CHRISTIAN TRUTH,

LETTER I.

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL.

Religion of the Heart.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

So

many years have elapsed since our acquaintance commenced, and our intercourse has been of that peculiar nature, that we have not only had a general insight into the character of each other, but we have really, as if we had windows in our bosom, seen into the interior of the heart. I cannot, therefore, but feel it a compliment paid to my heart, still more than to my understanding, that you should have requested me to express my opinions on that religion, which, at the same time that it is the religion of truth, is, in its very essence, a religion of feeling.

B

With pleasure do I acknowledge that I know you to be a man of amiable qualities, and desirous of judging right on the most important of all subjects; that you are inclined to the performance of those duties which your country, but still more your Creator, requires, of attendance on the services of your church, but you are zealously anxious to be, not only nominally, but really, and from full conviction, a Christian.

It need hardly be observed, how great is the multitude who adopt the religion of their country, without ever troubling themselves to investigate its tenets, or examine the grounds on which the grand truths depend.

This submission to established doctrine is, in some degree, laudable, as it marks a tractable and amiable disposition, and is greatly preferable to haughty rejection, and sullen scepticism; but still, it is only submission, and not conviction. Such unenquiring Christians are walking

accidentally in the right path, but, as they cannot be certain that they have not mistaken the road, every passing traveller may induce them, by misrepresentation, to change their course, and to wander in the paths of error.

Those who have not had the advantages of a liberal education, cannot possibly search deeply into the evidences of Christianity; they can learn only the plain principles expounded to them by the ministers of the church, and be convinced that those principles are set forth according to the authority of the inspired scriptures, and then their belief arises from deference to the word of God, and not to the traditions of men. Such men require only to be convinced that God has declared and revealed particular truths, and then they give an unqualified assent to those truths, although they may be beyond, and above their comprehension, because, they know that the word of God must be true, and therefore,

they walk by faith and not by sight; this is the plain meaning of our Saviour's declaration, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein." But when we consider the case of those, whose instruction has been such, as to enable them to reach a considerable eminence in literature and general knowledge, and who apply the powers which they have acquired to researches of different kinds, but all of them of a secular and temporal nature, it can never be considered as justifiable, in persons blessed with such advantages, to neglect applying their minds. to the knowledge of religion. When we are expressly enjoined by Christ to "Search the scriptures," no rational person will approve of those who are inclined to search into every thing else rather than into the truths of divine revelation, and who are so absorbed by temporal matters, that they never attempt: to discern any thing that is of a spiritual