40. How is it that you call yourselves men of reason? Is reason inconsistent with itself? You are the farthest of all men under the sun from any pretence to that character. A common swearer, a sabbath-breaker, a whoremonger, a drunkard, who says he believes the scripture is of God, is a monster upon earth, the greatest contradiction to his own, as well as to the reason of all mankind. In the name of God, (that worthy name whereby you are _called_, and which you daily cause to be blasphemed) turn either to the right hand or to the left. Either profess you are an infidel, or be a christian. Halt no longer thus between two opinions. Either cast off the bible, or your sins. And in the mean time, if you have any spark of your boasted reason left, do not _count us your enemies_ (as I fear you have done hitherto, and as thousands do wherever we have declared _they who do such things shall not inherit eternal life_) _because we tell you the truth_: seeing these are not our words, but the words of him that sent us. Yea, though in doing this, we use _great plainness of speech_, as becomes the ministry we have received. _For we are not as many who corrupt_ (cauponize, soften, and thereby adulterate) _the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in_ Christ.
*41. But, it may be, you are none of these. You abstain from all such things. You have an unspotted reputation. You are a man of honour, or a woman of virtue. You scorn to do an unhandsome thing, and are of an unblameable life and conversation. You are harmless, (if I understand you right) and useless from morning to night. You do no hurt,――and no good to any one, no more than a straw floating upon the water. Your life glides smoothly on from year to year; and from one season to another, having no occasion to work,
“You waste away In gentle inactivity the day.”
42. I will not now shock the easiness of your temper, by talking about a future state. But suffer me to ask you a question about present things. Are you now happy?
*I have seen a large company of _reasonable creatures_, called _Indians_, sitting in a row on the side of a river, looking sometimes at one another, sometimes at the sky, and sometimes at the bubbles on the water. And so they sat, (unless in the time of war) for a great part of the year, from morning to night.
These were doubtless much at ease. But can you think they were happy?――And how little happier are you than they?
*43. You eat, and drink, and sleep, and dress, and dance, and sit down to play. You are carried abroad. You are at the masquerade, the theatre, the opera-house, the park, the levee, the drawing-room. What do you do there? Why, sometimes you talk; sometimes you look at one another. And what are you to do to-morrow? The next day? The next week? The next year? You are to eat, and drink, and sleep, and dance, and dress, and play again. And you are to be carried abroad again, that you may again look at one another! And is this all? Alas, how little more happiness have you in this, than the _Indians_ in looking at the sky or water!
*Ah poor, dull round! I do not wonder that Colonel _M――――_ (or any man of reflection) should prefer death itself, even in the midst of his years, to such a life as this! And should frankly declare, “that he chose to go out of the world, because he found nothing in it worth living for.”
44. Yet it is certain there is business to be done: and many we find in all places (not to speak of the vulgar, the drudges of the earth) who are continually employed therein. Are you of that number? Are you engaged in trade, or some other reputable employment? I suppose, profitable too; for you would not spend your time, and labour, and thought, for nothing. You are then making your fortune; you are getting money. True: but money is not your ultimate end. The treasuring up gold and silver, for its own sake, all men own, is as foolish and absurd, as grosly unreasonable, as the treasuring up spiders, or the wings of butterflies. You consider this but as a means to some farther end. And what is that? Why, the enjoying yourself, the being at ease, the taking your pleasure, the living like a gentleman. That is plainly, either the whole, or some part of, the happiness above described.
*Supposing then your end to be actually attained, suppose you have your wish, before you drop into eternity: go and sit down with _Thleeanowhee_ and his companions, on the river side.――After you have toiled for fifty years, you are just as happy as they.
45. Are you, can you, or any reasonable man, be _satisfied_ with this? You are not. It is not possible you should. But what else can you do? You _would_ have something better to employ your time; but you know not where to find it upon earth.
*And indeed it is obvious, that the earth, as it is now constituted, even with the help of all _European_ arts, does not find sufficient employment, to take up half the waking hours of half its inhabitants.