fortune, or chance. If they worship any divinity, it is prudence. If they bow to any law, it is expediency. Guided by these, they treat falsehood, perjury, hypocrisy, slander, treachery, injustice, and cruelty, as cardinal virtues, so long as they can be made subservient to the attainment of their selfish and unworthy objects. Such men scruple not to take the oaths of office, and to wear the mask of virtue in the high places of authority. They even intrude into the sacred ministry, and habitually violate the sanctity of the altar, in the hope of obtaining a parish, a stall, or a mitre. Were all the infidels of this class unmasked to the world, the laity would stand aghast at the startling disclosure. But prudence so shapes the features and seals the lips, and draws so close the curtains of secrecy, that comparatively few are detected. To lull suspicion, they are frequently loud in their professions of orthodoxy, and zealous as the abettors of persecution. Like the trumpeters, drummers, and baggage-bearers of the army, they keep up a noise while others are fighting, and endeavour to monopolise the spoil when the victory is

won.

There is a tone of levity and an air of gaiety. about prosperous infidelity, which seems to present a contrast to the darker hue with which she

shades the features of her less fortunate children. But this contrast is more apparent than real. The smiles that play on the infidel's countenance, are too often the result of an effort to seem what he is not. Indeed, inward distress, more or less aggravated, is an essential element in his charac-) ter. The under-current of his feelings is bitter; and the gaiety and good humour that play on the surface, resemble the phosphor that illumines the bosom of the dark and troubled ocean. Let some blast of provocation or affliction sweep over it, and mark, a demon scowls where an angel seemed to smile!

I have not exhibited the picture of infidelity in its worst colours. With daring effrontery the gloating monster sometimes discloses his more hideous features. But the depravity of man is bad enough in its ordinary moods, without pursuing it in its onward career till, ceasing to be human, it becomes diabolical. There are degrees in infidelity, and it is susceptible of important modifications. There is sometimes a constitutional tendency to scepticism, where the dreams of the imagination, if not the sentiments of the heart, run counter to the decisions of the judgment, The understanding is right, unless when the fancy soars away into the cloudy regions of speculation. When a youthful, ardent,

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and undisciplined mind gets a smattering of metaphysical or physical science, it is likely, in the former case, to be bewildered in a “mighty maze”—“ without a plan." God and man, mind and matter, good and evil, are wrapt up in the darkest mystery. And in the latter case, the splendid prospects opened up by modern astronomy, chemistry, and geology, dazzle by their splendour, and overwhelm by their immensity, the feeble mind of the tyro in philosophy. These. "shallow draughts intoxicate his brain," and he will not drink deep enough to become sober.

"The Bible," he exclaims, "reveals not this glorious system of the universe, but seems rather to oppose it; therefore, the Bible cannot be from God." Impelled by logic like this, he precipitately abandons the stronghold of faith, and plunges headlong into a sea of doubts.

I have hinted that many persons who outwardly conform to Romanism are really Deists. This is a fact which I can testify from my own experience. But even if it were not sustained by such evidence, we might infer it as a matter of course from our knowledge of the mental and moral constitution of man. The truth is, infidelity is forced upon every Roman Catholic who dares to think for himself. He is taught that unless he receives implicitly every dogma of his

D

church, however repugnant to the dictates of common sense, he is totally destitute of saving faith. The language which the apostle James applies to the precepts of the moral law, is transferred by Papal writers to matters of faith. They tell you that "he that offends in one point is guilty of all;" that he that doubts is damned! It matters not that he firmly holds the essential doctrines of Christianity: if he withholds his assent from any article which the church has thought proper to propose, he is branded as a heretic, and shut out of the pale of salvation. Within the horns of this dreadful dilemma the Church of Rome encloses all her followers. Blind, unthinking credulity, or unqualified infidelity, are the only alternatives which she allows them. Oh, how many thoughtful and honourable minds has she thus compelled to shake off the restraints of religion, and urged forward to the dark abyss of Atheism! To impose a veto on inquiry is to force reason into rebellion against religion, and to place the claims of the Author of the human mind, and those of the Author of Christianity, in a condition of mutual and irreconcileable hostility. But this is putting Christianity in "a false position," and one which must certainly prove fatal to its interests.

I remember well the time when all Protestant

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Even the

books were to me an abomination. writings of ADDISON I have regarded with suspicion. But when I had at last ventured to read the Spectator, the Guardian, the Rambler, and other works of this class, which operated like magic in opening my mind and expanding my faculties, I felt indignant that I had been hoodwinked so long. I was, also, as you know, passionately fond of poetry, which I found to exert a wonderful influence in charming the demon of bigotry from my heart. Guided by the judgment of Dryden, I admired Milton above all modern poets. How must I then have felt when I found the illustrious bard, whose sublime numbers had often wrapt my mind in a species of enchantment, placed by my church in the Index Expurgatorius ?

How invaluable is the art of reading! Had I never been taught to read, I would, in all probability, never have known the way of salvation. This is the art which couches the mental eye. And although we may at first see objects but very indistinctly, and are even liable to be led astray by many a false light,

"Which leads to bewilder, and dazzles to blind,"

yet it is by this art that we are led forth from the gloomy dungeon of ignorance, where the