A father needs only say, in the presence of his children, "I want such a thing done; I want one of my children to go upon such an errand; let me see who is

the good child that will do it!" This word good operates, as it were by magic, and the children immediately vie with each other, to comply with the wishes of their parent. If a father sees an old decrepid man or woman pass by, led along by a child, he will draw the attention of his own children to the object, by saying, "What a good child that must be, which pays such attention to the aged! That child, indeed, looks forward to the time when it will likewise be old!" or he will say, "May the Great Spirit, who looks upon him, grant this good child a long life."

VIII.

The Indians never lock a door, and yet

have no housebreakers.

"In the year 1771, while I was residing on the Big Beaver, I passed by the door of an Indian, who was a trader, and had consequently a quantity of goods in his

house. He was going with his wife to Pittsburg, and they were shutting up the house, as no person remained in it during their absence. This shutting up was nothing else than putting a large hominy pounding-block with a few sticks of wood outside against the door, so as to keep

it closed. As I was looking at this man with attention while he was so employed, he addressed me in these words, "See, my friend, this is an Indian lock that I an putting to my door." I answered, "Well enough; but I see you leave much property in the house, are you not afraid that those articles will be stolen while

"No,

you are gone?" "Stolen! by whom?" "Why, by Indians, to be sure." 66 no Indian would do no," replied he, such a thing; and unless a white man or

white people should happen to come this way, I shall find all safe on my return.”*

If splendid specimens of individual integrity adorn the civilized inhabitants of Europe, the prevalence of general integrity among the less favoured children of the western continent-the admitted fact that fewer among them sink below the level of honesty-is calculated to restrain our exultation at the enjoyment of many undoubted advantages from displaying itself too arrogantly, or from assuming that the moral superiority ther he profess himself a Christian of the cultivated European, whe

or an Infidel, is decided and striking in the same degree.

Virgil applies the epithet of pius to Æneas; and these rude Indians have their warriors who are religious as far as they are enlightened.

In educating their children, the heads of families are careful to impress as a first lesson, the knowledge of a Supreme Being, who has not only given them life, and all the blessings their ancestors have enjoyed for many ages, but also that he has created them for certain great purposes.

We see in the case of Cornelius the devout, the charitable centurion, that the transition of such a heathen to Christianity is easy.

In the year 1742, a veteran warrior of

Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

the Lenape nation and Monsey tribe, renowned among his own people for his bravery and prowess, and equally dreaded by their enemies, joined the Christian Indians, who then resided at this place. This man, who was then at an advanced age, had a most striking appearance, and could not be viewed without astonishment. Besides that his body was full of scars, where he had been struck and pierced by the arrows of the enemy, there was not a spot to be seen, on that part of it which was exposed to view, but what was tattooed over with some drawing relative to his achievements, so that the whole together struck the beholder with amazement and terror. On his whole

face, neck, shoulders, arms, thighs, and legs, as well as on his breast and back, were represented scenes of the various actions and engagements he had been in ; in short, the whole of his history was there deposited, which was well known to those of his nation, and was such that all who heard it thought it never could be surpassed by man. Far from murdering those who were defenceless or unarmed, his generosity, as well as his courage and skill in the art of war, was acknowledged by all. When, after his conversion, he was questioned about his warlike feats, he frankly aud modestly answered, “That being now taken captive by Jesus Christ, it did not become him to relate the deeds he had done while in the service of the evil spirit; but that he was willing to give an account of tl.e manner in which he had been conquered." At his baptism, on the 23d of December, 1742, he received the name of Michael, which he

preserved until his death, which happened on the 24th of July, 1756. He led the life of a true Christian, and was always ready and willing to relate the history of his conversion, which I heard myself from bis own mouth. His age, when he died, was supposed to be about eighty years."*

The early missionaries who ventured into the prairies and savannahs of America, gave many indications of being animated by an apostolic spirit. They encountered perils and privations; they

wandered in deserts and in mountains; in leaving their friends and their country, they made an uncompensated sacrifice, nor could expect to drop into a fortune, or to find an inheritance in a richer clime. Destitute themselves, they had no lucrative employments to offer in the shape of subaltern of

• Ibid.

fices on a richly endowed mission

ary establishment, to tempt the

natives to enlist as retainers in the household of Christianity. Untinctured with the spirit of the baptized miscreant, the Magus of Samaria, they did not practise the Simony of buying converts, than which the wizard's proposition to purchase of the apostles the gift of tongues and of miraculous power, was not more wicked or absurd. The term miscreant is applied to Simon Magus in its original and proper sense, of a "misbeliever;" for although it is recorded of this blind and avaricious proselyte, that he believed and was baptized, (Acts viii. 13.) it is plain from the rebuke of Peter, " Thy money perish with thee," that when a baptized misbeliever entertains an impious design from a corrupt motive, he is no better than an infidel, whose character answers to his

own.

It may be asked then, What is the merit of faith, or where is the demerit of unbelief?

Confident infidels, dogmatic sceptics, decided professors in the school of doubt, tell us, that there can be nothing moral or immoral, nothing to merit praise or blame in belief or unbelief; because belief must be the result of conviction; and where the evidence is not strong enough to convince, there is no culpability in not being convinced. But in thus stating the proposition, and endeavouring to support it by such a course of argument, they confound mathematical and moral evidence, the present subjects of knowledge with the distant objects of faith. If a man see it demonstrated, that every part of a circle is at an equal distance from the centre, there is a degree of impropriety in applying the term belief to such a subject of positive knowledge; he knows it as a tangible element of truth; and there is no room for believing it, no particle of difficulty, no remoteness of time or place to exercise faith. A

who now prosper under a paternal government that protects them in the exercise of talents and industry, and in the free use and distribution of their fruits. How do the opulent among this people use the freedom of doing what they will with their own? By an illustrious band of worthies among the Parsees, this is but a privilege to indulge in unbounded benefi

cence.

But not to fetch all our examples of virtuous and pious heathen from the east, let us glance at some of those who have been improperly called Indians in the hemisphere explored by Columbus.

Lo! the rude Indian, whose untutor'd mind

Sees God in clouds, and hears him in the

wind.

The second Table in the Ten Commandments published by Moses, might be written in facts, transcribed on the scroll of life by the hand of practice, merely by taking characteristic passages in the manners and history of particular tribes in North America, trait the number of the correspondand putting over each descriptive ing commandment, e. g.

V.

A father needs only say, in the presence of his children, "I want such a thing done; I want one of my children to go upon such an errand; let me see who is the good child that will do it!" This word good operates, as it were by magic, and the children immediately vie with each other, to comply with the wishes of their parent. If a father sees an old decrepid man or woman pass by, led along by a child, he will draw the attention of his own children to the object, by saying, "What a good child that must be, which pays such attention to the aged! That child, indeed, looks forward to the time when it will likewise be old!" or he will say, May the Great Spirit, who looks upon him, grant this good child a long

life."

VIII.

The Indians never lock a door, and yet

have no housebreakers.

"In the year 1771, while I was residing on the Big Beaver, I passed by the door of au Indian, who was a trader, and had

sequently a quantity of goods in his

house. He was going with his wife to Pittsburg, and they were shutting up the house, as no person remained in it during their absence. This shutting up was nothing else than putting a large hominy pounding-block with a few sticks of wood outside against the door, so as to keep

it closed. As I was looking at this man with attention while he was so employed, he addressed me in these words, " See, my friend, this is an Indian lock that I am putting to my door." I answered, "Well enough; but I see you leave much property in the house, are you not afraid that those articles will be stolen while

"No,

you are gone?" "Stolen by whom?" "Why, by Indians, to be sure." no," replied he, "no Indian would do such a thing; and unless a white man or way, I shall find all safe on my return.”* white people should happen to come this

If splendid specimens of individual integrity adorn the civilized inhabitants of Europe, the prevalence of general integrity among the less favoured children of the western continent-the admitted fact that fewer among them sink below the level of honesty-is cal

culated to restrain our exultation doubted advantages from displayat the enjoyment of many uning itself too arrogantly, or from ther he profess himself a Christian assuming that the moral superiority of the cultivated European, wheor an Infidel, is decided and striking in the same degree.

Virgil applies the epithet of pius to Æneas; and these rude Indians. have their warriors who are religious as far as they are enlightened. In educating their children, the heads of families are careful to impress as a first lesson, the knowledge of a Supreme Being, who has not only given them life, and all the blessings their ancestors have enjoyed for many ages, but also that he has created them for certain great purposes.

the devout, the charitable centuWe see in the case of Cornelius rion, that the transition of such a heathen to Christianity is easy.

In the year 1742, a veteran warrior of

Transactions of the Historical and Literary Committee of the Philosophical Society, Philadeplia.

A

man cannot believe that which he knows. But when any thing is propounded to us as a fact or principle, on the evidence of history, or on the testimony of others-a distant point for moral apprehension, which it is impossible by actual view or assay to know whether it be true or not-this is a proper subject for belief or unbelief, after we have fully and impartially exercised our judgment on the evidence. But as the proofs in such a case cannot amount to demonstration, as addressed to the mind, whatever be the measure of preponderance, there is much room for the inclination of the heart to operate, either in too hastily reposing on that which is soothing and delightful, or in refusing to investigate the truth of that which we are not desirous to believe. bias to the latter alternative, if we entertain the subject at all, may sway us powerfully in giving a partial attention to the antagonists of the proposition, and scarcely any to the advocates for it; and in seeking to overcome the ultimate preponderance of the proofs over the objections, by magnifying inconsiderable difficulties. The verbal and other difficulties, therefore, of which it has pleased Providence to permit the occurrence in the original Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, may, supposing that apparent defects can be outweighed by latent utility, be a test of the inclination of the heart. Every one must be sensible, even from daily experience in common affairs, that from this cause alone-credence is often precipitately given to news of a pleasant tenor, to a report which concurs with our wishes; while it is withheld, even in opposition to official intelligence corroborated by accounts from independent sources, when the decisive result to which the individual had ardently looked, dashes to the ground at once all his hopes, defeats a system of cherished opinions, fal

sifies all his confident predictions, and defeats his mature plans at the moment of expected fruition. When Buonaparte's reverses began in the flight from Moscow; when they were consummated at Leipsic; when he was finally overthrown at Waterloo, with the hopeless accompaniments which made a second total ruin irreversible ;-the belief of the more tenacious Jacobins was on each occasion several weeks in arrear. Their slow faith could not keep pace with such rapid events. The of ficial accounts of the Allies were fabricated; even Buonaparte's own bulletins, candidly confessing a part of his disasters, were forgeries; when proofs of their authenticity arrived from Paris, then the general who had never been defeated. had studiously exaggerated his losses in a slight check, in order to throw the Allies off their guard, and suddenly overwhelm them while pursuing him. Every day the unwelcome proofs thickened: at length the enlightened unbelief of his more intractable admirers, fertile as it was in resources, was put at once to flight and to shame.

The incentives which quicken or retard belief, vanquish incredulity, or render it inveterate, may, therefore, in opposition to the specious doctrine of determined sceptics, be either moral or immoralhonest or culpable. Willing unbelief may take hold of the horns of an objection, and cling to it as a sanctuary. Some passages in the New Testament point to a distinction in the motives for unbelief. In one case the genuine infidel is characterized; and the definition makes the demerit consist in being unfaithful to the reproofs of conscience, and to the indications of judgment, the implanted guardians of man's immortal interests. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." John iii. 19, On the other hand,