use for him. We have no criminal so ruthless nor so blood-guilty as
he. He is not fit to touch our cities, imperfect as we are. The
thought of him defiles and nauseates. We should think him too horrible
and pitiless for a devil, this red-handed, black-hearted Jehovah of
the Jews.

And yet: in the inspired Book, in the Holy Bible, this awful creature
is still enshrined as "God the Father Almighty." It is marvellous.
It is beyond the comprehension of any man not blinded by superstition,
not warped by prejudice and old-time convention. _This_ the God of
Heaven? _This_ the Father of Christ? This the Creator of the Milky
Way? No. He will not do. He is not big enough. He is not good
enough. He is not clean enough. He is a spiritual nightmare: a bad
dream born in savage minds of terror and ignorance and a tigerish
lust for blood.

But if He is not the Most High, if He is not the Heavenly Father, if
He is not the King of kings, the Bible is not an inspired book, and
its claims to divine revelation will not stand.




THE HEROES OF THE BIBLE


Carlyle said we might judge a people by their heroes. The heroes
of the Bible, like the God of the Bible, are immoral savages. That
is because the Bible is a compilation from the literature of savage
and immoral tribes.