The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1844-10-09
MISCELLANEOUS.
Christian Religion and its Founder.
By RossEAU.

81 confess that the ma jesty Of the Scriptures
astonishes me-tllat the sanctity Of the gospel
speaks to my heart. View The books Of the
philosophers, with all their pomp, what a little
ness they have when computed with this? is il
possible that a book at once SO sublime and SIM
pie should BIO the work of men? Is it possible
that lie whose history it records should be i.'m-
self a mere man? Is this the style of an entIlu-
siast, or of an ambitious s~ectary7 What sweet
ness, what purity in bis manners! WHAT clcva-
ton in his maxjms !-What profound wisdom in
his discourses!--Wha presence of mind, what
d~elicacy and what business in his replies! What
empire oyer his passions! Where is the man,
where is the philosopher, who knows how to act,
10 suffer and die, without weakness and without
oslenlation' When Plato paints his imaginary
Just man, covered with all the ignominy Of guilt,
and deserving all the honors Of virtue, he paints
Jesus Christ in every stroke Of the pencil!
Their semblance is 50 strong that all the fathers
have perceived it, and that it is not possible to
mistake it. What prcjud,ces, what blindness,
must they have who dare to draw a comparison
between the son Of Sophronipus and the son of
Mary? What distance is there between the one
and the other? As Socrates died without pain
and disgrace, he found no difficulty in supporting
his character TO the end and if his easy death
had MOI shed a lustre on his life, we might have
doubted whether Socrates, with all his genius,
was any thing but a sophlsl, They say that lie
invented morality. Oilers before him had prac-
tised it, he only said what they had done; be on
ly read lessons on their examples, Aristides
had Just before Socrates explained the nature of
Justice ;-Leonidas died for his country before
Socrates made it the duty of men TO love their
country. Sparta had been temperate before So
crates praised temperance, Greece had aboun-
ded in ~virtuous men before he defined virtue.
But where could Jesus Christ have taken fiom
among his countrymen that elevated and pure
morality of which he alone furnished both the
precepts and example? The most lofty wisdom
was heard from the bosom of the most furious
fanaticism; and the simplicity of the most hero.
ic virtues honored the lives of all people. The
death of Socrates, s~erenely philosophising with
his friends, is The most gentle that one can de
sire: that of one expiring in torments, injured,
derided, fevlled by a whole people, is the mos
horrible that one can fear. When Socrates
takes the poisoned cup, he blesses him who pre-
sents it; and who at the same time wecps. Je
sus, in the midst of a horTid punishment, pray
for his enraged executioners. Yes, if the lifi
and death of Socrates are those of a philosopher
the life and death of Jesus Christ are those of
GoD-Shall we say that TIE history of the gos
pei is invented at pleasure2 My friend, it is no
thus that men invent; ana the actions of Socra
tes, concerning which no one doubts, are less Al
tested than those Of Jesus Christ, After all
this is shifting the dif~iculty-rinstead Of solving
it; for it would be more uncomfortable that a mum
Der Of men should forge this book in concer
than that one should furnish the subject of i
Jewish authors would never have devised such
manner and such morality; and the gospel char
acters of truth are SO great, SO striking, so pei
SO perfectly inimitable, that It's inventor woul
be still more astonishing than its hero"
The Boston Post is to blame for the iollowin
conundrum: 0Vby are bustles like historicj
novelist Because they are ~ictons founded 3
fact"
Why is a lady's hustle like cigart 'Caus
ifS manufactured tO-bGcker.