MR. BARKER observed that, that the Bible was written by different men, no one would deny; but he regarded it as the work of ages and nothing more. He then returned to the question of the creation of the world in six days, and again touched upon arguments which he had before advanced. In reference to the deluge, it was all a story and a fable. It was impossible to crowd a pair of the various species of animals not known within the described dimensions of the ark, and if it were possible, he would leave his audience to judge of the sweetness of the place. And to deluge the earth would require eight times more water than was found to be upon its surface. After dwelling for some time on the "ridiculousness" of such a story as that of the deluge, he passed on to notice, in severe terms, the short-comings of Lot, in offering up his daughters to the men of the city, and in his flight and subsequent drunkenness, and also the dishonesty of Jacob to his uncle, in cheating him of the best of his flock. Moses he denounced as a murderer. He alluded to several sanguinary battles fought by the tribes of Israel, in which incredible numbers were killed in one day, amounting to some hundreds of thousands, statements which he considered to be absurd in the extreme. Mr. GRANT then rose to reply, and read and commented upon extracts from Dr. Pye Smith's works on geology. He then concluded by a review of the superiority of the Bible over other books, and by recommending to his audience certain works published by the Religious Tract Society. MR. BARKER then occupied his allotted time in reviewing a small work issued by the Religious Tract Society, containing a number of reasons for believing the Bible to be the word of God. Eachr eason was viewed seriatim and each characterised as most miserable. SOME OF THE HORRORS AND MISERIES OF WAR. Some idea of the hardships of a soldier's life may be got from the fact, that one-third of those that are enlisted for foreign service, are calculated to die off the first year; while the average life of soldiers generally in active service, is only three years. "I cannot," says M. Necker, "remember without shuddering, to have seen the following statement in an estimate of the money requisite for the exigencies of the war-Forty thousand men to be embarked for the Colonies; deduct onethird for the first year's mortality, and there remains 26,667." The following returns of the British Army under the Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular War, show the sickness which prevailed among the troops at five different periods: EFFECTIVE. SICK. 20,000. 9,009 January 1810 April 1812 26,897. 11,452 The extent to which property and human life are sacrificed is truly horrible; to a person rot much acquainted with such matters it seems utterly incredible. The following is a statement of the expense in money and human life of seven particular wars engaged in by Great Britain. War of the British Revolution, to establish William on the British Throne, and to humble France, cost 31,000,0001. The total loss of life in this war was 230,000. War of the Spanish Succession, to deprive Philip of the crown of Spain, and to humble the Bourbons, cost 44,000,000l. The total loss of life in this war was 350,000. Spanish War and Austrian Succession, quarrel about Campeachy and the Crown of Hungary, (no concern of ours), cost 47,000,0001. The total loss of life in this war was 240,000. Seven Years War about Nova Scotia, &c., (not worth two-pence to us), cost 107,000,000l. The total loss of life in this war was 650,000. American War, to maintain the British Power over North America, (as if the Americans were not as fit to govern themselves as we were), cost 150,000,0001. The total loss of life in this war was 340,000. War of the French Revolution, to repress Anti-monarchical principles in France; and the rest of Europe, (or in other words, to maintain political and ecclesiastical tyranny,) cost 472,000,0001. The total loss of life in this war was 700,000. War against Buonaparte, to restrain the ambition of Napoleon, and restore the Bourbons, cost 586,000,0001. The total loss of life in this war was 1,400,000. The cost of the whole was, in money, 1,438,000,0001. In human beings, 3,910,000. Could you have believed it? The following is a statement of the expense, in treasure and biood, of some other wars. 66 During the celebrated war in Germany, at the commencement of the seventeenth century known in history by the name of the thirty years' war, about two-thirds of the German empire perished by the sword, or by sickness, famine, and outrage of every description. Most of the cities and towns were demolished or impoverished: arable land was everywhere covered with weeds; many villages had become totally depopulated, and others so utterly annihilated, that their place could no more be found. Thus, in Wurtemburg, the population, which had amounted to 340,000 at the beginning of the war, had sunk down to 48,000; and vineyards to the amount of 40,000 acres, corn lands and vegetable gardens to the amount of 248,000 acres, remained utterly neglected; eight towns were destroyed; thirty six thousand houses burnt to the ground; and in twentytwo years landed property had suffered a loss to the amount of one hundred and eighteen millions of florins (or £10,163,887 sterling.) Among the other belligerent powers, agriculture and commerce were crippled, every country was drained of its resources, and hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed. "The sacrifice of human life in the wars of the late French Emperor was most frightful. The loss of the French and their auxiliaries, in the campaign to Russia, is reckoned by Boutourlin at 125,000 slain, 132,000 died of fatigue, hunger, disease, and cold, and 193,000 were made prisoners. The Petersburg Gazette stated, that the bodies burned in the spring, after the thaw, in Russian Proper, and Lithuania, amounted to 308,000, of which a considerable portion were Russians. In the river Berezina and the adjoining marshes, 36,000 bodies were said to have been found. Larrey, one of the chief surgeons in Napoleon's army, estimated that during ten years of that emperor, 2,173,000 were raised by conscriptions, of which two-thirds at least perished in foreign lands, or were maimed for life." But besides the endless loss of life and property that takes place in war, there are other dreadful horrors. The newspapers talk to us after a battle of courage, rewards, and glory; but there are other things of which the faithless newspapers do not tell us. I will present a small sample of these things. Here is a scene after the battle of Waterloo : BURYING THE DEAD AT WATERLOO. -A private letter from Mons, dated 14th, July 1815. (twenty-seven days after the battle) mentions the following circumstances, which attended burying the dead on the field of Waterloo. "It is only four days since they finished burying the dead bodies which strewed the field of the battle of Waterloo. Several thousand carts had been put in requisition for this operation in the department of Jemappe." Several thousand carts employed for several days together, to carry the slaughtered to their grave. A cart could carry six or eight at a time, and perform several journeys in a day, one would suppose, and yet several thousand carts were employed till more than twenty days after the battle, in carrying the murdered and the mangled to their horrible graves. What an awful multitude of slain. But it would seem they were not all dead when they were buried. Read the following from the same letter : 66 After the lapse of TEN, TWELVE, and even FIFTEEN days, there were found among the dead carcasses, great numbers of wounded, who, impelled by madness or hunger, had eaten of the bodies of the men and horses that surrounded them." The following is a glance at the battle field of Borodino, after the battle : "The field of battle (Borodino) had all the appearance of an extinguished Volcano. The ground was covered all around with fragments of helmets and cuirasses, broken drums, gun stocks, tatters of uniforms, and standards dyed with blood. On this spot lay thirty thousand half devoured corses. The emperor (Napoleon) passed quickly, nobody stopped; cold, hunger, and the enemy urged us on: we merely turned our faces as we proceeded, to take a last melancholy look at the vast grave of so many companions in arms uselessly sacrificed. Multitudes of these desolate fugitives lost their speech; others were seized with frenzy, and many were so maddened with the extremes of pain and hunger, that they tore the dead bodies of their comrades to pieces, and feasted on the disgusting remains." The following is another scene connected with this tragedy: "In the hospitals of Wilna, were above nineteen thousand dead and dying, frozen and freezing; the bodies of the former, broken up, served to stop the cavities in windows, floors, and wall; but in one of the corridors of the great convent, above fifteen hundred bodies were piled up transversely as pigs of lead or iron. In the roads, men were collected around the burning ruins of the cottages which a mad spirit of destruction had fired, picking and eating the burnt bodies of their fellow-men." A FEW SERIOUS WORDS ADDRESSED TO ALL UNBELIEVERS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEFENDER. Sir, I hail, with sincere pleasure the appearance of your new weekly issue, and fervently hope it meets with the encouragement, it so truly merits. Long, Sir, has been needed such a publication amongst us, whose ostensible object is an able defence of religion, against the unprincipled attacks of Infidel adversaries, whose affected conceit of superior judgment and discernment, and boast of freedom from the shackles of religion, is perpetually sounded in our ears, and whose constant endeavour it is to rob man of the only comfort left him in age and distress, the truest enjoyment in life and health, but to give him nothing in its place. I am induced to offer these remarks from the invitation you give your readers, to avail themselves of the advantage of your "Open Page." For many years, Sir, I belonged, unhappily, to that class of individuals known as Owenites, or in other words, Infidels, and with an eagerness worthy of a better purpose, devoted most of my spare hours to their unworthy cause, till God in his wise providence has been pleased to open my long-closed eyes to the utter weakness, and folly, and absurdity, not to say, the awful peril of the adoption of such principles. To me, Sir, it is a matter of some surprise, that men gifted with ordinary reason and knowledge can so far deceive themselves, or be deceived into a rejection of religion, and a neglect of the worship of that Divine being, who bounteously bestows his manifold blessings alike upon him who daringly blasphemes and insults his holy name, and upon those who in humbleness of heart love and fear him, and with the soul's true affection, yield him that service, adoration, and worship, that his mercy and goodness so much demand from us. How perverse methinks must he be, (and alas! I myself have been so blinded and obdurate,) that can with daring rashness hold up his head and look defiance on the Almighty author of his being, who for no selfish end, created man, whose heart has become so desperately wicked, as to deny the great being, who gave him his existence, and the fair and beauteous earth for his inheritance. Does he suppose that the Almighty could not do without him? Is he needed to govern with such order, regularity, and beauty the magnificent universe which we inhabit? Does it never occur to him that the Almighty could withhold his blessings and mercy, and cause the rich earth to refuse its wonted plenty. Surely it must not, or man could not be so rash, and so blind, as to deny his maker, or refuse him his heart's love and worship. I would ask the infidel in the silent hour of his meditation to think seriously upon the questions of life, death, and eternity, and beware lest he trifle with them too long, as alas! too many are now doing, who are won over by the deluding theories of a class of men, who are scarcely ever true to their own teachings, who tremble to live them out, but who, from pride of heart, or other motives, throw off the sweet yoke of Christian truth, which they have persuaded themselves to be a "cunningly devised fable. " What did the great Addison say-and let it have its full force and weight with you,-"If Christianity be a dream it is a pleasant one, and nothing shall rob me of it." O my friends, once brothers in unbelief, let me ask you to lay the question to heart. Think of it often-think of it night and day, for terrible consequences hang upon the issue. Let your heart answer the question, is it not better to live under the cheering influence of truth, than to dwell amid the shadows and gloom of unbelief? Are there any of you, my unbelieving friends, who have not your doubts, and misgivings? Does not the sentiment of the poet Young, often beat against your breasts. "If weak thy faith, why choose the harder side?" If such men as a Newton, a Bacon, a Locke, a Milton, a Davy, could reconcile to their powerful intellects the truth and reasonableness of Christian belief,-men who could have no interest in deceiving others, or being deceived themselves surely we of less intellect, should pause ere we reject a system that has conferred so many blessings on our race. I know many of you possess energy, and industry, which could be turned to a better purpose. Pause I beseech you, ere it is too late. Put not on that false boldness, which in youth and health may serve you, but which, as the judgment becomes more matured, invariably gives way, and gladly asks to receive at approaching death that, which through life was despised. The real enjoyment and consolation which it affords at death, must make it worth your acceptance whilst in health; and how humiliating a condition, how perilous a condition to leave the matter to the last hour of life. How many of the greatest infidels of this and other countries, have found they could not die in their infidelity, and have given their dying testimony to the excellence of Christianity. Even the "brilliant Frenchman" in fear, has again and again embraced religion. What excell ent testimony have we from the polished Rousseau of the superiority of religion to the highest state of Philosophy! Did not the witty, and, whilst an unbeliever, the wicked and profligate Earl of Rochester find more comfort on his return to, and under the happy influence of religion; than he did during his career of infidelity? Let his conversion answer. Look at Lord Lyttleton, Bacon, Haller, Lord Herbert, the Rev. T. Scott, and the renowned Bunyan. Happy, Mr. Editor, shall I be if what I have said should meet the eye of any infidel and be the means of causing him to enter into an examination of the evidences of Christianity, and lead him to bestow the necessary labour, which the deep and solemn importance of the subject demands from all. I fear not the result of such examination. Your humble reader, One who for long walked the dark path of Atheism. THE BLANK BIBLE. J. M. I thought I was at home, and that on taking up my Greek Testament one morning (as is my wont) to read a chapter, I found, to my surprise, that what seemed to be the old familiar book, was a total blank; not a character was inscribed in it or upon it. I supposed that some book like it had, by some accident, got into its place; and without stopping to hunt for it, took down a large quarto volume which contained both the Old and New Testaments. To my surprise, however, this was also a blank from beginning to end. With that facility of accommodation to any absurdities which is proper to dreams, I did not think very much of the coincidence of two blank volumes having been substituted for two copies of the scriptures in two different places, and therefore quietly reached down a copy of the Hebrew Bible, in which I could just manage to make out a chapter. To my increased surprise, and even something like terror, I found that this also was a perfect blank. While I was musing on this unaccountable phenomenon, my servant entered the room, and said that thieves had been in the house during the night, for that her large Bible, which she had left on the kitchen table, had been removed, and another volume left by mistake in its place, of just the same size, but made of nothing but white paper. She added, with a laugh, that it must have been a very queer kind of thief to steal a Bible at all; and that he should have left another book instead, made it the more odd. I asked her if any thing else had been missed, and if there were any signs of people having entered the house. She answered in the negative to both these questions; and I began to be strangely perplexed. On going out into the street, I met a friend, who, almost before we had exchanged greetings, told me that a most unaccountable robbery had been committed at his house during the night, for that every copy of the Bible had been removed, and a volume of exactly the same size, but of pure white paper, left in its stead. Upon telling him that the same accident had happened to myself, we began to think that there was more in it than we had at first surmised. On proceeding further we found every one complaining, in similiar perplexity, of the same loss; and before night it became evident that a great and terrible "miracle" had been wrought in the world; that in one night silently, but effectually, that hand which had written its terrible menace on the walls of Belshazzar's palace, had reversed the miracle; had spunged out of our Bibles every syllable they contained, and thus reclaimed the most precious gift which heaven had bestowed, and ungrateful man abused. I was curious to watch the effects of this calamity on the varied characters of mankind. There was universally, however, an interest in the Bible now it was |