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JVo. 22 Vol. Vl.]
I DEATH OF VOLTAIRE.
It is well known that this celebrated infi
■ del laboured through a long life to diffuse
the poison of infidelity. In life he was pre
eminent iu guilt, and at death in misery.
Ijle had been accustomed for years to call
ibe adorable Saviour— 4 the wretch, 1 and to
vow that he would crush him. He closed
many of his letters to his infidel friends
with these words— ‘ Crush the wretchyet
such is the detestable meanness, as well as
wickedness of infidelity, that during these
efforts to destroy Christianity, he was accus
tomed to receive the sacrament and to at
tend to some other outward acts of religion,
that he might be able to deny his infidelity
if accused of it! Such was he in health ; but
dangerous sickness, and approaching death,
though they could not soften the hard heart
of the hypocrite infidel into real penitence,
filled it with agony, remorse and despair.
1 Voltaire had risen in poor deluded France,
Migh in worldly prosperity and fame : but
the Most High appeared to permit him to
rise to the pinacle of glory, only that he
might sink with deeper ruin to the gulf
below, and thus afford a more impressive
warning of the effects of bis folly and his
sin.
The following awful description has been
given of his last hours:
“ It was during Voltaire’s last visit to Pa
ris, when his triumph was complete, and he
had even feared he should die with glory
amidst the acclamations of an infatuated
theatre, that he was struck by the hand
of Providence, and fated to make a very
different termination of his career.
“ In the midst of his triumphs, a violent
bleeding raised apprehensions for his life.
D’Alembert, Diderot, and Marmontel, has
tened to support his resolution in his fist
moments, but were only witnesses to their
mutual ignominy, as well as his own.
“ Here let not the historian fear exagge
ration. Rage, remorse, reproach, and
blasphemy, all accompany and character
iza the long agony of the dying atheist.—
His death, the most terrible that was ever
recorded to have stricken the impious man,
will not be deuied by his companions in im
piety. Their silence, however much they
may wish to deny it, i9 the least of those
corroborative proofs which could be addu
ced. Not one of them bas ever dared to
mention any sign given, of resolution or
tranquillity, by the premier chief during the
space of three months , which elapsed from
the time he was crowned in the thpatre,
until his decease. Such a silence expresses
how great their humiliation was in his
death !
“It was in his return from the theatre,
and in the midst of the toils he was resum
ing in order to acquire fresh applause,
when Voltaire was warned, tha* the long j
career.of his impiety was drawing to an
end.”
In spite of all the infidel philosophers
who flocked around him, in the first days of
his illness, he gave signs of wishing to re
turn to the God he had so often blasphem
ed. He called for the priest, who minister
ed to Him whom he hail sworn to crush,
under the appellation of ‘The wretch.’
His danger increasing, be wrote entreating
the Abbe Gualtier to visit him. He after
wards made a declaration, in which he, in
-fact, renounced his infidelity.
This declaration was signed by himself
and two witnesses, one of whom was the
Marquis de Villevieille, to whom, eleven
years before, Voltaire was wont to write,
‘Conceal your march from the enemy, in
your endeavours to crush the wretch.’
“Voltaire had permitted this declaration
to be carried to the rector of St. Sulspice,
end to the archbishop of Parts, to know
whether it would be sufficient. When the
Abbe Gualtier returned with the answer, it
was impossible for him to gain admittance
to the patient. The conspirators had
strained every nerve to hinder the chief
from consummating his recantation, and ev
ery avenue was shut to the priest whom
Voltaire had sent for. The demons haunt
ed every access; rage succeeds to fury,
and fury to rage again, durinp- the remain
der of bis life.
“Then it was that D’Alembert, Diderot,
and about twenty other of the conspirators,
who had beset his apartment, never ap
proaehed him, but to witness their own ig
nominy; and often he would curse them,
and exclaim— ‘ Retire! It is you that have
brought me to my present state ! Begone !
1 could have done without yon all; but you
r.oulJ not exist without me! And what a
wretched glory have you procured me?’
“Then would succeed the horrid re
membrance of his conspiracy. They could
hear him, the prey of anguish and dread,
alternately supplicating or blaspheming that
God whom he had conspired against; and
in plaintive accents would he cry out, ‘O
Christ, O Jesus Christ!’ And then complain
that he was abandoned by God and man.
The hand which has traced, in ancient writ,
the sentence of an impious and reviling
king, seemed to trace before his eyes,
Crush then, do crush the wretch. In vain he
turned his head away; the time was coming
apace when he was to appear before the
tribunal of him he had blasphemed ; and
his physicians, particularly Mr. Tronchin,
calling in to admiuister relief,thunderstruck,
retired, declaring the death of the impious
THE MISSIONARY.
man to be terrible indeed. The pride of
the conspirators would willingly have sup
pressed these declarations, but it was in
vain. The marescbal de Richelieu flies
from the bed 9ide, declaring it a sight too
terrible to be sustained; and Mr. Tronchin,
that the furies of Orestes could give but a
faint idea of those of Voltaire.”
In one ot these visits the doctor found
him in the greatest agonies, exclaiming,
with the utmost horror, ‘ I am abandoned
by God and man.’ He then said, 1 Doctor,
t will give you half of what I am worth, if
you will give me six months life.’ The
doctor answered, ‘ Sir, you cannot live six
weeks.’ Voltaire replied, ‘Then I shall
go to hell and you will go with me 1’ and
“oon after expired.
POWERFUL AGENCY OF THE CHRIS
TIAN RELIGION.
From Irving's Orations.
Ft may be proper to remark, that in the follow
ing paragraphs, the writer uses the phrase divine
constitution, as synonymous with the Christian
religion. His object is “to show by three seve
ral instances, upon the largest, broadest scale,”
the perfect sufficiency of this religion “ to regen
erate the iuot benighted and the most brutalized
of mankind.” Miss. Her.
Our first instance is taken from the ori
gin and first plantation of our faith in the
most luxurious and vicious quarters of the
earth—Rome and Greece and Jerusalem
and the lesser Asia ; where it broke the
hands of personal interest, and made men
generous to the highest pilch of selling all
they had, and pouring thp price at the
apostles’ feet ; laid low and levelled the
dear distinction of rank and place, bringing
the richest with the poorest, the highest
with the lowest, to be served at the same
tables, and supported out of the same com
mon purse. It nerved afresh the Corinthi
an dissolved in pleasure, humbled the tow
ering pride of the Athenian, tamed the
se!fi-h heart of the vain glorious Jew,
and knocked off the fetters of superstitious
idolatry from them a!!, unsealing the dark
ened eye, and- restoring the abused mind
of religion; in doing which it peacefully
set fraud and opposition : naught, until it
fairly overran the nation®, and seated itself
in the high places of their hearts, of their
lives, and of their laws.
Our second instance is taken from the
Reformation, when the divine constitution
smote asunder religious and civil bonds, aod
set many nations free, a® it were, at a sin
gle stride ; in tittle more than the lifetime
of a man, restoring England, Scotland, Hoi
land, half of Germany, and the Scandinavi
an uations to the free use of the facility of
thought, which ten centuries of cunoing
arts had been employed to shackle. The
nations shook themselves as from a sleep;
the barbarous, ferocious people took on pi
ety and virtue, anil the sacred sense of hu
man rights. The Hollander roused him
from his torpid life amongst his many mar
sites, and beat the chivalry of haughty
Spain from his shores, defeating the con
queror of anew world. The German
burgher braved his etnperour, though fol
lowed by half the nations, and won back
his religions rights The English, under
their virgin queen, offered up the Armada,
most glorious of navies, a sacrifice to the
Lord of Hosts. And of my beloved native
country —whose sufferings for more than a
long century, do place her in a station of
honour second only to the VValdensps in
the militant church, and whose martyrs,
alas ! that they should have been to Epis
copal pride arid Protestant intolerance !)
will rank on the same file with those of Al
exandria in the primitive church—of her
regeneration by the power of religion I can
hardly trust myself to speak. Before that
blessed era she had no arts but the art of
war; no philosophy ; no literature, save
her songs of love and chivalry ; and little
government of law. She was torn & .mang
led with intestine feuds, enslaved to arbitra
ry or aristocratick power, in vassalage or
in turbulence. Her soil niggard, her cli
mate stern, a desert land of misty lakes and
hoary mountains. Yet, no sooner did the
breath of truth from the living oracles of
God breathe over her, than the wilderness
and the solitary place became glad, and the
desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.
The high-tPinpered soul of the nation—the
“ ingeniurn perfervidum Scot or um" —which
had routed itself heretofore to resist invas
ions of her sacred soil and spoil the invader’9
border, or to rear the front of rebellion,
and unloose warfare upon herself, did now
arise for the cause of religion and liberty ;
for the rights of God and the rights of man.
And oh ! what a demonstration of magna
nimity we made. The pastoral vales snd
upland heaths, which of old were made
melodious to the shepherd’s line, now rung
responsive to the glory of God, attuned
from the hearts of his persecuted saints. —
The blood of martyrs mingled with our run®
ning brooks ; their hallowed bones now
moulder io peace withio their silent tombs,
which are dressed by the reverential hands
of the pious and palriotick people. And
their blood did not cry in vaiu to heaven for
vengeance. Their persecutors were des
poiled—the guilty race of kings were made
vagabonds upon the earth. The church
arose in her purity like a bride decked for
the bridegroom ; religious principles chose
to reside within the troubled land, and they
Os all the dispositions and hJbitfwhich r’ld m ReheZ'lnl
* P P y, Religion and Morality are itdispensable supports.— Washington.
MOUNT ZION, (HANCOCK COUNTY, GEORGIA,) MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1824-
brought moral virtues in their train, and
begot a national character for knowledge
industry and enterprise, for every domes
tick and publick virtue, which maketh her
children ever an acceptable people in the
four quarters of the earth.
Our third instance o( the power dwelling
in the divine constitution to renovate a peo
ple, and make them great and good, is ta
ken from the present times, and may be
seen in almost every missionary station
over the earth. These, the apostles, the
true dignitaries of (he modern church.have
addressed their undertaking to the lowest
and most degraded of their species; the
West Indian slave, who is bought and sold
and fed for labour, and differeth only from
the ox in that he is not stalled for the butch
er s knife ; the Greenlanders, in whose mis
named region the green of nature doth
rarely bloom; the treacherous islanders of
the South Seas ; the Hottentots, whose
name hath grown proverbial as the ex
treme limit of ignorance. I speak to the
dispassioned and well informed, not to self
sufficient bigots, who will not stoop to pe
ruse the narratives of such low bred men,
nor degrade themselves to turn from the
magazines ot wit and tashion to the maga
zines of methodism and religion—l speak
to honest hearted men, who love the im
provement of their species, however pro
moted, and crave of their justice to ac
knowledge how the constitution of divine
truth, when adopted by those rudest people
hath brought out the thinking and the feel
ing man from the human animal, as pure
metal is brought out of the earthy ore, or
pearly honey droppeth from the waxen
comb ; how the souls of the converts be
come peopled with a host of new thoughts
and affections, and the missionary village
with a hive of industrious, moral andpeace
tul citizens, dwelling in the surrounding
wastes of idolatry and wickedness, like the
Tabernacle ot God in the Wilderness of Sin.
Also, how the missionaries have come into
contact with the high places of power, and
reformed the palace of the king, and pact
fied the spirit of vvarrioura, and made blood
shed to cease. Also, how in our colonies,
the planters, whom long residence among
slaves had dispossessed of British spirit,
have come at length to acknowledge the
humble missionary, and honour him for the
sake of the good fruits of his labours.—
Thus, as in the first ages, the constitution
which God hath given to the earth is stili
continuing to advance its subjects into anew
sphere of being, from the animal to the
spiritual, to disarm the opposition of its
foes, and to triumph peaceably over the
earth.
That religion, pure and undefiled, if
brought into the same contact with the ig
norant and degraded classes of our country,
would work the same humanizing and dig
nifying effects, we do therefore consider as
established by both methods of proof, from
the nature of the thing, and the frequent
experience of the fact. In those three in
stances there is every degree and form of
human society which the world hath seen.
The refined luxury of the classical, the
ihe feudal wildness of the Gothick, the
darkness and ferocity of the savage, all
brought tinder, pacified and meliorated by
the spiritual arts of the divine government.
And if there remain any one 9o unreasona
hie as still to misgive of its prevailing
equally against the abounding ignorance and
iniquity of our lower classes, I have the
vpry fact to appeal to, the successful ex
periment in the hands of the Wesleyan
Methodists. They have grappled with
the most irreducible case of the problem,
and fairly resolved it. Not in England—
perhaps not in the wide world—was there
a more ignorant, dissipated, and ferocious
people, than the colliers of the West and
North, to whom the Wesleyans addressed
the Gospel of Christ with the most di-tin
gnished success ; in every case working a
reformation upon every individual who
joined himself to their communion. And
not only amongst them have they succeed
ed, but amongst the lower classes, in gene
ral,through all the varied conditions of their
life, and all the varied aspects of their ig
noraoce.
ON READING THE SCRIPTURES.
Jin Essay on the different characters amongst
mankind, who are induced to search the
Holy Scriptures , and the general mode of
their perusal.
Like the body, the human mind requires
proper nourishment ; and, unless it is sup
plied with wholesome food, it will, natural
ly,admit the most unhealthy provision ; and
either pine away, under a sort of moral
waste, or become inflated with pride and
self conceit.
Books are the food of intellect; but it is
highly requisite for a man to beware of
poison in the ailiment of his mental taste,
or he may embrace error for truth, and run
into the greatest danger, where be had not
the least idea of impending harm. We are
to take care—both, what we read, and
bow we read ; or, even that which, of it
self is good, may he perverted to our ruin.
Some have wrested the sacred scriptures
from their grand designs, and rendered the
volume of life a bill of indictment against
their own persons ; and, with the voice of
salvation sounding in their ears, sunk down
into the pit of destruction. In this essay,
therefore, we shall introduce the different
individuals, by whom the word of God is,
sometimes, taken up ; and observe the spir
it and manner, io which they read over its
hallowed pages. We begin with—
The avowed sceptick. ‘
He peruses the inspired oracles, with an
air of self importance, a confident tone of
expression, and, sometimes, a pitiful sneer.
He reads them, with a determined hostility
to every sacred principle ; and looks upon
the word of truth, as a moral lie ; the re
cord of heaven, as the basest production
upon the earth ; and the testimony of the
living God, as the grossest imposition of a
dying man. The sceptick reads the holy
scriptures, as a book destitute of evidence,
fraught with contradictions, di-graced, by
the most palpable absurdities, and made up
of all sorts ot false legends. He reads—
not lor instruction, but to confute ; and, by
assuming the supposed superiority of a phil
osophick mind, he becomes a degraded
character, and sinks far beneath the happy
condition of the poorest, and most unletter
ed peasant, who has embraced the word of
God.
“ You cottager, who weaves at her own door,
Pillow and bobbins all her little store ;
Content, though mean,and cheerful, if not gay,
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,
Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night,
Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light ;
She for her humble sphere, by nature, fit,
Has little understanding, and no wit,
Receives no praise ; but,though her lot be such,
(Toilsome and indigent) she renders much ;
Just knows-and knows no more-her bible true-
A truth the brilliant scep*ick # never knew ;
And, in that charter, reads,with sparkling eyes,
Her title to a treasure in the skies.
Ob, happy peasant! Oh, unhappy bard !
llis the mere tinsel, her’s the rich reward ;
He, praised, perhaps for ages yet to come ;
She, never heard of, half a mile from home ;
He, lost in errors, his vain heart prefers ;
She, safe in the simplicity of her’s.”
But, from the avowed sceptick, let us
turn our attention—
To the man of the world.
He may not, professedly, reject the word
of God ; hut he reads it so seldom, feels so
little interest iu its important truths, aud ts
so completely absorbed in secular objects,
that he cannot derive instruction from the
very fountain of knowledge. He is the
Iriend of mammon, to whom God stands ex
pressly opposed; and, white he admits the
inspiration of the scriptures, he, practically,
renounces their claims. He pays the bible
a compliment, and gives it a fair promise
of future attention ; but, at present, his oc
cupations clash with his religious duties.
When he retires from business,or is brought
into a state of affliction, or rendered inca
pable of the pleasures of sin, he proposes
a compliance with the demands of revela
tion : but now, if he reads the sacred word
at all, it is so hastily, so carelessly, and 9o
unfrequently, that he remains without the
least understanding of its great subjects ;
-and is neither competent, uor disposed, to
enter into its hearings of profit and loss—as
a man of pleasure, it does not meet bis taste
—and as one engaged in the pursuits of
commerce, it does not answer his inclina
tion®, in point of gam. But, from the man
of the world, let us direct our thoughts—
To the fickle minded person.
Mow does this individual read the holy
scriptures ? Wilhout any settled plan, or
proper understanding. He passes on, from
verse to verse, chapter to chapter, Si book
to book—not, as the industrious bee, from
flower to flower, to gather their stores ;
hut, with the fleetnes9 of the butterfly, he
ranges the whole extern of the land ot pro
mise, wilhout stopping, to admire its beau
lies, or, even, taste of its fruit. This con
duct reminds us of the spruce macaroni,
who boasted of his happy genius, and ad
duced, as a proof of its superiority to com
mon minds, that he read Euclid—all Euclid,
from beginning to end, in a part of one af
ternoon, between dinner and tea time.—
“‘ Read all Euclid,” replied a gentleman
present, “in one afternoon !—how was
tb&t possible ?”—“ Upon my honour, I did,
and never found smoother reading, in my
life.” “ Did you master all the demonstra
tions, and solve all the problems, as you
went ?” “ Demonstrations and problems !
I suppose, you mean the a’s, and b’s, & c’s;
and l’s, and 2’s, and 3’s ; and the pictures
of scratches and scrawls? No, no; I skipt
all those : I only read Euclid himself; and
all Euclid I did read, and in one piece of
the afternoon, too.” The word of God
must not be read so genteelly ; but,we must
pause, and ponder, over its contents, as we
peruse them, or we shall be kept in a stale
of menial childhood, as long as we live.
Reuben was unstable as water, and there
fore, be could not excel. Fickleness of
disposition stands completely opposed to
the improvements of the understanding, <s■
should be guarded against, as a dangerous
evil. A puerile fonduess for novelty keeps
a man from peace of mind, and expoße9
him to the baneful blast of every pernicious
wind of doctrine.—ls you pul your plant in
to the ground, and then remove it, from
place to place, and from soil to soil, without
allowing it time to take root, and vegetate,
it i*ill die, and yield no frqit ; —and so it is
* Voltaire*
[Price $3 50 per arm.
with the fickle-minded reader of the word
ofGod.
But I now’ behold the approach of—
The theological disputant.
This is not the humble, diligent, holy,
modpst, and judicious divine, or private
Christian, who has searched the scriptures,
for religious instruction, /pels his own insuf
ficiency, and proposes his opinions to the
consideration of others, with an unassuming
air and tone. It is not the man, whose
temper is kind, and object to do good, but
the supercilious individual, who seeks for
victory, rather than truth, and longs to
shine, as a superiour light in the world.
Ask him, “ How readest thou the word
of God ?” And he may very properly say,
“With a high degrpe of self importance,
a proud heart, and an evil spirit.” He
makes the grand subjects of revelation sub
set vient to a preverted taste, reads for ar
gument alone, departs from the path of
peace, lives in a perpetual tempest, and
prefers the waters of Meribah, to the peace
ful streams of Zion.
Bishop Horne was a great enemy to dis
putation, ttnd he observes, that many per
sons spend so much time in contending
about the gospel, that they leave none for
its practice.
It would be well for these people to take
the advice of Lord Bacon : he says, “ Read,
not to contradict and confute, nor to believe
and lake for granted, nor to find talk and
discourse, but to weigh and consider.”
We now pass on—
To the forgetful man.
How does he read the word of God? With
very little advantage. As the book stands
open, and his eyes are fixed upon the sacred
pages, he seems to understand something of
its interesting subjects; but as soon as the
volume is closed, the whole of its contents
appear to depart from his mind. “He is
like a man beholding his natural face in a
glass. For he behotdeth himself, and goeth
his way, and straightway lorgetteth what
manner of man he was.”
Unless we retain what we read, we can
not derive a proper advantage from the
subjects of the inspired volume, therefore,
the memory should be cultivated and
strengthened by all possible means. Let
the truths of God’s holy word be well con
sidered to their perusal; let a man feel their
importance; let him ascertain his own in
terest in the divine promises; let him ha
bitually practice, the pre.cepts of Christian
ity, & he will not soon forget the law of the
Lord.
But we proceed in our inquiries, and ob
serve—
Tlic mere legalist.
This is ihe person, to whom Jesus Christ
him°elf said, “ What is written in the law ?
how readest thou ?” The mere legalist
considers himself a® possessed of the key of
knowledge, and entitled to all the bleedings
of paradise. He thinks he has eternal life
in the scriptures, and presumes upon his
own virtues, as a secure and honourable
passport to enter the kingdom of God.
He has a film over his eyes, which pre
vents him beholding hi® condition, as a ru
ined creature ; and, therefore, he attempts
to escape the gates of hell, and -oar to the
heights of heaven, by righteous deeds of
his own performing.
But, now, let us turn round and behold—
The humble Christian.
How does he read the word of God?
With great attention, fervent prayer for
divine illumination, to understand the sacred
records, humbleness of spirit, devout feel
ings, and faith in Jesus Christ for life eter
nal. He desires to enter into the views of
holy men of old, experience their happi
ness, and adore their Lord. He brings the
doctrines of the gospel into practical ope
ration ; and, the observance of the precepts,
secures the recollection of the principles,
on which they are established. The Chris
tian reads the Bible as the statute book of
heaven—as the great charter oflsrael—as
the will of the eternal God—as the bright
est light of a dark world, and the best relief
of the sorrowful bosom. There he finds
his compass and his polar star; there he
beholds his present defence and future ha
ven of repose; there his Lord meets him,
angels surround him, saints hail him, ene
mies are laid prostrate at his feet, and the
glories of heaven are opened to his view.
What then remains? The full fruition of
a boundless,everlasting, and an unspeakable
state of bliss, at the right hand of Jehovah,
to sing unceasing hallejahs to God and the
Lamb.
Now, reader, how dost thou peruse the
holy scriptures? To which of these classes
dost thou properly belong? Let conscience
do her office—let her speak, and listen to
her voice. Time is passing away, and will
soon close our eyes in death ; and eternity
will open them in happiness or woe, world
without end, according to the character with
which we leave all mortal scenes: there
fore it behooves us all to examine the basis
of our hopes,and see that we stand approved
of God.
Let os search the scriptures, as testifying
of Christ, and look for complete redemp
tion through the blood of the cross. “To
him give all the prophets witness; in him
are all the promises of henve.n established ;
by him, the enemies of God are reconciled