"At his day, thou shalt give him his hire: neither shall the sun go down upon it, for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it, lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.

"The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

"Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless, nor take the widow's raiment to pledge. But thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence, therefore I command thee to do this thing.

"When thou cuttest down thy harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thy hands.

"When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

"When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt." Deut. Chapp. 15 ; 22 ; 24 ; 25.

After reading these and similar verses, so far from seeing any thing there calculated to make me believe that the people thus governed, must be the lowest and the vilost on earth, I could say in truth, that I never had met in any penal code, any thing so affecting, and so

beautiful; so striking, and so touchingly compassionate. I knew that from incontrovertible evidence, this law was written many centuries before any other book now in the world was written, and yet could see that we should not be injured were we to copy now from this heavenly spirit of mercy and of justice, so wisely blended. These were the reasons why it weakened rather than strengthened the cause of unbelief, if I read in a book, or if I heard in conversation, expressions of contempt or aversion uttered toward an ancient people and their law, where I was constrained to remember there was so much to admire. There was another kindred incident, which may well find a place here. It is the kind of false system from which I was saved, by the circumstance of being compelled to hear the Bible read morning and evening, every day when young.

But this must be reserved for another chapter.

CHAPTER LXII.

-INFLUENCE OF AN EARLY ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE

BIBLE.

I sometimes fell into company with those who felt somewhat perplexed, when they attempted to account for the way in which the Israelites first received the law of Moses. This is the nature of their difficulty: if we make ourselves somewhat acquainted with ancient history, and find a people three thousand years, or two thousand years since, living in the land which we

now call Palestine, under a written law, and a law which may at least be called a singular code, the law which we call the law of Moses, it is very natural that we should inquire how they came by it, when did they receive it, or from whom did they obtain it? We know that it either came from heaven, or it did not; that its history is either true or false. We can well enough understand that either Moses wrote the law, which they thought he did, when they thus lived in Jerusalem, and placed it over them, or some one else wrote it, and they received it in some other way. If we endeavour to conjecture that some one, not in the time of Moses, had approached to the people with a book, calling it the law of Moses, and telling them of the journies and sufferings of their fathers, and speaking of the requirements of heaven, and of the wonders their fathers had seen, and persuading them to obey that sacred book, when they had not heard of it before, when they never had heard their fathers speak of that journey, or of those marvels, we must meet with some things to perplex us. That law designated their land marks, was the title to every man's field, regulated all his possessions, and all his pursuits. It would be difficult to make children believe their fathers had reverenced it, if they had not heard of it; or to delude a nation concerning statutes, which not only formed their courts, and then guided them, but designated the limits of the vineyards, and contained the family register, from which every legal title to all earthly possessions, lineally descended to those alive. Should we wish to believe that Moses, being a man of great powers, deluded the people, and made them believe they saw marvels when they did not, &c., we do not find our path a smooth one. It is true, that thousands of

our race are ignorant, superstitious, and readily deluded in many things. We can point to almost any number of instances, where men were made to receive the weakest falsehood for truth.

There are some cases of

There never was an

deception we cannot point to. instance where a nation of people were made to believe that they passed forty years in a sandy desert, if they did not; or that their bread fell every night from the clouds, if it did not; or that they needed no new clothes, if they did need them; or that they walked through a river without touching water, if they did not. Some considerations of this kind, and similar ideas in great number, caused some of the difficulties I have stated in the case of those who wished to account for the reception of their law by the Israelites. The more thinking, and the more logical infidels, knew that Christianity would be received by the most of those who granted that the children of Israel stood at the foot of a smoking mountain, and heard the earth-shaking voice of God pronounce their law. They wished to get clear of this acknowledgment; of ever granting the correctness of the history connected with this law; although they knew that later generations of Jews reverenced commemorative feasts, observances, and annual convocations, all pointing back to these occurrences. The question would then again be returning upon them, when did the nation begin to love these ceremonies, obey this law as the deed for their habitations, and worship according to its dictates? To account for the way in which they were prevailed on in any age, to receive this book, and then believe, and then obey it, some would take one course, and some another. The same individual was known sometimes to change his theory. I have repeat.

edly stated that a recollection of the early reading of Moses, kept me from receiving many plans, which seemed to content some. I now give the particulars.

If I chanced to be present when some one satisfied an approving circle, by stating that Moses was an artful and an accomplished politician, had written the law, and then flattered the people into a willingness to receive it as their national code, I was met, by what I had learned early in life. If telling people of their faults, and nothing but their faults, amounts to flattery, it is not of that kind which pleases those now alive, or even the author of the discovery we are looking at. They were told of their cowardice at the Red Sea. Of their ignorance, stupidity, stiff-necked rebellion, avarice, sensuality, and ingratitude, I remembered they were told again and again. These things were repeated page after page; but of any excellence belonging to them, I knew Moses had never made the first expression. Indeed he told of his own sinful weakness, excluding him from the promised land. Nay, further than all this, I was reminded by such evasions, that of all the nations on earth, this was the only exception; of all the people I had ever read about, this was the only instance where their rulers did not praise them. The generals of antiquity, when their soldiers gained a battle, lauded them with long repeated and unrestrained applause. Cities at home rung with acclamations; and songs were sung in honour of their martial deeds, which were repeated through years of exultation. Napoleon, of France, and other accomplished leaders, would call their troops before them, after a season of activity, and tell them of their noble daring, their invincible courage, their magnanimous resolves, and of the indescribable lustre of