Church, the Greek or Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, or by any church that I know of.

My own mind is my own church. It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be mentally faithful to himself.

Infidelity does not consist in believing or disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

The belief of a God, so far from having anything of a mystery in it, is of all beliefs the most easy, because it arises to us out of necessity. And the practice of moral truth, or in other words, a practical imitation of the moral goodness of God, is no other than our acting toward each other as he acts benignedly towards all.

We cannot serve God in the manner we serve those who cannot do without such service; aud therefore the only idea we can have of serving God is of contributing to the happiness of the creation he has made. This cannot be done by spending a recluse life in selfish devotion.

-When men, either from policy or pious fraud, set up systems of religion incompatible with the word or works of God in the creation, and not only above, but repugnant to human comprehension, they were under the necessity of inventing or adopting a word that should serve as a bar to all questions, inquiries, or speculations.

The word mystery answered this purpose; and thus it has happened that religion, which in itself is without mystery, has been corrupted into a fog of mysteries. As mystery answered all general purposes, miracle followed as an occasional auxiliary. The former served to bewilder the mind, the latter to puzzle the senses.

Instead of studying theology, as is now done, out of the Bible and Testament, the meanings of which books are

always controverted, and the authenticity of which is disproved, it is necessary that we refer to the Bible of the creation. The principles we discover there are eternal, and of divine origin: they are the foundation of all the science that exists in the world, and must be the foundation of theology.

We can know God only through his works. We cannot have a conception of any one attribute but by following some principle that leads to it.. We have only a confused idea of his power, if we have not the means of comprehending something of its immensity. We can have no idea of his wisdom

The

but by knowing the order and manner in which it acts. principles of science lead to this knowledge; for the creator of man is the Creator of science, and it is through that medium that man can see God, as it were, face to face.

ELIAS HICKS.

THE LIGHT WITHIN.

Now my whole drift is to gather the minds of the people to the light within, which is the same as the grace of God, the manifestation of the spirit that reproves for evil. It was this that Jesus recommended to his disciples, it was this light which George Fox preached; it is an emanation from God in the soul of man, by his power and spirit; and he is everywhere, for in Him we live, move, and have our being.

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And how wonderfully he has directed the birds to fly from one limb to another, and to effect that which will make them happy. And who is it that guides them? God Almighty, by the sense that he has given them, and his mercy is everywhere; not a blade of grass could grow, were he not the preserver of it. He fills all things, and is everywhere present. * * * "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." This must comprehend all mankind, who have a thousand different notions about outward exercises

in religious matters, in which there is no religion at all. There is no religion in anything but in this divine grace; in being taught by it, and coming under its leading.

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And what was this "Comforter," spoken of in the Scripture? It was the spirit of truth, the light and life of God in the soul. There never was any other Comforter, and there never will be; it is that principle which is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; and he abideth in us.

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No,

Jesus told his disciples it would not be out of them, "For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." verily, there never was any other Saviour than God manifesting himself in man; for "no man knoweth the things of God, but the spirit of God." Oh! that we might be encouraged to gather to this standard-don't mind the name: mind the nature, mind its effects; this is enough for us to do. Don't dispute about names, for if we do, we are dark and blind.

TRADITION AND POPULAR OPINION.

But having for a considerable time past found, from full conviction, that scarcely anything is so baneful to the present and future happiness and welfare of mankind, as a submission to tradition and popular opinion, I have been led to see the necessity of investigating for myself all customs and doctrines of a moral and religious nature, either verbally or historically communicated, by the best and greatest of men or angels, and not to sit down satisfied with anything but a plain, clear testimony of the spirit and word of life and light, in my own heart and conscience.

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And how much more reasonable it is to suppose, that any inspired teacher of the present day should be led to speak more truly and plainly to the states of the people to whom he is led to communicate, than any doctrines delivered seventeen hundred years ago, to a people very differently circumstanced, I leave to any rational mind to judge.

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I well remember how oft my conscience has smote me, when I have been endeavoring to support the Society's belief of the Scriptures that they very far excelled all other writings, that the fear of men had too great a share in leading me to adopt the sentiment, and custom rendered it more easy; but I never was clear in my own mind, and had I carefully attended to my own feelings, I should have been preserved, I believe, in a line of more consistency in that respect.

ATONEMENT.

Surely is it possible that any rational being that has any right sense of justice and mercy, would be willing to accept forgiveness of his sins on such terms? Would he not rather go forward and offer himself wholly up to suffer all the penalties due to his crimes, rather than the innocent should suffer? Nay, was he so hardy as to acknowledge a willingness to be saved through such a medium, would it not prove that he stood in direct opposition to every principle of justice and honesty, of mercy and love, and showed himself a pure selfish creature?

ESSENTIALS IN RELIGION.

Inward sanctity, pure love, disinterested attachment to God and man, obedience of heart and life, sincere excellence of character, this is the one thing needful, this is the essential thing in religion; and all things else, ministers, churches, ordinances, places of worship, all are but means, helps, secondary influences, and utterly worthless when separated from this. To imagine that God regards anything but this, that he looks at anything but the heart, is to dishonor him, to express a mournful insensibility to his pure character. Goodness, purity, virtue, this is the only distinction in God's sight. This is intrinsically, essentially, everlastingly, and by its own nature, lovely, beautiful, glorious, divine. It owes nothing to time, to circumstance, to outward confessions. It shines by its own light. It is God

himself dwelling in the human soul. Can any man think lightly of it because it has not grown up in a certain church, or exalt any church above it? My friends, one of the grandest truths of religion is, the supreme importance of character, of virtue, of that divine spirit which shone out in Christ. The grand heresy is, to substitute anything for this, whether creed, or form, or church. One of the greatest wrongs to Christ is, to despise his character, his virtue, in a disciple who happens to wear a different name from our own.

When I represent to myself true virtue or goodness—not that which .s made up of outward proprieties and prudent calculations, but that which chooses duty for its own sake, and as the first concern; which respects impartially the rights of every human being; which labors and suffers with patient resolution for truth, and others' welfare; which blends energy and sweetness, deep humility and self-reverence; which places joyful faith in the perfection of God, communes with him intimately, and strives to subject to his pure will, all thought, imagination, and desire; which lays hold on the promise of everlasting life, and in the strength of this hope endures calmly and firmly the sorest evils of the present state-when I set before me this virtue, all the distinctions on which men value themselves fade away. Wealth is poor, worldly honor is mean, outward forms are beggarly elements. Condition, country, church, all sink into unimportance. Before this simple greatness I bow, I The robed priest, the gorgeous altar, the great assembly, the pealing organ, all the exteriors of religion, vanish from my sight as I look at the good and great man, the holy, disinterested soul. Even I, with vision so dim, with heart so cold, can see and feel the divinity, the grandeur of true goodness. How then must God regard it? To his pure eyes how lovely must it be! And can any of us turn from it, because some water has not been dropped on its forehead, or some bread put into its lips by a minister or priest; or because it has not learned to repeat some mysterious creed, which a church or human council has ordained?

revere.