THE question is frequently asked by Bible adherents, What would be the moral condition of society without the Bible? Would it not again relapse into barbarism? Such questions manifest an ignorance of history and the moral instincts of the human mind, and are easily met and answered by other questions indicating broader views. We ask, then, what was the moral condition of the world, or that portion of it included in the Jewish nation, during the two thousand years which elapsed before any part of our Bible was written? Was it any worse than the next two thousand years after it was written? And what is the moral condition of five-sixths of the human family now, who never had our Bible? Facts in history prove that the morals of some of the nations included in this class are superior to that of any Bible nation, either now existing, or figuring in past history. Take, for example, the Japanese. We will present the testimony of an English officer, Col. Hall. Reporting his own observations and experience, he says, "During more than a year's residence in Japan, I never saw a quarrel among young or old. I have never seen an angry blow struck, and have scarcely heard an angry word. I have seen the children at their sports, flying their kites on the hill; and no amount of entangled strings, or kites lodged in the trees, provoked angry words or impatience. In their games of jackstones and marbles, I have never seen an approach to a quarrel among them. They are taught implicit obedience to their parents; but I have never seen one of them chastised. Respect and reverence for the aged is universal. A crying child is seldom seen. We have nothing to teach them out of the abundance of our civilization."

And a description of this nation by Dr. Oliphant fully confirms the above. He says, "Universal testimony assures us, that, in their domestic relations, the men are gentle and forbearing; the women, obedient and virtuous. Every department of crime is less in proportion to the population than in Christian countries. The native tribunals prove their competency to deal with criminals by giving general satisfaction. Unlike any Christian country, locks and keys are never used; yet theft and robbery are almost unknown. Although we had the most tempting curiosities with us, and left them laying about our lodgings for months, not one of them was carried off, though our room was sometimes crowded with people. During the whole of our stay in Yeddo, we never heard a scolding woman, nor saw a disturbance in the streets, nor a child struck or otherwise maltreated. In case of disputes between neighbors, their children are often selected as arbiters, and always give satisfaction. And parents in their old age often give their properly and the entire management of their affairs into the hands of their children, who never betray their trust." Now, it must be evident to every reader, that no such a moral picture of society can be presented of any Christian country. And yet the Christian Bible is not only scarcely known among them, but they have resisted the most determined efforts of the Christian f missionaries, for more than two hundred years, to introduce it and circulate it amongst them, and have kept it out by positive prohibition most of the time. Do such facts tend to confirm the statement often made by devout Christians, that "the Bible must be introduced and read by the people before they can have good morals in any country"? As a still further proof of the erroneousness of this statement, we will now contrast the state of morals in the most religious Christian countries with that of the heathen nation just referred to. And this moral picture of our country is from the pen of a Christian writer, the celebrated Parson Brownlow. He tells us, "The gospel is preached to the people regularly all over the country.... And yet, notwithstanding all this, rascality abounds in all classes of society.... Cheating and misrepresentation are the order of the day. In politics there is very little patriotism! or love of country. In religion there is more hypocrisy than grace; and the biggest scoundrels living, crowd the church with a view to hide their rascally designs, and more effectually serve the Devil. Pious villains, as sanctified as the moral law, are keeping false accounts, and resort to them for the sake of gain.... In a word, rascality abounds among all classes." Now look on this picture, and then on that. We will now present another contrast. We will look at another specimen of morality among the heathen. The portraiture is furnished us by the celebrated Christian missionary, Dr. Livingstone. Speaking of some of the African tribes he encountered in his travels, he says,

"The inhabitants have many wise laws and politic institutions, which would not discredit any nation in Europe. They are not a warlike people, but appear to hold martial achievements in great contempt or abhorrence. They have such a nice sense of justice and equity, that they will by no means make any encroachments on the territory of their neighbors. Their dealings with each other are characterized by mutual confidence, which Chris-tians would do well to imitate." No man is afraid of being cheated. No precautions are used to prevent theft and robbery; and yet no theft and robbery are committed. Their goods to be sold are stored in an open bazaar, left without any attendants, and the purchaser fixes his own price, and leaves what he considers a fair equivalent in its stead; and all parties are satisfied.

It would seem, then, that, while in Christian countries "it requires two to make a bargain," in heathen countries it requires but one. Here, then, we have the morals of a heathen nation, who not only knew nothing of Christianity, but would not condescend to talk with the missionary on the subject, but put him off with the plea, "It makes no difference what a man's religion is, if his morals and practical life are right." Sensible reasoning

We will now turn another leaf in Christian history with the inquiry, Is every country honored with the name of Christian distinguished for morality, and every nation stigmatized as heathen practically immoral? We will present another specimen of Christian morality from the pen of that popular Christian writer, Mr. Goodrich. Speaking of the moral condition of one of the oldest Christian nations now existing (the Abyssinians), he says, "They are restless, savage, and brutal, almost beyond any known tribes of men." The Scotch traveler, Mr. Bruce, was at Gondar, the capital; and he tells us that he seldom went out without seeing dead human bodies lying in the streets, left to be devoured by the dogs and hyenas. Alnary, who lived there some years since, says he was invited to a feast, where, amongst the dishes he was offered, was flesh with warm blood. We are told the people eat the flesh from the cattle while alive; and sometimes, after a large piece has been cut out, the skin is drawn over it, and the bleeding beast driven on its way. Sometimes, when a party is assembled for a feast, and are seated, the oxen are brought to the door, the flesh is cut off the living animal, and the meat devoured while the agonized brutes are filling the air with their bellowings....

And the manners of the people in other respects are horrible in the extreme. Yet, strange to say, they profess Christianity, and have numerous churches. Their saints are almost innumerable, and surpass in miraculous power those of the Romish Church. The clergy do not attempt to prevent divorces, nor even polygamy. In confirmation of the above graphic picture, we will quote also from an English geography by Guthrie and Ferguson, F.R.S. (p. 923): "The inhabitants of Abyssinia consist of Christians. Some ecclesiastical writers would persuade us that the conversion of Abyssinia to Christianity happened in the time of the apostles; but others state that this was after,—: in the year 333. There is no such thing as marriage in Abyssinia, and no distinction made between legitimate and illegitimate children, from the king to the beggar." Here, then, is "Christian" morality, and here is a specimen of Christian "free-lovism" too, in a country where the Christian Bible has been circulated by the thousand, and read and adored for at least fifteen hundred years. Such facts furnish a complete refutation of the popular Christian assumption that "true and pure morality is inseparable from Christianity and the Bible."

The truth is, the Bible alone has never done any thing to advance the cause of either morality or civilization in any country, because it is interdicted from improvement. It may be asked here, Why is it, then, that both religion and morality prosper in most countries where the Bible has been introduced? The answer to this question is found in the important fact, overlooked by the Christian world, that the arts and sciences generally accompany, or soon follow, the introduction of the Bible; but, where this has not been the case, and the Bible has been circulated alone, as in the case of Abyssinia, no progress whatever has been made towards the establishment of true morality or a rational religion, or any of the adjuncts of civilization, thus proving that the causes for the moral growth and improvement of society are outside of, and independent of, the Bible, and, we will add (in view of the many immoral lessons taught in the book), in spite of the Bible. A little rational reflection must convince any unbiased person that Bibles, in the very nature of things, must retard the moral and intellectual advancement and prosperity of society in every respect, notwithstanding they contain many good and beautiful precepts, for representing, as they do, the imperfect state of morals in the age and country in which they were written; while their teachings are assumed to be a finality in moral and religious progress, and hence are not allowed to be transcended in precept or practice. The consequence is, society would be pinned down immovably and perpetually to the same barbarous religion and morals of that age, if it were not pushed forward by the irresistible influences of the arts and sciences. Hence we owe our advancement and prosperity not to Bibles, but to causes adequate to counteract and overcome their adverse influences.

THE MORAL BENEFITS OF INFIDELITY.

An additional argument to prove the Bible is not a moral necessity to teach the practical duties of life is the fact that that class of persons known as "infidels," who entirely reject the book as a guide or as a moral instructor on account of its very defective and contradictory system of morals, are admitted by leading orthodox journals and representative men in the nation to possess better moral characters and habits, and to lead better moral lives, than Bible believers. As a proof of this statement, we will here present the most wonderful and humiliating concessions of that leading religious journal of the nation, "The New-York Evangelist." On this subject it speaks thus: "To the shame of the Church it must be confessed that the foremost men in all our philanthropic movements, in the interpretation of the spirit of the age, in the practical application of genuine Christianity, in the reformation of abuses in high and in low places, in the vindication of the rights of man and in practically redressing his wrongs, in the moral and intellectual regeneration of the race, are the so-called infidels in our land. The Church has pusillanimously left not only the working oar, but the very reins of salutary reform, in the hands of men she denounces as inimical to Christianity, and who are doing with all their might, for humanity's sake, that which the Church ought to be doing for Christ's sake; and if they succeed, as succeed they will, in abolishing slavery, banishing rum, restraining licentiousness, reforming abuses, and elevating the masses, then must the recoil upon Christianity be disastrous in the extreme. Woe! woe! woe to Christianity when infidels, by force of nature or the tendencies of the age, get ahead of the Church in morals, and in the practical work of Christianity. In some instances they are already far in advance. In the vindication of truth, righteousness, and liberty, they are the pioneers beckoning to a sluggish Church to follow in the rear." To this we will add the testimony of another orthodox writer (the eminent Catherine Beecher) as to the superior practical morality of infidels as compared with that of Christians. She says, in her "Appeal to the People" (p. 319), "It has come to pass that the world has been improving in practical virtue, while the Church has been deteriorating. The writer, in her very extensive travels and intercourse with the religious world, has had unusual opportunity to notice how surely and how extensively this fact has been observed and acknowledged by the best class of clergymen and laymen." She says one of the most laborious Episcopal bishops of the Western States declares, that "the world is growing better, and the Church is growing worse." She next cites the testimony of an eminent lawyer and church-member who is carrying on an extensive financial business throughout the country, and who makes the remarkable statement, that "the better class of worldly men are more honorable and reliable in business than the majority of church-members." (Let the reader mark this statement.) And this declaration was concurred in by another eminent lawyer, banker, and church-member, who is doing a more extensive business in the North-western States than any other man. And he states that the most extensive business-man in Central New York has arrived at the same conclusion as the result of his observation. And the greatest business-man in Boston is also referred to, whose experience led him to this conclusion. And other business-men in different parts of the country testify to the same effect. We may, then, set it down as the universal testimony of business-men that infidels and outsiders are more honest, more reliable, more truthful, and more honorable than church-members.

What a fatal argument these facts furnish against the religion and morality of the Christian Bible! They indicate that the religion and morality of nature and science are superior.

BURNING THE WORLD'S BENEFACTORS AS INFIDELS.

It will be perceived, from the preceding orthodox testimonies, that the class of people usually stigmatized as infidels are the true exemplars in practical morality, and the true benefactors of society. And Christian countries owe them a debt of gratitude for all the reforms and improvements which have proved such signal blessings to society within the last few hundred years, and for their own elevation out of the groveling ignorance of barbarism into the glorious sunlight of civilization. What withering self-reproach, what shameful mortification and self-condemnation, they ought therefore to feel in view of having committed so many of them to the flames, or otherwise maltreated and killed them! For, according to the above Christian testimonies, they were the world's real benefactors; and the following list will show that those victims perished at the hands of Christians as infidel martyrs: In 1511 Herman of Ryswick was burned for heresy; in 1546 Aonius Polearius was hung, and then burned for skepticism; in 1574 Geofroi Vallie was burned for publishing a heretical book; In 1546 Stephen Dolet, a printer and bookseller, was burned at Paris for atheism; in 1579 Matthew Hamont had his ears cut off, and was then burned alive, in England, for denying that Christ is God; in 1583 John Lewes was burned at Norwich, Eng., for "denying the Godhead of Christ;" in 1589 Francis Kett, a member of a college in Cambridge, Eng., was burned for holding "divers detestable opinions against Christ, our Savior;" In 1611 Bartholomew Legate was burned to ashes at Smithfield for denying that Christ was God; in 1644 Edward Wightman was burned at Litchfield for denying the divinity of Christ; in 1619 Lucilio Yanini, an Italian, was burned for atheistical opinions; in 1574 John Gonganelle was poisoned for his infidelity by the Holy Sacrament; in 1629 Alexander Leighton had his nose slit and his ears cut off, and was imprisoned for eleven years for publishing a work against miracles. To make the matter short, without extending the list, it has been estimated that forty thousand perished at the hands of Christians in forty y ears for infidelity, heresy, or other opinions deemed unsound by orthodox. And thus it will be perceived that infidelity has had its martyrs as well as Christianity; and that Christians, in putting these men to death, were robbing the world (according to "The New-York Evangelist")of its real benefactors. Oh, shame! Christianity, where is thy blush?