EFFECTS OF BENEVOLENCE. 



and the society ofhis dearest friends. No longer 

 should we see a hard-hearted creditor doom a 

 poor unfortunate man, for the sake of a few 

 shillings or pounds, to rot in a jail, while his fa 

 mily, deprived of his industry, were pining away 

 in wretchedness and want. No longer should 

 we hear the harsh creaking of iron doors, pon 

 derous bolts, and the clanking of the chains of 

 criminals ; nor the sighs and groans of the poor 

 slave, fainting under the iash, and the reproaches 

 of a cruel master. The bands of the oppressed 

 would be loosed, the captives would be set at 

 liberty, the iron fetters would be burst asunder, 

 and a universal jubilee proclaimed throughout 

 every land. The haunts of riot and debauchery 

 would be forsaken, and their inmates hissed from 

 the abodes of men. The victims of seduction 

 would no longer crowd our streets at the dead 

 hour of night, to entice the &quot; simple ones&quot; into 

 the paths of vice and destruction ; but purity, 

 righteousness, and peace would &quot; run down our 

 streets like a river,&quot; distributing safety, happi 

 ness, and repose. 



The tongue of the slanderer and the whisper 

 ings of the backbiter would no longer be heard in 

 their malicious attempts to sow the seeds of 

 discord and contention among brethren. False 

 hood in all its ramifications, with the numerous 

 train of evils it now produces, would be banished 

 from the intercourses of society ; nor would 

 treachery prove the ruin of families and societies, 

 and interrupt the harmony of the commercial 

 and the moral world. No longer should we hear 

 of the embezzling of property by unfaithful ser 

 vants, nor the blasted hopes, the cruel disap 

 pointments, and the ruin of credit and of reputa 

 tion now produced by the votaries of falsehood. 

 &quot;The lips of truth would be established for ever,&quot; 

 and the liar and deceiver would be hissed to the 

 shades of hell. Our property would remain 

 sacred and secure from the thief and the mid 

 night robber, and our persons from the attacks of 

 the murderer and the assassin. We should no 

 longer hesitate to prosecute our journeys by day 

 or by night for fear of the foot-pad or the high 

 wayman, but should recognize every passenger 

 as a friend and protector. Plunder and devasta 

 tion would cease from the earth; &quot;violence 

 would no more be heard in our land ; nor wast 

 ing nor destruction in all our borders.&quot; Exe 

 crations and malicious insults would never 

 harrow up the feelings of our fellow-men, nor 

 would a single instance of revenge be heard of 

 among all the inhabitants of the earth. 



Pride, which now stalks about with stately 

 steps and lofty looks, surveying surrounding in 

 telligences with feelings of contempt, would be 

 for ever banished from the world. Ambition 

 would no longer wade through slaughter to a 

 throne, nor trample on the rights of an injured 

 people. Wars would cease to the ends of the 

 earth, and the instruments of human destruction 



would be beaten into ploughshares and pruning, 

 hooks. That scourge which has drenched the 

 earth with human gore which has convulsed 

 every nation under heaven which has produced 

 tenfold more misery than all the destructive ele 

 ments of nature, and which has swept from 

 existence so many millions of mankind would 

 be regarded as the eternal disgrace of the human 

 character, and the most shocking display of de 

 pravity in the annals of our race. No longer 

 should we hear &quot; the sound of the trumpet and 

 the alarm of war,&quot; the confused noise of &quot; the 

 horseman and the bowman,&quot; and of the mighty 

 armies encamping around &quot; the city of the inno 

 cent,&quot; to hurl against its walls the instruments 

 of destruction. No longer should we behold the 

 fires blazing on the mountain tops, to spread the 

 alarm of invading armies : nor the city, which 

 was once full of inhabitants, &quot; sitting solitary,&quot; 

 without a voice being heard within its dwellings 

 but the sighs of the disconsolate and the groans 

 of the dying. Human wolves thirsting for the 

 blood of nations, would cease to prowl among 

 men. Nation would not lift up sword against 

 nation, neither would they learn war any more. 

 The instruments of cruelly, the stake, the rack, 

 the knout, and the lash, would no longer lacerate 

 and torture the wretched culprit; cannons, and 

 guns, and swords, and darts would be forged no 

 more ; but the influence of reason and affection 

 would preserve order and harmony throughout 

 every department of society. The traveller, 

 when landing on distant shores, and on the is 

 lands of the ocean, would no longer be assailed 

 with stones, spears, arrows, and other instru 

 ments of death, and be obliged to flee from the 

 haunts of his own species, to take refuge in the 

 lion s den, or on the bosom of the deep ; but 

 would be welcomed as a friend and a messenger 

 of peace. The animosities which now prevail 

 among religious bodies would cease ; the nick 

 names by which the different sects of religionists 

 have been distinguished, would be erased from 

 the vocabulary of every language ; Christians 

 would feel ashamed of those jealousies and evil 

 surmisings which they have so long manifested 

 towards each other, and an affectionate and har 

 monious intercourse would be established among 

 all the churches of the saints. 



These, and a thousand other evils, which now 

 render this world a vast wilderness of perturba 

 tion, wretchedness, and sorrow, would be com 

 pletely eradicated, were the principle of holy love 

 in incessant operation ; and in their place a 

 scene of loveliness and moral beauty would burst 

 upon the view, which would diffuse joy and 

 ecstatic delight through every bosom. 



Every family would become a mansion rf 

 peace and love a temple consecrated to the 

 God of heaven, from which the incense of prayer, 

 and praise, and pious aspirations, would daily 

 ascend in sweet memorial to the throne above. 



