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CONTENTS.

Story of my life continued.-Results of my expulsion.-Fierce fighting.-Des-
peration of my persecutors.-Great excitement on my part.-Rank crop of
slanders.-Monstrous ones.-And silly ones.-Bad deeds as well as wicked
words. Hard work.-Exhaustion.-Powerlessness.-Three days' rest.-Long
sleep.-Wonderful,-delightful,-result.-Public debates.-Remarkable occur-

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Continuation of my Story.-Lectures on the Bible in Ohio.-Trouble.-Riot.-Rot-

ten eggs.-Midnight mischief.-Had to move.-Settlement among Liberals,

Comeouters.-Too fond of liberty.-Would have my share as well as their own.-

Fresh trouble.--Another forced move.-Settlement in the wilds of Nebraska,

among Indians, wolves, and rattlesnakes.-Experience there.-A change for the

better.-How brought about.-Quiet of mind.-Reflection.-Horrors of Atheism.

—Destroys the value of life.-Deceives you; mocks you; makes you intolera-

bly miserable.-Suggests suicide.-Prosperity not good for much without reli-

gion : adversity, sickness, pain, loss, bereavement intolerable.-Strange adven-

tures in the wilderness; terrible dangers; wonderful deliverances.-Solemn

thoughts and feelings in the boundless desert.-Solitude and silence preach.—

Religious feelings revive.-Recourse to old religious books.-Demoralizing ten-

dency of unbelief.-Lecture in Philadelphia.-Cases of infidel depravity.-You

can't make people good, nor even decent, without religion.-Infidelity means

utter debasement.-A good, a loving, and a faithful wife, who never ceases to

pray.-Return to England.-Experience there.-Unbounded licentiousness of

Secularism. Total separation from the infidel party.-My new Periodical.-Re-`

solution to re-read the Bible, to do justice to Christianity, &c.-A sight of Jesus.

-Happy results.-Change both of head and heart.-Happy transformation of

character.-A new life.-New work.-New lot. From darkness to light,—From

death to life, from purgatory to paradise,-from hell to heaven,.......

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PREFACE.

THE object of this Book is, First, to explain a portion of my own history, and, Secondly, to check the spread of infidelity, and promote the interests of Christianity. How far it is calculated to answer these ends I do not pretend to know. I have no very high opinion of the work myself. I fear it has great defects. On some points I may have said too much, and on others too little. I cannot tell. I have however done my best, and I would fain hope, that my labors will not prove to have been altogether in vain.

I have spent considerable time with a view to bring my readers to distinguish between the doctrines of Christ, and the theological fictions which are so extensively propagated in His name. It is exceedingly desirable that nothing should pass for Christianity, but Christianity itself. And it is equally desirable that Christianity should be seen in its true light, as presented in the teachings and character, in the life and death of its great Author. A correct exposition of Christianity is its best defence. A true, a plain, a faithful and just exhibition of its spirit and teachings, and of its adaptation to the wants of man, and of its tendency to promote his highest welfare, is the best answer to all objections, and the most convincing proof of its truth and divinity. And the truth, the reasonableness, the consistency, the purifying and ennobling tendency, and the unequalled consoling power of Christianity, can be proved, and proved with comparative ease; but to defend the nonsense, the contradictions, the antinomianism and the blasphemies of theology is impossible.

I have taken special pains to explain my views on the

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