ls. But we cannot lay aside the
provisions and yet regard the document as divine. No learned quibbles
can ever persuade an honest earnest mind that that is right. One may
say: "Everyone knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to
be acted upon." It is not true. It is continually acted upon, and
always will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book. William
the Second acted upon it. His German God which wrought such mischief
in the world was the reflection of the dreadful being who ordered that
captives be put under the harrow. The cities of Belgium were the
reflection of the cities of Moab. Every hard-hearted brute in history,
more especially in the religious wars, has found his inspiration in the
Old Testament. "Smite and spare not!" "An eye for an eye!", how
readily the texts spring to the grim lips of the murderous fanatic.
Francis on St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in the Lowlands, Tilly at
Magdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters at Philliphaugh, the
Anabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormons of Utah, all found their
murderous impulses fortified from this unholy source. Its red trail
runs through history. Even where the New Testament prevails, its
teaching must still be dulled and clouded by its sterner neighbour.
Let us retain this honoured work of literature. Let us remove the
taint which poisons the very spring of our religious thought.

This is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should be made for the
more beautiful building to come. The second is less important, as it
is a shifting of the point of view, rather than an actual change. It
is to be remembered that Christ's life in this world occupied, so far
as we can estimate, 33 years, whilst from His arrest to His
resurrection was less than a week. Yet the whole Christian system has
come to revolve round His death, to the partial exclusion of the
beautiful lesson of His life. Far too much weight has been placed upon
the one, and far too little upon the other, for the death, beautiful,
and indeed perfect, as it was, could be matched by that of many scores
of thousands who have died for an idea, while the life, with its
consistent record of charity, breadth of mind, unselfishness, courage,
reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique and superhuman. Even
in these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand records we receive an
impression such as no other life can give--an impression which fills us
with utte