Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER XL.

THE GLORY OF MOSES' LORD THROUGH FEAR OF MOSES AND HIS BULLIES THE MASSES DESERT THEIR LEADERS THE LEADERS KILLED-MORE THAN PROBABLE THEY WERE MURDERED BY MOSES.

*

*

*

"And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the Lord, thou, and they, and Aaron, to-morrow. And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: Separate yourselves from this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up, and went unto Dathan and Abiram: and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spake unto the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of my own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not sent me: but if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them: for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also." [Num. XVI: 16-34.

SECTION 1. It may be more than a little astonishing to some persons, having a popular religious education, to see, at this day, the character of Moses, for religion and morality, impugned; also, see questioned the veracity of his history of the times in which he lived, and of events in which he took part; and especially astounding to them to see these questions raised by a believer in the Christian religion. But, by such, all these questions are raised, of which these pages are evidence, if there can be no other obtained. The people of this age are compelled to accept Moses' record as it is, and to make of it what they justly and truthfully can, because it has come down to us in the form in which it stands, and in that form it is thrust before us as a sacred treasure, and as a divine record. But no man, or woman, of this day, is excluded by any lapse of time, or by the authority of the past, from examining, and judging these questions. More, the men and women of this day, are a lawful jury, empanneled by the universal Father, to try Moses' record on its veracity, and to try Moses himself, on the charge of having played the part of a religious juggler, before the children of Israel; likewise, empanneled to try him on the accusation of having been a military adventurer and Machiavelian politician; also, for the wilful murder of Korah and his associates; for the "killing of the people of the Lord," with malice aforethought; and, for inciting the people to that action whereby fourteen thousand and seven hundred of the children of Israel were killed in one emeute.

SEC. 2. Then, again, it is not only the privilege of the men and women of this day to sit as jurors to try the record, as aforesaid, and to try Moses on the several counts specified above, but it is made their duty to do it, made so by him by whom they were empanneled, and to do it faithfully, and without partiality. Then, it is both our privilege and duty, as such jurors, to judge the law under which the charges are brought; and to judge on all testimony that comes before us which is relevent to the case. The law under which we are to try Moses, and under which the charges

are preferred, is the law of the universal Father-the moral law principles-principles easily comprehended by all accountable moral agents, and those, too, which are known by such agents to be unchanging Truth.

:

SEC. 3. The above preferred charges, against Moses, namely that of wilfully murdering Korah and his associates; that of killing the people of the Lord; and, that of bringing on a collision among the people, whereby fourteen thousand and seven hundred of the children of Israel were slaughtered in one emeute, are not called up in these pages because I love to dwell on the moral delinquencies of a fellow man, or on his violations of the laws of God, and those which regulate, justly, man's social relations; nor for the special gratification of any morbid taste which I have, in that direction; but it is as a lover of Justice, and as a professedly loyal subject of the government of God, and in behalf of enslaved and suffering humanity, and the cause of Truth, that I have brought forward these charges.

SEC. 4. But, says the objector, why do you prefer these against one whose body, according to accepted chronology, has been in the grave more than thirty centuries? I answer objector thus: It is the prerogative, and the duty, of the living to judge both the "quick (living) and the dead," and be just to all. Then, Moses still lives in history; and his record is the basis of an almost unlimited influence which is nearly omnipotent over a class of minds which can be numbered by millions. He lives in the religious faith of large numbers in Christendom, and likewise in Jewry-he gives cast to their religious sentiments and tone to their spirits; and the moral sentiment of the civilized world, so called, is greatly affected by his teachings, and its political institutions and laws are more or less fashioned after his autocracy, statutes, and ordinances. Then, the masses, both of Christendom and of Jewry, are greatly deceived as to Moses' real character, and this delusive charm, with which they are made to sleep the sleep of moral death, must be broken, and Moses made to stand in his proper lot before the world

made to occupy, in the estimation of the religious and civil world of mankind, that place which he merited by his entertained principles, and his deeds. Then, as before said, in this book, mankind cannot be saved from their individual, nor their social, discordances until they individually and socially contemn the wicked examples set by Moses, and eschew the pernicious political and religious dogmas that he entertained and taught. Thus have I shown to the objector some of the reasons why I arraign in these pages, for violations of moral obligation, one who, long since, had passed from the active scenes of visible life.

SEC. 5. In adducing the evidence in this case I acknowledge that that portion of it which goes to fasten the crimes committed on Moses, is only circumstantial; but as the recorded testimony deduced from, and offered in evidence, are his own declarations and admissions, they are admissible, and he is bound by them, where they are against himself. Though the evidence be circumstantial, and its competency to convict depends somewhat, on the veracity of Moses, the accused, it is the best that the lapse of time and other circumstances can furnish us. Since Moses' record avers that the acts complained of were committed, it is not necessary to otherwise prove that they were committed. The record avows that it was the Lord that did the deeds of which complaints are made. The only reply which this averment demands, and the only evidence needed to disprove it, is to cite to the unchanging paternal regardfulness of the universal Father-always alike regardful for the entire family of man-and to his destitution of attributes that would permit him to perpetrate, on any creature of his power, such enormities as by this averment Moses alleges against him. He never so dealt with any portion of the human race.

SEC. 6. Alluding to the deaths of some of the companions of Korah, one clause in the testimony of Moses reads thus: "The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up.

[blocks in formation]

*

they went down alive into the pit, and the

earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation." Here I would say, all rules of evidence would exclude this clause of Moses' testimony from receiving any credence whatever, for it is at variance with the known laws of God and Nature-Mind and Matter, both-therefore it could not have been true, ever; hence, for this reason the foregoing clause in Moses' testimony should be rejected. Then, the story as it is told in Num. XVI: 32 and 33, disagrees with the same story as it is told in Num. XXVI: 10 and 11, as to the manner in which Korah and his family, his sons, at least, came to their deaths. One statement tends to make us believe that they all were miraculously emboweled in the earth with Dathan and Abiram, and their families, and other friends of Korah. The other statement says that Korah's sons were not killed at all; and, from what it says about Korah himself, commentators cannot find out whether the earth swallowed him or he was assassinated with the people of the Lord, the two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, "men of renown." Again, this clause in Moses' testimony should be regarded just as are many other fabulous stories of ancient origin, as a downright falsehood, which was first told to the affrighted ignorant to mis-direct attention, and thereby cover up some damning deed which would not bear the test of investigation. But I accept in this argument Moses' testimony so far as this, that Korah and his friends came to an untimely and violent death, and that, too, near the tabernacle, and in the presence of Moses and his friends. But who was it that massacred

them? this is the question.

SEC. 7. If the deeds complained of were done as Moses said that they were, they must have been done by one, or many, whose interest it was to perpetrate them, and also, they must have been done by one, or many, who possessed the requisite murderous characteristics, the needed physical power, and the opportunity to do them. Moses' testimony shows that he had the opportunity, and the means, to commit the foul deeds; and, that no mortal beside himself,

« PreviousContinue »