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Iman is when he is left to himself, and what infidelity is when the restraints of law are thrown off, and the power is in its own hands.

I.

THE DENIAL OF A GOD.

"An unhappy man, named Gobet, Constitutional Bishop of Paris, was brought forward to scandalous farce ever acted in the face of a na"It is said that the leaders of the scene had with the task assigned him, which, after all, h some difficulty in inducing the bishop to comply executed, not without present tears and subsequen he did play the part prescribed clare to the Convention, that the religion whic brought forward, in full procession, to d

remorse. But
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so many years, was, in every r taught owned, in solemn and explicit terms, the existen tion either in history or sacred truth. He d spect, a piece of priesteraft, which had no foul whose worship he had been co homage of Liberty, Equality, Virtue, and Mor secrated, and devoted himself in future to t ity. He then laid on the table his Episcopal de the president of the convention. Several apos the example of this prelate.

rations, and

received

priests followed

66

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lds with ism, was tional asuse of the ed in force the provishe abolition khart, in his A third and THE HEAof the churches the credit was ntend with the

his colleagues. m, made no atliever in Chrisecessity of proviar means of worve a state of transe to take the oath ere re-admitted to e measure was folot less than 20,000 1, who had hitherto France." Thus ternd the infidel revolu

[graphic]

a certain fashion; and the installation of the god. dess of reason was renewed and imitated throughout the nation, in such places where the inhabitants desired to show themselves equal to all the heights of the revolution. The churches were, in most districts of France, closed against priests and worshippers-the bells were broken and cast into cannon-the whole ecclesiastical establishment destroyed-and the republican inscription over the cemeteries, declaring death to be perpetual sleep, announced to those who lived under that dominion, that they were to hope no redress in the next world."

III. ABOLITION OF THE MARRIAGE VOW.

"Intimately connected with these laws affecting religion, was that which reduced the union of marriage, the most sacred engagement which human beings can form, and the permanence of which leads most strongly to the consolidation of society, to the state of a mere civil contract of á transitory character, which any two persons might engage in, and cast loose at pleasure, when their taste was changed, or their appetite gratified. If fiends had set themselves to work to discover à mode of most effectually destroying whatever is venerable, graceful, or permanent in domestic life, and of obtaining at the same time an assurancé that the mischief which it was their object to create should be perpetuated from one generation to another, they could not have invented a more effectual plan than the degradation of marriage into a state of mere occasional cohabitation, or licensed

concubinage. Sophie Arnoult, an actress famous for the witty things she said, described the republican marriage as the sacrament of adultery."

IV. A SYSTEM OF HEATHENISM-THE RELIGION OF

FRANCE.

"Thus shall he do in the most strong holds with a strange god." A system of paganism, was next introduced into France, and the national assembly enacted a heathen ritual for the use of the French people. This system continued in force until the appointment of Napoleon to the provisional consulate of France, in 1799. The abolition of the ritual is thus recorded by Lockhart, in his Life of Napoleon, vol. I., p. 154:-"A third and bolder measure was the discarding of THE HEATHEN RITUAL, and RE-OPENING of the churches for Christian worship; and of this the credit was wholly Napoleon's, who had to contend with the philosophic prejudices of almost all his colleagues. He, in his conversations with them, made no attempts to represent himself a believer in Christianity; but stood only on the necessity of providing the people with the regular means of worship, wherever it is meant to have a state of tranquillity. The priests who chose to take the oath of fidelity to government, were re-admitted to their functions; and this wise measure was followed by the adherence of not less than 20,000 of these ministers of religion, who had hitherto languished in the prisons of France." Thus terminated the reign of terror and the infidel revolu

tion, leaving Bonaparte at the head of the French government, to give direction to the turbid waters, and turn them to his own account, and raise himself, upon the ruins of the revolution, to the throne of the empire, and to be the terror of the world.

CAREER OF BONAPARTE-THE TIME OF THE END.

Verse 40: "And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him : and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over."

"At the time of the end." The time of the end is the period first introduced in chapter viii., ver. 16: 66 Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision." That is, at the time of the end the vision shall be understood. Again, it is introduced in verse 35th of the 11th chapter, where we are told that the persecution of the saints will continue, in a measure, to "the time of the end." The French revolutionary gov ernment was then introduced to fill up the period to the time of the end. It is now, in the 40th verse, again introduced. It is the period of the fall of the papal power. That period was 1798, when, as will be seen by the extract which follows, the pope's power was destroyed, and he carried into captivity.

"Acts of violence were committed on the part of the French, first in Italy, where a numerous army stayed, even after the conclusion of peace.

They fell upon the pope whose defenceless situa

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