s, infamous. At the same time, I admit
that it contains many passages of an excellent and splendid character
--many good things, wise sayings, and many excellent and just laws.

But I would like to ask this: Suppose there were no passages in
the Bible except those upholding slavery, polygamy and wars of
extermination; would anybody then claim that it was the word of
God? I would like to ask if there is a Christian in the world who
would not be overjoyed to find that every one of these passages
was an interpolation? I would also like to ask Mr. Beecher if he
would not be greatly gratified to find that after God had written
the Bible the Devil had got hold of it, and interpolated all these
passages about slavery, polygamy, the slaughter of women and babes
and the doctrine of eternal punishment? Suppose, as a matter of
fact, the Devil did get hold of it; what part of the Bible would
Mr. Beecher pick out as having been written by the Devil? And if
he picks out these passages could not the Devil answer him by
saying, "You, Mr. Beecher, are like a vulture, a kind of buzzard,
flying through the tainted air of inspiration, and pouncing down
upon the carrion. Why do you not fly like a dove, and why do you
not have the innocent ignorance of the dove, so that you could
light upon a carcass and imagine that you were surrounded by the
perfume of violets?" The fact is that good things in a book do
not prove that it is inspired, but the presence of bad things does
prove that it is not.

_Question_. What was the real difficulty between you and Moses,
Colonel, a man who has been dead for thousands of years?

_Answer_. We never had any difficulty. I have always taken pains
to say that Moses had nothing to do with the Pentateuch. Those
books, in my judgment, were written several centuries after Moses
had become dust in his unknown sepulchre. No doubt Moses was quite
a man in his day, if he ever existed at all. Some people say that
Moses is exactly the same as "law-giver;" that is to say, as
Legislature, that is to say as Congress. Imagine somebody in the
future as regarding the Congress of the United States as one person!
And then imagine that somebody endeavoring to prove that Congress
was always consistent. But, whether Moses lived or not makes but
little difference to me. I presume he filled the place and did
the work that he was compelled to do, and although according to
the account God had much to say to him with