Smyrna times., 1857-06-10


or its expressions may have become obsolete
and, In some instances, the learned translator
may have mistaken the sense of the original
The difficulties which arise thus, though serI
GUS are not insuperable, but may be overcome
by careful and patient research and just here
we may remark that it was these apparent dis
crepancies, contradictions, &c, which caused
the publication of " The Bible Defended" The
passages of Scripture which have served as tar
gets for the Infdels, are taken up SeriGtinl, be-
ginning with the account of the creation and
ending with the last Divine revelation, theil
original meaning applied TO the times and habits
when spoken, difficulties in translation explain.
ed, &c, in uery brief, but pointed manner.
in the first part of the book, brief review
of the leading points of skepticism lis given
which serves as an introduction to the manner
of treating the subject as pursued by the author
We cannot do better than to quote few para
graphs on the Deistical dogma that the nature
of God may be learned from His works, or, in
other words, that there is no need of revela-
tion such as the Bible:
"And where is man to learn perfect rule Of
life ! Must he follow the dictates of his own
heart! Then lust will be his monitor and pas
sion his guide. Shall he appeal to the nations
of antiquity Among these their captiv9s,
slaves and children were murdered with impu-
nifty, Gnd thousands
'Rutchered to make Roman holiday
Lying, theft, adultery and crimes of foulest
dye,were frequently, constantly practlsed; their
altars were often stained with human blood,
and their temples polluted with shocking obsce-
mites.
"Is he, turning from these, TO follow the pre-
cepts of philosophers and Legislators of anti
quity! What authority have these to teach
him BY what right do they demand his obedi-
ence! Clearly they are without authority
But whom of them is he to listen to! Zeno
and Diogenes sanctioned many impurities: Ly-
curgus and Solun legallzed lnf-nrlclde; DracO
punished all crimes with blood; Plato advocu-
ted u community of wives; Aristotle was bitter
and revengeiul the Catos cruel and immoral
And modern lniGel philosophers are not much
above these IN morality. One of these tells us
that "phy yscal good Is the rule of virtue, and
physical evil ia the rule of VICE" But such
rules are both deficient and lmpractIca ble.-
/ mere are virtues WHICH 40 not result III pnySI-
cal good there are vices not attended with
physical evil; there is physical good which
does not arise from virtue. The lightning rod
on my house results in physical good, but 1t was
not necessarily virtue that put II there and so
of Thousand other occurrences in life. An
lnfdel work now before me say, That course
which on the whole tends 10 produce the great
est amount of physical good is virtuous
course" But how Is man to determine What
course will produce the greatest amount of ply
slcal good He cannot depend upon the tcstl
mOny of others; for, on the suppOslton that a
revelation exists many would decide on that
basis,-on the supposItlOn of no revelation,
opinions would still be conflicting, therefore
every man must decide Tor himself, and when by
his long experience he might make some sort
OF determination, il would be useless; habits
would be fixed and death at hand. Therefore,
without the Bible there ls no sufficient rule ot
life.
And where is man to learn his future desil-
ny! If he appeals TO ancient philosophers, one
tells him his soul is material, another that il
will be transmitted through beasts and birds,
another that it will be absorbed into the Deity.
All /, darkness and confusion. He asks-Is my
soul inmortal-lf go, what shall be it's doom or
destiny Cicero doubts-Casar denes-Se-
neca wavers.
"Here nature fails: the material cannot reveal
the mysteries of the spiritual. THIS world
speaks for itself alone, it cannot speak for ano-
ther. Here | stand upon the crumblng brink
of time; every moment some portion of my
resting place drops into the deep abyss, aud
threatens next to plunge me into It's untathoml-
able depths Clouds and darkness thicken
around me. From what part OF nature shall
come the beam to llume the future Where
has she hidden the Promethean ire which may
light me through the valley of death! Every
thing within aud without impelS me forward
! good God into what Here IufdelIty fail,
me, PHILOSOPHY fails me, Reason fails me, and
but for the Bible, there would remain nothing
but to leap, with the hopeless desperation of 4
suicide, into the profound gloom aud perish for
ever"
The plan of the author, in taking up and re
futing the lnidel objections to the various pas
sages, verse by verse, we thnkthe most prope
for general reading, as well as book of refer
ence; ard we hope the author will, in anotbe
edition, enlarge and extend the arguments ST
ably introduced in the present volume.