Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

real condition, and the danger of their situation, and the almost impossibility of happiness and safety in circumstances like theirs, they owe it to the counsels of God's word. We hazard nothing by assertions to this effect, for they are borne out by the facts of every day's experience. Ours is the only religion that warns the rich of their danger—that faithfully admonishes them as to the duties they owe→ and that directs them to the only durable riches and honor worthy their attention! And will the rich be so unwise as to reject the best counsel: will any be so improvident and foolish as to trust in uncertain riches, and to build his house upon the sand?"-(C. B. Vol. III. p. 434.)

I confess that it always shocks me to meet with infidelity in an ENGLISHMAN, and I think that man very much dishonors his pedigree, who would claim relationship to the country of Alfred, Addison, Bacon, Boyle, Cruden, Cowper, Doddridge, Hale, Johnson, Locke, Milton, Newton, Porteus, Paley, Tillottson, Usher, Wiclif, and Young, and a host of others, and yet take part with an Infidel, or in any way enter the lists against all that is valuable in literature, just in law, elegant in poetry, profitable in science, or reasonable in religion. Nor am I better pleased to meet with infidelity in an AMERICAN, whose language and literature are the same as that of England,-for if the principles of a good and equitable government are to be found any where, I am sure they are to be found in the Bible. In what particulars do the constitution and government of this country excel? Is it not in those wherein they come nearest to the principles found in the Bible?

Infidels are sometimes found to lay claim to Mr. Jefferson as the friend of their cause; but whence, I would ask, originated the idea, that "all men are born free and equal?"-in the mind of that great statesman, or in that book which tells us most unequivocally that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men that dwell on the earth," and that "Christ died for all," and that "God is no respecter of persons ?"

But most of all, do I regret to find any thing like infidelity in WOMAN! For the fairer and the softer sex to reject that system of Divine Truth which, in this country, has made them what they are; and in all countries unvisited by the light of truth, has left them nearly as far below their proper standard, as the brute is below man, is matter of astonishment, sorrow and grief. But women are not of themselves so prone to infidelity as men ; and it is mostly in those cases where their morals are first corrupted by the other sex, that their faith in Divine Revelation is shaken. This accounts for the fact, in part at least, that more women profess religion than men. Men too often wish that Christianity were not true, that they may with impunity dishonor and degrade the feebler sex, without being liable to be called to an account. Let it then be the ambition of women to cling to the truth, though hanging on a cross, and should it even die, and be buried for awhile, in any place, let them embalm its memory, for it has done every thing for them; and let them not even then despair, for it will rise again, and live forever. Yes, "the truth as it is in Jesus," which at first was contained in divine impressions on man's mind,

then on tables of stone,-then on rolls of parchment, and lastly in printed copies of the whole Bible, shall grow, and increase, and prevail, till the earth is filled with its fruit. "For the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea." Yes, the truth shall prevail-" for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." AMEN.

LECTURE VII.

66

THE FOLLY OF INFIDELITY.

They have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them."-Jer. viii. 9.

"INFIDELITY,” says a modern writer,* "is one of the characters of the human mind, which from the days of paradise to our own, has never wholly left it; and till our knowledge is greatly multiplied, will, perhaps, not be universally extinguished, because it is the champion of matter against mindof body against spirit-of the senses against reason-of passion against duty-of self-interest against self-government-of dissatisfaction against content--of the present against the future-of the little that is known against all that is unknown-of our limited experience against boundless possibility."

"But whoever he may be that opposes revelation as a whole, ought in justice to its evidences, to examine all its several parts, to weigh its distinct testimonies, and to answer, one by one, the arguments that are produced in its favor. Modern scepticism. has discovered this to be a perplexing and difficult attempt it has found it easier to deny it as a whole,

*Sharon Turner.

without even a candid examination of any one of its numerous claims. It is easy to dwell on general subjects, till truth is lost in a labyrinth of intricate and unconnected assertions. The champions of infidelity only skirmish; they continually shift their ground; they advance, they retreat, they contend now at a distance, now near at hand, sometimes in the open field, and driven thence, sometimes in ambuscade; while the troops of religion proceed to measure their ground with firm and steady feet: they may be said to be annoyed by such modes of attack, but they have the evidence of time, that they are not, and that they cannot be defeated.

"The adversaries of Revelation are compelled, whenever they can be brought to fair and open reasoning, to yield, point after point; and yet, when they have been repeatedly foiled in every attack upon the separate evidences of Christianity, they still advance bold and general objections to the whole. It is also no uncommon thing to find the friends of scepticism forming a system of their own, which they represent as the system of revealed religion, contained in the Bible; and having refuted their own production, they demand the honor of a triumph over the Bible, when, in fact, that Holy Book never maintained the principles advanced in its name, nor acknowledged the theory which is imputed to it by its opponents. It is easy to dress up Christianity in a garb wrought in the loom of their own imaginations, and then to ridicule the colors in which they array it; as the Jews of old first arrayed Christ in gorgeous apparel, crowned him with thorns, and made him look ridiculous, and then

« PreviousContinue »