Page images
PDF
EPUB

well as the power and authority of the few who are appointed to rule and govern. The interest we feel in preserving those principles from outrage, either from popular fury or tyrannical power, stands so high in our estimation, that we place it at the head of the list in our catalogue of moral virtues; and the man who lays down his life for the inviolability of these public principles, is designated, and very properly too, a martyr to his country's welfare, and a friend to all mankind. In conformity, therefore, with these opinions and sentiments, how ardently ought we to venerate the Scriptures, which contain, not merely principles for the social welfare of this particular nation or of that, but the chartered liberties of the whole human race! But such is the inconsistency and waywardness of the human Inind, that it is no uncommon thing to see persons of talents and influence labouring most disinterestedly to obtain or preserve the benefits of general liberty, and who are really desirous of improving the condition of all around them; yet at the very same time, and in the very same breath, ridicule and contemn the sanctuary of divine truth and justice, and trample under foot those sacred maxims of equity, and rules of moral obligation, without which, the civil liberties they are contending for,

[blocks in formation]

and the schemes of social amelioration in which they are embarked, can only prove delusive and empty phantoms!

We have hitherto looked at what may be termed only one of the features of Christian morality, that of its political or judicial influence. We have dwelt upon this view of the subject rather fully, for this reason, that the benefits we derive from the Scriptures, as members of a civil community or state, have been too much of late thrown into the back ground, both by political and moral writers. But it ought to be borne in mind by the reader, that the happy influence of the Bible upon the private character of individuals, ought also to form a very important element in our estimation of the value and excellencies of Christian ethics. To dwell, however, upon this division of the subject, would be altogether unnecessary here, as there are so many valuable works, particularly in our own country, which have descanted at considerable length, and with great force and eloquence, upon the beneficial influence of Christianity upon the life and conduct of its professors.

I do, therefore, with all due submission, earnestly recommend a careful and diligent perusal and study of the Scriptures to every general reader, as well

as to the student of moral philosophy. Independent of the peculiar doctrines taught therein-doctrines which will always be considered of vast and paramount importance to every human being; we will find a great benefit, even in an intellectual point of view, from consulting the records of divine truth, with a proper feeling, and a candid attention to their merits. I am fully convinced that there is a much closer connexion between mental superiority, and a belief in the Scriptures, than is commonly imagined. Sceptical modes of thinking have a direct and natural tendency to beget a captious, quibbling, sophistical habit; to create and foster literary arrogance and conceit; to destroy whatever is candid and ingenuous in controversial warfare; to make the mind diminutive, rickety, and distorted; to induce men to set a higher value on crotchety sophisms than on the inspirations of real wisdom and science; to make them more eager to puzzle and bewilder than to convince and instruct; to lead them to view questions of great and acknowledged interest to the species with coldness, apathy, and distrust; to throw a gloom and cloudiness over the whole mind; to cause men to take delight in picking holes in the garment of knowledge, instead of endeavouring to multiply its shel

tering folds over their race; to mistake verbal wranglings, and snarlish disputations, as certain indications of real talent and genius; to make men slaves to ambitious singularities and mental eccentricities; and, in one word, the general and most valuable of our mental principles become paralyzed and enfeebled, by a constant habit of frivolous doubting, and minute fastidiousness as to the degree of evidence required to produce firm and rational conviction on subjects of vital importance. On the other hand, where the Scriptures are embraced with that sincerity, heartiness, and singleness of mind, to which their manifest importance so justly entitles them, we will perceive a comprehensiveness, a vigour, and elasticity given to our minds, which cannot fail to place us on the vantage ground, whatever branch of knowledge we may choose to cultivate, or to excel in. The mind, no longer gropping its way through the hazy and murky atmosphere of doubt and uncertainty, advances with a firm and confident step, under the bright and irradiating influence of the sun of truth. By the contemplation of whatever is grand and sublime in doctrine, and pure and simple in precept, our minds are naturally led, by our established constitution, to spread themselves into a wider compass; to improve their vari

ous powers or faculties, by giving them an enlarged sphere of action; to dwell upon what is great, noble, and excellent; to pursue our course with freedom and boldness, unencumbered with babbling sophistries, and cheered with the consolatory reflection, that we are engaged in promoting whatever is esteemed among mankind fair, honourable, and praiseworthy.

THE END.

« PreviousContinue »