ter, 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 some twenty millions of the human race, each one of whom knows much of the proper character of God; much of what is lovely, and what is in itself hateful. Each one does know, with considerable correctness, that which would please God, and that which he must abhor. Here is a man who says, "Reason has taught them this." If so, it has not failed in a single instance. It has happened to be uniform in many millions of cases: surely we might suppose, that if reason is so sufficient that it has not failed in one out of twenty millions of cases, then leave it to itself in twenty millions more, and it will succeed in half of them. No; it has not in one. In Asia and Africa you may count two hundred millions of persons now alive whose reason has been at work for twenty years, and out of the whole two hundred millions, there is not one who does not either believe that the favor of the gods may be purchased by self-torture or human sacrifice; that sensuality is pleasing to them, or that they are opposed to each other, and may be courted in different ways; or other sentiments equally absurd and grovelling.

So it has been in past generations. Those ancient Greeks had great statesmen, orators, and poets. Succeeding ages have gazed at them: they believed that to place that only son, that promising boy on an altar,

and whip him until his entrails could be seen through the quivering flesh, would please Diana. Are you admiring the wealth, or the polish and the splendor of the Carthagenians? They believed sincerely-so sincerely that they would perform it-that it would please God if one or two hundred of their children at a time were cast into that redhot metallic statue. Just such things were believed by Romans, Medes, Elamites, and all people where that singular old book did not circulate. Reader, if you believe that reason always did teach to avoid these cruel enormities. where the Bible was found, but never did happen to instruct better where that page was not, then we have no further argument with you at present. If you believe that the low, and unlettered, and most ignorant in Bible regions-who have more correct ideas of God, and of justice, and of loveliness, than have the most scientific in pagan countries-have been thus instructed by reason, then will we cease all further discussion of that particular point with you.

CHAPTER XXV.

MEN ADOPT FALSE OPINIONS WITHOUT INQUIRY.

A MINISTER Once delivered a discourse on the evidences of Christianity, in the city of New York After the sermon was ended, and the audience dismissed, he descended from the pulpit, and was met by an intelligent looking man, well clad, whose eye flashed, and whose voice trembled with emotion. He seemed angry at the cause which had been advocated, and at the man who had spoken. He avowed, with indignant emphasis, that he had no doubt the Israelites had obtained their religion from the Greeks, and particularly from the philosophy of Plato. The minister replied, "Your argument would be worthy of some consideration, were it not for one circumstance, which certainly abates its momentum. You say that what the Israelites knew of God, they learned of Plato; but Plato says, that what he, and the Greeks in general, knew of the gods, they learned of the Israelites." The ancient Greeks called the Jews Syrians, because they lived in the land of Syria, and because they called themselves thus. Every male of the Jews was ordered to stand, on a given day in each year, and avow his origin by pronouncing publicly, and with a loud voice, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father." The word fables was the epithet by which the ancient Greeks designated all narratives. Plato informs us-see Stackhouse's His

tory of the Bible—that one of the Syrian narratives from which his countrymen obtained their knowledge, was the Fraternity of the human family, and that man was made out of the dust. Whoever will read ancient history, and notice the Greeks during their nocturnal mysteries, where youthful virgins, having baskets full of flowers with serpents in them, call on the name of our first mother, Eva, Eva, all night, will not be at a loss to know which of the Syrian narratives they had in mind, or what event they commemorated during these ceremonies. The minister's concluding remark to the scoffer abovementioned, was satirical, but certainly not incorrect.

You remind me," said he, "of the boy who, while looking in the glass, loudly averred that his father's face took after his. An ancient Greek philosopher believed that he had learned certain things of the Syrians. A citizen of New York is very positive that the Syrians learned them of the philosopher. Which shall we believe? or rather, let us ask the more profitable question, Why should that man assume that position with dogmatic confidence, without inquiry and without research? It was for the same reason that ten thousand others in that and other cities, assume ten thousand similar positions, with as little information, and as much assurance. Since the fall of our race, men have had an appetite for falsehood so spontaneous, that they often adopt it without inquiry, in matters of religion. It does not seem to man that he prefers falsehood in points of religious faith. If he were aware of it, this knowledge would become a part of the remedy.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CURE OF INFIDELITY.

We now have offered a few thoughts on the cause of infidelity. We could, as it were, only pen a few hasty words; endeavoring to offer some of the more simple and obvious reasons, by which we may know that it is caused by a want of knowledge, and by a want of love for the truth. Each of these items assists in promoting the growth of the other. We may resume the subject hereafter, and devote other chapters to the consideration of the cause of infidelity; but at the present, we feel disposed to say something of its cure. The cure of infidelity! What a subject. The cure of infidelity! Can it be cured? Indeed it can. There are difficulties in the way, but all that is arduous is not impracticable. It may be cured thoroughly. All who have ever used the remedy were cured, therefore it is safe to say that it may be cured with certainty. It is known to the world of physicians, that the treatment of those diseases wherein the sick deem themselves entirely whole, is attended with unusual difficulties, because they are not willing to use the remedy. Unbelievers usually think themselves well informed, particularly those whose minds are well stored with other knowledge, when the opposite fact is the truth. Whether this is or is not the cause, something does cause them to be very backward in the business of research.