Elizabeth-Town gazette. [volume] (Elizabeth-Town, N.J.) 1818-1821, 1819-01-26
colour. 1t is Juggernauti it is the god
Of Hindostan!

lips circular, and the tongue vibrating as il
serpent were speaking by their organs.
Now the horrors of the scene thicken
The car that bears the idol moses on, and
as it slowly moves, the wheels, psest down
by the ponderous weight above, deeply ill.,
dent the ground. And now is the moment
for the devotees Of Juggernaut u pay him
their last and most acceptable homage -
they fall PROSTATE, women as we'll as men,
before the moving wheels which support
his throne, aid are crushed into the earth.
Their dead bodies are cast forth as prey
TO ravenous beasts and birds; polIuting
the atmosphere, which the worship of Jug
gernaut renders constantly foetid and
Ioathsome.
The human mind in infancy has been
compared, and in some respects Justly
compared, to blank sheet of paper. 10
one material point, however, the COMPARE
son fails. The sheet of paper acquires no
impression of characters, until they are
purposely imprinted by the band of the
writer. If you fOrbear to impress the
youthful mind with ideas and sentiments,
you cannot prevent it from receiving i'm
pressions from the persons and objects with
which it is daily conversant. The mind
is originally an unsown field, prepared for
the reception of any crop and if those
to whom the culture of it belongs, neglect
to fill it with good grain. it will speedily be
covered with weeds. If right principles
of action are not implanted, wrong princi
pies will sproat up. If religion be not fos.
tered, irreligion will take root. To keep
the mind during series of years, in a
state of perfect indifference as to the truth
or faIseheed Of the prevailing religion Of
the country, would be impossible; and
we're it possible, the effect would be, that
these, who are brought up to the age Of ma
turity, without the slightest inclination to
any particular religion, would remain in
different to all religion as long as they liv-
ed. Let us ask these declared enemies of
every proceeding which may bias the
youthful mind, with regard to religion,
whether in other respects, they act up to
their own principles? Do they inculcate
on their children no clemens Of knowi-
edge, no motives of action, no rules OF
conduct? They will express surprise at
the absurdity Of the question. They will
tell us, and they will tell us truly, (and
they might extend their observation with
equal Justice to religion, that to train up
children without knowledge, without max
inns of moral behaviour, lest their opinions
on those subjects should be BIASED, would
be as unphilosophical as it would be to
prohibit them from walking, that when ar
rived at years Of discretion they might de-
eide, uninhuenced by the prejudices of
habit, whether they would travel on two
legs or on four. The usual defect of judg-
ment in the manner of iupressing the
principles of Christianity appears to me
to consist 10 two circumstances LIST, They
are commonly inculcated 10 the form OF a
dry authoritative lecture, whence religion
is rather dreaded as an austere monitor
and relentless Judge, than loved as the giver
of present and future happiness. 2ndly,
They are presented to the understanding
rather as truths to be implicitly received
on the credit of the teacher, and on the
ground of their established prevalence,
than as truths resting on the solid basis of
fact and judgment, aud inviting at all times
the closest investigation of their certainty
Of which the mind is capable. am aware
that, during certain period of childhood,
it is true no less in the case of religion,
than of other branches Of instruction, that
the truths and propriety of many things
must be received by the pupil on the cred
it Of the instructor, because the mind is
not then competent TO judge OF the proofs
by which they are established. Yet even
during that period it seems to me general
Iy desirable, and particularly On the SUBJ
iect of religion, that the pupil should be
apprized both of this necessity and the
cause of it; and should be taught to ex-
pect that ample information will be af-
forded as soon as he shall become fully ca
pablo of understanding it. AS the intel
iectuaI faculties expand, the more obvious
proofs of religion ought to be gradually
developed. And 10 the concluding years
of education, the prescribed studies un-
questionably ought to comprehend the
leading evidences of Christianity, arraug-
ed with simplicity, but in regular order.
conveyed in familiar, but not uninteresting
language, comprised within moderate
compass, and Invested of learned referen-
ces and critical disquisitions.
The practice Of requiring children to
employ French prayer-books and bibles
ought to be abolished. Its effect is tc
withdraw the mind from every sense o.
devotion, aud to make the acquisition OF 3
few foreign words and phrases rank higher