quitting him with great anger. I presume, he was not yet the meekest man on the face of the earth. There is a strange incoherence and jumble of words in this chapter, without order or connection, beginning or end. On examining the commentators, I find there is a deficiency of eight verses to what is found in the Samaritan copies, which is generally allowed to be the original of the Bible.

Cursed be he that hath taken away those eight verses from the word of God.

I proceed with the twelfth chapter:

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: and if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both mait and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye cat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that

In

which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this self-same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habita. tions shall ye eat unleavened bread. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you. And ye sball observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye become to the land which the Lord will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they. And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the first born in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, we be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

sacrificed. It is many years since I first reflected on this species of superstitious cruelty; even before I had attempted an enquiry whether the Bible was a book of truth or falsehood, or had my suspicions drawn to this point. The sacrifice of human beings, which is so copiously related in all our classic school books, and in all that is preserved or feigned of ancient history, cannot fail to excite both horror and disgust. The sacrifice of birds and beasts, as ordered in the Jewish law, is one of the strongest proofs that it has no other than a human foundation. Can any sympathetic and feeling mind imagine, that the great Creator and preserver of the Universe, that great cause which embraces universal nature, can delight in the reeking blood and bodies of animals, that he can partake of them when roasted, and have his appetite excited, and his anger appeased, by the unctious smell which has been impiously said to gratify his olfactory nerves, just as if he were as gross and carnal as the sacrificers themselves. No, he cannot. He who believes in an omnipotent and all-merciful God cannot attribute so horrid a character to him. The philosophic mind considers that every animal, every atom, of the creation is alike the constant care of the God of nature. Το say that he requires a burnt offering to gratify his hungry appetite, or to appease his anger, is an act which can alone give us a definition of the word blasphemy. It is the height of wickedness and impiety: it is far worse than Atheism. Atheist is a character that may defend himself and be defended: he may possess a brilliant, philosophic, and accomplished mind, happily endowed with morality, virtue and humanity; but he who pretends to believe in a God, and fancies that his God delights in the blood of animals, must be a carnal, brutal, and sensual man: a man whose whole study is the gratification of his appetite, a man who compares his God to his own stomach and habits: a man with grovelling and filthy ideas, scarce superior to the hog which wallows in the mire,

(To be Continued.)

An

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ye have given to this inexorable Jewish Deity! We are informed that after this last act of cruelty towards the Egyptians, the Israelites took advantage of their terrors, stripped them of every thing they had that was valuable, and then walked off to worship and sacrifice to their God Jehovah, after residing in Egypt four hundred and thirty years to a day. This time is positively and precisely stated, but those who, have vainly attempted to affix a chronology to the Bible history, have found it necessary to cut off one hundred and eighty years of this time, the better to make the contradictory statements tally, and by way of excuse say, that the greater number of years should be dated from the time of the first promise of Jehovah to Abraham about his posterity. Nothing can be more distinct than the statement. in what is called the authorized version, in the following words: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." Let commentators beware. This book is made the word of God by an Act of the English Parliament, and this book says, cursed be he that addeth or taketh any thing from me.

As we shall find much matter in the Bible relating to the Jewish sacrifices as alleged to be ordered by their Deity, and as this chapter affords the first instance of such an order, it may not be amiss to give the sacrifice of animals a consideration in this place, confining myself to the mere sacrifice of an animal to the Deity, and not touching upon what part he would eat himself and what part he would leave for the priests and the people, but leaving this for a further observation when we arrive at a proper place. The Jewish God is here represented as ordering the children of Israel to take a lamb for each family, or where the family is small, to unite with another, to kill it in the evening, sprinkle the blood on the door-posts of the house, roast it by a fire, and eat it all up before the morning, with the legs and the purtenance thereof; (whether the skin be considered as belonging to the purtenance we are not informed) and further, that they should eat it, in a great hurry, with their shoes on their feet and their staff in their hand (lest any thief or dog should come in to steal a bone or a joint I presume).

I could never read the particulars of the sacrifice of any animals, whether human or gregarious, either to the Jewish or any other of the heathen Deities, without feeling the strongest disgust for the sacrificers and sympathy for the animals

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sacrificed. It is many years since I first reflected on this species of superstitious cruelty; even before I had attempted an enquiry whether the Bible was a book of truth or falsehood, or had my suspicions drawn to this point. The sacrifice of human beings, which is so copiously related in all our classic school books, and in all that is preserved or feigned of ancient history, cannot fail to excite both horror and disgust. The sacrifice of birds and beasts, as ordered in the Jewish law, is one of the strongest proofs that it has no other than a human foundation. Can any sympathetic and feeling mind imagine, that the great Creator and preserver of the Universe, 'that great cause which embraces universal nature, can delight in the reeking blood and bodies of animals, that he can partake of them when roasted, and have his appetite excited, and his anger appeased, by the unctious smell which has been impiously said to gratify his olfactory nerves, just as if he were as gross and carnal as the sacrificers themselves, No, he cannot. He who believes in an omnipotent and all-merciful God cannot attribute so horrid a character to him. The philosophic mind considers that every animal, every atom, of the creation is alike the constant care of the God of nature. To say that he requires a burnt offering to gratify his hungry appetite, or to appease his anger, is an act which can alone give us a definition of the word blasphemy. It is the height of wickedness and impiety: it is far worse than Atheism. An Atheist is a character that may defend himself and be defended: he may possess a brilliant, philosophic, and accomplished mind, happily endowed with morality, virtue and humanity; but he who pretends to believe in a God, and fancies that his God delights in the blood of animals, must be a carnal, brutal, and sensual man: a man whose whole study is the gratification of his appetite, a man who compares his God to his own stomach and habits: a man with grovelling and filthy ideas, scarce superior to the hog which wallows in the mire,

(To be Continued.)

Printed by JANE CARLILE, 55, Fleet Street.