assions of men. Coming to men with the Circean
torch of licentiousness in her hand, with fair promises of freedom, she
first stupefies the conscience, and brutifies the affections; and then
renders her votaries the most abject slaves of guilt and crime. This was
exemplified in the French revolution. For centuries, the bible had been
taken away, and the key of knowledge wrested from the people. For a
little moment, France broke the chains which superstition had flung
around her. Not content, however, with this, she attempted to break the
yoke of God: she stamped the bible in the dust, and proclaimed the
jubilee of licentiousness, unvisited, either by present or future
retribution. Mark the consequence. Anarchy broke in like a flood, from
whose boiling surge blood spouted up in living streams, and on whose
troubled waves floated the headless bodies of the learned, the good, the
beautiful and the brave. The most merciless proscription for opinion's
sake, followed. A word, a sigh, or a look supposed inimical to the
ruling powers, was followed with instant death. The calm which
succeeded, was only the less dreaded, because it presented fewer objects
of terrific interest, as the shock of the earthquake creates more
instant alarm, than the midnight pestilence, when it walks unseen,
unknown amidst the habitations of a populous city.

The infidel persecutions in France and Switzerland, afford a solemn
lesson to the people of this country. We have men among us now, most of
them it is true, vagabond foreigners, who are attempting to propagate
the same sentiments which produced such terrible consequences in France.
Under various names they are scattering their pestilent doctrines
through the country. As in France, they have commenced their attacks
upon the bible, the Sabbath, marriage, and all the social and domestic
relations of life. With flatteries and lies, they are attempting to sow
the seeds of discontent and future rebellion among the people. The
ferocity of their attacks upon those who differ from them, even while
restrained by public opinion, shews what they would do, provided they
could pull down our institutions and introduce disorder and wild
misrule. We trust, therefore, that the article on the revolution in
France, will be found highly instructive and useful.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRS TO THE FIRST GENERAL PERSECUTIONS UNDER
NERO.