INCREASE OF RELIGIOUS LIGHT. AUGUST 17. 237 Say not thou, what is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this. WE should never cease to thank God, that the advancement of christian truth has been steady and promising. From the time of the reformation, we think, by the progress of knowledge and of freedom of inquiry, the real character of Christianity has been more and more made known among protestant nations; and we think we discern the influence of these more correct views of religion in the gradual but very perceptible improvement of these nations, during the three last centuries, in virtue and happiness, in a more established and more general sense of right and wrong, in a better regulated state of society, and in the cultivation of the humane and social affections. In comparing the present character and condition of men in these nations with what it was in the most civilized countries at the time of the introduction of Christianity, we perceive the effects of our religion, and in comparing the same present state of society with what it was two centuries ago, we perceive, as we think, the effects of a more improved knowledge of our religion. The more directly the few simple and most important truths of Christianity can be made to act on the minds of men without being impeded in their operation, the more powerful and universal will be its influence. We rejoice in the progress of true religion, because as we have before said, we think it the progress of human virtue and happiness. We think the advancements in philosophy and moral science, and the advancements in the knowledge of true religion, mutually promote each other. Let us daily pray, that God would establish the truth as it is in Jesus. But let us, amid all our zeal, cherish the broadest christian charity. Let us take heed to our steps in the business of reform. Especially let us regard the aged, and abstain from disturbing their faith, though we might deem it somewhat erroneous. With it are entwined all their religious principles and affections, and the former could hardly be removed without the latter being shattered or destroyed. It is the lot likewise of a great part of the world to receive their religious opinions upon authority, and though there are many belonging to this class, whose opinions we might by no means esteem altogether true, yet we should not be very ready to lead them to doubt of the correctness of the authority in which they had confided, lest their distrust should extend to all they had been taught; and because we might not be able to substitute our own, instead of that authority which we had weakened or overturned. To such men we do not address ourselves, or we only address ourselves to say, that if their faith has produced the fruits of good living, if it has shewn itself in love to God and love to man, we have no question of its excellence and its sufficiency to salvation; we should be among the last of men to wish them to feel pain from any doubt of its correctness. There is an obligation upon every one to examine, with very serious attention, the reasonableness of that faith in himself, which he is willing should have any influence upon the faith of others. My thoughts ascend above the earth, And seek their primal, proud abode; The country of their heavenly birth, 238 MAN'S BODILY CONSTITUTION ADAPTED TO CLIMATE. AUGUST 18. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease. son; WE are now experiencing the severest heat of the warmest seaand if there were not seasons in the body as well as in the year, we should quickly perish. But we are led to admire the wisdom and goodness of divine providence, illustrated in adapting the constitution and the inclinations of mankind to the conveniences and inconveniences of their local habitations, and in reconciling them to their lot. In different latitudes, the nature of the climate is widely different. Those regions which lie near the equator are scorched with insufferable and unremitting heat, or annoyed with deluges of rain and tremendous hurricanes. While those which approximate to the pole are bound up with perpetual frost, and are exposed to a long and cheerless night of weeks' and even months' duration, without a glimpse of the solar ray. The sea is covered with islands of ice, and the surface of the land, for the greater part of the year, with snow, which during a few weeks in the summer gives way to a scanty produce, in which few or none of the vegetables which are adapted to the sustenance of human life can be brought to maturity. An inhabitant of the temperate zone, if suddenly transported to either of these extreme regions, and there left to himself, must inevitably perish. His constitution would not be able to endure the extreme either of heat or cold to which it would be exposed. And being ignorant of the course of nature in a climate to which he had not been accustomed, he would be utterly unable to provide either the sustenance, or the clothing, or the habitation which the change of climate would render necessary; nor would he have any means of guarding against the insalubrity of the air, or the noxious and venomous animals which might be natives of the soil. Of the truth of this supposition we have ample proof in the great mortality which uniformly attends the settlement of colonies in newly discovered countries. And, if we may credit history, whole armies have, in consequence of ignorance and inexperience, been at once suffocated by parching winds, or swallowed up in the sands of a burning desert. Yet, such is the admirable contrivance of divine wisdom and benevolence in the structure of human nature, that the natives of these torrid or frozen climates, which are so uncomfortable and so formidable to strangers, are not only reconciled to a residence in them, but even greatly prefer them to all others, and imagine themselves to be the most favoured of nations. Their constitutions are so formed, or by their habits of living they are so trained and disciplined, as to endure without inconvenience the respective extremes of heat or cold. They possess the health and vigour which their situations require, and some of them live to extreme old age. Such is the impartial goodness of the Universal Parent, in providing for his human offspring. According to the present system of nature, it was impossible that all should enjoy the same beauty and salubrity of climate: but He has abundantly compensated the defect, by giving that pliancy to the human frame which shall adapt itself to every climate, and make every one believe that his own allotment is the best. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy mengiòm us thyself. OUR love to God is to be shewn by our beneficence to man-and this is morality. It has been objected to some sects that they reduce christianity to a mere system of morals, containing a worldly or pagan morality. If there be any one who thinks this of us; who thinks that we regard no other duties, than those of man to man, and rely on other motives to virtue, than what the present life affords ; that we believe in God wi somewhat more delightful views, we suppose it will be confessed, of his nature and moral government, than what many other Christians entertain, and yet regard him with no love, nor reverence, nor fear, and do not make this belief the foundation of all virtue and of all hope; that we believe Jesus Christ to have been the messenger of God, and yet view his perfect character with no admiration, and his labours and sufferings with no gratitude; that we believe a future life of happiness or misery, and yet regard its most awful sanctions with indifference; if there be any one, who thinks all this true, let us convince him to the contrary by our zeal in the cause of our Redeemer, and by our genuine purity and usefulness of life. Our Saviour was emphatically a moral teacher. With unhesitating trust we receive his doctrines, and with devout earnestness we pray for that faith which works by love and which purifies the heart. -One cause of the prevalence of the corruptions of christianity, is, the desire to substitute something else in the stead of personal holiness; to make something different from this the foundation of our hope of God's mercy.—It is true that we have no respect for that religion, which, where the means of doing good exist, does not manifest itself in a life of usefulness; which does not prompt to continual exertion, not to any violent and irregular startings off from our proper sphere, for the purpose of some extraordinary course of action, which the world may wonder at, but to a patient, regular, faithful, unostentatious discharge of daily and it may be humble duties. The religion, which we respect, does not produce any temporary, unnatural excitement of feelings, which may or may not have very little to do with personal holiness; but it forms habits of virtue and self-controul, it restrains the passions, it regulates the temper, and it produces, throughout the whole character, a gradual but constant progression in excellence. It has no sectarian air, no habitual look of gloom and repulsion, no assuming of censorship and superiority; but it mingles in the world, and sheds a beneficial and improving influence upon all around, and regulates in its possessor, either directly or as a more remote principle, all his actions toward his fellow creatures. Morality is the whole duty of man. It is the uniform observance of those rules of piety and virtue, which never intermit their authority, and never relax their obligation. It includes all the fruits of the spirit. It allows of no alliance between religion and the passions, It takes no notice of ostentatious pilgrimages, penances, prayers or fasts. It requires us to be good and do good. Ours is a faith nurtured and nourished In the inmost heart-but not imprisoned there It binds us to our duty and our God. 226 SELF EXAMINATION. AUGUST 6. Let a man examine himself. He who wishes to be virtuous, or useful, or wise, must seek to know his own character; he who wishes for happiness must both know and have power over himself, without which it is unattainable. That each one is better acquainted with himself than any one else, is probable; that each one can know himself best, is certain. But either not being conscious of this power, or wanting disposition to exert it, another's opinion is often mistaken for our own consciousness, and the estimation of our character accommodated to the image reflected from another's mind. The opinions entertained concerning us, cannot but affect us, and if we are disposed to consider only or principally what is said or thought that is good, or that alone which is bad, concerning us, distrust of our powers, or a vain estimation of ourselves will be produced. Although then what is said of us may be of some assistance, and what is thought would be of much more, yet as we have in our full possession the subject of knowledge, and the instruments for examining it, we ought to form our opinion of our character principally from the observations which we can make upon ourselves. The most important object of self examination, is the state of the heart. It is above all other things interesting to know in what measure our lives are conformed to the will of our heavenly Father, and to the example of our beloved Saviour, whose blessed gospel is the light of our world. Do we view the character of God with complacency are we penitent for our sins? do we aspire after greater virtue than we possess? are our actions influenced by proper motives? are we acquiring such characters as belong to the inhabitants of heaven? are we willing, that our future condition shall be determined by God?-These are questions which are worthy to occupy our minds. They are not to be answered by recurring to any creeds or systems of faith. Virtue does not consist in, or very much depend upon the speculative opinions which we may adopt; for there are but few articles of belief which are requisite to the christian character, and those are possessed by almost all who call themselves christians, while controversies and disputes are agitated upon subjects of comparatively little importance. The light which God has given us is sufficient to indicate our duty, and knowing our obligations, we can judge whether we discharge them. The opinions of others will afford us no assistance in forming this judgment, for all virtue has its residence in the heart, and this is a retreat into which no human eye can penetrate. This is the residence of all our principles and motives; it is upon the nature of these that our character depends; and it requires an attentive and discriminating exercise of the understanding to become properly acquainted with them. Nor will it be beneficial to compare ourselves with others, for their thoughts are as inscrutable to us, as our own are to them. They may be good and seem evil, or be evil and seem good. In short, we can only learn our religious character by examination of our own hearts, and when we reflect upon the great importance and high interest of moral excellence, and the ruin which may follow self-deception upon this subject, we must be convinced that this examination, above all others, is to be performed with the utmost sincerity and fairness. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. How multiform are the miseries of human life! Yonder stands one, waiting for a hand to guide him. The eye is extinguished; and while day smiles on the face of nature, night gathers forever round his head. There is another, whose ear never drank in a stream of melody-the organ is closed against strains which steal through that avenue into the heart of his neighbour-"he never heard the sweet music of speech," nor perceived the tones of his own unformed, untuned, unmodulated voice. Here is a third, who appears before me, without the power of utterance-the string of the tongue was never loosened, and he never spake the organs of speech are deranged, or were never perfectly formed he hears tones which vibrate on his heart ;-but he cannot impart through the same medium the same pleasurable sensation. These could not escape the compassionate eye of Jesus. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, limbs to the maimed, health to the sick, strength to decrepitude.-But yonder is the chamber of death. Darker is the cloud that broods there. Where the tongue was silent, the eye was eloquent-when the palsied limb refused to move, the ear heard, and discriminated sounds which melt the passions, and stir the spirit within us it was sad to tend the couch of sickness-but still we seemed to have some hold upon the sufferer, and he have some interest in life. But that is the bed of mortality, and the young, the beautiful, the only hope of her family is stretched there-and there is Jesus also rousing her from death as from a gentle slumber, and restoring her to the arms of her parents. There is yet another class of suffering worse than death. It glares in the eye, it raves in the voice, struggles in the limbs of that man, whose throne of reason imagination has usurped, and over the whole empire of his mind madness reigns in all its accumulated horrours. Visions-horrible visions of unreal and inconceivable objects float before his disordered senses,-while he hears not, he distinguishes not, he regards not the voice of parent, or of wife, or of child, or of friend. The spirit sits surrounded by the ruins of nature, terrified amidst shattered, and useless, or perverted organs; and covered with the midnight of despair. Oh, let the compassionate eye of the Saviour fix upon this object !—and it does-he meets him coming from among the tombs-he speaks the word-he calms the tempest-behold "the man sitting at his feet, clothed, and in his right mind." Jesus wept. How great was the compassion of our Saviour! He found on earth an hospital full of the sound of lamentation, a dormitory in which some are every day falling asleep; and those who remain are mourning over those who to them are not. He has brought a cordial to revive our spirits, while we are bearing our portion of this general sorrow, and he has opened to our view a land of rest. We learn here, that "casting out devils," was another phrase for restoring reason to the distracted. Diseases were supposed to be the infliction of evil spirits. As their existence is now seen to be impossible, we are to learn from our Saviour's example, to do good, though we should not always explain every thing connected with our charity. |