selves (we say partially, for we never knew one who had industriously informed himself,) will swallow the greatest absurdities, they will take down the widest incredibilities on the side of darkness, rather than believe any one plain, simple gospel fact, as related in the New Testament. And of all men on earth, unbelievers have to be the most credulous. They dare not carry out their creeds into particulars. Their doctrines wound, and destroy each other to such an extent, that they do not venture to name them clearly, but pass it by in saying, "I do not know how it is."

CHAPTER XXIV.

MEN, WHO CAST AWAY THE BIBLE, AKE CREDULOUS IN THE

EXTREME.

Case of a Moralist.—There was a man who scorned Christianity, but was at the same time a great advocate for orderly behaviour. He seemed to rely much upon his honesty in dealing; he defrauded no man. His friend said to him: "Let me ask you what do you believe? You must believe something. You say that you believe that God has made us, and placed us here. Thus far I agree with you, for here we are. The world he has made for our abode, is one of considerable size, and well made. Our bodies are strangely made. We are curiosities to ourselves. We feel at times a strong inclination to know if our spirits are to die when our bodies do, or if they are to live on. It would not have been very hard for our Maker to have given us some information on this, and on similar points, if he had chosen to communicate with us. I should love to know how long I am to exist.

I should love to know what my Maker likes, and what he dislikes; what he approves, and what he hates. He must be a Being of preferences. Intellectual beings always have choices. Some conduct must please, and the opposite of it displease him. I should have been glad to know some of these things, had he been able to inform me. Has he placed me here a wonder to myself, to guess at his will; or has he told me something of my origin, how long since man was made, what he expects or wishes from him, and what is to be his future fortunes? Is my Creator amusing himself at my perplexities, or has he left some guide by which I may find out all necessary knowledge?” The moralist allowed that our heavenly Father had not left us in the dark, unkindly, or neglectfully. He said that reason was to be our instructer. He was loud and eloquent in praise of that celestial lamp, as he called it, which was to show the path of duty to every man. He said he had no use for the Bible, but reason directed him in every strait. His friend replied to him, in substance as follows: "My dear sir, all your system of rectitude, &c., so far as it is worth any thing, you have stolen from the Bible. You are like the man who had taken up some strange hatred to the orb of day. He turned his back upon the sun and exclaimed, I have no use for your light. I can see without your beams. My Creator has given me eyes for that purpose, and I use them, and do see all around me without looking at you. He thought that because his eye was never directed towards the sun, that therefore he did not use his light. But he was using light which had been reflected and thrown in a thousand different directions. So because you never read in the Bible, you hope you are not using its contents. All you have, and all you know, which is valuable, you obtained

from thence, or from those who received it thence for

you

Reader, this position we will prove, and then show what the moralist has to believe who thinks differently.

If you will take the map of the world, and a pencil, then set down and draw a black line around that portion of the earth, where the Bible has been in the longest and most plentiful circulation, where every class, high and low, are able to read, and do read the volume most commonly, and with most ease, such as England, Scotland, and the United States of America, there you will find men most enlightened, and most amiable in demeanor. There, wherever are most Bibles, men are less cruel, less polluted, and less unprincipled. There they are less inclined to kneel before images of wood and stone, and more ready to understand, and to practice the law of forgiveness and of love. Then sit down and draw a visible line around those countries, where there are no Bibles, where none have been for generations, and there you will find most cruelty, most pollution, most absurd notions of Deity, and most darkness. Finally, mark off those sections of earth where that book has a partial circulation, as in Catholic countries, where it is read by a portion of the people, and with a medium frequency only, and there you will find a twilight in every thing.

The moralist is either afraid to look long at, or to follow out such facts, or he says "it happened so." He believes in casualty to an almost unlimited extent. The reader shall have an opportunity, if so inclined, to observe a portion of this credulity. It shall be exhibited in the words addressed to the moralist we have named, by his friend, or in words of similar import.

"Dear sir, you believe that human sacrifices are cruel and cannot please God. You believe that drunken

revels, or lascivious rites, cannot be acceptable worship in his sight. You do not think that self-torture pleases him, and you have no doubt but that he looks with disapprobation upon adultery, theft, lying, or murder. You think that acts of kindness, of mercy, and of love are pleasing to our Maker. This, you think, your reason tells you of his character. Now observe, if it was reason taught you all this, then reason has done the same for the multitudes of the most ignorant, and the most besotted, in all Christian lands. Mark well, I deny that reason was your instructer, but it is true that something has thus instructed men wherever the Bible is. Even those who cannot read it, know more truth about God, than does the Mandarin of China. You could not in any way prevail on the most stupid creature you meet in our streets, to fall down before a block of wood, and worship, believing it to be God. You may go to one hundred thousand of the most uninformed in Protestant countries, one after another, just as you meet them, and you will not find the first one who believes, or can be made to believe, that he can please God by killing his child, or by boring through his own tongue, or by drunkenness, or obscene rites, or revels. If reason has taught these unlettered, ignorant creatures so much truth, then it has taught them very uniformly ; and they all know much of what is right and what is wrong, in all moral deportment. But will you just reverse the picture. Just look at the other side for a moment. Come with me across the ocean. Here is a populous nation. They have some science, they cultivate astronomy, and there is a class which may be denominated the learned. But the Bible has not been in use there for a thousand years. Go to one hundred thousand of the first you meet, one after another, learn

ed or unlearned, and talk with them. If reason should have told them some truth about God, it has not done it. Not one out of that whole nation, who does not either believe that to strangle that infant would please God, or he believes obscene revelry to be a part of worship; or he will talk of the intrigues of his gods, or in some way show that he looks upon them as gigantic in wickedness! The most learned there believe in human sacrifices, or sensual rites, or absurd enormities, such as would excite the pity and the ridicule of the poorest and the lowest in our land! How is it that reason does not chance to teach where the Bible is not. Glance your eye entirely across heathenism. If the Maker of worlds intended reason to teach men there, some just notions concerning himself, it has failed in six hundred millions of instances in this generation, and in as many during the last generation, and as many the generation before that, and so on. If he did expect that reason would tell men there only some truth respecting his own character, what would please him, &c. &c., he has been disappointed, or he has furnished an insufficient guide, for it has not succeeded in a single instance. If the wicked in the land of Bibles would do only what the Bible has taught them, they would need no more. That Book has succeeded in teaching until they know how they should act. The most degraded, and the most ignorant there, know more of the proper worship of God, and of his proper character, according to the character given of God by the deist, than does the most learned, and the most exalted in heathen lands."

Now we are ready to look at what the worshipper of reason has to receive in his creed. In the United States of America, or in England, there are ten or twelve mil. lions of human creatures-each one of them (possess ed