Indians saw that the Quakers were men of peace, and could not find it in their hearts to molest them, or to treat them otherwise than affectionately and kindly. Thus there was strength in the very weakness of the Pennsylvanians; and for more than seventy years, during which all the other provinces of North America were the theatre of the most heart-rending barbarity, Pennsylvania had not so much as a single armed man. In New England, too, the Indians always spared, when they knew them, the houses and persons of the Quakers, as also throughout the country those of the kindred brotherhood of the Moravians. The Society of Friends can, in the whole history of Indian warfare, notice the death of only three of their number; and two of these were men, who went to their labor with unloaded muskets to frighten the Indians, and the third was a woman who had fled to a fort for protection.* The experience of the Quakers during the Irish rebellion in 1798 was similar. That was a season of cold-blooded murder and outrage, exasperated by all the venom of religious bigotry. The Quakers shrunk not from danger; but put forth that loftiest of all courage, which consists in returning good for evil, blessing for cursing. And God preserved them; and, when strangers passed through the desolated streets, and beheld here and there a single house standing uninjured, they would point to it and say,"That doubtless is a Quaker's house." Only one fell, and he had assumed arms and regimentals. What a glorious commentary are facts like these upon the text of Solomon ; "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him"! Now do not the cases above enumerated and others of a similar character authorize the presumption, that God would in like manner favor all those, who, instead of trusting to implements of war and bloodshed, should trust in Providence and in the power of virtue and of love? Such instances of the success of a pacific policy would show, that war is not even the surest means of defence and safety from actually impending danger, and thus would drive the advocates of war from their last refuge-ground.

But it is time for us to draw our discussion to a close. We have spoken strongly on this subject; for we feel strongly.

* See Grimké's Dymond, pp. 94 – 96. † Ibid. pp. 96, 167, 168.

We have used the language of firm conviction; and have used it sincerely. Our faith in the divine origin of Christianity is not one whit stronger than our persuasion, that the precepts and example of Jesus forbid war of every kind.

Let us not, then, be too harshly censured for having spoken so freely of that war for our country's liberty, which we have been educated to regard as a holy war. We venerate the characters of many who were engaged in it, and doubt not, that they were urged by a high sense of duty, and a spirit of self-sacrifice worthy of the noblest enterprise. We revere the character of Washington as we revere that of hardly any human being; nor have we a doubt, that, were he now living, he would be one in mind with ourselves on the subject of war. He was a friend of peace; and of all great military chieftains whose history we have read, he is the only one, in whom the virtues of peace were not tarnished by the smoke of the battle-field. But, while we honor those whom our country honors, we must look for principles to a greater than they; and, if in our opinion they saw but part of the counsel of God, if to our ear the voice of Jesus forbids every act of violence and bloodshed, how can we, against his word, put in an exception in favor even of the wars of our own people?

We are aware that the doctrine of the unlawfulness of war will appear to many of our readers strange, to some displeasing. But equally strange and displeasing would the doctrine, that man has no right to enslave his fellow-man, have appeared in New England seventy years ago. Equally strange and displeasing has the doctrine, that the traffic in ardent spirits is an unchristian business, appeared within the remembrance of most of our readers. And we have no doubt, that, fifty years hence, the unlawfulness of war will be deemed, as we now deem the unlawfulness of slavery, too obvious to need proof.

We dismiss the subject by commending it to the devout inquiries and earnest efforts of Christians. If swords are to be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks, it must be by Christian hands. The worst aspects of war are those which it bears in the light of the Gospel. The cause of peace puts forth its strongest claims in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a cause, in which Christian ministers are bound to be peculiarly active in enlightening and guiding public opinion. They cannot, indeed, put an end to war.

But they can produce a state of things, in which all Christians shall be the firm friends of peace, - in which the advocates of war will be obliged first of all to throw aside the New Testament, in which the banner of the cross shall never again wave over the field of carnage. It is our heart's desire and prayer, that the principles of non-resistance, and universal forgiveness and love, may ere long be so inseparably connected with the Gospel, that every follower of the Lord Jesus shall say, as did the martyr of early times, "I am a Christain and therefore cannot fight." Then will Christianity gain speedy and universal ascendency; and the peace and good will, reigning in a regenerated world, will render glory to God in the highest.

F.M. P. Specun or ol

ART. VII. Discourses on Various Subjects. By the Rev. ORVILLE DEWEY. New York. David Felt & Co. 1835. 12mo. pp. 299.

IN noticing these Discourses, we would wish to keep out of view, as far as possible, that their author is one of ourselves; that he is our personal friend; that his religious opinions are in the main our own; that he has been one of the most regular and valuable contributors to the pages of this work; that this very number opens with one of his articles, the first which he has given us since his return from abroad; - these things, we say, we would fain keep out of sight, in noticing these Discourses, because we desire to consider them on the ground of their own separate merit, as specimens of the religious literature of the day, or rather as evidences of what may be done by the pulpit for the public mind and for individual souls. If we had never before heard of their author, we are quite sure, that we should have pronounced them remarkable performances. If we had been ignorant of the religious denomination to which he is considered to belong, we are certain that we should have hailed his works as powerful aids to the Christian cause universal; that we should have said, Here is a preacher who understands the object of preaching, and can effect that object; here is a man who can speak to the human heart, and make it listen; who can address the human soul,

and move it to the best and highest purposes, those purposes which are alone consistent with its own wants and its own spiritual nature.

The distinguishing peculiarity of these discourses, is, in fact, that they aim to persuade and convince men, with an earnestness and power from which there is no escaping, of their spiritual and immortal nature, of the exceeding and eternal worth of that nature, of the primary obligation to value and cultivate it, of the inexpressible sin of neglecting, abusing, perverting it. The title-page announces Discourses on various subjects, — and they are various in the common sense of the word, but still they are only different points of view from which the attention is directed to one central prospect. Whatever be the name of the discourse, its great end and aim is to bring men to acknowledge, — not coldly and theoretically, but earnestly and abidingly, that they are responsible creatures, immortal creatures, living under the eye and government of an infinite God, and having far higher trusts and interests than any which belong to this world alone. Whether the discourse be "on Human Nature," or on "the Appeal of Religion to Human Nature," or "on Religious Sensibility," or "Religious Indifference," the purpose of the preacher is always to show that religion is man's proper element, real happiness, true nobility. And he pursues this purpose with an earnestness of tone, a copiousness of illustration, a force of reasoning, and a constant directness of application, which absolutely insist on a hearing, and which rivet the attention of the soul to the one spiritual object. Notwithstanding, therefore, that this volume consists of separate discourses on various subjects, there is an almost epic unity, which connects one with another, and binds the whole together. It is rare to meet with a collection of sermons, from which the impression derived is of so single a character.

Although we are aware that extracts from a book often lose their effect as specimens, by being taken away from their proper place and connexion, yet we will venture to give a few from these discourses, because we are satisfied that they will create a desire in those who read them to read the whole volume; and we wish that the volume may be read by as many as possible. If it be read, we can have little doubt with respect to its influence.

We will quote from the first discourse, a part of the wri

ter's defence of human nature against a cold and sneering philosophy, against the proverbial calumnies of a certain set of sages, whose selfish sarcasm too often passes for wisdom.

"But in the third place; where, let us ask, has this man studied human nature? Lord Chesterfield observes, and the observation is worthy of a man who never seems to have looked beneath the surface of any thing, that the Court and the Camp are the places, in which a knowledge of mankind is to be gained. And we may remark, that it is from two fields not altogether dissimilar, that our skeptic about virtue always gains his knowledge of mankind: I mean, from fashion and business; the two most artificial spheres of active life. Our objector has witnessed heartless civilities, and imagines that he is acquainted with the deep fountains of human nature. Or, he has been out into the paths of business, and seen men girt up for competition, and acting in that artificial state of things which trade produces; and he imagines that he has witnessed the free and unsophisticated workings of the human heart; he supposes that the laws of trade are also the laws of human affection. He thinks himself deeply read in the book of the human heart, that unfathomable mystery, because he is acquainted with notes and bonds, with cards and compliments. "How completely, then, is this man disqualified from judging of human nature! There is a power, which few possess, which none have attained in perfection; a power to unlock the retired, the deeper, and nobler sensibilities of men's minds, to draw out the hoarded and hidden virtues of the soul, to open the fountains which custom and ceremony and reserve have sealed up: it is a I repeat, which few power, possess, how evidently does our objector possess it not, and yet, without some portion of which, no man should think himself qualified to study human nature. know but little of each other, after all; but little know how many good and tender affections are suppressed and kept out of sight, by diffidence, by delicacy, by the fear of appearing awkward or ostentatious, by habits of life, by education, by sensitiveness, and even by strong sensibility, that sometimes puts on a hard and rough exterior for its own check or protection. And the power that penetrates all these barriers, must be an extraordinary one. There must belong to it charity, and kindness, and forbearance, and sagacity, and fidelity to the trust which the opening heart reposes in it. But how peculiarly, I repeat, how totally devoid of this power of opening and unfolding the real character of his fellows, must be the scoffer at human nature!

Men

"I have said that this man gathers his conclusions from the most formal and artificial aspects of the world. He never could have drawn them from the holy retreats of domestic life,

to say noth