“A Contrast between the Effects of Religion and the Effects of Atheism”
In the sentiment of a God, harmony and proportion are found. Tired with viewing the obscurities and disorders in the natural and moral world, the friend of God, in humble contemplation, repairs to the divine scheme. There, to his comfort and joy, he discovers the principle of universal light and order. There is a GOD who holds the reins of universal government; whose throne is supported on the everlasting pillars of wisdom, justice, and mercy. Let the humbly great and good endure opposition and persecution, and face storms of adversity. Celestial thrones and splendid crowns await them. Let profane infidels scoff at the friends of truth. Let ambitious heroes wade in rivers of blood. Let tyrants sport with the happiness of man, and insult over the humiliation of those they have enslaved. Our indignation dies away; the tumult of passion subsides in a peaceful calm, and kind pity possesses the breast when we consider and know, that their ambition, pride, and cruelty will one day be turned into shame and endless contempt.
True dignity of character arises from religion. Impressed with the lively perception and grateful love of the infinite Being, the least becom great, the simplest wise, the humblest rise to a glorious elevation. Take our beloved hero, whose honest fame imparts new splendor to the history of America; who raises the honor of human nature. We call him great when he is at the head of our armies, great when seated in the presidential chair, great, when he descends from his exalted height, and seeks the shades of retirement. When, at the call of the discerning and vigilant GUARDIAN OF AMERICA, he comes forward, with the fire of a young hero, devoting his life again to public good—he supports in an eminent degree, the character of greatness. But never does his dignity rise so high; never does his character appear clothed with such lovely splendor, as when, amid the cares and fatigues of war, he piously retires, bows reverently before the God of armies, and acknowledges himself and his country to be pensioners on divine power and mercy. Before we called him a valiant chief, an able statesman, a refined philosopher, a disinterested patriot. Now we give him a much more honorable title, and call him a CHRISTIAN.
We cannot help noticing the pernicious effects of Atheism on the character and felicity of the male sex. It unkindly plunders them of the only substantial principle, by which their conduct can be regulated, and the purity of their minds preserved. The Atheist has no principle or sentiment which moves to the uniform practice of any virtue, or deters any vice. Although the mind of women should escape the contagion; yet the prevalence of Atheism would lower them much in the public opinion, and degrade them far below the station in which Christianity places them. Young men, liberated from the restraints of divine law, base captives to vitiated inclination, would become the fawning enemies of female innocence. Husbands, depraved, unfaithful, and heartless themselves, would doubt, or despise the virtue and fidelity of their companions. No longer would they “love and honor their wives,” regarding them as precious repositories of sentiment, affection and purity; but would look upon them as the meanest of slaves. Having debased the honor, and relaxed the sacred obligations of marriage, Atheism would open such scenes of licentiousness and misery, as will be transferred from France to America, when our government and religion fall.
Do you wish to see the dreadful tragedy, which has drenched Europe in tears and blood, acted over again on these unhappy shores? If you do, let it be done by yourselves, and not by them. Awake, oh Americans! Rouse your courage and might. Perform such a work, as will leave nothing for them to doe. Demolish the whole fabric of your constitution and laws. Shut the mouth of all the teachers of morality and religion. Add imprisonment to their poverty, persecution to calumny. Let all the rich, especially those who have symptoms of virtue, be doomed to confiscation or exile. Kill off your President, your Hero, and all the friends of your country. Set up tyrants and murderers. Multiply your prisons, make them wider, deeper, and darker. Parents, plunge the bloody dagger in the bosoms of your children. Perpetrate crimes so prodigious that the highest eloquence cannot describe them. If you will, Oh Americans, do all this and more—But if your hearts are not hard enough, nor your hands bloody enough to commit such deeds, then call upon the French, and they will help you.
Heavy are the charges we have brought against the Atheists of France. But who, that impartially attends to modern history, will say they are false or illiberal? And who will hazard the assertion that there is anything in the system of atheistical philosophy that forbids or opposes any crime which they have committed? The whole system of modern Atheism tends directly to the subversion of every moral maxim, and “to legalize and methodize crimes.”
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