siness and pleasures, to occupy their wonted place in your thoughts and efforts; and so will glide down in the current of worldliness till the day of probation is past, and no place for repentance and redemption is found. Oh, remember, sir, that your existence has commenced and is never to end! Those susceptibilities to high enjoyment and keen suffering are never to cease! Eternal ages are opening their long vista before you. A period is coming when after millions of years are past, you will look back to just this point of your existence, with such intense interest as now cannot be conceived. Will it be with feelings of exulting gratitude and praise, or will it be with intolerable self reproach, unutterable regret, and endless despair?

Truly your friend,

MY DEAR SIR,

LETTER XV.

In regard to the character of God, and the ordinary association with which it recurs to your mind, I have no doubt your experience is similar to that of many others.

That children and youth are too much accustomed to look upon God as a stern, severe judge, watching for their faults and strict to mark iniquity, rather than as a kind, and a sympathising, father and friend, I have myself had reason to observe. The defects which you point out in the instructions of our religious teachers, where they do exist, I attribute to these causes. In the first place, Unitarians and Universalists commonly attempt to sustain views that lessen the fear of mankind in regard to future eternal punishments, by such representations of the character of God, as I have no doubt are true, but from which they draw false deductions. They paint him as a pitying and sympathising father and friend, and when they have gained that point, they contend that such a

A

being will not punish for sin with "everlasting destruction."

Their opponents instead of allowing the truth of the picture, and showing that such a lovely being is just the one who must and will punish, if it is necessary to sustain justice, law, and equity, and that his declarations are to be relied on, when he asserts this necessity, have rather been led to draw another view of his character, and represent God as stern in justice, severe in feeling, and inflexible in purpose, while they too much neglect the gentler features of his character. In sustaining their representations they have relied much on the expressions and exhibitions of the Old Testament, without sufficiently regarding one consideration, which I will suggest for your reflection in studying that part of the Bible.

You will often find, especially in Unitarian and sceptical writers, that the sentiments of the Old Testament, and the God of the Old Testament, are spoken of as very different from those of the New, and as far more imperfect and incorrect. Now any thing is perfect, when it is entirely and exactly adapted to secure the object which is designed. Suppose now you had gathered a little community of vagabond children, some liars, some thieves, and all ignorant, vulgar, and depraved. Suppose you selected the oldest and best among them as overseers and directors, and then were to draw out a code of rules to regulate their conduct, and appoint the sanctions for enforcing these rules.

You would begin first with the greatest essen

tials, and knowing that you could not make them do every thing right, you would omit much that you would attempt to enforce in a community of children, who were brought up by intelligent, refined, and virtuous parents. In regard to the motives to enforce obedience, you would use severe measures, much more than would be necessary for children of another character, and those who were appointed to manage them, would dwell much more upon the penalties, and upon your character as a strict and decided man, who would enforce these penalties whenever it was necessary, than they would need to do with children of another character. Now a wise man in judging of your code, and the conduct and representations of your overseers, would compare them not with the standard of abstract perfection, but would take into view the circumstances of the case, and would deem them perfect, just in proportion as they were calculated to accomplish the improvement and reformation of the commuty for which they were intended.

It is thus, that we are to judge of the Old Testament writings. They are records prepared for a "stiff necked, hard hearted race," who for four hundred years had been subjected to the most debasing slavery, among a most degraded people, and their Divine Legislator instituted a system, which for them was perfect, that is, it was the best possible system for such a people in such circumstances. This I imagine is the key for unlocking much that often perplexes in the Old Testament; and shows why so much that was evil was tolerated,

or not made a subject of legislation. It was as our Savior says, "because of the hardness of their hearts" God gave them such regulations, and such exhibitions of his character, as were best fitted for their character and condition, and in this aspect the Old Testament is as perfect as the New. But it is not correct to judge of these writings by the standard of abstract perfection, as if intended to disclose an entire and perfect standard of right, nor to take the exhibitions of the character of God, as made to the Jews, as the complete and full display of his character. It was the view best suited to them in their circumstances and with such a character and such habits as they possessed. I suppose that the character of our Savior in the New Testament is the full, consistent and complete exhibition of the character of God, and yet there are no stronger or more full declarations of the awful sanctions of eternity than came from his lips.

In regard to the character of God as it is disclosed both in his works and in his word, I believe that there is not a single trait which is the means of awakening affection in minds constituted like ours, that is not fully disclosed. Will you follow me a few moments while I point out those particulars which are found to be causes of affection, and then trace their manifestations in the character of Him whom we are created to love and obey.

The following I think you will find to include all that can be pointed out as the means of awakening affection in the human mind; personal beauty, physical strength, intellectual superiority, the power