Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

to stand upon some straw; and in doing this she first saw the fatal block. With that sight, however, she seemed not dismayed; but said to the executioner, I pray you despatch me quickly.' She then knelt down and said, will you take it off before I lay me down?' To which the executioner answered, No, madam.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The unhappy but patient victim now bound the handkerchief over her eyes; and feeling for the block, said, 'What shall I do? Where is it?' At this question, one of the persons on the scaffold guided her towards the block, on which she laid her head, and then, stretching forth her body, exclaimed, Lord! into thy hands I commend my spirit.' A pause of one moment en sued the axe fell.-Ibid.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

SIR-I should be obliged to any of your readers to answer the question, In what amusements may a Christian indulge?

[blocks in formation]

I am much pleased at seeing your work announced under the Title of THE ANTI-SCEPTIC, and I hope that you will not want correspondents under that article. As I know that your Maga

zine is taken in by numbers of young persons, I entertain a hope that the projected department will be rendered useful to them by furnishing them with arguments against the active seducers of their minds, knowing well that these men are most diligently engaged in endeavours to draw youth astray from the principles of religion. They have a certain train of arguments which they lay in the way of the unwary, and some of which are to the unformed and uninformed mind extremely plausible, but which have a thousand times been answered, and may be easily replied to by any one who is made but a little acquainted with their weakness and bearings. If therefore your work answers its present professions, it will be a valuable and seasonable auxiliary to the cause of religion, and will merit the patronage of all parents, and guardians, and instructors of youth.* Nor, indeed, would I confine its utility to youth only, for it behoves every friend of religion to obtain the best arguments in favour of revelation, that he may be able to answer the enquiries of the young and ignorant, and occasionally to defend the truth from those assaults which may be made in his presence.

I am, Sir,

Yours,

R. S.

ON INVESTIGATING THE TRUTH OF

CHRISTIANITY.

Christianity comes to us with very high claims. It professes to be a revelation from God the Au

*Our Correspondent seems to have run into the mistake of many, who suppose our Magazine to be designed for youth only

thor of our Being, and to reveal to us all that is important for mankind to know respecting himself, and all that is necessary to divulge to them respecting their future destiny. Now with the natural consciousness of a future state which all men possess, and which is discovered not only in Christian countries, where it may be supposed that prejudice may have some influence on the mind, but also in lands where Christianity has never obtained an entrance, it must be the height of infatuation to cast away the volume that comes to us with such high pretensions, without seriously investigating its claims. But as there are many called Christians that embrace Christianity, merely because their forefathers embraced it, but who have never enquired into its truth, and can give no reason for the hope that is in them; so are there many Deists, who despise revelation, because they have never duly reflected upon its claims and character. To both these classes our remarks may be beneficial, to confirm the one, and to convince the other. have not embraced Christianity because we were brought up to it, neither have we rejected it as a cunningly devised fable,' for we have examined it and been convinced of the truth.

We

In investigating its claims, it ought to asked, What is Christianity? And we ought to take care, that we do not come to a hasty conclusion on a subject that professedly stands connected. with our eternal interest. Many take the shadow for the reality, and look for it in its most distorted counterfeits, where scarcely any thing but the name remains, either viewing it as seen in the most corrupt communities, or in the most inconsistent characters. But common sense must allow that these would not in other cases be deemed

fair tests, and why then should they be deemed such in a matter where the eternal destiny of man is at stake? In reading the scriptures, too many follow the example of PAINE, who sat down with a determination to write against them, and who would not give his mind a fair chance of conviction by pondering over them in their due connexion, and viewing them in all their bearings. Thus some ugly mind has, like the venemous spider, extracted poison from that hallowed page, whence the Christian, like the bee, extracts honey, and derives all his consolation; and, from Carlile's Deistical manufactory, a tract has been sent forth which contains a selection of

all the passages of scripture that seem to be indecorous, in order that the volume of Revelation may appear ridiculous and foul, and that the minds of people may be corrupted by that which is designed to promote their moral benefit, and their everlasting salvation. This can have no effect upon any minds but those which are already as foul as that of the selector, and with any considerate and intelligent person must have no weight whatever. In some cases we are indebted for wrong expressions to mis-translation, which does not however materially affect the main sense; this is especially the case with some passages in Solomon's song; in other cases we must recollect that the writers were living where eastern customs prevailed,-customs, which, though to us in a cold northern nation, or under the improved dispensation of Christianity, are indecorous, were not so under an eastern government or an old dispensation; and, finally, it must be especially recollected, that, where offensive words occur, it is merely owing to the time when the translation was made, in which words were commonly used in

respectable society, that are now become obsolete or vulgar. These remarks must at once extinguish in every candid mind, whatever feeling of offence might seem to arise from the first blush of this nefarious collection.

[ocr errors]

But to return to our main object.-We say that the first enquiry should be What is Christianity? And not viewing it in its distorted forms, we shall find it in all its connexion urging us both by the precepts of its writers, and the example of its leader, to the practice of 'whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever things are of good report.' Philipp. xlviii. It teaches us love to God and love to men, and the practice of all those virtues which constitute the charms of society. It administers the sweetest consolations and promises under the sorrows of life, disarms death of its sting, and ennobles and animates the mind and character of man by bringing life and immortality to light. This is Christianity and is this worthy of being rejected, at least without enquiry? or, if it were even a delusion, is he the friend of social order and happiness, or the benefactor of the human race, who would extinguish its light, and leave us hopeless and degraded to grope our way into eternity?

:

Such being Christianity, which a serious perusal of its pages will discover, the next enquiry should be, What claim does it possess to veracity? Here the common argument is very important and just; it contains those exhortations to moral virtue which no bad man would write, and if it were a forgery no good man would have been concerned in it. This is its internal claim. It also has effected much in reforming the lives of

C

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »