part of it was written? What has become of Enoch who walked with God? He had not the Bible to guide him to the mansions of eternal day. We should think that even Orthordoxy itself would recollect, that according to this doctrine, righteous Noah, Lot, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will never reach the heavenly mansions! The Bible was written long since their days. We must also be allowed to inquire what will finally become of the many millions of our race, who have never seen the Bible? But a small portion of mankind has ever seen it. If the Scriptures taught this doctrine, what reasonable man would believe them? But these tracts are designed to make people believe that the Bible teaches such notions; and they are put into the hands of children, who will receive such monstrous falshood as divine truth! Here is where the seed of infidelity first germinates. Let children imbibe such absurd notions concerning the scriptures, and for a season they will pay them a superstitious reverence. But as soon as they arrive to manhood, they will blush at such folly, and spurn the book in which they erroneously suppose it is taught.

We know that the Bible teaches what reason and experience teach, that God is no respecter of persons, that he is impartially good to all, and that his tender mercies are over all his works. And just as well as we know this, we know that it does not teach the doctrine above noticed. The Bible teaches that as all men die in the earthly Adam, even so will all be made alive in Christ the Lord from heaven. But we know that all who die have never had the Bible for a guide. Jesus said that little children are of the kingdom of heaven; but we know that none who die in infancy ever had the Bible for their guide to heaven.

It may be asked what could induce a doctor of divinity to write such a sentiment? And also why the American Tract Society should print and send it to our houses gratis? This surely does not look like begging-it looks like giving. Have we not every reason to believe that this is pure benevolence, designed for the good of immortal souls? Ought we not to receive such favors with much thankfulness, and pray most fervently that we may profit by them? Now, to us this kind of giving is like an empiric giving poison, that he may sell a nostrum at a great price to cure it. The object after all is to get money, and to retain influence. On the 14th page of this tract, the motive discovers itself. The writer says, 'Who can be so much his own enemy as to refuse to believe them, (the scriptures) when they come attended with evidence more than sufficient to satisfy all but the wilfully incredulous? Who, in this view of them, imperfect as it is, is prepared to say, that they are

not of all books the most important; that they ought not to be prized and studied, as such, by all who possess them; and put, without delay, into the hands of all who do not? Were this inestimable treasure in the exclusive possession of any individual, would you not consider him as the most malevolent of beings, if he neglected to communicate it as soon as possible to his fellow creatures? And if he were a stranger to the use of the press, would not the common feelings of humanity require him to spend whole nights, as did a wealthy merchant in the east in transcribing it for their use? What possible excuse, then, can we assign for refusing to distribute this treasure, when the press affords the means of doing it at so trifling expense? Will it be said that few or none of our fellow citizens are destitute ? Will it be said that none are destitute of the sacred volume but in consequence of their own fault; and that they are therefore unworthy to receive such a gift? Admitting this to be the case, which in many instances, however it is not, is this an excuse for neglecting them, which it becomes us to assist ? Had God adopted such a rule in the distribution of his favors; had he bestowed the Bible on none but the deserving: who among ourselves should ever have been favored with it? Here we are presented with a very eloquent and impressive plea for cash to print Bibles for those who are destitute by their own neglect. It is true we are not asked to pay for this plea; this we have gratis. But our money is wanted, and our money must be had. But who has been at the expense of these tracts? The public, who have largely contributed to the funds of the American Tract Society. And besides all this, money is not refused for these tracts when sent abroad. If we please, we may pay something; if uot, we are welcome to them. Here again we discover that low mode of asking more than a thing is worth by leaving it to generosity to determine. Whoever will look into these ways and means of orthordox measures, will find that sordid avarice and unbounded ambition are the soul and spirit of the whole scheme; and that the blind superstition of the people is the fulciment which supports this huge mass of Jriestcraft.

That this description does the subject no injustice, we shall be fully satis fied, by carefully examining the argument of Dr. Payson, as we find in the tract before us. What is the amount of his plea? It is this. The Bible. must guide men to the mansions of eternal day, or they will never arrive there. All, therefore, who are not favored with this guide, must be forever miserable. We have it in our power to send the Bible to the destitute, and if we neglect to do it, we are the most malevolent of beings: Why the most malevolent? because this neglect will be attended with the everlasting wretchedness of those who are thus destitute of the bible.

Let us now suppose that there is no craft nor deception in these pretensions; but that our Orthodox clergy do most sincerely believe in them. If all this be granted, we ask, how it is that these clergy endeavor, by all hon

est means, at least, to accumulate property and to treasure up wealth? Why do they not sell their possessions, and even their clothing to a single suit, and employ the avails in sending the bible to the destitute? Judge them out of their own mouths, and they are in fact the most malevolent beings on earth. They are the most destitute of humanity, of the sons of Adam! Did we believe what they pretend to believe, and what they endeavor to make us believe, in order to get our money, we are confident that we should invest every farthing that could be spared from the most scanty living, in funds for the purpose of sending the bible to those who are destitute. In such a case, we should be ashamed to be seen by mortal man, in possession of a single dollar that was withheld from what is called the Lord's treasury.

We have now come to a trying circumstance. We must believe that the pretensions, which we are considering, are rank deception, or we must allow that the clergy, who hold them up, are of all men the most unmerciful and inhuman! What should we think of a man, ever so wealthy, who would let a fellow being starve to death in his own presence, while he had the means to purchase a single morsel of food! We should call him a sordid wretch. But what is this, in comparison with our subject? Our hearts sicken at this inquiry. What, must we believe either that these clergy are the rankest deceivers on earth; or that they are totally destitute of the feelings of humanity, and the most malevolent of the human race? To one of these alternatives, hateful as they are, they have driven us. Yet all this is carried on under profession of wonderful sanctity; of the most sincere devo tedness to the cause of Jesus Christ, that blessed cause in which he laid down his life.

But we have not yet noticed what to us appears, by far, the most perverse and wicked part of Dr. Payson's arguments. In comparison with the repulsive and loathsome character, in which his arguments present the clerBy, that in which they represent our Father in heaven, is as much darker and as much more abhorred, as the immagination can easily conceive. He contends, that if we neglect to send the scriptures to the destitute, we are the most malevolent of beings, because they are the only guide to the mansions of eternal day. In what light, then, must we view our Creator, who suffered between two and three thousand years, after man's creation, to pass away, before he gave to our race even the first book of those scriptures; and who has, even to this late period, granted this only guide to heaven to but a small portion of mankind? If we give Bibles to those who are destitute, it costs toil and labor; it would have cost our Creator nothing, to have had Bibles as cheap among all people, as tracts are in Boston. How much better our heavenly Father has attended to the temporal wants of men, than he has to their eternal interests! That sun, which is indespensable to our temporal being and enjoyment, he causes to rise on the evil and on the good,and sends its light to all nations. But the Bible, which is man's only guide to everlas ting happiness, he has given to but a few! We cannot consider such blasphemy as this very cheap, even if it be given, and given in abundance.

We have more of it, however, on page 9,where the writer, speaking of the Bible under the similitude of a mirror, says 'Here we may contemplate the all-infolding circle of the eternal mind; and behold a most perfect portrait of him, whom no mortal eye hath seen, drawn by his own unerring hand. Piercing into the deepest recesses of eternity, we may behold Him, existing independent and alone, previous to the first exertion of creating energy. Wo may see heaven, the habitation of his holiness and glory, "dark with the excessive brightness" of his presence: and hell, the prison of his justice, with no other light than that which the fiery billows of his wrath cast, "pale and dreadful," serving only to render "darkness visible." Here, too, we may contemplate the origin and infancy of our race; trace from its source to its termination, that mighty river, of which we compose a part, and see it sep. arating into two great branches; one of which flows back in a circle, and loses itself in the fountain whence it arose; While the other rushes on impetuously in an opposite direction, and precipitates itself in a gulph, which has no bottom. Here we are told that our Creator has a prison, called hell;

Into which, as into a gulph that has no bottom, the millions of our race, who are not guided to heaven by the Bible, are precipitated, like a mighty tream; where there is no other light than that which is cast from the fiery pillows of God's wrath! Such are the descriptions of our Creator and of the Bible that the orthodox clergy are forcing into the minds of our children, and the unreflecting and credulous part of community. And this business they pursue with untiring zeal and assiduity, knowing that their wealth and induonce depend on their success.

T

We should do well to consider the consequences which result from such views of God and the scriptures, as we have just contemplated. The consequences are what we evidently see. God is hated; the bible is neglected; and the frightened people run to their ministers for safety. Our acquaintance with both the deceivers and the deceived, of whom we speak, has been familiar for more than forty years, and we say, and affirm, that we have never, to our recollection, heard one of those who have been deceived, as above described, quote three verses out of the bible together, correctly; and it is a rare case that we hear as much from those who have acted the part of deceivers. They extol the bible above all books, and they are careful to keep it in their houses merely as a charm against sin and damnation; and out of imperious duty, sometimes read a chapter; but not with even a thought about the meaning of a sentence they read. But their minds are richly imbued with the horrors and fears of divine wrath against our race, for the sin of Adam. They can remember to quote very pertly and with great confidence, such passages as the following: In Adam's fall we sinned all-As the tree falls so it lies; and as death leaves us, so judgment finds us,' &c. If we tell them there are no such passages in the bible, they are ready to affirm that they have read them, hundreds of times. Now these are the people who are engaged in sending the bible to the poor in our own country, and to both poor and rich in countries remote. These people have no doubt that such of our race as are ignorant of the bible, will be lost forever and be forever miserable!

Let us not forget that the tract we have under consideration, is entitled, The Bible above all Price. We have, however, already seen that if the bible did really teach the absurd doctrines which our writer has attributed to it, it would be of no value; but a mass of contradictions and absurdities, if not blasphemies. The truth of this will further appear, if we duly notice the following, from p. 10. "Above all, we may here see displayed to view that great seheme for the redemption of self-destroyed man, into which, "the angels desire to look ;" and without which the knowledge of God, and of ourselves,

would serve only to plunge us in the depths of despair. We may behold him, whom we had previously seen creating the world, lying, as a helpless infant in the manger, expiring in agonies on the cross; and imprisoned in the tomb. We may see him rising, ascending to heaven, sitting down "at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high;" and there swaying the sceptre of universal empire, and ever living, to make intercession for his people. Finally, we may see him coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, to judge the world. We may see the dead, at his command, rising from their graves; standing in awful silence and suspense before his tribunal; and successively advancing, to receive from his lips the sentence, which will confer on each of them an eternal weight of glory, or consign them forever to the mansions of despair. Such are the scenes and objects which the scriptures place before us; such the information which they afford. Who will deny that this information is important; or that it is such as we might naturally expect to find in a revelation from God?'

We will examine this paragraph in relation to the two questions which we find at the close. First, who will deny that this information is important? Second, or that it is such as we might naturally expect to find in a revelation from God?

that

*

We will now suppose that the scriptures inform us, that that Almighty Being, who created the world, once lay a helpless infant in a manger. Will any one undertake to tell us of what importance it is to us? Suppose we were informed in the scriptures that Moses, the Hebrew law-giver, went up into mount Pisgah,and was there metamorphosed to a bird, and then flew away, and has never been seen since. Who would pretend that such information was important? Such information would by no means inform us how, or by what means, this metamorphosis was effected; nor would it give us to understand any benefit resulted from it, either to Moses or to mankind, or to any of the fowls of heaven. Information, in order to be valuable, must bring its subject to our understanding; and this knowledge, when obtained, must be of a nature that can be applied to some practical use. We know that by a certain process, iron may be obtained from a fossil taken from the earth; and this knowledge is of incalculable use to man. The whole of this process is well understood, and there is nothing in it that is any more mysterious than are all the natural productions of nature and art. But we ask, what useful knowledge do we gain, by being told, that the Creator of the universe was once an infant child, and lay beside his mother in a manger? We cannot understand how this is possible; nor can we understand