(To 711R EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin,—Whilst fully admitting
that the anthropomorphic idea of God presented in many parts of the Old Testament does not rise above the level of the age in which it was conceived, I may, perhaps, protest against one instance of it given by Dr. Carpenter in his letter. He speaks of Hebrew prophets and psalmists representing their anthropomorph "as taking pleasure in the destruction of his enemies," even to the "dash- ing of their little ones against the stones." Surely this fiend- ish, though not uncommon emotion, is not represented in the 137th Psalm as representing the feeling of the God of the Jew,—rather is it the revengeful cry of a heart, embittered, warped, and unhumanised for the time, by the torturing recol- lection of man's inhumanity to man.—I am, Sir, dm, Senwarton Rectory, July 27th. H. B. PURTON.
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