Lord had in view, he confounded man's universal language; and hence the different languages and tongues spoken by the different tribes, and types, of mankind. It is not necessary that, on this question, much be added to what has been said, above. It is now known that the Tower of Babel (Babylon) was built by Nebuchadnezzar during the seventh century before the christian era; and, it is likewise known, that at that time many languages were spoken by the numerous races of mankind.

SEC. 8. By way of summary to this Chapter I would say, that, nothing can be more plain to the intelligent and reflective, who have read the Pentateuch with studious care than this: that the writer of that record had no knowledge, whatever, of any country, or human beings which belonged to any country, which lay west of the eastern shore of the Atlantic; or south of the line of the straits of Badel-Manded; or east of the river Indus; or north of the Caucasian mountains. Then, it is conceded by those who have given the subject the closest examination that this continent, and its inhabitants were wholly unknown (though first settled by man) to the ancient Egyptians and Chinese; and, that as late, even, as the time of building the Tower of Babel the continent of America was unknown to the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans: and, that at this time this continent was populated by millions of human beings.

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CHAPTER V.

MOSES HIS CALL-HIS RESPONSE HIS MIRACLES.

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"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and beheld, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. * Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. * And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

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* And Moses answered and said, But, behold they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, the Lord hath not appeared unto thee; and the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he said, a rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent: and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tai. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand : That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And he (Moses) said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron, the Levite, thy brother? I know that he can speak well.

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And I

will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye

shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs." [See Exodus, Chapters III & IV.

SECTION 1. The present Chapter is little else than a continuation of the matter of the second, both being based on Moses' Auto-Biography. The first part of the above extract is the account of Moses' "Call" to assume a station of notoriety-that of a public man-that of being a national leader; at least, he so interpreted it, and his admirers have so accredited the recorded phenomena, and I have no intention to here take issue with that opinion. This call came to Moses while he was residing in Arabia Petræa, and in the service of Jethro-acting in the capacity of shepherd and herdsman. The remainder of the quotation from the record gives, in part, his response to that Call, and an account of "miracles," so-called, that were wrought in his presence; also a bird's eye view of his system, and parts of the machinery, with which he operated to control the masses of his countrymen.

SEC. 2. It is not my purpose to here argue at length the questions which the above extracts involve, but simply make a note of them, and give them a passing noticeglance at their absurdity and utter falsity. It is my intention to take them up again in another place and there show, at length, their vileness, and, together with other portions of the Mosaic record, show their fraudulent character. There is much of this record that no honest man, or woman, of enlightened understanding, ever did believe, nor can they ever believe such absurdities. Yet, they are the parts here alluded to that have damned, and are damning, millions of the human family to the degrading condition of perpetual religious and political bondage; and so long as knaves, the knowing ones, are allowed, without truthful and manful contradiction, to palm off these falsehoods as truth upon the credulous and the unlearned, they will continue to thus damn mankind.

SEC. 3. The reader will note the fact that the main evidence of the truthfulness of this whole narration of Moses rests singly on the authenticity of the record, and the veracity of Moses. The matter of his Call, his response to it, and the miracle above noted had no attesting witnesses -the whole affair was a transaction in secret conference between him and his Lord. But this, alone, does not, necessarily invalidate his statement concerning what was there said, or done. It is when man is shut from the sight, and the communion, of his fellow men, that, more often than otherwise, he receives those truths most in advance of the sentiment of the times-truths relating to morals and those concerning physics.

SEC. 4. However honest and sincere Moses may have been in his statements and belief that God said unto him thus, and thus, his bare ipsi dixit of the matter does not substantiate them, nor does it make the occurrences that he related any more probable of having taken place; at least, this is the case when the matter, said to have been spoken or done, would have contravened man's material Senses, the known laws of Nature, his intellectual Sense, or his spiritual Perception. Before man can rely with surety on statements of this kind as being truth, he must know that the matters related, and claimed to have been spoken, were in harmony with the characteristics of God, our heavenly Father. If they do not thus correspond, man is warranted in rejecting the statements as being authoritative; also, in saying that they were not utttered by our common Father; and that Moses' God was not the same as the Christian's God-not the same God that Jesus, of Nazareth, adored, and towards whom he directed the minds of mankind.

SEC. 5. I am not disposed to deny, or to question, even, that Moses saw a light of the kind by him described in the above extract. But I do deny that this in character, was an occurrence not before and since, witnessed by man. I might specify a long list of persons who have lived in the different ages of the world, who have had similar visitations.

but I will refer to a few only, and those of general notoriety. Of those of Jewish history, Abraham and Lot saw sights, and received special visitants; Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzer each had presentiments of future events. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel saw sights. Then, at a later time, one Saul, of Tarsus saw, at mid-day, a brightness above that of the sun; Peter, and John on the Isle of Patmos, saw sights. Constantine saw in the heavens, in brilliant form, the figure of the "Cross." Mohammed saw, and held converse, with a heavenly visitant; then, as he supposed, he made a journey to heaven, and there conversed with his God. Then, in early life our own countryman, Jefferson had a vision of his future life and labors he had presented before his mental vision an emancipated world; and, from that hour, he labored to bring about that event. But the lights seen do not prove their origin, nor are they seen only by those in an exalted, moral and spiritual condition, but by persons of sound minds in every state of mental and spiritual development.

SEC. 6. But, say the devotees of Moses, if you reject the matter of the light in the bushes, seen by Moses, as being insufficient evidence to establish the divine character of his Call, and the God-nature of his subsequent movements, there were miracles wrought by God before him, also by him; these attested the truth of the matter, and they settled the question that all things were just what Moses said they were, all of God—that God talked with him, and wrought miracles before him, and that he gave him, Moses, special power, with "rod" in hand, to do them; and, what he could not effect he especially authorized Moses to call on him, and he would do it for him. As an assumption, all this is very good, and it looks well; but there is in it no proof of the truthfulness of any part of the statement. Then, no person of sane mind, and in his sober senses, can believe that the interchanges of thought, said to have taken place between Moses and his Lord, and