And, even aside from the consideration of what has been done, or what may yet be accomplished, the observer of human nature will behold much in the present state of the Christian world, with reference to this subject, well deserving an attentive consideration. A very little reading directed to it, will enable him to trace the outline of one of those revolutions in public opinion, which is merely the precursor of a wide spread transformation of the manners of the age. Every one knows, that the first step towards a revolution in empire, is the clear and unquestionable demonstration of some simple and elementary truth, or the presenting of such truth in language that shall place it within the intellectual grasp of every class of the community. When once this has been done, its progress among a nation of readers is irresistible. The new principle may appear at first, in the splendid quarto; it soon finds its way into the stately octavo, and the humble duodecimo; and, before the generation to whom it was first announced, has passed away, it may be found the motto of a newspaper, or the ornament of a sign post. It has become incorporated with the intellectual fibre of the age. It is a part of every man's fundamental belief. No man thinks of proving it; for, having been once distinctly seen, it is, ever after, self evident; and no one can deny it, without subjecting himself to the charge of idiocy.

But, moral truth has always an important bearing upon prac tice, and, when a new moral principle has been fully developed, it will be at once discovered, that much which has been done in a previous age, has been done wrongly. The inconsistency of the new belief, with the old practice, becomes every day more glaring. Some spirit, more venturous than the rest, begins to suggest the carrying out of this generally received truth into the business and affairs of the every day world. Or, perhaps, some incidental occurrence, as in the case of John Hampden, leads to the trial of the question, whether the nation will act upon the principles they believe, or upon those they have long since exploded. Then commences what is, in the ordinary language of historians, termed a revolution, that period which is distinguished by battles and sieges, or which is recorded in constitutions and acts of parliament. And, when once the practice has been so altered as to conform to the theory, then, and not till then, is the revolution terminated.

That a change of this sort cannot be effected without very considerable opposition, no one who is at all acquainted with the present imperfect condition of human nature, could ever presume to expect. Monarchs are not the only men whom fear of change perplexes. There is a strong tendency in all of us, rather "to bear the ills we have, than fly to other that we know not of." And, even if the change be evidently for the better, and the VOL. III. NO. 6.

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judgment be calmly and entirely completed, it requires a moral courage, not by any means universally possessed, to carry that judgment out into action.

"Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream.
The genius and the mortal instruments

Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then,
The nature of an insurrection."

Now, all that portion of a community, and it is always a large one, in this state of betweenity, will be more or less at variance with the class of prompt and efficient actors from principle. They are afraid of being decidedly committed; they cry out, not so fast, gentlemen; they will allow the thing ought to be done, but it is impossible to find out any way of doing it which does not seem to them exceedingly ill timed and imprudent. They are the Sir Oracles of a party, who are sure to be absent when any thing is to be done. After, however, success shall have been triumphant, they are by no means unwilling to be very familiar with the leaders, to nod and wink as if deeply in the secret, and to have it fully understood that all this is owing to the profoundness of their wisdom, and the shrewdness of their sagacity.

This is, however, all internal. There are, as must be supposed, very many who will be, from interest, or prejudice, or ignorance, opposed to any thing which shall vary a hair's breadth the present state of the social relations. Their habits, and offices, and distinctions, and pleasures, are the creatures of the forms that now are. A certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines for Diana, when on a former occasion he called together the workmen of like occupation, spake the language of all this part of the community, from the year of our Lord 60 to the end of time. "Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, ye see and hear that, not only at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that there be no gods which be made with hands, so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth." The effect of such an appeal has been always irresistible. The argument which cannot be answered by logic, may be overborne by clamour. Defeat is provoking, and rage is vociferous. "And, when they heard this, they were filled with wrath, and cried out, for the space of two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians."

But, magna est veritas et prevalebit. Opposition directs the minds of men to the question at issue. The paroxysm of rage itself, is succeeded by an interval of reflection, candid, not unfre

quently, in the very proportion of its former excess. And, above all, death, the mighty queller, speaks peace to the turbulence of passion, and palsies the struggles of interest. A generation of men very quickly passes away, but truth is like her author, immortal; another race succeeds, whose prejudices are less inveterate, or whose interest may be subserved by yielding to the changing times, and thus, a new bias is given to the destinies of man. Now, if we mistake not, very much of all this may be observed in the present state of the Christian world, when viewed in connexion with philanthropic effort. The principles on which the whole system of exertion is based, are very simple, and are not generally controverted. The command of the author of our religion is, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. And he has taught us that he is our neighbour, whether fellow-citizen or stranger, whom it is in our power to render happier. This is the general principle; but it is in the New Testament carried out into more minute specifications. We are commanded to give proof of our discipleship, by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and in prison, the widow, the fatherless and the afflicted, and in a word, to employ every talent which has been intrusted to us, in some way or other, for the benefit of our fellows of the human race. And still more, as it is evident, that by far the greater part of the misery of this life is the immediate effect of moral pravity, the religion of Jesus Christ commands us to carry its precepts to every son of man under the face of the whole heaven. And yet again, the religion of the New Testament, viewing men in general under subjection to those passions which must of necessity be incompatible with the happiness of a moral creature in any state of being, and declaring the present life to be the only period of probation, urges its disciples to make known the way of salvation as the only mean of securing the everlasting well-being of their fellow immortals. The command on this subject is authoritative. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. And, lest this should be misunderstood, every page of revelation contains, expressly or by implication, an assurance that effort in this direction, shall in the end be successful, and that this world, at length reclaimed from its vices, shall yet become in all its habitations the abode of innocence and peace.

That such are the precepts of our religion, has never, we believe, been controverted. It has not, however, been the case, until lately, that general effort has been made to carry them into practice. The Moravians, if we remember aright, in the midst of poverty, persecution, and exile, about the middle of the last century, set the first example of this sort of benevolence, to the Protestant denominations, and while they were every where the friends of the friendless, devoted themselves with their charac

teristic ardour, to missions among the heathen. Other churches in succession have, in a greater or less degree, imitated their labours, and now, every sect is doing or professing to do something. The cause is, however, in that period of revolution in which it meets with opposition from within and from without.

And first, of those who, in the language of the prayer book, profess and call themselves Christians, there is, at present, a considerable class, the exercise of whose religion consists mainly in the direction of a cultivated and elegant taste to the truths of revelation. The precepts of the Saviour are, with them, things to be admired rather than practised; they praise benevolence in the abstract, but have no relish for it in the concrete; they love it in general, but they do not practise it in particular; forgetting that feeling was given to prompt us to action, they have so exclusively cultivated feeling that they do not act at all; they are delighted with a deed of fabulous philanthropy, but they would turn away in disgust from the realization of their own beau-ideal, unless, with the hardihood necessary to action, he united a soul tremblingly in unison with every vibration of their own highwrought sympathies; they like to read of visiting sick beds, and are enchanted with the narrative of ignorant gratitude, but they would be grievously scandalized at such gross things in propria persona. Now, it is obvious that to all this class of persons, there can be nothing very attractive in Christian, and especially missionary benevolence. In the first place, it is all plain, literal, matter of fact business, and requires doing instead of imagining. And then it associates one with the vulgar and low bred, and brings us into positive contact with men and women utterly destitute of refinement.

Besides these, there is a large portion of very ambiguous friends of benevolence, even in the walks of rigid and highly lauded orthodoxy. They form a sect, that mean, in the exclusive sense of the term, to be justified by their faith. Works are their abhorrence. Their creed is, that if a man have passed through the correct noviciate, and believe verbatim et punctuatim the prescribed formula, and attend the proper routine of religious observances, the requirements of piety are exhausted. It never has occurred to them, that the command, thou shalt not steal, ever had reference to the quality of sugar or the length of a yard stick. As little do they think that the saying, speaking every man truth to his neighbour, was intended to prevent their selling goods to the best advantage. Little could it be expected, then, that such a man would interpret literally a command, sell that ye have and give alms. And still less, while entrenched behind his counter, he could look unmoved over the misery and vice every where about him, that he should be awakened to compassion by misery and vice, some ten thousand miles distant. And

1828.]

hence this, as might be expected, is the man who has filled his mouth with brief and oracular arguments, against every sort of charity. If he is solicited for the distant operations of benevolence, his motto is, charity begins at home. If for something at hand, he has found that giving increases pauperism. If to aid in the instruction of the poor, they are happier in ignorance. And thus it is most palpably evident, that he has most conscientiously set his face against every investment of capital, which will not yield him a substantial and tangible dividend. And yet this man, strange as it may seem, holds himself forth as a disciple of him who went about doing good. He claims to be walking in the footsteps of martyrs and confessors.

Such is the opposition, which this cause at present encounters among the religionists of the age. There are also others, who, from theory,-for we will not abuse the word principle, by such an application,--are opposed to it. The anti-religionists of every class, unite in directing against it, with all the openness that the state of moral feeling in the community will allow, the whole artillery of sarcasm and invective. Both before and since the French Revolution, the men who do not believe there is a God, have always been virulent against those who believe there is one. The love of religious toleration, which this sect has always exhibited, precludes the hope, that, in a contest between moral light and moral darkness, the cause of benevolence will ever receive from them, either countenance or quarter. They are the men, whose argument consists in the frequent use of hackneyed epithets, and whose tenderest love of truth, finds instinctive gratification in reiterating with imperturbable assurance, tales which in their own consciences they know to be utterly false. This order of philanthropists is more numerous, than would at first view be supposed, and is vociferous or covert, as a judicious estimate of their own interest shall direct.

We might mention many more of the obstacles of this sort, with which the benevolent spirit of the age has to combat, but we have extended this part of the article, perhaps, too far already. We pass on to observe, that whether wise or unwise, right or wrong, the cause is evidently and rapidly on the advance. The precept, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, has not only awakened anew the energies of Christendom, but has directed them to objects heretofore forgotten. It has enkindled a general sympathy for the suffering slave. It has established Sabbath schools, in almost every hamlet throughout Christendom, and is annually rescuing millions from ignorance and vice. It is enlisting the noblest minds of Great Britain in an effort to pour the light of science on the poorest classes of society, and promises in the result, to make every mechanic of every degree a well educated man. It has sent even the softer sex, into