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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