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/»/*- 
 
 REASON OR REVELATION ; 
 
 J 
 
 w- 
 
 } A ■ 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE RELIGION, PHILOSOPHY, AND CIVILISATION 
 OF THE ANCIENT HEOTIEN. 
 
 COilTRASTED WITH 
 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND ITS LEGITLMATE 
 CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 BY THE REV. JOHN JENNINGS, 
 
 «. • \ 
 
 UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, TORONTO. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 PaiNTED BY J. CLELAND, YONGE STREET, 
 
 1852. 
 
I 
 
 /I 
 
 P^i""^F*pwr-™'^''"T-»i^ 
 
 ill 
 
I 
 
 /I 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 ^''JSli 
 
 > \^t K 
 
 This Tiaci is npuhlbhed from the Canadian riesbyletian Mavtixivf!, 
 in which it apppar«^d in successive numbers. The Author has availed 
 himse'if ot the matter bting in type, to throw off an edition in this form, 
 which can be sold at a lower price ihnn could have been the ca^e other- 
 wise. He is aware of its imperfection?, arising from brevity of discussion 
 on such an extensive subject, and also in other respects ; but, as his de- 
 sire is to do good, rather than to court literary notice, ha hopes that his 
 " labor will not be in vnin in the Lor'l." 
 
 May God ijive His blessing on this effort to advocate His own cause. 
 
 Ti'RONTO, 
 
 1852. 
 
 IfMiKf 
 
 
REASON OR REVELATION 
 
 J 
 
 Or, the Reliqion, Philosopht, and Civilisation of the Ancient 
 Heathen, contrasted with Christianity and its Leoitimate 
 Consequences. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In discussing, this subject, there are two main objects aimed at : — 
 
 1st. To endeavour to correct prevalent errors, and show the worthless- 
 ness and falseness of that would-be intellectuaUty of those who foster and 
 propound them ; and who perpetually bring up the ancient past for admira- 
 tion, and ascribe, with an inexcusable ignorance, or wilful perversion, 
 great excellencies to ancient systems and times ; to the deterioration of 
 Christianity. Singular and inconsistent as it may seem, there are not a 
 few who make a nominal profession of the recognition of the truth of the 
 gospel, who are too ready, from the pride of reasoii, the desire to dignify 
 what they call " the god-like qualities of humanity," and from hasty, 
 unhistorically-supporied conclusions, to magnify the great era of heathen 
 power and philosophy, and to hold it up as the golden age ot the world's 
 intellectual might and social refinement, and to present a Solon, a Socra- 
 tes, or a Plato, as a specimen of all that is wise and good, and to elevate 
 such to a level with that " Teacher who came from God," and who 
 " spake as never man spake ;" and thus would carry us back, and have 
 us believe that " the former times were better than these." There is a 
 disposition in many to read the works of the ancient sages — at any rate 
 to boast of their acquaintance wiih them, however shallow that may be — 
 and to treat the wisdom of Jesus as ii it were too common-place, too 
 fanr.iliar to the vulgar to demand attention, and too humble to be worthy 
 
REASON OB BBVBLATION. 
 
 of quotation. Thia apcription of intellectuality and refioement to the pre* 
 christian era is at the basis of infidelity, and most unduly exalts the one, 
 Mrhile it most unjustly degrades the other. It is a practice which origin- 
 ates in that little learning which is a dangerous thing ; which has been 
 encouraged by a modern " vain philosophy," and propagated by a 
 certain class ot ethical writers, and the flimsy and sceptical literateurs of 
 the present day. 
 
 2nd. The next object in view ia, to maintain the true prominence oi 
 Christianity, as the only system that is competent to elevate the world, 
 and which embodies in it all the elements of true religion, true morals, 
 true philosophy, and true civilisation. And by advocating Christianity, it 
 is not to sermonise, but to take up the system in its principles and opera- 
 tions, and compare and contrast it with all other systems. There is a 
 prevailing misconception of it — a one-sided view of its principles and ten- 
 dencies, which amounts to an error — by which it is not extended to its per- 
 fect work but circumscribed and contracted in its design and powers. 
 It is not sufficiently viewed as a complete, divinely given system, for the 
 restoration and government of the world. It is looked at too often solely 
 as I'^aching the fact of a better world, and how we may attain it — and 
 that is a great and most important part — but it is not confined to that, 
 fur it does not only simply inculcate our devotional obligations, but it 
 embraces every thing that relates to our temporal state and social improve- 
 ment. It contains the true principles of political economy, and of all 
 legislative science ; and gives the grand directions for the amelioration of 
 the physical world, and the education, refinement, and happiness of man. 
 It is the moral lever for upheaving the earth, and all that it inhabit, from 
 every existing false and ruinous position. As the curse wa3 universal on 
 nature, brute, and man, Christianity is universal, as the universal antidote. 
 Ill this sense, the true, whole sense, we mean it, and fearless as to the 
 issue, we invite that it be contrasted with all the speculations, theories, and 
 systems of men. 
 
 It must be obvious to all, that the subject is one of very great extent, 
 as, in fact, it ransacks the history of the ancient heathen world, and the 
 c inclusions cumulate in proportion to the scrutiny that is made of Pagan- 
 ism, and the contrasting investigations info the developements of Chris- 
 tianity, Volumes might be written on it ; and very necessary and pro- 
 fitable ones too: for though several of its parts, under various titles, have 
 been discussed by Tholuck, Spring, and one or two others, yet, as a 
 
REASON OR REVELATION. 7 
 
 whole, it is a fresh and most important topic for the earnest mental ea< 
 terprise of some writer on the Christian Evidences. But extensive, im- 
 porta nt, and fascinating as it is, and though there is no want of facts and 
 arguments, we are limited in this mode of presenting it, to a reasonable 
 brevity, and therefore, instead of going minutely over the whole field of 
 enquiry, must look only at the chief points; and instead of giving quota- 
 tions in proof of what is asserted, must simply state what we believe are 
 facts, and dogmatically draw our conclusions, leaving the readers, whether 
 they doubt or believe, to investigate fully for themselves. Indeed, we 
 would rather provoke personal inquiry, for we are well assured that no 
 one who will candidly and diligently set himself to the study, and draw 
 the contrast, but will arrive at the conclusion, not simply that Chridtianiiy, 
 with its whole ofT^pring of piety, philosophy, and civilization, is pre-emi- 
 nent over all kinds and degrees of heathenism, but, that it is absolutely 
 necessary for the true and the best, physical and temporal, spiritual and 
 eternal, interests of mankind. As the sun in its gorgeous majesty confers 
 more blessing? on this world, than all the stars that gem the night sky ; 
 and as by day their light is unseen because of a greater, and it is only 
 in the night, when there is no sun, that their lustre is perceived ; so, 
 Cliristianity rises on the moral horizon of the world, and as it ascends to 
 its meridian altitude, the systems of men, which might shine when they 
 ha J no such competitor, now sink away, and are obscured as lights that 
 were, but whose glory is outshone. The religious systems of the pagan 
 world were as the torches of men, kindled at the fires of the natural mind, 
 but this U " The Lioht, The True Light, which lighteth every man that 
 co;neth into the world," and which is kindled at the source of the God- 
 liea'i. The others were the twinklings of unaided or distorted reason, 
 but this is the effulgence of divinity, the bright shining of the Sun of 
 Iligliteou^ness. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 The first fart of the subject is, the Religion, PHiLosorHV, and 
 CiviT-HATioN OF the Ancient IIeathen ; OR the evidence that 
 Rkason alone 13 not a Competent Instructor and Guide For Man. 
 
 Under this part we consider 
 
 1st. The moral ami spiritual chararfterlstics of the various systems of 
 ancient religion. Undoubtedly th? first religion was divine in its origin. 
 
8 
 
 SEASON OB HBVBLATION. 
 
 y 
 
 Man was created in hit Maker'i image, and his religion was part of that 
 image — it was written on his heart, and might be called constitutional ; 
 but alter he fell from pristine poritjr, that was lost, and a new type of re- 
 ligion was introduced— a kind caused by new necessities— a system not 
 of simple obedience, love, and communion, but of reconciliation ; and 
 though we have not the precise form, we have the historical fact in 
 the recognition of a divinely appointed mode of worship. In the case of 
 Cain, we find not only the first introduction of religious error, or self-will, 
 in forming what he conceived to be religious obligation, when he attempt- 
 ed to worship by a mode that had not the divine sanction, but also, that 
 there was a mode which he would not embrace. He took the ground of 
 a proud moralist, and not that of a humble suppliant. He brought his 
 thank-offering, but not his sin-offering. He prayed, " give me this day 
 my daily bread," but would not pray, " forgive me my trespasses." He 
 refused to acknowledge the doctrine of propitiation ; and this proves that 
 this doctrine had been divinely taught ; for why condemn him for what 
 he knew not ? or why approve of Abel's sacrifice of the " firstlings of his 
 fiock," additional to his offering of the fruit of the ground, if he did it only 
 by accident ? And if Cain had not known better — if he had not had some 
 revelation as to the duty, nature, and design of certain sacrifices — why 
 should the language of God be addressed to him as one who knew his 
 duty but would not do it ? — '* If thou doest well,shalt thou not be accept- 
 ed ? and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door ;"* that is, at Ai« door, 
 because he refused to comply with the Divine mode through which God 
 would accept the sinner. ■ -The religion of the patriarchs — a succeeding 
 and slightly enlarged edition of the former — was still of the same primal or 
 elementary character. It recognised the one true God, the facts of sin 
 and a way of propitiation, exhibited by a symbolical confession of the one 
 and faith in the other, on the ground of the early promise of the coming 
 Messiah, the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of the ser- 
 pent. The religion of the Jews was of the same character. It was the 
 
 full enlargement and completion of the elementary or typical system ; but 
 though it was wrapped up in symbols, and carried out by a laborious 
 and costly ceremonial, still, it contained in it all the great principles of 
 
 
 » Though we accept the translation, " a sin-offering lieth at the door," 
 referring to some authorised animal for sacrifice, which Cain could have 
 taken and laid on the altar, the fact and argument are still unaffected. 
 
REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 religious truth. The tendency of the rude tnd uneducated mind is to 
 imagery and ceremony, and God thus adapted religion to the mental and 
 social progress of man, and invested its (ruths in forms and customs best 
 suited to those to whom it was communicated, and by which it was most 
 likely lo be retained. The world was not then prepared for a completely 
 spiritual religion, and it only received that which it was capable of appre* 
 ciaiing. As the child requires a peculiar training and adaptation of 
 meons to his desires and faculties, so the childhood of the world required 
 a peculiarity of religious system to prepare it for its maturity. It was 
 ** as an heir under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the fa- 
 ther," when risen, so to speak, to its majority, through the previous expe« 
 rience and training, then, " God sent forth his Son" as the great Teacher, 
 to bring it from the elementary condition and charrcter, and divulge a 
 system of a spiritual, universal, and perpetual nature. 
 
 But we pass from the divinely instituted religious systems— or rather the 
 shadowy phases of the one system — to those directly under review. We 
 can contrast Judaism with Christianity, and show that the one was the 
 type, the other the reality ; that the former was the " coming event which 
 had cast its shadow before." We can prove, that the religious system 
 given to the Jews, was only adapted to their national design and circum- 
 stances, which confined them to their own land, and made them an agri- 
 cultural, rather than a commercial, nation ; which shut them in, in every 
 sense, as a peculiar people ; and that thtiir institutions, temple, priesthood, 
 rites, emblems and law, rendered it an impossibility that it ever could 
 become universal ; — but we have now to consider the other systems, as they 
 exhibited the tendency and utmost powers of the unaided human reason, 
 and thus we will see what the mind, religion, morals, and civilisation are 
 worth, when left without the teaching of God. 
 
 The first form of an idolatrous religion, the nature of which history gives 
 us any data to judge, was called Sabaism, and consisted in the worship 
 of the firmamental bodies. Before the flood, it is evident that there must 
 have been idolatry, for " the whole earth had corrupted its way," though 
 we cannot tell of what kind it was ; but early in the post-deluvian age, 
 and alter the dispersion at Babel, the tendency to idolatry rapidly dis- 
 played itself. Tribes were then formed, separated, and scattered ; and 
 having only had a traditionary faith, and away from the control, in- 
 structions, and priesthood of the great line of patriarchs, and left to tribal 
 independence, to corruptions introduced, and the truth in tradition for- 
 
10 
 
 REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 gotten, ar 1 to the vain imaginations natural to the human heart, each altereJ 
 tile parent reh'gious belief, and changed customs and worship ; and the 
 truth thus became so mixed up and diluted with religious fancies, aritiitig 
 both from ignorance and perversion, from fear and folly, that it could not 
 be discerned. Error thus grew till it formed into a system ; and that first 
 systematised form of idolatry, was Sabaism, and had its origin in western 
 A^^ia. x«iankind gradually lost the knowledge of the true Ood, of his 
 Being and attributes, but still looking upward to powers supreine, fo.med 
 the idea that the sun and moon were the two great divinities ; — the one 
 they called the King, and the other the Queen of heaven — and to each 
 they gave a peculiar homage. They, then, further supposed them to be 
 parent?, and that all the stars were their offspring, and to the most bril- 
 liant of these they gave names and worship. 'When once this idea was 
 fixed in their minds, they next attributed peculiar functions and powers to 
 each, and thence began the opinion of lucky a»d unlucky stars — thence 
 originate. I the whole system of ancient astrology — which, instead of recog- 
 nising the one, supreme, over-ruling Providence, led to the most erroneous 
 conceptions of astral influence. That, then, was the first step. It was 
 leaving the Creator to worship his works — it was multiplying their gods 
 — it was still looking upwards — it was still seeing their divinities in the 
 heavens — but having lost God, they lost the first truth and purity of reli- 
 gion ; and there was but another step, which they soon took, to form idols 
 on earth — likenesses of what they supposed were the gods, in the sun, 
 moon, and stars ; and to these they began to pay their worship, and thus 
 their fooli&h minds became darkened ; and even when " professing them • 
 selves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncor- 
 ruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to bird.«, 
 and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." From Sabaism, then, was 
 all idolatry derived. It was the first step that man took from tha 
 throne of God ; and we will find that the human race declined exactly in 
 proportion, as their religion became more and more " of the earth, earthy ;" 
 and from this great parent system of error, we can see that all subsequent 
 i»yatems bore evidence of their paternity. 
 
 Next in age was the Egyptian religion. Sabaism was succeeded by 
 materia!, terrestrial, idolatry. The religious sentimen'alisra connected 
 with celestial objects, gradually decayed, and the earth took the place of 
 the sky in furnishing gods ; and Egypt — the boasted Egypt — ranked the 
 tlrst in making, worshipping, and extending, the lowest and meanest sys^ 
 
REASON OE REVELATION. 
 
 11 
 
 t?m that was, or is, or can be. It was full of the most fantastic and de- 
 grading absurdities, and yet it seems to have had a kind of dignity through 
 the pomp which attended it, and by the pretended mysteries, learning, 
 and philosophy which supported it. The ancient Egyptian philosophers 
 held the eternity of mind and matter, and represented one Great Mind, or 
 Being, as presiding over all other gods in the spiritual and material worlds. 
 Tiius they held the fact, it is true, of One Supreme Being, but they failed 
 to know and worship him as he is, and they degraded him, by mak- 
 ing gods to divide his glory. They kept up this fact as a dim tradition- 
 ary truth, but though they held it, it was a mere philosophical myth, to 
 give coasistency to an idolatrous theory, and that they might have a di- 
 vine parentage for every thing, real or imaginary, which they might 
 cliooac to worship. This Supreme Mind was the god Ammon — evidently 
 criiled after their progenitor Ham, if indeed it was not an actual deifica- 
 tion of him — in whose honor the city ot No Ammon, or Thebes, 
 was called, and where was the splendid temple which, though dedi- 
 cated to him, was in fact their pantheon ; and where were also, the great 
 schools, or colleges, of religion and philosophy. To Ammon, was joined 
 their supreme goddess Neith, or Neiiha, and from these two came the 
 whole offspring of divinities, to which, according to the supposed oOices 
 they held, religious service was paid. This was the department of their 
 
 system which may be called their celestial idolatry. They had next, 
 
 the god Oairis, united to the goddess lais, and which seem to have been 
 the chief powers of earth, hades, and the infernal regions, Osiris had 
 attributed to him many functions similar to the Pluto of the Greeks ; and 
 that he took chiirge of the souls of men after death, and according to 
 their doctrine of metempsychosis, had the power to send the soul to 
 animate another body, whether of a reptile or a man, as he judged the 
 former merits deserved. From Oiiris and Isis there was another off- 
 spring of lesser divinities, wit', their several powers and offices. This 
 was the second great department of their system, which may be called 
 their infernal idolatry. It was worship to the celestial gods to do them 
 all good ; and to the infernal gods to do them no harm. — To these in- 
 numerable, great and Uttle gods of good and evil, they had a third depart- 
 ment, which may be called their terrestrial idolatry, or visible objects of 
 worship, such as the Nile, the crocodile, the serpent, and the cow. 
 
 The whole system was an immense conglomeration of the conceptions of 
 the imaginative and the devotional, run mad, and noefTortBof power, and 
 
12 
 
 REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 expense were spared to carry it out ; and so extensive, as well as hon* 
 orable was the priesthood, so rich were the temples, and so import- 
 ant, laborious, and punctilious was the worship, that the first born 
 of every Egyptian family wai) entitled, if not required, to study and 
 rank as a priest. This was the line of the priesthood, and thus it 
 — what may be called the church — came to hold the superior pro- 
 prietorship or lordship of the soil of the whole country, and the mass 
 of the people were the mere serfs. On this fact we can see and 
 understand the design of the extraordinary judgment of God, when the 
 first born of every family was doomed to deaih by the destroying angci. 
 By the hand of Moses, Jehovah had proved himself " high above all gudb" 
 in their celestial or infernal catalogue. The plagues came, and by the^e 
 their celestial gods were shown to be powerless for good ; yea, even their 
 great god, the Sun, was overcome by " a darkness that might be felt ; " 
 and their infernal gods, according to thei- belief, were shown to be active 
 against them in the hail, the locusts, and the murrain ; and the objects 
 of their terrestrial worship were destroyed. The temples became 
 polluted, so that there could be no service in them ; and the people became 
 polluted, so that they could not worship though their temples had been clean. 
 Their sacrifices, too, were all destroyed ; and thus by judgment on judg- 
 ment, they were left without the help of their gods, and without the means 
 and opportunity to propitiate them; and, last of all, by one terrible swoop, 
 to consummate the destruction, and display the majesty of the God of 
 Israel, the whole priesthood was annihilated. 
 
 The religion of Egypt is often spoken of as philosophical and refined, 
 but we ask, was tliat either philosophy or refinement, which led to the 
 worship of gods they knew not what or where — the creations of wild 
 and superstitious fancies and fears— and which condescended even to pay 
 religious honors to the river, the reptile, and the brute ? No, for while 
 there is a fictitious honor thrown around the throne of the Pharaohs and 
 the history of a once famous land, yet the religion was a mystery to the 
 people, a trade to the priests, and a curse to all. Egypt may stand prom- 
 inent for the magnitude of her idolatrous establishment, but not one 
 sound religious principle can be found in her annals ; and the most 
 favourable facts we can gather, are only testimonies to the folly of a 
 people who had lost the knowledge of the true God, and in the blindness 
 of their minds — the light that was in them being darkness — were wander- 
 ing helplessly in the dark fields of religious fiction, and eelf-creating 
 th? more horrible and the deeper pitfalls into which they plunged. 
 
mSASOlY Oft Bfif fiLAtlON. 
 
 Id 
 
 U as hon- 
 10 import- 
 first born 
 study and 
 id thus it 
 erior pro- 
 the mass 
 in see and 
 when the 
 ing angf 1. 
 e all gods" 
 id by these 
 even their 
 t be felt ; " 
 
 be active 
 the objects 
 PS became 
 >ple became 
 been clean, 
 nt on judg- 
 i the means 
 rible swoop, 
 the God of 
 
 md refined, 
 led to the 
 tns of wild 
 ;ven to pay 
 », for while 
 araohs and 
 itery to the 
 stand prom< 
 )ut not one 
 
 1 the most 
 ' folly of a 
 le blindness 
 re wander- 
 elf-creating 
 
 The next in order of time — if not, indeed, developed m eirly fts that 
 t>f Egypt— is the religion of Babylon, or Chaldea. Under this, NineTeh> 
 or the Assyrian Empire may be embraced. Regarding the latter, little, 
 comparatively, is known ot an accurate nature. The Bible is silent on its 
 history, from the time that Asshur led forth the Babylonian colony to the 
 banks of the Tigris^ till the reign of Jeroboam, II. Iting of Israel ; a pe- 
 riod extending over more than 1200 years The reputed history of that 
 empire, by Herodotus, is also lost. The spade and the mattock are now 
 the only meatts by v^hich its annals may be dug from its ruins ; and an 
 indistinct little has, as yet, only been gathered from the exhumations, by 
 Rich, M. Botta, and chiefly by the enterprising Layard. Yet, consider- 
 ing its derivation from, its presumed long dependance on, its proximity to, 
 and its commercial and social interchange with Babylon ; and from refer- 
 ences to its idolatry, igleaned from the Bible, when it had attained great 
 power, and become a formidable enemy to Israel and Judah, there is 
 every reason for believing that, in characterising the religion of Babylon, 
 that of Nineveh is embraced ; and which, il not actually the same in all 
 minute points, had still all the great lineaments of a faithful counterpart. 
 
 The religion of Babylon was the same in character as that of Egypt, 
 for the same primitive ideas are transparent ; only there are these differ- 
 ences, that there seem to have been few, if any, terrestrial objects wor- 
 shipped, except inlages representing; ceFestial divinities ; that these were 
 the same divinities, only with other names ; and that the religious rites 
 were celebrated, if it Were possible, With greater grossness and impuritier. 
 There were at the head, and as the parent of the whole idolous progeny, 
 the supreme god Bel, and the supreme goddess Mylitta ; the one repre^ 
 senting the sun, and the other the moon. To Bel, the Babylonians paid 
 constant worship in gorgeous temples, and also in sacred enclosures, in 
 which the image was erected ; and before which, the sacred fire — the em- 
 blem of the sun-^was constantly fed ; and into which human beings were 
 thrown, as propitiatory and honorary offerings. An instance of this is 
 recorded by Daniel, When Nebuchadnezzar made an immense golden im- 
 age of the supreme idol, and set it in the plain of Dura ; and had the 
 large sacred court* of fire burning before it, and commanded that all who 
 would not fall down and worship, should be doomed as sacrifices to his 
 
 ♦ The " burning fiery furnace" was in front of the idol, and was simply 
 a court, open above, and walled round on the sides. 
 B 
 
14 
 
 REASON OR RETELATIOlf/ 
 
 god ; and which fate, the three noble Hebrew youths were subjected to, 
 though they were preserved in the face of Babylon's idol, and rescued 
 from his supposed omnipotence, by one who walked with them, and who 
 was " like the Son of God." The mode of worship was by offerings to 
 the temple, victims to the fire, wild gesticulations, and agonizing prayers. 
 An illustration of the mode of supplication, when all offerings had failed 
 to bring the response, we find in the history of Elijah. The worship of 
 Bel or Baal had spread over Israel ; and that the question of superiority 
 might be decided between the true and the false God, the prophet chal- 
 lenged the idolatrous priests to try the respective powers of their Gods. 
 Baal represented the sun, or fire ; then let the decision be by fire. The 
 prophet challenged them in their strongest position, " the God that an- 
 swereth by fire let him be God." The priests cried " from morning even 
 till noon, O Baal, hear us." Elijah mocked them in bitterest sarcaeni, 
 and that, along with no heaven-sent fire, excited them to fienzy. The 
 desperation of defeat, and being forsaken by their god, made them cry 
 with intense importunity, leap on the altar, cut themselves with knives 
 and lances, and present the horrible spectacle of gashed and blood cov- 
 ered men. 
 
 The Babylonian Bel was derived from the same false idea, and held 
 the same idolatrous position, as did the Ammon of the Egyptians, the 
 Baal of the Midianites, the Moloch, Milcam, or Malcham of the Canaan- 
 ites ; the Chemosh of the Moabites ; the Herakles or Hercules of the Ty- 
 rians ; the Jupiter of the Greeks, and the Jove of the Romans. 
 
 The female divinity, Mylitta, or queen of heaven, had temples dedi- 
 cated to her, also, but her rites were chiefly observed in groves and on 
 high hills. These are too gross to permit of detail, and it is enough to 
 say, that they consisted of the most licentious orgies, and her sacred 
 places, as they were called, were scenes of unbounded and unblushing 
 prostitution. This supreme goddess of the Babylonians was the same, 
 with the same rites, as the Egyptian Isis ; the golden calf that the Israel- 
 ites made at Sinai, and to which they paid homage in music, dances, and 
 lustful revelry ; the same as the Phcenician Ashtaroth or Astarte ; the 
 Ephesian Diana ; the Grecian Juno ; and the Roman Venus. Thus the 
 primitive Sabaistic idea came down and covered the ancient heathen 
 world, and though the names of the two chief deities differ in different 
 nations, yet no one can fail to see the close resemblance that everywhere 
 prevailed. 
 
 
SEASON OB BEVELATION. 
 
 15 
 
 We now turn to Persia. The religion of the Persians was, at first, the 
 purest of all forms of idolatry. It was the worship of the sun, as the Su- 
 preme Being, with fire as the emblem, and the only visible thing rell- 
 I giously recognised in their temples. But such a simple form did not 
 long continue, and other firmamental bodies were added and deified. Their 
 religious notions were certainly, at first, the most intellectual and refined of 
 all the heathen ; but even with the wiedom of Zoroaster, and when, with 
 a great mind, he attempted to bring light out of darkness, and truth out 
 of fable, yet his creed, however ingenious, failed to satisfy. The experience 
 of ages has proven, that mankind, with human reason only to guide them, 
 can never remain stationary in an intellectual idolatry ; and so it was in 
 Persia, and in defiance of all the wisdom of the magi. Their recognition 
 of a great power, symbolised by fire, left them still with an unknown God, 
 and therefore there was no salutary influence operating on their moral 
 being and social relations ; and their religious notions ended, like all the 
 others, iu a multiform and debasing idolatry. They began with a Su- 
 preme Being, but, losing revelation, they deified the sun ; and fears, fan- 
 cies, and passions gradually introduced other objects ; and at last, ancient 
 Persia became a nation with idols crowded in its temples, and ob- 
 scenity in their courts ; with polygamy in the households, despots on 
 the throne, and oppression and turbulence in the state. 
 
 Let us glance at the religion of Greece. There we find idolatry in all its 
 intellectual majesty ; with sages to correct its errors, and shew — if they could 
 — a more excellent way ; with historians to narrate the births and characters 
 of the gods ; and with poets to write and sing paeans to their honor. 
 At first it was the worship of the sun and moon — by the names of Jupiter 
 and Juno— but rapidly, idol was added to idol. The very intellectuality 
 of the Greeks made them encrease their idol catalogue, for they were sa- 
 tisfied with none, and they sought for, and made more. They were lost 
 ''n idolatry, and knew not how to extricate themselves ; and their only 
 hope was in having more gods, that, perchance, they might find the ^rue 
 one at last. From every known country, idols and forms of worship were 
 imported ; and religion thus became a search, rather than a conviction to 
 the wise, and a degrading and unintelligible observance to the ignorant. 
 The very magnitude of their idolatry perplexed them, and they became 
 lost in the imaginative and superstitious labyrinths which they created, 
 and were obliged to extend in hope of release, though, in fact, only to be 
 the more completely bewildered. The philosophers reasoned, and asked, 
 what, and where is truth 1 but thej were perpetually baffled. They b«^ 
 
18 
 
 RBA80N Oft RXYELATIOR. 
 
 K^red th«t there was a God, the trae God, but they knew not how, ot 
 where, to find Him, and at last had to eome to the humUiating confession 
 of ignorance, and, in the very capital of their wisdom and their schools, 
 acknowledge the inability of reason to discover what reason still taught 
 them must be true — for their reason led them by induction to see its own 
 insufficiency — and in token of defeat, and also of a faith that no ray of 
 revelation had enlightened, they erected an altar, and dedicated it to 
 *' The Unknown God." Such was the religion of Greece ; it made its 
 priests traffickers in popular superstitions ; its sages sceptics ; and its 
 people slaves. 
 
 Now let us look at Rome. Greece was called refined — Rome was ma- 
 jestic. At first the religion was a simple, unostentatious idolatry, and 
 evidently brought from the East; but just as her arms conquered, 
 her power extended, and her fame encreased, so did her idolatry. She 
 seemed to glory in gathering all the idols of the known world for her 
 worship. Greece gathered from the East, and Rome gathered from 
 Greece. She had gods and goddesses— of heaven and hell, earth and 
 aea, love and lasciviousness, peace and war, plenty and famine, music and 
 grief. Every sense, passion, and power, was personified, and idolised. 
 She, besides, deified many of her celebrated warriors and emperors, and 
 installed them in her pantheon. She had her temples, with their priests, 
 augurs, and vestal virgins. The religion at length became even a terror to 
 the nation, as every passion or vice could be made sacred, by the declared 
 devotion of it to the divinity to which it was professed to be paid ; and 
 thus a man could bring his crimes under the shelter ot the temple, and, 
 by the plea of religion, nave a license for unlimited licentiousness. The 
 more learned declared that they did not believe it, only, they openly ac- 
 knowledged it because the populace must have a religion, and to en- 
 courage their superstitions, made them more subservient as subjects. 
 There was the theclogia philosophica, which was the infidelity of 
 the learned, as regarded all gods ; and there was the theologia 
 eivilis, which was the inculcation on the ignorant, of a superstitious 
 reverence for all. Thus the priest maintained his apparent sanctity, 
 the augur his mysterious prophetic intelligence, and the vestal virgin 
 her mock-modesty, and all concealed their smiles at the credulity of the 
 people. Thus Seneca says, " It becomes us to pray to the great mul- 
 titudes of common gods, — which, during a long period, a diversified 
 Buperetition has collected, — with this sentiment, that we are con- 
 
 
KBA80N OE BETELATION. 
 
 It 
 
 how, Of 
 nfession 
 8cboolB» 
 11 taught 
 its own 
 10 ray of 
 ated it to 
 made its 
 ; and its 
 
 wasma- 
 atry, and 
 onquered, 
 try. She 
 Id for her 
 ered from 
 earth and 
 music and 
 I idolised, 
 erors, and 
 eir priests, 
 a terror to 
 e declared 
 paid ; and 
 nple, and» 
 ess. The 
 openly ac- 
 and to en- 
 3 subjects, 
 fidelity of 
 
 theologia 
 iperstitioui 
 it sanctity, 
 stal virgin 
 iility of the 
 great mul- 
 diversified 
 
 are con- 
 
 ▼ineed that the reyerenee displayed fo them, is a yielding to ooatom ra* 
 ther than what is due to real truth. The philosopher will observe prayer, 
 as commanded by the civil law, and not as gratifying to the gods." Thus 
 the idolatry, while it was tenaciously held by the mass of the people, was 
 kept up by the powerful and the intellectual as a police establishment, 
 and in which, as political economists — ^not as religionists — they had an 
 interest. Ancient Rome — proud Rome ! — exhibits what human power 
 and philosophy can do, in making a religion for man ; and the sad speeta- 
 cle we see is, that her very religion encouraged hypocrisy and licentious- 
 ness, and did more to brutalize her than if she had adopted — ^had it been 
 possible — pure atheism, and had never had a temple or a god. 
 
 From these brief notices of the leading characteristics of ancient 
 
 heathen religion, we arrive at two indisputable facts. First — that 
 
 all ancient idolatry had one great common origin. There was certainly, 
 at first, the knowledge of the true God, but " when they knew God they 
 glorified him not as God, neither were thankful ; but became vain in their 
 imaginations," and " changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped 
 and served the creature rather than the Creator." The natural mind and 
 imagination everywhere ran in the same track, and either intuitively 
 conceived the same idolatrous ideas, or willingly copied and adopted 
 those which had been already propounded ; for we uniformly find that the 
 idolatries of all nations — though wide apart in point of time and distance 
 
 — ^bore a great and remarkable family likenec^. Second — we find 
 
 that not one nation that had departed from the knowledge of the true 
 God, ever, without revelation, found its way back, but, instead, that in 
 every case the idokt/y was downward — more multiplied — more corrupt- 
 ing — ^more degrading — and in no case was the religious sentiment pure, 
 the reason of the inquirer satisfied, or the state secure. The intellect 
 was crushed under the weight of superstition ; the reason was in darkness 
 because it had extinguished the divine light ; and mankin 1 were without 
 God and withbut hope in the world. 
 
 Infidelity, in its opposition to Christianity, may talk and boast of 
 heathen religion, but nowhere are its excellencies to be seen. It had 
 gods, for whose existence a proud and evil imagination was the only au- 
 thority ; it had priesthoods that lived and ruled on the fears, the igno- 
 rance, the superstition, and the complete demoralisation of the multi- 
 tude ; and for a man who may profess any intelligence, and regard to rea- 
 son and decency of social life, to contrast the very best system with 
 
10 
 
 REASON OR RBVELATIOir. 
 
 Christianity, and even to insinuate that the former is as good, or as welt 
 adapted for man as the latter, is to outrage reason, and insult our com- 
 mon sense, morality, and civilisation ; and not ours only — but also of 
 the many lately debased savages, who now, little as they know, still know 
 the biassed and immeasurable difference, between what they were and 
 what they are, as they have "turned to God Irom idols, to serve the 
 living and true jod." 
 
 2nd. The second point for consideration is. The Fhilosofht of thb 
 Ancient Heathen. 
 
 According to modern definitions. Philosophy is said to be the 
 *' science of reason," or, the " science of the fundamental truths of 
 human knowledge." At present, we speak of it as applied by the an- 
 cient sages to all their investigations into theology, ethics, menial and 
 moral philosophy ; and the definition given by Cicero is, therefore, the 
 most suitable and comprehensive that we can take. He called it the 
 " science of things human and divine." The objects of it were declared 
 by the heathen philosophers to be, to ascerioin and determine by reason, 
 " The Truth," or the primary principles or causes, and consequences, in 
 relation to everything — God, man, mind, matter, the past, present, and 
 future. Heathen philosophy was based on the assumption that it was 
 within the province of reason to disclose every, truth, and to direct to the 
 fulfilment of every obligation. Let us see how it realised its boast. 
 
 The kind of religion that is conscientiously embraced by a man, 
 is a sure index to the character of his philosophy. If the religion 
 be from heaven, and be held as the guide to all sound knowledge, 
 then the philosophy will be established on divine principles; but, if 
 the religion be of man — a devotional conglomerate of the hopes, 
 fancies, and fears of his natural mind — then the philosophy will just 
 be its reflection. On the other hand, if the philosophy be of man, and 
 be held competent to institute religion, then religion must be human ; 
 but if the philosophy be from heaven, theq it, in fact, becomes a re- 
 velation. Here we put ancient heathenism in a dilemma. Was 
 the religion divine, and did it originate the philosophy ? Then why such 
 a philosophy that was changeable in its principles, and unsatisfactory in 
 its results 1 Or, was the philosophy from heaven, and did it make the 
 religion? Then why were not the sages satisfied with their own pro- 
 duction ? We can argue thus ; that if the religion of the ancient heathen 
 directed their philosophy, then as " a clean thing cannot come from an 
 unclean," no philosophy could be sound that was derived from a sourer 
 
REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 19 
 
 r as welt 
 our com- 
 it also of 
 till know 
 were and 
 serve the 
 
 r OF THB 
 
 be the 
 truths of 
 y the an- 
 ental and 
 efore, the 
 led it the 
 5 declared 
 )y reason, 
 uences, in 
 !sent, and 
 at it was 
 ect to the 
 ast. 
 
 y a man, 
 ,e religion 
 nowledge, 
 3 ; but, if 
 he hopes, 
 ' will just 
 ' man, and 
 e human ; 
 trnes a ref 
 la. Was 
 why such 
 factory in 
 make the 
 own pro- 
 nt heathen 
 .e from m 
 n a soureie; 
 
 in which there were not the very first principles of truth. Or, on the op- 
 posite, if their philosophy framed their religion, then, from what has been 
 already shown, it was false in its principles, and degrading in its maxims. 
 It is of no importance which view is taken, for we arrive, by either, at 
 the same conclusion, that a false religion cannot give a sound philosophy, 
 nor a sound philosophy give, or admit a false religion. The only system 
 that will completely answer our argument is, Christianity ; for it is a reve- 
 lation ; and alike a system of philosophy, and of religion. 
 
 Rationalists, those who make the deductions of reason their faith, mag- 
 niloquently represent that reason us almost omnipotent and omniscient for 
 any purpose ; and having eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge 
 of good and evil, they believe that their eyes are so opened, and their men- 
 tal vision is so clear, that they can dispense with the light of divine revela- 
 tion ; — yea, they would even call it darkness. They but illustrate the 
 fact,. that Satan still works successfully with his old device — unbelief— 
 which he teaches is not a sin but a virtue, and that by it men "shall be 
 as gods." The infidel will tell us, with an air of self-sufficiency and supe- 
 riority, that the best book to read is the Book of Nature, for in it are no 
 superstitions, miracles, mysteries, or threatenings, to stupify, perplex, or 
 terrify; and that we can, in the most pure and entranced devotion, 
 be " led from Nature, up to Nature's God ;" but we deny the truth 
 of the hackneyed assertion, for we never have had evidence of the ex- 
 tatic devotionalism of Nature's devotees ; we have never heard of men, 
 where nature smiles the fairest, and its bounties are spread the richest, and 
 where the " o'erhanging canopy" is most gorgeously begemmed with 
 shining worlds, being taught by the things that are made to recognise and 
 adore the one " Eternal power and Godhead." Unaided reason has never 
 discovered moral and religious truth. The experience of six thousand 
 years has demonstrated the fact, not that man can find truth after he has 
 lost iti but that the tendency has been, when he has allowed reason to be 
 undirected by revelation, to lose the truth which he possessed. A eulogy 
 may be pronounced on the mental faculties, as a veil to conceal the opposition 
 to revelation, and that the sceptic may the better enshrine reason as his 
 divinity ; but faithful history declares the fact that " the world by wisdom 
 knew not God." Examine most narrowly the philosophy of the ancients 
 from all sources, and through all channels, and where is the world of light 
 into which it camel Take up the Pagan philosophers — those men 
 whom infidelity holds forth as proofs of the triumphs of reason-oand allow- 
 
20 
 
 REASON OR RBVELATtON. 
 
 them to have posseMed the highest gifts that ever Minerva, the goddess 
 of wisdom, gave to men, and how do they appear to us, when judged 
 by our intelligence ? We allow, that they were men of great and inde- 
 pendent minds, and too wise to be satisfied with the religion that pre- 
 vailed, but not wise enough to propound any that was better. They 
 were men struggling in darkness to grope their way to the light, but never 
 could perceive it : and we will maintain, in the face of all controversy, that a 
 well«educated boy often years of age, in our own land, now knows more 
 of the real elements of truth, and of true philosophy, theological and natu- 
 ral, than All the sages of all the past put together ! and why 1 because they 
 had their knowledge only from within, from reason— from Nature, the in- 
 fidel's god — while our own youth are taught by the clear voice of celestial 
 wisdom. Even the great Socrates and Cicero would have rejoiced to 
 have known what our children learn ; and were they to rise from tb" dead 
 and live again, would find in an infant class, more than their equals in 
 the highest philosophy. The ancient philosophers reasoned !— it is true — 
 but they never — not one of them — found a certain moral or religious 
 principle on which to erect a system, and their perpetual differences, 
 changes, and inconsistencies prove that, though wisdom was their search, 
 doubt and controversy were all they attained. Their morals, and 
 religious dogmas, or doctrines, were almost all directly, or indirectly, im- 
 moral, and had a baleful influence on the opinions and practices of those 
 who embraced them. They never could reason out, who, what, or where, 
 the true God is, and consequently, could never find out what was the true 
 worship. They never could penetrate the mystery of existence, the orga- 
 nisation of matter, the rule of duty, or the fact and nature of a future state 
 of existence. All was speculation — vast, anxious, and profitless — and 
 their minds, without a great truth to direct them, were tossed, like a 
 rudderless ship, on the shoreless expanse of visionary ideas ; and all their 
 systems were utterly powerless to subdue or resist moral corruption, and 
 a debasing polytheism. 
 
 Turn to Egypt, for example, where pagan philosophy first rose to emi- 
 nence, and while there is no doubt that there the philosophers had attained 
 to some measure of knowledge in the arts and sciences — though by no 
 means to so great as is sometimes asserted — yet their very religion proves, 
 that in point of actual intelligence, they were far from being wise. Their 
 mythology was very much founded on, and governed by astronomy, which 
 was esteemed not a natural science but a religion, and the contulta- 
 
 anc 
 riv4 
 cho 
 
 COI 
 
 be 
 
 geil 
 sml 
 
 of] 
 wc 
 
REASON OB REVELATION. 
 
 21 
 
 r. 
 
 goddeM 
 
 n judged 
 
 nd inde- 
 
 hat pre- 
 
 They 
 
 but never 
 
 ny, that a 
 
 ows more 
 
 and nata- 
 
 sause they 
 
 re, the in- 
 
 of celestial 
 
 rejoiced to 
 
 n th" dead 
 
 r equals in 
 
 it is true — 
 
 fr religious 
 
 differences, 
 
 leir search, 
 
 lorals, and 
 
 irectly, im- 
 
 :es of those 
 
 t, or where, 
 
 vas the true 
 
 e, the orga- 
 
 future state 
 
 fiiless — and 
 
 ssed, like a 
 
 ind all their 
 
 uption, and 
 
 rose to emi- 
 lad attained 
 loughby no 
 gion proves, 
 fiae. Their 
 lomy, which 
 le consulta- 
 
 tion of the stars was the means by which they obtained their revelations. 
 Astrology therefore became their only, but false, substitute for inspiration ; 
 and the horoscope was their empirical pretension to possess the gift of pro- 
 phecy. Egyptian philosophy ! it has been extolled, but where isitsexcel- 
 lencel Whnt little we do know of it is worthless, and that which is 
 guessed at, and said to be valuable, we repudiate till we shall have the proof. 
 We have never found even one sound moral, religious, or scientific principle 
 in the whole history ot that nation : and though in the crypts of Thebes, 
 and the temples of Memphis, the priests, or philosophers — for they were 
 the same — had their mysteries, and under the assumption of these, and 
 by propagating the notion that they possessed great knowledge, made 
 men believe that they were extraordinarily wise, yet Pythagoras, when 
 allured by their wide fame to visit their schools, and after spending twenty 
 years in trying to acquire all that they could teach him, returned with- 
 out one new satisfactory principle. And though their study chiefly 
 related to astronomy — at any rate their whole philosophical theories hinged 
 on their astronomical opinions — yet they really knew less about that 
 science than what is taught in the junior classes of our common schools. 
 Less! rather we should say that they were profoundly ignorant of its 
 simple elements. And in regard to the earth, they seem to have held 
 very nearly the present puranic system of Hindooism — if that is not indeed 
 the ancient Egyptian system — that it is a vast plain fixed in the centre of 
 the universe, (wiih the Nile as the feeder of the oceans, having its 
 source in heaven, and pouring down on the summit of some great cloud> 
 capped mountain in the centre of Africa) ; and that it rents on the back 
 of an immense tortoise, and that the tortoise rests on the back of a pro- 
 digious boar, but on what the boar rests, their philosophy could never 
 discover. Indeed, in many respects, the Egyptian doctrines of religion 
 and philosophy very nearly resembled present Hindooism, with sacred 
 rivers and beasts, cosmogony, astronomy, astrology, and metempsy- 
 chosis, and surely none, with any intelligence and powers of reason, will 
 consider the Brahmins and fiudhists of ludia as worthy, for a moment, to 
 be spoken of as philosophers, or their opinions on religion, and science in 
 general, to demand more respect than the pitying, if not contemptuous, 
 smile of the little child. 
 
 Or look at the Grecian philosophy. Much is boasted of the sages 
 of Greece : and yet how few they were — and how very few ! — when 
 we think of the number of centuries in which there was a professed 
 
22 
 
 SEASON OR REVELATIOir. 
 
 intellectuality. The few Greek minds worthy of notice are only thos0 
 who were wise enough to reason that the idolatry was unsatisfactory, 
 if not wholly false, but beyond this they never found the truth. Thales 
 was the first, 600 years before Christ, who strongly doubted, and all 
 but firmly denied the existence of ihe gods, and who sought for one 
 who was yet unknown, and epeculated on the probabilities of a Great 
 First Cause, but never could assure himself of the fact, Pythagoras foU 
 lowed, and spent a life time in trying to find out truth, by examining all 
 theories, and testing every thing by reason and experience, and died with 
 all his anxieties of investigations unsatisfied. Socrates next rose, and 
 turned his great mind to the solution of the moral nature and destiny of 
 man, but though he reasoned in the right direction, and became a martyr 
 to his infidelity in idolatry, yet, with the cup of hemlock in his hand, and 
 about to pass into eternity, he could not see one clear ray of light'on a future 
 state. Perhaps, of all the ancient philosophers he did the most by tea* 
 son that reason can do ; and even were we to grant that he had found 
 the truth, which he did not, it would only prove that the reason of one 
 man had been sutiicient to conquer all obstacles, fur there has only been 
 one Socrates in the whole pagan world- Plato and Aristotle, his pupils, 
 next rose, and gave his opinions a systematic and developed character, 
 and laid the basis of the present moral science ; but still their philosophy 
 was not sound, and in regard to what was an apptoximation to truth, we 
 are inclined to go beyond the question what they — or Socrates before 
 them — did by reason, and enquire how far they were not aided by the 
 Hebrew faith and the Hebrew oracles, which it is impossible to suppose 
 they did not know.* But all the philosophers, with all their knowledge, 
 never could disperse the shadows that unaided reason esteemed to be 
 realities, nor dispel the darkness that enveloped all human inquiries ; and 
 it was not till Christianity arose that there >vas a light to lighten the 
 world ; and the Apostle Paul on Mars- hill told the philosophers of 
 
 • One fact worthy of notice is, that though Socrates believed in the 
 immortality of the soul, because, from the phenomena of dreaming, there 
 seemed to be a principle within him, that had a degree of cognizance 
 when the body was under the influence of sleep, and, therefore, inferred 
 that it had an independent existence ; yet, the chief reason he assigned 
 for his belief was, the opinion of former ages. That is, he derived it 
 from tradition. And whence the tradition % but a lingering ray of revcla- 
 tion, that the keen eye of the sage enabled him to perceive, through the 
 obscurations of heathenism. 
 
UBASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 2S 
 
 nly tho00 
 isfactory, 
 
 Thalet 
 , and all 
 : for one 
 ' a Great 
 ;oras fol' 
 lining all 
 died with 
 'ose, and 
 iestiny of 
 a martyr 
 land, and 
 1 a future 
 It by rea- 
 id found 
 )n oi one 
 )nly been 
 lis pupils, 
 iharacter, 
 bilosophy 
 truth, we 
 :es before 
 ed by the 
 
 suppose 
 towledge, 
 led to be 
 ries ; and 
 ^hten the 
 tphers of 
 
 >d in the 
 ng, there 
 ignizance 
 , inferred 
 assigned 
 lerivcd it 
 if revela- 
 ough the 
 
 Athens what they confessed they were unable to discover ; and tt onct 
 solved the question, " what is truth 1*' and which had been the absorb* 
 ing problem of their philosophy for six hundred years. 
 
 The whole state of religion, philosophy, and civilisation of the heathen 
 world, is described by St. Paul, in the first chapivi oi the Epistle to the 
 Romans ; and the truthfulness of the fearful picture, as regarded Rome, 
 is fully established by Tacitus, Suetonius, and the Roman Satirists; and, 
 if any are prone to boast of the ancient wifdom and virtue, let them read 
 that chapter, and then we shall be surprised if their eulogies are not 
 changed to intense di^igust ; and there, they will truly learn what a state 
 of depravity mankind arrive at when they have no revelation to guide 
 them, and when they are left to the uncontrolled propensities of an evil 
 nature, and to follow the suggestions of a mind unillumined by the wis- 
 dom of God. Cicero— who lived a hundred years before Christ, and had 
 the advantage of gathering into his capacious mind all the reasonings of 
 preceding sages — certainly came nearest to the truth. His philosophy 
 was of the Greek school, and after the Socratic model, yet it failed to 
 satisfy himself. His idea of virtue is the only thing that is remarkable in his 
 writings, and remarkable, inasmuch that it is the only instance where a 
 heathen sage has given the proof of arriving at a view of practical morals, 
 differing so widely from the opinions that prevailed, and opposing so can- 
 didly the vices of his age ; and as it is the only ancient philosophical de- 
 claration on morality, that we could venture, with certain limitations, to 
 call good and wise. But great as Cicero was, he was still a fabulist in theo- 
 logy, and a complete errorist in natural philosophy — for only in his ideas 
 of morals did he shine— and in regard to the immortality of the soul, and 
 a future state, he had to make it his dying confession, that " whether he 
 should live again or not, or whether it was better to live or to die, the 
 gods alone could determine." Thus the last of the great philosopiiera 
 lived, reasoned, doubted, and died ; and his writings virtually convey in 
 them his testimony, that man cannot be truly wise without a revelation 
 from God. 
 
 Such is the outline of the conclusion to which we are forced to come 
 in regard to the much-vaunted wisdom of the ancients. Egypt had her 
 philosophers ; but where have we the proof of the excellence of their 
 philosophy 1 Greece had her "seven wise men," — only seven! who 
 were worthy of high place in the temple of reason — not even one in a 
 century ! — but allowing them all the merit of mental superiority thatr;uld 
 
u 
 
 ll£ASON OB tt£vfiLATlON. 
 
 be claimecl, ^e ask for the proof that they did what iniidelity aaserlB that 
 treason is capable of performing ? Rome had her one philosopher, at all 
 worthy of the name— -only one !— and he proves, Dot the sufficiency, bat 
 the incapacity of the human mind forself'instruction in the highest subjects 
 of belief, duty, obligation and destiny. 
 
 There was, however, a philosopher who, in his youth, "Waaleaiaed 
 in all the wisdom of the Cgyptlans,^* and who did give the ancient 
 world light, but it was not by the knowledge he had gathered from 
 the colleges of the Nile. He got it during his " session" of forty days 
 and forty nights, held on the cloud-Covered, and lightning-guarded 
 Sinai. God was the Teacher, nnd Moses was the Scholar'^and that 
 great Hebrew, not only immeasurably surpasses all heathen sages coN 
 lectively^ but a close examination, were we to enter on it, would afford 
 strong evidence that, from his system, the most eminent of the heathen 
 philosophers derived the few glimpses of approximating truths, which are to 
 be obtained from their writings. Why is it that Moses should be overlooked 
 in the infidels* catalogue of ancient philosophers 1 If th^y will deny his 
 inspiration, still we demand that they tileal fairly with his system. If he 
 divulged it by the powers of his reason alone, then he stands, by far, the first 
 of philosophers, and even Socrates and Cicero ere intellectual dwarfs beside 
 him. If it be said that Moses did not write it, and that it is not credible, 
 yet here we have it — and it existed long before the Greeks had a sage — and 
 the man who wrote it, whoever he was, is entitled to more honor than that 
 which deism pays to its heroes. We do not take up the question of in» 
 spiration, but ask, are the writings of Moses superior to those of the hea- 
 then philosopher?? and, it so, why does he not get credit for them? It 
 will not do to tell us that there can be no inspiration, and therefore no- 
 thing is to be believed that assumes or asserts to be inspired ; because, 
 here are writings, which are superior, and are so, either because Moses 
 was the greatest of ancient wise men naturally, or his greatness was 
 caused by divine and direct instruction. Sceptics will allow no praise to 
 the wisdom of the Hebrew legi&lator, but they boast of Socrates, Plato, 
 Aristotle, Cicero ! and assert that their wisdom is enough for man- 
 kind ; but, we ask, if they were so great, what did they accomplish for 
 the religious and moral condition of the times in which they lived? If 
 they could not, by their wisdom and personal influence, reform these, 
 how can their systems possibly benefit this? If their wisdom failed then, 
 It would fail naW ; and despised as the New Testament is by a godless 
 
 speal 
 
 that 
 
 ment-l 
 
 mean! 
 
 its res 
 
 these) 
 
 of wii 
 
 in fir£{ 
 
 gionj 
 
 becor 
 
 phy 
 
ft'&ASON OR BEVELATIOI^. 
 
 2?5 
 
 IB that 
 
 at all 
 
 5y, bttl 
 
 ubjrcts 
 
 leained 
 ancient 
 d from 
 ly days 
 guarded 
 nd that 
 ges col- 
 li afford 
 heathen 
 ;h are to 
 erlooked 
 leny hia 
 . If he 
 , the first 
 rfs beside 
 credible, 
 ige — and 
 than that 
 on oi in^ 
 the hea- 
 leml It 
 efore no* 
 
 because » 
 }e Moses 
 mess was 
 
 praise to 
 es, Plaio> 
 for inan- 
 nplish for 
 ived] If 
 rm these, 
 liled then, 
 
 a godless 
 
 class, yet vte will take up the writings of the fishermen of Galilee, and 
 the /' postle Paul, and in these — in a single page^we will find more real 
 philosophy, which the world can feel, and by which it has been bless- 
 ed, than in all the writings, of all the philosophers, of the whole an- - 
 cient heathen world. 
 
 3rd. The third, and last topic, in the first part of the subject, that now 
 remains for consideration is. The Civilisation of the Ancients. 
 
 Ancient civilisation ! how it has been bepraised by some historians : 
 how it has been extolled in lecture-rooms of colleges : how it has been 
 made to eclipse that which is modern, as its presumed and asserted 
 proofs are carefully gathered and preserved in museums, and proudly 
 pointed to by the antiquarian: and how travellers will narrate, with won- 
 der, the character and magnificence of palaces, monuments, and temples, as 
 in their hoary and fallen grandeur they are held to attest the high refinement 
 of the people that erected them ! We are well accustomed to behold the 
 halo that has been made to encircle ancient civilisation, but we are not pre- 
 pared to allow ihai it is other than a false glory, which modern admiration 
 of styles of architecture that were remarkable for immensity of laborious- 
 nes3 and fineness of taste, has unheedingly cast over all that pertained to 
 the nations which are now signalised by their monuments. 
 
 Using civilization not in a limited but in a broad and accurate sense, 
 we must confess — even at the risk of sundry denunciations, if not accusa- 
 tions — that we have the same opinion of that of the ancients that we have 
 expressed of their religion and philosophy. They were the tripartite con- 
 juncts, that by necessity occupied the same level. If we are correct in our 
 views of the rehglon and philosophy, how can it be otherwise than, that 
 reason, independent of facts, should compel us to this opinion? Some do 
 speak of civilisation leading to religion and philosophy : and others say 
 that philosophy is the product of mind, a mere natural spirhual discern- 
 ment — and they call it inspiration, though, by that they understand, and 
 mean, no divine teaching — and that first, civilisation, and then religion, are 
 its resiilts. Sound reason and fact teach us, that the contrary to cithei of 
 these views is the truth. Civilisation is not the parent but the ofTspririg 
 of wisdom and religion ; and wisdom, or philosophy, that which is true 
 in first principles, as well as useful to mankind, is, in fact, a part of reli- 
 gion, and has its beginning in the fear of God. Man, then, we maintain, 
 becomes truly civilised, just in proportion as his religion and philoso- 
 phy are derived from heaven. And, wc ask, could civilisation,, in its 
 
 a 
 
 n 
 
m 
 
 eAasok or ittVEt£rt&tt, 
 
 proper acceptation, be ej^iected from avch syatema of religion and j^o* 
 jophy as we have referred to ? It is an axiom,*' that like begets like," and 
 therefore, from a debasing idolatry, how coald its devotees be under th« 
 influence of proper sentiments, or display the sterling virtues ? When it in- 
 culcated all that was gross, how could the people be refiued 1 And when 
 the philosophy was but an offshoot from the idolatry, and merely claimed 
 a little more latitude of opinion, and had a little less superstition, but still 
 sanctioned all that religion taught and tolerated, bow waa it possible that 
 Uiere could be civilisation 1 As well expect sweetness from ihe worm- 
 wood, or to find a garden of roses on an iceberg, in an arctic sea, and 
 an arctic night. Some of the ancients did, indeed, try, after their own 
 ftuihion, to make society better, and they mode their own mould in which 
 the pattern statue of virtue was cast, and then exhibited ; but none of 
 them had a higher idea of virtue than self-interest, or love of approbation. 
 Virtue, tiiey said, was all that was required to elevate the social condi- 
 tion ; but Aristotle defined it to be, only that which is praiseworthy ; and 
 Pleto, that which is pleasant or profitable. They gave it no brobJer 
 foundation than selfishness, and no higher object, or aspiration, than 
 praise and self-advantage. Thus it was taught as an interest, not a duty : 
 as a selfish motive, but not as a religious or moral obligation. 
 
 But let us settle what civilisation is. In the general application of it, 
 i( is, perhaps, the most indefinite of all terms. It is used comprehen- 
 meiy, loosely, or restrictediy, according to the individual idea. Some 
 consider civilisation to be the perfection of man's whole condition in all 
 his relations, interests, and acquirements ; and hence, when they employ 
 it, it is only in degree to the religious, moral, and intellectual excellencies 
 which are found predominating. Others employ it to designate only a 
 difierence, and higher di^tinction from uncouth barbarism ; and in this way 
 apply it to ancient nations, such as Egypt, Greece and Runie, because, in 
 certain respects, they were superior to other nation?. This latter view 
 merely contemplates what is external, and has little or no reference to 
 what is true in religion, and pure and elevated in morality. We take 
 the former view. Some may ascribe to Chaldea, and some to Egypt, 
 the parentage of civilisation in the aeras before Christ, but we deny that 
 there ever was any, from a period soon after the fall of man, till the intro- 
 duction of the gospel, except, occasionally, what was enforced under par- 
 tieular feigns among the Jews, and when they strictly conformed to the 
 
!stki(rif dft tEfrtLATtMi 
 
 m 
 
 tkwofMesei. Oar ideft of ftncient cirilisation, is id <he legnlathm qif 
 Moses, though it was p«ct>li«r, ftnd not adapted fer^tmltentilitf ; amdonr 
 Jdea of modem oivilisaiiott is embra<9ed in the letter, anct spirit Of lAtt 
 legislation of Jesus Christ. Some may tell ns that other causes, since the 
 birth of Christ, have led to that which has been, and is.; they may point 
 to political iofluences, social ainalg^amations,the imptovement and exten- 
 sion of science, and the decrease of superstition, and henCe human free- 
 dom, independence, and greatness ; bot we go back to Christianity as thd 
 cause, for without it, we do not find in the long history ot 1800 yeara, suf- 
 ficient proof in any nation, ol what we understand by the word. If by a 
 civilised nation, is only meant one that was terrible in war, tlten, the 
 Scandinavian hordes, Ooths and Vandals, who rushed over Europe, wefe 
 more civilised than the Romans. Then, by that estimate, as for a time, 
 they were all victorious, they must have been ihe civilised ! Then Han- 
 nibal, with his dusky Carthaginians scaling the Alpsj and the fierce Moors 
 .invading Spain, must rank among the civilised \ And why not ? for if by 
 war we are to judge ; and victory or defeat makes the conqueror oi ihii 
 bandit, the hero or the rebel, so, in sudh a case, we ought to apply civilisa- 
 tion to the most victorious. ,Olr, if it be estimated by the time a people 
 •have existed in the possession of letters, and certain arts, then the Arabs 
 and Chinese have for ages surpassed the modern English. Or, if the esti- 
 mate is to be by enormous pillars, extensive buildings, gorgeous temples, 
 magnificent amphitheatres, and intricate sculptures, or historic bas reliefs, 
 then, civilisation has been on the decline, for we have nothing modern to 
 compare with what must have existed, as seen in the ruins at Rome, Pal-* 
 rayra and Baalbek, of Greece, and of Egypt. It is on mioh grounds, however, 
 that, very often, the claims to ancient civilisation are made to rest, but it 
 must be obvious that they are untenable — untenable, at any rate, in as far 
 . as moral intelligence views the subject. We are ready to allow, that 
 many aneient nations were superior comparatively, that ns, that they 
 .were, in certain points, superior to other nations, just as we admit that 
 the Chinese surpass the Africans, the Turks the Malays, the popish peas- 
 antry of the south of Ireland the Thugs of India, the Mexicans the Pata- 
 gonians, and our Indians the cannibals of the fair isles of the Pacific, 
 but we maintain that they are uncivilised, all of them, in th6 proper sense 
 of the term. Civilisation is the ascertained progress of mankind up- 
 wards to thai which is definite, rational, and useful, in religion, science, 
 iii.x\,^x^ tJie^ocji|il,yiftues. Wh^t though the Australian saya|;e, t)^e 
 
 »' 
 
*l9* 
 
 BEASON OB BEVELATIOK. 
 
 miserable Ethiopian, or the warlike Kaffir built cities outrivalling Nine- 
 veh or fiabylon, and palaces surpassing the most magnificent of those in 
 Europe, or had temples that would vie with any in any age^ yet we 
 would not call him a civilised man ! 
 
 There is a very common error held, and which, to a great extent, 
 leads to a false notion of civilization. It is this: Many speak of the In- 
 dians, and all such uncultured tribes, as being in their natural state, or in 
 the natural condition of man. Now, it is the very opposite, for they are 
 in their unnatural state. In what state, we ask, was man at first cre- 
 ated ? Surely, it was not that of a savage .! Surely, when he came 
 from his Maker's hands in his Maker's image, in knowledge and true 
 holiness ; with an intellect unobf^'ired by sin, and n heart unpolluted by 
 vice ; when he had Paradise as a birthright, and to " dress it and keep 
 it" was the wholesome industry which was enjoined on him ; when 
 'he was "made but a little lower than the angels, and crowned with 
 glory and honour ;" when " God created man in his own image ; in the 
 image of God created he him, male and female created he them ;" and 
 therefore in the fullest vigour of every faculty, and the enjoyment of un- 
 alloyed innocence, and with God himself to hold communion, surely, the 
 highest dignity of humanity was then ; and therefore, the most natural 
 state of man is that, in which he comes nearest to the great original, 
 and civilization, consequently, must be judged of in proportion as the na- 
 tural condition is regained. The more mankind become like God — the 
 more that they have reinstamped on them the image that has been de- 
 faced, the more are they true to their original nature ; and surely it is 
 evident that Christianity, only, has done the little that has yet been 
 eflfected, and that it alone is competent for the mighty enterprise to bring 
 man up from the horrible pit of moral and spiritual degradation 
 into which he has been sunk, and direct him to the now open and 
 straight, and glorious path that leads back to Eden, to the lost image, 
 and the lost innocence, to holiness, to happiness and to God. 
 
 There are other criterions of civilisation ; such as the extension of human 
 life ; for it is a fact, in every country, that in proportion as vies or virtue pre- 
 dominates, as social order is despised or prevails, and as science is unknown 
 or cultivated to ameliorate the physical condition, so is life short or 
 long. — Then there is the condition of woman ; for just as her virtue is 
 protected, her mind cultivated, and her position and influence allowed 
 her as the helpmate of man, so we have an index of the social state 
 
BEASON OR RfiVELATION. 
 
 of anf people ; for the degradation of woman, and ciTilisation, can ncTer 
 harmonise. — Then there is commerce — in products ot agriculture and 
 manufactures, the active reciprocities that enlightenment engenders, and 
 the cosmopolitanism that is cherished — for national seclusion is the proof 
 of ignorance and fear, and mere barter of certain commodities for 
 rithev luxuries or necessaries — and thus have the name of trade — can 
 never be taken as an evidence of civilisation. The Chinese are not 
 civilised though they export tea and silks, and receive in exchange 
 opium and gold! The natives of the New Hebrides are not civilised 
 because there is a trade with them in sandal wood, for which they re- 
 ceive beads, tobacco, and rum ! — And lastly, there is the criterion of re- 
 ligion. It is not the having of a religion, simply, that we mean, 
 but a religion that has a direct and distinct salutary influence on the 
 moral character. India has its great templesj and millions of divini- 
 ties. There, religion constitutes a great part of the thoughts and works 
 of the people, and yet we do not call the Hindoos civilised ; and why 
 there is the propensity to dignify the nations of antiquity, and refuse the 
 claim to this existing people, is a question that it is not our business to 
 solve ; and we leave it to those who are ever so ready to boast of the 
 greatness of the past, and extol the refinement of nations that cannot 
 be shown to have been one whit superior to these very idolaters, that 
 excite so deeply the interest and compassion of the humblest Christians 
 in Britain and America. 
 
 Having stated wl at we mean by oivilisation — which, if it is to imply 
 anything realand worthy, is certainly the true definition, it is unneces- 
 sary to -enlarge on ihis point, because a mere historical glance will satisfy 
 the most credulous, that it would be an abuse, of what even the most 
 lax understand' by the word, to apply it to the ancient heathen. Yet 
 there are facts-i-indelicate though they be — which ought to be known, 
 and then, without a blush of shame, ancient refinement ! cannot be pa- 
 raded for modern admiration. In the capital of Chaldea — and there is 
 every reason for believing it was the same in that of Assyria — there 
 were despotism and slavery, gross idolatry and gross licentiousness ; and 
 such was the civilisation, that, by a religious law, every woman was 
 obliged, once in her life , publicly to prostitute herself amid the debauch- 
 ing orgies of the temple of Milytta ! The religious law of Egypt en- 
 joined the same. And the Israelites, when they at times adopted idoji- 
 atry, and copying the surrounding nations, worshipped the ^queea. ff 
 
tfk 
 
 HEASON OR RBVELAnON. 
 
 hM««n, art spoken of by the prophets as outrageous for their " whore- 
 doQis/' and " eaflaming themselves in groves and under every green 
 tree." If ancient civilisation shall be asserted and admired, our moral- 
 ity insulted, and our religion depreciated, perish such civilisation, say 
 we, and perish eternally, and let Nineveh " lie in heaps." and let the 
 moundsofNimroudbe the graves of Assyrian glory ; let Babylon be a"des- 
 olatioaand a place for dragons to lie down in," and the foetid and deadly 
 miasma — fit type of its civilisation — forever rise from its marshes ; and the 
 screech owl forever give the dirge over its just fate ; and lei Egypt re- 
 main " as the basest of kingdoms." Greece and Rome are not exempt- 
 ed, for in both there was a progressive profligacy, " the sanctity and pu- 
 rity of the domestic hearth w«re undermined, and the rooTiree virtues, 
 which are a nation's strength, gave way, and the vast edifice of Greek 
 science and Roman power fell before the tide of social corruption." The 
 temples of Juno, Venus, Bacchus, and Diana, were nothing else than the 
 nation's brothels, sanctioned, sacred, and sanctified by a cursed idolatry. 
 As far as we have history to guide us, we find the unvarying fact that 
 idolatry produces demoralisation, and there has not been an ancient na- 
 tion that has not owed its ruin to its social vices. We may speculate- 
 where we have not the native history, from the histories of other lands — on 
 the traces of lost civilsation — as they are called — in Central America, nnd 
 on the Caliiornian gulph ; and while the hieroglyphics have not yet been 
 deciphered, yet there k enough to prove, by crumbling monuments, 
 wreclis of palaces, and temples over-grown with hoary forests, that once on 
 this continent, a great race, with an Asiatic religion, and probably oi 
 Asiatic origin, had risen and decayed ; and uo doubt, as in all other 
 cases, by the fatal influence of a corrupting and destructive idolatry. — 
 Certainly, there was once a great nation, extending, in that region, from 
 the Pacific to the Atlantic, but it has dwindled down to the untutored 
 red men who roam the forests and prairies, and who now know nothing 
 more than to construct the rude and frail wigwam. And the Aztec 
 race, (if different ?) once so famous, with an idolatry that was costly in 
 its service but barbarous in its sacrifices, with an amount of skill in ar- 
 chitecture that was great, but, in point of civilisation, could lay no just 
 £laim, fell before Cortes, and was utterly spc>iied by Spanish cupidity, 
 and destroyed by Spanish cruelty ; and the heathen glory forever passed 
 away, and left to conquerors and to ruin the royal palaces of the proud 
 Montezumas. Of all ancient systems, Hindooism alone remains.; 
 
 1 
 
BBASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 ^ 
 
 and in its proud, solitary, idolatrous grandeur, gives its living testimony 
 to the nature of ancient heathenism, and points out to us the very high- 
 est state at which mankind can arrive without divine revelation ; and 
 teaches us the lesson that human reason is, of itself, feeble and fallible, and 
 that it requires to be enlightened by celestial rays, and conscience and con- 
 duct corrected and directed by the teaching of God, before there c ^ be 
 truth in religion ; soundness in philosophy ; and virtue, happiness, prof?< 
 perity, and stability in the social state. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The secowd part of the sxjbject is, to brino out the Contrast be- 
 tween Ancient Heathenism and Christianity and its Legitimate 
 Consequences, by shewing the Infinite Superiority, in all 
 
 KESFECTS, OF THE LaTTER OVER THE FoRMER. 
 
 To a certain extent this has been already, indirectly, done, and the 
 intelligent reader must have been making the contrast in his own mind 
 as he proceeded, but it is still necessary that it be made a distinct part of 
 our subject, and rendered more apparent and prominent. It has been 
 shown what the state of the world was, when, with one exception, the 
 nations " did not like to retain God in their knowledge," and when 
 they were untaught and unguided by divine revelation ; and this truth is 
 taken for granted as established, that, as mankind religiously, morally, 
 and socially were debased, and degenerated when without revelation , 
 therefore, judging from experience, it is absolutely essential that they 
 have some directory from heaven. Maintaining this necessity, Christi- 
 anity, as asserting its revelatory character, and as the last and perfected 
 system divulged by the Son of God himself, becomes so much the more 
 evidently and practically " worthy of all acceptation," as its principles 
 stand the test of reason, and its announcements and promises satisfy, 
 stimulate, and gladden the highest and holiest aspirations of man, and 
 its whole utility universally stands the test of experience. Christianity 
 can do, for it has done, what all other systems have failed to accom- 
 plish, and that is proof, if not of its divinity, at least of its superiority. — 
 On this ground it can be argued that, as man must have a religion, he 
 should choose the best, and therefore choose Christianity, because it is 
 the best. 
 
 But while we are willing to meet the rationalist or utilitarian on such 
 low ground as that, and make him — for he cannot help himself— confess 
 
:92 
 
 REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 40 its supremacy, yet far be it from U3 to take our stand for Christianity 
 •on its temporal aspects, and its mere superiority to other religious sya- 
 temB, whether ancient or modem. From the success which has attended 
 it ; its first rapid progress ; the prejudices which it engendered and re- 
 moved ; the hostilities which it encountered, endured and surviyed ; and 
 the civilisation which, by its principles and laws, has been given to 
 many parts of the earth, we have strong evidence of its Divine origin ; 
 that it is God-givon, God-sent, and God-supported and blessed, and that 
 it has a power and vitality invulnerable by time, or change, or oppo- 
 sition : ^but it is when its nature is examined that it stands erect, 
 
 and -high, and bright, and pure above every other system, and dis- 
 closes the evidence of its Heavenly origin, its inspiration, and its 
 perpetual adaptation to man in every place and phase of his being ; and 
 when thus viewed, reason must bow to it as declaring the wisdom of God. 
 We can readily conceive it possible for a wise man to frame a system 
 of what he considers to be moral duty, and which may bo suitable for 
 one people, and for a short period ; but, as nations differ 0-om each other 
 in manners, customs and religion, the system which might bo applicable 
 f^>r ono would be unsuitable for another, and thus the sage of one 
 country, would be esteemed a fool, in propounding his system to an- 
 other: and further, as every nation, sooner or later, changes in its 
 
 character, relative position, and intercourse, it must be obvious that no 
 man, of even the most exalted intellectual capacity and foresight, could 
 make a code of morals and a religion which would suit all nations 
 •qually well, which would benefit them all, and which, in every place 
 •nd age of the world, would be as practicable and valuable as at 
 another. This, reason and experience teach us, is a fixed truth, that 
 unaided reason cannot make a uniform universal religion; — and even 
 Moses, Divinely-inspired as he was, did not attempt it. But if we find 
 a religion adapted for all the world, then we say that "a greater than 
 Moses is here," and that it must be divine in its author, and conse- 
 quently, divine in its authority. And such is Christianity, the Gospel of 
 the Son of God. It claims to be for all, qualified to bless all, and 
 •apable of surviving in every clime, in every nation, and to the latest 
 jteriod of this world's duration. 
 
 In drawing the contrast we shall consider the universal adaptation of 
 jChristianity to the Spiritual, Moral, and Physical conditions of man 
 i.l«t, Tqy 11[nitkb9al AQAPT'^TidN OF Christianitt to TBS Sfiritu^ 
 
 Pi 
 
SEASON OB REVELATION. 
 
 m 
 
 CONDITION OF Man. By this is- meant its adaptation to liim m a being 
 unable intuitively to know, or find the true religion ; yet feeling his need 
 of it, and its fitness for him in every circumstance, and in every condition ; 
 and by which he may bo taught to know and worship the true God, and 
 be brought from ignorance, superstition, and degradation ; from the 
 prison-house of Satan's slaves to the liberty of the sons of God ; and to 
 the enjoyment of the clear. shining of Heaven's own orb of Spiritual 
 illumination — the Bun of Righteousness —and by which the naturally- 
 darkened understanding shall become radiant with its glory. 
 
 We have already sliown the nature and consequences of pagan re- 
 ligions, and it must surely bo granted that thoy were not adapted to 
 benefit men, and the proof is, that tboy never did so. But Christianity 
 is not simply different from, but directly opposed to all past systems. 
 Were it to aim at making a universal uniformity of conventional cus- 
 toms, and habits, and government, and to accord with the natural cor- 
 rupt reason and disposition ; were it to come down to the level of man, 
 and bo a thing like himself, instead of drawing him up to its own high 
 eminence, it would utterly fail. It is on these rocks that men have 
 struck when they became religion-makers. They attempted too much in 
 relation to what was social, and accommodated in what was moral 
 to what was immoral ; sanctioned vice rather than reformed it ; tried 
 to control rather than remove it ; and tb'TS, whenever a change took 
 place in the government, customs, or intercourse of the nation where 
 such religion had been established, that religior. either perished at 
 once, or was altered to suit new opinions, new times, and a new politi- 
 cal and social state of things. The religions of men are changed by 
 men to suit circumstances: the religion of Christ changes men, and 
 controls eiicumstances into a conformity to its spirit and designs. Mo- 
 hammedanism is an example of the former. It has been long upheld, 
 and with a degree of unvarying regularity, but the lands in which it is 
 are not one whit more advanced io-day, under its influence, than they 
 were a thousand years ago ; and because it has been, so far, unchanging, 
 we can argue nothing from that in its favor, for, for many centuries 
 there has scarcely been the least constitutional or social change in the 
 countries in which it predominates, as, for instance, in Turkey and 
 
 Persia. They have stood still, and consequently so has the religion. 
 
 But when once — as will be ere long — they are either subverted by other 
 powers, or by revolutions have the governments popularised, and human 
 
/ 
 
 w 
 
 REASON OR REVBLATIOa. 
 
 interconrse and commerce become more extea^d from tifithoBt anl 
 within, Islamism must then fall, and be crushed among th« wrecks of 
 former delusions, idolatries and despotisms. But this is the peculiarity 
 of Christianity — ^its wisdom, its power, and the spirit of its eternity-*-* 
 that it is silent on governments, customs, and habits, and aims only at 
 stamping on the world great principles for belief and practice. It aim» 
 hot at the rule of a nation, in the first place, but at the subjection of a 
 man's own heart . It aims at the man , not at the mass. It divests itself, too., 
 of every ceremonial by which it may be bound down to place, and to 
 -iime. The Jew thought that it was at Jerusalem where he could only 
 especially worship — that was the great fixed locality for his God ; the 
 Samaritan thought that it was on Mount Gerizim ; the heathen thought 
 that it could only be in their temples, and before their gods ; but this is 
 the great spiritual truth which Christianity unfolds, the truth that the 
 wisdom of the world never could search out, the truth which liberates 
 man from all ritual bondage, the glorious truth which brings him always 
 to his God, and makes every spot a temple, and every house a house of 
 prayer ; it is the main truth, the first principle in our religion, that "'God 
 is a Spirit ; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in 
 truth ;" and thus it frees itself from place and visible objects, and draws 
 out the heart, pure and fervent, to the living God. The Turk, and 
 Jew, cannot pray without turning in the supposed direction of Mecca, 
 and Jerusalem* and if they do not know the direction, their reli- 
 gions do not guarantee the success of their prayers. The idolater 
 cannot pray except when before his idol, and he cannot sacrifice 
 except beside his consecrated altar. He must have his sacred times, 
 end places, and objects of worship, and take him from his temples 
 and his idols, and he is taken from his religion. No heathen 
 form of worship can be exported. No heathen can travel beyond 
 his native land and be religious too, for when he leaves his coun- 
 try he leaves his gods, and passes, at once, into the bleak region of 
 atheism. The Hindoo, when taken from his sacred rivers, temples, 
 idols, pilgrimages, and holy scenes, is rendered religiously help.- 
 less, and becomes godless and prayerless. His religion is a fixture in 
 India, and beyond that it cannot go. But here is the contrast with Chris- 
 tianity. It is the same everywhere ; in the burning tropics and tho 
 eternal winters of the poles : for, the Christian recognising the spiritual 
 -«;!Sistettce of God, and )lolding by a spiritual warship, is ready oigt ever/ 
 
tlS'ASON OB BEVfeCAtlOK. 
 
 8S^ 
 
 t^ot, and at every time, to call upon his Maker. And when the mind i# 
 imbued with this principle, and let man wander where he may, and 
 when he can lift his eyes to Heaven, and even in unwhispered languag« 
 breathe out his prayer to his Great Protector, he carries with him 
 everything that is vital in his religion. Tho temple of the Christian is 
 the wide earth on which he dwells ; and tho Being whom he worships is 
 a Spirit, and his own spirit pays its holy tribute to the Parent of its ex- 
 istence. 
 
 We read in the Book of Judges, when a company of warlike Danitci 
 carried off the gods, ephod and toraphim, from tho house of Micah, " « 
 man of Mount Ephraim," that ho pursued and said, "ye have taken 
 away my gods which I have made, and the priest, and ye are gone away, 
 and what have I more?" His gods wore his religion, and with them it 
 Went ; and this is the frail foundation on which all idolatry rests. It is 
 material. It is perishable. It is liablo to disaster. But Christianity 
 exalts its head above all changes and accidents. It carries in itself the 
 very essence of immortality : for take from a christian his churches, his 
 ordinances, his long accustomed forms ; aye, take from him even the Bi- 
 ble itself, and yet his religion will live. It is in his heart ; and tho 
 heart will find its God. It is this spirituality that adapts it universally 
 as the religion for man ; but take that from it and it would bo like Sam- 
 son shorn of his locks ; or by another comparison, deprive it of this, and 
 it would be like taking tho very sap and vigour from the tree of life. — 
 It was because tho heathen systems had no spirituality ; because they 
 had left the spiritual and taken to tho visible that they decayed so 
 rapidly, and were so perpetually changing ; and, on the opposite, had it 
 not been for this spirituality in our religion — we may call it tho very 
 soul of its existence — it could not have been maintained. Persecution 
 could waste it were it bound down to earth, or did the earth contain one 
 visible object essential to its life ; but, as it is, it carries in itself its own 
 indestructibility. It is thus immortal, for being spiritual, it is beyond' 
 the reach of men to destroy it. The Christian may bo persecuted, he 
 may be exiled, or suffer on the scaffold, or in the flames, but there is 
 diseply and safely lodged in his heart, that which an enemy's wrath can- 
 not reach, nor his tortures extract. He may be fettered in the dungeon,- 
 but no power, or manacles of man can chain down his spirit, as it rises 
 to the very throne of God, to pay iis unconqucred homage of devotion. 
 There is the electricity of mind and thought, as on a telegraph of faith,. 
 Uiat cannot be restrained ; or, if yea will, there is the law of spiritual 
 
AEASON OR REVELATIOIT. 
 
 gravitation, ns well as the natural one, and by which tho mind* of tK^* 
 Christian is drawn to tho Great Centre Mind, and no human power can' 
 break, or derange, the mysterious, and noble, and holy principle. 
 
 Now, to sum up this part in a sentence; — Man can form only system* 
 like himself, full of errors, and liable to decay ; but here is a spiritual 
 faith adapted for man, for mind, for every place, and for perpetuity ; 
 and from tho contrast we have only one conclusion we can draw, and it 
 is, that this is the true religion, and that its Author is divine. Other 
 systems, like the grass of tho field, have already cither withered and de- 
 cayed, or, by their very nature, are destined to perish, " but tho word of 
 tho Lord endureth for ever. And this is tho word which by the gospel 
 is preached unto you." ^ 
 
 2nd. Wo now proceed to the second point of the contrast, which is, 
 The Universal. Adavtation of Ciiiiistianity to the Moral Condition 
 OF Man. By this is meant its adaptation to man, considered in relation 
 to his intellectual condition, as endowed with reason, and capable of 
 great progress ; in his relations in the social state, and his progress in 
 the virtues; to tho code of morality which should govern the individual, 
 and the laws which should govern nations. Hero wo bring ancient 
 religion, philosophy, and civilisation to tho test, and here the Gospel not 
 only comes in, and claims tho superiority, but is supported by indubi- 
 table evidence that it can accomplish what it claims as its mission, and 
 that, whether viewed as a system of religion, or philosophy, or civilisa- 
 tion, or the whole combined, it has succeeded when others utterly failed. 
 No heathen system that was ever known, could, or did, make the nation 
 that adopted it any better. Tho Greek philosophers, trying, century 
 after century, with the utmost energies of their minds, coiild never make 
 a moral code that could survive the next political change. They never 
 could get hold of great moral principles — that is, to be convinced that 
 they were principles — and, therefore, their notions of morality woro 
 perpetually changing. Even Solon, perhaps the wisest of the great 
 Seven Grecian Sages, even he, much as he is praised, and much as he ia 
 said to have done for morals, yet never attempted a change in religion ; 
 and the value of his morality may bo judged of from the fact that he 
 built several temples in honour of the gods, among which was one that 
 he consecrated to Venus Pandemos, tlie goddess of wantonness, and the 
 priestesses of which were the public strumpets of Athens. How a certain 
 class, of infidelS;, when deriding revelation,, and extolling reason to btt 
 
REASON Oft REVELATION. 
 
 «7 
 
 i 
 
 very high, do adduce Solon (!) as an example — they would have ua 
 believe — of the mental powers of man, and boastingly tell us that 
 wo require not the teaching of Jesus Christ ! But to such we give 
 the declaration of God, and ask them if it has not been fulfilled. *' I 
 will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the under- 
 standing of the prudent." And at such we would ask the questions 
 of Paul: "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? whore is th(! 
 diaputcr of this world ? hath not God made foolish the wisdom »»f 
 this world?" And such, and all whom they, or their opinions, aro 
 likoly to influence, wo would admonish, "Beware, lost any man spoil 
 you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, al'ror 
 the riidimonts of this world, and not after Christ." 
 
 As it was among the Greeks, so it was among the Romans. And tho 
 same facts hold good with all existing religions which differ from Chris- 
 tianity. Thoy are a curse and not a blessing to those who hold them, 
 Tao principles and practices of heathenism are, indolence, dishonofty, 
 selfishness, hatred, revenge. The Hindoo will appeal to his religion to 
 vindicate him for a lie. The Thug will appeal to his religion as sanc- 
 tioning his systematic thefts and murders. The Indian of America will 
 appeal to his ancestral faith for his authority to have the life of his en- 
 emy, and why no injury to himself or his iiibe should be left unrevengod : 
 and his very hopes of future bliss are thus cherished ; and that he may at 
 last, by the proofs of his fidelity as an avenger, and by the number of 
 scalps of his enemies which hang at his belt, be permitted to reside with 
 the Great Spirit in the happy hunting grounds of the brave. We have 
 only to take a glance at any part of the heathen world, and we shall not 
 fail to see that there is there, no morality, no great ameliorating pria- 
 ciple, and that the religion is totally inadequate to effect any good. — 
 Africa is a land of si)iritual and moral darkness ; and it is full of horrid 
 cruelties. Asia has its heathenisms just as gross, but perhaps a littlf 
 more humane : and it has its Mohammedanism, with the only little truth- 
 like that is in it, borrowed from Christianity. And the melancholy moral 
 picture is, over the whole world the same, that where the religion n[' 
 Christ is not, there have congregated the human miseries, and the human 
 vices, whose names are legion. 
 
 All false systems of religion have had embodied in them principles, and 
 have disclosed sentiments, altogetherunworthy of God ; being contrary to 
 reason, science, and experience ; and which never succeeded in reforming 
 
98 
 
 REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 man, but only in accommodating themselves to his carnal mind, and by a. 
 certain superstitious check, still giving scope to his evil propensities. Eut 
 how different is Christianity, both in its principles and tendencies? It di- 
 rects and sustains sound reason, never opposes it, and in not a line can a 
 keen-eyed and accurate science detect an error. Science, it is true, may 
 doubt, or dispute some Bible statements as they are simply recorded ; 
 but these, nevertheless, if fairly examined, will admit, unimpaired, of a 
 scientific solution : and, while we allow that the language of the Bible 
 is not characterised by scientific accuracy, yet the truths of real science 
 and of scripture can never possibly be discordant; for, arc not nature 
 and revelation both from God ; and must not, therefore, the facts of both, 
 when rightly understood, be in the most perfect harmony? False systems 
 have always adapted themselves to man as he is ; they have always been 
 on a level with fallen natm-e ; but Christianity condemns man as he is. 
 It speaks authoritatively to him, not with the voice of a sago, but with 
 the voice of God ; and it seeks not merely to regulate him in his vices, 
 but commands him to abandon them, and " to be perfect, as his Father 
 who is in Heaven is perfect." It demands a new and a better life, and not 
 even that alone, but it asks a complete change. It aims at transforming 
 man into a new creature ; and as the condition of realising his hopes of 
 future happiness, asserts and declares, that " except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the Kingdom of God." 
 
 Now, wise, or scientific men, in ancient times, could not have formed 
 such a system, for their ideas of religion and morals were completely op- 
 posed to what we find in the Bible ; and their scientific opinions, such as 
 they were, were entirely different from those alluded to, either in the Old 
 or New Testament, and opposed, pr, darkness is to light, to modern dis- 
 coveries, and undoubted and acknowledged facts. If the Bible, in its 
 parts, New or Old, had been a system given by eithermeroly wise or cun- 
 ning men, it might have been expected to have contained the sentiments 
 on science which they entertained ; but as it docs not, there is only one 
 of two conclusions we can come to, either that, in writing, they deviated 
 from their own belief, and by guess made statements contrary to what they 
 held, but which now accidentally turn out to bo reconcilable with re- 
 ceived science — which is more than our reason can receive : or, that such 
 men did not write the Bible, and that those who did, v;^ei'8 " holy men of 
 God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghopc." Again, hea- 
 tiien men could not have invented such a religion r.a this, for it was ira- 
 
 , 
 
REASON OR BPVELATION. 
 
 89 
 
 of 
 
 possible for them to haye stated the truth concerning God, when they 
 had not yet found it. And bad men could not have invented it, for a 
 clean thing could not come from an unclean — and we have already seen 
 the nearest approach that the very best of the sages made to it, and how 
 miserably they failed — and though even bad men could have invented it, 
 they would not ; for they would not ha /e condemned their own opinions 
 and vices. And who then devised it 1 Who had that all-comprehensive- 
 ness of knowledge, wisdom, and purpose, that could see and supply the 
 moral wants of the world ; and could form a code for the multiform con- 
 ditions, varieties, and habits, of the human family through all ages 1 — 
 Who knew so well the maladies of human nature, that could tell of one, 
 and only one, all-sufficient remedy 1 Who gave this gospel tree of life 
 for the healing of the nations ; whose root shall hold firm through every 
 storm; whoso leaf is ever green; and whoso br&nches shall spread till 
 they extend their peaceful shade over every race, and every clime? — 
 Who told us of sin and its miseries ; of God and his worship ; of Jesus 
 and his salvation ; of heaven and its blessedness 1 It was not man. All 
 that was above him. His intellectual powers, and contemplations, and 
 designs, are too feeble and contracted for that. Bis wisdom is too 
 earthly and fallible, and his knowledge and virtue too limited and im- 
 pure for that. The philosophy of the religion of the Bible is altogether 
 contrary to what human reason ever held or annunciated, as well as 
 being above its grasp. And here, then, in the Bible, is a system so dif- 
 ferent from all human conceptions and considerations, and that shines in 
 th.'it lustre of perfect hjliness, which could only emanate from God ; and 
 which is filled with such wisdom that could only be found i»i the 
 mind, and declared by the voice of Omniscience. 
 
 Christianity, then, is adapted for man's moral nature, and intellectual 
 and social elevation ; and it — for it only — has done, and can do, what all 
 the religions and laws of man have failed to accomplioh. Avid what 
 would bo the glorious consequence, were it all-pervading r.ad all -pre- 
 vailing ? What would be the world's moral condition, if the two short, 
 simple, but all-comprehensive rules, were universally obeyed — " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
 with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thyself V* 
 Ah ! let the world take for its Statute Book the divine religion of Jesus, 
 and the long hideous train of idolatry, error, vice, and crime will flee, as 
 the shades of night, irom before the luminary of day. And where ia 
 
40 
 
 XBASON OR BBVELATION. 
 
 one rule in it which is unsuited to man equally in every condition, and 
 in every land ? Where is there a eountryj now groaning in the bondage 
 of idolatrous immorality, that would not by it be set free 1 We can find 
 no exceptions. Christianity is adapted to be a universal blessing, and 
 the range of dominion which it claims is world-wide ; and examining it 
 in its every principle and law, we know not where we can limit its 
 power, progress, and triumphs, till it shall have eradicated tho curse from 
 the earth, and brought man to happiness and communion with his God as 
 in primeval times, and made nature to smile in all the loveliness of a 
 restored paradise. We believe in such a result, in the " times of resti- 
 tution of all things," and therefore we hope for it. The tide-wave of it 
 is swelling and rolling on, and it will yet the more rise, and swell, and 
 flow, till it shall have swept before it and overwhelmed all that now op- 
 poses it, and to which it is opposed. Every Dagon must yet fall before 
 this ark, and be broken in pieces. And reason and faith, joining hand- 
 in-haud in drawing their conclusions from the teachings of the saire 
 Word, see a coming age when the earth, in the jubilee of its freedom, 
 shall take up, and re-echo, and prolong Christianity's native anthem, 
 " Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good- will to men ;" 
 when there shall be tho universal and grateful homage that mankind 
 will pay to .Tcsus, their Liberator, Legislator, and Saviour ; and " when 
 men shall bo blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed." 
 
 3rd. Tho third and last part of the contrast is. The Universal adapt- 
 ation OF Christianity to the Physical condition of Man. By this is 
 meant, its adaptation to man in his physical being, circumstances and 
 relations. 
 
 It has already been said, that man is not in his natural, but in his un- 
 natural stat3. He has been driven by sin out of his first and true position ; 
 he is fallen, both physically and spiritually ; the wonderful mechanism 
 of h-3 frame is deranged ; and there are elements around which perpetu- 
 ally work havoc on his constitutional tendencies and susceptibilities, for the 
 very earth is not in its original or perfect state either, but is cursed for his 
 sake. In other words, the dire effects of the fall extended to the earth 
 too, and its beauties, and powers, and capacities for sustaining life and 
 health, and giving enjoyment, degenerated in proportion as man degene- 
 rated. The moral and physical scales were evenly balanced. The in- 
 habitants and the habitation were made to correspond. An adaptation of 
 fiVih to the other was the divine law. A world without a woe, for man 
 
 
i 
 
 REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 41 
 
 vvithuut sin. A world blasted, for man a sinner. It does not follow, 
 however, that the degeneracy of man and nature was completed, and all 
 the miseries experienced at once. Man at once became a sinner, but 
 ho did not at once sink to the lowest depths of depravity. He lost 
 the high favour and communion of his Creator, but he still knew God, 
 and ho still worshipped him, though in a different spirit, a different cha- 
 racter, and through a new medium. The change was from sight to 
 fiith, from innocence to consciousness of guilt, and from possession to 
 hope. The progress of humanity downward was rapid, but not im- 
 mediate ; for when God looked down from heaven on Adam, and 
 Ahel, and Seth, he saw the smoking altars of their penetential faith, 
 and heard the wail of sorrow over Paradise lost ; but as men began to 
 multiply on the face of the earth, sin multiplied in its power and ex- 
 tent, and at last, after sixteen hundred years, " the wickedness of man 
 was gieat on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his 
 heart was only evil and that continually." And it was the same with 
 the earth, for while, at the verdict of God, various elements might 
 begin to derange it, yet it was not in a day they had their full power 
 and completed their devastation. "When the curse was pronounced, the 
 flowers of Eden did not at once languish and die ; the corn did not 
 shrivel, and the thistle rush up in its stead ; the trees of the wood 
 did not become stunted, and the thorn spread its armed barrier against 
 man's progress over his domain ; the green fields did ndt become 
 parched, and their brutal population begin to cry and faint in the 
 r monies of hunger ; nor were the " rivers of waters" less clear, and 
 i il,.and fertilizing; the Pison still compassed the aural Havilah; Gi- 
 loii still spread itself through the land of Cush ; Hiddekel, and the 
 lordly Euphrates still rose, up among the nountains that begirt the 
 north of the primitive fatherland, and flowed, through the forest and 
 mead, with unimpaired majesty to the mighty ocean. 
 
 Some, we know, take a different view, and maintain thai the effects 
 of the curse on nature, were instantaneous, and directly from God ; and 
 that, in producing these, man had no part. Without entering into the 
 metaphysics of the subject, wo would simply put it thus. If it be allow- 
 ed — and it is — that in the future age, that better period which is pre- 
 dicted and anticipated, the earth is to be delivered, to a great extent, 
 from the curse, by the universal evangelisation of mankind ; that as they 
 become holy the earth is to become better, and arrive nearer to its prim- 
 
42 
 
 UitAStiU on RKf£LAtlO«r. 
 
 k 
 
 itive condition : Why, then, should it not be equally allowed, that (tsf 
 mankind became worse^ the earth dlso sunk in its constitution and capa- 
 cities 1 Why is it believed that the earth will rise physically as mart 
 rises morally, and yet not believed that, in the past, it sank as man sank ? 
 Why allow the cause to bKve its effect in the one case and not in the 
 other ? "Why allow to the gospel^ through man^ to blesSj and deny to 
 sin, through man, to curse 1 No miracle is expected to restore, to some 
 degree, the bloom of' the early Eden ; and why should a miracle be de- 
 manded to blast it? "Why should the reverse of causes^ on simple laws, 
 not cause the reverse oi • iences? There are certain great laws 
 
 subsisting between the mor . td the physical^ and violate, or keep the 
 former, and the latter is injured of maintained. Hence, then, we hold, 
 that as by sin man fell* so fdllen mfln spread the ruin over all his exter- 
 nal circumstances and interests ; and never can the ruin be repaired, 
 except by the power and gospel of Him who can make us again " par- 
 takers of the divine nature/' and cause " the desert to rejoice and blossom 
 as the rose." 
 
 The Apostle Paulj in the eighth chaptct of the Epistle to the 
 Romans, represents the Whole condition of the world, atiimate and 
 inanimate> as sensitive of a curse^ and eagerly longing for deliver- 
 ance, "for the earnest expectation of the creature" or more cor' 
 teetly, the creation "waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of 
 God" — ■^* because the creature/' ot creation " itself, shall be deli* 
 vercd from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of 
 the children of God* For we know that the whole creation groaneth 
 and travaileth in pain together Until now." Here we hold thai St. Paul , 
 takes the ground that the universal curse is to be much mitigated, if not 
 entirely removed, by the influence of the gospel ; and while " the crea- 
 ture" or creation " was made subject to vanity, not willingly," yet there 
 is an approaching period for its emancipation, for though thus in bon- 
 dage without any volition of its own, it has been " by reason of Him 
 who hath subjected the same in hope." Hope of what ? Deliverance. 
 
 The Apostle Petei* evidently refers to thr same fact, and that it is 
 
 to be realised before the second coming of Christ, and under the present 
 economy, when he says " whom/' that is Jesus, " the heaven must re- 
 ceive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken 
 by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." 
 
 And what light does ancient inspired prediction cast on the world'8 
 future 1 When we take the prophets* roll and open it, there we can 
 
 
^ 
 
 fiSASON Ott R£VELATION^' 
 
 43 
 
 ? 
 
 10 
 Ito 
 
 le 
 Je- 
 
 ) 
 
 f ead, with brightened eyc> and swelling heart, and highest hope, the an- 
 nounceni' i of the new and glorious age that is to be ushered in. Na- 
 ture, through all its amplitude, is not for ever to sigh in manacles, nor its 
 primitive powers to remain paralysed in the coil of the betrayer, nor its 
 Creator to remain unglorified in the work which at first he beheld, and 
 pronounced to be very good. Nature has lost its paradisaical perfec- 
 tions, but it shall not bo always so : " for in the wilderness shall waters 
 break out, and streams in the desert," and there shall be the music of 
 rivulets in the thirsty land ; the wastes are to become fertile ; and where 
 now the warlike nomad knows no boundaries, and acknowledges no 
 proprietor, the husbandman shall have his undisturbed possession, and 
 rejoice in the plenty of a remunerative toil ; and the arid saharra of Af- 
 rica, and the gloomy deserts of Asia, which are now dried by the winds 
 of the wilderness, and swept by the fiery breath of the Simoom, shall 
 yet be sparkling with fountains, be green in the loveliness of spring, 
 and golden in the richness of autumn ; and the oases which now lie in 
 them, green in the midst of desolation, are the emblems of that hope, 
 
 and that future of nature's universal fertility. And on the irrational 
 
 animal creation, now at war with man, and he with them, and they with 
 each other, the Bible, also, casts the light of a glorious future, when 
 " the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the 
 kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fattling together, and a lit- 
 tle child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young 
 ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And 
 the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child 
 shall put his hand on the cockatrice's don. They shall not hurt nor de- 
 stroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall bo full of the know- 
 ledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." And in that millennial 
 age of universal peace, it is the express declaration of God in regard to 
 his people, " I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the 
 field, and with the fo>vls of heaven, and with the creeping thiliigs of the 
 ground ; and I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the 
 
 earth, and will make them to lie down safely." And for man, now 
 
 alienated from God in his mind and by wicked works, unhappy in himself, 
 and in his condition, and subjected to innumerable miseries, a better state 
 is predicted. Then, no one shall need to be taught, " know the Lord ;'* 
 no land of idols shall be found then ; for the missionary enterprise shall 
 
■9 
 
 i4 
 
 RfiASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 hi- 
 
 I'li 
 
 It 
 
 ii 
 
 havo been completed, and child and sire alike shall be under goepel in* 
 fluence. Unholy war shall have ceased, and the sword given place to thtt 
 ploughshare, and the spear to the sickle. Then ravaging pestilences, and 
 even the ordinary diseases now incident to humanity, shall be removed, 
 as the Gospel, the great prescription book of the Divine physician, shall 
 have its tenriporal influence in directing to the remedies for the maladies 
 of man. Then shall human life be pr< longed as in Antedeluvian times ; 
 and the age of the patriarch now, will then be the mere childhood of 
 man. " No more shall there be an infant short lived, nor an old man 
 that hath not fulfilled his days ; for he that dieth at a hundred years 
 shall die a boy ; and the sinner that dieth at a hundred years shall be 
 deemed accursed. And they shall build houses and shall inhabit them ; 
 and they shall plant vineyards and shall eat the fruit thereof. They 
 shall not build and another inhabit ; they shall not plant and another 
 eat ; for as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people ; and they 
 shall wear out the works of their own hands. My chosen shall not la- 
 bour in vain, neither shall they generate a short lived race ; for they 
 shall bo a seed blessed of Jehovah ; they and their ofTspring with 
 them."* Such is the glorious vision of the future ; and all hail ! to the 
 progress and triumphs of Christianity by which the world is to be 
 blessed. By the Bible we are enabled to look forward in hope. In it 
 we can hear the true voice of the future ; for it is the oracle of heaven in 
 regard to our destiny, and incomparably better than ever spoke at 
 Delphi, or Epirus, or through the auspices of Roman Augurs. Its faith 
 is most glorious, its predictions most certain, its hopes most cheering, 
 and its promises most true ; for " the words of the Lord are pure words, 
 the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." 
 
 To all this it may be said, that it is not simple prophecy,.but the imagery 
 in which it is clothed, that is taken to illustrate the consequences of Christi- 
 anity. And why not ] Even granting all to be imagery, still, imagery 
 in the word of God means something, and that adduced must mean, at 
 the very least, that there is to be a great and surprising change for the 
 better ; and if imagery it be, it proves that the change is to be so ex- 
 traordinary, that plain statement will fail to describe it ; and that ima- 
 gination must be brought in to its aid. But we take all to be literal 
 
 ■ 
 
 * Bishop Lowth's translation, Isaiah Ixv. 20-23. 
 
REASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 45 
 
 ^ 
 
 fact. The prophets have partially drawn aside the veil, and enabled us to 
 have a collection of vivid glimpses of the future. The pen of inspiration has 
 given the grand outlines of the gospel when in its perfect work. And is 
 it to be doubted, or denied, that such delineations canMft be realised ? 
 Look at the principles of the Bible, and the nature of their operations, 
 and can such success be doubted 1 We see in the religion of Jesus not 
 merely the means by which the soul may be sanctified and saved, and 
 a celestial state of perfection eternally obtained ; but also the princi- 
 ples and sure directory for every thing that is great and good, for true 
 civilisation, intelligence, and human happiness. We cannot set a limit 
 to it, short of prophetic description, without acknowledging that it has 
 some weak point, some defect, and that it is not competent to the 
 work of siuicessfully overcoming sin and all its consequences. 
 
 Lot us glance at present results. Compare Christian countries — and 
 even the best of them are very far from being properly Christianised, 
 but compare them as they are with heathen lands— and is there not al- 
 ready, to a certain extent, a fulfilment of predictions ? Is it to be 
 esteemed a strange, or an impossible thing, that the desert can bo re- 
 claimed, and become abundantly fertile ? Already it has been done, and 
 many a barren track is now converted, by industry and intelligence, into 
 fruitfulness ; and many a bleak region of marshes, whose miasmata spread 
 death around it, is now luxuriant with plenty for man and beast, and is 
 become a scene of rural beauty, health and happiness. When the gospel 
 was written, Britain exhibited as miserable a physical and moral spectacle 
 as could well be conceived. Its barbarian inhabitants were separated into 
 tierce tribes, and roaming in painted nakedness in their savage freedom, 
 and contending with each other in sanguinary strife. They had the sun 
 and moon as divinities, and idols of wood and of stone, with imaginary at- 
 tributes as fierce, and with a worship as gross as ever can be found in hea- 
 then lands ; and there were the Druids' mystic circles, in which every super- 
 stition was hallowed, and the horrid altars on which human sacrifices were 
 freely offered. And what has produced so marvellous a change, that, that 
 glorious little island is now the bright spot to which the liberty 
 of the world looks for help, and the darkness of the world looks for 
 light? It is because Christianity there planted her foot, and lighted 
 her torch, and fixed her throne ; and there may she ever hold em- 
 pire, that the rock of Albion may be the security for the spiritual. 
 
46 
 
 SEASON OE BSVELATION. 
 
 moral, and physical emancipation of degraded man. Why, we may ask> 
 have we here, on this continent, such mighty and rapid changes going 
 on ; why are our rivers and lakes ploughed by magnificent steamboats, in* 
 stead of being skimmed by the tiny canoe of the red man ; why have we 
 on spots, that a few years ago were forests or swamps, the noble street* 
 instead of the Indian trail ; and the elegant mansion, instead of the 
 rude and frail wigwam ; why have we busy commerce, fertile fields, 
 and political and educational advantages unsurpassed on the globe ; 
 why have the howl of the wolf and the warwhoop of the Indian ceased ; 
 and why are security and peace enjoyed, and plenty crowning the indus- 
 try of the population? The reply is simple ; it is obvious. Civilisation 
 has been at work ; but still, civilisation is nothing more than a conse- 
 quence of Christianity. 
 
 It is needless to dwell on that point, for the least reflection will sat- 
 isfy any one that, to a certain extent, prophecy has been fulfilled ; and 
 from ascertained results, we have proof that it is the tendency, as it is 
 in the power, of the Gospel to accomplish what is predicted of its ulti- 
 mate glories. Now, we ask, what other system of religion has had, 
 
 or from its principles could have, such beneficent consequences ? All 
 others have produced the very contrary ; and the proof of this we have 
 already furnished ; for though we may go back to Egypt with its canals , 
 its mechanical skill, its pyramids, its temples, and its sculptures, there 
 were still a social system of castes, and a religion, idolatrous in the 
 extreme, which corrupted and destroyed. Or, though we may go to 
 Greece for Corinthian capitals, and Doric columns, and see there proof 
 of architectural taste, yet the moral sense of the people was blunted 
 and socially, they were sunk in licentiousness ; and we have no greater 
 right to take these as evidences of high civilisation, than we have to 
 take the enormous stones of Stonehenge, which seem to have formed part 
 of a large Druidical temple, as proving the scientific greatness and civili- 
 sation of the ancient Britons ; or the Gothic architecture of Britain 
 in the 13th century as evidence of her philosophy and refinement. 
 No, it is not the architecture of the temple that proves the truth- 
 fulness and value of the religion therein maintained ; else, were 
 this the criterion, wrong would often be substituted for right, error for 
 truth, and paganism for Christianity. 
 
 From all facts, and all history, we come to the conclusion, that the 
 light of nature, or reason, has failed. Nature erects no cross, proclaims 
 
BfiASON OR RfiVELATtON. 
 
 4t 
 
 no Saviour, exhibits no mercy-seat, publishes no infallible moral law. 
 Reason ! it bewildorcr" the ancient world, and its light left antiquity in 
 grossest darkness; ".iid we can now see it in the vast idolatries and men- 
 tal stupidities of India and China, in the horrors of Africa, and in the uni- 
 versal curse that is every where on man, where heathenism has its sway. 
 And further, we find that all the religious systems propounded by reason, 
 have been, and are, ruinous to the human intellect, subversive of sound 
 morality, and socially degrading. 
 
 But we need not stop, only with making the comparison be- 
 tween Christianity and heathenism, for we can come even into the 
 circle of Christendom, and compare results between a spurious Chris- 
 tianity and that which is genuine ; and we shall find, whether wc 
 compare the Italian states with England ; Spain with Scotland ; the 
 South of Ireland with the North ; Mexico with the United States ; 
 and the shores of the St. Lawrence with the shores of Ontario, the 
 same fact everywhere visible between Popery and Protestantism, that 
 the former degrades, the latter elevates. Everywhere it is the 
 fact, that the purer the Christianity the happier, the more pros- 
 perous, and the more intelligent are the populations. Popery is 
 just one remove from ancient idolatry, with a Jewish ritual, and a 
 Christian nomenclature. It is Mariolatry, under the claimed pro- 
 tection of the Bible ; and it leaves its stamp on man, and on the face 
 of the earth, wherever it can fasten its tenacious grasp ; and while the 
 word, progress, is written in letters of gold on the brow of Protestantism, 
 that word is written in blackness on the back of popery, and in the hor- 
 rid hieroglyphics of the Inquisition. 
 
 The contrast, then, is not only in favor of Christianity, but of a pure 
 Christianity. Give man the Bible, the true Bible, and the whole Bible, 
 and teach him to read it and understand it, and it becomes in his heart 
 and in his hand the mighty instrumentality for his spiritual and physical 
 redemption. The Bible ! It is the wisdom of God. It unfolds and confers 
 the " Truth," the " Summum Bonum," the " Philosopher's Stone," and 
 the " Elixir of Life," which all the researches of ancient sages and alchy- 
 mists could never discover. And if it be asked, when shall these glori- 
 ous consequences of Christianity be realised, we take the Bible to find 
 our reply ; and there wo have the true philosophy of the whole case, and 
 the connection that subsists between true religion, true happiness, and 
 the earth's fertility. " Let the peotle praise thee, God, let all 
 
49 
 
 SEASON OR REVELATION. 
 
 THE PEOPLE FKAISE THEE. ThEN SHALL THE EABTH YIELD HER ENCREASE, 
 AND God, EVEN OUR OWN GoD, SHALL BLESS US." 
 
 Faith now takes Reason by the hand — for Reason is now willing to 
 be led by the celestial sister— and meekly and lovingly thoy kneel down 
 together, and with one eye fixed on the future, and the other lifted up to 
 God, thoy unite in the one earnest and hopeful prayer. Thy Kinodom 
 
 COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS DOXE IN HEAVEN. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 14- -lino 94 — for " Jupiter," read Zeus. 
 Pago 18— line 14— for "moral," road natural.