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set one Paul against a whole array of uninspired men.

Some

preach Christ of good will, and some of envy and strife. What then? Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea and will rejoice. One eateth all things, another eateth herbs; but why dost THOU judge thy brother? "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." We often inquire, what was the doctrine of Christ, and what was the practice of Christ: suppose we were to institute a third question, of what TEMPER was Christ?

Once more: We should be liberal as well as orthodox, because truth, especially the truths of Christianity, do not want any supports from our illiberality. Let the little bee guard its little honey with its little sting; perhaps its little life may depend a little while on that little nourishment. Let the fierce bull shake his head, and nod his horn, and threaten his enemy, who seeks to eat his flesh, and wear his coat, and live by his death, poor fellow! his life is in danger; I forgive his bellowing and his rage. But the Christian religion, is that in danger? and what human efforts can render that true which is false, that odious which is lovely? Christianity is in no danger, and therefore it gives its professor life, and breath, and all things, except a power of injuring others. They who have such powers, and have incorporated them with Christianity, have derived them from some other cause, for the wisdom that is from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, firm as a rock, and so to speak, defies the unavailing rage of surrounding waves.

In fine: Liberality in the profession of religion is a wise and innocent policy. The bigot lives at home; a reptile he crawled into existence, and there in his hole he lurks a reptile still. A generous Christian goes out of his own party, associates with others, and gains improvement by all. The pride of some Christians is so great, that they cannot conceive there should be anything true, which they do not understand, or anything excellent which they do not possess. They cannot bear contradiction, and, conceiving themselves as models of religion, they judge of the perfection of others by the proportion they bear to themselves. So near me, so near orthodoxy; so much like me, so much like what a man ought to be; so many features of me, so much the resemblance of Jesus Christ. O heart of man! deceitful above all things and desperately wicked! who can know thee? It is a Persian proverb; A liberal hand is better than a strong arm. The dignity of Christianity is better supported by acts of liberality, than by accuracy of reasoning: but when both go to

gether, when a man of sentiment can clearly state, and ably defend his religious principles, and when his heart is as generous as his principles are inflexible, he possesses strength and beauty in an eminent degree. May God of his infinite mercy diffuse a rich abundance of his spirit among all good

men.

The Signs of the Times.

RECENT events, which have occurred on either side of us, seem to me to demand the sober consideration of every friend of Christian liberty, of good order, of our free institutions. They involve principles of far-reaching extent, connected with the best interests of man. They are scarcely I think to be considered as transient, momentary bursts of popular feeling, suddenly stirred from its depths, and as suddenly to subside. They indicate too plainly a sad deficiency of highminded principle in the great mass of the community, and a very lax way of viewing such outrages, among a portion of it who might well be supposed to regard them more justly, which to my own mind is alarming beyond measure. If such things are to be looked upon calmly, and much more complacently, if the example set in one place, in reference to one object of hatred or vengeance, is to be followed at once in others, in regard to other objects, and there shall be found those everywhere, who, occupying respectable stations in society, shall permit their prejudices to blind their sober judgment, and make them virtually side with the mob either in opinion or action, then farewell to our boasted freedom of thought, and word, and deed. We are fast preparing ourselves to wear heavier chains than ever British power dreamed of forging.

I do not indeed fear that things are to reach this horrible extremity. I trust under the good Providence of God, that public virtue and Christian principle enough remain amongst us, once roused to energetic and efficient action, to put a check to these disorders, and preserve our land truly free. But there are signs of the times of sober portent, and well worthy of grave consideration, and to some of these I ask attention. I shall speak of four-1. The extremely corrupt state of the public press, and the immense power it wields. 2. The prevailing spirit of intolerance. 3. The

tendency to act in masses, too often exclusive in their very character. 4. The prevalent want of truth.

1. First, then," the signs of the times" are portentous in the extremely corrupt state of the public press, joined to the immense power it wields. There is no difference amongst us upon the subject of the liberty of the press. It is guaranteed by the constitution of government under which we live, and is regarded by all as a thing not to be touched nor questioned. But liberty in this respect, any more than in any other, is not licentiousness. From the very nature of the case, it is a kind of liberty peculiarly susceptible of abuse, and can be preserved in its integrity only by a rigid regard to the great objects for which it was secured on the part of those who conduct the press itself; and the watchful purity of those, to whose entertainment or instruction it ministers. The press was to be free that it might always present an easy channel, along which fountains of knowledge as they were successively opened, might send their refreshing streams. It was to be free, that an easy and efficient instrument might be possessed, by which the public mind might be rightly directed, the machinations of tyranny exposed, the body politic from time to time invigorated, and a healthful tone of public feeling quickened and preserved. It was to become the handmaid of letters, science, and the arts, and of religion, the true foundation and support of all that is holy and valuable to men. And when we look back at the past history of the race, it requires but a glance to perceive, that the press has nobly discharged its high office of enlightening, delighting, and blessing the world. But for it, knowledge would still be the monopoly of the few, and the sublimest oratory, the world has ever known, the most gorgeous and thrilling poetry its bards ever chanted, the most powerful arguments for religion and immortality which the human mind ever framed, or the Divine mind ever inspired, would have been lost amid the vague traditions through which it would have been attempted to transmit them. Indeed it scarce admits of a doubt, that but for the press, the world's civilization in aught of the high and extended sense in which we now contemplate it, would be a dream.

I did not intend, however, to descant on the value to the world of the great discovery of printing. But it is plain even from these few remarks, how immensely important and powerful an engine it furnished to mankind,-powerful, be it remembered, as well for evil as for good. It is sometimes

thought, that those who immediately conduct the public press, are answerable for all the harm which it may do when corrupted. It is forgotten, that, like every thing else provided for the public, its character largely depends upon the general character of that public amid and for which it is established. No man would venture to outrage the good and correct feelings and principles of a portion of the community through the press, if he did not feel sure of the support and countenance of another portion of it. And unhappily, in a country like ours, hardly any subject can arise likely at all to agitate the public mind, which a shrewd publisher, watching the current of events, may not on one side or the other turn to the account, either of his avarice or his popularity. There is here a continual temptation to make the press the exciting cause, or the supporter, of a popular ferment. A story loosely put together, or artfully gotten up for the occasion, which left to itself might soon die, acquires in the columns of a gazette a thousandfold of strength, and becomes in its columns the source of incalculable mischief. Party or personal animosity, can it only employ this channel of communication, may instil poison into the public mind, which will rankle and ferment there, and at last burst forth with volcanic fury. And if when such is the case, and every consideration demands that the storm should be at once allayed, the press continues to throw off its guarded inuendoes, its artful surmises, its coloured statements of facts as they transpire, or its cautious and qualified censures of those who have done what they may to disturb the public peace, and the settled order of society, it may easily be seen how the mischief may be perpetuated, and what accumulated strength and support may result to the aggressors.

I have had in mind thus far no one side of any of the great questions in politics, morals, or religion, which divide the country. On almost all these questions, there has been much to blame on both sides. Private character and reputation have been tampered with, and made the butt of the foulest abuse, however pure and exalted they were in reality, merely by their being associated with some obnoxious party, principles, or sect. That very freedom of speech, and discussion, which should be respected as the twin sister of the freedom of the press, has virtually been denounced and attempted to be destroyed. The freedom of the press has thus become tyranny of the press-as dreadful to a sensitive mind, as an Ostracism. Upon a variety of subjects from time to time arising, a

man must forsooth hold his peace, or consent to be the object of ribaldry and slander, to be held up to public scorn or indignation, and possibly to become the sport of an infuriated mob. And what is worse, there are those who in each case will justify and applaud it. It has been said by one of our countrymen recently returned from Europe, that with all our boasts of liberty, there was vastly more enjoyed in England and some parts of the continent than here. It were well worth while to consider then, whether it be not for the welfare of all to purify the public press; and by cherishing a more healthy tone of public feeling, restrain its excesses, and make it more nearly what it was designed to be.

2. Closely connected with that which we have now considered, another inauspicious "sign of the times" is the prevalent spirit of intolerance. I do not say that there has never been so intolerant an age as this, but that, considering the advanced age of the world, the diffusion of knowledge, the boasts of liberality which are always put forth, and the means of understanding the various subjects which are presented successively to our contemplation, there does exist, widely diffused, an intolerant spirit far more worthy of some centuries ago. There is a disposition to look upon men with regard to their opinions rather than their characters, and to treat them, and speak of them accordingly, which tells poorly for our real liberality. Take any of the exciting subjects which have within a few years agitated our country, and you will find abundant illustration of this. In politics, were we to believe a hundredth part of what has been said, and written, and published, concerning men high in office or influence in the nation, we must think them monsters unworthy to live. Take the subject of anti-slavery, and whether the principles of its advocates be right or wrong, or the language they have used, or the measures they have pursued or proposed, justifiable or the contrary, in what a torrent of prejudice and crimination, has it been attempted to whelm them all without exception; and in how many cases has this cause served to screen the enormity of those outrages, which have disgraced our commercial metropolis.-Take the case of the Catholic Church. Here for several years among various denominations of Protestant Christians, has the cry been raised, and echoed from one end of the country to the other, that Popery was on the ascendant; and all that even the maddest of the Reformers, in the zeal of darker ages had said in the bitterness of their hatred against it, has been republished to

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