e.

Every letter of this passage has been sword and fagot; every word has
been dungeon and chain.

That passage made the sword of persecution drip with innocent blood for
ten centuries. That passage made the horizon of a thousand years lurid
with the flames of fagots. That passage contradicts the sermon on the
mount. That passage travesties the Lord's prayer. That passage turns
the splendid religion of deed and duty into the superstition of creed
and cruelty. I deny it. It is infamous. Christ never said it! Now I
come to Luke, and it is sufficient to say that Luke substantially
agrees with Matthew and with Mark. Substantially agrees, as the
evidence is read. I like it.

"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Good!

"Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Condemn not, and ye shall not
be condemned; forgive and ye shall be forgiven." Good!

"Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and
shaken together, and running over." Good! I like it.

"For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to
you again."

He agrees substantially with Mark; he agrees substantially with
Matthew; and I come at last to the nineteenth chapter.

"And Zaccheus stood and said unto the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, the half of
my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man
by false accusation, I restore him four-fold.' And Jesus said unto
him, 'This day is salvation come to this house.'"

That is good doctrine. He didn't ask Zaccheus what he believed. He
didn't ask him, Do you believe in the Bible? Do you believe in the
five points? Have you ever been baptized-sprinkled? Oh! immersed.
"Half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from
any man by false accusation, I restore him four-fold." "And Christ
said, 'This day is salvation come to this house.'" Good!

I read also in Luke that Christ when upon the cross forgave His
murderers, and that is considered the shining gem in the crown of His
mercy--that He forgave His murderers. That He forgave the men who
drove the nails in His hands, in His feet, that plunged a spear in His
side; the soldier that in the hour of death offered Him in mockery the
bitterness to drink; that He forgave them all freely, and that yet,
although He would forgive them, He will in the nineteenth century damn
to eternal fire an honest man for the expression of his honest
thoughts. That won't do. I