a fair profession of Christianity, thus showing that there is no inconsistency between the two; but there is every reason to believe that, apart from true religion, the great body of a people will never be educated. While education advances religion, true religion is the direct promoter of education. It promotes it when men are impressed with the conviction that the Bible is the Word of God, and contains the knowledge of the only way to eternal life, and that, as a matter of duty, it must be daily read; it does so when parents are impressed with these things, so that they will make exertions and sacrifices that their children may be able to peruse the Scriptures; and when this is gained, and habits of reading formed, the young will naturally turn to other departments of knowledge also. The grand impulse, however, towards a universal education, is a sense of the value and imperative claims of the Bible, as a revelation from Heaven. What have been the countries of most education and knowledge? Where have the people been most universally instructed? They are those countries where Christianity has been most prevalent. Witness Switzerland, Holland, Great Britain, and New England. What party at the present day has done, or is doing most for popular education? Who are making the greatest sacrifices of trouble and money, rearing the greatest number of schools, &c.? The answer must be, It is the religious party, under the influence of Christianity. Infidelity boasts of its love of knowledge and education; but what has it accomplished on this field? What sacrifices has it made? What schools has it reared? What comparison could it bear with the educational services of Christianity? The unbelievers of France may have expended large sums of money in their contest with Christianity, and in the diffusion of their Infidelity; but what have they actually expended for the benefit of the great body of the people-to educate their families, and make them useful in society? If their claim to being the friends of knowledge be well founded, they should be able easily to refer to cases of illustrious service. But there are no such cases; and while Infidelity so miserably fails as a substantial supporter of knowledge and education, it is Christianity which is the active, and unwearied, and self-denying promoter of the cause of knowledge among all classes of society. Consider the large amount raised annually in Great Britain for the education of the children of the poor. In addition to pecuniary efforts, about a million and a quarter of Sunday-school children are taught by gratuitous teachers. What has Infidelity done in the same way, and in the same space of time, in any country under heaven? The truth is, that whatever may be her boasting, she is a stranger to the best, and, indeed, the only motives to persuade one to diffuse abroad the blessings of education. So much for the claims of Infidelity in comparison with those of Christianity, in the matter of knowledge, and the love and diffusion of it. May we not add, among the proofs how little Infidelity is animated by the sincere and candid love of knowledge, that Infidels themselves have discovered the most perverse ignorance in their treatment of Christianity? Could they have done this, at least to the extent with which they are chargeable, had they possessed the least love of true knowledge? Dr Beattie, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, who wrote well on the Evidences of Christianity, and was repeatedly brought into contact with unbelievers, remarks," From several conversations, which it has been my chance to have with unbelievers, I have learned that ignorance of the nature of our religion, and a disinclination to study both it and its conclusions, are to be reckoned among the chief causes of Infidelity." It would not be so wonderful that this should hold true of a few desperate partisans: such persons are to be found among all classes. But it appears conspicuously among the very leaders and patrons of unbelief, who boast of their literature and love of knowledge. The ignorance of Voltaire is almost incredible, especially respecting the Old Testament. Gibbon, so remarkable for his learning, does not seem, so far as one can gather from his Memoirs and Diary, to have ever read any judicious exposition or able defence of Christianity. We need wonder less at his conversion to Popery, and reconversion, and ultimate termination in Infidlity. Hume, in a letter to Dr Blair, a literary friend, says, "I have long since done with all inquiries on such (religious) subjects, and am become incapable of instruction; though I own no one is more capable of conveying it than yourself." Does this state of mind argue the presence of any real love of knowledge? It is stated, on the authority of Dr Samuel Johnson, well known for his scrupulous veracity, that Hume acknowledged to a clergyman in the diocese of Durham, that he had never read the New Testament through with attention. Is this candour, or love of truth? And yet Hume wrote against the Scripture miracles, and endeavoured to show that a miracle does not admit of proof! As to Paine, any one who has read his work will be at a loss to decide, whether ignorance or malice predominate most in its pages. He acknowledges that he determined to write against Christianity, and then procured a Bible and a Testament, that he might know what he should write against. If such were the ignorance and want of candour of the champions, what may we believe is the state of things among men of the same sentiments, of inferior note? Had literature or science been treated in the same way as Christianity, where would have been their success and prosperity? Does not such unfair treatment of revelation indicate that the opposition proceeds, not from want of evidence, but from the fact that there is too much evidence to allow the guilty heart to remain at peace? Therefore does the Infidel endeavour to get rid of the subject by reckless unprincipled resistance. II. Another of the pretensions of Infidelity at | Christians are indeed much to be deplored,ñothing can be more opposite to the spirit of the Gospel; but if the Church of Rome, and those parties whom she more immediately infected with her spirit, be left out of the account (and in justice they must be so from any estimate of the operation of genuine Christianity), the sum of persecu tion which can be laid to the score of Christians is very much abridged. It is, however, a gross historical error to imagine that the ancient heathen were tolerant towards Christianity. On the contrary, they persecuted its adherents with the most unrelenting cruelty; and Roman emperors, eminent for literature, and for mildness in every other respect, were among the foremost of the persecutors. Jerome states, that the Roman emperors of the first three centuries were estimated, in that space of time, to have cut off not less than one million eight hundred and twenty thousand Christians. Of course, the brunt of the persecution was confined to, comparatively speaking, a few years, which makes the result the more appalling. the present day is, that it is the great friend and advocate of freedom, while Christianity is said to be opposed to it. This pretence will be found as vain as the preceding. That some systems, calling themselves Christian, have been associated with priestcraft and civil despotism-particularly the Church of Rome-is what no one acquainted with the history of the world will deny, and far less an enlightened Christian. In this he sees a fulfilment of prophecy, and so a confirmation of the Divine truth of his holy faith; but nothing can be more unfair than to make true Christianity responsible for the spirit and the deeds of Popery a spirit and deeds which she denounces and abhors. How would Deists like to be made responsible for the conduct of Pagans or of Atheists? We must look to the nature of true Christianity, as unfolded in the Scriptures, and in the genuine history of its operation; and, tried by this standard, we shall find her the warmest friend, and most successful supporter of freedom, civil and religious. The great commandment is, to love our neighbour up to the same measure and degree in which we love ourselves. The picture of Christian love exhibited in 1 Cor. xiii., the tenderness which is repeatedly recommended in behalf of the scruples of less informed brethren, are all inconsistent with the selfishness of despotism, and lie at the root of the generosity of true freedom. And, bating the atrocities of Popery, what has been the history of Christianity but the history of human liberty? The humanity inspired by the Gospel, and a sense of the value of the soul of man, led to the abolition of slavery, which previously had been almost universal. Compare Protestant Christendom with Paganism, ancient or modern-is there any real comparison in point of civil freedom? Nay more, turn to the grand struggles for freedom throughout Christendom in modern times-who were the men who made the noblest sacrifices-who spent and endured most? Were they the scholar, the man of literature, the philosopher? No. Had they been the only supporters, the cause of freedom would have perished. It was religious men of all ranks-men deeply imbued with Christianity -who wrought out the liberties of Europe. Nay, "Fanaticism is not an error, but a blind, a what is very striking, it could be proved from the senseless fury, which reason can never keep within history of Britain, that every increase of liberty bounds. The only way to hinder it from spreadwas preceded by an increase of religious know-ing, is to restrain those who broach it. In vain ledge and feeling; in short, that Christianity was is it to demonstrate to madmen that they are dethe parent of British liberties. Turning to Scot-ceived by their leaders; still will they be as eager land, who needs to be reminded that it was to the as ever to follow them. I see but one way to Christian men of the sixteenth and seventeenth stop its progress, and that is, to combat it with centuries, that it is indebted for its present free its own weapons. Little does it avail either to constitution? What Infidel or Pagan can point reason or convince. You must lay aside philoto such sacrifices in behalf of freedom as they sophy, shut your books, take up the sword and cheerfully endured? Where are the martyrs of punish the knaves." Infidelity? Yea, where would have been the liberty which Infidels now so often abuse, had it not been for the men whom they profess to scorn? Unbelievers often taunt Christians with their persecutions, and tell us how tolerant the ancient Pagans were, and how tolerant they are. The animosity and violence which have prevailed among With regard, again, to the tolerant character of modern infidelity, the claim is equally unfounded. There is nothing in its principles to teach men generosity, to regard the rights and privileges of others. Its spirit is essentially selfish; a consistent infidel has no motive to show respect or kindness to others; and what, then, can he be but selfish, and, in the same degree, where he has power, overbearing and despotic? These statements are borne out by facts. Have leading infidels been eminent for their love of liberty? They may, in some cases, have been employed as instruments in the providence of God, in sapping and hastening the overthrow of the superstitions of Popery; but what were the principles to which they gave utterance in doing so, and what was the system which they substituted in the room of Popery? Did they breathe of true freedom? Far from it. Rousseau, immediately after denouncing persecution in a letter to D'Alembert, thus speaks of fanaticism, which many would describe by the more honourable name of true religion: Why should religious men, fanatics though they be in the estimation of Rousseau, be persecuted at all, and that upon principle? If they are so miserable as the infidel represents them, that is the stronger reason why they should be pitied. How would the infidel have liked had Christians thought that scepticism was a species of fanati cism, which could be restrained only by taking up the sword and punishing the knaves, and had begun by applying it to Rousseau himself? Voltaire, it is well known, instead of sympathizing, as every lover of freedom ought to have done, with the persecuted Protestants of France, denounces them as "weak and obstinate men," because they suffered so much, rather than give way to the usurpations of the Church of Rome. Hume, it is equally well known, in his History of England, uniformly takes the side of the oppressor, and does all that lies in his power to blacken and misrepresent the character of the persecuted, though to them we are in a great degree indebted, under God, for our civil and religious liberties. Does this indicate any thing like an alliance between infidelity and the love of freedom? With regard to Gibbon, again, in spirit and character he was intensely selfish. An able writer, who has examined his Diary and Journals with care, declares, that "from the beginning to the end of his life, there is not one noble, generous sentiment expressed." As to Paine, who does not know that, in his own spirit and conduct, he was What are an utter stranger to true toleration? the terms in which he speaks of Christian men, and especially Christian teachers? Are they not those of unmeasured abuse and violence? Does he not incessantly impute the worst motives to them? And what does this indicate? Does it indicate the presence of that toleration and liberty of which he speaks so much? If Christians are so ignorant, superstitious, and deceived as he represents them to be, he should feel for them the deeper compassion. Is this his spirit, or his tone? Does he not rather show the temper of the per secutor? could boast of nothing like this; and yet Infidels would have us to believe that they are tolerant, and the only true friends of freedom. Let them not only disown and abominate the conduct of their brethren of France, but change their own tempers and dispositions when speaking of Christianity and Christians, before they expect to receive any credit for such idle assertions. Subjoined is a statement of the numbers who fell by the hands of the Infidels, from the work of one of themselves. Prudhomme gives the following Table:— GUILLOTINED BY SENTENCES of the REVOLUTIONARY -1,003,748 1,022,351 Of course the loss of life, as a whole, was far greater than these figures describe; twenty thouand in ten years, not less than three millions sand persons are estimated to have died of famine; perished in France alone,-eight hundred thousand by civil war. During the Convention, the guillotine struck off one thousand heads per day. truth Infidelity can claim to be the great pillar of The reader will now be able to judge with what friend of despotism. The claim is not only not freedom, and to represent Christianity as the true, but it is the very reverse of the truth. THE EXECUTION OF LORD WARRISTON. FROM Aikman's "Annals of the Persecution in Scotland, from the Restoration to the Revolution," now in course of publication; we select the following interesting scene, from one of the darkest periods in our ecclesiastical history: : Impressive facts proclaim, that infidelity, so far from being tolerant, is intensely persecuting. It is not unknown to the student of history, that many of the most atrocious persecutors in the Church of Rome were infidels under the guise of ecclesiastics. They persecuted the saints of God to the death, for not believing what they themselves did not believe. And when infidelity actually came forth from its concealment, and appeared openly at the head of the government of France, what was the character which it manifested to the Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, had been world? One would have expected that, after all forfeited and condemned by parliament when Argyle its outcry about toleration and freedom, it would tinent, had remained concealed in Holland and Gerand Guthrie were arraigned, but escaping to the Conhave been remarkable for the tenderness, ability, many, chiefly at Hamburgh, till, most unadvisedly, in and success, with which it upheld the cause of the latter end of 1662, he ventured to France. Notice liberty, hearing with the ignorant, and protecting of this having been carried to London, the king, who the weak; but what is the fact? It stood forth bore him a personal hatred for his free admonitions as the very demon of persecution, under the name when in Scotland, sent over secretly a confidential of freedom, and persecuted not only the Roman spy, known by the name of "Crooked Murray,” to trace him out and bring him to Britain. By watching Catholics, but the Protestants,-in short, Chris- Lady Warriston, Murray soon discovered her lord's tianity; shutting up the churches, abolishing the retreat at Rouen in Normandy, and had him seized sacraments and Sabbath, with a virulence and while engaged in the act of secret prayer. He then blood-thirstiness hitherto unknown in the history applied to the magistrates, and, showing them the of the world. The French Infidels, while de-king's commission, desired that they would allow him nouncing the Gospel as cruel, butchered two millions of the people of that unhappy country in seven short years. The Pagan emperors of Rome trates, uncertain how to act, committed Warriston to to carry his victim a prisoner to England. The magisclose custody and sent to the French king for instructions. When the question was debated in council, the greater part were for respecting the rights of hospitality, and not giving up his lordship till some better reasons were shown than had yet been given; but Louis, who was extremely desirous to oblige Charles, and sympathized cordially in his antipathies against the Protestant religion and liberty, ordered him to be delivered to the messenger, who carried him to London and lodged him in the Tower in the month of January 1663. While the parliament was sitting in June, he was sent to Scotland with a letter from the king, ordering him "to be proceeded against according to law and justice," and landed at Leith on the 8th, whence, next day, he was brought bareheaded to the tolbooth of Edinburgh. Neither his wife, children, nor any other friend, were permitted to see him, except in presence of the keeper or guard, and that only for an hour, or at farthest two at a time, betwixt eight o'clock in the morning and eight at night. Here he was detained till July 8th, when, no more trial being deemed necessary, he was brought before parliament to receive judgment. His appearance on this occasion was humiliating to the pride of human genius, debilitated through excessive blood-letting and the deleterious drugs that had been administered to him by his physicians, the faculties of his soul partook of the imbecility of his body, and, on the spot where his eloquence had in former days commanded breathless attention, he could scarcely now utter one coherent sentence. The prelates basely derided his mental aberrations, but many of the other members compassionated the intellectual ruin of one who had shone among the foremost in the brightest days of Scotland's parliamentary annals. When the question was put, whether the time of his execution should be then fixed or delayed? a majority seemed inclined to spare his life, which Lauderdale observing, rose, and, contrary to all usage or propriety, in a furious speech, insisted upon the sentence being carried into immediate effect; the submissive legislators acquiesced, and he was doomed to be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh on the 22d of the same month, and his head fixed upon the Nether Bow Port, beside Mr Guthrie's. Mr James Kirkton, author of the "History of the Church of Scotland," who visited him, says "I spake with him in prison, and though he was sometimes under great heaviness, yet he told me he could never doubt his own salvation, he had so often seen God's face in the house of prayer." As he approached his end, he grew more composed; and, on the night previous to his execution, having been favoured with a few hours' profound and refreshing sleep, he awoke in the full possession of his vigorous powers, his memory returned, and he experienced in an extraordinary degree the strong consolations of the Gospel, expressing his assurance of being clothed with a white robe, and having a new song of praise put into his lips, even salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb! Before noon, he dined with great cheerfulness, hoping to sup in heaven, and drink of the blood of the vine fresh and new in his Father's kingdom. After spending some time in secret prayer, he left the prison about two o'clock, attended by his friends in mourning, full of holy confidence and courage, but perfectly composed and serene. As he proceeded to the cross, where a high gibbet was erected, he repeatedly requested the prayers of the people; and there being some disturbance on the street when he ascended the scaffold, he said with great composure-“I entreat you, quiet yourselves a little, till this dying man deliver his last words among you," and requested them not to be of fended that he used a paper to refresh his memory, being so much wasted by long sickness and the malice of physicians. He then read audibly, first from the one side and then from the other, a short speech that he had hurriedly written-what he had composed at length and intended for his testimony having been taken from him. It commenced with a general confession of his sins and shortcomings in prosecuting the best pieces of work and service to the Lord and to his generation, and that through temptation he had been carried to so great a length, in compliance with the late usurpers, after having so seriously and frequently made professions of aversion to their way; for all which," he added, "as I seek God's mercy in Christ Jesus, so I desire that the Lord's people may, from my example, be the more stirred up to watch and pray that they enter not into temptation." 66 He then bare record to the glory of God's free grace and of his reconciled mercy through Christ Jesus-left an honest testimony to the whole covenanted work of reformation" and expressed his lively expectation of God's gracious and wonderful renewing and reviving all his former great interests in these nations, particularly Scotland-yea, dear Scotland! He recommended his poor afflicted wife and children to the choicest blessings of God and the prayers and favours of his servants-prayed for repentance and forgiveness to his enemies for the king, and blessings upon him and his posterity, that they might be surrounded with good and faithful councillors, and follow holy and wise councils to the glory of God and the welfare of the people. He concluded by committing himself, soul and body, his relations, friends, the sympathizing and suffering witnesses of the Lord, to his choice mercies and service in earth and heaven, in time and through eternity:"All which suits, with all others which he hath at any time by his Spirit moved and assisted me to make, and put up according to his will, I leave before the throne, and upon the Father's merciful bowels, the Son's mediating merits, and the Holy Spirit's compassionating groans, for now and for ever!" After he had finished reading, he prayed with the greatest fervour and humility, thus beginning his supplication" Abba! Abba! Father, Father, accept this thy poor sinful servant, coming unto thee through the merits of Jesus Christ." Then he took leave of his friends, and again, at the foot of the ladder, prayed in a perfect rapture, being now near the end of that sweet work he had been so much employed about, and felt so much sweetness in through life. No ministers were allowed to be with him, but his God abundantly supplied his every want. On account of his weakness, he required help to ascend the ladder. Having reached the top, he cried with a loud voice-" I beseech you all who are the people of God not to scorn at suffering for the interest of Christ, or stumble at any thing of this kind falling out in these days. Be encouraged to suffer for him, for I assure you, in the name of the Lord, he will bear your charges!" This he repeated again while the rope was putting about his neck, forcibly adding-"The Lord hath graciously comforted me." Then asking the executioner if he was ready to do his office, and being answered that he was, he gave the signal, and was turned off, crying" Pray! pray! praise! praise!" His death was almost without a struggle. Sir Archibald Johnston, Lord Warriston, was an early, zealous, and distinguished covenanter, and bore a conspicuous part in all the remarkable transactions of the times, from 1638 till the Restoration. The only blemish which his enemies could affix to his character was, what he himself lamented, his accepting office under the usurpers, after having previously so violently opposed this in others, when yet every prospect of restoring the Stuart family seemed hopeless, and when numbers of his countrymen and of his judges themselves had submitted to a tolerant commonwealth, that did not burden the conscience with unnecessary oaths, or require any compliances which might not, in the circumstances of the case, have been considered venial, if not justifiable. His talents for business were of the | first order. His eloquence was ready, and his judgment clear. He was prompt and intrepid in action, and adhered steadily to his Presbyterian principles, notwithstanding his officiating under a liberal government of a different persuasion-conduct we now allow to be not incompatible with integrity. His piety was ardent, and, amid a life of incessant activity, he managed to spare a larger portion of time for private devotion than many of more sequestered habits. He habitually lived near to God, and died in the full assurance of hope. AFFLICTION OF THE JEWS. WHY are Judah's sons afflicted? Go, and trace the sacred story, There we read the awful cause,→ They are guilty of his blood. THE WALDENSES OF PIEDMONT. FROM THE REFORMATION TO THEIR BANISHMENT IN 1687. PART II. taldo." In this manifesto, all persons, of whatever degree, in Lucerna, Lucernetta, San Giovanni, La Torre, Bubbiana, Fenile, Campiglione, Bricherassis, and San Secundo, were ordered to depart within three days after the proclamation, under pain of confiscation and death, unless they gave in their adhesion to the Romish Church. It was also enacted, that mass should be celebrated in all those places to which they were ordered by their sovereign to retire; and that death should be the penalty inflicted upon every person whe molested the Popish missionaries by word or deed, or dissuaded any of their brethren from turning to the Church of Rome. To enhance the severity of this sentence of banishment, the inclemency of an Alpine winter was at the height; and when thousands of families forsook their homes, and wandered forth amidst a frozen, snow-covered desolation, their enemies broke into their houses, and plundered them of all they contained. And even this, too, was light, compared with the sufferings that followed. The soldiers who were sent to enforce the decree became frantic in their excesses, and torture and massacre in every form succeeded the milder inflictions of pillage. In one place, they tortured an hundred and fifty women and children-dashing out the brains of some against the rocks, and chopping off the heads of others. This was only one specimen among many; but the various and frightful modes of death that were devised by the tormentors for their victims, and which were inflicted in the light of day, were such as might have made the heavens tremble, or the sun go backward in his course. Will it be believed that, on some occasions, the rabid appetite of revenge among the persecutors could not be sated without the banquet of the cannibal? We write no oratorical metaphor, but a literal and well-attested fact! The hunt was keen among the mountains, and there the fugitives could be tracked by the bloodstained snow that had been impressed by their lacerated feet. The amount of the slain in this persecution is estimated at more than six thousand-a fearful smallness of the population among whom it happened. slaughter, when we take into account the comparative We gladly hasten from such a hideous subject, to listen for relief to that prophet-like. eloquent voice, which was lifted up upon the occasion, and which will find of the martyrs, and the shame of their persecutors :— an echo through all time, while it proclaims the glory THE Piedmontese were now to be assailed by the persecutor; and from 1601 to 1637, they were incessantly exposed to vexations, exactions, and persecutions; after which, a season of repose occurred for thirteen years. But in 1650, the violence of the gathered storm began to burst, in consequence of the establishment of a council at Turin for the propagation of the Romish faith and the extinction of heresy. Spies were sent by this tribunal into the peaceful valleys, to sow, if possible, dissension among the brethren-to allure the weak with bribes-to tempt young men with Popish brides-and to practise every method of fraud and allurement by which the cause of true religion might be weakened, and its adherents seduced. lence was also added to artifice. Congregations were deprived of their pastors, and mothers were bereaved of their infants, who were to be reared up in the faith of Rome; and multitudes of both sexes, who were cited to appear before the judges of Turin, never returned to tell the dark secrets of their prison-house. But even these processes were of too mild and dilatory a character for their relentless enemies; and accord-portant occasion. The sword of Cromwell rattled in ingly, in the month of January 1655, Andrew Gastaldo, its sheath; but Savoy was beyond the reach of his arm. a doctor of the civil law, and "Conservator General But what he could he did, and he did it with all hiş of the Holy Faith," published a tremendous decree, heart. He appointed a day of fasting and prayer, in commonly known by the title of "the order of Gas-behalf of the Protestants of Piedmont; he commenced Vio "Avenge. O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones But a more formidable instrument than even the harp of Milton was wellnigh awakened upon this im |