I was, for some few months, called on by an Orthodox deacon, who earnestly requested me to reflect on the dangerous situation I was in as an unbeliever, being totally unprepared for a future state. I asked, if I were in a worse state than an Unitarian? You admit, said I, that they, many of them, are good men, and will not be excluded from heaven. He replied, that, morally speaking, they might be good; but, he added, that my claim to heaven stood on equal, if not superior ground to theirs, as they did not believe in the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus for sin; consequently, they had neither part nor lot in the matter. All the intolerance and persecution which have deluged the earth with blood, have arisen from Christianity not having ever been defined. Hundreds of different creeds have been founded on the sayings and doings of Jesus and his apostles, as found in the New Testament; and there are yet materials for many more. Each sect regards all other sects as being wickedly obstinate, and resisting the truth. All this misery and destruction, arising from the different construction of the doctrines said to have been delivered by Jesus, would never have taken place, if the all-wise Ruler of the Universe had dictated them; but the evils they have brought on the world can never be reconciled as coming from a Being of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. If such a Being had ever given a revelation to the human race, there is no doubt but that it would have been adapted to man’s reasoning powers; that mistakes would not have opposed its progress; thousands of books would not have been required to explain what Infinite Wisdom had proclaimed; no fires of martyrdom would have been lighted, to compel men to believe what none could understand. If God had been the author of the Christian religion, it would, like all his works, have been so arranged, and the means so wisely adapted, that the intention or end would be fully answered. But the religion of the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, is a continual trial of experiments on man. And what has religion made of him? Is he generally fit to be trusted, in word or action? Is he generally humane and tender-hearted? No! very far from it. Society is, in its best state, very defective in humanity. The accumulation of riches is the Christian’s object. Gold is the god he adores.