those who had rejoiced over its death when they saw no _Freethinker_
for July 23. From that moment our issue was never once suspended,
although we had some desperate close shaves.

In the number for August 6, as I could not get our machiner to print
any Comic Bible Sketches just then, I published a serious one,
reproduced from an old Dutch Bible of 1669. It represented Moses
obtaining a panoramic view of Jehovah's back parts. Below the text
I inserted the following notice: "As the bigots object to our Comic
Bible Sketches, we shall publish a few Serious Bible Sketches, copied
accurately from old Bibles of the ages of faith, to show what the
Christians have done themselves in the way of familiar interpretation.
We hope the bigots will like the change." By the next week, however,
I had overcome our machiner's scruples, and the Comic Bible Sketches
were resumed and continued up to the day of my imprisonment.

My attitude towards the prosecution is amply expressed by these
facts, but a few words from my pen at that time may not be altogether
superfluous. In an article entitled "Crucify Him!" in the _Freethinker_
of August 6, 1882, I wrote:

"We are charged with blasphemy, and so was Jesus Christ. What
a grim joke it will be if the _Freethinker_ is found guilty and
punished for the same crime as the preacher of the Sermon on
the Mount! Truly adversity makes us acquainted with strange
bedfellows.

"Yet, whatever happens, we will not quail. We will not vapor
about legions of angels, but trust in the living legions of
Freethought. We will not yield to the weakness of an agony