Page images
PDF
EPUB

tection under the flag of Britain, suffer violence at the hands of a tribe of barbarians in the remotest quarter of the earth, and the ten thousand cannon of her mighty navy will be ready to lift up their voices in threatening thunder against the deed. And this state of things has arisen from the fact that practical science having disarmed the ocean and the elements of their terrors, has made commerce well nigh universal, and has thus taught the nations the salutary lesson, that it is for the interest of each to be at peace with every other. So far as we can see, Divine Providence is now employing no other incidental instrumentality which exerts a more powerful influence than this increasingly free commercial intercourse in breaking down the barriers of prejudice, hereditary antipathy and divided interest between nation and nation, and thus preparing the way for the mutual recognition of one brotherhood among all mankind. This rapidly increasing freedom and facility for intercommunication is demonstrating by actual experiment for the instruction of millions-what reasoning and illustration alone could never prove satisfactorily in the estimate of a selfish race-that the prosperity of every nation is linked with and dependent upon the prosperity of every other. Let a people become enriched in accumulated treasure and the resources of productive industry, and then supply them at hand with a mechanical means of safely distributing their riches all over the globe, and gathering in an ample reward from a thousand sources; and they must be taught by their daily experience the dependence of one upon another, the community of interests that exists between the different members of the whole family of mankind. And this universal commerce, which is making every nation acquainted with every other; which is exploring all seas, lakes, rivers, islands, mountains, continents, even deserts and wildernesses; which is making the manners and customs of every race familiar to every other; which is distributing all over the globe the peculiar products of any single region, bringing to any one spot where they are demanded the riches, the knowledge and the improvements which can be collected from all lands; which is thus creating intimate acquaintanceship and associated interests between people of the most diverse habits, languages, laws, and customs; which in short leads all to recognize in all others of whatever kindred, tribe or tongue, not anthropophagi, nor troglodytes, nor cyclops, nor pigmies, as the ancients did, but human beings, veritable men, with senses, dimensions, affections, passions like their own-the process peculiarly characteristic of the present age, which is effecting all this, is certainly to be regarded not only as one of the leading elements of civilization and intellectual im

provement, but also as one of the most powerful auxiliaries in hastening the advent of the promised day, when peace shall be the universal law, and prosperity the uniform experience of all mankind, and the worship of the one great Father of all shall supplant every false religion.

It is directly in consequence of the progress which has been made by Christian nations in physical science and the useful arts, that they have gained an acknowledged pre-eminence over all others, and thus, by their superior knowledge and power, have secured to themselves a respect that never would have been conceded to spiritual truth and natural justice alone. In many instances, the wall of separation which ignorance, and bigotry, and superstition had built up between the different races of men has been broken down by those very nations who had kept themselves within its limits for ages, and refrained from contact with the rest of mankind as from the contagion of the plague. The empire of Mohammed itself, instead of offering to the world the choice between the Koran and the scimetar, thus affecting to do in its weakness what it was able to do in its strength, sends its ambassador to this western world-to the capital, the ports, and the chief cities of the once hated and despised Christian, that by such means its own people may learn lessons, profiting by which, they too may share in the abundance of other lands, and may gather more successfully the exhaustless riches of their own. And without the aid of such incidental influences, we cannot easily see how Christianity itself could effect its great object in elevating and regenerating mankind. For unless the world can be made acquainted with itself; unless all can know to a much greater extent than most now do, the wants as well as the advantages of all others, it will be impossible to create in the minds of men that enlarged and intelligent benevolence which the gospel would establish in proclaiming peace on earth. Destroy the present facilities for transport and intercommunication, put back physical science and the useful arts to the position which they held five centuries ago, and effectually prevent their advancing from that point, and you could never hope that by any possible means the religion of Christ would pervade the earth, or even that different nations could be brought to act, in their intercourse with each other, upon the liberal and safe policy which their interest demands. They would uniformly adhere to the old heathen and barbarian policy, of counting every nation the natural enemy of every other. They would proscribe foreign manners and languages as barbarous, simply because they were foreign. They would shut themselves up within trenches and stone walls and castles for dwellings, clothe them

selves in iron mail, and regard warfare as the only profession worthy of a high born and high minded man. They would regard all distant nations as lawful plunder, and esteem themselves glorious, as did our Saxon ancestors, in proportion to the number of captives and the amount of booty that they could bring home from their marauding excursions on land and sea. And they might do all that, as the Abyssinians now do, and as many nations did in the middle ages, while calling themselves Christians. If the religion of Christ maintained a nominal existence among them, it could never avail to extinguish their fierce and predatory habits, except by summoning the arts and sciences to its aid, and thus teaching them that the skill and energy which they have displayed in the work of destruction may find better employment in the pursuits of peaceful and profitable industry. The Christianity which is not sustained by the widest diffusion of intelligence, the most equalized enjoyment of rights, possessions and security, and the greatest possible freedom and facility insured to every one for acquiring all the advantages justly belonging to each individual man, will most certainly be a corrupt Christianity. It will be prostituted to the unnatural and revolting service of sustaining unjust law and usurpation, sanctifying the most inhuman abuses, customs and prerogatives, practicing the most cruel exactions upon the weak and defenseless, and controlling the interests of society solely for the advantage of a corrupt and cunning few.

Such a return to the reign of darkness and violence, however much desired by despotism and bigotry, and however confidently foretold by the prophets of evil, is not to be feared. Despotism can no more put out the light that has been kindled than it can quench the sun. Bigotry can no more recover the lost thunder of its anathemas, or rebuild the demolished walls of its dungeons, than it can recall the chaos and void of the pre-Adamite creation. Not that the light of truth everywhere shines as yet, nor that the prison doors are thrown open to all that are bound. The progress which the world makes toward a better state is indeed slow, compared with what is to be desired. And all that we know of the time requisite to introduce a new era in the moral or the material creation would teach us that it must be slow. But it moves, and in the right direction. "As you were," though still the standing order with military commanders and the hereditary sovereigns of mankind, is no longer sure to be obeyed. Despotism, in alarm, resorts to her old diviners and enchanters; but they answer that there is a spirit raised among the nations over which their mightiest spells have no power. It is "the spirit of wisdom and understanding," the spirit of “

coun

sel and of knowledge," and it smites the oppressor with the rod of its mouth; it slays the wicked with the breath of its lips. What can standing armies do against such an antagonist? How shall ignorance and superstition and all injustice escape from being slain by the breath of its lips? Nor need we use the language of the sacred word altogether in the form of appropriation to suit our purpose. It is the Spirit of the Lord, the sole spirit of wisdom and of power, that is carrying on this work of revolution, overturning and making all things new, progressively subduing all the resources of the material world of nature conjointly with the moral world of man for the accomplishment of the great enterprise worthy of a God-the intellectual and spiritual regeneration of a whole race. As we can trace the "footprints" of the great Builder upon the successive stages of his material creation, so may we reverently observe the successive steps of advance by which he goes on making a new heavens and a new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness. We can see the successive instrumentalities which he summons to bear a part in the work. Now, he discloses new powers and resources which he had treasured up thousands of years before in the bosom of the earth against the time of need for the subsistence and comfort of man. The desired progress in some direction meets new obstacles, and the work pauses;-then he directs the mind of the wise inventor and the hands of the cunning workman, and the new obstacles are overcome by devices or discoveries as new. Again, different nations and different parts of the same country are disposed to regard each other with distrust and hostility, and thus hinder the introduction of his promised reign of peace. And then he draws them into the embrace of each other by double bands of iron over which the intermingling tide of travel and transport moves swift as the wind. He binds them inseparably together with electric wires, along which the fire of newly awakened thought and the thrill of sympathetic feeling traverse with immeasurable speed. Nations are still disposed to decide their differences by the strong arm of violence, and he gives them such a terrible mastery over the elements of destruction, as that a conflict must inevitably destroy both. And they of necessity refrain from a struggle in which both must lose all, and gain nothing. In proportion as men are disposed to employ life for right purposes, he teaches them the means of increasing its duration and diminishing its evils. As rapidly as men are prepared rightly to employ the increase of their power resulting from unity of action, he increases their facilities for union, removing by degrees the grand cause of the ancient dispersion, by reducing the number of languages and

[blocks in formation]

preparing the way for the universal diffusion of one. And however "material and mechanical" may be many of the instrumentalities which we thus see the divine Builder employing in his work of new creating our world, still we are bound to reverence the selection which he makes of the means, and to rejoice in the result which he accomplishes.

D. A. Wasson,

ART. II.-DR. ISAAC BARROW.

The Works of Isaac Barrow, D.D.: To which are prefixed, a Life of the Author, by ABRAHAM HILL, and a Memoir, by JAMES HAMILTON, with the Notes and References carefully revised, and Indexes prepared expressly for this Edition. In three volumes. New York: John C. Riker, 129 Fulton street. 1845.

IT has been often remarked, in substance, that the great wealth of English thought may be compacted into a comparatively small space; a shelf of no great length will contain it nearly all. It is true, the scholar needs many books; rather, however, as tools and material, by and upon which to shape his thought, than as aliment to the thought itself; but the works which afford leading ideas, and abound in those productive hints that become the sources of thought in others, are not many. And yet it is upon this fruitful and fruit-making few, that the great labor of any one, who aspires to become a thinker, should be expended. Probably one great defect in the courses of reading and study usually pursued by American students is, that we neglect the masters, and apply ourselves to popular, and of course diluted expositions of thought.

One quality, worth almost all others, which is possessed by the greatest writers, and seldom to any considerable degree by those of an inferior order, is that of suggestiveness; the power of scattering intimations of deep truths along the path of their discussions. The object more directly aimed at, may be local and temporary; but the argument constantly alludes to far underlying principles, and the writer, like a great military tactician, brings the whole art of war and the utmost stretch of reason to bear upon a skirmish of hundreds, hardly less than he would upon a battle between hemispheres. Of this, Milton's Areopagitica will always remain an eminent instance. Respectable thinkers bring you good thoughts, well coined, and enough for your pre

« PreviousContinue »