be no setting bounds to the good effects produced; amongst which I would place, as by no means lowest in value, that generous and noble belief in excellence, without which a character must ever be wanting in faith, if not also in the sister graces of hope and charity.

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CHAP. XIX.

GROUNDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

IN pointing out the grounds of encouragement, which it now becomes our pleasant duty to consider, I shall divide them into two classes, particular, and general; and amongst the former I know of none which it becomes us more gratefully to acknowledge than the attention which is now paid by the higher classes of society to the wants of the lower. I am not alluding to acts of charity, nor to personal influence extending from the mansion. to the peasant's home, but to those noble instances,— happily for the country at large becoming more and more frequent,-in which distinguished individuals, so situated that their personal comfort can scarcely be interfered with by the condition of the poor, engage in plans for the promotion of their welfare, and even take upon themselves the arduous task of instructing them by public lectures on popular and interesting subjects.

Never, perhaps, in the history of our civilisation was the condition of the people generally the subject of so much disinterested and thoughtful attention as at the present time. The structure of the dwellings of the poor, the health of towns, and innumerable subjects of a similar nature, are now taken up in the most earnest manner, and treated carefully and candidly by those

who have no personal interests at stake, nor any other motive for their noble exertions than the desire of benefiting that class of their fellow beings who are least able to secure comforts or conveniences for themselves. All these endeavours, so generously put forth, may be legitimately classed amongst high moral purposes and aims; and as such they afford cheering encouragement to hope that they will not be confined to the physical wants of the community,-that they will not even stop short at the intellectual, but will extend higher, ever deepening and widening in their influence, until they embrace that region of improvement in which man learns to become a better member of society, a better father husband-son: happy for him, and for all connected with him, if he becomes a better Christian!

Many plans, institutions, and movements in society, which aim directly either at physical or intellectual improvement, are, in this way, purely and highly moral in their own nature, inasmuch as they emanate from the sentiment of benevolence, or good-will towards mankind in general. But there are others brought into active operation in the present day, which combine with the same motives a purpose purely moral in itself; and we can never claim to be considered as thoroughly interested in the good of any class of the community until we are willing to welcome from any quarter, and under any lawful form, that which really does them good.

In this light the Temperance movement, however humble in its mode and sphere of operation, stands high in consideration as a moralising means, and perhaps not least so for the secondary or relative good which it has effected. As a ground of encouragement this movement is the more striking, because it shows what can be done

by the people themselves in the practice of that great lesson which teaches the wisdom of making a supposed immediate good give place to a good which is more remote, and yet more certain. The temperance movement is also remarkable in itself, as having stirred up so vast a number of persons,-especially in the lower and middle ranks of life,-to act vigorously and unanimously upon motives of pure benevolence, so that whether we adopt their principles in our conduct or not, we can neither undervalue their motives nor the good which has thus been effected.

The abolition of slavery, commenced and carried on by an impetus entirely moral, was a noble and memorable instance of what men can do when they rouse themselves in earnest to serve their fellow men. The abolition of a yet more degrading and more cruel slavery, a slavery whose fatal bondage it is far more difficult to break,--is that which in the instance above alluded to has more recently awakened the same spirit of energetic benevolence in generous natures, whose noble purpose is simply to deny themselves, and to induce others to do the same, lest their example should cause a weak brother to offend. The wisdom of this purpose in itself ought not to be judged of always by the means employed in carrying it out, because the means are for the most part accidental, and such as men work with when they are not in a position to choose better. The means employed for saving property which is on fire are not always exactly what good taste would select, not even the best; but the urgency of the occasion is such, that almost any lawful means are better than that the property should be totally destroyed. It is thus with the temperance cause. Until higher and

better means can be rendered available, society has much to be thankful for in those, however humble they may be, by which so many of its members are snatched from temptation, and rescued from ruin the most fatal, and in all its associations the most degrading.

And after all, notwithstanding its rude machinery,its spectacles-its bombast,-appliances common enough to almost all great movements which commence amongst the people,—notwithstanding all this, there is a moral beauty in the principle itself which rises at times into the region of sublimity, combining as it does the spiritstirring elements of the grandest heroism, with the poetry of woman's love, and childhood's tears,-in short, with the deep outpouring of all that is most intense in human feeling.

Of whom in reality is this vast army, with its onward march, composed? Of men who have performed that great exploit too difficult for half the world,—of men who have denied themselves. Many have given, but these have given up. In some instances where there was no encouragement, but rather mockery and scorn,in some instances where there was nothing to fall back upon but hunger and want; yet on they move. Some have given up, having nothing but a strong arm, a cool head, and a clear conscience left; yet on they move. Some have given up while surrounded by all the luxuries and amenities of polished life, making themselves a scoff and a bye-word to their friends; yet on they move. No question about rank or party stops their course: they have a great purpose to carry out, on the accomplishment of which they believe depends the happiness of uncounted multitudes,-on which they believe depends the unbroken chain of family concord, the father's