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est, have the least perplexing doubt. Reader, do you say to us, "Shall I act, although I doubt ?" This is the reason why you should act speedily and decisively. Let us now tell you some things which you believe, and others which you know. If you are an atheist, we are not addressing you just now; but if not, the following facts fit you. You believe,

1st. That God is a being of purity. You believe,

2d. That if he is pure, he will not be disposed to take pollution into his immediate habitation, or near to himself. You yourself do not tolerate that which you esteem filthy. He may deem that unclean which we do not hate. A man hates what a swine does not, because of his superiority over that animal; but the Lord's exaltation above us is immeasurable. If you say that you cannot understand how that may appear sin to God, which seems very passable with us, you speak unadvisedly. Now for that which you know:

1. That if you stood in a room where were collected a hundred persons, male and female, your fellow-worms of the dust, who live here below with you, all sinners like yourself, you would not be willing that every word you have uttered, and every thought which has passed through your mind for the last month should be told, or pictured before them. You know,

2. That if all your actions and all your wishes were told to a church full of your fellow-creatures, they would not sound well: you know that you are a sinner. We will prove this to you in another way. We will prove that you know the magnitude of an offence is measured by the excellence of the being against whom it is committed. You know,

1st. If you were to insult one of the animals of the

field, it would be a matter of little moment, because that four-footed beast is low in the scale of existence. You know,

2d. If you were to walk up to your fellow man, your equal, and offend him, it would be a more serious occurrence, for he is of a more exalted nature. You know,

3d. If a tall seraph from the upper army should sail on splendid wings before you, alighting near, on an errand of heaven, you would feel less safe in offending him, because of his superior excellence. You know,

4th. God's purity is unspeakable; his excellence and grandeur are unlimited; his power and majesty are boundless; all his traits of loveliness and greatness are infinite. Who shall dare offend him?

If you do not know something of the real desert of sin, at the time of reckoning he will make you know it. If what you call a small offence, is measured by his worth, it becomes unlimited in its ill desert. These things you know, and of course (if you are not afraid to think) you know that your case may be a very unsafe one. You know that, perhaps, your danger may be black and imminent as the silent, but advancing cloud. Then act; take the safer course: begin to act, and continue it. Bow and tell Jesus Christ all you would tell him if you saw him. Do every thing he has directed as scrupulously as you should do were you to hear his lips utter the orders.

Every man may become a Christian. Many will not. Every Christian may have the most satisfactory evidence of experience. Many do not try. If you are an atheist, you will be noticed in the next chapter. If you are not an atheist, but settled and unwavering in your creed of gospel rejection, perhaps the first remedy

(external evidence,) although the weaker of the two, promises more in your case. The last remedy will cure any who will receive it. No matter who you are, atheist or double atheist, if you will bend to each order there written, you will be cured, and your life will be everlasting. But we have very faint hopes that you will come to the light after the Holy Spirit has left you. If you are a confirmed atheist, he has left you now: whether or not He will return, He only knows. If you are a confirmed unwavering Bible hater, yet still believe some one made the stars, you believe one truth. The Spirit is not gone; but he touches the strings of your soul seldom, and but very faintly. "Return unto me, and I will return unto you," saith the Lord. There is a balm in Gilead; there is a physician there, but he requires obedience, and men do not love the remedy. Some say, "We do not know all the commandments contained in that book, and yet in force." We answer, you are not obeying such commands as you do know; you are not trying to fulfil such requirements as are plain before you. That which is lovely cannot hurt you. Try it. That which is just cannot injure you. Begin it. When that man presented you with a cup of water, and you said, "I thank you, sir," you did not do wrong. You believe that to express gratitude, is not amiss. God gives you many cups of water, and tables covered with food. The Bible orders you to say, "I thank thee." Let your children hear you say this as the favour is repeated. Will you begin? Ah, we fear you do not wish it. If you will not obey here, we need not repeat the hundred orders that follow. You are averse to compliance: a secret which you scarcely sus.

pect is, you have no relish for doing what God directs

you.

Conclusion.-If one man approach the fire and declare that its cherishing heat is abundant, another may go there if he chooses. If he stand off, calling for evidence and declaring that none is given, the builder of the fire is not to blame. If, notwithstanding the fact that not one since the creation ever approached closely without making the same avowal, he call out that no testimony is offered him, he uttereth lies. If he exclaim vociferously, "I know that your testimony is all fancy, heated imagination, and fanatical delusion, or hypocrisy," and when answered, “Then approach, and judge for yourself," he still stays away mocking, then we can only say farewell. Faithfulness and truth demand that to that farewell be added, Thy blood be upon thine own head.

CHAPTER XLIV.

ATHEISM.

Christians usually believe it impossible for any one to become a real atheist. Their minds are divinely in fluenced, and they forget what they would be capable of believing were they left to themselves.

The most of wicked men doubt if there are any sin. cere atheists. They are heaven-restrained themselves, but they do not know it. To every unconverted man, the suggestions and influences of the blessed One appear as nothing more than the simple operations of his own mind. The ungodly are unconscious of holy persua

sions, because it seems to them solely and entirely their own mental effort. But we say, to the saint and the sinner, There are atheists by the million. If you were abandoned, you would forthwith become a settled and sincere atheist. We agree that many calling themselves atheists, are not entirely forsaken, and that, at times, they feel a degree of apprehension; but, notwithstanding this, there are armies of atheists.

For the entire atheist we have no hope. Those who die, may and sometimes have been known to revive, but when we see our friends expire, our hope for them in this life is gone, because the cases of resuscitation are Omnipotence could restore the complete atheist, but we have no reason to expect it.

SO rare.

To the partial atheist we say, our hope for you is very feeble, for a little more, and your head is beneath the billow; but we ask you to read Paley's Natural Theology, twice over. We ask you to read Dick, on the same subject. If these do not influence you to try the second remedy, (Experimental Evidences of Christianity,) then we can only say farewell.

We have now done with atheists, and with the subJect of atheism on their account. Further argumentation with the atheist we have none; yet, on another account, we must pursue the subject. For the sake of the rest of mankind we take the case of the atheist, to show the fall of man, to exhibit the doctrine of total depravity, to prove what man would be without heavenly restraint. To hold up atheism as an example illustrative of important truth, may require more chapters than one, We have before stated that the clear consciousness and constant recollection of the fall of

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