THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

VOLUME XLVI.

FOURTH SERIES, VOLUME XI.

JANUARY, MARCH, MAY, 1849.

BOSTON:

WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS.

NEW YORK: C. S. FRANCIS & CO.

LONDON: JOHN CHAPMAN, 142 STRAND.

THE

CHRISTIAN EXAMINER

AND

RELIGIOUS MISCELLANY.

JANUARY, 1849.

ART. 1.- THE CRISIS OF FREEDOM IN THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW.

THE stupendous, and, we may say, the awful events, tidings of which have been coming to us during the last few months, like successive claps of thunder, or like earthquakethroes, from the other side of the world, must have moved every mind capable of thought to its deepest thinking. The awfulness of this tremendous crisis in human affairs, to our minds, lies especially in this, that men, civilized men, are now irretrievably committed to the solemn trial of self-government. What this implies, what qualities it demands, what wisdom and sobriety, what social effort and what social disinterestedness, are necessary to make the experiment safe, -whether it has been well and wisely begun by the rush of multitudes into city streets to break down and to build up, all this, to our view, is matter of momentous inquiry. But whatever shall be thought of it, whatever shall be thought of this great experiment on a scale as vast as Christendom, whether it be regarded as a light thing or as a serious thing, - it is certain that the time has come! Big with unseen and incalculable issues, the birth-time of momentous ages, the beginning of what no mortal eye can see to the end, it is come ! The great hour has struck, in the fortunes of men ! Looked for, waited for, believed in, expected, but expected to come only after long preparation, expected among the slow results of centuries of changes, the hour has struck suddenly, decisively, with startling distinctness, with a VOL. XLVI. - 4TH S. VOL. XI. NO. I.

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