C. J. N. WHITTLESEY AND J. H. CARLIN

Propose publishing a weekly Journal, in the town of M'Lemoresville, Carroll county, Tenn, to be entitled, THE UNIVERSAL PHILANTHROPIST, AND BEACON OF TRUTH.

In presenting ourselves before the public, in the attitude of publishers of a weekly Journal, custom, as well as an abiding sense of obligation to our patrons, renders it incumbent upon the part of the Editors to make a brief statement of the course they intend to pursue in the editorial arrangement. In doing this, however, we deem it unnecessary to enter into an elaborate discussion,

The Beacon of Truth will advocate no particular sactarian doctrine; but will ever defend, with uncompromising zeal, the principles of primitive Christianity. A sinall portion of it, however, will be devoted to the interests of the agriculturista-to scienceto moral virtue, and the whole to the best interest of mankind. We deem it superfluous to add any more, as we will enter at full length into an explanation of our principles in the first number of our paper.

TERMS: The Universal Philanthropist and Beacon of Truth will be issued weekly on an imperial sheet, at $3,00 per annum, in advance; $3,50 within six months; or $4,00 within the year. No paper to be discontinued until all arrearages are paid, except at the option of the Editors.

N, B. All letters sent to the Editors on business must be invariably post-paid, otherwise they will not receive attention. Post-Masters and other persons to whom this prospectus may be sent, will please act as agents. Any person procuring five subscribers, and forwarding their subscription to us, will be entitled to one copy for one year, gratis. M'Lemoresville, June 19th, 1839. Subscriptions received at this Office.

WHAT A SERMON SHOULD BE.

BY JOSHUA MARSDEN,

IT should be brief: if lengthy it will steep
Our hearts in apathy, our eyes in sleep;
The dull will yawn, the chapel lounger doze,
Attention flag, and memory's portals close.

It should be warm; a living altar coal,
To melt the icy heart and charm the soul;
A sapless, dull harangue, however read,
Will never rouse the soul, or raise the dead..
It should be simple, practical, and clear;
No time spun theory to please the ear;
No curious lay to tickle letter'd pride,
And leave the poor and plain unedified."

It should be tender and affectionate,

As his warm theme who wept lost Salem's fate;
The fiery law with words of love allay'd,
Will sweetly warn and awfully persuade.

It should be manly, just, and rational,
Wisely conceiv'd, and well express'd withal;
Not stuff'd with silly notions, apt to stain
A sacred desk, and show a muddy brain.

It should possess a well adapted grace,
To situation, audience, time, and place;

A sermon form'd for scholars, statesmen, lords,
With peasants and mechanics ill accords.

It should with evangelic beauties bloom,
Like Paul's at Corinth, Athens, or at Rome:
While some Epictetus or Sterne esteem,
A bleeding Jesus is the gospel theme!

It should be mix'd with many an ardent prayer,
To reach the heart, and fix and fasten there;
When God and man are mutually address'd,
God grants a blessing, man is truly blest.

It should be closely, well applied at last,

To make the moral nail securely fast:

Thou art the man, and thou alone, will make
A Felix tremble, and a David quake!

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the GOSPEL which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein ye stand: by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” 1 COR. XV. 1-4.

WHEN the Sybil offered her books to the king of Rome, and he refused to give the price required, she destroyed a part of them, and returned, demanding the full price for the remainder. What was only pretence in respect to the oracles of the Sybil, is really true of the revelations of God, which are so far above all price, that no value could be placed upon the whole of them which would not be as much possessed by every part. Nevertheless it may be boldly affirmed of that particular portion which contains the history and evidences of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection: that here, as in a focus, is concentrated every thing which gives light, beauty, meaning, or value to the whole.

Among the causes, indeed, which have contributed to produce the present confused state of the Christian profession, there has not been one more efficient than the sentiment that the whole Bible is a doctrinal treatise upon Christianity; and that the gospel is so equally diffused throughout the whole, like the blood in the human system, which may be made to flow from every part, that it may be found indifferently any where from Genesis to Revelation, and equally in the prophecies of Balaam, or the song of Solomon, as in the testimony of Matthew Levi or the Acts of Apostles. This view of the scriptures places the mind at once upon the wide ocean, careless by what gale or to what country it may be driven. Where every fact or incident is regarded as equally important, all become at the same time alike uninteresting; where there

is no distinction, there can be no arrangement; where there is no beginning, there can be no conclusion. As well might a person suppose that light is universally diffused throughout nature, and that he could possess himself of it by putting into his pocket the shining pebbles by which it is reflected. To direct his attention to the sun as the true source of light, would not sooner interrupt the labors of such a virtuoso, than would the proper exhibition of the simple facts of the gospel give a new turn to the investigations of the modern Bible student, That all scripture given by inspiration is profitable for the various purposes for which its different parts are designed, and that it is al necessary to the perfection of the godly man, is cheerfully admitted. But what we would insist upon is this: that it is with the gospel facts we have first and chiefly to do; that it is by these we are first met on the part of Heaven; and that these not only comprise all that is necessary, so far as the Christian faith, and the salvation of the sinner is concerned, but involve necessarily and immediately the consideration of all preceding and succeeding revelations. Like the rich clusters of the vine in which the new wine is found, there is a blessing in them; and like these same clusters also, which are both the first in design and the last in production, the gospel facts (Christ and him crucified) are the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega of revelation. În short, there is not a principle of action, or an exhortation to duty; a hope or a privilege; an institution or a doctrine in Christianity, which is not deducible from these simple facts, as the oak is evolved from the acorn, or the leaf unfolded from the bud. We would not be understood to say, however, that human reason could have made these deductions, any more than that human power could bring an oak out of an acorn. Christianity is as much beyond the reason of man, as the works of nature are beyond his power. The eyes of Reason could not even perceive its existence, unless it were revealed by the light of faith, and unfolded in its maturity by the efficient influences of a divine agency. Yet it is no sooner thus presented, than reason at once perceives the absolute and necessary connexion which subsists between its different parts; the relations of principles and laws; of facts and results; of means and ends; and is enabled to trace the steps of that inductive process by which the whole has been elaborated from a single germ.

Wo have spoken in our last essay of the simplicity of the gospel as a means of salvation, and endeavored to show that this simplicity is not only an evidence of its divine origin and perfection, and in accordance with the economy of nature; but that the gospel is by this means adapted to the capacity and understanding of those to whom it is addressed-human beings indiscriminately, rich and poor; high and low;

earned and illiterate. We have now to show that the gospel facts, with all their simplicity, are pre-eminently adapted to arrest and interest the attention of all, and that they are precisely suited to the wants and circumstances of the human family.

When the Apostle Peter first stood up, with the eleven, to announce the gospel to the Jews, his heart failed not and his voice faltered not, from any forebodings that the news he bore would prove either uninteresting or unsuited to his audience. On the contrary, he felt nerved with the conviction that the simple tale he had to tell would cause the ears of all to tingle, and their hearts to bleed. And the event justified his confidence; yet, after all, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ were the themes on which he dwelt. Nor, again, when directed by the Spirit to the house of the first Gentile converts, whose minds were filled with the highest expectations which a celestial visitant could excite, did he draw upon imagination for unheard of marvels, or upon reflection for cogent and ingenious reasoning. He could think of nothing better suited to the momentous occasion, than an unadorned detail of the facts in Christ's history, which not only proved adequate to the salvation of the hearers, but had power to bring down miracles from heaven.

The first declaration of the gospel is, that "Christ died for our sins." The question immediately occurs, Who is Christ? Being informed that he is the Son of God, the querist, if an idolator, again inquires, And who is God? And no sooner is he taught that God created the heavens and the earth, and that this glorious Being has deputed his only begotten Son as a messenger to the human race, Chan his mind is overwhelmed with the illustrious character of the messenger and the mission. Ear cannot hear, nor can it enter into the imagination to conceive of any annunciation which could be made to man so well calculated as this to seize upon his attention and enchain his soul. The honor conferred by an embassage from heaven to earth, from the King eternal, immortal, and invisible to poor transitory mortals, is itself transcendant; and when this is enhanced by the noble lineage and lofty character of the envoy, and the peculiar nature and dignity of the offices he fills, it becomes overwhelming to every one who has a mind to understand or a heart to feel.

But it is said that this illustrious person "died for our sins." And who would not be interested here? Death is a word of awful and peculiar meaning to all. Sin is a term of deep significance to the whole race of Adam. Every one feets himself touched here, and perceives the direct and immediate relation which the first fact of the gospel bears to himself and to all mankind, death having passed upon all men, for

that all have sinned. It is a revelation calculated to interest not merely the poor, but the wealthy; not merely the peasant, but the prince. It has no peculiar adaptation to any particular individual, to any single city, district, or country; but is alike interesting and important to all.

The same may be said of the other facts of the gospel. Interested in death, we are interested in the habitations of the dead-our future abode. When we are informed that one of such glorious origin was buried, our thoughts wander around his tomb, and we are curious to know the event. How deeply affecting, then, becomes the joyful annunciation that Christ is risen from the dead! There cannot be any thing conceived of such absorbing interest to the human race as a fact like this. A resurrection from the grave! How strange! How joyful! How glorious! There lives not the human being who would not be startled at the first announcement of an occurrence so wonderful in itself, and so intimately connected with the highest hopes and the greatest fears of man.

It is apparent, then, that the facts of the gospel, notwithstanding their extreme simplicity, are precisely of such a nature as to touch the human family where they feel most acutely; and that they are preeminently calculated to arrest the attention of the whole race of Adam, so that the missionary from civilized Europe who bears the message to the distant islands of the ocean, is conscious that he is possessed of tidings which will interest the uneducated savage of Autralasia as much as it has the cultivated inhabitants of his native land.

R. R.

SCEPTICISM.

LETTERS TO B, A SCEPTIC—No. VIII.

My dear Friend,

ALLEGHENNY CITY, September 9th, 1839.

BUT to return to the ancients: when I think of those great men, (and perhaps, for the times they lived, good men,) I am led to exclaim with the Psalmist, "Who can understand his errors?" that is, without divine illumination; as the benighted wanderer might exclaim, "How shall I find my way without some friendly lamp to guide me?" In religion they themselves felt a painful lack-a fearful uncertainty. As Alcibiades was going one day to the temple to pray, Socrates met him; and on being told his object, he said to him, "You ought to wait till it shall please the gods to make a revelation to you instructing you how to worship them acceptably." But in morals they probably thought themselves perfect; yet they esteemed nothing immoral that