for his good; with her sleepless vigilance, and tender nursing in sickness; with the tender watchfulness that anticipated his wants; with the sweet smile that chased away sorrow from his heart and sadness from his brow; with the sweet kiss that sealed her forgiveness of all his faults; with the self-forgetting love, and the tireless energy and all-enduring patience and fortitude that guarded his health and life, through helpless infancy, wayward childhood, and headstrong youth,—are associated all the tenderest and most potential memories of his life. Can the image of that self-denying mother ever be stricken from his heart? Never! And when that son comes to know that his existence, his health and happiness, constitute the governing motive of her life, in his conception; and that, in all her relations to him, during his gestational life, she regulated her drink, her sleep, her labor, her enjoyment, and her every action with reference to his welfare; when he knows that her life before, as well as since his birth, was a life of utter self-abandonment to his life and happiness-will he not fold her to his heart and give her a place there, from which no other love can ever drive her? Can coldness, distrust, concealment, or indifference ever enter into such a relation? Can discord and conflict ever come between such a mother and a son thus conceived, born and reared? Never. And when the eyes of that mother are dim, when the beauty and vigor of her youth are gone, and the serene and noble aspects of age are settled on her brow, and her steps are feeble, the holy love and powerful arm of that. grateful son, in whose eyes that mother's beauty and glory never shone so bright before, will encircle her and bear her onward to her home within the veil, there to watch and rejoice over him, and to await with maternal pride his coming. a son is of royal blood, and has a queenly mother. hand she holds a sceptre over an empire of greater power, and wider extent, than is that which rules an empire on which the sun never sets. Henry C. Wright. Such In her CREEDS. We believe and insist, that each and every rational and moral being, male and female, is under the highest obligation to form his or her own opinions about religion. Every one, we hold, is bound, and therefore should be left perfectly free to seek after, if happily he may find, the truth of God for himself; form his own creed, his own body of divinity; be fully persuaded in his own mind as to what is true on every question that may arise respecting the character of God, the principles of the divine government, man's accountability, the design of his life in this world, and his destiny in the world to come. I am utterly unable to discover the benefit which ever has been or can be derived from a creed prescribed by human authority; a formula of faith; a system of doctrines devised and concocted by any man or any set of men, to be enforced upon the assent of other men, each of whom has an inalienable right to think for himself. Many and very grave evils, gross hypocricies, and atrocious cruelties, have everywhere, and in all ages, been the legitimate offspring of this assumption of authority to dictate to fellow men what they must believe.— Samuel F. May. FREE THOUGHT AND FREE SPEECH. Talk not of this or that subject being too sacred for investigation! Is it too much to assert, that there is but one object beneath the skies that is sacred—and that is, Man? Surely, there is no government, no institution, no order, no rite, no day, no place, no building, no creed, no book, so sacred as he who was before every government, institution, order, rite, day, place, building, creed and book, and by whom all these things are to be regarded as nothing higher or better than means to an end, and that end his own elevation and happiness ; and he is to discard each and all of them, when they fail to do him service, or minister unto his necessities, They are not of heaven, but of men, and may not, therefore, receive the homage of any human being. Be assured that whatever cannot bear the test of the closest scrutiny, has no claim to human respect or confidence, even though it assume to be sacred in its origin, or given by inspiration of God, but must be treated as spurious, profane, dangerous. Let, then, the mind, and tongue, and press, be free. Let free discussion not only be tolerated, but encouraged and asserted, as indispensable to the freedom and welfare of mankind. A forcible suppression of error is no aid to the cause of truth; and to allow only just such views and sentiments to be spoken and circulated as we think are correct, is to combine bigotry and cowardice in equal proportions. If I give my children no other precept-if I leave them no other exampleit shall be, a fearless, impartial, thorough investigation of every subject to which their attention may be called, and a hearty adoption of the principles which to them may seem true, whether those principles may agree or conflict with my own, or with those of any other person. The best protection which I can give them is to secure the unrestricted exercise of their reason, and to inspire them with true self-reliance. I will not arbitrarily determine for them what are orthodox, or what are heretical sentiments, on any subject. I have no wish, no authority, no right to do so. I desire them to see, hear, and weigh both sides of every question. For example:-I wish them to examine whatever may be advanced in opposition to the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the bible, as freely as they do whatever they find in support of it; to hear what may be urged against the doctrines, precepts, miracles, or life of Jesus, as readily as they do anything in their defence; to see what arguments are adduced for a belief in the non-existence of God, as unreservedly as they do the evidence in favor of his existence. I shall teach them to regard no subject as too holy for examination; to make their own convictions paramount to all human authority; to reject whatever conflicts with their reason, no matter by whomsoever enforced; and to prefer that which is clearly demonstrative to mere theory. And why do I intend to pursue such a course? Because I am not infallible, and therefore dare not put on the robes of infallibility. Because I think free inquiry is essential to the life of truth among mankind. * * * * "Whoever is afraid," says Bishop Watson, "of submitting any question, civil or religious, to the test of free discussion, seems to me to be more in love with his own opinion than with the truth!" A noble sentiment for a man-much more for a prelate. No sentiment has been more greatly admired, or more frequently quoted since it was uttered, than that of Jefferson: "Error of opinion may be safely tolerated, where Reason is left free to combat it." Philosophy, wisdom and liberty," says Sir W. Drummond, 'support each other. He who will not reason is a bigot, he who cannot is a fool, and he who dares not is a slave.” * Coleridge tersely says: "He who begins with loving Christianity better than truth, will end by loving himself better than either." Among all the noble sayings that fell from the lips of the great champion of English freedom, John Milton, not one deserves to be eternalized more than this: "Let Truth and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?" "The spirit of Jesus," says the amiable and courageous Abbe de la Mennais, "is a spirit of peace, of compassion and of love. They who persecute in his name, and who search men's consciences with the sword; who torture the body to convert the soul; who cause tears to flow, instead of drying them up; these men have not the spirit of Christ, and are none of His." * * * * * True, it does not follow that a man is in the right because he is ready to engage in controversy; for he may be devoid of sense, or disgustingly presumptuous, or extremely vain, or annoyingly combative, or incurably perverse. But this is certain :-he who is for forcibly stopping the mouth of his opponent, or for burning any man at the stake, or thrusting him into prison, or exacting a pecuniary fine from him, or impairing his means of procuring an honest livelihood, or treating him scornfully, on account of his peculiar views on any subject, whether relating to God or man, to time or eternity, is either under the dominion of a spirit of ruffianism or cowardice, or animated by that fierce intolerance which characterized Saul of Tarsus, in his zeal to exterminate the heresy of Christianity. On the other hand, he who forms his opinions from the dictates of enlightened reason, and sincerely desires to be led into all truth, dreads nothing so much as the suppression of free inquiry-is at all times ready to give a reason for the hope that is in him-calmly listens to the objections of others and feels nothing of anger or alarm lest his foundation shall be swept away by the waves of opposition. It is impos sible, therefore, for him to be a persecutor, or to call upon the strong arm of violence to put a gag into the mouth of any one, however heretical in his sentiments. In proportion as we perceive and embrace the truth, do we become meek, heroic, magnanimous, divine. * * * Let us speak plain: there is more force in names In patching fig-leaves for the naked truth. Let us call tyrants, TYRANTS. Not to do so is to misuse language, to deal treacherously with freedom, to consent to the enslavement of mankind. It is neither an amiable nor a virtuous, but a foolish and pernicious thing, not to call things by their right names. John Knox, when he was reprimanded for |