received, through the medium of the||tings of Hume, who has been extolJews, the belief in one God. If we led by the modern enemies of reveleave here, Muhamedans out of the||lation, as one of the most acute reaquestion, and merely consider the soners, and the excellency of whose sentiments of those individuals among style has procured to his writings an the Christian nations, who have dis-extensive circulation. He asserts, dainfully rejected the benefits of rev- that there is no perceptible connecelation, and have walked in the boast-||tion between cause and effect; that ed path of reason, we may gather the belief of such connection, is a from their expressions, that the idea mere matter of custom; that experiof God, which their reason has setence can shew us no such connecup, is only in so far superior to the tion; that it is uncertain and useless. ideas of heathen philosophers on the to argue from the course of nature, same subject, as the moderns borrow and infer an intelligent cause; that from that very revelation, which they there is no reason to believe, that the affect to despise, and an attentive pe-universe proceeded from a cause ;— rusal of their sentiments, will go far that there are no solid arguments to to convince us, that reason, unassis- prove the existence of a God: and ted by revelation, leads us to atheism, again, in other places, he argues, that but will never ripen the blind faith | experience is our only guide in matin one God, into a rational conviction.||ters of fact, and the existence of obOne of these philosophers, is, there-||jects; that it is universally allowed, fore, perfectly correct, when he says that nothing exists without a cause; "Deism is but the first step of reason that every effect is so precisely preout of superstition. No person re-determined, that no other effect could mains a deist, but through want of re-in such circumstances, have possibly flection, through timidity, passion, or resulted from the operation of its obstinacy." The posthumous works cause. Again, concerning God, he of Frederic II., king of Prussia, sat-declares, that it is unreasonable to beisfactorily prove, that the French lieve God to be wise and good; that, school of philosophers, such as Vol-||what we believe to be a perfection in taire, D'Alembert, Diderot and oth-God, may be a defect; and that no ers, assumed the name of deists, while reward or punishment can be rationin fact, in their familiar intercourse, ally expected, beyond what is already they confessed themselves to be athe-known by experience and observaists. Mr. Hobbes, who flourished tion. If these are not sad labyrinths about the middle of the 17th centu- of error, into which reason, or rather ry, allowed in one part of his wri-the abuse of it, has led these wise tings, the existence of God, but in philosophers, in endeavoring to disanother, he affirms, that all which is cover, what reason never has discovnot matter, is nothing: again, he al-ered, and never can discover, we lows, that honor, praise and worship, may safely affirm, that no such eris due to God;--and again, he says, rors exist. In order to see into what that all religion is ridiculous. Simi-sad mistakes reason will run in these lar contradictions, occur in the wri-things, we need only cast our eyes

Review of Schiller's Essay on the Mission of Moses.

ed? The most celebrated nations of antiquity, the Assyrians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Romans, are no

upon the events of the French revo-||of Providence the author means, as lution, when the avowed rejectors of we shall see in the sequel. But I revelation possessed the supreme ask, has that channel been destroypower, when nothing prevented them from bringing upon that nation, the blessings of the discoveries of their reason; when churches were con-more, and few can now trace their verted into temples of reason; when origin to one or the other of these nain the principal church of every town tions, though there has no remarkaa tutelary goddess of reason was in-ble dispersion of any one of them tastalled, who received the adoration||ken place. In vain do we look for of the attending multitudes, and when the descendant of the ancient Assythe female, chosen to represent this rian in the region of Mesopotamia, or new divinity, was, in many instances,|| for the Mede, in the Persian provina common prostitute. It was in that ces of Adjerbidjan, and of Irak Adperiod, that the legislature of France jernie, the offspring of the soldiers of declared that the Christian religion |Cyrus, can no more be traced in the was a gross imposition, and that death provinces of Kerman and Tarsistan, was an eternal sleep. [See the Ab- of the present kingdom of Persia; be Baxuel's memoirs of Jacobinism.] and the very boast of one or two famChristianity, therefore, has saved ailies of the present Rome, of an ungreat portion of mankind, not only interrupted descendance from the anfrom those errors into which polythe-cient Romans, is proof sufficient, that theism necessarily leads, but also in general, such relationship cannot from those, into which reason leads be traced. How different are the man, when he rejects the revelations circumstances in regard to the Heof the Mosaic, and the Christian re-brew nation; though scattered over ligion. the face of the globe, they form every What Schiller says of the unwor-where a separate people, tenaciously thiness, and the abandoned character attached to the customs and traditions of the Hebrew nation, can only refer of their ancestors. The channel to its present degraded state; for in which conveyed to us the important. the days of their political existence, truth, that there is one God, has as a nation, their moral character will therefore, not been destroyed, as othbear an advantageous comparison er nations have been annihilated;-with that of any other cotempory na- but, though broken in a measure, has tion. Schiller's representing the He-been preserved by a Providence, brew nation as a channel, chosen by which has overruled the attempts so Providence, to convey a certain truth,||frequently made at their total deviz. the belief in one God, sounds struction, for a testimony to all napious enough, and indeed, the poison|tions, that Jesus is indeed the anointof infidelity, would lie too open, were||ed Lord, and that his religion is diit not covered in some measure, from vinely true.

the sight of the unwary; but good Schiller continues: "The Jews came to care is taken, to inform us, what kind]]Egypt as a single nomadic family, consisting

cases are unavoidable, viz.: the greater want of cleanliness, and infectious diseases. Here, then, the first foundation was laid for that evil, which has remained an appendage to that nation to the present time; but in those days that disease must have raged with una

of about 70 souls, and only in Egypt, grew ||Jacob, he could hardly calculate on a posterinto a large and numerous people. During ity of two millions, which were to find room a period of about 400 years, which they in it; that province, therefore, was not very spent in this country, they increased to near-large, and the donation was still magnanily 2 millions, among whom 600,000 men mous enough, if the one hundredth part of were capable of bearing arms, at their de- that population had been taken into account. parture from this kingdom. During their As, therefore, the residence of the Hebrews long abode in that country, they lived apart was not enlarged in proportion to the increase from the Egyptians, separated both by living of the population, they were at last crowded in a distant province, and also by their no- together, in a manner highly detrimental to madic mode of life, which made them an their health. What was under these circumabomination to all the inhabitants of the stances more natural, than that those very country, and excluded them from every par-consequences should ensue, which, in such ticipation in the political and civil rights of the Egyptians. They continued to be governed in the names of nomadic tribes, according to which, the father of each family, ruled the same; the head of a tribe governed his tribe, and thus they formed a state in the state, which at last, in consequence of its||bated fury. Leprosy, the most terrible immense increase, excited the suspicion and plague of that climate, spread among them, jealousy of the kings of Egypt. A multitude and became the inheritance of many generaof people, thus separated from the other sub- tions. The very fountains of life and of jects of the realm, in the very heart of it, propagation, were gradually empoisoned idle in consequence of their nomadic way of thereby, and from an accidental evil, arose, Life, intimately connected among themselves, finally, an inherited national constitution.and in no connection of common interest From the multitude of preventive measures, with the state, might become very danger-adopted by the law-giver, we may draw inous in case of a hostile invasion, and be ca-ferences as to the prevalence of the evil itsily tempted to take advantage of the weak-self, and the unanimous testimony of profane ness of the kingdom, to its destruction. Po-authors, of Manetho the Egyptian, Diodorus licy, therefore, made it advisable, to keep a of Sicily, of Tacitus, of Sysimachus, Strabo, strict watch over them, to give them some and of many others, who know almost nothoccupation, and to consult upon the means,ing of the Jewish nation, but that they were by which their numbers might be decreased. infected with this national disease, proves, They were, therefore, oppressed with heavy how general it was, and how strong must labor, and means having thus been found to have been the aversion of the Egyptians to make them also useful to the state, self-inter-this evil. The leprosy, therefore, a natural est, united with policy, to increase their bur-consequence of their confined mode of livdens. With the utmost inhumanity, they ing, of their spare and defective diet, and were compelled to perform menial services, the ill treatment to which they were subjectand task-masters were appointed, to force ed, became a second cause for its increase. them to labor, and to misuse them. But The Jews, hitherto despised as a nation of this barbarous conduct towards them, did not shepherds, and avoided as strangers, were prevent their increase. Sound policy ought now shunned and abhorred, as infected with, therefore to have induced the Egyptians to a loathsome disease. Every kind of violence. scatter them among the other inhabitants, and injustice was considered admissible toand to grant them equal rights with them; wards a people, which the gods had so pecubut the abhorrence in which they were held liarly marked as objects of abhorrence, and by the Egyptians, forbade such a measure. no one hesitated to deprive them of the most This abhorrence was increased by its own sacred rights of man. No wonder, then, necessary consequences. When the king of that the barbarous conduct towards them inEgypt granted the land of Goshen, on the creased in proportion, as the consequences east side of the river Nile, to the family ofll of their barbarous treatment became visible,

Review of Schiller's Essay on the Mission of Moses.

79

and that they were punished with constant-ren, whom he knew to be men of ac

tivity, rulers over the king's cattle. The province of Goshen had been entirely given up to Israelites, the kings flocks and herds would therefore be removed to other provinces and estates of the king, if they had been

ly increasing severity for that misery, which ill treatment had brought upon them." Schiller admits, that a family of 70 persons increased in 400 years to the sum of two millions, an increase, which, if applied to the U. States, would make the number of inhabi-kept before the arrival of the sons of tants in 400 years from the peace of Jacob, in the land of Goshen, and as Paris amount to 7183 millions, which several of the brethren of Joseph were would give an average of 3591 per-made overseers of the cattle of Phasons to every square mile, a popula-raoh, they must have removed with tion seven-fold greater than that of their families to those places, where the Island of Malta, the most popu- his flocks were kept. Therefore the lous spot on the face of the globe. whole supposition of evil consequen

It is no where said in Scripture, ces, which Schiller draws from the that the whole multitude of the Isra-compact dwelling of the Hebrews elites were confined to the province falls at once to the ground, and thereof Goshen; as those of the posterity fore the whole system, which he in of Jacob, who remained in that prov- his essays builds upon such supposiince, adhered to their nomadic mode tion is untenable and void of all founof life, it is more than conjecture, if dation. The writings of Moses, the we allow that a large portion of them only valuable authority we have of found a living as herdsmen among the this early part of the Jewish history, Egyptians, an occupation, which the do not prove, that the leprosy was natives of that country abhorred, and general or even common among that would readily give up to these stran-people at the time of their departure gers. This supposition is further cor- from Egypt. Moses informs us, that roborated by the ease, with which there were in the camp of Israel at the Egyptian government laid heavy that time 600,000 men capable of bearburdens upon the Israelites. For ing arms; can the reader suppose, had the 600,000 men capable of bear-that there were any lepers among ing arms, lived together in the land them? The fear of the infectious naof Goshen, they could have been a-ture of that disease would have preble to make a formidable resistance vented any communication with those against any attempt, to reduce them that were well. Or shall we suppose to a state of slavery, in comparison to these 600,000 men were all lepers, and which Westindian slavery is the state their leprosy the weapon, with which of freedom. But we may go yet a they fought against the enemies.— step further. The history of Moses Surely such an army would not only furnishes us with direct evidence, have been strong enough, to drive that many of the Israelites lived in dif-Jebusites, Hittites and Pheresites out ferent parts of Egypt. In the 49th ch. of the land of Canaan, but in a very of Genesis v. 1. Pharaoh desires Jo- short time to conquer all the nations seph, to appoint those of his breth-of the earth. But before we admit

this hypothesis, which otherwise || REFORMATION IN THE EVAN. LUTH. would go far to explain many events CHURCHES AT BRUNSWICK AND SCHAGHTICOKE.

I

in the Jewish history, in a very rational manner, which otherwise bor-To the Editor of the Lutheran Magazine. der on the marvellous, we ought to Looking over the pages of the last have some hints, at least from Mane-number of the Magazine, I perceivtho or some other of the many autho-ed that you had taken notice, though rities quoted by Schiller, if not from but barely, of the late revival in the Moses or Joshua, that the fear of this Lutheran Church in Brunswick. contagion prostrated the armies of would add the name also of Schaghtheir enemies, opened to them the ticoke. Aware that many, who live walls of Jericho, and brought the|| some distance from us, desire to know Gibeonites into the pestiferous camp something more about a matter so inof Israel, to make a covenant with||teresting and important; sensible that this army of lepers.

a short account of the same might be, The reader will also observe, that not only gratifying to curiosity, but Schiller allows, that the Hebrews beneficial to our people; I hasten to continued their nomadic life in the comply with the wishes of our brethland of Goshen, to the time of their ren, to speak of the things which we departure; a land, in which he leaves have seen and heard, felt and rejoino room for the people: where was ced over; whilst I would publicly then, we ought to ask, the multitude ascribe all the glory to Him, who has of their cattle, and where did they so conspicuously blessed this portion find pasture, when the people them- of our Lutheran Zion. Long before selves were starving? Or if they the revival appeared in the congrehad those multitudes of cattle, and gations, there were satisfactory eviMoses says, that they went out with dences that many among us, were flocks and herds, even very much cat-growing more pious and zealous. The tle, what becomes of this spare and defective diet, in consequence of which they contracted that horrible leprosy and transmitted it as an inheritance to their posterity? But if Moses' account of the state of the health of the Hebrew nation, about the time of his birth, deserves credit, we find, that the Hebrew women at least enjoyed a better constitution than the native Egyptians, [see Exod. 1. 19,] a circumstance, which hardly can be rec-and of the love of souls. Of course onciled with the idea of the 600,000 fighting men all being lepers.

Nineteen hundred and forty children between four and sixteen years of age, attend the public schools at Springfield, Mass.

broken down altars of prayer were built up, and once more the morning and evening sacrifices were offered; once more Zion was remembered, once more for her tears freely flowed, once more for her supplications the most fervent arose. The pious not only put up their prayers at home, but were active abroad; not only the heart, but the conduct and conversation became full of the love of Jesus

religious inquiry began to deepen and to spread among others, but like the grain growing in secret, for a great while kept out of sight. A time at length arrived when it was plainly