EFFECTS OF BENEVOLENCE. 



C3 



rearing its spacious dome above all the surround 

 ing habitations of men. Its gates &quot; would be 

 open continually ; .hey would not be shut day nor 

 night,&quot; that men might have access at all sea 

 sons to bring &quot; incense and a pure offering&quot; to 

 the shrine of Jehovah. The whole earth would 

 soon be converted into one universal temple, sa 

 cred to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 

 Christ, from which, thanksgiving, and the voice 

 of melody, and the holy aspirations of gratitude 

 and love, would ascend to heaven without inter 

 mission, and in every direction, from the regions 

 of the nortK to the regions of the south, and 

 &quot; from the rising of the sun to the going down 

 of the same.&quot; Solemn seasons would be ap 

 pointed, and spacious plains consecrated for the 

 assembling of ten thousands of &quot; the sons of 

 God.&quot; not for carnage and devastation, as when 

 the warrior &quot; mustereth the armies to the battle,&quot; 

 but &quot; to rehearse the mighty acts of the Lord,&quot; 

 to exchange sentiments and feelings of affec 

 tionate regard, and to swell the song of triumph 

 over sin and misery, with the harmony of human 

 voices and musical instruments, in one loud 

 chorus to the skies. Then the name of Jehovah 

 would be One throughout all the earth. &quot;All 

 his works would praise him, and his saints would 

 bless him. They would abundantly utter the 

 memory of his great goodness, they would speak 

 of the glorious honour of his majesty, and sing 

 of his righteousness.&quot; 



Among all ranks of men cordial submission to 

 the will of God, and contentment under the 

 arrangements of his providence would be uni 

 formly manifested. Every one would consider 

 the situation in which Providence had placed 

 him as the best possible for promoting his present 

 improvement and his future felicity, viewing it 

 as the allotment of infinite wisdom and benevo 

 lence. In adversity he would sustain his afflic 

 tions with patience, and derive from them &quot; the 

 peaceable fruits of righteousness.&quot; In prosperity 

 he would acknowledge God as the source of all 

 his enjoyments, and devote the wealth and influ 

 ence he possessed to the promotion of religion, 

 and the best interests of his fellow-men. By 

 day, and by night, and at every returning sea 

 son, the overflowings of gratitude, in every 

 heart, would burst forth in songs of thanksgiving 

 to the Giver of all good. Every comfort would 

 be recognized as &quot; coming down from the Fa 

 ther of lights,&quot; and every pleasing sensation 

 produced by the scenery of nature, as the result 

 of his wisdom and beneficence. His wonderful 

 works, which are now overlooked, or gazed at 

 with apathy by nine-tenths of the inhabitants of 

 the globe,would be contemplated with enlightened 

 understandings, and with emotions of reverence, 

 admiration, and delight. The majestic move 

 ments of the planetary orbs, the glories of the 

 starry sky, the light beaming from a thousand 

 aims through the immeasurable voids of space, the 



mighty ocean with all its wondeis, the numerous 

 rivers rolling into its abyss, the lofty ranges of 

 mountains which encircle the earth, the treasures 

 of the fields, the riches of the mines, the beau 

 ties which adorn the hills and plains, the won 

 ders of the atmosphere, the admirable structure 

 and economy of the numerous tribes of animated 

 beings, these, and thousands of other objects, 

 considered as manifestations of the attributes of 

 Deity, would supply topics of conversation in 

 every social circle, on which every heart would 

 dwell with increasing delight. &quot; They would 

 speak of the glory of his kingdom, and talk of 

 his power, to make known to the sons of men 

 his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his 

 kingdom.&quot; The work of human redemption, in 

 its origin and progress, in its connexions and 

 bearings, in the lustre it reflects on the perfec 

 tions of the Deity, in its relation to the angelic 

 tribes, and in its glorious and happy conse 

 quences on thousands of millions of human be 

 ings throughout an eternal round of existence 

 the person of the Redeemer, his amiable cha 

 racter, his grace and condescension, and the 

 glories of his exalted state the joys of departed 

 saints, the general resurrection, with all its 

 solemn and transporting scenes, the new hea 

 vens and the new earth, and the boundless scene 

 of grandeur and felicity which will open to the 

 view when death shall be swallowed up in vic 

 tory, and all things subjected to the moral order 

 of the universe, would afford subjects of sublime 

 contemplation, and themes for social converse, 

 on which enlightened and renovated minds 

 would expatiate with ever-growing improve 

 ment and ever-growing pleasures. 



The providential dispensations of God to 

 wards the human race, would form another 

 subject of investigation, which would be prose 

 cuted with feelings of astonishment, admiration, 

 and reverence. The history of all nations 

 would be carefully perused not for the purpose 

 of admiring the exploits of mighty conquerors 

 and barbarous heroes, and feasting the imagina 

 tion on spectacles of human slaughter and devas 

 tation but for exciting abhorrence of those de 

 praved passions which had drenched the eartk 

 with blood for drawing forth the tear of pity over 

 the graves of slaughtered nations far stimu 

 lating the exercise of those holy affections which 

 restored peace and tranquillity to the world for 

 acquiring a display of the rectitude of the moral 

 character of God, and the equity of his admi 

 nistration among the nations for tracing the 

 accomplishment of divine predictions for illus 

 trating the long-suffering and forbearance of 

 God, and for exciting admiration of that inscru 

 table wisdom by which the whole train of events 

 was conducted, so as to set restraining bounds 

 to the wrath of man, and to make it subservient 

 to the introduction of the reign of happiness and 

 peace. In all the revolutions of past ages, and 



