pillar story, I will here say, that this "pillar" business— pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night, and each covering and uncovering of "the tent of testimony," as it is represented in the record-was a fraud upon the people; it all was gotten up, and managed, by Moses at the suggestion of his Lord, which was his own dear self, not God our heavenly Father. Then, the whole movement of that people from Rameses to Gilgal was but little else than a military movement of that day. Command and obedience reigned throughout the entire body, as much so as in any military camp of the age. The whole body was organized into companies, and each company had a commander placed over it; and, they were marched in military order-they went forth out of Egypt five in rank, called in Ex. XIII: 18, "harnessed." The tent of testimony, so called by Moses, at this day, would be called: The Markee, or the Head-Quarters, of the officer in command of the expedition.

SEC. 7. A word further concerning those "pillars." Bigots can impose upon and indoctrinate children with their dogmas and creeds, however false and absurd they may be; and, designing persons can easily humbug imbeciles about things said to have transpired thousands of years ago, and especially so by throwing about the subjects the veil of mysteryclaiming that it was of God's own manufacturing. The truth of that, said to be, mysterious affair is this: There was no mystery, nor any special divine interposition about those "pillars." The inhabitants of nearly every city, and town, of this whole country, have witnessed, often, all that there was about those "pillars," said to be, God's guides to the children of Israel. Almost every moving body of organized men that march in regular order, whether it be a military division, a political mass gathering, a ratification, or celebration, an ovation, or a special religious procession, all have seen, in substance, all that the children of Israel witnessed in form of pillar-guides. Whenever these processions, those mentioned, march in the night-time they carry illuminated transparencies, and when they journey in the day-time they

carry "clouded" banners, and Moses did the same thing, and this was all that there was about those mysterious "pillars."

SEC. 8. We, the people of this day, should designate things, the like of those guides, by the term, "Banners," "Flags," or "Colors," instead of calling them, "Pillars." The pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud were one and the same thing. In the night-time Moses had his "Pillar"-his chief, or standard, "Colors"-illuminated by lighted tapers, and in the day-time he did not. In the night it had the appearance of a column of fire, but during the light of day its transparency was not observable-to the sight it was impenetrable, cloud-like. Thus much as to the matter of fact about those pillar bubbles.

SEC. 9. Then, these guides "rested," "tarried," and "moved," as the Markee of Moses "rested," "tarried," and "moved;" it was Moses that governed in all their stoppings, tarryings, and movings; as the record has it—" they kept the charge of the Lord by the hand, (power-order,) of Moses." In all candor, and sincerity, I ask, where is there any God in this thing, outside of Moses' skill in devising and his tact in executing, that is not in every procession of men following after the lead of a principal banner? I have said that none existed, and that it all was of Moses' own getting up, and it cannot be shown to be otherwise.

SEC. 10. Above I have said, in substance, that if the children of Israel, those which left Egypt under the lead of Moses, failed to enter into and possess the land of Canaan, "for an heritage," within a reasonable time after they left Egypt, that failure could not have been set down to their account; for, they marched, and they rested, at the bidding of the power that dictated the movement; and, they followed whither the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire led the way. Now, the record is full, and explicit, that that people were meandering forty years over that space that intervened between the Nile and the Jordan, a distance of necessary travel, making a liberal allowance, of three hundred, or four

hundred, miles, by the shortest traveled route, and five hundred, or six hundred, miles by the longer route. But most of these forty years were spent in meandering in the wilderness and over deserts-marching and counter-marching, like a bewildered man in the depths of a forest, on a territory not a hundred and fifty miles square. To argue the question to prove that forty years was an unreasonable length of time to march a body of men, women, and children, with their personal estate, a distance of three hundred miles, or six hundred miles, even, would prove either imbecility, else dementation, on the part of him who should thus attempt to make the argument.

SEC. 11. Not only the time consumed in making that march was of unreasonable length, but the undertaking was a stupendous failure-it was a disastrous expedition to all that were numbered from twenty years old and upward;" excepting, the war-horse of Moses and his aid-de-camp-Oshea, the son of Nun, (breveted by Moses "Jehoshua," Savior, on account of his fighting qualities, and the good fight that he made with the Amelekites in the battle in Rephidim,) and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. These two fighting generals, and faithful subordinates of Moses, according to the record, God brought through, and located them, permanently, in the promised land. The masses, the remainder of those that were "numbered," Moses' Lord, in his displeasure, wore them out, killed, and left "their carcases to waste in the wilderness "-he left their bones to point out to the traveler the trail of the Israelites, and their flesh food for wild beasts and the carrion bird, or to commingle with the soil of a strange land.

SEC. 12. Then, the power that projected that campaign, and dictated the movements of the expedition, knew not the business that it entered upon, nor the materials that it had to operate with, else, it designedly deceived the people in promising them that which it knew it had not the power to bestow. For, in Egypt, it promised the people the "heritage" as a gift, whereas it was attained by those who did

obtain it, by dint of their own hard fighting—at the cost of many lives and much suffering-these were not in the bill of fare laid before the people by Moses, prior to their enlisting under his banner, in Egypt. From all the representations made to them by Moses the people had a right to infer that the land flowing with milk and honey would be given to them without being obliged to butcher off the old occupantsthe rightful possessors—to obtain it; and it was this practiced deception, on the part of Moses, that was one of the chief causes that gave him the means of picking a quarrel with them, then upbraid them, and then run off and tell his Lord that they were a stiff-necked and “rebellious people." Then, those to whom Moses, in person, promised the "heritage" never inherited it, but they died in the wilderness, long after they should have been placed in possession, according to the promise of Moses, Vicegerent and Minister Plenipotentiary of his Lord.

SEC. 13. Again I repeat what before I have stated: the record says that God was the projector of that filibustering march, and that it was Him that dictated all the movements of that disastrous campaign, but as before said, it was Moses, not God, who was responsible for the waste of human life and the untold, and innumerable, sufferings of the Israelites in that expedition; also, the sufferings of the people of other nations-those unoffending inhabitants mercilessly butchered, and otherwise exterminated, without just cause, by Joshua, the supple tool of Moses-Savior, so called-the Anointed of his God. I think that the foregoing allegations, against Moses, both expressed and implied, are made perfectly plain to the unbiased mind, and to the understanding of the honest inquirer; hence, I shall now review, briefly, the march of the Israelites and note some of the incidents occurring to them on the way,-first examining the statements of the record as to their numbers.

CHAPTER VII.

MOSES THE ISRAELITES-THEIR TRAVELS-THEIR NUMBERS.

"And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth; about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle."

[Ex. XII: 37, 38. SECTION 1. It appears by the record that Rameses, near the Nile, was the place of rendezvous of the children of Israel, and the starting point on their march; and, that Succoth was the place where they first pitched tent. Here they numbered six hundred thousand men, besides old men, infirm men, the Levites, and the camp-followers. It is unknown what was the whole number, including women and children; it is differently estimated by different writers and commentators-the estimated number by these writers varies from one million to three millions, and more, even. When it is recollected that this vast number is only the natural increase of population from "seventy souls," in the short space of time of two hundred and fifteen years, the intelligent reader cannot think otherwise than that the only appropriate place for this narration of the children of Israel would be as an Appendix to that notable narrative called, Gulliver's Travels." In order to close a gap in the "sacred record," some Inspiration-makers have claimed, and contended, against the letter of the text, that there were "seventy-five souls" which came into Egypt of the house of Jacob. The laws of God and Nature have never so stimulated the fecundity of any portion of the human race as is here represented.

SEC. 2. Again, in order to make up the number of souls to agree with the "inspired" record, the Inspiration menders take into their account the seventeen years that