Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1887-10-01 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

RIVSNO6. Capital punishment was cruelly , carried out for comparatively light offenees. To kill a roan because that man has killed somebody it is not JUSTICB, it in RB4BBO. Justice would be to restore to the rejured party what was taken from him—life, : and this man cannot do. Although many crimes were punished with death in this enlightened Christian country of owe, some years ago, it does not follow that the people of England were then "barbarians," nor that the advocates of legal murders were not a , "barbarous" lot. There is such a thing an correct . reasoning in the world. The whole teachings of imua were based upon the very thing that the Mosaic Law , wanted—Love. He gave a new comnaandment—one that was not found among the Decalogue of Moses— " Love one another." Jesus was of heaven, heavenly; M 0448 was of the earth, earthly. Jesus was loving, kind and forgiving Moses woo unforgiving, cruel and vindictive. When the woman, taken in adultery, was brought before the Nazarene he forgave her ; Moses would have had her stoned to death, and probably if Bowker was there he would claim to be the sinlem man whose right it would be to have the first shot. I feel that I cannot, in the space of one letter, deal with this noblest 88 I would wish, and I propose, with the Editor's permission, to write again and continuelit. I will prove for the satisfaction of Mr. Backer and his co-believers that their Bible is not • sufficient guide in matters of faith or morale, that their Israelitish friend—Moses—was not the author of the Pentatuch! It can easily be shown that the "Lord" or "God" of Moses wait not the Infinite Ruler of the Universe, and that he (if a God has see) had no more real exietence , than the imaginary "God" that gave "revelations" to Confucius, Buddha, Mahomet, Brigham Young, Johanna Southcote, Mother Shiptou, End-of. the-world Baxter or Blood-and-fire Booth. Such men, and women, make their own 'Gods" and it is not difficult to see that the Gods so made have the same ideas passions etc., as the men and women have. Let us look , for instance at the Iron God of Moses, the Patient God of Job, and the Larissa God of Jesus. Man, with his finite mind can form no idea of an Infinite God, or an infinite anything else; yet reason tells us that there must be a Supreme Being possessing infinite power, wisdom and goodness, not a man-made God that is angry at one time and pleased at another, and just as ignorant an the man who made him at all times. The imaginary God of barbarian Moses greatly enjoyed the "sweet savour" of roasting beef, and delighted in eating veal and drinking wine, but the directions he gave (Ezek. iv. 12) as to the baking of , cakes with "the dung that cometh out of man" was not no delicious. He was especially fond of lying spirits and pure virgins, but indeed it was not very God-like to order infants to be dashed to pieces, and women with child to be ripped up. This unchangeable! God sometimes acted as a midwife (Gen. keit. 81), • nightly asemain (Ek kii. 28), a murderer (Jerem. ail 14), a , fool (1 Cor. i 25), • deceiver (Emit. xiv. 9), • prem." breaker (Num. xiv. 90 to 34), a deluder (2 Them hill), a tenor (Gen. iii. 21), !a shoemaker (Beek. net 10), and a liar (Gen. ii. 17). He patronised polygamy, human , slavery and many immoral andibarbaroun things, that , I used not now mention. In the meantime Huabfakira , parting word to the man who girded his theological loins, and had the courage to open public criticism on • Newspaper Scribbler, whose abilities in the Bible matters he did not know, is—Bowl  J.