Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1830-08-04
ROUSsEAU'S OPINION
OR THE BIBLE AND IT'S AUTHOR

loNC lOI It's dutuoi, anu thC iIosl uiuSht
desire to obey its precepts. Never did
virtue speak so sweet a language; never
was the most profound wisdom expressed
with so much energy and simplicity
No one can arise from its perusal without
feeling himself better than he was be-
fore.
The majesty of the scriptures strikes
me with astonishment, and the sanctity of
the gospel addresses itselfto my heart
Look at the volumes of the philosophers,
with all their pomp: how contemplate do
they appear in comparison to this! Is it
possible that book, at once so simple and
sublime, can be the work ofman? Can he
who is the subject of its history, be him
self mere man? Was his the tone of en-
thusiast, or of an ambitious sectary?-
What sweetness! What purity in his
manners! What an affecting gracefulness
in his instructions! What sublimity in his
maxims! What profound wisdom in his
discourses What presence of mind,
what sagacity and propricty in his an
swers! How great the command over his
passions! Where is the man, where the
philosopher, who could SO live, suffer and
die, without ostentation! When Plato
described his imaginary good man, COW
cred with all the disgrace of crime, yet
worthy of all the rewards ofvirtue, he de-
scribed exactly the character of Jesus
Christ. The resemblance was so strik-
ing, it could not be mistaken, and all the
Fathers of the church perceived it. What
prepossession, what blindness must it be,
to compare the son of Sophronicus to the
son of Mary! What an immeasurable dis
tance, between them! Socrates, dying
without pain, and without ignominy, cas-
lily supported his character to the last;
and if his death, however, had not crown
cd his life, it might have been doubted
whether Socrates, with all his wisdom,
was any thing more than a mere sophist.
lie invented, it is said, the theory ofmor-
al science. Others, however, had before
him put it in practice; and he had nothing
to do but to tell what they had done, and
to reduce their examples to preccpts.-
Arstides had been Just, before Socrates
had defined what justice was; Leonldas
had died for his country, before Socrates
had made it duty to love ones country
Sparta had been temperate, before Soc
rates had eulogised sobriety; and before
he celebrated the praises ofyirtue, Greece
had abounded with virtuous men. But
from whom of all his countrymen could
Jesus have derived that sublime and pure
morality, of which he only has given us
both the precept and example? In the
midst of the most liccntious fanaticism,
the voice of the sublimcst wisdom was
heard, and the simplicity of the most he
roic virtue crowned one of the humblest
of all the multitude.
The death of Socrates, peaceably phi
losophising with his friends, is the most
pleasant that could be desired! That OF
Jesus, expiring in toments, outraged, re-
viled, and execrated, by whole nation,
is the most horrible that could be feared.
Socrates, in receiving the cup of poison,
blessed the weeping executioner who pre-
sented it; but Jesus, in the midst of ex-
cruciating torture, prayed for his mcrci-
less tormentors. Ycs if the life and death
of Socrates were those of a sage, the life
and death of Jesus were those Of God.
Shall we say that the evangelical history
is a mere fiction? Ii does not bear the
stamp of fiction, but the contrary. The
history of Socrates, which nobody doubts,
is not so well attested as that of Jesus
Christ. Such an assertion in fact only
shifts the difficulty without removing it,
Il is more inconceivablc that number
of persons should have agreed to fabri-
cate this book, than that one only should
have furnished the subject Of it.
The Jewish authors arc incapable OF
diction, and strangers to the morality con-
tained in the gospel, the marks of whose
truth are so striking, so perfectly inimita,
bic, that the inventor would be more as.
tonishing man than the hero.