ready to agree with Burke, that "it is the misfortune (not as these gentlemen think it, the glory) of this age, that every thing is to be discussed; as if our institutions were always to be a subject rather of altercation, than of enjoyment." And in comparison with those who expect so much advantage from this discussion, who will not think Burke nearer right, when he says, "there is no improvement to be expected in the great truths and institutions of morality and religion. They were understood as well before we were born, as they will be when the grave has heaped its mound on our presumption, and the tomb imposed its law on our pert loquacity." Never can we experience the fulness of the renovating power which belongs to Christianity until we shall cease from those free discussions of its principles and constitution, for which a disputative humour will always find occasion; -until, wearied and wasted by controversies, we shall come, in unity of spirit, to receive this divine religion, with that submissive and cordial faith which it requires. Then, the conditions on our part being answered, might we expect to see, in the fruits of peace and righteousness which would every where abound, how rich are its resources for blessing the world. It is to be feared, however, from present appearances, that we have first to learn, in a still lower religious declension, and in the wider prevalence of irreligion, how far these resources may be rendered unavailing, through continued controversy. To us belong the admonitions and warnings addressed by John Howe to his contemporaries : "If we love divine truth, why do we not feed and live upon it, and enjoy its pleasant relishes; but relish gravel more, or chaff, or bran; for thither the agitation of continued controversy about it, doth soon sift it, the grain of flour,—the kidney of wheat,-being passed away, and gone from us. none remember when the disputative humour had eaten out the power and spirit of practical godliness? Thither things are again tending, if God, by severity or mercy, do not repress that tendency." Can' It will be perceived, that we have forborne to enlarge on the tendency of Radicalism utterly to subvert and overthrow our fundamental institutions. That this is its tendency, there can be no doubt. Were its principles to be carried out to their legitimate results in practice, all government would be prostrated, every institution demolished, and soeiety resolved into a chaos far more horrid than that which furnished the original necessity for its formation. But, through the interposition of that Being, who is the author of peace, and the lover of concord, these effects are rarely permitted, and when they do occur, are too obvious to require, and too awful to admit of any delineation. We have chosen, therefore, to confine our remarks upon our last general topic, to the effects of Radicalism in suspending the influences of our various institutions, even while they exist; effects which, from being ordinary, ought to be noticed, while they are less likely to be observed, from being negative in their character. Still, if what has been said be true, even these effects cannot be made light of. Let any one consider to what an extent the public mind is diverted from our fundamental institutions, either by the worse than worthless expedients which Radicalism would substitute for them, or by the all-absorbing apprehension and solicitude which Radicalism induces;-how the public heart is alienated from them by the unveiled nakedness and almost squalid poverty in which Radicalism has left them;-how the public faith in them is shaken by the endless questions which Radicalism engenders and protrudes,-let any one candidly consider these things, and he will be driven to the conclusion, that, as for all the high ends for which they are designed, these institutions might almost as well be overthrown, as to have the conditions of their utility thus for ever frustrated. How can a people be expected to advance in intelligence, in social refinements and virtues, in religious duties and joys, when the grand means of this advancement are cut off? If the influences emanating from these institutions are the life of public virtue and happiness, what can be expected from the withholding of the one, but the decline of the other? Surely as plants die in winter, must knowledge, social order, and piety perish, during a long-continued suspension of the genial and vital powers of our literary, civil, and religious institutions. Surely as a cold and dark shadow falls from the cloud which intercepts the light and heat of the sun, will ignorance, lawlessness, and irreligion, in triple folds of shade, rest on that spot of earth, between which, and those lights planted in the moral heavens to rule and bless us, the Evil Angel of Radicalism spreads abroad his dusky pinions. And where that blighting shadow long abides, there must every thing which renders Christian civilization desirable, gradually disappear, and all which renders Pagan barbarism dreadful, soon succeed. To predict famine, war, and pesti lence, when the sun and moon are eclipsed, is indeed superstitious; but there is no superstition in foretelling a dearth of knowledge, the conflict of the social elements, and the plague of vice, when the lights of the moral world are prevented from shining. To ascribe these natural eclipses to the Principle of Evil contending with the Principle of Good, is indeed superstitious; but there is no superstition in ascribing these moral obscurations to the Prince of Darkness, and the Ruler of the powers of the air. Mischief on so large a scale is worthy of him, and can hardly have an inferiour author. And the Radical spirit, instrumental as it is in producing these moral eclipses, must therefore be regarded as, at least, one of his impersonations, if not as absolutely identical with him, and as entitled, by way of eminence, to the name of THE ENEMY, and the DESTROYER. Implacably hostile to our institutions, obscuring these luminaries of the moral system, and threatening to destroy them, the Radical spirit cannot be better designated than as the Great Dragon of eastern mythology, supposed, when eclipses are seen, to be devouring the heavenly bodies. Thus have we attempted to portray some of the pernicious effects resulting from Radicalism. Our picture has not been drawn from fancy, (though touched, it may be, with some of her colours,) but from the living page of history. When we look around on the individuals who have been actuated by the Radical spirit,-upon the particular objects to which it has been directed,-upon the whole sphere in which it has moved, we see confirmation strong of all which has been said. Nor are the evils now described, its accidental effects, merely, but on the contrary, its natural and almost necessary fruits.-The ruin of personal character, the ruin of every benevolent enterprise,-the ruin of every public interest, are the foot-prints, by which you may surely trace the progress of this Destroyer. The particular evils now witnessed and deplored may pass away, but only to reappear, so long as this spirit is not cast out from those it has possessed, and driven from the abodes of men. The labours of patient philanthropy will scarcely have repaired the desolation of the last eruption, before the rising villa and flowering vintage will be again laid waste by a new lavatide, disgorged from the same volcanic centre, whose dying fires are ever kept alive and fanned to fury by the whirlwind passions prisoned in its bosom. American Principles, and Means of Common Education. 326 Ashmun Jehudi, Notice of his Life, by R. R. Gurley .... 537 Bellamy's Works, Review of........ 58 Bouton, Rev. Nathaniel, A Scriptural and Practical View of the Doctrine of 307 Barnard, Frederick A. P., Art of Instructing the Deaf and Dumb 367 461 Beecher's Plea for the West.. 519 Christianity, Means of Promoting.... Correspondence of Rev. Dr. Woods and Rev. W. S. Plumer...... Cousin's Report on Education in Prussia, Review of ............. 3 194 326 436 Christian Fellowship 194 Colton's Four Years in Great Britain, Review of .......... 614 Doctrine of Election, A Scriptural and Practical View of... 307 Dwight, Theodore, Jr., Review of Cousin's Report on Education.. 326 Dickinson, Rev. Richard W., Origin of our Idea respecting God. 541 Dana, Rev. Daniel, D. D., Review of Rev. Dr. Chapin's Prize Essay on Existing State of the Art of Instructing Deaf and Dumb................................................ Hooker, Rev. Edward W., Love to the Doctrines of the Bible, an essential Henry, Rev. C. S., Review of Wayland's Moral Science........ Invariableness of the Doctrines of Christianity amidst the Diversity of 735 Means of Promoting Christianity Mental Discipline, Elements of 122 Mitchell, William, An Enquiry into the Utility of Modern Evangelists and 494 North American Indians, Mythology, Superstition, and Language of ........... 96 Pond, Rev. Enoch, D. D., Review of Upham on the Will. 66 No. V. Political and Ecclesiastical Reform.. ....... Proudfit, Rev. Alexander, D. D., Letter on Colonization Pentateuch, Authenticity of........ Plumer, Rev. William S., Correspondence with Dr. Woods No. II. 541 148 Roenne, Baronde, Translation from Savigny on the German Universities 635 Sacramental Use of Wine, Review of Rev. Dr. Chapin's Prize Essay.. Theology a strictly Inductive Science Translation from the German of J. H. Merle D'Aubigné, by the Editor 588 733 Withington, Rev. William, Analogy of Revelation to Nature Woods, Rev. Leonard, D. D., Philosophy of the Mind, No. IV. 274 578 |