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ON THE GENERAL DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



remarkable events that were to take place in the 

 future ages of the world of the appearance of 

 Jesus Christ, of the promulgation of his gospel, 

 and the miraculous effects with which it was 

 accompanied. All which events, as explained 

 and illus rated in the Sacred History, form one 

 grand series of dispensations which is, in the 

 highest degree, illustrative of the Power, Wis 

 dom, Goodness and Rectitude of the Supreme 

 Being, and of which no other records can give 

 us any certain information. 



8. The beneficial effects which Christianity has 

 produced in the world constitute a most power 

 ful evidence of its divinity. One striking effect 

 it has produced, is, the superior light it has 

 thrown on the great objects of religion, and the 

 knowledge it has communicated respecting its 

 moral requisitions. Wherever it has been 

 received, it has completely banished the absurd 

 systems of polytheism and pagan idolatry, with 

 all the cruel and obscene rites with which they 

 were accompanied ; and in their place, has sub- 

 stituled a system of doctrine and practice, not 

 only pure and rational, but level to the compre 

 hension of the lowest class of society. A me 

 chanic or peasant, instructed in the leading 

 principles of Revelation, now entertains more 

 just and consistent notions of God, of his perfec 

 tions, his laws, and the plan of his universal 

 providence, than the most renowned philoso 

 phers of ancient times ever acquired. Chris 

 tianity has produced an influence even on the 

 progress of the arts and of rational science ; for 

 wherever it has been established, they have 

 uniformly followed in its train ; and the latest 

 discoveries in philosophy, so far from being 

 repugnant to its doctrines and facts, are in per 

 fect consistency with all its revelations, and 

 tend to illustrate many of its sublime annuncia 

 tions. With regard to practice it has intro 

 duced many virtues which were altogether 

 unknown in the heathen world. Instead of 

 sottish idolatry, lasciviousness, unnatural lusts, 

 pride, ostentation, and ambition, it has intro 

 duced, among all who submit to its authority, 

 rational piety, humility, moderation, self-denial, 

 charity, meekness, patience under affronts and 

 injuries, resignation to the will of God, brotherly 

 kindness, and active beneficence. In the first 

 ages of Christianity, such virtues were eminent 

 ly conspicuous.- See,&quot; said the heathen, how 

 these Christians love one another.&quot; Lactanti- 

 us, one of the early Apologists, was able to say, 

 in the face of his antagonists, &quot;Give me a man 

 who is wrathful, malicious, revengeful, and, with 

 a few words of God, I will make him calm as a 

 lamb ; give me one that is a covetous, niggard 

 ly miser, and I will give you him again liberal, 

 bountiful, and dealing out of his money hy hand- 

 fuls; give me one that is fearful of pain and death, 

 and immediately he shall despise racks and 



crosses, and the most dreadful punishments you 

 can invent.&quot; 



Its influence on communities and nations is 

 no less evident, in the changes it has introduced 

 in the circumstances of domestic life, and the 

 barbarous practices it has completely abolished. 

 When it made its way through the Roman em 

 pire, it abolished the unnatural practice of poly 

 gamy and concubinage, reduced the number of 

 divorces, and mitigated the rigour of servitude, 

 which, among the Romans, was cruel and severn 

 masters being often so inhuman as to remove 

 aged, sick or infirm slaves into an island in the 

 Tiber, where they suffered them to perish with 

 out pity or assistance. Polished and polite, as 

 the Romans have been generally considered, they 

 indulged in the most barbarous entertainments. 

 They delighted to behold men combating with 

 wild beasts and with one another ; and we are in 

 formed by respectable historians, that the fights 

 of gladiators sometimes deprived Europe of 

 twenty thousand lives in one month. Neither 

 the humanity of Titus, nor the wisdom and vir 

 tue of Trajan, could abolish these barbarous spec 

 tacles, till the gentle and humane spirit of the 

 gospel put a final period to such savage prac 

 tices, and they can never again be resumed in 

 any nation where its light is diffused, and its 

 authority acknowledged. It humanized the bar 

 barous hordes that overturned the Roman empire, 

 and softened their ferocious tempers, as soon as 

 they embraced its principles and yielded to its 

 influence. It civilized, and raised from moral 

 and intellectual degration, the wild Irish, and 

 our forefathers the ancient Britons, who were 

 classed among the rudest of barbarians till the 

 time when they were converted to the religion o( 

 Jesus ; so that the knowledge we now see diffused 

 around us, the civilization to which we have ad 

 vanced, the moral order which prevails, the 

 beauties which adorn our cultivated fields, the 

 comforts and decorations connected with our 

 cities and towns, and the present improved 

 state of the arts and sciences, may all be consi 

 dered as so many of the beneficial effects which 

 the Christian religion has produced among us. 



In our own times, we have beheld effects no less 

 powerful and astonishing, in the moral revolution 

 which Christianity has lately produced in Tahiti, 

 and the adjacent islands in the Southern ocean. 

 In this instance, we behold a people who, a few 

 years ago, .were among the most degraded of the 

 human race who were under the influence of the 

 most cruel superstitions and idolatries who ador 

 ed the most despicable idols who sacrificed on 

 their altars multitudes of human victims, and 

 were plunged into all the vices and debauche 

 ries, and vile abominations which can debase the 

 character of man we behold them now trans 

 formed into civilized and Christian societies 

 their minds enlightened in the knowledge of the 



