The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 184?-1851, 1844-08-14

the moral det4RquencteS OF man RdOe upon s''o
creation around him.
A stranger might infer from the articles appear
ing in one portion of our newspaper press, that
the people of the United States have not only ad-
iured the Christian religion but deny the exls-
tence of any Supreme Being who regards this
world or concerns Himself with the affairs OF ma
tions or the conduct of men. Nothing, IN thelr
estimation, is so hypocridcal as TO profess belief
in God and Providence; nothing so malignant as
to point to events as governed by His general
laws or directed by His interposition; nothing so
false as to impute the calamities Of the country
to the wiekedness of its rulers.
We cannot conceive that any considerable por
ton of our countrymen concur in this opinion or
are actuated by this feeling. They are not pre-
pared to reject, not only the teachings OF nspra-
tion. but the evidences within and all around
them, that there is Being infinitely superior to
ourselves, who has moulded and balanced the
globes of the universe, opened the fountains OF
life, filled mmensity with the wonders of his hand
and sustains the whole by His presence and His
power.
Without coming over the lessons which nature
teaches, let us turn to that Boob whence the
Christian and uncvilized world draw their reli-
gion, and whose sublime precepts form The moral
code, without some regard TO which, society call
not exist.
The very first principle presented by the Bible
as the foundation Of the Jewish and Christian
Religions, is, that all the disorder and confusion,
privation and pain, misery and death, which make
this world Hospital, rocked with storms and re-
sounding with groans, are attributable to mans
transgressions. To Adams violation OF his Ma
ker's command lis ascrlbed not only all the cor
poreal suffering and mental agony which has fall
len or may fall upon him and his race until flames
envelope the earth, but the pain and death OF the
entire brute creation, and even all the disorders
ofthe physical world YES the first principle of
the Bible is, that one mans transgresson Of the
moral law, not only brought suffering and death
upon the myrads of unofendng innocents which
have sprung from his loins, but upon the beast
of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the
sea, the creeping thing however minute, the stalk
ing monster however gigantic, on all the ele-
ments of creation and on nature herself
1t is now considered monstrous, by portion
of our press, to speak of the death of unolendlng
individuals, as proyidcntal dispensaton, con-
nected in some inscrutable way with the moral
conduct of others. To such we put the question
in all seriousness, what had Adams defendants
of this day, to do with his original transgresson?
Why should the gentle dove and innocent lamb
suffer and die because Adam snned? Why
should mans moral conduct bring the Eagle from
his heights or Levathan fEomh his depths, decay
ing carcase upon the plain or on the shore? Why
should the deprivation and arrangement of mans
moral faculties, change the zephyr into tornado
charge the clouds with thunder and let loose the
Lightning to shattcr and kill, breathe malaria
through the air and mix poisonin the food ofman
and beast, cover the Heavens with blackness and
shake the earth in all its caverns, lift the ocean
and fling down the mountains? Can ye answer
this, ye arrogant men, who charge your neighbor
with malignty, hypocrisy and faIsehood, because
he tells you, that your own moral delnquencies
and the sin of nation, may have spread war
ming signs around you, and brought dsappolnt-
ment, suffering and death upon those who were
innocent of your crimes?
But let us look forward in the Good Bank and
trace this principle in the dealings of God with
men,
In the 9th and 9th Chapters of Genesis, we
are informed that on account Of the corruption
and violence with which the earth was filed the
Lord brought flood of waters upon it the result
of which is thus stated in the 7th Chapter
Yer. %. "And every living substance was des
troyed which was upon the face of the ground
both man, and cattle, and the creeping things
and the fowl of the heaven; and they were des-
troyed from the earth; and Noah only remained
alive and they that We're with him in the ark"
What had the CATTLE or the beasts, or the fowt
Of hedUen, or the creeping things TO do with the
corruption and violence which induced the Rule
of the Universe to destroy every thing Sin whose
nostrils was the breath Of life?" What offence
had the millions of drowning infants committee
who were not yet old enough to breathe praye
or lisp curse? Yet, in consequence OF man
corruptous and violence, "tho fountains OF thC
great deep were broken up" and the innocen
and the guilty. 'severy living substance" on earth
broad surface, perished in the Overwhelming
flood.
CHRISTIAN, is it not so?
Every reader is familiar with the signs, tn
omens and the plaques which terrified and aflc
!ed ancient Egypt on account of the refusal G
Pharaoh to lei the Children of Israel go. TIL
rod of Aaron became serpant, the river was tul
ned into blood, frogs filled the house of the EgyF
tians, myriads of lice covered man and beas
grieyous swarns Of flies appeared, all the cattl
ofEgypt died bos were made TO break forth O
man and beast, thunder and rain mingled wit
fire, smote man, beast, herb and tree, devourin
Locusts then covered tie land, followed by thre
days of total darkness
But all these signs, and omens, and catastrC
phes were insufficient to extort obedience fTor
the faiihless and obdurate monarch. AS a las
blow, all the first born of Egypt were destroye
in one awful night.
Exodus, Chap. H. YER 30. "And it cam
to pass, that b, midnight the Lord smote oil tn
first born in the land Of Egypt from the first Dor
Of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firs
born of the captive that was in the dungeon, an
the first born Of cattle.
y