| 502 all the parties will find a friend in him, so far as right is concerned.
Gen. Smith's movements are perfectly anomalous, in the estimation of the public. All other great men have been considered wise in drawing around them wise men; but I have frequently heard the General called a fool because he has gathered the wisest of men to his cabinet, who direct his movements: but this subject is too ridiculous to dwell upon; suffice it to say, so far as I have seen, he has wise men at his side; superlatively wise, and more capable of managing the affairs of state, than most men now engaged therein; which I consider much to his credit, though I would by no means speak dimunutively of my old friends.
From my brief acquaintance, I consider Gen. Smith, independent of his peculiar religious views, (in which. by the by, I have discovered neither vanity nor folly,) the sine-qua-non of the age, to our nations' prosperity. He has learned the all important lesson, "to profit by the experience of those who have gone before," so that, in short, Gen. Smith begins where other men leave off. I am aware this will appear a bold assertion to some, but I would say to such, call and form your acquaintance; as I have done, then judge.
Thus, Sir, you have a few leading items of my view of Gen. Smith, formed from personal acquaintance, which you are at liberty to dispose of as you think proper. I anticipate the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance with your citizens at a future day.
Yours, Respectfully,
A TRAVELER.
To the Editor of the Times and Seasons.
Sir:-It may not be uninteresting to some of your readers, or bad policy to the world at large, to extract a few ideas from the writings of Dr. Isaac Watts, concerning "the glory of Jesus Christ." He lived and flourished in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and had not become so much enveloped in spiritual mysticism, but what he could read the Bible literally, and write plainly. The Doctor says:-
"Since the Socinian doctrines have been effectually refuted by many learned writers, especially in the last century, it is now, I hope, confessed universally, that our blessed Savior had a real existence long before he appeared in flesh and blood, and dwelt among men. It is also generally acknowledged, that he often appeared in a visible manner under the patriarchal and Mosaical dispensations, assuming the names, and sustaining the character and person of the great and blessed God.-Yet it has been a matter of contest in these latter years, as well as in the ancient days of Arius, whether Christ, in his complex person, include Godhead or not: or whether he being nothing else but a creature or a mere contingent being, and is only called God, as sustaining and representing the character and person of one who is infinitely above him, even great and eternal God. This is the great and important question of the age.
Now that this matter may be determined with more evidence and certainty, let us first trace out the account which the old testament gives us of the various seasons and occasions on which God the Lord,* the Lord God Jehovah, the Almighty, the God of Abraham, &c., is said to appear amongst men, with a few remarks on them in passing; and afterward we shall be enabled to draw more particular inferences from these scriptures, concerning the Deity of Christ and his appearance before his incarnation.
Whoever will read the first four chapters of Genesis with due attention, will find a very plain and easy representation of the great God, first creating all things, and afterwards appearing to Adam, Eve, and Cain, and conversing with them with a human voice, and very probably in a human shape too. I am well assured that any common reader, who begins the Bible without prejudices or prepossessions of any kind, would naturally frame this idea under the words and expressions of Moses, the sacred writer.
*Let the unlearned reader take notice, that there are two Hebrew words, viz: Jehovah, and Adon or Adonai, both of which our translators render Lord. The first, viz: Jehovah, signifies the Eternal or unchangeable, and has been sufficiently proved to be the proper name of the great God, the God of Israel, peculiar to him and incommunicable to creatures; and it is written always in capital letters, LORD, for distinction's sake. Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.-Psal. lxxxiii;18. Though it had been much better if the Hebrew name, Jehovah itself, had been always written in our English Bibles, that the hearer might distinguish it as well as the reader. The other name, viz: Adon or Adonai is also translated Lord, and written in small letters, because it is not the proper name of the great God; it signifies his lordship or dominion, and is not so peculiar or incommunicable.
Now let it be observed, that in almost every place which I have cited to show the various appearances of the Lord to men, it is the name Jehovah is used, which the reader will find distinguished by capital letters in the English Bible."
Such was the language of the learned Dr. Watts,
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