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Let us go back to the rock, where the Pilgrims first stood, and look abroad upon this wide and happy land, so full of their lineal or adopted sons, and repeat the question, to whom do we owe it, that "the wilder5 ness has thus been turned into a fruitful field, and the desert has become as the garden of the Lord?" To whom do we owe it, under an all-wise Providence, that this nation, so miraculously born, is now contributing with such effect to the welfare of the human family, by 10 aiding the march of mental and moral improvement, and giving an example to the nations of what it is to be pious, intelligent, and free? To whom do we owe it, that with us the great ends of the social compact are accomplished to a degree of perfection never before real15 ized; that the union of public power and private liberty is here exhibited in a harmony so singular and perfect, as to allow the might of political combination to rest upon the basis of individual virtue, and to call into exercise, by the very freedom which such a union gives, 20 all the powers that contribute to national prosperity? To whom do we owe it, that the pure and powerful light of the gospel is now shed abroad over these countries, and is rapidly gaining upon the darkness of the western world ;--that the importance of religion to the 25 temporal welfare of men, and to the permanence of wise institutions is here beginning to be felt in its just measure;--that the influence of a divine revelation is not here, as in almost every other section of christendom, wrested to purposes of worldly ambition; that the ho30 ly Bible is not sealed from the eyes of those for whom it was intended and the best charities and noblest powers of the soul degraded by the terrors of a dark and artful superstition? To whom do we owe it, that in this favoured land the gospel of the grace of God has 35 best displayed its power to bless humanity, by uniting the anticipations of a better world with the highest interests and pursuits of this;-by carrying its merciful influence into the very business and bosoms of men ;

by making the ignorant wise and the miserable happy; 40 by breaking the fetters of the slave, and teaching "the babe and the suckling" those simple and sublime truths, which give to life its dignity and virtue, and fill immortality with hope ?-To whom do owe all this? Doubtless to the Plymouth Pilgrims!--Happily did one 45 of those fearless exiles exclaim, in view of all that was past, and of the blessing, and honour, and glory that was yet to come, "God hath sifted three kingdoms, that he might gather the choice grain, and plant it in the wilderness !" Whelpley.

94. A Future State.

'Tis done! dread Winter spreads his latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!

How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends 5 His desolate domain. Behold, fond man!

See here thy pictur'd life: pass some few years,
Thy flow'ring Spring, thy Summer's ardent strength,
The sober Autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding Winter comes at last,

10 And shuts the scene. Ah! whither now are fled Those dreams of greatness? those unsolid hopes Of happiness? those longings after fame ?

Those restless cares? those busy bustling days? Those gay-spent, festive nights? those veering thoughts 15 Lost between good and ill, that shar'd thy life? All now are vanish'd! Virtue sole survives, Immortal, never-failing friend of man,

His guide to happiness on high. And see! 'Tis come, the glorious morn! the second birth 20 of heav'n and earth! awak'ning Nature hears The new-creating word, and starts to life, In ev'ry heighten'd form, from pain and death For ever free. The great eternal scheme, Involving all, and in a perfect whole 25 Uniting as the prospect wider spreads, To reason's eye refin'd, clears up apace.

Ye vainly wise! ye blind presumptuous! now,
Confounded in the dust, adore that Pow'r
And Wisdom oft arraign'd; see now the cause
30 Why unassuming worth in secret liv'd,

And died neglected: why the good man's share
In life was gall and bitterness of soul:
Why the lone widow and her orphans pin'd
In starving solitude; while luxury,

35 In palaces, lay straining her low thought,
To form unreal wants; why heaven-born truth,
And moderation fair, wore the red marks
Of superstition's scourge: why licens'd pain,
That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe,
40 Imbitter'd all our bliss. Ye good distress'd!
Ye noble few! who here unbending stand
Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up a while,
And what your bounded view, which only saw
A little part, deem'd evil, is no more;

45 The storms of Wintry Time will quickly pass,
And one unbounded Spring encircle all.

Thomson.

95. Present facilities for evangelizing the world compared with those of Primitive times.

The means of extending knowledge, and influencing the human mind by argument and moral power, are multiplied a thousand fold. The Lancasterian mode of instruction renders the instruction of the world cheap 5 and easy. The improvements of the press have reduced immensely, and will reduce yet more, the price of books, bringing not only Tracts and Bibles, but even libraries within the reach of every man and every child. But in the primitive age, the light of science beamed 10 only on a small portion of mankind. The mass of mankind were not, and could not be, instructed to read. Every thing was transient and fluctuating, because so little was made permanent in books, and general knowledge, and so much depended on the character, the life 15 and energy of the living teacher. The press, that lever of Archimedes, which now moves the world, was unknown.

It was the extinction of science by the invasion of the northern barbarians, which threw back the world ten 20 centuries; and this it effected through the want of permanent instruction, and the omnipotent control of opinion which is exerted by the press. Could Paul have put in requisition the press, as it is now put in requisition by Christianity, and have availed himself of literary so25 cieties, and Bible societies, and Lancasterian schools to teach the entire population to read, and of Bibles, and Libraries and Tracts, Mahomet had never opened the bottomless pit, and the Pope had never set his foot upon the neck of kings, nor deluged Europe with the 30 blood of the saints.

Should any be still disposed to insist, that our advantages for evangelizing the world, are not to be compared with those of the apostolic age, let them reverse the scene, and roll back the wheels of time, and obliterate 35 the improvements in science and commerce and arts, which now facilitate the spread of the Gospel. Let them throw into darkness all the known portions of the earth, which were then unknown. Let them throw into distance the propinquity of nations: and exchange their 40 rapid intercourse for cheerless, insulated existence. Let the magnetic power be forgotten, and the timid navigator creep along the coasts of the Mediterranean, and tremble and cling to the shore when he looks out upon the loud waves of the Atlantic. Inspire 45 idolatry with the vigor of meridian manhood, and arm in its defence, and against Christianity, all the civilization, and science, and mental power of the world. back to the implacable Jew his inveterate unbelief, and his vantage ground, and disposition to oppose Christian50 ity in every place of his dispersion, from Jerusalem to every extremity of the Roman Empire. Blot out the means of extending knowledge and exerting influence upon the human mind. Destroy the Lancasterian system of instruction, and throw back the mass of men into 55 a state of unreading, unreflecting ignorance. Blot out libraries, and Tracts; abolish Bible and Education and Tract and Missionary Societies; and send the nations for knowledge parchment, and the slow and limited pro

Give

ductions of the pen. Let all the improvements in civil 60 government be obliterated, and the world be driven from the happy arts of self government to the guardianship of dungeons and chains. Let liberty of conscience expire, and the church, now emancipated, and walking forth in her unsullied loveliness, return to the guidance 65 of secular policy, and the perversions and corruptions of an unholy priesthood. And now reduce the 200, 000,000 of nominal, and the 10,000,000 of real Chris tians, spread over the earth, to 500 disciples, and to twelve apostles, assembled, for fear of the Jews, in an 70 upper chamber to enjoy the blessings of a secret prayer meeting. And give them the power of miracles, and the gift of tongues, and send them out into all the earth, to preach the gospel to every creature.

Is this the apostolic advantage for propagating Chris75 tianity, which throws into discouragement and hopeless imbecility all our present means of enlightening and disenthralling the world? They, comparatively, had nothing to begin with, and every thing to oppose them; and yet, in three hundred years, the whole civilized, and 80 much of the barbarous, world, was brought under the dominion of Christianity. And shall we with the advantage of all their labors, and of our numbers, and a thousand fold increase of opportunity, and moral power, stand halting in unbelief, while the Lord Jesus, is still 85 repeating the injunction, Go ye out into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature: and repeating the assurance, Lo I am with you alway, even to the end of the world? Shame on our sloth! Shame upon our unbelief! Beecher.

96. Civilization merely ineffectual to convert the world.

Suppose that, out of compliment to the mockers of Missionary zeal, we relinquished its highest, and indeed its identifying object: suppose we confined our efforts exclusively to civilization, and consented to send the 5 plough and the loom instead of the cross and admitting that upon this reduced scale of operation, we were as successful as could be desired, till we had even raised.

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