Soon shall the ties of nature break; In realms of bliss, or realms of woe? One moment may thy mis'ry seal- But out of Christ, consuming fire! Accursed sinner, take thy part. SOJOURNER. AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. The public are respectfully informed, that the third anniversary of the American Bible Society will be celebrated in this city, on the second Thursday (the 13th) of May. The meeting will be held at the City Hotel in Broadway. The Annual Report, containing an account of the proceedings of the Society for the past year, will be read; after which a number of addresses appropriate to the occasion will be delivered. It is expected that the venerable PRESIDENT of the Society will be present and preside at the meeting. The members and friends of the Society, in the city and country, are respectfully invited to attend on the above interesting occasion. JOHN M. MASON, SAMUEL BOYD, JAMES M. MATTHEWS, LEONARD BLEECKER, THOMAS CARPENTER, WM. W. WOOLSEY, Committee Arrangements. VOL. VI.] Saturday, May 15, 1819. [No. III. MISCELLANY. On the Excellence of the Christian Religion, as a Source of National Happiness. WHEREVER the majority of a people are allowed to remain in a state of ignorance and vice, there undoubtedly the greatest deficiency of national happiness is to be felt a fact which no theorist on government can reasonably dispute: it has proved itself in numerous instances, and is founded on the experience of ages. No administration can be safe, no social intercourse can be maintained, where no hold is to be laid on the mind of the people ;-and such is the mind that is ignorant and vicious. Unawed, unrestrained, by religious impressions, it is ready to break out into the wildest extravagances. It feels not, nor acknowledges, any reverence for divine authority, and, therefore, affords no security for public utility or social happiness. No law of mere human appointment, no edict published by a mortal prince, will ever avail to check the excesses of mankind, or reduce them to rational obedience. God himself has raised barriers against the depravity of human nature, and when these are impiously broken through, the greatest disorders in morality, and the most awful calamities that can befall a nation, are certainly to be dreaded. It is a grand characteristic of our holy religion, that it is calculated to promote the mutual good of a whole community and of every individual member,-of the Sovereign, and of the nation. It teaches the duties of all ;-it considers the whole race as one great family, of which God is the Father :-disregarding the petty distinctions that originate among themselves, it enforces his au thority as Supreme;-without respect to persons or offices, it delivers his precepts to the world, with sanctions which none but the Deity can give, with threatenings whose terrors, and with promises whose invitations, are equally extended to all. It addresses itself to the conscience and judgment of every man ; and, where the corrupting influence of prejudice has not prevailed, it carries conviction with it. The unbiassed mind perceives and acknowledges the beauty and harmony of its parts,—its admirable suitableness to the various wants and interests of our nature, -and the sublime ideas it communicates of the great Ruler of the world, and the magnificent system of his operations. The tendency of the Christian religion to promote the happiness of mankind, appears from the broad principle on which it uniformly recommends and inculcates every social duty. What can be more inimical to every species of bigotry and exclusive benevolence, than the spirit that dictates such precepts as these: "Whatsoeverye would that men should do unto you, do ye like. VOL. VI. I wise unto them; follow peace with all men :--if your brother should offend you, forgive him; I say not seven times, but seventy times seven ;--love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." These are evidently nothing less than the dictates of the Deity himself. They breathe the benevolence of the divine mind, and are alone sufficient to establish the superiority of the religion of Jesus over every other system of ethics, which the strongest efforts of unassisted reason have presented to the world. Christianity has exposed the errors, as well as refined and confirmed the truths, of ancient philosophy. Many good things have been said by some of the ancients, who, from an attentive and shrewd observation of human nature, have been able to think justly, and to digest certain excellent rules for the rectitude of our conduct. These, so far as they are founded on truth and utility, are acknowledged in the Christian system. But how far does it exceed the philosopher in the recommendation of moral virtues! If he can say, "It is not enough to abstain from the act, we must avoid even the thought of mischief :" the Christian assents, but rises much higher in sublimity of sentiment: "Be not overcome of evil," says he, "but overcome evil with good:-if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." The philosopher teaches, that, "in returning a favour, we should do it, if possible, with interest, and imitate fertile ground, which always yields more than it receives." The Christian says Amen to the doctrine; but the venerable Founder of his religion teaches the virtue of libérality and disinterestedness of spirit, with a simplicity of expression, and a greatness of thought that nothing in antiquity can equal. "If ye love them who love you; if ye do good to them who do good to you; and if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again: but love ye your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing again, and your reward shall be great; and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil." And again, "When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours, lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." In teaching and enforcing every relative duty, how evidently superior to all preceding legislators is the Founder of the Christian religion! We cannot certainly read the pages which contain his doctrines, without feeling that they originate from a mind of infinite grasp, actuated by motives divinely pure, and whose aim is to promote the happiness of mankind in every possible situation. Children are taught, in language level to their comprehensions, the obedience and respect which they owe to their parents; and parents are reminded, in their turn, of the duties of feeding and instructing their offspring. The mutual affection and condescension so peculiarly amiable to the conjugal state, are recommended in the strongest terms. The union is represented as made by God himself, and, therefore, indissoluble but by him. Its engagements are made sacred by his own seal which he has put upon them, having this authoritative inscription, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder." As brothers and sisters, we are warmly admonished to reciprocal acts of kindness and love; and what system of doctrines can more unequivocally insist on the duties of inferiors to superiors, superiors to inferiors, of kings to their subjects, and of subjects to their kings? The religion of Christ is a religion of order and harmony. Whatever is offensive to these is hostile to the gospel, which requires of its professors that" they live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world," that they "fear God and honour the king;" that they not only abstain from rebellion, but that they "pray for all those that are in authority," representing their offices as the appoinments of God; and giving to the lawful exercise of their prerogatives the sanction of divine commission. But while it insures to the ruler the respect and obedience due to his authority, it flatters him not at the expense of his people;-it affords him many wholesome lessons on the subject of government, guarding the precious rights and privileges of the people by the most terrible denunciations against the abuse of power, and the most endearing commendations of a righteous and merciful administration. It is wise, therefore, as well as benevolent in any civil power, to encourage the diffusion of religious knowledge among the lower orders of the community. Let it, by its own example, recommend the sublime virtues of Christianity; let it enforce, by the uniform support of legislation, its mild and righteous precepts, and it will assuredly prove "a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to them that do well "good order and harmony will be established: all ranks will catch the spirit of universal benevolence, and the strongest phalanx will be drawn round the throne of civil power. Character of an Atheist. I WILL imagine only one case more, on which you would emphatically express your compassion, though for one of the most daring beings in the creation, a contemner of God, who explodes his laws by denying his existence. If you were so unacquainted with mankind, that this character might be announced to you as a rare or singular pheno menon, your conjectures, till you saw and heard the man, at the nature and the extent of the discipline through which he must have advanced, would be led toward something extraordinary; and you might think that the term of that discipline must have been very long, since a quick train of impressions, a short series of mental gradations, within the little space of a few months and years, would not seem enough to have matured such supreme and awful heroism. Surely, the creature that thus lifts his voice, and defies all invisible power within the range of infinity, challenging whatever unknown being may hear him, and may appropriate that title of Almighty which is pronounced in scorn, to evince his existence, if he will, by his vengeance, was not as yesterday a little child, that would tremble and cry at the approach of a diminutive reptile. But indeed it is a heroism no longer, if he knows that there is no God. The wonder then turns on the great process, by which a man could grow to the immense intelligence that can know there is no God. What ages and what lights are requisite for this attainment! This intelligence involves the very attributes of Divinity, while a God is denied; for unless this man is omnipresent, unless he is at this moment in every place in the universe, he cannot know but there may be in some place manifestations of a Deity by which even he would be overpowered. If he does not know absolutely every agent in the universe, the one that he does not know may be God. If he is not himself the chief agent in the universe, and does not know what is so, that which is so may be God. If he is not in absolute possession of all the propositions that constitute universal truth, the one which he wants may be, that there is a God. If he cannot with certainty assign the cause of all that he perceives to exist, that cause may be a God. If he does not know every thing that has been done in the immeasureable ages, that are past, some things may have been done by a God. Thus, unless he knows all things, that is, precludes another Deity, by being one himself, he cannot know that the Being, whose existence he rejects, does not exist. But he must know that he does not exist, else he deserves equal contempt and compassion for the temerity with which he firmly avows his rejection and acts accordingly. And yet a man of ordinary age and intelligence may present himself to you with the avowal of being thus distinguished from the crowd; and if he would describe the manner in which he has attained this eminence, you would feel a melancholy interest in contemplating that process of which the result is so portentous. FOSTER. FAMILY WORSHIP. From the Life of the Rev. Philip Henry. It is the judgment of archbishop Tillotson, in that excellent book which he published a little before his death upon this subjcet |