The true support of despotism.

The Christian citizen.

signs of a government,—and certainly not feel its pressure personally, from his cradle to his grave. It is the public. conviction of its necessity, which sustains the system in the one case, and it is its manifest uselessness, which dispenses with it in the other. It is thus, that public vice is always the origin and the supporter of despotism. It is the very foundation of its throne. Banditti upon the highways are invaluable auxiliaries to its cause, and every insurrection in the provinces, or riot in the city, adds to the number of its bayonets, and supplies ammunition for its cannon. And when despotism is thus established, revolution is no remedy. It may shift the power to oppress, from one hand to another, but there can be no effectual or permanent mitigation of it, but virtue and self control, on the part of the governed.

We ought also to remark, before concluding the discussion of this chapter, that it relates to measures adopted by Christians, as such,- i. e. as members of the kingdom of Christ, in a world in heart opposed to him. The duties of the Christian as a citizen, we do not now wish here to discuss. He is a citizen of the state, as well as others, and all the responsibilities and duties of citizenship belong to him fully. While he should most sedulously guard against an assuming or a dictatorial spirit, and avoid all manoeuvring and intrigue, and keep his heart free from party spirit, and lust of office and power, he should still be vigilant, and faithful, and punctual, in discharging all the duties which the constitution of his country imposes upon him. And whatever share of influence he may properly exert directly, in respect to the political administration of his government, that he is bound to exert, in favor of such men and such measures as will promote the highest and most permanent public good. If all are faithful in the discharge of these obligations, then just so far as personal piety extends, so far will the social and political condition of man be improved, and this is the only

Progress of Christianity.

sure and safe mode of progress. This subject, however, we do not now propose to go into, but only to consider the extent in which the Christian community, as such, may hope to exert a good influence upon the mass of mind around it.

The work of the Christian, then, in this world, is mainly with individuals,-his object is to promote the spread of personal, individual piety, the highest, in its standard, and the most extensive in its range. Then let this piety thoroughly inter-penetrate the whole mass of society, and mingle every where, with mind, so as to bring the insensible, unobtrusive, but most powerful influence of its presence, to act upon the whole mass by which it is surrounded. It must not stand aloof. It must be separate from the world in character, not in condition, it must sustain the most friendly, business and social relations with all mankind,—and by a sort of interfusion with the mass, carry its influence every where. While, however, piety goes thus, like the Savior, wherever there is sin, she must, like him, keep herself unspotted from its contamination,-firm and unyielding in her lofty principles, and pure in her own heavenly spirit. While she is kind, she must be decided; -conciliatory and unobtrusive, while she is consisent and firm. Clothed in her own alluring garb, she must exhibit the moral beauty of obedience to God and benevolence towards man, and thus, while she wins multitudes to sincere repentance and eternal life, she will gently, but powerfully, restrain the guilt and assuage the sorrows of the vast multitudes which yet continue in their sins.

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"Diversities of administrations, but the same Lord."

Notwithstanding the immense importance which may justly be attached to private, individual effort, in the work of Doing Good, we must not pass slightly over another great and important topic,-union and co-operation. Jesus Christ did not merely make arrangements for the spread of personal piety from heart to heart, he founded a church. He took measures for concentrating the moral power which he introduced, and for linking together his followers, by ties which formed at once their strength and their protection. But the human heart, always ready to find some door of escape where it may go astray, and especially always prone to slip away from what is spiritual, to what is external, has perverted our Savior's original design, until at length, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, the arrangement which was intended by him, to establish for ever, union and harmony, has resulted in the very ex-. treme of separation and division.

It is not, however, the number of distinct ecclesiastical organizations now existing, that constitutes the main evil, -it is the spirit of dissension and jealousy, not to say hostility, which separates them from one another. For example, a comparatively small degree of inconvenience or injury would result, perhaps, from the arrangement, by which the church of Scotland, stands a different organization from the church of England,-each having its own officers, its own rules and its own usages, and thus each being independent of the other,―provided the two would occupy their respective parts of the vineyard, as distinct, but friendly divisions of the same great family,-each enjoying the confidence and affection of the other. In the

Various branches.

Dissensions among them.

same manner, there might be little inconvenience or injury from having a Methodist and a Congregational church in the same city, in which case the respective fields of the two organizations would be marked off, not by territorial limits, but by the different tastes, or habits, or pursuits of different classes of the community. We do not say that it would be better to have two such organizations of the Savior's followers, rather than one, but only that it would not be much worse, were it not for a spirit of dissension and hostility between them. If the portions into which the church is divided, were friendly families, nearly all the evils of the division would disappear, and there would be some great advantages to balance those which should remain. But instead of being friendly families, they are, in fact, too often hostile tribes, expending quite as much of their ammunition upon one another, as upon the common enemy; so that the evil consists, not so much in the lines of demarcation, by which the great body of believers are separated, as in the brazen walls of jealousy, and mistrust, and excommunication, which are erected on these lines. It is these last which make the mischief.

The cause of our difficulty seems to be the tendency of mankind to run into an inordinate attachment to forms. Forms are something distinct and tangible, and associations of interest and attachment cling to them easily and strongly. Then again, the religious usages to which we are ourselves accustomed, are the ones which are in our minds when we read the Scriptures, and we associate them with the directions and descriptions given there, so strongly, as at length insensibly to imbibe the belief, that these very usages were the ones referred to and practised in those days; each reader thus making his own accidental experience a part of his interpretation. Thus the officer or the ordinance which we read of, is always the officer or the ordinance which we are accustomed to; just as every farmer's child, when reading the story of the babe in the

Religious party spirit.

Two ways to make peace.

manger, always pictures to himself a scene from his own father's barn. Then, besides, there is party spirit, a form of human depravity, not slow to show itself in the most sacred relations of the soul. We love to have our party prosper, and so we are ardent and zealous for the interests of our own pale; for thus, by the self delusion which is the inveterate and perpetual characteristic of sin, we can have the satisfaction of thinking that our ardor is for the cause of God, while in fact, we are only glorifying ourselves. And of all the inaccessible and impregnable fortresses of sin, this is certainly the worst. Human selfishness and pride are firm and immovable enough, when open and undisguised; -and real, devoted love to God, too, will sometimes stand its ground well;-but when pride, and selfishness, and party zeal clothe themselves with the garb of pretended piety, and do it so adroitly as to deceive their very victim, you have headstrong, unmanageable and indomitable obstinacy personified. The pride and selfishness of party spirit which constitute the real spring, are far within, protected by the superficial covering, from all attack and all exposure. This kind of character is found in every denomination of Christians, and it is the spirit which this diffuses and creates, that gives all its acrimony to the division of the church; which division might otherwise be considered as an amicable arrangement, intended to accommodate Christianity in its external forms, to the changing events, and tastes, and habits of different ages and climes.

There are two modes by which the Christian church may attempt to promote a state of greater harmony. One is, for each denomination to struggle to bring all the others upon its own ground,-which plan has been, for some time, in the course of trial, and the result of the experiment thus far, is, that the opposing forces, of the contending parties, neutralize each other, and the only result which remains, is a gradual thickening of the walls, and raising of the battlements, and strengthening of the bulwarks by