v CL A K n%h Xu A VELS. 
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natural propensity in human nature toward' this ' intimity* 
than that the gospel itself, the only effectual enemy stiperstL 
lion ever bad, should have been chosen for its basis. In the 
Holy Larid, as m Russia, and perhaps in Spain and Portugal, 
the gospel is only known by representations more foreign from 
its tenets than the worship of the sun and the moon. If a 
Country, which was once so disgraced by the feuds of a reli¬ 
gious war, should ever become the theatre of honourable and 
holy contest, it will be when reason and revelation extermi¬ 
nate ignorance and superstition. Those who peruse the fo! 
lowing pages, will perhaps find it difficult to credit the de¬ 
gree of profanation which true religion has here sustained^ 
While Europeans are sending messengers, the heralds of civili¬ 
zation," to propagate the gospel in the remotest regions, the 
very laud whence that gospel originated is suffered to remain 
as a nursery of superstition for surrounding nations, where vo¬ 
luntary pilgrims, from all parts of the earth, (men warmly de¬ 
voted to the cause of religion, and more capable of dissemi 
nating the lessons they receive than the most zealous mission¬ 
aries,) are daily instructed in the grossest errors. Surely the 
task of convening such persons, already more than half dis¬ 
posed toward a due comprehension of the truths of Christiani¬ 
ty, were a less arduous undertaking, than that of withdrawing 
from their prejudices, and heathenish propensities, the savages 
of America and of India. As it. now 7 is, the pilgrims return 
back to their respective countries, either devested of the re¬ 
ligious opinions they once entertained, or more than ever 
shackled by the trammels of superstition. In their journey 
through the Holy Land, they are conducted from one convent 
to another (each striving to outdo the former in the list of in 
diligences and of reliques it lias at its disposal,) bearing testi¬ 
mony to the wretched ignorance, and sometimes to the disor¬ 
derly lives of a swarm of monks, by whom ail this trumpery 
is manufactured. Among the early contributors to the system 
of abuses thus established, no one appears more pre eminently 
distinguished than the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine 
the First; to whose charitable donations these repositories of 
superstition were principally indebted. ATo one laboured, 
more effectually to obliterate every trace of whatsoever might 
have been regarded with reasonable reverence, than did this 
old lady, with the best possible intentions, whensoever it was 
in her power. Had the sea of Tiberias been capable of anni¬ 
hilation by her means, it would have been desiccated, paved, 
