stition, and the grasp of power, whose minds are free to act, will not be idle in thought or in deed. Who shall direct the masses that are now, and soon are to become, thus free? Who should be the best friends of the poor, the ignorant, and the inquiring? If these multitudes should be promptly acted upon and led into error by designing and mistaken men, who should be the first to extend a hand to guide them into the true path? Who so properly, as those who have in their hands, and should have in their hearts and minds, that true philosophy which alone affords elements for the solution of all questions of human well-being?)

It is difficult to detect all the errors, fallacies, and temptations to wrong which have lain in the path of reformers, and on which some of the most beautiful and richly-laden vessels ever freighted with human interests have suffered wreck and destruction. These rocks cannot all be pointed out and laid down; but some of the more dangerous may be selected for special remark.

.248

NATURE, PROVIDENCE, AND HOLY WRIT.

God speaks to us none the less plainly and authoritatively in the volumes of Nature and Providence because he speaks to us also in a special revelation. We may not fully understand this teaching of Nature or Providence but with the aid of revelation; yet with this aid, we must not neglect to study and try to comprehend. God is the Creator and Governor of the world, as well as the Author of the Scriptures. His precepts and his administration must be consistent: we must therefore construe these volumes of Nature, and Providence, and Holy Writ, by the light they mutually reflect upon each other. He that is blind to Providence and deaf to the voice of Nature, can never adequately understand the instructions of revelation. It is a common sin of men to exalt themselves above God, and to pretend to a wisdom above his wisdom. Many reformers would stem the whole current of the Divine administration, and stop the course of Providence. They would instantaneously banish all evil from the world, and extirpate

all that is hurtful, dangerous, and offensive in the kingdom of nature and in the province of humanity. Upon their showing, these things should never have existed, and should now, without a moment's delay, be brought to an unconditional termination. They take no account of the origin of evil, nor of its permitted continuance by a Being who could bring the movements of the universe to an end, if he chose; but they would, without hesitation, under guidance of their own wisdom, change the whole order of Providence, and reverse the course of the Divine government.

(Even the Scriptures, taken alone, furnish the same blended picture of good and evil, all occurring under the same wise Ruler. Those, then, who would put an end to evil in any other way than that which is contemplated in the Divine teachings, are making themselves wiser than the Governor of the universe. The Deity has ever permitted the existence and the use of evil in his administration of the af fairs of men to how many is the way to

250 NEARLY ALL MEN HAVE BEEN SLAVES.

heaven through the furnace of afflictions! Who can recount the sufferings and the sorrows of the people of God? or who describe a tithe of the agony which men have endured in this world? By far the largest number of human beings who have had a place on the earth since the dawn of history, have been slaves-slaves in the usual acceptation of the word; slaves to despotic sway; slaves to military rule; slaves to priestly domination; slaves to the feudal system; slaves to capital, to competition, to the fear of starvation. The worst passions of men have long rioted in mutual injuries and in endless wars about the most unimportant things. Thrice as many men have fallen by the hands of their fellowmen as are now living on earth.

Against evils of such enormous magnitude, no other weapon has been provided by Christianity than those of charity-brotherly kindness. The Christian scheme is to renew and regenerate the man; to inspire him with new tastes, new feelings, new aims, higher aspira

tions, and, by making better men, to put an end to the crimes, excesses, bloodshed, and oppression which have so long reigned in the world. When the disciples of Christ would have invoked the fire of heaven upon his enemies, he rebuked them, and told them they little knew the spirit they were of; that is, they little knew they were instigated in this by the spirit of the prince of this world. We must, therefore, under his teaching, give up the spirit of revenge for wrong suffered, the spirit of violence, and the spirit of reproach, in accomplishing all reforms, and expect the Divine approval only when we proceed in the way of Divine appointment. We may not, if we have the power, destroy the oppressor, nor even overwhelm him with indignant reproach. We may not seize the combatants at the moment they are about to engage in deadly strife, and hold them in iron grasp while their veins swell with increasing rage; but we must change the oppressor into a benefactor, and the deadly combatants into brethren and