logician, and it must have been a case of urgent necessity that led" the Reasoner to insert such testimony, unless indeed we believe, what he so emphatically denies, that infidelity has perverted his logical faculty, and that secularists reason backwards. Mr. Dan Mitchell has to prove additions to the Secular Society as the result of Mr. Grant's lecturing at Todmorden, and he gives himself as evidence. Does he wish us, then, to believe that he is PLURAL and not SINGULAR; or that the Secularists are so pleased with him, that they take him for "a host in himself, and in utter contempt of the rules of grammar call him "an additions" to their Society. How proud they must be of such recruits! He heard Mr. Grant, he tells us, "denounce Mr. Holyoake and others unfairly," that is not in accordance with facts; now how could he know that there was unfairness, if, as he tells us, he was not a reader of the "Reasoner," which contains the facts on which Mr Grant rests his charges? Mr. Grant's manner was "so unbecoming"! Unbecoming what? Is the strong denunciation of duplicity, unbecoming one who believes it, and who adduces indisputable facts to substantiate his charge? Or does Mr. Mitchell mean "unbecoming" Christianity? Then why reject Christianity for that which does not BECOME it? "So very much different from what I had expected from one who was the declared champion of Christianity"! He did not expect anything unfair or unbecoming in manner from a Christian, because the religion of Jesus sanctions nothing unfair or improper; and yet the alleged unfairness of the advocate "confirms his total disbelief in Christianity, and in the Bible God"! His disbelief in Christianity is strengthened by evidence that proves it to be better than one of its advocates! A Temperance lecturer gets drunk, therefore Mr. Mitchell will not become a total abstainer! An anti-slavery lecturer holds slaves, therefore our friend the shuttle maker of Newton Green, will not uphold the cause of emancipation! How a total disbelief in Christianity was confirmed" by conduct opposed to Christianity is a problem, which I must leave for the solution of our friend of Newton Green. (1 My total disbelief in Christianity and the Bible God," he says, "was so confirmed, that I at once de-' clared myself a Secularist." The alleged inconsistency of the Christian advocate with his principles "disgusted" Mr. Dan Mitchell, brought him up to "the stick. ing point," and led him, with heroic resolve, to declare himself a Secularist! 66 A few more such discoveries, Mr. Editor, and we shall be able to form a "natural history of Secularism," which will convince the working classes, that it is not by logic and good sense that men become identified with this ever-varying ISM, but by casting both to the winds. Dec. 20th, 1854. I am, NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. A great amount of correspondence has been 'accumulating upon our hands, to which we shall give attention as soon as possible. J. B. Manchester.-Received with thanks, and will appear in our second number, "Observer," Liverpool. We highly approve of your suggestion to form a 'Christian Defence Association." We shall insert it in our next. We are thankful for the expressions of sympathy which we have received. Communications and works for review to be addressed to the Editor, 50, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, either direct, or through the publishers. London: HOULSTON & STONEMAN, 65, Paternoster Row. Hunter & Co., Printers, Grainger Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. THE DEFENDER: OF CHRISTIAN EXPOSITION AND ADVOCACY. Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty; she needs no policies, nor THE BIBLE THE FRIEND OF THE POOR. The enemies of revelation have often charged the Bible with being the friend of poverty, but not of the poor; with containing injunctions fitted to depress the poor man's lot, and prevent him from bettering it. Compelled reluctantly to admit that both the teachings and the practice of the first Christians mani- fested the utmost care for the poor, they assail the Old Testament, and, from the thundering denunciations of the prophets against the oppressors of the people, they attempt to show that the scriptures in possession of the Jews were not fitted to awaken their sympathies for the suffering, and to chase away mi- sery from the land. Their very quotations from the prophets disprove their charges; for how can any fair reasoner hold the Bible responsible for that which it condemns in the strongest possible language. They ought to point out the pas- sages which sanction the neglect of the fatherless and the widow, which defend the oppressors of the poor. They ought to show us what principles are taught, and what duties are inculcated, that favour the despot and crush the people. This they cannot do, but have recourse to the poor expedient of condemning those things among the people to whom the book came, which the book itself reprobates; and holding it responsible for the miseries it was sent to cure. The Bible charges with disobedience to God those whose selfishness, violence, and cruelty brought distress upon their fellow men, therefore, the Bible is not the friend of the poor: this is a specimen of their logic, and a proof of their conscientiousness, and because we consent not, for such reasons, to cast away from us the "good old book," they call us bigots. We do not assert that the Mosaic economy was perfect. "It was the shadow of good things to come;" the dawning morn ushering in the effulgent day;a dispensation preparatory and typical; not the best that the world had to see, but the best for which the world was then prepared. To prove this, which is no task, is sufficient justification of the divine arrangement. But the law of Moses in reference to the poor is not only infinitely superior to any that obtained among ancient peoples, but will bear favourable comparison with the poor laws of the most enlightened and civilized nations of the nineteenth century; and the adoption of its spirit, if not of its letter, would go far towards the solution of one of the most difficult problems of political economy, and heal those Marah fountains which not unfrequently embitter the different orders of society against each other, and which more than once in our own day, have threatened commerce with paralysis, and the nation with ruin. The friendless and the poor had the protection of the Mosaic law, as in all ages they have had the sympathy of the divine Lawgiver. Mutual dependence and relationship, so necessary to social existence, happiness, and progress, involved the possibility of the evils which flow from selfishness and tyranny when they have power. But God cannot be blamed for those evils, unless it is shown that the social constitution of man is not the best possible, and the most conducive to the general good. He has made it the imperative duty of every one, according to his ability, to seek the happiness and well-being of those around. On almost every page of the law, there are abundant proofs that the poor are his special care, and that with the tenderest interest he has sought to protect them from want, and injury, and oppression. "Thou shalt not vex à stranger nor oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Here is not only explicit direction, but powerful aspiration. They once themselves groaned under the yoke of the oppressor. By a strong hand that yoke had been broken, and their tyrants had been overwhelmed with a sudden destruction. Pharoah and his proud host sunk in the mighty waters. By the misery of their servitude, by the glory of their deliverance, by the preciousness of liberty, by the despot's doom and the honour of God, they were called upon to respect the rights of strangers, and to treat them with kindness. The master's duty was most clearly indicated. and he was solemnly forbidden to deprive the hireling of his wages, or to cause him the slightest inconvenience by neglecting to pay him at the proper time. And the law was as stringent in the case of an alien, as in that of a Jew. "Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of the stran gers that are in thy land, within thy gates." At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee." Deut. 24. 14, 15. Were this law carried out in spirit at the present day, how many unpleasant bickerings, disputes, and contentions between employers and employed how many irritating and misery-making strikes would be prevented, and how justly and honourably would the labourer be treated by the capitalist. Poverty has its rights as well as riches; and in the Bible these rights are not only recognised but defended. If trampled upon, it is a sin not merely against the individual and society, but against God. Judges were required to deal out even-handed justice to those brought before them for trial. The rights of the poor were to be respected as much as those of the rich. "Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless. Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor in his cause. Keep thee from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked." All the solemn sanctions of a future retribution are presented to the judge as reasons why he should deal rightly by the poor. God set his face against all favoritism. With Himself, there is no respect of persons; and he would not tolerate any in the judge. Too often in the history of the world have the bribes of the rich stayed the hand of justice; but the judges of the people were solemnly forbidden to receive any money from any one in the performance of their duty. "Thou shalt take no gift; for the gift blindeth the eyes of the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous." "Thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift; that which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live." In what moral code can you find laws more conservative of the rights of the poor? In what way could they be more carefully defended from injustice and oppression. Can the civil magistrate in this age of enlightenment and civilization find higher and safer laws for his guidance in the dispensing of justice to the poor, than those which were promulgated among the Jews more than three thousand years ago? And where will the judge who refuses to hear the case of suffering and injured poverty, meet with severer and more withering rebuke than what is found in the Old Testament? From Ebal sounded forth from the lips of the Levites under the command of God, a denunciation which may well make the tyrant quake ; "Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." And to this sentence of the Supreme Lawgiver all the people had to say, "Amen". No such concern was manifested for the interests of the poor among any of the legislators of antiquity. The judges could be guilty of venality and corruption without a word of remonstrance or reproof being addressed to them. In many cases they could fatten upon the spoils of crushed and injured innocence and retain their places in society. În the Bible, on the contrary, some of the most scorching, awful words, found within its covers, are those spoken by God against such as injure the fatherless and widow. Their cause Jehovah made his own, and whoever injured them were the objects of his severe displeasure. "Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in anywise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be orphans, and your children fatherless." Exod. 22. 22. So terrible are the denunciations, that sceptics themselves sometimes object to them, as inconsistent with the divine benevolence. But there is no inconsistency whatever. Justice is in perpetual harmony with goodness. There is nothing noble in that softness which would sacrifice the interests of a community to the happiness of an individual. Deep sympathy with the oppressed, and stern opposition of the oppressor; tenderness toward suffering, and severity toward brazen-faced injustice are two sides of a symmetrical character. Either would be an imperfection without the other. Does Jehovah speak for the consolation of the sorrowing and the trustful? He comes with all the gentleness and compassion of a parent. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Does he speak as the judge of the unrighteous and the protector of the needy; he clothes himself in terrible majesty. "The Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and the widow; and loveth the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. Deut. 10. 17. 19. These are but specimens of a large number of passages scattered throughout the Old Testament scriptures, recognising with the utmost explicitness, the rights of the poor, and redolent of the tenderest and most practical concern for their well-being. Let those who assail the Bible, only have the honesty to quote some of those passages, and the labouring classes will perceive that that old book defended their rights, as well as specified them, centuries before they were thought of by sceptical writers. Working men! do not trust to the representations made of the Bible by those who vilify it. Study its precepts and its spirit for yourselves, and you will be convinced that it is not the friend of the despot, but of the poor; that its statutes have only to be universally observed, and its spirit imbibed, in order that want and misery may be chased away from the earth, and that a day of righteousness and peace may dawn upon our world, such as it has never seen. If you have complaints to make of your employers and of those above you in the social scale, and they are professors of religion, think what would be their conduct if they really at all times and everywhere were actuated by the precepts and principles of the Bible. For yourselves, make that book "the man of your counsel," and you will act justly, honourably, and generously towards |