Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

tion is not a true exhibition of the God of heaven, but a phantom of our own imaginations; and, if carried out to all its legitimate consequences, would involve an impeachment of the wisdom and intelligence of the Deity, and of the sublime simplicity and order, which characterize his operations in the universe. If the planet Saturn be represented as a globe 900 times larger than the earth, and surrounded with a ring 600,000 miles in circumference, it conveys a very different idea of the majesty of the divine Being who formed it, from what we are led to entertain, when we consider it as only a taper, or a brilliant stud, fixed in the vault of heaven. If the eye of a fly be exhibited as containing ten thousand polished transparent globes nicely adjusted for the purpose of vision, it displays the character of its Maker in a different light from that in which we might be disposed to view it, when this animal is represented as a nuisance in creation, and designed only to be mangled and tortured by a cruel and unthinking school-boy."

In some instances the inaccurate statement of a physical fact, or the false colouring put upon it, may have a tendency to endanger the eternal interests of mankind. Mr. Brydone, in his "Tour through Sicily," states, on the authority of a priest, named Recupero, that, in sinking a pit near Jaci, in the neighbourhood of mount Etna, 46 they pierced through seven distinct lavas, one under the other, the surfaces of which were parallel, and most of them covered with a bed of thick earth." From suppositions founded on questionable data, he concluded, that "it requires 2000 years or upwards to form but a scanty soil on the surface of a lava," and, consequently, that "the eruption which formed the lowest of these lavas, must have flowed from the mountain, at least 14,000 years ago." This pretended fact was, for a while, triumphantly exhibited by sceptics, as an unanswerable argument against the truth of the Mosaic history; and its publication has, no doubt, tended to stagger weak minds, and to confirm the infidel in his prejudices against the truth of Revelation. But it has been shown by eminent geologists, that the facts alluded to are grossly misstated and that no vegetable mould exists between these beds of lava; and, consequently, the argument founded

But

upon them goes for nothing. Mr. Brydone himself, in the very same volume in which these pretended facts are stated, before he had advanced twenty pages farther in his account of the regions about Mount Etna, states a fact which completely overturns all his preceding reasonings and calculations. In describing the country near Hybla, as having been "overwhelmed by the lava of Etna, and having then become totally barren," he adds, "in a second eruption, by a shower of ashes from the mountain, it soon reassumed its ancient beauty and fertility.” So that it is here admitted, that, instead of requiring a period of 2000 years, a bed of lava may speedily be transformed into a beautiful and fertile region. even although such facts were fairly represented,-yea, although Mr. Brydone and the Canon Recupero could have proved, to a demonstration, that the strata of the earth is not only fourteen thousand, but fourteen hundred thousand years old, it would not in the least invalidate a single assertion contained in the Mosaic history; for Moses describes only the arrangement of the earth into its present form, but no where asserts, that the materials of which our globe is composed were created, or brought out of nothing, at the period at which his history commences. The circumstance, however, to which I have now adverted, shows us of how much importance it is, in many cases, that even a physical fact be fairly stated, as well as the moral facts and the doctrines contained in the Scriptures. For, since every fact in the economy of nature, and in the history of providence, exhibits a certain portion of the divine character, a very different view of this character will be exhibited, according to the different lights in which we view the divine operations. And therefore, every one who wilfully misrepresents a physical fact or law of nature, is a deceiver, who endeavours to exhibit a distorted view of the character of the Deity. It is nothing less than a man "bearing false witness" against his Maker.

Again, veracity is of infinite importance in reference to our future improvement in the eternal world. In that world, we have every reason to believe our knowledge of the attributes of God will be enlarged, and our views of the range of his operations in creation and providence extended far beyond the limits to which they are

now confined. But the Divine Being himself, from the immateriality and immensity of his nature, will remain for ever invisible to all finite intelligences; and hence he is described by the Apostle, as "the King Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible, whom no man hath seen or can see." It is, therefore, not only probable, but absolutely certain, that a great portion, perhaps the greatest portion of our knowledge in that state, will be derived from the communications of other intelligences. With intellectual beings of a higher order we shall hold the most intimate converse; for we are informed, that "just men made perfect" will join "the innumerable company of angels." These beings are endued with capacious powers of intellect, and have long been exercising them on the most exalted objects. As messengers from the King of heaven to the inhabitants of the earth, they have frequently winged their way through the celestial regions, and surveyed many of those glorious systems which lie hid from the view of mortals. We have every reason to believe, that they have acquired expansive views of the dispensations of the Almighty, not only in relation to man, but in relation to numerous worlds and intelligences in different provinces of the empire of God. And, therefore, they must be admirably qualified to impart ample stores of information on the sublimest subjects, to the redeemed inhabitants from our world. From the communications of these intelligences we may derive information of the order and arrangements of other systems; of the natural scenery of other worlds; of the different orders of intellectual beings who people them; of the means by which they are carried forward in moral and intellectual improvement; of the most remarkable events which have happened in the course of their history; of the peculiar displays of divine glory that may be made to them, and of the various changes through which they may have passed in the course of the divine dispensations.

But the utility of all such sublime communications, and the delightful transports with which they will be accompanied, will entirely depend upon the immutable veracity of those moral intelligences who shall be employed in conveying information respecting the divine plans and operations. No fictitious scenes and narrations will be inven

ted, as in our degenerate world, to astonish a gaping crowd; nothing but unvarnished truth will be displayed in that world of light; and the real scenes which will be displayed, will infinitely transcend, in beauty, in grandeur, and in interest, all that the most fertile imagination can conceive. Were a single falsehood to be told in heaven, were the tongue of an archangel to misrepresent a single fact in the divine economy, or were the least suspicion to exist that truth might be violated in such communications, the mutual confidence of celestial intelligences would instantly be shaken; and, from that moment, their intercourse and their happiness would be destroyed. Hence, we are repeatedly told, in the book of Revelation, that, "Whosoever loveth, or maketh a lie, shall in nowise enter within the gates of the new Jerusalem." And, therefore, every one who expects to be an inhabitant of that happy world, ought now to cultivate a strict regard to truth and veracity in all his researches, intercourses and communications; otherwise he cannot be admitted, from the very constitution of things, to the society of saints and angels in the realms of bliss.

Thus it appears, that truth is of the utmost importance to all rational beings, as it forms the source of our knowledge, the foundation of all social intercourse, the ground of our present comfort and future prospects, the basis of all the views we can take of the divine character and operations, and of all our prospects of future improvement in the eternal world. It is the bond of union among all the inhabitants of heaven; it is the chain which connects the whole moral universe; and it constitutes the immutable basis on which rests the throne of the Eternal.

In the depraved society of our world, truth is violated in ten thousand different ways. It is violated in thoughts, in words, in conversation, in oral discourses, in writings, in printed books, by gestures and by signs, by speaking and by remaining silent. It is violated in reference to the character of our neighbour, when we invent tales of falsehood respecting him; when we listen with pleasure to such tales when told by others; when we sit mute, and refuse to vindicate his character when it is unjustly aspersed; when we endeavour to aggravate the circumstances which may have accompanied any criminal action;

when we make no allowances for the force of temptation, and the peculiar circumstances in which the criminal may have been placed; when we fix upon an insulated act of vice or folly, and apply it to our neighbour as a general character; when we rake up, with a malevolent design, an action which he has long since reprobated and repented of; when his character is made the subject of jest or merriment, and when, by smiles, and noddings, and gestures, we insinuate any thing injurious to his reputation.It is violated in promises-when we promise, either what we have no intention of performing, or what we had no right to promise, or what is out of our power to perform, or what would be unlawful for us to execute. It is violated in threatenings, when we neglect to put them in execution, or when we threaten to inflict what would be either cruel or unjust. It is violated in history, when the principal facts are blended with doubtful or fictitious circumstances; when the conduct of liars and intriguers, of public robbers and murderers, is varnished over with the false glare of heroism and of glory; and when the actions of upright men are, without sufficient evidence, attributed to knavery, or to the influence of fanaticism; when the writer construes actions and events, and attributes to the actors motives and designs, in accordance with his own prejudices and passions, and interweaves his opinions and deductions, as if they were a portion of the authenticated records of historical fact. It is violated in the invention of fictitious narratives, and in the relation of marvellous stories, when the system of nature is distorted, historical facts caricatured, misrepresented, and blended with the vagaries of a romantic imagination; when scenes, events, and circumstances, "which never did nor can take place," are presented to the view, merely to convey a transient gratification to trifling and indolent minds.

It is violated by men of science, when they give an inaccurate statement of the results of their observations and experiments; when, either through carelessness or design, they give an unfair representation of the facts and principles in nature, in order to support a favourite system or hypothesis; and when they studiously keep out of view the various circumstances in which every fact should be contemplated. It is violated in the literary world, when

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinua »