43^ TIIK rsi; OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM. 



ascribed to tlio deity cease to be so predominant in the 

 conception oi liini. And gradually, as all need for restraint 

 disappears, this conception approximates towards that of 

 a purely beneficent necessity. Tims, man s constitution i.s 

 in this, as in other respects, self-adjusting, self-balancing. 

 The mind itself evolves a compensating cheek to its own 

 movements ; varying always in proportion to the require 

 ment. Its centrifugal and its centripetal forces are neces 

 sarily in correspondence, because the one generates the 

 other. And so we lind that the forms of both religious 

 and secular rule follow the same law. As an ill-controlled 

 national character produces a despotic terrestrial govern 

 ment, so also does it produce a despotic celestial govern 

 ment the one acting through the senses, the other 

 through the imagination ; and in the converse case the 

 same relationship holds good. 



Organic as this relationship is in its origin, no artificial 

 interference can permanently affect it. Whatever pertur 

 bations an external agency may seem to produce, they are 

 soon neutralized in liu-t, if not in appearance. I was re 

 cently struck with this in reading a missionary account of 

 the &quot;gracious visitations of the Holy Spirit at Yewa,&quot; one 

 of the Feejcc islands. Describing a &quot; penitent meeting,&quot; 

 the account says : 



u Certainly the fetlinirs of the Vc\v:i people \\ere i.ot ordi 

 nary. They literally roared for hours together for the disquietude 

 of their souls. This frequently terminated in fainting from ex 

 haustion, which was the only respite some of them h::d till they 

 found pence. They DO sooner recovered their consciousness than 

 they prayed themselves first info tin .&quot;gony. tlion apain into a state 

 of entire insensibility. 



Xow these Feejee islanders are the most savage of all 

 the nncivili/ed races. They are iziven to cannibalism, in 

 fanticide, and human sacrifices; they are FO bloodthirsty 



