dreadful among those whom they called barbarians; and it remains no less so among the savages of the present day, of which their cruelty to their women, their sanguinary and vindictive wars, the tortures they inflict on their prisoners, and their human sacrifices, are but too convincing proofs. In one of the most powerful kingdoms of Africa, where human sacrifices are sometimes offered, the object of their Princes' worship is a tiger;* a deity well suited to the worshippers, and a very fit emblem of the temper and disposition of Paganism. The whole countenance, indeed, of that religion is so strongly impressed with the features of that malignant being from whom it springs, that it is impossible to mistake its origin. It can have no other parent, than the parent of all evil, the prince of darkness. In the religion of Christ, on the other hand, we see a directly contrary spirit; a spirit of meekness, mercy, gentleness, humanity, and kindness, which has been for more than eighteen hundred years contending with the evils generated by Paganism, has actually banished some of them from the face of the earth, has greatly See MR. NORRIS'S Evidence on the Slave Trade, before the Privy Council, p. 5.. mitigated and softened others, is gradually undermining all the rest, and has already given so different a colour to the whole system of human affairs, has introduced so large a portion of benevolence and mutual good-will into the minds and manners of men, into all the various relations of social, civil, and domestic life, as plainly. shows the sacred source from whence it springs. Philosophy (both ancient and modern) is cruel, and could not be the author of such blessings as these. There could be but one author of them, -the God of all consolation and joy. So stands the comparison between philosophy and the Gospel. And if, after all the proofs above adduced, any one should still affect to think that the portraits here drawn of them are the mere fictions of imagination, there is one means of conviction still remaining, which at this very hour forces itself on our observations, which in speaking on this subject it is impossible to pass over unnoticed, and which it will not be easy for the most determined incredulity to withstand. Let the man who entertains these doubts (if such a one there can be) cast his eyes for a moment on each side of the narrow strait which separates two of the greatest and most powerful nations in Europe. In one of these, philosophy has usurped the throne of God; in the other Christianity has long established its empire. And it should seem as if (among other reasons) Providence had permitted the former to triumph in a kingdom so near our own, almost on purpose to contrast together, to show in the strongest possible light, and to force upon the very senses of mankind, the different spirit and the different effects of infidelity and religion. The scenes that have lately passed in one of these countries are well known. They are too horrible to relate, and too recent to be forgotten. The blessings experienced in the other are before our eyes, and I trust engraved on all our hearts. After contemplating both with due attention, let us then say, whether "the tree" (planted on each of these neighbouring shores) is not "known by its fruit,” Matt. xii. 33: whether the fruit of philosophy is not now, what it always has been, unrelenting cruelty; and the fruit of the Gospel, unbounded benevolence and universal love. Here, then, are the two great moral teachers and guides of life proposed to your choice; and as you approve the temper, and relish the actual effects, of the one, or of the other, decide between them. |