from the leading articles of the "Bard's Druidic Creed." They show what was the religion of the ancient Britons, eight hundred years before Christ. Thus we discover that those very moral precepts claimed by the evangelical Churches to have originated with Christ, were practised centuries before his time by a socalled heathen nation.

"GOD'S ATTRIBUTES.-These being in themselves most beneficial and harmonious, necessarily tend to annihilate the power of evil and bring man to everlasting happiness.

"ANIMALS.-We can not kill an animal any more than man, but as a prevention against or a punishment for killing.

“PROVIDENCE.-Even the malignity of man is rendered subservient to the general and ultimate end of Divine Providence, which is, to bring all animated beings to happiness.

"PEACE. The bard, amid the storms of the moral world, must assume the serenity of the unclouded blue sky.

“TRUTH.—Believe nothing without examination; but where reason and evidence will warrant the conclusion, believe everything and let prejudice be unknown. Search for truth on all occasions, and espouse it in opposition to the world.

“PRIDE.—Pride is that passion by which man assumes more than the laws of Nature allow him; for all men are equal, though differently stationed in the state of humanity for the common good. Whoever assumes such superiority is an usurper, and he attaches himself thereby to evil, in such a degree, that his soul falls at death into the lowest point of existence.

"SACRIFICES.-The death of criminals who surrender themselves voluntarily is also sacrificial, inasmuch as they do thereby all in their power to compensate for their crimes.

“PUNISHMENT.-Eternal misery is in itself impossible; it is inconsistent with the attributes of God, who is all-perfect benevolence.

"THE FINAL STATE OF THE WORLD.-All mental and cor

poreal affections and propensities, of benign tendency, will remain for ever, and constitute the joys of celestial existence.

“RULE OF DUTY.—Our infallible rule of duty is not to do or desire anything but what can be eternally done and obtained in the celestial state, where no evil can exist. The good and happiness of one being must not arise from the evil or misery of another.

“THE TRIADS.-Three things it is impossible God should not be: whatever perfect goodness would desire to be, whatever perfect goodness should be, and whatever perfect goodness can perform.

"Three things evince what God has done and will do: infinite power, infinite wisdom, and infinite love.

"THE THREE ULTIMATE OBJECTS OF BARDISM.-To reform morals and customs, to secure peace, and to praise all that is good and excellent.

"THE MORAL TRIADS.-Three great laws of man's actions: What he forbids in another, what he requires from another, and what he cares not how it is done by another.

There are three laws, well understood, will give you peace: the tendencies of Nature, the claims of Justice, and the voice of Truth.

"SIN. The roots of all evil : Falsehood, Covetousness, and Pride.

"FOUR ELEMENTARY SINS.-Anger, Covetousness, Indolence, and Fear.

"EIGHT CHIEF SINS.-Extortion or Fraud, Theft, Pride, Adultery, Idleness, Gluttony, Envy, and Cruelty.

“THREE PRINCIPAL DIVINE QUALITIES OF MAN.-Liberality, Love, and Forgiveness of Injuries."

John Murray, in common with the savage of ancient Syria, and the greatest poet of England, in common with the Jewish law-giver, and the gentle Man who confounded the doctors, in

common with the soaring pine-trees and the angels of higher worlds, was a receiver of God's impartial spirit. His bodily organization was not powerful, although it was active; neither was his mind heavily freighted with scholastic attainments; nor were his "thoughts" higher and broader than the inspirations and cogitations of the waiting mind who, long before Mr. Murray's arrival, built a meeting-house for the prophetically expected comer, whom he instantly knew by intuition to be the right preacher of the Father's love and universal salvation from sin.

Murray had investigated theology in the light of the gospel, which he saw revealed in the light of Reason. By unwearied searchings, literal renderings, and figurative views, of the "thoughts" recorded by the evangelists and apostles, in the supposed "last" will and testament of Jehovah, he deduced the doctrine of Zoroaster, Socrates, and Origen: that there would be an end to sin and suffering. Mankind throughout were "all dead" in Adam's stupendous crime; but, by virtue of the moral-work and martyrdom of Jesus, the same "all" would be "made alive.” Murray discerned new and more reasonable meanings in the several Bible-terms, which the evangelical clergy employ to enforce the consoling gospel of endless torment. Under his commonsense explanations, the Bible began to teach, to the receptive portion of mankind, a gospel of "glad tidings ;" and a foreordained scheme of universal salvation for a universally damned race, was proclaimed with all the mysterious authority of inspiration. The all-wise and merciful Maker, from the foundations of the world, fixed upon a plan of human escape from the consequences of human transgression. He sent his only-begotten Son upon this globe, which, in point of importance, when measured by the magnitude of unnumbered other earths that swarm immensity, is as a wheelbarrowful of fertile dirt to all the Heaven-reaching Alps; and this beloved Son, of the omnipotent and all-merciful Father, would see "the travail of his soul and be satisfied." Nothing less

than a world's ultimate reconciliation and universal happiness could satisfy the unlimited love and unrestrained power of this Heaven-decreed and God-begotten Messiah.

Of the specialities in the Bible-cogitations of Murray, little need be written; for there are, at this day, a respectable multitude of self-appointed and otherwise well-qualified minds promulgating the particulars of the system; but, of his IDEAS and master-principles, something further is demanded. Regarding these, I would say, that Murray's inspiration covered a vast field of principles central to preceding theologians: such as the "overcoming of evil with good" in Zoroaster; the "Incarnation " principle of Paul (with all the theological and resurrectional speculations of the apostle, also); the central force of Calvin, that “God is a God of foreknowledge, and adequate to the redemption of all his promises" (only the iron-headed reformer could not see a word in the Bible friendly to endless happiness for all mankind); the doctrinal principle of George Fox, that "the human spirit is from God, and is at all times animated by the 'still small voice' of his presence;" but, in addition to all these, John Murray developed another impersonal Principle, viz: that the central lifeforce of God's existence is impartial Love for all his children.

Moses taught the human fear of God as mighty and essential. At first, Jesus attempted to overthrow neither the Jewish theology nor their code of laws, but cautiously proposed amendments and revolutionary additions, in order to "fulfill the law and the words of the prophets." This plan met and stilled the Hebrew prejudices of a few minds. At length, however, when the Nazarene attained to the consciousness of more spiritual strength, as a result of development from the inward fountain of Principles, he spoke out more plainly and uncompromisingly against the old dispensation of useless doctrines and nefarious practices. He said almost nothing about the fearfulness of his heavenly Father; very little concerning the importance of "works," as means of fulfilling

the law; but, in opposition, he taught the perfect Love of his God, and of "faith," as the strait gate, opening upon the fadeless gardens of spiritual joy and peace. This all-conquering principle of impartial Love in the divine Creator, became the central inspiration of John Murray. Calvin's terrible conception of God's justice was subdued and tempered away by the new preacher; and even John Wesley's system of "probation" was greatly modified and enlarged; so that, in the new-gospel reading of God's plan and will, this lower world became the exclusive sphere of sin and suffering (the effects of the flesh and its circumstances), and the "after-death” existence was proclaimed, under the wise providence and mercy of the Father, as a sinless heaven of universally happy spirits.

Better thoughts and higher ideas of what constitute the "devils" that tempt mankind, and of the "hells" to which the disobedient and impenitent are condemned by God's moral laws, came out of Murray's central Principle. A terribly great battle of texts followed this outrage upon the treasured pet-doctrines of antiquated orthodoxy. Accredited theologians armed themselves with gun and spike and spear, with hook and line of scholastic prejudice and pride, and started out to hunt and fish for the original demonstration of doctrine in the Greek testament and Hebrew phraseology. But the new-school men energetically pursued, “armed to the teeth," with powerful talent, to explain, give chase, and debate. The Ballous, the Balfours, the Winchesters, the Streeters, the Kneelands, the Thomases, and Sawyers: how brave, and valiant, and triumphant, were these, and others not less endowed, in the progressive work of under-error extermination. The orthodox ministers defended their favorite "consolations of the gospel" namely, total defilement, personal devils, literal hells, vicarious atonement, imputed righteousness, justification by faith, regeneration of the faithful and thus the evangelical and orthodox soldiers gave the Universalists "HELL!" in return for which