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The Rev. J. H. Rutherford delivered two lectures here last week to large and very attentive audiences, on "The Enemies of the Bible," and "Infidel objections to Christianity." As usual he invited discussion at the close, but no person was found to stand forward and reply to what was advanced in the Lectures. Although there is an Infidel Society in town, and discussion was invited on the placards, and although one of the stupid objections which Infidels make to Christian ministers is that they dare not allow free discussion at the close of their Lectures, and notwithstanding there were several Infidels present, to my own personal knowledge, not one of them dare come forward to defend their principles, I suppose for this simple reason, that they had none to defend. Surely the Free Protestant Association, as they call their last attempt to deceive the Liverpool public, has either ceased to exist, or it has ceased to act and the members of it are content to remain passive. But, by the way, perhaps we can account for the silence of the Society by, supposing that their head man, Mr. John Finch, is preparing to usher in and enjoy the promised " 14th of May millenium." This may account for it, for they seem to say, by their only public efforts, "Without him they can do nothing." He seems to be their "all in all" and the only man they can show publicly though if they were to believe what Joseph Barker said in his better days, I donbt very much if they would allow him to be their representative any longer. I should like to to tell the readers of the Defender what Mr. Barker did say (and very truly) only 1 am afraid it would so completely drive Mr. Finch out of temper that he would perhaps call us something worse, if he could, than "liars," and our productions worse than "lying articles." But it has been very repeatedly said, "How quiet the Free Protestants are since that Monster Meeting we had," which was noticed in the first number of the Defender. My owr humble opinion of it is that they were so completely silenced that they can do nothing now but turn round and call us "liars."

However I think the conduct of the Infidels at Liverpool, in not embracing the opportunity for free discussion, at the close of the Lecture delivered by Mr. Rutherford, proves that either they have no principles to defend, or if they have that they are thoroughly ashamed of them and therefore cannot come forward like men and true Protestants to defend them.

28th July 1855.

BARKER'S VIEWS OF SOCIALISM.

OBSERVER.

The utmost that the socialists promise is animal indulgence. They promise men less labour, and plenty of meat and drink: and they tell us that, in course of time, they will be able to improve the breed of human beings, and to bring the earth into so high a cultivation, that it shall resemble one great paradise. Men and women also are to be entirely free, to revel in sensuality without restraint. Such is the list of blessings promised by socialism. Man is treated throughout as a mere brute, and every thing that'is promised him is limited to the short and uncertain period of the present life. Not a word is said about the soul, or a future state, about God, or heaven, except to teach us that these are things not to be thought about in socialist communities. Efforts are to be made to sink all thoughts and ideas of a better world into utter forgetfulness, and extinguish for ever the light of revelation. All our sympathies with the unseen world are to be mercilessly crushed; our hopes of immortality are to be cut off; the thoughts which were accustomed to wander through eternity are to be chained down, and our souls, with all their boundless powers and insatiable longings after higher and eternal blessings, are to be shut up and imprisoned within the dark and narrow limits of earth and time.

IMPROVE THE TIME.

Thy life is frail; conserve it.

Next to thy soul, care for thy body;
Keep it pure, meet tabernacle,

For a spirit purged from sin,
By sacrifice all-perfect, and divine.
Lay it down upon God's altar,
A whole and acceptable offering.
Selfishly seek not to die,

To escape the sufferings of the present.
The world requires the labours of the true,
Thy Saviour demands them. He lived
As well as died, for those he came to bless.
A new year brings new duty;

Do it manfully, with all thy strength.

It may bring new sorrows,

But these shall only work thy good.

If thy heart-trust is in Him

Who never fails. Reclining on His arm,

Thou art safe as if already on His throne.
Dread naught but sin. That alone
Can crush and curse thee.

To thine enemy bid no defiance.
Let thy prayers bring blessings down
Upon him like dew upon the parched leaf.
Turn not away from scenes of suffering,

Rather seek them out, and train thy soul

To sympathy, like that which dimmed the Saviour's eye.

Thy life is short; improve it.

Fill it up with holy thoughts and noble deeds ;

Care not that men cast out thy name with scorn.

Live for God, work for thy race;

And though now unknown and outcast,

Thy influence will not die, but will be felt

By unborn myriads, who will praise

Their God in thee, and spread it far and wide.
Abjure all frothiness of soul.

Be real; be earnest; be a man.

The measure of thy life is deeds not days.
Worship and work, love God, serve man.
Dwell in the secret place of the most High.
So shall this year be truly happy.
Master thyself, put on thy strength,
And, clothed in panoply divine,
Thy God shall crown thee Conqueror,

RELIGION BY PROXY.

There is not any burden, that some would gladlier post off to another, than the charge and care of their religion. There be, who knows not that there be, of protestants and professors, who live and die in as errant and implicit faith, as any lay papist of Loretto. A wealthy man addicted to his pleasure and to his profits, finds religion to be a traffic so entangled, and of so many piddling accounts, that of all mysteries, he cannot keep a stock going upon that trade. What should he do? Fain he would have the name to be religious, fain he would bear up with his neighbours in that. What does he therefore, but resolves to give over toiling, and to find himself out some factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; some divine of note and estimation that must be. To him he adheres; resigns the whole warehouse of his religion, with all the locks and keys into his custody; and indeed makes the very person of that man his religion; esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence and commendatory of his own piety. So that a man may say his religion is now no more within himself, but is become a dividual moveable, and goes and comes near him, according as that good man frequents the house. He entertains him, gives him gifts, feasts him, lodges him; his religion comes home at night, prays, is liberally supped, and sumptuously laid to sleep; rises, is saluted, and after the malmsey, or some well-spiced bruage, is better breakfasted than he whose morning appetite would have gladly fed on green figs between Bethany and Jerusalem; his religion walks abroad at eight, and leaves his kind entertainer in his shop trading all day without his religion.

MILTON.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The real names and addresses of correspondents required, though not for publication. The Editor does not undertake to return rejected communications.

Our correspondents in different places will do us service by giving us prompt information of what goes on in their localities.

"A leap in the dark," by E. received with thanks. Several articles under consideration. "Silverwater," shall appear. Also the reply to a "Progressive Revelation." W. K. Hyde, shall be attended to. Till within a few days, no one seems to have had any desire to take advantage of our Open Page." We shall ever be pleased to hear the opposite side, and shall endeavour to keep as much room for it as possible.

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CHRISTIAN PROPAGANDIST FUND.

Collected by Mrs. Telfer, Sunderland, 20s.

Where our friends in country places have difficulty in getting copies, if they can secure twenty-four subscribers, we shall send copies direct from the office, 50, Grainger Street Newcastle-upon-Tyne, pre-paid by post.

Communications and works for review to be addressed to the Editor, 50, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, either direct, or through the publishers.

London: HOULSTON & STONEMAN, 65, Paternoster Row.

AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

Hunter & Co., Printers, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.

THE DEFENDER : a Weekly Magazine,

OF CHRISTIAN EXPOSITION AND ADVOCACY.

Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty; she needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious, those are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power.-MILTON.

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Emanuel Barthelemy has passed to his account, exhibiting a callousness and indifference to the awful position in which he was placed, it is painful to contemplate, and stubbornly refusing to the last to acknowledge the hand of Him who made him.

Had the creed of this wretched being any connection with the crime for which the offended laws of his country demanded the sacrifice of his life?

We hold that Atheism is not a mere opinion, to be condemned or vindicated as an abstract truth, having no relation to the duties and obligations of life; but that it is a positive crime of itself, of awful magnitude, a treason against the "Giver of life and all good," destroying all responsibility, and setting wide open the flood-gates of iniquity.

In the scheme of Christian regeneration, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is a corner stone and a statute. The teaching of Christianity induces us to regard the life of a fellow creature as the most sacred thing in his possession-as an inheritance of far higher value, of more important purpose, than it can be by any other creed whatever. The Christian believes that life is that time of proNo. 6, Vol. 1.

bation which ends in an eternity of happiness or misery. To him life is a sacred loan, to be repaid back to Him who gave it with interest, or rendered up bare and unproductive. Sacred as he regards every possession of another from any attempt or desire on his part to despoil him of them, this is ten thousand times more sacred than all the rest; and is secured from every possibility of an attack from him by the most solemn and explicit commandment of the God he reverences, "Thou shalt do no murder."

How is it with the infidel? What claim has the life of another upon him who selfishly regards only the enjoyment and preservation of his own, or who admits no stronger law against taking away the life of another, than that of political necessity, which may be set aside or changed under variable circumstances, or whose only inducement to avoid murder is that he himself may be safe?

What, to an infidel, is another's life, but a little red fluid, which may be spilled without criminality, under circumstances of ordinary occurrence? Why, if we carry out the disbelief in a future state, and the refusal to recognize any accountability for actions in that future, what but the flimsiest barrier, the most imaginary of non-existences, is to retard them, if the inclination to commit murder should happen to be paramount.

But to return to this wretched culprit; we would ask whether infidels find anything to glory in, in his hardihood and indifference? Is it satisfactory to them that he exhibited no sign of repentance for the crime, for which he has suffered? Is it desirable that men who murder each other should exhibit no regret for their cruelty? Now infidelity undoubtedly hardened this man, unquestionably brought him to the gallows a brutal, untamed ruffian. Was this a desirable spectacle for those who had congregated to see his exit? Was this calculated to vindicate the majesty of the law or deter others from the commission of a similar crime? This unholy, brazened indifference-this disgusting insensibility, an attribute alone of humanity in its lowest state of degradation. Why, if infidelity had softened this man ever so little, if it had brought one repentant tear to his eye, one human sob to his bosom, for the victims he had slaughtered, and the widow and orphans he had made desolate, it would have partially redeemed it. But no! that would have belied its nature; it could not be! This murderer's was the true picture of an infidel's death; what it ought to be; what God has made it to be; what, for the sake of humanity, we trust it ever will be,—the dumb, defiant death of a dog.

Now supposing Christianity to be false, supposing that it is what infidels would make it out to be, a mere opinion; since it does influence men's lives and affect their deaths; since it erects a standard for their actions; since it teaches them to eschew what is evil, and seck out what is good; since it endeavours to prevent crime and teaches repentance after it has been committed; is it not far better for mankind to believe in, than to reject it; is it not better for men to be restrained in their conduct towards each other by a supposed hereafter accountability, than, being unrestrained, to follow out any inclination for evil?

But infidelity is selfish in its nature, it prefers regarding a man's relations to the world, as they affect himself alone and not as they affect others. It prefers teaching, and its disciples prefer believing that self-interest is the only rule worthy of consideration. It is compelled to put on an assumed garb of

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