him!-Scourge him!-Spit upon him!-Mock him!He breaks the laws of Moses!-and calls himself the "Son of God!"-If you are the "Son of God," save yourself and come down from the cross!

Among those who compassionated the ignominious death inflicted by the chosen people of God on the "Saviour" and enlightener of the world, we find a pagan Governor. "I find not fault in this man," says Pontius Pilate; and he washed his hands of the whole affair, saying "I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it."-But the multitude cried the more "Crucify him! and let his blood be upon us and our children !"

If the HISTORY of the monstrous atrocities perpetrated by the chosen people of God on the person of the "Messiah "whom they deemed a false prophet, and punished accordingly-which is merely the "WORD OF MAN we repeat, if this recital is to be considered DOCTRINE, because it has place in the "Sacred Volume" and on that account must be considered the "Word of God" - then, indeed, does the Religion of Christ bear a very doubtful character; for, being DOCTRINE, that is, precept, it must be a strict rule of conduct. Yet such conduct would teach us to load

with ignominy and put to death every one who like

the Messiah-attempted to teach men their moral duties, and thus ameliorate the condition of the world. What a perversion of true Christianity to suppose that good deeds-even on earth-should be rewarded with unheard-of cruelties!

Are not those reprehensible who presume to assert that to be DOCTRINE which stands in the "Holy Book"

merely because it was voted canonical by some earthly councils in the early stage of Christianity? and equally so in condemning all who dissent from this wise decision? That only can be the "WORD OF GOD” which is wholly and entirely spiritual, and which never could at any time have affected SENSE. Then that only which is the production of REASON can be of this character-purely spiritual. Whatever has struck the senses of men, and is recorded by them, must of necessity be the "WORD OF MAN." The bystanders who witnessed the Crucifixion of Jesus between two thieves

-piercing his side with a spear—the blood and water that issued from the wound-his affecting address to his mother and his favourite disciple if they have recorded these facts faithfully, are the authors of the HISTORY of the Crucified Jesus!If not, that very

HISTORY becomes a fiction. How moral and religious precepts are to be extracted from the records of such inhuman proceeding it would puzzle a saint to discover!

HISTORY which records actions performed on earth, and is consequently the "WORD OF MAn ". gravely informs us that the glorious persecution of heretics-who refused to imbibe the pure DOCTRINE Of Christ, which is the "WORD OF GOD," as administered by the Vicar of Christ and successor to St. Peter was carried on with such signal success that, under one Cardinal-who was also Grand Inquisitor-more than one hundred thousand heretics were proceeded against and subjected to the rack and torture as a sure mode of instilling into their minds pure Science or the "WORD OF GOD' and that six thousand were condemned to

the flames, as a sumptuous banquet for the gratification of their Almighty Maker-the only just and true God!

Oh miserably deluded mortals, to burn and torment the flesh, by order of the Holy Ghost, with a view of enforcing "Christianity!" So magnificently did these Grand Inquisitors revel in the delights of fire, sword, and bowstring-and, to crown the whole, in that splendid illumination of Christ's DOCTRINE, the auto

da fé-so thoroughly did they intoxicate themselves with the supreme joys they were providing for the true believers in Christ, and so satisfied were they in the holy zeal displayed at these grand spectacles-that, in enforcing the value and importance of the "Holy Office," it was said that "God was the first Grand Inquisitor-Adam and Eve the first heretics-Jesus Christ was also an Inquisitor, and commenced his mission by the death of Herod !" But a truce to these absurdities, since pure "SCIENCE" has superseded the necessity of employing the thumb-screw to bring conviction of the truth of the precepts of Jesus home to the bosom of every rational creature.

How was the "Saviour" rewarded for the flood of light which he poured forth on mankind—" a light to lighten the Gentiles"-a "Revelation" of such perfect purity and so grounded in the "PRINCIPLE OF REASON," that no rational being can gainsay its truth-verily, a “DIVINE REVELATION," partaking of the sublimity and exalted purity of the Maker of REASON! Look at the gratitude of the world to the MAN who devoted himself so entirely to fulfil the mission with which he was charged as to disregard

all the threats of the men in power-to suffer the most

degrading revilings of the illiterate and vulgar - even to be spit upon and scourged by the common soldiermocked and treated with contumely by the bystander -deserted by his disciples at length, after being

robed in the royal purple and crowned with a crown of thorns, till the blood started on his forhead, declared

in derision

tude

King of the Jews- he suffered the most

excruciating pangs as a martyr with unheard-of fortiwas even nailed to the tree. - for the sake of truth and the "PRINCIPLE OF REASON." Notwithstanding, when he was in the agonies of death, he was soothed with hyssop, and, to assuage his thirst, vinegar on a sponge was given to the expiring Christ. In the midst of his agonies, and in the sharpness of death, he pathetically implored his heavenly Father,

(Psalm xxii) אֵלִי אֵלִי לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי ,crying with a loud voice

and gave up the ghost.

TT

How touching and impressive is the sympathy and compassion of the "Saviour" on the painful recital by Mary of the death of her brother Lazarus !-seeing Mary weep, and the Jews that were with her in tears, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled: and, in confirmation of his humanity, "Jesus wept." In the intensity of his mental agony on the cross, and the