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Miscellany.

THE PROFESSED INQUIRER. Two persons were passing along in a street of a great city. A crowd was collected at a certain spot, and there was an exhibition of depravity adapted to awaken very sad emotions. "What wretched beings those are!" said Mr. Selvin, "and how gloomy are their prospects for a future world!"

"What do you think will become of them in the next world?" said Mr. Loring.

"It is not for me to decide respecting the future destiny of any fellow mortal; but judging from their present conduct, there is every probability of their being lost for ever."

"If the Bible be true."

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'Very well: no one will object to that." "There are some who would have us receive the Bible without proof-by faith, as they call it."

"I have never seen any such persons. God does not require us to receive the Bible without regard to evidence. He requires us to believe nothing for which there is not the amplest proof. He requires us to exercise our reason about the Bible and religion just as he requires us to exercise it about anything else."

"There are not many who think so."

"I beg your pardon; there is no intelligent advocate of Christianity who thinks otherwise. All the numerous books written in defence of Christianity proceed upon this principle, that a man is under obligation to believe that, and that only, for which there is sufficient evidence. You say you have doubts respecting the truth of the Bible. Do you find a lack of evidence?"

"I have never met with evidence enough to carry conviction to my mind. I must

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"Have you studied the evidences of the truth of the Bible ?"

"Most, if not all books of that kind, have been written by men who had an interest in making out that the Bible is true."

"They were written by the friends of the Bible, it is true. You would not expect the enemies of Christianity to write books in its defence. You are an earnest believer in the doctrine of Free-trade. I presume you studied the arguments written by those who believe the doctrine?"

"Yes, but I read those on the other side also."

"Very well; but on the principle hinted at above, you should have confined your reading to the works of Protectionists alone. The question in regard to any subject of discussion is not what does the writer believe, but what force have the arguments he offers? Do they prove the position taken? If they do, we must yield the assent of our understanding."

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Our belief does not depend upon the will. We cannot give or withhold the assent of the understanding by an act of will."

"I grant it; but what has that to do with the matter in hand?"

"It shows that I am not to blame for not believing, even if the Bible should happen to be true."

"Suppose you were an officer in the army, and an order should arrive from head quarters-or rather; suppose you should be told that an order had arrived for you to go to a particular place; you doubt the fact-you think it very improbable. In consequence, you do not go to the place indicated. Suppose, when you should be called to an account for disobedience of orders, you should say, 'I did not believe that any such order had been given, and my belief does not depend upon my will. I acted in accordance with my belief, and am therefore not to blame.' Would they clear you?"

"It is not a supposable case." "Why not?"

"If such an order had been sent, it would have been sent in writing, or with some means of authentication, which would have left no room for doubt."

"I grant that. Suppose a subaltern

should come to you and say, 'I am commissioned by the colonel to tell you that there are, at his quarters, orders under the hand and seal of the commander-in-chief, directing you to go to a particular place,' &c. You do not believe him. Would your scepticism save you from being punished for disobeying orders?"

"In that case it would be my duty to go to the colonel's quarters, and see if the orders were there."

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Certainly it would. And you are bound to act the same way in regard to Christianity. You are told that the Bible is from God, that there is abundant evidence of that assertion. You must examine that evidence candidly, and then, if it is not sufficient to induce belief, you may plead as an excuse the fact that belief does not depend upon the will. If there is not evidence enough to convince a candid understanding that the Bible is true, God will excuse one for not believing it. But it does not appear to me that you have examined the evidences of Christianity at all."

"I have thought upon the subject a good deal."

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No, not in course; but I presume I have read it all, first or last, and some parts of it a great many times."

"Have you noticed the marks of truth which its pages bear?"

"I confess I found more grounds for objections than anything else."

"I am afraid you read with this end in view."

"It seems to me that if the Bible be from God, its truth would have been made plain to all. As it is, only a very few have time and capacity for the study of the evidences of Christianity. How many persons have time and patience to study Butler's 'Analogy,' for example?"

"Not many; but the study of Butler is not necessary in order to learn whether Christianity is true or not. A sufficient amount of evidence to convince a candid mind can be learned in a few hours, though the study of a lifetime would not exhaust it."

"I must still contend that matters so

important as those the Bible contains, provided it be true, would have been made so plain, that no one could doubt them."

"I do not see the ground of that remark. The truths of geometry are very important to men, but they are not so revealed to men as to supersede the necessity of study. So of the truths of astronomy, and indeed of all the sciences. In rendering study necessary to the reception of moral and religious truth, God has pursued the same course in the moral that he has in the natural world. You have rejected Christianity without examining its evidence: what would Geometricians say if you were to reject Euclid's Elements without examination?"

"There can be no such objections brought against Euclid as there are against the Bible."

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"I beg your pardon. An acute and sophisticated mind can start objections to truths that have been mathematically demonstrated, and objections which, I will venture to say, you would not be able to answer. Would such objections, even if you could not answer them, shake your belief in a truth that had been demonstrated? For example, suppose one should bring objections to the truth of the proposition, that the square of the hypothenuse of a triangle is equal to the square of the legs; you have gone through the demonstration of that proposition, and know it is sound. Could those objections shake your belief?"

"No."

"Well, objections, even if they cannot be satisfactorily answered (which I do not admit), should not shake our belief in the truth of Christianity, provided its truth has been proved by sound arguments."

"I agree with you, with this differencein the one case, there is demonstration; in the other, there is not. If Christianity could be mathematically demonstrated, then objections to it would go for nothing. Give me mathematical proof of the truth of Christianity, and I will believe it."

"You believe there is such a place as Berlin ?"

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"Yes."

"Absolute certainty, then, can be attained on evidence other than mathematical. If, then, a truth is certainly proved by direct evidence, then the objections which are brought against it, objections foreign to that evidence, go for nothing."

Yes, but you must not take for granted that Christianity is certainly proved."

"You have no more right to say it is not, when you have not examined the evidence, than you have to say that the propositions of Euclid are not demonstrated before you have examined the demonstrations. I affirm that it is certainly proved. Thousands who have carefully examined the evidence on which it rests, affirm the same. The truth is, my dear sir, you have rejected the Bible without examination. You call yourself an inquirer, but you have only inquired for objections. You would not have pursued this course in regard to any other science. In regard to the plausible objections which are brought against some unimportant points, though I have shown that they cannot neutralize the direct evidence, even if they could not be answered, yet I do not admit that they cannot be answered. I have seen no objection that has not been satisfactorily refuted."

"I think you take too much for granted in your reasoning in favour of the Bible. So far as appears, Christians in early times were very uncertain which books to regard as true, and which as false. The Gospel of Mark was, it seems, received as scripture by only a small majority of votes."

"I thought you were one of those who received as truth that only which is supported by evidence. You have received an assertion by an infidel--an assertion not supported by the slightest shadow of evidence. It seems you give ready credence to propositions which are unfavourable to Christianity, but refuse to receive or examine those that are favourable to it. That is not becoming a logical man. If you would call yourself an inquirer, begin to inquire with earnestness and candour. Examine the claims of the Bible with impartiality; lay aside prejudice, and come to the examination of the question in the same spirit you would come to the examination of any other question which depends upon evidence. If you will do so, you will soon merge the character of an inquirer into that of a believer."

A THRILLING SKETCH. ONE of my father's brothers, residing in Boston at the time when the yellow fever prevailed to such a frightful extent, became a victim to the pestilence. When the

first symptoms appeared, his wife sent the children into the country, and herself remained to attend upon him. Her friends warned her against such rashness. They told her it would be death to her, and no benefit to him, for he would soon be too ill to know who attended upon him. These arguments made no impression on her affectionate heart. She felt that it would be a long life of satisfaction to her to know who attended him, if he did not. She accordingly stayed, and watched with unremitting care. This, however, did not avail to save him. He grew worse and worse, and finally died. Those who went round with the death-carts had visited the chamber, and seen that the end was near. They now came to take the body. His wife refused to let it go. She told me she never knew how to account for it; but though he was perfectly cold and rigid, and to every appearance quite dead, there was a powerful impression on her mind that life was not extinct. The men were over-borne by the strength of her conviction, though their own reason was opposed to it.

The half-hour again came round, and again was heard the solemn words, "Bring out your dead!" The wife again resisted their importunities; but this time the men were more resolute. They said the duty assigned to them was a painful one, but the health of the town required punctual obedience to the orders they received; if they ever expected the pestilence to abate, it must be by a prompt removal of the dead, and immediate fumigation of the infected apartments.

She pleaded and pleaded, and even kneeled to them in an agony of tears, continually saying, "I am sure he is not dead." The men represented the utter absurdity of such an idea; but finally, overcome by her tears, again departed. With trembling haste she renewed her efforts to restore him. She raised his head, rolled his limbs in hot flannel, and placed hot onions on his feet. The dreaded half-hour again came round, and found him as cold and rigid as ever. She renewed her entreaties so desperately that the messengers began to think a little gentle force would be necessary. They accordingly attempted to remove the body against her will; but she threw herself upon it, and clung to it with such frantic strength that they could not easily loosen her grasp. Impressed by the remarkable energy of her will, they relaxed their efforts. To all their remonstrances she answered, "If you bury him, you shall bury me with him!" At last, by dint of reasoning on the necessity of the case, they obtained from her a promise

that if he showed no signs of life before they again came round, she would make no farther opposition to the removal.

Having gained this respite, she hung the watch upon the bed-post, and renewed her efforts with redoubled zeal. She kept kegs of hot water about him, forced hot brandy between his teeth, and breathed into his nostrils, and held hartshorn to his nose; but still the body lay motionless and cold. She looked anxiously at the watch, and in five minutes the promised half-hour would expire, and those dreadful voices would be heard passing through the street. Hopelessness came over her; she dropped the head she had been sustaining; her hand trembled violently, and the hartshorn she had been holding was spilled on the pallid face. Accidentally the position of the head had become slightly tipped backward, and the powerful liquid flowed into his nostrils. Instantly there was a short, quick gasp a struggle; his eyes opened! and when the death-men came again, they found him sitting up in the bed! He is still alive, and has enjoyed unusually good health. Mrs. L. M. Child.

AMERICAN SLAVE HUNTING. THE frightful cruelties described in Uncle Tom's Cabin, have often been regarded by many as too atrocious to be possible in a Christian country, in the nineteeth century. A case described in the New York Tribune, as having occurred within the last few weeks in the State founded by, and bearing the name of William Penn, exceeds in cold-blooded cruelty anything described by Mrs. Stowe.

Writing from Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvannia, on Sept. 3rd, a correspondent of the Tribune, says:

"A most disgraceful and brutal occurrence took place here this morning, which I shall take the liberty of communicating to you, thinking it probable that no other person here may take the trouble. Being an eye-witness, I have given nothing but what you may rely upon as facts.

"About seven o'clock this morning, an attempt was made by a person calling himself Deputy Marshal Wynkoop,' (a brother to Col. Wynkoop), another answering to the name of 'Joe Jenkins,' and three other assistants from Virginia, to arrest as a fugitive slave, a coloured waiter in the diningroom of the Phoenix Hotel in this place. Immediately after receiving their breakfast at the hands of Bill,' the unsuspecting fugitive, who is a tall, noble-looking, remarkably intelligent and active mulatto, nearly white, they suddenly, from behind, knocked him down with a mace, and par

tially shackled him; but, by a desperate effort, and after a most severe struggle, with the whole five upon him, he shook them off, and with the aid of his handcuffs, which were only upon his right wrist, he inflicted some hard wounds on the countenances of some of the Southerners, the marks of which they will probably carry to their graves. But, notwithstanding the fearful odds against him, he managed to break from their grasp, and, with the loss of everything upon him but a part of his shirt, and covered with blood, he rushed from the house and plunged into the river close by, exclaiming, I will be drowned rather than taken alive.' His pursuers fired twice at him on his way to the river without checking his speed; and on reaching the bank, they presented their large revolvers and called on the fugitive, who stood up to his neck in the water, to 'come out and surrender himself, or they would blow his brains out.' He replied, 'I will die first.' They then deliberately fired at him four or five different times, the last ball supposed to have struck on his head, for his face was instantly covered with blood, and the poor fellow sprang and shrieked out in agony, and no doubt would have sunk, but for the buoyancy of the water holding him up. The people around, who had by this time collected in large numbers, were becoming excited, and could no longer refrain from crying out 'Shame, shame!' which had the effect of causing the Southerners to retire a short distance, in evident consultation. The slave, not seeing his pursuers, came to the shore; but not being able to support himself in the water, he lay down on the edge, completely exhausted, became senseless, and was supposed to be dying; on hearing which, the slave-catchers remarked coolly, that 'Dead niggers were not worth taking South.' Some one shortly brought a pair of pantaloons and put on the fugitive, who, in a few minutes, unexpectedly revived, and was walking off from the river, partly held up by another coloured man, named Rex; on seeing which his pursuers again headed him, drew and presented their revolvers, and called upon him to stop, threatening to shoot any one who assisted the fugitive. The white friends of Rex instantly shouted, 'Stand away! Stand away, Rex! you'll get shot too." This was bad advice, as they would not have dared to shoot at that time, and it had the effect of encouraging the pirates, who kept advancing towards the fugitive, and at the same time intimidated Rex, who drew back, exclaiming to the slave, Put, Bill, to the water again; don't be taken alive!' The poor fellow, seeing himself alone, for there was a general draw

back on the revolvers being presented, turned and plunged into the river again, where he remained upwards of an hour, with nothing above water but his head, covered with blood, and in full view of the hundreds who lined the high banks. His claimants dared not to follow him into the water, for, as he afterwards, remarked, 'He would have died contented could he have carried two or three of them down with him.' In the mean time, some of the citizens, thinking there was no law justifying such barbarity, were taking means to have the kidnappers arrested. Judge Collins, one of our most respected citizens, and several others, questioned them as to their names and authority; to which they replied, 'He was more like a lunatic than a Judge,' &c. They soon, however, saw the sentiment of the community was strong against them, and drove off before an officer could be found to arrest them. A telegraphic dispatch to the constable in Hazleton caused their detention there; but he was overawed by such pompous United States officers, and they were allowed to go again. After their departure, the fugitive, afraid to come out there again, waded some distance up stream and got out above, and was found by some coloured women flat on his face in a cornfield. The women carried him off to a place of safety, dressed his wounds, and at night he will be far on his way toward Canada.

"Such are the plain, unvarnished facts. You cannot overstate the barbarity of the scene, the excitement of the people, or the ferocity of the slave-catchers; but, having recently felt the rigours of the Fugitive Slave Law here, there was a general fear of the officers, who bullied and browbeat any one who ventured to speak above his breath, exclaiming occasionally, 'Gentlemen, you can have him for 1,000 dollars! but we are United States officers; resist us at your peril.'

"We felt ashamed," says the Tribune, "of our country, and almost longed to be in Austria or Russia, where human rights are more respected."

In the same month, the Carrollton Star, a respectable Louisiana journal, gives the following:

"We grieve for the honour of our town, to have to record an inhuman outrage practised on the body of an old negro of this place, named Johnson, the slave of Charles Hines, by Hines himself, which resulted in death. The negro was nearly ninety years of age, and universally venerated for his soberness and honesty, as well as for his revolutionary reminiscences. The monster master, taking umbrage at

some petty offence, deliberately whipped, stamped, and kicked him to death, on Saturday last. The fellow feigned sickness, as is supposed, to cover a design of escape; and even had the blasphemous hardihood to affect a fear of immediate death, and to go through the funeral farce of making a public will. Officer Kener left two deputies in guard at his residence till Monday, when the body of the negro was disinterred, and an inquest held over it by the Coroner. The unanimous verdict of the Jury-several physicians being present also assenting-was that he died from the effects of the blows and kicks he had received from his master. Persons who witnessed the examination, say that the sight was sickening-his whole back cut and bruised into a jelly, and the lower part of his body nearly kicked to pieces. Immediately after the inquest the monster was taken to jail. Let him go down to fame hand in hand with Legree-a hideous verification of that horrible villain."

CONDENSED CHRONOLOGY.

A large part of the time and labour devoted to the study of history is generally lost, because pupils obtain no welldefined idea of the chronology of the events recorded. For the same reason, these pupils will, in subsequent life, read history with very little pleasure or profit, and will be likely to prefer other and less profitable reading.

To remedy the defect above named, we know of no plan so successful as to have a general outline of chronology thoroughly committed to memory by every scholar, and frequently reviewed during the whole course of instruction.

The following, compiled from various sources, has been used by the writer for several years, and with the most gratifying results.

Chronology treats of the computation of time and the dates of important events; it is of two kinds-Astronomical and Historical. Astronomical chronology treats of the computation of time; historical chronology, of the dates of important events. Historical chronology is divided into ancient, medieval, and modern.

Ancient chronology extends from the creation, B.C. 4004, to the fall of Rome, A.D. 476, a period of 4,480 years. Mediæval chronology extends from A.D. 476, to the discovery of America, 1492, a period of 1,016 years. Modern chronology extends from 1492 of the present time, a period of 361 years.

Ancient chronology is divided into three great portions by the deluge, and the

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