MY DEAR FRIEND

It seems to me that you are unreasonably opposed to destructionism; and that you prefer, without proper authority, the vulgar notion of eternal suffering of pain, to the much more rational and scriptural speculation of absolute destructionism of wicked and ungodly men; and as I am sure that the absolute reduction of man to eternal unconsciousness would be more honorable to God, because more kind to sinners, than an eternal consciousness of pain, I am desirous to show your readers that the absolute annihilation of consciousness is the true destructionism of philosophy, and the uncorrupted Bible doctrine of the everlasting punishment of the wicked. Will you not, then, open your pages to this most interesting subject?

Your Friend,

Vale of Hinnom, September, 1838.

MR. EDITOR

WILLIAM PENN.

As free and full discussion is the order of the day, and as there are many questions yet undecided on all subjects; and most especially in that most engrossing of all subjects, religion, I would humbly propose to you, sir, the propriety of devoting a part of every number to some of those very interesting questions, yet undecided in the Christian world:-Such as, “Who was Melchisedeck?” “Which of the sons of Ham was the father of the Negroes?" "What was the mark set on Cain" "What ultimately came of the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was couverted?" "Where was the prison in which those spirits were lodged who refused to repent under Noah's preaching?" And "What was that thorn in the flesh, that messenger of Satan, that gave the Apostle Paul so much trouble?" Now, my dear sir, as the full exposition and decision of these and other similar most interesting matters would greatly enlighten and reform the world, I hope you will gravely reflect upon the necessity and utility of giving them a full share of your attention.

Respectfully your friend,

The Springs of Helicon, October, 1838.

SOLOMON VIRTUOSO.

REPLY.

Gentlemen,

THE subjects of which you respectively write to me, are, no doubt, of importance in your eyes. To a thousand other persons of your curious and speculative fancy, a thousand other subjects might appear equally interesting; and for the same reasons that I ought to attend to your queries, I would be compelled to attend to theirs; and thus the life of an antediluvian would be occupied in discussing questions, which, after we had done our best, every generation would have to settle for itself, as though we had said nothing about them. Now, gentlemen, as the decision of most, if not all of these questions, cannot make any one better or happier, I do not think that we are at liberty to

occupy our minds on such themes. True, indeed, one or two of these points may be so propounded as to nullify some sayings in the Bible, and in that case might call for some attention; but as they do not yet entrench upon our premises, I must decline the discussion of them, while we have on hands so many practical matters of greater moment. It is not only the simple inutility of such discussions that vetoes our attention to them; nor is it even the positive evil that might accrue to the Christian community from the contagion of such a spirit of uncurbed licentiousness of discussion; but it is the actual loss of time, labor, and money, vainly expended in proving that which no matter how well proved, saves nor sanctifies no man; which, if expended judiciously on the great and glorious matters of the gospel of Christ-of the redemption of the world-of the intellectual and moral improvement of society, might yield a large revenue of glory to God and of happiness to man, in saving sinners and in edifying saints. This is, with us, the controlling reason. the sovereign consideration why we should not waste our lives in such South Sea dreams--why we should not cultivate barren sands on the sea border, while our fertile hills and rich alluvial vallies are undressed and unsown, and consequently unproductive in the good fruits of righteousness and life. What wise financier would invest his capital in the stock of broken companies, where he must ultimately lose, not only the interest, but the principal also! So is every one-preacher, talker, writer, or editor, who fills the ears and the hearts of those to whom he ministers with untaught and unprofitable questions-with abstruse, recondite, and inoperative speculations, rather than the good and wholesome doctrine which is accordi ng to godliness. He invests his labors in stocks that will never yield one cent of profit. He does worse than he who buried his talent in the earth: for in that case he might have saved the principal; but in this, both principal and interest are lost for ever.

Preachers who fill their sermons, and religious authors who fill their pages with matters speculative and scholastic, that cannot reach the heart, that cannot mould the temper nor reform the life, would be more usefully employed in some other business; and those who listen, and those who read, would save both time and money by employing themselves in either acquiring or communicating useful knowledge on any other subject, literary or scientific, rather than in acquiring, under the name of religious knowledge, that which is neither faith nor knowledge, literature, science, nor art.

Universal discussion is neither the right nor the privilege of the Christian. All things that may tend to genuine intelligence, purity, and happiness, are lawful and often expedient; but those that cannot,

are neither lawful nor expedient. In one word, whatever may enlarge our knowledge of the universe, of its natural and moral government— whatever may increase our knowledge of God or of man, and of our relations to the past, present, and future, is both desirable and useful, and constantly to be sought after; but whatever presents to us words for ideas, opinions for facts, shadows for substances, curious speculations for practical principles, men's reasonings instead of God's word, abstractions for realities, is to be contemned and repudiated by every intelligent and pious citizen of Christ's kingdom. For these reasons, gentlemen, and for many others which you may easily infer, I beg to be excused at the present time in declining to discuss your respective hobbies. One of those questions only seem to be of any practical value; and should that become more apparent, I may be induced to notice it hereafter. Meanwhile, I am glad to be excused from the labor of answering a thousand and one such puzzling questions; and hope that I shall be still as acceptable to you as if I had thoroughly refuted your favorite points.

Very benevolently your friend,

Erwinton, S. C., December 3, 1838.

A. C.

THE RELIGION OF EXCITEMENT, AND THE EXCITEMENT OF RELIGION.

In the present day we seem to have more of the religion of excitement than we have of the excitement of religion. The ancient and apostolic plan of first enlightening the understanding by declaring and illustrating the testimony of God, seems to be both too rational and slow for the ardent demands of the proselyting spirit of the age. Our Saviour and his Apostles spoke plain good sense to the understandings of men, knowing it to be God's chartered way to the heart. Paul teaching that "faith came by hearing"-that "hearing came by the word of God"—and that as he "preached so the people believed," was only anxious to declare the whole testimony of God, with its innate and cognate evidences of the divine authenticity. His preaching being first understood and then believed, he knew could not possibly fail to seize the heart with omnipotent power, and turn it to God, and Christ, and heaven. Therefore, he never made an effort to excite the feelings of any audience until he had "declared to them the whole counsel of God." He threw no artificial exciting circumstances around them: he never thought of "an anxious seat," nor of "a mourning bench," and

never called up convicted and trembling sinners to pray for them. These are all of the greenhouse or hotbed appliances of the present day. Our mushroom Christians sometimes grow to perfection in a night, and wither in a day. They have no root in themselves. They are born in the midst of excitement-they live in the midst of excitement, and soon as it wanes they generally sicken and die. They have no taste for religion that demands both reading and meditation as the food of its devotion, and greatly prefer those feelings which a warm exhorter can produce, to all the moral feelings, and refined and purifying sentiments and spmpathies, which the truth believed and read, and pondered in the heart, can awaken within us. They are deluded by the idea that religion is the effect, and not the cause of feeling. Religion, with them, is the fruit of excitement, rather than the root and reason of it. Hence such converts display little or nothing of that constant and powerful excitement to love and to good works, which so visibly and constantly attended the profession of the faith in the New Testament age. The faith of Christ and the consequent hope and joy which simultaneously arise in the heart of a true convert, like the mainspring of a watch, or the primum mobile of any complicated machinery, set our whole frame in motion, and excite to every praiseworthy deed both towards God and man.

The Christian religion is, indeed, a religion of the purest, noblest, and most refined feelings and excitements of which our fallen nature is susceptible. It exerts a constant power upon all the affections and moral sensibilities of our hearts; but it is itself the offspring not of fancy, but of faith; not of excitement, but of reason; not of visions, dreams, or extraordinary impulses, but of the testimony of God, developed and confirmed by the Holy Spirit. It is, in one word, the effect of the Christian truth believed, and not the cause of faith: for it is faith, and not feeling, that works by love, that purifies the heart, and that overcomes the world. A. C.

Erwinton, December 3d, 1838.

BIBLE READING.

NOTHING is more talked about amongst professors, and nothing is less practised, or indeed less understood, in proportion to its acknowledged importance, than the reading of the Scriptures. The Bible is. upon the whole and in general, in churches, families, and closets, a neglected book. It is, indeed, occasionally and statedly read in many churches and in many families; but it is not read rationally nor religi ously; and, therefore, for the most part, fails in being relished, and

consequently in reaching the heart, and in being practically believed and understood.

To be read advantageously, the Bible must be read in the order of its books, at regular intervals, and with a solemn and religious reference to the most exact and full conformity in heart, in word, in action, to all its pure, and holy, and heavenly lessons and precepts. But even this is too vague and indefinite for the exigencies of the times. Permit me, then, to explain:-It was not the design of the Author of the Bible that men should have a synopsis or summary of its doctrine, either before their eyes in writing, or committed to memory. Had such been his design, he would have given us, by the hand of some inspired person, just such a summary as would have been complete and infallible. But he has not done it; and, therefore, such a document would be, to say the least, inexpedient and unprofitable. It would have been a substitute for the constant reading and studying of the Book. Now this is the very thing that the Author of the Bible does not desire. His will is that we be constant readers; that by the constant attrition or wearing of the truth upon our moral nature, our minds may be exactly conformed to the image of Him who breathes into us the Spirit of our God. It is impossible to keep any company long and constantly without catching its spirit and becoming assimilated. Equally impossible is it to be frequently in company with Moses and David, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Jesus and his Apostles, without catching their spirit. This is what God designs and desires in giving us the Bible to read. He would that we catch the spirit, rather than learn the doctrine, of this Holy Book. Now this is the philosophy of the fact, that there is no substitute for constant reading: for although all the precepts and promises, or the whole doctrine of the Bible could be learned or committed to memory, and faithfully retained, it could not serve that special and supreme intention of the Author of this Book, in giving it to us as the means of sanctification and of our being imbued and inspired with the Spirit of our God.

Fortunes, it is now well established, are generally the ruin of their inheritors. The exceptions are just enough to make it a general rule that riches are laid up for children to their hurt. It is cruel in fathers to make fortunes for children: for, in so doing, they deprive them of the pleasure of employing their talents as they have done, and thus throw them, in a great measure, idle upon society. They also prevent them of the pleasure of doing, and ultimately enjoying good; for we are so constituted that our powers of acquiring pleasure must ever be proportioned to our efforts in communicating it to others. And this is a work for which they are pre-eminently disqualified who are taught to live on energies not their own.

Hereditary orthodoxy, or fortunes of sound doctrine, made and bequeathed by our fathers, are still more fatal to their heirs than large inheritances of earthly goods and chattels. If sons are generally ruined in this world by large inheritances from their parents, they are, perhaps, as often ruined in the next world by large inheritances of orthodox sentiments and opinions, of which they are possessed by the wills of their ancestors, without the trouble of reading and thinking for themselves. There are not more helpless cases on earth than the heirs of orthodoxy; for they are infallibly right without evidence, without examination, without any concern of their own. These persons are