10

Unitarian Difficulties upon

have been "An Essay on Moral Culture." It does not recognize the alienation of the soul from God; but commences with directions for the attainment of a spiritual mind, without informing the reader that he has by nature a 'carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, nor can be.' The complaint might justly be made in this case as of old, 'The hurt of the soul is slightly healed.' A great philosopher has remarked, that error is apt to be inconsistent with itself. We feel this to be the case in what is said in treating upon this point.

"There is an animal life, and there is a spiritual life. Man is born into the first at the birth of his body; he is born into the second when he subjects himself to the power of religion, and prefers his rational and immortal to his sensual nature. During his earliest days, he is an animal only, pursuing like other animals, the wants and desires of his body, and consulting his present gratification and immediate interest. But it is not designed that he shall continue thus. made for something better and higher. He has a nobler nature and nobler interests. He must learn to live for these: and this learning to feel and value his spiritual nature, and to live for eternity; this change from the animal and earthly existence of infancy, to a rational, moral, spir

He is

the Subject of Human Depravity. 11

itual existence, this it is to be born into the spiritual life."

Turning to a subsequent chapter, where the inquirer is spoken of, it is said

"He looks back to the early and innocent days, when, if his Saviour had been on earth, he might have taken him to his arms, and said, 'Of such is the kingdom of God.' But, alas! how has he been changed! He has parted with that innocence, he has strayed from the kingdom of heaven, he has defiled and lost the image of his Maker."

We cannot understand how the Saviour could have declared that such beings as those who are represented as in animal life were fit subjects for the kingdom of heaven, if such a change is necessary, as the author inculcates, into a spiritual life. The difficulty presented by these two passages arose from the author's belief in the original purity of the soul, and his endeavors (which in no case have proved successful upon this system,) to account for the unfailing aberration of man from God, as life advances. The reason why the soul does not awake in the likeness of its Maker at the dawn of its conscious life, is stated to be as follows.

"As soon as he can love and obey his parents,

12

Unsatisfactory Explanation.

he can love and obey God; and this is religion. The capacity of doing the one is the capacity of doing the other.

"It is true, the latter is not so universally done as the former; but the cause is not, that religion is unsuited to the young, but that their attention is engrossed by visible objects and present pleasures. Occupied with these, it requires effort and pains-taking to direct the mind to invisible things; to turn the attention from the objects which press them on every side, to the abstract, spiritual objects of faith. Hence it is easy to see, that the want of early religion is owing, primarily, to the circumstances in which childhood is placed, and, next, to remissness in education. Worldly things are before the child's eye, and minister to its gratification every hour and every minute; but religious things are presented to it only in a formal and dry way once a week. The things of the world are made to constitute its pleasures; those of religion are made its tasks. It is made to feel its dependence on a parent's love every hour; but is seldom reminded of its dependence on God, and then perhaps only in some stated lesson, which it learns by compulsion, and not in the midst of the actual engagements and pleasures of its little life. It partakes of the caresses of its human parents, and cannot remember the time when it was not an object of their tenderness; so that their image is interwoven with its very existence. But God it has never seen, and has seldom heard of him; his name and presence are banished from common conversation, and inferior and visible agents receive the gratitude for

Cause of Irreligion in the Young. 13

gifts which come from him. So also the parent's authority is immediate and visibly exercised, and obedience grows into the rule and habit of life. But the authority of God is not displayed in any sensible act of declaration: it is only heard of at set times and in set tasks; and thus it fails of becoming mingled with the principles of conduct, or forming a rule and habit of subjection.—In a word, let it be considered how little and how infrequently the idea of God is brought home to the child's mind, even under the most favorable circumstances, and how little is done to make him the object of love and obedience, in comparison with what is done to unite its affections to its parents; while, at the same time, the spirituality and invisibility of the Creator render it necessary that even more should be done;—and it will be seen that the want of an early and spontaneous growth of the religious character is not owing to the want of original capacity for religion, but is to be traced to the unpropitious circumstances in which childhood is passed, and the want of uniform, earnest, persevering instruction.”

This seems to us entirely unsatisfactory. Since the mind of a child does not immediately recognize the authority of God, as soon as the parent has made it intelligible, we cannot resist the conclusion that the child is destitute by nature of the love of God. It would not be so, were it not for "one man's disobedience." But further. To attribute the irreligious spirit

14 The Reason why a Child

which appears in the young to neglect in their education, seems manifestly erroneous Pious parents have made the experiment, times without number, watching the first indications of moral action to pour in the holy influence of religious authority, the love of God, and especially the love of the Saviour. The result has not been such as to prove (according to the fair inference from the author's meaning) that all which is necessary to ensure a religious character in men is faithful early instruction. But then the author says, there is another reason to account for this, viz: the abstract nature of God and of the motives of religion. If God could be made as real to the child's mind in his benevolence, in his love of purity, as the earthly parent, it would be otherwise. We ask, How is it that influence of an abstract nature in other things has so great an effect upon a child? You may fill the soul of a boy with the love of military glory, though he never saw the brave man whose deeds you rehearse; and how is it that he is susceptible to such influence, as abstract as the character and love of God? Why is it that you can set his soul on fire with love to great and good men whom he has