fidence of men in all testimony, and make them skeptical. An invalid sees an article advertised and recommended by some reverend clergyman, as a certain cure for some disease with which he supposes himself to be afflicted. Confiding in the high authority by which it is recommended, he procures and tries it, but is not benefited. He next tries some other nostrum, with no better success, and again he tries another and another, but is not cured. At length, perhaps, he becomes disgusted with all medicine, repudiates all medical means, and concludes that the whole profession is but a tissue of finesse and falsehood.
Yet let no one suppose that this medical infidelity will stand alone. The same causes which go to promote medical skepticism, tend also to produce religious infidelity. Whatever tends to weaken public confidence in the established system of rational medicine, most assuredly tends to weaken that confidence in the truths of Christianity. Medical and religious skepticism are intimately connected; and whatever favors the one, favors the other. The father may prompt
