= 7 v PPO Te Ee oR Fi age ey pe eee Gy pet orig” Thy payter DS webs tehepthe odes bigs Podb de pode dete ee br nett bdr thn bd ~ » iam indees sare dte ade) % oh tr ; SieUee ronan Tp Ted wlata araranerore ergvaweryietel gai asttom ey pact Astronomers. 17 the greatness of his power; for that he is strong in power not one faileth.” Bishop Warren thus closes his chapter on the ultimate force: “Oreation is planned and inspired for the attain- ment of constantly rising results. The order is chaos, light, worlds, vegetable forms, animal life, then man. There is no reason to pause here. Thisis not perfection, nor even perpetuity. Original plans are not accom- plished, nor original force exhausted. In another world, free from sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, perfection of abode is offered. Perfection of inhabitant is neces- sary; and as the Creative Power is every-where present for the various uplifts and refinements of matter, it is every-where present with appropriate power for the up- lifting and refinement of mind and spirit.” Bishop Warren’s closing remarks on the movements of the stars are striking and beautiful. He says, “ These movements are not in fortuitous or chaotic ways, but are, doubtless, in accordance with some perfect plan. We have climbed up from revolving earth and moon to re- volving planets and sun, in order to understand how two or ten suns can revolve about a common center. Let us now leap to the grander idea that all the innumerable stars of a winter night not only can, but must revolve about some center of gravity. Men have been looking for a central sun of suns, and have not found it. None is needed. Two suns can balance about a point; all suns can swing about a common center. That one unmoving center may be that city more gorgeous than Eastern im- agination ever conceived, whose pavement is transparent gold, whose walls are precious stones, whose light is life, and where no dark, planetary bodies ever cast shadows. 2 18 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. There reigns the King and Lord of all, and ranged about are the far-off provinces of his material systems. They all move in his sight, and receive power from a Mind that never wearies.” BOTANISTS. ASA GRAY, M.D. Dr. Asa Gray, Professor in Harvard University, has published a number of popular works on Botany. They all show a thorough acquaintance with the science. From his Lessons in Botany and Vegetable Physiology, the following extracts are taken: “The hundred thousand kinds of plants are the living witnesses and illustrations of one and the same plan of Creative. Wisdom in the vegetable world. So that the study of any one plant, traced from the seed it springs from round to the seeds it produces, would illustrate the whole subject of vegetable life and growth.” “The Great Author of Nature, having designed plants upon one simple plan, just adapts this plan to all cases. So, whenever any special purpose is to be accomplished, no new instruments or organs are created for it, but one of the three general organs of the vegetable, root, stem, or leaf, is made to serve the purpose, and is adapted to it by taking some peculiar form.” “The vegetable kingdom exhibits a very great diver- sity. Between our largest and most highly-organized trees, such as a Magnolia or an Oak, and the simplest of plants, reduced to a single cell or sphere, much too minute to be visible to the naked eye, how wide the dif- Botanists. 19 ference! Yet the extremes are connected by interme- diate grades of every sort, so as to leave no wide gap at any place; and not only so, but every grade, from the most complex to’ the most simple, is exhibited under a wide and most beautiful diversity of forms, all based upon the one plan of vegetation, and so connected and so answering to each other throughout as to convince the thoughtful botanist that all are parts of one system, works of one Hand, realizations in nature of the concep- tion of one Mind.” “ Animals depend absolutely upon vegetables for their being. The great object for which the All-wise Creator established the vegetable kingdom evidently is, that plants might stand on the surface of the earth between the mineral and the animal creations, and organize por- tions of the former for the sustenance of the latter.” Prof. Gray, in his simplified, yet interesting work, How Plants Grow, still further illustrates the Unity of the Divine Plan in Creation. He remarks: “The great variety which we observe among the herbs and shrubs and trees around us,—in foliage, flower, fruit, and every thing,—gives to vegetation one of its greatest charms. We should soon tire of plants or flowers made all after one exact pattern, however beautiful. We enjoy variety. But the botanist finds a higher interest in all these dif- ferences than any one else, because he discerns one simple plan running through all this diversity, and every- where repeated in different forms. He sees that in every plant there is root growing downwards, connecting the vegetable with the soil; stem rising into the light and air, and bearing leaves at regular places, and then blos- soms, and that the parts of one kind of blossom answer 20 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. to those of another, only differing in shape; and he delights in observing how the tens of thousands of kinds of plants all harmonize with each other, like the parts of concerted music,—plainly showing that they were all contrived, as parts of one system, by one Divine Mind.” KARL VON LINNE. (LINNEUS.) Linneeus, one of the most distinguished of naturalists, showed great originality of mind in advancing the science of Botany. He published a variety of works on the subject, as Systema Nature, Fundamenta Botanica, Philosophia Botanica, and others. His reverence for the Author of Nature is shown in the fact that one day in his rambles he found a very splendid flower which he had never seen before, and that he immediately knelt down, and thanked the beneficent Creator for adorning the earth with such an array of beautiful flowers. ELIZABETH §S. PHELPS. Mrs. E. 8. Phelps, formerly Mrs. Lincoln, was author of Familiar Lectures on Botany and other books on various subjects. In her Botany for Beginners, speaking on the advantages of this interesting study, she remarks: “In Botany you study things which God has made. When examining plants with all their wonderful varie- ties, and observing the wise provision which is made for their growth, and the perfection of the seed, with the mutual relations of the various parts to each other, you must remember to give the praise to Him whose infinite mind directs and watches over the growth of the most humble plant, at the same time that he upholds the vast worlds which he has created, and which every moment Botanists. ot needs his sustaining care. Every motion we make, every breath we draw, and every pulsation of our hearts, show that this same care is over us too; for without it, we could no more live than we could have created our- selves.” JOHN RAY. John Ray, a great naturalist and popular writer on Botany and other subjects, thus speaks of the perfection of nature’s works, in his treatise on The Wisdom of God as manifested in Creation: ‘Man is always mending and altering his works ; but nature observes not the same tenor, because her works are so perfect, that there is no place for amendments, nothing that can be reprehended. The most sagacious men in so many ages, have not been able to find any flaw in these divinely-contrived and formed machines; no blot or error in this great volume of the world, as if any thing had been an imperfect essay at the first; nothing that can be altered for the better; nothing but if it were altered would be marred. This could not have been, had man’s body been the work of chance, and not counsel and Providence. Why should there be constantly the same parts? Why should they retain constantly the same places? Nothing so contrary as constancy and chance.” ‘Flow inerdible it is, that constancy in such a variety, such a multiplicity of parts, should be the result of chance! Neither yet can these works be the effects of Necessity or Fate; for then there would be the same constancy observed in the smaller as well as in the larger parts and vessels; whereas, there we see nature doth, as it were, sport itself, the minute ramifications of all the vessels, veins, arteries, and nerves, infinitely varying in 22 = Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. individuals of the same species, so that they are not in any two alike.” JAMES E. SMITH. Sir James Edward Smith, the eminent botanist, in speaking of the principle of vegetable life, as indicating the existence of a Divine Agency, remarks, in his Intro- duction to Botany: “I humbly conceive that, if the human understanding can in any ease flatter itself with obtaining, in the natural world, a glimpse of the immedi- ate agency of the Deity, it is in the contemplation of this vital principle, which seems independent of material organizations, and an impulse of his own divine energy.” ALPHONSO WOOD. Prof. Alphonso Wood, President of Ohio Female College, is author of several works on Botany which have had a wide circulation. In his Outlines of the Structure, Physiology, and Classification of Plants, are the following excellent remarks : “Creative Wisdom never works in vain, nor merely in sport. Even the flying cloud, which now passes over the sun, has its mission; the forms which it assumes, and the colors, were each necessary and divinely appointed for that special purpose. The hills and valleys, which seem scattered in accidental confusion, have received each their contour and position by design, according to the ends foreseen. Consequently, each stone or mineral composing these hills was also the work of special de- sign, as to its magnitude, form, and place. “Much more in the living kingdoms of nature may we look for an adequate purpose and end accomplished by every movement and in every creature of the Divine Botanists. 23 Hand. Each species is created and sustained to answer some worthy end in the vast plan; and hence no indi- vidual, animal or plant, is to be regarded in science as insignificant, inasmuch as the individual constitutes the species. Nor is accident or caprice to be found in the form of the leaf, or the color of the flower. There is for each a special reason or adaptation worthy of unerring Wisdom. The end or purpose, it is true, is not always as easily discerned as the form and fashion are. In a thousand instances the end is yet inscrutable. Never- theless, it is now a settled principle of science that there is an end—a purpose—a reason, for every form which we contemplate; and the adaptation to that end is as beau- tiful as the form itself. “In addition to this sequence of cause and effect in nature, disclosing the Infinite Designer in all things, as early taught by Paley in his Natural Theology, another class of principles more recently developed are shown by the author of Typical Forms, Dr. McCosh, to indicate with a still clearer light the thoughts of the Omniscient Mind in the operations of nature. The scientific world were slow to learn that the numerous organs of plants, so diversified in form and use, are all modeled from a single type, one radical form, and that form, the leaf! This interesting doctrine, now universally admitted, sheds a new light upon nature, making it all luminous with the Divine Presence. It brings the operations of the Great Architect almost within the grasp of human intelligence, ~ revealing the conceptions which occupied his mind before they were embodied in actual existence by his word. ‘While we study the facts and the forms of the vege- table world, we should also aim to learn the purposes 24 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bibdle. accomplished, and the great principles adopted in its crea- tion. We should also learn to recognize here the tokens, too long overlooked, which declare that nature sympa- thizes with humanity in the circumstances of the Fall, the Redemption, and the Life. Such study alone is adapted to acquaint us with the thoughts of the intelli- gent Creator, and to discipline aright the mind which was created in his image.” CHEMISTS. LE ROY 0. COOLEY, A.M. Prof. L. C. Cooley, of the New York State Normal School, and author of several scientific works, makes the following important remark in his Chemistry, on the Con- servation of Force: “Suppose the scientist should convince us that the ‘forces of nature’ are all only different manifestations of motion; how constant, how complex, how variable, and yet how regular must these motions be! What keeps the molecules in continual, ever-changing, and har- monious motions? We never think without amusement of the old philosophy which taught the existence of a flat earth resting upon the back of a huge elephant, him- self standing upon turtles, but which left the turtles to support both themselves and their load; and yet, what better is this modern science, if, after adroitly building itself upon molecular motions, it leaves us to suppose that the molecules move themselves! The ‘forces of nature’ may be but different manifestations of molecular Chemists. 95 motions; it may be possible for science to prove this; but when this is done, science can go no further in this direction; for ‘who by searching can find out God!’” SIR HUMPHREY DAVY Few names, in all science, shine with brighter luster than that of Sir Humphrey Davy. At the age of twenty- two, he was elected Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution, and subsequently President of the Royal So- ciety. As a lecturer, even before popular assemblies in London, his fame was unbounded. Moreover, his dis- coveries in science, and his inventions in art, have made his name familiar to the whole civilized world. After a life of great usefulness, his health began todecline. For its restoration, he traveled in Europe, during which he wrote his last work, Consolations in Travel, in which the religious tendency of his mind is beautifully devel- oped. The high estimation in which he held religion may be seen in the following extract from his work, Sal- monia : “T envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others— not genius, power, wit, or fancy—but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful ‘9 me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of good- ness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and, far above 3 26 Testimonies in Favor of Religion. and the Bible. all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most de- lightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blessed; the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and skeptic view only gloom, decay, and an- nihilation.” The hostility of Sir Humphrey Davy to infidelity, and his belief in the Christian religion, were strengthened by his communings with nature and her varied wonders, as the following passage clearly shows: “The doctrine of the materialists was always, even in youth, a cold, heavy, dull, and insupportable doctrine to me, and necessarily tending to atheism. When I had heard, with disgust, in the dissecting rooms, the plan of the physiologist, of the gradual accretion of matter, and its becoming endowed with irritability, ripening into sen- sibility, and acquiring such organs as were necessary by its own inherent forces, and at last issuing into intellect- ual existence, a walk into the green fields or woods, by the banks of rivers, brought back my feelings from na- ture to God. I saw in all the powers of matter the in- struments of the Deity. The sunbeams, the breath of the zephyr, awakening animation in forms prepared by divine intelligence to receive it, the insensate seed, the slumbering eggs witich were to be vivified, appeared, like the new-born animal, works of a divine mind. I saw love as the creative principle in the material world, and this love only as a divine attribute. Then my own mind . I felt connected with new sensations and indefinite hopes— a thirst for immortality: the great names of other ages and of distant nations appeared to me to be still living around me, and even in the fancied movements of the he- roic and the great, I saw, as it were, the decrees of the in- Chemists. oF destructibility of mind. These feelings, though generally considered as poetical, yet, I think, offer a sound philo- sophical argument in favor of the immortality of the soul. The desire of glory, of honor, of immortal fame, and of constant knowledge, so usual in young persons of well- constituted minds, can not, I think, be other than symp- toms of the infinite and progressive nature of the intel- lect—hopes which, as they can not be gratified here, belong to a frame of mind suited to a nobler state of existence.” That the Christian religion exerted its divine influence on the refined nature of Sir Humphrey Davy,—that he realized in his own pure and lofty soul its hallowed enjoy- inents and immortal hopes, no one can doubt after read- ing the following inspired sentiments: ‘Religion, whether natural or revealed, has always the same beneficial influence on the mind. In youth, in health and prosperity, it awakens feelings of gratitude and sublime love, and purifies at the same time that it exalts. But it is in misfortune, in sickness, in age, that its effects are most truly and beneficially felt; when sub- mission in faith and humble trust in the divine will, from duties become pleasures, undecaying sources of consola- tion. Then it creates powers which were believed to be extinct; and gives a freshness to the mind, which was supposed to have passed away forever, but which is now renovated as an immortal hope. ‘Then it is the Pharos, guiding the wave-tossed mariner to his home: or as the calm and beautiful still basins or fiords, surrounded by tranquil groves and pastoral meadows, to the Norwegian pilot escaping from a heavy storm in the North Sea; or, as the green and dewy spot, gushing with fountains, to 28 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. the exhausted and thirsty traveler in the midst of the desert. Its influence outlives all earthly enjoyments, and becomes stronger as the organs decay and the frame dissolves. It appears as that evening star of light in the horizon of life, which, we are sure, is to become, in another season, a morning star; and it throws its radi- ance through the gloom and shadow of death.” WORTHINGTON HOOKER, M.D. Dr. W. Hooker, Professor in Yale College, and author of several scientific publications, in his work on Chem- istry, says: ‘The earth, with all its stability, has vast changes going on continually and every-where upon its surface, in which air and water, and heat and light, and electricity and chemical and vital agencies, are ever busy; and yet, extensive as these changes are, and accompanied with disturbance, conflict, and decay, the Creator, who seeth the end from the beginning, preserves amid it all a wonderful balancing and harmony, so that from age to age we see the impress which he put upon creation at the first, and bear witness that it is all ‘very good.’ ” BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. - Benjamin Silliman for many years distinguished him- self as an able professor of chemistry in Yale College, and as a popular lecturer on science. He founded and for a long time edited the American Journal of Sciences and Arts, and likewise published a valuable work on his favorite science. He thus beautifully expresses his rey- erence for the Divine Being: ‘“¢T can truly declare that, in the study and exhibition of science to my pupils and fellow-men, I have never Chemists. 29 forgotten to give all honor and glory to the Infinite Creator. Happy if I might be the honored interpreter of a portion of his works, and of the beautiful structure and beneficent laws discovered therein by the labors of many illustrious predecessors.” J. DORMAN STEELE, PH.D. Prof. J. Dorman Steele, author of several popular works on the sciences, thus speaks, in his Chemistry, on the Divine Agency in the kingdom of nature: ‘“ Dead mineral matter, as we commonly call it, is instinct with force. Each tiny atom is attracted here, repelled there, holds and is held as by bands of iron. No particle is left to itself, but, watched by the Eternal Eye and guided by the Eternal Hand, all obey immutable law. When Christ declared the very hairs of our head to be numbered, he intimated a chemical truth, which we can now know in full to be, that the very atoms of which each hair is com- posed are numbered by that same watchful Providence.” On the same subject, Steele remarks, at the close of his work: “ We have traced some of the wonderful pro- cesses by which this world has been arranged to supply the varied wants of man. Wherever we have turned, we have found proofs of a Divine care, planning, conforming, and directing to one universal end; while from the com- monest things, and by the simplest means, the grandest results have been attained. Thus does Nature attest the sublime truth of Revelation, that in all, and through all, and over all, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” EDWARD L. YOUMANS, M.D. Dr. E. L. Youmans, a distinguished American scien- 30 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. tist, has published several works on chemistry and other subjects. He was also the founder of the International Scientific Series. In one of his works, he says of chemistry : “Tt is an unfolding of the great laws of nature, around and within us, and has an interest, not for experimenters alone, but for all who care to understand any thing of the scheme of being which the Creator has established, and in the midst of which they are placed.” ‘Our studies lead us to a new perception of that sub- lime lesson of science—the Unity of the Universe. The revolutions of the celestial orbs are paralleled by the ever-recurring cycles of matter upon earth; while the energies in action obey in both cases the same beneficent but inexorable laws. It is the glory of astronomy to have shown that the harmony of our planetary sys- tem is maintained by the eternal war of hostile forces, which, by their mutual counteraction, keep the heay- enly bodies in their circling paths. Chemistry has shown that this great principle is not limited to the field of celestial mechanism, but that it operates also upon earth, and governs the kingdoms of terrestial life. Here, too, there are conflict and counteraction—the omnipresent antagonism of warring forces resulting in the harmony and stability of the living world; another illustration of that unity of design and harmony of action throughout the universe which proclaim the goy- ernment of One Infinite Mind!” Clergymen. 31 CLERGYMEN. HENRY WARD BEECHER. The celebrity of Henry Ward Beecher as preacher, lecturer, author, and editor is well known. His fund of knowledge was vast and varied, and the versatility of his genius unsurpassed. His power of illustration was re- markable, and his delivery in the pulpit and on the plat- form impressive and attractive. The two following extracts are from his pen: “The truths of the Bible are like gold in the soil. Whole generations walk over it, and know not what treasures are hidden beneath. So centuries of men pass over the Scriptures, and know not what riches lie under- neath the feet of their interpretation. Sometimes, when they discover them, they call them new truths. One might as well call gold newly dug, new gold.” “The truth may change its form, it may be hid for years and generations; but as ‘the old wheat-seeds, wrapped in the mummies of Egypt, now, after ages, sought out by prying travelers, and planted, are found not to have lost their germ, but to have kept it through the sleep of three thousand years, so God’s truths, hid in dead forms and institutions, slumbering in the grave of old books and libraries, or banished from polite soci- ety to live in the huts of the poor, do at length come forth with unimpaired germ, losing no more by their burial than did Christ, their Master. Like him, they carry an unquenched heart through the grave. They bring forth light from its darkness; and, in spite of brute 32 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. force and watchful authority, they stand again upon the earth, and look abroad with eyes of immortality.” LYMAN B. BEECHER, D.D. Dr, Lyman Beecher, a Presbyterian clergyman, was one of America’s most distinguished theologians. Both as a preacher and a writer, he was argumentative, clear, and forcible, always presenting truth in its own strong, irresistible light. His Six Sermons on Intemperance are masterly productions, and did much to promote the cause of temperance. His opinion on the influence of the Bible in establishing and upholding good government and true freedom, with their invaluable blessings, is forcibly expressed in the following extract: “Our Republic, in its Constitution and laws, is of heavenly origin. It was not borrowed from Greece or Rome, but from the Bible. Where we borrowed a ray from Greece or Rome, stars and suns were borrowed from another source—the Bible. There is no position more susceptible of proof (the proof is in this volume) than that as the moon borrows from the sun her light, so our Constitution borrows from the Bible its elements, proportion, and power. It was God that gave these ele- mentary principles to our forefathers as the ‘pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day,’ for their guidance. All the liberty the world ever knew is but a dim star to the noonday sun which is poured on man by these ora- cles of Heaven. It is truly testified by Hume, that the Puritans introduced the elementary principles of repub- lican liberty in the English constitution; and when they came to form colonial constitutions and laws, we all know with what veneration and implicit confidence they copied Clergymen. 33 the principles of the constitution and laws of Moses. These elementary principles have gone into the Constitu- tion of the Union and of every one of the States; and we have hence more consistent liberty than ever existed in all the world, in all time, out of the Mosaic code.” GILBERT BURNETT. Bishop. Burnett, of the Church of England, was au- thor of a popular work entitled, History of the Refor- mation, and was a strong advocate of pure Christianity. A short time before his death, he thus expressed him- self: “True religion is the perfection of human nature, and the joy and delight of every one that feels it active and strong within him. Of this I write with the more con- cern and emotion, because I have felt this the true, and indeed the only joy which runs through a man’s. heart and life. Itis that which has been for many-years my greatest support. I rejoice daily in it. I feel from it the earnest of that supreme joy, which I pant and long for. Jam sure there is nothing else can afford any true or complete happiness. I have, considering my sphere, seen a great deal of. all that is most shining and tempt- ing in this world. The pleasures of sense I did soon nauseate. Intrigues of state, and the conduct of affairs have something in them that is more specious; and I was for some years deeply immersed in these, but still with hopes of reforming the world, and of making mankind wiser and better. But I have found that which is crooked can not be made straight. JI acquainted myself with knowledge and learning, and that in a great variety. This yielded not happiness. I cultivated friendship. 84 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. But this also I have found was vanity and vexation of spirit, though it be of the best and noblest sort. The sum is, vanity of vanities, all is vanity, besides fearing God and keeping his commandments.” JOSEPH BUTLER. One of the profoundest—if not the profoundest work ever published in support of the Christian Religion, is The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature, written by Bishop Butler, of the Church of Eng- land. The following remarks, descriptive of the nature of the work, are taken from Chambers’ Cyclopeedia of English Literature: ‘‘Without entering, at first, on the question of the miracles and prophecies, Dr. Butler rested his evidence on the analogies of nature: ‘he reasons from that part of the Divine proceedings which comes under our view in the daily business of life, to that larger and more com- prehensive part of these proceedings which is beyond our view, and which religion reveals.’ His argument for a future life, from the changes which the human body undergoes at birth, and in its different stages.of maturity ; and from the instances of the same law of nature, in the change of worms into butterflies, and birds and insects bursting the shell, and entering into a new world, fur- nished with new powers, is one of the most conclusive pieces of reasoning in the language. ‘The same train of argument, in support of the immortality of the soul, has been followed up in two admirable lectures, in Dr, T. Brown’s Philosophy. The work of Butler, however, ex- tends over a wide field—over the whole of the leading points, both in natural and revealed religion. The germ a Clergymen. 35 of his treatise is contained in a passage in Origen (one of the most eminent of the fathers, who died at Tyre in the year 254), which Butler quotes in his introduction, It is to the effect: that he who believes the Scripture to have proceeded from the Author of Nature, may well be- lieve that the same difficulties exist in it as in the con- stitution of nature. Hence, Butler infers that he who denies the Scripture to have come from God, on account of difficulties found in it, may, for the same reason, deny the world to have been formed by Him. Inexpli- cable difficulties are found in the course of nature; no sound theist can, therefore, be surprised to find similar difficulties in the Christian religion. If both proceed from the same Author, the wonder would rather be, that, even on this inferior ground of difficulty and adaptation to the comprehension of man, there should not be found the impress of the same Hand, whose works we can trace but a very little way, and whose word equally transcends on some points the feeble efforts of unassisted reason. All Butler’s arguments on natural and revealed religion are marked by profound thought and sagacity. In a volume of sermons published by him, he shines equally as an ethical philosopher. In the first three, on Human Nature, he has laid the science of morals on a surer foundation than any previous writer.” In his Cyclopedia, or Dictionary of Universal Knowl- edge, Chambers says, of these three sermons: They ‘constitute one of the most important contributions ever made to moral science. The scope of the reasoning 1s briefly, that virtue is consonant with, and vice a viola- tion of, man’s moral nature.” 386 Lestimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. THOMAS CHALMERS, D.D., LL.D. Among the remarkable men of the present century is Dr. Chalmers, the Scotch Presbyterian clergyman. As a pulpit orator, he ranked with the first, and as a chris- tian worker he has seldom been equaled. His writings, whether on religion, science, or political economy, are held in high esteem. Christendom has had few such noble and useful men. The following extract on the value yet insufficiency of the light of nature is from his work On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani- fested in the Adaptation of External Nature to the Moral and Intellectual Constitution of Man. “A great object is practically fulfilled by natural theology. It gives us to conceive, or to conjecture, or to know so much of God, that, if there be a professed message with the likely signatures upon it of having pro- ceeded from him, though not our duty all at once to sur- render, it is at least our bounden duty to investigate. It may not yet be entitled to a place in our creed; but it is at least entitled to a place in the threshold of the under- standing, where it may wait the full and fair examination of its credentials. Jt may not be easy to measure the intensity of nature’s light; but enough if it be a light, that, had we obeyed its intimations, would have guided us onward to larger manifestations of the Diety. If natural theology but serve thus to fix and direct our in- quiries, it may fulfil a most important part as the precur- sor of revelation. It may not be itself the temple; but it does much by leading the way to it. Even at the out- set period of our thickest ignorance, there is a voice which calls upon us to go forth in quest of God. And in Clergymen. 37 proportion as we advance, does the voice become more urgent and audible, in caliing us onward to further mani- festations: It says much for natural theology, that it begins at the commencement, and carries us forward a part of the way; and it has indeed discharged a most important function, if, at the point where it guesses or its discoveries terminate, it leaves us with as much light, as should make us all awake to the further notices of a God, or as shall leave our heedlessness wholly inexcus- able. “There is a confused imagination with many, that every new accession, whether of evidence or of doctrine, made to the natural, tends in so far, to reduce the claims or to depreciate the importance of the christian theology. The apprehension is, that as the latter was designed to supplement the insufficiency of the former, then, the more that the arguments of natural theology are strength- ened, or its truths are multiplied, the more are the les- sons of the christian theology unheeded and uncalled for. It is thus that the discoveries of reason are held as su- perseding, or as casting a shade of insignificance, and of even discredit over the discoveries of revelation. There is a certain dread or jealousy, with some humble chris- tians, of all that incense which is offered at the shrine of the divinity by human science, whose daring incursion on the field of theology, it is thought, will, in very propor- tion to the brilliancy of its success, administer both to the proud independence of the infidel, and to the pious alarm of the believer. “But to mitigate this disquietude, it should be recol- lected, in the first place, that, if christianity have real and independent evidence of being a message from God, 38 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. it will be all the more humbly and respectfully deferred to, should a previous natural theology have assured us of his existence, and thrown the radiance of a clear and satisfying demonstration over the perfections of his char- acter. However plausible its credentials may be, we should feel no great interest in its statements or its over- tures, if we doubted the reality of that Being from whom it professes to have come; and it is precisely in as far ag we are preoccupied with the conviction of a throne in heaven, and of a God sitting upon that throne, that we should receive what bore the signatures of an embassy from him with awful reverence. ‘But there is another consideration still more decisive of the place and importance of christianity, notwithstand- ing every possible achievement of the light of nature. There are many discoveries which, so far from alleviat- ing, serve but to enhance the difficulties of the question. For example, though science has made known to us the magnitude of the universe, it has not thereby advanced one footstep toward the secret of God’s moral adminis- tration ; but has, in fact, receded to a greater distance, from this now more hopeless, because now more complex and unmanageable problem than before.. To multiply the data of a question is not always the way to facilitate its solution; but often the way, rather to make it more inextricable. And this is precisely the effect of all the discoveries that can be made by natural theology, on that problem which it is the special office of christianity to resolve. With every new argument by which philosophy enhances the goodness and greatness of the Supreme Being, does it deepen still more the guilt and ingratitude of those who have revolted against him. The more em- Clergymen. 39 . phatically it can demonstrate the care and benevolence of God, the more emphatically, along with this, does it demonstrate the worthlessness of man. The same light which irradiates the perfections of the divine nature, irradiates, with more fearful manifestations than ever, the moral disease and depravation into which humanity has fallen. Had natural theology been altogether extinct, and there had been no sense of a. law or a Lawgiver among men, we should have been unconscious of any dif- ficulty to be redressed, of a dilemma from which we needed extrication. But the theology of nature and con- science tells us of alaw, and in proportion as it multi- plies the claims of the Lawgiver in heaven, does: it agoravate the criminality of its subjects upon earth. With the rebellious phenomenon of a depraved species before our eyes, every new discovery of God but deepens the enigma of man’s condition in time, and of his pros- pects in eternity; and so makes the louder call for that remedial system, which it is the very purpose of chris- tianity to introduce into the world.” WILLIAM E. CHANNING, D.D. Few men among Unitarian clergymen have been more admired than Dr. W. E. Channing. He was candid and even moderate in his peculiar theological views. When over sixty years of age, he wrote: “ I am little of a Uni- tarian—have little sympathy with the system of Priestley and Belsham, and stand aloof from all but those who strive and pray for clearer light.” His writings are vol- uminous: they treat on the Evidences of Christianity, the Life and Character of Illustrious Men, Education, War, Slavery, Intemperance, and other important topics. 40 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. His writings, says Chambers’ Encyclopedia, are “all characterized by vigor, eloquence, pure taste, and a lofty tone of moral earnestness.” The remarks he makes re- specting Jesus Christ and his divine mission are at once forcible and just, and can not fail to make a right im- pression on every unbiased mind. “‘ How is this [the character of Jesus Christ] to be ex- plained by the principles of human nature? We are immediately struck with this peculiarity in the Author of Christianity, that, whilst all other men are formed, in a measure, by the spirit of the age, we can discover in Jesus no impression of the period in which he lived. We know with considerable accuracy the state of society, the modes of thinking, the hopes and expectations of the country in which Jesus was born and grew up; and he is as free from them, and as exalted above them, as if he had lived in another world, or with every sense shut on the objects around him. His character has in it nothing local or temporary. It can be explained by nothing around him. His history shows him to us a solitary being, living for purposes which none but himself com. prehended, and enjoying not so much as the sympathy of a single mind. His ,Apostles, his chosen companions, brought to him the spirit of the age; and nothing shows its strength more strikingly than the slowness with which it yielded in these honest men to the instructions of Jesus. “Jesus came to a nation expecting a Messiah; and he claimed this character. But instead of conforming to the opinions which prevailed in regard to the Messiah, he resisted them wholly and without reserve. To a people anticipating a triumphant leader, under whom vengeance as well as ambition was to be glutted by the Clergymen. 41 prostration of their oppressors, he came as a spiritual leader, teaching humility and peace. This undisguised hostility to the dearest hopes and prejudices of his nation; “this disdain of the usual compliances, by which ambition and imposture conciliate adherents; this delib- erate exposure of himself to rejection and hatred, can not easily be explained by the common principles of hu- man nature, and excludes the possibility of selfish aims in the Author of Christianity. “One striking peculiarity in Jesus is the extent, the vastness of his views. Whilst all around him looked for a Messiah to liberate God’s ancient people—whilst to every other Jew, Judea was the exclusive object of pride and hope, Jesus came. declaring himself to be the deliv- erer and light of the world; and in his whole teaching and life, you see a consciousness, which never forsakes him, of a relation to the whole human race. The idea of blessing mankind—of spreading a universal religion, was the most magnificent which had ever entered man’s mind. All previous religions had been given to particu- lar nations. No conqueror, legislator, or philosopher, in the extravagance of ambition, had ever dreamed of sub- jecting all nations to a common faith. “This conception of a universal religion, intended alike for Jew and Gentile, for all nations and climes, is wholly inexplicable by the circumstances of Jesus. He was a Jew, and the first and deepest and most constant impression on a Jew’s mind, was that of the superiority conferred on his people and himself by the national reli- gion introduced by Moses. ‘The wall between the Jew and the Gentile seemed to reach to heaven. The aboli- 4 42 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. tion of the peculiarity of Moses, the prostration of the temple on Mount Zion, the erection of a new religion, in which all men would meet as brethren, and which would be the common and equal property of Jew and Gentile, these were of all ideas the last to spring up in Judea, the last for enthusiasm or imposture to originate. “Compare next these views of Christ with his station in life. He was of humble birth and education, with nothing in his lot, with no extensive means, no rank, or wealth, or patronage, to infuse vast thoughts and ex- travagant plans. The shop of a carpenter, the village of Nazareth, were not spots for ripening a scheme more aspiring and extensive than had ever been formed. It is a principle of human nature, that, except in case of in- sanity, some proportion is observed between the power of an individual, and his plans and hopes. The purpose to which Jesus devoted himself, was as ill-suited to his condition as an attempt to change the seasons, or to make the sun rise in the West. That a young man, in obscure life, belonging to an oppressed nation, should seriously think of subverting the time-hallowed and deep-rooted religions of the world, is a strange fact; but with this purpose we see the mind of Jesus thoroughly imbued; and, sublime as it is, he never falls below it in his lan- guage or conduct, but speaks and acts with a conscious- ness of superiority, with a dignity and authority, be- coming this unparalleled destination. ‘In this connection, I can not but add another striking circumstance in Jesus, and that is, the calm confidence with which he always looked forward to the accomplish- ment of his design. He fully knew the strength of the passions and powers which were arrayed against him, and Clergymen. 43 was perfectly aware that his life was to be shortened by violence; yet not a word escapes him implying a doubt of the ultimate triumphs of his religion. One of the beauties of the Gospels, and one of the proofs of their genuineness, is found in our Savior’s indirect and ob- scure allusions to his approaching sufferings, and to the glory which was to follow; allusions showing us the workings of a mind, thoroughly conscious of being ap- pointed to accomplish infinite good through great calamity. This entire and patient relinquishment of immediate success, this ever-present persuasion, that he was to perish before his religion would advance, and this calm, unshaken anticipation of distant and unbounded triumphs, are remarkable traits, throwing a tender and solemn grandeur over our Lord, and wholly inexplicable by human principles, or by the circumstances in which he was placed. “The views hitherto taken of Christ relate to his public character and office. If we pass to what may be called his private character, we shall receive the same impression of inexplicable excellence. The most strik- ing trait in Jesus was, undoubtedly, benevolence; and, although this virtue had existed before, yet it had not been manifested in the same form and extent. Christ’s benevolence was distinguished first by its expansiveness. At that age, an unconfined philanthropy, proposing and toiling to do good without distinction of country or rank, wat unknown. Love to man as man, love comprehend- ing the hated Samaritan and the depised publican, was a feature which separated Jesus from the best men of his nation and of the world. Another characteristic of the benevolence of Jesus, was its gentleness and tenderness, 44 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. forming a strong contrast with the hardness and ferocity of the spirit and manners which then prevailed, and with that sternness and inflexibility, which the purest philo- sophy of Greece and Rome inculeated as the perfection of virtue. But its most distinguishing trait was its superiority to injury. Revenge was one of the recog- nized rights of the age in which he lived; and though a few sages, who had seen its inconsistency with man’s dignity, had condemned it, yet none had inculcated the duty of regarding one’s worst enemies with that kindness which God manifests to sinful men, and of returning curses with blessings and prayers. This form of benevo- lence, the most disinterested and divine form, was, as all well know, manifested by Jesus Christ in infinite strength, amidst injuries and indignities which can not be sur- passed. Now this singular eminence of goodness, this superiority to the degrading influences of the age, under which all other men suffered, needs to be explained ; and one thing it demonstrates, that Jesus Christ was not an unprincipled deceiver, exposing not only his own life but the lives of confiding friends, in an enterprise next to desperate. | “‘T can not enlarge on other traits of the character of Christ. I will only observe, that it had one distinction, which more than any thing, forms a perfect character. It was made up of contrasts: in other words, it was a union of excellencies which are not easily reconciled, which seem at first sight incongruous, but which, when blended and duly proportioned, constitute moral harmony, and attract, with equal power, love and veneration. For ‘example, we discover in Jesus Christ an unparalleled dignity of character, a consciousness of greatness, never Clergymen. 45 discovered or approached by any other individual in history; and yet this was blended with a condescension, lowliness, and unostentatious simplicity, which had never before been thought consistent with greatness. In like manner, he united an utter superiority to the world, to its pleasures and ordinary interests, with suavity of man- ners and freedom from austerity. He joined strong feeling and self-possesion; an indignant sensibility to sin, and compassion to the sinner; an intense devotion to his work, and calmness under opposition and ill suc- cess; a universal philanthropy, and a susceptibility of private atttachments; the authority which became the Savior of the world, and the tenderness and gratitude of a son. Such was the author of our religion. Andis his character to be explained by imposture or insane enthusi- asm? Does it not bear the unambiguous marks of a heavenly origin? ‘Perhaps it may be said, this character never existed. Then the invention of it is to be explained, and the re- ‘ception which this fiction met with; and these perhaps are as difficult of explanation on natural principles, as its real existence. Christ’s history bears all the marks of reality: a more frank, simple, unlabored, unostentatious narrative was never penned. Besides, his character, if invented, must have been an invention of singular diffi- culty, because no models existed on which to. frame it. He stands alone in the records of time. The conception of a being, proposing such new and exalted ends, and governed by higher principles than the progress of society had developed, implies singular intellectual power. That several individuals should join in equally vivid concep- tions of this character ; and should not merely describe in 46 Testimontes in Favor of Religion and the Bible. general terms the fictitious being to whom it was attrib- uted, but should introduce him into real life, should place him in a great variety of circumstances in connection with various ranks of men, with friends and foes, and should in all preserve his identity, show the same great and singular mind always acting in harmony with itself; this is a supposition hardly credible, and, when the cir- cumstances of the writers of the New Testament are considered, seems to be as inexplicable on human prin- ples as the composition of Newton’s Principia by a savage. The character of Christ, though delineated in an age of great moral darkness, has stood the scrutiny of ages; and, in proportion as men’s moral sentiments have been refined, its beauty has been more seen and felt. To Suppose it invented, is to suppose that its authors, out- stripping their age, had attained to a singular delicacy and elevation of moral perception and feeling. But these attainments are not very reconcilable with the character of its authors, supposing it to be a fiction; that is, with the character of habitual liars and impious deceivers. “But we are not only unable to discover powers ade- quate to this invention. There must have been motives for it; for men do not make great efforts, without strong motives; and, in the whole compass of human incite- ments, we challenge the infidel to suggest any, which could have prompted to the work now to be explained. “Once more, it must be recollected, that this inven- tion, if it were one, was received as real, at a period so near to the time ascribed to Christ’s appearance, that the means of detecting it were infinite. That men should send out such a forgery, and that it should prevail and Cleryymen. 47 triumph, are circumstances not easily reconcilable with the principles of our nature. ‘The character of Christ, then, was real. Its reality is the only explanation of the mighty revolution pro- duced by his religion. And how can you account for it, but by that cause to which he always referred it,—a mis- sion from the Father?” Dr. Channing, in one of his sermons, as reported by a stenographer, thus expressed himself in reference to the gospel, as related by the four Evangelists: “Its incon- gruity with the age ofits birth; its freedom from earthly mixtures; its original, unborrowed, solitary greatness; the suddenness with which it broke forth amid the general gloom; these, to me, are strong indications of its Divine descent. I can not reconcile them witha human origin.” On another occasion, Dr. Channing made the following significant remark: “If I had any tendency to infidelity, the life and character of Jesus Christ—his moral grand- eur, his infinite love, and the sublime objects he con- templated, would entirely cure me.” EDWARD H. CHAPIN, D.D. Dr. E. H. Chapin was a distinguished Universalist clergyman in New York city: he was also an attractive lecturer on subjects of general interest to the public: he likewise published several literary works that have been much admired. The following extract is from his volume of lectures entitled Christianity the Perfection of True Manliness, from which it will be seen that however much clergymen differ on doctrinal points, they all speak in terms of the highest praise of the beneficial in- fluence of the christian religion. 48 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. “The great clement of reform is not born of human wisdom: it does not draw its life from human organiza- tions. I find it only in Christianity. ‘Thy Kingdom come!’ There is a sublime and pregnant burden in this prayer. It is the aspiration of every soul that goes forth in the spirit of reform. For what is the significance of this prayer? It is a petition that all holy influences would penetrate and subdue and dwell in the heart of man, until he shall think, and speak, and do good from the very necessities of his being. So would the institu- tions of error and wrong crumble and pass away. So would sin die out from the earth. And the human soul, living in harmony with the Divine Will, this earth would become like heaven. This kingdom of God upon earth is no unsubstantiality—it covers no narrow field. It is the perfection and the meaning of that which we see, however dim and distant, in all true reforms. When it comes, the rage of war shall cease, the inequalities of rank shall vanish, the chains of the slave will be broken, and the feet of the oppressor will rest on the neck of his fellow no longer. And the din and the clamor that have rocked society for ages, and the woes that have heaved its heart so long, will be no more. These will all pass away, and be still—like the night and the storm, when the summer morning descends upon the mountains, the valleys, and the sea. “Tt is too late for Reformers to sneer at Christianity : it is foolishness for them torejectit. Init are enshrined our faith in human progress—our confidence in reform. It is indissolubly connected with all that is hopeful, spiritual, capable inman. ‘That men have misunderstood it, and perverted it, is true. But it is also true that the Clergymen. 49 noblest efforts for human amelioration have come out of it—have been based upon it. Is it not so? Come, ye remembered ones, who sleep the sleep of the just, who took your conduct from the line of Christian Philosophy— come from your tombs, and answer! Come, Howard, from the gloom of the prison and the taint of the lazar- house, and show us what Philanthropy can do when im- bued with the spirit of Jesus. Come, Elliot, from the thick forest where the red-man listens to the Word of Life. Come, Penn, from thy sweet counsel and weapon- less victory ; and show us what Christian Zeal and Chris- tian Love can accomplish with the rudest barbarism and the fiercest hearts. Come, Raikes, from thy labors with the ignorant and the poor, and show us with what an eye this Faith regards the lowest and least of our race, and how diligently it labors, not for the body, not for the rank, but for the plastic soul that is to course the ages of immortality. And ye, who are a great number—ye nameless ones—who have done good in your narrower spheres, content to forego renown on earth, and, seeking your reward in the Record on High, come and tell us how kindly a spirit, how lofty a purpose, or how strong a courage, the religion ye professed can breathe into the poor, the humble, and the weak. “Go forth, then, Spirit of Christianity, to thy great work of Bari! The Past bears witness to thee in the blood of thy martyrs, and the ashes of thy saints and heroes. The Present is hopeful because of thee. The Future shall acknowledge thy omnipotence!” 5 50 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. ADAM CLARKE, LL.D. One of the greatest linguists and profoundest theolo- cians that any age or nation ever produced was Dr. Adam Clarke, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in England. His Commentary on the Bible is a work that has had the admiration of scholars and divines of every class. For clearness of statement, candor of expression, soundness of reasoning, and force of illustration, it has no superior. His opinion of the Bible, after thoroughly studying it for nearly a lifetime, is thus recorded at the close of his great work. “The Sacred Writings are a system of pure, unsophis- ticated reason, proceeding from the immaculate mind of God: in many places, it is true, vastly elevated beyond what the reason of man could have devised or found out ; but in no case contrary to human reason. They are ad- dressed not to the passions, but to the reason, of man; every command is urged with reasons of obedience; and every promise and threatening founded on the most evi- dent reason and propriety. The whole, therefore, are to be rationally understood, and rationally interpreted. He who would discharge reason from this, its noblest prov- ince, is a friend in his heart to the antichristian maxim, ‘Tgnorance is the mother of devotion.’ Revelation and reason go hand in hand: faith is the servant of the former, and the friend of the latter: while the Spirit of God, which gave the revelation, improves and exalts reason, and gives energy and effect to faith.” “ The doc- trines in this book are doctrines of eternal reason; and they are revealed, because they are such. Human reason could not have found them out; but, when revealed, Clergymen. 51 reason can both apprehend and comprehend them. It sees their perfect harmony among themselves; their agreement with the perfections of the divine nature, and their sovereign suitableness to the nature and state of man: thus reason approves and applauds.” ‘No man either can or should believe a doctrine that contradicts reason; but he may safely credit, in any thing that concerns the nature of God, what is above his reason; and even this may be a reason why he should believe it. I can not comprehend the divine nature, therefore [ adore it; if I could comprehend, I could not adore; forasmuch as the nature or being which can be comprehended by my mind, must be less than that by which it is comprehended, and, therefore, unworthy of its homage. The more knowledge increases, the more we shall see that reason and learning, sanctified by piety toward God, are the best interpreters of the Sacred Oracles.” JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. James Freeman Clarke, a prominent Unitarian clergy- man of Boston, New England, and also a poet, editor, and author of several works, one of which is, The Ten Great Religions, thus forcibly and eloquently portrays the superiority of the Christian Religion. “The religions of Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, have come to an end, having shared the fate of the na- tional civilization of which each was a part. The relig- ions of China, Islam, Buddha, and Judea, have all been arrested, and remain unchanged and seemingly unchange- able. Like great vessels anchored in a stream, the cur- rent of time flows past them, and each year they are 52 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. further behind the spirit of the age, and less in harmony with its demands. Christianity alone, of all religions, pos- sesses the power of keeping abreast with the advancing civilization of the world. As the child’s soul grows with his body, so that when he becomes a man, it is a man’s soul, and not a child’s, so the Gospel of Jesus continues the soul of all human culture. It continually drops its old forms, and takes new ones. It passed out of its Jew- ish body under the guidance of Paul. In a speculative age, it unfolded into creeds and systems. In a worship- ing age, it developed ceremonies and a ritual. When the fall of Rome left Europe without unity or center, it gave it an organization and order through the Papacy. When the Papacy became a tyranny, and the Renaissance called for free thought, it suddenly put forth Protestant- ism, as the tree by the water-side sends forth its shoots in due season. Protestantism, free as air, opens out into the various sects, each taking hold of some human need. Christianity blossoms out into modern science, literature, art; children who indeed often forget their mother, and are ignorant of their source, but which are still fed from her breasts, and partake of her life. Christianity, the spirit of faith, hope, and love, is the deep fountain of modern civilization. Its inventions are for the many, not for the few. Its science is not hoarded, but diffused. It elevates the masses, who every-where else have been trampled down ‘The friend of the people, it tends to free schools, a free press, a free government, the aboli- tion of slavery, war, vice, and the amelioration of society. We can not, indeed, here undertake to prove that Chris- tianity is the cause of these features peculiar to modern life; but we find it every-where associated with them. Clergymen. 53 And so we can say that it only, of all the religions of mankind, has been capable of accompanying man in his progress from evil to good, from good to better.” SAMUEL CLARKE. Dr. Samuel Clarke, a clergyman of the Church of England, the friend and disciple of Newton, and author of several works of a religio-philosophical nature, main- tained that the constant agency of the Divine Being was necessary to sustain universal nature. He remarks: ‘¢ All things which we commonly say are the effects of the natural powers of matter and laws of motion, are, indeed, if we speak strictly and properly, the effects of God’s action upon matter continually, and at every moment, either immediately by himself, or mediately by some created, intelligent being. Consequently there is no such thing as the course of nature, or the power of nature, independent of the effects produced by the will of God.” JEAN CLAUDE. Claude, a learned divine of the French Protestant Church in the seventeenth century, after a long life spent in active Christian service, both as a pastor and author, remarked, on his death-bed. “I have carefully exam- ined all religions ; and no one appears to me worthy of the wisdom of God, and capable of leading men to hap- piness, but the Christian religion.” ORVILLE DEWEY, D.D., LL.D. Dr. Orville Dewey was a prominent Unitarian clergy- man and a distinguished orator and lecturer. In his work, The Problem of Human Destiny, he thus speaks 54 Testimonies in Favor of [tcligion and the Bible. of the universal prevalence of religion, showing that the human mind is naturally inclined to it in some form: ‘Religion was the dominant thought of all the early ages. ‘The sceptic, nay the atheist philosopher of history and humanity, has been obliged to take it into the very heart of his theory; for no account can be given of the world, without it. But in the ancient world especially, religion reigned supreme. It was the shadow in every grove, the wind upon every shore, the waving harvest in every field; the sunlit mountains were its burning altars ; the deep-sunken glens and caverns its haunted cham- bers; its idols were in every house, its signet was upon every hearth-stone; birth and burial, feast and fight, it claimed for its own; it was the consecration of marriage, the strength of government, the sanctitude of kingship ; it was the seal upon every thing sacred; upon every oath and covenant and bond in the world. Nay, and concern- ing the more modern ages, the ablest judge on the sub- ject, M. Guizot, says, that ‘until the fifteenth century, we see in Kurope no general and powerful igen, really acting upon the masses, but religious ideas.’ In ane same work, The Brohlen of Human Destiny, referring to science and its wonderful revelations, Dr. Dewey says: “Tt does not fall within my present design to speak at length of its vastness—of the grand fabric of scientific knowledge which man has built up in the world; to show how he has stretched the compass of his investigation from the earth to the skies; how he has analyzed every known substance, and studied the laws of invisible agencies, and penetrated into the beds and layers of the old creation, and deciphered its history ; how he has de- Clergymen. 55 scried millions of living creatures sporting in a globule of water, and then risen to follow the millioned globes of heaven in their courses; how he has traced out astonish- ing analogies of structure between the flower of the field and the system of heavenly spheres—between the ar- rangement and development of the solar system, and the branchings of our forest trees—showing them all to be of one type, one order, one creative idea. But whither can all this stupendous knowledge lead, but to God! Where can man bow down his awe-struck reason but before the throne of the invisible Might? Science 1s the natural ally and minister of religion. And this, not- withstanding the assumptions of some philosophers, whom not science, but irreverence has made Atheists, has now come to be regarded as the established truth.” Dr. Dewey, at the close of his Problem of Human Des- tiny, thus earnestly and impressively calls upon Chris- tian America to put forth her noblest energies for the world’s grand reformation : “A solemn thing it is for us, the American people, to take our place in the great procession of nations. Whence came we, and why are we here, but to do our part? The sorrowing ages call upon us to do our part. The tears and groans of long-suffering and sighing humanity call upon us to do our part. Empires crushed under the weight of hopeless bondage—millions that have wan- dered in the darkness of ignorance and amidst the ter- rors of superstition, address to us—to us especially—the great adjuration ; and they say, O ye, a people free, in- telligent, Christian!—who know your duty and have liberty to perform it; O ye, a people, whose foot is set upon an unchartered soil; whose hands are filled with 56 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. the riches of the world; whose children, partners of your- selves, are to wander down the coming ages, through the fairest domain that God ever gave to man; hear the voice of humanity; hear the voice that comes from earth—and that comes from Heaven !” FRANCIS FENELON. Archbishop Fenelon, one of the most eloquent divines of the French Catholic pulpit, once uttered the devout exclamation: “O my God, he who does not see thee in thy works, has seen nothing! He who does not confess thy hand in the beautiful productions of this well-ordered world, is a stranger to the best affections of the heart. He exists as though he existed not; and his life is no more than a dream.” : What a bright testimony in favor of religion is the following: When Lord Peterboro lodged for a season with Fenelon, he was so delighted with his piety and vir- tue, that he exclaimed at parting, “If I stay here any longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself.” RANDOLPH S. FOSTER, D.D., LL.D. The prominent traits in the character of Jesus Christ are thus strikingly portrayed by Bishop Foster, one of the most eloquent and efficient ministers of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church: ‘“‘ Tfis character has passed the test of malicious assault for two thousand years, and it stands-out to-day before the world as faultless in every part. It comprises all paradoxes; more tender and gentle than that of a woman, it is yet as rugged as a mountain, stern as an avenger, and inflexible as fate; he was gentle, but not weak, and OE Clergymen. 57 always strong and grand; he made no clamor, but moved among the people like a gentle current; yet wherever he went, he stirred and agitated human society to its depths; he dealt in the symbols of eternal judgment, but they came from his lips so tenderly as to move his hearers to tears; he combined gentleness with strength, and pity with power; he was gentle yet terrible, as when he overthrew the tables of the money-changers in the temple; he was a revelation of a grand and rugged man- hood; and of something nobler and deeper, something higher and grander, than the world. His name stands as the synonym of God on earth.” GEORGE GILFILLAN. George Gilfillan, a Presbyterian clergyman, was author of numerous works, amongst which are, A Gallery of Lit- erary Portraits, 3-vols.; Christanity and Our Era; The Poets and Poetry of the Bible; British Poets, 48 vols. His writings display a rich yet singular fancy, and wide literary sympathies, though regarded by some as deficient in refinement of taste. From his Introduction to the Poets and Poetry of the Bible, we give the following ex- tract : } “The Bible, while bearing on its summit the hues of a higher heaven, overtopping with ease all human struc- tures and aspirations—in earth, but not of it—commu- nicating with the omniscience, and recording the acts of the omnipotence, of God—is, at the same time, the Bible of the poor and lowly, the crutch of the aged, the pillow of the widow, the eye of the blind, the thes s own book,’ the solace of the sick, the light of the dying, the antl hope and refuge of simple, sincere, and sorrowing spir- 58 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. its; it is thts which at once proclaims its unearthly origin, and so clasps it to the great common heart of hu- manity, that the extinction of the sun were not more mourned than the extinction of the Bible, or than even its receding from its present pride of place. For, while other books are planets shining with reflected radiance, this book, like the sun, shines with ancient and unbor- rowed ray. Other books have, to their loftiest altitudes, sprung from earth; this book looks down from heayen high. Other books appeal to understanding or fancy, this book to conscience and to faith. Other books seek our attention: this book demands it—it speaks with au- thority, and not as the Scribes. Other books guide gracefully along the earth, or onward toward the moun- tain-summits of the ideal; this, and this alone, conducts up the awful abyss which leads to heaven. Other books, after shining their little season, may perish in flames, fiercer than those which destroyed the Alexandrian Li- brary; this must, in essence, remain pure as gold, but unconsumable as asbestos, in the general conflagration. Other books may be forgotten in a universe where suns go down and disappear, like bubbles in the stream ; the memory of this book shall shine as the brightness of that eternal firmament, and as those higher stars, which are for ever and ever. ROBERT HALL. Few men, while living, have attracted more attention, or excited more admiration, than Robert Hall. He had a superior intellect and vast stores of learning, and, at the same time, a brilliant imagination and almost un- equaled powers of description His sermons are master- pieces of oratory, and are replete with the beauty of Clergymen. 59 holiness: his other writings, too, which are varied in their character, are amongst the finest productions in the world’s literature. Ile was a Baptist clergyman, and the son of a Baptist clergyman; but like all men of noble mind, he was liberal toward genuine christians of all de- nominations, and friendly in his intercouse with them. He thus eloquently expresses his high admiration of the Inspired Volume: ‘‘The Bible is the treasure of the poor, the solace of the sick, and the support of the dying; and while other books may amuse and instruct in a leisure hour, it is the peculiar triumph of that book to create light in the midst of darkness, to alleviate the sorrow which admits of no other alleviation, to direct a beam of hope to the heart which no other topic of consolation can reach; while guilt, despair, and death vanish at the touch of its holy inspiration. There is something in the spirit and diction of the Bible which is found peculiarly adapted to arrest the attention of the plainest and most uncultivated minds. The simple structure of its sentences, com- bined with a lofty spirit of poetry—its familiar allusions to the scenes of nature and the transactions of common life—the delightful intermixture of narration with the doctrinal and preceptive parts—and the profusion of miraculous facts, which throw us into a sort of enchanted ground—its constant advertence to the Deity, whose per- fections it renders almost visible and palpable—unite in bestowing upon it an interest which attaches to no other performance, and which, after assiduous and repeated perusal, invests it with much of the charm of novelty ; like the great orb of day, at which we are wont to gaze with unabated astonishment from infancy to old age. 60 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. What other book besides the Bible could be heard in public assemblies from year to year, with an attention that never tires, and an interest that never clogs. With few exceptions, let a portion of the Sacred Volume be recited in a mixed multitude, and though it has been heard a thousand times, a universal stillness ensues, every eye is fixed, and every ear is awake and attentive. Select, if you can, any other composition, and let it be rendered equally familiar to the mind, and see whether it will produce this effect.” In his Sermon on Modern Infidelity,—perhaps the grandest ever delivered, excepting the Savior’s,—Hall refers to the attempt made by the revolutionary atheists of France to overthrow the Christian Religion, and es- tablish in its stead what they called, Reason ; but the at- tempt was utterly fruitless: it brought on what histo- rians have termed, the Reign of Terror. How truly, in the following eloquent passage, he portrays the fiendish- ness of their work. “God permitted the trial to be made. In one country, and that the center of Christendom, revelation under- went a total eclipse, while atheism, performing on a darkened theater its strange and fearful tragedy, con- founded the first elements of society, blended every age, rank, and sex, in indiscriminate proscription and mas- sacre, and convulsed all Europe to its center; that the imperishable memorial of these events might teach the last generations of mankind to consider religion as the pillar of society, the safeguard of nations, the parent of social order, which alone has power to curb the fiery passions and to secure to every one his rights. Those who prepared the minds of the people for that great Eee Clergymen. 61 change, and for the reign of atheism, were avowed enemies to revelation: in all their writings the diffusion of skepti- cism and revolutionary principles went hand in hand: the fury of the most sanguinary parties was especially pointed against the Christian priesthood and religious in- stitutions, without once pretending, like other persecutors, to execute the vengeance of God (whose name they never mentioned) upon his enemies: their atrocities were com- mitted with a wanton levity and brutal merriment: the reign of atheism was ayowedly and expressly the reign of terror: in the full madness of their career, in the highest climax of their horrors, they shut up the temples of God, abolished his worship, and proclaimed death to be an eternal sleep, as if by pointing to the silence of the sepulcher and the sleep of the dead these ferocious barbarians meant to apologize for leaving neither sleep, quiet, nor repose for the living. No sooner were the speculations of atheistical philosophy matured, than they gave birth to a ferocity which converted the most pol- ished people in Europe into a horde of assassins—the seat of voluptuous refinement and of arts into a theater of blood. Atheism is an inhuman, bloody, ferocious sys- tem, equally hostile to every useful restraint and to every virtuous affection ; that, leaving nothing above us to excite our awe, nor round us to awaken our tender- ness, wages war with heaven and with earth. Its first object is to dethrone God, its next to destroy man.” Having full faith in the promises of the Bible, relative to the universal spread of religious knowledge, and the final triumph of truth and righteousness, Hall utters the following encouraging words : “We have nothing to fear; for to an attentive ob- 62 Testimonies in Favor of Religion and the Bible. server of the signs of the times, it will appear one of the most extraordinary phenomena of this eventful crisis, that, amidst the ravages of atheism and infidelity, real religion is on the increase; the stream of divine knowledge, unobserved, is flowing in new channels, wind- ing its course among humble valleys, refreshing thirsty deserts, and enriching, with far other and higher bless- ings than those of commerce, the most distant climes and nations; until, agreeably to the prediction of proph- ecy, the knowledge of the Lord shall fill and cover the whole earth.” JAMES HAMILTON, D.D. Dr. James Hamilton, speaking of the vast and varied information in the Bible, and its adaptability to the human mind and the human heart, remarks: ‘God made the Bible as the guide and oracle of man; but had he meant it as a mere lesson-book of duty, a volume less various and less attractive would have an- swered every end.