Alexandria Gazette, Commercial And Political

THE BIBLE.

It is a brief recital of all that is past, and a certain prediction of all that is to come. It settles all matters in debate, resolves all doubts, and eases the mind and conscience of all their scruples. It reveals the only living and true God, and shews the way to him; and sets aside all other Gods, and describes the vanity of them, and all that trust in them. In short, it is a book of laws to shew right and wrong, and a book of wisdom that condemns all folly and makes the foolish wise: a book of truth that detects all lies, and confutes all errors: and a book of life, that shews the way from everlasting death. It is the most compendious book in the world: the most authentic and the most entertaining history that ever was published: it contains the most early antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, enlarged wars. It describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal worlds; and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes and infernal legions. It will instruct the most accomplished mechanic, and the profoundest artist: it will teach the best rhetorician, and exercise every power of the most skillful arithmetician: (Rev. 15. 18.) puzzle the wisest anatomist and exercise the nicest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and guides the wisest astronomer: it exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad. It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity, and unequalled narrative: a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of voyages. It is the best covenant that ever was agreed on: the best deed that ever was sealed: the best evidence that ever was produced: the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was signed. To understand it, is to be wise indeed: to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom. It is the king's best copy, the magistrate's best rule, the housewife's best guide, the servant's best directory, and the young man's best companion. It is the schoolboy's spelling book, and the learned man's masterpiece; it contains a choice grammar for the novice, and a profound treatise for the sage: it is the ignorant man's dictionary, and the wise man's directory. It affords knowledge of witty inventions for the ingenious and dark sayings for the grave: and it is its own interpreter. It encourages the warrior, and the overcomer, and promises an eternal reward to the conqueror. And that which crowns all, is that the Author is without partiality, and without hypocrisy-- "in whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning."

How valuable, gentlemen, are the contents of such a book. It suits all orders, ranks, descriptions of men. It speaks with equal strictness and authority to the rich and honorable, and to the poor and ignoble, and adapts instructions to each of their understandings. The gift is worthy of its Great Author, strict justice and mercy in the mind of every rational being.

Inexcusable is that person, who does not read it often: and unwise is that man who gains no instruction from it concerning his future destiny.