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cannot be very great losers by rejecting it, in its Unitarian form.

But it will be asked, and justly, who have done more or better than Unitarians in defending the fact of a divine revelation against Deists? Is it not then absurd to insinuate a resemblance? Unhappily it is not;

for, in our world, extremes often
meet. The old Fatalists held, that
destiny could not be controlled nor
changed, and yet sacrificed to avert
it, whenever its omens were disa-
greeable to them! Verb. sat. sap.
Dalston.
R. P.

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ON PEACE SOCIETIES.

It is impossible to estimate fully the indirect advantages that have resulted to the church and the world, from the missionary efforts of the present age, or to calculate the obligations the whole human race are under to those great and good men with whom those exertions originated. The influence those efforts have already, in the sort space of less than half a century, exerted on society throughout the civilized and barbarous world, is amazing. The change wrought by them in the prevailing opinions and feelings of men, is cheering as it is great; for its uniform progress has been from worse to better. Knowledge has been obtained and diffused, liberal and enlightened views have been promoted, humane and benevolent exertion has been called forth to an extent unexampled in former ages. This change in opinion and feeling is naturally extending it self to the various institutions of society. Upon these it has commenced a process of amelioration, which promises a cure for evils that have for ages retarded the improvement, and blighted the happiness of man.

Nothing can be more natural than that those who have entered with ardent and enlightened zeal into the great undertaking of evangelizing the world, should turn their earnest and delighted attention to the effects on human so

ciety of the spread of pure Christianity. They perceived that, while they realized their grand aim of "bringing many sons to glory," of conducting to heaven unnumbered precious benighted souls, the same divine religion, while guiding them to that blessedness, and preparing them for it, would scatter in their path through this imperfect world, a thousand benefits and blessings. The immediate effect of the religion of Christ is on human character: the necessary result of that effect, an improvement of all human institutions, an increase of human happiness; because the institutions and happiness of man are regulated and determined by his character,

they are its results. The labours and experience of missionaries have discovered and exhibited, in the most convincing manner, the impossibility that man should be happy in this world in the absence of the benign and blessed light of the Bible. They have proved how miserable is the darkness of the human mind, where Bible truth is unknown, and how wretched the consequences of that darkness upon the character, the institutions, and the happiness of human society; how impossible it is that men should be enlightened and wise, humane and free, peaceful and happy, without the guiding and elevating influence of the sacred truths of revelation.

They have brought into clear view the affecting miseries, impurities, and sufferings ever attendant on idolatry, in all its endless forms. They have made it apparent that the follies and the passions of men admit of no effectual control or cure, but that supplied by the truth and power of the gospel; and that system of religion produced by man's vain and corrupt imagination, far from promoting his purity or happiness, do but give scope and energy to his

wicked nature, in working out its natural results, mischief and misery. But happily the reports and writings of our missionaries have exhibited this truth not in a negative form only. Their successes, necessarily limited and incipient as yet, have taught us the efficacy of the gospel, when received in its truth and power, to produce an immediate amelioration in the condition of man, at whatever point of ignorance, brutality, and degradation it may find him. They have taught us, what indeed we hardly needed the illustration of facts to make evident, that true Christianity is essentially the improvement, the elevation of man, that he cannot understand the truths, imbibe the spirit, and practise the precepts of the gospel, without attaining the essential principles of true civilization, which will not fail to develop themselves in growing intelligence and industry, humanity and decorum, every personal, social, public virtue.

Nothing, indeed, can be more apparent than that, in order to the attainment of these results, it is pure Christianity we must spread through the world. Not Christianity obscured and debased by admixtures of human errors and corruptions; not Christianity accommodated to human policy and passion; not Christianity pervert

ed to sanction the very vices it was designed to correct and subdue; but the genuine, pure, sacred Christianity of the New Testament, of Christ and his apostles. Now there is this happy circumstance attending the recent attempts to diffuse the gospel, that they have tended to restore or preserve its purity. The same zeal for religion that has prompted Christians to labour for its spread, has also influenced them to follow after a clear perception of its truths, its character, and its spirit. Nor is any thing more delightful to a reflecting mind than to perceive, that it is essential vital Christianity which missionaries of all denominations are now labouring to diffuse through the world. There are, however, two points on which every philanthropist will be especially concerned to see, at this juncture of the world's history, Christianity thoroughly appreciated and understood. They are points not so immediately connected with the salvation of the soul, as with the social happiness and improvement of the human family. These points are government and war. What is the genius and spirit, what the doctrine and requirement of the religion of Christ, in reference to these two great subjects, so vitally connected with the harmony and happiness of man in the scene of his present abode. On the former of these interesting subjects little will now be said. Let it suffice to observe, that the world is ruled by opinion. Christianity, by purifying, correcting, elevating public opinion, cannot but work an ameliorating process on the governments of the world. The liberty of the press, the universal circulation of the Bible, the general education of all classes of men, will give at once power and truth to the public voice; and the forms and mea

sures of civil governments must be adapted to the general state of opinion and feeling among mankind. It is genuine Christianity alone that can imbue those opinions and feelings with the moderation, the benevolence, the justice, without which the mischievous tendency of public opinion will be in exact proportion to its power. Yet the calm, the Christian observer of the world cannot read the records of its history, without a deep sense of the miseries which mankind have endured at the hands of their governments. How rarely, indeed, have governments been conducted on beneficent and just principles! How rarely have those in whose hands have been intrusted the power, the duties, the responsibilities of government, conducted these measures with a direct and simple view to the welfare of their subjects! Placed in circumstances where all the strongest and most pernicious of the passions of man are most flattered, and have freest scope for indulgence, it is no wonder that rulers have pursued the objects of personal, selfish ambition, through a career, staining their own characters with crime, inflicting endless miseries and horrors on their unoffending subjects. Cheering, indeed, is the prospect that public opinion seems to be assuming the power and the disposition to check these wasting evils, under which the world has for so many ages suffered and groaned. But pure religion will, we hope, in its progress, ere long penetrate into palaces, and cabinets, and Parliaments. We hope the time is not distant when a statesman will think it no disgrace to be known as a man of prayer, who conducts the affairs of a nation in the fear of God, as the principle of his conduct, in dependence on the providence of God, as the ground

of his best hopes of the success of his measures when a speaker on great national and moral questions will feel it his honour in open debate to make it appear that he understands the principles of the Bible in their application to public interests and public duties, and is not afraid to draw arguments, and derive wisdom, from that high and holy source; when, in a word, monarchs, and ministers, and legislators will discharge their sacred public duties in the wise, benevolent, peaceful spirit of our holy religion. They will then, indeed, become benefactors and blessings, the guides, the lights, the conservators of the world.

In the mean while, let it be thoroughly understood that while Christianity enjoins on subjects quietness and obedience, gives no sanction to tumultuous, violent opposition to governments; can never be appealed to as the patron of faction, or of the spirit of everrestless discontent, yet is it no friend to tyranny, slavery, ambition, and bloodshed. If it requires the subject to be submissive, its letter and its spirit equally require that the governor should be beneficent and just, the institutions of a state wise and liberal, protecting freedom, and diffusing happiness. It was never designed to be the instrument and sanction of oppression, the basis of monopoly, the medium of peculiar honours and emoluments to some, disadvantages and disabilities to others, determined by no other rule or cause than somewhat varying interpretations of its sacred truths and forms. He must have an unworthy idea, indeed, of Christ and his gospel, who can imagine that glorious person introduced his benign religion into the world for such purposes as these. For many and dreary ages this

sacred religion has indeed been misunderstood, abused, and perverted. Wicked and designing men, interested and ignorant men, have made it subservient to their own selfish purposes at an expense to mankind of darkness and misery, bloodshed and wretchedness, that can never be calculated or atoned for. Let but its true character be generally understood, its true spirit be generally imbibed, and the sun in all his daily and annual revolutions will look down on a scene of harmony and happiness, the delighted spectator and witness of the glorious triumphs of the everlasting gospel. When Christian governors shall rule over Christian people in the spirit of Christianity, then the religion of Jesus will exhibit its triumphs on earth as a prelude to its nobler triumphs in heaven. All nations will then be blessed in Jesus, all nations will then call him blessed.

But war,-what says Christianity of war? Does it give its sanction to that dreadful work of mutual destruction? Are the disciples of the meek and suffering Jesus permitted to adopt, as their profession, and to pursue as their occupation, that trade in the death and sufferings of their fellow-men? Or is not the final extinction of war to be numbered among the blessed and peaceful triumphs of the gospel? among the fairest fruits of that harvest of blessings with which it will crown the autumn of the world? These are inquiries deserving the gravest consideration of every follower of Christ, every well-wisher to mankind. To promote the consideration of these important inquiries, to arrive at, and to circulate, just conclusions in respect to them, is the praise-worthy object of peace societies. Are, then, these societies aiming at a laudable object, and, as calculated to promote that

excellent purpose, are they deserving the support of enlightened Christians?

That they are aiming at an excellent object, can admit of no doubt. Every tongue can be eloquent in depicting the horrors and miseries of war. Its effects on human happiness are so disastrous, that the simplest mention of them is a tale to harrow up the soul. The field of battle, with all its horrors, exhibits but the smallest part of the miseries inflicted by war, not merely on the abodes and scenes of peaceful industry, but even on the soldier himself. While the entire destruction of life and property which it occasions, is but introductory to a thousand other less obvious, but not less real and fatal, evils entailed on human society in the excitement of malignant passions, the misdirection of the energy and policy of states, the interruption of every benevolent attempt to ameliorate the condition of the human family. Whoever, therefore, lifts his warning voice against the madness and wickedness of war, is, in design, a benefactor of his species. His wise admonitions may be unheeded or despised, but what was in his heart was well. And, indeed, his labour may not have been so completely lost as he himself, or careless observers, may have imagined. The seed may in some instances, though few, have fallen on genial soil, and may have contributed to preserve unbroken the succession of those who in secret have sighed over the wickedness and folly of pouring out human blood like water, on every suitable occasion have raised the voice of an honest and earnest testimony against it. And it is a cheering consideration, eminently calculated to sustain and encourage every sincere and benevolent advocate of forgotten, or neglected, or despised truths,

that a testimony in behalf of such points of truth is rarely borne in vain. The leaven of truth works often silently and slowly, but always surely. Truth sometimes seems completely obscured by clouds of errors, eagerly embraced and upheld, because favourable to the passions and interests of men ; but its rays gradually, though at first feebly, penetrate the mass, and its light advances, shining more and more to the open day. The arguments and testimony of unheeded witnesses generate those first feeble rays, by which the work of dispersing the dismal gloom is commenced..

But as the object of the Peace Societies is so evidently good, is the plan they adopt for the accomplishment of their design equally entitled to commendation? Their means appear indeed quite unexceptionable. They consist simply of association and discussion. The union of those interested in this truly Christian cause, the promotion of peace, and the circulation of their opinions, chiefly through the medium of the press, yet not rejecting the efficient aid for the spread and publicity of important principles afforded by public meetings.

Of the former branch of the means employed by the Peace Societies, the union and association of the wise and good for the promotion of a common object of Christian benevolence, it is impossible to speak in terms of commendation too warm and glowing. The present age is blessed with numerous instances of that hallowed combination; and there is scarce a scene or a kind of misery throughout the entire world that does not exhibit the fruits of its active and efficient agency. It is needless now, except for the purpose of pleasurable congratulation, to point out the advantages of

N. S. NO. 61.

be

united over solitary effort. The power that union imparts; the impulse it affords; the encouragement and pleasure it yields; the perpetuity it ensures in works of benevolence, are now well understood: and may the sacred principle never be lost sight of, may it never cease to be acted on! There is something in it peculiarly applicable to the efforts of the friends of peace. For the accomplishment of their own object, and for the encouragement of their own minds, it was peculiarly desirable that the numbers of those entertaining principles and desirous for their propagation, should brought out to view. And cheering, it is to witness the great and growing numbers of those thoughtful minds, in various parts of the world, who are impressed with a conviction that it is their duty, not merely to disapprove of war, but to labour for its prevention, its extinction; while it is evident we could never have allowed ourselves to hope there were so many entertaining those truly Christian sentiments, much less could we have ascertained and known them as our coadjutors in this cause of mercy, had not Peace Societies drawn them into union, and exhibited them to one another and the world as the friends of peace.

The other and principal means, for the promotion of which the former exists, is the circulation, in the form of tracts, of the sentiments on the subject of war, entertained by the members of Peace Societies, exhibiting an open challenge to discussion, than which nothing could more effectually promote their object. The spread of truth and knowledge is the true instrument for ameliorating the condition of mankind. Next to the pulpit, and in some cases even before the pulpit, the press is the most effectual medium for the spread of

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