days, when his mind is strongest, his judgment most ripe, his character good,-that by the mere force of truth, after the fullest, most careful, most patient, and, so far as his prejudices, affections, passions, associations and interests attaching him to religion will permit, a most impartial examination of the whole question, a man may become an infidel.

13. That a man may be a powerful and popular preacher, may gain the highest honors in the church, may have all the pleasures and advantages that Christianity and Christian society and friendship can give, and yet, through the force of truth, become an infidel.

14. That a man can be a martyr for infidelity-can sacrifice income, reputation, friends, and subject himself to reproach, persecution, desertion, treachery, toil, want, and griefs more terrible than death itself, out of respect to what Christians call infidelity.

15. That a man may become an infidel without ceasing to love his wife or children, or losing his interest in the cause of human improvement, or degenerating in character in any way whatever. Nay, that a virtuous man may become an infidel, and yet become more virtuous; be more kind, more tolerant, more gentle, and more just.

16. That a man may become an infidel without becoming a coward, a hypocrite, a time-server;-may become an infidel and yet maintain his independence, preserve his courage, and be more brave and manly than while he was a Christian.

17. That a man may become an infidel without losing his cheerfulness, his love of life, and his relish for its innocent pleasures, or his delight in the society of cheerful, happy, and agreeable people. That a man may become an infidel without becoming gloomy, melancholy or misanthropic.

18. That a man may really regret having been a Christian ;-may regard the days he spent under Christian influences, and the labors he devoted to the propagation of Christianity, as wasted, lost, or worse than lost."

19. That a man, who had generally been regarded as a good man, and a man of sound and vigorous understanding, and of some knowledge, may regard a belief in the divine authority of Christianity and the Bible, as one of the most foolish, absurd, and mischievous notions to be found on earth.

20. That a man may be an infidel and not be ashamed

of infidelity, but be ashamed rather that he did not become an infidel.

21. That a husband and a father, a man who has always been considered a devoted husband and a kind father, may become an infidel, and may place infidel books in the way of his family, without any fear that infidel views will endanger their morals or injure them in any way, except so far as it may subject them to Christian persecution.

22. That a man may have so much faith in the truth and beneficent tendency of infidelity, and so much confidence in his ability to prove its truth and beneficent tendency, as to challenge the whole Christian priesthood of both the Old and the New worlds, publicly to discuss the subject with him; while the clergy may be so distrustful of their course or of their ability to defend it, or may have such doubts of the utility of free discussion, as to incur the suspicion of cowardice or dishonesty by allowing the challenge to remain unaccepted and unanswered.

23. That a man may regard a belief in Christianity as a great misfortune, and a Christian education as a terrible calamity, and the influence of Christianity as unspeakably mischievous.

24. That a man who has done his utmost to learn the truth on the subject, may have come to the conclusion that religion, in all its forms, is both false and injurious; that it is always the enemy of science and virtue; that it is at this hour a great hindrance to human improvement and human happiness; and that the greatest service that can be rendered to mankind is to labor for its utter and universal overthrow.

25. That a man who has seriously and long considered the subject may be convinced that religion, in all civilized countries, is losing its power, is giving place to doubt and unbelief; that the literature of the world is becoming more secular, more infidel; that science is beating out the very life of religion, and that the time must come when there will be neither Jew nor Mahometan, neither Pagan nor Christian, in any part of the earth.

HELL.

A LECTURE BY JOSEPH BARKER.

Hell is an uninviting subject, but it is necessary, in the present state of things, that we should give it our attention. We ought to satisfy ourselves, if possible, whether the horrible doctrine taught on this subject by the orthodox clergy is true or false. If there is a hell, we ought to know it, that we may avoid it; and if there is not, we ought to know it, that we may cease to fear it.

We have satisfied ourselves on this subject. We have no doubt but that hell is a fiction of the human imagination working in darkness, and disordered by fear. Christians ground their belief in hell on the teachings of the Bible; but we have shown that the Bible is of no authority. We have shown that it not only contradicts nature, but itself; and that there is not a book known that contains more striking or more numerous proofs of a low, imperfect human origin. So far from the Bible proving the orthodox doctrine about hell to be true, the fact, that the Bible teaches so revolting a doctrine, is itself a proof that the Bible is unworthy of credit.

WHAT THE ORTHODOX DOCTRINE OF HELL IS.

The Bible speaks of hell as a lake of fire and brimstonean unquenchable and eternal fire; and it represents men as living in this fearful fire in hopeless torments, and as praying, but praying in vain, for a drop of water to cool their tongues. It further represents hell as a place of darkness; a vast and dismal prison-house, where men are bound or chained, and where they weep and wail, and gnash their teeth in hopeless and unutterable agony.

These are the ideas of hell which are entertained by all orthodox believers. They are the ideas presented in the writings of the old Puritans, as well as in the writings of the Roman Catholics. They are the ideas presented in the writings of Watts, the favorite author of the Congregationalists, and in those of Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Both these authors speak of hell in the horrible language of the Bible, and that not only in their sermons, but in their hymns. And Jonathan Edwards, the great divine of New England, and Timothy Dwight, his successor, give us

the same dreadful pictures. These were the dreadful ideas which filled and agitated my own mind in the days of my childhood and youth, and which, long after I came to be a man, I felt it my duty to inculcate on others. And these are the ideas which the orthodox clergy still promulgate, both from the pulpit and the press. Some of them may modify the doctrine in private, to meet the views and feelings of the better disposed and more enlightened of their people; but in public they all favor the doctrine of the Bible and of their pious predecessors, and they would be terribly alarmed if their hearers were to believe that the punishment of hell is less severe than it is represented to be by the good old-fashioned Calvinists and Methodists, and by the writings of their sainted and venerable Puritan Fathers.

That we are not misrepresenting the views or sentiments of the orthodox on this horrible subject may be abundantly proved by a reference to their writings, and to the publications of their tract societies and Sunday school associations. In passing through Girard's College, some time ago, I opened a hymn book, copies of which had been placed there by the pious perverters of that institution in violation of the will of the infidel founder, and the first passage that met my eyes was the following:

"There is a dreadful hell, of everlasting pains,

Where sinners must with devils dwell, in darkness, fire and chains.”
Wesley teaches his people to sing, and sing they do-
"Soon as from earth I go, what will become of me?
Eternal happiness or wo, must then my portion be."

And again they sing

"What after death for me remains?

Celestial joys, or hellish pains,

To all eternity."

And even the members of the reformed church, of which our old opponent, Dr. Berg, is pastor, are taught to sing

"Where now-oh, where shall sinners seek

For shelter in the general wreck?

In vain for pity now they cry;

In lakes of liquid fire they lie:

There on the burning billows tossed,
For ever, EVER, EVER lost."

In Baxter's Saints' Rest, republished by the religious tract society, we have the following:

"Wo to the soul that is set up as a butt for the wrath of the Almighty to shoot at, and that is as a bush that must burn for ever in the flames of his jealousy and never be consumed." The torments of the damned must be extreme, because they are the effect of divine vengeance. Wrath is

terrible; but revenge is implacable. Wretched creatures, when he that made them will not have mercy on them. Terrible thing, when no one in heaven or earth can help them but God, and he shall rejoice in their calamity.

"And your torments will be universal. As all parts have joined in sin, so must all partake in the torment. The soul and the body shall each have its torments. The guilt of their sins will be to damned souls like tinder to gunpowder, to make the flames of hell take hold of them with fury. The body, too, shall have its tortures. Every sense shall be an inlet to pain and agony. The sense of feeling shall be tortured with brimstone fire. The eyes shall be tortured with sights of horror, and hosts of devils and damned souls. The ear shall be tortured with the howlings and curses of their companions in torments. Their smell shall be tortured with the fumes of brimstone, and the liquid mass of eternal fire shall prey on every part.

"And they shall have no mitigation. No drop of water shall be allowed to cool their tongues; no moment's respite permitted to relieve their agonies. But the greatest aggravation of those torments will be, that they must last for ever. Oh, what are all the pangs of life, and pain, and death, compared with the torments of hell!"

The following is from the works of Bunyan, as published in this city not yet two years ago. No note is added by the pious editors or publishers to intimate dissent from its horrible doctrine. The words are allowed to go forth without qualification, as the true and faithful exposition of the modern orthodox doctrine. "This word hell gives a very dreadful sound. But what must the feeling of it be, when men drop into hell, and, lifting up their eyes there, behold, first, their souls to be in extreme torments, their dwelling to be the bottomless abyss; their company thousands of damned souls and the innumerable company of devils; and feel the hot scalding vengeance of God not only to drop, but to fall in furious floods upon them, and to know that it must last for ever."

Again, says Bunyan, "Thy dwelling shall be a lake of fire and brimstone-unquenchable fire. Thou shalt have none but devils and damned souls to keep thee company. All the devils in hell will be with thee, howling and roaring, screeching and yelling, in such a hideous manner, that thou wilt be at thy wits' end, and be ready to run stark mad again for anguish and torment.

"And that thou mayest be tormented to purpose, the mighty God of heaven will lay as great wrath and vengeance upon thee as ever he can, by the might of his