horns, or empowered
Joshua to command the sun to stand still while he slaughtered his
enemies, is any of these things more wonderful than the other?

Now one of these instances that I have selected from the Bible,
if found in the Book of Mormon, would be sufficient to stamp it
with absurdity and everlasting contempt, according to the
gentlemen who oppose me; but when found in the Bible the story
assumes another phase entirely. It is as the Saviour said of the
Pharisees, "Ye strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." My opponent
strains at a gnat, when found in the Book of Mormon, but if
camels are discovered in the Bible he swallows them by the herd.
I cannot see why a big story, told in the Bible, should be
believed any more readily than one found in the Book of Mormon.

It is not my purpose to find discrepancies in the characters of
the ancient prophets or inspired writers, but my opponent has
challenged me to produce from the Bible a character of such
disrepute as that of Joseph, the Mormon Prophet. Now I will say
that of the characters I shall mention we have only their own
history or account of what they did. Their enemies and contemporaries
have long since passed away. But if their enemies could speak
worse of them than they have of themselves, decency would blush
to read their story. I will refer to only a few instances.

Moses, the meek, as he is called, murdered an Egyptian that
strove with an Israelite, and had to run away from his country
for the offense. He was afterwards sent by God to bring the
Israelites out of bondage. Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
He built the ark, and was saved through the deluge. His name has
been handed down from posterity to posterity, in honorable
remembrance, as one who feared God and worked righteousness. But
we find him soon after the Flood getting drunk, exposing his
nakedness, and cursing a portion of his own posterity. Lot, whose
family was the only God-fearing family in Sodom and Gomorrah,
rescued by the angel of God from the judgments that overwhelmed
those cities, when only a short distance from Sodom became drunk
and debauched his daughters. Think of the conduct of David with
Uriah's wife - and David was, we are told, a man after God's own
heart. Also Judah, Judge in Israel. Peter cursed and swore and
denied his Master. The enemies of Christ said He was a gluttonous
man and a wine bibber, a friend of the publicans and sinners;
that after the people at the marriag