which the imagination of a youthful female ought not to be permitted to repose. I will venture to assert that the Odes of Anacreon do not display more luxury of imagination or combine more sensual associations than parts of the Old Testament The Bible contains tales of atrocity at which human nature shudders. Parts of the Holy writings consist of history and of the narration of facts of a kind that cannot be mentioned in the presence of a virtuous woman without exciting horror. Should a woman be permitted to read in her chamber what she would tremble to hear at her domestic board? Should she con over and revolve what she would rather die than utter?
And, O Lord, perhaps you would not think it, but another creature of thine, in his estimate of thy blessed Book, has also dared to be honest even to thee. You have heard, perhaps, of Judge Huntley Williams, of the Supreme Court of Victoria.[1] I am almost certain you have heard of him, for he is a judge of considerable power, and "the powers that be are ordained of God." Well, thy creature, Huntley Williams, writes thus:—
I assert, without fear of contradiction, that no English author has ever ventured to put into a book a tenth part of the filth that is to be found passing throughout the Old Testament. In schools where the Bible is read and learnt it is a well-known fact that idle and prurient-minded boys spend a considerable portion of their time in looking up and gloating over all those filthy stories with which the Old Testament teems. There are pages upon pages and chapters upon chapters that no father or mother worthy of the name would ever dream of reading to or wittingly allow a son or daughter to read. Yet, because ever since Christianity has had a Bible, the Old Testament has formed a major portion of it, and children are trained up to consider that as the revelation of the Almighty, which they are not allowed to, and do not, read, except by stealth, and which any adult even would be ashamed to be caught reading by others. Then, again, a further considerable portion of the Old Testament is of the most bloodthirsty, cruel, and brutal description; and so diffused are the characteristics, immorality and indecency, of vengeance, bloodthirstiness, and cruelty, throughout the Old Testament that, if you keep on rejecting the chapter or book in which they appear, the result will be that you will have very little left.
And, O Lord, you will perhaps, by this time, have heard of America. When you "created" the heavens and the earth you seem to have had no idea that you had created America, and neither the devil nor your son
- ↑ In "Religion without Superstition."
