64 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



in all the events that daily passed in review 

 before them, they would uniformly recognize the 

 agency and the purposes of that Almighty Being 

 &quot; who doth according to his will in the armies of 

 heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,&quot; 

 and who is carrying forward all the plans of his 

 government to a glorious consummation. 



Eveiv useful invention, every new instrument 

 for investigating the operations of nature, every 

 new discovery in the earth, or in the heavens, 

 every exploration of an unknown region of the 

 globe, every branch of commerce and manufac 

 ture, every new mode of facilitating labour and 

 improving the productions of the soil ; every 

 improvement in the ease and rapidity of travel 

 ling, and of conveying intelligence from one re 

 gion to another, and every art and science, 

 would be consecrated, in some form or other, to 

 Jhe service of God, and to the accomplishment 

 of the objects of general benevolence. One 

 grand diffusive principle, manifesting itself in 

 numberless ramifications, would pervade the 

 whole mass of society ; and one grand aim, the 

 honour and glory of the Creator, and the uni 

 versal diffusion of happiness in every direction, 

 and among every rank of sentient and intelligent 

 beings, would be the unceasing endeavour of 

 men of all nations, and kindreds, and languages. 

 The whole mass of this world s inhabitants 

 would appear like one vast celestial army march 

 ing forward in harmony to the regions of bliss, 

 every one, in his appointed order, passing in 

 peace and tranquillity through the gates of death, 

 to join the general assembly above, and to aug 

 ment and enliven the congregation of the 

 heavens. 



On such a world the God of heaven would 

 look down with complacency, and his providen 

 tial care would be exercised in averting those 

 physical evils which now increase the moral 

 wretchedness of mankind. His eye would be 

 continually upon them for good, and his ear 

 would be ever open to their requests. Then 

 that glorious scene presented to the view of the 

 apostle John, would be fully realized, &quot; Be 

 hold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 

 will dwell with them ; and they shall be his peo 

 ple, and God himself shall be with them, and be 

 their God. And God shall wipe away all tears 

 from their eyes, and there shall be no more 

 curse, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall 

 there be any more pain ; for the former things 

 have passed away.&quot; To such a world celestial 

 messengers would rejoice to wing their down 

 ward flight, on messages of love. Their visits, 

 which have been &quot;few, and far between,&quot; and 

 which have been long interrupted by the malevo 

 lence of men, would be again resumed ; and 

 those &quot; morning stars&quot; that shouted for joy 

 when this fair creation arose into existence, 

 would be filled with unutterable delight when 

 they beheld moral order restored, and the smiles 



of universal love irradiating the inhabitants of 

 our globe, and would shout even with more 

 ecstatic joy than they did before, &quot; Glory to God 

 in the highest, peace on earth, and good will 

 among men !&quot; 



Alas ! such a picture as that which we have 

 now faintly sketched, has never yet been realized 

 in the moral aspect of the inhabitants of this 

 world. To the eye of an angelic intelligence, 

 while he hovers over our globe in his flight 

 through the planetary regions, nothing appears 

 but a vast cloud of moral darkness and depravity, 

 with here and there only a few faint radiations 

 of truth and love emerging from the general 

 gloom. He beholds throughout the whole extent 

 of Africa, from the shores of Barbary and EgypV. 

 to the Cape of Good Hope throughout the vast 

 regions of Asia and its numerous islands, and 

 throughout four-fifths of the continent of America, 

 little else than one wide scene of moral desola 

 tion, where idolatry and superstition, tyranny 

 and ambition, treachery and cruelty, war and 

 dissension, reign triumphant among almost every 

 tribe; and where scarcely a ray of divine light 

 and divine love gilds the horizon, from the ono 

 end of these extensive regions to the other. 

 Even in Europe, where the light of science and 

 of revelation is converged to a focus, what an 

 immense cloud of moral darkness still appears en 

 veloping its population ? The fields of Waterloo, 

 of Leipsic, of Borodina, and of Smolensko, 

 where so many thousands of human beings 

 were sacrificed to the demon of war the vales 

 of Switzerland and Hungary, the plains of 

 France and Italy, the anarchy and commotions 

 of Spain and Portugal, and the ensanguined 

 shores of Turkey and Greece, where massacres 

 have been perpetrated with the rage and fury of 

 infernal demons, bear witness to the melancholy 

 fact, that hatred and malignity still hold the as 

 cendency over the nations of Europe, and over 

 all the efforts of benevolence and love. 



But, we trust, that the period is fast approach 

 ing, when the breath of a new spirit shall 

 pervade the inhabitants of every clime, and when 

 holy love shall unite all the tribes of mankind in 

 one harmonious society. When the messen 

 gers of the Prince of Peace &quot; shall run to and 

 fro&quot; from the north to the south, and from the 

 rising to the setting sun: when the sound of the 

 gospel-trumpet shall re-echo throughout every 

 land ; when the light of divine revelation shall 

 diffuse its radiance on the benighted nations; 

 when its sublime doctrines and moral requisi 

 tions shall be fully understood and recognized in 

 all their practical bearings, and when the energy 

 ofihat Almighty spirit which reduced to light 

 and order the dark and shapeless chaos, shal: 

 be exerted on the depraved and benighted minds 

 of the mass of this world s population then the 

 death-like slumber whicl has seized upon the 

 race of Adam shall be broken ; ihe dead ib 



