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gospel, if cordially embraced, will most certainly make men moral. It will influence them to abstain from all those things, from which the young man, who came to Christ, said he abstained. There can be no true religion without morality. To indulge knowingly and habitually in any overt-acts of wickedness is full evidence of an unsanctified beart. While the Christian feels, that what are called good works cannot, on the gospel plan, be too highly extolled, he regards them merely as evidences of justification, but not as the ground of it, neither in whole, nor in part.

fore the Lord, your Maker and Redeemer. Therefore, part with your gods-"go, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." Here, the Saviour acted the part of a skilful physician, who had a perfect knowledge of the malady under which the young man laboured. To his selfish heart this was a hard condition, though it was a plain and direct answer to his question, What lack I yet? The Saviour only introduced and inculcated the great doctrine of self-denial, and he, at once, spoiled all this young man's goodness and morality. The whole of his religion, when brought to this test, appeared to be a baseless fabric. He had made great efforts to obtain eternal life, and had been flattered with his success; but being under the entire influence of selfishness, he had, all this time, been rearing a splendid edifice on the sand. In what follows, we see his feelings fully disclosed.

We have not yet taken a view of all that passed between Christ and his young ruler. Our Lord now determined to bring his feelings to a higher test;-a test, which he knew would effectually mar all his religious comfort, and disclose his perilous condition. Therefore he plainly said, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have "But when the young man heard treasure in heaven; and come, and that saying, he went away sorrowfollow me." In these words, the ful: for he had great possessions." Saviour taught this amiable youth, He began this interesting confethis rigid moralist, more of the rence with exalted ideas of his spirituality and extent of the law, teacher, and with sanguine hopes of than he ever learnt before. Know- being commended by him, and proing perfectly his views and feelings, nounced fit for the kingdom of hea Christ was able to say just such ven; but ended it with sorrow. He things as he needed to hear. He heard the Saviour discourse on the probed his heart to the bottom. great subject of his inquiry, until his Before he was aware, he caused him selfish and proud heart could endure to look at his god, the supreme ob- no more. When the doctrines of ject of his heart. It was no other the cross were introduced, and punthan his riches. His wealth en- gently applied to his own case, be grossed his first and highest atten- wished to close the conference. tion, and, in fact, governed his feel- The sound of the gospel, in its true ings and conduct. So far had he spirit, was disagreeable to his teelbeen from keeping the law perfect-ings, as it is to the feelings of all unly, as he supposed, that he had not sanctified persons. He went away obeyed even the first commandment. sorrowful; and, we hear no more He had lived in the constant viola-of him. tion of it, because he had prized his earthly possessions above the eternal God.

The Saviour's address to him was of this import-Your heart has decidedly other gods be

I have now attempted, my fellowsinners to guide your meditations, on this interesting portion of God's word. It is interesting, because it exhibits and enforces most impor

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tant truths-truths, relating to the human heart, the blinding nature of sin, and the only way of salvation; truths, important to be understood, at all times, and in every part of the world, and among all classes and descriptions of people. Let the unhappy state of this young man, whose feelings and conversation, on the subject of religion the Saviour designed should be recorded, as a warning to all who should after

wards hear his gospel, be a seasonable warning to us. He was in a state of condemnation, and did not know it. And is it not a lamentable fact, that many of our promising youth, who are eager to witness, and forward to applaud, exhibitions of pulpit-eloquence, go away from hearing the plain truths of the gospel, sorrowful, but not convicted of sin, nor ready to follow the meek and lowly Saviour?

MISCELLANEOUS.

For the Christian Spectator.

THOUGHTS ON THE DISCUSSION OF
SLAVERY.

In order to exhibit to us the injured
rights of the Africans, their ad-
vocates not unfrequently detail,
with a most painful minuteness, the
cruelty of laws made to keep them
in subjection, the chains and lashes
imposed by the taskmaster, and
their degradation almost to the
rank of brutes. The slaveholder
feels that, by this exhibition of the
subject, he is greatly wronged; and
replies that, so far as it accords with
truth, it relates to regulations that
are absolutely necessary for the
government of the slave, and for
the safety and welfare of the mas-
ter; and, feeling that to dispense
with these regulations would be the
most direct measure for his own de-
struction, with a feverish sensibility
for his rights, be directly declares
that those who make these state-
ments have this for their object.
Now the cause of this difference of
feeling between us and the slave-
holder is this we take it for grant-
ed that he has no authority to in-
fringe the natural rights of his
slaves, and he takes it for granted
that he has, and that the slave is his
lawful property. Proceeding from
implied premises so diametrically
opposite, it is not strange that we
should arrive at such different con-

clusions. And we might expect he would be dissatisfied with us, when, passing over the natural rights of the slaves, with which he might allow that we are at least as well acquainted as himself, and seeming to grant him the right of holding them in some way, we presume to tell him how it shall be done; for with the subject he feels that experience has given him altogether the best acquaintance. Indeed, after all our passionate declamation, we shall in vain expect just laws for the regulation of that which is in itself unjust.-Now 1 conceive that here is presented a point where the slaveholder might be addressed without creating this sense of intentional injury, and where we might apply the axe effectually to the root of the evil. We should go back one step, and labour to make him entertain the same views and feelings in regard to the natural rights of the slave that we do. For this purpose let him be addressed on the principle of slavery, rather than on its effects and the particular laws for governing the slaves. Let the friends of Africa discuss this subject ably and fully at the south, in every way calculated to influence public opinion, so that if possible this may assume as decided a tone there in opposition to the principle of slavery as it does here. Let men go among the planters with the spirit and

power of Clarkson, and, becoming intimately acquainted with their feelings and prejudices, aim at the vulnerable point repeated strokes, which shall thoroughly convict them without exciting personal animosity or sectional jealousy.

I contend that such measures are greatly needed. We are apt, in deed, to think that the planter's views of the natural rights of man are as distinct as ours, and that he sins against as much light and is as criminal as we should be in pursuing the same course. But it is not so. He is indeed as strenuous as we in contending for his own rights as a member of a republican government. But does not this arise from feelings more analogous to those of a feudal lord or a highland chieftain, than to those of a man who acts thus because he is a member of the common family of man? Very few of the planters will, indeed, openly deny the natural rights of the negro. But the doctrine of his rights is, with them, too much like a theory which the common reason of man cannot exclude from the head, but which too rarely reaches the beart and produces correspondent feelings and actions.The natural right of man to his personal freedom is not, as we are apt to imagine, so self-evident as to be equally convincing to the judgments and consciences of all men. There is a change and a progress of opinion on this subject; as history may show. The Jews, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, the ancient Sax ons, and the modern nations of Europe, have all approved the principle of slavery, and never has public opinion denounced it, till the latter part of the last century and the beginning of this, when the new principles of the rights of man, on which our government is built, began to be more fully developed. In no country have these principles been so well understood, and so thoroughly felt as in New England. It was in maintenance of them that

it was first settled, and they have been handed down to the present time as the richest patrimony from father to son. The southern states were settled under different circumstances and by a different class of men; and their present inhabitants have inherited an entirely different class of feelings; feelings which may be correctly described by saying. that they are far behind the spirit of our age. For general sentiment in the northen states, the efforts in England to abolish slavery in the West Indies, and the actual abolition of it in South America, declare that public opinion is now assuming a tone and a language against slavery which none can fail to hear. I therefore repeat, it is a thing greatly needed, that effectual means should be taken to change public sentiment and feeling on this subject at the south.

This is the most direct course which we can take for the abolition of slavery.-Our efforts will thus be made to bear upon the right body of men. For the slaveholders have the whole business of abolition completely under their control. The northern states cannot lawfully proceed one step in legislating on this subject in Congress without the consent of the south; for the slaves are the personal property of their masters, as firmly guarantied to them by the laws as any other. Neither would it be expedient if they could. For the whole body of slave-holding states would make the most determined resistance to the first step towards an invasion of what they esteem their just rights: and the evils of a dismemberment would be but a straw in opposition to the torrent of their excitable and ardent feelings. Neither can the disapprobation of slavery, expressed in the strongest terms by public opinion in the northern states, have any favourable influence, so long as the feelings of the slaveholder remain the same that they now are. For while their judgements differ so

much from ours as in their apprehension to justify that conduct which we condemn, this condemnation of ours only exasperates them, and confirms their attachment to slavery, so that an increased disaffection ensues, which deprives us of our influence over them; while this influence ought rather, with great care, to be increased and treasured up as the last hope of the sons of Africa, and never used except when it can be done with the greatest possible advantage. We ought to remember that we do not sustain the same relation to the southern states that the English do to the West Indians, and that it does not, therefore, become us, nor is it expedient to adopt, the same language that comes with such fervour and propriety from the mouths of the benevolent in their Parliament and Af rican societies; for we shall thus defeat the object for which we labour. I cannot but repeat the idea, for I consider it fundamental in every thing that is done on this subject, that we should avoid every thing which will diminish our influence at the south, for this influence is to be the salvation of the slaves.-We come then irresistibly to the conclusion that the first step towards any effort in the northern states for the emancipation of the slaves, and one preparatory to every other, is to make the judgements and feelings of the planters, in regard to the principle of slavery, accord with our own so that they may proceed step by step with us.

Such a change of public opinion at the south is one of two causes which are the only ones that can possibly effect the abolition of slavery. --An intimate acquaintance with the internal influence of slavery, and the feeling, of the planters in regard to it, have often inclined me to declare that its only remedy must be found in its own natural results. That it must continue until it shall have come to a crisis, when the interest of the planter shall com

pel him to emancipate his slaves; either because he is personally in danger, or because his pecuniary interest is injured. The former of which is yet distant among the events of futurity, and even te latter, although apparently much nearer, the eye cannot yet clearly discern. I say the time is approaching when slaves will be unprofitable, and I ground my remark upon the fact, that such is the case already in some places at the south; that the British are obliged to impose heavy duties on the products of their free colonies to enable the West Indians to hold any competition with them in market; and the fact acknowledged even by the slave-holders themselves, that free labour is cheaper to the employer than that of slaves. Yet the time when the interest of the planter shall urge him on to the abolition of slavery is too distant to satisfy the wishes of benevolence, and can be hastened by none of its exertions.-I said that I have been inclined to regard interest as the only cause which could abolish slavery and I must confess that even now I can see but one other which can possibly accomplish this object. It is a change which shall cause slavery, even at the south, to be discountenanced by public opinion. I say that this is the only alternative, for the feeble efforts of .simple benevolence are not a cause adequate to the effect to be produced. The character of man must indeed be changed and the millennial day near at hand, before benevolence shall stretch forth an arm powerful enough to transplant a nation, a nation too, sufficiently numerous to employ all the shipping of the Union many years; and this too unaided by convictions of duty on the part of those who now hold them in bondage. If public opinion, however, which in a government like this is irresistible, could be changed as it ought to be, the work would be done at once; especially when aided, as it ulti

mately would be, by the persuasive arguments of interest. If the planters could thus be made to feel as they ought, they would no longer plead the necessity of their circumstances as an excuse for doing nothing. Their logic would be corrected, and instead of saying, "our circumstances will not allow us to emancipate our slaves immediately, and therefore we will do nothing towards it," they would say, " because circumstances will not allow us to emancipate our slaves immediately, we will take measures for accomplishing it as soon as possible."

I say then, in conclusion, that the object for which I have been arguing is one of great importance, and so long as there is a possibility of effecting it, it merits a vigorous and thorough trial. As one means of effecting it, let the papers of the Colonization Society assume a decided tone and lay open the injustice of slavery in all its length and breadth. By doing so it would do more good at the south, and obtain more decided friends at the north. Indeed, viewing the subject as I do, I cannot but believe that this Society ought to aim at effecting this change of public opinion as one of its principal objects. S. H.

LYRIC POETRY.

Concluded.

I has been well remarked that "sentimental feeling is the first requisite in lyric poetry," and it is to be regretted that a truth so obvious should have received so little attention from those who have been intrusted with the selection of hymns for the use of our churches. While the psalms, as versified by Dr. Watts, retain much of their original lyric character, bis hymns are many of them totally unfit for musical purposes. We should hence infer

a more frequent use of the former than of the latter, did not undeniable facts forbid such inference. The hymns in Watts, as well as in Dwight's collection, have in many places from the practice of the preacher, almost entirely supplanted the psalms, and the sublime productions of the inspired poet, have given place to those which possess few of the requisites for musical expression. If, then, these hymns are to constitute the almost exclusive "medium of public praise,” it is highly proper that they should be examined and their defects pointed out. Until this is done, we shall in vain look for reformation in sacred music. Such impressions have induced us in a very cursory manner, to point out some very obvious defects in the above named collec tions of hymns, leaving the task of minute criticism to those who are better qualified to perform it. In our former number, we endeavoured to expose the defects in a few insulated verses; and in pursuance of the same design, we proceed without any other regard to method, that first, pointing out some that are objectionable from the use of the pa renthesis.

Spirited narration may sometimes possess true lyric character, but any thing which should interrupt its thread, would, for very obvious reasons, be fatal to such result. The interjectional parenthe. sis in the following stanza is therefore objectionable:

"That awful word, that sovereign power. By whom the worlds were made, (O happy morn! illustrious hour!) Was once in flesh arrayed.”

Steele, Dut. Col. H. 20.

Here the narration is suspended in order to let in a poetic license of questionable character, and as we have no parentheses in music, the whole is confused. Narration requires a different movement from that of exclamation, and the suspension of the former together with the

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