how would an objector be received, who should represent the time honored works of Newton or Locke as a confused collection of dangerous doginas or incomprehensible mysteries; when at the same time he should confess that he had never carefully perused them? Every right-minded man would cry down such opinions, as equally worthless and arrogant; and would frown on the rashness and presumption that dared to pronounce judgment on the labors of such authors, without having taken every pains to understand them. This presumption too would be considered wicked and wild just in proportion as the subjects under consideration were of high importance, and the authors had been long honored and trusted by many of the wise and the good.

Now here is our Bible, which brings before us subjects of immense importance to man, both here and hereafter; and which, as all must admit, has commanded the careful study and full belief of many among the greatest and best of men in every age. Is it philosophy, any more than it is justice or wisdom, that any one shall pronounce the book unworthy of his faith until he has carefully read

and examined it? And have infidels done so before

they gave judgment against it? You shall hear from themselves:

Hume confessed that he had never read the Bible after he had grown to mature manhood. This fact was notorious among his cotemporaries. Dr. Johnson, in conversation with several literary friends, once observed, in his usual direct and unequivocal manner, that no honest man could be a Deist, because no man could be so after a fair examination of the truths of Christianity. When the name of Hume was mentioned to him as an exception to his remark; he replied, "No sir, Hume once owned to a clergyman in the bishoprick of Durham, that he had never read even the New Testament with attention."

Gibbon lets us know that the amount of his critical reading, when finally making up his mind respecting the truth of the Scriptures, embraced only the Gospel of John, and one chapter in the Gospel of Luke. Did the large measure of Divine unction which is found in the writings of the disciple whom Jesus loved, prove so offensive to a mind like Gibbon's, that he could not persuade

himself to go farther? Or, was it his deliberate design to put contempt on the Sacred Volume, by placing his slight attention to its contents in contrast with the careful study with which he claims to have weighed the merits of other books?

Halley the astronomer was deeply tinged with Infidelity. On a certain occasion he avowed his scepticism in the presence of Sir Isaac Newton; when that venerable man turned to him, saying,

Sir, you have never studied these subjects, and I have. Do not disgrace yourself as a philosopher by presuming to judge on questions you have never examined." Halley felt himself compelled to admit that the reproof was deserved.

We will add another example taken from a well authenticated incident in the life of Dr. Benjamin Franklin. We are told that during his residence in Paris he was invited to a company embracing many of the courtiers, and of the distinguished men who signalized the age in which they lived by their learning and their scepticism. According to their custom, in a free and promiscuous conversation, Christianity was the great topic, and the Bible was treated with unsparing severity. Growing

warmer, and more profane in their comments, one of the company attracted universal attention by asserting, with great confidence, that the Bible was not only a piece of gross deception, but totally devoid of literary merit. With the exception of Franklin, the entire company seemed to give a hearty assent to the sentiment. Being at the time a general favorite, his companions were disquieted by even a tacit reproof from a man of his might and influence. They all appealed to him for his opinion. He replied, in his own peculiar manner, that he was hardly prepared to give them a suitable answer, as his mind had been running on the merits of a book which he thought of rare excellence, and which he had happened to find in one of the Paris bookstores; and as they had made allusion to the literary character of the Bible, perhaps it might interest them to compare the merits of his new prize with that old volume. If so, he would read them a few sentences. All were eager to have him proceed, and give them something from his rare book. He then opened it, and with much gravity of manner, and propriety of utterance, read to them the words "God came froin Teman, and

the Holy One from Mount Paran. Ilis glory covered the Heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was as the light. He had horns coming out of His hands, and there was the hiding of His power. He stood and measured the earth; He beheld and drove asunder the nations. The everlasting mountains were scattered; the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting." The few sentences made a deep impression. The admiring listeners pronounced them superior to anything they had heard or read; and that nothing could surpass them in grandeur and sublimity. They all wished to know what was the name of this new work, the name of its author, and whether this was a specimen of its merits? Certainly, gentlemen, said Dr. Franklin, smiling at his triumph, my book is full of such passages; It is no other than your good-fornothing Bible. I have read to you a short paragraph from the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk.

Such are the men who assume to themselves the right to sit in judgment on the truth of the Bible; men who have never examined the book so as to know what it contains, and yet profess to reject it as the result of philosophical investigation.