400 THE JOURNEYMAN. 



surely that there is no true religion, but that we stand 

 in need of a true one ; every mythologic folly and 

 absurdity should convince us that we need an infalli- 

 ble guide. Regarded in this light the Shaster and the 

 Koran are substantial proofs of how ill we could do with- 

 out the Bible ; and Paganism and Mahometism powerfully 

 recommend Christianity. You, my dear William, to 

 whom it has been given to possess an inquiring and 

 reflecting mind, must have often thought of the final 

 destinies of man ; I myself have observed in you much 

 of that respect for sacred things which is one of the 

 characteristics of an ingenuous nature ; but there is per- 

 haps danger that your very ingenuity and acuteness 

 might have led you into error. Christianity is emphatic- 

 ally termed the wisdom of God, but it is not on a first 

 examination that a reasoning mind can arrive at the evi- 

 dence of its being such ; on the contrary, some of its 

 main doctrines seem opposed to the more obvious 

 principles of common sense ; and this quite in the same 

 way that, before the days of Newton, it would have 

 seemed contrary to these principles to allege that the 

 whiteness of light was occasioned by a combination of 

 the most vivid colours, or that the planets were held in 

 their orbits by the law which impelled a falling stone 

 towards the ground. Now this is exactly what we might 

 expect of the true religion. A religion made by rational 

 men many Deists, you know, were eminently such, and 

 we may instance theirs will be, like themselves, rational 

 and easily understood ; but this very facility is a con- 

 clusive proof that it had its origin in the mind of man. 

 It is like all his other works like the clocks and watches 

 and steam engines of his construction easily understood, 

 and easily imitated ; but it is not thus with Christianity, 

 nor is it thus with the great machine of the universe. 



