government; even here, however, as well as in other countries, a social state exists, which is based upon a universal, perpetual, and implacable war and aggression of individuals, adverse to the true spirit of Christianity, and incompatible with its perfect exercise. To this subject, I have heretofore referred; nor is it necessary for me to dwell upon the point, since the able writings of several distinguished authors, have lately brought the evils of the present social system, distinctly before the public view. I have no hesitation in saying, that the present collisions of interest, and the great frauds, injustice, and cruelty, necessarily entailed upon the social state, as it is now universally organized in nations, brand it with the mark of Cain, the first homicide; the blood of slaughtered innocents cries unto God against it, from the ground, and it cannot abide. But while I earnestly recommend the attentive study of the works of the advocates of association, I pretend not to give an opinion for or against the details of their plan.* The principle of association, is undoubtedly correct. As regards the various parts and springs of the machinery, the spirit of Christ, when it gives life to the body, would soon remove any weakness or imperfection, which may exist, and would exhibit the community, as that great city, the New Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

* The human body, is a physical, organic structure, fitted for the worship of God. Yet it is not the fact, that all bodies of this make, do worship God, according to the laws which He has appointed for us; although our organization is right, the motives by which we are impelled, may be wrong and sinful.

So, a particular social organization, may be a structure fitted for the operations of charity and the worship of God. Yet such a society, might still be impelled by sinful motives, hostile to the sentiments and laws which God has commanded.

Nothing but the cross of God, and His love, as exhibited therein, can raise mankind from moral death, and grant us life eternal! We must be one body, many members but one body; a collective social unity, quickened and kept alive by the Spirit of Christ. In regard to the movements of the Fourierites, in philosophy, science, or religion, I can say nothing; as I am wholly uninformed of their views. Therefore it is, that I cannot give an opinion for or against the details of their plan. I do not know them, and cannot speak of them. But when proposed to us, we must try and approve, or reject them, as we should all other matters, by the standard of the divine word, and the laws which our heavenly Father has appointed to govern the mind, in the attainment of experimental knowledge, not by dogmatizing, but by demonstration.

In every association, past labor, (viz: capital,) as well as present labor and skill, should be protected and made secure in its just rewards. It is as an industrial association, securing labor, skill and capital in the enjoyment of their proper fruits; extending to every individual the advantages of a valuable and practical education; uniting all in the bonds of social harmony and brotherhood, and rendering industry attractive by exalting it to its real honor and nobility; in this view it is, that I speak of Fourierism. Beside, the books on this subject, very forcibly and truly point out the evils of the present social system, and exhibit the inseparable connexion between vice and misery.

having the glory of the Lord, and resplendent all over with living and precious stones; her walls and her gates and foundations, inscribed with the names of the tribes of the holy spiritual Israel, and the apostles of the Lamb.

Would that I could now conclude. But, to the shame of our country be it spoken, that in this land, more favored than any other by free political institutions, in this age of light and science, and in the very sanctuary of the professing churches of Christ, that foulest national crime and abomination, HUMAN SLAVERY, exists; and men are found blinded enough to attempt to justify it by the sacred writings. How can slavery be justified by that law which requires us to love our neighbour as ourselves? If it is our duty and our happiness to be like Christ, then let any Christian professor, who defends slavery, show a single incident or word in the life or preachings of Christ, in His humiliation, death, and ascension to glory, which is at all reconcileable with the idea, that we can deprive our brother of his unalienable right of freedom, that we can make merchandize of his flesh and soul, treat him as a beast of the field, or withhold from him the productions of his labor and skill, which belong to him, and invade the nearest and dearest affections of his nature. It is impossible!

But "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge ;" the inheritance has been transmitted to us from former days!

Is that any reason why we should continue the inheritance? If the children, seeing the iniquities which have been done, shall consider and do no more the like, then they might say, slavery was the sin of ages gone bye.

But the effects of the institution are now so mingled and extended through all our affairs, that we cannot abolish slavery without hazarding our own safety and best interests.

The same excuse might be given for a continuance in other known sins: to abandon them, might diminish our wealth; interfere with our worldly honors and exaltation, and abridge our sensual indulgences. But it is a fatal error to suppose that to do right, and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, is a ground for divine judgment against us. On the contrary, to continue slavery, will most surely bring down upon our country the heaviest vengeance of

the Most High; for, as has been justly said, there is not an attribute in the whole character of God, which could induce Him to take part with the slaveholder against the slave.

But why speak to us in the free states upon this subject? Slavery is not permitted in this state, and I do not see that we have a right to agitate questions concerning the peculiar institutions of our sister republics more especially in this matter, a controversy on which might endanger the stability of our excellent and glorious federal constitution.

Adultery, theft, and murder, are not permitted by the laws of the free states; yet persons who lust, covet, or hate, are guilty of these crimes in the sight of God. Because an offence is not permitted by the laws of a state, is that any reason why we should not speak against it? He who justifies slavery, or who, if the laws permitted, would hold his brother in bondage; he, too, who takes part with slaveholding by a compact or agreement with slave states, to aid and assist them in the crime of retaining their fellow men in service as slaves-all such persons, although they live in free states, are, in the contemplation of the divine law, SLAVEHOLDERS; as much so as he who justifies theft in heart, is guilty spiritually: for the law of God reaches the conscience, and not only the outward act. At the tribunal of the Searcher of hearts, all will be judged as actual holders of slaves, who defend, justify, or aid* and abet the crime, whether their bodily hands have, in very deed, been polluted by contact with the sin or not. These truths, therefore, do concern us, and all citizens of the United States; for they are truths, by which we must be tried at the great day, and which will influence our eternal destinies.

But are not the slaves in our states more enlightened and happy than they could have been, had they been reared in Africa? Slavery in the United States is a blessing, and not a curse, to the descendants of Africa.

So the slavery of Joseph in Egypt was overruled by the Lord, and a blessing followed from it; but it was a most foul and heinous sin, in his brethren, who acted so unjustly to him. If you search the Bible, and all other history, you will discern that the Lord overrules the sins of men for our correction and reform. Our thoughts are evil; but the Lord meditates good to us.

* See Channing's Address on the Anniversary of the Emancipation in the West Indies.

Our Saviour tells a parable of the good Samaritan who helped his neighbour, when he had fallen among thieves. What sort of benevolence would the Samaritan have shown, had he said to the dying man, I will now hold you as my slave; for had I not come to your assistance, you would have perished; your condition, as my slave, will be better than if you were left to linger and die miserably on the highway!

Eusebius of Cesarea, in his church history, (page 335,) informs us of a moderation in persecution. Instead of destroying life altogether, the Pagans then only ordered that the eyes of the confessors should be torn out, or that one of their legs should be amputated. This, the persecutors thought, was very great kindness. "So that, (as Eusebius continues,) in consequence of this HUMANITY of theirs, it was impossible to tell the great and incalculable number of those that had their right eye dug out with the sword first, and after this, seared with a red hot iron; those too, whose left foot was maimed with a searing iron."

Strange that Christian confessors, or professors, should now copy the acts of the heathen, and even go beyond them in barbarity, and allege in their excuse, we do these things as a kindness and a humanity: we put out the eyes, we maim the limbs, we manacle the body, we hold our fellow men in bondage and extort slave services from them, because, forsooth, it is an advantage to them to be reared in the United States, surrounded by the instructive blessings of liberty, and Christian precept and example, instead of being left to perish or drag out a benighted existence on the sands of their native Africa.

The true disciple of Christ, lives and dies for the benefit of his brethren: he takes up his cross and follows our Lord. Yet as we cannot, any one, do all things, we know, that in pursuance of the established laws of nature, which proceed from a small beginning to greater results, we must have a point of commencement, or a centre of action: this centre may, perhaps, in almost all cases, be the very lot in which Providence has already prepared and cast our station. Christianity is not without natural affection. Our homes, our state, our country, demand our faithful attention and services; none of the virtues and duties connected with these relations, are abrogated. But Christian love does not END with home, with state, nor with country, but encircles the earth, and

penetrates with its pure light and genial heat, the entire universe of God. The good which we desire for ourselves, we desire also for others; nor can our full peace and jubilee ever come, until every created soul of man, throughout all the land, shall hear and participate in the glad tidings of UNIVERSAL SALVATION and UNIVERSAL

LIBERTY.

THE END.