180 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



who have shone as lights in the moral world, and 

 exhibited bright patterns of Christian temper and 

 of active beneficence. The Apostle Paul had 

 his mind imbued with a large portion of the spirit 

 of love. He voluntarily embarked in a tour of 

 benevolence through the nations ; and in spite of 

 reproaches, persecutions, stripes and imprison 

 ments ; in the midst of &quot; perils in the waters, 

 perils of robbers, perils by his own countrymen, 

 perils in the city, and perils in the wilderness ;&quot; 

 and in the face of every danger, and of death it 

 self, he prosecuted, with a noble heroism, his la 

 bour of love, purely for the sake of promoting the 

 best interests of mankind. All the Apostles en 

 gaged in the same benevolent undertaking ; they 

 sacrificed every private interest, every selfish 

 consideration ; &quot; neither counted they their lives 

 dear unto themselves, so that they might finish 

 their course with joy,&quot; and be the means of ac 

 complishing the salvation of their fellow-men. 



Even in our own times, many distinguished 

 individuals have arisen, who have reflected ho 

 nour on our species. The name of Howard is 

 familiar to every one who is in the least acquaint 

 ed with the annals of philanthropy, (see p. 20.) 

 This excellent man, and truly philanthropic cha 

 racter, devoted his time, his strength, his genius, 

 his literary acquisitions, and his fortune, and 

 finally sacrificed his life, in the pursuits of human 

 ity, and in the unwearied prosecution of active 

 benevolence. He travelled over every country 

 in Europe and in the adjacent regions of Asia, 

 impelled by the spirit of Christian love, in order 

 to survey the mansions of sorrow and of pain, and 

 to devise schemes for the reliefof human wretch 

 edness wherever it existed ; and, in the execu 

 tion of this scheme of benevolence, the energies 

 of his mind were so completely absorbed, that 

 &quot; he never suffered himself, for a moment, to be 

 diverted from carrying it into effect, even by the 

 most attractive of those objects which formerly 

 possessed all their most powerful influence upon 

 his curiosity and his taste.&quot;* 



The late Walter Yenning, Esq., who has 

 been denominated, by Prince Galitzin, the second 

 Howard, walked in the steps of his illustrious 

 predecessor, and with the most fervent Christian 

 zeal, devoted his short, but useful life, to the al 

 leviation of human misery, and to the promotion 

 of the best interests of thousands of wretched 

 individuals who &quot; were ready to perish.&quot; He 

 withdrew himself from the ordinary round of 

 genteel society, and declined all commercial bu 

 siness, that he might devote the whole energies 

 of his soul to benevolent occupations. He com 

 menced his philanthropic career, by co-operating 

 in the formation of the &quot; Society for improve 

 ment of Prison discipline,&quot; which was formed 

 in London in 1816 ; and afterwards visited the 



* For a particular account of the labours of this 

 eminent philanthropist, see Brown s &quot;Memoirs of 

 foe public and private life of John Howard.&quot; 



prisons in Petersburg!!, Novogorod, Tver,MoB- 

 cow, and other cities in the Russian empire. 

 The prisons, hospitals, work-houses, madhouses, 

 houses of correction, and the abodes of misery 

 of every description in Petersburgh, were visited 

 by him, day after day : &quot; and many a prisoner, 

 bowed down with affliction and iron, was cheered, 

 instructed, and saved by his ministrations;&quot; for 

 his philanthropy extended both to the bodies 

 and to the souls of men.&quot;* 



Many other examples might be produced from 

 the annals of our times, and of illustrious charac 

 ters, presently existing, to demonstrate, that a 

 noble and disinterested benevolence is a princi 

 ple, capable of being exercised even in the pre 

 sent degenerated state of the inhabitants of our 

 world. We find parents some times displaying 

 a high degree of benevolent feeling towards their 

 offspring, and sacrificing their ease, and their 

 personal interests, in order to secure their health, 

 their happiness, and enjoyments. We find bo 

 som friends like David and Jonathan, and Kke 

 Damon and Pythias, rejoicing in the welfare of 

 each other, and encountering difficulties and 

 dangers in promoting the interests of the objects 

 of their friendship. What, then, should hinder 

 such dispositions from becoming universal? 

 What should hinder them from being transferred 

 to all the sensitive and intellectual beings, with 

 whom we may have occasion to correspond, or to 

 associate ? Would not the universal exercise of 

 such dispositions be highly desirable? would it 

 not tend to banish war and discord from the 

 world, and promote peace on die earth, and good 

 will among men ? Why, then, are such disposi 

 tions so seldom displayed? Not because the 

 universal exercise of them is a thing impossible ; 

 but because men, actuated by selfishness, are 

 unvnlling to give full scope to the benevolent af 

 fections ; because they have never yet employed 

 all the requisite means for bringing them into 

 full operation. If all the energies of the intel 

 lect, and all the treasures which have been ex 

 pended in fostering malignant passions, and in 

 promo-ting contentions and warfare, had been 

 devoted to the great object of cultivating the prin 

 ciple of benevolence, and distributing happiness 

 among men ; the moral and physical aspect of 

 our world would long ago have assumed a very 

 different appearance from what it now wears. 



The philanthropic individuals, to whom I have 

 alluded, were men, whose actions were some- 

 times blended with the failings and imperfections 

 incident to degenerated humanity ; but the prin 

 ciple of benevolence ruled supreme over all the 

 subordinate affections ; and if the world were 

 peopled with such men, notwithstanding the im 

 perfections which attached to them, society, in 

 every land, would present the appearance of a 

 moral paradise, and form an image of the har- 



* Mr. Yenning died in Petersburgh, In 1821, In the 

 fortieth year of his age. 



