eview the history of the Church; I will examine the character
and workings of the various religious organizations of the day; and
whatever I find in them that is true or good, I will lay before my
readers. I am not a Christian," said I; "and I never expect to be one;
but I will do justice to the Christian cause to the best of my ability.
I have said and written enough on the skeptical side: I will see what
there is to be said on the Christian side."

I had no idea of the greatness of the task I was undertaking. I supposed
that ten or a dozen articles would be sufficient to set forth all that
was true and good in the Bible. But when I came to examine the Book,
with my somewhat altered views, and enlarged experience, and chastened
feelings, I found in it treasures of truth and goodness, of beauty and
blessedness, of which, even in my better days, I seemed to have had but
a very inadequate conception. I was touched with a hundred precepts of
mercy and tenderness in the laws of Moses. I was startled and delighted
with many Old Testament stories. The character of Job, as portrayed in
the twenty-ninth and thirty-first chapters of the book that goes under
his name, melted me to tears. I was delighted with the purity and
tenderness, the beauty and sublimity of the Psalms. I was amazed at the
depth and vastness of the wisdom of the Book of Proverbs. I was pleased
with the stern fidelity with which the prophets rebuked the vices and
the crimes, the selfishness and cruelty, of the sinners of their days,
and the tenderness and devotion with which they pleaded the cause of the
poor, the fatherless, and the widow. When I came to the Gospels, and
read again the wonderful story of the Man of Nazareth, my whole soul
gave way. The beauty, the tenderness, the glory of His character
overpowered me. I was ashamed, that I should ever have so fearfully
misconceived it, and done it such grievous injustice. The tears rolled
from my eyes, moistening the book in which I was reading, and the paper
on which I was writing. But I proceeded with my task. I pondered every
word He uttered, and was delighted with His glorious revelations of God,
and truth, and duty. I gazed on all His wondrous works. I marked, I
studied, every trait in his character. I read the sad story of His
trials. I traced him through all His sufferings. I saw the indignities
and cruelties to which He was subjected, and I saw the meekness, the
patience, and the fortitude with which H