The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-12-28
Letter from John Randolph.

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Letter from John Randolph.
The Rev. Septimus tt stn has communicat ed
to the Washington Union the following hitherto
unpublished letter from the eccentric but highly
intellectual orator Of Virginia. the Hon John Ran
doph Of Roanoke. 1t was written 10 his half bro.
ther, the Hon. Henry st. John Tucker:
The Letter.
May He who has the power, and always the
will when earnestly, hum5ly, and devoutly en-.
treated, support and comfort you, my brother! |
you in your surviving children, and their mother
dearer than all these put together No; have felt
too deeply how little power have words that play
round the head to reach the heart when 1t 10 sorey
at the tongues end of all the self-complacent and
satisfied, from the pedant priest to the washerwo.
man. (They who don't feel can TALK ALLURE
them all The father Of Lord Russell, when con
would not give my dead for any other mans
living May this thought come home to your boz
som, too; but not on the same occasion. May the
spirit OF God, which is not the chimera of heated
brains, nor device OF artul men TO frighten and
cajole the credulous, bnt is much existence
that can be felt and understood the whispe rings
OF your own heart or the love you bore to him that
you have iost-may the Spirit, which is the COM
cline your heart and understanding to the only
right way, which is that Of life eternal! Did you
ever read Bishop Buffers Analogy? If not will
send it to you Have you read the Book! What
say upon this subject not only believe, but know
to be true-that the Bible. studied with an humble
and conrite heart, yet failed to do its work,
even with those who from idiosyncracy or disor
dered minds have conceived that they were cut
off from its promises Of life TO come.
"Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall
find; knock and it shall be opened unto you" This
was my only support and stay during years of
misery and darkness, and just as l had almos.
itence and prayer, it pleased God to enable me to
see the truth, TO which until then my eyes had
been sealed. To this vouchsafement have made
the most ungrateful returns. But | would not give
up my slender portion OF the price paid for
redemption--yes, my brother. our redemption
the ransom of snners-of all who do not hug their
chains and refuse 10 come out from the house of
bondage-I say that would not exchange my
little portion in the Son of David for the power
and glory of the Parthian or Roman empires,
described by Milton in the temptation Of our Lord
and Saviour, not for all with which The enemy
tempted the Saviour of man.
This is the secret of the change of my spirits,
which all who know me mus, have observed with
in a few years past. After years spent in umbe
and contrte enireaty that the tremendous sacrifice
on Mount Calvary might not have been made in
vain for me, the chiefest Of Sinners II pleased God
to speak his peace into my heaTt-,hat peace of
God which passeth all understanding to them that
know it not, and even TO them that do. And al
though have now, as then, to reproach myself
with time misspent and faculties mise IN ploy ed !;
although my condition has On m.re than one
cason resembled that of him who having one evil
spirit cast out, was taken possession of by seven
other spirits more wicked than the first. and the
first also yet trust that they, too, by the power
and mercy Of God, may be, if they are not, van
pushed.
But where am running tor On this subject
more hereafter. Meanwhile, assure yourself of
what ia of small value compared with that of these
who are piece of yourselt-of the unchanged re-
gard and sympathy Of your mothers son. All!
my God! remember to have seen die--to have
followed her TO the grave-to have wondered that
the continued to rise and set, and the order of
nature 10 60 on gnorant Of true religion, but
not yet an atheist, remember with horror my i'm.
pious cxpostulatlons with God upon this be, cave.
inent-"but not yet an atheist" The existence of
atheism has been denied; but was honest one;
Hume began and Hobbs finished me. l read
Spinoza and all the tribe. Surely fell by no
ignob!e hand. And the very man - who
gave me Hume's Essay upon Human Nature' to
read, administered "Beattie upon Truth" as the
trcac!e against arsenic and the
essential oil Of bitter almonds-a bread and milk
poultice for the bite Of the cobra capello
Had remained q successful political leader ]
might never have been q Christian. But 1t pleased
God that my pride should be mortified; that by
death and desertion should lose my frends; that,
except in the veins of maniac, and he, too, pos
sessed "of child by a deaf and dumb spirit,'
there should not run one drop of my fathers blood
in any living creature beaides myself. The dtath
Of Tudor finished my humiliation. had tried all
things but the refuge to Christ, and to that, with
pa ntai stripes, was driven. Often did cry out
with the father Of that wretched boy, "Lord!
thou mine unbelief;" and the gra-
ciops mercy Of our Lord to this wavering faith,
gerng under the force Of the ha I'd heart of
belief, humbly hoped would in his guod time, be
attended to me also-St. Mark, vii, l7-29.
Throw Revelation aside, and i can drive any
man by irresistible induction to atheism. John
Marshall could not resist me. When say man,
mean capable OF logical and consequential
Deism 10 the refuge NJ those that star
lie at atheism and can't believe Revelation; and
my -, (may God have forgiven US both. and
myself used, with Diderot & Co, TO laugh at the
deis'ica bgots who must have milk, not being
able to digest meat. All theism is derived from
Revelation-that Of the laws confessediy Our
own Ia from the same source-so is the false reve-
Ia ton of Mahomct; and ! can't much blame the |
Turks for considering the Franks and Greeks to
be idolators Every other idea Of God that
oats 10 the world 10 derived from the tradition Of
the sons Of Noat handed down 10 their postcrity
But cnough-and more than enou GIL can
scarcely guide my pen will, however. add that
no lukewarm seeker ever became a real Christian;
for from he doys Of John the Baptist until now,
he king dom of heaven suGsreth violence, and the
iolent take II by iurce"-a text which 1 read five
hundred times before had the 81 gh,cst copcep.
ion of its true apphc alton.
Your brother,
J r, of Roanoke
To II ST. G.. TUCKER, esq.