few. It corrupts the moral taste, the Protestant, whatever his designaand hardens the heart-cherishes and tion-all these, too, have shown by strengthens the base and violent pas- their acts, that this very principle sions destroys the distinguishing held dominion over them. Nor is it features of Christian charity, its uni- confined to the natural religious feelversality and its love of enemies-ings of man. Examine the history of turns into mockery and contempt the all systems, purely social and politibest virtue of Christians, humility-cal, and it will be seen that men, weakens the sense of moral obligation -banishes the spirit of improvement, usefulness, and benevolence, and inculcates the horrible maxim that murder and robbery are matters of state expediency." Let every one, then, who fears God and loves man, put his hand to the work, and the time is not far distant, whether they be the disciples of Communism, as taught by the dreaming Fourier, the earnest-hearted and quixotic Robert Owen, or the asinine and unprincipled Louis Blanc—whether they be St. Simonians, or even benighted and unintellectual atheists all, whoever they be, have been intensely animated by the principle of proselytism. This principle, therefore, has an existence. THE DESIGN OF THIS PRINCIPLE. The Diving Being, when he made man's soul, foresaw its liability to strange and fearful wanderings from the prescribed path. He saw that THE QUESTIONS OF THE before the cycle of human existence PRESENT AGE, CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION TO NO. III. THE STATE CHURCH. was completed, there would be unnumbered millions of souls passing through the world; and that if the whole, or any portion of these, were to be preserved in purity, the knowledge of His existence, nature, and attributes, must be transmitted from one generation to another. He, therefore, implanted in the first man Adam, a faculty, or rather a desire adapted to his future destiny-He created in the soul of man a proselyting faculty, which faculty itself is composed, as we have before stated, of social affection and natural communicativeness, the former principle being the motive, and the latter the means — the two principles combined effecting one result, conversion to certain articles of faith, good, bad, or indifferent, as their nature may be. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS PRINCIPLE, INDEPENDENT OF RELIGIOUS FAITH. Man being destined for a social state, the Divinity implanted in his nature social affections, which prompt him, when in a healthy state of mind, 66 to seek for companionship in his | implant the same faith in the minds thoughts and feelings-to seek the of his two sisters, and succeeded. fellowship of kindred souls. That Shortly afterwards he and his sisters man has naturally strong social affec- were seized by the Inquisition: the tions when in a healthy state of mind, priest was condemned to immediate is evident from the fact that the first death, but his sisters were offered indications of insanity are a morbid their lives on condition of recantalove of solitude, and a general dislike tion. "No," said they, we will to the presence of human beings. not deny our faith, for our brother This is true with regard to his affec- was too good to deceive us, and too tions, considered as existing in the wise to be mistaken :" so they died. heart, without any reference to the Social affection here worked out its operations of the mind. especial purpose. God himself has recognized the existence of the mental habit we have mentioned, inasmuch as our Elder Brother is too good to deceive us, for he was perfect-sinless without guile he is too wise to be mistaken, for he is the Incarnate Word, the Fountain of all Truth, the Creator of the Human Soul. We can see this elementary principle of proselytism working in man's mental operations, though we are generally unconscious of it, as influencing our own judgment. Man, with regard to the opinions he holds independently of any higher faith, strives for converts to those opinions, because each convert is, in his eyes, an additional guarantee for the correctness and reasonableness of those opinions. We have often seen this principle working in the minds of Atheists, who, when hard pressed for arguments, have adduced as evidence | of the truth of their convictions, the so-called conviction of Voltaire-and very dishonestly, too, for Voltaire was not an Atheist, though he hated priestcraft. We have often heard these same men attempt to prove that Christianity is a system fraught with evils, the evidence they adduced being the immoral conduct of some of its votaries. Now, though this be a very ridiculous method of proof, these Atheists were only unconsciously exercising a mental habit which God had implanted in them for wise and future purposes. The social affections and reason were to work in unison, the one influencing the other. We remember reading an affecting instance of the moral and intellectual character of an individual being regarded as the guarantee for the truth of his doctrine. A Spanish priest had embraced the Reformed doctrines, and, impelled by the inward working of the proselyting principle, sought to The second element which composes the proselyting principle is communicativeness. In the heart of every sane mind, there dwells a desire of communicating its thoughts and feelings, especially if they be joyous - sorrow and gloom being causes of silence and retirement. It is an attribute of man that he desires to communicate to his fellow-man his thoughts rather than his feelings. It is natural, for the foresight of his nature warns him not to disclose to others the channel in which glides the full stream of feeling; for those to whom he has disclosed this great secret, may become either his opponents or his enemies. Hence it is only to those in whom he especially trusts, but more especially to woman, either as his wife or the chosen of his heart, that he reveals the inner springs of action—the impulsive feeling, which is alike the source of weakness and majestic strength-that she may reciprocate that confidencethat in her he may behold his own soul reflected, as in a crystal mirror : there has been given by God to woman an earnest desire to reveal her feelings rather than her thoughts, so that they two may become one soul. It is true that there are some who, like Delilah, make use of that trust only to betray and destroy; but they are very rare, and do not check that general confidence in woman's truth, for love (one of whose beautiful attributes is to think no evil) whispers that this is not the parasite which destroys, but rather the vine which will adorn the tree that gives it shelter and a portion of its own strength. But there is another reason for woman possessing a larger portion of communicativeness: it is that to her is committed the care, the instruction of the young soul. When the world received from the uttered word of God the command to begin its untiring course, the stars sang together the spheres in their motion became one grand choir, from which proceeded the hymn of nature, and to the Eternal Throne there arose "The deep music of the rolling world, Kindling within the strings of waved air Eolian modulations." And from the Sons of God-the Archangel, the Cherubim, the Seraphim— "The glad cry sounded, swelling to His praise, If such be the joyons chorus over the birth of a fair young world, shall there be joy over the birth of a young soul? Will not rather the angelic voices be hushed? Will not their radiant wings be folded, as they watch in solemn suspense its entrance into the world? It may be higher and holier than they-it may gaze with steadfast eye on Him whom they only know by their power and love, and whose presence is alone declared to them by that voice of still and awful sweetness-it may, in its holy and happy course, show them another evidence of divine wisdom, causing their harp-strings to wake again or it may be a lost, a condemned soul ! and therefore are their voices hushed, and their harps silent, as they watch its entrance through the gates of life That young soul is purer and more transparent than the marble of Pentelicus; and yet, like that marble, the hand of the sculptor must give it a form. As the sculptor to the marble, is the mother to her infant's soul: she may chisel it till it be like the Sun-God, radiant in beauty: she may render it as robust and colossal as the fabled Hercules, or brutish and lascivious as a Satyr; and therefore has she been gifted with a deeper love of the pure and beautiful-for she, unlike the sculptor, carves for eternity, and not for time: her statue will be immortal. And this principle of communicativeness works with a constant power in every human heart, particularly if any glad-tidings are to be told. Does not every man know that his first impulse is to communicate to some friend or relation anything which affects him with peculiar pleasure? Every man's personal experience answers that it is so. It was the voice of nature which spoke when the Apostles Peter and John answered the threats of the Jewish rulers in these words"We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." No, nor can any other Christian ! We have now shown the nature, design, and manifestation of the proselyting principle - we have shown the united characteristics and effects of the component elements of proselytism, social affection and natural communicativeness. We shall now show their application in the propagation of Christianity. Christianity gave to man every thing which the nobler faculties of his soul desired. The Roman or Grecian might be so filled with pure and noble feelings, as to love Nature for her own sake; but even then he was consumed by doubt and anxiety—he felt that he was perhaps wasting the joys of life in abstaining from sensual pleasures, and he became filled either with pride as he contemplated his own moral superiority, or else with moody discontent at the limited portion of his spiritual knowledge. But Christianity giving assurance of eternal life, would not the Roman father who beheld his sons (in whom, perhaps, were seeds of great and noble virtues) rushing into vice from sheer recklessness and indifference, obeying every wild impulse and wayward desire—would not this man, when converted to the faith, proclaim to those sons the "glad tidings" of an eternal pleasure that would never cloy ?-of an Eden of such ecstatic bliss, that every revolving age would but give the soul an enlarged capacity of enjoyment? Would not every motive of which man is susceptible impel him to proclaim the same heart-gladdening truths to his own children? Would not the Christian wife strive to convert her heathen husband to the same faith, in order that he, whom she regarded as the greatest treasure the wide earth contained, might dwell with her in a home where, divested of all earthly passion, the purer, the divine part of love would alone survive? Would she not be an eloquent and indefatigable preacher of the gospel? Where is the heart that would not do likewise? The Roman Polytheism taught that the infant which died before its young mind had blossomed, was destined for hell. Would not the heart of a bereaved mother thrill with anguish, that her babe was doomed to such a fearful fate? But when she believed that Teacher who said, "Of such are the kingdom of heaven"-how her heart would overflow with joy! Would not the common sympathies of our nature cause her to communicate to others the principles of that faith which says, that when the harvest of the earth is ripe, the sheaf of kindred hearts shall be bound up again ?-or when the poor slave whose life was one continuance of toil, and misery, and degradation, heard that in Christ ALL were free, that his soul was as precious as his master's, that he, if he denied all ungodliness and worldly lusts, should yet wear an eternal crown-would not he communicate to his fellow-sufferers the glad-tidings that their souls were free-that there was a just God, who regarded 'no man's pecuniary or political privileges, who alone regarded the pure heart, the consecrated mind ?—would not this ever be the subject of his discourse? Such were the applications and working of the proselyting principle in those days. And the same faculties are in existence in the human soul now. Christianity was, and is, in harmony with human nature. We have shown that it depended for propagation on a faculty which exists in the human mind, independently of any leave asked from, or given by, "King, Lords, and Commons" we have shown that every principle of our nature prompts us to communicate the Christian truths to those whom we love - we have shown that an unvarying and ever-working impulse, causes man to communicate the Christian truths to those who are only bound to him by the common tie of humanity; and when we have shown the means and method of the instruction and government of the Christian church in its congregational capacity, the evidence that Christianity depends not for any part of its success on Acts of Parlia| ment—this evidence will be full and complete. J. G. L. (To be continued.) OPINIONISM. THERE is a growing taste for opinionism in the ranks of reformation. This has ever been the harbinger of schism, the forerunner of all discord, vain jangling, and bad feeling amongst all classes of religionists. It has, indeed, ever been the plague of Christendom. I have therefore resolved to be clearly and fully understood on this subject; and shall be at pains to define this new name of an ancient pest, with all perspicuity and precision. And first let me ask, What is an opinion? Persuasion without proof," say some of our lexicographers. It is a speculation built on probable evidence. It is neither knowledge nor faith; but, in the absence of these, it is an inference, a conclusion to which the mind inclines or assents according to its information and modes of reasoning. As vision puts an end to faith, and fruition to hope, so knowledge and belief put an end to opinion. Knowledge is our experience; faith, our assurance of the experience of others; and opinion, our persuasion of the probability of a matter which we neither know nor believe. In one sentence, then, knowledge is the certainty of our own experience; faith, the certainty of the experience of other persons; opinion, the probability of our own reasonings. I know that honey is sweet; I believe that William IV. is dead; and I am of opinion that the North American Indians are of Abraham's extraction. But we do not admit the right: for if this be a Christian right, it is an equal and an inalienable right. Now if the liberty of propagating one's own opinions be the right of a Christian, then every man, woman, and child in Christ's church has a right to propagate his or her opinions, and to complain if that right be not respected by all the Christian community. And as there is no restriction as to the number or magnitude of subjects on which opinions may be formed, there can be no limitation of the number of opinions that may be offered for adoption or propagation; and thus the whole earthly pilgrimage of the church may be occupied in the discussion of such opinions. Again, if such be the right of all, it is the duty of all to listen and judge; for all Christian rights oblige to corresponding duties. If only one person in a church has a right to propagate his opinions, it is the duty of all the rest to listen to him; for that the very nature of the right implies. But if all have the right in question, then all are obliged in turn to propagate his own opinion on any one or all of the ten thousand topics on which a person may form an opinion: for be it observed, the dominions of opinion are larger than the dominions of knowledge and faith united. An opinionist is one fond of opinions, but especially of his own. Opinionism, then, it may be presumed, is fondness for opinions. But that I may meet the exigency of the crisis and give a proper latitude to this term, I hereby define opinionism to be, the liberty of propagating one's own opin-right. It is not the right of any one ions. Some of our correspondents suppose opinionism, as thus defined, to be an element, an essential part of Christian liberty; and if any restrictions should be imposed upon their benevolent efforts to propagate whatever comes into their heads, they instantly complain of an infringement of their rights. It is not long since we have been blamed by some for not opening our pages to the propagation of certain opinions, and thereby have incurred the censure of not paying a proper regard to the rights of others. We are therefore rationally and religiously compelled to deny any such citizen of Christ's kingdom to propagate any opinion whatever, either in the public assembly or in private; consequently it is not the duty of all, nor of any one, to listen to an opinionist in his efforts to dogmatize or establish his opinions. This is an important point, and we state it confidently and boldly. Opinions in religion can have no authority. Precepts, promises, and threatenings, sanctioned by Omnipotence, are the weapons of the Holy Spirit. Men may form opinions and walk by them on all subjects of mere |