is is their end. Why this terrible order
of extermination given? and given by God himself? Will not the Lord of
the whole earth do right? Yes, verily. Then, we ask, what is that great
and terrible reason for God ordering this entire extermination of these
_ites_, if indeed they were his children and the pure descendants of
Adam and Eve? What crimes had they committed, that had not been before
committed by the pure descendants of Noah? What iniquity had the little
children and nursing infants been guilty of, that such a terrible fate
should overwhelm them? There must have been some good cause for such
entire destruction; for the Lord of the whole earth does right, and only
right. Let us see how God deals with _Adam's_ children, _how bad soever
they may be, in a moral sense_, in contrast with this order to
exterminate. The Bible tells us, that when the Hebrews approached the
border of Sier (which is in Canaan), God told them not to touch _that_
land nor its people, for he had given it to Esau for a possession. Yet
this Esau had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and he and his
people were idolaters, and treated the children of Israel with acts of
hostility which some of these _ites_ had not. Again, they were not to
touch the land of Ammon, nor that of Moab, although _they_ were the
offspring of incestuous intercourse, and were, with the people of Sier,
as much given to idolatry and all other moral crimes, and as much so as
any of these Canaanites whom God directed Moses to exterminate. Why
except those, and doom these to extermination? Was not Canaan, the
father of these _ites_, a grandson of Noah, and as much related to the
Hebrews as were the children of Esau, Moab and Ammon? Certainly. Then,
their destruction was not for want of kinship; nor was it because they
were idolaters more than these, or were greater _moral_ criminals in the
sight of Heaven; but _simply because they were the progeny of
amalgamation or miscegenation between Canaan, a son of Adam and Eve_,
and the negro; and were _neither_ man nor _beast_. For this crime God
had destroyed the world, sown confusion broad-cast at Babel, burnt up
the inhabitants of the vale of Siddim, and for it would now exterminate
the Canaanite. It is a crime that God has never forgiven, _never will
forgive_, nor can it be propitiated by all the sacrifices earth can make
or give. God has shown himself, in regard to it, _long-suffering and of_
great forbearance. However much