wife and no slaves. If not, God might have written it on the other
side. David and Solomon were pursued of God, but they had a pretty
good time of it. Most anybody would be willing to be pursued that way.
There is not a word in the old testament against slavery or polygamy.
Frederick Douglas, a slave in Maryland, is the greatest man that state
ever produced. He was enslaved by Christians. Why did God pay so much
attention to blasphemers, and so little to slaveholders and robbers? I
am opposed to any God that was ever in favor of slavery. The bible
upholds polygamy, and that's the reason I don't uphold the bible. The
most glorious temple ever erected is the home--that's my church. I've
misquoted the story of Jonah, Talmage says. When somebody had been
guilty of blasphemy the winds rose; they tried to get Jonah ashore, but
couldn't do it. The sea waxed. He was swallowed by a whale. The
people of Minerva wrapped all their cattle up in sack-cloth, and if
anything would have pleased God I should think that would. Jonah sat
under a gourd, and God made a worm out of some omnipotence he had left
over, and set it work on the ground. Talmage doesn't think Jonah was
in the whale's belly--he said in his mouth. Well, judging from the
doctor's photograph, that explanation would be quite natural to him.
He says he might have been in the whale's stomach, and avoided the
action of the gastric juice by walking up and down. Imagine Jonah,
sitting on a back tooth, leaning against the upper jaw, longingly
looking through the open mouth for signs of land! But that's scripture
and you've got to believe it or be damned. Let me say his brother
preachers will not thank Talmage for his explanations. I don't believe
it, and if I am to be damned for it, I'll accept it cheerfully.

They say I was defeated for Governor of Illinois because I was an
infidel, and that I am an infidel because I was defeated. That's
logic. Now I'll tell you. They asked me whether I was an infidel, and
I said I was! I was defeated. I preserved my manhood and lost an
office. If everybody were as frank as I was, some men now in office
would be private citizens. I would rather be what I am than hold any
office in the world and be a slimy hypocrite.

Next they say I slandered my parents because I do not believe what they
believed. My father at one time believed the bible to be the inspired
word of God. He was an honorable man, and told me to read t