THE CONTRAST BETWEEN Good and Bad Men, ILLUSTRATED BY THE BIOGRAPHY AND TRUTHS BY GARDINER SPRING, D.D. LL.D., PASTOR OF THE BRICK PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, Corner of Spruce St. and City Hall Square. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. THOMAS B. SMITH, STEREOTYPER AND ELECTROTYPER, 82 & 84 Beekman St., N. Y. BILLIN AND BROTHER, 20 North William St. INTRODUCTION. THERE are not wanting those who consider Christianity as a weak religion, and who regard the disbelief of it as proof of superior intellect and attainment. On the other hand, there are those who look upon irreligious and ungodly men as unwise. In their view there is no greater mark of folly than to live and die an irreligious man. The following pages are designed to furnish some opportunity to the reader of deciding this question. We have endeavored to look at good men and bad as they are, and in what we hope is an impartial view of their character and destiny; their honor and dishonor; their peace of mind and their mental distress and agony; their life, their death, and their eternity; and to submit the inquiry, On which side does the advantage lie? Good men have their weaknesses and faults; wicked men, too, have their excellencies. But which is in the right and which in the wrong; which is the wise, and which the unwise? There is no folly in the truths It is no proof of which the Christian believes, the duties he practices, the motives which govern him, and the end he aims at, the preferences which decide his character, and the hopes that animate him, the life he lives, the death he dies, the heaven he gains. wisdom to be "wise to do evil," and to "do good to have no knowledge." There is a clearness and cogency in the claims of the Gospel of the Son of God, that must extort the acknowledgment that to fall in with them is to choose the good and wise part. He is a madman who idolizes that which is of the least importance; he plays with straws as though he were wielding sceptres, and throws bubbles as though he were scattering crowns. It is an egregious mistake, a gross blunder in a clear-sighted, far-sighted man to turn his back upon the crown of righteousness." His sagacity forsakes him, and he is his own worst enemy when he forseeth not the evil, nor hideth himself. These volumes are but one of the numberless voices which urge him to “ "apply his heart to understanding." The youthful Solomon prayed for "a wise and understanding heart," and God answered his prayer. Let this be the reader's request, as it is the author's for him, as he now sends these volumes into the world. G. S. 66 NEW YORK, BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, April 1855. |