their Bible teaches that all doctrines are essential,--that there is no such thing as a non-essential doctrine; for it first proclaims "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," and then declares that "he who offends in the least, offends in the whole." These two declarations taken together prove (if they prove any thing) that there is no "non-essential doctrine," and that the slightest departure from the right faith, or the least disregard of the _most trivial doctrine_ of the Christian creed, will land the soul of the man or woman in endless perdition who is guilty of it. The solemn question arises here, then, Who can escape eternal damnation? For, if there is only one true faith, then the hundred and forty thousand different and conflicting faiths cherished and propagated among Christians must all be wrong but one,--a fact which impels us to the awful and inevitable conclusion that not one Christian in a thousand--no, not in ten thousand--can be saved by these terms of the gospel. The thought sometimes occurs to the writer, that no truly enlightened person, possessing a true moral dignity of character, could consent to hang his salvation upon a book which, after eighteen hundred years of the most critical investigation and explanation by the most learned minds in Christendom, still remains a mystery with regard to all its most important doctrines, so that more than six hundred churches are now disputing about what it teaches; and the difficulty is still increasing by the uprising of new churches with new creeds and new interpretations of the Bible. Let the reader observe the striking difference in the harmony of views which prevail in the various scientific societies throughout the country and those of the churches, and he will discover at once that there is no science in our religion. Take for example the astronomical societies. They are all perfectly agreed with respect to what the great Bible of nature teaches concerning that science. There is no contention and no dispute with respect to the doctrines and principles of that grand revelation of nature, because they are all susceptible of proof and demonstration. Were it otherwise,--were the amateurs and students of that science divided into six hundred conflicting factions, like the churches, each with a different theory with respect to what it teaches,--one contending that the sun rises in the east, another that it rises in the west; one arguing that the sun is the revolving center of our solar system, another contending that the earth is; one teaching that the starry orbs which roll their massive forms through infinite space are mere wax tapers stuck in the azure vault to light this pigmy planet, or mere peep-holes for Gods to look out upon our world; and one arguing that they were all knocked up in a single day out of that singular substance called nothing, and another that they are the outgrowth of other worlds, or have existed from all eternity.