Giving, that his power ne'er had been, had not
Manitou's eye-flash first oped the Time-cloud!
Thus merely following as effect,—direction
From a Cause,—of a Creation,—which he
Can neither—(with all his loud thunder-talk)—
Increase or diminish,—tarnish or illumine![17]
The discovery and identity of the Tyrian Ruins in Ancient America must give a complete annihilation to the impious argument of the atheists, for Isaiah wrote 256 years before Ezra, 380 before the Tyrian Siege by Alexander, and 712 before Christ. The first part of the newly-applied Prophecy was accomplished at the Macedonian massacre, and the rescuing of the "remnant" by the Sidonians,—this was in 332 B. C., consequently 204 years after the Biblical translation by Ezra:—while the last line of that Prophecy,—viz.,
"Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn," although accomplished in the same year, has only been discovered (from the Ruins of Ancient America) to have been fulfilled, together with the "local habitation," at this present time,—and therefore 2298 years after Ezra,—and 2554 years from its original promulgation by Isaiah! And the reader should remember this important fact,—viz., that the discovery of the Ruins has been since the atheistical writings of the sceptics,—their names we will not offend the eye with! If a man would crush a serpent, he should not elevate it to an idol, but place his heel upon its head, that it may be trodden under foot, and so forgotten! Bring forward the venom of the serpent, if you will, and analyze it,—that you may avoid its corrupting qualities,—but give no name to the serpent-sceptic itself,—lest that that fame might have been the sole object of his ambition, and by granting his wish, it would have the evil tendency of inciting others to imitation. Many a public villain has become so, merely from the desire of acquiring the notoriety of a preceding one, whose name could only be equalled, by the imitation, or excelling of those crimes leading to the creation of the name. It is the same in the path of virtuous Patriotism. To acquire the name of an Alfred or a Washington, we must imitate the deeds, or the quality of the deeds, that made them so justly renowned,—the Name of the Hero is the attraction,—and therefore, in all records of crime, the names of the criminals, should not be held up to public gaze and wonder: for the desire of evil notoriety, forms no small minority in the human family. But in justice to fallen Nature, it would not be difficult to prove that all atheistical writers have been victims of insanity or intemperance,—the latter vice often producing the former calamity;—and there is nothing more astounding in hearing an unconfined Maniac deny the existence of a God,—than that one asylumned should assume that he is The Almighty! or that one should deny that Christ in his Divine Character was upon earth, than that another should really believe that he is the Saviour![18] But the misfortune has been, and is, that their printed works may be read by persons of weak intellects, and so lead them into the paths of darkness and confusion.
The Aborigines of North America cannot be made to comprehend that an atheist really does exist, although they have been so informed; it being so at variance with their own confirmed and Religious conviction. In illustration of this belief and veneration, we may be excused from quoting from our own unpublished Work upon Tecumseh,—the great Chieftain of the Northern Aborigines. It is part of Tecumseh's speech upon reviewing the Decalogue, and the necessity of our Laws, and is addressed to an Anglo-Saxon.
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