s. Did he know
that he would cause the children to be slaughtered in his vain
efforts to kill the infant Christ? Yes. Dr. Banks will say that
God is not responsible for Herod because he gave Herod freedom.
Did God know how Herod would use his freedom? Did he know that he
would become the villain in the drama of Christ? Yes. Who, then,
is really responsible for the acts of Herod?

If I could change a stone into a human being, and if I could give
this being freedom of will, and if I knew that if I made him he
would murder a man, and if with that knowledge I made him, and he
did commit a murder, who would be the real murderer?

Will Dr. Banks in his fifty-two sermons of next year show that his
God is not responsible for the crimes of Herod?

No doubt Dr. Banks is a good man, and no doubt he thinks that
liberty of thought leads to hell, and honestly believes that all
doubt comes from the Devil. I do not blame him. He thinks as he
must. He is a product of conditions.

He ought to be my friend because I am doing the best I can to
civilize his congregation.

--_The Plain Dealer_, Cleveland, Ohio, 1898.

CUBA--ZOLA AND THEOSOPHY.

_Question_. What do you think, Colonel, of the Cuban question?

_Answer_. What I know about this question is known by all. I
suppose that the President has information that I know nothing
about. Of course, all my sympathies are with the Cubans. They
are making a desperate--an heroic struggle for their freedom. For
many years they have been robbed and trampled under foot. Spain
is, and always has been, a terrible master--heartless and infamous.
There is no language with which to tell what Cuba has suffered.
In my judgment, this country should assist the Cubans. We ought
to acknowledge the independence of that island, and we ought to
feed the starving victims of Spain. For years we have been helping
Spain. Cleveland did all he could to prevent the Cubans from
getting arms and men. This was a criminal mistake--a mistake that
even Spain did not appreciate. All this should instantly be
reversed, and we should give aid to Cuba. The war that Spain is
waging shocks every civilized man. Spain has always been the same.
In Holland, in Peru, in Mexico, she was infinitely cruel, and she
is the same to-day. She loves to torture, to imprison, to degrade,
to kill. Her idea of perfect happiness is to shed blood. Spain
is a legacy of the Dark Ages. She belongs to the den, the cav