their characters to their association with companions of infidel sentiments, and to their familiarity with the infidel press. It has been my lot as a Christian minister, more than once, to confirm these affecting statements by the unequivocal avowals of infidels themselves, in the last periods of human existence, and also by witnessing in some, once promising characters, the baneful effects arising from the adoption of infidel opinions.

CHAPTER VI.

AN

AFFECTIONATE APPEAL ΤΟ THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN ENTANGLED IN THE SNARES OF INFIDELITY.

WHEN I reflect how many there are whose faith in Christianity has been shaken, and whose minds have fallen a prey to the wiles of scepticism; and, moreover, when I call to remembrance that so many of the young and promising rank among the victims of this moral contagion, I cannot but feel an earnest desire to become an instrument of good to a portion of my fellowcreatures, at once so interesting and so much exposed. O that God would strengthen me to speak a word to unhappy and deluded sceptics! With all the zeal for their salvation that I can possibly give utterance to, would I make my appeal to their judgments and consciences. Let me bespeak their candour. I am conscious of no motive but a desire to honour God, and to

save their souls. Regarding them as the victims of fatal error, I am devoutly anxious to see them extricated from it. Their creed I hold to be alike gloomy and pernicious, and I would shew them a more excellent way, and would introduce them, with a bounding heart, into the light and liberty of Christianity.

What, then, let me ask, has led you to reject Christianity? Have you carefully ex

amined it, and found its evidence defective? If so, where does the difficulty press? If you are really perplexed, ask counsel of some enlightened Christian, and he will readily aid you in disposing of the doubts and misgivings of a mind really sincere. I believe a doubting man may be sincere. There are many volumes suited to your state, and which you might read with the greatest possible advantage. Let me particularly recommend to your attentive perusal "The Gospel its own Witness," by the late Rev. Andrew Fuller; "The Evidences of Christianity," by Dr. Paley; "A Short Method with Deists," by Leslie; Dr. Chalmers' work on "The Christian Revelation," and a work entitled "A

Treatise on the Nature and Causes of Doubt in

Religious Questions."

But let me deal honestly with you, as your friend. Have you all this supposed difficulty about the evidence and the truth of Christianity? Or is your hesitancy of a very different order? Do you feel a repugnance to the holy requirements of Christianity, and a consequent dread of the judgments which it threatens? And does this prompt in you the baneful wish, "O that it might not be true?" Remember what Rochester said"A bad life is the only grand objection to this book;" laying his hand emphatically on the Bible. Has not this been very much the case with you? You have fallen into sinful courses -you have yielded to the ways of the worldyou have gone with a multitude to do evil-you have forsaken your better fellowships-you have learnt to spend your Sabbaths in pleasure, and you have gradually become more and more careless. In this state you have been very unhappy at times; you have thought, well, "what if, after all, the Bible be true! What if, after all,

the wicked shall be turned into hell!" At this

juncture, some one further advanced in scepticism than yourself has aided you in shaking off the galling yoke of conscience. He has put some infidel publication into your hand; you have read it; it has fallen in with your previous wishes and habits; you have said, "This is the very thing I wanted;" and you have, at last, learned to revile the Bible, to set light by its hopes, and to talk slanderously of its professors.

Come now, my friend, and let us reason together. Look back on the process. Why did you so readily drink in the poison contained in the infidel volume? Why? because you were in a state of mind very much the opposite of that which the Bible demands. But what have you found, my friend, in the regions of scepticism? You have relinquished the hopes of Christianity, by Christ Jesus. What have you obtained in their place? Amidst all your acquirements, have you found peace of mind? Will your present character and your present religion sustain you in a dying hour? Multitudes of infidels have found their creed, at death, insufficient to meet the awful catastrophe. Not a single instance can