belief in a future life
than the Bible gives, you are to be pitied. I know many
who have no faith whatever in the divine authority of the
Bibie, yet have a living faith in, nay, an absolute knowledge
of, a future life of ceaseless advancement. The light of
the Bible on this subject is but the dim twinkling of the
stars, with an occasional fiery meteor blazing fearfully
across the heavens, compared with the day's bright, joyous
dawn.  Multitudes have perfect assurance of a future life,
not because some long-dead Matthew, Peter, or John says
so, but because their senses have given them evidence on
this subject, that they cannot dispute. If men would
search for living evidence, there would be no need to seek
for it among the ashes of the dead.
"But it is well k7nowsz, that in those countries where the
Bible is read, studied, and believed in, there is more knowledge and greater freedom, more virtue and happiness, than
in any other countries."
If true, and if all this was the result of reading and believing the Bible, it would not prove the Bible to be divine.
A book may be useful, though merely human. But where
is the proof that we owe our virtue, liberty, and enlightenment to the Bible?  The Abyssinians have had the Bible
in their possession twice as long as the Anglo-Saxons, and
yet they are a race of barbarians still. What did the Bible
accomplish for the people of Syria and Asia Minor, who
were first blessed with it? So little, that the Koran superseded it; the Mohammedans being superior in almost every
respect to the Christians whom they conquered and converted. The Greeks and Romnans were as far in advance
of surrounding nations as we are or profess to be. Was it
the Bible that elevated them, and made their unsurpassed
poets, painters, sculptors, and orators? Their priests, doubtless, attributed their superiority to the superior religion they
possessed. The Chinese are farthler in advance of the NewHollanders than we are of the Turks; and no doubt the
pious among the Chinese attribute it to the sayings of Confucius, which the natives of the island continent do not
Iossess.  Some one speaks of institutions that gi e themselves credit for all the good that exists in spite of them 
48 COM,MON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
So Bible believers oppose science and reform to the last;
but when they triumph in spite of their opposition, they
are the first to shout glory to the Bible for what it has
accomplished.
If the Bible had been the only instrumentality employed
for our elevation and enlightenment, we might have been
able to tell what is its simple influence on a people; but, as
there are a thousand instrumentalities at work, it is impossible to tell how much of our superiority it should be credited
with.  This we know, that, when the literature of Greece
and Rome was supplanted by that of the Bible and the
Christian fathers, a night of mental darkness spread over
the world, which was not broken up till the invention of
printing and the revival of pagan literature. Where a
people are much lower than the Bible plane, it may tend to
elevate them; but, where they are above it, its influence is
degrading.
Many Bible believers have proved themselves to be far
from being enlightened, humane, or liberal; and their bigotry and cruelty have generally been in proportion to their
veneration for and exclusive use of the Bible.  Calvin was
a Bible worshipper, and caused Servetus to be burned at
the stake because the enlightened doctor could not see the
Bible with the same eyes as this tyrant of Geneva. The
Catholics, who have tormented and murdered millions, are
Bible believers to a man. Who were greater upholders of
the Bible than the Puritans of New England? yet they
whipped'and even hung the Quakers, who went among them
preaching a better gospel than their own. Who kept four
millions of human beings in bondage, sold them like cattle
when they pleased, and did niot allow them to call their
souls their own?   who but Bible believers?  And who
countenanced them in this, sanctifying the robbery and foul
wrong, and gave the pretended sanction of heaven to this
blackest crime? Ministers, with the Bible in their hands,
who preached from "Servants, obey your masters," and
placed God's foot on the neck of the trembling slave.
"But you must be an infidel if you do not believe the
Bible to be divine."
Who would not be an unbeliever in all things unreasonable and foolish?  The name "infidel," which the orthodox
are so ready to give to every one who differs from them in
opinion, has lost its terror. Were I to profess to be other 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON TLE BIBLE.  49
than a disbeliever of orthodox follies and delusions, I should
be a traitor to my own soul. Socrates was an infidel, be.
cause he was in advance of his countrymen. Jesus was
called a Samaritan, or, in other words, an infidel, because,
in. opposition to Jewish traditions and Mosaic follies, he
spoke the thoughts of his manly soul, regardless of the Bible
of his day. Galileo was an infidel, because he asserted what
all are now willing to acknowledge; but, as it was unscriptural, he had to bear the name and suffer the fate of the
infidel.  The early Quakers were denounced as infidel, because they regarded the light within them as superior to
the written record of that light in the men of the past.
If it be infidelity to seek for truth with an unprejudiced
mind, to love it above all things, and be willing to make
any sacrifice for its sake, who would not be an infidel?  If
it be infidelity to believe that there is a divine revelation
as wide as the world, and as comprehensive as the human
race; that God evermore speaks to us by his laws which
surround us, and by our reason, which is his voice within
us: then to be infidel is to be free, intelligent, and manly;
it is to live the best life here, and thus prepare for the highest life hereafter.
But those who make use of the term "infidel" do it reproachfully; when they meet with a man whose arguments
they cannot answer, and whose life is irreproachable, al
they can do is to raise the cry of "Infidel!"  This saves
them the trouble of answering his arguments; for who is
going to discuss with an infidel? What minister will soil
his holy fingers by coming in contact with such an unclean
thing?  It also saves the church from contamination: only
persuade the members of a church that a man is an infidel,
and they will shun him as they would the plague; they will
no more dare to read his writings than to put their hands in
the fire. Thus this term is exceedingly convenient to a certain class. No wonder that it is whispered in the parlor,
and thundered from the pulpit, till the whole land rings with
the sound. But know this, 0 priests and people! he is the
infidel who loves money more than truth; who preaches lies
for hire and falsehoods for gain; who bows down to wealth,
and worships mammon, regardless of truth and justice; who
professes to believe the Bible is the word of God, and yet
is utterly regardless of its teachings when they conflict
with his own interests..
4 
5( COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIB,E.
" If you take away the sacred character of the Scriptures,
you destroy the foundation of all religion, and the whole
fabric of nmorality falls to the ground."
You never were more mistaken. The foundations of true
religion do not rest on the Bible, but on man's nature, and
are as enduring as that nature itself. The religion that
consists in teasing God, in begging for favors, in mumbling
childish prayers, in dozing every seventh day in some fashionable church, in howling like a dervish ill revival meetings, in denouncing every disbeliever in orthodox dogmas as
an infidel and a blasphemer, - such religion as that might
die and be buried, and the world would be the better without it. But the religion that consists in being good and
doing good is a part of our very constitution, as much as our
love of the beautiful.  Men were religious in this sense
before the first chapter of Genesis was written; and they
will be when the Bible is no longer regarded as authority
by a thinking soul. That a large portion of what is called
religion by the orthodox would be destroyed, there is no
doubt, -its partial, cruel Deity; its irrational dogmas; its
hatred of truth, and its sanction of crime. The sooner the
grave closes over it the better, and something worthier takes
its place.
Did ever man do right? Then did his right doing bring
its own reward, whether he were blessed Jew or cursed Gentile, Catholic kneeling to kiss the pope's toe, or Yezidee
offering his propitiatory sacrifice to the Devil. Did ever man
do wrong? Then did his wrong doing bring its own curse,
certain as that sun brings light; and all the prayers of the
religious professors in the world could not make it otherwise. Dark is the soul that thinks he can entice the Spirit
of the universe by the splendor of his temple, or make him
his peculiar friend by the number of his supplications or the
straitness of his creed!  Is he like thee, blind sectarian,
that he should curse every one who does not travel thy path
or kneel at thy shrine? Is he a man, that thou shouldst
style thy worshipping-place his house; thy hired Sunday
talker his minister; and a volume written by men blinder
than thyself, his word?  Open thy eyes and be amazed at
thy folly: the Indian in the wild might teach thee a worthier religion. When thy little sect has vanished from the
earth, and its name is all unknown, even to thyself; when
the Bible has perished, and the name of Jesus is lost to 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 51
every dweller on this planet: then true religion will be fresh
as the dew, beautiful as the morning, blessing all people
everywhere.
The miserable Jewish "cribbed, cabined, and confined"
religion, that would be destroyed, is a disgrace to the age in
which we dwell. It is an image, not of the universe, deep
and boundless, but of the narrow, thread-drawn souls that
made and support it. It says, with the bigot Paul, " Neither
is there salvation in any other;" and exclaims to every outsider, "Thou art a base-born dog, and perdition is thy
home." This religion puts more faith in a dead lie than a
living truth; it makes God an infinite tyrant, man a cowardly slave; and would damn a world to save itself. When
its advocates arrive at the spirit-land, and find Volney,
Paine, and Parker occupying higher positions than themselves, they will be ready, like Jonah, to weep because God's
heart is less contracted than their own.
This offspring of bigotry and pride is baptized by the
name of the "Christian Religion."  As certainly as we are,
it is not the religion of our nature.  It is not the religion
for men: it cannot fit us for this world, much less for the
next. It is a fiendish inquisitor, that grips us by the throat,
and demands that we believe in a black devil and an eterna
hell, before it loosens its hold.  It wars with the best feelings of our nature. We see in childhood the innocence of a
new-born flower; but orthodoxy comes with a long, frowning face, and gravely talks of depravity and original sin, as
though God had stamped his children with the Devil's seal.
It dooms to eternal torments the noblest names of which
earth can boast.  The best painters, sculptors, poets, historians, and scientists have been infidels, or careless and indifferent to the claims of what is called evangelical religion:
hence a host of noble men and women have gone to grace
the regions of the damned(l, and howl their endless lives in
blasphemies away; while it lifts up to heaven and makes
partakers of all its glories the vilest and most abandoned
wretches, if they repent, and believe its unreasonable dogmas.
Truly, if a want of faith in the sacred character of the Scriptures will destroy this religion, and leave us free to obtain a
natural, and, consequently, a rational religion, it will be a
most blessed thing.
To spread abroad and keep up what is called the Christian religion, many of whose doctrines would disgrace hea.
* fi~  *# ~ a.   
52 COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THIE BIBLE.
thendom, to charge the battery and galvanize this corpse
Bible societies pour out rivers of old traditions, millions of
money are spent, printing-presses are in continual operation,
and a hundred thousand pulpits din the drowsy ears of a
multitude of self-styled and self-satisfied saints. And we
are told, that, if it were not for this machinery, the whole
fabric of morality would fall to the ground a shapeless ruin.
Shall all the forests of the globe disappear because the axe is
laid at the root of a rotten tree that cumbers the ground?
Shall the moon cease to shine because a smoky lamp is blown
out? or the sun be blotted from the sky because a feeble
taper is extinguished? Shall religion die because Jewish
fables are taken at their true value? or morality be no more
because Christian sectarianism is gone? Not more foolish
is a madman's dream. Sects and Bibles are things of yesterday, and will disappear to-morrow; but freedom, truth,
love, uprightness, belong to the soul, existed ages before a
book of any kind was written, are inculcated by people of
all climes, are recognized by all religions; they are the natural product of the soil which underlies them all, and they
shall spring up and be green and fruitful forever.
True religion knows no sects or parties, no priests or
thirty-nine-articled creeds.   It does not believe that all
truth is shut up in a book, big or little; but looks for light
within, without. It not only believes that God did live, but
that he does live; not only that he did speak, but that he
does speak, to me, to thee, as to Jesus and George Fox. It
does not go with a dark lantern to look for truth in a mummy pit, among the withered, dusty, cobwebbed dead, but is
out in the sunshine gathering the flowers that our universal
Mother has strewed on every hand. True religion needs no
splendid temples, no grand display, no mitred priest, no silkgowned, lawn-sleeved bishop, no black-coated minister; it
needs no gorgeous altar, no silver crucifix, no silk-tasselled
pulpit, no holy days, holy sacraments, or holy houses. All
it needs is noble, upright souls; men and women who will
seek for truth as for hidden treasure, and when found, and
her voice heard, will obey her requirements at all hazards.
In these it lives and flourishes in unfading verdure, in eternal bloom. It teaches us to develop the man within us
nobly, fearlessly, and harmoniously, to manifest our religion
by a pure and holy life; and then points us in the future to
a realm where progress is forever possible.  This is the 
COMMON SENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. 53
"' religion that can give sweetest pleasures while we live;"
and this "religion can supply solid comfort when we die."
Its flower has no thorn, and its honey no poison. It is the
child of God, and the friend of man. The dungeon at its
presen.e smiles; and its gloomy portals, at its touch, are
transformed into the pearly gates of paradise.  It consecrates all places; the cottage becomes as holy as the Jewish
temple, and the ploughed field as the splendid cathedral.
It consecrates all useful work: ploughing and sowing are as
holy as singing and praying; the sound of the woodman's
axe and the blacksmith's anvil is as sacred as the organ's
chant. It consecrates all times; Monday is as Sunday,
work-day as rest-day; all are God's, all are man's, and all
are good. It consecrates all persons; the ploughman is a
priest, and the shoemaker offers acceptable sacrifice; the
leather apron and the fustian jacket are one with the priest's
vesture, and the fine linen of Aaron.
To destroy false religion, and spread the true, to deliver
men from the bondage of error, and to speed the time when
Truth and Love, twin sisters, shall be recognized and accepted by all people, I have written this pamphlet. I send
it forth without fear, knowing whatever is true in it cannot
but live, and whatever is false will deservedly die.  
BOOKS FOR THINKERS.
Our Planet: Its Past and Future;
Or, Lectures on Geology.
BY WILLIAM DENTON.
(Fourth Thousand.)
"The New-York Tribune"  says of it, "This is a book for the masses, - a
book that should be read by every intelligent man In the country."
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THE SOUL OF THINGS;
Or, Psychometrio Researches and Discoveries.'
(Fourth Edition.)
BY WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH M. F. DENTON.
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Were there any reliance to be placed on these revelations, it would be impossible to estimate the value of this newly-discovered power. It would resolve a
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Chtstian Ambassador. 
In the varied wonders they describe, there is a peculiar and intense interest.
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RADICAL DISCO'URSES,
BY WILLIAM DENTON.
BE THYSELF; WHAT IS RIGHT? DELUGE IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN SCIONCE; CHRISTIANITY NO FINALITY; ORTHODOXY  FALSE; and, COMMONSENSE THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE. Price, 10c. each.
THE IRRECONCILABLE RECORDS; OR, GENESIS AND GEOLOGY. Price, 25e.
AN'S RIGHTS.  A Woman's Rights pamphlet.  By ANNE DENTON
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THE CRUMB BASKET. By ANNE DENTON CRIDGE. An illustrated
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The above sent postpaid, free, on receipt of prices. Liberal allowance to
agents, or those purchasing by the quantity. Direct to
WILLIAM DENTON,
(BOX 1490) BOSTON, MASS
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