True Happiness, Or, the Excellence and Power of Early Religion (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1830 Excerpt: ... TRUE HAPPINESS, &c. THE MARTYRS OF TIEKNE AND LYONS. A. D. 177. Patriots have toil'd, and in their Country's cause Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive prond recompense.--But martyrs struggle for a brighter prize, And win it with more pain. Their blood is shed In confirmation of the noblest claim, Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, To walk with God, to he divinely free, To soar and to anticipate the skies. Yet few remember them. They lived unknown Till persecution dragged them into fame, And chas'd them up to heaven. Tf.eir ashes flew--No marble tells us whither. With their names No bard embalms and sanctifies his song: And history, so warm on meaner themes, Is cold on this. Cowpeti. The divine support, which the Gospel Jesus imparts, has been manifested most glo riously in the cheerfulness with which mul titndes have undergone martyrdom itself on its account. Had Christianity been a cunningly devised fable, the early Christians had the best opportunity for detecting the imposture; but so far was this from being the case, that they obtained the fullest conviction that their religion was from God. So firm was this conviction, that for the sake of the Gospel, thousands sacrificed all that was dear to them in life; and suffered such torments, that death by the stroke of an axe would have been a comparative blessing. The name of Christian was frequently enough to insure their destruction; and thus were the words of the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled, Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Pains, and penalties, and shame, and exile, and death, were the prospect presented to those who would embrace the Gospel; yet with this dark scene before them, did multitndes, as sensible as ourselves of earthly comforts, bid farewell to all the del...