But

The

bring him over to a "better system" than that which had excited his prejudices; and I verily thought, for some time, I should succeed. the old gentleman was too cunning for me. more I conceded to him, the more he claimed; and while I yielded many points for the sake of getting him to yield a few of his, I found him only more strongly fortified in his errors, and less disposed to relinquish his objections to Christianity, than before.

When he urged his inability to change his heart, and said that according to the views commonly taught, it was of no use for him to attempt to do any thing himself, and that he must wait till he was wrought upon, I used to say: "When you feel an inclination to reform your life, then the Holy Spirit is operating upon you, and it is then you ought to go forward."

If he asked what he ought to do, my reply was; "Do what you know to be right. Cease to do evil,-Learn to do well,-Observe the dictates of your own conscience, and learn to obey them." But all the directions I gave, had reference to only the second table of the law; "Thou shalt love thy neighbor, &c." As to the love of God, I said little or nothing about it; or if I did, it was a merely speculative love to which I referred-as cold as a New England winter.

The following is a specimen of the course of remark I used to adopt. It developes views still less satisfactory to an inquirer after truth, than those just mentioned; and exhibits evidence of a rapid approach towards skepticism.

“We hear much said about God. Now God means good, and good is God. Devil means evil, and all evil is devil. Just in proportion as you can get rid of evil, by forming good habits, just in the same proportion, you are delivered from the bondage of the devil; and 'God dwells in you, and you in God.' Again: hell is bad feeling; heaven is good feeling, or mental and moral pleasure. Your great business is to get rid of the devil, and make your way to God as fast as possible. At present, you have much of Satan and the place of the damned within you. Be it your great business to expel all this, and supply the place with God and heaven.

"In order to do this, it is by no means necessary that you should reflect much on the subject, you have only to form your plans, and reduce them to settled habits. Nor is it necessary to think much about gaining heaven or escaping hell. You are in heaven or hell now; no matter whether you think of any other, these five years. Nay, more, you will probably make more progress

will secure more heaven, and escape more hell here and consequently more hereafter, by avoiding the thoughts of any world beyond this. Make this world heaven; create an immortality here, instead of looking for one beyond the sky.

"This, it will be said, is infidelity. By no

means.

I believe that when we have done all this; have secured God and heaven and immortality here, we shall go on, as a matter of course, to secure more and more of them beyond the grave. I believe that he who gets the most of heaven here below, will have the most of it in the future world; because he will be the farthest advanced towards perfection when be enters it. The infidel, on the contrary, would make this world heaven, and look for his immortality here, because he expects nothing beyond this world. We go together, then, as you see, a little way; but we separate afterwards, as widely as the poles.

"As to seeking Divine aid, the truth is about thus. When you have any good or proper feeling, that is Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost. The more you are actuated by proper feelings and dispositions, the more you will improve in this respect, or in other words, the more you will be influenced by the Holy Spirit."

In a strain not unlike this, interspersed with

severe censures on those who hold different opinions, I have sometimes talked with the utmost earnestness an hour or two, and verily thought I was sowing good seed; such as would spring up, and bring forth a hundred fold.

I been disappointed!

Alas! how have

The person to whom I have just referred, has not only been made no better as a parent, husband, neighbor, or citizen, but rather worse. Nor have his prejudices against the Bible, or religion, or its ministers, been removed in any degree, but increased and strengthened. Nor did I benefit his family; on the contrary, I positively injured them, from the eldest to the youngest-the mother alone excepted. On her I could never perceive that I made much impresssion.

There was one other effort. I procured the lectures which Frances Wright delivered in some of the principal cities of the United States, and read some portions of them to my friend's family. They interested me so much, that I sometimes read with tears in my eyes; at others, I read and wept alternately. All to no purpose, however; my hearers did not sympathize with her. They only felt more prejudiced than ever against things of a spiritual nature.

Thus I did not a little towards ruining this once

happy family, for even this world. At any rate, their happiness is much less than it once was; and there is good reason to fear that I am a prominent cause. But, O the evil I have probably done them for the life to come! I tremble to think of it, and to think that I am now removed in such a manner and to such a distance, that all hope (or nearly all,) of undoing the evil I have done them is at an end. I can pray for them, it is true-but when this is done, I can only commend them to their and my most merciful Father. Some of them are pious people, I believe; but it is in spite of my influence.

It may naturally excite surprise, that the evil results of my doctrines to others, did not create doubts of their correctness. Suspicions that all was not right, did indeed sometimes arise; but a conviction that I was sincere in my purposes and intentions towards mankind, and was seeking to promote their happiness, partially suppressed them. However, I might still have been checked in my career, had it not been for a series of events that will be related in the next chapter.

*The doctrine that we cannot be materially wrong, if we are only sincere, I must say again, is one of the most dangerous doctrines in the christian world, and ought long ago to have been exploded.