Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

F.

LETTERS FROM EUROPE. No. IX.

PARIS, July 15, 1847.

feebled races, comprising one tenth | already "cast their shadows before part of the population of the globe. them.' And even Africa, the land of Ham, so long guarded against the approaches of civilized man, by the hostile jealousy of its numerous petty and barbarous tribes, and still more effectually by its burning deserts, and the fatal effects of its pestilential climate, is receiving Christian communities of its own sons upon its western coasts, from which the light of Christianity and civilization must ultimately be shed upon its darkened interior.

To this summary of favorable circumstances, may be added the facilities for rapid and extensive intercourse, afforded by the introduction of steam, especially by its application to ocean navigation, and the facilities for the diffusion of knowledge, furnished by the invention of printing.

What do all these circumstances and events foreshadow? What does the present state of the world indicate, in reference to the future? Is it not the universal diffusion of the knowledge of Christianity among the nations of the earth? Who that has studied the book of Providence with any care, can fail to perceive in these omens, the glorious promise of a brighter day? With the analogies of God's past providences, and the intimations of prophecy before us, we are irresistibly led to this conclusion. The present, then, is a period, the most interesting in the history of the world, since the establishment of Christianity. We live in an age in which are brewing the elements of mighty revolutions. To the men of this age a sublime and momentous task is assigned, and solemn responsibilities rest upon them. Let every man feel that he is an actor in a crisis fraught with potent influences upon the destiny of his race-let him rise to a just sense of the dignity and importance of his position, and act his part, with an enlightened reference to the grand events, which

MY DEAR CLARINDA-From Leicester to London, a hundred miles by railroad, June 25th, I had a pleasant ride, at not more than forty miles an hour. I was met at the depôt in London by brethren Wallis, of Nottingham, Davies, of Mollington, and sister Whalley, of London, who carried me forthwith in a cab to 33, Surrey-street, in the Strand, to a very comfortable suite of rooms prepared for us by sister Whalley. I had the company of brother Wallis for two or three days till brother Henshall arrived. On Lord's day,

the 27th, I met with the brethren at their house in Elstree-street, and delivered to them an address in the forenoon, on the first day of the week and its institutions. In the evening, I addressed quite a considerable auditory in the Alvetian Rooms, near the University of London. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, I addressed very attentive congregations in the Mechanics' Institute. Each of these discourses was followed up with interrogatories by the audience. Numerous questions were propounded, and the spirit of investigation and discussion seemed to be fully awaked and intent on eliciting truth. Some six or seven public confessions of faith were made at the close of a single speech; but the parties seemed to know no community with which to unite. Our brethren in London being only some seventy persons, do not occupy a very large meeting-house, as you know. They are, though generally poor, and occupying humble stations of life, a very much devoted and excellent little community, but scarcely known amongst the hundreds of thousands of London. Indeed, what

are they, or could they be, among brother in his views and efforts. He more than two millions of people is said to be an interesting, and, living in one city! Only think of indeed, "a brilliant and sparkling all Virginia living in one city, and preacher," and of great power with then imagine how little known, and the community. Himself and his of how little influence, must any one truly Christian and amiable consort congregation be! Having heard you called on me the other day, and speak of the worth, the spirituality, informed me that his brethren, at and devotion of this little community, some recent conference, had appointed I need not expatiate on their excel- himself and another brother to visit lencies. Still I felt in London as one their brethren in America. rie will seeking to build a house without any start in a few days. I gave him foundation laid, and so did my audi- some information as to his interrogatories. Indeed, I was publicly asked tories concerning his route and way did I not intend to build a house in of travelling in the United States. London, or was there one existing to He will likely pass through Wheeling which those who were confessing to the West, or rather on his way their faith could be united. It was from Washington City to the Lakes, alleged that many believed what I and thence to New England. I inpreached; and although disgusted vited him to call and see you at with all the forms of sectarianism Bethany, and hope he may do so. existing in London, they could not He will pass that way in August or be baptized into a community, nor September, before I can return home. unite with any one until they knew and approved it. I could not but as publicly approve their prudence and consistency, and recommend to them the forming an acquaintance with the infant community now existing, of which I promised them a more particular account at another time.

On the next Lord's day I delivered three discourses—one to our brethren, and two to the public assembled in the Alvetian Rooms. On the Monday and Tuesday evenings following, I occupied the Unitarian meeting-house, which was generously tendered by the proprietors. Here we were again interrogated on sundry matters, and speeches were made by a Unitarian and a Roman Catholic, taking exceptions to my discourses, of which I cannot now speak particularly. We had, indeed, the concurrence of the great majority present in this part of the city. On Wednesday evening I addressed another portion of the city in the house of the General Baptists. There meets, under the care of Elder Burns, a large congregation in the west of London. I found Elder Burns a very intelligent and catholic

On Thursday evening, I delivered a discourse in the pulpit of Dr. Cox, of London. He is what they call a Regular or Particular Baptist, and is at the head of the denomination in London, if not in England. He and Dr. Hoby made a tour through the United States, and published a volume on the occasion of it, in which he somewhat misrepresented us. But to make amends for it, he gave me a very kind invitation to preach for him, which, of course, I did. a very attentive hearing on the part of his congregation and the public; and after addressing them on the mystery of godliness, especially on the justification of the Messiah by the Holy Spirit, I had a very kind expression of thanks from him for my discourse, as well as from others present. This, by the way, is quite a common occurrence in this city. Many persons have been pleased, at my different meetings, to address me as though discharging a duty before we parted, in such words as these :

66

Sir, I may never see you again, and on bidding you farewell, I must thank you for the edification I have received

on the present occasion;" or, "from your labors in this city." And sometimes it is added, "I would wish to join a church that would carry out your principles; for, sir, I am weary of sectarianism."

Britain, are obliged to intercommunicate with our brethren. The metaphysics that have alienated them from each other and from us, are of the doubtful gender at best; and all must confess they are too ethereal for aliment to those who "dwell in houses of clay, and whose foundation is in the dust." A human being will as soon become ruddy, and of a plethoric

Dr. Cox was disabused of the unfavourable impressions made on his mind by some of our warm Baptist friends in his tour through Virginia, Kentucky, and Cincinnati. Our in-countenance by star-gazing, standing terview, indeed, was every way pleasant and agreeable, and we separated with mutual affection and

esteem.

on the peak of Teneriffe, or on the apex of mount Chimborazo, as by sipping at the purest fount of metaphysical theology ever opened in North or South Britain-on this side or on that of the Trent or of the Tweed. Christianity has its milk and its honey, its water and its wine, its marrow and its fatness; but it deals neither in gaseous nor ethereal entities or abstractions. But of the prospects of things amongst all the communities of this island, I will speak at a more convenient season.

In this city, as in other places, I have had a very favorable hearing from the Scotch Baptists. The prejudices occasioned by the unpropitious course of our late friend, Elder Wm. Jones, have very much died away amongst his friends. Indeed, his church in London gently died away under his too dogmatic and rather acrimonious administration. He had, like other men eminent in their day, his virtues and his frailties. He always, in private, expressed kind feelings towards me, and became more reconciled than he had once been. A note handed me from one of his most intimate friends, which I enclosed in a letter to your mother, still farther explains the causes of his rather eccentric course towards me. I hope it will arrive safely and be published. Of Elder Jones, as re-grow out of my discourse; and that spects his labors, I can only say they were eminently great, and I believe very useful. He was a second edition of Archibald M'Lean, neither enlarged nor improved. Of his frailties and his virtues I will only say, in the inimitable language of Gray

"No farther seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode; There they alike, in trembling hope repose, The bosom of his Father and his God."

The Scotch Baptists must certainly unite with our brethren in England and Scotland. They can show no good reason for their position, and they are reasonable men. They, and indeed all the Baptists of Great

On Friday evening, the 9th, I addressed the Sceptics, or Socialists, in their Hall of Debate, on the great question, Has God ever spoken to man? Having understood the character of this community by the representations of all parties in London, I stipulated on their invitation to address them, that, should they propound any question to me when I had finished, they should be such as would

to such only I would respond. We had, indeed, a crowded house. Without any understanding from me, they had announced in hand-bills a public discussion after my sermon. I finished a little before ten o'clock at night. I gave an opportunity to propose any question growing out of the premises. I sat down under the most deafening peals of clapping, as if in Drury Lane or Covent Garden Theatre.

One gentleman arose and observed that, for his part, he did not believe there was any God, and that I ought to have taken that for my subject before discussing the question, "Has

legitimately before me; I wished, however, to know whether I was expected to respond to every one that chose to occupy the attention of the assembly.

had said, but what I had not said; and, after the manner of a tangent, flew off into a low, vulgar, scurrilous tirade against "the atrocious character of the Bible, and the God of the Bible." I sat patiently enduring the most shocking blasphemy against the Book of God's grace and mercy, until about eleven o'clock, while amidst the plaudits and the hisses of the auditory, the orator still likely to become more and more grossly turgid in scoffs and derisions against the book of man's redemption, I took my hat and with a few friends departed.

On the next day I learned that near about minnight, after this ebullition ceased, a vote of thanks for my address was unanimously tendered to me by the members of the Literary Halland so the matter ended.

God ever spoken to man ?" He did not believe in miracles, nor that miracles could prove there was a God. It must be proved from reason-aye, from REASON! In a few minutes he exploded. Another more violent Immediately on sitting down, anospirit, simultaneously with myself, ther orator arose, and, with great vioarose as soon as he sat down, contend-lence of manner, assailed, not what I ing that he, too, must be heard, and that before I responded to the gentleman who had preceded him. Some gentleman sceptic had, by the Socialists, been appointed to the chair. During much boisterous and uproarious behaviour on the part of the assembly, very like that of Ephesus about the goddess Diana, I succeeded in holding to my erect position; and being limited in time, I only observed that I did not before know that this literary school had not yet decided whether there was a God; and that, having formed a better opinion of them, I had chosen a theme more honorable to them than that which the gentleman proposed. Again, I observed, that it would be impossible to prove to him that there was a God, as he had insinuated it could not be proved a priori, and had also plainly declared that miracles could not prove it to him. His case, then, was hope-presence of a larger assembly than less. When any one assumes that it was accustomed to address, to which the universe gives no proof of its meeting the public had been invited origin, that if it had an Author or a to witness the order of the house in Creator, he must be demonstrated their meetings for worship. After without his works; that design can- | Elder Black had received two of those not evince a designer, nor the uni- I had immersed during the week into verse design-such a one is clearly the church, I proceeded to address beyond the pale of reason, and not to the brethren on portions of the fourth be reasoned with. To originate the and fifth chapters of the 2nd Epistle idea of a Creator, is one thing; but to the Corinthians. Again, in the the idea being communicated to us, to afternoon, Brother Henshall · heard sustain and demonstrate it from the and answered questions on various things seen around us, is, by all sound subjects in the same house and in reasoners, regarded as fairly within the evening I delivered there my last the compass of human reason. But discourse in London, to a very attentive audience, on a part of the 11th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians. Some baptized persons of other denominations present, on parting with me said, that they would endeavour to form an acquaintance with

that not being the subject of our discourse, and the objections being, therefore, wholly irrelevant, my address not being at all assailed, I observed that I should not occupy the attention of the audience till something came

On Lord's day the 11th, the church met in the Alvetian Rooms, in the

PRESIDENT OF BETHANY COLLEGE.

our brethren in London; and that if | ADDRESS BY A. CAMPBELL, they liked them as well as what they heard from me, they would unite with them, and give the cause their entire support.

Is Moral Philosophy an Inductive Science ?—The desire of knowledge, and the power to acquire it, are, by a benevolent provision of the Great Author of Nature, jointly vouchsafed to man. The centripetal principle of self-preservation which pervades

I have yet much to say of London and of England, and something of Paris and France, under the various aspects which they exhibit to me; but I must reserve my remarks to another opportunity. Meantime, hav-every atom of the universe, the great ing returned to England in time for the last July steamer for Boston, I mail these communications from this city. Having visited Cambridge, I leave for Oxford to-day. Brother Henshall is well, and labors sometimes with me, and sometimes in other fields by himself. He sends his love to all who know him at Bethany. I derive much pleasure from his company. He never fails to interest his auditories, and is much esteemed by all who form his acquaintance.

The brethren held a tea-party in the church yesterday evening in anticipation of our leaving to-day, I did not enjoy much at the meeting. In the morning, when setting sail from Boulogne in France, to Folkestone in England, the distance being only 29 miles across the English channel, and the day being very beautiful and warm, I expected to be in London, some 100 miles distant, by three o'clock; but owing to the very great inequality of temperature in the air and water, immediately a very dense fog and withal a good breeze arose, and we sailed in the dark as to our course, and consequently failed to meet the train from Dover to London at the appointed time. I did not find the brethren till nine o'clock at night. We had, indeed, a short but a very pleasant interview; and commending each other to the Lord, we took the parting hand, never again expecting to meet on this side the Jordan. May the Lord preserve us all to his eternal kingdom!

Affectionately your father,
A. CAMPBELL.

globe itself, with every thing that lives and moves upon it, is not more universal than the desire to know, in every being that has the power to know. This is the soul of the soul of man-the active energizing principle, which stimulates into action his whole sensitive, perceptive, and reflective powers; and were it our duty to collect and classify the criteria by which to appreciate the intellectual capacity of an individual, we would give to his desire of knowledge an eminent rank among the evidences of his ability to acquire it.

To direct into proper channels, and to control within rational limits, the desire for knowledge, have always been paramount objects in every government, human and divine, which has legislated on the subject of education, or sought the rational happiness of man. Indeed, the Divine Father of our race, in the first constitution given to man, suspended his destiny on the proper direction and government of this desire. He was pleased to test the loyality of his children by imposing a restraint, not so much upon their animal appetites as upon their desire to know. The God of reason hereby intimates to all intelligences, that the power to control this master passion is the infallible index of man's power of self-government in every thing else. How wisely and how kindly, then, did he denominate the forbidden tree, "the tree of knowledge of good and evil!" And perhaps it is just at this point, and from this view of the subject, that we acquire our best conceptions

« PreviousContinue »