THE DESTROYER OF WEEDS, THISTLES AND THORNS, IS A BENEFACTOR WHETHER HE SOWETH GRAIN OR NOT PRICE 35 CENTS The oniy complete and authorized edition NEW YORK 1912 111 o so TO MRS. SUE. M. FARRELL, IN LAW MY SISTER, AND IN FACT MY FRIEND, THIS VOLUME, AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND LOVE IS DEDICATED. 1245555 PREFACE. F VOR many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men; that slavery, polygamy, wars of extermination were right, and that there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence, Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes. To me it seemed more reasonable that savage men had made these laws; and I endeavored in a lecture, entitled “Some Mistakes of Moses," to point out some of the errors, conquest and a |
