When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons.  It is a revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other; consequently they are not obliged to believe it, for they have only the word of the first person that it was made to him.

The world has been amused with the terms “revealed religion,” and the generality of priests apply this term to the books called the Old and New Testament.  There is no man that believes in revealed religion stronger than I do; but it is not the reveries of the Old and New Testament that I dignify with that sacred title.  That which is a revelation to me exists in something which no human mind can invent, no human hand can counterfeit or alter.

The word of God is the Creation we behold; and this word of God revealeth to man all that is necessary for him to know of his Creator.

Do we want to contemplate his power?  We see it in the immensity of his creation.

Do we want to contemplate his wisdom?  We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed.

Do we want to contemplate his munificence?  We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth.

Do we want to contemplate his mercy?  We see it in his not withholding that abundance even from the unthankful.

Do we want to contemplate his will, so far as it respects man?  The goodness he shows to all is a lesson for our conduct to each other.

In fine, do we want to know what God is?  Search not the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might make, but the Scripture called the Creation.

II.—­THEOLOGY AND RELIGION

As to the Christian system of faith, it appears to me as a compound made up chiefly of manism with but little Deism, and is near to Atheism as twilight is to darkness.

That which is now called natural philosophy, embracing the whole circle of science, of which astronomy occupies the chief place, is the study of the works of God, and of the power and wisdom of God in his works, and is the true theology.

As to the theology that is now studied in its place, it is the study of human opinions and of human fancies concerning God.  It is not the study of God Himself in the works that He has made, but in the works or writings that man has made; and it is not among the least of the mischiefs that the Christian system has done to the world that it has abandoned the original and beautiful system of theology, like a beautiful innocent, to distress and reproach, to make room for the bag of superstition.