t, and from posts of honor. They should be
wretched, and poor, and miserable, and the hearts of men, and the powers
of nature, should combine for their destruction, and for the utter
extinction of their cause.

Yet the state of things is just the contrary. Christianity triumphs, and
Christians are honored; while infidelity languishes, and its disciples
are covered with shame. On the Atheist's theory the human race has
existed for millions of years, yet it has never produced more than a few
individuals who have acknowledged the principle of his creed. The mass
of men, in all ages, have been believers in God. The civilized as well
as the savage, the learned as well as the ignorant, the high as well as
the low, alike have adored a Deity. Even the greatest of our race have
been believers. The sweetest poets, the profoundest philosophers, the
greatest statesmen, the wisest legislators, the most venerable judges,
the most devoted philanthropists, have all believed in God. Two or three
tribes have been found, it is said, without an idea of God; but they
were savages of the lowest grade; and it is not yet settled whether the
accounts that have been given of those wretched creatures be correct or
not.

And Atheism has always been regarded with horror. It is so still. It is
believed to be the nurse of vice and crime. Atheists are everywhere
looked upon with suspicion and dread. The prevailing impression is that
they are bad and dangerous men,--that no reliance is to be placed on
their word,--that they are naturally licentious, dishonest, deceitful,
cruel,--that they are prepared for any enormity,--that they are enemies
to domestic purity and civil order, and that no one is safe in their
power. If ever they were regarded by mankind with favor, the time is
forgotten. There is not a nation on earth in which they are popular now.
They are everywhere branded as infamous.

If Atheists have always been so bad as to _deserve_ this fate, their
principles must be bad. If they have deserved a better fate,--if they
have been pure, and just, and true,--if they have been remarkable for
generosity, patriotism, and philanthropy,--if they have distinguished
themselves as the friends of virtue, and the benefactors of mankind, how
sad to think that they have never received their due at the hands of
men.

The longer the Atheists look on their condition, the less satisfactory
it appears. They have no grand history, no glorious names, to reflect